With my walkthrough account, I've decided to take it slow. Getting into the Top 100 isn't very important to me as it was with my first account on the English server. As I have mentioned in previous posts, one of my goals with the walkthrough account is to train a few squads to level 10 before upgrading my rooms further.
I'm going to outline my dungeon strategy and my attack strategy. Hopefully, some of you will find this useful.
- My German server account is at about rank 2300
- I have 10 training slots
- Maximum creature level is 10
- Defense is not very important to me right now
- Except for Chicken Farms and Sleeping Quarters, I don't intend to upgrade my dungeon until I have at least twelve level 10 Dark Elves
- I hate Internet Explorer (version 6 AND 7)
The setup:
I typically need 3 browser tabs to get enough surveillance information.
- Attack Screen
- My recent Attack reports
- The high score list of Keepers near me
Before I decided to start attacking, I made sure that my creatures were leveled up (for me this was level 10). Once I started attacking, it is better to attack regularly. Skipping a few days can have consequences (I'll get into this later).
From the high score list, make a list of Keepers near you with lots of gold. I prefer 200 points of more, but I will go as low as 100 points. If your target has anything less than that, your chances of bringing back a lot of gold are SLIM!!
I also check my recent attack reports. It's good to remember Keepers that have no defense. It's also wise to remember Keepers that have good defense, don't waste time trying to scout them again. Use the search function to see if you have recently attacked your target list.
Deciding the best targets...The 2 indicators that I use to find a good target are Battle Points and Creature Points. Keepers with low Battle Points, don't have much fighting experience. Keepers with low Creature Points USUALLY don't have good defense. Some Keepers with low Creature Points actually have the BEST defense, so be careful.
Once you have found a tempting target, it's time for reconnaissance. Forget Evil Eye! It's a waste of money! Research it to get your spells/traps, but I never use it to scout enemies. Hire 1 glowworm for 300 gold, put it in a 1 creature group and attack one of your targets. If it gets through, you have 10 gold. Follow-up with an attack with your Devilers (you shouldn't be attacking with anything except Devilers).
If your glowworm runs into defense, it's definitely dead. BUT, take a look at what he runs into. If the opponents are low level, attack with your Devilers anyway. If your opponent has a Defense Bonus, think before you send in your Devilers.
+5% chance to hit = target has 50% - 74% coverage
+10% chance to hit = target as 75% - 99% coverage
+15% chance to hit = target as 100%+ coverage
I still attack if my target is getting a +5% bonus.
Using a glowworm (300 gold) to scout is cheaper than a level 3 Evil Eye (348 gold). My glowworms usually last for more than 1 attack. They bring back 10 gold quite often, and they are GUARANTEED to detect 0% defense.
The magic is seeing the phrase "Muahahaha, the enemy is a WORM! You were able to enter the enemy dungeon with no resistance and looted XX". This means that your target does not have ANY defense. Send in your Devilers right away. If you're feeling confident, send in your Imps too! Believe me, it feels great when your Imps come back with 1000+ gold!!! Muahahaha!!
* I take no responsibility for you losing Imps. I have made multiple attacks with my level 5 Imps and none of my Imps have ever taken any damage since I started following this strategy. Your results may vary.
I have no fear of repeatedly attacking the same Keeper. If a Keeper has zero defense and if he is near me for 2-3 days, he can expect to get hit at least 2-3 time per day (sometimes more often). It's easy money.
When your Devilers return, be sure to HEAL them. You worked hard to train them, don't lose any of them because you got careless. Check out who is in attack range and repeat the whole process. Sometimes, it is a good idea to spend some money on training so that your rank drops back down and you can keep attacking a good target.
About attacking regularly...It's good to attack regularly so that you constantly know who is a good target near you. The consequence of not attacking regularly is that you will have to spend MORE money on glowworms to probe your potential targets.
That's about it. This has worked well for me and it should be a profitable strategy for you also. If somebody out there wants to experiment with attacking Keepers with a high Battle Score or if you have any comments on how I interpret Creature Scores, go ahead and post a comment. High Battle Scores might mean that the only thing that person is doing is attacking. Just because they attack a lot does not mean that their defense is any good. Likewise, a very high Creature Score often means that a Keeper has lots of low-level creatures. It's fun to kill 3 or 4 low-level creatures in one attack. Muahahaha!!
I was reading a fews posts on the Official DignFight forums today about players complaining about Evil Eye. The spell is too expensive to be useful. One of them wanted a better spell to find out what kind of creatures are defending. That's when I had a brilliant idea.
At level 3, Evil Eye costs 346 gold and has a 78% chance of telling you the defense percentage of 1 enemy. Why not use a Glowworm? It's cheaper, if the Glowworm gets through, you will easily steal 10 gold, the Glowworm might survive for more than 1 attack, by observing the battle report you can identify zero defense opponents.
Koc, one of the commenters on this blog, wanted a screenshot of the scores of Keepers around the Walkthrough account. Koc was curious to see the total scores and battle scores of the Keepers. Until now, I never realized that Keepers with low Battle Scores will probably make good targets.
I will try a new attacking strategy. Review the high score list for Keepers with a low Battle Score and high Gold Score. Use this to find Keepers that are NOT actively Attacking. If I use 1 Glowworm to attack, I may be able to see some of the opponent's creatures. I will not be able to see the defense percentage, but even if I lose the Glowworm, that's only 300 gold. If the opponent looks easy, send in the Devilers. The high score list moves around a lot here, most of the time I won't be able to make more than 1 or 2 attacks anyway. Wasting 1 attack to scout somebody is the wise thing to do.
I have stopped training Imps for now, instead, I am concentrating on leveling up the Devilers (for offense) and Dark Elves (for defense).
Strategy:
- Recruit 3 Glowworms to be my "Evil Eyes"
- Attack with 1 Glowworm to scout opponents
- Finish training Devilers to level 10 -- SOON!
- Use Battle Scores and Glowworms to find easy targets
- Train all Dark Elves to level 10
Current Rank: 2205
Imp Status: 12 Imps trained to level 8
Research Status: 2 Wizards (combined level=11) researching Reinforced Gate
Recruitment Status:
- 15 Imps
- 8 Wizards
- 12 Devilers
- 12 Dark Elves
Combat Status: I have not made any recent attacks. I have not been attacked recently
I have 2 Devilers trained to level 10 and will finish training 2 more in the next 24 hours. There is no rush to climb the High Score List, instead, the plan is to level up my creatures as high as my Arena will allow BEFORE doing significant dungeon upgrades.
- My goal of training 12 Devilers to level 10 is getting close (as many as 8 Devilers are in training at 1 time)
- Train 12 Imps to level 10
- Get my level 3 Dark Elves to level 10
- Train 4 Wizards to level 10
- Somewhere after I complete my Devilers, I will upgrade my GuardRoom to get Black Riders
Recruiting 12 Devilers without premiums: 10,800 gold. Cost to upgrade those Devilers to level 10: 243,000 gold. Not worrying about retaliation because your creatures are twice the level of your target: priceless.
I haven't upgraded any dungeon rooms for a while, just concentrating on leveling up my creatures. I have not been attacking either. I do not intend to spend any cash, so I only have the free 20 sapphires that came with the account.
It has been surprising that nobody is attacking me. At about rank 2000, my creature score is lower than most other Keepers near me. However, I have been spending most of my gold before I log out. There is rarely more than 5000 gold in my dungeon when I am offline. Even though my dungeon coverage is 0%, there must be enough rich targets close by that nobody is messing with me.
- I have recruited 10 Dark Elves so far
- Most of them have been trained to level 3
- All of my Devilers are at level 8 and I am slowly moving some of them to level 9
With 10 training spots, it's more important that I play regularly so that I can constantly have enough gold to utilize all of my training spots.
I will continue to:
- Train Devilers to level 10
- Train Imps, then Dark Elves to level 10
- Aim for 75% dungeon coverage with Devilers and Dark Elves
- After all of that is done, resume dungeon upgrades towards the Black Rider requirements
It sucks to be me...
Somewhere between the rank of 2000 and 3000, a few Keepers decided that I would make a good target. It might have something to do with the fact that I was usually carrying 6k - 10k in gold, my creature score is only 1/4 my dungeon score, and my dungeon coverage is 0%. I don't blame them, I would attack somebody like that too.
3 Keepers, 14 attacks and my total lost gold is 3829.
It doesn't matter that my lowest ranked Deviler is level 5 and the rest are level 8! Naturally, I counter-attacked and got back some of my gold, but then Myconos and Dila struck back. This has the potential to become a personal war...something that I definitely DO NOT WANT.
My dungeon is 497 fields. Half of my Devilers are currently in training to reach level 8, I have a few level 5 Wizards and 3 level 1 Dark Elves. With just barely enough creatures to fill one troop, I can actually get 29% coverage (145 fields).
Even with the great progress on my dungeon, my army is somewhat underdeveloped. I accomplished my previous goals of upgrading to a 5x5 Arena (to get 10 training spots and access to level 10 creatures)and building enough Chicken Farms and Sleeping quarters to accomodate 12 Dark Elves. I started recruiting a few Dark Elves instead of a 2nd group of Devilers.
If I can dig fast enough to finance the training, I absolutely MUST:
- finish training my Devilers to level 8
- recruit 12 Dark Elves
- concentrate on training at 6 Dark Elves at a time...up to about level 7 for defense
- use the remaining 4 training spots to slowly train Devilers and Imps to level 10
I couldn't wait for my last 3 Devilers to level-up, so I sent 3 Wizards and 9 Devilers (all level 5) on a 12-attack looting spree. My first 2 attacks were learning experiences (not very successful). But after that, I realized that the key is to attack Keepers that have a creature score that is about 1/3 or less than their dungeon score AND the highest gold score in range.
Why this works:
- low creature score: We don't want to encounter any defense
- 3:1 dungeon score to creature score ration - these Keepers are busy upgrading their rooms, even if they have "advanced" creatures", their level is low and they haven't recruited many creatures.
- high gold score: if you only attack once, rich Keepers usually don't retaliate, they are too busy digging. if their gold score is too low, you won't bring back your full carrying capacity
- there is lots of movement in this part of the high score list. once you move into the Top 300, you will probably be stuck with the same opponents, but for any rank below 300, you will probably never see your victims again (no retaliation)
I'm in the 3000 range of the high score list and in 24 hours my last Deviler will finish training to level 5. 12 of my Imps are already at level 5. My rooms look like this:
| Chicken Farm: 4x4 | Entrance: 1x1 | Guard Room: 3x3 |
| Treasure Room: 9x9 | Dungeon Heart: 1x1 | Training Room: 10x10 |
| Sleeping Quarters: 7x7 | Library: 4x4 | Workshop: 5x5 |
I rushed to upgrade my Training Room to get the first 8 training spots and that had mixed results. Even though my Devilers are all level 5, I need to be careful because some of the people near me are already recruiting Dark Elves. As long as I pick my targets carefully, it looks like attacking can be profitable for me (if their creature score is about 1/3 or less of their dungeon score, I've got a pretty good chance of stealing gold without combat).
In this area of the high score list, as little as 2 points can seperate ranks. Keepers are still moving around a lot, after I attack somebody, chances are pretty good that we will not be in range of each other 30 minutes later.
Next strategy idea:
- Finish the pre-requisites for an Arena
- Finish the pre-requisites to recruit Dark Elves
- Upgrade Arena to 5x5 and get access to level 10 creatures
- Upgrade Chicken Farm and Sleeping Quarters to make space for at least 12 Dark Elves
- Stop room upgrades and train all creatures to level 10
- I may not recruit Dark Elves yet since I don't care about defense
- a 2nd group of 12 Devilers is appealing for quicker attacks
I recruited my first Deviler this week and I finished a 10x10 Training Room. That means I can work on my first group of level 5 Devilers.
Just in time too, a Keeper named Claudia decided to attack me 3 times in one day.
Impressive army (at least in size). 6 Goblins, 24 Salamanders, 6 Devilers. Some of Claudia's Salamanders have been trained to level 4.
But how do they compare to level 4 and 5 Wizards?
Neither one of us has any defense, but my creatures can carry more. I can't lose this one, if Claudia attacks me again, I'll just go and harvest more gold.
Taking the slow and steady route and taking time to train creatures as you go makes it so much easier to climb the high score list. The best defense is a strong offense.
Thanksgiving weekend is over and I've made pretty good progress on the German server. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I just passed rank 6000 and accomplished my goal of getting 4 training spots. Instead of combat creatures, I have 15 Imps to train. By Monday morning, I should have 7 level 3 Imps.
Even at about rank 6000, there are still a few Keepers that haven't recruited 12 Imps yet...unbelievable. 8 of my 50 neighbors have less than 1950 creature points (the exact point total for 12 Imps). One poor sap only has 250 creature points...probably 3 Imps.
I also realized that with a size 3 Training Room, I can only advance my creatures to level 3. I didn't notice that with my primary account on the English server. It looks like by the time I get my 4th training spot with a size 6 Training Room, I will be able to advance my Imps up to level 5.
So what's the better strategy, spending 4500 gold to train all 12 of my Imps to level 3 now, or spend 4500 for room upgrades?
My average dig rate is 448 gold per 10 minutes and my Imp team has a capacity of 820.
3000 creature points must be intimidating at this level, because I have only been attacked once this week. I try to keep my gold score down before I logout, but while I was playing this weekend, I regularly had 1k - 3k in gold.
My next goal is to train all 15 Imps to level 5.
Lessons Learned
- The point totals are too large for my "attack with Imps" strategy. Very few Keepers have Imp-only armies.
- As you save gold for your next upgrade, make sure that your treasure chamber is big enough for the amount you are trying to save.
- Creature points are a good deterrent against attacks. Nobody has Evil Eye yet, so they can't tell that my defense coverage is 0%.
- My 3000 creature points will not protect me for much longer. There are a few Keepers that have the same (or higher) creature point total.
Finally, I've made it onto the "visible high score list"...I've climbed above #10,000.
Highlights:
- recruited 13 Imps. 12 to dig for gold, 1 to excavate fields.
- dig strategy is to dig for gold with 12 Imps and excavate for fields with 1 Imp simultaneously. I don't care about coverage or defense, so having lots of unused spaces isn't a problem.
- I have far more creature points than anybody else in my range.
- I still have a much lower dungeon score too.
- I am averaging about 315 gold per 10-minute dig
- I haven't done much attacking
- 2 Keepers have attacked me...they are 7,000 and 9,000 ranks below me.
- Out of the 5 Keepers that I attacked, the closest one is more than 6,000 ranks below me.
- There are at least 7 Keepers in my range that have less than 750 creature points. They have less than 6 Imps...so I am harvesting gold at least 2x as fast.
- One of the attackers stole 100 gold from me. I can easily make that up in one 10-minute dig. What's the point of wasting money on defense?
- Since I don't intend to play this account every day, I dig for a specific upgrade(s), spend the gold, then log out.
I already have 6 Imps, but have not built any dungeon rooms yet.
I started the day ranked at about 26,000. After 2 hours, I have finished 12 digs and attacked a few times. It was enough to recruit 2 more Imps and jump to rank 15,819.
For my attacks, I look for Keepers with certain Creature Points. At this section of the high score list, the only thing we can recruit are Imps and Glowworms. If I see somebody with more than 100 gold points and a specific creature point total, I attack.
| # of Imps | Recruitment Cost | Total Recruitment Cost | Creature Points |
| 1 | 250 | 250 | 25 |
| 2 | 500 | 750 | 75 |
| 3 | 750 | 1500 | 150 |
| 4 | 1000 | 2500 | 250 |
| 5 | 1250 | 3750 | 375 |
| 6 | 1500 | 5250 | 525 |
| 7 | 1750 | 7000 | 700 |
| 8 | 2000 | 9000 | 900 |
| 9 | 2250 | 11250 | 1125 |
| 10 | 2500 | 13750 | 1375 |
| 11 | 2750 | 16500 | 1650 |
| 12 | 3000 | 19500 | 1950 |
I was only able to grab 300-400 gold from about 5 attacks, but I did not encounter any defense (and didn't take any damage). As soon as I attack, the gold that I gain will push me more than 15 spots above my target, so there isn't much possibility of a counter-attack.
Take a look at the screenshot:
- Only 3 users have fully Imp armies (15611-Fallobost, 16515-Kessia, 15619-Noirrose10)
- My dungeon score is pretty low
- This snapshot of 31 Keepers only spans 4 total points (1022 to 1026)
- With 124 gold points, I am also the most tempting target
Right before the Spells and Traps update, I created an account on the German server. I don't have much time to play it, but there are a lot of neat things to learn by starting all over again.
Follow along as I climb up from the bottom of the barrel.
Here are the goals of this account and this series of posts:
- Play enough to make 1-2 blog posts per week
- Goal #1 is to get 4 training spaces
- Concentrate on digging
- Avoid recruiting combat creatures until absolutely necessary
- Concentrate on leveling creatures (as opposed to room upgrades)