Brutal Legend Stage Battles

[Rorschach]

I'm a bit dissapointed in the lack of love for the stage battles either in single player or multi-player. Action fans don't understand the RTS and RTS fans don't understand the lack of cursor or minimap.

So I thought I'd spend some time over Thanksgiving putting up a basic guide and unit reference. The game has a great AI so practicing is helpful if you don't want to jump right into multi. Hope you find it helpful and are willing to give it (another) try. Price has already been cut in a lot of places to $40.

Avatar

Unlike most all other RTS games in Brutal Legend you directly control a character on the battlefield. Your avatar is your camera control, army control, spell creator and fighting unit all rolled into one.

Combat

• Your avatar is very capable in combat.
• All the combos and moves from the single player game are available with the same attacks and controls for all three avatars.
• Although avatars are powerful they can be damaged and even killed especially by large numbers of units.
• If you avatar expires some fans will crowd surf your body back to the stage.
• Although you're only out of the fight for a short time your opponent will gain 50 fans.
• Don't forget to use lock-on and block.

Flight

• Avatars can get an overview of the battlefield and move quickly by flying.
• Avatars can move over normally impassible terrain by flying over it.
• Flying avatars cannot attack or perform solos but they can recruit and command units.
• Scout using your avatar.

Guitar Solos

• Solos are similar to the world abilities or spells used in other RTS games.
• They can provide localized damage, buffs, or debuffs, affect your opponent's avatar or recruiting ability and other helpful things.
• Some solos will require stage upgrades before they can be used.
• Powerful solos will also have a cooldown time before they can be used again.
• Solos can only be interrupted by the anti-avatar spell (Silence, Anvil, Chains) or by killing the avatar.
• All factions have a set of common solos to rally the army, build merch booths, and summon your car and rally flag. The other solos are unique to your faction.
• Only one weather solo can be in effect at any time.

Double Team

• Almost every unit can be directly controlled by your avatar and gains a powerful special ability by double teaming.
• Not only can the special ability change the tide of the battle but the double teamed unit protects your avatar, taking most damage first.

[Rorschach]

Battlefield

Brutal Legend has seven battlefields with an extra two released as DLC. Each battlefield is symmetrical with stages on either end and fan geysers in between.

Stage

• The objective of every battle is to destroy your opponent's stage while protecting your own.
• Stages are the source of your recruits and where your fans collect.
• Upgrade your stage to move up a tier and unlock more powerful units and solos.
• Stage health is represented by orange spotlights. Each spotlight is 10% health.
  
• Ironheade's spotlights are on Ormegoden's tusks pointing down
• Drowning Doom's spotlights are along the front edge pointing down
• Tainted Coil's spotlights are in the center of the stage pointing up

[Rorschach]

Command and Control

Without a cursor or minimap commanding your units in Brtual Legend is a little different from the usual RTS.

Army Commands

• Generally commands are given to all nearby units
• Far away units are highlighted by their current command color
• Charge (D-pad Up)

• Orange spotlights
• Short range attack
• Ignore other targets until dead

• Follow (D-pad Right)

• Purple spotlights
• Move towards the avatar
• Engage units along the way

• Defend (D-pad Down)

• Blue spotlights
• Stay at location
• Engage nearby units but do not pursue

• Move (D-pad Left)

• Green spotlights
• Move towards beacon
• If beacon is on a structure ignore nearby units
• If beacon is on ground attack nearby units

Selecting Units

• Hold down "Y" to select individual units
• On the ground direct the camera at each unit
• In flight touch the pentagram to each unit
• Selected units will glow light blue
• The next command will be given only to selected units

Move Beacon

• Hold down "LB" and direct the camera to place a white spotlight anywhere on the battlefield
• Use the move command to send units to the beacon
• If the beacon is on a merch booth or stage units will ignore enemies until the structure is destroyed

• Good for stealth attacks on structures
• If the beacon is on the ground units will attack nearby enemies.

Rallying

• The Rally Army solo orders all units to your current location
• The Summon Flag solo creates a really flag at your current location
• All recruited units will move to the rally flag unless given other orders
• The rally flag can be picked up by your avatar and carried

Alerts

• Your recruit queue is shown in the upper right part of the screen
• Each bubble is a new unit or upgrade
• Current unit fills in as the recruit or upgrade
• Unit alerts are shown in the lower right part of the screen
• Red alerts are units or structures under attack
• White alerts are newly recruited units
• Direction to the unit is shown, not distance

[Rorschach]

Here's the reference sheet. Be sure to check out the second tab for the guitar Solos. Can't get the forum to format a table.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...6QjgtaUE&hl=en

[extarbags]

Great overview, but do you have any strategic tips? I love the stage battles but I can't seem to even beat the AI on normal. Also, do you find the factions to be well-balanced overall?

[PeterGinsberg]

This is really great, thanks for doing this. Encourages me to give the MP another shot.

[Adree]

You didn't even tell us how to turn the game on!

[Rorschach]

Great overview, but do you have any strategic tips? I love the stage battles but I can't seem to even beat the AI on normal. Also, do you find the factions to be well-balanced overall?

First off Brutal Legend games are fast and rarely last beyond 15 minutes. You always want to be doing something during a match. Here's the activities I want to be doing during the game in order of priority.

1. Controlling Units
2. Recruiting or Upgrading
3. Guitar Solo
4. Fighting with Double Team
5. Scouting
6. Fighting Alone

Of course that list is modified by the current situation.

The second tip is to know when to tier up. On average you're not going to have more than 10 units on the battlefield at one time so a lot of your fans can go to upgrading your stage. I've run into many an opponent online who rush to tier 4.

Thirdly you need to know when to push to the stage. On a lot of maps the fan rate is more than enough without claiming all of the fan geysers. Don't be afraid to put pressure on the enemy stage in the mid game or even a rush right at the beginning if you're feeling cocky.

Fourth: use your solos. You can use your tier one damage solo (Curse, Facemelter, Shadow Blast) to insta-kill a group of tier one units.

Fifth: know your counters. See the unit reference I linked to above. If you're getting owned by Fire Barons, know that they're fast so a melee attack is useless but they're weak against vehicles.

I find the variety of units across the three factions to be very engaging a fun to play. Haven't found any glaring imbalances so far.

[Cyrano]

Thanks for the excellent guide, Rorschach. Maybe this will motivate me to try some online matches. I loved the stage battles in the single player. I didn't have any trouble with the action vs. RTS play style, but that could be because this is the first RTS I've every played.

[Jab]

I just got to the stage battles last night and everything feels chaotic to me right now. While in the air I have no idea if any orders I give are being followed as I'm too busy flying around. Are there any more tips on giving orders to everyone?

[spiffy]

The problem I'm having is that I'm queuing up units, but I can't order them until I fly back to base, which is usually only when I die, because I was left alone after my current troupe was exterminated.. Is there a way to get units to get on the move to where I am or where I set a marker without having to go get them all the time?

[OrfBC]

The problem I'm having is that I'm queuing up units, but I can't order them until I fly back to base, which is usually only when I die, because I was left alone after my current troupe was exterminated.. Is there a way to get units to get on the move to where I am or where I set a marker without having to go get them all the time?

Play the Summon Flag solo. That will create a flag which acts as a rally point. You can leave the flag wherever you want, or carry it around with you to make units form on you automatically.

[extarbags]

You can also use the Rally Army solo to order all of your guys to show up where ever you are when you play it, as opposed to just your new guys.

[Rorschach]

I just got to the stage battles last night and everything feels chaotic to me right now. While in the air I have no idea if any orders I give are being followed as I'm too busy flying around. Are there any more tips on giving orders to everyone?

See above for two ways to rally your army.

If you're not near any units you won't hear your avatar give orders when you press the D-pad.

Use your beacon (RB) to plot your next move. For example, while your army is attacking a fan leech put your beacon near the next leech so you can immediately use the move order then play the fan tribute solo and use your flight to catch up.

If you're far away from your units they'll be spotlighted with their current order type.

• Orange - Charge (up)
• Purple - Follow (left)
• Blue - Defend (down)
• Green - Move (right)

If you order your units to move to a structure like a merch booth or stage they will ignore other units. If you have them charge a target like a structure or a unit they'll ignore other units. If you have them move to a spot on the map, have them follow, or defend they'll engage units as they see fit.

PROTIP: Online make sure you move your units in groups. There's a lot of early game avatar harrassment out there and a single squad of tier 1 units is lunch if the avatar gets a solo off in range.

[Rorschach]

The "Hammer of Infinite Fate" DLC is out which includes multplayer maps and single player doo-dads (including an antenna for your car that points to the nearest serpent, vista, buried metal, etc. etc.)

It hasn't been officially announced yet but there's a multiplayer balance update that you'll get even if you don't have any DLC. I've updated the few blatant changes on the spreadsheet, but basically it slows down the game a little, making stages a bit more beefy, the damaging solos tier 2, and the units that are specialized anti-infantry worse at damaging buildings. It'll potentially break the big focus on avatar harassment, Fire Baron spam, and Bride stage rushing. I'll probably play a few games tonight to try some more out.