AI hard missions and their quests

Discussion in 'Adventure Discussion and Strategy' started by Magic Elves, Apr 18, 2016.

  1. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    Just gonna make this thread in case anyone can't figure out how to beat the hard levels, and more importantly discussion to figure out decks for beating the quests, because every one of the AI quests are various shades of impossible. If anyone beats one of the quests, posting decks and strategies here would be greatly appreciated by everyone, I'm sure.

    All AI hard levels are level 12, and maximum character levels are level 14. (8 minor tokens) Each hard level has 5 quests: No Deaths, 1 HP, Race/Class, Low Level (4), and items with drawbacks only.

    Specific Race/Class quests for the levels have been confirmed by Flax to be designed as a "FU to the player", and as such are terrible combinations on purpose. Acquire Within is Human Warriors, Tomb of Savings is Dwarf Priests, and But a Trifle is Elf Wizards.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2016
    Master Goo and Tyro like this.
  2. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Until the Wiki gets it up, someone might want to simply post screenshots of the levels here too (in spoilers) for game planning. I'm afraid I don't have time to do it myself.
     
    timeracers likes this.
  3. Jim

    Jim Mushroom Warrior

    Anyone else thinking that these quests should reward with an Epic Item, as just doing the Hard mode rewards a Rare.
     
  4. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    Here's the basic deck I used for the basic AI hard levels. Adjustments do need to be made to it over the levels, which I will be pointing out. Overall though, the party remains extremely consistent, with the priest adjusted twice from the base and the warrior changing only once. The wizard is different nearly every level, because darn it I can do whatever I want with my wizards.

    Garfield
    Level 14 Dwarf Wizard

    Jelvin
    Level 14 Dwarf Warrior

    Necromancer
    Level 14 Human Priest

    Changes for specific battles:
    Acquire Within 1: No changes.
    Acquire Within 2: Divine Weapons > 2x Purging Mace, Divine Items > 3x Silver Healing Ring
    Acquire Within 3: Divine Weapons > 2x Purging Mace
    Tomb of Savings 1: Arcane Items > 3x Luke's Iron Hand, 2x Eixocl's Hammers > Enormous Tree Branch and The Pulper
    Tomb of Savings 2: Painful Flashstaff > Staff of the Misanthrope, Perrio's Kinetic Robes > Cotton Wizard's Robes, Bertha's Big Clogs > Ulalia's Boots, Untrained Toughness > Advanced Toughness
    Tomb of Savings 3: Staff of the Misanthrope > Trog Melter, Arcane Items > 2x Akon's Amulet
    But a Trifle 1 & 2: Changed wizard completely to a fire wizard setup.
    But a Trifle 3: Advanced Levitation > Electroporter Novice, Staff of the Misanthrope > Staff of Chask, Arcane Items > 4x Runestone
     
    Zirán, esthkol and Master Goo like this.
  5. Killer74

    Killer74 Hydra

    Did all the no death quests with Valadilene, co-op duo.

    Acquire within, no death: Two priests; mine, roughly:


    Overall strategy: Heal, nimbus, heal, hit the opponent. Purge off Doom and Negative Energy. Didn't need any restarts, I think. Not too difficult, though a bit time-consuming, especially the last one.

    Tomb of Savings, no death: Nimbus/draw priest, and wizard, I was wizard.

    First map, roughly (priest had Wings Of Faith here as well as nimbus):

    General strategy: This took a few restarts to figure out properly. What happened: Wizard teled priest across, then eventually managed to escape the boulder with Teleport Self, knocked the trappy thing off the square, and priest stepped on it to claim victory.

    Second & Third Maps:

    General Strategy (map two): Avoid the tomby things and flash and flash and flash, using other attacks to check for armours/even damage out. The priest took all the hits with nimbus. This took a few restarts.
    (Map three): Piece of cake, just flash everything.

    But a Trifle, no death: Two Nimbus/Heal priests; mine, roughly:

    Overall Strategy: Attack, nimbus, attack. Didn't require any restarts. For map two, make sure to get rid of the chef as soon as possible. Map three: Those slices are good for your health.
     
    Pawndawan, Magic Elves and Master Goo like this.
  6. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    Just beat Acquire Within Drawback quest with @DupleX with a 2 priest party. It's probably the safest configuration for that level in quests, which is exactly why you're given warriors to beat it with in race/class. The key item to this deck is the Untrained Ablution, without it you're more than likely dead in the water. Magic Blocks are also very handy. Also, finally used Muscle-Bound Boots! They were very useful for not fighting, which we ended up doing a lot of.
    Necromancer
    Level 16 Human Priest
     
    Flaxative and Pawndawan like this.
  7. DupleX

    DupleX Champion of Cardhuntria

  8. For Aquire Within - Only Human Warriors 2nd level the only thing I found to work is:

    Arrogant Armor to knock off Doom from elementals (Peasant Plate is the one most people should have)
    Shielding Warp Boots to knock their Negative Energy Being
    As many Blackeye Hammer to deliver instant pain at the start of every round they don't have the Negative Energy Being
    Halo Shield for the roulettes

    In general you must always be near the death elementals, avoiding/dodging the poison ones and try to pass first at every round so you play first at the start of the next one. If the death elementals can't see you they will most probably use Roulette and since they draw Negative Energy Being almost every round they'll heal. So if you have drawn your armor it's best for you to let them see you. Needless to say you'll need tons of luck too.
     
    Magic Elves likes this.
  9. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    @Scarponi and I managed to complete the Tomb of Savings Dwarf Priest quest! Had to change the deck for every match, and I used quite a few items for the first time in the process, which was fun. The level is still quite hard even with the right decks and some luck is required on the last one, but it is possible within reason.

    The trick to this level, since you no longer have teleportation, is to fly across the rope sections, bypassing all but three traps. You have to have move 3 of some kind to jump both the second rope and the trap on the other side, so plan accordingly. Also, if you don't have that exact armor, this level is going to get harder very fast, due to minor token wings of faith being only on that armor and the divine slot where nimbus usually is.

    One priest surrounds themself with gravestones and nimbuses, the other nimbuses the surrounded priest from range. Chops are also involved. Once the gravestones are sufficiently whittled down, you have one turn to take them all out. Don't mess this up, it takes ages to reset, as we found out the hard way.

    The best plan here is to ignore the gravestones entirely and focus on the phylacteries. Once the lich is dead, he can't heal anymore that turn or throw things across the room, so plan your attack for that gap.

    Scarponi's Edit: I ran almost identical items as @Magic Elves with a few exceptions because I had more options.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 19, 2016
    40c_rudy and Pawndawan like this.
  10. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Tomb of Savings 1hp

    This is the 2nd and 3rd battle build, for 1st battle the only change is that you max telekinesis on wiz and get 1 priest over the wall in the first round. Final battle took about 8 retries.
    ***EWz 4.1
    Level 4 Elf Wizard

    HPr 22.1
    Level 24 Human Priest

    HPr 20.3
    Level 24 Human Priest
     
    40c_rudy, Obernoob, Pawndawan and 2 others like this.
  11. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    You all are impressive :)
     
  12. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Tomb of Savings No Deaths



     
    40c_rudy, Obernoob and Pawndawan like this.
  13. Just finished Aquire Within 3rd Battle with Human Warriors.
    It was a horror. I dare say it's harder than Elder Mind with 1hp. The problem is that luck plays a major role and warriors don't have a lot of cards that can remove negative energy and you don't have many choices in lv14. Here's my deck and some tips. If someone develops an easier strategy that I missed, please DO tell.

    3xLv14 Human Warriors

    2xBlackeye Hammer
    Excellent Rapier
    Halo Shield
    Plates Of Ixicha
    Shielding Warp Boots
    Kathon's Steel Helmet
    Inspired Command
    Novice Crushing

    4xPunishing Strike
    2xStrong Bludgeon
    4xBludgeon
    1xSimple Strike
    1xNimble Strike
    1xFiery Stab
    2xShiflty Stab
    2xLunging Hack
    1xDesperate Block
    2xLifesaving Block
    1xArrogant Armor
    1xReliable Mail
    1xQuickness Aura
    1xWarp Run
    1xForcefield
    1xShuffle
    1xSpiked Mail
    1xMail
    1xCounterspell
    1xInspirational Thinking
    1xShuffle, Team!
    1xSubtle Parry
    2xBlind Rage
    1xCrusher

    The point of the deck is to control the death elementatl with the counterspells if you can, kill poison elementals with 1 hit and portals with 1-2, use forcefield till you get arrogant armor, use Warp run to discard Doom and poison from you, and negative energies and festering guts from enemies and lots of movements so you can dodge the poison elementals. With Nimble strike you can fly over the water to reach the portals in the corner and avoid the poison elementals.

    When you kill the death elemental, try and hit the portals for 5+ damage so they don't heal up in 1 round. Then deal with the poison elementals while staying away at least 3 squares from the portals, so they don't hit you with toxic pulse.
    Check when negative energy wears off from enemies, go next to them and pass first.
    Don't throw away your arrogant armor once you draw it. Keep it along with a lifesaving block if you can.
    That's all, hope this helps. :)
     
    Magic Elves and Pawndawan like this.
  14. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Yeah quite tricky, here's what I used. 1st level just played defense/control. Second level imo opinion is the hardest. I would stand next to the enemy pass for priority when NEB was coming off and try to one-shot-kill. Took two tries on average for each level, no more than three on any.




     
    think_panther and Pawndawan like this.
  15. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Well since I did the other two Race/Class ones I went ahead and knocked out But a Trifle. The first battle went smooth, the second and third took a lot of retries. With different builds tried. Here are the final builds for each one:



     
  16. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    So the ones currently left undone/unrecorded, and estimated diffculty levels are:

    Acquire Within:
    • 1 HP (RNG Hell)
    • Level 4 (I'm screaming)
    Tomb of Savings:
    • Drawback quest (How??? Would you get past the traps???)
    • Level 4 (Still screaming)
    But a Trifle:
    • 1 HP (Probably the worst quest in here)
    • Level 4 (AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH)
    • Drawback Quest (Possibly the easiest quest remaining, which says something)
    I'm still completely amazed we're halfway through the quests already, though. Great going!!!
     
    Tyro likes this.
  17. Magic Elves

    Magic Elves Thaumaturge

    It also seems relevant to put that @Scarponi killed the Boulder here.

     
    Master Goo and ParodyKnaveBob like this.
  18. Kalin

    Kalin Begat G'zok

    Not terribly hard to do:
    flatten.png
     
  19. Obernoob

    Obernoob Hydra

    Last edited: May 8, 2016
    Jon, Magic Elves and Pawndawan like this.
  20. Scarponi

    Scarponi Moderator

    Acquire Within 1HP

    First and third battles were pretty easy, needing a total of one retry between them. Second one was brutal, but got it in less than 10 tries (probably around six). The key is to run the wizard to one side and the priests to the other. That way you can firestorm freely once you get Resistant Hide. It's also key to know that the Death Mobs would rather play Doom than Roulette. Therefore if you have an un-Doomed character you can intentionally put them in LoS to get Doomed and then just purge it, reducing your chance of "Roulette death."


     

Share This Page