Darkwatch Setback Variant Unlock Hunters!

Games SotM: The Video Game
101

Finally got the stupid thing.  Friendly Fire + Jack Handle all the way.  Even better is 2x Friendly Fire + Jack Handle

 

I actually won a round earlier than I should have, because currently 2x Friendly Fire + Jack Handle triggers Friendly Fire 4 times instead of 2 like it's supposed to.  But had it behaved "properly" I would have killed The Operative, wiped the board, and brought the Chairman to 1 hp, and Nightmist was around 12 from a Mist-Fueled Recovery.  So I wasn't in much danger of losing at that point, even though Setback and Fixer were both at 1 hp.

102

So, you mean, you play her wrong.

103

Wouldn’t be the first time.

104

Of course. Because, as we all know, there is exactly 1, objectively correct way to play NightMist, or any character, for that matter.

105

Of course.  And that one objectively correct way holds true even when Nightmist's base power is dramtically different.  It doesn't at all cause different courses of action to become more optimal than they were before.

106

Got my unlock. Woof, it was rough. I got lucky, too; the first two plays by the villain deck were both Jailbreaks, so underbosses actually left the trash pile.

107

Well it has been written on the variants site but I think that there is a typo as the one on the website says,

"Defeat The Chairman on advanced in Rook City with the 4 hero team: Setback, Dark Watch Expattriette, Dark Watch Mr. Fixer, and Dark Watch Nightmist (in any order)" 

I assume that this is just a typo, or was there a bug and it was only supposed to unlock on advanced?

108

It was originally supposed to be on advanced 

109

Thanks, fixed that up.

110

I’m trying for this unlock, and finding it utterly impossible. For me, anyway. Yes, I know this thread is old, I’m just going through old unlocks as a challenge.

The Chariman’s tough, but I’ve found him manageable with teams that have enough defense to wait him out until both jailbreaks have gone by, and then start stomping the underbosses without the threat of them coming back at full health. Alternately, with deck control, you can avoid the jailbreaks. The Darkwatch heroes can’t do either one.

Frankly, it’s a pretty terrible team, with few synergies (aside from the much-discussed crowbars / jack handle + friendly fire combo). Even when I’ve managed to draw Mist Form in the initial hand so NIghtmist can tank all those Operative retaliation strikes, they’ve lost miserably because The Contract and The Muscle killed everyone else, leaving NIghtmist alone and useless.

I guess the only “strategy” is to re-roll the game over and over and over again until you draw Friendly Fire + Crowbars, but I haven’t managed that yet. I don’t see how it’s possible with anything resembling normal play, without counting on that particular setup.

111

People have accomplished this on normal play it just requires some luck as The Chairman is just rough in Rook City no matter the team.  The Dual Crowbars / Friendly Fire combo is the best I’ve seen for getting a consistent win.  

112

This might just be the hardest unlock condition in the entire game, so don't feel bad if it's wearing you down. :/ Try a few others, and come back in between, with, yes, the resignation that you'll need to restart a bunch.

113

This is actually my last unlock. Well, not entirely, I’ve got a few variants that I unlocked with the button, and I might revisit those just for the challenge and to get the achievement, but everyone else unlocked one way or another. I put Dark Watch Setback off because it was clearly going to be hard.

I did manage it. I gave up trying to play “fair,” and restarted until I got the friendly fire / crowbars setup. I even lucked into getting Silver Lining with Risk after playing Friendly Fire. Nearly ideal, right? And yet I still almost lost.

The early part of the game felt extremely easy without the Operative. The pace was down, and there was no relation damage for killing thugs. Setback was even at nearly full health due to Silver Linings.

The Jailbreaks, though, were bad. By the time I managed to clear away all the underlings from the 2nd Jailbreak and I the Chairman had exhausted his deck, everyone was in single digits for HP. With the Chairman at 30+ HP and my heroes at 5-7 each, no one could afford to attack him. They’d just get killed by the retaliations.

Once Nightmist got the Amulet of the Elder Gods, she could afford to attack, since she could reflect his retaliation. She was steadily gaining health, too, since she also drew the Starshield Amulet. It helped that Mr. Fixer gave her a bunch of cards back with Salvage Yard.

Mr. Fixer drew a couple of grease guns, so when he played them, Ex Patriette and Setback could hit the Chairman. Otherwise, they focused on killing any underlings that came out on the the second pass through the deck.

I really thought I was going to lose there for a while, though.

114

But you didn't! :D Congrats!

115

I think there’s a minor synergy there between Mr. Fixer’s Salvage Yard and Nightmist’s relics. She’s constantly discarding cards to the Elder Amulet and the Starshield Amulet and occasionally to things like Mistbound. If she’s discarding artifacts, Mr. Fixer can give them back to her wholesale with Salvage Yard. It’s not hard for her to get back 6+ cards from that play.

Salvage Yard also helps with Dark Watch Fixer’s card destruction, which is almost always a severe drawback to this version. Somewhat. Getting back some of the stuff he’s broken is helpful, but doesn’t help with the time lost playing cards which he then broke. It’s a much stronger effect with Nightmist because she probably didn’t spend time playing the returned cards, she probably discarded them.

116

Salvage Yard also helps expatriette get a lot from speed loading. Personnaly i like DW Fixer better than the regular as i play cards I would almost never play with regular fixer notably Bloody Knuckles and Riveting Crane. His positioning can influence wich cards he can easily canibalize. He plays best before those with temporary ongoings that neuter the villain (Ground Pound, Heroic interception, Monolith, etc.) or as a safety after risk takers that put cards that can mess them up in play with powers (Setback, PW Fanatic (ill times end of times...), Santa Guise).

117

My usual take is that I find Dark Watch Mr. Fixer to be nearly useless, since his card destruction often outweighs the benefits of his attack, so he spends a lot of turns skipping his power phase. All too often he feels like a useless lump, good for redirecting attacks with Driving Mantis and little else.

However, you raise a good point. When is destruction of your own cards good? When it’s a negative card. Why would you play a negative card? When you don’t get a choice, namely the heroes who force blind card plays, such as Setback, PW Fanatic, and Santa Guise. Less common are cards that are good initially but negative later, cards which usually have “Power: Destroy this card,” such as Punish the Weak, Localized Hurricane, and Imbued Fire.

118

I don’t find DW Fixer’s destruction that much of an issue.   Often his own stuff is worthwhile destroying because you have a tool or style you can dispose of be used your hand is full of them.  Some good Ongoing cards are also worthwhile destroying as they have no further impact depending on turn order because there are various Ongoings which only last a turn.   An ideal pairup is Mainstay and Stuntman since between them most of their stuff confers a benefit on destruction.   

119

On Dark Watch Fixer by himself - Mr. FIxer is generally the most effective when he has a tool and a style in play when he attacks. Ideally you want Harmony as well. So, round 1 you play a style or a tool and do nothing. Round 2 you play a style or a tool and destroy one, assuming you have a replacement. If you destroy Driving Mantis you’ve lost all the benefit of the style, if you destroy Pipe Wrench you’ve lost the defensive benefit. Destroying Jack Handle or Dual Crowbars usually means playing a much weaker tool, since those are usually his strongest weapons. Destroying Tire Iron’s not so bad - unless you’re up against a villain who deploys a lot of 4-5 health targets. Dark Watch Fixer often can’t use Harmony at all, but getting Harmony out isn’t that common.

So, kind of weak, but not necessarily as bad as my knee-jerk reaction to self-destruction. The benefit is that his attack goes from a weak plink (1 point) to something that can plow through most defenses (3 points).

On combos with heroes who have benefits from card destruction - this isn’t that common, but fair point. It’s true that a number of Stuntman’s cards say “you get to do this significant thing on destruction,” regardless of what triggers the destruction. Some of KNYFE’s cards say that too. Mainstay I don’t know, since I’ve never played the physical game, so I only know his character from The Sentinels.

120

At least for my preference I’ll take DW Fixer over the base version.  The harder hits even with the forced destruction are worth it more often than not.