A documented Defender of the Crown no loss run. (Goal: level 30)

[axelle]

1, Which class is the best under impossible? Paladin.

because

a, paladin starts with Healer's Jacket which gives +20% Poison Resistance, which makes the first orc boss (choose option two in the initial dialogue) trivial ( most of the time) no matter what race you start with. You can use droid/ent/paladin, if you start with dwarf/elf/human respectively, to win that battle.

b, paladin starts with Inquisitor's Blade, which could be reduced to "suppressible" if you save/load until the second island is human. an extra level 4 suppression is a lot of exp.

c, paladin starts with the most "assets".

Warrior: 18000+battle gloves(5750)+awaken dragon(320)+stoneskin*2(70*2=140)+slow(240)+dispel l*3(80*3=240)=24690
Paladin: 30001+jacket(3500)+blade(8250)+precision*2(100*2=2 00)+peacefulness(560)+divine armor*3(1800*3=5400)=47911
Mage: 24000+hat(4500)+healing(140)+summon phoenix(1400)+blind*2(1800*2=3600)+demon portal*2(2400*2=4800)=38440

2, Which save do i decide to start with?

with the help of KBscanner, i made five filter files:

AK.flt

Scroll Ancient Knowledge

5.flt

Traveler's Staff
Novice's Staff
Officer's Baton
Demetrius. Class I
Magician's Cowl
Pandemonic Mask
Silver Shoes
Bronze Ring
Flame Necklace

4.flt

Self-loading Crossbow
Novice's Dress
Ballroom Dress
Fine Boots
Ring of Youth
Snake Ring
Pendant of Iron Will

3.flt

Simple Sword
Yew Bow
Hiking Dress

2.flt

Steel Band
Steel Boots

then i started the game and made an initial save many many times, note that, when i make the initial save, i put the starting race in the file name.

then i scan these saves with KBscanner.

a, No AK? delete.

note that, the reason I put the starting race in the file name is because if it is a save that starts with human, then even though it would say "Scroll Ancient Knowledge" with a condition "elf 2" or something, then that Scroll of Ancient Knowledge will not spawn because it would only spawn if you started with elf! same goes with other artifacts.

b, the number of items from 5.flt is less than 2 or the number of items from 4.flt is less than 5 or the total number of items from both files is less than 8? delete.

4, Things I have learnt so far

1. Suppression battles don't affect artifact morale. i knew this before but still had to do a test to confirm my memory. what a pity! it would open so many doors.
   
2. The guardian of an artifact is not set in stone (until you buy the item), it seems that, learning a talent or changing the value of your attack/defense/intellect before you purchase the artifact can affect random number generators which are used to decide the artifact's guards.
   
3. Pet dragon doesn't learn Find Treasure 2 until level 20 in DotC.
   
4. These four items in the scanner report are given after the final boss on the first island!
   Quest _729527408_0
   Quest _729527408_1
   Quest _729527408_2
   Quest _729527408_3
   Quest _729527408_4
   
5. Pet dragon can level way faster than hero, some tricks to use when leveling pet dragon: if you have Resurrection, bring four inquisitors, three~four of them combined means a lot of rage for your pet dragon to gain exp with. at the end of the battle, resurrect one inquisitor who can resurrect another inquisitor who can...you get the idea. when you bring inquisitors to generate rage near the end of a fight, you should end every fight with full rage instead of wasting all that rage, because near the end of the battle, dragon won't gain much experience anyway, the reason is the following
   
   • You always get full experience on your first dragon ability, so that rage is better spent next battle.
   • You get less experience after the first, if you have more leadership than the opponent in play.
   • You get full experience so long as your leadership at casting time remains equal to or less than theirs.
   • for a more detailed explanation on pet dragon levelling, visit http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=11467
6. it is possible to get the 3-chest-treasure-find (pet level 24(6266 exp)) within 8~9 battles. but i am not sure if Ancient Knowledge scroll can be dug up. I tried so many times, I have never received that.
   
7. Pendant of Iron Will is so damn good! Gold is really a non-issue when you have it, you can fight it four times, each fight gives 18k + a dragon treasure (4~5k, gold or wanderer scroll that you can sell) + a hypnosis scroll (5k), so you are basically guaranteed 110,000 gold from this one single item.
   
8. You can walk by the first boss on the second island without fighting him, this is helpful in the sense that you can talk to the ghost captain vendor first to get good troops/spells
   
9. Shaman's skull (morale 5) must be bought before the second boss on the first island, if you want to suppress it. because after the final fight, you cannot click it because the dialogue causes the game to end. so the only way to suppress it is to skip the 20k badge boss, fight the first real boss first, then buy Shaman's skull, then fight badge boss, second + third boss on first island, first+second boss on second island, then suppress it.
   
10. You need 120900 exp to hit level 30

[axelle]

deleted.

will update here when i do a new run

[Fatt_Shade]

Posting that starting save would be nice
As for your suggestion that pet dragon get 2nd lvl of chest on 21 is wrong. Some of his skills have limitations (mystic egg can get 70% hero leadership after 15th lvl pet, or pet wall can get 600hp upgrade only after 10th lvl pet), for number of chests/or rage cost reduction there is no limitations for pet lvl at all.

digger {
hinthead=pet_digger_name
class=scripted
script_calccells=calccells_digger
script_attack=pet_digger
attack_cursor=magicstick
place=2
level=2
default=level1
upgrade {
level1=level:0/green:1,red:0,rage:4,rest:1,exp:5,level:1
level2=level:1/green:2,red:0,rage:+2,exp:+3,level:2
level3=level:2/green:2,red:1,rage:+3,exp:+4,level:3
level4=level:3/green:3,red:2,rage:+4,exp:+5,level:4
level5=level:4/green:4,red:2,rage:+3,exp:+8,level:5
rage1=level:>0,rs:0,rage:>9/rage:-5,rs:1
}

This is original game settings, i think for DotC and CotA they are same, only difference is maybe exp gain connected to strenght of enemy army and starting difficulty.

[Fatt_Shade]

Other then 2nd lvl pet dragon, there is no other conditions for pet digging skill. You can get it on 2nd lvl (since first lvl is always push hit), and 2nd lvl of digging you can get on 3rd lvl pet dragon. In ga,e folder/Kings Bounty Armored princess/sessions/defender/defender.kfs check pet.atom file, there are all pet dragon skills and condition.
Expl :

smash_hit {
ad_factor=0
class=scripted
script_calccells=calccells_smash_hit
script_attack=pet_smash_hit
attack_cursor=attack
place=1
level=1
default=level1
upgrade {
level1=level:0/damage:physical:90:100,rage:4,rest:1,exp:3,push:1, level:1
level2=level:1/damage:physical:130:150,rage:+1,exp:+2,level:2
level3=level:2/damage:physical:200:300,rage:+2,exp:+3,level:3
level4=level:3/damage:physical:400:500,rage:+3,exp:+5,push:+1,lev el:4
level5=level:4,LV:>9/damage:physical:800:900,rage:+4,exp:+6,level:5
level6=level:5,LV:>13/damage:physical:1300:1400,rage:+5,exp:+7,level:6
level7=level:6,LV:>17/damage:physical:1900:2000,rage:+6,exp:+8,rest:+1, rage1=level:>0,rs:0,rage:>18/rage:-5,rs:1
rest1=level:>0,rr:0,rest:>1/rest:-1,rr:1
}

place=1 is location of skill, first slot in first row.

level=1 is condition pet dragon need to have chance to get this skill on lvlup.

level3=level:2/damage:physical:200:300,rage:+2,exp:+3,level:3 for level3 you need level:2 of this skill (obviously ) and it upgrades dmg

level5=level:4,LV:>9/damage:physical:800:900,rage:+4,exp:+6,level:5 but for level5 of this skill, you need it upgraded to lvl:4 AND pet dragon LV>9 higher then 9lvl.

So this skill have conditions to upgrade to lvl 5+.
Digging on other hand have no conditions for pet lvl.

[Fatt_Shade]

Here`s list of basic exp for pet dragon in original game settings (same mods have changed that part of file) :
1) smashing hit 34 exp
2) chest dig 17 exp
3) wall 39 exp
4) mystic egg 33 exp
5) mana charge 29 exp
6) lightning ball 43 exp
7) dragon dive 28 exp
8 ) lava 40 exp
9) frenzy spirits 37 exp.

Then you multiply exp amount with K (where K= whole enemy army leadership/whole your army leadership, so if you have 1 black dragon and enemy 1.000.000 peasants K=5.000.000/2.500=2.000 and expl lightning ball would give you 43x2.000 exp). But as battle progress enemy lds is lower, and K is lowe also, so after certain time you`ll get this message after using pet dragon : epx gain =0 , because enemy is to weak (or something like that, i`m not sure now).
Also for dragon skills that hit multiple targets you take that in consideration also, dragon dive hit 8 enemy units exp gain = 28exp * 8hit * K ( but K for enemy lds before using pet dragon, after using it enemy lds will change and K will change also).

That`s it as far as i know, if any1 else knows more pls inform us

[Fatt_Shade]

Was off for f..ing system rebooting Took me whole 2 days to gather all software i used before, now i only hope to ghost my new and clean system before new batch of junk (and viruses get downloaded by me.
As for gaining pet dragon exp : it not amount of enemy troops you fight but ratio of enemy/your army leadership (tower doesnt calculate in exp at all, which is a bit unfair since in 4th/5th lvl items they can be really strong). As i mentioned earlier if you lead 1 black dragon and enemy have 1.000 swordman current lds ratio is 1.000*50lds/2.500lds=20 so every pet dragon skill will gain 20 times more exp then is listed as nominal outside battle when you open pet dragon window. But if you have 2 black dragon 2 red dragon, 3 green, 3 rune mage and 25 inquisitors and enemy have still 1.000 swordman then ratio will be 1.000*50lds/(2*2.500 + 2*2.000 + 2*1.900 + 3*2.000 + 25*100) = 50.000/21.300 = 2,3 = K so every pet dragon skill will give you only 2,3 times more exp then listed in his window outside battle. And after you attack enemy units some of them will die and their total lds will drop and K will drop with it, so using pet dragon in early battle turns will gain you more epx then later when enemy is almost all dead.
There is way to avoid this : using some high initiative unit and casting invisiblity and phantom on it, so enemy attack phantom and gain you rage to use for pet dragon skills, while not killing your units, and you not killing enemy units. But this have limits with mana/rage generation and you need to lead only 1 stack of units . . . and similar strategies. Try this in some easy battle and compare pet dragon exp gain with same battle when you lead full army.

[Fatt_Shade]

is it determined once you purchase the item? i highly suspect so after testing for a while. if this is true, then only buy 1 item at a time because it's easy to save and load to make sure the dungeon keepers are of relatively high health. the range of dungeon keeper health is huge: the maximum is around two times of the minimum!

I never really paid much attention on this, but did notice that if i get 2 same items in game and upgrade them as same time, towers and enemy stacks in those fights aren`t same. First noticed it with droid module (2 upgrade battles) and i got 2 of them in game, and when i decide to upgrade them for fun i got very different enemy armies in both battles and difference in exp was around 5k exp.
As you said is it determined on hero lvl when acquiring item, or something else ?

[axelle]

12 years later...i did it. I hit level 30!

I bought this game in steam and gave it a try this month, only took 92 hours

some interesting screenshots