1. For librarian focus on frenzy first and then the fireball , then the knock back

2.You can finish the base game on normal in the 20s for heroes. Will probably hit 30s going for uniques. And then hit 40s upgrading the uniques in new game +. And then 50s 3 staring levels and finishing the game.

3. Generally upgrade along the “top or bottom path” first on the unit skill trees. But there are some exceptions.

• Beserkers generally want swiftness + bleed. Then frenzy + critical. ( Berserkers are the best bleeders in the game and it’s all they’re really useful for.
  
• Dragons are the best poisoners in the game setup on the lower “bite” line.
  
• Knights can be the best damage dealers but suffer from short range ultimate making archers the best damage dealers in the game for the most part. Knights are the only and best armor breakers in the game.
  
• Ice mages are the only and best slowest in the game with “chill” and "freeze". They are also then only line with a strike through ability. (Needed for small quick enemies and focus on last). (it’s the “Z” in the focusing effects section, in game)
  
• For knights set to “optimize effects” to break as much armor as possible. For the archer with bleed poison and for poison dragon set to “optimize effects”. For everyone else generally just leave as default. Don’t forget to hit the floppy disk save icon so that those settings save for the characters and you don’t have to re-click those each time.
  
• Archers - have two of them go for the damage line - and the critical bonus.
  
• Have one archer go for the bleed and poison bonus.
  
• Have one healer go for aid + zeal (and Inspire). Have one go for the top row.
  
• Have one dragon go for top row damage. Have the other go for the poison line.
  
• Have one knight go for armor break and the other go for stun. Eventually the lines converge and you also need to max out swing. Give the the specialized swords for knock back and stun and put them on the appropriate one.

Also you can reset skills at any time so don’t worry about choosing the wrong ones at first or wanting to try out something different. But the general idea is you want each character to specialize in something whether that is damage, bleed, poison, buff, heal, area of effect (healers - attack moves or ice mages slow/freeze) , strike the though ( ice mage bonus - Spear).
Once your character gets to around level 40 the paths start to converge (as you start maxing out the original lines).

I've decided to add this section, as this is one of my favorite games, and I know that there are some people that mainly just want to see some examples of the final 5-6 levels/ other harder levels in the game. Here are my recommendations:


Itemization for end game (I don’t have any real basis for what to target first/ last or optimize effects. I think you’d have to look at the game code for that. I’ll just list what worked here) (in theory all ice mages would target last to have the spears go through enemies)

• Berserker 1 - Blood Feud Kopal+
  
• Max swift, rage, flurry, madness. Remainder in whirlwind
  
  
• Berserker 2 - Honor’s Vindication
  
• Same skills as above
  
  
• Ice mage 1 - The Beasts Weapon+/ Strength of Wocolan +
  
• Max chill, freeze, ice shard, ice spear, remainder in sleet
  
• Set to target last
  
  
• Ice mage 2
  
• Max same as above
  
• All my other ice mages were left to default - target fastest
  
• Other ice mages I split the last remainder of points between ice shard and blizzard
  
  
• Ranger 1 - Gilded Death+/ Assassin’s Folly+
  
• Focus on sharp shooter, triple shot, rapid shot, spread shot, black out the sun. But put 4-7 points in piercing shot and poison shot each (give up points on rapid shot to make it happen)
  
  
• Ranger 2 - Hunter Warrior+
  
• Same skills as above
  
  
• Ranger 3 -
  
• Same skills as above
  
  
• Ranger 4 - Relic of the North+/ Tiger Skin Vest+
  
• Focus on sharp shooter, deep shot, poison shot, snd triple shot and spread shot. But put 3-6 points in piercing shot snd black out the sun (give up points in triple shot to make it happen )
  
• Set to target fastest and optimize effects
  
  
• Ranger 5 - Warlord’s Triumph+ / Master of Archers+
  
• Focus on sharp shooter, poison shot, triple shot, spread shot, and black out the sun. But put 4-6 points in piercing shot (give up points in triple shot to make it happen)
  
• Set to optimize effects
  
  
• Ranger 6 - Captains Warbow+ / Ozimal’s Coat
  
• Focus on sharp shooter, piercing shot, triple shot, spread shot, black out the sun. Put remainder of points in poison shot
  
• Set to target strongest and optimize effects
  
  
• Knight 1 - Edge of Order+/ Guardian of the Fountain+
  
• Focus armor break, sword training, hard knock, stun stab, swing. Put remainder of points split between lunge and counter (this is because surviving “early” in the round is the hardest part. Which is why I have the knights and ice mages focused on builds that work best early in the round where psi is most limited)
  
• Set to optimize effects
  
  
• Knight 2 - Commander of Legions+/ Traitor’s Harness+
  
• Same skills as above
  
• Set to optimize effects
  
  
• Knight 3 - Eye of the flame+ / Purity of Flame +
  
• Same skills as above
  
• Set to optimize effects
  
  
• Knight 4 - Envi+ / Lord Warden’s Harness+
  
• Same skills as above
  
• Set to optimize effects
  
  
• Knight 5 - Horseman’s Lamellar+
  
• Same skills as above
  
  
• Healer 1 - Kozoman’s Scepter+/ Warrior Monk’s Habit+
  
• Focus aid, zeal, inspire, holy light ( but put 3 points in group heal and 5-8 in ether flash and blinding each (take a few points out of zeal/ inspire to make it happen )
  
  
• Healer 2 - Executioner’s Bludgeon+ / Chieftain’s Tunic+
  
• Max ether flash, blinding, and holy light. Split reminder of points between aid, zeal, inspire. Put 3 points in group heal
  
  
• Healer 3 - Charlatan’s Staff
  
• Focus aid, holy light, zeal, and inspire. Put 5-6 points in ether flash/ blinding each
  
  
• Healer 4 - Archsheperd’s Staff
  
• Focus Aid, holy light, blinding, and zeal. Split remainder of points between ether flash/ inspire
  
  
• Healer 5
  
• Max aid and zeal, put 3 points in group heal. Put 8-9 points in blinding, holy light, and inspire. Put 5 points in ether flash
  
  
• Healer 6
  
• Same as healer 5

This setup can carry you through almost the entire game:

4 Berserkers:

• Paths for 1,2,3,4: Upgrade swiftness + Rage to max and then flurry + maddness
  Weapons: (give one of them unique weapon: envi, unless you have 3+ knights, in which case give it to a knight)

3 Archers:

• Paths for 1,2: Upgrade Triple Shot, spread shot, and sharp shooter to the max (then other damage options)
  
• Unique weapons/armor for archers 1,2: Gilded Death/ Assasin's Folly, Hunter Warrior (this weapon isn't good until it's upgraded)/ Master of Archers

• Paths for Archer 3: Upgrade deep shot and poison shot to max, then same as above
  
• Unique weapons/armor for archer 3: Relic of the North/ Ozimal's Coat

2 Healers:

• Path for healer 1: Upgrade aid, zeal, and inspire to max
  Unique weapons/armor for healer 1: Kozomon's Scepter/ Silk Gambeson
  
  
• Path for healer 2: Upgrade blinding, holy light, and ether flash to max (then zeal and inspire)
  Unique weapons/armor for healer 2:Executioner's Bludgeon/ Silk Gambeson

2 Ice Mages:

• Path for ice mage 1: upgrade chill and freeze to max
  Unique weapons and armor: Keeper of the Flame/Lord Warden's Harness
  
  
• Path for ice mage 2: upgrade ice shard and ice spear to max (then same as above)
  Unique weapons and armor: The Beast's Weapon/ Purity of Flame

2 Knights:

• Path for knight 1: upgrade armor break, the one that increases attack to max, then upgrade the base swing and knockback to max
  Unique weapons/armor for knight 1: Commander of Legions/ Traitor's Harness
  
  
• Path for knight 2: upgrade knockback and stun to max, then armor break/ attack up, and base swing
  Unique Weapons/armor for knight 2: Edge of Order, Guardian of the Fountain

2 Dragons:

• Path for Dragon 1: firebreath, roar, strength to max, then bite, claw, and fireball
  
  
• Path for Dragon 2: upgrade bite, epic halitosis, strength to max, then other attacks and Nom

• Armor notes: typically you want the armors with the "thorn" effects as they tend to be the strongest, after that evade effects are strong
  
• Weapon notes: "unique" weapons aren't actually stronger than base game weapons most of the time until they are actually upgraded (as their special effect doesn't work until then)
  
• Character notes: typically you don't want more characters than these until some of the hardest/longest levels in the game because of psi limits. You are better of spending psi on getting units to levels 3/4/5 most of the time than dropping in more units.
  
• Though once you are in new game+, go ahead and buy the extra units and make sure to have the exp gains/penalties set to high exp and no penalty for not being in play so that they will level up as well. You will need them for the longer missions but only towards the very end of of NG+.

Here are the wiki links: The Locations for where they are obtainable are on the far right of the categories
Equipment: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Equipment
Staffs: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Staff
Bow: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Bow
Sword: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Sword
Light Armor: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Armor
Heavy Armor: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Heavy_Armor

Here are the map names for help finding the map names on your map:
Map names: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Overworld

You can essentially grind for infinite scrap so just pay for upgrades every time they are available.

• After beating the base game - go to the area to enter the codes (the statue area in the desert) for book of blood and book of the plagues ( or even once you get two healers as that’s all that’s really needed. Just place everyone in range of a healer).

• Here is the wiki link for the Books: https://defendersquest.fandom.com/wiki/Book
  
• The codes are on the wiki but they are also available here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/646479-defenders-quest-valley-of-the-forgotten/cheats
  
• You spend the skulls at the "store" on the bottom left part of the screen in the statue area to get the books.

You generally want book of blood + book of plagues for most maps you can use healers on. For boss fights where the boss moved around a lot and you have to “chase him” by recalling and repositioning some units you tend to want book of blood + frenzy start. Book of slow start or crystals protecting the librarian can be situational but aren’t as useful as a whole.
Then after that can go for unique weapons and armor (the wiki has the location for all these on the far right and has a list of all levels). You have two modes - base game and new game + which essentially work together and you keep your same team. In base game - beat advanced / extreme to get unique weapons and armor. In new game + beat advanced/ extreme to get upgrades for those unique.

Set exp and scrap gain to 300% in the accessibility menu. (Make sure penalty for failure and missing to be none). On modded games you have to click open this menu every time you reopen the game. This is to progress quickly and enjoy story mode on base game and then get to new game + quickly. Because a lot of fun is had in new game + with the side missions, unique weapons. You need to the new game + upgrades for the uniques for the uniques to actually be stronger than base game weapons. Because their special effects do not work without upgrading and they are essentially just basic somewhat weaker weapons without them.

I recommend planning on playing through the game and new game + to start off with, so that you can experience the bonus levels and unique weapons and armor. These add a lot to the base game and are the most fun part of the game in my opinion, since the base game can be beaten by the time your levels are in the 20s (but the base game goes up to 60 without mods) (up to 100 with some mods).

I do recommend playing with the skill increase mod (though this does disable achievements).

This is "Skill Increase" by Darkshadows available on the steam workshop.
Here is the description of it:

• This is a fixed version, so it won't screw up this time, don't worry.
  
  
• Increased the level cap to 100, along with adding to the maximum level for certain class skills. Will cause some slight unbalancing of the classes, with some having a few leftover points in the end.
  
  
• Skill point maximums for each class are as follows
  
• Librarian = 17
  
• Berserkers = 10
  
• Rangers = 10
  
• Healers = 12
  
• Ice Mages = 12
  
• Knights = 9
  
• Dragons = 11
  
  
  • You can only use mods one at a time and only on legacy edition. I recommend playing on legacy edition due to the classic graphics (this is selectable when you start up the game). Also you can’t transfer files between modded and unmodded sides of the game after you over level a skill. I just don’t recommend moving save files around and just keeping your “modded” and “unmodded” games separate. I’ve tried moving them around to get them to work with each other but you tend to just get black screens and failed loads.
    
  • Please note if you are looking to get all achievements that you need to not “recruit” any companions at towns and just use the ones the game gives you until you get 180 gold stars in order to try the hero and hero +/++ achievements. I don’t exactly recommend this though as it’s no where near as much fun unless you just really want those specific achievements.
    
  • Also there’s only enough skulls to either max all weapons or all armor on a single play though. You end up around 3 skulls short to get both achievements on the same profile. I recommend just “exporting” your profile on the right (which is a selecatable option next to starting your save) and just loading it on another save slot and spending the skulls on the other profile for the armor upgrades to get both achievements if you want to do that. You can also open the app data / roaming folder to get to it. Or the “config” folder and copy and paste it and rename it to slot 1/2/3. The base game and the modded game have two separate folders.

• Spend psi to get all archers to level 4. A dragon to level 4 - this start will work for almost any map in the game. Then buff your healer for the damage effects. Then buff you healer that has high zeal. (Make sure to put the healer with high zeal next to your archers )
  
• "Traditional Setup" = archers + healer + dragon + berserkers on one side (on the red + blue enemies)[/b]
  
• Knights + ice mages + healer on the other (usually yellow side)
  You will need the healers to cover everyone on their specific side when using book of blood and book of plagues together.
  
• Once you get the uniques and books, you will probably have enough spare scraps to fill out the rest of the army slots (didn’t really need them before now ). First get archers because they do the most damage (mostly due to spending the most time firing) and then dragons because if you max out bite line with poison you can essentially just drop them in for close to free. You really only need these extra units for “endless” runs “sheep” or really long runs otherwise the “traditional setup” is what you want. Because you only really have enough psi to get these units up to level 4/5 which is what you need archers, healers (for zeal) and your main dragon at for really strong games. As well as some upgrades on ice mages and knights
  
• For the sheep level - need to get uniques upgraded. Also recommend the specific sheep staff (Sheep Master's Stave). Helps to have levels closer to level 60. You need to be higher level and have upgraded uniques for a lot of the bonus levels and for the last 2-3 levels in the game in particular. As well as more party members to spend extra psi on or on relocating. Books - probably bleed and frenzy start, just like for other bosses you have to "chase". But one trick is to put a level 4 dragon on top right to take care of the weak trickler sheep by itself and have everyone else move and focus on the super sheep.

Here is a unit setup for this map, that works well with the above units and upgrades. This setup is based off of user: fewnomial's ideas

This allows the archers to hit every location of the enemy as well as berserkers for two of the other locations.

[*] This map is DIFFERENT than other maps because worms come down through green (usually yellow) and armored enemies come down through yellow (usually red) [*] The enemies tend to make a “loop” around this map. Down through center, up the right river to top around then down the left river to the librarian. Not every enemy seems to exactly do this. Some enemies seem to go directly down center from green to the librarian and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe only worms go around but the regular enemies go straight down. [*] Either way the key is is going with the knight-knight-ice mage-ice mage lineup on both sides of the left river (this is also the lineup I used most throughout most of the game. Usually on the “yellow side” [*] I have plenty of cover fire with archers (make sure to spec into 4-5 into piercing shot towards the end game [*] Also plenty of cover fire with healers that have 5-10 in ether flash and holy light [*] Dragons sit “first” in line generally and are just there to soak up damage so you team doesn’t die fast and then later boost them to 4 to get the best effect from Roar you can [*] The “Knockback” ability will be the most useful on this map as you can send the “green” enemies that are about to exit the bottom of the column back to the top to receive a whole lot more damage again, usually killing them in the process and getting you a whole bunch of psi [*] For spending psi - get archers to level 4. Healers to level 4/5. Get knights to level 2 (except for at the very top, don’t need to put psi into those units until later in the level. Get mages to level 3. (I didn’t spec any of the mages into the final 2 skills very much as the hardest part of surviving tends to be early on and there just isn’t enough psi to get ice mages up to 4-5 early in the level. Then as the level progress just keep spending psi and placing more units as normal. Dragons help a lot with getting to level 4 for roar. Level up knights and ice mages as the level progress - focusing on getting knights to levels 2/4 respectively for their abilities to trigger

• This map is DIFFERENT than other maps because worms come down through green (usually yellow) and armored enemies come down through yellow (usually red)
  
• The enemies tend to make a “loop” around this map. Down through center, up the right river to top around then down the left river to the librarian. Not every enemy seems to exactly do this. Some enemies seem to go directly down center from green to the librarian and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe only worms go around but the regular enemies go straight down.
  
• Either way the key is is going with the knight-knight-ice mage-ice mage lineup on both sides of the left river (this is also the lineup I used most throughout most of the game. Usually on the “yellow side”
  
• I have plenty of cover fire with archers (make sure to spec into 4-5 into piercing shot towards the end game
  
• Also plenty of cover fire with healers that have 5-10 in ether flash and holy light
  
• Dragons sit “first” in line generally and are just there to soak up damage so you team doesn’t die fast and then later boost them to 4 to get the best effect from Roar you can
  
• The “Knockback” ability will be the most useful on this map as you can send the “green” enemies that are about to exit the bottom of the column back to the top to receive a whole lot more damage again, usually killing them in the process and getting you a whole bunch of psi
  
• For spending psi - get archers to level 4. Healers to level 4/5. Get knights to level 2 (except for at the very top, don’t need to put psi into those units until later in the level. Get mages to level 3. (I didn’t spec any of the mages into the final 2 skills very much as the hardest part of surviving tends to be early on and there just isn’t enough psi to get ice mages up to 4-5 early in the level. Then as the level progress just keep spending psi and placing more units as normal. Dragons help a lot with getting to level 4 for roar. Level up knights and ice mages as the level progress - focusing on getting knights to levels 2/4 respectively for their abilities to trigger.
  

This map is one of the harder maps in the game, but if you use a layout similar to this it should work. The main thing with this map is that I didn't win it with a "symmetrical" setup. As you can see the lineup up is kind of off-center. I didn't extensively test this map but, if you use a similar layout and the builds above you should be fine.

• The main thing is to put the archers with the highest evade in the front
  
• Then as the level progress, since you do not have any healers, units will die. Put them back in as quickly as possible and don't forget to use frenzy and knock back librarian abilities.

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