gremlin boss help

[alpinar]

i salut you all again :)

So im at the gremlin boss and after a few tryes at him hi rips my units apart totally meanwhile i only get him to like 70%(im lvl 45 mage on normal)...i have 10 red dragons,9 green dragons,and 7 black dragons plus 81 paladins and like 87 shamans and this combo doesnt work really here...i have read on the forums abit and found ashort thread about the boss but didnt help alot..i was thinking horsemens,canon dwarfs (for the towers)paladins ,red dragons and royal griffins ..and guess what red dragons lows the moral for the griffins and they do like 35% lesser dmg plus lower resis..will be thankfull for andy advice or tips,regards Alpina

[DGDobrev]

I would suggest using 2 tanks with 30% physical resistance and stone skin always on that will hack at the boss. Paladins and Knights are a good combo. You also need 3 good units to destroy the towers. Royal griffins are a good idea due to their high magic resistance. However, don't have them summon angelic guards, as this provokes the boss to use his mass attack much more often. The other 2 units must have 150+ HP and decent physical damage (towers have 0% physical resistance).

The next thing you need is to stock up on items that grant physical and magic resistance. If you don't have such, it may be a good idea to do some more fighting and open up all maps before engaging Gremlion. The Inquisitor's Sword will also help, because you'll be able to bring in more paladins to this fight. The dragons are not a good choice because they can't be resurrected properly and as soon as you lose a few of them, you'll grow weaker and weaker. Shamans may still do well, but you will need to use them for their melee attack, because if you summon a totem, this will again provoke the boss to use his mass attack, and the dancing axes will not damage the boss or the towers substantially.

In a nutshell, try using 2 tanks (Knights + Paladins, for example) near his left and right hand, and have stone skin on them at all times. The other 3 units of your choosing will have the sole task to destroy any tower he spawns. Equip all + physical and + magic resistance items, especially the magic resistance ones. If you don't have such, try to find some. If there aren't any, gain some more levels and tackle the boss on lvl 50-52.

[alpinar]

always a helper :)cheers DG...Im gonna try the setup you sayd but i will exchange the knights for horseman cuz in my game i found like 20 knights so far but i think horseman will doit to(they got pretty nice phys resi if i remember right)..for magic resi i got the dragon medalion its called if im not wrong(7% right?)and i got 2 chest with 10% and 5 % will equip them both and will see how it goes :)..cant wait until i get home from work :D

[DGDobrev]

Well, if you don't have enough knights, you can always try to squeeze in some black knights in a human army (if you haven't killed Meshmere, you can make some). You most likely have persuasion, so you'll already be at +1 morale, so using them will simply negate it. Royal Griffins on the other hand will also add +1 morale, so you will still have the advantage of positive morale.

I personally did it with a mage on impossible with Paladins, Knights, Horsemen, Guardsmen and Archmagi (for additional protection of the weakest stack) and it worked well. However, I can see how the Royal Griffins can easily replace the Guardsmen because of their decent magic resistance (50%) which will greatly help against Gremlion's mass attacks.

[alpinar]

first try today and he went down..it was on the edge but his dead :D..60 royal griffins ,83 paladins,9 tirex,100 horseman and 80 something archmages..at the end i was left with 54 paladins..it was a great fight no doubt the best so far..royall griffins and trex does huge amount of dmg to the gremlins tower mean while pala and horsemens choped the boss..the archmage was most there for high magic resi and shieldning who ever needed..i mostly use stoneskin ofc resurection some firearows and phantoming for more ressing dead units..im sure i could doit a bit bether but his donwn thats what counts :D

[alpinar]

cheers for the tip DG..will remember that when its time for hardmode :D

[DGDobrev]

Grats!

Well, you did well as you are, because Gremlion is usually one of the last few battles to do, and you managed to take him out on lvl 45, which means only one thing: really good work :)

[alpinar]

Thank You ;)

[WhYdOyOuThInKtHaThApPeNeD]

I used Cyclops, Royal Thorns, Arch-Mage, and 2 other range units, I forget which (I think maybe Druids for the summoned meat and range). I got a near no-loss on that fight. It was so easy (on normal) I was sad. Don't even bother with melee units. I stormed him first with Big stacks of Black & Red Dragons, Arch-Demons and 2 other level 5 power melee units and suffered heavy losses. He's totally weak to range units with summoned meat melee.

Oh and the phantom spell is essential. So many ruthless ways to use it for that battle. I was about level 45 as well. Royal Griffins are good for that battle in case he summons Gremlin Towers, and for the phantom spell Heavenly Guard swarm.

I had Dress of the Magi and Archmage Staff, along with some other critical bonuses the Arch-Mage will get 100% critical chance, plus Royal Griffins Cheer a big stack of Arch-Mage do massive damage. I think there is something else that boosts the Arch-Mage as well. They can get crazy powerful.

[seomul]

hahaha, gremlins running loose...

[Avi]

Hmm I'm starting to think I'm trying the gremlins too soon. On impossible going for no losses with my mage tried it at level 44 but didnt go too well. May have a stab at it with a different setup later today.

[lasvegas]

in this battle i had to use paladins and knights as tanks and dds cause the boss and gremlin towers wiped my inqis and bowmen entirely. I kind of "abused" paladin's resurrection skill by phantoming them like every turn, as long as i had enough mana. There was not big issues about mana cause every time a gremlin tower was destroyed, my rage was filled and i used calm rage spell to fill mana. Kept using archmage's armor ability on paladin and casted geyser or exorcism (does 2x dmg on summoned troops) if towers cast too many troops. This boss was the hardest one i ever had in KB. However at the end my paladins finished as a whole stack without a loss, though other stacks suffered some =)

[watersky82]

I only use one stack of black knight and 1 stack of ancient vampire.

Black knight with level 3 stone skin on.
It will hack at the boss.

Ancient vampire will destroy all the aggressive tower.
Leave 1 friendly tower behind so that it will summon
troops and your ancient vampire can restore its itself
by attacking the summoned troop.

Once the boss is killed, just use elvin to resurrect black knight.

[GodClone]

Aren't we all gremlins after all ?

[fable]

I only use one stack of black knight and 1 stack of ancient vampire.

Black knight with level 3 stone skin on.
It will hack at the boss.

Ancient vampire will destroy all the aggressive tower.
Leave 1 friendly tower behind so that it will summon
troops and your ancient vampire can restore its itself
by attacking the summoned troop.

Once the boss is killed, just use elvin to resurrect black knight.

2 stack of vampires also work, you don't have to use eviln. They attack the boss and restore while retaliating, or go around and kill the ranged units when they're low.

[loreangelicus]

Warrior on impossible difficulty, level 46, no-loss using droids and undead (black knights and bone dragons).

I guess I could have stuck with less units, or better yet units with good magic resistance (undead have no magic resistance, and droids are even 50% vulnerable to magic), but I wanted to complete the game with a full lineup, and I didn't want to waste time (going for a speed run as well, 7 days target) and gold buying new units and placing my favorite units in a castle/reserve.

Same tactic, stoneskin on black knights who hack at Zilgadis, everyone else kills towers, repair droids attack Zilgadis and guard droids/bone dragons defend when no towers are around, keep a friendly tower alive and kill Zilgadis asap.

[dzeris]

If goal is not no-loss game, then warrior or paladin could use cannoniers to destroy towers. Cannoniers have double attack bonus against gremlin towers and better health/leadership ratio than goblins with catapults.

[ckdamascus]

Just took him out handily with my strange Mega Ranged Mix team. No loss, impossible of course. :) Took him in about 11 rounds, level 41.

That said, I have to comment that the game seems a LOT easier wth the gift mod items than without.

Paladins, Elves, Hunters, Bowmen, and Goblins. Yes, I said Goblins, because we all know Goblins eat Gremlins for breakfast. :) Jokes aside, the longer a battle lasts and as long as the stack is alive, the goblin ends up doing more and more damage over time thanks to its Zeroing In Skill.

I got pretty lucky with my items and I am using Trigger as my companion. Telescopic, Black Band (gift mod item).

My net criticals end up being
Hunter 100%, Elf 99%, Goblin 64% critical

I also got enough magic resistance items to get me to 95% resists, but I probably could withstand a battle with a little less.

I take out his towers as they come up, and he can't stop the steady blast of 4-5K dmg per stack against the Zig himself. About 7-8K dmg per hit against the towers. No cannoneers either, but they are pretty bad for damage per leadership.

[loreangelicus]

Just took him out handily with my strange Mega Ranged Mix team. No loss, impossible of course. :) Took him in about 11 rounds, level 41.

That said, I have to comment that the game seems a LOT easier wth the gift mod items than without.

Paladins, Elves, Hunters, Bowmen, and Goblins. Yes, I said Goblins, because we all know Goblins eat Gremlins for breakfast. :) Jokes aside, the longer a battle lasts and as long as the stack is alive, the goblin ends up doing more and more damage over time thanks to its Zeroing In Skill.

I got pretty lucky with my items and I am using Trigger as my companion. Telescopic, Black Band (gift mod item).

My net criticals end up being
Hunter 100%, Elf 99%, Goblin 64% critical

I also got enough magic resistance items to get me to 95% resists, but I probably could withstand a battle with a little less.

I take out his towers as they come up, and he can't stop the steady blast of 4-5K dmg per stack against the Zig himself. About 7-8K dmg per hit against the towers. No cannoneers either, but they are pretty bad for damage per leadership.

11 rounds & no-loss at impossible difficulty against Zilgadis? Nice. :)

I myself haven't loaded the gift bad mod; maybe on my second playthrough, if ever.

Do keep us posted on how this predominantly ranged lineup does against K'Tahu. With proper bonuses to initiative, I guess you could take out his Tirexes as they come up.

[ckdamascus]

11 rounds & no-loss at impossible difficulty against Zilgadis? Nice. :)

I myself haven't loaded the gift bad mod; maybe on my second playthrough, if ever.

Do keep us posted on how this predominantly ranged lineup does against K'Tahu. With proper bonuses to initiative, I guess you could take out his Tirexes as they come up.

The gift mod seriously changes the game significantly. I would argue it makes it much easier, but more fun! But it will suck your life away from you .... all over again. :) When the enemy hits me with fire and poison, my critical rates drop below 100% (although the bowmen seem to sustain 100%). A shame the black bandage does not work on goblins.

It isn't all peaches and cream though. I was heavily inspired by Amidamaru86's archer line up of

royal griffins, skeleton warrior! (archers), elves, hunters, and inquisitors.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=11120&highlight=hunter&page=8

Unfortunately, despite my best wishes, I cannot repeat his combination. Skeletons do insane damage, but I cannot ween myself off of paladins yet. I simply don't have enough time and mana to sustain both phantom paladins and eviln to resurrect.

I only recently added goblins, as I used to use paladins, inquisitors, red dragons, elves, and hunters. I only wanted inquisitors to raise my red dragons. Is there another way to raise red dragons easily? Intellect is too low for sacrifice, turn back time can work, but doesn't that only work once?

So, I suspect I don't know how to use eviln efficiently, as it seems to take away both a round from the skeletons when I run through it with them (or I gamble and hope the eviln flows into it). I could pump points into level 3 eviln, but ugh, I am running low on runes and crystals. I want to save some for nighttime fighting and frenzy.

I am a little worried that I gambled by not getting moro for shard (hey, it takes a while to release trigger). I won't really have an insurance policy if this fails miserably against the other big bosses.

Also, against powerful enemies who can overwhelm me quickly with powerful melee, this build falls pretty short. It is pretty sad to see samman's demons slice away 115 out of 465 archers in one hit. Also, I miss my double cast of exorcism where I would literally ANNIHILATE his archdemons in the first round. I might need to cast pygmy or helplessness to let me finish off an archdemon stack in round 1.

By the way, this build is not good against the normally easy spider. Spider counters range attacks with a disable, and the spiders keep getting stronger while I have less offensive power. Funny how the game mechanics can turn on me like that, eh? :)

Driller was taken out early with the single troll stack so I could get the arbator.

[edit]
Ok, I am quite the dunce. I didn't know how turn back time worked, but once I figured it out, I used red dragons again. Then later on, I got ami's combo to work. I actually switched up to

paladins, red dragons, bowmen (yes... the junky bowmen), elves, and hunters.

This worked semi-well until I got to the Arena of Death. (Samman gave me grief until I got the much needed sword of light and cloak of darkness to beat him). Let's just say the Tactics Skill was more vital then ever for the Arena. :) I failed miserably as the enemy avoided my red dragons and blitzed my archers. I remember this fight with my mage and I wish I had tactics then. Amazing how I can still learn new things after playing it for sooo long.

Anyway, then I remember the big "overpowered spell" discussion and my very unused level 3 target. Target the royal griffins first! Duh me!

I re-tried ami's combo, with goblins instead of skeletons, replacing my paladins (I really don't want to go through the annoying possibility of requiring both eviln AND phantom or turn back time for healing). The enemy hero blasted me with lighting at the last second, so I had no easy way to heal.

My final arena busting army was
paladins, elves, hunters, bowmen, and royal griffins.

My item make up allows for 100% criticals for ALL three archers units. I suppose the paladin is half of an archer since he can give someone a second wind. :) Poor royal griffins are just there to die and be time warped back into safety.

[ckdamascus]

11 rounds & no-loss at impossible difficulty against Zilgadis? Nice. :)

I myself haven't loaded the gift bad mod; maybe on my second playthrough, if ever.

Do keep us posted on how this predominantly ranged lineup does against K'Tahu. With proper bonuses to initiative, I guess you could take out his Tirexes as they come up.

When I fought Zilgadis at first, I was only doing a test run. I came back to him now at level 49, and I just crushed him in 5 rounds no-losses, only wanderer scroll used was ancient knowledge.

The 95% magic resistance makes fighting Zilgadis, oddly enough, VERY easy compared to any other boss. Ironic, that Zilgadis gave me the most trouble with my previous game. :)

His towers have no special physical resistance, so they go down as soon as they come up. His special AoE attack is nullified by my 95% magic resist. I keep pelting him with non-stop arrows.

I tried K'Tahu and failed miserably. I simply do not have enough physical resists OR enough firepower since stupid lizards have rugged scales (1/2 damage to all non-magical ranged, OOPs, that is all I got :) ). I believe I can do it, IF I have more leadership. (who says leadership isn't useful? :) ) So, with the flaming eyes and nearly max levels (I would like at least level 55), I might be able to do it.

I didn't realize if you melee with K'Tahu, he will not do the massive physical AoE. Although, I do not have enough firepower to take out the lizards as fast as they come up. My strategy has mostly relied on the fact that I can cripple the enemy with a first strike before they can really bear down on my archers. (who says offense doesn't win in this game? :) )

It is possible if I keep bothering K'Tahu, he will not summon enough guys to overwhelm me. However, if I do not let him call up enough bodies, I might not be able to fully resurrect the team with RAGEful magic. :)

[alpinar]

i killed himagain last nigt on hard with paladin...I can say it was a joke..I had paladins,knights,deathkngihts,archmages and black dragon...stone skin upp and he went down like a lvl 1 army..as soon as he summoned the gremlin tower mi knights just turned around and crited for like 11k ...this combo its a sick 1 plus that i have knights palas and archmages at hig morale so theyr dmg is insaine :)

[alpinar]

sorry for my english ..posted in hurry cuz im at work :)

[MaroonMaurader]

Black Dragons don't do so well on impossible no-loss - they'll survive the first few rounds of his mass-attack, but it's really hard to kill him before he does enough mass attacks to kill at least one black dragon. And you can't heal or resurrect blacks, so there goes no-loss.

[alpinar]

god tip there..but i have like over 100 of them in the lair on montero thats why i could sacrifice some:)i think the boss had time for like 2 mass attack then he was dead..a bit to easy and i was lvl 44 ..and for no loss i dont think im gonna ever try that..my patience wouuld run out at the end :)To much to plan :)

[mark_kollman@hotmail.com]

I'm going for no loss (hard) and ran into Zilgadis after I've killed everything but K'tahu (so no more levels to gain). I tried mostly dragons which had carried me so far but the mass attack was killing me. I tried archers but that was a joke. I went to undead with a paladin, vamp, anc vamp, death knights, and curesed ghosts. What I found was he doesn't use his mass attack as long as you don't attack his center head section. Seems really consistent. I fought the battle a good ten times because I kept screwing up my back in time spell timing or hitting my paladin's res ability with death knights right next to him. I'm not sure if Zil's ability pattern is the same for each army but there is definitly a pattern that can be used for avoiding the mass attacks.

[Razorflame]

Black Dragons don't do so well on impossible no-loss - they'll survive the first few rounds of his mass-attack, but it's really hard to kill him before he does enough mass attacks to kill at least one black dragon. And you can't heal or resurrect blacks, so there goes no-loss.


use shamans if you are using black dragons

their totems and the axes ability heal the black dragons;-)

[Zechnophobe]

I beat Zilgadis on hard, with no losses. My army? A single stack of Dryads, with like 95% magic resistance.

As a mage, phantomed out hordes of Dryads, which would summon thorns (Summoner 3 btw). THorns summon more thorns... thorns are ALSO 95% magic resistant. Melee thorns take down towers, range thorns shoot zilgadis. Phantomed Dryads also attack zilgadis after they have summoned.

Occasional Calm rage to generate mana. Resurrected the few dryads I'd lost at end of fight. No problem.

I was playing a 'level 1 to 3 units only' game, by the way.

[Metathron]

How'd you crank up magic resistance that much? I assume you have the Crown of chaos, among other things?

[N3MES1S]

95% magic resistance?? is that even possible?

[clinek]

it sure is. I beleive its the crown of chaos that gives 50+ to magic and astral resistance, correct me if im wrong. that and the diploma you get in elon gives you 70% magic resistance. If you have your medals to level 3 (i forget the one that gives 10%+ to all resistance types) you already have 80% resistance to magic. Its really not too difficult to have 95% reistance. Zigaldis was never really that hard to beat because getting magic resistance is relatively easy. K;tahuu on the other hand, is a real pain in the ass. The sheer damage that asshole does on his first attack is so annoying. I remember the first time i fought him i had all level 5 units as a mage. Over 1/3of my troops were dead before i even had a chance to attack. i really hate him.

[Zechnophobe]

I believe mirror shield, diploma, crown of chaos. Bif Bang Boom.

Actually, I remember now that I didn't even equip the shield, so I was probably only at 75% magic resistance. It still wasn't a big deal.