Map Type: 1-player, Strategic, Choose your own Adventure, Role-Play, Timed, Variable Paths.
The Dark Elves have been meticulously planning their assault upon the forces of Life and the Elves of the Light, and you have been thrust into the middle! Powerful allies await your decisions, vast lands and seas lay out to be explored and conquered, but it is the depth of your soul which must be triumphed over if you are to find ultimate success.
Author: Виктор, 07-04-2025 11:03 Не понравилась карта - Shadow Rising Не подойдет для тех, кто любит постепенно развивать своих героев и замки. Давно не встречал такое бестолковое начало игры.
Author: Arthur (France), 03-10-2024 16:21 Congratulations - Shadow Rising One of the best maps i've ever played, thank you very much. Finally got through in heroic mode, what a challenge. Hope you will come back one day with a new map like this one.
Author: Rishi, 07-09-2024 14:05 last portal - Shadow Rising I am not able to find the last portal. The text says that it is near the orig town, but cannot find it.
Author: Frustrated Elf (Hollanda), 01-10-2022 13:01 Like Stuck! - Shadow Rising It is extremely frustrated, i have completed all task and now it is time to face final boss , it says portal is only open 1 day and it is close to my original town but my main hero is close to Cyrystal 5. No way i can get there in 1 day. so i am stuck.. any ideas ?
Author: Cookie Magic (USA), 30-08-2022 13:49 Awesome!! - Shadow Rising Yo this map is amazing! The time limit was too short for me though. I edited the map script and found 6
months (168 days) is a good time limit to complete all main and side events and have a little bit of breathing room for mistakes, while at the same time still have the final battle challenging.
Author: Cookie Magic (USA), 30-08-2022 13:43 Awesome!! - Shadow Rising Yo this map is amazing! The time limit was too short for me though. I edited the map script and found 6
months (168 days) is a good time limit to complete all main and side events and have a little bit of breathing room for mistakes, while at the same time still have the final battle challenging.
Author: Babak, 12-07-2020 03:31 Like Awesome map - Shadow Rising Than you for a great map-scenario
Author: Nalandor (Germany), 13-12-2017 14:54 amazing - Shadow Rising I think this map "carries the torch" for this game for sure.
It`s very exiting and entertaining till day 99. Ever the Feeling that there is more....the time for this Task is very well choosed.
so, challenge on hard with dwarves and wizards and in the end heaven it needed even the drunken bastard to win. Great and outstanding map.
Mike80D (US) writes:
23-12-2017 16:57
Thanks Nalandor! - Shadow Rising
I'm glad you enjoyed it Nalandor! This map is not for everyone.
Author: Luska (Moscow, Russia), 26-09-2017 16:31 Too short time limit - Shadow Rising Very frustrating and annoying map. Time limit's way too short. Wasted my time on this.
Author: Knossos, 26-09-2017 16:24 Too short time limit - Shadow Rising Very frustrating and annoying map. Time limit's way too short.
Author: Daniel (New Zealand), 06-05-2011 14:14 Like a few ideas..cont after playing the game again, I have a few more things to add:
5, the trees blocking the bridge can be bypassed even if you picked dwarf over orcs, you just more hero next to the tre, then move forward, then moveforward again, and you are past it!
6, dragon's cave was accessible as soon as the electic barrier disappears in early stage of the game. is this intentional? well i helped my game a lot because I was getting twice as many dragons! (4 per week instead of 2)
7, my biggest and only real complaint, is that the game isnt very "multiple path" as it first appeared to be, in fact the game can only be played in a very specific way, only you get to make different allies. first Artefacts are too static, they offer no flexibility in setting up you hero, second artifacts have no use, such as shackle of man, multiple sword of balance, scroll of decay, amulet of necromancer, a number of sack of gold, and bags of gold at the end sacrifice altar. secondly the limited number of enemies and naturals means you cant get your hero more than level 27 or 28, and without memory master, as I said before, means you can really only set up you hero in one particular way, and even that isnt always possible.
Author: Daniel (New Zealand), 30-04-2011 08:13 Like a few ideas.. Let me begin by saying I think this map is very good and one can easily see the author had put in a great deal of thoughts into it, I thank you for your effort and letting us play it for free.
Here are a few possible improvements that I think deserve some mention:
1, Before playing for the first time, you would not know what you are up against or what is available in the map (unless you cheat), so you would have to make a guess on what sort of skill are best to get (mostly vs heroes or vs natural) and how far in leveling up you will be able to go, and what level you can get your secondary heroes in, and whether there are enough experience around that you can afford letting your secondary hero get some. Without memory mentor, by the time you realise the map does not allow you to get what you want to get, then you are screwed. On most single player maps, as Ranger I prefer to use imbue ballista + deepfreeze + hero cast dark magic. that is what I aimed for in this map too. unfortunately that didnt work at all because: A, I could only get to level 27 that is killing very thing on the map and wear both +xp artefact and gett8ng +45% xp all the time, B , War machine never came up, only learnt in a witch hut near dungen town , then Ballista never came up, C, there are not many dark magic in the whole map, D, stuck with Light magic taking up a slot, E, the map had no spell power boosters and very few spell power boosting artifacts, F, I couldnt find the +50% cold magic artefact (which normally is quite common). So I ended up with a much-less-than-ideal hero who has expert dustruction magic but does only 240 dmg with fireball with the pheonix cape! now I think since many people would be in the same position as I am, a memory mentor that allows a change in hero setup is a must.
2, someone mentioned the need for renegeration, i think if that magic is so decisive in making or breaking the game, then its appearance should not be left at chance. you should make it either always available so players dont have to keep reloading, or never available so people can just explore other strategies. (but do tweak the map so it is still winnable)
3, another thing I found frustrating is that at times the directions are not so clear. for example before the last fight, it says there will be a portal connect capitol to the underground, I spent ages looking for the portal, after giving up in frustration I found the next day that i was never suppose to have access to the portal, the enemy comes to me! this kind of confusion happened in a few other places too.
4, as others already mentioned, there is this undebuggable bug of Tear of Asha being unobtainable, this happened to me too. It was very frustrating because during the game play I think I would have spent no less than 30 minutes of my time getting heroes to visit the oblisks, and quite a bit of time standing in different spots, using different heroes, trying to work out why I couldnt dig. But as you say it was not that important because you wouldnt find it until very late in the game. So I would suggest it should be removed, completely, maybe instead replace it with the rest of of the dragon armour, so in the end of the game player can get +1 dragon per day. (which is why one would want tear of asha anyway, to get more units for the final battle)
Author: Mike80d (USA), 06-03-2011 20:09 @Mane Thanks for figuring out what the problem was. As far as the difficulty goes, don't feel too bad b/c I designed it to be challenging.
I think you'll find it much more manageable if you go a bit faster, capture the 5th crystal (which is imperative.. it drops his army by 15% btw), and gain the additional alliance ;)
You're right, if all you get are the 4 crystals then it's nearly impossible. But as you can see by other people's comments there are some superb homm players out there (much better than me lol).
Hopefully you try again, experiment with different alliances, and beat it!
Author: mane (usa), 06-03-2011 19:24 turn on eyecandies before loading map It's this, eyecandies must be enabled before the map is loaded. If you load the map and then enable them, it's too late,and graphics will never show corrctly.
I'm glad I solved that, and I've been able to play the map to completion, but I still think it's too difficult. Playing the moderate version of the mapmap on skill level hard, I was woefuly unable to win the final battle.
I captured four of the five crystals and even found the naga spirit island, but the final general had ridiculous amount of troops - 70 level 2/3 dragons, 80 shadow witches, 400 assasins, 700 minotaurs, 400 blood sisters, 300 lizard riders, 150 hydra - give me a frigging break, how can I beat that with the pathetic army that is able to be built up in 16 weeks.
Even having the added generals, with their dozen or so level 7 troops, etc, it's hopeless.
Author: Mike80D (USA), 04-03-2011 21:15 @Mane I don't understand why you are having bugs. As you can see by the previous comments and testers, no-one had any such bugs with this map.
As long as you allow eye candies and you don't have mods from other maps affecting this map, it should work perfectly. Countless people have gotten it to work just fine, without need for revision.
Author: mane (USA), 04-03-2011 19:04 map too buggy It was a nice idea, but with all the visual glitches, it's impossible to know what to do next. I spent so much time running around testing this and that, trying to discover what I should be doing. On a map with a five month (?) time limit, that is inexcusable. Sorry, it needs major revision.
Author: mane (USA), 04-03-2011 00:01 problems How do I get to the Dark Elves across the bridge? Access to the bridge is blocked by trees.
Also, I have turned OFF "No Eyecandies" (stupid to turn ON an option by turning it OFF, but whatever), yet I still have many objects invisible to me - might this be the problem I am having in crossing the bridge?
And, in desperation, I clicked on the Tree of Life - and was teleported to the batle of Heaven vs Hell - even though my Tree is only Level 2!
Broken map? Help please?
Author: klman (New York, US), 19-02-2011 19:36 excellent map Many thanks to the author for this great and unique map.
I've finished Challenging mode on heroic. I think it is not so challenging when you get the "regenaration&q uot; spell. I chose Dwarf, Necromancer and Hell as allies.
With "Silent Stalker", in the underground below Sandro's prison I saw 2 heroes and a town (purple color). Those heroes have lots of black dragons but there is no way to reach them.
My heroes couldn't retreat (flee or surrender) because I cannot find them from the tarven.
Author: Santy (Valencia, Spain), 10-02-2011 22:16 Like I need some help I can´t to find the last challenge, I just getting to kill the demond lord, what I must do?
Author: Žika (Novi Sad, Serbia), 09-02-2011 22:43 Like nice map :) had good time playing the map challenging difficulty version, on heroic level, and yes as the author said every move counts , so I had to play at maximum speed and on the edge, eventually the final battle was easy after every hero made an attack :)))
Author: Rentz (Pärnu, Estonia), 04-02-2011 18:00 Challenging So yeah , i just finished Challenging difficulity, and seriously, it was serious pain in the ass :D, but i loved it. In last fight i lost every unit except 2 treats :D i barely was able to finish it, threw a final hit a hydras with luck and gg. :D Love the Map. Maybe make a 2nd part to this? :D
Author: Tom (Indiana), 01-02-2011 23:33 re leloup thanks i will try all those things out
Author: Leloup (China), 01-02-2011 20:58 Re: re Tom I think I have already posted too many comments on this map :) After finishing the quest of cristals you'd have an underground lair of dragons if you travel to a cave-like place close to the starting town, and you can always summon troops from the third forest town.
Author: Leloup (China), 01-02-2011 20:53 One last suggestion Although I did not dig up the tear of asha, the place where this grail is supposedly buried is useful because there you can summon troops from the third forest town!
Author: Leloup (China), 01-02-2011 20:46 Re Mike I took babarians as the first ally simply because I could see they offer more troups of my own kinds :) I guess if I choose dwarves then I'd have more money. But in order to gain speed I'd rather have more archers. I take mages as the second ally because they offer a light house. With this light house I could conquer the third forest town in good time. The third ally, maybe I should take hell, but I chose heaven instead. I guess if one takes hell as ally at least the final boss would be deprived of all mana. But as things stand your allied heroes are hardly helpful. Tom mentioned that the boss hardly spent any mana before the final battle. That was true with me too. Their troops could hardly withstand one blow from dark or red dragons.
The development of the main hero: nature's luck (natural luck?) plus expert enlightenment (with 'know your enemy'). Level 27 or 28 was almost the top limit.
Author: Leloup (China), 01-02-2011 20:37 Re Tom I actually had an army of 79 dragons at the first try of the moderate level. No I did not edit the map. There was no dragon week and I had the dragon lair by the third week (because I took on the heroic level - but whatever level you take you cannot have a dragon lair until the third week since the starting town is level 1 on day one). I believe one can have an army more than that amount if you could finish the quest of five cristals in good time. On my second try, I ventured challenging mode, level hard, and took out all accesible towns by day 1 week 4 month 2. I think one can amass an army like that even without grail, which i did not get.
Yes it was rather odd, but I simply could not 'dig' in this map. I found the location of the grail all right, but when a new day begins it was just impossible for me to dig, although I was standing on top of the grail. Not sure of the reason though.
My trick is this: lose no army all the way through. And this is not difficult if you have the spell 'regeneration&# 039; in your starting town. To be honest I restarted as least a dozen times in order to get that spell. With regeneration (or what is the name?) and haste and dragons, well, the rest is easy. It was only with beating the first enemy hero (the static one) that one is likely to lose a bit of troops. Althogh speed is the key I actually had my main hero wandering on the ocean for five whole days (the patch of water close to the starting town) in order to have zero-lost battles against the dwarves.
Once again thanks to the author for the wonderful map.
Author: Tom (Indiana), 31-01-2011 17:49 In re to Leloup If your dragon den is built by the second week, the most dragons you could ever amass is 29. this is a 16 week game @ 2 dragons max per week and 1 on build, or do you get more on heroic difficulty? did you edit map?
Author: Mike80D (USA), 30-01-2011 19:34 Thank you Leloup! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, and hope you beat it on Heroic & Challenging mode! There's a prize for beating Challenging, one of which is that the subtle secret places/artifacts/tre asures scattered throughout the map will be revealed to you!
You certainly had a bigger army than I ever finished with lol.
Regards to Tears of Asha: I am not sure why it sometimes does not allow it to be dug up. It's "hit or miss" :( I'm aware of it, but fortunately it doesn't impact the map much.
Which Factions did you form an alliance with?
Thanks again for taking the time to beat it & leave a great comment :)
Author: Leloup (China), 30-01-2011 17:36 Simply superb! Wow! What can I say? This is simply THE best single-person scenario map I have ever played with Homm5! And I have played almost every such map in this archive. The author's attention to details is simply exquisite, which make game-playing such a delight! The story-telling is excellent, and it makes game-playing a really emotional experience. I tried 'moderate' on heroic level. The game is smooth and if you are careful with preserving your troops from the very beginning, the final battle is not hard at all. I ended up with 80 emrald dragons, about 450 hunters, and close to 1k of spirit. This force annhilated the enemy almost instantly. But as I said, the fun was with the entire process of playing the game. Super job!
One question: the tear of asha is not available on the moderate version, right? My hero cannot dig up the artefact where it is supposedly buried.
And one comment. Maybe it is preferable to remove creature weeks. The problem I encountered was that a stack of creature blocked my underground dragon lair, and this stack cannot even be accessed.
The beginning and the ending of the game is such that I have never seen before. Creative indeed. I think the author should put his/her image in that 'tunnel of honor' as well! My homage to the author and his/her brilliant work!
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