CCG, but NOT DOTA!

01/20/2015

The graphics on the game are a little tiny, but since you're not really playing, just collecting and watching the battle, it doesn't matter.
You build up a squad of 4 monsters. There are 4 Elements in game, making what appears to be a simple Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors game.
Sounds great, a new Rage of Bahamut clone with better graphics and a top-down "arena" view, right? You can even "marginally" give orders to your monsters, to focus heals or attacks on one friend and/or foe, respectively. Sounds like a DOTA CCG? Not quite. Your control is minimum, and the monsters take your orders under advisement at best.

However, this is a pay-to-win game from the ground up. Your deck will consist mostly of Wind and Fire monsters, especially Liliths, and the Fire Monsters from achieving certain milestones in the game. Like most CCG nowadays, the game forces you to evolve your first monster prematurely (As in before it's completely Leveled up), resulting in your lynchpin monster being weaker than it "should" be. However, if you participate in one of the game's many "Events", you CAN get special rolls that will allow you to get a 6 star monster!
I managed to get ONE 6 star monster in 3 months of playing. Lots of one and two-star fodder monsters--and that's all you can really do with them, feed them to your high-star monsters to strengthen them.
Then occasionally, you'll get Monster Blood, which will allow you to permanently boost stats of ONE of your monsters. You're limited to a scant handful of Monster Blood--unless you buy more with real money! Pumped up on enough Monster Blood, a 2 star monster can meet or exceed the stats of a 3 star monster!
Their main moneymaker, though, is Energy, which limits how many fights you can perform. Fights further on in the game consume more Energy than earlier fights. So basically, you do your battles, play your PVP battles...then come back tomorrow!

The worst part of the game, though, is when you send in a team of 4+ star Super Trooper monsters in against 2 star enemies. You mow them down like wheat--and the game reports you LOSE. You lose the energy and any other resources you spent on the mission. I've reported this, even with a screen recording, but no answer.

It's tedious, but all told, it's the easiest points I've gotten on KONG, just shy of an Idle Game.
The good news is, KONGHACK has provided some impressive arsenal to boost your speed through the game. All your monsters heal and fight at about 4X speed. And when you get high enough in the game, you can double that! And once you have even ONE instant-finisher, you can win/lose the battle instantly. This saves you a few minutes per fight--about an hour all told on a full load of Energy (Yes, it's another Energy-gated game), and more if you Level during one of the fights!
Sadly, they can't make it so you win every time. Probably due to some kind of Server-side checks?
 

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