Orcs Must Die 2 Tips

[Ermelindo Klatt]

OrcsMust Die! 3 is a tower defense and beat-em-up game, all about - as a player may expect from the title - killing off as many orcs as possible. The game is a direct sequel to Orcs Must Die! 2 and is the fourth installment in the Orcs Must Die! series.

Many players, whether new or veterans of the series, have been flocking to the game for the interesting take on combat and the satisfaction of clearing out as many waves as possible. There are some beginner tips that a player needs to know before they dive into the game, though.

There is a slew of weapons for a player to use throughout Orcs Must Die! 3. Although a large part of the game does not focus on these weapons, it is still a great idea to upgrade the player's weapon to the maximum.

The player can pick up their weapon and pick off any enemies that are advancing a little too quickly. Whether the player just wants to kill a few enemies to make it easier on the traps or even use it to push the horde back, it is still a good idea to use the weapon to their advantage.

Throughout the game, a player can gather up all sorts of different traps to use against orcs. As to be expected, there are some traps that are more efficient against orcs than others, and most players would want only the best of the best.

Although a player can reasonably use these less efficient traps if it's literally all they have, it's a good idea to sell the more inefficient ones once better traps come along. A player won't be needing them after that, plus they can get a real pretty penny once a few traps are sold off.

Of course, a player must always remember to aim for the weak points of the orc enemies. There are different weak points for different enemies, but almost every orc has a weak point on its head. Shoot that, and it will be an almost instant death, which will allow a player to kill even more orcs that come along.

There is always room for improvement in Orcs Must Die! 3. Whether it is getting a more efficient trap, or making a particular strategy be executed that much quicker than before, a player can always improve their gameplay.

A player can upgrade their traps, unlock weapons by completing challenges, and so on and so forth. Really, as long as a player is steadily progressing towards a faster and upgraded success, they will be able to achieve it pretty easily. Achieving challenges is one of the best ways to improve.

One method that many players have discovered to work wonders against the orcs is to create a bottleneck. This means that, when the orcs start pouring into the area, the bottleneck will force them to only be able to breach the defenses one at a time.

Although multiple orcs may be a bit of a problem for someone to deal with, it's incredibly easy to only pick off one at a time. It might be more of a "fun" challenge for a player to go through all at once, but for a relatively new player, bottlenecking is a great strategy.

Every orc shares a weakness of the head. This is something that every player will figure out after a bit of playing the game. However, apart from that, there are many different weaknesses that each orc has.

It's a good idea to just take a moment to learn about all of the different kinds of weaknesses that orcs possess. By using their weaknesses to the player's advantage, they can make traps that are downright perfect against the orcs in question, and make it easy to clear off waves of the enemies before they breach.

One of the best parts of Orcs Must Die! 3 is that traps can be combined together. An enemy can be stopped with one trap, before being picked off with another. However, it's also a good idea not to overdo the combinations.

It's a good idea to take a moment to think about how the traps will work. For example, one trap could be set off in vain, or another trap could actively harm the sequence that was being built up before that. Take a little extra time to plan things out and traps will perform much more efficiently.

This is an evolving article offering tips for running the D&D Essentials Kit adventure Dragon of Icespire Peak. I'll be updating this article as I run the adventures in the book and gain first-hand knowledge on how to run each of the quests within them.

If you enjoy this article, check out Sly Flourish's bestselling books, weekly newsletter, YouTube videos, twice-weekly podcast, and fan-supported Patreon, all offering tips to help you run awesome D&D games.

The D&D Essentials Kit is the first new entry point for Dungeons & Dragons since the original and excellent D&D Starter Set released by Wizards of the Coast in 2014. The D&D Essentials box includes everything a group needs to play D&D including the adventure Dragon of Icespire Peak. In this article we'll talk about how to get the most fun out of this adventure.

In addition to this article you can watch this Dragon of Icespire Peak video discussion including tips for the first quests in the adventure and thoughts about one-on-one play. Also check out Bob World Builder's Full DoIP Review.

1st level characters in D&D are delicate. A 1st level D&D game is almost a different game. In another article, Building 1st Level Combat Encounters, I recommend the following for 1st level adventures:

Unfortunately, Dragon of Icespire Peak does not follow these guidelines. In the first three adventures, intended for 1st level, the characters face a ochre jelly (CR 2 with immunity to slashing), a CR 2 grappling mimic, and a CR 3 manticore that can inflict up to 21 damage on a turn. Any of these monsters can easily kill a 1st level character. Some groups can get lucky when facing these foes but many may not.

One way to help the characters survive their initial quests at 1st level is to give the characters a relic that casts aid. This relic may only be usable once or you might give it three charges. Aid increasese the hit points of characters by 5 for 8 hours; a big boost for 1st level characters. This relic can be a family heirloom of one of the characters or something given to them before they begin their adventures.

Dungeons and dragons; that's what people want to see and Dragon of Icespire Peak has both. While our characters can hear about the dragon from their first visit to Phandalin, it's something else to see it. When rolling on the "dragon location" table in the "Running the Adventure" section of the adventure book, it's unlikely the dragon will show up at the very location the characters visit. It may, however, be somewhere nearby. When you roll on the dragon's location and its close to a location the characters are traveling to, give them a chance to see the dragon from afar. Nothing beats seeing a dragon in Dungeons & Dragons. Help make it happen.

The Dwarven Excavation quest is a fun exploration of a mysterious temple to the evil dwarven god Abbathor and is my favorite of the first set of adventures in Dragon of Icespire peak. Given the flavor of the dwarven ruin, the text is unfortunately light. Add in interesting information about Abbathor, the dwarven god of greed to fill out the lore of the temple. You can learn more about Abbathor from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes or read about him at the Forgotten Realms Wiki. Characters can make Intelligence (History) or Intelligence (Religion) checks to learn details about Abbathor and his devious followers as they explore his lost temple.

You might add some lightweight tricks and traps to the temple to tie in with Abbathor's theme of trickery and greed. Don't include traps that will wipe out 1st level characters but small dagger, dart, and poison traps fit the theme well. The trap generator or the random trap generator from the Lazy DM's Workbook can give you some interesting and devious traps. In general, traps should have +4 to hit, DC 12 saving throws, and inflict about 3 (1d6) damage. Some traps might apply status effects like blindness, deafness, or poison as you choose. Such traps should annoy rather than threaten. The ancient nature of the temple can explain why these traps aren't as deadly as they once were.

The ochre jellies in this temple can be very deadly for 1st level characters. One easy solution is to replace the ochre jellies with CR 1/2 gray oozes. You can also throw in cloaked dwarven skeletons as additional threats. If the characters are 2nd or 3rd level and have more than two characters (not including sidekicks), you can stick to the jellies but their immunity to slashing and splitting on a slash can still be deadly.

For all of the mysteries and secret doors in this dungeon, it is light on treasure. The final chamber, according to the text, takes 40 hours to dig through and includes no useful treasure; only a deadly trap. We can reduce the time it takes to dig to this chamber to 40 minutes instead of 40 hours and include a magic item or a relic to reward their exploration of the dungeon. The final trap in the dungeon can be anticlimactic since it offers no real reward. Instead of a gemstone sitting in the hand of the statue, it might be a necklace of fireballs around its neck, with the statue holding one such orb in its hand. If someone pulls the necklace away, it blows up. If the one pulling the necklace is careful about it, they can remove that one orb without it blowing up or do so safely away from the statue.

Umbrage Hill is one of the shorter quests in Dragon of Icespire Peak and makes for a great 1st level challenge. The characters arrive at the hill and find a manticore harassing Adabra Gwynn the apothecary. This adventure needs only a little modification. If played to the fullest the manticore can be a deadly opponent, firing three tail spikes from the air per round for an average of 7 damage each. We might describe how the windmill is riddled with tail spikes and that the manticore only has a few left. Should combat begin, the manticore might fire only one tail spike per round instead of three. The manticore might also start off wounded by the dragon, coming to Gwynn for her potions of healing. This offers another line of negotiation other than paying 25 gold pieces to the manticore. Perhaps it needs that 25 gold pieces for a discounted potion of healing from Adabra.

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