Tier 5 Survival

Comments

• pistoff Registered Users 865 Posts

  February 2014

  Great! After updating the game to the latest version I noticed that the survival mission requirements had dropped to 1575 power. But then I also noticed that my gun has dropped from 1587 to 1546 so now the gap is even bigger!!

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• Martoscar Registered Users 5 Posts

  February 2014

  Hi there. As a fellow fan of the game, I had the same problem myself. I did found the survival missions the most difficult, in fact, specially compared to the hostage missions, but I managed to get through them all. I'd like to share my experience, as I think it could -maybe- help you with your problem.
  
  I think the reason for the top tier mission weapon requirements being a couple of points over the maximum you can upgrade a "blue" gun to is obvious -to me, at least: because bussines. To try to make players/costumers buy the "red" ones -wich you only can purchase with gold, so much, in fact, that's 'unfarmable' trough Tapjoy on a reasonable basis. Problem is, when you translate this gold to the real world money it would cost you to get it, you end up paying INSANE sums for those guns -as much as 100$ for the "red" minigun. That's jawdroppingly excessive, but that's the way it is. So, in other words, don't wait for Glu to lower those mission requirements to met the in-game currency purchased gun's max specs, as I think it's not going to happen. So, let's move on.
  
  I assume that you're a seasoned player if you've made up this far, but I'll try to make my advising a bit general; you may get something useful from it despite your own experience, and it may hopefully help other troubled players who end up here looking for help. BTW, basic level Survival missions are a pain in the ***, the most annoying ones. When I was getting through them myself, I always got the feeling that the enemies' guns were delivering more damage than they did in other mission types even when my specs way surpassed the mission requirements -and I think I'm probably right, as the logic behind this reasoning holds plenty of water: they need that firepower to destroy your cover quickly. With that in mind, you need a strategy. Going in guns blazing and all just won't work.
  
  It would help to know what particular mission you're stuck in, what specific gun requires, the location -specially if it provides two or three cover points, and if one of them is a vehicle-, how much time it requires you to hold your ground -2 minutes, 1.30- and enemy type -human, robot, snipers, grenadiers, etc-. Regardless of it all, it will be way easier to pass the mission if your suit is upgraded to the max, but I don't think it's strictly necessary, if you stick to some simple rules that are useful for the whole game, but are specially important when facing Survival.
  
  Avoid cars. Sometimes you'll need to use it for cover, specially to avoid grenades or snipers, but DON'T STAY THERE. In my experience, on this kind of top tier missions a exploding car, when you're covering behind it, will kill you even with a near-full bar.
  
  NEVER allow two grenadiers/snipers/drones/heavy assault robots alive at the same time shooting at you, it's a death sentence. They'll have you running from cover to cover to avoid them, and likely you'll end up offed by a new grenade when running from another one. Use focus mode to get rid of them if necessary.
  
  There's an enemy hierarchy, of course, but sometimes it's not that obvious. Always go for grenadiers and snipers -and their droid counterparts, drones and heavy assault- first, shotguns next, then machine guns, riflemen last. However, be smart: a machine gunner a few feet from you is a much worse treat than a shotgun in the far background, for example.
  
  Be aware of your guns strenghts and weaknesses. Pistols are precise but feeble, so go for the weak points. Shotguns are great in general, but lose power with distance. Electrics can get through covers, but cooling time sucks big time and you can only get three-four shots of continous fire out of it before it jams, so you must be very precise with it. Plasma is great overall, but it's not the best against covers, and finally, the minigun, that sucks in almost every aspect and needs mastery to make something of it.
  
  Speaking of guns, NEVER allow yours to overheat, ot try not to, at least. If you do, you'll have to wait for it to cool off completely before you can fire again, and this, in Survival, means death. So, always keep an eye on the level, at all times -I often move my sights slightly off the enemy or the cover point I'm shooting at to stop the gun from automatically firing to allow it to cool off without having to get off aiming mode and lose some precious fractions of second that would take me to get in/off cover mode again. It works great.
  
  Focus mode. Make the most out of it. Even if your suit is upgraded to the max, recovery time won't allow to use it more than once in a Survival mission -or any mission that's not a story, OCP one, actually. However, if you're maxed, you'll have more hit points than enemies shooting at you at the same time onscreen, five tops. So, when activating your focus, you can either try to have five enemies onscreen and spend the extra points on the tough ones, or either you can concentrate many hit points on one or two hard or covered enemies, wich will obliterate them 100%. Important: YOU CAN ACTIVATE FOCUS MODE EVEN IF YOUR GUN IS OVERHEATED. Keep that in mind, may save your life.
  
  Try to hit human enemies in movement when they enter the screen before they can position themselves, to take advantage of the fact they can't shoot at you while running -droids, however, shoot while moving, but are slower, generally, and that's part of their particular behavior vs humans in the game. Always keepin an eye on the heat meter, of course.

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• Martoscar Registered Users 5 Posts

  February 2014

  Try to use the scan continously, not only when you see a wave of enemies coming. Sometimes an enemy can slip by outside of your field of view and take cover before you see it, thus resulting in you not knowing he's there. That's just a small noissance if he's a rifleman, but if he's a grenadier or a sniper instead you'll end up regretting it for sure. Try to make an habit out of hitting the scan button constantly even when you don't need to, for it to become a second nature thing so you don't need to worry about it.
  
  They go for your cover, so GO for theirs. Just at the start -depending on the scenery-, or In between waves, or when waiting for a lone enemy to reload his gun, whenever you find some second/s when there's no one to shoot to, concentrate fire on their covers, and do it wise and systematically. This way, a grenadier or machinegunner who may come next will find himself out in the open exposed to your fire, making for way easier kills.
  
  That all said, I'll give you two special tips that may help you with your particular problem. First, attack drones. I didn't pay them any attention or use them at all during the game past the tutorial levels, to the point of forgetting they were even there, until I got to those same top tier missions in the last stages whose requirements outmatched my specs. I had some drones stored by pure luck -I tried the roulette game once out of curiosity, as I wasn't giving the gold I had earned though XP any use at all, and got some drones as a reward. LIFESAVERS, let me tell you. When the screen is full of enemies, sending in a drone will have three benefiting effects: first, the more obvious, it will kill your foes. Second, it will not do so instantly, but by shooting at them until they're down, wich may take some seconds to achieve depending on the situation -strong enemies with full health bar, namely- wich will get you much closer to the countdown reaching zero. And third and equally important, it concentrates enemy fire while it's onscreen, so they're not shooting at you and your precious cover places, and also, are leaving it open for you to get out of cover to shoot -be smart- NOT AT THEM, that are going to succumb to the drone anyway and will do so faster if you lend it a hand -bad for you, see second point- but at the cover points that are still standing, so the next guys to come will have nowhere to hide from you and your guns. So, in consequence, if you carry some drones with you, use them strategically: wait for the screen to be full of enemies and then let it fly. Repeat when needed. Hold thight, hold your ground and you will make it.
  
  The second tip is something I realized myself while struggling with the last Resistance mission, the 19th. I was angry at myself for not realizing before, but felt lucky I did anyway, as I was out of drones by the time. After playing for so much time, you must have realized how enemy waves/packs work: they come in as a group first, four or five of them, and then get replaced as you off them. You must have also realized, however, that sometimes they're not replaced individually, but they stop pouring in as usual until you've offed one last, lone guy standing there. So, be aware of that and DON'T KILL THAT GUY. If you follow my advice about killing the most dangerous foes first, it's likely that lone guy will be a simple rifleman. So, what you do then is keep an eye on the guy and then go running for the next cover point -even if it's destroyed- just when he aims for you and then back. If you time it right, just a couple of bullets will hit you, wich will just barely graze your armor. Keep doing that until the timer reaches zero, and bang, you're done.
  
  I hope this huge wall of text is of some use to you or someone who may come next. Just keep going, I swear to you it's doable -I finished the game myself without spending a dime on it, BTW, if my experience acounts for something.
  
  One last thing, I can't tell you about mission requirements as I only have daily hunts and regular challenge missions left after finishing the game, but all my maxed out T5 guns' specs remain at a sound 1587 level after past yesterday's update -note 10.1 2012, stock android here-. Have a look at your gun's upgrade tree, maybe the update has messed something up in your saved game and there's some upgrade node you may have to re-buy or something?

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• pistoff Registered Users 865 Posts

  February 2014

  I'm on iOS and looking at other threads it seems they made more changes to that version when they did the update. I'm giving up on this game until they update it again because it's tediously repetitive now. I can only make a maximum of 7,000 credits a couple of times a day and some of the weapon upgrades are over 300K. Stuff that!

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