Citadel Heroic challenge impossible on Veteran?

[Raptor]

First, I'm kind of new to the game but found it very addicting and burned through the campaign on (mostly) veteran, really enjoying it. Now I've made my way through all of the beginning challenge levels up to the Citadel, and after about two hours banging my head against this level, I don't understand how it's possible to beat.

The biggest problem is that they flood you with the bandits or whatever that are fast and will absolutely murder your infantry unless you can somehow get up to knights or paladins, which is not possible because the wave right before the massive bandit rush is a gargoyle wave and you need at least four tier-2 arrow and magic towers.

I have tried everything I can possibly think of, and no matter what, the flood of bandits and dark knights just overwhelms everything you try and do. Anybody have any tips for this impossible level???

Also - does the difficulty level even change anything in the challenge levels? I've tried it with different settings and I think it's the same for challenge levels no matter what difficulty you choose.

[Waste_of_skin]

In the past, I probably would have pointed you to some old videos (there are probably videos for Heroic and Iron on that level), but they updated the game earlier this year, and some things seem to have gotten much, much harder, so those old videos may not help. If you go looking for videos, keep in mind that anything that is not for the current Steam version may simply not work.

I think that there are some people that have recently played through the game again, so hopefully one of them will see your post and have some tips. I completed everything years ago, so even if I could remember what I did there, it probably wouldn't apply anymore anyway.

About the only thing that I can offer at this point is, do you have all of the upgrades (for Rain of Fire, reinforcements, etc.)? If not, it might help to complete some more maps/modes, on Casual, if necessary, to get enough stars to get the remaining upgrades. For example, I think that one of the last reinforcement upgrades allows them to throw spears, which would help with the gargoyles.

Originally posted by Bone Crab:

Also - does the difficulty level even change anything in the challenge levels? I've tried it with different settings and I think it's the same for challenge levels no matter what difficulty you choose.

I assume that it is supposed to, but, now that you mention it, that's an interesting question. I tried (re)completing Iron mode on a map a while back (after the update), and didn't have any more luck on Casual than I did on Normal. I assumed that it was because things had gotten so much harder, that even Casual was really difficult. But maybe the difficulty level just doesn't have much effect (anymore) on Heroic and Iron mode.

I would like to think that if the difficulty level had no effect on Heroic or Iron mode, the game wouldn't let you select a difficulty for those modes, so I assume that it has some effect, or, at least, is supposed to. But I don't know how much effect.

FYI ...

If you're interested, the old version of the game (before the update this year) is supposedly still available. If you go into the game's Properties in Steam and go to the Beta tab, you can select the Legacy version. However, I have not used that option myself, so I don't know exactly how it works.

Do you get the Legacy version as a separate game in Steam, or does it replace the current version? More importantly, does it use the same save files? Would installing that wipe out your progress in the current version? I don't know.

[Raptor]

Hey thanks for the great answer. I don't know if you get the legacy version on steam, I'll have to check the betas and see if it's an option there.

A funny thing is I literally tried the heroic challenge for maybe two hours last night and just got destroyed. I played it again today on easy difficulty and beat it the first time, so maybe the difficulties to make a difference? The wave types are the same, but maybe the amount and/or health of the creeps is different?

I was just getting absolutely run over by a huge horde of bandits and brigands that I couldn't stop, but on easy mode I was barely able to put them down.

Edit - Yeah I'm kinda dumb lol. If you look on the mission select screen/scroll thing, it shows you the highest difficulty you've completed each stage as well as each challenge mode. That's kind of cool as it adds to the replay value, but the hard challenges are INSANE HARD lol.

[Waste_of_skin]

The Legacy option is there. It was added after the current version came out of beta (and replaced the old version). I just haven't actually tried the Legacy option (and I am wondering if it's separate from the current version, with separate save files).

[Osiris]

In KR1, it's +20% health on all enemies relative to normal difficulty(except for some bosses, I think) for the highest difficulty and -20% for the lowest difficulty. Your hero will also level up slower the higher the difficulty.

As for The Citadel, I recently replayed all three games after the update and I don't remember having any difficulty with The Citadel before the update either, but after the update it took me a couple dozen tries to beat it. The Gargoyles are a bit of a crap shoot, because tower damage is randomised to some extent and your wizard towers can one-shot the Gargoyles but sometimes you'll get unlucky and they will fail to do so several times in a row. If that happens, just restart. I can't remember exactly what I did throughout the level but if I have the time, I'll go beat it again and come back here.

[Raptor]

Nice, Osiris. Yeah I noticed the damage variable on the wizard towers can make a huge difference. They will also sometimes prioritize ground targets, allowing the gargoyles and demons to fly through, which can lose you the map.