Charnel – Level 1

Creatures:

Manahoar (All Gods Creature)

Soul cost: One

Mana cost: One

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Mana Channeling

Overview: The Manahoar is singularly the most useful Creature in the game. Since it costs but one Mana and one Soul, you can summon one in even the direst of situations. Manahoars cannot attack, but are reasonably quick, and have good health and defense. The Manahoar has one use and one use only: Its innate ability, “Mana Channeling”, does exactly what it sounds like: it channels Mana from your Manaliths to themselves, and makes them essentially portable Manaliths. Also, the more Manaliths you have, the more Mana the Manahoars will channel, so if you have two to three Manaliths, the Manahoar will produce more Mana than any one of the Manaliths, making it not only a moving source of Mana, but a more time efficient one than an Alter, Shrine, Manalith, or Manafount. I always keep at least three, preferably four, Manahoars around me at all times. Although the Spell recharge time is still the same, you will regenerate Mana within a few seconds of casting even the most powerful of Spells.

Scythe (Basic Melee)

Soul cost: One

Mana cost: Three hundred

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Feed

Overview: This is the most powerful Basic Melee Creature in Sacrifice. The Scythe greatly resembles the Cog in appearance, but its skills are vastly different. While the Cog is a sturdy Level 1 Creature with pretty good attack, the Scythe is a Level 1 Creature that dies if you look at it funny, yet has insanely high attack power. It’s also very fast, and the “Speed Up” Spell lasts longer on the Scythe than almost any other Creature. When playing as Charnel, I like to make one Scythe at the very start of the game, cast “Speed Up” on it, and send it around the map to find and slaughter Peasants and the like for valuable Souls and experience. Additionally, Scythes have an innate ability called “Feed”, meaning that they consume their foes, even as they butcher them, which replenishes the Scythe’s HP. This means that they can regenerate even as they are being attacked, so long as they are attacking whatever is attacking them! This can be a very useful ability, and without it, Scythes probably wouldn’t last long, due to their aforementioned pitiful defenses and low HP. Speaking of which, if you see a Scythe chasing you, it is very simple to pick them off with Basic Attack Spells, which usually kill them in one hit. Be very careful when using Scythes if your foe has a multitude of ranged Creatures, as they will be killed off before reaching the enemy in most cases. You need a ton of these guys to really make a difference, but the difference that will make is a big one! The general rule for the deployment of this Creature is: Scythes, though powerful, are not like most other melee Creatures. You can’t just send them to attack random targets out of sight. Scythes should be carefully monitored during use to avoid their demise.

Fallen (Basic Ranged)

Soul cost: One

Mana cost: Three hundred

Special ability: Play Dead

Innate ability: Feasting Swarm

Overview: This is one of my favorite Basic Ranged Creatures, right in the same boat with the Flame Minion and Earthfling. The Fallen, being a Charnel Creature, suffers from a lack of the self-regeneration abilities other God’s Creatures have. However, like almost all the rest of Charnel’s brood, they can suck HP from their victims with each attack, using, in the case of the Fallen, their innate ability, “Feasting Swarm”, replenishing their own HP with each attack. This is especially useful in a ranged Creature like the Fallen, and in large groups, they can be very difficult to eradicate, healing themselves even as they take the blows. The fallen is reasonably quick, and can usually keep up with you, should you decide to have them guard you. It’s HP and defensive power greatly compliment its vampiric healing capabilities, as both are pretty sturdy for a Basic Ranged, and can contribute noticeably to the success of this Creature. To top it all off, they have a very useful special ability, “Play Dead”, which, when used, orders the fallen to flop over using an authentic dieing animation, and lie on the ground, looking exactly like a corpse, minus the Soul. This ability can not only be used for a myriad of different ambush, lure, and trap techniques, it is also the only way Fallen can regenerate HP without attacking, since they slowly heal while “Play Dead” is activated. You can send some Fallen to the site of a recent large battle, and have them lie, almost perfectly camouflaged, among the real corpses, until your foe comes to collect the Souls of the battle victims, then pop up for an ambush. If you ask me, “Play Dead” makes the Fallen very useful, even in the late levels of the game.

Locust (Basic Flyer)

Soul cost: One

Mana cost: Three hundred

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Energy Drain

Overview: The Locust, for whatever reason, seems to be among the most naturally durable Basic Flyers, if not one of my favorite ones. The Locust flies at a slightly slow speed, but it has the advantage of flying noticeably higher than most other flying Creatures. This is good, giving the Locust an edge over other flyers, as they fly high enough so as to be out of the reach of some of the taller ground-based melee Creatures, such as the Yeti, Jabberockey, et cetera. With each attack, the Locust drains HP from the foe into itself with “Energy Drain”, its innate ability. This, as well as the Locust’s previously mentioned natural durability, can keep it alive for quite a while if it is suitably protected. The trick is to eliminate the enemy’s Mana supply first, since the Locust is still vulnerable to instant kills courtesy of the higher-power Basic Attack Spells like Stratos’ “Lightning”. It is therefore advised to take a small platoon of Scythes with Speed-Up cast on them to kill all of your opponent’s Manahoars (and possibly taking a whack at any ranged Creatures they might have as well) before sending in the Locusts to take out the Wizard and the melee Creatures. If it can be helped, try to set all battles AWAY from Manaliths and Mana Fountains. You can set up some other great combinations like this, too. If you can cut off the flow of Mana to your opponent, weather it’s by killing all of their Manahoars or staging battles out of range of foe Manaliths, you can force an early retreat out of them, allowing you to pick off stragglers as they flee. What really causes problems is that a single Locust isn’t going to cause much damage, since they have rather low attack power, so you need them in large swarms to be truly effective. Try to keep the swarms focused on a single target at a time, rather than randomly attacking various enemies at once.

Spells:

Speed Up (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Three hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: “Speed Up” is one of the most useful spells in the game. You can target any allied Creature, Sac Doctor, or Wizard, and it speeds up its movement speed for a length of time, which is different for every target. It also recharges in about three seconds, so it’s ready to use again long before it wears off. It’s good for charging into a fray (or ex-fray, as is more often the case) to collect blue Souls, or for just generally speeding stuff up. Also, it is good for getting slow Creatures to their targets before they can be killed by enemy ranged units.

Insect Swarm (Basic Attack Spell)

Mana cost: Three hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: There is a widespread misconception (there seem to be a lot of widespread misconceptions in Sacrifice, don’t there?) that this Spell drains HP into the user like so many of Charnel’s Creature’s innate abilities. If this were true, this would probably be the best and most-used Basic Attack Spell in all of Sacrifice. However, it is actually total bull. Just wanted to clear that up. Now, continuing on – “Insect Swarm” is really pretty mediocre in most respects. It does no spectacular amount of damage, it has splash damage, but not as much as “Fireball” or even “Wrath”, and really, it’s only redeeming feature is that it has very good and hard-to-block target tracking, which is due mainly to the small size of the swarm that the ravenous insects fired at the foe by this Spell pack themselves into. Not much to say, overall. It can be rather amusing to throw this Spell during any battle involving a large quantity of Fallen, since it is extremely difficult to discern the swarm of insects sent at foes by Fallen from those summoned by “Insect Swarm”. So I suppose you could make it easier to hide yourself during battle while still attacking. But really, there’s plenty of better Basic Attack Spells out there.

Heal (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Three hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: Restores the target’s HP. It can completely heal most Creatures, and only the most powerful entities will need to be healed more than once in order to be restored to full health. It is equally useful during and between battles. You can use it in battle to heal your minions and yourself while fighting, and you can use it between battles to refresh before the next skirmish.

Manalith (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: Yes

Overview: “Manalith” constructs a Manalith over targeted Manafounts. A Manalith makes it so that only you and your allies can gather Mana from that Manafount. It also ignites your and your allies Manahoars. Any Manafount you see should have “Manalith” cast on it immediately. A Manalith can be destroyed if it takes enough damage, but it quickly regenerates health, so it is hard to take one out without using Creatures.

Guardian (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Three hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: “Guardian” can be cast on any Creature near one of your or your ally’s buildings (Manalith, Shrine, or Altar). It tethers the Creature to the building via a glowing red magic beam. This has its advantages and its disadvantages. It raises the Creature’s defense, and causes it to regenerate health VERY quickly, even if it’s a Charnel creature. Unfortunately, it also stops the Creature from using its special ability (if it had one) and keeps it from moving too far away from the building. Any damage done to a building with guardians is re-distributed among its guardians.

Convert (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: The “Convert” Spell can be cast on Heathen Souls. It summons a Sac Doctor, who will spend some time re-injecting the Soul(s) into the dead Creature, then it will carry the creature in a floating magical sphere back to the nearest allied Altar or Shrine to be sacrificed, which also takes some time. Once the sacrifice is completed, the Creature’s Soul(s) are added to your stockpile. If the Sac Doctor is killed while re-injecting the Soul(s), the Soul(s) will pop back out. If the Sac Doctor is killed while carrying or sacrificing the Creature, the creature will fall back to the ground, alive, but with only 50% of its total HP. You should immediately cast “Convert” on any Heathen Souls you come across.

Desecrate (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: One thousand

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: This Spell is the only way to defeat your opponents. Target one of your Creatures while near an enemy Altar and a Sac Doctor will come down and pick it up. Then it will take it to the Altar and begin to sacrifice it. During the desecration ritual that the Sac Doctors perform, a portal, just like the ones that Sac Doctors come out of, will float in the air above the owner of the Altar. It will attack its victim with a bolt of energy that drains HP, Mana, and experience from the Wizard. While the experience bar will slowly regenerate when not being attacked, it will not go above the point where it was when it was drained. The HP and Mana drained by the bolt will not regenerate automatically. If the opposing Wizard is killed during the desecration, their Altar is destroyed (revealing a Manafount beneath it) and all of its Creature will fall dead. Any structures erected over Manafounts by that Wizard, that is to say, Shrines and Manaliths, will stay, but can still be destroyed. If any one of the Sac Doctors performing the desecration ritual are killed, the Creature being sacrificed will fall back to the ground with 50% maximum HP, and the desecration will end. If the desecration is successful, the Souls from the sacrificed Creature will be added back into your stockpile.

Teleport (All Gods Spell)

Mana cost: Eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: This is a VERY underused, VERY useful Spell. “Teleport” lets you target any one of your or your ally’s buildings, I.E., Manalith, Shrine, or Altar, (mini-map targeting comes in useful here) and instantly transport yourself and any of your nearby minions to that building from anywhere on the map. This is good for retreating from a losing battle, protecting your Altar when you get the “An enemy Wizard is approaching your Altar!” message, and launching surprise attacks on any foe passing or attacking your buildings. If your opponent casts “Death”, one of Charnel’s Wrath of the Gods Spells, I find it quite amusing to teleport away and laugh as they try to fend off the Grim Reaper as it slaughters all of their units.

Charnel – Level 2

Creatures:

Necryl (Bug)

Soul cost: Two

Mana cost: Six hundred

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Leeching Poison

Overview: The Necryl has one huge disadvantage over other Bug Creatures: it sounds adorable! This might sound stupid, but you may well find yourself feeling so sorry and protective for your cute little Necryl that you might never actually use it properly for fear of it getting injured. If you manage to avoid becoming attached to it, however, the Necryl is a very useful Creature. Firstly, it is generally more accurate and damaging than other Bug Creatures: Pyro’s Tickferno is largely lacking in its ability to hit targets, but very powerful for a Bug, Stratos’ Vortick is relatively accurate but also relatively weak as far as actual, solid damage goes, Persephone’s Scarab is very accurate but it can only heal you, and cannot cause harm to the foe, and James’ Basilisk is neither noticeably accurate nor damaging. Charnel’s Necryl, however, is unusually accurate AND does quite a bit of damage, even with the other effects of its attacks! The Necryl spits a stream of volatile poison to attack, which does a good amount of damage on impact, and also poisons its victim, which means that the foe struck by the poison will have it movements slightly slowed, will be prevented from regenerating Mana or casting Shield Spells, and will take damage over time. Additionally, the “Leeching Poison” innate ability causes the Necryl to regenerate a large amount of HP when the poison strikes the foe, and to continue to regenerate a small amount of HP over time until the poison wears off of the target. This helps the Necryl to keep itself alive quite well, especially if you can manage to poison two or three enemy units at once! Personally, I wouldn’t summon more than three to six Necryls at a time, because they’re rather slow, so you need to keep track of all of them to ensure their safety. The typically high-ish HP and defense stats endowed upon Bug Creatures can serve it quite well, though, coupled with its combative healing capabilities.

Spells:

Protective Swarm (Shield Spell)

Mana cost: Six hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: Here’s another big fat misconception: many people claim that “Protective Swarm” drains HP from anything you bump into. Yeah, and Yeti’s have “Lightningrod”. Another load of bull. I don’t know where people come up with this crap. Anyway, while it doesn’t drain HP, it is true that “Protective Swarm” does damage to anything that touches the shield while it’s active. Additionally, it reduces the damage done to you by foes, like every good Shield Spell should.  All things considering, it’s a durned good Spell. Compare it to “Fireform” – while “Protective Swarm” doesn’t set foes alight, and while it doesn’t do as much damage to them as “Fireform”, it does reduce damage, which is something “Fireform” doesn’t do. Its biggest problem is that it wears off pretty quickly – it will probably last through your average skirmish, but that’s about it. On the plus side, it recharges pretty quickly as well, to compensate. Probably one of the best Shield Spells you can choose.

Charnel – Level 3

Creatures:

Blight (Bomber)

Soul cost: Two

Mana cost: Seven hundred

Special ability: Bilemites

Innate ability: Rending Beak

Overview: Look! Up there in the sky! Is it a bird?! Is it a plane?! NO! IT’S A FLYING FROSTWOLF!!! …I’m serious. Aside from the epitome of disguised crappyness, Stratos’ Frostwolf, this is probably the most worthless Creature in Sacrifice. Yes, I know I’m being very judgmental and biased, but it’s my guide, so deal with it! This Creature has pitiful defense and HP stats, barely decent speed, and the only thing that saves it is relatively good attack power. It dies so fast, it’s like you never even summoned it in the first place. It also has a decent innate ability, “Rending Beak”, which the Blight uses to take bites from its unfortunate victim to feed upon, which heals it a pretty good amount of HP with each attack. Problem is, healing doesn’t do you much good if you’re dead in one hit anyway, does it, now? The Blight can only be considered even remotely good if you take into account its special ability, “Bilemites”, which spews forth from this flying Pyrodactyl corpse a small swarm of the said mites to infest an area and gnaw upon the unfortunate enemy. The mites attach themselves to your foe and their Creatures. Once your foe has become a host to the parasites, their movement will be slowed, and they will take damage from the “Bilemites” over time. After a few seconds, the “Bilemites” return to their home (the decomposing Blight). It can be rather fun to take a flock of Blights and spray a small army of hundreds of “Bilemites” onto your foe, sucking them dry and slowing their progress, but it’s not really enough to make up for the crap-tacular survival power of the Blight. The Spell that comes with the Blight, “Slime”, is highly recommended, but if you want it, you’ll have to deal with the Blight taking up one of your Creature slots and get over it. “Bilemites” can be both useful and amusing (“AHHH! Getemoffme! Getemoffme!”), but the Blight itself must be very carefully micro-managed and protected if it is to last for more than half a minute.

Spells:

Slime (Slowing Spell)

Mana cost:

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: “Slime” is one of the most comedic Spells in all of Sacrifice. A small gob of goo grows above the targeted Creature or Wizard, and then drops with a satisfying splattering sound. Once coated in goo, the target will be slowed to a mere crawl, and even the quickest of foes will be reduced to laughable movement speed. This is an excellent Spell to pull on random Creatures and Wizards during battle, especially since it lasts for such a long time. It’s particularly effective on ranged Creatures, since it’s not just walking speed that is reduced, every move the enemy makes is slowed detrimentally. So, for example, if you “Slime” a Mutant, with its arms slowed, it will take over a minute to pull out and throw it’s polyps, and will likely be put out of commission before the Spell wears off. On Wizards, it slows the hand movements necessary for Spellcasting and Creature summoning. They want to cast Meanstalks? Okay. Just remember not to go to that area five minutes later. Because that’s how long it’s going to take them. You can also use this Spell rather effectively on a fleeing Wizard’s posse of Manahoars. They keep moving, but one of their Manahoars is left in the dust. If they keep running, woohoo, free Soul, and if they stay behind to protect it, woohoo, free EXP, and probably the Soul will still go to you. It should also be noted that, unlike “Freeze” and “Frozen Ground”, “Slime” doesn’t “break” when the target is hit. “Slime” is actually even better than “Grasping Vines”, since although it doesn’t prevent walking movement completely, it still slows it down significantly, and slows attacks and Spellcasting as well, which is something that Persephone’s Slowing Spell doesn’t do, and it lasts quite a bit longer.

Shrine (Building Spell)

Mana cost: Eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: Yes

Overview: A Shrine works just like a Manalith except for three differences: It does not ignite Manahoars, it provides less Mana then a Manalith or Manafount do (it provides about as much as an Altar), and, most importantly, Sac Doctors can sacrifice Creatures at Shrines. Because of this, you usually want to cast “Shrine” on Manafounts that are far away from your Altar, so as to cut the travel time of your Sac Doctors. Obviously, is doesn’t do to have a Shrine right next to your Altar, when it provides less Mana and Sac Doctors would only have to travel for mere seconds more without it.

Charnel – Level 4

Creatures:

Netherfiend (Brawler)

Soul cost: Two

Mana cost:

Special ability: Devour

Innate ability: Feed

Overview: The Netherfiend is a most interesting Creature. It has exceptional attack power for any level, and for the level it’s at, it’s simply extraordinary! It has pretty good defense and HP, too. Its real problem is speed, which it is sorely lacking. A quick boost from “Speed Up” fixes this, since it raises the Netherfiend to levels of speed that are well above acceptable, and it lasts for a good amount of time. Netherfiends are exceptionally good at destroying structures, due to the pneumatic-like pummeling power of their arms. Two or three Netherfiends can level a Manalith in around five seconds! They’re great to have in frenetic battles, since if the enemy army is large enough, the Netherfiends won’t have to walk around too much to reach their targets, and, as I have said, the beatdowns administered by their claw-like forearms can do more then just put a dent in the enemy. It isn’t just structures they’re good against! Another big-battle-boon is the innate ability of the Netherfiend, “Feed”, which is shared also by the Scythe. Like Scythes, Netherfiends chow down on their foes as they shred them to pieces. The ability to restore HP during attacks, although common among Charnel’s ranks (as you’ve probably noticed by now) is an invaluable one. They also have a special ability, “Devour”. This is a VERY good ability, but it comes at a price. You can use this ability to target a Purified Soul (or cluster thereof, if it came from a multiple-Soul Creature), and the Netherfiend will consume it. This meal, although it erases the Soul from existence, is usually worth it, because it gives that Netherfiend a PERMENANT attack, HP, and defense bonus. Obviously, if you consume a multi-tier Soul, it gives a bigger boost. It should be noted that each consecutive use of “Devour” gives a marginally lower bonus than the last. So, for example, the first Soul consumed will give a larger stat boost than the second, the second larger than the third, and so on. I wouldn’t use “Devour” more than maybe three or four times, after that, it isn’t worth the cost anymore. However, once you HAVE used it, especially if you decided to sacrifice a powerful multi-tier Soul (like that of a Heavy Hitter or Titan Creature, for example) the Netherfiend, already powerful, will become almost unstoppable. A Netherfiend that has eaten a few powerful Souls will become stronger than a Titan! The boosted attack power will help the Netherfiend in question to take out large foes that would normally be out of even their league, and the boosted HP and defense will give it the power to take big hits and keep on ticking. By the way, the attack isn’t boosted a huge amount, but the HP and defense stats of a Netherfiend that has eaten, for example, a Hellmouth, will skyrocket astoundingly. Three Titans pounding on it at once will do about one damage per hit. Be VERY CAREFUL, however: before using “Devour”, be certain that you are willing to keep an eye on, support, and, if necessary, heal or protect the Netherfiend for the rest of its existence. Do NOT just use “Devour” for the heck of it. If you aren’t willing to use it properly, the Soul or Souls that it costs are too valuable to squander!

Spells:

Animate Dead (Advanced Healing Spell)

Mana cost: Four hundred

“Stander” Spell: No

Overview: Now, before I go into the overview for “Animate Dead”, I should probably explain a gaming term to you. When something is referred to as being “broken” (in TCG’s and video/computer games), that means that it is ridiculously powerful or strategic for its cost or penalties. Now, on to the overview. OH MY GAHD, THIS SPELL IS BROKEN!!!!! No, seriously! Animate dead allows you to target the Souls of a dead allied Creature and bring it back to life!!! For a cost only slightly higher than that of a “Heal” Spell, and a time period of around five seconds, you can rejuvenate any fallen Creature! And it’s not even a “stander” Spell! It has an very good range, too, so you can sneak up behind an enemy trying to cast “Convert” on one of your dead Creatures, and have it jump back up, raring to go, and attack them while their guard is down! This Spell has almost NO drawbacks. It also has some neat combos. For example, you can send a Titan into an impossible situation, then reanimate it as quick as your foe can kill it. One problem with “Animate Dead” is that using it instantly makes you the main target during battles, since you can revive your army as it is falling. This is one thing I love to do, by the way. Since you can get Animate Dead pretty early (LV. 4), rack up some EXP in the beginning of the game, then summon a platoon (twelve) of good small ranged Creatures (I.E., Rangers, or Flame Minions). Set them for Phalanx Formation, set them up in battle, and stand behind them, rejuvenating them as they fall. It’s VERY hard to lose a battle with this Spell unless you, the Wizard, are killed. This, along with the previously mentioned enemy-attracting effects that result from the use of this Spell, means that you want to make sure you are well defended if you plan on using “Animate Dead”. Shield Spells are, of course, a must, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a few Scarabs in the rear lines, either, and make sure you have a healthy amount of Manahoars standing by. The Manahoars will serve two purposes: they keep your Mana up as you frantically cast “Animate Dead” every two seconds, and they quickly revive you if you are killed (unless, of course, they are killed first… but your enemy would have to be using some kind of quick one-two punch technique to pull that off and kill you as well before you revived the Manahoars!). Anyway, this Spell has so many possibilities, it’s almost impossible to pass it up. Shockingly, however, I recommend that you do, at least if you’re a beginner, otherwise: A) You will never develop a true strategy of your own, and unless you are skillful (rather than just good with one Spell), you won’t persevere in Sacrifice, and (B) People will hate you. So don’t rely on exclusively on “Animate Dead” while battling or you’re dead. And unfortunately, you can’t be animated.

Charnel – Level 5

Creatures:

Deadeye (Sniper)

Soul cost: Two

Mana cost:

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Sucker Pin

Overview: Alone, Deadeyes can be pretty powerful, but their true strength lies in their ability to combo with some other Creatures, especially Pyro’s Pyromaniacs. But before I go into detail on that, let me go into detail on the Deadeye itself. Deadeyes are an undead incarnation of Gnomes, and as such, the carry another customized version of their famous hand cannons. The Deadeye’s cannons fire at a range unmatched by anything less than an Artillery Creature. The sucker pins they shoot (for which their innate ability is named) serve a dual purpose: they both poison the foe (with all the standard poison effects) and damage them, draining a decent amount of HP from them back to the Deadeye. Deadeyes make it quite easy to interfere with enemy Creatures and Wizards – especially Wizards, since poison prevents them from regaining precious Mana – without them even being able to tell for sure where the attacks are coming from. This is because Deadeyes are small, blandly colored, and generally hard to spot from a distance. All in all, there probably isn’t a better sniper in the business. Now, about the Pyromaniac combo – probably one of the most effective formations is half a dozen Pyromaniacs combined with half a dozen Deadeyes. The mix of poison and fire damage, along with base damage, extremely long range, and the additional effects of poison, makes for an almost unbeatable army. Some people don’t like this formation, because if anything DOES get close enough, neither Pyromaniacs nor Deadeyes are resilient enough to live through a few good whacks. So if you can outrange or out-speed them, that’s the end of that. But really, it a very effective combo otherwise.

Spells:

Demonic Rift (Advanced Attack Spell)

Mana cost:

“Stander” Spell: Yes

Overview: While this Spell probably won’t kill anything on its own, and doesn’t last very long, it can attack such a spread of foes that it’s amazing. “Demonic Rift” opens a dimensional hole to the Demon Realm beneath your wizard, from which spews dozens of flying, glowing pink apparitions, which are the manifestations of demons in the Wizard’s plane of existence. One demon will be pulled from the Demon Realm for each of your nearby foes, and they will zoom towards their targets and begin to orbit them, swooping in and out of their victims and dealing a pretty good amount of damage in the process. After several seconds, the demon apparitions will abandon their targets and streak back to the dimensional rift from whence they came, flying back into the hole, which shrinks and vanishes once all the demons have returned to it. This is good for causing a bit of panic during a fight, or for ambushing your foe (hide behind a hill, wait for them to pass by, and then cast “Demonic Rift”. The apparitions will come flowing through the air over the hill to attack, and you can make a hasty escape with “Teleport” before they figure out what happened). It is also a good Spell for piling up with other Advanced Attack Spells or Rain Spells, for example, “Bombardment”, “Dragonfire”, “Rain of Frogs”, and “Frozen Ground”. None of these things alone is going to do a truly stupendous amount of damage to many of your foes, but cast one after another so that they’re all in effect at once, they can be chaotically destructive. If you have this Spell during a fight, use it. In fact, if you have this Spell and you see more than one enemy unit at a time, use it. And one last thing – “Demonic Rift” is VERY efficient at killing large clusters of Peasant-types, so as to allow you to convert all of their Heathen Souls, rather than forcing you to kill them one at a time with Basic Attack Spells, or to summon a swath of Creatures to do the job for you.

Charnel – Level 6

Creatures:

Abomination (Artillery)

Soul cost: Three

Mana cost:

Special ability: None

Innate ability: Transmute Life

Overview: Well, if I had to name my pet Abomination, I’d definitely call it “Igor”. You should hear these things talk… Anyway, an Abomination is really nothing more than an undead Mutant. They have about the same HP and defense, but Abominations are FAR slower – in fact, they might just be the slowest Creature in the game! They also don’t have quite as long a range. However, they have a much more damaging attack to make up for it. Abominations throw chunks of self at the foe, which trail a kind of acid through the air as they go, making them WAY easier to track back to their source than the projectiles thrown by Mutants. Hey, everyone, it’s DEBUNKING TIME!!! Another popular load of bull is that the acid leaked by the projectiles that Abominations throw damages anything it touches as it falls from the sky. Yeah, right! All it is is eye candy, nothing more. As I just said, rather inconvenient eye candy as well, since it makes Abominations so easy to find from a distance. Anyway, when the thrown projectiles hit the ground (or target), they explode and do A LOT of splash damage to anything within a wide radius around the impact point. Additionally, they (surprise, surprise!) drain HP from their opponents into themselves with each attack, using their innate ability, “Transmute Life”. How shockingly unshocking. In the case of the Abomination, the standard “attack = heal” method used by Charnel’s minions is augmented by the great splash damage of this Creature: the more enemy units you hit in one throw, the more damage you do total, and the more you heal yourself! Since Abominations are so flipping slow, yet have highly respectable range, I use them mainly as Altar (or other Structures, I suppose) guards, where their great potential for self-healing comes in real handy. Creatures with “Guardian” cast on them are hard enough to kill as-is, but with multi-tiered healing, you can be sure they’ll last a LONG time! (IF they hit anything – let’s not forget the traditional low accuracy of Artillery Creatures) Just do yourself a favor – don’t try to drag them along with the rest of your troops, it’s just asking for dead Igors.

Spells:

Wailing Wall (Wall Spell)

Mana cost:

“Stander” Spell:

Overview: As the longest-lasting Wall Spell in Sacrifice, “Wailing Wall” certainly deserves some credit. “Wailing Wall” conjures up a wall of tortured spirits, which then proceed to wail and shriek until the wall finally wears away. Unlike “Firewall”, “Wall of Spikes” and “Fence”, all of which do damage in some form or another to those who stray into them, “Wailing Wall” causes no harm to those who pass through it, but it does drain every drop of Mana they have! It also comes up pretty quickly, and is unusually wide. This Wall Spell doesn’t impede a foe’s progress at all, it doesn’t even slow them down, but, like I said, it’ll bring their Mana down to nothing the moment they pass through it. You will also have your Mana drained slowly if you stand too close to the screaming spirits, but it’s nothing compared to the effect of actually walking through the wall. In       addition to the spirits that make up the wall, “Wailing Wall” also features a dozen-odd demon apparitions, just like the ones from “Demonic Rift”, only yellow, which patrol the top edge of the wall, swooping left and right. If your opponent catches the attention of an apparition, the yellow thing will fly down from its perch and circle them, using the same swooping method of attack as its pink counterpart, only draining, you guessed it, Mana instead of HP. After a while, it will return to its patrol point above the wall. This means that even with four or five Manahoars surrounding them, a Wizard will be incapacitated (due to lack of Mana) for at least a few dozen seconds after walking through the wall, since they will still be having their Mana drained by the yellow apparitions. Overall, this is a good Wall Spell with many positive qualities, but a brave Wizard will not be slowed at all in his pursuit or escape. If you want to use it to ripen a foe for the kill, it will serve your purposes wonderfully, but if you’re actually trying to stop them, most will be willing to go a short while without the ability to cast spells if it means reaching their goal.

Charnel – Level 7

Creatures:

Styx (Heavy Hitter)

Soul cost: Four

Mana cost:

Special ability: Rend Soul

Innate ability: Drain Beam
Overview: The truly awesome Styx are the ultimate in towering specters, and are the undead version of Warmongers. They carry similar fused guns, but instead of firing a rapid spray of projectiles, they fire a black anti-energy beam. These are called drain beams, they do sick amounts of damage, and there are plenty of Creatures that can be killed in just one or two hits from a Styx. Styx also have an innate ability named after their attack, “Drain Beam”, which continues to follow in the great tradition of Charnel by healing HP to the Styx with each attack equal to that attacks damage to its target. Since the Styx do such a massive amount of damage to their victims, “Drain Beam” likewise restores a massive amount of HP. This large-chunk-at-a-time healing is vital, because the Styx, tall and terrifying though they are, have surprisingly weak defenses, and can be killed relatively easily by most melee Creatures. Thing is, if the Styx get any attacks in first, they’ll weaken the enemy enough so that the second or third blasts from the drain beam will usually kill the foe, along with healing the Styx back to either full or close to full health. Styx working in squadrons of five or more can kill Titans with ease, and are a force to be reckoned with. Another bonus ability is the special ability of the Styx, “Rend Soul”, which is possibly the best battle-ending technique available. It targets a Purified Soul with the anti-energy beam, fires, and causes the Soul to detonate with a massive shockwave explosion, which almost always kills anything in close proximity. Obviously, the Soul is destroyed in the process, so don’t get too trigger-happy, but when used in strategic situations, “Rend Soul” can be deadly. It should also be noted that the higher ranking the Soul destroyed is, the larger and more damaging the detonation is. So, for example, blowing up the Soul of a Manahoar will kill a few weakened Creatures, but destroying the Soul of a fallen Hellmouth will totally level the area with an explosion akin to that of a nuclear bomb! It can be quite useful to deliberately send a powerful Creature into an impossible situation (such as an over-guarded Altar), then, when all your foes are clustered around their fallen victim, use “Rend Soul” to kill them all in one blast and claim victory. Another fun trick is to use “Rend Soul” when your opponent is about to convert a Soul and there’s nothing you can do to stop them – just stand back and enjoy the fireworks! “Rend Soul” has the same range as a regular drain beam – which is about double that of a Warmonger’s projectile spray. Not stunning, but not bad, either. If you use Styx, be sure to protect them from melee Creatures and heal them frequently – if you can somehow manage to “Charm” an Ent, “Protector” works wonders. “Healing Aura” and “Rainbow” can also prove useful in this field. But if you have Styx in large enough numbers, they can probably protect themselves fine just by killing the foe before it can get to them!

Spells:

Plague (Rain Spell)

Mana cost:

“Stander” Spell:

Overview: “Plague” drops streams of poison down on the foe from the storm cloud that signifies all Rain Spells. This is my favorite Rain Spell out of all four. Instead of the other three, more chaotic Rain Spells, “Plague” drops its poison right on your opponent’s head. It goes straight down without any odd angles, and aims VERY well. After casting “Plague”, you can be almost certain that every last bit of the poison will find a target. After using “Plague”, enemy Wizards will be impaired for a while due to the Mana-regeneration-halting effects of poison. The poison does a good amount of damage as it falls onto your opponents head, too, and with the standard poison damage added to this, a hit from this Spell can kill some of the more frail Creatures, such as Manahoars and Brainiacs. “Plague” is also the only Rain Spell aside from “Rain of Frogs” I would use near an Altar – “Rain of Fire” and “Bombardment” fall at angles, so they usually hit the Altar ring and do no damage to the Creatures or Wizards hiding under the Altar, but “Plague” falls straight down, right through the hole. The ability to basically poison an entire area is invaluable, and if you have this Spell, I would use it as often as you can.

Charnel – Level 8

Creatures:

None.

Spells:

Intestinal Vaporization (Wrath of the Gods Spell)

Mana cost: One thousand eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: Yes

Overview: Allow me to begin this overview with a humorous, real-life conversation:

Lemming: Mwahahahaha! I’ve finally reached level nine! Fear my Rhinok!!!

Redstar: Fufufufu…. Don’t look now, but your Rhinok gots problems…

Lemming (turns around): OH SHITE!!!!!

Rhinok: *explodes*

Yes, with “Intestinal Vaporization”, you too can enjoy Redstar’s glee at having the ability to randomly combust your foes! This powerful (and humorous) Wrath of the Gods Spell is basically an alternate and slightly disadvantaged version of James’ “Bovine Intervention”, in that it allows you to select an enemy Creature, and then instantly gibs it after a few seconds, leaving the Soul up for grabs. The reason I say “disadvantaged” is twofold: unlike “Bovine Intervention”, whose cow soars high into the air and targets its victim from above, the target of “Intestinal Vaporization” is very obvious, as the creature will begin to inflate to a monstrous size before finally exploding. Second, it does not cause the tremor that the cow causes on impact. Even though this tremor is not an essential part of “Bovine Intervention”, nor is it especially disruptive or damaging, it is an advantage nonetheless, and thus it’s absence in “Intestinal Vaporization” is chalked up as a disadvantage. Because of the blatant obviousness of this Spell, it is best to attempt to isolate either the Wizard from the Creature targeted, or vice-versa, before casting it, so that you have better odds of swiping the Soul disgorged by your victim. Even with the differences between “Intestinal Vaporization” and “Cowkill” – I mean, “Bovine Intervention”, most people consider these two Spells to be on even footing, and they are pretty durned similar, so it’s really a matter of preference. Do you want to give your foe a lasting phobia of Holsteins, or do you want to implode their army like so many over-inflated balloons? Either way, the same general strategy should be used with both Spells, and people who are used to “Cow Attack” – argh! I mean, people who are used to “Bovine Intervention” won’t have much trouble getting used to Charnel’s version.

Death (Wrath of the Gods Spell)

Mana cost: One thousand eight hundred

“Stander” Spell: Yes

Overview: “Death”. Who is he? Death! What does he do? Cause death! What does he like? Death! GOOOOO… DEATH! YEAH! WOOHOO! “Death” is a massive destruction Spell that is great for killing Creatures when they are found in large and seemingly impenetrable groups. It summons The Grim Reaper himself (minus scythe) to wreak destruction and discord among, unfortunately, not exclusively the enemy, but everyone in sight. Hey, he’s a busy guy, he didn’t ask to be summoned! Death will continue to slaughter Creatures with a single swipe from his bladed hands (and a rather delightful demonic laugh) until he has prematurely ended the existence of eight Creatures – or until he’s hung around in the mortal world for a total of thirty-five seconds, whichever comes first. After that, he’ll disappear back into the underworld to finish what he was busy with before being rudely yanked into the other plane of existence. “Death” has many amusing uses – among which is the “Teleport” combo I’ve mentioned so many times before. Just summon “Death”, then “Teleport” away with your posse of Creatures and laugh at your foe as he is forced to “Teleport” as well – only to have “Death” follow him across the fruited – or not-so-fruited – plain to slaughter his Creatures anyway. Another good way to utilize “Death” is to set him loose on an Altar stuffed with Guardians – it won’t stay that way for long. “Death” can cause more chaos than most Spells could ever wish to, but beware: most people will flee without a second thought as soon as they realize what you’re casting – or rather, who you are summoning! This means “Death” requires some careful set up – either use it when your foe has just used “Teleport”, meaning it’ll need to be recharged and they won’t be able to use it until “Death” has probably killed half their Creatures anyway, or at any area with lots of enemy guardians, who have no method of escape. Plan carefully, and you’re sure to do well with this Spell!

Charnel – Level 9

Creatures:

Hellmouth (Titan)

Soul cost: Five

Mana cost: One thousand nine hundred

Special ability: Devour

Innate ability: Spirit Leech

Overview: Wow, the last Titan! The guide is winding to the end. Well, here goes: the Hellmouth is the final of the Dragon varieties, being a Dark Dragon. It lives up to its heritage, too! These towering specters can either fly or walk, just like their cousins. They have the typically high Titan stats, and here’s where they really shine: they have the same special ability (“Devour”) as Netherfiends! After devouring just one or two Purified Souls, they become almost completely unstoppable! Nothing but instant gibbing Spells can kill a Hellmouth after it’s had a few good meals! This is only because of the way that the innate ability of the Hellmouth works together with its special one. “Spirit Leech” restores a massive amount of HP to the Hellmouth with each attack, keeping it alive almost infinitely without outside aid (after it’s devoured some Souls, of course). Speaking of attacks, this Titan damages foes by means of very potent poison breath. Hellmouths spew toxic plumes from a good range, and the clouds take on a life of their own once they’ve been released out into the world – they writhe and twist through the air like ghastly snakes, chasing after their assigned target until it has been caught. They then swoop in and out of their targets in very much the same way as the demon lights from “Demonic Rift” and “Wailing Wall”. Because of the Hellmouth’s innate ability, the poison will continually drain HP from its victim and transfer it to the Hellmouth for as long as it lingers floating around an enemy creature. When you put together the large amount of HP that is initially drained when the poison breath finds its target with the lingering and continual drain that remains present for as long as the poison does, you’ve got one heck of a heal! The Hellmouth can just send one stream of poison breath at one enemy, leave, and refill almost half of its HP bar! As Guardians, Hellmouths are about as good as it gets, even if they haven’t eaten any Souls. Three or more Hellmouths can keep an Altar safe for quite a while, just because of the amount of poison floating around. And the self-healing. And the fact that anything with “Guardian” cast on it becomes nigh-unkillable. Yeah, that helps too. Anyway, like all Titans, the Hellmouths are a force to be reckoned with.

Spells:

None.