MSF: Dread The Darkness Live Blog – Mission #13

Dread The Darkness - Mission 13

Dark Dimension III: Dread The Darkness is the ultimate endgame content in Marvel Strike Force, and I begin fighting the 13th mission after nearly a month of fighting the 12th mission. This mission requires City characters, and this leaves me incredibly under-manned. While I have been working to boost my City roster of late, especially the Symbiote faction, I have only one single City character who is eligible, Punisher, and I was still 2 pieces away on Spider-Man (Symbiote) and 1 away on Jessica Jones as of November 2, 2020. Below 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 City characters:

Here are the starting stats for my City characters fighting this mission.

  • Punisher – 119,966 power, Level 75, Gear 14 +1 piece, Abilities Levels 7-7-7-5 – 7 Stars, 6 Red Stars – Striker Level 4

Beginning November 21, 2020, my characters will start off looking like this:

  • Punisher – 122,430 power, Level 76, Gear 14 +1 piece, Abilities Levels 7-7-7-5 – 7 Stars, 6 Red Stars – Striker Level 4
  • Spider-Man (Symbiote) – 116,824 power, Level 76, Gear 14, Abilities Levels 7-7-7-5 – 6 Stars, 6 Red Stars – Skirmisher Level 2

I will also note that as of 11.21.20 I have Jessica Jones at Gear 13 +4 pieces, needing the Superior Molecular Scan pieces to advance her gear level. I note this in an effort to document how long this takes in a FTP environment to finish this piece. JJ currently needs 26 more Superior Molecular Scan pieces to get to Gear 14.

11.27.20 gear update – I have the pieces needed for JJ’s 5th Gear 13 piece thanks to good RNG and the current Symbiote event.

 

 

Dread The Darkness – Mission 13

Graviton (1.16m power), 4.00m total enemy health

11.01.20 – I start this battle with a single City character, Punisher, and as a result expect this to be a long, drawn-out series of battles. Of the 19 enemies for this mission, I start with 10 on-screen an do not even get a chance to take a turn in my first battle…

 

11.02.20 – Same result. No point in trying until I have other characters to join Punisher…

 

11.03 – 11.07 – There really is nothing to report here as I have landed a successful attack just twice in 7 days of fighting. Of course Nick Fury and others on the other side have healed that damage, so this is nothing but a waste of time until I have more than just Punisher on my team. The worst part is the extreme need for the Superior Molecular Scan orange gear. It has appeared as a FTP item in the Main and War Stores a total of 3 times since I started Mission 12 – on October 7th.

 

11.19.20 – Still nothing to report as I am not even fighting given the waste of time this is with one single character. I do have Spider-Man (Symbiote) one piece away from joining Punisher, but the grind is slow and tedious to get certain pieces of gear…

 

11.21.20 – After a couple of days of good RNG I decided to pay for the rest of the gear needed and now have Spider-Man (Symbiote) at Gear 14. For this game mode I am also making him a Skirmisher given he is faster than Punisher.

My 2-man team checks in at 239,254 power as I will try to do something that is worthwhile on this mission. While the battle is not much better than with just Punisher, the key is I get one good attack in with SMS landing his special attack as I knock the total health down from 4.000m to 3.394m even with Punisher not getting an attack in.

 

11.22.20 – Back for day two of actual progress and after 10 enemy turns my SMS uses his basic since all enemies have barrier. Punisher follows suit with a basic as well, and while my SMS gets another turn, he has Blind on him and it is a waste, much like this battle when undermanned. In the end the enemies actual healed and gained health as I have 3.529m health remaining.

 

11.23.20 – After 13 attacks from the enemies, Spider-Man (Symbiote) uses his ultimate on Invisible Woman and slows down the entire group of bad guys. Because I changed him to a Skirmisher for this game mode, he added a Vulnerable on her and when Punisher added his AoE he also got the extra attack in. I followed with SMS landing his special after a few hits, then a few hits later I have Punisher using his special on a taunting Crossbones. This is where the wheels fall off – SMS would have gotten a turn in had it not been for Graviton stunning him, and the enemies heal up a bit before I am finished off. In the end the enemies have 2.667m health remaining, so I did make some solid progress at least.

 

11.24.20 – Five attacks in and my SMS hits a red health Invisible Woman, but Punisher is so slow that another 7 attacks take place before he can attack, and now she has a small bit of barrier and Crossbones is taunting. 14 attacks later Punisher hits a now taunting Captain America and today’s battle is basically a waste of time.

 

11.25.20 – After 2 enemy attacks my SMS uses his basic to kill Invisible Woman. While Punisher gets stunned and I take several attacks after that, I am able to take out Crossbones on his second attack using his special. About 12 attacks from the enemies pass, killing my Punisher, and SMS uses his ultimate which ends up killing the SHIELD Assault to bring unto 13 of 19 enemies remaining. A basic attack follows later, but that ends today’s run in a very successful manner IMO. 13 enemies and 2.231m health remain.

 

11.26.20 – Thanksgiving Day here in the USA and the use of Spider-Man (Symbiote)’s special kills Graviton and prompts 3 reinforcements. Punisher is up after I take a couple of hits and kills Coulson and hits the SHIELD Medic that just arrived. Now 11 of 19 remain with 5 on-screen, and the SHIELD Medic is my target. I take several hits and she heals the team, but no revives, and Punisher is up with Captain America taunting. Eight attacks later SMS uses his ultimate targeting SHIELD Medic and slowing down all 5 enemies. A few hits later Punisher is up and uses his ultimate, which hits SHIELD Medic twice thanks to the use of SMS as a Skirmisher via Iso-8, and she is done for leaving 10 enemies. SMS uses his special to kill SHIELD Trooper and Assault, then Punisher uses his special to kill the other SHIELD Assault and just 7 enemies remain, with 4 on-screen after the recent wave of reinforcements. SMS uses his basic and kills Captain America, then the final wave of reinforcements arrives leaving me with a 6 v 1 match-up. This proves to be my undoing as I am blinded and stunned until I am killed off. I can give thanks for this attack as just 1.137m health remains now on this first mission.

 

11.27.20 – Coming off such a successful day yesterday, I am sure today will not be anything close to as good. If I were a betting man, and I am, I would put money on a “waste of time” feeling after this battle.

I have 6 enemies to finish off and Spider-Man (Symbiote) lands his special to start, hitting 4 of the 6. Both of my characters get slowed, and when Punisher’s turn comes he is stuck with a basic on Captain America. 24 attacks later Punisher is dead and SMS is one hit away, but has his ultimate ready. I choose to use it because Graviton is so low, and it kills Graviton to leave just 5 enemies. This also heals SMS a ton, but by the time he gets another turn he has the blind debuff. 12 attacks later SMS is back to red health and uses his special on Coulson and Cap for my final attack of the day. Better than expected, and certainly no waste of time. Tomorrow just 340k will remain on the 5 enemies standing in my way.

 

11.28.20 – Just 340k left and I enter the battle with Spider-Man (Symbiote) up first, using his basic. The attack hits Coulson twice, killing him, and hits Captain America. Punisher follows by killing Cable and it is my 2 versus the enemy 3. SMS hits Crossbones and adds the Vulnerable status effect, then Punisher uses his Striker role to kill him. SMS hits Hawkeye, but Hawkeye’s turn adds blind to my two, wasting my next two attacks. Punisher gets a real attack in and kills Hawkeye, and then my two gang up on Captain America and finish him off for the win.

 

Dread The Darkness Live Blog Battles:

Featured Deals