After a week delay, the Boom Beach HQ 25 finally has arrived. This update is a bizarre one because it is said that it will be done in three parts. I have seen some YouTubers post the developer’s build to their channels, which looked incomplete or that there were bugs. So I’m going to share what I’ve seen today from my accounts and perhaps what we will see from various YouTubers.
The current update only has 1 additional building and two mines for augments to your base. We get a 4th Rocket Launcher (which I did predict in a previous blog post) as well as a boom mine and shock mine (again both of which I predicted). At this time, I’m not sure how big of a deal the mines will be, but the 4th Rocket Launcher feels pretty big. Mostly, this will make riflemen, zookas and warrior attacks much more difficult because you should be able to spread out your rocket launchers enough to make it much harder for enemies to shock you. Also, for Hammerman Strikes Back days, especially with the Damage Amplifier, you should be able to take out some nastier levels.
For the other upgrades, we see most defense buildings and storage units getting upgrades. Even residences look to be receiving another level. The only things missing here are the Vault, resource generators, sculptor related buildings, Shock Launchers and Rocket Launchers. The Gunboat will receive a new level for +1 energy but the Landing Craft will only get a measly +1 to riflemen capacity.
With the Armory getting to level 25, you won’t see all troops and abilities being upgradeable. This time, Tanks, Scorchers, Warriors, Shock Bombs, Smoke Screens, Flares, Critters, Cryoneers and Mechs will remain at level 24 armory level. I was a bit disappointed in seeing Mechs and Tanks not make this list but they did get new levels during the last update.
The one big missing update that was available during the developer build was the Weapon Lab. In the developer build, you could go to level 6 and have 4 prototypes available. Because we are supposedly seeing 2 more updates, I expect that one of these updates will have the Weapon Lab level 6. But if not, I am not sure what the other updates will entail.
Let’s first talk about upgrade paths. If you were a maxed out player (like myself), you will obviously want to push for an HQ 25 out the door. I didn’t have any Building Blueprints saved up so I had to use Diamonds for the instant upgrade. Because I stopped playing for a few months while waiting for the update, I managed to accumulate enough resources from my boats to go straight to the Armory as my next major upgrade. You want this so you can start working on things like Barrage and Artillery.
I did have Attack Plans on both accounts and rushed my Barrage and used my Diamonds for the Artillery. Since my main attack is Tanks, Bombardiers and Medics, I went straight for the Bombardier upgrade. I don’t think the damage will be as critical as the health upgrade here. Once those guys are complete, I will go for Medics as the +1 to healing and health will aid me a great deal, especially during Mega Crab days.
After rushing my Armory, I did plant my 4th Rocket Launcher down and instant finished it. But since both accounts had plenty of resources left, I left off both accounts by starting the level 24 Gunboat for the +1 energy. I might rush it on my main because I have the Diamonds for it and start working on the Rocket Launcher a bit more.
But once I get my Rocket Launcher to a reasonable level (possibly using Diamonds for instant finishes on one of my accounts), I’m probably going to focus on my Boom Cannons, followed by Flamethrowers. So why not go after Landing Craft? Right now, they are going to be the biggest cost and really don’t affect anything I’m doing so more than likely, they’ll be the last thing I upgrade. I might try upgrading Landing Craft during Mega Crab days where I’m close to maxing out my resources since I prefer upgrading the most expensive things just to get them out of the way. But right now, they have little use for what I’m doing.
Now, I don’t know what the other 2 updates will be. I suspect at least one will be the Weapon Lab. The 4th Prototype is going to be a pretty big deal. Usually, I go for two Hot Pots and a Doom Cannon which is for Hammerman Strikes Back setups. With a 4th Prototype, I get more freedom to focus on anti-tank defenses. Like if a Grappler is available in that mix, I would choose that.
If the Weapon Lab is the 2nd update, what will the last update be? I didn’t see anything else unusual that made it to the developer’s build. But that doesn’t mean something else isn’t coming. I still think given the trajectory of updates, there might be a 9th Landing Craft to counter balance the Weapon Lab update. I just think that because much of the testing has resulted around 8 Landing Craft over the past several years, a 9th Landing Craft will screw a lot up. The only exception is if a new type of troop is introduced or perhaps converting several Prototype Troops into permanent usable troops like the Heavy Choppa. But if that happens, almost everyone certainly will just switch over to Heavy Choppa and render virtually the rest of the troops worthless. This is why I think the 9th Landing Craft will become a thing.
With that said, the real question becomes whether or not there will be future updates. It took more than a year to get this one and for so little. The amount of asset updates are pretty tiny and the only one receiving a significant visual change is the HQ25 itself. Also, when there was a discussion about updates back during the HQ23 days, the HQ25 was the only thing mentioned being planned here.
I think if HQ25 eventually includes at the end a 9th Landing Craft, it could breathe some extra life into Boom Beach. Not a lot but enough where we could probably go another 5 updates, leading to a final 10th Landing Craft. But the only way this could happen is if we also see an update to the Radar which allows the map to be broadened with higher level bases as well as a Stage 8 for the rest of the events.
If we do see a 9th Landing Craft, I might do a blog post on how the meta can change for several load outs because there’s a bunch of things I would like to try but currently do not have the ability as a result of being confined to what we have.
At any rate, for myself, I’m pretty happy that I managed to already get some key upgrades. It’s going to be interesting seeing how what we do have come into play.