Carina's Challengers guide
Grootman1294
Member Posts: 935 ★★★★
Had no intention on spending my July 4th buying offers, so I instead decided to put my resources into another carina challenge. This one was pretty rough, but it ultimately turned out better than expected. Without further ado, let's break it all down!
Path: went for the 3-1 hybrid as shown on the map:
The Squad:
6* R3 unduped shang chi
6* R3 unduped diablo (I was not running suicides)
5* R5 sig 200 falcon
5* R5 sig 200 void
6* R2 unduped longshot
The Stash:
3029 units
15 L1 revives plus 8 in the stash
7 L2 revives
2 team revives
Lots of L3 and L4 potions
Lots of small boosts (learned my lesson from the mutant challenge and actually used some this time lol)
119 free crystals
Masteries: pretty standard stuff, had max petrify and pacify masteries along with max despair for the void fights. If you plan on using diablo as a main attacker like I did you ideally want some points in mystic dispersion (I had 3).
Journey to the Collector:
Darkhawk kicked off our journey. Use void and get fear of the void up asap and DO NOT LET HIM USE SP1. Instead, push him to sp2 and knock him down to activate shield mode. Bait the sp2 and reverse his regen and try to heavy counter to reverse his regen again. Took him to 20% on the first go, but I then botched my second attempt after he got pushed to an sp3. 2 revives.
Now here comes the first challenge: Luke Cage. Boost and then use shang chi with this rotation:
MLLLM for stun
MM for slow to counter unstoppable and also push past the final enrage
Heavy to reset your strikes
You also have to manage your chi charges so that the sp2 damage does not get wasted by the abyss damage cap. For my shang chi (which also had a 15% attack and 10% champion boost), I found that using two sp3s before dropping the sp2 gave me 60K crits on the first few strikes and an 85K crit on the final hit, which I found to be pretty reasonable. Just time your sp2 so that he doesn't tank it with his indestructible and you'll be fine.
On top of this, LC is going to be unblockable for almost the entirety of this fight. And when he hits the final enrage, be prepared for the 2 bar power gain that he gets.
It might seem like a lot to look out for, but it's honestly not so bad once you get the rhythm of it. However, this fight is a SLOG. I was able to solo, however it took 20 minutes and I landed over 900 hits on him. Be prepared and stay focused and it is not too bad.
OML provides a nice break after the Luke fight. Use void, reverse regen, win. Very easy solo, he died before the first enrage.
Havok was a mild nuisance, but easily doable with Diablo the Drunk. I used the following rotation:
Activate the nullify prefight (if you have MD)
Spam heavy and build your vials of might, then sp3 poison
Spam sp1 to keep the poison paused (If you activated the prefight the sp3 will place 10 buffs on the opponent so you can nullify them for easy power). Alternatively, if you have more points in MD or if the opponent is aggressive enough you can race to sp2 and refresh the poisons.
After the big poison expires, continue to spam heavy and use sp1 to pause until you die.
This rotation allowed me to take huge chunks off some of the later bosses, so I highly recommend you use it. Aside from this, the plasma damage isn't too bad, especially if you run suicides, so just don't let havok use sp1 and you'll be fine. 2 revives.
Dormammu worried me at first, but longshot was able to light him up quite nicely. Try not to dex and only use heavies and sp2. 2 revives.
Joe Fixit was a fun one. Heal up void and see if he procs the permanent regen. If not, have him hit you with his heavy to randomize his suit until he rolls hearts. Reverse regen and win. 1 revive.
Mordo was a bit annoying. Took 20% off with the shang chi rotation but I died when he hit the first enrage since the slow no longer prevented the astral evade. Tried diablo and he was able to take off another 70% with a slightly modified rotation (use double medium for the most part, only use heavy when he has the power gain). Void cleaned house after that.
VTD was ridiculously fun. Use longshot, bait his sp1, and spam sp2 to burn him to a crisp. 1 revive.
Howard went a lot smoother than expected. The diablo rotation got him down in 4 revives. I also tried using void once to try and reverse the regen at 60% but he got the thunderquack instead.
Hyperion is annoying. Use LS, race to sp2 and pray the AI cooperates and throws specials. 3 revives.
Champion was very easy. Solo with diablo.
Cyclops is fun. The diablo rotation got him down in 3 revives. I also turned on the energy damage prefight so that I could tank a bit of the special damage on the block if I had to. A very engaging and well-designed fight.
Loki was a bit of a nuisance since he constantly drains your power. Diablo didn't work out so well since it took forever to ramp him up so I used shang chi for most of it. Threw my squad at him so I could team revive, then used 3 single revives to finish.
Aegon was easy. Tried with diablo but forgot about the AAR so I couldn't really poison him, finished easily with LS. 2 revives.
Invisible woman was a slog. Use the shang chi rotation and play aggressive to keep the slow up at all times, otherwise you'll get stunned. Spam sp3 until the force field goes down, then drop a chunky sp2 to deal some damage. 4 revives, plus a team revive after throwing my squad at her.
Cull was ridiculously easy. Use diablo, activate the nullify prefight, bait his sp1 and spam sp1 to get him down. Solo.
Now collector.... was horrible.
I say this because the fight is so much worse without a good counter like aegon or stryfe. I used falcon since his lock on stops the evade, but it was very difficult to stay alive for long. Spam sp1 to rapidly build the cruelty charges and try to get some intercepts to save some health. Use max boosts for this fight, as this fight is a literal salt mine. In other words, prepare to die A LOT. I would honestly consider taking anything more than 5% off in a single try as a phenomenal run. 26 single revives on falcon, plus a team revive I bought were able to get him down.
And with that, 2 out of 3 abyss challenges are now done.
Final Cost:
900 units, used 100 on a team revive and the rest on single revives for collector.
All of my stashed revives and potions
All of my free crystals (got 3 revives in addition to loads of potions so yay)
Quite a few small and large boosts
Most of my July 2nd
Final tips
1. Learn the partial sp2 evade on the collector. It will save you revives and your sanity. DarkZodiac has a great video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULHHZ2dJJUc&ab_channel=DarkZodiacINC
2. TAKE BREAKS. Luke cage, collector and some of the bigger bosses take a lot of effort and time to get down, so don't burn yourself out and do it all in one go. Boost on the bigger fights as well
3. I would honestly not change a thing about this team. In fact, I was surprised at just how cheap my run was unit-wise.
4. After this challenge, you won't be in danger, you will in fact be the danger (been watching breaking bad on the side, had to include one reference lol)
Cheers everyone!
Path: went for the 3-1 hybrid as shown on the map:
The Squad:
6* R3 unduped shang chi
6* R3 unduped diablo (I was not running suicides)
5* R5 sig 200 falcon
5* R5 sig 200 void
6* R2 unduped longshot
The Stash:
3029 units
15 L1 revives plus 8 in the stash
7 L2 revives
2 team revives
Lots of L3 and L4 potions
Lots of small boosts (learned my lesson from the mutant challenge and actually used some this time lol)
119 free crystals
Masteries: pretty standard stuff, had max petrify and pacify masteries along with max despair for the void fights. If you plan on using diablo as a main attacker like I did you ideally want some points in mystic dispersion (I had 3).
Journey to the Collector:
Darkhawk kicked off our journey. Use void and get fear of the void up asap and DO NOT LET HIM USE SP1. Instead, push him to sp2 and knock him down to activate shield mode. Bait the sp2 and reverse his regen and try to heavy counter to reverse his regen again. Took him to 20% on the first go, but I then botched my second attempt after he got pushed to an sp3. 2 revives.
Now here comes the first challenge: Luke Cage. Boost and then use shang chi with this rotation:
MLLLM for stun
MM for slow to counter unstoppable and also push past the final enrage
Heavy to reset your strikes
You also have to manage your chi charges so that the sp2 damage does not get wasted by the abyss damage cap. For my shang chi (which also had a 15% attack and 10% champion boost), I found that using two sp3s before dropping the sp2 gave me 60K crits on the first few strikes and an 85K crit on the final hit, which I found to be pretty reasonable. Just time your sp2 so that he doesn't tank it with his indestructible and you'll be fine.
On top of this, LC is going to be unblockable for almost the entirety of this fight. And when he hits the final enrage, be prepared for the 2 bar power gain that he gets.
It might seem like a lot to look out for, but it's honestly not so bad once you get the rhythm of it. However, this fight is a SLOG. I was able to solo, however it took 20 minutes and I landed over 900 hits on him. Be prepared and stay focused and it is not too bad.
OML provides a nice break after the Luke fight. Use void, reverse regen, win. Very easy solo, he died before the first enrage.
Havok was a mild nuisance, but easily doable with Diablo the Drunk. I used the following rotation:
Activate the nullify prefight (if you have MD)
Spam heavy and build your vials of might, then sp3 poison
Spam sp1 to keep the poison paused (If you activated the prefight the sp3 will place 10 buffs on the opponent so you can nullify them for easy power). Alternatively, if you have more points in MD or if the opponent is aggressive enough you can race to sp2 and refresh the poisons.
After the big poison expires, continue to spam heavy and use sp1 to pause until you die.
This rotation allowed me to take huge chunks off some of the later bosses, so I highly recommend you use it. Aside from this, the plasma damage isn't too bad, especially if you run suicides, so just don't let havok use sp1 and you'll be fine. 2 revives.
Dormammu worried me at first, but longshot was able to light him up quite nicely. Try not to dex and only use heavies and sp2. 2 revives.
Joe Fixit was a fun one. Heal up void and see if he procs the permanent regen. If not, have him hit you with his heavy to randomize his suit until he rolls hearts. Reverse regen and win. 1 revive.
Mordo was a bit annoying. Took 20% off with the shang chi rotation but I died when he hit the first enrage since the slow no longer prevented the astral evade. Tried diablo and he was able to take off another 70% with a slightly modified rotation (use double medium for the most part, only use heavy when he has the power gain). Void cleaned house after that.
VTD was ridiculously fun. Use longshot, bait his sp1, and spam sp2 to burn him to a crisp. 1 revive.
Howard went a lot smoother than expected. The diablo rotation got him down in 4 revives. I also tried using void once to try and reverse the regen at 60% but he got the thunderquack instead.
Hyperion is annoying. Use LS, race to sp2 and pray the AI cooperates and throws specials. 3 revives.
Champion was very easy. Solo with diablo.
Cyclops is fun. The diablo rotation got him down in 3 revives. I also turned on the energy damage prefight so that I could tank a bit of the special damage on the block if I had to. A very engaging and well-designed fight.
Loki was a bit of a nuisance since he constantly drains your power. Diablo didn't work out so well since it took forever to ramp him up so I used shang chi for most of it. Threw my squad at him so I could team revive, then used 3 single revives to finish.
Aegon was easy. Tried with diablo but forgot about the AAR so I couldn't really poison him, finished easily with LS. 2 revives.
Invisible woman was a slog. Use the shang chi rotation and play aggressive to keep the slow up at all times, otherwise you'll get stunned. Spam sp3 until the force field goes down, then drop a chunky sp2 to deal some damage. 4 revives, plus a team revive after throwing my squad at her.
Cull was ridiculously easy. Use diablo, activate the nullify prefight, bait his sp1 and spam sp1 to get him down. Solo.
Now collector.... was horrible.
I say this because the fight is so much worse without a good counter like aegon or stryfe. I used falcon since his lock on stops the evade, but it was very difficult to stay alive for long. Spam sp1 to rapidly build the cruelty charges and try to get some intercepts to save some health. Use max boosts for this fight, as this fight is a literal salt mine. In other words, prepare to die A LOT. I would honestly consider taking anything more than 5% off in a single try as a phenomenal run. 26 single revives on falcon, plus a team revive I bought were able to get him down.
And with that, 2 out of 3 abyss challenges are now done.
Final Cost:
900 units, used 100 on a team revive and the rest on single revives for collector.
All of my stashed revives and potions
All of my free crystals (got 3 revives in addition to loads of potions so yay)
Quite a few small and large boosts
Most of my July 2nd
Final tips
1. Learn the partial sp2 evade on the collector. It will save you revives and your sanity. DarkZodiac has a great video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULHHZ2dJJUc&ab_channel=DarkZodiacINC2. TAKE BREAKS. Luke cage, collector and some of the bigger bosses take a lot of effort and time to get down, so don't burn yourself out and do it all in one go. Boost on the bigger fights as well
3. I would honestly not change a thing about this team. In fact, I was surprised at just how cheap my run was unit-wise.
4. After this challenge, you won't be in danger, you will in fact be the danger (been watching breaking bad on the side, had to include one reference lol)
Cheers everyone!
Post edited by Kabam Valkyrie on
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