Wargroove

To start off with, if you are just looking for this achievement and not the 200 stars one, you can playthrough all of the arcade modes on any difficulty and it will count for this achievement. The only issue in doing that is that you will need 151 stars in total to unlock the final character. You will get 1 star for easy, 3 for medium, and 5 for hard so plan accordingly.


The rest of this guide will be how to beat all of the arcade runs on hard:

The way arcade mode on hard works is that the AI make twice the standard income from villages meaning that they will be able to overwhelm almost any attack you throw at them head on, so in order to win, you are going to need to cheese them on pretty much any map, usually with dragons, but a few maps require giants or knights, and two are naval based.

Another thing to note in these runs is that weather will play a role, something practically unused in the campaign. During wind, ranged ground units will be able to attack 1 extra space, naval units are able to move 2 extra spaces, and air units deal 1.2x damage. These effects are reversed during severe storms. Its almost a guarantee that one of your runs will come to an end due to either a ballista or a harpoon ship shooting down your dragon in these winds that they otherwise would not have been able to do.

Also, dragons preform critical hits on units standing on a road. Keep your leader of any road whenever possible. Though, this also applies to the strongholds for whatever reason, meaning that it will only take 2 attacks from a dragon to take out a stronghold on the road instead of the standard 3-4.


Below I will list the basic strategies that I used on all of the maps, as well as 2 videos. One of my runthrough with Mercival, and another of Steam user Horheristo's video of doing most every map. Just note that our strategies do not always align. If their is any map you are having issues with, let me know and I'll see where I can help you with it. (Asides Pinpon Pools, that map might as well be unwinnable)

Image of all of the map names: https://imgur.com/a/xqexIl8
Key: Map Name (Horheristo's Timestamp) [My timestamp if applicable] - My strategy

Horheristo's video:
My video:
Lake Aloof (09:30) - When you can, spawn 1 dragon at the tower in the bottom left and send him right, keeping him out of range of the mage/ballastia the emeny will spawn. You will also need to spawn a wraith (the anti-air air unit) and send it north to your stronghold to take out the enemy dragon doing the exact same thing.

Sapphire Strait (02:17:52) [10:10] - Send your leader to the barracks you own on the other side of the map, spawn in 2 giants, and send them straight at the stronghold

Ton Ton Oasis (20:00) - Spawn in 2 dragons and a mage. The mage will protect your stronghold from the enemy air units whilst the 2 dragons will take out theirs. Only send in the 2 dragons when both of them can hit the stronghold.

Tikatak Canyon (01:41:16) - This is a weird map, send your spearmen left to cap that village, and your swordsmen at your two villages. Your leader will take out their spearmen attacking your stronghold. From their, get 2-3 dragons and either attack their stronghold, swinging in from the right hand side, or if their leader is standing on a road and in range, simply light him on fire. If needed, spawn in knights or spearmen to stall the enemy for your dragons

Longshore (01:31:45) [00:01] - Super quick and simple map. Spawn in a knight, move your swordsmen right in front of the weird entry way, but not fully inside, and your leader behind them on the right side. Next turn move the three of them up, and put your knight 6 tiles from the stronghold, then after killing their swordsmen with yours, attack the stronghold with your leader and knight.

Emerald Fen (26:23) [01:57] - Send your leader north, and spam knights out of your northern barracks.

Marsh Hollow (57:55) - Get a wagon, and send your leader up towards that tower. Have your leader cap that, and send him up some more towards that village. Send you wagon back, spawn in a second swordsmen and put him in the wagon and at the other tower. Spawn a dragon at this second tower and he will destroy their stronghold.

Mottled Tarn (01:50:50) - I only got this map once, but effectively you will just spam giants at their stronghold. The AI is not smart enough to counter them making this a simple win

Greenhaven (16:34) - Get a wagon, and send your leader to the tower, with your swordsmen getting the two villages and have him progress towards that second tower to cap it. Get a dragon or 2 from the northern tower, and 1 from the south to destroy their stronghold. Plan your defenses accordingly to make sure they dont get yours. If needed send that second northern dragon to defend your stronghold

Howling Blight (41:25) - Cap your tower, spawn in an extra swordsmen, put him in your wagon and send him towards their tower. Spawn in a dragon from your tower as soon as you can, and another at theirs and destroy their stronghold.

Ponderland (05:54) - Cap the village below the tower in the top left with your leader first, then the tower. Get a dragon and run both at their stronghold

The Glen (00:09) - This is a map that I actually got far worse at the more I played it. Ideally you will want to get 2 dragons at their stronghold, or just 1 at their leader on the road.

Choral Coast (01:34:55) - Get 2 dragons and send it at their stronghold. Nothing else to add here

Icy Steppe (47:25) - I never got this map, but this seems like a map where the AI will not get the villages allowing you to out income them. Spam either knights or giants at their stronghold

Butterfly Island (Large) (02:11:31) - Send a wagon with a swordsmen at their southern tower, get a dragon or 2 and take out their stronghold

Muskox Mountains (01:59:50) [16:06] - Spawn a couple swordsmen northwest, and send a wagon with a couple of your units to the southeast. Cap all of the villages you can, get a couple dragons and get their stronghold

The Hinterlands (34:31) - Spam giants. Just spam giants

Frosted Keep (02:21:56) - I never got this map, and it doesn't look fun.

Rimy Ruines (03:20) [38:14] - Another quick and easy map. Spawn a knight, and send both of your units straight up. Next turn, send your knight and swordsmen striaght up, and have your leader go right 2, up 2. Next turn send everything right as you can, then have you knight attack the stronghold on the left side, sending only your leader to the right as well. Then have both your knight and leader attack the stronghold to win

Manta Bay (N/A) - This is an easy map that takes forever. Spawn a merfolk and have him cap the seaport to the north. Spawn another from the south the same turn he does that. These two seaports will now spawn turtles until the end of time. Send the merfolk to a village, then the other sea ports. Have these seaports spawn 1 merfolk each, and then turtles. The entire time, you will be just sending these turtles in aggressively at the enemy, until you have destroyed all of their troops. From their, get a couple warships and take out their stronghold

Ashen Brook (N/A) - Never played on this map, but according to Horheristo "What you want to do is keep the enemy busy for long enough until you can afford 2 wagons. Load your commander and another unit , then send both at the same turn into their base. Their barracks will take them at least one extra turn to reach you after deployment, making this a rather safe win."

Butterfly Island (Small) (01:22:02) - Get the tower to the north as soon as you can, get a couple of dragons and send them at the stronghold. 1 would normally do the trick as the stronghold is on a road, but the AI sometimes will have a harpoon boat their that will end your run if in range of your dragon. This is not a fun map.

Ban Ban Beach (01:08:56) - Send your leader to the east to cap everything you can there, and your swordsmen to the bridge. When you can, spawn in a 2-3 dragons, and quite possibly a mage to help stall the oncoming onslaught. Either send your dragons at the stronghold or their leader, being sure to kill any ballista guarding them

Pinpon Pools (01:16:14) - I don't think this map is possible without a whole lot of luck, and even if it is, it will be a 25-30 minute run. It might be worth it to just resign and go again.

Rambling Range (02:27:54) [26:22] - Cap the barracks in the top left with your leader and send giants at their tower. You will likely need a mage/wraith to take out the enemy air units heading your way

Snowrift (01:00:40) - I don't rememeber ever seeing this map, but it seems striaght foward enough. Just get one of the towers to the north, ideally the one closer to their stronghold, and take it out with 1-2 dragons whilst defending yours.

The Sunder Sea (N/A) - This map is very much the same as the other naval based map. Spawn in 2-4 merfolk, and the rest being turtles. You well overwhelm them with your turtles quite easily as they are extremely overpowered.

The Lilypad (N/A) - Not a fun map, and very luck based. Spawn in a dragon followed by a wraith at your south tower and have them take out theirs. From their, get 2-3 more dragons and go after their stronghold, or more likely, have them defend, and kill their leader if they sent him up. If the AI keeps their leader back, and has baliastas and harpoon boats defending their stronghold from a far, you will not win this map.


Also, I'd recommend keeping a stress ball or something safe to throw near you at all times as it gets frustrating watching the AI cheat their way to victory, causing you to lose an entire run.

Good luck! Hopefully RNG-sus will take the wheel for you! :P