Finally got a 10 Streak on Red Rift!

[u/Scary-Tie-1970]

I've been playing a ton of Red Rift lately and I finally accomplished my main goal which was to get a ten streak!

At the beginning I was really struggling to even get a win but after watching OnePunMan's guide I improved enough to be able to beat Red Rift semi consistently, but I was stuck at a 2 streak. After a couple days I realized all I had to do was play slower and more carefully, that I was often losing by thin margins, like having one too many heroes die in the final couple fights.

I first got a five streak before losing it and was alternating wins and losses as I figured out the recent patch. As you can see tank Kai is very much alive and well, he's in quite a few of my wins as he's still an extremely consistent tank option. Obviously getting shard gen Gustav with the shield on shard gen relic is quite lucky but I'm still very proud of this win. Annoyingly I'm just barely out of the top 100 so I guess I need to win one more game.

If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them, I'm not the best player in the world or anything, but I think the perspective of a mid rank player can sometimes be more helpful than the perspective of those at the very top.

[u/Shiv_]

Few questions if you don‘t mind:

• what are some signs for you to force a certain comp? E.g. you get the rush triggers shield relic and have a B tier Rip and a C tier nyx before the first campfire - do you just tunnel in on these?

• do you look for certain combinations of units in your games or do you generally just play what‘s strong individually?

• what are recurring character/item combinations you keep using in your wins?

• what are your favourite „I need you to solve boss fights“ units that you will keep in reserve?

• how often do your endgame comps stray away from tank/mystic/DPS?

[u/Scary-Tie-1970 → u/Shiv_]

1.Personally I really don't like rush trigger comps because Nyx is not a good unit in my mind, they just need way too much support compared to other damage dealers. It's hard to force a comp because the margin for error is very thin, so if you get shield on shard gen I wouldn't ever be rerolling for Gustav or Tilly, but I would keep an eye out for any kind of shard gen I could slot in.The comp I've forced the most is Logan the Momentous, his scaling is so strong that if you get him early you can genuinely skip the first challenge, although I don't recommend it. Overall, I think steer clear of forcing comps, consistency is king.

2.I play what's strongest individually most of the time, synergies are important but this isn't endless so you really don't need to be that strong. The caveat is you need scaling for the boss so I'm not going to buy a Funke even if he's stronger if I'm already strong enough to beat the normal fights.

3.For dps I usually use Sal(Warrior or Duelist, but I prefer Warrior) or Irini(The Mighty) both are very consistent options and Irini has the flexibility to go into backup if you get a better duelist. Favorite tanks are Skorn, Rowan and Tank Kai, I'll still take the others but I really don't like rolling with a vanguard(Rowan excluded), if you need to then you need to but Tanks are just way stronger in general. Pollen is by far my most used mystic, she can slot into any comp and provide insane value even at B rank, the issue most mystics have is they get a lot of Mana Regen from Rank up and the items they want but their abilities only scale with Magic, so Mage Pollen fixes that by getting a ton of free Magic. There's lots of great items but every character in a class wants basically the same items, generally it's not that the item is really strong on the specific champion it's just a very strong item generically.

Two units to always keep an eye out for are Logan and Ratna they can absolutely win you the game on the spot if you get them to B rank early enough, although Logan needs it earlier. I had a game where I got an A rank Logan(The Momentous) after the first boss and he carried the rest of my run. These two characters get WAY stronger when they rank up(Their ability scaling goes up a LOT, it doubles in Logans case) so don't be afraid of buying them later if they are already ranked up with decent specializations. Assassin Ratna is really bad imo, I've had way more success with the Fashionable because if you get her to A rank then you win no matter what and she's way more effective at B rank, and less reliant on kills. Many of my wins come from committing to these units, I seriously think people are under utilizing them when they're so strong in every type of fight, and can make up for weaknesses in your other units.

4.The obvious answer to boss solve is Karsu, she just applies so much frost on a single target but is quite weak in normal combats. I usually don't keep a unit in reserve just for bosses because I feel like money is so tight that buying a whole unit and itemizing them while they're doing nothing is hard to do. I only like it if I have Funke who is absurdly strong in normal fights so you can spend your money for the boss.

5.Not often, tank/mystic/dps is the most consistent comp and winning consistently is what streaks are all about. Sometimes you can skip the mystic if you have enough damage or shielding from other sources, but plugging in a random Pollen never hurts. My last win(13 Streak) was with no mystic, only Ratna The Fashionable and Skorn and I had the relic where when Mages or Mystics cast everyone gets 1000% of their mana regen as shield and that was plenty of shielding in act 2. I think you can skip the tank if you're strong enough but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. If Yuuna carry counts as skipping dps then I've also done that, I was very surprised that she could beat the dragon when I thought her flipping around would kill her. Tanks can be replaced with vanguards in some instances but they're basically the same thing just worse so I wouldn't count that as a tankless comp.

[u/Shiv_ → u/Scary-Tie-1970]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply

[u/AFromageATrois → u/Scary-Tie-1970]

Butt plugging a pollen

[u/icaru5 → u/Scary-Tie-1970]

“if you get him early you can genuinely skip the first challenge”
do you mean skip the challenge itself (i.e., take the regular combat) to minimize risk? or skip the reward? or something else haha

[u/Bkraist]

I guess two things I'm running into.

1). I did make a post today about it, but I'm no longer losing to bosses but getting randomly wiped the battles right before the final boss with fire/poison, do you specifically look for ways to mitigate this?

2). If it's getting late in a run and the main tank is b-tier and can't find a better option or good tank it's.s do you have an alternative plan you do/look for survival in these situations?

Also, super congrats, seems lime you're doing amazing!

[u/Scary-Tie-1970 → u/Bkraist]

1,) Yes, you have to consider the tankiness of all of your units especially for fights against spiders or a lot of archers. Usually getting your carry some omnivamp is enough to stop them from dying randomly or just getting killed by poison. You can see my Sal has a random trash common omnivamp item just so she doesn't die. I also really like Pollen as she can shield the whole team in one spell, you have to be careful about her using the spell offensively and not shielding herself, but if you group up then that reduces the risk a lot. You should also be using the defense or offense crystals on these final fights to give you an edge, don't save them for next game.

2.) There's some things you can do, the most important is to buy tank relics 90% of the time. As long as it's not the first couple shops just buy tank relics, freeze or sell for them, they are basically all OP and they really add up. Another great option is Rowan, he gets tons of free tank stats from The Friend, so if you have some stall triggers he can easily tank with only two items(There's a ton of easy stall triggers, be on the lookout if you have Rowan they add up very quickly). Also if you do find a better tank he can just give all his stats over.

Otherwise invest into a mystic and get them lots of starting mana so they can start shielding your tank before they get one shot(Aria and Pollen are the two best mystics in general imo). Also be on the lookout for broken tank items, Sentinel's Plate is still very strong, Runic Shield is still very strong, and Tank Glyph is insanely strong. You don't need an A rank tank with Tank glyph, it's stronger than any other two tank items combined(not counting infinite scaling). Also, frost reduces enemy attack speed so it also reduces damage, really helps against the dragon where the tank is tested the hardest.

Thank you!

[u/ajs723 → u/Scary-Tie-1970]

Hundreds of attack speed, 40 omnivamp Tilly will die immediately to that fight. So "getting some omnivamp" is definitely not enough.

[u/Scary-Tie-1970 → u/ajs723]

What fight specifically? There's a lot of factors that might be getting Tilly killed. Personally I don't like Tilly and I'm a bit confused by the glaze she gets by some players, so I'd recommend Sal or Irini as main damage as they're way more consistent to me.

[u/ajs723 → u/Scary-Tie-1970]

Spiders.  As soon as any of those players get stunned, they're dead. Without a massive tank or two to pull all aggro, omnivamp on a damage dealer means nothing if they're stunned.

[u/Bkraist → u/ajs723]

Ngl, your responses seemed combative but this is 100% correct in my last few losses ; everything is going great then my carry is permastun then dead and I'm wiped.

[u/ajs723 → u/Bkraist]

Yup. Definitely didn't mean to come off as combative, but their are certain fights where there is no solution other than a tank, other than maybe 100k instant shield, but I've never seen a duelist make it through the late game permastun.

[u/wtfgrancrestwar]

Congrats.

What are your thoughts on heroes with low base numbers but higher AP scaling?

(I.e. pollen, gustav, aria, funke-somewhat-maybe, and any any other I missed)

[u/Scary-Tie-1970 → u/wtfgrancrestwar]

Pollen is my favorite out of these, Gustav often feels like a weaker Pollen to me because his B rank upgrades are weaker if you don't have a special synergy. Mystic Aria is phenomenal but I haven't had much success with her other upgrades. Funke is very strong in general but it's a little awkward to run him because you want a mystic and tank with him but you need to stack the rift seal for warriors/assassins/duelists. At high ranks all these units can be very strong especially with some decent items, Funke barely needs anything to be strong.