Escape From Kyln - Polarity Shift Tower

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Intro

Kyln is the intergalactic inescapable prison for the most dangerous and notorious Marvel villains and at times, heroes. In Marvel Strike Force, Escape From Kyln is the variation of the Avengers Tower Mode where you battle through numerous Floors or Cells in this case. The higher you can get – the more rewards you will earn.

A special feature that distinguishes Escape From Kyln from Avengers Tower or S.W.O.R.D. Satellite is that you can only use 3-character squads in each Cell, due to it being a prison and having cramped and confined spaces, lore-wise. Gameplay-wise, it will be a good challenge and can allow you to stretch your theory-crafting, with some limitations of course. And as always, if for any reason you can’t do it yourself, we are here to provide you with the best character choices for each Cell and advice on how to clear them and get the most out of this new Tower Mode.

The next iteration of Kyln will be named Polarity Shift Tower and will consist of 18 Cells (floors). Completing this challenge will require a diverse range of characters and teams, but the rewards will be significant. Each Cell is associated with a Milestone, meaning that after successfully clearing a Cell, you will receive rewards.

Rewards will include:

3, 4, 6, and 7 Red Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force)
5.5 million Gold
1,600 L4 Training Modules

The rewards this time are, to put it mildly, rather disappointing, and it’s honestly a shame that so few valuable resources are being given to free-to-play players. For comparison, the previous Kyln Tower event, which happened several months ago—maybe even a year—offered players a wide variety of resources, including 15 million Gold. This time, there are only three types of rewards, with very little Training Materials and a “whopping” 5.5 million Gold. That amount is roughly one-tenth of what’s needed to take a character from level 1 to level 110 and fully upgrade them. It’s really quite disappointing.

Prison Rules

There’s no Cooldown period for characters after a battle.
Health and Abilities persist between battles for players and enemies.
Characters can’t be healed between battles.
You’ll remain in the same Cell after losing a battle (not drop down).
Restarting a run will drop you down to Floor 1, heal your characters, and reset your score.
Completing a Cell earns a Milestone reward.

The first rule allows you to use your characters as long as you want, provided they remain alive after each Cell. Under normal circumstances, this could have been overpowered but since Kyln has Trait Requirements for different Cell Blocks it evens things out a bit. Simply speaking, each character has only one life and you can’t heal or revive them between battles (only during).

All Ability Cooldowns and Health will persist between battles, similar to how the Raids work, so it will be important that you always manage your cooldowns when the fight is nearing the end.

Enemy health will also persist, this means that if you lose a fight but you manage to eliminate a few enemies that progress will be saved so your second attack will be easier. This can be used to your advantage by either sending a sacrifice team to eat the big attacks or by providing you a chance to beat the node in 3 or 4 attempts, depending on how many characters fit the Trait requirements.

If your run didn’t go as planned you can restart as many times as you like, but every restart will drop you to the first Cell so you’ll have to start from the beginning.

Another important tip, as each Cell requires a 3-character team make sure to always split them up in the squad select screen using the drag-and-drop feature. One character should be in the center while the other two should be in a corner, that will improve your survivability in general. Just long-press on the character and drag him to the spot you want to place him in.

Cell Requirements

Cells 1-2: No Restriction
Cells 3-4: City – 3 Yellow Stars
Cells 5-6: Global – 4 Yellow Stars
Cells 7-8: Cosmic (Non-Mythic) – 4 Yellow Stars
Cells 9-10: Mystic (Non-Mythic) – 5 Yellow Stars
Cells 11-12: Mutant – 5 Yellow Stars
Cells 13-14: Legendary – 5 Yellow Stars
Cells 15: Legendary – 5 Yellow Stars
Cells 16: Legendary – 5 Yellow Stars
Cells 17-18: Phoenix Force – 5 Yellow Stars

The requirements show that the Phoenix Force team will be needed for the final missions. That means we’ll need to collect Character Shards for Magneto (Phoenix Force) through the Magnetic Bound Event, which starts at the same time as the Polarity Shift Tower. Both events will last for 8 days, so free-to-play (FTP) players will need to wait a bit (after Cell 14) before they can get at least 3 Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force) to complete at least Mission 15.

It’s possible that FTP players could reach 4 Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force), but that would require a lot of effort—specifically, spending plenty of Power Cores (PC) to refresh Event Energy and Missions. It’s almost certain, however, that FTP players won’t be able to get 5 Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force), so we don’t expect them to be able to play the last two Cells at all.

We need to wait for the Magnetic Bound Event to start in order to see how many Magneto (Phoenix Force) shards we can get on average from a single Magnetic Bound Orb. Once the Event begins and we have this information, we’ll be able to estimate how many Yellow Stars we can realistically expect to earn for Magneto (Phoenix Force) through this Event. This will also let us know whether free-to-play (FTP) players will even be able to participate in the final few missions.

The fact that you won’t have Magneto (Phoenix Force) at the start of the Kyln Tower shouldn’t discourage you, and you definitely shouldn’t wait to recruit him before progressing. Complete all the Cells you can while you’re still working on unlocking him. In other words, Cells 1 through 16 can be played without Magneto (Phoenix Force), so make sure to finish those first. Then, attempt Cells 17 and 18 if and when you collect enough Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force).

Red Star Rewards

You’ll find Magneto (Phoenix Force)’s Red Stars in Cells 15 through 18:

Cell 15: 3 Red Stars
Cell 16: 4 Red Stars
Cell 17: 6 Red Stars
Cell 18: 7 Red Stars

Here we can see that players who complete Cell 15—meaning they collect 3 Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force)—will be able to earn the same number of Red Stars for him. The same applies to Cell 16: if you reach 4 Yellow Stars, you’ll receive 4 Red Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force) after successfully completing Cell 16.

Players who manage to collect 5 Yellow Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force) will be able to access and play the last two Cells (17 and 18), allowing them to collect all 7 Red Stars for him.

Video Guide

If you’re more of a visual learner, we have a handy Video Guide where you can see step-by-step how to handle each of the Cells.

Walkthrough

Cell 1 – 2: No Restriction

The first Cell Block has absolutely no requirements, so clearing this should be an extremely easy task for most.

Cell 3-4: City – 3 Yellow Stars

Here, we used the Insidious Six characters Hobgoblin and Superior Spider-Man, along with Vulture. If you have these characters reasonably upgraded (as you should), this part will be a breeze for you.

Cell 5-6: Global – 4 Yellow Stars

In those Cells, we used three Brimstone characters, which is a logical choice since the vast majority of players have already upgraded this team well. Both missions are very easy, as the enemy characters’ power is quite low. Because of that, there’s really no need to go into detail about specific strategies or steps for these missions.

Cell 7-8: Cosmic (Non-Mythic) – 4 Yellow Stars

For these two Cells, we used Fantastic Four (MCU) characters. Most players have these characters fairly well upgraded as well, so these Cells shouldn’t pose any trouble for them.

Cell 9-10: Mystic (Non-Mythic) – 5 Yellow Stars

In these Cells, we recommend using Knull, Daimon Hellstrom, and Thunderstrike. The three of them will be able to defeat all enemies without much trouble, and Knull will prevent Mephisto in Cell 10 from becoming Empowered at the start of the battle, making it easy to take him down.

Cell 11-12: Mutant – 5 Yellow Stars

Anyone who has Professor Xavier can use him in these Cells. Alongside him, Havok and Shadow King are excellent choices. However, even if you don’t have Professor Xavier, it shouldn’t be a major issue—you can use Azazel, Old Man Logan, Phoenix Force characters, Immortal X-Men characters, and so on.

In Cell 11, try to eliminate the Starjammer characters as quickly as possible. In Cell 12, leave the two Mr. Fantastic (MCU) characters for last. Neither of these missions should be an insurmountable challenge for any active player who has been playing the game for a while.

Cell 13-14: Legendary – 5 Yellow Stars

For the Legendary requirements, our suggestion is to use the three newest Legendary characters: Quasar, Blastaar, and Thunderstrike. In these two Cells, stick to using Basic Abilities with all characters until Blastaar builds up 3 or 4 Bomb-Bursts (depending on how strong your Blastaar is), and then unleash Ultimate on your opponents.

Cell 15-16: Legendary – 5 Yellow Stars

In Cell 15, at the start, focus on Thanos (Endgame) to trigger his Passive as quickly as possible. When the second wave of enemies arrives, shift your focus to Knull. In the beginning, use only Basic abilities, and once the next wave spawns, Blastaar should have 3 or more Bomb-Bursts—at that point, you can use his Special to Ability Block almost all the enemies. After that, when Blastaar’s turn comes around again, use his Ultimate.

In Cell 16, try to eliminate Dormammu before the second wave of enemies arrives, and then focus on Satana. With Quasar, always stick to using only Basic abilities, while with Thunderstrike, you can use whichever abilities you want. With Blastaar, save up 5 Bomb-Bursts and use his Ultimate during the second wave of enemies.

Overall, none of the Cells so far have been even remotely challenging.

Cell 17-18: Phoenix Force – 5 Yellow Stars

For the last two Cells, it’s best to give Magneto and Phoenix the Raider Iso-8 class, and Omega Red the Striker Iso-8 class.

In Cell 17, start by using Magneto’s Special—this will remove all positive effects from the enemies and apply a bunch of strong negative effects to them. Most importantly, Mephisto will miss with his Special and won’t be able to target any of your characters. If you used Omega Red (Phoenix Force) in the earlier Cells to charge up his Ability Energy, he should have his Ultimate ready—use it as soon as his turn comes around. That should eliminate almost all enemies; finish off any survivors with Basic attacks.

When Odin appears in the second wave, attack him with Basic abilities as well. Your team should have enough damage to take him down, especially since your characters will be assisting each other.

In Cell 18, at the very start, with Magneto, target Thunderstrike, and use his Ultimate. With Phoenix, you can use her Ultimate as well, and with Omega, use Basic—your primary target should be Thunderstrike. Once you eliminate Thunderstrike, Sentry will spawn.

Your main targets now are Blastaar and Quasar; you can Ability Block Sentry with Omega’s Special. After you’ve taken care of Blastaar and Quasar, shift your focus to Sentry. There’s no need to save your abilities here, since this is the final Cell. If your Phoenix Force characters are well-upgraded, you shouldn’t have much trouble completing this stage.

Conclusion

What’s happening in the game right now feels truly discouraging, even bleak, from a free-to-play player’s perspective. Still, we shouldn’t lose hope—instead, we should do our best to make our voices heard and play the game as well as we can, if that’s something we still want.

Players who don’t manage to get at least 3 Yellow Stars for Magneto through the Magnetic Bound Event won’t be eligible for any Red Stars for him. That means it’s important to stay active during the Magnetic Bound Event and secure at least 3 Yellow Stars. The number of Yellow Stars you earn from the event (as long as it’s at least 3) will directly determine how many Red Stars you can collect for Magneto (Phoenix Force) through the Polarity Shift Tower. If you collect 3 Yellow Stars, you’ll be able to earn 3 Red Stars as well. If you collect 4 Yellow Stars, you’ll be able to earn 4 Red Stars. If you manage to collect 5 Yellow Stars, you’ll be able to earn all 7 Red Stars for Magneto (Phoenix Force).

If you need any additional help with Kyln, feel free to reach out to us on our Discord. Thank you for your support.

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