Sacrifice Single-Player Campaign WALKTHROUGH FOR THE SACRIFICE SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN I. Information and Table of Contents Hello everyone. I, Corpse, have decided to create a guide for the Sacrifice single-player campaign, as you see. While Im aware that there are two full walkthroughs on the net already, I feel that they are both flawed in several aspects, and seldomly have wrong information. Therefore, I decided to write a walkthrough that can guide you, the player, through optimally. Before we start, let me tell you: you have to know the basics to be able to follow this. For example, you must be able to recognise a creature by its name. If I tell you about a Jabberrocky and you dont know what it is, brush up on your knowledge. I dont have patience to write down the basics and the other guides do that pretty well already. And now for the guide. The Table of Contents I. Information and Table of Contents II. General Campaign Tips, Additional Information III. The Walkthroughs -James Missions -Pyros Missions -Charnels Missions -Persephones Missions -Stratos Missions IV. Final Words II. General Campaign Tips, Additional Information Well, let me tell you a few things first. It shouldnt surprise you that the AI is just a computer it has some preset behaviours and such which you can exploit to win. And thats what you need dont feel guilty, as in the last few missions the enemy has about five times as many souls and two times as many wizards as you. The biggest thing: The AI doesnt take very good care of itself. It often gets into dangerous situations, then dies, and retreats to the nearest manaliths, getting ahead of its manahoars usually. But if you kill the manahoars too, then all the better. Its units will tag behind, oblivious to the bombardment of your firing squad, until theyre all dead. Well, often this is not the case, often the units will hold out until their boss comes back but you might be able to capture a few souls anyway. On the other hand: many people advise you to guardian your stuff to your first lith. Well, horrible choice. This makes you vulnerable to spells like Volcano in the latest missions, but even earlier, this hands map control to your enemies and at best you will have a boring game. Ill tell you other ways to win instead. Also, another nice thing: If you start the desecration of a wizard while he still has manaliths, he will go to those manaliths to regenerate instead of his altar. If that lith is far enough, and youre quick enough, hell be force-resurrected on the way and then the energies will kill him because he will have zero mana. If its not far enough, he will still have to go a longer route to interrupt the ritual. So dont destroy all liths unless you have to. I will discuss the gods in the order of difficulty. I find James the easiest, then Pyro..., etc. I had a hard time deciding between Persephone and Charnel, but I voted for Charnel as the easier one... (Animate Dead) All these walkthroughs will assume you only served the god youre serving at the moment, unless otherwise noted. For the storyline itself, it may contain minor spoilers, but for the most part Id say that Im trying to be as vague as possible with the main storyline. Just for those who are reading this walkthrough for the easier missions, you know. Of course, wherever its unavoidable, I wont even try to conceal it, but then most probably you know it anyways. So lets see the missions themselves now. III. Walkthroughs 1. James Missions Mission One The Gods Themselves An easy mission, of course. First, your task is to go to the nearby village. The farmers will tell you that drakes have been attacking them lately. The drakes caves will be highlighted. You will also get attacked by a few hatchlings before convert their souls. There are two ways to do the mission from now. The first one is the usual way, the way of the unspoiled long, frustrating and nothing happens at the end. The second one doesnt require you to train anything more than a few earthflings from the souls you have (even kill your remaining troggs for more earthflings). The first method is obvious go around, kill hatchlings, destroy caves. The second one just requires you to go to the hills ahead. A dragon will attack you here (the adult one) fearsome, but your earthflings and Gammel, the very nice and strong Ikarus hero you get, can defeat him. Youll also get a few troggs who are running away. Now just give Gammel a waypointed order to attack and destroy each cave (dont worry about the hatchlings this way not a single one will come to you). You can do whatever you want for two minutes now (if you need a toilet break, do it now). Once the last cave is down, youll see why this was worth it: Persephone will grant you a boon since you avoided unnecessary bloodshed. Double joy. Mission Two The Prophecy Mission two is always the first mission in which you fight a wizard. You did hear of Ragman from the farmers already, the former Lord of Terror, in the first mission. Have no fear, he is a wuss. He wont even come to you in the first half of the mission. You do have Gammel alive still, right? (If you went with James before, that is) Order him to attack the lith right ahead of you, the one that is guarded by a few fallen. (Dont go into the main landmass yet) Convert their souls. You can also go to a village near a lith and convert the souls of some dead farmers and soon-to-be-dead Charnel creatures. Now youre all set. Create some support for Gammel (notably earthflings against locusts, and gargoyles for anything). Now go attack the Ragman. If you do the first battle very well, you can claim all of his souls, but if you dont no worries. Fight until you have converted a few of his souls then go attack him. Push to his altar quickly and sacrifice a basilisk. (You may want to create an extra as the one you get is very handy for paralyzing the wizard and getting some free hits on him... hope hes not shielded). Now kill him hes banished! Youll receive a boon from Persephone again for sparing Sirocco. Assuming you did. You should just restart if you accidentally killed Sirocco, and the mother of dragons doesnt really get into the way anyways. Youll also get Sirocco to help in later missions with James or Persephone (or maybe just Persephone... heh) Mission Three Balance of Power James never liked war, right? Well, now he sends you to question Jadugarr, a centaur who went rogue after his people were slaughtered and Stratos didnt help him. He just wants to know more of the plot. Good enough, for this is not a hard mission, really. You have a taurock from the start, and that will be enough for now. Create an assortment of level 1 creatures instead. Jadugarr is waiting just ahead with a few hoars. He says he is busy fighting Seerix and invites you to join him. Well, its a 2v1 now. I almost pity the snake. Almost. Well, Jadugarr will start attacking Seerix herself directly... there is an alternative route to the right though. Take this one. There is a free fountain up for grabs, and after that there is a string of Charnel Manaliths under Seerixs control. Dont worry, she probably wont come for her fallen (yep, the fallen Fallen), as she is busy fighting Jadugarr. The consequences of this battle will probably not involve the banishment of Jadugarr, but the centaur wont necessarily win. For now, just convert the souls of the fallen (there are four or five, depending on whether Seerix will send more to the lith). Use these to create taurocks and a few gargoyles as well if you have spare. Ahead lies Seerixs altar, now unguarded and exposed to your attack. Sacrifice a taurock on her altar. Now comes the trick: Seerix will be trigger-teleported to her altar. She will have the mana to cast insect swarm so your ritual will probably be interrupted unless you jump in the way. (This technique is useful in other situations as well) So try that. Failing that sacrifice the taurock again. Seerix wont be teleported there again. If you find this difficult, clear the other lith from guardians, and let Jadugarr attack as well. Now save just before the death of the viper if you want you and Jadugarr will talk, and there are two ways the conversation can go if you are interested. I was interested at any rate. Mission Four Shadow of the Past This is the first mission that will involve you fighting alone against two wizards in this campaign. However, one wont stay for long. Youre trying to retake Karn, a stronghold of James, here, and if you have played Pyros third you have seen that Pyro takes the island and gives it to Charnels necromancer, Ragman. But Ragman has no altar yet! This means if hes killed hes dead forever. Unfortunately Sorcha is still here, just to make this mission harder, which means this will be your first time fighting a sorcerer of Pyro if you went with James all along. Well, take the manafount right ahead. Actually, before that go to the brown Gammel (he should be there) and the three brown earthflings theyll join you. Keep casting Speed Up on the flummox you have hes damn slow and you need to get in fast. What units should you produce? Well, ranged units create a few. I recommend you to main a healthy 1:3 or similar ratio between your flummoxes and earthflings the flummoxes are okay, but theyre slow and a missed shot is a disaster, whereas the earthflings are very well suited for general combat. Melee units you should really bolster this. I recommend you to create taurocks only if you chose James just before, but if not, create troggs as well (Sorchas Fireform would kill all other melee before they could kill her, and Dragonfire isnt too good for your health either). For air you have Gammel and you dont really need gargoyles here anyways. Now lets skip to the arrival of Ragman. Guess what? Concentrate on him fast! He should fall soon enough to Gammel and your ranged troops. His units will spontaneously die as well which means you have lots of souls as well! (By the way, for some reason a Pyrodactyl will most probably fly to you from the direction of Ragman. Shoot him down before he joins up with Sorcha and thats three souls for you.) Harvest the souls while defending your doctors, then move on the offensive. Now try to take as much of Sorchas souls as possible. You should have a big army from all the converted Charnel souls, so getting more will be even easier. Push forward, take Sorchas manaliths... at this point there is nothing special in the mission. Or... oh yes, there is! The objectives mention four Plague Worts. Well, destroy them. (Gammel alone is sufficient. The plague the Worts spew cant harm units that fly high enough, for some odd reason. Maybe troggs work as well) Dont be terrified of the plague at any rate. Unless Sorcha is nearby you can just rebuild your forces if any perish. The Worts are at Ragmans start location, near Sorchas altar, near a manalith in a sheltered position which is close to a village, and near another Sorcha manalith not too far from her altar. Once youve got all Worts, desecrate Sorchas altar with a flummox and get rid of the invaders! Mission Five Allegiance James must be pissed after Sorcha annoyed you in the last mission. Either that, or because Pyro took away his slaves. (Again, if you play Pyros fourth and then switch sides youre reversing your own actions!) Youre sent to Cindercrag to stop the Pyrodraulic Dynamo, well defended by Ambassador Buta. Well, this is one mission which depends on luck, and a prime example for why you shouldnt use the guardianing trick (The Dynamo may erupt anytime at your manalith its random for one, but if Buta comes straight after and he will, Murphys law anyone? you might just as well restart. If your units are mobile some may escape the volcano and then you have a chance at resisting your opponent, plus you have a smaller chance of getting zapped. One general tip, by the way: unless you absolutely need your creatures with you you should have them tag along a bit further just enough to come back in case of danger since one of the possibilities is that the dynamo, wherever you are, zaps YOU. No avoiding that. Lets see the mission itself now! You have some time to prepare but soon Buta is going to come to you. His dangerous units are the Pyrodactyl he will always have, unless you dont zap it early, because it is very efficient against Taurocks and such which you will need to subdue his other threat Pyromaniacs. Kill those (use your offensive spells to help) before they burn up everything. Otherwise, Buta has little to attack you with. Concentrate on Buta himself after repelling his Maniacs and convert any souls you have now if you do it right youll have a lot. Fortunately Butas nearest lith is far enough for you to convert quite a bit. You have to decide whether you take the quick or slow path. The quick path: notice how your only objective is to destroy the Dynamo? Convert Butas souls, then convert everything you have into Ikarus the new unit you have. Send them, with or without Gammel (he might or might not die), against the Dynamo. A few will die from Bombard fire but those who get through will demolish it quickly. The slow way: Youve got to defeat the Ambassador. You might want to get some more souls for that. You can get some from the factory to the right of you behind it are some proles of Pyro. Also, going towards the Dynamo you will get attacked by two Pyromaniacs near the fountain. Thats plenty of souls for you to operate with. Not far from your altar is another, friendly altar though what is it? If you want to be evil, you might want to fortify the fountain near it... and by evil I dont mean exploit-crazy here. If you dont know it yet youll see. The Ambassador has a good amount of guards, but Gammel can help defeat any lith. Send him along with a few Ikarus and ground melee units. Ranged units are not so good here. (Pyros Bombards reign supreme when it comes to ranged) Buta might speed in and reclaim his souls, but that doesnt matter. You have enough. Now desecrate his altar. Buta should fall easily. Hope you had no trouble with the Dynamo. Well, Pyro finally recognises your talent. He offers you a place by his side. If you want to stay good, youll still need to destroy the volcano-spewing doomsday device. Now, however, you have a time limit! Apparently the Dynamo has a secret function which will blow up the island. You shouldnt have much trouble with the Dynamo though. You can blindly charge the guards from the ground while telling your flying troops (Ikarus units and Gammel) to attack the Dynamo directly. It will be destroyed and youll be handed a boon from James as a thanks for your loyalty. If you want to be evil, Pyro will be happy, but James will want to have revenge. Hell quickly send Charlotte against you. Shes no match though! Her army consists of a few Ikarus, Flummox and Taurock units, but you should have gotten a LOT of souls from Buta. If you put guardians to the fountain I mentioned earlier, shell have nowhere to build a manalith either. Also, the Dynamo will now erupt on her. Much better. (These eruptions can strike your guards at the lith you might have fortified, of course...) Charlottes slowpokes cant compete with your army and the Dynamo, ultimately. Nothing special just desecrate her altar. Mission Six Desperate Measures Finally, James has had enough of hot-headed Pyro! With your recent victory you are free to march upon Helios, his home island. Of course, your victories so far are void in his homeland. This is one tough mission if you are unprepared, but not so hard, actually, provided that you are good enough and know how to deal with the magnifriers. As you start building your first lith, Faestus, a gnome you might have met in Pyros first, joins you. He must have some interesting sources about who the winning horse is. He tells you some information about the Magnifriers that guard much of Helios against the invaders. And his tip is quite useful, although its not the only way to deal with the magnifriers. However, ignore the Magnifriers for now, and instead concentrate on the task at hand. Sorcha inhabits your part of the island. (Ambassador Butas AI isnt active yet dont worry about him.) At this point you really need to get all of her souls. Fortunately Sorcha is impatient and doesnt wait for her slower troops. Create the second manalith (on the fount not far from you) and an extra boulderdash to serve you. Boulderdashes deal out damage quickly and combined fire from your two Dashes and anything else you created will bring down Sorcha & Hoars quickly. If youve done it right her souls are ALL up for grabs. So grab them. (The three souls can be used for anything, both ranged and melee help here.) If Sorcha has left enough souls there shell not even try recovering them (you can spot it from a distance whether shes coming for the souls or going in another direction). Now ignore the manalith on the edge of the island and push forward against the final lith. Its guardianed by a few bombards Gammel alone, or the boulderdashes alone, or a few ikarus can bring this one down. Guard the bombards souls from Sorcha, as you might not be able to get them all back if she reclaims them. Build a lith on her former first lith (so you can get some mana; your regeneration will probably slow to a crawl while you are approaching her altar) and cast desecration. Use a boulderdash if you have at least three more, otherwise use a lesser creature its not like you need the extra damage from the desecration spell that much to bring her down. With the first sorcerer down, youre at peace. Establish either a shrine or a manalith on Sorchas former altar and start converting. You can now convert the bombards that were Sorchas last guardians, the assortment of creatures you saw but ignored on the way to Sorchas altar, and five slaves located to the left near a few paper shacks and a manafount (be careful, do not stray too far yet!) Now there are a few ways to take down the Magnifriers. One of them is by shielding yourself, running with speed-up to each Magnifrier, standing so that no Magnifrier can attack you, then summoning a taurock or somesuch and letting it destroy the machine with impunity. Repeat. You could heed Faestus advice and rush it with low level creatures (Frostwolves rule for this) follow your creatures and use Soul Mole (Or Soul Wind, if you came via the Stratos route Mole is cheaper and better for this purpose though) to reclaim the souls of the dead. And the third Remember how Troggs are immune to magic? Well, Magnifriers shoot magic. That should be enough. A single trogg can level all Magnifriers, given enough time. This should be done if you served James in mission one. Well, create several troggs if you are using the last method because you arent given enough time. As you proceed Buta will be activated and the Ambassador will come with all of his creatures to try and swamp you. Lets hope he cant. He does have a few Warmongers though. Warmongers are nasty and they kill fast! Luckily, Boulderdashes counter them very effectively. Try and kill Buta after disposing of them for easy souls. The final assault is not too hard either. A few unalleged Pyro creatures will come out to attack you. Theyre not too hard to kill, though the Bombard may wreak some havoc. (You can convert them, but their corpses dont switch to Butas side so why bother?) Kill the guardians to the right and take the lith. The phoenix is tough and deals a lot of damage, but its range is not too long. Boulderdashes work well. Now desecrate with a boulderdash. (You dont need to get the left lith, especially if you kill the bombard there, although its none too difficult.) Celebrate with James as you finally got rid of arrogant Pyro, and celebrate as your life will not be ruined with incessant Volcanoes now! (Unless... nevermind, later.) Misson Seven The Chasm Widens Well, that learns Pyro all right. Who doesnt love James for his informal, down-to-earth style? Pardon the pun. Anyways, with Pyro gone Charnels the next on the list. Mithras, our good companion, has apparently been captured earlier by Charnel. Well, lets appeal to Seerix to free him! Youve probably faced Seerix earlier. Youll be pleased to know that shes not evil to the heart. Or maybe not. Apparently, because she served Persephone in her young days she has Rainbow! Just what a necromancer needs against you. <_< Well, you do have a jabberrocky to help out, but still. A manahoar will be very much needed as one cant cut it. The problem is, you have no more souls. Hope you kept Faestus alive, as only he can help you here! (He abandoned his rocket launcher though for his bio-junk. Oh well. For some reason he gets the rockets out again later.) Youll be initially attacked by a netherfiend and some level 1 creatures, luckily not alleged to Seerix. Tell your Rocky to deal with everything ground while Faestus and you toast the locusts. Do this quickly, before Seerix comes! Youll only have time to convert about half of the souls before the assault comes. Now, its important that you move OUT to meet Seerix! She still has Demonic Rift, and that spell will summon enough purple tendrils to get to the sac- doctors sacrificing at your altar... a nice little disaster there for you. If shes far enough only your troops will get hurt. Of course, if you see her casting it, or Plague for that matter, you could use Erupt to interrupt her, but still. As for the fight kill those abominations. Really, if you dont theyll destroy your Rocky and then youre lost. Kill the abominations, or at least a few, then order your Rocky and Faestus (plus anything else you might have produced by now from the souls you converted) to attack Seerix. Kill her and those hoars. Now her souls are yours for the taking! As soon as you are established, produce a force of 4 boulderdashes. Guardian two to your first lith while you tell the others to follow. Any more, tell them to tag along as well. The Jabberrocky wont really be needed any more. Go towards the beacon thats Mithras! His Earthfling is quite weak alone but he joins you anyways, which is good. Especially since Seerix wont let Mithras to just run away. From behind some hills on a small island far, far away, a few blights and locusts will be ordered to kill the seer. Dont worry though the Boulderdashes can take most of them out easily and you can fry the rest with spells (while healing Mithras). As he says, you cant teleport him out, but the way back should be safe. You could also banish Seerix but it is unnecessary, as it wont really net you anything. It will change Mithras dialogue though. All I can tell you is this: dont bother with the 7 styxes guardianed to the manalith not worth the bother. Though if I remember well, if you banished Seerix the blights and locusts wont come. But its not worth the extra time in my opinion. You just have to escape! Mission Eight No Mercy Mithras says Charnels been summoning demons to assist Marduk! Isnt that a bit stereotypical? Anyways, whether he is right or wrong, it doesnt matter any more. You are sent to Dys to combat Charnels champions. Of the three Dys missions in the game, however, this is unique in one respect: in the two others you battle Acheron and Seerix, while here you battle Acheron and somebody else! You learn about the betrayal of Stratos here (with a dead gargoyle to get the point through) and Abraxus will occupy Seerixs altar (the serpent is not here). Oh, this is also the easiest Dys mission, but I digress. As soon as the game starts, scoop up the blue soul and run to the left. There is a free manafount, occupy it. Then run on. This place has a few free manafounts and a few zombies. Kill the zombies! Then build a shrine here and convert them quickly. Abraxus often sends a few creatures here as a placeholder though. Well, heres the interesting part. Some Brainiacs might decide its good for them to float over the abyss. Zap those quickly. There, Abraxus is down a few souls. If any bigger presence comes, teleport back! After youre done with this, summon a few creatures and go again. This time, go forward and capture the lith that Abraxus probably got. If your shrine to the west is under attack if its Abraxus, dont worry. (And it probably is. I think Acheron is paused until youre done with Abraxus or until you approach him.) Abraxus doesnt do well at guarding her altar. A few brainiacs thats all. Also, she doesnt really do well at protecting Charnel. Perhaps Stratos is already preparing for the next round? Who knows? Anyway, before long youll be starting the desecration ritual. The only way you can screw up now is if you get Tornadoed and your creatures get thrown down into the various little patches of abyss scattered around. Lets hope not. Abraxus will not have much souls for you, unfortunately. Acheron will put up a tougher match. But thats only because he is not so afraid to use Death! That spell can seriously impede or stop your efforts to desecrate the heartless fiend, so if you see the figure, either use Erupt or teleport to a safe place. (In the latter case, Death will cut down his own creatures then you can try and attack while hes rebuilding.) He also has more creatures, but then I cant give you much more advice for that. The Abominations should be dealt with using melee. By the way, remember that against Acheron spells deal little damage. His final manalith is strangely unguarded, unlike the other missions. I assume this is an oversight on the designers part as there really is no point to this weakness. Well, whatever. Desecrating him wont be difficult, at least. A pity, as one would expect a tougher match when fighting Charnel... By the way, you might also have come here by serving Charnel before. In this case, the mission is still easy but the dialogue Eldred and Mithras have about Astaroth, the demon Charnel summoned, is different. In case youre interested. Mission Nine The End Days In my opinion, this is the easiest mission nine in the whole game. Why? You arent alone, thats why! This is a defense-oriented mission in Agothera, capital of the Glebe, and you are tasked with defending your ultimate altar against the many enemies you have along with Grakkus. Immediately after the mission begins, hell approach you and offer his support. You have two choices to tell him to defend the altars or go on the offensive. An order of defence will make him go to the intersection near your altars and will guard the area. An order to attack will make him try and banish Hachimen. By the way, Pyros spells are back. Woo-hoo! Not. Grakkus is competent as far as AI allies go, so Id say you should tell him to attack. You have some time before everything caves in on you, so rush ahead and build a lith on the centre fountain (be nice and leave the one behind for Grakkus). Hachimen will soon come you might have Gammel here, hell prove useful in defeating several bombards tagging along behind Hachimen. The rhinok you get, on the other hand, is excellent for softening up the line of warmongers Hachimen also possess. Nevertheless, a phoenix that comes will defeat both of these, so create some boulderdashes. Id advise you to fight the first battle with Grakkus on your side to even the odds even so Hachimen may prove as a challenge though, with several Pyro spells to give him an edge. Try to convert some souls next time Hachimen comes back, hell be ready for revenge, so get everything you can. (It is possible to steal all his souls, but damn hard to do) Abraxus will follow Hachimen. Now you have to fight Stratos creatures a silverback and Lord Surtur is the most dangerous (if you let Surtur die in an earlier mission though, hell be absent) of her troops, but several flurries and brainiacs will also provide support. Activate the Rhinoks Halo of Earth and possibly cast your own to help against the Silverback, and dont forget the shield! Some time, if you havent already, you will get a cut-scene. Apparently Charlotte got banished during an attack. So she got thrown into the middle of the fighting. Jadugarr teleports in too and quickly electrocutes the spider, however! Not good. The good news is, Jadugarr was careless too. He has a shrine hidden in some canyon, but no altar, and so a kill is enough. (His creatures, unlike Ragmans in mission 4, wont die with Jadugarrs death though! Youll have to kill them manually.) This should boost your soul count. Go banish Hachimen first. His altar isnt too well defended and on your own or with Grakkus youll find you can win easily against him. (Get the lith in the canyon to the left first, then go across the mountains until you find the altar.) Abraxus is the last one. Her altar is guarded better than Hachimens, with many squalls and sylphs. So far you might have defeated many manaliths with just Gammel, but do not be so careless with this one! The squalls and sylphs here can kill Gammel easily. Use a load of ranged creatures instead, with possibly some melee (not too much, or theyll just be pushed back and killed by the squalls). Once youre done, just start the ritual. Abraxus might not even come to reclaim the souls. Well done, youve completed James missions! Now you can proceed to the final showdown. Scroll down a lot now, because coming up are Pyros missions. 2. Pyros Missions Mission One The Gods Themselves As soon as the campaign starts, Pyro introduces himself as one of the evilest, meanest characters ever to be heard of. You have to invade Daven and kill all opposition. A Spitfire scout will tell you the two possible routes to the village. First, however, you will get in a village. The peasants greet you nicely but you are Pyros wizard slay them and harvest their souls! Youll also meet Faestus, a gnome who decides that his interests lie with Pyro. Pyros orders are clear keep him alive. Not that its a problem as hes very tough and you have plenty of time to heal his damage in every battle. Now choose one of the two ways. If you opt for the bridge, youll have to kill a druid and two rangers. If you dont kill the druid fast enough, hell call reinforcements (two shrikes possibly more souls for you) If you decide to take the valley path, youll be ambushed by four rangers about halfway through and maybe some shrikes later. Neither route is too difficult. Finally youll arrive to the village built around the tree. Now, you are given a chance to ally with Persephone. If you do ally with her conscience strikes all your units will turn to a hostile Pyro side and youll be given control of the druids and rangers. Create some of your own Pyro units, depending on what you created, earlier. Once everything you used to control is slain, you win. (Youll also be more favored by Persephone) Faestus will not appear in this attack. Of course, the simplest path is to eradicate everything that was why you came here. Your units will steamroll the enemy guards, of course. Before destroying the tree, however, be evil and kill all the peasants as well! This will net you a boon from Charnel as he is impressed by your cruelty. (He calls you an artist :)) Anyway, once the tree is destroyed you win. Mission Two The Prophecy Having done a little work in Daven just before, Pyro now truly starts to invade. He decides to subjugate some native creatures (namely the trolls) of Urghaz, but first you will need to get rid of Yogo. He is the ancient protector of Elysium, but he is no match for you yet. Maybe he is getting rusty, or maybe he has a headache. He will not rush you immediately, that is certain. Instead, once your manalith is built, a druid, a ranger and a troll will attack. Create a few spitfires before constructing the lith for this purpose and attack the ranger with your firebolt and Tickferno. Thanks for the 4 souls! Use them to create aerial units, mostly some melee units would also be a help to occupy Druids and Trolls and for the guardians near Yogos altar (though those are not essential to defeat). Urghaz is a large circular map, and you can go to lots of directions. With your 10 souls you stand a good chance to banish Yogo already. However, going to the left and right will net you two encounters with Trolls. If all the trolls are slain, Pyro will offer you a boon at the end, so get to work! Yogo is most annoying because of Ethereal Form. Id advise you to wait until he has Ethereal Form, then begin the ritual with a Tickferno about 10 seconds later and he should be exposed to attack by the time the ritual starts. Attack him with everything, and hopefully another Tickferno as well to drain his mana also, activate Fireform and bump into him to scorch him with it as well, as it damages well enough. After the mission, Pyro congratulates you and his other wizard, Ambassador Buta, will teleport in with Faestus and some escort. In the next mission you can reap the rewards of your work! Mission Three Balance of Power Isnt it humiliating that Pyro wants to seek the help of the worm? Id say it is. Anyway, a cutscene is the beginning of this mission. Sorcha will give you her Firefists which you can offer to Grakkus, makeshift diplomat of James. A few gargoyles will come to meet you. Do not create ranged units now, or theyll attack the gargoyles! Theyll tell you to follow him, but they wont mind you taking the manafount ahead of your first lith. Dont cause any trouble, instead just follow the gargoyles. Eventually youll come to Grakkus. Well, if you have a bit of diplomatic skill you wont need this walkthrough to determine the correct answer in the choice. Choose Ally with us. The conversation would actually go quite well (surprisingly), but then the Firefists attack Grakkus soldiers and the negotiation comes to an end. If you chose the option I told you to choose, Sorcha will join you. Now Grakkus is in trouble he is outnumbered 2 to 1. Go back for now though to kill and convert the gray-colored farmers near the water well. There is little Grakkus can do to harm you, though he will initially use a lot of Taurocks. These hold out pretty well against your Firefists and demolish anything else you may have except for aerial units. Concentrate all your firepower on the Taurocks first, while using Ring of Fire to weaken Grakkus himself. Grakkus is so slow (via triggers), he might not be able to reclaim every soul, so you might be able to convert them mid- battle. And if Sorcha helps you the mission is even less difficult. Eventually, youll come to Grakkus altar (his liths are largely unprotected and are easy to destroy). Use Ring of Fire to weaken the wizard again. You chose the option Ally with us before? Well, James will offer you a boon since it wasnt your fault but rather the Firefists. He also urges you to choose his missions. Heh heh. Mission Four Shadow of the Past With no allies, Pyro must resort to his gnome Faestus. He does have a plan, in fact, but still needs 20 slaves. This mission is one of the raids your wizard conducts against James he probably remembered it because Marduk appeared here (or maybe it was such a pain in the ass depends). Like in every mission four, Marduk does make his appearance, but lets not concentrate on that now. Your enemy is Charlotte here. You start with a single pyromaniac, but youll need to make more. While building the two liths you should create two (or even three) more, and anything left should go to the melee department. Note that Faestus is here but he wont actually be available to you. Youll have to do this on your own. Well, be quick. By the time you emerge from your sheltered position Charlotte will also be there. An Ikarus, and a Taurock with a few flummoxes will make up the majority of her forces. The Ikarus will fall easily to rockets, but the taurock may give you some problems, and the flummoxes will slowly but surely kill your creatures if you dont heal them well (if you do theyre but a nuisance) Also, Charlotte has the ability to cast Slime, which I assume is meant to represent an innate ability (spider slime urgh). Shield yourself! You should rely on Pyromaniacs in this mission. Charlotte will rarely produce more taurocks which means that your Maniacs can carry the day. (The AI cant think of a damn counter to them! Flummoxes work on paper, but in practice they get BBQed!) As always, try to kill the wizard and hoars and then try to kill the creatures. The flummoxes each carry 3 souls and two of them can get you 3 Pyromaniacs, or 2 Maniacs and a Firefist... you get the idea. You dont have to banish Charlotte, and you dont get anything for it. So Id say skip. Eventually you can take all of Charlottes souls after this, shell always go on the same path or stay by a lith. You can observe the path and put Maniacs on it, or if she stays just ignore him. Now all thats left is to run around and collect slaves. A group of three farmers will want to run away, but killing one will scare the other two otherwise this will not be problematic. Mission Five Allegiance Now you will see what was the purpose of Pyro with all the slaves. He wants to build a device called the Pyrodraulic Dynamo. Youll need the last 10 slaves to activate it, and two wizards oppose you as well, so it is not as simple as it seems. First of all, try to oppose Grakkus and Charlotte on the battlefield itself (or even better, near one of your manaliths). You will want to activate the Dynamo before attacking the two wizards (though its not impossible to defeat them without activating the dynamo, it is easier to activate it anyway). And while you are off collecting slaves, you dont want to be troubled by such events as desecration. You will want to produce Pyromaniacs mainly, supported by your one Pyrodactyl and a few Firefists. (The Dactyl will be used to oil the wizards to make the battles easier yep, you cast it directly on the wizards). Do not produce any additional Dactyls. Before entering the battle itself, go to the west and then the east to capture the two founts one near a factory and one not far from your altar. Try to achieve map control during the battles as well, although it is not so essential to capture every manalith. Once your enemies are sufficiently weakened, position your creatures near your manaliths and go out alone to collect the slaves. If you see a wizard coming at you, Explosion then run away. (Dont teleport, the slaves wont come with) Once you have the 10 slaves in tow, run to the Dynamo. They will teleport in and a 5 minute countdown will begin. Once it is done, the fireworks begin! Position yourself somewhere not far from the two altars maybe the plateau that overlooks both but dont go too close and avoid any wide-open areas. Once the volcano erupts at an altar wait it out, then when the ground is almost completely sunk back approach their altar (ignoring any minor damage) and jump on the opportunity. Second time, you need not wait until the volcano erupts if youve harvested any souls at all you will have a load of souls. Create more Dactyls this time and Firefists as well, then assault that first lith. This mission will finish easily from now. Mission Six Desperate Measures You may have come here from the fifth mission of James or Pyro, but either way, the story is the same a failed attack on the Dynamo left the Glebe exposed to a rapid attack, which would be immediately be done by Pyro. However, inside Agothera you will find that James has plenty with which he can expel you from there. And you only have 5 souls to operate with that wont be enough, not at all, even with your spells, to get the job done properly. So what now? You will find that whatever you do, you have a good chance of screwing up and losing something a few souls and liths at the best (which is still okay) but even the game if you are not lucky at all. So I will discuss a tactic that has a slightly bigger chance of getting shafted than some, but in which you will probably lose less if you do. Your 5 souls should be turned into three additional creatures a manahoar and two firefists (or the like). See the canyon ahead of you, which leads into the middle of the map eventually? Position your bombard just behind here, and your firefists ahead of it. Now go right, without entering this long, narrow canyon and build a lith on the free fount. Now descend into this canyon. You will be ambushed by two boulderdashes. Order your firefists and bombard to attack them (they are quite strong so speed up your firefists). They will soon be dead enough. Convert them. At this time the wizards wont come yet, so speed-up is not essential. What is essential is to quickly go to the left, while speeding up your creatures to have them keep up, until you come to a fount behind a hill. Once you will have a boulderdash converted you will want to create a spitfire and position it ahead of your first lith while you proceed. Cast your shield and enter. Youll see a few Earthflings and Basilisks attacking you. Kill them, preferably use your basic attack spell (such as Fireball) to help your creatures. Now you will need to start converting the souls. Build either a shrine or a lith here. I will call this place the graveyard from now as it has a lot of red souls. A shrine or a lith? Well, you decide. If you build a shrine you will be able to convert faster but youll have a smaller mana flow from your Hoars. If you are quite inexperienced build a lith, otherwise you decide. Either way, Charlotte will soon attack. Her worst creature is the Jabberrocky. Order your bombards to slaughter it. I hope you have already converted some souls now? Create Pyromaniacs try to slay Charlotte and convert a few souls. The souls near your lith/shrine are not so essential as they are on Grakkus side and Grakkus wont come near here yet. Instead, Grakkus will attack your altar directly. This is why I recommended you to leave a one-soul flyer behind (like a spitfire) just ahead of your first lith. If you created a shrine here be especially careful to always have around 800 mana to cast an emergency teleport. As Grakkus arrives, your spitfire will spot the attackers. It might die, but its just one soul even if you lose it. Hell provide warning. As soon as you see Grakkus arriving, dont wait, teleport with whatever is nearby without gathering any stray creatures. Any who is left behind should guard the lith/shrine instead of hurrying back. Grakkus alone is not so hard to hold off with a bombard or two, the two firefists and a few pyromaniacs. Cast Firewall behind Grakkus once he is sufficiently weakened to try and prevent his escape. Try to convert some souls now. It will be a long time until Grakkus will attack again (unless his manahoars resurrect him try to avoid that), so you will have time to teleport back, collect any stray creatures you might have left behind before and convert more souls while repelling Charlotte attacks. Of course, it is possible that while you were fighting Grakkus Charlotte overran the graveyard. That means its high time to take it back. It wont be too hard since now you can calmly choose the time and place of your fight, unless something is extremely wrong. The red souls there will probably still be intact (Charlotte wont convert them or collect them as its under Grakkus possession). If you have some spare souls consider guardianing Bombards and/or Pyromaniacs to your first lith. (Not to the graveyard as its impossible to defend if Charlotte approaches she will have the high ground and your Bombards will lose the opportunity of long- range bombardment). Once you can safely win a battle with Grakkus or Charlotte (or even both at once) the missions difficulty will go downhill. Its time to enter the central part of the map. Youll see a lith with several guardians. It seems threatening but it isnt you can easily order your Maniacs to slay them with some Bombard support. Try to prevent the geomancers from reclaiming the souls of the guardians, but if you cant do that its still okay. After youre done with this one, turn it into a lith and capture the lith ahead of this one (unguarded) as well. Now youre coming to the final part of the mission. Create 4-5 firefists and go across the hill. Youre going to go from there because it gives the guardians below less time to damage and kill the firefists. After all, this here is Charlottes altar and her first lith! The guardians of this lith are a boulderdash and a gargoyle. The latter is a joke but the former can kill a firefist or two. Still, it wont inflict serious damage. Once the lith is destroyed replace it with your lith and replace any killed firefists as well. Now youre ready to desecrate Charlottes altar! Basically anything you do will result in her being banished. Grakkus wont be much more difficult (he does have an additional boulderdash though, and they are guardianed to the altar). Once you are done, Pyro will offer you a boon as a congratulations to your first god kill! Mission Seven The Chasm Widens Pyro is quite nasty, but face it, hes quite powerful with you in his service. No? Well, Pyro now sets his sights on Persephone. Arborea stands between you and Idylliac though. Stratos also aids Persephone however, so your job isnt easy at all at least, if you are inexperienced. Walkthroughs will ask you to build just the lith ahead then pull your legs in and turtle it out. My opinion: no! Follow this tactic instead. You will have a better mana flow and its more fail-safe. You have to be very quick here. Rush ahead to your fount and create a lith there. Youll be attacked by a mutant and rangers order your warmonger to attack the mutant and create a bombard to deal with the rangers. Hopefully theyll be clustered enough to die at the same time. While this small battle is under way place a lith on the fount ahead. Once you are done, send the two creatures (hopefully the Warmonger survived the Bombard will surely live) to the second lith and convert the mutant and the rangers (only speed up the doctor converting the mutant). Now rush back to the lith and guardian your two creatures there. Create another bombard as well and guardian it there, if/when you have the souls. If done right Abraxus should arrive about now. Abraxus leads a weaker force than she should, but she might have Lord Surtur to help. So order both creatures to attack him first and throw a fireball to help. (If you have lightning dont use that...) Surtur should fall in a split second. Now cast Rain of Fire upon this force to slay the creatures, and order your creatures to attack Abraxus. Nothing too difficult, now is it? Well, time to convert some souls. Id advise you to begin converting the flurries as you have time and each flurry will net you an extra warmonger or bombard. Create a guardian force of 2 warmongers and 3 bombards (or as much as you can get) and wait for Shaktis first attack. It will come soon enough. Shaktis attack will feature Mutants and two Ents. The Mutants have the potential to slay your warmongers and thus make for quite a risky situation, but fortunately Shakti couldnt really use such a weakness as the ents will come with Abraxus next attack, or something like that... Convert mutants if you can. Actually, convert every single soul that is next to you. Do not rest until the only red dot you see on the minimap is tomato juice you accidentally spilled because you were so busy playing this mission. Okay, lets get back to the mission. Actually, I dont have much more to tell you. You can do anything now. Abraxus will soon go away, or she might already have she has had a vision and so she will kindly let you harvest her dead creatures. After a certain time, Shakti will also get removed she will collapse from lightning. Someone must have intervened somewhere! Youll find it out soon enough. Until then you can sit there and watch the epic game of Tower Defence: Creatures vs. Shakti or you could use converted souls to amass an attack force of Bombards, Maniacs and Warmongers and attack. (This might save you some time as Shaktis death will also be triggered if you start the desecration ritual.) Congratulations, now its time to march upon Idylliac! Mission Eight No Mercy It didnt take long to discover why your attack on Arborea came to an abrupt end. Apparently Persephone just died. The insolence! Now its time to tell you: Youve come to a difficult mission. Right at the start, youll see Jadugarr the centaur approach you. The conversation will be quite short as Jadugarr leaves. Soon after, a silverback and two frostwolves will attack you. Youve only got 5 souls and Faestus though! Quickly create two pyromaniacs and another 1 soul creature and guardian them there. Try to spread them out. Let the creatures do their work the silverback will fall out of the sky soon enough. Convert the frostwolves, but dont attempt to convert the silverback as it will just be released! Instead, quickly teleport over to the small island with a lith and a shrine. Kill the peasants and convert them without using speed-up. Now teleport back! Jadugarr will come with the main force now. This means, hell come with an assortment of creatures including TWO silverbacks. How does one cope with this? Well, use some firepower! Activate your shield and blast Jadugarr directly with your Volcano spell. Then withdraw, either to the back of this island or the small island right next to you and hope for the best. Results may vary. If you are very lucky, Jadugarr might die AND leave plently of souls behind if this happens, attempt to convert everything beginnning with the silverbacks but this is rare. Most of the time Jadugarr will leave and build up a new army. This may or may not include a silverback or two. If you are very unlucky, of course, Jadugarr might survive with his silverbacks. In this case, trying to hold him off is futile. Teleport to the small island and wait for the desecration. Jadugarr will sacrifice a silverback, but as he cant directly get to you hell go backwards. Youll suffer heavy damage each time the lightning zaps you, so be at full health while you summon a Pyrodactyl. Wait half a minute, until everything Jadugarr is out of sight then send the Pyrodactyl to kill the sac-doctor. After a bit of fumbling he will smack one up in the head. Now teleport to your lith (if its still there) or your altar and kill the silverback. Now you can try to hold off the next Jadugarr attack. Well, eventually you will receive a little time as Jadugarr will leave. Now you can convert his dead. However, nothing is done yet as now you have Hachimen to deal with! Oh well. Hachimen will give you some time as he will have to come all the way from his altar, I think, but once hes there, trouble follows. You should produce less Mongers and more Maniacs (dont forget Faestus), plus Bombards to chew up the enemy Warmongers. Hachimen will have several Warmongers and a Phoenix! This is going to be an interesting Pyro vs. Pyro battle. Order everyone to target the Phoenix, except a bombard to kill any Warmongers and Maniacs Hachimen have. Help your bombard with spells like Dragonfire to kill the Mongers and Maniacs. Hachimen may cast Volcano, of course, just as well as you. In this case, immediately cast Explosion! (Have the hotkey for it too) If you think/know you were too slow, teleport. The Volcano will take a toll on Hachimens forces too if it erupts. If you interrupt Hachimen then you will have no problem, now you have a long time in which you have to fear no Volcanoes other than your own. If the fight is going badly, cast your own Volcano and withdraw your forces, this way you might actually win souls. Once you have a sizeable force of Maniacs, Bombards and Warmongers, proceed. There are two liths in the side to take, and Jadugarr also has his altar here you can now easily desecrate it as the centaur is gone. Id advise you to create a shrine at the fount to the left side. (Hachimen usually stays at the right side) You can now go in two directions, both of which are guarded by a few Bombards. These can chew up your forces rather quick if you approach mindlessly. Choose the direction that has no wizard and create a few Pyrodactyls, AND while theyre flying in select your Warmongers and have them Firewalk in next to the bombards. A few creatures may die but this combined attack will probably succeed. It will be easy to prevent Hachimen from reclaiming his souls as well. Going ahead, you will come to a sheltered valley that was once home to Persephones glorious Ultimate Altar now it is home only to Hachimens ugly one and two liths with three Phoenixes each. Youll only need to slaughter one group though. Theyre very tough there itd be long and boring to have Bombards and Maniacs slay them so leave your creatures behind and cast Volcano at the lith. This will surely slay each Phoenix. Wait just outside of the Volcanos range and rush in when you can. You dont need to destroy the other Phoenix lith. Instead, just go to the altar and sacrifice a Bombard. (Warmongers and Pyromaniacs are the best for Hachimen) Killing the mercenary will not be difficult, just dont wander too close to the three Phoenixes. Guess what you have won, and you have banished the prime wizards of Marduk (oops, Ashur)! Mission Nine The End Days Pyro has now completely cleaned up two of his enemies, but Stratos and Charnel still remains strong. So Pyro decides to attack Stratos. (Even though he offers to ally with Pyro the fire god decides he isnt trustworthy) Well, there is a record here as you have three (!!!) wizards to fight alone! And of three different gods, even. Abraxus for one, then Charnels help to Stratos (Acheron) and traitorous Sorcha. This is a tough last mission, but fortunately there are a couple of factors which you can use to your advantage. You start with two warmongers and 8 souls. Immediately construct a lith on the fount ahead and then build up your force. Sorcha will be the first to attack and her force will feature one phoenix and some warmongers. Something familiar? Youll need something like another warmonger and a bombard, or two pyromaniacs and a bombard. (Dont create a phoenix as the enemy will kill him with warmongers and you cant create a bombard then) Just like with Hachimen, only you have a smaller mana flow and less souls which means that you should try to avoid losses more. Once everything is gone and Sorcha is beaten back, convert any souls you might have (retreat to the lith with your hoars, then go out with full mana and convert several at once) and prepare for the next attack. Okay, so the strange thing is that sometimes the next attacks come and sometimes they do. If they dont, then you attack them, as once your base is empty Acheron and Abraxus will invade anyways. If they do... Acherons next. His force features a Hellmouth and the scythe Astaroth, as well as several abominations. If you, by any chance, have a phoenix (from converted souls) order him to fry Astaroth, otherwise concentrate fire on him first. If you can deal with it and the Hellmouth before the abominations arrive you might carry the day. (Dont cast Volcano you might kill the creatures but for the most part its a waste as Acheron has very high magical resistance, as Zyzyx tells you, so hell reclaim the souls definitely) Well, Abraxus will eventually come too, probably. A silverback is just one thing here, but Abraxus also has the annoying habit of casting Tornado. If you hear the ominous wind teleport to somewhere further while you can, or at least retreat. Once everything falls down continue the battle. Or you could try a sneaky tactic: if the Tornado grabs up a lot of Abraxus creatures try casting Volcano at the place where Tornado is. They will not be able to resist! Well, I dont really have anything else to tell you. You should be swimming in souls eventually, just keep trying. The part that is easy to lose is the first Sorcha and Acheron attack. Abraxus is more spells than creatures, and when the AI casts spells you can avoid or survive its effects. So Ill tell you information. -The fountain which even the AI tends to leave free, situated in a little mass of land that juts out of the main isle is a trap. It will cast Cloudkill at you once the lith is built. -Sorchas altar has 3 phoenixes as guardians. Thats two super-spell castings for you: Volcano first, then Blind Rage and an employment of creatures next. -Acheron will eventually die. Apparently Marduk slays Charnel like Stratos defeated Persephone before. A good time to convert souls and possibly the best time to attack. -Abraxus has a couple of silverbacks at her first lith and squalls at the second. The silverbacks will be easy as their movement is constricted. The squalls... use either a lot of fliers, or all your creatures, or Rain of Fire. (Dont waste a Volcano, although you probably wont have much else to use it for, either) Well, as soon as you banish everything, youre done! Good work! 3. Charnels Missions Mission One The Gods Themselves In my opinion, this is a creative level one. Your task is to free the Ragman, who has been chained to a stone so that the dragons can feed on him, punishment for him as he failed Charnel. Youd better be good then! (Its just like Prometheus story, the punishment is anyways.) You start with Gangrel, a scythe, and a small mix of other level 1 creatures. Gangrel is just a scythe but hes powerful: when he says he can defeat an Ent it is no lie! You have to create 12 fallen in this mission, so youd better start harvesting souls. Well, the James creatures you must kill are scattered throughout the map. Near each James manalith is a couple of Earthflings, usually. (They disguise themselves as rocks and attack when youre nearby, but if you have your scythes handy youll be okay.) Once you come to an abandoned altar, the one that Ragman will be assigned, turn back. Nothing more there. Also, turn back if you see a cave thats where youll need to go with the fallen and Gangrel later. Near a village and mana fountain are some Troggs as well. Kill them! But dont kill the farmers. Youre evil, but come on, James will still try to sway you to his side and will offer you a boon if you kill only the fighting creatures. How naive from him. Use every soul for fallen. If you only have a few missing and dont have any more patience you can kill your own locust and scythes (not Gangrel!), or even your manahoars. (Remember the X-menu: go right, or use the hotkey and youll spare the menu) With 12 fallen and Gangrel, approach the cave. Gangrel and the fallen will kill the dragons and sever the chains binding Ragman. Well, I hope that wasnt too hard. Mission Two The Prophecy In my opinion, this is the hardest level two out there. Well, it isnt that hard but youll certainly need to have some smarts to survive. You have to reopen the Demon Gate, but unfortunately Abraxus from Stratos is there to try and stop you. The annoying thing is that Abraxus is faster than other wizards and can reclaim her souls easily. Well, lets start anyways! Construct a lith on the fount ahead and then on the one after it. Order your Necryl to trail behind all the time. Once you see Abraxus coming for you prepare yourself. Oh, you dont know what creatures? Ill tell you. Abraxus has mainly Brainiacs so it might be logical to produce lot of Fallen, but she also employs a Storm Giant (cheating on Lord Surtur, I suppose) specifically for this purpose. So Id say you should produce Locusts mostly, with a few Fallen. No scythes yet. Locusts are okay vs. Brainiacs and will chew up the Storm Giant and Abraxus. Of course, you can also use your basic attack spell against the Giant, unless its Lightning. Eventually Abraxus will either win and push on, or shell retreat. Your ultimate goal in this mission is to get souls. If you are good, one way is to claim them from Abraxus. Try to kill Abraxus and her hoars (in this order), thats at least the souls of the hoars. You dont need to capture too much from her though. If you are still fresh meat, there are other ways. Several manaliths have Frostwolf guardians, harmless against anything ranged but especially vulnerable to Locusts. Try to observe where Abraxus is and if shes far enough, kill the Frostwolf and take her soul. (If shes not far enough shell reclaim the soul. Youve basically dealt yourself a blow then as the frostwolf guardian loses you nothing but the lith itself. Founts are abundant here though) Also, Charnel said that you might receive help at the Gate. Hes right! Its not without its cost though. There is a netherfiend here. He demands a soul as you approach. If you give him the soul, hell join you, and as the netherfiend is a 2-soul creature this will result in a net one-soul gain and the creature itself. Id say that the netherfiend isnt too useful, and if you dont want to try and use it against Abraxus later blast it away. Youll get two souls you can use for any of the creatures learnt so far. On the other hand, giving him nothing, or not having souls will result in the fiend attacking you. Hes fragile alone. Now you can convert him. Be sure to have a safe conversion route! Once its converted youll have gained two souls. Either way, approaching the Netherfiend is profitable so do it. (I think the Netherfiend attacks Abraxus too, even if hes still on his no-AI purple side. Never seen it though) Once you got enough souls to outnumber or at least be an equal match for Abraxus, push through the line of manaliths guarding Abraxus altar and desecrate it. (Use a two soul creature, of course.) Id advise you to have an extra Necryl to use against Abraxus. Then move in with Locusts for the kill. If Abraxus tries to zap your Doctors try to stand in the way to save them. Well, thats it! Youll also receive a boon for the Netherfiend encounter. Mission Three Balance of Power Charnel thinks Pyro will ally with him because you can defeat his Ambassador Buta. I dont think thatd happen, really... but youve gotta give it a try. Unfortunately, the Blight you get here isnt too ideal for its main purpose (raiding), but its still useful for slowing down wizards during a desecration here. However, this fight wont be long. Dont bother stopping to fight Buta either: instead push to his altar. What an opportunity then! Shakti will teleport in along with Abraxus the new allies decided to attack Pyros lands together. Charnel immediately realises thiss be a better idea, fortunately! Well, from now you can laugh at Buta at his funny comments and samples. But now lets get back to the mission. This is a 2v2 from now. See the factory ahead? There are half a dozen slaves around it. Send the blight to it. Hell slay the slaves while you convert them. Thats just enough souls to start operating. Buta will attack Shakti, so you should occupy Abraxus. Buta can defend himself for the most part, but not against both wizards, and a surprise attack from Abraxus can get either of you into the wrong kind of situation. Buta will usually hold his ground against Shakti, and will even triumph alone once youve banished Abraxus. But Im getting ahead of myself. Abraxus doesnt have much defenses. Two Sylphs and Brainiacs guard his first lith (give or take one), so that will be defeated by at most two blights. (Order the blight to attack the lith, hell attack them instantly. Ordering him to attack the creatures will result in him playing around for half a hour before bashing them) But you should also make support creatures for them. Fallen and Locusts or the like are the best. Scythes arent good for the most part since the only ranged infantry youll ever encounter most of the time are Abraxus sylphs. The funny thing is that Abraxus will not usually appear, not even to recover the souls, since she stays near Shaktis altar to protect her against Buta. You will have a free ride to Abraxus altar. Even better, sometimes she sends lone Brainiacs back to the altar in my opinion, a buggy AI behaviour that will result in you getting free souls (unless they fall in the abyss, which always cracks me up). After you start the desecration intercept Abraxus as she approaches her altar use a blight to fill her with mites (watch that the blight doesnt get lightning-struck: thats a one-hit kill). After that you wont have much trouble. Shaktis liths are better defended, but now you are two against one. You might not need to attack her creatures but do it anyways for the extra kills. The only thing that might annoy you from now is Ethereal form, which lasts for a short time. And if she uses Wrath stand in the way! You didnt forget the slaughter race, did you? Well, thats why you must kill everything you see. Charnel offers you a boon if you succeed. After you win, you can tell two lines to Buta, a compliment and an insult, and hear his responses. Funny guy, that one! Mission Four Shadow of the Past And now youll be given the spell which makes Charnel all worth it. Animate Dead! A way to constantly resurrect your creatures while you are alive yourself and thus make kills of even your most expensive creatures meaningless! Well, it isnt too fast, but faster and cheaper than summoning it anew. Lets stay with the mission for now, though. Pyros sorceress, Sorcha, has attacked Jadugarr in Telluria, but is in trouble, and you are to assist her. Well, after talking with Marduk, who speaks with you just like in every other mission four, you can speed ahead to the blue souls that were sent ahead as assistance, and to the red souls of the fighting wizards. Pick up your souls- erm, wait! See the dead styx? Time to practice Animate Dead. Cast it on the Styx you got yourself a nice four-soul creature! And you can keep resurrecting it indefinitely to boot. Sorcha will, however, be quite vulnerable to Jadugarr. Often youll see the desecration starting against Sorcha while you are converting and resurrecting stuff. If this happens, dont take risks deal with the problem yourself. Once youve beat back Jadugarr and Sorcha and you have converted any souls left behind Sorcha will get in a better shape again. Well, now you can try several things. Over the hill that overlooks Sorchas altar you can see a Jadugarr manalith, fortified with Squalls and other creatures. Leave the Styx behind for now and attack with Blights if you wish. You dont have to hurry yet though remember what Sorcha said about the local folk? Go to the left, until you come to a ranger and two gnomes. Most likely theyll attack you, but if you were good and served Persephone several times before they will join you in your quest the ranger is nothing special but the gnomes are okay ranged units, used not as desecrating fodder but instead against the centaur. If you proceed from this village youll come to the lith I mentioned earlier, except that youre now flanking it. A few blights will still be enough, and you can employ the gnomes you might have gotten as well. From here, youll be going well itll only get easier! Jadugarr will attack with Brainiacs mostly, and with Chain lightning that might wipe out some of the more inferior creatures. Blights should be wary of this spell. Also, dont forget to use Slime when desecrating Jadugarr, if you can itll slow him down so much hell be killed easily. Well, this was a 2v1 and sort of easy, but dont think everything will be so good later on! Mission Five Allegiance So instead of choosing techno-oriented Pyro, you decided to go with Charnel? Well, unlike the last mission youll be challenged by your enemies. You must morph Gangrel the scythe and Astaroth the demon lord into one being here, to use against Marduk (mostly). But who said thisd be easy? Abraxus is here, and Yogo (instead of inexperienced Shakti) attacks you too. Thankfully, Demonic Rift is a good crowd-control spell here. You start with 4 fallen and some other creatures. Id say that instead of the fallen, Deadeyes should make up most of your ranged. (If it needs to be so, you can summon some fallen for instant damage. But the Damage-Over-Time is great in many different ways.) Cast your Shield, organise your creatures quickly then cast Demonic Rift after the mission starts. This will disrupt the enemies well enough. I observed that while Abraxus uses many Brainiacs Yogo often tends to go melee, using Trolls and Druids. They both have their 2-soul melee unit at the start though. Gangrel isnt available yet, but you can try to convert the four zombies near him meanwhile. If you have time. You shouldnt try to focus on converting souls too much you need to gain some ground. To do this, you must destroy the Abraxus manalith on the small hill nearby. You can do this with a mad rush against it, by sending a blight, or by ordering your deadeyes to shoot it (theyre quite good against liths) while having other creatures battle on. Once this is done, Abraxus and Yogo will pull back a bit. Construct a lith here and reorganise your troops now you have some resting time. Now, if you can convert some souls, do so if not, repel any Yogo and Abraxus attacks and wait for the ritual to complete. Once you gain control of Astaroth, the mission will become as simple as any other. Attack Abraxus first. You are ordered not to banish her, but you should still destroy her manaliths! Without them, shes completely useless. Shell go to Yogos manaliths to regenerate but she wont have an acceptable mana flow. Yogo will need to be banished, however. The guardian of Elysium is initially dangerous, but later you wont need to fear much. His Trolls and other melee creatures are nothing against Astaroth, a low-maintenance killer basically, and he wont have the smarts to figure out that a Gremlin may very well toss Astaroth around. Desecrate his altar and watch the cinematic: maybe Stratos is not what he seems? Mission Six Desperate Measures Charnels alliance with Pyro was short-lived. He decides to destroy his device, the Pyrodraulic Dynamo, because it is too strong and he fears that Pyro becoming the more powerful member of the alliance will be risky in the future. Or so I think. And meanwhile, hell also befriend James! Divide and conquer technique, I suppose. You have a nice number of souls to start with 20! Well, thats enough for a whole lot of creatures. And you have two manafounts at your disposal. Dont be lazy, construct these two manaliths. The two enemy sorcerers, Ambassador Buta and Hachimen are coming for you soon, and youll need to be prepared if you are to survive. Then theres the Dynamo. If you had some experience with James mission five, good for you! Itd be wise to rely on ranged creatures for the most part. A combination of 2 abominations and 4 deadeyes is good enough. But you might not have enough time to create a whole army, thats the problem. If you are not prepared, well, thats what your new spell is for, no? Wailing wall has a strong urge of stay away. Eventually, however, a wizard will come through. Buta or Hachimen will come (hope that not both at once if that happens youll be in deep trouble) and their army will sport a few Dactyls, Maniacs, Spitfires and even a Bombard. Also, some other level 1 creatures might be present. A demonic rift will, however, dispatch many of these. (The Dactyls and Spitfires will drop out of the sky quickly.) But you must get souls, so use Slime, Wailing wall or any other way of slowing or stopping the Pyro wizards. If youre good enough youll get lots of souls! Now, it would be a good idea to position Abominations as guardians to your liths. But as soon as youre done with this, stay away from your altar whenever you can! The Dynamo can erupt on you any time. In this mission, Id recommend you to destroy the Dynamo once the enemies are sufficiently weakened. First, you see the lith which guards Charlottes altar? Destroy it and claim the souls. This is a must as Charlotte will only be able to regenerate at her altar. Hope you converted all the souls! Now for the Dynamo. Destroying it can be done with Blights, ground troops or the best, a combination of the two. Watch out for the defenses though they are tough, and Buta will be able to claim their souls once they die (they switch to that side). Use Demonic Rift to weaken the defenses while the fighting is fierce. As you approach the Dynamo, Charlotte will talk with your wizard (from inside the Dynamo?). As soon as the Dynamo is destroyed, teleport to the lith near Charlottes altar and destroy it using your creatures. This will free up the fount for Charlotte so that she can start playing once again. Did Buta and Hachimen bother you a lot? I hope not. If you find that they force you to teleport back too much, you can position more abomination guards to your liths (the other lith near your altar or the one near Charlottes altar). You can now drop a few souls for the spider if you want to, but you could just as well attack. Who you attack doesnt matter much, really, but Blights will not suffice here, or only in large numbers Bombards and Pyromaniacs guard their liths, which means that theyll shoot down these... birdies. Instead, use massive amounts of Abominations. Once youre done, watch as you talk with Charlotte. Well, Charnel is quite an interesting fellow after all. But its no time to be lazy! On to Helios! Mission Seven The Chasm Widens Charnel uses the temporary ceasefire between him and James to divert his necromancers to attacking Pyroborea, and you are sent to deal the finishing blow. Pyro is still going strong in his capital though, so be prepared. The Empress and the Ambassador are both here. Luckily, certain factors will allow you to manage this mission! Sorcha will come soon, so act quick. Construct a lith on the fount right in front of you and watch as Faestus betrays Pyro for you. Well, add him to your ranged group. You have 5 souls so use them for an abomination and a deadeye. (Served Persephone before? A mutant and a gnome will also suffice to a slightly lesser extent.) Take all your units with you to the next fountain and construct the manalith. After this is done, Sorcha should arrive. You must get as many souls as possible here. Cast Protective Swarm before the battle and then cast Plague while ordering your units to attack. The Styx will be good against Warmongers because he regenerates health while damaging the Mongers, though massive Warmonger fire will still take them down if you have enough mana, cast a Demonic Rift (though Plague should handle them well enough already). Beware of the Pyromaniacs as well! At least 3 of them will always follow the sorceress try to work quickly so that you wont have to divert your attention to them while killing Sorcha. With the immediate danger gone, order all your units to attack Sorcha and then her manahoars. Harvest the souls after the battle, if you have captured some. (Demonic Rift is a good way to kill wounded Hoars.) Now use these souls to produce mostly long-ranged units, with perhaps another Styx. (If you got all her souls, another Styx will be good!) Now you could try to fight Sorcha again, and/but if you think you have enough souls you can go on. You see the lith heavily guarded by Bombards and Warmongers, and the like? Ignore it. Instead, proceed to Sorchas altar. The altars top part is visible from the manalith. It is guardianed by two Warmongers a piece of cake, basically, as your ranged units can kill it with impunity. If you want to do it fast, you could cast Demonic Rift. Try not to get too much creatures killed here though until you destroy the manalith, your mana regeneration will be very slow (especially as soon as your minions start consuming mana with their ranged attacks). Sorcha will not come for her souls if she has already lost everything. If she still has an army, though, she will attempt to do so if you saw where Sorcha went off you could perhaps place your Styx units to try and kill her. Replace Sorchas manalith with your own whenever you can. Then wait for 1000 mana to use the desecration spell (use a Styx). Sorcha might or might not come to you when the ritual starts. Get her anyways she will most likely refuse to hide behind the magnifriers you see ahead. Once Sorcha is dead, you will get a ton of souls! Where you can get them from: One which you might have triggered if you strayed off the path approaching the volcano-ish hill in the direction of Buta, a few Bombards will materialize for some reason not far from your first lith. I dont know what theyre doing there, but thats 16 souls. The heavily guarded lith you skipped ahead will now be a graveyard holding 12 souls. The two warmongers you just killed while destroying Sorchas first lith yield 8 souls. Sorchas remaining souls might also be available to you. More souls. Also, some fountains: One which you can get to by hugging the edge of the island from Sorchas altar. The previously guarded lith will be there for you to destroy. There is a fountain near some paper shacks. Youll suffer some minor damage from an explosion and an eruption that will take place there, but otherwise nothing will prevent you from taking that. The lith ahead of this one, however, is in range of the Magnifriers! Dont approach it yet! Well, I suppose that if you followed this walkthrough even loosely, Buta will not start advancing on you yet. But dont worry, he will come out eventually. You can see the three methods of destroying the magnifriers (troggs, level 1 creatures or the 2-soul melee unit up close) in the James 6 walkthrough, and for Charnel only Deadeyes are also OK as they are very long-ranged, and you can animate anyone who dies from the beams but the third frier will be more difficult either way as the lith that didnt use to exist in James 6 is now under Butas control and fortified by two Bombards! (These can boil your level one creatures alive unless you micromanage them well, or give them a perfect waypointed order) Luckily, Buta will only become active if the wizard goes too far, so as long as you go no further than the manalith ahead of the papershack fountain the souls will stay there and no harm will befall them. If you lost your units and a magnifrier is still standing put on your shield and use your speed-up and heal spells to reclaim your souls. (Leave everyone, including your hoars, behind. Itd also be a good idea to come from the lith to the right, closer to Sorchas former altar.) If you can, go to its base and summon a creature to destroy the Magnifrier as well. (It doesnt matter if you die on the way once you have reclaimed your souls.) One or two converted creatures dont matter ultimately, of course. Once the magnifriers are destroyed collect your creatures and face Buta. Try to choose the battleground so that its neutral or near your own liths, and definitely far from the bombard-guarded lith. The best spot is probably the volcano hill to the right of the lith that I warned you not to touch before, as this gets you the high ground your deadeyes and abominations will thank you for. This first encounter will probably decide a lot. Butas forces are a phoenix, two warmongers and a load of rocket-spewing Pyromaniacs. I hope you produced a lot of Styx, as these are good against most of the enemies! (The phoenix fries them up in one shot, but if theyre lucky enough to shoot their blast while theyre getting burned theyll survive because of the health drain). Against the Pyromaniacs, try to chew them up from a longer range. Oh, and dont forget your new spell, Plague, as this will once again produce great results. Buta himself is not that tough since his Fireform is not a very good defense. If he should become unshielded give him some Slime and youre all set to convert some souls. Once hes dead, convert the souls you got and proceed. Youll want his guarded lith in the middle of the ex-Frier triangle now. Against them: Deadeyes or Blights (Deadeyes outrange Bombards but Blights are faster) are the best, though a mad bum-rush against the lith will not result in failure either, its just less efficient. Try not to let Buta get the souls, though if you use Deadeyes this will be most likely inevitable. Anyway, here you can hold your ground easily. If Buta should attack hell produce Warmongers again, but this time hell have less escort you will find a nice employment of Abominations very fruitful. Move in with the Styx as well to annihilate Buta himself. Buta will not attack any more soon, instead hell cover in his fortified den, overlooked by the massive iron Ultimate Altar. It will soon explode, rest assured. Just so that you wont be surprised, Ill tell you what exactly awaits you. Immediately once you enter the area, you will be attacked by a group of units who are supposed to work together with Buta but are usually cut down far from him. These are: 2 bombards, 3 pyromaniacs and a Pyrodactyl. Lucky it doesnt spew oil. You will have to destroy the lith behind the big rock. It doesnt matter now whether Buta gets a few souls back so feel free to blast away at it with Abominations and Deadeyes its only guards are two Warmongers. The other lith has the same and a Bombard it is farther from the altar so youll actually only need to defeat the Bombard there which is easy to do with Deadeyes in particular. You can even leave the Mongers alone. Now stand between that last lith (where Buta will hide unless you left him a lith somewhere, in which case hell die from the energies on the way) and the ultimate altar and desecrate that altar. Buta will... most likely... fall to your units. (Last time I had 6 Styx, 6 Abominations, 6 Deadeyes, 3 Hoars, 4 Netherfiends and some spare souls still, if I recall correctly.) Enjoy as you defeat Buta, and optionally try to kill the two Warmongers with only your Styx units before the Ambassador falls! Charnel will be truly delighted. Now you can finally relax. Well, at least Pyros not so high-handed now, is he? Mission Eight No Mercy With Pyro out of the way Charnel resumes to focus on his traditional targets. You are sent to purge Idylliac from Persephones faithful while Stratos is fighting her elsewhere. It seems like Yogo is the only one left to guard the capital of Elysium. But soon youll find out James sent some aid in the form of Charlotte, who you freed not long ago! Why, you should have left the ungrateful snot in the Dynamo. Well, now theres no turning back. Of course you have some initial time, so teleport to the island to the left and kill the two peasants with your basic attack spell. With this done youll have 11 souls. You could produce two styxes and an abomination, or one styx, one abomination and two deadeyes from this. Or perhaps you may not want to use all your souls, so that you can cast Rend Soul with a styx (but dont do this if you fail at the technique! 1 soul is not a big loss, but it is a loss if wasted). Either way, nothing worse than having Charlotte rain down on you from that nice position right above your first lith, so move out. Quickly build the second manalith... you may see Charlotte advancing with her army. Whats this army? A Jabberocky, a few Taurocks, a Boulderdash, an Ikarus and a good load of Flummoxes Charlotte probably summoned. You need to get some souls from Charlotte, but for that youll need to kill her, which is damn annoying while shes in Stone Skin. Also, when the Jabberrocky starts stomping down on your bony Styxes, youll want to restart. So focus on the Rocky first with your units, perhaps even casting Slime on it, while you proceed to the long-ranged Men of the Glebe and kill the Boulderdash with your spells (be careful, as the Flummoxes can interrupt your spellcasting!) Or you could forgo the Boulderdash and try to attract the Taurocks attention. Either way, youll need to cast some spells to win here Plague (or Bombardment, see later) are very useful, though beware of Charlotte casting Bombardment on you! Once you got her creatures, cast Slime on Charlotte (before she casts it on you!) or else youll never get through the damn spider. Once shes dead, the units will retreat and its conversion time. Oh, and dont forget your new spell Intestinal Vaporisation! If youre nearby its free souls for you. Use it on the Jabberrocky or the Boulderdash if you can. Youll certainly be more comfortable with even a converted Taurock, I suppose, but if you can double the number of your souls, even better! After this battle, you should optimally have two Styxes and 1-2 of deadeyes and abominations. But wait... I hear some of you calling. It was possible to serve James before, so how do you do it if you went up to mission seven with James? Your job is still difficult then. There is nothing you can do to capitalise on the time that Charlotte spends unarmored, other than killing her anyways. For the fighting itself, 1 Jabberrocky and 1 Boulderdash will handle a lot of the enemies (starting with the Jabberrocky), and the remaining three souls could go towards a Flummox, or a Taurock and something else. But you may find you have difficulty getting souls with James. In this case, use Intestinal Vaporization whenever you can. Charlotte will never again amass such an army most of the time it will consist of Flummoxes, level 1 creatures, a combination of the two and possibly Taurocks. Styxes, Abominations and Deadeyes (or Boulderdashes with some melee support) can kill just about everything Charlotte throws at you. Notice how you didnt see a single Faithful yet? Yogo doesnt attack at this point. Youll face Charlotte alone here. Now, however, you could just wait until something happens that will definitely defeat Charlotte... This walkthrough, on the other hand, assumes you dont know this and proceeds on. Push onwards. Charlotte will stay near a manalith of hers if weakened well enough, so avoid this one. Instead, take the manalith on the other side in a similar position. Or if you want to prepare for the future, erect a Shrine, though this will net you a bad mana flow temporarily. Then proceed to her (unguarded) altar. Start the desecration with a Styx/Jabberrocky unit. Then employ your creatures along with some spells (a well-placed Wall spell can keep Charlotte away while still letting your Abominations/Deadeyes/Boulderdashes/whatever do their work). Soon enough Charlotte will crumble and the altar will become free! Construct a Manalith here and prepare (with or without guardians), for Yogo will immediately attack. Persephones champion has a force that is just a bit stronger than Charlottes troop was, which means that he has two ents, a few trolls and shrikes, two gremlins and some mutants. The difference is that you now have Charlottes souls in addition to you, and youll be facing a less damage- oriented god. Boulderdashes and a Jabberrocky work well as Ents do not use Protector, assuming you were a Geomancer before, but if you were loyal to Charnel youll need to use four Styx units for the ent (take one or two if you weaken them well enough with spells). You need to kill Yogo quickly, along with his hoars, and then youll need to convert quickly as well, because Yogos manaliths are not far. These encounters wont be too hard though. You can even make your life easier and use Intestinal Vaporisation to insta-convert an ent. Once the first encounter is done, capture any free or James-aligned founts nearby and prepare for the assault. Youll need to destroy one lith (preferably the one protected by no wizard so that you can get the souls). Both liths have a few Mutants and Gnomes as guardians. You can attack with your own Abominations and Deadeyes, or you could produce a few Netherfiends or Blights (or Taurocks or Ikarus), speed them up and let them do the work. Well, from now its easy. If you take the path to the right youll face more Mutants and Gnomes while taking the path to the left will result in you facing two Dragons and Gnomes. You can kill these with Death, or with more ranged units (the Dragons dont breathe anything, fortunately, and they are actually guardianed). You dont need to destroy the other manalith in either scenario, although its beneficial. Now put your units so that they are between you and Yogo and sacrifice a unit (with the souls you have it doesnt matter if the ritual drains Yogos health slowly). Now kill Yogo! (Use Slime or else hell use Ethereal Form and thats an inconvenience). Congratulations on your second victory over a God! Now its time to visit Stratos realm, Empyrea. Mission Nine The End Days Of course, Stratos must die. How else should it be? The mission starts in an unique way, sort of. Jadugarr the centaur is already here with flurries and squalls. Well, maybe not so unique in most missions at this point the enemy tends to pounce you in 30 seconds... It is important to use this opportunity. Kill Jadugarr. You have a netherfiend and some deadeyes at your disposal; use Slime, or whatever you have that is similar, use offensive spells etc. Try to summon some hard- hitting creatures next to Jadugarr, but watch out! You are not to kill any of his creatures. If you can just decapitate Jadugarr and hoars, then you can kill the slow flurries and airy squalls to harvest their souls. 16 souls at your disposal and Jadugarr will be in trouble at this point. He might even stop attacking you altogether! Though he probably wont: hell soon come with an army of flurries and a few brainiacs. But if you construct a lith and convert the red souls that you should have produced, youll have no problem. (If you failed to get some or all of these souls it will be harder, but if you can summon a few quick-killing creatures Styx, for example; kill off the deadeyes you might get Jadugarr, cast Death and then convert away. Faestus also burns him up well.) Jadugarr will attack soon once more. Hell come via the village (graveyard?) to the west. Be careful here! If you try to attack him in the village it will trigger a trap which causes some storm giants and yetis to appear. I think they are friendly to Jadugarr he doesnt trigger the trap either way. Jadugarr will convert the peasants, however, if you just sit by your first lith. Therefore, go around the village, repel Jadugarrs attack and THEN trigger the trap (if you have some souls converted to kill the creatures). However, dont just sit there, pay attention to your surroundings. Hachimen is still there wackos alright, but they still pack a punch. More so than Jadugarr in my opinion they have a guaranteed Bombard and 2 Maniacs and usually theyll summon some Warmongers (and some fodder). And it may well happen that while you are busy fighting Jadugarr, converting souls or whatever, Hachimen comes from the other direction and destroys your first lith, interrupts any desecrations and crushes you completely with a desecration you may go back but even infinite mana might not save you at that point... You must prevent this please forget about Jadugarr and souls if you sight them and move to intercept them. And dont cower at your first lith or theyll have the high ground: instead, fight them in the open, use the long range of the deadeyes, abominations you might summon, use Demonic Rift etc. Beware of Volcano! You cant afford to have much dead at this point: you have a low mana flow with 1 lith, and youd need 4+ hoars to have a big mana flow which will have an effect on your fighting force. This is especially true if in mission 4 you havent followed Charnel, as this will mean that you lack Animate Dead. (If you so wish, you could move out early to take another fount the one right ahead in a valley is perfect but this may also have an effect on your soul pool as youll have less time for conversion.). However you solve this, Hachimen is not Jadugarr Flurries are good for massage but theyre useless for combat, at least in the way the AI (mis)uses them. On the other hand, Mongers, Maniacs and the rest are deadly. Try to grab some souls, but do not make it your priority yet. Hachimen should soon retreat. If you got any red souls, convert them. You should start to advance at this point. Hachimens altar basically guards Jadugarrs, and its to the right. But, in case you didnt convert every soul yet, and are not good at doing it either, take the manalith ahead to the left anyways. It is guarded by some nasty guys, but you should be able to overwhelm them by now. Jadugarr or Hachimen might decide to go regenerate here, which can lead to a nasty surprise if you have a big soul train and they still feel like attacking your altar. Decide whether you want to go here or not. Remember that if an enemy is here they can reclaim the souls, so try to prevent this if you can. After you have or have not done this, proceed to the east. You may stumble upon a purple-colored Sara Bella while doing the mission, though! Stratos fans can relax, she isnt going to die. Or is she? Blast Hermione Granger, I mean Sara Bella into oblivion (use the attack command from the X menu or the hotkey, in case you forgot) so that he may contribute to a superior lifeform. (Styx? Hellmouth? Deadeye? You decide...) She doesnt have to be protected. Come on already, its Charnel were playing! Oh, you want to interrupt an enemy wizard with her? I thought killing them interrupts them well enough anyways... Ahem. Advance upon Hachimen, taking out the Shrine in the way and replacing it with your own. (Yes, this is an alright location for a shrine not really in the way in case someone attempts something naughty.) Their first lith is guarded by 2 Phoenixes. Tough guys, these, and Hellmouths will get fried by them. However, they are guardianed, which means Abominations, Deadeyes and maybe even Faestus can hit them without retaliation. If Faestus dies to the Phoenixes remember to use Animate Dead if you can. Now... desecrate! You shouldnt have much trouble with Hachimen, though a Volcano can mess you up even if he has little support. (If they does cast it, try to interrupt them *wink*) Jadugarr still remains. Here youll have a tougher set of guards. Oh, but dont forget that you have Death! Cast it on the silverbacks on the lith in the front. If your troops are reasonably far away the Grim Reaper will decide to go for the hidden squalls in the back after the big gorillas are down. Or, if you want to deny Jadugarr his last souls kill the silverbacks with an all-out storm (You could help killing one with Intestinal Vaporisation). If you went with Stratos in the eighth mission, remember not to use Cloudkill it boosts up Silverbacks like it does with Storm Giants. Squalls should be easy with: Blights, sped-up Netherfiends, several Hellmouths with focused fire, and basically anything in numbers. Abominations might be less effective because theyre pushed away all the time. And now its time to finally slay Stratos! Revel in the glory for a bit, for the Crucible is coming. And the rest of my walkthrough, too. The rest of the walkthrough is UNDER CONSTRUCTION IV. Final Words Well, about copying this. Id appreciate it if you sent an email and gave me full credit if you wanted to post this at your website. (Mail: rovarkatona (at) gmail (dot) com) Also send me any additions or complaints Ill gladly read and reply to any normal letters. Oh, if you serve Charnel and wish to claim it as your own, I wont take legal steps because I dont care that much! (Just go rot with your Necryls.) If I dont answer for three days thats a yes for you, by the way. Corpse_Milk_Man, 2008.03.05. (y/m/d)