Dota 2 Crownfall Act IV Guide

The newest update for Dota brings in a myriad of challenges

Game Guide by Arne on Nov 21, 2024

Dota 2 has been on a roll lately with its updates. Crownfall has been relatively well received. Every act comes with its own list of additions and mini-games that are near parodies of classic games. Each act also progresses the story and adds lore to the main characters of Crownfall; Skywrath Mage and Vengeful Spirit. The duo also comes with friends and allies, with the likes of the Juggernaut, Crystal Maiden, and Dota 2's newest hero, Kez, all being a part of things.

Dota 2, Crownfall, Nest of Thorns, Update, Guide

Almost all the mini-games in these acts have been super fun. With Crownfall Act 4, they really took it to a new level. Other than that, all of the common denominators from the older acts carry on forward, like the Candyworks Caravan and the token trader. The difference in this act comes with you having 3 starting points. One with Dragonus and Rylai, one with Shen and Kraw, and one with Axe, Centaur, and Kez. This makes Crownfall Act IV the easiest to complete due to how fast you can go.

One of the returning elements from the previous acts is the ability to send tokens to friends. This was present in Act 2 and now comes back to the Spires of Skywrath. You get to send 3 tokens to friends per day, and this is a good way to be a nice guy. The Questing Hearts, as it is called, allows you to receive tokens from friends, letting you complete the thing even more quickly.

Token Trader

The first mini-game you'll find is the Token Trader, accessible immediately through Vengeful Spirit's path. This works almost the same way as from Act 3. You have 3 different options to trade from.

The first lets you exchange four tokens for two random ones. This is the worst one you can use, as it's not really worth it. It's more of a hail mary if you're trying to get things done as fast as possible and have a lot of tokens left over, but curiously, not the ones you need. But in those cases, the next one is more useful.

The second option lets you trade any two tokens for three scraps. This gets more useful the closer to the finish you are since you're less likely to find a use for a lot of the tokens.

The final one is the most useful, letting you exchange six scraps for any one token. This is very helpful since you get scrap for winning AND losing, so you'll be having six scraps every three to four games. You can use these scraps when you have a challenge that requires you to use heroes that you generally don't play or like playing. It's also useful when you're trying to finish up near the end; let's say you have one token but not the other; you can just use the scraps instead of having to play yet another match.

Dota 2, Crownfall, Nest of Thorns, Update, Guide

Shifty Busko's Blade Hustle

You meet a returning ally here; the elusive Riki makes an appearance. However, you seem not to be acquainted with it if you haven't bought the first Pathfinder pack. If you did, it gives you an off-hand immortal for Riki.

Snake Charmer

This one hands you eight sticker capsules for each Pathfinder pact you got yourself.

Retired Queensguard

A very interesting encounter, this one gives you a more favorable trade deal with scraps. Giving you nine scraps for three tokens, twelve for four, fifteen for five. You get to do this once, though. The last one is handy since you get a lot of value.

Candyworks Caravan

Returning mini-game, the Candyworks Caravan lets you open sacks of candy and exchange them for random items selected between three. You can reroll, but there are a selective number of rerolls. Unlocking this one basically upgrades the Candyworks Caravan.

The Commodores Club

This one freely unlocks the last style of the Vengeful Spirit Arcana. But you need to explore every part of every act, basically requiring you to buy all the Pathfinder packs and complete the entirety of Crownfall. This is something you come back to later on.

Dota 2, Crownfall, Nest of Thorns, Update, Guide

The Queen's Gambit

The Queen's Gambit just offers a tiny comic before the final battle against Vengeful Spirit's sister.

Spleen Sweeper

It's named after one of the Techies trio, although it's hard to say which one. The game essentially boils down to a mini-game of Minesweeper. Now, you can go through five different levels; you only need to complete the first one to progress in the story. So don't worry about beating this if you don't like it.

Just like Minesweeper, you left-click to reveal and right-click to put up a flag. You put up the flag on the suspected mined areas and clear out the map. You can get the occasional power-up in the form of clarity to restore mana or a clock that adds 30 seconds to your timer. Once they pop up, you have five clicks to get to them. Afterward, they disappear. However, if there are multiple, you needn't worry, as clicking on them doesn't count as a click.

There's no real strategy to this, mostly just trying your best. You can use an ability that reveals a tile, even if it has a bomb, but it costs 50 mana, so you should use this as sparingly as possible.

Dota 2, Crownfall, Nest of Thorns, Update, Guide

Castle Carnage

Another hilariously fun mini-game adapted from a cult classic. If you play it, you'll realize that it's basically just angry birds. That is, if Angry Birds only had blackbirds, There would be nine levels, each offering three stars upon completion. You can get 27 stars in total, and you need nine to pass. So, you just need to complete three of them to proceed.

The game is simple enough, but to get all the stars, you need to be within a certain number of bombs. It is hard to say if time plays a factor, but so far, it seems that any value it adds is very minute. Most of the levels have more than one solution to them.

You should identify where you can use the special bombs first, as they're basically clues to completing the levels. However, most of them don't explicitly need to be used to do good.

Dota 2, Crownfall, Nest of Thorns, Update, Guide

Spoon Man

Ever played Realm of the Mad God? This is like that. You go through various levels, killing enemies and completing mini-puzzles by opening up sections of the map. The game gives you three special bombs to use. One of them makes your bombs larger and lets them pass through walls that can break. Another makes your bombs into remote mines. The final one lets you toss around bombs regardless of who placed them.

You start the game with three lives but don't get comfortable because you can and will probably die to your bombs as well. Certain buffs let you increase the number of bombs you have at play, increase the radius of the explosion, and your movement speed.

That's all for the various mini-games of Crown Fall. Wait, no, there's another mini-game left. That's right, there's the final mini-game called the 'Nest of Thorns. ' This is an incredible mini-game that can honestly be a game of its own. It's really in-depth and comparable to the likes of Agha Nim's Labyrinth. We have a separate guide on that, so be sure to check it out!

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