High Mountain Pass and Shrine of the Astral Guardians

Both level 13. Both modules have been beating me for quite a while now.

High Mountain Pass just overwhelms me with the sheer number of monsters.

I've had some limited success having my wizard do lightning magic. I don't have much in the way of fire cards, and those can't seem to do much more than attempt to eat up the enemy's numerous blocks anyway. The only fire card I have on any token item is Instant Burn, and I can't keep the wizard alive long enough to stick enough fire magic to make that worthwhile.

Whether my wizard can get rid of the enemy blocks or not, being in range for my warrior's stuff like startling strike has been suicidal every time, from being swarmed. Yet if I don't have both of them removing all the blocks they can, anything that lets me attack with my warrior from a distance gets blocked constantly. Attempted maneuvers to hit them from behind (to bypass the block) result in being swarmed again, and/or open for the ogres to get in range and destroy me.

I have had zero success with my cleric doing anything but stacking as many healing cards as I physically can, and healing constantly. If the cleric even has much for attacks (such as on the very few, and very low-level cards that grant me a surestrike blessing), I've never lasted more than a couple rounds from being completely unable to keep up with enemy damage.

In "Shrine of the Astral Guardians", I can't make it past the second battle, with two rooks. I can deal with the weaker minions, to be destroyed by the rook's very powerful attacks. If I build defensively to deal with the rooks, and moving around to stay out of their attack lines, those minions pick off my characters one by one. I have yet to figure out a way to even try to deal with both groups at the same time. This one has me completely at a loss.

I'm doing a lot wrong, I'm sure. I just don't know what. Thoughts/strategies/cards to look for are most welcome.

 

• Forget healing and stock up Impenetrable Nimbus.
• Use terrain to your advantage. Turtle, create choke points and avoid big creatures until you're ready to face them.
• You can try Automatic Shield against Rook's / Bishop's blasts.

 

Watch Randi and Daily Deal for Shielding Token. Put Nimbus on a char, then have them run up to an ogre and sit back and watch the ogre kill the goblins for you.

It's also useful against ogres. Unfortunately, it needs a major token and Jerako probably doesn't have any yet.

Goblins can only block magic and attacks that do 4 or less damage, so 5+ dam melee attacks will always hit.

And finally, both of these adventures are optional, so maybe try Alet Zhav instead.

 

One way to get around the goblins' blocks with a wizard is to use terrain attachments. You almost certainly have access to Wall Of Fire, and if you have any Volcano you can kill a lot of goblins in a hurry.

 

I do not have any major tokens yet. I do have one copy of Shielding Token, but that does not seem reliable enough to count on that as a strategy. I love the idea of the ogre wiping out the goblins for me, though. I do not have any copies of Volcano.

Are the shops the only way to reliably find these cards? Will some modules more likely drop them than others?

 

Adventures drop items close in level to the level of the adventure. If you want a level 10 item, play level 9-11 adventures. No adventure drops specific items (the guaranteed item in treasure hunts excepted, and even that is only once per hunt). See from the wiki which items have the cards you want and see their item levels. Hunting for a specific Epic or Legendary is a waste of time but Rares are doable.

Item level is significant also because the shops stock items in a level range. If you want a level 10 item (Common and Uncommon only in shops other than The Daily Deal or Randimar's) look in the shop which stocks level 10 items. The shop descriptions show the minimum level they stock and if you sort the shop items with the L button you can easily see the range. For example, Kyburz Market stocks levels 7 to 12.

In Card Hunter, all methods of getting items are subject to luck. There is no guaranteed way to get specific stuff. It's the nature of a loot chase game -- which is what Card Hunter is. Some games choose to get around this with real money (straight up selling best-in-class items for cash) but Card Hunter is not one of those.

 

There's no guaranteed drop of Shielding Token. It's a level 13 item, and adventures are more likely to drop items around their level (Mauve Manticore missions don't have their own levels, and instead are based on your renown).

Volcano is difficult to get early; Firestorm and Flash of Agony are more accessible, and both scale pretty well. Even Whirlwind Enemies can be useful since it'll draw blocks, IIRC. Any fire or water terrain that you can lay down will be handy against goblins and ogres that lack magic backup. They're all purely melee, so parries will be handy for when you do need to engage.


vs. chess pieces... very different.

​

Parries are not very useful here. Resistant_Hide and Grounding_Plates, however... won't stop everything, but both rooks and pawns have a lot of spark-type attacks in their decks. Absorbing_Block, Missile_Block, Defender%27s_Block (especially!), will be useful. Without a major token, Reflect_Missile and Auto_Block aren't options at all (but might be available to a co-op partner with a level 15 warrior or priest; he'll be reduced to level 15 for a level 13 adventure, but that still gives one major token).

Forgetfulness will be good for defanging specific enemies, since they're all magic-based; Smoke_Bomb and Wall_of_Illusion can provide cover -- the former will also block your own spells, unless they don't require sight (think Firestorm, cone spells, and the like).

Also worth noting that the rooks will attack regardless of how many friendly units they will hit, AFAICT.

 

There are two early difficulty spikes in the campaign. This is one of them. Leave them aside and farm for better items elsewhere. Chops, AOE, cones etc will help with the swarms. With the chess pieces, its really about patience. Watch the mob cards, let them use up moves and attack from blind spots.

There is no right or wrong. Sometimes you get lucky drops that allow a good builds early on and the campaign becomes a cakewalk.

'Do not try to bend the spoon, it is impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.'

 

Like Kalin already mentioned, neither of these adventures are necessary to proceed in the Card Hunter single player campaign. If you want to just finish the campaign and then consider your options, here's a list of the only adventures you need to complete to get to the end of the story:
(spoiler warning: if you prefer to figure out yourself how to progress at every stage in the campaign, please don't look at the list as it cannot be unseen)
http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/shortest-path-through-the-sp-campaign.5542/

As you might notice, it's a pretty short list. You're probably closer to the finish line than you might imagine. Oh, there are plenty of other adventures to play along the way but these are the only obligatory ones.

 

No longer true. The Rooks and Bishops were changed to all Arcane spells and the Pawns only use melee. (Someone needs to update the wiki for them.)

I'm pretty sure those won't stop the Rook and Bishop attacks, since they're not targetted.

 

For advice on a specific adventure, it's a good idea to search this subforum with the adventure name. Usually, if you're running into difficulties in an adventure, somone else has already had the same problem.
http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/high-mountain-pass-tips.2900/

Except... I didn't find anything very relevant with "Shrine of the Astral Guardians" . Not even when searching the whole site.

 

The Astral adventures have changed so much the old posts would be obsolete anyway. I guess we need to make some new ones.

 

In case of the High Mountain Pass it is good to use Insight to get rid of enemy blocks. It works excellent as you redraw card with it and can trigger many blocks at once. Even redirected it wont do any harm to you.

Do not try to outmanoeuvre goblins, just block their way and focus on one flank or another. They tend to give their backs to you during their move. Also they very often have a hand full of move and block cards with very little attack. Having one parry and a armour is enough to stand to even very large group of goblins for a whole round.

The splash damage is the key. Use fire instead of lightning or arcane. Ember Burts, Magma Spray even Fire Spray and Burning Fingers can deal massive amount of dmg if you combine it with Arcane Aura and Firestarter. You can boost your wizard with priests frenzy boost cards to further extend the effect. Splash dmg is not easy to block because blocks run out very fast in multi-targeting. Remember to use your weaker attack first and then the major one. Plan your attack carefully. Let them make their moves while you play with warrior and priests then when they set their position line with warrior make your fire attack.

Even single Shielding Token is excellent because you can get free round when you run dry of cards and get free round of burning your enemies. If you place nimbus well all your enemies will focus on the single target. Do not try to outheal enemies with priests it is not good strategy versus big groups of opponents. Mix your best healing items with boosts and attacks. The warrior, the best is axe-one. On latter maps where Ogres are more dangerous you can switch to bashing one.

Just remember that the cards that make you draw after use are crucial in the Card Hunter. All parries, insights, turns, blind rages etc etc are very important to have in your deck. Even traits are not so bad.

Good luck

 

For both Astral Guardians adventures, you'll want to bring a lot of step attacks and a moderate amount of armor removal. You do not want the rooks and bishops blasting you any more than you can help it. When you go to attack rooks you want to be not-orthogonal, and against bishops you want to be not-diagonal. If all of your characters are in safe positions, consider passing until the chess pieces have used up their visible moves, which will help you a lot with positioning (although they still have tons of hidden moves, so be aware of that).

Try to make sure you don't position your characters where they can be "forked" (chess term - when the opponent's piece can capture multiple of your pieces). I find this especially problematic against the bishops, those things are tricksy.

 

Automatic Shield has made the 2 Astral Guardians adventures a pretty easy playthrough these days. Thanks to (I think) @Sir Veza for pointing it out!

 

In case anyone is wondering, the word for this is orthogonal.

 

I finally beat the Shrine today, due to the advice found here. Thank you so much!

Maybe I can even get High Mountain Pass soon, too.

 

Gratz!

 

Nuclear Pistol and Xipil Ring are your go-to rare items here. Run a screen with your tank/s up front (I prefer dwarf vamps with Turquoise Boots, but you may not have the items yet; if so, run with the Shielding Token builds above). Make sure you pass until all mobs move once, then play your utility cards to draw out any further moves. Bang, volc, mop up the 9HP (now 1HP) goblins with the magma sprays.

 

Believe it or not the Astral boards used to be harder... But seems like you pushed through. Both of these adventures really teach you the critical skill of positioning. As for the Mountain pass it is an annoying and frustrating adventure with the 1st map being particularly draining. For the goblins Hefty Chopper can be a great weapon to load up on. You can almost always hit 2 targets and you stay over the Weak Block threshold.
If you have an infused greatclub it can be nice to save the high damage attack for the ogres. Do your best to stay the F^&* away from the ogres until you have clear most or all of the goblins. Use terrain attachments as much as possible to kill off goblins and weaken ogres. Position and remember to go for the kill less goblins means less draws and less enemies attacking.