Getting increasingly frustrated with this game...

[Kyuuriku]

Made it to the third map once with what I thought was a pretty powerful deck, only to reach the boss, whose entire deck is full of cards that I can't even attack without losing my own cards. So I looked it up and someone said just fill your deck with cards that go back to your hand when killed. So I tried that, but kept having to reset my runs after getting no luck (it also doesn't help that stuff like Oroboros require 2 sacrifices to play, so when it goes back to my hand, I have to wait two turns to play it). People keep telling me not to look up anything about the game, but how can I not look up a guide and find out what bosses I have to fight in the future? I just don't know if I can handle another run where I've made a good deck, only for me to get completely destroyed by, frankly, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unfair mechanics. It seems very much the game is forcing you to make one particular kind of deck, which is super dumb for a deckbuilding game. With how hard the boss at the end of the third map is, I can only imagine how hard future map bosses will be. I am literally losing the will to play this game. If I ever do reach that point where I know I won't be playing it ever again, I might as well just look up a Let's Play of the game so I can at least see what the rest of the game has in store. Either that or just look for mods that make the game easier. I know, sacrilegious to some people, but I'd rather do that than to never find out what happens. Ok, rant over.

[Truth_X_ile]

Looking Up a Guide

If you don't care about being spoiled, I'd say it is fine to look up a guide if you are struggling, you can plan accordingly to how you should manage a deck that suits your playstyle, but remember, it is still all RNG based on how cards show up, so you'll always get a mix of things you may not want

3rd Boss Tip

It's best against the 3rd boss not to focus on destroying the traps if you are dependant on keeping cards on the board, once a trap is shown, sacrifice the monster opposing the trap so it won't destroy it right away, this way, nothing behind the trap can move forward attack you defenseless

Totem Can be OP

Depending on which totem options show up, they can help you immensely, from Unkillable to Hoarder or even my favorite Fecundity, but of course the 3 blood sacrifice as well, which would help with Ouroboros as well, but the chances of getting what you want is still up to the RNG gods

Losing & Custom Cards

Losing also has a benefit, since you can create custom cards, which also can come up as an option to choose, then if you make enough custom cards, you'll have a dedicated location to select custom cards as well

Extra Help

There are other features to help you within the surrounding room, specifically the Picture Frame & Candle next to the Puzzle Box

Exploit Hidden

If you still have access to the dagger & have yet to open the clock, if you use the dagger for an easy 4 points of damage on the scale but DON'T TAKE THE GLOWING EYE, your next item location will always start with the dagger as a choice, allowing you to exploit the battles ahead of time if you so wish with said feature

Good Luck & Have Fun

[MadArtillery]

Oh trapper, you want to lose cards to his traps otherwise the next phase will kill you. One thing to note if you are short on cards the trap only kills whats infront of it, not what kills it. Diagonal attacks can save you some cards but risky to let a trap die without catching something. It's important to avoid making decks entirely reliant on 1-2 powerful cards you keep buffing. Also do always remember it's okay to take damage as long as you deal it. If you clear one trap out you can use that opening to tank hits from the others till you draw chaff to die in traps. No need to rush to slam stuff infront of each.

[YetiChow]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

Oh trapper, you want to lose cards to his traps otherwise the next phase will kill you. One thing to note if you are short on cards the trap only kills whats infront of it, not what kills it. Diagonal attacks can save you some cards but risky to let a trap die without catching something. It's important to avoid making decks entirely reliant on 1-2 powerful cards you keep buffing. Also do always remember it's okay to take damage as long as you deal it. If you clear one trap out you can use that opening to tank hits from the others till you draw chaff to die in traps. No need to rush to slam stuff infront of each.

Building on this:

1) you can intentionally sacrifice something to the trap other than the card that killed it if you have a way to attack diagonally (or using the Alpha's Pack Leader sigil to make a non-aggressive card able to attack a trap) -- a beaver with Bifurcated Strikes, for example, will get you 2 "free" pelts. This is where you want cards that return to your hand, generate other cards, or even squirrels so that you can turn them into pelts.

2) your pelts will be used in the second phase of the boss fight, but remember to stop and think about the core rules of the game when you make your decisions in that phase -- it may be tempting to go "all out", but if you make good selections (and have a well-built deck) you only need 1 pelt to easily defeat the second phase. You should by now be able to guess the interplay between the first and second phase of the boss; if you haven't seen it yet I don't want to spoil it for you but the hint is: think about the character you're fighting and how they work elsewhere in the game -- the first phase of the fight looks like a "filter" challenge but it's also an opportunity to set yourself up for an easy win in the second phase. But that only works if you focus not on the boss gimmick but on the rest of the fight -- which lane/s you want to attack to tip those scales. If you play well you should have lots of options; but you only need 1 good option to win.

On a more general note: a "good deck" doesn't just mean powerful cards; it means having reliable access to powerful cards that you can actually play. If your powerful cards cost 2 blood or more, then you'll need "sacrifice fodder" cards (Black Goat or its Worthy Sacrifice sigil is commonly pointed to as the go-to; but there are many other options -- beehives are great because the bees are free and can easily be combo'd off of; the Undying sigil is also great if you can slap it on a cheap or better yet free card so that you have a re-usable sacrifice which fulfills the same function as the Black Cat's sigil Many Lives but with the added bonus of also being able to use the card as a blocker... remember that you can use the "utility" sigils on other cards for synergies too; you want to create cards with abilities that work more than once.)

As a second general note: Inscryption is a game about understanding mechanics. It's not really a deck builder, it's a puzzle game wrapped up in the trappings of a deck builder (and with a strong narrative backbone -- as much as it might not feel like it, the section that you're playing through right now is HEAVILY rigged in your favour; you'll find out just how much so if you play the Kaycee's Mod 'bonus chapter'/postgame.) A word of warning without spoiling anything: if you think the Trapper fight is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the next boss you'll fight is worse; you need to either build your deck so that you can react to anything the game throws at you, or else build a brokenly powerful card that is guaranteed to win you the game as soon as the fight starts (and yes this is very possible to do -- there's a mechanic to ensure that at least one of your starting cards can be played on the first turn; if you intentionally build your deck so that you only have 1 card which fits that requirement then you'll be guaranteed to draw it every first turn and then you can build it to have game-winning abilities and/or sheer damage, since you always get a "free" attack opportunity on the first turn.)

Once you get past the current boss fight, and the boss after that, the game will open up a lot more -- not only will you have a whole bunch of new cards and strategies and mechanics to play around with, it'll also change how you progress and you won't be restarting from "scratch" after losing fights. A lot of people complain about that change but I suspect you'll enjoy what happens; it makes the game into a genuine deck builder rather than the weird roguelite-puzzle-deckbuilding-metaprogression hybrid that you're currently playing. It will not only let you play around with card synergies and deck construction, it will make those parts of the game the forefront and give you control over them, making it easy to experiment or to change up your strategies (and you'll need to do that to progress, because again how you progress will also change at that point.)

So it's definitely worth taking a breather, thinking about how to beat your current puzzle, and how to build cards and decks that can consistently handle the various challenges/puzzles you've seen so that you can reliably reach new and novel challenges. It's not just how you get through the phase you're in, it's great practice for later parts of the game too!

[MadArtillery]

I do like the beaver suggestion. Beaver also has a unique interaction with the aging sigil so it can do a disturbingly good job at this fight with either sigil. I do think overall trapper is a pretty easy fight as long as you don't panic block with things you shouldn't. Building for it specifically shouldn't be nessisary.

[YetiChow]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

I do like the beaver suggestion. Beaver also has a unique interaction with the aging sigil so it can do a disturbingly good job at this fight with either sigil. I do think overall trapper is a pretty easy fight as long as you don't panic block with things you shouldn't. Building for it specifically shouldn't be nessisary.

Indeed, Trapper is the fight that is all about focusing on your win condition rather than the current state of the board. I've beaten that fight without doing anything to the frogs; just use the open lane to deal damage directly. There's a trap placed from the start of the fight too, so you can sacrifice a 1-damage card to that trap to get your pelt + another lane to attack through.

Then, in the second phase, you just open up the lanes in front of your existing damage-dealer cards and that's GG.

One more note about Beaver: try the Pack Leader (from the Alpha) card on it for a hilarious result. Beaver is an underrated card, it's not top-tier because it's a 2-blood but if you can set up to support it, you can really take advantage of its dams to maximise the use of powerful sigils.

It's worth noting that the rare card Daus is a direct upgrade from Beaver. Daus with Pack Leader and a Bell Tentacle is the funniest way to curb-stomp a fight.

[Kyuuriku]

So I actually managed to beat both the Trapper and the next boss in my next run. Best advice I got from you guys was taking advantage of that non-frog trap on the far right. (Oh, and Stinkbug's power down ability worked WONDERS against the final round of that 4th boss). Now I'm on what I assume is Act 2 of the game. Surprised and pleased that that gameplay is more like an RPG than the escape room thing. Like how the game really opens up. Oh, and I will say one thing that kinda irks me about an otherwise great Act 2, the voice acting in the camcorder segments is atrocious. So cringy.. Otherwise I'm back to enjoying the game again. Thanks for all the advice guys. ^_^

[Kyuuriku]

Well...I may have gotten a tad too addicted to Act 2. Stayed up till 6:30am playing the game (zzzzzz...). Spent a good chunk of that time performing an infinite combo exploit I discovered. If you get your hands on Oroboros, you can use two Necromancer cards along with one Pharaoh's Pets/Cat card to get infinite Oroboros cards in your hand, which also levels them up every time they die (and they die three times for every death/sacrifice due to the Necros).. Not only does this make most fights a cakewalk, the Oroboros doesn't lose its increased power and toughness between fights. And it allows you to get an infinite amount of Foil currency to use at the Trader for more cards and packs. I'll admit, it's kinda janky running around with a card this powerful though (stopped once its P/T was 250/250). Makes most of the fights pretty damn easy. But I feel like I'm owed this after some of the ridiculously cheaty bosses.

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by Kyuuriku:

Well...I may have gotten a tad too addicted to Act 2. Stayed up till 6:30am playing the game (zzzzzz...). Spent a good chunk of that time performing an infinite combo exploit I discovered. If you get your hands on Oroboros, you can use two Necromancer cards along with one Pharaoh's Pets/Cat card to get infinite Oroboros cards in your hand, which also levels them up every time they die (and they die three times for every death/sacrifice due to the Necros).. Not only does this make most fights a cakewalk, the Oroboros doesn't lose its increased power and toughness between fights. And it allows you to get an infinite amount of Foil currency to use at the Trader for more cards and packs. I'll admit, it's kinda janky running around with a card this powerful though (stopped once its P/T was 250/250). Makes most of the fights pretty damn easy. But I feel like I'm owed this after some of the ridiculously cheaty bosses.

Well glad you are having fun and got past your issue. The act system is pretty interesting, hope you enjoy things as they continue.

Originally posted by YetiChow:

One more note about Beaver: try the Pack Leader (from the Alpha) card on it for a hilarious result. Beaver is an underrated card, it's not top-tier because it's a 2-blood but if you can set up to support it, you can really take advantage of its dams to maximise the use of powerful sigils.

It's worth noting that the rare card Daus is a direct upgrade from Beaver. Daus with Pack Leader and a Bell Tentacle is the funniest way to curb-stomp a fight.

Pack leader is pretty good on it, really turns it into quite the one card field and put out damage faster then making ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! Dunno if I agree with Daus as a direct upgrade. The bells lack the beef of the dams or ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though the strike pack is pretty good. More aggressive side grade I'd say.

Edit Hahaha the upgraded beaver dam name is getting censored. Now that's funny.