PvP

PvP is one of the head-to-head elements of Dungeon Crusher. Any player entering PvP (referred to here as the "attacker") is pitted against another player (the defender), run by an AI as if they are a boss. The attacker must defeat the defender within a time limit. If the attacker loses, four of their heroes will be out of commission for several hours. If they win, they get Hearts.

PvP comes in at least two forms, direct head-to-head, or Clan Arena. The former is reached by a button with two crossed swords and becomes possible after level 150 on any run. The latter is reached via the Clan interface, if the player is in a clan which has completed the Tournaments research.

Direct head-to-head puts one of the defender's heroes out of commission if they lose, while Clan Arena appears to only award the attacker with a chest and Influence in addition to hearts. Clan Arena matches the player to an opponent scaled to their current damage, while direct head-to-head gives no such guarantee of even a chance of victory, which is why **most guides strongly recommend the player never uses direct head-to-head**.

## Duel Details

A duel appears to select a random opponent whose health is set somewhere between 100 and 2 million (2.0E+6) times the player's DPC at the moment they enter the duel. (In other words, if you did nothing at all afterward, it would take you 100 to 2 million seconds to defeat your opponent.) The opponent also comes with 25 armor, which works the same as armor on a Greedy Goblin or Gilded Construct (*N* armor prevents *N*% of all damage, and each click reduces armor by one). You then have a base of 30 seconds to reduce your opponent's health to zero, by clicking and using skills.

Any player's performance in PvP is also dependent in part upon stats purchased in the PvP interface:

* Battle Skills (increases click damage)
* Endurance (increases hit points and enables **Regeneration**)
* Weapon (increases PvP click damage)
* Armour (increases damage mitigation(?) and enables **Stone Skin**)
* Dodge (increases dodge and enables **Shadowform**)

Battle Skills and Weapon affect only the attacker. The other three affect only the defender - they are apparent to the attacker as some effect (green glow as the defender's health quickly rises; rocks at the corners as the crit rate drops to zero; purple aura as the hit rate drops nearly to zero).

There are also six consumable items that can aid attack. They are available during the battle by clicking buttons on the left and right sides.

* Slaughterhouse doubles attacker's DPS and stacks.
* Runic Bomb takes away 20% of the defender's hit points.
* Cyndor's Gift activates 5 skills: Arrow Shower, War Cry, Assassinate, Primal Frenzy and Succubus Blood, regardless of whether or not those skills are in cooldown when the item is used.
* Purification deactivates the defender's skills.
* Mystery of the Infinite gives the attacker 30 more seconds.
* Door to Nothingness ends combat immediately in a draw.

All six can be both won from arena chests, and crafted.

## Clan Arena

Clan Arena awards the attacker a chest and influence on a win. The chest fills one of three slots in the player's inventory. A chest takes at least three hours to open; the player can spend bottles to reduce this time to zero (1bottle per hour). If the attacker wins but has no inventory space, the chest is *lost*.
The chest quality (and its rewards) are determined by the player's league, in turn determined by the player's influence.

For every ten wins, you get a mystic chest, similar to the Vaults, which has a high chance of awarding a rarity level to one of your hired heroes. For that, three of your hired heroes are chosen randomly, where you can select one of, which then receives the rarity level. The heroes need only to be hired, it does not matter if they are around in the Mines, or may have died in PvP or Clan Mine fights, as long as they have been hired after the last Dark Ritual they can be in the list of the three randomly chosen heroes.

Below the Attack button is a timer, constantly counting down to zero. Every duel you enter adds 30 minutes to it. If it reaches five hours or more, you are "burned out" and have to wait until the timer runs completely out before you can duel again. You can reset this timer by spending 200bottle.

## Tips

*Note: all tips are based on some player experience. Some tips are not yet confirmed.*

* Since opponent health appears to only depend on your initial DPS, and success depends on clicks, the #1 key to winning duels seems to be to **keep your DPS low compared to your DPC (damage per click)**. This implies a fair number of other tips.
	+ Heroes which raise your DPS will not help. Heroes which raise your DPC (such as Zak) or your chance to crit (e.g. Neerd) appear to help immensely. So, always hire such heroes, and do not sacrifice them or send them to mines while you duel.
	+ Heroes which give you damage skills also help immensely, even if it's DPS, since they can be raised after the fact. So, hire yourself (for arrows), Ena, G'eld, Darthu, and Ethelinda, and have all their skills off cooldown when you enter.
	+ Artifacts which affect DPC or crit chance, such as Strong Hand, Graceful Dagger, and Bloody Glove are worth getting as soon as you can afford them.
	+ Runestone Axe increases your idle DPS, so you may have to click at least once in the world before entering a duel. *(See Jswars' comment below.)*
* As soon as the duel begins, fire off all your damage skills, typically starting with Succubus Blood and going clockwise. Succubus Blood should double the effect of Primal Frenzy as a result. This should lead to a quick win as soon as the defender's armor is reduced to zero.
* If you see a defender aura appear and there's little time left, have a Purification ready, or a couple of Runic Bombs, or a Door to Nothingness - or prepare to lose a few heroes until the next DR.
* Amulets which increase the duration of your damage skills are helpful. If they are maxed, you might squeeze in as many as four duels before they run out. Be sure to open chest rewards as you go.
* Arena chests are probably worth spending bottles to open quickly. They often award bottles, and occasionally emerlands and even shard packs.
* Mystic chests appear to be worth opening only if you have your top three heroes hired, in case they have a rarity upgrade. Since dueling is hard without damage skills, this usually means running a Dark Ritual immediately.
* PvP opponents do not count as conventional bosses, so artifacts like Sand of Time and Cursed Doll will not help.
* Never allow your Arena delay timer to go over 5 hours unless you know you won't be dueling for a while. If it's 4:30:00 or higher, wait for the timer to drop below.
* A Daily Quest to use skill cooldowns or time travel typically means you can do several duels at a time - but mind the arena timer.
* You should never lose if you follow the above tips, but in case you might anyway, do not hire Brath before finishing duels in any particular run. Otherwise, a loss may result in Brath dying, meaning you have no Dark Ritual for several hours.