H A L F - D E A D C A M P A I G N G U I D E BY URUNUS Table of Contents: +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= 1. Introduction 2. Tutorial 3. Preparations 4. Walkthrough 5. Miscellanous 6. Credits --------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction --------------------------------------------- Hey guys, this is my second faq in this website and I'm doing it on one of my favourite strategy games of all time, Heroes of Might and Magic IV. I personally like it because of the campaigns, which should be very obvious by now since this faq is on the Half-Dead campaign. I plan to do one on every campaign in this game, or just some of my favourite and harder ones. However, I won't make a complete walkthrough on them all in one whole faq as I like splitting things apart so that I'll be able to put as much info on them as possible. As for myself, I usually don't say much as my identity is secret since I'm a spy working for 390 gangsters.....just kidding. If you would like to ask me a question just tell me on the question board, but NOT my email as I rarely check and I really dislike getting hate mail. If you want to post this faq on some other website you know then just tell me first, but NOT without getting permission or else here are the consequenses: 1. You'll have to be my target practise when I play soccer. 2. You'll have to be my target practise when I play soccer everyday. 3. You'll have to be my target practise when I play soccer everyday for five hours straight. 4. Ask me why I do this over and over again and you might become Gauldoth's Former Master's Master's Master dirt chef(which, in case you don't know, is the psycho trying to destroy all living flesh in the world). This is NOT A threat, a punishment. That's about it for my introduction, have fun with the tutorial.... --------------------------------------------- 2. Tutorial --------------------------------------------- Ah, the tutorial. Heroes of Might and Magic IV is a little hard to get used to when you're just a beginner, so I suggest that you take the game's custom-made tutorial first. DON'T do the campaigns until you know how to do everything right and as well as tried out at least five intermediate scenarios. Campaigns also usually give you a set objective unlike about 65% of the scenarios so likely you won't have to become the strongest army and defeat all your opponents. That is especially good in this scenario as you will rarely become the strongest. Lets start off with the basics, shall we? First, the alignments. They are: Might, Nature, Chaos, Death, Order, and Life. It really depends on how you fight and as well as what kind of magic which you would like(or, even no magic at all). Might is a good beginners one, as it requires on pure strength and likely you won't get used to the magic until you know the strength in them first. Next, Nature. The best one there is, actually as Nature usually makes you invincible to enemies.....sort of like Death, since you can just keep on summoning enough creatures until either you run out of MP or until the enemy has been defeated. This means that, you can even go one-man on the enemy and still win. Nature also has two level four recruits if you use the Creature Portal, but you need lots of wood if you're thinking of playing that alignment. Chaos time. This alignment I really hate because the things cost too much, plus I'm not really into the evil side. But you should know that evil is usually the stronger one if you're not used to tactics, so it might make a good beginner alignment but its just the cost and also the annoying music when you enter the Asylum. Now lets talk about Death. This alignment is... well, really...evil? You really have to rely on magic if you want to make THIS alignment good, because the evil part of it is that you get to kill your enemies and then resurrect them as your allies! It also has lots of cursing magic, and no, I don't mean swear words, I mean that they put curses on your opponent such as mire, which makes them move slower on the world map. Other than that the only good things which you can get by playing Death is vampires and Bone Dragons as they're all undead which means they are immune to most spells, plus the vampire also have a very useful life sucking ability. Ah, Order. This alignment is my second favourite as you get LOADS of ranged units. Halflings, for example, are very useful if you have a lot of them. Next are Magi, who can cast a variety of spells. They can also lure your enemies out of their castles with poison, not to mention magic fist works well on the attack side. Gold Golems and Dwarves have very strong attack, defense, and magic resistance but they move slow. Genies are much better than Nagas-their Ice Bolt really rocks if you have a ton of them, not to mention create Illusions works well if you need a defense against your weaker units. Nagas, on the other hand, have a lot of HP and attack, but they probably won't get to the enemy in time to stop someone like genies. Finally, on to Titans. This guys really rock but not as much as they do in Heroes 3. Dragon Golems are a good new creature with their high movement, HP, and attack. As for the Order spells, the only good one is actually hypnotize which allows you to control most creatures ENTIRELY! Think about it, with an army of Hypnotizers then they can even defeat one other one no matter how powerful they are....unless you're up against 1200 Faeries Dragons or something. Finally, life. These guys are also very good on the ranged side, but that's pretty much just it. They don't ever seem overpowering, and champions are just very weak for a level 4 unit, too. They're magic is good, however. Divine Intervention cures an insane amount, while Guardian Angel can be useful when trying to protect a weaker, main attacking unit. Mass Bless and Regeneration works well, too. Overall a decent unit. For this walkthrough, however, you'll be using Death units so get used to Necromancy before we start... ------------------------------------------ 3. Preparations ------------------------------------------ Now I've never been a fan of Death, but it would still be nice to get used to it as this campaign is hard. First thing to note: you might want to try out nature as this campaign's main character starts off with that kind of magic, too. Since both of them has to do with summoning up creatures you'll usually start to go one-man Gauldoth once you get something like summon Venom Spawn. As for the Death units, you'll most likely not need skeletons or imps as they are probably the most worthless level one creatures. Cerberi would be a good start on level two creatures, but it is still only decent compared to the Gold Golems. Level Three creatures is when Death finally starts to become stronger....much in fact. Vampires are the strongest kind if you get a load of them-Venom Spawn are better for summoning. Vampires, however, can be raised through grandmaster Necromancy so it would be recommended to learn that right after grandmaster death magic. If you spent a lot of time getting them then you'll likely have 100+ vampires ready for battle at the end, and with all that blood- sucking they will likely become your strongest units. The choice between Bone Dragons or Devils, however, is a little hard. Both of them move fast-but Bone Dragons have better offensive stats so I usually pick them over Devils. It's just too bad you can't upgrade creatures in this game. (The next paragraph will be full of sarcasm) The final preparation is......fast reading. Yeah, seriously, if you want to know what's going on in this campaign you gotta read FAST, FURIOUS, FANTASTICALLY, and..... Faithfully. Otherwise, you've already lost the scenario as if you don't finish a dialogue in 3.5792468 seconds then you'll go into battle with thirty two thousand six hundred seventy six Black Dragons, upgraded style known as....... The Mighty AZURE dragon........2! --------------------------------------- 4. Walkthrough --------------------------------------- Good, its finally time to fire up the real game itself. Lets start with..... F I R S T S C E N A R I O: Eater of Children !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You start off with Gauldoth Half-Dead, a level 2 hero with, surprisingly, basic nature magic too. In usually one more level he will become a demonlogist which is bascally a hero with basic demonology and basic nature magic. First thing to do is to get some troops from the nearby dwellings and then split your party up. Have Gauldoth go alone collecting treasures while your main undead army fight through the dozens of berserkers awaiting right beside the might castle-but don't take it yet. After eliminating the berserkers have your party head down into the caves below, defeat the two vampires standing guard here, and go get about three vampires for Gauldoth. Then quickly attack the castle nearby. Once its yours you can start by building a City Hall if you could, otherwise just a caravan. That is required to get a Nomad Tent, which, in my opinion, is better than the Harpy Peak. Then, recruit a sizeably army, and head east to loot out the mines near. You can locate and finish off the orange player here. Then take over its castle, and use it for your income for now. Get about six vampires, then defeat the cyclops guarding the ferry leading over to green's side. Keep your might army in your two castles and recruit everyday so that your army will always be the stronger one and will not "provoke" the enemy to come over to your starting side. Alright, if you think you're strong enough then go and take over greens castle. It is a nature town so you most likely won't need it unless you want bad morale for your sprites and wolves and....you know. Once green has been eliminated head north, loot the various treasures, then head underground again. Make sure you have more than eight vampires by now, so go pass the border guard here and defeat every enemy except for the Bone Dragons along the way. Take the treasures here if you like, then continue north till you reach a blue keymaster tent. Visit it then head all the way back to your starting might castles and get all the troops you have. I usually get Behemoths since there is no nearby alchemist lab(I think) for the Thunderbird production. Then head underground to recruit up to as many vampires as possible, suggested 10+. Now head back to green's area and go east till you reach blue's area. All you need to do capture their castle named Vitross and you'll win this scenario, but it maybe a little hard if blue's strongest army awaits in there. Time recommended to be taken: 2 months, 3 weeks. S E C O N D S C E N A R I O: The Fiery Realm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Goody, this scenario starts you off with one vampire! Not like that's a lot, but it will do for the next several battles to capture the various mines here, then head west over to our first Death castle in this campaign! Capturing it should be a cinch with summon imp and your vampire.....which hopefully you haven't lost yet. Now go get yourself a City Hall first thing, then you can star exploring this area freely. I suggest hiring another hero to speed up your progess. Give Gauldoth the vampire and the rest of his army(as well as the ones which you recruited in your castle) to your new hero. Have Gauldoth head east again to finish up where he started while the other army head west to the mini-pond. Don't, however, fight the Bone Dragons at the portal, though. Instead explore around the perimeter of the pond, capturing every mine. Meet back at the castle at the end. Don't forget to build along the way! You should at least have a mansion by now so that you can get more of those goody vampires. Now, once you have enough, give all your army to Gauldoth and have him defeat the Bone Dragon guarding the portal. Meanwhile, go and build a Dragon Graveyard if you can-if you can't, wait till you get one. Then replenish your army and have your two heroes head through the portal. You might consider hiring a third one to patrol your castle just in case blue or green arrives. The portal will lead you to the south. Follow the path here down south and take over blue's stuff here. Now you'll probably find blue here again, so trap him in his castle and teach him a lesson. Once you have your second castle continue west to a Dragon Graveyard. North of there is yet your third Death castle. Take over it and supply your armies well. Next, go to the border here and give up eight bone dragons to pass and visit the green keymaster guard. From there on head east and finally you'll be in green's area. Hopefully blue has been defeated by now so that you won't get anymore of them messing around. Then find and take over green's lands and make sure that you claim some of their mines too. To the south of here is an angel's blade, exactly what you need to advance on. Now head back to your three death castles and recruit as many bone dragons as you can from them. I had 20+ at the end and also 40+ vampires. Also the Hand of Death Spell as well as sacrifice works well in the next battle. So, head east from your second castle which is surrounded by walls and here go past the border guard to the new portal here. Get ready....you are now advancing into the point of no return. Head through the various portals in this underground area here until you come to a yellow one which leads to orange. This guy has 1400 skeletons, 20 bone dragons, and 45 venom spawns. To defeat him just have your vampires go after the Venom Spawn while your Bone Dragons attack the enemy's. Your other troopers should attack their hero and then have everybody go ballistic onto the remaining skeletons. A tough but not unbeateble battle-make good use of the spell sacrifice here. After the battle head west and unlock the prison here to rescue...... good ol' Kalibarr! Time recommended to be taken: 4 months, 1 week. T H I R D S C E N A R I O: Points of Power !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This scenario is harder than the last two, so beware. Luckily, Gauldoth starts of with a castle so you don't need to capture one. Start off by building a Tavern, then a Mansion. There is a Point of Power(they look like tall towers with a shining crystal on top) right at the beginning of this scenario so go and defeat the creatures guarding it and activate it. One down.......four to go. Now head south and defeat the enemies along the way until you reach a Spawning Pit. Flag it, recruit some Venom Spawns, and now head west to take over the mines here. Also note that the purple player and the teal player starts off somewhere to the south of here....right beside your two starting garrisons so beware off them! Once you're done with the mines you can start the raid on your enemies by heading west first over to the purple player. They shouldn't show much of a challenge so take over their castles first, eliminate them, then their mines. There is also a point of power to the north of their area, so go there and activate it. Now head back to your starting castle and recruit! Hopefully you have Bone Dragons by now. Continueing south, you'll find the teal player. First weaken them then head straight south to their starting castle. Capture it, and then hunt down any remaining scouts. There should only be one hero of the teal player left: the one guarding the last Point of Power. First recruit, then head west to find a castle which you should capture(though most likely its teal's). There's a third point of power here, but watch out for the Devils guarding it! Now head back east and, continueing from teal's first castle which you captured, you'll find another point of power. Defeat the Bone Dragons guarding it and now activate the fourth point of power! The last one is located northeast of the fourth Point so head there, but note that the last and the strongest of the teal player lies here so make sure that you have a very strong army such as 50+ vampires, 30+ Venom Spawns, and up to 20 Bone Dragons. That should be enough, so go and defeat the teal player here, and activate the last Point of Power for a saddening dialogue(don't forget to read fast), but at least the scenario is over..... Time recommended to be taken: 3 months, 4 weeks. F O U R T H S C E N A R I O: Life and Death !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scenarios just keep on getting harder, don't they? Like the first and second scenario, you start off with no castle. The pathway leading TO your first castle, however, is also extremely well guarded. Hopefully Gauldoth has summon Ice Demon by now, so have him dismiss your weak starting army and now head west, defeating and claiming mines along the way. Your toughest battle, however, will be against about 4 Bone Dragons. Place Gauldoth in the back row and have him summon as many Ice Demons as possible(you should be able to summon up to 17+ by now) and have them do the job for you. Once that battle's over continue west until, finally, you arrive at your first castle. Now for the next part of this scenario things are going to get really hard. Continueing claiming mines and dwellings here, then build either a Dragon Graveyard or a Temple of the Damned, I personally find Devils better in this scenario because for some reason all the garrisons are guarded by them so you need a quick counterattack just in case they teleport to you right at the start off this battle; make sure you visit the Oracle of the Dawn beside your castle, too, to earn a quest. Put all your vampires and your devils in one army(which, of course, should be Gauldoth's) and have them attack the garrison to the west. Have your Devils attack their's first thing, then wait for the hundreds of Zombies and Mummies to come out, meanwhile just summon Ice Demon like crazy. Once you have enough of them then have them finish off the rest of the garrison's troops. Might be a hard battle, but with enough magic you should be able to win. Go back and recruit, then continue west of the garrison which you just captured and, here, go and take over teal's castle. Use it for your income, and, once you have enough money, substitute for any fallen low-level troops. Now to the south is another well-guarded garrison, this time with Devils and Venom Spawns, so beware. Just use the same Devil attack Devil strategy and the Summon Ice Demon thingy. Now go back to supply your troops again, then head back to your second captured Garrison. Here you'll find more mines as well as a castle to take over further to the south. Capture it, use it once again for substitute troop supplying(by now you should have enough income ready for a lot of buying), and now head east. A Black Dragon dwells here, guarding the Armor of Death. Defeat him, retrieve the artifact, then head back over to the oracle to get the Life Shield. Supply your troops again, head back to your third captured castle, and now go east to another garrison! This one should be really easy to capture if you have enough vampires and Devils. Just, once again, use the same old strategy. Continueing east, your fourth ready-to- be-captured castle. Take over it, loot out all the mines and treasures located here, then head northeast to some scores of Venom Spawn guarding the pathway leading underground. Defeat them. Head into the cave to find the last of teal's players. First defeat them and take over their fifth castle, which you should use to get your last set of troops. Now continue south and you'll find Malvich the Vampire, guarded by a red border I think. You should have already found the keymaster guard leading there, so ram into battle with Malvich. Your vampires are going to be the main offensive force for this battle, so make sure that you have a healthy supply of them. Otherwise, its just like any other last-battle-of-this-scenario battle which is just so common in this campaign for some reason....oh well. Time recommeded to be taken: 4 months, 2 weeks. S C E N A R I O F I V E: The Unholy Breath !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This scenario will likely be the shortest of them all mainly because of the four- month time limit. Luckily, that's what also makes it easy. You start off for the fourth time WITHOUT A CASTLE. Don't worry, though, with summon Venom Spawn, which you should definitely have by now, it ain't that hard. Start off by heading south until you reach a dead end; make sure that you take over all the mines around here. Heading northeast will lead you over to a portal that takes you to the upper ground. The city of Nekross lies here, but you can't excess to it.. yet. Claim the mines then take the portal here to go over to your first can-be- taken-over castle! It starts off already pretty well developed so building shouldn't be a problem. Now head north and defeat the neutrals along the way, Of course, don't forget to collect the treasures-you don't need to rush that much. As you near the ferry here, Suraze will join you. Have him be your scout for the rest of this scenario, give his army to Gauldoth. Now once you're done head back to your castle to recruit all your currently available troops, then enter the portal at the far end of this treasure-filled path where you found Suraze. This will take you back to the Plane of Death.....in other words the underground section of this map. Gauldoth's master Kalibarr will usually be found strolling here, so defeat him but note that he has summon Devil, which could really give you a headache when you think that you have the advantage of the battle. Have Gauldoth summon Venom Spawn first thing to quickly eliminate Kalibarr, then its all just vampire, devil, venom spawn, and bone dragon mayhem. By strategy, you should just be able to come out on the top. Now continue north and take over the castle which you couldn't have earlier, then take the portal here once again to be lead over to Nekross. All you have to do is to capture it, and, if you're lucky, then Kalibarr should be waiting inside. Congratulations! You have finished the Half-Dead campaign! Time recommended to be taken: Anytime as long as its under four months. ---------------------------------- 5. Miscellanous ---------------------------------- All that I can say about the miscellanous is...the story. And maybe a few left-out parts off the walkthrough, too. If I can find them, that is. *Major Spoilers* The story of this campaign is about a being named Gauldoth Half-Dead whose body was consumed in a fire during the Reckoning. He was later then brought up by a vampire who turned him after a spell gone wrong half-dead and half-alive. Gauldoth didn't really like being trapped in some ancient spooky crypt so his master Kalibarr rescued him, but later Gauldoth lost his prescence and had to live in the dark and dank woods eating worms everyday. A few years later, an angry mob chased him throughout the forest and later Gauldoth decided to raise an army strong enough to stop them. After that(the first scenario) he rescued Kalibarr from his underworld prison only to find that Kalibarr's master, a demented being from another world wants to eliminate all living flesh in the universe. It is up to Gauldoth now to stop Kalibarr, his own master, but along the way he finds a priest who teaches him the ways of good, and Gauldoth himself learns a few things about the universe. Challenges which you can do: 1. Defeat the Bone Dragons which guard valuable treasure in the first scenario. Difficulty: 4.3 2. Defeat the guard of the Kalibarr's prison with only recruited creatures from the creature dwellings found in "Hell." Difficulty: 9 3. Activate the Points of Power in an opposite order so that you'll be fighting the Bone Dragons first. Difficulty: 6.7 4. Do not capture any of the castles in the fourth scenario other than the first one. Difficulty: 7.4 5. Claim every mine dwelling, treasure, and defeat every single player before time runs out in the fifth scenario. Difficulty: 8.5 6. Read every dialogue in three seconds. Difficulty: 100 ---------------------------------- 6. Credits ---------------------------------- I will put very few credits regarding on the creation of this faq because I did it all by myself, believe it or not. I also revise the faq very carefully each time I make one so all my versions are final. -Gamefaqs.com if he puts this faq.... or was it Cjac however you spell that name..... -3DO, for making the best strategy series ever. -Me Yup, three credits are about it. ------- ! ! EEEE ---- !-! !-! ! ! E ! nd ! ! !---! EEEE !--- nd ! ! ! ! E ! nd !-! ! ! EEEE !---