Guide to Trial of The Ancestors: How to win every time

Trial of the Ancestors has brought yet another not-so-simple mechanic to the game. Within this mechanic, it sometimes might not be enough to just kill monsters (it’s still the main part of it though) and requires applying some strategy. In this post, I will talk about how the mechanic works, share some tips and pointers that have helped me win almost every single one of my tournaments.

What is trial of the ancestors and how to access it?

Trial of the ancestors is a tournament where you compete against various tribes and their assembled teams. You can access the area by using a silver coin – clicking it will open a portal and will take you to the Hall of the Dead. When you first enter the halls of the dead, you will see a number of icons – each icon represents a different tribe that you will be competing against.

 

The tournament – how does it work

Trial of the ancestors is a tournament and consists of a series of rounds. You win the tournament after eliminating the last opponent in the last round. Within each tournament, you can only lose once. If you lose twice – you are out and the tournament resets.

Fighting your first round

When you enter the Halls of The dead, you will not have any favor to purchase units, so you can just go ahead and start your first round. When you click on the Eye of the Destiny, a menu with available matches will open.

Few things to take into account:

1. Opponent – different opponents use different skills and some matchups might be easier for certain builds. For example, if you have low chaos resistance, you might want to fight Tawhanuku early, since he will be weaker in the first few rounds.
2. Sponsors – this is favor that you will be rewarded with after you win this round. Within the first round, I will always pick the largest amount of favor I can get – in this case, I’d fight either Ikiaho or Maata, unless there is a really good reward available.
3. Reward – this is currency or item reward that you will get after you win this round.

Overall, try to balance all 3 of these things for the best results.

 

Setting up your team and board

When you have selected an opponent, a board with both teams layout will open up.

Roles

Within this board, you can see 4 types of icons.

Defender – protects your totems from enemies that that try to attack them. It’s a good idea to put ranged champions here, so they can interrupt enemies while they try to destroy your totems.

Flanker – tries to bypass enemy units through sides to attack their totems.

Escort – these units will prioritize following you. Enemy escorts will follow their champion.

Warrior – these units push forward, targeting nearest units and totems.

I like to prioritize setting up flankers within the first few rounds and kill their units myself, leaving flankers open to capture their totems.

The fight itself – how to win it

Within the fight, each of the unit that you put on your board is represented by a totem. The team that banishes all of their opponents totems first – wins.

To banish an enemy totem, you have to channel it by left clicking and holding. But be careful, if you are hit while channeling an enemy totem, you are stunned for 5 seconds unable to do anything. It goes both ways though – if you hit an enemy unit that’s channeling your totem, they are stunned as well.

Generally, you can win a few first rounds just by killing enemy warrior, flanker and defender units and letting your assembled team banish the totems – they are quite good at doing so. The more you kill them, the longer their respawn timer, which should allow you to eventually banish all of their totems.

Hiring and equipping your team

After a first few rounds, you will have earned some favor that you can spend by talking to the respective tribesmen. There are 3 things you can spend the favor on:

Units – the main priority to spend favor on. These are going to be your teammates and help you win the fights.

Equipment for the units – second priority if you cannot acquire units at the given time. When equipped, these gives various buffs to your units.

Consumables used in the fight – I have found this to be of a lesser priority, but these can sometimes be useful. They are placed as totems and consumed within the fight.

As a rule of thumb, you should always aim to buy as many units as you possibly can, as that gives you an advantage as you progress through the tournament.

Tip: you can sell any of your units to any of the tribesmen to gain their favor. For example, you can sell Navali units to Hinekora tribesman for Hinekora favor.

Strategies and unit combinations

Here are 2 of my favorite strategies with cheap-ish units that I have found to be effective:

1. Fieldmasters as flankers (Rongokurai tribe). Fieldmasters can create walls on the battlefield, that block projectiles. If you put fieldmasters in flanker positions, they will create walls next to enemy totems. In such scenario, you can quickly kill their melee defenders and channel their totems without worrying about ranged enemies. While channeling, keep an eye on your own totems though.
2. Hinekora’s Horns (Hinekora tribe) and Consuming Kunekunes (Kitava tribe) in escort – this unit combination is powerful because they prevent and hinder respawn timers for the enemies. If you go with this strategy, you should be looking to kill everything in your path and letting your units do their thing. When everything is dead, you can safely channel their totems.
3. If you have fast build (like me), I have found killing their defenders very good strategy. It works as follows:
   1. When the round starts, you quickly move to their rear and kill all the defenders.
   2. Then, run back to your side.
   3. On your side, leave enemy units alive and just stun them when they try to channel your totems.
   4. Repeat the steps.
4. For medium-cost units, it’s a good idea to use Storm Guards as flankers, as proximity shield makes it very difficult to kill them. On defense, consider Caldera Ravagers, due to their AoE ability that will interrupt any totem captures.