KBDS Normal/Hard/Impossible No-loss thread

[Zhuangzi]

Sounds like you had my luck with random numbers of units in a stack, Impy. First time I tried no loss I got stuck with a huge stack of Fairies in one of those Shelter fights, but when I restarted and got back to the same fight it was much easier. I didn't do that hardest spider stack either, but like you say once you get Blackie it gets much easier.

Having said that, no loss is a challenge in this game for sure. I am up to 196 fights without loss now, about level 34, and I'm not entirely sure where I ought to be concentrating on. For a long time now most of the available stacks on most islands are Very Hard and above. It's hard to know the correct order of islands in terms of difficulty.

Obviously it's Portland, Monteville, Inselburg in that order, but after that I have been all over the place fighting whatever seemed easiest. I finally cleared out Draganador and also Baraz-Gund, and after quite a few easy fights on Tristem I can pick and choose to a large extent.

I really enjoyed those first three islands a lot - I thought the map and quest design was excellent. The other islands are good too but I have to say I prefer the sense of being more or less 'stuck' on one island and having to fight my way through it, rather than being able to teleport all over the world looking for the next easiest fight. Ah well, at least I don't have to use the boat...

[DGDobrev]

So far I have been doing it in this order: Portland, Monteville, Inselburg, Darenbam, Baraz-Gund, Tristem, Dragandor, Sandy/Bear Butte (seemed the same difficulty at this point), Atrixus, and now I am tormenting the amazons.

Sure takes some porting between islands, due to the nature of the quests. I think we got a bit spoiled by KBAP's linear quests. These ones here need you to think a little, and expect you to be a bit more involved in them, especially since, the way it looks, there are 50+ more quests in KBDS than there were in KBAP. I love the porting here and there - while it takes away the "find the fastest route" game option, it makes for much less punishable game experience if you miss something. Keeping in mind the game is 100+ hours a play-through, I can only smile at this addition.

Also make sure you check the map guards. Some are in places that allow you to kite them just enough to steal the map they are guarding. It never hurts to open a new area

EDIT: they really need to make your summoned units a bit smarter. My summons have adopted a hobby: seek out traps and fall in them

[Zhuangzi]

Sandy Island seems a bit easier than Bear Butte to me, not so much in terms of the leadership but just the quality of enemies. In this game the effect of poison, burning and bleeding just seem very, very overpowered, so certain enemies are a royal pain in the ass. I never want to see any of these suckers again:

Alchemists (uh, so tough, and poison bombs?)
Ice Spiders (stacks of 300+???, one shot killing some of my Archdemons?)
And those new things, I forget their name, that cast Empathy? Screw that.

Those Priests of Light are hazardous too with their mass heal, but you can always cast Fear on a stack of them.

Jealousy is far and away the best Rage ability. Like in previous KB games abilities that do a fixed amount of damage are woefully underpowered by mid-game. Black Hole looks nice but barely scratches them.