MSF Trepidation Raid guide: build Iron Raiders first

MARVEL Strike Force Raid week now comes in two shapes, and the Iron Raiders are the team I'd build before anything else. The Spotlight and Annihilation Raids are both gone, and the Trepidation Raid is the one major Raid left.

The bottom difficulties ask for no Iso-8 at all, and fallback traits leave room for older characters.

Five routine days, two days that need a plan

The standard Trepidation Raid runs on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with 10 Sim Attempts. Wednesday and Saturday belong to the Trepidation Boss Raid, a shorter run with 5 Sim Attempts.

That second format is where coordination matters. Every 8-player Strike Team faces a shared Boss that several members can attack, so agree who goes in and when. You could save a Raid Sim for those Boss nodes. I wouldn't, and the developers encourage manual play there too. Sim the ordinary nodes, take the Boss by hand.

Why Iron Raiders and Amazing Avengers come first

The Boss Raid has one node for each of the five newest Raid teams: Insidious Six, Immortal Weapons, Champions, Amazing Avengers and Iron Raiders, in that order. The sixth node is the shared Boss, and it carries the Amazing Avengers and Iron Raiders traits. Higher difficulties spotlight the newest teams.

So two squads get a node each and then the Boss as well. On standard days the Iron Raiders also hold the two closing nodes, after Hellfire Club left. Difficulty and layout didn't change. If you can fund one team, fund them.

Their kit is one engine. Iron Monger makes Ability Energy when he or an Iron Raider ally gains a positive effect. In Raids, Ulysses Klaue grants Iron Raider allies Immunity on spawn, and Whiplash fills their Speed Bars when one of them gains a positive effect. Crossbones and Yellowjacket complete the five. Half a team won't run that engine.

The Amazing Avengers are Blade (Mighty), Spider-Woman (Julia), Rachel Cole-Alves, Spider-Man and Hulk, built for Raids, with Blade healing and generating Ability Energy. Check each kit on the character pages and weigh both squads against the tier list.

The Iso-8 ladder

Trait requirements start at Difficulty 3, with fallbacks: Insidious Six or Non-Mythic City, Immortal Weapon or Non-Mythic Mystic, Champion or Non-Mythic Hero, Amazing Avengers or Non-Mythic Hero. Iso-8 climbs like this:

• Default and Difficulty 1: none
• Difficulty 2: Level 1 Green
• Difficulty 3: Level 3 Green
• Difficulty 4: Level 5 Green
• Difficulty 5: Level 3 Blue
• Difficulty 6: Level 5 Blue
• Difficulty 7: Level 1 Purple
• Difficulties 8 to 10: Level 3 Purple

Meet both requirements and most missions fall to a single attack. My call: pick the highest difficulty your weakest regular attacker can meet, not your best. A squad that finishes beats a higher tier nobody completes.

Short on Iso-8? T2 Ions can be bought with T2 Iso-8 Credits, and T3 Level 1 Ions with T3 Iso-8 Credits, in Supplies. That change was meant to make every difficulty easier to reach.

Healing: Health Packs first, Cores last

Health carries between Raid missions. Raid Health Packs heal, Power Cores step in once you run out, and healing costs more the more a character has been used. The most-used characters cost the most to patch, so I'd keep Power Cores as a last resort rather than a routine fix.

Rewards and getting in

The Trepidation Raid rewards gear up to Gear Tier 21 depending on Difficulty, which fits the publisher mapping Raids to Gear Tier rewards. Browse the events page for what's running now.

Alliance Raids open at Commander Level 25. You must be in an alliance, and joining after launch means waiting for the next Raid, so time any move around that.

One more reason to bother: since the September update, both Raid formats drop Armory 21 Orb Fragments. Run them every day.

Images: © Scopely, Inc. / © MARVEL.