Things get dark once you venture into Ludern and beyond in medieval strategy RPG Wartales. Cursed villages have their own rules, so read on for my complete guide to dealing with them effectively.
Wartales Cursed Village Guide – Best Party Compilation
Each cursed village will have the same four ruined buildings: Tavern, Town Hall, Forge and Apothecary. The first time you click on a building, you will be prompted to select a search group to investigate. This can have many members but only eight will be used in battles, so there is no reason to go over eight.
Your search group must have 80+ Willpower before entering and no more than 100 noises. Note the Total Noise of Troop, because the higher this is the faster you will be discovered and have to fight your way out. Once inside a building, your noise level will increase. You will be attacked every time the noise reaches 100 (See below). Leaving the village does not reset the noise level.
You can find everything from locked chests and hidden loot to potential companions within cursed villages, making them well worth exploring.
Related: Wartales – A Complete Guide to Maps and Locations
Cursed village party leader
There are two approaches when gathering a cursed village party:
- Sneaky: A High Dexterity, light armored party should create fewer fights when searching for a cursed village in Wartales. However, they will be less prepared for the inevitable battles when they come.
- Battle ready: You will have more battles (often as soon as you enter a room), but you will be well equipped to deal with the danger.
I prefer the battle ready option, even though the battles are very similar. Whatever you choose, here are the best classes to deal with a cursed village:
- Guard: Light armor, decent DPS and high Dexterity.
- Pugilist: Extremely mobile with high DPS and a good selection of attack skills.
- A soldier: Good armor, high Strength and HP, and massive damage potential (especially Berserkers).
Finally, consider the following:
- Strength and Dexterity: You'll have to tackle random tasks inside the buildings that may require Strength or Dexterity, so make sure you have at least one companion with a high score in each.
- Boxes: You'll probably find chests to lock, so take a Thief. Also, note that breaking a lock can add to the noise level.
- Value: Have a lot of Value Points when you enter a cursed village. You'll want to save your basic actions for questing during battles, so having a lot of bravery means more special attacks to take out enemies.
- healing: Poison will be your biggest problem in cursed villages. It stacks and you'll probably have units you don't want to move, so having a healer with good movement can save the day.
- AOE: Cursed village battles always take place in confined spaces. If you get to a point in the fight where an AOE attack would be useful, something is wrong. Stick to single target high damage dealers.
How to win battles with Plague-ridden
Once a battle begins with the Plague-ridden, the only way to win the battle is find an exit from the building. More Plague-ridden will spawn each round until you do, and your loot won't change, so the faster you can escape, the better off you'll be.
The battlefield will always be the same. You will have up to eight companions in an oblong building. Even if you have more than eight companions searching, only eight (chosen at random) will fight in the battle. Only questing companions will be in the battleso if you only take a few companions, that will be all you will have to work with.
It is six possible room entrances: two on each long wall and one on each short (see the picture above). Plague-ridden will open two of these before the first turn and appear in the room. The other doors will be broken in later turns.
- Turn 1: 2 Pest and two open entrances.
- Turn 2: 3-4 Pest and four open entrances.
- Turn 3: 4-6 Plage-ridden and six open entrances.
- Turn 4: 6+ Plagued and more will start coming through the ceiling which cannot be blocked.
- Turn 5 and onwards: The number of Pesto-ridden will continue to rise until you are defeated or escape.
Related: How to defeat the Sea Serpent in Wartales
Block the entrances
Your priority should be to block as many entrances with tanks or melee DPS units. Start by taking out the two Plag-rights that appeared at the start of turn one and move into the spaces they occupied, blocking those entrances. One well placed unit in each doorway will stop more enemies from coming through.
Note that if you don't one hit kill Plague-ridden unit it will release a Cloud of Poison. Each gives 2 Poison stacks to any unit passing through or ending its turn in them. This is particularly annoying as Poison stacks and you'll want to leave your units in the doorways where the clouds are likely to be. If you let a Plague attack first, it will always release a Cloud of Poison, so be careful of turn order.
Whenever possible, use abilities (not your basic action) to attack. This allows the unit to help find a way out (see below). With all Plague-ridden either killed or engaged, move any remaining melee units into positions blocking potential entrances. Once there, they should also complete the basic Find A Way Out action.
Using the Find Exit action
Use special attacks to take down the Plag-right when possible, so each unit still has its basic action available. You will find the Find a basic Exit action after your skills on the action bar. It only appears in these damned village battles. You'll want as many units as possible to use this ability each round and it doesn't matter where they're doing the action from.
Note that a unit cannot search if they are engaged. Each unit that uses the action helps fill the bar at the top of the screen. When this bar is filled, the battle will be over, regardless of the current situation with the Plague-ridden. With a full team of eight, most of whom search every round, you can escape three or four combat rounds.
For more on Wartales here at Pro Game Guides, check out Wartales Travel Post guide and Wartales The Tavern Opens Tavern Guide – Management, shifts and more!
