How to beat final Survival node in DPDE with 2* roster

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Seeing a lot of people asking how to beat the survival node in the DPDE with a (mostly) 2* roster I figured I’d write some general strategy here.

I’m a relatively new player with a rather small roster (34/34, but most of them are 3* with 1-3 covers). My highest levelled character is Luke Cage at Lvl 85. The rest of my usable characters for this node are Ares, 2* Wolverine, OBW, 2* Thor (all at Lvl 80). Human Torch is only at Lvl 65, but if he wasn’t and if I didn’t have Luke Cage, he would be one my characters of choice for this node.

Basically you want to be able to build up AP for the waves with characters while avoiding resolving CD tiles in the Goon waves. For the waves with characters you want to be able to nuke them almost instantly, which is why you also need characters with highly damaging abilities. Hitpoints are irrelevant, you only need someone who can take one or two hits, because a) you should never be hit anyways and b) OBW can heal.

Thus, my team of choice so far has been Luke Cage (Lvl 85), Ares (Lvl 80) and OBW (Lvl 80). Keep in mind that I’ve been slowly levelling these up, and Ares and OBW were at a lower level when the DPDE first started, and I beat the node without any problems also. If my Human Torch had been around Lvl 75 also and if I didn’t have Luke Cage, he would’ve been in my team for the survival node.

Luke/Cage (Human Torch): Highly damaging nukes (and very cheap nuke in Human Torch’s case)
Ares: Highly damaging Nukes (with Luke Cage in Team I only use red and green, with Human Torch I would use yellow instead of red).
OBW: Essential character! Your 2* team can’t afford to take more than 1 or 2 hits from CD-tiles in the goon waves - the character waves don’t matter, because in the 2nd wave you should be able to nuke at least the 2 most dangerous characters from the get-go, and in the 4th wave you should be able to nuke all 3 of them at once.

I play without any boosts.

Strategy:

1st Wave:

Usually the hardest, as you don’t have any AP yet and OBW can’t always heal and delay CD-tiles. This is the wave where one of my characters sometimes gets hit. Your overall aim is to prevent CD-tiles from resolving while collecting AP for your nukes. Always check which CD-tile belongs to which Goon and also check whether one of your characters can afford to take a hit. If you can’t, don’t hesitate to use an ability, but you should use these sparingly. Blue matches in this wave are a priority. Try to get as much AP as possible while preventing CD-tiles from resolving. When the last Goon is about to die check enemy AP pool and decide whether you want to kill him with an ability so you can act first in the second wave or whether you can afford to have the 2nd wave act first.

2nd wave: Check enemy AP pool and then decide which characters are the most dangerous in terms of abilities and nuke accordingly. You should have enough AP to nuke at least 1 character, probably 2. Leave the least dangerous character for last. For today’s event I went for Luke and Punisher. After that I was empty and Captain America got one ability off which I let Ares take the hit for (and OBW healed him immediately).

3rd wave: You need to collect at least 25 AP for each of your nukes to prepare for the 4th wave. If you can’t nuke at least 2 of the characters in the 4th wave from the get-go and they have enough AP for their abilities you’re usually toast. Today’s node (2 Konrans, 1 Shinobi) was a bit harder than usual, but:

  • Konrans are really good at killing their own team. Always check to which Konran the Black Arts CD-tile belongs to and let it resolve if you’re not about to kill him.
  • OBW should by now have enough blue that she can delay CD-tiles at will, which gives you enough time to collect more blue to delay CD-tiles, which usually lets you match the CD-tile at some point while collecting AP for your relevant abilities.

Once the last Goon is about to die use an ability to kill him off and…

4th wave:

… nuke them all. It doesn’t matter who’s in the 4th wave because you either have enough AP to nuke at least 2 of them or you die. In this case I had close to 30 AP in all relevant colors and nuked the 4th wave. If the HP pool is too large… OBW should also have close to 30 purple and can refuel most your abilities for one more use.

That’s all there is to it. The 4th wave is always irrelevant - you’re either able to nuke them or you die.

Good luck!

2

I feel like 2* Cap is an MVP in survival nodes. His red does damage and blue stuns, while at the same time eliminating enemy countdown tiles… and then you can get a chunk of the AP back for re-use if you’re careful about your matches. Yellow protect tiles help reduce damage every turn from the Smoke strike tiles, or they can be used to make match-5s and crit tiles. Once he’s up and running (takes a little bit in the first wave to get the needed AP), it’s pretty easy to prevent and countdowns from going off. He has a lot of health for a 2* character and almost always is the front man for red, blue, and yellow tiles in a 2* lineup, so if a countdown does go off he can take the damage and survive. If you’re gonna play the Deadpool PVE (or anything with survival nodes) regularly, I’d really suggest investing a roster slot for him.

3

I beat the node quite easily. I have Cap, but the problem with him is that he takes too long to get going and can’t contribute much to killing off the 2nd wave unless he has enough blue collected already.

4

https://forums.505go.com/discussion/24249

5

My team for waves is always 2** Cap, MHawk, and Mags. Hit purple and blue hard for Cap stun and Mags polarity shift. Create a crit with Mags polarity shift, protect Mhawk’s Speed Shot tiles, stun with Cap and cover countdown tiles. Red should also be set aside for Cap to cover another CD tile. REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT. The first run I completed, I had JUST enough to clear. It’s risky, but if you can start this pattern, it’s hard for the AI to break.

6

2* OBW is a real MVP for DDQ. Her blue defuses countdown tiles and heals any damage you’re accumulated before you can pop off her blue. But you honestly shouldn’t have to rely on it that much She also double-dips on your strike tiles if you have a generator (I like Daken for his sustain and extra emergency nuking power). Also, at the end of a goon wave, if they have a whole bunch of AP accumulated in certain colors, it can be very useful to have her steal it down to reasonable levels before the character wave comes in.

Really though, I think Thor is way better than Ares for the survival nodes. Ares can do massive single-target damage with his green and yellow, but a lot of that is wasted when fresh rosters keep rotating in. On the other hand, Thor’s green smashes the entire lineup every time it goes off. His yellow works as a secondary nuke to fuel another green. I rarely, if ever, have more than 1 attack go off from the character nodes because Thor’s just too busy blasting damage at them.

The third spot is more variable, but I prefer Daken. I can put him in front of a cooldown tile and let him regen the damage as I build AP. You have to be a little careful that you don’t completely burn through all of the blue on the board, but Thor’s yellow board shake is usually enough to get you back to decent levels in my experience. Mostly I use him to help block for OBW, add some extra damage, and finish nuking down the last wave, which can sometimes have big HP sacks that are hard to nuke with just Thor.

I’ve also used 2* Torch for the 3rd spot, but that didn’t work so well for me. His red is a really good nuke, but his black and green both rely on doing damage over time, which is exactly what you don’t want for these nodes: it burns through the goons more quickly, so you have less AP to nuke characters, and then you have to actually let the character waves take turns if you want to damage them. Neither of those is very good.

7

I’ve done all except one with OBW, Cap**, and MStorm. (Tiny disclaimer, I have sometimes subbed in an undercovered MohawkStorm) My strategy has been the following:

Wave 1: Build AP, especially Blue and Red. Try to save yellow for Sentinel of Liberty, not MotE. Purple and Green are AP gatherers; purple can be saved for optimal use, perhaps in further waves. If something goes really bad, Cap can tank.

Wave 2: If I’ve gotten Sentinel of Liberty off, I can relax. All match damage and weak ability damage is reduced to 1. It’s even better if I have enough for Lighting Storm, then Sentinel. Try to down one enemy immediately and blue shield the other 2. If the enemy has 6 blue, I can sometimes steal enough for 3 stunners at once. Cast Hailstorm 2X to up the damage per round.
Even if they get a few matches in, the damage isn’t that bad, and I can usually AP steal anything they get before it becomes dangerous.

Wave 3: AP build
Wave 4: Pretty much same strategy as wave 2, with a little more caution on who to leave unstunned if any.

It’s slow, but it works. I’ve gotten downed once (in 10 days?) due to a bad board and bad enemy cascades in wave 2.

–edit I’ve now seen the power of CStorm instead of MStorm. I’ve switched and haven’t looked back yet, though it really might depend on goon composition in the 1st wave.