Walkthroughs for custom maps.

It's likely a mistake. But it has practically no effect on the rest of the game, as Moner captures the town and buys a spellbook very soon. Furthermore, for a long time, he has an army from the Conflux, where only phoenixes and fairies are resurrected. Later, snipers are added to them, and eventually, there will be an opportunity to take only desired troops with you (I dumped the elementals in one of the towns and didn't carry them anymore).

Added after 55 minutes
Download link (SoD version): http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=The+5th+element&type=The+Shadow+of+Death&size=&difficulty=&sort=3

This map is included in the list of best maps for "Heroes 3" according to the HeroesPortal censor.
As stated in the description, this map is an English translation of the first map of a Bulgarian campaign of the same name.
On the same site, Beorn later posted the two subsequent episodes, also translated into English (the 3rd map looks like a remake of the first).
Genre: RPG. And perhaps, the map is one of the best in its genre (albeit with some reservations).
Plot: Four sorceresses, young masters of the four elements have been entrusted together with a great mission by the Council of the Mages. The only way to be successful if they put aside their suspiciousness against each other, cooperate and work together to solve this task.
Victory Condition: bring the same Alliance of angels to the Conflux Magic University. It should be added immediately that it is impossible to win by standard conditions: after destroying all encountered enemy heroes, the enemies will still have towns in the northeast of the dungeon, which are unreachable, but they won't be able to get out from there either.
After completing their magic training, 4 sorceresses must perform one large and very responsible task, and along the way, a couple of others that are no less important.
Each wizard is a master of only one school of magic – water (Aurora), earth (Xena), fire (Ignissa) and air (Neela). Accordingly, they can only use spells from "their" schools of magic.
Each sorceress operates in her own part of the map. They will be able to meet very soon – closer to the finale. Until then, they help each other from a distance, visiting key-holders' tents and completing tasks that allow others to move forward.
During the walkthrough, the wizards must defeat very serious enemies – the Sisters brothers (as well as Lord Haart). After some time, each sorceress will have an assistant (released from prison), who will visit... not mills, but external dwellings: they are exclusively important here, because in towns you will only have individual dwellings.

The map is in a "classic" style, without the use of any tricky techniques or game bugs.
4 heroines act independently, each has many of her own small tasks; exploring the map as it opens and moving forward is the main interest. The path of each sorceress looks long and winding, while their paths do not cross until the finale.

To be honest, despite some interesting design, fighting with spells from only one school of magic for each sorceress is not that interesting in practice. After all, the magic system in "Heroes 3" is strong precisely because any hero can learn any spells and use almost any (considering creature classes).
The main complaint: I would have liked a different development of events and finale, and in my opinion, it would have been better from the point of view of revealing the magical abilities of the heroines. Let each of them, having completed her path, receive a Tome of magic of her element and with its help show what the magic of specifically her school is capable of, and defeat the most serious enemies, receiving an adequate number of troops. And the sorceresses would only meet in the finale. I would also like to see the final battle completely differently: against a powerful enemy or garrison and using all magic "to the fullest". But it... is not difficult, but "stupid", because we gave away all 4 magic books before this, and were left with a dozen earth spells (for Xena) and several scrolls.
The appearance of a monster in cell 42,27 at the start of a new week will make the map impassable. The author should have left at least one more free cell there, as there is plenty of space around. Moreover, the view of this place will only open to the player in the finale, and finding out about the occupancy of the cell before that can only be done using a cheat code. A good remedy against this would be using the SOD_SP plugin together with the HD mod: it prevents the appearance of a real monster on week (as well as plague month and provides a number of conveniences in battle).
Scams (you can't call them otherwise): in various places there are seers promising generous rewards for parts of the Alliance of angels. But Alliance components exist on the map only in single copies, so you must not perform such an exchange under any circumstances! Similarly, you must not give the Tome of fire magic to the seer: all 4 Tomes of magic will need to be given to the guards at the end! Maybe this is author's humor, but I don't find it funny. I believe that tasks on a good RPG map should be logical and adequate. Or perhaps this was the result of the author changing the original plan and previously non-mandatory artifacts became mandatory, while the seers remained.
After obtaining the Dimension Door, an unfair or impatient player may skip some tasks and even shorten their path in several places. However, most mandatory tasks will still have to be completed.
After defeating all available enemies, it seems that the finale is near, but in fact there is still a rather long way to go to get the Tome of air magic and the Grail. Here the author should have either given the player the Dimension Door later or significantly shortened the further path, because, frankly speaking, interest in the map weakens greatly at the final stage and becomes weaker with each day. Moreover, while one of the heroines makes a journey for the Grail, the others simply idle, as other important tasks have already been completed by them.

Play the map only in "pure" SoD ("The Shadow of Death" or "Complete Collection"), but not in WoG, HoTA or any other mod that changes gameplay! What this can lead to – an example from a discussion of this map:

M2: I rescue Mogus, but his tome of earth is not include Town Portal.
ArchDruid: I think you started the map with Hota exe. When you play in Hota, the disabled spells won't appear in spell book, even if you have the Tome or Spellbinder's hat.

Read the texts carefully. You cannot lose any of the 4 sorceresses, any component of the Alliance of angels, any Tome of magic; at the very beginning, you cannot lose the fairy and the ifrit until you reach the corresponding guards.
If a new week leads to the appearance of neutral monsters on the map, save the game and check using a cheat code whether a monster appeared in cell 42,27. If so, the map has become impassable and it is necessary to replay the previous day or only the turn transition so that this does not happen, as there is only one cell where you can land to take the Helmet of Heavenly Thunder.
Before going with Ignissa into the one-way monolith in cell 39,84, it is advisable to collect more creatures with resistance or immunity to magic in general or fire magic (golems, fire elementals) and preserve them as much as possible in battles before this: they will be very needed later, and returning to take them will already be impossible.
Ignissa should be the first to complete her mission almost to the end. After defeating all encountered enemies in the Castles in the south (this is where the aforementioned creatures will be needed) and capturing the Inferno, she will use a Portal to transport herself to Xenobya, visit the purple tent, defeat Lord Haart and release the wizard Mogus from prison (who is that very missing "fifth element").
The author prepared two traps for Ignissa:
1) the first and strongest of enemies who will attack her himself, Brother No 4, has Armageddon's Blade and actively uses it! And since he has archangels and the action takes place on grass, they attack first, and berserk is not as effective.
2) in the Inferno, which also stands on cursed ground, a rather strong necromancer army is hidden (though without a hero).
Mogus has a Tome of earth magic, with which he will go to the swamps and complete 2 of his tasks. After this, he will pass the Tome of earth to the earth witch (Xena), and she will solve the rest of the combat tasks, visiting all our towns, meeting all heroines, collecting the best troops and artifacts.
After visiting the white tent, you can remove the guard in the north and visit the obelisk and observatory; now you can see where the Grail is buried, and there they also give us a hint about the location of the Tome of air magic.
It is necessary to dig up the Grail, and then be sure to install it in the Tower (but not in a town of another type): only by opening the entire map will you see the place where the Helmet of Heavenly Thunder lies.
Having taken 5 components of the Alliance of angels, you will wonder: where is the Helmet of Divine Enlightenment? Here we have another task, as guards block the passage to it from two sides, requiring one to be Ignissa (in the north) and Aurora (in the south). But Ignissa is to the south of there, and Aurora – to the north? I hope the author didn't make a mistake but did this intentionally. The task is solvable, as to the west of there are magical plains where Ignissa can portal into any necessary town.


At first and in the first months, I liked the map very much. However, when the sorceresses each reached "their" evil brothers who must be defeated, I assumed that soon the wizards would be able to meet, combine troops, exchange spells and as a result effectively defeat all enemies. And I waited for this for some time. But soon it became clear that I had overlooked something.
The sorceresses cannot fight all enemies alone: considering that each has only spells of "their" magic school and only some creatures, mainly from external dwellings, the balance of power is far from in our favor and defeating opponents is very problematic. Some enemies can be beaten at the cost of significant losses, others cannot be overcome at all. Perhaps the air witch fares best: having lost part of her troops (thanks to archangels who resurrect some of the fallen warriors), she first kills one brother, then can kill a second, but already with the loss of almost all troops.
The fire witch has had the Tome of fire magic for some time, and expert berserk with a decent mana pool should, it seems, ensure her a quick and easy victory. But on grass, enemies with archangels have more speed, so berserk will not be of much use, and losses will be high.
Things are even worse for the earth witch (she even has Resurrection, but too little mana) and very bad – for the water witch: "her" enemy kills her effortlessly due to a huge superiority in troops, and she can only accumulate elves and green dragons upgraded to gold.
At this stage, I put the map aside and returned to it only after 1.5 years, when I read in a discussion on the Maps4Heroes site what needs to be done next. RoseKavalier wrote that after Ignissa completes her tasks, the player will be able to release a hero with the Tome of earth magic from prison, after which the walkthrough becomes not difficult, as I had hoped.
On the 7th month, 2nd week, 6th day I captured Magic University, entered it, and was congratulated on victory.
Result: 181 days.