In endless mode, you will play solo against an ever-growing onslaught of units from 3 other factions. The objective is to last as many waves as possible before your fortress gate is defeated. Take note of how many waves you survive so you can try to beat your previous score, or challenge your friends!
Set-up
You may play endless mode as any faction and include any of the following expansion content: earthscapes; isles; market chips; and swamp, temple, and ruins landmarks. Other special landmarks will not be used in this mode.
Choose your faction and take the reference sheet, fortress, dice, and chips of that faction. Also take a barracks, a health tracker chip, and a Source tracker chip.
Use the preset map as pictured for a quick-start game. If you would rather make your own custom map:
- Draw 7 isles. Reveal and attach them together in any shape and configuration you would like.
- Affix your fortress according to standard fortress placement rules. Your map must have at least 3 Source wells adjacent to a path leading to your fortress.
- Find the 3 gateport landmarks and place each faceup on any 3 Source wells adjacent to path leading to your fortress.
Place a random swamp landmark on the Source well closest to your fortress gate, and a random landmark on all other Source wells.
Choose 3 opposing factions (recommended at random). Add the faction mark chip of each opposing faction under a gateport at random to indicate which faction deploys from which gateport. From your perspective: leftmost is Gateport A (Faction A), next is Gateport B (Faction B), final is Gateport C (Faction C).
Create a standard market with 3 market chip options and the earthscape option.
Objective: Last as many waves as possible before your fortress gate is defeated.
Gameplay
In general, endless mode follows the same rules as solo mode.
The 3 factions you play against are controlled by AI and act as a single faction sharing a turn.
Waves occur in sets of 3: waves 1-3 are a set, 4-6 are a set, etc. Waves 4, 7, 10, etc. start a new set.
Endless Rules
Defeating an opposing faction unit grants you 1 Source instead of its printed reward. Landmarks still grant their printed reward.
Your minions will move onto their marked gateport as part of making progress. When they do so, they are immediately defeated and you gain 1 Source. Your heroes cannot move onto gateports.
You have a spire limit of 4.
The talents Overload and Riftwalk cannot be used by any units.
AI Rules
AI units deploy from their designated gateport as if it were a fortress gate.
AI will always move all units of Faction A, then all units of Faction B, then all units of Faction C.
If AI is narora, consider them to have the Forgotten Graves 3 Source Loop fortress advancement.
If AI is grovetenders and one of their units uses Summon or Evoke, a war briar is summoned.
Marks
Player: Gateport A OR Gateport B OR Gateport C
AI Minions: Opposing fortress gate
AI Heroes: Closest opposing spire it can damage > opposing fortress gate
Wyvankaye: Closest opposing minion with equal to or less health than Wyvankaye
Wyvankaye*: Closest opposing spire with attack upgrades
How to Create AI Deployment Stacks
The chart below outlines what units each faction will deploy each wave. Each faction expansion contains a similar chart as well.
Waves are placed in sets of three. In each set of waves, you will first play against one faction, then proceed to two, and finally face all three factions at once. Therefore, on Waves 1, 4, 7, and so on, you will face Faction A. On Waves 2, 5, 8, and so on, you will face Factions A and B. On Waves 3, 6, 9, and so on, you will face Factions A, B, and C all at once.
Each faction deploys all of their minions as a single group. When you progress to a new set of waves, the new minions listed are added to the bottom of the group in addition to all previously listed minions for that faction. Heroes are placed at the bottom of the deployment stack when listed. Heroes are only deployed once. When defeated, they are removed from play.
To help you understand what the opposing deployment stacks might look like, here are a couple of examples. In these examples, you are playing the Brawnen. Faction A is the Grovetenders, Faction B is the Heirs, and Faction C is the Narora.
Example 1
It is the Prep Phase of Wave 7. Since it is the first wave in a new set, only Faction A will deploy. The Grovetender deployment stack will be: [War Briar, Vineherald*], Dywen* +2 Range.
Example 2
It is now the Prep Phase of Wave 8, which is the second wave of a set. Therefore, both Factions A and B will be deploying from their respective gateports. The Grovetender deployment stack will be: [War Briar, Vineherald*]. Note that Dywen* is not deployed, as she only deploys once. Faction B, the Heirs, will deploy: [Harrier, Joust*], Darb* +2 Attack.
Example 3
It is now the Prep Phase of Wave 27, which is the third wave of the set and will see all three opposing factions deploy. The Grovetenders deploy: [War Briar, Vineherald*, Ogregrowth*, Taproot, Treed*, Treed*, Taproot, War Briar*, Vineherald*, Grizzled Oak*, Taproot]. The Heir deployment stack is: [Harrier, Joust*, Windrush*, Harrier*, Humminger*, Humminger*, Joust*, Harrier*, Royal Talon*]. The Naroran deployment stack is: [Drift, Arcbright, Drift, Bishop, Bishop, Drift, Nightrous, Nightrous, Void], Bydra Graam* +3 Range.
