Why I think new players should start out as a Heavy in Empire play

When you play boss jobs and empire games, you use a Class. The available classes are Assassin, Enforcer, Heavy Weapons, and Sniper. Each of these can add different skills, and benefit from a different "build" - a different emphasis on things like attack, defense, health, criticals, etc. One of the keys to enjoying Underworld Empire is choosing a class that helps you enjoy playing the game. You wouldn't want to spend hours each week and perhaps some money as well, doing something you don't enjoy. Try them all, pick out one you like best.

But wait on that. The first thing that new players should do is build up their energy and stamina to 100. Maybe 150. Why? Because the game gives you an energy and stamina unit every 5 minutes. It doesn't give you attack units, or defense units, it gives you energy and stamina. 12 per hour. 288 per day. If you are going to go to sleep for 8 hours, you're going to receive 96 energy and 96 stamina.

That's why I think 150 might be a better number. Do you really want to empty both of them before you go to sleep, and then empty them again the first thing when you wake up? Well, if you do, 100 may be the number for you. Heck, put them at 20, and set your alarm to wake up every 90 minutes to use them. You could meet some interesting people on world chat. You could disappear from the real world, and take up a permanent existence in the Underworld. I'm not saying that's a bad thing for everybody. But honestly, it would be bad for most people. But I digress.

New players have limited attack and defense abilities. If they attack more experienced players in EvE, they generally lose. That costs them 60-100 health points, and gains them 80 points toward Class Coins (CC's). If they shoot an empty building, they lose zero health points, and gain 110 points toward CC's. I'm only talking about somewhere between 3 days and 10 days. You might not even have time to buy a demolition skill upgrade.

Most empires are long on assassins and snipers and short on demo players. So when you start the game, come in and play the heavy. You can learn about how the empire communicates, enjoy some play, and see what the other roles in the empire are. You can always change later.

Boss jobs - getting help

Boss jobs are a great way to convert stamina to XP. I seldom make money on them because I heal a lot. The thing I focus on are the rewards, specifically the epic drops.

Items might be common, uncommon, rare, epic, or legendary. They are cooler and better in that order. Players have reported their results, and determined how many points you need in a boss job to get 1, 2, or 3 epic items at the end of the job, called epic drops. Those point levels are called epic tiers. I generally stop at the 2nd tier, because I want to use the stam on another boss job.

There are a few things to avoid in a boss job.

Strengthening your LT's

One of the best ways for a Skinny Guy to get stronger is to strengthen his lieutenants. After you get to 1000 energy, it kind of makes more sense to use an energy refill than when your energy is 250 - you get a lot more for your Favor Point dollar. I use the arbitrary goal of 1500, because I think I can get through the Street Fighter DICE Job in Slums 3 times.

DICE JOBS

I've done a lot of math about the energy cost of LT's, and with some unusual exceptions, I only try to do two dice jobs - Slums and Westside. Slums costs 35 energy per roll, and takes 13 rolls, for a total energy cost of 455 per LT. You might get the uncommon LT Pain (Great for a sniper or assassin, he gives criticals), or the common LT John (you get him almost 50% of the time). You may also find Colt, an uncommon recombinator, or Mia. Many players have only disdain for the LT's of the Slums, and fuse them. My advice to the new player is to build them up. 

If you spend $5 on FP, you'll get 33 FP. That's enough for 3 refills. If you have 1500 Energy (and the beginner won't), you can get 3 LT's with the energy from a level-up, then burn your stamina, and then use an energy refill to get 3 more LT's. This should take you to the next level, where you can rinse and repeat. Three of these cycles should produce 18 LT's. You'd have 9 Johns, 2 pains, 4 Mia, 1 Uncommon recombinator, and 3 Colts. These are estimates - in small numbers of rolls (less than 100) you might see a lot of variation. 

But if you had 9 johns, you could make a 3* John by combining them. That's still a pretty weak LT. You'd need to have a 6* common LT to be stronger than a 1* epic LT. To get a 6* john, you would need about 65 LT's from Slums, at a cost of about 11 refills (maybe $15).

I don't stick to these two jobs exclusively. First, at level-up time, I try to get as far into the next level as I can. If you have Baron seated, when you roll you get 3 rolls for a 1*, and 4 rolls for a 2*. If you have 800 energy left, you could cruise over to Mexico or France and roll the dice job to go deep into the next level.

Another reason for me to play other dice jobs is that you can try to get different rare LT's in different districts. My reasons for focusing on Slums and Westside still make sense to me, but they are guidelines, not rules. 

CRATES

You can get lots of different LT's from crate rolls on the Favor page. Crate rolls cost 30 FP, or 3 for 80 FP. In real dollars, that's $5 or $15. Your odds of getting an epic LT are 5%. Some people get 2 in a row. Some people don't get one for months. This is an expensive source of LT's. You could end up with a 1* John, for example, for the same FP that you could use to make a 3* John at DICE jobs. 

There is still a good reason to do crates. If you're a Skinny Guy, your key to winning in PvP is "War." That means you get one LT for every 5 Allies. You aren't likely to have more than 15-20 LT's from doing dice jobs. Getting a 1* version of 20 MORE LT's gives you that much more power in WAR. Since you are weak, the relative strength from adding LT's and weapons is much higher than it is for BSI builds, who might as well not bother. 

PLATINUM SCRATCHERS

You can get LT's from Platinum scratchers. They cost 45 FP for 10 (or 5 FP for 1). Most of the time you get nothing. But sometimes you get LT's. This makes sense for Assassins more than the other classes, because if you can get Scorpion you can decap at higher levels. 

HOW TO CHOOSE?

If you have $50, you can get 320 FP. With 320 FP, you could buy:

32 Refills, or

7 sets of 10 scratchers, or

4 sets of 3 crate rolls

That would give you .7 LT's from scratchers, 12 from crates, or 60 from refills (if you do slums, and you have 1500 energy). That's why you see comments on the forums like "Scratchers are a no-no" and "Crate rolls are evil." I advise you to spend your FP in about a 5:1 ratio of refills to crate rolls. 

You don't HAVE to buy FP. The game gives you lots of it in achievements and other rewards. 

FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL

After I had been playing about 3 months, I decided to try to get my LT's to a certain strength. I wanted whoever was seated to either be a 4* rare, a 6* uncommon, or an 8* common. If you pick a goal like that, and you look at the LT's you have, you can combine, fuse, refill, and gamble your way to a strong inner circle. Having a plan makes a lot of decisions easier. 

A NOTE ABOUT FUSING 

I fuse when it will make my team stronger. But beyond that, I avoid it. My reasoning is that I can combine 2 LT's for nothing. To fuse I need 3 LT's and a recombinator. That represents twice as much energy. Like I say, if it makes me better right now, today, in the next empire game, I'll do it. Well, I might need a day or two to level them up after I fuse them, but you get the idea. 

You could talk about LT's and dice jobs until your eyes cross. There are lots of ways to get them, and lots of ways to grow them. These are a few, and hopefully your eyes aren't crossed yet. 

Respect: Factions in UWE

There are four factions in UWE: Mafia, Cartel, Street, and the Dragon Syndicate. Each day, you can pay respect to one of these, and you will receive two things.

First, you will get 100 Respect Points. As you gain respect points toward each faction's maximum of 6000, you will receive valuable weapons, vehicles, and gear. Paying respect to a faction isn't the only way to get Respect Points (RP). You get them from PvP, from Bosses, and from District Jobs. In PvP, if you beat a Mafia guy, you get Mafia RP. This is limited to 10 RP per day. In boss jobs you often get a point or two based on which LT's you defeated. In district jobs, each job has an affiliation, and you get an award every 6-10 rolls. Sometimes it's longer, sometimes you hit several in a row. There is no daily limit on the RP earned in district jobs. Note: you can still get RP on a district job even after you have five stars on it.

Second, you will receive a stat point. Each faction gives a different point. Mafia gives energy, Cartel gives stamina, street gives defense, and syndicate gives attack. Note: if you pay respect to the Cartel, you get 200 respect points, and you can't give respect again for 48 hours.

Most players do a faction to the max and then do the others, in whatever order you like. I have done mafia first, because I'm an LSI build and I want lots of energy.

There are some achievements associated with respect.

• FOOT SOLDIER. Pay respect 5 days. 1 FP. 
• AFFILIATED. Pay respect 25 days. 5 FP. 
• UNTOUCHABLE. Pay respect 50 days. 5 SP. 
• FAVORED ONE. Pay respect 500 days. 25 FP. Some of the very first players are near this goal. 
• KING OF KINGS. Pay respect 1000 days. 30 SP. 

Some of the most powerful gear in the game comes from factions. El Aguila (Cartel)is a pretty good pistol. Lightning (Street) is an awesome car. There are guns, cars, chainsaws, a cute little bicycle, dynamite ... just about a complete kit for a mobster. If you don't believe me, just look at the weapons and gear selected for your class, by pressing SEE MORE on the Class Power page. 

After you reach 6000 RP with a faction, you can continue to give them respect. You will still receive a stat point. You won't increase your RP past 6000. 

My favorite thing about giving respect is that when you "finish" a faction, you get more than a prize. You get a FACTION POWER. Your character gets a skill boost. 

• Cartel: +20 Attack, +1% Critical chance
• Syndicate: +10 Attack, +2% Critical chance
• Mafia: +30 Attack, +15 Defense
• Street: +15 Attack, +30 Defense

You only get the Faction power when you are "in that faction." This is a bit complicated. The forums have several cases to demonstrate it. Whichever faction you have the most RP for, that's who you are. But when you finish a 2nd one, you have a tie, right? Then you're whichever one you gave respect to last. There are times that players say they have "changed factions" after a PvP battle or doing a District jobs.  I think that it's been changed so that once you're maxed, you get it based on last respect given, not last respect point earned. 

There are some correlations between the faction powers and the classes. I'm going to oversimplify, and say that the Cartel faction power is great for assassins, the Syndicate faction power is the best for snipers, that the Mafia is for heavies and the Street is for enforcers. Try them all, see what works best for you.

I didn't get the idea about respect at first, and it took me almost 60 days to reach 6000 for the Mafia. Because I had been accumulating points doing jobs, it only took 15 more days to finish the Cartel. In 60 more days I was "finished" with all four. You can do it quicker than I did, but think of it as a 4-5 month project. This game calls for patience, and the combination of patience and respect is good in the game and outside it. 

Empire tactics

A few Empire tactics. These tips are aimed at new empires. The big boys in Legend are strong enough to do whatever they want.

• Try to use Assassin and Sniper tokens to clear buildings (to kill all of the defenders). Don't use them for demolition unless you really have no choice. 
• Try to use heavy equipment tokens to demolish buildings. Don't use them to shoot or execute defenders as long as the outcome of the contest is in doubt. 
• I left out the enforcers because I have no idea what to do with their tokens. 
• If the other team has a front row of safehouses and sniper tower, full of BR 16 players, they might be like an eclair. Crisp crust outside, soft filling inside. Take a look at the "back door" with your assassins. You might be able to clear and demo that back door quicker and easier than you can break through the front line. Take what they give you. The water goes around the stone, but in time it wears it down. 

Idle thoughts and scatter shots

I saw a note on the forums last night that I thought was pretty helpful. Someone said that he seats Centurion when the Empire game starts, to get the benefit of extra health. Then before taking any shots, he switched to his regular LT to get the most power. And finally, when he was dead without the prospect of health packs, he switched to Trix.

The chances of getting healed by Trix are low. Maybe it works. I'm not inclined to give up that much power to put my wimpy Trix out there, even dead.

I have been saying previously that the new skills introduced last month give the game some variety. Today I'd like to suggest a different approach. Think about which skills are active (require a token) and which are passive. It seems to me that players should just load up on all of the passives. They don't require any change of strategy or tactics to get the benefit.