ForumsGame WalkthroughsSonny Guide: Tips and Tricks for Strategy

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DoraDoraBoBora
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DoraDoraBoBora
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Nomad

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Just picked up Sonny on iTunes for your iPhone or iPad? Sonny 2017 has quite a few different mechanics compared to its predecessors, but we've got your back. Whether you're stuck with Sonny or just want to pick up some more information to better equip yourself, our guide is here to give you insight on how the game works. Rather than functioning as an explicit walkthrough, these tips for Sonny will show you how understanding the various mechanics will have you vanquishing the Vileclaw or crushing The Corrupter and beyond in no time.

Don't have the game yet? Get Sonny on iTunes!

FIVE QUICK TIPS FOR VICTORY
Use as much crowd control as possible - Control the battle by using Stuns, Slows, or other weakening effects against your enemies to gain the upper hand. Use abilities like Wound to direct your team's focus onto a specific target and take them down more quickly.
Strike often- It's easy to neglect it, but you must keep Speed balanced when managing your stats because the faster you are, the more you can do before your enemy's next attack.
Time your heals wisely - Learn your enemy's abilities and wait until after the enemy has used its dangerous move before healing your team. Regenerate will cure 1 debuff AT RANDOM, so it may not dispel the one you were hoping for if you use it while you're suffering from multiple status conditions!
The more skills, the better - Especially in the early game, it's much more helpful to have a wide variety of abilities than to marginally upgrade a single skill.
Spend money wisely - Respec your skills to experiment with new builds while you're in the first two zones -- it's only $1 in the beginning, but it gets pricier later on!  Also, items in the Shop are different in each zone; keep your inventory up to date by buying higher level items so your stats don't fall behind.
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FOCUS

What is Focus and how does it work?
"Focus" is the blue bar that hovers above each character and partner to the green Health Points (HP) bar. When that blue bar is filled, you get to make your move, but the same goes for your enemy! Your goal is make sure your bar fills faster and more often.

The rate at which your Focus bar replenishes is determined by the Speed stat (the yellow feather icon that appears when you select a character). The higher your Speed, the faster your Focus will build, and the sooner you will be able to attack before the other team.

Increase your rate of attack either indirectly by equipping +Speed items or directly by using an ability like Snap Kick while in battle, which instantly grants 50 Focus.

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SPEED
How can Speed give you an advantage in combat?

More chances to hit means more opportunities to apply Chance-on-Hit (a.k.a. Proc) bonuses such as Expose's defense reduction or a double attack with Quick Strike.

If you effectively balance your Speed (thus the rate at which you regain Focus), not only will you have more opportunities to strike as your turn comes faster, you will also be able to use your powerful abilities more often.

Consider the following: An ability like Guard, which grants a hefty +150% Defense bonus and +50% Stun and Focus Drain resist, has a 3-turn duration and a 5-turn cooldown. If your Speed is equal to the opponent's, they may hit you multiple times in the two turns before you have a chance to protect yourself with Guard again. But with a higher Speed, your Focus will consistently build faster, giving you one or even two extra turns to act before the enemy makes their next move.

Each time your Focus bar refills an extra turn before your enemy can retaliate means one less turn spent defenseless during a cooldown period on your strong abilities. Given a high enough Speed gap, you could potentially keep Guard up throughout an entire battle.

Speed is the "silent strength" stat in Sonny. Ignoring Speed to focus only on Power is a great way to see really big numbers when you attack, but without a balance of these two stats, you'll also be dead before you get a chance to take that big swing.

Other stats are, of course, incredibly useful in their own way -- we'll discuss them later on. However, you can only do so much to buff your own attributes, so it's often most effective to lower the enemy's,  too...

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DEBUFFS
This enemy has strong defenses! How do I get through them?
"Wound" is a crucial ability in the early stages of the game for whittling down sturdy targets.

The Wound ability applies the Bleed debuff, which deals extra damage every time the target is struck with an attack. It's especially useful at early stages of the game, when the damage is practically equal to a double-strike.

Your allies will also focus their attacks on Bleeding targets. Use this to your advantage to have your whole team target an enemy that needs to be quickly eliminated.

Amplify the effects of Wound by pairing with the right abilities:
Super Dazed enemies are extremely vulnerable to attacks. Combine this temporary weakness with a direct attack and the huge bonus damage from Wound, and the target won't survive another turn.
On a similar note, Blood Strike will steal a large amount of extra health from a Super Dazed enemy. This can be a life-saver in a fight if your Regenerate is on cooldown!

Armor is the enemy of damage. Use a combination of Passive abilities and skills to negate the target's defenses:
Expose is a Passive ability that has a 20% Proc chance to reduce the enemy's Defense by a whopping -75% for the next hit it takes. Strike with a high-damage attack after an enemy is Exposed to deal a strong blow to even the tankiest tank.
Drill Strike is a skill perfect for raw damage... it completely ignores 100% of the target's Defense. Time your Drill Strike for the moment your target falls under 35% hp to deal an additional +50% damage and quickly execute a low-health enemy.

This enemy has a lot of dangerous attacks! How do I prevent it from overwhelming my team?
&lt>The most direct way to keep an enemy from attacking you is to stun them with an ability such as Break. A stun completely stops the target from acting on its next turn. Time the use of your stuns wisely. A well-placed stun on the right target can:

Stop an enemy if you know they're about to use a debuff ability against you such as Poison or Bleed.  This is especially effective against weak targets that like to throw out a DoT at the start of a fight so you can kill them before they have a chance to strike and save your Regenerate for a more crucial moment in battle.
Stall for time if you need just one more turn before an ability on cooldown becomes available.
Prevent a dangerous, super-powerful attack from an enemy that has a berserk ability such as Rage. Many of these enemy buffs last only one turn and have long cooldowns. You can completely turn the tide of battle if you wait until they berserk to use your stun.

Just as it helps you to have as high Speed as possible, making the enemy as slow as possible is critical in battle. The Cripple skill reduces a target's Speed by -35% for 3 turns with a 4-turn cooldown. If your Speed is high enough, you can keep an enemy constantly Crippled.

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SYNERGY
As we now know, having a slower enemy means having a distinct advantage over them in turn rate, and it also means elongating the duration of your other effects. Combine debuffs and attacks to maximize your Crowd Control (CC) and damage in battle:
Cripple + Stun = Longer stun, because it will take +35% longer for the target's focus to regenerate enough to end the turn, and thus end the stun.
Cripple + Wound/Cripple + Expose = More chances for your team to strike the enemy before Wound/Expose wears off, leading to a lot of extra damage.
Cripple + Suppress = Best used against enemies with Heal over Time (HoT) abilities. Being slowed means longer downtime before they receive their next heal and more time for you to go for a killing blow.
The Claw skill deals an additional +30% damage against Physically debuffed enemies. If you learn to pair your Physical CC and stretch them out as long as possible with slows, you can consistently inflict massive damage on your target.

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SKILLS
Should I invest Skill Points in multiple skills or upgrade one skill multiple times?
Fill your entire skill wheel before you even consider upgrading an ability. Having more skills gives you two advantages:
A variety of skills gives you a variety of strengths. You'll have the advantage of multiple tactics in battle to choose from instead of being limited to only a handful of abilities.
A wide repertoire of abilities will also help prevent downtime between turns where you are stuck with only your basic attack available.
There's an obvious advantage to being able to use two different attacks for hundreds of damage consecutively than to have one attack with +25 damage that then goes on cooldown.

Should I respec my skill points? When?

Try new strategies by experimenting with different skills to find a playstyle that works for you.

Respeccing is very cheap in the early game, only $1! It will not stay this inexpensive forever, so it's a good idea play around with various builds while you can do so without hurting your pockets.

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SURVIVING
What can I do to increase my survivability?
If you expect to take a large amount of damage in the next few turns from a charging or berserking enemy, you can protect yourself with an ability such as Guard, which grants +150% Defense as well as +50% Stun and Focus Drain resistance.
Other stats can help you survive in battle, too. Pay attention to the kind of damage the enemy is dealing your team:

Fast enemy with several, rapid attacks?  Defense is your direct protection from damage.
Slower enemy with heavy hitting blows OR an enemy using Defense-penetrating attacks? Vitality increases your HP to allow you to take more damage and still survive.
Non-Physical damage cutting through your health? Resistances will protect you by diminishing specific types of damage by a certain percentage.

Why should I pay attention to HP, beyond the obvious?
Many elements of battle can changed based on current HP. Abilities such as Drill Strike deals +50% damage to targets under 35% HP. Also, some enemies berzerk when they fall under half health, and some deal increased damage when you are under 50%.
Focus down berzerking targets quickly or stun them when they drop into the danger zone, and keep yourself healed when facing targets that gain strength while you're low HP.

How do I get the most out of my healing skills?
Be patient when fighting an enemy with dangerous abilities. Let them use their high-damage attack or debuff ability first, and then you can completely negate it with a well-timed heal.
The Regenerate skill can dispel 1 debuff at random. If you've been affected by a Slow and then a Poison, it's a 50/50 chance that your heal will dispel the Slow instead of the Poison. Sometimes, it's best to wait out the weaker debuffs before you attempt to dispel the stronger one.

Keep yourself alive without spending the Regenerate cooldown by using Lifesteal. You can find items with a Lifesteal percentage which will take an amount of the damage you deal and give it back to you as health <em>or</em> you can use abilities such as Blood Bath and Blood Strike.

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STATS
Not all stats are created equal! A single point into your four main stats, Vitality, Power, Defense, and Speed, can yield significant returns.
For example, increasing your Vitality by just one point will increase your HP by 7 points. Thus, an item that gives a few more Vitality points can add a sizable amount to your overall Health.

Speed: You thought we were done talking about Speed! In addition to raising your Focus regeneration rate, the Speed stat also increases your chance to hit <em>and</em> to dodge enemy attacks. A "Miss" on an attack deals absolutely no damage and has no effect whatsoever on the target.

Defense: This stat offers protection from direct attacks, meaning you can't lessen the damage from indirect damage like DoT effects, but you can significantly protect yourself from the enemy's strikes.

Try to maintain a balance of Defense and Vitality with your offensive stats if you notice the enemy is knocking out large chunks of your HP even after being debuffed. The damage you prevent each turn with a higher defense adds up quickly and can mean the difference between life or death.

It's possible to have high Defense with lower Power and still deal impressive damage. Abilities like Iron Slam take a large percentage of your Defense and add it directly as damage to your attack. Combining Iron Slam with a skill like Guard (which adds 150% Defense) can yield crippling results.

This guide is in progress! Feel free to post your own tips or as for help.

  • 203 Replies
gianghaduc
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gianghaduc
2 posts
Nomad

@Valtrith : Baron at final zone 6 (Blackhall Keep). I think he doesn't strong, but his wife is stronger
Sorry for my english

Sekelly327
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Sekelly327
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Peasant

I read something saying that the lightning strain made it quite difficult to get through a certain zone (maybe 5?). I am trying to make the choice now and feel like Frost might be the way to go because I loved the Hydraulic form in Sonny 2.

desangriento
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desangriento
2 posts
Nomad

Any idea how to beat Baron?, in 5 turns both enemies get too strong!

KorabanVII
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KorabanVII
18 posts
Nomad

@desangriento I beat the fight by focusing the Baron first. The other attacks very seldom from my experience. Maybe you need to bring more stuns, focus drains, slows, or weakening abilities.

Managed to make it to Zone 8 Stage 10. The fight feels like it depends on whether the Spartans miss all of their attacks. If anyones made it that far could weigh in.

Valtrith
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Valtrith
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Nomad

@gianghaduc: Nice! Does he look like he always has done, on other Sonny games?

Slayer008
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Slayer008
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Nomad

Finished the entire game...my thoughts:

General Impressions: Wanna preface this by saying that I played and got all achievements for Sonny 2 and 1. With that being said I found this Sonny to be the weakest one by far.

- [CON] The boss fights slowly turn into one of endurance rather than figuring out their weaknesses. Case in point, the build I was running towards the end was fully specced for damage/speed yet it still took far too long to bring down enemies. I'm talking a good 15+ minutes on bosses when it literally can't attack (get to this later) and I have bleed + defense breaks applied.

- [CON] Item diversity is terrible. The problem is that the items don't have a feeling of uniqueness anymore, they're just numbers at this point. Sonny 2 did this correctly with lots of cool super unique weapons (remember Wrath of the Council? Emerald Death?) that made you want to replay bosses over and over again to get the full set. Sonny 3 has very few unique weapons. Usually the weapons just have different numbers to them (with many of them going obsolete the very next zone) and the unique passives aren't so unique. The real kicker is that any of the items you or your allies equip don't show up in the game, further making the items feel bland and generic. I was also taken aback by how little there is to grind for in this game. Spoilers but towards the end there's pretty much no super late game OP armor set...in fact for my playstyle the second to last zone had the best items. And finally...why only 4 equip slots??

- [CON] Speed in my opinion is an overpowered stat. I think this is because the focus system was changed, as now you can spam super strong spells over and over again and constantly refresh your cooldowns with enough speed. My build towards the end was a Lightning/Ice mix...against a single opponent even with focus drain and stun resistance you can chain spells to the point where the enemy doesn't get to attack once. That's a design problem. Against two it's a similar situation, where only one enemy gets to attack like once every 5 turns. The frustrating thing though is that the game kind of forces you to play this way or pray you get lucky after a long *** grindfest.

- [PRO] I think the new evolve system is really cool and adds an additional strategy element to the game. In addition, it makes it so that you aren't totally screwed going into a fight for the first time and not having the right stuff. Sometimes the evolves can feel really clutch (ex. being about to die and getting the perfect evolve that tips the fight into your favor). The one evolve that might needs to be looked at is the multitarget evolve...it results in some interesting interactions (try it with the frost spell that regens heal + all focus + -5 CD LOL).

Final thoughts: I'd give this game a solid 6, with original Sonny being a 7 and Sonny 2 being a 9. Just didn't feel it this time around, which was a real bummer considering the long *** wait time for this one. Hopefully Krin puts out a better product for Sonny 4.

Slayer008
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Slayer008
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Nomad

@Sekelly327 I found the game to be quite doable with lightning strain first actually. Had some troubles with the frost zone (zone 4) but rest of the game was smooth sailing.

Doombreed
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Doombreed
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Templar

@Slayer008 excellent feedback that describes exactly my thoughts on the game too thank you.

@Sekelly327 Zone 5 is supposed to be hard with the lightning strain because enemies use lightning attacks and are very fast as well, able to match you and attack before you. However, really, if you equip all your party members with shovels to reduce the focus enemies have every time you attack them and if you opt for the 'Fury' evolution (hits thrice with reduced power to activate the effects of an ability three times) every time for your basic attack you will find little trouble I destroyed the War Lizard with this tactic after losing only once or twice and Celestia without losing at all... in a Legend run which was coincidentally, my first run in the game xD

nichodemus
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nichodemus
14,981 posts
Grand Duke

It ain't your first run man, you had time to beta test HAHA

Doombreed
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Doombreed
7,022 posts
Templar

@nichodemus and that was my first and only run man I haven't played it since. I am talking about the time I was beta testing xD I stopped at Augustin (remember, the iOS device I had to test the thing was borrowed. I had to return it so of course there is no way I could have played again since then )

nichodemus
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nichodemus
14,981 posts
Grand Duke

Ah was it? Seems so long ago, I must have forgotten.

Valtrith
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Valtrith
23 posts
Nomad

Hey guys, I need tips on defeating Celestia with my Shadow Build. The Zone 5 boss.

Doombreed
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Doombreed
7,022 posts
Templar

@Valtrith Tips are above and in the previous page. In short, shovels on everyone (you included), opt for the 'fury' evo for your basic attack Celestia ought to get only a couple of turns in total for the entirety of the battle xD

Valtrith
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Valtrith
23 posts
Nomad

@Doombreed: Thanks! That should help.

DLN511
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DLN511
6 posts
Nomad

@KorabanVII I'm having trouble with that stage now too. Any tips?

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