Elona Reach

Finally, after 3 nights and many, many attempts I have conquered Elona Reach with henchies . No great achievement for many, perhaps, but for me a divorce-avoiding event as I can now spend some quality time with the wife and sprog!

For those that want to know:

Henchies - Healer, Protector, Brawler, Fighter, Archer. Me - lvl20 W/N.

Starting from when countdown begins (ie after 1st crystal delivered). Go though gate to SE and kill first patrol coming from left (always kill in order - Sage, caster, sords/bows). Go right and head for mountain in the West - you cabn avoid all other partols at this time. There is a path which runs around the back of the mountain from left (as you look at it) to right - follow the path. There is a splinter mine at the end an another patrol just around the corner to the right. Take out this patrol. You may see another patrol goine top left to bottom right of the mini map. Take this one out if convenient.

Head NW down slope and take out patrol at the bottom on the right. Thenm go left and take out Boss and two swords.

Go West, past where Boss was, avoiding other patrols - you will see crystal ahead with another boss and two swords next to it. Kill enemies and take crystal then retrace your footsteps - you should be able to avoid all other patrols.

Having delivered crystal, go back through southern gate and head to start of same path by western mountain. This time turn left back on yourself to southerns camp. One patrol comes out of the camp towards you position. ry to tempt it further out of the camp by overlapping you awareness circle then kill all members.

Head into camp keeping to right hand side - there is a palisade shelter there from which you will be hit by baddies but keep going. Avoid the boss on your left by the bridge and turn right as soon as you can (by splinter mine) into palisade to kill the patrol in there.

Leave the palisade and trun right (south) again. There is one more patrol up here. Wait until it comes to you, away from any other baddies, and take it out.

Now, to your East is the crystal, plus boss and two baddies. As for other crystal kill the boss & baddies then pick up the crytsal and retrace your steps avoiding all other patrols.

Carefully positioning your team abnd waiting for patrols so that you only engage one patrol at a time is the key to this mission.

I still had 9 minutes left so there's pleant of time to be patient.

And keep trying - it feels great when you finally do it!

Now off to Thirsty RIver ...

That's the easiest Ascending-mission.
Anyways hope you had fun and congratulations on the achievement, and good luck on the other missions.

I (M/R) also did this one with henchies after many, many tries (probably around 20). I found it to be a lot of fun. I managed to get each of the crystals on separate occasions, so knew it was possible if I just managed to get both of them on the same trip... I did it in the opposite order from your route (not that it really makes a difference).

Only thing I might add is that after taking the crystal on the right (your first one) - it's good to hotfoot back the way you came because once you grab the crystal a bunch of baddies get released from behind a gate that you pass on the way there. But you have time if you don't dawdle.

And pay no attention to the count-down clock - there's plenty of time.