tips on paladin on impossible/no casualties/7 days/level 30

[loreangelicus]

Paladin on impossible; no casualties, 7 days, level 30. Final score of 1,727. I won't go into battle tactics/skills choice/unit choice and stuff like that since these have already been discussed thoroughly in other posts. And besides, tactics vary. I'll just explain how I did the above feat.

You always make the most of a day, which is usually from 07:00 of that day up until 06:45 of the next day. Below is the "jump" schedule I followed:

Day 2 18:55 level 10 to Islands of Freedom (12 hours to spare)
Day 3 14:48 level 13 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 05:33 level 17 to Islands of Freedom (1.5 hours to spare)
Day 4 12:40 level 18 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 23:58 level 20 to Ellinia (7 hours to spare)
Day 6 02:20 level 27 to Darion (4.5 hours to spare)
Day 6 19:14 level 29 to Ellinia (11.5 hours to spare)
Day 7 12:42 level 30 outside King Mark's castle; game over

The no-army-suicide-trick is done by garrisoning your whole army into castles (including reserves) then attacking a wandering enemy without an army. This automatically teleports you to King Mark's castle. The disadvantage is that you have to rebuild your army from scratch, which is easily remedied by pre-stocking your new army in advance. Tons of time to do this, as could be seen in the hours to spare that I had.

So the above explains how I finished the game in 7 days. So how to do no casualties and level 30 on impossible with a paladin? Read the forums for tactics on units/spells/rage use (tons of advise out there), but the most important thing is KILL EVERYTHING. Skip battles only if it is REALLY tough and you are sure you would be going back to that continent. Buy all suppressable items and suppress them. Max Learning and Keeper of Light.

Skipping battles because they are "too tough" would only mean you don't gain XP and don't gain levels, making you weak, meaning you encounter even more battles that are "too tough".

Contrary to popular belief, 7 days doesn't mean you "rush" through the game. I picked up ALL banners/chests/gold and killed ALL enemies (well, except for 1 enemy at Islands of Freedom used TWICE for the no-army-suicide-trick).

I posted screenshots of the record, as well as my might/mind/magic tree skill choice and army composition. The army choice is very subjective. I usually just like to "park" my real army away from harm, so I abused Phantom level 3 on the Emerald Green Dragons a lot (free phantoms). Used Demoness with Anga's Ruby (thus always being first), then swapped the phantomed EGDs for an enemy; phantom EGDs use mana blast ability in the middle of enemy ranks, getting back 15-30 mana, as well as tanking big time. Next turn (and following turns) fly real EGDs stack to the middle of the map, phantom again, you get the picture. :grin:

It should be noted that the phantom EGDs above were not counted as spell damage in the final record, but as regular EGD damage. I thought I should point this out since my main stack of EGDs rarely attacked, and the record is misleading in saying that the percentage of damage from spells is only 1%.:confused:

Hope this helps those going for 7 days as well, especially those going for high scores to boot.

NOTE: It's actually possible to get an even higher score by finishing the game in 6 days. This could be done by not killing everything at Ellinia/Death Lands and do the no-army-suicide-trick from Ellinia to Darion to finish off Demonis. But I wanted to see how close anyone can get to level 31, and I had the "perfect game" for this in that I was playing paladin (quick maxing out of Learning and Keeper of Light) and I picked up the Tactics Treatise very early. As such, after killing everything and with the above XP-gain-enhancing conditions, it is safe to say that level 31 is not possible.

I could go for a Day 6 finish from my Day 5 start at Ellinia saved game, but I am too burned out from this game right now to do this. :)

[Razorflame]

congrats smart thinking on the no army suicide;-)

wish i had thought of that ^^

[BB Shockwave]

Nice stats, but I'll never understand the need some people feel to finish a game in record time. No matter if I re-play a game or play it for the first time, I like to look around everywhere, find hidden details, plan ahead and collect the units I want to play with (even if in KB this means visiting continents and running away from strong armies) or just stop every now and then to enjoy the scenery.

In Armored Princess I see people plan trips to isles taking into account the amount of time travel takes, to minimize time spent playing. Where is the fun in that? Frankly for my score, I only care for "Units lost" which I plan to keep as low as possible (zero in AP so far, but being a warrior I know I can't do a no lossess game).

[loreangelicus]

congrats smart thinking on the no army suicide;-)

wish i had thought of that ^^

I really can't take credit for that, I just read it as well from the posts here in this forum. Tons of great advice in this forum, and you and BB Shockwave are a part of this.

Case in point, this is actually the FIRST game of KBtL that I actually completed. :) Suffice to say I have found GREAT advice in this forum to accomplish such a feat.

Btw, the highest score posted right now is 1,742 found in this post (at page 10 I think):

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=4864

103 quests, level 30, but this time 6 days. Interesting that he almost had no casualties (he only had 10 casualties!)... wonder what happened there... still the top score to beat though.


Nice stats, but I'll never understand the need some people feel to finish a game in record time. No matter if I re-play a game or play it for the first time, I like to look around everywhere, find hidden details, plan ahead and collect the units I want to play with (even if in KB this means visiting continents and running away from strong armies) or just stop every now and then to enjoy the scenery.

In Armored Princess I see people plan trips to isles taking into account the amount of time travel takes, to minimize time spent playing. Where is the fun in that? Frankly for my score, I only care for "Units lost" which I plan to keep as low as possible (zero in AP so far, but being a warrior I know I can't do a no lossess game).

Hi BB Shockwave, I did go to every nook and cranny of the game, killed everything that I could kill, and grabbed everything that I could get my hands on. :) The thing is, in order for you to achieve a 7 day or less game you have to scout A LOT. Each and every time I enter a new continent or area I make a save game, then scout practically everything (enemies, items, stores and what they sold, etc.). Once scouted, I make a separate save game of the area and call it "map" (eg. Eastern Islands - map). Since this is a scouting save, this is where I take my time and enjoy the scenery. :) After the scouting, I study the "- map" saved game and plan my route for optimal time.

In support of this, I actually bought 8 mind runes totalling 3,600,00 gold at the dwarf king's son castle; so my gold should be like on the 6-7 million range. :) I actually did this since I was divorcing Feanora for Xeona, so I figured I might as well spend that ton of gold somewhere and drop it to less than 100K before the divorce.

Honestly, it is the challenge of the whole thing that drives people to do this. For this game, practically any statistic on the final record is fair game, and all the more for the final score; alas, the number of days spent to complete the game has a big weight with regards to the final score, thus the push for an optimal run.

I understand your point though. I myself chose the 7 days goal instead of 6 days since, like you, I am compelled to kill everything and get all possible loot. But looking at the hours to spare that I had, especially on the run on Demonis and the final run to killing Haas at Ellinia, in hindsight it seems very possible to do everything and still complete it in 6 days.

[iregev]

very nice
you do have amazing stats there, did you postpone taking leadership till higher levels ?
also, does anyone know how to fix the clock so it will show time ?

[Razorflame]

that should be ffixed in the patch

and skip leadership untill later levels(u need items to cope with the lack of leadership in the beginning)

[loreangelicus]

very nice
you do have amazing stats there, did you postpone taking leadership till higher levels ?
also, does anyone know how to fix the clock so it will show time ?

I started taking leadership once it hit the 700+ mark. To better plan for levelling up, at the start of the game (tutorial missions, level 1), I checked out in advance what the level-ups would offer by punching in the cheat code of "levelup 29" (via the command console brought up by "shift" and "~" keys). After planning my choices (and taking note when leadership gains would be taken) I simply reloaded from my start game file and proceeded with playing the game.

From the above, I know that I would have a base of Attack:7 Defense:5 Intellect:5 Leadership 11,450 come level 30. My basic rule is to always take leadership gain over anything ONCE it reaches 700+, else prioritize picks in this order: attack-defense-intellect-leadership-mana-rage.

The early deficiency in leadership is more than made up by maxing Learning asap so you have a higher level. Remember, even early on, you will be made to choose between leadership and mana/rage, of which you should take leadership. I had two such choices, at level 6 (+300 leadership) and level 8 (+400 leadership).

I believe I did get the best stat-boosting items out there like the Dead Skull. And of course, I did make sure that the starting castle and temple sold the Gladiator Sword and Ancient Amulet respectively. The Kerus's Sword I believe is always sold by the road architect demon. And of course, don't forget to trade Fandor's(?) map to the dwarven king for the Mithril Shield (+8 defense, who cares if you can't take advantage of the -20% leadership to dwarves).

As for additional stat points gained, remember, I did go everywhere and visit every altar that there is in my game. :grin:

As for the clock bug not showing the time, I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with this. I do have the digital copy sold by Gamer's Gate, and have patched it to version 1.7.

[iregev]

very intresting about leadership. I ususally start taking them much earlier at about ~500, I think this is what Calinda recommended but not sure. Tips vary here

[Zhuangzi]

loreangelicus, I don't understand when you are doing Kordar etc? Surely that takes a while. :confused:

[loreangelicus]

loreangelicus, I don't understand when you are doing Kordar etc? Surely that takes a while. :confused:

Day 3 14:48 level 13 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 05:33 level 17 to Islands of Freedom (1.5 hours to spare)

That's approx. 14.5 hours of Kordar time there. The time management done here is really not that complicated; you simply do Ardan Peaks/Taron Mines/Underground Sea first, then if you still have spare time, try and clear out as much as you can in the easier areas.

Note that it is key here to advance the dwarven peace pact main quest, so that on your return trip to Islands of Freedom you have an extra 1,500(?) leadership for advancing the main quest, making the rest of the enemies in the said area easier.

Btw, I even had time here to pre-stock King Mark's castle and the temple with a working army since I would be returning from Islands of Freedom without an army.

Day 4 12:40 level 18 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 23:58 level 20 to Ellinia (7 hours to spare)

More Kordar time here, approx. 11 hours. As could be seen from the time to spare, I have cleared every nook and cranny of Kordar by this time (except the double battles, which is better done with a higher leadership for more XP). Also did Magic Range/Rezo/Haunted Castle/Castle Karmag here. I even completed Issarah's Whip and killed off two hard to access demon enemies (those that require moving platforms to reach) since I had tons of time to spare, and no more (manageable) enemies to kill.

The key idea to the enemy management (and resulting time management) is that if you are going back to a continent multiple times, then you can go ahead and split your time for that area. Darion and Islands of Freedom time were similarly split, although I wasn't able to split Ellinia, which is why I believe a Day 6 game while still killing everything and getting everything is doable.

[loreangelicus]

very intresting about leadership. I ususally start taking them much earlier at about ~500, I think this is what Calinda recommended but not sure. Tips vary here

It depends on the class, and the target final leadership. How I evaluated it is in terms of the possible final leadership of a paladin at level 30, which I estimated at 23,000.

Each attack and defense gain affects damage by roughly 3%, which is 690 leadership worth if you take 23,000 as your base. Intellect vs leadership is again a bit subjective, depending on your spell use.

But you are right, tips vary here since the evaluation of the value of leadership is not an exact science. Just take these suggestions with a grain of salt.

[Zhuangzi]

Day 3 14:48 level 13 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 05:33 level 17 to Islands of Freedom (1.5 hours to spare)

That's approx. 14.5 hours of Kordar time there. The time management done here is really not that complicated; you simply do Ardan Peaks/Taron Mines/Underground Sea first, then if you still have spare time, try and clear out as much as you can in the easier areas.

Note that it is key here to advance the dwarven peace pact main quest, so that on your return trip to Islands of Freedom you have an extra 1,500(?) leadership for advancing the main quest, making the rest of the enemies in the said area easier.

Btw, I even had time here to pre-stock King Mark's castle and the temple with a working army since I would be returning from Islands of Freedom without an army.

Day 4 12:40 level 18 to Darion (no-army-suicide-trick)
Day 4 23:58 level 20 to Ellinia (7 hours to spare)

More Kordar time here, approx. 11 hours. As could be seen from the time to spare, I have cleared every nook and cranny of Kordar by this time (except the double battles, which is better done with a higher leadership for more XP). Also did Magic Range/Rezo/Haunted Castle/Castle Karmag here. I even completed Issarah's Whip and killed off two hard to access demon enemies (those that require moving platforms to reach) since I had tons of time to spare, and no more (manageable) enemies to kill.

The key idea to the enemy management (and resulting time management) is that if you are going back to a continent multiple times, then you can go ahead and split your time for that area. Darion and Islands of Freedom time were similarly split, although I wasn't able to split Ellinia, which is why I believe a Day 6 game while still killing everything and getting everything is doable.

Fantastic work. Next question, are you the type to pause the game alot, like after finishing a battle? I hear you about how you clear out each area, but I guess you must max out mana at the end of each battle so you can head straight to the next fight? I read hereabouts that you have a different save where you have a look to see what items/units are available etc.

[loreangelicus]

Fantastic work. Next question, are you the type to pause the game alot, like after finishing a battle? I hear you about how you clear out each area, but I guess you must max out mana at the end of each battle so you can head straight to the next fight? I read hereabouts that you have a different save where you have a look to see what items/units are available etc.

For a 6-7 day game the space bar is not your friend, it is your boss. :) Pausing is not optional, it should be automatic to the point of being second nature.

Correct, regenerating mana outside of a battle is not an option. That is why Meditation was a useless skill for me. Optimal and cost effective spells are also given more weight as you can't just throw spells around and spend more rounds just bringing your mana back up to max (same with rage, btw). Phantom is your best friend here as it is basically a free spell with Emerald Green Dragons that damages enemies and draws enemies away from your troops.

Yes, I do an initial scouting of a new area for items/troops/spells/enemies. But the scouting doesn't stop there. Making a lot of saves gives you an option to redo mistakes, and do more scouting from the point you are at currently.

[Dustpower]

loreangelicus,

Could you please also show me the screen shots of your spell book? Thanks,

[loreangelicus]

loreangelicus,

Could you please also show me the screen shots of your spell book? Thanks,

Screenshots attached, though I think I should explain this more. I only used a couple of spells, and in fact for the longest time in the game I only had Chaos Magic at level 1 when I grabbed Necro Call and Sacrifice; I upgraded it to level 2 when I got the Emerald Green Dragons since you needed level 2 Sacrifice to add more troops to it.

Dispel 2: Didn't upgrade this to level 3 since I needed it to dispel negative effects on opponents. I used Poison Spit a lot to reduce the last enemy stack to minimum numbers (to give me time to resurrect lost troops and get back my mana/rage), and I dispelled the poisoning damage if it was enough to kill that enemy the next turn.

Healing 3: Used a lot even late in the game to heal the Emerald Green Dragon. Even used it against the undead as a damaging spell for just 1 mana.

Slow 2: used a lot till mid-late game against enemy melee units.

Magic Pole Axe 1: Very useful early in the game as this was my only damaging spell; never found the need to upgrade it when I got Slow and Trap.

Magic Shackles 1: I never actually used this. I just wrote it in the spellbook. Good against demons, so I've heard.

Magic Spring 3: Very useful early to mid game to regenerate mana. Late game Lina's Chargers replaces this.

Trap 3: Useful early to mid game. The damage is great, but I found the lost action points to the enemy and even better boon.

Fit of Energy 1: I never actually used this. I just wrote it in the spellbook. Looks useful though, especially in conjunction with a no-retal or ranged unit that does big damage.

Gift 1: Some light use to be cast on Inquisitors in bringing back the Shamans or the Emerald Green Dragons.

Invisibility 1: I never actually used this. I just wrote it in the spellbook. Useful for single unit/rage drain/chargers trick battles.

Phantom 3: My key spell. Shined late game when used with Emerald Green Dragons as this essentially turns into a free spell since the phantomed dragons give you back your lost mana, if not more.

Teleport 3: I had this at level 1 for the longest time, then upgraded it to level 3 since I had tons of crystals. Quite useful actually to make you troops more mobile.

Ice Snake 3/Fire Rain 3/Lightning 3: I never actually used these. :) I just wrote it in the spellbook. Late game I had tons of crystals and runes, so I upgraded Chaos Magic to level 3, Destroyer to level 2, and took these 3 spells. But the phantomed Emerald Green Dragons were so effective in dealing damage/getting back mana/drawing enemy fire that I never found a situation wherein a damage spell would be more efficient. I could see damage spells as having more play for a dual-casting mage, but even then if you are doing a 7 day game your mage would be spending a bunch of turns regenerating that mana (regenerating mana outside of battle wastes valuable time). Seek a player who played mage on impossible for advice on damage spells.

Sacrifice 2: Upgraded this to level 2 just for the Emerald Green Dragons. As key a spell as Phantom and Resurrection.

Resurrection 3: You can resurrect even demon units, and this is still the tier 1 key spell for a no-casualties run. Level 3 was needed for my Demons/Demonesses/Shamans.

Necro Call 1: This was mainly written to my spell book for the zombie Noric fight early in the game; it was NECESSARY for that fight though as I had to take him down at level 6 to get a better item reward. Had some uses in the spider boss battle as well, though I had Royal Thorns for that. In hindsight, I should have upgraded this to level 3, but I really thought crystals would be real scarce so I only upgraded spells as needed.

By the end of the game I had tons of crystals left to write down a bunch of other spells, but found it unnecessary since I had all the spells that I needed.

[Arilian]

First of all Congratulations.

Phantomed Emerald Green Dragons are indeed soo good that it is actually bad - the game will be boring casting only this..

Resurrection 3 is a key even if you dont play no causality you dont want a LOT of causality.

[loreangelicus]

First of all Congratulations.

Phantomed Emerald Green Dragons are indeed soo good that it is actually bad - the game will be boring casting only this..

Resurrection 3 is a key even if you dont play no causality you dont want a LOT of causality.

Thanks. It should be noted though that getting used to Phantomed EGDs certainly did not prepare me for the final battle. :)

Sure, you could do the final battle with a single high-initiative invisible unit/rage drain/chargers, but I wanted to put my foot down and do all battles with 5 units.

Phantom EGDs were next to useless in the final battle, what with the small map, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and the EGD's mana blast ability giving back only around 6-10 mana since the enemies are high defense level 5 units. Thankfully, the Demons went on a killing spree, and even Haas seemed to know how lethal they were, what with him always casting Sheep on them (with me always casting Dispel, up until has ran out of mana, then I continually casted Resurrect on them).

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

The no army-sacrifice thing has me puzzled. If you enter a battle with no units you automatically return to the castle with new units and money. How many times would you do this in Greenwort for example until you actually fight the enemies. Do the enemy stacks disappear if you deliberately retreat back to the castle?

The other thing is I can't be bothered to take 20/30+ turns to finish a battle which is what it sounds like you have to do to exploit the game.

I commend you on your efforts though.

[loreangelicus]

The no army-sacrifice thing has me puzzled. If you enter a battle with no units you automatically return to the castle with new units and money. How many times would you do this in Greenwort for example until you actually fight the enemies. Do the enemy stacks disappear if you deliberately retreat back to the castle?

The other thing is I can't be bothered to take 20/30+ turns to finish a battle which is what it sounds like you have to do to exploit the game.

I commend you on your efforts though.

The no-army-suicide trick is a time-saving trick, not something you do at the start of the game to supposedly hoard troops and gold (you could do it, but it is not worth the effort). Granted, it is an exploit, and I heard they had removed it in Armored Princess. This is a welcome change for the succeeding game, but for this game it is there and is the only way to achieve the highest possible scores.

Thanks, to each his own I guess. Only tough battles should hit the 20-40 turns range though. Most battles should be in the 5-12 turns range, even for a no casualties/max mana-rage run.

I guess you could call regenerating mana/rage/troops in-battle as an exploit, but I found regenerating mana off-battle and replenishing troops via shops to be even more time-consuming; and you can't even get back rage off-battle.

Blame it on the developers for putting a "final score" factor to this game, as well as showing the final days finished in the record. :) Being a typical gamer and more than a bit OC, I am "compelled" to try for the highest score possible. :)

[Zhuangzi]

The no-army-suicide trick is a time-saving trick, not something you do at the start of the game to supposedly hoard troops and gold (you could do it, but it is not worth the effort). Granted, it is an exploit, and I heard they had removed it in Armored Princess. This is a welcome change for the succeeding game, but for this game it is there and is the only way to achieve the highest possible scores.

Thanks, to each his own I guess. Only tough battles should hit the 20-40 turns range though. Most battles should be in the 5-12 turns range, even for a no casualties/max mana-rage run.

I guess you could call regenerating mana/rage/troops in-battle as an exploit, but I found regenerating mana off-battle and replenishing troops via shops to be even more time-consuming; and you can't even get back rage off-battle.

Blame it on the developers for putting a "final score" factor to this game, as well as showing the final days finished in the record. :) Being a typical gamer and more than a bit OC, I am "compelled" to try for the highest score possible. :)

Yeah, I just wish the score had been calculated differently so that it isn't all about how quickly you finish the game. My style of play doesn't suit that, and I doubt I hit the spacebar more than a dozen times in 250+ hours of play.

[BB Shockwave]

My score in Armored Princess will be low then... though I have had like 3 battles with causalities so far (losing 8 Assassins, 1 Paladin and 5-10 Miners only) I often travelled between continents to pass the time to nightfall, when my Trolls regenerate... :) I'm with a Warrior and decided to stop the no causalities try since that'd mean I'd always have to use Paladins in battle, and I was using all-dwarven and later all-lizardmen armies. (I was around Level 30 when getting to Reahu - so there is still around 20 levels time to try out the Pangolins).

[Vomaxx]

Nice stats, but I'll never understand the need some people feel to finish a game in record time. No matter if I re-play a game or play it for the first time, I like to look around everywhere, find hidden details, plan ahead and collect the units I want to play with (even if in KB this means visiting continents and running away from strong armies) or just stop every now and then to enjoy the scenery.

It is nice to meet a kindred spirit on this board. Take time to smell the roses. :grin:

[Vulture]

This thread has been dead for more than 2 years.
Don't flog dead horses.