Undead Guide

Advantage: Powerful Debuffs and numerous summons
Disadvantage: Vulnerable to aoe damage and silence

Playstyle: Overwhelm your opponents with numerous summons and debuffs.

Strong against: Night elves final round

Even against: Orc, Night elves rounds 5-7

Weak against: Humans, Night elves rounds 1-4

Undead is the hardest race to play and difficult to master. Undead units requires great understanding of synergy. Their build requires a lot of switching build with a lot of varieties which can make playing undead confusing. They are highly vulnerable to aoe damage which makes their early round difficult to win against humans and night elves. Undead has the best summons in the game.

## Build Order

Opening with ghouls is the safest opening for undead. If you want to win the 1st round, open ghoul with gargoyle as they beat most openings. Gargoyle will take out the support and range while ghoul will take out the front line. However, this opening loses if they have high elves archer as range damage. From this opening, you can branch out to necromancer/mannoroth summon oriented build or dreadlord lifesteal oriented build, or death knight speed oriented build.

### Summon/Caster Oriented Build

Simplest and most popular build is to mass ghouls on the early rounds then slowly add necromancers, mannoroth and magtheridon. Ghouls provide meatshield and corpses for necromancer summons. The build normally tries to overwhelm your opponent through summons. Since humans and night elves usually comes with aoe splash damage which decimates your ghouls and summons, aim to blow backline by using gargoyles. If facing orcs or opponent is using expensive melee units, get early banshee king and possibly a second one to steal their expensive units.

Round 1 (45 gold): Ghoul front

Round 2 (135 gold): Add 1 ghoul on front and 1 ghoul on flank

Round 3 (315 gold): Black kel, thuzad

Round 4 (510 gold): ghoul front, banshee rear, 2 ghoul flank

Round 5 (810 gold): banshee to banshee king and kel thuzad rear

Round 6 (1140 gold).: Magtheridon, necromancer, statue rear

Round 7 (1530 gold): Magtheridon rear, upgrade necromancer to kel thuzad, statue front

Extra gold = more ghouls or gargoyle if aiming to blow up backline. On later rounds use extra gold for a mannoroth and statues to transition to bonus build.

### Dreadlord Variation

Instead of having necromancer, you can build for lifesteal for increase survivability of your ghouls. You are delaying summons to later rounds, but you will have lifesteal and a powerful melee unit.

Round 1 (45 gold): ghoul front

Round 2 (150 gold): 1 abomination front, 1 ghoul flank

Round 3 (300 gold): abomination to dreadlord

Round 4 (510): Dreadlord front

Round 5 (780): Banshee king rear, 1 ghoul flank, 1 ghoul front

Round 6 (1140): 2 kel thuzad rear

Round 7 (1470): Magtheridon, 2 statues front

### Bonus Build 1a: Caster (Cost = 1770) + 45

**Front (Value = 210 + 10x60 = 810)**

1 mannoroth, 10 statues

**Rear (Value = 180 x 2 + 180 + 210x2 = 960)**

2 black kel'thuzad, 1 Banshee King, 2 magtheridon

**Flank (Value = 45)**

Optional ghoul

**Extra Gold:** More statues, +1 kel'thuzad or 1-2 dreadlord

### Bonus Build 1b: Caster (Cost = 1980) + 45

**Front (Value = 210x2 + 10x60 = 1020)**

2 Dreadlord, 10 statues

**Rear (Value = 180 x 2 + 180 + 210x2 = 960)**

2 black kel'thuzad, 1 Banshee King, 2 magtheridon

**Flank (Value = 45)**

Optional ghoul

**Extra Gold:** More statues, +1 kel'thuzad or 1 mannoroth

Sell all ghouls or keep 1 stack to prevent mannoroth or dreadlord from dying too early. You should have 1 mannoroth or 1-2 dreadlord on front, 10+ unupgraded statues, 2-3 black kel thuzad, 1 Banshee King, 2 Magtheridon. Magtheridon should be on the back of support units to get trapped on the back to prevent getting sniped. This build will provide doomguard and infernal summons while continously stunning to buy you time for more summons. Statues provide heal and mana regen, mannoroth provide infernal, kel'thuzad provides doom guard, dreadlord provide lifesteal and increase survivability for summons, Banshee king increases duration of summons and magtheridon provides cooldown reduction. This build should give you 20-30k lumber. If you are fed enough, you can have 2 dreadlord and 1 mannoroth on front which can give you 40-60k lumber with the right items and luck.

### Speed Build

A good counter to humans and night elves. This build relies on aura buffs which reduces vulnerability to silence as well as health increase to ghouls to reduce aoe damage vulnerability with health regen and lifesteal. General strategy is to hold the front line while decimating flank. Flank units comes in for a pincer attack to kill the backline support. Its 30k bonus build tends to be expensive, so it tends to be riskier.

Round 1: ghoul on flank + save

Round 2: 1 ghoul on flank + 1 ghoul on front

Round 3: upgrade abom to death knight on flank

Round 4: death knight on flank + revenant front

Round 5: dreadlord front + revenant front

Round 6: dreadlord front + Banshee king + infernal machines

Round 7: Upgraded crypt lord + infernal machines + revenants

### Bonus Build 2: Speed (Cost = 2100)

**Front (Cost = 4 x 45 + 6 x 45 + 210 x 2 = 870)**

4 upgraded revenants, 6 upgraded infernal machines, 2 dreadlord behind

**Back (Cost = 180 + 180 = 360)**

1 Banshee King, 1 crypt lord

**Flank(Cost = 4 x 45 + 6 x 45 + 210 x 2 = 870)**

4 upgraded revenants, 6 upgraded infernal machines, 2 death knight behind

**Extra Gold:** +1 crypt lord, magtheridon or mannoroth
2xDreadlord provides aura for infernal machines' attack speed x 2 and revenant's magic damage vulnerability debuff. 2xDeath Knight provides damage reduction for revenants. Need 2xDK and 2xDL to keep aura, which is why they have to be put behind to prevent from being sniped. This bonus gives 20-30k lumber without any items and has the potential to reach 60k with the right items and luck.

### Final Build 1: Battle Golem Focused Build

Strong against: Night Elves, Orc grunt party

Weak against: Undead Caster and Air Cheese, Humans with mountain king and Human Air Cheese

Even footing: Orc

1-2 x crypt lord, 1 battle golem, 2 magtheridon, 1 mannoroth, 8+Abomination

**Extra Gold:** More abomination

With this build, you are relying on 1 unit to destroy all oppositions. Battle golem requires 16 abomination corpses to get debuff immunity. It can take an unlimited amount of abomination corpses with hp and damage growing each time. Making 2 or more battle golem is not advisable as they compete for the corpses resulting in them both to be weak and not having debuff immunity. Magtheridon and mannoroth provides 2 abomination each but their corpses dont provide nourishment. Battle golem comes with flesh golem and abomination with flesh golem counting as 1 abomination corpse. Crypt lord provides anti air and can be skipped if you are sure there will be no flying units. This is a transition from Summon bonus build. Sell all statues, necromancers and banshee to transition to this build.

This build is strong against night elves because night elves' dps is mostly piercing damage, which is weak against battle golem's heavy armor. BG also stacks armor and hp with more abomination corpses. This build is weak against humans with a mountain king because of the stun while fire mages high magic damage shoot the BG down. It is also weak against Air cheese from both undead and humans due to not having enough anti air. Undead Caster build is strong against this especially if it has a lot of banshee. Stealing abomination denies BG nourishment and liches damage according to % max hp makes its high hp not a problem. This is on equal footing with orc as long as it is not grunt party. Grunt party loses to this for the same reason that night elves struggle with this; reliance to piercing range damage for dps.

### Final Build 2a: Caster Style

Strong Against: Orc, Undead BG, Undead Air Cheese, Human Air Cheese

Weak against: Human except air cheese, Night Elves

This build is also a smooth transition from Caster Bonus Build. Upgrade 1 or 2 statues to destroyers and sell the rest of the statues. You can keep or sell dreadlord. Add 3 or more stacks of ghouls on front to provide corpses for necromancer's summon. Add white Kel'Thuzad and Banshees. Add 2-3 liches. Add 1 crypt lord.

**Front:** 3+ ghouls

**Back:** 1-2 destroyers, 1 meatwagon, 2+ white kel'thuzad, 2+ black kel'thuzad, 2+Banshees, 2-3 liches, 1 crypt lord, 2 Magtheridon

**Flank:** more ghouls or keep empty.

**Extra Gold:** More white kel'thuzad or banshee

This is strong against orc and undead bg due to endless wave of summons creating a wall against melee units while Banshee King continuously stealing units and liches blasting them with aoe %hp damage. This is weak against humans and night elves due to humans' silence and aoe damage and night elves aoe damage and fraerie dragon's ability to snipe your necromancers. Air cheese is not a problem for this build due to its tendency to clump up which leaves them vulnerable to aoe damage from liches while summons protects your backline.

### Final Build 2b: Choke Caster Build

Same as Caster build but takes it to the next level by luring your enemies to fight on a narrow choke.

**Extremely Strong Against:** Orc except orc choke

**Good Against:** Human and Undead Air Cheese, Undead BG

**Extremely Weak Against:** Humans, Night Elves, orc choke

**Front:** None

**Flank:** None

**Back:** 10+ ghouls, 1 meat wagon, 1 destroyer, 3+ white kel'thuzad, 2+ Banshee King, 2-3 liches, 1 crypt lord, 2 magtheridon

**Extra Gold:** More white kel'thuzad and banshees, black kel'thuzad optional.

This build is extremely strong against orc because most orc build relies on melee. Grunt party loses to this as well as their dps range will be too busy shooting the summon while they get blasted by liches aoe. BG is weak against this as well due to being reliant on melee damage. This is slightly weaker compares to regular caster build against air due to heavy investment on ghouls being 10x45 = 450 which means it actually becomes weaker against everything else. This is extremely weak against humans and night elves as they will happily shoot you with longer ranged aoe damage while you trapped yourself in a choke point. The orc answer to this is their own version of choke which forces both of you to fight in the open. Orc will still have some heavy melee damage while you are mostly caster and orc will make short work of your fragile units.

### Final Build 3a: Air Build

Considered a cheese build, you aim to surprise your opponent with a big air only army. If they don't have enough anti-air, they will lose.

**Strong Against:** Undead BG, Humans with no flying machine

**Decent Against:** Night Elves

**Weak Against:** Orc, Humans with flying machine, Undead caster

**Front:** Gargoyles and frost wyrms

**Rear:** Gargoyles and frost wyrms

**Flank:** Gargoyles and frost wyrms

BG is weak against this due to lack of anti air. If Humans has no flying machine, they will lose to this. Humans counter this by building at least 1 flying machine which deals air aoe damage. With night elves is hit or miss, they are mostly ranged damage but lack air aoe so they need more anti air to fight this. If night elves reduces its ranged piercing damage in exchange for another unit, to counter another player, then you might catch them by surprise. Orc deals with this no problem due to orcs normally having farseer and lots of troll berserkers and windrider.

### Finals Build 3b: Rear Pulverizer Build

Similar to air cheese with mannoroth and black kel'thuzad. This build tries to deal with anti air by blowing up the backline with doomguards and infernals. This is undead's answer to humans with flying machine. It is hard to snipe the human's flying machine. To increase chances of eliminating that one unit that decimates your gargoyles, you aim to cause a chain explosion on the rear that likely to eliminate flying machine.

**Strong Against:** Undead BG, Humans with no flying machine

**Decent Against:** Night Elves, Humans with flying machine

**Weak Against:** Orc, Undead caster

**Front:** 1 mannoroth, 4-5 black kel'thuzad

**Rear:** Gargoyles and frost wyrms

**Flank:** Gargoyles and frost wyrms

### Hybrid Builds

You can combine several ideas of build such as adding liches, necromancer and banshees to Battle Golem Build to have a caster/battle golem hybrid. This is only possible if you have enough gold. Do note that it is still advisable to have 16 abomination to complete Battle Golem Build. Adding liches, necromancer and banshee to Battle golem makes the build more well rounded and resistant to cheeses.

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