
The Ancient Dragon
The Ancient Dragon is the third and final boss of the base campaign.
The dragon circles around the map; he occasionally stops to launch fireballs at the players and their defenses. Ranged attackers can either shoot the boss directly or bring him to the ground with one of the ballistas on the ramparts that surround the west, north and east borders of the map. When hit this way, the Ancient dragon takes some damage, then emerges perching on one of three open ledges between the ramparts. While grounded, he becomes a stationary target for everyone to whale on. The dragon cycles randomly between spitting fireballs, biting forward and unleashing flame breath. He is more likely to bite when a hero is in range. He will take flight again after losing a certain percentage of his HP.
A portal near the center of the map opens from time-to-time for players to quickly teleport to one of the ballistas.
- On lower difficulty levels, adjacent to the locations the dragon perches, Deadly Striker Towers can be placed on the ramparts to help deal large amounts of damage. If the Apprentice has a high enough Range stat, they can placed outside the reach of the dragon's firebreath. This leaves the towers only vulnerable to fireballs and possibly Dark Elf Warriors. The setup requires 48 Defense Units and 900 build mana in total to cover all three ledges.
- On Nightmare and Massacre Hardcore, it is crucial to kill the Ancient Dragon fast before the team's defense build falls apart. Everyone should contribute to damaging the dragon, whether it be a Boost Monk or Apprentice standing by a group of Deadly Striker Towers or a DPS Huntress with a Propeller Cat paired with an EV-A who has a Genie for infinite Energy Cannon.
- The Squire can block against the dragon's bites that otherwise inflict very high damage. It is not recommended to block for the entire duration of the firebreath, since it multi-hits, depleting the Block resource quickly. However, in some cases, the player can get underneath the dragon's jaw and ignore the attack in its entirety. Having the Ancient Dragon biting and exhaling firebreath more frequently leads him to launch fireballs less often which in turn -- improves the survivability of defenses and allies.
