Advice needed on Airstrip dungeon

[Huzya]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could help out on some advice on the airstrip dungeon. I'm trying to get it completed (and hopefully put on auto for future farming), but am getting crushed on the boss stage. I found the guide on suggested toons and am going with the following:

Storm Ed - Limbo/Enduring (all skills/talismans maxed)
Soldier Ed (sitting there to help get Where Eagles Dare Ed)

Gunner Dog (gold) - Echo/Cosmic (Death Mark) (all skills maxed, talismans almost maxed)
Possessed Rockets (gold) - Primordial (all skills/talismans maxed)
Undead Allied Soldier (gold) - Void/Power (skills almost maxed, talismans at 3* until I can farm more evo runes)

According to the guide, StormEd needs Oracle and the Soldier needs Greed/Warlord. Of those, I only have Warlord. Are there any other Talismans that I can substitute in for these two?

Please note: I haven't been playing long (a few months now), but have managed some of the newer talisman sets (Yin/Yang, Valhalla, Bonfire, etc). Many of the older ones (Greed, Orbit, Oracle, etc) still elude me.

Thanks for reading!

[Mateja]

Starfire and Ragnarok are 2 newer sets that everyone is using lately, Ragnarok in particular makes it much easier and Starfire is there to speed it up. If that last stage is your problem, check for talismans you have that remove gold effects, if you remove effects on General he will usually die in a hit or two.

Also, Soldier Ed with Valhalla is much better than Storm with anything.

[Huzya]

LOL Figures... I just maxed StormEd last night. Time to farm more skill shards for Soldier Ed.

[HK-47]

Storm Ed with Alchemy is also a good combo

[Puntwothree]

Are you trying to manual (for now)? Manual gives you a lot more options.

Let's start here: A good team needs a way not to die and a hammer for killing things. Not sure who your hammer is... maybe gunner dog? But you can probably do better with the Talis you have.

The first time I finished Airstrip (months ago, probably... but I've only been playing since Halloween, so perhaps not too many months) I did it with Ying/Yang on Soldier Ed. This might be the direction you want to go, even if Soldier Ed. isn't sharded. Here's why:

1) Ying/Yang does offense and defense both well... and sticking it on your Ed. (i.e., having an Ed. who's hard to kill) means that worse case scenario you might be able to clear the stage even when all of your other allies are dead. Your unit wearing Ying/Yang is going to be the last one standing (because of that damage reduction), and in my estimation it's straight better than Primordials or Void/Power, possibly even if your Ying/Yangs are 3*.

2) Running Golden Rockets means you're getting a bit of extra power. Soldier Ed has (I believe - because I used it) a skill that does area damage and grants an extra turn. I'm really not that familiar with Storm Eddie, but area damage and an extra turn is great when you are generating extra power and you can (perhaps) stockpile it (the power, and the effect). Your best bet at clearing stages is doing so in the early turns.. and if you're losing, that means your Endure timer is probably running out.

3) Endure is (potentially) another Tali that has both offensive and defensive potential. If you ran Soldier Ed instead of Storm, you could repurpose your maxed Endure and/or maxed Limbo set on another unit.

On the flip side, Limbo/Endure seems "not bad," and that random storm damage can be focused once all of the Boss's allies are dead. Endure is a trick with a timer, so if you want to stick with Storm Eddie, I think you can make him work... but you probably want to figure Ying/Yang into your lineup (maybe for whatever unit is dying first) for both its offensive and defensive potential, and you're going to want to find a way to stockpile and use your energy all at once on the Boss Wave to make sure you win before Endure expires. (I'm not sure i.e. Alchemy helps you. Endure/Limbo might be better, depending on how good your Cosmic Ts are. Buuut, if you are using 3* Talis, I'm guessing you haven't yet worked up to good Cosmic Ts?)

Is any of this helpful? Is it enough to be getting on with?

I'd be happy to offer more advice, but might need more information about what your options are in order to give it.

...oh, but one more thing. If you have Ying/Yang, does that mean you've been around since Halloween? That's about when I started. And if I recall, Ying/Yang came out about the same time as Lantern. And if you have Lantern, that changes everything.

People always complain about Lantern/Warlord on The Beast, but in truth it is a Tali combo set that can be used on any number of units to build-your-own-Beast. Don't get me wrong: you're not going to get a Soldier Ed. with the same power The Beast has, and Lantern might not change your fortunes in arena or Gauntlet, but Lantern/Warlord is a cheap and dirty trick in a lot of story mode quests (which tend to last more than a couple of turns, and for which the enemy units aren't usually defended to the teeth). Combined (like Ying/Yang), they make for a set that is good both offensively and defensively, keeping you in the game (through heal) and generating a push of extra power that might just let you clear the stage.

Edit: I'm only familiar with 3* units I've had occasion to play, and golden gunner dog is not one of them. However, I looked him up, because I was curious, and: looks like your dog does 6 hits of random damage. I know this damage scales with Attack (according to the description), but that doesn't mean it's going to be physical damage. But it COULD be physical damage. So, OK. You already have a unit that grants Lifesteal. You have a unit with Red talis that is dealing Random damage. Methinks you might want to try Warlords instead of Echo on your dog. Yes, Echo is good.. but Warlords are going to trigger on about 1/3 of Gunner's basic attacks, and he already has a chance of taking an extra turn. The purple (instead of red) is probably going to boost your Random damage overall, your chances of an extra action are probably going to be about the same with Warlord (in this scenario) as with Echo, and your potential damage output is going to skyrocket with the random offensive effects you're going to gain.

[Huzya]

Thanks all for the posts! I really appreciate it. It's definitely given me some great ideas to try. Another item (IIRC) is that someone on the boss stage loves to chain stun the heck out of me. I'll need to read up more on that though.

[Muzzleloader]

Storm Eddie is not bad, he can remove immunity and endure which can be beneficial. I used inspiration and fortune talis inspiration talis can lower beneficial effects by one turn each hit. There are better Eddie's but he can be used depending on your roster.
.

[Huzya]

Update: I wound up putting a set of Ragnarok on Soldier Ed and now I'm autoing it at about 1 minute. I also tried using Alchemy on Storm Ed. That also worked really well with a time of around 1:20. Thanks again everyone for the advice!

[Puntwothree]

You had Ragnarock! Well, why didn’t you say?

Lol.

[Puntwothree]

Except... Soldier Ed has three yellow slots. So how are you equipping Ragnarock? Minor confusion there