Tips for Hellhorned?

[MrQun]

I will start by saying that I absolutely loath Hellhorned especially it's John Malkovich wannabe champion. I am currently trying to clear all Divinity Cov. 25 clan combos, and I can't for the life of me get Hellhorned/ Awoken to work. Any tips would be much appreciated. By the way, I have cleared all clan combos for standard Cov. 25 runs, so I am not completely green.

[Happiness Officer]

Where you're vastly more experienced than I, I probably won't be of much help here.... But are you familiar with the carnage that is possible with the Shardtail Queen and Apex Imps? (Don't want to waste your time if you already do)

Whilst I can't speak for Divinity yet, I've derived great glee from utterly pulverising Seraph with that combo in the upper covenants.

[MrQun]

Hey that's fine. I don't have too much trouble with Ex Hellhorned, just it's main version. Yeah Shardtail Queen and Apex imp are bonkers. But then again so are all of the new rare banner units. These units are great and can drastically improve your odds of victory, however the game doesn't always offer them. The issue I am having is scaling the Prince. I've tried a few runs where I tried buffing him using things like cultivate. This strat does fairly well for the early and mid game, but fails miserably in the late game. I am probably over complicating it as I am try to incorporate the Prince into my strategy. At this point, I am thinking that maybe is best just to bench him.

[ShinryuEXE]

Lots of options you can go with, though in general I will say Brawler is the easiest of Prince's three upgrade paths:

- Ritual of Battle cost reduced + holdover or duped or spellchain gives incredible scaling (though beware of Seraph the Chaste) for Prince's many attacks in Brawler form. Just need a competent tank, which is easy to do in Hellhorn and Awoken (like a Steelworker infused with another Steelworker and given Hp up works well. Can even do 2 of them on the same floor for double the armor gen). Beware of sweep and spikes though given his low health, so you'll still want some form of armor or health gain.

- Sweepers are really good since the DLC of which Awoken as 2: Husk Hermit and Shattered Shell. Alpha Fiend in Particular makes for a great infusion on them as the 'Strike' ability applies for every enemy it hits, not just once per attack it makes. Also again Ritual of Battle or an endless Fledgling Imp or whatnot works well to scale up quickly. Can give it quick and Multistrike to also help mitigate incoming damage from large waves.

- Endless Welder Helper is always good. Even better now that you can throw another imp's infusion on it for whatever effect you want.

- Inferno is a great emergency spell, moreso now that a single Valuestone can bring it down to a reasonable ember cost. Put Permafrost on it so it's always around when you need it. Or you can even put it on Holdover and weaken a floor a turn.

- Vent or Glimmer given the +10 and Piercing upgrade can clear a lot of the powerful backliners with minimal investment.

- If you somehow end up with ways to get Trample (Heph, Heph Infusion, Umbra Stone), Railbeater's melee weakness is fabulous with it. That said, Railbeater's melee weakness is good in general, just a lot more potent when combo'd with Trample.

- Wrathful Prince + Spikes is still a good combo, just harder to use now given the large size of Divinity waves and the harder hitting nature of shard enhanced enemies. Still though, done well you can kill backliners with spikes, tank well, and end up with a very hard hitting frontliner all in one.

[DeathWantsMore]

A) Rage

B) Endless Trancendimp

[MrQun]

Originally posted by ShinryuEXE:

Lots of options you can go with, though in general I will say Brawler is the easiest of Prince's three upgrade paths:

- Ritual of Battle cost reduced + holdover or duped or spellchain gives incredible scaling (though beware of Seraph the Chaste) for Prince's many attacks in Brawler form. Just need a competent tank, which is easy to do in Hellhorn and Awoken (like a Steelworker infused with another Steelworker and given Hp up works well. Can even do 2 of them on the same floor for double the armor gen). Beware of sweep and spikes though given his low health, so you'll still want some form of armor or health gain.

- Sweepers are really good since the DLC of which Awoken as 2: Husk Hermit and Shattered Shell. Alpha Fiend in Particular makes for a great infusion on them as the 'Strike' ability applies for every enemy it hits, not just once per attack it makes. Also again Ritual of Battle or an endless Fledgling Imp or whatnot works well to scale up quickly. Can give it quick and Multistrike to also help mitigate incoming damage from large waves.

- Endless Welder Helper is always good. Even better now that you can throw another imp's infusion on it for whatever effect you want.

- Inferno is a great emergency spell, moreso now that a single Valuestone can bring it down to a reasonable ember cost. Put Permafrost on it so it's always around when you need it. Or you can even put it on Holdover and weaken a floor a turn.

- Vent or Glimmer given the +10 and Piercing upgrade can clear a lot of the powerful backliners with minimal investment.

- If you somehow end up with ways to get Trample (Heph, Heph Infusion, Umbra Stone), Railbeater's melee weakness is fabulous with it. That said, Railbeater's melee weakness is good in general, just a lot more potent when combo'd with Trample.

- Wrathful Prince + Spikes is still a good combo, just harder to use now given the large size of Divinity waves and the harder hitting nature of shard enhanced enemies. Still though, done well you can kill backliners with spikes, tank well, and end up with a very hard hitting frontliner all in one.

Thanks for your input. Unfortunately I've tried most of your strats, but it never seems to 'come' together. One run I had ritual of battle (RoB) and I put holdover on it but was never offered valuestone. Another run was the opposite, RoB, valuestone but no holdover. In one run everything was going well until my fight with Seraph the Patient. I had a relatively thin deck (24) and I seem to have all the necessary pieces for victory. I'd set up on the top floor with two self infused steal workers, with the Prince at the back. I had RoB with holdover and valuestone as well as a couple of sap cards and an ascend/ daze card for Seraph. Unfortunately I got screwed with my draw as I did not draw RoB soon enough. Because of this the Prince did not scale quickly enough and I lost. I replay that battle many times and I don't think that there was anything I could do.
It's funny that Hellhorned and Prince are the only faction that gives me real grief.

[MrQun]

Originally posted by DeathWantsMore:

A) Rage

B) Endless Trancendimp

Those are pretty good if you get them.

[Livy]

Originally posted by Happiness Officer:

Where you're vastly more experienced than I, I probably won't be of much help here.... But are you familiar with the carnage that is possible with the Shardtail Queen and Apex Imps? (Don't want to waste your time if you already do)

One issue though, which is getting an apex imp...

Edit: Well managed Hellhorned/Awoken by ditching the champion and relying on two Husk Hermits with quick and multistrike.

When you get a ember capping run and no fun x cards.

[Nathaniel Prime]

Sure, it was a pretty big challenge but there are a couple of combos that can really kick butt.

The absolute best strategy I've come across with Hellhorned, regardless of clan, involves the Apex Imp. I know he is rare, but if you're struggling, this combo will pull you through with little trouble. It will take a while to assemble the whole combo but each piece is very useful on it's own. You can win without all the pieces of this combo as well.

2x Apex Imp, at least one with Quick
1x Deranged Brute
Lots of Multistrike and infused Steelworkers

The idea is simple - assuming two Apex Imps with multistrike 2 (make one and then dupe it), a Deranged Brute, and two Steelworkers infused somewhere... You get +10 armor each round, which means 10 rage, which means 50 attack, and with 6 total attacks between them that means your floor's damage will be going up by three hundred per round without you doing anything. Get that set up in a couple of turns and you can take a nap while your dudes obliterate everything. Add that Hellhorned card that double armor or rage for extra fun.

Now, you could infuse a Horned Warrior into an Apex Imp to give it more power. You'd think that fragile would not be a big deal, and you'd be right... right up until you get to the Divinity and discover that the Divinity will kill a Fragile Apex Imp on the first turn if you put him up top. So either infuse it with a Steelworker instead or carry a ton of armor boosting spells and pray to the RNG. Another benefit of having a Steelworker infused into an Apex Imp is that he buffs himself with +5 armor +10 damage every round, which is plenty in the early rounds.

Husk Hermit infused with Alpha Fiend is also very good, but I'd say the Apex Imp is a lot easier to pull off if you get lucky enough to find one. Other people have already shared a lot of helpful tips about possible Awoken combos.

[Kaerius]

The most busted combo is probably Welder Helper with essence of Impish Scholar, and Onehorn's Tome with two valuestones(or just two emberstones, and generating more than 3 ember per turn). Works best with Wrathful or Reaper, but is still good for Brawler. Other good consume cards to bring back include Last Stand(exponential rage) Reinforce(exponential armor), imp-in-a-box(all the imps, especially nice with transcendimp), or Adaptive Mutation(All the stats with rage build*).

*Adaptive mutation uses current stats for the switch, so the strength given by rage is included, thereby your health will increase based on your rage enhanced value, but you still have rage so you won't lose much attack. Then the next time you do it you have all that extra health become attack. Every cycle of playing this will drastically increase your prince's(or sweeper's) stats. Not as good with Onehorn's Tome, though you still boost attack a lot every other cast.

Other neat things:
Fledgling Imp with essence of Fledgling Imp gives as much rage as Ritual of Battle. Add endless, and holdover Imp-portant Work(or failing that, just kill it), and you basically have your holdover ritual of battle. If you use Imp-portant Work you can dupe that multiple times to get a lot of rage.

Transcendimp with essence of Fledgling Imp is like the above on steroids. Exponential rage gain(though not as exponential as bringing back Last Stand every time with Impish Scholar or its essence, but you can also do both, especially since you have a Transcendimp).

Hidden Passage will let you overstack top/middle floor, conflicts with imp rage/armor buildup. Works great with Sketches of Salvation, to either bring units up from Sketches floor to top, or to bring Prince up behind the gang on middle floor. Multiple steelworkers or units with essence of steelworker will make such a floor very durable. Intrinsic is good on it.

The Daze plan: Cost down/holdover Tiresome Climb can make Seraph a breeze, and let you set up on top floor without much worries at The Last Divinity. You can also do the same with Hidden Passage if you get Iron Dropcage, which will give you double use of it if you also want to overstack.

Banner units that carry runs:
Shattered Shell/Husk Hermit, with any sort of scaling. Razorsharp edge, Rage generation, etc. Good essences include Branded Warrior, Alpha Fiend, Awoken Hollow(better with Restores than with Rootseeds, which is otherwise the better Awoken starter), and Shattered Shell. Give them multistrike and quick.

Apex Imp, works best with essence of Steelworker, but essence of Railbeater is also good(30 armor = 30 rage). Add Reinforce, Onehorn's Tome, Welder helper, or similar goodies and just win. Multistrike is the most important upgrade. Also amazing with Umbra Stone, if you get that from an event.

Deranged Brute with essence of Branded Warrior. Brawler's best cheerleader buddy. Add multistrike and quick, or just more multistrike. Floor will be very angry and kill stuff. Also works well with Shattered Shell/Husk Hermit, instead of prince.

Railbeater is also great, melee weakness is strong. Essence of Horned Warrior deserves a mention here, as the fragile drawback doesn't matter much for Railbeater, especially with armor gain strategies.

Steelsinger is also quite nice, aside from Awoken Hollow essence which doubles up on Rejuvenate triggers but makes an already thick unit even thicker, essence of Consumer of Crowns deserves a mention, for extra base stats and reducing cost from 3 to 0, also works very well with essence of Animus of Will. Best used with an intrinsic Hidden Passage to bring prince up behind it. Will need healing card support. Works best with a mix of regen and burst heal, good unit to see if you start with Wildwood Sap, Restoration Detonation or Awake.

[Hobo Humpin Slobo]

Most importantly:
Which movie are you referring to in regards of mentioning John Malkovich? :)

[Kaerius]

Originally posted by Ensign Ricky:

Most importantly:
Which movie are you referring to in regards of mentioning John Malkovich? :)

I have a feeling he's actually referring to the actor, who is bald.

[MrQun]

Hey guys, I've just managed to beat the Divinity on Cov. 25 with Hellhorned/ Awoken, despite a big misplay where I though that I was fighting Seraph the Diligent rather than Patient. Because of this I had to set up on the ground floor and as a result the Pyre was down to 6 by the end of the battle. But then I destroyed Divinity quite comfortably. So thank you all for the tips. Much appreciated.

[Happiness Officer]

Well done TheQunRules! Out of interest, what was the rough play you made with the Hornbreaker that won it out for you in the end? (Or did he indeed get benched?)

[MrQun]

Simply put I got real lucky with my units/ spells. I managed to get a Stealworker to which I upgraded it with multi-strike 2 as well as the cavern event that reduced it's pip size. I self infused him and duplicated that unit twice. I also had 2 RoB spells which I managed to make 0 cost as well as a Fledgling Imp that had endless. The Divinity fight: I'd set up on the top floor with the level 3 Brawler Prince as well as three self infused Stealworkers. I started the battle by dazing the Divinity with one of those ascend cards. From there it was pretty much smooth sailing.

[fracturedorb]

I've basically given up on this faction entirely. There's many avenues for the other factions to do well and have fun but this one just feels like you get lucky because too many of their cards are just bad.