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

This bonus campaign closes out with a reasonably challenging iron mode.  Despite being a map that needs a decent amount of AoE, I had trouble getting a Battle Brewmaster build off the ground and found it easier to go all-in with Twilight Longbows.  They really come into their own as the fight progresses, being invaluable in taking down Killertiles and Tankzards.  Besides that there's really no trick to this one other than just fighting as hard as possible.

Impressions

We have some very surprising grades this time around.  Stregi being at the bottom with a 'C' isn't surprising of course, but Anya joining her somewhat is.  This is just one of those maps that highlights heroes with DPS problems, and Anya is definitely one of them.  Normally her great survivability and solid hero spell keep her from hitting rock bottom, but this time around that just wasn't the case.

Of course I say all that and then Warhead somehow earns himself a very rare 'A-'.  Of course his hero spell is pretty clutch on this level, but still I was shocked how easy it was to do this one with him.  But then to prove it truly is Opposite Day, Onagro only manages a 'B' here.  Throughout campaign and heroic modes I worried that his mobility issues would be a big problem and they just weren't, but again this map for whatever reason really hits that weakness hard.

And then as the cherry on top, Broden does not earn his usual 'A+', only getting an 'A'.  His performance just didn't have the trivializing feel that it normally does.  And while Kosmyr is usually the one coming in just below him with an unadorned 'A', he somehow tops him to get the 'A+' himself.

I'm certainly not going to complain about a map that shakes things up grade-wise, I just wish I could identify the particular aspects of it that make it that way.  It's not like the map has a particularly unusual wave composition, or that they're asking you to do something really hard like take down high armor enemies with no magic towers, but man this one was just weird.

Final Grades

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

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

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

We bounce back from campaign mode to a pretty trivial heroic mode.  I believe that a single hero solution here is probably possible, but honestly I just didn't have it in me to spend the time searching for it.  I'm feeling so terribly behind on this series with the recent release of the second Alliance DLC that I desperately just want to get caught up.  Fortunately I have no intentions of playing the imminent new game, Kingdom Rush Battles, so it's release cycle should buy me the time I need to get caught up on the franchise.  In case you're wondering why I'm not going to play it, it's a PvP-focused game, and I'm avoiding PvP games in this stage of my life like the plague for multiple reasons I won't bore you with right now.

Right, back to the map.  As usual, the only tricky part are the Winged Croks coming in from the top right.  Two level four Royal Archers are almost enough to deal with them by themselves, so as long as your hero can contribute a little something to taking them down - hero spell or otherwise - everything else is pretty straightforward.  There's only one exit to deal with, thankfully, so we load up the choke point with Tricannons with Bombardment, and I can't tell you how much that warms my heart.  Even Hydras can't withstand three Tricannons constantly raining death on them, and for most of our heroes we don't even really need to upgrade the Paladins much if at all - easy peasy.

Impressions

Since it was pretty easy using two heroes everyone gets a chance to pad their GPA a little.  In case you haven't figured it out, I've really stopped trying to account for using the second hero in the grades.  It was just getting too hard to adjudicate and account for, and the result is that everyone but Stregi lands in 'B' tier or better, with quite a number in 'A' tier.  That includes Anya and Warhead, which is a bit of a rarity for them.  Even Raelyn earns a rare (for her) 'B+'.

Final Grades

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

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