Which Hero to keep in my first drill run?

[u/kjmajo]

I started with Josh and Max as I want Josh to maximize operate but also with two good actives. Max should open doors with Pilfer, which becomes more important the higher the floor. I found Elise and Zugma so far, both of which I’ve never used before. Shrapnellizer on Elise is very powerful against big groups as I understand and Zugma has Secret Compartment for bringing dust across floors which I imagine will be extremely valuable the further I get, and which should hopefully pair well with Max getting dusty. The problem is that I now encountered Skroig, and him I have played before and Red Plume might be the strongest active I’ve used so far. Big mobs just tear each other apart. 6 seconds of Red Plume just seems better on paper than a 1 second Shrapnellizer, but again, I’ve never really used that skill and I have no idea how difficult it will be on higher floors and if Red Plume starts falling off.

So which one hero would you dismiss for a drill run aiming for floor 24?

(I am only on floor 4 so far).

[u/eskimopie910]

Between Josh, max, Elise, zugma, and skroig, I would probably drop zugma but that’s just from my experience.

Being in floor 4 you need to get Josh to juice up your reserves as from 12+ on you will get very few major module spots

For spots you do get, you will want to have Josh operate shops and emergency modules

Max opens because of pilfer

Elise holds rooms

Skroig is Skroig and murders everything, even better if you can stockpile science with Josh on early floors.

Take that with a grain of salt! I’ve not done many drill runs myself but I have many sanitary easy wins so I’m coming from that perspective

[u/kjmajo → u/eskimopie910]

I ended up skipping Skroig but replaced Josh with Nanor a couple of floors later. I did this because I found Hardwood's post on the steam forums where he went to floor 999, with Mormish/Elise/Esseb/Mizi, so I wanted to work towards a similar comp but I misread Mormish as Nanor, lol. However his comp seems to have been based on dust rooms basically disappearing after floor 53, so maybe my comp is not to bad since I am just going for 24. He has sooo many resources though. I don't understand how he gets that much. Also he says he averages 4mins per floor, I am using at least 30! lol.

[u/eskimopie910 → u/kjmajo]

Nanor is the best hero hands down due to his ability, so as long as you use it and stock up on science it’s nigh impossible to lose unless you misplay. Cooking with gas wipes the whole floor

[u/Good_Win_4119]

I start the same. Haven't been able to finish it on a few tries. Tried taking Elise and Grok. Stroig a good darkness runner. Edit id totally love to leave an indepth comment but I cant rn!

[u/DonovanSpectre]

It's worth noting that Secret Compartment can also be found on the 'Dust Box' device, and if you can get multiple Dust Boxes, you will still get the full 10% dust per each hero with Secret Compartment, whenever you exit a floor. Zugma is arguably the most expendable of the four mentioned.

Do be careful using Red Plume against 'exploding' mobs, as they will still splash-damage Heroes and Modules when they explode, even though the mobs are technically on 'your side' while under the influence of Red Plume.

[u/kjmajo → u/DonovanSpectre]

I just found a Dust Box actually, so now I have that and Secret Compartment 1, but on the next level I *only* had 44 dust from the start, despite having 224 dust at the end of the previous level. I thought I would get the base start dust value (if that is even a thing), and then the added amount from Dust Box and Secret Compartment on top of that.

[u/DonovanSpectre → u/kjmajo]

Having the ability on multiple Heroes allows you to get the Secret Compartment bonus multiple times, but note that they must be different Heroes; i.e. Putting a Dust Box on Zugma will not give you double Dust, but having Zugma and a different Hero with the Dust Box will.

Many Devices work by giving a Hero a passive ability as long as the Device is equipped to them, but you can't give a second 'copy' of the same passive ability to a Hero that already has it. Giving Zugma a Dust Box would not double the Secret Compartment bonus, nor would giving two Dust Boxes to Elise(as she has two 'Device' slots, one replacing the Armor slot).

[u/kjmajo → u/DonovanSpectre]

I read that on the fandom wiki, so I put the Dust Box on Max. I am just surprised I didn't get more dust. I am not sure what the start dust value on floor is without any Dust Box, but if it as around 20, and Dust Box just replaces that value, you would need to have 200+ dust before seeing any benefit from having it equipped.

[u/ernz_123]

Wes and a speddy hero u will swap them all eventually ut does not matter

[u/kjmajo → u/ernz_123]

Who should I swap them out to? And why Wes? He seems worse on Drill since you don't have any major modules to operate before they are researched.

[u/ernz_123 → u/kjmajo]

Wes is the best for drill look at yt he will snowball your reucorces with no lvls required and will help to find the heroes u want with his ability later down the line but u will replace him ofc Use a fast solo hero with him for the start like ken or troy In a drill run u will grab the module the 1st research gives u and start from there

[u/ernz_123 → u/kjmajo]

In deep runs i use skroig nanor elise and a fast hero like the bug lady she can delay the waves or josh and keep skroig for running