Help needed at lvl 8 quests!

Hi there,

I'm afraid I'm truly stuck on some level 8 quests, including the level 8 Treasure Hunt. I play them over and over, but I keep getting trounced -- and believe me, that's no understatement! I really love Card Hunter, but I'm still not familiar enough with the tweaking of my party and their decks. According to the How to Play page, changing your deck to fit the situation at hand is basic Card Hunter strategy, so trust me when I say that I feel a little embarrassed that I'm still not a good hunter.

I'm stuck on the following two quests:
1) The Compass of Xorr
2) The quest with the Geomancers (I forgot the name...)

If anyone could help me with these quests, and/or give me some basic strategy tips on good ways to create your deck, I'd be very grateful. I would love to get back to Card Hunting without getting smashed to pieces each and every time!

Thanks in advance!
Paprika2215

 

Hi Paprika! Do you mean the quests with some special limitations like "Use only wizards" or do you mean the basic campaign adventures? The advice is different for these two kinds. In Card Hunter "quests" usually refer to the special missions that only become available once you have finished the whole single player campaign.

With Compass of Xorr stuff which 1) gets rid of the blocks of the guards or 2) gets around them and which 3) slows down the dogs or 4) prevents them from getting behind you help. With the Geomancers stuff which 5) helps you get over difficult terrain or 6) prevents ranged damage helps. I'll expand on the numbers in my next post.

 

What race/class your characters are?

If you want to finish the the campaign as fast as possible, and class/race does not matter, I recommend you go and buy 3 copies of level 1 dwarf wizards. Those three packed with tons of damage spells, especially lava terrain spells, will destroy anything Gary puts in front of them.

 

1) Firestorm spells, any ranged spell, War Cry (dwarves only)
2) more movement cards, Scamper is good
3) cold spells, wall spells, acid spray
4) wall spells, positioning, lots of movement
5) scamper, flight, teleport
6) magic blocks or Block Any blocks or just more armor

 

Hi Paprika!

It's not unusual to be stuck in the campaign. There are a lot of big and little tricks to learn that will require time. You'll figure them out as you go.

Similar to others, I suggest to create a new party and start over from level 1. Pick whichever classes and races fit your style, just make them different from your first party to enhance the learning effect. Try to double up on a class - such as two fighters.

When you'll reach lvl 8 a second time, you'll have more and better items and a better clue of the little tricks. I'm sure you'll manage then.

As for triple dwarf wizard - yeah, those can be good, but to really own with them you need a bunch of rare items and a very good understanding of how the AI plays. I have no idea why Scared Little Girl keeps recommending them to new players. Doesn't make too much sense to me... Compass of Xorr is one of the hardest SP maps for control wizards. (Done it but wasn't fun)

Specific for Compass of Xorr:
- The mercs parry a lot. Attack them from the back.
- Always kill dogs ASAP. What's dead can't attack
- Kill servants if you have a quick way to do it (like Sorcerous Blast), otherwise ignore them
- Another way to get rid of the servants is Hot Spot / Spikes, but use it only after they have played all cards (f*** Team Shift)

 

Firestorm is very useful in Compass of Xorr to kill the servants in 1 and 2, even if it isn't your main strategy. It took me a while to realize that whenever they 'sound the alarm' each of their allies draws a card.
Xorr 1:
- Keep a tight formation where you start. Don't let the dogs get behind you.
- Parries help a lot.
- Use magic or Tricky Stabs (if you can get some) on the guards, or attack them from behind. Attacking from behind gets easier once you've thinned the opposition.
- Use max damage melee on the dogs. Vampiric helps if you're running a cleric.
Xorr 2:
- Move to the top of the map and fight the fewest opponents first.
- (As Xorr 1.)
Xorr 3:
- Hole up in the corner and make them come to you.
- The mercenary is the biggest threat. Try to hurt him badly before he arrives. Wall Of Fire and Hot Spot can work very well for this, but it can be tricky to tell when they're out of moves.

For the geomancer adventure, add WW(E) to the list of helpful cards.

Good luck!

 

For Compass, remember that Mercs can't Parry magic, so have your wizard beat on him. Also, blocks only work from the front, so getting your warrior behind him also works. Having chars on opposite sides of him lets you control which direction he's facing.

For Geomancers, Smoke Bomb is wonderful if you have it (it blocks their line of sight and clears any terrain they made). Other really good cards are Resistant Hide, Hover, and Shimmering Aura.

 

Parry gets eaten by war cry, can't counter magic. Also, stack some armor to mitigate some of their damage, and if you have access to firestorm, whirlwind, whirlwind enemies, consider using those abilities.

 

I don't think I had any firestorm by the level 8 campaign missions, so while it's particularly good for the two you are having trouble with, I'm guessing you don't have any either.

Some other tips, load up on step attacks for the guards. They may be weak (a lot of 2 damage crap at that level), but they give you extra move to get around them or step to one side and hit them which turns them so their back can be to another person. Always save your bigger hits when you can be fairly certain they will hit (either they aren't facing you or have no cards). If you've got 2 cards, you don't have to discard, and there aren't a lot of big hit cards at that level so it's better to hold on to it for another turn than blow it on a parry. Step attacks also give you extra moves against the geomancers when you need to move off their terrain.

Parry by the way lets them draw a replacement card if you hadn't noticed... often another parry. Only melee attack if you need them to turn or you know they can't parry.

In both cases, let the AI move first. Let dogs come to you so they blow through some of their move cards including dodge, better to step away from them and make them use up those defenses chasing you so you can hit them dead. Don't move against geomancers unless they have already put terrain under you. I basically only move if I have lots of move cards or after they plant some terrain under me. A slow advance is better than getting stuck on lava.

 

Also, the AI is stupid about the kind of terrain it has put you on. If there's some rockfall terrain around, step on it, you're safe on that. The AI never replaces it with lava.

 

Speaking of which I really feel there should be a way to save and restore equipment loadouts. Its annoying to swap out your slashing/piercing weapons for less powerful crushing weapons to fight some skeletons that ignore such damage and then have to hunt down the weapons you were using before after you complete that battle.

 

You can do so with the Store/Retrieve button in your Keep - doesn't work between battles in a single adventure though.

 

Hmm.. ok will do that. At least you can restore what you were using prior to the adventure.