Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 10. Temple Courtyard Heroic

We have another heroic mode that's technically a disappointment, but on the whole I still found it fun overall.  It's a disappointment for two reasons.  First, it's far easier than campaign mode, which the grades below will attest to.  Second, I really don't like maps where Archer spam is the best solution.  It's a personal thing, but I just don't like the Archer tower in this game for some reason, and I rather resent needing to use it on occasion.  But you can't argue that it gets the job done.

Impressions

This map falls just shy of being a trivial all-'A' affair, with the worst grades being 'B+'s.  I just couldn't justify the performance of some of the bottom tier heroes as being 'A'-worthy.  Shockingly Torres actually earns an 'A' for this one.  This was my first time to use him post-update, and I want to say that I can feel the difference.  Now I don't see him rocketing up the rankings - he's still probably going to be bottom 3 at least - but I appreciate he no longer feels like the worst hero.  Now it's Raelyn's turn in the hot seat, to compete not to end up in that bottom spot.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B+
• Raelyn - B+
• Nyru - B+
• Torres - A
• Anya - B+
• Grimson - B+
• Broden - A+
• Therien - A-
• Onagro - A
• Warhead - A-
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 10. Temple Courtyard Heroic

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 10. Temple Courtyard Campaign

This map ended up being surprising.  I was expecting it to be harder than Wicked Crossing based on what I remembered from doing my Veteran walkthrough, but I feel it was actually a little easier.  We were able to insta-call every wave with every hero, which is always a good sign.  Also good is that the map continues to be the enjoyable kind of hard

It's worth noting that the Undying Fury mini campaign came out while I was in the middle of recording for this map, and along with it some balance changes.  In particular I had already recorded Torres (he's the first character I do), and he gets a lot of love in the patch - on paper at least.  It remains to be seen what kind of difference it will truly make, as I simply did not feel like re-recording his video.  Might it have bumped up his grade a little bit?  Possibly, but I don't think it's going to impact his final ranking in any significant way, so we'll wait until heroic mode to try the changes out.

Impressions

Alliance is already settling into a top row vs. bottom row dichotomy of heroes just like Vengeance did.  The first six heroes are all on the struggle bus, while Broden kicks off a series of top performers.  Most of the grades are not surprising in the least, except that I had to give Anya a C+.  I'm really frustrated by this, as I love her character and kit design, but her DPS is just waaaay too low.  I have a sinking feeling that we're looking at a Lynn situation all over again.

It's worth taking a moment to reflect on the heroes, now that we're a little over halfway through the series.  It's very apparent how things are going to shake out in the final rankings.  Broden and Kosmyr are going to be neck and neck for the top spot.  I'm picking Broden to edge out the big K, but I could very well be wrong.  Meanwhile, on the other end Torres and Raelyn are duking it out for the bottom spot, but for totally different reasons.  Torres has a good kit but is under-tuned, while Raelyn is reasonably powerful (for a free hero) but over-specialized.  Based on what I'm seeing on paper at least, this balance patch might actually give Torres the edge going forward, but we'll see.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - B
• Torres - B-
• Anya - C+
• Grimson - B
• Broden - A+
• Therien - A
• Onagro - A-
• Warhead - A
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 10. Temple Courtyard Campaign

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Iron

Finally, it took us nearly half the game, but we at last arrive at an iron mode worth playing!  Wicked Crossing truly is a turning point in the game all around it seems.  For once we don't have an iron mode with a set of towers with a braindead obvious solution.  With both flying enemies, hordes of lesser enemies, and a few big enemies thrown into the mix, the ratio of Arcane Wizards to Demon Pits is not immediately obvious and takes some trial and error to get right.  Also an issue is how to deal with the Nightmares appearing on the lower path.  Unlike campaign and iron mode, here it's definitely non-optimal to let them transform into Bound Nightmares.

All in all this was quite a worthy challenge, and one that I really struggled with with the bottom-tier heroes.  And not only was it hard, but it also managed to find the sweet spot of fun as well.  Now fun is a subjective measure for each person, but I personally found it here, which is what helped me to keep persevering in the beginning when I was really struggling, trying to figure out to handle this map with Torres.

Impressions

What we have here is a map that very neatly divides the heroes into three tiers.  Raelyn and Torres fill out the bottom with 'C-'s.  It was very hard to complete the map with them - as hard as it can be without having to rely on good RNG, which is what a 'C-' is under this grading system.

Above them we have Vesper, Nyru, Anya, and Grimson with 'B's.  I did give Anya a 'B+' as I felt her performance did stand out compared to the others, but it definitely did not approach that of the 'A'-tier heroes.

And speaking of the 'A'-tier, three heroes earn standout 'A+'s for their effort.  Broden and Kosmyr are of course not surprising, and I've already realized these two will be duking it out pretty much uncontested for the #1 ranking.  However, Onagro really had a strong showing here.  Mobility to be able to support both lanes is what elevated the performance of heroes like Nyru and Grimson into the 'B' tier, but despite having none, Onago simply tore up the bottom lane by himself, freeing up resources to be poured into the top lane so that he didn't have to be there personally, leading to an overall outstanding performance.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B
• Raelyn - C-
• Nyru - B
• Torres - C-
• Anya - B+
• Grimson - B
• Broden - A+
• Therien - A
• Onagro - A+
• Warhead - A
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Iron

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Heroic

If you've ever followed my Impossible Hero Challenges at all, you know how the system works - we give heroes grades of A-F based on their performance on a map, with 'A' meaning their an ideal hero to take on the level with, 'F' meaning I wasn't able to complete the map with them, and the other grades representing shades of performance in between.

If you've really followed these series, then you also know that I've resisted the urge ever since my original Origins series to add plusses and minuses to the grades.  In general it's already hard enough to try to assign grades on a five point scale (four really, since 'F' represents an objective measurement) in a consistent manner that seeks to be as objective as possible.

Well, this entry makes history, because at long last I'm breaking down and doing it.  There are a couple of reasons.  First, this map in particular is one of those were I feel there really are distinguishable degrees of difference in performance between heroes in the same letter tier.  Nowhere is that more apparent than the 'A' tier.  Therien and Kosmyr may both earn 'A's, but they are not the same thing.

The second reason has to do with what I know is eventually coming.  Eventually I'm going to get to maps that I simply can't complete with a hero solo.  Now as I said at the beginning of this challenge, I'm not simply going to hand out 'F's for that, since the game is not designed around using a single hero to begin with.  So in some cases I'm going to have to bring in the other hero and/or their hero spell to some degree.  Obviously I'm going to have to deduct from a hero's grade if that happens, but it's in this case that the four point scale just isn't granular enough.  On one hero I might need to use the second hero spell a single time, while with another I might have to do it multiple times, or even bring the second hero into the fight for a bit.  Just docking a full letter grade for each of these situations wouldn't be appropriate, so I'm bringing in the plusses and minuses in anticipation of needing this level of detail in assigning grades.

That said, onto this map.  Yet again we have a pretty challenging affair, but we get through it with a very similar strategy to campaign mode.  However, if memory serves me right, this is the first time on a map where we haven't insta-called every wave - at least on most of the heroes, so thankfully we can say they actually increased the difficulty on this one compared to campaign mode.

Impressions

Grades here improve somewhat over campaign mode.  Raelyn is the lone 'C', and honestly her performance isn't that much worse than the 'B'-tier heroes, so I gave her a 'C+' to reflect that.

Vesper, Torres, and Nyru repeat their 'B's from campaign mode, which shouldn't be surprising.  Joining them on the cusp are Anya and Grimson.  Grimson had a very uneven performance.  Early on he was tearing it up surprisingly well, and I thought he was on track for an 'A', but then at certain points in the playthrough he really struggled, so overall his performance rounds out at a 'B+'.  Anya's performance was more consistent than Grimson's, but ultimately I couldn't justify giving her an 'A'.  She gets a 'B+' as well as I feel she does stand above the rest of the 'B' crew.

With the 'B' and 'C' heroes I could not consistently insta-call next waves.  However, with the 'A-' heroes I mostly could, except possibly on the first couple of waves.  The minus is there to distinguish them for this though.

Warhead earns an unadorned 'A', and honestly it's a reflection of his hero spell as much as anything else.  His hero spell is amazing on maps like this were you have long lines of enemies like Acolytes appearing in waves.  It completely one-shots them, which frees up pressure on your choke point so much that it almost doesn't even matter that Warhead's personal DPS is lackluster.

And of course finally we have Broden and Kosmyr, who absolutely tore it up.  As with Vengeance I feel like I'm not going to do a Best Choice award for this series, as in almost every case I feel it's going to come down to these two, and even then it will probably be a toss up.  I reserve the right to change my mind down the road, but I would honestly be surprised if I did.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B
• Raelyn - C+
• Nyru - B
• Torres - B
• Anya - B+
• Grimson - B+
• Broden - A+
• Therien - A-
• Onagro - A-
• Warhead - A
• Lumenir - A-
• Kosmyr - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Heroic

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Campaign

When I was playing through the game originally this was the map where I feel like the challenge and fun really kicked in.  The first few levels of course you write off as tutorial levels, and there were a few after that that were interesting, but this is the inflection point in terms of the game's difficulty.  Going back through on Impossible I'd say I still feel the same way.  It's a little unfortunate that it comes nearly halfway through the game, but it is what it is.

This level brings a lot of heat and forms a pretty decent challenge (especially if you're only using one hero).  There's an intensity to it that has been lacking in Kingdom Rush games lately, but I'm hopeful that Ironhide has now rediscovered, if the Pirate Kings DLC is any indication.

The bottom lane is intended to force you into a hard decision - do you try to make two choke points, one early and one late, to try to stop the Nightmares from turning into Bound Nightmares?  However the bottom lane is geared towards an artillery solution to begin with, which handles Bound Nightmares pretty well, so it's more effective to just go with a single late choke point.

Impressions

One thing I have to say about grades in this series that may be a bit of pointing out the obvious is the fact that I expect GPAs overall to be much lower in this series compared to any previous one.  That's not because Alliance is necessarily harder overall, but since I'm doing it with one arm tied behind my back in trying to use a single hero at a time, things are just naturally going to be a lot more difficult.

With that preface, we can get on to an exciting milestone in this series - our first 'C's!  Raelyn, Torres, and Grimson really struggle here, and the reasons should be fairly obvious.  Raelyn's slow movement speed, coupled with her lack of AoE capability, make it hard to deal with the hordes.  Only her strong 1 on 1 skills against the tougher enemies save her from 'D' territory.  This is also I believe the first time when I found myself considering when to use a hero spell based on getting the Ominous Curse effect as opposed to just the spell itself.

Torres joins Raelyn in the slow as molasses club, making it very hard for him to lane dance as needed in the early waves.  His poor DPS also means that sometimes he's late to the party - still trying to help wrap up one lane when he really needs to be making his way to the other one already.  Thankfully his hero spell is pretty clutch as an AoE damage solution.

As for Grimson, while his high mobility is certainly welcome compared to the other two, his lowish DPS coupled with difficulty tanking the hardest enemies mean that he's just not contributing as much as you ideally need your hero to on a stage like this.  While his hero spell is nice in providing AoE damage, it's also a bit tricky to use and guarantee you get the enemies you want to get.

As for the others, Vesper, Nyru, and shockingly Anya earn 'B's.  Again there's just a bit too much work involved with them that prevents the smoothness we look for in an 'A' grade.  I'm really disappointed about Anya.  I love her character design and her kit, but the growing feeling I've been having is that her overall DPS is just a little too undertuned for her to come out as a top-tier hero when all is said and done.  Her performance here is a sad confirmation that I'm on the right track in my assessment.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - B
• Torres - C
• Anya - B
• Grimson - C
• Broden - A
• Therien - A
• Onagro - A
• Warhead - A
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 9. Wicked Crossing Campaign

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 8. Carmine Mines Iron

I know I've complained about iron modes already in this series, but this one honestly made me mad.  Talk about a completely pointless waste of time.  We're given Paladins and the Tricannon, and you do with them exactly what you would expect to do and get the win without remotely breaking a sweat.  We don't even have to deal with the Taskmasters to free the elves - we just get all four elves automatically when the level starts.  It's boring, and with an 8 minute runtime it's tedious as well.  Needless to say all heroes earn 'A's, and we'll move on and just try to forget about this one altogether.

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 8. Carmine Mines Iron

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 8. Carmine Mines Heroic

You may recall in the last entry that I was speculating whether we would have grades for heroic mode, as well as who would be the next hero to earn their first 'B'.  My guess was Nyru or Grimson.  Well, we do indeed have grades here, and regarding who it turns out that I was right on both counts - both Nyru and Grimson join Torres in earning 'B's for this map.

This map is a little insulting.  Not only is a completely uninteresting redux of campaign mode (a theme in Vengeance and now Alliance), you can use pretty much the exact same build plan with the most minor of tweaks.  I don't understand why we're just being given a slightly shorter version of campaign mode.  While only 6 waves, it's only 3 minutes shorter than campaign mode on average.  I'm really disappointed in Ironhide over this, but at the same time I am happy just to have grades.

Impressions

The 'B' crew get knocked down a grade because it's just not quite as simple finishing the map with them as with other heroes.  Torres has his usual speed and DPS problems, Grimson is too flimsy trying to take down the Taskmasters, and Nyru just suffered from poor DPS, as well as the trouble ranged characters tend to have on this map with the Taskmasters due to other mobs interfering and causing them to switch targets.

Final Grades

• Vesper - A
• Raelyn - A
• Nyru - B
• Torres - B
• Anya - A
• Grimson - B
• Broden - A
• Therien - A
• Onagro - A
• Warhead - A
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 8. Carmine Mines Heroic