The wrath of nature itself stands firm as Durthax, Branchlord of the Weald—our new Guardian champion—plants themselves on the battlefield. Available for pre-order now!
Durthax Ultimate Guide
by Steve Margetson
Something extraordinary happened when a falling godtear pierced the bark of an ancient tree. Its branches shuddered with life. Its trunk heaved roots from the clutches of the earth. Durthax – protector and warden of the forest – was born. Their steadfast Treekin followers are dedicated to Durthax’s mission: to guard and nurture all living beings from those who seek to exploit them.
A stalwart protector of life, Durthax is the fifth forest champion in Godtear. They join a powerful stable of champions including Lily, Kailinn, Finnvarr and Lorsann. Durthax is supplemented by four Treekin—living trees that control the earth around them.
With this new addition, multiple variations of an all-forest champion warband can be played, allowing you to create your own version of a woodland alliance.
Durthax Stats and Traits
Like other Guardians, Durthax gains a bonus step on the ladder if their banner is on an objective hex during the end phase.
Slow and methodical, Durthax is unable to move during the plot phase. Their clash phase fairs better (if only slightly!) with a meagre 1 movement. Upon first glance they largely stay rooted in place, but remember, first impressions can be deceiving.
Despite their low movement, Durthax has a whopping 14 health, the highest of any Godtear champion, and 5 more than the previous highest (Grimgut with 9). It’s not all roses however, their dodge is a lowly 2, and their protection is 1, making them very vulnerable to Morrigan’s Snowball’s Chance and likely to take damage from any attack in the game. Best get those dodge and protection boons at the ready
Traits are where this champion really blooms. Durthax and their followers (more on them later!) focus heavily on controlling the battlefield, and their Twisting Grove trait is the first piece of that puzzle.
Once, during each of their activations, Durthax can choose a banner (friend or foe) within 2 hexes and place it on an empty objective hex within 2 hexes.
As you might imagine, the potential for banner control this presents is massive. Friendly banner in danger of being crushed? No problem, let Durthax teleport it to a safer position. Perhaps there’s an enemy banner just out of reach? Let Durthax move it a bit closer!
Shayle’s Suggestion: Twisting Grove can be used in both phases, allowing a banner to be moved up to 6 hexes in a straight line away from its original position. And this is before Durthax has any support, such as other champions moving them or providing them a speed boon.
Durthax’s Skills and Ultimate
Plot Phase Skills
Durthax’s plot phase keeps things straight forward. Uproot allows Durthax to place themself on a hex within 2, more than making up for the 0 plot phase speed. The placement effect allows Durthax to avoid being surrounded or to crush an enemy banner surrounded by enemies.
Canopy, their other plot phase skill, highlights Durthax’s protective nature. It provides a protection boon to every small follower within 2 hexes of them, perfect for supporting both the Treekin, and other small followers in the warband.
Shayle’s Suggestion: At the start of the game, try to deploy as many small followers as possible near Durthax to really maximise the value of Canopy on the first turn.
Clash Phase Skills
In the clash phase, Durthax brings their might to bear with two crushing attacks, each with a range of two.
Bough Strike is a high accuracy skill. For each point the hit roll exceeds the target's dodge, the damage roll gains one damage (to a maximum of 8). This makes it highly versatile against a large variety of different targets. The high accuracy will massively exceed the dodge of lower dodge champions like Rhodri, ensuring Durthax is able to damage him through his high protection. Whereas against high dodge champions (like Fenra and Sneaky Peet), it’s extremely likely to hit and cause some damage. Just don’t expect a huge damage bonus against them!
Growth Spurt by comparison is a more utility focused attack, with slightly lower than average accuracy, and slightly above average damage, but where it truly shines is its hit effects. First off, Durthax can move the target a hex away, perfect for protecting a friendly banner and controlling the battlefield. On top of that it also allows Durthax to remove a wound from themselves, allowing that already gigantic 14 health to go even further!
Shayle’s Suggestion: Remember Growth Spurt and Twisting Grove can be used in combination with each other to deny enemy champions access to your banners. Very few champions can reach a banner after it’s been placed two or more hexes and they’ve been moved one hex.
Ultimate Skill: Wellspring
One of the few plot phase only ultimates in the game, Wellspring provides immense action efficiency and an instant battle ladder swing.
Once per game, every friendly champion within 3 hexes may take a claim action. To top it off it’s a bonus action, so it doesn't cost Durthax one of their two actions.
With your typical warband being three champions, it essentially provides three actions with no cost and between 3-5 (depending on how many shapers you have) immediate steps on the battle ladder. Potentially even more if you can keep those banners safe until the end of the turn! Overall, Wellspring has the ability to provide a huge growth spurt to your banners at a critical moment in the game.
Shayle’s Suggestion: Shaper champions that manipulate or create objective hexes (like Nia) have powerful synergy with Durthax. Their objective hex creation or movement abilities allow Durthax to make frequent use of Twisting Grove, and get the most value out of Wellspring. They get an extra step on the battle ladder from Wellspring to boot!
Durthax’s Followers: The Treekin
The Treekin are the final piece of Durthax’s battlefield control based package with a game changing trait, Branch Ward.
Branch Ward stops enemy champions and followers from being placed or recruited in hexes adjacent to Treekin followers.
Raith’Marid looking to Kersplash into your lines? Shayle about to apply Landslide to the face? Sneaky Peet about to jump into your ranks? If the Treekin are around, it ain’t happening.
When spread out, the four Treekin can deny enemy placements in up to 24 different hexes. Quite good right?
This makes Treekin public enemy number one against certain opponents, but their dodge 4 and protection 1 means opponents need to commit decent resources to remove them.
Shayle’s Suggestion: You can protect critical hexes (like banners) from placement effects by having multiple Treekin next to them, forcing your opponent to remove multiple Treekin before they can place there.
Treekin in the Plot Phase
In the plot phase the Treekin move a respectable 2 hexes and have 2 skills available to them. Photosynthesis provides them with a dodge boon bringing their dodge to a lofty 5, in line with the highest dodge followers in the game, making it even harder for your opponent to deny their Branch Ward trait.
Splinter Group is a reasonably accurate attack that moves the target a single hex away. Afterwards, the Treekin that made the attack can move a hex towards the target. Treekin can push enemies back and close gaps in the warbands line as needed.
Shayle’s Suggestion: Between the dodge boon from Photosynthesis and protection boon from Durthax’s Canopy, the Treekin can very easily sit at 5 dodge and 2 protection, making them extremely difficult to knock out.
Treekin in the Clash Phase
The clash phase mirrors the plot phase for the Treekin, as they have the same movement of 2, but they do have two different skills to help support Durthax.
Taking Root allows the Treekin to place Durthax in an adjacent hex provided they are within 2 hexes. Perfect for repositioning them during the clash phase where their movement is lacking.
Their second skill, Fertilizer, is a respectable damaging attack that allows Durthax to remove a wound as a hit effect. That 14 health just keeps on giving when you have Fertilizer and Durthax’s Growth Spurt skill removing wounds in tandem.
Shayle’s Suggestion: Taking Root can be used in combination with Twisting Grove to crush enemy banners. Durthax activates and Twisting Groves a banner to a place the Treekin can reach, and then they place Durthax on the banner during their activation.
Tips and Tricks for Durthax
Banner Squad: Bring shaper champions that can reliably place their banner and manipulate objective hexes to get the most out of Wellspring.
Defensive Line: Champions that can move through small followers like Skullbreaker and Kailinn pair well with Durthax. They’re able to sit behind the Treekin’s barrier of no placement effects and stay protected, whilst also being able to move past them to threaten enemies at will.
Small Follower Gang: Avoid champions with large followers like Shayle, Keera, Kailinn, and Styx, because they can’t benefit from Canopy.
Durthax Pros and Cons
Pros
- Powerful banner manipulation
- Strong counter to champions that use placement effects
- Powerful and varied set of attacks
Cons
- Low defensive stats mean any attack can cause damage to them, especially Morrigan’s Snowball’s Chance
- Limited non-placement movement
- Weakness to maelstroms capable with dealing with high dodge followers
Like the sound of Durthax? Recruit them for your woodland alliance here—you can hang out with us and other Godtear players on socials or in Discord, and let us know how you plan to play this powerful new champion!
That wraps up the Durthax Ultimate Guide; time to make like a tree and leave!
