MSF: Dread The Darkness Live Blog – Mission #8

Dark Dimension III: Dread The Darkness is the ultimate endgame content in Marvel Strike Force, and I begin fighting the 7th mission after two weeks of fighting the 6th mission, a far cry from the month plus it took me on earlier missions. While I admitted before that this team (below) may not be an ideal team makeup for this game mode, I am going to live blog my daily attempts as I look to defeat the Dark Dimension and earn a 5-Red Star Ultimus.

My Dread The Darkness eligible Global characters:

Phoenix – 109,809 power, Level 75, Gear 14, Abilities Levels 7-7-7-5 – 7 Stars, 6 Red Stars
Black Panther – 104,770, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-6-7-5 – 7 Stars, 6 Red Stars
Namor – 122,242 power, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-7-7-5 – 7 Stars, 7 Red Stars
Scientist Supreme – 83,869 power, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-7-6-5 – 7 Stars, 4 Red Stars
Ultron – 68,148 power, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-7-7-5 – 7 Stars, 0 Red Stars
M’Baku – 104,029, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-7-6-5 – 7 Stars, 6 Red Stars
SHIELD Trooper – 77,694 power, Level 75, Gear 14, Ability Levels 7-6-5 – 7 Stars, 4 Red Stars

Dread The Darkness – Mission 8

Rescue (4.47m), 50.8m total enemy health

08.13.20 – There are 45 enemies to face on this board including 8 on-screen – Rescue, two Crossbones, Vision, two Iron Man, War Machine and Falcon. My five does not include Phoenix, who was used to finish Mission #7, so my five include Ultron, Black Panther, Namor, SHIELD Trooper and M’Baku. Unfortunately this team gets absolutely annihilated to the point where there is little to nothing to say that will help anyone.

08.14.20 – This battle is where I focus on weakening the enemies for future battles. When the Phoenix zap takes place, both Iron Man characters, a Crossbones, Falcon and War Machine are all showing some damage.

08.15.20 – My 488k team is ready for another butt-kicking and once again the enemies all begin with Defense Up which is killer. The Phoenix zap is all that can do any real damage as the battle is over quickly thanks to two Crossbones explosions.

08.16.20 – I get one BP basic in before the Phoenix zaps come into play and drop all enemies, except for Vision, into red health. This is all that happens in my favor, however, as Falcon’s ultimate kills my entire team shortly thereafter. Ugh.

08.17.20 – I started this battle with the wrong five and saw that Rescue starts with her barrier ability, so I quit the battle, placed M’Baku and ST in and watched the barrier get wasted along with AoE attacks from Vision and both Iron Man enemies.

Now my team of 488k goes into battle and we will see if that move was indeed a good one or not. 8 enemies await me, 2 in red health – Rescue and War Machine – and the rest in yellow with the exception of Vision who is green with about 65% health left. I take some hits and do not stealth my teammates with Phoenix, which means I lose SS and BP but Phoenix gets to her zaps in good health. Her health-reviving zap that I control kills off all but the two Iron Man enemies and Vision. A Dark Phoenix ultimate clears the Deathproof buffs from both Iron Man characters and Namor’s ultimate is up next, so I have just Vision left on-screen as 38 of 45 enemies remain. Ultron calls his minions and they buff and heal the team as I expect reinforcements to come, but surprisingly they do not, so I land hits on Vision until he is down. When that happens, a team of SHIELD enemies appears with 8 bad guys that include a Coulson and Fury, flanked by 2 SHIELD Troopers, Security and Assault characters. Three hits later my team is dead and I look tomorrow as I will have 37 enemies with a total of 42.2m health remaining.

08.18.20 – This disgusting version of a battle is nothing more than a setup for days to come. Nothing to report other than Phoenix is the key.

08.19.20 – Another battle where next to nothing on offense takes place, and without Phoenix I would not even bother to fight these boards. The key is having 2-3 days of Phoenix zaps to weaken the enemies so that progress can be made later, and today was not different.

08.20.20 – This battle begins with 37.4m health across 37 enemies, 8 of which are on-screen to start. Still facing SHIELD enemies, the bad guys come out fast and strong, causing the summons of Dark Phoenix before I can take a turn. The Phoenix zaps are the only real offense I get, along with a basic attack from Namor, and while I took off 2.2m health and killed a SHIELD Trooper, the attacks were quite underwhelming and unsatisfying.

08.21.20 – Starting with 36 enemies to go an 7 on-screen, the enemy ST turns Phoenix into Dark Phoenix immediately, and when her turn-based zap comes into play, it takes out Coulson and leaves the 6 remaining all in red health. I am able to then kill off a ST and SA and weaken the rest before getting knocked off. Tomorrow will start with 33 enemies and 34.0m health remaining.

08.22.20 – 33 enemies remain with 4 on-screen – Fury, a SHIELD Assault and 2 Security tanks. They kill BP fast and cause the Dark Phoenix summon, and her turn-based zap kills all 4 leading to 9 new enemies appearing – 2 Mordos, 2 Mysterios, 2 Green Goblins, 2 Venoms and Doctor Strange. I land hits from all of my characters, including the ultimate from Dark Phoenix and Namor, then they kill me off. 29 enemies remain with 32.5m health to go.

08.23.20 – This battle is a quick one with the 29 enemies breaking me apart fast. The only offense today is Phoenix and with Doctor Strange healing the team I did only 200k damage in total.

08.25.20 – After a day off, my five are back and Doctor Strange is my target. A BP ultimate and the Phoenix zap get it rolling, then a special from Namor and the turn-based zap take out the Doc. I start focusing on a Green Goblin and miss a chance on a weaker Mysterio since the summons will not carry over into the next battle. In the end I have 28 enemies remaining with 28.8m health.

08.26.20 – Back for another beating, my 488k team faces off with 8 enemies on-screen and 28 remaining in total. I start work on the two Mysterios since both are low health and I am able to take both out and a Green Goblin as well, once Dark Phoenix hits with her ultimate. That is all for today, but removing 3 enemies feels like a nice bit of progress.

08.27.20 – 25 enemies with a total of 26.7m health await me as 5 enemies are on-screen to start with Green Goblin in low red health and the others all green. I start with 3 basic attacks from BP, Phoenix and Namor and kill GG off then start focusing on one of two Venoms, this one with about 60% health. Ultron add minions, SS heals and debuffs the team and the minions control speed bars and I am able to get a full cycle of turns in to clear the debuffs, stealth the team and still have all of my characters alive. Ultron adds more minions and I keep working on Venom, who has defense down, as I continue to reduce his speed bar to keep the debuff on him and make my attacks hit harder. Eventually BP gets the kill and I place Slow and Defense Down on the other Venom as I am controlling the battle (for now). One of the two Mordos kills off all but one my the Ultron minions with an AoE, but I summon another trio and kill the last Venom.

Now with 22 enemies to go and 2 Mordos on-screen, I focus all hits in the Mordo with Defense Down as both have Slow on them. Phoenix is still in her pre-summon form, which is nuts this far into a battle, and I am able to kill off a Mordo leaving one on-screen, but he is near 100% health. More Ultron minions and buffs from them, then I place all attacks, most of which are basics, on Mordo. The Ultron minions control Mordo’s speed bar and after 30-40 seconds I take him out, prompting 10 reinforcement enemies to show up. SS place debuffs on all of them and the attacks start to come in. I lose all of my minions but my original 5 are all still alive as Ultron’s ultimate is used on Doctor Strange. I follow it with a BP ultimate and a Phoenix zap and then a Namor ultimate, and refreshing those cooldowns is looking like a great move. Rescue then gives her team barrier and a few hits later I am dead. Outside of a Dark Phoenix ultimate that I never got to, that was as close to a perfect run as I could imagine as it appears that I did almost 8m damage.

08.28.20 – 20 enemies and 18.9m health remain as I look to start chipping away at this group of 10 on-screen. Repeating yesterday’s good RNG will be near impossible, so today and likely tomorrow are all about weakening the enemy.

I take 3 hits before my first turn, then start working on Doctor Strange. Just after Phoenix summons the dark version, War Machine’s AoE blows it all up, Phoenix included, so she cannot even get the turn-based zap. Crappy day.

08.29.20 – This battle, which is my 16th attack in 17 days, begins with 20 of 45 enemies and sees me take Doctor Strange out with the Phoenix zap. However, other than weakening the enemies I can do little else to help my cause and leaves the enemies with 15.0m health remaining.

08.30.20 – Another day, another battle where the progress is mostly seen in the health stat by weakening the enemies. While I am able to reduce the number of enemies remaining at the end of the battle as 19 shows that the beginning and end, killing off Mysterio skews the stats a bit. I am able to knock 2.15m health off and will start tomorrow with 17 enemies left and 12.85m health.

08.31.20 – The Phoenix zap does its job once again as the 17 enemies I had left is down to 13 before I am finally wiped out. The continues zapping and reduction of health saw me begin with all enemies in red health and 4 killed off by my attacks and Phoenix zaps.

09.01.20 – Back again for the 19th time fighting this node, I start with 3 enemies on-screen, all in red health – Venom, SHIELD Security and Nick Fury. After losing BP immediately the first two times I attempt, I reset and start again and BP gets hit, but stays alive, as Fury calls his minions. BP then takes one out and while charged, follows with an explosive AoE that kills all but Venom. Four more attacks from BP on Venom and the final 10 enemies appear. After landing a couple of hits on Rescue I take several attacks and lose all but Phoenix, who is barely alive for her turn-based zap. She zaps, then takes 3 hits and is dead, leaving me with the final 10 enemies to face tomorrow with those 10 amassing 9.2m health.

09.03.20 – A busy day yesterday has be angry that I missed an opportunity to get my butt kicked, and thus I am a day farther behind. To the battle, I have 10 enemies left, all of whom are on-screen. I start to fight and Rescue added barrier to all of the enemies as well as some healing over time on the second enemy turn. So I abandon and throw SHIELD Trooper and M’Baku into a battle, waste this and a Crossbones explosion, and go back to fight with my “A” team with these out of the way.

To the battle, I now face 10 enemies with 9.7m health, so a bit of healing did help the bad guys out. The Phoenix zaps do some damage, but the battle is short and once the enemies start attacking it hits hard. In the end I guess I did do something worthwhile leaving them with 7.46m health.

09.04.20 – A new Gear 14 character has been added and was somewhat unexpected as the gift we all got from Scopely/FoxNext for the recent gear orb goof-up changed my gear focus slightly. While Shuri is just 2-3 days away from joining this mix, Cyclops is the surprise character after adding a piece to him last night and another from the current daily event. My 6-star, 5-red star Cyclops checks in at 94,497 power and replaces Scientist Supreme in my lineup.

Now at 499,466 power, I head into battle with BP, Cyclops, Phoenix, Namor and Ultron. Two attacks from the enemies and Phoenix goes Dark, and after her initial zap Namor gets an AoE in. But the turn-based zap from Dark Phoenix is literally the end of my offensive push as they wipe me out after weakening the enemies a bit. 4.68m health remains across the 10 enemies still living.

09.05.20 – After Ultron takes a hit my BP is up with his ultimate which is not quite enough to kill Black Widow or SHIELD Trooper who are low red health, or Rescue who is in the red. After this the enemies get several attacks in, killing Phoenix and Dark Phoenix, and my text turn is with the other four left giving Cyclops a chance to use his ultimate with 8 stacks of Charge and Defense down on 5 of the remaining 9 enemies. The Cyclops ultimate takes out the ST and leaves Rescue and Green Goblin in the red now, but I cannot target them due to a Crossbones taunt. That ends my offense as the enemies take their turns, including a Falcon ultimate, and I am done for the day.

09.06.20 – I will start with 8 enemies remaining with a total of 3.5m health, and have added both a 9th 10th member to the Gear 14 club – SHIELD Medic and Shuri. SHIELD Medic checks in at 7-stars, 5 red stars and 89,710 power while Shuri is 7-stars, 6 red stars and 108,126 power. Because of the new members of the team and rushed battles due to real life, these teams are not optimal but we will see if they are effective.

Starting battle, by team of 5 with Phoenix, Cyclops, Namor, Black Panther and Ultron kicks things off facing 6 enemies, 4 in red, 1 in yellow and 1 nearly full health (Mordo). I am able to get Falcon killed off first thanks to the Phoenix zap, leaving 5 enemies remaining. The enemies start picking me apart but I am able to use Phoenix’s turn-based zap to make the battle look like this – Dark Phoenix and Ultron against a summoned Mysterio, a red health Crossbones and Mordo at nearly full health. Unfortunately that is as far as I can go with things as I lose with what will be 2 enemies to beat.

Unlike all of my past battles, I now have a full second team of 5 to fight. While the team makeup is not what I would have preferred, the effectiveness for today is what matters. My 5 in the battle are SHILED Trooper & Medic, Shuri, M’Baku and Scientist Supreme and they come in at 463k power.

I am able to remove the weak Crossbones almost immediately and then have to work around Mordo’s self-heal, AoE attacks and ability to heal block and blind. Luckily a 1 v 5 is bad odds even here, and I am able to chip away, albeit not quickly, to get the win with ease. The reward is well worth the effort – 250k gold and 5k 5-red star promotion credits.