Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 22. Starving Hollow Campaign

Well, that was...a lot, in more than one sense of the word.  First of all I'm referring to the length of the level, because holy cow.  Most of my videos were pushing if not exceeding the 30 minute mark, which I think is a new record for Kingdom Rush (I'd check for sure, but YouTube does not allow you to sort videos by length for some strange reason).  Second I'm referring to the difficulty of the level itself, as they definitely bring the heat on this one.  And though I'm utterly exhausted at the end of it all, it was exhausting in a good way.

Despite not being terribly impressed with the rest of the campaign, it at least finishes strong on this boss level.  I'll even go so far as to say that this is the first map in Alliance that's given me vibes similar to the Pirate Kings DLC for Vengeance.  That DLC is fantastic, and this is the closest they've come so far to recapturing the feel of it.  We'll see if they can maintain that through the next two paid DLCs and the other free elite campaign.

As always, the Winged Croks are the biggest threat here, although here at least I felt the challenge was reasonable instead of just frustrating.  The waves coming from the top left are the most difficult, as there are really only two good build points that can solidly DPS them before they get to the exit, with a couple of other build points that can briefly hit them as they pass by.  One of them is the bonus tower in the top left.  You'll notice that I don't really control for RNG on which tower I got, with one exception.  The only tower you can't get is the Tricannon.  This is one of the two build points that can really DPS the Winged Croks, so you have to have a tower that can target flyers.  The best option is honestly Royal Archers, with Arcane Wizards close behind.  Eldritch Channelers are acceptable if one or both of your heroes has a ranged attack that can help bring the Winged Croks down.

You'll notice also that I don't really try to control for RNG on the boss's tower disabling ability.  Throughout most of the heroes I just accepted that I was going to have to pay to free the tower most every time he used his ability.  It wasn't until I got to the last two heroes (Raelyn and Torres, the two hardest to complete the map with) that I switched the build plan to building out level 1 of every planned tower at the beginning to try to bait the boss into targeting an unimportant tower.

I like the Abominor fight itself, even if he is pretty easy.  It's just too easy to stall him almost indefinitely throughout his first three phases and let your towers whack on him.  They should have reduced the time on the animation where he eats a blocker so that he could make more consistent progress.  Even once he gets to his fourth and final phase where he can't be blocked he still moves so very slowly that it's just not a problem to DPS him down, even if there are other distracting mobs on the field.  Still, he has terrific animations and is a lot more fun to fight than Navira.

Impressions

There are certain maps which just especially highlight heroes whose DPS is lacking and this map definitely did it for both Stregi and Warhead.  While they didn't have the worst grade (Torres takes that honor with a 'C-'), man do you feel the struggle while playing with them.  This is one of those maps where your heroes are constantly needing to hurry up and finish what they're currently working on in order to get to the next hotspot before it spirals out of control, and it was definitely difficult to do that here with them.

I think this map also highlights the duality of Stregi's hero spell.  On the one hand it was clutch in situations where a Hyrda or Tankzard was getting too close to the exit (which happened a lot because her DPS sucks), but on the other there are a lot of situations where it just doesn't really do anything for you.  This is especially true in the early game where I was trying to keep waves confined to the top half of the map.  Using it there just sends mobs back to the entrance where towers can't hit them, which is almost counterproductive.  Yes it buys you time, but it's time you can't really afford, as like I mentioned this is a very time sensitive map where you need to quickly burn down the current mobs so you can prep for the next group.

On the flip side, Onagro impressed yet again this map.  Like in the previous map, I was worried his lack of mobility and blocking would be a severe hindrance, but he honestly kind of tore it up.  This is definitely a map that rewards heroes with AoE hero spells though, so he obviously benefitted greatly from that.

Finally, you'll notice in Torres' video that I got the speed glitch on him fairly early on.  This was completely accidental, but while it is a glitch, I had no desire to start over.  This map is already so long and it's hard enough to do with Torres (since neither he nor either of the free Dark Army heroes have a ranged attack) that I just rolled with it.  I definitely think it is doable with him without the speed glitch, but I also doubt that it would drop him down to a 'D'.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - B
• Torres - C-
• Anya - C+
• Grimson - B
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B+
• Onagro - A-
• Warhead - C+
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A+
• Stregi - C
• Bonehart - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Campaign

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Iron

This was a weird map all around.  Iron mode feels more like what heroic mode should have been, while heroic mode feels more like an iron mode.  But despite that I've enjoyed both, and it's rekindled my enthusiasm to pick up the pace on these maps after the chore that was Arborean Hamlet.

I enjoyed trying out the Bog Hermit for the first time.  I like the design, as it's a very versatile tower.  Both magic mode and AoE mode feel powerful and useful, and the special abilities are pretty good as well.  I wish I could continue to use it going forward, but alas, this is probably the last time I will since it's a premium tower.

The only real trick to this map is holding off the Hydras at the top right exit, and it's not really a trick, just a matter of good micro and endurance.  The other lanes are pretty straightforward.  I will say that I appreciate that Ironhide went back to including very powerful and mini-boss level mobs in Alliance.  In Vengeance it's like they were afraid of putting them in, and when they did they were just too easy to deal with.  Enemies like Bone Carriers and Crystal Demolishers were ridiculously slow as well as vulnerable to either Possession or insta-kills.  A single Spectral Mausoleum with Possession could kill a Bone Carrier solo as a result.  Hydras are a real-deal threat though, and they remind me of Cerberuses from the original game in their deadliness.

Impressions

It's a pretty easy map altogether, so there's no one in 'C' tier and everyone gets the chance to improve their GPAs.  Even Raelyn gets a rare unadorned 'B' due to her superior ability to tank the Hydras.

The only really notable grades were Onagro, who managed to land an 'A-' despite my worries that he wouldn't do well due to his inability to block, and Lumenir, who again did a leapfrog of Kosmyr, earning a rare 'A+'.  Despite her lack of blocking, Lumenir's hero spell does a fantastic job of both stalling and damaging Hydras, and she was able to eliminate them all quickly with extreme prejudice.

Final Grades

• Vesper - B-
• Raelyn - B
• Nyru - B-
• Torres - B-
• Anya - B+
• Grimson - B-
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B-
• Onagro - A-
• Warhead - B
• Lumenir - A+
• Kosmyr - A
• Stregi - B
• Bonehart - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Iron

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Heroic

After venting my frustrations with the Alliance bonus campaigns in my last post, this map was a welcome breath of fresh air.  For one, no flying enemies.  That means I'm free of Royal Archers and also Dwarven Flamethrowers, getting to finally go back to the Tricannon for the first time in what feels like forever.  Just having a moment's peace from having to account for "the flying wave" and getting to use a tower I like was immensely rejuvenating.

And besides the build, this map eases up on the difficulty enough that I was able to go back to one hero.  "Easy" might not seem like the right description as you view the grades below, but it's quite telling when a map is doable with only one hero.  When I first started the map I did two heroes, as I just had accepted that all the maps from here on out were going to require two, but then I aced it on my first attempt without breaking a sweat.  I literally thought, "Really, that's it?" in my head.  So I realized that one hero was probably in reach, and in fact it managed to just about hit the sweet spot of being challenging without being overly frustrating.

Unusual for this map was the need to build a forward choke point on one of the islands.  If you've watched any of my videos, you know that I lean towards a traditional choke-points-at-the-exits kind of strategy for my builds.  But this is one of the rare maps that I feel rather demanded it.  It's hard to tell from the video only, but an early barracks there during wave 2 is crucial for slightly delaying the Quickfeet so that they can't turn an Crok into a Killertile at the upper right exit lane, which basically is a game over if they do.  Then in wave 4 it's best to try to contain all the enemies coming from the lower left on that island, because if they advance to the upper center exit your defense is likely to get overrun with Wise Croks constantly disabling your towers.  I appreciate so much genuine difficulty like this based on clever wave composition over "here's a bunch of spongy flying enemies".

Impressions

The grades may seem brutal but they're also more honest, being single hero.  Raelyn really sucked it up as usual, but what was really surprising was Vesper's dismal 'D' performance.  I don't know what it was, but he really stunk at this map.  To be fair he was one of the first heroes I did, and I probably should have gone back and redone him at the end once I had more experience with the map, but I just didn't have it in me to do so.

This is definitely one of those maps that tells a story of heroes who dominate and those who don't.  All our 'A+' heroes were able to insta-call all waves, which would have been unthinkable for all other heroes.

Final Grades

• Vesper - D
• Raelyn - C-
• Nyru - B
• Torres - A-
• Anya - B-
• Grimson - C
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B+
• Onagro - A-
• Warhead - C-
• Lumenir - A
• Kosmyr - A+
• Stregi - C+
• Bonehart - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Heroic

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 21. The Sunken Ruins Campaign

I know my pace has slowed down a lot lately, for which I apologize.  Some of it has to do with life factors, but some of it has to do with the fact that I'm just not really getting into these Alliance bonus campaigns.  The first one was okay at best, and I made my feelings on the boss map abundantly clear.  I'm not particularly enjoying this one either, and today's map I've started referring to as "the slog in the bog" in my mind.

My feelings about Alliance and how the Kingdom Rush series has evolved overall are gradually crystallizing as I keep playing, but one thing I've begun realizing is that as the series has progressed build variety has been steadily decreasing.  I've done several one-tower challenges on my channel for the original Kingdom Rush on some of the most difficult levels, and I realized that that would just not be possible on most of the harder maps in Alliance.  I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I will say it's sucking the fun (for me, at least) out of a lot of these levels.

Part of the charm of the original Kingdom Rush is that you generally had a lot of flexibility in terms of your build.  Every tower was powerful, and so every tower could - generally speaking - get the job done.  Now you would think that would be an indication that the game was easy - you can just throw any old build at a map and it will work - but for whatever reason that was not the case.  Hard levels were still hard, even though with enough experience you could have the skill to do challenges like one tower.

In Alliance I generally have the feeling with any new map that there's the One True Build that I have to figure out.  That's putting too fine a point on it, and of course there is wiggle room for variation, but I still feel cramped in terms of playstyle.

Part of that may be due to the fact that I limit myself to non-premium towers only.  I do that of course so that these videos can serve as walkthroughs for mobile players who don't want to spend money on the game.  It could very well be that if I was using those towers I would feel the freedom to do something crazy like a Stargazer-only build.  But as it is I feel like I'm treading the same rut just with different scenery every time - okay, the Royal Archers have to go here to deal with the flying enemies, I need a Dwarven Flamethrower here to deal with large packs as well as provide additional flying enemy support, etc.

That's a lot of prologue, but I just don't have a lot of enthusiasm for discussing this map.  It's a different premise, I'll grant, given that non-flying heroes are confined to the exits.  I'm possibly forgetting, but I don't think that's been the case on a map since The Sunken Citadel in Frontiers.  Given the similarity in names, perhaps there was a deliberate attempt to recreate that experience?

Besides that the only new gimmick here is the Hydra, who is quite the tough customer.  I thought the flavor text on its card was a hint that fire could prevent it from transitioning to its second phase, thus I originally started trying the Dwarven Flamethrower, but alas it appears Ironhide was just trolling us.  It turns out the Flamethrower is the best DPS option for the upper right chokepoint anyway, since it hosts both magic resistant enemies like the Hydra as well as some Nesting Gators at one point.  And yes, in the Bonehart video I did forget that the Hydra had good magic resistance when I replaced the Flamethrower with an Eldritch Channeler.

Impressions

Grades are unsurprising and largely unremarkable.  I will say I don't feel I'm doing a very good job of accounting for the fact that I'm relying hard on the second hero in these grades.  I'm slightly resentful that the game is forcing me to have to use two heroes, ruining my perfect grading scheme, but at the same time I'm also grateful that it's challenging enough to require me to do so.

Final Grades

• Vesper - C+
• Raelyn - C
• Nyru - B-
• Torres - C-
• Anya - C+
• Grimson - B-
• Broden - A+
• Therien - B+
• Onagro - B
• Warhead - B+
• Lumenir - A-
• Kosmyr - A
• Stregi - C+
• Bonehart - A+

Kingdom Rush Alliance Impossible Hero Challenge - 20. Arborean Hamlet Campaign