Completed level 300 with Faction troops, without potions. As a daily Delve attempt.
Took quite a while though and was lucky with middle rooms.
She “helped” while talking shit. So no it’s not anymore necessary than her comments were.
I’m not allowed to poke fun at it?
On the same exact thread that they basically threatened to pull back on. Is where she made the basically idiotic statement of. Mind you, I don’t think she’s an idiot. I think that the statement was dumb.
And regardless of her job title or position on here. She chose to be a forum member talking shit on another forum member at that point. So to say she isn’t entitled to same amount of shade as anyone else here is ridiculous.
I’m still waiting on the posts I asked for from you btw. Where supposedly folks pointed out how OP life and death and Gobtruffle were months before it was released.
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Something/Something/2x Steamwhistle.
Those top two troops just keep constantly changing.
Maybe should go with only one Steamwhistle.
Of course, hoard higher than 111 would also help a bit, otherwise it looks quite bleak.
Yep, if only my troops wouldn’t blow up on the first cast…
I would agree with this.
Yeah, I feel your pain.
Its case of using 1 Tink can be a bit risky in the boss room, but using 2 Tinks means you’re likely to stall out with 2 dud summons and 2 Tinks that can only team buff.
I lost a pure 500 attempt with no potions from back to back triple damage casts by Destruct to my solo Tink, but I don’t think I’d give up a slot to carry a second Tink.
If possible, I’d suggest running Nysha medals here, since +4 magic results in +4 life and +4 armor from a Tink cast… so if you’re running 2 Nysha, that’s a 16 point life swing (life + armor), and 3 would be 24 stat points. Cast Tink a few times and suddenly the safety net becomes much higher
This faction in a nutshell:
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Beat 500 without potions. 199 Hoard, 50% stat bonus, 2 Nysha, 1 Anu.
That was fun, let’s not do that again lol.
Killed 6 enemy Detect-o-Bots, 5 Smash-o-Bots, 4 Destruct-o-Bots, and 1 Tink Steamwhistle.
2nd room: Rock Troll, Rock Worm, Giant Spider, Rock Worm. Spider summons slowed the battle down a lot, but Tink gained more stats than the Rock Worms could ever hope to do anything to. free battle
3rd room: Hammerclaw, Troglodyte, Mermaid, Sea Troll, Destruct-o-bot casted and killed itself to win the battle.
4th room: Started the boss room with 2 Smash-o-Bots, 1 Tink Steamwhistle. (3 troops).
Filled my Tink, respawned a Destruct.
AI Destruct (1) casted on my Tink and killed itself. (phew, no snipe death runback).
Enemy summoned a Detect bot, Detect bot (1) + (2) looped itself to death.
Enemy resummoned 2 Destructs
My Smash bot killed itself.
Enemy Smash (1) killed itself.
Skulled kill enemy Destruct (2), I resummoned a Destruct. Enemy Destruct (3) killed itself targeting my top slot Destruct
My top Destruct which was low on life killed itself casting on the enemy Tink
Enemy Tink resummoned 2 Smash, 1 Detect
my 2nd Smash killed itself (2 troops remaining). resummoned troops
I skull killed the enemy Smash (2), enemy resummoned another Smash
My Detect killed itself. resummoned Destruct
enemy 2nd slot Smash (3) killed itself
enemy Tink resummoned a Destruct. Enemy Tink at 979 armor, 1000 life at this point.
Enemy Detect (3) killed itself
Enemy Smash (4) killed itself
Skull killed Enemy Detect (4)
Enemy resummoned Detect, enemy Tink at 145 armor, 752 life
(worth noting the resummoned enemy Destruct only does 43 * 3 = 129 damage, which is keeping me in this game. My Tink can cast to heal for 150 combined per cast).
Enemy 3rd slot Detect (5) killed itself
Enemy resummoned a Smash
Enemy Destruct (4) killed itself. sob. too bad I’m filled and their Tink only has 35 hp.
My top slot Destruct killed itself to kill the enemy Tink. figures lol
Enemy Detect (6) killed itself
Resummoned a Smash. my Smash killed itself doing damage to the enemy Smash. My 2nd slot Destruct killed itself to kill the enemy Smash (5) for the win.
Pictures!
(a portion of the time was typing out the action)
If your Tink Steamwhistle can survive 405 damage (135 * 3) in one cast, you should be able to do it without potions eventually…
My team was 3 Smash-o-Bots, 1 Tink Steamwhistle (Tinker Banner). Have to use what you’re given though, later on.
Boss Room strats:
You want the enemy Destruct to kill itself, since it does big damage. From there, you want to hope the AI resummons a Destruct. It will do less damage than the original, but it’ll still hurt. More importantly, it’ll mana block Yellow for the Enemy Tink, buying you way more time to take out their Tink with your Destructs if you have any at this point. Make sure to block Brown mana from reaching the enemy Tinks, bypassing red/yellow matches if necessary.
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Lol? 
Grats, anyway! Sounded like a bit of an adventure… 
.
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LOL. Oh dang it. Typos + lack of sleep. Nice catch
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Wasn’t too hard. Just very time consuming. About half an hour for the boss room…
Kingdom power level 14, 7 x tier 7 potions.
1 Like
I think i just got luck. But, thats it. 375 true hoard =)
And, for the ones that are waiting for some info about Tinker Town potionless.
163 hoard - kingdom lvl 14 - 3x nysha
His run beggins after 1h of video. Gl guys
6 Likes
Great effort. But it would be worthwhile including horde level in these non potion, outside of event triumphs.
@Texugo-928 has a great compilation of True Faction Runs, with the Horde, er, Hoard levels listed. Delves: Strategies, tactics and tips - #1354 by Texugo-928
I’m updating an old thread as well, with some of @xolid99 and @TheIdleOne runs. Delve Faction Team Strategies - #16 by ChunkyMono
I’m still tracking down some of the more recent runs, Depths of Sin, Fell Roost, and Illitia. Some of those were kind of a community effort, where multiple people had variants that all worked. Provided of course that players such as I had proper medals equipped, and not useless Event medals. cough cough
3 Likes
As @ChunkyMono says most are in that link, the better ones mostly and throughout this thread I’ve posted my hoard levels when completing for most of my efforts.
@TimeKnight has produced a chart which is an excellent source and on point with where I think the factions rate without potions. It is also great for anyone trying faction delves. There really isn’t a barometer for with potions for some I suppose. It’s a different game.
I’ve saved myself hundreds of hours I didn’t have and thousands of gems I don’t want to give away 
Thanks to a lot of posters in this thread such as @TheIdleOne and @Dust_Angel and others, the community really benefits. I’ll add myself as a volunteer to help others too.
FWIW
Hoard bonus has either been 0, 25% or 50%.
Illithia
Deep Hive
Fell Roost
@100 hoard
Depths of Sin
111
Amanithrax
Silver Necropolis
Crypt Keepers
Mirrored Halls
133 hoard
Wild Court 144
It is possible to do all those above at 100 hoard 50% bonus or less bonus. I know some have.
Dark Pits 160
City of Thieves 166
Stonesong Eyrie
All Seeing Eye
177
FWIW @Shimrra I think just did ASE at100.
Primal Rift 185 (is doable at 100, I just had terrible luck with Treants)
Hall of Guardians shows 193 but rofl I updated the wrong hoard once, think it was done at 177 or 189 and without a bonus. It was my first one way back. Been done @100 recently by @Magnusimus I think.
Sea of Sorrows 210
Sunken Fleet 211
Werewoods 220
Warrens 223
Frostfire Keep 240
Lryasza’s Lair 270
Putrid Moor 292
Av Hoard 172 I think.
I don’t know how much it has cost me to raise those hoards. Some needed raising with just or mostly priest chalices after 200 or so.
Only really Fang Moor and Lyrasza’s were overly costly in terms of hoard.
I think I’ve done okay, hold a few of the posted records on some or second best efforts.
Once I set on the path to do without events, hoard level or records became irrelevant - shards and treasures, and fighting against new faction releases, dictate to you what you can do. If you have limited gold too but I’ve enough gold to raise all hoards to probably 400 if I want.
Time becomes a real factor too, you need to be ahead of the events to have treasures to raise hoards and you don’t farm treasure because you need to complete delves - and fail a lot.
If/when I complete Tinkertown without potions, if I can do it within say 2 weeks of the faction event, I will be able to replenish shards to raise the next batch of troops in the next faction.
I’m also going to be saving more gems and time now, not needing to do some of a Tuesday event to get shards. I also can save gold long term, because the hard yards and expenditure has already occurred. 
8 Likes
I’ve done the following at hoard lvl100 and I’ve never touched tier 7 potions in my life. Mostly with 50% bonus, except where noted by *.
All-Seeing Eye
Amanithrax *
Crypt Keepers *
Depths of Sin
Fell Roost
Illithia
Primal Rift **
Silver Necropolis
The Deep Hive *
Tinker Town *
Wild Court
Primal Rift I’m pretty sure I did very early, pre-dating the 50% bonus in question and also when it didn’t have a tier 5 room in the path.
I rather expect Tinker Town to be next. In one try.
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I’ve done all but one of those at hoard level 100 as well. The exception being Silver Necropolis. What strategy and team did you use for the pure faction run at level 500?
1 Like
… I want to say “luck” …
Well. I think essentially spamming Vanya to wear them down and replace anything that gets killed off by skulls is the correct way. As appealing as a massive Bone Golem is … we really need to deny the enemy Vanya as much as possible since she tends to do irreparable harm, and as long as we’re taking those colors we may as well use them.
Keeping something blessed and full mana (ideally in the second slot) will usually lead the AI to waste their time trying to drain it with Draugr.
First room is usually easy enough. Middle room is a pain but you can usually get quick kills with deathmarks via Bone Golem.
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Started with Smashobot/Destructobot/2x Steamwhiste
Anu/2x Nysha; hoard 111 with 50 % bonus. (No potions)
Entered boss with 2x Smashobot/2x Steamwhistle. In between were Mushroom Grove (Forest Troll/Fungomancer/Exploadstool/Swamplash) and Golem Laboratory (Obsidian Golem/Lava Elemental/Coral Golem/Ancient Golem).
Why double Steamwhistle? Prior I got to boss room with a single Steamwhistle team, but my stats are not large enough for him to survive triple damage Destructobot cast (and it happened to be - first cast immediately with 3x on my dwarf guy), so a backup is needed.
Anyway, about 20 minutes in:
just couldn’t seem to get a break with Destructobots on my side - either expired after a single cast or that huge Smashobot (which took what seemed like forever to suicide itself) came into play.
But, as I had spent 2 hours in boss fight earlier this week, it was not time yet to give up.
Another half an hour and several triple damage Destructobot casts (mine was at 65 normal damage) later:
it somehow began to look promising.
Not to jinx it, another ten minutes passed:
It’s in the bag now. My 30hp Destructobot chanced 3x damage on their ready-to-cast 100hp Steamwhistle.
Frankly, got quite lucky when original boss troops self-destructed reasonably soon and enemy Destructobot didn’t land 3x damage prior to that.
Well, this feels like crossover of Stonesong Eyrie and Lyrasza’s Lair to me. Good candidate for Canadian challenge, that is, be polite to the game, mate. One to sweep under the rug and forget all about it.
EDIT:
Also attaching self-destruct count (as I’m never touching this faction ever again).
7 Likes
150 true hoard 
Giant Toad Strat
Normal Strat
+++In all battles before Boss Room:
×As soon as you mamage to eliminate 3 of the 4 enemy troops, stop casting spell and eliminate the last enemy troop with Skull Damage (The battle will take a little longer to finish, i know. However, this strategy will help you a lot at the beginning of the next battle). The objective is to mantain a good team composition (try to start the next battle always with a Smash-o-bot in the 1st position, as it is easy to fill the mana and its explosion is a very powerful weapon at the beginning of the battle – fills the mana of many troops in a few turns).
× In the penultimate battle, follow the strategy described above. However, in addition to having a Smash-o-bot in the 1st position, you must complete this battle with a Destruct-o-bot in the 2nd position. This way you will have a troop that helps in the matter of filling up mana as quickly as possible; and you will have another troop whose main function is to eliminate the enemy Tink Steamwhistle.
+++ In Boss Room:
×Take every brown matches you can to prevent the enemy’s Tink Steamwhistle fills its mana. Let the enemy deal Skull Damage at you if it is necessary.
×When you kill the enemy’s Smash-o-bot and/or Detect-o-bot. Help the enemy’s Tink Steamwhistlle fill its mana so that it summons a baby version of Destruct-o-bot that completely blocks the original Destruct-o-bot’s mana and partially blocks Tink Steamwhistle mana. If Tink Steamwhistle summons a baby version of Destruct-o-bot, keep it alive at all cost.
To be continue…
5 Likes
Finally did it! I managed to spend all the time and Gems needed to progress all the way to Level 500 today.
Here’s the team I climbed with. With potions, I was quickly able to get three casts off within the first couple turns, and with one Shield cast that almost always meant a win right there. I did every room of every battle to maximize Val’ravens and maximize Chaos Shard output and minimize Gem cost. Mechanist hero class was chosen since it was the only one I had Banishment unlocked on and Submerge was my main obstacle.
[1221,6320,6320,6320,3069,3,1,1,1,1,1,0,14007]
As for the Pure Faction run itself, I used this team. These troops died pretty quickly so I ended up with a completely different team in the final battle.
[6927,6927,6927,6930,3045,1,1,2,0,0,0,0,14027]
Here’s the footage I recorded of the final battle. As long as you prioritize buffing Tink to an absurd level, then killing the enemy Tink, then clearing out the rest of the enemies (in that order), you shouldn’t have too much trouble.
The biggest thing I want to emphasize: this was REALLY fun! This was one of the most engaging and interesting battles I’ve played in this game in quite a while. This is an awesome faction to play, and maybe one day I’ll attempt to clear it again without potions.
10 Likes