How to actually win?

[Nightblood]

So basically i have found this game quite hard and won just once on the casual mode, none of my normal runs. So i have a few observation/questions:
What are the shrine things in the last area? I tried to go for one in my last run and lost 2 characters (and one got a burn debuff so high he instantly died in king encounter) all to get a relic i couldnt put in the case which is hilariously bad.

Multiple enemies and boss are able to take a character or multiple characters to deaths door at the start of the turn from full health (looking at the balloon tank which set all characters to deaths door instantly, what is the feasible counterplay to this especially when you cant react at the start of the turn

In the one casual run i did win i won by the skin of my teeth--one character left, nearly whole deck gone to the banish stuff, what am i missing to be able to defeat hthe king in the normal or even expert mode?

Some bosses seem near impossible to take on, for example sap[hire and ruby have killed me multiple times because they stack their debuffs so high even with the cleanse to help individual characters--comparatively the reaper boss is hard but manageable as i can control who is getting marked basically and the mechanic seems very clear--am i missing how other bosses work and where can i see that to beat them effectively (without lossing 2/4 people)

...thanks!

[Xuande]

Do you play on the beta branch or the main branch? My experience only lies with the beta branch since I bought in recently myself, so some of this may not apply.

Last area: There's five unique buildings there, one of which you'll get access to for free at the top left, plus two pairs locked behind fights which'll give you the right to choose one of the two buildings to get a bonus from. Their order is random.

Vault: Copy a relic to take to next run. As far as I know, this does not function on Expert (good!), but does work on Normal. So it probably also works on Casual.

Orbs: Heal/Revive your party once.

Justice: See two relics, pick one, then you get access to the Relic stand for the rest of the floor to make swaps.

Books: Pay 1000 to get a special Lucy skill among a choice of three.

I forget what the other building looks like, but it lets you delete party member skills and replace them with a choice of 10, half of which belong to that member and half of which are skills your other members could learn.

Honestly...my first several clears, I skipped the optional fights. I felt strong enough that I'd rather ensure being at full HP without lingering debuffs. You can always do them after the final boss to learn more about them.

Balloon Tank: That's its entire gimmick. It hits the party hard enough to enter Death's Door, then takes the next two turns off. If your party isn't capable of leaving Death's Door or killing the boss outright by then, you'll be in trouble. This fight asks a simple question - do you have consistent healing? Nothing it does is a threat aside from nuking the party every ~3-4 turns.

Ruby/Sapphire: If you want this fight to be easier, pick up skills that are capable of cleansing debuffs - for example, Pressel's Purifying Barrier. Aside from that, keep in mind that its okay if some of your party gets dumped on with debuffs - cycle their cards away and focus on your stronger party members, who you might want to have debuff resist equipment/potions on. Having ways to filter through your deck makes this easier - Lucy draw skills, Prophecy, etc. Also, fixed skills don't suffer the effects of Stigma, so you can fix key skills to get around that mechanic.

Its hard to give specific advice without knowing what is tripping you up, and what party compositions you normally aim for.

[Nightblood]

I think im on normal branch, the info on buildings is helpful, the comps ive been doing have typically been 2 dmg 1 heal 1 tank depending on who im offered (idk what good compositions really are anyways). Whats typically best way to invest soul orbs and fixed skill choices maybe thatd help

[Xuande]

If you don't know which version you're playing, then you're on the main branch. Beta is something you opt into (right click on game, Properties, Beta.) So I might make references to skills that don't exist on the main branch, since I've only ever played the last two beta versions.

I typically run 2 damage, 1 heal, 1 flex (any role) myself. Loot and deck-building luck from level ups and skill books will determine what I want the flex to be.

A general level up pattern goes like this: Get starting party to Lv2, +1 mana/Get 3rd member to Lv2, then get the party in the Lv3-4 range depending on who needs to be higher than Lv3 to perform their job well, while spending spare points on Lucy draw skills. Sometime before or soon after getting your 4th party member, get another +1 mana. Finally, depending on how your deck is performing, make a call between focusing on extra draw cards (if you're relying on specific cards often), higher max mana (expensive deck), or higher party levels (if you're trying to get specific skills or certain stat milestones, such as hitting a multiple of 4 attack for Charon's pain debuffs).

Early game, I put Basic Heal on Fixed often because its both a card I'm willing to overpay for if I need it, and a card I don't want to draw. Until I've deleted my other starting cards from their deck, it'll often stay there, though you may want to keep at least one party member with an attack fixed for emergencies.

Later on, fixed skills are skills that I either want to see right away because it does something powerful on Turn 1 (many cards with Once keyword are like this, casting them once can be worth giving up the slot for the rest of the fight), something situational (Charon's Dark Heal is a prime example, its either strong or weak depending on the target's HP, so its great fixed since I'm willing to pay extra mana when its strong), or something vital to your survival (party heals/shields).

I'm not an expert on compositions yet, as I'm working on the meta-progression myself and so I'm sticking to a core that works for me on Expert, which in my case is Charon+Pressel. Its a core that starts out light on damage, but has consistent access to healing between their passives and Pressel's Shining Pillar/Holy Light. Each of them is capable of covering a damage role if the cards/loot break well for it (if you get the Attack+6/Healing-3 equipment for Pressel, she hits hard enough to carry!), and a supporting role if they don't. From there I look to pick up a generic secondary damage dealer, and then a flex for my fourth slot based on how the run is going.

And for beta players, I wouldn't be too worried about the Charon nerf that just happened. Dropping to 14 attack at Lv1 does matter, but its not too hard to find her gear with a fixed attack boost to hit 20 or 24 attack by the time she needs it for Focus Encroachment. I won two runs this morning with her, focusing a little less on making her the main carry and more on making sure I had reliable access to FE and Dark Heal.

[Just Monika]

I will have to check out that Charon+Pressel combo. Anyway if you would like an easy expert win (at least when RNG will be on your site)

In my experience, the last map is decided once you enter it. Therefore it is more important to get through the rest of the game in a proper way. I will tell you my strategy which is suboptimal as I am able to consistently win around 25% of my expert runs. It would be 30% if I wouldn't be so greedy. I am sure it is possible to have around an 80% win rate but didn't figure out proper strategy yet.
Character choice: First thing you will have to do (except changing outfit to catgirl Lucy) is to pick the correct characters. The game lets you take any combination you like but a team without an attack role will have a hard time as you are limited by black fog. Therefore you need to pick „main carry” Hein/Trisha/Azar/Silverstein the last one is the easiest in my opinion. As attack roles lack in HP second character will be a healer all support roles can be used as a „main healer” but my favorite one is Eve… I mean Sizz.
First Map: the first map is different from other ones as it has one treasure chest, two encounters, and no shop. Clear the whole map, equip items level up your characters (look at the Leveling up part below) and kill the boss. You will get a rare skill book from the boss, don't use it yet just leave the map.
First recruit: Sit at the campfire and choose the recruit option we are looking for some canon fodder now so pick the defense role now (avoid phoenix I hate this always hungry pice of self grilled chicken) Miss chain is good for starters as well as ironheart due to his OP passive but any defense role will do alternatively you can choose the second healer. Use the rare skill book now and pick a useful rare skill. Activate relic if you happened to find one.
Second and every other map: they have a secret (lucy skill book/1000 gold/items and moonstones), shop, two chests and random other buildings as well as cursed enemy(-ies) fight (at least on expert) which I usually leave for last before the boss. Pick everything up, clear normal fights, open chests visit a shop, try not to die while fighting with the cursed enemy, and go for the boss.
The second recruit: can join you after the third boss and has 3rd level go for another defense character, second healer, or Charon as her item (Soul Thurible) is a great source of healing.

Key pieces of information in my strategy:
Full clear every map (except maybe last one) as exp (moonstones) is strictly limited in-game.
Try to find secrets on every map. They are usually near encounters and can be revealed by lifting scrolls or purification scrolls (tho be careful as purification scroll can remove encounter denying exp). Lucy’s skills are extremely useful and can change the outcome of the run.
Reforge items to a better tier. Focus on attack items for your main carry (aim for 2 golden ones) and items with healing power for your main healer (2 Purple items)
Use skill books (see below)
Don't drink unknown potions
On the other hand, using unidentified scrolls is fully acceptable. Most common scrolls are lifting and identification so when you will have two or more scrolls of one type you can take 50/50 and obtain a satisfying result (either reveal secret or identify an item) Keep in mind that lifting scroll has secter reveal range of around 2 hexes so mind where you are useing it
Use attack and resistance potions on your main carry and heal power increase potions on your main healer.
Keep vitality, swiftness scrolls as well as devil and resistance potions, for the final boss/map but at the same time, don't be greedy! Don't hesitate to use healing potions, barrier generators, herbs, and pills during cursed enemy or boss fights. Better safe than sorry
Don't let your main carry die in boss fights! He/She is your only source of damage! Keep main carry and healer healthy and don't hesitate to sacrifice cannon fodder characters.
Use lucy’s necklace sparingly. Characters are being respawned at campfire so finishing map with only one character alive is perfectly ok as long as your main healer have some AOE heals.
Feed debuff potions, useless skill books, and scrolls (i look at you teleportation [tho you can reveal secrets with them sometimes])
Use altars of greed as their rewards are amazing (except that one gold coin)
Fix right skills and get rid of basic attack and heal on your main characters
Recycle useless basic characters skills in favor of your main carry ones

Shops: in order, I usually spend my money
Buy keys. There is always at least one and open chests as they contain items that can be reforged into better ones.
Buy skill books and scrolls
Buy items if you can afford it
Use the „identify item” option twice

Skill books: Most of them are useful. Give attack ones to your main carry and healing skills to your main healer. Increase morale should go to cannon fodder characters.
Use a blank skill book on your main carry but look at all available skills. Sometimes other characters may gain a Chance to learn rare skills or your main carry skills available are crap.
Avoid skills that don't do much like strike, extended strike, hasty heal, harden, toxic arrow

Leveling up: on the first map you want to get both characters level up to unlock passives you also get two skills to choose from. Keep in mind that there are good, great, and useless skills. Some skills like a merciless explosion or bear trap are great but only once each additional card of the same type is worthless and less.
Try to add one mana and one draw skill per map until (skip mana on bloody park 2 and draw skill on white grave)
Entering the final map you should have 6 or 7 mana 3 or 4 additional draw skills (depends on your luck with secrets and lucy skills). Around 15 skills on your main carry, 8 or 9 on your main healer, and 6 on others (including fixed ones)
The main carry should have 7th level but 6th is ok if you have good items and badly need more mana/draw cards the main healer should have 5th or 4th level and other characters will usually stay on 3rd level
In terms of stats, I have never lost a game when my carry had over 33 attack power although I aim for 30 attack power in normal runs as well as 22 healing power on my main healer. Don't be discouraged if you don't have that kind of stats. Then fights will be longer and more dangerous but as long as you have the right skills it should be ok 8 out of 10 times.

Skillsets:
Fix – skill to be fixed. I usually fix skills when I am able to get rid of basic skill
(One) – Having one copy of this skill is nice but additional copies can lead to problems
Great – great skills which are the foundation of victory
Good – good skills
OK – they can be useful
Useless – try to avoid them if possible

Main Carries:
Aim for items with damage, and/or accuracy, crit, crit damage enhanced with the same attributes.

Hein has Huge damage and a big HP pool. Lacks accuracy early on. Counting on his skills may cause problems. The merciless explosion can reduce even strongest enemies to dust just after single-use. Be careful not to kill yourself with it. Passive allows for pseudo-AOE as well as duplication of some skills.
Fix: Tear Up
Great : (one) Mercilles explosion, Mutilate, End of the line, Rage slash, Rage, Bloodied revenge
Good: Assault slash, (one) Identify weakness, (one) Blood reflux
OK: Intimidation
Useless: None

Trisha lacks damage, especially early on until he has enough crit, so you may consider taking another character that can do some damage as well as debuff enemies like Miss chain or Charon as the first campfire. She is also fragile but If she makes it to the late game her crits, evasion, and free skills are amazing. Use Shadow step into caught off guard for mana refunds and finish enemies with Illusion strike to transfer debuffs onto the next target. She is the only Main carry with which I completed the final boss with full HP on the whole party.
Fix: Shadow slash (consider Backstab at the final boss)
One: Backstab
Great: Mirror image, Illusion strike, Shadow step, Caught off-guard, Blink stab, Shadow dance
Good: Shadow slash, Heart Pierce
OK: Shadow illusion
Useless: Apply a bandage, Shadow curtain,

Azar depends on his hollowed sword casting lots of cards per turn which can be beneficial in case of charged attack or huge problem when facing joker or flying hedgehog on the last map. He is easy to learn hard to master as sometimes it is worth skipping a turn in order to perform a massive combo later on. His HP and defense are terrible so you need to be careful with ending the turn if enemies still have some actions left. He is the most satisfying character if played properly
Fix: Storming Blade
Great: Ascending Slice, Storming Blade, Sword of Infinity, Hollowed flash, Hollowed sword’s calling, Blade Starfall, Fantasy, Dancing sword
Good: Hollowed sword: first scroll
OK: Veiled sword, Cresent slash, (one) Shining aura,
Useless: None

Silverstein has huge damage lots of swift skills and can provide additional draw as well as AOE with his passive. He has an infinity (bear) trap card. Furthermore his drawcard „evacuation set” can remove cc, change taunt status, or provide one mana. All of that without any downsides. You just have to make good use of his passive. It is worth pointing out that Ricochet Shot applies his passive to both targets one by one.
Fix: Rapid Shot
Great: (two) Rapid shot, Snipe, Grapeshot, Close quarter, (one) Beartrap, Overcharged shot,
Good: (one) Quickfire, Ricochet Shot, Enhanced mark, blind fire
OK: Freezing bomb
Useless: None

Common skills: (I wish I had a list of all of them)
Great: Charged attack, strike, (the one critical if you used skill before) (the one creating one more skill with -1 cost)
Good: Dead end, Double attack, (the one casting twice more after it hist)
Meh: Seal, Toxic arrow, Extended strike, boomerang
Useless: Reckless attack,

Main Healers:
Aim for items with healing power enchanted with more healing power.

Joey is a rude kid hiding his ugly face behind a gas mask. However, his healing skills are impressive. He has good both single target as well as AOE overtime heals, unfortunately, he also has a lot of crappy ones. His passive on the other hand is great.
Fix: any healing skill
Great: Healing potion, Healing Vapor, Healing ray, Bionic Field
Good: (one) chemical weapon,
OK: Paralyzing Dart, Self-destructing healing drone,
Useless: Chemical substance No. 12, Protecting gas, Weakening Smog, Create a potion

Eve is the most adorable thing in the game she comes in a package with Sizz. Offers great heals as well as additional damage. Likewise has some useless skills but also provides ways to regain mana (Thread of fate, collect eve, and Kitting draw skill). Eve applies whenever you target an ally even with debuff like Curse.
Fix: Patch up
Great: Eve, Guard, Patch Up, Healing Wave, Thread of life, (one) Collect Eve, Thread of Fate
Good: None
OK: Sacrifice, Time to move,
Useless: Eve, Help!, Incise, Hindering attack, Marionette,

Pressel is the only character that can revive dead allies in battle. Her healing is nice but she lacks overtime regeneration. Prophecy is not as good as it seems to be.
Fix: any healing skill
Great: Holy light, Double heal, Guardian angel
Good: Healing coil, Blinking heal, Purifying barrier
OK: Kill lit!, God’s blessing,
Useless: First Class to Heaven, Shining pillar, celestial wing

Huz will have the most hentai arts of all girls in this game as she whips whoever she likes whenever she likes friends and foes alike (except Lucy… at least not in public) Her healing skills are a bit different than other healers as she leaves healing wounds that deal damage over time but overheal immediately when character health falls below 0. Her drawcard gives Chance for gold or additional draw (or stun for an ally). She relies on items and common healing skills a lot more than other healers as many of her skills are useless.
Fix: any healing skill
Great: Carrot and stick, Whip of Love, Whip of Healing, Give and Take, Pain Equals Happiness!
Good: This might Sting,
OK: Constrict,
Useless: Domination, Crack!, Life barrier, Rabbit doll MVP, Punish, Restrained healing

Common healing skills: (I need another skill list)
Great: healing fountain, Bandage, Almost all other healing skills
Good: First Aid, Flash heal, Heal,
Meh: Hasty heal
Useless: Harden

Canon fodders:
To be written later
Take skills with low cost and utility like stuns
Miss chain can heal with Bazzuum! As well as deal nice over time damage using Playing with fire combined with item Bottle of poison
Lian Relentless swipe and bring it on is not bad while combat roar can be devastating
Ironheart's shield of retribution can be devastating while you take round to heal everyone up while his weapon breaker is efficient when fixed
Narhan Coldhearted is one of the most OP skills in this game while his passive allows you to plan your defense ahead
Charons Vigil of darkness is great as fixed debuff to start the battle, Dark barrier can provide additional protection while dark heal can be used as both strong heal and finisher.
Phoenix can be seasoned and placed in an oven. The only way to stop this sack of plumage from getting in your way is to tie him with shackles at the final boss fight and let him die. It was the most satisfying thing that happened to me in this game after so many runs destroyed by this burning chicken.
Common canon fodder skills:
Great: increase morale
To be considered: extended barrier

[UnlimitedNC]

Just Monika
Thanks. I am stable win expert myself, but I am interested in learning the strategies of other players. The overall strategy is similar to mine, but the number of skills and the opinion about the usefulness of some of them surprised me.
I use 5 skills + fixs for all characters, and I believe that with a larger number lost draw and heal skills in right moment. But its my opinion.

[Nightblood]

yeah this is very helpful especially about secret things which i had no idea any hints of how to find except random burning the scroll

[Just Monika]

Secrets can be tricky. There is a relic that shows you their locations.
As for the usefulness of skills I rated them accordingly to my strategy. For other strategies, other skills will be more viable. Also, I think that any strategy able to beat the final boss is viable.
My most fun run ever was when I failed and lost everyone except 4th level, Miss Chain, while Forgotten king still had half HP. I managed to kill him by putting Crucifying curse combined with "Shred them all" and "Playing with fire". In the last turn, he received 84 DoT pain damage.

[UnlimitedNC]

Originally posted by Just Monika:

My most fun run ever was when I failed and lost everyone except 4th level, Miss Chain, while Forgotten king still had half HP. I managed to kill him by putting Crucifying curse combined with "Shred them all" and "Playing with fire". In the last turn, he received 84 DoT pain damage.

Very cool :)
In one of my last runs only survived Pressel(pure healer) and Charon(sub dps/utility), while King still had half HP. I healed well, but I did very little damage. But Charon knew Focus Encroachment, and with this debuff i use... Joker card from relict. King burned them, but the jokers(and damage) became more and more.

[Xuande]

Some areas where I differ in opinion, mainly referring to Monika's long post:

I always buy generic Skill Book/200g, but rarely buy Common Books as I find that most of them aren't significant enough upgrades over a Basic Attack, and I've got plenty of healing with my core team so I don't need to reach for average heal cards. Extended Heal usually makes the cut, but the variety of single target heals don't unless I get them as loot.

I don't identify at shops often unless I'm buying a 180g Identify Scroll to do it. I'd rather keep that money around for endgame insurance, potions aren't so important that using some of them blind is a big loss of equity. Scrolls that remove curses on equipment are common enough that I won't identify equipment either - throw it on your least relevant member to test, and if its crippling, then try some scrolls out.

The following is assuming my playstyle of Charon+Pressel, Expert, Beta version:

Trisha:

I play her like a hybrid. I'm looking specifically for low mana cost cards for her deck, and cards that can ramp up her passive faster. Therefore, cards that you deem useless are some of my highest picks - I want Shadow Slash, Mirror Image, Apply Bandage, and sometimes Heart Pierce (in a higher speed comp) and Shadow Curtain. Basically, I want her to cast cards that generate more cards while not costing more than 1 mana, to build up Double Team for her teammates. I don't want her on cards that cost more than 1 mana, not even Caught off Guard because I tend to run 0-1 stuns across my party.

Joey:

Because I don't pick him to be main healer, my evaluation for him is nearly inverted. I'm willing to take every card in your useless category, and while Healing Vapor is still a high pick, there's a limit to how many I'll take (usually 2). Biotic Field is the one rare he has that I don't want, I'd rather have utility than even more healing. Enemies don't deal damage when they're dead, and having too much healing doesn't kill enemies outside of Ironheart comps.

Pressel:

Oh boy. No, I do not recommend playing her like a worse version of main healer Joey unless you started without a healer and get forced into it. Prophecy is quite strong and quite hard to overrate - prioritize getting her to Lv4 to maximize it. It enables you to run more situational cards and to run low level teammates if need be, knowing you can filter away bad cards during normal encounters, and delay them during boss encounters as needed.

So, running her in a Charon comp...Charon covers the single target healing needs well between Thurible and Dark Heal/Basic Heal (fixed), so what I want out of Pressel is consistent AoE healing access paired with damage contribution. Shining Pillar is the skill I most want to see, and I'll take as many copies as I'm offered! My pick order for her:

Must pick: Shining Pillar
High pick: Holy Light (-1 tier for each 2 copies), God's Blessing (limit 2)
Viable pick: First Class to Heaven (worse Pillar is playable and she has Charon to help heal), Kill It (if your comp needs Taunt answers), Purifying Barrier
Not making the deck: Single target heals. If I must, then Healing Coil is preferable for costing 1 mana and doing more than Blinking Heal. If I am over the minimum card count and got good access to Pillar/Holy Light, these will get deleted before endgame.

If I am not finding Shining Pillar in her early level ups, she'll be my Skill Book target until I do.

Charon:

Post-nerf, its important to pay attention to her Attack score. You need Lv3 without gear to hit 16 Attack, and gear help to get past that (multiples of 4 to power up Pain debuff damage). Shadow Pillars is the only Rare she wants.

Must pick: Focus Encroachment, Dark Heal (fix the first copy)
High pick: Evil Phantasm (reroll skill, 0-mana+Swiftness means low opportunity cost)
Viable pick: Dark Barrier, Vigil of Darkness
Not making the deck: Everything else

[AncientSpark]

Yeah, there's a lot of approaches to card selection and there are ways to disagree everywhere. There isn't really a big enough community to make strong consensus around stuff one way or another.

Some ways I disagree with Monika's list, for example (not to say he's specifically wrong, but that there are a lot of ways to evaluate the game):

-Hein Tear Up is basically worthless and never worth picking for even Fixing. Blood Reflux is usually too much trouble to setup to be worth it, same with Identify Weakness.

-Trish's Apply Bandage *can* be good (but is very artifact specific and requires flat healing stats; usually coming from hybrid gear such as Moon Phase or Taeguk),

-First Scroll/Crescent Slash cores are easier to build for Azar than other cores, although they have lower ceilings. Usually worth considering if Azar is your 4th recruit and you are running into mana problems.

-I think Rapid Shot is trash tier and will never ever pick it up. Ever.

-Attack Joey and Healing Joey are both viable. And since Chemical Weapon always scales off Attack, it is worth considering doing more hybrid Joey in general even in more healing centric builds, due to Chemical Weapon's general power, especially because Joey's healing pool is powerful, but relatively low density. Weakening Smog, in particular, is very very good for pressuing backline in those kinds of builds and is actually generally quite useful if you have attack artifacts on him.

-Also, sidenote: Protecting Gas is much more useful now and actually kind of good. Probably among mid-tier among rares. Its issue before was that Protecting Gas was Once only, so you could not use it for extended fights. Now that that's gone, a lot of what kills you in late-game is an attack to death's door, then Pain damage killing you, and Protecting Gas is one of the few ways to actually pre-empt that besides just being very healthy/aggro control.

-Due to how Eve scales on Sizz's attack, hybrid Sizz is almost always an option and Incise is pretty decent in those builds due to its good properties. Usually can't occupy a full attacker slot, but it has good properties and a Sizz lead with Incise + Eve attack can usually setup for a quick 2 card kill on backline even with weaker DPS carries. Hindering Attack is also potentially useful, although very specific in high mana decks.

-Attack Pressel *is* a thing and makes Celestial Wing much more worth it in those builds for setting up one-shot First Class to Heavens/Shining Pillars. A lot more specific than other attack variations of supporters though, since it requires specific artifacts and a specific team to help deal with how mana intensive it is.

-Toxic Arrow is a very good common skill for DoT spec characters, since it's a separate DoT type to any of the other characters in the game. It's the only way to exceed their normal DoT limits, basically.

-In general, I find low mana decks to be highly unsuccessful compared to what some other people claim their experience is, since high mana decks are far more card efficient and have more burst concentrated into earlier action counts (in exchange for their weaker mana to damage ratio).

-Re: Common skill buys: I fall somewhere in between Monika and Xuande. Before the beta patch, I think it was necessary to buy almost all of the healing ones and certain attack ones, due to deck density and diverting levels away from healers/other less important characters. With blue skill books, this is much less of a problem though, and so I now will still buy the occasional common skill, but only of ones I personally have good opinions of (certain heals such as Bandage, Greater Heal, Medical Kit/Medical Book, Healing Kit, etc., or certain attacks such as Double Attack, Toxic Arrow, Charged Attack, Tactical Attack in certain hybrid builds, etc.).

But yeah, as said before, these are *my* experiences in what I differ from what Monika's list is. Naturally, there is going to be a lot of different card evaluations. In general, I think what works best is to instead play enough of the game to get a feel for the requirements (How much damage do you need on what types of encounters is usually the most pressing concern) and then figure out your ideas from there.

For example, Monika's strategy is *very* carry centric and very aggressive on getting them up (15 skills for one character is pretty unusual), which is where I suspect a lot of their experiences come from (low mana decks make a lot more sense in the context where one person has all your attack stats and you need to deal with overload). Whereas some other people, me included, play more distributed strategies towards end-game (about even levels for all 4 characters, around default deck size for all characters except for maybe occasional Once only skills), depending on where we're at.

[Xuande]

Having 1-2 characters above the minimum deck size by endgame (~6-9 non-fixed cards) is normal for me, and if I've identified an Oblivion Potion, I'll use that as an excuse to run a sub-minimum deck size for a character who will stay at their current level. Gear/Level can make it so that a carry's worst cards are better off kept over deleted, but a lot of that is dependent on variance - how good were the level up cards, how good is my gear, how much of the deck has Swiftness, etc.

Being in the "must run minimum cards because TCG" mindset can be just as flawed as never deleting non-Basic cards. You're managing four combined decks of uneven card quality (plus Lucy), decks where you have a large degree of control for how powerful they are relative to each other.

[AncientSpark]

Yeah, it does vary a lot based on card quality and artifacts that you find, and it's certainly possible to obtain situations where you have singular strong carries vs more distributed parties.

In practice, however, the game incentivizes some amount of even distribution of cards between characters, partially due to Overload (somewhat countered by Swiftness), partially due to enemy mechanics such as sister's fight, shackles during final boss or reaper, partially because levelling characters just gets more expensive the more you do it, and partially because you just have more artifacts than you know what to do with, so carries aren't SO much stronger than other characters unless you are super hard pumping them. Certain characters have much less hard time with it than others, granted.

Before the beta, it was far stronger to do more singular carry oriented strategies because the default decks were just smaller, so each strong carry card you added relative to the deck had much more effect on card distribution. In the beta, that's much less the case; an addition of 3-4 carry cards more than normal is not really all that impactful to the total distribution in your deck simply because there are so many more cards you have to get through by default (i.e., adding 3-4 cards to the 12 person deck the game ran on before was much stronger than adding 3-4 cards that the default 20 card deck the game runs on right now).

But yeah, not saying that carry strategies are never the right answer and I know some people do run them pretty well. And there are certain situations where I will switch to carry strategies (early legendaries, early Magic Page, early Oblivion potions, etc., as you pointed out). In my experience, it's more the exception than the norm though, simply because there has to be a very severe difference between the carry and the worst party member in your team in terms of stats for card distribution to matter that much and that that's become increasingly less so as the game has developed.

[Space Pope]

There's only 1 forced fight in the last area of the game. All the others are optional. 90% of the time I just ignore the shrines other than the one you get 'for free'

[Just Monika]

Very interesting feedback. I will definitely try to play with 4 balanced characters.

Originally posted by AncientSpark:

-I think Rapid Shot is trash tier and will never ever pick it up. Ever.

Rapid shot deals around 7 dmg + flat 15 if the target didn't have a mark before and has swiftness as well. This means that you can open with a Rapid shot for 22 then pop mark with any single target skill and deal another 22 with a second cast of the Rapid shot. This means you have a 2 mana swift skill that does 44 DMG and triggers Silverstein's mark. 22 dmg per mana spent seems good and can be further increased by crit builds as bonus 15 DMG is flat and is not affected by attack power reduction (i look at you gambler bracelet).
Edit: i have never been so wrong. It scales with Attack Power but for me its skill good skill.

As for mana problems I rarely have them with so many swift skills, cost reductions, and acceleration. But that may be caused by my extreme care to pick up every secret Lucy skill (I love Efficient plan)