Shadow Cities (iPhone)

[eeth]

i got top 5 in my area too, gonna be a lot harder as more kids join up. pretty sure the campaigns are broken down approximately by state. (seems about right here in missouri anyway)

i see Venlar and Tbone have beacons up. it's nice to be able to jump to more dense areas. Not a lot going on in my neighborhood. up in Kansas City though there's a lot of friendly action, not much in the way of enemies to get to though.

[eeth]

i just found out today that you can "heal" your dominators, have one up to 2464 hp, curious how high it will go, (can hp boost other things too, have a Spirit Catcher, which i've yet to see in action, guess it acts as a defender if if baddies show up?) to increase their max health. makes it a pain in the ass for one guy to sneak in and take em out while you're sleeping

[Tbone]

Speaking of, I had one guy sneak in and take everything out while I was sleeping. lol

[Manic Velocity]

I took out a few enemy dominators and beacons yesterday after work.  It was kind of weird tracking them down, since the map doesn't really give exact locations of structures.

[Ghisteslwchlohm]

Do you have to physically travel to them?

This game sounds weird, but interesting. I think I might get it.

[Venlar]

The enemy tried to push into Boston today... they made a big mistake. I used the chat to rally up dozens of ppl and push them out. You're now looking at the proud shadowlord of Boston Garden... go Bruins... =p

[eeth]

woo, Venlar! i dropped in on your hood, looks like a great place for action. much better than where i am. Tbone is in a great place too, and yeah T, make sure you heal everything up 2500+ health on your doms, that will just piss them off they have to hit it so many damn times to take it out. Put up a Catcher (heal it up too, should be able to get to 1300+) to defend your doms, if an enemy casts within range of the Catcher it releases what it has caught to attack them. have yet to see it in action, i really want to though.

And G, no you don't have to physically travel to these places, you can see your in-game friends' beacons and teleport to them anytime. The second mode of travel is "warping" to items on the local map. Learning to leap-warp is a very handy skill. Putting down dominators until they spawn in the direction you want to travel, then warp to it until it warps you on the other side of your creation, then continue the tedious process

[Tbone]

Ok, I'm slowly figuring out the strategy to this game. Here we go...

Beginning

You start out wherever you are in real life. Hopefully you're in an area with a lot of gateways. Gateways are basically sections of the map that can be taken over. Instead of being confined to your physical location, however, you can "warp" around to be places that you aren't. You can warp to friendly gateways, other players, dominators, catchers, wards, and beacons. Dewarping takes you back to your physical location.

There will be little spirits flying around. Follow the tutorial to figure out how to kill them and get xp. Xp helps you level up. AP gives you points to use on attributes. Energy helps your campaign ranking (the two teams are competing to see who can get more energy, basically). Now let's take a look at the spells...

War Spell

This is your attack. Willpower makes it stronger. Make sure you level the spell itself all the way up and keep your willpower high.

Heal Spell (Aria)

This is used to heal yourself and teammates. This is also used to boost the health of your beacons, dominators, catchers, and wards. Helped by Willpower, so again, keep that high.

Summon Beacon

This will allow you and friends of yours to Warp to your location, meaning you can warp back home and work on your stuff even when you're at work! Think of this as establishing your home base. Beacons can only be summoned at your physical location, unless you level it up to Rank 4, I believe.

Dominators

Dominators can be summoned to take over gateways. They can also be used as warp locations to get around a little better. On top of taking over a gateway, dominators gather energy (the currency of the campaign). This can be harvested to help your team and help you move up the leaderboard. If you have a lot of gateways that can be taken over in your immediate area, it might be a good idea to use each dominator at your disposal to take over a different gateway. If your area is sparse, then you might want to use them all to take over one gateway. The enemy can take over your gateway once they destroy all of your dominators.

Warp

Used to get around. Doesn't take any mana. You can warp to any friendly structure, gateway, or player.

Dewarp

Takes you back to your physical location.

Catcher

A catcher can be used to protect your area. Spawn it and it will slowly capture a spirit. Once that spirit is captured, if an enemy goes in your area, it will release that spirit to attack him. Leveling it up strengthens the spirits that you catch.

Ward

A ward is a guard that attacks the enemy when it casts a spell near it. I haven't gotten high enough level to figure out how they work.

Attributes

One AP increases an attribute up to 15. After 15, it takes 2 APs to level up an attribute. I suggest leveling all of your attributes up to at least 15 to take advantage of the 1 AP price. Also, there are missions that give you a LOT of XP for getting an attribute up to 10, so don't leave any behind!

Willpower - increases damage and heals. I recommend keeping this very high.
Intelligence - increases mana pool. I would keep this moderately high.
Vitality - increases mana/hp regeneration rate. Definitely want to keep this high, especially if you plan on having long play sessions and don't want to waste mana pots or wait a long amount of time.
Endurance - increases HP for you and your structures. Keep this at medium. I think it's better to do the damage and have the mana, because if you run out of mana, you'll be helpless while the rest of your HP is drained anyway.

What Do I Do?

Do as many missions as you can to level up. Build dominators. Try to keep them harvested. As soon as you level up enough (level 5 or 6), build a BEACON. This will allow your friends to jump in and help you defend/take over. Visit other beacons to find unique spirits for your missions or help others attack/defend.

Your beacon requires power. Dominators take over gateways AND build power for your other structures, so make sure you always have all your dominators down. When you level up enough, you'll be able to build a Catcher. Cast a catcher to defend your beacon/dominators.

Use your heal spell to boost up the HP of your structures so that they aren't as easy to take down. When you can cast Wards, set them up as defense.

PvP

Use friends to help you move around. I use a leapfrog method to warp to each other to kind of walk around and attack things. You can also destroy a dominator and temporarily use it to get around. Just be aware that it will cause your structures to not have enough power to operate.

Shadow Lord

If you save up mana pots instead of using them to refill your mana, you can buy things. You can purchase gateways, which puts your name permanently on it. Someone can outbid you to take it away, though, so keep pumping in mana pots to make sure it remains yours. Do this enough, and it will increase the level of that gateway, giving you harvesting bonuses.

*work in progress*

[Tbone]

My spawn is getting camped now. Can't even keep a beacon up. My location pretty much has the most PvP I've seen in this game (lucky me). I say when we get high enough level, we set up a base at my place and use it as our PvP zone!

[Manic Velocity]

Excellent guide.  Much better than anything on the game's website.

A word on "Dominator Hopping":  This is obviously easier if you have more people to lay down Dominators, allowing for the leapfrogging that Tbone mentioned.  But I've noticed that doms are more likely to spawn on your right side, depending on which way your camera is facing.  So if you want to move West, turn your camera to face South (so that West is on your right side) and drom a dom.  It's about a 1-in-3 chance that the dom will spawn on your right, giving you a means to warp West.  

It's a rather slow and mana-costly way to move, but it is very effective if you can't physically travel to set up a beacon.

EDIT: Also, your Dominators power all of your structures, regardless of how far apart they are.  You can place a beacon at one location, and place all of your doms miles away, and the beacon will still work.

[victoriah]

this game is insane.  i put up a beacon at work.  there are a lot of gateways around there.  and make friends too!

[Heironymus]

im playing now, heironymus, dang you people for getting me hooked..

[Venlar]

this game is insane.  I put up a beacon at work.  there are a lot of gateways around there.  and make friends too!

Good point about making friends... I've just been adding as many people in the area I can find. I can now beacon into downtown Boston which is crawling with spirits and a warzone with the architects. I can imagine any major city esp downtown and famous areas are going to be huge pvp and xp opportunities.

[Tbone]

My neighborhood has become the PvP hotspot for the state, I think. I'm now surrounded by enemies. I think at least three architects live in my neighborhood. I'm constantly having to rebuild. At least I have lots of friends!

[eeth]

how many "spell specialization points" did you guys get when you hit lvl 10?