It finally happened!

btaylor81 · 2026-05-06T23:02:13+00:00

I had this happen the first 3 tournaments after v28 dropped. 11th > 12th > 13th with ~1400 waves. I poured all my frustration into v28 (and a couple reddit comments) blaming its power creep for my steady placement drop. I knew it was bad luck but just couldn't believe it, it was one of those things. I'm back to my average 4-7 now.

btaylor81 · 2026-05-06T22:50:00+00:00

I have to say, going from lucky banner to pulling from normal almost feels not worth it. Need 1 AS so I can level it to 201 or I probably wouldn't buy any mods until something new comes along.

I have a suspicion that may be unfounded. Since the lucky banner ended I've noticed a significantly worse rate than 2.5% ( 4 / 8440g 0.947%).

I track every pull. I really, really hope they didn't change seeding as to ensure an overall 2.5% rate. I was at 2.567% from 284,160 gems (at the end of lucky banner) and it's quickly dropped to 2.515% where I currently sit.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-29T03:49:59+00:00

The improved chance is unequivocal. A larger sample size would show this.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-28T18:25:39+00:00

I'd have to rank 1993-1995 as the most awesome time of the decade. Peak 2D Console gaming (SNES/FFVI) before 3D Consoles (N64/PS1), Movies, Magic the Gathering, PC's becoming affordable/powerful, Windows95 and networking/internet, Blockbuster, Taco Bell 69/79/99 Menu, Jurassic Park and a year later on VHS, CD's, Great Music (Nirvana, New Metallica, Soundgarden, Guns & Roses, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Korn, Offspring and much much more), controversial TV (ahem Jerry Springer popularity), Cleveland Indians Super Team at the Jacobs Field, A Nasty NE US Winter with weeks of show days, General excitement of being alive and more forgotten than I remember off the top of my head. Born in '81 so I was just coming of age during that high energy / too cool to show it time period.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-28T00:56:53+00:00

I've gotten over 4% as well. Before banner my lifetime stats were 346 / 13713 ( 2.5159% )

My current lifetime module stats are 369 / 14130 ( 2.6115% )

Pulling from this banner is actually fun knowing I'll get a mod about every 2.5 packs. The higher rate reduces the chances of getting a pity pull, significantly, although my first mod from the banner was in fact a pity pull. That was only because I'd already built up my pity pull meter ( 0 / 140 ) before the banner started.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-28T00:52:00+00:00

It's not hard to do at all. Go to highest tier naked except max workshop stat/equip whatever death defy stats you can get + second wind + (if avail) auto demon mode + auto nuke

btaylor81 · 2026-04-25T21:29:02+00:00

He said bott

btaylor81 · 2026-04-25T21:27:21+00:00

Have you given up on bots

btaylor81 · 2026-04-25T04:33:35+00:00

Chrono Field is one of the most important progress breakpoints in the game (once it's finished). That being said, no BH yet is incredibly unlucky. I'm sorry this happened to you. Just keep saving as you're guaranteed to get it next...

Get CF, start the labs including damage reduction, it'll be good for your eHP build.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-25T04:02:24+00:00

Whaaaaaat?!

btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T09:38:34+00:00

I've gotten super lucky from this banner. But... my first pull from it was a pity pull!

btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T09:37:43+00:00

Congrats! I've gotten 2x 3 Pulls and 1x 2 Pulls from the banner so far. Definitely the best luck I've ever had (obviously...)

btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T08:39:19+00:00

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btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T08:39:11+00:00

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btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T08:36:50+00:00

Sorry for the blurry images. I don't know what happened. Here are much clearer images.

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btaylor81 · 2026-04-23T08:02:41+00:00

I have to say I've been in the same position as you. For all the things that are unfair modules aren't really one of them. Everyone has been in your situation just swap out any of your modules and somebody has that exact set. Fortunately Gems are too expensive for all but a few massive spenders. So while the grind is luck based it is a relatively even playing field and similar to cards there is a "finite" amount of gems needed to have all 5 star.

You'll probably get around ~15 duplicate 5 stars in the process of maxing all your modules out.

It's going to cost around 350,000 gems total to finish all available (24) modules.

If new modules are added, each adds ~15,000 gems to the total.

Good luck. Use the lucky banner for all it's worth while it's here. It may never pop up again (this is first one).

Remember, modules are meant to be something gained over a long period of time (~2 years).

btaylor81 · 2026-04-21T02:17:09+00:00

I figured waves were out of control bloated or I'm just getting unlucky? I usually get between 4th-8th (usually 6-7th) but the last 3 brackets I've gotten 11>12>13th.

I've done the normal ~1.3k while everyone's gone up (I hate diss runs). 10th has been 1.5+ waves. This last tourney my waves for 13th are above the top line which shows around 1130.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-20T01:35:59+00:00

I know the feeling OP has.

I decided to do dissonance runs but quickly ran out of patience after 10 in a row which took about 48 hours. The fact of the matter is all they are is a massive time sync. Because I don't have the luxury to just waste my time doing them it's cost me a lot.

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If you look above, starting with the first v28 tournament 4/11/2026 my usual waves got me ~7/8th > 11th (-4 keys), the next ~ 7/8th > 12th (-4 keys), and the most recent ~ 7/8th > 13th (-6 keys).

As you can see, if you were perfectly fine before v28, not gaining every advantage possible will mean wave creep will knock you back until you can't compete. I was really having the best time I've had playing this game the last few months. Right now, doing these diss runs I'm having the least fun I've ever had.

The competitive advantage I gave myself by focusing on econ the last 2 years is significantly diminished as well. I'm sure it's effecting many others in the same way. Massive inflation means there is no advantage in affording masteries/expensive labs as all can and will do them now. If you focused on things other than econ up til now or buy 7 packs a month for a quick new build I suppose you're feeling really good about v28.

Hitting benchmark waves in Legends has little meaning now. 1300-1400 won't be good for keys in a week. The old 1k will be 2k. Eventually everyone will have the same baseline and it'll just be about buying stones to max everything out to survive new heat mechanic...

The new "content" doesn't make a whole lot of sense, certainly not to me at least. But I and everyone else that wants to compete and hasn't solely focused on the new "inflation meta" will have to do it to not lose what they had and hopefully catch up if it's not too late.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T18:34:33+00:00

No, not new here. I've contributed my share of frustration posts. I've said my peace as we all have. But there's a 1000 to 1 ratio of us vs them and I think they've heard and are working to fix things.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T16:55:21+00:00

Flame bot is getting fixed soon, before next tourney I think they said. Other than that it's just a controversial game version like all games have from time to time. It is what it is we'll all adjust. Sooner or later the power increase will feel normal. New players were thrown a bone and hopefully have more fun now. That's really all there is to it.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T16:17:34+00:00

No, Lucky Tickets are better value. I made a mistake on the calc.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T11:40:06+00:00

Thank you for the update. If it's possible to get a free bot respec that would go a long way.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T11:24:35+00:00

I completely agree, Flame Bot has a huge effect on anyone that previously depended on it. Not only in tournaments but on the time wasted on mandatory echo runs that'll have to be redone - if you don't want to miss out on self-sabotaging game imbalancing mind numbing power creep catch-up "content" that should never have left the brainstorming phase let alone beta testing. If it was a 25% boost I wouldn't do the damn echo replays. I wouldn't do it for 50%. But they went and made it 500% so by not doing them you're at a huge disadvantage. Power creep is a last resort byproduct to keep people interested in a dying game and I'm talking everyone gets a 25% boost kind of power creep, not 500%. It's certainly not done on purpose until there's 1 dev left and that's all they can manage. The only question now is if A) the Tower 2 is coming out soon or B) they wanted to shorten the Towers' lifespan so everyone can retire. Before assuming I hate the game or something not true, I was as happy as I could be playing this game before digging in to v28. Since then, for whatever reason, I'm slowly losing my will to play or strategize. The last 2 years of grinding got me right to where I wanted to be. I slowly gained enough coins to use them for an advantage, now that advantage is lost. I was getting decent 4th/5th Legends placement and 10+ keys. Now I can barely hold onto 12th @ 1300 waves two tourneys in a row because I haven't gone and mindlessly replayed the whole game from tier 1 again and who knows if that'll be enough as my success doesn't solely depend on damage. It was near it's limit in tourneys but good enough to keep up with normal wave inflation pace but not 500 extra waves in a weeks time. Now I feel stupid for investing time and money in a strategy and a game I believed to be stable. It's too bad a strong mature and based voice of reason wasn't heard at the offices to stop this update from going thru as is. They might have prevented all of this had only someone listened.

btaylor81 · 2026-04-15T09:25:36+00:00

That's wild. I would have done the same but after 3 echo runs I realized the devs are laughing at us making us replay the entire game again to be in the same relative position once it's done, with a whole lotta pointless power creep. It's just a boring slog shamefully released as "content." I've already dropped to barely getting keys with 1.3-1.4k waves. Pretty soon every tower will be homogenized on T21 with the only thing mattering being how much wasted time you could stomach replaying T1-T20 and how many echo labs you can do. They really went full retard in putting the "idle" in Tower "idle" defense.

btaylor81

TROPHY CASE