My attempt at getting the highest score

[loreangelicus]

You probably always play mage? A paladin game I started (and stopped when I realized his ultimate resurrection skill does not support no-loss run) had the pet dragon at level 22 when the paladin was at level 15. Same with the warrior game I have right now, level 17 warrior and level 21 pet dragon. But leveling the pet dragon is not really that big of an issue, unless a level 60 pet dragon is also one of your target goals.

Oh no... for a game that you want to target level 60/high score you should really use the KBScanner to make sure that you have at least 3 ancient knowledge scrolls being sold or as treasure pick-ups. Then pray that you get at least 3 more from duplicate navi maps and dragon dig. If you have read other posts, ancient knowledge scrolls are critical for a high level and high score run. And there is absolutely no guarantee you would get them in great supply.

It would be very frustrating to be in the mid to late game and still not know if you could reach level 60 simply because you don't have enough AKs. As painful as it may seem, I would suggest restarting the game. If you do restart the game, I suggest making sure you have 3+ ancient knowledge scrolls and 2 hand of necropolis at the starting islands (in my game, I got them both at Verona).

[McSwan]

I started again, this time with 6 AK scrolls that can be bought. However, I didn't get "call colossas spell" or the undead summoning spell, so have to clear creeps with just a green dragon, which are a fair bit crappier than the reds.

[DGDobrev]

There is a workaround You can modify the digging in battle. Simply reload a number of times and check for chests after a unit has moved - this gives you 5 different digouts per turn, provided you use 5 troop army. Surprisingly, this produces some wondrous results. For example, I'm halfway through Scarlet with the Warrior and managed to dig 3 depth of thought, 1 Song of the Wind (hello hayterrants!), 1 Call Death (dug in the training fights - hello Mr. Bone Dragon), 2 Titan's Sword, 1 Titan's Armor, 2 Flaming Eyes and 1 Call Collosus (on Debir, unused yet because I have only 1300 leadership). The rest of the fights I settled for a rune of a random kind (with preference to mind and magic ones).

I know it's a lot of restarting, but if you want to squeeze out the most of a game, one must compromise

[McSwan]

Lol, I've done that quite a bit already, but I've just increased the number of runes, the wanderer scrolls just haven't been appearing.

[loreangelicus]

Same here, I get a ratio of about 1 wanderer scroll for every 10 chests, far better than the 1 in 40 that it should be. But even then, Ancient Knowledge is not guaranteed. I only dug up 2 AKs, and I have cleared Debir-Scarlet-Bolo-Rusty and around 5 fights at Verona. Tons of other wanderer scrolls though... but you only need one Depth of Thought (to get Elenhel early), maybe 1-2 Call Colossus early on (before hitting Bolo/Rusty), and 1-2 Call of Death/Call Colossus to get Bone Dragon and Black Knights, that is if you go the undead army route. Everything after that is just extra gold, with the sole exception of Ancient Knowledge.

Playing a Warrior, I'm at the point wherein I take a Magic or Mind Rune over a non-AK wanderer scroll.

6 AK scrolls built-in? That's beautiful! If you get enough additional AKs from chests and duplicate navi maps, maybe you should try for level 61?

DGDobrev, you've done a level 60 run before. Is level 61 possible/reachable?

[McSwan]

Also, I'm guessing it easier to to the reloading like that playing as a warrior.

I'm at Verona, I skipped bolo, and have found 2 wanderer scrolls with reloading most battles.

[loreangelicus]

Hmmm... you mentioned that you didn't get Call Colossus or Call of Death at Debir or Scarlet. At impossible difficulty, any class would be hard pressed at Bolo or Rusty without it. I myself had to stop playing my initial impossible warrior game simply because I was stuck at Bolo; I stopped that game even though I had 3 AKs in shops via KBScanner and already had an additional 3 AKs via duplicate navi maps and chest digs, and that was just Debir-Scarlet-Bolo! Granted, going back to Bolo via Debir-Bolo-Verona is only 1 hour more than Debir-Verona, but that only counts the travel time. Then you have to run around Bolo to clear up what you failed to do on the first run, and that would definitely add more time.

Don't worry, according to other players it gets easier for mages by early mid game due to higher magic and the use of solo unit tactics, notably black dragons. So you could go back to some serious AK digging then.

[DGDobrev]

Loreangelicus, that is a good question. I think it is possible to hit 61, if you have enough AK scrolls. I made the mistake of using them on the tougher islands against regular armies and for a while, I wasn't sure I'm going to cut it. The biggest bonus AK scroll provides is vs. heroes and vs. bosses. Even on Reha, with full +xp items (that amounted to +62% XP per battle), the regular armies provided up to 6-9k at most XP.

So the bottom line is, leave stacks of heroes available (if necessary, don't kill them in the first run through a territory, but do check in advance how much XP are they worth and reload if the result is not satisfactory) and when you do the second run, slap an AK scroll on and beat them up one by one. That may provide the experience you need to get to 61. You should, of course, check the XP the heroes will give you after the fight. If it's over 9k, you're on the right path. If not, the extra AK scrolls will serve you better against regular armies on Reha.

Oh, an of course, stock up on items that quickly lose morale for extra XP through suppressions. Steam Armor and Paladin shield are a good example.

[loreangelicus]

Thanks for the reply DGDobrev, I'll keep those things in mind. If I get more AKs in my game (currently 3 in shops, 2 dug up, 1 dupli map of Montero when I took a quick peek) I'll see if I could try for level 61. My game is slow going though, with the reloading games tactic and somewhat limited time to play.

I keep screenshots of all hero battle results for posterity, and I'll probably upload them once I finish the game to hopefully help others who try the feat afterward. But like I said, it would take me some time before I finish the game...

[DGDobrev]

I know how it feels... I'm doing something similar and in 3 real time days I'm barely haflway through scarlet. I'm sorry to say that it will take at least 8 scrolls to get to 60, but looking at your success with those, you should be just fine. I guess this is the reason for the developers to refrain from setting a max level