BOSS STAGE ELIMINATION GAME (closed)

[Ninja]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Sarelgaz’s Lair: 1 (-2) - Die.
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 10
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 10
The Sunken Citadel: 11
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 10
Beheader's Seat: 10
Duredhel Outskirts: 11 - @EpicPhantom999: I haven’t played this in a while, so I don’t remember all the details, but my setup sounds fairly similar to yours, with the exceptions of using more Arcane Archers and not necessarily “spamming” HEM (just using them a fair amount). It’s interesting that our experiences with Baj’Nimen are quite different. I’m not saying he’s a bad boss though; he still looks (and is) awesome.
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 10
Denas's Castle: 9 (+1) - Alright, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a flawed level in a flawed game. It’s much too easy. That being said, I really like the cinematic qualities of the level and the fact that it’s the first two-part level in the series (an idea I’ve been thinking about for a LONG time). The boss fight is also really cool, despite being quite unchallenging. The epicness of the Demon makes up for it. Vez’nan is also fun to manage throughout the level. On top of all that, it’s quite fun and replayable due to how you can do almost anything you want. I guess in that sense the easiness is both a blessing and a curse. All that being said, it’s not my favorite level or anything. I just don’t think it deserves to be at 8 already.
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Frozen Throne: 2
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

[Uranato]

Phantom's vote for today is still pending. If he misses it, I'll let him vote twice tomorrow since it was my fault this happened.

[EpicPhantom999]

No problem. I'm here. I was actually here earlier, but Ninja posted at the same time as me, so I had to redo my vote.
----------------------------
The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Sarelgaz’s Lair: 1 - Yeah, second to die should be good.
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11 (+1) - Pretty fun with the swarms of enemies coming at you. The path for those enemies are quite long though, so it wasn't very difficult, but the enemies were still quite cool and unique compared to some other ones (*cough*giant spiders*cough*). As for the boss, he takes a relatively short path but goes through the one way that allows him to be targeted by all your towers, thus getting melted instantly. He still has two abilities. Just giving this an upvote before moving to some of my favorites.
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 10
The Sunken Citadel: 11
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 10
Beheader's Seat: 10
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 10
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Frozen Throne: Die first.
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

[Uranato]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Sarelgaz’s Lair: 1 - Kill it, Ninja.
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11 - Unique robbers, sure. Not saying the stage was bad - it was pretty good.
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 10
The Sunken Citadel: 12 (+1) - The best stage ever.
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 10
Beheader's Seat: 10
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 8 (-2) Cool idea for the boss, but unfortunately it didn't feel epic enough. Sure, Jokull is big, but that was the only good thing here.
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

The Frozen Throne - Nice kill. Worst stage killed first!

I added a Graveyard section in the original post. First blood is Phantom's.

[EpicPhantom999]

JOKULL'S NEST IS LITERALLY AN ENDLESS MODE IN VENGEANCE WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR???

Nah, I can agree on that. The "endless mode" is boring and can go on forever by spamming instakills. The boss is just a rip-off of the Grootslang. Actually decently challenging for a Vengeance level, but it's just so boring and the boss fight is just a waste of time to be honest. I preferred Crystal Lake.

[Uranato]

Heheh, comparing Jokull's Nest to Crystal Lake. The two don't even come close.

As for Endless, IH should give us a real KRV Endless stage already IMO.

[Ninja]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Sarelgaz’s Lair: -1 (-2) -
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 10
The Sunken Citadel: 12
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 10
Beheader's Seat: 11 (+1) - Ogres/blood gnolls are probably my favorite enemy group after the Dark Army. To me, they have unique abilities and aesthetics. Bram is fairly easy, but he’s probably the coolest visual design for a boss IMO (maybe Baj’Nimen, Blackburn, or Bolgur take the cake). The blood crystals are a pretty cool stage specific element as well. Overall, this is just a well-designed, fun level.
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 8
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

[EpicPhantom999]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 10 - This stage was very epic, probably my next vote. The boss is arguably the hardest in the series (I'd say his only competition for me are Blackburn and Baj'nimen)
The Sunken Citadel: 12
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11 (+1) - The boss entrance was really cool, and the boss itself is cool too! I always like to kill bosses twice to show them who's the real boss. The stage was quite hard, too. I usually get 20 lives until I get distracted by the boss and leak a few Sons of Mactans on the left exit.
Beheader's Seat: 11 - Your favorite visual design? He's my least favorite, by a long shot!
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 6 (-2) - We yeeting out all the Winter levels. Rips off Grootslang badly, and the Crystal Lake also had better aesthetics overall, like enemies entering from the waterfall. Plus, you had a surprise entrance and exit... If Crystal Lake was in here it would be at about 15 by now.
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

[Uranato]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 11
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 11 (+1) - Agreed, most epic stage. I don't know about hardest (all KR bosses are pretty easy compared to the waves), but he was definitely the best one.
The Sunken Citadel: 12
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11 - This stage was pretty good too. Spider Goddess was really cool.
Beheader's Seat: 11 - Yeah, Bram is weird. Why doesn't he use an axe, for starters?
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 4 (-2) - Agreed. Jokull's Nest must die. Ha'Kraj was kinda decent though.
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 7

[Ninja]

Wow, I’m glad we did this elimination. We have very different opinions.

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 12 (+1) - Legendary stage. It has some of my favorite music and enemies. Lord Blackburn is epic and quite the challenge as he should be. It has a great layout too.
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 12
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11 - He’s one of my favorite visual designs mostly for the concept of a one-headed Ettin. Also, like I said I really appreciate the ogre aesthetic.
Duredhel Outskirts: 11
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 4
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 5 (-2) - Yeah, I pretty much agree on the early downvotes on this one. The boss is fairly unimpressive, and this update as a whole left a bit of a bad taste IMO. It epitomizes some of the issues with Vengeance: such as easy difficulty, unnecessary stage specific elements (and even detrimental to game balance), and overall blandness in many enemies (some are pretty much repeats of enemies in previous installments). After all of that, it sounds like I’m really hating on the stage, but I’m not. It’s a decent stage; I'm just highlighting some flaws.

[EpicPhantom999]

I remember in a boss elimination game 4 years ago (?) Ninja said he didn't find Umbra hard. I still don't understand that...

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 12
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 12
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 12 (+1)
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: 2 (-2) - Quick, kill it, Uranato!
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 5 - Fine, kill it after Jokull's Nest. I can't find a worse one, besides a few in Frontiers, but I have to maintain my truce with Uranato.

[Ninja]

I still stand by that. I don’t find Umbra challenging. It always baffles me to see people say he is. He is pretty cool though.

[Uranato]

I agree completely with Ninja. Not challenging at all, but the most interesting boss fight in Kingdom Rush history.

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 10
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 12
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 13 (+1) - I also want to point out the wonderful balance in this level. Nearly all towers have viable uses.
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 12
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Jokull's Nest: (-2) - A cool concept, but not implemented well enough to survive ...
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 5 - I'll maybe let it live a little more.

[EpicPhantom999]

I mainly find Umbra challenging because he causes me a lot of problems before his boss fight. Especially on Veteran, when he destroys your towers you must have loads of gold ready, so I usually stop upgrading around wave 12 or so. This makes me rely completely on my pre-set towers and my hero and reinforcement micro, which I screwed up many times. Around the boss wave, you don't really have anything to worry about unless you're out of gold, but since I have to save so much to prepare for the boss, I leak a few enemies. I'm also still not sure to this day how much exactly you need to save, so sometimes I end the level with 3,000 gold to spare. Maybe it's RNG, ,maybe I need to play it more...

BTW, Uranato, you forgot to remove my upvote for Duredhel.

[Uranato]

Fixed.

I usually start saving on the last wave (15th) itself, and I find selling all artillery and buying Archmages / Crossbow Forts in their place is useful. Saurians are walking gold bags; you shouldn't have problems saving gold. Also, 3000 is slightly overkill. I find it easy to manage at around 1500. For towers, when replacing destroyed trowers you should either 1) Buy a Fort with one level of Barrage (820 gold), or 2) Buy a plain Archmage without abilities (800 gold). Their solid DPS usually does the job.

I even recommend getting Brilliance (last Mage star upgrade, selling ALL towers (except one Barracks at each exit, of course) and getting plain Archmages in their place. That way you get a ton of DPS. Knights are fine, you don't need to get Assassins or Templars since you only have to block one or two Shreds of Darkness. The Shade Elementals die to Archmages really fast.

Edit: I just checked. Last wave gives you 3080 gold, so you don't really need to start saving from wave 12. Even if you want to overkill, saving from wave 14 will net you 5480 gold.

[Ninja]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 11 (+1) - This one needs a shoutout. It’s really fun and decently challenging. The layout is good, and the new enemies are all well-designed. The boss is alright; he’s certainly the weakest link here, but at least he looks pretty cool.
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 12
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 8
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 13
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 12
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Denas's Castle: 9
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 3 (-2) - I think this one’s got to be the next to go. I can’t think of a worse one. Fungal Forest is closest, but I think that’s clearly better.

[EpicPhantom999]

Saving from wave 14 doesn't really overkill...

I'm not saying he's the hardest, either. The two hardest for me were Blackburn and Baj'nimen, but Umbra does come next tier. Are you sure you're playing on Veteran? He's quite easy on casual, you barely need to save there. Even if you save, it's hard to leak enemies on that difficulty.

[Uranato]

I always play Veteran these days, and on top of that KRF Normal/Casual is too easy to be fun.

I usually start saving from Wave 15 (even on a new save) and face no problems fighting Umbra.

How is 5000 gold not overkill, when just 1500 is enough to beat him? Maybe you're getting the wrong towers/upgrades.

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 11 - Agreed. Easy but fun level. Really fun, and the boss atleast has a cool giant boar as a mount, and decent flavor text
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 12
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 9 (+1) - Shoutout here. It was a befitting end to the great Savage campaign, and Quincon, albeit easy, was really cool and fun to fight. The Indiana Jones reference on the top right was great too.
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 13
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 12
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Denas's Castle: 7 (-2) - Really cool concept like Jokull's Nest, but again, the implementation didn't work well. I probably won't attack this much.
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 3

[Ninja]

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 11
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 13 (+1)
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 9
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 13
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 12
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Denas's Castle: 7 - Fair, I guess.
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: 1 (-2)

[EpicPhantom999]

How is 5000 gold not overkill, when just 1500 is enough to beat him?

I did say on the discord that I messed up, the boss fight was less difficult than I remembered, and that I tested it saving about 4000 it it was alright. I even scraped through with 200 G when he destroyed less relevent towers. When he destroys my 2 Necromancer towers plus some Mechas, it doesn't work very well with 1500 and the Shade Elementals sneak through. I find the Umbra wave more difficult than the previous Saurian waves, so I save earlier on the Saurian waves to prepare for worst case scenario against Umbra. Although, saving too early as I previously did (saving from wave 12 is wayyyy overkill after I tested it) does result in leaking just enough enemies enemies to not get 3 stars.

The Citadel: 12
Stormcloud Temple: 8
The Dark Tower: 11
Ruins of Acaroth: 11
Rotten Forest: 11
Fungal Forest: 8
Bandit's Lair: 11
Ha'Kraj Plateau: 10
Pandaemonium: 11
Castle Blackburn: 13
Nazeru's Gates: 10
Temple of Saqra: 9
Emberspike Depths: 11
The Sunken Citadel: 13
Dusk Chateau: 11
Darklight Depths: 11
Gryphon Point: 8
The Unseelie Court: 10
Shrine of Elynie: 11
Beheader's Seat: 11
Duredhel Outskirts: 13 (+1)
Tainted Pit: 8
Bulgur’s Throne: 11
Denas's Castle: 7
Pond of the Sage: 11
The Ancient Ghosts: (-2)