# Delves: Strategies, tactics and tips
**URL:** https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522
**Category:** Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
**Created:** [September 8, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522 "2018-09-08T20:01:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 112
### Author:  [@Dust\_Angel](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Dust_Angel)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2253 "2021-05-20T13:19:10Z")
That’s Sea of Sorrow, not Sunken Fleet, mate.
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### Author:  [@Magnusimus](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Magnusimus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2254 "2021-05-20T14:41:40Z")
You’re totally right, my bad 😅
But if you see @TheFarmer , my Hoard Stats were at least (about) right! Just forgot that the “luck” portion of my post _should_ have said “hope for a free deathmark kill, hope for the board to be in your favor for initial mana and skull match-ups, hope the enemy doesn’t get the same” 😂
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2255 "2021-05-20T20:20:46Z")
Anyone have a good dark pits pure faction team? I’ll be doing it next Tuesday.
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### Author:  [@Magnusimus](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Magnusimus)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2256 "2021-05-20T21:54:46Z")
If with Potions then it won’f matter too much, but I got it done with the legendary up front for skull reduction, Rattigar, and then two Hex rats.
I tried it with rattigar and a hex rat up top, for the cursing on skulls, but it was too fragile, I found.
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2257 "2021-05-20T22:55:06Z")
Good tip. I did a few runs today potionless to get the feel. I need something better lol
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### Author:  [@Kezef](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Kezef)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2258 "2021-05-21T01:51:03Z")
> [@Grundulum](#):
>
> I’ve seen several people on the forum post about hoard level 297. Why would one stop there, rather than continuing to hoard level 298 for the extra magic?
I can’t speak for anybody else. But for me?
When I’m working on a delve with a faction team at Level 500, I pump a handful of treasures into the hoard every day. Usually the low-end stuff, but I try and grow the hoard by a level a day, maybe a few levels with the higher-rarity treasures once a week or so. I know it’s not the “optimal” way to do things, nor is it particularly cost effective, but it works for me and feeding a hoard is part of my morning routine.
And I don’t stop growing the hoard until one of two things happens. Either I defeat the delve with the faction team and no longer have a reason to pump stuff into it. Or I reach that subjective point where I make the determination that my failures aren’t a stat-based thing but a “luck” thing – i.e., losing to sky-falling skulls – or a “strategy” thing. And if it’s the latter, I pause adding to the hoard until I determine if my new approach is viable.
My hoard in The Warrens is at 297 because that’s where it was when I finally beat the blasted thing. I had a small number of previous attempts at lower numbers make it to the boss room and two of them even get to a “next skull hit wins” situation before failing, but never regularly enough for me to stop feeding it.
My hoard in City of Thieves is at 295 for the similar reasons. I kept feeding it because it was too necessary (in my opinion) to have raw stats on my side even if I got a room configuration I could work with.
My hoard in Werewoods is at 265, again for similar reasons.
In the delves I’ve completed with a faction team, most of them are in the 150-200 range.
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### Author:  [@MadDwarf](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/MadDwarf)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2259 "2021-05-24T23:04:05Z")
Hell Gate saga continues. I don’t know if I’m quite ready to call Hell Gate the worst delve, but it’s definitely in the running.
Bonestorm in first and last room with zero skull damage mitigation or healing is brutal. Currently at 331 True Hoard and it’s by no means a guarantee that I’m going to make it out of the first room with all 4 troops. Easy access to Death Mark should put this delve in the category of Silver Metropolis, where all you need is that one lucky run, but with so many potential lucky runs are cut short by skulls, it could take forever for the planets to align. No, I haven’t forgotten that half of the boss room is immune to Death Mark, I just haven’t gotten to the point where that’s the thing stopping me.
My best guess is that this one’s going to need bumped to 265 (397 TH) but that could still be overly optimistic.
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2260 "2021-05-29T15:28:12Z")
Does anyone have a good were woods pure faction team?
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### Author:  [@Magnusimus](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Magnusimus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2261 "2021-05-29T17:07:41Z")
Werebird / Werebird / Werecat / Torbern
It’s a pain in the rear, though — definitely one of the hardest, and even with this team’s basic strategy being “only cast _really_ opportunistically, and try to win by skull-bashing instead” you’ll still likely be screwed over by RNG.
Lycanthropy might actually be your friend for this one, though, because you can (perhaps) get the opponent into forms that can’t transform, cleanse, and heal as often 🤷♂️
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2262 "2021-05-29T18:58:39Z")
Thank you my friend
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### Author:  [@Magnusimus](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Magnusimus)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2263 "2021-06-02T12:22:46Z")
Conjecture confirmed!
> [@Dare I say...I like Lycanthropy](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/dare-i-say-i-like-lycanthropy/70189/51):
>
> I was not a fan of lycanthropy until tonight. it’s late here, finally made it to level 500 in today’s delve event in werewoods. 2nd battle, my first troop gets transformed by lycanthropy into p4-nth4, who autokills troops with high armour. its mana matched my +2 red, +2green banner, and tore a bloody path to the end room where with the luck of some 4+ matches beat it in 3 turns! three cheers for luckanthropy! laughing laughing laughing
(With the caveat being that this person, it being a Tuesday, was likely using potions anyway…)
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2264 "2021-06-02T14:00:18Z")
Anyone have a mirror halls pure faction team?
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### Author:  [@TheFarmer](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/TheFarmer)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2265 "2021-06-02T14:07:17Z")
You only need to have a good troop in the middle room to copy with Doppelganger. It’s easy to do without potions with a good copied troop.
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### Author:  [@Kezef](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Kezef)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2266 "2021-06-02T14:27:16Z")
Easy… but time-consuming. Or so says the guy who beat the thing potion-less thanks to the Dwarven Gate. (1 hour, 15 minutes or so in the Boss room with the darned thing and a Mirror Queen as his primary damage dealer.)
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### Author:  [@Magnusimus](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Magnusimus)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2267 "2021-06-02T20:19:52Z")
> [@Delves: Strategies, tactics and tips](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/1519):
>
> I don’t know if this has been confirmed elsewhere or if it will help anyone, but I beat Pure Faction Mirrored Halls with very minimal effort. Definitely on my list of factions to recommend to players just looking to max one with minimal investment—all this faction takes is time and patience in my experience, but victory is assured if you don’t quit the match. The basic strategy is: Copycat Mirror Queen Copycat Mirror Queen Maintain that order with your own summons, sacrifice anyone you see…
Most people seem to like using Doppelgänger, but on two separate accounts without Kingdom Level boosts or a Hoard leveled past 100 (so True Hoard of 100, right?) I beat it just by spamming Copycats and Mirrored Queens.
I like it because this way you can avoid having your badass copied troop be copied and make the enemy harder, and/or avoid killing yourself on their reflects if your strategy involves an attack booster like Fenrir.
The trick is just attrition, and smart replacing of yourself, and patience.
If you lose your queens just quit — you need the reflect. If you lose copycats, you can get them back, so don’t despair.
Eliminate their sources of reflect first, and as soon as you’ve done that, you’ve won. Because all that’s left is to slog your way through ever-weakening copycats 😂
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### Author:  [@Sytro](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Sytro)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2021, 7:23am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2268 "2021-06-08T07:23:51Z")
> [@Magnusimus](#):
>
> Most people seem to like using Doppelgänger,
I went with Doppelganger strat and 1st thing i’ve got in middle was Gluttony room… rest was just “munch munch munch”
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### Author:  [@Santandrix](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Santandrix)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2269 "2021-06-08T21:20:01Z")
Epic win for me copying venoxia. Pulled it off potionless hoard 140 and kingdom 15. It was crazy. I was able to cast venoxia enough to get them all dead but venoxia. He cast once and got everyone but copy cat and mirror queen. He only had 180 health. I knocked him down with mirror queen to 20 health. He cast and killed my last 2 troops. He died from reflect. And the verdict was?
VICTORY!!!
I have never won with no troops on the board. Insane.
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### Author:  [@Dust\_Angel](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Dust_Angel)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2270 "2021-06-09T03:36:14Z")
I had it happen once in Warrens. In the penultimate room their last troop died from reflect while skull-killing my last troop and it counted as victory; couldn’t enter boss room, though, because the game kept insisting I must select at least one troop to take into battle or something along those lines.
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### Author:  [@xolid99](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/xolid99)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2271 "2021-06-23T11:36:49Z")
**The effect of Lycantrophy on potionless delves.**
As you know from reading this thread I have been trying all factions potionless and have had them all a few times. I have yet to resume on Hellgate, and I’m in no rush. In fact I am at the point in the game where attempting it is pointless, as I did it with potions anyway. My logic is bar the actual thought that I have done them all, there’s nothing to gain. I think Hellgate will need 300 hoard or 75% faction stats, neither are something I want to do. The low drop rate of decent treasures puts me off as well.
So, the point of this post is that I wanted to share my experience of Lycantrophy whilst attempting the other faction I have yet to complete potionless, Indrajit’s Palace. For the record I now do factions in the event with potions, then later try them without. Next faction however comes in GW week.
Whilst doing IP since Monday 14th June I have missed about 4 days of doing it due to not bothering or limited play, so, when I have, I have attempted this faction with 133-144 hoard. I figure I have had about 21 attempts. On 3 occasions I have got fairly close to winning, 1 on Monday was down to me needing 1 skull hit and 1 cast of Indy to win. The AI got me as I just could not match skulls and it’s Indy can kill 2 troops easily.
I have been making a note of how many times the faction has been effected by effects the Devs place in delves.
7 runs have been blighted by the Tier V room of Mimic, Drowned Sailor, TMQ and Scylla. This has been the mandatory room . It’s, and just my opinion, but it is not possible to beat it without extraordinary hoard when you have no skull protection. You are not able to survive the TMQ casts. It’s worth pointing out that a lot of potionless runs and the hoard records are blighted by this room as it is more off the scale than anything else in Delves, generally avoiding it gives you a much higher chance of winning. Maybe the Dwarven Gate runs it close, but at least you may be able to deny Apothecary.
So of 21 runs, 7 have been denied by the mandatory 2nd room being this room mentioned above. Furthermore the room also has other factors that ruin runs, Drowned Sailor’s death mark, which is in my view a 75% chance to death mark your back 2 troops from my anecdotal history in potionless delves for however long that has been. Additionally Mimic seems to devour at least once most times in delves. So, that’s 7 goes where I haven’t been able to proceed with a full team.
The other 14 runs, 8 have failed to get to the boss room. 6 times I have gotten to the boss room, 3 times 100% intact. In the fails I have had 4 Lyco converted troops, Wood Rynax, Swamp Rat, Droggo and Aurai.
So what has happened to the other 8 runs?
Lycantrophy…
I have had the following troops that I can remember in those 8 other runs.
Vine Marten x2
Armoured Boarlet
Pegasus
Spinnerette x 2
Swamp Rat
Mecha Rat
Chaos Hound
Droggo
Of those 10 conversions, 6 have occurred after 1 turn grace… 1 changed on 4 turns and 3 recovered. On Tuesday in one run, I had Pegasus, Spinnerette and Vine Marten on the same run. None of the AI troops can make Lyco gems or do anything except explode or destroy or match them.
There’s a high proportion of AI troops that change the board state. Things you underestimate like the Trolls or Giant Spider etc. Those troops change the board and Lyco gems match up with purple.
In PF 500 runs, the AI has huge state bloated troops, a lot of factionless teams can’t cope without high hoards just vs stats, never mind death mark, shuffling orders, and status effects. Using Orpheus medals is a good option, but when troops have limited skull protection, additional stats are often mandatory. I will give a simple example of Lyco, Giant Spider, making purple (another is Grave Seer, but there’s so many that do) has on 3 occasions since Monday created purple and sky dropped a Lyco gem to 100% convert my effected troop. Today I have had another Vine Marten.
Ok, for balance reasons, I have converted 3 AI troops in the entire runs. Today I changed a Hellclaw Warrior into a Winged Bison and a Mimic into a Bone Scorpion. Awesome, Wing Bison transforms purple to red and matched with the Hellclaw Mage, it was a looping machine… and fed and fed their Hunters. The only other conversion I have made was Axolotl, which was useless for me, but made blue for Wraith…
AI 14 vs me 3.
There was an annoucement that the Devs will manipulate skyfall for Lyco gems, which they say will increase during the campaign. It does appear that this is occurring, but regardless, the effect of Lycantrophy is such a huge thing in potionless runs.
In PF with limited skull negation, 12 life and health from 3 MoS are often needed to survive. 1 Orpheus makes limited difference it seems and even 3 have lost me troops to Drowned Sailor in the past.
I’ll give some more opinion on it, but I will keep it brief. Lycantrophy is a blight and imho it needs to not occur when exploding or destroying.
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### Author:  [@Shimrra](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Shimrra)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/delves-strategies-tactics-and-tips/45522/2272 "2021-06-23T12:26:41Z")
I don’t disagree, but I still think this line of thinking is just inadequate.
Because lycanthropy needs to not be in anything at all ever. Just not exist. Straight up _not in anything_.
With that out of the way … I did clear Indrajit’s Palace _400_ factionless with a _Roc_ as my last troop. Suffice to say that it didn’t contribute. So I imagine 500 is still going to be doable, but not particularly easy. 400 did take me a few days.
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