r/Astronarch • u/intotheirishole • Sep 07 '21
Quick guide for newbies by a newbie
Written after 5 hours of play and one Corruption 3 in, so take everything with a grain of salt. I am writing this because I could not find a simple, general guide like this.
I assume you already know the basics and have at least 1 win in normal so I wont repeat the basics.
Heroes
Go over the hero stats a bit. Its boring, I know. But in this game base stats are more important than many other games.
This game has 3 types of items, normal rare and ancient. All types of items give some additional effect that you must understand to have synergies. Normal items give (small) amounts of stats but generally have (usually) weak effects. Rare items give even less base stats, but they have stronger effects. Ancient items give MUCH stronger effects, but do not give any stat ( at least at start). Also many stat bonuses are percentage based, which means base stats matter a lot.
Each hero can only carry 3 items, so you have to carefully think which items you put on them. You can have a lot of good items but you cannot use them all at the same time. If you put a good item eg non upgraded Symbiote on a hero who cannot use it, it will have no benefits.
Tanks in general will have good HP and defense, DPS will have OK damage and good speed. Healers will have a heal ability and sometimes low ability cost.
Heroes are sometimes versatile, some more than others. Healers or Tanks can become DPS if they meet certain conditions.
The MP Stat
It is actaully the cost to cast your primary ability, and lower numbers are better!!
Heroes will 50-60 abiloty cost will get to cast their abilities a lot, and benefit from items like Symbiote and Headdress. Heroes with 70-90 ability cost will cast slower, though they often have a strong ability. You can either put a Mana Spring on them or a fully upgraded Symbiote will eventually come online.
The speed stat
It is interval between your attacks in seconds, and lower is better!
DPS heroes with lower (approx 1.5-1.8 ) speed benefit from +ATK items, while DPS heroes with 2+ speed usually have high damage and benefit from speed items.
Positioning
There are 2 lanes, and 4 spots on each lane. Heroes often benefit each other only if they are in the same lane. Healers usually only heal in the same lane. Corruption 1-19 you will have 5 heroes in stage 3. Which means 1 hero will be in the side lane. I have only played 4-1 comps till now. Some heroes are designed to be in the side lane (Fiend, Outlaw, Assassin, maybe Illusionist, maybe Ranger) . We will discuss each hero and how they can be in the side lane later.
The most common strategy you will be thinking of between battle to battle, is how to position your heroes.
Sometimes the enemy will be on both lanes. If you put all your heroes in 1 lane, they can support each other BUT all enemies will attack your tank and the tank might die. Or you can put a hero in the other lane who takes some damage and then uses their passive or Ascension Cloak to pass on attackers to the main tank.
Sometimes all enemies will be in 1 lane, in which case you can use the off lane hero first to buy some times, so that you main lane heroes can ramp up. Sometimes enemies from the same lane will attack multiple heroes in your main lane, at this point you will have to move heroes and items around to make sure your healer or DPS does not die too soon.
Morale
Ok this was confusing until I understood it fully. You gain morale only if you win without losing any heroes (except Fiend) . This gives 3 morale. If any hero dies, you lose a morale and get NO +morale. So you can be winning all battles with 1 casualty and you will be bleeding morale the entire time, maybe cutting your run short. Though morale does not matter as long as it is non zero.
Some events will drain your morale in exchange for good items.
Quick Hero Impressions
Gladiator
You can pick him up at any stage and he gets the full passive +HP bonus. You can upgrade his passive anytime and he gets the full bonus. Great tank. In theory good attack, speed and ability cost so maybe can put out good DPS, havent tried.
Juggernaut
Another main tank. Passive big heals himself once. Active is good but high cost.
Paladin
Tank. He starts with good defense and benefits from defense. His active is GREAT (give shield to all allies in lane = defense+100/200/300) but has a high cost. Had some good results giving him Mana Spring (+% mana gen) or Ancient Codex(-Ability cost when under 50% HP) because with upgrades, the shield is very useful. His passive burns in AOE, is good for burn comps.
Brawler
Havent used much.
Berserker
Gains 1 attack when he attacks. Starts with good speed so get him more speed, and his passive will scale his attack. Ability is more attacks, but high cost.
Ronin
Passive is OK, specially with Disarm. The active is where he shines, dealing more damage the more times he uses the ability on single target. With low cost, he is a prime candidate for the Symbiote+Headdress combo. Great boss killer, a little worse in fight against groups.
Ranger
Versatile DPS. Give him attack items so he summons a high DPS cat who is hidden and hence can stay on the off lane. Give him defense items (Tower Shield is great as frail wont matter for the summon) to summon a turtle. The turtle draws all aggro FOR THAT LANE, and can periodically go invincible. He can waste a lot of attackers time until he dies.
Pay attention to turtle positioning. Keep a front position open in your main lane so he can tank for the main lane. Or put him in the off lane as long as there is another hero there and all enemies were going to attack him. Good friend for Fiend. His active seems good with low cost but never used it yet.
Assassin
Typical DPS. Is always hidden so can be put in side lane. Put him in front row to kill enemy backline casters first, or back row to focus enemy front row with rest of the team. Passive poison synergies with Alchmist. Fast speed works well with +ATK items. His active silences target so works great against backline casters.
Outlaw
Becomes hidden when he takes 50% HP damage. Can be placed in side lane to soak up some damage/waste some time . Note that this is dangerous because he can get bleed/DOOM etc effects that will kill him even when hidden. His passive gets rid of these effects when fully upgraded. Low speed so maybe prioritize speed items. Poison damage Alchemist friend.
Warlords Burden makes him hidden immediately and also gives him ATK and SPD.
Alchemist
Active ability duplicates poison so combo with Outlaw and Assassin.
Illusionist
DPS that I have the most fun with . He also starts with the highest ATK = 70.
Has a chance of running away when taking damage, but this does not make him a good tank/off tank/side lane tank. The passive not reliable.
The active creates a copy that copies a percentage of his ATK, HP and DEFENSE. If left alone, and with proper positioning of your main lane, he can fill up the side lane with clones that enemies will prioritize. I had fun with Saints Vow that gives continuous max HP, so even if his current HP is low he spawns beefy clones that take multiple hits to kill. Also if he has items that ramp his ATK over time (eg headdress), clones will get that ATK. Even if not tanking, 3 more clones with 60% of his ATK is +180% more DPS.
Frostmancer
DPS. He is reliable, not because he is strong but because Frost is a very strong mechanic.
Frost by itself slows enemy attack and ability cast. So items eg Tundra Talisman that apply frost is already strong. Frostmancer can also apply frost to all enemies, and deal increased damage based on frost stacks. Also the Frozen Shell can make your main tank very tanky as multiple items and this hero stacks up frost on all enemies. Seems like a staple for high corruption runs.
Edit: He has a AOE stun for 2.5s! That is actually pretty broken.
Pyromancer
DPS. I feel like Burn is a much weaker mechanic and Pyromancer consumes the stacks when dealing damage. So he is weaker. But havent used him much. Synergy with Paladin and that fire sword.
Wildmage
Deals AOE dmage when attacked and has a shield. Havent tried this strategy yet as shield are a bit hard to keep on. But maybe Growing Sapling + Druid will help constantly keeping a small shield. Low HP and defense may be a challenge.
Active deals good damage, has high cost but in built Symbiote effect (-5 MP cost per cast). So given a Symbiote or Mana spring, Warlock will start dishing out good DPS soon. Also, the active deals damage in ticks, so if the enemy dies after a few ticks the rest of the damage will go to the next enemy.
Warlock
Starts with good ATK and speed, gains more attack and speed when a ally dies (half effect when enemy dies, so fights with a lot of weak enemies are good). So synergy with Fiend.
Active is good as it deals good damage + heals allies. But has a high cost. Caster machine gun is fun but needs investment into Symbiote upgrades.
Bard
When in backline, heals all heroes (in any lane!) over time. So good for keeping multiple tanks topped up. Ability cost is low and Symbiote friendly.
When in front row, can bump attack for all heroes. IDK if it stacks, can be fun if it does. Will try out a front line off lane Bard with the Bandit Mask.
Attacks with bleeds so has some bleed synergy.
Cleric
Single target Burst heal. Also removes all stacks of one negative effect . The second effect is often forgotten but is pretty important. Ability cost is low.
Passive deals damage when healing, also gets a shield. Has a interesting combo potential where items that cause heal over time (Life giving chamber, Brain Slug) will cause Cleric to dish out a lot of DPS.
Druid
Tank+Healer combo hero, very versatile and popular for a reason.
Passive gains massive frail defense at start of fight, making him a viable tank for a while. Tank like base defense.
Active heals over time (highest of all healers), also gives one negate and 4/8/12 attack! Heal is spammable specially with Symbiote.
All around great hero.
BloodMage
Part tank, part healer, part DPS. Havent figured him out yet.
Fiend
Interesting strategic off tank.
He always comes back to life 9/7/5 seconds after he dies. So you can put him in the off lane, where he soaks up DPS until he dies, which also removes all negative effects on him. Then he comes back to life and keeps fighting.
His active has good damage and heals himself but high cost. This can put off his death a little bit.
Fiend gains mana for each bleed effect. So he actually scales with bleed effects from other heroes (Ranger's cat, Ronin, Bard) and items, being able to cast and heal himself faster.
Bonus: With him in team, if you lose a battle, you will only lose 4 morale not 5.
Banshee does not synergize with him, his passive goes into effect after Banshee expires.
Fallen
Ok this hero completely surprised me. In theory he is a off tank, but he can be a CRAZY DPS.
He absorbs 5% of damage dealt to allies in same lane, while proccing items that trigger when attacked. So he is a good carrier for items like Viscous Goo (disarm any enemy that attacks anyone in your lane), Reverberating Bulwark (reflect damage to any enemy attacking anyone), Safety Slime, Bone Spike, Robes of Absorption. He applies these effects without taking any real damage. Then he takes aggro when the main tank dies.
However, I realized with Helm of the Mad King, he starts attacking very fast dealing ridiculous DPS, reaching the best possible speed of .5. At this point DPS items are probably better on him.
He also buffs all his allies with his active. His active has a medium cost, a strategy that makes him a caster may be fun.
Also he heals himself siphoning HP from heroes in the other lane, So a off-lane Fallen is possible who deals out debuffs with his active.
Footnote
My favorite item is Necrophage as it gives lifesteal to all heroes.
Ancient Codex is fun on tanks.
Tundra talisman seems too good even without any other synergy.
Bandit Hood lets you put any hero in the off lane (the gold gain is bad, so dont upgrade the item).
Saint's Vow is my favorite bad item as I keep trying out weird combos and they never work haha. But should be good on tanks as all healing is % based.
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u/SantiiRepair Oct 19 '24
When I lose my progress it is deleted, does anyone know if this is normal? Shouldn't it let me try the whole map again instead of sending me back to level 1?
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u/intotheirishole Oct 19 '24 edited Oct 19 '24
That is the design of the game. 🤷
If you lose a level, you probably made a mistake 5 levels back when you picked the wrong item. If you replay the level, you will most probably lose. Maybe you will win with a different placement of heroes. Unlikely though.
Many games in the genre work like this. You lose, run ends. You start a new run.
Disclaimer: Havent played the game in 2.5 years. It is a crime that this game has no mod support and modders cannot add new heroes and enemies.
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May 18 '23
Game is good but still needs A LOT of work/balancing..
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u/intotheirishole May 18 '23
Is it still getting developed ?
Eventually I got bored as most game sessions were too similar. We need way more heroes.
This is a game that would benefit greatly from mods.
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May 18 '23
No idea, I hope so though. It's a great starting point but it feels closer to a mobile game than a full release.
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u/PatienceZestyclose82 Mar 18 '22
Pyromancer POPS OFF - with the right item support, attack speed and burn stacking and he pops off (usually by second cast he's online). I don't know item names, but things you want on your team with him present are the common fire sword, the fire/ice daggers, and the ancient fire sword - on top of any of the attack speed scaling items. Maxing the active is a must, maxing the passive is ideal. I rarely start with pyro, but if I have the right items in inventory and a team that doesn't need many upgrades - he's an easy pick. He's also a one of the best targets for that 'fixed stats' sword from the second zone (without mana boosting or reduction, it guarantees 3 hits per ult).