Ranking Basics

Introduction

This document aims to give a general overview on how ranking maps work, how to score points and what the goal is. Getting into ranking has a very high barrier to entry with little guides on how the basics of ranking actually functions, and this aims to alleviate this.

Points

So ranking maps just fundamentally work differently than other types of maps in GFL. Where in a normal map you usually have a “clear condition” and an “S-rank requirement”. In ranking maps, there might be some objectives that you can complete for extra points, but the map usually only ends when you complete all the turns (there are some exceptions here, like if there are multiple ranking maps that unlock from others, a la PR) or manually end it early.

As the goal in ranking is to get as many points as possible, so let’s break down the types of point sources that usually exist:

Killing enemies: Enemies grant points equal to 10% of their CE. For example an enemy with 100k CE will grant 10k points.
Node scoring: Commonly referred to as Iso(mer) scoring, as this was when it was introduced. Regular nodes are worth the least, Helipads a bit more, Heavy Helis even more and HQs, Crates and Supply Flags are worth the most.
Supply lines: Supply lines work similarly to how they work in normal maps, but instead of winning after X turns, you get increasing amounts of points each turn it is maintained.
Destroying structures: Usually, destroying structures will grant points.
Objectives: If there are any objectives in the objectives list, these usually also grant points.This may include keeping NPCs alive or rescuing them.
Crates: Depending on the map and ranking in question, these either grant points upon being used, being owned at the end of the ranking, or do not grant any points at all and are only for resupplying.For example in Isomer you get no points for using a crate, but you do get points for having it blue at the end of the map.May be hidden under Repair Nodes.

What loses points:

Retreating an Echelon: Retreating an Echelon outside a Helipads usually loses more points.
Repairing normally: If you repair normally on a Helipad or such, this usually costs points.

Deathstacks are Big Points

As killing enemies grants points based on their CE, Deathstacks (which you usually avoid outside ranking) are now suddenly really important to kill to gain the points their very high CE are worth.

Bosses

Bosses also tend to be very high CE, and are as such important to kill for the points they are worth. Note that bosses may have requirements for them to spawn.

Also take note that ranking bosses tend to be quite a bit stronger than bosses elsewhere.

CE Does Not Equal Difficulty

As is true in base GFL, CE rarely ever tells the real details of how difficult an enemy team is to defeat, and this is even more so true in ranking. With DR onwards, enemy CE is often “fake CE”, i.e. assigned directly and not based on calculations from their stats (note that there may still be “true CE” enemies mixed in on some maps).Some Deathstacks may also be easier than regular spawns, though this is not the norm.

Helipads Spawn More Things to Kill

Similarly, capturing enemy Helipads is usually a point loss. Provided you have the AP to kill all enemies, preventing more enemies from spawning is a point loss. This differs from map to map and what tools you have available, but the goal is to kill as many enemies as possible by the end of the map. As such, capturing enemy Helipads should be avoided in most cases.

Declogging

This then leads into “declogging”. Helipads spawn enemies before movement happens, if enemies are positioned on top of an enemy helipad at the start of their turn, that helipad can’t spawn more enemies for you. As such, making sure enemy helipads are empty is important. This is known as “declogging”, allowing a constant flow of enemies out of helipads.

Damaging Enemies Before Combat

Landmine Fairy, Scarecrow’s Skill2 Shadow and some other abilities can damage enemies before you actually engage them. This can reduce enemy CE (and therefore the points gained from kills) on older maps that use “real CE”, but can help reduce fight requirements if needed on most modern ranking maps, which use “fake CE”.

Armory Depth

As opposed to most regular maps (that can be solved with 1-2 combat Echelons and a few dummies), in ranking maps you usually want to deploy as much as possible to have all the AP you need for subsequent turns.

Deployment Limit and Echelon Slots

As mentioned above, in ranking maps you usually want to deploy as many Echelons as possible so that you can ensure all enemies are killed by the end. This means fully utilizing the deployment limit, and having as many Echelon slots as possible.

The deployment limit differs from map to map, and there are 3 main restrictions (with further sub-groups). Let’s use 13-4e as an example here:

The overall deployment limit on the far left is unlimited.
The Echelon limit is also unlimited, this is for the actual Echelons in the Formation menu, so up to 14.
G&K Echelon limit, also unlimited here.
Coalition Echelon, limited to 4 here.
Support units, limited to 6 here.
HOCs are limited to 4 here.
Vehicles are limited to 2 here.

This means the total unit count you could put on the map is 14 Echelons (max slots) and 6 support units, for a total of 20.

Certain other maps will have an overall limit that is lower than the other restrictions:

Here we can deploy only 4 total units, but they can be any combination of G&K, Coalition, HOC or Vehicles. Deploying 4 Echelons means you cannot have HOC support, while deploying any HOCs means cutting into your Echelon presence on the map.

Should a ranking map have an overall limit lower than the otherwise total, note that for optimal score you will likely only want to deploy as many HOCs as you absolutely need. HOCs cannot directly kill enemies on their own, after all, and map presence is incredibly important in ranking maps.

Teambuilding

Ranking maps tend to have the hardest enemy teams in the game

Build for what the team will be facing, not every enemy on the map. Which enemies can spawn from which helipads is an important detail to know for ranking maps. Some ranking maps are divided into sections where certain enemies spawn, others may feel more random.

If a specific team needs to fight Deathstack Y and enemies spawning from X helipads, then it should be specialized for that.

HOC

The importance of HOCs differs from ranking map to ranking map, but if you’re fighting Paradeus, they’re usually at least somewhat required due to Force Shields. As mentioned above, HOCs cannot fight directly, meaning if the deployment limit is low you may want to forgo more than absolutely necessary.

They also grant AP, so if the deployment limit permits it, you will want to deploy as many as possible.

Vehicles

Vehicles do not cost AP to move and as such, any map that allows Vehicle deployment, it is usually optimal to do so. Take note that Vehicles cannot be swapped with other units, and become roadblocks unless you’re careful with their movement.

Pathing

As you will not be able to capture a lot of helipads in most ranking maps, available AP tends to be limited (depends on the map itself). To be able to kill as many enemies as possible while also fulfilling objectives requires deliberate pathing. This is also why Parachute Fairy is the main Fairy used for ranking maps, allowing Echelons to essentially teleport across the map to gain more points.

Examples

Parachute Fairy: Allows you to teleport for basically free, at the cost of a debuff for the next few turns.
Swap ChainsSwapping units does not cost AP, and as such this is extensively used in ranking maps to limit AP use, often to resupply Echelons and moving specific Echelons to specific enemies.
Enemy AI: Certain enemy AI (such as Attack, Expand and Alert) will move predictably, this can be abused to lower AP demand over several turns.
Camping Helipads: Allowing an enemy to spawn and immediately ram into an Echelon saves the AP of having to deal with it later. After ending the final turn, this is how you gain additional kills during the enemy turn.

Enemy AI

Alert and Expand require some extra notes:

Attack: Takes the shortest path to your Command Post. Tiebreakers are random.
Expand: Moves towards the nearest enemy node. Note that this requires the node it is standing on to be of its own faction to move, if it is not it will stand still until it is.Tiebreaker order: Command Post > Crate > Helipad > Heavy Helipad > Node ID
Alert: Has a set alert radius and will move towards any enemy that ends turn on a node within the radius. Tiebreakers are random.

Enemy Scaling

Most ranking maps will spawn more difficult enemy teams as the turns pass. Depending on the ranking map, there are several version of this, and which one is used depends on the ranking map:

Turn based spawns: Different enemies spawn from Helipads based on the turn count. For example in PL+, certain enemies only spawn turn 1-3 and are replaced with new spawns from turn 4 onwards, etc.
Turn based scaling: With each passing turn, enemies will get stronger. For example in DD+ this also includes pre-spawned enemies. As this also inflates CE, fights become harder but worth more points as turns pass.

Rewards, Current Major Event vs Permanent

Current Major Events with ranking will usually have 3 reward types:

Leaderboard: Your highest score is compared to other players’, and after the ranking ends you will gain rewards based on how well you ranked on the leaderboard.
Score ThresholdBy reaching this score total in a single run, you will gain the rewards. Usually the highest threshold is quite a bit lower than the score cap on any given map.
CumulativeCan be completed by simply collecting a little bit of score each run, eventually adding up to all rewards.

Permanent Rankings only have threshold rewards. There exist leaderboards, but no rewards are granted based on this, it is purely for flexing.

Cumulative point rewards are usually far easier on maps that have Iso scoring (as the initial helipads and HQ grant a fair few points when the map is settled). Note that terminating the map on the menu outside the ranking is the same as settling for the sake of functionality.

Lower End Ranking

If you have a limited Armory and tools available, attempting to go for the absolute max score is usually not feasible, and instead you should attempt to deal with what you can with what tools you have available.

As you likely won’t be able to deploy all that many strong Echelons with a weaker Armory, it is important to remember that even a dummy Echelon will give you more AP. You should still deploy everything you can, even if most of it won’t see actual combat, so that the few Echelons that can take battles have the AP to get around the map.

As you also will likely not have too many actual combat Echelons, HOCs become more important to deploy, making killing harder enemy teams easier.