Guardian of the Galaxy: Maze

Captains! This article is for informational purposes and does not claim to be a 'Universal instruction for passing the Maze'. However, after carefully studying the information from the article, you will be able to calculate your strength and plan a convenient sequence of actions to achieve maximum success during the event.

So, let's go in order. If this is your first time going through the Maze, you won't have information about your previous experience, and the "old scenario" won't confuse you. If you're a experienced pilot, you're better off getting into the differences. But both will hopefully benefit from the information. What is Maze, when and why did it originate, and most importantly, how is the current version different from previous versions?

The Maze is a unique AI-controlled training facility designed for spectacular reality shows featuring the best pilots in the galaxy. According to 'Galaxy News', in August 4622, billionaire scientist and philanthropist Ender Stingray bought an old military training ground from the Federation government, converted it into a maze-like racing track with traps and obstacles, placed many treasures in it, and in September 4622 hosted the first reality show in the galaxy, Ender's Maze. The best pilots have added a personal development of the scientist to their hangars — a powerful support Stingray ship, which is able to withstand the previously almost invulnerable Valentin.

Below you can see pictures from the Maze 1 and Maze 2 reality shows:

The first version of the Maze had 1 medium-sized map. It contained 300 Maze Coins, 5 Power Stones, and many mines, both stationary and flying along a certain trajectory at different speeds. The player had 2 free flight attempts and 1 extra for gold.

Maze 2 also had 1 map, but a larger one. It had 300 Emoticatchers, 12 Trader's Guild coupon boxes, 2 gold gifts with blueprints for new ships (Rover and Beholder), and 5 Power Stones. Instead of mines, evil Snowmen flew through the Maze. The location of the Power Stones and Golden Gifts changed. The player had 2 free flight attempts and 1 extra for gold.

The Maze is a special mechanic, quite different from the usual flying around the map, battling in Campaigns, Arenas or with bosses. The Maze uses only 4 ships listed in the ship selection tab. You can choose any of the four ships, as long as it is available in your hangar. Upgrade, stars, neodymium and other nuances do not play a role.

Maze has its own rules, and ships differ from each other not by their 'stars' and class, but by a number of special parameters:

— size — the ships from the available list are different in width and overall dimensions, the larger ships are more convenient to control, they are easier to collect coins, but more often hit obstacles;
— speed — slow ships are easier to control and easier to stop in front of a mine, but only fast ships can fly through the whole Maze, collecting all the coins and treasures, and arrive at the Exit with plenty of time to spare;
— maneuverability — the ability to react quickly to changes of direction and to avoid obstacles more successfully;
— durability — the higher the ship's durability, the more mine blasts it can survive and the greater its margin of safety will remain at the exit.

The key event ship (in our case, the Star Blast ship) is traditionally the most durable (750 units), maneuverable, fast and medium to small in size, so it is the most advantageous to fly it. It's best to buy a basic three-star ship at the beginning of the event to get the most benefits in the Maze, as well as to start doing event Challenges from the first day.

In the upper left corner is an indicator of the remaining rewards on the Maze map — coins, Power Stones, etc.

At the top center is a strength scale with absolute values and percentages, and below it is the time left to complete the attempt.

You have exactly 3 minutes to overcome the Maze and search for treasure. The time starts counting immediately after pressing the "Start" button. The flight can be paused using the button in the upper right corner.

Before the flight we strongly recommend that you check the quality of your Internet connection (or even re-enter the game to avoid accidents), make sure no one will push you under the arm, your phone won't run out of power, your boss won't look into your office, and you are comfortable not to take your eyes and finger off the screen for three minutes, and only then choose the ship you are going to fly and press "Start".

A flight attempt is considered completed in one of these cases:

— you have found and used an exit from the Maze;
— when colliding with the traps of the Maze, your ship received damage exceeding its strength and was destroyed;
— the time allotted to complete the Maze has expired.

Mastery Points are awarded for completing the Maze, which together determine your place in the Rankings.

Points are awarded for:

— collected Maze Coins;
— the remaining % strength of the ship;
— Maze Exit (awarded only if you have found and used the Maze Exit before the end of the run time);
— the time remaining to the end of the run after exiting the Maze.

Unlike previous Mazes, which consisted of 1 map, the updated range consists of three training rooms. The rooms are small, but change daily under the influence of the AI, which controls the Maze.

The flight starts at a random point at the bottom of the first room. This means that each attempted flight during the day may differ slightly from the previous one in terms of trajectory.

Example of the starting position in Maze-3:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the room contains 50 Maze Coins and 1 Power Stone. BUT! First, there are THREE such rooms per attempt. Second, at the end of the try regardless of whether you found the exit or not, the number of coins collected is automatically DOUBLE.

Thus, you can collect 50x3x2=300 coins per flight.

Good news! This time, pilots will have not 3, but 4 attempts to overcome the Maze and collect treasures: 2 for free and 2 for gold (150 and 250 gold).

You can get up to 1200 coins and 12 Power Stones per day.

What ships will be offered to pilots to choose from before flight? There are four Jericho ships to choose from: the Templar ship, which almost all pilots get since it's a part of the tutorial, the Caltrop ship, which most players also get since it's extracted from the Simple Containers, the popular Templar AE ship and the new Star Blast ship. Offers for this ship will be available in the Premium and WEB-shop after the start of the event.

The durability of the first ship has been increased compared to Maze-1, so that even newcomers will be able to fully complete the test and, having collected maximum rewards, get to the exit.

The current version of the Maze (May 4623) has a new type of traps — Black Holes. These objects do not change their position on the map and do not chase the ship. If your ship flies too close to the border of the Black Hole and gets in its range, it will take a small damage — 2 to 5 units of ship's durability for each 0.5 seconds of being in the range of the Black Hole. If your ship stays too long in the area of its influence, it might lose all its durability and self-destruct. However, it is easy enough to bypass the Black Hole if you fly as close to the edge as possible.

Black holes may not be found in every room of the Maze, and in one variant there is only one huge Black Hole in the center of the room.

Mines became more 'peaceful' — now they begin to move only if you get close enough to them, their speed is low, they do not chase your ship, and some are stationary. Collision damage is still -50 HP.

And now — a news! In the new version of the Maze (May 4623) the Gate and the Keys to it appeared! As already understood from the previous description, the rooms in the Maze have become quite small. Access to some parts of the Maze is now limited to different colored Gates: blue, red, and yellow. To open them and unlock access to coins, the next Key or treasure — the Power Stone — must be picked up by a Key of the same color. The Gate will open automatically as soon as you 'hit' a Key and collect it similarly to the coins. Keys are not transferred to the next room.

To get to the next room, you need, as before, to find this very exit (now it looks like a green portal) and open the Gate on the way to it. As a rule, this condition is fulfilled on its own as you fly and collect coins and keys.

It is impossible to return to the previous room, so if you plan to collect Power Stones and coins first, and then compete for Mastery Points and Rankings, you should collect all the rewards before you leave the current room.

Yes, we have already realized that the screen is missing the actual room number. This will be fixed in future versions of the Maze. In the meantime, try to remember for yourself how many rooms you've already traversed.

To summarize:

— before flying it is advisable to read the rules of the Event at least once in the game on the i-button, as well as — the rules of selecting ships;
— the best solution is to buy the main ship of the Event (even 3 stars!) because it has 750 durability, the maximum speed, and can be used for the Guardian Challenges, which give you blueprints, coins and other valuable rewards;
— the Maze has exactly 3 minutes to attempt a flight, for a total of 4 attempts per day (2 for free and 2 for gold);
— Each attempt involves flying in three consecutive rooms from the entrance to the portal to the next room and the Exit in the third room;
— yes, 3 minutes for all 3 rooms, not 3 minutes for each room;
— in the Maze you should pick up Coins, Keys and Power Stones;
— In the Maze you should avoid collision with the Mines and not fly close to the Black Holes;
— each room contains 50 Maze Coins and 1 Power Stone, it is impossible to return to the previous room and get the rest;
— colorful Gates block the way to the exit and the treasure, they automatically open as soon as you pick up the Key of the corresponding color in the Maze corridor, the keys are picked up by analogy with the coins, they are not transferred to the next room;
— even if you didn't manage to find the Exit or even the portal to the second room, and your ship exploded on the Mines or dissolved in the Black Hole, you will be rewarded with Mastery Points and the Maze Coins collected in the room;
— at the end of the flight each Maze Coin you received for your attempt will be doubled.

The Guardian of the Galaxy event is a combination of several types of activities, for each of which you will receive rewards.

1. Maze — You may make 4 flights in the Labyrinth each day, attempts will be reset at 00:00 (UTC). You can collect a maximum of 1200 Maze Coins and 12 Power Stones per day.

2. Rating Mastery Points — you will get Mastery Points for flying in the Maze, the total amount of Mastery Points will determine your place in the daily rating. The previous day's result statistics will be reset at 00:00 (UTC) after awards are issued according to your rank.

3. Eye of the Ancients — Charge the Artifact with Power Stones and win blueprints for a new Star Blast ship, a rare Teutonian ship, Maze Coins, and valuable rewards. Every 24 hours you will have 1 free charge of Eye of the Ancients. The chance of each sector being dropped is not the same.

Charge Eye of the Ancients with Power Stones and receive gifts from the Ancients to develop your fleet. Charge Eye of the Ancients to its maximum and receive x5 rewards! You can replenish your supply of Power Stones in the Premium and WEB-Shop.

4. Rating 'Eye of the Ancients' — rating points are awarded for each use of the Power Stones to charge an Artifact, the award for the rating is given to the game mail once a day, the statistics of the previous day are reset at 00:00 (UTC).

5. Guards Challenges are special challenges for which you get Event Rewards and Chest Opening Points. If you accumulate enough points, you can open chests and get valuable rewards.

A total of 4 chests can be obtained from:

— 200 new ship blueprints;
— 2,650 Gold Standards;
— 1,100 Maze Coins;
— 3,950,000 credits;
— 400 Neodium;
— a unique frame Birth of a Supernova.

Valuable tips and explanations for Challenges:

• the Star Blast ship damage challenge in one battle is easiest to do on clan bosses and Defiler — try to arrange with your fellow clansmen to get at least 1 Golden Eclipse boss (gargoyle) and use the new ship in a formation with Jericho faction ships or with other ships that are maximally pumped and sharpened for damage;
• the ships of the Alien faction in great numbers 'inhabit' in episodes 5 and 6, only real combat (not Raid) counts, but you can pass the battles on Auto-battle; if you have not yet available episodes 5 and 6, you can meet Alien ships in pirate detachments on the Campaign map, as well as in the Arena; the "Duel" mode is not suitable;
• the challenge with flying through the Maze to Exit without losing strength is very difficult, but a careful pilot can spend one of the 4 (yes, yes, there's a reason it's 4! ) attempts per day to fly leisurely, without being distracted by the treasure, without the risk of crashing into the Mine and carefully avoiding the Black Holes, all the way to the Exit in the 3rd room, and the total number needed to complete this task is reduced by 2 times compared to the previous Maze; in addition, for this quest the player is rewarded with blueprints for a new ship; you can collect 13,000 chest opening points even if you never make it through the Maze without damage.

Maximum values in the Guardian Challenges:

• get energy from friends — 10 steps, 50 times maximum;
• get Pentacoins from clanmates — 10 steps, 100 times maximum;
• upgrade the Star Blast ship — up to 12 stars maximum;
• deal damage per battle with a single formation with a Star Blast ship in the set — up to 50,000,000;
• get to the Exit from the Maze on a Star Blast ship — 30 times maximum;
• destroy Alien ships — 3,000 maximum (in Episode 5, Mission 16 you can destroy 6 Alien ships in one battle);
• get to the Exit of the Maze without losing strength on any of the ships — 10 times maximum;
• get Gold by Subscription — 6000 Gold standards in total;
• spend Gold — 60,000 Gold standards total (stores, roulette and containers are counted);
• make Premium purchases — 12 purchases maximum (any purchases for donations, including Subscriptions, Gold packs, Power Stones, ships, sets with drawings, avatars, etc. as in the Premium, and in the WEB-Shop. are considered).

6. Currency Rating — the place in the rating is determined on the basis of the total amount of Maze Coin currency received during the event, the award is given once after the end of the event.

The first 25 captains in the 'Currency' ranking will receive a unique Space Lord avatar as a reward.

7. Story of the Guardian of the Galaxy event — first, it is simply interesting and immerses captains in the world of Star Conflict Heroes, second, sometimes from the story you can understand what awaits captains in the near future, and third, for reading the story there is a reward — 100 Maze Coins.

8. Free Coins in the Premium Shop - every day after 00:01 (UTC) you can get 50 Maze Coins in the Premium Shop.

Exchange collected Maze Coins for valuable rewards in the Guardian of the Galaxy Event Shop. The contents of the counters can be refreshed at any time for Maze Coins.

The Event Shop will be open exactly 24 hours longer than the event itself, so that you can exchange all the coins you have accumulated for the items you want. The remaining coins will not disappear, but will be stored in the Warehouse until the next Maze and Maze Coins event.

Take on the challenge of the Maze, overcome its traps and prove that you are worthy to get the unique Jericho support ship Star Blast!

Best regards, Star Conflict Heroes team.