Rather then guide you can think of this as someone compiling their thoughts and things I did to reach my first win
As I will be talking about the game from point of view from someone who beat the game it will obviously include spoilers
Heroes
Heroes
– Most important point is, your heroes do not have to stay in class they start in/with the weapon type they start in, best way to go around your starting squad (Be it the 3 people on normal mode or 4 on easy mode) is to see first level or two and based on what bonuses you get, combined with your starting traits, once you get that out of the way you should have an idea what they would be good at, if your starting archer gets lot of good Armor, HP, Regen or Block just put a melee weapon on them, if your warrior gets bunch of Magic damage boost or Propagation bounces, turn them into mage
– After playing around with the game for longer time I did find specific builds that can work quite well for any type of weapon, I still do feel that Ranged + Magic is superior to Melee, but even Melee heroes have their place and can fit specific niche
– Best way to play melee heroes that I found so far is stacking heavily into Block, having additional armor helps but Block is the safest way to play melee heroes, Block + Resistance mean even the hardest hitting enemies will do next to no damage to you, I had hero who had around 50~ block, 200 armor and 30% res and she didn’t take single point of damage entire campaign, everything was either negated by Block or absorbed by armor
– Dodge is a trap, and so is Armor, Dodge won’t help yu when 4 Rippers surround you and ignore your dodge and Armor won’t save you if you get surrounded by Lancers who ignore armor, Block and Resistance however is safe bet as I don’t think tehre is any specific unit yet that ignores those, other than the ghosts that can reduce your resistance, but you can work around that
– Generally I recommend trying to get to 6 heroes, but it is not requirement, I won the game with 4 heroes before, 5 can do it pretty easily and 6 is basically cakewalk, if you play on Easy mode you can even have 7 heroes which is just laughable (Than again Easy mode is laughable in general, hence the name)
Melee 1
Melee weapons
– Generally melee weapons feel the weakest, since you HAVE TO either have hero that can run a marathon (14 move point is max by the way) or you need hero that can take lot of hits, thing is, melee heroes are extremely ‘risk reward’ type of play, you need to invest in them, but if you do they become very strong in the endgame
– You usually want to have one melee hero, as they can usually hold one side on their own if built right, if you bild them wrong… Well, you have dead hero on your hands, since melee heroes die often if you don’t get them what they need
One handed sword
Primary skill – Slice
– Single Target melee hit
– 4 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– If you kill enemy, you move in the space they were in
– 5% Momentum (+5% dmg per MP spent before you attack)
– Simple and effective, nothing special but with sword being movement focused it does work well for it
Secondary skill – Dash
– Singletarget melee hit
– 3 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– You move behind the target (Space has to be empty)
– Higher base damage than Slice
– Good for repositioning or to escape if you are surrounded, you can use it even if you hit nothing or wall/barricade for repositioning
Mana ability – Blade Rush
– 3 square line, melee
– 2 uses per turn, 2 AP + 1MP cost
– Moves you behind the last target (Space has to be open, 4th tile behind the 3 targets you hit)
– Great repositioning tool, basically evolved Dash, you can use it even if you hit nothing or wall/barricade for repositioning
Tips for using One Handed Sword
– It can be used as your starting weapon, it is good early but falls of late, it is good to have in your second weapon set if you need repositioning tool due to lacking movement on your primary weapon set
– Fast paced weapon great for hit and run tactics as you can use 2 of its skills to reposition even if you hit nothing with them
– Has fairly good base damage so even targets with high Block can be hit pretty hard with bit of Physical damage boost, Crit or Resistance reduction
Helpful Traits for using One handed Sword + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets below 15 hp with no cost (For finishing off those 1 hp enemies)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (Good if your frontliner has decent HP regen)
T1 Swift as the Wind – 5% chance to regain Move Points per damaged target (Sword is all about movement and repositioning)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (If you have high Block, you will never be bellow max HP)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (Effectively 0 Mana cost on first Blade Rush)
T4 Relentless – +10% damage, Armor Piercing and Block ignore if you are at 3 or less MP for melee attacks, as well as +5 armor (Generally great perk for all melee weapons)
T4 Poisonous – 20 poison dmg to everyone who attacks the Hero in melee range
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow
T5 Adrenaline Rush – Dodging attack adds +1AP for next turn (I don’t recommend doge tanking, but if you got points to spare and ok dodge, it’s fine choice)
Your level focus should be mainly on Block, Armor, Physical damage, Accuracy, Resistance and raw HP, obviously things like bonus AP, MP, XP gain, raw Damage and Resistance Reduction help too, HP regen, Momentum, Crit, Mana and Dodge can help too but shouldn’t be your focus (HP regen can be your focus if you stack a lot of it)
One Handed Hammer
Primary skill – Bash
– Single Target melee hit
– 5 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– Basic hit, has lot of uses hammers are naturally bit inaccurate, has good base damage
Secondary skill – Crush
– 2 target melee line attack
– 2 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– +100% Opportunistic (+100% damage if target is under effect of Stun, Poison or Debuff)
– Low base damage, good for finishing off stunned targets
Mana ability – Stomp
– 1 target melee attack + Secondary effect to everything around the primary target (Not the Hero)
– 2 uses per turn, 2 AP + 1MP cost
– Non-primary target takes half the damage and there is 60% chance to stun
– Great crowd control ability in an AOE, not the best damage to secondary targets but it stalls
Tips for using One Handed Hammer
– Good weapon for pretty much any point of the game, as its main purpose is to slow down the hordes and not to actually kill them, it has great aoe stun potential
– Usually you will be staying in one place so you want a lot of Armor and Block since you will get hit a lot
– You wanna use your Crush after you stun the enemies, as it does +100% damage to stunned targets (As well as poisoned and debuffed)
Helpful traits for One Handed Hammer + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets below 15 hp with no cost (Hammer has lower damage, this often comes in effect)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (Hammers are natural tanks, so this helps a lot)
T2 Stunning! – +15% chance to stun (75% chance to stun in an AOE is really good)
T2 Leapfrog – Can jump over adjacent enemies (Has to be empty space, Hammer often gets surrounded, so this can help reposition)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (Effectively 0 Mana cost on first Stomp)
T3 Patient – You can keep up to 2MP and 1 AP that you don’t spend (Hammers often have leftover resources)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you lose your secondary weapon set (+20% dmg is nice but not the primary focus, +1 use on AOE stun however is)
T4 Poisonous – 20 poison dmg to everyone who attacks the Hero in melee range
T5 Hex – All debuffs, poison and stun effects last +1 turn
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night (Hammers aren’t about damage but it still helps since they take lot of hits usually)
T5 Adrenaline Rush – Dodging attack adds +1AP for next turn (I don’t recommend doge tanking, but if you got points to spare and ok dodge, it’s fine choice)
Your level focus should mainly be on Block, Armor, Resistance, Raw HP, Accuracy and Stun chance, things like AP, MP, XP gain are obviously great if you get them, Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Dodge, Opportunistic, Mana, Mana regen and Resistance Reduction can be helpful but shouldn’t be your primary focus, HP Regen can be very good if you stack lot of it
Melee 2
Dagger
Primary skill – Backstab
– Single Target melee hit
– 5 uses per round, 1 AP cost
– +100% Isolated (If target is not adjacent to any other enemies they take +100% damage)
– Good base damage with fairly easy to setup double damage condition, lot of uses for cheap cost
Secondary skill – Perforate
– Single Target melee hit
– 3 uses per round, 1 AP cost
– Ignores enemy Armor (Not Block)
– Great for killing off early game armored enemies, later it is bit weaker as it also has slightly lower damage to Backstab, still can help bypass armor of Lancers for example
Mana ability – Throwing Daggers
– Single Target multihit (3 at base) attack, 1-4 range at base
– 2 uses per round, 2 AP + 1MP
– Multihit, benefits from more Multihits (Can target same enemy multiple times or each can hit different target), Additional poison damage
– One of strongest abilities in the game imo if you know how to use it, it obliterates bosses with just little bit of poison damage + 1-2 multihit bonus
Tips for using Dagger
– Personally I think Daggers are still one of best melee weapons, they are very much about picking your target and knowing when to strike and when to run, very mobile but thanks to Dagger throw you have good ranged option too
– You will want lot of movement for hit and run tactics
– Poison does damage ignoring armor and Block, check if the enemy dies to it, if not, toss again!
Helpful traits for Dagger + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets below 15 hp with no cost (Dagger often doesn’t need it but sometimes it can happen that the armor zombie you Perforate has like 10 hp left)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (Daggers are more hit and run but if you got lot of regen, armor can save your life)
T1 – Potent Toxins – +25% bonus Poison damage (Pretty much must have on Dagger)
T2 Initiator – +2 Propagation Bounces, -3% Propagation damage, +1 multihit if you didn’t kill this turn (The first 2 effects don’t do anything but +1 multihit does, if you pick your targets its drawback won’t even activate)
T2 Leapfrog – Can jump over adjacent enemies (You usually don’t get surrounded as Dagger user but it can happen)
T2 Cherry Picking – +5% reliability if target is not adjacent to any other enemies (Not only you get +100% damage against Isolated targets but also your weapon range is only top 50% with this perk)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Deadeye – +50% critical damage -10% Damage (Daggers often can get to guaranteed crits, so it effectively gives you +50% damage to those crits)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (FIrst dagger toss is free in terms of mana)
T3 Patient – You can keep up to 2MP and 1 AP that you don’t spend (Hammers often have leftover resources)
T4 Lone Wolf – +10% damage if you are 10 tiles away from other Heroes (Daggers often run around on their own)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you loose your secondary weapon set (AP cost of dagger abilities is cheap, unless you get really good stat bonuses on weapon you keep in your 2nd slot this is very helpful skill)
T4 Hitman – Armor Piercing + Dodge ignore if target is below 33% HP (Effectively, you stab with perforate and your Backstab turns into Perforate, with added benefit of ignoring dodge)
T4 Relentless – +10% damage, Armor Piercing and Block ignore if you are at 3 or less MP for melee attacks, as well as +5 armor (Does not affect Dagger Toss, but Backstab and Perforate are affected, mainly good for ignoring Block)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (More often than not you won’t need it, but it can help if your crit isn’t as high as you would want it)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (Effectively, you never run out of mana)
T5 Hex – All debuffs, poison and stun effects last +1 turn
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Dagger has lot of cheap skills, so you often have more uses that you lack AP for)
T5 Adrenaline Rush – Dodging attack adds +1AP for next turn (I don’t recommend doge tanking, but if you got points to spare and ok dodge, it’s fine choice)
You want to focus on Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Crit, Crit power, Accuracy, MP, Skill Range and Multi Hit, Bonus AP, XP gain and Reliability are also good, Armor, Block, Resistance and raw HP can save you but you don’t want to be taking hits as dagger user usually, Isolated, Mana, Mana Regen, Resistance Reduction and HP regen can also help but shouldn’t be your main focus (HP Regen is always good if you stack a lot of it for Coagulation)
Melee 3
One Handed Axe
Primary Skill – Shred
– Melee hit to 3 tiles in front of you
– 5 uses per turn, 1AP cost
– Inaccurate x1,5 (Enemy’s dodge is multiplied by 1,5)
– Bit inaccurate but strong attack, unique hit pattern for very cheap cost, axes have good base damage, lower accuracy
Secondary Skill – Intimidating Scream
– 6 squares pattern (3×2) 1-3 range
– 2 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– -33% enemy damage and -10% accuracy (Can stack)
– Amazing debuff, enemy will have harder time hitting you and even do way less damage thanks to it, does no damage
Mana Ability – Axe Boomerang
– 5 square pattern (U shape), 1-2 range
– 2 uses per turn, 2 AP + 2MP cost
– Higher damage than Shred with unique U shape pattern, can hit in melee or at range, great damage tool with bit higher than average mana cost
Tips for using One Handed Axe
– Great mix of offensive and defensive weapon, really strong on hybrid builds that has great clearing potential for a melee weapon as even tis basic attack is multi square hit
– Its debuff can stack with other debuffs and with itself, making enemy do effectively no damage
Helpful traits for One Handed Axe + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets bellow 15 hp with no cost (Usually won’t happen but it is failsafe, since the primary skill is aoe you often can hit the zombie with low HP and something else anyway)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (Great if you stack lot of regen, Axes are hybrid offensive/defensive so it helps a lot)
T1 Critical Master – +2% Critical per not critical hit (As all your abilities are AOE this will stack up fast)
T2 Leapfrog – Can jump over adjacent enemies (Axes usually stand in middle of horde of enemy to hit their AOEs, so having tool to reposition can help)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (If you have high Block, you will never be bellow max HP and Axes can use that reliability)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (Axe Boomerang costs 2 mana, so any mana saved helps)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you lose your secondary weapon set (Axe has cheap AP costs so you will often use all of your skills, +20% damage also helps unless you have amazing stat boosts on your second weapon set)
T4 Hitman – Armor Piercing + Dodge ignore if target is bellow 33% HP (Axes do great damage but their damage range can get fairly high, leaving enemies at low HP so this helps finish them off if they live guaranteed)
T4 Relentless – +10% damage, Armor Piercing and Block ignore if you are at 3 or less MP for melee attacks, as well as +5 armor (Only affects your Primary skill but your primary is amazing skill so it helps a lot)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (Basically crutch if you need crit, otherwise not required)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (Axe can be mana hungry so if you can get some crit this is your way of keeping mana)
T5 Hex – All debuffs, poison and stun effects last +1 turn
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night (Axes often stand in middle of horde, so this adds up real fast)
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Not necessary but it can help to push the damage even further)
You want to focus on Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Block, Armor, Raw HP, Reliability and Accuracy, AP, MP, XP gain, Resistance Reduction and Skill range are great if you can get them, Mana, Mana regen, HP regen, Crit and Crit Damage can help too but shouldn’t be your focus (HP regen as always if you stack lot of it is great for Coagulation, Mana regen helps a ton too as Axe is more mana hungry)
Two Handed Sword
Primary Skill – Slash
– 2 square melee line attack
– 3 uses per turn, 2 AP cost
– Good basic attack as it hits 2 targets with high damage, nothing special about it
Secondary Skill – Thrust
– Single Target melee hit
– 2 uses per turn, 1 AP cost
– Momentum +20% (+20% damage per square moved before moved that turn)
– Lower base damage than Slash, but good if you have to reposition and hit one target
Mana ability – Charge
– 3 Squares line attack, 2-4 range
– 2 uses per turn, 1 AP, 1MP +1 Move
– Moves you in front of the targeted area
– Good repositioning tool with good damage, can’t be used in direct melee range
Mana ability – Sword Blast
– 6 squares melee attack (2×3)
– 1 Use per turn, 2 AP + 2MP cost
– AOE with good damage, very good at clearing out basic enemies and does well even against more bulky ones
Tips for using Two Handed Sword
– Very strong damage wise, but with high damage range making it bit difficult to work with, if you can get some Reliability it will make you very powerful at dealing with large groups
– You want to make sure you got good Block on your hero as they will often get surrounded by loads of enemies
– Very mana intensive weapon, so if you can get them some mana regen gear it will help you a ton
Helpful traits for One Handed Axe + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets bellow 15 hp with no cost (Twohander does lot of damage so this won’t happen often but it can leave enemy at minimum HP)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (Since you can’t have shield this can be lot of armor if you focus on it)
T1 Swift as the Wind – 5% chance to regain Move Points for damaging enemies (While not as mobile as One handed version you benefit from lot of movement too)
T2 Leapfrog – Can jump over adjacent enemies (You will more often than not find it easier to simply kill what’s in front of you but in pinch it can help)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (If you have high Block, you will never be bellow max HP, Twohander has high damage range so Reliability helps)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (You have 2 mana abilities so this saves you good chunk of mana)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you loose your secondary weapon set (Having +1 use on Sword Blast helps a ton, it is often worth it just for that)
T4 Hitman – Armor Piercing + Dodge ignore if target is bellow 33% HP (Won’t be often ended but it is good to finish targets safely that you couldn’t finish last turn)
T4 Relentless – +10% damage, Armor Piercing and Block ignore if you are at 3 or less MP for melee attacks, as well as +5 armor (Very useful as it affects Sword Blast, Twohander does great damage as is so it’s not required but it helps)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (Basically crutch if you need crit, otherwise not required)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (Sword Blast is mana hungry, you want this if you can support the crit chance)
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night (Adds more damage on top of already really high damage weapon)
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Twohander has AP heavy costs but good AOE to get more chances at this, so it is great for them)
T5 Adrenaline Rush – Dodging attack adds +1AP for next turn (If you have lot of dodge this is way to offset the high AP costs as well)
You want to focus on Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Block, Armor, Raw HP, Reliability, Mana Regen and Accuracy, AP, MP, XP gain, Resistance Reduction and , Mana, HP regen, Crit and Crit Damage can help too but shouldn’t be your focus (HP regen as always if you stack lot of it is great for Coagulation)
Melee 4
Two Handed Spear
Primary Skill – Impale
– 3 square line melee attack
– 3 uses per turn 2 AP cost
– High damage line attack, very good at clearing out groups but high AP cost for primary skill
Secondary Skill – Rush
– 2 square line melee attack
– 2 Uses per turn, 2 AP cost
– Momentum +10% (+10% damage per square moved this turn)
– Same base damage as Impale, 1 square shorter but bonus if you move, good secondary if you have to move a lot
Mana Ability – Skewer
– Singletarget multihit (2 targets at base) attack, 1-4 range
– 1 Use per turn, 2 Ap + 1 MP cost
– Ignores armor
– Good ranged option that benefits from multihit and ignores armor, lower base damage but great at finishing of high armor targets
Mana Ability – Triple Swipe
– Cone shape melee ability – 1 square > 3 square 5 > square pattern (9 targets total)
– 1 use per turn, 2 AP, 3 AP cost
– Amazing AOE ability that can thin out big clusters of enemies, but extremely mana hungry that will chew through your mana supply
Tips for using Two Handed Spear
– You wanna stack some mana and/or mana regen asap, Tripple Swipe will chew through your mana supply like it’s nothing, but it is amazing clearing tool so it is well worth that cost
– Spear is best at dealing with very large crowds as all of its skills are AOE/Multi-hit, so they make good solo defenders
– Having some kind of support like for example Wand user can boost your damage output by a lot, move and AP are very valuable for you
Helpful traits for Two Handed Spear + Level focus
T1 Fatality – Kill melee targets bellow 15 hp with no cost (As Spear hits many targets with each attack often you can clear low HP targets as side effect, but this can help just in case)
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (You will often be deep in enemy horde, so lot of armor helps)
T1 Critical Master – +2% crit per attack that didn’t crit (As everything you do is AOE this stacks up quickly)
T1 Swift as the Wind – 5% chance to regain Move Points for damaging enemies (Great help with mobility, spear having all attacks AOE also help this proc more often)
T2 Initiator – +2 Propagation Bounces, -3% Propagation damage, +1 multihit if you didn’t kill this turn (Only really helps with Skewer but that can be plenty)
T2 Leapfrog – Can jump over adjacent enemies (Spears often stand very far in front so this can be quite helpful, or you can just kill everything)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (If you have high Block, you will never be bellow max HP, Spear has huge range on Triple Swipe especially, reducing that can save you lot of headache)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase uppon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (Everything that helps with mana is useful on Spear)
T4 Lone Wolf – +10% damage if you are 10 tiles away from other Heroes (As Spears make great solo defenders this often is just flat +10% damage boost)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you loose your secondary weapon set (2 casts of Triple swipe? Additional Skewers? Yes, this is very strong unless your stat boosts are crazy powerful)
T4 Relentless – +10% damage, Armor Piercing and Block ignore if you are at 3 or less MP for melee attacks, as well as +5 armor (Affects Triple Swipe, which is big, but everything but Skewer benefits from it)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (Helps with Mana Collector, and additional crit for Tripple Swipe is big too)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (You 100% need this and have good crit to trigger it)
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Spear uses lot of AP so this helps with that)
You want Physical damage, Raw damage, Reliability, Mana, Mana Regen, Accuracy, Block, Armor, Raw HP and Resistance, AP, MP, Multi-hit, XP gain, Skill range are great too if you can get them, Momentum, Resistance Reduction, HP Regen and Crit are also good (HP Regen as always helps with Coagulation and Crit is very important if you plan on taking Mana Collector, which you should)
Warhammer
Primary skill – Hammer Strike
– 1 tile attack with bonus effect on all 8 spaces around primary target, 1-3 range
– 3 uses per turn, 2 AP costs
– Secondary effect has 40% to stun
– Amazing primary, basically free AOE stun attack, has very high damage with high damage range
Secondary Skill – Follow Up
– Single Target 1-2 range attack
– 2 uses per turn, 1AP cost
– If you kill the target you will move into its spot
– Good repositioning tool, does lower damage than Hammer Strike
Mana Ability – Mega Stomp
– Single Target Propagation ability (5 at base)
– 1 use per turn, 2 AP + 1 MP cost
– Amazing Propagation ability, does solid damage and spreads up to 5 targets at base, very good at clearing bit clusters of enemies
Mana Ability – Ground Smash
– 5 square cross pattern 2-3 range attack
– 1 use per turn, 2 Ap + 2MP cost
– Cannot be dodged
– Extremely high damage ability, one of highest base damage skills in game to 5 squares in cross pattern, on range, this ability is extremely strong and it only costs 2 mana and cannot be dodged, you can kill high value targets with ease
General tips for using Warhammer
– Extremely high damage weapon that is best used with 2nd weapon set that boosts your defenses as you can clear almost anything with Ground Smash, while stalling with your primary skill
– You will want Reliability as its damage range can get kinda ridiculous
Helpful traits for One Handed Axe + Level focus
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (You want to tank up as much as you can since you will be standing in middle of horde with Warhammer)
T1 Swift as the Wind – 5% chance to regain Move Points for damaging enemies (Your movement might suffer as some of the best defensive gear reduces movement and Armor master only negates the -1 move on body armor)
T2 Stunning – +15% stun chance (Turns your 40% on primary attack to 55% stun chance)
T2 Initiator – +2 Propagation Bounces, -3% Propagation damage, +1 multihit if you didn’t kill this turn (Helps with Mega Stomp but not required)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (You need all Reliability you can get, Warhammers have ridiculous damage range with its top damage being highest in game)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (You can get lot of damage out if you save some mana, Thrifty is very useful on almost any weapon)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (If you actually crit with how high dmg ouput of Warhammer is at base, you can oneshot any high priority target)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you loose your secondary weapon set (If you won’t have good backup set that will be used to boost stats +1 Ground Smash is pretty good alternative)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (Quite helpful but not 100% required, since your crit probably won’t be too high)
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night (Adds more damage on top of already really high damage weapon)
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Warhammer can certainly use some bonus AP as its skills are AP heavy)
You want Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Block, Armor, Raw HP, Accuracy, Stun Chance and Reliability, any AP, MP, Propagation bounces, XP gain Resistance Reduction and HP Regen help (For Coagulation), Mana, Mana Regen, Dodge and Crit can help but shouldn’t be your main focus
Melee 5
Greataxe
Primary Skill – Swing
– 5 tiles target in melee (Effectively +1 on each side compared to 1 Handed Axe)
– 3 uses per turn, 2 Ap cost
– Inaccurate x1,5 (Enemy dodge x1,5)
– Strong clearing ability for big groups, but it can be bit unwieldy at times
Secondary Skill – Leap
– Singletarget + 7 squares around the target 3-6 range attack
– 2 uses per turn, 1 AP + 1 Move point cost
– Moves you to square in front of target, Debuffs surrounding targets for -25% Resistance
– Very good repositioning tool, basically you pay 1 AP and 1 Move point to move up to 6 tiles, very powerful and bonus effect that helps you clear enemies
Mana ability – Berserker Rage
– Self target buff or ally buff up to 6 tiles away
– 1 use per turn, 2 AP + 1MP cost
– +25% damage, -15% Resistance debuff for 2 turns
– Amazing buff for anyone really, especially good on your ranged Heroes as they don’t need to worry about the debuff, but it works on anyone, stacks too
Mana Ability – Super Spin
– 12 tiles around the caster (3 tiles effective range in all directions)
– 1 use per turn, 2 AP + 2 MP cost
– Very powerful AOE clear ability, Greataxe is all about jumping in middle of horde, buffing yourself and spinning to clear everyone around you
General tips for using Greataxe
– You basically want to let the enemy group up, snipe one target with ranged hero and than have your Greataxe user jump in middle of horde and spin to clear out huge chunks of enemies
– Buff works on everyone, you can boost damage of any ally as it is raw damage boost, not specific damage type
– Secondary skill effectively turns 1 AP and 1MP into 6 tiles movement, it is one of best repositioning tools in game with added benefit which will help you kill enemies with your Super Spin
Helpful traits for One Handed Axe + Level focus
T1 Coagulation – 75% of HP regen turns into armor (You want to tank up as much as you can since you will be jumping in middle of hordes)
T1 Swift as the Wind – 5% chance to regain Move Points for damaging enemies (Your movement might suffer as some of the best defensive gear reduces movement and Armor master only negates the -1 move on body armor)
T3 Confident – 50% Reliability if you are at full HP (You need all Reliability you can get, Greataxes have quite high damage ranges, so Reliability is very powerful tool)
T3 Armor Master – Remove movement penalty from heavier armors
T3 Play Dead – Hero is revived on next Preparation phase upon dying (The ‘Oh ♥♥♥♥’ button, if you play well, not needed)
T3 Deadeye – +50% critical damage -10% Damage (The -10% damage won’t hurt as much and if you can stack crit that +50% crit damage will be massive)
T3 Thrifty – Reduce cost of first mana usage each turn by 1 (Since you will be spamming your)
T4 First Blood – +15% crit against full HP targets (You will want to boost your crit to dish out even more damage if possible)
T4 Specialist – +20% damage and +1 use for all abilities, you loose your secondary weapon set (Jump in, Spin, jump to another place, spin again, yes)
T4 Mana Collector – +1 Mana per crit dealt (Can help you keep mana costs down, but not 100% required)
T5 Berserk – +2% damage per hit taken (Even if it does 0 dmg) for rest of the night (You will be jumping in middle of enemy horde, so they can as well boost your damage)
T5 Energized – 5% chance of recovering 1AP per killing blow (Great Axes are rather AP heavy so AP on kill helps a ton)
You want Physical Damage, Raw Damage, Block, Armor, Resistance, Accuracy and Raw HP, as always any AP, MP, XP gain, Resistance Reduction help and Mana, Mana Regen, Dodge, Crit, Crit damage and Hp Renge help but shouldn’t be your focus (Coagulation as always, Crit and Crit damage is especially helpful if you stack lot of it as it makes your dmg go through the roof but not worth if you can’t stack enough of it)
Ranged
Ranged
Shortbow – Probably the weakest of ranged weapons, but it does have its uses, it has good range, both of its basic abilities do decent damage, it’s obviously better for archer that moves around and stands closer to combat, both of its Mana abilities are good too, 6 tiles attack with good range and a 7 tiles one with rather unique pattern that does tremendous damage, it might have highest flat damage for an AOE that I’ve seen so far
Longbow – Amazing range ideal for heroes that you sit up in a tower and snipe everything with them from great distances, primary attack does good damage and its secondary gives someone 40 Avoid, making it amazing support for your dodge tanks, both of its Mana abilities are great, snipe shot which uses all three of your resources (AP, Mana and MP) but does amazing single target damage, ideal for picking off key targets like Boomers, Bulkies and so on, and its other Mana ability is 9 tile square AOE blast with potential for stun while still doing good damage, Longbow is amazing for lategame and especially night 12
Heavy Crossbow – I am not sure if I would peg this one as weakest of the ranged weapons, but this one has bit more niche use, so while Shortbow might be better overall I think this one has more niche use, it is good for frontline archers as all of its abilities can be cast close to the Hero, both of its primaries do lot of damage and its Mana abilities aren’t bad either, 4 tiles line attack with good damage (You have to be bit further away though) and a cross shaped fire blast, basically Ranged damage equivalent of FIreblast, if you want a ranger that can take a hit, Heavy crossbow is your best bet
Hand Crossbow – My favourite weapon in the game personally, its damage is… Laughable once you get to point of enemies having block, as 50 block effectively makes it do next to no damage with its primary, but anything without block is great target, as it naturally Multi-hits it is good choice for that, and both Mult-ihit and Propagation bounces make this weapon into monster. Its other secondary is single target poison strike, with the Poison damage trait it can one shot early game armored enemies and in late game it is great tool for destroying heavy block enemies, armor piercing shot is its first Mana ability, imo, its weakest ability, due to damage of hand crossbow being really low while it pierces armor it will still get reduced by block. And then its primary source of damage, the fireblast shot… This thing will most likely get nerfed, not only is it affected by Multi-shot which means you can shoot it more times more Multi-shot you have (And just getting it to 3-4 is easy, I had one run where I had it do 6 shots before you kill a target through perk tree and that was ridiculous) but it also has Propagation bounce, so it spreads, doing great damage in AOE if you target your shots right, it is great horde clearing ability and it can even work on bulky enemies
Gun – I have very little experience with it so far, it has okay damage, can target spaces even directly next to you which is nice and its secondary is grapple which pulls you if you kill the target, so I suppose it is good for frontline ranged but it feels rather weak compared to bows and crossbows, its Mana ability is cone of attack like Spear has which is nice, especially since you can target it from right in front of you to several tiles away, but I don’t think its worth, I’ll experiment more with it and see
Rifle – Basically it’s longbow version of gun, it has good primary with great range, its secondary feels kind of weak personally, its first Mana ability is long range debuff AOE which feels okay and its second primary is basically the snipe shot but with rifle, it feels good and powerful, but I would still generally take Longbow over Rifle
Magic
Magic
Wand – Good supportive weapon, if you get few Multi-hits its Mana ability is good as it is target picked Multi-shot attack, primary attack is alright, it does good damage and has good range, but it is just simple single target attack, most of the magic weapons have simple single target attack as their primary with little bonus to differentiate them. Its secondary is great supporting tool, you can give another hero 1 AP and 2 MP, so they can run, reposition and attack, do be careful as you can’t push AP/MP above max, you have to use some first before you give them more
Tomes – Best magic weapon for clearing hordes and still has good support ability too, its primary is single target magic blast, its secondary is debuff to both resistance and damage enemy deals, and it chains, making it amazing setup for the primary damage source of tomes, the chain lightning, it clears hordes of smaller enemies and does great damage even to highly defensive enemies, if your mage gets few Propagation bounce boosts he can hold one side on their own
Staff – I… Am not fond of staff, its primary is single target at short range with bonus effect around the target, its secondary is stun in square around the target, and if you kill the target you teleport to that spot (You can target round with it too), its Mana abilities are okay, six square close-mid range attack which does okay damage and cone shaped blast that does high damage, but unlike tomes and wands its AOE potential is final, both Staff and Scepter are good for melee mages, but personally, I don’t like them in general
Scepter – Completely close range magic weapon, want tank mage? Give them Scepter, its primary is T shaped attack 1 in front of you and 3 behind it, its secondary is… Bad… Since you want this weapon on a melee mage you will usually have them in heavy armor so they don’t die to stiff breeze, but that also reduces their move unless you pick trait that negates that, and this skill benefits from momentum which increases dmg based on tiles you move before you attack… Yea it’s not good… Its Mana ability is fairly good, mid range stun that propagates, so if you get few bounces it can do okay damage and stun, but I don’t think it is in any way worth compared to Wand or Tome
Druidic staff – Amazing support weapon, primary single target and all of its skills use Mana, first one is massive movement reduction in 9 tile square, does no damage but great zoning/stalling tool, next one is chain magic similar to Tome’s lightning, but does less damage but adds lot of poison, which is great way to deal with hordes as well, last ability being AOE block reduction, -100 armor in massive AOE and -40% dodge, which is almost essential for late game, it would be better if it had some block reduction too but so far I do like the staff a lot
Orb – I only tested it for a moment, it seems fairly decent, single target primary, smaller AOE damage with good poison around the main target and a line death laser, honestly I don’t know yet, gonna have to test it more
If there are other weapons I’ll test them and add them
Build order
One of the most important parts of the game is build order, as far as I am concerned, this is more important than anything else, as right build order will ensure your long term survival
The order I so far had best success with is simple
Night 1
– Once you get past first night you use all your workers to clear for gold focus, you build Houses, rinse and repeat, you should be able to build all Houses on first night if you sell piece or two of equipment which shouldn’t be issue, if you unlock some upgrades this gets even better
– You don’t build any defenses as single side is easy to hold with just heroes
Night 2
– You have your Houses built so clear as many buildings with gold focus as you can, you can then build Gold Mines, this will boost your production, I recommend boosting one mine as much as possible as on max level it will give you 2 x 55 gold each day, which does boost your production further
– You once again build no defenses as wave is still single
Night 3
– Clear any remaining broken buildings with gold focus and get bonus uses on your upgraded Mine, use workers on it to get return on your gold and build 3 Scavenger camps for bonus materials, you can upgrade your Mines and Scavengers production this night to boost your next night
– Side where you will have 2 heroes can be left as is, at most I recommend putting basic wooden wall to slow runners down, the lane where your best AOE clearing hero will be should be closed off with maybe one space open, you can use basic or upgraded wooden walls depending on how you feel, but I heavily recommend putting 2-3 Balistas with their LOS upgrade on that lane too, it will help clear runners
Night 4
– You want to focus on upgrading your Gold mines as much as you can, they will give you return on investment and then some, use your workers always first on Gold mines before you have all buildings you want upgraded fully, once you have Gold mines fully upgraded, focus all your gold on Scavengers to boost your material production
– Focus on building basic defenses and LOS upgraded balistas where your enemies will be coming from, if you are lucky and get them from same lanes that’s ideal
Night 5 and forward
– After you have your Gold Mines and Scavengers maxed out, you should upgrade your Houses, focus all your workers on both of the resources, your next major build should be Inn, this will get you 4th hero of your choosing and it can be upgraded to give you more heroes, I beat the game with 5, 4 is rough but doable, 6 and more is easy mode basically
– When you have Inn built it depends heavily on your needs, if you are taking damage or using lot of Mana, build Shrine/Mana well, if you want more gear, build gear buildings, Seer is amazing as for cost of 3 workers which is steep pushes back the Mist, making it easier to respond to threats and no BS like Boomer blowing up your hero can happen
– You should build basically wall of balistas (Always build them with one space between them and walls to avoid Boomer/Lancers damaging them, balistas are BUSTED (And loud, very loud), get as many as you can put in, use the gold upgrade too as it shoots 2 targets that way, and balistas can very easily clear hordes that get right next to your wall, saving durability on them, I also heavily recommend using watchtowers as the LOS will be problem once you get to stone walls, teleporters are also great if you can spare the materials
Gear, levels, traits and general tips
Gear
– I honestly don’t think gear is all that important, your most important thing is your weapon, getting better weapon is your primary concern, but having gear that boosts your focused stats will help, for example having robe that adds Mana regen or Propagation bounces to your Tome mage will be amazing
– Trinkets are very useful, some of them have major effects or can even give you skills like the Meteor, which is very good AOE spell with high dmg output
– WEAPONS AND SHIELDS IN SECONDARY SLOTS GIVE YOU THEIR BONUSES, Got a sword that has Multi Hit on it but sword doesn’t have any Multi-hit? Slot it to someone who uses Mult-ihit as their secondary set and they will get the bonus (Of course the negatives also apply), this is a good thing in early game, however in late game this gets rather obsolete due to some perks you can get
Levels
– Leveling up is your primary way of getting bonuses, these bonuses together with their background traits should be what determines what weapons they use
– On level ups best way to go about it is to focus on one thing, for example, focus on Block, or high Mana count + Regen, there are some really good bonuses you can get which are extremely rare, like bonus AP, you should always take those no matter what of course
– I recommend picking one of the five bonuses you get, unless they are all completely useless, one less useful bonus but still useful is better then rerolling and getting absolutely nothing, if you reroll though and still get just mediocre bonuses, can as well go with it and try again, sure you might end with useless bonus but you arleady tried once?
– Some of best bonuses you can get – Bonus AP, Bonus MP, Mana Regen (Mana regen is good on everyone), Accuracy (Missing is hell, accuracy is great on everyone), Multi-hit, Propagation Bounces, Skill range (On ranged, Magic and Dagger), Reliability (Not having to worry about doing minimum damage is great), XP gain (More XP = More lvls, easy right?), those are some of my personal favourites in terms of lvl ups
Perks
This is heavily up to your playstyle, but so far I found my favourite perks to be these, of course some are only good for specific type of weapons but some are generally good
T1 Avid Learner – Bonus 25% XP, pretty much everyone should have this, universally great
T1 Coagulation – Got a tank with 100 HP regen per day? 75% of that regen is now free armor
T1 Potent Toxins – Hand Crossbows, Dagger and Druid with bonus 25% poison? Yes please
T1 Steady Aim – Stay still for +10% accuracy and +1 skill range, great on anyone who sits in Watchtower or Longbows and Rifles in general
T1 Swift as the WInd – Very RNG skill, but sometimes that 5% to regain MP can save you, it’s especially good on heroes that hit multiple targets
T2 Stunning – Hammers, Scepters and Longbow getting +15% stun chance is big boost
T2 Soul Reaper – Not good in normal play through, but helps you get more Tainted Essence if you are just grinding for it
T2 Initiator – Amazing on anyone using Multi-hit or Propagation, must have on Hand Crossbow as he uses both, if you pick your targets right even its drawback can be worked around
T2 Leapfrog – Can be useful on Melee heroes that get surrounded, but not necessary
T3 Confident – Amazing on Watchtower users, +50% reliability on full HP is great, useless on anyone who is anywhere close to frontline
T3 Armor Master – Heavy armors not eating your MP? Great
T3 Magic Fuel – Can be good on mages who have massive Manapool, like druids often tend to have lot of Mana since they use lot of it
T3 Thrifty – First Mana cost (Of any kind) consuming 1 less Mana each round? Well that sure sounds great
T3 Patient – Can be very useful on heroes that move around the place to cover multiple lanes, saving some AP and MP is nice
T4 Lone Wolf – Free +10% damage on your Watchtower Longbow/Rifle since they are almost always 10 squares away from other heroes? Sure, that sounds good
T4 Hitman – Ignoring Dodge and Armor of targets below 33% HP can be good for finishers, daggers and hand crossbows usually get good use out of it
T4 Specialist – THE strongest perk in game, you get +20% damage and +1 use on all your skills and only drawback is not being able to use second weapon set? I can’t wait for it to be nerfed!
T4 Relentless – If you use melee hero, this is great, lot of bonuses, but Melee is kinda weak right now
T4 Poisonous – Dagger users if you stick them to frontline stacking 20 poison on attackers with boosts for Poison damage they will have? Yea that sounds good, not amazing for tier 4 but still good
T4 Mana collector – If you have crit, you will never run out of Mana again
T5 Night Owl – Can potentially save you, +2AP and +2MP on last part of night is neat bonus, but if you clear before last stage of night it is useless
T5 Hex – All debuffs, poison and stuns last 1 turn longer? Lot of weapons can use this
T5 Energised – 5% to regen 1AP for each killed enemy may sound like low chance but it can be very helpful
General tips
– Try to clear first 2 nights with as little Mana use as possible, you will need it for third night
– Early stages your heroes can be used to body block, even mages and rangers, it is better if your hero takes hit rather then wall or building, as they can regenerate, repairing walls cost resources and buildings getting hit cause panic, reducing your rewards
– You have small buffer for Panic, if it doesn’t reach first ! mark you will still get full rewards, work around that
– Runners, their upgraded forms, Bats, Axe wielding enemies, Boomers and Bulkies should generally be your primary targets, they are either fast and can slip past your defenses, can destroy your walls instantly or in case of Bulkies have ranged stun, which imo is absolute BS but what can you do
– Boomers run in, explode, and blow up walls, including the tile behind the wall, don’t let your heroes stand right behind the wall unless he has lot of block and armor to negate the explosion, I lost a great ranger that way and it cost me my run once
– Balistas are amazing, Catapults can help but Balistas are way better
– Don’t be afraid to sell your armor or trinket to get your Houses/Gold Mine upgrades earlier, it helps a lot in long term economy
– If you got spare money, buy scrolls that have useful skills and potions, primarily Mana potions, but AP and MP are great too
– In terms of meta progression, you should always focus on general benefits first, get your bonus AP as soon as you see it, same with starting Mana, role specific bonuses can help but the general ones are essential
– Don’t be afraid to use your consumables if you need them, you can get more, same with Mana costing abilities, if you need to clear a wave, use it, do try to be economical though, if the enemy doesn’t pose immediate threat, try to using non-mana costing abilities to clear it, it’s all about balance
– Inn bought heroes should ideally have XP boost as they will start behind, them having Scholar, Brilliant or Genius will ensure they will catch up quicker, which can be essential
Closing thoughts
That should be about it really, I know this is not exactly conventional guide and I am sure someone will give you far better and detailed guide sooner or later, as I said this is more or less meant to be as my way of sharing my experience with other players and maybe giving them some advices on how things work or what to focus on in the game since the learning curve can be kinda steep, if anyone will want to ask something regarding the game feel free to leave comments and if I know answer to your question I’ll answer it
Either way, hope this helped you get some basid idea about mechanics of the game and hope you are having fun with the game, I think it is easily one of best releases in 2021 so far and if devs stick to it and maybe even add mod support it has potential to be one of best games that will stick with us for years
This is all for The Last Spell Basic Guide Gameplay and Review on The Last Spell hope you enjoy the post. If you believe we forget or we should update the post please let us know via comment, we will try our best to fix how fast is possible! Have a great day!
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