how you beat the octocupus?

[AngelSlayer7]

im level 10 paladin.

what level is recomende to beat him and what units you recomended?

[mohican]

Toooo early for that task:grin:

[Keneth]

Use ranged units (archers) and those with no retaliation (ancient vampires, royal snakes, etc.) to attack it. Use cannon fodder (summoned thorns, phantoms, demons,...) to minimize the damage to yourself. Kill the devilfish on the first round, this will make it more likely that it'll try to summon them again on next turn, in turn making it less likely that you'll take any damage.

[Gatts]

10th level is not that bad - still you may consider to fight some more fights in the pirate land (of course if you didn't already :) )

Apart of no retaliation units (like vamps/royal snakes) also use bandits : they can use the bludgeon ob-one-hex attack ...

always stock your units so you will have one "tank" unit - use this unit to provoke the octubus to use normal hand-to-hand attack instead of summoning devilfish - it may become nasty to have full battlefield of devilfish.

If you really have spells like phantom/ necro call/ demon portal/ or units that can summon thorns - use these units as your "tank" units for the provokative manouver - unless you already installed "improve AI" mod where the AI does more often ignore such "fake" units and attack your core units instead :)

[Handel]

Thanks to the tip I read on this board beating the octopus is the easiest thing in the game (as well as another similar monster later in the game).
The problem with the octopus is not the monster itself but the increasing number of devilfish it spawns. So I hired 2 stacks of thorns; there are 3 kinds of thorns in the game and either 2 will do the job, althoguh if you can better to take royal thorns.
The task for the thorns is to spawn thorns from the dead devilfish AND to make hits too if there is nothing the spawn (you will be surprised how much damage can do 500 thorns).
Large number of thorn stacks prevents some of the devifish from spawning, can eliminate some of the devifish themselves AND stop the devilfish from attacking the main troops (they simply cannot get close to them).

[Smash]

Or use phantomed Shamans to cast totems everywhere.

[YENKO]

Question: i have to give certain pirate mark to Jim the pirate. But he is nowhere to be seen, and Mirabella is only interested in me dispatching the Kraken. Now, i must get something wrong, since i read about people who 'sneaked'(snuck? agh) their way all the..way to Jim and the Mines without fighting?
Advice needed, thanks.

[Lari]

Do you remember Red beard who give you that black mark? he will also tell you a secret word to get into the mines, that are located just behind his house(very short walk). I didn't saw them too the first time

[YENKO]

Do you remember Red beard who give you that black mark? he will also tell you a secret word to get into the mines, that are located just behind his house(very short walk). I didn't saw them too the first time

Thanks! Aw, i DID see the entrance behind the house, but there is some badass 'overpowering' enemy hero parked at the entrance! :(
I'm a lvl 10 mage and i obviously suck :(

Forget it, i'm blind as an old bat :D

The guard won't let me in :( I have 3 options: tell tghe password, which i have no idea what it is, bribe him with 5000 gold which is no fun, or bash his head in, which is fun and i can gain some loot and exp. ;)

[Lari]

By now, you'll already solved this with a bloodshed :) however you could have just gently asked red beard for the password

[YENKO]

By now, you'll already solved this with a bloodshed :) however you could have just gently asked red beard for the password


Oh I did, but I wanted to explore all the possibilities :)
First I killed the guards, then i killed Lucky James, then all his troops in the mines..and realized that Redbeard won't talk to me anymore. And, what is most important: quest failed! Noo goodies :( Boo.. then I reloaded, and finished the quest the right way :D

[Keneth]

The way I did it was: get quest from redbeard, go inside, give the mark, take the quest from lucky, go outside, finish the quest, kill redbeard for lucky's quest, go back inside, finish the quest to get the map, kill lucky. Two dead pirate scum and lots of goodies for me. :mrgreen:

[Handel]

Talking about dead pirate scum reminds me - what is the deal with the Mad Onix pirate (who begs you everytime for 5000 golds to tell you the secret). Is there something more besides killing him?

[YENKO]

The way I did it was: get quest from redbeard, go inside, give the mark, take the quest from lucky, go outside, finish the quest, kill redbeard for lucky's quest, go back inside, finish the quest to get the map, kill lucky. Two dead pirate scum and lots of goodies for me. :mrgreen:

..and the 100.000 gold still in your pocket! Yeah, i did it the same way, after some experimenting :) Thanks for the tips!

[YENKO]

Solved the Redbeard/Jim tasks, went to king Darion for my reward and my new orders. So i met the guy in the forest, returned to the castle and king Darion gave me my next task, to kill some Duke in the Mines. I entered the dwarven mines, killed 2 or 3 manageable enemy armies and hightailed out of Dodge City, mobs too strong :(
Now I am buzzing around in the Islands and trying to kill the Kraken. I am lvl 11 now, and it seems, I cannot level further here. The friggin Kraken, I cannot beat him. I have no Resurrection spell and none of the spells for summoning..something/someone. AT start I am doing OK, but round after round, the Kraken is spawning larger and larger stacks of Devilfish: I quitted when the stacks reached 450 devilfish each. No way in hell I can beat that monster, he has like total 44000 hit points :(
Need advice, some cofee and..a drink methinks! Kraken with zero losses? How in heaven is that possible? I am missing something HUGE here grrr..

[GeneralGonzo]

Solved the Redbeard/Jim tasks, went to king Darion for my reward and my new orders. So i met the guy in the forest, returned to the castle and king Darion gave me my next task, to kill some Duke in the Mines. I entered the dwarven mines, killed 2 or 3 manageable enemy armies and hightailed out of Dodge City, mobs too strong :(
Now I am buzzing around in the Islands and trying to kill the Kraken. I am lvl 11 now, and it seems, I cannot level further here. The friggin Kraken, I cannot beat him. I have no Resurrection spell and none of the spells for summoning..something/someone. AT start I am doing OK, but round after round, the Kraken is spawning larger and larger stacks of Devilfish: I quitted when the stacks reached 450 devilfish each. No way in hell I can beat that monster, he has like total 44000 hit points :(
Need advice, some cofee and..a drink methinks! Kraken with zero losses? How in heaven is that possible? I am missing something HUGE here grrr..

Hmm, i have beaten the kraken with lvl12. My army consisted of about 120 Archer (i had the scope (+100% attack) plus the elven bow), 30 shamans, 70 griffins, 30 knights and 85 royal snakes. My values of attack and defense around 20.
To beat the kraken you need at least 1 archer type and 1 with "no retaliate" ability. Good morale helps also making doble damage (my knights did the job well, doing about 1500 damage).
The spawned devilfishs concentrated on the shamans totems and my griffins finished off the mobs! Try to not let your melee troops stand behind one another as the kraken arm damages troops standing in a row. Instead place one melee troop in front of an arm and the other one besides it, so you take minimal damage for only one troop when the kraken retaliates.

[Gatts]

The point is to provoke kraken so he won't be spawning devilfish - standing just before his main tentacle will do this - (it does not work always, but still often enough - so you have much more "free" rounds when he damages only your "provoke him" unit instead of summoning zounds of devilfish)

Other way around is to have thonrs - use the dead devilfish for new thorns - populate most of the battlefield with such summoned devil, so you gain:

1.) use the summoned thorns as provokative unit - win win situation
2.) if devilfish are summoned - if not free spaces are available - they won't be summoned - octopus loses one turn :)
3.) thorns are cheap and easy to get (mostly in Darion)

or use Similar strategy as for the turtle - get DMG resistant unit - (ghosts) (cheaper than castin god's armor - which is expensive, lasts only few turns, hard to get) and cast on it archmagi "shield" - another 50% less DMG - if you are lucky, you have stoneskin - increasing phy res as well DEF (phy res is not cumulative... ) - place this unit direct in front main tentacle - use the rest 3 slots for archers and shoot it down (even if the octopus will summon devilfish you will shoot em down)
Do mind that with good enough ATT/DEF your ghosts can last "alive" for very long time - the actually can replenish themselves from fighting octopus (or even better - they get hit by octopus, but can steal life from devilfish - but you should be very cautions how you handle them - on impossible level your limit of ghosts jumps over 100% leadership - and they will fight you instead)

I used thorns + ghosts nearly always when fighting octopus... (2 stacks ghosts, 2 stakcs thorns... on shooter) - if you are lucky - you can get some cool shooter like alchemist (only 3 hexagons range, but in that battlefield it is very usefull) or canoneers (creepy fast)... or when you already have undead in army - use skel archers...
Don't be afraid to use any archers - even human - even if you are not paladin with "tolerance" skill - -20% is not that bad (in normal HOMM you would lose control over them - they would lose turns in combat... having lover att/def/critical is not such big deal)
Archmages can cast shield - but they don't deal such nice damage on shooting.

[lauvhk]

@YENKO

Actually you can start visiting the Dwarf domain and Demonis once you have the mine access. Just take the moving platform outside the castle and leave Baron Ahoy (spelling?) untouched if he is too strong.

[Handel]

Yes, neither killing the Kraken or the mine castle owner is needed. Actually you can sneak all the way into the demons lands without any battle - of course a lot of patience is needed to lure then enemies and then run away.

[Smash]

Did you know? You can go back to king Mark and tell him about price for map, he will give 5k g and say that all what he can give. Yey free 5k g :P

[YENKO]

The point is to provoke kraken so he won't be spawning devilfish - standing just before his main tentacle will do this - (it does not work always, but still often enough - so you have much more "free" rounds when he damages only your "provoke him" unit instead of summoning zounds of devilfish)

Other way around is to have thonrs - use the dead devilfish for new thorns - populate most of the battlefield with such summoned devil, so you gain:

1.) use the summoned thorns as provokative unit - win win situation
2.) if devilfish are summoned - if not free spaces are available - they won't be summoned - octopus loses one turn :)
3.) thorns are cheap and easy to get (mostly in Darion)

My army was composed of: thorns,thorns,inquisitors,evil beholders, sea dogs. Obviously this combo won't cut it. 2+1 ranged units for the Kraken, thorns to spawn more thorns and soaking damage and the expendable seaDogs for mopping up. Didn't work. Oh another thing: the spawned thorns are in their turn spawning less and less thorn offspring on each subsequent 'seeding'. :(

or use Similar strategy as for the turtle - get DMG resistant unit - (ghosts) (cheaper than castin god's armor - which is expensive, lasts only few turns, hard to get) and cast on it archmagi "shield" - another 50% less DMG - if you are lucky, you have stoneskin - increasing phy res as well DEF (phy res is not cumulative... ) - place this unit direct in front main tentacle - use the rest 3 slots for archers and shoot it down (even if the octopus will summon devilfish you will shoot em down)
Do mind that with good enough ATT/DEF your ghosts can last "alive" for very long time - the actually can replenish themselves from fighting octopus (or even better - they get hit by octopus, but can steal life from devilfish - but you should be very cautions how you handle them - on impossible level your limit of ghosts jumps over 100% leadership - and they will fight you instead)

I will give it a shot, with the ghosts I mean. I have a ghost den somewhere on the map. A stranded ship maybe. I have access to royal snakes too, I left them garrisoned because I thought they would die too easily by those tentacles.
Oh, and i have slightly less than 5000 leadership only, 17 INT, 15 DEF, 8 ATT, 45 rage 90 mana...

I used thorns + ghosts nearly always when fighting octopus... (2 stacks ghosts, 2 stakcs thorns... on shooter) - if you are lucky - you can get some cool shooter like alchemist (only 3 hexagons range, but in that battlefield it is very usefull) or canoneers (creepy fast)... or when you already have undead in army - use skel archers...
Don't be afraid to use any archers - even human - even if you are not paladin with "tolerance" skill - -20% is not that bad (in normal HOMM you would lose control over them - they would lose turns in combat... having lover att/def/critical is not such big deal)
Archmages can cast shield - but they don't deal such nice damage on shooting.
I don't see how could I fill all the hexes with anything, there are too many hexes on that deck, many right under the Kraken's tentacles.
I am now off to the Mines. Will try to sneak my way through. I can't beat the female Dwarven hero patrolling there, but I already managed once to sneak past her. Her patrolling path is quite big and there are many nooks and crannies/intersections for me to hide.
I feel awfully underpowered since i am lacking some critical spells/units. Hope this will change soon!
This game, from dealing sheer amounts of fun, turned up to be a major source of frustration for me. And this is all on 'Normal'. Heck, Normal is not all THAT normal, is it? :)
Thanks for the hints, guys, keep them coming!