Map Name: 暗黑者 / Dark Man
Author: wklhy
Taken from: a map collection by Glenn's stream
I've finally finished this map. I've had a long history with it. I found it purely by chance among the Chinese community on GamerHome back in 2017. Since then, I've periodically looked at it in the editor. I tried playing it in 2020; I played for the first three game weeks over three real-time weeks, after which I decided to put it on the back burner. At that time, it seemed to me that it would take at least six months to complete.
In short, that is the main characteristic of the map. It is incredibly labor- and time-consuming. In total, I spent exactly twice as much time tinkering with it as I did with Metataxer. Currently, the map could well establish itself—and has already begun to do so—as a kind of final frontier for an experienced Heroes player. After this, the only strategic map that could potentially surprise a player would be a polished Rise of the Sun King, if a miracle happens and that map ever reaches a playable form.
Overall, the gameplay of Dark Man revolves around the need for precise calculation of hero movements in three different corners of the map: Aine begins her journey in the snows and must escape from the pursuing Dessa within 2 days; Luna, in classic style using a wall of fire, must break through to the Conflux within 3 game days; and the third hero, Pyrrh, is tasked with the rapid liberation of Zidar. For the first three days, Dark Man is awarded the prize for the most tedious start on a strategic map. You'll have to replay a lot before you understand who should move how, which resources and artifacts are necessary, and which ones simply waste movement points. Choosing the starting save is also crucial, and it took me quite a while to finalize my criteria for it. The issue of economy and buildings in available towns is equally acute. Upon first acquaintance with the map, it is very difficult to determine priorities in this regard.
The map itself is open and dynamic; a large number of enemy heroes of varying degrees of "imbalancedness" move freely across the map. The player is free to build their logistics differently, but every choice will have its consequences, so some planning options may turn out to be significantly better than others. Due to the necessity of developing three branches simultaneously, one must think through the walkthrough very carefully, as a mistake in one place leads to replaying the other two. Money and resources are also tight in the beginning; it feels like playing three maps simultaneously with a single budget. Regarding combat, we see a purely Chinese style. There are many battles, often grueling, and several bosses require clever preparatory actions (tricks, entering a town, luring them onto specific tiles), but overall, by modern standards, no "super ideas" are visible in the fights. Moreover, Jedi Strikes Back seemed more brisk in terms of combat, although it is incomparably easier when looking at the big picture.
I will describe the walkthrough roughly week-by-week since the map was completed fairly quickly in game time and there were only 12 weeks, making this format seem justified.
After lengthy reflection on the map and returning to the game, I rolled back from 1.3.6 to 1.1.4. This is because Craig (the hero liberated in Luna's branch) looks much more profitable with Fire in his skill tree rather than Tactics. Moreover, Craig and Luna's branch required optimization. During the first week, they can be played differently, but there is only one optimal outcome: by 1.2.1, both Strongholds in the Barbarian location must be captured. In Zidar and Pyrrh's branch, I initially took the Rust Dragon for a battle later against the titans guarding access to the Armageddon spell, but that wasn't the best decision. Three Arch Devils are sufficient there. Therefore, the route on the lava was also modified in the end. There are the most options for play in the snows. My result for the first week: liberating Orrin, capturing two Towers, and maximizing their build-up for Mage growth.
Regarding plans for week 2 and their implementation: Craig and Luna collect Crystal Dragons, clear the Barbarian location, kill two Barbarians; Craig levels up on neutrals, takes Blindness and Forgetfulness; Luna breaks through the Dragon Utopia; by the end of the week, the heroes prepare for a visit east to the elven towns. Zidar takes Armageddon from behind the titans, captures Josephine's town, and prepares for a visit to Fafnir; Pyrrh accompanies him—her problem was very late logistics leveling, but she somehow manages to keep up with Zidar. Aine and Orrin liberate the Dragon, who will play a decisive role in the walkthrough both due to his direct specialty and the fact that the author gives him a Town Portal directly. We level up Orrin and Aine, take the Resurrection scroll from the gold dragons, and prepare someone (in my case Aine, due to Expert Logistics) to break through 25 titans in the east of the snow respawn. Giants are placed in the central Tower.
Highlights of the third week: on 1.3.1, Aine breaks through 25 titans in a rather nerve-wracking battle. Army composition: 68 Wizards, 5 single Master Djinns, and 1 Mage to ensure a mana reserve. Aine has 100 mana for resurrections. We roll Air Shield and other useful buffs, get morale for the strike stack, and hope for minimum morale for the titans. As a result, Orrin gives Aine 5 previously bought giants, and she triumphantly enters the blue town with unbought growth consisting of 7 titans and 18 mages. This (+20 mages from the pillar) is quite enough for a full clear of the snow location and the final breakthrough on 1.3.7 of the level boss—Ivor, for whom Orrin receives a set of spells in Pandora's box (Force Field and Resurrection being key). Giants are finished in the western Tower. Zidar defeats his level boss—Fafnir; the green key-keeper is visited, who, with proper synchronization of actions, just in time lets the heroes in the snow location through to Ivor; Zidar takes his Pandora's box of spells and clears a safety zone for Pyrrh for the future, breaking through 450 Wizards above the Boots of Levitation in the eastern corner of the underground. Luna and Craig visit the elves and liberate the super-important hero Kyrr, who is immediately leveled up on dwarves and unicorns. Things didn't go very smoothly here. The local elven heroes managed to buy up the third-week growth and were positioned inconveniently, so I decided not to touch them, especially since Uland would soon be liberated in this location, against whom we have no arguments, so he would have taken everything around anyway. Also important is visiting the observatory at 68.83.1. It connects the locations of Craig and Zidar via sight, allowing the latter to quickly move to the elven respawn with the Boots of Levitation.
The quest at 104.21.0 in the snows deserves separate attention. For 7 neutral monsters of different types, a Book of Earth is given. The quest looks extremely vague; at first glance, you have no idea where to get these units, then you realize they are taken from caches scattered across the map, and there is a great temptation to ignore it. Doing so is categorically not recommended; the Book of Earth helps immensely during the intermediate stage from the Dragon learning Town Portal to liberating Astral with proficiency. You need to build your entire walkthrough from the start with the goal of completing this quest, otherwise you'll suffer later or have to find keys specifically to liberate Astral from prison.
Summary of the fourth week: Zidar and Pyrrh slow down, waiting for a visit to the blue tent in Craig's line to then take the Boots of Levitation; Pyrrh digs in on a piece of land behind 450 Wizards. Her further task will be completing a special mission: taking mummies, trolls, and a buyout. For this, a safety point is needed. Initially, a daring attempt was made by Zidar to take Armageddon's Blade and 40 bonus Arch Devils in the north, but it failed. There is such a horde of enemy heroes running around, including the head jailer Gunnar level 108, that Zidar was simply pinned down completely. Consequently, I had to roll back a week of progress. Meanwhile, Orrin together with the Dragon leaves the snow respawn heading south to the Barbarians through a pack of crystals. The Dragon completes the quest for 80,000 experience and gets a good level boost. Until Terekh exits the western Stronghold, there is time to loot well with Orrin. Here is the Mage's crown, the Dragon Utopia, and the scientist with the explosion. Gradually moving east, we hit weak Barbarians along the way. Aine goes for hobbits—this will be the first of 7 elements to complete the quest for the Book of Earth, after which she will sit in the Sanctuary near the hut with this quest. Craig and Luna visit Brohild. At first glance, it seems possible to go straight to Sorsha. For defeating her, we get a bunch of perks and the ability for Craig to learn Resurrection. But the initial optimal choice is Brohild; there can be no other option. Sorsha is stronger, and the profit from taking the blue tent is much greater than the bonuses for Sorsha. The garrison before Brohild is easily annihilated by fairies under Craig; Brohild himself can be tricked and one can settle in a town right under his nose. The battle with him is extremely nasty and random, although I had a decent army, and a quality breakthrough didn't take too long. Kyrr goes south into the sands and steals phoenix growth in one of the towns, and also picks up the Titan's cuirass.
On the fifth week, Orrin and the Dragon continue their path through the Barbarian land and eventually join Zidar. A notable important moment involves the hero Jabarkas. He is on patrol and has a pretty good army for this period, so I didn't even try to bait him with Orrin. For him, Orrin could get a bonus of 800 mana, which would clearly not be extra, but it can be done without. However, what is undesirable to do without is one of the parts of the Wizard's Well. In general, it is important to liquidate Jabarkas quickly, but Zidar will do this a bit later. After visiting the blue tent, Pyrrh finally gets the Boots of Levitation, and Zidar takes Armageddon's Blade, the boots from Pyrrh, buys titans on the way, and leaves for the elven lands, picking up the Elixir of Life from the gold dragons along the way. The next goal is global and is a turning point on the map: breaking through Loynis and capturing the town with the tavern. Craig and Luna's branch slows down slightly due to confusion regarding Uland's movements. Craig reaches Sorsha; the battle with her looks very tense, so the decision is made to wait 1 day for Wizards and a Resurrection scroll from Orrin. Luna digs three tiles in the area of Brohild's town. This Castle is more or less isolated from invasions by enemy heroes, and only one of the four super-bosses of the map with water walking (Tazar, Thorgrim, Gundula, Nimus) could reach us; the rest can forget it. Kyrr collects nomads and thieves. That's already 3/7 units for the КЗ.
The sixth week brings one of the two main victories on the whole map: on 2.2.1 Zidar breaks through Loynis. This provides a town with a tavern in a fairly isolated part of the map, Resurrection and boat summoning for all heroes, an additional hero Caitlin (the only one with the possibility of re-hiring on the map), another pair of Boots of Levitation, the last component of the Sniper's Bow, and a Town Portal for the Dragon on 2.2.2. It sounds like a fairy tale. The only problem is that 2.2.2 is "hour X" for enemy heroes. The first active wave of enemies activates in all sorts of areas of the map; it seems really about twenty heroes are set free. Chaos ensues on the map, and further play will now be built based on the position of enemy forces on the map at any given moment. On 2.2.1, Sorsha falls; Craig collects bonuses for her overthrow. The Cartographer is not needed yet, and Craig learns Resurrection in Loynis's town.
Further descriptions of actions will be less detailed, as the development branches have intersected here, and although the map still tries to hold the player by the throat with an iron grip, the possibilities also increase noticeably. Among the important things done in the 2nd month, the third Boots of Levitation are obtained at 90.110.0. The quest for the Book of Earth is completed on 2.4.2; the hardest part is taking the boars, as one must wait until the AI on 2.2.x remove the blue pillars in that zone. Pyrrh also had a hard time, as the final third wave of AI trigger heroes (Moner and company) drops from above the underground. By the way, regarding the second wave, which should take place on 2.3.2: not everything may work correctly. It depends on Gundula's actions and the opening of the purple tent, but sometimes it doesn't work as intended. Gundula may refuse to pass her quest guard. Fortunately, in my playthrough, everything went smoothly in this regard.
With the Book of Earth, one can slowly start settling matters. The Dragon temporarily becomes a pure courier of the book from hero to hero. Most importantly, there appears a way—albeit not the most convenient—to deliver the necessary hero to the necessary castle. Gradually, we deal with simpler enemies and complete 4/6 quests for army replenishment by 3.1.1. 25 titans and 70 Arch Devils came in very handy; bears were needed later, and I didn't take archangels or thunderbirds. Throughout the 2nd month, Luna fortified the territory around the former town of Loynis; one can dig in such a way that this town can only be reached through the green gates or with water walking, but in any case, the number of guests is greatly reduced. And giving up the town with the tavern to anyone is simply not an option.
At the beginning of the third month, the epicenter of events moves to Jeddit's zone. He has level 868 and zero combat stats. A strange hero, but not easy to break through. The Cloak of Renunciation, knocked out earlier from Gervulf, helped. In the dungeon, there is a mana vortex; for Jeddit, you get bonus harpies, and with them, 4000 Azure are broken through slightly further north. The Azures guard access to another bonus pack of titans, the Grail digging spot, and the Titan's Thunder under hellish guard. Regarding the Grail, the following can be noted: the map encourages active study of the editor, as the author himself mentioned, so it's obvious the player will see the Grail's location. But digging it without visiting obelisks is not very proper, so I stuck to a compromise. I visited the obelisks I could beforehand. By the time of digging, the riddle-map would have allowed finding the Grail even without the editor. The second point was unexpected for me. On 3.1.3, a doubled Orrin broke the guard of the Titan's Thunder—4600 titans split into 7 stacks. Strike stacks consisted of 182 titans and 907 Wizards. AoTD, elixir, Golden Bow (proved more effective than the sniper bow, as it allowed raising army morale to +2 via artifacts), Air Shield, Prayer, Bless. First, I tried with stacks of five phoenixes, but there wasn't enough mana to raise them all, so I replaced the phoenixes with Scorpicorns. At first, I passed on fixed randomness, but then I sat for a couple of hours and won on standard. This was perhaps the most random fight on the map. In the first round, it was necessary to land three paralyses on the first three Scorpicorns; otherwise, I think it couldn't be broken through without losses. But the victory gave a powerful boost: with the Titan's Thunder, some heroes can be killed regardless of stats and army size.
Before the second key victory over an enemy hero on the map after Loynis, namely Malekith, a series of less significant events occurred. Notably, on 3.2.1, I broke Tazar after entering Sorsha's town. The battle turned out to be absolutely non-trivial due to Tazar's lack of offensive magic. It turns out such an AI brings out troops using summoned elementals if the shooters have fired off and all towers are destroyed. This was a surprise. I had to leave one tower, as Tazar let us live then. But another problem arose: he didn't spend mana when we only had elementals, then we raised someone, and he immediately cast Teleport. The solution was as follows: I summoned four stacks of earth elementals and surrounded a phoenix corpse in the bottom left corner with them; after raising the phoenix, Tazar started slowing it and only then cast Teleport. I managed to trade Dispel for Slow. Then followed many thousands of rounds of pounding with Titan's Thunder on auto-battle (4444 Diamond Golems send their regards). Thus, the strongest boss on the whole map was dealt with. Plus, he became the first step toward accessing the Sphere of Vulnerability. The other two are Gundula and Mutare Drake. The second notable point is the liquidation of the main nuisance—Gunnar. A very strong and fast guy who ruins your plans in a heartbeat. I wore him down with tricks (he burned his own titans and Wizards with Chain Lightning), and then Zidar took him with Arch Devils on terrain with a dead tile.
On 3.2.3, the map enters the home stretch. After unrealistic maneuvering against an attack by 4 heroes, Malekith, the guardian of Astral, falls. On 3.2.4, all heroes (there are now 10) learn all useful magic, including Town Portal. Then, as a result of fierce micromanagement, all towns are taken and all AI heroes are killed over two weeks. A significant moment—obtaining the Sphere of Vulnerability (killed Gundula after entering a town, Mutare Drake was tricked with decoys, removing fairytales and titans from the army). With the sphere, the toughest bosses of the map are killed: Kilgor, Solmir, Lord Haart, Moner, Moandor, Sir Mullich. Some battles turned out to be quite interesting. I'll note a technical oversight by the author: the pink operator lacks the patrol radius to open the two upper prisons with Tunar and Elleshara. None of them represent anything supernatural (clearly not Tazar, Thorgrim, or Solmir), but the flaw exists.
The final chord—the battle with Xeron. I thought long about breaking him, as he is stationary, has 99 stats, an anti-blindness amulet, Shackles of War, and a huge amount of troops, while my army at the end of the 3rd month was still small. In short, Orrin was sacrificed, knocking Xeron's stack of "balls" from 5000 down to 12, then Zidar attacked and trapped the fly behind a cart with those hypnosised balls. I traded mana with Xeron, dispelling his anti-magic. Useful artifacts for the finale were the Sphere of Permanence (hypnosis didn't drop upon dispel) and the Mage's Ring (recasting hypnosis once every 110 rounds, low chance of error in a long fight). Over 1000+ rounds, Xeron fell to the Titan's Thunder. On the same day, final victory on 3.4.7. I dare suggest that currently, this is the speed record for completing the map, although I wouldn't call it a speedrun.
Finally, I can summarize. I have developed great respect for wklhy (the scenario author); a very strong and skilled mapmaker. But Dark Man is, as they say, too much. It takes very long to play and is very tiring, designed for robots rather than living people. Overall, the map is top-class, but play at your own risk.
P.S. Thanks for the additional motivation in completing this to users scars of reality and Louis Cyphre, as well as wenwell for help in one moment with entering Thorgrim's town.
Marmot
I had to set the volume to 100% to hear anything at all! It would be good to check this in advance and, if possible, adjust the sound.
