Toon ID: 13807
In the spirit of Christmas, we're going to be doing a special Holiday Lesson. This will encompass 2 aspects of the game, but one helps the other. These two additions to your game play arsenal are the gifts that keep on giving.
First up are Headquarters!!!!
Now, if you think Headquarters are too expensive, read till the end for a special trick to make it affordable for anyone!
Headquarters have been around for a little while now, but haven't played a part in many team's strategy and game play. That was because, until recently, it was very hard to defend your HQ and with the amount of effort and expense that went into building them, it just didn't seem worth it to just watch it all go up in flames.
However, recent changes have made HQs easier to defend now from the big bad wolves that come to huff and puff and blow them down. There are also new additions to the HQs themselves. As a huge advocate of HQs, I think it's high time the rest of the community started exploring their benefit for themselves.
Currently, teams can build a total of 5 buildings up to level 4, 1 being the HQ main building. For each level of the HQ, teams can build a secondary building for added benefits to their team members. So a level 1 HQ can have 1 other building, while a level 4 HQ can have 4 secondary buildings. The main HQ building doesn't benefit team members. It only serves to allow expansion of the overall secondary buildings. Secondary buildings can be leveled to whatever level the primary or main HQ building's level is.
Each level of the HQ primary building costs as follows:
Level 1 : 1,200,000 Bux, 1000 Crystals
Level 2 : 1,800,000 Bux, 2000 Crystals, 200 Morphons
Level 3 : 2,400,000 Bux, 3000 Crystals, 800 Morphons
Level 4 : 3,000,000 Bux, 4000 Crystals, 2000 Morphons
Each level of the secondary buildings cost as follows:
Level 1 : 500,000 Bux, 100 Morphons
Level 2 : 1,000,000 Bux, 500 Crystals, 400 Morphons
Level 3 : 1,500,000 Bux, 1500 Crystals, 800 Morphons
Level 4 : 2,000,000 Bux, 2000 Crystals, 2000 Morphons
Your first builder is free. But after that your 2nd costs 500 Morphons, and each one after that is the cost of the previous plus 1000 Morphons. So your 3rd will be 1500 Morphons, your fourth 2500 Morphons, etc. Builders significantly increase the rate of repair or building. an extra builder doubles your build rate. a 3rd increases that by another 50%. You can have a maximum of 3 builders per building at 1 time. I try to have 3, for a total cost of 2000 Morphons.
Now, I know this sounds like a HUGE cost, and it is, but remember, in part 2 of our Double Feature, I will explain how to fray the costs considerably, to the point of free if you so desire. I have built 2.5 HQs for free. And why wouldn't you want to build an HQ if you can have one for free? Better yet, why would you put the effort to build one in the 1st place? Why build one?
I'm glad you asked. The HQs can be designed a myriad of ways. Some buildings are more useful than others. There are essentially 3 types of HQ builds, the Gym, which helps your toon develop in the direction and pace you want, the Watch Tower, which gives you key information on opponents, and my personal favorite, the Battleship, which is designed to allow your toon to fight better in duels and events. Let's go over each and their building types.
I would like to point out that I have used the method described in part 2 of this Double Feature, to build one of each of these HQ types for my league, and hold the ones not currently used with place holder alts. This allows my league a lot of advantages. And because we don't always occupy the same Team HQs, we are able to loan them out to ally leagues or teams for their temporary benefit. For example, we have a Watch Tower that is on permanent loan to any and all members of the Heroes Rising FaceBook group Heroes Rising:
The Inn at the Pirates Cove.
Please note that when jumping from HQ to HQ, as I sometimes do, some of the building effects cannot be used for a full 24 hours after the toon has joined the league. Innate effects, like those given by Battleship HQ buildings take effect immediately, as do buildings that somehow effect the HQ itself, rather than league members. Also note that it is important to look at each building your HQ has. While some have innate effects, others must be turned on for each use or switched to a mode you desire.
***The Watch Tower***
The Watch Tower simply requires 1 building, the Oracle, at level 4. Other buildings can be added as desired, but the sole purpose of this HQ type is to spy opponent gear. This can be very valuable during LWs or other events. Because this HQ only requires 1 building, it can be hybridized with another HQ type to make it more useful elsewhere. I, however, prefer to just have it as a separate HQ that I can jump onto whenever I please.
Oracle: The Oracle building allows you and your league mates to spy 1 piece of gear per level, 1 time per level. So a level 1 Oracle will allow a person to have 1 of their attacks show 1 piece of gear (when turned on) for an opponent. A level 4 Oracle will allow you to see 4 pieces of gear on each of 4 attacks. So, with a level 4 Oracle, you can see 8 pieces of gear on each of 2 players. If your league mates join in, the group of you can map out an opponent's current gear setup.
Please note, you must turn the Oracle on before each attack. Further note that you must defeat your opponent for the Oracle effect to trigger. Losses do not count towards your daily effect allowance.
***The Gym***
The Gym HQ is designed to help your toon's development. Buildings used in the Gym are as follows.
Cafeteria: +2 energy storage capacity per level, allowing you to store an extra 2 energy while you are afk, per level. So if your energy allows you to store 30 energy, and you have a level 4 Cafeteria, you can store as much as 38 energy. This is especially valuable in Fight Club, where it allows a player to only need 22 energy storage to complete a Fight Club. That means the Skill Points that would normally be put in energy to complete a Fight Club, can now go into improving the toon's stats instead.
Arena: The arena allows you to store 1 extra fight per level of the building. We currently can store 14 fights. A level 1 Arena brings that number up to 15. A level 4 Arena brings that number up to 18. This gives a player a slight advantage during Climb events.
Training Grounds: The Training Grounds give + or - 5% experience points gain for level 1, and increases by 2% per building level. So 5% at level 1, 7% at level 2, 9% at level 3, and 11% at level 4. This is huge if you are trying to power level or slow level your toon. Please note that you have to toggle the Training Grounds to turn it to the desired effect of plus or minus experience points.
Craftroom: The Craftroom allows you to gain an extra key to a mission city of your choice at a rate regulated by the Craftroom Level. At level 1, it is every 8 hours. For each level above the 1st, that rate goes down by 2 hours. So at level 4, you can go to the Craftroom to collect a key once every 2 hours. These are used to fight bosses and mini bosses in missions, and for their respective rematches. Please note that you must pick which key you want.
The Gym style HQ is great for developing toons. However, it does nothing to help during a fight. So I would use them only during the off season, between important events, and use the Battleship HQ for events like LW.
***The Battleship***
The Battleship HQ is a pure fight machine. It is my absolute favorite of the 3 types of HQs. Once fully built, it is the equivalent of giving every player on your league 1 extra piece of gear. There are two types of Battleship HQs, though they can be hybridized together.
The Offensive Battleship This build increases your toon's stats by as much as 2%, and thus their performance on the battlefield. This may not sound like a lot, but every little bit adds up. At higher levels, 2% can be huge. It's not uncommon at the higher levels to have 1% increase a stat by 10,000 to 20,000 points. And in anything, every small edge counts. Furthermore, it is more well rounded in its effects for use against multiple different opponents than the Defensive Battleship. This type of HQ helps your toon more the stronger your toon already is, and therefore tends to have more benefit to higher level teams.
Dojo: Adds +0.5% to Atk per level. So a level 1 gives + 0.5%, while a level 4 gives + 2%.
Tower: Adds +0.5% to Def per level. So a level 1 gives + 0.5%, while a level 4 gives + 2%.
Labratory: Adds +0.5% to Move per level. So a level 1 gives + 0.5%, while a level 4 gives + 2%.
Bunker: Adds +0.5% to Life per level. So a level 1 gives + 0.5%, while a level 4 gives + 2%.
The Defensive Battleship This build increases your toon's resistance to certain damage types or effects. It is extremely strong for what it does, but is limited on which opponents it is effective against, and just how much. However, what it does do, it does very well. This type of HQ has more value to lower level teams, but still has value to any toon in battle.
Fitness Center: Adds +2 Physical Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Pysche Ward: Adds +2 Mental Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Temple: Adds +2 Super Natural Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Academy: Adds +2 Magic Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Shelter: Adds +2 Elemental Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Workshop: Adds +2 Tech Resist per building level to your toon for a current maximum of +8.
Infirmary: Adds +3 Stun Resist level. You may or may not face a lot of opponents that use Stun. If you do, this building is immensely valuable. Even though I run an Offensive Battleship on one of my leagues, (I run a Defensive one on another) I still use the Infirmary on it. Stun resist is a bit hard to come by, with most of the better pieces of gear that have it being in the head slot position. This limits what you can really use in your head gear slots if you are in need of Stun Resist. By using this building, I am able to free up a head gear slot for other effects I desperately want. I advocate building an Infirmary on any and every HQ. It is by far, the building I value most. This is a case by case basis, of course. If the vast majority of the toons you fight against don't have stun, then this is a waste.
***Other buildings***
These buildings aren't as useful as the others listed above, and don't exactly fit into any of the above mentioned HQ types. Still, these buildings are available if you wish to use them.
Manufacturing Plant: Increases the building or repair speed for building levels by +5% Building Repair Speed per Manufacturing Plant level, for a maximum increase of 20% at level 4. Seeing as how HQs are limited to 4 secondary buildings currently, I find building this building to be an absolute waste of space. 20% simply turns a 5 day build into a 4 day build. And once you have all your buildings to level 4, this one is just taking up space. You'll have to demolish it, wasting those resources, to build another that is more useful. It is far better to spend the resources that would be used developing this building by buying more builders. Remember, for the same cost as just level 4, you can have 3 builders increasing your build speed by 200%. A level 4 Manufacturing Plant costs 3300 Morphons plus Bux and Crystals, and only increases your speed by 20%. I'll let you do the math.
Robotics Facility: Increases Sentinel HP regeneration by +3 per minute, per level of the building, for a maximum increase of +12. I also don't find this building very useful. The rate of repair isn't enough to compensate for damage from an opponent's attacks.
Outpost: This building gives you a range based on several factors, on what level an opponent scouting your HQ is, so that you can more easily discover who they are. The range tightens with each level. I find this building to be pretty useless. The only thing it might do is allow you to know who to scout back and retaliate against before they launch any attacks against your HQ. However, as soon as they launch an attack against your HQ, you know which league scouted you even without this building. If you already know who your enemies are, it doesn't take much to narrow down who is scouting you without this building. Furthermore, discovering who is scouting you does not stop the scout from opening your HQ up to attacks.
I hope you enjoyed the 1st half of our Holiday Double Feature. Check back after the commercial break for our 2nd half where we'll be discussing defense strategies for HQs and how to cut your HQ utility bills to 0!!!!
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