For just a handful of dollars you can upgrade your Orcs Must Die 2! experience with this tiny expansion. Called a “booster” pack, Fire & Water is all about the elements, with six new enemies covering three levels of power. The dead Waterlings combine into Water Elementals and Water Lords, while the Fire Lords split into a small army of Firelings that explode near your hero.
Combined with three new deadly traps and three aggressively difficult new levels, with extra Endless Mode levels thrown in too, and you’ll have a lot of content to tangle with. Check out our full walkthrough here to see how to deal with these new enemies, how to use the new traps, and strategies for completing all three advanced levels.
For more information on vanilla Orcs Must Die! 2, check out our full text walkthrough. See everything extra we’ve got on our cheats page.
Traffic Jammed
Before beginning this new 3-level campaign, you might want to open up your Spellbook. It’s also a good idea to try to finish the game before attempting this level.
The DLC comes with three new traps. They start unlocked, so you won’t have to buy them. But, you’ll need to upgrade and equip unique abilities for all three.
The first, and one of the most useful is the Floor Portal. This trap will teleport any enemy that steps on the panel back to the start. You can also set it to catch enemies on fire, or drop coins. This trap is best used further back in your trap gauntlets.
The Dart Spitter is another powerful ceiling trap that’ll spray poison darts in every direction. This one you can set to charm or freeze enemies. This is most useful in tight hallways with very low ceilings to catch regular enemies.
The last new trap is the Web Spinner. This webbing launcher on walls will slow any enemy by tangling them up. Burning enemies will remove the web effect, so it will limit your trap options.
But, the Web Spinner has one of the best abilities in the game – its second unique upgrade will weaken enemies, making them take more damage.
Now that you know, it’s time to jump into the first new DLC level – Traffic Jammer.
This level appears relatively simple in design, but prepare for a struggle. There are two portals and two Orc doors where enemies will spawn in the north and western corners, converging in a central fork there the Orcs will try to enter the two portals.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of tight spaces so ceiling traps are viable against the Orc hordes.
Fire won’t do you much good in this stage, as the toughest enemies are both fire-based. Like Earth Lords, there are now Fire Lords. These powerful elementals will split into four Firelings when defeated, and the Fire Elementals will transform into two Firelings.
To counteract the Fire Elementals and Lords, bring your Ice Amulet or any Ice-based traps. They’ll handily take care of the Fire monsters.
Otherwise, you’ll just need to deal with the regular stable of basic Orc monsters. Light Orcs, Medium Orcs, Heavy Orces, Crossbow Orcs, and Kobold Runners.
Bring Tar or Brimstone to stop those annoying Kobold Runners.
Before you unleash the horde, begin constructing traps. Look in the very center of the map, you’ll see that both Orc Hordes will pass through the center. That’s a good place to start building.
The first wave won’t cause many problems if you use the Ice Amulet to take care of those ugly Fire Elementals. The firelings are deadly, you’ll just need to run, as they get close they’ll burst – it takes several seconds, giving you enough time to back off before they explode.
The second wave attacks from the northern door, but it’s just a copy of the first wave. The third wave is when the battle really heats up. You’ll have to deal with all Kobolds. Prepare yourself with slow traps like the new Web Spinner, Spikes, or even better, Brimstone.
Use your Ice Amulet to freeze the Kobolds as they bunch up in the center. The real danger in this wave is being pincered by the Fire Elementals. If you’re going to take them out, making sure to carefully destroy the elementals so you have room to retreat.
The fourth wave is when the Fire Lords show up. Build more traps in the center of the area. The Dart Spitter helps out here, poisoning groups of enemies as they cross the center of the level.
The fifth wave is even worse, as you’ll have to deal with two Fire Lords, then another two Fire Lords mixed with Orcs and Crossbow Orcs. Guardians won’t do much good in this stage, it’s best to focus on a standard primary weapon, the Ice Amulet to back it up, and lots of traps.
The sixth wave is a breather. As long as you keep your Ice Amulet handy, you’ll be able to deal with the tougher Fire Lords while your traps take care of most of the Orcs.
The last two waves bring a massive amount of enemies, but as long as you keep expanding your traps and avoid those Firelings, you’ll be fine. Bring the Healing Amulet if you’re worried about your health.
The seventh wave begins with Kobolds. Shoot them down from either the south or north door with your primary weapons while the traps pick off the other group of Kobolds. Afterward, it’s your standard mix of Orcs and Elementals.
At the last wave, you’ll have to deal with everything all at once. If you’re well-equipped, and the center of the stage is full of traps, go ahead and load up with Paladin Guardians.
Double Decker
Next, we return to the mines. This time, you’ll be defending a door against two Orc Portals in the north and south. The only central location is far too close to the exit door, so you’ll need to build traps down each of the main two lanes.
Ditch the Ice Amulet if you want, because this time you’ll have to deal with Waterlings. These tiny water elementals, instead of heading straight for you, will go for the rift instead. They’ll combine to form larger creatures, so bring Fire-based traps or the Flame Bracers.
To help watch both approaches, you can begin building traps on the large tunnel slope leading toward the exit door from the southern rift. The northern rift path can be seen below this path, letting you take potshots at the other group, but you won’t have to deal with them all yet.
On the ridge overlooking the northern path, setting up Archers can help weaken both enemy lanes.
The first lane brings a group of Waterlings, with a Gnoll Hunter. The Waterlings, when defeated will spray water, making any nearby Waterlings more powerful when they cross the splatter of water they leave behind.
The second wave makes this level much more difficult. Set up traps for the northern rift lane. The best place is right around the corner, in the narrow hall just south of the exit door. That might be too close for comfort, so prepare more traps ahead. More Archers with the Fire-Arrow upgrade will help out against the growing Water Lords.
The Water Lords are tough, so you may need to get their attention to keep them out of the exit door. If they head for the door, get close and they’ll ignore everything else to try and attack you. Pull them away, just out of their reach, to whittle down their health and finish them off.
It’s important to try to take out the Waterlings as soon as possible. Focus on building up your traps slightly more in one lane than the other, so you can hunt down the Waterlings with your primary weapons and Fire Bracers. The Fire Wall secondary can be incredibly deadly against the Water Lords.
If you want a free Skull, you can grab one by looking down from the southern rift. Look down from the ledge to spot a narrow cave, but you’ll need to make a running jump to reach it. Attempt to get the skull at your own risk.
One of the most useful new traps is the Dart Spitter, able to defend a large area and poison multiple enemies at once.
More Crossbow Orcs will arrive with even more Waterlings. As long as you keep putting down traps, with Brimstone really helping you take care of those Water Lords, you’ll be able to handle the following waves.
The West Wing
Hope you’re ready for Waterlings and Fire Lords working together. You’ll also have twice the Orc Doors to deal with at the beginning of the stage.
Bring both Fire-Element and Ice-Element attacks. To be extra safe, bring Flame Bracers and the Ice Amulet with a primary weapon.
The one saving grace, starting out, is that both of the southerwestern doors lead down the same path. Set your traps just south of the lower teleport door early to take out the most enemies.
Bring Archers with you, too. You’ll have to deal with annoying Frostbats and Thunderbats, and bring your fully upgraded Blunderbuss to take out those flying enemies with relative ease.
Use all your cash to construct a strong defense where the two Orc paths meet, or in the hallway up the steps.
The first wave won’t offer much of a challenge. It’s all Orcs and Waterlings, but by the second wave you’ll have flying bats to annoy you.
By the third wave, the northern door will open. That’s when your life will get difficult. Finish up any defenses you want to set in the southern approach, then run off to put down some traps down the single northern pathway.
The third wave is pretty feeble, but it’ll be good practice for using the teleporters to switch between both approaches. It helps to build lots of traps near the norther teleporter too, so you can switch and help murder the Orc hordes.
The fourth wave is similar to the third, except you’ll have to deal with Thunderbats at the southern lane. The fifth wave is all the southern lane, and it’s all Fire Lords and Fire Elementals coming through both southern doors. It’s a challenge without Ice-Element traps to help you.
Thunderbats and Kobold Runners will follow the Fire Lords, use the long hall south of the rifts to pick off the Kobolds that make it through your traps and finish off the last Fire Lords with your primary weapon.
The sixth wave is a real challenge without fire and ice traps to pick apart the huge number of Fire Elementals and Waterlings that attack.
If your traps favor one type of elemental damage over another, focus on taking out the opposite elementals with your secondary weapons. If you have more Fire-Element traps, use the Ice Amulet, or vice versa.
Wave eight consists of another massive group of Fire Lords from both sides. Run ahead and start taking them down with the Ice Amulet to thin them out, and don’t forget to bolster your defenses in the northern lane, even though most of your trouble will always come from the two southern doors.
To take care of the ninth wave, focus on the skies with your long-range weapon. There are more Fire Lords, but the bats will be a much bigger threat to you and your guardians.
The ninth waves returns a large number of enemies to the northern approach. Make sure to boost your trap defenses once again, and switch between the two locations quickly to manage the number of Orcs.
Like usual, the last two waves are just a deadly enemy rush, combining every type of enemy in huge numbers. By now, you should have plenty of trap defenses set up to keep the baddies out.
Pile on with Archers or Paladins to hold your trap guantlets, use your secondary weapons to quickly wipe out the elementals, and try to keep your head above water.
Congratulations, you’ve mastered the medium-difficulty DLC campaign! Now, go try these new levels in Endless Mode, or continue into the Nightmare difficulty to fight even more new enemies.
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