# Stonehold seems really hard without best gear
**URL:** https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [December 19, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003 "2014-12-19T23:10:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dmaxw1](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/dmaxw1)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/1 "2014-12-19T23:10:31Z")
It seems like Stonehold is just there to make people buy gems, as with rusty iron Hattori I can survive at most three hits.
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### Author:  [@nick](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/nick)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/2 "2014-12-19T23:12:50Z")
It’s true that it’s sort of intended as a gear check, as we want to balance the desert levels assuming a minimum level of combat ability from the player. You’ll probably want around 400 hp to be able to do it without a ton of difficulty, although there are clever ways to do it without having any extra armor.
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### Author:  [@dmaxw1](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/dmaxw1)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/3 "2014-12-19T23:14:08Z")
How would I get more gems, as I don’t have enough gems to buy better armor.
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### Author:  [@dmaxw1](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/dmaxw1)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/4 "2014-12-19T23:14:57Z")
By the way, I had green armor until I bought iron. Which explains the no gems.
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### Author:  [@dideler](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/dideler)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/5 "2014-12-20T01:06:03Z")
At the moment I don’t think there’s a way to get free gems if you’ve beat all the playable levels, but I believe they’re working on improving that (e.g. replaying levels will give gems, sell items for gems, etc.)
If you search this forum for “stonehold”, you’ll find a few threads where strategies are discussed.
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### Author:  [@dmaxw1](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/dmaxw1)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/6 "2015-01-24T00:48:27Z")
been trying for a while ☹ can’t beat it
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### Author:  [@Billy741](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/Billy741)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/7 "2015-01-24T01:58:23Z")
This is how I did it,
I just used the Building hammer, then laid firetraps wherever i put flags, worked really well
(unless you can’t use the building hammer anymore, last time i did i i could)
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### Author:  [@Rytrik](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/Rytrik)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/8 "2015-01-24T02:32:22Z")
@nick - did you add some extra randomization code into Siege of Stronghold? 😛 It seems as if you might have! One of the old strats isn’t working.
I’m in the process of doing it with minimalist gear (Polished Bronze + Infantry Shield), and seeing what the utter lowest gear score I can have, and still get into the desert (mostly because I’m also saving up for one of the more expensive pieces of armour, instead of going the normal “Red Breastplate” path that I often do).
But the spawns in the level seem to be somewhat random now 😉
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### Author:  [@nick](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/nick)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/9 "2015-01-25T21:37:40Z")
Spawns have always been random the same way. About all I did was recently remove a thrower from each of the last two waves to make it slightly easier. We’re going to be rebalancing it much more heavily soon, since it is too hard.
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### Author:  [@Rytrik](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/Rytrik)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/10 "2015-01-27T03:27:18Z")
Hmm… It seems a tad more challenging. Or I just need to get more skilled (I can do it, though it is a bit of a skillcheck)
Also, when did you add the ‘auto-ignite nearby bombs’ feature? 😉 That addition completely negates one of the strats for Siege.
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### Author:  [@nick](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/nick)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/11 "2015-01-27T18:15:57Z")
Kevin added it for The Great Yak Stampede, and I thought it was pretty great, so all fire-traps you build now do it. You’d have to place the traps further apart to prepare multiple waves of traps now. Thoughts on this change?
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### Author:  [@Rytrik](https://discourse.codecombat.com/u/Rytrik)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://discourse.codecombat.com/t/stonehold-seems-really-hard-without-best-gear/2003/12 "2015-01-27T20:36:57Z")
Interesting. I see it being better as a localized level change, and less as a global addition. Especially after playing with the change on Siege, and the change wiping out some strats 😛