Day 3, forward we go!
Day 3 is when the season gets it's first ramp up. But before we explain what happens, first some insights.
In the pre-season (or season 0) we could capture cities that gave us certain buffs. These cities are still around in season 1, but we get an extra building added, the Stronghold.
What in god's name is the Stronghold?
Stronghold are NPC bases that we as an alliance can capture. They are the required building to capture to claim territory on the season 1 map. To capture a stronghold, we will attack it as an alliance like we do with cities. Strongholds come in different levels and each level will require a certain amount of resistance. This is why you spend the first few days building up resistance.
To capture a stronghold, we will first defeat it's boss, The Corruptor... tada duuuuum.
This boss defends the stronghold and must be defeated first. Virus resistance matters here because it will decide if you will do your full damage or only a % of the damage to him. In the screenshot above you can see in the red box, that we did not meet the virus resistance required to attack him and as such, deal 54% less damage. This can go down all the way to 99%!
Upon defeating the Corruptor, regardless of your virus resistance, you will get virus stacks. The exact amount is indicated by the purple number at the top, in the picture being +5.
Once the corruptor is defeated, you can just continue on with the attack on the stronghold to capture it. If you participated in the capture, you will get a reward afterwards in your mail.
Once the stronghold is captured, it receives a 36 hour shield where no other alliance can attack it and an army of tanks surrounds the stronghold to defend it. Enemy alliances wanting to capture your stronghold, will need to defeat these defenders first.
Cities are the big winners
Cities are the first stage objectives in the game and tie directly into the end-of-season rewards. Capturing a city does not only give a lot of rewards, it also gives the alliance influence points for the alliance season ranking AND a capture buff. These are basically the pre-season cities on steroids!
As you can see, the same mechanic applies as with the Corruptor. You will need X amount of virus resistance and many rewards are to be received upon capture. After a city is captured, it will enter a protected state for 6 days where it can not be captured.
How does this fit together for the alliance?
Just as in season 1, an alliance will capture zones to reach the center of the map. Each zone is home to a stronghold or city. The alliance will connect zones with each other to reach the center of the map.
Info for R4/5
There are certain limits in the game to pace the game out:
- An alliance can capture up to 2 military strongholds per day.
- An alliance can declare war on up to 2 cities per day.
- As an alliance, you need to capture any Lv.1 stronghold first to get the first piece of Alliance territory.
- The initial limit of strongholds is 3 per alliance.
- For each lvl 1-5 city, the alliance can capture 1 additional stronghold.
- For each lvl6 city and above, the alliance can capture 2 additional strongholds.
- In its own Warzone, an Alliance can capture up to 4 Cities.- In other servers (other warzones), an alliance can hold up to 4 more cities. Bringing the maximum amount of cities to 8.
If your alliance is among the higher ranks of your server, most commonly NAP alliances, a pathing map will be made for alliances which zones to take on the map after which your R5/4 will set out the timeline for taking those zones.
Alliance influence points
Capturing cities will grant you as a player some great rewards, BUT more importantly reward the alliance with influence points. These influence points are used to build up the season ranking. At the end of the season, based upon this ranking all alliance members will get the rewards tied to their alliance's position in the leaderboard.
Happy hunting in season 1 and until next time where we will take more about the virus system and how it affects gameplay.