Heroic Battle/Chapter 1 - Excalibur

Contents Chapter 1 - Excalibur Mission 1 - Artificial Sweetener Mission 2 - Trans-Atlantic Mission 3 - Sword in the Stone Mission 4 - Vulture, MP Mission 5 - God Save the Queen Premium Mission: To Catch a Thief

Chapter 1 - Excalibur

Mission 1 - Artificial Sweetener

Heroic Battle Prime Sentinel Passive: Prime Sentinel Passive:

"Rogue and Gambit thought they were out for a quiet date. Dinner, a movie, that kind of thing. But S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to have to cut their dessert short, because there are Sentinels on the move." — Heroes Required: Rogue and Gambit Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Mission 1 - Artificial Sweetener Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, Caressing Empowered Iso-8, Pilfered Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 180 This is the first and earliest Heroic Battle that can be encountered by players in the game. Prior to the October 15, 2013 update, Prime Sentinels in this battle never changed to other classes using their abilities, rendering Rogue's  Absorb Class only obtaining  Ubiquitous Power in this fight. Since the update, they now change their class during their first turn, allowing Rogue more versatility; thanks to her battle-exclusive passive buff  Rogue Protocol, Rogue is also able to absorb more than one class power, if the Sentinel she is using Absorb Power on has had the other Sentinel transfer it's class bonus. The battle is actually pretty easy, if Gambit is at least at level 9: using Royal Flush will in fact remove the Sentinels' buffs and deal the useful  Wide-Open and  Fumbling, which will make Rogue more lethal. If not, Gambit should accumulate as many stacks of  Kinetic Charge possible, and use Ace of Spades to lower their defense, allowing Rogue to deal more damage. Note: if you're using Rogue's Horseman of Famine alt, dialogues will be different.

Mission 2 - Trans-Atlantic

Heroic Battle Wave 1 Sabretooth Passive: Wave 2 Sabretooth Passive: Wave 3 Sabretooth Passive:

"Sabretooth is in London. He's probably on Brotherhood business, but he's moving independently of the main Brotherhood and Hellfire Club forces. We've got Logan tracking him down..there ought to be fireworks pretty soon." — Heroes Required: Wolverine Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Mission 2 - Trans-Atlantic Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, The Exsanguinator, Soothing Empowered Iso-8, Frenzied Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 90 This Heroic Battle is unique in that damaging Sabretooth for at least 50% of his health will end the wave and begin the next with a different combat background. Sabretooth cannot be completely defeated in the first two waves and can only be defeated at the third and final Wave; aside from the combat background changes, Wolverine gains  Feral Instinct whenever he defeats Sabretooth in a wave, stacking for up to two times. Sabretooth gains  Healing Factor in the second wave, and then gains  Frenzy at the final wave, similar to what his passive effects were on Chapter 4 - Mission 6 of Season 1. This battle is pretty easy, since Sabretooth's damage output is not very high and Wolverine's  Healing Factor is more than enough to let him live. The best thing to do is to keep as many stacks of  Bleeding as possible on Sabretooth, especially when he gains his Healing Factor. On the third wave things will be more difficult, but Wolverine's counter-attacks (more frequent if he's at low health) will probably defeat Sabretooth with ease.

Mission 3 - Sword in the Stone

Heroic Battle Mystique Passive: None

"Mystique has cut off her very own son, Nightcrawler, on a patrol while he was tracking Brotherhood activity. He could bamf his way out, but there comes a time in a man's life when he's got to face his demons. Even if one of them is his mother." — Heroes Required: Nightcrawler Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Mission 3 - Sword in the Stone Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, Sonic Fist Revered Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 48 For the first time in the game, Mystique can now copy other characters using her Shapeshift ability. In this battle she can Shapeshift to Cyclops and attack using Exploit Weakness, can shapeshift into Wolverine and attack using Deadly Claws and Savage Rend, can shapeshift into Beast and attack using The Jungle and A Farewell to Arms, and shapeshift into Emma Frost and attack using War Diamond. The best strategy is to spam Ambush, as it deals and exploits  Combo Setup with a 60% chance to follow-up, using Night Kick every time it's possible to stun the enemy; obviously, Nightcrawler's Scrapper Swashbuckler outfit will give him a great advantage. The battle won't be a problem anyway, unless Mystica's Deadly Claws hit Nightcrawler, dealing him two stacks of  Bleeding with  Ravaged.

Mission 4 - Vulture, MP

Heroic Battle Bioethicist Passive: M.O.D.O.K. Passive: Bioethicist Passive:

"Spider-Woman was keeping an eye on some of the Hellfire Club locations we've already pacified. Who did she run across rebuilding one of them into an A.I.M. lab? Why, M.O.D.O.K.. Jessica's never liked A.I.M.. She likes M.O.D.O.K. even less." — Heroes Required: Spider-Woman Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Mission 4 - Vulture, MP Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, Nuclear Fuel Rod, Tantalizing Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 33 Extremely difficult before Spider-Woman's update, this heroic battle is now pretty medium difficult. Due to the Bioethicist's  Budget Airfilters, Spider-Woman can manipulate these enemies into healing and protecting her by using Fear Pheromones or Seduction Pheromones; M.O.D.O.K. also has a new Heroic Battle-exclusive passive effect called  Organic Machine Interface that makes him vulnerable to bio-electric attacks. Because of this, Spider-Woman can use her Venom Blast in order for M.O.D.O.K. to stop his Doomsday Clock Countdown and force him to waste a turn into resetting his countdown back to  Doomsday Clock: 3. The first action to do should be using Seduction Pheromones on M.O.D.O.K., then Fear Pheromones on all enemies and after that spamming Venom Blast on the main boss, letting the Bioethicists alive (as long as Spider-Woman's  Vengeance passive counterattack will allow this) to have a free "healing source" when needed. If you have Kuurth, it's best to use the scrapper form for obvious reasons. Kuurth is immune to Bio and Psychic attacks, so she can simply ignore half of the attacks M.O.D.O.K. and his minions use. This gives her the freedom to be more aggressive offensively. She can use Love Me on M.O.D.O.K., then let him fight his own minions while she prepares to smash him with her hammer.

Mission 5 - God Save the Queen

Heroic Battle Thor Passive:

"Hercules is a man--well, demigod--of simple tastes. He likes to eat, he likes to drink, he likes to test his strength. That means every so often, he starts looking for a fight. When he's feeling fighty and Thor is around, you get a truly epic struggle between demigod and Thunder God." — Heroes Required: Hercules Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Mission 5 - God Save the Queen Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, Smiting Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 90 This battle marks the second time Thor becomes an enemy, and the first in Story Mission to battle against a Hero (not counting the Villains turned Heroes). This is an easy Heroic Battle. The battle begins with a Heroic Battle-exclusive Passive called  Tough God applied to both Hercules and Thor that applies  Hit Me! to the character that Rests or Recharges, that eventually leads into granting  Unsporting to the character that does a non-offensive action while their enemy has Hit Me! in effect. The battle may require proper timing on the use of abilities, including Recharge, in order to succeed: simply be sure to not be out of Stamina when Thor recharges, and it'll be fine.

Premium Mission: To Catch a Thief

Heroic Battle Wave 1 Ironclad Passive: Wave 2 X-Ray Passive: Vector Passive: None Vapor Passive:

"The U-Foes are protecting a base built into this location underneath Central Park. Cable and Deadpool were arguing about the best caliber of ammunition for a weapon that hasn't been invented yet, and happened to run across them. Dear Reader, guess what happened next?" — Heroes Required: Cable and Deadpool Appears in: Chapter 1 - Excalibur: Premium Mission: To Catch a Thief Potential Gear Reward: Random Deploy Gear, Spicy Empowered Iso-8, Instant Empowered Iso-8 Total Hero Cost: 270 Note: Cable should at least be at level 9 to have a chance to win this battle. It doesn't matter Deadpool's level. The battle begins with Ironclad as the first wave. Ironclad will use Punch twice on Deadpool. The enemy is considerably weak compared to his other appearances: despite having two stacks of  Enraged, he can be defeated in under a few hits by either Cable or Deadpool. The next wave with the remaining U-Foes members starts with a twist, as Deadpool begins the round using Redesign Encounter. This turns him into the opposing side and replaces Vector in battle, but retaining Vector's turn order icon, his Tactician class, and Deadpool's Passive effects, along with gaining a new Heroic Battle-exclusive effect called  Lover-boy in which he protects Cable and Vapor from all single target attacks. Unfortunately, Deadpool will attack Cable in each of his turns... and with the correct attack sequence, which will sure kill Cable in a few turns. This battle will then be a matter of time and strategy: if you kill Deadpool first you'll be open against X-Ray and Vapor attacks; if you kill them first, the Merc-With-A-Mouth will ravage you. Start giving yourself an extra turn with Temporal Shift, then use Askani Arts on Deadpool: switch then to Overdrive mode and attack him with Techno-Organic Rampage, which will be followed by Psionic Spikes (note that Vapor and X-Ray will "help" you killing Deadpool). On the second turn, switch to Control mode and attack the Merc with a double Plasma Rifle (thanks to the Askani Arts'  Flanked effect), which will probably kill him: focus your attention then on the other two enemies, using Temporal Shift whenever possible, to easily win the fight. If you want, you could try using Telekinetic Slam to  Stun the enemy party.