Thanks @Steve9999. Weird that SG would give us a mission that is currently unattainable…
My guess is that it is an incentive marker for finishing the story. If I remember correctly, the mission reward for finishing season 1 map (e.g. defeating the Dark Lord) did not come until after or/around the time when season 2 was released (after numerous players voicing their displeasure of just getting a pat on the back for finishing S1 map). So for SGG to place this mission there early on means they will have one less complaint to deal with when players are finished with Season 2 story. Your progress is kind of recorded in your missions log. So, I would think that you should be good to play through the story mode on normal difficulty to get the mission reward.
I tend to work on the Season 2 normal stages around the time the current month’s Atlantis is released and still in progress and then the hard levels after Atlantis closes at a pace of one or two a day, in between monster chests (since I don’t pay gems to skip them) and I normally don’t use World Energy Flasks, now I am on 206 out of the total 270. I hope the fact that SGG start putting this as a progress on your player profile for a reason aside from just an achievement, although still marginally better than the number of finishing Titan strikes, but would want to see it being a path to better rewards.
For those that find Atlantis 2 Hard Mode hard, they are supposed to be, and I tend to believe they are even harder than the last stage of the Class Trials. I’ve found that bringing counterattack heroes for the hard hitting enemies is a great way to deal more damage back.
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What is your lineup in season 2 hard Mode?
I have no problems to walk through the hard Mode without using any items. Sometimes only little green antidotes or healing potions thats it. The hard Mode is really easy with this line up:
Evelyn,khiona, hatter, gravemaker, delilah
I’m up to province 20 in hard mode so far with this team:
Elena’s riposte in particular has been crucial for defeating the bosses in the fog levels since it’s a passive skill. So far I haven’t had to use any advanced items beyond minor potions and antidotes, but that may change as I go further.
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This is my team that cleans house in Hard mode. Just finished normal to progression wall and starting on Province 22.
I’ve been doing well on hard mode with this team: Delilah/Magni/Wilbur/Sartana/Tarlak.
When the bird boss with riposte is active, I switch to: Drake/Magni/Wilbur/Sartana/Melendor
I adjust my S2 Hard team based on heroes and special rules.
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Hello everyone. I’ve never tried hard mode. The highest power I can reach is 3200TP with a rainbow team (Melendor, Boldtusk, Tiburtus, Chao, Sonia).
Please let me use this topic to ask: Do you think a team like that could clean some provinces? Maybe I would need to stack colors and use items?
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Stack colors against the final boss(es). Bring items, too!
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Seeing some of the responses thus far with discussions about the type of teams being used in Hard Mode, it is not difficult to see that those players with leveled 5* heroes will have a comparatively easier time on these than those that don’t.
I don’t have too many serviceable 5* myself. I have been doing the Hard Stages kind of progressively as each provinces are released.
My main team that I have been using are Boldtusk, Melendor, Cyprian, Gormek, and Wu Kong. All maxed 4* and this is what I had to work with, even before Emblems are introduced. I’ve progressed through approximately 15 provinces with that lineup, starting from 16 and up is at or around when emblems were first introduced. I eventually swapped out Gormek with Isarnia, who finally become serviceable at / around 3rd / 4th ascension and the others kept relatively the same (but added emblem points to further augment their stats).
Hard Mode is doable with 4s, but you just have to watch them more closely, 3 is generally a bit on the weak side, and might still be serviceable on normal mode, but on hard mode maxed 3* may actually die in the first hit or two. On hard mode, not only are enemies hitting harder, you are also doing less damage, so you can see from the lineup that I use, I try to have multiple healers, buff attack, debuff and dispel enemies, and increase my tile damage. Having Gormek will help against green enemies for the tile damage, but before Isarnia was swapped in, I was not really doing much against red enemies. Plus, aside from the slow mana charge, there is no blind spot to hide from her specials (unless blinded, affected by Wu Kong’s Gambler’s Stance, or on Dense Fog stages).
Melendor is obviously a bit of a squishy defender, but he still has high offense and can help against blue enemies (can’t get that with Sabina), so it is not hard to see I have had to baby him the most, but having the ability to dispel enemy buffs or counterattacks without having to hit them first is a plus.
But for ailments, unless there is a Rigard in your party (but you still got to time him just right), Antidotes (the small ones), is your best friend.
Wu Kong is there to buff up my tile damage and is useful to up that on top of Boldtusk’s attack up.
Cyprian is there for his counter attack, and I usually have him flanked by low defense team mates so the harder they get hit while Riposte is on, the more damage the enemies take. I’ve had a few boss enemies doing AOE damage and ends up killing themselves. I am not a great strategist when setting up cascading tiles, so Cyprian was a very important catalyst in me passing some of these Hard Mode stages.
Items are going to be quite standard in what you bring. Going through a few stages, there are some in which I feel more comfortable to bring Dragon Attack/Bombs, and the rest are mana / healing potions, but I would sub out one of them (perhaps mana, for the antidote if I foresee the bosses potentially doing heavy wreckage with their ailment inducing specials).
You have some very similar heroes as who I am using (BT and Melendor), but I would like to comment that Hard Mode is doable and manageable if you are careful and bringing items.
Try a few stages to get a feel for how hard the enemies hit. Don’t be surprised if you find that the first mob is often the most difficult because none of your heroes are “mana-ed” up and you are going through the gauntlet of having to get them to survive the first wave of hits while your heroes charge up their mana. Good luck.
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I agree with a whole bunch of this. I’m only using one five-star (granted, it’s a 3^46 Onatel, which really helps control boss mana), and it’s a slog, but it can be done. (You did mention the possibility of bringing three-stars, but I personally can’t imagine that being viable at all.) My team is not specially constructed for much of anything; I’m F2P, and its basically just the first four-star of each color that fell to me (Sabina, Melendor, Gormek, and Grimm, plus the aforementioned Onatel), because those are the first ones I leveled and they are now maxed. The levels really do ramp up in difficulty at some point; province 16 sounds approximately right. For a while, difficulty depends on the boss’s special (the skeleton who does the unholy rain thing! UGH!), but eventually, everything just hits for a ton of damage.
I definitely recommend two healers, and dispellers are more critical for some bosses (the counterattacking bird, for instance) than others. Defense down helps me so much, as even the minions take forever to kill. It is not unusual for them to be able to absorb a few tiles even after their health bars are barely visible.
You are right that paying close attention is the most important thing. I try not to let my heroes’ HP fall below 450 or so, since that seems to be the approximate threshold for even a basic minion to one-shot them. In large minion waves, you have to pay attention to when two minions will strike on the same turn and account for the idea that they could both target the same hero. Had that bite me a few times. Enemy attack buffs and hero defense downs also have to figure into that calculus.
You are also spot on that the first wave is the hardest, because you can’t lead with your specials. Starting a wave by dropping two ramming pulverizers and an eye of the prophet makes it so much easier than starting from scratch. Sometimes, those waves have as many as five minions, which usually means there are two turns out of every three where two minions are striking at once. I like to target the center minion (the one most likely to get hit by a random tile) and take it out first just to thin the sheer numbers. (Also helps that specials which affect “nearby” enemies [ramming pulverizer, for example! 
] will hit all the minions if you target the center.)
I typically bring small and medium health potions, plus bombs and axes to bail me out if I’m down to one hero and need to bring down the boss’s HP in a hurry, but I switch out the medium health potions for antidotes, small mana potions, or turtle banners, as circumstances dictate. Looking at your team, I wouldn’t have imagined there were enough hitters there to be viable, but I don’t have Cyp or Wu, so I’ve never been able to see how counterattacks and boosted tile damage might be able to offset a lack of heavy special damage. Neat to see another perspective. Thanks for posting.
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No problem, I am F2P as well, but I do not have the luxury (or luck for that matter) of having any seasonal, event, or HoTM on my roster, and most of my 4* and all of my 5*s are homegrown (e.g. pulled from my TC20s) and it’s all about making do with what you have.
What I said about 3* is that they “might” be viable for the Normal Mode, but still quite dangerous being wiped out in the first few hits, probably a no-no on Hard Mode, they might survive a little longer if Talented up, but if you have only 3* heroes, it may be best to put Hard Mode on the back burner, until you acquired 4* and 5* heroes and have leveled them up with significant progress to be considered serviceable. 5* out of the box are just target practice for the enemy mobs.
Cyprian was my first purple 4*, and in comparison with classic season 1 heroes of the same grade, is a better Riposte candidate than Boril (4* Blue), because Boril has higher defensive stats than Cyprian, and you kind of want a Riposte hero to be lower in defense, so when the counter happens, the damage dealt back is higher. Fortunately, because Cyprian have slightly higher HP, he could generally take a few licks long enough for the healers to be ready.
Best of luck to all who tries to attempt Hard Mode, and especially when trying it with less than optimal teams.
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For F2P, hitting a HotM is basically like Christmas! I freaked out when pulling another Gato from Atlantis was followed by the “Bonus Draw” screen and Onatel popped out. My F2P alliance mate just landed Frida, so I guess the RNG has smiled on us lately. I hope it does the same for you soon. I look forward to having my first TC20 up and running soon. Really hoping for Azlar.
it’s all about making do with what you have
So far, I like this part of the game best. Can I pull/level enough decent heroes to make this thing work? Is that one hero that will make it all come together just a summon away? Maybe I’ll grow to resent it in time, but it’s kinda neat at the moment.
What I said about 3* is that they “might” be viable for the Normal Mode
Oops. I misread that, then. I thought you must have had some way different 3-stars than I did!
Cyprian … is a better Riposte candidate than Boril (4* Blue), because Boril has higher defensive stats than Cyprian
Interesting about Cyprian and Boril. I don’t have either, but one of my alliance mates has Cyp at 3^60 and just pulled Boril last weekend. Unfortunately, they are two of his four 4-stars at the moment, and I doubt they pair well, but this little tidbit may be helpful when he gets enough heroes to choose one of them.
Best of luck to all who tries to attempt Hard Mode, and especially when trying it with less than optimal teams.
Indeed. Here’s to the misfit teams who are hanging tough.
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Hello
s2 reward we have it if we finish everything in easy mode or very difficult?
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You getting story parts after finish provinces on easy so probably you didn’t must finish hard for end reward
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Has anyone ever managed to do 270/270 in Season 2 Hard mode?
Yes, if you check out this thread people have been sharing their results:
🔱 End of an Era: Atlantis Season 2 Final Stages Releasing — FAQ & Discussion
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Nah mate, there are two separate rewards for completing normal mode and the hard mode
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Man are they getting tough. It doesn’t help that I seem to use the wrong team half of the time.
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The S2 Atlantis hard mode is indeed very hard. Wilbur and co was barely alive at stage 16. But the rewards are awesome.
Chaimain shirt, scabbard and tall boots everywhere.
Midnight roots, leather strips, oil, crypt mushroom comes in package of 2 - 3 too!
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