My Toypocalypse Guide

[Black Frog.9274]

Wall of text warning.

 

It's late in the season, but I thought I would put a guide out for the curious. Feel free to rip it to shreds or improve it.

 

This assumes you have your max number of players:

1. 3 or 4 of you should rush northward immediately. Smash stuff on the way to pick up scraps.

2. All 3 or 4 who rush north should place ballistas to cover Duchess first. Usually 4 spaced on the edge of the circle near the north most path into the center circle. Protip, don’t place them in front of the path itself, but to each side.

3. While this is going on, cover each other and Duchess to keep the first waves of toys off the yaks. Don’t get too caught up, just don’t let Duchess go down. It’s more important to build than keep Duchess totally unscathed.

4. The one or two people who don’t run north should go to the top of main hill just south of the circle. Smash everything around it and build, as quickly as possible, 2 or 3 catapults, 1 ballista, 2 or 3 snowmen. Exact numbers will depend on what drops. Do catas first, snowmen next, and ballista last. Immediately upgrade them as much as you can to max them out.

5. Split up by compass points.

6. At this point there are a lot of variations that will work for what to do next. But, there are some important things to keep in mind.

* There is a limit on the number of weapons/snowmen you can build. This means that when you hit the total number of allowed siege weapons, each new one you place will despawn the oldest. If you followed the steps above, keep an eye on those first ballistas and/or siege on the main hill. If they start to disappear, you’ve hit the limit. Stop building new things and focus on upgrades. It IS possible to hit a point where you don’t need to/can’t do any more building/upgrading. Just relax and enjoy the carnage or pick up a rifle.

* UPGRADE, upgrade, upgrade. More powerful weapons are better than just more weapons total. If you’ve set things up according to this guide, you’ll wipe out most of the initial spawns before they even move. The ones that get moving will be mowed down before they get beyond the edge of the circle.

* Building randomly, wherever stuff drops, is not optimal. That’s because the toys split up to attack different things and are often out of range of most weapons. (“So what?” You say. Well, the quicker the toys go down, the quicker the round finishes, the quicker the event can finish, the more gifts you collect.)

* The north is harder to defend than the south. The distance between the yaks and spawn points is the shortest. If you followed #4, your south will be in good shape through the first few rounds, and it will be worth it to focus on your north and east sides of the circle first.

* Build along the circle (not “in it” or you’ll be too low), on the main city hill, the “little town” hill on the west, the cliff on the east, the maze, and if you haven’t hit siege limit yet on the north side of the ice pond on the east side of the circle. Don’t overbuild in those spots. For everything but the circle, get 3 or 4 catas and 2 or 3 snowmen down and upgraded. Place a few mega snowmen or bait walls in wide open areas to slow the toy rushes. Then assess whether you’ve hit siege limit before building more in those locations.

* Don’t overbuild in the south. It’s a pain to run stuff north, but anything not built on the main hill, the “little town” hill on the west side, or the main cliff on the east side, won’t be able to hit toys in the north or the opposite side of the circle. It will hit the few spawns at the far south and in the main hill area, but those will already be covered by the other three areas mentioned above.

* Walls are of limited use. They block line of site/shots and if they’re built too close to the siege, will render them basically useless. They can also block your path of movement when you least expect it. For the most part, use them to seal off the maze, block the southeast path into the circle and the northmost path into the circle (this is why you place the ballistas to the side in #2, so they can reach toys on the back side of the wall). They also serve as good bait points for toys to attack and get hit by the catas. If you place them for this purpose, make sure that the thin edge of the wall is aimed at the circle, or you will create a hiding place on the other side of the wall.

* Everyone says catas, catas, catas. They’re good, but ballistas are critical on your north side, especially later in the rounds. Snowmen are great for slowing down advances and for holding agro while the siege weapons take down the toys. Don’t commit entirely to catas.

* Don’t forget to heal in the middle circle. This is easiest between rounds. As soon as one of the siege you setup hits a target, you won’t be able to heal until you lose all agro/combat status.

* Don’t forget the mercenary skritt. If you’ve got good siege coverage, take the time to get the mercenaries.

7. Toxx Fights

* Target him so that everyone knows when he spawns

* When his bar is broken, you do more damage. At least one and preferably two people should hit him with toysmashers. The longer he stays dazed, the more damage you can do.

* STAY OUT OF THE CIRCLE WHILE YOU FIGHT HIM. Ideally, someone should rush him at his spawn point and keep aggro as best you can. Do your best to kite him away from the circle. Never retreat or dodge towards the circle. Most of the time you can re-pull agro before he gets there. Once he gets onto the yaks, its hard if not impossible to pull aggro. It’s just a race to take him down before he kills them.

* The best time to heal is immediately after Toxx goes down. The delay before the next round is longest and it takes a while before your siege hits a target and locks you into combat.

[Kunzaito.8169]

I'm not gonna say you're wrong, because I'm sure this does work, but this is what my wife refers to as "making a bunny cake" (turning a very simple task into something needlessly complex).

 

The reality is that Toypocalypse needs only the following simple steps to win with all Dolyaks surviving. Even two players can succeed this way:

 

1. Build only catas and snowmen. Build them as fast as possible, just dropping them at your feet.

2. Upgrade after first Toxx

3. Try to keep from being bored for the next 9 rounds.

 

It honestly doesn't matter what you do at that point. The catas do all the work. Heal any damage with hay, upgrade, focus on particular little siege tasks (my favorite is building a fortress in the little maze), hire skritt, whatever you feel like. Even if people keep building siege so the old stuff despawns it just doesn't matter - the new stuff has plenty of firepower to win with minimal to no effort.

 

So yeah, if this is your way of making it fun when you have to do it three times, go ahead, but it's not at all necessary to win or even win easily.

[Black Frog.9274]

I'd love to see 2 people do it, keep all yaks alive, while placing things randomly. No snark here. I would genuinely like to see it. I'm trying to imagine a scenario where Duchess lives through the first round without getting to her immediately and either setting up siege or dogpiling with 3 or more people. It also sounds like you are proposing not bringing stuff to the circle to set up a perimeter. Is that correct?

 

[Ol Nik.2518]

There is no need to heal near the dolyaks if you eat some cheap health regenerating food. Wintersday presents drop cakes with 10% karma bonus and health regen, those are perfect for all Wintersday instanced activities (except the strike mission).