Faction Overview:
The Grovetenders are one of the factions with an “alternate win condition” of sorts. They will nearly always win the game if you go to scoring points after wave 4 due to cheap advancements and a high fortress gate health pool. This leads them to having very defensive tendencies with the abilities to support such a strategy. Grovetenders units have high health, decent range, and unique Summoning talents that forces your opponent to play around your strategy rather than vice versa. This is amplified through the usage of Wyvankaye, arguably the most unique hero in the game who forces your opponent to commit to the market early, disrupting their early strategy. In addition, the Grovetenders boast arguably the most efficient fortress advancements in the game (with the exception of their Gateport).
The two Grovetenders promoted spires, Creeping Vines and Muskeg, can only be constructed after purchasing the Sacred Grove 2 - Forest Sentience advancement.
Fortress Advancements:
Grovetenders’ fortress advancements are some of the best in the game. Consistent source income/discounts, fortress defense and health, spire destruction, and hero advancements make for one of the best selections of advancements. Paired with how cheap they are, there is no reason that you should end the game with less than 11 fortress advancements.
Gateport
1) Earth Affinity
Starting off with the worst fortress advancements in the entire game, right after talking up all the Grovetenders advancements. Don’t worry, it gets better from here on out. This advancement costs 3 source to purchase. Because of that, this is never worth it. The most earthscapes that you can buy after getting this advancement is 2 (assuming your opponent is playing well). Only if you are going second, and you buy it wave 1(which you shouldn’t do). So by harming your entire gameplan, you can save 4 source down the line! Or you can just purchase Inner Oak 1 - Amplify and gain 12 source! Hands down, one of the worst advancements in the game, do not buy unless you need the points in wave 4. Just purchase earthscapes as they are available.
2) Earth Influence
The downside of being a subsequent advancement to Earth Affinity in the faction with some of the most powerful fortress advancements is that regardless of the usefulness, this just cannot compete. Forcing your opponents to pay 5 source for each of the earthscapes that they buy is actually not a bad ability. Sadly, costing 5 source to purchase means that its usefulness is limited. The only faction that I would consider purchasing this against is the Narora due to their reliance upon earthscapes and their tight source requirements. This is not an advancement that should be purchased most of the time, focus on source for Summoning or other advancements instead.
Sharpener
1) Greater Thorns
Dealing an additional damage to each unit that attacks your fortress gate is not bad, but not the advancement that we are looking for in this section of the fortress. This helps sustain your health in the late game, possibly saving you the points necessary to win the game before scoring. Unlike the Brawnen, the Grovetenders seek to win on points rather than killing the opponent’s base in most games. Because of this, taking damage even if it is not lethal, is still bad. This advancement should not be relied upon except for in base-race scenarios. This is just an advancement purchased to unlock Summon Roots.
2) Spire Precision
This advancement goes along with the theming of the Grovetenders very well. It helps make sure that in defense of your fortress gate, luck is removed when choosing spire targets. All of your spires will have a minimum damage equal to their number of attack upgrades, which is very useful information to have. Just like Greater Thorns, this is also just an advancement to unlock Summon Roots.
3) Summon Roots
This is an advancement that is well worth the 14 source to purchase in some matchups. Especially against the Brawnen, this advancement is devastating. Being able to destroy all of their Source Drills is something that they are forced to play around during the build phase and can sometimes foil their strategy just by threatening to buy this advancement. Taking out an average of 3.5 upgrades from spires every wave is fantastic! The only downside is that if you have at least one spire, you must remove an upgrade from one of them. Luckily, this is a benefit for both the Shrubbery and Creeping Vine spires, as it allows you to remove their fortifications and replace them with attack or range upgrades. If you have no spires, something very common for the Grovetenders, then you don’t have to remove an upgrade from one of your own, removing the only downside. This is an advancement that is very powerful, but may be better to threaten purchasing it, forcing your opponent to play around it rather than actually purchasing the advancement.
Inner Oak
1) Amplify
One of the best advancements in the entire game, it provides an insane amount of benefit for the low cost of 3 source. Amplify nets you an additional 4 source every wave, profiting source on the next wave, unlike the Brawnen’s Source Drill. In addition to this, it provides you with a source capacity of 30, something that the Brawnen need to pay 10 source for and the Narora needs to pay 9 source for. If purchased on wave 1, this provides you with a +9 source advantage, and prevents overflow by increasing your source capacity. This is one of the two advancements that should be purchased in wave 1, and a must buy in wave 2 if you skip the purchase in wave 1.
2) Petrify
This is the Grovetender win condition in most games. Because of this advancement, the Grovetenders will win on points in nearly every game. It increases your maximum health to 15 and heals you for 1 every prep phase. This advancement should always be purchased on wave 2, netting you an additional 3 health over the course of the game. This secures your wave 4 win against slow factions, lets you survive and outlast the aggressive factions, and stifles the Narora’s double Messiah win condition. The utility of this advancement is deceptive and the power is immense. The cheap price of this advancement also allows for an easy stall in wave 2 that hides your main strategy until your opponent has locked in their purchases.
3) Ratify
This is, in my opinion, the most swingy advancement in the game. It can be absolutely broken or do nothing the entire game. As such, I try to put off purchasing this advancement until wave 3 or 4, just because there are better ways to spend your source before then. Each wave, you get one of three possibilities:
There is very clearly a very good, okay, and bad roll on this dice. The spire roll is nearly useless and I don’t actually know if I have ever actually seen it used. Against the Grovetenders, spires are not often on 1 upgrade and you would rather get the source if they are. The minion roll is decent in certain situations where you are brawling and can pick up an additional attack in the center of the map. Most of the time, it is just allowing your opponent to get a little more source from their own minion though, so be aware when using this ability. Lastly, the hero roll. This is the roll that you purchase this advancement for. It allows you to negate one opposing hero for an entire wave. I cannot overstate the benefit that this provides for the Grovetenders strategy. Tinbeard or Kram doesn’t get to play a full wave, an opposing mercenary hero is removed so Wyvankaye can roam free, or you can prevent a hero from farming upgrades this wave. Any way that this is used, it is a clear win condition that swings the game heavily in your favor.
Sacred Grove
1) Attuning
Another amazing advancement for the Grovetenders. This allows you to spend 1 cp for the wave to gain 4 more source. This means that you profit 1 source on the wave that you buy the advancement, then possibly more in the future. On each wave, when bringing Taproots, the optimal build order will leave 1 cp extra so that you can have 4 more source for Summoning. Pairing this with Hall of Shaping 2 - Shaping Pool gives you the 1 cp that you spend on this advancement, so the downside is nearly nonexistent. Always having 4 source for Summoning is a huge advantage for the Grovetenders during the wave. This advancement should be bought on wave 2 if you are deploying 2 Taproots, or on wave 3 if you deployed Wyvankaye on wave 2.
2) Forest Sentience
This advancement allows the construction of Creeping Vines and Muskegs. While the spires are not the best in the game, they are situationally useful. This will be talked about more in the spire section for their respective uses. If you ever need the utility that these spires provide, then this advancement is mandatory, but often will not be bought until you have excess source in wave 3 or 4.
Forming Glade
1) Basic Form
The other option for an advancement purchased on wave 1. This advancement allows you to give Impale or Ram and Tough to one of your heroes. Impale is a very strong talent for a hero to have, especially in wave 1. This doubles the damage output of Dywen, allowing her to make kills easier against landmark minions, threaten opposing 3 health heroes after gaining an attack upgrade, and clean up low health minions before attacking. Putting a War Briar on Wyvankaye is one of the main reasons that she is as powerful as she is. This allows her to interact with minions, killing them or lowering their health enough to send them back to their barracks with Yrtel’s Way. Adding Impale to heroes is the best use of this advancement. If both of your heroes have a War Briar underneath them, then you can add a Treed to give them the Tough and Ram talents. This should generally be added to Dywen rather than Wyvankaye, as usually the attack upgrades from Master Form will also be added to Dywen, leaving Wyvankaye unable to attack. Because Ram can be used from any range, it allows both of your heroes to negate towers by removing attack upgrades and ignoring the range and fortifications. Tough is largely useless due to the low health of Dywen and the lack of Wyvankaye triggering retaliation. Occasionally, Dywen can take a retaliation, leaving her at 1 health rather than killing her and saving other units. Being both a powerful advancement and leading into both Elaborate Form and Master Form, this should be picked up on wave 1 or 2 nearly every game.
2) Elaborate Form
This advancement allows you to Summon and Evoke into Ogregrowths and Grizzled Oaks. While this advancement is necessary to grant access to the powerful minions later in the game, I have never considered whether this advancement is one that you should buy or not. It ends up being bought when you want Master Form on wave 2 or 3, and then you just have it when you need it later on in the game. If you are looking for a win or facing a hard push in wave 2 and are bringing 2 Taproots, then this is an advancement you should make sure to pick up. Otherwise, it is an incidental advancement for Master Form. Which should say something about the quality of the Grovetender advancements, considering the strength of these units (talked about in the minions section).
3) Master Form
Once again, one of the strongest advancements in the game in my opinion. It has three modes, which allow you to add a certain upgrade to one of your units each wave! This is arguably the best advancement when used in combination with Wyvankaye and Dywen on wave 2. If you roll a health upgrade, then Wyvankaye is able to send home minions with more health and has a larger buffer against the weaker market options. If you roll attack or range, then Dywen is able to become one of the strongest heroes in the game. Solely because of this advancement, Dywen is considered a must-kill hero in wave 1 or 2 otherwise she can take over the game. Due to the nature of this advancement bypassing upgrade capacity, there have been games where a 2 attack 5 range Dywen has decimated opposing spires and units on wave 4. Between this advancement and Basic Form, Grovetender heroes go from decent options to amazing. This advancement will be one of the reasons that Dywen is rated so highly in the heroes section. This advancement is a must buy on wave 2 or 3, depending on if you are deploying Wyvankaye on wave 2 or not.
Hall of Shaping
An advancement that will almost certainly pay dividends on the source that you use to purchase this advancement. Decreasing the cost by 1 every time that you Summon will net you source at the 4th Summon. While this advancement isn’t amazing on its own, in combination with Focused Growth, it puts in a lot of work during waves 3 and 4. Generally this advancement should be bought on the first wave where you are deploying 2 or more Taproots so that you are not over-spending source that you don’t have. Once again, this advancement is far inferior to the next advancement on this path, Shaping Pool, and is usually just incidental value when you are looking for the next benefit.
2) Shaping Pool
While this may not seem like a very important advancement in most games, the benefit shines most when combined with Attuning. The wave deployment breakdown for Grovetenders is more linear than other factions due to the ability for Taproots to Summon into any other minion. Buying this advancement in addition to attuning allows you to have the following options for waves 3 and 4.
- Wave 3: Taproot, Taproot, Taproot, +1 cp
- Wave 4: Taproot, Taproot, Taproot, War Briar, +1 cp
Being able to gain an additional 4 source every wave after purchasing this advancement allows your Summoning to be much more flexible during the wave and makes sure that you can Summon into an Ogregrowth at the beginning of the wave if you are threatened by an enemy hero. This is a must buy advancement on wave 3 that will greatly expand your threat at the beginning of waves.
3) Focused Growth: Decreasing your Summon costs by a total of 3 source allows for a reasonable cost to Summon into Ogregrowths and Grizzled Oaks. In addition to this, it allow you to Summon into a War Briar for free, which is the only point in the game where you can save a low health Taproot without spending any source. This is not an advancement that can be understated. It will certainly pay back the source spent on the advancement, especially when bought on wave 3 in most games. This advancement should be purchased on wave 3 in most games, as it will pay back the source spent on it the same wave that you buy it, as you will almost certainly be deploying 2 Taproots this wave.
Heroes:
Dywen (S)
Dywen is the starting hero for the Grovetender faction. She is one of the few heroes with the Range talent and the starting hero with arguably the highest potential of any starting hero. Dywen alone is a relatively weak hero. She has the lowest health among any faction heroes and a rather low upgrade capacity. In addition, Pacify is not a very impactful talent, only useful every couple of games. However, the strength of Dywen comes from the faction advancements of Basic Form, Master Form, and from having Ogregrowths in the faction unit list.
Dywen has a rather weak statline to protect the Grovetenders from most aggressive faction wave 1 starts. However, with the purchase of Basic Form, you can give Dywen Impale, something that is an amazing ability on any starting hero. This doubles Dywen’s damage output against landmark minions and allows her to secure a kill in the movement phase, gain an attack upgrade, then attack with that upgrade in the attack phase. This talent alone causes Dywen to be a potent threat in wave 1, allowing her to threaten opposing heroes and zone them away from your minions. With the power to threaten opposing heroes, kill tough landmarks, and defend aggressive wave 1 pushes, Dywen is one of the best wave 1 heroes when she needs to be.
When playing against the Grovetenders, most factions would love to trade their entire wave 1 to defeat Dywen. Because of this, and her potential, you need to be very careful to protect her during the first wave. While protecting her, the goal is to get at least two upgrades in wave 1, allowing her to promote. This is because it is rather important to fill out the promoted upgrade capacity in wave 2 before rolling the Master Form dice in case you roll an attack or range. Dywen is one of the few heroes in the game that can have upgrades over her upgrade capacity. Any hero that can have 2+ attack with 3+ range is a threat throughout the whole game. Dywen only needs one upgrade from the Master Form dice to reach this state, something that happens in nearly every game. Because of her fragility, Dywen is very hard to use correctly and is a large indicator of your proficiency with the Grovetenders. Due to her high scaling potential and requirement to be dealt with early on, Dywen is one of the best heroes in the game and should not be underestimated when playing with or against the Grovetenders.
Ybanthe (C)
Ybanthe is the medium cost hero for the Grovetenders and very underwhelming not for her cost, but for taking up a hero slot for the Grovetenders. I know that this may be a controversial decision for many people who have just started playing the game. In its essence, Ybanthe fills a hole that the Grovetenders do not need filled. She has a decent statline for a 4cp hero, but the Grovetenders are not a faction that is missing stats. In addition, she has the ability to Evoke new minions, adding minions to the battlefield during the wave. While this sounds like an amazing ability, these minions are not promoted, unlike the Taproot’s Summon ability. As will be seen in the minions section, unpromoted Grovetender minions are some of the weakest in the game. These are not worth the amount it costs to Evoke them in the slightest. In addition to costing source, they also give your opponent additional source and hero upgrades with each minion that you Evoke, further adding to their detriment.
Just like most chips in the game, there is a reason to deploy Ybanthe if you are looking for a specific answer at just the right time. She is useful in extending a wave by Evoking a minion a long way from the enemy fortress. She is also rather useful in wave 3 or 4 as a health shield on your base instead of a Taproot. Overall, Ybanthe feels like a trap that many players will fall into, seeming like a great option until your opponents start to learn how to counter her. As such, I would highly recommend spending time on learning how to use the other Grovetender heroes rather than relying on Ybanthe to attempt to carry your first few games as Grovetenders.
Wyvankaye (S)
Wyvankaye has been widely quoted among high level players as the reason that you play the Grovetenders and about half of the total Grovetender strength. This is both due to her insane abilities on the battlefield and arguably more about how many resources your opponent is forced to use to counter her before you have even selected her for deployment. Wyvankaye has the most powerful talent in the game, Peaceful. This causes her to be immune to all damage from non-mercenary sources, and be displaced by any other unit. Yes, if it deals damage and is not a mercenary hero, minion, or spire, then the damage is prevented. This includes landmarks, fortress gate retaliation, non-mercenary talents, or damage from fortress advancements. There are a couple holes in this invulnerability, where if something says to destroy or defeat an opposing unit/hero, it will still affect Wyvankaye. Most notably, this includes Gateports and Echri’s Consume talent. While this means that there are ways to kill Wyvankaye during the wave, your opponent still needs to work extremely hard to defeat her due to the massive threat that she produces.
Applying Impale to Wyvankaye through Basic Form is the strongest upgrade to her kit and one that you should be using every game. This gives her a strong and consistent way to deal damage to units, possibly even killing them outright. In combination with Pacify, Wyvankaye is able to dive into the midst of multiple enemy units, dealing damage to each of them and leaving unharmed. This is before even talking about Wyvankaye’s innate talents. The first of which is Yrtel’s Way, which allows Wyvankaye to send an adjacent faction minion with equal or less health than Wyvankaye back to their barracks, promoting her in the process. This is an extremely powerful way to surgically remove certain threatening minions from the opponent’s forces as well as providing an easy way to promote Wyvankaye. Because of the relatively low health that any damaging mercenary minions have, she can usually engage and send them away without any danger to her. The one thing that you need to keep in mind is having opposing units displace her into range of the mercenary minion, allowing her to be killed. Because Yrtel’s Way is essentially a 2-4 health kill ability, she is extremely resilient even against some units that are supposed to counter her. It should be noted that this talent does not say opposing faction minions, meaning that in a pinch, you can send back one of your own minions as a way to quickly promote Wyvankaye and have access to her promoted talent.
Wyvankaye’s promoted side gives her an additional movement speed, mountain terrain allowance, and the talent Yrtel’s Will. The increased mobility is not something to be scoffed at, as this means that she is faster than most units in the game and can easily escape or engage, making Impale even more effective. Yrtel’s Will gives her the ability to demote in order to either remove all attack upgrades from an adjacent spire, or to repeat the Pacify effect. This ability will almost never be used for the Pacify effect, so I will solely be focusing on the spire destruction. Removing all attack upgrades from a spire means that it cannot attack at all. This is excellent defense against any mercenary spires that are zoning Wyvankaye, as they require 4 range upgrades in order to deal any damage to her before she removes their attack upgrades. A notable wording of this ability is that it can be used on spires with no attack upgrades, as well as your own spires. Because of this, if you need access to Yrtel’s Way at any point in the wave, you can use attackless or friendly spires to flip Wyvankaye back to her basic side.
On the topic of flipping Wyvankaye back and forth, there is an important note of information to make. No unit may activate the same talent more than once per turn (with the exception of triggered talents), but it is crucial to note that Yrtel’s Way and Yrtel’s Will are two separate talents. This means that Wyvankaye can use both talents in the same turn, which is made extremely easy due to the fact that using one grants her access to the other talent. A very common play pattern in particularly rough waves is to secure a position next to a spire with no attack upgrades, then continually use both talents to remove all of your opponent’s minions so that yours don’t have to lose health fighting them.
Master Form seems to be tailor made for Wyvankaye, as the additional health is an insane bonus to her effectiveness, while the attack makes her a lethal threat alone. Adding an additional health to Wyvankaye increases the threshold for Yrtel’s Will by 50%, and with the Impale talent, she can send home every minion in the game with 4 or less health. That is an insanely versatile power, one that only compounds for each health you roll on the Master Form die. Any health that you roll there should be added to Wyvankaye without a doubt. If you add enough health, then she can even fight mercenary heroes in some cases. If an attack is rolled, then there is a very fun play you can do by putting it on Wyvankaye. This will allow her to attack enemy units, spires, and fortress gates without taking any damage in retaliation. This means that she can effectively fight any opposing unit and dismantle spires all by herself. One thing to note with this strategy is that upon flipping Wyvankaye using either of her talents will remove any attack upgrades from her, so be aware of this mechanic when using this strategy. Alongside the attack upgrade, you can make sure that you preserve a very slow opposing unit, run Wyvankaye to the opposing faction gate, then deal 10 damage to the gate before their minion dies. This is something that your opponent will be aware about and is very hard to pull off, but is so satisfying to do!
For all of these reasons, Wyvankaye is game and matchup defining, something that your opponents are forced to prepare against before you even deploy her. If they haven’t bought a market option to zone or kill her and do not have an alternate plan, she wins waves all by herself. This allows the Grovetenders to stall the game by forcing opponents (other than Uprising) to buy additional or more expensive market purchases than normal, detracting from the amount of source that they spend on their main gameplan. Either they are less effective at dealing damage to your fortress gate throughout the game or they don’t find an answer to Wyvankaye, allowing her to completely take over the game and prevent any damage from minions entirely. Either of these outcomes contribute massively to the Grovtenders alternate win condition of surviving until scoring at the end of the game, meaning that either they commit resources to answering something you won’t use or they have a significantly harder time dealing damage to your fortress gate. There is no world in which Wyvankaye isn’t considered a top tier hero and should always be at the forefront of your mind when playing with or against the Grovetenders.
Minions:
A short disclaimer before moving into the minions section of the Grovetenders. The minion promotion for this faction is unique, where only the Taproot has access to any of the promoted minions. As such, this will be taken into account within the Taproot section and inflate their ranking. I believe this reflects the pick order you should look at when considering wave composition. In addition, this will reflect very poorly on the non-promoted side of any other minions, as they are up against the extreme flexibility of the Taproots.
War Briar (A -> A)
The basic side of the War Briar has the stats just like most other basic melee minions. It has a cheap cp cost and a respectable body to help with defeating early landmarks or as a shield later on in the game. What sets this apart from all the other ones is that it has the talent Impale. Impale is a very powerful ability, giving the War Briar the ability to deal damage within the movement phase, to multiple opposing units. This is a surprisingly good ability, it does much more than just cause the War Briar to deal 2 damage on the first attack. Later on in the game, it allows the War Briar to be effective even when it is going to die to a spire that turn, it zones out flying and armored units by applying pressure, and can even be used to clean up 1 health units in order to open a path for your other minions and heroes. A very powerful minion that is deployed on most waves in the game in order to provide utility and protect your other deployments.
Promoted War Briars only benefit from having 1 additional attack and health. The utility of the Impale talent is very powerful as discussed above. Because any Taproot can Summon into one of these, you always have access to this ability when needed. This provides ample utility during waves, which can be very necessary in certain scenarios. While this is good, the best utility of the promoted War Briar is the low cost of 3 source that it requires. While it can be a good and cheap Summon early on in the game, it excels once you have purchased Focused Growth, where the source cost is now reduced to 0. This means that if a Taproot is in a poor scenario, you can create a War Briar no matter what. This lets you be much more free with your source, counting on the first War Briar Summoned to gain just a little source so that you can snowball with a Ogregrowth or Grizzled Oak in the same way. The promoted War Briar is threatening enough for its low source cost that you should always consider how the utility of Impale on any Taproot affects each wave you play.
Vineherald (D -> B)
The unpromoted Vineherald is a very mediocre minion. They are pretty much an unpromoted Taproot without the Summon ability. The only difference is that they give your opponent 1 less source when they kill it. Some people have theorized that this is a better wave 1 deployment than a Taproot for that reason, but as will be discussed further in the Taproot section, Summon is much too good at ending the game on wave 1 if your opponent plays poorly to not be selected. Because of this, there is no reason that you should ever deploy an unpromoted Taproot with the sole exception of if you need Air Defense and one or more of your Taproots have been Captured or Incinerated. While this unit for other factions may be rated higher, the Grovetenders just have much better options for deployment.
The promoted Vineherald is not that much better. It gets an increase of 1 health and gains the talent Capture. This is a decent upgrade, but nothing to be excited about. In this case, if there is an opportunity for you to Summon into a Vineherald and secure a kill on a high priority minion like an Elfinkaze, Messiah, or Powder Monkey, then it is an amazing return on your source for future waves. This option does not come up very often and is not something that you should count on during a game. The most powerful option for this minion is when you are fighting weak opposing units. By Summoning into the Vineherald, the Taproot doesn’t have to move this turn and retains its Ranged talent. In a lot of cases, this allows the Vineherald to damage an opposing unit without taking retaliation damage. This can secure breakpoints which gives you an advantageous fight to clean up minions this wave and protect from fortress gate damage. Overall, the promoted Vineherald is not a minion that will often be Summoned into, but definitely can secure value that the other Grovetender minions cannot in the same position, so you should always consider a Vineherald when your Taproot is a space away from engaging with enemy units.
Treed (C -> A)
The basic Treed is an interesting unit with some niche talents. The stats on the basic Treed are underwhelming, where for 3 cp, only having 1 attack is quite under rate for a melee unit. However, the talents that it has are very useful in the right scenarios. Tough allows for you to tank a retaliation hit on a strong hero without fear of giving the hero another upgrade before you kill them. This can occasionally allow you to defeat heroes such as Kram or Echri if they are near your fortress gate. If this comes up, it is definitely a strategy to keep in mind, but still may not be better than deploying solely Taproots. Ram is the ability that people look to use when deploying the Treed. This allows you to more easily neuter spires which are threatening your units. Often, you have the ability to use ranged attacks to remove the first attack on a spire, then Ram can remove the second attack on a spire, rendering the spire useless. When there is a spire (Siege Tower, Regal Lookout, etc.) close to your fortress gate, the basic Treed can be extremely useful in defeating the spire without taking a lot of damage. Overall, the basic Treed has poor stats if you are considering deploying it without an express purpose. It often does not make it to the opposing side of the battlefield due to the low threat and speed. Unless you have immediate use for this minion, I would only consider using it via a Taproot.
A promoted Treed could not be farther from its basic counterpart. This unit is fast, deadly, and hard to defend against if your opponent is not paying attention to the terrain properly. In addition to gaining 1 health, attack, and speed, the promoted Treed gains forest terrain, arguably its best upgrade. For the ‘low’ price of 5 source, the Treed can end games or deliver near unblockable damage on the opponent’s fortress gate. Because it is the only minion in the Grovetender arsenal who has more terrain than just path, it is often overlooked or unaccounted for by your opponent. In my opinion, you should be deploying a Taproot on wave 1 solely because this minion exists. There have been too many games where a random chance of how the wave plays out leaves only a Taproot alive before the wave ends. Summoning into a Treed turns a 1hp unit into a lethal threat. The opponent is forced to build a spire to defend, the Treed uses Ram to negate it, then deals 8 damage to the opposing fortress. This pretty much declares the game over before it even starts. Against most factions, you are also not down much source going into wave 2 since they had to spend to build their defensive spire. In addition, you can use the promoted Treed on any wave to threaten or even checkmate low hp heroes that your other minions cannot chase down effectively. The forest terrain means you can overextend in places that you wouldn’t want to use Dywen due to the risk, allowing you to take lower risks when wanting to defeat opposing heroes or spires. The unique benefit of the promoted Treed is that it is the only Grovetender minion that has terrain allowance or 3 speed, making it by far the fastest unit in their barracks, capable of catching your opponent off guard. This is a unit that you should not underestimate when playing with or against the Grovetenders, further contributing to their growing list of strategies that your opponent is forced to respect and play around during the wave.
Ogregrowth (D -> S)
One of the largest differences between the promoted and unpromoted sides for any unit in the game, this is another centerpoint of the Grovetender strategy. Unfortunately, the basic Ogregrowth does not contribute the correct talents. A unit with decent stats and the ability to slow itself down may find use in other factions, but not in the Grovetenders. Some have considered solely deploying it in wave 1, which shows how weak its stats are in spite of its large health pool. Most times, it ends up too low after defeating landmark minions to effectively combat the 2 minions that most factions bring to wave 1. This sets the Grovetenders on the back foot during wave 1, sometimes even forcing Dwyen to sacrifice herself so that you don’t get too far behind. When you have spires out, this minion becomes a lot better because it is able to make use of its Rooted talent. However, you can already deploy two Taproots for the same cost as one Ogregrowth due to the effect of Hall of Shaping 2 - Shaping Pool, which is much more effective. Once again, the basic side is a unit that should never be used unless you need the 5 health as a fortress gate buffer for the first turn of a wave due to an aggressive opposing hero. Always consider what else you can do to deal with a situation before coming to the basic Ogregrowth.
To quite the contrary, the promoted Ogregrowth is arguably the best non-Taproot minion in the Grovetender’s barracks. First off, the Rooted talent is even more effective when there is a line of units behind the Ogregrowth. Summoning into the Ogregrowth stalls one turn, then it can use Rooted, stalling a second turn, move one space forward via sidestepping, then use Rooted again. This means that your whole deployment has moved a total of 1 hex in 4 turns. This is unprecedented levels of stalling for any faction in the game and allows you to engage opposing units within the Grovetender forest of spires on your side of the isle. It also gains one of the best talents in the game: Challenge. This insane talent allows the Ogregrowth to completely shut off opposing heroes. Most read this ability as forcing a hero to attack the Ogregrowth if they can, but it is much stronger in practice. It means that ANY attack that a hero makes within three hexes of the Ogregrowth must be targeting the Ogregrowth. This is a condition that applies to the hero the moment it attempts to attack. What this means is that even if the hero cannot target the Ogregrowth due to being out of range, it still is not allowed to make an attack against any other target! This creates a 7 hex diameter circle centered on the Ogregrowth in which heroes cannot attack any other target. Against certain factions with melee-oriented heroes, this negates nearly every function of their heroes, forcing them to take 3 retaliation damage if they wish to attack at all. There are many, many powerful interactions with this ability that can cause the Grovetenders to take over the game if your opponent misremembers one of them. With solely one Ogregrowth, it allows Dywen to walk up near opposing heroes and slowly chip away at them without fear of being attacked back, giving her the survivability that is necessary for her to contribute to the game. In my opinion, the strongest interaction is between Wyvankaye, an Ogregrowth, and an enemy mercenary hero. Opponents will often buy and deploy a mercenary hero as a way to counter Wyvankaye, but that means nothing if you have access to an Ogregrowth. Most mercenary heroes are melee oriented and if there is an Ogregrowth, Wyvankaye can then deal damage, negate spires, and send back minions without worry of dying due to the forcing effect of the Ogregrowth. I have also seen Wyvankaye Impale a mercenary hero, then have a Taproot in range Summon into an Ogregrowth to prevent an attack from the merc, allowing Wyvankaye to chase down the opposing hero and kill with a second Impale. The Ogregrowth is one of the highest skill minions in the game both to play with and against. Because of this, it can take over games where your opponent messes up even once in positioning. Any earthscapes that change the battlefield into something that you can use more favorably compound with this ability. Because of this, there is no doubt in my mind that the Ogregrowth is one of the strongest minions in the game.
Grizzled Oak (D -> A)
Once again, we see the underwhelming stats of basic Grovetender units. The 6 health and 2 attack is on par with most 6 cp units. However, the 1 movement and lack of any talent is what makes this unit nearly unusable. Unlike the basic Ogregrowth, there is nearly no usage within a wave after being deployed. Luckily it has one more health and the same attack, so there is marginally more use as a fortress gate defense on the deployment stack. Other than if there is an opposing hero at your fortress gate, there is pretty much no reason to use the basic Grizzled Oak. Opponents can easily predict and play around its 1 movement to attack your other units or whittle down its health with ranged units. This means that it often gets no value, or only one attack before being taken down. I would honestly never use this unit on its basic side, it is just too expensive for nearly no worth.
Promoted Grizzled Oaks in contrast are one of the most oppressive units in the game. As with the Ogregrowth, the other advanced Grovetender unit is specially suited to a specific type of opposing units. Path-based melee minions are the Grizzled Oak’s specialty. With an insane 7 health, 4 attack, and the talent Crush, this unit alone can deal up to 8 damage to opposing units in a turn, while only taking up to 1 instance of retaliation! The first engagement with opposing units will often see the Grizzled Oak with more health than all opposing units, allowing it to use Crush freely. After the first turn of engagement, the opponent will have likely removed enough health for it to be unable to use Crush. But that often means that for the cost of 5 source (8 source - 3 discounted), you are able to deal 12 damage to opposing units while forcing all attacks to not go to your Ogregrowth or heroes. This is unprecedented levels of forced decision making, adding another aspect of the Grovetenders that your opponents need to play around. This is a great addition to any wave 2 or 3, one that your opponents have to respect the threat of and position correctly or else you can destroy all of their units in one fell swoop.
Taproot (S -> C)
Now on to easily the best minion in the Grovetender arsenal and one of the reasons that you should be playing the Grovetenders. Not only is this unit on par with other 3 cp ranged units in terms of stats, but it also has access to one of the most versatile and powerful talents in the game, Summon. Not only does the range allow the Taproot to deal damage from behind the safety of the larger Grovetender units, but then once it reaches the frontlines, it is able to Summon into whatever the situation calls for. I will not reiterate the entire benefit of the Summon talent, as it is mixed into every other promoted unit in this guide. What I will say is that there is an answer for any situation in the game. If you need damage to multiple minions, a War Briar or Grizzled Oak will do, if you can and need to remove a crucial minion from being deployed again, a Vineherald will do great, if you need to assassinate an opposing hero, spire, or fortress gate, a Treed can do so, if you need a tank for your army, both an Ogregrowth and Grizzled Oak can do so, and if you need to negate pesky opposing heroes, an Ogregrowth can do that the same turn it is Summoned. Taproots are the backbone of the Grovetender army, and rightfully so. They are unpredictable and versatile, leading to forcing your opponent into poor positioning if they try to only counter a specific Summon type. Due to Summon’s ability to stall your units so that you also fight with the support of your spire, the Grovetenders choose the battleground and force their opponent to fight out of position.
For how great the basic Taproot is, it is rightfully so that the promoted Taproot is much worse. First off, it loses the Summon talent, 2 health, and 1 movement. This is a fragile minion that can do nearly nothing except give 2 source to your opponent. While it can snipe opposing units after the Summoned unit dies, that does not happen unless your opponent forgets about the Taproot underneath. Sadly, due to its 1 movement speed, your opponent can also use it to extend the timing on campfire mode, allowing their heroes to roam the map and defeat landmarks or spires for multiple turns before the wave ends. This unit needs to be bad to balance the insane power of Summoning, so it is a necessary evil for the Taproot. Regardless, it doesn’t make the Taproot any less of an insane unit.
Spires:
Shrubbery (C)
Starting out the list of very expensive Grovetender spire options is the Shrubbery. As with the rest of the Grovetender spires, the Shrubbery is necessary as a way to play the game, but should not be the main line of defence. Due to starting with 1 attack and 1 fortification, filling out the 2 upgrade capacity, there is not a lot of range or damage that this spire can do. It is rather hard to take out due to the fortification and Camouflage talent, but it does not provide much defense. There is quite a bit of utility that can be done with Cover, allowing your Taproots to survive hits from opposing sources when they are around the spire. This most often is used on your side’s swamp landmark, allowing your Taproots to safely deploy from your fortress gate so that they can Summon. This can also be used more aggressively, by building this spire at the edge of your influence while you still have Taproots out in order to let them take one more fight before being forced to Summon. While this seems pretty good, it is very hard to pull off in practice. It is also important to note that while Cover protects from both unit and spire attacks, it does nothing for damage via retaliation or other talents.
One of the coolest mechanics that I would note with this spire and the Creeping Vines is that via the usage of Sharpener 3 - Summon Roots, by removing the fortification from this spire you can add a range, allowing Camouflage to become much more powerful, especially if this spire is not adjacent to a path hex.
Retall (B)
The Retall is a slightly overpriced standard Air Defense spire. These spires are all the same, with the cost the only effective difference between them. This is a fine spire and necessary for any Flying stragglers that have gotten past your units. Usually, this is the spire of choice for early game defense, as starting with an attack and range is more useful than the Shrubbery. Usually, this will be the spire of choice when going for solely a defensive spire, where the base 3 upgrade capacity and Air Defense will deal enough damage that one of your heroes can fully protect your base. Overall, this is a very basic spire that is decent enough to protect your fortress gate from straggling minions, albeit at a rather expensive cost.
Creeping Vines (A)
Grovetender promoted spires are essentially their unpromoted counterparts with an upside. The Creeping Vines are no exception to this rule, as they are a Shrubbery with one additional upgrade capacity and the additional talent Creep. This actually makes this spire a rather flexible defense. You are able to place an additional range onto this spire from the beginning, allowing it to use Camouflage to shoot at enemy units while not getting attacked in return. Adding a range is even stronger on the Creeping Vines, as this spire is able to move off of its starting source well and away from path hexes. This talent is rather strong by allowing it to move out of range of path only units, preventing any attacks against it due to Camouflage. You can even plan out specific paths that these spires can take by using earthscapes. This can be done so that a spire marches alongside your fragile Taproots, keeping them alive via Cover until they can Summon in just the right place. One of the overlooked usages of this spire is to free up a source well near your fortress gate. Because the Creeping Vines can stay on a non-source well hex (in fact it can’t move back onto a source well due to the definition of a non-path hex), you can cram a lot of spires into your section of the map, creating the Grovetender forest of spires that is rather difficult to fight through. Another usage of this moving spire is to provide a spire to use Rooted against on every step of the Ogregrowth’s path. This allows for maximum stalling of your whole army. I would argue that due to the large source gain of the Grovetenders, this spire is something that you should at least try to work around or purchase in wave 4 as a way to supplement your unit defense. While it won’t be doing a ton of damage, it can be very effective in letting your positioning be better than your opponent’s.
Muskeg (B)
With only one temporary upgrade from the Retall, the Muskeg is not a ton better, but rather just an alternative replacement. After unlocking Sacred Grove 2 - Forest Sentience, this spire is simply a strict upgrade to the Retall for the same cost. The Muskeg gains the talent Wallop, which is a one time attack that allows the Muskeg to deal 1 guaranteed damage to a minion, then move it to a hex within 3 spaces of the spire, then demote this spire. While this is a one time ability, it can actually be quite useful. It allows you to send a minion back behind the opposing deployment to stagger their units, send one forward into spires with no target to defeat it quickly, or just remove a unit from slowing down opposing units or blocking your own. While this is still a 1 time feature and for that reason, the Muskeg gets the same rating as the Retall, it is a notable advantage that can have some clutch moments. While not nearly as unique as the Creeping Vine, it is an aspect of the Grovetender defense that does exceptionally well against very threatening units that deal a ton of damage if they end next to your fortress gate (Immolate units and Powder Monkeys).
Openings:
Standard Build Order
Market Phase: 2 Source Purchase / Skip
Build Phase: Amplify
Prep Phase: Dywen, War Briar, Taproot
This build order allows you to gain the most source heading into wave 2, due to the insane advancement that is Amplify. The market option nearly all of the time should be a spire relevant to the current matchup or an earthscape. The Grovetenders can make much better use of earthscapes than most other factions and should be picked up whenever they are available. Amplify will set you up to have more source in wave 2, which gives you flexibility in build decisions, stalling, or even expensive market purchases. In addition, it means that you don’t have to worry about hitting the 20 source maximum in wave 1, which sometimes can happen if you secure multiple landmarks.
For wave 1, there is no other deployment that makes sense, as seen in the units section. Dywen is the only free hero for the Grovetenders, the Taproot is their best minion, and the War Briar is the only one that fits with a Taproot. Luckily, this is a strong opening that gives flexibility via Summon, landmark damage with Impale, and can feed Dywen her first few upgrades while keeping her alive.
Basic Form Opening
Market Phase: 2 Source Purchase / Skip
Build Phase: Basic Form
Prep Phase: Dywen, War Briar, Taproot
Against factions that are a serious threat in wave 1, it may be too slow to purchase Amplify, and you need a little more damage in order to survive. This comes in the form of giving Dywen the Impale talent, greatly increasing her damage output and threat. Most landmarks can be killed one turn earlier, allowing Dywen to gain upgrades quicker and secure kills early to allow for time to reposition into favorable spots to engage enemy units. In addition, after gaining one attack upgrade, Dywen will have a total of 3 damage in a turn, allowing her to take favorable fights against the opposing starting heroes and zone them effectively. Impale also gives Dywen the little push necessary to successfully defend against strong wave 1 threats such as promoted Skitters or the Royal Talon. Low health and high threat units like Elfinkaze or Swabbies can also be killed to accelerate upgrades on Dywen, allowing her to become a menace early on in the game.
Picking this opening build means that you should play a little more aggressively to combat opponent’s units and spires, trying to get Dywen 4 total kills in wave 1 or the beginning of wave 2 before rolling the Master Form dice. This way, if an attack or range is rolled, then Dywen gets more upgrades than her capacity allows early on. Combined with Impale on Wyvankaye, they pose a significant threat that will allow you to stabilize against most build orders.
Strategy:
Unlike the other factions, I don’t see the Grovetenders as ever trying to win the game, but rather continually trying as hard as they can to not lose. This is because their goal in the game is to survive until wave 4 scoring, where they most likely win due to the cheap price of their fortress advancements, extra health granted from Petrify, and their ability to retain health through effective defense. This usually ends up with them having both more fortress advancements and more health than their opponents, ending in a clean sweep at end of game scoring. Because of this, it is integral that you use your resources to defend and reduce opposing threats effectively.
Luckily for the Grovetenders, they have a variety of unique and lethal threats within their arsenal that they force opponents to play around. This is part of what allows them to be so effective. The opponent can make mistakes by ignoring your threats in hopes of killing you first, which usually results in their defeat. A lone Taproot heading into a single spire can become a Grizzled Oak or Treed, defeat the spire and destroy the fortress gate if your opponents overcommit. They are forced to send their resources to defeat your minions rather than focusing solely on your fortress gate. This also means that you care rather little for what your opponent is playing, with the sole exception of the Heirs, who have just enough explosive sustain that they are able to deal with both your units and fortress gate at the same time.
There are a couple unique strategies that the Grovetenders have access to, but all of these are more general concepts rather than specific build orders. Because of this and the Grovetender’s more macro-oriented gameplay, these will be discussed in this section as a way for you to know what is generally the best play for this faction. In the matchup guides, there will be adjustments to this overall strategy, but nearly all of their games try to play out the same way.
To start off, we will be discussing the largest portion of the Grovetenders, Wyvankaye. I consider her to be roughly half of the Grovetender’s strength all in one. Wyvankaye has the ability to completely take over the game if uncontested, and due to her unique abilities, has to be answered before she is even selected for deployment. While one may assume that the first thing you should be considering is how to approach the first wave and strategies there, Wyvankaye starts affecting the game as early as the first market phase of the game. There is never a guarantee that future market options will be able to deal with Wyvankaye at all, which means that your opponents should be looking at the first market to see if there is a good answer for her. Sometimes, this can even mean that your opponent has to spend their wave 1 buy on a market hero or minion that won’t be used until wave 2, giving you an immediate macro advantage.
In the prep phase of wave 1, it is important to note whether or not you can make more use of the War Briar’s Impale more if they are the first or second spot. This is usually not difficult to spot, but is something that you should not forget. This is because quite a few minions have more than 3 health, meaning that you can kill them earlier if you play to activate Impale rather than wasting a turn having Dywen attack a second time. This decision actually starts in the isle select phase when placing down your fortress, but it is not within the scope of this guide to discuss the pros and cons of every rotation of every isle.
Moving on to the other Grovetender hero, the one who you get to play in every game, Dywen. At her peak, I would argue that Dywen can be just as strong as Wyvankaye, she just needs help to get there. Something to note is that Dywen is so strong in the late game that enemies will be targeting her and possibly sacrificing everything in wave 1 just to kill her. Hence why we like to call her “Die When?” as a question implying that either Dywen or her opponent will die at some point in this game, it's just a matter of when. This is yet another point where enemies have to make the move to prevent the Grovetenders from growing out of control. Because of this, I like to consider it a wave 1 success if Dywen is promoted and is safe. The goal for this wave is to defeat your swamp landmark, giving Dywen an attack that she can utilize to defeat one of the other landmarks around, allowing her to promote. Using the one attack, look for a way that she can safely step in and snipe a minion left on one health. This usually is possible since your other minions all deal damage in increments of 1. When Dywen secures this kill against aggressive factions, I like to pick up an attack on her promoted side to assist with immediate defense. Conversely, against other factions, I like to pick up a range because it is less common to roll on the Master Form dice, allowing her to have a more even spread of upgrades later in the game. 3 range also works extremely well if you have the ability to give Dywen the Ram talent via Basic Form. Keep Dywen alive as best as you can this wave, even sending her back into the fortress if necessary.
In wave 2, Wyvankaye forces opponents to act in the market phase rather than the build phase, so you can purchase fortress advancements according to what your opponent has to answer her. If you don’t think that your opponent has a good enough answer for Wyvankaye, you force her advancements (Forming Glade) after making sure to purchase Petrify as a stall so your opponent has less information. This usually leaves your opponent with only one build option before passing, denying them information about your strategy for as long as possible. There are a lot of market options that people can buy, thinking that they are able to counter Wyvankaye, when in reality they cannot. This includes most spires and minions as well as some weaker heroes. Because of this, you can still deploy Wyvankaye and make good use of her in every wave so long as you take care of where and how your opponent is threatening. Keeping Wyvankaye alive is the highest priority after she has been deployed. This creates a very fun and interactive playing field of rock-paper-scissors. Wyvankaye beats opposing minions, opposing merc heroes beat Wyvankaye, your minions beat opposing merc heroes, and opposing minions often beat your minions. Because of this, your goal is to use Wyvankaye at the edge of the mercenary hero’s zoning to deal enough damage to opposing minions that yours can get through and push back the mercenary, giving Wyvankaye more control over the map. This is a difficult skill to nurture and the best advice I can give is to practice and make mistakes. Each map is different, each game has different threats, and the slightest mistake can compound into a snowball that ends with you losing the wave. Practice with Wyvankaye and feel out how she plays, there is a lot more intuition than hard written rules with her.
If the opponent has picked up a hero that is good at stopping Wyvankaye, there is pretty much one other option for the Grovetenders. That option is to deploy two Taproots, then make sure to use their Summon talent to the best of your ability. Make sure to pick up Attuning this wave, as you will have one additional cp left over that you can exchange for 4 source. This build option is much less fleshed out, as I usually find it is better to just force Wyvankaye and trust that I can get enough value out of her to justify her deployment. Due to this, you can buy any of the fortress advancements in the Hall of Shaping or the Forming Glade in addition to Petrify as a way to power up your Summoning capabilities so that you can survive this wave. An alternate version of this strategy is to purchase Hall of Shaping 2 - Shaping Pool, which will allow you to deploy Ybanthe and a Taproot while also gaining the 4 source from Attuning. You can go back and see what I wrote for Ybanthe to see why I do not like using her with the Grovetenders. However, I will note that this deployment for wave 2 can be useful at times, even though I rarely use this myself. At the end of the day, you are fighting an uphill battle (more than usual for Grovetenders) if you cannot commit to using Wyvankaye in wave 2. Because of this, make sure to Summon as late as possible so you can be sure that the unit you choose will do the best at keeping you alive.
Moving into wave 3 and 4, this is where the Grovetender minions start to become a real problem. By that, I definitely mean that the Taproots start to become a great threat. The goal of these waves is to purchase as many fortress advancements as you can while keeping 2-4 source left (in addition to the 4 Attuning source) to Summon during the wave. In addition, I really like building a Shrubbery or Creeping Vines on the source well where your starting swamp landmark was. This allows us to stall one or two extra turns by using Rooted on the Ogregrowth. Each turn of stall will force your opponent out from under their own spires, let Wyvankaye and Dywen deal more chip damage to opposing units, and get opposing minions closer to your own spires. I like committing to an Ogregrowth so early on in the wave both to get this stall and because I end up always Summoning into one eventually to shut off opposing heroes. Due to the stalling caused by the Ogregrowth being rather important, I like to select my deployment for this wave as a single War Briar and two Taproots. The War Briar is selected both because it can fit while still benefitting from Attuning, as well as it being a rather expendable unit that gives some more flexibility to where the first Taproot stops. If a friendly spire is two spaces away from the fortress gate, you can send a Taproot first to Summon into an Ogregrowth adjacent to the spire. If the spire is only one space away, sending the War Briar first allows the Taproot to get stuck behind it, then Summon adjacent to the spire anyways. For this wave, I like using the War Briar as a sort of shock troop, dealing damage with Impale, then tanking either a full attack or retaliation, opening up the way for your other units to deal damage safely.
Summoning is the name of the game in waves 3 and 4. As seen in the Taproot section, there is a choice to deny whatever strategy your opponent is trying to use to defeat you this wave. Minions are no match for a promoted Grizzled Oak, heroes cannot engage if you control a promoted Ogregrowth, then if they decide to ignore your army, a wave of promoted Treeds can be Summoned to quickly neuter any spires that they have defending their base, closing out the game surprisingly quickly. While you may be able to end the game here, I always feel a little out of place attempting to base race my opponent as the Grovetenders. Because of this, I tend to force engagements (even unfavorable ones) as a way to trade off units, trusting in the large health pools of Grovetender units to survive long enough to deal enough damage to opposing units that my heroes and spires can clean up the rest.
After the dust settles at the end of wave 4, it is almost assured that you have won the game on points. The more aggressive factions do not accrue enough source to purchase the fortress advancements necessary to beat the Grovetenders regardless of the amount of non-lethal damage dealt and the controlling factions cannot deal enough damage to make up the difference in fortress advancement points. If you have made it this far, you haven’t died and accomplished the only goal the Grovetenders had, allowing you to win the game. After reading this whole section, you may understand more as to why I say the Grovetenders are always losing, until they win!
