Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Beresad's Lair Heroic

In a surprising breath of fresh air we get to take a break from Mecha spam for once.  I initially tried an all-Mecha solution for this map, and while it worked, it wasn't nearly as reliable as I liked.  Things could get out of hand fairly easily, and Wasp Missiles would spend all their time chasing down leaks - which means they're not hitting enemies at your chokepoint, which just leads to more leaks, etc.

So I backtracked and found that an initial DWAARP worked better to deal with the normal mobs, then added archers at the ends of either paths to deal with both flying enemies and leaks.  From there we can add Mechas as normal to do the rest of the work and everything works much better.

So a little bit of build strategy is required, but it's still an all-'A' map for the heroes.  I'm disappointed that the further we get along in the campaign the easier it's getting.  I didn't quite remember it this way from when I did my walkthrough series a few years ago.  Well, we know the elite campaigns will be a challenge for sure if nothing else.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Beresad's Lair Heroic

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Beresad's Lair Campaign

THEY CANNOT STOP OUR MECHA SPAM!  Once again that's the easy solution to this map.  The only adjustment we have to make is the addition of level 1 barracks to either side of where the paths meet.  This keeps the enemies climbing up the bottom wall contained and grouped up for AoE attacks.  It's possible to do a pure Mecha build, but it gets a little dicey with the weaker heroes.  There are still leaks past the barracks, especially by the Saurian Nightblades, but Wasp Missiles catch them all.  It can get a bit anxiety-inducing trusting the missiles to take care of them, but except for the absolute worst RNG it always happens, especially once you have four or more Mechas and missiles are going off constantly.

All 'A's for the heroes again.  Hopefully heroic mode has some challenge in store for us.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Beresad's Lair Campaign

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Iron

We actually get a slight challenge in this map - not much of one, but certainly some level of difficulty compared to campaign and heroic mode.  It's a case of Crossbow Fort and Barrage spam again, and the only other effort required is working out the timings of a few Rains of Fire.  The only subtlety is at the very end, where two packs of Saurian Myrmidons appear.  You need to Rain of Fire the first pack as soon as it appears.  This will weaken it enough for the Crossbow Forts to finish it off, then Rain of Fire will come off cooldown just as the second pack is getting to the chokepoint.  Not terribly difficult to figure out, but at least we're not being lulled to sleep by the drone of Wasp Missiles this time around.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Iron

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Heroic

This heroic mode is a rare step backwards in difficulty from the campaign mode.  Previously either resource constraints or a level 4 upgrade limit have been what has made Mecha spam not viable in heroic mode, but both those problems are absent here.  So yet again we Mecha-spam our way to easy victories.  A few well-timed Rains of Fire are all else our strategy needs, and the heroes are just there to hold up the few enemies that make it that far down the path.  All of them do so perfectly well, so it's 'A's for everybody and we move on, hoping that iron mode finally brings a challenge again.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Heroic

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Campaign

We continue dominating campaign modes with Mecha spam, so there's not much to say here.  It's the same old story - crank out Mechas with Wasp Missiles as fast as possible and the rest takes care of itself.  Hopefully heroic or iron mode will be a challenge.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - The Underpass Campaign

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Iron

This map has been a bit of a rollercoaster, bouncing from trivial in campaign mode, to ultra-hard for heroic, and now back to trivial again for iron mode.  I'm not sure what the thought was in giving two Necromancer towers with Death Knights, but it makes this map pretty trivial overall.  We just have to spam Mechas with Wasp Missiles as usual, then try to use our hero and reinforcements to keep the mobs contained to the entrance.  All heroes do this equally adequately, so it's 'A's for everybody.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Heroic

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Heroic

We jump straight from an ultra-trivial map that doesn't even require heroes into one of the hardest challenges we've faced so far.  This one is just shy of being as hard as Ma'qwa Urqu iron, but it still gives it a run for its money, so let's break this beast down.

Your first idea might logically be to go all-in with Mechas as we did in campaign mode, but a little experimentation will show that it just doesn't work, for reasons we'll discuss shortly.  So we're going to have to go with a more conventional solution.

The first step in conquering this map then is realizing the difference in the enemy compositions between the right and left paths.  The left path is solely Gorillons, Poukai Riders, and Savage Hunters, while the right path is all the other types of Savages.  This immediately suggests we need different solutions on each side - AoE on the right, and high single-target damage on the left.

On the right side we might still be tempted to go with Mechas, since they just finished proving how ridiculously overpowered they are, but they're actually not the right choice here.  The map is limited to level 4 upgrades, which means artillery towers don't have the Shock and Awe stun-on-hit chance.  This is a large part of what makes Mechas so powerful since they hit so frequently, but here it means we're not going to get the stalling power we need.  Thus a better solution is a DWAARP / Necromancer combo.

The left side is the real nightmare of this map.  Poukai Riders means an AoE solution is out (otherwise we could just go with DWAARPs with Core Drill to take down the Gorillons).  No one does single-target DPS better than the Archmage Tower, so that's what we need to roll with.  However, managing the Poukais is still a bit of a nightmare.  In particular there's a very tricky transition point between waves 2 and 3.  Generally you end up with a Gorillon who's nearing the end of your defenses with a few Poukai Riders behind him.  When wave 3 pops it has to be instantly called to refresh Rain of Fire, which then has to be used either to finish off the Gorillon or - more often - carefully targeted to eliminate the Poukai.

There's a lot of RNG that goes into this map, and while the plan is fairly straightforward early on, by the middle you're really having to pay attention to both sides to decide where to devote resources.  Are reinforcements better used on the left to stall Gorillons, or on the right to stall Blood Tricksters?  Depending on how things are going left versus right will also determine which side the next build upgrade goes on.  It's really not until wave 6 starts that things are finally under control and you can be confident that there are not going to be leaks on either side.

Instances like the wave 2-3 transition mentioned above make this a map that really stretches you in terms of your micro, which is fairly rare in the series.  On that note I'd like to point out a subtlety from the videos that might not be completely obvious.  You'll notice that when I place reinforcements to stall Gorillons, I always place them behind the Gorillon.  As long as they're still in blocking range (and I do mess that up a few times in the videos) they'll walk over to block the Gorillon.  However, it can take upwards of a second for that to happen, and during that time the Gorillon is frozen in place.  In addition, because they're moving they generally can't be hit by Poukai Riders or Savage Hunters.  It might not seem like much, but eking out that extra second with every reinforcement placement adds up to a lot over the course of the map.

This was an incredibly hard map to grade.  Because of the prevalence of ranged enemies on the left side, it makes sense to commit the hero fully to the right side in taking down the Savages.  However, there's still a lot of RNG here as well, and even good heroes sometimes allowed leaks (especially if bad RNG on the left side meant reinforcements needed to be sent there instead of dealing with Blood Tricksters).  Because of that, I've decided to take the somewhat unprecedented step of giving every hero a 'B', even if on their video it looks like they didn't have any particular trouble.  I'm only making two exceptions - Sha'tra and Bonehart.

Sha'tra's Abduction ability changes the game entirely, allowing you to start out with the right side basically fully developed while he takes care of the Gorillons solo.  You still have to build Crossbow Forts to deal with the Poukai, but it can be delayed until after the map start.  Ultimately this means you can be confident both sides are locked down, even though I honestly screwed up a few of his Abduction timings over the course of the map.

As for Bonehart, he's the only hero powerful enough to feel confident that the right side is truly locked down and not subject to bad RNG.  The left side still is, but that's not the fault of the hero.  So ultimately this turned out to be a bit of a weird map, but overall a very satisfying challenge.

Final Grades

• Alric - B
• Mirage - B
• Captain Blackthorne - B
• Cronan - B
• Bruxa - B
• Nivus - B
• Dierdre - B
• Grawl - B
• Sha'tra - A
• Ashbite - B
• Karkinos - B
• Kutsao - B
• Dante - B
• Bonehart - A
• Kahz - B
• Saitam - B

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Heroic

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Campaign

If Ma'qwa Urqu Campaign was a showcase for the Mecha, then this map is doubly so.  Here we have a case where they dominate so hard that it is effectively a hero-less solution.  Seriously, I ended up leaving every hero at their spawn point for the entire map.  Just surround the enemy spawn lane with Mechas with Wasp Missiles, and between that and reinforcements they pretty much never make it to the lane split.  The Mechas take care of everything even though the level is pretty heavy on flying enemies yet again.

I was tempted to literally do a single hero-less video, where I take Bonehart and fly him into a corner where he can never use any of his abilities.  But for consistency's sake I decided to still record all 16 heroes, even if it was slightly pointless (and very tedious).

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Temple of Saqra Campaign

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Ma'qwa Urqu Iron

As I mentioned in the last blog post, I remember this challenge well from when I did my Frontiers walkthrough series, even though it was many years ago.  If you didn't already hate Blood Tricksters, this is the map that will make you.  Everything for the first two thirds of the map - up through the Gorillons - is manageable.  You can use reinforcements or heroes to separate out the Tricksters so they raise as few Savages as possible.  But after the wave of Gorillons things just get nuts.  There are too many Tricksters to keep them all blocked at once, and if you try to do it with barracks you find your troops just die too fast between the Tricksters and the Savage Hunters.

In my previous walkthrough I went with a mixed strategy of Crossbow Forts and Templars.  The Holy Grail upgrade effectively gives the Templars a lot more life and thus freezes the ranged enemies in place longer.  However, there's a lot of RNG involved, naturally, and ideally you need to constantly be adjusting the rally points to manage the mobs properly.  It works, but it's tough and not 100% consistent.

This time around I found a better strategy that just goes all-in with Crossbow Forts with a single level of the Barrage upgrade.  From there it's a matter of good micro for your hero and reinforcements.  The key to remember is the goal is not just to block Tricksters, but to do so most strategically to limit their ability to raise zombies.  If a Trickster is in front of several other mobs, that's perfect, since your towers will prioritize them first.  Blocking them would be counterproductive, allowing the other mobs to get in front of them and be killed by your towers where they'll just get raised as zombies.

Rain of Fire management is important here, too.  I found best results when I used it early when the last waves started appearing.  On the north lane two Tricksters will appear close together and you can eliminate both of them easily, which greatly simplifies management of that lane for the rest of the map.  Rain of Fire will then come off cooldown again towards the end of the map when you may need it to eliminate a large group approaching the exit.  You need to use reinforcements and your hero to make sure large groups from both lanes arrive at the exit at the same time to get the most mileage out of the last RoF as well.

It's worth a note as to why I don't use Axethrowers here.  You might think that Totem of Spirits is the ideal counter to Blood Tricksters.  However, despite the fact that the wiki says it silences Tricksters, my experimentation shows that it does not.  I'm not sure if that's a bug, but in any case it rules out Axethrowers, since I didn't find that Totem of Weakness provided as much benefit as just having another Crossbow Fort with Barrage.

All in all this was a serious and seriously fun challenge, riding that fine line between being hard without crossing into being overly frustrating.  It's a breath of fresh air after Vengeance.

Impressions

This was a good map to really start sorting the heroes out.  It was a hard one to grade, but despite the difficulty of the map I didn't feel any hero deserved less than a 'B'.  The 'A's were mostly the usual suspects, but there were some surprises.

Alric took an 'A' of course, as his incredible stalling ability plus DPS meant he could really put the Tricksters on lockdown.  Bruxa joined him as this is the ideal map for her - lots of fodder enemies that are constantly dying.  It almost didn't matter that she couldn't block the Tricksters since she could DPS down the zombies so fast.  Grawl earned a somewhat surprising 'A' as well.  In one regard this is a nightmare situation for him, being so slow and having a disincentive to move a lot.  However, the AoE damage from Boulder Throw and Stomp plus his EHP and immunity to Hunters' poison more than made up for it.

On the second row, Ashbite shows again why AoE damage is so valuable in these games.  Karkinos took home an unexpected 'A' as well.  This is the perfect map for him to get a lot of mileage out of Battle Hardened, and his ability to stay invulnerable for long periods of time did a fantastic job of freezing the Tricksters and keeping them from raising zombies.  Dante and Kahz earned 'A's for their ability to bring the DPS, and of course Bonehart just facerolled the whole map.

Final Grades

• Alric - A
• Mirage - B
• Captain Blackthorne - B
• Cronan - B
• Bruxa - A
• Nivus - B
• Dierdre - B
• Grawl - A
• Sha'tra - B
• Ashbite - A
• Karkinos - A
• Kutsao - B
• Dante - A
• Bonehart - A
• Kahz - A
• Saitam - B

Kingdom Rush Frontiers Impossible Hero Challenge - Ma'qwa Urqu Iron