Famine Scourge
Intro
Famine Scourge and all the other Scourges are now on a repeating schedule where they will be live every two weeks and will run for 5 days. This stability provides everyone with a good opportunity to plan ahead and get the rewards they aim for.
A big addition to the Scourges is the Traits added to the nodes 5/10 – Infestation/ Secret Defenders/ New Warriors. Now you are no longer required to update older teams but can instead use newer ones to complete the Scourge. For Famine Scourge our recommendation would be to invest in Secret Defenders. They will be useful in all game modes and make your Scourge run very easy.
Alongside the new schedule, there is also a new reward system. There are no longer any leaderboards where you can get bonus shards, now everything is centered around Milestones.
Here’s how the Milestones are separated in terms of Shards and Star Ranks:
- Milestone 3 (500,000 Points) = 3-Star Unlock
- Milestone 4 (600,000 Pts) = 1 Red Star unlock
- Milestone 5 (700,000 Pts) = 4-Star upgrade
- Milestone 6 (800,000 Pts) = 2 Red Stars upgrade
- Milestone 7 (900,000 Pts) = 5-Star upgrade
- Milestone 8 (950,000 Pts) = 3 Red Stars upgrade
- Milestone 9 (1,050,000 Pts) = 6-Star upgrade
- Milestone 10 (1,150,000 Pts) = 4 Red Star upgrade
- Milestone 12 (1,350,000 Pts) = 7-Star upgrade
Rewards from the Milestones also include Purple Gear Raid Orbs (300 Orbs total), Orange Gear Raid Orbs (600 Orbs Total), Teal Gear Raid Orbs (175 Orbs total), and Training Orbs (30 Orbs total).Â
An unlock can be accomplished by completing a run on Difficulty 4 with nearly all scourges active. Difficulty 5 with all scourges will get you the 4-star upgrade. Difficulty 6 with all pacts propels you to a 6-star unlock. And difficulty 7 with most of the pacts is enough to complete all the Milestones.
The Difficulty of Scourges can go above Difficulty 7 up to Diff 10, and that can be used to your advantage if you intend to complete all the milestones but don’t want to waste resources on upgrading the teams that are required for nodes 5 and 10, in this case, Infestation, Secret Defender, New Warrior, Inhuman, A-Force, or Young Avenger teams. All you need to do, if you have a strong roster, is to play the first 4 nodes on Difficulty 8 with most of the pacts or Difficulty 9 with a select few. In both cases, each node will award you around 300-350K Points, and from 4 nodes you can get the required 1,350,000 Points to complete the Milestone. This will help you avoid all the trouble of upgrading the old and in some cases obsolete characters, but it will only work if you have powerful characters(Gear Tier 17-18, Level 90-95) that fit the requirements of the first 4 nodes.
Below you can find the requirements for notes and the breakdown of each scourge, which are best to use or avoid, and how to handle each node.
Nodes
On the list below you can see what are Node requirements for all difficulties.
| Nodes | Diff 1 | Diff 2 | Diff 3 | Diff 4 | Diff 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Node 1 | —– | —– | —– | City | City |
| Node 2 | —– | City | City | City | City |
| Node 3 | —– | —– | —– | Mutant | Mutant |
| Node 4 | —– | Mutant | Mutant | Mutant | Mutant |
| Node 5 | —– | —– | —– | Hero | Inhuman / A-Force / Young Avenger Infestation/ Secret Defenders/ New Warrior |
| Node 6 | —– | —– | —– | Villain | Villain |
| Node 7 | —– | Villain | Villain | Villain | Villain |
| Node 8 | —– | —– | —– | Cosmic | Cosmic Mystic |
| Node 9 | —– | Cosmic | Cosmic | Cosmic Mystic | Cosmic Mystic |
| Node 10 | —– | —– | —– | Hero | Inhuman / A-Force / Young Avenger Infestation/ Secret Defenders/ New Warrior |
Scourges
Let’s start with the scourges that should be activated for a better score.
Active Scourges:
- Gloating – When Any Player Character Dies, Enemies Gain 2 Ability Energy
- Power Syphon I – Enemies Gain +5% Drain
- Devil’s Bargain II – When A Player Character Gains Ability Energy, They Gain Defense Down
- Not So Fast … – When A Player Character Gains Ability Energy, Apply Slow To Them
- Power Fatigue I – Player Character Special Abilities Cost 1 More Ability Energy
- Too Clever – When A Player Character Uses Their Special, They Gain the Ability Block
- Poisoned Energy II – When A Player Character Gains Ability Energy, Apply Defense Down For +1 Turn er Ability Energy Gained
- Unkillable – When an Enemy Drops Below 50% Health, They Gain Deathproof
- Weakened – Player Character Healing Is Reduced By 20%
- Dark Rally – When A Player Character Uses Their Ultimate Ability, All Enemies Gain 1 Ability Energy
- Experimental Serum IV – Enemies Gain 40% Max Health
- Power Syphon II – Enemies Gain +20% Drain
- Going Rogue – When A Positive Effect Is Applied to Enemies, Increase the Duration of All Positive Effects on That Enemy By 1, Up to a Max Of 3. When A Negative Effect Is Applied to Player Character, Increase the Duration of All Negative Effects on That Character By 1, Up to Max Of 3
- Stay Down – On A Player Character’s Turn, Remove Revive Once from That Character
Scourges that can be added without changing the current battle mechanics:
- Experimental Serum I – Enemies Gain +10% Max Health
- Dark Resolve I – On Enemy Death, Remaining Enemies Gain Defense Up
- Experimental Serum II – Enemies Gain +20% Max Health
- Gloves Off – On Enemy Turn, Steal 5% Health From Lowest Health Player Character (this can really annoying but doesn’t change the mechanics – I advise being careful with this)
- Blinded by Power – When A Player Character Uses Their Ultimate, They Gain Blind (this is also annoying, but it is not lethal if you are careful with your skill rotations – it changes nothing on Nodes 5 and 10)
- Power Fatigue II – Player Character Ultimate Abilities Cost 1 More Ability Energy (be careful with this, especially on City and Mutant nodes)
Scourges that should be avoided:
- Pyrrhic Victory – When A Player Character Blocks, Apply Stun To Them (now works and it is lethal, especially on nodes 5 and 10)
- Strong Opener – On Spawn, Enemies Gain Immunity
- Bleeder I – When A Player Character Takes Damage, They Gain Bleed
- Off Balance – When A Player Character Gains Offense Up Or Defense Up Apply Heal Block To Them (this scourge makes things impossible on Nodes 5 and 10)
- The End is Near – When A Player Character’s Health Drops Below 50% Max Health, Apply Trauma To Them
- Vile Resurgence – On Enemy Turn, They Gain Offense Up
- Speed Bost – On Spawn, Fill Speed Bar For All Enemies By +100%
Nodes
These are the teams we originally used, nowadays there are a number of other characters that can be a better pick for each node so we will provide alternatives below:
- Node 1 – Scarlet Spider, Cloak, Ghost Spider, Shang Chi, Spider-Man
- Node 2 – Squirrel Girl, Cloak, Ghost Spider, Shang Chi, Spider-Man
- Node 3 – Gambit, Bishop, Omega Red, Jubilee, Rogue
- Node 4 – Gambit, Bishop, Omega Red, Jubilee, Rogue
- Node 5 – Ms.Marvel, Squirrel Girl, America Chavez, Echo, Kate Bishop
- Node 6 – Omega Red, Doctor Doom, Dormammu/Strange [Heartless], Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 7 – Omega Red, Doctor Doom, Dormammu/Strange [Heartless], Morgan Le Fay, Agatha Harkness
- Node 8 – Ikaris, Deathpoll, Dormammu/Adam Warlock, Silver Surfer, Sersi
- Node 9 – Ikaris, Deathpoll, Dormammu/Adam Warlock, Silver Surfer, Sersi
- Node 10 – Ms.Marvel, Squirrel Girl, America Chavez, Echo, Kate Bishop
Alternatives:
- Nodes 1/2 – Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Ghost Rider (Robbie), Kraven, Lizard, ronin, Mysterio, Black Cat, Ms. Marvel (Hard Light), Green Goblin (Classic)
- Nodes 3/4 – Nightcrawler, Apocalypse, Archangel, Nemesis, Ms. Marvel (Hard Light), Sunspot, Forge
- Node 6/7 – Kang, Apocalypse, Super Skrull, Black Cat, Vulture, Green Goblin (Classic), Hela, Carnage, Venom
- Nodes 8/9 – Vahl, Hela, Beta Ray Bill, Thor (Infinity War), Sylvie
Node 1
In the first City Node, I’ve tried to clear without using Squirrel Girl (so I can have her on full HP for Nodes 5 and 10). That was a mistake. I cleared the node without problems, but it would be much easier if I used her instead of Scarlet Spider.
Anyway, there are 3 things you need to do:
- Use Cloak ultimate when the second wave shows
- Save Spider-Man Stun for the last wave and magneto
- Prolong the fight so Cloak has his ultimate ready or almost ready (CD: 4/5) – this is the most important for the second node.
It is important to say that this node can be easily cleared with 3 Symbiotes (Carnage, Anti-Venom, Spider-Man [Symbiote]) Shag Chi, and Squirrel Girl. If you want to use that team, make sure that you have all cooldowns for the second Node.
I have decided for this setup to see if it is possible to avoid using Squirrel Girl (I made a mistake not using her) and to clear it with WW because I realize that most of the players have WW more improved than Symbiotes because of DD5.
Node 2
Node 2 is much easier with Symbiotes, to be honest. Whenever you see Hela (until she is improved which is expected soon), Symbiotes are your best pick. Killing Hella’s ads will give you enough turns to fully control the battle and once you stun Gambit with SSM the battle is almost over.
As I said, most of the players have improved WW better so I decided to show you how to clear it with them. I had to use Squirrel Girl though.
The main problem in this mission will be to control Gambit. Once he drops below 50% he will enter Stealth and gain Immunity which will make your life miserable (we activated the Scourge that increases the duration of positive effects).
This is the list of things that you need to do with this setup:
- Make sure that enemies have Defense Down before opening with Shang Chi special (this means that Spider-man jas to play before Shang Chi).
- Prevent Wong from using ultimate before the second wave shows (you can do this with Gwen’s special)
- Save Cloak ultimate for the second wave (the ultimate MUST be ready when the second wave spawns)
- Use Shang Chi’s ultimate for the second time only when Wong Taunts and have a lot of buffs (this is crucial for preventing Agatha from entering Stealth)
- Make sure that Squirrel Girl is above 70% HP with her cooldowns almost ready when the battle ends (you don’t want to have problems on mission 5 and to start everything again)
With SSM in the team, this Node is not that hard. The only thing you need to do is to Stun Gambit and then prolong Stun with SSM’s special (killing Hela ads will give you everything you need). There is also a solution to use Spider-Man [Miles] and to place Disrupt with his ultimate. Anyway, if you control the Gambit. You will not have problems with this mission.
Keep in mind, that in the Video, I have activated Scourges that are not on the list (like “Off Balance”), so your job will be much easier if you use only “Active Scourges” (as mentioned above)
Node 3
For Mutant nodes, I’ve decided to use a combination of Omega Red, Unlimited X-Men, and Astonishing X-Men. If you try using only Astonishing X-Men, your job might a little bit harder because you will lack control of the battle like in the video. This is what you need to do for Node 3:
- Incapacitate T’Challa with Rogue’s special
- Control the battle with Blind (any attack of Bishop and Jubilee’s basic will place Blind on enemies).
- Prevent Kate Bishop with Omega Red’s Ability Block – she is immune to Blind.
- Omega Red’s ultimate on Ebony Maw
- Delay the battle as long as needed until all Rogue’s CDs are ready for the next node
Node 4
If you have Rogue’s CD ready this Node will be piece of cake. This is what you have to do:
- Incapacitate Emma Frost with Rogue’s special
- Dispose of Silver Samurai as soon as possible. be careful though since he can passively remove debuffs before playing if he doesn’t have Trauma.
- Omega Red’s ultimate on Invisible Woman
- Delay the fight until Omega Red’s CDs are almost ready – you will use him on Villain Nodes.
Nodes 5
This is practically the most important Node in the Famine Scourge. If you can clear it, leaving your team at almost Full HP – your success is granted! The decision about Scourges should be made according to this Node. For example, initially, I picked more Scourges for a better Score, but only then I’ve realized that I need to turn Off some of them.
My Yong Avengers are only at 720k, so I was forced to deactivate the first 2 HP Scourges. Also, in this node, you can realize that the “Off Balance” Scourge (When A Player Character Gains Offense Up or Defense Up Apply Heal Block to Them) is one of the worst Scourges – having Heal Block all the time makes things impossible for Young Avengers.
Anyway, to clear this mission you need to do things in a certain order:
- Kill Doctor Strange (first)
- Kill Strange Heartless (second)
- Kill Yo-Yo (third)
- Kill Deathpool (fourth)
- When you kill those 4 try to lower HP equally to remaining enemies because after killing 2 more, the next wave will spawn. You want all enemies from wave 1 to be almost dead before the second wave.
- When Secon Wave spawns, it is mandatory that you have all of Kate Bishop’s CDs and Echo’s special ability. It would be ideal if all members of your team have all CDs when the second wave spawns.
- Focus on Sunfire – you can’t allow him to cast his special ability because you will be dead. To do that, you need to place Defense Down on him (America Chavez basic). Also, this is the time to use all your ultimate and to fill enemies with Ability Energy – it is better for you that Sunfire uses its ultimate than to use his special.
- Use Kate Bishop’s Special on Ebony Maw
- Make sure that all your team members are on at least 80% HP when the battle is over. If that means using Squirrel Girl healing in the last turn and not having it for Node 10 – just do it!
It will take some time for everything to go as planned. You must be patient, and not lose your nerves. As you can see it is doable, even with YA which is only 720k.
Node 6
Villain Nodes are not that hard. As you can see, I have used Dormammu instead of Strange [Heartless] just to speed things up. If you don’t have Dormammu, you can easily clear Nodes in a similar fashion to Strange [Heartless]. This is what you need to do:
- Make sure that you set the positions of your team members properly. Agatha Harkness must be in the corner and MLF must stand next to her. Do not make mistakes as I did, because your job will be much easier.
- Use MLF’s ultimate so it can place Disrupt on Captain America
- Place Ability Block on Chag Chi
- If you are using Dormammu, use only Basic attacks
- Save Doctor Doom’s ultimate
- Agatha’s Stun and Omega Red’s ultimate on Ikaris
- Try to prolong the battle to restore CDs
Node 7
If you have Doctor Doom’s ultimate ready, your job will be really easy with Dormammu or without him. This is what you need to do:
- Use DD’s ultimate and clear first wave. Keep in mind though, to kill She-hulk before she can accumulate 5 charges
- If Dormammu is in the team use only Basic Attacks
- Place Ability Block on Beast
- Use MLF’s ultimate
- Try to kill Magik before Dark Phoenix spawns
- Eliminate the remaining enemies without any limitations. Just be sure to not use Dormammu’s CDs.
Node 8
Mystic Cosmic Nodes are actually not easy as they may seem in my Videos. Eternals are mandatory and if you don’t have Dormammu, things can get ugly for you. You can use Adam Warlock, Strange [Heartless], Ebony Maw, and Thanos along with characters already used in my team. With Dormammu, clearing will be much easier but it can be done even without him. This is what you need to do:
- Do not use Ikaris ultimate at the start. Wait until he can make a double attack
- Focus on Squirrel Girl and stun her with Dormammu
- Use Dormammu’s ultimate when Spiders spawns in the second wave
- Save Sersi’s special ability
- All your characters must be on full HP before the next Node
Node 9
Node 9 can be really hard, especially if you are not properly prepared for the second wave of the Node. You must calculate your CDs carefully. If you can control Kestrel and Maria Hill when they show up, you will not have problems. Keep in mind that because of the “Stay Down” Scourge, you will not have Revive Once at your disposal. This practically means that you can replace Dormammu with anyone who will help you control the battle (you will use his Basic AOE, though).
This is what you have to do:
- Dispose of enemies slowly focusing on Nick Fury.
- Save Ikaris ultimate for the second wave
- Save Seris’ Special for the second wave
- Save Silver Surfer’s ultimate for the second wave
- Ability Block on Maria Hill
- Stun on Kestrel
- Focus on Kestrel
- Focus on Maria Hill
- As long as you kill enemies you are good to go. If you lose some of your character in the process, it’s okay.
This Node may cause you some trouble but keep in mind that you only need to clear it without any limitations. Trust me, it is doable even without Dormammu, as long as you control Nick Fury in the first wave and Maria Hill and Kestrel in the second.
Node 10
Node 10 in Famine Scourge has a really bad reputation. It is hard, that is true, but if you did everything right on Node 5 you can do it. Keep in mind that your result without Node 10 will be above 1.5 million with”Active Scourges.
To do this node, your Young Avengers must be at full HP. You will have 2 main problems in this node – to kill Ikaris before he kills you and to avoid triggering Valkyrie’s passive once you kill her. RNTG will play the most important part but if you know to recognize when things go in the right direction, you will save much time…
All in all, it is pretty straightforward – you will only need to start over if Vaklirie triggers her passive (you can’t do anything about it but pray to God).
OK, this is what you have to do:
- If all members of your team are above 80% HP, surviving the Ikaris opening should not be a problem. It is mandatory that everyone survives, so Ikaris doesn’t make another attack. If you have problems with that, you can try using Yo-Yo instead America Chavez but you will lose the ability to place Defense Down with America’s basic attacks. It can be done with Yo-Yo if there is no other option but it will be harder than in my video.
- Focus all your attacks on Ikaris – ignore everyone else, except if you are forced to attack targets with Taunt. When that happens, try to remove Taunt as fast as possible.
- It is better that Ikaris always uses his ultimate than to use his special (his special make additional attacks against targets with Block, meaning that your Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl will instantly die every time he uses it. To prevent Ikaris from using his special fill his ability energy by constantly using your ultimate abilities.
- Use Kate Bishop’s special only on Ikaris and only if he is buffed
- Once you kill Ikaris, focus on Valkyrie
- Save Kate Bishop’s Special in case Valkyrie triggers her passive
- When Black Bolt spawns it would be ideal to use Kate Bishop’s ultimate if it is available
- Focus on Mighty Thor
- Focus on X-23
- Focus on Black Bolt
- Turn on Auto Combat and claim your rewards!
Conclusion
I certainly hope that this will be helpful for you. There are 3 more days left in the second Famine Scourge and we will probably learn that someone can do it with even harder difficulty and more Scourges.
The only way to acquire new knowledge is to practice – I will practice a lot so you can have the most accurate and worthwhile information. All you need to do is relax and visit the page before the end of Famine Scourge. The information you will find here will lead your score to the maximum. 😉