Just like I did Impossible Hero Challenges for all the tower defense Kingdom Rush games, I want to do the same for Legends of Kingdom Rush, even though it works a little differently. Thankfully Ironhide seems to have anticipated this sort of thing, as there are six heroes and twelve non-hero party members, so they divide very easily into six groups of one hero and two non-heroes each. We've already done the first composition in the walkthrough - Gerald, the Ranger, and the Arcane Wizard - so there are only five more to tackle.
I've decided to just call this series a "Hero Challenge" though instead of an "Impossible Hero Challenge" like I've done before. There are a few reasons for this:
- The first is just practical - trying to add "Impossible" to the video titles would make them too long (YouTube has a 100 character limit on titles if you didn't know). I would have to cut out the two non-hero characters from the title, but since there are more reasons not to put "Impossible" in there I decided I'd rather keep the characters.
- Some people took exception to me calling my Frontiers series an "Impossible Hero Challenge" since Frontiers does not have an Impossible difficulty, and Legends does not have one either (or even Veteran, sadly). I explained in a post long ago that I kept the name to be consistent with my other challenges, as well as the fact that "Impossible" refers to more than just the game difficulty, but that leads into the third reason.
- Part of the "Impossible" moniker was not just playing on Impossible difficulty, but also just a comment that trying to complete every level in every mode with every hero on the hardest difficulty was an "impossible" task. After all, it involves making 1,000+ videos per game. Also, it was about whether I could actually complete every map like that - would I be able to beat the hardest maps with the weakest heroes? There were some close calls in that regard - Beheader's Seat iron in Origins and The Ancient Ghosts iron in Vengeance, as long time readers will know - but I did manage it. But the bottom line is that the challenge here in Legends is nowhere near that of other games. We only have to complete four adventures five more times with the five remaining heroes, and Legends is also simply not that difficult.
Having said all that, we can now discuss this actual playthrough. Now in my Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge Asra finished near the bottom of the final hero rankings - which was not surprising given she is a free-on-mobile hero. But it's nice to see her get a bit of redemption in this game. I wouldn't describe her kit as overpowered exactly, but just the fact that she's a ranged character immediately elevates her above every non-ranged character. Go see my post on the walkthrough playlist for an explanation of why that is.
I'm not going to do a deep dive on characters' kits in these blog posts - I'm writing up a complete game guide that will do that - but Asra combines decent ranged damage with good CC abilities, making her a solid hero choice. Of the six heroes, I would rank her third. Oloch is definitely better than her for sure. With Bruxa it's a bit more of a close call, but the fact that Bruxa does magic damage I feel gives her the edge. And of course being ranged ranks her above the three melee heroes as mentioned above, so thus we arrive at the #3 spot.
As for our companions, the Sylvan Elf is a solid, versatile utility character. He can do damage with both melee and ranged attacks, and while the damage on each is not spectacular, his increased mobility coupled with his Agility trait mean he can apply damage when and where you need it most on the field. I'm going to rank the non-hero characters with a tier system, and he comes in a solid 'B'.
As for the Barbarian, he's one of the better melee characters, which isn't saying much, but is something. His ability to hit multiple adjacent enemies both with his basic attack and Whirlwind Strike can really come in clutch, and he can definitely dish out the damage when needed. What holds him back like most melee characters is his awful mobility, and his Berserk ability needs both a higher chance to trigger and to give him a movement speed increase. As such he clocks in with a 'C'.
All that said, here is the playlist:
