Completing all of the Old Friends campaign on Rift Lord difficulty with 5 skulls comes down to locating where to setup killboxes and having a rudimentary understanding of mechanics and a level of headshot accuracy for tougher levels towards the end of the campaign.

I would recommend giving a quick look at barricade placement fundamentals. This will be the main factor helping you to complete these levels without leaking any orcs into the Rift and clearing the level above par time. (Par time can be toggled on and off in the settings).

An excellent content creator gives a full explanation of where to setup killzones. Very enthusiastic and in-depth guides to every level. MFPallytime - https://youtube.com/@MFPallytime

Another very helpful content creator gives the locations for killboxes and barricades in a much more brief description. CodeBayIN -https://youtube.com/@CodeBayIN

The basic concept of the barricade in Orcs Must Die 3 is to redirect enemy pathing. Pathing is displayed before the round begins in the form of the blue phantoms. Showing two types of enemies normal sized and large sized. Large enemies, ogres and trolls, need to have 2 tiles of space available to get through.

Barricades can be upgraded in two directions. Doubling the length or increasing resistance to collateral damage. Both of these upgrades will be used throughout depending on the level. The type of barricade used for the level is disclosed in the guide on YouTube you watch.

Almost every level will bring all enemies down to one choke point so that you can stay in one place and oversee every orc before they can reach the rift.

Your traps should be placed in the choke point to affect as many enemies as possible. Getting the best value for the traps. In most videos there is a heavy use of lasers and blade launchers. This will not work anymore due to the heavy nerf on both traps.

With lots of experimenting with different combos myself and watching others. I can say that almost any trap combos can work aslong as there are enough indivudal effectts in the killbox. For example you can have arcane brimstone, slowness tar, gravity pillars, blade launcher and butterflies all togther in one killbox and this will work much better than having tons of one trap.

Your best friends when attempting to complete this achivment through all the maps are gravity pillars (physical damage), dart spitters (ice), brimstone (arcane) and tar (longer slow).

Staff of Domination and Stone Staff.

The Magic Longbow can be used for its pierce effect and many creators also use the crossbow, not so confident in it myself but this is dependent to what feels good for you.

1. North Wing

The first level is very simple, only having one door. Force the enemies into a tight space and kill them all with the staff of domination. This can be done without any traps its that easy.



2. Great Room

The next level is similar to the rest having 2 entrances which can be forced to go down one path. This is what you will be doing for the levels that allow it. Again force all the enemies into a small passage and setup all traps targeting that location. Begin with the setup in the image and build more and more of the same as you progress through the waves.



3. Side Entrance

The same as the previous level. Setup in the location below and force enemies through a passage for a tight kill-box and build it up as the rounds progress. Make sure to place brimstone at the end to the kill-box if you find kobalt runners getting through to the rift.



4. Hidden Dock

This is the first level to require 2 waves of prep. The first wave setup the kill-box on the nearest side to the spawn and defend. The second wave setup barricades in three archways to send all orcs from both spawns to the killbox.

WAVE 1



WAVE 2



5. Split Stairs

Back to normal, block one stairway off using barricades and create a tight passage on another over the tall ceiling. This ceiling height is brilliant for the gravity pillars. I found it fun to setup the kill-box and then spam the gravity pillars all over the 2 spawns.



6. The Lava Pits (War Scenario)

To complete simply copy my cheap setup here and then stack the room behind the door like you would for a normal level. If you would like to the empty space overlooking the enemy spawn is a great place for banks of archers. On the last wave you will need to leave the kill-box and go to the spawn to kill the boss (Cragg) before he gets to the kill-box and disables all the traps. This will almost certainly cause you to leak orcs into the rift.



7. Close Quarters

This is where the rift lord difficultly beings to feel like a challenge. The first level where we are going to defend to separate spawns using to different kill boxes. The Stone Staff and Staff of Domination are going to have to be combined to stun and kill ogres, trolls and gnolls. Wave 1 will setup the kill-box for the left side and wave 2 will setup the kill-box for the right. After that just add more gravity pillars and dart spitters until you only need to deal with ogres and trolls.

WAVE 1



WAVE 2



8. Cliffside

Back to basics here. Three spawns can all be converted into one kill-box. Using the setup show below in wave 1. This kill-box will need your help until wave 3, after wave 3 you will be required to leave not only watch over the kill-box but watch the map for yellow dots. These are enemies that only want to destroy the barricades. When they spawn you need to deal with them before they get to the kill-box. (kobalt sappers will make a screech when spawning and they MUST be dealt with but dynamite archers will only shoot your barricades if you are on them otherwise they don't have to be killed manually.)

WAVE 1





9. Front Lawn

This is one of the easiest war scenarios. Using the wave 1 setup shown in the images and having the barricades in place to send all enemies down one route will almost allow you to go AFK for the first few rounds. The hardest part is killing the boss before he gets to the kill-box and begins destroying barricades.

WAVE 1







10. Coastal Hallways

This level will be tight on par time but can be done if excess points in the later waves are spent on another kill-box before the barricades on the left side to the map. The enemies will walk through that kill-box twice so doesn't have to be extremely powerful like your main kill-box started in wave 1. The nearest door to the main kill-box will spawn a fire lord who can damage the barricades if left to be killed in the kill-box you should try to deal with that before. After wave 3 add brimstone at the bottom of the stairs. If you placed the barricades correctly then the kobalt sappers will not go for the barricades on the left side of the map.





11. Secret Fortress

This is the closest par time completion yet. Having around 20 seconds left when complete if done correctly. This means you will have to clean up the back of the final wave to speed up each round. Barricades are placed around the rift so sappers will have to be dealt with manually. This is easily done by standing on the balcony behind your kill-box and killing any sappers before they get inside the fort. Place lots of blade launchers in the small kill-box hallway they will carry you here.

12. Mage Tower

Another simple level. Block the stairway with the arches to the outside and cover the other staircase in gravity pillars to deal with all light enemies and wall chargers for heavy enemies. The hardest part will again be the boss. The boss will jump over any barricades and go straight for your rift. When the boss spawns to straight to them and being dealing damage and don't stop until the boss falls.







13. Masters Courtyard

This looks like there is no way to converge all 3 lanes but there actually is a way. Set up your kill-box in my location and place 2 barricades like in the second image. Then after wave 1 (which will be the hardest wave overall) you need to sell the barricade and extend out to funnel all enemies to your kill-box as shown in image 3. Then stack the kill-box, there are no sappers so you shouldn't worry about the barricades being destroyed.

WAVE 1





WAVE 2



14. Sludge Shelves

In wave 1 setup a small kill-box in front of the spawn. For wave 2 sell that kill-box and create another one below for the next 2 door that open. Then build one final kill-box in the rift room. Be sure to have powerful wall and floor traps as they have the most coverage here. This final kill-box is where you can stay and help kill any heavy enemies.

WAVE 1



WAVE 2



WAVE 4



15. Dragon Boneyard

This war scenario has a lot of barricades to place to funnel all enemies into one kill-box. Just build the low ceiling kill-box room up more and more as all enemies will come through this point. The boss here can be ignored and will most likely die to your kill-box.









16. The Basement

I'm not going to make you read pages of writing for this level:
MFPallytime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-8nxgosWM&t=799s

17. Colosseum

This level like sludge shelves is going to require selling the wave 1 kill-box after the wave is defeated. The first image is where to setup the barricades. Then on wave 2 enemies will being coming from other doors so sell everything and place the barricades shown in wave 2 images. You MUST bring wall traps. Bring grinder and tar, brimstone and wall slappers and deep freeze traps with acid damage. Again fire lords will spawn from downstairs so they must be killed before reaching the kill-box. Gnolls should just be lead back to the rift as you will be standing by the rift anyway.

WAVE 1



WAVE 2





18. Order Temple

The final level. Barricades will be placed on every direction to the rift as to allow all orcs to pass through our single kill-box. This will then be where you setup for the whole game. However 2 rifts will spawn behind you on different waves. These will have to be defended manually which is really easy as they are very weak enemies.

WAVE 1







NEW RIFT SPAWNS WAVE 2