Forums → Game Walkthroughs → Monsters Den The Book of Dread: walkthrough

Orcs/Greenskins:

In my opinion, orcs and greenskins are the second easiest race of monsters besides the undead to battle. This is probably due to the fact that you encounter them late in both campaigns (they are the second to last race you meet in The Den of Endless Evil). If the Orcs could be described with a certain trait, it is their multi-hit abilities. Almost all of the Orcs have some attack that can hit more than one target, or even hit one target twice. Thankfully, these attacks generally do not do a ton of damage. Healthwise, orc units are fairly strong, compared to the undead and the creatures. They have poor armor and resistance though, with the exception of the Troll, so make use of that. Poison is a very powerful tool against orcs.

Orc Berserker: 25% stun resistance, 60 quickness. Berserkers are the basic melee units you'll find. Its main skill is in being able to attack twice a turn. They may target two separate targets, or score two hits on the same target. In the former case, it should come as a relief that the berserker really does poor damage with only one hit. Two hits is sort of a threat, but it really isn't much. They have a medium amount of health for a Greenskin. Save 'em for last.
Orc Shaman: 25% stun resistance, 35 quickness. Orc Shamans are the support units for the orcs. They are by far the most aggressive healers in the game, and will consistently heal their allies. For this reason, they should be taken down to stop any health regeneration among your enemies. The shaman has a very poor offense. His Curse debuff will have a fifty percent chance of your cursed hero receiving some damage whenever they attack. Luckily, this damage is not especially significant. At its worst, it is an annoyance in larger battles. They also have a weak melee attack that they only use when their power has been depleted. Since Shamans are so agressive when it comes to healing, take them down first.
Orc Savage: 65% accuracy, 25% stun resistance, 65 quickness. Savages are the quickest unit as well as the primary ranged unit, but they are actually a really easy unit to defeat. Although they have the same health as a berserker, their ranged attack has a very poor 65% accuracy. The axe they throw though, to be fair, does a fair amount of damage. If you have a blinding weapon, using it on a savage is a pretty good way of tying them down while you go for more important units like Trolls or Shamans.
Troll: 80% accuracy, 25% stun resistance, 20 quickness. Trolls are the powerhouses of the orcs, and probably the most powerful monster of the game. They have a buttload of health, with some health regeneration to boot, as well as some very powerful attacks. Besides their main melee attack, their special skill is the Spear Lunge, which can hit two units in a row, similar to the Ranger's Pierce. As a result, they are highly dangerous, because the attacks they do are so powerful. Take advantage of their slow speed to inflict as much damage (and poison, if you can) as you can before they attack. High damage reflection heroes also work wonders in chipping down this menace's health. Trolls are one of the reasons why you MUST kill the Shaman ASAP. There is nothing worse than having a healed troll out on the loose, battering your heroes. Put these guys under the Shaman on your priority list.
Goblin Artificer: 25% stun resistance, 60 quickness. The Artificer is the other ranged unit, and more dangerous than the Savage in my opinion. Although his health is the lowest, along with the Shaman's, his attacks are more accurate and deal more splash damage than the Savage. Like the Berserker, the artificer can attack twice with his arrows, which isn't a significant amount of damage as long as both arrows have not been aimed at one target. His main skill is the Grenade, which works a lot like the Mage's Fireball. It deals more damage than his arrows, but it still isn't a substantial amount. Their splash damage can add up though, so their priority is between the Shaman/Troll and the Berserker.
Orc Champion: 10% damage reduction, 25% stun resistance, 45 quickness. As a melee-heavy race, the orcs have a barbarian-like unit in the form of the Champion. The Champion has a pretty good amount of health, speed, and damage, making him relatively dangerous. His main skill is a Protection spell, in which he will be the only unit you can damage directly, protecting all his comrades. This is often the first move he pulls in big battles. Quickly dispatch him if he uses this skill so that you can get on to eliminating everyone else. Champions aren't a massive threat if you have a good suit of armor on. I'd say target them with the same priority as Artificers.

Priority list:
1. Shamans
2. Trolls
3. Artificers/Champions
4. Savages/Berserkers

The Cult

The Cult, along with the Earthen Army, is the most resilient of the races. They have the most magic attacks, but that doesn't mean they don't have their fair share of tough melee attackers. Because of their magical nature, human members of the Cult have a higher power regeneration of 15 instead of 10. The Cult is also especially unusual in that it can summon Planar Identities with Neophytes and Acolytes, which can be a real pain to kill. As a result, your first priority should be to ALWAYS aim for these units first. They are quite weak and fall easily, so dispatch them before they can summon more units and outnumber you.

Guardian: 20% damage reduction, 45 quickness. The basic melee unit of the Cult. Their main skill is Impact, which can stun your units. They have a fair amount of health and armor, so it does take several hits to take them down. They deal a fair amount of damage as well. Although they're fairly strong, Acolytes and Neophytes are more important to take down first.
Protector: 20% damage reduction, 60 quickness. Protectors are the main ranged units, firing arrows. They are the same as Guardians when it comes to health and damage. Their main skill is Draining Shot, which also deals power damage in addition to hurting you. These can take their toll on you, but thankfully they can only do it a few times before their power is depleted. Although they are pretty powerful, take down Neophytes and Acolytes before these units.
Chosen: 20% stun resistance, 40 quickness. The Chosen is one of the most powerful units you will face. It is a dual warrior/spellcaster type, meaning that it can deal considerable damage. Not only that, but it also has armor, a powerful melee attack, and a ton of health. One of its most annoying skills is Sever, which stops all power regeneration on your team for 4 turns. The other skill it has is Impact, which can stun a hero at melee range. Take these guys down after the Acolytes and Neophytes.
Acolyte: 35 quickness. The Acolyte is the basic support unit of the Cult. He can summon Voidstalkers into empty squares like a conjuror, which can deal serious damage and blind you. Because of this, take down those Acolytes! Thankfully, they are weak and slow, so you should be able to kill them before they can summon. If they survive after summoning, they will do their main attack, Arcane Bolt, which is similar to your Mage or Conjuror's Magic Bolt. They can actually do a good amount of damage, so strike back.
Neophyte: 35 quickness. Neophytes never attack, they will always sacrifice themselves to summon an awesomely powerful Aetherguard. Because of this, you should kill them ASAP. Take down as many as you can before they can summon, because they are slow and very weak.
Voidstalker: 80 quickness. The Voidstalker is the fastest beast in the entire game. Although it has less health than Guardians and Protectors, it makes up for this with its slight physical damage resistance, ability to attack at range, and blinding attack (reduces accuracy by 30%). They have no real skills to speak of, fortunately. Truly a terrible beast to be up against. The best way to deal with them is to prevent their summon; kill the Acolyte before they can be summoned.
Aetherguard: 50 quickness. The Aetherguard is like the Greenskin's Troll, but faster. He has a ton of health and some resistance to physical damage. His melee attack also deals a pretty good amount of damage too. The best way to deal with them is to prevent their summoning by killing Neophytes, who sacrifice themselves to summon them.

Priority:

The Cult is a very strong race, so you need to have a good strategy for combating them. Here's my priority list:

1. Acolyte/Neophyte (In the event that you can't take them all down, I would go for the Acolyte, who can summon multiple times and damage you as well).
2. Voidstalkers (Their blinding and range attack abilities are supremely annoying)
3. Chosen/Aetherguard (Go for Chosen first. Aetherguard really doesn't have much skills.
4. Guardians/Protectors

I have always debated on what the 4 members of my team be. Thanks! I will try this party out.

idk where to put this, but i need help finding a tutorial monster basement

Great one, must of took you ages!

The Fall of Tellunos

The Fall of Tellunos is the survival mode for this game. Personally, I don't like it. Not only does it suffer from several bugs that prevent you from selling your items, there aren't any orbs or potions, and the items you are forced to buy are often very poor. Still, if you've beaten both campaigns, it is a pretty good way to test your skill. With a good team, you can basically go on indefinitely.

The first thing you have to consider is your team makeup and skills. The best advice I can offer for team selection is whatever you're comfortable with. I would recommend a Warrior, Cleric, Mage, and Ranger, but others of you may use Rogues or Barbarians instead. Skilled Conjurors may rejoice in the fact that their summoned units stay around forever until they are killed, so this is a good time to break out the Wargolems.

Your next task is to allocate Skill and Stat points. You start at level 10, so you get 9 skill points and 27 stat points to spend. Follow Steevo15's skill point guide for this step. You should spend points on what affects damage, healing, and health. This means endurance for all, strength for Warriors, Clerics, Barbarians, and Rogues, dexterity for Rangers and Rogues, and Intellect for Mages, Conjurors, Rangers, and Clerics.

Now as for skills, it is best to choose what you are most comfortable with. However, it is highly advisable that you have a move to buff your teammates, for example, the Warrior's Inspire, which raises everyone's damage by 20%, or the Mage's Flickering Flames, which will add 100% damage reflection to an ally. These buffs will be vital to your survival. Healing skills are an absolute MUST. Your cleric will be your most important hero in this mode.

When you buy supplies, be thrifty, but buy what is best. For weapons, whatever deals the most damage, or whatever gives a good stat bonus should do. For armor, focus on Runed, Soothing, and Reflective armor. You need a good power and health regeneration in order to survive. As long as you've kept a good eye on your finances, you should be able to fully outfit your crew, down to cloaks and rings. Still, to be on the safe side, buy weapons and armor first, then buy cloaks, rings, quivers, and censers.

Now you're ready for battle. Read my previous guide on combat for details on arrangement. Basically, put your heavy armored and melee units up front, and your ranged and less armored units behind. If you're playing conjuror though, your best bet is to have everyone except a warrior or other melee unit up front (not a cleric). This allows you to put your summoned units (preferably Wargolems) up front, ready to attack.

On your very first battle, take out all your enemies except for a single unit. Then, make sure you buff all your heroes. I strongly recommend Nature's Balm, Flickering Flames, and Inspire. Afterwards, you can dispatch the monster and move on. Towards the end of each wave, keep one monster alive so that you can take the time to heal all your heroes and keep them fresh for the next wave.

With these tactics, you can basically go on forever. The furthest I've gotten to is 15 waves, and that's only because I got bored and quit. See how far you can go! If you survive more than 20 rounds without quitting, I congratulate you.

There are a lot of tips in this thread, so I might as well try it out.

What has been working so far are twin rogues, cleric and mage in extreme/HC mode.

I find cosmic prison extremely useful because it allows for stun and 1 hit kills by the

rogues [1 with coup de grace, the other with sneak attack]. Load both rogues with as much

poison as possible. The downside is that it will take a bit of item farming for the mage to

have initiative above that of the rogues. Any speed above 70 is a waste since baddies rarely

go faster than that. The cleric is pure support with purify and holy light. It is worth the

point for smite+stun with a cleric, especially against lich.

The alternative team are rogue, ranger, cleric, mage. Same setup as above, just that the

ranger starts out with pin for the rogue to assassinate. It's also easier to raise the speed

of the ranger above that of the rogue [slow down the rogue with a shield] for the 1 hit

kills. Otherwise, the alternative team has 3 stun options instead of 2 with a slight drop in

killing power.

Deadliest baddie thus far? Dwarf x-bowmen with their AP arrows. 3 in the back row groups are

to avoided unless I am confident of stun/blinding the group before the volley from hell

comes. Otherwise, this group has the capacity of killing/crippling 1 party member each

combat round from concentrated fire [which is a downside to elusiveness- the mages and

clerics get slaughtered instead]. With that said, AP attacks+poison are extremely effective

against them. Another way is to force the group to waste a turn healing themselves after an

AOE attack.

Another kill first baddie- trolls. Thick on life, massive regen and a powerful piercing

attack that is best described as anti-mage. Thankfully, they are slow and massive poison

still works.

Things that can be 1 shot killed by team without coup de grace.

Wraith by a mage [use freeze since it is the only spell that does the most single enemy

damage] with just their staves. Smite also works.
Gargoyle from an AP hit by a rogue. All armour, not much meat.

Boss fight.

Each race has 2 types of end bosses. A warrior and the caster type.

Generally the warriors are pretty similar no matter what the race with heavy armour, life

regen and cleave. All can haste their party except for the cult. The deadliest is the Dragon

for massive AOE damage followed by Cult Sacred Icon because of the void cannon. The only way

to avoid dying in the first round is a high damage resist or invisibility. Thankfully, AP

hits do very well against all of them although it's tougher going with the sacred icon

because of their poison immunity.

All the spellcaster bosses save the monsters and orcs can force their front row to become

shields. The beholder can 1 hit kill with their disintegration beam. The most annoying boss

thus far is the orc spellcaster. Imagine 1 hit killing a troll only to have it resurrected

at the end of the round with full life and violent spear death.

I usually stun or weaken the orc group in the first round without killing anyone in order

for the leader to waste a turn and enough mana that he cannot resurrect any lost allies.

Corruptor fight.

Other than a heavy poison attack, the corruptor itself isn't much of a challenge.

Unfortunately, by cloning the team he is able to get full poison resist [unless that skill

is removed from the cleric] and a lot of poison damage. I usually mitigate this with

potions. Thankfully, the AI isn't smart enough to do 1 hit kills and that is a significant

advantage.

Dreadfather.

Poison bows by your rogues is the answer. Just keep hitting with envenomed weapon till he

quits on life [2k poison stacks are so much fun]. Also helps to have a high stun resist vs

the Fearsowers. I noticed that the Dreadfather can only force a retreat on the party if they

are below 1/3rd the life bar. Regenerating above that limit will keep the party in the

fight. Kill the Dreadfather first before starting on his minions but feel free to stun them

with cosmic prison or smite before that.

Legendaries.

Hydra. This one is pretty much a pushover if the rogues keep hitting with envenomed weapon

bows. Stun the heads to keep them from being too annoying.

Minotaur. Labyrinth can be nasty if it messes up the back row. Otherwise, good armour, heal

and a high regen rate can offset the massive weapon damage before the poison kicks in.

Medusa. Toughest of the legendaries. However, if her stun and massive poison damage can be

mitigated [I tend to use potions] then she is moderately easy to kill. As always, stack

poison on this beastie till she quits.

Exploit. There is another reason why I use 2 rogues. Any attack made while the rogue is

under cover will still do 200% damage, even if it is an attack of opportunity. Imagine 420%

damage by 1 rogue just after 2 rounds of combat, one by an attack of opportunity and the

other by a sneak attack out of hiding. Useful against bosses with poison immunity [there is

only 1- the Sacred icon]. Generally, a Sacred Icon dies in 3 combat rounds if I can pull

this off. The only boss that can survive an assault like this are the orcs with healing by

the shamans, unless the mage imprisons them first.

I've googled and looked thru some threads, but I came across something I haven't seen mentioned - a Special Encounter room on level 7, with "Gehl" the lurker. He says something about how we've done well for him, but mostly for our own profit. Then he gave 4 items (one junk, 3 rares).

Are there other special encounters like this? Is it random?

XMotorX:

Yes, there are special encounters, but they are random. The lurker has a tendency to appear on Greekskin maps, and he gives you some items if you've killed every enemy on that level. The other is a warrior (I don't remember his name) who is supposed to be wounded and asks you if you can join his party. He will only fight with your party for one battle, and then he expires. He's actually a pretty well rounded fighter, with a melee attack, a ranged attack, and First Aid, which heals.

Game_Burner: I'm not very skilled with the Rogue, but it looks like your setup is sound. I am better with the Warrior, but Rogue can actually be better, with equivalent damage but higher speed. Your monster tips are good as well.

I've noticed a trick.

If you use 4 rogues as a team, as soon as you equip all the rogues with hide, it is very hard to be defeated...

LOL. I suppose I'm more of a traditionalist. It is probably possible to go four of anything if you're skilled enough, even Conjuror, which I think is the hardest class to play as. Warriors are tough enough, but they have speed issues, so that would be hard. Clerics can heal each other, and that combined with heavy armor, strong maces, and Smite can even out the odds. Four rangers would be pretty tough, since they don't heal a lot, but they are fast and their bows could deal a fair amount of damage. Four mages would be really tough because of their survivability, but at least they have pretty good speed and damage. Four conjurors would have to be able to summon quickly. Four barbarians shouldn't be too hard. Four rogues would be the easiest, with their quickness and strong attack.

Rogue vs Warrior

Rogue pros:
Poison. Way overpowered skill. The fact they have a passive poison stack and a basic skill means that hitting big poison numbers is a scary reality. Great with bows because of it.

Double damage gain from str and dex from daggers.

AP attack hits through bosses and baddies with equal ease.

Insane combination attacks. Stun+Coup de grace for 1 hit kills. Hide+sneak attack for high damage gain. Hitting out of stealth [caused by warrior leadership or rogue opportunity strike] for even more damage.

Hide is a lifesaver. So is elusiveness.

Cons of rogue.
Cardboard armour. They must always hit first and hit hard otherwise it's death in a straight fight.

Elusiveness has a terrible side effect. The mages tend to get hammered by arrows just because they are the next valid target.

Heavily item dependent for combos to come into play.

Always make the party immune to poison when facing the Corruptor {if using rogues}. 1k poison+critical damage is not funny when used against the party.

Warrior pros.

Massive damage with adrenaline and inspire. Overwhelm has no accuracy penalty unlike other multi hit skills.

Tanking. Able to hit max damage resist with potions, armour and shield wall.

Independent 1 hit kill with crit. hit.

Cleave is a demonic skill.

Cons.

Crit. hit is flawed by high mana use [like ALL OF IT].

Slow poke. As good as overwhelm is, it needs some serious speed items or wearing tissue paper armour to be any good. Cleave is the skill of choice because of it.

Some bosses are just made to screw with a pure melee character. The hydra, minotaur and dreadfather do this pretty well. Bow use is pretty well crippled unless all the buffs are used. Difficult to pull off in the middle of a fight.

Other stuff noticed.

Can only blind the opposition to 10% accuracy. Having more blind skill is useless unless it is for bosses.

Damage reduction caps at 75%.

Blind, Critical and poison mechanics for multi-hit attacks. The effective percentage and poison damage is the the total number divided by the number of attacks. That's why I find the skill pretty much a waste. Eg. a multishot ranger with 52 poison damage does only 3 poison damage per arrow. And only for those that hit. I see the rationale though, all 12 hits having having 52 poison is just way overpowered.

Good reason just to concentrate on 1 hit 1 kill characters in this game.

i am only on lvl 11 but i have an ok way of doing it haha

Truly helpfull, i needed that because i do suck in the game:P Thnx.