So this game was quite fun up into now, when I have a level 15 group and am facing the missions level 13 through 16. I can't progress through a single one of the complete quest chains I'm facing, all of them contain at least one mission that is impossible to beat. I only have about 300 gold, which isn't enough to buy the really good stuff, and even if I did my characters don't have the power tokens necessary to use them anyway, and I can't level them to use the cards without beating the quests. There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza... How am I supposed to get my hands on the cards that will let me progress through the campaign at this point?
Specifically, what adventure (and what part of that adventure) are you getting stuck on? I would assume you are stuck on Black Oaken Heart or Tomb of Tvericus. *EDIT* Check out the "Adventure Discussion and Strategy" forum for your specific problems. You can buy some of the best gear at the Goblin Bazaar, the best common/uncommon items range from level 12-18. So you can afford to buy most of the items cheaply.
Don't forget you can replay beaten adventures once a day to boost your character levels and get more loot.
All adventures from level 14 up, except for Lord Batford's Manor and Into The Black Forest, which I managed to beat. Also the level 13 High Mountain Pass adventure is unbeatable; I can pass Mission 1, but Mission 2 is completely impossible. I see no way to advance, and I'm about ready to just quit the game.
Yeah, I've already mentioned that it's the power tokens, not the items, that's the real problem. I have some good stuff I can't actually use. "Go farm some" is snarky and unhelpful.
There are good no-token items which might help you fill out your build, which is why farming a couple of levels below may help. Also, you can repeat the highest set of quests you've completed in order to gain extra experience points and up to two additional character levels (with the corresponding power tokens that let you use better loot).
High Mountain Pass: Volcano is your friend here. The bruiser has Mindless Battlerage, and if this drops while the horde are around him, it's hilarious. Kill one grunt at range and watch the carnage. When I played this on the weekend, he wiped the entire map except two grunts for me. Spamming barriers (Acid Spray, Flash Flood) while you kite and pick off the grunts closest to you works too. If you go toe to toe with the shredders and bruiser, you will lose. But put Martyr's Blessing, Mass Frenzy and some decent weapons/armour on a single fighter, and they can take four or five of the grunts a turn. Once the map is clear of them, it's much easier to kite. At the higher levels, you have to custom design your party's equipment each time to stand the best chance of winning. I still run a vanilla human warrior/priest/mage combo through those levels and win 98% of the time. It's all about picking the right equipment. I hated the archer level of Batford's Manor for the longest time, until I worked out that Smoke Bomb turns Cardhunter's ranged attackers into moths. Moths who like smoke. Moths who like to stumble about in the smoke until they get an Obliterating Bludgeon in the face. Don't get hung up on the concept of tokens/rarity - there are some very good common and lower/no token cards, e.g. for melee enemies, Twisting Shield is a fantastic tokenless uncommon. Do the two loot fairy runs a day, and enter every multiplayer league - even if you play no matches, you get three gold chests for 50g, which you can get by farming the first level only of Diamonds of the Kobolds five times in a row. Takes a few minutes. After a month, you'll have a great selection of gear for the really tough adventures. I expect to see you back here when you run into the mind flensers. Sorry about the essay, but I want to see people enjoy the game.
The game is supposed to get more difficult, but it really isn't that difficult, it's just that it requires you to use different items for different adventures. Getting the items is part of the fun, sometimes you do just have to replay adventures, win 1 MP game per day, chase the Loot Fairy and check the shops for good, cheap items. Keep in mind that you Don't have to beat any treasure hunts to progress; in fact, seeing as they are challenge adventures you should attempt them when you are overleveled. Key cards are Parry for your warrior (Warrior's Mace, and Parrying Buckler) on 90% of maps, Smoke Bombs for maps with ranged enemies (as mentioned) and strategy, strategy, strategy. For some levels it takes time to find out your opponent's weaknesses, where to move your guys, what attacks they have, etc etc... but once you do figure it out you can avoid taking too many hits to the face. For example, High Mountain Pass is a pushover with a Parry Warrior and Martyr's Blessing. See if you can't pick up Silver Healing Ring (for good healing) and Martyr's Medallion/Tome of the Martyr, Glowing Jewel (Hot spot, Wall of Fire and Gusts Of War are great), etc etc... Why don't you post your build (I assume it's 1-1-1) along with what you consider to be your best items for tackling a specific adventure in the Adventure discussion forum?
The Daily Deal has two great rares right now: Savvy Attacker and Xipil Ring. Team Run and Volcano are two of the most powerful cards in the game right now. Then go to the tavern and hire a new party with different races and classes than you're using now. Level them up to your current party, which will get you a bunch of new items (especially low level items), more experience with the game mechanics, and give you choices for who to use to beat the new adventures.
That should have unlocked Black Oaken Heart which is a way to progress in the Campaign. This game can be quite frustrating but that is part of the appeal. You might not like it but it might be crucial that you level up another team to be able to compose teams which are optimized for the Adventure ahead and while you do that you might get some nice tokenless items which are great and crucial. The others who said that don´t want to troll you, it is just experience. And skip the Treasure Hunts on your first run, they are way harder than the normal Campaign Adventures. As Jade suggested, open a thread in the Adventure section of the forum, go to your keep, press F1 and enter partyanddecksbbcode which will copy your deck in a forum format into your clipboard and then just paste it into the thread. That is a important step to get specific useful tips. Then also add which other race/class combination you have. I assure you, that you will get some very useful tips and hints and possibilites you haven´t discovered yet.
I agree with the others. IMHO in single player the most ideal group is 1 x Human Warrior, 1 x Dwarf Priest, 1 x Elf Wizard. And you have 3 of these groups that you level up. This is because after you've managed to beat all the adventures the first time, challenges are unlocked and you need certain race/class combinations on some of those challenges. Also I suggest that you save a lot of different items with handicap cards on them. You'll need them if you're going to try out certain challenges.
I think most of us have been where you are at Sable Pheonix. I know that I was exactly where you were in that my "wall" was High Mountain Pass and Lord Batford's Manor. It took me forever to beat LBM, but you've beaten it! Others have stated the most of what worked for me which was visiting shops and buying specific items that counter what those adventures throw at you. Another tactic is switching up your build between maps in specific adventures. You don't have the collection yet to make one powerful build to get you trough w/o changes. Once I started changing my builds to suit the next map I started progressing through the campaign again.
