Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Campaign

This map is shockingly easy after the enjoyable challenges we've been getting lately in the elite mini-campaigns.  Really the hardest part is the first few waves up through wave 4 with the werewolves.  Once you've survived that, it's pretty much all downhill from there.  Wave 10 with the large number of Bone Carriers from the north is clearly supposed to be a major challenge, but three Shadow Archers with maxed-out insta-kills takes care of it without problem.  Then as long as you have a couple of Melting Furnaces for the liches in the later waves, it's game, set, match.

Impressions

Magical DPS suffers as usual here, and I dropped a few characters to 'B's just because they couldn't flawlessly contain some of the early waves like everyone else, but on the whole we haven't seen a campaign mode this easy since the actual main campaign.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - A Night in the Swamp Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Iron

We get a second good iron mode in a row here, for which I'm grateful.  When I first saw it, I admit I rolled my eyes.  Spectral Mausoleum and Twilight Harassers, two of the most OP towers in the game?  Yeah, I'm going to faceroll this one.

But I was mistaken.  Despite having such powerful towers - and a free Swamp Thing as well! - the build here proved quite tricky.  And even once the build is mastered, some good micro is still required to stay on top of things.  I must say that Haunted Skeletons are one of the best designed enemies in the series.  Their HP and damage are honestly very low, but that ability to heal surrounding units on death makes a wave of these things always something to be wary of.  It doesn't take much for a chokepoint to get overwhelmed and things to go sideways with them.

Impressions

Mortemis and Oloch get their usual 'B' and 'C' respectively, as these elite mini-campaigns just have not been nice to magical DPS.  I also had to drop Veruk, Asra, and Jun'pai to 'B's just due to general DPS problems.  You need good DPS with the Haunted Skeleton waves to make sure you're killing one before the next one arrives at your blockers.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Heroic

This was a challenging map, but unlike the campaign mode it falls more on the fun side of the challenging spectrum.  I kind of like heroic or iron modes that challenge you right out of the gate by throwing a large enemy at you, which this map does by making you deal with Bone Carriers in wave 1.  As usual, a Shadow Archer with insta-kill is the prescription for the problem, but then they up the ante in wave 5 with several more Bone Carriers.  It's a fun challenge balancing a build that can take down a large number of heavies, but also deal with the filler waves in between.

Impressions

This one was much easier than campaign mode (which is always disappointing for a heroic mode).  As such, we only have a few non-'A's.  Oloch takes a 'C' as usual as his magical DPS just isn't what the doctor ordered against so many magically-resistant enemies.  Mortemis gets a 'B' for similar reasons, but his additional strengths bump him up a grade.  Finally, Veruk takes a 'B' for just being poor at DPSing overall.  Other than that, 'A's all around.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Campaign

So interesting story - when I finished the Subaquatic Menace mini-campaign, I got it in my mind that the Cursed Bargain mini-campaign was next (based on the level numbering).  Of course it is not, and Frozen Nightmare comes next, followed by Cursed Bargain.  Thus I started on this map after Pond of the Sage iron, and it wasn't until most of the recordings were finished that I realized my mistake.  It doesn't make any material difference, of course, but if you look at the world map at the beginning of each video you can see that none of the Frozen Nightmare maps have been finished yet, even though this post is coming after all of those maps.

The other part of the story is that I didn't write down any grades from when I made the recordings.  All I really remember is that this map was an absolute beast for Oloch and Mortemis because of the magic-resistant enemies and I would have given them 'C's, while all other heroes were either 'A's or 'B's.

This map was really hard, and not in the fun way unfortunately.  I wish I had a better handle on what makes the difference between fun hard and frustrating hard in these games, but this one definitely falls into the latter category.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Back to the Rotten Forest Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Iron

I will say it took me quite a while to figure out the build for this map.  That probably seems surprising given it's an iron mode, which are usually quite easy to figure out as I've talked about before.  But they cranked up the difficulty for this one, and minor differences in your build can lead to wildly different outcomes.  It took a while to figure out that the trolls were sufficient for the right path but Dark Knights were needed for the left.  I also spent a lot of time thinking I needed to upgrade my Dark Knights so they could better handle the Winter Lords, but the key was actually not upgrading them and investing in more DPS.

A crucially important details turns out to be using trolls to block the Draugr coming from the left towards the end of the map.  At this point the build is sufficient to take out the Winter Lords by themselves, but if Draugr start getting into the mix it dilutes your DPS too much - especially given that Bone Flingers target random enemies.  That's also why I build a Bone Flinger just before this point in the upper middle - to help stem the tide of Draugr coming from the upper right so it doesn't overwhelm my right chokepoint.

Impressions

It was a beast to figure out, but once you've got the right build strategy the rest just falls into place and any hero can manage just fine here (this seems to be the story of KRV).  I did give Veruk, Asra, and Oloch 'B's though, as their lower DPS did make me have to work slightly harder with them.  Everyone else aces this map.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Heroic

This was a huge step back in difficulty, even from the campaign mode.  It did take a bit of doing to figure out the right build plan, which is a little trickier because the upgrades bounce around more than usual, but once you've got it down any hero can manage this map.  As such, no grades for this one.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Campaign

This one feels like it's a slight step back from previous maps in terms of difficulty, but it's still an enjoyable challenge.  Once again it's all about balancing a build plan that can take on each wave while also saving enough to take out the Snow Golems when they threaten to pop.  Since the Snow Golems always wake up the same way each time it's just a matter of memorizing what waves they do and keeping enough gold in reserve to handle them.

Impressions

This whole mini-campaign has been in an exercise in magic resistance.  As such, it's been pretty hard on Oloch and Mortemis.  I had to give Oloch a 'C', since he just struggles so much to add anything to your DPS.  Mortemis' ability to raise zombie blockers, plus his utility in taking down Frozen Souls bumped him up to a 'B', with all other heroes getting 'A's and 'B's.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - The Frozen Throne Campaign