This was my 4th Bosshunt and I don't even want to know the time I wasted on leaving/joining teams pre-game. I have no problem playing with new people as 75%+ aren't even rank 1 but what really irritates me is the fact that there's always one showing up as a Chomper or even worse a Rose... This is such a waste of time as there is no possible way in doing this with one of them beeing down more then that they actually contribute. I understand that the "real pro's" do this on crazy with whatever character but for the casual player this means a defeat before the game itself even started. I don't know about others but if I see several people joining as a certain type of character to then leave immediately again I would try and figure out what it is that I'm doing wrong. Another thing which I don't understand are people who have no idea what to do during those bosshunts. It's common sense to just watch a few minutes of a YouTube video or search a tutorial through Google. There's so much information available yet people remain clueless. This takes 2 minutes and Boss Hunts are actually fun when ppl know what to do. You can say that people don't care and just want to play but do people actually have fun while not achieving anything?I tried to tell people by bashing my nope gesture pre-game but unfortunately failed miserably :P

@ShavedThronel0 wrote:And how will a post on a forum that less than .001% of the players use make more people understand how to play?I could give a toss about the 99% who don't look for information, honestly. I don't play boss hunt with randoms. The King's Day Out guide here written by Reality Squared has almost 1,000 views. That's 1,000 people who now have more information than they previously did. By your logic, perhaps this forum and the reddit sub should just be eliminated?

@ShavedThronel0 wrote:And how will a post on a forum that less than .001% of the players use make more people understand how to play?More importantly, like I pointed out, many people (even kids) learn by copying. My brother and I only needed to see one team succeed to understand how to beat the boss. So, while it won't help most people, a guide does help that small number, who in turn use the strategy with randoms. Then some of the randoms will pick up the strategy, spreading the knowledge. Is it foolproof? No, but it does make a difference.

The problem everyone seems to be overlooking on this particular boss hunt is the inconsistency in each attempt. I have all the hats, but I can tell you through experience the hunts are never the same. The slurpee and damage phase is the most obvious one in which the fool can spawn miles away from the king. This naturally causes you to lose precious seconds once the slurpee takes effect in locating the king. What I really don't like is that the effect is condensed to the area around the plant who got it and that if that plant gets KO'd, you have to start the phases again.These instances are just completely unnecessary. Sure it works occasionally, but it doesn't contribute to anything. During the other phases, you have to spread out, locate popsicles and take out the army. The most important phase bunches you together setting you up for an AOE attack that might wipe the team even with healers. I remember one game with a good team and EVERYTIME we got to the damage phase he KO'D us with that AOE attack. Two sunflowers healing with beams and pots and the TEAM gets KO'd. Not just the slurpee holder. The TEAM. And its not because we did anything wrong or because we weren't good enough, but simply the circumstances of the hunt and requirements put us in an avoidable situation. If you're lucky, you might fight the king under the bridge or in the cabin where the AOE attack won't hit you so hard, but that again is circumstantial. Skills and teamwork do not contribute to this which is what should effect the hunt. Not random fool placement.

My friend and I already had all the hats from the 1st time they did this hunt so we were just working on rainbow stars. It can be maddeningly difficult even with a good team if you get unlucky for fool placement relative to where the king is or a yeti decides he just has to get in your face and use his aoe freeze right as your rainbow flower despawned is on that brief cooldown before you can place it again.I admit we never use in game chat, we use discord to communicate with each other but never use the in game chat. If we had a couple more dedicated people that wanted to work on this on PC we could invite them to the discord server though.The 2 worst things about this boss hunt, and to a lesser extent the others, is the lack of explanation and the randomness of the boss behavior. Having the boss constantly move around objects we can't shoot around lost us tons of DPS with the yeti king. With the squash the biggest issue I encountered was when he came up top during the anchor phase and would vanquish an anchoring player. This kind of thing can get really frustrating and can turn people off of the events.I like boss hunts overall, they remind me of MMO raiding which I used to do often, but while I like them requiring teamwork and being challenging, making them less frustrating when you spend 20 minutes just to fail at the end and getting only a paltry amount of stars for a run of bad luck or uncooperative teammates is certainly going to make people less interested in the events which is unproductive to be sure.You can watch some videos on these hunts, there's a few youtubers that have them but people have to know they're out there and including at least a basic instruction in game when the boss hunt is active would save hours of frustration and some of the ill will that failure on these events can create in the community.

I've had it plenty of times that i was in the 40 vanquish range while the rest of my team didn't even scratch 10. Always makes me wonder why these people even play a SHOOTER.I could go on for hours about my experiences with boss hunts. From Sunflowers that don't heal, to Vampire Flowers that pick up the item, over Chompers who constantly attack the Yeti, to finally people that just idle until they get timed out. But those Chompers also ragequit after a while, so there is literally no reason to stay in a game where someone picked Chomper.And believe me. I have tried to do the smartest thing: I went Stuffy Flower and tailed that Chomper. He could not be frozen for as long as i stayed connected and i used him as shield in front of me. The plan was perfect. But that Chomper must have thought teamplay is meaningless. So he constantly ran away from me and used burrow. While i ended up in the focus of all enemies around. And when he happily chomped on that one zombie, i got swarmed. He go frozen. And a while later he ragequit.So i conclude once again: people don't know how to play.It is the worst. Not always, but most of the time. And with this ridiculously unbalanced Yeti Boss Hunt (walking aimbots that can freeze you multiple times even during invulnerable animations) Popcap shows once again that they just shoveled this out instead of actually balancing it. 60 damage freeze snipes that you cannot avoid - even mid-air? Sure. let me just be so slow that i get another. So much fun. And then comes the massive AoE ice rain that never stops. Now combine that unbalanced mess with people that don't know how to shoot. And there you have the experience. I am still waiting for a Popcap live stream, where they beat it on Crazy.Boss Hunt needs to separate the inexperienced players from the experienced ones. It is that simple. And then someone with actual gaming experience needs to balance this mess.

Players thought process while Bosshunting?

18 Replies

ShavedThronel0
8 years ago
Yea so many people who suck. They keep shooting the yeti when he spawns and even when he is dancing. I keep having to destroy the ice creams when they spawn because my team wont help me. Then when I have about 5 minutes left my team all of a sudden just gives up. I have done my first attempt on hard, started with 4 players but 1 left, it was just a good person and somebody who at least knows what to do, and we beat the boss hunt. Then like 6 games in a row normal with randoms, all failed because my team dosen't help. Only 1 time there were sunflowers and we beat boss hunt on normal all the rest of the times I was the only sunflower and we kept failing boss hunt.
Screion
8 years ago
I've had it plenty of times that i was in the 40 vanquish range while the rest of my team didn't even scratch 10. Always makes me wonder why these people even play a SHOOTER.
I could go on for hours about my experiences with boss hunts. From Sunflowers that don't heal, to Vampire Flowers that pick up the item, over Chompers who constantly attack the Yeti, to finally people that just idle until they get timed out. But those Chompers also ragequit after a while, so there is literally no reason to stay in a game where someone picked Chomper.
And believe me. I have tried to do the smartest thing: I went Stuffy Flower and tailed that Chomper. He could not be frozen for as long as i stayed connected and i used him as shield in front of me. The plan was perfect. But that Chomper must have thought teamplay is meaningless. So he constantly ran away from me and used burrow. While i ended up in the focus of all enemies around. And when he happily chomped on that one zombie, i got swarmed. He go frozen. And a while later he ragequit.
So i conclude once again: people don't know how to play.
It is the worst. Not always, but most of the time. And with this ridiculously unbalanced Yeti Boss Hunt (walking aimbots that can freeze you multiple times even during invulnerable animations) Popcap shows once again that they just shoveled this out instead of actually balancing it. 60 damage freeze snipes that you cannot avoid - even mid-air? Sure. let me just be so slow that i get another. So much fun. And then comes the massive AoE ice rain that never stops.
Now combine that unbalanced mess with people that don't know how to shoot. And there you have the experience. I am still waiting for a Popcap live stream, where they beat it on Crazy.
Boss Hunt needs to separate the inexperienced players from the experienced ones. It is that simple. And then someone with actual gaming experience needs to balance this mess.
pandareno1999
Hero+
8 years ago
This particular boss hunt is maddening. I played many rounds with some of the best players I know, a few matches with one random but mostly going in four in hand. These guys and gals and I have worked through crazy on every hunt up to this point. Yet here I am having only gotten to the gold hat this time around. Now, I'm not quite as good a player as my boss hunt friends, but I did have @redmichii to verbally keep me on track. Yet crazy eluded us. Once, the timer ran out when the yeti had about a millimeter of health left on the bar. Another time, we were about to finish when the game decided to send a disco zombie spinning into the spring's radiance circle. I think I'm finished with this one and will pass the next time it comes around.
I didn't even bother trying to play with randoms on this one. I know this post doesn't really address you main point, but i needed to put my yeti king rant somewhere.
Anonymous
8 years ago
Approved
@pandareno1999 I got 4 helmets I think but never managed to beat it on hard/crazy.
@Screion I don't know if I'd like the experienced/inexperienced to be seperated from each other. Popcap could oblige them to complete a tutorial before being allowed to enter the portal itself. Let them be their Plant/Zombie of choice and I'm sure we won't see many Chompers/Roses anytime soon.
realitysquared
8 years ago
The one thing to bear in mind is that a lot of children under the age of 12 play this game, and they are bound to wind up in someone's random Boss Hunt matchmaking.

For The Kings Day Out, this second time around, I was in enough games to notice what tactics work and what things need avoiding.

The first major tactic that we wound up using in each game was to get a Corn, preferably Commando Corn, up on top of the covered bridge; from there he can shoot every possible Popsickle spawning point except for the one which spawns in top of the bus near the cabins and the one which spawns under the bridge across the map. For those two we would make certain a Peashooter or other character was on the giant log in the center or a rooftop.

Our second big rule was to never venture into the gully, the low point on the map, unless we had to because getting swarmed from all directions was a certainty on Hard or Crazy.

We also made certain that whomever was on the covered bridge and rooftops stayed there until the Fool spawned and whomever was on the ground understood that they wouldn't be revived by those off the ground; we spawned pots as often as possible, or Tallnuts on those occasions we had a Cactus on the team, as distractions.

Staying off the ground proved to be critical, and most characters can get into that giant center log or onto certain rooftops with assistance or on their own and for Hard and Crazy it helps to get everyone into position before setting the bait.

All of that, of course, is really hard to do with a team of randoms- after finishing Hard and Crazy after a lot of futile efforts I tried helping out random teams and just having a Corn up on that covered bridge and staying up there sniping the Zombie Heroes until the Fool shows up actually enabled many of the random teams I wound up on as the event wound down make it farther than they probably would have otherwise.
SonicMaster92
8 years ago
The biggest problem with these kinds of boss hunts - especially The King's Day Out - is that there are no mid-session hints whatsoever. It seems to me that those young players keep thinking about Captain Smasher and Royal Hypno-Flower; both bosses can be defeated in solo quests, but what's the point? Those players don't understand anything about how hard the online boss hunts can be if they don't understand what to do. These boss hunts come with a warning that says: BOSS HUNT IS VERY DIFFICULT. TEAMWORK IS ENCOURAGED. But the young players don't even read the info and instead go into a boss hunt session straight away without being prepared. There needs to be stronger measures put in place so that the young players aren't left caught out. There are many ideas to improve it, but Mid-Session hints are the only thing that's crucial to the success of any boss hunt. Nothing fancy.
If EA and PopCap don't come to the rescue and add mid-session hints for every boss hunt that's out there, both companies will be deep in the negative territory in terms of delivering crucial fixes.
OR, abandon the online boss hunts altogether and leave just Captain Smasher and Royal Hypno-Flower as the only boss hunt missions in solo story quests.
Anonymous
8 years ago
Approved
I'll toss in my experience as an "experienced" player coming to a new game. (For the record I played many hours of GW1)
My brother and I entered the hunt with 0 idea what to do. We hadn't even done the quests yet due to having just purchased the game. (We've had it 3 days now, maybe 4.) My brother played it first and when I asked he told me it was straight impossible. He thought, here is target, hit target. He was certain that 3 stars was all the event gave, maybe 4-5 if the boss died. He did figure out the ice cream cones but, all of his groups failed making him think it was a lost cause. He didn't even know about the fool.
Fast forward a few hours and I join him. We get a run with a corn and pea while we were both sunflowers. (We saw the words HARD and TEAMWORK and decided we needed healers.) All it took was watching the Corn and Pea's strategies to learn how the event worked. We dominated that round, truthfully mostly due to the Corn and Pea. But, we did learn the power of two sunflower with constant beams on each other.
After that we had it down. We would adjust our tactics to match what the pick ups picked. We could be Pea, Corn, Sunflower as needed. Sadly, the two of us alone couldn't carry entire teams. So, if they didn't know what to do we were screwed. More importantly, was how bewildering it was to see someone plant a hard or crazy cone, only to have no clue that you can't directly attack the boss. (How does that happen?)
Speaking from MMO experience, the lack of information is probably 90%+ the reason for failure. Even a simple explanation of winter's grasp, what it does, and how to dispel it would go a long way. That and an explanation of the drink and its role in defeating the yeti. Perhaps, I am giving it too much credit though. Those explanations would help a new "experienced" player but, probably not children. (I think the only solution for that is an adjustment to difficulty.)
Oh well, hope that helps. Oh, and if anyone is still here. I got crowns yeti-diamond, does the event drop anything else? Finding sticker checklists for this game is downright impossible.
Anonymous
8 years ago
Approved
Can't seem to reply to your comment @pandareno1999 xD

Lol to be honest we should always take out both yeti and disco zombie first before we attempt to drink the zlurpee and go for the king. Unfortunately though during that particular round that we had, there was like 1min left on the timer and disco was still there with 1/4 of his health left. So we were like f it, let's take our chances----let's just go for the boss (with the hope that we could take out disco during spring radiance). Out of nowhere he just came around and started spinning in the buff zone lol (as you know already he can't be hit while spinning), killing everyone. It was instant KO after that xD

Anyway though, don't be discouraged by this boss hunt. Took me several attempts before actually beating crazy last minute with a group. Though I have to say that I was lucky enough to have organized a super effective team consisting of some really good players, doesn't mean that it's impossible for everyone else. We nearly beat it ourselves, remember? Had I been able to stay longer that night we would've definitely beaten it in the next few attempts.

I have faith that everyone can beat crazy in this hunt. Just need to pick good characters, and have good strategy. I've had my fair share of failures too xD so don't give up hope. You can do it!

If anyone's interested, I could elaborate on how exactly we beat crazy last night. We managed to beat it with 5min left on timer, plenty of revives at disposal, and we hadn't even use the team revive. It's possible, guys. Don't give up!
pandareno1999
Hero+
8 years ago
I'm sure I won't give up! I don't know how many are old enough to remember the cartoon Gulliver's Travels, but I'm always like the character Glum - "We'll neeever make it!"
I think it would be great if you didn't mind taking the time to write your ideas. I know that I can follow a strategy much better when I can read it several times before trying to execute it. Might I suggest that you add it to the thread containing the guide that Reality_Squared wrote? It is in the Guides and Strategies forum, and I have had EA_Andy make all four guides into sticky posts since these boss hunts will cycle monthly. That way it will stick around for posterity, while this thread will slowly move down to oblivion.
ShavedThronel0
8 years ago
@pandareno1999 wrote:
I'm sure I won't give up! I don't know how many are old enough to remember the cartoon Gulliver's Travels, but I'm always like the character Glum - "We'll neeever make it!"
I think it would be great if you didn't mind taking the time to write your ideas. I know that I can follow a strategy much better when I can read it several times before trying to execute it. Might I suggest that you add it to the thread containing the guide that Reality_Squared wrote? It is in the Guides and Strategies forum, and I have had EA_Andy make all four guides into sticky posts since these boss hunts will cycle monthly. That way it will stick around for posterity, while this thread will slowly move down to oblivion.
And how will a post on a forum that less than .001% of the players use make more people understand how to play?