Orcs Must Die! Unchained – FAQ/Walkthrough

5 Star Walkthrough Introduction

General Advice and Strategies

General Advice - Trap Placement

You may be wondering what a general strategy is to place traps down. Some questions arise, such as - how are Tar traps properly utilized? Fire damage doesn't apparently stack, so how do I use multiple traps?

You'll notice in my videos that I tend to place floor traps in the exact same way, even when I use different traps. It generally looks like this:

Starting at the gate, I almost always put two of the same trap side-by-side, then alternate traps as I go down the lane. What you see here is Tar, Brimstone, then Floor Spikes. Afterwards, I just repeat the process, so that next Tar would be followed by Brimstone, then Floor Spikes again (if that Guardian spot wasn't there that is).

You don't necessarily need to alternate floor traps like this, but the exception are the Fire traps. Since I almost always run with Fire traps, you need to make sure you don't put the same Fire trap back to back. This is because the fire damage from the same type of trap does not stack. However, if you have a different Fire trap, that works just fine. Another set up I like to use is just like above, but instead with these traps:

Floor Scorcher --> Brimstone --> Tar --> Repeat

When you repeat this set up, you may want to give a slight amount of space before putting the next Floor Scorcher, just because it has such a large activation range. I usually like to put my next Floor Scorcher at the end of the first Floor Scorcher's range.

Another option is:

Floor Scorcher --> Brimstone --> Tar --> Tar --> Repeat

However, if you're using Viscous Tar, do NOT set it up with 2 Viscous Tar back-to-back, as it is pointless (due to how the slow stays on the minion for a duration).

Here's another thing to consider about Grinders and Arrow Walls:

If you take a look there, you may wonder: Why don't I use Grinders in the corner instead?

Arrow Walls are optimal in corners like this (if you're funneling them with Barricades) because minions will cut corners. This means they will stick to the corner of the Barricade, instead of moving closer to the wall (where the Arrow Walls are in the picture).

So think about what both Arrow Walls will do here - Since the Arrow Walls have such a long activation range, that means one of them will be shooting down that line where the Tar is; this is the most efficient, because it allows the maximum amount of time for a minion to be standing in the Arrow Wall's activation range.

The same goes for the other Arrow Wall - Since it is placed at the beginning of the pathway (where the minions will turn), this means that minions that survive its initial damage have the potential to be shot again, as it reaches the end of its activation range.

How is Tar utilized?

This depends on how you set things up.

If you're referring to the above screenshot, I place Tar first because it helps (not always) group up minions so hopefully you'll get more to walk into the next trap, which are the Floor Spikes. Although I do just repeat this pattern, it's good to point out that every other Tar placement will help prevent minions walking into the next Brimstone trap while on fire (from the last trap). You don't want this to happen, because the damage doesn't stack, and if the minions do hit the next Brimstone before the fire effect is gone, you've wasted the Brimstone charge.

For my Floor Scorcher set up, I put Tar last for this same exact reason. Truthfully it doesn't matter that much in real practice, just as Tar is mixed in there somewhere to help slow them down while they're on fire.

Here's another way to think about using Tar, although it's a bit more obvious:

Clearly, this is trying to utilize Tar so I can get the minions grouped up as much as possible, while trying to keep them within the activation range for each trap for as long as I can.

How is Viscous Tar utilized?

I believe the idea behind Viscous Tar is similar to using Great Wall Barricade versus Barricade, but it's not quite as obvious.

To start, let's look at the Barricades:

The reason why Great Wall Barricade is potentially better, is because it is 2 Barricades placed side-by-side. Barricade has the initial cost of 1,000, whereas Great Wall has the initial cost of 1750. This means if you want to place 2 Barricades side-by-side, Great Wall is the better choice (assuming they're at the same tier), because not only will you save 250 coin, but remember that placing 2 separate Barricades will increase the trap limit by 2; using a Great Wall on the other hand, will only increase it by 1.

So with that in mind, let's take a look at Viscous Tar versus Tar:

They have the exact same slow reduction, but the cost of Viscous Tar is 1,500, versus Tar's 500, what gives?

I think what they were trying to say with Viscous Tar, is that it's meant to be an "end-game" trap, when you know the coin generation of the map is generous (which generally happens in Rift Lord), and/or when you're using cost-reduction Parts such as Stamped or Subsidized Parts.

In other words, I do not think Viscous Tar is meant to be used until you have it at a fairly high tier. I would say tier 5 would probably suffice, as that is when you can potentially equip Stamped or Subsidized Parts, but truthfully, tier 7 is obviously when it's best.

This brings us to the original question - How is Viscous Tar helpful? Let's take a look at this screenshot:

My line here (the minions will enter from the right here, and move left) is Floor Scorcher --> Brimstone --> Viscous Tar --> Floor Spikes.

This makes it a little easier to see how Viscous Tar can be useful. Normally, if I was using regular Tar, this isn't optimal for Grinders. It would be best to replace the Floor Spikes with another Tar, so the Grinder can maximize the damage.

However, with Viscous Tar, it's possible to do both. Since the Viscous Tar will add a slow debuff, this means once the minions leave Viscous Tar, it will still be slowed, allowing that second Grinder to still get maximum damage (although this is very dependent on what tier the Viscous Tar is). In turn, it allows me to place the Floor Spikes, thereby making one more damage source, which obviously means more damage output.

So Viscous Tar may be more expensive, but it allows you to increase your overall damage in two different ways; not only will you potentially place less traps down (to keep the Trap Limit lower), but that Tar you may have used before can potentially be replaced by a different floor trap that does damage.

However, I want to emphasize again, that this is highly dependent on how high of a tier your Viscous Tar is; since each tier upgrade increases the slow and the duration of the slow debuff, Viscous Tar may not be all that useful if you're using it at a lower tier.

What is the "Charge" attribute that certain Fire traps have (when viewed in the Workshop)?

Some Fire traps, such as Brimstone, have a certain amount of Charges. The number of Charges can be seen by viewing the trap in the Workshop.

What this means is that when you initially place down the trap, it'll be at the maximum amount of Charges. When a minion activates the trap, it consumes 1 Charge and it plays out its animation. When it's done, if another minion is in activation range, it continues to activate until there are no more Charges remaining.

The "Charge Regen / Sec" attribute is indicating how long it takes to refresh a single Charge. So for Brimstone, if the "Charge Regen / Sec" is 0.21, that means it takes a little over 5 seconds to gain a single Charge. If Brimstone has 5 Charges, this means it takes roughly 25 seconds to go from 0 Charges, to maximum Charges.

Truthfully, it's just a different form of a cooldown. For Floor Spikes, it doesn't have Charges, but a single Re-fire rate of 7 seconds. To think about Charges another way, it's the same thing if instead, Floor Spikes activated 5 times in a row, and had a 35 second cooldown.

Why 2 traps side-by-side? Won't 1 work fine?

Sometimes 1 actually does work, but not usually, and I wouldn't recommend it regardless.

The reason why you usually want to use 2 is because of how the minions branch out as they enter the map. I think this is partially due to their pathing behavior, as the developers probably didn't want to make it that easy to kill large groups of minions.

Minions should stay more or less in a straight path after they initially branch. I believe the only other times you will see minions branch again is whenever they need to turn, whether it's for a corner or because of a Barricade. They do have a slight amount of variance, and you will see, on occasion, minions moving outside of your traps. However, even though it may look like minions are moving at the edge of your traps, chances are they still will get hit most of the time. This is due to how the clip detection of the traps work with the size of the minions hit box.

Where should I place my traps?

I would say there are two optimal places:

1. As close to the opening gate as possible - What you'll find out is that getting the Par Times in harder matches requires you to kill things immediately as they spawn from the gates. If you don't, minions will have to travel further to get to whatever area you put your traps, which will make the match take longer. From the gate, you generally want to just continue to trap as far down the pathway as you can, but do keep in mind you should usually trap the other gates that open before that.
2. In the area where multiple minion pathways merge - This takes an understanding of the various minion pathways, which you're going to need to watch the blue "ghosts" that appear during breaks in order to see. You'll want to try to trap the initial spot where multiple pathways merge, then trap further down that pathway as much as possible. This is the most efficient trap placement, if only because harder maps won't allow you to freely trap each pathway individually (due to the trap limit).

Ugh! These stupid Archers are annoying!

Yes they are.

If you watch my videos, you might see me do a few things while dealing with Archers:

1. Run right into their melee range - They're designed to stop firing when you get into their melee range, at which point they will start to move along their pathway just like any other minion. This is a very helpful way of getting them to stop firing at you, but it is important to note that they will not cancel their current attack if you get into melee range. This means that if they are firing as you approach, you can still get hit up until the point they stop their firing animation.
2. Break line-of-sight - This means if they can't see you, they can't hit you. Hiding behind a wall, a pillar, or whatever else, will force them to stop shooting at you, and they'll continue to move down their path until they can see you again.
3. Move out of their maximum range - This is fairly obvious, but if you move far enough away, they won't be able to shoot you.

It is good to realize that Cyclops Mages, Order Mages, and Fire Fiend Warlocks are considered "Archers" by design, as they behave in the exact same manner, only with different firing speeds (and they hit really hard).

Sometimes I see you use your Gear while moving. How do you do that?

This is something that isn't shown, but I found it out randomly playing one day:

Your Gear is actually mapped to the D-pad on the controller. Whatever Gear is in the first slot can be used by pressing the "Up" button. Whatever Gear is in the second slot can be used by pressing the "Down" button.

Be very careful doing this though, because you have to remember that Battle Level upgrades are also mapped to the D-pad. So that means if you happen to press Up/Down to use your Gear, at the very same time you level up, you run the risk that you'll select an upgrade for your Hero that you don't want. You would probably be surprised how many times that's happened to me.