Blashyrkh

Behind Enemy Lines with a Pure Fire deck. No funky speed run tactics or anything else...just a casual run. At the end i forgot to destroy spawner A and B, so the finish is a bit delayed.

20211028_183012_11104_PvE_01p_BehindEnemyLines.pmv

New record for the insane god 4:16.3
Donaar and Gam3over

I have to giggle when this one comes to my mind - yeah great card too. It did not even get much attention from me as pve player (actually you @Blashyrkh brought it back to my mind, back then when we both started digging deeper into fire)

Ah those funny lovely fire cards.

Still hoping for Windhunter and our team to find more good solutions for Fire to make it a bit more consistent and overall playable, though ofc the last patch already helped.

Stylewise: Timeshifter Spirit, Ashbone Pyro and Giant Slayer
Playwise: Nomad, Ashbones and Cultist Master
Best card artwok overall: Bloodhealing

Hello Skylords, Skyladies and other Skybeings.
Welcome to the first official rPvE event!
We hope you will have a lot of fun with this event!


What kind of event will it be?

rPvE/Battlegrounds 4player - Map of the Month - Difficulty 9
Join us in an invasion against the bandit camps that endangers the human realm.
Be fast, be quick and do not forget the gold!
We are weakened and limited, gather together fellow skylords!
The old Amii structure can not help us in this conquest.

In order to defeat our enemies quickly, Volin will be happy to provide you with strategic advice.

When will it start?

We will be accepting entries starting 11.10.2021 00:00 CET.
The event will run for approximately 2 weeks, so you have time until the beginning of the last week of October.
To be specific: 25.10.2021 23:59 CET.
You can send your replays through DM to Volin on Discord (Volin#8101) or through a PM to him on the forum.

Stream, when?

We will stream the Event conclusion on Saturday, the 6th of November Sunday, the 7th of November 13:00 CET on the official Skylords channel via Twitch.

How can I participate?

You just have to send in your fastest replay, including the player names. [Note: Your entry has to be a victory]
For example: "Hiko, Majora, Volin, Toggy"

Please note: You are allowed to send in different replays, but only the fastest one will count. This means that if you compete with multiple teams, the one that reached the best time will also be your personal best time.

You can find your replays here: Documents=>Battleforge=>replays

What are the rules?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The team with the fastest time wins. Only mono color decks (colorless cards are allowed). Every team member has to play with a different color. Collect all gold chests. No Amii monument. Only Map of the Month. Have fun! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Sounds fun! What's the prize pool?

The following prize pool will be adjusted according to the amount of participants.
The prices are per person. If you compete with multiple teams, only your highest place will be rewarded:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st place               10 general Booster packs
2nd place              9 general Booster packs
3rd place               8 general Booster packs
4th place               7 general Booster packs
5th-8th place        6 general Booster packs
9th place               4 general Booster packs
10th place             3 general Booster pack
11th-12th place    2 general Booster pack
13th-15th place    1 general Booster pack

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In conclusion

This event focuses on your speed and teamwork on this rPvE map.

To summarize the event in simple steps:
Look for a team. You can either do this below this topic, on Discord or Ingame. Scout the map. Decide who plays which color and which position. Run the Map. Collect all gold chests. Satisfied? Send the replay to Volin! (Volin#8101 on Discord) or PM your best replay to him (in the forum).


Future events
If you are interested in helping with these kind of events for the community, or want to host one yourself, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
Send me a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (Minashigo Hiko#1126).
We are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring your prize pool!
We hope you have a lot of fun with this event. We are looking forward to seeing all your replays!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Skylords Reborn Team and Volin

Hello Skyfolks!
 
Even though not everyone plays it, 4 player rPvE lvl 9 battlegrounds is probably the most popular game mode in general. About time for a competition! The latest big balance patch, which has been around for a while now, made me realize I've never seen a rPvE match with 4 different colors. I'm curious to see your replays!
Since I can't participate in my own contest, of course, I'd be happy to spend some time with you, if you'd like. Let's see how I can help!
Replay analysis - strategic tips
Anyone who has played their first rPvE lvl10, or speedrun with me knows I am a patient teacher and will gladly share ALL my knowledge if you just ask for it.
And even if competitions are aimed at players above the average, we also know that there are (hopefully) many very good players who want to participate, but whose experience in speedrun is much smaller.
That's why I'm happy to offer my strategic support to any team that wants it. Deckbuilding, routes, interaction, little tricks - I'll be happy to take a look at your replays over the next few weeks and try to support you from the outside as much as possible.
My only condition: provide me with a replay and ask specific questions about it. If I see something obvious outside of the questions, I will of course mention it.
I just want to make sure that you make the same effort as I do and not have a lot of theoretical discussions in advance.
 
Team finding
Although I would not recommend you to take this service, I would like to offer it: If you are looking for a "fixed" group for this contest, but can't find any players ingame or on Discord, feel free to contact me - if there are enough players, I can help you to group up. If necessary, you can also register here as a group of 2 or 3 and I will help you find the last members.
However, I strongly recommend you to actively form your groups yourself via Discord or ingame, otherwise you will lose valuable time and players will hang in the queue until I have 4 requests together.
 
General tips
There are free voice chats in the official Skylords Reborn Discord - use them! I promise you, the top teams will be those, who had fast and good communication. Act as team. Ask yourselves constantly: What can I do for my companions? How could my team support me in my task? Teamwork and strategy are worth more than any good individual performance. Stick to the meta (as far as possible). Voidreturn is usually essential in Speedruns. This should (presumably) be your first priority, to which you subordinate EVERYTHING else. Do not hesitate to restart! Once the basic framework of a strategy is in place and a first time has been reached, it is often not worth finishing games where a lot has already gone wrong. Talk to each other and just restart the round! And please keep in mind that there are harder tasks and easier ones. It is not uncommon for the same player to ask for a restart over and over again. This may not be because your teammate is bad, but often because their task is difficult. Speedruns are often at the limit, otherwise they wouldn't be a speedrun, so things just go wrong sometimes. Think outside of the box!  
I wish all participants a lot of fun! And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
 
 

Glad you want to start a little series here. Pure Bandits is an underrated and underplayed deck in my eyes. The firepower is incredible! You just sometimes have problems keeping your units alive. You show how this can be done to near perfection in the replays. How well Unity (b) and Blood Healing harmonize, i had not thought to this extent. The parts when you have to kill the last base including the Command Walker Boss were impressive to see.
Well played Volin. Looking forward to more!

I improved my record for Insane God Solo- 8.30.4

New time for rPvE 10 1player 

New time for Treasure Fleet expert Dutchy: 14.49.00

Hello everyone,
I want to thank everyone for the feedback so far. I have been enjoying reading the discussions and seeing what everyone has to say. We as a team have decided to create individual forum threads for each map so we can focus the discussion. We will also be including a bit more information on our plans at that time, especially in relation to map rewards. I am hoping to get this done sometime this week but no promises as I just started up school again and a few other things internally have taken priority for me time-wise.  

Greetings Skylords!

It's been two weeks already since our last community update so it's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

A big thank you
We want to start this update with a big thank you to the community. When we posted our feedback survey two weeks ago, we expected maybe 100 of you would take time out of your day to give us some feedback. But you completely blew us away, with over 1150 responses so far!  We will close the survey this weekend, so if you still want to provide us with some feedback (and get a booster) make sure to do so before Monday. 
So far the survey has already provided helpful insights and feedback, and many kind comments. We are glad that overall you seem to be happy with the state of the game and the changes we are making. Everyone is working very hard on this game we all love, so we are glad you are here for the ride.
On a personal note, I am very grateful to be the community manager of such an awesome community. Every single one of you makes this game tick. Whether you are a casual PvE player, climbing the ranks of PvP, helping newer players out with some cards, finding new speedrun tactics, discussing balancing changes with us, or just enjoying the game; thank you for being part of our awesome community!
I would also like to thank everyone from the team who put hours upon hours into the project. It's an honor to work alongside you on making Skylords Reborn the best it could be. 
So thank you, all of you!
 
New Patch + Reveal Stream
Our newest patch has released! After months of balancing, testing, fixing bugs (some even from the days of EA that only now come to light) we have released our biggest balancing patch yet. To celebrate the occasion, we teamed up with Toggy for a reveal stream, where he went over the patch notes, played PvP games and gave away some boosters. You can rewatch the stream here.
This patch has a lot to love, including suggestions from the community that we got as feedback on our community updates or through our social media channels. Suggestions like adding a power well and monument to the forge for testing, or being able to look at lobbies while players are in a ranked queue; we are happy to work alongside you and make this game better. 
This patch also contains many requested balancing changes to cards. Ravenheart finally has its new design, and combining it with the changes to Jorne now allows players to play a viable legendary-themed deck. A lot of effort was put into making Pure Frost more rewarding to play, with many new tools focused on shields and freeze. Speaking of Freeze, the new Warlock allows interesting new fire/frost builds as well. We hope you will enjoy playing with these cards and experiment with new deckbuilds. 
You can read the full patch notes here. Alongside a 15 page document for the balancing changes, there have been so many changes that we decided to post the rest of the minor changes to the Wiki. Among those are description and class fixes, animation changes (for example Brannoc and Backlash) and all kinds of Quality of Life changes. A special thank you to our Skylord of Honour LEBOVIN for helping us with this patch and updating the wiki!
Two things that are notably missing from this patch are the upgrades to our free PvP decks (as mentioned here), and the changes to Avatar of Frost (as mentioned in our Deep Dive for Pure Frost). We expect the changes to the free PvP decks to be implemented in the coming weeks. Because of some unforeseen bugs, the Avatar of Frost changes did not make it into this patch, but we still intend to bring some changes to him. We will continue to work on this card and share our status on the balancing discord. 

Survey data
Here are a few fun insights and pie-charts (who doesn't like pie charts?) from the survey. We will spend the coming weeks going through all the data once we close the survey. 
• Did you play the original BattleForge from EA (2009 - 2013)?
• How long have you been playing Skylords Reborn?
• How do you feel about the economy of Skylords Reborn? 
• How do you feel about the odds of getting promo cards in Skylords Reborn?
• Are you aware that you can adjust the contents of the free PvP decks? For example, swapping a free card for a card in your own collection?
The following questions were regarding your opinion on new content
• Lore / Backstories
• New voice-lines / Sounds
• Adding voice lines to current units that lack them (for example, Amii Phantom, Dryad, Brannoc, etc.)
• New campaign maps 
• Adding pure factions for rPvE (for example, mono Fire as enemies)
• Defence rpve (defend against waves of enemies)
 
Community Updates will move to a 3-week schedule
For the past ~3 months we have been giving you an biweekly insight of the things going on behind the scenes with Skylords Reborn through these community updates. While the feedback has been very positive (thank you!) we feel it would be better for both our workflow and the quality of the community updates to move them to once every three weeks. Time zone differences between team members, fulltime jobs and us wanting to provide good quality content and updates, has resulted in some last minute stress spikes to get the updates done in time and have something worthwhile to share. We feel that by moving to a 3-week schedule, we can keep up the quality and content of these updates. In between updates you can of course always find us on our social media and in the game. Rest assured that our team will keep working just as hard on getting you new features, better balance, and the long awaited new cards!

Open Sourcing of New Sounds Converter
We are excited to announce that we have made great progress in decoding BattleForge's format for sound files. BattleForge uses a special format called "snr" to encode any sounds, and so far we were only been able to convert these sounds from snr to conventional formats like mp3 and wav. Our developers have built a converter from wav to snr, which will allow us to add new sounds or voice lines to the game!
Unfortunately, our converter is not yet perfect, and during conversion a lot of quality is lost, making them currently unfit to be used in the game.
We are open-sourcing this application in the hope that the community can help us solve this problem. We would appreciate contributions to help improve the conversion! Some additional info can be found in the application link above, and this old forum topic. 
 
New Team Members / Open Positions
Some team changes since the last community update. DutchyDutchy has been promoted to Global Moderator, and Madgadget has joined the team as a discord moderator. Their help is much appreciated, as Ultrakool and Bradley left the team as Global Moderators. We want to thank everyone for their contributions! 
We could definitely need some more help with the Skylords Reborn project however.
Below are two roles highlighted, but you can find more information, desired traits and all our open positions here. If you are unsure if you qualify, please reach out and have a talk!
 
Open Position - 3D tool developer
As a 3D tool developer you are responsible to solve one of our biggest technical challenges that will boost the project to the next level: the ability to modify existing 3D models. We already have an internal tool capable of adding new cards using existing re-textured models, but we have no way to meaningfully modify the geometry, animations and special effects. You will be responsible for researching the way BattleForge represents their 3D models and develop tools and a workflow capable of modifying different aspects of those models. The ultimate goal is to be able to add new models with animations and effects never seen before. There have already been very good community efforts and already a lot is known.

Open Position - Backend web developer
As a backend web developer you are responsible to maintain and extend the backend of our current and future web applications. The primary project you will contribute to is a feature rich platform which aims to provide various extensions and integrations for Skylords Reborn. As of now, this platform is for internal use only as the focus currently lies on creating internal moderation tools. However, after the moderation tools reach a satisfactory state, we plan to make this platform public and expand it with features like a new and improved cardbase, leaderboards, a system to download, manage and share your replays, and various other useful extensions. There is a lot of room to contribute in, as this platform is still in its early stages of development! 

We are also in need of French and Russian translators. If you speak this language in combination with good English language skills, please help us out!

In Conclusion
Thanks for reading! 
We will update you again on the 2nd of October! In the meantime, we would love to hear your opinion on the latest patch.
s always, we are open to feedback so please let us know!
Here is a scratch code you can redeem in-game for 100bfp: COMM-UNIT-YNEW-S011
The code is valid till October 2nd. Please note you can also get a booster by filling in our survey. 
Archive
Community Update #8
Community Update #9
Community Update #10

Hey all,
it's been a while since my last Deck so time for another one! Today we continue with a Stonekin variant that actually doesn't leave enough Stonekin to call itself that. However, since the army consists only of Stonekin units, I have always mentally added it here. I can't even say exactly why Gemeyes catch my eye so much and why I like this deck so much - I think it's just "sympathy" that I can't explain further.
Theme/Scope: Gemeyes! Getting out as much as possible, getting them as strong as possible

Playstyle: Micro <-> Macro
Budget: medium expensive
Addresses to any kind of player
Core Deck:
- Key Card is the Purple Gemeye! Ofc both can be taken if you like
- supported by the best of
- supported by the best of
- as we have no straight tanks, we want to have strong CC and strong sustain spells to keep our Army steamrolling
Important side note:

The Gemeyes show both a flat dp20 of 2750 dmg - this is the flat value of the spit attack leaving out the damage over time (DoT) effect. The real dmg of a purple Gemeye is much higher though you will sadly never have a situation where it can deal its full possible dmg.
T1/T2 - either or or (in the shown specific order)
It may seem strange, after I have made very free specifications in my decks, that I give here on the one hand 3 clear starting suggestions which appear however also very differently.
The reason for a Shadow or Frost start comes from the T1 Spells Motivate or Homesoil - both of which we can scale perfectly into T4 - therefore this recommendation.
The reason for the T2 is to further set priorities: Starting with allows for very early setting of Resource Boosters and is therefore a very strong one, as we can possibly get more Gemeyes out.
If you decide for a blue start, even if it is for reasons, it also makes sense in T2 and T3 to quickly get to to be able to set boosters faster. Especially on harder maps the double shadow spells help you of course to get to T4, to hold it and to go into further progress.
The  start variant is definitely inferior to the above mentioned in direct comparison - but I still like to list them, because a Stonekin start is in my opinion much more beginner-friendly and stronger than a blue/shadow start. You want to take it slow, maybe never played shadow before - then this is your start.
Please don't start this deck with green - it would be at least one wasted deck slot, more like two.
What do we take specifically:
For I would never go without my Forsaken as allrounder (superior to Nox Trooper), the Green Soul Splicer and a Motivate. Git up a few Forsaken, build a Soul Splicer before the T2 camp, drag the enemys in the Splicer and FOCUS them one by one. 6 Forsaken should do it with the exeption of hard Lost Souls starts.
For T2 the common options would be: Shadow Mages (+your Soul Splicer, Warp, Motivate), a Harvester or the best-in-slot solution Phoenix/Embalmers Shrine
For the meta-start would be Frost Mages and Master Archers + Homesoil and Ice Barrier.
T2 as imho not much strong options, Phoenix/Embalmers Shrine is prolly the way to go if you want serious strengh, else Stormsingers are not bad and some of the Lost T2 Units are playable too.
For the start please check my other stonekin guide:
T3/4 - completing to any row of
T3/4 spells you want to add are: Stone Shell Green, Frenetic (either or both), Infect and prolly a Warp, fill with dmg and healing as you feel need for them
Other stuff to add to the deck: Gemeyes, that's why we are here! Furnace of Flesh + Cultist Master for Void return. Ofc a Breeding Ground that wasn't mentioned before.
You maybe want to bring Rifle Cultist+ Offering for more fast Gemeyes, even mandatory if you play with Motivate.
Last but not least: If you face lost souls your Gemeyes get disabled (like any ranged unit) from the Lost Dragons - either bring a Yellow Mo for that, or make sure your CC hits those Dragons perfectly (last is more an expert solution)
Even if you decided for the inferior start, you have strong spell options at T3 which should always give an easy access to T4 (Thunderstorm/Stoneshell, Heals, Oink - all combined with a rock solid T1/2 army)
If you decide for a late green orb, T3 offers you Frenetic/Infect which should be even an easier access to T4.
If you are forced to defend T3 for a minute raise a Furnance of Flesh to get Void back faster on the waves that you defeat. Spawn Cultist Masters there as soon as you can - once your Void manipulation is up things get usually easier.
How to play T4 stage - "I have only a squishy ranged unit, how the hell do I proceed?"
Though it may be obvious for many veterans I want to describe a bit the playstyle as some Beginners may say: "I have only a squishy ranged unit, how the hell do I proceed?".
Spam Purple Gemeyes, you can splash in 1-2 Green ones in the Mix for some CC, but you want to have mainly purple ones as they deal the dmg. A super serious Gemeye Deck would perhaps even cut the green Gemeye completly - at least I do.
When you engage a camp the first spell is a CC, usually a Frenetic. Stone Shell your at least 4 Gemeyes, Infect the crowd and perhaps add a dmg spell for faster Infect procs.
Then you use either Motivate or the Homesoil/Ice Barrier combo for a really nice dmg output.
When you have Motivate/Offering/Rifle Cultist use that Combo as often as possible to max your army size.
Once you got out 4-6 Gemeyes you should snowball any rpve map.
 
Any struggling situations:
This deck is slower in the early match, beware to engange strong dmg bosses like Infester or Urzach before you have at least 4, better 5, gemeyes. (4 is the critical mass for a perfect Stone Shell buff, the fifth gives you even the security that you could loose one and you are still "safe").
Once you hit the 4-5-6 counter this deck gets more and more rolling and no boss or situation should be able to stop you.
Willzappers can be taken out from afar.
Bosses usually never have a chance against a Stone Shell protected army and so neither any camp has.
 
At this point I usually add replays, which I leave out this time for two reasons: First, I was simply too lazy and thought something "Nobody watches this anyway" (or only the usual suspects who actually know the shit but only enjoy the gameplay).
However, I have just seen that the replays were downloaded more often than thought  - next time I'll be happy to share some again.
The second reason to do without replays was clearly the upcoming update which is just around the corner and would break them anyway.
If you have feedback, suggestions, nice replays or storys about this deck, please feel free to post below!

As always, all information without guarantee and with strong personal preference.

See you in the Battlegrounds!
 
 
again partly Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Your concerns are valid. In general, these are all reasons that all types of CC should work on Viridya. I have seen so many people try to oink or root Viridya. It is just not intuitive at all what works and what doesn't. In the discord i wrote that taunting should not work on Viridya. But it was meant that after the time runs out Viridya can run again. The fact that Viridya stops forever when casting the ability is simply a bug for me.
But i think the most important thing is to create clarity about the CC issue in general. I think that would help everyone the most.

Made some self challenge to clear the 2nd base with pure decks from every starting position (!)
A lil trick which can help -> Sometimes we delay picking up the 2nd orb to have more time until the mini wave reaches our base
Pure Fire:
Bottom right is the easiest to clear with fire thanks to skyfire drakes, same as with Shadow Phoenix/ Mana wing so this replay is not added
Pure Frost:
Same as above, just with war eagles, so not added
Pure Nature:
Bottom left is already covered how to clear many times on this forum by Krumpli or the Speedrun Youtube so it is not added
Pure shadow:
Since Forsaken + Shadow Phoenixes is the most common strategy it is very much works the same so I do not made replicate replays
Please note these replays can be improved, mostly played with randoms so the outcome was never guaranteed
The purpose of these replays is to show the possibility of many ways to clear the 2nd bases (hardest part) , whatever deck you like to play
Hope it helps
 
 
Frost t1 bottom left .pmv pure fire bottom left.pmv Pure fire top left 2nd.pmv Pure fire top right.pmv Pure frost top left 2nd.pmv Pure frost top right 2nd.pmv Pure Nature bottom right.pmv Pure Nature top left.pmv Pure Nature top right.pmv

Blight Nature Solo
Since my efforts to do Guns of Lyr Nature Solo have failed (yet), time to do something else. Of course the usual hide-and-get-orb-back, but what I think is somewhat different from the usual approach is that I dont recapture the first base - cause thats so messy anyway. If you can take the T3 position with T1, you can do T4 with T2, right? And the the 5th orb comes really handy if you approach things that way.
One small detail thats not in the replay: Its not mandatory to delay the incoming wave spawn(s), if you kill them, the timing with the next wave is kinda unfortunate with recapturing your orb the 2nd time, but with so many windweavers its no problem to kill the wave and still reclaim the orb in time. I dont like spawn trapping so I make sure the strategy is valid even without, especially if you might lose the map or would have to restart if the trap fails.
If you try to reproduce this another note: the attack at the T4 position can get very, very messy. Its alright if you lose most of your units, as long as you can take the orb and spawn Swamp Drakes, then defending incoming waves from both sides with them becomes a priority for a while. You might lose some time, but as long as you get the orb you are doing it right. If the attack completly fails, also no problem to recover and retry, all you lose is time, never the whole map.

Blight Solo Pure Nature.pmv

Hello fellow skylords!
I often see people hating on pure decks for the expert maps, with this post I wanna share my love for fire
Soon I will upload at least one replay for every expert map with pure fire, some solo and some duo versions.
This replays contain casual gameplay, no optimized runs so there will be some fails, please dont hate me 
Special thanks to Keksmonsta and Kendrikson who will be my mates in most of the duo runs.
Have fun with the replays,
Anske
 
Edit: 1 and 2 player maps are completed!
 
1-Player-Maps:
2-Player-Maps:
4-Player-Maps:
 

That comes down to people not understanding HOW to break maps with that card.
There is a reason why Amii Monument is used for basically every single speedrun record except 2 and 4 player rPvE 10 and Siege of Hope
There is literally ways to abuse the card to allow for some insane strategy that speeds up the game by so much. The card is not only broken in solo play but allows you to play around a massive shortcut on all of those maps. And sure some are more obvious and insane than others - Soultree <-> Encounters with Twilight. On most of those maps Amii Monument is the card that even allows you to play that strategy: Convoy, Slavemaster, PtD, Nightmares Shard, Nightmares End, King of the Giants, Bad Harvest, Soultree, Oracle, Ocean, Insane God, Dwarven Riddle, Mo, Crusade Treasure Fleet, Behind Enemy Lines. Probably missed a couple as well.
In Nightmares Shard one player even gives up his last monument just so the other guy can use Amii Monument. Now tell me that doesn't change the way you play the game. Amii Monument is the single most used card across all speedrun strategies with maybe the exception of regrowth and that is because it is so often a massive shortcut if you know how to abuse it. Just because most players don't know how to abuse it, doesn't mean its not worth fixing. If there is a bug in your game but 99% of players dont know how to abuse it, doesn't mean you just leave it be. And Amii Monument basically is just that.
Otherwise we probably just leave all PvE cards as is and only balance PvP relevant cards.

it's not like we even argue Amii Monument is the only stupid card there is - because there is a couple more - just none to the insane level, that they literally change how you can play most maps.
LSS; Shadow Phoenix, Shrine of War, Furnace of Flesh + CM -the list goes on. This thread however was about Amii Monument.

More XP for the LVL 10 rpve map.
Also, if we win a 4 players rpve/campaign map at 2-3 players, we could gain the XP of empty slots.

Hey guys 😁,
Donaar here presenting you a fun and unusual run: Titans Expert Solo starting P2 (thanks to @Kapo for theorycrafting this challenge).
Soloing this map is quite challenging since the player has to clear the way for Rogan and free the 12 civilians before Jorne spawns (which happens 13 minutes into the game). As showcased in this replay (all credits to Pritstift and RadicalX), Titans Solo runs always start on P4, since the way for Rogan is "automatically cleared" in order to get T2, T3 and T4. Corsair's Assistance ability is then used to open the gates for the civilians - this step has to be performed carefully due to the 60s cooldown of said ability.
Starting on another position (P2 in my case) is a completely different story: you have to free the 12 civilians, go to the cave where Rogan & Jorne spawn, clear an enemy camp (in order to make Rogan move) and block Jorne with buildings, ALL in 13 minutes. Okok, i know, blocking Jorne is lame but it's the only way to keep Rogan alive (there's no way to clear all Rogan's path within the tight time tresholds we got).
I completed my run in 19.45 minutes (and the second part isn't fully optimized) - below you can find the replay. Here's the deck I used:

Nomad (G) + Mines: classic Fire T1 for PvE, nothing much to say here. Scythe Fiends + Undead Army: great combination to reach spots you're not supposed to reach. Burrower: great card for this run since it's fast, it's a melee unit (counters Mark of the Keepers) with Siege (useful to kill Living Towers & Spawners) and the Acid Spit ability is super useful against walls. Cultists Master + Furnace of Flesh: best void manipulation tool in the game. Mutating Frenzy: pretty good melee unit that is used both to clear Rogan's way (ranged units have an hard time given MotKs presence) and for oneshotting Brannoc by stacking its ability multiple times. Corsair: used to reach the bossfight arena without clearing the fire emitters. Here's important to note that the switch provides ground presence. Used in combination with Enlightenment Dreadnought: used to stack up Mutating Frenzies infinitely. Obviously spawned after an Enlightenment use. Makeshift Tower: used to defend your wells from the small waves (2 Thugs) that attack you. Useful mostly for its S-knockback ability. Tunnel: used for both teleporting units strategically and to block Jorne. Breeding Grounds, Surge of Light, Curse of Oink, Thunderstorm, Regrowth, Frenetic Assault (G), Soulshatter: some of the best offensive & support spells/buildings in the game. Nothing much to say here.  
Hope you enjoy this run as much as I do,
See you in the Forge,
Donaar
Titans Solo P2 19.45.pmv

New record on behind enemy lines

New Record on rPvE Map of the Month difficulty 9:  
7:32.8

Hey all,
as the last deck that I showed was more an super-expensive expert deck, let's speak about the most beloved beginner faction this time - Stonekin.
Prologue:
Even though I don't want to present simple solutions with fixed 20 cards, I have to split the Stonekin topic into 3 parts. There are always nice cards that you can not take because of the limited slots, or other cards that offer other options, but that would be just another deck. Stonekin is a great example.
So that the tension is not quite so unbearable, already the outlook for you:
1/3 will be a classic Stonekin deck with (any row), a macro deck, with a small budget and equally popular among beginners as well as suitable for them.
2/3 will be a bit more expensive and a bit more advanced, taking advantage of the -meta. The deck becomes (slightly) faster, significantly stronger, but in the same measure becomes more "vulnerable" and requires significantly more intervention from the player.
3/3 will follow with the next patch as I have some changes in view on the test server. Here we will focus on the freeze mechanics and build a nice strong, but even more micro-intensive deck. A great fun!
1/3 Classical Stonekin
Theme/Scope: classic Stonekin deck with (any row), prefering Stonekin-Faction over pure Faction where it makes sense, easy to play

Playstyle: Macro
Budget: low budget
Addresses to beginners

Core Deck: 
(as RPVE Decks mostly happen in T4, every RPVE Deck considering should be done from T4 downwards imo - just to explain my approach)
- Our scope sets Grinder as core unit as there are only 3 cards in this orb range. The other 2 cards have no value for us here, as they are about defense, a thing that we don't even consider for a second in Battlegrounds. Always forward, never backward.
- The Grinder is an incredibly good tank, but unfortunately does very little damage - we need a Damage Dealer (DD) and here Gemeye offers itself, more on this below
- Since we don't have good void manipulation ourselves, we rely more on armies than spells in all tiers. ("more" does not mean only)
- We use our nice crowd control (CC) spells that we have through all tiers
- We use large area buffs and heals for maximum efficiency with only a few interventions
- the 2 dmg Spells that we have speed up killing alot
 
T1: Either or
Basically, with any deck, keep the T1/T2/T3 as large as necessary and as small as possible
 
Nature Start - A classic, the most common start, and yet something to talk about, many do a lot "wrong" here
- Windweavers (WW), Surge of Light and Ensnaring Roots are usually set and enough for any rpve9. This is the gold standard.
- Dryad (B) is a great addition, but to me a waste slot as it is not needed. Shaman is a nice Quality of Life (QoL) addition but usually not needed either. If you want to take one of this two cards don't play too much. Usually build not more then 2 Dryads or 2-3 Shamans. For BG10 I would recommend Dryad (B), even more then a Shaman. If you play Dryad (B) I would recommend beginners to switch them to dmg (not using sleeping) it makes them easier to hold in line with your WW.
- Treespirits or Mana Wings are Rare, aren't they an option to Windweavers? Not a bit, WW are the superior nature allrounder. Mana Wings can be a rare solution against Lost Souls (if you play a MOTM where you know you face LS) as some of their strong units can't attack flying. But this is a too rare case to use Mana Wings as allrounder
- Melee Units or Amazon are simply no beginner options, please just trust me. Most melee T1 units lead to unintended pulls and Amazon is too weak for BG imo.
- Other T1 options that are worth mentioning: Mark of the Keeper as Upgrade for BG10, Hurricane is great against S- Units but usually not worth the short T1 stage (nice BG10 Upgrade), Fountain of Rebirth can be a nice addon in 4player groups, solo not worth the pick (BG10 and such... 🙂 )
In BG9 usually bring out 4-6 Windweavers, root smart and have one Surge of Light ready and T2 should be clear. Against LS play 6-8 WW, one of the rare cases where you want to pull enemys to you a bit out of the camp and clean beasts one by one. Fokus your fire a bit and your troops will do better.
 
Frost Start - the underestimated alternative, a shitload more damage but less sustain
- Frost Mages mixed with Masterarches in ratios between 1:1 and 1:2 supported by Homesoil/Ice Barrier can handle any BG9. If you choose to go for blue T1 then there is no way around Homesoil/Ice Barrier, use this combination the whole match until late T4 for your Gemeyes
- again melee tanks are no option in the scope of a beginner deck, though this is a valid option for more sustain melees usually do more harm then they give a benefit (aka unintended pulls)
- Nice BG10 addons can be: Glyph of Frost, one of the Wintertides, Lightblade (very micro intense), Frost Sorc (very micro intense)
Use your Homesoil (eventual Ice Barrier) to clear T2, ~6 Units deal insane dmg with that support, Barrier can be used to heal units too in some cases.
 
T2 either or - the opposite of the T1 choice
As we want to make a stonekin Deck, lets go Stonekin with our T2, where we get great options in our faction. As both colors come with some great splash cards at t2 too, we will focus on Stonekin and only go for "mandatory" splash cards, like the omnipresent Oink - never go out without your Oink! 🙂 Again we want to have a most lean T2, so pick at maximum 2 of the following considerable Units:
- Razorshard (G) is my hidden champion here on the paper he may look not that great (another S-Counter, you need to use ability, delayed damage), but he performs outstanding against most BG9 enemys, he gives your remaining T1 force a nice basic heal that gives a shitload of sustain
- Crystal Fiend (B) moooore sustain though is audio sucks - a really strong option, but beware that your army does not only consists of supporters and healers, a common "mistake"
- Stone Tempest a bit fiddly but a good M counter and providing nice CC via his knockback, though in some cases annoying
- Aggressor - ok'ish unit as L counter if needed, please consider that he is rather a supporter too then a damage dealer
From the Mono color units the following might be worth mentioning: Stormsinger (any) as strong air-counter or Burrower as swift sieger.
As most of the above mentioned are pure supporters or more-supporters keep some/all of your T1 force alive. Usually at T2 a Breeding Ground is not worth (building). After getting mix in - depending on the T3 situation - 0-4 of the above Units. All your T1 options are still viable and your army supported even with your T2 spells now should be fine to deal with anything and everything. The following spells are nice at T2:
- Oink, as said, never have a deck with a that goes without
- if you started Frost you still can consider to take a Surge of Light. Usually T1 spells are not worth a T2 slot, this is an exception
- Matter Mastery, expensive but strong and fun, can be used in combination with Homesoil if you started frost
- in rare cases: Gravity Surge (B) but Stormsinger would be prolly a better T2 choice for most uses here
- and finally the big question "to freeze or not to freeze" -> Coldsnap 
  It is a super strong tool in some rare cases but often used brainless, where it hurts more then it helps. I like to have it with me for seldom super hard T3 camps or to stop a frontline in late match when I am completly on my own. Always have in mind, that freezed enemys only take 50% dmg, which is a very significant penalty. Freeze is very strong against Lost Souls T3 camps, Coldsnap while running in and take out spawner + other buildings to weaken the Lost Vigils.
And please be very careful about freezing units for others, decks that have high burst damage or also rely on triggering their infects can be put in quite a hassle by a single freeze. As a rule of thumb, if you want to help your mates, buff or heal them, but unsolicited freezes are rarely welcome.
 
T3  (?)

Let's speak about void first.
Stonekin has two obvious options here, either Shrine of Memory () or Shrine of Martyrs () that both can be made available at T3, if we stay in the scope of Stonekin and mixed T2. I don't consider Shrine of Martyrs to be usefull in a deck that is not build around freezing, and even then it is doubtful. Shrine of Memory is very weak too, and I think leaving it out at all can be an option, but after hundreds of games with and hundreds without I have the weak feeling that the 2x 100 energy are just about worth the investment.
I find it very difficult to make an absolute statement here, but my cautious recommendation goes in the direction of SoMem, hence the choice of headline ""
As my Stonekin T1/2 units give usually give a very solid mix I tend not to take any T3 units for the usually quite short T3 stage - spells and my remaining force needs to do the job. If you want to take in a unit, it must be something really beneficial like taking in an XL unit like Deepcoil Worm or Deepfang. There are ofc other nice'ish units, but noting that really adds something that you couldn't do with your T1/T2.
You may now say "Hey, it's Stonekin, what about Rageflame/Stone Warrior" and you are right, those give an excellent combo. But still in this deck they would be aliens and not really solve any ugly T4 camp situations for which you would take them in now. I will have a close look on those two in part 3/3 of this "guide".
Spellwise T3 brings two mandatory ones for me, for this deck:
- Revenge
- Stone Shell (G)
Easy to use, both stack, and make your already strong force almost invincible.

Next "mandatory" pick: Thunderstorm - a perfect allrounder you want to have with you if you play a green splash. If there is a Shrine of War from your mates, use your Thunderstorm all the time either for waves (don't stop for them) or when you fight camps. Thunderstorm is as Curse of Oink - this card can't be wrong in most of your decks.
Other spells worth mentioning would be
- Equilibrium (G) if you feel need for more heal, here it is. Usually this should not be needed but can be a nice filler if you feel better with it
Neither Enlightenment nor Frost Shard would add something at T3, so they are not considerable for me.
And now comes the part where opinions differ: Support Buildings
- Wheels of Gifts are no option for me in this deck whereby I have to emphasize here "for me" just as much as the "no" option. Wheels bind 540 (405 with construction hut) energy that can't be invested in units. Solo even with taking muuuuch time it is hard to reach even the break even point where the wheels are useful. In groups ofc wheels pay out earlier, but are usually not really worth slowing down one player that strong.
The problem is compounded by the nature of the Stonekin faction, as individual units are not as strong here, but they become stronger when combined, having almost 2 units less on the field hurts me a lot there. Another reason for me to do without the wheels is that only one wheel buff is very profitable for ourselves, namely the attack buff.
On easy maps, a skilled Stonekin player doesn't even need a single heal, to buff this further with Wheels (partly it wouldn't even stack) would be absurd for me.
However, I also know my Battlegrounds so well that many factors are no longer random for me, but well predictable, that it is very difficult for me to fully take a beginner's perspective here. 20% is 20% more - and if you feel better to wait 1-2 min and take that 20%, then do it!
- Healing Gardens - a great buff! But still I rarely play them, as I consider most content well doable if all decks around are build well, it's a bit the same as for the wheels. But again, of course, if you feel the 300 energy for 2 HG is worth it, then play them (in a group). I would also prefer the HG over the Wheels.


  T4
We have 2 Units in our Faction at T4, as both work together well, why not build around them?
- Grinder is our tank, usually I would only want to have one slot for it and take one of either affinty. Honestly, the fewest will use the skill. But it's not completely useless, though, so give it a try. I therefore slightly prefer the purple. I think having 2 is recommended, the more the better ofc. Grinders benefit greatly from grouping, I would want to set up 2-3 straight up and have 4-5 towards the end, then they are actually almost immortal, especially if you buff them nicely.
- Both Gemeyes are great for me, I like to have them both. Usually I play 1 green, put out all my purples and play Grinders or further purple Gemeyes when the cooldown is off. I would recommend to charge the purple Gemeye for this deck sooner or later. Ofc the green can be cut if you have other preferences.
- always leave some energy left for 1-2 spells
Ofc other Units can support this mix, though I don't feel a need for it. Primeval Watcher for example could go as supporter, Giant Wyrm as super budget DD.
The two spells I recommend the most here are Regrowth and Ice Tornado. The former is mandatory in most unit based decks though I don't often feel the need to use it in a Stonekin Deck. The latter is a great damage spell and should be set in the back of most camps, while you fight the frontline. Also it is a nice support for bosses or just as helper to increase dmg on endless crossing fights. Tornado and Thunderstorm should be used all the time if a Shrine of War of a group member is running.
Maelstorm can be an option to get even more sustain, but hey, freezing, we had this topic - be smart when you freeze!
There are other cool spells in this color range, but none that I would consider for this deck
 
Any more options throughout the the tiers?
- Incredible Mo is important against LS, if you play random maps make sure there is one around or take yourself (Yellow buff to avoid anti-range debuff)
- Amii Mon for solo purpose ofc possible
- construction hut if you considered any of the Buff Buildings or Amii
- Frost Bite (P) does work on bosses, usually not worth the slot to me but hey it needs to be mentioned
 
Bosses you struggle with:
- Hellhound can be dangerous, avoid to face him with a too small army alone. Keep your buffs up, take out spawner via Tornado and perhaps focus the boss then
- fear very early Urzachs and Infester, keep your Gemeyes out of range but close enough for your Grinders to count for their passive heal
Any other dangerous situations for this deck:
- early bosses, especially when you are on your shitty SoMem. Know your deck and retreat if needed in time
- Ugly T4 situations end in quite a "zerg" - even t3 units do not change much about that
- usually not a deck I want to bring to BG10 random maps/groups as it is too slow for the given time frame
- Willzappers in early match, reason enough for me to justfy Matter Mastery (that is useless against Lost Souls)
Personally tested Deck proposals, as always from Spells over Units to Buildings
BG9 allrounder

BG10 Solo


Replays:

BG9_4pl_motm_Stonekin_noheals
The very easy current motm, I guess I did not even use a regrowth in that match, perhaps one lazy one in the end. If maps are that easy usually this deck cannot ever be beaten.

BG10_1pl_MOTM_Stonekin
Current super easy motm tempted me to do it with a stonekin - slow but steady, deck above.
I will add a replay of a close and ugly T4 situation (current motm 3/4 comes to my mind) the next days. This is noting you want to have with this deck, but still doable.
BG9_4pl_MOTM_Stonekin_close_t4_fight
As I have seen many people struggling with this Pos3/4 (I am sitting in 4 here) I was a bit afraid to play it with this deck. A very low rank, Deck lvl 7 sat next to me. He touched every next camp in advance to trigger useless further spawn and brought non-optimal units to the field - a perfect stress-test for our Stonekin deck.
And what shall I say, have a look yourself, we are super-clean t4 in ~8min. Far from being fast, but for this map and situation still rock-solid imo.
 
If you have feedback, suggestions, nice replays or storys about this deck, please feel free to post below!

As always, all information without guarantee and with strong personal preference.

See you in the Battlegrounds!
 
Thanks to https://www.deepl.com/translator for helping me with some partly translations
BG9_4pl_motm_Stonekin_noheals.pmv BG10_1pl_MOTM_Stonekin.pmv
BG9_4pl_MOTM_Stonekin_close_t4_fight.pmv

Thanks Metagross!

The order is Spells (used often), Units (used sometimes) and Buildings used 1-2 times. I would not buy/trade/get the cards from cheap to expensive but priorize them a bit from their importance

Please have in mind, that the deck as posted is heavy spell based and relies on the shrine of war. For the beginning add at least 1x T2 unit (perhaps Fire Stalkers, they are cheap and good), 1x T3 (perhaps Magma Hurlers) and 3-4x T4 Units as long as they have no charges. Here the Giant Wyrm could be a very good budget solution.
For battleground, for the beginning, fill with random units and spells you have available. Usually you do not use any towers or green "Root Network" things. For your shopping tour I would priorize "Mine" "Shrine of War" and the "Abomination" (blue) and in the second step I would priorize "Thunderstorm" and "Cluster Explosion" (red).
Twilight Pestilence gets "important" as soon as Abomination is added.
As always, all information without guarantee and with strong personal preference 🙂

This would deserve a sticky imo