…or use the doppleganger-less strategy. Then, it doesn’t matter at all which middle room you pull 
100 hoard doable finally.
Ethereal Sentry
Ethereal Sentry
Gargoyle
Arcane Golem
HoG Banner (+2 yellow +1 brown -1 green)
1x Anu 2x Orpheus Medals
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My updated chart.
Dripping Caverna prediction included. Also edit a few things, now that I cleared all of them but one in the Underworld without Potions, with all under 200 hoards, and some help from Campaign stats.
The Labyrinth is that exception. Might be the first time to go over 200. For now, I need to farm shards and clear the new Faction first.
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Lol - I see you create a new category just for The Labyrinth. I went Tier 7 x 10 on that one, first time I went that high, but I left it too late and them were 30+ minute battles each time. It’s still outstanding for me, fortunately it’s up on Tuesday in 3 weeks. No way I’m upgrading hoard to 300.
Really need several hours for remaining new factions in case they drag out like Tinker Town or The Labyrinth.
BTW, I honestly think you need to move Amanithrax down to level 2 at least if not 3. The nerfs are pretty hard and took me 30+ or 40+ tries even at ~200+ effective hoard level (146 + 50%).
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It was not new, but used to belong to Fang Moor and Frostfire Keep. Fang moor is mainly there for long path and no summon. Attack climbing can be very strong with good board.
Frostfire is surprisingly easier than expected with the right approach. Denied the red and cast troll at the right time while keeping Wraith alive can be good enough, so I moved it up.
The Labyrinth is definitely deserve to be in Insane, mainly just how hard it is to kill their Horned Guardian. But as I saw other posts here, maybe 400+ True hoard is too much. 350+ might just be enough, especially in late Campaign with extra stats.
Yeah… Someone else mentioned that too. I forgot to update it. Also, I never try it myself after the nerf yet, so I will check it out today. But as you said, likely won’t put it pass Challenging.
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I also found Tinker Town quite easy (more than I expected) – my Adana’s still at Level 10, so would have been at 100 True Hoard (although possibly with some Campaign stats, too).
Iirc, it was on my second try, as well. My first was taking ages, so I just retreated, and then had a much quicker second run.
All-Seeing Eye took me way more tries (and a higher Hoard, too), by comparison, and while I haven’t devoted too many tries to it just yet, Crypt Keepers is the other one from that section I wouldn’t compare with Tinker Town, even if (or perhaps because) it’s quite luck-based.
I haven’t tried Amanithrax since the nerfs, but I could see it as harder than the other ones in the Easy section, and so could agree with a shift down.
Not at all a complaint about the chart!
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To be honest I’ve always felt Amanithrax to be somewhere near Crypt Keepers even before the nerf → both factions based on luck for much part… (either instakills or not getting trolled by bad gem creation…) Not mentioning, having rooms with undead on the path, makes Gobtruffle casts realy unreliable…
But apart from that, I dont feel it’s more difficult than CK, after the nerf…
All done at 100, PLUS
Emperinazar
Duergaroth
Hall of Guardians finally.
Mirrored Halls and Stonesong just pissed me off too much to continue. Eldrazhor I’ve not lucked out yet, been trying that one at least. Everything from 19-28 in that list, I know better than to go near. Usually.
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Decided after seeing a couple of wins on here to go and try ‘The Labyrinth’ without potions.
Obviously the draw was returning to completing all without potions. I did break my never complete with potions rule for this in the event, otherwise all the rest i have not done with potions. I suppose I could have been patient but the faction is horrid.
Nearly did it at the weekend with campaign buffs at 199, about 6 times 1 v1 vs HG and having to retreat. The worst part about that was I was only at 25% hoard bonus! I left one battle on for 300 minutes in between work, lowest I got it down to was 255 Armour… but within 3-4 minutes it was at 800 etc again. 6 quit outs with my HG at 1k armour Friday to Sunday.
I think this faction was designed to stop you winning with skulls at the end. The double red/green banner means that HG is always going to fill up, so you cannot deny mana. I even thought it was filling up without green and red mana but when I went to 2x speed, it was skyfall. Personally, I think that’s why we got that banner, to make it harder, but /shrug.
Main issue is as always double hits and low damage. Had 1 go today and died to Draakulis in room 6.
No Draakulis this time, so I went all the way around the right hand side, avoiding Bone Dragon. When you move their team, worst thing that can happen is Bone Dragon up front with you getting frozen with your skull hitting it. So for this faction, you have two troops that shift their team, so BD sometimes gets in first slot. What makes it worse is you try to buff HG with casting, but it can all unravel with 1 BD cast and traps everywhere. Wight is also a problem as it fills so fast.
I for some reason could never get Draakulis and Co to spawn in the second room since last week. Even today, no Draakulis. Death Touch would have helped in the 1 v 1 scenario with HG v HG as per @Texugo-928 video
I picked up Arcane and Agile from the the long path, probably came in handy, didn’t notice it until at the end.
Anyway, - no campaign stats, guild elite tasks not complete so not maxed there (-4/8 life/armour)
3 Nysha
Decided on Dragon banner for bonus to yellow for Mechataur.
Hoard 243
50% bonus (see above )
Not done a faction with campaign buffs - so maybe it could have been possible to do all of them sub 200 if I started again. 6 magic we had once in a campaign, that is a buff to magic at 199 to 243 equivalent to +44 hoard fwiw. In terms of True Hoard, plus 22.
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Not sure, when was the last Silver Necropolis update, but just did it with 104 hoard, 50% kingdom hoard bonus (so TrueHoard 152):
Bone Golem
Draugr
2x Vanya
Not sure about banner, would have to check it in future, 2x Nysha 1x Anu medals.
First 2 fights are easy, either you kill everything with Golem skull damage, or Deathmarks.
Boss Room battle. Allowed their golem to get pumped to 1000 attack (=1shot anything mine with skulls). But, thanks to that, he was eating purple mana from enemy vayna slowing down her casts.
Used Draugr to steal mana from their Vanya/Bone Golem/Necrocorn and focused on filling my own Vanya’s. Once I killed their Vanya, it was just Bone Golem to kill (with 1k attack). With my double Vaynas left with 16 hp.
Took a while, my 2 front troops where getting killed, then summoned back, etc… Always had 1 Vayna ready to cast, in case my front troop got killed. Tactic for killing that golem:
- always take skull/matches that prevent enemy from matching skulls
- cast Vanya when something dies, or when you got 2 fully charged
depending what are the other 2 alive troops: - Draugr → wait for enemy golem to get filled, steal it’s mana
- Bone Golem → build up its attack with his casts
- Necrocorn → depending on the board/other troop cast: (Bone Golem → cast on golem, Draugr → cast on Draugr when a lot of green/brown on board, Necrocorn → cast on Vanya)
You either want to:
- drain mana from enemy bone golem to prevent him gaining armor (and slowly doing dmg with skulls/Vanya)
- build up attack on your Bone Golem to buff his attack (and hit enemy Golem like a truck with skull matches)
But, managed to kill that crap…
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I’m getting to the stage that I need to start collecting Delve pets to advance my Kingdoms.
Given there’s over 2000 posts in this thread, has anyone collated a useable list of Faction Teams and strategies that give you a chance of completing a Level 500 Delve?
I think that this post is what you’re looking for. I can’t vouch for validity, as I mostly use Guild secret teams.
At the bottom of that post, they link to a Youtube playlist. I’ll link it for you for convenience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddUXY19Ndvs&list=PL--AbGesk0jWx9I9n4VuOWbU3GVMELReP
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CONGRATS!
257 hoard… All those resources or give up a Tuesday and 3k-ish gems? It will be a difficult choice to make, but I think I’ll make sure I have 4k gems before trying it on a Tuesday.
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Nope. Nope nope nope nope. Nope. No. Nope.
My Lyrasza is at 2400 because I couldn’t beat level 500 even with potions of power on the release weekend. Maybe I will just never get Shentang past whatever power level needs 2500 renown.
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I can’t spend that much time in one day on Gems of War, even if I had nothing else that day. I’d go insane. I hardly get the weekend ones done, and I don’t even get to those most of the time. So, for me, doing this one potionless was the only way I’d ever get it done. It’s completely down to RNG, unless you level the Faction to infinity.
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Back to all complete without potions. Cleared this with 199 Hoard, 15 Kingdom (298 TH.) Used 2x Rock Squid, 2x Shogg, +2 blue +1 purp. Middle rooms were Wild Pack’s Den and Dark Wave Pool - not the best, not the worst. 2 Nysha for room 1/3, 2 Cedric in rooms 2/4.
Could probably be done with lower, but I ran it for a couple of weeks with 166 base hoard and didn’t ever get close. It’s pretty luck-based, though, since Shogg continually randomizes the board. Rock never cast unless needed to get out of a bad board, or the color being removed was minimal and I wanted to refresh Enrage without exploding.
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Also Dripping Caverns complete.
Hoard 198, 1 x Mos, 1 x Nysha, 1 x Orpheus
Kingdom 15
Tentacle banner
2 x Rock Squid, 2 x Shogg
Rooms
Done with Hoard 193.
Buried Graveyard - went with 3 Orpheus to avoid death marks from their first 2 troops. Managed to avoid Spectral Knight doing double true damage on enraged troops. That’s a bit of an issue tbrh. The troops are handpicked in those two rooms you go through. Silence immunity’s, impervious troops at the bottom, damage dealers in 2nd or 3rd slot etc.
Dark Wave Pool - reverted to 3 Nysha to get at the Mermaid as soon as possible, did that pretty easily.
Boss Room - Decided to plonk 5 more into the hoard for the boss. I went for a mix of medals.
I really wanted to use an Anu medal here, as it can be a while before both Shoggs fill. However in reality it won’t help as you can fill 16 purple with 2 x surges, so took the mix.
I managed to stop their Shogg from ever casting and move around a board of skulls. Jelly’s first cast looped on green and skulls x 3 to cripple my first troop. However, managed to take away a lot of skulls before the enrage got my Squid. Took out Shogg and Cloak in quick succession, Jelly got my other Squid sitting on an enrage from when Shogg was there. Took it out in short order tbh, had both Shoggs full and skulls.
Evidence of potionless effort 
Back to all potionless.
FWIW I did do it in the event as well, Hoard 155 3 x Tier VII. Sort of loathe spending on hoard but… 
9 Likes
has anyone cleared the new delve with pure faction?