Event strategies
I’ll be going through each event in alphabetical order and give tips for winning strategies.
Dungeon Challenge
| Floors | Buff level | Enemies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - 5 | 0.51x | 0-4* first forms |
| 6 - 10 | 0.57x | 0-4* first forms |
| 11 - 15 | 0.63x | 2-5* first forms |
| 16 - 20 | 0.69x | 2-5* first forms |
| 21 - 25 | 0.75x | 2-6* first forms |
| 26 - 30 | 0.81x | 2-6* first forms |
| 31 - 35 | 0.81x | 4-6* 1st-2nd forms |
| 36 - 40 | 0.81x | 4-6* 1st-2nd forms |
| 41 - 45 | 0.89x | 4-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 46 - 50 | 0.98x | 4-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 51 - 57 | 1.07x | 4-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 58 - 64 | 1.16x | 4-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 65 - 72 | 1.25x | 5-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 73 - 80 | 1.33x | 5-6* mostly 3rd forms |
| 81 - 90 | 1.42x | 5-6* mostly 3rd forms |
| 91 - 100 | 1.51x | 5-7* almost all 3rd forms |
Note: “Enemies” roughly indicates the average difficulty of the enemies on those floors. You will meet some monsters that are not in the range shown but they are rare. For example, mythics can be met as low as floor 30 but will be first form and will be met later in second forms before they are listed properly in this table column.
This section is not properly written yet but here’s a video guide:
Game of Hordes
[insert tips]
An alternative strategy done by Mevalosity (forum user) uses the four monsters Angelion, Captainwhiskers, Botanic and Gryphking. After a bit of stun beforehand, it’s possible to set up the monsters so they are shielded and will do neko barrage every ~35 seconds. Angelion protects the team from stun and can remove poison so they can shield themselves again if you need to face death revenge. In practice it may be hard to reapply shields in this way, but it’s a strong strategy nevertheless. Here is a video link to this strategy.
Video example: (shows expert, master + extreme level 16)
Island Challenge
This event is very different to all the others because we “draft” the monsters for our team. Each draft has pre-determined monster rarities so we all get the same rarity of monsters as we go through the event. At the time I’m writing this we start with 1x 5* monster then don’t get another 5*+ monster for a while. On the later days we start getting more higher grade monsters, with one awakened mythic coming on day 4 of 7 (or so). Collect as you go and try to make the best team you can with what you have. This event can be quite challenging, especially if you don’t get any good monsters to begin with. However, don’t worry if you get stuck because the monsters you draft later will help you get further.
The drafts will stack up even if you don’t collect them, so it’s not possible to miss drafts by not logging in enough. Occasionally you will get a “lucky draft” where you get an upgraded quality of monsters (e.g. super epics turned into legendaries, possibly unevolved). You can’t see when this happens, but if you ever click the “redraft” button and the monsters get downgraded that’s because you actually had a lucky draft. Often lucky drafts give high quality monsters that are not in their final form, so that can be a way to identify them.
Redrafting tips:
You get 10 “redrafts” where you can change your three choices for three new ones. Simply put, these should only be used for legendaries or mythics and preferably earlier on in the event so you can get yourself monsters that will help stop you from getting stuck. The one exception to this rule is the first draft where we get a super epic and it can be good to use one or two redrafts to make sure you have one that will work all the way up to level 300. However, don’t get too picky here and remember it’s not essential even if you’d like to go far in the event.
Enemy buff level:
Levels 1-60 = 0.7x - 1x
Levels 60-160 = 1x - 1.5x
Levels 160-300 = 1.5x (no change)
Levels 300-380 = 1.5x - 3x
Levels 380-400 = 3x - 4x
Levels 400-500 = 4x - 9.5x
Levels 500-600 = 9.5x - 17.25x
The buff level is very important to understand before thinking about strategy for this event. Read it carefully and you’ll see how the first ~100 levels are incredibly easy, with the enemies starting out actually weaker than your own and reaching the same kind of stats around level 60. From levels 60-300 (where most of the rewards are) the buff level doesn’t increase by much and many “normal” strategies work, which we’ll go into below. Beyond level 300 it increases at a rapid pace and once it nears level 400 the buff level is increasing by a fast, steady amount. All normal strategies can’t go far past level 300 and to reach level 400 (or to go beyond) you’re going to need to assume all damage from your monsters is practically useless. Given these buffs levels, we can split the tips into three sections: levels 1-60, levels 60-300 and levels 300+.
Levels 1 - 60:
In this section practically anything works. This is your lovely safe window where you can select whatever monsters you like with the intention for them to help you later on without compromising your early progression.
Levels 60 - 300:
This is the main window where most people will be playing. You should be able to reach level 300 every time, even if you get unlucky with the drafts, as long as you can find the time to log in and play regularly enough. A buff of 1.5x to the enemy stats doesn’t sound like much, but it does prohibit which damaging moves work and you’ll need to prioritise the particularly high damaging ones. Examples of these are: heavy stun + timestrike, dreamhunt, megabomb/novablast, blood moves and then things like survivor, sneak attack or other reasonably damaging critical attacks if they’re on a legendary.
To have a team which can get consistent wins through these levels you’ll want to build around your super epics and legendaries which have some of these high damage attacks (pick ones which do). The other monsters you pick will be the ones that help build around them. Good examples are:
- OoO (one-on-one) for the survivor/megabomb
- Stun bomb/burst for the timestrike and blood moves (great with blood moves because you can stun 3 monsters and sweep the new one - stunning gives enough time to get through a few before they attack and kill your sweeper)
- Auto-protect + sleep bomb for helping key monsters survive plus either setting up dreamhunt and/or supporting OoO (put a purify monster 1-2 monsters behind so you can sleep bomb then wake up your team)
- Death revenge / payback revenge for use later (levels 300+)
- Don’t look exclusively at these I’ve mentioned - there are others out there which can help certain teams in some ways
Sometimes you simply won’t have picked up super epics and legendaries which you can build around. In these cases just try your best and make sure you pick up a good monster the next time you draft a legendary. If you get stuck too much then set your sights at no further than level 300 and prioritise monsters which will get you there rather than those which will work beyond.
Levels 300+:
To get this far you don’t necessarily need to create an efficient team for levels 80-300. You can pick monsters solely for levels 300+ and they should give you consistent enough wins that you can make it here and push on to get the extra rewards. Island Challenge used to last 5 days but the extension to 7 days has allowed us to blunder through the first 300 levels and still have time to push beyond. In these later levels no normal damage skills will work, even things like megabomb or novablast will barely scratch enemies.
Instead of damaging moves, what you need to have are moves/passives which either:
- Deal lethal damage
- Steal enemies
- Do some other wacky kind of thing which works regardless of the enemy buff. E.g. revolutionise on Blazebones or deathmatch mode on Bovolcus can be used to set enemy HP to 1
Over the course of the event you should try to pick up as many monsters as you can with these kind of things and ultimately what you’ll create is a team which is a mixture of this stuff and some control monsters. Control being things like heavy stun or sleep as the most effective but it’s also possible to have some control with things like HP share + HG monsters.
A classic example of an ideal combo for super buffed enemies is Goldtail + Geartyrant. Geartyrant will death sentence each enemy that enters the field while Goldtail sleep locks the enemy team. Any death sentenced monster will die before it wakes up. However, Island Challenge allows for greater diversity in these combos because you can actually put multiple copies of the same monster in a team. Hence, two Goldtails in a team can give you unbelievable control over the enemy team and you might even be able to dreamhunt your way to victory (slowly).
What you end up creating depends completely on what was available through the drafting. Take a good look at videos below and in the Old Videos Catalogue section at the bottom of this thread to get some inspiration from the effective teams I’ve made in the past. Also, take a look in the section below which highlights key monsters to try and pick up.
As a general rule, if you’re planning to go for levels 300+ and things are going to plan then for legendaries you want to pick up the shadow monsters. I give this advice very loosely, but historically shadow monsters tend to have the most moves/passives which can deal with super buffed enemies. Take a look at every monster available for you to draft but if you’re newer to the game and not familiar with how they all work then pay extra attention to the shadow monsters.
Key monsters to pick up (generally with levels 300+ in mind):
Please note that this list is not exhaustive as there are a huge number of monsters which are effective in Island Challenge. However, this highlights a few that are popular and should make it clear which other monsters are worthy of being on here but aren’t.
-
Epic stun revenge cloners. You only need one of these and it will form the back of your team. If you can open the enemy team up to being stunned and ultimately get them in a position where they have no stun protection in any of their remaining monsters you have a guaranteed win (poison gas and a few other things excluded). These are an absolutely ideal early pick and will get you lots of easy wins, even if beyond level 400 or so completing the battle may take a ridiculous amount of time (they are less useful later for sure). These epic monsters are better than their legendary counterparts because they have higher speed so the window for the new one to get killed before cloning when there is stun protection is far smaller. Here’s a great example of what they can do
-
OoO epics (one-on-one). You only need one of these and it comes with both 82% speed and hold ground, making it an incredibly reliable OoO in the front line. I personally find OoO front lines to be one of the most consistently easy thing to build for levels 80-300 as there are a huge number of monsters with payoffs among the epics, super epics and legendaries. You can get a 2* or 3* OoO but these won’t come with hold ground so they stop being effective later.
-
Blazebones. A very solid addition to any team this monster works at all levels of IC. Revolutionise is the main move to use and coupled with OoO it can be very easy to pull off. Multiple Blazebones will help you push very far in this event. Bovolcus similarly is great for any team. Here is an example of two Blazebones in a team
-
Torrentide / Camouflage monsters. Camouflage monsters in general work very well as the AI struggles to target them effectively and there are a number of monsters out there with no single-target moves. If a camouflage monster can help you towards winning then make sure you consider it properly. Right now, Onigeist is the best camouflage monster out there for IC. Torrentide stands in here for all the rest because, being a super epic, you get a better chance at drafting it plus it can single-handedly get you through the first 300 levels. In later stages of the event it suffers from terrible low damage output and lower consistency than the epic stun revenge cloners. Here is a good example of Onigeist
-
Tortogeist / Mirror revenge monsters. Stealing enemy monsters is an excellent way to be successful in levels 300+ of this event. If you have mirror revenge monsters and even ways to duplicate them you should have a good chance in each battle of winning it. There are even cases like Angelion that can sacrifice a teammate to create a full HP copy of the last monster which died. Tortogeist is the best of them all since it not only couples a piercing payback revenge with mirror revenge but it can also create another mirror revenge monster, time a protect teammates to help pick which enemy kills it AND it has megabomb for the earlier stages of the event. It’s definitely among the best monsters for this event. Here is a good example of mirror revenge in action
-
Aurodragon + DR / Revenarchion / Ankoudragon. Aurodragon is incredibly rare to draft but it can be combined with a number of powerful passives or monsters which otherwise trade well to create a winning strategy. Monsters like Revenarchion and Ankoudragon are reasonably good alone but will do far better if they can be duplicated. This stands in place for all those monsters which are great for trading that are good to grab.
-
Geartyrant + Goldtail / Wraithcaptain (death sentence + sleep control). There are a few monsters which can death sentence effectively and a few which can do heavy sleep control. It’s not worth picking something like Goldtail unless you have a real reason to sleep lock the field because it dies too easily but if you’re using sleep monsters to build around your monsters that get you the win then consider grabbing them. Here’s a good example of death sentence + sleep control
-
Brynhildr. A one woman army, this monster packs high damage with cloning, healing, enemy monster stealing and there are various combos with other monsters you might have in your team (4* stun revenge cloners being a key one). You must make sure you don’t have other holy monsters around then you can play carefully and get lots of wins with this monster. Definitely the best monster for Island Challenge at my time writing this. Here is a good example of Brynhildr
Monster Bond Quest
| Level | Exp | Buff level | Team size | Enemies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - 10 | 100 | 0.75x | 8 | 0-5* first forms |
| 11 - 20 | 200 | 0.89x | 12 | 0-6* first forms |
| 21 - 30 | 500 | 1x | 16 | 4-6* 1st-3rd forms |
| 31 - 40 | 700 | 1.07x | 16 | 4-6* 1st-3rd forms |
| 41 - 50 | 1000 | 1.16x | 16 | 4-6* 2nd-3rd forms |
| 51 - 60 | 1500 | 1.2x | 16 | 4-6* half 3rd forms |
| 61 - 70 | 2000 | 1.25x | 18 | 5-6* mostly 3rd forms |
| 71 - 80 | 2500 | 1.3x | 20 | 5-6* mostly 3rd forms |
| 81 - 90 | 3000 | 1.5x | 22 | 5-7* mostly 3rd forms |
| 91 - 100 | 4000 | 2x | 24 | 5-7* almost all 3rd forms |
| 101 - 110 | 5000 | 2.2x | 24 | 5-7* almost all 3rd forms |
| 111 - 120 | 8000 | 2.5x | 24 | 5-7* almost all 3rd forms |
Note: “Enemies” roughly indicates the average difficulty of the enemies on those floors. You may meet some enemies outside of the range shown but the vast majority of them will be as described. For example, in levels 101-120 every monster will be 5-7* and roughly half will be legendary with the other half being an even split of 5* and 7*. However, you may find quite a few not in their final form.
The number of training points you get is minimal for the first 50 levels (increasing up to 4) but goes from 7-10 points per battle in levels 51+.
Showdown Tower
This event is comprised of a series of battles you complete to progress through floors. Lose a battle and it’s okay, you keep your progress. However, lose against a trainer and you will get set back by one battle. Rewards are given out for each floor you complete and for win streak. Trainers are in specific locations and have a random chance of appearing which is lower or higher based on the door you pick at that location. The trainer’s aren’t behind a specific one of the three doors but rather each time you enter the game rolls the dice to see if they appear that time. When not meeting a trainer, you face a random player team someone else is using who is on the same floor as you.
You can look at the map of the tower with the trainer locations, trainer teams and rewards all detailed in this other guide: Showdown Tower map
This event tests your general PvE AND PvP team building skills. The majority of your battles will be against teams other people are using in this event. Therefore, people tend to build as if they are playing PvP. You might meet some very unusual teams, but on the whole you need to make a team that is good for the current PvP meta but has more focus on high damage attacks so you can deal with the enemies being buffed. Also, you can include some very strong PvE strategies which are not easily countered by PvP teams when they are controlled by AI. E.g. Aurodragon or Tenebris. Bringing together these two team building skills is important for success in this event.
The buff level of the enemies doesn’t go to ridiculous levels so blood moves and other high damage skills will still be mostly effective even on the final floor. The trainer battles are typically easier than player teams until the final few floors where trainer teams often have 20 monsters and are well built.
The buff levels on the enemy monsters on the tough floors are as follows:
Floor 8 = 1.16x
Floor 9 = 1.25x
Floor 10 = 1.33x
Floor 11 = 1.42x
Floor 12 = 1.51x
Survival of the Fittest
Enemy buff level:
Level 1-30 = 0.55x - 1x
Level 30-200 = 1x - 1.75x (increases by 0.043x every 10 levels)
Every 10th battle is buffed by an extra 10%, making the agents harder:
E.g. Level 101 = 1.33x buff but level 100 = 1.46x buff
Time Attack
Breakdown of event:
round 1 = 8 monsters
round 2 = 10 monsters
round 3 = 12 monsters
round 4 = 14 monsters
round 5 = 16 monsters
round 6 = 16 monsters +10% stat buff
round 7 = 16 monsters +20% stat buff
round 8 = 16 monsters +10% stat buff
round 9 = 16 monsters +10% stat buff
round 10 = 16 monsters +15% stat buff
round 11 = 16 monsters +20% stat buff
round 12 = 16 monsters +20% stat buff
As you can see above, the stat buff is never very much. It weirdly spikes at round 7. However, in the higher rounds you meet far more legendaries and mythics. The chance for meeting these tougher monsters increases drastically after round 7 and you may end up meeting a full legendary/mythic team in one of the last rounds. For many of the battles the monsters you meet are completely randomised each time so if you come across an “unbeatable team” for what you’re trying to do then just re-enter and you may get super lucky with the new monsters in the battle. Some battles are pre-set and you may have to build a new team to beat it.
[insert tips]
When making reference to using stun as a strategy to pass time insert this video as an alternative example to my OoO + Captainwhiskers strategy
Video examples:
1 - shows OoO strategy with Captainwhiskers, GTs and stun doing round 12 for 5, 4 and 3 minutes
2 - shows Novadrake enrage combo doing round 12 for 5, 4 and 3 minutes
Wormhole battles:
These are exceptionally tricky fights that unlock after completing the event. They are preset battles which often require carefully built teams to beat them. Here’s an example of what they can be like:
Ultimate Challenge
[insert tips]
Make reference to gatekeeper battles and how you can employ counter strategies using this video as an example.
Video example:
Whale’s Treasure
There are six areas in this event with each one boosting all monsters of a particular element (3x boost to their stats). This boost is both for your monsters and the enemy monsters. Additionally, in the later levels of each area the enemy monsters are extra buffed so they have an advantage over yours (lvl 3 = 1.33x, lvl 4 = 1.42x). What you want to do is simple: create a 10-monster team using your best monsters in the boosted element.
When you’re in the earlier stages of the game you will be forced to use many weak monsters of the boosted element but don’t worry because a boosted epic will perform better than a legendary that isn’t boosted. When you’re using buffed monsters against other buffed monsters you’ll notice the attacks do proportionately less damage, so monsters which have healing moves are preferable as the enemies will struggle to kill them and monsters with piercing moves will still do great damage.
That pretty much covers all you need to know regarding strategy for this event. Jam together your best monsters for each element and have fun. Many less good legendaries become very viable in this event, it’s the place where almost everything can be used well. However, it does favour the more powerful attacks (e.g. dreamhunt) like a lot of PvE content. The other potential strategy is using death revenge monsters with revival moves (or similar things like Ankoudragon). This is a good alternative if you don’t have the right monsters to do well in an element. For extra tips, check out this thread: Whales treasure new player help :)
Level four in each area can sometimes give you extremely difficult battles but it’s all RNG what you meet so don’t be put off if you fail a couple of the battles. Be sure to pick friends’ monsters wisely, these can often carry you in the elements where you have weaker teams.
Scavenger battles and auto-play:
This event has a huge number of battles to grind your way through, especially if you’re doing the extra battles. I highly recommend using auto-play, at least for the first two difficulty levels, and consider even building your team in a way where auto-play uses it well so you can do lvl 3 or even lvl 4 using it. The scavengers for lvl 1 and lvl 2 appear after the third battle you do. It’s not ticket efficient to do the lvl 1 scavenger (20 tickets > 14 tickets) so I choose to skip it and auto-play my way through quickly but the lvl 2 scavenger is good to do (30 tickets < 35 tickets).
Trainer battles:
Between lvl 3 and lvl 4 in each area there is a trainer battle. These are much harder than lvl 4 so they’re the true challenge in this event. They cost no tickets to enter so attempt them with your current team before making tweaks. If you’re forced to make a specific team to beat them then be willing to make a high risk, high reward team because you can attempt the battle multiple times easily. If the front line is weak to stun it may be a good idea to stun and set up a game-winning line-up of blood sweepers or sleep control, even if that means using off-element monsters for part of that. If it’s weak to OoO (one-on-one) then consider using that with a megabomb or two before clearing out the rest in another way.
@BVN_03 Created a brilliant video showcasing how to do each trainer battle with more accessible monsters. Watching this will also give you a great idea of how to approach team building for this event if you’re struggling with a particular element. This video heavily showcases the power of sleep control.
The extra battles:
Around the island extra battles will pop up, after you complete lvl 2 in an area. These are all water boosted, so keep your water team permanently over the course of this event (I use one team slot for water and a second which I rotate through the elements as I complete each area). If you have Captainwhiskers he is an easy way to complete any of these battles. The battles are as follows:
Archeloth = 10 Finns instantly (refreshes every 2 days - see below for extra info)
Seaviper = 6 Finns after lvl 3.5 difficulty water battle (refreshes every 1 day)
Tidalwhale = 3 Finns after lvl 2.5 difficulty water battle (refreshes every 2 hours)
Seabite = 1 Finn after lvl 1.5 difficulty water battle (refreshes every 10 mins)
After a battle becomes available it then becomes a % chance of appearing on the map each time you change screen to it (not from the monsters menu). The fastest way is to go back and forth between the same two screens (after first loading it becomes quicker). The Archeloth has an incredibly low % chance of appearing so you may be refreshing the map for a many minutes before you see it. The others have a higher chance of appearing but they follow on from Archeloth as Seaviper being the next lowest chance, Tidalwhale the next and Seabite being quite high chance.
If you’re planning to farm these extra battles for Finns I recommend you focus on the Tidalwhale, going to the game every 2-3 hours to fight another battle. Do the Archeloth and Seaviper each time they are available and the Seabite when you see it or in-between other battles while you are online and playing. However, going crazy farming the Seabite battle will not give you much at all for the time effort (an extra 2 gems at most).
For the Archeloth to re-appear there are some hidden factors based on how many Finns you currently have and, potentially, how much of the event you have completed. It’s roughly every 2 days but may be more/less based on how fast you do the event. One important thing is you should not spend your Finns until the event is about to finish, since it will lower the rate it appears. It’s hard to know these mechanics for certain due to how rare its appearance is.
Rewards:
In Whale’s Treasure you get to choose your rewards. Things may have changed since I wrote this (will try to keep it up to date) but here are some suggestions to consider, with what I do first…
My plan is 900 Finns total:
- 330 on gems (22x)
- 56 on mystic nectar (7x)
- 60 on a rare gem
- 200 on a 6* ticket
- 250 on legendary potions (2x)
I don’t need any ingredients so I can skip them all, including the Ocarino. I value something like 2 gems = 1 rare gem (2.5 gems for newer players - depends on how much of the rare egg pool you have) so that’s why I choose to ignore the second rare gem. I used to get the second rare gem in the past before normal eggs became 4 gems rather than 5 gems.
Similarly, I value 2 mystic nectar = 1 gem because a full ticket refill can be done for 1 gem. I.e. if the next mystic nectar is less than 1/4 of the next 2x gems then I buy it first. Monster bond quest allows a conversion of tickets into gems because it’s almost unlimited content and at higher hero rank you basically get the same number of gems back as you use to refill tickets. For players not at high hero rank I would value them lower because you should not be refilling tickets with gems.
If I didn’t get so many Finns I would cut back on the second legendary potion and instead get more gems / mystic nectar.
For newer players the ingredients at 50 Finns are a good deal. You need to get lots of ingredients first so you can evolve the monsters to get you further in events and therefore get more gems. Gems are definitely the priority in this event and older players will want to pick up the 6* ticket but if I were a new player I wouldn’t look past the Omegamid for 50 Finns and I might grab an Ocarino for 100. The others are all either farmed or gained regularly so I’d ignore them here.