Tactics 05 - Game Mechanics

This post is to discuss some mechanics of the game, as well as some other useful information here and there. The reason I wanted to put this post up is because I had just recently finished a fight with a 1260ish Paul user who found himself in a predicament where the BEST he could do was draw the match. Instead he must've thought he could win If he blocked correctly. Which leads me to believe that, even 1260+ players are unaware on how the game works OR Paul is a brain-dead character and it is possible to easily attain a 1260+ rating by focusing to 5 cards and striking (or, he pressed block by accident). Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it (I thought it would've made a great picture, I thought it was quite hilarious too, lol) but I will use MS Paint to recreate the scenario using past screenshots and cards taken from older pictures.

It takes a keen intellect to play Paul

The Scenario

First, here are the statistics of the said Paul player. As you can see he's no stranger to the game. Infact, he has double my total games played in victories.

Statistics of Paul Player

If Yoshimitsu strikes, Paul can at most Draw

As said before, this picture was recreated with MS Paint and I don't actually recall how it happened and what the cards were exactly but this is the closest thing I can think of that matches the scenario the best. So let's get to analyzing.

From the picture, If the Yoshimitsu plays strike, the Paul will only be able to Draw if he strikes, Lose if he focuses, and Potential Loss if he Blocks.

Paul: Striking

Easy to see what happens, both players kill each other. Paul swinging for 125 damage, Yoshimitsu for 70 damage. It doesn't matter that Paul is at 69 HP or that Yoshimitsu is at 7 HP, a KO is a KO.

Paul: Focusing

This is probably the worst thing the Paul player can possibly do. There is no need for more cards and there is an imminent strike from Yoshimitsu. Paul should only focus only under the assumption that Yoshimitsu will also Focus or Block. Paul Focusing against Yoshimitsu Striking will result in a loss for Paul.

Paul: Blocking

This is the 2nd worst thing Paul can do, and it is the stupidest thing Paul can do. Here's why: One only blocks when they predict a Strike (or you have some weird effects get you some advantage). If Paul blocks and Yoshimitsu Blocks he will lose 10 HP from his 3rd card and nothing happens to the cards therefore losing 10 HP for nothing. If Paul blocks and Yoshimitsu focuses, Yoshimitsu has 1 extra card and Paul is at card disadvantage (at this point it doesn't matter who has more cards). If Paul blocks and Yoshimitsu strikes, (remember this is the desired action the Paul wants by blocking) Paul takes 65 Damage, leaving him at 4 HP, and next turn if Yoshimitsu blocks activating the Paul's third card, Paul will lose before any striking occurs. Paul's third card, Flash Elbow: 50 Damage, Punch, BEFORE THE ATTACK: Opp Block: -10 HP, occurs before the attack and if Paul dies from this effect his strike does not count.

Conclusion

I also want to use this part to say some other things that weren't covered in the post but are related to game mechanics. These can all be found on the official site.

• Effects that occur before the attack and trigger a KO will void any strike animation or after the attack effects
• If an opponent's life points drop to (or below) 0 from an effect and heals HP from another effect during the same phase (Before/After the attack), the end result will be whatever the HP heals for. This point means, if a Lili with 10 HP blocks with a Monte Carlo Snap (After the attack: Block missed: Card discarded +35 HP) against a Yoshimitsu who focuses and gets Poison Breath (After the attack: This card appears, Opp -30 HP), the end result is Lili with 35 HP
• There is a 5% chance to get an SR card from an Ultra Pack
• You are 3 times less likely to receive a bonus on defeat than on victory

Lol, the last 2 points are kind of not related but I haven't made a good FAQ page. Will do that in the near future. Don't be a stranger to leave a comment or what not. To all the Paul Players: I don't mean any offense but you gotta admit that the ability to focus to 5 cards and strike for a 1 strike victory isn't the most balanced thing, hehe.

Gold and Credit Management

Getting gold to upgrade your deck from bronze to silver, then silver to gold requires a lot of gold/credits. This post will discuss the most effective ways to farm gold and if you do intend to make in-app-purchases where it is best spent.

Gold

To get gold, play a match using stamina (pretty straight forward). To maximize how much you get, you should always win. The difference in winning more then 66%, and if you lose, it won't count towards your 'secret achievements'. From reading the twitter page, it is no longer possible to 'farm' the 'secret achievements' without stamina, as those fights do not count towards the achievements, hopefully this will change.
The best way to maximize stamina:gold ratio is to play in the weekly Online WW Championship. Winning in the Online WW Championship yields the most gold (231~), then it's winning in Arcade Hard (180~), Arcade Medium (124~), Free Fight (123~), and lastly Arcade Easy (122~). Losing will always reward less gold than winning in Arcade Easy. From the Tekken Twitter you are 3 times less likely to receive a bonus when you lose a match, compared to winning one. However, if you aren't the greatest, you will eventually run into a bump in Online WW championship, and you will start to win 50% of the time. At this point, I recommend farming Arcade Mode Hard. Depending on the class of your deck, you may have a hard time winning in Arcade Mode Hard. If that is the case, consider Arcade Mode Medium. I play for fun, so I will always play in Online WW Championship.

Don't forget to login everyday to receive the daily login reward. I believe the bonus caps at 10x days.

Selling Cards

After a couple matches, you will receive a bonus, it might be gold, credits or a card. It is possible to receive a silver card from match bonuses,

Receiving a silver card from a reward

I myself have received 2 silver cards in my lifetime (I think it was not too long ago the developers adjusted it making it possible to receive silver cards). Whether winning increases the chance of a bonus occurring or not, I do not know, but it doesn't hurt to win, right?

There are 2 ways to go about selling things, one is just to sell all the cards when you get them, a bronze card sells for 500, a silver for 5,000, and a gold for 40,000. This is the amateur way of selling cards. The pro way consists of collecting 9 bronze versions of a card, paying 5,000*3 to fuse 3 sets of bronze cards into 3 silver cards, then paying 20,000 to fuse that set into 1 shiny gold card which will sell for 40,000. So you will end up spending 35,000 and selling for 40,000 with a profit of 5,000. Had you sold the 9 bronze cards for 500 each, you would have received 4,500 gold. This method yields an extra 500 gold (which isn't much really) so it is very easy to overlook this method. On the plus side, if you ever decide you want to use a bronze deck for another character, this method is quite friendly towards that.

As you know, power cards costs double the price of the deck cards, however fusing them is the same cost as with deck cards. That being said, it is recommended to use the above method when selling power cards. With the above method, one will yield 36,000 more gold as oppose to selling off the 9 power cards for 9,000. It is highly recommended to use this form of selling power cards. (I wish I knew this before I sold 7 bronze Lili power cards)

Credit Management

You should always use your credits on 20% off sale days and always on Ultra Pack. So once you've accumulated 320 credits (80% of the original cost of the Ultra Card Pack). Go on to the store and buy an Ultra Pack. The reason I recommend Ultra Pack is because it guarantees a gold card (40,000 gold if you don't use that card) and a chance for an SR card (these bad boys sell for 120,000 gold or 320,000 if you managed to pull the power card. That's like winning the lottery). I have pulled 1 SR card from 7 or so Ultra Packs.

In-App-Purchases

If you are going to make an in-app-purchase (IAP for short), best to purchase the credits and wait for the Ultra Pack sale and purchase the Ultra Pack. If you buy the 5x "Pack" IAP (120 credits for 1.99 USD) you can buy 1.875 Ultra Packs which is guaranteed at least 75,000 gold. This IAP is much better than the "Mountain" (50,000 gold for 9.99 USD).

Ultra Pack

I think it is safe to say that there will always be an Ultra Pack 20% discount. In a recent sale, the Ultra Pack was not included in the sale, as a result, people on twitter and facebook asked for it, and within a week an Ultra Pack sale was offered. The power of QQ.