NOTICE

Steam likes to have images disappear at random times from their guides (a recurring problem I've seen discussed on the community forums). If you see this happen here. Please comment and I'll reupload the image. Thanks.

For now, you can view my Orcs related videos on youtube at this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDGmH1zrz-8SHP8enB-bKiAPHfb4jyJqA

TERMS

Checkerboard/staggered:
This means place two traps in an alternating, checkerboard-like pattern. Such as below:

X O X O X O
O X O X O X
X O X O X O

A NOTE ON DIFFICULTY
In OMD!1 and 2 there are three difficulties: Apprentice, War Mage, and Nightmare and you could earn a max of 2 skulls on Apprentice. In OMD!3 Apprentice let's you get up to 5 skulls and Rift Lord difficulty replaces Nightmare. In terms in difficulty overall, OMD!1 was the hardest, OMD!3 is the next hardest, and OMD!2 is the least hardest (although there are still very tough maps in 2). Rift Lord reduces your par time and is more difficult than Nightmare used to be. OMD!3 seems to want you to engage the orcs with your weapons more than 1 and 2 expected. Rift Lord difficulty is like a harder version of Nightmare from OMD!2. It demands only your best play. I think most people would enjoy Rift Lord as part of a duo rather than solo.

MAP LEGEND

LARGE BLUE CIRCLES represents rifts
SMALL BLUE CIRCLES represent Shaman totems that disable traps in Cold As Eyes
GRAY DOORS are doors that are inactive doors, with no enemies that wave, in-game
RED DOORS are active doors, with enemies that wave, in-game
YELLOW DOORS are all doors in map previews; and opening doors, with enemies that wave, in-game

SMALL RED DOTS are normal enemies
LARGE RED DOTS are Heavy/Very Heavy enemies
SMALL YELLOW DOTS are explosive enemies like sappers and dynamite archers
LARGE RED DIAMONDS are Gnoll Hunters.
LARGE YELLOW DIAMONDS are Gnoll Grenadiers.

NOTA BENE

Unlike my Orcs 2 guide, DLC map strategies will assume co-operative play. They are simply too hard for me to complete on my own. Strategies for War Mage and Rift Lord are presented when possible.

I have discovered that if there are barricades near the hunter, and you are far away, the hunter will destroy the barricades and then go after you. It's better to kill the hunters and potentially die, if you die while engaged with hunters, they will go to where you spawn (the rift) rather than attack the barricades.

vs
1 green player icon means I was able to use this strategy to complete the map in single player on Rift Lord difficulty. 2 yellow player icon means I was able to use this strategy to complete the map only in co-operative on Rift Lord difficulty.

NORTH WING



LEVEL MAP PIC


This is an introductory level. At first you won't really have much to speak of but you can beat this level with just your weapons. Later on, you can use barricades to force the orcs along the wall and then either use grinders or other wall traps to kill the orcs. You'll want to move traffic in the direction of the Yellow line. You'll want to alternate tar and spikes or brimstone to destroy your foes. You likely won't need to do anything fancy or build more than 2-3 traps deep.

You will not have a lot of time or money to get 5-skulls. Rift Lord apparently is no nonsense when it comes to kill boxes. I don't find the short par time or low funds to be particularly fun. Challenging yes--but not necessarily fun. You'll just have to get right up on that door and just kill everything before it gets a tile too far. You will barely have enough time for par time otherwise.

GREAT ROOM



LEVEL MAP PIC


When you only have a few traps you can use your traps to taper from the entrance to the rift.
I filled it in as I had money with the general pattern:

At the gate: arrow walls, brimstone, spikes, spikes, spikes, brimstone, arrow walls
Row 2: brimstone, spikes, spikes, spikes, brimstone
Row 3: brimstone, spikes, spikes, brimstone
Row 4: brimstone, spikes, spikes, brimstone
Row 5: brimstone, spikes, brimstone
Row 6: brimstone, spikes, brimstone



The enemies should never reach row 6 but if they do you're there to shoot them.

You can also barricade and force them along either wall and into grinders. I'm not sure if the grinder's reach is long enough to hit them from the inset wall since the orcs never got past the first grinder + brimstone patch.

RIFT LORD ...

SIDE ENTRANCE



LEVEL MAP PIC


In the beginning you can checkerboard this area (with the yellow line) with arrow walls, spikes, and brimstone. When your traps are upgraded you can use barricades to force enemies along the wall with grinders and ceiling traps.

This map is essentially the same on Rift Lord, but you have armored ogres and gnoll hunters in the mix. You should be able to run this trap essentially the same way, I do like to add brimstones behind the barricades if I have extra money/time though so the gnoll hunters get a hot foot!

I used barricades, 1 tar, brimstone, laser ceilings, butterflies, and grinders.

HIDDEN DOCK



LEVEL MAP PIC


There are 3 strategies for this one.

TRIED FIRST:
A very small trap patch in the top-left orange square, with a remaining traps surrounding the larger top-right orange square. I had to run back and forth covering each entrance, using my weapons mostly for the left entrance and relying on spikes/brimstone for the stragglers. Rarely did I have to run down a kobold.

TRIED SECOND:
Once I had barricades I blocked off the left and the middle corridors and set up a kill box on the right corridor. Much easier to monitor and safe with no sappers (at least on Warmage). Rift Lord has sappers that would come from either end. Lasers might catch the sappers but they are not always reliable in my experience.

TRIED FINALLY:
DId open checkerboard traps of spikes and brimstone on each side of the bridges in the bottom red box. Lining pillars with arrow traps and grinders (especially good when they have to hug corners). Grinders on corners they have to turn, arrow walls opposite for reach. By the end I had traps fuily covering the area. With more money I would've put down some ceiling traps just before the rift. This would probably not work on Rift Lord. Par time was close but still safe.

RIFT LORD ...

I prefer to play this cooperatively but essentially the strategy is the same: block one side with barricades and use brimstone to prevent sappers. In the other corner have a line of barricades, grinders, tar, lasers.

SPLIT STAIRS



ON ONE STAIRCASE ...

The lasers won't be needed on non-Rift Lord difficulty



ON THE OTHER STAIRCASE ...

As long as you stay near the kill box, the sappers will go for you and your barricades there and ignore the other barricades. But I would still put lasers up for extra insurance. If you wander too far away though, either sets of barricades are fair game.

THE LAVA PITS



This is the first of the War Scenarios. Flashback levels with special bosses and a huge amount of orcs. The kill box works for all difficulties. I used barricades initially, but after some consideration I would now alternate brimstone and tar in a checkerbox and alternate saw blade launchers and acid sprayers (freeze sprayers upgraded) on the walls. Lasers for the ceilings or possibly swinging maces.

KILL BOX PIC


If you can get on top of one of these rocks, you can kill Cragg before he disables your traps without being attacked yourself.

ATTACKING CRAGG PIC


BOSS: CRAGG
The last wave the boss CRAGG shows up. He will activate his power which is to temporarily disable traps. When he's getting ready to do so he will stop and smash his weapon on the ground.

CLOSE QUARTERS





The Orange boxes are your killbox areas. The Red lines show where your two barricades force the enemies against the wall. Then you use various wall, floor and ceiling traps. Pounders are good, arrow walls and grinders are good, and of course, tar, spikes, and brimstone. It's easy to fall into the slime channels between each path but thankfully you will not be penalized Rift Points if you die.

RIFT LORD ...

I have real difficulty with this map solo--However putting the mobs against the wall with a snaking barricade helps ease the issues if you can manage to get through the first two waves. Just remember that sappers will be eventually coming and put out some brimstone for them before they arrive.

The pink line shows roughly how the barricades snake.

CLIFFSIDE



On the left ...


On the right ...


KILLING THE BIG ONES ...
If you haven't done so by now, you may want to consider using the frost amulet when going into levels now to directly address Ogres and Trolls. The idea is you freeze the big monsters and then head shot them to kill them quicker.

RIFT LORD ...

Essentially the same strategy, the only real difference is that you put the barricades at the top of the stairs and on wave 2 put 2-3 brimstone to block sappers at the bottom of the stairs. Due to the brimstone money is a little tight so I just kept a simpler kill box by 3 barricades from the right wall and then adding grinders, brimstone, lasers, and tar as money became available.

FRONT LAWN



This set up lets you do plenty of trap variety and works on all difficulties.





BOSS: GHORBASH
The last wave the boss GHORBASH shows up. He will destroy any barricades he encounters.

COASTAL HALLWAYS





The Red line is where you will put 3 barricades
The smaller Orange box is where you should put up a grinder, 1-2 brimstone and possibly a tar trap. It's possible that you can avoid this entirely because you will spend all your time in the larger Orange box--your killbox and the sappers always seem to go towards this one since you're in it. Though I have yet to try to do so. Below is a screen capture of my anti-sapper set up.



The main kill box will checkerboard brimstone, spikes, possibly tar for the floor; you'll want haymakers for the ceiling (and you'll want to cover that entire ceiling by the end since there'll be lots of Ogres and Trolls. You'll want grinders for areas the orcs will get near the wall and arrow traps where they won't. A preview of my killbox is below.

RIFT LORD ...

You will barricade the opposite stairs with your kill box with brimstone and use the spike wall trap, brimstone, and stone staff as your primary defense. The first wave you can block off the unguarded stairs with just barricades, before the 2nd wave you'll want to put down some brimstone patches to protect the barricades from sappers. It's highly likely that the sappers will ignore these barricades and go for you anyway, but I cannot guarantee it.

Here is a partial playthrough to help explain what I built to pass the map:
https://youtu.be/JzkQ6eXrk1w

SECRET FORTRESS





The Orange box is where you'll make your stand. You'll put grinders on either side of the bridge. Two barricades will force enemies to the grinders. Two tars will be placed in front of the grinders. The rest is spikes and brimstone checkerboarded. It's pretty straight forward really. Only the first wave is the most difficult. You can and should build up a few traps before your main kill box to protect it from the sappers that show up.

RIFT LORD ...

Due to all the armored ogres you will have to invest in lightning traps. I did ceiling lasers, arcane brimstone, wall chargers, blade launchers. See the screenshot below:

MAGE TOWER



On the southern staircase ...


On the northern staircase ...


Either setup can use single or double barricades.

This strategy works for all difficulties.

https://youtu.be/avhDwq8MelQ


BOSS: MOGRIFEL

The last wave the boss MOGRIFEL shows up. He's about as fast as a normal Kobold runner, but will hop right over barricades. He always enters from the north.

MASTERS COURTYARD

(short only by a few seconds on par)



For this one you'll want the double long barricades with the reduced cost. Block off the paths using the long barricades as indicated by the Red line. Enemies might get conused here so pay attention if anyone lingers to long or start attacking the barricades. Most of the time it's not a problem but sometimes the AI can break. The Orange box is your kill box. Use arcane brimstone and spikes for the checkerboard, arrow walls or grinders for the walls on either side and a ceiling trap. I'm partial to lasers that add extra lasers. Par time was close so it helps if you get in front of the doors on the first 3 waves and manually take out bad guys.

This level is do-able using the same strategy for Rift Lord. As always with Rift Lord, the first wave is a make or break wave since there are just a few shy of five million mobs. For my kill box I just alternated spikes and brimstone and put a lot of swinging maces on the ceiling. Do not have them swing towards the rift because it will knock enemies into the rift. Also you will want to be quick about killing enemies on your own because par time will be a killer. On the first wave, focus on mobs only when they're heading towards your rift, otherwise don't worry about them--but you will always need to hunt down stragglers to shave down your time.

SLUDGE SHELVES





There are two trap areas you need to set up. The smaller kill box is for the northern entrance. While you get enemies nearly every wave here it goes first the northern entrance--and then the southern entrances. Once the northern entrance has a large wave and then stops, and then the rest come from the southern entrances.

You can generally get away with a smaller kill box up north (such as below, had them walk through tar and a swinging mace--later waves had to expand the kill box, you always need to help both kill boxes): You will get gnoll hunters on the northern gates every wave.

1st wave: northern entrance
2nd wave: south-most entrance
3rd wave: both southern entrances
remaining waves: northern entrance, after a short pause, southern entrances



But your southern kill box will always need attending. On Apprentice, you will not have any issues. On War Mage you will need to keep it under constant monitoring. I often had little time to finish up the northern waves when I had to run back to prevent enemies from going into the rift--usually only a handful of enemies but it came close.



RIFT LORD ...

Rift Lord is essentially the same strategy--but you will not have any time to rest. You build a smallish kill box on the north and slap down a kill box in the south as you have time and money. Money is only a slight problem at the beginning, but his map does NOT give you any time. You gotta be quick. Certainly this map is achievable in single play, but is easier to manage in cooperative play.

DRAGON BONEYARD





The Pink line is two barricades you will have for waves 1 and 2.
The Yellow line is a series of nine barricades you'll need to replace the pink line barricades to allow the orcs to diagonally travel the rift room.
The Red line is where you will have three barricades.
The Orange box is where your kill box will be set up.

Below is what the rift room will look like:



The beginnings of your kill box:



This works for all difficulties.


BOSS: ZELZADORE
The last wave the boss ZELZADORE shows up. His power is to resurrect dead orcs. He has no other special abilities or immunity against traps. In fact, he may actually aid you getting combos and money. He can be treated as any other mob.

THE BASEMENT



You'll need:
Tar
Archers
Brimstone
Stone Staff
Fire Arrow Walls
Double barricades

The first wave you'll have just enough for two barricades and a tar trap. Most enemies will go towards the center, but a few stragglers may attempt to go around. You will be relying on the stone staff for crowd control on this map a lot.



The second wave you will need to block off the rift from the right, as all the enemies will come from this direction. The third wave you will block from the left and add floor traps.



Eventually you'll build up a corridor (barricades protecting the archers are optional) and you'll definitely have to protect the archers from hunters--but by this time you should be set.

COLOSSEUM





Red line are barricades--you should use ones that take more damage.
The Orange box is your kill box.

RIFT LORD ...

This is essentially the same strategy but there a metric *** ton of Hunters this go around. I would recommend doubling up on barricades because they will take damage both collateral and direct. You will be constantly moving and attacking and fending off attacks. Some Hunters you can kite into the Rift but don't neglect them otherwise they WILL attack your barricades. You will be micro managing barricades constantly. I don't really consider this level any real fun on Rift Lord. It can be enjoyable on War Mage; but I would recommend playing this one on cooperative regardless.

The most fun I've had on this level is one player blocking off the upstairs arena normally building out--and the second player barricading one side and then building a kill box on the other corner. In my experience, wave 3 and possibly 4 will be rough for the downstairs player but by wave 5 it will be almost self sustaining. The upstairs player will have the hardest time due to the gnoll hunters and gnoll grenadiers, so long as you can prevent the archers and grenadiers from destroying your barricades you'll be fine.

ORDER TEMPLE





Red lines are double long barricades.
The Orange box is your kill box. The first wave is going to be the roughest, I would recommend pushing them to a wall using your barricades and then lasers, or swinging maces, and grinders. The fire elements will damage your barricades so it's wise to put backups behind your primary barricades in case they are destroyed (I've had it happen to me once in four games, but I had a barricade placed so it didn't make a difference to the pathing.
The Pink line is your double long barricades after wave 2 (or whenever you can afford them).

RIFT LORD ...

No change in strategy here required.

BOSS: NONE
The only war scenario with no "boss".

It seems apparent that this DLC pack was designed for cooperative play. The challenge is a little less difficult in single player but considering you will need your attention divided, that alone will make it more challenging. Honestly the difficulty between Apprentice, War Mage, and Rift Lord seemed so insignificant we didn't change our strategy between them. These maps are TOUGH!

There are two entrances for flyers on the East side of the map with a single orc entrance in the north.

The way we tackled it was one player was in charge of the hunters and orcs from the north entrance, and one player solely tackled the flyers of the map. The Orc player had to barricade the mobs against the wall immediately outside of the gate entrance. Using barricades, tar, lasers, brimstone, butterflies, and the stone staff.

The most successful strategy I've seen with the flyers is gravity pillars or arrow traps, the ice trinket, and ceiling lasers--but even with all that the damage wasn't significant enough to take care of it on its own. Archers that regenerate at the rift along with the 2nd player helps, but even then some of the flyers will simply ignore damage and just move to the rift rather than attack.

This map can be completed solo, but I find this map much more enjoyable playing cooperative. It's one of the hardest maps in the game (along with Order Enclave, Slag Field, and Frostbitten). Your strategy is going to be similar to The Basement's. Narrow where the enemies can come in from and you'll be fine.

Since we played it cooperatively both of us had the same trap line up, different trinkets and I had the stone staff and he had the wind belt. Between stoning and shoving enemies off the path, we completed the map with about 20 seconds to spare.

STEP1
Narrow the path with double barricades.



STEP2
Put brimstone, lasers, and auto-ballistas as you can afford them at the end of the coverings.



STEP3
Put in gravity pillars with physical damage perks over the path of the flyers. You will still need to kill them off manually, but the pillars will delay and even kill some of them.

This map is pretty intense, but it turned out to be one of the more enjoyable maps in the DLC.
The first few waves will be flyers, so you'll want several ceiling lasers, possibly ceiling zappers, and the stone staff to deal with them.

From the 2nd wave on you'll get a barrage of orcs, hunters, archers, trolls, and flyers.

You'll want to barricade the steps to funnel the orcs in. Brimstone will be necessary to dissuade mobs from damaging the barricades. Funnily enough, I had orcs attack the barricades in single player but did not have this problem in cooperative play. Perhaps it was just an AI bug but I'm not sure. The sappers come in at the start of the final wave and only on the right side. So it's a least *possible* you won't have to protect the left side's barricades but I can't promise anything.

Below is a screenshot of how we barricaded the steps.



You'll want lasers before your kill box (on the ground floor; also note the zappers on the ceiling on the bridge, they seem to kill of flyers more reliably but cost as much as lasers and have to recharge over time).



You'll want lasers in front of the rift, even though they can be blinding and the flyers seem to ignore half of them.



Grinders can be used on the walls and pillars to help with the flyers. I usually put them on the pillars before the kill box location--but my friends like to put them on the pillars on the entrances. Either way you'll be using about the same number of grinders.




The kill box on the ground floor is pretty simple, using blade launchers, tar, brimstone, butterflies, and zappers (only because lasers make it impossible to see anything).



BOSS: CHROMATICA
This bloated flyer moves as fast as a normal flyer. He's immune to freezing and being turned to stone. No easy kills here. He can "shape shift"; this ability allows him to change immunity (fire, cold, lightning, void, poison). Don't lose him in all the blinding lasers.

One player needs to take the West lane, North East lane, and another player needs to watch the South East lane as their primary responsibility. The hardest wave during the level is wave 5. Generally speaking if you can survive wave 5 you're good.

https://youtu.be/QDkJg7GjkDg

Both players need to cover the center lane to cover flyers. Staggered auto-ballistas and regenerating archers help catch the ones that get through. The West door that ends up being the right lane depends on a kill box with barricades, tar, lasers, and horizontal saw blade launchers. The East door that ends up being the center/left lane is easier to slow and launch mobs off the lane with flip traps, lasers, tar, and barricades.

Slag Field is easily one of the hardest maps in the entire game.
https://youtu.be/sJQz47g9y2s

This preview was taken from Apprentice but I was able to complete it on Rift Lord using this same basic strategy. You'll want to barricade the steps from the left of the entrance, this will force the mobs in the same direction as the flyer entrance. Flyers show up on wave 3, each wave they have 3 groups one right after the other. Use the stone staff once each group is clear so you can instantly kill them all.

Prioritize Flyers and Cyclops Shamans as they will drop totems that disable your traps until destroyed; generally even if you prioritize the shamans you will have enough time to run the short distance (over the broken wall) to intercept any stragglers. Kobolds show up around wave 3 but there's not very many of them and they're there just to be annoying.



For Rift Lord I opted to spend some money right at the entrance here to place down 2 brimstones and 2 saw blade launchers, using the rest of the money to create a functioning kill box similar to the one pictured.



There's a lot of shooting going on, traps are secondary to your shooting--but you can do it.

This is my solo play on Icebound Mine on Rift Lord:

https://youtu.be/HiuibJtivfw

For Weapons: Crossbow, Stone Staff, Flamethrower
For Traps: Butterflies, Fire Arrow Wall, Fire Archers, Zappers, Dart Spitters with Ice upgrade
For Trinkets: Mana and Trap Reset

The first two waves come through the northern door.
I put a few archers in the back near the rift every wave.

I scattered arrow walls, zappers, dart spitters in erratic patterns (half trap apart, full trap apart, alternating walls) as money became available with the idea that the Shamans couldn't disable all the traps that way. Even then I had to run back and forth keeping an eye on the mini-map to complete this with all rift points and under par.

This map is pure chaos.
Some may enjoy it--but I did not.
This "method" works, but I wouldn't rely on it.

Wave 1: NL door
Wave 2: NL door
Wave 3: NL door, then NR door
Wave 4: NL and NR doors
Wave 5:
- NL (with sappers) and NR doors
- after 1st northern door group has died, SR door opens and comes in
Wave 6
- NL and NR (with sappers) doors
- after 1st northern door group has died, SR door
Wave 7:
- SR door
- NL door (with gnoll grenadiers x4)
- NR door and SL door opens and comes in
Wave 8:
- SR door with sappers
- NL door
- NR door
- SL door

This map is very difficult solo as you have to focus on a combined northern kill box and combined southern kill box. I found this map much easier in coop play. Basically, one player maintains the northern kill box, and one player maintains a SR kill box--sparing the occasional trap on the SL door.

https://youtu.be/Grx1vkByzk4

* The first kill box at the top of the ramps
* Two double long barricades on the right ramp before wave 2
- what I did was one barricade to the left and one to right and then a 2nd at the start of wave 2
* A double long barricade pushing enemies towards pit
* I found flip traps, lasers, and briar patch traps to be effective here
* The second kill box at the entrance of the 3rd door

https://youtu.be/xPIeYex2M2s

To get this with par time you MUST build two kill boxes.
The kill boxes have no special strategy, maze them or force them against a wall
The main wrinkle is you'll have to deal with flyers as mobs go through your kill boxes in the last couple of waves

https://youtu.be/ZDuBUi3EFdo

To make par time you need two kill boxes
That is the name of the game for this DLC

https://youtu.be/KYyyEEGzbxY

Here's a twist, now you have to build three kill boxes!
Thankfully the first wave is only one door
Eventually all doors open but except for the last couple of waves, doors are only active two at a time

https://youtu.be/rHMyUNqDJdo

This one is actually doable solo--there are flyers and sappers but neither present a major problem
* Use 7 double long barricades to force the mobs to the left so you have wall space
* Use the giant flip traps to help manage the mobs
* Spam arrow walls, wall blade launchers, briar patches everywhere
* There is a small gap that flyers will go through on the left hand side
- Even with traps you will need to keep an eye on it
- For this haymakers, grinders, and brimstone will work (believe it or not)
- Fire bats will be immune to fire brimstone and fire arrow walls, arcane bats will be immune to arcane brimstone
* You will be able to make par time but unlike other war scenarios it will be close

https://youtu.be/tCP3HTXKQH8