I won't fail you, readers. We'll navigate through this Pymsanity despite him being PKB's least favorite marvel hero not named Deadpool. Professionalism above personal feelings.
A couple notes before we begin. Get your 50 and 10 free UISO on the Free Stuff for Facebook Players page. Check your email for more free UISO (which I haven't gotten, but I should check my spam folder). And then, don't forget to farm your allies' map every day, as they are now dropping UISO. From my 50 allies, I got 33 UISO on the first day, another 34 on the second day. Figure 30 a day from 50 allies, and that's 210 UISO a week. plenty rich.
Looking at the end, if you are like me, you will want to do Dr. Doom rather than skip the final task with gold. You will need Spider-Man, Cable, and Wasp. If you do not have any of them and have zero Command points, you will need 315 CP. You can do this with some dedication. As always: There are two ways to get CPs:
- Spend money
- Spend time
There is a Tutorial on getting CPs written by Potkettleblack, which details how you can get CPs for free, given enough time and energy.
Now get out there and have fun.
Efficiency[]
Standard disclaimer about efficiency. Doing a mission on an efficient path is not necessarily useful for completing the tasks in the most efficient order. These paths are generally more useful for the 2-3-4-5 starring of missions than strict task completion, where it may be more efficient in the long term to break from the path of least UISO for a mission. Keep that in mind as you review the efficient paths.
Also, generally speaking, you can replace a Low fight with a deploy. So, on Mission One, you could replace the low with a hero specific deploy (but it has to be completed ahead of where the low fight is needed). In Mission 2, you could do both hero specific deploys, MAYBE. I think they are two fights long, so you might have some problems.
Mission One[]
80 UISO, 60 Energy - Medium fight, Nitro mini boss, Low fight, High fight, Medium fight, M.O.D.O.K Two Bird.
Or: If you were dead set on three birding:
80 UISO, 60 Energy - Medium fight, Nitro mini (lose on purpose), Low, High, Medium, M.O.D.O.K Three Bird
Mission Two[]
80 UISO, 60 Energy - Any Deploy (preferably hero specific, as soon as it appears), Medium, Low, Highx2, Medium and Fixer Three Bird.
Mission Three[]
There are two optimal paths through Mission Three, one for a three bird non-epic and one for the Epic.
Non-Epic: 80 UISO, 60 Energy - All five fights, one deploy, preferably hero specific), Three Bird.
140 UISO, 70 Energy - Run everything except Minibosses. Three-bird, then do Doom. Epic run.
Day One[]
Goal: 6 tasks
Tasks: 1-6
Note: If you do this early in the day, it is possible to cram days one and two together. I started later than I care to stay up, so they are separate days.
Take A.I.M. – Day 1, Task 1[]
- Defeat 4 A.I.M. Scientists
- ’’’ 20 UISO Task, 20 Total’’’
Because we're in the habit of looking ahead, we know that we need to complete these before beating Nitro for task 3. After beating the medium fight to start (3 A.I.M Scientists), we are short a geek, and can only do a deploy, Nitro, or an easy fight. I guess we'll do a blue.
Alliance – Day 1, Task 2[]
- Get 1 Distress Call
- 0 UISO for Task, 20 Total
Go visit an ally and collect a distress call. Just one. No big deal.
Blowup – Day 1, Task 3[]
- Defeat Nitro in Mission 1
- 20 UISO for Task, 40 Total
First experience with Pymhole and I have to say, hate the character, like the moveset. The uniform is dopey, the default stance is dopey, but the L9 is amusing (like Wasp only better), the L1 and L6 have stealth, so he can get his extra turns around protection, and he's got the Pym Family Non-paragon, paragon exploiter. I'm intrigued, but it was too brief to say much.
Big and Little – Day 1, Task 4[]
- Use Hank Pym's Growing Pains Ability 3 Times
- 20 UISO for Task, 60 Total
This is handy. Pym is a teamup in the Whiplash battle that pops right after the Nitro battle. We will have to use his L1 3 times in a two round fight. That should give us more time with Dr. Pym. Damage on the L1 underwhelming. The key here is going to be Iso'ing him so that he can setup the L2 or the L6 fairly quickly for maximum damage. Easy fight.
Scientist Supreme – Day 1, Task 5[]
- Defeat M.O.D.O.K.
- 30 UISO for Task, 90 Total
Yawn. He didn't load after Wimplash, so on to a hard fight that did load. Hard in name only, except for refresh errors because it's new and their servers are likely jammed. Ditto for the MODOK. So, 30 UISO wasted on a 30 UISO task. D'oh. At any rate, I will only count the UISO that is necessary, not what I waste on refreshes.
I'm not hating Pym. I see some potential, especially with a hero who can accelerate his progression to his L2 having exploits (like his wife). His progression of passives is nice. They stack over time and he gets pretty good, like a guaranteed crit (L9 is catastrophic and guaranteed).
Prototyping – Day 1, Task 6[]
- Research the Prototype AI in the Lab
- 60 UISO for Task, 150 Total
Takes 8 hours and 60 UISO. Kick back and have an adult beverage or ten (if you're an adult).
I'm gonna go back and two star Mission 1 because I don't want to have to do a back and forth on Day 2. This might leave me a bit light on UISO, but it's gonna be more efficient than doing some mission 2, going back for mission 1, and then doing mission 2 again. http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q680/californiaabc/BeerandWineLicenseCaliforniages_zpsa3f2b6ae.jpg
Day Two[]
Goal: 5 tasks
Tasks: 7-11
I actually did this on day 1. Happened to be up doing some PvP before bed, so got it together.
Killer Robots – Day 2, Task 1 (Task 7)[]
- Defeat 3 Sentinels
- 10 UISO for Task, 10 for Task Set, 160 Total
Pretty easy. A medium fight loads with, you guessed it, 3 Sentinels. Done.
Sticks and Stones – Day 2, Task 2 (Task 8)[]
- Defeat 2 Minibosses in Mission 2
- 80 UISO for Task, 90 for Task Set, 250 Total
I did the easy fight, and then Bummerang loaded along with a hard fight. I could go around or I could take the task head on. My thought is, look ahead and see what's there. I have the next task accomplished. So, the next two tasks are defeat the Fixer (hopefully with a better moveset than previously), and do the research. I think you could make a case for either path (3-bird or individually). I tried to go three-bird, but I would have had to do a deploy, so I went two-bird with Bummerrang as the single.
NOTE: If you three-bird to accomplish this task, you will need to rerun the mission to do Task 10, I Can Fix It!, to get the Fixer. I did not three-bird, as should be clear from the description, but the three-bird would not have kept me from having to rerun Mission 2 to get Task 10 complete. Sorry for any confusion.
Mission Accomplished – Day 2, Task 3 (Task 9)[]
- Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 1
- 0 UISO for Task, 90 for Task Set, 250 Total
I did this during the research. I only had to do it because I was stupidly refusing to take off my PVP gear, which is a suboptimal high score setup. Sometimes, I can't get out of my own way. Your mileage will vary, but I'm thinking, if you build with big scores in mind, you will have two starred this in advance. If you build with PVP in mind, you're out of your mind and will probably have to run it twice.
I Can Fix It! – Day 2, Task 4 (Task 10)[]
- Defeat Fixer
- 80 UISO for Task, 170 for Task Set, 330 UISO Total
Do a deploy, fight the hardest fight available, and you too can three-bird Fixer, which is the most efficient route. Also produces a large score, so you'll be set when you need 2 star or 3 star.
Sword Time – Day 2, Task 5 (Task 11)[]
- Upgrade Decade to Mahayuga in the Lab
- 80 UISO for Task, 250 for Task Set, 410 Total’’’
Mahayuga looks great... preemptive counter like Quicksilver. Probably low proc rate, or something else you need to do. Wow, if we'd run efficiently through the tasks, and not collected gifts or allies, we'd be down to 30 UISO. Good thing we have a day to reload. Fortunately, we got the 10 free from the Free Stuff for Facebook Players page, maybe got the email (I didn't), did collect from allies (another 50) and did farm friend's maps (another 33 for me). And we can do it again tomorrow. Now, go catch some Zzz's.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k541/ida_ayu_km_widari/DSC01161_zps203f4109.jpg
Day Three[]
Goal: 5 tasks
Tasks: 12-16
Mine will be up late at night, unless I want to spend some gold to speed the research or skip task 11 while my research is going. I might use a bit of gold late to accelerate, because this is a massively easy task set.
Pym Particles - Day 3, Task 1 (Task 12)[]
- Use Hank Pym's Goliath Punch Ability 3 Times
- 30 UISO for Task, 30 UISO for Task Set, 440 Total
Since you need to do this task and the next to unlock mission 3, I went back to mission 1, did the medium fight, and loaded Nitro. Waited for my research to end, and then did the fight with Cable, so I could get 3 G-Punches in one round. Easy
Everyday Hero - Day 3, Task 2 (Task 13)[]
- Complete 5 Deploys
- 0 UISO for Task, 30 UISO for Task Set, 440 Total
Before we start this, we will send 8 jets on 10 minute missions.
These can be done outside the special op. Since 7.3 is my preferred farm at this point, and the fastest set of deploys around, 7.3 is where I did it. I did actually deploy War Machine in the Spec Ops in an attempt to three bird the first mission (I think it can be done, but you have to do the deploy earlier), so that was 1 and 30 energy on 7.3 provided the other 4.
Jet Set - Day 3, Task 3 (Task 14)[]
- Complete 5 Flight Deck Missions
- 0 UISO for Task, 30 UISO for Task Set, 440 Total
This one we know can be done outside of the op. Since we looked ahead, we won't have to waste 10 minutes waiting for our flights to come back. I just saved you some time.
Versus - Day 3, Task 4 (Task 15)[]
- Fight 5 PVP Battles
- 0 UISO for Task, 30 UISO for Task Set, 440 Total
You don't even have to win them and, in the past, practice battles have counted, so you don't even have to plan ahead. Just fight your five, and get on with the research in the next task.
Weapons of the Future - Day 3, Task 5 (Task 16)[]
- Upgrade the Indiction to the Manvantara in the Lab
- 120 UISO for Task, 150 UISO for Task Set, 560 Total
And the big money hurdle in terms of UISO. But, since we're good and efficient, we had the 440 to start, the 50 from the free links, 100-150 from gifting, 10 from the link from the last op, and 60-90+ from our allie maps. That should give us, if we were efficient, WAY more than we need to do this task. Even I, who was inefficient, had ISO to spare.
That was some light lifting, really. Not much that needed to be done in the special op... And since we have 48 hours of research, let's get away for a couple days:
Mopping Up[]
Goal: 8 tasks
Tasks: 17-25
If you've made it this far, you're in good shape. Especially if you made it this fast. You want to be sure to have your heroes in place. I have no idea how long these will take and they will vary from player to play. The mop up always takes the longest, but with two days off from the research, you should have a nice store of >160 UISO. Unless you were busy getting your three stars on Mission 1 and 2, or trying to get ahead on M3. Which is what I'm gonna be up to.
The Plan[]
You are going to have to do three runs of mission 3. Let me walk you through why that is so. You have to get 3 stars on the mission in order to activate the 25th task. Looking at the point requirements, I am pretty sure that there are not enough points to get you to three stars on one run, even if you use Doombringer. I ran it to Epic and got just over two stars. The third star equals the value of the first two stars, so a second run is needed for task 24. Then, we have to go back and get Doom. Keep that in mind, as you approach the final portion of the tasks.
My recommendation is to run it to Doom on each run through. You can beat Kang and the Knockoff Avengers with Iron Man for Task 17, then Squash that Bug Doom for 19. Then do it again, this time using your AI Prototypes (Task 22) on regular fights in M3, three bird Kang and the Knockoffs (Task 23), knockoff Doom with your best Doomkillers, and collect your third star (Task 24) and run it one more time for Doom (Task 25).
I am sorry I didn't have this section up, but I had to see it to fully understand this portion.
NOTE: You will want to either save 10 gifts or not farm your allies when you start your mop up. You could go from Task 17 to 21 in a hurry, and even further if you keep 10 UISO to be collected.
Best and Brightest - Mop Up, Task 1 (Task 17)[]
- Use Hank Pym and Iron Man in the same battle.
I set up an epic run on M3. I cleared everything except the two mini bosses, Kang, and a medium fight. I used Iron Man with Pymhole against Hammer and Bowman, with my agent as scrapper. That solved this task.
This was shoddy thinking on my part. See the Plan portion above.
NOTE: As of this writing, you can apparently get this task counted as complete for using Iron Man in any fight. I do not guarantee it, but it doesn't really change things, as you are STILL going to wind up doing at least 3 runs of Mission 3 before you get Pymkins.
Fix It - Mop Up, Task 2 (Task 18)[]
- Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 2
This is done already if you were looking ahead. We hate to go back and forth, so we make sure we don't need to by looking ahead.
Made for Walking - Mop Up, Task 3 (Task 19)[]
- Use Hank Pym's Bug Squashing Ability Once
Wish I could say that I did this against Tactial Force and Cap Clone Whose Name Escapes Me, which was the plan, but, what had happened was that I'd been playing PVP for nearly 12 hours straight and my brain was kind of tired. Yeah. So, I wound up doing the TF/CCWNE fight and forgetting to stomp. So, did this task on Kang.
Spilled milk for me. But, you're gonna do three runs of M3 to get Pym. The three star requirement before Doom essentially requires two runs and then a Doom run. If I hadn't played 12 hours of PVP, I probably would have seen it.
Into the Squared Circle - Mop Up, Task 4 (Task 20)[]
- Win 3 PVP Battles
Practice PVP. Easy fights, easy wins, free. Don't have to wait for PVP6.
Resource Management - Mop Up, Task 5 (Task 21)[]
- Collect 10 Unstable Iso-8
Collect your ally's farms or save some gifts for this task. Don't say I didn't warn you. Be careful. I had to collect 20, even though the tip said 10.
Intelligent Artifice - Mop Up, Task 5 (Task 22)[]
- Use 2 Prototype AIs in Combat
Started a second run on M3. Used these in medium fights. Not one pre-counter processed, so, I'm gonna say they are wastes at present.
The Conqueror - Mop Up, Task 6 (Task 23)[]
- Defeat Kang
The efficient path to Kang is getting put together, but since you all know me, you know I will be running this to Epic anyway, so Kang will probably be a way station on the way to Doom.
Ulterior - Mop Up, Task 7 (Task 24)[]
- Complete 3 Stars of Mastery in all Spec Ops 7 Missions
I will have my 3 stars in 1 and 2 before I get to this task. But 3 star will probably take two runs on Mission 3, so plan accordingly.
Magic and Science - Mop Up, Task 8 (Task 25)[]
- Defeat Dr. Doom
Try doing it like this:
<DoomPerfectPix>
And join the Pym Club. Now to level him.
What Else?[]
So, you finished this in 8 days. Or 5 days. Or however many days it took you. There are still a lot of days left in the Op. What else is worth doing?
Well, there's no free gold at L300, so 4 star is definitely worth doing. CPs are always useful, and I'm about to spend 135 today, so 5 star is worth doing. The gear: I already have the Advanced Idea, so I guess I'd farm the Epic mission because it's a solid CP farm as well as having two drops that I'd like to have in the collection. No idea about utility, but having is better than not. Hopefully, in getting remaining stars on 2 and 3, I will get all loot drops. Either way.
Gear Evaluation[]
Advanced Idea[]
This is a toy for longer PvE battles. It can be worked to get some fairly solid damage to wipe a third round if your hero can buff himself (like Enraged, War Bringer, Strengthened, etc), which makes it fun (therefore a toy), but not a gamebreaker. If your PVP fight is going three rounds consistently, you shouldn't waste the slot on this device.
This has, by far, been the easiest special op, in terms of ISO. The Iso from allies is massively generous, and I expect PD to note that and make a SO8 have a fairly high ISO requirement, like SO7 did. Once you complete all your goals on SO7, it's time to look forward to SO8.
Ready to give Wasp another black eye.