Forgotten Sanctuary

[Bladiumdragon]

Why make a level impossible to get through? Slimes deal poison damage and divide into smaller slimes which also deal poison damage, and when you go back to the Necropolis with a new horde everything respawns.

[HereIsPlenty]

None of the levels are impossible. I have gone through a few New Game Plus on it and one brave soldier made it to New Game 17 I think.

Have you tried using Giants? They steamrolled everything for me. Before that it was Bears.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by HereIsPlenty:

None of the levels are impossible. I have gone through a few New Game Plus on it and one brave soldier made it to New Game 17 I think.

Have you tried using Giants? They steamrolled everything for me. Before that it was Bears.

I don't have access to giants.

[74 prairie dogs in a trenchcoat]

Gonna have to agree with OP that Forgotten Sanctuary is trash. Asteroid monsters that do extreme poison damage plus super tanky wood enemies plus nearly zero living enemies makes attrition severe and overwhelming. The only team build I found to be capable of even getting to the other side of the inner ring is corpses because they're the only minions you have that have the potential to resist poison (not your skeletons, not your ghosts, but your zombies with flesh on their bones) as well as a fire damage spell to deal with the wood enemies, but when I finally managed that my entire horde get oneshot from full health by an orange ogre thing.

Like, what the ♥♥♥♥ is the solution here? The only area I haven't completed before this point is orc fortress, which the game was straight up telling me to put off for later, so it's not like my power level is below what it's supposed to be here. It's not like I'm supposed to sneak past and do this area later either, because the level's cut off by walls you have to destroy in order to do that.

It's just not fun.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by Freelancer Lenna:

Gonna have to agree with OP that Forgotten Sanctuary is trash. Asteroid monsters that do extreme poison damage plus super tanky wood enemies plus nearly zero living enemies makes attrition severe and overwhelming. The only team build I found to be capable of even getting to the other side of the inner ring is corpses because they're the only minions you have that have the potential to resist poison (not your skeletons, not your ghosts, but your zombies with flesh on their bones) as well as a fire damage spell to deal with the wood enemies, but when I finally managed that my entire horde get oneshot from full health by an orange ogre thing.

Like, what the ♥♥♥♥ is the solution here? The only area I haven't completed before this point is orc fortress, which the game was straight up telling me to put off for later, so it's not like my power level is below what it's supposed to be here. It's not like I'm supposed to sneak past and do this area later either, because the level's cut off by walls you have to destroy in order to do that.

It's just not fun.

I don't exactly remember how I got through this, but I think it involved bears and a bear artifact you get early on that empowers them.

[74 prairie dogs in a trenchcoat]

Originally posted by Bladiumdragon:

Originally posted by Freelancer Lenna:

Gonna have to agree with OP that Forgotten Sanctuary is trash. Asteroid monsters that do extreme poison damage plus super tanky wood enemies plus nearly zero living enemies makes attrition severe and overwhelming. The only team build I found to be capable of even getting to the other side of the inner ring is corpses because they're the only minions you have that have the potential to resist poison (not your skeletons, not your ghosts, but your zombies with flesh on their bones) as well as a fire damage spell to deal with the wood enemies, but when I finally managed that my entire horde get oneshot from full health by an orange ogre thing.

Like, what the ♥♥♥♥ is the solution here? The only area I haven't completed before this point is orc fortress, which the game was straight up telling me to put off for later, so it's not like my power level is below what it's supposed to be here. It's not like I'm supposed to sneak past and do this area later either, because the level's cut off by walls you have to destroy in order to do that.

It's just not fun.

I don't exactly remember how I got through this, but I think it involved bears and a bear artifact you get early on that empowers them.

I tried a full bear build including the bear skull artifact. They still died faster than I could replace them because of all the poison.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by Freelancer Lenna:

Originally posted by Bladiumdragon:

I don't exactly remember how I got through this, but I think it involved bears and a bear artifact you get early on that empowers them.

I tried a full bear build including the bear skull artifact. They still died faster than I could replace them because of all the poison.

Hmm. I'm not sure how I did it, then. You can't sneak past them. I think I used a spell, but it's been so long I can't remember what I did anymore

[m662]

You can run past all of them except the rats as they catch up to you as long as you use the horde as fodder and go for the switches however it will cause issues if you die in the next map and it is a high risk as that map is not much better.

I quit the game shortly after trying this map.
Game stopped being fun as I know they are not going to balance it anymore and it is a good indication of the rest of the level balance testing.


But enough complaining here is a probably working strategy if you are willing to slough through this.

good staff with free skeleton warriors, lots of mana pool couple with a few support units and reflect damage. Have some candles get the mana upgrade and boost skeleton warriors as far as possible with as high of unit health as possible.

Bait one or two enemies at a time towards a area funnel than cast staff and cast reflect damage. With enough mana you can recast just before the first wave died. Enemy can't maneuver around it if properly boxed in so it is basically a shield wall with expandable troops.

Rinse and repeat for 30 or so minutes. Than repeat it all again for the next map. Or do what I did quit the game.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by m662:

You can run past all of them except the rats as they catch up to you as long as you use the horde as fodder and go for the switches however it will cause issues if you die in the next map and it is a high risk as that map is not much better.

I quit the game shortly after trying this map.
Game stopped being fun as I know they are not going to balance it anymore and it is a good indication of the rest of the level balance testing.


But enough complaining here is a probably working strategy if you are willing to slough through this.

good staff with free skeleton warriors, lots of mana pool couple with a few support units and reflect damage. Have some candles get the mana upgrade and boost skeleton warriors as far as possible with as high of unit health as possible.

Bait one or two enemies at a time towards a area funnel than cast staff and cast reflect damage. With enough mana you can recast just before the first wave died. Enemy can't maneuver around it if properly boxed in so it is basically a shield wall with expandable troops.

Rinse and repeat for 30 or so minutes. Than repeat it all again for the next map. Or do what I did quit the game.

I think that's what I did: I skipped the map, went to the portal in the next, and then went from there. I had to come back and clear this one though, but at that point I was significantly more powerful.

[Isaac]

arrived there just now and yes. this level is terrible. It seems like the developers learned nothing from the first game, where the later levels were really hard if you do not go with a certain build. I want to have a giant army of skeletons, but I can't use them because, no matter how much I upgrade them, they die insanely fast and I can't replace them in time. also doesn't help that minions often simply refuse to attack building, so that those don't spawn an endless amount of enemies.

[SmokinC]

+1
this is just frustrating

[SmokinC]

After two more hours I give up. I have to quite the game here -.-
Why Devs?

[Kamikaze_Llama]

Forgotten Sanctuary is totally beatable. You need Bears. Stack for Command so you can front at least 5.

IIRC, you don't have access to Hierophant / Bear, which is pretty much all you need up until the last third of the game, when you go to Polar Bears and Giants backed with Hierophants.

What you need to do is to have a weapon that gives you Vampirism, preferably a Dagger, then pick a fight with one of the Slimes at a time, if you can. Wait until your critters have made it break into littler Slimes, then use Bone Circle to finish the fight. Bone Circle is your best Staff by far, except for a few weird puzzles where you need Fire or a Summons (to hold down buttons).

Yes, the balance of the game is... frustrating. I wish I'd bought this game early enough to offer the developers a lengthy feedback post about the current balance; there are too many things I simply never use, after trying them out. When you get past Forgotten Sanctuary, things really do open up a lot, though, and IIRC you don't have to completely clear the level to make progress.