"Take out the trash" relic mission - any tips?

[pitiflauticus]

(Spoilers about this mission)

Can you please share some tics to beat this mission? I am getting pwned, and it's not a quick mission to replay - so it's getting frustrating. What would be your party composition, preferred items, and overall strategy?

I have tried a two-characters party focused on invisibility (Mindthief and Nightshroud). I can get to the chest comboing "permanent" invisibility with the Nightshroud while the Mindthief tries to keep the first room clean but then the way back is blocked by all the oozes.

I have tried a four-characters party (Cragheart, Summoner, Mindthief, Nightshroud), and try to block as many spaces as possible with the Cragheart's obstacle-generator cards, but the oozes can still spawn (just a bit farther away from the spawner point) and end up blocking the return. The character that's in charge of retrieving the chest (flying thanks to a cloak of cloaking) gets to the chest but then gets peppered with ranged attacks.

The combination of ooze-spawning points, so many poison + range attacks against your characters, and the long way to the chest and back, makes this mission really though... I know the reward is not great, so maybe I should simply stop trying :D

[jorginsplat]

The beast tyrant has a card that swaps any 2 figures. Start with your invisibility strategy and then swap the nightshade back.

[Jo]

Sunkeeper is a very tough nut to crack. I'd do sunkeeper + night shroud to go get the chest while invisible + beast tyrant to swap the nightshroud back once the chest is collected.

Did it with this team + berserker.

[troylozar]

So many thoughts on this. Played at normal difficulty and playing like an RPG mostly - working a couple of characters through to max level, then trying another pair. I was used to winning the vast majority of boards on the first try and then I got this mission. Wiped the first time... ok... my fault. Came back more carefully with the same characters (Sunkeeper and Summoner) and watched the original 4 slimes in the first room pull three consecutive turns of doubling and realized even more are dumped in every turn by the spawn points - one of which is located in my exit zone! WTH? I got totally wiped in short order... It feels frustrating not because it is an impossible board but because the rules of play from what the game has taught you to expect have totally changed on this board. This isnt a thoughtful dungeon slasher like more boards - this is a tactical scenario that requires you to find a specific strategy to overcome it...

Came back for third try. Clearly this board was different. I had to play to the scenario instead of playing to my characters. Brought along Berserker, Cragheart Sunkeeper and Spellweaver. Good combination of brute force and crowd control. Lots of power. Knocked down the initial slimes in the first room, briefly stuck on the damn bottlenecks built into the level and finally started making progress - but by the time I had the chest opened and on the way back - to a room now choked to overflowing with slimes - I was pretty convinced I couldnt fight through them before we were all exhausted. It would have been death by attrition, but didnt even get that far. For this scenario, everyone has to survive and a few unlucky draws killed off one of my mercs. Lost again.

So... This board feels different than the others because it is different. Brute force ain't the solution. This one's a heist movie, not an action flick. I gave it some thought and came back again with a new strategy that worked for me and I am sure would work again... although I still think bad luck will wipe you out and some good luck will make this level easier... Here's what I did:

Berserker, Cragheart, and Quartermaster were all assigned to crowd control on the slimes. I think Berserker stepped briefly into room two (imps) for a turn or two or to get out of range of a slime barrage but short of that they were all about keeping the exit clear. Cragheart spent the first two or three turns just spamming Landslide to add obstacles to the board - this wont prevent the spawners or effectively cut anyone off (rules don't allow that) but thoughtful placement DOES greatly reduce locations for the slimes to split into (maybe by 40-50%). Berserker and Quartermaster - joined by Cragheart - then just pound slimes the rest of the mission, tossing a shot or two at the imps as needed.

Artifact retrieval was all down to the Nightshroud with cloak of phasing. I know - special artifact needed for this strategy - sorry. But it was actually pretty necessary for me - especially on the way out. Nightshroud can hopscotch invisibility for a few turns so he doesn't become a target, the cloak of phasing lets him stop on obstacles without being a a target but, MUCH more importantly, lets him ghost straight through the enemies and chokepoints. He doesnt have to fight in or fight out. The path is always clear, he just has to not be seen...

The original plan was to get him all the way there, go invisible, grab the artifact, and use his teleport burn (bottom of one of his cards by level 6) to teleport to any open space on the exposed board, portal back to the exit point where everyone else is waiting and Victory. And it would have worked too, but by very bad luck the teleport card got permanently burned just before I got to use it - I think this would make the mission cakewalk if you get to do it, but I had to fall back on plan B.

Phasing through enemies and obstacles to the artifact worked great. Without the teleport I just reversed direction and did the same on the way back out. I was pretty sure it was still going to be a wipe when I lost the teleport card, but I was actually able to make it with some safety margin.

So dont try to kill everyone. Sneak someone in for the artifact while the slimes are the only real things you need to (perpetually kill). Use Jumps, teleports, invisibility, or phasing to get the one retrieval specialist to the artifact and back.

In and out, nobody gets hurt.

Hardest mission I've seen in GH so far. Hated it the first 3 times I tried it, but was very satisfying to beat it by adapting to it.

[Cesspit]

I did it with Beast Tyrant, using him with a cloak of phasing to get to the artifact (and hide in pillars along the way), and then use his swap ability to swap with an ooze or his bear to get back to the start zone.

[pitiflauticus]

Thanks everyone for your tips! The cloak of phasing and/or that special beast tyrant card seem like the way to go. Cheers!