Can't beat the Rift map

[futhark]

Hi,
it seems i simply cannot beat the Rift map with all those Demons in the first campaign. I have tried taking out a camp early, but it's too heavy guarded. I cannot take my army through it, because they kill half of them on the way at least. Often only my Avatar survives.

I did this map in the past, but it seems even more difficult. Have they changed something?

How are you supposed to beat this map? Any tips?

[Wormic]

Some things were changed with the 1.61 update (if you're playing on it), but I'm not entirely sure if they impacted gameplay on that particular map all that much.

That being said, some general tips I'd give you are to first make sure you have the highest level possible at the time of attempting the rift. Do all the side quests that you can, as well as the map Farlorn's Hope, as that one is considered easier by the majority of the players.

You'll also get some better Orc units on it, so that can help.
More importantly, make sure you have the highest available worker runes (I think you should be able to get one around level 12-13 or so, though I might be wrong, it should be around there).

About the map itself, there are 3 demons that use rain of fire on fixed locations throughout it. It's best to take care of those before moving your army through that area. Take your avatar, find those demons and kill them (they are often alone on cliffs or in passages). Once those are gone, take your army to Ulather.

[janthailand]

the second the cut scene ends, i run up and start monument,
and will as fast as i can produce 10-15 pain shooters,
meanwhile while that is going on, i run into the rift and take out the demon on the hillside
that rains fire, i will then proceed to the entrance of the trail that leads into the cave.
here i make a stand and have the pain shooters on hold behind me so they can support without getting hit. eventually i can build a titan and use him as tank instead of myself

with that done i run ahead and take out demons on hillside, and will build a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of
towers at the entrance to my camp, and only when they are all completed will i trigger the
next cut scene by killing ulather. with ulather dead i loot his stuff, start troll monument
to get an army of ice stone flingers, and teleport back to camp to distract the level 25 monsters so they get decimated by towers, then i teleport to trolls and talk with the brad.

then i clear the northern part of the map, and only when i got an entire army of troll ice warriors do i attack the cave

[futhark]

Thanks for the answers. It seems i was very unlucky three times in a row. I did it the fourth time without problems, but i have to return later to clear everything out. At least i can progress now. It was much easier with Avatar capable of White Magic.

[freezetrain]

I had to retool my gear choices to maximize fire resistance and utilize life steal to improve the longevity of my main character. Ranged units were more effective than hand to hand on that map for me. I think fire resistance was 75+.

Luring out enemies was a must. The demons seem really well off in damaging friendly units on that map.

If you can take the camps and defeat the boss, the walk back isn't too bad. Nothing that comes is anything new. The nastiest creeps attack the base, level it, and then stare off a cliff and do nothing. If avoid running into them, no need to bother with them. Unless want exp or drops I guess. Threw a few hundred units at that horde and thinned them down to about 5 or so. No resources left, time sink to get enough to make a unit, so I just went on without them. Of course, if you keep the ice mage with you, it's probably easier. I walked her back to the portal and then went after them.

[futhark]

Yes i think i wll build up a third camp and take them out, but maybe i can get better runes first.

I realized that Ice Magic was vital for my character, much better than Fire. Talia is good, but unfortunately she hurt my units more often than the enemy with her Blizzards.

In the past my main was HC + WM and it wasn't that bad...

[Crypto Gamer]

Rift is one of the hardest and (longest to 100%) maps in TOOD,however if you kill all(about 30ish?) lvl 23 to 25 (non respawning) demons they give VERY decent exp boost+loot in the "big camp".Many lvl 20 demons do spawn from mostly big camp also give decent exp.
There are many preseeded lvl 20 demons guarding the camps and the cliffs(some do cast rain of fire) who do NOT respawn even if you reenter the map later.
But EVEN a fully maxed 80 army+heroes of highest quality won't take out the "big" camp in 1 go unmicroed.

I recommend to buy a lvl 13 troll rune from a certain merchant in greyfell,EVERY army lvl help counts.
Killing ulather will spawn one time 3 seperate "armies",1 is "decent" 12-20 lvl will guard"small"camps later,"very hard" one is only lvl 25s go attack the orc monument then guard the"big"camp+"neglibile one" lvl 12-14 will guard the back way in small groups.

You can get lvl 12 orc from the locked chests+other stuff once you kill Ulather,found near the starting portal,you can quickly blindstone there and loot it before th lvl 25 demons arrive.
Once demons go back to guard"camps"after they killed the orc base,you can start to build back.

In short many many like literally 40 orc towers BEFORE killing ulather(so no trolls and heroes),towers will kill some but NOT all "script spawned" lvl 25s.
AI(rune warriors too) are smarter in recent 1.61 than in 1.54 about killing buildings and towers.So towers only are not as good as in 1.54.....Also AI seems to be smarter about using debuff auras and the extint spell used by many lvl 25 demons.So map is indirectly harder by a slight margin.
Takes a while......
OR

Basically get a big upgraded lvl 13 troll army with ice throwers+few high armor melee tanks or orc veterans+ 30ish lvl 12 orc totems till at least 60,preferbly maxed 80 army,takes a lot of time.
Resources like iron,lenya(not animals and trees unless you reenter map)slowly refill.Demons will give exp while you defend.Do not forget there is a hero monument inside ulather's lair.Recommend to have healers and a necromancer heroes who can "raise dead" to tank aoe spells or heal dot spells.There is also a hidden medusa somewhere there.

First kill the smaller camps mostly guarded by lvl 23 bassilisks and few lvl 24 succuby+left over from the"decent"army.These guards won't respawn.You kill the I think 2 small camps,rebuild losses.The go to the big camp which is guarded by about twenty if not more lvl25s......
Go to the ground lvl and kill the few guards including 1 lvl 25 red death.None of these guards respawn.
Go up slightly,you might want to build some orc towers or not,then send a few totems/archers to shoot a demon,this will lure many demons run back till only 2-3 lvl 25 are fighting,others will leash back quickly,of course lvl 12-20 demons are constantly spawn and fire dot you from the big camp's very close many spawn points,you will need to constanly reinforce units.Raise dead skeletons are good for soaking up spells,healer heroes helps a lot with fire dots.
Eventually preseeded non respawning lvl 20 and 25s guards will become a dying species and you can take the camp(still won'tbe easy.....).Took me like 15 minutes to took out the lvl 25 guards with luring and 80 army.Good exp.
Totems should focus fire on non lvl 25s only,if you have an avatar with at least curse 8 dark banishing you can curse lvl 25s and about 30 totems will 2 pain volley one lvl 25s.

Don't forget to press H for totems(and most casters in other maps)so they don't retardly charge melee and die.......Holding melee units for a while is a good idea to prevent overluring.Be careful with luring,worst case fall back a little so"guards" leash.Attacking respawning ones won't leash.

This map and the map with ice elves offers the best possible exp gain in TOOD and both have very high lvl fire or ice dot enemies.....

Easy fastest,low reward way of doing Rift.Make like 5 firethrowers at the base for general protection and about 30 totems+10-20 melee orcs go kill ulather,make sure to let preseeded lvl 20 demons waste their rain fo fire,you can prevent almost any dmg by careful pacing.You can kill ulather,leftover few orcs might kill or weaken the"decent"army,then make a few trolls and heroes about 30 army then kill the "negligible army"on the way back to the portal with Icemage(never seen her cast blizzard lol) NPC reach the portal and done......

For avatar get as much fire resist gear as possible,with 70+ fire resist and lvl 21-22 I was immune to lvl 14 enemy and below fire spells.

Imo Ice is WAY better than fire,only deals slightly less overall dmg,but frozen duration gets higher and higher eventually be quite a margin bigger then ice spell cooldown so you can perma freeze to death small group of non ice resistant/immune enemies.

Imo ice/death is way better than ice/fire both schools need wisdom and int....
In almost every case death tree kills single target faster than fire ever will,elementals have best aoes,but one element is enough for aoe.Ice and fire immune enemies are also much more common kuje elemtals,crimson army in BOW than black magic immunes.

[futhark]

Wow this is a good answer. Thank you a lot

I swear Talia casts Blizzards like nothing - saw at least 5 of them

[Marius]

Before killing Ulather you can run game overnight to gather lenya and wood and build lots of firestarters :)

[EmptyOcean]

I did that mission again and forgot how I did it without cheats before with weaker characters, so I think I found a new way to do it. I had my only save with a developed Orc monument in the middle of the invasion...

So I switched to 3rd person and ran to the end of the map where the bind stone and that winter mage were. Slay 2 demons near the bind stone, bind, and teleport to a different map. Then teleport back (this will destroy your settlement and demons will stop following you), talk to the winter mage, and peacefully kill the boss alone :D

I'm playing lvl 19 necromancer + winter mage (the best magic combo I've found so far) so I spawned a few goblins, gave them death grasp, and spammed him with the basic dmg frost spell. Depending on your character, you can damage the boss, run away and wait for mana, then go damage him again until you finish him.

Alternatively, if you are not able to slay the boss alone, you can bind to that stone near him and do some side quests and lvl up until you are strong enough to defeat him. I think you are not supposed to destroy all enemy camps, cause those Red Death and other lvl 25 enemies waiting for you at those camps are pretty unbeatable at this stage, while the boss himself is lvl 24 and not much stronger than those enemies protecting their camps...

[tru-]

Originally posted by EmptyOcean:

I did that mission again and forgot how I did it without cheats before with weaker characters, so I think I found a new way to do it. I had my only save with a developed Orc monument in the middle of the invasion...

So I switched to 3rd person and ran to the end of the map where the bind stone and that winter mage were. Slay 2 demons near the bind stone, bind, and teleport to a different map. Then teleport back (this will destroy your settlement and demons will stop following you), talk to the winter mage, and peacefully kill the boss alone :D

I'm playing lvl 19 necromancer + winter mage (the best magic combo I've found so far) so I spawned a few goblins, gave them death grasp, and spammed him with the basic dmg frost spell. Depending on your character, you can damage the boss, run away and wait for mana, then go damage him again until you finish him.

Alternatively, if you are not able to slay the boss alone, you can bind to that stone near him and do some side quests and lvl up until you are strong enough to defeat him. I think you are not supposed to destroy all enemy camps, cause those Red Death and other lvl 25 enemies waiting for you at those camps are pretty unbeatable at this stage, while the boss himself is lvl 24 and not much stronger than those enemies protecting their camps...

how are you supposed to level up, if there is no map where you can do anything except the rift

[seal cub clubbing club]

Hello, i have cleared the rift in one go after reaching it my last playthrough.
I cleared everything, the boss, the level 27 spawn portals, the lesser camps in the northern mountains.
I stripped the entire map of all of its trees and animals.
Even looted all the max level gear you get from the chests in the south.
All this, on hard.

My advice? dont do that.
Explore the old areas, do side quests, and be carefull with how you use the wood you get, there isnt much of it. iron is plentifull though. use spearman, veterans and hurlers. and when your base gets wiped just return later to try again :)