Blood & Glory: Invictus!

I’m pleased to announce that I have completed the entire campaign in Blood & Glory for iOS. All flawless victory without spending any (real) money from my part. I know this sounds cheesy, but I also learn how to multitask by playing Blood & Glory during commuting and listening to knowledge podcasts. It is one of the very few iOS games that doesn’t take over the audio during play and I could listen to podcasts like Mixergy, The Lifestyle Business Podcast, and iDeveloper Live while playing the game (iOS game makers: please resist the urge from taking over the audio that comes from the built-in music player).

Tournament Completed

You want to know how I can achieve this? The recipe is quite simple:

  • Delay upgrades. Don’t immediately buy new equipment as soon as you can afford it. Wait until you can upgrade your equipment to a few notch above the one you currently have tp get the biggest bang for the buck.
  • Focus your spending to improving attack points and then damage points. Don’t bother to buy shields until you’ve bought all other equipment that coins can buy.
  • Learn one attack combo and stick with it. Don’t try to use different attack comboes until you can get a 99.7% success rate with one – that is, every time you launch an attack you will always get to a combo. My favorite is the Earth Strike attack because it’s easy to remember and execute.
  • Just dodge, don’t bother to parry or block. This saves a few hundred miliseconds of precious thinking time on your part when the enemy is launching an attack.
  • Save your rubies to buy health potions & nothing else. You can get rubies for free by either levelling up (gain more XP) or following their instructions in the “get free rubies” section – most will be to watch a video clip or install another free app.
  • Don’t use health potions mid-match as this will waste precious rubies. If you lose a match and then re-try it, your health will be restored to the same level when the match begins. This isn’t the case if you use the potion to restore your health during a match.

So which equipment I’ve bought? Here they are, in chronological order. This list doesn’t include the default equipment that initially comes with your character. All of these were bought using coins that I earned while playing the game – no in-app purchases were made.

  1. Falcata Indomitus (Sword) – I believe you are forced to buy this in the tutorial.
  2. Gladio Imperiosus (Sword)
  3. Murmillone (Mask)
  4. Parma Verus (Shield)
  5. Duellator (Armor)
  6. Crista Laeviter (Mask)
  7. Galea Scorpius (Mask)
  8. Umbra (Armor) – at this point, more coins cannot improve my attack or hit points.
  9. Ruber Scutum (Shield) – There isn’t much else to buy and I was accumulating coins that I couldn’t spend for anything better.
  10. Makhaira (Sword) – they had this 50% off promo for decapitating weapons, and I got too much coins at that time.

Equipment Analysis

I’ve put together an analysis of the equipments that coins can buy in the game. Unlike rubies that you need to purchase with real money, you earn coins by playing the game. Winning a match earns a decent amount but even losing a match will earn you some coins – thus, never give up!

Swords

As you can see from the chart below only three weapons are really worth buying:

  • Bloody Mace
  • Axe Saervius
  • Spatha Ferus

The other swords tend to fall below the average “bang for the buck” line. But then again if you’re stuck at a level because you are vastly outlasted by your opponent’s hit points, you might want to upgrade your sword when you can. Just make sure that the weapon is more than one grade above whatever you’re using at that moment, so that you won’t use too much of your coins for stuff that you’ll abandon anyway (kinda like real life, isn’t it?).

Swords Chart

For your convenience, here are a list of the swords that you can purchase solely using coins and their respective attack levels.

Sword Name

Cost

Attack

Falcata Indomitus

250

10

Skull Hammer

1100

25

Gladio Imperiosus

2600

45

Kukri

4800

65

Tenebra Spatha

8500

95

Bloody Mace

11200

145

Heavy Spatha

18500

185

Axe Saervius

26000

270

Spatha Ferus

37100

370

Torvus Mace

63200

490

Masks

The second priority in your shopping list are masks. These will let you take more damage and they are not as expensive as armors. Try to refrain from buying masks until you can afford the Crista Laeviter. After that, Galea Scorpius is the next mask to get.

Masks Chart

These are the masks that were available to me when I played Blood and Glory.

Name

Cost

HP

Hoplomachus

750

100

Murmillone

1750

150

Galea Protego

3150

200

Crista Laeviter

4900

625

Gallius Atrox

8500

875

Crista Mortifera

14000

2000

Galea Scorpius

21100

3500

Armors

Armors also makes you more tolerant to damage. However they are kind of expensive and not many to choose from. Do buy them as soon as you have enough coins.

Armor Chart

Name

Cost

HP

Duellator

9500

1000

Tenebrae

19000

5000

Umbra

57800

18750

Shields

Shields allows you to block enemy attacks. I urge you to save your coins and don’t buy shields – only buy them after you couldn’t buy anything better. It is better to dodge attacks instead of blocking, since the latter takes some energy and you can even sustain damage if the shield is not strong enough or you run out of block points.

Blocking is similar to parrying but parrying is a lot more difficult – typically a block move lasts for about a second or so but parrying moves need to be at the exact moment. Blocking also consumes “block energy” – you can only block enemy attacks a few times before that runs out. There isn’t any such “energy quota” for parrying nor dodging though.

Shields Chart

As always, these are the list of shields that can be traded for coins.

Name

Cost

Block

Clipeus

1100

30

Parma Verus

2200

70

Tenebra Shield

4500

145

Skin Scutum

6600

270

Canens Shield

13200

420

Ruber Scutum

26500

685

End Game

So how did I do at the end? Below you can see my character’s last vital statistics when I finally completed all tournaments without losing.

Gladiator Stats

With all this information available to you, should do a lot better than me! Till next time…

Tournament invictus



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