by Awkarasou

I do not claim I have mastered the game, there are lot of aspects and combos I am missing but I am regularly the highest rated player in the games I play so I thought I should write something down. And there is a BSJ Sub tourney coming up so it might help those of us playing.

What I expect from this is to make my thoughts a lot cleaner, share ideas with the people that do not have much success or experience and learn something new from the answers.

I have few terms that might confuse you, so I will write them down here:

• Level # – your courier level
• Level # chess piece – chess pieces rarity (for example Level 1 Axe, Level 2 Luna, Level 3 SF, Level 4 Kunkka and Level 5 Tide)
• #-star chess piece – upgraded chess piece (by merging 3 of them together)

Early Game (until about round 10)

When the game starts, I generally want 2 things – Tank and DPS. If you have good enough pieces you can replace DPS with sustain. I do not focus on the combos yet although it helps knowing them. Between rounds 5 to 10 I tend to decide what the strategy is and then I start rerolling to get the pieces.

Unfortunately, everything I believe beats the first round so you cannot go wrong there. In this round and during the second one I check what 2-3 chess pieces is everyone buying. Check the highest rated player and if you have spare gold during next few rounds feel free to buy some pieces he would like to get if there is an opportunity.

Knowing what others do is the most single important thing in this game. Sometimes people get lucky and have fast two 2-star pieces. That is why you are there to make them less lucky and buy the missing parts.

To elaborate a bit about the third wave, Assassins excel there. QoP and Bounty Hunter will destroy the back lines and the Mega Melee Creeps should not be a problem then. Axe dies quite fast here when he does not have bonus Armor either from Warrior buff or Item. Trolls are awesome DPS here. Luna is great here too since she does a ton of damage and the creeps have no sustain.

For rounds 4-9 I just buy everything that seems at least a bit interesting. The point is that 2-star pieces do significantly more and I do not like rerolling until I have combo in mind.

When I am rerolling I have this table¹ open so I know when I have the highest probability to get the chess pieces I want. Therefore, I’m not as excited when I get level 3 chess piece early since there is no way you can improve it. But they will make you stronger until you find better 2-stars replacement.

Mid Game (until you are about level 8)

You need to know the strategy. Get the economy going. For level 2 pieces you probably should commit before level 6 since the chance of getting them will decrease after. For level 3 pieces you have the same probability from level 6 to 8. That’s where I reroll anything I have over 50g until I have those on 2-stars. Then I will continue with the level progression to get high end pieces in play.

It depends on your strategy, what others buy and what their strategy is, but generally I do not care about 3-star pieces. Get 2-star chess pieces > Get Levels > Get 3-star chess pieces. To get 3-stars you end up with no space on your bench which hurts you when you get high end pieces. Rather than trying to level up your pieces look around and buy pieces that would hurt you.

Late Game

This part is more like conclusion where you realise how good your strategy was. I do not have much to say except one thing and that is positioning.

Sometimes the fight outcome can be changed by small changes in positioning. Look at your pieces and how they work, do they do how it was intended? Move them around.

Lineups to try

Warrior + Hunters: I had a lot of success with this one, I am not particularly sold out on Juggernaut so having BeastMaster as the other Orc helps a lot.

Possible Lineup: Axe, Tusk, Slardar(into Troll), Lycan, Kunkka, Doom, DrowRanger (into Medusa), BeastMaster, Windranger/Sniper, Tide

Knights + Trolls: This one feels sometimes invincible when you get high level DragonKnight in play. I love to possibilities how to branch out, you can go with 6 Knights and just add Undead or you can remove 2 Knights and add Dragons so your DK is immediately in Elder Dragon Form, add Alchemist and Necrophos…

Possible Lineup: Shadow Shaman, Batrider, WitchDoctor, Puck, OmniKnight, Viper, Abaddon, Troll, DragonKnight, Necrophos

Warrior + Hunter + Warlock: This one might have a problem with tanks and lacks damage if you go with Warlocks too early. BeastMaster is really important here.

Possible Lineup: Axe, Tusk (into Kunkka), Slardar (into Doom), BeastMaster, DrowRanger (into Medusa), Sniper/WindRanger, SF, Tide, Alchemist, Necrophos/Enigma

I did not have much success with Mages lately and I can’t figure out Mechs right now.

¹ Level 9 in game has different number for level 3 chess pieces (35%) that does not make sense.