Control Point 101 – Preparing for Battle

Control Point 101

A three-part series with everything you need to know for preparing, taking, and holding the Control Point. For those wanting to be truly successful at playing CP, you have to understand that the lead person will spend a considerable amount of time planning and preparing. Once those plans go into action, they usually need to be adjusted, and quite often, you will need a Plan B and maybe even a Plan C that can be quickly implemented. This three-part series will give you an idea of the things you need to do to prepare for CP, what you need to do to take CP, and most importantly, how you hold on to it. 

• Chapter 1 Preparing for Battle
• Chapter 2 Taking the Control Point
• Chapter 3 Holding the Control Point

Chapter One: Preparing for Battle

A Guide to Get You Ready for Taking the Control Point

How the Control Point Works

This section is for those who are brand new to the Control Point. For those more experienced, skip to “Choose a Strategy”. 

The Control Point is the building located at the center of your region’s map. It operates on a timer. An alliance will rule or have control of it for about two days. During this time, with the clock ticking down, the Control Point is “under protection”, meaning no one can attack.

Ideally, during this time, the ruling alliance will remove all of its troops and the Control Point will be empty. When the clock expires, it is said to be “contested”. This is when others can move in to attack and gain control.

Once someone has captured the Control Point, the clock starts counting down from six hours. During those six hours, others may attack. Each time a team defeats the team holding the Control Point, the clock resets to six hours and begins counting down again. If no one is able to defeat the ruling team within their six-hour period of contested time, the timer will expire and the Control Point will be under protection once again. That team will have won the event.

Click directly on the building to pull up the timer and check the status.

Choose a Strategy for Control Point

Before anything else, you must decide how your team will approach the battle. Do you want to play offense or defense? Do you want to let another team rush in and capture the CP and then launch an attack, or do you want to be the first to rush in and set up for defense? This decision affects everything as you make your preparations.

Prepare Your Hero & Squad for Control Point

Level Up Hero & Squad

Check your heroes (defense and attack). You might have enough XP and medals to level them up. Even one level can make a difference. If you do level up a hero, be sure to also add the new mastery and skill points. Next, do the same thing for your squads (defense and attack). If you level up a squad, don’t forget to add the new skill points.

Reskill Hero & Squad

Who knows what your hero has been doing for the last 48 hours – but it certainly wasn’t Control Point! Take the time to go back and reskill your heroes just for CP. The same goes for your squad.

Craft Contraband

You’ll want to craft two sets of contraband gear. For offense, craft one set of reinforced ruby alpha gear. If you have the ruby grenade, craft that instead of the ruby SMG. For defense, craft a set of reinforced sapphire alpha gear. If you have it, craft the sapphire grenade instead of the SMG. Don’t equip any piece of the contraband until you are ready to use it. Doing so will start the four-hour timer on that piece of equipment.

Emblems

Most likely, you will have more or even new emblems since the last CP. Go to the Armory and take an assessment of your emblem inventory. Combine emblems as needed. There are emblems with specific boosts for CP and those will need to be added to each set of contraband.

Attack: Emblems for Ruby Gear

	Intrepid Emblem: Increases Control Point Troop Attack At level 6, one Intrepid emblem gives a boost of 357%.
	Bulwark Emblem: Increases Control Point Attack Troop Armor A level 6, one Bulwark emblem gives a boost of 357%.
	Stampede Emblem: Increases Control Point Attacking Troop Health At level 6, one Stampede emblem gives a boost of 357%.

  One thing to note –  The image for the Stampede emblem and the Explorer emblem are the same… I guess the Devs want to keep us on our toes! Make sure you are adding the correct emblem.

Defense: Emblems for Sapphire Gear

	Retaliation Emblem: Increases Control Point Defending Troop Attack At level 6, one Retaliation emblem gives a boost of 357%.
	Safeguard Emblem: Increases Control Point Defending Troop Armor At level 6, one Safeguard emblem gives a boost of 357%.
	Resilience Emblem: Increases Control Point Defending Troop Health At level 6, one Resilience emblem gives a boost of 357%.

Fourth Slot

If you’ve completed the Excursion Research and have the 4th emblem slot opened for contraband, you can also add the following emblems:

	Protection Emblem: Increases Control Point Defending and Attacking Troop Armor At level 6, one Protection emblem gives a boost of 900% for each.
	Robust Emblem: Increases Control Point Troop Health
	Extreme Emblem: Increases Control Point Troop Attack At level 6, one Extreme emblem gives a boost of 500%.

Prepare Your Base for Control Point

Check Loyalty and speed-ups

You will always need to have a large number of speed-ups on hand if you plan to do battle at the CP. It’s normal for me to go through over a hundred 50% speedups just in one battle. If you don’t have speed-ups, the next best thing is to have plenty of loyalty to buy them with. When I say plenty of loyalty… I’m suggesting at least 4-5 million.  Yes, it’s a lot, but trust me, you will need it. 

Level-Up Your Buildings

Do a quick assessment of your base. Things may have changed since the last CP. Check to see if any of your critical buildings can be upgraded: Command Center, Vehicle Hangar, Serum Lab, Mercenary Portal, etc. Benefits come with upgrading these buildings, and a lot of the perks can help you at CP.

Vehicle Hangar

There are certain vehicles you will use during a CP battle. Check to see if you can add XP to any of these vehicles and level them up. There are certain vehicles specific to Control Point attack and defense. From left to right, these are displayed with lowest to highest maximum power.

Control Point Defense Vehicles

Control Point Attack Vehicles

Serum Lab

You’ll want to head over to the Serum Lab and concoct a serum for CP. With a serum activated, you can gain up to 4,500% Control Point Attacking and Defending Boosts, so it is definitely worth the extra time! If your Serum Lab is maxed at Level 10, you can create a serum with up to six ingredients. Activate your serum right before CP opens. Once activated, your serum will last eight hours. 

Control Point Vial Up to 2,800% Control Point Attacking Rally Attack Up to 2,800% Control Point Defending Troop Attack Up to 1,500% Control Point Troop Attack

Control Point Serum Ingredients

	Rage Melon 200% Control Point Defending Troop Attack
	Rage Nectar 200% Control Point Attacking Rally Attack
	Soulpetals 100% Control Point Troop Health

  Depending on the level of your Serum Lab, you may be able to add as many as six total ingredients to your serum. Here are some additional ingredients you may want to add to your Control Point Serum.

	Fungalcup 150% Enemy Health Reduction
	Novaleaf 200% Armor Piercing
	WartBerries 150% Attack Deflection

Banners

Banners will give significant boosts, especially for rally capacity. This is extremely important for battles at the CP. Go ahead and set your banners in advance, but don’t activate them until just before CP opens.

Prepare Your Team for Control Point

Find out in advance who will be online for the upcoming CP. It is common for an alliance to have members in time zones all around the world, so you may not have the same team for every battle. Communicate the battle strategy with your team and align on who will be sending troops, which type, and how many. Identify people who can supply backup squad and form a plan on how to rein after an attack.

Hit Go

10 minutes before Control Point opens

Team Ports to the CP 

I’ve found it’s best if you port in together as a clump. Everything moves more slowly at CP, so if your bases are all together, it’s easier and quicker to pull together a rally or reinforce each other.

Create Equipment Presets

Set an equipment preset for the ruby contraband gear on the hero you plan to use for attacking. Next, create an equipment preset for the sapphire contraband gear on the hero you plan to use for defense. Once you load the equipment into the preset slots, the timers will begin and your equipment is good for four hours. One thing to note – only do this if you know you’re headed into a big battle where you will be switching back and forth between offense and defense. If it’s going to be an easy win, save your contraband.

Activate your Serum

Go to the Serum lab and activate the Control Point serum you created earlier. Once active, the serum will last 8 hours.

Reinforce Your Base

Have two squads sent to reinforce your base.

5 minutes before

Check Your Hero

Make sure you have the right hero activated wearing the correct gear.

Check Your Squad

Make sure you have the right squad activated and make sure it has full health.

Check Your Team

Check on your people and make sure everyone is good to go.

One minute before

Activate your banners

You and your team should now be fully ready to take on a battle at the Control Point! Check back soon for the second part of this series where I talk about capturing the CP. How do you get ready for CP? Leave us a comment below!