Intermediate Strategy Guide

This strategy guide is intended for intermediate players who understand the basic mechanics of the game but want more ideas about how to play it well on high difficulties, using legacy heroes when possible.

Campaign Strategy

Do your best to only recruit heroes who will last for the rest of the campaign. If you anticipate someone’s retirement, recruit a replacement for them as soon as possible. A retirement age (RA) of 70+ is usually enough for a hero to participate in an entire five-chapter campaign. For new heroes who start at age 25 or less, an RA of 65 is enough.

Warriors level up faster than hunters and mystics, but they don't get a class bonus to RA, so it makes sense to recruit warriors later than the other classes unless you have a legacy warrior with enough +RA from their upbringing and hook quests. Start the campaign with a hunter even if that hunter will need to retire by the end — otherwise scouting will take too long in the beginning.

Try to clear all the hostile sites you can in the first few chapters, as these sites will get multiple chapters to generate resources. Clearing sites with off-theme enemies is especially rewarding because you get experience without giving the main enemies a calamity card. A cleared site will get secured automatically during peacetime, so think twice about spending time to secure it with your assault team. In the last 1-2 chapters, it makes sense to rush to the objective, clearing only the sites that are on the way.

Optimal Upbringing

Bonus stats to roll for

Warriors: 3+ RA, and 1+ speed or 0.4+ potency
Hunters and mystics: 0.4+ potency

Notable hooks

• Inhabited: Conflicts with Beartouched and Elmsoul, but grants access to the Shadow transformation event until resolved.
  
• Integrity: Skeletal transformation — optional dark outcome of hook quest, good for melee hunters. Heroes who become ineligible for Skeletal cannot resolve this hook.
  
• Flirt, Wildheart, Loyal, Thorny: Can be tricky to resolve.
  
• Mysterious or Thorny: Night Shard sword event — you must choose the violent option to get the sword, which gives bonus dodge and stunt damage and is quite good.
  
• Destiny, Dreamer, Inhabited, Mysterious: Conflict with Spelltouched, which is a good theme for warriors that use theme attacks, Zealous Leap, and/or Broadswipes.

Trait Management

Personality trait scores determine a hero’s role in events, and some events won’t trigger for a hero that doesn’t meet certain trait thresholds, usually 80+ or 60+ in one of several traits. Here are the most beneficial traits and the things whose events they unlock at a threshold of 80+:

80+ in trait unlocks →	Bone Spear	Critter* (default pet choice)	Flamesoul or Child of the Hills	Sylvan**
Leader		✅	✅
Healer	✅		✅
Greedy	✅	✅
Loner		✅		✅
Poet	✅		✅
Bookish	✅			✅

*Must have another party member with a free pet slot. Either hero can adopt the Critter.
**Must have a rival in the party who is also eligible for the Sylvan theme. You can choose to transform the Loner/Bookish hero or the rival, for whom there is no trait requirement.

Here are some notable things they unlock at 60+:

60+ in trait unlocks →	Drauven Bird (bonus pet)	Fire Chicken (niche pet)	Crystalline	Starheart (bonus belt)
Leader	*
Healer	✅*
Greedy		✅	✅
Loner			✅
Poet			✅	✅
Bookish			✅

*The recipient needs Healer 60+ and another party member with Leader 60+.

You can make changes to a hero’s scores when recruiting them for the first time, and between campaigns in your legacy. A good default setup is Healer 60+ and Leader or Greedy 80+, because many builds want Critter, Drauven Bird, and/or Bone Spear (though the Bone Spear can be given to anyone in the party). Make changes as needed to acquire other things. Note that Skeletal heroes can permanently lose all traits if you mess with their traits enough.

Random Artifact Farming

If you want a particular artifact weapon that drops randomly (e.g. Swan Scepter), keep adventuring until you run into an event called “For Their Own.” Let the NPC join the fight, and save the game before killing the last enemy. After a story sequence, you’ll be given a random artifact. If it isn’t the one you want, reload, kill the last enemy again, and you’ll most likely get a different artifact. Repeat as necessary — an hour of attempts is usually sufficient. Note that a duplicate artifact won’t randomly drop if a hero in the campaign already has it, though this is not the case for artifacts gained through a specific event, like Bone Spear from Dreams and Bones.

Class Breakdown

Mystic

Mystics have a naturally high retirement age but a slow leveling speed. You should probably recruit one or two mystics as soon as possible, ideally as starting heroes to give them as much time as possible to collect experience. Give all mystics Clate armor so they don’t die to enemy cavalry (e.g. Drauven Pilots). Mystics secure sites more quickly than other heroes, so if you have an extra mystic, have them trail your assault team to secure the sites they liberate.

A generic mystic is already a competent caster ideal for setting up flanking attacks, assuming there is scenery available near enemy targets, but there are a few specialized builds that make a mystic’s contribution more reliable and/or more impressive (see builds below). Perhaps the simplest one is the Flamelasher, who uses Ignite and Flamelash to deal damage. The Naturalist takes a bit more finesse but is good at shredding armor and controlling the battlefield. Spiritblade mystics interfuse with a blaze (often created with a torch or a Fire Chicken) and then use Blazing Arrow/Sword on another hero 1-2 times.

Vigorflow mystics are sort of the martial version of the class. To make a good one, you need a theme attack to leverage the mystic's high potency and perhaps hit multiple enemies with Vigorflow. Keep one arm human to swap between Bone Spear (+potency) and Swan Scepter (free interfusion per turn). Optimized Vigorflow mystics are very powerful, but there’s only so much scenery to go around, so try to bring one but no more.

Here are the abilities and weapons you’ll want for each build. Note that all builds in this guide are shown in their idealized form, as they would appear on a level 5 Mythwalker legacy hero. Feel free to use substitute weapons, abilities, etc. while you gradually assemble a build — it should perform well enough in the meantime.

Flamelasher: Ignite+, Long Reach, Heroism, Nimble Nature — Petriglass Wand + Spellshard or Gem Arm (L). Fox Tail for Nimble Nature. Also consider Fly or Talon Dive if you get wings.

Naturalist: Naturalist+, Arches+, Elementalist — Firling Wand + Thnarrs Accordia, with Swan Scepter on swap so that you can interfuse with a plant and still use Wild Grasp as a swift action.

Spiritblade: Spiritblade+, Elementalist, any combination of Compulsion(+), Bard(+), Long Reach(+), Heroism(+), and/or Aid(+) — Swan Scepter + torch or Fire Chicken.

Vigorflow: Vigorflow+, Openmind, theme attack+, Sharpshooter or Indignance — Bone Spear, Swan Scepter, and a theme arm: Flame (L), Sylvan (R), and Shadow (R or L) are the best.

Hunter

To scout at an acceptable pace, bring at least one hunter in the assault team. You don't want hunters scouting infested tiles on their own, because ambushes can generate calamity cards. Even safe tiles are best scouted by the assault team, because many events trigger on scouting, and you may want your important characters present for those.

Archer hunters are pretty simple: they move to a good position and then attack enemies in a line with Throughshot+. Ember Arrows is very powerful, and you can easily create blazes for yourself with a torch. There’s no need for stealth if you have Piercing Shots.

Melee hunters run in at the right moment to assassinate the main threat with flanking dagger attack(s) and then run away or attack another enemy with the bonus action from Thornfang. It pays to get the Skeletal transformation for its potency-scaling dagger attack that works with Piercing Shots. Combine that with Heroism and flanking to eliminate a boss in one turn. The Skeletal gaze ability is another good way to use a Thornfang bonus action. It’s ideal to get the Black Cat pet so that you can set up your own flanking attacks now and then.

Archer: Throughshot+, Piercing Shots, Ember Arrows, Archery — Water bow, with crossbow + torch on swap.
Best armor: Swayth.

Assassin: Thornfang, Piercing Shots*, Long Reach, Heroism, theme attack upgrade* — Skeletal transformation. *If you aren’t Skeletal (yet), use Rogue+ and a water dagger + hurlaxe.
Best armor: Shawn (Skeletal) or Swayth (human).

Warrior

Warriors are quite strong in close quarters. A warrior build is largely defined by the mechanism it uses to get 2+ attacks per turn: Vigilance, Riposte, or a non-turn-ending theme attack followed by a regular attack or a tactical retreat. Battledance or Heroism may be used as interim substitutes, or as decent choices at level 6 or 7. Some builds use these attacks to trigger Broadswipes, an ability that can be very powerful if you increase its range to 3 tiles with Long Reach+ or with Long Reach and a spear. Note that in addition to regular melee attacks, almost all theme attacks trigger Broadswipes, including Wolf Bite, Peck, Scorpion Sting, and Shooting Star, but not Falling Stars or Meteor Strike. If you pick up a warrior who won't be of much use in combat, have them build fortifications — warriors can build them faster than other heroes.

Interceptor: Sentinel, Vigilance+, Paladin, Nimble Nature or Heavy Bash+ — Fox Tail.
Weapon options:

• Halehammer + Gem Arm (L). Upgrade Halehammer quickly for sufficient knockback.
  
• Elmsoul transformation (2 arms, plus 1 leg for sufficient knockback).

Best armor: Scale.

Zealot: Zealous Leap+, Broadswipes+, Long Reach — Scorpion Tail (single-action attack).
Weapon options:

• Bone Spear + Shadow/Bear Arm. Try to get your theme attack upgrade by level 7.
  
• Frenzy (2 Wolf Arms). This variant should start with Long Reach+ instead of Zealous Leap+, as it lacks Bone Spear but has a swift attack option. Get Frenzy+ by level 7.
  
• Celestial Arms. This variant can work in melee or at range. After leaping into a good position, use one of your Broadswipes attacks if able: Shooting Star or Scorpion Sting. Then use the other one or Falling Stars. Try to get Long Reach+ by level 7.

Best armor: Cowling.

Stuntman: Broadswipes+, Long Reach, Nimble Nature, Bard or Heroism — Petriglass Seaspear, with crossbow + hurlaxe on swap. Crow Head for Peck. Fox Tail for Nimble Nature.
Best armor: Gard.

Tank: Engage+, Riposte, Shard Skin, Untouchable or Broadswipes — Night Shard or Leaf/Fire sword + Ice Shield. Foothill Leg (R or L) for Shard Skin.
Best armor: Scoth, Scale, or Cowling if you can get Broadswipes+.

[Perception312]

It's not necessary to beat the game, but I like having Swan Scepter on my vigorflow mystics, as it's pretty important for them. It usually doesn't take the whole hour to get either. Out of the 400 hrs I've poured into the game, I don't regret the few hrs I spent farming that artifact a few times. I personally wouldn't farm for any other random artifact – Swan scepter is just uniquely good.

[Senlin]

"Repeat as necessary — an hour of attempts is usually sufficient"

I'm astonished people waste their time like this. Wouldn't they rather just play on lower difficulty, if the game is too hard without save scumming like this?