LotI Walkthrough
This is a walkthrough for the most excellent two part campaign Legend of the Invincibles (LotI), created by Dugi. This wiki section was originally created by user White Haired Uncle (WHU) based on LotI beta version 3.2.6.187.g15736fc played on Battle for Wesnoth version 1.15.15. While these are development versions, they are also very close to final releases, and I want to help troubleshoot in parallel with initiating this wiki section.
There are valuable links on the first page of the LotI Campaign Discussion forum thread.
Replays, including the ones I'll use while creating this section, can be found at Legend_of_the_Invincibles section of the UMC Replays. I'm also saving a lot of time copy and pasting chapter and scenario names from there.
Please note that LotI is perhaps the most complex BFW campaign ever created, with hundreds if not thousands of custom AMLAs (After Maximum Level Advance) and items (see the link above to the forum thread for details). Even if luck in combat was not a factor, there is just no way to play the game the same way twice. Therefore, this "walkthrough" will provide at least one of many possible overall strategies (hopefully with input from others who play differently).
Generally
LotI introduces a huge number of various items which can be discovered, or even created. These will be introduced in the tutorial. Learning how to combine the effects of various items is an aspect of the game that many players truly enjoy, so little will be said here about them. Note that potions are supposed to only last until the next time the unit takes an AMLA (with the exception of Efraim, who retains potion effects early on). Some effects of items will conflict, such as equipping one item that sets your melee weapon to blade and another that sets your melee weapon to fire, and it's not always obvious what the outcome will be, so it's wise to save your game before making equipment changes. Many equipment change options are only available during the first two turns of a scenario, or when standing in a castle.
The other aspect that sets LotI apart is custom advances. Most units have a new LotI-specific maximum advancement level. Once a unit advances past this level, you will be presented a list of custom advances (AMLAs). You will also be presented the option "Aware of Legacy Possessed" which gives you no immediate benefit, but the next time you advance you will see a new set of additional advances. You can also attain additional AMLA options from books. Note that many advances open up new options, so you may, for example, have to "waste" an AMLA giving you an ability you already have to open up options to make it even more powerful.
Introductions
[WHU]I am White Haired Uncle on the forums. I will label my paragraphs as seen here. I'm usually listening to an audiobook while playing, among other distractions. I don't like to think that much about each turn or micro-manage. I prefer to concentrate on building units with lots of hitpoints, defenses, etc, and lots of regeneration and plenty of healers so I don't lose any units due to my neglect of the finer details. I also like to concentrate on speed upgrades for the main units early (just after making them hard to hit and/or bumping up their HP), which I find allows me in some cases to run around the action and quickly complete a scenario (while giving up the chance to gain valuable XP). My way of play is not for everyone, and while the approaches I will present work for me, there's plenty of other ways to be successful.
[Thrash]: I'm currently playing on Wesnoth 1.16.10 and LotI 3.2.7c. Some of my notes may be from slightly earlier versions but should be from 2023 or perhaps the latter part of 2022. [3.2.8] Looks like there were a number of updates for 3.2.8 and I preface my notes about those with a [3.2.8] tag.
[WD0] I'm WarDead0 on the forums and began playing Wesnoth and LotI in 2025 and am providing some additional notes. I usually play medium difficulty, I find the hard one too hard early on especially. It is also a good idea to equip your leaders with the fastest gear possible at the end of a scenario so they can move far on their first turn in the next.
Some General Notes on LotI
- Parts I and II are completely separate and nothing carries over between the two parts.
- Note that you can de-equip items from units on the recall list so that you can access them without recalling the unit.
- Lightning attacks can be very effective as there doesn't seem any way to be resistant to them.
- Occasionally gems can end up in the item inventory instead of the gem inventory. If this happens, drop them and pick them back up so they end up in the gem inventory so you can craft with them.
- Beelezubub is an interesting twist that starts appear in Chapter 2 and probably deserves its own section to describe, in part because its appearance is not pre-ordained ([WHU]: yes, it is, if you watch for the hints [Thrash]: I think it is deterministic but not pre-ordained).
Recruitment, Traits, Advancement and Equipment
This is a long campaign so you should pay special attention to what units you want to advance and keep long term. Some unit types you can only recruit early on (like fencers and spearmen in Part I) so you might want to recruit a few extra in the hope of getting traits you want. Your recruits will come with the standard traits as well as possibly being loyal and/or highlander units (low chances). Some other characters you meet may have more unusual traits too, hovering your mouse over the trait will usually tell you what it does. Because gold carryover is often low (40%) it may be a good strategy is to not recruit or recall heavily at the start of a scenario but spend like crazy at the end in the hope of picking up characters with the premium highlander trait. I find gold usually not an issue after a while (just turn limits).
The best generic trait for a unit to have is intelligent. You will be keeping most units for many scenarios and advancing them a lot so the quicker this can happen the more sweet AMLA advancements a unit can achieve. The next best is probably strong (or dextrous) as the ability to inflict more damage helps. Slow units (like dwarfs and trolls) benefit from quick instead of strong so they can keep up with the rest of your army. The loyal trait is probably overrated in my (WD0) opinion as some, particularly long scenarios, don't have any income or maintenance costs and most other scenarios are better to finish as quickly as possible. The least useful trait is resilient as it's benefits are really good for L1 units (and then equipment can replace such benefits). Obviously if you get a highlander you don't really care much what the other traits are.
Once a unit advances beyond the highest level attainable (L4 for most) you get to choose from new AMLA's. The most important one is probably awareness, as this will open up additional advancements depending on what legacy the unit has (randomly assigned at recruitment). The least useful legacy to have is probably exile as some of the advancements significantly reduce the effectiveness of adjacent units (but this may still be useful for a unit that you send out alone for exploring). The undead legacy provides good boosts to resistances but also increases arcane vulnerability (not good when you're fighting necromancers or demons) or reduce hitpoints. The dragon legacies are particularly useful for units that don't otherwise have a ranged weapon as you can get pretty powerful breath attacks. The legacy of light has a relatively quick advancement to a +24 healer but as it also provides illumination this will not be good for your adjacent chaotic units so because of this legacy it is best to generally go on a lawful path (chaotic units can be converted to lawful with this legacy) - crafting the purity armor will convert any unit to lawful with illumination.
Finding equipment is the best way to strengthen a unit (or crafting items once you have found enough gems). Enemy units that die may randomly drop items (general units occasionally do but more likely in Part II and leaders usually always drop something) and some maps have special items placed (usually a random item). These found items may be equipped (if that unit type can use it) or stored. Stored items can be equipped in castle tiles (or during the first two turns of each scenario) except for 'limited (books) and potions that can be used any time. Some advancements make some equipped items seemingly redundant but the game currently supports the holding on to such items for continual benefit. For example, a pikeman can wield The Original Trident of Storms, which gives them a ranged attack. If you advance these to a swordsman or halberdier they can no longer use the trident as a melee weapon but they retain the ranged attack. This can also be useful where items increase hitpoints, movement or resistances.
A very interesting item you may find is a Tome of Liches. If used by a unit they will be converted to a L3 Lich when they die (does not work on already undead units). This is an interesting way to advance a unit and a lich is very effective against the demons in Part II. The lich will also continue to hold any items they were carrying before conversion so you should equip items that have useful secondary abilities (such as a Wretched Defiler that adds 25% arcane resistance, particularly useful for undead, and The Essence of Magic). A unit that is converted to a lich retains their traits as well. The best unit to convert is the Snow Hunter as it is only ever L2 so is quickest to get to a lich via AMLA and wields two weapons (that it will hold on to). Note that only one such carried item shows up in the unit's equipment display but the hidden item's effects are still active (seeing items in the recall list shows all items). Be careful of accidentally unequipping all items from units carrying this extra gear as you cannot re-equip it.
Part I: Embracing the Darkness
Chapter 3, Shadows of the Night
Chapter 4, To Destroy the Wesnothian Empire
Part II: Into the Light
Chapter 6, Rising from the Grave