Most of the valor points lost on epic monsters go to small habits, not weak armies. These epic monster tips for Total Battle cost nothing to apply: keep Doria active but at home so her valor bonus survives the fight, send stacks in multiples of ten because revival costs one troop in ten, drop tier 1 troops from the march, build for strength rather than health because the stack dies anyway, and never expect two bonuses of the same kind to add up.
Should you send Doria on epic monster attacks?
No. Keep her active and send Aday or Cleopatra to do the fighting. Doria's valor point bonus only pays out if she does not die and the battle is won, and she only has to be active to grant it, not present. Sending her risks losing her and the bonus with her, for no gain.
Dustan has a wrinkle of the same kind. His conquest point bonus does not work in Shadow City, so on a Shadow Invasion attack you are better off with another strength captain. Whether keeping him active but at home preserves the bonus, as it does for Doria, is untested; the report is simply that sending him there earns nothing extra. The CP runs guide covers where Dustan's bonus does apply and why he is worth levelling for it.
Why should you send troops in multiples of ten?
Because reviving a stack costs one troop in every ten, and a partial ten costs the same as a full one. The calculator's exact numbers are a target, not an order.
- Sending 4,186 level 4 melee guardsmen costs the same revival as sending 4,180, and you lose the six for nothing. Send 4,100 instead.
- If the calculator says 16 monsters, send 10. If you can train four more, send 20: the attack is bigger and you still lose two, the same as you would have lost on 16.
Round down to the nearest ten, or the nearest hundred on large stacks, before you march. The Total Battle troop calculator gives you the ratios; this rule is how to copy them into the march screen. The same one-in-ten loss is why the stacking formula guide says to send every mercenary you own.
What should you leave out of an epic stack?
Tier 1 troops and every health bonus. Both take up room that strength could use.
Tier 1 troops
Tier 1 troops eat leadership and reduce how many higher-level troops the march can carry. With G4 guardsmen, go no lower than G2 for the second level of the stack. Leadership caps the whole march, so every slot a tier 1 unit takes is a slot a unit that can actually hit does not get.
Health bonuses
Health only matters when the stack is going to survive, and against an epic monster the whole stack dies. Strength is what decides how many of the monster's troops you kill per hit, so it is the only stat worth building for. That applies across the board:
| Bonus source | Against epic monsters | Against players and small monsters |
|---|---|---|
| Gems and enchantments on forged equipment | Strength only; health is wasted | Health can save troops that would survive |
| Army health bonus item | Do not activate it | Worth activating |
| Army strength bonus item | Activate it | Activate it |
If you are about to enchant a set of gear for epic hunting, put every slot into strength.
Do bonuses stack in Total Battle?
No. Two bonuses of the same kind do not add up; the larger one applies and the smaller is cancelled. A 100% bonus plus a 300% bonus is 300%, not 400%, and that holds for every bonus type.
The case players ask about most is buying the same tournament buff twice, such as the Fenrir bonus in the Ragnarok shop. What a second purchase does is not confirmed either way; the Ragnarok upgrade trick covers what has been observed and how to check it on your own account before you spend on it.
Which tournament gives the most valor points?
Ragnarok, by a wide margin. In a poll of 118 players, 66% named Ragnarok as the tournament that pays the most valor points, with Rise of the Ancients next and Arachne Swarm after that.
Two caveats on the runners-up. Rise of the Ancients needs a clan that organises raids and timings, so without one you will struggle to score. Arachne Swarm is a very hard epic to stack troops against for a new or intermediate player, though it is excellent for levelling captains because you send several at once.
How do you get help against heroic monster squads?
Ask your clan for a dedicated raid channel in clan chat. Clans that run one never leave a raid sitting empty, because a raid posted anywhere else is treated as not following protocol.
Heroic squads are worth the coordination. You can spot one by the colour of its shield, and a heroic Inferno squad fields far more troops than you can take alone. The raid pays clan chests, clan resources, valor and experience to everyone who joins, and the same channel is where Rise of the Ancients and Tin Man timings get organised. It does not have to be a heroic: two clanmates can raid a common squad the same way.
Before your next epic
Check that Doria is active and staying home, round every stack down to a ten, pull the tier 1 units out, and leave the army health item unused. Then spend your best effort where the poll says it pays: Ragnarok first, and Rise of the Ancients once your clan has a raid channel to run it through.