Kingdom Rush Origins (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Neverwonder Campaign

So we're finally getting to the part of the game where campaign modes are challenging.  This map is actually extremely challenging until you realize you have to go all-in on the Weirdwoods and their Clobber ability to take out the endless waves of mushrooms.  Once you do that, by the end you have a defense that is mostly self-working regardless of your hero.

You may notice that in none of my videos do I play the Shroom Game to get more gold, which would obviously make the map easier.  I did this because I didn't want the RNG associated with it to affect my impression of how well the heroes do.  Sometimes you get really easy patterns and can play it for ten rounds or more without problem, really raking in the gold, and sometimes you get hard patterns (or just make a mistake), severely reducing your take.  Also, some heroes require more management than others, which takes away from the time you can devote to the game, again affecting gold output.  On a playthrough where I manage to get a lot of gold and get one, two, or even three upgrades ahead in my normal build plan, it might mask the weaknesses of the hero I am using.

Impressions

They say all good things must come to an end, and for Vez'nan, this unfortunately was the end of his straight-A streak.  He got the job done, hence the 'B', but I just couldn't justify giving him an 'A'.  For one, since he does magic damage it severely limits his usefulness versus the spiders and the Twilight Scourger.  Second, while his kit normally handles hordes of enemies fairly well, it's just not designed for scenarios like this where you have dozens of mushrooms coming at you at once.  Now granted no one's kit is really designed for that except perhaps Phoenix, but most all the other heroes can at least body-block the Boomshrooms to take them out.  Vez'nan will go down in a heartbeat trying to do that.  I knew his streak would end eventually for reasons like this, but I hate to actually see it happen.

This map surprised me at first when it came to grading.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I start with Faustus and work backwards through the list of heroes.  My bottom row took care of business no problem, and I was beginning to think this might be an all-A map again.  But then I ran into serious problems with the top row, starting with Vez'nan losing his straight-A streak.  That was followed by 'C' performances by Arivan, Catha, and Razz and Rags.  Catha and Razz don't surprise me in hindsight, but I was taken aback by the difficulty I had with Arivan on this map.

Final Grades

• Eridan - B
• Arivan - C
• Catha - C
• Reg'son - A
• Prince Denas - A
• Razz and Rags - C
• Bravebark - A
• Vez'nan - B
• Xin - A
• Phoenix - A
• Durax - A
• Lynn - A
• Bruce - A
• Lilith - A
• Wilbur - A
• Faustus - A

Best Choice

All you need to know is that fire purifies fungus.  Phoenix again takes the top honor for her ability to incinerate the endless hordes of mushrooms.

Kingdom Rush Origins Impossible Hero Challenge - Neverwonder Campaign