Black Plume Mountain 1 HP Quest Post-Nerf Strategy

I had my concerns about the BPM 1 HP quest after Wall of Stone was removed. Below is the build and strategy that I used to pass the quest post-nerf. Without further ado, the build:

Human Wizard 1
Wallbuilder's Staff
Lava Staff
3x Soulstone (Floods)
Pip's Anklet (Floods)
Hover Robes
Flank Boots
Advanced Flexibility
Electroporter

Human Wizard 2
Wallbuilder's Staff
Hippocampal Staff (Perplexing Ray)
2x Water Talisman
2x Soulstone
Hover Robes
Flank Boots
Advanced Flexibility
Electroporter

Human Wizard 3
Wallbuilder's Staff
Heartripper (Punishing Bolt)
3x Bimson's (Floods)
1x Water Talismon
Hover Robes
Flank Boots
Advanced Flexibility
Electroporter

Strategy


Alright, pop open that image above.

So first thing is first, you need to fire off two Flash Floods. They're marked in red on the image. These tiles have to be replaced every single turn! If they're not, you lose. Flanks and Flexibility are there to help ensure that you're able to keep them up. Once the tiles are up, maneuver your team to the tiles in green. This is the sweet spot. Any further right and the dragon will advance through the open spaces on the right side. Any further left and the dragon will consider advancing more quickly (too quickly) on that side.

Blackhammer won't approach until turn 3. Rinse and repeat a few times until you're able to kill him. Illusion Wall, Force Bolt, Punishing Bolt, and Path of Knives are a big help.

Once Blackhammer is dead, the fun begins! Your single damage card is Lava. It's the only attack that will work here as it reaches any distance (greater than 7) and can't be reflected. There has to be a distance of 6 between you and the dragon at all times (6 tiles between). Any closer and you're dead.

In essence it's rinse and repeat the red Floods until you get a Lava. Be sure and keep Flanks and Flex for emergencies. The dragon will waste his two movement cards while you replace the two red Floods. Afterwards fire off the Lava. Use Illusion Wall to clear the tiles you're standing on! You'll need to work around his Hover obviously. You may occasionally run into armor and Toughness. The armor is what the P Rays are for. If he get's armor, he'll keep it. You then get to gamble until it's gone, yay. There are only two P Rays in this build... yup.

Lastly, the position of the Lava matters. The blue tile is good. He'll shuffle off it, chill for a turn, then he'll move right back (this time to one of the orange tiles). If the Lava lands in an orange tile, you need to be careful. When this happens, he'll fly further left. This is where the purple Floods come in. If he's going to move left (and he will) you need to have that back row of purple Flood tiles up beforehand! Depending on how far left he is, you may want to throw the second closer purple row up as well. With those in place, he'll move back to the blue Lava tile once the orange is gone.

Lastly, never put up more than one Lava! He'll hang around the left side too long and you won't be able to keep all of the Floods up! This is all about slow and steady wins the race. Also beware of D Traveler misclicks. If you get clicking too fast and move your mage forward, he's dead. That's all it takes.

So, there you go! Have fun and good luck!

 

Big gratz, that's a very impressive achievement! Thanks for sharing the strategy!

 

Absolutely! Thanks!

 

Wow, this is most impressive.
I think all people were sure that this quest is impossible now.

Wow, did i mentioned that i am impressed?

 

Congrats! Very nice! I suspect that is not actually the only strategy, but it is clearly an effective one.

If you get 2 reliable armors on everyone (no easy task I'm aware, but the advantage is you only need one flash flood laid down.) you actually can't get hurt by his ranged attacks and can set up in this formation in the opening corner:



Where you stand where the black circles are and put flood where the blue squares are. Technically the dragon can still get you from where the red circle is, but he'll only move to that spot if you scare him to move with terrain attachments. So this is purely a zero terrain damage method. Instead he'll stand right next to the flood just off screen shot about where the blue wizard's head is. From there it is up to you to figure out how you want to deal with his blocks and armors. Anyway, just identifying alternatives, by no means suggesting its a better approach!

 

*sigh* I think I may be convinced to go do it all again, just because I'm masochistic like that. >_<

 

Thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't considered Reliable. It wouldn't be hard to get the 6 as you'd just need to follow the above strategy until you got them. There certainly could be a build there, but I think it'd be more tricky. You'd still need to run 12 Flood items as you'd be relying on top-decking Floods to keep your armor. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that red zone there and would likely still keep two floods down at all times. I think you'd still have to go with tile attacks, but now Acid is the much better option. I say that because Perfect Block would strip your armor allowing him to pick you off. You might be able to turn him with tiles for a bigger/non-tile attack, but you'd have to top-deck a combo. I'll take safety over speed, so let's stick with Acid. The only other concern with Acid is that I doubt the dragon will burn his Flys if he's already that close. If he doesn't move while you're re-flooding, you'll have to top-deck 3 tile attacks. I'll test this strategy over the weekend and report back if it goes well!

 

Ugh, I shudder at the thought. Power to you though, it's the best way farm Epics and Legendarys. If you do it all over again, you should keep a running log of all your E&L loot!

 

The rewards have to get way better than the current boost before I want to run through some of those again! I'll happily sit on my 100%.

 

A couple notes:

• Since FF can be over-written, you can actually lay it on any turn you have it, right on top of the old one. It's worth one turn less but then you don't have to luck out with top decking. (That's not to say you don't need a ton, but it can be all one wizard likely.
  
• Officer's harnesses can deal with perfect block, just make sure to use a mundane attack (path of knives, force blast, etc.) to check for it since reflecting block could hurt. This can then be followed by boiling armor. The tricky part is rotating the officer harness to be your oldest card, it can require waiting to get more reliables to discard your older ones and cycle the officer's harness to the end.*
  
• If he saves fly then he has less armor/blocks and direct damage attacks would be the way to go.
• Yes in 1HP quests ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, safety over speed.
• You might think about a drawbot priest instead of 3 wiz if you go with this strategy.

*The dragon's max damage at 3+ range is 3, so a Reliable Hide can take the place of one Reliable Mail if it fits better in the build.

 

I like the rotating harness idea, that's pretty cool. I know you can overwrite Flood each turn, I say top-decking because you'll never be able to keep anything in your hand for the next turn (as you have to maintain a full set of Reliables). You'd be in trouble if you failed to draw a Flood, Flex, or Flank. Inspiring Priest may help, but at best you'd only be able to top-deck two Inspriations. That may put you in a bigger pinch than just having more raw Flood.

 

But the priest could have heals on her divine weapons, so you would probably only need 1 Reliable Mail for each char, allowing you to save a Flash Flood for next round.
Oops, forgot we were talking about 1 HP quest.

 

Very true for standard play (in fact pretty much how I take on BPM) but for a 1HP quest heals are worthless.

 

At frigging last, i did it. After around 6 hours overall (not straight of course, otherwise i would have gone crazy now), half a dozen times that i wanted to smash my laptop and around 2k gold spent on countless retries, i managed to beat the bloody dragon.
I can't even begin to express the frustration i experienced while playing this quest, it must have been the single most difficult thing i have done in any game i have played. Seriously, whoever designed this must be a sadist .

This is the build i used for the last level
Maerwynn
Level 24 Human Priest

Duality Mace
Duality Mace
Angel's Strapping
Impetuous Shield
Goat Boots
Shielding Token
Medallion Of St. Vigus
Shielding Token
Advanced Flexibility
Untrained Ablution

2 x Consuming Spear
4 x Touch Of Death
2 x Holy Presence
1 x Healing Blessing
2 x Leadership
1 x Mind Leak
1 x Dangerous Maneuver
1 x Enchanted Harness
10 x Impenetrable Nimbus
1 x Immovable
1 x Heavy Armor
1 x Parry
1 x Slowed
2 x Chop
5 x Lifesaving Block
1 x Weakened Armor
​

Ariel
Level 24 Elf Wizard

Supercooled Laser
Staff Of Winter
Bimson's Water Stone
Bimson's Water Stone
Destructive Wand
Twizel's Water Talisman
Robe Of Lightness
Ulalia's Boots
Escapist
Electroporter Novice

2 x Hover
1 x Cloth Armor
1 x Spark Inductor
2 x Acid Blast
1 x Spark Generator
3 x Dissolve Armor
1 x Flash Of Agony
1 x Chilling Rime
1 x Arcane Aura
1 x Skip
2 x Flanking Move
1 x Cold Snap
7 x Flash Flood
6 x Frost Jolt
1 x Slippery
2 x Cooling Laser
1 x Dimensional Traveller
1 x Elvish Insight
1 x Weak Block
​

Naieth
Level 24 Elf Wizard

Supercooled Laser
Staff Of Winter
Bimson's Water Stone
Bimson's Water Stone
Destructive Wand
Twizel's Water Talisman
Robe Of Lightness
Ulalia's Boots
Escapist
Electroporter Novice

2 x Hover
1 x Cloth Armor
1 x Spark Inductor
2 x Acid Blast
1 x Spark Generator
3 x Dissolve Armor
1 x Flash Of Agony
1 x Chilling Rime
1 x Arcane Aura
1 x Skip
2 x Flanking Move
1 x Cold Snap
7 x Flash Flood
6 x Frost Jolt
1 x Slippery
2 x Cooling Laser
1 x Dimensional Traveller
1 x Elvish Insight
1 x Weak Block
​

Spoiler: Positioning

I used the positioning shown above for the entire battle, only moving the elf in the circle depending on whether i wanted her to attack the dragon or place a Flash Flood. Needless to say, that Flash Flood needs to be active at all times.

 

Why didn't you use the Delicious Elf strategy? It's much more effective and reliable for 1hp.
http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/blizkenripper-and-the-delicious-elf.7777/

 

Does Doom work here well?

On basic difficulty i saw it does good here.

 

Doom is quick and effective but its win-rate might not be the highest.

 

To be honest i did try once to lure the dragon with one of my elves, but he lost interest on her and went to attack my other characters. I always read the forum for advice and hints, but i like developing my own builds/strategies if i can. I tried a lot of different compositions/builds before i ended up with the one i posted above.

Damn i am stupid, how could i forget about Doom. I think it is worth trying to build around it.

 

The armor that the dragon has will most likely attach it to you instead.

Your other characters have to be out of range of the dragon attacks (>6). If you are closer than that then the dragon will most possibly fly toward those. That's an additional reason he uses cold (range 8) and acid (range 10) attacks. To avoid this you can have the poledancing elf lay some terrain attachments to the place the dragon would go to hit the other characters.

 

Unless you pack a little armor removal to remove it for the doom.