What this guide is about:[]
This guide is made for people that still intend to do their 5 PvP daily battles for the whole tournament, do the Covert tasks and play the SO 'till they get the hero, if you wish you may call this softcore sandbagging, it is more than enough to get to adamantium without so much as a sweat if used early enough.
Since a lot of questions keep popping up about Sandbagging I thought I'd make a little guide so that new people can do it in the most profitable way without making the most common mistakes(By the way we call sandbagging the practice of gaining as little exp as possible on the agent in order to keep the level low and therefore gaining an advantage in the PvP hero bonus).
Preparations:[]
Now that we are done with all the preliminary clarifications here's a list of the things you need to do before you can start to properly sandbag, in the order you need to do them.
1. Unlock all the missions in season 2(except the premiums -missions 6-)
2. Unlock all the missions up until season 1, chapter 5, mission 1(except the premiums -missions 6-)
Important: Do not gain more than 1-4 star in mission 1.4.4(the less the better)
3. Buy War Machine
4. Farm mission 1.5.6 'till the boss, untill you manage to drop the item: Power of Four.
Note: You don't need to unlock any further than 1.5.1 to unlock this mission, so don't do it.
5. Buy Storm and be sure to have at least 1 scrapper in your team.
Advice: At this point buy Quicksilver and slot him full attack iso-8, he will make your farming much faster, and he will be a good asset for your pvp.
Explanation: we did all this in order to be able to do all the covert tasks, reduce to the minimum the exp gain from here onwards and maximaze the CP gain. You'll understand it all better as you keep on reading. If you you'll still be missing something feel free to ask in the comments below.
Now you're all set to sandbag. Congratulation!!!
CP FARMING:[]
Mission 1.4.4 will become your best friend for gaining CP. This mission has the best CP/energy/exp/time ratio, but you must be careful if you want to keep it this way!
-Note: there are slightly better missions for the CP/exp/time ratio cathegory BUT only for hardcore sandbagging, meaning only for people that don't intend to play SO and daily PVP, basically crazies who won't enjoy the game.-
How to maximaze CP gain and keep it that way in 1.4.4:
1. Do everything except for the miniboss, deploys included, in order to fight the epic boss.
2. DO NOT EXIT THE MISSION, GO BACK TO THE MISSIONS PAGE AND ABORT IT AFTER DEFEATING THE EPIC BOSS, THE LESS STARS YOU HAVE THE LITTLER THE EXP GAIN AND THE FASTER THE MISSION, IF YOU 5 STAR IT THIS MISSION BECOMES USELESS.
Optional: Even though the exp gain should already be minimal if you'll use the power of four and die in every fight(killing the last enemy with the last extra turn works), you'll maximaze the effectiveness of your sandbagging minimazing your agent's exp gain -this is always true although tedious-
PVP -Do it right-[]
Here's a list of what to do to make the best out of your daily 5 pvp fights.
1. Equip Power of Four and use it to kill yourself before winning, this will reduce your agent exp gain from 100 to 25(500 to 125, if you count the 5 daily fights, so it's very important).
2. Put the worst defense you can think of at least until the last 2 weeks of pvp, this will keep your score low allowing you both to use the 500 daily exp gain for heroes you need to level up and/or make your daily 5 pvp fights much faster and easier.
3. Don't use heroes that counter attacks in your daily 5 or else you might end up gaining 100 exp in a single fight because of those counters at the wrong moment.
Special Operations -Do it right-[]
Here's a list of what to do to make the best out of every SO.
1. Don't do mini-boss fights unless required by a task(BTW: by doing a boss fight without having done mini-boss fights, those mini-boss fights will be also counted as won fights, so keep in mind it might not be necessary to do mini-bosses even if it is required by a task.).
2. Don't do deploys unless required by a task or because you need to get to the Epic Boss.
3. Do not recharge for it will reduce your score, use items instead, for they will enhance it.
4. -IMPORTANT!- Despite common belief, get your agent killed in every fight except Boss and Epic Boss fights, for the drop in score will be very minimal(80-90% of your final score is decided by Boss/Epic Boss fights if you won't do mini-bosses)
5a. Don't care about hero team-ups if another team up can make you win faster and with less damage taken.
5b. In Boss and Epic Boss battles use distress calls, items, heroes and whatever will make you win with less rounds and less damage taken.
6. Be patient, there is plenty of time to finish the SO, so don't accept Unstable Iso-8 from allies but energy or items to help you win easier if you feel that you need them. (This is true only if you have a bunch of friends in the game, because you'll be able to collect many unstable iso-8 by visiting them daily) -NOTE: This isn't always true, especially if you don't play daily or you wish to achieve more than simply finishing the SO. Drop weapons for example.-
7. Study the tasks before jumping into the SO(you can find them in the wiki a few hours after the SO starts), in order to prepare the best route to do as little runs as possible to get to the end.
8. Be sure to farm lots of CP before the SO in order to be able to do the Epic Boss because not levelling up will make your Gold so little you might not have enough to skip the task.
Levelling up Heroes:[]
In order to gain exp for your heroes, since you won't gain much by playing you need to do the following:
1. Do flight desk missions with heroes you need to gain exp with.
2. Do 10-20 minutes flight desk missions or else you might lack either the silver or the exp to train them.
3. Do yourselves a favor and add at least 20-30 allies(the cap is at 50) so that you'll never be missing Shield Points to train your heroes and to do researches by visting them daily(you'll also be gaining extra silver, items, energy, unstable iso-8, Group Bosses and distress calls)
4. If you don't know who to level up next, it's mandatory for you to read this guide: User Blog: Paul de Senguisse/PvP optimization: Who should I level next It explaines mathematically the best order in which to level up your heroes with the purpose of maximazing your PvP bonus. It's not the bible so do what you will but the math behind it is correct and it won't hurt you to read it if you wish to make more accurate decisions in this area. -Even though your conclusions may not be the same as those of the blogger-
The End.[]
I hope this guide will be of use to as many people as possible, I'll try to keep it up to date, answer your questions and add new content need be.
-May Adamantium forever be your League!-
-This guide is just another service provided by your friendly neighborhood Parker!-
-I used to be a Sandbagger, than I took an arrow in the knee.-