Dubai IV Raid Review: First run through

After a month of planning and boot-camping, the weekend of March 12-13th marked the date for Dubai IV.

Getting ready had been a bit of a marathon in itself: I had taken every opportunity to encourage and support as many people as possible to be able to participate. While I was confident it would all come together, I also knew things would go wrong. And they did: Breizh (king of Dubai III) got sick. Jifferlaar (previous MVP) went AWOL to a darts' contest (Jifferlaar, you have a month or so left of teasing from me about that until I get over it). John Burtt mysteriously disappeared..... (Where are you, John Burtt? Come back: I miss you and your dodgy schemes!!!!).  I spent most of my Sunday playing on a sporadically working 3G mobile connection with worrying waits of more than a minute after most fights while the loading icon churned......

However, in the end more things went right than wrong and we completed Dubai IV with more than 10 hours to spare.

 

Most of the credit goes to the following people (Thanks to The Maelstrom for taking the screeenshots)

 

Lots of people surprised themselves with how well they did, which was great. Special shout-outs to Walker (who was aiming for 100k and got nearly 200K) and Maelstrom (who got 9K more than he thought was a stretch goal for himself).  

Sadly, I was asleep when Dubai IV was won, with newcomer Ace taking first place (Congrats, Ace!)

If you want to be like Ace, here are a few of his playing tips for Dubai:

• A team of a level 41 Dreadnought, level 33 Patient Zero, and a level 20 Mortician is enough to get a perfect score on expert
• Have as many teams as you can (Ace has 12 teams that can beat Dubai on Expert)
• Learn to play on fastforward

We did a random draw raffle for the three guild legendaries with the people who had got at least 54K (1/50 of 2.7 million) being entered. The lucky numbers, according to random.org, were 14, 6 and 7: The Maestrom, Yersinia, and Wayne. Congrats!

Lastly a thanks to the Dubai IV planning team: Breizh, Yersinia, and .Wayne. Thanks guys!!

Dubai IV Boot Camp Day 10: Setting goals

This fashion-forward Dreadnought
might be yours at the end of Dubai IV!

It's always a good idea to set a goal for yourself in a big raid. After you have been playing for a while, you'll know how much points you can score with your teams and/or the NEKO method and can work out roughly how many brains you'll need going into a big raid and how long it might take. (Playing as much as possible is another good option that requires less thought!!)

The smallest goal you probably want to set is 1/50th of the points needed. There are 50 people in the guild, so if you have done 1/50th of the points on a raid, you can say you've done your share.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, not everyone can participate on a raid, so to help ensure the raid is finished you might want to aim higher. 1/20th of the points needed might be a good goal as it would mean that only 20 people need to get this amount of points for the raid to be complete.

Duabi IV needs a lot of points: 2.7 million. However, if we all work together we can do this.

If all 50 people play and each gets 54,000 (54K) we can finish the raid. (So to help get you there: a rare pack when you get to 54K on Dubai IV)

If only 20 people play and each gets 135,000 (135K) we can finish the raid. (So to help get you there: an epic pack when you get to 135K on Dubai IV)

If these numbers sound big, remember that Jifferlaar got 120K by the end of our third go at Dubai 3 (the raid was finished in less than 17 hours and we have 42 for Dubai 4 - he was also level 26 before the raid started, so couldn't actually participate until he got to level 27).

Also remember that every fight and contribution counts.

We can do this.*

*(And when we have beaten Dubai IV, everyone who has gotten 54K of points or higher will be in a lottery to win one of the three guild legendary packs we'll get from the raid!)

So how many points are you going to do?

TL:DR
Make your goal for the raid. We can do Dubai IVif we work as a team!

Day 10 Challenge
Set your goals for Dubai IV and let us know of any additional support you need here and get a rare pack. (Even if you haven't done the previous days of the boot camp - we will help you get ready!!)

Dubai IV Boot Camp: Days Six and Seven

If all else fails, remember:
drone geyser + explosive + building
= points 

The next step on our journey to Dubai IV is Dubai III.

We will be playing it over this weekend (depending on your timezone 27th/28th February, probably another 7 am UTC start on Saturday, but open to suggestions)

Dubai III is just like Duabi IV, but instead of 2.7 million trophies, we only need 750K.

This is still 7.5 x as big as Dubai 2 so it isn't a small raid and requires a team effort to complete.

We've completed it three times already, so you can feel confident we'll beat it this time too.

We are going to trial out the same rewards system as we will have for Dubai IV.

When you get 54K, you will get an extra rare pack. (This is 1/50th of the points needed for Dubai IV)

When you get to 137.5 K you will receive another epic pack (This is 1/20th of the points needed for Dubai IV).

Advice for big raids:

Breizh (winner on 2/3 of our Dubai III raids) had this advice for you to do well on Dubai III: "play a lot". True words, those ;-)! 

My advice is:

• keep on researching your skills - "Strobe Light" (for flare) helps enormously with helping your units dodge enemy attacks (there is a bug which basically makes them invincible while flare is running. Exploit this bug!!) If you can get up to "High Pressure" for drone geyser, this also further reduces the cooldown of the drone geyser, meaning you can use it more.

• brainfarm beforehand so you have lots of brains (as much as you can - if you want to get 54K, it would be sensible to have around 150K of brains)

• make sure you are at least level 27 so you can participate (which should be easy if you have brain farmed a lot)

• check in chat that the borrow you want is available before putting your request in (and, related to this, don't lend people units they don't want)

• make sure one of your borrows is a doomsday or killaton (I have 3 killatons 30 and over and one doomsday I can lend currently)

• play with your teams and, while they are on cool down, use the NEKO method to fight using no stamina.

• set yourself a goal for the raid - like 54K or 137.5K - and measure your progress towards the goal through the raid - enjoy seeing your trophies and the trophies of our guild get higher and higher!

• remember every fight counts and helps us get closer to our end goal as a team

• have fun - it's a game ;-)! 

Day Six and Seven Challenge 

Get ready for the raid by doing some brain farming and working out what *your* goal is for Dubai III this weekend.

You can share your goal in the comments, if you wish.

Dubai IV is coming....

Do I need to add anything ;-) !

Dubai IV Boot Camp: Day Five

It's time to put the skills you have learnt into practice in Dubai II.

Dubai II has the same level layouts as the other Dubais (I-V) - the main difference is fewer trophies are required (100K compared to 2.7 million).

Try out the NEKO method in Dubai. You may find it is easier to use here than in Perth as the maps aren't as spread out.

Try using flare with a killaton/doomsday - you might find you can take out a whole bunch of units this way (which is always fun!)


Day five challenge
To pass day five, get at least 10K in Dubai II. Get a rare pack with each 10K you earn on the raid :-).

Dubai IV Boot Camp: Day Four

The higher tier the raid, generally the better rewards.

Let's compare Dubai tier I and IV:

Here are the rewards for Dubai I

First place reward is a blue pack.

It recommends that 3-5 people participate and a total of 15,000 trophies is needed.

That is an average of 5,000 each, if 3 people participate (15,000 / 3 = 5000) and 3,000 each if 5 people participate (15,000 / 5 = 3,000).

Here is Dubai tier IV:

First place reward is 2 legendary packs.

It recommends that 15 - 25 people participate,

That is an average of 180,000 trophies each if 15 people (2.7 million / 15 = 180 K) participate and of 108,000 if 25 people participate (2.7 million / 25 = 108K).

There is a longer timeframe (1 day and 18 hours) in which to complete this number of trophies than the Dubai I raid.

Before we start a long raid, it is very sensible to work out if enough people are ready (and willing) to participate (which is one of the reasons we are doing this boot camp!)

Another way we could look at the raid is the trophies per hour needed to complete the raid. This can help is check if we are on the right path to completing our total.

1 day and 18 hours is 42 hours in total

If we divide the number of trophies (2,700,000) by the number of hours we have (42) we can see how many trophies we need to achieve every hour = 64,285 (so around 65 K/hour)

During the raid, I also like to calculate the percentage of raid we have completed, and compare it to the time we have left to see if we are on track to completing.

E.g., if 21 hours of Dubai tier IV has passed and we have completed more half the trophies (1,350,000) I know we are on track to finishing on time. If we haven't completed that number, it means we need to give the raid a push.

TL:DR version:

• Long raids have lots of trophies.
• If we all help each other and work together, we each don't have to do so much, and we can win the raid.
• (Proverb: Many hands make light work)

Dubai Tier IV Day Four Challenge

Check your understanding here to complete the Day 4 challenge and go into a draw of those who complete it to win 3 rare packs!


WINNER OF RARE PACKS: Yersinia! (Random number.org )

Dubai IV Boot Camp: Day Three

Ok, you have your brains, now it is time to raid! 

Delinquents are the Epic little siblings of the
legendary Punks and Mythic Hooligans -
they are very useful against melee units like
timberbeasts - I witnessed level 30
punks take out a level 39 mythic deforester
in seconds!

Today we will be tackling Perth IV so there is a chance for you go get Delinquents (which are otherwise only available if you buy them with coins in a featured pack).

Perth only requires you to be level 9, so you should be able to participate. It does require a lot of points though - 510,000 of them! That's 10,200 each if everyone in the guild participates and 51k each if only 10 people participate. We'll look at raid numbers more in our next boot camp session as it is very helpful to know what you have to aim for in a big raid.

Luckily getting a high number of points is possible for nearly anyone with the NEKO method. Read how to do it here.

I will be around during the raid to lend out explosives to those who want to put the NEKO method into action (I recommend you give it a good go as it is what will get us the points we need for Dubai tier IV).

Fighting on expert costs 1935 brains, but you should be able to get around 900 using the NEKO method (you will normally get somewhere between 800-1000). You also will use no stamina using this method. 

Reward structure for Perth:
1st - Delinquent and 75 coins
2nd - 4th Delinquent and 25 coins
5th- 10th 2 rare packs and 10 coins
11-16th 1 rare pack and 5 coins
(after 16th - an uncommon pack)

Day Three challenge

Get a minimum of 25k on the raid to pass day three of our boot camp - and more than 50k if you want to be given an additional rare pack. (If it is near the end of the raid and I am not around, take a screenshot or screenshots of the leaderboard for me so I can know who got more than 25K and who got more than 50K of trophies :-)!)

Dubai IV Boot Camp: Day Two

Haven't done day one yet? Go here

Today is all about brains....

It costs brains to participate in Guild raid fights.

If you want to fight many  times and get lots of DNA and packs, you will need to have a lot of brains going in to the raid.

Brains are also used to fund research - and that gets very expensive towards the end (1 million to unlock the last stage of drone geyser and 500k each for the last stage of StimZ and Flare)

Here are some different ways you can brain-farm.

Day Two Challenge - 100 K of brains
1) Make sure you have done the Day One challenge (questionnaire)
2) Take a screenshot* showing your current total of brains now (before you brainfarm)
3) Farm 100 K of brains (or 50K if you are currently under level 25)
4) Take another screenshot showing your new total
5) Email or LINE (octavia.blue) me both your before and after screenshots WITH YOUR GAME NAME and if you have the done all the tasks correctly you will get a rare pack!

*how to take a screenshot on ipad/iphone
how to take a screenshot on android 

Dubai IV Boot camp : Day One

Welcome to day one of the Dubai IV Boot camp!

This boot camp has been designed to get us ready as a team for Dubai Tier 4.

Over the course of the boot camp, you will learn:

• how to get lots of points on a raid
• how to brain farm so you have enough brains for a big raid
• what you need to aim for on a big raid
• how you can best support your team on a big raid.

You will get a chance to put all of these ideas into practice over the Boot Camp.

By the end of the boot camp you will be ready for Dubai IV - and any other big raid.

If you complete the boot camp successfully, you'll also be in for some rewards (such as rare packs).

You will also:

• go up a number of levels
• get lots of brains
• have the chance to get packs, including epic delinquents

You'll need to put a little time in to the boot camp - but it will pay off - you can use the techniques here along with your own playing style to have fun in raids and do well in them.

Day One Challenge:
Day one is about helping us know where you are so we can help you to get to where you need to be.
Just go and answer the questions on our very short questionnaire here and you've finished your day one boot camp challenge!