The last time Gauntlet came around, I had a 2* roster. With a lot of healthpacks, and some whales, I was able to make it to the beginning of the third sub.
I was looking forward to my relatively much more powerful 3* roster being able to go further in Gauntlet, at least for fun, since the prizes are miserly.
Now that I have a three star roster, and some unfortunately useless 1-2 cover unlevelled 5*s, I cannot get past the penultimate node (Simulation 13) on the first sub. It is scaled at 240, and my best synergistic team (IM40, GSBW, Hulk) is around level 170-178–and they have been beaten down twice, and they weren’t close matches. They were fast %##% whuppings.
Yes, I have a just a few characters boosted to 242, but they offer no synergy and are not terribly effective. Boosted tile defenders offer little help against nodes with no enemy tile users.
This node also offers as its very best reward the princely sum of 100 ISO.
But no–the scaling is beyond brutal.
Why is progress in the game punished?
Why is the best strategy in the game to often not take rewards:
- Don’t open the legendary tokens you need for four star essentials lest you get 5*s and bork your scaling
- Don’t open your tacos now, because you cannot save any healthpacks you earn and may need them later
- At higher levels don’t open your tacos until you have at least 30 (by the math) to increase probability of success
- Don’t open your regular tokens now until you have saved HP for the new character, or enough ISO and other covers to champ them lest you lose the covers after 14 days?
- Why is it better to not level your characters lest the scaling take its revenge?
It goes so far that the folks on Puzzle Warriors podcast folks recommend that 3* players never open their legendaries nor spend command points. How is that fun? And how are you supposed to cover essentials with that practice?
Even playing at the wrong time in this game is punished:
- In Story (so-called PVE), if you start late, you get fewer refreshes, and reduced point values.
- In Versus (so-called PVP), if you start to early, you face the duel punishments of fewer points being available to gain, and more opportunity for later players to beat you down. The optimal strategy becomes sniping in the last hours hoping to get lucky, rather than playing well over the course of the event. Why are they 2 days long or more when only the last 12 hours (and realistically, only the last 3 hours) really matter?
Finally, some of the factors required for success (which bracket you get into, and how competitive it is) are completely beyond the visibility or control of the player. A score that rates top 200 in one bracket might rate top 50 in another.
How exactly is a game that:
- Punishes progress
- Punishes taking what slim rewards are available;
- Punishes playing at the incorrect time; and
- Has factors neither visible to nor controllable by the player dictate success
supposed to be fun for the players once the shiny newness wears off, and the actual bones of the game and its requirements for success become evident?
