I'm playing on Normal and stuck in this mission (first mission for Kinets). When synthet hero reaches Vital castle, she is level 9 and the most i can get my hero is level 5 (that's after beating Chaot lvl 6 hero while being 3 myself i think and rushing to get in time to save that castle). I tried, but it looks it is impossible to beat that synthet being on just lvl 5. Any suggestions?

this is what the game is. it's not so much tough as "are you kidding me with this?" stuff. that said, it's at least doable.

if you're not interested in playing past all the problems, the sequel took out the bad "TBS" entirely, and I hear that the campaign there is much better. the decks have also been refined a little.

let's see, the third mission of the good campaign was a long time ago for me now. that's the mission where the nonsense kicks in. and that nonsense is there for the rest of the game so settle in. only on missions that get reused on both campaigns do you not get run into a wall because you know a little about what's coming. still, even with that stuff, I couldn't stop playing this game.

I haven't been trying to make this long but it turned out that way. there's a lot of stuff you should know. I can't tell you though because of the goddamn character limit.

SHORT VERSION STARTS HERE

here's a short version.

send a fighter hero left with a gatherer. try to swing him back around in time for defense or don't.

send your main hero up right to get stuff up there first or send him straight down to level him, build deck, and protect vitals. use him to kill the chaot hero or don't.

send a third fighter hero for defense up right if you didn't bother with your main hero. don't use a gatherer for the defense hero if you do this.

avoid getting too close to the chaot castle or the AI will rush the vital castle before you can reach it and kill it.

recruit as many level 1s as you can and hurl them at the enemy level 9 synthet before you attack him with your main hero. the game does not respect the order you carry out your turns, and moves heroes by level, on turns where multiple heroes attack one hero, the order is carried out at random seemingly.

it's a rough game. it's a flawed game. it's an unusual game and they don't make them like that any more. it's a genre-bender and it carries all the risk and potential (realized) problems with that. the TBS, sucks. it isn't a TBS. the CCG though and the combat is great. when the game is fun, it's really fun. but a lot of the time, it just isn't because it shoots itself in the foot as much as it may. even with all of that, I just couldn't give up the game.

what should happen is that nival should bundle these. but if it merited a change to 9.99 I'd say not to bother. it's certainly interesting. if you don't persist, try the sequel. I hear it doesn't have the problems of this game. I have a few threads and replies with my experiences in this forum. and I have an endgame thread with decks I used.

MULTIPLE PART LONG VERSION STARTS HERE (cringe)

if this takes more than two posts I probably won't bother posting it all.

as I recall I loaded a save about midway through my play with the mission to fix what I was doing. I went left with my main hero, thinking I would swing him down from the left, which would mean he'd have time to be strong by then. of course I didn't know all the concerns with this game at that point. you still have no way to quickly restock heroes on runes and cards if they're not near shops at that point in the game either, which is a huge problem. it took him longer to start making his way down to the vital castle than I thought because he had a deck that couldn't get him by the first monster on the shorter path there. I had to load back my saves and go down the path from your castle and by the fort with my second hero. and my third guy was mostly wasted for reasons I'll explain.

it's been a while since this one so I can't tell you what deck you need. which is the most useful thing I could tell you. first a few things you need to know about the game. for one, it's hard. unfairly hard. two, it's unfinished or it must be. the "TBS" in this game is broken and annoying. it isn't really balanced and it's unforgiving to the point where you cannot waste more than 2 or 3 turns early on or you're pretty much screwed at that point. also, much in this game is scripted by the developers. often times, the heroes you start with will have specializations which will either help strongly or be needed to beat the heroes you'll face in that mission, meaning if you recruit someone on turn 1 and level him up to fight, you could find it was for nothing. and the shops near you will have cards which either themselves counter the enemy hero or are to be used in combinations which counter the enemy hero or their combinations. these cards can be in one shop or even more than one. you might be wondering how you're supposed to know what cards to buy beforehand. yep.

Thanks for your reply. I didn't hope much when i posted this. Actually, i have played the sequel ~10 years ago (yeah, weird order). And i remember it being tough too. But it wasn't like that. It was just a mere of fine tuning a deck and trying that monster again, tuning, try again, so on. Or just waiting for a lucky starting draw. Or i just don't remember now :) I had way more time back then. Now it feels like i'm wasting my time on a broken game, but it's hard to leave it this way. And i want to complete the experience (after completing the sequel). I have beaten both campaigns in a sequel. Actually i still have my winning decks written down, so if anyone wants a hint.. ;)

Yes, i thought i should try going left and try to catch him sooner. But if i go with my base deck i can't go through some monsters (worms). So i have to waste many turns on beating monsters by the shop and the lab (ugh, movement in this game drives me nuts, you have to waste a turn for every little step you do..). So it can be too late to go that path. I will try it later. I was also thinking about some other spells, but i don't think any at the closest shop will help and i haven't checked other shops.

Internet is scarce on information about this game. But i have stumbled on some cheat codes :) haven't tried them, but it is interesting to lift the fog of war and see how on hell does she goes to lvl 9 so fast :)

yeah it was the same with me. I doubted whether I should bother, thinking it wasn't worth it with the amount of time the missions take. I just couldn't let it go, though.

to be clear, when I say go left, I mean at the top of the map. directly left from your castle. over in that direction are resources, mines, and ether you want to grab. but do it with a second fighter/gatherer group because you don't have time to do it with your main hero.

if you meant go left to the vital castle at the bottom of the map by their fort on the other hand, well there's no choice that is what you have to do. the level 9 synthet will quickly make its way into their territory, and it will immediately rush their castle if you get too close to the chaots. you'll run out of stuff to kill to level up if you don't go that way anyway. restock runes at the vital rune shop. make sure you have a marksman or two to deal with the gibberling monster. if I recall correctly, that gibberling monster uses the kinet card to haste a minion. he'll pop it on the gibberling 3/1 or the gibberling gang and in the latter case you'll have unblockable card steal to deal with. not sure now if he has thief (2 or 3 card steal on any summon).

once you get a level 6 hero and a deck that counters the level 9 synthet hero, you will be able to beat him. that's pretty much how the entire game goes. often times you have to beat heroes higher-level than you.

It's been a long time since the last time this post was used, but I had to leave my opinion.

I'm a great strategy fan. Unfortunately I sense that I have to abandon Etherlords 1. Even though I really love the game dynamics I think that the game is "broken" somewhat, because it destroys one of the most fascinating aspects of a strategy game: the "randomness" of the world.
Sometimes, in strategy games (just like in real life, as history has proven several times) when you think that the game is doomed because you're about be annihilated by the enemy, the enemy does something stupid or misses a chance. And that is when the tables turn.

No such thing here. As one of the early posters stated, the game appears to be "scripted" since the beginning. You have to do actions "X" in time "Y" with hero "Z"... otherwise you'll lose. Period.
In fact it almost seems to play like an adventure game. You have to perform specific actions with specific characters in order to advance. That's not a strategy game in my book.

The game even cheats on you. A lot! You start with a Level 1 hero. Yet, in a couple of turns, the enemy hero is already level 6 or 7, while you're still level 3. It's not fair and it's a clear way to extend a game's life.

The game's clearly unbalanced. It's not a good strategy game. Which is a shame, because I love the wonderful mechanics of TBS with "card game".

In real life, when you're being faced with an opponent who's 2 or 3 times your size, the most strategic thing to do is to retreat and find another way to fight it.
The same thing is happening with this game. And the most strategic thing to do is to delete it :(

Maybe I'll try playing Etherlords 2.

Now I understand why the game's got so few info on the web (I couldn't even find a strategy guide for it). Most strategy fans probably see it as broken.

Shame on you, Nival. At least I expect that you've corrected the mistakes in the second game.

Maybe someone can help me here. The enemy is rushing over the vital's castle and destroy it before i even building my first hero. What can i do?

Read the posts above, friend.
They explain, somehow, how you can beat the game.

You have two heroes. Use one to gather resources, while the other goes down the map, collecting cards and getting stronger in order to beat the "synth" hero.
When you get to face him, you'll probably only be level 6 (while he'll be level 9). But you gotta have the right cards in order to counter his deck.

The game cheats somehow (the enemy starts stronger than you) but that's Etherlords for you.
Etherlords 2 is a better and more balanced game.

Thanks Karnak. I read it but didnt got it right. now i understood. thanks again.

One general idea that was only hinted at briefly above, is making lots of level 1 heroes. Why you might wonder does that help... in theory you could get lucky, but not that likely against a level 9 deck. But your goal is to make the duel last as long as possible with each throwaway level 1 hero.

Pummeling an enemy with attacks forces them to use runes each time they cast a spell. And they do run out, which transforms them back into a starting deck (the default) but with extra health. You can use that to delay the enemy, forcing them to scout for runes, or use it just before your main hero targets them. It's not especially pretty, but fail at a campaign a few times and it starts to look attractive.

I'm playing the Duel now because I failed this same mission recently - and I've solved it before. The Duel lets you practice against a specific deck, or pick which two decks are involved. When the campaign feels unfair, give the duel option from the main menu a try.