Knights Fall Story Mode Chapter 17 works differently compared to the previous ones. While the majority of Story Mode has you on the offensive, Chapter 17 will have you protect a train from attackers.

Once you complete Chapter 17 and the Bonus Chapter 18, you’ll unlock a new mode called Defense Challenge. Your goal in Defense Challenge is to fend off attackers who are trying to break through the gate for as long as possible.

If you enter Defense Challenge for the first time, you’ll be assigned to a certain group in which you compete with other players from that same group. Depending on your ranking within the group, you’ll be awarded with Rubies, the real money currency, as well as Normal and Rare Tickets, which you can use to buy various items.

◈ How to set up your heroes, archers, and gate for Defense Challenge

You can set up your heroes, archers, and gate in the Defense Challenge preparation screen. You acquire heroes, archers, and a gate from the Item Wheel. The heroes can pick off incoming attackers using the army, and archers attack enemies near the gate. The gate works as the last line of defense that absorbs incoming hits.

If you get a duplicate hero, archer, or gate, you’ll gain more experience, levels, and stats for that item. As usual, you’ll gain more stats as you level up. Stats not only increase attack and skill power, but also augment the number of soldiers in the case of your hero.

Hero

Heroes are made up of five races: Militia, Goblin, Elf, Empire, and Lycan, which are further divided up into normal, rare, and epic grades. The initial grade is permanent, so you can’t upgrade a normal grade hero to a rare one. Keep in mind that the maximum cost of putting together an army is fixed, so you can’t just have all epic heroes. Diversify with different grades of heroes. All heroes, archers, and gates cost more as they level up.

Each hero has a unique skill. You can use some skills right away whereas you have to meet certain criteria to activate other skills. For example, you have to have characters with the same race as your hero in your army or be near a specific person to activate certain skills. Be mindful of these requirement skills when you build your deck.

Archer

Like heroes, archers have five races including Militia, Goblin, Elf, Empire, and Lycan, but with less variety. There are three types of archers: poison, fire, and sniper. They all differ in attack range depending on their position - front line, middle line, and back line.

Gate

Gates serve as the last line of defense and can absorb enemy attacks. Defense Challenge ends as soon as your gate is destroyed, so having a better gate means you can take more hits. Gates also have skills just as heroes do, and some skills only activate under certain conditions.

◈ Defense Challenge patterns

Once you have prepared your heroes, archers, and gate, tap to start Defense Challenge, which will consume one Knight’s Shield. You’re given a total of 5 Knight’s Shields, and one Knight’s Shield replenishes every 30 minutes. As I’ve mentioned before, your goal is to hold out for as long as possible while enemy combatants try to get through your gate.

In Defense Challenge, each hero has a fixed number of available soldiers and uses them in an order set in the preparation phase. If you use up all of the soldiers for a hero, you can no longer use that specific hero for the current challenge and have to resort to the soldiers specific to the next hero in line.

Enemy attacks come in waves, which have their own patterns. Aside from the basic pattern that starts every challenge, all patterns are randomized depending on the battlefield.

Basic Pattern

Because every challenge starts out the same way, you’ll often see this type of wave, which consists of just basic orcs. Since there are no Shield Soldiers, you won’t have too much trouble clearing the stage as long as you know where to aim.

Battering Ram Pattern

Protected by Shield Soldiers in the front, the Battering Ram slowly charges toward the gate. Focus down the Battering Ram as quickly as possible because it only needs 4-5 hits for the gate to go down. Fortunately, the Battering Ram has a short delay when it gets close to the gate. Use this time window to take it down using Charging Soldiers. The front part of the Battering Ram is immune to damage, so try to aim for the sides.

Shield Soldier Pattern

A group of basic orcs charges the gate, spearheaded by Shield Soldiers consisting of Thorn, Wooden, and Iron varieties. Quickly pick off Wooden Shield Soldiers and focus your attack on breaking the enemy line without taking damage.

Catapult Pattern

Catapults attack the gate while being protected by Thorn and Iron Shield Soldiers. You have to prioritize taking down Shield Soldiers if you want to get to the Catapults. Don’t take too long because Catapults will deal a hefty amount of damage to the gate if you let them run amok.

Orc Chief Pattern

Three Orc Chiefs move toward the gate, backed by arrows from the behind. Orc Chiefs don’t move particularly fast, but be careful of the arrows as they can take out your soldiers. Orc Chiefs move in a zigzag pattern, so adjust your gauge accordingly.

Orc Mage Pattern

Orc Mages move around at a distance while throwing fireballs at the gate. Although the casting time isn’t that fast, quickly kill them off as each shot of fireball deals a significant amount of damage. Once a fireball is cast, Orc Mages shoot out magic in a quick succession.

Exploding Soldier Pattern

Protected by Shield Soldiers, either four or eight Exploding Soldiers slowly advance towards the gate. It only takes a single hit from an Exploding Soldier to dismantle the gate, so it is imperative you kill them off. If you take out one, he will explode and a chain reaction will blow up all the other Exploding Soldiers. Focus on a single target and the rest will take care of itself.