Figured I had some free time at work here so I'd start the regular complaining thread about the bosshunt.Starting with the good:I was pleasantly surprised when playing with a rank 21 player to find that he was really good, and knew what he was doing.I actually found randoms that would listen to instructions in a lot of games.I was able to get my scrumptious hat this time so have finally completed all the bosshuntsThe bad and the ugly:Where do I start?The champion vampire flower that attaches itself to the squash making it impossible to kill and get the candy.Going into a game with only one scientist and then the scientist grabs the candy bucket and dies almost instantly.Going into games with scientists who don't heal or keep the bucket holder healed.The player who spends the entire game shooting at the squash and dieing repeatedly.The player who agrees to play on hard or crazy and then leaves half way thru leaving just three players. On normal mode this is manageable but not on the higher difficulties.The squash that just will not move from the two anchor points, no matter how hard u try and tempt him to leave. We've got in the habit of not trying to anchor until he leaves.The lag. I've been in three games now where players were rubber banding all over the place.That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to add to the list

Agree to all your excellent points! But mostly, this one - The squash that just will not move from the two anchor points, no matter how hard u try and tempt him to leave. If this occurs on Hard and Crazy Mode, this is the toughest (IMO) to overcome. You try to take cover from that thin anchor point post, or you try not to aggravate the squash by not shooting at him, or briefly leave the anchor point - observe the squash from a distance and when its safe, back to the anchor point. All this requires coordination with the other anchor point guardian. I just completed hard mode and we barely had any time left. 30 seconds left and squash was in Rage Mode. I was lucky to team up with a Max rank, Toxic Hero, random player. Last 30 seconds of the game here........ http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/JoeC2475/video/30344501

good: - There are some younger players out there that did catch on. Early when the Boss Hunt first comes out you'll have the most incoherent players. The last time this one came out in 2016 it was my first Boss Hunt and yes, my very first game I tried shooting the Squash the entire game to no avail...we failed and I was like, no way. - Players aren't afraid to be Scientists. I used to get this a lot, players rushing to chose the most powerful character and low and behold you've got no Scientists (although usually I'd switch to Scientist...Toxic Brains is where I belong though...I've perfected him to an art with Boss Hunts - Overall this Boss Hunt was very successful and fun...my right trigger hand is sore from consent use of my Xbox controller (ha). The variety of characters that I've been able to win with as well as other player character choices were quite interesting. My third Boss Hunt completed on Thursday I was able to win Hard with two Imps, a Scientist and me being Toxic Brains. Those Imps really kicked butt. Yesterday me (rank 5455) and an experienced Scientist was able to get two newbies their first Boss Hunt hat and they were Engineers...they held there own though. - I was able to get over 100 vanquishes most games, last night I topped out over 200 ending with 245...I think today I'll try for 300 but in order to do so the game needs to go the whole time limit. My teammates where a big help with my plant killing sprees and I couldn't have done it without them. bad: - Citrons, citrons...they were, are and continue to be my biggest pain within this game. They are every where, with the stun and the ray that shoots from out of nowhere. Unless it is at a critical stage within the game I do not hesitate to vanquish the citrons as they are just too pesky. Same goes for the Rose - Players not remembering to vanquish plants. If you don't stop to vanquish a plant here or there they just roam around looking to cause you damage...I guess this was one of the reasons I got so many plant vanquishes though. - Champion vampire flower, although annoying, can be dealt with. You need to be sneaky and aim only for this plant without disturbing the Squash...I know easier said than done but I didn't find this flower too annoying. - It's hit or miss with Scientist heals...a few times they didn't have the heal beam and couldn't find their heal stations so I died. Overall they were pretty good with the heal bomb. I found that if you had a mid level experienced Scientist(s) and you proved your worth with vanquishes after you dropped the candy then he realized you where the better player and he made it a habit of staying near you. When I was the Scientist this is what I did. - The squash hanging around the anchor points was definitely an issue. I hid behind the tombstones and didn't make a sound/move. When there were plants around I just punched them without using projectile shooting (in case I missed and hit the squash). Usually he went away after a while...other times we weren't so lucky...obviously the players should kill the guardian as soon as possible to avoid such situations. - Foot Solider...every time I am in a game with a foot solider we lose...period. I have all hats and I just play for fun as well as helping the younger players with hats/wins...but I am almost to the point where if I notice a foot solider I leave the game. - Odd ball damage output by plants...a few times last night (early this morning, ha)...I played the basic level/easiest game Boss mode and i swear the plants were doing incredible damage. Maybe I was getting tired with my marathon play but a few games I though we were on Hard/Crazy mode when I specifically saw that we were on easy mode.

The Squash coming up to the anchor points is a major pain. It's caused more failures and rage quits than anything else I've encountered in this boss hunt, both times it's been up. A couple of hopefully helpful good tips for the next time it pops up (presumably September or October this year): -As a Scientist if you're one of the anchors, the energy warp allows you to remain on the anchor, keeping it active and being immune to damage for a time. This really helps when the Squash comes over to say hello. I know energy warp isn't as popular as the regular warp but here I find it invaluable. Since you can hover in place for a several seconds it can save you from the damage the Squash can dish out. I've used it many times to keep the anchor going. -You shouldn't leave the anchor circle when trying to get the champion but... if you are a scientist and use the mega heal ball (which I highly recommend in general but especially for this boss hunt) you can run out briefly towards the other anchor, toss the ball, and get back in before it breaks. This little extra oomph allows it to get over to the other circle and heal the other anchor player. The timing for this is tight but not too difficult to do and the ball heals a big chunk as well. -When you have the candy rush, you should certainly focus on the Squash to maximize your damage within the rush's time limit but since you will one-shot almost anything with the boost from the candy it can be very helpful to have one person, usually a scientist but can be anyone really, to take out the other plants so you aren't swarmed. -By now most people know just how amazing Toxic Brainz is here but he is not required. The fact that he gets toxic mode so easily and has a large health pool makes him an excellent choice though. Just be aware that if you rely on his melee attacks against the Squash in candy rush mode you will likely be stunned and it lasts quite a while. I find the toxic punching is great against the champions though, especially with a scientist helping you out. And the bad: -Make sure you are in good health and in a good tactical situation before grabbing the candy bucket. Last time the event was up I was the Toxic Brainz and I was very low on health so was waiting for the healing I was getting to get me topped off or close before grabbing the bucket. Apparently this bugged our foot solider who grabbed it and then promptly died. This was on Craaazy so I understand the impatience but we ended up failing due to that and had that candy rush run been successful we would have won based on the prior sugar rush performance (we had used the team retry earlier). -Don't grab the candy from the champion unless you're the bucket carrier! I can't stress this enough. This was a serious problem the 1st time the hunt was up and while far less this time, it still happened.

@joec2475 Well stated about the pesky Squash and nice video...I've saved a few videos to my archives so that I could later bask in my epic (and sometimes close) victories. My only win on Crazy mode came last night and I don't think I want to try for it again...it took so much out of me (ha)...but good work!

Lots of great stuff here, all true of many games. My team went at craaazy last night for over two hours without winning. We just kept getting that horrible luck - camping squash, citron madness, etc. Good thing I already got the scrumptious hat the night before.

The good, the bad, and the just plain ugly of bosshunt

23 Replies

Screion
9 years ago
@Iron_Guard8 wrote:

-Don't grab the candy from the champion unless you're the bucket carrier! I can't stress this enough. This was a serious problem the 1st time the hunt was up and while far less this time, it still happened.

Actually, it can be a valid tactic to eat the candy without the bucket. That when the carrier will not make it in time and the only choices are an entire team knock out or one guy who sacrifices himself.

And now after like so many tries i managed to test more stuff and succeed with only a few random people.

Playing as Pirate can be fun for example because you can even block the path of a running target with the barrel, don't take as much damage while charging after it, and do good damage to it with the blast. During quiet moments its even possible to use the Parrot for an Eggsplosion on the Guardian. Even more so when an All Star blocks the enemies with shields, while the other anchoring team member takes out the plants attacking the shields.

Unfortunately i never managed to win a single game as Captain Partyman, despite me having the most vanquishes, the teams simply could not keep up. And Imps or scientists picking up the bucket certainly did not help. But especially because a lot of nonsense happened.

While defending the anchor as Pirate we got attacked by the Squash and the Guardian again. And the guardian decided to pull the most OP bs while being behind cover at the other side of the bridge, right behind the anchor spots: he used his fire artillery splash attack to bombard my spot... Popcap game balance galore...

But then something strange happened. In another game on crazy, right when the Guardian spawned, the game declared it to be defeated. So i had to look careful not to imagine things.

The bucket spawned, but the Guardian was still roaming free - at full health. So we just skipped one phase.

Later when we had to anchor another Guardian, we suddenly had 2 of them. It was confusing, but somehow one of them vanished. And in the end we beat crazy.

I certainly did not complain about that, after all the nonsense i had to endure.

But i have also had bucket targets run around during the anchor phase. And even one session simply end. Even though we did well the game just decided the end the session and kick me out with a "The game session has ended and you have been disconnected". So this event seems to be not only unfair but also poorly scripted. And the longer you play it the more of that you will discover.

Not to forget i managed to beat crazy with random people, playing as 75 HP Z7 Imp. The others were a Paleo, a Soldier and an Astronaut. So surprisingly we had not much health. But with the soldier always picking up the bucket and the healers doing their job, we could deal with that. And a mech here and there does make a difference.
pandareno1999
Hero+
9 years ago
Great stories here! I thank my lucky stars I had @ICEAGESNOWMAN and @redmichii to help me through craaazy on our first attempt. Jumping right into craaazy instead of progressing is rather challenging, jarring even!
Iron_Guard8
Legend
9 years ago
@Screion wrote:

Actually, it can be a valid tactic to eat the candy without the bucket. That when the carrier will not make it in time and the only choices are an entire team knock out or one guy who sacrifices himself.

In that situation I have to agree but I saw that once and only due to the candy carrier being already down on Craaazy. When someone just does it for no reason and wipes the team it's maddening, especially if we were otherwise doing well.

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The good, the bad, and the just plain ugly of bosshunt

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