Iron Wizard skill unlocks and progress tips

Listing what you have to open to gain access to skills in iron wizard

Skills

Top Row:
Mana Stream: Starting skill
Orb of Presence: Bronze on W1
Fusion; Starting skill
True colors: Iron on J1
Resonance: Iron on R4
Demolition: Brass on L3

2nd Row:
Crit: Iron on B5
Mana Gem: Brass on Z5
Bleeding: Bronze on I4
Armor Tear: Iron on N3
Poison: Iron on P1
Slow: Bronze on N5

3rd Row:
Freeze: Iron on Y3
Whiteout: Iron on G3
Iceshards: Iron on H4
Bolt: Iron on Q1
Beam: Starting skill
Barrage: Iron on M3

Last Row:
Fury: Iron on E2
Amplifiers: Iron on V4
Pylons: Iron on U3
Lanterns: Brass on T1
Traps: Bronze on S4
Seeker Sense: Iron on D5

Early to Mid game tips

Pre G4 as standard
Until fairly late you are better off making dual gems rather than pure as they get a flat 20% increase to dmg.
From what i've read Purple and Blue are the best to combine as one has the highest damage potential and the other fire rate.

Only exception is poison as it's special can be more useful than straight damage early on. though it falls of greatly around when you can make G4/5 compared to what Creeps spawn hp is at and Mana Gems later on when G3/4 is commonly used.

Crit gets better (Without skill tome) at ~G5 as it stats then are 20% for 127% = ~25,4% more on average.
(G4 is slightly worse at 17% for 97% = 15,64% but if armor is involved can be better)
for G6 23% for 175% = 40,25%
G7=27% for 242 = 65,34%
G8=31% for 334% = 103,54% and so on.
Ex for Z3 you can get all Stashes in one go with Crits and one purple gem to strip armor first, but if you make dual gems you might not even survive, at least it was like that for me.

Any level with purple gems can be done up to brass fairly soon after you unlock it, combine purple + any gem to make it go down faster after it's armor is gone, use Beam to strip off it's armor (even a G2 purple with ~3 beams can strip Bronze) and then you can either keep Beaming it to make it break faster so you can use that gem for Creeps or use beam to clean up Creeps with another gem.

Without Purple + using spells: Iron can be handled by Grade 2/3 early on even without spells and Brass Grade 3 to 4 with Beam.
Bronze either needs a Purple gem or you are better off waiting until you unlock Bolt and even then after W needs around Grade 4 to 5 to deplete their Hp in time.

A G5 upgraded mid run to 6+ can deal with Bronze even with armor though you will have to spam spells on it and even then can be close. can be done fairly early by using Orange and Yellows, Beam orange to upgrade Yellow to 6+ before focusing on it instead.

If you get stuck on a level then ignore Iron and only focus on surviving, as you get a few skill points from wining you can then go back in a slightly better shape.

Try to keep enough Mana to make a Grade 3 before you invest in Mana Stream to survive early on, but you NEED it for later on or you will be mana starved to death.
It can stay around 5 for mid game when you can make G4 at the start, the same for fusion and Resonance when you unlock it. add a few to Mana stream for long levels and remove for short ones.

Once you unlock Pylons it's often a good idea to buy one near the end of your path to not let gems slack off. though that is only really useful for the first few maps before either Yellow or Purple can deal with armor as your killzone should be fairly close together.

Once you have Bolt you should go back and get Brass on as many levels as you can, some early ones can be done on Bronze as well.

It will quickly outpace you if you progress down, instead focus up and go for the "Mana Gem" Tome, once you have it put it at 10+ and go back to any level (need wave 33+ at this point to gather mana) with Yellows using both of them should net you a few more Bronze.

Specific level tip:
Early Game:

For S4 the early Road block
Invest 1/2 points into Mana stream to ensure you can beat it after the first few rounds, don't bother with Beam or Fusion as they won't be more useful than a higher grade gem early.

Make sure you have done W1/2 and S2 at least to Brass, and iron for the rest. Wall of the bottom path, make a Orange+Purple G2 gem and orange and purple G1 each slot them near Iron and combine as soon as you are able.
If they get past you at this point move the second gem to the bottom left Tower near orb and keep making G2 Purple/Orange near iron. combine them into a G3 when you can and have Beam ready. it will be close at times but is doable. Use Beam to gain Mana until you can combine into a G3 -> combine after Beam is ready again, if to many have gotten near your orb then move the G3 near it before imbuing it with Beam, if you would die from the next hit and can't kill them in time then don't hesitate to throw a gem back into your Mana pool, you either survive long enough to win now or die soon after.

For Bronze on U4 you need a G5+ Yellow gem with Bolt + 3 Amps to reach it but around G6/7 to break it, get a few levels on Bolt or you wont have enough of them to break it in time.

Mid Game
For the Fields bellow just ignore Iron most of the time and just finish the map, having access to Purple and Orange will help greatly for opening them, can often do all 3 in one run.

For O2 (Not needed for progress, but the skill points are nice)
If you want to do this one somewhat early, though it can be RNG dependent if you get a Gem from chest or not.
Did it with:
Mana siphon 20
Fusion 10
Above can be slightly less but will make later rounds more dependent on RNG and you might starve to death.
Resonance 10
Freeze, Bolt, Beam 5
(Same build works decent for the others in O that lacks Orange gems. for those with orange, lower Mana Siphon to 10 or 5 and increase Orange to 20)

If you get a G3 you should win it this round, only make Yellows as they scale better later on and you need a G7 to kill the last few rounds. if you got a Purple Gem from Chest you can use it to remove beacons near the end but not really needed as you will aim to 1/2 shot Creeps.

At N2 and P tile: this point it will be really hard to progress so do Bronze on N1 for an extra level, the skill points is needed.

Trying to make a path for them to go down by destroying boulders will leave you mana starved by the end so don't bother. it can get close near the end when you go for G7 combine and it's here where the extra gem is needed.
Sell it as soon as it makes the G7 affordable. All throughout the run you should make lower end Yellows set to Swarmlings and when you can combine them into your main Yellow do so.
After you remake a Yellow for Swarmlings. ~3 towers are needed at least, 1 for Chest and swarmlings, another near the last bend for killgem and 1 in the middle of the others for another Swarmling gem. should be somewhat consistent if the chest gives a decent mana/gem reward.

For P3 i took help from https://steamcommunity.com/app/1106530/discussions/0/3073118388427393844/

Screenshots of layout at the end.



It can be hard to see but there are 2 G4 Purple in traps near the start to strip of armor (with Beam), it started with 1 G4 Dual Yellow and Purple, upgraded from G2 with the same tier Purple (not with U though it might not have mattered) and 1 G3 same type, Walls are as in above and the pylon above the Gems were added later once the lower pylon was fully charged, around G5 for main gem and a new gems were added now (right of each pylon, lower grades).
As shrines use the average damage of all Gems on screen it is actually better to have a few lower grade gems than a single strong one, so have ~4-5 that you upgraded during the run to make full use of shrine charges, the shrine near the top should be used when it's line is filled with reavers, use Freeze to keep a few more off them in range.
the other shrines don't have as good a lane so use them whenever they either are fully charged and a decent amount of Creeps are in position or as a fail safe when they are close to leaking.
Didn't have to sacrifice any gems on this map but if you might die then throw one of the weaker gems back into the mana pool.
Giants can be mostly ignored so focus on reavers for Shrines and pylons.

Skills used, (lower skillpoint total by 11 as i got more from finishing the level, all other before N and P areas were fully done to Bronze)

Mid to late game level tips (up to G/J)

After the Nightmare that was P3, you can go for a "free" win on P5, lower Resonance and mana leech to ~10 and pump mana gem to 20.
Layout like this:



build tower and amplifier from the start, strongest Orange you can make in the tower and a supporting in the amp, upgrade amp until they are the same grade and then combine, make new amp gem. with beam and bolt at 5 it should be an easy win.

N2
Not Needed for Progression

this one is HARD, go for it after you have gotten to L2 and finished off most of P, increase spells to 10 and Mana siphon to 25, if you don't have enough mana for a G4 then lower spells until you can, need at least a G7 (Dual as neither Poison or Slow is that great here) to complete this map so make a maze for Creep, destroy the second to last boulder on the left side, make a wall to stop the left entrance, destroy the second boulder on the upper part and wall of the middle path to make the longest road, wall of the part near mid/right path as your gems will destroy the boulders here. now just pray for RNG to be kind.

L2

This one is quite tricky and can't be beat without juggling the last waves of giants (the first one so far that requires juggling), wall of the paths leaving an opening on the bottom as seen in below. use the Wisps when you start to get overrun and expand your maze while they take care of Creeps. use Lowest Hp targeting as the giants are less of an issue and you need to juggle them later regardless.


The light blue parts are built at the start (wait with the upper tower until you start killing creeps), make a dual gem, G4 at least or you won't be able to kill Creeps. make a gem to open the upper jail set to structures and open all the stone piles as fast as possible with Bolt.

The orange parts are built near the end when Creeps are starting to leak, the X are bombing locations, the amps are there to give enough range for the maze.
Build a wall on the other X and all Creeps will start moving to the other sides entry giving you enough time to kill them, you will need to juggle back and forth a few times to finish the last ones off.

The Grey blots are traps, 1 G4 Purple set to armor and 1 G4 Blue set to least affected, though they might not be needed.

Skills used are:
Mana Siphon 25
Fusion 5
Resonance 30
Spells 5, Beam 10
leaving 314 SP for mana (with all fields beaten)

Even though you have access to purple, ignore Brass and Bronze you might get them from gems shooting them during downtime but don't focus on them, go back later with Orange instead.

Now you get a bit of a breather, the next couple of levels are fairly simple to clear, but adding notes for them still.

L3
With both Purple and Orange it's quite easy, respec for Orange and make a dual at the start, destroy boulders when you can spare mana for it and make the right path the entry point.

L4
Fairly easy as you can maze it well and it has both Purple and Orange however it will spawn a Wizard Hunter near the end that can destroy your towers and the gem they contain.
It looks like a larger giant with big horns, kill it asap by freezing and using as high a Grade yellow as you can on Special priority(don't forget to strip it off armor as well, it has 3000! of it) (didn't notice it at first myself so it killed all my high Grade gems but still won with all 3 Stashes broken)


Leaving L5 for next part, a bit to much of a stat jump for now.

K1
Same as above but destroy the watchtower, you don't need it. it will fire slower if it targets your structures so keep an eye on it until it's destroyed.

K2
Maze a bit and go for Orange, Wallbreaker activates later on but can only be hurt after the last turn started.

K3
Wall of so they have to go through the circle near the top, make a tower in the circle for reach and another near the mana tear then make dual gems and upgrade them as normal, near the end you might need to juggle the last few Creeps but shouldn't be much of a problem.

K4
Leave the queen alive for the last few waves and farm mana with Orange (should keep you alive with no problems), you can opened all 3 Stashes easily first time through. Kill her near your towers on normal speed and freeze the Spawnlings that spews out to clear them all out at once with Beam.

Leaving K5 for next part, a bit to much of a stat jump for now.

G1
No need for juggling for this one, make a basic maze like this:

Go straight for Yellow and make a trap for Purple when you can. as there is no Orange default, use Mana Siphon ~25 and Resonance 25+, Either keep spells as before or increase them by 5, (used Freeze 10, Bolt 5, Beam 15)

Next 3 (J1, G2/3) has orange so back to 30 Orange, Siphon/Res 15.
True Colors is on J1 so start there.

J1
Orange and Purple makes this easy, make a maze like this:


With True colors you can lower Resonance as it's a better version of it. put it around 20/25 and Resonance at ~5. it allow you to send waves early quite often (great as it saves time)
(if Yellow is avalible it now has G1 11,59%, G2 19,55%, G3 30,42% so a G3 (almost G2) is now better than dual combines!! G4 48,3%, G5 77,7%. G5/6, G4 Yellow is now almost enough for Bronze again, Heck a G7 Orange with Bolt can deal with them by themself only with spell damage.)
(We're Easy mode now for a while)

G3
make a simple maze, has Yellow, Orange and Purple so all Stashes are easy. near the end spawns a Shadow so go to slow speed, pause when it moves and build a tower, freeze it and use Yellow to kill it off. now that we have True colors it should pose no danger.

G4
Make a basic maze and use Orange primarily, near the end make a Yellow gem to take care of Wallbreakers though at this point your yellow can do this as well.

J2 & J3
As you don't have access to Orange relocate to Mana Stream 25 and a bit to Resonance.

For J2 use Yellow only. make a main gem near the bottom and sub gems to excavate Shards. with how good Yellow is you don't need to use shrine at all but it can help a bit and can clear all 3 Stashes in one go. keep main gem on Special later on or target specters manually.

For J3
Dual Purple/Blue, long maze. don't destroy tomb as it contains 300 Creeps with lost of Hp and Armor, don't bother with it at all. can do all 3 Stashes in one go as well. a bit closer than the rest for now as no good Gems are available but you have enough mana by the end to banish a few monsters and if you want can juggle a bit but not necessary.

J4
Orange is back again, so change back skills to normal. Maze a bit but with Yellow, Purple and Orange it's an easy win.

Mid to late game level tips (From M/F to H)

M1
Nothing special here, use Orange and win.

F1
You get enough mana by the end with Orange for a G13 gem, only need to keep an eye out for Wallbreakers else just use a maze left to right and you're good to go.

M2
203 HP is quite hefty but with Yellow it's still not to bad though you have to change SP again. No orange, Siphon 30, Res 20.



Destroy both Nests so you can maze better, the lower part is built right away and the upper part after the nests are destroyed and then it just a matter of waiting.
With no Orange or Purple you are better of not going for Stashes and return after you win instead. Set priority to Least Hp and use 2 gems and combine them when they are the same grade. you should finish with a single G8 gem.

M3
Wall of the lower part to gain enough time for Beam to charge, build a tower on the lowest boulder to the right for a Mana gem and another near the top for a Purple gem to destroy the boulder blocking the longer path. then go for shards to boost early game and Beam orange to win.

Brass Stash is a trap on this one as it's close to a Tomb so be careful with opening it or you will Die. to avoid this build a tower to the right of it and lower max range with scroll-wheel or down arrow.

M4
Again change Sp as no Orange is present.

You have no good pure Gems for this one, so do a Dual Purple/Red and make use of Shrine when you start to get overrun. you can if you want do all 3 Stashes as you have access to 3 spells so can burst them down quickly.

Make your first tower near the top where both paths are close by, wall of the lower section so they have to go through here, one gem can't really keep up here so use 2 of them, the other near your orb and wall it off a bit to buy time. you should finish it with a G6 and G7 or G8 if you can upgrade G6 in time but not necessary. Barrage comes in handy for Giants near the end.

A bit harder than the levels before this so now starting to leave our hard won easy mode.

N5
Doing this one before N4 as it has better gems (Yellow and Orange, so still in Easy mode :D)
You can make a good maze here so an easy win.

N4
Not very good for mazeing so make 2 tower near the Stash at the top, dual Purple/Red as high grade as you can make. can if you want go for all 3 Stashes as Purple is just so good and enough Waves that G4 here will work.

You will finish it around a G8 and near the end it can get close with how many giants there are so better with one strong gem Barraged.

K5
Quite good for Mazeing, block off the top for all houses to force Creeps to go through the narrow path to the ~middle opening to the right, make a tower near the Middle to the left of the Stash there and you'll get a good range, surround this tower with amp as you go along. for Maze alternate rows going from the top and bottoms shown below, make a tower near the end to catch leaks. (forgot to take a Screenshot so a post victory one will have to do)



Only use Yellows, as green has been fairly useless for a while now. if you want to take care off Stashes at the same time, use a lower grade gem for it with Bolt and Beam and use Barrage only for main gem as it won't bypass armor.

L5
Feels like Chasing Shadows, like the last game but less frequent here we have a locked wizard tower where we have to use spells to unlock it. So first make a basic maze and use Orange to gain some mana, around wave 10 you should start focusing on the Locks. make 2 towers with low grade Yellows as you don't need damage just yet but you can reuse them latter to kill the last Creeps after all locks are opened. if you run out of time increase spell levels, did it with Bolt and Barrage 5, Beam 15, Freeze 10 with time to spare. you can hit 2 Freeze locks at the same time to save charges.

(Once again forgot to take a screenshot, maze is made from the start, Later 2 towers near locks around Wave 10, Towers with G2 are made later on. Orange for better coverage and Yellow for after Locks are done to kill Leaks.)



H1
Has good gems and can make a nice long maze so should be a cakewalk, wall of alternating paths and use Orange. the path is long enough for Beam to charge so no risk of dying. after Armor has been stripped of each Stash use Yellows to break them and reuse Purple in traps near start. you can add a few more traps as a single one will miss a few.



H2
Can also make a decent Maze here and with Orange it will be a breeze to clear with all 3 Stashes broken.



Skip H3 for now as it lacks good gems.

H5

You don't even need a maze for this one, use the Amps near the bottom and a Orange for most of it, Need Yellows for the last few Waves around ~G10 will do.

F2
(It's a dead end so not needed for completion)

This one is a bit mean. so don't go in it early on, Wait until you have at least done M3 but optimally Complete L, M, N, K tiles (K5 and L5 has more base Hp but not by a lot and lacks an army of Shadows). You can also do some at H for a few more SP.



Early on it will spawn a Shadow before you have set up a proper defense so save enough mana for a tower to build where it decides to jump and kill it asap.
You should have enough mana for a G4 Yellow, maybe even 2 so one can defend your orb and kill the shadow with the other.

Another spawns around Wave ~20 so once again try to kill it right away but this one likes to jump around a lot so freeze it first and build a tower after if no one isn't close by (save 2 charges for it.)

A 3:rd!! spawns around wave ~30, (sensing a pattern here) probably the most dangerous one as you still have only weak Gems at this point and the fragments it shoots at your orb can quickly kill you.

4:th near ~40, now this is just mean but at this point you should at least have a G6 and with bolt it will kill this Shadow quickly Luckily it is also the last Shadow that spawns, but it's not done yet. if you got hit a few too many times your mana will be low and Creeps keep coming so set priority to weak or else they will quickly overrun you. once you have gotten a G8 Yellow you should be able to win.



it might look like this near the end but you should have enough mana to Banish most of them, kill off as many as you can with Weak priority, if you get enough mana for a G9 wait with upgrading it as if you slip up now you have to redo it all over again. you probably still get enough mana after you are done banishing to upgrade to G9 and move to an earlier tower to wipe out the last few Creeps.

Mid to late game level tips (From H3)

Were in the final ~1/3rd-1/4th now.

H3
Should be easier than the last level.
Destroy the boulders around the area to funnel everything through the middle, don't forget to wall of around your orb as the Boulders will likely be destroyed during your run.



Near the end once again it will get a bit crowded if you want to be on the safe side you can juggle for a bit but Freeze + Whiteout should keep Giants slow enough.

H4
Increased True Colors to 30 as you only need enough mana for a G4 and a tower to start, it's better to spend SP on skills now. (2087 G4 + 150 Tower) = you only need to keep around 2,237 mana on and at any time.
You also get some starting mana on each level but keep around ~2,200-2,300 at least so you can go into any level without having to relocate SP all the time.

Use Purple to strip armor of Stashes and then set in a trap near the start with Beam, build a tower near orb and put Amps around it to speed things up, as usual just use Yellow when Orange isn't present.



A guardian spawns around wave 55+ it gains armor as it takes damage so Purple can't keep up with it, instead use Blue to slow it down and move this gem around so it's always in range. with Freeze and Whiteout slowing it's shouldn't get close to your orb. use Beam and Bolt on your Yellow to ignore armor, even a G7 can kill it in time this way. to make full use of Beam move your yellow close to it and then move it back to use bolt surrounded by amps. and it should die around 1/6 of the way around or earlier.



E1
Only Purple and Red here so go for Dual gems, if you have done all stages up to now you can increase a spell you like to 10, went for Bolt.

This stage has a Massive 720 base Hp but to gain some time you can break Wasp bottle early. with how high base Hp is and how few rounds there are it's not worth going for Stashes, come back with Orange instead.

Wall of the orb and make a G4 Purple/Red to break the Wasp jar, lure wasps near orb to protect it and then go around breaking boulders, we need to make as long a path as we can. at most we only have access to a G4 otherwise and be overrun. you could try to lower skills until you can start with a G5, though it needs at least 4,407 Mana and that might work but we can Juggle instead. (though honestly lowering some skills for mana might be worth it this time, but alas i like high level skills more than base mana)



With Freeze and Whiteout you can slow the Giants enough to clump them up before they get close to your orb so you can then destroy walls to the right, make a wall on the left side and force them to go back.
It will look something like this:


All the last Giant waves frozen at the same time, it will also allow you to make a G6 soon and clean them all up. if you want you can build a secondary gem and later combine into a G7 to end this level.

Yay 90/116 levels fully cleared now. (if you went back with Orange)

E2
Creeps arrive from the Legs of an ant, both front and the left back leg. they still have a hefty 339 Hp on this one so make a G4 Orange and build a simple maze near the middle of the ant.



If you die you can expand Maze a bit and that should help.
Near the end a Spire will spawn, but you should have a strong enough gem by this point to squash it like a bug (Pun intended)

E3
You can make a Decent maze here:



Build Tower near Brass after you have closed of lower left and the monster nest close by and use a G4 Orange to gain some mana, upgrade it during Beam and you should be safe from now on. Tower with G1 thats not ready is used for your strongest gem when it has taken care of any Creeps that have leaked before now. You quickly get a high enough Grade gem that you can open all 3 Stashes.

I1
Leaving E4/5 for later as this has better Gems.
Bolt + Yellow takes care of Stashes, just wall of a few parts near the end to make a decent length path.

Later on you can make this as you will probably destroy all the Boulders regardless


Another Spire spawns around Wave ~48-49 but can crushed swiftly by Yellow.

No Orange by default for the next 3 so Mana Stream 33, Resonance 25 leaving 2,443 mana.

E5
Pure Yellow all the way, make this to buy enough time for spells to charge:



Destroy the Boulders around the map and you can make a Merry go around.


Once again one of the Stashes is a trap (Bronze) as the priority on structures are Tombs and not Stashes. so be careful when you go for it. but don't bother with it now, you won't have enough time to break it.

Near the end a Spire will spawn, quite frequent isn't it? be careful as it will destroy your nice Merry go around when it dies so right away repair it.

I2
Not as fun a Layout as the last one so make a Maze like this:



No good gems here so don't bother with Stashes yet.

You can't make much here so Maze will look like this by the end:


There are some chests and orhter small containers that need Bolt to open, do so with a weaker gem and you will get some decent Gems out of it, though it is a matter of RNG what Grade, type and how many they are.

You should have a G9 by the end to kill the last few Giants, keep casting spells as close to the front as possible to clump them up. some Giants contain Swarmlings so keep some mana at hand as they may leak.

late game level tips (From I3 through E & B until I4)

I3
This one starts really slow so make a tower near the start and Wall of as below:



You can make longer mazes by destroying Boulders and you should as the Grades you can make here is really low for how high base Hp is.

The tower near the end is for the first wave of Reavers as you can't kill them without spells at this point, move back to entrance after they are dealt with and try to take down as many Giants as you can to gain mana.



By mid game it should look something like this, you should now start working on the left side.
Stashes can if you want be taken care of now or you can come back with Orange after.
Near the end it's Swarmlings that might kill you so focus on Lowest Hp to try and clear them out but many of them will still likely get through so keep an eye on mana.

When every wave has spawned it's time to Juggle, destroy the wall going down to the Entrance and make a new one near orb, keep juggling until they are all gone. there is no chance to kill them otherwise as some have Hp over 460,000. use Shrine to get rid of some of it. (5% shread is 23,000), use Lowest Hp priority so you can kill enough to upgrade Gem.

But be Careful after you bombed a wall as compared to Chasing Shadows it stays in bombing mode, had to restart because of it when i bombed using my main gem instead of moving it >:/

Late game Maze: (it looks slightly different as i Exploded my Main gem and had to restart)



G9 is enough to finish the last few off. but you can make a subgem with the mana gained from Lowest Hp priority to speed it up. Going back speced for Orange can clear this stage in a couple of minutes as when you get it going you can send waves early.



Both I4 and E4 is really tough so go back and get any Stashes you haven't broken yet.



E4
This is the first stage where you should completely change your skill layout, Mana stream is less useful as shards stand for Mana gain, did it with:
Mana Stream 5
True Colors 30
Resonance 30
Beam 20
Amps 15
Res/Colors are the same as we want Damage this time and not secondary effects. you need quite a bit of mana for building here so don't increase skills more than this. can lower them a bit if you are struggling.

The Shards that litter the map will almost straight away be turned into Corrupted mana Shards (Wave 3) so use G1 tower gems and Amps around it to increase damage, Focus more on Towers and one big Amp gem than surrounding one with amps here.

Corruption won't affect Amps so they give a permanent damage bonus it can't lower, Go for them right away as a single G4 killgem can take care of things for now, but Spoiler will make things difficult soon and you need a stronger killgem for it. so start farming.

Wave 6 will empower a few waves after it, it's Rng dependent and might screw you over depending on what they enhance and on what wave it affected. so just wish for good luck and try your best.

Used this video to help out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQIOYkAF1yE
so you can follow that one.

Layout should look something like this, make the Tower and Amps near the top first, expand maze asap after you have set up. if you seem to survive the first few waves after they have been empowered you should go for the lower tower/amps as it will also slightly expand maze.



Near 30+ and 55 a Shadow will spawn however if you have survived until now you should have no problem with killing it.



You can now put your SP back in order, with Orange you can now easily beat this one with all 3 Stashes unlocked. really shows how much a difference good Gems make.

B1
Woah 748 Hp :O but still a LOT easier than last level. the following Levels on B might seem scary but they lack the Waves needed to scale.

Need to start this one with a G5 Yellow to not get overrun right away, make your tower near the convergence above Bronze and stay away from Boulders. it won't be able to keep up by itself so make a second tower near it with a Subgem Yellow, set both to Lowest Hp.
If you get Aparitions kill them asap, they pay for the towers you make and the extra mana is really useful here.

When they are both G5 they hold up to the last rounds but at that point need to be combine, have Beam available to kill all swarmlings, now that only Giants are around you can destroy the boulder to the upper right if you need to Juggle bu a G6 should be able to keep up

Go back and clean up with Orange after you win.

B2

Another high base Hp at 662 but no Yellow here so go for Orange + Beam to mana ramp.
Only go for a single Orange to start until you can upgrade it to G6/7 before you start on Stashes with a G5 Purple but for now you will only be able to open to Brass to avoid leaking. Bronze would need both gems to Break so possible but not quite worth it for now so go back after wining and do Bronze then.

Putting walls like this will help a bit, make sure you have walls behind Stashes or you might quickly fail when one Breaks.



B5

As it has the Yellow Gem Tome (Iron so easy to get), now is a good time to go for it, the Hp scales massively on the other available tiles here, 967 and 1157 :O

Start with a G5 Orange so you can survive the first few waves, not very hard as you have access to all the gems so a Yellow to clean up (need 2 from the massive amounts of swarmlings) and Orange for mana ramp.

Simple Maze: need to destroy the Nest at the right side.



2 Spires spawns at 46 but at this point it's a joke and no danger whatsoever..

You can now go back to I4 (with a 30 in crit even G4 has 72% crit-chance and 384% = 274.48% increase in damage :O )

late game level tips (from I4 to C)

I4

Skills used:
Mana Siphon 25 (can (and probably should) be increased to make late game easier, just spare enough for a G4, a tower and some walls)
Fusion 5
True colors 30
Resonance 25
Crit 30
Spells 5, Beam 15

(It's a dead end but gives some more SP and the Bleeding Tome so go for it if you want)
This one is fairly hard, need some focusing near the end. you never outpace Creeps on this one.

Yellow available so use it (you should first get the Yellow gem Tome on B5 first)

You use Shrines to stun for this one, they don't deal enough damage here early on and with 100 Waves you can't Juggle until you have almost won, use a subgem Yellow for this stage and upgrade -> combine as usual, keep it on Lowest Hp to get a little more mana from it.

Spire spawns around Wave 30 so don't miss it. one more at ~45

Just look at this: (Should be a decent Maze layout as well, can be made from the start)



effective damage is:960-2040 * (80*17,29) = 13,278 - 28,217 per hit. at this point you can make a few Amps around it to give it better reach, have it set to Lowest Hp until stuff gets to close to Orb and upgrade when possible. imbue it with Beam to catch Swarmling that some Giants drop. Need good Shrine timing and a G10 to finish. Save mana for Banishment and play on slow.



B3
No Orange here so spec for Yellow instead, can keep what you used for I4
To get enough time to kill Swarmlings make a maze:



There is not enough time to go for Stashes, some can be Broken during downtime by gems themselves, so focus on Swarmlings because there are a ton of them here. go back with Orange for Stashes. it's a good idea to keep 2 lower gems than a single higher gem for Swarmlings.

B4

Orange here so be speced for it, quite easy but you have to Banish a few at the start, set a Orange gem near top to Beam later, make a tower to the left with Yellow to break a few Boulders and thus be able to make a longer path. (were Orange star is) then change their positions.

Make a tower to the right near orb for cleanup, a lot of Swarmlings here as well so keep 2 lower Yellows until they are all dead and then go for highest Grade yellow to finish. all 3 Stashes can be taken care of in one go.



D1
Only way forward is through here now.
you can increase Orange to 35 now if you want.

There is no good way to avoid getting overrun here so make a tower near the third ring with highest Orange you can, leave some mana to survive and use Beam as soon as it's available. make a second tower near the first ring with another Orange that you spam Bolt on to destroy Boulders.
After both Boulders are destroyed you can make a detour and work on the second ring and so on until all 3 rings are done, keep highest Orange in the second tower to attack Creeps.

Will look like this when you are done:



A Spire will spawn around wave 15 so use beam on it, will kill in less than a second.
You quickly get a high grade gem so can take care of all Stashes with Bolt.
Another Spire spawns near the end so don't miss it.

D2
Crit and Mana Stream at 30
True colors 30 Resonance 25
Spells at 5 or 10.

No way to maze here so close of the right side and make a tower near the other, were going to demolish the houses up to the left later.

At least G4 Yellow for now, make a second tower for subgem set to Lowest Hp on the right side.
keep them at around the same Grade and don't combine for now, a lot of swarmlings will soon arrive.
Once both are at least G4 you can destroy the upper left nests with another gem Bolted, reuse it to break Stashes after.
Upgrade the closes gem to orb now. and then upgrade the rest to keep everything on the same Grade,
Stash gem is kept on Lowest as well once you get to Bronze, manually aim at it when you imbue Bolt. All 3 Stashes will be broken around sub 40 this way without being in any danger:



A jumpscare wiil happen around Wave 50, not sure if it does anything else though.
When you get to 3 G7 you can sit back and relax.

D3
Yellow is so strong by this point that you don't even need the Wasp jars, block of the sideway entrances so only the on upper left is open, a G4 can keep up for now if you want to go for Stashes with a subgem set to Lowest when not Bolted to clean up some swarmlings..



Just keep going as usual, upgrade maingem once they are the same Grade, make a new subgem and repeat until you win.
When Subgem reaches G6 use Bolt and Beam to break Bronze, can be done before Wave 30.

You can make a small detour on the right so your maingem won't get bored.



At this point you can sustain 2 Gems so just upgrade when you can afford it and leave Subgem on Lowest. to speed it up a bit destroy monster nest on the right so any spawn is in range from the start. combine all gems when only Giants is left so you can be done a little faster.

D5
Orange is available for this and the next level so respec time. remove Crit, add to Orange, lower Mana Siphon and you can put a bit more into Freeze/Beam if you like.

This layout will do fine:


You can leave Stashes to a Purple, when it gets around G6 it can take care of Bronze by itself slowly.

As has been the case for a while now, keep around 2 Gems set to Lowest for Swarmlings. it really is the small things that are a pain in the A**. no surprises on this level so just finish it

Hey we got the last Skill Tome and guess what? it's completely useless :D

D4
We have enough skillpoints now that you can add a few to Crit and your favorite spell.
The start can be a bit tricky, start with a Higher Grade Yellow :O and a lower Orange, upgrade Yellow first when you can Beam Orange and use the other 2 spells on it.
We need to Focus on Yellow early on but can then go back for Orange.

Early on go for Orange gems on both sides to soften up Creeps and take care of Swarmlings, later on once you've a decent Yellow you can combine them.

Around Wave 20 you should have stabilised enough to go for Stashed, either with a Purple or another Yellow with Bolt either will do fine.



After wave 20 you shouldn't have any further issues until Wave 30 when mini Guardians spawn, use Bolt on Yellow and Freeze them, can also move close and melt them with Beam. (They have 600,000 Hp :/ )

late game level tips (from C1 to F4)

C1
Only 3 Tiles left (really 2,5 as F have been nibbled on earlier)
Remove any SP in Yellow if you want (you can keep the rest as is) you can get one from The Sealed Gem Prison but can't rely on them early on.

A bit hard to see here so a Screenshot in Build mode will do:


Wall of Boulder just in case as it only cost 2 pieces, one Tower near shrine to clear Leaks and another top right to for early Swarmling Murder.

Time for a Prison break, open it for a Yellow (not sure if it always is a Yellow, got a G6) and use it to defend your orb, duplicate or use current one for Stash destruction. make use of 2 Yellow near orb so Swarmlings don't sneak past.

A Spire Spawns around Wave 50 but Yellow can take care of it Handily.
You can send Waves early if you want to speed things up, no surprises spawns here.

C3
No Orange so back to Yellow.

Start away from the Boulders as they block of your Gem nicely for now. A G4 Yellow is good enough to start with


To avoid them breaking at a bad time, you can make a tower near them with Bolt and aim it yourself on slow speed, pause and wall when one breaks.


at this point you can go Break some Stashes if you want to have something to do or save them for later as the other gems will keep up by themselves for now but save Bronze for a G6 at least.

You can also entertain yourself by making a Nice long Maze:



It will come in handy as the last Giants have 1,5M+ Hp. you should also use Shrines at this point as they do decent Damage.

C2
Start with Walling off the left side, there is a nice turn on the top so make use of it.



Don't bother with the Corrupted shard here for now instead make a subgem for the big shard, a G4+Beam takes care of it's outer layer quickly. after it's empty don't use target Structures for Stashes or you might shoot at the corrupted shard instead. make a longer maze as well.



You can now make a setup for the Corrupted shard if you want.


As the Wave count is massive armor will get out of hand even with a Crit gem so make a Purple down the line, around G9 is enough to take care of that problem, set it to highest armor. Bolt and Beam ignore armor but there will be so many Creeps at the end that it will still help, with the maze above you can reroute near the end to juggle by breaking the uppermost left wall part.

There will also be beacons spawning so you might want to make another Yellow to take care of them but don't set it to structures or will be quickly ruimed, aim manually instead.

C4
Orange is back in Business so make the appropriate SP changes.

This place is riddled with annoying beacons so have to make a bit off an alternating maze.



You can also destroy the spire if you want but it's not that much of an issue so just leave it. you need a G9 to break Bronze in time with both Beam and Bolt used.
I broke Spire when there was only 2 Giants left for fun though nothing special happens so you can ignore it.

C5
There are both Yellow and Orange here so you can put a bit into Yellow as well, did 15.

Can't maze here as there are openings on each side so wall off all sides except one, dosen't matter wich one. like this:



Make an Orange near the opening and a Yellow further in for cleanup. if you want maximum mana gain don't build it near orb.
Make another tower near Stashes for Purple, G4/5 will do, you can leave this alone for the most part as there are plenty of time (70 Waves) and you can use tower to take care of shadows later on.
Can place Purple in Lantern near Orange when it's done breaking Stashes, upgrade ~G8 and it will take care of all armor.

Shadow spawns ~wave 16, so freeze and move a yellow to it asap.

Another spawns around 32-35 didn't notice exactly.

Once again around 52.

F3
Only 2 more Tiles left. and currently 113/120 Fields beaten so almost finished.

Make 2 G3 Yellows at the start and then go for Orange + Beam, upgrade the side without Orange, when you get a quiet moment destroy Boulders and connect the 2 sides, you can now move your setup to the other side.



Move one gem to the next part and destroy the Boulders there, wall up to your towers so you can make use of them twice. move yellow to the end near orb to catch leaks. don't use Target Structures here or you might open the tomb and die.

Add some Orange to traps to leech a little more mana, imbue with Beam or Barrage both work fine.

Can't do any more Maze so final setup looks like this:


Nothing special until the end, no Wallbreakers, Shadows, Spires or Wizard hunters. seems the special foes rarely spawns. (a few Wallbreakers, Guardians and a single Wizard hunter Field so far, lets see if they make another appearance before the end)

F4
No Orange here so you know what to do.
Start with a G4 near orb and a subgem you move around to destroy Boulders, try to funnel them into the second highest path as it has some nice Curves (wink wink)



The same as other maps without extra mana gain and a lot of Swarmlings, use 2 gems set to Lowest Hp. nothing special spawns after 60 waves are sent so combine gems after the last Swarmling is sent to the grave.

late game level tips (from F5 to Spiritforge)

F5
The following Fields have all gems so put 30 in Orange and 15/20 in Yellow. you can keep some in mana stream if you want or relocate it into other skills.

Start this one with a G4 Yellow and a G3 Orange, when Beam is available move yellow close to Orb and wall it of, make a second Yellow to bust Boulders Chris Redfield style to start on your maze.



Without 5 levels in Demolition you can't make the longest maze here so this will be the base you have to work with.



Around this is the most you can Maze:


Couldn't even make use of it, late game they didn't even get to the first bend... had so much fun making a maze that i forgot Stashes so back in i go.

A1
The Final tile, almost home.

Don't bother with Corrupted shards here, Orange is far better but keep in mind to not use Target Structures here when going for Stashes.

There are SO many Swarmlings here that 2-3 gems won't cut it, instead when you get mana from Orange make several G4 Yellow and spread them around the map, upgrade Orange first to make more Yellows.



Once you have a decent amount of gems then Shrine will be able to wipe out Swarmlings in it's path, can be used if you get overwhelmed.
upgrade yellow equally, keep Orange 1-2 Grades higher than anything else.

Around Wave 52-55 Yellows should be at least G7, make one of the yellows stronger now to take care of Giants and the rest should keep Swarmlings in check.

Move your strongest Yellow around to clean up at the end.

A2
Alright this is just ridiculous 4320 base Hp?

Putting more Sp in Freeze/Whiteout can be good for this stage.

Only Giants at the start, first wave with 33,979 Hp at least there isn't enough waves for armor to get out of hand so that's something at least.
They are slow enough that you should go for only Orange at the start to gain mana, a Yellow near the end to clean up like you've done so many times now.

(This map looks like slightly burnt pizza...)

You can use a Yellow you focus upgrades on to take care of Stashes in time as the only thing here is 16 waves of Giants or you can do Iron/Brass now and focus on Orange instead to make clearing this field easier but you might not have enough time for Bronze then.

Alternate Upgrading Yellow and Orange, use Beam on Orange and Bolt/Barrage on Yellow.
G8 Yellow is enough to win, but keep Beaming Orange to be on the safe side, you can win without a single Banishment and without Juggling.

End Screen:



A3
There will be quite a bit of Walling here so lower some skills to have something to work with. we need around 7000 mana for 3 gems 2 Yellow, 1 Orange, walls and towers. as there are many swarmlings we need to go for Quantity.

Skills used:
Mana Stream 10
Fusion 5
True colors 30
Resonance 20
Yellow 15
Orange 30
Spells Whiteout/Bolt/Barrage 10, Freeze/Beam 15, Ice Shards 5 (can decrease these if you want more starting mana) leaving ~7000 mana.

All Beacons here have 999,999 Hp so you won't be taking them down anytime soon, as there are Shield beacons aplenty we will put our tower near spawn, They will be a massive pain if we allow Creeps to move forward so make a higher grade Yellow to start with and go for upgrading Orange later on.

Make this to start with, were going for One shots. no way to prevent Shield beacon on the left so we will be making a few more gems to get rid of shields before our main Yellow soon.



Swarmlings will kill you quickly, you can make maze a bit longer just avoid Shield beacons. as there are no Beacons in the middle we will make use of this place for our maze:



you should stabilize near the mid 20s, and from this point you should focus on Orange or you might not survive late game. there is also a Spire that spawns around here so take care of it.



When you have a G8 Yellow you can go for Beacons and get rid of the more annoying ones, Speed and Shields. will still take a few Bolts but best to get rid of them early. get it to G9 soon and you can get rid of all Beacons swiftly (1-2 Bolt casts each).

Don't forget to upgrade the smaller Yellows for Swarmlings and overall cleanup. not that most things stay near spawn you can make Maze longer for late game as you go around taking care of Beacons you can use towers to wall of paths so you can easily move around later.

In the 60-70 you need at least a G10 Yellow, G8 for Swarrmling gems will do.
Finish it with a G11 Yellow, near end another Spire will spawn so don't miss it or you have to do it all over again.

A4
The Spiritforge, finally home, our journey has come to it's end.
640 waves, 346 Base Hp hmmm i smell a Gimmick here.

Wall of like this:


Go for 4 Yellows near middle as this map goes for Quantity rather than Quality.
Then you can start on a Trap based mana farm to make use of the sheer number of Creeps here. use a G8/9 Yellow to get rid of Beacons for it.




When you get a G11 Yellow amp it up and you can go for Obelisks, 2-4 Bolt casts can take them down depending on Crit luck.



Use Poison on the Fangs (hard to see but they are located in the walled of parts down below) early on or go for Yellow by moving it down as shown here.


It will make the big bad take increased damage for a short time and remove it's armor for a Very short time. with a G13 Yellow you can kill it in 1-2 fangs and it will die in seconds at that point.
no need to go as far as i did above. didn't see fangs so was in the 150-160.

Now you have Cleared Iron Wizard and you can be proud of yourself >:)

[MechWarden]

Shocked that there wasn't more of these guides, and shocked on how there isn't any score on this one, since a lot of work had to be put into this! It was very handy on getting a hint on what to do next when stuck. Starting looking this up when stuck on D2 (yeah, I got a bit far before looking for a guide).

[Hollowriller]

Congrats, happy it helped someone :D

[Zeba Stakian]

Thank you so much for this guide! It absolutely helped me get through Iron Wizard Mode of Frostborn Wrath and now I've officially completed the almost complete series!! I'm currently hunting down the final achievements to get Frostborn Wrath 100% complete!