Three layers
Neutral is everything before a string connects. Space at your kit's range. Feint so blockers commit early. Corners make Gravity's black hole worse than an open plaza. Sprinting in with every cooldown already spent is bad neutral.
Pressure starts when you hit. M1 until the block-break rule of your kit matters, then confirm. Super Strength has historically broken faster. NanoTech M1 pressure is real and not the same timing. If they escape, reset. Whiffing the rest of the bar gifts the next turn.
Disengage matters more than the last hit when a second hero is coming or your bag is full. Keep one mobility or defensive tool. Villain couriers win by selling.
Inputs live on Controls. The V4 M1 rework is why old muscle memory feels wrong. See Patch notes.
Ability habits
- Gravity: pull couriers off exits and save black hole for stacked corners.
- NanoTech: save plasma and missiles for confirms or groups.
- Pyrokinesis, Acid, and Poison: ticks win long fights and Thragg. Short duels still need M1.
- Super Speed and Flight: arriving first without an exit is how Vault heroes farm you.
- Doom: high impact and patch-sensitive. Duel-check it after balance weeks.
Roles
Villain couriers take free kills and refuse fair deaths. Villain brawlers hold hot zones. Hero responders arrive on the red tower, then secure the downed arrest. Hybrids swap after the sell or the arrest, with cooldowns back.
Matchup sketches
- Against Super Strength, do not hold block forever. Take space and punish whiffs.
- Against NanoTech, respect range and the higher health pool. Make the big cooldowns miss, then collapse.
- Against Gravity, do not stack in the corner and do not escape straight up into the pull.
- Against Invisibility robbers, watch loot paths and sell routes more than spawn.
- Against damage-over-time, shorten the fight.
Rooftops favor Flight and ranged NanoTech. Tight rooms favor Strength and corner Gravity. Military Base pavement favors whoever still knows the turret. Ship decks create third parties.
A ten-minute practice block is two minutes of M1 and block, two minutes of one confirm, three minutes of engage-then-leave, and three minutes of live fights with a stop-after-one-confirm rule.