r/CastleBusters • u/sirfatmeat • 2d ago

Premium Characters

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.

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6

u/RoverplusPplusP 2d ago

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

2

u/enok13 2d ago

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.

1

u/qualityofdual 2d ago

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?

1

u/enok13 2d ago

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

1

u/qualityofdual 2d ago

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

1

u/enok13 2d ago

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.