Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Personally, only two heroes gave me a lot of trouble later on: Gunnar and Tazar. But they were easier to defeat than Zidar.

I hope I won’t encounter them anytime soon, or at least not before I have a decent army.

In general, I killed Zidar in two stages. In the first, the task was to drain his mana so that he wouldn't have enough spell points for Armageddon or Clone. In this scenario, he hasn't learned any other magic yet. The idea during the battle was for the Titan that had finished its attack to immediately engage the enemy Clone, but in the video, things didn't go exactly as planned, but the task was accomplished: Zidar didn't have enough mana for casting in the second battle. It's also important to have the Ring of the Mage so that the antimagic on the Titans lasts until the end of the battle. After that, Gundula enters and kills Zidar. Sandro is the least useful of all the heroes, so he was sacrificed. Then I bought him back in the Necropolis at point 79.0.1.

P.S. I forgot that Gundula's Executioner is a basic unit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXQSbT2FKKE&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCys6g2jTg

Added 4 minutes ago
But after completing the walkthrough, I had some thoughts on how to kill him more easily: on the grass, immediately after exiting the one-way passage, without sacrificing a hero. But this plan needs to be tested. We take harpies, stacks of ifrits, a scorpicore, and a devil into the army. The scorpicore should stun the Titans. During these three rounds, we cast Prayer, Blessing, and finally antimagic on the harpies. Prayer on the devil will give him a speed of 11, meaning he can kill the Titan Clone every turn and also drain mana. It's important that Zidar doesn't hit him with Armageddon or kill him with the Titans. This is a potentially weak point.

Thanks, I'll try to follow the first tactic, because the second one seems too difficult.

Actually, you need to specify exactly which map you are playing. Because "Where the Beauty" is an improved version of "Eternal Love". Here is a quote from the attached description:

There you can use heroes of level 868, 6424 levels, and so on. Most likely, this version is more difficult than the original.

What to do in a situation where a hero of level 6424 after one of the battles becomes level 0? I'm playing with the HD+ plugin SoD_SP. I tried replaying the battle without HD, but the hero still becomes level 0.

update: I tried using the save editor to restore the level, but there is a limit of 99. What a problem.

Don't finish battles; instead, retreat and then relax in the tavern. Finish off enemies with other heroes.

Don't finish battles; instead, escape and then relax in a tavern. Finish off enemies with other heroes.

Such escapes are quite costly. Do you think the author intended for battles to be conducted this way?

I don't know, I haven't seen the map yet. I can only say that the walkthrough for another map by Aeris, Harry Potter, was based precisely on this technique.

Download link: http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=Wings+of+heaven&type=&size=&difficulty=&sort=3

Genre: RPG.
Plot: You are Nightrider, a powerful alchemist. You`re mission is to find the artifact Angel wings so you can fly to Heaven and kill the Evil angel that lives there.. You will have Monere the planeswalker to help you.
Do not lose either of them or your mission will fail.
A well-known old map by one of the cartography masters. For experienced players, it is frankly easy. Two main heroes, unable to meet for a long time, each follow their own long and winding path forward.

Before you is pure heroic "classic," without trendy gimmicks, where victory over enemies is possible only with the help of particularly sophisticated techniques.
There is little plot text, and the story is simple, so you won't have to strain yourself from this side either.
The general linearity prevents you from getting lost or guessing where to go and what to do next.
Although there are hidden objects and secret passages on the map, there are also hints nearby to ensure you don't miss anything.

Some time after the start of the game, the main heroes move quite far ahead of their starting towns, so helper heroes require more and more time to hire troops in towns and deliver them to the heroes. However, regular army replenishment is not as essential here as on other maps. And, as it turned out, this problem is resolved after some time thanks to obtaining Town Portal.
You also won't have taverns for a long time, as other heroes aren't very necessary, except for delivering troops, and even then only until obtaining Town Portal. In some places, you will free helpers from prisons.

The heroes only have to try relatively hard in the very first battles with enemies, as they don't have advanced spells yet, and their magic power and knowledge do not yet allow them to use them in the required quantity. Therefore, these battles are fought with losses. Also, Nightrider will probably have to strain himself during the trek through the cursed land for the Admiral's Hat. After that, everything becomes easier and even constantly gathering troops is no longer that important, although still useful.
After some time, Monere gathers the Angel Alliance, and Nightrider — Titan's Rumble.
Contrary to my fears, on 5-1-4 Monere opened another chest on the cross-shaped island and learned Town Portal from it. Now troop delivery will cease to be a problem.
And a bit later, Nightrider visited the island, where he was given Town Portal from a Chest.
After some time, Nightrider captures 2 Castles, which finally have taverns.
At the beginning of the 7th month, we begin to receive significant gifts of troops and resources for our successes in the war.
On 7-1-2 I captured another Dungeon, and Purple disappeared from the map.
Towards the end, you will encounter a prison with Fire lord, guarded by 4000 crystal dragons. Freeing him is not mandatory (that area can be bypassed via a dungeon, where you must defeat Crystal lord anyway), but by taking the best artifacts and more high-level creatures, it is entirely possible to do so, and the reward will be truly priceless. And if you want a fight with very serious enemy forces, then this battle (and not the final one) will be the coolest on the entire map.
When another passage guardian (in cell 89,40) demands the Angel Alliance, do not rush to be upset: another Alliance lies nearby in a dungeon, where you need to free Turis from prison.
On 7-2-6 I beat Aragorn, and Orange disappeared from the map.
The battle with Josephine on 7-2-7 was already a bit more serious: she did not perish in just one round.
On 7-3-1 Pink disappeared from the map.
After destroying Pink (Monere reached him first in my case), we visit the seer's hut, who gives the coveted Angel Wings. Just like that!
It's a pity that you still cannot capture the last Necropolis of Turquoise, which were previously unreachable. On the other hand, you can dig up the Grail.
Well, the final battle with Evil Angel is definitely far from today's standards: really, is this a scary main boss? With 10000 fire birds obtained from Fire lord, the battle lasted 1 round. Without them, it would have been longer, but still confident and completely effortless.
So, on the 7th month, 4th week, 5th day I was congratulated on victory.
Result: 194 days.

Added after 20 minutes

This map is originally called "Les Forces du Mal", it is French, but an English translation made by them was posted on the celestialheavens.com website.
Genre: RPG.
Plot: The world is one vast chaos, and Hell is never far away. Annihilate the forces of darkness and eternal peace will open its doors...
The map is quite easy at all stages of completion. Almost all races are represented, except for elves (Rampart), mages (Tower), and elementalists (Conflux, which wasn't in RoE yet). Here we have several "ordinary" enemies starting from zero, just like us, and one initially strong enemy: Turquoise (Dungeon). All "ordinary" enemies can be reached either through whirlpools or through garrisons with strong guards, while Turquoise can be reached either through very strong garrisons from the shore or by air. The author is kind; resources are not taken away — on the contrary, they are sent regularly, and a significant additional growth of troops appears in the town regularly. There are, however, a couple of "nasty surprises": an ambush at sea and an event that takes away all mana, but you may never stumble upon them.

Although the map is easy, there is an author's intent. It is evident that the map is thought out, rather than just monsters, treasures, and such being scattered around. In my opinion, an easy map with a certain intent is better than a hard one without intent. If you wish, you can complete the map quickly to set your personal record, or you can simply explore it, collect artifacts, level up heroes, etc.
The sea on the map is not just present as a landscape element; it plays a very important role: whirlpools connect the domains of different players and the "neutral" waters of the great sea. Also, it is not empty at all — on the contrary, it is full of useful things.
You can choose the race you want to play: Castle, Stronghold, Fortress, Necropolis, Inferno.
Easy start, high development speed, good hero leveling, large armies, the ability to obtain all artifacts and spells, and a high degree of freedom due to the absence of a strictly defined sequence of actions.
Far from every author's map, even more difficult ones, possesses all the listed advantages.

Traveling through whirlpools if you want to reach a specific place can often be tedious, as you have to spend 2-3 minutes "diving."
An unguarded sea cartographer and a very weakly guarded land cartographer.
The location of the Grail designated by the author is such that in a leisurely game, Turquoise will most likely dig it up and install it. This doesn't make the game harder, but it's still disappointing.

I chose the Green color (Castle).
Besides the fact that the main heroine, Adelaide, has the diplomacy skill, almost all monsters around have a neutral disposition; as a result, 9 out of 10 want to join us. But I beat everyone, making an exception only for 9 devils at the southern portal of glory: they would be useful for a secondary hero so that he could also carve his way through while leveling up. Ash became such a hero for me. She also had a useful skill: literacy.
Due to the author's inattentiveness, the angels who were supposed to guard the fort on the hill stand on a "diagonal" cell, and therefore they can only be beaten from the sea, while the fort can be visited without fighting them. Much later I attacked them, and they... joined.
On 2-3-4 I beat Vidomina, and Purple was the first to disappear from the map.
On 3-1-2 I beat the last hero of Orange, and he disappeared.
On 3-2-2, Turquoise's hero made a jump across volcanoes to the shore of the island and entered a summoned boat. This turned out to be Malekith with 540 troglodytes. I must hurry and beat him: the less he manages to learn and capture, the better. On 3-2-4 I attacked him and beat him in one hit. From him, I took the Wizard's Hat, Tome of Fire Magic, and a few other things. I won't deprive myself of the pleasure and will honestly clear the remaining weak enemies in the usual way, and then I will try to wrest the Angel Wings from the black dragons and figure out how to get to Turquoise's domains.
On 3-3-6 I beat Zidar and took the Tome of Earth Magic, Sphere of Vulnerability and a number of other useful things from him.
On 3-4-1, capturing the Necropolis taken by Brown in the center of the land world, I finished off this enemy.
On 4-1-4 I beat the last heroine of Blue, and he disappeared.
On 4-2-2 Red ceased to exist and only Turquoise remained.
Leaving all troops in the city except archangels (I had 320 of them), I doubled my mana reserve and set off to wrest the Angel Wings from the black dragons; with the Sphere of Vulnerability and berserker, this is easy. I beat the first 4000, but there are 2 more of 4000. Having killed the dragons, I boldly reached for the Wings, but... it turned out they were guarded by invisible titans! Well, I'll beat the titans too. Actually, there turned out to be as many as 2 stacks of 9000. But forgetfulness and berserker gave them no chance.
After this, Adelaide flew to the southeastern swamp island for the Tomes of Earth and Air Magic. The books turned out to have hidden guards — that's why Turquoise didn't take them, even though he passed nearby. This is good, as it should be. For the Tome of Air Magic, I had to deal with 63000 chaos hydras!
On 4-3-2 Jeddit, Turquoise's strongest hero, suddenly flew to the island with the "monster parade" and began either destroying them or recruiting them (it turned out they also had a neutral disposition). I must not delay the battle with him so that his army does not become too large. Yes, the next day Jeddit got archangels, so he definitely recruited them. When I tried to attack him the next day, my worst fears were confirmed: he has the Sphere of Banning! Therefore, I need to take the fastest and toughest troops. And I will do this later, as right now I only have archangels and champions with me.
Flew to the island with the Magic Tomes, beat 63000 archangels and took the Tome of Earth Magic, dealt with 63000 gold dragons and took the Tome of Water Magic.
Visiting another obelisk, I guessed where the Grail lay, but saw a hole there. Opening this place in the editor, I immediately became convinced both that this was the spot and that Turquoise had already dug up the Grail. So, now all that remains is to deal with him.
Stopping on the cell before the garrison on the border of Turquoise's domains to honestly break through the no longer scary water elementals, I learned that Boat Summon cannot indeed be learned in cities by chance: an event just gave me this spell (obviously, according to the author's design, Turquoise was supposed to receive it). Broke through the garrison, captured the first Dungeon, in which I learned Fly.
On 4-4-2 Turquoise's northeastern island was captured.
In the other Dungeons were Town Portal, Water Walking (which weren't encountered in other towns).
On 5-1-1 I captured Turquoise's last town and beat his heroes on it. Only Jeddit remained.
On 5-1-2 this scoundrel landed on the shore of his island in the only cell where I couldn't attack him. And from there he could capture one of the 2 nearest Dungeons.
The next day he did exactly that, and for some reason stepped out of the town. I jumped there, took the Dungeon and attacked him. Alas, he managed to recruit phoenixes and had a cape of speed, so he attacked first. Despite the Sphere of Banning, Prayer from the Angel Alliance worked, which helped significantly. Enemy defeated, I won!
Result: 115 days.
At the end of the game, Adelaide had skills: 84/85/98/84. Visiting the Magic Spring, she received 3360 mana! Eh, if only Yog had that much in Wayfarer!

Wings of heaven

Author: Stefan Kispalko (Darklord)

Download link: http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=Wings+of+heaven&type=&size=&difficulty=&sort=3

At the beginning of the game, before the hero Moner, there is a scholar who teaches the Resurrection skill, but due to the lack of a spellbook, we are given a primary skill. Do you think this is a bug or a feature? =) or did the author simply forget to give the spellbook at the start?

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.

Oh, I didn't think there would be problems with a regular battle, but unfortunately, that's not the case. The battle is very similar to the recent one against the Conflux, where you need to kill phoenixes and then archers. But here's the catch: 4,000 elves have immunity to Forgetfulness and Blindness, so if in the previous battle, harpies destroyed 30-40 phoenixes, here they only destroy 2-12 hit points each, and there are 155 of them. The hero Mephala from the Rampart and the last red on the map, The Lord of the Rings. Also, if you hit the elves with a harpy or someone else who isn't a ranged attacker, the dragon will immediately fly out of the garrison. In 2-3 turns, 4,000 elves destroy 600 warlocks, which allows the harpies to attack the hit points a couple of times, but it doesn't help much. There's also the Cursed Armor, which sometimes helps and sometimes makes the situation worse against it. Maybe I attacked him too early, but there's nowhere else to go except behind the core tent, but in front of the tent is a hero with 900 hit points and 600 titans, so even though I can take the tent, it's problematic, and how is it possible that the red hero is still alive and will prevent me from moving forward?

On Mephala, I went in with a sniper bow and a thousand Wizards (I spent a long time figuring out how to kill Styg, and only then realized that I could halve the Ifrit stacks with poison). I don't remember any other details, but I don't think there were any difficulties.

Added 1 minute ago
The Wizards, under the Frenzy effect, seemed to grind down everyone.

Why use the sniper bow? There's a golden one available. There are only 650 Wizards; you can skip them, go to the Stronghold, collect the Horn of Plenty, and exchange it for 200 Wizards. Besides, Frenzy isn't very effective; the Wizards will just kill them and start attacking the harpies.

From memory, in that battle, you can effectively block both stacks of elves for the first couple of turns, keeping all enemy troops in place. And during that time, the wizards destroy the gold and pegasus units. But I don't remember the battle very well, so I might be wrong.

The sniper bow provides significant additional damage to archers when the hero has ranged attack as a secondary skill. Considering that we have Orrin and Frenzy, those 130 or so gold dragons from 600 wizards should theoretically be defeated in two shots ;)