Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Iron

So I will say that Ironhide is beginning to live up to the promise of this DLC, that it "has a high difficulty level" as the map screens say.  What we have here is some true nightmare fuel - hordes of Nomads backed by a couple of Djinnis.  It took a long time to get the build right for this one, and believe me, it has to be exactly right.

I will admit this is actually the first time I've ever used the Shaolin Temple.  As you probably know, for my Impossible Hero Challenge I'm committed to using towers that are free on mobile only, so prior to now I've never really had a motivation to use it.  Now that I have I can finally say, wow, it really sucks.

So we're stuck with two of the worst towers in the game to take down wave upon wave of Nomads.  The build here is extremely important.  First, it's just not possible like in campaign or normal mode to build a central chokepoint where the paths diverge - the Nomads that enter the map right at the lower exit make that a nonstarter.  That means we have to have separate chokepoints at each exit, which strains our resources.  The Shaolin Temple just does not have the DPS to deal with so many mobs, so we have to rely on Goblirangs [shudder] to provide pseudo-AoE damage.

The Dragon Warrior upgrade for the Temples is also paramount, as every possible body is needed to stall the Nomads inside the Goblirangs range for as long as possible.  Without them they would just walk straight out the exits.  The final piece to the puzzle is the single un-upgraded Goblirang on the right.  This exists solely to eat up the Djinnis' towers-to-sand power so that it doesn't get used on our actual DPS towers.

Impressions

I appreciate maps like this that shake up the normal order.  Shockingly I had to hand out a 'D' to Margosa, and as you know if you've been following this challenge, 'D's are very rare in Vengeance.  The truth is though she just brings very little to this map.  As a melee character she really can't DPS the Nomads - their dodge ability means they're constantly moving out of range.  And if she can't hit them, she also can't heal, which means their ranged attack can take her down very quickly.  Obviously there's nothing she can do against the Djinnis either, so she's stuck contributing extremely little, and it took a lot of luck to get the win with her.

Because of the melee problem Veruk earns a 'C' for this one as well.  He can't hit the Nomads either, but his ability to put canon fodder on the field to stall the Nomads at least brings him up from 'D' level.  Mortemis, despite being ranged, earns a 'C' also, as the Nomads can take down his zombies too quickly for them to be really useful, and the Rotten Bodyguard as a melee character can't do much either.

Asra takes a 'B' because she's Asra, but everyone else earns 'A's - and yes, that even means Oloch!  For once Seal of Isolation actually comes in clutch as an ability.  Since the Djinnis come in from the far right and move so slowly, he can actually stall them indefinitely at the entrance allowing the towers to take care of the Nomads first.  The Djinnis are really the only thing making the Nomads very dangerous here - their ability to eliminate your blocking units, which are the only things keeping the Nomads from just running out the exits.  I checked and this is only the second time Oloch has earned an 'A' on a non-trivial map, the first being Silveroak Outpost Heroic, which was our very first map with grades in this challenge.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Heroic

This is a tale of two maps.  I initially started working on this map right before Christmas.  I got through the first four or so heroes and everything was looking good.  It was looking to be another of those maps where the low end heroes got 'B's and everyone else got an easy 'A'.

Then 12/27 came.

If you're not aware, a minor update for Vengeance came out on 12/27.  The patch notes are pretty short, but there was definitely something that got changed that didn't make it into them, and that's Genie behavior.  Before 12/27 on Sape Oasis, when a Genie would appear at the bottom middle it would immediately use its power to turn towers into sand, then walk up to join the path.  This was fine, as it only would catch the tower just to the left with this power.  However, post update, the Genie now waits until it gets on the path to use that power, at which point it catches all three nearby towers.

This was a problem.

Before there was plenty of time for the tower to the left to turn back from sand and, along with the other two nearby towers, take down the Genie.  But with this alteration the game has changed, at least on heroic mode.  Now there's just not enough time for the towers to take down the Genie before he makes it to the exit, even if you build a supporting tower right next to the lower exit.  And all of this is to say nothing about the other enemies that are coming from the right constantly.

So this map took me quite some time before I came up with a solid strategy.  In the end, the solution was to build a Shadow Archer with Blade of Demise to insta-kill the Genies.  The problem then becomes you have to build a complete prevent defense up the path to the right, making sure that no enemies pass your chokepoint and accidentally use up the insta-kill right before it's needed for a Genie.  This is pretty hard to do considering there's not much gold left over after setting up the insta-kill. 

Impressions

So all in all this map turned into a pretty fun challenge that actually made me think and work hard for once.  I mean, in the end it's once again only the low-end heroes who struggle, but I appreciate a heroic mode that's not a braindead repeat of campaign mode.  The only other subtlety to the heroes on this one is that only high-end heroes can instantly call wave 3.  The sudden onrush from the wave will overrun your chokepoint with a weaker hero, and I docked Margosa, Mortemis, Tramin, and Jigou down to 'B's because they couldn't do this, even though their performance on the rest of the map was quite satisfactory.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Update

Just a quick update, but I wanted to say how I've decided to do the release schedule for the new Vengeance DLC.  Ideally I would release a new map every day for my Impossible Hero Challenge series and thus get through all the new maps in only three weeks.  However, I'm finding that's a pace I just am not going to be able to keep up with.  Therefore for the next several weeks I'll be releasing Impossible Hero Challenge content on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'll start putting out the Isfet videos, taking him through the Impossible Hero Challenge process.  Getting three videos done with a new hero on maps I've already mastered is infinitely easier than getting fifteen videos done on a brand new map, so this will give me the margin I need to keep content coming at a daily pace.  Thanks to everyone who follows this blog and keeps up with my content!

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Campaign

I'm happy to say map #2 of the DLC turns out to be my favorite map in quite a while.  We get a pretty decent challenge here - at least figuring out the right build was challenging.  My first time recording I got all the way to Eiskalt before I realized the optimal strategy was to just overload the map (and Mirage) with Skeleton Warriors coming out of Bone Flinger towers.  Before that I was using another Melting Furnace and trying to boost towers with Abrasive Heat.

The Genies and Flying Carpets are well-designed enemies - dangerous, but with weaknesses that can be exploited.  Both can be effectively stalled in a kill zone by making sure a steady stream of fodder (reinforcements plus Skeleton Warriors in this case) keeps approaching them.  The Nomads are a little cheap but only dangerous in large numbers.

Impressions

Grades are pretty good here, with the usual suspects plus Margosa and Jigou taking the only 'B's.  The top end heroes are powerful enough that you can forgo the Got Milk? upgrade on the second and third Bone Flingers, meaning you can get Skeleton Warriors up that much faster.

I've said before I decided not to do a Best Choice award in this series since it would always be Eiskalt, but I need to do a special shout-out to Dianyun for this map.  Dianyun dominated this map so hard he completely broke it.  His gold generation ability helps get Skeleton Warriors going that much faster, so much so that by the end of the map he had enemies completely stopped up at the map entrance in the upper right, killing them as fast as they appeared.  Then when the Mirage fight started I managed to have four Dragon Totems already in place around her, which took her down terrifyingly fast.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Sape Oasis Campaign