Chapter 6, Mission 3: In Nature's Defense

Map 27 (Chapter 6, Mission 3) is a 28x28 extra large-sized forest map in TinyGroove. Its S-rank can be achieved if completed in  < 50 days. This is the final map in the main Campaign, and marks the final conflict with Sedge to resolve the central plot in TinyGroove! Sedge may be recruited in this map should Mercia choose to show him mercy upon his defeat on the map, otherwise his demise eliminates his regular reinforcements and gives the player control of the four corner "towers" near their strongholds.

Mission Background
Welcome to the Thunderdome! This is the final act! Most of this map is shrouded in a thick blanket of fog at the start of the mission. Most of the terrain (except for forests) is hidden, although the HUD's tooltip when hovering over terrain with the cursor will reveal what is ahead, convenience is significantly taxed at the outset of this map. Most of the map's focus is on using each of your recruited commanders from the four corners of the map to close in on Sedge and the Lifespring in the center of the map, while working to block Sedge's units from escaping through the blue portals to the north, south, west, or east edges of the map. Nearly every artefact in the game comes into play on this map, so there are multiple important features to consider when advancing towards the map's center, which are covered in the Helpful Tips section.

Helpful Tips
Here are the key features of this map (in relative Order of Importance): Each day, beginning with Day 5, the player begins gaining 1 life (alphabetically and daily) for each artefact they picked up during their progress through the campaign, and a small incremental portion of the fog approaching the central lifespring and Sedge's Strongholds is revealed. So on Day 5, if the player possesses Artefact 'A', then they will gain a life and have a section of the fog revealed. Day 6 will do the same if the player has Artefact 'B', so on, and so forth until Day 30 with Artefact 'Z'. Each village Sedge doesn't own removes a dog that would be spawned in the next cycle. By the 4th to 6th time this happens, the effect is barely noticeable, since the player should have dropped the villages Sedge controls into the single digits at that point. It should be noted that all of these dogs will inevitably make a mad rush for the portals and afford Sedge's units excellent vision through the fog of war, which will also make his control of the corner ballista 'towers' excessively annoying, if not dealt with expediently. On Days 2, 3, and 4, if you completed specific Achievements A8, A19, and A28 earlier in the campaign regarding protecting or escorting villagers in Map 6, Map 15, and Map 22, the villages surrounding the eastern, southern, and western gateways will revolt, respectively. Completing all of these achievements makes the start of this battle much easier, as those villagers initiates an event that helps them overthrow Sedge's occupation, and cede their control to you near the start of this battle. These towers can be captured by destroying the crystal and moving a unit from the nearby stronghold's faction in its place. Thus, the Outlaws (black) can capture the northeast tower, Felheim (blue) can capture the northwest one, Heavensong (yellow) can capture the southwest one, and Cherrystone (red) can capture the southeast tower. Once owned, the tower slowly regenerates health and ballistae over time if they are destroyed.
 * 1) This final map features 4 portals which must be protected. If even one of Sedge's units escapes through one, you will lose the map. However, beginning with Day 5, Valder reveals a way that one of your artefacts may be used daily to provide you with an additional "life". These lives afford the player an additional chance to keep playing the map, should one or multiple units of Sedge's army escape the map through these portals.
 * 1) Sedge will spawn 32 dogs every three turns of this map. Holy crap! This seems insane, but after the first time this happens, the game reveals how to stop this from happening. Sedge controls 32 villages on this map, and each one corresponds to a spawn point for the floran muckdogs in the lifespring protecting his strongholds.
 * 1) There are 4 gateway portals, each of which have 4 villages surrounding 2 strongholds the Outlaws control (which inevitably draw in Sedge's AI to melee attack them). Removing them from Sedge's control will not only deplete his regular deployment of dogs, but then capturing these gateway villages can help lift the fog along the periphery edges of the map with the first portal you capture. Capturing the others will make the portals easier to defend, and capturing all of the portals will open up new strategic options covered in Item 6 on this list.
 * 1) There are four towers near each corner stronghold. Each tower consists of a central platform comprising a protective crystal and four ballistae protecting the crystal. Sedge starts the map controlling these, and they are annoying, but not difficult to capture. They will require the player to expend a lot of their early game resources to combat the towers which can distract from protecting the portals as Sedge's ballistae rain bolts down upon their units from the protection of the fog.
 * 1) Defeating Sedge will provide you with a choice. Show Sedge mercy and permit him to survive to have him begrudgingly join the party. Don't show mercy and a rather amusing dialogue ensues. Dark Mercia will kill Sedge and his regular dog spawns will stop, and Sedge's towers will instantly become yours to control. Regardless of which option you choose, Dark Mercia will revert to Mercia after you defeat Sedge and make your choice. After dealing with Sedge, you'd think that the battle is over, but things get worse...  It is revealed that the portals on the map lead to another world and upon getting close to them, Elodie senses Requiem's call to more enchanted artefacts in the world beyond the portals. She betrays you and crosses through the portal in pursuit of the new artefacts, leaving Sedge's army to continue battling you, now under her influence. This buys her time to potentially conquer the world beyond, should you choose to pursue her (you can, if you complete the conditions to unlock the alternate map ending noted in Item 8 below).
 * 2) You start this map with up to 4 commanders, but will get up to 4 more after you capture all 4 of the villages next to each of the 4 the gateway portals. You start the map with Dark Mercia, Valder, Ceasar, and Ryota next to their faction's Strongholds (assuming you have recruited them). After capturing all of the 16 total gateway villages, secondary commanders for each faction arrive. Assuming you have recruited them, Mercival will join Dark/Mercia and the Outlaws, Ragna will join near Felheim's stronghold, Koji will join the battle near Heavensong's stronghold, and Emeric will join near Cherrystone's Stronghold.  As noted in Item 3, On Days 2, 3, and 4, if you completed specific Achievements A8, A19, and A28 earlier in the campaign regarding protecting or escorting villagers in Map 6, Map 15, and Map 22, the villages surrounding the eastern, southern, and western gateways will revolt, respectively. If you've done all of these, only the northern gateway needs to be conquered before these commanders join the battle. It should be noted that with Artefacts 'T' and 'U' in your possession, your commanders are relatively expendable, but Sedge will gain reinforcements (usually flying units) each time you lose a commander, and this varies by which faction loses one.
 * 3) Every 10 days, Sedge will block the southern path with vines. There is a path on the southern approach that is the only unobstructed roadway meandering through the woods continuously to reach Sedge's strongholds. It's not immediately evident while playing the map due to the heavy fog, but Sedge will block this path with loads of vines every 10 days. There's no way to stop it, but having Artefact 'M' keeps them from healing, and owning the southern towers will enable you to fire your ballistae to help clear the vines quickly. This path is the only one that wagons, trebuchets, and ballistae can traverse safely through to Sedge's Strongholds. Also, if you have Artefact' Y', the Warp Prism, the mobile barracks is a transitional pack-and-move wagon that can bring the fight to Sedge's front doorstep via this path.
 * 4) There is an alternate ending that may be completed after defeating Sedge in Item 5. Upon reverting to Mercia, you regain the authentic Cherryblade (as Elodie takes Requiem with her through the portal). With your Cherryblade, you may seal the gateway portals by bringing Mercia in front of each of them. The game then shows a cut scene showing Mercia use the Cherryblade to seal thew gate way she is standing in front of shut. This will presumably prevent Elodie's return through those same gateway portals. Seal all 4 to unlock the alternate ending to TinyGroove. There are two endings the player can choose from:

1) The main ending involves simply defeating the Floran uprising and closing the portal that Elodie escapes through to prevent her return to Aurania.

2) The alternate ending unlocks a bonus Epilogue mission. It is unlocked by bringing Mercia to each of the 4 North, South, West, and East gateway portals after defeating Sedge in Map 27 to effectively banish Requiem's influence in Aurania. This will seal them with the Cherryblade, preventing the enemy's units from escaping through the portals to the world beyond the portal. Using a wagon can expedite Mercia's Journey to each of the portals (Note: if you have Artefact 'Y', be sure to unload Mercia from the wagons before they end their turn, otherwise they'll transform into a Battle Barracks with Mercia inside, and she'll re-spawn back at the Outlaws' Stronghold). After doing this, beating the mission plays an alternate ending cut scene wherein Mercia realizes there may be more portals throughout Aurania that Elodie could return through, and decides to eliminate the threat by tracking down Elodie and defeating her in the world beyond the portal in the Epilogue, Mission 1.
 * 1) Destroying Sedge's Strongholds requires destroying the 4 outer strongholds first. Once this is done, the central portal is vulnerable to access and the crystal guarding it can be destroyed. Approaching can be tough, since if you don't have Artefact 'M', the Moontide Medallion, your units may be stunned on your approach through the lifespring. Thankfully these waters heal units standing in them since these flowing waters do ebb and flow, but they aren't salty ocean water and don't rapidly rust your units' armor.

The map ends upon bringing Mercia to the unobstructed central portal. If the player hasn't sealed the 4 outer portals on this map, the regular ending cut scene plays. Alternatively, if the 4 outer portals noted in Item 8 are sealed before bringing Mercia to the main portal, then the alternate ending plays before the closing credits, and then Map 28, the Bonus Epic Epilogue Mission is unlocked.

All of this information was gleaned from the in-game spoilers unlocked in the Achievement Castle by completing at least 80% of the game and destroying the red gates comprising the 'Campaign Completion Counter'.

None
The unit upgrades gained from your completed achievements will greatly aid you in this final map. Mages are at a great advantage given the large number of

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