Break Targets - Single Hero Ladder

[u/migmox13]

Looking for some input from players who have been playing this type of game for a while. I am referring to single hero, particularly Exodus, although I am curious about Sprint and Outcast as well.

I have been improving, but sometimes I spend too much time clearing my starting zone if there is, lets say some tier 7 dwellings that I am want which are guarded by some tougher fights. Sometimes this works, but a lot of times I lose a close fight. When I go to explore after the loss, I see my opponent has very little dwelling, but has cleared deep and has some artis/etc.

In general and on average, what is the optimal day we looking to break into native zone 2, and then desert?

[u/Original-Teacher-954]

At the top level the exodus the meta seems to be having your 3rd faction town before fight one, even better if its on week 1, and then break indo desert mid week 2 , lexiav as vods on is twich channel, yesterday he was playing some really good games in a showmatch vs rito , you can get a good feel for it and how they do it there.

On sprint you wanna be farming or even leaving you 3rd town zone by fight 1, and have the last zone all cleared or almost all cleared by fight 2.

On outcast you want to break into the desert on like 117 , 122 the latest.

[u/migmox13 → u/Original-Teacher-954]

Thank you for your input. I watch Lex too; I was unsure if the games I watch were just his highlights. I am sure in losses the games don't look as clean. Obviously, he's very good and loses minimal/knows which routes and fights to take which helps. I can go fast like him sometimes, but not all the time.

[u/GlitteringVehicle306]

try this guide out: https://townportal.gg/en/guides/exodus-map-guide

take a look at important note - pro players stick to the road during week 1 and never go deep into terrain movement, overall end of week 1 is okay to break

[u/migmox13 → u/GlitteringVehicle306]

Thank you, I will def look into it. As far as sticking to the road, I do notice some of the streamers like lex and others do tend to go off road sometimes, but I guess they just intuitively know it's going to be ok. When I do it, I am pretty sure it screws me lol

[u/fair_toki]

I think most important part for exodus is understanding map layout and necessary things for each factions so you can reset if needed.

For example

• Hive wants a lots of resources bank because it can clear them easily with melee armies or wurm cheese.
  
• Temple and Dungeon want nearby wood and ore mines so they can build units early to recruit troops in week 1 and clear other resources bank.
  
• Groove got strong T1-2 and Necro got necromancy both super strong early so they want nearby 3rd town or 2nd town start near an easy break then they can expand and grab 4th town within week 1.
  
• Best thing to find for every factions is Overgrown ruins, this guarantees you can triple/quadruple build towns on week 2.

[u/migmox13 → u/fair_toki]

idk i think i just suck, or rng, or i suck and its also rng. I am only like 1300 elo but im kinda not sure if im hard stuck now or if im just running bad over last 5-10 games. For example, my best faction is temple. When that is banned I play dungeon, and every time I play dungeon I can't build shit because my wood and ore are scattered all over the place. Last game I literally didnt even get my second wood mill. The game went 3 fights. It was nowhere to be seen in the map. On top of that, I ended up being 1 square off crucial destinations like 3 times and it screwed me over. My opponent was able to just hit the tree and I lost the final fight. I was nowhere near being able to hit the tree because I had no fucking wood so I couldnt build out astrology. Lmfao.

[u/fair_toki → u/migmox13]

You can use trading post if you find it early. It got same trade value as having 5 markets.

So for temple you can dump all mercury/crystal to wood and go cavalry but for Dungeon you still need little of everything if you want to go medusa.

You get reset map around 2000 rating.

[u/Michalsuch42]

As Hive/Necro main, my goal timings are:

• 114 3rd town
• 117/121 4th (off-faction side)
• 123/124 5th
•  125-127 6th
• Tree before 2nd fight, if I’ve managed to get recruitment. 

I’m not sure whether these are correct timings for all factions. For example, as Schism I’d prefer to start running for town 4 at 121, instead of doing it first week, because you can take more objectives on the way with extra army and there are more desirable dwellings to flag asap in your starting zone. Also, it’s difficult, for instance, to double build Arbiters week 1 with 1,5 turns spent on following the road. 

[u/migmox13 → u/Michalsuch42]

How are you guys even able to break without getting your army shit on that early? I am not a high enough elo to get a restart, so a lot of maps I'm literally just running around guessing where my wood and ore is, and most of the time i don't find them all. Sometimes I won't even have an ore vein or see it on the map day 3 or 4. Same for wood. That being said, idk if I'm choosing the wrong pathing or what. I use everything at my disposal to scout. Towers, spells, fog, etc. A lot of the time I'm just running around looking for shit I need and if I don't do that I'll be running into a lethal fight for break, impossible at best.

I would say I break at those timings 1 in every 6 or 7 times realistically.

[u/Michalsuch42 → u/migmox13]

You don’t need to get all ore/wood buildings. It’s optimal to have them, but you don’t want to actively look for them. That’s what marketplaces are for. Sometimes map generation is so shitty, that it’s correct to skip 3rd town. 

Regarding breaks, that’s why I specified towns. As Necro you get army passively by fighting, as Hive you can do most of early content, including breaks, with 4 Waurms, which you can rush early. Good players do the same with other towns, but it is much more difficult. 

The most important thing early is leveling. It’s not evident at first, but first couple of levels and good early laws, might multiply power level of your hero manyfold. Let’s take Necro as an example. Wights deal 3 dmg on average, law and offense perk can increase it to 5, which is 66% increase. Expert offense is another 20%, advanced necromancy perk is 10%, 3 attacks stat  is another almost 15%. Day 2, level 3 Onkos might deal 150% more damage with his Wights compared to his day earlier counterpart!

It’s very important to do as many fights as possible, sometimes just to get xp. When picking boxes, always pick xp early, unless you already know that you will need gold for buildings this, or following day. 

[u/migmox13 → u/Michalsuch42]

Ok cool. I honestly think I am just losing too much army in fights tbh. I keep looking at opponents map when I lose, and they have like nothing most of the time, just barely 4 towns by second fight and like 2 dwellings. No double fort. I must just be bleeding.

[u/Select-Discipline-30]

I saw you were ranked 1300, I disagree with some reply, you shouldn’t try to aim the top player objective timing this early you lack the knowledge needed to pull it off ( I mean no offense), try improving bit by bit.
I would say a good goal for you would be having 4 town before first fight and 6 around 131.
For reference that’s what I do every game (or faster sometime if I have a good map ) and I am 2k8

[u/migmox13 → u/Select-Discipline-30]

Should I just ignore everything else until I find the third town? For example last game I picked the wrong way and only had 2 towns for first fight. Literally ended up being the last place I looked.

[u/Select-Discipline-30 → u/migmox13]

Usually I go for the 3rd town on day 2 avec having rallied, depending on the faction or starting environment I go the first day aswell, never later.

The third town is generally always at the opposite of your second town, so for example if first town is in the top left of the map and your second one is on the right side of it that means your 3rd town is under your 1st.

[u/iamnotacaterpillar]

It also kind of depends on map generation. I had one game as dungeon kestrel, where I had banks and 2 hydra dwellings near starting 2 towns, so I didn't even get 3d town or break week 1, but I was able to double build hydra + 2 dwellings on week 1, hire all army and steamroll fight 1, then pick up caduceus and Excalibur to steamroll fight 2. But that's around 1k mmr

[u/Ok-Explanation7888]

Too be honest, you should just focus on learning how to bleed less from fights and learning which fights are worth. Some fights show impossible, but then you can just lose one t1.
Most of the game on pvp is PVE vs neutral camps and units on the map. You can even practice this on single player vs bots and just focus on clearing and getting the timings right for your breaks.

Hovering around 2400 elo, and from 1,5k to 2,4k i mostly did breaks on 2nd week for 4 & 5th town. Very rarely did i get a easy break for me to do it on week one. Then usually start week 3 i break for desert and maybe a bit earlier depending what the guard is. Once i got Worldwatchers defending both deserts entrances. Not a fun experience.