Umbra Strategy Seems Lacking (at Cov 3)

[Nick]

I'm finding Umbra to be very difficult to play win and I'm only at Covenant Level 3

I've done 21(!) runs in a row with them as my primary and haven't managed to get a win yet.
Looks like the recommended strategies are either Monstrous X3 or Super-Overgorger, and I’ve tried those but it just hasn’t come together for me.

What are other good strategies for Umbra?
What clans do they pair with?
What post-boss upgrade do you usually take?

(I’ve usually been taking space upgrades and had the best luck pairing them with Awoken.)

Otherwise, is there any effort to add some other strategy for them? Because I'm finding them so lacking.

PS: Before you suggest I git gud, I’ve done Ascension 20 for all 4 classes in Slay The Spire – I know my way around deckbuilding roguelikes.

[Firnën]

Monstruous x1 + Overgorger x2 is great as hero. I like to place it in the third floor so it gets strong without fighting a lot.

I think the best strategy is to have 2 floors for morsels: one for your hero and the other for one of the tanks that get damage shield or lifesteal.

One of the 2 floors must be automatized: the morsels are produced by the Antumbra Summoner (and if possible) duplicated by the summoner that duplicates them.

Holdover in the card that gives 2 ember and 2 emberdrain is a wonderful idea. Never get the +1 ember crystal while playing Umbra. I believe +1 draw is even more necessary than +1 slot because you could also make some space in the floors with the Umbra spells and because the automatized room won't need a lot of space since the morsels are created even if there is no space.

[Jamjars]

You only need one gorger floor, usually at the top. Gorgers tend to be garbage at clearing regular mobs. Gorgers are boss killers.

The other two floors should be designed to clear the enemies out. This is usually the job of your sub-clan.

Your champion should be either your designated gorger, or one of the sweeper units. Monstrous is an easy setup sweeper floor, just one unit and you're done. You should get at least one capacity upgrade if you go full monstrous. I prefer doing it as the second boss crystal, in case a cave event gives me extra capacity.

The multistrike robot is flexible and can be a boss killer or a unit killer, but I usually use it as a unit killer.

[aidanfilson25]

Umbra is the hardest to play well, but their overall strategy is pretty simple. if they're your primary clan the gameplan is pretty much Penumbra and 1-2 frontline gorge cards and some support cards (things to remove backline help a lot) or things that make morsels

I usually pair with Stygian for the pretty good removal spells or melting remnant because the 1 mana reform card goes really well with morsels and the cards that scale with unit death work with morsels

I usually go all in on monster or gorge penumbra but I can see reasoning for mixed. usually if I take monster I try to get one or two immortal trade. it goes a long way towards keeping Penumbra from dying and you shouldn't overthink the emberdrain, in my experience once you're set up the emberdrain isn't that big of a deal

[Waschbär42]

If you get the crucible collector and upgrade him with +10str and +25health, he alone can kill most bosses (if provided with enough morsels, even common ones). The other crucible guy is less powerful but for lower covs suffient as well. Only take one gorger, like others pointed out already - unless you start with extra morsel creation spells or get morsel master/whats his face to feed your collector. Then the freed up morsel creation can go towards a second gorger. But one is enough, usually.

I found the hellhorned to be a very good match with umbra to get some direct damage and maybe a heavy hitter like the demon fiend or even the plain 30/4 guy. Vent can be very helpful, since umbra has only one aoe damage spell (which is awesome but cost 4 to cast).

Then there are the artifacts.. everything that gives morsels can be very powerful, also the x+3 one is awesome, since umbra has more x-spells than all the other factions combined.

Upgrade: depends on everything^^ At cov25, I always take +draw if possible at all. Architect champ helps to be not reliant on the +space upgrade.

A couple of guys already asked about umbra help, so maybe check out older threads as well ;)

[Nick]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I'll give it another shot tonight.

[Jamjars]

Just thought of this, the AOE on eating gorger is a bottom floor crowd clearer, not a boss killer.

[Nick]

Thanks again for all the suggestions everyone. Of course I was able to beat it the first run I tried after reading everything here.

What worked for me was Monstrous X 1 and Gorger X 2 but I got lucky and had the minion that makes morsels every turn. Was able to usually draw it fast enough to set it up behind my leader in the first few turns on the 3rd floor. Some quick sweepers made work of the trash mobs, at the bottom floor. The rest of my cards were focused on healing. Kept my deck size under 25 so I'd draw my good stuff fast and frequently.

[greenknightaus]

If you still need help with Umbra, I suggest you watch some of this guy's Umbra videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0d7Pbe8wHhnpkx0l9vb7og/videos

He also plays a lot of Slay the Spire so he's very familiar with this style of gameplay.

[Keith]

Umbra was my most consistent way to win while rising to Co25 but I'm finding everything very difficult at Co25 so I can't vouch them or anything else at that level. I had better luck with the Glutton than the other 2 myself. I would put 2 Morsel Makers/Masters behind the Glutton (space +1 helps a lot). The strategy changes depending which of those you have. I prefer at least 1 Morsel Master then you can take advantage of using Feast. I always try to get Feast on Holdrover then you can make them Feast right away and put another Morsel down and the Morsel Maker will copy it again or if you have 2 Morsel Makers they will make 4 of them. It is not uncommon to have a Glutton hitting for over 500 by the end plus any tomes of Multistrike and/or Trample you can get.

Or you can have 2 Morsel Makers behind the Glutton which you leaves you free to build a stronger 2nd row and/or 3rd row.

Always look out for ShroudSpike as well. Getting Morsel Miner reduced to 1 with Holderover is another good thing if you're using Morsel Masters as it is a higher quality morsel. That coupled with ShroudSpike is very powerful. Getting consume taken off Shroudspike and better sill on Holdover is very powerful but hard to get.

[CDI Mario]

I find umbra the easiest to win with.

Morsel makers make everything super simple. your hero has one of 2 paths i see as best, Either make him huge and on his own so he takes care of stuff while a later care eats everything and becomes unkillable or the opposite and let your Leader eat while everything else takes care of the fighting.
They also have great synergy with Wax people because one of the Wax gimics is based around how many of your Allies died and Morsels are counted to that. Memento Mori is a beast once you get to the boss after feeding the entire battle. you can also get the wax tome and constanly recycle a Morsel Miner so that every round your Gorge unit gains 5/5 even better if you have a Morsel Master to up it to 10/10

[greenknightaus]

Originally posted by Keith:

I would put 2 Morsel Makers/Masters behind the Glutton (space +1 helps a lot).

Because of the 7 unit limit per floor, increasing space usually won't help at all on a floor with Glutton Penumbra + Morselmaker + Morselmaster. You only need 5 spaces to make that work. It can still be good on other floors though.

I always try to get Feast on Holdrover then you can make them Feast right away and put another Morsel down and the Morsel Maker will copy it again or if you have 2 Morsel Makers they will make 4 of them. It is not uncommon to have a Glutton hitting for over 500 by the end plus any tomes of Multistrike and/or Trample you can get.

This is an excellent strategy, although I recommend giving holdover to Retch in preference to Feast. That said, putting holdover on both of them is ideal.

Personally, I find Umbra can be powerful but tricky to play. They tend to have lots of boss killing units, but because they don't have many good backliners they aren't as good at killing the minions that come before the boss, so their pyre can be destroyed before the boss even shows up. And they can have issues with enemy sweepers, harvesters and debuffers. I tend to set up the top floor for Umbra, and the bottom and/or mid floor with their allied clan to overcome those issues.

[Jean-Paul Software]

Hitting the same wall.

Several times I've made it to the final boss and then been wiped out either right at the start or right at the end. It seems to me that the opening turns for the Umbra are really critical- either I get everything in place and make it through, or I get bad cards and fizzle out quickly. Monstrous does seem to be the one that survives the longest.

One strategy I tried was the card that gets one damage shield on gorge. I had the relic that doubles gorge events, and right up until the last boss it was able to just sit there being fed, waiting for the boss... except in the last battle I didn't get the morsel cards out fast enough and it all fell apart.

[Keith]

Originally posted by greenknightaus:

Because of the 7 unit limit per floor, increasing space usually won't help at all on a floor with Glutton Penumbra + Morselmaker + Morselmaster. You only need 5 spaces to make that work. It can still be good on other floors though.

5 can work as long as at least one is a Morsel Maker and you get them both planted right away but the more space the better. For instance if you have 2 Morsel Masters you need at least 6 in order to plant a morsel to be copied. Also it you gives you more leeway in being able to plant the Morsel Makers/Masters. With only 5 spaces you may not get the Morsel Master planted if you plant a Morsel Makers first because it will pop out Morsels on the next turn and then you won't have room for the Master. That is where Feast can come in handy as well. (It is also an advantage to to the Dazed on the top floor after Co10--which saved me quite a few times)

This is an excellent strategy, although I recommend giving holdover to Retch in preference to Feast. That said, putting holdover on both of them is ideal.

I always avoided Retch, wouldn't it clog up your deck if you don't have room to plant them all? It would be good if you had a 2nd gorger as you had lots of room behind it. Ideally if you have 1 or 2 Morsel Masters then I would like to get Morsel Miner and Feast on Holdover but that is getting greedy!

Personally, I find Umbra can be powerful but tricky to play. They tend to have lots of boss killing units, but because they don't have many good backliners they aren't as good at killing the minions that come before the boss, so their pyre can be destroyed before the boss even shows up. And they can have issues with enemy sweepers, harvesters and debuffers. I tend to set up the top floor for Umbra, and the bottom and/or mid floor with their allied clan to overcome those issues.

It happens for sure. But I find it is fairly common to be able to pick up a tome of Multistrike and/or Trample which solves that problem as long as your pyre can handle the first few strikes until you scale up some and get the tomes applied. I also try to get an Endless unit for the bottom floor. Titan Sentry, Demon, preferably with multistrike or a large or quick Husk Hermit all work well. I once had the Volitile Gauge relic and 2 Consumer of Crowns with one Endless and I also had a tome of endless--that was a fun game! Another thing that has worked very well for me several times is having Inferno on Holdover for rounds 6 - 8, though you need extra energy to make it work.

[greenknightaus]

Originally posted by Keith:

I always avoided Retch, wouldn't it clog up your deck if you don't have room to plant them all? It would be good if you had a 2nd gorger as you had lots of room behind it. Ideally if you have 1 or 2 Morsel Masters then I would like to get Morsel Miner and Feast on Holdover but that is getting greedy!

The advantage of Retch is that you can continually cycle the best morsels without needing to constantly create them. I tend to focus on Morsel Miners and Morsel Excavators (the ones with lifesteal). It does lead to a few random morsels getting into the deck, but considering how I'm reliably getting the morsels I want each turn for 0 ember cost, I think it's worth it.

But I find it is fairly common to be able to pick up a tome of Multistrike and/or Trample which solves that problem as long as your pyre can handle the first few strikes until you scale up some and get the tomes applied.

Shadoweater can also be a good solution, if you have some spare morsels (another reason I like Retch). And yes, Trample is another solution once your units power up a bit (if you can get it). There's a bit of luck needed to bring all the parts of your solution together when you need them, but solutions do exist.

I once had the Volitile Gauge relic and 2 Consumer of Crowns with one Endless and I also had a tome of endless--that was a fun game! Another thing that has worked very well for me several times is having Inferno on Holdover for rounds 6 - 8, though you need extra energy to make it work.

Once you get set up, you can really overpower with Umbra. I remember I had a run with a Glutton Penumbra champion and Hellhorned allied clan. I managed to get an Endless Impish Scholar, Onehorn's Tome and the Fossilized Fangs artifact. By the end of the run, my champion was doing over 700 damage per attack and multiattacking 5 times per turn. I finished the run even before Seraph entered the train, otherwise I expect I could have added another 1-2 multiattacks and at least another 300 damage per attack (I usually get over 1,000 damage per attack with a Glutton Penumbra and Fossilized Fangs, when I have enough time for it). I know other clans can do high damage for one turn, but when it comes to damage turn after turn, I think Umbra has the potential to beat them all if everything comes together for you.

[SaiColors]

I wanna know how to deal with that bird man with harvest each unit die +10 armor

currently at co16 I failed every time when encounter it with umbra.