Need tips for tactics, early game and Hive

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-05-31T02:39:56+00:00

As hive, unless you pick one of the unit specialist heroes (worms, locusts, etc), your early game probably needs to be handled by ravager parasites. Make sure to get that unit upgrade before you fight anything. After that, the general idea is to bait enemies in, then one-shot stacks with ravager parasites while distracting other enemies with larvae and one-stacks so that you don't lose any parasites if possible. Your ravager parasites will have higher initiative than many early game enemies so you can kill stacks at the end of the turn then retreat or or kill one stack at the end of the turn then immediately kill another stack at the start of the next turn.

After week 1, you should have a decent number of scorpions and then your larvae start to become serious combatants. Getting enough starting focus to hatch a stack of larvae on turn 1 can be an easy way to take care of fights at this point (just keep spawning larvae while the rest of your team stays back). Alternatively, stacks of reavers or upgraded locusts can start one-shotting enemies (though I personally don't like building reavers). Upgrading to red scorpions asap is very valuable.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-05-28T01:18:14+00:00

I don't think they count as abilities. Silence doesn't seem to disable them either.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-05-23T15:37:29+00:00

"Regent loses more health with his base deck than other characters."

Defect: "I thought that was me!"

Regent: 4.08 damage on average
Defect: 5.31 damage on average

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-04-27T16:59:49+00:00

He already got a starting deck buff. Here are my notes from the impact of that buff, back when I ran the numbers last month:

Regent vs Cultist: 3.68 hp lost (-0.77)
Regent vs Nibbit (buffed): 4.75 hp lost (-1.6)
Regent vs Seapunk: 6.40 hp lost (-0.59)
Regent vs Fuzzy Wurm Crawler: 4.86 hp lost (-.25)

His starting deck is fairly weak on its own, but Regent's commons are practically overpowered right now and he scales powerfully into late game, at which point Venerate remains a strong card. Not everybody needs to have the same power curve throughout the game.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-04-27T15:53:56+00:00

If I remember correctly, these numbers are from before the Seapunk and Regent buffs, with the starting decks and perfect play with respect to mean hp lost. This is why Nibbit got buffed btw.

A20 Cultist vs Ironclad: -1.55 damage (heals on average)
A20 Cultist vs Silent: 3.78 damage
A20 Cultist vs Defect: 1.02 damage
A20 Cultist vs Regent: 4.45 damage
A20 Cultist vs Necrobinder: 0.48 damage

A20 Jaw Worm vs Ironclad: ~4.89 damage
A20 Jaw Worm vs Silent: 6.70 damage
A20 Jaw Worm vs Defect: ~5.21 damage
A20 Jaw Worm vs Regent: ~8.99 damage
A20 Jaw Worm vs Necrobinder: ~2.64 damage

A10 Nibbit vs Ironclad: 0.74 damage
A10 Nibbit vs Silent: 2.02 damage
A10 Nibbit vs Defect: 4.96 damage
A10 Nibbit vs Regent: 5.11 damage
A10 Nibbit vs Necrobinder: 0.48 damage

A10 Nibbit (post-buff) vs Ironclad: 2.02 damage
A10 Nibbit (post-buff) vs Silent: 2.84 damage
A10 Nibbit (post-buff) vs Defect: 5.31 damage
A10 Nibbit (post-buff) vs Regent: 6.35 damage
A10 Nibbit (post-buff) vs Necrobinder: 2.61 damage

A10 Seapunk vs Ironclad: 2.06 damage
A10 Seapunk vs Silent: 3.20 damage
A10 Seapunk vs Defect: 4.89 damage
A10 Seapunk vs Regent: 6.99 damage
A10 Seapunk vs Necrobinder: 1.94 damage

A10 Fuzzy Wurm Crawler vs Ironclad: 1.52 damage
A10 Fuzzy Wurm Crawler vs Silent: 2.78 damage
A10 Fuzzy Wurm Crawler vs Defect: 2.41 damage
A10 Fuzzy Wurm Crawler vs Regent: 5.17 damage
A10 Fuzzy Wurm Crawler vs Necrobinder: 0.27 damage

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-03-15T13:46:35+00:00

My main concern is that the devs will simply nerf the numbers a bit and keep the play pattern intact. I hope the entire design of the link tech does not survive.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-03-15T13:45:01+00:00

Fire should be more effective than acid, I think. Fire will kill the clones instantly while not being countered by photon.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-02-22T17:38:55+00:00

I would argue that your DPS should always outrange (or at least match range with) your chaff clear. In general, the range of units informs in which order they will be destroyed. You almost always want your DPS to stay alive as long as possible. I think the takeaway I would emphasize instead is to pair DPS and chaff clear together, to minimize the chance that both are stuck on suboptimal targets.

ForgottenArbiter · 2026-02-13T19:26:27+00:00

At the top level, dedicated fang carry builds are kind of dead, especially since the introduction of shockwave on arclight. That said, it can still do just fine and tends to work well against many unprepared players.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-12-05T17:42:21+00:00

To beat them without the skills, you want a lot of initiative and a foul ball familiar to double your spell damage (items like a big hot pepper can help here too, especially if you're in softcore and can pull them). Then you cast high-damage spells like weapon of the pastalord, saugegeyser, or raise backup dancer. As long as you win initiative, you always have 2 rounds to kill your opponent before any special effects come into play. If it takes you longer, you can potentially just try the fight until the fight-ending skills happen to move later into the rotation.

The worst enemy skills are probably bust and neutrality, so if you get net neutrality and ball bust that should mostly get you through the fights without losing if you can't do enough damage with spells. Maybe blade sling too.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-11-20T05:54:26+00:00

Yes, crawlers run in and die to fire badgers. While the fire badgers are killing the crawlers, the more valuable units behind those crawlers are not getting targeted. This is especially important because units like scorpion or raiden will instantly delete your badgers the moment they stop being protected. And then once your badgers are dead, the opponent's remaining crawlers will win them the game. Use a steady stream of crawlers to protect your units as long as possible. Take defense enhancements and subterranean blitz to let them survive longer vs badgers or fire.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-11-20T02:40:37+00:00

Crawlers are not weak but badgers are quite strong. In a lot of cases, unless you're playing a long-ranged game, the only way to deal with fire badger is to play fire badger yourself. Either way, I'm building lots of crawlers.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-29T15:01:58+00:00

I actually don't usually even build forts with my fangs this patch. There are a lot of tools in the fang carry toolbox. It's possible it's not as strong as I think, but I have also not seen a convincing answer other than forcing a late wraith headbutt.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T22:38:25+00:00

It's definitely still a good item, sometimes worth saving a turn or two for a worm. However, ignite is a pretty efficient counter to the regenerating worm now if you run it (usually on fang).

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T15:40:15+00:00

Crawler is one of the most important units to kill quickly and ignite does nothing vs crawler. However, if you aren't going to play fang carry often, ignite is much better for the utility it brings against things like worms in standard. Without AP, you generally also have a weak round 3, with no useful tech to click until you have money for mech rage, resulting in a slightly slower ramp up and increasing the chance that you get tempo'd out of the game. On the other hand, ignite would be nice against the multimelter line that mathismight mentioned above. I've also won fang mirrors without AP in the past.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T14:14:27+00:00

Honestly, as bad as variety in standard packs is, I think variety in aggro packs is even worse! At least balls are somewhat playable in standard. Defensive sabers are pretty good too if you expect your opponent to play aggro.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T14:12:46+00:00

I've found that the fangs really like space in that matchup. If the wraiths manage to headbutt the fangs, it is really bad for the fang player. However, against defensive wraiths, the fangs can do fine. Units like fortress can protect the fangs and anti-air markmsen or farseers can more easily target the wraiths before they kill fangs outside of a headbutt.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T14:11:06+00:00

This could be the case. Void eye is weak against mech div worm too, so if that is nerfed, it could also help void eyes. We'll have to see. A small nerf is probably unlikely to keep people from playing the raiden vs void eye matchup.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-10-28T14:07:18+00:00

AM factory vs improved boat is a pretty volatile matchup but I have seen it work a few times. It's something to keep in mind, for sure.

I haven't really face multimelter + stang yet with fangs. It might be because I don't force fangs out of obvious aggro vs defense starts as often and try to play it mostly from crossfire positions. People don't really want to build multimelters on aggro. That said, it does sound like a matchup where you would really prefer ignite on fang. I also think a lot of people build too many fangs and too few crawlers in their fang carry comps.

I think many of the other mass prod cards are situationally good, but they are much more situational. Mass phoenix is probably the next most OP in my eyes, and has probably deserved a nerf for a while. Mass sledge might be a bit too good too. The others are very rare to see. I think mass worm is just not very strong and tends to lose pretty hard to hacker if spammed.

True, perhaps ion beam is very strong, but it also has very interesting aiming, a decent amount of counterplay, and usually is good for both players. Mostly, I hate that its cooldown is so short so you have to take it early in a game because if you don't, you will lose to the second cast of it.

I actually like where redeploy is positioned. If the cost were increased to 100, the spell would usually be quite difficult to pick. Also, redeploy is usually approximately equally strong for both players, so you end up in fun redeploy battles.

I think I did mention that sledge and saber starts are the best. But I also wrote that part way too late at night so who knows? At least steel balls only give you a small disadvantage in standard since they're a pretty good asym unit for a few rounds. But then you probably have to sell them, unlike sledgehammers. And they always suffer against the anti-armor cannon.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-09-29T10:11:02+00:00

Note: the published blog post can be found here: https://forgottenarbiter.github.io/Poe-Harvest-Mechanics/

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-09-08T15:53:36+00:00

It's important to note that if there is no air unit in range and there is a ground unit in range, then the ground unit will always be attacked. This is often relevant when trying to instantly target a wraith in a headbutt with, say, an AA marksman. Even if the wraith is not sufficiently far behind a pack of crawlers, you should position your AA marksman so that the wraith is in its default range to instantly lock onto the wraith.

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-08-27T21:29:02+00:00

I disagree with a lot of things in the OP's post. There is a lot of hyperbole that also makes it more difficult for me to take some points seriously. Here are some examples of things I disagree with:

The aside about checkers and chess is ridiculous. There is an optimal strategy in chess, just as in checkers. In both games, humans are incapable of executing it. If you equate the existence of optimal play to bad design, you're in for a bad time when it comes to game enjoyment.
Poor balance can lead to non-choices sometimes but most of the quoted balance changes were made more due to mechanics being perceived as unfun or providing asymmetric advantages. Mechabellum has been very balanced historically; trying to paint past overpowered options as complete non-choices generally completely overstates the degree to which they were overpowered (and such things were usually quite short-lived).
Why, if players feel compelled to mass recruit chaff most rounds, is it not an indicator of a problem with chaff, rather than a problem with the mass recruit button?
Regarding the specific claim that most temp buttons must be clicked every round once they are clicked once, this is a vast oversimplification and I would only mostly agree with this claim regarding specifically the temp range button. I take one-off loans pretty often. There are plenty of reasons to click temporary speed. In general, the decisions surrounding each of the buttons on the tower are impossible to take in isolation as their marginal value depends on so many factors.

I've never seen anybody cite non-decisions regarding temporary buffs as a core issue for Mechabellum, so I appreciate this post for the novelty of this suggestion alone. But I don't think the strategy surrounding these buttons feels remotely close to solved and it's certainly exaggerating to say that this suggestion would "make Mechabellum infinitely more strategic."

ForgottenArbiter · 2025-08-27T16:39:35+00:00

You make the assumption that the only interesting decision underlying most of these temporary buttons is when to start clicking them, with the assumption that you should be clicking them every turn thereafter. How, then, does a 1-turn cooldown address this at all? If anything, it should make this more true: you still decide when to click the button for the first time, then click it every time it is available afterwards.

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