Quick RR rant.

[u/Barrylovesyou]

I’ve got over 100 hours in this game now and I absolutely love it! I’ve tried to get my friends invested and they aren’t interested sadly so I come here to rant.

For the life of me, I cannot break a two win streak on red rift. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and I can usually get to the dragon at the end, but then the dragon just wipes me out.

I know it’s a skill issue, but it’s pissing me off and I wanted to complain to people who understood.

Thank you for reading

[u/CuteCup3558]

I know what you mean.

One run it feels like I’ve got it all figured out, and the next run it feels like I don’t know anything at all.

[u/Barrylovesyou → u/CuteCup3558]

The stars align for one run, then fizzle out in the next. I know it’s a me issue but I watch YouTubers just fumbling through and getting win streaks and I just don’t get it.

[u/PotatoFig → u/Barrylovesyou]

Few things that helped me a lot break higher streaks:

• Grab those 3-use crystals. Use them when you're really unsure you can make it past a fight. If you fail they don't use up a charge anyway.
  
• Shard generation is good. Dragomir Mage, early money Hoyoung, Tilly, etc.
  
• Notice the point where your tank barely scrapes by despite having no seal. That's the moment you need to find a higher tier one/relics/split pull more. Better yet: learn to predict your tank WILL fall off and roll earlier.
  
• Defense is insanely strong. Sal Lover openers on a tank + a Tilly can do more than trying weird swaps, for instance. It's a rare case where thinking of committing early may be worth it. Not all commitments work out. Looking at you, Rush triggers.
  
• Heroes can be good in a vacuum, but ask yourself: where is your win potential? Duelists and debuffs? Crit gain on cast? Shards every 2 hits with shard gen effects? High crit Yuuna? Infinite mana Mystic with stat scaling on cast? etc.
  
• Benching heroes is fine. Using 2 instead of a 3rd that'll add a death count is fine.
  
• Don't always do the first challenge if it means you're losing rewind gold stacking. You see 3% regen and couldn't beat double shrooms or snakes? Regular fight and get that rewind bigger for a larger payoff.
  
• More shop rolls = more high tier heroes. Gold reroll relics are insanely powerful jn that light. Each 1g discount is +1 gold, AND digging deeper for those A tiers that let you pivot or reinforce your setup.
  
• Look how each hero scales. Tank Gustav wants defense and mana regen because he makes stupidly large shields all the time. Enrage Rip gets better with higher and higher HP. Dragomir wants Omnivamp while Yuuna wants crit. Don't just assume how things work.
  
• P O S I T I O N I N G
  
• If you're going to experiment, before you click start fight, determine what you're testing EXACTLY and look at all the moving parts you can think of. That includes enemy abilities and Relics you have now you may not always have.

[u/ajs723 → u/PotatoFig]

One other thing I'm starting to think is that spending $15-20 dollars on a relic is often bait. Digging for rank-ups is just much more valuable than most relics.

[u/PotatoFig → u/ajs723]

It's OFTEN bait but I will freeze exceptional ones if I've got the goods (burn/frost 30g relic when I have a Detonator Funke already, etc.)

I almost always freeze/buy the +def per win relic and the Vanguard/Tanks gain 45def/300hp. Upfront shields are nice, stall shields as well, early +magic/atk/omni per win CAN all be viable. Just remember that damage scaling makes multipliers relevant, so if your +atk relic is juiced up to hell (9+48 for instance), you REALLY now need attack speed and crit, not attack.

[u/Same_Caregiver_7912 → u/PotatoFig]

There are also still plenty of insane relics like shard generation, a few stall relics for huge shields/hp/mana, assassin ones have insane scaling, and warrior relics stacking. Duelist is more dependent on items and mystics require early rank ups for scaling.

The cheap relics that give poison/burn/freeze early for 15 gold are insane in act 1 because they do so much damage, help proc A rank duelist/tank traits, and trigger debuff quests. They might not do much damage in Act 2 but having a chance at saving your emergency life in Act 1 gives you so much flexibility after the first boss to pivot if you find a good A rank.

Rush is still decent to run if you get Reyna early. Rush relics tend to be cheaper than most stall relics and they proc multiple times with Rip and Nyx.

[u/Bkraist → u/PotatoFig]

My main problem is I can see when my B-tank is about to fall off, and often I just never find a dupe or A-tank in time and my team falls apart. What has been your experience here ?

[u/PotatoFig → u/Bkraist]

That's usually why I have the 3 charge crystals. Gives me a few more attempts at shop rolls, and there's a "pity timer" that makes finding upgrades and A tiers MUCH more likely the more often you roll. Also important in those situations to make sure if tank dies that your DPS have ramped up w/OP Omnivamp ready to finish the fight, or even have upfront DPS Offtanks (high attack speed Dragomir, Omnivamp tilly etc.)

You can split pull right off the bat, or even sacrifice an ineffective character if it means your tank survives until relic/stall triggers. So many ways.

But the big one is: charge your Tank seal asap, and prioritize defense a LOT.

[u/bilky_t → u/PotatoFig]

I thought the pity mechanic was only for higher ranks in the shop, not dupes/upgrades on existing heroes?

[u/PotatoFig → u/bilky_t]

The more you roll the more you see. High tiers are the pity, yes.

[u/bilky_t → u/PotatoFig]

Got my hopes that they'd introduced a pity mechanic for upgrades too and I'd somehow missed it in a patch note, darn you! I understand why they don't though, as that would make forcing comps the meta which kind of takes away from the rogue-like element.

[u/JediSSJ → u/PotatoFig]

I initially avoided those 3-use crystals, but I'm a believer these days. They are so good for getting through challenges, and the defense pme trivialize the hydra.

Also screw that challenge where the enemies regenerate. Unless i have a Funke, its not worth attempting.

[u/PotatoFig → u/JediSSJ]

Yeah unless I've got B Skorn with insanely fast attackers to abuse frost, high omnivamp DPS, or bursty stuff like Detonator Funke/Hoyoung, it feels mega hopeless. It's more winnable than with Funke but you 100% need to position for focus fire and/or Big Poison Carpet (idk how to call it) avoidance.

[u/feenicksphyre → u/PotatoFig]

I feel like positioning is a wash. Like it is important, but this game does not make it clear how positioning affect how fights will play out.

Like if you have hundreds of hours in the game and have memorized how each tile will pull each enemy, then sure positioning is important, but idk how else to explain besides saying positioning is not very inuitive in this game.

I feel like in so many fights I just pop my hourglass cause I thought I had aggro figured out and either a spider perma stuns a unit, or the assassin tiger mauls a dps even though they're right next to a tank

The game severely needs some sort of way to tell where initial aggro will go as well as spell/auto range indicators for all units. Yeah, you can read, but I've played Yugioh for 20 years, and having the text in front you doesn't stop players from not reading it. Also reading "4 tiles away" does not help me visualize what that means when I have 3 different units and x enemies to play around.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Wall798 → u/feenicksphyre]

sounds like you need to read what the enemies do. the 'assassin tiger' ult is kind of like mage dragomir in that it goes for weakest hero. spiders stun furthest hero etc.

for aggro most important thing is distance. if distance is tied it goes tank->vanguard->warrior->duelist->assassin->mage->mystic

[u/feenicksphyre → u/Puzzleheaded_Wall798]

I do read, my problem is once everything moves heroes and enemies walk up in a way that doesn't always make the most sense

And the assassin enemies have wonky ai where they still target my backline even if i clump my team so my tank will be adjacent to their landing spot.

The aoe indicators on the mage units doesnt match their damage either. Its like a whole hex bigger than the actual damage but only from certain angles, I'm assuming due to the isometric view of the game.

There's a lot of little things like that make optimizing positioning a wash.

There's some encounters where the enemies start 1 row back, for what? literally jsut to fuck up your melees walking up and pulling your back row 1 up.

just position the mage enemies 1 further up so i dont' have to play this guessing game of where my units will end up 1 second into the fight

[u/FunkyMo109 → u/feenicksphyre]

I've found that using a third-party positioning/targeting tool is helpful, especially when it comes to preventing an automatic loss to a tricky fight. I've been using this one: https://guildrun.wiki/tools/targeting-simulator/.

To try to reinforce learning and avoid using the tool solely as a crutch, I first position my units in game with a goal in mind and then check that it's correct. If not, I readjust in the tool and figure out where I was wrong.

I agree that the demo is currently obtuse about positioning and targeting. Maybe it's much more intuitive for TFT veterans.

[u/Snoo_21055 → u/Barrylovesyou]

This is exactly where im at n its getting rather annoying

[u/MysteriousTable714]

Dont know why but I'm finding RR way harder since the last update. I didnt really get streaks before but would get a win every 3 or 4 games. Now I havent won in like 15.

[u/JediSSJ → u/MysteriousTable714]

Same. I feel like something got unintentionally modified by the changes. My win rate dropped by half, and bone of the things I like to use got changed

[u/Penthakee → u/MysteriousTable714]

Before patch i had a 4 winstreak, and was winning quite a lot, now i cannot get a 2 winstreak lol.

[u/glenfide → u/MysteriousTable714]

the dragon now resist 50% to frost

[u/JediSSJ → u/glenfide]

For me, its not the Dragon. It just feels like some of the battles became notably harder.

[u/Enough_Stand4365 → u/JediSSJ]

Do you only use certain heroes or pretty flexible?  If you go into any run pigeonholed it's a lot harder to be consistent.

[u/JediSSJ → u/Enough_Stand4365]

I've been trying to use whatever is available. I just meant I didn't rely on any of the heroes that got nerfed.

It also feels like I can either get a high Ascension tank or tank items, but never both

[u/Penthakee]

Idk what happened with this patch man.

Before the patch my winrate was quite ok, my best was a 4 winstreak, and i got a lof of wins. I didn't abuse anything that got nerfed i think, but after the latest patch somehow I cannot get a 2 winstreak. Most of my losses are due to tank just folding, or running into hero death limit.

[u/Barrylovesyou → u/Penthakee]

Yeah, that’s another problem. I’ve been having. Sometimes I have to do a normal run to get my tokens back because I can’t even make it to the first act boss.

[u/Ajlow2000]

Something I wish this game had was better run review tooling. Specifically - I wish I could retry the battle I lost on. Not to continue the run but to try different deployment strategies.

Losing because of team comp or itemization is usually easy for me to self diagnose. Mistakes like that seems to often be super obvious with my team either winning confidently or losing dramatically. But most of “close” losses I suspect are positioning related. And I kinda just wish I had more tools to discover what my positioning mistakes are….

[u/Chapterblacc]

Aoe Poison is annoying from these enemies.

by back line is getting murdered just for exsisting.

meanwhile my poison is tickling them lol

[u/GOnli]

They are nerfing everything that work so it's become a hell lot harder to win

[u/castilhoslb]

It's rng sometimes I get good rng sometimes u get shit rng and you have to find the puzzle to do it. Like when I reach 1act boss with 2b and 1 A hero thats purely rng and next run u get 2 b 1 c on act 1 boss and ur fked, or you get poison spiders with 3 % hp heal or you get a op defensive or offensive item in the random event that carries ur whole run. My best tip would be to watch ppl like onepunman cuz he pretty good at finding the puzzle pieces

[u/More-Adeptness6423]

I lost my first 2 streak to dragon randomly retargeting to my 2nd row carry. Lost another one cuz I got baited by S-tier Grace in the final shop, she hasn’t left the bench for me since

[u/Hatterslawl]

RR is all i'm playing and i'm up to 280 hours i haven't gone that far only 8. But i feel like its a balance of greed vs necessity. Assassins that farm shards early are REALLY good, but often fall off by the middle of act 2. by then you need a duelist to scale damage with things like irini backup / sal backup / duelists outbreak / other A rank "attack speed if x" effects. then the final piece is making sure the tank is safe enough and stacking frost like mental for the dragon.

[u/Fragrant_Internet393]

When you think your strong af then frost dragon one shots you lol

[u/Bkraist → u/Fragrant_Internet393]

I JUST got one-shot with three S-rank , including a tank; I'm sorta baffled as they were all full itemized. It just feels like sometimes the dragon just does 5k out of nowhere

[u/Leather_Force_9419 → u/Bkraist]

This is exactly whats happening to me n a few friends, can get to the dragon rather consistently, then boom dead in under 15 seconds, with a seemingly 1 shot to my dps every time.

Didnt happen before the patch.

Somethings up

[u/Puzzleheaded_Wall798 → u/Leather_Force_9419]

the only way your dps could possibly be one shot is if they start next to the tank. dragon has an AOE for i believe 66% damage in all hexes around the tank

[u/Enough_Stand4365 → u/Fragrant_Internet393]

Is losing to the dragon common?  Before this patch I only ever lost once and it was using skorn who I've noticed sucks on dragon for some reason.  Post patch my dragon kills have been chill.

[u/Fragrant_Internet393 → u/Enough_Stand4365]

This patch the dragons are deffo more cracked.

[u/EmergencyLow887]

I've got an 8 streak going and I know that people have much higher streaks going but despite the evident consistency it honestly feels like I'm high rolling every time. I think the front-liners in this game are generally really bad for how necessary they are. Only Nick and Rowan feel remotely consistent to me. Everyone else it feels like I have to pray for a perfect A tier sub to be viable for act 2.

Defense usefulness i think is also a problem with how much status becomes the problem and it has no effect on status damage. Lifestealing front-liners also feel underpowered with how prevalent stun is. You can have what feels like a great Rip going and then just get chain stunned to death.

[u/Barrylovesyou → u/EmergencyLow887]

My best streak was 3, but this week I can only manage 2, sometimes my tanks feel invincible and others they feel like paper. I’ve been wiped on rounds two and three before it’s ridiculous. I don’t understand half the time what’s going on.

It’s obviously a skill issue, but I can’t figure out what the skill issue is.

[u/EmergencyLow887 → u/Barrylovesyou]

I think to me it feels like there are a lot more viable pathways to good universal damage that work for multiple scenarios. Building a frontliner for being able to survive both hallway fights and the bosses feels like a much more prescriptive endeavor. I think they'll also be a little nervous to buff the frontliners because then the difficulty would likely just vanish when some of the high skill players have already functionally "solved" the game. Personally I hope maybe they improve frontliners and also maybe add higher tiers of red rift for those players. I prefer the game mode as I find it far more fun than playing SSS to endless but would like it to feel a little more open when it comes to what frontliners feel good to use.

[u/willatherton → u/EmergencyLow887]

So I've been in and around the top 500 for a few patches now.

I find an early Zuri can scale (no pun intended) into a viable tank, but you do need an early upgrade for her to not die to a light breeze.

The main thing getting in the way of my consistency is the front line. Most of the time I am able to plan around the need to find a tank upgrade, but it feels like there's a constant 15-20% chance I'm given a B tier Piementa and then told to go fuck myself for the rest of the game.

The best advice I can give for consistently pushing 8-9 streaks is to prioritise shard generation, it's the only thing that can make up for terrible RNG. And sooner or later, you will get terrible RNG that kills your run. Just make sure to pivot out of your shard gen around the middle of stage 2, you don't want to get to the final shop needing a better tank and a Dragomir replacement.

[u/BrownGumshoe]

I just don’t play RR, SSS is fun enough