Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Iron

I really, really liked this level, which sadly is something I've not been able to say much in this series.  Something in the enemy composition here just hits the sweet spot of difficulty, where it doesn't feel like you're facing overwhelming odds, but yet you have to fight really hard to win.  Good hero micro is especially crucial on this map, which is something we just haven't gotten enough of.

I think perhaps the key to this level being fun was the alternating difficulty between the top and and bottom lanes.  At the beginning you're tasked with figuring out the minimum you need to deal with all the Crystal Amphipteres on the top lane so you can devote the rest of your resources to the stream of Wardens on the bottom.  And just as the last Wardens are trying to plow through your bottom defenses Crystal Demolishers start appearing on the top, so you have to clean them up as quick as possible so you can move your hero and attention to the top again.  This pattern continues throughout the map and gives the feeling that you're always racing against the clock trying to quickly eliminate the current batch of enemies before the next appears.

Probably a big part of why I liked the map as well is the fact that you're given the two most powerful towers (of the free ones) in the game, so you're not wasting time trying to make up for the weaknesses of lesser towers.  All in all it's a good note for the Anurian mini-campaign to go out on.

Impressions

Again our physical DPS heroes struggle here, and I ended up assigning grades identical to the previous map.  I just feel Anurian Wardens with high hit points and 80% armor are a bad mob design, and they're used poorly in wave compositions as well.  In Origins Twilight Avengers were a similar major threat, but you usually only encountered them one or two at a time except in the most difficult challenges, and they had the decency to drop their armor rating to 40% when blocked.  Here the game just isn't ashamed to send a never-ending stream of Wardens against you, largely nullifying the usefulness of physical DPS heroes.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Heroic

I'm appreciating that in the bonus campaigns we're finally getting maps with a level of challenge comparable to previous Kingdom Rush games.  I still feel it's rather a waste that the main campaign was so easy, even on Impossible, but I'm glad to be getting back into challenges where I have to think about handing out grades.

This map is challenging for all the same reasons campaign mode was, and I finally feel like we have a heroic mode where the difficulty was dialed up a notch over campaign mode.  This one took me quite a while.  I had to tweak my build plan several times before finding the sweet spot.  In fact, I had already made several recordings when I made a couple of tweaks that improved things and decided to go back and re-record those heroes with the better plan.  That's always a pain to do, but I like to use the same plan with all heroes whenever possible so I feel like I'm comparing apples to apples.

The biggest tip for this map is Soul Impact management.  Having been nerfed to oblivion compared to previous games, it's not often that Soul Impact ends up being the game changer in Vengeance, but it does here.  It's important to have one near-off cooldown when wave 5 starts to deal with the horde of Chasers.  Equally important is using reinforcements to make several Chasers bunch up in one spot before using it - both to maximize it's effectiveness and to get as many kills as possible to reduce the cooldown for wave 6, because it's critical in wave 6 again.  There's simply no way to survive the ludicrous numbers of Crystal Amphipteres there without either Soul Impact or a hero spell (and there aren't many hero spells that can really help).

Impressions

The biggest surprise here was having to assign 'C's to Jigou and Jun'pai.  As physical DPS heroes they just struggle so much to bring down the never-ending waves of Wardens.  You would think that Veruk and Tramin would have the same difficulty, but for some reason there was definitely a marked difference in how they performed.  Quite honestly I could have given Jigou and Jun'pai the very first 'D's of this series, they were that borderline.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Campaign

We again get a grade-worthy map.  This one was quite challenging - probably the hardest map to date for me to complete.  The first wave is fine, but the subsequent waves are absolutely brutal.  Waves 2-5 are the worst, and if you can survive those you probably can get the win, but even once you get a good defense up and going this map keeps you on your toes, requiring good micro play for all but the most powerful heroes.

The biggest tip I can provide that may not stand out as much as it should in the videos is to use reinforcements to separate Anurian Infusers from Anurian Wardens.  If you don't do this you'll probably fail as early as wave 2 - it's that big a deal.

Impressions

I was pretty harsh with the grades on this one.  Physical damage heroes suffer the most here, as throughout this mini-campaign, largely due to the large number of Wardens.  They're inability to put out good DPS against these units leaves them struggling to clear the field before a new wave arrives.  You might think they can make it up against the Erudites and Channelers, but no hero can survive going toe-to-toe against the waves of Erudites here for long.

Along those lines Veruk obviously picks up a 'C'.  Tramin unsurprisingly joins him, but the real shock here was me giving 'C's to Jigou and Jun'pai.  Jigou especially struggled on this map, which is the first time I've ever had to say that about him.  Margosa's self-healing abilities mitigated the DPS problems other heroes had, so she managed a 'B' instead.

Despite doing magic damage, Oloch's overall low DPS made finishing with him difficult as well, so he rounded out the 'C' crew.  Not surprising anyone, the dragons and Doom Tank all managed 'A's, with all the rest falling in the middle with 'B's.

Final Grades

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

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Pond of the Sage Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Iron

This was quite a challenging map, for once.  Again they try to sell you on Orc Shamans, and again I'm not biting.  The upgrade to let the tower's attack do AoE damage seems nice, but the damage is rather small, as evidenced by the fact that it still has a lot of trouble clearing out the large packs of Anurian Chasers.

I actually intended to do grades for this map, but I finished the recordings before Christmas and got distracted from writing this blog entry until now, so I don't remember exactly what they were supposed to be.  I'm pretty sure I remember wanting to give Veruk and Moloch 'C's, because of course they get them, and of course all the dragons plus probably Doom Tank got 'A's, with everyone else getting 'B's.  But I can't remember exactly, and since I'm not concerned with basing my final rankings on an actual average anymore I'm not going to worry about it.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Heroic

This is yet another map that's actually quite intimidating when you first take it on, but becomes rather straightforward with the right build.  In particular the constant stream of Anurian Erudites in waves 3 and 4 seems overwhelming at first, but two fully upgraded Shadow Archers plus stalling with reinforcements takes care of the issue.  As for the rest, Spectral Mausoleums with Possession spam wins the day as usual.

A key to note on this map for any mode is the importance of the build spot at the very top of the map near the north entrance.  It can attack both the north entrance lane as well as the west exit lane, and gargoyles on a Spectral Mausoleum can swing back and forth between the two as needed.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Campaign

This was a mildly challenging map, but not one I feel is really worthy of grades.  Once again, it's all about the build, and with the right build every hero does quite adequately.  The only real key to the map is Spectral Mausoleum spam on the upper right path to handle the Crystal Demolishers.  It's another case of Possession FTW.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Anurian Plaza Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Magincia Shores Iron

The more I play this game the more I'm convinced that Ironhide had no intention of trying to make the iron modes in this game hard like previous Kingdom Rush games, but instead just intended them to showcase the premium towers for mobile players to entice them to buy them.  I will admit it took me a hot minute to figure out the build strategy here, as the single Deep Devil's Reef you're given is your only source of magic damage against a never-ending stream of highly armored Anurian Wardens, so for physical DPS heroes you have to be able to stall them sufficiently for the tower to do most all the work.  As usual, the answer is Elite Harasser spam, and once you have that figured out finishing the map is pretty easy with any hero.

This was the first time I've ever seriously used the Deep Devil's Reef, and I'm less than impressed.  I suppose the intention is to give you a magic tower that also has blockers like the Spectral Mausoleum, only the blockers are free instead of an upgrade.  I'd still rather have the Spectral Mausoleum, though.  I feel gargoyles are superior to even the upgraded Redfins (high armor FTW), and simply nothing can compare to the Spectral Mausoleum's Possession ability.  The DDR tower also has a ridiculously small attack range, which is especially annoying on this map where it's expected to cover two exits.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Magincia Shores Iron