How the Hell do you achieve Stairway to Heaven?

[Whitey]

Besides pure dumb luck with the massive crowding at the NE gateway being bugged (otherwise you get a flood of 8+ level 5 or above juggernauts and tough dwarves which makes advancement suicidal or impossible) I don't understand how this is possible anymore. Of the ~500 players tracked for achievements a whopping 4 have recorded it -legitimately- on record and there are so scarce videos on youtube and all of the dumb luck with no absurd spawns. The thing was they were all beaten before the 2 gateways + mission finish bug was corrected and SINCE THEN NO ONE THAT HAS BEEN TRACKED HAS WON IT AND RECORDED IT AND HAD IT TRACKED.

Imp rushing/hellfire wall tunneling? Good luck. Minions also get stuck on ramparts with their absurd HP. As well, the only good unit for possession is one vampire deep in the NW which still isn't high enough level to self-sustain and trying to farm vampires results in a ton of level one. The scarcity of succubi (2 accessible) means conversion is a failing strategy over time, and this also means you can't just spirit chamber farm for XP because you're dealing with a single damn succubus for the most part trying to kill off an absurd amount.

100% possible only with RNG or bugged versions, reverted versions. Please, after all the fixes, unit patches etc. explain to me how this does anything. Wasn't this when vampires raised revenants too? Pretty significant with their bugged useless spirit summoning skill.

[Woudo]

Mate, eat a snickers.

You've made no mention of trying gold sentinels, which is the intended method of playing the map. Spam them and you'll win handily.

[Green.Sliche]

Which level this achievement is? I'm pretty sure it is doable, just can't seem to find it in the achievements list currently.

Ok it's HoG 1 achievement. The one where you need to destroy all 4 Gateways in 30 mins. The idea here is to destroy first 2 gateways that are near to you in order to get some breathing room. Then, simply snowball from gateway to gateway.

The key unit for you here is Ember Demon. Get as many of them as possible and provide support in form of gnarlings and chunders if possible. With such quick army, you won't have problems snowballing from start. Don't waste time converting Empire units, you don't need them.

You can build small foundry and use trap parts provided inside for doors or cheap traps like bombards if you feel you need to keep some enemies away from yourself at some point, though I doubt you will need those since new ones won't be coming once you take gateways down.

[Biervampir [AUT]]

Originally posted by Woudo:

Mate, eat a snickers.

lol
Damn that's a good one

[Whitey]

Woudo, I think you don't understand the achievement. It's not about getting it done at all, it's under 30 minutes. Not even 5-6 sentinels don't get built by 3-5 chunders under 30 minutes when you absolutely need them to be elsewhere and attacking. No, the math ain't right. Go ahead, show me a video of a significant number of sentinels getting built when you need your chunders as muscle just to progress in a timely fashion.

There is no time you should ever be on defense on this level. Traps are a waste 100%. I neglected ember demons because for the 5~ level clusters there's no point until you bank on it, when you could just retain versatility and lightning bolt.

Unfortunately it came down to the same strategy as I've found any mission that allows it: get a vampire, feed it souls, watch a high level vampire solo objectives while your second solos another. It was close and it required a lot of click, way more than I enjoy in a dungeon sim, but it worked.

[Biervampir [AUT]]

Originally posted by QWARKED.COM:

Woudo, I think you don't understand the achievement. It's not about getting it done at all, it's under 30 minutes. Not even 5-6 sentinels don't get built by 3-5 chunders under 30 minutes when you absolutely need them to be elsewhere and attacking. No, the math ain't right. Go ahead, show me a video of a significant number of sentinels getting built when you need your chunders as muscle just to progress in a timely fashion.

There is no time you should ever be on defense on this level. Traps are a waste 100%. I neglected ember demons because for the 5~ level clusters there's no point until you bank on it, when you could just retain versatility and lightning bolt.

Unfortunately it came down to the same strategy as I've found any mission that allows it: get a vampire, feed it souls, watch a high level vampire solo objectives while your second solos another. It was close and it required a lot of click, way more than I enjoy in a dungeon sim, but it worked.

If you want I can upload a video where I explain how to do it and what to keep in mind.
But glad that you managed to get it anyways.

Eitherway the Speedrun achievements are more for those who enjoy the RTS element of the game, raither then the SIM orientated players

[Noontide]

So I decided to take a quick look to see if I could achieve this myself utilising only Sentinels and I can confirm it is doable if tough. In the end I raised a total of 17 Sentinels and only attacked using them completing the level with 4 gateways down in 29:11.

For some context on my experience:

• This is the first time I have achieved the achievement legitimately.
  
• I don't play the game very often as it's not a major part of my role. However I'm probably the third most experienced on the dev team of playing the game legitimately, but I pale in comparison to a lot of our community members.
  
• It is my first time playing the level since the release of Heart of Gold (and in that I only played it legitly once). So my experience is limited I also did not watch any videos or read any strats.
  
• It took me three attempts to refine the approach. I quit at 10 minutes and 15 minutes respectively on try 1 & 2. As such the total achievement time was roughly 1 hour.

Regarding the approach I can say this:

• Building an optimised dungeon is key, In attempt 2 I tried wall-less but without the efficiency boost I couuld not build Sentinels or complete rituals fast enough.
  
• Claiming the nearby neutral shrines is very important for both spell usage and sentinel building.
  
• I was somewhat fortunate in the placement and handling of Mandalf, I was able to capture him and throw him on the torture prop before he could disappear on his second spawn.
  
• I suspect this could all be optimised much further with practice and knowledge, I reckon with enough experience it could probably be cut down to 25 minutes. Earlier Sentinels, more map awareness and better dungeon optimisation would be crucial to this.

Here's the video of the run.

Ultimately we will no doubt be reviewing achievements with Patch 2.0s release as there's going to be some significant balance overhauls. I'll make sure to note down that this achievement may well be somewhat borderline at the moment.

I'm pleased that you managed to achieve it in any case and that it continues to demonstrate that multiple approaches are viable for players.

[Woudo]

Originally posted by QWARKED.COM:

Woudo, I think you don't understand the achievement. It's not about getting it done at all, it's under 30 minutes. Not even 5-6 sentinels don't get built by 3-5 chunders under 30 minutes when you absolutely need them to be elsewhere and attacking. No, the math ain't right. Go ahead, show me a video of a significant number of sentinels getting built when you need your chunders as muscle just to progress in a timely fashion.

Time to crack open the archives and give this game another go.

[Silion]

May I say that the support we receive by Feedback and also by all other means is amazing?

Im really happy to see such alot of developer Replies :*D (looking forward for the next dlc ) keep up the amazing work <3

(sry for grammar mistakes x) )

[Woudo]

Originally posted by Noontide:

Here's the video of the run.

Mate, I wish i'd known that level of zoom was available. That's much easier on the eyes. Haven't played in such a long time so I don't really remember stuff like that exists.

Here's my contribution. Finished in 25 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29mF_5kvEA

Looks like I used the wrong Handbrake settings so it's come out looking like rubbish, but it took that f'in long to upload that i'm not going to bother fixing it. Not for such a poor effiiency run. Might have a second try, formulate some build orders and see if I can get under 22 minutes, and i'll upload that one properly.

Core strategy remains the same though;
Cultist permanently researches Assembly
Blood Money on prisoners to get gold.
Build lots of sentinels.
Assembly x2 to finish them.
Deathball through every portal.

[Crythor]

Its very easy either use ember demons or assembly sentinels or both.