The Ultimate Guide to AI5

[Legit]

THIS THREAD IS OUTDATED, DO NOT READ IT. DO NOT USE IT. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, LEAVE NOW.

Tired of grinding AI3? Want to make money fast? Use this guide and farm AI5 until you die from over exhaustion and drinking 14 cups of coffee!

Q: Why would I want to farm AI5? Isn’t AI3 farming better?
A: Generally, AI3 farming is better. However, AI5 farming gives you a chance to win upgraded cards. AI5 farming is also more fun because there is a variety of enemies (144!) and the gameplay requires thought.

Now, for the actual guide.

Step 1: Acquire 6 Shards of Gratitude, 3 Fahrenheits, and some money. The easiest way to get the rare cards is to farm Top50. You may find Fahrenheits in Top50 as well, or you can get them from AI3.

Step 2: Create this deck below. The deck will cost over 9000 9799 electrum. The Fahrenheits are not included in the cost, because you can’t buy them. The cost for upgrading 6 shards is 9000 electrum.

Note: You may take out one pillar for another card, such as Rain of Fire, a Deflagration, or another Rage Potion, depending on your personal likes and strategy.

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Step 3: You are now ready to challenge the AI5. However, there is a lot of strategy involved that will take some getting used to. There are many tips that I can share, but you will have to figure out some things on your own through experience. After all,

"The best practice is not practice at all, but experience."

Strategy guide:

First and foremost, know your opponent! This link contains everything you need to know about AI5 opponents: http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/Level_5 . Read it and memorize every single word on that page. You will need it.

Strategy in-game depends on which opponent you are facing. For example, if you are facing Chral (Time/Life), you know that your opponent will not be using Permanent Control cards, and you can plan accordingly. It’s a good idea to know the strengths and weaknesses of each element so you know more or less how the fight is going to go.

Now for the important stuff that you will use in-game.
-   Generally, you want to get your shield out first, before anything else. At the beginning of the game, assuming you draw them, play in this order: Pillars -> Fire Shield -> SoG -> CC on any dangerous creatures -> Fahrenheit.
-   The AI will target your shield first, then your weapon, then your shards. (Note: If you are using a Fire Buckler (upgraded Fire Shield), the AI will target your weapon over your shield.
-   Use your deflags wisely. Destroy fog or dusk shields so your weapon can do damage. Shields like Skull Shield are best left untouched. Destroy weapons like Pulverizer that are harmful to your strategy, but weapons like Owl’s Eye will only do damage, and you can usually leave them alone.
-   Most games, you will want to save your Fire Bolts. Fire shield and Rage Potions will usually do the trick in terms of creature control.
-   Use CC on strong creatures like dragons. Smaller creatures will die to Fire Shield. Their damage will be healed by SoG. If your opponent gets a fast start, or you don’t draw many SoG, it’s a good idea to use your fire bolts as CC.
-   Your Fahrenheit will be your main damage output. The Fire Bolts will be used to finish off the opponent and get an EM after you have the field under control. Let your fire quanta build up, and your Fahrenheit will continuously do damage. By the time your opponent is below 100 Hp, depending on your draws, you should be able to win.

IMPORTANT: Make sure your Fahrenheit strikes last to finish off your opponent so the SoG will heal you to full health before you win. This will allow you to get an EM, the whole point of this deck. You will need to do a lot of math here, and what you need to do will vary depending on the situation you are in.

Helpful Stuff:

- Here (

) is a video of 9270984 using a fire stall (slightly different than the one mentioned above). Also, skip to around 2:05 and you can see the AI targets shield first.

- Here (http://jumpoffduck.co.cc/elements/bolt.htm) is an awesome and extremely helpful Bolt/Lance/Fahrenheit calculator created by jumpoffduck. It sure beats using your brain.

- Below is the deck I currently use.

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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f6 5f7 5f7 5f8 5fb 5fb 5fb 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 7dk 7dl 7dm 7dnAny questions, comments, corrections, additions, please comment below. Thanks for reading.

[suxerz]

I've been playing a lot AI5 lately using a classic timebow and recently I switched to something very similar like this - a fat fire stall. I agree, this definitely work most of the time, though sometimes I couldn't get the EM especially when playing against AIs that are using bonewall or chimera.

My variation however includes a nova and a reflective shield for the rare occasion of well played / or / . I wonder if this deck can be tweaked to add some stones skins and PA... might be less reliable though.

[teffy]

Do you have an estimation of the win rate ?

[Legit]

@suxerz: Of course, this deck does have its weak points, Bonewall being one of them, and depending on when the AI uses Chimera, it can be a problem (Although, Chimera can be taken down with a Fire Bolt or two, but like I said, it depends). About the reflective shield - Usually when I am facing an opponent with a reflective shield, Fahrenheit does the work, and I can win. I don't think the reflective shield is very practical but it does come in handy in some cases.

@teffy I would say it has a 70 - 80% win rate, with most of those being EM. The loses come from bad draws or the opponent getting a fast start (or both).

[TheCrazyMango]

i use a different firestall with 4 deflags. i use 9 pillars, 9 pends, 2 fahrs, 6 bolts, 4 fireshields, 6 sogs, 4 deflags.

[suxerz]

I feel that the win rate is slightly higher - nothing lower than the 85%, well.. at least I feel that way But, getting the EM can be frustrating at times. Winning against AIs using chimera and bonewall usually not a problem, but getting the EM is normally impossible for me. Oh.. poison deck can also be added in this category.

About the reflective shield, yes it is not really necessary. I'm just being paranoid after a few games where my Fahrenheits have been destroyed and the AI is sticking to its reflective/jade shield. When in this situation, the game can be really looong...

Don't get me wrong, the deck does work efficiently. I just wish I could get more EM.

[Legit]

Yea, AI5 is widely variable, so there are many differences you can have while playing. For example, you can play the fire/life AI, which has deflag and jade shield, or the water/life AI, which has jade shield but you can easily win with just Fahrenheit.

[10 men]

Yep, Firestall is pretty nice for AI5. Here's the deck I use for reference:

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6r8 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dl 7dl 7dl 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dn 7dn 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2Obviously the deck is upped and there's a Fire Mark in there ( 8)) but the structure is the same.
I think the most important difference between the PvP deck and the AI5 version is that you want much fewer pillars. In PvP with enough Pillars you have a much better chance at semi-rushing them. This is obviously not a very realistic option for HP-200 opponents. On the other hand with the AI5 often getting a double-draw, you need your draws to be relevant. Normally you win after a long game by grinding them out with Fire Shield+SoG combo.

Also, Mirror Shield is totally not needed, as they priorize other Shields over the reflectors (Light: basically every Shield they have, Life: Thorn Shield).

-   The AI will target your shield first, then your weapon, then your shards.

That's pretty interesting, I remember multiple instances where the AI targeted the Fahrenheit over the Shield. I think I'm going to pay attention to that in the next matches I play. Did that maybe change with the new version?

[suxerz]

Yeah, I ditched the reflector shield after I lost the paranoia. . About the AI priority-targeting. I too noticed that they destroy the Fahrenheit first over the shield on most situation. Now I added 2 RoFs just for lulz and because cloak can be annoying.

edit: after playing a lot more games with this deck, I think Legit is correct about the AI priority-targeting - AI target the shield first, SoG and then the Fahrenheit. Not sure what happened in my earlier games though...

[Legit]

I definitely know that the AI targets shield first. It's done so in multiple occasions. It might have changed in 1.26, I didn't play AI5 in previous versions so I do not know if it was different before.

EDIT: Hmm...You guys say that the AI targets weapon first. I'll try to check that out.



AI had a Dusk Shield up, and stole my Fire Shield.

[10 men]

After your post I started hunting HBs to find one that would destroy one of my permanents while I had Fahren + Shield up.
.... 50 games later....
To my great displeasure I still had not met one.
But finally I got one and it did indeed deflag my Fahrenheit over the Fire Buckler (and after that immediately a second one obv obv obv.) . It's probably a matter of whether the Shield is upgraded. Unupped it costs 6 and is therefore priorized higher probably.

[BC]

AI should target weapon over shield most of the time, but there is a random chance it does something different, iirc.

Edit: hmmm..

Changed my t50 to test for this (Permanents, why bother?) if anyone else is interested. I'm getting odd results.

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