If, by chance and effort, you manage to win two of these events within the last 4 tries, you are given the opportunity to go into a "secret mode" where your toon can go under the mountain to face unknown shadowy villains for potentially great prizes. Be forewarned, these villains are tough and don't always give the prizes you want. Further compounding their difficulty is the fact you have no idea what you are facing till you've faced it, or unless you use a candle. Candles can be found doing Patrols, or in the Items Store. They give you the ability to at least see the cores of these villains so you can set up your gear with at least a little intel. Don't worry. You can leave this screen to change gear and head back without losing your place. You will face 3 sets of opponents, with each set consisting of two opponents you get to choose from. All of them are VERY hard and I can't tell you how best to beat any of them because they are all always different. (At least, I currently believe so. Others may have better information than I do for this part.)
If you beat these 3 opponents, you then face a shadow version of yourself. These pesky shadow clones are popping up everywhere. I blame Mayor Justice for this outrage! Fortunately, unlike the previous opponents, there's a trick to fighting this one. He is a clone of your toon. So he will be wearing the same gear, but is sometimes slightly stronger. The best way to defeat him is to strip off all your gear and use cons and HQ bonuses to beat him, since he only copies your gear and powers, and not your bonuses.
But that's all IF you can find your way under the Mountain, AND decide you want to go. Why might you decide to go? Well, there's potentially 4 cards and 4 cons you could get. But you don't know what they will be until after you get to them, and there's no guarantee you'll win any of them. Lose just 1 match and your journey ends. If it's the 1st one, you're just out of luck when it comes to prizes.
Meanwhile, if you don't make it to Under The Mountain, or choose not to go, you have a shot at 3 different prize packages in the Climb event. Each comes with 1 power card and 1 con. You know what these are before you ever enter, simply by looking at the prize tab. And with current participation levels and division splits, you're sure to win something. If you don't like what you see and want to take a chance going Under The Mountain, and that option is available to you, then sure, go for it. But remember you're taking a chance vs taking a sure thing.
Now, prize packages are randomly rolled for by the game for each place and each division. It's very possible for lower place prizes to be more rare, useful, and/or valuable than the prizes above them. This is where losing can actually help you win. Before you just up and decide you want to go for Gold, take a look at the prizes for your division. Is 1st really something you can use? Or is Silver better? Is Gold out of your reach but not so much with Silver? That's great too! But what if Bronze prizes work better for you than Silver? It's quite possible you might improve your situation more by taking a lower spot than a higher one.
Let's take a look at what I mean.
In this image, the two cards aren't overly different in power. Yes, the 1st place card is a little better, but let's look at the cons, Destructive Soulgem vs. Turtle Shell. Destructive Soulgem is the most rare of it's type of con, found in "Through The Fire And Flames" patrol found in Ardeal, BUT........ it does drop as a patrol reward. Turtle Shell, on the other hand, is a far more rare drop. Usually it is given as a special drop for special limited time missions like the "Ticket To Orbit" patrols that only come out for the Birthday Anniversary. You can get it to drop in Patrols too, though, but only in the Black Market, and at a cost of anywhere from 15 to 40 MP. Furthermore, unless my build uses a lot of 3x damage, +8 might not serve me so well. But 10% Def serves any build. By losing here and taking Silver, I set myself up for a bigger win down the line by adding a better con to my supply reserves.
Now let's look at another example. Quad Damage gives the user +10 3x Damage. It really isn't that uncommon and can be found in the "Game Over" patrol in Purgatory Penitentiary. Again, if your build setup doesn't utilize 3x Damage, this con will only be mildly helpful to you. But Silver gives a Scarab of Protection. This may only be a plus 1% to your Defense, but this con is usable for any build. This con can also be found doing the "Shifting Circumstances" patrol in Purgatory Penitentiary and has about the same rarity as Quad Damage. Now the Bronze prize package in this group is Philter of Flamestrike, providing +100 Att/Strike (good for Duels and Brawls events) and +5 Elemental Damage. This con CANNOT be found doing Patrols. You are going to have to win it if you want one. That might be something you want to consider. In my opinion, the fact that I can easily obtain the other cons elsewhere but only win this one, makes Bronze start to look really nice.
Now, it's important also to consider how many of a particular con you have in your inventory. The Philter of Flamestrike only allows 1 use per day, whereas the Quad Damage allows 5 uses. If I have 5 Philter of Flamestrikes and only 2 Quad Damage, I might consider the Quad Damage of more importance right now.
Another factor to think about is Super Charges. If the Bronze prize card is one you already own, and you have a bunch of Super Charges on the copies you own, but have no Super Charges, or much fewer on any copies you might have of 1st and Silver place cards, it's probably a better choice to go after that Bronze card.
Now, "losing to win" isn't always going to be your best option, but sometimes it is. Keep a vigil eye out for opportunities when going for less will gain you more. They do pop up more often than one might think or expect. And the beauty is fewer folks want Bronze than want Silver, and fewer want Silver than Gold. Sometimes it's worth letting them have it and make a win/win scenario.
0 Comments