This guide is a basic overview of the Drowning Doom faction, which includes descriptions of the Solos, Units and some of the basic strategies you can take while playing as Ophelia.

Overall, the Drowning Doom plays a lot like Ironheade, but with an emphasis on debuffing your opponent (compared to Ironheades and the Tainted Coils tendancy to buff themselves and come down on opponents fast and hard). Aside from grave diggers, every unit that is produced comes as a single unit (and not in a group of 3 or 4), so you get less physical units per build than you do with the other factions. Additionally, unlike the other factions, many of the units in the Doom (Bride, Organist, Dirgible, Rat Gut, Tree Back) are limited in the number you can create. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each DD unit can help you overcome the numbers disadvantage.

The units and solos in this guide are listed by tiers, which basically are the levels of your stage at any given time (tier 1 is your stage when you start, tier 2 is after one stage upgrade, etc.)

Special thanks go to Guziol# for providing me with specific numbers on the damage and HP of units and solos, and also to Robbert Bruggeling for the Drowning Doom Logo.

Doom Dorks!

Tier 1 Units

Grave Diggers
HP: 8 (12 Upgraded)
Damage: 0.4 (0.6 Upgraded)
Double Team: 3.5 AoE (5.5 AoE Upgraded)
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 6
Insul's Rating: 3/5
Grave Diggers are essential to the DD startup. Although physically weaker than the other Tier 1 melee infantry (Headbangers and Soul Kissers), they sport greater numbers per group. I find them the most useful tier 1 unit at the beginning of the game, beating out the Bride and Frightwig at holding early ground. When considering to upgrade, only do so if you still have 12 or more remaining by the time you get to tier 3.
Double Team: The Grave Diggers' double team hits pretty hard and is great at scattering melee infantry in early game clashes, as well as bringing down fan leeches.

Bride
HP: 12 (18 Upgraded)
Attack/Move Speed Debuff: 10% Stacking (20% Stacking when upgraded)
Double Team: 2 (2.6 Upgraded)
Fan Cost: 50
Load: 2 (3 units maximum)
Insul's Rating: 4/5
While having no direct attack, they provide a movement and attack speed debuff to enemy units and avatars, which can stack up to three times (using three brides) for a powerful slowing effect. They are useful at every stage of the game, but at the start of a match it may be more effective to opt for extra Grave Diggers instead. Still, if you plan on using their double team extensively at the start, it's worth the 50 fans. Late game, 3 upgraded brides seriously cripple any army.
Double Team: The Bride will dance with Ophelia, shooting lighting at regular intervals with the press of the attack button. These bolts do 2 damage each and can clear a fan geyser quicker than a unit of gravediggers can unassisted. The double team really shines during the beginning of a match, but falls off late game.

Frightwig
HP: 18 (24 Upgraded)
Attack: 1.5 (2 Upgraded)
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 3
Insul's Rating: 1.5/5 for attacking, 4/5 for controlling
Frightwigs are basic ranged units. As grave diggers deal slighty more damage, and Frightwigs are huge avatar harassment targets, I do not recommend using these in your initial push for geysers. Frightwigs have a very unique double team that allows them to control enemy units, so build these for that ability exclusively.
Double team: The frightwig is picked up and can be thrown at an enemy unit. This will cause the frightwig to wrap around them, controlling the enemy unit to fight for your side. This will last until the controlled unit or frightwig dies. You cannot double team with the controlled unit, but any buffs or debuffs it provides benefits your army instead.

Tier 2 Units

Rat Gut
HP: 24
Damage: 9
Double Team Damage: 2.6 AoE per second
Fan Cost: 150
Load: 3 (4 Unit Maximum)
Insul's Rating: 4.5/5
Powerful anti-infantry unit. Rat Guts send out rats that can destroy basic infantry and deal damage to buildings and vehicles. They heal themselves for a short period of time after their rats return from dealing damage, so they have a good bit of longevity. You should spawn these if your base gets rushed by infantry.
Double Team:You hop in and manually control the rats. Spamming the attack button near enemies will tear apart enemy units in an area. This double team can kill an avatar before they get a chance to finish playing any of their longer solos.

Organist
HP: 32
Attack Damage Debuff: 25% Stacking
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 3 (3 Unit Maximum)
Insul's Rating: 4/5
A debuff unit that cannot attack in any way, but provides a wide-area debuff that reduces the damage all enemy units deal. The debuff is 25% per organist and can stack up to three times, depending on the amount of organists you have. These are most effective when paired with brides and a dirgible.
Double Team: You can launch the phantom playing the organ at an enemy unit, manually controlling that unit for as long as you are double-teaming (and the organist remains alive). You control the attack they utilize, but some attacks cannot be used. Don't be afraid to use this during a fight to take over a powerful unit.

Lightning Rod
HP: 43
Damage: 2 w/ Stun
Double Team Damage: Up to 5.5 w/ Stun & Chaining effect (up to 8 targets chained, damage may reduce between jumps)
Fan Cost: 250
Load: 5
Insul's Rating: 3.5/5
General purpose ranged attack vehicles. These are the DD equivalent to Headsplitters, though their attacks are weaker but strike faster. 2 or 3 of these paired together are very good at general purpose killing (which is known as a caravan).
Double Team: You drive the lightning rod, setting up for an assualt with the attack button. When targeting, you can charge the attack to increase its damage and the number of enemies the bolt chains off of. At max, it does 5.5 damage and can hit 8 units/buildings in a close formation.

Tier 3 Units

Reaper
HP: 18
Damage: 7
Double Team Damage: 2.5
Fan Cost: 200
Load: 4
Insul's Rating: 2/5
Although they deal a lot of damage and move quickly, their low health causes them to require support from additional units. As such, massing them isn't a viable strategy. The quick moving reapers will dispatch melee infanty quickly while avoiding their attacks (especially true of Skull Rakers), and they can kill an avatar in just 3 hits.
Double Team: Ride the back of reaper, allowing you to use a sorta weak scythe attack and more importantly causing all nearby infantry to be scattered in fear. This scattering prevents units from attacking, so you can corral them into your other units for dispatching.

Brood
HP: 19
Damage: 2.5
Double Team Damage: 9 AoE (Suicide attack)
Fan Cost: 80
Load: 2
Insul's Rating: 4.5/5
Anti-Vehicle vehicle units that seem to be very effective against all types of units. They move quickly and have a poweful attack, but are not very durable. Since these are cheap and build so quickly, they make great last-minute mass armies that can handle almost anything.
Double Team: Ophelia hops into the stroller and can drive it around. If the attack button is pressed, it will cause the brood to fly forward and destroy itself, sending damaging dolls in all directions. This is great for when the brood is about to die, facing large groups, or finishing off stages quickly.

Dirgible
HP: 96
Defense Debuff: 30% reduction of unit & building defense
Double Team: Urns deal a DOT damage effect to enemy units, and apply a HOT affect to allies (approx. 2 HP healing)
Fan Cost: 200
Load: 4 (Maximum of 1 unit)
Insul's Rating: 5/5
The dirgible is the third doom unit that cannot attack, but provides a very powerful defense debuff for all units and buildings it is in proximity to. It moves slowly and is vulnerable to avatar harassment, but has a very high amount of HP and is difficult to reach with melee units. When built, it flys in from the top of your stage, rather than from the sides. You absolute must have one when you hit tier 3, in my opinion.
Double Team: You hop on the side of the dirgible and cause it to fly very high above the ground, allowing you to drop urns on opponents. These urns apply a HOT to your allies, and a DOT to enemy units.

Tier 4 Units

Tree Back
HP: 60
Damage: 2 AoE per second (Crows)
Double Team Damage: 9 AoE w/ Knockback
Fan Cost: 300
Load: 4 (Maximum of 1 unit)
Insul's Rating: 4/5
Powerful moving ranged unit. The tree back is effective against nearly anything and, when double teamed, can take out a large number of units. The crows that live in its branches continously fly out and damage enemy units in a large area.
Double Team: The Tree Back hops out of the ground and can be moved by the player. Pressing the attack button causes it to unleash a powerful AoE ground slam, which knocks units back and seriously damages them. Tree Back moves slowly when DT'd, so don't hop on until you need to.

Solos Shared with all Factions

Summon Hearse
Call forth the Hearse and immediately hop in. Can be used to harass in the early game, or to somewhat distract the worm in the Feeding Area. A frontal hit deals 2 damage to any unit/avatar. Cannot damage buildings.

Summon Flag
Drops the rally flag on the map at your location, indicating where your new units will automatically move to when created. This is very vital when combined with the light beacon for getting your units where you want them, and the flag should be summoned to new locations whenever you need it moved (as carrying/planting the flag is somewhat of a hassle). This takes half the time to play as Ironheades flag (3 seconds vs. 6) and approximately the same time to play as the Tainted Coils (3 seconds vs. ~2.5 seconds)

Rally Army
Gather all of your units across the map to the location where you played this. It's usefulness varies upon your situation, but here are some good uses for it:
A - You need to quickly bring everyone to an enemy stage (or to the defense of your own stage, but the former is the better use)
B - You have created a massive army that is not scattered, and you don't want to use the beacon (although, the beacon is still probably quicker in most cases).
Personally I don't use this too often, but it can be very important.

Fan Tribute
Builds a merch booth over an undisputed fan geyser. Note that Ophelia's version is slightly more complicated than Eddies or Doviculous', but they are all the same length in play time.

Tier 1 Solos

Silence - 30 second cooldown
Silence is a really powerful avatar debuff that, in my opinion, is the best of the three debuff solos. When played, it will affect all enemy avatars in a fairly large radius, and cause them to be unable to play solos, give orders, use guitar attacks (including combos), and interrupts any solo that they are playing. This is indispensable when trying to steal geysers from enemies, or delaying them from claiming one they are about to take. This can hit avatars in the air or ground.

Black Tear Infusion - 2 minute cooldown
Playing this will release a rather large aura around your units that will heal them for 2 HP over the course of its duration. This healing affects all DD units - vehicle and infantry alike - which makes this a key solo to play during any clash of armies where you need the upper hand (such as early game skirmishes). Play this on cooldown whenever you're fighting other units, or when your own units suffered damage from a recent fight and are sitting idle.

Tier 2 Solos

Shadow Blast - 1 minute cooldown
AoE Damage solo for DD. This deals some direct damage, knocks back enemies and applies a dot that deals additional damage and slightly reduces attack power of units inflicted with it. The total damage of this solo is 8 HP. Any time you can survive being in the middle of enemy units and can pull off this solo, it's great to play. This is also great at taking out units attacking an unguarded merch booth.

Baleful Misdirection - 1 minute cooldown
Summons a phantom version of any unit you can currently build (even if you have already reached the maximum for that unit) at your current location. These phantoms look real to enemy players, but cannot deal damage and have half of their original health. These are incredibly useful for distracting enemy avatars by attacking merch booths/the stage, and also for protecting your real troops by creating more targets for enemy units to go for.
Guziol# Note - when the phantom units die, they will behind a blue puff of smoke. This will alert enemy avatars who are watching that the unit(s) are/were a fake, but it will not affect AI units.

Veil of Deceit - 2 minute cooldown
This solo wraps your units in an aura that causes them to be invisible to enemy units for a short period of time. This is quite useful at hiding the telltale signs of a doom army (organist mist, bride thunderclouds, etc.) and also good at sending hard-hitting units on destructive missions (like a combination of 2 brood and a dirgible). Like roadies, they can be seen by nearby avatars and units (when attacking), but are invisble at a distance.

Tier 3 Solos

Encompassing Gloom - 5 minute cooldown
Blocks unit production for the enemy faction for a short time. Unlike Rock Block, this also inhibits the spawning units of the Tainted Coil from producing any offspring, so it is very useful when fighting a Tainted Coil push. Since this is a weather effect, it is also very useful at blocking the crippling Light of Dawn solo, which can stop a wall of death (brides, organists & dirgible) dead in its tracks. Using this is more a matter of timing than anything, as you will generally get a maximum of 2 of them off per stage battle.

Tier 4 Solos

Weaping Heavens - 3 minute cooldown
The Drowning Doom Nuke Solo. This seems to hit harder than Bring it on Home, but doesn't leave a lingering fire damage field like the zepplin does. If you watch carefully when playing this, you can see the tears fly from your stage to the targeted area. Due to this launching nature, the farther you are from your base, the longer it takes for the tears to hit the location once the solo completes (so it may take some getting used to for timing the assualt).
This solo will also arc the tears based on the direction from your stage, and tends to hit the hardest slightly ahead of where you play the solo. When used on a stage, it will do 1-2 spotlights worth of damage, depending on how many tears hit.
Curiously, this has a 3 minute cooldown, which is 2 minutes shorter than Bring it on Home.

General Strategies

-When using a beacon, set it just to the side of a fan leech, merch booth or stage. This way, your units will defend themselves when enemy units or avatars attack them. If you set them directly on a structure, they will ignore all incoming attacks and focus on that structure.
If you require them to focus on attacking a structure (like a stage), use the attack command instead.

-Give individual orders from the air. Holding the Y button while airborn will place a blue pentagram cursor on the ground. If you keep holding it, you can drag it across any number of units you wish. This is much quicker and a lot easier to pull off than individual orders on the ground. (DF stated that they threw this feature in at the end of production, hence it is not outlined in the single player campaign).

-It's been mentioned many times in many guides since 2009, but use your double teams. Axe and guitar combos are great for beating down avatars and things like frightwigs and organists, but in bigger battles you'll want to hook up with one of your units. Here are your best double teams (but don't forget to make use of all your DTs).
-Grave Digger (use it to scatter tier 1 units and take down fan leeches)
-Bride (clear fan leechs, nuns and thunderhogs with this)
-Rat Gut (use it on avatars or on ranged infantry that are grouped together)
-Brood (don't be afraid to sacrifice them)
-Dirgible (try not to hit the same units twice in a row, the healing/damage over time effects do not stack, but get refreshed)
-Tree Back

Countering Units

The doom have a few key builds for countering different types of units. If you notice what your opponent is focusing on, try building the counter to it. Here are the counters, according to the descriptions:

Grave Diggers counter Ranged units - Though it seems to be a very slight advantage over them. This holds true for all melee infantry in tier 1 of all three factions.

Rat Guts counter all Infantry - And do they ever. I mean three of them could probably kill an entire 40 load of headbangers and razor girls, providing you're controlling one. These guys also heal themselves.

Brood counter Vehicles - They actually seem to counter everything, but they are exceptionally good at breaking apart vehicles.

Reapers counter infantry - But not very well. These guys have very low HP and their fear aura does not affect all units. Rat Guts are preferred.

Tree Back counters all - Or so the Brutal Wiki claims. Sending one of these guys on their own is still a bad idea. Pair them up with some brood or lighting rods, and definitely with a dirgble.

Controllers counter big, expensive units - Your frightwigs and organists both have double teams that allow you to take control of your opponents units. The frightwig claims the unit for your own (making it behave as one of your own), and the organist allows you to manually control a single unit as long as you are double teaming with it. Frightwigs are better at taking units that provide buffs or debuffs (or for keeping them after the fight is done), and Organists are better used for big units you want to take during a fight.
Here are some units you should consider controlling (in priority order):
Ironheade: Rock Crusher, Headsplitters, Metal Beasts, Bouncers, Thunderhogs (w/ a Frightwig)
Drowning Doom: Tree Back, Dirgible, Brides (w/ a Frightwig), Organists (w/ a Frightwig), Lightning Rods, Rat Guts, Reapers
Tainted Coil: Pain Lifters, Skull Rakers, Heart Cutters, Screamwagons (w/ a Frightwig)

Debuffers counter all - It doesn't say anywhere, but this is the general edge that the Drowning Doom have. 3 brides, 2 organists and a dirgible together make it very hard for your army to be killed, while when paired with good counter units make it easier to kill anything that hits it. This is why it's called a "wall of death" - all units you throw at it can't get past. Remember, the Light of Dawn Ironheade solo kills the wall of death.

Facing Ironheade is a combination of timing assualts with your debuffing units, and making sure that you personally take care of the Ironheade 'problem units'. Ironheade also has a multitude of solos that will probably ruin your day (in fact, it seems like Ironheades solos were made especially to counter the Doom), so you may want to learn what the Ironheade solos sound like, and what to do if you are an unfortunate victim of them.

Early Game

Anvil of Burden - If you hear Eddie playing this, it's a really good idea to fly far out of range before he completes it. If you get an anvil stuck to you while in the middle of a group of IH units, it can often spell a death for you, and a very important 50 fans for your opponent. On the other hand, if the player is good they may stop playing just as you leave, effectively preventing you from harassing them. If this is the case, it may be wise to coax them into playing it when you know you will be safe. Since this plays so fast you will never get to silence Eddie in response with this.
Facemelter - Facemelter was practically invented to destroy grave diggers, as their HP and the damage of this solo are equal. You may be able to Silence their avatar if your reaction time is quick enough, but if you don't think you can do it, send your units away from Eddie as fast as you can. The radius of the solo is low, but any digger trapped in it will surely perish.

As with all starts, I recommend using only grave diggers as your starting unit, especially considering the fact that Ironheade players will often times have at least one razor girl unit (and they are beaten by all tier 1 melee infantry units). Grave diggers also give you numbers to fight with, and thus make it harder for avatars to harrass than brides or fightwigs.

If you have 2 merch booths off the hop, don't be afraid to make 3 sets of grave diggers right away, and send them to merch booths as soon as they come out (you can make 4 sets if you need the extra pressure at 2 merch booths, like in the Circle of Tears). You may also want to make 1-2 brides instead of one of your grave digger units to slow down grave diggers and to quickly shoot down thunderhogs and Eddie himself.

If you only start with one merch booth, either cut the amount of grave diggers by 1 (create 2 groups) and send them to a single geyser, or focus hard to control the map by creating 4 grave digger units and rushing for the heavily contested geysers (2-3 to the center and 1-2 to the side in deaths fjord, for example). The former method will allow you to build up your stage faster while still keeping up geyser pressure, and the latter will allow you to try to capture as many as you can very early.

Remember in all cases to extensively use the grave diggers double team & the black tear infusion solo, as it will give you the upper hand in large geyser fights.

Note, that it is my preference to never build a Frightwig at the start of the game, and to build brides about half of the time. Your mileage may vary, but don't waste too many fans on things that are easily killed by avatars during the early game.

Mid Game

Rock Block - This is another solo that is tailored to hurt the Doom more than the Tainted Coil (although it affects Ironheade players just as much). Normally the other player won't play this right beside you, so you can't really stop it or prepare for it. Just try to put pressure on your opponent while you wait this out (it really doesn't last long).
Light of Dawn - The Doom killer. This one causes a lot of trouble for your debuffing units, so if you are relying on them heavily to protect your army, you will find it destroyed in moments while this weather is in effect. Fortunately you can block it with Encompassing Gloom, so when playing against Ironheade, save it so you can play it right before attacking your opponent. Thusly, Light of Dawn will be blocked (at least for a little while).

]If you are in a position where your stage is safe and have taken approximately half of the fan geysers then you can either go directly for the next stage upgrade (bringing you to tier 3), or build a lightning rod caravan (which is 3 lightning rods) to take out enemy merch booths one at a time (it won't take long with a caravan). The rule of thumb I follow is to go straight for stage 3 if you are not in immediate need of units (feeling little pressure from your opponent), and build a 2-3 lightning rod caravan if you need to take some uncontested merch booths back from your opponent.

At this point really watch out for early Roadies, as they will destroy your stage very quickly if left unattended. Leave a Ratgut at your stage to prevent this from ending you.

Late Game

Bring it on Home
Usually Eddie has to be right in the middle of your units to pull this off, so chances are you will see and hear him playing it. Try to double team with a Ratgut to kill him before it finishes, or quickly play a silence if you don't think you can get him down in time. This will do a lot of damage to your units regardless of your debuffers. You probably only have to worry about this once per stage battle, as it has a 5 minute cooldown.

In my opinion, Doom have the upper hand on Ironheade in late game, mainly due to Brood and Dirgibles, but you'll still need to watch for a few things:
- If you have massed broods, watch for both metal beasts and bouncers, as their double teams are great at taking out broods and they can be healed by thunderhogs. I suggest creating a ratgut or two to go with any units you send out, as all Ironheade tier 3 units are infantry and will not appreciate having to defend against them.

- Once you get to the point where the IH player has a Rock Crusher, you're going to want to keep your army away from it as much as you can, as Bladehenge will often destroy it. Don't be afraid to use Mamakaze on them, as brood are probably your most powerful unit against the rock crusher. Additionally, organists are incredibly useful against a rock crusher; Not only do they reduce the damage of the fireworks and the double team, but they also have the ability to possess it, keeping it on your side for at least a part of the battle.
I find that although frightwigs work to control a rock crusher, getting the frightwig on it in the first place is a daunting task and often the wig will die immediately after.

-Keep watching for roadies as you did in the mid game. Build Ratguts and a single reaper at your base for defense if need be.

Tree Backs are defintely powerful if you can afford them, but often times I will not even spend the fans to get to tier 4. If the game is at a stalemate or is going slowly, build it and use it, but don't send it alone. At the very least, send a dirgible with it. Also, if you reach tier 4, use Weaping Heavens as much as possible, as it has a relatively short cooldown (3 mins) and does do a fair bit of damage in a large area.

Drowning Doom mirror matches are often interesting, as you will need to outplay your opponent using the same tools that they have available to them. Any advantage that debuffing brings to the table can be countered by your enemies debuffing units, so knowing what to build and how to deal with your enemy at any stage in the game is of the utmost importance.

Early Game

Silence - Getting hit by a silence when you're harrasing your opponent isn't the end of the world, but getting cut off during a Fan Tribute or a Black Tear Infusion can be disasterous. Getting cut off during a fan tribute can be especially bad if you already sent your units to a new destination, as it means your opponent can take the geyser you just cleared (ouch). Since fan tribute is the worst case scenario for getting silenced, just make sure you keep at least one unit near you while you claim geysers. By its logical nature it is impossible to interrupt a silence by using your silence, so unless you played it first, either fly away or just wait out the debuff.
Black Tear Infusion - If the other Ophelia uses this and you don't, you're probably going to lose the skirmish by the exact amount that this heals for. Either silence it when you hear it playing, or play it yourself in response.
Shadow Blast - Not as terrible as facemelter, but it will cause you greif if all of your units are hit by it. Your best bet is to silence it, but you can direct your units out of harms way if possible as well.

As with all starts, I recommend using only grave diggers as your starting unit, but if you were to ever consider building frightwigs and brides in the early game, doing so against another doom player is what I find the most effective. Brides can be used to slow grave diggers and take out enemy brides, and frightwigs can be used to possess your opponents brides, giving you more than your maximum limit.

If you have 2 merch booths off the hop, don't be afraid to make 3 sets of grave diggers right away, and send them to merch booths as soon as they come out (you can make 4 sets if you need the extra pressure at 2 merch booths, like in the Circle of Tears). You may also want to make brides or frightwigs and use them as outlined in the paragraph above.

If you only start with one merch booth, you can either build 3 grave digger units and send them to seperate fan leeches (2 on one leech, 1 on an easier leech), or you can do the combo of 2 grave digger units, 1 bride & 1 frightwig. Use the bride to give your units the edge, and the frightwig to take your opponents bride, or just to have them hit ranged if you would prefer.

Remember in all cases to extensively use the grave diggers double team & the black tear infusion solo, as it will give you the upper hand in large geyser fights.

Mid Game

Baleful Misdirection - This isn't detrimental, but if your enemy successfully distracts you with a fake unit, you're playing right into their hands by wasting your time. If the unit they built was a grave digger, you can tell that the entire troop is fake after you kill the first one, as they will burst into a puff of electrified blue smoke when they die. You probably won't get the option to silence this, and you really don't need to.
Encompassing Gloom - It's not really that bad against another doom player, but it can hurt you if you're being attacked at your stage and you can't bring in any replacement units to defend it. Try to outsmart your opponent and play it before you feel they will, as impossible as that may be.

If you are in a position where your stage is safe and have taken approximately half of the fan geysers then you can either go directly for the next stage upgrade (bringing you to tier 3), or build a lightning rod caravan (which is 3 lightning rods) to take out enemy merch booths one at a time (it won't take long with a caravan). The rule of thumb I follow is to go straight for stage 3 if you are not in immediate need of units (feeling little pressure from your opponent), and build a 2-3 lightning rod caravan if you need to take some uncontested merch booths back from your opponent.

Watch out for enemy lightning rod caravans that come your way, as they are hard to counter before you get a number of broods in your army. Additionally, watch out for any units that may have a veil of deceit around them, especially caravans.

Late Game

Weaping Heavens - If you see the enemy Ophelia on the ground slightly ahead of your troops with the solo spotlights around her, chances are she is trying to lead your army with a barrage of weaping heavens black eyeballs. Jump down and immediately silence her if you see this occurance. This will rarely ever get used on your stage, so 9 times out of 10 you will be able to spot and prevent this solo from being played, so long as you are accompanying the army you're trying to protect from it.

If you aren't in danger, your first move should be a dirgible, as a 30% defense debuff will turn the tables in your favour (or even them if your enemy has one). If you are having trouble with units attacking your stage and merch booths from all over, build brood, ratguts and lightning rods and send them where they would be most effective.

If for some reason your enemy is still using a lot of infantry (upgraded grave diggers, rat guts, brides, frightwigs), then build 1 reaper and 2 rat guts for stage defense. Whenever your stage is swarmed in infantry, hop on the reaper to scatter them and let the rat guts finish them off.

At this point, you may see your opponent massing broods (as they are cheap, fast and powerful, and they make a great replacement army). The best thing you can do to stop this is make a wall of death (dirgible, 2 organists, 3 upgraded brides) and throw some brood of your own in it. In the battle of brood vs. brood, don't hesitate to use Mamakaze, and don't forget to use Black Tear Infusion on cooldown (as it will also heal your vehicles).

Conversely, if you find a wall of death is slowly marching on your stage, check it with brood, a dirgible and (if you can afford it) a tree back. The tree back double team & mamakaze is the best way to stop a wall of death that is poorly managed in Doom vs. Doom battles.

Tree Backs are defintely powerful if you can afford them, but often times I will not even spend the fans to get to tier 4. If the game is at a stalemate or is going slowly, build it and use it, but don't send it alone. At the very least, send a dirgible with it. Also, if you reach tier 4, use Weaping Heavens as much as possible, as it has a relatively short cooldown (3 mins) and does do a fair bit of damage in a large area.

Playing against Tainted Coil involves managing three very dangerous situations:
1) The early game rush
2) The late game superior and divine unit march
3) The bleeding death finisher
In my opinion, these are when the coil are at their most powerful, and you should focus on getting your victory in during their relatively weak phases between the situations.

Early Game

Chains of Hell - This one is fairly easy to dodge - just fly up before it finishes. It can't hit you while you're in the air, but if you're on the ground you'll be stunned for a very short time. Your opponent will probably use this to interrupt a solo you are playing, but otherwise it probably won't end up killing you or ruining your shot at a geyser like anvil of burden or silence will.
Agony Boil - Although you can't see these unless you're very close, a well placed agony boil will waste one of your grave digger units if it is fully upgraded. If you see one on the ground, step on it to detonate it on yourself, dealing marginal damage to you but saving one of your units, and anywhere from 50-100 fans (depending on what it kills).
Curse - Also not as terrible as facemelter, but it will cause you greif if all of your units are hit by it. Your best bet is to silence it, but you can direct your units out of harms way if possible as well. If your units do get hit by a curse and your black tear infusion is not on cooldown, play it. It will counter some of the damage that it does, allowing your grave diggers to survive its duration.

As with all starts, I recommend using only grave diggers as your starting unit, but building a bride may not be a bad idea when it comes to quickly destroying battle nuns. Don't bother with a frightwig early game against TC, as you can't control battle nuns and it's not worth it to take over a punishing party bird lady or soul kisser.

During the early game you have to watch out for the Tainted Coil rush, which is the practice of building 2-3 battle nuns and continously pumping out tier 1 units at the location of the battle for fan geysers. A coil player can easily put a lot of fans into taking over geysers at the start of the game, and can proceed to send them to your base without ever upgrading to tier 2.
To counter this, stop sending your units to the geyser where their main army is (problematic for the Bleeding Coast but it's good everywhere else) and focus on keeping a few units in front of your stage (if they are coming that way) while upgrading to tier 2 ASAP. 2-3 Rat Guts will stop the Tainted Coil rush, especially if you are using their double team. Beating the TC rush is as good as winning the match, so push hard quickly after.

Regardless of how many merch booths you start with, don't be afraid to make 3 sets of grave diggers right away, and send them to merch booths as soon as they come out (you can make 4 sets if you need the extra pressure at 2 merch booths, like in the Circle of Tears). I tend to never really make anything but grave diggers against the Coil, as you need the numbers to fight off the coil rush.
Alternatively, you can opt to upgrade your stage right from the start if you're playing on either the Bleeding Coast or the Feeding Area, as you can be certain that most times the coil player will get the lone merch booth, and you can use access to faster rat guts in these situations.

Remember in all cases to extensively use the grave diggers double team & the black tear infusion solo, as it will give you the upper hand in large geyser fights.

Mid Game

Tick Choppers - They hit hard but they do not take much to kill. These are more annoying than anything (probably why the'yre named Tick Choppers), and most of the time a Coil player will use these guys to harass your open merch booths. They can kill a merch booth quickly, so if you notice it, go down and shadow blast them, using combos to finish them off.
Skies Afire - I really wouldn't worry about skies afire too much, except in the case where your opponent uses it while attacking you to prevent you from using Encompassing Gloom. To stop this, play encompassing gloom as you see your opponent bringing their army to you.

The mid game is where the coil is at their 'weakest', as most of the times your opponent will be rushing to get to tier 3 for upgraded units (which is the best investment of their fans in mid game). Take this opportunity to take any merch booths they have left open, and upgrade to tier 3. As soon as you see your opponents overblesser spawn, use encompassing gloom to block their late game superior and divine unit march, which begins once they use the overblesser to create superior warfathers, and then divine nuns.

The only thing to watch for in mid game is tick chopper harrassment, and also if the enemy player opts to push out on tier 2 instead of tier 3 (that is, they build warfathers, pain lifters and skull rakers instead of going for the usual late game march). If they march out on tier 2 like this, play defensively and get to tier 3 as soon as you can. Build a dirgible and plenty of brood to counter it.

Either way you slice it, skip tier 2 and go straight to tier 3 if you have survived the early game.

Late Game

Launch of Death - This solo is just the worst. If it lands on your army, it will do a lot of damage even before the bleeding death emerges from the iron maiden. After that, unless you have a strong team of debuffers, your army is going to suffer serious casualties. Additionally, if you are busy fighting their army at their stage, the other player can just drop one of these at your undefended stage and destroy it from full health in about 45 seconds. This is the third dangerous situation you can encounter when fighting the coil.
To counter this, silence works best, but you've got to watch Doviculous and even then you're only delaying it by a bit. Fortunately, your enemy will have a lot of trouble playing this extremely long solo near any of your units, so if you can kill him before it finishes, you'll be safe. In regards to defending your base from this solo, I feel that is a job suited for a reaper (and one of the only good uses for one), as the reaper attack can 3-shot an avatar (quicker than they can pull off Launch of Death, to be sure). Keep one reaper at your base, maybe with a bride, if your oppoent gets to tier 4.

The coil is very weak to your debuffing units. Build a wall of death once you get to tier 3, something to the lines of this (your mileage may vary):
1 Dirgible
2 Organists
3 Upgraded Brides
3 Brood
2 Rat Guts
1 Reaper
1 Lightning Rod
Build the units in that order and don't be afraid to send it out before all the units are complete. Save the rest of your load for making a baleful misdirection of another organist when needed. As mentioned, leave a reaper and bride at your base if the enemy is in tier 4, otherwise meet their army with yours and use the organist double team to take over their painlifters, heart cutters, skull rakers and scream wagons, in that order.

Tree Backs are defintely powerful if you can afford them, but often times I will not even spend the fans to get to tier 4. If the game is at a stalemate or is going slowly, build it and use it, but don't send it alone. At the very least, send a dirgible with it. Also, if you reach tier 4, use Weaping Heavens as much as possible, as it has a relatively short cooldown (3 mins) and does do a fair bit of damage in a large area.