JayZ's NML strategy compendium

M3M

Thanks all for the information given in this post, it is amazing and really very helpful, congratulations.

I have a question already asked here, but has not answer in the post...

re badging
it is very clear how to change from 1DR cycle to 6 DR cycle, but if you want to return back from 6DR cycle to 1DR cycle,
has to be used same combo? and the position for the change are the highlighted on the second cycle?
It would be apreciated if someone can clarify.

Thanks in advance!

Paste

@imnfiction It definitely makes her better, but the best heroes are the ones that helps you win against higher level opponents, and against really tough opponents a single hit can take you to the red health bar immediately, so you can't heal. And perhaps more importantly you'll be missing out on an offensive hero trait that helps you kill them.

It could perhaps help you get there more comfortably (without having to waste gas rerunning missions to get perfect score). And maybe this makes her valuable.

imnfiction

@Paste I fully agree, also I didn’t rank her as the best hero tier in my comment

Paste

Oh yeah. I kind of assumed you thought she deserved an upgrade from "Useful in certain situations" because you tagged Jay. I use her a lot personally, but I think she's still in that category. You never said otherwise though, so my bad.

imnfiction

@Paste no worries, indeed she is still in the same category - even though she has become now more useful than she was before

LoneWanderer360

Today I successfully made the jump from badge cycle 1 to cycle 2, but the initial results didn't match anything in the chart. I went through about 15 badges before I was able to predict where I was. Has this happened to anybody else? Would my results help at all (I did write them down) or is it normal to experience some random results when first jumping cycles?

ATLAS-Z

> @Putchuco said:
> Again, @Kaz @Shteevie this is great, pls don't stop sharing and discussing these kind of things.
>
> I have taken the liberty to update my previous summary with the latest information.
> Didn't want to take this away from anyone else, just didn't see anyone else doing it.
>
> Maybe this helps others as well, as I found that helpful info was still spread over various posts here.
>
> If it helps, great. I you don't find it helpful, forget it.
>
> LUCK in the game
>
> As a rule of thumb: LUCK increases the probability of triggering other probability traits, i.e. any trait that has a '% chance' to be triggered.
>
> One BIG exception: Piercing is NOT influenced by Luck.
> Piercing changes the values used for the game's calculation of whether an attack is a Body Shot or not. It is not a new effect with a chance to happen. This is why Piercing is not affected by Luck.
>
> List of traits that are affected by Luck:
> - Bullet Dodge
> - Charging
> - Concussion
> - Critical Chance
> - Dodge
> - Incendiary
> - Interrupt
> - Silenced
> - Stun Resistance
> - Swift Strike
> - Threat Reduction
>
> Any Trait that reads like "X% of the time, do an awesome thing" is affected by Luck. Any Trait that reads like "Some other number is increased or decreased by X%" is not affected by Luck.
>
> To find out how much Luck helps, add together the Luck values from weapon, survivor, and Gabriel's Traits [whichever are applicable, of course]. Then, increase the percentage of the trait in question by the amount of luck you have. Be careful; this is not the same as just adding the trait and Luck together. If you have a 50% chance on the Trait, and 20% luck, you add 20% of the 50% to the original 50% to get 60%.
>
> The math form of this looks like this:
> (Trait %) x (1 + (total luck %)) = final trait %
>
>
> Critical Chance with Luck
>
> In contrast to other traits, Luck adds % directly to the chance of a critical shot/hit.
>
> Crit Chance =
> minimum of {(base chance + luck + accurate + Sure Shot or Powerstrike + Carol or Daryl), (90%)}
>
> (we assume base chance to be around 10%, higher when fighting lower level of the opponents. This is not officially confirmed)
>
> NOTE: Luck does increase a survivor's Critical Chance, but doesn't increase the Accurate, Sure Shot or the Power Strike traits per se.
>
>
> Calculation examples:
> - If you have 20% of Dodge on your armor and 20% of Luck, the formula goes like this: Dodge + (Dodge x Luck) = 20 + (20 x 0.2) = 24% of total chance for Dodge to kick in
> - If you have 20% of Dodge on your armor plus 20% of Dodge on your survivor and 20% of Luck, then it'll be 40% of dodge and therefore the formula would be: 40 + (40 -x 0.2) = 48%
> - If you have 20% of Dodge plus 20% of Luck on your weapon and 20% of Luck on your survivor, then it goes like this: 20 + (20 x 0.4) = 28%
>
>
> For the Leader traits, it depends on the Hero, so Luck affects only:
> - Silent Shot (Daryl's)
> - Good Out of Bad (Sasha's)
> - Mysterious Ways (Gabriel's)
> - Thinning The herd (Michonne's)
> - Second Chance (Carl's)
> - Bodyguard (Jerry's)
> - Aim For The Head (Carol's)
> - Mullet Time! (Eugene's)
> - Defensive Charge (Morgan's)
>
> It should be noted that many Leader Traits are 2 smaller things stuck together. Luck affects things that happen or not based on a percentage chance, not things that always increase some other number by a percentage.
>
> In Jerry's case, for instance, Luck causes it to happen more often, but doesn't increase the amount of damage reduction. In Gabriel's case, the chance to dodge is affected by Luck, and the Luck he adds himself adds on to other Luck the Survivors may have.
>
> Also also also, each survivor's luck is added up separately. If Carol has lucky gear, that helps her, but not the others on her team. Similarly, her teammate's Luck helps the benefit of Carol's leader trait, but only for them, and not for Carol.
>
> - Luck on a Hero ONLY affects them, NOT any of the team members
> - Luck on a team member (either directly or weapon) adds to the probability of a (probability-based) hero-trait to kick in for THEM (!)
>
>
> Capped traits
>
> NOTE: The Luck trait doesn't increase the chance of a trait that is already capped.
>
> NG hopes that the worst offenders in terms of 'cap' have been dealt with, and they say they know better than to flirt with these kinds of imbalances again in the future.
>
> Critical chance is capped at 90%
> Damage Reduction is capped at 80%
> Stun Resistance is capped at 75%
>
> There is one exception to the damage reduction cap - in the turn that a Survivor is prevented from dying by Carl's "Second Chance" trait, they will take 0 damage for the remainder of the enemy turns. This way, the player has time to get the survivor to safety before they are in danger again.

You got this in here somewhere? @JayZ

Or something more recent?

Grady

LoneWanderer360 said:

Today I successfully made the jump from badge cycle 1 to cycle 2, but the initial results didn't match anything in the chart. I went through about 15 badges before I was able to predict where I was. Has this happened to anybody else? Would my results help at all (I did write them down) or is it normal to experience some random results when first jumping cycles?

Yes your result will help.

What you went through was not random but simply going from one pattern to another. What people call transition patterns are just other sets of pattern that does not automatically cycle back. In my research I call the 1DR (cycle 1) pattern Map A, and the 6DR (cycle 2) pattern Map B. I estimate that there are 8 maps in total. These are not yet fully charted.

You can discuss and keep up with latest badge research on Magic's discord channel: https://discord.gg/PvWYqaQ

tpab7

Thank you all for your work and all the videos. I learned a lot.

Now I tried to find my badge cycle.
I crafted 7 badges with the 1 star components (metal, edible,chemical,cloth) and got the following results:



I find no match to the 2 cycles here, it seems like i'm on a different cycle or am I doing something wrong?

tpab7

I continued crafting and after that above results I got exaclty what is in 6-DR cycle.

fretje

It seems like you are inside a 6-DR-level2-pattern... not sure how you got there (probably used a special recipe 2 craftings before your list), but your next badge will be a flat damage one, and then you should be back onto one of the regular patterns. just keep on crafting a couple more ;-)

Grady

tpab7 said:

Thank you all for your work and all the videos. I learned a lot.

Now I tried to find my badge cycle.
I crafted 7 badges with the 1 star components (metal, edible,chemical,cloth) and got the following results:



I find no match to the 2 cycles here, it seems like i'm on a different cycle or am I doing something wrong?

You should always indicate the Even/Odd slot position for easier tracking. From your above records those would be OOEEOOE (currently marked J16 to J22 on my mapping). As fretje said, the next badge will be Damage#, No bonus, Even (J23). The one after that using a group 9 recipe will be B24 (CD%, Hero, Even) followed by B25 (also CD%, Hero, Even). Note that my notation is off to Magic's by 1 row for the 6DR pattern.

You may have reached there by using a special recipe once from B13 (CD#, ShooterBruiserScout, Odd) and successfully jumped to F14 (H#, Strong/Vigilant/DefensiveStance, Even), then two more Group 1~9 recipes takes you to J16, the start of your record above.

tpab7

As I continued I received this: (sorry I missed even/odd again)


and it was exactly that what to expect.

I did not try to switch, it happend by luck and now I am on 6-DR and crafted finally some good DR badges.
For the first time I received 1500 stars in Challenge.

Grady

1. You recorded it wrong for the first row, the badge would be Damage # not Damage %, unless you used a Group 1~8 recipe. (which you should since Damage # is not very useful).
2. If you ever use any of the four special recipes (AAAC/AAAD/BCCC/CDDD), you risk switching. The chance of that happening is 75% if No Bonus was expected, and 25% for any other bonus.

tpab7

@Grady what do you mean with " the four special recipes (AAAC/AAAD/BCCC/CDDD)" and " a Group 1~8 recipe"
I used the information from the pictures from the JayZ post from page 1 "Badge crafting, demystified"

Grady

• Recipes in the same group yield the same result.
  
• A = Metal, B = Edible, C = Chemical, D = Cloth
  
• Order does not matter.
  
• Do not mix rarity of components, it is more complicated when you mix rarity.
  
• Recipes from Group 9 are the fixed results on the map.
  
• Recipes from Group 1~8 give random main badge effect but keep the same bonus condition and slot.
  
• Recipe from Group 10~13 (also called Special recipes) give random bonus condition but keep the same main effect and slot. If you use this group and the bonus condition changes from No Bonus to some bonus, then you will jump to another pattern. You also jump if the bonus condition changes from some bonus to no Bonus. Otherwise you stay on the same pattern.
  

Franko

@Grady

Question on the special recipes. I understood from JayZs information that the special recipes are to be used to switch patterns.

Since you mention that it also gives you a random bonus condition but keeping the same effect and slot, is it beneficial to use this recipe on certain slots that have less than desirable bonus conditions?

And as long as I use the special recipe on a slot that already has bonus conditions instead of no bonus, will I always stay on that pattern without the risk of leaving it?

Grady

Franko said:

@Grady



Question on the special recipes. I understood from JayZs information that the special recipes are to be used to switch patterns.



Since you mention that it also gives you a random bonus condition but keeping the same effect and slot, is it beneficial to use this recipe on certain slots that have less than desirable bonus conditions?



And as long as I use the special recipe on a slot that already has bonus conditions instead of no bonus, will I always stay on that pattern without the risk of leaving it?

No_Bonus_Condition is one type of bonus condition.

There are exactly 4 types of bonus conditions each with 25% chance of occurring:
1. No Bonus
2. Hero teammate
3. Class teammate
4. Trait

When you use the special recipe on a slot that already has bonus conditions, you have 25% chance of leaving the current pattern. (I call this making a Jump)

Every slot lead to exactly two other slots:
Walk: by using a Group 1~9 recipe OR failing a jump
Jump: by using a special recipe AND (go from no bonus to some bonus OR some bonus to no bonus)

Example:
A24 Walks to A25 and Jumps to K25
A25 Walks to A26 and Jumps to C26
L35 Walks to A36 and Jumps to C36
A20 Walks to A21 and Jumps to H03
H05 Walks to H06 and Jumps to K05

imnfiction

@JayZ do you plan to add more to the guide? For instance, your thoughts on equipment. I’ve seen your recent video, where you storm top level with RPG - amazing. Would love to read your tips and tricks about using unique weapons, as well as general guidelines for equipment traits.

JayZ

Yes, for sure @imnfiction! I've been a bit busy recently (two 60 hour work weeks + NW qualifying week and NW during those same weeks), but I plan on looking through comments, updating diagrams, and updating my posts when I have time!

imnfiction

Thanks @JayZ , looking forward to seeing it! This in amazing support for the community!

TJCart

EDIT: Nevermind, ha! I was just browsing around and landed on the Eh guild recruiting thread which mentions that it is your guild's site. So as an aside, do you actually manage it yourself, JayZ? Either way then, a general link in your compendium to the site is still warranted. Also, I'd be interested in a project to bring it more up to date as it is a much better resource than the Wikia page on TWD NML.

@JayZ I believe this would fall within the scope of the compendium: "Useful links" added to the helpful "Pictures and Diagrams" section.

The one I had in mind is the "Survivor/Gear Base Damage/Health Values" at the WordPress site (https://twdnomansland.wordpress.com/survivor-base-damagehealth-values/).

I was about to ask a question on the forums, when I remembered that site and found what I was looking for. I have no idea who put the work into the site and published it, but as far as the ToS goes, linking to the site should be fine instead of directly posting it here. Also, if you have any personal reasons not to use it or believe it is outside the scope of what you're trying to do here, that's fine too. Just a thought. Thanks.

imnfiction

@JayZ

Tara (some rerolls): Pair her leader ability (heal when using charged attacks) with Bruisers to stay alive longer in certain maps where you have to open gates, kill a special walker, etc. Badge her defensively and reroll traits to include: Lucky, Iron Skin, and Dodge. Revenge can sometimes be counter-productive..

I'm trying to understand "the why" behind your defensive build for Tara. Is that due to the scenarios when bruisers can't hold the hoard anymore and Tara needs to be able to take a hit while opening the gate? Thanks!

Burmeliinis

TJCart said:

The one I had in mind is the "Survivor/Gear Base Damage/Health Values" at the WordPress site (https://twdnomansland.wordpress.com/survivor-base-damagehealth-values/).

I would not promote that page anymore as pretty much all data in it is outdated. The figures have changed during the various updates.

arturdj

JayZ said:

Suggested hero guide

Last updated: March 11, 2020.



Good heroes with minimal investment (WIP)
- Abraham (some rerolls): Great leader trait, and a good default set of traits to be a balanced Assault that can be used for offense and defense. End-gamers should focus on giving him similar traits and badges as Bruisers to pair him with Sasha.
- Aaron (okay as-is): The best Shooter in the game. His leader trait will allow him to do more damage than any other Shooter you could have, and his original traits are perfect!
- Alpha (okay as-is): Good leader trait and great set of base traits. Can be kept as is and be your second-best Hunter after Sasha.
- Hilltop Maggie (some rerolls): Any leader trait that gives extra action points is always helpful! She is great in maps with lots of special walkers/freemen or Outpost raids.
- Michonne (okay as-is, can be rerolled): Her leader trait makes her the perfect fit with a melee team. Her traits are already great, and does not need more adjustment. However, end-gamers may want to consider changing her traits to be the same as Scout Rick.
- Gabriel (okay as-is, can be rerolled): Gabriel's leader and survivor traits make him a great candidate to be a more tanky Scout. Give him balanced badges, and have him absorb hits if you send him out with glass cannons like Rick.
- Alpha (okay as-is): I haven't used Alpha much, but she seems like a great Hunter to pair with Sasha as a leader on certain maps.

JayZ, in above post you mentioned two times about Alpha, I assume it is a mistake. So please write who is in your opinion the second-best Hunter?

Burmeliinis

Sasha is the best hunter by far so Alpha would be the second best.

JayZ

Thanks @arturdj - the first line is correct. The second line was from when Alpha was first released and I had not had a chance to use her yet.

BTW, thank you all for the comments and suggestions. I've made some minor edits over the last few weeks, and will continue making edits. I plan on creating more detailed guides on how to build and use each class, so keep an eye out for that!

rogueDS

Does anyone else like using carol with knife. I almost have her matched to scout rick trait wise such a beast actually hits higher sometimes due to her bonus. when paid with rick in lead its nuts. I have sl2nd spear almost upgrading. Will try scout rick Carol and one bruiser as wall I think. All I need is ruthless on carol. @ATLAS-Z. I hope it's okay posting this here.

ATLAS-Z

Definitely @rogueDS

I think JayZ included her as a solid third option. I agree.

I can't remember if I have power strike vigilant or follow through on her right now but I do have her jack'd. She doesn't disappoint.

JayZ

Carol is a good third option, but if you take two Scouts, it should always be Rick and Daryl.