Teams for expert mode?

[Suskun Durgun]

Hello, i completed the game on regular mode with all the characters and want to complete the expert mode for the achievement but despite having a general understanding about which characters go well with each other and which cards to pick i couldnt finish any of my runs (usually clock boss, death or last boss's 2nd phase gets me killed) what are some teams that don't depent on good rng?

[SaiColors]

From my experience I do have struggle on using Huz as main healer.

And I haven't play the twin and phenix yet. Every other composition are fine, if I lose a run rarely because of rng, only because I have a lack of something. This usually happened in early stage.

From your describe, losing at the clock boss/reaper/King's 2nd phase, these are mechanism heavy bosses, should be okay if you follow the rules.

For time eater, use everyone's card by turns, so you can stack boss's buff faster, and easily nuke it down.

For reaper, don't use all of your cards, always prepare cards for next two turns marker, this way can greatly reduce the rng for can't draw somebody's card taking the mark.

And King's 2nd phase, normally you have to pass it in 2 turns. You can stack 1~2 AOE cards for this phase, or just bind some AOE card in fix slot.

Pressel, Lian, Charon, Miss Chain, Hein, Joey, these are the char I'll pick for a win. Most of them are simple, easy to use, not much rng depend.

[NisaNisaNii]

Expect to fail expert mode many times before succeeding, certain bosses are strong against certain decks and lineups and you'll have to master their mechanics.

My go to team for winning in expert is :

Lian* - Picked at start, very stable damage reduction and damage output. Parrying is very strong and cards like relentless swipe, stunning smite and dropdown slash are very useful.
Think of her as a high durability attacker rather than a defender.

Pressel* - Picked at start, has very powerful attacks and heals, shining pillar and holy light are strong all heals that have swiftness, first class to heaven is a guaranteed crit if drawn via prophecy and can delete many troublesome enemies + ignores taunts. Prophecy helps reduce RNG elements as you'll get some degree of choice as to what cards you'll be getting.

Charon - Has soul thurible bottle as a reusable potion, dark heal is an excellent skill for clutch healing too, shes very fragile though.

Huz - Useful passive that can give you an advantage in many fights by preventing an enemy from acting before you, can be used to do stuff like interrupt Parade Tank so you can parry the Kaboom to greatly reduce its effectiveness. Domination & Constrict are good low cost spammable swiftness attacks, useful for slapping characters out of pharos mind control. She has ok heals but be careful with the skills that deal damage to allies, you might accidentally end your run if you don't pay attention.


Chain - Low maintenance tank, easy to heal back up and can shred armor, extremely solid pick that works well with any setup. Very stable.

Ironheart - Has passive that turns extra healing into 1 turn barriers, not as useful as it sounds actually. I usually load him up with once skills and rarely play his cards, he is still naturally tanky enough to be ignored. I don't pick his expensive attack cards.




Characters aside, my playstyle usually focuses on leveling Lian and Pressel (up to level 7 at most), with the remaining two characters at level 3. I don't get more than 6 max mana because you'll reach a point where card draw can't really keep up, Lucy skills are pretty important later on too. I keep the level 3 characters at about 5 skills each, whereas Lian or Pressel usually have 10~15 skills. This will mean you get to play more cards from characters that have high stats from levels + the best equipment you can procure.


If you haven't already, go to settings -> [remove basic skills] and set it to OFF, Basic skills are important to have.

Also remember to use the card exchange/redraw feature a lot, it'll often be the path to victory, also needed to not get wrecked by certain foes.

Delaying your turn sometimes is also important, it can be used setup parries and heal after attacks. Ideally you want to use up all your delays before hitting end turn, this can make the difference between feeding someone a potion in time or bleeding out at the start of the next turn.

Cash management is also quite important, don't waste too much on identifying potions or scrolls, all you really need is a few lifting scrolls, herbs, healing potions and maybe a midas scroll. Feed junk to the Pot and spend money on keys, grey skill books and certain brown ones that you know are useful to you. I usually buy up cheap junk (180~200) to feed to the pot. That combined with smithing, I often find myselfs having 3+ gold items by the winter stage.


As a final note, don't be in a hurry to beat expert mode, it is meant to be challenging.
Keep trying at it and focus on learning and mastering mechanics and techniques and you'll eventually get more consistent runs. Seeing that you struggle with Time Eater & Forgotten King phase 2 suggests that you're not fully familiar with their mechanics and requirements.

I think I wrote too much so I'll stop here for now.

[Bearis]

My suggestion is to ask yourself what you need to win (the challenges you have to overcome like the final boss), rather than what characters are good since most of them are good but cover different weaknesses. Generally this means having strong healing since the final boss hurts a lot as well as aoe damage + taunt ignore for phases 1 and 2.

You should also be questioning how you allocate your exp. Usually a team with 1-2 high level characters (your carry and a healer) + 1-3 low level characters (the rest of your team basically) is the way to go. A carry isn't automatically a damage character, likewise healers and tanks aren't always your supports, the roles are very much flexible and you can make healer/tank carries work. But you might need a damage dealer for taunt ignore + aoe, basically cover your bases not roles/characters. You should also usually have 6+ mana and 3+ lucie draw depending on your characters cards and items of course, a lot of it will change based on the run this is more a guideline.

As for some item usage tips since those matter too, scrolls are only good + side grades so use them when you can get the most benefit. Before the boss or elite in case you get vitality, having equipped items you want on for lifting/being in a good spot to get the secret. Always use your identity scroll on potions since you can cleanse gear from enchanting, lifting and reforging. Don't use potions that aren't identified unless you have to, same with gear as its usually cursed unless it says it has no extra effect. If you are getting too many potions and can't keep up get rid of them at the well thing (can't remember its name) since it can give you good stuff like armor. And finally you can destroy general skill books at the library for random scrolls which you should always do stage 1.