Last map too easy

[Act Chill]

Even with the handbow nerf and the difficulty in finding multi hit buffs with the 1.0 release, the last level was never a challenge. I had much more difficulty on other maps, partly because I focused economy early. It's a bit disappointing. I do like the map designs and how each truly does feel unique.

All the moving objects tend to bunch up blocking the center of each side. The map is pushed out so much that the monsters spawn far away giving a couple days before they can reach the base. In the mean time you can 1 turn the boss and his weapon every time they pop up. You only really need to kill the first 3 turns worth of monsters and 1 turn the boss (very easy to do with just 1 hero).

Unlike other maps where a lot of people go economy and night 4 becomes very difficult, you are given a lot of resources and there arent a lot of nights. Makes economy not overly worth it as in gold mines. I just grab the omen that allows 2 more buildings. 65 gold gets you on average 40+/night for selling items, so similar to gold mine...plus more selection of items.

I beat using primarily heroes first try and then I used the ballista strat in which you get base defense omens with heroes that get XP from ballista kills. Later on same heroes give a 50% bonus. While the heroes themselves were not a strong, the ballistas killed all but the strongest units.

[Bumc]

Ballista strat is currently broken and is going to get nerfed at least in some capacity.

Other than that, Glintfein does seem to be easier than Elderlitch even if you go in order of rising Apocalypse.
At least its short and action-packed so eh, whatever.

[Azktor]

Agree last map is a bit easier than Elderlitch. But is a good map even then. Also balista is totally broken, i'm trying to play without it as much as i can, because as is right now it is a bit too strong, particularly the Omens.

[Samseng Yik]

I think last map monster wave is easier.
However boss is harder, especially the mirror damage.

ElderLitch mostly a chore to play through the nights.
Boss himself is nothing

[Zephyr]

Too easy, certainly not. Besides, if you object to the difficulty of this map, you can always try to go for apocalypse runs.

It is less gruelling than Elderlicht, but the boss wave can sneak up on you and decide your life is going to be pain if the game decides to stack up a bunch of scythes and singularities on a single side, and spawn a boss here. And again, you need to pray you get broken characters and gear, and it's very easy to not get good characters because the game refuses to give you anything worthwhile. My last run on this map on apo 1, I had to do the boss wave with one character still using a rusty knife that came for free with one character(And almost killed Schaden final form with it, which I tried to do for joke factor). Mirror damage and revenge are still awful mechanics favoring some VERY specific builds you may not have the chance to make, or which may be stuck on the sides of the map where the boss don't show up and busy pushing the ocean with a broom.

You do need to focus on economy on the last map, you just don't do it the same way you would otherwise a lot of the time. Mainly you focus on trying to make mountains of corpses to exploit for resources, which forces you to play a lot more recklessly than usual by letting everything come as close as possible before destroying them.

Also, by the time you reach that level, you usually have a good amount of runs behind you, where you had the opportunity to buy a lot of meaningful upgrades which you won't have for the previous levels. That's why a map like Glendale is a huge spike in difficulty compared to Lakeburg.

I don't think ballistas are broken, I think they complement well the fact you can't possibly be everywhere at once, and that your heroes weakening enemies so ballistas can finish them makes a lot of sense. On most others maps, catapults are overall better.

[TripSin]

Elderlicht is only hard at first because it changes up the core gameplay style. Once you adapt and learn how to deal with (or ignore) the invulnerable units it's not that hard.

The last map requires you to think a LOT more about positioning. And because of the mirror shield, it makes a lot of the typical boss killer builds unable to just one-turn her.

[Act Chill]

Originally posted by TripSin:

Elderlicht is only hard at first because it changes up the core gameplay style. Once you adapt and learn how to deal with (or ignore) the invulnerable units it's not that hard.

The last map requires you to think a LOT more about positioning. And because of the mirror shield, it makes a lot of the typical boss killer builds unable to just one-turn her.

In Elderlicht a lot of people go economy which makes night 4 difficult as you are weak. The "invulnerable" guys hurt a lot making glass cannon builds difficult or you have to spend a lot of AP putting the fires out, which reduces your hero attacks. I feel the levels were the hardest in the game, but obviously the boss itself is one of the easiest.

Last map applies damage and AP debuffs that are removed using a healing potion. You get the AP back same turn. I feel like less monsters spawn. Mirror shield is a gimmick that I beat first attempt without building for. Dodge and resistance works against it, a lot of armor gives armor buffs like +125 for 1 AP, multi hit builds are less common and single target got buff, etc. I beat on AP6 and I killed each weapon/boss with a single unit.

[Act Chill]

Originally posted by Zephyr:

Too easy, certainly not. Besides, if you object to the difficulty of this map, you can always try to go for apocalypse runs.

It is less gruelling than Elderlicht, but the boss wave can sneak up on you and decide your life is going to be pain if the game decides to stack up a bunch of scythes and singularities on a single side, and spawn a boss here. And again, you need to pray you get broken characters and gear, and it's very easy to not get good characters because the game refuses to give you anything worthwhile. My last run on this map on apo 1, I had to do the boss wave with one character still using a rusty knife that came for free with one character(And almost killed Schaden final form with it, which I tried to do for joke factor). Mirror damage and revenge are still awful mechanics favoring some VERY specific builds you may not have the chance to make, or which may be stuck on the sides of the map where the boss don't show up and busy pushing the ocean with a broom.

You do need to focus on economy on the last map, you just don't do it the same way you would otherwise a lot of the time. Mainly you focus on trying to make mountains of corpses to exploit for resources, which forces you to play a lot more recklessly than usual by letting everything come as close as possible before destroying them.

Also, by the time you reach that level, you usually have a good amount of runs behind you, where you had the opportunity to buy a lot of meaningful upgrades which you won't have for the previous levels. That's why a map like Glendale is a huge spike in difficulty compared to Lakeburg.

I don't think ballistas are broken, I think they complement well the fact you can't possibly be everywhere at once, and that your heroes weakening enemies so ballistas can finish them makes a lot of sense. On most others maps, catapults are overall better.

The bosses essentially do nothing if you stay out of their limited range. All the bombs are placed on the perimeter of the base, so you just need to kill units farther out. The bombs only go off if you end your turn on them. Walk all you want through them and wave hi. For this reason I invest in movement a bit more on the last map than others. Any debuffs to AP and damage can be fixed with health potions now.

With the massive amount of resources provided and limited nights, how you go about doing economy and improving your heroes/base is more limited. Efficiencies in certain economic builds leads to an exponential difference with each night. Less nights less difference. Building to make items to sell, farming corpses, building gold mines, etc doesnt make a big difference and relatively small vs the huge amount daily you get. So you get 12 corpses for 20 gold and 32 material, that is 240 gold and 384 material total, which is less than you get for free and you had to spend 30x4, 40x4, 70x4 (660) gold plus allow monsters closer to your base. 7 production buildings for 450 give 200 gold. As you upgrade (more gold) you make more gold selling. Economically it isnt better and you get less material, but you can keep the best items for your heroes so they will be a lot stronger. I hybrid and do 8 workers (70 gold is a lot) and 7 production buildings. Gold mines are too big of an investment for 6 nights, which I think is a nice thing to not have to worry about on 1 of the maps.

[Mako]

As some one who has had to do atleast two runs on each map on apocalypse 1 just to clear, please don't make the last map any harder. The game is really fun, but it's getting fatiguing how long everything takes to clear.

For my first run of the last map, I barely squeaked by on wave 5 and 6 with D ranks and unsurprisingly lost mid way through the final boss wave. The mechanics seem fair enough (other than the one time the boss summoned an elite with double attack perk adjacent to my hero and ended up one-shoting her before i even got a chance to do anything. i think that was just bad luck though). Going to start my second run this weekend so hopefully i can beat this game. The above tips about not focusing on economy are useful, thanks.

[BadEvilWrong]

Originally posted by Bumc:

Ballista strat is currently broken and is going to get nerfed at least in some capacity.

I knew you were right, but brother, did you have to be _this_ right?

[BaconX]

Ask and ye shall receive, enjoy the new update TC.

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Act Chill:

Originally posted by TripSin:

In Elderlicht a lot of people go economy which makes night 4 difficult as you are weak. The "invulnerable" guys hurt a lot making glass cannon builds difficult or you have to spend a lot of AP putting the fires out, which reduces your hero attacks. ...

But why would you let your glass cannon heroes get attacked by them? Just outposition their attacks? The only ghosts I feel the need to extinguish ASAP every time are the mages because I don't want to deal with them buffing others.

[Act Chill]

Originally posted by TripSin:

Originally posted by Act Chill:

In Elderlicht a lot of people go economy which makes night 4 difficult as you are weak. The "invulnerable" guys hurt a lot making glass cannon builds difficult or you have to spend a lot of AP putting the fires out, which reduces your hero attacks. ...

But why would you let your glass cannon heroes get attacked by them? Just outposition their attacks? The only ghosts I feel the need to extinguish ASAP every time are the mages because I don't want to deal with them buffing others.

I didnt know you could remove them by blowing out the fires first run so I made it to the last night without removing any, but of course I lost the last map as I didnt know what to do and would just time out...It is possible, but staying out of range while killing all the monsters is tough. Night 4 is hard enough. A couple nights I had to restart...