| Save, Save, & Save:
This may seem a little redundant but saving your game often is necessary in Sacrifice since literally you don’t know what will happen in the next fifteen seconds. By maintaining several saves, if you’ve followed a wrong path or just can’t defeat a horde of enemies, reload to try again or choose a different route. Saving as soon as a mission opens allows you to restart a level without reloading it and seeing all the clips. You’ll want to do this in several missions since you’re attacked after 10 seconds. |
Be Patient:
Being on the defensive and slowly building army is the main course of action in Sacrifice. You never start a level with enough forces yet your enemy still comes to thrash you. You often win by the narrowest of margins. Stand your ground and let them keep coming back for more. As their numbers decrease, yours will grow so that your offensive will crush them all when the time comes. |
Seize It All:
Obviously souls and manaliths are the sources for your magic and followers. For each one obtained, not only do you grow stronger, your foe weakens with the exchange. Wizards are left paralyzed at their altars when stranded without ‘liths or servants. Therefore, harvest every resource available. Remember too that a soul population for a level is a set number. Thus, once you own all the souls, your enemy will have little left to attack with. |
Prepare Properly:
Nothing is more important in a fight than having the correct units. You can have all the ents or yetis in the world, but it won’t do you any good against a group of silverbacks or phoenixes. This is another reason saving your game is so important. Scout out an area to see the enemies you’ll be facing. Reload then and create the proper soldiers to dole out the pain. |
Form Formations:
Organizing your followers into formations is a key strategy in war. Since ranged units are vulnerable to ground assaults, keep them behind you in phalanx or semi-circle formation. Conversely, if you want them to pick off enemy guardians from a distance, move them to a skirmish formation so they can each get a clear shot. Aerial untis function extremely well in circle formations since they can bewilder an enemy from all sides, yet be cautious when approaching enemy ranged units else they could be knocked to the ground permanently. The various formations function differently in terms of which of your units attack first so be aware. |
Desecrations:
A desecration doesn’t automatically banish a wizard — their physical body must be destroyed too. Only begin one then when you’re certain you can defeat the necromancer in question. The more powerful a unit used in the ritual, the more damage your enemy will take. Don’t worry either, you’ll get the souls back after the ceremony ends. In the meantime, if the wizard isn’t already at their altar, they’ll come running when the desecration starts. Be prepared to vaporize them and protect your sac doctors. Finally, banishing a wizard is accomplished much easier when they don’t have any manaliths to draw power from. If one or two remain, your enemy can just stay by the ‘liths and the ritual could last all day. |
The Good Doctors:
You wouldn’t be able to accomplish much in Sacrifice without those hard-working sac doctors. They convert enemy souls and perform the actual desecrations. They can’t die, but blasting one will end a ceremony or conversion quickly since the doctors return to their mystical world until called upon again. Any dead creatures, they may have been carrying will then be released alive and well. This is great when you destroy an enemy sac doctor who has one of your followers. |
| It’s terrible though if several of your doctors, carrying a bunch of dangerous dragons or phoenixes, are taken down. Then you have to destroy the band of creatures a second time and summon the doctors again. That’s a complete waste of your time so protect your sac doctors! Casting "speed up" on them as soon as they drop out of their portals greatly quickens their pace and is vital later in the game. |
Shrines:
Shrines don’t regenerate your mana as quickly as ‘liths, but they definitely play an important role in Sacrifice, especially on the larger maps. Converting fallen foes occurs faster and your sac doctors don’t have to undertake the dangerous journey back to your altar. You shouldn’t need more than one as long as it is strategically placed far from your own altar and near a location where you’ll slay many foes. |
Keep It Simple:
Don’t let Sacrifice overwhelm you. Nothing is accomplished quickly in the game and most of the missions are battles of attrition. Take small steps to controlling the soul population and manaliths, working towards an enemy wizard’s altar. When two are attacking, focus on one and then the other. It’s too easy to begin thinking the game is impossible when it isn’t. There are just definite battles you can win and ones you will always lose so choose wisely. |
Snipers:
As the game progresses, you obtain the powerful long-distance ranged units. Having a dozen of these guys can level a wizard’s army before he/she can often get close enough to attack. They can make the game extremely easy at times. Also use them for sniping guardians that are tethered to their manaliths and cannot escape. |
Those Little Manahoars:
You’ll always want at least two of the tikes, but try four on a regular basis and you’ll become addicted to how much faster you regenerate. It’s much better since you can weave more magic at a quickened rate. Always keep them behind you in a phalanx formation. |
Remember the Simple:
Never forget who got you where you are. Those simple single soul followers are still useful later in the game. Their speed and high rate of fire (aerial & ranged) make them excellent candidates for dealing with the larger, more powerful enemies that are slower than molasses. |
Unnecessary Guardians:
Guardians are great, but really shouldn’t figure into your strategy too much. There are only 4-6 levels where you absolutely need them to survive the initial onslaught against you. The rest of the time they’re usually just a waste of units. |
Pound Them:
Some of the most effective characters in the game are the double soul melee units like the troll, firefist, storm giant, netherfiend, and taurock. These units can really put the hurt on enemies, are difficult to kill, and some have reasonable speed. Several working together can wade through and trample a host of foes and reduce a structure to dust in a few seconds. |
Survey the Land:
With all the hills, valleys, canyons, and mountains in Sacrifice, it can help to run around and figure out where everything is on the map before beginning a level in earnest. Use the heights to your advantage to spy out the land and see possible targets. |
Magic:
Last but not least, never lose sight of the fact that you’re a magician. The spells were put into the game for a reason to help you. They are extremely useful when dealing with your foes. Healing your servants and raising the dead preserve your mana from summoning an entire new unit. Walls spells both hold an enemy at bay or it can trap them so you can finish them off. Think of the spells as tools to get the job done better. |
| Try various combinations as well. A nice one is to slow them down or freeze them in place and then send a destructive spell to do some real damage. Repeated magical attacks will easily disrupt an enemy and leave them vulnerable to your minions. |
