Our employees have thousands of hours logged into the Black Box VR Fitness experience. We have all tried different game strategies, characters, power-ups, exercises, and more. We are pretty much beta testers for every new feature added to the Black Box Fitness experience.
Jim Bradbury (aka MOTIV8R) is a long-time employee of Black Box and has seen his fair share of iterations of the fitness game. So I wanted to learn a few of his favorite ways he plays the game, what champions he likes, and how he uses them.
BBVR: Hey Jim, I love the username MOTIV8R. Great choice! What are some of your favorite Black Box champions, and how do you use them differently in the game?
MOTIV8R: I’m a fan of fielding tank Champions that can soak up a lot of damage and then deploy multiple high DPS (Damage Per Second) ranged units behind the tank. Skadi is a good choice. Additionally, I’ll ready up what I call a mini-tank (like Sheara) to field in defense of the ranged units.
My opponent will likely try to drop some champions behind my main tank and target the ranged units (which have poor health). Pro Tip: It’s essential to wait for the opponent to drop his champions and then immediately field the mini-tank so that it draws them away from my previously fielded ranged units. It’s a good strategy and does take a little planning, but once you see your opponent building a new champion, be ready. Have a mini tank built and ready to deploy.
BBVR: Once you make it to arena 3, you unlock two new exercises. Bicep curls and Tricep pulldowns. These exercises create defense towers for you. How do you use these towers in your gameplay?
MOTIV8R: Depending on how the game is going, I like to wait until I have both Towers built and available. I like fielding my tank first. After my tank gets targeted, I’ll immediately drop in my Towers at opposite sides of one lane, as close as possible to the enemy gate. From there, I’ll drop in ranged units and focus on taking out the opponents Champions to gain their elixir. With that elixir, I’ll create more tanks or mini-tanks as needed to keep my opponent from targeting my Towers (which are now essentially stationary tanks). With the right timing, my ranged units will now be clear to fire at will at my opponent’s wall and then crystal.
MOTIV8R – Pro tip: My deck also includes Lightning Tiger and Torcher. I’ll use Lighting Tiger opportunistically when a wall or crystal is low. I’ll field Torcher as a mini-tank that costs less than Sheara. Finally, I round out the deck with Shield Maiden so I can use her if the opponent has strong water-based direct attacks.
BBVR: Which power-ups do you use most and why?
MOTIV8R: For power-ups, I’m a fan of utilizing Hysterical, Heal, and Grenade. Deploying Hysterical on top of high DPS units that are shielded by a main tank is a great way to take down a shield or crystal fast. Otherwise, I’ll use Heal on a tank in the middle of the round as a way of keeping my opponents’ direct attacks off my towers or DPS units for longer.
Grenades are helpful when you’ve pushed super hard and know that taking down an opponent’s tank will be tough. I would never use it on anything other than a tank champion.
BBVR: Do you have any other advice for the members trying to change their gameplay a bit?
MOTIV8TR: I usually experiment with my deck right after I get to a new arena. I feel like there are matchups at that point where I can still pull a win out even if my Champion strategy is off. Sometimes I’ll get a little quirky and have some fun. It’s the Eye of the Tiger workout! Lightning Tiger only!!
The closer I get to a Boss battle, the less I’m interested in trying new combinations. At that point, I’m working harder on getting my direct attacks leveled up so I can be more effective against Boss-level champions.
