WALKTHROUGH FOR THE SACRIFICE SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN
I. Information and Table of Contents
Hello everyone. I, Corpse, have decided to create a guide for the Sacrifice
single-player campaign, as you see. While I’m aware that there are two full
walkthroughs on the net already, I feel that they are both flawed in
several aspects, and seldomly have wrong information. Therefore, I decided
to write a walkthrough that can guide you, the player, through optimally.
Before we start, let me tell you: you have to know the basics to be able to
follow this. For example, you must be able to recognise a creature by its
name. If I tell you about a „Jabberrocky” and you don’t know what it is,
brush up on your knowledge. I don’t have patience to write down the basics
and the other guides do that pretty well already.
And now for the guide.
The Table of Contents
I. Information and Table of Contents
II. General Campaign Tips, Additional Information
III. The Walkthroughs
-James’ Missions
-Pyro’s Missions
-Charnel’s Missions
-Persephone’s Missions
-Stratos’ Missions
IV. Final Words
II. General Campaign Tips, Additional Information
Well, let me tell you a few things first. It shouldn’t surprise you that
the AI is just a computer – it has some preset behaviours and such which
you can exploit to win. And that’s what you need – don’t feel guilty, as in
the last few missions the enemy has about five times as many souls and two
times as many wizards as you.
The biggest thing: The AI doesn’t take very good care of itself. It often
gets into dangerous situations, then dies, and retreats to the nearest
manaliths, getting ahead of its manahoars usually. But if you kill the
manahoars too, then all the better. Its units will tag behind, oblivious to
the bombardment of your firing squad, until they’re all dead. Well, often
this is not the case, often the units will hold out until their boss comes
back but you might be able to capture a few souls anyway.
On the other hand: many people advise you to guardian your stuff to your
first lith. Well, horrible choice. This makes you vulnerable to spells like
Volcano in the latest missions, but even earlier, this hands map control to
your enemies and at best you will have a boring game. I’ll tell you other
ways to win instead.
Also, another nice thing: If you start the desecration of a wizard while he
still has manaliths, he will go to those manaliths to regenerate instead of
his altar. If that lith is far enough, and you’re quick enough, he’ll be
force-resurrected on the way and then the energies will kill him because he
will have zero mana. If it’s not far enough, he will still have to go a
longer route to interrupt the ritual. So don’t destroy all liths unless you
have to.
I will discuss the gods in the order of difficulty. I find James the
easiest, then Pyro..., etc. I had a hard time deciding between Persephone
and Charnel, but I voted for Charnel as the easier one... (Animate Dead)
All these walkthroughs will assume you only served the god you’re serving
at the moment, unless otherwise noted.
For the storyline itself, it may contain minor spoilers, but for the most
part I’d say that I’m trying to be as vague as possible with the main
storyline. Just for those who are reading this walkthrough for the easier
missions, you know. Of course, wherever it’s unavoidable, I won’t even try
to conceal it, but then most probably you know it anyways.
So let’s see the missions themselves now.
III. Walkthroughs
1. James’ Missions
Mission One – The Gods Themselves
An easy mission, of course. First, your task is to go to the nearby
village. The farmers will tell you that drakes have been attacking them
lately. The drakes’ caves will be highlighted. You will also get attacked
by a few hatchlings before – convert their souls. There are two ways to do
the mission from now. The first one is the usual way, the way of the
unspoiled – long, frustrating and nothing happens at the end. The second
one doesn’t require you to train anything more than a few earthflings from
the souls you have (even kill your remaining troggs for more earthflings).
The first method is obvious – go around, kill hatchlings, destroy caves.
The second one just requires you to go to the hills ahead. A dragon will
attack you here (the adult one) – fearsome, but your earthflings and
Gammel, the very nice and strong Ikarus hero you get, can defeat him.
You’ll also get a few troggs who are running away. Now just give Gammel a
waypointed order to attack and destroy each cave (don’t worry about the
hatchlings – this way not a single one will come to you). You can do
whatever you want for two minutes now (if you need a toilet break, do it
now). Once the last cave is down, you’ll see why this was worth it:
Persephone will grant you a boon since you avoided unnecessary bloodshed.
Double joy.
Mission Two – The Prophecy
Mission two is always the first mission in which you fight a wizard. You
did hear of Ragman from the farmers already, the former Lord of Terror, in
the first mission. Have no fear, he is a wuss. He won’t even come to you in
the first half of the mission. You do have Gammel alive still, right? (If
you went with James before, that is) Order him to attack the lith right
ahead of you, the one that is guarded by a few fallen. (Don’t go into the
main landmass yet) Convert their souls. You can also go to a village near a
lith and convert the souls of some dead farmers and soon-to-be-dead Charnel
creatures. Now you’re all set. Create some support for Gammel (notably
earthflings against locusts, and gargoyles for anything). Now go attack the
Ragman. If you do the first battle very well, you can claim all of his
souls, but if you don’t – no worries. Fight until you have converted a few
of his souls then go attack him. Push to his altar quickly and sacrifice a
basilisk. (You may want to create an extra as the one you get is very handy
for paralyzing the wizard and getting some free hits on him... hope he’s
not shielded). Now kill him – he’s banished! You’ll receive a boon from
Persephone again for sparing Sirocco. Assuming you did. You should just
restart if you accidentally killed Sirocco, and the mother of dragons
doesn’t really get into the way anyways. You’ll also get Sirocco to help in
later missions with James or Persephone (or maybe just Persephone... heh)
Mission Three – Balance of Power
James never liked war, right? Well, now he sends you to question Jadugarr,
a centaur who went rogue after his people were slaughtered and Stratos
didn’t help him. He just wants to know more of the plot. Good enough, for
this is not a hard mission, really. You have a taurock from the start, and
that will be enough for now. Create an assortment of level 1 creatures
instead. Jadugarr is waiting just ahead with a few hoars. He says he is
busy fighting Seerix and invites you to join him. Well, it’s a 2v1 now. I
almost pity the snake. Almost.
Well, Jadugarr will start attacking Seerix herself directly... there is an
alternative route to the right though. Take this one. There is a free
fountain up for grabs, and after that there is a string of Charnel
Manaliths under Seerix’s control. Don’t worry, she probably won’t come for
her fallen (yep, the fallen Fallen), as she is busy fighting Jadugarr. The
consequences of this battle will probably not involve the banishment of
Jadugarr, but the centaur won’t necessarily win. For now, just convert the
souls of the fallen (there are four or five, depending on whether Seerix
will send more to the lith). Use these to create taurocks and a few
gargoyles as well if you have spare.
Ahead lies Seerix’s altar, now unguarded and exposed to your attack.
Sacrifice a taurock on her altar. Now comes the trick: Seerix will be
trigger-teleported to her altar. She will have the mana to cast insect
swarm so your ritual will probably be interrupted – unless you jump in the
way. (This technique is useful in other situations as well) So try that.
Failing that sacrifice the taurock again. Seerix won’t be teleported there
again. If you find this difficult, clear the other lith from guardians, and
let Jadugarr attack as well. Now save just before the death of the viper if
you want – you and Jadugarr will talk, and there are two ways the
conversation can go if you are interested. I was interested at any rate.
Mission Four – Shadow of the Past
This is the first mission that will involve you fighting alone against two
wizards in this campaign. However, one won’t stay for long. You’re trying
to retake Karn, a stronghold of James, here, and if you have played Pyro’s
third you have seen that Pyro takes the island and gives it to Charnel’s
necromancer, Ragman. But Ragman has no altar yet! This means if he’s killed
he’s dead forever. Unfortunately Sorcha is still here, just to make this
mission harder, which means this will be your first time fighting a
sorcerer of Pyro if you went with James all along. Well, take the manafount
right ahead. Actually, before that go to the brown Gammel (he should be
there) and the three brown earthflings – they’ll join you. Keep casting
Speed Up on the flummox you have – he’s damn slow and you need to get in
fast.
What units should you produce? Well, ranged units – create a few. I
recommend you to main a healthy 1:3 or similar ratio between your flummoxes
and earthflings – the flummoxes are okay, but they’re slow and a missed
shot is a disaster, whereas the earthflings are very well suited for
general combat. Melee units – you should really bolster this. I recommend
you to create taurocks only if you chose James just before, but if not,
create troggs as well (Sorcha’s Fireform would kill all other melee before
they could kill her, and Dragonfire isn’t too good for your health either).
For air you have Gammel and you don’t really need gargoyles here anyways.
Now let’s skip to the arrival of Ragman. Guess what? Concentrate on him
fast! He should fall soon enough to Gammel and your ranged troops. His
units will spontaneously die as well which means you have lots of souls as
well! (By the way, for some reason a Pyrodactyl will most probably fly to
you from the direction of Ragman. Shoot him down before he joins up with
Sorcha and that’s three souls for you.) Harvest the souls while defending
your doctors, then move on the offensive.
Now try to take as much of Sorcha’s souls as possible. You should have a
big army from all the converted Charnel souls, so getting more will be even
easier. Push forward, take Sorcha’s manaliths... at this point there is
nothing special in the mission. Or... oh yes, there is! The objectives
mention four Plague Worts. Well, destroy them. (Gammel alone is sufficient.
The plague the Worts spew can’t harm units that fly high enough, for some
odd reason. Maybe troggs work as well) Don’t be terrified of the plague at
any rate. Unless Sorcha is nearby you can just rebuild your forces if any
perish. The Worts are at Ragman’s start location, near Sorcha’s altar, near
a manalith in a sheltered position which is close to a village, and near
another Sorcha manalith not too far from her altar. Once you’ve got all
Worts, desecrate Sorcha’s altar with a flummox and get rid of the invaders!
Mission Five – Allegiance
James must be pissed after Sorcha annoyed you in the last mission. Either
that, or because Pyro took away his slaves. (Again, if you play Pyro’s
fourth and then switch sides you’re reversing your own actions!) You’re
sent to Cindercrag to stop the Pyrodraulic Dynamo, well defended by
Ambassador Buta. Well, this is one mission which depends on luck, and a
prime example for why you shouldn’t use the guardianing trick (The Dynamo
may erupt anytime at your manalith – it’s random – for one, but if Buta
comes straight after – and he will, Murphy’s law anyone? – you might just
as well restart. If your units are mobile some may escape the volcano and
then you have a chance at resisting your opponent, plus you have a smaller
chance of getting zapped. One general tip, by the way: unless you
absolutely need your creatures with you you should have them tag along a
bit further – just enough to come back in case of danger – since one of the
possibilities is that the dynamo, wherever you are, zaps YOU. No avoiding
that.
Let’s see the mission itself now! You have some time to prepare but soon
Buta is going to come to you. His dangerous units are the Pyrodactyl he
will always have, unless you don’t zap it early, because it is very
efficient against Taurocks and such which you will need to subdue his other
threat – Pyromaniacs. Kill those (use your offensive spells to help) before
they burn up everything. Otherwise, Buta has little to attack you with.
Concentrate on Buta himself after repelling his Maniacs and convert any
souls you have now – if you do it right you’ll have a lot. Fortunately
Buta’s nearest lith is far enough for you to convert quite a bit.
You have to decide whether you take the quick or slow path. The quick path:
notice how your only objective is to destroy the Dynamo? Convert Buta’s
souls, then convert everything you have into Ikarus – the new unit you
have. Send them, with or without Gammel (he might or might not die),
against the Dynamo. A few will die from Bombard fire but those who get
through will demolish it quickly.
The slow way: You’ve got to defeat the Ambassador. You might want to get
some more souls for that. You can get some from the factory to the right of
you – behind it are some proles of Pyro. Also, going towards the Dynamo you
will get attacked by two Pyromaniacs near the fountain. That’s plenty of
souls for you to operate with. Not far from your altar is another, friendly
altar though – what is it? If you want to be evil, you might want to
fortify the fountain near it... and by evil I don’t mean „exploit-crazy”
here. If you don’t know it yet you’ll see.
The Ambassador has a good amount of guards, but Gammel can help defeat any
lith. Send him along with a few Ikarus and ground melee units. Ranged units
are not so good here. (Pyro’s Bombards reign supreme when it comes to
ranged) Buta might speed in and reclaim his souls, but that doesn’t matter.
You have enough.
Now desecrate his altar. Buta should fall easily. Hope you had no trouble
with the Dynamo. Well, Pyro finally recognises your talent. He offers you a
place by his side. If you want to stay good, you’ll still need to destroy
the volcano-spewing doomsday device. Now, however, you have a time limit!
Apparently the Dynamo has a secret function which will blow up the island.
You shouldn’t have much trouble with the Dynamo though. You can blindly
charge the guards from the ground while telling your flying troops (Ikarus
units and Gammel) to attack the Dynamo directly. It will be destroyed and
you’ll be handed a boon from James as a thanks for your loyalty.
If you want to be evil, Pyro will be happy, but James will want to have
revenge. He’ll quickly send Charlotte against you. She’s no match though!
Her army consists of a few Ikarus, Flummox and Taurock units, but you
should have gotten a LOT of souls from Buta. If you put guardians to the
fountain I mentioned earlier, she’ll have nowhere to build a manalith
either. Also, the Dynamo will now erupt on her. Much better. (These
eruptions can strike your guards at the lith you might have fortified, of
course...) Charlotte’s slowpokes can’t compete with your army and the
Dynamo, ultimately. Nothing special – just desecrate her altar.
Mission Six – Desperate Measures
Finally, James has had enough of hot-headed Pyro! With your recent victory
you are free to march upon Helios, his home island. Of course, your
victories so far are void in his homeland. This is one tough mission if you
are unprepared, but not so hard, actually, provided that you are good
enough and know how to deal with the magnifriers.
As you start building your first lith, Faestus, a gnome you might have met
in Pyro’s first, joins you. He must have some interesting sources about who
the winning horse is. He tells you some information about the Magnifriers
that guard much of Helios against the invaders. And his tip is quite
useful, although it’s not the only way to deal with the magnifriers.
However, ignore the Magnifriers for now, and instead concentrate on the
task at hand. Sorcha inhabits „your” part of the island. (Ambassador Buta’s
AI isn’t active yet – don’t worry about him.) At this point you really need
to get all of her souls. Fortunately Sorcha is impatient and doesn’t wait
for her slower troops. Create the second manalith (on the fount not far
from you) and an extra boulderdash to serve you. Boulderdashes deal out
damage quickly and combined fire from your two Dashes and anything else you
created will bring down Sorcha & Hoars quickly. If you’ve done it right her
souls are ALL up for grabs. So grab them. (The three souls can be used for
anything, both ranged and melee help here.) If Sorcha has left enough souls
there she’ll not even try recovering them (you can spot it from a distance
whether she’s coming for the souls or going in another direction). Now
ignore the manalith on the edge of the island and push forward against the
final lith. It’s guardianed by a few bombards – Gammel alone, or the
boulderdashes alone, or a few ikarus can bring this one down. Guard the
bombards’ souls from Sorcha, as you might not be able to get them all back
if she reclaims them. Build a lith on her former first lith (so you can get
some mana; your regeneration will probably slow to a crawl while you are
approaching her altar) and cast desecration. Use a boulderdash if you have
at least three more, otherwise use a lesser creature – it’s not like you
need the extra damage from the desecration spell that much to bring her
down.
With the first sorcerer down, you’re at peace. Establish either a shrine or
a manalith on Sorcha’s former altar and start converting. You can now
convert the bombards that were Sorcha’s last guardians, the assortment of
creatures you saw but ignored on the way to Sorcha’s altar, and five slaves
located to the left near a few paper shacks and a manafount (be careful, do
not stray too far yet!)
Now there are a few ways to take down the Magnifriers. One of them is by
shielding yourself, running with speed-up to each Magnifrier, standing so
that no Magnifrier can attack you, then summoning a taurock or somesuch and
letting it destroy the machine with impunity. Repeat. You could heed
Faestus’ advice and rush it with low level creatures (Frostwolves rule for
this) – follow your creatures and use Soul Mole (Or Soul Wind, if you came
via the Stratos route – Mole is cheaper and better for this purpose though)
to reclaim the souls of the dead. And the third – Remember how Troggs are
immune to magic? Well, Magnifriers shoot magic. That should be enough. A
single trogg can level all Magnifriers, given enough time. This should be
done if you served James in mission one.
Well, create several troggs if you are using the last method because you
aren’t given enough time. As you proceed Buta will be activated and the
Ambassador will come with all of his creatures to try and swamp you. Let’s
hope he can’t. He does have a few Warmongers though. Warmongers are nasty
and they kill fast! Luckily, Boulderdashes counter them very effectively.
Try and kill Buta after disposing of them for easy souls.
The final assault is not too hard either. A few unalleged Pyro creatures
will come out to attack you. They’re not too hard to kill, though the
Bombard may wreak some havoc. (You can convert them, but their corpses
don’t switch to Buta’s side – so why bother?) Kill the guardians to the
right and take the lith. The phoenix is tough and deals a lot of damage,
but its range is not too long. Boulderdashes work well. Now desecrate with
a boulderdash. (You don’t need to get the left lith, especially if you kill
the bombard there, although it’s none too difficult.) Celebrate with James
as you finally got rid of arrogant Pyro, and celebrate as your life will
not be ruined with incessant Volcanoes now! (Unless... nevermind, later.)
Misson Seven – The Chasm Widens
„Well, that learns Pyro all right.” Who doesn’t love James for his
informal, down-to-earth style? Pardon the pun. Anyways, with Pyro gone
Charnel’s the next on the list. Mithras, our good companion, has apparently
been captured earlier by Charnel. Well, let’s appeal to Seerix to free him!
You’ve probably faced Seerix earlier. You’ll be pleased to know that she’s
not evil to the heart. Or maybe not. Apparently, because she served
Persephone in her young days she has Rainbow! Just what a necromancer needs
against you. <_< Well, you do have a jabberrocky to help out, but still.
A manahoar will be very much needed as one can’t cut it. The problem is,
you have no more souls. Hope you kept Faestus alive, as only he can help
you here! (He abandoned his rocket launcher though for his bio-junk. Oh
well. For some reason he gets the rockets out again later.) You’ll be
initially attacked by a netherfiend and some level 1 creatures, luckily not
alleged to Seerix. Tell your Rocky to deal with everything ground while
Faestus and you toast the locusts. Do this quickly, before Seerix comes!
You’ll only have time to convert about half of the souls before the assault
comes.
Now, it’s important that you move OUT to meet Seerix! She still has Demonic
Rift, and that spell will summon enough purple tendrils to get to the sac-
doctors sacrificing at your altar... a nice little disaster there for you.
If she’s far enough „only” your troops will get hurt. Of course, if you see
her casting it, or Plague for that matter, you could use Erupt to interrupt
her, but still. As for the fight – kill those abominations. Really, if you
don’t they’ll destroy your Rocky and then you’re lost. Kill the
abominations, or at least a few, then order your Rocky and Faestus (plus
anything else you might have produced by now from the souls you converted)
to attack Seerix. Kill her and those hoars. Now her souls are yours for the
taking!
As soon as you are established, produce a force of 4 boulderdashes.
Guardian two to your first lith while you tell the others to follow. Any
more, tell them to tag along as well. The Jabberrocky won’t really be
needed any more. Go towards the beacon – that’s Mithras! His Earthfling is
quite weak alone but he joins you anyways, which is good. Especially since
Seerix won’t let Mithras to just run away. From behind some hills on a
small island far, far away, a few blights and locusts will be ordered to
kill the seer. Don’t worry though – the Boulderdashes can take most of them
out easily and you can fry the rest with spells (while healing Mithras). As
he says, you can’t teleport him out, but the way back should be safe.
You could also banish Seerix but it is unnecessary, as it won’t really net
you anything. It will change Mithras’ dialogue though. All I can tell you
is this: don’t bother with the 7 styxes guardianed to the manalith – not
worth the bother. Though if I remember well, if you banished Seerix the
blights and locusts won’t come. But it’s not worth the extra time in my
opinion. You just have to escape!
Mission Eight – No Mercy
Mithras says Charnel’s been summoning demons to assist Marduk! Isn’t that a
bit stereotypical? Anyways, whether he is right or wrong, it doesn’t matter
any more. You are sent to Dys to combat Charnel’s champions. Of the three
Dys missions in the game, however, this is unique in one respect: in the
two others you battle Acheron and Seerix, while here you battle Acheron and
somebody else! You learn about the betrayal of Stratos here (with a dead
gargoyle to get the point through) and Abraxus will occupy Seerix’s altar
(the serpent is not here). Oh, this is also the easiest Dys mission, but I
digress.
As soon as the game starts, scoop up the blue soul and run to the left.
There is a free manafount, occupy it. Then run on. This place has a few
free manafounts and a few zombies. Kill the zombies! Then build a shrine
here and convert them quickly. Abraxus often sends a few creatures here as
a placeholder though. Well, here’s the interesting part. Some Brainiacs
might decide it’s good for them to float over the abyss. Zap those quickly.
There, Abraxus is down a few souls. If any bigger presence comes, teleport
back!
After you’re done with this, summon a few creatures and go again. This
time, go forward and capture the lith that Abraxus probably got. If your
shrine to the west is under attack – if it’s Abraxus, don’t worry. (And it
probably is. I think Acheron is paused until you’re done with Abraxus or
until you approach him.) Abraxus doesn’t do well at guarding her altar. A
few brainiacs – that’s all. Also, she doesn’t really do well at protecting
Charnel. Perhaps Stratos is already preparing for the next round? Who
knows? Anyway, before long you’ll be starting the desecration ritual. The
only way you can screw up now is if you get Tornadoed and your creatures
get thrown down into the various little patches of abyss scattered around.
Let’s hope not. Abraxus will not have much souls for you, unfortunately.
Acheron will put up a tougher match. But that’s only because he is not so
afraid to use Death! That spell can seriously impede or stop your efforts
to desecrate the heartless fiend, so if you see the figure, either use
Erupt or teleport to a safe place. (In the latter case, Death will cut down
his own creatures – then you can try and attack while he’s rebuilding.) He
also has more creatures, but then I can’t give you much more advice for
that. The Abominations should be dealt with using melee. By the way,
remember that against Acheron spells deal little damage.
His final manalith is strangely unguarded, unlike the other missions. I
assume this is an oversight on the designer’s part as there really is no
point to this weakness. Well, whatever. Desecrating him won’t be difficult,
at least. A pity, as one would expect a tougher match when fighting
Charnel...
By the way, you might also have come here by serving Charnel before. In
this case, the mission is still easy but the dialogue Eldred and Mithras
have about Astaroth, the demon Charnel summoned, is different. In case
you’re interested.
Mission Nine – The End Days
In my opinion, this is the easiest mission nine in the whole game. Why? You
aren’t alone, that’s why! This is a defense-oriented mission in Agothera,
capital of the Glebe, and you are tasked with defending your ultimate altar
against the many enemies you have – along with Grakkus. Immediately after
the mission begins, he’ll approach you and offer his support. You have two
choices – to tell him to defend the altars or go on the offensive. An order
of defence will make him go to the intersection near your altars and will
guard the area. An order to attack will make him try and banish Hachimen.
By the way, Pyro’s spells are back. Woo-hoo! Not. Grakkus is competent as
far as AI allies go, so I’d say you should tell him to attack.
You have some time before everything caves in on you, so rush ahead and
build a lith on the centre fountain (be nice and leave the one behind for
Grakkus). Hachimen will soon come – you might have Gammel here, he’ll prove
useful in defeating several bombards tagging along behind Hachimen. The
rhinok you get, on the other hand, is excellent for softening up the line
of warmongers Hachimen also possess. Nevertheless, a phoenix that comes
will defeat both of these, so create some boulderdashes. I’d advise you to
fight the first battle with Grakkus on your side to even the odds – even so
Hachimen may prove as a challenge though, with several Pyro spells to give
him an edge. Try to convert some souls – next time Hachimen comes back,
he’ll be ready for revenge, so get everything you can. (It is possible to
steal all his souls, but damn hard to do)
Abraxus will follow Hachimen. Now you have to fight Stratos creatures – a
silverback and Lord Surtur is the most dangerous (if you let Surtur die in
an earlier mission though, he’ll be absent) of her troops, but several
flurries and brainiacs will also provide support. Activate the Rhinok’s
Halo of Earth and possibly cast your own to help against the Silverback,
and don’t forget the shield!
Some time, if you haven’t already, you will get a cut-scene. Apparently
Charlotte got banished during an attack. So she got thrown into the middle
of the fighting. Jadugarr teleports in too and quickly electrocutes the
spider, however! Not good. The good news is, Jadugarr was careless too. He
has a shrine hidden in some canyon, but no altar, and so a kill is enough.
(His creatures, unlike Ragman’s in mission 4, won’t die with Jadugarr’s
death though! You’ll have to kill them manually.) This should boost your
soul count.
Go banish Hachimen first. His altar isn’t too well defended and on your own
or with Grakkus you’ll find you can win easily against him. (Get the lith
in the canyon to the left first, then go across the mountains until you
find the altar.) Abraxus is the last one. Her altar is guarded better than
Hachimen’s, with many squalls and sylphs. So far you might have defeated
many manaliths with just Gammel, but do not be so careless with this one!
The squalls and sylphs here can kill Gammel easily. Use a load of ranged
creatures instead, with possibly some melee (not too much, or they’ll just
be pushed back and killed by the squalls). Once you’re done, just start the
ritual. Abraxus might not even come to reclaim the souls. Well done, you’ve
completed James’ missions! Now you can proceed to the final showdown.
Scroll down a lot now, because coming up are Pyro’s missions.
2. Pyro’s Missions
Mission One – The Gods Themselves
As soon as the campaign starts, Pyro introduces himself as one of the
evilest, meanest characters ever to be heard of. You have to invade Daven
and kill all opposition. A Spitfire scout will tell you the two possible
routes to the village. First, however, you will get in a village. The
peasants greet you nicely but you are Pyro’s wizard – slay them and harvest
their souls! You’ll also meet Faestus, a gnome who decides that his
interests lie with Pyro. Pyro’s orders are clear – keep him alive. Not that
it’s a problem as he’s very tough and you have plenty of time to heal his
damage in every battle. Now choose one of the two ways. If you opt for the
bridge, you’ll have to kill a druid and two rangers. If you don’t kill the
druid fast enough, he’ll call reinforcements (two shrikes – possibly more
souls for you) If you decide to take the valley path, you’ll be ambushed by
four rangers about halfway through and maybe some shrikes later. Neither
route is too difficult. Finally you’ll arrive to the village built around
the tree. Now, you are given a chance to ally with Persephone.
If you do ally with her – conscience strikes – all your units will turn to
a hostile Pyro side and you’ll be given control of the druids and rangers.
Create some of your own Pyro units, depending on what you created, earlier.
Once everything you used to control is slain, you win. (You’ll also be more
favored by Persephone) Faestus will not appear in this attack.
Of course, the simplest path is to eradicate everything – that was why you
came here. Your units will steamroll the enemy guards, of course. Before
destroying the tree, however, be evil and kill all the peasants as well!
This will net you a boon from Charnel as he is impressed by your cruelty.
(He calls you „an artist” :)) Anyway, once the tree is destroyed you win.
Mission Two – The Prophecy
Having done a little work in Daven just before, Pyro now truly starts to
invade. He decides to subjugate some native creatures (namely the trolls)
of Urghaz, but first you will need to get rid of Yogo. He is the ancient
protector of Elysium, but he is no match for you – yet. Maybe he is getting
rusty, or maybe he has a headache. He will not rush you immediately, that
is certain. Instead, once your manalith is built, a druid, a ranger and a
troll will attack. Create a few spitfires before constructing the lith for
this purpose and attack the ranger with your firebolt and Tickferno. Thanks
for the 4 souls! Use them to create aerial units, mostly – some melee units
would also be a help to occupy Druids and Trolls and for the guardians near
Yogo’s altar (though those are not essential to defeat).
Urghaz is a large circular map, and you can go to lots of directions. With
your 10 souls you stand a good chance to banish Yogo already. However,
going to the left and right will net you two encounters with Trolls. If all
the trolls are slain, Pyro will offer you a boon at the end, so get to
work!
Yogo is most annoying because of Ethereal Form. I’d advise you to wait
until he has Ethereal Form, then begin the ritual with a Tickferno about 10
seconds later and he should be exposed to attack by the time the ritual
starts. Attack him with everything, and hopefully another Tickferno as well
to drain his mana – also, activate Fireform and bump into him to scorch him
with it as well, as it damages well enough. After the mission, Pyro
congratulates you and his other wizard, Ambassador Buta, will teleport in
with Faestus and some escort. In the next mission you can reap the rewards
of your work!
Mission Three – Balance of Power
Isn’t it humiliating that Pyro wants to seek the help of the „worm”? I’d
say it is. Anyway, a cutscene is the beginning of this mission. Sorcha will
give you her Firefists which you can offer to Grakkus, makeshift diplomat
of James. A few gargoyles will come to meet you. Do not create ranged units
now, or they’ll attack the gargoyles! They’ll tell you to follow him, but
they won’t mind you taking the manafount ahead of your first lith. Don’t
cause any trouble, instead just follow the gargoyles. Eventually you’ll
come to Grakkus.
Well, if you have a bit of diplomatic skill you won’t need this walkthrough
to determine the correct answer in the choice. Choose „Ally with us”. The
conversation would actually go quite well (surprisingly), but then the
Firefists attack Grakkus’ soldiers and the negotiation comes to an end. If
you chose the option I told you to choose, Sorcha will join you. Now
Grakkus is in trouble – he is outnumbered 2 to 1. Go back for now though to
kill and convert the gray-colored farmers near the water well.
There is little Grakkus can do to harm you, though he will initially use a
lot of Taurocks. These hold out pretty well against your Firefists and
demolish anything else you may have – except for aerial units. Concentrate
all your firepower on the Taurocks first, while using Ring of Fire to
weaken Grakkus himself. Grakkus is so slow (via triggers), he might not be
able to reclaim every soul, so you might be able to convert them mid-
battle. And if Sorcha helps you the mission is even less difficult.
Eventually, you’ll come to Grakkus’ altar (his liths are largely
unprotected and are easy to destroy). Use Ring of Fire to weaken the wizard
again. You chose the option „Ally with us” before? Well, James will offer
you a boon since it wasn’t your fault but rather the Firefists’. He also
urges you to choose his missions. Heh heh.
Mission Four – Shadow of the Past
With no allies, Pyro must resort to his gnome Faestus. He does have a plan,
in fact, but still needs 20 slaves. This mission is one of the raids your
wizard conducts against James – he probably remembered it because Marduk
appeared here (or maybe it was such a pain in the ass – depends). Like in
every mission four, Marduk does make his appearance, but let’s not
concentrate on that now.
Your enemy is Charlotte here. You start with a single pyromaniac, but
you’ll need to make more. While building the two liths you should create
two (or even three) more, and anything left should go to the melee
department. Note that Faestus is here but he won’t actually be available to
you. You’ll have to do this on your own. Well, be quick.
By the time you emerge from your sheltered position Charlotte will also be
there. An Ikarus, and a Taurock with a few flummoxes will make up the
majority of her forces. The Ikarus will fall easily to rockets, but the
taurock may give you some problems, and the flummoxes will slowly but
surely kill your creatures if you don’t heal them well (if you do they’re
but a nuisance) Also, Charlotte has the ability to cast Slime, which I
assume is meant to represent an innate ability (spider slime – urgh).
Shield yourself!
You should rely on Pyromaniacs in this mission. Charlotte will rarely
produce more taurocks which means that your Maniacs can carry the day. (The
AI can’t think of a damn counter to them! Flummoxes work on paper, but in
practice they get BBQ’ed!) As always, try to kill the wizard and hoars and
then try to kill the creatures. The flummoxes each carry 3 souls and two of
them can get you 3 Pyromaniacs, or 2 Maniacs and a Firefist... you get the
idea.
You don’t have to banish Charlotte, and you don’t get anything for it. So
I’d say skip. Eventually you can take all of Charlotte’s souls – after
this, she’ll always go on the same path or stay by a lith. You can observe
the path and put Maniacs on it, or if she stays just ignore him. Now all
that’s left is to run around and collect slaves. A group of three farmers
will want to run away, but killing one will scare the other two – otherwise
this will not be problematic.
Mission Five – Allegiance
Now you will see what was the purpose of Pyro with all the slaves. He wants
to build a device called the Pyrodraulic Dynamo. You’ll need the last 10
slaves to activate it, and two wizards oppose you as well, so it is not as
simple as it seems.
First of all, try to oppose Grakkus and Charlotte on the battlefield itself
(or even better, near one of your manaliths). You will want to activate the
Dynamo before attacking the two wizards (though it’s not impossible to
defeat them without activating the dynamo, it is easier to activate it
anyway). And while you are off collecting slaves, you don’t want to be
troubled by such events as desecration. You will want to produce
Pyromaniacs mainly, supported by your one Pyrodactyl and a few Firefists.
(The Dactyl will be used to oil the wizards to make the battles easier –
yep, you cast it directly on the wizards). Do not produce any additional
Dactyls.
Before entering the battle itself, go to the west and then the east to
capture the two founts – one near a factory and one not far from your
altar. Try to achieve map control during the battles as well, although it
is not so essential to capture every manalith. Once your enemies are
sufficiently weakened, position your creatures near your manaliths and go
out alone to collect the slaves. If you see a wizard coming at you,
Explosion then run away. (Don’t teleport, the slaves won’t come with)
Once you have the 10 slaves in tow, run to the Dynamo. They will teleport
in and a 5 minute countdown will begin. Once it is done, the fireworks
begin!
Position yourself somewhere not far from the two altars – maybe the plateau
that overlooks both – but don’t go too close and avoid any wide-open areas.
Once the volcano erupts at an altar wait it out, then when the ground is
almost completely sunk back approach their altar (ignoring any minor
damage) and jump on the opportunity.
Second time, you need not wait until the volcano erupts if you’ve harvested
any souls at all – you will have a load of souls. Create more Dactyls this
time and Firefists as well, then assault that first lith. This mission will
finish easily from now.
Mission Six – Desperate Measures
You may have come here from the fifth mission of James or Pyro, but either
way, the story is the same – a failed attack on the Dynamo left the Glebe
exposed to a rapid attack, which would be immediately be done by Pyro.
However, inside Agothera you will find that James has plenty with which he
can expel you from there. And you only have 5 souls to operate with – that
won’t be enough, not at all, even with your spells, to get the job done
properly. So what now?
You will find that whatever you do, you have a good chance of screwing up
and losing something – a few souls and liths at the best (which is still
okay) but even the game if you are not lucky at all. So I will discuss a
tactic that has a slightly bigger chance of getting shafted than some, but
in which you will probably lose less if you do.
Your 5 souls should be turned into three additional creatures – a manahoar
and two firefists (or the like). See the canyon ahead of you, which leads
into the middle of the map eventually? Position your bombard just behind
here, and your firefists ahead of it. Now go right, without entering this
long, narrow canyon and build a lith on the free fount.
Now descend into this canyon. You will be ambushed by two boulderdashes.
Order your firefists and bombard to attack them (they are quite strong so
speed up your firefists). They will soon be dead enough. Convert them. At
this time the wizards won’t come yet, so speed-up is not essential. What is
essential is to quickly go to the left, while speeding up your creatures to
have them keep up, until you come to a fount behind a hill. Once you will
have a boulderdash converted you will want to create a spitfire and
position it ahead of your first lith while you proceed. Cast your shield
and enter.
You’ll see a few Earthflings and Basilisks attacking you. Kill them,
preferably use your basic attack spell (such as Fireball) to help your
creatures. Now you will need to start converting the souls. Build either a
shrine or a lith here. I will call this place the „graveyard” from now as
it has a lot of red souls.
A shrine or a lith? Well, you decide. If you build a shrine you will be
able to convert faster but you’ll have a smaller mana flow from your Hoars.
If you are quite inexperienced build a lith, otherwise you decide. Either
way, Charlotte will soon attack.
Her worst creature is the Jabberrocky. Order your bombards to slaughter it.
I hope you have already converted some souls now? Create Pyromaniacs – try
to slay Charlotte and convert a few souls. The souls near your lith/shrine
are not so essential as they are on Grakkus’ side and Grakkus won’t come
near here yet.
Instead, Grakkus will attack your altar directly. This is why I recommended
you to leave a one-soul flyer behind (like a spitfire) just ahead of your
first lith. If you created a shrine here be especially careful to always
have around 800 mana to cast an emergency teleport. As Grakkus arrives,
your spitfire will spot the attackers. It might die, but it’s just one soul
even if you lose it. He’ll provide warning. As soon as you see Grakkus
arriving, don’t wait, teleport with whatever is nearby without gathering
any stray creatures. Any who is left behind should guard the lith/shrine
instead of hurrying back.
Grakkus alone is not so hard to hold off with a bombard or two, the two
firefists and a few pyromaniacs. Cast Firewall behind Grakkus once he is
sufficiently weakened to try and prevent his escape. Try to convert some
souls now. It will be a long time until Grakkus will attack again (unless
his manahoars resurrect him – try to avoid that), so you will have time to
teleport back, collect any stray creatures you might have left behind
before and convert more souls while repelling Charlotte attacks.
Of course, it is possible that while you were fighting Grakkus Charlotte
overran the „graveyard”. That means it’s high time to take it back. It
won’t be too hard since now you can calmly choose the time and place of
your fight, unless something is extremely wrong. The red souls there will
probably still be intact (Charlotte won’t convert them or collect them as
it’s under Grakkus’ possession). If you have some spare souls consider
guardianing Bombards and/or Pyromaniacs to your first lith. (Not to the
„graveyard” as it’s impossible to defend – if Charlotte approaches she will
have the high ground and your Bombards will lose the opportunity of long-
range bombardment).
Once you can safely win a battle with Grakkus or Charlotte (or even both at
once) the mission’s difficulty will go downhill. It’s time to enter the
central part of the map. You’ll see a lith with several guardians. It seems
threatening but it isn’t – you can easily order your Maniacs to slay them
with some Bombard support. Try to prevent the geomancers from reclaiming
the souls of the guardians, but if you can’t do that it’s still okay. After
you’re done with this one, turn it into a lith and capture the lith ahead
of this one (unguarded) as well. Now you’re coming to the final part of the
mission.
Create 4-5 firefists and go across the hill. You’re going to go from there
because it gives the guardians below less time to damage and kill the
firefists. After all, this here is Charlotte’s altar and her first lith!
The guardians of this lith are a boulderdash and a gargoyle. The latter is
a joke but the former can kill a firefist or two. Still, it won’t inflict
serious damage. Once the lith is destroyed replace it with your lith and
replace any killed firefists as well. Now you’re ready to desecrate
Charlotte’s altar! Basically anything you do will result in her being
banished. Grakkus won’t be much more difficult (he does have an additional
boulderdash though, and they are guardianed to the altar). Once you are
done, Pyro will offer you a boon as a congratulations to your first god
kill!
Mission Seven – The Chasm Widens
Pyro is quite nasty, but face it, he’s quite powerful with you in his
service. No? Well, Pyro now sets his sights on Persephone. Arborea stands
between you and Idylliac though. Stratos also aids Persephone however, so
your job isn’t easy at all – at least, if you are inexperienced.
Walkthroughs will ask you to build just the lith ahead then pull your legs
in and turtle it out. My opinion: no! Follow this tactic instead. You will
have a better mana flow and it’s more fail-safe.
You have to be very quick here. Rush ahead to your fount and create a lith
there. You’ll be attacked by a mutant and rangers – order your warmonger to
attack the mutant and create a bombard to deal with the rangers. Hopefully
they’ll be clustered enough to die at the same time.
While this small battle is under way place a lith on the fount ahead. Once
you are done, send the two creatures (hopefully the Warmonger survived –
the Bombard will surely live) to the second lith and convert the mutant and
the rangers (only speed up the doctor converting the mutant). Now rush back
to the lith and guardian your two creatures there. Create another bombard
as well and guardian it there, if/when you have the souls. If done right
Abraxus should arrive about now.
Abraxus leads a weaker force than she should, but she might have Lord
Surtur to help. So order both creatures to attack him first and throw a
fireball to help. (If you have lightning don’t use that...) Surtur should
fall in a split second. Now cast Rain of Fire upon this force to slay the
creatures, and order your creatures to attack Abraxus. Nothing too
difficult, now is it? Well, time to convert some souls. I’d advise you to
begin converting the flurries as you have time and each flurry will net you
an extra warmonger or bombard. Create a guardian force of 2 warmongers and
3 bombards (or as much as you can get) and wait for Shakti’s first attack.
It will come soon enough. Shakti’s attack will feature Mutants and two
Ents. The Mutants have the potential to slay your warmongers and thus make
for quite a risky situation, but fortunately Shakti couldn’t really use
such a weakness as the ents will come with Abraxus’ next attack, or
something like that...
Convert mutants if you can. Actually, convert every single soul that is
next to you. Do not rest until the only red dot you see on the minimap is
tomato juice you accidentally spilled because you were so busy playing this
mission. Okay, let’s get back to the mission.
Actually, I don’t have much more to tell you. You can do anything now.
Abraxus will soon go away, or she might already have – she has had a vision
and so she will kindly let you harvest her dead creatures. After a certain
time, Shakti will also get removed – she will collapse from lightning.
Someone must have intervened somewhere! You’ll find it out soon enough.
Until then you can sit there and watch the epic game of Tower Defence:
Creatures vs. Shakti or you could use converted souls to amass an attack
force of Bombards, Maniacs and Warmongers and attack. (This might save you
some time as Shakti’s death will also be triggered if you start the
desecration ritual.) Congratulations, now it’s time to march upon Idylliac!
Mission Eight – No Mercy
It didn’t take long to discover why your attack on Arborea came to an
abrupt end. Apparently Persephone just died. The insolence! Now it’s time
to tell you: You’ve come to a difficult mission. Right at the start, you’ll
see Jadugarr the centaur approach you. The conversation will be quite short
as Jadugarr leaves. Soon after, a silverback and two frostwolves will
attack you. You’ve only got 5 souls and Faestus though!
Quickly create two pyromaniacs and another 1 soul creature and guardian
them there. Try to spread them out. Let the creatures do their work – the
silverback will fall out of the sky soon enough. Convert the frostwolves,
but don’t attempt to convert the silverback as it will just be released!
Instead, quickly teleport over to the small island with a lith and a
shrine. Kill the peasants and convert them without using speed-up. Now
teleport back!
Jadugarr will come with the main force now. This means, he’ll come with an
assortment of creatures – including TWO silverbacks. How does one cope with
this? Well, use some firepower! Activate your shield and blast Jadugarr
directly with your Volcano spell. Then withdraw, either to the back of this
island or the small island right next to you and hope for the best.
Results may vary. If you are very lucky, Jadugarr might die AND leave
plently of souls behind – if this happens, attempt to convert everything
beginnning with the silverbacks – but this is rare. Most of the time
Jadugarr will leave and build up a new army. This may or may not include a
silverback or two. If you are very unlucky, of course, Jadugarr might
survive with his silverbacks. In this case, trying to hold him off is
futile. Teleport to the small island and wait for the desecration. Jadugarr
will sacrifice a silverback, but as he can’t directly get to you he’ll go
backwards.
You’ll suffer heavy damage each time the lightning zaps you, so be at full
health while you summon a Pyrodactyl. Wait half a minute, until everything
Jadugarr is out of sight then send the Pyrodactyl to kill the sac-doctor.
After a bit of fumbling he will smack one up in the head. Now teleport to
your lith (if it’s still there) or your altar and kill the silverback. Now
you can try to hold off the next Jadugarr attack.
Well, eventually you will receive a little time as Jadugarr will leave. Now
you can convert his dead. However, nothing is done yet as now you have
Hachimen to deal with! Oh well.
Hachimen will give you some time as he will have to come all the way from
his altar, I think, but once he’s there, trouble follows. You should
produce less Mongers and more Maniacs (don’t forget Faestus), plus Bombards
to chew up the enemy Warmongers. Hachimen will have several Warmongers and
a Phoenix! This is going to be an interesting Pyro vs. Pyro battle. Order
everyone to target the Phoenix, except a bombard to kill any Warmongers and
Maniacs Hachimen have. Help your bombard with spells like Dragonfire to
kill the Mongers and Maniacs.
Hachimen may cast Volcano, of course, just as well as you. In this case,
immediately cast Explosion! (Have the hotkey for it too) If you think/know
you were too slow, teleport. The Volcano will take a toll on Hachimen’s
forces too if it erupts. If you interrupt Hachimen – then you will have no
problem, now you have a long time in which you have to fear no Volcanoes
other than your own. If the fight is going badly, cast your own Volcano and
withdraw your forces, this way you might actually win souls.
Once you have a sizeable force of Maniacs, Bombards and Warmongers,
proceed. There are two liths in the side to take, and Jadugarr also has his
altar here – you can now easily desecrate it as the centaur is gone. I’d
advise you to create a shrine at the fount to the left side. (Hachimen
usually stays at the right side)
You can now go in two directions, both of which are guarded by a few
Bombards. These can chew up your forces rather quick if you approach
mindlessly. Choose the direction that has no wizard and create a few
Pyrodactyls, AND while they’re flying in select your Warmongers and have
them Firewalk in next to the bombards. A few creatures may die but this
combined attack will probably succeed. It will be easy to prevent Hachimen
from reclaiming his souls as well.
Going ahead, you will come to a sheltered valley that was once home to
Persephone’s glorious Ultimate Altar – now it is home only to Hachimen’s
ugly one and two liths with three Phoenixes each. You’ll only need to
slaughter one group though. They’re very tough there – it’d be long and
boring to have Bombards and Maniacs slay them so leave your creatures
behind and cast Volcano at the lith. This will surely slay each Phoenix.
Wait just outside of the Volcano’s range and rush in when you can.
You don’t need to destroy the other Phoenix lith. Instead, just go to the
altar and sacrifice a Bombard. (Warmongers and Pyromaniacs are the best for
Hachimen) Killing the mercenary will not be difficult, just don’t wander
too close to the three Phoenixes. Guess what – you have won, and you have
banished the prime wizards of Marduk (oops, Ashur)!
Mission Nine – The End Days
Pyro has now completely cleaned up two of his enemies, but Stratos and
Charnel still remains strong. So Pyro decides to attack Stratos. (Even
though he offers to ally with Pyro the fire god decides he isn’t
trustworthy) Well, there is a record here as you have three (!!!) wizards
to fight alone! And of three different gods, even. Abraxus for one, then
Charnel’s help to Stratos (Acheron) and traitorous Sorcha. This is a tough
last mission, but fortunately there are a couple of factors which you can
use to your advantage.
You start with two warmongers and 8 souls. Immediately construct a lith on
the fount ahead and then build up your force. Sorcha will be the first to
attack and her force will feature one phoenix and some warmongers.
Something familiar? You’ll need something like another warmonger and a
bombard, or two pyromaniacs and a bombard. (Don’t create a phoenix as the
enemy will kill him with warmongers and you can’t create a bombard then)
Just like with Hachimen, only you have a smaller mana flow and less souls
which means that you should try to avoid losses more.
Once everything is gone and Sorcha is beaten back, convert any souls you
might have (retreat to the lith with your hoars, then go out with full mana
and convert several at once) and prepare for the next attack. Okay, so the
strange thing is that sometimes the next attacks come and sometimes they
do. If they don’t, then you attack them, as once your base is empty Acheron
and Abraxus will invade anyways. If they do... Acheron’s next.
His force features a Hellmouth and the scythe Astaroth, as well as several
abominations. If you, by any chance, have a phoenix (from converted souls)
order him to fry Astaroth, otherwise concentrate fire on him first. If you
can deal with it and the Hellmouth before the abominations arrive you might
carry the day. (Don’t cast Volcano – you might kill the creatures but for
the most part it’s a waste as Acheron has very high magical resistance, as
Zyzyx tells you, so he’ll reclaim the souls definitely)
Well, Abraxus will eventually come too, probably. A silverback is just one
thing here, but Abraxus also has the annoying habit of casting Tornado. If
you hear the ominous wind teleport to somewhere further while you can, or
at least retreat. Once everything falls down continue the battle. Or you
could try a sneaky tactic: if the Tornado grabs up a lot of Abraxus
creatures try casting Volcano at the place where Tornado is. They will not
be able to resist!
Well, I don’t really have anything else to tell you. You should be swimming
in souls eventually, just keep trying. The part that is easy to lose is the
first Sorcha and Acheron attack. Abraxus is more spells than creatures, and
when the AI casts spells you can avoid or survive its effects. So I’ll tell
you information.
-The fountain which even the AI tends to leave free, situated in a little
mass of land that juts out of the main isle is a trap. It will cast
Cloudkill at you once the lith is built.
-Sorcha’s altar has 3 phoenixes as guardians. That’s two super-spell
castings for you: Volcano first, then Blind Rage and an employment of
creatures next.
-Acheron will eventually die. Apparently Marduk slays Charnel like Stratos
defeated Persephone before. A good time to convert souls and possibly the
best time to attack.
-Abraxus has a couple of silverbacks at her first lith and squalls at the
second. The silverbacks will be easy as their movement is constricted. The
squalls... use either a lot of fliers, or all your creatures, or Rain of
Fire. (Don’t waste a Volcano, although you probably won’t have much else to
use it for, either)
Well, as soon as you banish everything, you’re done! Good work!
3. Charnel’s Missions
Mission One – The Gods Themselves
In my opinion, this is a creative level one. Your task is to free the
Ragman, who has been chained to a stone so that the dragons can feed on
him, punishment for him as he failed Charnel. You’d better be good then!
(It’s just like Prometheus’ story, the punishment is anyways.)
You start with Gangrel, a scythe, and a small mix of other level 1
creatures. Gangrel is just a scythe but he’s powerful: when he says he can
defeat an Ent it is no lie! You have to create 12 fallen in this mission,
so you’d better start harvesting souls.
Well, the James creatures you must kill are scattered throughout the map.
Near each James manalith is a couple of Earthflings, usually. (They
disguise themselves as rocks and attack when you’re nearby, but if you have
your scythes handy you’ll be okay.) Once you come to an abandoned altar,
the one that Ragman will be assigned, turn back. Nothing more there. Also,
turn back if you see a cave – that’s where you’ll need to go with the
fallen and Gangrel later.
Near a village and mana fountain are some Troggs as well. Kill them! But
don’t kill the farmers. You’re evil, but come on, James will still try to
sway you to his side and will offer you a boon if you kill only the
fighting creatures. How naive from him.
Use every soul for fallen. If you only have a few missing and don’t have
any more patience you can kill your own locust and scythes (not Gangrel!),
or even your manahoars. (Remember the X-menu: go right, or use the hotkey
and you’ll spare the menu)
With 12 fallen and Gangrel, approach the cave. Gangrel and the fallen will
kill the dragons and sever the chains binding Ragman. Well, I hope that
wasn’t too hard.
Mission Two – The Prophecy
In my opinion, this is the hardest level two out there. Well, it isn’t that
hard but you’ll certainly need to have some smarts to survive. You have to
reopen the Demon Gate, but unfortunately Abraxus from Stratos is there to
try and stop you. The annoying thing is that Abraxus is faster than other
wizards and can reclaim her souls easily.
Well, let’s start anyways! Construct a lith on the fount ahead and then on
the one after it. Order your Necryl to trail behind all the time. Once you
see Abraxus coming for you prepare yourself.
Oh, you don’t know what creatures? I’ll tell you. Abraxus has mainly
Brainiacs so it might be logical to produce lot of Fallen, but she also
employs a Storm Giant (cheating on Lord Surtur, I suppose) specifically for
this purpose. So I’d say you should produce Locusts mostly, with a few
Fallen. No scythes yet. Locusts are okay vs. Brainiacs and will chew up the
Storm Giant and Abraxus. Of course, you can also use your basic attack
spell against the Giant, unless it’s Lightning. Eventually Abraxus will
either win and push on, or she’ll retreat.
Your ultimate goal in this mission is to get souls. If you are good, one
way is to claim them from Abraxus. Try to kill Abraxus and her hoars (in
this order), that’s at least the souls of the hoars. You don’t need to
capture too much from her though.
If you are still fresh meat, there are other ways. Several manaliths have
Frostwolf guardians, harmless against anything ranged but especially
vulnerable to Locusts. Try to observe where Abraxus is and if she’s far
enough, kill the Frostwolf and take her soul. (If she’s not far enough
she’ll reclaim the soul. You’ve basically dealt yourself a blow then as the
frostwolf guardian loses you nothing but the lith itself. Founts are
abundant here though)
Also, Charnel said that you might receive help at the Gate. He’s right!
It’s not without its cost though. There is a netherfiend here. He demands a
soul as you approach. If you give him the soul, he’ll join you, and as the
netherfiend is a 2-soul creature this will result in a net one-soul gain
and the creature itself. I’d say that the netherfiend isn’t too useful, and
if you don’t want to try and use it against Abraxus later blast it away.
You’ll get two souls you can use for any of the creatures learnt so far. On
the other hand, giving him nothing, or not having souls will result in the
fiend attacking you. He’s fragile alone. Now you can convert him. Be sure
to have a safe conversion route! Once it’s converted you’ll have gained two
souls. Either way, approaching the Netherfiend is profitable so do it. (I
think the Netherfiend attacks Abraxus too, even if he’s still on his no-AI
purple side. Never seen it though)
Once you got enough souls to outnumber or at least be an equal match for
Abraxus, push through the line of manaliths guarding Abraxus’ altar and
desecrate it. (Use a two soul creature, of course.) I’d advise you to have
an extra Necryl to use against Abraxus. Then move in with Locusts for the
kill. If Abraxus tries to zap your Doctors try to stand in the way to save
them. Well, that’s it! You’ll also receive a boon for the Netherfiend
encounter.
Mission Three – Balance of Power
Charnel thinks Pyro will ally with him because you can defeat his
Ambassador Buta. I don’t think that’d happen, really... but you’ve gotta
give it a try. Unfortunately, the Blight you get here isn’t too ideal for
its main purpose (raiding), but it’s still useful for slowing down wizards
during a desecration here.
However, this fight won’t be long. Don’t bother stopping to fight Buta
either: instead push to his altar. What an opportunity then! Shakti will
teleport in along with Abraxus – the new allies decided to attack Pyro’s
lands together. Charnel immediately realises this’s be a better idea,
fortunately! Well, from now you can laugh at Buta at his funny comments and
samples. But now let’s get back to the mission.
This is a 2v2 from now. See the factory ahead? There are half a dozen
slaves around it. Send the blight to it. He’ll slay the slaves while you
convert them. That’s just enough souls to start operating. Buta will attack
Shakti, so you should occupy Abraxus. Buta can defend himself for the most
part, but not against both wizards, and a surprise attack from Abraxus can
get either of you into the wrong kind of situation. Buta will usually hold
his ground against Shakti, and will even triumph alone once you’ve banished
Abraxus. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Abraxus doesn’t have much defenses. Two Sylphs and Brainiacs guard his
first lith (give or take one), so that will be defeated by at most two
blights. (Order the blight to attack the lith, he’ll attack them instantly.
Ordering him to attack the creatures will result in him playing around for
half a hour before bashing them) But you should also make support creatures
for them. Fallen and Locusts or the like are the best. Scythes aren’t good
for the most part since the only ranged infantry you’ll ever encounter most
of the time are Abraxus’ sylphs. The funny thing is that Abraxus will not
usually appear, not even to recover the souls, since she stays near
Shakti’s altar to protect her against Buta. You will have a free ride to
Abraxus’ altar. Even better, sometimes she sends lone Brainiacs back to the
altar – in my opinion, a buggy AI behaviour that will result in you getting
free souls (unless they fall in the abyss, which always cracks me up).
After you start the desecration intercept Abraxus as she approaches her
altar – use a blight to fill her with mites (watch that the blight doesn’t
get lightning-struck: that’s a one-hit kill). After that you won’t have
much trouble.
Shakti’s liths are better defended, but now you are two against one. You
might not need to attack her creatures but do it anyways for the extra
kills. The only thing that might annoy you from now is Ethereal form, which
lasts for a short time. And if she uses Wrath – stand in the way!
You didn’t forget the slaughter race, did you? Well, that’s why you must
kill everything you see. Charnel offers you a boon if you succeed. After
you win, you can tell two lines to Buta, a compliment and an insult, and
hear his responses. Funny guy, that one!
Mission Four – Shadow of the Past
And now you’ll be given the spell which makes Charnel all worth it. Animate
Dead! A way to constantly resurrect your creatures while you are alive
yourself and thus make kills of even your most expensive creatures
meaningless! Well, it isn’t too fast, but faster and cheaper than summoning
it anew.
Let’s stay with the mission for now, though. Pyro’s sorceress, Sorcha, has
attacked Jadugarr in Telluria, but is in trouble, and you are to assist
her. Well, after talking with Marduk, who speaks with you just like in
every other mission four, you can speed ahead to the blue souls that were
sent ahead as assistance, and to the red souls of the fighting wizards.
Pick up your souls- erm, wait! See the dead styx? Time to practice Animate
Dead. Cast it on the Styx – you got yourself a nice four-soul creature! And
you can keep resurrecting it indefinitely to boot. Sorcha will, however, be
quite vulnerable to Jadugarr. Often you’ll see the desecration starting
against Sorcha while you are converting and resurrecting stuff. If this
happens, don’t take risks – deal with the problem yourself. Once you’ve
beat back Jadugarr and Sorcha and you have converted any souls left behind
Sorcha will get in a better shape again.
Well, now you can try several things. Over the hill that overlooks Sorcha’s
altar you can see a Jadugarr manalith, fortified with Squalls and other
creatures. Leave the Styx behind for now and attack with Blights if you
wish. You don’t have to hurry yet though – remember what Sorcha said about
the local folk? Go to the left, until you come to a ranger and two gnomes.
Most likely they’ll attack you, but if you were good and served Persephone
several times before they will join you in your quest – the ranger is
nothing special but the gnomes are okay ranged units, used not as
desecrating fodder but instead against the centaur.
If you proceed from this village you’ll come to the lith I mentioned
earlier, except that you’re now flanking it. A few blights will still be
enough, and you can employ the gnomes you might have gotten as well. From
here, you’ll be going well – it’ll only get easier!
Jadugarr will attack with Brainiacs mostly, and with Chain lightning that
might wipe out some of the more inferior creatures. Blights should be wary
of this spell. Also, don’t forget to use Slime when desecrating Jadugarr,
if you can – it’ll slow him down so much he’ll be killed easily. Well, this
was a 2v1 and sort of easy, but don’t think everything will be so good
later on!
Mission Five – Allegiance
So instead of choosing techno-oriented Pyro, you decided to go with
Charnel? Well, unlike the last mission you’ll be challenged by your
enemies. You must morph Gangrel the scythe and Astaroth the demon lord into
one being here, to use against Marduk (mostly). But who said this’d be
easy? Abraxus is here, and Yogo (instead of inexperienced Shakti) attacks
you too. Thankfully, Demonic Rift is a good crowd-control spell here.
You start with 4 fallen and some other creatures. I’d say that instead of
the fallen, Deadeyes should make up most of your ranged. (If it needs to be
so, you can summon some fallen for instant damage. But the Damage-Over-Time
is great in many different ways.)
Cast your Shield, organise your creatures quickly then cast Demonic Rift
after the mission starts. This will disrupt the enemies well enough. I
observed that while Abraxus uses many Brainiacs Yogo often tends to go
melee, using Trolls and Druids. They both have their 2-soul melee unit at
the start though.
Gangrel isn’t available yet, but you can try to convert the four zombies
near him meanwhile. If you have time. You shouldn’t try to focus on
converting souls too much – you need to gain some ground. To do this, you
must destroy the Abraxus manalith on the small hill nearby. You can do this
with a mad rush against it, by sending a blight, or by ordering your
deadeyes to shoot it (they’re quite good against liths) while having other
creatures battle on. Once this is done, Abraxus and Yogo will pull back a
bit. Construct a lith here and reorganise your troops now – you have some
resting time. Now, if you can convert some souls, do so – if not, repel any
Yogo and Abraxus attacks and wait for the ritual to complete.
Once you gain control of Astaroth, the mission will become as simple as any
other. Attack Abraxus first. You are ordered not to banish her, but you
should still destroy her manaliths! Without them, she’s completely useless.
She’ll go to Yogo’s manaliths to regenerate but she won’t have an
acceptable mana flow.
Yogo will need to be banished, however. The guardian of Elysium is
initially dangerous, but later you won’t need to fear much. His Trolls and
other melee creatures are nothing against Astaroth, a low-maintenance
killer basically, and he won’t have the smarts to figure out that a Gremlin
may very well toss Astaroth around. Desecrate his altar and watch the
cinematic: maybe Stratos is not what he seems?
Mission Six – Desperate Measures
Charnel’s alliance with Pyro was short-lived. He decides to destroy his
device, the Pyrodraulic Dynamo, because it is too strong and he fears that
Pyro becoming the more powerful member of the alliance will be risky in the
future. Or so I think. And meanwhile, he’ll also befriend James! Divide and
conquer technique, I suppose.
You have a nice number of souls to start with – 20! Well, that’s enough for
a whole lot of creatures. And you have two manafounts at your disposal.
Don’t be lazy, construct these two manaliths. The two enemy sorcerers,
Ambassador Buta and Hachimen are coming for you soon, and you’ll need to be
prepared if you are to survive. Then there’s the Dynamo. If you had some
experience with James’ mission five, good for you!
It’d be wise to rely on ranged creatures for the most part. A combination
of 2 abominations and 4 deadeyes is good enough. But you might not have
enough time to create a whole army, that’s the problem. If you are not
prepared, well, that’s what your new spell is for, no? Wailing wall has a
strong urge of „stay away”.
Eventually, however, a wizard will come through. Buta or Hachimen will come
(hope that not both at once – if that happens you’ll be in deep trouble)
and their army will sport a few Dactyls, Maniacs, Spitfires and even a
Bombard. Also, some other level 1 creatures might be present. A demonic
rift will, however, dispatch many of these. (The Dactyls and Spitfires will
drop out of the sky quickly.) But you must get souls, so use Slime, Wailing
wall or any other way of slowing or stopping the Pyro wizards. If you’re
good enough you’ll get lots of souls!
Now, it would be a good idea to position Abominations as guardians to your
liths. But as soon as you’re done with this, stay away from your altar
whenever you can! The Dynamo can erupt on you any time. In this mission,
I’d recommend you to destroy the Dynamo once the enemies are sufficiently
weakened. First, you see the lith which guards Charlotte’s altar? Destroy
it and claim the souls. This is a must as Charlotte will only be able to
regenerate at her altar. Hope you converted all the souls! Now for the
Dynamo. Destroying it can be done with Blights, ground troops or the best,
a combination of the two. Watch out for the defenses though – they are
tough, and Buta will be able to claim their souls once they die (they
switch to that side). Use Demonic Rift to weaken the defenses while the
fighting is fierce.
As you approach the Dynamo, Charlotte will talk with your wizard (from
inside the Dynamo?). As soon as the Dynamo is destroyed, teleport to the
lith near Charlotte’s altar and destroy it using your creatures. This will
free up the fount for Charlotte so that she can start playing once again.
Did Buta and Hachimen bother you a lot? I hope not. If you find that they
force you to teleport back too much, you can position more abomination
guards to your liths (the other lith near your altar or the one near
Charlotte’s altar). You can now drop a few souls for the spider if you want
to, but you could just as well attack. Who you attack doesn’t matter much,
really, but Blights will not suffice here, or only in large numbers –
Bombards and Pyromaniacs guard their liths, which means that they’ll shoot
down these... birdies. Instead, use massive amounts of Abominations.
Once you’re done, watch as you talk with Charlotte. Well, Charnel is quite
an interesting fellow after all. But it’s no time to be lazy! On to Helios!
Mission Seven – The Chasm Widens
Charnel uses the temporary ceasefire between him and James to divert his
necromancers to attacking Pyroborea, and you are sent to deal the finishing
blow. Pyro is still going strong in his capital though, so be prepared. The
Empress and the Ambassador are both here. Luckily, certain factors will
allow you to manage this mission!
Sorcha will come soon, so act quick. Construct a lith on the fount right in
front of you and watch as Faestus betrays Pyro for you. Well, add him to
your ranged group. You have 5 souls so use them for an abomination and a
deadeye. (Served Persephone before? A mutant and a gnome will also suffice
to a slightly lesser extent.) Take all your units with you to the next
fountain and construct the manalith. After this is done, Sorcha should
arrive.
You must get as many souls as possible here. Cast Protective Swarm before
the battle and then cast Plague while ordering your units to attack. The
Styx will be good against Warmongers because he regenerates health while
damaging the Mongers, though massive Warmonger fire will still take them
down – if you have enough mana, cast a Demonic Rift (though Plague should
handle them well enough already). Beware of the Pyromaniacs as well! At
least 3 of them will always follow the sorceress – try to work quickly so
that you won’t have to divert your attention to them while killing Sorcha.
With the immediate danger gone, order all your units to attack Sorcha and
then her manahoars. Harvest the souls after the battle, if you have
captured some. (Demonic Rift is a good way to kill wounded Hoars.) Now use
these souls to produce mostly long-ranged units, with perhaps another Styx.
(If you got all her souls, another Styx will be good!) Now you could try to
fight Sorcha again, and/but if you think you have enough souls you can go
on.
You see the lith heavily guarded by Bombards and Warmongers, and the like?
Ignore it. Instead, proceed to Sorcha’s altar. The altar’s top part is
visible from the manalith. It is guardianed by two Warmongers – a piece of
cake, basically, as your ranged units can kill it with impunity. If you
want to do it fast, you could cast Demonic Rift. Try not to get too much
creatures killed here though – until you destroy the manalith, your mana
regeneration will be very slow (especially as soon as your minions start
consuming mana with their ranged attacks).
Sorcha will not come for her souls if she has already lost everything. If
she still has an army, though, she will attempt to do so – if you saw where
Sorcha went off you could perhaps place your Styx units to try and kill
her. Replace Sorcha’s manalith with your own whenever you can. Then wait
for 1000 mana to use the desecration spell (use a Styx).
Sorcha might or might not come to you when the ritual starts. Get her
anyways – she will most likely refuse to hide behind the magnifriers you
see ahead. Once Sorcha is dead, you will get a ton of souls! Where you can
get them from:
One which you might have triggered if you strayed off the path –
approaching the volcano-ish hill in the direction of Buta, a few Bombards
will materialize for some reason not far from your first lith. I don’t know
what they’re doing there, but that’s 16 souls.
The heavily guarded lith you skipped ahead will now be a graveyard holding
12 souls.
The two warmongers you just killed while destroying Sorcha’s first lith
yield 8 souls.
Sorcha’s remaining souls might also be available to you. More souls.
Also, some fountains:
One which you can get to by hugging the edge of the island from Sorcha’s
altar.
The previously guarded lith will be there for you to destroy.
There is a fountain near some paper shacks. You’ll suffer some minor damage
from an explosion and an eruption that will take place there, but otherwise
nothing will prevent you from taking that.
The lith ahead of this one, however, is in range of the Magnifriers! Don’t
approach it yet!
Well, I suppose that if you followed this walkthrough even loosely, Buta
will not start advancing on you yet. But don’t worry, he will come out
eventually. You can see the three methods of destroying the magnifriers
(troggs, level 1 creatures or the 2-soul melee unit up close) in the James
6 walkthrough, and for Charnel only Deadeyes are also OK as they are very
long-ranged, and you can animate anyone who dies from the beams – but the
third frier will be more difficult either way as the lith that didn’t use
to exist in James 6 is now under Buta’s control and fortified by two
Bombards! (These can boil your level one creatures alive unless you
micromanage them well, or give them a perfect waypointed order) Luckily,
Buta will only become active if the wizard goes too far, so as long as you
go no further than the manalith ahead of the papershack fountain the souls
will stay there and no harm will befall them.
If you lost your units and a magnifrier is still standing put on your
shield and use your speed-up and heal spells to reclaim your souls. (Leave
everyone, including your hoars, behind. It’d also be a good idea to come
from the lith to the right, closer to Sorcha’s former altar.) If you can,
go to its base and summon a creature to destroy the Magnifrier as well. (It
doesn’t matter if you die on the way once you have reclaimed your souls.)
One or two converted creatures don’t matter ultimately, of course.
Once the magnifriers are destroyed collect your creatures and face Buta.
Try to choose the battleground so that it’s neutral or near your own liths,
and definitely far from the bombard-guarded lith. The best spot is probably
the volcano hill to the right of the lith that I warned you not to touch
before, as this gets you the high ground your deadeyes and abominations
will thank you for. This first encounter will probably decide a lot. Buta’s
forces are a phoenix, two warmongers and a load of rocket-spewing
Pyromaniacs. I hope you produced a lot of Styx, as these are good against
most of the enemies! (The phoenix fries them up in one shot, but if they’re
lucky enough to shoot their blast while they’re getting burned they’ll
survive because of the health drain). Against the Pyromaniacs, try to chew
them up from a longer range. Oh, and don’t forget your new spell, Plague,
as this will once again produce great results.
Buta himself is not that tough since his Fireform is not a very good
defense. If he should become unshielded give him some Slime and you’re all
set to convert some souls. Once he’s dead, convert the souls you got and
proceed. You’ll want his guarded lith in the middle of the ex-Frier
triangle now. Against them: Deadeyes or Blights (Deadeyes outrange Bombards
but Blights are faster) are the best, though a mad bum-rush against the
lith will not result in failure either, it’s just less efficient. Try not
to let Buta get the souls, though if you use Deadeyes this will be most
likely inevitable.
Anyway, here you can hold your ground easily. If Buta should attack he’ll
produce Warmongers again, but this time he’ll have less escort – you will
find a nice employment of Abominations very fruitful. Move in with the Styx
as well to annihilate Buta himself.
Buta will not attack any more soon, instead he’ll cover in his fortified
den, overlooked by the massive iron Ultimate Altar. It will soon explode,
rest assured. Just so that you won’t be surprised, I’ll tell you what
exactly awaits you.
Immediately once you enter the area, you will be attacked by a group of
units who are supposed to work together with Buta but are usually cut down
far from him. These are: 2 bombards, 3 pyromaniacs and a Pyrodactyl. Lucky
it doesn’t spew oil.
You will have to destroy the lith behind the big rock. It doesn’t matter
now whether Buta gets a few souls back so feel free to blast away at it
with Abominations and Deadeyes – its only guards are two Warmongers.
The other lith has the same and a Bombard – it is farther from the altar so
you’ll actually only need to defeat the Bombard there which is easy to do
with Deadeyes in particular. You can even leave the Mongers alone.
Now stand between that last lith (where Buta will hide unless you left him
a lith somewhere, in which case he’ll die from the energies on the way) and
the ultimate altar and desecrate that altar. Buta will... most likely...
fall to your units. (Last time I had 6 Styx, 6 Abominations, 6 Deadeyes, 3
Hoars, 4 Netherfiends and some spare souls still, if I recall correctly.)
Enjoy as you defeat Buta, and optionally try to kill the two Warmongers
with only your Styx units before the Ambassador falls! Charnel will be
truly delighted. Now you can finally relax. Well, at least Pyro’s not so
high-handed now, is he?
Mission Eight – No Mercy
With Pyro out of the way Charnel resumes to focus on his traditional
targets. You are sent to purge Idylliac from Persephone’s faithful while
Stratos is fighting her elsewhere. It seems like Yogo is the only one left
to guard the capital of Elysium. But soon you’ll find out James sent some
aid in the form of Charlotte, who you freed not long ago! Why, you should
have left the ungrateful snot in the Dynamo.
Well, now there’s no turning back. Of course you have some initial time, so
teleport to the island to the left and kill the two peasants with your
basic attack spell. With this done you’ll have 11 souls. You could produce
two styxes and an abomination, or one styx, one abomination and two
deadeyes from this. Or perhaps you may not want to use all your souls, so
that you can cast Rend Soul with a styx (but don’t do this if you fail at
the technique! 1 soul is not a big loss, but it is a loss if wasted).
Either way, nothing worse than having Charlotte rain down on you from that
nice position right above your first lith, so move out. Quickly build the
second manalith... you may see Charlotte advancing with her army. What’s
this army? A Jabberocky, a few Taurocks, a Boulderdash, an Ikarus and a
good load of Flummoxes Charlotte probably summoned. You need to get some
souls from Charlotte, but for that you’ll need to kill her, which is damn
annoying while she’s in Stone Skin. Also, when the Jabberrocky starts
stomping down on your bony Styxes, you’ll want to restart. So focus on the
Rocky first with your units, perhaps even casting Slime on it, while you
proceed to the long-ranged Men of the Glebe and kill the Boulderdash with
your spells (be careful, as the Flummoxes can interrupt your spellcasting!)
Or you could forgo the Boulderdash and try to attract the Taurocks’
attention. Either way, you’ll need to cast some spells to win here – Plague
(or Bombardment, see later) are very useful, though beware of Charlotte
casting Bombardment on you! Once you got her creatures, cast Slime on
Charlotte (before she casts it on you!) or else you’ll never get through
the damn spider. Once she’s dead, the units will retreat and it’s
conversion time. Oh, and don’t forget your new spell Intestinal
Vaporisation! If you’re nearby it’s free souls for you. Use it on the
Jabberrocky or the Boulderdash if you can.
You’ll certainly be more comfortable with even a converted Taurock, I
suppose, but if you can double the number of your souls, even better! After
this battle, you should optimally have two Styxes and 1-2 of deadeyes and
abominations. But wait... I hear some of you calling. It was possible to
serve James before, so how do you do it if you went up to mission seven
with James?
Your job is still difficult then. There is nothing you can do to capitalise
on the time that Charlotte spends unarmored, other than killing her
anyways. For the fighting itself, 1 Jabberrocky and 1 Boulderdash will
handle a lot of the enemies (starting with the Jabberrocky), and the
remaining three souls could go towards a Flummox, or a Taurock and
something else. But you may find you have difficulty getting souls with
James. In this case, use Intestinal Vaporization whenever you can.
Charlotte will never again amass such an army – most of the time it will
consist of Flummoxes, level 1 creatures, a combination of the two and
possibly Taurocks. Styxes, Abominations and Deadeyes (or Boulderdashes with
some melee support) can kill just about everything Charlotte throws at you.
Notice how you didn’t see a single Faithful yet? Yogo doesn’t attack at
this point. You’ll face Charlotte alone here. Now, however, you could just
wait until something happens that will definitely defeat Charlotte... This
walkthrough, on the other hand, assumes you don’t know this and proceeds
on.
Push onwards. Charlotte will stay near a manalith of hers if weakened well
enough, so avoid this one. Instead, take the manalith on the other side in
a similar position. Or if you want to prepare for the future, erect a
Shrine, though this will net you a bad mana flow temporarily. Then proceed
to her (unguarded) altar. Start the desecration with a Styx/Jabberrocky
unit. Then employ your creatures along with some spells (a well-placed Wall
spell can keep Charlotte away while still letting your
Abominations/Deadeyes/Boulderdashes/whatever do their work). Soon enough
Charlotte will crumble and the altar will become free! Construct a Manalith
here and prepare (with or without guardians), for Yogo will immediately
attack.
Persephone’s champion has a force that is just a bit stronger than
Charlotte’s troop was, which means that he has two ents, a few trolls and
shrikes, two gremlins and some mutants. The difference is that you now have
Charlotte’s souls in addition to you, and you’ll be facing a less damage-
oriented god. Boulderdashes and a Jabberrocky work well as Ents do not use
Protector, assuming you were a Geomancer before, but if you were loyal to
Charnel you’ll need to use four Styx units for the ent (take one or two if
you weaken them well enough with spells). You need to kill Yogo quickly,
along with his hoars, and then you’ll need to convert quickly as well,
because Yogo’s manaliths are not far. These encounters won’t be too hard
though. You can even make your life easier and use Intestinal Vaporisation
to insta-convert an ent. Once the first encounter is done, capture any free
or James-aligned founts nearby and prepare for the assault.
You’ll need to destroy one lith (preferably the one protected by no wizard
so that you can get the souls). Both liths have a few Mutants and Gnomes as
guardians. You can attack with your own Abominations and Deadeyes, or you
could produce a few Netherfiends or Blights (or Taurocks or Ikarus’), speed
them up and let them do the work. Well, from now it’s easy. If you take the
path to the right you’ll face more Mutants and Gnomes while taking the path
to the left will result in you facing two Dragons and Gnomes. You can kill
these with Death, or with more ranged units (the Dragons don’t breathe
anything, fortunately, and they are actually guardianed). You don’t need to
destroy the other manalith in either scenario, although it’s beneficial.
Now put your units so that they are between you and Yogo and sacrifice a
unit (with the souls you have it doesn’t matter if the ritual drains Yogo’s
health slowly). Now kill Yogo! (Use Slime or else he’ll use Ethereal Form
and that’s an inconvenience). Congratulations on your second victory over a
God! Now it’s time to visit Stratos’ realm, Empyrea.
Mission Nine – The End Days
Of course, Stratos must die. How else should it be? The mission starts in
an unique way, sort of. Jadugarr the centaur is already here with flurries
and squalls. Well, maybe not so unique – in most missions at this point the
enemy tends to pounce you in 30 seconds...
It is important to use this opportunity. Kill Jadugarr. You have a
netherfiend and some deadeyes at your disposal; use Slime, or whatever you
have that is similar, use offensive spells etc. Try to summon some hard-
hitting creatures next to Jadugarr, but watch out! You are not to kill any
of his creatures. If you can just decapitate Jadugarr and hoars, then you
can kill the slow flurries and airy squalls to harvest their souls. 16
souls at your disposal and Jadugarr will be in trouble at this point. He
might even stop attacking you altogether! Though he probably won’t: he’ll
soon come with an army of flurries and a few brainiacs. But if you
construct a lith and convert the red souls that you should have produced,
you’ll have no problem. (If you failed to get some or all of these souls –
it will be harder, but if you can summon a few quick-killing creatures –
Styx, for example; kill off the deadeyes – you might get Jadugarr, cast
Death and then convert away. Faestus also burns him up well.)
Jadugarr will attack soon once more. He’ll come via the village
(graveyard?) to the west. Be careful here! If you try to attack him in the
village it will trigger a trap which causes some storm giants and yetis to
appear. I think they are friendly to Jadugarr – he doesn’t trigger the trap
either way. Jadugarr will convert the peasants, however, if you just sit by
your first lith. Therefore, go around the village, repel Jadugarr’s attack
and THEN trigger the trap (if you have some souls converted to kill the
creatures).
However, don’t just sit there, pay attention to your surroundings. Hachimen
is still there – wackos alright, but they still pack a punch. More so than
Jadugarr in my opinion – they have a guaranteed Bombard and 2 Maniacs and
usually they’ll summon some Warmongers (and some fodder). And it may well
happen that while you are busy fighting Jadugarr, converting souls or
whatever, Hachimen comes from the other direction and destroys your first
lith, interrupts any desecrations and crushes you completely with a
desecration – you may go back but even infinite mana might not save you at
that point... You must prevent this – please forget about Jadugarr and
souls if you sight them and move to intercept them. And don’t cower at your
first lith or they’ll have the high ground: instead, fight them in the
open, use the long range of the deadeyes, abominations you might summon,
use Demonic Rift etc. Beware of Volcano! You can’t afford to have much dead
at this point: you have a low mana flow with 1 lith, and you’d need 4+
hoars to have a big mana flow which will have an effect on your fighting
force. This is especially true if in mission 4 you haven’t followed
Charnel, as this will mean that you lack Animate Dead. (If you so wish, you
could move out early to take another fount – the one right ahead in a
valley is perfect – but this may also have an effect on your soul pool as
you’ll have less time for conversion.). However you solve this, Hachimen is
not Jadugarr – Flurries are good for massage but they’re useless for
combat, at least in the way the AI (mis)uses them. On the other hand,
Mongers, Maniacs and the rest are deadly. Try to grab some souls, but do
not make it your priority yet. Hachimen should soon retreat. If you got any
red souls, convert them.
You should start to advance at this point. Hachimen’s altar basically
guards Jadugarr’s, and it’s to the right. But, in case you didn’t convert
every soul yet, and are not good at doing it either, take the manalith
ahead to the left anyways. It is guarded by some nasty guys, but you should
be able to overwhelm them by now. Jadugarr or Hachimen might decide to go
regenerate here, which can lead to a nasty surprise if you have a big soul
train and they still feel like attacking your altar.
Decide whether you want to go here or not. Remember that if an enemy is
here they can reclaim the souls, so try to prevent this if you can. After
you have or have not done this, proceed to the east. You may stumble upon a
purple-colored Sara Bella while doing the mission, though! Stratos fans can
relax, she isn’t going to die. Or is she? Blast Hermione Granger, I mean
Sara Bella into oblivion (use the attack command from the X menu or the
hotkey, in case you forgot) so that he may contribute to a superior
lifeform. (Styx? Hellmouth? Deadeye? You decide...) She doesn’t have to be
protected. Come on already, it’s Charnel we’re playing! Oh, you want to
interrupt an enemy wizard with her? I thought killing them interrupts them
well enough anyways... Ahem. Advance upon Hachimen, taking out the Shrine
in the way and replacing it with your own. (Yes, this is an alright
location for a shrine – not really in the way in case someone attempts
something naughty.) Their first lith is guarded by 2 Phoenixes. Tough guys,
these, and Hellmouths will get fried by them. However, they are guardianed,
which means Abominations, Deadeyes and maybe even Faestus can hit them
without retaliation. If Faestus dies to the Phoenixes remember to use
Animate Dead if you can. Now... desecrate! You shouldn’t have much trouble
with Hachimen, though a Volcano can mess you up even if he has little
support. (If they does cast it, try to interrupt them *wink*)
Jadugarr still remains. Here you’ll have a tougher set of guards. Oh, but
don’t forget that you have Death! Cast it on the silverbacks on the lith in
the front. If your troops are reasonably far away the Grim Reaper will
decide to go for the hidden squalls in the back after the big gorillas are
down. Or, if you want to deny Jadugarr his last souls kill the silverbacks
with an all-out storm (You could help killing one with Intestinal
Vaporisation). If you went with Stratos in the eighth mission, remember not
to use Cloudkill – it boosts up Silverbacks like it does with Storm Giants.
Squalls should be easy with: Blights, sped-up Netherfiends, several
Hellmouths with focused fire, and basically anything in numbers.
Abominations might be less effective because they’re pushed away all the
time. And now it’s time to finally slay Stratos! Revel in the glory for a
bit, for the Crucible is coming. And the rest of my walkthrough, too.
The rest of the walkthrough is UNDER CONSTRUCTION
IV. Final Words
Well, about copying this. I’d appreciate it if you sent an email and gave
me full credit if you wanted to post this at your website. (Mail:
rovarkatona (at) gmail (dot) com) Also send me any additions or complaints
– I’ll gladly read and reply to any normal letters. Oh, if you serve
Charnel and wish to claim it as your own, I won’t take legal steps because
I don’t care that much! (Just go rot with your Necryls.) If I don’t answer
for three days that’s a „yes” for you, by the way.
Corpse_Milk_Man, 2008.03.05. (y/m/d)
