Nightmare in Silver: Closed For Business

Previous Episode: Tutorial

Next Episode: Nightmare in Silver: Stalemate

Game version played under: 2.1B

With the Tutorial under your belt you’re naturally chomping at the bit to get into the game proper. Excellent, but before you do, take stock and be sure that you’re ready. You should have taken the menu tutorial by now, so I’ll assume you know your way around. Have a look in the TARDIS. You should find that you have one portrait under The Doctor section, specifically The Eleventh Doctor at Rank 1. Note that there are 15 Doctors you can collect.

 

From tiny acorns etc.

Now including The War Doctor (John Hurt) and Peter Capaldi there have only been 13 Doctors, so what’s that all about? Well if you’re the type of person who enjoys spoilers then it wouldn’t be too hard to find out. I like to let the story unfold. Once, long ago, I was telling someone how much I was looking forward to the final ever episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A mate immediately leapt in with, “She dies, Willow kills her. Someone in the know leaked it.” How I managed to resist punching him I’ve no idea. Luckily he was wrong, but I still haven’t forgiven him as the intent was there. I do have ideas of who the extra 2 Doctors are but I’ll keep them to myself. Anyway I’m sure some of you have the full roster and I don’t want to look an idiot.

The Eleventh Doctor (back to the game) will have one star and the ability Cunning next to him. If you tap on the portrait then you see the Attributes screen. In the upgrade section of the screen are two squares showing a red tunnel-like icon and a blue hourglass. These are Time Fragments and you don’t have any yet. Nothing to worry about, you’ve plenty of time (ahem!) to worry about that later. The lower half of the screen shows attributes, namely HP, ATK and HEAL. These are just question marks for all Doctors as they depend on the make up of the rest of your team.

If you tap the Profile tab then you see a full length picture of the Doctor with some biographical data. There’s a change outfit button, but touch that and you’ll see all your options greyed out. Below that is important information on the Eleventh Doctor’s Cunning ability. This layout is common for all Doctors and Companions. Putting the game aside for a moment, the Eleventh Doctor has now lived his allotted span, so how does he rank amongst his predecessors?

Matt Smith’s achievement in following on from the phenomenally successful David Tennant and becoming a worthy successor should not be under-estimated. Mr Smith can act, and he used all of his craft to create one of the broadest and deepest incarnations of the good Doctor. He threw furniture and raged at the universe, then rubbed his hands in delight at the most simple of pleasures. He pulled off ‘old man in a young man’s body’ better than any other, while simultaneously being almost idiotically innocent. He was so un-cool he fell off the scale and came back round the other side. He probably shed more tears than any previous Doctor, and yet managed to match Patrick Troughton at clowning.

He had his weaknesses of course. He never seemed to carry the same aura of authority that some other incarnations did, sometimes it was hard to see why those he met put faith in such a nut. Perhaps he was a little too 10th-ish, and a bigger contrast with his predecessor would have been good.

However he was, when all's said and done, a great Doctor. You know that he’s going to score well in those regular ‘who’s your favourite Who?’ polls for decades to come. His high point for me was probably The Doctor’s Wife, and his pairing with Amy Pond was one of the best Doctor/Companion relationships ever.

Back to the game. In the Companions section of the TARDIS you’ll find Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint. Vastra is Yellow and is classed by the DWL wiki as an Offensive character. This sounds a bit harsh, but what they actually mean is that her ATK ability is higher than average. She also has an ability similar to the Eleventh Doctor, delivering damage to all enemies. 150 points at Lv. 1 with a cool down of 9 turns. This is a lot at lower levels, but as enemies get tougher, can seem little more than a pin-prick.

The Silurians in new Who are so much better than the classic version. The Silurians that the Third Doctor faced off against are laughable by today’s make-up standards. The new Silurians are, as the Doctor would say, beautiful. They were always a great concept. How would you like it if the human race went into hibernation for a few months, but woke up millions of years later to find out that evolved pigeons were running the planet?

Terrifying
Stolen from Cheezburger

Vastra herself is far too tough to be a full-blown television companion, but is a fine ally for the Doctor and a nice recurring character. If I was in a tight spot in the Whoniverse then I’d want her standing next to me. She’s played by Neve McIntosh, who was also Alaya and Restac in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood.

Then there’s Jenny, a Red character, classified by the Wiki as Balanced. If you compare her to Madame Vastra you’ll see that she has more HP, slightly more HEAL, but a weaker ATK ability. Her special ability is Smolder or as we Brits say, Smoulder, allowing her to change Blue gems to Red every 7 turns. This is useful, even if it doesn’t sound as immediately attractive as an inflict damage power.

Jenny, played by Catrin Stewart, is effectively Madame Vastra’s Companion, in the same way that the Doctor has his Companions, or Assistants as we used to call them. Obviously their relationship runs a bit deeper seeing as how they’re married. Jenny can handle herself too, and the scene in The Crimson Horror where she strips down to her leathers and lays about the super models made me a little giddy.

Now you’ve looked around the TARDIS, click on Team and make sure that you have The Doctor, Vastra and Jenny all selected, otherwise when you start the episode you’ll be under strength. Next go back and click on Perks. You’ll see that you have 3 stars, one for each of your characters. Basic Attribute 1 is unlocked, so tap on it and make a choice. You can increase ATK, HP or HEAL by 5%. At this point I don’t think it makes a lot of difference which you choose. If you click on your team again you’ll see that with all 3 characters in the team you have 254 HP, Attack of 198 and Heal of 50. 5% of 254 is more than that of 198 or 50 of course, but this game isn’t that simple. Just choose which ever Perk you fancy and see how you do. In my case I selected Heal. You can change them at will and the stars are not spent, so for the next episode you can change from +5% Heal to +5% Attack at no cost.

Right then, you’re ready to go. Click on Play Episode, Season 7 which is the only choice available, and then the episode title. You’ll notice that there is a TV icon present. As far as I know that just signifies that this adventure is inspired by an actual television episode. You’ll also see that there is a Green orbit and a Black eye icon. These indicate what type of Time Fragments can drop during this episode. This isn’t guaranteed, sometimes you get nothing. Click on Confirm and you get another chance to select your team. Make sure you have the right one, if not you can switch between your 5 teams by clicking on the numbers at the top. 

The screen also shows you a total for HP, ATK and HEAL, plus a breakdown of attack for each colour. You should have 85 for Blue, 43 for Red, and 70 for Yellow. So if you have to choose between Blue or Red for a combo then you should go for Blue. Black, yes I know it looks silver, and Green will be 0 as you have no characters of that colour yet. Note that there is a Perk Detail button you can click, which does exactly as you’d expect. Click Play and off we go.

The back drop to the episode is the zero-g moon ride on Hedgewick's World of Wonders, which looks like the surface of the moon, complete with US flag and the TARDIS parked behind some rocks. The Doctor explains to Jenny where they are, and why he chose this place and time. He also says that he knows how to get the additional help that is needed.

After that the gem board drops and the first wave of enemies appears. In this case it’s two metal insect things, looking like robot face-huggers. A dialogue then appears explaining that you can target specific enemies. By default, damage first goes to the enemy on the left, but you may prefer to kill off another enemy before it does something nasty to you. Touch the one you want to hit and it is covered by a target symbol. You also discover that different colours do varying amount of damage to others. In this case you will see that if you target a Green robot face-hugger, the Blue Eleventh Doctor gets a down arrow on his portrait, while Yellow Jenny gets an up arrow. Vastra has no arrow. The exact effects are explained on the wiki here, but all you know from this is that when attacking Green, Blue is weak, Red is strong, and Yellow is unaffected. Targeting an enemy does not give a bonus in itself, although the graphics suggest that. If there’s just one Green enemy and you target it with a completely Red team, then you’re wasting your time.

Once that is explained you are free to attack. Match up some gems and blast those mechanical baby xenomorphs before they impregnate you with an unspeakable doom. Remember if you can get 5 gems in one combo then you damage them both, so look for at least one 5+ combo. You may notice that there are no Green or Black gems which makes things easier for you.

In my case I destroyed these horrors in one shot, and I’d be surprised if you have any trouble. Once they were dead, Jenny asked what they were. The Doctor then destroyed my robot face-hugger theory by naming them as Cybermites, the tiny cyber-creatures introduced in Nightmare In Silver. The art makes them look bigger so my mistake is entirely understandable, even if those particular Aliens have never appeared in Doctor Who. The Wirrn in The Ark InSpace aren’t a million miles away though.

The second wave is the hollow chess-playing Cyberman, originally operated by Porridge. The Cyberman was later animated by the Cybermites and converted Webley, so it’s reasonable that it’s trying to kill you now. As there’s just one enemy in this wave don’t worry over much about getting a 5+ combo. In fact a larger number of smaller combos does more damage to individuals. If you like maths look here.

Next up is a wave of 3 Cybermites. I killed 2 and took a minor scratch from the survivor, then blasted the survivor.

‘Warning’ flashed up on the screen, which is usually a sign that you are about to face the last wave, typically with one or more bosses to battle. By this I mean they are significantly tougher than the other enemies you have faced. In this case you find yourself up against Cyber Webley. Any resemblance he has to the Borg will be temporarily glossed over. By now the Doctor’s Cunning ability was ready, perfect timing. I took advantage but the damage inflicted was hardly a crippling blow. I followed up with a good combo and nearly had him, but Cyber Webley clung on and used his Heal power. It didn’t do him much good though, as I promptly vaporised him in the next round. As his body dissipated into nothingness, a Time Crystal dropped into my lap. I believe this is a 100% drop the first time you play this level, but they drop rarely otherwise. Time Crystals are DWL’s in game currency and the wiki has a good section on their uses.

Next you see the allies XP meters rack up the points. You should see Vastra and Jenny both get enough to reach level 2, with their full length portraits showing up on screen. You are also shown what you picked up in the mission. In addition to the Time Crystal I had a Green time fragment which I didn’t notice drop during the mission, so that was a nice bonus. Finally you get the chance to rate the game, or at least I did on the Google Play store. Other systems may behave differently.

You really should rate the game. I always have a squint at the average stars for an online product before I get it, even if it’s free. As a writer I also know how much effort authors put into getting reviews for their ebooks. It’s not just an ego trip, stars mean sales. Show some appreciation for Tiny Rebel Games, it’s the right thing to do.

The battle is won, but there’s one last vital task to perform. Upgrade your companions. Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint are now at level 2, so you get to make them stronger. This has to be done in the TARDIS section of the game, so get thee hence. Once there you’ll see an arrow on each of their thumbnail portraits. Click on Vastra and you’ll see that you now have 1 point to assign to either HP, ATK or HEAL.

The default advice for distributing points is to build on the characters existing strengths, though there are other strategies. This suggests that you should use your point to boost Madame Vastra’s ATK power. Remember that Madame Vastra is what the Wiki calls an Offensive character, though I prefer Artillery as it is more polite. I went along with this theory and so added the point to ATK, taking it from 71 to 76.

Jenny Flint is Balanced, so if you want to keep her that way you should distribute her points evenly, so you can put this first point where you like. However remember that Jenny’s power allows her to convert Blue gems to Red. If she can do this, effectively creating her own ammunition, then surely it makes sense to maximise this ability, by giving her as strong an attack as possible? I think it does, which is why I also boosted Jenny’s ATK score, taking it to 49.

The choice is yours, and it is possible to undo bad decisions by using Time Crystals. Avoid this if you can, but don’t worry about it too much. Play the game your way.

There we have it, Nightmare in Silver: Closed For Business is complete. If you go to Play Episode you will see that there is a new mission available, namely Nightmare In Silver: Stalemate. You’ll also note that Closed For Business is still available. You can replay it again and again, collecting the experience and any Time Fragments that drop, though you won’t get another Time Crystal. This is useful when you get stuck, as you can go back and strengthen your team at easier levels.

For now you shouldn’t need to do that. Be brave, and see what further delights DWL has in store for you.

Doctor Who Legacy – Tutorial

A few years back I spent many a happy hour playing Pirate Galaxy. I later started a blog about it called Cryonite Cove. I’ve already posted about that here and there so I won’t repeat myself. However I had a great time at the Cove and it was popular with readers. My Doctor Who:Legacy (DWL) posts have had almost as many hits as my wolf tattoo, so that’s all the encouragement I need to jump on the bandwagon.

I’ve created a new profile so that I can restart DWL from the beginning, and will blog my way through the episodes. I’ll only be using the characters and extras that drop free. Obviously I’ll be earning crystals as I go, but I’ll hold off buying characters with them until and unless I get stuck.  I’m not out to compete with Adipose, the VisualRecord, or the DWL wiki, which would be a fool's errand. This will be more of a shared journey though the game. There will be some hints in there I’m sure, plus observations, moans and discussions about the television show. Please add your own comments and feedback as we go, so I know that I’m not talking to myself.

We’ll start at the beginning with the tutorial. Yes I know you don’t need hints on how to get through it, but that’s not the point, see above.

Tutorial

Preceding Episode: This is where you start. I’m not going to explain how you download and install the app. Who’d want to read that?

Following Episode: Nightmare in Silver: Closed For Business

If you’ve played DWL then you’ve been though this tutorial. It’s on rails, so you have little freedom of action other than quitting story segments. The tutorial sets the scenario and introduces you to the basic game play. There’s no, “This is the Doctor, he’s an alien…” so the game assumes you know who and what Doctor Who is. There seems to be no way to replay this tutorial later on. I had to create a new Google+ profile to start the game again from scratch. This isn’t unusual though. There seem to be few games where you can restart with the same log in. Maybe it’s because that would be a free way to freshen things up when you became a little jaded. Obviously game companies would prefer that you spent cash on extras and premium areas instead. That’s reasonable. Everyone’s got a right to earn a living.

You're sure that dress
goes with Green?

So the story starts on the streets of Cardiff, 16th October 1978. Why? I don’t know. Cardiff is no surprise as it’s new Who’s home. I looked the date up and learned it was the day of Pope John Paul II's election, plus Kapil Dev made his test debut. The Tardis Data Core told me that in the Whoniverse, the 4th Doctor and Romana were looking for the 3rd segment of the Key to Time on Earth in 78, though that was in Cornwall. Maybe it’s the birthday of one of the game designers. Maybe I need to get out more.

The 11th Doctor and Madame Vastra exit the TARDIS mid-conversation, text appearing in a box below the pictures of the characters. Be aware, do not click the little ‘x’ in the top right corner, because this exits the story. I did this when I first played, and as I’ve said it’s not easy to revisit the tutorial. The Doctor and Vastra have a little debate about what’s going on and the Sonic Screwdriver is soon being waved about.

I hope that The War Doctor’s dig at his future selves in The Day of the Doctor, “What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?” points to a little less sonic shuffling from the 12th Doctor. It’s not a weapon, yet 10 and 11 were always jabbing it in hostile faces to keep them back. I know it might give an aggressor pause, but this tactic was overdone. I’d rather The Doctor offered them a jelly baby, feigned idiocy or otherwise used his brain and personality to gain the upper hand.

The Doctor and Vastra conclude that the Sontarans (Hooray!) are somehow involved, and then they spot you hiding behind the bins. Luckily Vastra decides to help you up rather than dice you up. That’s when three Sontarans appear.

The tough streets of Cardiff

I love Sontarans, they’re one of my favourite monsters from the show. I remember watching Field Major Styre in The Sontaran Experiment which was first shown in 1975, so I was 8. Yes I am old. Ever since I’ve been a fan. Strax is a great character but I hope he hasn’t led his race to becoming simply comic foils.

The Doctor, no doubt waving the Sonic about, asks Vastra to help him outsmart the “armoured potato men”, which I must say seems a little racist. Vastra gives them a warning, and then reassures the Doctor that while the Sontarans have the numbers, they (and you) have the intelligence. Then the game play starts.

The tutorial takes you though the basics clearly. It explains about your health bar, which is at a feeble 166. As long as you keep it to the right of the screen then you’ll be okay. If it gets down to zero after receiving damage, then you lose the match and anything you collected in that contest. The idea of colours is explained, the 11th Doctor being Blue and Vastra yellow. If you line up 3 or more gems of one colour then all characters of that type attack. So if you were to line up 5 red gem in this match then you’d do no damage (no red characters), though the red gems would still vanish, which might bring more yellow or blue onto the board.

The little gears icon at the top is pointed out which is used to exit the match. To me it looks like a settings icon so I think they could have chosen something a bit more intuitive.

The gem board is then explained, and you are told that you have 5 seconds to drag one gem around, rearranging other gems in its wake. 5 seconds is longer than it sounds, and you can form a lot of patterns in that time. Of course it’s only 5 seconds as long as you keep touching the screen. If you take your finger off sooner, intentionally or not, the game progresses.

Your first task - Tricky

The game then explains multiple attacks, so that more than one colour combination in a move is possible and they all count. It then highlights a specific gem move on the board in front of you and tells you to watch the Doctor. You make the move (you’ve no choice), and see the Doctor blast one of the Sontarans from the screen.

Now it’s their turn, and the Sontarans hit you for a laughable 5 points of damage. The effect of Pink gems is explained and you heal yourself of all damage. Next the tactic of using more than 3 gems to boost damage is illustrated, simple enough. The next step from there is learning that a combo of 5 gems inflicts damage to all the enemies on the board. This is important, and you should try to get in the habit of looking for such rows. Now early on in my DWL career I thought that you needed to use a whole column or row to damage all opponents but that’s not the case. The rule is 5 gems or more in a single combo. It doesn't have to be in a straight line, it can be a cross, a t-shape or any other combination. The game is clear on this, but only shows a column being used. I only realised my mistake by reading the DWL Wiki. 

By now the second wave of Sontar’s finest is in your face, consisting of one Sontaran. The game tells you that you have mastered the basics, and it’s time to crack on. An example of moving a gem to create more than 1 matching set is illustrated. This skill is acquired over time, very effective but seeming difficult at first. Keep practising and before you know it, you’ll be tracing a balletic path of death through the gems, piling high the bodies of your enemies.

At least the Doctor has hair

The cool down time of the enemy is briefly explained and is easy to miss. The number under the opponent tells you when they will next attack. There is also a description of what they are going to do. Here the Sontarans just attack, but soon you will face foes that will heal themselves, lock gems in place, poison you and so on. This is vital information and you should always pay attention. If you are low in health and see that in 1 move, 2 of your enemies will attack then you’d better match up some Pinks. If you see that you have 2 moves before they heal themselves, it’s time to deal them some serious damage.

Onto special abilities next. As you will know by now I’m sure, each character has their own ability. For the Companions these become available after a certain number of turns. For example at level 1, Vastra can inflict 150 points of damage to all enemies every 9 turns. Her ability is called Riposte at this level. Each incarnation of the Doctor has their own ability, but instead of being turn based they become available after a certain number of gem combinations. So 2 combos of 3 gems in a turn is better than 1 whole row of 6, as it brings the Doctor’s special one step closer. At Rank 1 (Doctor’s have Ranks, Companions Levels) the 11th Doctor’s ability is Cunning, which deals 200 damage to all enemies after 15 combos. However if you save this ability and rack up an additional 15 combos, then he will be able to dish out 500 points instead. All Doctors have two level special abilities, which in some cases is actually an inconvenience.

Flashy

In the tutorial you will now see the Doctor’s portrait surrounded by a rotating flash, indicating that his doubled-up ability is ready. This option comes up much earlier in the tutorial than in regular play. Tap the Doc’s portrait and confirm the use of Cunning. A close up flash of the Doctor sweeps across the screen, the poor Sontarans get fried, and a greyed out portrait icon drops towards your team. The match is over and you are victorious. Nice one.

We now go back to the story, with the Doctor complaining that none of this makes sense. He says that the Sontarans invade Earth much later in the 20th Century, and he knows because he was there. This must be a reference to The Two Doctors, which takes place in 1985, just 7 years after this tutorial. I wouldn’t call that ‘much later’ but never mind.

Vastra suggests that if there’s a Sontaran battle fleet in orbit then they’d better get this human i.e. you, somewhere safe. She also thinks it would be a good idea to get some help. The Doctor agrees, and says that he has someone in mind. You all go back to the TARDIS and the Doctor gets busy with the console. He picks up multiple Vortex Manipulator signals, and realises that the Sontarans have mastered time travel, using it to go back in time and alter the outcome of every major inter-galactic war. They are doing this to create one final, ultimate war. All bets are off you might say, and every race, planet and individual in history is back in play. This is a convenient way for the game to include anything and anyone from Doctor Who’s 50 years of history. It's also consistent to the shows internal logic, or at least as consistent as Doctor Who ever gets.

I'd look for River first too

The Doctor decides that you must all go back and collect allies, as there’s strength in numbers. Vastra starts this off by calling Jenny Flint, the greyed out icon you briefly saw at the end of the battle, and Vastra’s human wife. Is this the first mobile game to include a same-sex inter-species marriage? Good to see that they’re not being stupidly coy to avoid upsetting the one or two conservative players that might take offence.

That’s pretty much it. Next you see Vastra’s experience scale get a boost, and discover that you now have the chance to add the lovely Jenny to the team.

Welcome to the Doctor’s new adventures, says the game, and asks if you’d like to take the Main Menu tutorial. I would if I was you. This tutorial is more traditional, lacking a story but taking you through how to chose an adventure, add Jenny to the team, explore the abilities of characters, etc. etc. The Perks section is a bit of an add on rather than being completely integrated as they only came along with version 2.0 of DWL. It’s clear enough though. 

In my opinion this is a good tutorial. It shows you enough to get you started, sets up the story, and shows an accurate picture of the game. After the tutorial you’ll either wipe it from your device or have your appetite whetted. I do think that it’s easy to misunderstand or even miss completely some of the finer points, and it’s not easy to get later clarification explanation in the game. For instance I couldn’t understand the Upgrade system at first. Luckily there are some good places to look for help, the best I’ve found so far being the DWLegacy wiki. Bookmark this one, I’m sure I’ll be linking to it several times in future posts.