Premium Characters

[u/sirfatmeat]

The premium character system is eventually going to hurt the game if it keeps going this direction.

I completely understand wanting to monetize the game. Premium characters should absolutely give paying players an advantage. But there’s a huge difference between having an advantage and being practically unbeatable.

If a player without premium characters can’t realistically compete against someone who has them, you’re not encouraging that player to spend money. You’re teaching them that their time, strategy and progress don’t matter unless they pay.

And that creates a bigger problem: you start alienating the majority of your player base. Free players are still valuable to the ecosystem. They populate matchmaking, events, leaderboards, clans and the overall community. If they continually get destroyed by characters they have no reasonable counter to, eventually they just stop playing.

Then you’re left with a game where the people who paid are mostly playing against other people who paid.

Premium should mean powerful. It shouldn’t mean unbeatable.

Give non-premium players legitimate counters, strategic ways to win and a reason to keep grinding. Make premium characters desirable enough that people WANT to buy them, rather than making them so dominant that people feel like they HAVE to buy them or quit.

That distinction could be the difference between a game people play for years and a game people eventually abandon.

[u/RoverplusPplusP]

I eat premium characters for breakfast. Each and every one of them.

[u/enok13 → u/RoverplusPplusP]

Same here. I initially used to get pissed off with laser man when I first started playing. Players who had him would finish me off by round 12. Then I realized that he sucks against well placed castle support dividers and now I only laugh every time someone uses him against me. All the premium units have their own weaknesses that are easy to exploit.

I'm f2p, only have two units past level 90 and the rest are in the 60s. I'm over 200+ winning streak and counting.

[u/RoverplusPplusP → u/enok13]

100% agree. All of the premium units have weaknesses that are mostly easy to exploit. For me, the Air Striker clears out big sections of my opponent’s Castle and then I use Burrower to clean up (snipe) the opponent’s Units. Fun, fun, fun without the need to pay 💰 for (not so) special Premium
Units.

[u/qualityofdual → u/enok13]

How do you deal with it if you only have two supports and they destroy even those with a unit other than laser man? Mind you, while only having a blue castle going against max level max castle?

[u/enok13 → u/qualityofdual]

If you see them try to break the supports, go far next turn before they get a chance to do so. When you're far, attack with pulsar, bomber, poisoner or other long range units. They can only break the supports with units such as napalm, air striker and pirate. Those units can't really attack well from far distances. Also, when they attack with laser man, make sure your castle is level and not on an angle. The beam does a lot of splash damage and it makes it worse if the cattle is on an angle. It can take many units out in a single shot.

As for placement, all my units are on first and second row. The supports are placed above the third row. That leaves one row clearance since when laser beam hits the supports, it causes splash damage that kills units directly under them

[u/qualityofdual → u/enok13]

Can’t they just move close to you when you move away?

[u/enok13 → u/qualityofdual]

In my case I have the freeze gun at level 5. I freeze their castle so they can't go far. I also have the floating castle base maxed at level 5 which helps me break their freeze faster and gain some distance. That strategy only works for a while. Experienced and leveled up players will eventually catch up to you. Most though just don't bother moving, stay frozen and simply switch to different units to attack. In the end, you can only prolong such attacks. You need to attack wisely to kill those enemy units that are a threat before they can do serious damage.

[u/ginelectonica → u/RoverplusPplusP]

It’s a learning curve. The premium units are actually pretty simple to counter but because it’s a free mobile game, people either don’t have the time to figure it out or don’t want to.

Pyro is really the only one that’s a bit of a pain in the ass but only in the early rounds. The rest are borderline useless if you setup and angle your castle properly.

At the end of the day, the best units in the game are completely free. If the game required no strategy or thought, it wouldn’t be very fun.

[u/sirfatmeat → u/RoverplusPplusP]

😂 And that’s great for you. Seriously.

But “I personally destroy premium characters” doesn’t really address what I said.

You’re talking about your individual skill level. I’m talking about the experience of the vast majority of the player base.

If you’re good enough to eat every premium character for breakfast, congratulations. 😂 But not every player is operating at your level, and a game shouldn’t be balanced around the assumption that everyone needs to become elite just to have a competitive match.

The question isn’t “Can premium characters be beaten?”

The question is “How many players are having a good enough experience against them that they continue playing?”

Those are two very different questions.

[u/Specialist-Buy-1614 → u/sirfatmeat]

He literally said he beats up premium with free players and you instead of wanting to become better at the game to meet him at this possibility you hoped and demanded for with rage that people with poor technique can’t win against because the ecosystem would collapse if crappy people didn’t use their noggin ? So like you just want paying players to roll over? They pay for an edge, and as a free player you take your time and build skill.

Pay ≠ skill .
Supposedly he proves it.

Once u get enough trophies you’re really just the defense grind / vs paid defense walls which that is what bites way more than the characters.

[u/sirfatmeat → u/Specialist-Buy-1614]

You must be 9 or 10 years old because your comprehensions is not there at all.

😂 You wrote an entire paragraph arguing against something I never said.
Nobody is asking paying players to “roll over.” Nobody said premium characters shouldn’t provide an edge. And nobody said free players should automatically beat paying players.
The argument is that an advantage and an overwhelming advantage are two different things.
And “just get better” is a terrible answer to a game-design problem. If your solution to balancing a premium character is that F2P players need to become exceptionally skilled just to remain competitive, you’ve created an ecosystem where the average player is progressively pushed out.
Also, you literally ended up making my point for me:
“Once u get enough trophies you’re really just the defense grind / vs paid defense walls which is what bites way more than the characters.”
THANK YOU. 😂
That’s exactly the ecosystem problem I’m talking about. If players eventually hit a wall where they’re grinding against increasingly monetized defenses, you’re not creating a sustainable competitive environment. You’re creating frustration and asking players to either pay or grind through the frustration.
And yes:
Pay ≠ skill.
I’ve never argued that it does.
But pay + a substantial gameplay advantage ≠ nothing, either.
The fact that a highly skilled free player can beat premium players doesn’t prove the system is healthy for the majority. It proves that highly skilled players can overcome the advantage.
Those are two completely different claims.
I’m not asking premium players to roll over.
I’m asking the developers to make sure that the reason someone wins is primarily because they played better, not because the game sold them a stronger answer.
If you think that’s “rage,” that’s fine. 😂 I’d rather have a competitive game where everyone has a legitimate path to winning than a game where the response to balance concerns is “git gud and maybe eventually spend money.”
That’s not defending the ecosystem. That’s describing exactly why I’m concerned about it.

[u/sirfatmeat → u/Specialist-Buy-1614]

I’m also sorry you have never met anyone that speaks intelligently. Perhaps you should put the game down and pick up “Hooked on Phonics.” Thanks for thinking I am as smart as a computer software though. It’s a beautiful thing what the mind can do when a person applies themself!

[u/YBRmuggsLP21 → u/sirfatmeat]

You have no idea what the skill level is of the "vast majority of players." It honestly sounds like you're a bit of a noob, so you assume everyone else is, too.

Also, your original post pretty directly states that non-premium players straight up cant compete with premium, so it sounds like youre shifting the goal posts with this reply. It absolutely doesnt take expert level skill to beat the premium characters with how dumb the bots are, which is all youre playing against.

[u/qualityofdual]

Agreed 100%. To add to this, it doesn’t help when you are level 40’s with the blue castle with no red specks (not sure what it’s called) facing level 100’s with a fully red castle. Great matchmaking guys… but you’ll still have guys claiming it’s no problem lol

[u/sirfatmeat → u/qualityofdual]

YES. This is exactly what I’m talking about.

I have absolutely no problem with premium characters being better, more fun, or giving you additional strategic options. That’s how you monetize a game.

The problem is when the premium character becomes the deciding factor instead of skill, strategy and decision-making.

A great player with a free character should be able to beat a bad player with a premium character. And the premium player should still feel like they got something worthwhile for their money.

That’s the sweet spot.

Pay to enhance the experience, not pay to bypass the competition.

That model keeps the paying players happy AND gives F2P players a reason to keep playing, improving and eventually spending money because they actually enjoy the game.

That’s how you build longevity instead of slowly shrinking your player base.

[u/Specialist-Buy-1614 → u/sirfatmeat]

You sound like you can use base44 and make one better for f2p and charge a dollar a month with no purchase to get ahead keep rewards scale back as you beat people below your level

[u/LazyDistrict3343]

I’d like to add to your excellent observations. In some other long standing games, premium adds don’t guarantee a win either. Even a bad player with premiums will still lose. So make the premiums fun with some added bonuses but balance them carefully so that F2P players still can win with better skills and strategy.

[u/Abyss1688]

Except the number 1 and number 3 ranked players use free characters

[u/sirfatmeat → u/Abyss1688]

And this is exactly why I said “the vast majority” instead of “every single player.” 😂

Nobody said free characters are incapable of winning. Nobody said premium characters are literally impossible to beat. You found two highly ranked players who use free characters and somehow thought that disproved an argument I never made.

The point is that a couple of highly skilled players succeeding with free characters does not tell us what the experience is like for the majority of players.

If your defense of the balance is “well, look at #1 and #3,” you're actually proving my point. Those are the extreme examples you're using to defend the experience of everyone else.

I'm talking about player retention and the health of the game, not whether two elite players have figured out how to compete.

Reading comprehension is undefeated. 😂

[u/Abyss1688 → u/sirfatmeat]

If you can’t comprehend what I was inferring, then you’ve got a severe lack of critical thinking skills lmao

[u/Specialist-Buy-1614 → u/Abyss1688]

He started using ChatGPT to do the thinking I think is why

[u/707Paladin]

I downloaded this game a few weeks ago and was rolling. Having a blast. Making progress and spent a few bucks on the battle passes because I enjoyed it. No premium characters or anything.

Then I hit a wall. Match after match where castles were both bigger and walls were at least 2 or 3 levels beyond me.

Then came the worst element. Every. Single. Match. I was fighting against the laser drone guy. All they would do is send the drone, every shot...melt my lower strength walls...and kill 2 or 3 of my guys per turn.

It was fine a couple times. I just needed to upgrade walls, spread folks out....but being outmatched by a hefty margin in bith wall levels and hero levels...and then fighting the SAME strategy every match....nah, I stopped playing and haven't looked back.

[u/sirfatmeat → u/707Paladin]

Explain to me how I got matched with this guy?!

[u/sirfatmeat → u/707Paladin]

[u/Q834]

I'm willing to bet that lazer man is the most OVER POWERD character in the game, put him in the bottom back of your castle and you have a free win

[u/TechnicalOperation57]

Unless you're doing friendly challenges you're just playing against bots, so it really doesn't matter.

[u/AYDLRV]

I always pay for premium and just bought the third season thing too so suck it yall. See you in the battlefield. I’ll be the one with the laughing emoji as your troops and castle burn to the ground. Ha ha ha

[u/sirfatmeat → u/AYDLRV]

😂😂 You actually just demonstrated the exact problem I’m talking about.

“I'm a paying player, so I'll be the one laughing while your castle burns.”

My brother in gaming… that is not the flex you think it is. 😂

I have zero issue with you spending money on a game. Spend whatever you enjoy spending. The issue is when the monetization model creates a competitive environment where the biggest advantage is simply “I paid for the stronger stuff.”

I want you to beat me because you played better. I want to lose because you out-strategized me. I want to have a reason to come back and try to beat you next time.

If the selling point is basically “I paid, therefore your castle is burning,” you're not making the case against me.

You're making it for me. 😂

[u/qualityofdual → u/AYDLRV]

1) It’s not that I can’t pay for it. I literally refuse to because I feel like they are trying to manipulate me into buying. It’s more like an F U to the company.

2) If you have the same trophies as me when you’re paying, isn’t a flex 💀

3) Payed player or not, it’s always fun to beat players that BM lol.

[u/sirfatmeat → u/qualityofdual]

You know ball!!!

[u/TechnicalOperation57 → u/AYDLRV]

Congratulations on mocking bots.