Pull out the grinder: Orcs Must Die II

Polymorph ring is only for the sorceress though.

So uptairs / downstairs & crunch ate my lunch. I looked up some playthrough's which were all warmage based and while they were cool, didn't help much as I'm playing the sorceress and lack their traps / weapons. I finally found some walk throughs by Nananea and she had some very unique strategies, for both upstairs / downstairs and crunch.

As a guy on the far side of 40, I still lack the twitchiness to get to 5 skulls on upstairs / downstairs, even with her guide, but I did manage to get through that bastard. Somehow I did get through Crunch on 5 skulls, and the funniest thing happened - right at the end, as I was racing over to help vanquish the last ice ogre, I fell into one of the pools by the rift and the text came up "sink like a brick" but then the 5 skull dance came up as the ogre must have died right at that moment.

Whew.

The next two in the series were painless and easy. Tonight I get to try the finale. At least I know my strategy will hinge on the decoy to take care of the bats.

Has anyone tried the first weekly challenge "Flip them off?"

I managed to five skull it just now on warmage difficulty, however I wasn't happy with my method, although there doesn't seem to be many options for experimentation.

My first and admittedly stressful attempt was to have the spring traps on both pathways. That was ok, however a few orcs did manage to escape through the mines, and I also failed to meet the par time. Part of the problem I found with that approach is that the orcs from the top part of the map will land on the lower bridge when the trap is activated. As such, the lower half is potentially allowing more orcs to escape. I didn't trap up the exit, but maybe that would be the better way to go, to hold off any that make it through.

My second attempt I thought was a little more clever. Get the traps outside the orc portal on the top to fling them down the stairs to the lower half of the map so that they'd then cross (in theory) with the rest of the orcs. Then I could send the minecart along the one track and just pick off any stragglers. Sadly, the orcs when sent to the lower half instead just go back up the stairs to go along the top platform again.

My third attempt which was my five skull was to have the lower half trapped and remain on the top half killing the orcs with the blunderbus. With a bit of finesse, or luck, I could from the top section hit the orcs on the lower half with the grenade from the blunderbus onto the tracks to get a kill that way. However comboing is a lot harder on this map because the game gives for damage is either the mine cart, grenade or blunderbus. The spring trap and rock traps basically means death.

I just don't have any thoughts or ideas of how to do this map better. I made it into the top 1000 with my score, but given the top 10 players managed to get 3 times my score, there is clearly something missing in my thinking. Next time, I might go with the idea of gradually adding traps to the top half to ensure more trap kills that add to the score.

I did this - I'm tmanpdx on steam btw if you want to add me as a friend - I really need some coop partners. I tend to play late night PST (9pm onwards)

I got 85K - but admittedly that includes a 50K bonus for taking no damage & losing nothing to the rift. That put my at #22. I wasn't trying for combo's but I could legitimately getting a few in there but I think it would be mostly luck.

My setup was to set up 4 flippers near the exits to send them back onto the long paths and gradually fill these in with flippers from top to bottom and bottom to the empty void (i'd alternate between the two when placing a new flip). I keep the minecart on the bottom track and man the top part.

To get par time, you need to be aggressive on the first two waves, chase down the guys that flip down to the bottom track and are walking up for example.

Awesome, I just added you. It'll be good to get some ideas as to how much more I can improve my own scores. I am on a different time zone, but the way my hours shift, I can be on at any time.

I had no idea there was a 50k bonus for taking no hits. I knew there was a skull bonus, but never a point score. Ok, so that will make things a little more interesting then. It is normally a stray orc archer arrow that hits me in this game.

I just went back and retried and got myself into position 96. About the only other ways I can think of improving my score is to not build so many spring traps, and hold the aggro of the orcs and lead them onto the mine cart line. And I guess that is probably where the craziness of the challenge begins. I haven't thought this much about the OMD maps as much as this one, and how best to refine my score to try and beat it. Normally in the campaign version of this map, I'd have built spring traps, but also recognised that other players would have done better than me with their own defined set up.

So this week's challenge is so much harder...Big Valley with only fire traps (flame bracers, brimstone, floor scorcher), arrow walls and archers.

I struggled until some broke through and then it clicked ... you want to have them break through to create a path and now you can create your killing zone.

It's pretty hectic up until then, so if you can hang on, it's definitely doable. I scored 89K, or #43 so far. I'm sure a lot will get higher than me. I'm thinking I may be able to get the 50K bonus by not dying and that would put me in top 10 easy.

You bet it is. Just sat down now to try it. I agree with letting the orcs bust through the end barricades, that seems to be about the best bet, otherwise the defenses are spread much to thin. However, there seems to be a luck element involved, sometimes the orcs will destroy 3 barricades, sometimes they will destroy only one. Perhaps my biggest killer is the second wave with the archer orcs because I haven't yet established a solid defense. I've avoided using archers because the orcs will come through and shoot them, and I don't have enough money to lay down the traps necessary to keep them at bay. It really is a map designed to maximise trap placement and minimise intervention by the player, except for those "oh shit" moments when an earth elemental breaks down and the little ones scamper through to the exit. I may need to focus more on the wall arrows and less on having floor scorchers on the ground initially, then gradually build up to scorchers.

I'm not really liking the brimstone on this challenge, it takes a long time for them to heat back up, and their orc killing efficiency isn't too good given the cost. I like them normally because it does add to the combo provided the orcs die quickly after rather than burning to death due to the brimstone. However this map, it just doesn't work. I'm thinking it is better to simply have the archers at the back, scorchers and arrows, then diving in with the firewall whenever they are about to pass through the killzone. The best I have gotten so far is a 4x combo, but normally it is only 3x.

DLC announced!

Damnit, I'm going to have to buy this game aren't I? I had really wanted to reduce my backlog a bit before the holiday season hit.

You really should. It's so great.

This weeks challenge is trapless bra. I'm not a fan either because of how mind-numbingly boring it is. My current methodology is to use the frost ring alt attack when the orks get near the tracks, then hope a minecart either kills them, or smashes into them so that I can then blast them with the wand. The rest that get through also get blasted with the wand. Seems to be about the best way of getting through the level, with a highscore likely being the relative number of kills associated with the minecart striking the orcs. To be honest, this one was a letdown. Does anyone else have a different perspective on it?

Eh, it's kinda stupid easy. I didn't even touch the frost ring in an untouchable run through it right now. Easy way to rack up 11 skulls (5 + perfect x1 + untouchable x2 + trapless x3) for four easy waves, heh.

Would anyone be interested in running some co-op maps tonight? Still working my way through the campaign, but would love to try co-op or endless co-op with some people.

Totally agree. This was boring and I have zero incentive on trying to improve my score.

Anyone have any suggestions for this weeks challenge map? The mushrooms take so long to regen I keep getting overrun no matter what I do.

Brett - I gave up after a few tries. Too much FPS for this old guy to handle.

I managed to one skull it, but I'm going to give it a few more shots.

I guess the things to consider are

1. Charm is great for the explosion after. I guess they are like mana costing decoys to get the aggro of the nearby orcs.

2. The kobolds become very strong when the hit the mushrooms. I try and lay down the mushrooms when they pass over them, or when ogres come out.

3. At the end of every round, I remove the mushrooms completely. I think this resets their cooldown. It also means that I lose the units which were affected by the mushrooms however that is less of a concern because they are normally out of position anyway.

4. This challenge is also stupid. I can not fathom what Robot are thinking with deciding these challenges because they go so far away from what Orcs Must Die is about in my mind.

Ok, managed to 4 skull it before I gave up. Position 114 if I recall. Waves 7 and 8 are the real killer in this challenge.

My strategy from above only changed in that if my own little shroom happy army suffered losses during the prior wave, I'd remove the mushrooms. The big thing is of course to have the mushrooms in one central area.

Another factor is the mana potions. Sadly, if I don't get many dropping, then I am shit out of luck in terms of charming the orcs. Waves 7 and 8 are where the mana potions really need to be on hand. Wave 9 is easier because I can charm the ogres right from the gate and use them to hold the orcs at bay a little while longer. Which brings me to the next thought through my head. Is it better to charm the ogres and let them hold the aggro of the orcs, or to get them under the influence of the mushrooms. So far I'm happier charming them, they don't tend to last more than a round anyway so better for them to explode and cause as much damage as possible. Likewise, I try and charm the heavy orcs over the medium orcs. But this is a map where it pays to have good aim, and with all the clicking required, I just don't have the desire to balance the two.

Finally, rather than laying down the mushrooms, I try and place them at the stairs before the portal because normally the kobolds will hit them before the main orc army. And that is where my strat is failing, because wave 7 and 8 means I have to try and keep the orcs away from the mushrooms until the kobolds arrive. And if a sapper touches them, then that mushroom is out of commision for a while.

Needless to say, I'm done with this map now. My hand is tired and the desire to continue is long gone.

Picked this up at the Steam Halloween mini-sale and played maybe half a dozen levels. I like it! Not sure I really like the Enchantress with her wand charm stuff, so I may switch back over to the War Mage. I really like the system for buying upgrades to your traps/gear and look forward to getting more into it. It still makes a great "take a break from work" game to eat up 15 minutes or so.

I picked it up on the same sale and have only played a few levels in the campaign so far, but yeah, it's a lot of fun! I love how violent it is. :)

Finally managed to five skull everything on Warmage. The last level (Twisted Halls or something) was giving me fits, since it seemed like I was constantly JUST missing the 5 skull, either by one orc getting through or by just missing the par time. Then I figured out a good way to deal with both the Earth Lords and the flying lightning bats and it clicked.

Now, on to Nightmare...

Hm. DLC is half off on Steam. Are any of the 3 worth it? Any more so than others?

75% off today , go go go !

Yep, bought them all and played the first two levels of the Yeti one. Fuuuuuuuuccckkk yooooooooooouuuu Goblin Sappers!

The healers added in one of the DLC packs are a good addition. Really annoying in a fun way.

Played through all the DLC, enough to 4 or 5 star it all on Warmage. I like the water/fire one and the family ties ones. Those new enemy types were good. The yeti one sucks, though. Those all seem like gimmick levels and the goblin sapper just sucks the fun out of the game. It might be different if they just threw a few of them at you during a round, but they spam the little bastards and there's no hard counter to them so your major killboxes are guaranteed to be out a lot. Makes the game way too micro focused to me. It's much more fun when you figure out a good trap placement and just support it rather than running around trying to kill individual orcs.

Looks like I've put 36 hours into this game according to Steam. Time to set it aside for a while, I think.