What do you do with the Hellhorned champ?

[I Can Imagine Anything]

I just cannot find a good use for this guy. He's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ squishy, but unlike Tethys he doesn't even make up for it with neat, synergistic passives. No matter what lane I put him in, what upgrades I pick for him, what monsters I put in front of or behind him, how many buffs I dump on him... He's almost always dead before the boss even shows up.

[Myth Alric]

To me he seems like a high risk high reward type champion(at least with two of his upgrade paths). He does do a ton of damage if he does survive. It shouldn't be that hard to protect him if you put a good tank up front, though I think you just need to accept some times he is going to die(like if the enemies all have spikes).

[I Can Imagine Anything]

Originally posted by James:

To me he seems like a high risk high reward type champion(at least with two of his upgrade paths). He does do a ton of damage if he does survive. It shouldn't be that hard to protect him if you put a good tank up front, though I think you just need to accept some times he is going to die(like if the enemies all have spikes).

But... The reward isn't even that high. If you get his +10/ on slay perk, you still have to have him deal the final blow to enemies, which can sometimes be a hassle to co-ordinate. And he has 6 HP and will die to sweep/spikes. To me it's more like high risk, okay reward...

[Myth Alric]

Well if you do get him killing people it can build up really high and then he is killing someone every turn so it goes even higher. It is even better with multiattack and slay since then you can kill multiple people a turn. Though if you just go multiattack, you get a bit more consistent damage, then don't need to worry about getting the kill. It wont go as high but is less risky.

[Unholydonuts86]

he has 6 hp but also some armor so he does not directly die to sweeps. give him multistrike and buff him with rage. Spike of the Hellhorned is realy good for this. And with a tank in front his slayer stack will just keep rising. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/525539653994938378/730830580727414894/unknown.png

[Zeel Ara]

He's about as limited as the green champion. I tend to go for +20 attack on slay and double attack, with the extra attack being needed in order to build any kind of meaningful bonus from slay. Could be +10 and triple attack as well. But he's never a central unit in any strategy. He's decent backline purely because he costs 0 and you're guaranteed to get him on turn one, so you can use him to get the real units in your deck rolling. In many cases it's even to your advantage that he dies quickly, so the space frees up for something better.

[.//slayer]

Originally posted by Fluffeh:

He's about as limited as the green champion. I tend to go for +20 attack on slay and double attack, with the extra attack being needed in order to build any kind of meaningful bonus from slay. Could be +10 and triple attack as well. But he's never a central unit in any strategy. He's decent backline purely because he costs 0 and you're guaranteed to get him on turn one, so you can use him to get the real units in your deck rolling. In many cases it's even to your advantage that he dies quickly, so the space frees up for something better.

I disagree - in my 16-20 covenant runs I relied entirely on the Hellhorned champion as the cornerstone of my strategy. Put him behind a tank, give the champ some armour so that he doesn't die to spikes, and by the time you fight Seraph, he's an unstoppable 250x2 monster.

In terms of spiraling out of control, there's just no beating the Hellhorned.

[Unholydonuts86]

I currently like to play him in combination with umbra. give him quick, trample, and feed him a few morsels. he snowballs so hard.

[Uncle Al]

The reaper version is an excellent source of scaling damage, making him a fine tank/boss killer. The wrath (multistrike) version takes buffs better but doesn't have inherent scaling in the same way. They do combine nicely - so taking 2 wrath and 1 reaper or visa versa.

You have armour cards to protect the champ from spikes/sweep.

With the reaper, the key thing is getting those early kills to start the snowball. Usually he's not quite strong enough to one shot an enemy tank unit, so using rage spells or other buffs to get him over the line is needed to start the snowball. A Railbeater smacking tanks out the way, or using ascend, vine lash etc. to open up low hp units so he can get his first kills also works.

Once he's one-shotting a tank every round he scales ferociously.

Wrathful scales fiercely if you've got a good source of rage generation, or unit buffs from your allied clan.

I have no idea what to do with the third version of the champ (armour on slay/rage on getting hit) and never, ever take it. Just seems too squishy to tank, too weak to deal damage and pretty much useless.

[Kiru]

There's no way to use slay -> armor, as the concept in itself is awful. I wonder how that even made it in the game. Though a lot of champions suffer from this kind of "this is so damn useless why is it even here?!?". Purple doesn't, and is the sole exception.

[GeminiEclipse]

The only thing I've found that works with armor slay guy is early spikes (like Sharpen). It's an inconsistent strat, but when it works it's actually one of the most powerful champions.

He kills any small enemies gaining a tonne of armor. He quickly ramps up rage because he's always getting hit so he can get in range to kill the big minions.

But when you don't draw Sharpen in the first turn, he doesn't get that quick ramp up he needs. So it's very volatile to try it.

[Mistic-Gohan]

Multistrike + 2 times the slayer.
Place him on 2nd or 3rd floor where he can easily kill and stack attack.
Works every time for me.

[ZirzoR]

Multistrike + Rage + Armor = Goodbye seraph.

[Smuckem]

Was inspired by this thread to see if I can use him to break through Rank 12: since it seems like Brawler will be his path, and that on its own won't be enough to help him really bust through things, I figure he'll be best as the centerpiece of a secondary line that softens up or thins out the mobs on 1st floor while Alloyed Construct gets set up up top; he'll be supported by a couple Wielder Helpers and a Multistrike Demon Fiend who hopefully can get beefed up by said Helpers to help tank; ultimately he'll be taking the majority of the Rage and Armor buffs I'll be distributing, although Fiend should be getting some Armor for survivability and Battering Ram usage.

I've been fortunate enough to score Hellhorned primary wins with all other clans, including some of my biggest nailbiters to date, but the Prince's performances in all but one of these--where, as .//slayer has described, the Slay damage stacking just kinda goes and goes and goes--have kinda blurred together. Which ally do you think works best for when you deliberately want to make him the core of the deck (assuming that RNG allows you the stuff to make it so)?

[Mistic-Gohan]

Originally posted by Smuckem:

Which ally do you think works best for when you deliberately want to make him the core of the deck (assuming that RNG allows you the stuff to make it so)?

Umbra and hide him behind damage shields so he can stack peacefully. No big rng required for this one.

You may also try with Stygian, but it's more rng.

[SilverTonguedMarauder]

He is hands down my favorite unit. Just get the Wrathful Prince (slay=10 armor+rage) and put spikes on him. Then get the second Wrathful if the Brawler doesn't fit your deck. Just don't get to Seraph without 2 Wrathful upgrade. You could pick all 3 Wrathful upgrades if you want and put a fiend behind him.