Tips for starting out?

[Phi Nozomu]

I had the same problem with the demo, where I could get through encounters just fine, struggling with some, but im on my 3rd start over and I can't help but feel i'm just not as skilled at the game, has anyone any tips for it or have I legit just to GET GUD

( I have explored the room, i've solved all 4 of the drawer puzzles, and obtained stinkbug)

[Meredith K Pseudonym]

You are not by any means expected to beat all of the bosses and escape the cabin on the first attempt. In fact, the game will very obviously cheat to (try to) stop you from making too much progress in the card game side of things.

Because of how unforgiving the game is and how fast an encounter can be won or lost, the idea is to put together a deck of cards that performs consistently. One that always has a strong turn 1 and always has enough going on to either weather the assault or steal the win. The game does something to help you get a "playable" opening hand but the rest is on you.

Don't just look at making certain cards better all the time but focus on ridding yourself of cards that help you the least; outside of that Magpie you might never see all run, you live and die by the contents of your hand and the top card of your deck and arguing with the game about its rigged RNG or whatever is never going to move everything out of the way for your only 3/5 Unkillable Mantis God.

Drafting cards isn't always a good thing because more often than not it all it does is stop you from finding the good stuff you already have.

Do not overlook items. Know when to use them and replace them fast. Definitely don't be shy about the hook. If you need it to save the run, that's fine and to be honest I think the knife's a much better item to seek out anyway.

With the squirrel head from the drawers, you're one totem base away from making your squirrels do some interesting things. Unkillable is an incredible choice that means you'll barely even need to draw from the Squirrel deck. Stinky doesn't hurt to slow down attackers when you've nothing else to play. Mighty Leap means you have whole side deck of zero-cost creatures that can block absolutely anything, once. But for the love of God, do not give them Waterborne.

Each time you die, you get to make a card based on the cards that were in your deck to pass on to your next incarnation. Needless to say, you want the lowest cost possible and combination of stats and sigils that make it a star player in your deck. Usually that's any 1-drop, a Wolf's 3/2 and a Mantis' Bifurcating Strike because obviously all you really need in Inscryption is to win on turn 1 over and over again with a big hitter.

[SandScorpion]

Short version is to keep playing and learning, at some point it iwll click and you'll figure out what some solid choices are to make your deck better.


Here's some stuff that I found to work well for me personally:

I usually want to get a good squirrel totem and then synergize with that.
Like if you get the 3 blood for squirrels, you can get all the expensive cards and you can pay for them with just 1 squirrel.
Or if you get the 4 bones one, you can pick all the expensive bone cards and play them easily.
Or you can get the totem to get them back in your hand when they die and you almost never have to spend a turn to draw another squirrel, making it easier to draw the stuff you want.

To get good cards, buff the cheap ones in a campfire so they get insane value for their cost.
Also try to make some overpowered ability combinations at an altar, like the maggot and the cockroach to create something that never leaves the field because if it does it goes back to your hand but then it goes back to the field because it just died.

Also pick cards just for their abilities so you can sacrifice them on an altar and give it to a card with better stats or lower cost

You can also use the altar to combine a situational card with a generally fine card in order to remove the potential for a useless draw since the combined card will still be fine even if the situation is not asking for it.

Also some death cards can get pretty crazy if you get lucky with your choices, and you can run into those later.

Learn what the bosses do and try to outplay their gimicks, you can't usually fight them as if they play fairly, but if you know what they are going to do, you can prepare a counter.

[cpt.draco]

A couple other tips:
Get a ringworm (or poison-bite) card, and buff it with the survivors. If they eat it, then that's good--you'll see next time you encounter the campfire.

If you get a "TOO FAST...TOO SOON" do NOT panic. That just means you have much to learn/figure out before you can progress further. Look around the cabin and do some puzzles.