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This document is intended to provide a quick way for new players to gain power.<br> | This document is intended to provide a quick way for new players to gain power.<br> | ||
It will likely be useless to veterans.<br> | It will likely be useless to veterans.<br> | ||
'''1. Save your Golden Suns (GS)''' - If you don't intend to spend money on this game, you should never spend GS on anything other than front page ships (e.g. [http://zoywiki.com/LotS/Carnage_Crusader Carnage Crusader] and premium officers/crew (the ones that cost 150 GS). Spend them on anything else and you'll probably end up regretting it. There are some very few exceptions to this rule, you can generally see people mentioning said exceptions in chat when they occur ([http://zoywiki.com/LotS/items/Best_Items Best Item]). <br> | |||
'''1. Save your Golden Suns (GS)''' - If you don't intend to spend money on this game, you should never spend GS on anything other than front page ships (e.g. [http://zoywiki.com/LotS/ | |||
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'''2. Hit raids with 1 Stamina (AKA tagging)''' - The links people post in chat are generally all raids. In particular you should target the following raids (the more common ones are noted with *):<br> | '''2. Hit raids with 1 Stamina (AKA tagging)''' - The links people post in chat are generally all raids. In particular you should target the following raids (the more common ones are noted with *):<br> | ||
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*Fleet Commander<br> | *Fleet Commander<br> | ||
*Sludge Serpent<br> | *Sludge Serpent<br> | ||
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These raids give you early access to some solid gear (the Sludge Scale gear). As soon as you have enough stamina and raid damage to hit Fair Share (FS) on early raids like Colonel, Sentinel, and Warmaster, you should stop tagging and strive to reach the Fair Share damage mark on as many lower FS raids as possible.<br> | These raids give you early access to some solid gear (the Sludge Scale gear). As soon as you have enough stamina and raid damage to hit Fair Share (FS) on early raids like Colonel, Sentinel, and Warmaster, you should stop tagging and strive to reach the Fair Share damage mark on as many lower FS raids as possible.<br> | ||
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Keep in mind that tagging will not always give you what you want from a raid. The loot system is set up so that dealing increasing damage up to the raid's Fair Share (FS) will give an increasing chance of 1 Epic tier loot drop that is guaranteed at the FS mark, which is total raid health divided by the maximum number of participants possible. Some raids go past that to an Optimal Share (OS) mark, which is a theoretical point determined by players that maximizes the damage per epic loot ratio. <br> | Keep in mind that tagging will not always give you what you want from a raid. The loot system is set up so that dealing increasing damage up to the raid's Fair Share (FS) will give an increasing chance of 1 Epic tier loot drop that is guaranteed at the FS mark, which is total raid health divided by the maximum number of participants possible. Some raids go past that to an Optimal Share (OS) mark, which is a theoretical point determined by players that maximizes the damage per epic loot ratio. <br> | ||
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Typically, hitting fair share will give you 1 epic loot; and optimum share will usually give you 3 epics. Hitting far beyond fair share/optimum share on a 'general' raid may give you 4 epics, but at a loss of common tier loot ('diminishing returns' that peaks at 5-10x fair share depending on the raid). Over damaging small/rare raids is generally frowned upon.<br> | |||
Typically, hitting fair share will give you 1 epic loot; and optimum share will usually give you | |||
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Therefore you should target hitting OS on a raid and then using your stamina to hit another raid unless you need to save the raid (something you shouldn't be worrying about if you're reading this). The Fair Share and Optimal Epic damage marks are listed on the zoywiki.com/LoTS page. If you login through Kong and have the raid script, you can ask RaidBot what FS/OS is for any raid by typing "/raid (partial raid name) (difficulty 1-4)" into Kong chat.<br> | Therefore you should target hitting OS on a raid and then using your stamina to hit another raid unless you need to save the raid (something you shouldn't be worrying about if you're reading this). The Fair Share and Optimal Epic damage marks are listed on the zoywiki.com/LoTS page. If you login through Kong and have the raid script, you can ask RaidBot what FS/OS is for any raid by typing "/raid (partial raid name) (difficulty 1-4)" into Kong chat.<br> | ||
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'''5. Get a good ship''' - Ship power is a VERY large factor in the early part of the game for deciding how much damage you deal to raids. Good free ships drop from:<br> | '''5. Get a good ship''' - Ship power is a VERY large factor in the early part of the game for deciding how much damage you deal to raids. Good free ships drop from:<br> | ||
Cosmic Cow (Giant Kwelshax)*<br> | |||
The Immelman (Void Master)*<br> | |||
The | Blue Dwarf (The Tyranness)<br> | ||
Vampire of the Void's Dracula (Crimzo the Killer Clown lab experiment) <br> | |||
The | |||
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It is also important to hunt down the officers Anita (from the Rylattu Exterminator alliance raid), Svana Spunbracher (from crafting word axes dropped from Blobs), and crew that synergize with both of them (Zombie Rautha and Zombie Ragnar from the Haunted House alliance raid, Mecha-Drakes from the Mecha-Wyrm alliance Raid).<br> | It is also important to hunt down the officers Anita (from the Rylattu Exterminator alliance raid), Svana Spunbracher (from crafting word axes dropped from Blobs), and crew that synergize with both of them (Zombie Rautha and Zombie Ragnar from the Haunted House alliance raid, Mecha-Drakes from the Mecha-Wyrm alliance Raid).<br> | ||
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Before you become able to seriously pump stats, your ship power will be all your damage. Eventually you should upgrade to a GS ship, one will generally be posted on the front page every few months and available for typically 1 weeks You will also need crew to fill your ship; you might look for a Noir 1 raid with BtR/ToW on it as this raid has some of the best free crew that are reasonably available to a newer player.<br> | Before you become able to seriously pump stats, your ship power will be all your damage. Eventually you should upgrade to a GS ship, one will generally be posted on the front page every few months and available for typically 1 weeks You will also need crew to fill your ship; you might look for a Noir 1 raid with BtR/ToW on it as this raid has some of the best free crew that are reasonably available to a newer player.<br> | ||
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'''6. Raid Difficulty.''' If you summon a raid, make it either Normal (N) or Nightmare (NM) difficulty - Hard and Legendary raids are (with a few exceptions) worthless. Normal raids cater to stat farmers and NM raids cater to AP farmers, either way they will ensure your raid gets hit if you post it. For the early raids that you get, it generally makes more sense to summon them on NM difficulty, otherwise they simply die too fast. And these are also some of the smallest and rarest raids that almost always have epic loot that is available on NM only, therefore a newer player should typically summon all their raids on NM.<br> | '''6. Raid Difficulty.''' If you summon a raid, make it either Normal (N) or Nightmare (NM) difficulty - Hard and Legendary raids are (with a few exceptions) worthless. Normal raids cater to stat farmers and NM raids cater to AP farmers, either way they will ensure your raid gets hit if you post it. For the early raids that you get, it generally makes more sense to summon them on NM difficulty, otherwise they simply die too fast. And these are also some of the smallest and rarest raids that almost always have epic loot that is available on NM only, therefore a newer player should typically summon all their raids on NM.<br> | ||
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'''7. Spamming.''' Do not spam the same raid in chat - Common sense, this is just annoying. If you see others 'spam' it's because they're all different raids, that's what we call a raid train. If however it actually is just spam, kindly link them to this guide and tell them to read # | '''7. Spamming.''' Do not spam the same raid in chat - Common sense, this is just annoying. If you see others 'spam' it's because they're all different raids, that's what we call a raid train. If however it actually is just spam, kindly link them to this guide and tell them to read #8 <br> | ||
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'''8. Public Raids.''' Posting raids to the 'Public' list is the primary means of raid distribution (and you get rewards for making it Public). Note that small raids with low health will typically die within seconds or minutes of posting (e.g. Void Killer, Telemachus, CC Commander). Click the 'Post Red Alert' button inside the raid or the green satellite button in the raid list; then select 'Post Public' from the pop-up menu. To join a raid, click 'Raids' and then the 'Public' tab. Note that the search function is tied to their internal raid name so there's a few that may be hard to search for: 'Blood Alley Gang' = 'China'; Vorden = Seth; Dule = Emperor; Harlot = Scarlet Harlet; Blob = Shuborunth; Fleet Commander = Xarpa; Symphony = Where Music Meets; Councilor = Dule Warmaster; CC General = GeneralRahn; Cybersmash = Natasha; Psi-Echo = Sun Xi; the others should be intuitively named. <br> | '''8. Public Raids.''' Posting raids to the 'Public' list is the primary means of raid distribution (and you get rewards for making it Public). Note that small raids with low health will typically die within seconds or minutes of posting (e.g. Void Killer, Telemachus, CC Commander). Click the 'Post Red Alert' button inside the raid or the green satellite button in the raid list; then select 'Post Public' from the pop-up menu. To join a raid, click 'Raids' and then the 'Public' tab. Note that the search function is tied to their internal raid name so there's a few that may be hard to search for: 'Blood Alley Gang' = 'China'; Vorden = Seth; Dule = Emperor; Harlot = Scarlet Harlet; Blob = Shuborunth; Fleet Commander = Xarpa; Symphony = Where Music Meets; Councilor = Dule Warmaster; CC General = GeneralRahn; Cybersmash = Natasha; Psi-Echo = Sun Xi; the others should be intuitively named. <br> | ||
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IN essence, you only need what follows "kv_raid_id", an "&", and what follows "kv_hash" to join a raid. Copying this much reduced string and pasting it directly to your raid list will work just as well as the full link. This is also useful for sharing raids cross-platform.<br> | IN essence, you only need what follows "kv_raid_id", an "&", and what follows "kv_hash" to join a raid. Copying this much reduced string and pasting it directly to your raid list will work just as well as the full link. This is also useful for sharing raids cross-platform.<br> | ||
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'''10.Tactics.''' | '''10. Tactics.''' There are only a handful of usable/acceptable tactics. Using anything else will generally get you yelled at. An important note is that if you don't know/understand tactics, it is best to not place one and either ask for advice in Chat or just let other players place them. Tactics are extremely powerful and an important part of the community's raids. Puny tactics on larger raids will often cause them to be ignored and ultimately fail since optimal tactics often double or triple your damage.<br> | ||
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The most commonly used by brand new players and their abbreviations are as follows<br> | |||
Suppressive Fire (SF)<br> | Suppressive Fire (SF)<br> | ||
Esprit de Corps (EdC)<br> | Esprit de Corps (EdC)<br> | ||
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Preparation (Prep)<br> | Preparation (Prep)<br> | ||
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The above 4 are collectively known as the EdC chain, due to all of them having synergy with each other. A full EdC chain adds +87% on every hit. As such, these | The above 4 are collectively known as the EdC chain, due to all of them having synergy with each other. A full EdC chain adds +87% on every hit. As such, these are the most commonly used tactics. If you are very new player and do not have these tactics, ask politely in chat and someone will be glad to help you (e.g. you most likely will have Suppressive Fire, but will need another player to apply EdC for you to obtain the +45% damage boost).<br> | ||
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Two new GS tactics that have outclassed EdC are Bull in a China Shop and Gorgon Stare. They nullify the effect of EdC and should not be combined on the same raid. Individually they add +28% and together they add +112%. The Zone 19 raids (Vunlac, R. Dule, Bethany, and Noir II) essentially require these tactics due to the fewer tactic slots and high damage required. Other useful tactics that you may see on raids include:<br> | Two new GS tactics that have outclassed EdC are Bull in a China Shop and Gorgon Stare. They nullify the effect of EdC and should not be combined on the same raid. Individually they add +28% and together they add +112%. The Zone 19 raids (Vunlac, R. Dule, Bethany, and Noir II) essentially require these tactics due to the fewer tactic slots and high damage required. Other useful tactics that you may see on raids include:<br> | ||
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Legacy Forge (LF) - Granted upon reaching level 2500<br> | Legacy Forge (LF) - Granted upon reaching level 2500<br> | ||
Master Wu's Gambit - Obtained from Zone 20 on Nightmare difficulty, one of the best free tactics<br> | Master Wu's Gambit - Obtained from Zone 20 on Nightmare difficulty, one of the best free tactics<br> | ||
Plan 10 and Plan 11 - should only be used on a Huk-Kral raid, such as Subjugator and the alliance raids, Storm Trooper and Tank (but not on an Elite Subjugator because LF/gambit is 5% better and readily available).<br> | |||
Stan's Undying Heroism (SUH) - Granted upon reaching level 5000<br> | Stan's Undying Heroism (SUH) - Granted upon reaching level 5000<br> | ||
Take a Chance (TaC)<br> | |||
Asymmetric Warfare (AW) - Only effective on small (10 man) raids, plus Pox/Temple/Luna/Reindeer<br> | |||
Take a Chance (TaC) | |||
Biological Warfare (BW) - Effective against organic humanoids and alien beasts.<br> | Biological Warfare (BW) - Effective against organic humanoids and alien beasts.<br> | ||
Trick or Treat (ToT) - Effective on Nightmare and Legendary raids<br> | Trick or Treat (ToT) - Effective on Nightmare and Legendary raids<br> | ||
Angel of Death (AoD) - Effective on Normal and Hard raids.<br> | Angel of Death (AoD) - Effective on Normal and Hard raids.<br> | ||
Better to Recieve... (BtR) and Teachings of Wu (ToW) - Should only go on raids that are going to die soon as it doesn't contribute damage, or in the case of ToW, not significant damage. Raids that are certain to die regardless of tactics can have it on immediately (e.g. Bashan, Cake, Colonel).<br> | |||
Quiskeran Psi-Eye (QPE) - Only effective on the Quiskeran Psi-Hound<br> | Quiskeran Psi-Eye (QPE) - Only effective on the Quiskeran Psi-Hound<br> | ||
Secret Weapon (SW) - Only effective against Genesis<br> | Secret Weapon (SW) - Only effective against Genesis<br> | ||
Purge - Only effective against Space Pox | Purge - Only effective against Space Pox (Beaten out in power by Bull/Gorgon/BW/ToT/DfD)<br> | ||
Final Assault (FiA) - | Final Assault (FiA) and Rousing Speech - Effective when used together.<br> | ||
Applied Scholarship (AS) - Effective against Alliance raids<br> | Applied Scholarship (AS) - Effective against Alliance raids<br> | ||
Death from the Darkness (DftD/DD) - Effective against non-Alliance raids<br> | Death from the Darkness (DftD/DD) - Effective against non-Alliance raids<br> | ||
Broadside Cannons and Out of the Drift (Drift/Cannons) - Effective when separate, especially effective together.<br> | |||
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Taking all of this together shows that tactics choices will vary greatly depending on what raid it is. A quick reference guide is shown here: tiny.cc/tacs2add. A detail overview of some good choices for tactics, sorted by number of tactics slots:<br> | Taking all of this together shows that tactics choices will vary greatly depending on what raid it is. A quick reference guide is shown here: tiny.cc/tacs2add. A detail overview of some good choices for tactics, sorted by number of tactics slots:<br> | ||
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It's inevitable that some bad tactics will be used though, if you are the owner of the raid, you can remove any tactic by double-clicking on. If you see Bull/Gorgon placed on a raid, do not place any part of the EdC chain. If you accidentally place a bad tactic, you can double-click to remove your own tactic on a general raid (non-alliance). Note that certain end-game, high FS raids like Weiqi, are almost guaranteed to fail if anything less than the best tactics are placed on them. For example, Suppressive Fire or Teachings of Wu placed on a Weiqi raid will cause it to be ignored and ultimately fail.<br> | It's inevitable that some bad tactics will be used though, if you are the owner of the raid, you can remove any tactic by double-clicking on. If you see Bull/Gorgon placed on a raid, do not place any part of the EdC chain. If you accidentally place a bad tactic, you can double-click to remove your own tactic on a general raid (non-alliance). Note that certain end-game, high FS raids like Weiqi, are almost guaranteed to fail if anything less than the best tactics are placed on them. For example, Suppressive Fire or Teachings of Wu placed on a Weiqi raid will cause it to be ignored and ultimately fail.<br> | ||
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For alliances where bull/GS tactic owners are not available, typically the EdC chain plus Gambit and ToW are the most commonly used. The order that the EdC chain is placed is important to maximize damage while the raid tactics are incomplete (even more important for alliance raids). EdC+SF gives +45% and should always be placed first. EdC+FA will give a further +23% boost; and Preparation gives a +19% for a total of +87% (45% + 23% + 19%). If Flank Attack is placed on Bashan first, this is less than ideal as typically it will end up with FA+EdC + BtR; which is a +23% boost versus a +45% boost if it had SF for it's first tactic. On Telemachus, the most common 100-man raid, ideally EdC + SF + FA are placed with BtR to fill the 4th tactic slot to give it a +68% damage boost plus an extra epic loot. | For alliances where bull/GS tactic owners are not available, typically the EdC chain plus Gambit and ToW are the most commonly used. The order that the EdC chain is placed is important to maximize damage while the raid tactics are incomplete (even more important for alliance raids). EdC+SF gives +45% and should always be placed first. EdC+FA will give a further +23% boost; and Preparation gives a +19% for a total of +87% (45% + 23% + 19%). If Flank Attack is placed on Bashan first, this is less than ideal as typically it will end up with FA+EdC + BtR; which is a +23% boost versus a +45% boost if it had SF for it's first tactic. On Telemachus, the most common 100-man raid, ideally EdC + SF + FA are placed with BtR to fill the 4th tactic slot to give it a +68% damage boost plus an extra epic loot. On low-health/valuable 'General' raids typically ToW and BtR will be placed and the last spot saved for a moderate tactic like bull/GS/Drift/Cannons. For example, Gambit should typically not be placed on Bashan, the most common 50-person raid, but rather just ToW/BtR/(something moderate) to fill it's 3 tactic slots because Gambit has a high damage spike and could prematurely kill the raid before 20-30 people have a chance to hit and share in the loot.<br> | ||
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*Pox and Temple are small raids that need a lot of damage, Bull/Gorgon are the best if both are available (+112%), but if they are not available, AW+Gambit (45+45=90%) or AW+LF (45+60=105%) are effective and quickly available. Other spike damage tactics like ToT/BW provide a 4.1% chance at +645% on a single hit; or +26.5% on average over the series of hits it takes to hit a target loot tier (in other words, Gambit is stronger than these older GS tactics: 45%>26.5%).<br> | *Pox and Temple are small raids that need a lot of damage, Bull/Gorgon are the best if both are available (+112%), but if they are not available, AW+Gambit (45+45=90%) or AW+LF (45+60=105%) are effective and quickly available. Other spike damage tactics like ToT/BW provide a 4.1% chance at +645% on a single hit; or +26.5% on average over the series of hits it takes to hit a target loot tier (in other words, Gambit is stronger than these older GS tactics: 45%>26.5%).<br> | ||