Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords expansion pack Revenge of the Plague Lord now available on Xbox Live Arcade! New Features! • Four New Hero Professions - Bard, Rogue, Ranger, Warlock • An entirely new part of Agaria to explore with all new quests • More than 50 New Spells including Bullseye, Corruption, Darkness, King of Thieves, Song of Pain and more • More than 40 New Magic Items including the Stormhammer, Stormshield, Darkblade and Dragonslayer • New Monsters • New Bosses • New original Music Discover the next exciting installment in the Puzzle Quest story! After gaining a reputation for battling Undead in northern Agaria, you are approached to help with a similar infestation in the southern lands. It seems that Ghouls, servants of the Lord of Plague, have been increasing in numbers and attacking towns and villages throughout Colis Tarn and Lysea. With the aid of Helden, leader of the Ghoul Knights - protectors of the southern lands - your Hero sets about discovering the true source of this infestation. Deep within the marshes of Malbec, an ancient Sorceress has returned from her grave and uncovered a secret source of power allowing her to control the Ghouls. Now you must track her down and confront her to stop the Ghoulish uprising. But the defeat of the Ghouls will only be a temporary thing if their true master—Antharg, the Lord of Plague—is allowed to remain in power. So with the Sorceress defeated, the Hero must set out to destroy Antharg, the brother of the infamous Lord Bane. PUZZLE QUEST: RotPL EXPANSION GAME PLAY TIPS CLASS TIPS – Bard Spend 70% of your Leveling-up skill points on Morale, and the other 30% on Air Mastery. Much like the Knight, the Bard relies on a large amount of Life Points, and the Yellow Mana is very important for most of his spells. It's a good idea to increase your other Mastery skills (bought from the Temple) to 16 or 20, in order to get more Mana for the other colors easily. Battle is another important skill, and getting 20-30 points here will allow you to do an appreciable amount of damage per Skull match. Key spells: Inspire – In early levels, this spell will allow you to overpower your opponent after a few casts, and it raises your Cunning at the same time. With enough patience, you can level from 1 to 10 in a single match against the right enemy, like a Catapult! Song of Life – The Bard relies on a high Morale to keep him alive through enemy attacks. This spell lets you stay alive even longer through the simple step of matching up a few Yellow Gems, which you should be doing anyway to gain Mana for other spells. Calm – This may not seem powerful at first, but Revenge of the Plague Lord contains many enemies with powerful status effects that can be inflicted upon you. Having the ability to instantly rid yourself of any effect becomes extremely important when you suddenly have to deal with 4 Diseases. Song of Famine – Pestilence stops your opponent from gaining any Mana for several turns. This allows you to build your Mana totals while keeping the enemy from gaining any himself. Song of Sorrow – Combined with Song of Famine, this spell allows you to lock down an opponent almost permanently, keeping them from gaining any Mana for an entire battle. With most opponents, this will almost assure your victory, as their only way of doing anything at this point is to match Skulls. Key equipment: Runic Helm – Adds life each turn for 16+ Red and Yellow Mana. Since most of the Bard's spells are Yellow Mana heavy, you will likely have at least enough Mana to make use of the Helm, keeping your life up for little cost. Staff of Abjuration – The Bard relies on outlasting his opponent, and the Staff causes you to have a base resistance to all forms of the enemy skills. This is more useful at higher levels, where a 12% across the board resistance is nothing to laugh about, but is still useful at lower levels where the enemy getting a spell off isn't as game shattering. Armor of Minogoth – Earth Resistance and the ability to shave off incoming damage makes this a solid choice for the Bard. Getting it as part of the quest line is even better (End of Act III) as you don't have to go out of your way or save money to achieve this item. CLASS TIPS – Ranger Spend 90% of your Leveling-up skill points on Earth Mastery, and the other 10% on Battle. Your Earth Mastery skill is extremely important for almost all your spells, and a Battle of around 30 will be a good balance between point spending and the results from matching Skulls. Make sure you increase your Cunning skill (bought from the Temple) to a decent amount so that you can get the first turn over your enemies. 25 points will allow you first turn against most enemies in the game, while 40 or so will let you get the jump on most other players. Spending some points to bring your other Mana Masteries to 12 or 16 would also do well in getting you more Mana per match for more spell casting. Key spells: Snipe– With a low Mana cost and a decent return on damage, this should be the first spell you go to when you don't see a good match on the board. Track – This spell lets you drain the opponent of anything in their Green Mana Pool for a very low cost to yourself. Keeping the enemy out of Mana is an easy way of keeping yourself safe from many of their attacks Bullseye – This spell appears to be overpriced for its results at first, until you figure out some of its extra uses. The Bullseye isn't designed to be shot directly at a +5 Skull, but instead to be aimed so that it gets as many of these Skulls as possible in the row and column that it destroys. Once you get the hang of it, this ability can often net you 3 or more powerful strikes at the enemy all in one shot. Archery – This spell comes later on in the Ranger's abilities, but is extremely powerful against any enemy that uses primarily Yellow Mana, like Bards and Wizards. Being able to hit them every three turns for their often large Yellow Mana Pool in damage is a good way of taking them down before they can lock you out of ability usage. Multishot – This is another spell that seems to require too high a cost for what it does—at first. However, when combined with Hide (from the spell or Chameleon Ring) and the Thief's Cowl, this spell can easily spell instant death for your opponent as even the smallest Skull does at least 4 points of damage, with each +5 doing a minimum of 20. Key equipment: Thief's Cowl – This is one of the late-game items for a Ranger, not so useful early on. Combined with Hide, it allows you to do quadruple damage on any Skulls that are destroyed. This, combined with Multishot to destroy all the Skulls on the board at once will make you a force to be reckoned with. Runic Blade – The Ranger relies heavily on Green Mana, and the Runic Blade does more damage for each 8 Blue or Green Mana in your Mana Pool. This weapon, by itself with a high Earth Mastery is an excellent way of shoring up a Ranger's offensive power. Elcor's Ring – A Ranger relies on many high Mana cost skills in order to win Battles. Elcor's Ring ensures that Disease won't sap your Mana, as well as getting rid of those pesky Poisons. If you choose to use the Hide spell instead of the Chameleon Ring, this is a very important item to keep in your inventory. Chameleon Ring – This ring puts you into Hide each time you connect a 4 or 5 of a Kind. With the Thief's Cowl, you will instantly be doing far more damage than before, and you'll have an extra turn from the match to capitalize on the status effect. CLASS TIPS – Rogue Spend 90% of your Leveling-up skill points on Water Mastery, and the other 10% on Cunning. This will give you enough Cunning to go first against almost any enemy, including live opponents, as well as providing enough Blue Mana to cast all your major spells after only a couple matches of Blue Gems. It's a good idea to increase your other Mastery skills (bought from the Temple) to 16 or 20, in order to get more Mana for the other colors easily. Don't raise them much higher than this though, as the Rogue doesn't rely too heavily on these alternate Mana sources, so you are better off spending the rest elsewhere, like Battle and Morale. Key spells: Hide – This spell is your bread and butter, and should always be up. Combine this with a Thief's Cowl and the Rogue becomes a force to be reckoned with when matching Skulls. Even with no Battle, a single strike with this spell and the Cowl will do 12 damage! Blinding Strike – Blinding your enemy makes any opponent that relies on casting spells completely useless. The cool down is only 4 turns, so with a decent supply of Blue Mana, you can lock down an opponent permanently. Bribery – This ability is the Rogue's ace in the hole. The Rogue typically isn't a damage dealing class, but with this spell, and a bit of setup from Treasure Chest or good board manipulation, you can set up a huge amount of Gold Coins on the Battle Grid, then destroy them all with this ability and the few Skulls that are usually around. Assassinate – More useful in Player vs Player combat than against the computer, this spell can be used to cause massive damage to builds that rely on a single color of Mana. Key equipment: Thief's Cowl – This is one of the prime items for a Rogue. Combined with Hide, it allows you to do quadruple damage on any Skulls that are destroyed. Erik’s Bow - A minor quest item that increases damage when matching Skulls, based on your character’s Level (so it gets better the higher Level you are). Complements the Hide strategy extremely well, providing a strong boost to damage every few levels Troll Rings - Any of the 3 Troll Rings helps heal the Rogue, who doesn't normally have a method of healing himself. Runic Cloak – Adds life each turn for 16+ Green and Yellow Mana. Since most of the Rogue's spells are Blue Mana heavy, this allows the Rogue to easily gain a couple lives each turn. Combined with a Troll Ring, the Rogue can quickly regenerate any damage taken over a couple of turns. CLASS TIPS – Warlock Split your points 50/50 between Water and Earth Mastery as you level. Your spells all take a large amount of both of these, and your Mana pools need to be able to absorb this cost after only a couple matches. It's a good idea to increase your other Mastery skills (bought from the Temple) to 16 or 20, in order to get more Mana for the other colors easily. Don't raise them much higher than this though, so that you have points available to spend in Battle and Morale Key spells: Corruption – Pestilence? Thanks! Disease? Sure, I'll take it! This spell lets you take all the status effects that you have and give them right back to the enemy. Make sure you always have enough Mana to cast it, and as long as you're not Blinded, you don't have to worry about the enemy inflicting you with debilitating effects. Dark Bolt – Blinding the enemy is very important later on when spells can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Add in the ability to take away a bit of Mana while you're at it, and you have a solid, low cost spell to annoy your opponents. Darkstorm – This spell doubles your Blue and Green Mana, which are your primary spell casting components. Even better, it only uses Red and Yellow Mana, which isn't often used for your abilities, so it will be easy to make sure that you have enough Mana to cast this ability when you need to. Raise Dead – This, like the Ranger's Multishot, can be an instant kill in the right circumstances. Since it changes *two* colors of Mana into Skulls, it is very easy to not only get matches, but 4 of a Kinds, which will set you up for an extra turn in which you can finish off your now weakened opponent. Key equipment: Runic Helm - Adds life each turn for 16+ Red and Yellow Mana. Since most of the Warlock's spells are Blue and Green Mana heavy, you'll usually have more than enough extra Mana to make sure that you're gaining back a few precious Life Points each turn. Runic Blade – Even more than the Ranger, the Warlock uses both Green and Blue Mana to its fullest. This weapon takes huge advantage of the Warlock's natural strengths, allowing you to put out massive amounts of damage after a couple matches to raise your Mana Pools Bloodstone Cloak – This piece of armor lets you bump up your Blue and Green Mana pools easily, adding to each whenever you match Red Gems. Since the Warlock uses these Mana types heavily, and it works with the Runic Blade, this armor fits perfectly in with the Warlock's overall strategy. SPELL LEARNING TIPS Many of the items in the expansion deal with the effects of Disease, Pestilence and Poison. Gaining more spells that help with this will give you an edge against many opponents as you are able to easily stack 4 Diseases and keep the opponent from gaining Mana. Look for spells from opponents or Mounts that will accomplish this, such as Rabid Bite from the Giant Rat or Ghoulish Aura from a Ghoul or Ur-Ghoul. Spells that transform gems from one type to another are great spells to learn and are always useful. These allow you to generate 4-of-a-kinds when the board sets up in certain patterns. Examples include the Imp's Burn spell and the Frost Giant's Freeze spell. Look at the spells available to your class and get spells that help it out. Spells like Hide from the Goblin for example, go very well with the Ranger's skills that blow up Skulls, improving the Ranger's ability to deal damage immensely. Some spells can also help to deal with weaknesses in a class, like Regeneration for a Warlock. Warlocks often have very high Blue Mana, but low Life Points, so something like Regeneration can help in keeping the Warlock alive. SKILL TIPS For matching gems, 8 skill and 21 skill are the sweet spots for any of your abilities that you aren't raising as your primaries. These will let you gain 5 and 6 Mana respectively for very little investment in Gold at the Temple. This also applies to Battle and the damage from Skull matches. Spend most of your Leveling-up skill points on skills that cost 1 point to increase. Specialization in only a few skills is the key. The Cunning skill, which determines who goes first, is an important skill to increase, either via the Temple, or from Leveling-up. If monsters seem to be taking the first turn too often, it is time to increase your Cunning skill. Morale has diminishing returns on your overall Life Points as you gain more of the skill, so it's important to balance out the spending in that skill as opposed to any others. 200, counting bonuses from Awards, is probably around the maximum that is worthwhile in spending on this skill, unless you need to sneak out a few more Life Points for your particular build. MOUNT TIPS The Pegasus is a new mount in the expansion that provides a Morale bonus for every 3 levels it has gained. If you don't have any other specific mount to use for your character build, a Pegasus will provide a good boost to your Life Points, not to mention the normal mount abilities to bypass enemy encounters at higher trained levels. When training a mount, take into account its specific abilities and weaknesses. Training a mount to maximum level is a long process that gets harder as you go on, so doing things like equipping Elcor's Ring to fight a Giant Rat and avoid the Poisons from it will go a long way in making the training process easier. When training at higher levels, consider using the Runic Armor set (Runic Helm, Runic Cloak, Runic Banner). These items, when you have 16+ in all your Mana Pools, will make it so that the 4 second limit and 5 damage taken for a time out will only make you lose a turn, since you'll regain 6 Life Points total at the beginning of your next turn.