Level IX is going to take a lot of sacrificing the weakest ranged ally, or something like the forest hunter and elf sniper to deal with those bombing enemies, but keep stocking on mana to use the shield to avoid constantly having your allies die from the blue tinted forest hunters and pull through to snag an easy win by keeping the shield active. (5/7)
Challenge 3 (XV) Stock up on mana to take advantage of using the shield numerous times to land as many hits possible while avoiding hit only move that instantly kills any ally of yours while attacking right next to him in the space where he can’t hit you. Use ice to deal with bombing enemies and time stop to avoid taking damage from the demon attacking. Be warned it takes a lot of patience to take him down because of how freaking high his health is. *Don’t use orang utan or Kara the slayer who can actually heal him in small numbers. (4/7)
Challenge 2 (XIV) equip any ranged class to avoid the swarms of bombing enemies when damaging the castle (the many sound bites will mix and be a bit numbing on the ears because how many enemies were blasted at once), use shield only when the bomb starts to slowly explode so any ally used with heroes don’t get instantly killed. Use attack boost wisely to keep up with the bombs to avoid getting outnumbered to where you can keep up to prevent easily losing. (3/7)
Challenge 1. (XIII) Use heroes Cassandra, Popo, and Kara but keep them behind the allies to avoid easy deaths. Use allies pixies who keep allies alive, were-tiger, succubus, syiph, & any two ally slots that isn’t epic tank/titans who either heal or are too slow. Use spells time stop only right after meteor (the black goblin’s only weakness) followed by rage & attack boost to deal massive damage if you are able to get many allies over, or just keep using time stop to prevent any red & black goblins spawning back in seconds. Have enough mana on hand to use meteor being your only attack against black goblins that kill allies in 1 hit & your castle in 2 hits. Most importantly, have roughly 70 mana by the exact moment castle health is knocked down to a quarter & wait until the exact moment to use meteor strike to take out the 6 black goblins that spawn, otherwise it’s an instant defeat. (2/7)
For those who have the will to get the hard badge, use any enemies that have ranged attacks in order to gain ground easily or can blast an enemy into the air to prevent them attacking for the most part, such as the succubus, celestial angel, and Kara the slayer because some enemies highlighted are high in how many projectiles they shoot/high damage and have tons of health, use shield to not easily get wiped out from the enemies and to overpower them. Using Orange Utan and epic tank will help land strong hits on enemies and castle next to shielding some weaker allies. These levels I am about to mention on how to beat on epic will be different and require tactics. You will have to see all my comments in the (see all) section. (Comment 1/7)
You can breeze your way on hard mode by grinding coins on secondary missions to get mana regeneration, then good enough ranged allies, then eventually getting the tornado and shrink ability can allow you to easily curb stomp any enemy on the secondary missions by using these two to earn loads of money. You can use haste and attack boost to if you'd like.
V11: use every duplicate of first grade gem and combine them. Duplicate the same gem and repeat until you reach the maximum level you can, but only do so after the last wave spawns, otherwise you will instantly lose as you will not fire in time to take out the fastest enemies nor enough mana to avoid instantly losing. Using the highest available gem on that wave, set the gem priority (shift + click) to low health to take out the fastest enemies and using bolt when the time is right, but be sure this spell can be used at the right times. This is beatable without an amplifier after a ton of trial and error. (3/3)
V14: duplicate only purple armor tearing and orange mana leech and make out whatever highest level and efficient mana you have to work with (should end up with grade 8), but start out strong, then have another gem of lower grade using the same combination ready for swarmlings. At the near end where you have to combine the two gems, duplicate the red combo gem to fuse together and repeat until you have just enough mana to fuse combo with the other gem.
V18: build gems as you earn enough mana occasionally having 2 at a time to deal with swarmlings, but at the same time, spend enough to take a few orb banishments (when enemies successfully make it to your orb. Be sure to build towers to cover as much of a trial possible to get as many hits possible. (2/3)
V4: Combine grade 2 poison and critical and duplicate that same gem, build two towers near the orb, but close enough to land successful hits on enemies following the path. Level up certain gems and carefully so enemies don’t fully destroy the orb. Keep scaling the gems by duplicating them until you have 3 of them with two grade 5 gems and one grade 7. Having all 3 of these near the orb will take out a shadow that spawns midway through and the gems will easily fight off the enemies it spins making this level a cakewalk.
V8: slowly work your way to making 2 or 3 grade 4 gems consisting of combo critical poison, and destroy the nests when possible (I was able to use barrage spell that helped take them out as it did with giants) and eventually you should have grade 8 and maybe 7 to ease through. (1/3)
Here's the trick I used to earn the hard badge: only use the loot upgrades to grind money and practice how you avoid the bullets enemies fire to easily earn enough to get the best ship. Once you do, equip all 5 slots with +4 fire rate, +4 weapon, the best treasure chest, and the 2 pirate flags with all the extra stats. Fight all the bosses the best way possible, but after the third boss, try to run away from the enemies to easily avoid easily losing to a cluster of bullets that will scatter across the screen with the help of enough speed as you land enough hits on them and always swerve your way to any treasure chest you see and often slowly based on where they appear. I ended with a score of $55,753 using this trick.
You can also beat 39 by just shooting above the top boulder but very lightly graze it as you make your way over it so it will start rolling to where it will push you to the goal. Took 1 shot to do.
It's possible to beat a level by having the ragdoll seep its way to the goal like I managed to do on 29 winning in 3 shots total when one of them was laying on its side and the arm was all it took to creep its way to touch it due to how physics works. That is how easy you could have it like me to earn the hard badge! https://pasteboard.co/JauJhgM.png
The only near impossible levels for me were level 4 & 14 heroic challenges. Level 4 you can breeze your way through by only using genies to fend off enemies from the left path and building archer towers that are only upgraded to crossbow forts which is the quickest possible due to limit on the upgrade level. 14 is where the mage towers really helped. I started with archmage tower with tornado which saved me from losing the level too easily and planted a few dwaarp bomb towers to deal with sneaky invisible enemies and had these towers close to the middle of the screen to easily reach and slaughter enemies. You will go through a painful trial and error like I did, but it is possible to beat heroic 14 this way. Everything else is a cakewalk. Everything mentioned does involve that every skill upgrade in the level select screen was bought. I even relied on hero Cronan to stomp and stun enemies the whole time when available.
To win the third tournament where the last enemy being a dragon uses permanent regeneration, keep spamming beat down and only replenish mp when necessary. Its health will stay down this way.
The hardest level that took dozens of trial and error processes made was The Rat Trap, so all it takes is maxed out skill points for dexters only upgrading their base damage instead of critical within the level alongside 6 poison units placing 2 in the very center and the four having all of them with only upgraded special to quickly defeat the enemies and placed closest to the corners of the map, and dexters on every single place except the very edge for the fire units to be placed and have one maybe two upgraded with base damage. All the skill points should be used on all units to take full advantage and towards quick learner. All this for the level is guarantee not to lose a single life. (3/3)
When you get to the 10th wave on certain hard level, be sure the points are used towards fire & energy and constantly pave (you can either use the remaining points for cheap paving costs or gain extra experience quicker). Select special more often than power when you have enough gold to upgrade units, but quickly add as many needed to avoid losing as you stockpile money on hard levels. On unknown ruins, only use fire units and constantly add as many as you can squeeze, but be sure to have skill points towards all the skills on the left and maxed out paver & maxed out teacher as well to avoid instant defeat when the second zombie wave appears as I experimented with trial and error to easily know the trick to beating certain levels. (2/3)
The tactics I used going from easy to hard: pour every skill into only basic units throughout the game (yes even I can agree advanced units are a waste even on hard mode which I did fine entirely without them) and only pour the skill points into units necessary to beat the enemies based on weakness. As you earn enough points where there are two columns that merge into one that give the units extra damage, use the skill point on those (after the first 3 skill points used towards only one of the basic units). (1/3)
To those who get the constant flash pop-up message, go to your flash player settings and add any URL to it (be surety set it to 'allow' when added) and then refresh the page again and it'll stop popping up. I was able to do this on safari. Firefox was only able to save some data at least for me.
Great, another rendered unplayable just like Running Fred with the exact same message procedure that I followed only for it to still show up. :/ Lets message Kong to do something about this!.
 "Epic War 4"){kind=icon}
 "My Little Army"){kind=icon}
 "GemCraft - Chasing Shadows"){kind=icon}
 "Maptroid"){kind=icon}
 "Frantic Frigates"){kind=icon}
 "Ragdoll Cannon Four"){kind=icon}
 "Kingdom Rush Frontiers"){kind=icon}
 "LethalRPGDestiny 2: Conquest"){kind=icon}
 "Protector"){kind=icon}
 "Get Off My Lawn"){kind=icon}
 "Soccer Physics"){kind=icon}
finally someone who gets it and doesn't post about poor grammar :)