Orcs Must Die 2 Becoming a Better Player Guide

With an influx of new players on the way with the release of Orcs Must Die! 2. I thought that it might be a good time to make good on my promise and write a guide to becoming a better player. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do this; therefore I decided to just share some of my thoughts and experiences over the last year while playing OMD. It’s also important to note that “I don’t know everything”. I always approach the game with something to learn. Most of my greatest achievements were inspired by others.

I’ve had tons of fun and will continue to decode a few more secrets, but with OMD2 coming out soon, I will be moving on to the next chapter. Hopefully everyone can learn something from this article and become expert players that push the limits of OMD 2.

The mistakes of the masses:
It seems that most people finish the campaign and then decide to go back through the levels and set some high scores on the leaderboard on their favorite maps. Within 10-15 replays of a fortress, 99% of people hit a glass ceiling. Their scores levels off and improvement is minimal. They tend to use the same trap setup each time and just add an extra combo point or two, hoping for some luck in the timing.
You can just play over and over and hope for the best, or you can have a game plan. Getting a game plan means knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Also, knowing the different areas of expertise can help someone break through the glass ceiling and help them improve at a rapid pace.

One of the amazing things about OMD is that it has such a great dedicated community. Many of the best players record videos and share strategies with each other, therefore I will link to a few videos when making references to certain players or techniques.

The list:

First of all, the game can be broken into five types of expert players. Many players area good in one of the following areas and continue to improve their skills in their chosen expertise. There are only a handful of players that have mastered more than one of the following disciplines.

#1 – “The Technique Expert” – This player becomes a better shooter and runner. They find better ways to improve at the game based on hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Also develops new ways to use these tactics to improve combos.

One of the first innovations in OMD came in the form of a Technique. It quickly became known as “Chia Chucking”. This technique made famous by xbox player Chia Chuck, involved casting a spell and then running to recharge mana at the rift and then casting an additional spell in the same area. This is a great example of using a technique to improve your score.

Here is a video of expert technique player fryedegg showing Chia Chucking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI7f_OPKfPA&feature=youtu.be&t=18m44s

Another famous technique is “Weapon Switching”. Made famous by PC player HungryHungryHippos, this innovation involved swinging with the sword and quickly switching to the crossbow.  Players repeated this in a rhythm to add an extra combo point to kills.
Here is a video by fryedegg demonstrating weapon switching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPOknok_ojM

Ogre isolation, another popular technique was made famous by a few different players. Isolation is the process of getting an Ogre to follow you and isolate him from all other members of the hoard. The player has the Ogre chase him and gives all of his traps time to reset. After all traps are ready, the player leads the Ogre to his death and hopefully receives a high combo. Some of the greatest ogre isolationists are Loki, Vvt76, Radiokenny, Rogotin, and Hungryhungryhippo.

Here is a video of HungryHungryHippo playing a complete level and showing weapon switching and Ogre Isolation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQH1xwJun5E

Advanced Barricades was first developed and published by Rogotin . Advanced Barricades is when a player strategically placed barricades so that they use fewer, but it doesn’t affect the flow of Orcs.
Video explaining Advanced Barricades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYLqb3U0eZ8

Advanced Archer Positioning – Long ago I published the first video tutorial on Advanced Archer Positioning  . The original video showed how to better place archers behind corners so that they could only see the killbox. This allowed players to be less concerned with timing of the archer’s shots.

This is a video of me explaining how to set up archers on a corner.
http://youtu.be/iGFNIR9C4Yc?t=8m7s

Ogre Penning – Was developed simultaneously by Vvt76 and myself. I achieved the first ever double x14 in using the technique, but Ogre Penning was made famous by Vvt76. Some of vvt76’s most famous runs on The Stream and finale used Penning.  Vvt76 is still the authority on this technique.

Famous Video of Vvt76 using Ogre Penning on the Stream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuAokclDJIo

There are a few other techniques known as the “Dark Arts” These include Barrel Charging, The Windbelt Grab and Grind, The combo Transfer, The Zombie Effect, Aura teleporting, and a few others that were developed by the Rogotin and myself (radiokenny) .  Some of the Dark Art techniques are unpublished or only known among experts. There are also other techniques that are frowned on by the community that I won’t talk about, but the above examples are fair play.

When evaluating how to improve you scores, think about what techniques you are using. Push yourself to develop your own style. Think outside the box.

#2 – The “Box Builder” Expert – This player improves scores by learning better trap placement and can build more efficient kill boxes for higher combos. Kill Boxes are pre-designed trap setups that convert a high number of combos.

Vvt76 previously wrote a great article about building kill boxes. He has taken some of the greatest Kill  Boxes of all time and stretched them to the limit.  He has some great knowledge about how they work and what you need to build a great one. There is no need for me to rehash what he said. You can read it here. Orcs Must Die Max Combo Killbox Guide

Here are a few videos of different famous kill boxes.

Rogotin’s  4×2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jtclbk469w

Radiokenny’s – The “T” Trapset  – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wo2PYhBgvM

jhonanks ‘ – Wall flip Box –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykJGJX-akek&feature=youtu.be&t=3m58s

#3 – The “Theorycrafter” Expert– This player is always coming up with great ideas and ways to push the limits and rules of the game.
Theorycrafting involves a lot of time and dedication. I’ve spent many hours just trying to jump off the heads of ogres so that I could cast lightning into a kill box in the air and get an extra combo on a flyer. Set a lofty, even impossible goal and try to obtain it any way that you can. Squeeze every point out of every enemy. People told Rogotin it was impossible to get an x13 combo. A day later he and I teamed up for 5 hours of theorycrafting and here is the result. I was able to get the world’s first x13 combo.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NflOPtl2NXw

If you want to watch a long video explaining in detail some theory crafting, here is the first part of my video series called “Anatomy of the World’s first x13” Watch all 3 parts for a full explanation of the thought process behind the achievement.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGFNIR9C4Yc

You can do it. Just find a way. Push the limits. Using onslaught files in the original OMD! is a great way to test your theories. Rogotin, Vvt76 and Loki are other great Theorycrafters. Follow them in the Robotentertainment.com forums for good advice.

#4 – The “Positional Expert”  – This player can identify the best places in a fortress to set up and improve scores. This includes manipulating pathing and identifying clever trap placement.

Knowing your fortress is a key to becoming great. Spend time trying to jam traps into corners. See what kill boxes will fit in what areas. Literally walk down every wall to see what fits and how far the traps reach. If the ceiling is tall and I put a zapper on it, can I launch an enemy and will it get shocked in the head? Are there Pre-placed archers? How far do they shoot?  Find out everything you can about all of the fortresses.

#5 – The “Rainbow Chaser” Expert – The term “Rainbow Chaser” was coined early on in the development of strategies for OMD. Players were trying to get the first ever x12 combo and were tracking down a ballista bug that gave an extra combo point. The players continued to spend all of their time decoding positions for the x12, x13, x14 and x15 and then achieving them.

A great way to get better at OMD is to chase combos. Nothing feels better than to see that X (insert number here) combo show up on the screen. A high combo can be the difference in being #1 or #10 on the leaderboards. So try hard to maximize them.

So when OMD! 2 is released, I challenge you to develop a technique, kill box, theory or position that will change the game totally and became a standard for high scoring.  Hopefully I will see you at the top of the leaderboards.

Also, If you want to shoot for some high OMD! Scores until OMD2 is released. Visit the Expert Leaderboards 2.0. The scores have filtered out any cheaters or players that use frowned upon exploits.

http://www.artcoded.nl/OrcsMustDie/Maps

The people listed are the best in the game. Also, a big thanks to Saito, Xboxhowdydoody , Doc shmok  and all the other old timers that pushed me to be better. Also a special thanks to all the guys at Robot Entertainment.

Question? Comment? You can email me at Kenny@robotentertainmentfans.com or send me a tweet @kennygamer

Later, Kenny