XII. Statues

While we have covered all of the important traditional items in the guide so far, there is one subject that we have not even touched upon yet - a topic that is pretty much exclusive to Boom Beach in terms of the Action-Adventure Combat genres to which it belongs.

What is that topic you might wonder? Well, the answer is Statues.

Seriously. You will have seen some on the islands and villages that the Blackguard has attacked, invaded, and captured - but they will all be smashed. There is a reason for that.

The Blackguard do not fully understand the magical nature of these statues that the natives have been creating for thousands of years - but you are a smart warrior and you easily figure out not only that these are very important strategic assets but that by employing native craftsman of your own and by obtaining as many statue parts and resources as you can find, you can harness some of that native mojo and magic to your own ends!

The statues come in four types or classes: Life, Ice, Magma, and Dark, each of which enjoys its own particular influence offering its own special powers.

After Level 10 and with your HQ at Level 5 you have the ability to place up to 3 statues at your base, assuming you have the correct ingredients and sufficient resources for making them.

Life statues boost production. The special resource required for building them is Life types. There are three types of Life Statues, and their appearance is green armor and head dress on their stone effigies.

Idol: Build Time = 10s / Special Material Required = 7 Life Fragments.

Guardian: Build Time = 1h / Special Material Required = 7 Life Shards.

Masterpiece: Build Time = 10h / Special Material Required = 7 Life Crystals.

Ice statues boost base defense. The special resource required for building them is Ice types. There are three types of Ice Statues, and their appearance is blue armor and head dress on their stone effigies.

Idol: Build Time = 10s / Special Material Required = 7 Ice Fragments.

Guardian: Build Time = 1h / Special Material Required = 7 Ice Shards.

Masterpiece: Build Time = 10h / Special Material Required = 7 Ice Crystals.

Magma statues boost troops, powering them up. The special resource required for building them is Magma types. There are three types of Magma Statues, and their appearance is red armor and head dress on their stone effigies.

Idol: Build Time = 10s / Special Material Required = 7 Magma Fragments.

Guardian: Build Time = 1h / Special Material Required = 7 Magma Shards.

Masterpiece: Build Time = 10h / Special Material Required = 7 Magma Crystals.

Dark statues boost random powers / abilities and are perhaps the most interesting and the strongest and even most desirable of the Statue types. Unfortunately the special ingredients for the Dark Statue are the hardest ones to come by - for obvious reasons.

The special resource required for building them is Dark types. There are three types of Dark Statues, and their appearance is purple armor and head dress on their stone effigies.

Idol: Build Time = 10s / Special Material Required = 7 Dark Fragments.

Guardian: Build Time = 1h / Special Material Required = 7 Dark Shards.

Masterpiece: Build Time = 10h / Special Material Required = 7 Dark Crystals.

Obtaining the special resources that are used in the crafting of the statues is accomplished in several ways - you can receive them as rewards and you can obtain them via conquest!

As Rewards

When you complete special missions or the friendly natives that you have rescued make special deliveries of resources and materials to your base by boat, every now and then you will be offered the choice of the reward that you will take from a selection of three choices - and every now and then among those choices will be statue ingredients.

As Conquest Loot

You should know that while the enemy - the Blackguard - is not well-versed in the magical arts of the native statues, they are very much aware that the special fragments, shards, and crystals that the natives seek out and mine for use in creating the statues has powerful properties associated with them.

In consequence of this, the Blackguard routinely captures that material and ships it back to the Blackguard bases - usually the better protected and more secure bases in fact.

When you Scout an enemy base and the potential resource rewards list includes the line item "chance to get ?" that means that there are statue bits present at the base.

Material Appearances

The following are the unique appearances of the different statue ingredients / resources:

Fragments: Green, blue, red, or purple triangle-shaped crystal fragments.

Shards: Green, blue, red, or purple diamond-shaped crystal fragments.

Crystals: Green, blue, red, or purple crystal-shaped crystal fragments.

You probably do not need to be told that no matter what the other choices are, any time you find yourself being offered undamaged Crystals or Shards - no matter what their type - those are the reward that you want to select!

Statue Vlore

Vlore is a Buddhist word that describes the essential essence of a particular mental or physical art, philosophy, or pattern. Statue Vlore is the study and practice of channeling the mystical energies that make up the power base for the statue as both a magical resource and as an art form.

Based upon the combination of your current Character / Base Experience Level there is a hard limit to the number of Statues that you are permitted to build and have at your base. Well that is the theory but in practice we find that it is actually obtaining the special ingredients that are used to BUILD these magical and artistic wonders.

You can probably work out for yourself that a Masterpiece is stronger than a Guardian, and a Guardian is stronger than an Idol. You can also probably work out for yourself that a Fragment is easier to come by and obtain than a Shard, and of course full and undamaged Crystals? Those are the hardest to get of all of the ingredients.

So it is not really the hard-capped level-based limits that will stand in your way of building these wonderful additions to the game strategy, but rather the building of the statues themselves that will be the limiting factor!

Statue wisdom only comes through use - you cannot really appreciate the impact that the various statues and their types will have on your combat efforts until you actually have them built at your base and you feel the results of their power ebbing and flowing as it projects outwards from your base like invisible sun rays.

Once you do have them though, you will find yourself wondering how you ever managed to do all of that building, upgrading, and combat without having your statues in the first place?!

More significant is the way that the power of the statues - and the individual statues themselves - soon become almost the mascots of your base and its combat units!

While the availability of resources will largely be the deciding factor as to what you choose in terms of building your statues, you will eventually find yourself to be wealthy enough to have a choice, and at that time you are going to need to decide what types of statue you want to have the native artisans craft for your base.

To remind you, the following are the effects for each type:

• Life = Production.

• Ice = Defense.

• Magma = Offense.

• Dark = Random Effects.

You have the ability to reclaim any statue that you possess by exchanging power stones to complete a special ceremony and recover their ingredients. The cost to reclaim the contested statues is as follows:

• Idol = 1 Shard

• Guardian = 1 Crystal

• Masterpiece = 7 Power Powder

Note that you cannot place Masterpiece level statues for powers that you already possess. If you wanted to build a new status with the power of Troop Damage you would need to first reclaim the one you already have then build the new one.

The following powers have been observed in the game from the specific type of statue so these are verified. But this is NOT a complete list - it only shows the powers that we know about. There are certainly others.

Life Statue Powers

The following applies ONLY to Life Statues - that is Statues that are crafted using the Green Life Resources. The percentages presented here are the range that we have obtained or observed in the game - which is to say the lowest bonus and the highest.

What that means tis that you can obtain numbers between those in the rage, we just have not seen numbers that were lower or higher than those presented.

Life Statues increase Production of Resources used for building your base as well as units.

Ice Statue Powers

The temptation of improving your base defensive numbers as high as possibly is certainly one of the choices that is easy to understand. After all the idea of an enemy arriving at the scene of the battle only to find themselves facing a brick wall is too great to pass up, right?

Ice Statues manifest their power as increases in the Defensive/Offensive stats for Buildings. So when the statue of this type applies its magical power to our Headquarters for example, it boosts the HQ's Health (that being a Defensive improvement).

Where it applies its special magic to a Mortar Nest or Sniper Tower, which are examples of structures or buildings that also do damage, in addition to granting improvements to the structure Health, it may ALSO increase the amount of damage that any weapons attached to the structure might inflict upon the enemy!

Magma Statue Powers

As this statue's special magic is ostensibly to improve the stats of your combat units you may be surprised to learn that in addition to directly improving the amounts of damage done by the units it also can increase the amounts of Health that these units have - whereby making them more effective and dangerous because they are more robust in Health!

Magma Statues increase Offensive abilities and stats.

Dark Statue Powers

Dark Statues randomly increase abilities and stats or other effects... The ones that we know about for sure are the Gunboat Effects and Resource Rewards - but there may be others.

Dark Statues increase random abilities and stats including the above that we know about for sure...

Of the two we know about though, the increase to Gunboat Energy is the most important one of them all, because it grants you the ability early on to get in crucial 4th and even 5th shots during the initial beachhead phase, which can make ALL the difference in the world to the outcome!

* The percentage range indicated shows the percentages for ONE of the three not all - in other words the statue might raise the percentages of Wood, or Iron, or Stone, this column does not represent all three. There ARE statues that DO raise all three of the resources - Iron, Stone, and Wood - these are covered in the next column.

** It is possible for a statue to provide the percentage boost to ALL 3 of the resource types - that is to say it provides that percentage to Iron, Stone, and wood at the same time.

When you come right down to it, once you actually have the resources that are required to have your good native friends craft the statues that you want to have on your base, it all comes down to not just what areas you want to boost, but how the spread of what you boost will best serve your goals.

The choice here is purely personal - but considering that you have a cap of three early on, and considering how important the Gunboat is to the combat process -- the first choice you make should be to cycle through Dark Statues until you get a good one that improves the Gunboat Energy to a nice complimentary level!

After that? Well, I always had a soft spot for the troops - so anything that will improve their lives - so the next choice is likely going to be to pick a good Magma - then maybe a Life? Just saying!