This guide is a basic guide on a strategy I use when playing as the Mage on Impossible. In this guide, I will assume you already know the basics of the game and are looking for a challenge, but perhaps you find Impossible to be too hard. The strategy featured in this guide doesn't work for Paladin or Warrior as well as it does for Mage, but you could still try it out and not do too bad.

Mages have one advantage over their counterparts, and that is that they can cast two spells per turn. They also have more mana, so casting expensive spells is less of an issue. We are going to use that advantage to our favor and create a winning strategy around it. The mages downside is that their stacks of monsters are smaller and therefore do less damage. In this guide, we will worry less about damage, and more about tanking! Slow and steady wins the race, am I right?

The basics of this strategy is that we will use the spell Stone Skin in conjunction with the Archemage ability Magic Shield to create a unit tanky enough to withstand the onslaught of the first several turns, healing it as needed, and mitigating damage as much as possible.

By going around the beginning of the game and getting all the banners and EXP you can, you can make the first several islands fairly easy. Even if you don't do that, they aren't too hard. This guide kicks in once you have Higher Magic and access to Red or Green Dragons.

The team will consist of 5 units. While some of the units are mandatory, others have more leniency (though I will talk mainly about the ones I suggest). Let's take a look!

The Tank: Red Dragon, Green Dragon, Etc

You can use whatever you want for the tank but I highly, highly recommend a Red Dragon. Until you can find one, a Green Dragon is an OK replacement, but there's nothing else in the game that compares to these two. Red (and Green) Dragons have high attack, high defense, high initiative, high speed, high damage, and high health, among some pretty sweet abilities. What more could you want? Red Dragons' stats are slightly higher, but Green Dragons can restore mana. I find the mana restoration unnecessary but you can't go wrong with either option so it's really up to you.

You could theoretically use something besides a Red or Green Dragon here, but I can't see why you would. Up to you though!

Why not a Black Dragon? You can't cast spells on them!

The tank's job is to get in there, preferably on turn 1 (this is why a dragon is so good at this) and preferably before the enemy units get a turn (again, dragon) and "taunt" as many units as possible with Target (more later in the Strategy section). Because Red Dragons have such high attack and damage, they also end up doing a large percentage of your army's damage throughout the fight, slowly whittling away at the enemy's health.

The Buffer: Archmage

This one is non-negotiable. Only one unit in the game has access to Magic Shield (or anything even close to it), and that is Archmage. His job is to use Magic Shield...and attack when it's not needed. He can occasionally move something if need be, but this is rare. Despite the fact it's a great utility spell, it's highly situational.

The Enrager: Inquisitor

Not necessarily mandatory, but Mages have rage issues so what better way to help solve that issue than with a unit that can give you rage? We have the added bonus that he can also attack long-range, do decent damage to undead, debuff undead, and resurrect fallen units. Oh yeah, and he buffs whomever he "enrages". This is also a good candidate for the "Phantom" spell, should you feel like you need more rage. You can also essentially have unlimited rage and mana with it, but it could make for unnecessarily long, drawn-out battles to do that.

The Disruptor: Engineer, etc.

It may not be the world's most popular class, but the Engineer is quite awesome. I see people talking about using droids, but what about the Engineer? If I don't sell you on him, that's fine, don't use him. But hear me out.

Do you know any other unit who can TOTALLY disable an average of 2 units for at least the first 4 turns of battle? Well, some other units may be able to try but none of them are as successful. You know what the Engineer's criteria are for doing this?
--A) They be levels 1-3. This may not be ALL units, but it's common, you're gonna see some in virtually every fight. Why not disable them?
--B) They have eyes. This is pretty freakin' common. Unless you're a plant or a robot, you need eyes to walk around (wait, plants walk around? Eeek!)
--C) They be standing by another (enemy) unit. Well, this is pretty freakin' common in the first turn or two, so this is hardly important, but it also means it's an AOE which means you can hit 2 units with this.

The Engineer is going to use Shock Grenade and disable 2 units on turn 1, 95% of the time, and often do the same again on turn 3, just for good measure. By the time turn 5 rolls around you don't even need him to do this anymore. Worried your Red Dragon might take too much damage? Well, let's add just one more thing to help prevent that! In tough battles, this really makes a HUGE difference. The best that most units can hope to do is try and distract a single stack or, even worse, simply damage them.

If that's not enough for you, consider this: The Engineer can also summon extra units to help you cut off choke points or distract a mob that can't reach your Red Dragon, yet another way to mitigate damage. Or simply do damage themselves. These robots are also fast -- both intiative AND speed.

Engineers can also fire at a decent distance, and AOE if you set it up right. Oh, and they can heal those neat little droids they summon! :)

The Second Reviver: Paladin, Rune Mage, Demonologist, etc.

Paladin and Engineer make a good duo, because the Paladin can enable the Engineer to consistently and effectively use Shock Grenade every other turn. Furthermore, the other units that can Revive happen to also be able to summon, meaning if you had them you possibly don't also need the Engineer's summon and could use something else as your disruptor. Demonologist and Engineer also have bad synergy, as a Demonologist's summons might attack the enemies that the Engineer has blinded, which evidently makes them miraculously be able to see again. (Also, so does burning, so watch out for that with your Red Dragon, and keep in mind his counter-attack attacks 2 units in front of him.

Paladins are also tanky, capable of helping the droids tank a single unit (without Target, but perhaps with Stone Skin) to help ease the Red Dragon's incoming damage.

Anywho, I find it nice to have 2 units that are capable of reviving because you never know what can happen and it really helps. So having one of these in addition to Inquisitors is highly advised.

In this section, I will assume you went with the exact 5 units that I recommend: Red Dragon, Archmage, Inquisitor, Engineer, and Paladin. If you went with something different, modify your actions accordingly.

Note: It is very important that your Archmage does NOT have more initiative than your Red Dragon. Generally speaking, you want your units to have as much initiative as possible, so feel free to increase the initiative of all your units as long as the Archmage never goes above the Red Dragon. I'd also try to make sure the Inquisitor doesn't have the lowest initiative (so you can still use Rage after he goes, on another unit's turn) but the Paladin's initiative is so low that this shouldn't be an issue. By default, the Archmage and Red Dragon have the same initiative, which is ok. We want the Red Dragon to go first though, so put him to the left of the Archmage in your roster, as units with the same initiatve will take their turns in order from left to right.

Beware that Stone Skin will lower the initiative of your Red Dragon throughout the battle, but we will go into great detail explaining what to do in this situation later. Turn 1 is important though, so make sure your Dragon goes before the Archmage!

It's also very important that you understand the way that Target works. If a unit is Targeted, then on an enemy unit's turn they will first check if they can attack the Targeted unit. If they can, they will do so, thus ending their turn. If they cannot attack the Targeted unit, however, they will instead do whatever they want, so be careful of that.

Turn 1

On turn 1 you will send out your Red Dragon to a spot where he can aggro as many of the enemy units as possibly, but preferably not use his last action point to move, as we want to use it to defend. Hopefully this is all units, and on small battlefields it usually will be, but if you have to leave a unit or two not aggroed that's ok. Try to make sure the un-aggroed units can't use any kind of really good ability on their first turn. Units that don't have abilities, or that their abilities aren't going to do anything major, are ok to not aggro. Good example is Peasants, Snakes, Spiders, etc.

After your Red Dragon is in position, Defend! You will be taking a lot of damage. Let's not make that worse by attacking something rather than Defend. Also it's very important that he end his turn now, because buffs (and debuffs) wear off on the user's turn, and we don't want our spells ticking off on turn 1. This is why the Red Dragon needs to go before the Archmage.

After he has gone, it should be the Archmage's turn. Before you act with him, make sure to cast your spells. Cast Target and Stone Skin on the Red Dragon. It's quite important to get Target level 3 as soon as possible, because A) it lasts longer, but B) Target levels 2 and 1 don't work on level 4 enemies (and level 1 doesn't even work for level 3). Target level 3 doesn't work for level 5 enemies, however, so they will be a top priority to get rid of so your other units don't take massive damage from them! Stone Skin is also quite important to get to level 3, so make sure you do that next if you haven't already by the time you start this strategy.

Then, after casting those spells, the Archmage can cast his Magic Shield on the Red Dragon.

The Inquisitor should use his Holy Anger, preferably on the Archmage turn 1 as he will most likely be attacking turns 2 and 3. Then, before going with the Engineer (I make sure Inquisitor goes before Engineer), have the Dragon use an ability if he can. Really up to you but Crushing Blow and Dragon Dive are the best in my opinion. I save the treasure chests for several turns in when the battle is basically already won.

The Engineer should use Shock Grenade and hit as many units as possible, though also prioritizing high-damaging targets. If your dragon hasn't countered yet, try to figure out when he first will and make sure he won't end up burning one of the blinded targets. If your dragon HAS already countered, then make sure not to blind anything that's burnt.

The Paladin should use his Second Wind on the Engineer. The Engineer should brew another potion (or 2, if you're lucky) if you think you'll be able to blind more targets turn 2. If not, summon a droid, then brew the potion on turn 2 to get it ready for turn 3.

Now that we've successfully got through turn 1, let's go over how each unit behaves the rest of the battle.

Red Dragon

The Red Dragon's most important job is to make sure he's the center of attention. Make sure that every unit can reach him that needs to. It's ok (even desirable) to have a unit or two that's not focused on him, but make sure if that happens that that/those unit(s) can't get to your squishies (Archmage, Inquisitor, and Engineer).

Enemy units may inadvertently block other enemy units from reaching your dragon, thus de-aggroing them. Try to be in a place where that won't happen.

If you have to, defend. Always make sure you can tank any damage that is incoming.

If it is safe to do so, you can use your line AOE attack (Fire Flood) or basic attack, but make sure that everything can hit you and you don't need to defend. Usually in tough battles you'll just defend for the first several turns.

The Red Dragon will usually end up doing the most damage throughout the fight, not matter how hard the fight is.

Archmage

Archy has the toughest job of all your units. He has to juggle between support and DPS. You will need to use your Magic Shield on turn 1 then every 3 turns afterwards (4, 7, 10, etc), while using Fighting Trance and attacking the other turns. Occasionally, on the turn you'd be using Fighting Stance (2, 5, 8, etc) you'll decide it's better to move a unit -- for whatever reason. Blocking them from getting to a unit if they're not taunted by the dragon, getting them set up for a Shock Grenade, etc.

Now, this part is important. On turn 4, 7, etc. your Archmage will most likely go BEFORE your dragon. If this is the case, don't use Magic Shield yet, but rather, wait your turn until after the dragon goes. To make sure your dragon still gets the benefit from Magic Shield for the entire turn, you can also have HIM wait. The dragon will still get his turn before the Archmage, who can then Magic Shield him.

His placement on the battlefield is not important whatsoever, so keep him away from other units to avoid potential AOE's (especially when against champions). Feel free to creep towards chests to pick them up towards the end of battle.

The Archmage will generally do more damage than your other non-dragon units, but may be out-damaged by the pet dragon or even your spells, if the battle was easy and you didn't need to keep healing the Red Dragon.

Inquisitor

This guy's job is fairly easy. Just keep producing rage so the pet dragon can be useful, while also giving a slight boost in damage to one of your units. If there's no good undead troop to debuff, then use Holy Anger turn 1 on the Archmage, turn 2 on the Red Dragon or Repair Droid, and if you use it turn 3 probably on a Repair Droid or just the Inquisitor himself; if you wait until turn 4 to cast it the 3rd time, the Archmage will be a good target again. The Engineer is not a bad target if he plans on attacking, though he usually doesn't for the first several turns of combat.

Like the Archmage, keep him away from other units and creep towards chests. His placement is not very important, though if you're super far away when attacking it will do less damage so don't be in the very back or anything.

Engineer

The Engineer should almost always use Shocking Grenade on turn one, then get a second turn from the Paladin and either refill the potion (if you think you can use it turn two), or summon a droid if you can't.

On turn two, he should refill a potion if didn't turn 1, or throw the potion if he did. On the off chance you refilled a potion turn 1 but can't use it turn 2 effectively, then feel free to summon a droid.

After that, you generally want to use Shock Grenades when you can, and keep them stocked. Otherwise, summon both your droids. In easy battles, the battle will be over before you get to do much with him so he can attack to quicken things, but in slower battles, he'll have plenty of time to attack after the "setup" phase. Eventually all enemy units will be spaced out or just simply not worth shocking. Have him move up towards enemies, but keep his distance because he can move fairly quickly and attack kinda far away. If your droids (possibly with the Paladin's help) can create a wall for him he can hide behind them, healing when needed.

In short battles, he'll do very little damage but in long battles he'll do his fair share. His droids will usually outdamage him, unless they die early.

Guard Droid

The Guard Droid can blind too, but it's much more strict on circumstances. Still, feel free to pull it off if you can. Guard Droids also have a move that can move enemies which can help them get bunched up for Shock Grenade or the like, or just simply attack without being countered.

Since they are expendable, feel free to take pressure off the Dragon if you can isolate a unit and it can only attack droids.

Repair Droid

The Repair Droid can ALWAYS attack without retaliation, as it is ranged! It can also heal your other droid!

Like the Guard Droid, feel free to take pressure off the Dragon if you can -- even if it means melee attacking. (You can also just Defend to be a sturdier wall.)

Paladin

The Paladin is basically the most useless unit on your team, but he's there in case things get messy to do a mass-revive (doesn't work on the dragon, though, so keep that in mind).

He can give another unit an extra turn every few turns, and this should mainly be used on the Engineer, but if the Archmage uses Telekinesis, use it on him instead.

Creep towards the enemy units, and don't hesitate to use your last action point moving; you have nothing better to do (maybe pick up a chest on the way). Along with the droids, isolate and tank a unit if you can.

If it's a very hard battle, just defend and stay alive when doing this. If all units are aggroed on the dragon it's safer to attack, but try to make sure you don't lose too many of your ranks. You can revive a few towards the end of battle but be careful.

The Mage -- YOU!

Your job is to keep your units alive, especially the Red Dragon. After using Target and Stone Skin turn 1, keep them refreshed and active when they run out. Otherwise, keep healing the Red Dragon when he needs it. Slow can be used to immobilize some enemies, but this also makes them no longer taunted so be careful not to do it to anyone with a good ability. In harder battles, I wouldn't use 2 spells in a turn if you don't have to, and save that for when you DO need 2 spells (because you will, just wait). But if it's an easy enough battle, feel free to use some AOE attack spells to speed things along, as long as your Red Dragon is healthy enough.

Make sure to upgrade Heal as soon as possible (after Target and Stone Skin) so that you can heal more with one tick.

Now you're ready to go kick some butt on "Impossible"!

If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know! And if anyone uses this strategy, let me know of your results. Thanks for your time! Good luck. ;)

Reading this guide, you may be thinking, where do I find each troop? Here I'll make a list of troops I recommend, and where you might find them! Keep in mind, every game is different and sometimes you won't find something while other times you will.

Note that I did not test anything or try a bunch of games and see what was what, I'm just going off what I remember from past games. Even though I'm trying to provide accurate information, I might get something wrong (if you catch it, let me know!) and I may forget things too.

Inquisitors

Inquisitors can be found in a LOT of places. If you have trouble finding Inquisitors, then maybe video games aren't for you.

In all seriousness, places that can include Inquisitors in just the first 2 islands include Regnum, the Royal University, House of Dr. Sebastian, Military Academy (actually, most Military Academies), and the Temple of Hope on Debir; as well as "Jolly Sailor" Tavern and Cemetery chapel in Scarlet Wind. There are usually quite a few too so don't worry about running out (of course, it's ideal to have no losses and quite easy in the early game, especially with Inquisitors, but still).

Once you get to Verona, there are MANY more places that have Inquisitors and Tront typically has a horde (meaning infinite supply).

Archmages

Unlike the Inquisitor, the Archmage is a bit more rare in the early game. If all else fails, they can be upgraded from Inquisitors using trophies (it costs 2 Inquisitors, 250 gold, and 250 trophies for EACH Archmage!) but there's a few places you might get lucky and find some as well. The Royal University, Military Academy, and Temple of Hope in Debir all have a chance to have Archmages. Cemetery chapel in Scarlet Wind seems to always have Archmages, but in very low numbers. The skeleton guarding Cemetery chapel is by far the weakest unit in Scarlet Wind, weaker even than many in Debir. You should have no trouble taking him out fairly early and picking you up some Archmages to make battles that much easier.

Once you get to Verona, many places have a chance to have Archmages, but especially Mages Tower. However, they charge you just to LOOK at their inventory so of course save beforehand the first time, and every time you buy from there get as many as you can (even putting some in reserves for later if you want).

Dersu's House of Wisdom and Elon's Magic Academy can also have them. I'm sure there are other places too, just keep in mind where they were if you see any. Though late in the game, by the time you would run out, upgrading from Inquisitors using trophies won't be such a big deal anymore.

Engineers

If you're good enough at kiting around to get maps and banners, you can easily get an Engineer before you even start your first (non-tutorial) battle. They can be found at Master Lothar in Scarlet Wind. There's also a chance that House of Dr. Sebastian in Debir has them. And the guy standing outside the Ancient Catacombs in Bolo also has them.

Once you get to Montero, they can be found basically anywhere both outside and underground, but particularly in the northern part outside.

Royal Thorns

While not one of the core units in my group, Royal Thorns can be very good and useful in the early game before you get access to other units. (Their main problem later on is that they are hard to revive and squishy to fire.)

Royal Thorns, it seems, can always be found at the Well-kept House in Debir, though getting there can be difficult as the unit guarding it is easily the strongest in Debir.

They can also be upgraded from Thorn Hunters and Thorn Warriors. It cost 95 Thorn Hunters/Warriors + 170 gold and 170 trophies for 2 Royal Thorns, or 48 Thorn Hunters/Warriors + 85 gold and 85 trophies for 1 Royal Thorn.

I've also seen them at the Artist's Studio in Verona.

Paladins

Paladins are a bit harder to find than any of these mentioned so far. They can sometimes be found at the Mercenary Camp on Scarlet Wind, but it seems not often enough, and usually in low numbers. The only guaranteed place I can recall is the bridge between Verona and Montero. Luckily, there's quite a few there but that's definitely more into the "mid-game" than "early game", I'd say.

Like Archmages, there's a chance you could find them elsewhere so it never hurts to check and remember a place if you find them.

Guardsmen can be upgraded to Paladins, but it's expensive. 22 Guardsmen, 4450 gold, and 4450 trophies nets you 5 Paladins (or 5 Guardsmen, 890 gold, and 890 trophies for 1). Honestly, I think Royal Thorns are better and more useful than Paladins until you can get Paladins anyway. That's about the time it's starting to become hard to keep Royal Thorns from dying, and Paladins becoming more useful to mitigate damage and keep your Engineer perma-blinding if that's required.

Red/Green/Black Dragons

Dragons are something that you can seemingly find randomly in many different places, but rare. Same with the option to buy eggs from shops. I've seen a Red Dragon as early as Rusty Anchor! Late game, you'll find dragon eggs all over the place but you'll need to find some long before then.

You can also get them from the Call of Colossus scroll. Oddly enough, these scrolls that give you units are one of the TRUE actually "random" things in the game. Doing lots of different variables can change what you get from it. Changing leadership, winning a battle, and maybe even just changing islands will all change the random number that is generated. Make sure you have enough leadership for the unit you want before using it, and then save the game and try it. If not what you want, change something and then try again!

Elon has plenty of dragons and eggs, but hopefully you've found them sooner than that!

Cyclops

A good early game unit that can tank besides dragons is, in my opinion, the Cyclops. They can usually be found on Bolo, and maybe even sooner. If you need a tank and can't find Dragons yet, this is a solid option.

Demonologist

Another option if you need to fill that 5th spot early and can't find anything better is Demonologists. They can usually be found in Verona somewhere, though sometimes you can find them at "Jolly Sailor" Tavern in Scarlet Wind.

They can also be upgraded from Archmages, though I don't recommend doing this as Archmages themselves are hard enough to come by in the early game. 10 Archmages, 2025 gold, and 2025 trophies gives you 9 Demonologists. You can also do 9 for 8, 7 for 6, etc...all the way down to 2 for 1 (very bad deal).

Rune Mages

Yet another option that I'm not to keen on but at least it can summon and heal and does decent damage if no other option or you just simply like them. One bad thing is they punish you for spending your runes, but on the other hand, I don't spend much of my Might and Magic runes early (see the "Miscellaneous Tips" section down below).

Rune Mages, luckily, can be found easily in the early game. They are usually available at the Royal University and/or Temple of Hope on Debir as well as sometimes Cemetery chapel in Scarlet Wind.

If you absolutely need and want to (please don't) you can trade 10 Archmages for 1 Rune Mage. This only costs 50 gold and 50 trophies.

Royal Gryphons

The last unit I'll mention just because it's popular is the Royal Gryphon. They are pretty tanky as well as able to summon. They can sometimes be found early, even at "Jolly Sailor" Tavern in Scarlet Wind, but you can also get them with a Song of the Wind scroll.

In this section, I will talk about useful spells to get you through the early and mid game. You don't necessarily need all of them, but I'll let you know the ones that are more important.

I'll go in order from Order to Distortion and then finally Chaos, and just in the order they appear in the book.

Dispel

This is super duper helpful to get rid of poison and burn, among other things. Easily can prevent stacks from dying and make battles easier. Level 3 costs the same mana, but gets rid of only negative effects and not positive. Important, but not as important as other spells.

Healing

Makes things a lot easier once you have a healable tank (such as Red Dragon or Green Dragon) that starts to, well, take some damage. Get to level 3 ASAP. It costs less mana AND heals more.

Divine Armor

There will come a time when you tank is no longer so tanky! Luckily, that's around the time this spell is available. Absolutely use it to make your tank tankier! Leveling this up costs the same mana but makes it stronger AND last longer. Pretty important to help save on mana.

Haste

This spell is mostly only useful if you have a unit that REALLY needs to move that extra space or 2 to get a chest, block an attack from someone more important, or whatever else. Level 2 gives 2 speed instead of 1, but level 3 is unnecessary.

Slow

This is a spell that you start with, but it's also useful! Some melee units, especially ones that are fairly slow already, can be seriously crippled by this. If you are threatened by a big stack and you want it to take its time getting to you, SLOW it! Level 2 slows them more and for longer, but level 3 is kinda getting expensive on the mana while not providing much additional benefit.

Stone Skin

Well this is the cream of the crop, isn't it? This is one of the 2 spells that this strategy is all about. It's not as good as Divine Armor, but it's available way sooner AND costs much less mana (which is also important way sooner, even if you happen to find Divine Armor early). Get to level 3 ASAP for maximum defense AND duration.

Invisibility

Some no-loss strategies revolve around this skill (and, specifically, Green Dragons), but it's useful to anyone. If you have a unit that you are afraid will get hit and no other way to protect it, this is a last resort option. Expensive in mana to not do much else AND your unit can't act, but it might save you a loss.

Phantom

Well, here it goes. In case you didn't already know, using Phantom and Mana Accelerator you can have infinite mana, infinite rage, and infinite Inquisitors. It's a tedious process but it can help make sure you maintain no loss status. If you can spare the mana though, Phantom is better used on Paladins. Get this to level 3 ASAP for the most resurrections potential. Phantoms can also be used as meat shields in a clutch situation I guess but it's kinda costly for that.

Target

This is the single most important spell for this strategy, and one of the single best spells in the entire game. You need to get this to level 3 ASAP, as it will force higher level units to attack you target (plus last longer). The entire strategy I describe in this guide can't even happen until you get Target, and thus you want to look for this ASAP. Sometimes you get lucky and find it early. Sometimes you find it all over the place. Sometimes you'll get unlucky and won't find it for a long time. The game gets harder and harder (following my strategy, at least) until you get this.

Teleport

This can be used in many situations. Get someone out of danger. Teleport to a chest to get it before the enemy. Teleport your targetted dragon into range to be attacked by something. Teleport a meat shield in the way of something else. Etc., etc. It may be niche and not used a lot but you'll be glad you have it when you need it. Level 2 is very useful but you can probably get away without learning level 3.

Geyser

So damage, much wow. You're a mage. You're supposed to kill things with spells, right? Well here you go. I often use this on turn 2 after casting something else first, maybe even on turn 3 as well. Really helps to whittle down troops. Get to level 3 when you can, for more damage and more wow.

Flaming Arrow

You start with this spell and it's sort of ok, at least at first? Not the flashiest spell in the spellbook, but it can help whittle something down in the early game. Very good vs plants; send them Royal Thorns to their graves. There's also TWO achievements that it can give you progress for, one of which gives mana (yay) and one of which makes you fire and poison do more damage. When there's an easy fight -and at the end of hard ones (as long as it's not past turn 10)- spam this and/or Fireball as much as you can (Fireball can even be used on nothing, if need be) to get the achievements ASAP. Not important to upgrade but it doesn't hurt if you have spare crystals.

Fireball

Basically Flaming Arrow, except it's an AOE. Not as much damage as Geyser, but much less mana and tied to achievements.

Sacrifice

Oh hey, create free units! Note that if you can get it to do enough damage, you can even create Red Dragons out of thin air! Basically needs to be level 3 for this.

Fire Rain

Depending on the setup of the enemy units, can be better than Fireball but it's not better than Geyser. It's very meh and situational but if you're having a hard time finding Geyser you might get some use from it. One huge drawback of Fire Rain is it does NOT contribute to the mana-giving achievement.

Here I thought I would share some general tips for people who may be new. Some of these things are just my opinion and there are multiple ways you can play the game so take everything with a grain of salt. I encourage everybody to comment if you would like to add your own insight on any of these tips, or add new tips of your own!

1. Get the passive skill Learning ASAP -- and I mean A S A P. In fact, get level 2 of this before you start putting points into anything else.

After Learning level 2, I would get Distortion Magic up to 2, Order Magic level 1, and then back to Learning 3.

After that, I'd go for Chaos Magic level 1, Higher Magic level 2, then start maxing Order and Distortion.

2. EXP for the dragon early is important, but its importance quickly and sharply declines. This is because mages have problems generating rage, even with Inquisitors, and you often don't even want higher level of skills. You'll end up maxing out skills you don't like just so the ones you DO use don't get too expensive.

3. With that being said, I'd start with the Treasure dragon and get level 2 for Treasure as soon as it's available as an option. However, do not go past level 2! You don't get another treasure chest until level 4, and this takes a lot of time and rage to do and not worth it. For one thing you need to be learning and upgrading other skills like Stone Wall, Dragon Dive, and Crushing Blow, and for another thing, you don't need to be spending that much rage on just treasure chests. It will even be hard to get enough rage for 3 chests in some of the early fights and you won't be able to use the dragon for anything else. Just don't do it. Not worth. Trust me.

4. Pay attention to achievements, and unlock them ASAP. (The only one I ignore is the Traps one as I just don't play that way but a lot of people do.) Grand Strategy is by far the most important, but Fire Mage and Guardian Angel are also important. Also pay attention to Treasure Hunter, and try to gain exact thresholds after battles so as not to waste EXP.

5. Speaking of EXP, find Jimmy Kraud on Scarlet Wind before you even do your first non-tutorail battle (even before the Battle Academy fight, because why not) and make sure to say the nicest sweetest things to everything he says. If you do, he'll give you an item that gives more EXP and gold. It's Regalia, though, and you are about to have the Officer's Patent. So make sure to take him with you so you can give it to him. If you end up wanting to switch companions later that's perfectly fine as there's virtual no loss to ditching him. He can also equip a second weapon, a second pair of boots, and a second armor (and later, a dress instead if you want), so yay.

6. Also speaking of EXP, do the Battle Academy Battle as you first post-tutorial fight.

7. If you kite good enough and get all the maps and banners and EXP from the first 4 islands, you can easily get by with just like 2 or 3 troops for most of Debir. Split 'em up if you want. I do Inquisitors and Engineers. It's OP to have multiples of both. lol (Your spells [Yes, I mean Flaming Arrow] and dragon will do much of the damage at this point of the game anyway.)

8. I don't like being rushed and I'm a mage anyway so I tend to always start battles with max mana and 0 rage, for the most part. A quick way to get to max mana and 0 rage is to change islands. If you want to be on the same one, just change and then change back.

9. In items, I generally prioritize EXP % > Leadership > Mana > Speed > Initiative > Rage > INT > Morale > ATK > DEF, and this is just a small list of things you can get. Random special perks just go somewhere in between. lol

10. The drunk guy (Hank) outside "Jolly Sailor" Tavern on Scarlet Wind tells you about a parrot on Rusty Anchor that you can talk to to get the password to tell the Strange Door on Scarlet Wind to go inside. Kind of a neat secret.

11. Save often! That's all.

That's all I can think of now. Will add more as I think of them!