Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Heroic

Well, we have grades finally.  I thought I'd be more excited to finally get to this point, but it's a little lot underwhelming, honestly.  The only thing tricky about this level is the Gryphon Bombardiers, who are one of the few challenging units in the game.  Veruk and Margosa had distinctly poorer performances on the map simply because they can't really help against them, being melee heroes.  For this reason I really do have to give them 'B's, as it wasn't really a borderline A/B case.  But that's it.  For all other heroes it was another simple cakewalk.

You might be wondering about Jigou, but he did not have the same problems if for no other reason than he can just stand there and let the Bombardiers hit him, pinning them in place while towers work on them.  With his insane regeneration it takes them forever to actually seriously damage him.

Like I said, I expected to feel joy and relief once I finally hit this point, but having to give grades just to hand out two measly 'B's does not feel like we've really gotten anywhere.  I wouldn't be surprised if we go straight back to all 'A's in the iron mode and continue so for several more maps.  I hope not, but we'll see. 

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Campaign

Campaign modes continue to be completely unchallenging while still annoyingly taking 15 minutes each to record.  There are a couple of moments along the way where the lesser heroes like Veruk and Oloch might let a mob slip if you get bad RNG, but certainly nothing worth breaking out grades for.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Iron

This entire map was just not worth my time at all.  This map was even easier than heroic mode.  I did a towerless run with Eiskalt again (minus the pre-existing towers, anyway), so that should tell you all you need to know.  The Elite Harassers weren't even really necessary, but it was fun to play around with them.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Heroic

There was hardly any increase in difficulty over the campaign mode here.  There are a couple of moments where things get a bit intense, but ultimately it's still a pretty trivial map for any hero. I was actually able to do Eiskalt completely towerless this time like I tried to do in campaign mode, so that should be the indication of just how easy this map is.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Campaign

Again we have another map where there's not need to agonize whether to grade or not.  This map is honestly a joke, being utterly trivial.  Maybe they figured you needed a break after the previous boss fight map?  In any case going hard on Melting Furnaces takes down everything without a sweat for any hero.

I actually tried doing a towerless run with Eiskalt for fun.  I didn't quite manage it but I do still think it's possible.  As it is I thought at first I would do an alternate build with him where I just had some blockers, letting him do all the damage.  Then I got bored and decided I wanted to see how many Bone Flinger walking skeletons I could fill the map with.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Otil Farmlands Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Iron

This one was challenging, but again, not in a way that really depends on your hero.  The first challenge is getting the build right.  This one was tricky the first few times I tried it, but the key turned out to be realizing I could put together a defense on the right side that could basically take care of itself without any input from me.  After that it's just a matter of spamming Spectral Mausoleums with Possession to take care of the huge stream of Frost Trolls on the left.  Last time I talked about the power of Possession, and it's important to realize that each Spectral Mausoleum neutralizes two Frost Giants - the one possessed, and then the next one in line it ends up blocking.  As the two Frost Giants deal tremendous amounts of damage to each other, the Spectral Mausoleum continues hitting the unpossessed one, so that by the time Possession is over you have two vastly weakened Frost Giants.

It still takes some work towards the end making sure all the Frost Giants go down and that nothing slips through your defense, but the difficulty doesn't really vary that much depending on your hero (well, at least it doesn't make the difficulty worse than an 'A' grade).  Magical damage heroes like Oloch and Mortemis do suffer a little bit at the beginning, as all the enemies on the left side have magic resistance, but then they shine at the end going up against the Frost Giants who only have armor, so it all balances out.

We have now completed the entire second act of the game without needing to hand out grades a single time.  I'd like to point out that I've also done this while instantly calling every single next wave every single time (if you ever notice an instance where I actually wait a few seconds before calling the next wave, it's only because I got distracted and failed to notice the next wave notification, not because I was deliberately stalling).  I still really like this game, but I can't tell you how disappointed I am in how much they nerfed the difficulty compared to Origins.  Considering Ironhide Studios is now moving on to non-tower defense games like Legends of Kingdom Rush, I'm worried this will be the last tower defense game in the Kingdom Rush line.  It would be a disappointing entry for the series to go out on.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Heroic

Well there was no agonizing over whether to grade or not here.  This stinker of a map was super trivial.  Usually it's easy to make a heroic mode more difficult than the campaign mode.  I understand on a boss map that's not necessarily the case, but it's like they didn't even try here.

This map does demonstrate the amazing power of the Spectral Mausoleum.  Possession is simply an OP ability and largely renders big threats like Frost Giants null and void.  Fully upgraded the cooldown is 17 seconds, but the possession lasts for 10 seconds.  If the possessed enemy spends at least 7 of those seconds walking back up the path, then when possession ends they have to spend 7 seconds walking back down the path again...which means Possession will be off cooldown, so they get stuck in a perma-possession.  Throw in the tower's good DPS and the reliability of the gargoyle blockers and it's a powerhouse of a tower.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Jokull's Nest Heroic