Introduction to GhostDragon's Guide

Links to guides at the bottom of the page.

## Purpose

This guide, updated to V15.6 (April 2023) is mainly focused on the Hero Perks and Hero Mastery Orders for Oldschool and Hellwalker games, since this is the very foundation of playing each hero properly.

This guide applies to:

1. Oldschool and Hellwalker games
2. Multiplayer games (Not solo)
3. Normal games (Not speedruns)

## Intended audience of the guide

This guide applies to Oldschool and Hellwalker games. No matter how experienced a player is, there is always something new to learn, and I myself learned many new things and improved my existing knowledge base while setting up this guide.

## Why read the guide?

As from V15.6, those perks and mastery orders are optimal. They have been tested countless times, for each and every hero.

Credibility is extremely important. Having worked on all heroes for Inferno, Oldschool and Hellwalker difficulties in the highest levels of the game, I am confident that those guides are 99% solid. I have included the Achivements on a Timeline section to show the important breakthroughs that happened after my painstaking efforts to optimise the hero builds and the optimal paths and strategies for multiplayer speedrun games.

A prerequisite to knowing the optimal perks and mastery orders is complete knowledge of the game mechanics. Being the number 1 ranked player in the leaderboards, from 4-player to 3-player to 2-player to Solo would not be possible without being an expert at the game.

## Retirement from speedrunning

I have retired from speedrunning the game due to 2 main reasons:

1. Gradual fallout with the developer, Blackcud and the 2 moderators, Tankz and LeBlobber over several game design issues. Final straw was the deletion of a post they did not agree with, with the excuse that the said post contained gambling advertisements. Despite several requests by other discord channel members including myself to substantiate those allegations, the contents of the deleted post was not revealed publicly on the server.
2. Lack of serious competition, both in multiplayer and solo games. I always aimed for the toughest challenges. And completing the hardest difficulty with the hero that is by far the most difficult to use properly was the ultimate challenge.

## Achievements on a Timeline

1. In "Legacy" season, SzMaGus did a respectable 2H35, beating the previous 2H50 WR Hellwalker.
2. In "Legacy" season, I made a solo 2H12 WR Hellwalker, setting a new Milestone to trigger the General + the Angry Brutalisk at the same time, after the Brain Bug's Death.
3. In "Legacy" season, I subsequently guided teams to a 2H01 WR Hellwalker, using that knowledge of my solo HW run.
4. In "Preseason", I made a 1H18 solo WR Hellwalker with Predator, setting a new Milestone to trigger the General via the Island.
5. In "Preseason", I subsequently guided teams to a 1H07 WR Hellwalker, using that newfound knowledge of my predator HW run.
6. In "Protoss Reinforcements", I guided teams to a 50m48s WR Hellwalker.
7. In "Protoss Reinforcements", Tankz made a 53m00s solo WR Hellwalker with the newly released hero, Dune, setting a new Milestone with using General Nukes against the General.
8. In "Intermission 1", I made a 43m54s solo WR Hellwalker with Dune.
9. In "Intermission 1", I subsequently guided teams to a 54m38s 2-player WR Hellwalker, using the solo WR Hellwalker as template.
10. In "Intermission 1", I subsequently guided teams to a 57m24s 3-player WR Hellwalker, using the solo WR Helwalker as template.
11. In "Intermission 1", I subsequently guided teams to a 48m57s 4-player WR Hellwalker, using the solo WR Hellwalker as template.
12. In "Intermission 1", I subsequently guided teams to a 29m00s WR Oldschool, combining my knowledge with Harmonica's knowledge and very useful insights after long conversations with him.
13. In "Intermission 1", I subsequently guided teams to a 26m09s WR Inferno, again with the insights of Harmonica.
14. In "Season 2- Nemesis", I guided teams to a 45m27s WR Hellwalker, a new absolute record, after painstaking research and planning.
15. In "Season 2- Nemesis", I guided teams to a 27m30s WR Oldschool, a new absolute record.
16. In "Season 2- Nemesis", I guided teams to a 25m58s WR Inferno, a new absolute record.
17. In "Season 2- Nemesis", I made a 40m29s solo WR Hellwalker with Dune, the new absolute record.

The Milestones above are relevant to Hellwalker, Oldschool and Inferno, which are the classic and longest standing difficulties of the game.

"Season 1-Prestige" introduced different mechanics, but unfortunately, resume from replays were used at important points in the game, such as deaths.
The only accepted exception to resuming from replay is during the cinematics during the first 15 seconds of the game. For solo games, this is done to make the player's computer host the game, rather than having a server do so, resulting in 0 ping for competitive solo games. For multiplayer games, this was done when essential talents are present for particular heroes, reducing the number of remakes just to obtain the said talents. In other words, for multiplayer games, resuming from replay is a seeded run.

Last, but not least, multiplayer speedrunning would not be possible without other top players to play their assigned heroes efficiently. Therefore, credits go to Harmonica, Rockz, Mutexin, Hardway, Bluefish, Rdx and BustaBlunt for being excellent team players in the World Record runs of Hellwalker, Oldschool and Inferno in the Nemesis Season.

## Open Challenge

(Open Challenge expired on 5th January 2021, and it was disappointing nobody provided a challenge despite the Open Challenge having been open for 3 months)

I would more than happily accept any challenge for any solo game:

1. With any hero
2. For any difficulty whether Oldschool to Nemesis Episodes
3. Provided that $1000 is at stake

EDIT: The time limit for the Open Challenge would be until the 5th January 2021, after which, I would not be accepting any challenges. If challenged, I expect to invest several days into planning solo runs and will not have the time to commit after this date. Without the intention to sound arrogant, I do not want to be bothered by weak challengers which I will beat by margins of minutes. Therefore, I am open to winning(or even losing) to an extremely good player, but I would not like to waste my time on all sorts of trivial challenges, hence the $1000 winner-takes-all approach.

It is also preferable to use the hardest heroes such as Dune, who has the highest skill ceiling, by far, even compared to Messiah. That being said, ANY HERO is fine for the open challenge.

Messiah follows as a distant second since it is not trivial to control a hero and 3 enslaves. However, there is no such thing as controlling Messiah and 3 other units in 4 different corners of the map, which would have been the hardest thing indeed. Messiah and Minions very rarely split up for the following 2 compelling reasons:

1. No enslaves can clear any base on their own
2. Enslaves gain almost double the DPS from Inspire and Allied Formations when Messiah is around

In conclusion, Dune is without any doubt the hardest to speedrun, followed by Messiah and then by the rest of the heroes. In absolute terms though, every hero is difficult to speedrun, and no hero should be trivialised.

## Links to the guides

* Guide to all Hero Perks for Normal Games (GhostDragon) (OLDSCHOOL and HELLWALKER Version 15.6 (April 2023). Solo runs excluded.)
* Guide to all Hero Perks for Speedrun Games (GhostDragon) (OLDSCHOOL and HELLWALKER Version 15.6 (April 2023). Solo runs excluded.)
* Guide to all Hero Mastery Orders (GhostDragon) (OLDSCHOOL and HELLWALKER Version 15.6 (April 2023). Solo runs excluded.)