One of the most exciting aspects of Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is battle. But the best battle we have is RvR! This article will give some tips on how to overpower your opponents in this special type of war. This takes more strategy than just beating up on your realm mates. Even more so than just flying to a Neutral Realm for bloodshed!
Know Your Enemy
If you’re lucky, you will get a preview of the realm(s) you will be battling. Be sure to take this time to scan their maps for juicy targets. You can keep track of them by saving them in your bookmarks. Maybe adding a name like “Unbubbled Hive” or “Rally Target” so you can plan accordingly. Posting coordinates in Guild Chat or a pre-made special RvR chat is also helpful if you’re not built for attack or if you’re not participating in this event. Furthermore, if your realm is friendly or able to work together for RvR, you could have a realm RvR coordinates chat. This chat can even be used for posting “alien” locations in your own realm. Don’t let invaders take your home!
Use the features unlocked with Battle Marks research to determine whether an empire is worth attacking. If you see their hero home, then chances are they will have some points-worthy troops for you to kill. There is a better description of Battle Marks research below.
*****There will be some commonly used slang for the players from another realm: alien, invader, outsider, outlander, etc. Your realm might even have a different name for them.
Know How to Pick a Target
With the varying power levels and types of accounts, it might be difficult to know whether you can take someone on. In contrast, it might not be worth the time to try and attack someone that has little to no troops.
This is where looking at their profile comes in handy. While scanning the map, you think you find the perfect hive or target. But before you mark that spot, take a quick look and see if their hero is wearing gear. Unless they have each piece of gear equipped with a Paragon Illusion Gem, there’s a good chance they have been zeroed and banished.
Next, check their power destroyed statistic. Many traps will have a high power destroyed number compared to their power. Also, check their Combat Stats and see how many defenses this “weak player” has actually lost. So take that into consideration, even if they’re sitting there with Monster Gear on. Chances are, they will switch into their defense gear as soon as their screen flashes red.
Battle Marks Research
Along with the release of Battle Marks research, three new features were introduced:
- Hero Status Alert
- Alerts you to the status of the target’s hero.
- Present in empire
- Out of empire
- Imprisoned
- Banished
- Alerts you to the status of the target’s hero.
- Teleport Alert
- Alerts you to the location of your target’s empire.
- Same location
- Near (with arrows pointing in the direction of teleport)
- Far (with arrows pointing in the direction of teleport)
- Alerts you to the location of your target’s empire.
- Peace Shield Alert
- Alerts you to the status of the target’s shield.
- Unshielded
- Shielded (long timer)
- Shielded (medium timer)
- Shielded (short timer)
- Alerts you to the status of the target’s shield.
While these won’t tell you if the empire has troops, chances are if they have a hero and are of a reasonable power level, that they are worthy of a hit. You will also get added boosts to your combat stats from the research for as long as your battle-mark is active.
Know the Event
When the event comes up, you can go into the “Solo” RvR points schedule to see what will give you and the enemy points.
So make sure to go over this carefully. Because points earned in your realm will probably be different than the points earned in the opposing realm. Points earned could be as simple as 1 point per power destroyed at home and 5 points per power destroyed in the other realm.
But points could be even as complicated as a certain amount of points PER troop type. Even so, the points could be higher if the troops are killed rather than just wounded.
So, make sure you’re calculating your points gained compared to the points you are giving to the outlander. If you’re wounding 10 million troops of theirs, but they’re killing 5 million of yours, you might actually be LOSING!
Other ways to score points are listed and could be anything from being Emperor or Chancellor of a Crystal or even killing monsters in either realm.
Like I said, go over the points schedule carefully and see if you are able to successfully complete the event without giving the other realm a surplus of points.
Recent Kill Events
With the ever-changing troop builds and battle mechanics, there have been different ways to earn points for RvR and other kill events. Usually, there is the main event that requires you to kill/wound top tier troops or hold a Crystal as Emperor or Chancellor. Alongside this event, there could be one or two mini-events. One is another top-tier troop kill event, but the other one is significantly easier and usually has lower tier troops that you can kill to complete. This makes RvR worth attempting since prizes have been decent, and you could probably do one event. The mini-events reset every few hours, give or take.
Know Your Realm
Even if this is your first RvR, you probably know the guilds or hives that don’t bubble. Because of prior Guild Kill Events, you know which empires are going to be the easy targets. So if your realm decides to do a purge beforehand, a good time is probably when the timer starts counting down for RvR. If you don’t have this timer, it’s probably a good idea to decide when inner realm attacks will start.
A word of caution, if you start too soon before RvR they might just rebuild before RvR ends or their bubble will pop too soon and they will be vulnerable to enemy attacks. Certainly, this just means that the best diplomats from each guild should be working with one another. Not only to have fewer casualties during RvR but to keep politics out of Realm Chat during the war.
Know Your Empire
Offensive empires can be ones that solo anyone and anything, or they can be a great Rally Leader. Defensive empires range from the whale that can take on even the biggest attack to a burn trap that really wins when they lose. No matter what, you should quickly learn how your build can handle another realm. Invaders might have different types of builds than you’re used to. Not only that, different realms grow a little differently depending on how many spenders and competitors there are. If you’ve only tested against certain people, you may be surprised when an alien comes to play with you. If you’re porting over to the other realm, you definitely have the advantage. Due to having time to plan out your ports, getting your gear ready, and using any temporary boosts that might come in handy.
Know the Land
Staying at home has an advantage since you can have a defensive barrier of empires, camps, or landmarks to keep distance between you and the enemy. Also, you will instantly know when you look on the map if there is an invader nearby. Due to the fact that empires from another realm are significantly different than home empires, they shine like a beacon.
With Realm Map Overview or bookmarks, it helps to keep an eye on your guildmates, so you can reinforce them if needed. Looking at the battle reports can help you determine if they’re doing okay or if they need a mercy zero to save their hero (and RvR points) from the invader.
Know Your Battle Reports
Learning how to read a Battle Report is extremely vital to calculating your RvR points gained/given ratio. Just because you can hit t3 in one hit, doesn’t mean that your enemy didn’t get more points from you.
The left side of the report are your results, and the right side is your opponent’s. Underneath the coordinates of each empire will show how much power each person lost. If your points are based on POWER destroyed alone, this will be plenty for you to figure out how many points you gave away compared to how many you gained. Remember that there is probably a multiplier depending on which realm you are in. So if you get x5 for being in another realm and you are in your home realm, your enemy just got 5X the power that they destroyed from you. A calculator might come in handy if you’re not particularly math savvy.
Click on the “Battle Details” at the top of the report to see more information on troop types. If your RvR is based on wounds/kills of certain troop types and tiers, this will help figure out if you’re winning or losing. Maybe a pen and paper are necessary here!
Know Your Team
If you’re going over with a group of people, you should know if you will be targeting a certain player with a rally or just demolishing a whole hive with solos. I remember going over with a group and because I’m not built for offense, I needed just a little help at punching through the guardians of some empires. But getting the points was so worth it! Also, being able to get reinforcements while helping others fill a rally make RvR just a little more fun!
Know Your Players
Remember that not everyone has your build or playstyle. If you see someone in your realm getting attacked, don’t jump to assume that they are losing points. Of course, sometimes you just know that they’re losing, so don’t hesitate to “help out” and zero them before the enemy does. But there are some players who can take multiple attacks and still get more points when taking into account the points bonus for an invader. Same with an attacker that knows that they can one hit zero someones with minimal losses. Don’t be quick to point the finger at someone that might be winning and even getting more points than you!
Know the Crystal
Taking over the Crystal during RvR is similar to any other time the Crystal is open. There are some differences, like the timer doesn’t reset every time it is captured. Also, if you take over another realm’s Crystal or an alien takes yours, the Emperor is called the Chancellor. The titles awarded by the Chancellor are also different than what the Emperor can give from their own realm. Smelly Garula, anyone?
The points awarded by taking over the Crystal come from not only the battle that took place but the length of time the Emperor/Chancellor holds it. So look at the points per second to determine if it’s worth keeping a march and possibly your hero occupied during that time. If you are ported back home or burned out of the scar, your hero and troops will stay. As a result, you will be unable to port back since you cannot port when your hero is out of your empire. So be careful since some marches back home could take DAYS. That’s a lot of speedups!
Know When to Port
- Probably the best time to port over during RvR is at the beginning. Because not everyone is aware that there is an RvR and might be unbubbled. Also, you get to choose any huge hive or juicy target that you want before anyone else grabs it.
- But there is also the middle of the night, as long as you’re not paired with a realm on the other side of the world. These targets are easy since they might sleep through all your attempts to zero them. This can add up to a lot of points with minimal use of Advanced Teleports.
- Another good time to port over is right at the end, especially during 24-hour RvR events. The people who are aware of RvR will usually use a 24-hour bubble but might start it too soon before the event started. As a result, they will be unbubbled for a while at the very end of RvR. This is probably when most people inadvertently lose their heroes. It pays to be constantly aware.
Know Some Diversion Tactics
If you want to waste your opponent’s time, here are some tips you can use:
- Use barrier tactics to make the march time longer. Useful if you are online and can bubble quickly or if you can take attacks.
- Put one troop on a tile so an alien wastes marches and time to attack it. Use anti-scout with this tactic so they can’t just scout and see that lonely troop.
- Build up farm empires with hero levels, research, etc. to make their power look abnormally high for a low level, inactive account.
- Set a rally or long march to an invader from a farm account. (This is more of a troll move, but will distract them anyway.)
Know the Tips
Since you have seen what there is to know about Realm vs. Realm, here are some quick tips to take with you:
- Stay off tiles unless you are one trooping it to distract the enemy. Those are easy points.
- Bubble as close to the beginning of RvR as you can, or prepare to rebubble before your barrier expires to avoid getting attacked at the end.
- Bookmark even bubbled empires, just in case their bubble ends before RvR does.
- Keep in mind the points schedule in the event. Winning the battle might NOT mean winning the war.
- Keep coordinates out of Realm Chat. This will either point out where easily zeroed targets are in your realm or will tell the invaders where your people are in theirs.
- Discuss how your realm will handle players losing points. Some realms are very competitive and purge before AND during RvR. While other realms don’t care about their standings at all and players just get the points they want.
- Consider ditching the Crystal if you know you are giving too many points away. Likewise, controlling an enemy Crystal is nice since the other realm might keep attacking you to get it back. This makes for some easy points!
Know That This Is the End
Now that RvR is demystified, you can go out and conquer all of Eos for your realm. No matter if you have 1,000 RvR ports or just hope that someone comes and gives you easy points, it helps if you know just HOW those points are collected. Events change with how you complete them, so take a look at the requirements before you go out smashing everything in sight. Unless you’re one of the few people who can do that with no consequence… then HULK SMASH!
Other RvR articles to peruse:
Five Tactics to Dominate RvR
How to Score More Points in RvR
Purging for RvR
Check out our Discord channel since we have a battle reports section. Post your best RvR win there for everyone to drool over. Or go to the combat section and post your own RvR tips there. I might just nab some of your tricks to update here!
