Topic: TDP4 Team Battle /
TDP4 Guide To Effective Combo Smashing
The Focus of This Guide
This guide is for the purpose of spreading effective ways to smash combos. I call it smashing, but the more generally accepted term is trolling1. Of course, I find that word to be a misnomer.
Trolling implies that it is purely inflammatory, with no other reason than to enrage others. This may be a side effect… but there are other good reasons to smash up a combo, and those are the ones we will be concentrating on. They include:
- Gaining Easy Exp/kills
- Keeping player ranks from rising unfairly
- Making spammers ragequit and go play other games
I realize that last one is a bit unlike the others, and I should take this time to clear something up. Combo makers are the bad guys here. Comboing is taking a game mechanic (combo multipliers) and exploiting it with other players to boost exp, rank, and currency. This used to be cute, I even did one or two and found it sort of fun in it’s own way, but now it’s a bit of an epidemic. I log onto American and European servers only to find that the populated rooms are sometimes all combos. Even when normal rooms are being played in, combos still outweigh them 3 to 1, sometimes even 5 to 1. There is nothing wrong with smashing them. In fact, it’s sometimes the only way to actually play. Plus, recruiters for the combos fill the chat rooms with spam galore. Following one player to every combo he/she makes is a good way to get them to give up. Now, that the obligatory justifications are out of the way, lets move on.
Getting the Password
This is the most important part of smashing combos. Nearly every combo has a pass, and they are nearly always easy to get. Even “clan combos” usually give their pass out because not enough clan members are online at once. The easiest way to get passwords is just to watch. People will get fed up with recruiting by PM and will just post the password everywhere. Some rooms are even made with the password in the title (for some reason). For the passes that are actually still secret, if you ask for it you usually get it. Here is what you do in the cases that problems arise:
What is your lvl?: Tell them your level. Honesty is the best policy in game chat, but if you need to lie, do so to players recruiting in Kong chat. The players who use Kong chat to recruit are likely already in the combo room, not the lobby. This means they won’t be able to check your actual level. You can make the gamble of lying in game chat… but be warned that if they see you are lying, they won’t let you in. They will know what you are up too.
No u r TROLL: People will start to know you. You can slow this process by jumping servers, but eventually it will start getting difficult. Spectate the combo and use the tab key. Spectating is wonderful tool. First of all, see which ones are Kongregate players. Then see if one of them doesn’t know you. Even if the maker knows you, not all the members necessarily do. Sometimes this will not work. They may ask the others about letting you in, or they may already know you as well. It’s hard to remember everyone who has been in a combo you smashed. Don’t dispair, there are so many other ways to get in. While spectating, look for someone in the combo who is unhappy or being pushed around, PM in kong and offer your services. Look for another smasher in the combo, ask your unspoken colleague for the pass. Find a friendly person in chat that may not appreciate all the spam from the combo maker, ask them to get the pass for you. And, if all else fails… log out, and log in under another account. With your new level 0 newbie account of a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NAME, just ask them for the pass. No one wants a level zero with glock in a combo, but fortunately we already covered lying :) Then remember the pass, log back in to your main, and let loose.
Smashing for Exp
Combos are made to take advantage of the game for exp and rank. They are made by recruiting a group of players to a locked room by spamming chat with advertisements for said combo. But this is what I see: A whole group of easy prey gathered in one locked room… screaming out invitations to come and kill them. I’d like to say it makes the hunt easy, but I suppose it really makes it non-existent.
To do this, you will need be leveled, and to have arts if necessary. The trick is to own the room completely, making it a combo for no one but you. Look at everyone’s stats beforehand, and decide if you can take them or not. If you are exp-hunting, there is no use in charging a room that won’t be profitable.
The biggest trick is this: Do not leave last. They will stay and fight for a while, yell at you to stop with grammar and spelling resembling that of the incoherent rantings of a toddler, then they will start to leave. When that happens, you leave too. When the “Troll” leaves, people may start coming back. In fact, they usually do. You already have the pass to the room, the longer it stays open, the better for you. It won’t last forever, maybe two or three passes max, but it’s still preferable to closing down the room.
Smashing for the Principle
If you are just trying to prevent people from using combos as an unfair advantage, then you don’t really need to be that leveled. As long as you can hold your own enough to throw a monkey wrench into the combo works, your goal is in reach. Close the combo down. Move on to a new one. It is a mission of eradication. When someone creates two or three combos that die, they begin to get frustrated and move on with their lives.
Those are my suggestions. I hope that at least some of you take this to heart and give those combos what-for.
1 It may be worth mentioning that “Trolling” is not an offense of any sort. There may even be nothing the mods care less about. Combos are not an actual game type and are, in fact, a cheat. I’m constantly surprised that they are not banned.
