Story mission “Backdoor”
At this moment of the game, almost all residents of the Abbey are fully developed and ready to fulfill their roles regardless of the challenge.
In this mission, Hunter will be accompanied by Wolverine in an attempt to retrieve a legendary “God Killer” (Project: Gutter Morder) knife. The third member of the team will depend on your desires, strategies, and goals.
Assembling a team
Hunter and Wolverine are mandatory for this mission. The third member of the team should be someone who can supplement Hunter and Wolverine and ease fulfilling mission objectives.
For the most optimal pick, you will have to understand what is required from you and what you will face. In the first part of the mission, you will be against 3 Dark Legion elite mobs, 2 Elite Shadowhounds, and 2 Trash Shadowhounds. Depending on the difficulty, reinforcements will have up to 2 Trash Shadowhounds and 1 Elite Shadowhound. The second part of the mission will be a survival test where you need to stay alive for 4 Turns against a Fallen Hulk, 2 Dark Legion Elite mobs, and 2 Trash Shadowhounds with the same reinforcements as in the first part of the mission.
If you are familiar with those opponents, it is immediately apparent that you will need someone with serious single-target damage or someone with constant AOEs.
Wolverine’s kit makes things a lot harder than they would be if you could pick both members of the team. His damage is minimal and he relies on the fact that he could successfully protect the team without healing from another member of the team. Unfortunately, in this mission, you will need totally opposite set of skills because the longer the battle lasts, the lower your chances of success are.
In short, you should accept the fact that Wolverine will be a necessary liability whose only role should be to taunt the deadliest targets and try to eliminate near-death and trash mobs in the process. This means that you should emphasize improved “Chain Swipes”, “Stink of Fear” and “Eviscerate” cards in his deck. It would be good if a “Power Slash” card is also available because you may need Vulnerable against Fallen Hulk.
The build of Hunter should determine the pick of the third member of the team. If Hunter is Light, you should try to combine him with another character who has multiple AOE attacks (Iron Man, Scarlet Witch). The reason for that is that you will not be able to one-shot Dark Legion mobs and that the best course of action is to be prepared to continuously execute AOE attacks against new Dark Legion spawns. Be sure to have Cure and AOE Healing with Hunter because the number of mobs on the battlefield will be too large to control, even for Wolverine.
If you have Dark Hunter, you should try a totally different approach. Dark Hunter has the deadliest single-target attacks, so your goal should be to quickly eliminate Dark Legion mobs before they can multiply. You can build your damage against Trash Mobs (Strengthen on KO). Depending on the Difficulty, you should try to one-shot Dark Legion while they are on full HP or immediately after they multiply for the first time.
The best ally for this strategy is definitely Ghost Raider but only if he is fully built. Improved “Judgement” and “Penance Stare” cards must be available in your Deck if you wanna be successful on Ultimate Difficulties. As the matter of fact, that is probably the only way to prevail against Dark Legion with 700+ HP.
In case you are playing “New Game+” there is also an option to use Hulk. Hulk’s rage mechanic allows him to potentially cause insane damage numbers. More importantly, unlike Ghost Raider, Hulk can withstand serious damage which will be crucial if you are using Dark Hunter on the last 2 levels of difficulty where Dark Hunter’s abilities (regardless of his level and development) will not immediately eliminate Dark Legion mobs.
Backdoor – First battle
In the first battle, you will face 3 Dark Legion elite mobs, 2 Elite Shadowhounds, and 2 Trash Shadowhounds. There will be 3 small Boxes and 2 kickable environmental objects on the battlefield.
Depending on your strategy (AOE or single-target damage) you should wait with environmental attacks so you can hit as many targets as possible. Elite Shadowhounds should be neutralized or Taunted because you don’t want their debuffs on anyone except Wolverine.
Be careful to not use Exhaust cards in this battle because you will need heavy artillery for the next battle. Dark Legion mobs may seem extremely dangerous but you will not have a problem with them as long as you prevent them from multiplying Shadowhounds. Dark Legion mobs can spawn a large number of enemies capable of serious combined damage output but their attacks will not place debuffs on you. As long as you control the battlefield with Wolverine chain Taunt you should not be in any serious danger.
Be patient, save your most important cards and make sure that members of the team are at full HP before finishing the mission. Keep in mind that Heroism will not be transferred in the second battle so do not try to preserve it.
Backdoor – Second battle
In the second Battle, you will have to survive 4 turns against Fallen Hulk, 2 Dark Legion elite Mobs, and 2 Trash Shadowhounds.
Fallen Hulk has the same kit as ordinary Hulk but his HP, damage and other stats are almost doubled. You can down Fallen hulk in this mission but he will not die like others after the second down. Therefore, your main goal should not be to kill him.
The greatest danger in this battle lies in the fact that Dark legion can multiple Fallen Hulk. If that happens you will be in serious problems. Also, the other danger may come from reinforcements. On higher difficulties, Elite Shadowhounds may spawn between turns and that can be really dangerous if the Cards in your hand don’t allow you to deal with them fast.
On the battlefield, you will have 2 small boxes, 2 kickable environmental objects, 1 jumpable object, 1 explosive, and 1 Antena. Try positioning your team so the majority of mobs and Hulk are between you and Explosive. The deadliest effect will be if you succeed in kicking the object so Hulk is knockback towards the explosive. Depending on the combat item and your level the potential damage can be enormous and you could instantly eliminate several mobs for just 2 heroisms.
Other than that, everything is straightforward. Be sure that Hulk is always under the effect of Weak debuff and that he always aims for Wolverine. Unlike in the first battle, you will not have the opportunity to allow Dark Legion to multiple without control because every additional spawn will have the chance to multiple Fallen Hulk. Corpse Explosion cards will come in handy here because on higher Difficulties the only way of killing Dark Legion will be after they multiply at least once.
Keep in mind that Stun and Bind effects will not help you much if you cause damage in the process. That is why Mind Control cards (Scarlet Witch, Dark Hunter) are welcomed here. They will prevent Dark Legion from multiplying while you control them. The best course of action is to constantly control 1 dark Legion while you focus your DPS on the second and its spawns. Keep in mind that during all that time, Fallen Hulk should chase Wolverine.
This battle is not really hard on Normal difficulty and you will own it regardless of your team composition and development. However, with Ultimate difficulties, you will have serious problems surviving, especially without losses. The biggest problem will be that your initial buffs will not apply on the second battle so you will start with 0 Heroism and 3 Card play with the task to cause serious damage against 1 Dark Legion, prevent the second Dark Legion from playing and Taunt Hulk simultaneously. If your initial Hand and your combat items are not perfect for this situation you will have to start the entire mission over because the “load game” will not change the cards that are given to you.
If you wanna really want to experience the real Marvel’s Midnight Suns challenge, try playing this mission on the last 2 Ultimate difficulties – if you prevail you will have the proof that you mastered the game in full!