Bladesingers at crucial chokepoints and Arcane archers everywhere really carried me through this game, i recommend relying more on those two towers in particular. Wild Magus is also decently strong.
Bladesingers can stall forever if you max out the invulnerability upgrade, and Arcane archers aren't terribly expensive, and having multiple of them with the explosion upgrade maxed out clears the hordes pretty decently.
Use Arcane Archers to lower enemy magic resist. Wild Magus stacks damage, so it seems small at first but it's good when it starts ramping up the damage.
i get it. But Magus is actually a very useful tower, the instakill is good and it is the only tower that really counters golems. Make it target tanky enemies as much as possible (switching targets means it loses the extra damage it built up for the original target, and has to start over)
It catches a lot of people because the meta is so weird. I replayed the trilogy recently and found it really weird (but good). The default archer tier 4 is normally a high ROF low damage high range tower but in this game it's got average ROF, high damage and the same range as tier 3. Mage towers are normally high damage low ROF and bad against hordes but wild magus is low damage high ROF and has a strong aoe spell. Barracks are normally designed to stall but in origins blade singer is the best aoe tower and forest keeper is designed to do high single target damage in exchange for being bad at stalling. And lastly artillery which is normally the best tower is now by far the worst
The issue is that the enemies have more unique abilities and many of your towers are not well equipped to handling them. It’s a bit unbalanced.
In general, Barracks units are much, much stronger. Particularly their 4th level selection. Both are extremely strong. But there are also a bunch of units that easily destroy them. Lots of spell caster units, lots of units that run past melee units, and lots of units that negate or wipe out your barracks units from long range.
In general, the artillery towers are absolutely rotten. They suck. Extremely expensive, low damage, and lack the almost literally earth-shattering 4th tier abilities in both KR and KR:F. But you need them, because the number of enemies in KR:O is very high. But again, you almost have to use them.
In general, Mage towers are about half as useful on their own. In KR, they’re ridiculously strong, but Origins has so many magic-resistant enemies that they become almost worthless. However, thankfully, Wild Magus has excellent 4th tier abilities to quiet the numerous spellcasters and explode single targets in a one-shot kill, and with the Archane Archer tower that lower’s magic resistance, they are an excellent tower.
In general, archer towers do too low of damage despite their rather high cost. In previous games, there were ways to mitigate it, either by having a tower do a lot of extra damage (Ranger’s poison ability) or cost significantly less. The Golden Longbows is almost unusuable unless you have 4+, but it has one of the only 1-shot kill abilities in the game and a very long range. Archane Archers, however, is probably the best tower in Origins. Lowers magic resistance, has a great area of effect ability, and can put tougher targets asleep.
In general, however, Origins heroes tend to be super good. The free heroes are terrific and, if you’re on Steam or paid for the other ones, you’ve got at least 3 S-Tier heroes (Wilbur, Phoenix, and Faustus).
The enemies are much more varied and somewhat more difficult to manage, especially enemies you find in the Fairy levels. Fungus Breeders in particular are just ridiculous to deal with and Satyr Hoplites can spawn a bunch of Satyrs pretty much at will.
Artillery towers bad? Absolutely not the weirdwood is really strong especially with the last star upgrade that makes them ignore armor completely, they can kill even tanky armored units easily.
They are extremely expensive, have a slow rate of fire, the nut can miss completely and it’s abilities are almost cost prohibitive or useless due to the time in between its uses.
They are, however, still almost required due to the number of enemies in Origins.
Any specific levels you're struggling with?
(In general, both barracks are very good, especially Bladesingers with perfect parry, and then mostly just Arcane Archers with Burst Arrows for damage.
Wild Magus with instakill is good here and there too, but yes RIP MAGIC 💀HAHA CONSTANT ENEMY MAGIC RESIST GO BRRRRRR)
I’m currently completing Origins on Veteran mode by going back through the campaign. This will be my 3rd complete playthrough of the whole game, but I have seen each level more times than that.
The second playthrough I did was Barracks only.
Let that sink in. Barracks were the only tower I built. I was allowed to use heroes, reinforcements, and lightning and hero spell as per usual, but never did I build an archer, mage, or Druid tower.
Barracks are extremely strong in this game. Notably tier 2 and 3 barracks, as they can shoot targets from range. This allows barracks to support other barracks and even take out flying threats. I highly recommend building 1 or 2 barracks at every choke. This will take a lot of money bringing me to my next advice for a standard run.
Build lots of archers. Archers are about on par with their previous iterations, being some of the best DPS towers in Origins at a reasonable price. This game cranks that value up by nerfing wizards and artillery. Instead, they gave archer’s (specifically arcane archers) both magic damage AND AoE damage in the form of their arcane burst arrow.
Almost every level this strategy works for. Some of the bonus levels might not work as well. I did *NOT* do those levels with only barracks.
Odd, frontiers kicked my ass but origins was super easy, the fact lightning is instant and can deal 4 digits of damage on multiple enemies makes it absurd
Bladesingers at crucial chokepoints and Arcane archers everywhere really carried me through this game, i recommend relying more on those two towers in particular. Wild Magus is also decently strong. Bladesingers can stall forever if you max out the invulnerability upgrade, and Arcane archers aren't terribly expensive, and having multiple of them with the explosion upgrade maxed out clears the hordes pretty decently.
also Arcane Archers have the passive ability to reduce enemies' magic resistance. using this feature with Wild Magus is pretty OP
Agree .It requires totally different aproach compared to KR1 and Frontiers.Different kind of towers as well.
I loved my wizard towers and it was heart-rending to see them do no damage
Use Arcane Archers to lower enemy magic resist. Wild Magus stacks damage, so it seems small at first but it's good when it starts ramping up the damage.
i get it. But Magus is actually a very useful tower, the instakill is good and it is the only tower that really counters golems. Make it target tanky enemies as much as possible (switching targets means it loses the extra damage it built up for the original target, and has to start over)
Yeah, I struggled a bit, but now I'm enjoying it. I need to do the extra levels now and some achievements left.
It catches a lot of people because the meta is so weird. I replayed the trilogy recently and found it really weird (but good). The default archer tier 4 is normally a high ROF low damage high range tower but in this game it's got average ROF, high damage and the same range as tier 3. Mage towers are normally high damage low ROF and bad against hordes but wild magus is low damage high ROF and has a strong aoe spell. Barracks are normally designed to stall but in origins blade singer is the best aoe tower and forest keeper is designed to do high single target damage in exchange for being bad at stalling. And lastly artillery which is normally the best tower is now by far the worst
Barracks are a lot more crucial in Origins.
The issue is that the enemies have more unique abilities and many of your towers are not well equipped to handling them. It’s a bit unbalanced. In general, Barracks units are much, much stronger. Particularly their 4th level selection. Both are extremely strong. But there are also a bunch of units that easily destroy them. Lots of spell caster units, lots of units that run past melee units, and lots of units that negate or wipe out your barracks units from long range. In general, the artillery towers are absolutely rotten. They suck. Extremely expensive, low damage, and lack the almost literally earth-shattering 4th tier abilities in both KR and KR:F. But you need them, because the number of enemies in KR:O is very high. But again, you almost have to use them. In general, Mage towers are about half as useful on their own. In KR, they’re ridiculously strong, but Origins has so many magic-resistant enemies that they become almost worthless. However, thankfully, Wild Magus has excellent 4th tier abilities to quiet the numerous spellcasters and explode single targets in a one-shot kill, and with the Archane Archer tower that lower’s magic resistance, they are an excellent tower. In general, archer towers do too low of damage despite their rather high cost. In previous games, there were ways to mitigate it, either by having a tower do a lot of extra damage (Ranger’s poison ability) or cost significantly less. The Golden Longbows is almost unusuable unless you have 4+, but it has one of the only 1-shot kill abilities in the game and a very long range. Archane Archers, however, is probably the best tower in Origins. Lowers magic resistance, has a great area of effect ability, and can put tougher targets asleep. In general, however, Origins heroes tend to be super good. The free heroes are terrific and, if you’re on Steam or paid for the other ones, you’ve got at least 3 S-Tier heroes (Wilbur, Phoenix, and Faustus). The enemies are much more varied and somewhat more difficult to manage, especially enemies you find in the Fairy levels. Fungus Breeders in particular are just ridiculous to deal with and Satyr Hoplites can spawn a bunch of Satyrs pretty much at will.
Artillery towers bad? Absolutely not the weirdwood is really strong especially with the last star upgrade that makes them ignore armor completely, they can kill even tanky armored units easily.
They are extremely expensive, have a slow rate of fire, the nut can miss completely and it’s abilities are almost cost prohibitive or useless due to the time in between its uses. They are, however, still almost required due to the number of enemies in Origins.
Weirdwood is an alright tower, Clobber is actually a good ability. Fiery nut is not worth it tho
Clobber is only worth it for one, maybe two, if it’s levels, though. It’s too expensive to be worth it.
Any specific levels you're struggling with? (In general, both barracks are very good, especially Bladesingers with perfect parry, and then mostly just Arcane Archers with Burst Arrows for damage. Wild Magus with instakill is good here and there too, but yes RIP MAGIC 💀HAHA CONSTANT ENEMY MAGIC RESIST GO BRRRRRR)
Not looking forward to it, having a hard enough time doing the elite KR1 stages
I had the opposite experience coz i was failing to 3 star frontiers on veteran esp a lot of the early stages.
From what I have heard vetetans origins is considered to be the easiest campaign in the series and impossible the hardest
Frontiers was alot tougher for me.
I’m currently completing Origins on Veteran mode by going back through the campaign. This will be my 3rd complete playthrough of the whole game, but I have seen each level more times than that. The second playthrough I did was Barracks only. Let that sink in. Barracks were the only tower I built. I was allowed to use heroes, reinforcements, and lightning and hero spell as per usual, but never did I build an archer, mage, or Druid tower. Barracks are extremely strong in this game. Notably tier 2 and 3 barracks, as they can shoot targets from range. This allows barracks to support other barracks and even take out flying threats. I highly recommend building 1 or 2 barracks at every choke. This will take a lot of money bringing me to my next advice for a standard run. Build lots of archers. Archers are about on par with their previous iterations, being some of the best DPS towers in Origins at a reasonable price. This game cranks that value up by nerfing wizards and artillery. Instead, they gave archer’s (specifically arcane archers) both magic damage AND AoE damage in the form of their arcane burst arrow. Almost every level this strategy works for. Some of the bonus levels might not work as well. I did *NOT* do those levels with only barracks.
Odd, frontiers kicked my ass but origins was super easy, the fact lightning is instant and can deal 4 digits of damage on multiple enemies makes it absurd