Well, since I'm kind of sick of playing with idiots and newbies in Casual Quest, I figured I may as well put up my own little guide for it. This is all stuff that very few other players will be able to tell you.
I'm not going to tell you anything about teamwork or team composition, because anyone with an IQ of 50 will be able to figure that out.
Instead, I'm going to tell you all about The Particulars of Positioning.
What is Positioning?
Positioning is a concept that more or less involves playing in such a way to minimize the number of threats that can afflict damage to your character whilst still being capable of inflicting damage to enemies by minding your own positions and those of your enemies.
Theoretically, someone with flawless positioning will never take damage in Casual Quest.
This is possible because all enemies in Casual Quest have a predetermined (thus predictable) behavior.
Basic Positioning:
This is generally the ideal position for you (the blue square) to attack an enemy (the red square).
- The first and foremost reason is that the enemy is not facing you. Enemies in Casual Quest generally move in only one direction: Forward. If you are not in front of the enemy, you eliminate the risk of it running into you.
- Secondly, most enemies that cast spells and fire projectiles only do so in the forward direction (The scorpion, big demon, reaper, and genie being prime examples of enemies that do not follow this rule). Again, when you're not in front of the enemy, you eliminate the risk of its projectiles hitting you.
- Notice that your weapon (the brown rectangle) is barely touching the enemy. It still does the same damage, but there is more distance between yourself and the enemy. When there is more distance between yourself and the enemy, there is more time for you to react when the enemy changes directions or does anything else unexpected that has the potential to damage you.
The next step in Positioning needs to take the environment into account...
Corners:
Assuming that the darkened tiles are walls or some other kind of obstruction, this is NOT good positioning.
Once the enemy reaches that corner, it will turn, and there are only two ways it will go afterward. Either towards you, or not towards you, and towards you is generally the most common behavior.
Towards you also puts you at risk to take damage.
The best thing to do is to wait for the enemy to leave the corner before continuing to attack it. Attacking an enemy that is entering a corner from behind is safer than what is depicted in this situation, but shouldn't be done without being careful.
Pillars:
This is a not a safe attack. this is safe only when you are not pushing the enemy into a wall, as the enemy will generally turn towards you.
The above covers MOST enemies in Casual Quest.
Positioning in Casual Quest takes advantage of predictable enemy behaviors, so naturally you have to take into account special enemies that do not follow the norm.
Positioning with Birds
In this diagram, the enemy is a bird. The red lines represent the future path of the bird, and the highlighted tiles are areas that are at risk of getting damaged by the bird.
Of course, this is a small map, so the representation is a little inaccurate, but the basic idea is the same: Birds pose a greater risk to those near the edges of the map. This is doubly compounded by the fact that players near the edge of the map have only three options to move in to avoid damage, rather than four, as they cannot move past the edge.
Do yourself and everyone you're playing with a favor: Get out of the spawn as soon as you can, so that you don't take damage and so that you don't force your teammates to take damage by blocking their escape route.
Attacking birds is fairly standard stuff. They always travel in straight diagonal lines, and are fairly easy to predict the movement of.
This illustration depicts the ideal position from which to attack a bird.
The attack will push the bird, and cause the bird to not run into you and inflict damage if it survives the attack.
It is safer to attack the bird at one of its corners, perpendicular to its movement direction.
For example, a bird flying in the NW direction means its NE and SW corners are safest to attack.
Attacking a bird from behind is more challenging to do and generally requires a spear or ranged weapon. It sometimes results in chasing the bird around the map.
Positioning with Spiders:
Positioning with spiders follows some pretty nonstandard rules.
Firstly, spiders pose almost no threat from any direction other than the rear, because they move so slowly and only shoot webs from the rear.
So as a result, the situation depicted below is the worst way to go about attacking a spider.
Lastly, it is important to note that it is good technique to NOT spam your attack key!
- While you are attacking, your shield does not block projectiles!
- When an enemy takes damage, it gets pushed a little and is incapable of taking damage from you for a short period of time.
- While you are attacking, you are unable to move or react until your attack is finished (this is HUGE for any cleaving classes, such as the Pirate or Barbarian).
Pretty much, spamming your attack key makes you vulnerable to damage, because you cannot react or move and your shield won't block projectiles.
It is best to tap your attack key only when it is needed.
This also prevents the situation where you accidentally take fruits that were intended for another player.
The next post will cover "Positioning with Special Weapons and Spells", and "Attacking into Groups of Enemies". This post has already taken too much time to write.
Perhaps I'll jump in later and try out some of your tactics.