Stygian + Awoken is just broken

[Shagohod ~Red]

Currently trying to get all golden card frames around Cov 16. It occured to me, that beating the game at that Covlevel with anything that isnt Awoken + Stygian or vice versa is just brutally hard. Melting, Umbra and Hellhorned just feel utterly useless. There are basically no powerhouse cards like the second Stygian hero, or the various incant cards. Idk... I felt like the game was too easy to beat, but I've played basically only Awoken + Stygian in any combination, so...

It just feels like that combination is way overpowered. Even when building different archetypes within that combination. Just me?

[brickey.8]

The ice version of the exiled Stygian champion, coupled with Awoken healing/regen, is definitely one of the game's stronger combos. I guess frostbite or a Stygian glass cannon plus any of Awoken's tanks would be pretty strong too.

The other clans do have powerful and reliable builds though. Feed a gorge unit multiple morsels per turn for the whole fight, or set up a kill zone on a floor with accumulator Flicker and/or another harvest unit, or put Endless on that tomb that grants Stealth when it dies, or spam imps and Remnant units next to the Rally version of Shardtail Queen, and you'll win.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Stygian incant bulids seem to be one of the more reliable setups, and there are combinations that work less well than others, but there are other things that'll work.

e.g. Awoken's Wyldenten path that grants Quickness will help survivability of the more glass-cannon-y Hellhorned units; and Hellhorned's access to Rage and multistrike (via One-horned) will help boost the power of Awoken's animus units. You don't need as much armor/health if you kill all the enemies before they can move. ;)

Likewise, you can use Umbra boosts to help out Awoken animuses. e.g. an Animus of Will starts out with 3x3 attack and 3 health. It needs *something* to keep it alive and useful beyond finishing off enemy backliners if your frontliners have killed the enemy frontliners already and the Animus hasn't been killed off using sweep yet... but e.g. what if you're leading with Umbra, you make it eat a Primordium for a few rounds to boost attack and health, throw it a few morsels, stack damage shield on it? You can make a monster of it.

There's weirder things you can do, like slapping Burnout on imps to ensure that they die promptly when you're using somebody besides imp-yeeting Shardtail and you don't have the 'sacrifice imp' card on holdover, so you free up the space and can replay them with reform.).

[Siozen]

I felt the same last summer/fall until about Cov 16-17. Then Melting/Hellhorned with imps and harvest champion was far more reliable wins and it got me to Cov 25 fairly easily.

[wss171]

those imo are the best clans.
but other clans are not useless,
x-hellhorn/x-melting can make the queen solo the entire run.
umbra/hellhorn, trample penumbra + rage + lifesteal = soles a run.
little fade spikes = solos a run.
with pratice you can discover several good combinations.
hellhorn artifacts make stygean armor incant way better, f.e.

[2LambBuna]

primordiom umbra going superfood, with melting for cleanse on holdover works great, have him buff either the life steal warden or the baron with harvest, chuck as many of them ember draining spells as you like on him. if you get the multistrike one, remove consume on it and you will rip through anything.