In this walkthrough, I'll illustrate how to get past the initial tough stretch on harder. Although I'm number 1 on the harder leaderboard, I dont get past level 7 every game -- sometimes its hard to get into a flow, and you have to play a certain way to have a chance of getting into a sustainable rythm. If I get past level 7 or so, I'm usually good to go -- so what I'll try to do here is describe my first 200 turns or so, either showing you how to escape the difficult stretch -- or giving an example of what can go wrong. Turn 1: match 15 potions. no way I'm taking the 4 shields here, its all about making the biggest possible match this early. Who cares that I'm already at full health, turning over 15 tiles is great. Turn 2: choice is between 6 shields, 5 swords, 3 coins or 2 skulls. Since its close, I look at whether taking the shields or the swords will enable bigger matches on the next turn. Looks about the same, so I'll take the shields -- may as well grab em now while my armor is 4/4, meaning all of the shields go towars your next upgrade instead of repairing your armor. You dont want to waste too many shields repairing your armor. There are a total of 4 skulls on the board which I'm going to ignore. Turn 3: choice is 5 skulls & 4 swords or 4 skulls & 7 swords. Easy choice, you want the biggest match. The skulls dont hurt you at this point. My armor is 1/4 but I dont care. Turn 4: 9 coins or 7 shields. There are 5 skulls on the board, but there is no big match so im going to ignore them. My health is 49/50 -- I have 0/4 armor, so I'll take 5 damage here, which is OK. Easy choice, take the coins. Turn 5: Health is 44/50, armor 0/4. Still just 5 skulls on the board. No matches bigger than 5 available -- 2 groups of 5 shields, one group of 3 skulls and 2 swords. I'll take the skulls, because doing so links the 10 shields for next turn. Taking either group of 5 shields would be bad here because only 1 would go to upgrades. Turn 6: Health is 42/50, armor 0/4, 3 skulls on the board. By far the biggest match is 10 shields, 6 of which will go to upgrades. A side benefit is that my health loss will be slowed, but I still dont care much about that. Turn 7: Health 42/50, armor 3/4, 5 skulls on the board. Biggest match is 6 swords and 2 skulls. However, I also have the choice of taking 3 potions and by doing so linking this group with a group of 2 skulls/3 swords below. Pretty close call. I'll take the potions. Health is not entirely irrelevant, even now, and no sense letting the skulls sit forever when its not going to cost me much if anything in the way of tile turnover. Turn 8: Health 43/50, armor 1/4, 5 skulls on the board. Match of 9 swords, 5 skulls, pretty nice! Turn 9: Health 43/50, armor 0/4, 3 skulls on board. Biggest matches are 7 shields, 5 potions or 3 swords + 2 skulls. Not wild about only matching 7 shields when I have 0/4 armor and only 1 in repair (meaning only 3 shields go to the upgrade bar), but its the biggest match and it will slow my health loss by giving me some armor so its the choice. Turn 10: Health 43/50, armor 2/4, 5 skulls on the board. 6 coins or 5 swords + 2 skulls. The swords + skulls are the bigger match, but the coins seem more likely to create a better match next turn -- I see they will, at the least, link in another 2 skulls to the current sword + skull match. Turn 11: 40 health, 0 armor, 8 skulls on the board. 7 skulls and 6 swords can be matched. Sweet, taking the coins paid off. More installments to come.
Harder Walkthrough, Part 2 Ok, first 11 turns were fine. Exp bar and upgrade bar are both a little shy of half full, and I almost have 2/5 rows of gold coins filled. At 40/50, I'm not too concerned about my health yet. Note that all the skulls on the board all have 0 armor, 4 health -- and most importantly, are still only doing 1 damage. Turn 12: Health 40/50, armor 2/4, 4 skulls on board. 6 potions or 6 shields are available. Shields look better for linking purposes -- next turn I'll be able to take 9 potions. Since my armor is 2/4, 4 of the 6 shields will go to the upgrade bar, which isnt too bad. Turn 13: health 40/50, armor 3/4, 5 skulls on board. I'll take the 9 potions and reject 6 shields. Dont really care about the health, but it doesnt hurt. Its just by the biggest match. Turn 14: health 48/50, armor 1/4, 7 skulls on the board. 7 skulls with no armor bears watching, but there is no good match there now, and the skulls are still hitting for 1 each. I'll take 10 shields, the biggest match. Turn 15: health 45/50, armor 2/4, 8 skulls on the board. Biggest match is 6 skulls + 5 swords, which is nice because I dont want all that many more skulls on the board. Turn 16: Health 45/50, armor 1/4, 3 skulls on the board. By far the biggest match is 14 coins, easy choice. Turn 17: Health 43/50, armor 0/4 3 skulls on the board. By far the biggest match is 10 potions. 3 will be "wasted" since my max is 50 and the 3 skulls will hit after I drink. I dont care, I want the biggest match and am not going to save potions. Turn 18: Health 47/50, armor 0/4, 5 skulls on the board. I'll take 4 skulls + 6 swords. Its the biggest, and will also link two groups of shields. Turn 19: Health 46/50, armor 0/4, 4 skulls on the board. 8 coins or 10 shields. Not that big a difference, and the coins will link 4 more shields to the big shield match for next turn, so I'll go that route. Turn 20: Health 42/50, armor 0/4, 7 skulls on the board. I can match 7 skulls with 3 shields, or I can match 12 shields. Not that big a difference, and matching the skulls will add 2 more shields to the big shield match for next turn, so I'll go that route. Ok, 20 turns are done. Skulls are still at their starting statistics, my health is fine. 4/5 coin bars are full, level up bar is more than 4/5, and shield bar is not quite 4/5ths. We have a truly huge group of shields to match next turn, so we'll be getting our first upgrade. Doing fine so far. More to come in a bit. Hope I dont die early this game, that would be embarassing
Turn 21: 42 health, 0/4 armor, 1 skull. Have a 15 skull match to take. I may not need it all to fill the upgrade bar, but it doesnt really matter, best to take it all and turn over more tiles. Turn 22: 42 health, 4/4 armor, 3 skulls. Didnt get an upgrade yet, takes a lot of shields early on. 5 potions or 5 coins. Coins will link at least a potion to the main group, so will do that. Turn 23: 42 health, 4/4 armor, 3 skulls. 7 shields or 6 potions plus linking in 2 shields. No idea how many shields I need for the upgrade, think I'll take the potions, makes for a cleaner board. Turn 24: 47 health, 2/4 armor, 5 skulls. Took a 12 shield match and got an upgrade. I'm sure some of the shields were wasted, but thats OK. Upgrade Choice #1: Life Leech Spikes Repair Regenerate I almost never take spikes or regenerate, so lets put them aside. Ok, now your first point of repair is kind of important. Without it, it takes more shields to fill up your armor, meaning less for the upgrade bar. However, life leech is a fairly rare upgrade and full of win. Its a stroke of luck to get one so early. So this is the first mini-dilema. My instinct is to take the rare life leech upgrade...might be a long ways before I get another. Repair is common, and I'll eventually have more than I need. Life leech it is. Turn 25: 46 health, 3/4 armor, 5 skulls. I can match 5 skulls with 10 swords, which is full of win. Still no need to save swords, skulls are still at their original stats. Turn 26: 47 health, 3/4 armor, 2 skulls. Very choppy board, 5 coins or 6 potions. At this point, 5 coins looks like it fills the bars for a visit to the store, so I'll just do that. Store Trip #1: Token: 15hp quick (from 10hp) Chest: 4 def (from 2 def) Weapon: 3 dmg, 5% leech (from 2 dmg, 5% leech) Well, its nice to see the chance to get 2 defense points on the chest, you dont always see that. Still, I'm kind of torn here because weapon damage is more important than defense in general, and at this point I still have 1 repair point, meaning that if I take the chest, the first 6 shields of any match will not go to the upgrade bar. Thats a lot, will really slow down the next upgrade. This is not a no brainer choice. I'm going to go with weapon damage, but I'm not feeling real good about giving up 2 defense for it. Turn 27: Health 47/50, armor 2/4, 3 skulls on the board. 7 potions or 5 shields. However, 2 skulls and 1 sword are in the middle of the board, stopping some nice link ups with shields and potions. I think I'll just grab them. Turn 28: Health 47/50, armor 2/4, 2 skulls. 10 potions can be matched, but if I take 7 shields, it will link in even more potions, so I'll do that. Turn 29: 47 health, armor 4/4, 5 skulls. 12 potions matched. Turn 30: 49 health, armor 2/4, 7 skulls. Skull dps is still at 1, so no worries. 12 coins taken. Well, 30 turns done. I feel good about getting life leech and a weapon dps upgrade in my first 2 choices, but I'm going to need a repair and a luck before too long. Skulls should be increasing in stats soon, not sure when exactly but its coming, and once it starts difficulty ramps up pretty quick.
Turn 31: 44 health, 2/4 armor, 11 skulls on the board. OK, skulls are still at original stats, but its obvious I cant leave 11 on the board. I can get rid of 6 now, or take 6 potions and get rid of them all. I am very close to leveling, but cant be sure 6 skulls would do it. Plus, and this is important, extra xp beyond what fills your bar carries over. Extra shields and gold dont, but extra xp does. So I'm taking the potions and leaving 11 skulls alone for a turn. Turn 32: 41 health, 2/4 armor, 12 skulls on the board, they are ALL going, plus 8 swords, huge match and I'll level. Level 2 Upgrade Choices: Shatter: Pro tip, shatter sounds pretty good, but like disarm, it doesnt work on bosses. As compared to disarm, instead of making the skulls go bye-bye, it nerfs them. Sure you can get the XP, and in the late game a few more HP of damage is nothing. However, shatter sure wont help you get out of the difficult early stretch as much as disarm will. Maybe the cool down is a little better on shatter, not sure, but I'd still rather have disarm because less damage is more important than a bit of extra xp. We aim to play long, we aren't settling for shatter, not this early. Explosive Armor: With the damage beefed up, its something that warrants a little thought but I still dont think I'd ever take it. Vitality: +5 health, chance of bonus potion +5%. Not super, but helpful, and we need to pick 2. Damage: +2 base damage. Solid little choice, we'll take it. Need to do some work now, will resume later. Its a bit maddening to play this slowly, but at the same time, I'm very interested to learn exactly when skulls start to increase in damage. Turn 33: health is 47/55, armor 2/4, 4 skulls on the board **AND 3 NEW ONES NOW HAVE 1 ARMOR**. It begins, we are off the races. The new skulls are still doing 1 damage, but I doubt that will last long. I take 10 coins, no other choices to speak of. Turn 34: health is 45/55, armor 1/4, 4 skulls. The board is choppy, I could take 6 shields and have 3 go to upgrade. However, Ill take 2 skulls/2 swords and thereby link more shields. **Pro Tip: Life Leech is rounded down, I have to do 20 damage before I start getting 1 health back. I couldnt refuse it as the first upgrade, but its not doing me any good at all yet -- with two swords, I'm doing 11 damages, with 3 14 damage, so I get nothing back from life leach. It will be a fair while before it becomes better then regen - right now its worse.** Turn 35: health 44/55, armor 1/4, 3 skulls. I can now match 12 shields Turn 36: health 44/55, armor 3/4, 5 skulls. 3 skulls, 3 swords...choppy board, no good options. Turn 37: health 44/55, armor 2/4, 5 skulls. Still choppy, I'll take 5 shields, but only 3 go to upgrade. Cant be helped, they are in the middle and hopefully the board will be better next turn. Turn 38: health 43/55, armor 4/4, 7 skulls, all new skulls seem to be of the 1 armor, 1 damage, 4 health variety now. The skulls still dont worry me, but the biggest match I can make is 7 skulls, 3 swords. Turn 39: health 43/44, armor 4/4, 3 skulls. Finally rewarded with a big match, 14 potions. I dont need the health, but its important to keep making huge matches as long as I can -- that means more exp, more shields, more gold. Turn 40: 55/55, 2/4, 7 skulls. Biggest match is 5 skulls, 5 swords. Finally, I do over 20 damage and get 1 health back from life leech. Woot! OK, 40 turns done. Upgrade and level bars are at 1/2, and gold is about there too. Game is still incredibly easy, but I'm getting a little jittery. There are certain minimum requirements to get past the first 200 turns (1-2 points in repair, 1-2 points in luck for more heal per potion, several points in weapon damage) and right now, I dont have bupkis. Everything is going fine/usual, but I'm still jittery.
Turn 41: 55/55, 2/4 and 4 skulls. 12 coins. No other real choices. Turn 42: 53/55, 2/4 and 8 skulls. Still only 1 damage each, and there are no good matches, so I'll try not to worry about them. Biggest matches are 4's...shields (2 sets) and coins. I could link the 2 groups of 4 shield by taking 3 potions...that is the aggressive choice, but if I draw a ton of skulls I may be sorry. Safer would be taking 4 coins, allowing a 5 skull match next turn. I'll risk it and take the 3 potions this turn, and the 8 shields next turn. We'll see if its OK or not. Turn 43: 49/55, 2/4 and 9 skulls. I could take 7 skulls and 2 swords or 9 shields. The shields are the more aggressive play, and will link in some of the other skulls. The skulls are at the top and wont necessarily link anything in. I'm going to take the shields, the skulls are still doing 1 dps. Turn 44: 44/55, 2/4, 11 skulls. I can do 10 skulls, 5 swords, and I get a health point from life leech. Playing aggressive was worth it -- it usually is, this early. Turn 45: 45/55, 1/4 3 skulls. Take 12 coins. Wasnt patying attention, Store Trip! Second Store Trip: chest or shield with 1 extra armor point (chest comes with shatter scroll but who cares) or an extra point of weapon damage. This is a pretty easy choice. You need a bunch of weapon damage upgrades to get through the tough stretch, and defense can always be had. I'm taking the weapon damage. Note that, of course, that I'm only taking it because the new weapon keeps the 5% life leech. Turn 46: 43/55, 0/4, 6 skulls. 4 skulls + 4 swords is the biggest available match, with a fringe benefit of being in the middle and hopefully improving the board. Turn 47: 42/55, 0/4, 3 skulls. Choice between 9 coins or 11 shields. Both improve the board so I'll take the bigger match. Turn 48: 42/55, 2/4, 7 skulls. 9 coins or 5 skulls and 2 swords. Taking the skulls would add 2 coins to the match for next turn, so may as well take them. Not going to deliberately leave a lot of skulls lying around if it doesnt make a big difference in the speed of tile turnover. Turn 49: 42/55, 1/4, 5 skulls. 14 coins! Turn 50: 38/55, 1/4, 8 skulls. Hmm, have to start watching my health a little, because skull dps is surely doing up soon, and when you get nervous about health you make smaller matches. Fortunately, the best match is 7 skulls and 4 swords, and I get a health point from life leech. Level 3!!! Heal: Collect all healing potions. Meh, this just isnt good enough to take. Slash: Collect a random row of tiles. I know that with a cooldown of 12, you would eventually be able to get this skill down to a cooldown of 2. HOWEVER, that is a long way off, and even when you get there, the randomness of this skill will not help you survive. Its not a viable choice. Defence: Armor per shield up 2. Sweet, this is badly needed. Now I can add armor without messing up my ability to have shields go to upgrades. Dexterity: Armor per shield up 1, and chance of bonus shield up 5%. Well, now this is just overkill. I'll take it, but only because I dont want heal or slash. All in all, not the greatest level up. I got something I needed, but I'm level 3 and I still dont have any skills. Well, I got another piece of the puzzle that one needs to survive the initial difficult stretch. Now I need a point or two in luck, some more weapon damage, and a few armor points, which will take care of themselves. And, of course, some useful skills would be nice. And I sure wouldnt mind having drawn an early +exp per skull, +up per shield, or +gold per coin. The earlier you get those the better. That said, I still have time, skulls are still doing 1 damage. I feel OK. Nothing unusual about the game.
Turn 51: 39/55, 1/4, 3 skulls. Take 6 potions instead of 7 shields to link more shields in for next turn. Turn 52: FIRST BOSS, ITS ON! Its an Alpha, a generally harmless type, and he only does 2 damage, so he is a pushover, but still. I also have 2 skulls with 5 health, not the previously standard 4; still 1 armor and 1 damage. Health 43/55, armor 0/4, 7 skulls. I cant touch any of the skulls right now, but the biggest match is 10 shields, and should help get some swords for next turn. UPGRADE: 10 health, 10 health, +1 base damage or +1 weapon damage. Ok, understand that you'll need more health before long. However, if all goes well we are going to be getting some +25% exp per skull upgrades, and leveling a lot faster in the future. We'll get a lot of health that way. So we really need to take weapon damage here. Obviously, we usually use 2 or more swords, so weapon damage is more than twice as good as base damage. We'll take that and call it and easy choice. We seem to be doing fine on weapon damage, but damn, I wish we had gotten +xp per skull or +upgrade per shield. Those are important, and the earlier you get them the better. We are up to +5 base damage, +5 per sword with this upgrade. Turn 53: 39/55, 2/4, 9 skulls + 1 alpha boss. The biggest match is 8 skulls + the boss + 1 sword. May as well kill the skulls given that its the biggest match. Turn 54: 38/55, 1/4, 1 skull + 1 alpha boss. Taking 11 potions wont help get at the boss, taking 5 coins would, but so what? He is only doing 2 damage. Lets leave him for a bit and take the potions. Turn 55: 46/55, 0/4, still 1 skull + alpha. 7 coins and boss dies next turn if we want him too. Turn 56: 43/55, 0/4, alpha + 2 skulls. Choices are 8 potions, 6 shields, or the 3 skulls (inc. boss) with 4 swords. Not in a burning hurry to kill the alpha, given that his special is actually kind of useful (he gathers all skulls into 1 place) and his damage is so low. Taking the potions. Turn 57: 50/55, 0/4, alpha + 7 skulls. Going to link all the skulls and a huge number of swords by clearing out 6 shields. Still no rush. Turn 58: 45/55, 0/4, alpha + 9 skulls. Kill 9 skulls with 13 swords!!!! Still only got 3 health from life leech, but thats ok, it will get better over time. Turn 59: 48/55, 1/4, 4 skulls. Still no 2 damage skulls. Take 11 coins. 3rd STORE TRIP: +2 def -1 damage to shield, +1 damage to sword, keeping life leech, or +5 health + quick to token. Ok, I dont care about quick on the token. Hell, we dont have any skills yet, so its useless now, and in the quick is also useless in the super long run. I usually want +15 health when I grab a token upgrade. I do want more defense, but not at the price of losing sword damage. PRO TIP: It says "damage" on the shield, but that is weapon damage, not base damage, so we arent making that trade, weapon damage is too important. We'll upgrade the sword, now 5 base, 6 sword. We are getting to the point where a two sword attack will heal us 1 pt with life leech, which will be nice. More importantly, you need more weapon damage to get through turn 200, and our luck on it could dry out at any time. Turn 60: 45/55, 0/4, 8 skulls. We can get 8 skulls with 12 swords. Nice. Still no reason to save swords, still making the biggest matches possible. Ok,we'll 60 turns done, we are getting to the action. I am pretty sure we'll have enough weapon damage to get through the tough stretch at this point, and am getting increasingly focused on the still missing requirements -- a point or two in luck, and to a lesser degree some defense. I'm not panicked about no skills yet. I'd really like to see some +xp per skull, +up per shield or +gold per coin soon though. The sooner the better -- more levels, more upgrades. In my best games I've had some of those drop early -- well, still time.
hey thanks very much for the walkthrough. Can I just ask, why do you want to make long chains with health potions even when at full health? What is the benefit? Also, do I get a better benefit from say a 6 shield chain rather than 2 3 shield chains?
Difficulty is tied to turn number. The more skulls you can match by, say turn 150, the higher level you'll be when you get to that turn. Matching a huge number of potions, or a huge number of anything, means you have a better chance of getting more skulls to kill. And you'll also get more coins and shields this way. As for your question on shields, every shield beyond 3 matched gives you a chance at a bonus shield, filling your upgrade bar quicker. Plus the advantage I mentioned above. Also, skulls are going to hit you and damage your armor, meaning you'll waste shields on repair that won't go towards your next upgrade. When the game is still easy, it's ok to hang at 0 armor for a little bit, only taking shield matches when they are big enough to be worthwhile.
Because the difficulty ramps up based on number of turns taken (not amount of tiles cleared) you really want to create the longest chains that you can at the beginning of the game. This serves to turn over the board as quickly as possible and get more leveling up and enchantments before the tough skulls start to drop... Nice walkthrough thus far ArtNJ! If I could pick your brain for a moment considering enchantments: first of all it appears that Durability and Life Leech are must-grabs based on effectiveness and rarity, I now choose those when they appear. How would you rate these following upgrades: Blunting, Luck, EXP up, Shield up, Gold up? I'm often in a quandary when several of these appear at once. I usually take Blunting first (it seems fairly rare) but I wonder if I'm making a mistake. I like to build Luck up to 5 or 6 then start working on the EXP/shield up upgrades. Thoughts?
The first point in Luck literally doubles the healing you get from potions, the second point increases your healing by 50%, the next by 33%. So its clear that the importance of a point in Luck varies over time. You wont survive past level 7 if you somehow miss out grabbing a couple of points, but later on it will be somewhat less of a priority. I certainly dont think you need to take every luck point until you get to 6 or so, if there are other good choices. Blunting will save more health for you then a point of defense, and it saves the most when things are going bad. But you wont get enough to really make a massive difference -- its not life leech or durability, clearly. I'd rate it about equal to weapon damage -- blunting being a higher priority if your on the weapon damage curve, and a lower priority if your off it or in danger of falling off it. +Exp per skull, +upgrade per shield and +gold per coin are in their own category. Think of it this way -- each +exp per skull means **25% more levels**. That means that if you grab +exp per skull as your first upgrade, by the time someone else gets to level 8, you'll be at level 10. Looked at that way, its huge, right? I'd rank these things under durability and life leech, but, for the most part, ahead of most of the other things. I mean you need a few luck points and weapon damage just to get past level 7, right? Its not easy to get past 200 turns and get established. And if you fall behind on weapon damage (at any time) your in trouble too. If your up the creek without a paddle, its a bad idea to take these things, there wont be time for them to pay for themselves. But if your still under control, think **real** hard about passing them up.
Which is more important, weapon power (like going from 8 to 11 with one upgrade to the sword) or having extras like Luk+1 and Quick?
Is this thread still watched? As there is an awfull lack of places to discuss this game xD. Ot: I figured out as much as so far been told in your walkthrough but I was wondering what you think about classes/races and active skills to choose. I got quite far using skills which helps to collect tiles fast + enchant. But now you say Heal is bad so what would you suggest? Also what do you think about races and perks?
I to want to know what you think of races and perks, are they worth it? like the Raiders 100% bonus when you match 10+ tiles?
