“We already have this without you. You cannot bargain with what you don’t have.”
-General Zod in Superman II (1980)-
As reported earlier this week on LaserLemming.com, the DC based iOS card-fighter of Injustice: Gods Among Us revealed its second Challenge Stage in as many months. The Challenge Stages in the game offer players a limited time to complete a set of 5 battle rounds. If the 5 battle rounds are completed inside the Challenge Stage, then players are rewarded with a new and rare card. Each of the 5 battle rounds also require players to complete 15 matches each and to use specific cards.
Players and fans should be excited by the new Challenge Stages. The first challenge stage that was released in an update to the iOS last month gave players the opportunity to receive a Gold level Batgirl card. Cards in the iOS have 3 classifications: Broze (weak), Silver (average) and Gold (powerful). While Batgirl is not one of the most popular heroes in the DC universe, her card offered an intriguing special ability to utilize in any fight. In short, her special ability grants her team one full bar of power at the beginning of every match. Thus, players would be able to use a high-level attack immediately if she were part of their team. The second Challenge Stage does not offer a new hero but, rather, a new villain to kneel before: Zod!
Players will receive the message above after they add the update to their iOS version of Injustice. As with the Batgirl Challenge, players will receive Challenge Credits, or coins to use in the Challenge Stage, for each battle they win in the normal game play. However, unlike the previous Challenge Stage, players will only receive one Challenge Credit per match, no matter the difficulty level. In contrast, the Batgirl Challenge last month offered one coin for every energy bar used in a fight.
As a result, one will begin with 25 Challenge Credits, but each round of the Zod Challenge Stage will require 15 Challenge Credits, or 75 Challenge Credits total. Now, what will players need to complete each battle round?
Round 1: Zod Challenge Stage
Round 1 of the new Challenge Stage is not very difficult. Players will fight against Bronze level characters, or the weakest card-fighters in the game. However, players are required to use only Bronze level card-fighters themselves. The opponents are not of a very high level (the teams of 3 are all below level 10), so players should breeze through this round very quickly. I got through it with a team of Bronze villains pictured below: Deathstroke, Catwoman, and Solomon Grundy.
Round 2: Zod Challenge Stage
The second round requires players to use either Bronze or Silver level card fighters. Thus, one does not have to worry about opponents of high-levels yet. After players complete the second round they will also receive a bonus for their fighting prowess. The bonuses for each of the five rounds are pictured below:
Round 3: Zod Challenge Stage
Round 3 has higher level cards, but the requirements change. For round 3, players must have a Lex Luther card-fighter on their team of three. Lex Luther is currently only available in Bronze (weak) and Silver (average) level cards. As the majority of the opponents here are Silver (average) level, players should watch out for frequent encounters with Solomon Grundy and Doomsday. Solomon Grundy’s special ability revives him one time and gives him extra health after you knock him out (players must, therefore, defeat Grundy twice). The Silver level Doomsday’s special ability turns all of his special attacks to “unblockable” if he knocks out any of the card-fighters on your team.
Round 4: Zod Challenge Stage
Round 4 requires fighters to use Solomon Grundy on their team. The best card to use for this round is the Red Son Solomon Grundy. This card, like all Red Son cards, is Gold (powerful) level and its special ability, called Red Son Toughness, adds 15% health to each team member. In Round 4, the opponents become more diverse. Batman Beyond and Red Son Superman will appear more than once, as will other random Gold card-fighters. If players have a favorite or a fully-leveled Gold card-fighter, then this round is the place to team him or her with Solomon.
Round 5: Zod Challenge Stage
The final round requires players to use a Doomsday card-fighter. The Gold Doomsday is one of the best card-fighters in the game. Doomsday’s special ability, called Hero Killer, gives him a 50% health recovery each time he knocks out a rival. Thus, if one gets careless during the first fight, then Doomsday can still potentially recover all of his health if players can refocus their tapping skills. Furthermore, a team that includes a tactical support card-fighter such as Batgirl (gives fighters one full power bar) or Batman (his special ability adds 25% damage to attacks) can make Doomsday nearly invincible. Thus, when one faces off against Zod in the final battle of the Challenge Stage one should be sure to have a powerful, well crafted team.
Zod will fight alone against you, but he will use his special Kryptonite Canon attack quickly and repeatedly. If players defeat Zod, then he will be banished to your “phantom” collection. Zod has support cards just like every other card-fighter (the characters Ursa, Non, and Lor-Zod add bonuses to him), and they will be added to your library for purchase once the Challenge is completed. Will you kneel or overthrow the maniacal dictator?
Last, Zod will become a purchasable card after the Challenge is completed and he is added to your deck. His special ability is called Phantom Zone Survivor, and his game card description reads that the special ability gives him a 20% boost to both health and damage whenever one of Zod’s team members is knocked out. Therefore, teaming Zod with Bronze (weak) card-fighters could give him a 40% bonus. Zod wants to rule, not help!
“Kneel Before Zod!”
Chris Patton is the writer for Laser Lemming’s movie review blog entitled The Cursed Hero. Read his rodent blog here: https://laserlemming.com/category/blogs/cursedhero/
