Wartales Cursed Village Guide – Best party and Battle Tips

Things get darker once you venture into Ludern and beyond in medieval strategy RPG Wartales. Cursed villages have their own rules, so read on for my complete guide on dealing with them effectively. 

Wartales Cursed Village Guide - Best Party Composition

Each cursed village will have the same four ruined buildings: Tavern, Town Hall, Forge, and Apothecary. The first time you click a building you will be asked to choose a search party to investigate. This can have many members but only eight will be used in battles, so there is no reason to go above eight. 

Your search party must have 80+ Willpower before entering and no more than 100 noise. Note the Troop’s Total Noise, as the higher this is the quicker you will be discovered and have to fight your way out. Once inside a building, your noise level will rise. You'll be attacked each time the noise reaches 100 (see below). Leaving the village does not reset the noise level.

You can find everything from locked chests and hidden loot to potential companions inside cursed villages, making them well worth investigating. 

Related: Wartales – Full Maps & Locations Guide

Cursed village party guide

There are two approaches when putting together a cursed village party:

• Sneaky: A high-Dexterity, light-armor party should create fewer battles while searching a cursed village in Wartales. However, they’ll be less prepared for the inevitable battles when they do come along.
• Battle-ready: You’ll have more fights (often as soon as you enter a room), but you’ll be well equipped to deal with the danger.

I prefer the battle-ready option, although the battles are very similar. Whichever you choose, the following are the best classes for tackling a cursed village:

• Ranger: Light armor, decent DPS, and high Dexterity.
• Pugilist: Extremely mobile with high DPS and a good selection of attacking skills.
• Warrior: Good armor, high Strength and HP, and massive damage potential (especially Berserkers). 

Finally, consider the following:

• Strength and Dexterity: You’ll need to tackle random tasks inside the buildings that may require Strength or Dexterity, so ensure you have at least one companion with a high score in each.
• Chests: You’ll likely find chests to lockpick, so take a Thief. Also, note that breaking a lockpick can add to the noise level.
• Valor: Have a lot of Valor Points when you enter a cursed village. You’ll want to save your base actions for searching during battles, so having plenty of valor means more special attacks for taking out enemies.
• Healing: Poison will be your biggest problem in cursed villages. It stacks and you’ll likely have units you don’t want to move, so having a healer with good movement can save the day. 
• AOE: Cursed village battles always occur in tight spaces. If you get to a point in the battle where an AOE attack would be useful, something is going wrong. Stick to single-target high-damage dealers.  

How to win battles with Plague-ridden 

Once a battle begins with the Plague-ridden, the only way to win the fight is to find a way out of the building. More Plague-ridden will appear each round until you do, and your loot won’t change, so the quicker you can escape, the better off you’ll be.

The battlefield will always be the same. You’ll have up to eight companions in an oblong building. Even if you have more than eight companions searching, only eight (chosen randomly) will fight in the battle. Only searching companions will be in the battle, so if you only take a couple of companions that will be all you have to work with.

There are six potential room entrances: two on each long wall and one on each short one (see the image above). Plague-ridden will break open two of these before the first turn and appear in the room. The other doors will be breached in subsequent turns. 

• Turn 1: 2 Plague-ridden and two open entrances. 
• Turn 2: 3-4 Plague-ridden and four open entrances.
• Turn 3: 4-6 Plage-ridden and six open entrances.
• Turn 4: 6+ Plague-ridden and more will start coming through the ceiling that cannot be blocked.
• Turn 5 and onwards: The number of Plague-ridden will continue to rise until you’re defeated or escape.

Related: How to defeat the Sea Serpent in Wartales

Block the entrances

Your priority should be to block as many entrances with tanks or melee DPS units. Start by taking out the two Plague-ridden which appeared at the start of turn one and move into the spaces they occupied, blocking those entrances. One well-placed unit in each doorway will stop more enemies from coming through.

Note that if you don’t one-hit-kill a Plague-ridden unit it will release a Cloud of Poison. Each gives 2 Poison stacks to any unit passing through or ending their turn in them. This is particularly annoying as Poison stacks and you’ll want to leave your units in the doorways, where the clouds will probably be. If you let a Plague-ridden attack first it will always release a Cloud of Poison, so pay close attention to turn order. 

Whenever possible use skills (not your base action) to attack. This allows the unit to help find a way out (see below). With all Plague-ridden either killed or engaged, move any remaining melee units into positions blocking potential entrances. Once there, they should also perform the Find A Way Out base action.

Using the Find a Way Out action

Use special attacks to take down the Plague-ridden whenever possible, so each unit still has its base action available. You’ll find the Find a Way Out base action after your skills on the action bar. It only appears in these cursed village battles. You will want as many units to use this ability in each round as possible and it does not matter where they do the action from. 

Note that a unit can’t search if they are engaged. Each unit that uses the action helps fill the bar at the top of the screen. When this bar is filled the battle will be over, regardless of the current situation with the Plague-ridden. With a full team of eight, most of which search each round, you can escape in three or four combat rounds. 

For more on Wartales here at Pro Game Guides, check out Wartales Travel Post guide and Wartales The Tavern Opens Tavern Guide – Management, shifts, & more!