Getting past the bloody spider.

[Donnylicious]

For anyone having trouble with the Giant Spider, here's what I did. This took me a bout a week of frustration. I read up on the posts here that going into the might tree is a must. However, I had about 3 skills in might as I was a soothsayer and pretty much put all my points down that tree, which was pretty useless in this boss fight, except for maybe level 2 distortion and level 1 creation points. Here are my stats:

18 Soothsayer hard mode
13 attack
16 defense
18 int
3964 leadership
--- talents ---
3 might
8 spirit
18 magic

Thought I was screwed because this is an attack damage heavy fight and I had mostly magic (destruction was useless because units were too mixed up) So here's what I went with;

66 berserkers
99 vikings
113 skalds
19 war maidens
8 jarls (had possible 12 but couldn't find any more)

The biggest problem most people don't realize is morale. If it's poor you will get -10% attack/defense. If it's positive you will get +10%. Skalds were very important in that they boost morale of all vikings by 1. This plus the racial morale bonus gives you 2. The spiders will automatically lower you morale with their attacks so this is crucial.

The main trick I did was to bring the Giant Spider's health down as fast as possible to avoid the strengthening spiderlings.

Here's what you do:
First put your vikings in the Giant Spider's head, put him on berserker and watch the super crits. He will always attack the Giant Spider. Buff him with a stone skin or blessing to max damage. Group him up with your jarls for the jarls aura. Just have the rest of your party kill the spiderlings.

When the Giant Spider switches positions, have your Berserker ready and do the same thing.

The third switch will be tricky because you'll have to maneuver your damage dealer around the spiderlings.

On the fourth switch go all out; have 3 units attacking the Giant Spider to finish him off.

Hope this helps. Took me a while to figure it out =/ (also got the achievement for beating it under 15 rounds)

[ivanvazovv]

So anybody found a way to kill this boss without any losses? Is there any way to kill with the console or is there any way to cheat?

[gunnyhighway]

As a soothsayer I coved the entire ground with ice spikes the spider adds couldnt fall /profit

[Lancian]

I did this as Soothsayer without trolls using Jarls, Warrior Maidens, Royal Snakes, Polar Bears and Swap Snakes. I found I can buy trolls at the map AFTER I killed the spider (the dwelling is not shown on map). The idea is try not to melee spider much with any other units than Jarls and Bears. Snakes and maidens should clear spiders, while using ranged/bite attack on boss when its ready. Use protection spells on jarls and bears and offensive on the boss. You will kill him eventually, but if you aim for some achievements or dont want to lose many units (as you will), use the trolls and profit.

[BB Shockwave]

Originally Posted by namad

@everyone talking about warrior maidens... darnit darnit... my game I didn't have any! although I think it may even be due to some sort of bug because one of the shops in the game spawned them, but with 1 and only 1 maiden for sale? which made them unusable... thats one thing I don't like about wotn... first four islands don't have a done of random troop variety... difficult boss for which you don't have many choices of troops to bring? not fun! I might give it another try tho with jotun/berzerker/polar bear/bear/royalsnake the only problem is... the first four islands combine to give me ONE CASTLE, with THREE garrison slots... so I don't have enough space to really store my entire old army that easily

also no trolls either... strategies that only work with specfic troops are usually fine for bosses in king's bounty games because usually you can bypass the boss explore a ton... have so many places to recruit from that eventually randomly you'll find what you need... but in wotn half the shops on teh first 4islands have basic vikings troops... I'm really sad I couldn't get warrior maidens in my playthrough ... by the time they become available in my playthrough I'll probably have something better like paladins or something..



actually wait nevermind: here is flat out the one and only flaw with this boss fight! the first time you fight this boss you will probably lose, at least depending on random happenstance, what's the problem? well you can't do go anything else! you realize frenzy would be a great ability to use against the boss? oh well too bad by the time you first encounter the boss there aren't enough enemies left in the game to fight to gain even 1 level, so if you don't already have exactly what you need, it's just not fun! typically in king's bounty you can fight a boss, lose, think about strategy, go acquire a different army, maybe level up once or twice, get what you think you might need, and then try again!!!

for example I went for learning rank 3 early because it can pay off in the long run, I could've had glory rank 3 instead but I didn't realize that the bosses weren't things you could come back for later, crossworlds campaign is 90-95% all about skipping every boss and coming back for it later?!!?!!!!!!!!

Most of your grievances are quite justified. But I am pretty sure there are 2 castles - on on Nordlig, one on Fastlands. (Yes, you can go back to Nordling - it's a weird thing but Runolv actually goes back to his house and you can enter the town. The smith Grunorm will have moved into the Castle (so you lose access to his sales - buy them before this event)

Also, the three Houses of Jotun (one in Vestlig, one in Isterreg, one in Nordlig) accessible after you get the winged horse) sell Trolls with a good chance. They are hard to find unless you check your maps... another weirdness with the designs.

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Skald, hard. I did all previous content before fighting him, and was level 20 or 21 when I fought him, with 22/22 Jarls (for comparison)

I used Jarls, Soothsayers, Royal Snakes, Battle Maidens, Jotun's.

I used Valkyrie to give more leadership (900) and stomped the spider fast enough to get the achievement.

I think the problem you have is that your troops look very weak. Axe throwers and Berserkers really don't cut it that far into the game. Need some stuff with higher damage and health.

Axethrowers are some of the worst Viking units - due to the 120 Leadership. I mean, cannoneers have the same leadership, have more HP and can attack at any range and without melee penalty. The "nimble" skill is not worth it for that... As I noticed, their damage output is fairly low since you can only get a few. In comparison, other Level 3 units with 90 HP have much lower leadership (Cerberi, Griffins, etc.)