Unpopular Opinions: Boosters Galore

So, finally, update 4.0 has come up.

Now, many things could be said about the boosters. It is definitely pay-to-win and it is an outright sign of the times to come.

Worrying about the “whales”, “superclans” and the “MK2 kings” is a moot point now, as they’re going to stack all the boosters that they want at their maximum rate anyway…

Needless to say, staying in Champions League would be impossible without using boosters…which tells everyone about the state of the game right now.

So, here’s a breakdown for everyone…and a wall of text:

There are certain characteristics that one should keep in mind when talking about boosters:

1. Boosters are stackable. This means that a team can have all of them…and stack them up together to achieve maximum effect. Given that a player can equip up to eight boosters at the same time (see below for more details), a team can stack up to 48 boosters…and all of them affect each other.
2. You can only see the boosters that you use. You cannot see those of your allies or enemies, except if they use a resource-related resource (read: key booster).
3. BOOSTERS DO NOT WORK IN CUSTOM GAMES. THANKS RUSSIA!

Now, here is the tale of the tape: Boosters come in three flavors.

ATTACK:

• Cooldown. The first one reduces cooldown of abilities, regardless of the robot. This is very OP on any robot you can think of. Frankly, with the fact that everyone is going to use this one…expect faster and snappier games, if that’s even a thing in War Robots.
• Damage. The second one increases damage. This is ALSO very OP on any robot you can think of. Everyone and their dog is going to use it and abuse it as much as they can.

Defense:

• Durability. The first one increases the base HP of a robot. Oh well…after all, there’s a reason why 9/12 builds exist in War Robots, right?
• Shields. The second one increases shields: Most probably, it affects both physical and energy shields. This is actually worth it if you know how to use it properly.
• Speed. The third one increases base speed: Situationally useful.

Resources:

• Keys. The first one basically gives you more keys after each match. Very useful, especially if you are looking for more components…or if you compete in the 6PL and need more gold/non-component weapons and robots!
• Honor Points. The second one gives you more honor points after each match. Very useful, especially if you are looking for more components, silver and tokens for that Royale.
• Silver. The third one gives you more silver after each match. Basically Premium 2.0, or Premium Junior, or Pixonic-how-the-heck-did-you-mess-this-up…NO BRAINER HERE!!! GO GET MORE SILVER, FOLKS!!!

Now, everyone would ask, where is our part in this?

The answer lies in adaptation.

Ways and Means

Since most people don’t have the money or time to fully invest into War Robots (this includes the writer of this article here), there is a way to maximize one’s reach in terms of boosters:

1. Resources carry the best value for their worth (You think that 1 hour is short, only to realize that you only actually set 1-2 hours a day for playing a game like War Robots…) Besides, you earn more than enough in a day to cover at least one of the boosters anyway…
2. Pixonic gives away free ones every now and then, both as part of bonus daily tasks and clan tasks. Finish them and use them to your advantage.
3. Whenever you get those boosters and actually have friends to share them with, go squad with them (as long as the league discrepancy isn’t that high). This is especially true when one or more members have Resource Boosters that have squad percentages – why not share the love with your friends, right?
4. Since Attack was always better than Defense in the original metagame, all the attack boosters are always better, except for the Shield Booster. With that being said, a standard player will always find the Resource Boosters more useful than the two of them!

Initial Research

Since we said that Resources>Attack>Defense, let’s go through the resource boosters first:

• The 1-hour Key Booster worth 40 Gold is the most efficient in its class at 150% personal gain and 10% cumulative gain for squadmates.
• The 1-hour Honor Points gain is proportional = so if you don’t have squadmates, don’t buy the ones for 120 or 160 Gold. Buy the minor one at 80 Gold instead.
• The 1-hour Silver Gain would depend on what you have. If you are solo, then buy the one worth 180 Gold. If you have a squad, then buy the one worth 320 Gold if you want a steal; it is slightly more effective than the most expensive one at 400 Gold.
• Don’t bother going for the Attack or Defense Boosters unless you have free loads of them.
• If you are someone who has 1000 Gold (or who can gain back 1000 Gold or more in 5 days), then use either a combination of Cooldown plus Attack Damage or Attack Damage plus Shields. Let’s admit it folks, everyone and their dogs are using the Dash family, Inquisitor, Spectre or the Lancelot anyways…

Take note that I didn’t crunch the exact numbers for this, it’s just an initial observation.

Observations

I did run five of them, and four of them were free, except for the Key Booster.

I’ll be a liar if I say that I didn’t enjoy my experience with these boosters, because I am sure that it helped me get 5 wins within the space of an hour. With that being said, everyone became squishier – thus your Carnages became paper tigers and even the physical shield guys became nothing but cannon fodder…and there has been an incentive for me to go for damage – after all, the higher the placing, the better the bonuses at the end of the match!

This pretty much confirms that the power creep has been extended to a higher level now. No power? Don’t even think of rising up leagues.

Personal Take

This is one of the craziest decisions that Pixonic has ever done in War Robots.

Sure, it’s cool to see boosters and consumables for robots in-game, but when you think about it in terms of the flawed matchmaking system and the fact that certain people will always choose to go down leagues regardless of the measures placed against them, this doesn’t seem to be a very good idea.

Regardless, with the fact that Pixonic is not going to pull this one back – unless they see compelling reasons to do so…and I don’t know actually where will the game go from this point on.

As for me, I’ll just grind the keys and the other stuff, get Silver, Gold and the non-component bots and weapons along the way…and diversify my hangar for 6PL.

Thankfully, Six-Pack League exists!

QUICK LINKS:

• A Greenhorn’s Journey to Diamond
• Some Thoughts on WR Expert League
• Unpopular Opinions: The Shocktrain Meta – Why is it so Divisive?
• Unpopular Opinions: Honor Rewards and Supply Crates
• Paradigms of War Robots
• Observations on the Haechi: An Early Take
• Lancelot: Alive or Not (Part 1)
• Lancelot: Alive or Not (Part 2)