MHA Strongest Hero Character Spotlight: Izuku Midoriya

It's the star of the show and everybody's favorite goodest of good boys, Izuku Midoriya aka Deku!

Main protagonist and huggable green-haired wonder of My Hero Academia

If you're not familiar with Midoriya, then you haven't watched the anime, but not to worry, the game actually has a story mode where you get to play through the highlights featuring the story of Izuku Midoriya! You'll be finding all about his origin story and how this quirkless kid born near the Shizuoka Prefecture grew into his power. He's a diligent student that studies ALL the heroes, but for Izuku one hero's commanding smile changed him for ever: All Might, the Symbol of Peace. Now he walks in his footsteps and . . . well . . . you'll just have to watch the anime to fully understand.

Here, chibi Midoriya! Have some nom noms and grow big and strong. 

Midoriya is your starting character for the game and is a great middle of the road character because of this. You'll find uses for him in just about every situation. He has a little bit of ranged attacks, but mostly, Midoriya is in melee mixing it up.

He comes in as a solid A rank character and is perfect for playing in PvE or PvP.  He's the bread and butter of the game, so he's a great well-rounded part of any team.  His move sets are as follows:

• Basic Attack: Heroic Combo—Uses his fists to volley a series of punches, then goes air-born to execute a 3-hit combo.
• Q attack: Shoot Style—Midoriya teleports to the enemy and performs a powerful kick that launches his opponent into the air.
• W attack: Smash—A chargeable ranged attack skill where Midoriya concentrates all his power into his fingers and flicks a power blast at his opponent.
• E attack: Swift Kicks—Midoriya dashes forward and performs a flying kick.
• Ultimate Move: Delaware Detroit Smash—Midoriya summons all his power to deal a huge devastating punch.
• Charge: Inherited Might—Enters a  state of "full cowling" where his attack is greatly increased.
• Dodge Attack: Speedy Counter—After dodging, he executes a 7 hit combo that strikes in a sudden blur of attacks.

Midoriya really shines with his 2 rapid Shoot Style kicks

You'll be learning all about combos while playing with Midoriya during the first part of the game, but remembering what those are can be a bit taxing on the brain. For Deku, try these combos out:

• Basic Combo: Use Basic Attack 5 times in a row
• Quirk Combo: Use Inherited Might Charge skill and again, follow it with Basic Attack 5 times in a row.
• General Combo: Start with two rapid Shoot Style Q attacks, follow with Basic Attack 3 times in a row, and finish with the Swift Kicks E attack. 
• Advanced Combo: Charge your W Smash attack, follow with two rapid Shoot Style Q attacks, and finish with Basic Attack 3 times in a row.
• Super Combo: Start with two rapid Shoot Style Q attacks, charge the W smash skill for a second, then follow with another two rapid Shoot Style Q attacks.

Using Smash to reset the Shoot Style cool down is a great tip!

The game gives you the iconic character to play at the start of the game, you'll be using him a lot, and he'll continue to impress as you rank him up to S and beyond. If you have any tips for using him in combat, please share in the comments below. Gameplay footage:

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Happy Dueling!

How to Beat Stage 5-6 in My Hero Academia: Strongest Hero

I just finished beating Stage 5-6 on My Hero Academia: Strongest Hero, and I'm so frustrated about it.  I should feel relieved since I got stuck on the stage for a few days, and now I'm through it -- but no, I'm legitimately frustrated. 

For the past few days, all I've been doing is logging on to do my daily quests and daily reward track because I was stuck. I finally got so frustrated that I looked up a video on how to beat 5-6 and saw my answer exactly 5 seconds into the video.

Stage 5-6 -- it's the first big hurdle of the game . . .

The main problem here is that the game seems to force a certain hero choice for the battle no matter how you arrange your deployed heroes.  I tried shuffling them around, but it would still select the same hero. I tried beating the game with manual, auto, and even auto with timed dodges . . . nothing seemed to work. All Might would just wreck my character.

What really won the day was finding out I can pause between deploying units, select the character I wanted to use for the All Might Battle (which was Eijiro Korishima), and then click on the pulsing red boss crosshairs manually to send in the desired character to battle. (Red Riot kind of destroyed All Might in this level -- I just used auto-battle and tapped the dodge button a few times during the fight to ensure the win) Since this spot is the first time you need to choose a specific character and not just mindlessly click the pathfinding button, it's confusing. 

Click the hero, then click the crosshairs -- Don't click the hero and click pathfinding

Another part of the problem is that the character it typically auto-chooses for the final fight in stage 5-6 is almost right on top of the pulsing boss crosshairs on the map, so you could accidentally click on the wrong character while trying to click on the boss and cancel your character selection. 

On that same video where I found my answer, in the comments there were a good half a dozen confused people just like me wondering why they couldn't select the hero they wanted to use for the boss fight. I love when that happens because it's justification that it's not just me . . . the UI for this action is unintuitive. It's unfortunate because I almost churned out of the game at this point, and I'm sure if they looked at the data for the game, they'd find out that it's a dropping point for players.

Hopefully they've already seen the problem and have a fix in place so those that stumble upon this fight in the future don't get stuck here.

Happy Dueling!

MHA Strongest Hero Spotlight: Eijiro Kirishima

He's an unmovable powerhouse that packs a huge punch, it's Eijiro Kirishima the Sturdy Hero aka Red Riot! 

He's the essence of "manly"!

Eijiro is another U.A. High School classmate from Class 1-A who has a style and charm all his own. He lives by a chivalrous code of honor with an idolization for a old school hero named Crimson Riot.  It's a moral-centered combination that continues to help him survive the bumps on his road to becoming a Pro Hero. Although he seems to lack a sense of pride about his quirk, he uses his powers of hardening his body so that he has both enhanced durability and enhanced strength. The more he uses his hardening powers in a fight, the more his appearance changes so that his hair and teeth become more jagged and monstrous looking. 

Landing a huge set of blows against a training bot.

Eijiro Kirishima comes in as a solid B-rank character that feels more like an S-rank character when you play him, but as per normal in MHA: Strongest hero, you can always raise their rank through character shards.

In combat, his abilities are more about timing your defensive moves while delivering a quick succession of attacks to keep your opponent locked up as long as possible. In PvP you may find yourself sweating a bit, but in PvE he does almost everything right when on Auto-attack. His move sets are as follows:

• Basic Attack: Hand Dagger—Hardens his hands to make a series of attacks.
• Q attack: Red Counter—A defense status that absorbs damage before striking back.
• W attack: Red Gauntlet—A charge-up skill where you delay a bit for a huge jump attack.
• E attack: Red Charge—Kirishima charges in and deals extra damage to his opponent.
• Ultimate Move: Red Shatter—Pays homage to his idol Crimson Riot while punching several times in a row building momentum until a huge final hit that can shatter the earth around him.
• Charge: Impenetrable Hardening—Enters a state where he's immune to damage.
• Dodge Attack: Manly Punch—After dodging, strikes back with a big hit.

Red Charge is the centerpiece of so many of his combos

While it may be easier to put the game on Auto-combat and let your device to the heavy lifting for you, knowing a character's combos can really come in handy for maximizing damage. For Kirishima, try these combos out:

• Basic Combo: Use Basic Attack 5 times in a row
• Quirk Combo: Invoke Charge (Impenetrable Hardening) then press and hold E attack (Red Charge)
• General Combo: Use Basic Attack 5 times in a row followed by five Red Charge E attacks in a row.
• Advanced Combo: Use Basic Attack 5 times in a row, followed by W attack (Red Gauntlet), then E attack (Red Charge) 
• Super Combo: Start with Red Counter Q attack, follow it with five Basic Attacks, then W attack (Red Gauntlet), and finish with E attack (Red Charge)

Train him up and make his chibi smile!

If you need a sturdy tank that deals seismic punches with a touch of invulnerability, Kirishima is a fun hero in your line up.  Give him a try and please share any tips you may have for using him. Gameplay footage below.

Happy Dueling!

MHA Strongest Hero Spotlight: Denki Kaminari

It's Danki Kaminari aka the Stun Gun Hero: Chargebolt! 

Ranked up and ready to go!

In the My Hero Academia world, he's a part of Class 1-A at good old U.A. High School with his sights set on becoming a Pro Hero. He's an instantly lovable character that's friendly and casual.  The nature of his ability tends make him a hero that typically holds back until he's sure his friends are safely out of the way so he can unleash a huge surge of electricity that leaves him in a paralyzed state (which the anime plays up by making him look like a cute yet blubbering idiot).

Indiscriminate Shock! 1.3 Million Volts!

In MHA: Strongest Hero, Denki Kaminari comes in as a pretty standard B-rank character when you pull him, but you'll eventually be able to increase his rank through character shards.

In combat, his abilities are more about ranged attacks, which makes him an interesting addition to your lineup, especially for PvE (not so much for PvP). His move sets are as follows:

• Basic Attack: Electric Surge—Fires 4 shots of electric bolts
• Q attack: Lightning Bolt—Calls down a bolt of electricity at a targeted enemy
• W attack: Shock Rays—Release electricity from his body to attack nearby enemies
• E attack: Lightning Chain—Surges a bolt of lightning that chains enemies together
• Ultimate Move: Indiscriminate Shock—Unleashes a full 1.3 million volts of electricity around him
• Max Charge: Electric fists—lurch forward with a charged fist attack
• Dodge Attack: Shocking Counter—After dodging, releases voltage to enemies around him

Leave them and me both drooling!

While it may be easier to put the game on Auto-combat and let your device to the heavy lifting for you, knowing a character's combos can really come in handy for maximizing damage. For Kaminari, try these combos out:

• Basic Combo: Use Basic Attack 4 times in a row
• Quirk Combo: Start with E Attack (lightning chain) and then follow it with 4 basic attacks
• General Combo: Use Basic Attack 4 times in a row and follow it with E Attack (lightning chain)
• Advanced Combo: Start with E attack (lightning chain) follow it with 4 basic attacks and finish with Q attack (Lightning Bolt)
• Super Combo: Start with E attack (lightning chain), follow it with W attack (Shock Rays), follow it with 4 basic attacks, and finish with Q attack (lightning bolt)

Try to master the Super Combo in the Training Ring

He's a fun hero to add into your line up.  Give him a try and please share any tips you may have for using him. Gameplay footage below.

Happy Dueling!

My Hero Academia Mobile MMO -- Let's go Strongest Hero!

So, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, my friend Andrew from work started talking up My Hero Academia to me, and I decided to start watching the anime. Now I'm right here with the best of them, wearing the merchandise and subscribed to Funimation to watch the current season unfold in its subtitled goodness.

A couple days ago I heard about the launch of a new mobile game title for My Hero Academia that actually got me pretty excited. My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is a free to play mobile game that bills itself as an Action MMORPG. That's a perfect storm for me, so I naturally downloaded the game.

You know you're in trouble when you start to screenshot the loading screen.

So, just to be clear, you know how these games work, right? It's free to play to get you in and they shower you with tons of currency and get you solidly hooked on the game, then the faucet begins to dry up right when you start to feel committed to the game.  It's also a gacha game, so you'll want to summon heroes constantly.  Once you get over that mental hurdle and know that those things are eventually going to stop you, you'll be fine.

When you pull that S rank Todoroki though . . .

I'm two days in and so far, it's been absolutely worth the free download, so let's talk core gameplay. Everything revolves around completing quests. Quests lead to combat. Combat leads to rewards, rewards lead to gearing up and leveling. Gearing up and leveling allows you to go further into completing quests. Per typical mobile game loop fashion, as you spin around this loop a few times, new modes begin to unlock to give you more depth in the game.

The game slowly unlocks pvp, guilds, co-op modes, daily quests, gear progression, and a ton of reward tracks.  If you've played a 4x game like Rise of Kingdoms, you'll know what I'm talking about with reward tracks. Basically, you play follow the red dot around the UI menu collecting reward after reward for simply playing the game. These rewards are the fuel you'll need to level your characters and progress in the game.

The main quests are mostly to do with combat, but be on the lookout for side quests, which seem to have a bit more variety and flair to them. My favorite side quest so far had me running an investigation into a robbery at a local restaurant.

The clerk got busted for stealing a recipe from the owner -- THE SHAME!

Another side quest had me helping a store owner who lost his cat mascot. A daily quest had me picking up trash. All in all those are pretty standard fare, but they do break up the combat.

Not that breaking up the combat is necessarily needed.  I have to say that the combat in this game is actually quite good. If you like button mashing and combo building as you work your way up to launching ultimate moves, you're going to like the way combat feels in MHA Strongest Hero.

Ultimate moves are so much fun

The villains that you fight come in waves and eventually you'll be bringing three of your favorite heroes into combat to take out several waves of combat that culminate in a boss fight.  The great thing here is that the enemies are everything you've come to expect from My Hero Academia.  They are goofy and cool at the same time. I love the absurdity and charm of this universe and it all carries over nicely from the anime.

Punch him after he charges . . . got it . . .

One of the layers you unlock has to do with playing through highlights from the story of the anime itself. Currently I'm helping Midoriya clean up the beach so he can convince All Might to give him his quirk.

Running through the junk

This involves a fun little mini-game of swiping and timing taps, which helps to break up the main game progression.

Is it an MMO though?  Well, I suppose you can see other players in the city section and do a nice co-op mode to play with other heroes, but for the most part this feels like a solo player's game.  I guess it'd be hailing back to some of the old arguments we all had back when the first Guild Wars game was being debated as an MMO.  There definitely is global chat, guilds, and you see other player's avatars around in game, so . . . there's that at least.

All in all, I'm enjoying myself so far. I never played any of the One's Justice console fighting games for the Anime, so this is my first "game" experience with the franchise. If you're playing the game or have some additional insights to share, feel free to leave me a comment and say hello.

Happy Dueling!