Hey guys, this is my second faq in this website
and I'm doing it on one of my favourite strategy
games of all time, Heroes of Might and Magic IV.
I personally like it because of the campaigns,
which should be very obvious by now since this
faq is on the Nature campaign. I plan to do
one on every campaign in this game, or just some
of my favourite and harder ones. However, I won't
make a complete walkthrough on them all in one
whole faq as I like splitting things apart so
that I'll be able to put as much info on them as
possible.
As for myself, I usually don't say much as my
identity is secret since I'm a spy working for
390 gangsters.....just kidding. If you would like
to ask me a question just tell me on the question
board, but NOT my email as I rarely check and I
really dislike getting hate mail. If you want to
post this faq on some other website you know
then just tell me first, but NOT without getting
permission or else here are the consequenses:
1. I'll make Lord Harke kidnap you.....
2. Worllarc will turn you undead...
3. Elwin will make you eat purple hats....
That's about it for my introduction, have fun with
the tutorial....
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2. Tutorial
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Ah, the tutorial. Heroes of Might and Magic IV
is a little hard to get used to when you're
just a beginner, so I suggest that you take the
game's custom-made tutorial first. DON'T do the
campaigns until you know how to do everything
right and as well as tried out at least five
intermediate scenarios. Campaigns also usually
give you a set objective unlike about 65% of the
scenarios so likely you won't have to become
the strongest army and defeat all your opponents.
That is especially good in this scenario as you
will rarely become the strongest.
Lets start off with the basics, shall we?
First, the alignments. They are: Might, Nature,
Chaos, Death, Order, and Life. It really depends
on how you fight and as well as what kind of
magic which you would like(or, even no magic
at all). Might is a good beginners one, as it
requires on pure strength and likely you won't
get used to the magic until you know the strength
in them first. Next, Nature. The best one there
is, actually as Nature usually makes you
invincible to enemies.....sort of like Death,
since you can just keep on summoning enough
creatures until either you run out of MP or
until the enemy has been defeated. This means
that, you can even go one-man on the enemy and
still win. Nature also has two level four
recruits if you use the Creature Portal, but
you need lots of wood if you're thinking of
playing that alignment.
Chaos time. This alignment I really hate because
the things cost too much, plus I'm not really
into the evil side. But you should know that
evil is usually the stronger one if you're
not used to tactics, so it might make a good
beginner alignment but its just the cost and
also the annoying music when you enter the Asylum.
Now lets talk about Death. This alignment is...
well, really...evil? You really have to rely on
magic if you want to make THIS alignment good,
because the evil part of it is that you get to
kill your enemies and then resurrect them as
your allies! It also has lots of cursing magic,
and no, I don't mean swear words, I mean that
they put curses on your opponent such as mire,
which makes them move slower on the world map.
Other than that the only good things which you
can get by playing Death is vampires and Bone
Dragons as they're all undead which means they
are immune to most spells, plus the vampire also
have a very useful life sucking ability.
Ah, Order. This alignment is my second favourite
as you get LOADS of ranged units. Halflings, for
example, are very useful if you have a lot of them.
Next are Magi, who can cast a variety of spells.
They can also lure your enemies out of their castles
with poison, not to mention magic fist works well
on the attack side. Gold Golems and Dwarves have
very strong attack, defense, and magic resistance
but they move slow. Genies are much better than
Nagas-their Ice Bolt really rocks if you have a
ton of them, not to mention create Illusions works
well if you need a defense against your weaker
units. Nagas, on the other hand, have a lot of
HP and attack, but they probably won't get to the
enemy in time to stop someone like genies. Finally,
on to Titans. This guys really rock but not as much
as they do in Heroes 3. Dragon Golems are a good
new creature with their high movement, HP, and
attack. As for the Order spells, the only good one
is actually hypnotize which allows you to control
most creatures ENTIRELY! Think about it, with an
army of Hypnotizers then they can even defeat one
other one no matter how powerful they are....unless
you're up against 1200 Faeries Dragons or something.
Finally, life. These guys are also very good on the
ranged side, but that's pretty much just it. They
don't ever seem overpowering, and champions are
just very weak for a level 4 unit, too. They're
magic is good, however. Divine Intervention cures
an insane amount, while Guardian Angel can be
useful when trying to protect a weaker, main
attacking unit. Mass Bless and Regeneration works
well, too. Overall a decent unit.
For this walkthrough, however, you'll be using Nature
so get used to summoning.....or else.
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3. Preparations
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Nature is definitely NOT a beginner's alignment,
as, unlike other ones, your level one creatures'
stats just suck. Really, even though Sprites
have no retaliation and wolves can hit twice,
None of them actually have a formidable defense
against other creatures, and they can't shoot
either. Death is the only other alignment which
has no level one shooters. Nature's advantage
will be summoning. NOT the skill summoning,
you'll get like Sprites and Leprechauns every
day which will be of no use on the last levels.
The Nature Spells, however, are awesome. Dragon and
Giant Strength can boost your stats quite a deal
high, and Mass Snake Strike is just cool. So is
Mass Fortune, but the summon Water Elementals are
the main advantage once your characters learn it.
From then on, you can easily go one man on all
neutrals and continue that way when you learn
the best spell ever: SUMMON MANTIS!!!!!! We'll
take a short break to admire that spell.
Ok, enough joking. Sprites and Wolves may be
bad, but not any creatures on the higher level (of
course). Choice: White Tigers or Elves? Getting
Elves would be a good choice (you'll know why
on the last level), but White Tigers are the
third best level two creatures, so I usually
prefer them. Next, Unicorns or Griffins? Well,
Griffins have unlimited retaliation and high
Hp as well as stats, but Unicorns have better
stats in my opinion, their damage is decent and
their ability to inflict Blind with every
strike is just too good to be true. Pick the
pretties! Lastly, we have....Faerie Dragons!
Don't even bother with Phoenixes, unless you
really need to go on the melee side. Otherwise,
get the Faeries and get ready to magic rumble.....
Only if you're short on troops or high on money
would you want to recruit Creature Portal units.
Personally, I find Mantises the best, but having
Summon Mantis is already good enough. So, when
you get the choice, what should you pick? Water
Elementals are splendid, but you might consider
Fire as they can shoot. Air Elementals are my pick,
their defense and magic defense are too high, not
to mention insane growth. Finally, we have Waspworts,
who are only good in large numbers, but leave them
with summoning. Anything else I don't recommend,
as they are too weak.
Now that we understand nature well, shall we get
started? Of course, don't forget about fast reading!
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4. Walkthrough
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Let the story begin.......I love Purple
Hats!
S C E N A R I O O N E: The Lovers
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elwin is a level one elf, with absolutely NOTHING
WITH HIM! Don't worry, though, as the enemies are
currently very weak, and some summon creatures will
get you through the first part. Claim the treasure
'round here, then get the creatures from the level
one dwellings nearby. Now go and defeat the Troglodytes
in your way, and claim your castle! Build a Sacred
Grove first. Now continue claiming ye many treasures
around here, then head east and recruit evles if you
want. Capture the Jagged Den castle, too, for some
storyline entertainment. Those Orcs.....burned down
everything......agh....
Have Purple Hat go northeast into the might region.
Kill any troops there may currently be in this area,
including the blue player. Capture the Might Town
to really increase your money income, and now head
southeast. You should see a cave here. Defeat the
neutrals guarding it, and head underground. Purple
Hat should go west here, and defeat the Trolls guarding
the orange Keymaster Tent. Head back to your nature
castle. Get all your current troops (you should have
Unicorns at this point) and go north. past the orange
border. Watch out! The rest of the players lies in this
deadly region. If you visited a blue keymaster tent
in the Might Region, you can (optional) go through
the teleportal here leading into the islands Elwin
and Shaera has to face. There are some artifacts here
which you may like.
Quickly, have Purple Hat zoom through the area. The
enemies are probably way too overwhelming at this
point, so unless you recruited a Whooping lot
run! If you think you can thanks to Giant Strength
and Fortune, take over some of the castles here.
To win this scenario, have Purple Hat make his way
to the town of Dolphin Jump. Make sure, however,
that Elwin manages to reach the level limit
for this scenario. Have him recruit your last bunch
of creatures, then fight the enemies one by one till
they are completely annihialated. Good luck....
Time recommended to be taken: Two Months, one week.
S E C O N D S C E N A R I O: Mark of the Tiger
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note: Do not attack the teal player!
The first thing to do is to get the Summon Water
Elemental Spell! Without it, winning this scenario
will be much harder. So, have Elwin bring up a
sizeable army and have him loot out the treasures
in this region. The Trolls guarding the bridge east
of your starting point might prove a challenge, but
Summon Elf should be able to handle things nicely,
that is, if you haven't already got the Summon Water
Elemental. After claiming all the stuff here, put
all of your army in your castle garrison to protect
from the annoying heroes who just love coming out of
a portal which is just a dozen steps away from your
castle. Then have Elwin enter a portal of your choice:
left, or right? I think heading west would be a wiser
choice since there are more trolls to fight there as
well as a ton of nature castles....but lots of high-
level heroes, too, which ain't definitely a good
thing.
So, make your way there and then, when you come out,
you'll arrive at another portal leading over to your
starting castle, which isn't really important for now.
Head north, claim the treasures here, then continue
west over to a nature castle! For now, use it to get
you some Mantises since we don't have the spell yet.
The go south over to a third nature castle. If you
can capture it, then please be my guest, but since
it is at the center of the green player's castles
it will usually attract lots of attention.....if
the AI is smart enough to know it, that is. Now you
can either head east to a likely neutral nature castle
at this point, south to green's last nature castle,
or west over to blue's area. First head east to
quickly take over the nature castle, and, since you
have either three or four by now, your troops should
be harvested by the multiple.
Now, head west. The castle here will be a little hard
to take over, but then, there are also a good number
of Troll stacks which you can kill. When you're done
with them head over to the south to finish off green.
By now, you should be the strongest army, all only
because of a one-elf Purple Hat............
Take any of the teleportals leading back to your
starting castle. Don't recruit yet. Head to the
eastern teleportal leading over to most of blue's
area. There are only two castles to capture here,
both which are chaos, so you really don't have much
business with them except for the spells. Finish
off the rest of blue's animate army and the Trolls.
The final Blue player can be found at the southern
most part of the screen around your nature castle.
Gather up your Mantises, folks, time for the last
battle! The Troll Lord here has 80 Trolls with him,
so be careful, but ten Mantises which I had at this
point are good enough to take care of them.....but
wait! After defeating Blue, you'll realise that you
haven't won yet! Continue north for a sad scene, and
now head west to the red keymaster tent which is
required in order to head underground.
You'll immediately be ambushed by an army nearing
the red border guard. Shouldn't be that hard, though.
You can if you want have fun with the neutrals living
in this area but otherwise they are pretty useless
to fight against. Worllarc is your main enemy, he's
the guy causing the greatest tragedy of the White
Tigers. He shouldn't be too hard to defeat, just
watch out for plague! And oh yeah, keep Elwin alive.
Time recommended to be taken: 3 months, four weeks.
S C E N A R I O T H R E E: True Love
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have Elwin make his way up north over to his first
nature castle in this scenario. A group of White
Tigers will join you on your way there. Put them
out of your party and have Purple Hat do the job
himself with Summon Water Elemental. Once the
castle has been captured you can leave your party
there and have him go one-man on every neutral
around this place. Your first task is to find the
potion of Mirth, Endurance, Resistance, and quick-
ness. They are all located in this area of the map.
Now have Elwin head back to the quest hut east of
your castle to gain excess to a blue keymaster tent.
After visiting it, head past the blue border to
one of green's nature town. Capture it if you can,
but note that the heroes that dwell here are very
strong, so one-man Elwin may not work well against
an invasion.
Upon capturing, head north over to a gem mine. You
will need forty gems in order to create a Cloud-
Silver frame. Defeat the Earth Elementals guarding
the mine, then bring an army to protect both of your
castles and then have Purple Hat explore the wide
open area here thoroughly. This is also one of the
times when you may need to bring a few Mantises with
you since the enemies here are very overwhelming.
You'll find various teleportals throughout the area
as well, two of which leads to great artifacts but
they are guarded by several level four creatures,
which, if I remember, are Titans, Dragon Golems,
and Hydras. They do, however, lead to a level 4
shrine as well. If you get Mass Snake Strike or
Mass Fortune, tough luck. Summon Unicorn, Griffin,
or especialy Waspworts will be an invaluable magic
to this level.
By now you should have forty gems, so go and give
it to the Dwarven Blacksmith living beside the
gem mine to receive Cloud Silver! Now you can
start your quest of conquering the area by first
eliminating green, but note that there are about
six castles in this region, so Purple Hat may have
some trouble keeping up with the heroes around here.
Another quest hut can be found in between a triangle
formation castle. Pay 10,000 GP to receive a vast
amount of sand.....which will be required to pass
onto a fourth quest hut located at the eastern
shores of this area. A Black Dragon's dear mate
has been captured by the townspeople living a
little north of its cave. Once you've made sure
that all of the enemies' towns are captured, you
can make your way into Aleta's realm. In case you
don't know, I like reading biographies and Aleta
tends to be the hero who frequently appears in
that area with a large army.
Gather up your Mantises folks, this may get tough.
If you want, just let the computer do it, but, if
you don't think AI can handle it just do it your-
selves. If you breezed through this level and you
don't have the time to get a formidable army then
of course, you'll have to wait till you get a strong
enough army. Don't even think about going one-elf
with her. It's best to, however, fight every neutral
possible to spend the time instead of sitting
beside your castle everyday waiting for a strong
enough army. Instead, take the time to level up and
explore this scenario thoroughly.
Once you have annihilated the red player and have
captured red's last castle, you'll get yourselves
one Black Dragon. Bring him over to the mate to
receive the sand needed to create the Mirror's
glass...and win the scenario!
Time recommended to be taken: Four Months
S C E N A R I O F O U R: Reflections
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a pretty short and thorough level. Since
you can now get up to level five spells (at last)
Elwin himself could pretty much breeze through
everything so far. First thing to do is make him
learn Summon Mantis (don't waste your time on
anything else, if you don't get it in the mage
guild restart), and have him collect every single
treasure around this area. Do not go up north,
though, as that leads farther into the enemy
realms......our worst nightmare. A quest Hut will
offer you a Dwarven Shield if you defeat the
Medusas beside a backpack.
An orange player's castle can be found somewhere
to the south of that quest hut. Make sure that
you obliterate all of their forces there first
beforre continueing on. Also make sure that their
mage guild contains Dragon Strength, but don't
restart if you don't get it since it is all chance,
but the DS spell sure proves a huge help in ye
last battle of ye scenario. Anyways, back to your
starting castle, make your way north. Capture
the castle here by defeating Mirilass's brother
(who looks like a woman....erh.....) and then
continue west.
Hopefully you learn summon Faerie Dragon for this
castle. If you don't, then note that there's
always another time for it, right? I won't mention
much about the next part of your journey as it is
just a huge bunch of neutrals and the last of that
orange player's army. Watch out, though, there is
a blue keymaster tent located just west of orange's
last castle but Mirilass's army will ambush you
as you near that area. You should be able to defeat
her/?him with just Elwin. After the battle a short
converstion will happen, and then you'll be able to
visit the tent. After doing that bring the full
bulk of your nature armies over to Harke Manor
and finish off blue player.
Time recommended to be taken: 2 months, 4 weeks.
S C E N A R I O F I V E: Together
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lord Harke is in this scenario! WEEPEE! Now we
can get him...for once. The storyline was weird,
though. Anyways, for players in this scenario,
you (purple), red, and teal. Green? That's
Shaera, she is on level 15.....well, she might
have at least tried beating LH up when he
captured her. Anyways, since you have a level
32 nature hero and some almighty skills (tactics
are the recommended ones), you can just about
pretty much take on everyone. So, have Elwin
make his way south and defeat the neutrals 'round
this place. There are for castles to capture,
so make sure that you've got them all under
your control. Since Elwin is the new Elf King,
he gets the Bow of the Elven King: very good
especially for the Elves, but I still got White
Tigers since I like them better with some
serious tactics. Same with Unicorns. And Faerie
Dragons, and finally (optional) Air Elementals.
Since this a large map, having lots of scouts
to cover your starting area will be very
important. Red's heroes tend to always appear
out of nowhere, so it will be almost necessary
to have a few heroes to guard your mines and
castles. Have Elwin first uncover up southern
Aranorn, then take it away to the north through
a linear forest mountain path. Of course, Purple
Hat should be able to do it by himself but note
that you may wish to bring part of your army with
you since the neutrals are much tougher than the
last scenarios'. At the northern most part of this
level is a blue teleportal guarded by some Black
Dragons. You might be able to defeat them right
now, but if you can't, level Elwin up a bit
(although it's much harder getting a level 32
hero up any more levels at this point of the
game without Tree of Knowledges). Summon Mantis
should be able to do it, just make sure they
don't go after Purple Hat himself.
Alright, now for the teleport destinations.
It leads to many different places all of which
the neutrals Elwin should be able to handle
without any help at all. After exploring every
area and Purple Hat has collected every single
treasure, powerup, artifact, etc. have him
bring up a full army and make your way to the
southeast. A large number of Behemoths guard
your next destination, but Summon Mantis should
soundly be able to beat them. Most of teal's
castle lie here, but otherwise there is really
no point in collecting the treasures. Lord
Harke's army is located straight to the west,
right beside a random nature castle. Since he
is a guard hero, not a moving one, you really
don't have to worry about rushing towards him
just in case he decides to hide inside his
castle on his turn....
Don't be fooled by what Elwin said about how
Lord Harke's strategy was so good, all he has
are about 9 Mantises, around 12 Faerie Dragons,
some level three creatures (with some of them
elementals, I remember) and a level 15? Priest
or priestess. First thing to do is eliminate
Harke, as he has some major Tactics and combat
skills. Have Elwin cast Dragon Strength on the
Mantises first thing and aim for Lord Harke,
who will probably crumble under their might in
about 2-3 hits. Meanwhile, have your Faerie
Dragons attack their Mantises and your Creature
Portal elementals to attack the Air Elementals
or Earth? Your Unicorns should aim for the
priest and your White Tigers/Elves attack either
Lord Harke or any other creatures on the field.
This is actually a good and hard final battle
unlike other ones so be up for a challenge!
After Lord Harke is in jail have Purple Hat go
through the border guard north of the castle
and visit the keymaster tents along the way.
Once you're back at your starting point, have
Elwin visit the blue border guard and claim the
ship here. Make your way to Shaera to win!
Time recommended to be taken: 4 months, 2 weeks.
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5. Miscellanous
----------------------------------
Nothing man, sorry. Elwin and Shaera is an elven
story that should be kept private from diary
invaders or else: It is actually recommended
for people above thirteen to play, since those
people who don't follow the game rules won't be
interested in love.....unless....unless....
Seriously though, unlike Half-Dead, all it talks
about is Elwin and his journey to defeat Lord
Harke and claim Shaera back. That's about it.
He also wears purple hats. How charming......
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6. Credits
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-Thanks to some of SWcarter's walkthrough. which
helped me rember where some things were.
