Facebook WarFlow Strafing Guide

Facebook WarFlow Strafing Guide by Tylph

This guide was written by me some time ago and was available on our private X legion forum. I post it here now due to my activity here and repeated questions regarding hero advice. Last update: May 27th.

This guide will be about how to become a strafer. This guide presupposes a rudimentary understanding of Warflow mechanics. This guide will not assume you are of one specific nation, yet the author only has first hand experience from Beluprus and Volpugny’s persective. This guide is comprehensive in that it starts from level 1, yet also gives information on how to transition into Strafe at a later stage.

1. Introduction

The basic setup called “Strafe” is having a hero with the Strafe/Stun (hit all targets) skill, Charidae (chance to increase random hero morale to 100, and only UP TO 100) and three drummers (add 34 morale to all own heroes, take away 5 from all opponents). These things work nicely together as by only having one skill attack hero you are focusing Charidae’s efforts, giving almost guaranteed Strafes each round.

Why would I want to be a strafer over my current setup?
Strafing seems to be the most cost efficient way of progressing through the NPC zones. That is, you can progress quickly because you do not have to sit around waiting for silver for upgrades. This is because the only offensive item you need will be a horse, instead of 3-4 weapons, a couple of horses, et cetera. Getting the money (as well as the properly coloured items in the first place) for those will take a lot longer.

But… but… warlocks are cool! (or something like this)
Warlocks early game are not very good. Their stats are bad, their success rates vary from crap to decent, but more importantly you will not, I repeat not, have the books to support them. Other than that, see the previous answer.

Why add drummers when Charidae would already make using Strafe possible?
There are three reasons for this:

• Charidae can fail (65% success rate I think);
• Morale over 100 adds damage percentage equal to the amount over 100. A 200 Strafe does twice the damage a 100 would do.
• Taking away morale is nice: in Cheer + Drum vs Cheer, the former Strafes twice as often.

What is this Stun skill?
Stun is a skill that in addition to hitting all targets also has a chance to stun (as per Confuse skill or Flash Warlocks) targets. This works as follows: first there is a chance of the stun going off (i.e. not seeing Failed everywhere), and then an additional chance of actually hitting specific targets with it. The downside of Stun over Strafe is that it deals about 80% of Strafe’s damage. Even so, it is a good idea to switch to a Stun hero as soon as possible as they are more useful later in the game.

How to unlock the necessary heroes:
I will first give a list of all the relevant heroes for this guide. The boldface heroes are those with Strafe, the red heroes are those with morale boosts, whereas the green heroes are those intermittently used for leveling. The stats highlighted in blue are those most relevant to that hero (this is used to prioritise what stat you should Improve that hero with, for fighting against NPCs).

Yes, the drummers have no need for stats for offensive purposes, nor does Charidae need int for her cheer (int does not affect chance of success; a book would only benefit her through soldiers).

I listed str as most relevant stat for these heroes because higher str means higher defense against normal attacks, which are most prevalent in NPC fights. In PvP where you would want to have skill defense vs other strafers it’s a different story. Yes you can put ichea in front of a warlock, but do note that the formations are rather rigid because of the order in which skills must be used (cheer, 3x drum, strafe).

2. Starting from scratch

This section is about how to start from level 1 and develop most efficiently into the full Strafe setup. While leveling you will have to pick up two heroes not part of the Strafe setup per se, which you will only use to level up.

Choosing your main hero:
The best main hero (also called starting hero) to choose is Haera. If you do so, she will be your Strafer for a while, instead of Jenlon. As you can read above her stats are comparable to Jenlon, yet she has two big advantages over him:

• Haera will get more soldiers than Jenlon;
• Haera has the innate ability to crit and parry.

Other choices are Haitheis and Trephics, both of which are alright because they do not have a skill and as such will not take cheers from Charidae away from your Strafer. They will soon be replaced, however.

Militia and Donjerd region:
At the start of the Militia region, buy a Copper Sword as soon as possible, and keep it at the highest possible upgrade level allowed by your Shop. Draft Jenlon as second hero, putting him in front of Haera. I recommend you do not buy a horse for the initial stages of the game. As for armors, try getting one Copper Plate as drops from the Bariones NPC, and buy another when you can have three heroes in formation. As for formations, use CR. From Militia clearance you will get your second weapon, an Iron Sword. Upgrade your items a bit before moving to Loyan.
Hero setup at end of Militia: Haera Jenlon.
Items at end of Militia: Copper Sword 1-X, Iron Sword 1-X, Copper Plate I-X.

At the start of the Donjerd region, draft Thewlon. For most of your fights, put Haera at top, Thewlon Jenlon mid. Equip your weapons on Haera and Thewlon, leaving Jenlon without one. Get to TC 11 as quick as possible and stay there for a while leveling up your War Academy. As for techs, focus on Arming first, Signal Flag second, Armoring third (unlocked at TC 15). Push to TC 15 when you are done with Arming.
Hero setup at end of Donjerd: Haera Jenlon Thewlon
Items at end of Militia: Copper Sword 2-V, Iron Sword 2-V, 2 x Copper Plate 2-V.

Gamzon and Other region:
Go for Gamzon region first. It should be straightforward to progress. Push to TC 25 to clear Gamschild as you will need Ranking. Do not spend much silver on items: get your strength from technologies. Make sure your houses are all maxed straight away.
Hero setup at end of Gamzon: Haera Jenlon Thewlon.
Items at end of Militia: Copper Sword 2-V, Iron Sword 2-V, 2 x Copper Plate 2-V.

After clearing Other region, having defeated Charidae and Whattoc, you should be at four hero slots. At this point draft both these heroes while firing Jenlon. Try getting a Tiger’s Head armor from Other PR. Now push to TC 30 and use the newly unlocked Dealer function to get a blue horse. Start pouring all of your silver into this horse. You are now going pure Strafe from here on.
Hero setup at end of Other: Haera Thewlon Charidae Whattoc.
Items at end of Militia: Copper Sword 2-V, Iron Sword 2-V, 2 x Copper Plate 2-V, Vigilante/Oliver MAX.

Roychute and Jackluis region:
Start with Jackluis. Point of interest: Tiger’s Head armor from Jackluis clearance. You should now have two blue armors. If not, do Jackluis PR until you get a War Prodigy. Upgrade only these two armors, do not spend silver on others yet.
Hero setup at end of Jackluis: Haera Thewlon Charidae Whattoc.
Items at end of Jackluis: Vigilante/Oliver MAX, 2 blue armor near-MAX, Hope Bringer / Blue cloak medium.

Roychute. Point of interest: Instant Heals books from Roychute clearance. Draft Roychute in favor of Thewlon. Roychute’s ability is improved defense. He thus makes for a very good tank as he does not have morale. Equip Instant Heals on Whattoc but do not upgrade it.
Hero setup at end of Roychute: Haera Roychute Charidae Whattoc.
Items at end of Roychute: Vigilante/Oliver MAX, 2 blue armor near-MAX, Hope Bringer / Blue cloak medium, Instant Heals 1-I.

Cupecus and Lloybuke region:
Start with Cupecus. Point of interest: Loyalist horse from Cupecus clearance, which will replace Haera’s horse until much later. Start upgrading this horse like crazy. The only things you should spend silver on is getting this horse up to say level 4-I as soon as possible, with some silver going into getting your two blue armors at 350.
Hero setup at end of Cupecus: Haera Roychute Charidae Whattoc.
Items at end of Cupecus: Loyalist MAX, 2 blue armor near-MAX, Hope Bringer / Blue cloak medium, Instant Heals 1-I.

Lloybuke. When you defeat Lloybuke, you should have obtained a fifth hero slot (15k RP, level 50 WA), which you should fill with Lloybuke, as well as replace Whattoc for Ichea. If you do not, still replace Whattoc with Lloybuke and try to get a fifth slot as soon as possible. Do not forget improving your heroes’ stats. You will want another armor, upgraded mildly, as soon a yellow will take its place
Hero setup at end of Lloybuke: Haera Charidae Roychute Ichea Lloybuke.
Items at end of Lloybuke: Loyalist MAX, 3 blue armor ~350, Blue cloak medium.

Luisdgar region:
You will receive a Red Sparrow (level 38 yellow) armor as clearance reward. Focus purely on upgrading this armor, over all other armors (yet still most silver should go to Loyalist). You do not want to spend any more silver on blue armors at this point.

Matton region:
At around this time you should unlock Maeford (Beluprus 43k RP) or Euthius (Volpugny 38k RP). Replace Roychute with him. You will receive a Warsong Cloak (level 55 yellow) from clearance reward. This cloak can also be obtained from the level 2 cloak dealer. Upgrade it mildly: when you are pure strafe you hardly have to deal with skill attacks from NPCs, as they gain 25 morale per hit, but lose 3×5 = 15 morale per turn due to your drummers, meaning that it will take 10 turns for them to gain enough morale, plenty of time for you to kill them.

Monhue region:
Switch Haera out for Jurica if you are Beluprus, switch Haera for Wittesis (Volpugny 50k RP) if you are Volpugny. For Malscinia players, most likely your RP will not be close to 190k RP yet, in which case I would recommend getting Jurica before transitioning into Lentone (Malscinia 190k RP).

At around this point, really start using honor to improve your heroes’ stats. The main objective is to keep Jurica/Wittesis’ dexterity maxed (so hero lvl + 20), and Lloybuke’s strength maxed. Charidae will be replaced by Teurete (or Janikia, Volpugny 130k RP), and furthermore Maeford gets replaced by Jaswan for Beluprus. You will start to switch out of pure strafe in a few maps, meaning that long term investments in other drummers are not advised. Do keep their strength high, but really, only doing *some* one Charidae and max on Lloybuke is enough.

The improving goes as follows: first you take a bunch of honor (50k+, it’s expensive), and then just keep doing the honor only improve until the stat you want goes up, otherwise keep your current stat. You should take +1 str +60 dex +1 int over +10 str +59 dex +15 int on Jurica/Wittesis: you only care about the main stat. It is not feasible to get more than one stat high with honor only improves, and it will cost you a lot more to get the main stat up high using other improves (say the 2 gold one).

Ryeshock region:
In this area you will start to really need three good (yellow armors). Also around this time your Loyalist should hit level 6-V, at which point you should stop upgrading it as it is not worth the silver anymore. Instead, focus on getting five yellow armors, for which I would suggest one Lion’s Head and three Umbral Armors, which together with the Red Sparrow from Luisdgar clearance gives you five. Lion’s Head drops from Jamseus at the end of Luisdgar, whereas Umbral Armor drops from Duolix in Monhue. Duolix has a 36 limit maximum, whereas Jamseus only has 6, which explains my choice of armors purely on the practical reason of feasibility of farming.

Lubon region:
Draft Teurete over Charidae if you are B or M; draft Janikia (130k RP Volpugny) if you are V instead.

Allies region and beyond:
These areas are somewhat beyond the scope of this (beginner’s) guide. You will notice that using Strafe becomes more tedious as the cost of upgrading your horse increases. I would recommend going for Danny (red horse 55 req from Level 3 dealers, 10 fragments) around the end of Lubon. This will take you a while, but regardless of your future plans you will at some point need one. It is entirely possible to clear Allies and even Empires using Pure Strafe, but the alternatives in the form of Rock Warlocks and Fire Bulls are just going to be too good to pass up on.

I can answer questions regarding the future, but the main composition you could aim for after/around Allies is Cheer Stun Flash Rock Bulls, where the first three heroes are merely there to annoy and buy time: do not upgrade your horse further after introducing Rock and Bulls. Guanyris (480k RP Beluprus) can hold his own without Cheer due to his high stats, but if you wish to use Sheoyon (450k RP Volpugny), you will need some morale boosting, perhaps in the form of Caecius.

3. Items, Technologies, Formations

Use T or CR formation, in both cases put your Strafer at the back and Charidae as first. When you still have Whattoc (and are using T), put him in top, with Roychute in front mid. You must have Char in front of drummers because Char’s ability will only add up to 100 morale. Before you have Charidae it is okay to put your strafer at the front (say front top in T) so he gets morale (you get 25 morale each time an enemy normal attacks you), but do note that losing soldiers means losing damage output.

Up armoring and charging techs to TC level as soon as possible, followed by Signal Flag and Enhancement. Scouting is somewhat important as well, though add it only when you start needing it. Once you unlock Rebuking, max that out as soon as possible. Furthermore, you will need W formation to pass Wiltogus in Monhue area.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

This section will deal with a couple of questions asked quite frequently.

I did not take Haera as my main! Help!
If you instead of Haera took another main, instead use Jenlon as Strafe and swap your main out around the time you get to Roychute, using Main Jenlon Charidae Whattoc before that. This is assuming your main is Haitheis or Trephics. If your main is a skill hero, swap him for Thewlon by the time you get to Charidae. Then proceed as normal.

Why not take 2 strafe and 3 drummer, or 2 strafe 1 cheer 2 drummer? Two strafe seems better than one strafe?!
The answer is no for two reasons. The first one is obvious: you do not have a second Loyalist, nor can you support one silverwise if you did. As such both horses will be lower than if you only had one. The second reason is a bit more subtle perhaps. Say you for some reason are very rich, managed to get a second Loyalist through Dealers and also have leveled it to the same level as the first. Assume both Strafers have the same stats and a 100 morale Strafe would deal 1000 damage to your opponent. Let’s calculate the damage each setup would do.

Strafe Cheer 3 Drummer.
Cheer works 65% of the time, making for 2020 damage (100 + 3×34 = 202 morale) 65% of the time, and 1020 damage (3×34 = 102) 35% of the time, giving an average damage output per turn of 1670. Your damage is not affected that much as long as Cheer stays alive.

2 Strafe 3 Drummer.
You will get two Strafes at 102 morale each turn, both dealing 1020 damage. You will deal 2040 damage, but as soon as you lose one drummer your damage drops tremendously.

2 Strafe 1 Cheer 2 Drummer.
This one is most complicated. In 65% of cases, Cheer works in the first round, giving you a 100 + 2×34 = 168 morale strafe for 1680 damage and 68 morale on the secondary Strafer. Then, assuming Cheer works again, it has a 50% chance of hitting either the 0 or the 68 morale one. In the first case you will again do 1680 damage, plus a 4×34 = 136 morale strafe for 1360, leaving both strafers at 0 morale. In the second case you will do a 1680 strafe (remember, Cheer can only raise morale up to 100) and have a Strafer with 68 morale. If Cheer fails the second turn you will do a 1360 strafe and have one Strafer with 68 morale. If Cheer fails the first round you have two Strafers with 68 morale, the second round either giving you 1680 + 1360 strafes, or two 1360 ones, both times leaving you with 0 morale on both strafers at the end.

Now, the average damage you do during both these turns then is:
0.65 *(1680 + 0.65*(0.50*(1680 + 1360) + 0.50*(1680)) + 0.35*(1360)) + 0.35*(0.65*(1680 + 1360) + 0.35*(1360 + 1360)) = 3423.3 (for simplicity I will disregard the morale left after the second turn).

Now you might say: “See! These setups do more damage!”. Yes they do, in the ideal setting of having your opponent not fight back and you somehow having two identical Strafers with the same yellow horse. All these things will not happen. These comps are more expensive, will have to use an inferior second Strafer (i.e. where the guide tells you to move out of one in favor of a better one, you will have to keep him), you will have to level up two heroes high, reincarnate two, use a lot of honor to get Dex high on two. Both comps are also less robust in that they can not handle friendly heroes dying / getting stunned as much. You are furthermore screwed (in the 3 drummer case) if your opponent runs drummers of his own. The bottomline is that it is not a good idea.

Why not replace Haera by Boxiren? He seems better.
Arguably he is better. The choice is between Boxiren’s Dexterity and Haera’s ability to crit. I choose not to replace Haera by him because you will run into Jurica soon anyways. Jurica is superior because she is more useful lategame.

Please elaborate more on hero choices at 4 limit. Why use these four?
Roychute is very useful in providing defense, which you need as your Strafe will still be weak without drummers. I do not think using a drummer over Roychute is a good idea, because you will then more heavily rely on Cheer working every turn. Whattoc similarly is only there to be a meatshield and buying time.

Please elaborate more on transitioning into strafe at a later stage.
As you can read in the guide, before you unlock Charidae (i.e. clear Other PR), you are not really Strafing at all. It is therefore entirely feasible to transition into Strafe around that time. I only did it around Lloybuke/Cupecus on my initial s1 account, using Haitheis Thewlon Whattoc Roychute before that. Do not be afraid to make the jump to Strafe as its efficiency will make up for your temporary setback.

More to be added later. Specifically, when to have what TC level, and information regarding Reincarnation (short summary: reincarnate Strafe and Lloybuke, hold out on others because they will get replaced. Reincarnate only at TC 60, as your TC needs to be reincarnation req lvl + 9 every time. This requires planning of your XP distribution to not max over 51 before wanting to push to TC 60).