Changes

<u>Playing Condition</u> - this stage is very similar to a Chaos 4 expedition of the same map, however a new Boss, enemy, and stage mechanic have been added. All air and ground lanes are the same as normal play. This incursion assigns two mutators to each lane from the common pool of mutators. All normal minibosses can spawn, and with separate mutators. Gnash the Flame Lance (large [[Berserker_Orc|Berserker]] miniboss) will often spawn at the beginning of any wave. This is a Boss stage fight against the Demon Lord. Each wave will spawn infinite enemies until a third of his health has been taken away. There are 3 waves, and the stage is won when the Demon Lord is defeatedon 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, that have a slight homing quality to them, 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.

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. Once you have the debuff, return to the area where your hero spawned when the map started, also 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 notice 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 into 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 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. 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 aiming 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.

<u>Special Weapon MOD</u> - '''Fist of Bones''', "Attacks fire piercing bones that deal XX.X% Hero Damage as Magical Damage. Bones can hit for XX times and reflect off of surfaces." Chaos 4 values [?-?%, ?-? times], Chaos 7 values [42.45-55.5%, 10-13 times]. The Lavamancer's primary melee attack pattern still plays out, along with the fire attack, but while doing his combo, these spinning cross shaped bones will shoot out, one at a time, in a linear horizontal path. The bones will pierce quite a lot of enemies and reflect off of most surfaces. Some surfaces are dead zones though, and will stop the bones from reflecting. The projectile will apply any crowd control or elemental values of the hero upon contact with the enemy. This attack pierces, but that does not include Chaos enemy's defenses such as [[Shield_Geode|Geode]] or [[Vanguard|Vanguard]] shields.

<u>Playing Condition</u> - this stage is similar to a Chaos 5 expedition of the same map, however a new miniboss, enemies, and stage mechanic have been added. This incursion uses no mutators. All ground lanes are the same as normal play, but with higher Dark Assassin spawn rates, along with periodic Dark Prophet spawns. All normal air lane enemies have been eliminated and have been replaced by Altar Assassins, who are initially invulnerable. Normal minibosses will also spawn in lanes with the [[Goblin_Siege_Roller|Goblin Siege Roller]] and Skarnash the Terrible (large version of a Dark Assassin) being the most common ones. 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. The stage has 4 waves, and each wave goes on enemies will spawn infinitely until all Altar Assassins on that wave have been defeatedthen.

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 do so withuse against them. They move slow, and their attacks also push your hero slightly and will move , 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.

To stop and ultimately kill a an Altar Assassin, you must first defeat one of the Dark Realm Statue miniboss at the Altar 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 [[Warboars|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. 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. 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. The incursion is won when all Altar Assassins on Wave 4 have been defeated.

<u>Playing Condition</u> - the schedules on this map will produce enemies similar to a Chaos 5 expedition of the same map. No mutators are applied to any lanes. All normal minibosses may spawn from any lane. On this map all defenses are built with zero build time, with increased attack and speed stats, but disappear from the map after 35 seconds. The timer 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. Dryad Trees do not ever disappear, so that all Dryad defenses can be used. This is the only defense that does not disappear. Abyss Lord defenses still have a 4 second lag from placement until activation. 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. 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. You will begin with 1200 mana, and the stage has 5 waves.

<u>Special Weapon MOD</u> - '''Storm Rider''', "Ride a cloud that changes your attacks to lightning dealing XXX% Ability Power as Storm Damage for XX seconds. Enemies under get drenched and are hit for XXX% of Ability Power as Storm Damage every 2 seconds." Chaos 5 values [132-190%, 15-15s, 264-?%], Chaos 7 values [172-230%, 15-15s, 344-460%]. This MOD deals both drench and Storm Attack, so it has the ability to stun enemies. It has no Secondary attack, but instead gives the hero the ability of flight. On the ground, the Primary attack is unaffected by the MOD. When the cloud is activated, the hero will raise up a small amount vertically, even after a double jump, which allows the hero to reach some hard to get to locations on maps. Your Primary attack while on the cloud changes to a stream of lightning that fires to where you aim it, and you can hold down the fire button for a continuous stream attack. The projectile will apply any crowd control or elemental values of the hero upon contact with the enemy. Your Secondary attack button while on the cloud ends your flight right away.

<u>Playing Condition</u> - the schedules on this map will produce enemies similar to a Chaos 5 expedition of the same map. The ground lanes are the same, except that one additional lane has been added as a [[Skeletons|skeleton]] spawn point in the north of the map under Malthius. There are no air lanes for Waves 1 and 2, and then both air lanes are active for Waves 3-5. No mutators are applied to any lanes. 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_Throwers|Hex Thrower]]) also commonly spawns on Wave 5 from any lane. A miniboss named Malthius (large version of a [[Dark_Mages|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, and you can actually jump on top of him. On Wave 5, he will drop down and become a miniboss about mid-way through the battle. Also on Wave 5, 2 [[Ogre|Ogres]] will spawn from the 2 lanes on either sideof Malthius. The Orges will spawn first, and then Malthius drops soon after that.

What makes this incursion unique are the enemy healing pads placed on the map. There are red auras placed on the map 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 picture below for the locations (pic coming soon). 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. This map has 2 different Special Weapons it unlocks and also have a chance to drop getting them both in the victory chest, and at the same time is possible.

<u>Playing Condition</u> - the schedules on this map will produce enemies similar to a Chaos 6 expedition of the same map. All air and ground lanes are the same. No mutators are applied to any lanes. All normal minibosses may spawn from any lane, and they spawn at a high rate on each wave. There is a [[Slekeleon|Slekeleons]] 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 [[Orcs|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_Mages|Dark Mage]]) is present as an NPC in the North center of the map, in front of the Temple entrances. He does not do anything 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_Throwers|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. Stage is won when all enemies on Wave 5 have been defeated.

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 airor on an elevated surface. You will not lose the debuff when you vanquish a mark, and 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 gameplay playing the stage easier for those playing.

The new enemies include the following. The Frost Goblin, which is a frost skin version of a [[Goblins_(Regular)|Goblin]] who uses melee attacks up close. The Frost Goblin Bomber, which is a frost skin version of a [[Goblins_(Bomb)|Goblin Bomber]], who uses bombs from range. The Frost Orc, which is a frost skin version of a [[Orcs|Orc]] who emits a cold aura around them (similar to the [[Drakenlord|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_Mages|Dark Mage]], who attacks towers from a distance, heals enemies, and summons regular [[Skeletons|skeletons]]. The Frost Drakin, a frost skin version of a [[Drakins|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|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 it hits 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.

<u>Special Weapon MOD</u> - '''Demonic Scythes''', "Secondary Attacks summon Demon Scythes that deal XXX.X% Ability Power as Magical Damage and pierce up to 5 targets. Charged Attacks deal XXX% Ability Power as Magical Damage and pierce up to 10 targets." Chaos 7 values [143.31-192.9%, 425.2-518%]. Primary Attacks are unaffected. The scythe is a cross shaped spinning projectile that shoots one at a time, straight forward at chest level. You can rapid fire the scythes by quickly pressing the secondary attack button. The charged version is bigger in size. The projectile will apply any crowd control or elemental values of the hero upon contact with the enemy. This attack pierces, but that does not include Chaos enemy's defenses such as [[Shield_Geode|Geode]] or [[Vanguard|Vanguard]] shields.