Garden/Graveyard Ops: Challenge Waves

While we post here and discuss the 3 shooters and keep our eyes out for a new one, I was looking for more subjects to discuss and thought about Ops challenge waves. These have changed quite a bit since GW, although some have been with us the entire time in one form or another. These waves are on waves 3 and 8 (3 only for BfN ops), and give bonuses for completion. Some are quite easy (huge waves), others not so much (take no damage at all). I will also add some of my own ideas to the end of this post. Some of these are present in only 1 or 2 of the shooters, and some changed from game to game, with BfN having the least variety.

Break the vases/Open the presents: Simple and straightforward; just open all the presents or smash all the vases and vanquish the enemies that appear. You’ll get a mix of enemies and coins. There’s a bug in the GW2 version of these where the wave won’t end that I see when you vanquish the AI that spawn from some too quickly, it seems like it doesn’t register properly at times, so don’t vanquish them too fast after they spawn seems to work. One of my favorite challenge waves in Ops.

Destroy the Tombstones/Scarecrows: Tombstones were more common in general in GW Ops, and I’m not sure why they are less common in GW2 but this challenge wave sees them spawning one at a time and you have to deal with them in the time limit. They spawn AI enemies that will of course get in the way and try to stop you, but the focus needs to be on the objectives; destroy all of these structures. I like this one too and hope we see these appear more in normal waves as well as the challenge waves when we get a new shooter.

Hack the Traingulabobbers: This one is GW only and I’m not sure why. These things spawn and you have you to go and interact with them to turn them off. Like the tombstones/scarecrows, you have to get rid of several of them as one is removed, the next one spawns, until you finish them all. Not too rough, although trying to get that interaction done while being attacked is difficult on ccraaazzyy!!! difficulty. Nothing wrong or overly exciting here, but it’s fine.

Hunt the Chieftains/Champions: Chieftains in GW and champions in GW2, but largely the same concept. Champion level enemies need to be vanquished within the time limit. Of course, these guys can be a bit evasive and I would like the champions to be from any class/character/variant instead of just foot soldiers (GW) or just cacti/deadbeards (GW2). Decent objective and champions drop cash and are worth extra XP.

No knockouts/No player damage: No player damage is awful in GW as a single stray hit ruins the objective. I have succeeded at it, but not often. In GW2 and BfN, it’s no knockouts which makes more sense and is of course easier to achieve, although I’ve still failed it from time to time for various reasons, usually AI messing up in solo Ops in GW2. I’m fine with the no knockouts objective, although it’s not particularly exciting, the take no damage at all one can stay gone.

No Garden/graveyard damage/Keep the damage to a threshold: Here’s one where the BfN version is my favorite version. In GW and GW2 taking absolutely no damage on your garden or graveyard is very difficult and my most failed objective barring GW’s have no player take any damage at all. In BfN, it can take some but not too much so a margin of error exists, so it’s less frustrating. The threshold for failure could be tightened up to make it a little more challenging and/or the threshold could be adjusted for difficulty level if kept for the next shooter; an easy Op version could take more damage before failure and ccrraazzyyy!!! would take the least.

Protect the Wee Gardens: GW1 only. Several small gardens spawn on the map and they too must be protected. I like this one a lot as it’s challenging and changes the situation up, but is often doable, if a bit frantic. Adding wee graveyards for the graveyard ops and bringing this forward to new game, while of course returning to gardens and graveyards to defend instead of the grave-o-matic and gardenators of BfN, would be very welcome. Having to defend multiple objectives keeps you on your toes.

Speed Run: I can take or leave this one. I’m not a huge fan of adding timers to things, and while it usually works out, sometimes an outhouse zombie or 2 take their sweet time to get there and you have to scramble to get them down in time.

Stop the Zombomb/Squash: I do like this one, even if they generally go down pretty fast. Rarely do I see them get through as even the AI in solo Ops go to town on these guys. Maybe there should be more than 1 that attack from different angles to spice it up. Regardless of any possible changes, definitely a good one.

Vanquish the Yeti/Marigold: Love these a lot, although the coin system in the original GW meant that greedy people would steal the coins. In GW2 the shared coins was a fantastic change as I’d much rather share with my team than take coins away from them. In Bfn, you get a coin reward if you vanquish them but no coins spawn from them to pick up, which is less enjoyable and satisfying. Probably my favorite challenge wave and lots of coins is usually a nice thing to get (I’d say always, but coins become useless in BfN unfortunately). There’s something so satisfying when they spew coins all over when you finish them off in the first 2 games.

Protect the Squash/Zombomb:  The opposite of stopping them. If you’re a healer you can really help out here, although I generally don’t see too much damage on our target. Good stuff although they still explode into a shower of coins after we protect them that always feels weird.

Retrieve the Purple Chickens/Pop-Smarts: The timer in this one can make it rough, and I find the tension is enjoyable here, despite my normal dislike of timers. Fun time and the silliness of the objective combines to make a winner.

Rescue the Champion: Defeat the enemy champion for a key to rescue yours. I do love this one, one of my favorites. The champion you rescue often spends a bit too much time camping your heal flower/Dr. Heals, but the event itself is really fun.

Checkpoint Race: Pretty simple idea, but also one that works. Some characters are better than others at this, like Super Brainz is excellent as he can heroic kick so often to get through the hoops faster.

Stop the huge wave: This one is heavily bugged in BfN as the wave is often smaller than normal waves! Not much to say here as it simply tosses in more enemies at you, so there’s almost no chance to fail the bonus objective.

Do we need them all back? Maybe not, but adding variety is almost always better than taking it away. This is part of why BfN fell flat for so many people, we actually lost variety in most cases instead of gaining it, and Ops suffered more than any other part of the game.

Ideas for more challenge waves:

• Garden/Graveyard Challenge: The opposing side has set up a graveyard/garden with AI defenders! You have to both defend your own garden/graveyard as well as take theirs out to get the bonus.
• Stop the gnomes:  While adding gnomes to special waves, as opposed to challenge waves, should also be a thing, have the gnomes attempting to destabilize time with their floaters from GW2’s infinity time, and the players have to stop them, or they lose their bonus.
• Gnome King’s Court: The gnome king and his court appear and like the yeti/marigold, you have to take them out before the time runs out. I wouldn’t imagine them dropping coins, but they could, or maybe some other special currency instead. Or just bonus XP.