Blood of Steel: Lu Ban Academy Guide

Firstly your hero synergy is the key to victory, the abilities you choose between each wave can affect every hero and unit. These come as Auras, Buffs, Passives, or Conditionals. Utilize these to your best advantage; learn them. Sun Shangxiang has an allied aura that increases ranged damage. Lu Bu’s has an enemy aura that increases melee damage received

Mode Specific Mechanics
There are new hotkeys.
G (Default: Pick Up Item): cycle between placing buildings or using consumables
I (Default: Advanced Info): opens up the talent selection window
P (Default: Open Store): opens up a description window of all the buildings
7: places a Ballista that hits like a hero, breaks shields (lvl 3), triple-shots (lvl 4)
8: places an Arbalest that slows units (lvl 4) and does AOE damage (lvl 3)
9: places a Scorpion with a splash damage attack and amplifies damage (lvl 4)
0: places an Outpost in the lane that spawns melee units
7/8/9 (when cycled): Bandage/Forage/Hammer

There are large glowing green circles that Teleport you and your units toward the other teleport portal directly north or south of you. Stand your hero within a circle for 5 seconds to teleport. They are fairly important for archers as they need to get to the first corner, and quickly escape at times. Remember that your units will teleport with you, no matter where they are and what they are doing. Don’t teleport your melee units and leave your remaining allies surrounded. Do teleport your range units away to safety.
One trick is if you build siege on the ramparts of the north most portal, you can place archer units on the top of the towers nearby the teleport. Units that agro (Richard/Frederick) will climb all the way to the top of your tower to reach your archers. If you have Ballista built in the middle platforms, those will attack units as they run up the tower, increasing your overall DPS by utilizing your normally-idle Ballista. When you eventually get overwhelmed, just jump your hero off the tower and teleport your units to safety.

Buildings
Buildings can only be deployed at certain places along the map. Metal-plated squares around the sides of the lanes will accept siege machines. Wooden circles on the ground in the middle of the lanes will accept outposts. These cost supply points to build or upgrade, and can be upgraded to a max of level 4. You can only upgrade your own buildings, and do so by standing near it. You can also change the orientation of Outpost units to put them closer into the lane.
There can be 8 siege weapons of each grade at a time.
You always want every building to be attacking as much as possible.

Ballista (7) – 4000
800 cost | Fire arrows at enemies
800 cost | Increases Damage
1000 cost | Breaks Shields | Increases Damage
1400 cost | Fires Triple Arrows | Increases Damage

Arbalest (8) – 4800
800 cost | Fire bolts at enemies
1000 cost | Increases Damage
1250 cost | AOE bolt every 4 seconds
1750 cost | AOE Slow bolt every 10 seconds

Scorpion (9) – 7600
1000 cost | Fire bolts at enemies
1600 cost | Increased dmg
2200 cost | Increased dmg, AOE Dmg, AOE size
2800 cost | Increase dmg, debuffs enemies with +100% damage taken

Outpost (10) – 4000
800 cost | Spawn Melee units on the outpost
800 cost | Increases HP
1000 cost | Increases HP, Attack Speed
1400 cost | Increases HP, Attack Speed, Spawn Rate

Basic Units
Frederick:
Will relentlessly attack any nearby unit, Very easy to pull around.
Paths along the sides or through high ground

Richard:
Will overextend to attack your archers
2 Variants. Shielded and unshielded

Dogs:
Goes straight to the blue circle without stopping or attacking
Paths along the sides

Zhuge Liang:
Targets: Blue Circle without stopping
Speedy boys.
2 Variants. shielded and unshielded.
Paths through the middle

Hanzo:
Super accurate shurikens (almost hitscan level), deals moderate damage
Prioritizes archers/heros with shurikens
Paths through middle and splits left/right

Zhang Bao: these chase archers

White Cav (Stephanie Awakening Skin):
Targets: Blue Circle
Paths through the middle or sides

Black Cav (Gerald Awakening Skin):
Targets: Units
Does a lot of damage/CC

Tachi Archers:
Paths up to high ground

Li Guang Archers:
Paths up to high ground, usually left side

Caesar Testudo:
2 variants: regular skin and Augusta legion skin
Augusta is much heavier armor and more dmg/attack speed.

Diao Chan Units:
Even faster than Zhuge units

Godfrey Units:
High Damage

Mulan Units:
Super fast units

Enemy Heroes
Centurian (Caesar):
Faster after shield breaks
2 Variants- Elite and non-elite.

Dragon Hero (Lyu Bu, unmounted):
Will relentlessly attack any nearby unit chase
Can one shot heros
Should be ignored as these will just run from one outpost to the next

Asurindaka (Zhang Fe Awakening Skin):
25% damage to base
Very high HP and very slow
Goes straight to the blue circle without stopping.
Can be body blocked
Can be kicked to stop his motion

Death Lord (Gerald Awakening Skin):
Charges at heroes
Do not stand near the blue circle as he will charge in

Enemy Spawns
wave 1 Bladesmen
wave 2 dogs, bladesmen, and pikes,
wave 3 has hanzo, archers, bladesmen, and pikes
wave 4 has pikes, fredericks, archers, bladesmen, and zhuge units
wave 5 was stally for some reason, but I dont remember why
wave 6 has white cav, dragon warriors, and bottom left spawn gate
wave 7 has zhang fei, greatswords, testudo, and black cav
Wave 8 has diao chan units, white cav on sides running long route, greatswords, and a huge amount of white cav though middle, upgraded hammers, and bottom right spawn gate
Wave 9 has 4 upgraded cesar testudo followed by caesars that javelin, lotta hammers, upgraded greatswords which are the most dangerous, then eventually 1 zhang fei from each top side
Wave 10 has deathlord – multiple zhang fei, cavalry, more spears and hammers than quantifiable.

Ability point conservation is also key. It is wise to save one or two points in the earlier waves to unlock the fourth ability early and take advantage of the first tier abilities. These first tier abilities tend to be incredibly advantageous and the most effective for their price.

Huang Yueying
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
Yueying Passive: Increases Huang Yueying’s headshot damage by +10/16/22/30% (Max Second)
When Huang Yueying kills an enemy, increases ranged damage of heroes and units by +15/25/35/45% dmg for 10 seconds
Boosts the movement speed of Heroes and Units
After disengaging, Heroes restore 5/10/15/20 HP and troops restore 2/4/6/8 HP every 3s

Joan
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
Ally Aura: Heals 4/6/8/10 hp every 5 seconds to nearby allies/outposts
Stacks with Joan’s natural 6 hp/5s aura
Gilles Passive and Joan Passive:
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of Gilles and his units.
-5s to Rally cooldown for every kill by Joan (same reduction at all ranks)
Passive: Replenish 2 Joan units every 25/20/15/10 seconds until capped at 32 (Max Second)

Sun Shangxiang
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
Ally Aura. +8/12/16/20% ranged damage aura to allied heroes, units, and siege weapons (Max Second)
Army Passive:
Increases movement speed
+HP/s when out of combat (more to hero than units)
Army Passive: Adds Attack Speed, not as useful as raw damage but applies more fire dot

Ling Tong
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
Unit Conditional: Last Stand activates upon reaching 30% hp. 2 min CD.
Last Stand: +40/120/160/200 HP for 30 seconds
Replenish HP when disengaged from combat
Passive: Replenish 2 Ling Tong units every 25/20/15/10 seconds until capped at 40 (Max Second

Lu Bu
+12/20/28/36% HP/dmg of heroes and units. (Max First)
Enemy Aura. +10/20/30/40% melee dmg taken by enemies (Max Second)
Hero Buff. +2/3/5/6% hero damage on each enemy Lu Bu kills for # seconds
Stacks up to 10 (20/30/50/60% max)
Horse Passive. Does not affect units’ horses.
+10/15/20/25 Charge value
-15/25/35/45% damage received
+40/60/80/100 HP per second when out of combat

Ling Tong: LT
Huang Yueying: YY
Lu Bu: LB
Joan: J
Sun Shangxiang: SS

LT and YY builds/defends on the left side. J and SS builds/defend on the right. LB builds down the middle, roams around, and chases after leaks.

Wave 1-5 are fairly easy.

Wave 6 – Bottom left spawns
YY should have the bottom left corner built up with 2 outposts and some turrets. YY will be soloing this corner on this wave. LB and J should be watching out for white cavs coming down the middle.

Wave 7 – Boss

When Asurindaka spawns, everyone should retreat from the front to the next outpost. He will go to the left lane. J and SS should leave their troops to hold the right side and bring their heroes to the left to help take out the boss. Body blocking and kicking are effective against him.

Wave 8 – Bottom right spawns

LT and YY stays and holds the outpost second from the front. J and SS defend the bottom right choke. Watch out for White Cavs running down left and right lane. Later, the White Cavs will run down middle. Joan and Lu Bu should position themselves to stop them.

Wave 9 – Double Asurindaka Bosses

There should be 1 fully upgraded scorpions at each of the bottom corners. Everyone will start the wave around their respective scorpions.

When Asurindakas arrive, they should be fought in range of the scorpions. It’s important for the melee to use F4 (Retreat) to keep their troops behind them to block the Asurindaka . Archers should find an angle to headshot Asura, whether it be at point blank range or high ground.

Wave 10 – Final Boss

Everyone should move to the front before start of round and do as much damage as possible. The key is to take out any Centurions you see. Everyone should retreat via the teleporter before bottom corner waves spawn. It’s very important that everyone is at full strength after retreating.

If you manage to survive long enough, the Death Lord will spawn on the right lane. He will charge at you. Be careful not to stand near the blue circle as he may charge in.