Hell Campaign: How to Clear It With 3 Stars

The top campaign difficulties — Brutal and Nightmare — are what players usually call the «Hell» campaign: enemies are thicker, hit harder and waves come fully stacked. Three stars here are not about speed but about a clean run: the stage is cleared, none of your four champions dies and the stage's extra conditions are met. Here is how to build the team, gear it and pick targets so the stars actually stick.

How campaign stars are counted

The campaign is 12 chapters of 7 stages each. Stars are tracked separately per difficulty: clearing a chapter on Normal does nothing for Brutal or Nightmare, you have to earn them again. Every stage awards up to three stars, and on the top difficulties the deciding condition is that nobody dies. That is why «cleared» and «cleared for 3 stars» are two different jobs: the first can be done by one overlevelled champion, the second needs a real team of four.

Fully starred chapters pay bonus rewards, so going back for missing stars is worth it even after the campaign is finished for progress.

Team: four living champions beat one strong one

The classic mistake is dragging a stage with a single damage dealer and filling the other three slots with bodies. On Brutal and Nightmare that falls apart: enemies focus the weak links and the star is gone. You want a balanced quartet:

• Speed aura lead — tempo lets you kill before you get hit.
• AoE nuker — clears waves instead of poking one target. Among starters, Kael, Elhain and Galek fit well.
• Support — heal, shield, cleanse or revive; this is the slot that saves the star when things go wrong.
• Control or debuffs — decrease ATK, freeze, provoke: anything that stops enemies from dealing damage.

On the top difficulties the team should be level 60. Level 50 is a coin flip: one bad affinity matchup and a champion is on the floor.

Gear and masteries: the thresholds where deaths start

Exact numbers depend on the stage and the enemies, but the ballpark is: a nuker wants 100% crit rate and roughly 160–200 speed, a support wants 180+ speed plus an HP/DEF cushion, and a debuffer wants accuracy in the 150–250 range or the control just bounces off resistance.

Lifesteal on the nuker is close to mandatory for campaign: it heals off its own damage and goes down far less. Use 5–6 star artifacts and take the key pieces to +16, especially the weapon, crit rate gloves and speed boots. Masteries should be complete: Warmaster or Giant Slayer speed up boss stages noticeably, and survivability/speed nodes on supports cost less than another energy refill.

Tactics: target order matters more than raw damage

The top difficulties barely forgive auto-battle: auto dumps your AoE into the first wave and leaves you dry on the third. Play manually. Target priority is simple:

1. Enemies with AoE damage — they kill your champions fastest.
2. Revivers and healers — otherwise the fight becomes an endless carousel.
3. Buffers and shielders — they break your damage math.
4. Everyone else by default.

Keep the affinity advantage: putting a weak-affinity champion into a strong-affinity enemy means eating weak hits and losing tempo. Hold your AoE for the second and third waves, and on a boss apply decrease ATK and decrease DEF before you start hitting. A dragged-out fight hurts you not through missing damage but through a random crit into your squishiest champion.

Common mistakes that cost you stars

• Auto-battle on the top difficulties: auto does not pick targets and does not save AoE.
• Three damage dealers and one flimsy support — the weak link dies first.
• Ignoring affinity: a column of weak hits and constant resistance on debuffs.
• No speed: enemies move first and delete a champion before your first turn.
• Relying on revives instead of prevention — safer to simply not expose the champion.
• Testing a stage without full gear: energy gone, stars not gained.

Pre-run checklist

1. All four champions are level 60 with full masteries.
2. The nuker has 100% crit rate and a Lifesteal set.
3. The support brings a heal, shield or cleanse and does not fold to one hit.
4. Control accuracy is verified in practice: debuffs land instead of hitting resistance.
5. Speed boots on everyone who must move before the enemy.
6. You know which enemy you kill first on every wave.
7. Auto-battle is off.

Summary

Three-starring the Hell campaign is not about one monstrous champion but about a tidy team of four: a speed aura, an AoE nuker, a durable support and control. Hit the gear thresholds, turn auto off, kill in the right order and the stars start lining up. If a stage refuses to fall, do not burn energy against the wall: go back, add speed and accuracy, and the same chapter will clear on the first try.