Raising units for DNA

So I'm really behind in my posts and this is my attempt to catch up!

A few weeks ago (*cough, cough* maybe months ago) Yersinia told me that you could level up units then consume them for a profit in DNA.

I had always assumed that any levelling of units would cost more than you'd get out of it, so did my normal nerdy thing of opening an excel spreadsheet and recording information :-)

Here's a summary of what I found.

These numbers should be accurate if you are in a guild anywhere from level 26 - 40. Outside of this range, due to guild perks, the numbers will probably work out differently, but it will give you a place to start.

Common units

Sorry, Runner. No reason to level you up.

(White/light bluey green bordered units)
Spitter, Brute, Deliveryman, Infector, Runner

Don't bore me with numbers: Don't bother levelling as it will cost you more than you'll get back. Just consume them :-)

If you like tables:




Uncommon units

(Green bordered units)

16 DNA : Is it really worth the price of cleaning that up?
I will let you be the judge.

Sprayer, Puddler, Stuntman, Foreman

Don't bore me with numbers: Level to 2 and then consume will make you 16 DNA better off than if you hadn't bothered doing anything. This may or may not be worth your investment (and is as good as it gets - don't go any higher).








If you like tables:

Rare units:
(Blue bordered units)
There are two types of rare units: cheaper rare units and more expensive rare units. More expensive ones cost more in terms of DNA and time to level.

Cheaper rare units

Titan has just posted on the WZ forums
to complain that he is cheaper than Sprinter. 

Mortician, Biohazard, Titan
Don't bore me with numbers: Levelling to four will give you a maximum extra 140 DNA.












If you like tables:

More Expensive rare units

Explody goodness comes at a price

Sprinter, Reanimator, Goliath, Harbinger and Defiler

Don't bore me with numbers: raising to level 3 will give you a maximum additional 75 DNA.









If you like tables:

Epic units
(Purple bordered units)
Epic units also come in two price categories. I personally would not consume epics for DNA, but I know many people do. It's up to you.

Cheaper epic units: 

Tentacled units are cheaper to raise.

Assassin, Chef, Delinquents, Demerits, Farmer, Killaton, Mistress, Rainmaker, Scouts, Squidfingers, Wildfire

Don't bore me with numbers: Raising to level 6 will give you a maximum profit of an extra 583 DNA

If you like tables:

More expensive epic units:

Work it, Pitboss!

Behemoth, Cesspool, Daredevil, Foulmouth, Pitboss

Don't bore me with numbers: Raising to level 4 will give you a maximum profit of an extra 390 DNA

If you like tables:

So the big question: should you do it?

Again, it's up to you. If you have the spare space on your machines (e.g., because you have not enough DNA for a higher level unit, you might as well). I personally wouldn't put this ahead of making units for your team or for a QF army though.

One good reason to do it might be to "save" DNA if you are needing a vast amount for levelling units towards level 50 when it gets really expensive. If you have units you have raised to the maximum DNA amount you can then "cash them in" when you need them.

Other strategies for Dubai - Punks and Hooligans

Honestly, I'm not sure yellow and black
leggings would be my first fashion
choice if I were starting a gang....

I've been playing around with Ace's level 36 Hooligans and have found they are getting pretty respectable scores all by themselves in Dubai Expert.

Most of the time, I've gotten all three rewards and get around 1500-1600.

Some tips if you want to borrow them and have a go:

• Use flare often to help increase their dodge
• Use drone geyser to put the hooligans in walled off areas with commando or desperado type units

One advantage I've found with using the borrowed hooligans only as they are much easier to play with on fast-forward than explosive units, which often need to be used with precision, or full teams, where you have a number of units to be thinking about. I also got consistently higher points than with a level 30 doomsday/killaton only. So if your level is mid-30s or above, have a go.

Punks working the more classic
red/black regalia

Matty has been playing with my L40 punks. He's found that, when accompanied by a team of level 1 units, he can regularly get a perfect score on Dubai Expert. Those units are two L1 foreman (to take care of buildings), a L1 reanimator and an L1 mortician. You've probably got these units, so this is worth a try. You might need to be L40 or above for this to work well. Let us know how you go, so we can add in information about the limits of these strategies :-).

Playing World Zombination using Bluestacks Android Emulator

BlueStacks is so easy to use my 6 year old was able
to find and install his favourite game My Singing Monsters

If you are temporarily without access to your phone or tablet (e.g., while it is charging), or you want to try playing WZ on a desktop or laptop, you can run WZ using an android emulator, like BlueStacks 2.

I've used both BlueStacks and BlueStacks 2 and they work fine on my desktop. (Unfortunately, BlueStacks 2 seems to crash more for me than BlueStacks did - I've had a few crashes with 2 and never had any with BlueStacks 1).

It can be a little tricky at first using the mouse and scrolling through lots of units (especially 500) is a bit of a pain, but I've found it very useful to have as a back up way to play.

Using Bluestacks 2 to play WZ

If you haven't already, you'll need to register an account first to be able to play on another device, (Click on settings cog icon to do register your account - which is just entering your email and setting a password)

Once you've done this:

1) Go to www.bluestacks.com
2) Follow instructions to install (install file is about 260 MB)
3) Once installed, run Bluestacks
4) Click on search and type in World Zombination
5) Run World Zombination
6) Use your WZ account email and password to log in

BlueStacks is free to play as long as you install the "recommended apps" when you are promoted to by the periodic adverts.

Sydney 3 guild raid review: first attempt (18 March 2016 11pm UTC)

....23 minutes.... 'nuff said. ;-)

Longer version:

I thought we could probably do it, if enough people helped. Others were more confident than me - Ace thought he, Briezh and I could probably manage it alone (not sure on that account still ;-) !) and Yersinia said he thought we could do it in half an hour (over-estimated by 7 minutes).

So that's another raid we can comfortably do. Well done, team!

(Sorry I didn't take screenshots)

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!!

NEKO Method in Dubai

Here are some videos showing the NEKO method in three of the different level layouts for Dubai.

My team has a team power strength of 112 and is made up entirely of level 1 Mistresses (don't worry, I won't use any of them!). The borrowed explosive is Breizh's level 30 Doomsday.

First layout:

In this video, you can see how careful timing and drone usage can result in more survivor casualties and there is a demonstration of how to explode both units and a building on the diagonal away from the units with careful placement of the drone geyser. I also show some ways you can use the flare with a heavy explosive. Link to higher resolution video on YouTube

Second layout:

In this video, you can see a few more ways you can use the flare and drones to get more points. You can also see how you can use drone geyser. Link to higher resolution video on YouTube

Third layout:

In this video, see how timing and position of your flare is important for maximum carnage and destruction of buildings and how a dose of Stim-Z and the flare can make your drones more lethal. Link to higher resolution video on YouTube

The Neko method in action!

It has taken me a while, but I have finally worked out how to make WZ videos! (Thanks Youtube tutorials!)

I was lazy and didn't tidy it up, but hopefully you get the idea :-)

Here is the Neko method in action in Buenos Aires:

This was a great layout as I could use the borrowed explosive plus drone geyser to take out both buildings at once, which is always fun.