Guild Wars (Strategy)

Check out the Guild Wars (Gamemode) page for a description of what Guild Wars is. Text by *Jubjab*, with input from *Z-Xer* and tables by *NatsuDark*.

## Team Size & Which Days to Play

Guild Wars run from Tuesday to Sunday, so there are 6 possible days with a max of 10 players per day. When selecting the signup days, a guild has firstly make one important decision: Will it try to compete for a good ranking on the Global Leaderboard (by maxing Victory Points), or will it prefer to just maximize the Reward Points (Guild Wars Shop money). These two are in some ways contradictory so this decision has a big influence of especially the team size selection. The picture below the total amount of Victory Points (VP, red icon) and Reward Points (RP, silver icon) you can achieve with different team size selections (assuming a guild of 20 players):

### Strategy 1: Compete for a top ranking on the Global Leaderboard

The Guild Wars Leaderboard is the main leaderboard for guilds, and achieving a high ranking on this leaderboard gives the respect of other guilds and proves that the guild is one of the strongest in the game.

Since several seasons, winning a Guild Wars season the guild needs to play perfectly every battle get the max VP possible every week. As the different islands give different points, each team size has a different maximum points per player. The team combination which gives the highest possible number of VP during one week is playing two days with a team of 8 and four days with a team of 6.

With this team setup, which days to play does not matter much, but in theory the best days would be to play with 6 on Tue-Fri and with 8 on Sat-Sun, as the matching checks the total VP on a daily basis, so having a lower score at the start of the week could match the guild against guilds that have had losses.

This team selection does not maximize RP, but a top guild will still have no problems getting enough RP to guy everything worthwhile in the GW shop.

Note that in case of tied scores, the shown ranking on the in-game leaderboard works the same as for the challenge. That is, the guild who last started playing on the very first day of the season (i.e. the last to get registered on the scoreboard), will be shown as first on the in-game leaderboard.

### Strategy 2: Try to maximize Reward Points

If the guild doesn't have 20 players, or it has many players not being able to play the highest sectors without red gassing, it is better to stay away from the leaderboard battle and instead focus on getting as much Reward Points as possible.

The most important thing is to avoid playing with team sizes of 8 or 6, as all the global top guilds will play with these team sizes.

Playing with a team size of 10 gives the most RP, as a big team can close the largest amount of islands and thus get more sector rewards. This is a good strategy especially if the guild isn't strong enough to play the highest islands (which give the biggest rewards). Note, though, that a team size 10 gives a total of 8 spares, and to use those in the best possible way requires very good planning & communication. So playing with team 9 (only 2 spares) or team 7 (6 spares) can often be a good compromise between ease of management and still getting a good amount of RP.

Playing with team sizes lower than 6 should be avoided as the loss of RP starts to become significant.

### Which days to play

Most guilds will play with a large team size on Tuesday, as no other events are running on that day (Distance & Last Stand start on Monday and the Challenge starts on Wednesday). Weekdays also tend to be more popular than weekends.

Since matchmaking is based on the current VP, a guild can theoretically match itself against weaker guilds by not playing at all, or with smaller guild sizes, at the start of the week, and with larger team sizes at the end of the week.

## Which Sectors to Play

The Guild Wars map is built up of 20 islands, consisting of sectors A, B with 4\*3 missions each and sector C, consisting of 4\*2 missions) , with many islands additionally having a standalone D sector (which is identical to the A & B sectors). The walker levels increase so that island 20 has the most difficult walkers. The harder the difficulty, the more VP and RP the mission will award.

To get the maximum amount of points a guild should play the hardest possible islands. Since every fully completed sector gives a large amount of points (with the C sector giving additional points), guilds should always complete the maximum amount of sectors. The combination of sectors giving the most points is shown in the table below:

### Piling, Stacking or Jumping

Unless playing with a team of 6, the guild will have some additional swords not needed to close any sector. Instead of spending these swords on any random mission, these swords should be used to "pile" (also called "Stacking" or "Jumping") on the most difficult missions, i.e. several players enter the mission simultaneously, allowing all participating players to get the VP of the hardest possible mission. Note that as soon as one player finishes the mission, the mission will be closed and no new player may enter it. It is therefore crucial to communicate about who, when, and which mission will be jumped. All participating players will then enter the mission (with the additional players getting the blue dot "are you sure you want to enter" popup) before anyone exits the mission.

### Bonus Sectors

The map always has four bonus sectors, which will grant some kind of bonus (for example a damage bonus to a certain class) if they are completed. As these bonus sectors provide very low points only the most novice guilds should consider playing these sectors.

### Which maps to play

As the maximum amount of points is often needed to win a battle, the guild needs a clear plan, where every player gets designated exact missions to play. If members are not given specific missions, there is a very large risk of playing the same missions by mistake (i.e. accidentally stacking a mission), as the blue dot warning comes with a delay. All successful guilds will have a dedicated GW planner, assigning days and missions for every member of the guild. This also vastly reduces the need of communication during the battle, as only players assigned to stack missions will need to coordinate which mission to stack and when. As the in-game chat is limited (and unavailable while inside a mission) most serious guilds will communicate with the help of an external chat tool, like LINE, Discord or Telegram.

## PvZ Strategy

For missions against walkers, most people use Sasha + Mercer + Yumiko. Sasha's LT allows everyone to get reliably charged quickly, and Mercer's high damage means the large amount of threat created doesn't become an issue. Other teams are obviously also possible but SMY works well enough for all mission types and maps. Note, however, that if your Sasha and Mercer are of a low rarity (i.e. only 0-2 pink stars) it might be safer to use Princess instead of Mercer, as you get more reliably charged.

#### Recommended Gear & Supports

* Sasha: Infused 7 mm Harrier (with incendiary & cripple) / Crippling Harpoon, or normal harpoon if you don't own any of these, or the Wrecker Shotgun. Sasha needs a weapon that can either cripple or root stray walkers, and getting walkers on fire is always a bonus. Tactical & Primed armor. Support: Whisperer's Mask, Walker Mike or Cat.
* Mercer: The crippling CAR or Decimator, Primed armor. Tactical either on weapon or armor. Support: Carol's Cookies. The CAR rifle works best in most scenarios due to its much better range, but Decimator can hit targets behind walls, which is also useful.
* Yumiko: Savior Handgun (has crippling & incendiary), Tactical & Primed armor. Support: Walker Mike or Cat.
	+ Note that Yumiko needs 2 lucky traits to get gold cripple to 100% (gold cripple base is 75%, and with only 20-25% luck you get to around 90% cripple, but with 20%+20% luck you get 0.75 \* 1.4 = 105%).
	+ Yumiko's recommended hero traits are therefore Lucky, Critical Aim, Ruthless & Marksman
	+ An armor with gold Primed and Tactical is recommended. Primed often gives Yumiko an extra shot on the walker turn, which can be especially useful to interrupt walkers appearing behind corners.

Other heroes used with some popularity are Connie (thanks to her great LT allowing consistent charging), Ezekiel (thanks to his pretaliate ability to push walkers away with the Morning Star) and Tyreese (with his walker slowing circles).

#### On the pre-mission sceen

A lot of the red gas and failed missions in GW are due to bad preparation - play the wrong map, go in with the wrong team, or get surprised by a Spiked walker appearing behind a corner and instakilling you.

So, stop and confirm the following at the Pre-Mission screen:

* Am I playing the right mission?
* Do I have the appropriate team & gear?
* What kind of special walkers are there? Is there a Spiked, Goo, Exploder or other specials which need to be dealt with?

#### Inside the mission

* Don't rush it. Avoid moving more than 2 steps forward unless you're 100% sure it's safe.
* Try to locate Spiked Walkers and other dangerous special walkers as soon as possible, and move extra carefully and safely if you don't know where they are. If the mission only has Spikeys, there will be two of them, or if there are different kinds of special walkers, there will be one of them.
* If you aren't sure if there are walkers behind shelves or corners, use Yumiko to track a path in that direction. If a tile is "taken" or the path turns red, you know there is a walker there.
* Consider leaving one walker a few steps away unstunned, or shoot and cripple a walker a few steps away to make sure Mercer gets a Primed overwatch shot on the walker turn, to damage the stunned walkers and guarantee he's charged the next round.
* Memorize how much damage Sasha & Yumiko make so that you know which walkers will die with Yumiko's attack before Mercer gets his shot away.
* Only start on gates & crates when it's safe to do so. SMY is such a strong team that the map will never become overcrowded, so there is no need to rush.
* Carol's Cookies (especially if you have them at lvl 2 or higher) will be extremely powerful on Mercer and can often clear all walkers within its radius, no matter its level or type (except Metalheads). Use it to clear Spikeys or other dangerous walkers from the map quickly.

## PVP Strategy

On PvP missions the player (attacker) has a huge advantage over the defender, as the defender's badges do not work. This means defenders can not withstand many hits before dying. However, this effect repeatedly has shown that attackers go into pvp missions unprepared and end up having red gas.

### Attacker

On attack, the main target should be to engage the defenders at such a long range that they are not able to fire back. However, on some maps rooms or otherwise small maps might mean that the attacker is not able to use his range advantage.

Team selection depends on if the attacker has incendiary starbound rifles (as the starbound has unlimited range on the attack, but only 8 tiles on the defense).

#### If you have at least one incendiary starbound rifle

* Guardian Carol in lead (preferably defensively badged) with the incendiary Starbound. GC should strive to stay out of opponent range at all times, especially if offensively badged. Note that against the very top teams (with defenders having high level Bullet Dodge traits) it can be better to use Eugene or Negan in lead, as GCarol's trait is wasted if the defenders dodge the first shot.
* One other hunter or shooter with a long range weapon, either another incendiary Starbound, or the extra long range flare gun. It's also possible to use an Assault with a long range weapon like the Commonwealth Assault Rifle. Also this survivor should aim for being able to engage opponents at max range without getting retaliated / revenged. This survivor must be defensively badged.
* The third survivor should be a fully defensive bruiser or a third defensively badged hunter/shooter. A bruiser will be useful for engaging the walkers that inevitably will spawn next to your survivors and its high health will allow it to, if needed, advance and take the brunt of the opponents attacks instead of the more vulnerable ranged survivors. Recommended setup for bruiser:
	+ 80% Damage Reduction and 3 Health Badges
	+ Stun Resistant armor
	+ Wide area weapon to engage spawning walkers (the Lucerne Hammer is especially useful for this task)

#### If you don't have the incendiary starbound rifle

* Three fully defensively badged heroes, of which 1-2 are hunters/shooters/assaults and 1-2 bruisers.
* Having incendiary on the ranged weapons is super useful, as it will allow you to firebug the opponents.

Regardless of team, supports and armor should be:

* Supports should be Dog, Hwacha and Commonwealth Armor or Carol's Cookies. Humans affected by Dog will not be able to overwatch nor to move closer, so it is often smart to use Dog on round 1, before any walkers have spawned (as long as you can see a few opponents). Hwacha is quite good against the low health opponents, but requires a few stars to be useful.
* Have Stun Protection, Primed & Bulletproof or Hazard Suit armor.

#### In the actual mission

* Try to place your heroes so that enemy hunters cannot hit more than one of your guys with each shot.
	+ If the opponent has Shane, try to clear all walkers near you as Shane will want to target these and the explosion damage will be severe
* Hide the bruiser behind a wall and clear walkers that spawn near you. If needed, it can move first to draw fire from the opponent so your less sturdy survivors can shoot without being overwatched.
* If possible, allow the enemy to approach you instead of the other way around. Overwatch is triggered by movement, so always think twice before moving anyone.
	+ Note that using a med kit will count as an action and will allow overwatch
* If you have a hazard suit, damage by fire is very low, so don't worry about getting ignited. Even if you don't, fire damage is marginal (10% of starting health), so only extinguish yourself if there is nothing better to do.
* If you need to throw a tool (grenade or stun grenade), make sure to target it on the ground beside the enemy survivor, as a direct hit will trigger revenge & retaliate.

### Defender

The first thing to remember is that the game automatically will assign defending teams to all sectors of the map, using teams of the whole guild. This means it is common to have defender teams of players that are not actually playing that day. Second, defending teams will be ranked according to their pink stars, and the higher the amount of pink stars, the higher an island it will defend. Sectors again are ranked according to their VP, so C islands will get the highest ranked defenders. While it's hard to fully optimize this, consider creating really low-star teams, in case you don't have good traits and gear for a defending team. This way other guild members with better defenders have a higher chance of actually getting their teams to important sectors.

1. When you create your three teams, remember to build it around the team leader's Leader Trait. So their traits should synergize and amplify each other. As the attacker will try to take out the defenders with ranged weapons, any melee defenders will almost certainly never get close enough to be of any use. The only exception is Ezekiel or Eugene, who can be useful thanks to their leader traits.
	* Ezekiel lead with a team benefiting from his pretaliate LT, so ranged teammates with long-range interrupt/crippling/ensnare rifles (e.g., Guardian Carol with Dale's rifle and assault with crippling CAR)
	* Carl lead with a team of maximum revenge, retaliate, CA, and lucky; preferably all with long range fire weapons
	* GC lead with a team of long range fire weapons and maximum revenge, retaliate, CA, and bullet dodge or lucky
	* Remember that the attacker will try to use long range weapons, so the defender should have long range weapons, too. Be aware that the Starbound rifle's range is limited to 8 tiles for the defending party. Incendiary weapons are useful, as there's a fair chance of fire bugging the attackers, and burning attackers can't use charge attacks.
2. The single most important trait for any serious GW defender is Bullet Dodge. A high level BD combined with some lucky traits will allow the defender to dodge up to 2/3 of the time.
3. Armors are important too. Teams with Eugene or Mercer lead can probably best use lucky armors at the expense of stun resistance. But everything else can probably benefit more from stun resistance. Remember that all armors will be automatically upgraded when on defense. Look for gold stun res and at least silver primed. The last trait could be bullet proof, iron skin, fortified. For melee, also consider gold HS instead of primed.
4. Stun lock is the main path way for defense to win (i.e. you keep stunning the attackers over and over). This is why retaliate + critical aim + lucky is important. Not many people have heroes optimized for PvP defense, and regular survivors take 1 star hit, so, for most people = they will have to play with what they have. Note that Revenge is not that useful, since the defending team will not move as a team and will rarely be within range to be able to utilize the Revenge trait in a useful way.
5. Push weapons are also quite useful, but unfortunately at the moment there are not good long-range push weapons. For bruisers/Ezekiel definitely use a push weapon. The same goes for rooting weapons, they can be very useful.