The Ultimate Raid Strategy Guide For Beginners (Empires and Puzzles)
A decent Empires and Puzzles Raid strategy will boost your chances of winning. But the question is, What strategy will work best with your current Hero roster?
Today, I’m detailing the 3 main Raiding strategies I’ve used over the years. This is perfect for beginners who might only have a few decent Heroes.
This is a 2-part series:
Part 1: This post (A Raid Strategy Guide)
Part 2: The Complete Colour Stacking Guide
Before we start, please consider sharing a link to this post with your alliance or on social media. It really does help.
MENU (Empires and Puzzles Raiding Strategies)
1. Attack Up/Defence Down
2. Healing and Mana Control
3. Micromanage the Defence
This post may contain speculation, personal opinion, and adult comedy. It is not advice and is solely for entertainment and informational purposes.
#1: Attack Up/Defence Down (Empires and Puzzles Raid Strategy)
Attack-Up/Defence-Down was my first Empires and Puzzles raiding strategy. Before that, I just tried to smash tiles in hope of launching Special attacks.
Attack-Up/Defence-Down is a viable strategy for beating teams much stronger than your own. And of the 3 strategies in this list, it requires the fewest elite Heroes.
Here’s how it works:
Take a Hero like Rigard (costume), who casts +48% Attack-Up to all allies for 3 turns, and team him up with a Hero like Tiburtus, who brings the enemies’ Defence-Down (by -34%).
The result? Your tiles will now slice through the entire Defence, like a hot knife through butter.
Once you have Attack-Up and Defence-Down Heroes in your line-up, you can surround them with Hitters, Healers, and Buffers.
There are many easy-to-find Heroes with Attack-Up or Defence-Down Specials, including:
Attack-Up – Rigard (costume), Boldtusk, Grimm (costume), Wu Kong*, and Grevle
Defence-Down – Tiburtus, Isarnia, Frigg, Morel, Grimm, and Gunnar (costume)
Remember, you want the Attack-Up to buff all your Heroes if possible. And, you want the Defence-Down to impact as many enemies as possible.
Bonus tip: Fire off your Attack-Up Hero first, and then follow with your Defence-Down Hero; as Defence-Down Heroes normally cause damage and so will benefit from the Attack-Up before hitting. So, in this example, have Rigard fire first, then Tiburtus.
*I don’t like playing Wu Kong because his misses are infuriating. Use him at your peril.
Related: E&P Limit Breaking Guide
#2: Healing and Mana Control (Empires and Puzzles Raid Strategy)
Your Raiding strategy is often dictated by the Heroes you pull. The second strategy in my list is another which can be implemented by most E&P players.
However, this strategy does become much more effective if you have a couple of elite Heroes at your disposal.
Here’s the idea:
- First, you select a Hero (or three) who can reduce the opposition’s accumulated mana reserves. Lady of the Lake is the ideal candidate.
- Next, you need to keep them alive long enough to fire off their Specials. That means playing a quick healer alongside them.
- Finally, you fill the remaining slots with Heroes that complement your team. Skills that come to mind are Dodge, Counterattack, or a top-class Striker. Ideally, the Supporting Cast will also impact mana, so Heroes like Leonidas, Chao, and Elizabeth, are advantageous.
The simple goal of this Raid strategy is to stop enemy Heroes from using their Special skills. And, to eliminate them in a slow, methodical, manner.
Mana-influencing Heroes who will work in this strategy include Lady of the Lake, Mitsuko, Li Xiu, Elizabeth, Proteus, Leonidas, Little John, and Chao.
#3: Micromanage the Defence (Empires and Puzzles Raid Strategy)
This is my current strategy and it’s better described as Preventing & Managing Specials -it’s a proactive, rather than reactive, strategy.
Managing the Defence in this way is fun because you’re constantly prioritising your hits.
That said, you can’t actually run this strategy unless you have the right Heroes for it. Here’s what you need:
- A strong healer: Rigard is an elite healer. He Cleanses all allies and casts Attack-Up.
- A Malosi type: The ability to stop Defence Heroes from casting ailments or buffs.
- & A Bai Yeong type: The ability to mute or stop Defence Heroes from attacking your Raid team.
Finally, add a couple of Heroes to complement your squad. I currently employ Freya and Devana, because they both help when Malosi and Bai Yeong fail to do their jobs properly.
Other Heroes that will also complement Bai Yeong and Malosi are Kadilen (because she makes all allies Dodge Special skills for +45%), and Krampus (due to his overall defensive abilities).
E&P Raiding Strategies
Once your roster improves, you’ll be able to combine a few strategies into each Raid. But in the meantime, using these strategies in isolation can really make a huge difference to your win rate.
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Read Part 2: Rainbow, Mono or 3-2? A Colour Stacking Guide
Copyright: oldcynic.com
Images used by way of review/tutorial – Copyright owned by Empires & Puzzles: Small Giant Games
is there an easy strategy to get 5 star heroes?
Hello, sorry but I don’t believe there is -it’s random.
You can get more pulls by completing the Worlds (S1, S2, S3, & S4) on easy and hard, completing certain events/Quests, or by purchasing gems/deals.
You can also get your Training Camp up to level 20, where you can train a Legendary (although this also requires luck). -I’ve got two 5 star heroes this way.
If you have a look at social media, over time people have created folk-tales, fables, lucky habits, which they share. I once heard of taping into the 5 star card you want to pull first, then coming out of the Summoning Gate, then returning again, before actually drawing. But that didn’t work for me…
Hello, thank you for sharing very useful tips of the game.
I’ve question, is there a probability of percentage which tiles more occur for the benefits of heroes positions?. I mean in flank positions, the tiles more emerge than tank or wings. Is that possible?. Thank you….
This is an interesting question which most of us try to figure out! I don’t think hero position makes a difference, I believe the first set of tiles appear based on the colours in the Defense & on the Raid team. After that, new tiles are random. … I must emphasise, this is just my opinion without any real research! Maybe I’ll do some and provide a more complete answer.
Thanks for commenting
Thanks for this guide and the color stacking one, both have been really helpful! I’m curious, why didn’t you include Gretel in your management list? She doesn’t hit hard, but I’ve been using her instead of Li Xiu. Also, I see Grimm on your list for the first strategy. Isn’t he super squishy? I’m slowly leveling him, but he’s always one of the first to die, when he’s on one of my teams.
Hi SuperG, the heroes I used were just examples of heroes with the skills, I don’t mean to say they’re the best. When I wrote this I wanted to reference common heroes that everybody knew, and they were the names that came to mind 🙂
Thank you so much for reading and commenting SG!
Hello,
First of all, thank you very much for all the good advice.
I have a lot of difficulty building my defence. You seem to have a lot of experience.
Knowing that each of the following heroes is at their maximum, what defense would you do?
Ariel, Azlar, Balbar, Boldtusk, Boril, Caedmon, Cyprian, Elkanen, Horghall, Isarnia, Joon, Kadilen, Kasshrek, Killhare, Kiril, Lianna, Magni, Malicna, Mother North, Obakan, Proteus, Richard, Rigard, Vivica (all without suit).
Thank you for your help.
Hi Jeff, I don’t normally go through Defenses, mainly because it can take a lot of time and it’s actually a matter of Trial & Error to get right.
I can highlight which of the heroes are superstars in my eyes (and so should help you work out a Defense team):
* Ariel is one of the best (like top 3) healers in the game. Some will argue, she’s the best.
* Killhare was elite before the recent influx of new heroes.
* Mother North is top end. Amazing.
* Elkanen is old, but Fast and useful.
* Isarnia has a decent -Defense aliment which could help if positioned to go off before a hitter (like Killhare).
* Kadilen, Kasshrek, Kiril, Magni, Proteus, and Rigard (in hope of the costume) are all useful.
* Balbar is great IMV, but for Raids, not Defense.
Also, bear in mind that for Defense you should try to play a Rainbow squad –and ideally you’ll give some thought to what elements are next to each other.
So, without any testing and just looking at names, I’d start with trying:
Mother North | Killhare | Azlar | Ariel | Joon
It would be nice to get the opposite elements next to each other, but there’s limited choice. I don’t think Azlar should be Tank, just thinking of a Formation with him out the way. Oh, and Mother North should be out the way too -on the Wing.
See how it goes, move them around, sub in and out, and try out different Formations.
Hope it helps!
Hello,
First of all thank you for you answer. After 5 days of trying, I can tell you that you have been giving good advice. I tried 2 courses:
Mother North / Ariel / Isarnia / Azlar / Joon
Result: Defense that seems to hold but as soon as the opponent attacks with 2-3 greens in his team, defeat.
Mother North / Ariel / Azlar / Killhare / Joon
Result: Azlar being with all the emblems and overlimit, he seems to hold up well in tank. I no longer lose against weak attacking teams.
So thank you very much for enlightening me.
YES! I did something right! 😂
Thank you for returning with some feedback, especially as it was positive. I hope you win more than you lose.
I have a lot of great heroes, but struggling with forming teams. I’m rolling with Rigard, kadilyn, Azmia, Aeron, And Wilbur…I have a maxed out Fura whom I love and get great results when I have her with Rigard and Aeron. But I just can get the right mix. I also like my Zagrog and Sartana. Oh the struggle is real!!!!
Alliance name is Knights Moonshine
Hey Heidi, another great post for learning about building teams is my guested 1% tournament guide. It’s great for getting you thinking about all the options.
Hey old cynic,
Hope you’ve been well.
I have a question/declarative statement about raid defense rewards. I’m an easy going dude, but still get a little frustrated when my team withstands 5 out of 7 assaults and still dump cups.
Do you know if E&P has ever toyed with the idea of rewarding teams for successful defenses?
I’d love something simple, a class emblem, summon token, or maybe a chest that fills in your keep every time you thwart an attack. Every 10, you open it and get a small reward.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks as usual and have fun!
Hey Nurgles, I’m with you, I’d love to see something more definitive for defenses, but also for getting #1 in the world or your country. But no, I’ve never seen anything along those lines and I don’t really expect it either. Maybe one day we’ll be pleasantly surprised!