Walkthroughs
- by Kalah
The key to solving this map is doing two main quests at once, and be quick about it; you only have 12 weeks to complete them both. Be careful not to lose troops to all those neutrals you have to fight. I recommend choosing gold over experience, since your main hero will be gaining plenty of that from all the neutrals anyway, but gold is scarce. I also recommend using the «instant recall» spell often, to move faster from one place to another. Those 12 weeks include not only gathering resources, as the quest might indicate, but also building the dam, talking to your rivals and doing all those other tings. Basically, you have 12 weeks to complete the whole map. I recommend rushing for resources and complete the resource gathering quest within 6-7 weeks.
Hisham, a young man on a noble quest taken straight from «1001 nights», winning the heart of a princess who has set her suitors on the task of impressing her. Your plan is to create an oasis in the desert, and you need resources to do it. The two main quests are: finding the Tear of Asha (5 obelisks), and gathering resources (20.000 gold, 50 wood, 50 ore, 25 Dragon steel and 25 Starsilver) enough to create the oasis. There are no invading armies to worry about, just tons of neutrals. To solve the missions, flag mines and pick up the masses of resources that someone carelessly left lying around.
Note! Even after you gather all the resources, you still have to create the oasis, and that takes several days, so don't aim for completing the resource gathering on the last day of the deadline.
You start off with a single level 10 hero and a town. Start out by exploring and building. Hire secondary heroes to cover more ground and pick up loose resources - this is really vital. While you get started, you are shown clips of what your rivals are doing. Never mind them, and don't worry about their towns either – they're irrelevant and should be left alone until you need to talk to them.
First, you should pick up the free creatures just to the northwest, and the explorer boots just to the south west of your town. Now on to the rest. Whether you go west or east first doesn't really matter as the layout is much the same in both directions; there are resources aplenty. If you want to go the way I did, here is the recipe. Focus on taking mines: To the west of your town is an Ore Pit. Just to the east is a Sawmill. North of the town is an Underground Pit, giving shadowsteel. Immediately to the west of that is a Bloodforge, giving dragon steel. Proceed north and round a bend, keep going north and you'll find another Bloodforge and a Gold Mine; control of the nearby fort is needed. When you have done these, you can keep gathering resources and flagging more mines. Starsilver is hard to come by, but there is a Meteor Creater east of your town.
Also, keep going for those obelisks; on my first playthrough, I spent all 12 weeks focusing on the resource quest and ended up losing the map since I had neglected the other. There are several forts and they should be taken when you are strong enough, thus giving you control of the mines outside your town's territory. There is also a Trading Post west of your town where you can sell some of the resources if you need to when the deadline approaches. There is also an Artifact Merchant. To the southwest are both Shantiri Ruins and a Dragon Utopia – good for treasure hunting when you're strong enough.
Once you have completed the quest by gathering enough resources, you must construct a wellhouse; do this by clicking the red stone column just outside the town. When that's done, you have to remove some obstacles. Move around the cavern – just to the north of your town you see a bridge. To the north of that, some water. There are two boulders you have to click. The bottom one first, then the top (to reach it, move north and around to the other side). When you trigger them both, the river is unleashed, turning your arid desert town into a lush oasis. Quest completed.
Once you have the oasis, you are encouraged to talk to your rivals. Oh, all right, then. Just one thing first: there is an army of possessed golems coming for your town. They're very slow, but you should handle them first. 150 of them, led by a level 15 golem hero – not a problem if you use your main hero and a sizeable army. Apparently, there is something going on with these possessed constructs, and your rivals may have something to say on the matter. So now go talk to them. One in the west, one in the far south east. You can use any hero to visit their towns, so those heroes you hired to cover more ground can be useful here, but it's the visiting hero that will receive the exp for completing the quest, so keep that in mind. Use the instant recall to jump back to your town when you're done talking, that's vital for saving time.
You're probably wondering where those obelisks are. You should find 4 of them quite easily, honestly, they're just spread around the map. It's just the fifth one that's a bit hard, since it's hidden at altitude and not down in the desert. Here's a tip: check in the mountains just south of the enemy town called Dahabi.
The Tear should be located here:
Once you have constructed the grail building, you can talk to the last rival (to the north). Save time by sending a hero up to him while another is taking the Tear to your town. After that, you just have to fight off those pesky possessed golems. Eventually, a huge army with titans will be on its way, and you come up with the idea of destroying your own dam to flood them. Do so by clicking the red stone pillar by your town once again. Then pick up the gem from the flood site. Bring your whole army (all of it), move south to the gate you see in the cutscene and go through it with the gem equipped. The mission is to take it to its «resting place». Follow the path to the west until you reach some ruins. Fight the titans. Don't worry about preserving troops, this is the last fight. When it's over, you get to the closing scene.
- by Kalah
In this map, you find that your main hero from the previous one is simply not here. In fact, the common denominator in this campaign is not a single hero, but the blue gem.
You start out with Masfar (remember him?), a level 20 hero, and a town this time. Your quest is to find a gem that can bring people back from the dead. Got it? Let's go. Your goal is toward the east, but before you can face what awaits you there, you must build your town and get a proper army up and running. So move west into the desert; here are resources and boosters, and (importantly) a Sawmill and an Ore Pit you need to flag. Explore the area, possibly even hire another hero to pick up stuff and cover more ground. Also, try not to lose so many creatures during combat. The «summon elementals» spell is good for that. You have plenty of time, so build your town and make sure you get some mage guilds in there. Creatures and spells, that's what you need. Take your time, the enemy won't come to you until you open the mountain pass.
When you have explored for a while, and you're sure your army is strong, go east by manipulating the tombstone near the closed entrance. Proceed through the pass to find the necromancer Lyla, who is unwilling to help. How dares she? Continue east after her; the mission is now to kill her and all her minions. To the east is a fort called Turaabi. Owning that is useful. The Gold Mine nearby should also be high on your list of priorities, as access to gold is a real problem in this map. Just north of the fort is a lightly protected garrison, and further north from that is another fort, called Kudur. Scattered all around are treasures, boosters and creatures to fight. None of this should be a problem if you have a strong army, and with the fort, you can also ship out reinforcements via caravan. Combat tip once again: summoned creatures are great.
There are just two battles you need to worry about; the heroes Lyla and Luna have good armies and a decent set of spells, so when you meet them first time you have to be prepared. After you did that, though, you can roam around and explore their territory, capturing forts (rebuild them to gain a wider area of control) and fighting neutrals. On occasion, the heroes might come back out to retake a fort or something, so recruit another hero or two and be ready to intercept them; this time they haven't got big armies with them. I toyed with them for a while; took complete control of their territory and wiped the map clean of neutrals before attacking the town, which I took without losses. Simply by being patient.
When you have done that, Lyla will do as you ask. Suddenly, you are playing from her perspective, going into the spirit world. Move from round thing to round thing and watch the stairs move, Hogwarts style. Meet up with Khalida (from map 1). She will help you find the right path in this crystal world. Now, as you might have guessed from the riddle section earlier, there is a trick to this. The round purple crystal platforms trigger the paths so you can walk on them and you have to place both heroes on the corresponding platforms. The trick is to trigger them in the right order. If you want to experiment, you can try different combinations; place both heroes on similar platforms and see if anything happens. If not, here is the solution:
1) the platform with the small hovering rocks/droplets, 2) the golden statue of a priest/abbot, 3) the sword, 4) the green winged beast, 5) the knight/cuirassier on the prancing horse, 6) the deer, 7) the one between the deer and the sword.
Doing it in this order causes the crystal bridges to form a path to where you want to go: through a big ring. From there, you are transported up to Jadwa's essence. If you paid attention to the story, that's the daughter that's been lost.
Next up, a cutscene. And then, whaddayouknow: a battle. Turns out, things weren't as simple as our hero thought and he should have listened to advice. Never saw that coming, eh? Jadwa is level 30 and her shantiri titans pack a real punch. I beat her by preventing the titans from shooting by summoning elementals next to them, and then sending my whole army forward. Boosted rakshasa rajas and disciples made most of the damage. After another cutscene, the map ends. The message, and its relevance for Ivan, is up to you to decipher.
- by Kalah
Welcome to the Academy campaign.
This faction is all about magic, and on high levels the heroes can both give their armies some pretty insane buffs and also do direct damage to (or weaken) the enemy forces themselves. Many of the units are quite fragile, though, so getting through battles with low losses is more about playing it smart than relying on the defensive stats of your armies. Summoning, troop positioning and maximizing damage output are more important than relying on your sturdy creatures to take the brunt of the battles.
You start out with two heroes, Fahada and Khalida. I suggest you make Khalida your main hero, and focus on specializing in magic when you level her up, since that will be useful in combat. Fahada is your main protagonist, but she starts at a lower level. There should be plenty of time to gain levels later. Now to the story: Orc slaves outside your city are revolting and it's your job to put them down. I foresee all sorts of moral questions popping up in this campaign – should be interesting. For now, let's do what the campaign is about, kill those pesky slaves who dare revolt against their rightful masters.
Once that's done, make sure you visit the Arcane Shrine slightly hidden south of the city. Kill all the stacks and grab all the stuff around, then talk to Qasim outside the city. Apparently, orcs are rebelling all over the place. You are tasked to end it. You still can't enter the town, so keep clearing the area of rebel scum. When you take out the garrison to the south of the town, a small conversation between the two ladies (who seem more than a bit friendly with each other) take place and they split up: Fahada goes across the bridge, which is then destroyed by a rebelling cyclops, so you're stuck out there. Good thing that your quest is in that direction; you're looking for a blue gem, which is in a tomb somewhere.
First, Fahada needs to bolster her army. That should be your priority. There is an Elemental Conflux nearby, and also try to look around for creatures that will join you for free. That should give you enough force to take on the various rebels around the area. You don't have too much of an army yet, though, so I suggest using your spells to do some heavy damage. One of the quests needs to be completed in 7 days, but that's not a problem since the army you need to take out is coming right for you.
Once you have cleared the area of rebels, more armies will join you for free, so go talk to them. Keep fighting creatures, finding items, flagging mines and visiting booster until you come to the Altar of Elrath. Interacting with that allows Khalida to open the (yellow) seal blocking her path on the other side of the river. Once through, make killing rebels the first priority; more creatures will then join you (they won't as long as there are rebels loose). There is a stack of rakshasas nearby; having them in your army should make things easier. Also recruit some golems from the Magic Menagerie. After Khalida has cleared out the area, head down to the underground. Loot the caverns and find the riddle room.
Reading the memorial plates, you realize this is the tomb of Hakim of Azhar, who loved riddles. There are 4 levers you have to manipulate in the right order, otherwise you will have to fight increasingly hard enemies.
The correct order is: 1) upper left, 2) lower left, 3) lower right, 4) upper right.
So basically, start on the top left and go around conter-clockwise. After you click a lever, you can click the memorial pillars to have a look at the inscriptions from Hakim. When you've clicked all four levers, the tomb opens. When you head inside, an enemy hero named Jengo comes out to boast about how his buddy Malathua will invade the city Shahibdiya and kill everyone. Then he attacks you, but he should not be too hard. Just use some powerful spells to take out the centaurs and those fast fliers. The rest is easy.
Grab the loot and exit the tomb to the right, visiting the Altar of Shalassa on the way. That will allow you to open the blue seals as well. Moving west, another cyclops blocks your path if you try to head south, so cross the bridge and meet up with Fahada. When you perform the next move, you will lose Khalida, but don't worry about losing items (they will be transferred). Equip Fahada with «The Flower of the desert» to complete the quest.
Now your job is to move south east to Shahibdiya and defeat that invading Malathua guy. You have 1 week. Get moving. Where, you ask, since the path was blocked by a cyclops? Check your quest log: there's a spirit gate just east of the bridge. Move through the spirit world and when you arrive on the other side, pick up some spells and volunteering rakshasas. There are also some apprentices on the way to the town, they might join you. Now attack the town.
It looks like it could be a close battle, but here's a tip: That gem you're now wearing gives you a spell: chain lightning. Try it. Watch the carnage. The tsunami spell is also quite good fun. Since this was the last fight of the map, I just set autocombat to handle the rest. Job done.
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- by Kalah
You continue from the previous map; Tomas now has to consolidate his position from Hammer Fall and build his own country away from the empire. Start out by talking to your councillors around you. Talking to Ella gives you some great artefacts. Also flag the mine and pick up resources around. Then talk to Serguei to send him packing.
This map is a classic big Heroes map with lots of enemy heroes and towns. Head down the stairs and start picking up stuff. Standard prcedure: build towns, flag mines, explore and fight creatures. When travelling around on the plains, an enemy hero named Orna will turn up from the north to kill you. The audacity! She seems to go for the nearest town (Blackforge), so take your strongest hero, give him your troops and go kill her. The enemy army is not very big, but she does have 10 seraphs, so don't take it too lightly. Winning is worth 30.000 exp. Another hero is coming the same path and then another via the sea to the east, so be ready for more fights. I counted three enemy heroes coming, after that it seemed peaceful.
There are several dwellings to the northeast, those can boost your armies. Also take note of the Merchant nearby, selling and buying artefacts. The road to the north is blocked by an avalanche, so just setlle for taking control of the mines and levelling up your heroes.
When you have control over the western area, it's time to cross the bridge by the orc settlement. Turn left after the bridge, clear the area and head into the underground for more loot. There's also an obelisk there, one of nine. The only thing in the underground you can't do without a huge army is the Shantiri Ruins. The Dragon Utopia is easier. When the underground is clear, head back up and go right. Head down the other underground entrance and you will find both an Elemental Conflux and a level-up shrine, the latter becoming all the more valuable at such high levels. You might also find some enemy heroes down here, but they don't seem too much of a challenge. Heading east, there is an exit taking you to a small island with an obelisk and stuff to fight for. Further north, you will find stairs to the surface and when you reach it you find an enemy town called Oakmoor. Capture it.
As is customary with Heroes games, the AI has not cleared its area completely. Speed is of the essence here, so don't plunder the mines since that depletes your movement points. Just to the west of Oakmoor is another town called Whitesand Creek. Take that as well and those roaming heroes should soon think twice about invading your lands and consider defending their own instead. To the south is an obelisk as well as much goodies to collect; keep clearing the area and try to consolidate your position. Between the two newly captured town is a Trading Post that can be useful. To the southwest is a bridge leading back to your own lands; I encountered no less than five enemy heroes there. This is becoming annyoing. I killed some, but some ran away to the west. Follow and you'll see why: there's a two-way portal there, allowing them to be annoying in several places. Go after them and fight them one after another. Eventually, you will find a town. Take it. That will surely put a dent in their hero recruitment. Just to the south is a fort you need to capture in order to cancel the enemy's area of control.
Losing all towns does something to the AI's mind; it becomes desperate to conquer any town and you should have guards posted at all towns to avoid sudden annoying recaptures. This while you hunt the last remaining forts and rogue heroes out there. Once you have eliminated them all (I stopped counting after ten), the Haven campaign ends. Tomas held his new lands free and independent from the empire. The lesson is for you to decipher.
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- by Kalah
This map is about defending the city of Hammer Fall from the imperial troops attacking you. The young Wolf defies his orders from the empire and stands up for honour instead - decipher the hidden message if you can.
You have three heroes: Tomas, Ymoril and Konrad. The latter will cover the retreat from an invading imperial army while Tomas and Ymoril escape and destroy bridges behind them. Konrad has an army of 100 swordmasters, which make mincemeat of any small armies. Use it to attack the oncoming forces and give the other two as much time to escape as possible; Konrad's defeat is eventually unavoidable as the armies will keep coming every turn, and get stronger and stronger while Konrad gets weaker.
In the mean time, run away with the other two, clearing roads in front of you and destroying bridges behind by activating the red stone pillars. Just make sure you get to the other side of the bridge before destroying them... Also, remember to build your towns. You have three. You should also grab what resources you can on the way while solving the quests simultaneously.
Visit the town to the north (New Market) and recruit more creatures, then repair the bridge to the east to get to Hammer Fall. Before you cross the bridge, though, visit the obelisk. It's the first of three. See what I mean about buildings that look like decoration? Attack any armies blocking your way and interact with the catapult to block a road. Keep visiting catapults to destroy roads around the map, slowing your enemy's advance. Once the correct bridges are out, their movements seem to slow a lot. Keep open a path between your three cities so you can send caravans.
To the north east is a path where the orc refugees can set up camp. Once Tomas gets there, the orc leader Bilashi joins with his small orc contingent. Continue on to find the second obelisk. Southeast of Hammer Fall is a group of swordmasters who join you for free. Take 'em. Those guys kick so much butt. Visit the third obelisk next to their dwelling. Once you have visited all three, look at the map and find the treasure. For me, it was just north of the swordmaster dwelling. Once you're sure your in the right spot (or 1 tile from it), find the «dig» spell in your spellbook.
A short cutscene tells you where to go next. Using the Tear of Asha and the Shantiri key, your little helper sets up a force field around Hammer Fall – totally ripping off Harry Potter and Alpha Centauri. It blocks your path, so you have to leave through the portal that just appeared. Stock up on creatures in the town first, leave one slot open for the volunteering titans and then go through. Bring with you the troops that offer to go with you and you'll have a chance against your enemy's main army. When I went in, I lost about 440 of them and all the rest of my army, but you can do better if you focus. Be prepared to lose a lot, though; you're up against 200 seraphs, 500 marksmen and a lot more besides. Your titans should be boosted with luck and haste, and try to focus your attention on those seraphs.
Having won against the three enemy heroes, the map is completed.
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- by Kalah
In this map, you are given several small quests. The first is to gain control of the area around your town, flag mines and take forts. Start with resources. Remember, conserve your troops; the minotaurs are quite tough and should perhaps be fought last. The Shrine of the Seventh Dragon is a level-up structure and should be saved for later, when levelling up gets harder. It's not even needed in this map since you can reach the level cap by fighting, so best to save the money.
Once you have control of the area, a new quest is to appoint Ymoril as governor of the town. To do this, have her enter the town and drag her image to the circle in the top left corner. Job done.
When you're done with all the rest, attack the forts. The battles are easy and can even be won with autocombat if you have a sizeable army. Rebuild the forts to complete a quest. At that point, when Ymoril says «take my troops», you have to take all her troops and then the blocked garrison in the hills will open. Ymoril then becomes unavailable as a hero.
Past the garrison is a pair of golden dragons guarding a gold mine – they offered to join me for 29k gold but that was too rich for me, so I attacked instead. Continue and find the hidden resources just below and around the corner from the dwelling. That item is really nice. Keep exploring the area and grabbing resources. To the south is a Meteor Crater, giving starsilver. Capture it; those rare resources are important. With that in mind, build a resource silo in my town instead of a moat this time. You need resources to build your army and since this map is more about taking the fight away from town than defending it, go for resources.
Across the bridge are a couple of heroes from the enemy «House Materia» faction but they won't fight you, so go talk to them. After making a deal with you they will go back to their town and block the road so you can't attack it. Venture further south and pick up what you find on the way, including capturing the all-important Bloodforge, giving you dragon steel. Next to it is Plainwatch, the ruined fort. Rebuild it and ship in more troops. Wait for them to arrive. Now you're unbeatable. Head for the underground past the moving elementals. Search the crypt to find an item; you don't really need it, though. One section here is blocked off, so once you're finished in the underground, go see Masfar back in the Academy city to ask him about it. Also, remember that you can order more troops from home to arraive at the Plainwatch fort.
Masfar will send his apprentice, Gloria, to help you. Follow the pretty lass and she will make a path for you by showing off her fire magic. Awesome. Can't wait to learn some cool spells myself. Head down into the underground via the new entrance, pick up all the stuff and meet Gloria at the fire gate. Once you do, she opens the gate and traps you inside. Turns out, she was a demon in disguise. Who knew?
Now your mission is to save Ymoril, whom the demons want to kill as revenge against Tomas' uncle. Since Gloria blocked your path and there's no way back, go forward. To the southeast is an army of demons guarding a fire elemental, which must be set free. Attack the demons. If you caravaned in troops like I said, they should be no threat. Kill them so that Gloria is revealed as a demon when she meets her old master at the garrison.
You now play as Masfar, fighting a garrison battle against Gloria and her demons. You should win; her spells are powerful, but your creatures are even more so. My advice is: don't cower behind your walls, but send your fliers out to meet her. Masfar's spells are good, and those arcance eagles are like sending tanks into the O.K. Corral. Job done, map completed.
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- by Kalah
Welcome to the Haven campaign. This is fairly simple, so it's a natural starting point in the game, even though you can start with any campaign you want.
A natural strategy of the Haven faction is unit conservation; trying to fight battles with as few losses as possible, notably through the use of healing spells and units, but also defensive abilities. Haven units are tough, and those that aren't protect the ones that are. I recommend giving your Haven heroes (the main hero in particular) plenty of attack and defence bonuses, so as to boost the creatures passively as much as possible.
Let's get started. You begin with Tomas of Wolf, and the first map is fairly easy - it serves as a good introduction to the game's mechanics. Walk around, fight everything and kill it while trying to get used to how the game works. Try to sustain low losses if you can – the autocombat does work well but if you lose too many troops, perhaps you should re-fight the combat manually. Also, some troops may want to join you. Free troops! Yess. You are guided through it all and should not have any problems exploring the map once you learn the difference between ornamental buildings (annoying, I know) and functional ones.
The skills you should choose for Tomas include those useful for defending a town. Also, having diplomatic skills increase the chances of getting neutrals to join your army.
The main quest is to clear the Falcon road, and to do that, you first need to rebuild a bridge. That costs you 500 gold, 4 ore and 8 wood. Walk up to the bridge, click it, and watch the magic happen. Keep marching and clear the roads of bandits and brigands. Basically, just kill everything.
Eventually, you reach a big town, which is defended by your main rival. If the threat predictor says you should win easily, go for it. Fast, before he can buy reinforcements. If you can't attack, pick up reinforcements from the dwelling on the other side of the water. Once you have won the town, build it to maximum fortifications and get as many creatures you can. Prepare for invasion - there is one coming. If you use your time well, the invading army should not win the battle when attacking your town. Winning that battle wins the map for you.
- by Mytical
I hate, hate, hate this map! Most of your enemies are Inferno, which is not exactly bad, because if you have Arachne equipped, you have a free "mass life drain". The problem lies in their towns. If they have their special building built you will be taking damage for each turn you are outside of the towns. Which is where "mass haste" comes into play for all your Dragons, Manticore/Scorpicore, and Faceless. At least someof your units won't be hit every turn. Also, late in the game you can finish up the Assassin set (if you've followed my walkthrough), which helps your creatures avoid attacks. If you don't have "haste", however, the best bet is to use the best artifacts for each slot instead. So look for "mass haste" scrolls.
You will not have enough money or resources ever, even if you took all resource Dynasty Traits. Also, finally there is a Tear in this quest. Makes your creature growth pretty insane.
Dynasty Traits +3 Movement, +10% gold from all sources, +3 Core, +1 Elite, Better prices at the market for resources (eventually this loses its effect as you will have so many marketplaces so you can substitute... but I think it is very handy early in the game).
You start out in Town A. Again I would advise you to get a might hero day one for ore/wood and to help flag/pick up items. Yes, you have one hero, but it is very difficult to flag both starting mines with one secondary hero. Plus, you need all the ore/wood you can get. At a1 there are some Stalkers to pick up, who tell you that at 1, there is a gate from which inferno units are being summoned. Time to do some curb stomping.
Finish off the Inferno troops, then immediately claim Fort B. You will get a cutscene showing you 3 where yet another gate is (at the b1, b2 and b3 there are Arcane Libraries that you need to visit in order to close this portal).
(click image to enlarge)
This triggers ‘The Prince of Chaos’ to come your way. If you hit the observation tower you will see a training center at a2 and get a quest to rebuild it. You don't really need it, but the reward is nice... if you can find the resources to do it. You can pick up your first Moondisk Fragment here. Go clear out the area and claim Fort C and another Moondisk Fragment. This seems to trigger Haven heroes coming from 2 (it might also be at a certain time, I was not paying attention). There will be two waves. If needed, summon your secondary hero to Fort B to reinforce your main hero, or gate your main hero back to your main town and upgrade, then port to the fort and head north after dealing with the first Haven hero. At 4 you will find another stationary Inferno army (not ‘The Prince of Chaos’), who is pestering some Manticores, Faceless, and Minotaurs. If you've upgraded these, make sure to have a secondary hero following your main hero in order to pick them up. I actually advise not to upgrade them until you have claimed these stacks. Saves a lot of hassle of having to gate back to upgrade them to fit into your army.
Keeping a careful watch out for the Prince, head for Town D. In all the times I've played, this town always has a Moondisk Fragment on its main hero. I think it is scripted that way. Also claim the Arcane Library while you are here. As long as you are not hounded by the Prince, start making your way to Fort E, might as well claim the last Moondisk Fragment on your way... and once you have claimed Fort E, time to go back to your main town.
Now, even if Town D has an Advanced Portal, as long as your main town does also, there is a way to make sure you port to your main town. Just have two secondary heroes in Town D. Since there is no room, your main guy will instead go to your main town. Either leave the tear here with a secondary hero, or if you can afford it... build the Tear Building. You get no "summon phoenix" disk this time.
Head towards Town F as soon as possible, and also claim the second Arcane Library here. The way to Town J is blocked, so head towards Fort G. Claim it, summon backup via a secondary hero, and head towards Town H. Once you claim the Arcane Library here, you still have to visit 3 in order to close it. Closing it opens up the doors to Town J. The people from this town seem pretty stationary, so if there are none left from the gate at 3, you can take your time and build your army up, clearing the rest of the map. Visit Town F on day one, buying every last creature you can. Sell all excess artifacts that your hero will not be wearing to build your cash up.
Then... rush Town J.
- by Mytical
Which Dynasty Traits to take
Though I prefer economic dynasty traits, you don't start with a town. I focus on a good start of the map, as a good start makes the end game a little bit easier. So...
Noble Steed (+5 movement for first week), the +3 movement, +3 Core, +1 Elite, and the one that reduces costs of resorcse in the market place.
Map 3
With only 3 towns and 2 external buildings... this is a small map.
You come with a level 12 secondary hero from the previous map (if you have leveled him even better), but I forget the name. I built him with economic skills (+1 creatures/week, reduce costs of build 20%, +20% on everything you pick up, and count as an extra marketplace + Logistics and Pathfinding) they picked up everything, following the main hero. He will fall way behind (your main hero has +8 total movement/day over him) but that is OK.
Take Town A and when feasible build up to the town portal so you can jump back to town if/when needed. Clear the area around it, then head south. Take Fort B. There is a quest person to the north of B, it is optional. Since you are picking up everything from the ground anyhow, might as well take the quest. Your next objective is to reach Town C and claim it for your own.
This opens up the doors above Town A, but unless pressed keep clearing the entire area around Town C including the area to the North. Once you have the two pieces of Ore, gate back to Town A, then portal next to the quest person and give him the ore. Gate back to your main town and head north. Your next objective is Town D. Clear out everything around the town before heading toward the bridge.
Here you will find a person trapped in Stasis, and … one heck of a Boss Battle. This Kirin is not your ordinary Kirin - it has around 80.000 HP. It will be a very tough battle, so since there is no further danger except for this boss... feel free to hang around and build up your army.
When fighting this boss, on round two, he will summon a tsunami-like effect. When he does (and any time in the combat he resummons it), make sure as many stacks as possible are behind the Pillars. That spell hurts! Also beware of Riptide. If you don't move the stack it is cast on asap it will do a ton of damage (it targets a square, not a stack)... but the boss has a habit of freezing a unit in place, meaning you can not escape it.
- by Mytical
Map 2
This map is hectic, but not near the pain map 4 is. You are pressed for time in the first couple of weeks, and then have to protect your towns. Since there are multiple ways your enemy can reach your towns, this becomes quite the challenge. The good news is, the enemy only out numbers you two towns to 1, and your enemy can not get dragons. There is a pesky inferno town and heroes to deal with, but you should be able to negate them early, and make the town numbers a little more even to boot. Dynasty Traits. Since we need to get as far as we can as fast as we can, I chose the logistics dynasty trait and noble steed. Noble steed only works the first week, but by that time it should become redundant. I also went with first hero free, +3 core creatures/week, and +10% to all sources of gold. The 10% doesn’t help much in the beginning, but once you have a capital in your main town, it really shines.
You start out with Town A, and at 1 nearby you get a quest to capture the sawmill at 1 above ground, and defeat the creatures there. Since we really need a sawmill anyhow, it is a good idea to flag it and the ore mine near your starting town. The way to Town D is blocked by some doors, so while you can clear out that area, and claim a gold mine, keep in mind that the creatures blocking your way to the town and the gold mine are a bit tougher than what you have been facing.
At 2 you will be met by Menan, and he tasks you with reaching the dragons at C before anybody else does. Since we plan on doing that anyhow, go for it. You will face three trials. They are not that difficult, and they give you good experience points, so go for it. You will also be asked to decide if you want to back Nightshard (Tears) or Soulscar (Blood)… the following walkthrough is backing the tear candidate. Before you panic, it is a ‘If you are defeated’ question… you are not actually backing either candidate.
When you hit T, you will have to fight some lurkers with a stack of Assassins and a stack of Shades. The quest says you have to kill them before they spot you, but really all you have to do is get past the doors before your stacks become visible... and then kill them. There are no worries there.
Claim Fort B, port in any reinforcements, and rush toward C. Here you will have to fight some Black Dragons, so do that and claim your prize. Not only do you get a few Black Dragons, you get to build the dragon buildings in your towns. You will find yourself back at your starting town, and get a cutscene where 3 doors open.
Start heading south. You will get a quest to train with three Faceless. The Faceless are marked at 3. You will also get a quest to help one of your heroes to get to 4. Claim Inferno Town D and convert it asap. Just a note: often, Inferno will have a hero wandering around, you will have to stop them before you get the quest to purge the Inferno complete.
Keep an eye out for attackers headed toward your towns, but head toward Town E. Might as well have that hero stop at 4 to claim some extra troops, but keep in mind it is a trap... so have your main hero nearby to kill the Inferno troops that appear from nowhere. All that is really left is F, but there is plenty of experience and things to clear out before you go.
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