The Campaign
Twenty-one chapters, marched from either side of the same war.
The campaign in Sol Ultimus: The Eclipse War is 21 chapters long, a single-player march that starts with three men landing on a foreign beach and ends in an orc fighting pit built around a stolen moon altar. The Moon Elves have pulled an eclipse over the land and it will not lift. Warlord Tiberon and an old sun wizard send for swords, and you command the Paladin from the first errand to the last gate. Both peoples walk the same 21 chapters: pick the Humans and your enemy is the Moon Elves, pick the Moon Elves and your enemy is the Humans. Only chapter 15 splits in two, because one side suffers a night that never lifts and the other a sun that never sets. It is free, it runs in the browser at solultimus.com, and it needs no download and no account.
Three men come ashore at first light. Walk the road past wolves and rovers, clear the poachers off a dragon nest in the mire beyond the crossing, and carry the egg out.
Night at the same nest, with only what you marched in with. Hold for three minutes and the egg hatches; let the shell break first and the chapter is lost.
Evening on a lone spiral mount with one road up it. Six waves climb out of the dusk, and you hold the sun temple with your Paladin, your hatchling, one man-at-arms and 320 gold.
March to a fort by night and hold it for five minutes with your hatchling beside you. Their champion rides out before the end, and the crystal he carries is yours if you break him.
The enemy bursts out of the forest over your village at night. Beat off the raid, raise an army from your keep, then march into the wood and level their hidden keep.
A hunt through deep, troll-haunted woods where one lonely bridge crosses the river. Bring the Great Bear down; the priest here hands you Healing Light, and the bear leaves a ring.
A narrow valley drowned in mist, your fort at its head, two gated lines across the pass. The horde comes up for six minutes, goblins and forest trolls first and an orc giant after the third wave. Mine gold, man the walls, keep your workers mending.
A wild battle cat prowls the open plains, a black panther if you play the Moon Elves. Tame it with your Paladin, ride it, and raze the enemy war-camp. At half health their seer gathers a freezing working, and a strike while he gathers it breaks the spell.
The one chapter both peoples see exactly alike. Raise a stone fort, train three knights, forge better armour and raze their war-camp, with Ser Gareth riding at your side.
Take Aegis of Light from the old wizard by the bridge, then hunt the cyclops in the north-east woods. His orcs ring the den with throwing spears and he swats dragons out of the air, and every twenty seconds his slam knocks six fighters senseless. A caged knight waits behind the den.
This time the enemy host besieges your fort. Build up to the great citadel and raise an army, then survive seven minutes against war-beasts, their champion and a dragon.
A second sun temple, low on the eastern moor and half-drowned in fog. No keep and no mine, only the temple and what you brought, against six waves out of the mist. The last one brings the Goblin King and the Orc Chieftain, with a giant cave troll behind them.
Three dragons keep the old wizard caged in the far north-east, the great black one brooding on top. Free the two penned war-beasts, board your archers on their backs to outshoot the wyrms, then reach the cage with your Paladin for his last working.
The Goblin King has taken your people's relic far out on the eastern moor. Cut through and kill him, take the Warlord's Mantle from his chest, then hold the stone for four minutes while its light rekindles.
Playing the Humans, the dawn is sundered and night will not lift. Playing the Moon Elves, the moon is chained and the sun never sets. Either way the enemy strikes 25% harder, your camp holds the only useful light, and you protect the drained wizard and the fort for fifteen minutes.
Tame a wild dragon on the march and collect Ascendant from the old wizard sheltering in your fort. Then hold for five minutes: their champion rides in for the finish, and the last two waves each bring a catapult that outranges your walls.
A full duel against the enemy champion with every option open and your dragon fully grown. Raze his citadel and his relic both — the Moon Tree, or the Sunstone if you march with the Moon Elves — because leaving either standing lets his people raise another warlord. The sky still stays broken.
A mountain valley with one road and your fort at its head. Three gated lines bar the way, two of timber and one of stone, and every breach brings the enemy one wall closer. Archers on the walls, workers repairing, ten minutes.
March your Paladin into the Warlord's citadel in the north-east, then hold it for fifteen minutes under the darkened sky. One ring of stone and a single main gate stand between you and everything they have left. Warlord Tiberon fights beside you, and holding brings the sun back.
One mountain, one road, ten waves of goblins and forest trolls. Cyclopes walk in from the fourth wave and an orc giant from the fifth, and the tenth brings the Goblin King and the Orc Chieftain together, with a giant cave troll behind them. There is no mine: fallen enemies drop the coins that pay for your towers. If your Paladin falls, the mount is lost.
A hexagon of sharpened logs around the stolen moon altar, six gates, and a howling crowd on the banks. You stand on the altar with a cleric and a man-at-arms, no army behind you, and four waves come through gates drawn by lot, ending with an orc giant, the orc chieftain and the Moon Elf champion. The altar heals your Paladin while he stands in its light, slowly during a wave and faster between them.
Your Paladin does not start over each time. From chapter two on he begins at the rank of the chapter you are playing — rank 2 in chapter 2, and so on up to rank 11 — and rank 12 is his ceiling. Every rank adds 50 maximum health and 5 damage. The companion dragon that hatches in chapter two fights at his side from there on, and the chapter itself sets which of his three stages he is in: hatchling, half-grown or full-grown.
His five abilities are earned, not handed out. You walk into the chapter that teaches one without it and walk out with it: Smite from the chest in chapter 1, Healing Light from the priest in the bear hunt, Aegis of Light from the wizard by the bridge, Power of the Sun (Moon Eclipse for the Moon Elves) from the caged wizard, and Ascendant from the seer in your fort. Items work the same way. What you find travels with you to the next chapter, up to seven pieces at a time, and the helm, the mantle and the bow are visible on the hero himself.
Every chapter is worth three stars. The first is for winning it. The other two are feats set per chapter: a clock (win chapter 1 under 5:00, the arena under 6:00), a building kept above a health mark (the egg above 85%, the citadel above 85%), or a casualty limit (lose at most two units on Hold the Fort). Two out of three is the reason to go back and play a chapter again.
The chapter picker is the CHOOSE A LEVEL screen. It puts all 21 chapters in a list beside a parchment map of the march with 21 numbered stops. Each row carries the stars you earned, your best score and what that chapter grants. Click a stop on the map to select it, click again to start it. Winning saves your progress and the end screen turns into NEXT LEVEL.
| Chapter | What you win there | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Rescue the Dragon Egg | Smite | Blasts the nearest enemy for heavy holy damage |
| 4. Hold the Fort | Lightcrystal (Mooncrystal) | Your weapon burns: 15% faster attacks |
| 6. Slay the Great Bear | Healing Light, Ring of the Great Bear | Heals the Paladin and every ally near him; +25% health |
| 8. Tame the Battle Cat & Raze the Elf Camp | The battle cat, Claw-Bracers of the Tamer | A mount you can ride and dismount; +20% attack damage |
| 9. Knight vs Knight | Helm of the Sun Order | +15% health, and he wears it |
| 10. Slay the Giant Cyclops | Aegis of Light, Amulet of the Deep Stone | A shield that absorbs the next hits; spells recharge 20% faster |
| 13. Free the Wizard | Power of the Sun (Moon Eclipse) | Your whole host fights 25% harder for 15 seconds |
| 14. Save the Sunstone | Warlord's Mantle | +12% attack damage and +15% health |
| 16. Tame a Dragon, Hold the Fort | Ascendant | For 20 seconds the Paladin grows, deals double damage, takes less, and is fully healed |
| 17. Storm the Citadel | Sunstrike Bow | +10% attack speed, and he can fight with bow or mace |
The campaign in Sol Ultimus: The Eclipse War is 21 chapters long. The game sets no total playing time, but nine of the chapters run on a fixed clock you have to survive, from three minutes on Defend the Dragon Egg to fifteen on The Long Dark Night and The Return of the Sun. The star goals give a sense of the rest: chapter 1 asks for a win under five minutes, Storm the Citadel under fifteen.
No, the chapter picker lists all 21 chapters and any of them can be started straight away. The parchment map lights up the stop you have reached and dims the ones ahead, so the route stays readable, but nothing blocks you from jumping in further along. Your hero's rank, his abilities and every item that can be found in an earlier chapter are all set by the chapter number, so a later chapter still hands you a hero fit for it.
Yes, Sol Ultimus saves your campaign progress automatically in your browser, with no account and no sign-up. A victory writes the chapter you reached, your stars per chapter, your best score and the items your hero carries. It all lives in the browser you played in, so clearing your site data or switching to another browser or device starts you over.
The campaign has no difficulty setting; the easy, normal and hard choice belongs to the skirmish against the computer. Difficulty in the campaign comes from the chapters themselves. The first two are a march and a three-minute hold with a handful of soldiers, while the later ones stack orc giants, catapults that outrange your walls, an enemy host that strikes 25% harder, and fifteen-minute holds behind a single gate.
Yes, both peoples walk the same 21 chapters in Sol Ultimus, and your enemy is whichever people you did not pick. The briefings name the other side accordingly, your mount is a black panther instead of a battle cat, and your relic is the Moon Tree instead of the Sunstone. Chapter 15 is the one that truly differs: the Humans endure a night that will not lift, the Moon Elves a sun that never sets.
The last chapter is number 21, The Orc Arena. It puts your Paladin on the stolen moon altar inside a hexagonal orc fighting pit with six gates and no army behind him, apart from a cleric and a man-at-arms. Four waves come through gates drawn by lot, from a wolf pack up to an orc giant flanked by the orc chieftain and the Moon Elf champion, and the altar heals your Paladin while he stands in its light.