Saturday, January 26, 2013

Monster Legions Game Review & Walkthrough Guide

Monster Legions
Monster Legions Logo

Play Online: Monster Legions
Developer: Nerdook
Genre: Strategy, Defense, Multiplayer

Game Review
Nerdook is back again after a short hiatus due to a baby! This time round you're in a world where animals are the most powerful warriors. Well, all you lead your army against a wide range of enemy soldiers and monsters in collectible card game aka CCG style.

Your very goal in Monster Legions is to fight other armies and eventually after four consecutive wins, you will proceed to fight one of the four horsemen who each have a special setup and attributes. Defeating all the horsemen, you are ready to slay the biggest and the worst monster of them all... the Beast. Let's jump into the gameplay.

After hitting the start battle button, you will engage in a real-time strategic battle. Here, you task is to wipe out all of your opponent's reinforcement points and swarm their base before they do the same to you. Every 15 second, you get a chance to deploy a card with no cost. However keep this in mind that you only have 30 precious reinforcement points throughout. When a unit dies, it costs a few reinforcement points to bring your warrior back to the battle ground. Periodically, you will be placed with random spell cards. Use those spells to cripple the forces of darkness.

I'm a fan of Nerdook's games. Monster Legions managed to capture me once again, especially the options to design your own perfect army with different ranks and specialties in a card based summon system. It's kind of creative sort to speak however, he needs to do some slight balancing to the cards and the gold scaling need adjustment too. I can spend hundred of thousands looking for better cards but it is too time consuming to collect gold in every fight.

Overall the difficulty is just the right level throughout but the feeling of victory was soon destroyed by the game saying "good job" after beating the beast. It would be better if you got like a special card after bossing or being able to build a library of owned card to customize your deck.

Monster Legions Guide
List of bosses in Monster Legions
War - Commands a special army of elite troops. Most powerful Horsemen in single combat.
Death - Does not summon units of its own. Gains a copy of your defeated units.
Summons - Bone Golems and an endless army of skeletal warriors.
Pestilence - Poisons your entire army. Regains health over time from its own poison.
Beast - Ultimate Beast. Defeat all four horsemen at least once to fight the Beast!

List of Spells in Monster Legions
Death Pact - Both army instantly loses a single random unit.
Attack - Move 50% faster and deal 15% more melee damage for 5seconds.
Champion - Your General combat abilities are boosted for 5 seconds.
Healing - Your units on the battlefield revocer 15% of max health.
Reinforcements - Your army gains 1 Reinforcement Point.
Defend - Take 99% less damage for the next 5 seconds.
EarthQuake - All enemies lose 5% of max HP, 20% for buildings and machines.
Thunderstorm - Fire quenching rain and lightning bolts for 5 seconds.

List of Starting Cards in Monster Legions
Rabbit Rider - Cavalry. Equivalent to an Elite Knight, but heals itself over time.
Hose Lancer - Cavalry. Equivalent to an Elite Knight, but deals double damage versus mounted units.
Snake Cultists - Defensive Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Spearmen, but poisons enemies.
Monkey King - Infantry. Equivalent to an Elite Swordsman, but creates two weaker clones when killed.
Tiger Archers - Ranged Infantry. Equivalent to Elite bowman, but with additional damage.
Dragon Skirmishers - Defensive Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Spearmen, but sets enemies on fire and is immune to flames.
Chicken Archers - Ranged Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Archers, but teleports back when hit by melee.
Bull Axeman - Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Swordsmen, but with additional armor.
Rat Champions - Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Swordsmen, but with a small chance to dodge attacks.
Goat Bowmen - Ranged Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Archers, but heals allies for 1% of max HP.
Horse Lancer - Cavalry. Equivalent to an Elite Knight, but deals double damage versus mounted units.
Dog Raider - Cavalry. Equivalent to Elite Knight, but deals double damage to building and siege weapons.
Pig Warrior - Defensive Infantry. Equivalent to Elite Spearman, but deals double damage to monsters.

List of Collectible Cards in Monster Legions
Melee
Recruit Swordsmen - Infantry. Excellent damage, but can be picked off at a distance by archers.
Veteran Swordsmen - Infantry. Excellent damage, but can be picked off at a distance by archers.
Elite Swordsmen - Infantry. Excellent damage, but can be picked off at a distance by archers.
Blade Berserker - Infantry. Regains some health for each hit, and 25% of maximum health for every kill.
Recruit Spearmen - Defensive Infantry. Deal bonus damage to mounted units such as cavalry.
Veteran Spearmen - Defensive Infantry. Deal bonus damage to mounted units such as cavalry.
Elite Spearmen - Defensive Infantry. Deal bonus damage to mounted units such as cavalry.
Recruit Riders - Light cavalry. Can reach the front very quickly. Deals bonus damage to other cavalry units.
Armored Brute - Heavy Infantry. High health and armor, but moves and attacks slowly.
Veteren Knight - Heavy Cavalry. Can reach the front very quickly. High health and decent damage.
Elite Knight - Heavy Cavalry. Can reach the front very quickly. High health and decent damage.
Ultimate Knight - Heavy Cavalry. Can Reach the front very quickly. Very high health, armor and damage.
Recruit Ninjas - Assasin. Has chance of critical strikes and dodging. 50% arrow dodge. Immune to poison.
Veteren Ninjas - Assasin. Has chance of critical strikes and dodging. 50% arrow dodge. Immune to poison.
Elite Ninjas - Assasin. Has chance of critical strikes and dodging. 50% arrow dodge. Immune to poison.
Silent Assassin - Assassin. High chance of critical strikes and dodging. 75% arrow dodge. Immune to poison.
Bull Rider - Monster. Charges into battle. Weak versus spears.
Charging Minotaur - Monster. Very high health and movements speed, making it an excellent offensive tank.
Giant Spider - Monster. Attacks very rapidly, allowing it to decimate groups of weaker units.
Dragon Rider - Monster. Slow and powerful. Deals a lot of damage with each bite.
Venomous Scorpion - Monster. Poisons enemies when it strikes, dealing additional damage over time
Daemon Balrog - Monster. Regains HP from Flames. Spreads flames when it hits and when it is hit.
Ancient Treant - Monster. Attack Slowly, but deals a lot of damage per hit vulnerable to fire.
Shadow Vampire - Monster. Able to fly short distances. Regains some health from each attack.
Giant Sandworm - Monster. Able to hit every unit within range when it dives. Best versus large groups.
Bone Golem - Monster. Very high armor and health, but does not deal much damage.
Armored Dragon - Not as mach damage as normal Dragons, but has additional health and armor.
Stone Golem - Machine. Very high armor and health, but does not deal much damage.
Battle Puppet - Poisons anything it hits, and fires darts when struck. Spawns a puppeteer if killed.
Archangel Guardian - Archangel. Has a powerful Golden Sword that produces a shockwave when it strikes
Wolf Pack - Animal. Summons three Wolves, each costing only 1 Reinforcement to respawn when killed.
Polearm Slayer - Defensive Infantry. Deals triple damage to mounted units and Monsters.
Healer Monks - Monk. Periodically heals an ally for 5% max HP and cures poisons. Small chance to dodge.

Ranged
Recruit Archers - Ranged Infantry. Good damage at a distance, but easily killed at close range.
Veteran Archers - Ranged Infantry. Good damage at a distance, but easily killed at close range.
Elite Archers - Ranged Infantry. Good damage at a distance, but easily killed at close range.
Flame Archers - Ranged Infantry. Sets fire to anything it hits. Be careful: flames damage all units in range.
Longbow Archer - Ranged Infantry. Vastly improved firing rate and range. Teleports back when hit.
Seige Tower - Seige Machine. Slow moving but touch. Rains down arrows on nearby enemies.
Siege Ballista - Siege Machine. Moves very slowly. Fires a high damage projectile that punches through armor.
Fire Monk - Throws fireballs that explode into flames when it strikes. Immune to fire.
Spitting Spider - Monster. Spits spider goo at the enemy: low damage but high attack rate.
Death Monk - Turns defeated friendly unit into Skeletal Warriors to fight for you.

Recommended Build in Monster Legions
Starting Build: x2 Recruit Spearmen, Goat Bowmen, x2 Recruit Archers, x3 Recruit Swordsmen and x2 Recruit Riders

There's a reason why I chose goat bowman in my starting build because he regularly heals all your units for 1% of their health. A lot of healing is done over time as it accumulates bit by bit especially when you're starting to have 2 to 3 hundred HP units. He also deals out sizable 4 damage per second. He is sort of overpowered, particularly compared with other options you presented with to start out. If you don't, Rabbit Riders and Monkey King are good alternative too.

After winning first few rounds, you will get cards that are higher level or if you're lucky you get veteran spearmen or veteran swordsmen. Remember to replace recruit riders with these better cards. Then you may find yourself winning and losing occasionally... Don't worry! Losing is okay in Monster Legions. This is just part of the process/gameplay, meanwhile you will be collecting better cards.

If you win 4 battles consecutively, you are now qualify to try and defeat one of the four horsemen. I would recommend trying to fight Pestilence, however there is some random factor to win this boss; you only have a higher chance of winning this boss, only when you pull out your goat bowman early. Your goat bowman is good at healing you from the poison over time.

2nd Stage Build: x2 Venture Spearmen, Goat Bowmen, x2 Veteran or Flame Archers, x3 Veteran Swordsmen, Armored Brute and Venture Knight

Once you successfully defeat Pestilence, you can now replacing all your recruit to veteran respectively. You can retry the stage until you get the cards you need. To clear the stages here... Basically, I like to have archers that are on defense because they are highly overpowered even with their tiny damage. As the hero just keeps respawning as soon as it dies, you never get a chance to even hit an archer. Having 2 archers and hugging your castle is almost guaranteed a win. Armored Brute is a beefy tank which definitely will help you taking damage.

Now try fighting Death. When fighting this boss, remember to summon your weakest units like the lowest health first. When you hit the 1 minute 15 second mark, summon all your strongest monsters. Remember to select the spells without must hesitation, you will get around 5 to 7 spells in every round... The more spells you click, the better your chances of you winning.

3th & 4th Stage Build: Experiment your build.

Things get interesting and easy here. Basically after defeating death, you collect cards that are level 6 and higher. You can start experimenting your build from here; replace your cards with monsters, dragons or even machines in your deck. Afterwards, defeat the remaining bosses and lastly the beast. Congratulations!

Multiplayer Build: Giant Sandworm, Daemon Balrog, Healer Monks, x2 Longbow Archer, Polearm Slayer, Blade Berserker, Archangel Guardian, Ultimate Knight and Shadow Vampire

You are now more than ready to battle in multiplayer mode, however winning in multiplayer mode isn't as easy as you think it would be. These are the best army created by other players but clearing them will entitle you with good cards. My build above is certainly not the best build in Monster Legions but I won quite a decent number of people with it. Hey don't laugh, I am proud of it alright! ^^

Overpowered Build #1: x5 Wolf Pack, x3 Death Monk, x2 Longbow Archer

Units like the death monk and Longbow archers can kill advancing units quickly without being in any real danger because the general respawns with no reinforcement point loss immediately and wolf packs come in three with 1 point. The death monks especially are dangerous as they can spawn dozens of skeletons that serve as a protective wall. Currently there is no one unit that can get behind an enemy's front line, so I can safely say this build is very OP.

Overpowered Build: x4 Longbow Archer, x2 Fire Monk, x4 Stone Golem

This army comprised with mostly ranged units. I fought with a guy with this build twice with different build and to my surprise, the combination he designed actually worked well. Superbly well. Stone Golems have the highest armor among all the other units which make him a really good tanker. Longbow Archers and Fire Monks have the ability to take out units relatively quickly in any situation. I think its worth trying this build.

Fun Build #1: x10 Archangel Guardian
Fun Build #2: x10 Blade Berserker
Fun Build #3: x10 Polearm Slayer


I've spent hundreds of thousands now, trying to max out one of a kind deck. These fun builds are purely for my own curiosity only.

Do you wish to challenge me? Click here!

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