There it is, the very last Cove campaign, this time featuring Dargem LLywellyn. We're now transitioning to the past as these events take place before Terror of the Seas.

According to the official HOTA documentation, the campaign is harder than the previous ones, with the difficulty being described as 'medium' with the '35h' assigned length (for comparison, Terror of the Seas and Horn of the Abyss were marked as 'normal' and '20h'

https://preview.redd.it/532esquy6ymh1.png?width=1110&format=png&auto=webp&s=55bdff4700ed890ece872d5a0b70af11abbdf2c5

In this campaign, the difficulty level actually changes the gameplay and bonuses. For example, on easy diff a Pandora box may spawn near you that grants several bonuses like instant 500+ mana in the last mission. Likewise, if you pick impossible diff, the enemy will start with several Pandora boxes near him that, depending on the mission, may grant extra tier 7 units and powerful spells like Berserk and Implosion. If you want to find accurate sheets, go to lazynet and pick the appropriate mission for details.

You probably already know about the 'visit all shrines and arenas before ending the mission' rule, so I'm gonna bounce towards the skillset.

I generally picked something that would benefit me the most in the last missions to lower the difficulty curve.

Wisdom - this is the skill Dargem starts with.
Tactics - another skill Dargem starts with. Really useful if you want to cover your shooting units with 'ones' like split nereids.
Earth magic - throughout the campaign, you'll have the ability to learn Slow, Shield, Stone skin, Anti-magic, Quicksand, Force Field, Meteor Rain, Town Portal, and Implosion, so this one is pretty much necessary if you want to play without constant ups-and-downs and save-scumming.
Logistics - I decided to take this one instead of Pathfinding. I previously considered the latter, but then I realized that Pathfinding is only usable for the first 2 missions and then it becomes practically useless in the last 3 ones.
Navigation - I got it from Seer's hut in the first mission on master level to kite Dungeon enemy around. Usable on missions 1, 2, and 5. It's an empty slot in missions 3 and 4, but at that point it didn't really matter due to my powerful spells.
Air magic - I picked it in the second mission for lower Lighting Bolt cost and the ability to cast View Air (global radar against enemies, you get in the 1st mission already) and Air elemental (4th and 5th mission, very useful with Force Field). You're also gonna need Mass Haste as your enemies love spamming Mass Slow.
Water Magic - In the first 2 missions it's essentially Bless + Forgetfullness spam. Ice Bolt and Ice ring are also spammable at lower costs. Later you're also gonna get Cloning + Prayer, so keep that in mind.
Archery - a solid 50% bonus to your Sea Dogs and other archers. Lock them behind Force Field which is already accessible in 1st mission and vuala.

I saw other players recommending stuff like Offense, but it's mostly up to you at this point. Let's start.

A Friendly Visit

This is like Frontier, but a bit easier imo.

https://preview.redd.it/nxbcabj17ymh1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=37780a19f274a920a9ce6f00bad7fcfab823a9c3

No. 1 Overground:
Red square - this is where Dargem starts
Pink circle - unguarded lighthouse
Yellow circle - Shackles and lighthouse guarded by Nixes
Light green square (1) - imprisoned Elmore; guarded by 10-19 Master Genies
Light green square (2) - imprisoned Miriam; guarded by a few Sea Serpents.
Gray Circle - Seer's hut that grants Dargem +2 Spell Power upon bringing Miriam there.
Cyan - where I initially landed.
Dark Red square (1) - Fortless Cove with magic guild lv. 1
Dark Red square (2) - Fortless Cove with no magic guild
Dark Blue circle - Seer's hut that may grant Dargem +2 Defense upon bringing the Spirit of Oppression that is guarded by Chaos Hydras next to the hut.
Light purple square - The required purple tent guarded by Rocs, hydras and Thunderbirds.
Dark Purple square - the portal that can only be accessible through the obtained purple tent key. Required to get to the blue tent underground.
Brown square - Entrance to underground terrain. Accessible after obtaining purple and blue keys.

No. 2 Underground:
Light orange - this is where you end up after teleporting. Defeat Sea Serpents to get the blue key.
Cyan square - If you or any secondary heroes have summon boat on expert, you can get to the whirlpool where on the other side there is a Pandora box that grants you +1 defense and +1 attack upon defeating the guards.
Green square - this is where you end up after using the underground entrance (marked by the brown square overground).
Light blue circle - the town you should take right after teleporting (the upper town, Maramec, is guarded by a powerful garrison. Don't go there at first).
Orange square - the neutral initially fortless Dungeon that Orange player can get, thus having 3 towns.
Red circle - your main quest objective, Maramec.

Dargem needs to deliver the Dragon Scale Shield to the town of Maramec. Don't worry, he starts with the shield by default. You won't be able to recruit any heroes from any taverns underground, so you need to rely on Dargem solely at first.

Pick up some artifacts from your main island and get on the boat. Get gold and XP from shipwrecks and chests. I made the decision to get Elmore first (1, on top) since he's only guarded by Master Genies. On the left island, circled yellow, there is a lighthouse and shackles of war artifact guarded by 5-9 Nixes. If you are strong enough, you definitely need to visit this checkpoint. Next, you can get Elmore to either take the 2 Cove towns on island, sail the sea for resources, or take the lighthouse circled with pink. You should free Miriam (2, guarded by Sea Serpents) and later (doesn't need to be immediate, I did it late-game) go to the circled place next to Elmore's prison. As described above, the Seer's hut here offers you +2 SP upon bringing Miriam.

The 2 Coves on the large island provide you with pirates and seamen. The upper one doesn't have a magic guild, but the bottom one does. I Initially didn't know what to do since Orange Dungeon heroes were scattered across the island and they were pretty strong. The scripted heroes are: Jeddite, Alamar, Darkstorn, Damacon, Ajit, and Dace. That is one large kit, and the first 3 are magic heroes (high SP and knowledge, but low ATK and DEF) while the last 3 are might heroes (high AT and DEF, but low SP and KN)

In my opinion the biggest threat is Jeddite. He starts with solid spells and stats. What I did was getting the neutral Cove towns and then landing in the middle of the island (to the left, next to purple square) to get the Boots of Speed guarded by Dark Knights in order to obtain Master Navigation from Seer's hut located on the cyan circle. After that I kept sailing around and waited until AI would decide to split its army and scatter around. I then managed to get some of their scripted heroes. It was tough when one of them recruited a Phoenix from the camp and I had to fight him.

It started getting better when Alamar decided to attack me near the bottom Cove (1) and even though he killed a large portion of my army, he gave me the golden bow alongside 5+ other artifacts. Killing Ajit was also difficult with his powerful beholders. I loaded my save multiple times.

And then only Jeddite remained with a huge army (hundreds of units like troglodytes, harpies and minotaurs). I couldn't fight him directly on the land so I decided to start kiting him around the ocean until I landed back in my starting area. Now I was at my native terrain, in my own castle. Ayssids and pirates with Dargem's spells managed to clear him. Afterwards, I landed on the island again and the enemy went on a holy charge against me after recruiting army from his 3 towns, failing miserably due to my artifacts.

It's important to know that after entering the underground area you should immediately clear the bottom Dungeon (marked with azure circle) because this one doesn't have a strong garrison and after taking it you should already have a big advantage over your enemy. I then got the Dungeon marked with orange square and went around the area for extra ATK/DEF/SP/KN around buildings. Remember one thing though - aside from building max magic guilds everywhere, you should give the dragon scale shield to a secondary hero and then take Maramec, and that's because you can build another magic guild level in it and acquire Forgettance spell which will be very important later on.

After visiting all AT/DEF/SP/KN boosting objects and Seer huts with the underground Pandora box, you can end the scenario with slow, Force field, Ice ring, Ice bolt and lighting spells alongside some others like anti-magic.

The Life Guard

Yeah, just like all the other players before me said, this one is pretty annoying, but do-able with good skills and maxxed stats. It's important to note that I played this one on Normal and on impossible diff things like the Pandora box won't exist while Adelaide and Astral will gain extra units.

https://preview.redd.it/jwi4vvc47ymh1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=e525903ccbd7d5a199442b74f3163e213696bd5c

No. 1 Overground:
Yellow square (1) - where Dargem starts
Yellow square (2) - where Gruezak starts
Purple square (1) - where Kilgor is
Purple square (2) - purple's second town
Dark red circle (1) - neutral Castle town
Dark red circle (2) - neutral Stronghold town (likely to be taken by purple before you)
Red circle (1) - an entrance to your kingdom, guarded by a bunch of Crusaders
Red circle (2) - entrance no. 2 to your kingdom, guarded by Magic Elementals
Orange circle - Seer's hut that grants you 5 behemoths upon defeating red dragons right above it.
Pink circle - Murdoch prison guarded by 100-249 fangarms that can stack over time
Red square (1) - Main red town that starts with Beatrice, garrison no. 2
Red square (2) - garrison no. 2, guarded by angels.
Red square (3) side Castle town with no fort
Dark blue squares (1, 2) - Tower garrisons guarded by Titans.
Blue square (1) - main Tower town
Blue square (2) - side Tower town with no fort
Red line - where red enemy can go to attack Kilgor's town
Blue line - where blue enemy can go to attack Kilgor's town
Yellow circle - where scripted Adelaide, Astral and Mullich spawn
Green circle - where you can fight Fafner to get the black tent key to defend Kilgor easily without having to run around
Black line - the black garrison below Kilgor's town
Cyan circles (ocean) - whirlpools
Light green circles (ocean) - the white two-way sea portal (with teeth decors)

No. 2 Underground:
Cyan circles - whirlpools
Red circles - red two-way monolith entrances
Pink squares - places where large Wraith/Wight groups block the way
Yellow circle - prison with Elmore
Yellow square - Seer's hut that grants Dargem +2 ATK upon bringing Elmore there
Green circle - Seer's hut that grants you 10 Gunslingers upon defeating Beatrice

You've got a new temporary hero, Gruezak. He starts with expert pathfinding and he's good at might, but not too good when it comes to magic skills. You've got a purple Stronghold ally. Your objective is to defend Kilgor for exactly 84 days, which is 3 months in the game.

Dargem starts on an isolated island. what I did first was unlocking the portal protected by Mighty Gorgonas to the left and then I went sailing after collecting a few artifacts. I generally rushed to Purple's island in order to quickly get to the western part of the map that is rich in arenas and has a dragon utopia alongside Seer's hut, town portal object and Murdoch prison.

With Gruezak, hire 3-5 heroes in his Stronghold tavern immediately. Collect resources with 2 while blocking Purple from stealing your starting area resources with other 3.

Aside from obviously taking the dwellings, there is a neutral Castle town marked with red circle (1) that is protected by some monks and soldiers. Get it as a cash checkpoint. The border guard near the red garrison to the left will ask you if you wish to pass, press no since you don't want Solmyr or Iona raiding you early.

With the choke-points, there's a possibility that purple ally scouts will block your Dargem, which can be annoying sometimes. But remember that your first priority is getting behemoths and their dwelling next to your town on week 1. You essentially need to get behemoths as early as possible because otherwise the map gets hella difficult, and I know it because I beat it on the 2nd attempt only.

You shouldn't really worry about your enemies raiding Kilgor's town until week 3-4 when first raids start. The lucky thing is that Kilgor can at least hire Behemoths in his town, so no, the enemy will not kill him with a 1-Gremlin scout, but at the same time he's a static meat-shield on display for everyone (look at the lines on the map, this is how easily enemies can access him).

The coded red enemies are Beatrice, Theodorus (both start in red square 1), Ingham (who starts in red square 3) and Adelaide (who spawns from the portal circled yellow on 1.4.7 near Kilgor's town)

From these enemies, it's likely Beatrice who will annoy you the most. On my 1st playthrough, she broke into Purple's land from red circle (1) with a bunch of Crusaders and Marksmen. She possesses a pendant of immunity (picked from her starting land), an artifact set that automatically grants her 50% magicka immunity and she also has high AT/DEF stats.

The coded blue enemies are Solmyr, Cuthbert (both start in blue square 1), Iona (who starts in blue square 2), Fafner (who starts near green circle as a static hero; defeat him to access black tent and receive shackles of war), and Astral (scripted player who spawns from yellow circle after 2.4.2)

Blue can be a nightmare mid-gameplay. They automatically have access to an almost-complete Titan's Thunder artifact set which gives them lots of bonuses. Aside from this, they have the orb of firmament and shield of lion courage. IMO Solmyr and Iona are the toughest.

Keep in mind that there are Watering places in your starting area right below Kilgor's garrison and below neutral Stronghold. Use them all for faster chaining.

IMPORTANT: Get a scout or two to go underground and mark Cove creature dwellings while claiming shipwrecks and another one to use the marked tooth portal on the ocean to collect resources and more seamen. This is what allowed my economy to stay afloat during this chaos.

Coming back to our Dargem, I went all the way to the spot where the orange circle was, and with a behemoth stack I managed to defeat the Red Dragons, get the earth orb and necklace of speed, and then run back for 5 extra behemoths. Then, a bit bottom right to the circled neutral Stronghold town, I defeated Gunslingers with Forgettance spell to get the green boots for 0 movement penalty. I raided the Dragon Utopia (which was S-sized on my playthrough) and I came out with Divine Necklace and Dragonbone Greaves.

At this point the situation was already stable, but it was week 3-4 and I had 2 saves so I decided to go further north to free Murdoch mid-week 4. I fought 100-249 fangarms with exactly 10 Behemoths in my army. I spammed slow, frost ring and wait button.

Is Murdoch worth freeing since he participates in 2 missions and dissapears before the last one? I say yes, as he starts with a decent skillset right after being freed:

https://preview.redd.it/b3xo9g477ymh1.png?width=1208&format=png&auto=webp&s=65f67dd14d86297635bc06e0c59392749178d39d

Yeah, it may suck that he doesn't have any magic classes, but he's a good secondary carry-over hero for the next scenarios. It's good to free him on W:3-4 if possible and make him run around arenas and shrines because after month 2 you're unlikely to get back to him unless at the very end.

After Murdoch was freed, I got to the place slightly north to the neutral Stronghold town and used the Town Portal object to teleport with Dargem back to my Stronghold city. Note that Adelaide attacks precisely on month 1, week 4, day 7. I basically had to hurry with getting the black tent guarded by 20-49 Bounty Hunters and Fafner. I used Dargem's forgettance on Bounty hunters and finished the job with Gruezak, who quickly sent Dargem Charm of Eclipse and Shackles of War before the Adelaide fight:

https://preview.redd.it/gkmy1y797ymh1.png?width=843&format=png&auto=webp&s=02311bb9cf158fdbde34593df3839b658e9f758e

I also rushed to get the Titan's Cuirass guarded by Bone Dragons near Kilgor's town before Solmyr could take it.

Adelaide came in with a strong army and a set of bless + frost ring spells, but at this point my Dargem had 10+ ancient behemoths and stats all 10+, so I destroyed her.

https://preview.redd.it/vnqf49qd7ymh1.png?width=517&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fbe3e87f5074142222e7c4d92ce29d665426ffa

After I defeated her, I had to refill my mana at magic spring next to Kilgor's town, hero chained supplies from Cove to Dargem, and then I went towards the blue garrison (2).

What's strange is that on my way to it, Solmyr attacked me. But he came in with only golems and gremlins for some reason. He could only cast 1 chain lighting and then he got defeated, giving me shield of lion courage for good measure. At this point, my Dargem's stats were cliffing towards 20+ for all.

I went to a Watering Place near the blue garrison, and right afterwards Iona came out with a solid army full of genies. she went towards the red garrison near that neutral Castle town on the right for some reason (circled Dark Red 1). I cornered her and after a fight where I sacrificed pretty much my whole army aside from Behes, I got Titan's thunder and the air orb with cape of velocity. That was the breaking point on month 2 where I started dominating and all scripted blue enemies got defeated with the sole exception being Astral.

Note that the blue garrison is guarded by 10 Titans and 35 Queen Nagas, so I had to go back for yet another refill. But this time I wasn't stressed much knowing I already defeated Theodore, Solmyr, Iona, Adelaide and Fafner.

Yet another strange thing, red never came out of his lair, even after month 3. He was passive af unlike my first playthrough. After getting Astral, I just took over Bracada with Dargem to eliminate Sir Mullich without him spawning near the end. Meanwhile Murdoch kept circling around the Red town while wandering around shrines and arenas for stats. I later ordered him to go around Bracada for stats, similarly to Dargem. I built all mage guild levels in Tower and everywhere else. I knew the timer was precisely 84 days and Red was cornered in Red Square 3, so I blocked him with a 5th scout hero and went to Highlands area where the Seer's hut seeking Murdoch was located. He gave me the Pendant of Holiness, which is carried over to the next scenario.

Afterwards, I went sailing with Dargem to free Elmore located underground, marked with yellow circle. I got extra +2 ATK before the scenario ended. Closed the map with lv 18 Murdoch and Dargem. Nice.

(In case you're wondering what the Mullich boss looks like if you don't take blue towns)

TL;DR - 8 heroes running around, hero chaining, scouts to mark dwellings and shipwrecks underground while Dargem goes Behemoth-Rush mode, and you should be good.

The Tree Killer

This scenario is noticeably easier from the previous one, but you should still remain on guard.

https://preview.redd.it/tq9obrlp7ymh1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=e72567fb1a62b00bae1a09dbdfcd4a52f25a74d7

No. 1 Overground
Pink circle - Where Dargem and Murdoch start
Orange square - the neutral town you have to take
Purple circle - neutral Rampart town no. 2
Red circles - Red Towers (1 - gives one firebird, 2 - gives 2 firebirds, 3 - gives three firebirds)
Light green square - Elleshar location and his town next to blue tent
Azure square - Ivor and his town location next to green tent
pink path 1 - how Elleshar comes to the middle zone
pink path 2 - How Ivor comes to the middle zone
Cyan square - where you can find a lot of wood guarded by Ents
Orange circle - where Gunnar comes from on month 2
Yellow circle - Seer's hut that gives you Pendant of Life carried over to the next scenario upon giving it 3 Centaur Axes.
Yellow squares (1, 2) - reachable by obtaining blue key located in Green's kingdom
Yellow square (3) - reachable by defeating Silver Pegasis and obtaining green key located in Blue's kingdom

No. 2 Underground
Pink circle - Kreh and Colosseum of the Magi
Red circle - Crystal dragon dwelling used by Gunnar
Yellow square - Gunnar's town
Cyan circles - places Dargem mustn't miss before the end

Week 1 is easy, but fast. Get the neutral town and don't bother sailing on the ship as there is no whirlpool. Go down and get Red towers 1 and 2 fast. I recommend taking Ivor first on upper side of the map since he doesn't have any firebirds. Once you get him, the scenario gets easier as you gain access to 2 Rampart towns with the first one already having a functional tavern, to my initial surprise. Now you need to get Elleshar near the pink path (1). Be cautious of him as he has meteor rain (including implosion, if you are playing on impossible diff), 3 firebirds and huge SP/KN stats. Using blind and 'ones' may be necessary, but once you wipe him out and take the third Rampart you pretty much have overground map domination until Gunnar comes out of Dungeon at the beginning of month 2.

Beware of that guy as he has direct access to Crystal Dragons and he often walks out with hundreds of harpies and tens of minotaurs with 5+ black dragons. I initially waited for him to get closer to my first town and, using blind in combat (starting bonus scroll), I managed to trap him without him being able to escape. Fight took me 3 retries due to his strength. Then I could take the Dungeon underground and it was now GGs since only the "collect 300 wood until 3.4.7" part remained in place. I started walking around the overground with Murdoch, making him take the southern neutral Rampart that is guarded by Rocs all while he's walking around collecting stats. Meanwhile my Dargem and secondary heroes take mines in order to build all magic guild levels in towns up to lv. 5. This is necessary to do because your heroes will gain access to spells like Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, Water elemental, Chain Lighting, Meteor Rain, and Implosion which will be very useful in mission 4 and 5. Make both Murdoch and Dargem learn these spells while exploring the map for stats. Remember to sell wood in order not to get hit with the mission ending too early. I went on a deforestation (cyan square overground) and on month 3 I fought Kreh for extra +2 SP. This is the result:

https://preview.redd.it/b0hu7u0n7ymh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9cfca5e5ce93ca3ae6c1d6f8b6c341a4c2907616

I personally used mass haste, but you can also use Dargem's Air Shield specialty since at level 24 and def 30+ the damage reduction becomes sky high.

I personally never got the Pendant of Life, but if you really want Crystal Dragons in the next scenario, get it. Map above.

I ended the map with Dargem's stats reaching almost 30/30/30/30 and Murdoch's to roughly 20/20/20/20. About Gunnar being carried over to the next scenario, he simply joins you after failing miserably against your army.

Knee Deep in the Undead

I think this is my favourite one. Roughly as easy as the previous one, but what I praised is the interesting construction of it.

https://preview.redd.it/qv6yl91wuymh1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=0f1f43e54814dbcd19b2a3ae61876854a7f9952c

No. 1 Overground:
Dark purple square (1, 2, 3) - towns purple starts with
Grey square (4A) - 4th town Necro player quickly gets
Pink square - Dungeon entrance
Light green circle (1) - the two-sided brown portal leading to (2)
Light green circle (2) - brown tent and Titan's gladius guarded by Ghost Dragons
Light green circle (3) - purple tent guarded by Azure Dragons
Orange square - Orb of Vulnerability required to open the gate to Maximus
Azure square - garrison accessible after getting purple tent key; this is how you access Maximus
Red square - Maximus and his garrison

No. 1 Underground:
Green square 1 - your Dungeon town where Gunnar starts
Green square 2 - where Dargem and Murdoch start
Green circles - the green portal entrances
Light purple circle (1) - Galthran behind a border guard (opens 1.1.5) who starts with 1k+ peasants and hundreds of skeletons.
Light purple circle (2) - Nimbus who protects white tent.
Light purple circle (3) - Isra who protects black tent.
Light purple circle (4) - Nagash who protects entrance to overground world.
Red square (1) - Hydras that protect earth orb
Red square (2) - Red dragons that protect Boots of Speed and Colosseum of the Magi
Red square (3) - Dragon Utopia and Water Orb protected by Rust Dragons.
Red square (4) - Shackles of War protected by Cyclops
Red square (5) - Arena and ATK +1 camp with +1 DEF tower and titan helm/dragon-scale cape protected by Vampire Lords/Behemoths/Demons
Red square (5) - Red dragon lair and Dragon armor + necklace guarded by 10-19 Angels and Archangels
Cyan circle (1) - Crystal dragon lair procted by Crystal Dragon stack and unlockable with Pendant of Life
Cyan circle (2) - border guard behind which is 1 Scholar/Unlockable with Pendant of Holiness
Yellow circle - neutral Dungeon town guarded by Titans. Blind spell is obtainable here.

You start underground while Purple keeps building up his forces Overground. First, get through green portals and clear the area. Go with Dargem near purple circle (1) since there are 2 Scholars that give you free stats and normally you don't want them landing into enemy's hands. Defeat Galthram in that spot and head to red square (2) where you can find Boots of speed and the magic colosseum. Guards like dragons or literally anything else aside from Angels aren't the problem since you can just cast force field + destructive spells or Summon Elemental with a single stack. there are around 2-3 easily accessible equestrian gloves. Some right near portals, one in the cementery next to Dragon Utopia. It's good if you have necklaces from previous missions since you can access the Scholar on bottom left + crystal dragon lair, though they're expensive and I personally didn't use it.

Aside from paying attention to red squares, get red dragon dwellings. One is on red square 6, the other one is above the neutral dungeon. Before confronting Nagash, get the white tent guarded by this guy.

https://preview.redd.it/20nxfo9apymh1.png?width=548&format=png&auto=webp&s=124901cad706cee8148436173098babe31fe2106

He's got mass haste and some weakening spells, but he shouldn't be a struggle.

Next, get Isra who has 1k+ skele stack and 250-499 zombies on purple circle 3 in order to get the black tent.

After you amass an army underground and get to Overground around week 3-5, remember that Purple now has 4 towns overground (5 if we count the static Maximus). There are 3 powerful heroes scattered around, primarily Ranloo, Septienna and Tamika. Septienna is likely gonna be your biggest struggle as she has quite a lot of spells and a huge army.

To track the enemy heroes, use expert View Air. This will show you how the chains move.

I thought distracting AI was gonna be hard, but it turns out that it made a horrible mistake once again. Ranloo went between town (1) and 4A while carrying a small army. He had the entire Armor of the Damned set. I managed to catch him with Murdoch, and to me it was quite literally hilarious how he just gave up an automatic key to victory.

Septienna was moving between towns (1) and (2). I managed to get the guarded town (3) with Dargem. I hired a secondary hero to flag mines there while visiting arenas and camps with Dargem. I quickly set up a hero chain with Gunnar from my main towns to 4A to (3) to give Dargem some Sea Serpents, Archers, Dragons and artifacts right before confronting Septienna.

Because it was nearly impossible to kill her outside the town, I made the decision to hide inside (3) in order to get the first turn priority that would instantly make the Armor cast 4 curses. She had 3 Faerie dragons, so on the field she'd always start first. And there, she'd resurrect hundreds of undead after I kept trying to hit them. Plus the anti-magic spam.

But in the town? She didn't seem to know what to do, she just spammed the 'earthquake' spell while ignoring that one implosion wipes out 800+ of her skeletons.

GGs.

This is pretty much where the map's takeover started since the main threat was gone. But I only had 7 Red Dragons left, so I went in for another refill before getting to the guarded (2) and (1).

There's no time limit now, so what you should do is keep walking around with Dargem around arenas to amp your stats up before the last 2 final fights and build all magic guild LVLs. Keep in mind that in this scenario, you can get Air Elemental, Blind and most importantly Town Portal spells, so it's like a must-do. Walk around to get level 32 and then get the tent keys marked with green circles. Get to the marked snow area where you can get Orb of Vulnerability required to get to Maximus. Afterwards, you can camp for months, collect army for Dargem and then raid the final boss. For fun I decided that I'll wait for 7 months for one grand battle to take place.

https://preview.redd.it/7cuw55u0wymh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcbb9c546856c953ad64788a1d1a3d070f472929

Yeah, he's strong. He's got stats 35/25/30/25 and a bunch of controlling spells, but he's actually the least dangerous objective on the map.

Chasing the Dream

The last scenario. I'd say it's actually the easiest one since at this point your Dargem is absurdly powerful. I started with stats reaching around 40/33/40/32.

https://preview.redd.it/5r9d1q5rdzmh1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=cfe66348b67f604fe65b798246b7b04bf643a9b6

No. 1 Overground:
Dark red circle - where Dargem starts.
Dark pink square - Seer's hut that gives Orb of Inhibition upon defeating Faerie Dragon underground
Pink square (1, 2, 3) - Stronghold, Cove and Castle towns
Red cirles (1, 2, 3) - prisons (Miriam, guarded by ice elementals/Elmore, guarded by Wraiths/Cassiopeia, guarded by Haspids)
Orange circle (1, 2, 3) - Magi Spring component artifacts
Cyan circles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) - where all necklaces are except one owned by Boyd and one underground
Yellow circles - whirlpools

No. 2 Underground:
Green square - where Dargem lands after using the entrance.
Pink path - where the Faerie Dragon is.
Orange path - How to get the necklace of undead. Voy with a few Haspids and Hydras blocks the path.
Red circle - where the necklace is.

Grab the green boots for 0 movement penalty. You start with Dargem on an isolated island next to Stronghold. Get the Sea Serpents and stables. Grab the +3 mana necklace guarded by Nixes and attack the Stronghold town. You can either cast forgettance or summon an Air elemental to do the job. Despite the town having no mana refill, it's not going to be your worry since it's easy to get spring of the magi. Grab admiral's hat and Cape of Velocity with Equestrian's gloves from your starting island and get on the boat. Get mana bottles and head to marked island (2) for Charm of Mana. Now you have many pathes, but I personally went to Miriam's prison (1) and freed her there. She gave me Sea Serpents and Corsairs, and I landed on the Castle island to get the last Spring component. Defeated Griffins and Nagis on the way.

By the way, do not grab any lying resources on that Castle island. Once Boyd spawns there, he'll pick up resources first, and only then think about you. That gives you some time on month 2.

Getting back to our Dargem with Spring on week 3, I defeated the oceanids and grabbed the 4/4/3/3 Pandora box. I ordered Miriam to start marking neutral Cove dwellings while I kept sailing towards Elmore's prison (2) with Wraiths. I then landed on the island with neutral Cove and static hero to grab the pirate town with Ayssid/seamen/pirate upgrades which are necessary. Then, sail to prison (3) guarded by Haspids to unlock Casmetra, the last prison hero. Once you mark all dwellings on weeks 3-4, you're good.

Boyd spawned on month 2. I Initially made Dargem raid shipwrecks for gold and upgrades while Boyd would keep ransacking the Castle island. I got him around 2.2.2 when he'd try to sail and caught him with Dargem who had 100+ Ayssids and like 200 Sea Dogs. Defeating him was surprisingly easy - I just got bless and Air Elemental, he died surprisingly quickly despite having a large army and 'Animate Dead'

https://preview.redd.it/cow39gm0gzmh1.png?width=665&format=png&auto=webp&s=17dda7cd75f2f0083f801b5f757a48209b8112aa

I lost a chunk of my army, but that wasn't a large issue. Afterwards I had to head to sourthern island to obtain the blue key. On the island marked with Orange circle (2), slightly below, there's a portal guarded by Nixes, and I went there to get the brown tent and anti-hypnosis necklace guarded by Automatons on dead land. You can only cast lv 1 spells there, so I recommend taking some archers with yourself. After that, you should head to Underground terrain and defeat the Faerie Dragon. Then use Town portal to Stronghold to quickly reach the Seer's hut that grants you Orb of Inhibition. That allows you to access the green tent marked with green circle (2) that is guarded by Fangarms. Once you get the green key, head to Underground, defeat Voy and Archliches by taking the orange path, and then use Town portal to Stronghold. Get 8 Harpies that are located exactly below the Stronghold town. Then teleport to Cove and give 8 Harpies to the border guard above Cove. Use the green portal, defeat 100-249 giants (no titan stack) and get the anti-lighting necklace. Go to the island with 4 cyan circles and defeat Balfour behind Nixes. Now congrats, you have all 8 necklaces.

Defeat Haspids on top right (purple square). Force field should do the job. You can either camp till 3.4.7 or raid the 30 Blue Dragons immediately. I chose the former and the battle was spectacular.

https://preview.redd.it/zyqiyc54izmh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=87a494c7aeb461a81d281774a51312cc0d9ab985

I ended the campaign with these stats:

https://preview.redd.it/g5djagfcizmh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=645f098bedd25388ee806871bcd1d2d9277ebd53

Conclusion

Now the only HOTA campaign I haven't defeated is Forged in Fire. I wanted to leave the last meal for later, especially that now I'll be busy irl.

This one was amazing, 8/10 I'd say. Took me one solid week. Dargem has funny lines, especially when they're translated to make him sound like a philosopher.

The renders cooked.

Well, Gunnar is gonna be on his depression arc.

Dargem and Cassy aura-farming as usual.

I'm surprised there are 4 renders in total. Quite a lot for 1 campaign, but they're all welcome.

Why can't I stop looking at his beautiful portrait?

Well, this guy is like a side character who stays cool for a while and leaves while your MC goes for his main objective.

Hilariously enough, all of that just for him to fail and for Bidley to claim the reward.

Well, I guess this is it lads, the last part of Cove campaigns, and likely my last HOTA campaign this year. Maybe I'll play more on next vacations. See y'all later!

(please note that a large part of this guide is also based on my experience and yours may be different with difficulty levels and RNG)

The last 2 campaigns are pretty tough, and you need to know 3 rules:

1. You always need a proper skillset (most of the time it's earth magic and a combination of logistics + offense prioritization).
2. Your heroes always need to visit every arena and shrine before moving onto next area.
3. Logistics is the most important. Use only fast units on your main heroes (speed 6+ and so on)

Let's begin. Keep in mind that I played the whole campaign on 100% (normal). I mostly focused on the story.

Horn of the Abyss

Frontier - 2nd hardest map in the gaunlet IMO.

https://preview.redd.it/pwr0mv0jhdmh1.png?width=763&format=png&auto=webp&s=9aae673f4a48626a2f0e81ff4a67d045ed68d56e

No. 1 Overground:
Pink square - this is where Jeremy starts.
Pink path - this is where he has to go to get to the Cove town.
Marroon square - the Cove town.
Tan line - marks the borders of your starting island.
Pink arrow - where your boat is.
Orange squares - garrisons 1 (green), 2, 3 (neutral)
Pink path 1 (ocean) - where you need to sail at first.
Pink path 2 - where I went to get master navigation first (costs 6k gold at academy, guarded by ice elementals).
Pink path 3 - where you can go if neutral garrison is unlocked or if you can beat it (path towards pink cove enemy).
Pink square - Enemy cove
Pink circle - Purple tent
Purple square - the purple garrison pink player can use.
Pink path 4 - where I went to get to green and Nymus immediately (guarded by sea serpents)
Light Orange square - two sided sea portal
Pink path 5 - path to Nymus and blue portal (what I chose)
Pink path 6 - path leading to Green's town instantly (risky)
Light green squares - enemy Castle town.
Light green circle (large) - green tent (locked away from you by default)
Light green circle (small) - the blue two-sided portal.
Dark green squares - garrisons only Green can access.
Dark blue circle - neutral Rampart that is often taken by Green first.
Red square - where Nymus is kept (required to unlock border gate to underground Inferno)
Red path - where Nymus can go if you unlocked the sea portal.
Yellow path - where Nymus can go in case red path is dangerous.
Cyan - all places Jeremy should visit before scenario ends.

https://preview.redd.it/08u59hekhdmh1.png?width=760&format=png&auto=webp&s=a15621915448c5f26793dcfc1dd41c39f9eb6572

No. 2 Underground
Red circle - where your hero spawns after taking the one-sided portal unlocked by Nymus
Dark blue squares - where Jeremy can initially hide from Inferno heroes (they don't have access to blue tent unlike you)
Pink square - the Brown tent needed to unlock the entrance to overground
Azure square - where you should go to get to overground area
Yellow circle - neutral Dungeon (magic guild up to lv 4)
Light green - where the two-sided blue portal leads
Light pink - where the two-sided red portal leads
Light blue arrow, light blue outline, light purple square - where the red tent is that allows you to get to 3 Inferno towns
Red squares - 2 Inferno towns
Yellow square - the Inferno town next to your portal spawnpoint
Cyan - places my Jeremy visited before scenario's end

You start bottom left. Obviously, grab the blue tent and green boots. You'll encounter a few creatures on your way, but they shouldn't be a problem. Take the Cove town on the starting island. What's important is that you shouldn't rush sailing immediately - get 2-3 heroes to sail around first while Jeremy clears the island. You may also get the Pandora box that grants some XP. Starting around the end of week 2, You need to get your Jeremy on boat and get garrison no. 1 that has a bunch of griffins. Luckily I didn't get that much losses. I went towards sea academy to grab master navigation immediately since enemies have automatic advantage over you. The big danger here is scripted Edric that walks around with lots of griffins and marksmen. Luckily AI made a huge mistake and split its army 50/50, allowing my Jeremy to kill Edric near the sea portal.

However, that wasn't the end with me having to navigate around his second army. But when his forces got weaker, with the pink Cove being taken by me, I managed to get to him through the blue portal and got his 2 Castles. What's weird is that after they were taken he wasn't anywhere in rush. Just landing on islands in the middle of map for no reason. Eventually I found out about the Rampart in corner and I took his last town. What's important is that after you take down Green and Pink, you have no dangers overground. You should visit all arenas and shrines, build all magic guilds and fill your Jeremy with a bunch of spells. Get Nymus to open the border gate at bottom right. And that's where fun starts.

I got there on month 7 to stack up on my Archangels and Haspids with Sea dogs. But the enemy Inferno has 3 towns and 5 strong scripted heroes. The objective of this mission is to build grail Lodestar in your town, however, you can also take Inferno and win the same way. The grail is located underground, but I made the decision to take 3 Inferno towns first, then I got the tent and grail for that juicy +1 spell power on the upper island.

Ok, let's go back to before the battles started. Since it was month 7, Everyone was stacked, and 3 gigantic battles ensued. Once again, AI split its army, so I had a much easier job here with hero chains delivering more army for Jeremy:

https://preview.redd.it/nqxpg10rhdmh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5bff0343099ed916af5fb67e460fb135519c5ee

With proper use of spells you can actually win. I later got the red tent on the right side of the map and slayed 2 other heroes:

https://preview.redd.it/r9806lxshdmh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ba5b1d6944b078598fc306858a116ac21ca5e33

Xarfax was pretty weak and I encountered him on a road.

https://preview.redd.it/mcpoi9auhdmh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=e4049113673c3a915f5735e4895ce329ab0bcb2e

Pyre was hid in her town. She was a bit more tough with hordes of demons, but at this point Jer took over the underground. What's interesting is that enemy Inferno had build-up of 1000 imps and 200 cerberis in just 1 town.

Why fight for 3 Infernos, you may ask? They can be built up to lv 5, allow spell exchanging (replacing 1 spell with a cost), and they can give you spells like resurrection/blind/cloning/teleportation and many spells that are very useful in the next scenarios. Remember to build Order of Fire in each taken Inferno town for max Spell power.

Later I got the brown tent, extra +1 spell power overground, and I built a Lodestar. GGs.

Heart of Water - This one is a breath of fresh air unlike the previous scenario. This time, we start with Bidley who automatically has hardcoded skills like navigation, which will be very useful later on. He's now trapped in the Plane of Water and has to capture Coralgate to win.

https://preview.redd.it/c7qd33dnldmh1.png?width=2543&format=png&auto=webp&s=63e4edc77318d0d5e26d2f2ff0fc993ff5020742

Yellow circle is where you start.
Yellow square is the town you need to capture at first.
Pink squares are Enemy conflux towns.
Red square is Coralgate.
Pink marks lighthouses.
Light green marks keymaster tents necessary to unlock the portal to Coralgate.
Light green circles mark the entrance to Coralgate.
Cyan squares mark locations you should visit before proceeding to the next area.

Once you start, grab the spell power/knowledge from school magic and sail towards the neutral Conflux marked with yellow square. Once you get there, hire some heroes and mark pirate, nereid and water elemental dwellings.

This map has no underground. The enemy has 2 towns, with lighthouses being on their island by default. I quickly decided to head NE after visiting shrines and amassing an army. Pathfinding is necessary since you constantly lead an army of elementals that normally get stuck on swamp terrain. The 2 scripted heroes are Ciele and Kalt. I initially had lots of issues with the latter due to his high attack and ability to cast all water magic spells on expert on ice blocks, resulting in him killing my army with bless + fast units. I got Conflux on the right when he was distracted on the sea. Later i was doing a combination of saves and hero chaining on 2 islands. But at one point I managed to get Ciele and I stalled Kalt long enough to defeat him. And after you get the Conflux town on the left, the map isn't an issue since Lacus is completely static in Coralgate, there's no time limit, and his army looks like this:

https://preview.redd.it/8a36iblsndmh1.png?width=301&format=png&auto=webp&s=010fb87c87a1f08d5dbae9bf783fd5354e1c2c6b

Lacus has high ATK and DEF points. After defeating the 2 Conflux towns, you should try to get the keymaster tents marked with light green squares. The guardians of them are haspids, titans and azure dragons. Apart from flagging dwellings and lighthouses, you should visit all stat boosting locations with Bidley, marked with cyan squares.

The interesting thing about this map is that you will only get water magic from Conflux magic guilds. My bidley had wisdom, water magic, and he was a walking water elementalist at this point. One thing that sucked is that I completely forgot Conflux has magic university that allows you to get any magic class - I had locked Bidley with air and water magic, thinking RNG didn't bless me with earth magic when I could've gotten it, but oh well. That was a non-issue since Jeremy would have all of these in his next mission.

I explored the map for like 5-6 months before getting the town. I funnily raided with like 2k ice elementals. Victory.

Horn of the Abyss - you'd think this map is hard, but it actually isn't.

https://preview.redd.it/sonne4f5rdmh1.png?width=1851&format=png&auto=webp&s=3929fafb5f64045be1b1a0514637b6c20d61c414

1 marks the blue keymaster tent location.
3 marks the purple keymaster tent location.
2 marks the location where the garrison to underground terrain is (where Casmetra is hiding)
^((yeah, I messed up the order while drawing stuff on map))

You start with 3 towns, enemy with 5. This seems like an obvious advantage, but AI often acts stupid when it has multiple towns - the obvious army splitting. I don't particularly remember the map posing any difficulties.

Tark starts with bad skills, so it's recommended to go sailing with him. Bidley has seamen and Nix dwellings near him - take them. There is also an interesting Seer's hut near him (to the right) that grants a bunch of Satyrs upon giving him 20 gems.]

My Jeremy obviously came in with Earth magic, resurrection and blind, so he was the main carry here. I remember his skills being Offense, Artillery, Wisdom, Navigation, Logistics, Earth Magic, Air magic, and the last one was Fire magic. I already got to touch the enemy with him on day 7 (look at red arrow). Funnily enough the enemy left his Cove completely empty, so I just came in and set a campfire. The local scripted heroes however had dangerous spells and a few folks, so I had to refill my army with hero chains quickly before getting the town to the left and then getting Bidley to take the right one. Afterwards, a stronger enemy from north came. He can recruit a bunch of Zealots, Peasants as meat fodder and has a rich starting area. I went back, got the army from 4 functional Coves and then took down the 2 northern towns with Jeremy and an amassed 3-week army.

You need to get the keymaster tents on 1 (guarded by Ghost dragons) and 3 (guarded by Ancient behemoths) in order to get to Casmetra (2). Luckily she's completely static too, so the important thing is that you should visit each arena and shrine with magic guilds with each hero while maximizing their levels to 24. You need to put this into priority since the next scenario is constructed against you.

screen taken from Grajcownik.pl

The battle with Casmetra may underwhelm you, and I hit her on month 5 week 4, right before the deadline ends.

All Hands on Board! - The last map. Well, after enraging forces of Conflux (Coralgate destruction), Solmyr (rejection of surrender), enemy Cove (Dargem's quest) and Dungeon (will for power), you now have 4 enemies surrounding you.

Yeah, Dungeon is right under everyone's wing and vice versa.

Blue is Bracada (tower, 4 towns)
Brown is Conflux (3 towns)
Pink is enemy Cove (3 towns)
Orange is enemy Dungeon (4 towns)
Azure is you (at the center, 3-4 towns)

Since you start at the center, you're essentially surrounded by 4 enemies. However, you've got one advantage: your enemies aren't allied. Therefore, Gunnar, despite having 4 towns and scripted heroes with Town Portal by default, can emerge in Tower territory instead of yours. Keep this in mind.

Because my Bidley didn't have earth magic, I chose Jeremy to take the horn. Horn of the Abyss is a powerful artifact that gives you fangarms whenever an enemy/friendly unit stack dies. I essentially recruited like 3 heroes to sail around and grab golden chests. It's important to take 2 lighthouses: one at your starting island, second at Conflux territory (red arrow 2). Conflux starts with the lighthouse being automatically flagged on separate island and without it they will swim very slowly.

What I did first was getting Bidley to swim towards neutral Conflux (red arrow 1) in order to take it as a cash checkpoint. Afterwards, I took one of enemy's Cove towns (red arrow 3) and I defeated pink Miriam scout with Jeremy near the starting island. She's got high attack, but I blinded her units before she could run away. Dargem was sitting at the upper pink Cove with a decent army. After I took his first Cove town, he noticed my Jeremy with weak army near his town, and decided to jump on the boat. But then I quickly delivered army supply with Bidley next to him. Despite Dargem having high stats and a big army, I got him with resurrection + blind tactic. He dropped quite a ton of artifacts.

After getting Dargem, taking over the pink Coves was a non-issue especially since the scripted Eovacius wandered to Bracada where he likely clashed with Solmyr's army for a while. I then had 7 Cove towns for myself.

But that was apparently only the tip of iceberg. I already mentioned that Dungeon is directly connected to pink Cove entrance. After I took all 3 enemy Coves, Alamar came out of entrance (pink square) and took over the bottom cove. I rushed there with Jeremy, exchanging army with Bidley. Enemy Alamar had a Rust dragon and 10+ red dragons in his army with a bunch of minotaurs and evil eyes. Despite having 200+ fangarms, the battle was quite difficult. Alamar kept spamming "earth elemental" and would run away. I basically had to figure out how to blind his units while not letting him escape with earth elementals since they were immune to blind and had sky-high defense. I think around the 7th battle reset I managed to defeat him without him running away. The resets were totally worth it though - he dropped titan's cuirass and necklace of navigation alongside other 10+ artifacts. By that point my Jeremy had like 38+ spell power and 250+ fangarms.

Now here's the very important thing, perhaps the most important one. After defeating the enemies near you and stabilizing the situation on month 2, you should immediately head to Bracada where the red square is (garrison guarded by titans) to get Town portal spell from a shrine. After that, the game gets much easier, however it's not the end.

When I previously got Ignissa from Conflux, I thought they were weakened. I was wrong. Around month 2 Brissa came to the upper pink Cove that was taken over by me with a bunch of Phoenixes and Elementals. Her spells were destructive and I got almost wiped. I wanted to clear her with Bidley/Tark first, but she was too strong. Although when Jeremy defeated her, I quickly noticed that Conflux was then defenseless. I went over to entrance to Conflux kingdom (red line 4) and took their 3 towns without much effort put into it.

Afterwards something interesting happened. Solmyr sailed to bottom Cove, this time with large army. I luckily managed to teleport there and the result looked like this:

Blind + Resurrection THE GOAT

But it was safe to say that after taking Conflux, Cove and majority of the map, there weren't too many issues. Only towns left untouched belonged to Tower and Dungeon.

Tower would attempt to take both Bottom coves, but they failed every time. What remained were their ships on beaches. At one point Sephinroth came out of Dungeon entrance (yellow square) and I let her take my Cove in hopes of Gunnar doing town portal to the taken town where Jeremy would wait. But that never happened, and I think it's because my Jeremy was already too strong. So I captured Sephinroth and took some of her artifacts. Now the enemy Dungeon had only 2-3 remaining scripted heroes left. Strangely enough Gunnar went down to Bracada again.

Deciding that Dungeon is not worth getting yet due to their strong army and choke-points, I raided Bracada which had some heroes with no Town Portal. Considering that I swooped in with Phoenixes, I essentially cleared them. Their forces were split around the island and archiepelago. They had previously fought against Pink and Orange, which weakened them already.

By the way, at the brown square (Middle south) there is a scholar guarded by Titans. He gives Dimension Door. that helped a bit and also allowed Jeremy to get the Azure dragon cliffs on the island that have 1 usage: Seer's hut near it that can be accessed through the obtained DD spell. If you give the Seer 5 of these dragons, he gives you the Angelic Alliance. It was a decoration considering my Jeremy's strength, but nevertheless I took it. Near the end my Jeremy already had like lv 30+ and stats 50/50/50/50 if not higher.

When I took over Bracada, I decided to pause a bit and farm Fangarms from allied units for fun:

Demo- I mean Fangarm farming goes brrr. 1k fangarms from this battle alone.

I also harassed Dungeon underground.

Another 1k fangarms from this one (yes, I sacrificed my army)

I went farming like this for months and I essentially kept stalling and stalling until month 10. That's around the time when I had 6k Fangarms and I decided to close the game by taking the last Dungeon town.

https://preview.redd.it/ksbhxjl17emh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c3e6a58f1954a579bd4ccadc4ca2a0176b50d36

So, in a nutshell, the mid-game is the hardest, and then it only gets easier. Your enemies are your best friends, they will slay each other before looking at what you've done.

Now that is one busted campaign, a solid 9/10 in my personal opinion. Frontier lets you explore AI's weaknesses and provides a solid challenge. Heart of Water is a beautiful map where you can't even tell where the land is due to icebergs on both water and islands. All hands on board gives out the final boss vibes. The only complaint I have is how easy getting the horn from Casmetra was. Obviously, from a plot standpoint it makes sense since she didn't even know how to use the horn after betrayal and had to act quickly, but I wish there was some kind of trap/special challenge along the way.

In my opinion, the difficulty curve of these 4 missions goes like this: 1 > 4 > 2 > 3 (Frontier > All Hands on Board > Heart of Water > Horn of the Abyss)

The only mission with a time limit is the 3rd one, Horn of the Abyss.

As always, the artwork is great.

The soundtrack this campaign uses originates from AB campaigns, and you can find it here. It's in the "secret theme" section.

Admittedly, the cutscenes made me chuckle a bit.

\"The world is on fire? Nah, let's aura farm\"

\"How r u, I'm underwater and I hate it here\" - Bidley, probably.

\"Hmm, I dunno what to do with this horn, I guess it'll do it\"

Hoo boy, those pixels are edible.

\"Wait, it's over? All the journeys with Jeremy? Sigh... *deletes 40 saves*

I initially wanted to post about Dargem's All In too, but Reddit has a strict image limit that popped up. Maybe I'll manage to finish the rest tomorrow, but I spent like 5 hours writing this post. See you guys later!

So I've never really used AI chatbots before aside from ChatGPT and I decided to test Google's AI since it was pretty popular and also easily accessible on my phone. I'll describe my experience while testing it for several months. For context, I used it for research on basic things like home accessories and also internet culture. Aside from this, I decided to use its "creative writing" feature to make some fun stories based on a few selected RPG games.

I didn't directly use Gemini AI to write this post. My feedback is based on my personal experience.

Pros:

• Quick searching - Like most AIs, Gemini is generally good for quick research on one subject, whether it's on a random internet drama or a popular game. It can dig up an article that you can't find due to it previously getting buried in a matter of seconds.
• Easily accessible Python code - After typing out a prompt, you can press or type 'show code' to quickly take a look at it. Some programmers may additionally use it for analysis and research purposes regarding the chatbot, which is important.
• Long threads - Nowadays Gemini can generally sustain hundreds of prompts without it lagging much, which is beneficial for long stories.
• Customizable, fun humor - Gemini got a new feature where you can pick answers A and B to know which path you would rather take during the conversation. You can directly change and customize certain parts to make a story more coherent and immersive.
• Relatively high accuracy on info about biology and school subjects - While AI can obviously mess up sometimes, it is surprisingly accurate on information based around both basic and expanded school courses, however it still does fall behind in Maths compared to ChatGPT.

Cons:

• AI looping and 'milking' - Sometimes Gemini can get obsessed with something you wrote mid-conversation, and it won't stop bringing it up even if you tell it to tune it down. Or, if you start the conversation with an unrelated topic, and then switch to something else, it will also loop that same previous point 10-20 times even if the first topic had only like 2-3 prompts in it.
• AI hallucination and 'Creative Rewriting' - Now this is what actually annoyed me (and frankly made me laugh). A few days ago I was generally writing a random fan story regarding a more niche but still quite popular RPG game. In the thread, I briefly explained a game mechanic that affects the world negatively, and I asked Gemini how X character would react to getting Y negative effect. I kinda wanted the story to become humorous. But then the AI did something quite hilarious, and this is a textbook example of r/confidentlyincorrect. It wrote something along the words of "No, my fellow gamer, it is a very common myth! 😁 The negative effect you wrote about wouldn't affect this character! *proceeds to make up a random mechanic that doesn't exist but somehow negates the bad effect* Anyways, here's how this character reacts to the POSITIVE effect!" So the point is that it basically wrote nonsense that would make the game subreddit go "🤨?" and it rewrote my story based on what it hallucinated. And when I said "No, the negative mechanic is not negated at all, it still applies due to effect X", it didn't rewrite the fabricated story, instead it updated it with my correction, which frankly made it lose coherence almost completely.
• Not good for long research - While researching on a complex topic, Gemini can sometimes ask you how you feel about X thing or what you think about something you wrote. Naturally, you provide your opinion and keep prompting further. But later you may notice that AI starts stating your opinions as facts. That, combined with the aforementioned 'AI looping' renders Gemini unreliable for complex, long research on more difficult topics.
• Inherent 'people-pleasing' and the need to write specific prompts - The chatbot is generally programmed to be nice to you. And while it sounds like a good thing at first, it can transform into your personal echo chamber where it does not criticize you and becomes a 'yes-man' that agrees with even the most absurd ideas. So if you ever, for example as a programmer or analyst, decide to test Gemini regarding its ability to send back proper feedback or do anything else, it's best not to write 'Is this a good idea?' Instead, write 'Could you point out any possible drawbacks related to this idea?' and this gives you a bigger chance of receiving something that actually makes sense without the bot mindlessly praising idea X.
• Spitting out code and different languages mid-conversation - Now this is a smaller issue, but sometimes Gemini could either start typing in Chinese or Russian language mid-conversation while simultaneously spitting out parts of its code like 'thought' 'creative writing' or anything symbol related like {, }, \, and /.
• Frequent 'Something went wrong and an AI response wasn't generated' - Self-explanatory. Often happens when a thread becomes long, but sometimes it can happen instantly.
• No button to disable 'AI overviews' and the need to use search filters or add-ons for that - When Gemini came out, people were frustrated over the fact that there wasn't - and still isn't - a single button that disables it. And back then it was a lot less developed, so the chances of it making dumb mistakes were higher. Now you either need to use '-ai' in every search, a cuss word, or a random extension that automatically disables this.
• Random updates that can change how the AI works overall suddenly making things confusing - It was quite visible to me yesterday. I attempted to write another story and it started typing out something nonsensical in bullet points.

Verdict?

Usable for quick research, has nice humor and long storywriting with some flaws, requires cautious use, don't use AI for health/legal advice.

Overall, I'd recommend it if ever asked. The AI is updating and developing rapidly, so I'm not rating it in any way yet.