Costumed Thor and the false economy of Mana Speed (Empires & Puzzles)
Empires and Puzzles just released Costumed Thor, who can be seen at this very moment flexing all over the Valhalla Portal. But can his Special mechanism ever really pay off? And why didn’t he earth himself before picking up that hammer? -He’s clearly caught in an endless loop of Static feedback, right?
I was caught in one myself last Thursday, so know all about it. It was while trying on a new jumper in a changing room.
I could feel the Static buzzing all over my body as I rushed to change, and then I saw a metal handrail protruding out of the wall. -It was designed to help me keep balance, but my smirk told the universe that I knew better!
“Aahhh!”, I screamed. But I was locked in; electricity zapping in and out of me before I could rationalize a single action.
Thankfully, instinct kicked in and my hand pulled away.
I steadied myself to evaluate the damage. But I was OK. Of course, I immediately left the establishment. They’re lucky I didn’t complain!
-You can’t sell 100% polyester fleeces and stick a f#*king un-earthed metal pole in the damned changing room!
This post may contain speculation, personal opinion, and adult comedy. It is not advice and is solely for entertainment and informational purposes.
Valhalla Portal with Bera, Lord Loki, and… Norns? (Empires and Puzzles)
Before we get to Costumed Thor, I wanted to share my pull with you today. In a portal featuring Bera, and also including Lord Loki, E&P saw fit to send me…
…Norns.
Don’t get me wrong, Norns is a great catch for someone like me, I just wanted Bera! Anyway, I thought I’d quickly share a couple of her awesome benefits for those who may not know:
- Norns is a star on Stages; speeding up the process by making 2 Elements strong.
- She’s also excellent in Tournaments where an Element is missing; -as Defenses are usually Stacked against the missing Element. Meaning, you can go in with the weaker Element, and Norns, to switch it around.
Of course, I’m gonna try and find some serious synergy for normal Raiding, but at this point, I can’t tell you in good faith that I’ll be able to achieve that.
Anyway, on we go! To Costumed Thor!
ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっRelated: Check out all of my favourite Valhalla Heroes, right here.
Costumed Thor Stats and Special Skills (Empires and Puzzles)
Key Facts: Holy (Yellow), Very Fast, Paladin, Midgard Realm
Special Skills (Energy of Mjolnir): Has a different effect on consecutive uses in the following order 1. 185% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -25% accuracy for 3 turns. 2. 260% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -35% accuracy for 3 turns. 3. 290% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -54% accuracy for 3 turns.
Midgard Realm Family Bonus: 1/2/3 Heroes: +5/+10/+15% attack to all allies for as long as a Midgard ally has low health.
Talent: PROTECT ~ +25% chance to get +25% defense for 2 turns after receiving and damage. The effect is applied at the end of the turn.
Is Costumed Thor Worth Levelling? (Empires and Puzzles)
I would. He’s a snappy Hitter who gets stronger with each charge. He also offers a quick reduction in accuracy, with the second charge being -35%; the optimum for me, between usefulness and obtainability.
That said, the charging mechanism has its limitations, and in the new world filled with super quick destroyers, he isn’t the best option on the market.
I know some people will love Thor, and let’s be honest, the name, the look, the hammer… They’re sometimes part of the appeal. But I’d only really be interested in the Costume.
Thor Vs. Costumed Thor (Empires and Puzzles)
I’m gonna stick them side-by-side, but I don’t propose comparing them on usage. The Costume is a simple, hit-all-enemy, damage inflictor, with a pinch of reduced accuracy:
| Hero | Mana Speed | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Thor | Very Fast (6.5 tiles) | 280% damage to the target. Target gets -40% accuracy for 3 turns. | 280% damage to target and NB. All 3 get -40% accuracy for 3 turns. | 280% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -40% accuracy for 3 turns. |
| Costumed Thor | Very Fast (6.5 tiles) | 185% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -25% accuracy for 3 turns. | 260% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -35% accuracy for 3 turns. | 290% damage to all enemies. All enemies get -54% accuracy for 3 turns. |
As mentioned above, for me, Costumed Thor is the superior athlete of the two.
And for the record, here’s the Costume Bonus:
Thor and the false economy of Very Fast and Fast
I do like Costumed Thor and feel that in an ideal world, there should always be a trade-off between Power and Skill.
A strong Hero should have some limiting factor, -not just be able to destroy everything in 6 tiles. And Thor has this limiting factor built in; his charging system.
It means that he has to charge his Mana for the first hit (185% to all with -25% accuracy), then again for the second (260% to all with -35% accuracy), and then again for the third (290% to all with -54% accuracy).
But this is at the cost of tiles. Let me create a neat little table:
| Hero | Damage | Total Damage | Total Tiles | Damage % Per Tile | ATK | T. Damage Score | Damage score Per Tile |
| C.Thor C1 | 185% to all | – | 6.5 | 28.46% | 731 | 6,762 | 1,040 |
| C.Thor C2 | 260% to all | 445% to all | 13 | 34.23% | 731 | 16,265 | 1,251 |
| C.Thor C3 | 290% to all | 735% to all | 19.5 | 37.69% | 731 | 26,864 | 1,378 |
| Anne | From 550% to 55% | Avg. 297% to all* | 8 | 37.13% | 819 | 12,162 | 1,520 |
| CGP | 280% to all | – | 8 | 35% | 804 | 11,256 | 1,407 |
| Khufu | 450% to all* | – | 12 | 37.5% | 795 | 17,888 | 1,491 |
| Malosi | 300% to 1 | – | 6.5 | 46.16% to 1 | 743 | 2,229 | 343 |
And there’s more to the story.
To get 445% out of Costumed Thor, and the higher damage per tile usage rate, you’ll need 13 tiles. Whereas Khufu at Slow offers you a higher usage rate for 12 tiles.
Even more insane is Anne’s damage and tile usage rate, which comes into effect at 8 tiles. (While you’d need to collect 19.5 tiles to even come close with C. Thor).
Getting those 13 or 19.5 tiles isn’t always easy either, and by the very nature of his charging mechanism, you may end up using more than the 6.5/7 tiles required to charge his Special before firing and will then have to start all over again.
And then you’ll need another 6.5 tiles for the next part of his Special. -All the while, those tiles will be disappearing quickly.
The point is, he’s inefficient.
This isn’t the same as a Ninja, this is Thor!
And here comes my false economy logic…
This also applies to normal V.Fast/Fast Heroes, where they look impressive, but pound for pound they may actually be much weaker.
Because once the Very Fast/Fast Hero fires off, they have to start over again, and unless the Special is really powerful like we’ve been seeing of late, then in my view, they’re not worth the spot.
In many cases, benching a Fast Hero for an Average Hero provides better value for money. -Especially when the Hero is primarily there to inflict damage (modern OP monsters aside).
That brings me to Malosi. Why is he on the table?
Because his Special isn’t solely based on damage. He does something extraordinarily useful that you want to charge and loop, -for its function.
There’s no false economy with him because he’s not selling you Damage. He’s selling you Hope 😁.
Anyway, I’m not telling you I’m right. I’m simply sharing my worldview.
Back to Costumed Thor (Empires and Puzzles)
I tested C.Thor in Beta and I wasn’t blown away.
But that’s probably because with so many Abominations passing through, I was a little shook up.
Nonetheless, for me, it’s all about the first and second charges, as both are more easily obtained.
Imagine this tho, Alucard, who is Very Fast, has a chance to dole out 70% damage to all enemies on a Passive! That’s also 6.5 tiles. And that’s his Passive!
What I’m trying to say is, Costumed Thor is a solid Hero who could decimate an entire Squad. But could is the operative word there.
He’s a Hero I would love to have. But as I always try to do, I’ve set the benchmark based on all the other recent contestants we’ve seen boogieing through that gate.
And under those Disco lights, Costumed Thor doesn’t come close to stealing the show.
C.Thor of the Valhalla Summoning Portal (Empires and Puzzles)
My final thoughts:
I must admit, judging Hitters in Empires and Puzzles is definitely the most challenging. Of course, Anne, Jove, and C.G. Panther, are straightforward, because they properly trigger the “Oh, F#*k Off!” valve.
But Thor, with his charging mechanism, creates room for lots of variables. And variables are a bad thing… unless you’re a games developer running a Gacha Game 😄.
In closing, I’ll point out that without much by way of a Passive or crazy Family Bonus (although the +attack at low health is noted), I’m going to grade him low.
Costumed Thor has the potential of inflicting a lot of damage while also helping to limit what damage your team takes. -He’s just not very efficient at it.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Hero Grade for Costumed Thor
So for my grading, the question is:
Is this hero’s Special capable of/likely to change the outcome of a battle? Yes.
If not, do they still bring enough to the party to help defeat the deities? N/a.
Old Cynic’s Hero Grade: Deity ⭐★★
[Please always check in-game Hero Cards to confirm details and never chase Heroes]
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Images used by way of review/tutorial – Copyright owned by Empires & Puzzles: Small Giant/Zynga Games
to be honest, I didn’t like him very much without costume and I still don’t now. he’s the kind of hero that sometimes kicks my … in a rush war but wouldn’t do the same for me if I would have him, too many ‘if the tiles are right’ with him. Also, coming gods of Valhalla thor is about one of the coolest around, and they didn’t do him justice with his skillset. I mean, his brother loki is waaaaayyyyy cooler! Imagine Chris Hemsworth playing empires and puzzles and then he sees what they did to him…, he’d never want to play him again!
Yeah, says a lot we we’d rather have Loki than his brother Thor.
It’s true, Chris Hemsworth wouldn’t play this Thor in a movie! I think the concept of Thor means more to people in general and maybe he should have been treated to some odd quirky skill or something more. Anyway, thank you for visiting, duende!
I’d definetely be a fan if it would just be his third hit, but on average. Thén he’d have some Real mjolnir power😁😉
Thank you as always Old Cynic for posting your thoughts 😊
I will absolutely share with my team!
Thank you Fancylissa, I appreciate it!
I had Thor since he first came out and was never very impressed. This has not improved my opinion.
Even Loki charged up would say, “I wonder if there is a Costume Renfeld around here.”
I have never been a fan of the costumes for heroes that are already strong. Perhaps Thor was not a superstar, but it was better than Leonidas or any other classic yellow hero. But things are how they are and costumes for Anne, Khufu, Milena or the Covenant probably will be created too.
Knowing that, I think it is a cool hero, not cool enough to chase it, but cool.
On an unrelated topic, what do you know about breaking the already broken limits? I think I read somewhere the idea was to make the heroes reach level 100.
I haven’t heard anything but I’ll keep an eye out now. I’d hate to have to level more than we already do, it already takes forever.
Take it easy, Mig El
I broke the limit for only one hero of each colour, since I assumed I had to save those spheres, but if they have decided to change that, I will start breaking other heroes limit.
Thanks, my friend.
“445% @ 13 Tiles VS Khufu”
Just as a quick reminder, that its even worse than it ist implied by these Numbers. The way, the DamageCalculation works, a 185% and a second 260% Hit will produce a fair bit lower Damage combined than one single 445% Hit would.
Thanks for this Zakuha, Merry Christmas!
I still dont like thor……..
With the costume he gets a little more stuff but at a great disadvantage..
His basic ace in his weak deck was very fast + warriorclass.. you pounded him to death and by doing so filled his manabar, and he came back to deliver a decent spank.
Now with costume he is paladong wich is pretty much more useful for an attacker than a defender. (a freebie hunters mark for attackers who has a bonus for hitting buffed enemies)
The charge-model of thor is the worst one out there.. as there are no half tiles..
his attack is 7 tiles away (9 if you play triples), his second attack is 7 more and the third is another 7… thats 21 tiles… wich is pretty much 9turns if your only fuel is triples..
There arent many matches that havent reached make or break in 9 turns nowadays…
He will serve a purpose in w3k seeing a lot of benchwarmers gets to play when you need more teams to use up all flags, but he is in tough competition with the old forgotten yellow Hotms.
So giving him a costume mostly made his picture uglier.. i still wont level him.
Hi Cougar, imagine if we didn’t have all those crazy heroes we got over the last 12 months, C.Thor would look real nice 😁. You’re right, horrible charging system.
Thanks for sharing, and Merry Christmas!
Yes agree with your comment, I know this is an opinion who knows how many share, but don’t you think we’re getting a little too many heroes, I know it’s keeping my head spinning, and they are now so much more over powered than what we were pulling previously. I’ve spent some coin on the game and I guess this is a strategy to keep my spending habits going. But it is making what I spent for a bit obselete!
One thing to note, which I don’t think really redeems C. Thor necessarily, is that it is actually fairly easy to get the number of tiles required to charge his skill down to an even 6, which actually makes a tremendous difference in the number of times you can use his skill compared to even fast heroes. All it takes is a mana speed bonus of at least 9%, which you can get with any mana troop of at least level 11 (or lower if you have the 2% mana talent). This means he can likely charge 3 times in the same amount of matches that it takes a fast hero to charge twice (assuming 3×3 tiles required for fast without crazy mana buffs), and his first charge can go off in only 2 matches, which could make a big difference of the miss change pays off.
Still, I think I would prefer any of the other Valhalla costumes overall (especially Heimdall!)
Ayyyy. Dear Old Cynic, there’s already a lot of new heroes since Thor Costume. Where are the reviews? Lol
I guess its hard to keep up the review with all the new heroes keep on coming into the game. Haha. Will you be doing any review on the new covenant and s1 costume?
Hey MIB, I’m in the office as we speak working on the new hotm. I’m trying to spread the reviews over a couple of days to take the sting out of it. As for the others, I gotta see what I’m doing on the day. Gotta earn a living and pay the bills too, sadly. The next hotm looks fun, hopefully I’ll have that out before its release. I did add Quintus x2 to the ranking, tho!
Haha. Truly understand that. Then new gargoyle coming out tomorrow. Lol. Too many heroes nowadays even I can’t remember them all. Anything, thanks for all the reviews!! Me and my alliance mate always refer here. Happy holidays too (though clearly you’re at office working). I thought you were on vacation somewhere.