Greetings Captains! Today we’re here to dive deeper into Arena strategy and discuss some of the winning combos that players frequently use to rise up the ranks.
There are many ways to win in the Arena, but as with any competitive game, some meta trends develop. These will fluctuate depending on updates and season features over time.
Below, we’ll walk you through some of the strategies that can lead to Arena success, but you’ll need to experiment to find out what works best for you.
Val Speed
This is by far the most popular Arena strategy at the time of writing this article. Valentine is a Mercenary that can only be achieved in-game through the end of season rewards based on HQ Level. She’s fast, hits hard and has two area of effect skills that blast the entire opposing team with tons of damage.
Valentine has one weakness though… she’s often so fragile she crumbles as soon as she’s hit! If you have a fast, high enough attack Valentine though, she won’t need to do anything beyond that first devastating hit to win.
That brings us to one other key component of this strategy… Akari! Akari’s Leader Skill is Blade Unleash: “In Arena combat, increase ally ATK by 20% and ATK SPD by 10%.” Regardless of Akari’s level, everyone on the team will receive these bonuses. This is great for Valentine, which is why you’ll often see a very low level Akari at the head of an opposing team. She doesn’t need to do anything but lead at the start to be a game changer.
Big Boys
This strategy has been growing more popular in response to the previously mentioned technique. In this strategy, you prioritize bulk on your team so you can survive Valentine’s match-starting nuke. You don’t care as much about going first. Your game is to survive the first wave and knock them down one by one.
Perhaps the most fun part of the big boy strategy is that occasionally you run into another team of big boys. Epic battle ensues.
A usual staple of this team will be William and/or Lucas. Their ability to create shields and defense boost while also soaking up a ton of damage can’t be overlooked. Most of these Mercenaries will feel like Val’s first hit is a scratch at best.
You still need to do some damage though, which is where Mercenaries like Torsten, Alex or Zahra could come into play. Torsten’s Berserker Rage deals more damage the more damage he’s taken… so if Valentine hits him early, she could be signing her own death warrant! Alex’s AOE bombs finish the battle for you if you can just stay alive long enough. Zahra will take extra damage from Valentine due to type advantage, but she’s bulky enough to survive and she claps back with some powerful hits.
Torsten big. Torsten hit HARD.
Perhaps the most crucial lynchpin of this strategy is Jin Ryu. In the leader spot, he’ll slap a stun on the entire enemy team when they first hit you. This may miss a few, but often you’ll absorb that first hit then find the entire opposing team sitting ducks. It also doesn’t hurt that Jin Ryu can deal MASSIVE damage with his Dragon’s Might Skill – this will hit three times, remove all the enemy’s buffs AND call a joint attack with two allies. Between this and Torsten’s Berserker’s Rage, you usually have two one-shots to toss around.
Debuff to Death
This strategy isn’t quite as popular as the two above, but it has some definite merit if you can build your team right. It won’t KO people as fast as the above options, however, which means you’ll have to work harder to hold that top spot in the last moments of an Arena Season.
To make this work, you’ll need to employ Mercenaries that specialize in debuffs. Think Laction, Emma, Zarkhan, Wang, etc. You’ll use them to paralyze the enemy and easily walk to victory.
Zarkhan is big here. His ability to slap sleep, heal blocks and damage over time on all enemies simultaneously makes him a great choice for an opening salvo.
Behold, the king of debuff stacking!
Emma can also play a critical role. Her attacks deal more damage per debuff on the enemy, making her absolutely deadly single target damage once you’ve stacked a healthy amount of status effects on the opposing team. Perhaps most enticing, her Taboo Wave can spread debuffs from the target to everyone else. When pointed at sleeping or stunned enemies, this can be game-changing.
Some less often thought of debuffers that can round out your team are out there too. Camilla’s Boulons Multiple AOE can silence everyone. Alex’s bombs can tick away while the enemy is sleeping before explosively finishing them off. Feeling too squishy? Wang’s Judgement Day is one of the most powerful stunning attacks in the game, and also has the potential to revive an ally.
Awwww, Akari didn’t get any bombs 😢. We can fix that.
Tons of Ways to Win
The arena is a bit more nuanced than it seems at first glance. Just because everyone is using one set of tactics doesn’t mean you have to. What’s your winning formula in the arena?
You never need to lock into one style. You can always switch your team up in the arena… and indeed you should based on who your opponents are in that match!
We’ll be back next time to focus on the Guild Arena. Until then, get out there and fight for that rank! That God of the Arena title isn’t going to win itself!
Common Ground World’s May Mayhem festivities and competitions kick off this week, and while the dog days of summer are still months away, the team couldn’t resist introducing y’all to your newest CGW canine!
Unlike Building NFTs that require a square of your playing field (or more), Companion NFTs are deployable helpers that will wander around as they please, sharing their abilities and boosts automatically with your entire town. From cute kitties to majestic (but harmless) birds or loyal canine cohorts, Companions will let you pack your town with critters that are as beneficial as they are adorable!
Most Companions come with universal boosts to certain elements of gameplay like production time. While multiple boosts from Companions can be used by deploying multiple Companions, not all boosts are stackable in multiples.
Lucy the Border Collie is a magnificent furry helper for your town, joining Sparky the Great Pyrenees as your newest CGW Companion. But that’s only the beginning of what Common Ground World has planned for the month of May. Look for special competitions, discount sales, NFT reworks and new feature launches throughout the most exciting month on the Gala Games calendar!
Epic Lucy will stand guard to increase the crafting speed of your Milk Barns, Sheep Pens and Chicken Coops.
Now let’s take a look at the May Mayhem excitement landing this week in Gala’s flagship game of town and city builders!
Week 1 Competition
For the first full week of May Mayhem, Common Ground World is hosting an Everyone is Welcome! event, with additional reward spots and extra $GALA on the table for the best builders!
The competition begins at 10am PT on Tuesday, May 7th and runs until 10am PT on Friday, May 10th!
Race to sell as many Blue Steel Bicycles as possible using your Santa’s Factory–Put the pedal to the meta with this special May Mayhem competition!
Topping an extended leaderboard with 2500 total spots, the overall winner will take home 48,000 $GALA. Additionally, the top 100 finishers will receive a bonus NFT award!
Check out the original Discord announcement with a link to terms and conditions, a complete leaderboard breakdown, specific meta requirements and more!
Join members of the Common Ground World team for a special edition of Gala Plays, tomorrow at 3pm PT, where they’ll share some excellent tips and tricks for pedaling onto the leaderboard crafting Bicycles! Set a notification at the link below:
NFT Reworks
The Common Ground World team has a pristine reputation of keeping everything fresh and constantly delivering new content that keeps player strategies sharp! In that spirit, each week this May, look for reworks of some of your favorite CGW NFT items. 👩🌾 Look for new and improved abilities and additional crafting options on previously released NFTs.
If you never got your hands on these buildings in the original sales, don’t worry! Along with the weekly reworks, we’re also re-releasing these buildings with a nice discount 🤑, giving you a fresh chance to work them into your CGW strategies.
Last Friday, new utility was announced for the following two NFTs, which have been re-released in the Common Ground World store with a 30% discount, while supplies last!
Epic Table of Appreciation
Previous Abilities:
Crafting Baguettes without Flour 20% faster
Crafting Pinot Noir 20% faster with only 4 Pinot Grapes (instead of 6)
Crafting Cheese 20% faster with only 1 Milk (instead of 2)
Crafting Pumpkin Pie 20% faster with only 5 Pumpkin, 4 Sugar, 8 Eggs
New (Upgraded) Abilities:
Crafting Baguettes without Flour 50% faster!
Crafting Pinot Noir 50% faster with only 3 Grapes!
Crafting Cheese 50% faster with only 1 Milk!
Crafting Pumpkin Pie 50% faster with only 3 Pumpkin, 2 Sugar, 4 Eggs!
Crafting Jam 50% faster with 5 Strawberries, 3 Sugar, and Water instead of Water Drum!
Don’t miss out on any of the mayhem happening all month long! There’s never been a better time to start playing Common Ground World than right now. With new features, constant content updates and strategy-boosting player-owned NFTs, Common Ground World is stronger than ever!
To hear about all the latest May Mayhem action directly from the team, check out the replay of last Friday’s Common Ground World Town Hall 👇 Tune in every Friday at 8am PT for the latest game updates and a rundown of the upcoming meta changes to prepare you for competition!
