Does anybody have any tips for unlocking the Horus of Two Horizons Ra variant? It's a really tough balance to keep him high enough health that he can take the damage from solar flare, but low enough that the Ennead can get the incap. Plus the last time I tried they drew The Grave Beckons (Destroy non-villain targets under 3 HP" which counts differently than being incapped so I ended up not getting the variant. I'm having a tough time figuring out conceptually if there's an easier way to do it. I'm saving solar flare for my last Ra play so that I can control his HP a little better... does it just come down to luck of the draw at that point, and hoping the Ennead draws the right card to incap?
Thanks. I tried searching the forums and found the original unlock thread, but not a lot in terms of strategy for achieving the unlock conditions.
One thing that might help is to have folks who can redirect damage around. Nightmist and Tachyon can help to make sure that killing blow lands on Ra, even if he wasn't the initial target.
Team Leader Tachyon should be your first choice in any fight that doesn't require her to sit the game out.
Visionary's base power is great for getting Ra's cards into his hands.
Legacy and Nightmist are great since Take Down and Mistbound both shut down the Ennead for an entire round.
Although it's a little cheaty, have Ra as the last hero to act. That way, you can see what The Ennead will do. If the cards they played will incap Ra, rewind time to Ra's turn and play Solar Flare.
You might even have Ra damage himself just enough to prepare the Ennead to finish him off.
My default unlock team is Team Leader Tachyon, Dark Visionary, Argent Adept, Grampa Legacy, and whoever you're unlocking for. Legacy or AA can be substituted for other heroes (Probably Nightmist) if you think that the redirection will be handy, but they'll work fine.
Once you have Ra completely set up (Barring Solar Flare) use Visionary to determine what is on top of the Villain deck, and once it's something that can kill Ra you can play Solar Flare. Ra should go last so that you can confirm that everything else is set up ahead of time. Don't be afraid to deal damage to Ra yourself. Twist the Ether is excellent here, as it will allow Ra to damage himself through Flesh of the Sun God (and help manage the damage so that you deal yourself the right amount). A judicious Twist the Ether on the highest HP Ennead member can allow Ra to be killed by Sun's Fury or Mass Overheating (as well as boosting the damage to make it easier, and reducing the damage to everyone else in case you want to try winning once Ra is dead)
Make sure that the environment is something harmless that is unlikely to kill Ra unexpectedly.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
This variant has similar challenges as the DW Fixer one (although I struggled much more with the DW Fixer, partially because of the lesser number of heroes to choose from at the time).
For such unlocks I suggest Dark Visionary as first hero followed by Ra, Argent Adept, Nightmist and a nuker hero (Wraith is pretty good, for its directed damage + utility/control potential).
Get Ra set-up with everything except Solar Flare. Dark Visionary scout and stack Ennead's deck, keep Ra's HP somewhere safe but not too high. Keep environment play area as clear as possible.
Set Nightmist up to take the final damage, with amulet ready.
When Dark Visionary sees the right card is ready, Ra damages himself to the point of almost-death, Argent Adept plays Solar Flare for Ra and Nightmist Mistbinds the environment. Final hero to do other things (e.g continue damaging Ra) if required.
Ennead hits Nightmist, redirects to Ra.
Prefers smooth peanut butter, but loves crunchy numbers.
I used Grandpa Legacy and Dark Visionary to stack the bottom of Ra's deck so Super Scientific Tachyon could experiment on him.
This. It's also how I got The Operative to incapacitate Fixer when I had to re-do the achievement on my tablet. Synaptic Interruption aren Amulet of the Elder Gods are fantastic when you need someone to damage someone they normally wouldn't.
"I'm not prone to hyperbole, but she is the Antichrist." - chwineka
I got it this afternoon! Used a team of TL Tachyon, Nightmist, Dark Visionary, Tempest, and Ra. I forgot that once Atum goes down you can't stack the villain deck any more, so that threw some more uncertainty into things. Worked ok though, I was using Tachyon (Synaptic Interruption) and Nightmist's amulet to redirect damage, and Visionary to control the Final Wasteland down the stretch to make sure nothing unexpected popped out of the environment to kill Ra. Isis finally finished off Ra to get me the variant.
Thanks for the tips!