Strong play can get you to level 14 more than 70% of the time but beating that level is entirely RNG, there will generally only be one or two 'safe' squares that have 0-3 blight but their location is totally unpredictable. A few basic tips, plan out your route to a safe spot. Safety is #1 priority. Always try to kill matrons(large blights) on a wall or if their diagonals are blocked by other monsters. I never recommend doublesplashing on gauntlet turn 1, diagonal splash can work if the bottom matron moved to the left (about 50% chance) other than that its almost always killing off the evasive goblins first. Learn how to cycle your cards properly, if you have all cantrip cards coming up its sometimes better to end the turn early on a safe spot, consequently if you have a lack of cantrip cards coming up you need to ensure a safe spot for the turn. I had about 19 failures on level 14 before beating it once. About 10 hours total of play.
defense+ retaliate carries pretty hard since most of the time enemies will have stronger attacks than you(plus they have more health to work with making defense paramount to your victory).
It's pretty well made for 2009, no idea why the community is backlashing so hard on it. Hard badges generally take hours to get. Personally it only took me around 30 minutes to master the control and get the badge but its pretty sad to see how butthurt users are that they aren't getting 30 points in 3 minutes.
Don't worry guys, I'm sure complaining on these comments about the difficulty will eventually earn you the badge. Also don't forget to up-vote all the rage inspired comments as the other comments that have actually strategy that doesn't involve QQing on the comments are from people who've actually EARNED the hard badge. Cheers.
An easier way to kill mechas is just to bait them into a (tall) building then shoot missiles, once it hits the building it will splash and kill the mecha instantly.
so... on level 6 two level 14 wyrms on both sides decided to take 0% damage and tank every type of unit (including my wizard) and eventually force me to lose the level... yeah this game sucks
a few combos to get through the badge faster and ditch asap.. (some might not work because you haven't progressed far enough)
milk+bacteria = cheese
void + life = alien
ship + alcoholic = pirate
sex + vodka = censored
Congratulations! You just won the Slave of the Fireflies Badge and 60 points!
Pretty easy for an impossible badge :D the only level I had trouble with was runner level 5... and I still don`t even know how I did it all I know is that I managed and 180 flip on the ledge right before the orb xD
Don't underestimate the power of a Atlantian, their cold breath dominates throughout the game and once you have enough willpower (roughly 1200 max mp) you can permanently freeze bosses/monsters.
Dude thats a beast score how did you do that?