You can tell from the mission's name - this one is going to be Haven vs. Inferno. While you can conquer and convert everything to amass a huge army, a secondary mission interestingly requires you to stick with the "Tear path" and NOT convert any Town and Fort (though you CAN convert creature buildings). Can you win this mission with just one town plus several creature buildings?
Well, the answer is YES since this is a mission 4 with mission 2 enemies! Most areas are isolated from each other so you don't even worry about invasion - but there are zero enemy hero activities anyway (except for one scripted invasion)! Maybe the AI will "wake up" once you start converting towns and forts, but this walkthrough will stick with the "Tear path" and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.
Inferno Campaign Mission 4
Level cap: 30
Difficulty Index: 2/6
Last updated: December 18, 2011
Dynasty Traits: For choosing Tear, once again you will be swimming in resources since you spend at most 50K+ gold on hiring every week. Feel free to get the creature bonuses (as it will actually make a little difference). I still like to have a free generic hero - they mean a lot at the beginning.
Kiril begins this easy mission underground at (start). Just west from the starting point, you can find a very weak stack of Fire Elementals guarding a completely random artifact at (1). This spot is made very famous around the community since it has a low chance to spawn any artifact, including Dynasty Weapons - no matter you already have it or not. Since a few Dynasty Weapons (see list below) are not awarded to the player throughout the campaign, this is the only "normal" way to obtain them:
- Dragon Flame Tongue (Might)
- Perfect Silksword (Might)
- Edge of Chaos (Might) - preorder bonus
- Staff of Sar-Aggreth (Magic)
- Staff of Asha's Eightfold (Magic) - collector edition bonus
- Staff of Cleansing (Magic) - collector edition bonus
If you see something you don't like (most of times you get garbage), simply restart the mission and take a look again. My best result for the full hour of effort was a suit of extremely overpowered Guardian Breastplate - hope you get something nice, too!
Note: Farming your missing Dynasty Weapons here is very inefficient, since most artifacts are not Dynasty Weapons. There is a custom scenario made by ShardofTruth on the Ubisoft official forum. In this custom game (put it into your game's My Document/MMH6/Scenario folder), you can simply pick up your missing Dynasty Weapons from the floor (use it at your own risk; it might take away the fun of collecting and leveling). For the Weapon Master achievement, your hero has to equip a new Dynasty Weapon after obtaining it to make the counter go up.
Update for patch 1.2: This spot no longer spawns Dynasty Weapons. Doh!
Continue on the path north towards Town A. Defeat the unimpressive mini-boss to claim the town - this will be our only base of operation for the "Tear Path" - better build it up quickly! Pick up all resources lying around (you are also given quite a few to start this mission), and make your way to the exit through (2).
Kiril emerges from the top of the volcano at (2') to begin his conquest of the Purple Haven lands. Three roads lead away from the volcano - which one first? Kiril's dominance of the surface is established by conquering Town E - after that the Haven player goes completely dormant. The defense in Town E isn't too powerful, so you should be able to challenge it with a few more weeks of creatures from Town A.
Let's go south first to grab the closest and weakest Town B and boost our income. (We won't convert the towns, but we can still build the economic structures inside the towns.) Clear the area until a Purple hero comes from the east with a mediocre army. If you ignore him, he will proceed to attack Town A. In my game, I moved Kiril back toward the volcano (2'), and the Purple hero chose to fight Kiril even if Kiril was not really on his way.
After dispatching this hero, you can continue expanding southward and take Fort C, flag the creature building and convert it (only converting Towns and Forts will fail our Tear Path). The main quest of this mission involves clearing seven stacks of Dark Elementals, marked as (DE) on the map. In this area, you can fight the first (and weakest) stack of Dark elementals (they usually come with some other creatures). The Town B - Fort C area is not connected to anything else. Consider them your backyard now.
Next let's work on Fort D to the north. You can fight the second stack of Dark Elementals (DE) east of Fort D. Sweep clean the vicinity of Fort D. Now you should have enough units to take over Town E. Ship your fresh recruits to Kiril and do it! In my game, Town E has been built to level-4, and I ended up with two level-4 towns (Town A and E).
After taking Town E, the familiar Purple hero awaits you at (3) (the picture on the left is the army he carries on hard). He is probably too powerful for you now, but don't worry - he does not move at all. The Purple AI has officially entered hibernation (feature or bug?) and you might not even notice your new turn has arrived - don't press End Turn too hard or twice!
The rest of the surface is now open for Kiril to conquer. Fort F, Fort G, Town H, Town I just take them one by one when you feel like to. You can defeat two more stacks of Dark Elementals (DE) in these territories. The shipyard at (4) enables you to explore the sea, where you can bring down another stack of Dark Elemental - probably the most powerful among the seven. From Town I, do not go northeast to use the stairs yet - leave it for the last.
By now you should have accumulated enough units to defeat the Purple hero at (3). Continue east to flag Fort J and meet some interesting family members at (5) (you don't have to fight them - maybe you do for the Blood path?). Knock down yet another Dark Elemental stack.
Almost over! Finish all your business, equip your best artifacts, gather all you have, and enter the stairs at (6-6'). Here comes the last stack of Dark Elemental at the beginning of the underground passage. Follow the passage north to use the stairs (7-7'). Follow the boring path east to use the teleport at (8), which won't be activated until you have defeated all seven stacks of Dark Elementals. Ready for the mission finale battle?
Hm, the picture on the right is what you fight. You might find this fight difficult if you "over-achieve" and reach here too early. But since you have completed the "Tear Path" secondary mission of not converting towns and forts by entering the Invisible Library... you CAN convert them now! Within a few weeks, you should have more than enough units, and you should be gating in so many stacks that you may forget which ones are real! This marks the unspectacular ending of the Inferno campaign. Anyway, congratulations!
