Difference between revisions of "Incursions"

The Chromed enemies and the "Chrome" Mutator in an enemy schedule below.

The Chrome mutator means that no crowd control effects will work. This includes stun, freeze, and slow. There is no need to use any crowd control abilities on this stage, as they will not work here. If crowd control attacks are used, the animations will still be applied (e.g. frozen enemies are encased in ice) but it will have no effect on the enemy movement. All spawned enemies will also have a silver-ish chromed look. Summoned enemies (i.e. Dark Mage skeletons) will not have chrome skin, but the Chrome mutator is still applied.

A Horde lane consist of a hefty amount of mini-Gribloks & Quiblys and Tier 2 Kobolds.

Each wave one of the three ground lanes will be designated as the Griblok's Horde lane, and will blink red on the schedule. This is assigned at random, and may change lanes each wave. The Horde lane will consist of large numbers of three enemy types - Kobolds (Tier 2 - skate version), mini versions of Quibly, and mini versions of Griblok. This map has no air lanes on any waves. The Horde comes in groups of tight packs with Kobolds in front, mini-Gribloks next, and followed by mini-Quiblys. Enemy types in each group typically number from 3-12 of each class, with about 15-20 total in each group. Groups are separated by small packs of 3-6 mini-Quiblys. The Horde lane will last longer than the other two lanes with larger numbers and spread out groups. On wave 5, the Horde lane will change to 39 Kobolds and 140 mini-Quiblys. Griblok may also spawn as a large miniboss named Griblok the Razor on any red schedule lane, on any wave, and can spawn on more than one lane on a single wave. Wave 5 can have zero miniboss spawns.

The highlighted air enemy spawn icon signifies the 3rd air lane.

The key to this map is to counter Cyborks in each lane and having plenty of air defenses against the large amount of fliers that will come from 3 directions. A 3rd air lane is added on the north end of the map (Birch Path - above Ruin Cave lane). Each air lane has up to three different types of enemies (Wyverns, Flying Kobolds, and Lightning Bugs). Cyborks will target auras, nodes, and traps but do not target towers. The more range your towers have, the better. Air lanes will number from 30-50 in each lane as waves progress, and typically all spawn late in the wave. On Wave 4, one air lane will drop to only 12 enemies, and on Wave 5 all three drop to only 12. This means you can readjust your air defenses on the last waves, and possibly move some towers into position to help with minibosses instead.

From left to right - Timothy, Wyvern Fan , Jimothy, Wyvern Enthusiast and Gregory, Wyvern Aficionado.

On Wave 5, three Ogres with unique armor flairs will spawn as minibosses. You can see where and in what order the ogres will spawn on the lane schedules, as the first type Ogre (Timothy, Wyvern Fan) spawns first, and second type (Jimothy, Wyvern Enthusiast) second, and the third (Gregory, Wyvern Aficionado) spawns last. The Ogre spawns are delayed to be spread out. No Ogres will come from the Middle West spawn point (Spooky Woods lane). The only additional miniboss that spawns is Thorc. He can spawn on multiple waves, and more than one lane at a time, but his spawn rate is low.

From left to right - Sammie the Trapper, Statch the Stalker, Steiner the Hunter and Sturgis the Falconer

Each wave starting with wave 2, a poacher will appear on a random lane. They do not get separate mutators from the lane they spawn in. When they first spawn, their icon will appear as a purple question mark, until they pass the spawn point. All 4 are enlarged versions of normal enemies with large health amounts and unique skin flairs. The lane they spawn on will blink red, and you can see them on the schedule. Sammie the Trapper spawns on Wave 2 as a Bomb Goblin whose attacks inflict Oiled status. Statch the Stalker spawns on Wave 3 as a Javelin Thrower whose attacks inflict Poisoned status. Steiner the Hunter spawns on Wave 4 as an Orc. Sturgis the Falconer spawns on Wave 5 as a Lady Orc. The only additional miniboss that spawns is Thorc. He can spawn on multiple waves, and more than one lane at a time, but his spawn rate is low. On Wave 4 only, there are no air lanes.

A Demon Eye and a bunch of Demon Eyes.

Chaos Three enemies have hefty defenses against projectile attacks with reflective shields, so unless you have Piercing MODs on your Relics, try using AOE based attacks such as auras, traps, and nodes on normal lanes.

All air enemies are Demon Eyes (A unique type of enemies from the world of Teraria.) which are mini eyeballs that tracks and attack only the hero. They do not attack any type of tower or the crystal. Waves 1, 3, and 5 have infinite building timers, however Waves 2 and 4 start automatically after 30 seconds unless you ready-up before then.

In order to survive to wave 5, the next two points are something that the players have to be aware of -

The Location of the Skeleton Spawn Points.

Secret Skeleton Spawn Points - There are 7 in total, and there is no way to know how many enemies it produces or if any minibosses will spawn from one. A map can be found beside to show the secret spawn points.

• 3 spawn points are on the North end of map, in the front of each of the cottage doorways on the path that goes off to the East.

• One spawn point is just inside the lower Southwest cave entrance (single enemy path), next to the crystal.

• One is found inside the cave on the second floor between the previous point and the triple spawn lane, next to the some treasure chests and a skeleton.

• The final two are midway down the triple spawn lane, next to a group of sunflowers on either side of the lane.

If you decide to build in a turtle strategy, then these spawn points might not be a problem. If you're building in a spread out way or even spawn-camping, while there are chokepoints which are very useful, always make sure to allocate some defense to take care of those spawn points that doesn't lead to a chokepoint since they can occasionally be deadly if left unchecked.

Slekeleon and Treet.

The skeleton hero minibosses. Left to right - Skeleton Apprentice, Squire, Huntress and Monk.

Minibosses/Special Weapon Drops - Aside from the Geode Prime Miniboss spawning on wave 5 due to this being on Chaos 3 difficulty, there are 6 other types of minibosses that spawns. They can only spawn either at the north or southeast lanes (And also only the north skeleton spawn points too.) No other types will spawn.

• On Waves 2-4, the only normal minibosses that spawn are Slekeleons, Keep track of all the Slekeleons, as they will resurrect on the beginning of the next wave where they died, and by Wave 5 they can stack up which can be deadly.

• There is also a Orc miniboss named Treet (i.e. Halloween theme, as in Trick or "Treet") that may spawn randomly and has a unique zombie skin flair.

• In addition to these minibosses there is also 4 special hero skeleton minibosses, one for each of the 4 starting heroes (Skeleton Apprentice, Skeleton Squire, Skeleton Huntress & Skeleton Monk) at normal size, and each will have a unique purple skeleton tint. They spawn with only a purple question mark as their icon on the screen. They mostly only spawn from the North spawn point and the 3 skeleton points by the cottages, although they sometimes spawn from the South as well. Multiples ones often spawn on each wave, from Waves 2-4. These 4 skeleton minibosses are special because they each have a low probability of dropping a unique weapon. Each class only drops one weapon for their class, so only the Skeleton Squire drops the sword weapon. There are 4 special weapons, each with a unique skin, but no special MODs. MOD slot one will be empty and has no effect, even though it shows a MOD level, and slot two will have a random normal MOD. MOD slot 1 can be tinkered, and the level currently shown on it plays no part in that process. All shot styles are "spooky" flair.

Skeleton Heroes Miniboss Weapon Drops:

(In the Order of - Skeleton Apprentice, Skeleton Squire, Skeleton Huntress & Skeleton Monk.)

Raven's Claw staff, Iron Reaper sword, Bow O'Lantern bow & Wailing Glaive polearm.

Left - The Eye of Cthulhu's form in it's first phase. Right - The Eye of Cthulhu's form in it's second phase.

Wave 5 : The Eye of Cthulhu - The final wave is a Boss round and enemies will infinitely spawn until the Boss is defeated, which will then end the stage immediately. The Boss is The Eye of Cthulhu which is a giant eyeball that's also a unique enemy from Terraria alongside Demon Eyes. It spawns randomly from either air spawn point, and it can be seen on the schedule before the wave starts. This boss has two phases -

• In its first phase, it slowly follows the player keeping a very short distance away while spawning demon eyes from the middle of its iris.

• When it's damaged to the point of half health, it changes to its second phase, morphing to a more grotesque form, having a giant maw instead an iris. During this phase, its speed is increased and will start to physically charge at players.

An Explodinator.

Chaos Three enemies have hefty defenses against projectile attacks with reflective shields, so unless you have Piercing MODs on your Relics, try using AOE based attacks such as auras, traps, and nodes on ground lanes.

There is also a unique enemy called an Explodinator which spawns in certain lanes during certain waves. They are a more powerful version of kobolds which also have the ability to fire rockets everywhere in a medium radius around them. The rockets are very deadly as they could result in a one hit death to a hero. However despite their power, Explodinators are quite tiny, roughly a tad bit smaller than a regular goblin though their presence can be known through rockets firing everywhere from them which are also very visible through sparks flaring from rockets flying and exploding.

The Kobold Bling King's platform, where you will give the gold crystals/nuggets.

A Golden Crystal Beast and a gold crystal/nugget that it drops.

Gold Nuggets and The Kobold Bling King.

Gold is hidden around the stage and it is also dropped from a new miniboss called the Golden Crystal Beast. Once a nugget is given to The Kobold Bling King at a lit up circle near his feet, a small brown gold bag will appear to represent that completed nugget (image above). The map is dark, so the gold nuggets can be hard to see, but they do sparkle. You can only hold 1 gold nugget at a time, and must return it to the Kobold King within 20 seconds, or you will lose that nugget. If you switch heroes or die while you have a nugget, you will lose it.

The 12 known hidden locations that gold nuggets can spawn from. The center of the map shows the Bling King's location.

Gold can be found in 12 or so hidden locations on the map (see the map beside), of which about 2-4 are generated at the beginning of the wave at random and a couple more nuggets will generate as the stage progresses. On Wave 5, up to 7 hidden nuggets can randomly spawn as the stage progresses. Gold is also dropped by special minibosses that constantly spawn from lanes called Golden Crystal Beasts (a large gold flair Witherbeast). Each of these minibosses will drop one gold nugget. The dropped nuggets can stack on the ground in the same wave. Once the required amount of nuggets has been given to the Kobold King in a wave, that wave will end. All dropped, held, and hidden gold nuggets will vanish at the end of each wave. Be careful not to place or aim defenses too close to a spawn point so that when the Golden Crystal Beasts drops the nugget, it falls outside of the spawn point and you can reach it.

Wave Requirements to clear each wave: Wave 1) 7 nuggets in 245 seconds; Waves 2-4) 9 nuggets in 270 seconds; Wave 5) 10 nuggets in 300 seconds.

A Cleansing Sword and their locations.

Cleansing Swords with the needed flame colors to cleanse its matching Spectral Knights. Icons on the left indicates a specific cleansing buff in use while the icons on the right indicates a Spectral Knight.

Once each wave begins, at some point during the wave a Spectral Knight will spawn from any of the ground lanes. Spectral Knights are large, floating Squire-like transparent ghosts that cannot be damaged by any weapons or stopped by any defense or barricade. They slowly move on the enemy path they spawn from directly towards the crystal, and do not stop until they get there. Once there, they attack the crystal doing 500 points of damage a second, which is a relatively small amount. They do not harm any defenses or heroes. Each Knight is either colored Red, Green or Purple, and when they spawn the game message will tell you what color they are in text, and the message text itself will also be in that same color as well. The Knights are not shown on the mini-map, but are represented on the actual map by a skull and crossbones icon of the same color that they are. Keep this in mind as you cannot tell by looking at the minimap how close they are to the crystal.

To cleanse the Knights from the stage, you must use an environmental mechanism found on only this incursion. Under the center of the map, there is a lower level in the shape of a horseshoe that exits out at each of the 3 major spawn sections. On either side of each exit inside the lower level, you will find an altar with a sword, with 4 total altars. You can interact with the altar, which will cause it to change color from red, to green, and then purple - always in that sequence, and only one color change per an interaction. To cleanse a knight, you must set all four altars to the same color as the knight you want to cleanse. Once all 4 are the same color, approach any of the 4 altars to receive a color debuff, as shown on the screen as an attack symbol in the color of the altar, and it will last 45 seconds. You should get it automatically when you set the 4th altar, but you can reset the 45 sec timer at any time by just approaching any of the 4 altars, as long as they are all still the same color. Each knight floats in the air, but has an aura underneath it shown as a large colored circle. To cleanse the Knight, simply place your hero inside of that circle, or jump into the Knight, while you have a debuff that matches the same color. If successful, the Knight will vanish and a message will say "The Spectral Knight has been cleansed". You will lose the debuff once a Knight is cleansed, so if you have another Knight of the same color you also want to also cleanse, you will need to approach one of the 4 altars again to get the debuff, and then approach that Knight. You can only carry one color debuff at a time, so if another Knight of a different color is also on the map, you must set all 4 altars to that color, get the debuff, and go inside its aura to cleanse it. You will lose your current debuff if you switch heroes or die after acquiring it.

The amount of Knights that spawn, when they spawn, and what color they spawn as are all random, but spawn rates do increase in frequency as you advance to each next wave. At the end of each wave, all 4 altars reset back to no color. You can interact with altars on the building phase, so it can be helpful to set one color before the wave starts. Each wave ends when the total amount of scheduled enemies are destroyed, and there is no requirement to cleanse any knights. All Knights on the map will vanish when the wave ends. Slow spawning enemies, slow moving minibosses, or stuck units can make the wave continue on, so ensure to clean-up all enemy units quickly to bring the wave to an end. It can be faster to clean up units, rather than adjusting 4 altars and cleansing a knight, so plan a strategy to finish each wave accordingly. The Knights do not damage the crystal very much, but several Knights can multiply the effect, so keep an eye on them. A Knight may spawn after the map is over, but it is of no consequence if it does.

The Demon Lord

This is a stage fight against the boss - Demon Lord. Each wave will spawn infinite enemies until a third of his health has been taken away, on each wave. At the start of a wave, you cannot attack the Demon Lord, but he will attack you. He will ignite you, causing fire damage over time, and this attack hits all heroes and is unavoidable. The Demon Lord will also repeatedly throw lava balls at or near each hero, and do splash damage when they hit. This attack will hurt your towers and the crystal, so be mindful of where you are standing, and be prepared to dodge. The lava balls he throws at you can also snap you out of a jump animation, and can cause you to fall to your death if you are over a lava pool when you are hit by one. Gnash the Flame Lance (large Berserker Orc miniboss) will often spawn at the beginning of any wave.

A Lava Guardian and a lava ball that it drops.

In order to damage the Demon Lord, you must first stun him. Once each wave begins, at some point during the wave a Lava Guardian will spawn from any of the ground lanes at random. A white exclamation mark will be shown above the area he will spawn from, but will vanish once he actually spawns, and no icon showing their location will exist after that. These units will spawn repeatedly over time, but are spaced out in frequency. Upon defeating a Lava Guardian, it will drop a lava ball on the ground. This is a Hero debuff that you can acquire by having your hero touch it. Once you touch a lava ball, it will vanish and you will see a lava ball debuff icon on your screen, and the hero will have a red glow to them. There is no timer on this debuff, and you can only carry one lava ball debuff at a time. More than one lava ball can be on the ground at one time. If you swap heroes once you have the debuff or die, you will lose it and need to get another lava ball. The lava balls the Demon Lord throws do not end up as debuffs on the ground in any way.

The route to the catapult from spawn point. It then has to be loaded with a lava ball to stun The Demon Lord.

Once you have the debuff, return to the area where your hero spawned when the map started and where you spawn when your hero dies. In that room, there is a hallway on the side that leads up some stairs to a long rampart that oversees most of the map. On that rampart you will see a catapult. If you approach the catapult while you have the lava ball debuff, the debuff will be removed from you and a lava ball will then become loaded onto the catapult for use. When the catapult is loaded with the lava ball and the debuff is removed, all other existing lava balls on the map or held by other heroes are also removed at that time. Before you use the loaded catapult, jump onto it. You cannot stand on the actual lava ball, but you can stand on the catapult where the ball is, and the graphics will just overlap. You can then activate the catapult, which will also launch you with it.

The Demon Lord stunned and is now able to be attacked.

The lava ball will then stun the Demon Lord. When you activate the catapult, a lightning debuff symbol will appear on the screen for 20 seconds, representing the total time the Demon Lord is stunned for. However, he must first fall down in range to be hit, and you cannot do any damage to him until his health bar shows up on the top of the screen. The actual time you have to damage him once he is in range is about 13 seconds. This is why you want to stand on the catapult, as it will launch you at the Demon Lord, and put you quickly within range. When you get launched, you can move your hero in mid-air. Try to land to the left of the Demon lord, near the Western double spawn point, so that you do not land on any lava patches and die. The Demon Lord will always fall over in the same location, and he can be damaged the Hero as well as by any defenses you build that are within range. Once the debuff timer is up, the Demon Lord will rise up again, and you will need to get another lava ball and stun him again. This process will continue until you lower his health by a total of one third of his total health. Once you lower his health by that much, that wave will end. When the wave ends, all lava balls and debuffs will be removed. On Wave 2, repeat the exact same process until you lower his health by another third, to end that wave. On Wave 3, you must then get his health to zero to end the wave and win the stage.

The Dark Realm Altar

In the West center of the map there is a raised rectangular area with a coffin in the middle of it surrounded by 4 pillars. This is the Altar and the pillars are each hiding a Dark Realm Statue miniboss. The Altar will be motionless and does not do anything at first. You must summon a Dark Realm Statue miniboss by collecting 4 Ritual Items (purple books) dropped by defeating Dark Prophets. After a Dark Realm Statue miniboss has been summoned and defeated, the the Altar Assassins can then be damaged. You must defeat all of the Altar Assassins on the map to end that wave, and enemies will spawn infinitely until then.

Left - Invulnerable Altar Assassins. (Before beating the ritual), Right - Vulnerable Altar Assassins. (After beating the ritual)

On Wave 1, 3 Altar Assassins will spawn. On Wave 2, 4 Altar Assassins will spawn. On Wave 3, 6 Altar Assassins will spawn. On Wave 4, 8 Altar Assassins will spawn.

As play commences on the first wave, the ground spawns will all commence with their schedules and the air lanes will produce a set number of Altar Assassins each wave. Altar Assassins are a version of the Dark Assassin with a unique flair that are invulnerable to any attacks. Altar Assassins will hunt down and attack the hero, and will follow them the entire wave. They do not latch onto the hero, like Dark Assassins do. After they spawn, they follow their air lane to the crystal, and then seek out the hero the rest of the wave. If you come near one that just spawned, it will begin following you right away. They do not attack the crystal, so there is no need to try and stop them. They do not intentionally attack any defenses, however they will sometimes possibly attack a barricade on their path, so all you need to do is come near one and it will then chase you the rest of that wave. When attacking you, Altar Assassins can damage you along with what you are next to, so be mindful about standing on the crystal or next to a defense. They are covered in a dark skin flair while they are invulnerable, and they can be seen on the minimap as an air enemy. While you cannot damage then, you can still attack them and all crowd control effects will work. Slow, Stun, and Freeze can be applied and will have an effect. Defenses do not target these enemies, but Altar Assassins will be affected by any attack they are in the path of. This means that Tower based defenses are hard to hit them with, but Aura and AOE based ones are much easier to use against them. They move slow, and their attacks also push your hero slightly, moving them. You cannot pass under or jump through them. That can make getting around them a tad tricky at times, especially in large numbers that all follow you constantly throughout the wave. Be careful not to stand in a corner or next to a ledge when they find and attack you, as they can push you over the side or you can get trapped in a corner. To lead them away, just go stand anywhere else and wait for them to follow you.

The Locations of the stage mechanics - (Clockwise) I. Dark Realm Altar, II. North Assassin's Bell, III. Assassin's Potion Table & IV. South Assassin's Bell.

There are also stage mechanics that have been added to this incursion to assist you. On the East end of the map in the long horseshoe shaped hallway that the heroes first spawn in, there is the Assassin's Potion which is a table with a blue flask on it. You can interact with this flask to receive a blue potion debuff and gain invulnerability for 20 seconds. Dark Assassins can still attach to you, and you can still not jump through Altar Assassins, but you will take no damage from any enemy attacks. If you switch heroes or fall down a hole on the map, you will lose the debuff. Also found in the hallway on the North and South ends are a single bell (Known as Assassin's Bell) in both locations. Interact with the bell or attack it to ring it. Ringing the bell will stun all Altar Assassins on the stage for a few seconds. You can ring each bell once every 20 seconds.

First part of the ritual - Collect the Ritual Items (left) dropped by defeating Dark Prophets (right).

Next, place the Ritual Item at the Dark Realm Altar. Defeat Dark Prophets, collect the item, place again and repeat until the altar has 4 Ritual Items.

To stop and ultimately kill an Altar Assassin, you must first defeat one of the Dark Realm Statue miniboss at the Altar through a ritual to remove their invulnerability. As play commences on the first wave, the ground spawns will also intermittently produce Dark Prophets (an enlarged version of a Warboar, with light grey skin flair) on random lanes, but usually a different one each time cycling through the 4 ground lanes. A white exclamation mark will be shown above the area each will spawn from, but will vanish once it actually spawns, and no icon showing their location will exist after that apart from a regular enemy on the minimap. Once defeated, the Dark Prophets will drop a purple book on the ground called a Ritual Item. Be careful not to place or aim defenses too close to a spawn point so that when the Dark Prophets drops the Ritual Item, it falls outside of the spawn point and you can reach it. When you collect the Ritual Item by touching it, it will disappear and then show as a light grey debuff icon on your screen, and your hero will glow purple.

When ready, you may activate the ritual.

Once you have a Ritual Item debuff, give it to the altar by touching the coffin anywhere with your hero. The Ritual Item debuff has no timer, but if you switch heroes or die, it will be lost. You can only hold one Ritual Item debuff at a time. You must collect and bring 4 Ritual Items to the altar to activate the summoning Ritual. There is no time limit for getting all 4 Ritual Items, and they will remain there until all four are collected. The altar will display a message after each Ritual Item is given successfully, and you can also see them placed on each corner of the coffin as you progress. The game will announce when the Ritual can be used to summon the Dark Realm Statue ("Dark Realm Ritual is Ready"), which will be immediately after the 4th Ritual Item is placed. Once the 4th Ritual Item is placed, all other Ritual Items currently on the map or in the possession of a hero will disappear, although more may spawn after this event as Dark Prophets continue to spawn. To activate the Ritual, you must interact with the coffin. When you do this, you will call forward a single Dark Realm Statue miniboss that is located in place of one of the 4 pillars, with the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast pillars always activating in that order, with only one being summoned on each of the 4 waves. The Dark Realm Statue does not move from its location, but will attack you. The ritual only lasts 10 seconds. When the ritual is activated, the entire altar area is covered in a purple glow. If the Dark Realm Statue is not defeated during the ritual, it will vanish and any heroes inside the altar area will be killed instantly, no matter your defense or health level. You will then need to collect 4 more Ritual Items to summon it once again. If you summon it again, the Dark Realm Statue will have the same remaining health as when it disappeared.

The Phases of the Dark Realm Statue: Left - Dormant, Middle - Ritual Activated, Right - Destroyed. Defeat the statue when the ritual is active to render the Altar Assassins vulnerable.

When the Dark Realm Statue has been defeated, all of the Altar Assassins on the stage will lose their dark skin flair and they can then finally be damaged and killed. Each wave is over once all Altar Assassins on the map have been defeated. Defeated Dark Realm Statue pillars will be shown as broken in half afterwards. Once Wave 1 is over, repeat the whole process over again on each remaining wave.

Defenses disappears 35 seconds after placement.

The timer defenses disappears by starts from when the defense is placed, no matter what phase it is, so it is recommend to ready-up the stage as quickly as you can on each build phase. If you sell a defense before it disappears, you get the mana back. If the defense disappears due to the timer, you will not get any mana from it. You can still upgrade defenses if you choose to, but the mana may be better saved to build more towers with instead. The increased power and speed make it so that upgrading is not really necessary.

Dryad Trees do not ever disappear, so that all Dryad defenses can be used. This is the only defense that does not disappear. You can spam this blockade and build many of them in every lane as a way to block enemies. Abyss Lord defenses still have a 4 second lag from placement until activation, so these defenses may not be a good choice for this incursion. EV2 Reflect Beams fire constantly at a fixed rate, no matter what size the beam is, and the node only travels along the bottom of the beam. So if you use EV2, you don't have to worry about what size you make your nodes. Don't forget to defend the air lanes as well.

This incursion is one of the hardest ones to play solo. If you are not in a coordinated team, you may consider waiting to play this incursion until you have chaos 7 gear. Playing in a team of 4 has the best chance at success as 3 players can DPS support each of the three lanes, and one hero can be the designated builder. The supporting heroes should give all mana to the builder each round. Be mindful not to let the Subcore go down if you can, so that you are not facing 4 ground lanes then.

Malthius Incursion's stage mechanics locations.

Chaos six enemies add Hex Throwers to schedules. These units have very long range and target towers and barricades. It is best to try and kill them with traps, nodes, and auras before they get in range of anything they target. If you need to protect a defense against them, the best way is to use EV2's Reflect beam. Set one up in front of the defense you want to protect, with about one hero length away from it as the spears they throw penetrate the shield slightly and will hit your defense if it is placed too close. Dark Assassins also spawn, so be prepared to remove those as necessary.

What makes this incursion unique are the enemy healing marks placed on the map. There are red and purple auras that heal enemy units at a rate of 100% every 1 second. Each wave, the number of auras will increase in predesignated locations on the map. (See the pictures to the right and below for the locations.) On Wave 1, only 1 aura is present, on the north double lane right where the two upper staircases end. On Wave 2, 2 more auras are added (3 total) just outside each of the archways on either side of the doorway control crystals. On Wave 3, 2 more auras are added (5 total) part of the way down on both the West and East lanes. On Wave 4, 2 more auras are added (7 total) near the control crystals, at the bottom of each staircase. On Wave 5, no more additional auras are added. The auras heal the enemies, but do not cure ailments or statuses. They have no effect on the hero or your defenses.

Malthius the Learned

All normal minibosses may spawn, but typically just one spawns on Wave 3 from the "Gazebo Tower" spawn in the NW corner. Sniper Warbleed (large version of a Hex Thrower) also commonly spawns on Wave 5 from any lane. A miniboss named Malthius (large version of a Dark Mage) is present as an NPC in the center of the map, hovering above the skeleton spawn point, right where the two lanes merge. He does not do anything on Waves 1-4, but on Wave 5, he will drop down and become a miniboss about mid-way through the battle. Once he is killed, all Healing Marks dissapears. Also on Wave 5, 2 Ogres will spawn from the 2 lanes on either side of Malthius. The Orges will spawn first, and then Malthius drops soon after that. There are no air lanes for Waves 1 and 2, and then both air lanes are active for Waves 3-5.

What makes this incursion unique are the Death Marks that Maldonis summons throughout each wave, placed randomly on the map. Maldonis will do an animation, and then somewhere on the map, a small green area on the ground will light up, and that small area will then be a Death Mark for the rest of that wave. Death Marks cause hero damage over time when you stand upon them, similar to how poison or fire might damage you. They do not damage defenses or cores. The damage will cease as soon as you step outside of the mark area. The mark only does damage if you are standing on the ground, and does not affect those who are standing on elevated objects within the mark or those in the air above one. Maldonis continues to summon marks as long as play continues on each wave, and the frequency of the summons increases on each wave. On Wave 1 you may see 6 or more marks, and by Wave 5 you can see 18 or more. Marks can overlap, and do only minor damage. When marks are summoned, they are not visible on the minimap, but a white skull and crossbones icon will show on the screen for each one, as long it exists. All current marks on the map vanish at the end of each wave. On Wave 5, Maldonis summons a huge amount of Marks all at once, right before he descends as a miniboss, and no more Marks will spawn after that.

A stage mechanic has been added to this incursion so that you can remove Death Marks. In the Southeast part of the map, the Subcore is called the Holy Artifact. Touching the Subcore with your hero will gain you a sparkling golden glow debuff around your hero, known as the Holy Aura. The debuff will last 45 seconds, but no icon will show it on the screen apart from the cosmetic. To vanquish a Death Mark, have your hero walk anywhere on the ground inside a Death Mark while you have the Holy Aura, and it will then instantly disappear. You cannot do this from the air or on an elevated surface. You will not lose the debuff when you vanquish a mark, so you can eliminate as many Death Marks as you can touch in the 45 second time frame. If you swap heroes while you have the debuff or die, you will lose it. To get the debuff again, touch the Holy Artifact for another 45 second debuff. There is no requirement to remove any marks apart from the fact that it will make playing the stage easier.

All normal minibosses may spawn from any lane, and they spawn at a high rate on each wave. There is a Slekeleon miniboss named Trikk that spawns on the left side of Maldonis on Wave 3, then regenerates at the beginning of each subsequent wave, and has a unique purple flair. There is also a Orc miniboss named Treet (i.e. both are a Halloween theme, as in "Trikk" or "Treet") that spawns on Wave 4 to the right of Maldonis, and has a unique zombie skin flair. A new miniboss named Maldonis the Dark (large version of a Dark Mage) is present as an NPC in the North center of the map, in front of the Temple entrances. He does not attack as a miniboss on Waves 1-4, and on Wave 5 he will drop down and become a miniboss you must defeat mid-way through the wave. Sniper Warbleed (large version of a Hex Thrower) also commonly spawns on any wave, from any lane, and more than one lane at a time is possible. On Wave 5, you will often face 3 random miniboss spawns, Trikk regenerating, Maldonis the Dark, and possibly one or more Sniper Warbleeds.

What makes this incursion unique is that you are given a pool of 4 lives that all heroes on the map share. A Life Counter is shown in the center of the screen at all times so that you know how many lives you have left. If any hero dies during combat phase, that number will be reduced by one, for each death. Deaths on build phase or after the map is complete do not subtract from this total. If the last hero on the map dies during combat and the life counter is set to zero, you will fail the incursion. You begin Wave 1 with only 1500 Defense Units, whereas on Expedition you start with 2400. All normal minibosses may spawn. 1 will spawn on Wave 2, 2 on Waves 3 and 4, and 3 will spawn on Wave 5. The minibosses on Waves 2-4 all come from the Southeast and Southwest spawn points, and then on Wave 5 those two locations spawn again as well as the North spawn point will also spawn an additional normal miniboss along with the Bastille Master. No minibosses will come from the Central Southeast and Central Southwest spawn points. When you begin Wave 1 you will have infinite building time. However, once you begin combat phase on Wave 1, a timer begins with 1300 seconds (a little over 21 min) on it. This timer continuously counts down from that point forward, and includes all of the following build and combat phases until the stage is over. This stage only has 1 crystal to defend in the center of the map, close to where you spawn, as opposed to the expedition version that has 4 crystals.

This incursion also introduces a new miniboss, the Bastille Master. This is a unique miniboss to the game, and can spawn as a miniboss in other game modes. The Bastille Master appears as a NPC on the North end of the long bridge on Waves 1-4, and then on Wave 5 she disappears and then spawns from the North spawn point, usually along with another normal miniboss near the same time. What makes this miniboss unique is her ability to summon shield around her and any surrounding enemies that reflects all damage back to its source and instantly kill it. If one of your defenses attacks her while this shield is up, it will be lost. Same for your hero, if you attack any enemy with this shield active, you will lose a life. The shield is not affected by traps, auras or nodes though. The shield can still be activated while the Bastille Master is stunned.

The new enemies include the following. The Frost Goblin, which is a frost skin version of a Goblin who uses melee attacks up close. The Frost Goblin Bomber, which is a frost skin version of a Goblin Bomber, who uses bombs from range. The Frost Orc, which is a frost skin version of a Orc who emits a cold aura around them (similar to the Drakenlord ice shield) that slows any hero or defense it comes in contact with and the auras can stack. The Frost Mage, which is a frost skin version of a Dark Mage, who attacks towers from a distance, heals enemies, and summons regular skeletons. The Frost Drakin, a frost skin version of a Drakin, who fires frost balls from range. The Frost Goblin Bombs, Frost Mage attacks, and the Drakin Ice Balls can all be reflected by the Reflect Beam without becoming slowed. The new miniboss is the Yeti. He is the only miniboss that will spawn on this incursion on all waves. He throws snowballs that hit with a splash and chill anything in the area, and he will target all defenses. 1 will spawn on Wave 2. 2 will spawn on Wave 4. 3 will spawn on Wave 5. He will randomly spawn only from 3 lanes - the lane under the bridge, and the 2 lanes in the Southwest.

A new miniboss has been added - Capt. Dreadbones. He charges forward quickly once he spawns. All normal minibosses can spawn on this map, which can include Capt. Dreadbones as well. One miniboss will spawn from the Southeast corner on Waves 2 and 3, and then in addition another will spawn on Wave 4 from the central Southwest point (2 total), and on Wave 5 a third will spawn from the top drawbridge in the Southwest as well (3 total).

What makes this map unique is how Capt. Dreadbones spawns. At the beginning of Wave 1, Capt. Dreadbones will spawn randomly as a normal miniboss on the map from one of about 12 designated locations, see the below map (pic coming soon). This does not include any of the lane schedules and cannot be seen on the enemy list there. Once defeated, he will respawn after some time passes. He will continue to respawn as long as the wave continues. To end a wave, defeat all enemies on the map, which does not include the respawning version(s) of Capt. Dreadbones. When the last enemy is defeated, Capt. Dreadbones will vanish. Be aware that if Capt. Dreadbones also spawns from a scheduled lane as a miniboss (as shown on the enemy list for that lane), then that version of Capt. Dreadbones must be defeated as well to end the wave. The rate that Capt. Dreadbones respawns after being defeated will increase as the wave count increases. It is not necessary to defeat the respawning Capt. Dreadbones on any wave. You can even put up a barricade/tower in front of him, and just keep healing the defense, instead of fighting him. One respawn point is on the deck of the ship, right next to the main mast and right next to the main Crystals, so be ready to defend that possibility or he will quickly end the map. During each wave, right before Capt. Dreadbones spawns, a red "X" will show up on the ground (but not on the map or any screen icon) denoting that he is about to appear. That red "X" may still be on the ground at the end of a wave, but that does not mean that Capt. Dreadbones will respawn from that point in the next wave. No icon on the screen or minimap appears before he spawns, and when he does spawn his miniboss and screen icon will be visible as a normal miniboss would appear. Occasionally, Capt. Dreadbones can double spawn at once from the same location.

Chaos VII

Since this incursion is in Chaos 7 difficulty which features Kobolts, you'll need to spawn-camp with some aura-type defenses to deal with them. However, it is best to not use all Defense Units for spawn camping as you'll also need to allocate some defenses around the crystal core to defend it from enemies unleashed from Jester Boxes which are spawned from areas that spawn-camped defenses won't be able to reach.

It is also possible to use full-on turtle strategies around the crystal core but a good amount of crowd control effects will be required to mitigate the risk of Kobolts being agrroed to the core.

Jester Boxes

The first main gimmick of this incursion. There are 7 different spots that Jester Boxes can appear during the start of the combat phase. The first and second wave will always start with 3 boxes while the third wave have 4 boxes, 5 for fourth wave and 6 for fifth wave - if any of the boxes are destroyed, they will be replaced in the next combat phase. Jester Boxes are quite tanky but can be destroyed when enough damage is dealt to them. They will also be invulnerable during build phase but any damage sustained during the last combat phase will carry over to the next combat phase.

Being additional enemy spawn points, the enemies these boxes randomly spawns are between a roster of carnival variants of certain enemies and other common enemies too. Some are near-harmless and will be easy to deal with while others may require a certain degree of wariness. They are quite tanky but can be destroyed when enough damage is dealt to them.

Here's the list of enemy Squads Jester Boxes can spawn;

• Carnival Goblins and Carnival Bomb Goblins - These carnival goblins are bigger variants of their regular counterparts. However aside from size, there isn't any other notable differences.
• Pie Throwers - Javelin Throwers wielding pies instead of javelins. The pies applies Ogre's Snot Ball slow effect when a hero is struck by it.
• Elemental Mages (with regular Goblins and Bomb Goblins or Orcs) - Dark Mages imbued with an element. There are four variant of them (Fire Mage, Poison Mage, Frost Mage and Electric Mage). The most notable aspect of them are the mages sometimes applying crowd control effect on themselves and their enemy allies.
• Tiny (tier 1) Kobolds - These tiny kobolds spawns in squads and when all Jester Boxes spawns these, their numbers can be frightening. And since they are in tier 1 form, these kobolds can be quite fast too.
• Tiny (tier 3) Ogres - While these ogres may be small, it still might be a good idea to watch out and try not to trigger their stomp attacks when engaging them near the core.

Air lanes: Carnival Kobold Fliers

A side gimmick of this incursion feature all air lanes to only consist of Carnival Kobold Flier. This Kobold Fliers variant are quite the scarier version of their regular counterpart pretty much because they are extremely easier to be aggroed from further distance and these fliers are much faster in diving to their target too. Anti-air defenses will need to be placed in proper location and as well be strong enough to take these kobold fliers down before they get agrroed by the core or other defenses and start diving.

Wave 6

The second main gimmick of this incursion features a boss wave. Once all 5 waves has been cleared, the major miniboss called MR. SKWISH'N SMASH will be introduced, a giant clown ogre with a high health pool (about 269 Million HP for C7) that is spawned outside of the main stage which in quite a short distance from the core. All active Jester Boxes will despawn in this boss fight.

The main strategy is to delay the miniboss from getting to the core as much as possible with crowd control effects or blockades while your defenses or hero does the dps. This wave also spawns witherbeasts that drops large orange crystals that grant damage buffs to the hero (which could assist with taking down the giant ogre) and Carnival Kobold Fliers (which altogether makes about 13 enemies). Once Mr. SKWISH'N SMASH and all spawned enemies are defeated, you have won this incursion.