Xeron and DM Chronicles Run Guide (by Tilwin)

(this guide is brought to you by Tilwin (EU-56))
Chronicles is a new fun and exciting PvE game mode that is supposedly going to take place recurrently. For two weeks, you may enjoy it as many times as you want - though only the first two runs are free.
Because of this diamond barrier, some players may want to complete it in the first two runs and obtain all the rewards. This guide here is based on my personal experience with Chronicles after having played it several times and figuring out some of the choices that have made the run pretty easy.
=Preliminary Remarks=
* Story cards choices matter - that is, a choice you make in an earlier chapter may have consequences later when making subsequent choices. Since there are many combinations the community has yet to figure out exactly how these paths play out. But in case on multiple runs you find an individual choice yielding different results, this is the cause.
* Chronicles plays very differently from your main formations - there are no awakenings, no emblems, heroes are standard (kind of like in DoC), there are lots of buffs and standard 6* units with all skills maxed out, not to mention multiple copies of the same unit in your formation (and most importantly, your opponent's). Therefore, don't expect that what you emulate in regular play to necessarily work here. 
* Most recruitable units and heroes options are random. There are runs when certain SR+ and SSR units may be available and others when you won't see a single copy. No worries however, there are sufficient good choices out there to make it through the game successfully. I will try to give you good options for each stage of the game.
* Be mindful about silver - until the late chapters it's going to be scarce and you will always have trouble keeping a hold on it. This means we want to minimize disbanding units or getting too many heroes. You can get away with a minimum of 2-3 hero purchases in the entire run, if you're unlucky or want to experiment, up to 5.
* Don't recruit all units just because you can. Recruit what makes sense and you will include in your formation. Check below for a list of highly recommended units but be careful you can actually fit it in. I wouldn't get a fourth Wyvern for instance if I don't have room for him in the formation - and most likely I won't - though I might be tempted to get four Red Dragons and just build a pure melee formation. However, 4 Waspworts or Shark Tamers are perfectly fine since the backline and chargers are usually more flexible. If you already have a Regnan Seer and two Giants though, I would not get another Waspwort.
* Survivability is key. Try to minimize losing units - with no casualties if possible. You can retry the same match several times - but you have to exit it before it finishes in either a win or loss (the game won't explicitly allow you to retry once a battle is over). This is similar to Crypt and Dwarven Treasury. Just be quick on your toes and ready to restart before it's too late. 
* If a match ends in a draw, you killed at least one opposing unit and you didn't lose any of yours, it's perfect! Let the battle end in a draw. Your units will stay alive and you can continue chipping at your opponent's formation unit by unit. This is particularly useful against those formations composed exclusively or mostly of defensive units.
=Buffs=
* With some exceptions, global buffs (golden, that benefit your entire army) are preferable to specific unit buffs. Especially in the early game, you will eventually disband all units, and with them the buffs go away.
* Ignore the elemental marks - you can assemble some mana bonus that otherwise you can get anyway. I also ignore faction-specific buffs - if you are forced to choose one of those, pick whatever works at the moment but don't place it on a unit that could benefit from better buffs.
* Favor unit defense and offense over everything else as long as they are global buffs - with defense having slightly higher priority. Unit Damage Reduction, Unit Health, Unit Damage, Hero Defense and Hero Offense are some of the top picks (ignore Intelligence, Knowledge, Dodge, Tenacity and other mumbo jumbo unless there are useless options). You want a good mix of offense and defense in the end so try to keep the balance as you see fit here, but I found initial defense to be better for survivability. 
* Favor extra units slots to extra hero slots. 2 hero slots are more than enough - you won't be recruiting many of them, point in which disbanding older ones will be perfectly fine. However having some unit flexibility is important - especially since units may die, and you always want to have a backup.
* I like having two mana (or three) bonuses over the run - either twice +initial mana, or +initial mana and +mana regeneration. With no Magic Guild or Wizard's Well available, mana will be an issue and you want to cast those ultimates as early as possible with your premium heroes.
* Out of all cooldowns I prefer fire - since this guide favors Xeron and Dragon Mutare it will benefit you best. You can go general cooldown if you prefer to stay flexible.
* If there are bad options, you can always go for unit specific buffs (for example I still prefer +40% damage reduction on an important tank to +100 Intelligence for instance) but be mindful on which units you put them - preferably UR if they are very good, otherwise SSR or SR+ units you expect to keep in the long run.
* Unit buffs that I like are making the unit immortal (always healed after battle), gaining mana regeneration via the unit, burning or debuffing enemy units, and unit-specific buffs (for SSR only).
=Unit Evaluation=
In all honesty, I haven't experimented with all units in Chronicles, but here are those that I find work absolutely best. If you see any of these dropping, grab them without questioning it too much (unless you already have sufficient copies of better units). I would personally favor them in the order written here but it's up to you if you have a different preference. 
* Damage Dealers: Regnan Seer, Red Dragon (absolute MVP), Giant, Shark Tamer, Waspwort, Wyvern, Regnan Archer, Green Dragon
* Tanks: Dragon Golem, Black Dragon, Dragon Turtle, Behemoth
* Supports: I don't think you care too much about supports in Chronicles. If you can kill your opponent fast enough they are more or less irrelevant.
=Powerful enemies=
* In the early game, everything is dangerous. Hero spells deal a significant amount of damage so watch out for that - try to finish battles fast.
* All UR units are dangerous but by far I found the most powerful to be Troll, Dragon Golem, Venom Spawn, Regnan Seer and Ice Demon. Watch out for those as they kill you very fast - Troll alone can erase an entire formation if not killed fast after enraged! Backline units should be targeted with chargers or putting a Devil against them (in the early game) to deal with them fast. The more they stay on the battlefield, the more dangerous their Domain ability is.
* Kilgor with multiple Behemoths are a real pain in this game mode especially when backed up by Trolls. They are immune to stun, and multiple means you have to kill each of them one at a time to trigger their invulnerability. I found Astral works slightly better than Dragon Mutare in these particular matches, but by a small margin so he's not a must. Also remember some of the fights can be skipped - in the final chapter I tend to skip some of these Kilgors as they would take too many tries and healings and at that point it's not worth the effort - but if you want a challenge, go ahead.
* There are some super annoying defensive formations such as Gem with plenty of Dendroid Guards or Astral with 8x Dragon Golem. Be prepared to either repeat the battles and chipping away at enemy formation slowly, or rely on heavy burst damage - abuse enemy formation with chargers, heavy burst etc. I don't think Berserker is necessary (and don't forget Serpent Fly doesn't work because you would need Korbac too, and I don't see that reason enough to get Korbac here in Chronicles) to take out Gems btw so don't bother wasting silver on that.
* Every chapter in general there will be a couple of unbeatable battles. Remember that although it is recommended to beat everything you can (and get that awesome silver), you don't have to win every battle - just beat the final boss - to advance to the next chapter.
=Card Order=
For every chapter, choosing the cards in the right order is important.
* In general start with buff cards. The only situation in which I would close the buff card (not skip) and come back later would be for unit-specific buffs - if you have other choices who knows, maybe you'll be able to recruit just that unit and come back to buff it.
* If you don't have enough silver to recruit important units, no problem. Recruit the most important you can afford, close the card (don't skip), do some battles, get some silver, then come back to recruit some more.
* Story cards can also be done as soon as possible since worst case scenario they transform into battles - but they might instead give you buffs, unit or hero recruitment cards.
* If you have all-battle cards start from the easiest battle to the most difficult. Some battle cards are followed by more support cards, and then they can help you increase your power. 
* Once again, remember you don't have to beat everyone to advance to the next chapter - just the final boss.
=Early Game=
These are chapters 1-2, and is the most difficult part in my opinion, because you heavily rely on "what the game gives you".
This is the stage in which you can't recruit premium heroes, there are (almost) no SSR units available and SR+ units are scarce.
==Chapter 1==
Initial Hero: If available, grab Crag Hack. Until the first good premium hero shows up, he is your best option due to debuff (Earth Arrow) and strong melee units synergy. If not available, grab Catherine (she's not amazing but she has some decent spells at this stage).
Early units: There won't be many good choices here so you have to be careful what you get. 
* You want to grab 2-3 tanks, preferably decent ones. Top of the game would be Dendroid Guard and Ogre, but I found Centaur, Swordsman (especially if you have Catherine) and Demon to also be okay. Don't be picky at first though, two tanks are absolute must.
* Make sure you are able to deal damage with your units. Firebird, Cavalier, Roc, Vampire, Efreeti are all decent choices.
* Having a unit to boost your survivability will help you later on but don't despair if none is available. Pit Fiend is probably the best choice here, but Monk will also work fine at this stage.
In the initial recruitment you can get away with the first 3 (mandatory), and 2 more (if there are for instance 3 tank options out of which only 1 is good, it's fine at this point to skip one tank)
Be careful with chargers - they are fine at dealing damage but are also much easier to kill. We absolutely value survivability here to not have to resort to unit heals.
Secondary Hero: You won't need any if you already grabbed Crag Hack. Otherwise, keep your eyes out there for him, Jeddite or Solmyr (in this order). I wouldn't recruit any other hero, and exactly ONE out of these! - if let's say you recruited Solmyr as a second hero, don't get Crag too just because he shows up later; it's too much of a silver waste, you will have to make do with Solmyr until we get our first premium hero.
Important Choices:
* Building army: Take from the villagers. You will obtain an immediate 100 silver coins which is god-given to survive in the early game and recruit good units. I always do this.
* In general I preferred to do evil choices though I'm not sure whatever I picked if it influenced the important choices from chapters 2 or 3.
You should be able to eventually do all battles except for the crazy one with Yog and 8 Cyclops - if you find that you would lose (too many) units in it, you might as well skip it - the silver gained would not justify the casualties. It's important to battle as much as possible to get as much silver as possible, but not at the expense of losing more via casualties - resort to healing only when there are 4 battle cards and you can't beat any of them without losing at least one unit.
This is the most swingy stage so good luck with it. By the end of it, you should have at least a full formation (8 units), hopefully a good non-premium hero and sufficient silver left. It's very important you recruit sufficient good units to finish the stage but not over-recruit as next chapter you start getting some better stuff.
==Chapter 2==
You will start to get some SR+ unit choices here so you can get some better stuff.
Important Choices:
* When to attack: Wait more - it will keep repeating the option, keep opting for more waiting. This will yield you some silver, but most importantly, you should eventually get a Devil unit. Some people reported they don't end up here, hence why I recommend evil choices in Chapter 1 - in my runs only once I didn't get the Devil. This Devil will be crucial until the late-game when we will eventually drop him. You will also get a buff for him - I choice the immortality (if available), since Devil tends to get himself killed and we don't want to waste silver on healing him again and again.
* Hydras and Hellhounds - 2 Hydra, 5 Hell Hound
* Imp Kid - take a breath.
Unit Recruitment: Since we are aiming for a Xeron Inferno build, getting your hands on one Pit Fiend, one or two Nightmares is not a bad idea. Other than that Waspwort, Wyvern, Stone Elemental and Revyaratan are also decent options. If you get none of these use sound judgement to improve your team.
Once you get your Devil things should get easier. There are no premium heroes obtainable hero if I remember correctly.
=Mid-Game=
Chapters 3-5 are about the mid-game. At this point our formation will start featuring some powerful units that will carry us into the late-game. Also our goal here is to recruit Xeron as soon as possible, and then keep our eyes open for Dragon Mutare. Until the end of the game these are the only heroes we will "need".
In terms of units we also get our hands on Shark Tamer and Dragon Golem both of which can stick with us until the end of the run.
Notice that while Devil will carry you for a while, but in the late game there are some units that render him quite vulnerable. Troll, Judicator, Dragon Golem all seriously affect the effectiveness of Devil strategies in the late game (I tried at some point a Xeron with 3 devils and he was still underwhelming against these opponents).
With this in mind, it is not a bad idea to recruit a second Devil if it becomes available - it will pay off for a while. 
==Chapter 3==
It's time to unlock some of the assets that make the game very easy.
* Choose food: pick the Revyaratan head. This will allow you to recruit Shark Tamer. Grab him without question!
* The Demon Apple: Take the apple. Xeron should be available to recruit. Take him (you can can disband an early hero unless you got Crag Hack from the beginning).
* Genie: Choose "none of them" (the alternatives are Silver and Gold, but don't pick either). This will open the option for Dragon Golem in the next chapter.
* Naming a nation: pick Tatalia to get some extra silver.
* Number of Direction: I always pick number and get some buff every time. This will also appear in future chapters.
At this point you should start getting some good SR+ units to recruit. I also found an Inferno heavy build to work fine at this stage too since it will synergize with Xeron's ultimate - but I still find Waspwort and/or Wyvern to be superior damage dealers so if you get the option to grab them, do so.
Be careful about positioning your Devil and rely on Xeron's ultimate for even more burst damage. The pair of Devils can erase most formations on their own at this point.
==Chapter 4==
This is where the battles start to get difficult but luckily if you have Xeron and a couple key SR+ and/or SSRs they should be doable. We also finally get our hands on Dragon Golem - an insanely strong tank will stay with you until the end.
* Magic Circle - step into the circle. If you chose "neither is my genie" in Chapter 3, you will be able to recruit a Dragon Golem for 100 silver. Don't skip this opportunity!
* Green Hat - wear it for a significant buff
I haven't found any special choices here other than that. 
==Chapter 5==
You are already armed with some pretty strong units but at this point SSR choices start to appear. Keep an eye out for the top units mentioned at the top of the guide and don't be afraid to aggressively disband units that may seem remotely good to make room for better options (yes, sure Nightmare is fine in Xeron, but a Dragon Turtle or Black Dragon are far better tanks regardless of the hero used; Pit Fiend is also vastly underwhelming at this point in the game). 
I don't remember having any significant story choices here.
=Late Game=
At this point all chapters play quite similarly and the path is clear:
* If you have Dragon Mutare or Astral at this point you can retire Xeron. He has served his purpose by pulling you through the mid-game.
* Keep an eye for the top units mentioned at the beginning of the guide. Unit choices and blessings at this point appear mostly at the beginning of the chapter, and you should have enough silver to go through them before proceeding with the chapter.
* You should easily end up with a formation that features mostly strong SSR units (I found Black Knight, Naga, Leprechaun, Berserker, etc. to be underwhelming for the particular build here). The absolute MVP remains Red Dragon - I would always grab as many copies as option and make room for them. An army of Red Dragons wipes out almost any formation in a matter of seconds.
The only significant choice here I can remember is fighting some Sea Storm army in chapter 7. If you do, you will be able to recruit Regnan Seer. Together with Dragon Golem they are the only two UR units I have been able to recruit, but if you picked enough good SSRs you should pull through nicely.
==Example Formations==
Here are some examples of formations I pulled off in the late game following this approach (Regnan Seer and Dragon Golem were always present for me as they are just that good):
* 2x Red Dragon, 1x Wyvern, 2x Black Dragon, 1x Green Dragon (obviously Dragon Mutare)
* 3x Shark Tamer, 1x Dragon Turtle, 1x Giant, 1x Red Dragon (I went Astral)
* 3x Giant, 2x Red Dragon, 1x Black Dragon (either Dragon Mutare or Astral work in this case)
* 3x Waspwort, 2x Gorgon, 1x Hydra (I initially chose Tazar but eventually switched to Dragon Mutare for highly similar results)
* 1x Dragon Turtle, 1x Regnan Archer, 4x Shark Tamer (still Dragon Mutare as Cassanbel never seems to be available for recruiting)
=Conclusion=
And this is pretty much the way you can go through Chronicles. Of course if you have enough diamonds and wish to experiment, go ahead and deviate from the choices described here. I hear all UR units are obtainable but I suspect since I always went the Devil and Xeron approach I missed many of the story options that pulled me in that direction. 
Whatever you do, have fun. Subsequent runs don't give more rewards until the "season" ends anyway so it's mostly about having fun and building overpowered formations.
Category:Guides