The FAQ Project

Greetings True Believers!

I hope this message finds you all well. I ran across a suggestion from the mods need to chill thread that I thought was actually on point and worthwhile so I decided to try and spearhead the project: FAQ about in-game experience. (original post here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=34942#p440718) Basically, the purpose of this project is to come up with a FAQ section and compendium of links to the most useful information on the site in order to cut down on some repeated topics (Why do I keep losing points in PvP, anyone? The AI cheats, ring-a-bell?).

However, this is obviously something I can't do alone so I am asking for your help. I will post the most obvious questions and some example answers but if you think there are some questions missing or that you can come up with better answers, don't be shy let me and the rest of us know. I would like to have it up and running by the end of the month but as the game progresses I am sure there will be new questions so I will do my best to keep it updated.

So to get the ball rolling:

FAQ about MPQ

Questions about the Game and Strategies

1. Does the AI cheat?
No, it does not. Although sometimes it can really feel that way.

2. Why do I keep losing a lot of points in Versus (PvP) events?

Once you pass a certain point threshold (generally over 700 points) your team becomes viewable to everyone in the time slice you have chosen. After passing this threshold you will have to utilize shields to protect your points. The more points you have the bigger the target you become. If you do not shield, other players will see your team and attack. It is also important to note that more than one player can attack you at the same time. So it is very possible to lose over 200 points if enough people attack you at the same time. Most advanced players utilize a game strategy called shield hopping to protect gain more points while protecting the points that they have.

3. What is shield hopping?

Shield hopping is a strategy where a player utilizes shields to gain points while protecting their own. Before using a shield, the player gathers as many points as possible until they reach a point where they no longer feel safe from attack. This is called "climbing". After completing their climb, the player uses their first shield. While shielded, the player searches for worthwhile targets and save their nodes until they are ready to break shield or shield expires. The player then hits those nodes for more points and shields again. A general rule of thumb is to do only two battles, but depending on strength of roster and the time of the shield hop, some players are able to do more. Caveat, if you are running a subpar team even two matches is a big risk.

4. Why don't I get the same amount of points displayed in the Versus node after I finish my battle?

Unfortunately, the points displayed in the versus node are from the time you loaded the opponent team. Although the may change due to any point gain or loss you have, they do not reflect the opponents team actual points after loading. For example, if you load a target match at 60 points and wait to hit the target, that target player may suffer from an attack that drops their actual score and the actual amount of points you will receive. The more points that player loses, the less you will be able to gain but you will not be able to know this from the points displayed. Similarly, the more points the target player gains, the more you will be able to receive but again, you will not be able to know from the score displayed.

5. Why did I only get 2* from 10-pack?

All tokens have percentages listed in-game. 2* have a higher draw rate from Heroic tokens than any 3* and 4*. In such instances where you have only drawn 2*, know that Lady Luck was not with you that day and prepare proper sacrifices to RNGesus to avoid said bad luck.

6. Who are the best characters in the game?

Depends on what kind of play-style you have, your goals and your personal preferences. Some people swear by Moonstone while others prefer the efficiency of HulkBuster Iron-Man. For more information about in-game characters and player thoughts about them, please check out the Character forum.

7. Why do some characters look like someone just dropped a fart bomb?
Artistic choice.

8. Why can't I trade covers with members of my alliance?
Unfortunately such a system would lead to a lot of abuse and the establishment of a black market so it is not currently being considered.

9. Why do players who already have covers to characters play Versus events? (I need those covers dagnabit!)

Unfortunately you have graduated to what we call a vet bracket. There are a variety of reasons why veteran players play versus events including helping their alliance, gaining ISO and HP, playing for pride of rank, etc. While many sympathize with those that need the covers, they have their own interests to look out for.

10. What is a vet bracket?

A vet bracket is a bracket either in Story events or Versus events made up primarily of strong rosters and experienced players. If you are playing for rank, you will find these brackets are without mercy and will require a lot of time and effort on your part. Good luck, young Padawan for the road to becoming a Jedi master (or Sith Lord) is a long and treacherous journey.

11. What is a baby bracket/n00b bracket?

A baby bracket are special brackets set up for new players or players that have not played the game for an extended period of time. Compared with vet brackets, they are much easier to acquire a high rank. However, if you rank high enough repeatedly you will be moved to a vet bracket. You can return to baby brackets if you continually rank low in vet brackets.

12. Can you explain how retaliation points work?

After you win a battle in PVP, you gain points, and your opponent loses points. The number of points gained and lost depends on the current (as of the end of the match) point differential between the teams: if you beat a team with a higher number of points than you, you will receive more points than if you had beaten a team with a lower number of points than you. You cannot gain more than 75 points in a match, regardless of the size of the point differential, but you can gain 0 points if the other team has far fewer points than you do. After you win a match, your winning team is automatically in the losing team's queue, unless they were shielded at the time you won. This gives the other team the opportunity to retaliate against the team that beat them. The points the other team will win for a successful retaliation is calculated as described above: if they have fewer points than you do, the retaliation will be worth more points. If they have more points than you, the retaliation will be worth fewer points. As such, if you beat a team with fewer points than you currently have, then lose the retaliation, you will wind up losing points on the exchange. This can generally be avoided by only attacking teams with more points than you currently have: in the current scoring system, if you only attack teams worth more than 37 points, the retaliation offered to the opposing team will be worth fewer than 37 points, meaning that a win, followed by a defensive loss from the retaliation, will net positive points for you.

13. What is my defensive team in PVP?

14. How do I set my defense team for PVP?

In PVP, other players will see the team that you last won with in that particular event. So, for instance, if you win a battle with Cage/Black Widow/Captain America, anyone who queues you up in that event after that point will see a Cage/Black Widow/Captain America team. If you were to then play a different team in a different PVE or PVP event, the team seen by others in the first event would not change. Similarly, if you were to level up the characters on that team, the change would not be reflected in the team seen by others within that event until you were to use the newly leveled up team to win a battle in that event. Note that this also means that other players in a PVP event may see a different team from the one you are currently running, depending on when the other player initially queued your team.

15. How do I set my team-up for defense in PVP?

The team-up given to your team in PVP (every defensive team is given one, and only one, for the battle, which can be seen in the pre-battle screen) is randomly determined, and given a level appropriate to your team. Having particular team-ups in your team-up roster, or queued up for the battle, will not increase or decrease the odds of that team-up showing up on defense.

16. How does scaling work?

17. What is "Optimal Play" in PvE?

Hitting every node in a given "sub" is considered a "clear".

Performing 1 clear when all points for every node are fully available (or will be as each battle ends) is "optimal". Before a sub ends, hitting each node as many times as possible down to 1 point (ideally within the last couple hours of the event, so that nodes have recharged as many points as possible) will then clear out all remaining points so that you get as close to the maximum number of event points available in a given sub.

18. Why do countdowns vary or give wrong numbers?

Countdown tiles trigger in a left to right, top to bottom manner. Starting at the top left, each tile in the each row is checked, and the countdown is lowered by 1, triggering if it reaches 0. After it triggers, this process continues. If the effect of a trigger lowers another (already checked and lowered) countdown tile to a position that hasn't been checked, it can lower again. This is frequently seen with Daredevil's stun, as it activates and creates another countdown tile from a random tile. If that tile is located lower than the first, it will get checked immediately.

19. How did Hood (or Gorgon, or others) get his ability so fast? (goes with cheating)

A character paired with the right goons (non-moving characters) can gain AP very quickly. Goons gain AP each turn in their specific colors. When they have enough, they cast their ability. If there is more than one character who uses a color then it can be up to the RNG which power is used.
If hood is paired with muscle, or Gorgon with his red ninja, they develop AP very quickly; and if the goon doesn't use their power then Hood or whoever can use his power very quickly.

20. How does the AI decide which ability to fire?

Generally, the AI will fire off an ability as soon as there is enough AP in that color to do so, meaning that the AI tends to fire off low-cost powers rather than higher cost powers of the same color. So, if the enemy team has two purple abilities, one costing 5 AP, and the other costing 14 AP, it will usually fire off the cheaper ability. This does not mean, however, that the enemy team will never fire off the more expensive ability: for example if, through a cascade or the use of an ability, the enemy team accumulates 14 AP, it may use the more expensive ability rather than the cheaper ability (depending on the order of the characters on the enemy team; if the character with the cheaper ability is "first", the cheaper ability will be fired off). It's also important to note that the enemy team uses abilities in a set color order, and will therefore never fire off two abilities of the same color on the same turn (though it may wind up getting an extra turn because of a match-5 or greater).

Answer 2: If the AI has only one power in a color, it will use it when it has the AP to. If there are more than one power in the color, then it gives equal chance to each power (or no power if there is not enough AP for the 'chosen' power). The player will often see the cheaper power more often, because each turn that the AI has enough AP for a power results in an RNG draw. Example: GSBW and Ares on the same team. When the AI has 3 green AP, nothing happens. When the AI has 6, it draws between GSBW and Ares. If Ares wins, then Onslaught. If GSBW wins, then nothing happens. Next turn same happens. It's unlikely for GSBWs to occur, just like it's unlikely to flip heads 5 times in a row, but it can happen.

21. How is my "strongest color" determined?

A team's strongest color is the color with the highest match damage value on that team. Typically, this will be the highest match color of the character with the highest level on the team, and may change as characters on that team are downed. In the event of a tie - as happens when more than one character on a team are of the same level - the order of the characters on the team comes into play. First priority is given to the character in the middle on the character selection screen, then the left, then the right. Enemy teams made up entirely of goons do not have a set strongest color, so abilities that target or drain the enemy's strongest color (such as Blade's Nightstalker) may target multiple colors over the course of a match, even if no enemies are downed.

22. Where did my thread go?

23. WHO swears by Moonstone? The devs do.

24. Can I play on more than one device?

25. I've been playing for a while, and I'm noticing that my PvE fights are getting tougher. What's causing that?

26. What can I do to manage my roster to keep scaling from increasing too quickly?

27. It's the weekend and Ultorn/Galactus/Apocalypse will come, will the server crash?
Yes it will, but stay calm, breath out, eat a snack and look again a hour or two later and everything works again

28. Why have 4* been removed from standard tokens? They haven't but the chances are so minute that they no longer list it.

29. Points seem so low in the first sub of the brand new PvE. Will it even be possible to reach the legendary token progression?

Yes, so far all legendary tokens have been within reach for anyone playing three clears a day and joining before the end of day 1. If you cannot do all nodes (due to not having an essential character) you may have to grind a bit extra at the end of the sub, but it is by no means impossible.

30. What is true healing?

Most abilities that heal characters other than the character using the healing ability provide a "burst" of healing. These healing bursts last only as long as the current battle, and once the battle is over, the burst healed character's health will no longer reflect the healing. Some characters have "true healing" abilities, almost all of which target only the character using the ability. Unlike burst healing, true healing remains after the battle. Note that true healing supercedes burst healing: so, if a character with true healing abilities (like Wolverine) is burst healed, then true heals, their health within the battle will increase until it is full, at which point true healing will replace the health that was replaced through burst healing.

31. What's the controversy about true healing?

Originally, all healing was true healing, which allowed players to use burst healing to continue using injured characters, rather than health packs. The distinction between true and burst healing required some players to adjust their strategies, and potentially use more health packs than they would have before the change.

32. How do I get more Health Packs?

Health packs are awarded in both PVE and PVP, as well as in daily resupplies. Additionally, if you have fewer than 10 health packs at any point, your health packs regenerate, to a maximum of ten, at a rate of one health pack every 36 minutes.

33. What tiles does the AI try to match? Why did the AI match it's own countdown tile?

The AI has two critiera for a match.

1. Does it make a 4 of a kind?
2. Does it power up one of my abilities?

So, in order, the AI goes for matches that are:

1. 4 of a kind in a color that powers up their abilities
2. 4 of a kind, other
3. Match 3 that powers up their abilities
4. Any remaining match

Also note: 1) TU tiles are 1st priority until the AI has used their TU ability.
2) AI will match a color it has as a passive ability, instead of a color it has an active ability. It is not strictly related to color strength either.

Because of this, the AI tends to ignore enemy and friendly special tiles, and miss out on cross 5 of a kinds. Any cascades caused by the AI's matches are not created by any cheating, but are just dumb luck.

34. Is there an action order within each turn in the game?

The order of actions within each turn is as follows:

1. Passive abilities activate
- this includes abilities like Scarlet Witch's Arcane Incantation, Luke Cage's Unbreakable, and Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique.
- This step is skipped on the player's very first turn of the game, which is why these abilities activate for the AI Turn 1, but not the player until Turn 2.

2. Goons generate AP (if present)

3. Countdown Tiles tick down

4. Active turn
- the active player (or AI) get to use abilities
- the active player (or AI) gets to match a tile
- matching a tile moves onto the next phase

5. Attack tiles activate
- This includes hidden attack tiles, like Elektra's Ballet of Death.

6. Turn ends
- priority hands over to the other player

I tend to think of 1-3 as the Start phase, 4 as the Main phase, and 5-6 as the End phase. Most of this stuff is more a technicality, but it does explain why IF/Cage/SW don't get a tile placed until Turn 2 for the player. It's also a bit relevant if you're thinking about a character like Human Torch, where you have two similar abilities (Flame Jet and Inferno), in terms of when the abilities actually hit for damage.

35. What is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything? 42

36. What is rubber banding and how does it work in PVE?

Rubberbanding in PvE : First off, rubberbanding is both a global phenomenon, and also a localized one. Before that gets too confusing, what I mean is that it occurs over the scores in an entire time slice (global), but ONLY the scores for the current sub-event are effected (local). So, being only 3k behind your bracket leader doesn't mean you won't see any rubberbanding because the leader for your time slice might actually be much further ahead. Similarly, being 20k behind your leader in the main bracket doesn't mean you're going to see heavy rubberbanding since it's based off sub-event scores, and not effected at all by main event scores.

From what I can tell, rubberbanding seems to kick in around 10k behind the global points leader. I imagine this varies by sub, since subs have varying base point totals. So, it might be something like 2.5x base value, and it just so happens that most subs are worth close to 4k. It used to be that rubberbanding would then increase node point totals linearly from 1x, all the way to 10x, depending on how far behind you were (full rubberband was generally something like 30k behind maybe? I forget the exact values). Now that rubberbanding is much weaker, and no events have any rubberbanding on main event nodes, generally speaking you will see a small amount of rubberbanding around 10k behind the leader (maybe 10%-20% increase in points), and if you're way behind (20k+) you might see up to 100%-200% increase in node value. I assume this increase is linear depending on how far behind that 10k mark you are. These large numbers of rubberbanding are quite rare and mostly only seen in an event like EotS where wave nodes increase sub event points and that 3k wave node will be worth 10k+ since the leader is at 40k and you're on 0. Also potentially any 2-day sub events if there are a substantial amount of points, there could potentially be significant rubberbanding towards the end of that sub.

37.Why am I losing so many points in PVP?

A common complaint about PVP is that players will often win a battle, but during that battle, they will be attacked, and lose more points than they gained from winning the battle in what is certainly a frustrating experience. This generally happens when a player has exceeded the equilibrium score for their team. In general, a team's equilibrium score is the score at which they have about as many points as other teams of similar perceived difficulty. When a team is at its equilibrium point in PVP, it can remain unshielded without being attacked very often. Because players enter PVP events at different times, players can expect their equilibrium to increase over the course of the event, with lower equilibrium points early on, and higher ones later.

If a team has a score above its equilibrium score, it can expect to be attacked until it has lost enough points to bring it back down to its equilibrium level, and, because changes in scores are not communicated instantly to other players, it will likely be pushed below its actual equilibrium score. The speed with which this happens also depends on how far along the PVP event is: the later it is in the event, the faster teams will be pushed down to, or below, their equilibrium score. Players can maintain a score above their equilibrium point through the use of shields.

So, when a team is sitting unshielded at its equilibrium score ("floating," in game parlance), then engages in a series of battles to increase their score, necessarily taking them above equilibrium, they can expect to be attacked, and brought back down to, or below, their equilibrium score. Depending on how late it is in the event, and how far above their equilibrium score they are, they may be pushed down in less than the amount of time it takes to win a single battle, especially if the battle drags on.

Players can minimize the likelihood of this happening by (1) limiting the length of battles above their team's equilibrium point, especially late in the event (a fast retreat is often less damaging than a drawn out win), (2) making PVP runs relatively early in the event, avoiding the last 8 hours, during which other players will be especially active, and (3) using shields judiciously, making sure not to float above equilibrium for very long. This does mean that shields are required if players want to have a final score much above their equilibrium point, and the more conservative a player is in their PVP strategy, the more shields will be required.

38. Why am I getting 20 ISO as a PVE reward, when there are other rewards available?

Every PVE and Prologue node has a small number of possible rewards for a successful battle. Each time you win the battle, you have an equal chance at any of the rewards shown. However, once you have received a reward for that node, that reward is replaced by the minimum reward of 20 ISO. As such, the next time you beat the node, there is a chance that you will receive 20 ISO, rather than one of the rewards that had yet to be given out. If there are four possible rewards for a node, and you have earned three of them, there is a 75% chance that you will receive 20 ISO for completing the node rather than the one remaining reward. This means that it is possible to play a node dozens of times without receiving all of the possible rewards, though it's not very common.

39.Which character is the one making the match for me? Is it based on character order? Or hit points?

By default, the character making the match is the one whose damage in that color is the highest.

If multiple characters are tied, then position on the team selection makes a difference. The center character will be chosen first, if possible (for example, the featured character in a PVP event). The left character will be second, and the right character is "shielded" in the event of ties.
it should also be noted that there are hidden decimals for the damage, so even if two characters have the same displayed damage there may be a hidden decimal causing one to have higher damage. If you have them positioned correctly and the one in the back still tanks, a hidden decimal is probably to blame.


Finally, the order of the characters also determines the order in which their passive abilities fire: center, left, then right. If one match would lead to two characters firing off passives, the character earlier in the order goes first. This can occasionally be important. For instance, Dr. Octopus' passive creates attack tiles whenever an enemy special tile is matched. The Falcon's passive strengthens the team's special tiles (including attack tiles) upon a yellow match. So, if you were to match an enemy's yellow special tile, and Falcon went first, he might not have any special tiles to strengthen. However, if Dr. Octopus were in front, his passive would fire first, giving Falcon attack tiles to strengthen.

40. What's the deal with double-tapping?

In PVP, "double-tapping" refers to hitting the same player twice in a short period of time (triple, quadruple or higher orders are also possible, though less common). While this is allowed in game, it is viewed by some players as a breach of decorum, or as unsportsmanlike. As such, players who engage in double-tapping may find themselves targeted by the alliance of the player they hit in an organized retaliation. Such retaliations may extend even beyond the current event, as some alliances, especially those centered on PVP, maintain "hit lists" of desired targets. If this occurs, the points lost because of the targeting will likely outweigh the points gained through the double-tapping, making it unadvisable, especially if the double-tap targets a high end PVP player, or one in a high end PVP alliance.

41. What's the deal with sniping?

Towards the end of PVP events, players shooting for high scores will typically be shield-hopping: spending most of their time behind shields in order to maintain scores above their equilibrium, then battling in short bursts before shielding again. The purpose of this strategy is to minimize the likelihood of lost points due to retaliations or losses. If a player is hit, and loses points, during one of these unshielded periods, they refer to the perpetrator as a "sniper." The attack may have been random, but the term properly applies to a player who notes an unshielded competitor in rankings, and purposely attacks while that player is unshielded, rather than queing the hopping player, and attacking after a shield is put up. Doing so may be seen as underhanded and unsportsmanlike, as well as being bad for the bracket, since the points lost by the attacked player will likely be greater than those gained by the attacking player, resulting in a net loss of points for the bracket (alternately, attacking a shielded player results in a net gain of points for the bracket, as the attacked player does not lose points from behind the shield). Players who are, or are perceived to be, snipers may find themselves targeted by the individual or alliance that feels wronged by their behavior. So, while doing so is allowable within game, and may result in a higher relative placement in the shard, it may not be advisable because of the potential long term consequences of doing so.

42. What level will characters be boosted to with different boosts?

PVE essentials are a fixed number increase, depending on rarity. Uncommon is +56, Rare is +94, Legendary is +90. I think new characters are the same; it seems to be +75.

PVP essentials are 75% bonus, at least for 3*. Weekly boosts are some kind of complicated formula.

43. How does match damage get lowered in cascades (if you make more than one match in a move, match damage per match goes down but I'm not sure of the formula)?

It goes down 20% per match, like first match does 100 damage, second does 80, third does 64, and so on. However, this does not effect strike tiles, so a long cascade with them out can really destroy a player. If you got a strength 100 strike tile out, that 3 match combo above would do 200, 180, 164, and so on, never going below 100.

answer b: Why do subsequent matches in a cascade do less damage than the initial match?

This is primarily an issue of game balance: if every match in a cascade did the same amount of damage as the initial match, one good cascade could wipe out a team. Under the current system, it still can, but it's much more unlikely. After the initial match, each subsequent match in a cascade has its damage discounted by 20 percent. So, a match that would have done 100 damage would instead do 80 damage if it were the second match in a cascade, the third match (if it would have done 100 damage as an initial match) would do 64 damage, and so on. In the unlikely - but still possible - event of a cascade of 18 matches or more, additional matches will do just 1 damage.

While this seems to limit the effectiveness of creating cascades, large cascades are still potentially game changing because they allow the team to quickly accumulate large amounts of Action Points, allowing for the use of character skills. Additionally, any strike tiles on the board apply to all of the matches in a cascade. So, in the earlier example of a three match cascade doing 100, 80 and 64 damage (for a total of 244 damage), the existence of a 100 point strike tile would lead to damage of 200 +180 + 164, effectively reducing the discount on damage, and resulting in 544 damage.

44. Why do I keep getting 20 ISO from PVE rewards, when there are other rewards available?

Most PVE nodes have four possible rewards. On the first pull (that is, the first time you beat the node), you have a 25% chance of receiving any of the rewards. On the second pull, and all of the subsequent pulls, you have a 50% chance of getting 20 ISO, and a 50% chance of getting one of the remaining rewards (making a 16.7% chance of any particular remaining reward if just one has been pulled, or a 25% chance of each remaining reward if two have been pulled). This process can be frustrating for many players, as there's a chance that a reward may not be pulled even after the node has been beaten 5, 10 or even 20 times.

So in other words, these are your odds for rewards

0/4 prizes drawn:
25% each reward

1/4 prizes drawn
50% 20 ISO
16.7% each of the 3 remaining rewards

2/4 prizes drawn
50% 20 ISO
25% both of the remaining rewards

3/4 prizes drawn
50% 20 ISO
(Original thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=35728)


For further information, please check out these helpful threads:
What's the best way to gain ISO?- Colognoisseur's Guide to Mining ISO from LR's
When do I get X daily reward?-S.H.I.E.L.D. Resupply List (Daily Rewards)
Where can I find out about X character?- Character Discussion Meta-Banter (Quick Links Index)
How do I find a better Alliance? - Single Player Looking for an Alliance? Post Here
Where did my thread go?


That's it for now, but I will continue tinkering with it later. Any comments, suggestions and other feedback are welcome.

11/7 Updated with member suggested questions and answers
11/17 Updated with member suggested questions, answers and helpful threads links
11/26 Updated with member suggest questions, answer from red name and editing.