Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Ancient Ghosts Heroic

And I thought the campaign mode was challenging!  Here we have a true spike in difficulty for the heroic mode, and it will test you to the limit.  There have been maps in the past in the Kingdom Rush series that require you to tear down towers and build something else to handle a wave at the end of a difficult heroic mode, but I don't think I've ever done one where I had to tear down towers twice.  Now I didn't have to do this for every hero, since of course Eiskalt et al can breeze through the map regardless, but for the bottom half heroes I did.  The key was building a partially upgraded Bone Flinger on the left at the beginning to help with the Haunted Skeletons and Werewolves, then tear it down to build a Spectral Mausoleum to handle the next two waves of Bone Carriers and Corrosive Souls.  Then, for wave 6, you need to tear down everything and build fully upgraded Bone Flingers to handle the waves of Liches coming from every direction.

This map really stretched me, and I like it when maps do that.  It definitely was even more frustrating than campaign mode, but the payoff when I found the right build strategy was all the more satisfying.

Impressions

While you have to rely on your towers to DPS down the major enemies like Bone Carriers, Corrosive Souls, and Liches, it's all about how much your hero can add to the process to make a challenging map a little easier - helping burn the Bone Carriers down faster before the Corrosive Soul wave starts, blocking a Corrosive soul for a few seconds while your towers are DPSing them, etc.  As such, the grades shouldn't be surprising.  Veruk and Oloch get 'C's for their poor DPS - Oloch especially as he's nearly useless against the Haunted Skeletons and Liches.  Mortemis gets a 'B' for his magical DPS problems.  Asra gets a 'B' for her lower DPS and poor blocking ability, while Tramin gets one as his AoE DPS and poor blocking don't play well here.

Final Grades

• Veruk - C
• Asra - B
• Oloch - C
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - B
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - 
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Ancient Ghosts Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Ancient Ghosts Campaign

This elite mini-campaign finishes with a worthy challenge that really tests the bottom half of our heroes (the top half breeze through as always).  The build here is quite tricky to figure out at first.  The map is an absolute nightmare - not enough build points, half of them covered in Rotten Roots, and none near the northeast and northwest entrances, giving the Liches a huge leg up when they appear.  There's still the need to balance magical vs. physical DPS, which is complicated by the Ancient Ghosts themselves, each of which is immune to one type.  The kicker is which one appears on the left path and which appears on the right is random each time you play, meaning when the boss fight starts you're looking at probably needing to tear down existing towers to build a more appropriate type.

All in all it's a great challenge and I love it.  Our MVP towers - the Spectral Mausoleum and Bone Flingers - get 100% of the job done here as they have throughout the entire game.  This is another map that hits the sweet spot of difficulty in being really challenging without being overly frustrating.

Impressions

This map really highlights the DPS - or lack thereof - of your heroes.  The build has to handle the Bone Carriers as usual, but for all other enemy types you really need your hero to bring it.  Being able to quickly clear the waves of Haunted Skeletons, Liches, and Werewolves before the next thing arrives is what distinguishes the 'A's from everything else.  As such Jun'pai takes a 'B' for his DPS problems, and Veruk and Asra get 'C's for theirs.

And then of course there are Oloch and Mortemis, for which this map is absolute torture.  It requires tweaking the build towards more Bone Flingers, of course, as well as a dose of luck that the Lich waves don't get out of hand.  Not enough luck that I felt they warranted 'D's, but those 'C's are definitely in more of the 'C-' territory.

Final Grades

• Veruk - C
• Asra - C
• Oloch -C
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - C
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - B
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Ancient Ghosts Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Iron

I'm pretty sure Ironhide deliberately made Goblirangs a bad tower just so they would have an excuse to use them in iron modes.  How else do you account for how often they appear in these?  I certainly have never used them outside of an iron mode...that I remember.

I like this map because, even once you know the strategy, it's not a straightforward process.  Instead, it's all about where the hotspot is on the field due to your hero's strengths and weaknesses and devoting resources - whether reinforcements or upgrades - there.  It keeps you on your toes and makes for an engaging and challenging experience for all but the most OP heroes.

Impressions

Grades are about what you would expect.  Asra takes a rare 'C' here.  While her Spider Bite ability is great in preemptively taking down the Bone Carriers, as often is the case the fact that she can't (or at least shouldn't) block, coupled with lower DPS, means she struggles at points - especially with holding back the wave of Haunted Skeletons that accompany the Bone Carriers.  A key part of the strategy here is keeping the Skeletons from reaching the Carriers so they can't heal them when they die.  If it weren't for her Spider Bite taking care of them this would be a much more difficult situation for her.

Jack O'Lantern takes a rare 'B' here.  It's not that he was bad, I just had to work a little harder with him at certain points than the 'A' grade heroes, and that of course is the definition of a 'B'.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - C
• Oloch - C
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - B
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - B

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Heroic

This one is a slight improvement on the campaign mode in terms of difficulty, but still not by very much.  The build was fairly easy to figure out, and I breezed through with the physical DPS heroes.  However, I saved Oloch and Mortemis for last since I knew they would struggle the most.  I managed to get through Mortemis, although I initially gave him a 'C'.  Oloch, though, gave me an extremely rough time.  For the longest time I simply could not get a win with him, as the liches in wave 6 kept overwhelming me.  I kept trying Melting Furnaces and Shadow Archers to no avail.  It wasn't until I tried tearing down my previous towers to build fully upgraded Bone Flingers that I found the solution.  I really didn't think it would work the first time I tried it, but they absolutely tore up the liches.  It honestly would be a better solution for every hero, but since I hadn't had much problem with any of the others I didn't feel the necessity to go back and re-record them.

Impressions

It's really the werewolves in wave 3 that determined the grades for this one.  The heroes who struggled a bit in holding the line with them got 'B's.  Everything else was honestly pretty easy.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - B
• Oloch - B
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Campaign

This map is shockingly easy after the enjoyable challenges we've been getting lately in the elite mini-campaigns.  Really the hardest part is the first few waves up through wave 4 with the werewolves.  Once you've survived that, it's pretty much all downhill from there.  Wave 10 with the large number of Bone Carriers from the north is clearly supposed to be a major challenge, but three Shadow Archers with maxed-out insta-kills takes care of it without problem.  Then as long as you have a couple of Melting Furnaces for the liches in the later waves, it's game, set, match.

Impressions

Magical DPS suffers as usual here, and I dropped a few characters to 'B's just because they couldn't flawlessly contain some of the early waves like everyone else, but on the whole we haven't seen a campaign mode this easy since the actual main campaign.

Final Grades

• Veruk - A
• Asra - B
• Oloch - B
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - B
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Iron

We get a second good iron mode in a row here, for which I'm grateful.  When I first saw it, I admit I rolled my eyes.  Spectral Mausoleum and Twilight Harassers, two of the most OP towers in the game?  Yeah, I'm going to faceroll this one.

But I was mistaken.  Despite having such powerful towers - and a free Swamp Thing as well! - the build here proved quite tricky.  And even once the build is mastered, some good micro is still required to stay on top of things.  I must say that Haunted Skeletons are one of the best designed enemies in the series.  Their HP and damage are honestly very low, but that ability to heal surrounding units on death makes a wave of these things always something to be wary of.  It doesn't take much for a chokepoint to get overwhelmed and things to go sideways with them.

Impressions

Mortemis and Oloch get their usual 'B' and 'C' respectively, as these elite mini-campaigns just have not been nice to magical DPS.  I also had to drop Veruk, Asra, and Jun'pai to 'B's just due to general DPS problems.  You need good DPS with the Haunted Skeleton waves to make sure you're killing one before the next one arrives at your blockers.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - B
• Oloch - C
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - B
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Heroic

This was a challenging map, but unlike the campaign mode it falls more on the fun side of the challenging spectrum.  I kind of like heroic or iron modes that challenge you right out of the gate by throwing a large enemy at you, which this map does by making you deal with Bone Carriers in wave 1.  As usual, a Shadow Archer with insta-kill is the prescription for the problem, but then they up the ante in wave 5 with several more Bone Carriers.  It's a fun challenge balancing a build that can take down a large number of heavies, but also deal with the filler waves in between.

Impressions

This one was much easier than campaign mode (which is always disappointing for a heroic mode).  As such, we only have a few non-'A's.  Oloch takes a 'C' as usual as his magical DPS just isn't what the doctor ordered against so many magically-resistant enemies.  Mortemis gets a 'B' for similar reasons, but his additional strengths bump him up a grade.  Finally, Veruk takes a 'B' for just being poor at DPSing overall.  Other than that, 'A's all around.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - A
• Oloch - C
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Campaign

So interesting story - when I finished the Subaquatic Menace mini-campaign, I got it in my mind that the Cursed Bargain mini-campaign was next (based on the level numbering).  Of course it is not, and Frozen Nightmare comes next, followed by Cursed Bargain.  Thus I started on this map after Pond of the Sage iron, and it wasn't until most of the recordings were finished that I realized my mistake.  It doesn't make any material difference, of course, but if you look at the world map at the beginning of each video you can see that none of the Frozen Nightmare maps have been finished yet, even though this post is coming after all of those maps.

The other part of the story is that I didn't write down any grades from when I made the recordings.  All I really remember is that this map was an absolute beast for Oloch and Mortemis because of the magic-resistant enemies and I would have given them 'C's, while all other heroes were either 'A's or 'B's.

This map was really hard, and not in the fun way unfortunately.  I wish I had a better handle on what makes the difference between fun hard and frustrating hard in these games, but this one definitely falls into the latter category.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Iron

I will say it took me quite a while to figure out the build for this map.  That probably seems surprising given it's an iron mode, which are usually quite easy to figure out as I've talked about before.  But they cranked up the difficulty for this one, and minor differences in your build can lead to wildly different outcomes.  It took a while to figure out that the trolls were sufficient for the right path but Dark Knights were needed for the left.  I also spent a lot of time thinking I needed to upgrade my Dark Knights so they could better handle the Winter Lords, but the key was actually not upgrading them and investing in more DPS.

A crucially important details turns out to be using trolls to block the Draugr coming from the left towards the end of the map.  At this point the build is sufficient to take out the Winter Lords by themselves, but if Draugr start getting into the mix it dilutes your DPS too much - especially given that Bone Flingers target random enemies.  That's also why I build a Bone Flinger just before this point in the upper middle - to help stem the tide of Draugr coming from the upper right so it doesn't overwhelm my right chokepoint.

Impressions

It was a beast to figure out, but once you've got the right build strategy the rest just falls into place and any hero can manage just fine here (this seems to be the story of KRV).  I did give Veruk, Asra, and Oloch 'B's though, as their lower DPS did make me have to work slightly harder with them.  Everyone else aces this map.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - B
• Oloch - B
• Margosa - A
• Mortemis - A
• Tramin - A
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Heroic

This was a huge step back in difficulty, even from the campaign mode.  It did take a bit of doing to figure out the right build plan, which is a little trickier because the upgrades bounce around more than usual, but once you've got it down any hero can manage this map.  As such, no grades for this one.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Campaign

This one feels like it's a slight step back from previous maps in terms of difficulty, but it's still an enjoyable challenge.  Once again it's all about balancing a build plan that can take on each wave while also saving enough to take out the Snow Golems when they threaten to pop.  Since the Snow Golems always wake up the same way each time it's just a matter of memorizing what waves they do and keeping enough gold in reserve to handle them.

Impressions

This whole mini-campaign has been in an exercise in magic resistance.  As such, it's been pretty hard on Oloch and Mortemis.  I had to give Oloch a 'C', since he just struggles so much to add anything to your DPS.  Mortemis' ability to raise zombie blockers, plus his utility in taking down Frozen Souls bumped him up to a 'B', with all other heroes getting 'A's and 'B's.

Final Grades

• Veruk - B
• Asra - A
• Oloch - C
• Margosa - B
• Mortemis - B
• Tramin - B
• Jigou - A
• Beresad - A
• Doom Tank SG-11 - A
• Jun'pai - A
• Eiskalt - A
• Murglun - A
• Jack O'Lantern - A

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Campaign