I’m pretty comfortable saying that Wildermyth is one of 2021’s best tactical RPGs out this year. If you’re a fan of turn-based strategy games like XCOM, Disgaea, Banner Saga, Octopath Traveler and of course the OG Final Fantasy: Tactics then you’ll need to give Wildermyth a try.

Heavy on the tactical gameplay Wildermyth embarks on a tale as old as time. How ordinary people become legendary heroes. It’s not just all picking character classes and abilities however, Wildermyth is also a delight for everyone character-driven stories. What you choose to do has consequences. Be with your hero as they age, transform, fall in love, disagree, and make harrowing sacrifices.

Each hero brings their own history and personality with them, but it’s your choices and combat skills that decide their paths and outcomes. Wildermyth is set in a high fantasy setting that blends hard truths and sacrifices with humour and personal storytelling. Experience this deep story all while combating unexpected threats and strange monsters across interactive battlefields. 

 

Choosing Your Hero

You begin your fantasy adventure with a group of three heroes as your starting party. These heroes have their own unique history, personality and appearance that you’re able to customise. Different personalities will act differently in-game and affect how they build relationships with the other heroes. All these elements will change and develop over the course of a playthrough. As your characters age, encounter mysteries, and overcome challenges.

Your hero may choose to trust the enigmatic wolf god, leading to a hair-raising change in their appearance and combat abilities. Or they may pursue a romance with a fellow hero, giving each of them a shared buff and more story opportunities. Encounters and events have permanent, character-defining effects, letting you craft the arc of each character.

As time passes, heroes grow old and may retire, or else might fall in combat—and yes, some will survive all the way to the end. You can add your favourite heroes to a roster of legends and call on them again in later playthroughs. Build your own mythologies and share the awe-inspiring might of your heroes with others.

 

Hero Classes

There are three classes in Wildermyth: Mystic, Warrior, and Hunter. Mystics are magic, hunters use bows and other ranged weaponry, and warriors are your frontline fighters that can tank hits or deal massive damage. How you decide to craft each character is up to you but here’s a couple of suggested builds.

There are 7 levels that your heroes can level up to starting from Greenhorn and ending with Blackhorn. Every time you complete a successful mission in Wildermyth the experience points will be divided evenly among the heroes involved in the mission. Certain events may also grant XP.

Each time a character moves up a level they gain an ability. You’ll be offered a random choice of three new abilities to select from. Plus (if available) a fourth choice that is an upgrade of one of their current abilities. Some abilities are specific to a class, and some are general abilities available to any hero.

Below we’ll break down the different character roles along with their recommended weapons and specific class abilities. Before that, we’ll list the recommended general abilities that you include in your Wildermyth hero build.

 

General Abilities

Aid – Mediocre. I like this the best of the non-engage defensive talents, as you can use it to buff up a tank or glass cannon before they take damage. Alternatively, you can use it for its listed purpose of “healing” a damaged character out of 1-shot range, but that’s never what you’re aiming for.

Bowmaster – Varies. Useless for mystics, reasonable for flex hunters, good for bow hunters and warriors.

Heroism – Good. Attacking three times in a turn for a mystic or hunter is a solid way to wipe out a group. Mystics will commonly use Flameleash, as it doesn’t disappear after one use. Slightly less good for warriors, who are generally looking for Battledance which overlaps somewhat. Great with Throughshot.

Inspiration – Great. If you work at it, you can get +3 or 4 bonus damage/potency spread out over your team. This stacks, so load up!

Long Reach – Good. Best with things like Flamelash, daggers + Thornfang, or outranging opponents with bows.

 

Hero Rerolls

You can randomize your character sheet as many times as your patience allows in Wildermyth. It’s worth trying your luck to get some nice bonuses. This optimization is certainly not mandatory though it can certainly prove useful. For example, a Retirement Age bonus will allow your heroes to be active during 4 or 5 chapters instead of typically 3, which can make a real difference in long campaigns.

Once they’re no longer farmers, Hunters get +10 retirement age and Mystics get +20 retirement age, so you want to reroll your characters until the Warrior gets +20 retirement age and the Hunter gets +10 retirement age. You don’t need to go crazy with rerolls, but the retirement ages, in particular, can make a big difference. Note: Stats such as Speed, Recovery Rate, Dodge and Story Stats go down as your character ages.

Secondly, you can reroll to achieve useful character hooks and passive bonuses. When creating a new character in Wildermyth, visit the History part of their character sheet. Their procedurally-generated origin story grants them a set of 2 to 3 hooks (which affect story choices) and a set of passive bonus.

 

Mystic Build

Mystics are human magic-users who interfuse with objects in the world of Wildermyth to manipulate those objects.

Weapons: Wand / Staff + Useful Offhand
Armour: +Potency

Abilities

Elementalist

Advanced interfusions for liquid, metal, and wood. Interfused fires do not burn out.

Mystics interfuse with things and can then manipulate those things to perform their magic. The mystic can perform some action and/or gain some benefit from the interfusion. The effects of interfusion depend on the object that the mystic is linked with, and so battles play out differently in different environments.

• Infernal Rain (Upgrade Liquid) – Boiling floods pour down to peel away armour and devour an enemy’s flesh. (Pot + 1-2 dmg, 4 shred, 4 range, –1 health to Liquid)
• Shackles – Warp metal into grasping appendages that pin enemies within a chosen area for two turns. (AoE 1 radius, 4 range, 100% hit, 2 turns)
• Splintersalvo (Upgrade Wood) – Explode two or more interfused wood into a higher-damage burst over a longer range. The interfused object’s health adds to your range accuracy. Both objects are destroyed. The salvo does not damage scenery. (AoE 2.1 radius, Pot+2d3 damage, Pot/2+1 shred, Pot/2 pierce, 4.6 range from either Wood)

Ignite [Active]

Hero pulls motes of heat out of the air and gathering them into a single point, creating an interfused blaze on a tile with debris. (Upgrade: Can be used on tiles without debris).

Single Action. Conjure a blaze at a distance, interfusing with it if possible, and dealing fire damage to anything at that location.

Indignance [Passive]

A hero with Indignance emits an aura around themselves that deals damage ignoring armour to every adjacent enemy, including diagonals. (Upgrade: DMG and Range +1)

This one may be only mediocrely useful for Mystic users, because of how ranged this class is. To make indignance useful you’ll need to get closer into melee range. But in a pinch, it’s a great AoE that will never miss and will end on your attack turn.

 

Warrior Build

Warriors are human melee users who use two-handed weapons or a sword and shield, to serve as a guardian for the party.

Weapons: Mace / Hammer + Bow
Armour: +Armour / +Stunt Armour

Abilities

Battledance

Melee attacks only cost Hero one action. (Upgrade: When the hero hits with a regular melee attack, they gain a free action called Whirl which gives the free movement)

Allows two attacks in a turn against a melee enemy who closed with the warrior on their turn. Particularly useful for bow and melee attacks or even with a Zealous Leap.

Engage

May engage enemies within 4+Potency tiles as a swift action. Hero engages another creature, forcing it to attack her. The hero must stay in range and maintain a clear line of sight. +1 armour per engaged foe.

Used to tag and flank enemies. That +1 armour per enemy is also extremely useful, allowing you to even nullify attacks if you’re faced with 3 enemies.

Shieldshear

Once every other turn, as a swift action, Hero shreds x of a foe’s armour with his weapon. Shredding 2 armour and enabling flanking helps you kill monsters.

Thundering Challenge

Once every other turn, as a swift action, Hero shreds x of a foe’s armour with his weapon. Target an enemy within 4 + Potency tiles, 100% hit. If there is a wall in the way, the target will go as far as they can and then stop.

Thundering Challenge is great to help out your warrior in a tight spot. Or for use to take down the other smaller monsters before the big. Take a few steps back and the big bad might not show up again for multiple turns.

Zealous Leap

Every other turn, as a UI swift action, Hero makes a daring leap up to x spaces away. (Upgrade: Cooldown reduced from once every other turn to once per turn. Clears pin on use.)

Speed helps you kill things, often by setting up a good flank and it also helps you take 0 damage by running.

 

Hunter Build

Weapons: Dagger + Net / Hurlaxe / Throwing Knives + Bow
Armour: +Dodge Armour

Abilities

Through Shot [Active]

Hero fires a cleverly placed arrow that will pass through the first target and hit the next target in a line, within attack range.

Through Shot functions like the standard Shoot action, except it also affects an additional enemy in a line. Only one additional enemy (the one closest to the Hunter) can be damaged in this way, even if there are multiple enemies in between.

Thornfang [Passive]

Once per turn, Hero is refunded an action point after a melee kill. (Upgrade: Killing an enemy will refund an action point up to three times per turn.)

A hero with Thornfang receives a bonus action point each time they kill an enemy with a melee weapon. The action point is gained even if the melee attack would otherwise end the hero’s turn, allowing the hero to chain together multiple kills in a single turn. The bonus action point can be spent on any valid ability (not just attacks).

This can get your hunter to chain melee kill someone or finish off a person with a bowshot.

Rogue [Passive]

Every time Hero kills an enemy, he/she enters grayplane for free.

For the Rogue ability to trigger, the killing blow must be dealt by a direct Hunter ability. Standard attacks count, ranged or melee, as do damage-dealing abilities. But deaths resulting from indirect effects like Quellingmoss poison or Jumpjaw traps do not.

Hunters will be safe from enemy attacks after entering grayplane. An excellent pair up with Thornfang. It also ensures that the Hunter’s next attack will benefit from the armour-ignoring bonus of being hidden.

Foxflight [Active + Passive]

Hero has +1 speed; Once per combat, as a free action, activate to dodge the next two attacks against them (disables passive).

Once per combat, as a swift action, Foxflight can be activated to automatically dodge the next two attacks with no turn limit. Activating Foxflight disables its passive component until the end of combat.

If you choose not to activate it, Foxflight’s passive speed bonus will kick in. It’s helpful whether the Hunter is trying to keep an enemy at range or manoeuvring in for a dagger kill. The active dodge boost is terrific for those times when the Hunter is unexpectedly out in the open. It can even be used to help hold a vital chokepoint for a turn and keep other units safe from advancing enemies.

Ambush [Active]

Hero draws back, ready to lose an attack upon any enemy who enters the threatened strip of tiles. If the shot is not sprung, the hero releases the attack at the beginning of their next turn.

The hero may set an ambush that covers a 3×3 grid on the battle map. If no attack occurs the hero gets a free attack at the start of the following turn. This bonus attack you get the next turn deals 2 extra damage and can help with flanking.

Note: This free attack must be used first before any other actions or abilities, even Swap Weapon, or the opportunity will be lost. The free attack does not need to be targeted within the ambush area.

 

Wildermyth

Wildermyth is a complex tactical RPG and one we’re just cutting our teeth on. As the game updates be sure to keep an eye on this page and we’ll keep it updated. As well as future guides for the game. For more game guides be sure to check them out here!