Best Bjorn builds?

[Sader]

Could someone help me with bjorn? I do not understand this character whatsoever.
how am I supposed to play him?
what would be the best builds for each class?
what are generally the best cards and gear to go for him? and which cards do I want to avoid and\or remove from the deck?

And how do I operate him in general? this shifting between normal and lycan form is very confusing to me. he seems really difficult to play.

any help would be appreciated

[Forever Blonde]

Bjorn seems weaker then Persival at first – which he is but mostly he just plays differently.
His first class Turnskin can accumulate curses very fast if you are not carefull and that will kill you real fast unless you build him upon defiled set for which you must travel to swamps. In that case also try to kill Hungry Ghoul – his finger trophy is good with cursed builds. Also you are able to delete lycan curses at shops very cheaply unlike other curse cards. Don’t hesitate to erase them if you accumulated to much.
But if you don’t want to accumulate curses you must play carefully at first area and use his lycan form only if you can leave it fast. Composture card is first to upgrade in this case. Also to manipulate your lycan transformations: Combat adaptation and Fast turn – are yout best choises to pick early. Add to that some sort of healing like Regeneration. And for damage one of the best choises to concentrate on bleed cards – Sharpened claw, Hemophilia,Bloody fog, Bloody sweet etc.

His second class Stray is your safer bet. And I suggest you to start playing with that once you unlock it. It is safer and more intuitive. Doesn`t accumulate curses, You just have to watch not to stay in lycan form like for 5 turns in a row without countering it with rage dampening cards which is easy. This class is easier to play and gives you a lot of freedom to chose and experiment with your build.
His 4th class Madman is much similar to 2nd but still can accumulate curses.
Lunar Druid – 3rd class – try to avoid unless you are confident with Bjorn.

[Sader]

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

Bjorn seems weaker then Persival at first – which he is but mostly he just plays differently.
His first class Turnskin can accumulate curses very fast if you are not carefull and that will kill you real fast unless you build him upon defiled set for which you must travel to swamps. In that case also try to kill Hungry Ghoul – his finger trophy is good with cursed builds. Also you are able to delete lycan curses at shops very cheaply unlike other curse cards. Don’t hesitate to erase them if you accumulated to much.
But if you don’t want to accumulate curses you must play carefully at first area and use his lycan form only if you can leave it fast. Composture card is first to upgrade in this case. Also to manipulate your lycan transformations: Combat adaptation and Fast turn – are yout best choises to pick early. Add to that some sort of healing like Regeneration. And for damage one of the best choises to concentrate on bleed cards – Sharpened claw, Hemophilia,Bloody fog, Bloody sweet etc.

His second class Stray is your safer bet. And I suggest you to start playing with that once you unlock it. It is safer and more intuitive. Doesn`t accumulate curses, You just have to watch not to stay in lycan form like for 5 turns in a row without countering it with rage dampening cards which is easy. This class is easier to play and gives you a lot of freedom to chose and experiment with your build.
His 4th class Madman is much similar to 2nd but still can accumulate curses.
Lunar Druid – 3rd class – try to avoid unless you are confident with Bjorn.

well ideally I'd like to finish all of bjorn's challenges as I have with persival. so I'd have to use his druid class.

but generally speaking when do I want to change to wolf? how long to stay as a wolf? and when to change back? all of that is very very confusing to me.
do I want to get cards that draw then? I assume not? because I don't want to draw scourge as a wolf?

and are there any special builds unique to each class?

[Forever Blonde]

Originally posted by Sader:

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

Bjorn seems weaker then Persival at first – which he is but mostly he just plays differently.
His first class Turnskin can accumulate curses very fast if you are not carefull and that will kill you real fast unless you build him upon defiled set for which you must travel to swamps. In that case also try to kill Hungry Ghoul – his finger trophy is good with cursed builds. Also you are able to delete lycan curses at shops very cheaply unlike other curse cards. Don’t hesitate to erase them if you accumulated to much.
But if you don’t want to accumulate curses you must play carefully at first area and use his lycan form only if you can leave it fast. Composture card is first to upgrade in this case. Also to manipulate your lycan transformations: Combat adaptation and Fast turn – are yout best choises to pick early. Add to that some sort of healing like Regeneration. And for damage one of the best choises to concentrate on bleed cards – Sharpened claw, Hemophilia,Bloody fog, Bloody sweet etc.

His second class Stray is your safer bet. And I suggest you to start playing with that once you unlock it. It is safer and more intuitive. Doesn`t accumulate curses, You just have to watch not to stay in lycan form like for 5 turns in a row without countering it with rage dampening cards which is easy. This class is easier to play and gives you a lot of freedom to chose and experiment with your build.
His 4th class Madman is much similar to 2nd but still can accumulate curses.
Lunar Druid – 3rd class – try to avoid unless you are confident with Bjorn.

well ideally I'd like to finish all of bjorn's challenges as I have with persival. so I'd have to use his druid class.

but generally speaking when do I want to change to wolf? how long to stay as a wolf? and when to change back? all of that is very very confusing to me.
do I want to get cards that draw then? I assume not? because I don't want to draw scourge as a wolf?

and are there any special builds unique to each class?

First of all you wont find detailed videos about characters and their bulds in this game. All information about quest, character builds etc is scarce. You may find general suggestions from more experienced players like in this thread but don’t expect much)
About Bjorn wolf form – ideally you want to stay in wolf form as much as you can because wolf form means more damage dealt, However you will accumulate a lot of permanent curses if you do that without control and that will kill you in a long term outside of specific defiled build or build that rely on curses like Lunar Druid.
TURNSKIN. SO for starters you need to learn to use wolf form portionally. Turn into a wolf, do burst damage with cards and turn back. When you end your turn in wolf form you ll get Scourge of lycan which will be thrown into discard pile immediately. Thats ok! Even if you stay for 2 turns for example and get 2 scourges. But when you deck reshuffle you risk of drawing Scourge of lycan while in wolf form and then you ll get Curse of lycan (permanent) which is bad. We want to avoid that generally. So if you feel that you gonna draw Curse of Lycan next – turn back to an elf unless its criticall to do dmg\finish a fight.
How to regulate your shapeshifting? To make your build more flexible Combat adaptation and Fast turn cards exist. Also you can use notches system to turn but you need precision with card points for that (which is not always possible).
Also don’t forget to compensate your deck with health recovery cards as Bjorn will burn through his health to do dmg. Either upgrade his default skills or add something like Regeneration card OR equip something like troll`s armor.
Generall suggestion is to be flexible before you build your deck for damage.
STRAY. As I already described – that’s easier to control class. Doesn’t require much specific management.
LUNAR DRUID. Pushes you to play around Curses of Lycan and if you wont manage to deal with them – you will drown in curses and wont be able to do enough dmg. That’s why I recommend to master his 1st class before you play LD.
MADMAN. Can accumulate both kind of curse. Designed to play when you have less then 50 % hp – you ll get extra turn that way. Also you can find special class armor that will auto resurrect you.

[Sader]

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

Originally posted by Sader:

well ideally I'd like to finish all of bjorn's challenges as I have with persival. so I'd have to use his druid class.

but generally speaking when do I want to change to wolf? how long to stay as a wolf? and when to change back? all of that is very very confusing to me.
do I want to get cards that draw then? I assume not? because I don't want to draw scourge as a wolf?

and are there any special builds unique to each class?

First of all you wont find detailed videos about characters and their bulds in this game. All information about quest, character builds etc is scarce. You may find general suggestions from more experienced players like in this thread but don’t expect much)
About Bjorn wolf form – ideally you want to stay in wolf form as much as you can because wolf form means more damage dealt, However you will accumulate a lot of permanent curses if you do that without control and that will kill you in a long term outside of specific defiled build or build that rely on curses like Lunar Druid.
TURNSKIN. SO for starters you need to learn to use wolf form portionally. Turn into a wolf, do burst damage with cards and turn back. When you end your turn in wolf form you ll get Scourge of lycan which will be thrown into discard pile immediately. Thats ok! Even if you stay for 2 turns for example and get 2 scourges. But when you deck reshuffle you risk of drawing Scourge of lycan while in wolf form and then you ll get Curse of lycan (permanent) which is bad. We want to avoid that generally. So if you feel that you gonna draw Curse of Lycan next – turn back to an elf unless its criticall to do dmg\finish a fight.
How to regulate your shapeshifting? To make your build more flexible Combat adaptation and Fast turn cards exist. Also you can use notches system to turn but you need precision with card points for that (which is not always possible).
Also don’t forget to compensate your deck with health recovery cards as Bjorn will burn through his health to do dmg. Either upgrade his default skills or add something like Regeneration card OR equip something like troll`s armor.
Generall suggestion is to be flexible before you build your deck for damage.
STRAY. As I already described – that’s easier to control class. Doesn’t require much specific management.
LUNAR DRUID. Pushes you to play around Curses of Lycan and if you wont manage to deal with them – you will drown in curses and wont be able to do enough dmg. That’s why I recommend to master his 1st class before you play LD.
MADMAN. Can accumulate both kind of curse. Designed to play when you have less then 50 % hp – you ll get extra turn that way. Also you can find special class armor that will auto resurrect you.

speaking of information and guides for this game- why do they barely exist?

and back to bjorn, are there any starter cards I generally want to get rid of? from the starter deck? or do I want to keep all of them?

[Forever Blonde]

This game is very unique and one of the best card battlers. But as it happens with indie games they are niche. Difficulty, specific genre, absence of promotion and maybe simple unluck - my guess.
As for Bjorn you generally dont want to get rid of his starter cards unless you are sure in what are you doing. He is very dependant on balanced deck at start. You can easily get rid of Persival starter cards, for example defensive cards, to shift balance in attacking - and it wont hurt. But Bjorn..if you get rid of his blue skills - you wont be able to heal\counter rage as much.
For his first class he is very dependant on blue cards` passive healing untill you find something else. His health bar also a resource for dealing dmg in elf form. So disposing of blues - you would cripple him in not one but 2 mechanics. But later on as you deck grow with more powerful card you can easily do that.
Bjorn is also predetermined to deal good dmg with bleed via instinct cards - so you can try to focus your early build on that.
And keep in mind that even if you acumulated too much curses - you can still clean your deck in shops.

[Sader]

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

This game is very unique and one of the best card battlers. But as it happens with indie games they are niche. Difficulty, specific genre, absence of promotion and maybe simple unluck - my guess.
As for Bjorn you generally dont want to get rid of his starter cards unless you are sure in what are you doing. He is very dependant on balanced deck at start. You can easily get rid of Persival starter cards, for example defensive cards, to shift balance in attacking - and it wont hurt. But Bjorn..if you get rid of his blue skills - you wont be able to heal\counter rage as much.
For his first class he is very dependant on blue cards` passive healing untill you find something else. His health bar also a resource for dealing dmg in elf form. So disposing of blues - you would cripple him in not one but 2 mechanics. But later on as you deck grow with more powerful card you can easily do that.
Bjorn is also predetermined to deal good dmg with bleed via instinct cards - so you can try to focus your early build on that.
And keep in mind that even if you acumulated too much curses - you can still clean your deck in shops.

idk how bleed is a good mechanic considering strong enemies and bosses can negate bleeding

[Forever Blonde]

Originally posted by Sader:

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

This game is very unique and one of the best card battlers. But as it happens with indie games they are niche. Difficulty, specific genre, absence of promotion and maybe simple unluck - my guess.
As for Bjorn you generally dont want to get rid of his starter cards unless you are sure in what are you doing. He is very dependant on balanced deck at start. You can easily get rid of Persival starter cards, for example defensive cards, to shift balance in attacking - and it wont hurt. But Bjorn..if you get rid of his blue skills - you wont be able to heal\counter rage as much.
For his first class he is very dependant on blue cards` passive healing untill you find something else. His health bar also a resource for dealing dmg in elf form. So disposing of blues - you would cripple him in not one but 2 mechanics. But later on as you deck grow with more powerful card you can easily do that.
Bjorn is also predetermined to deal good dmg with bleed via instinct cards - so you can try to focus your early build on that.
And keep in mind that even if you acumulated too much curses - you can still clean your deck in shops.

idk how bleed is a good mechanic considering strong enemies and bosses can negate bleeding

Enemies and bosses cant negate bleeding. They can only negate few instances of bleeding. Had a run today with Vanadis, She can aquire a bow that strikes twice with each single shot card and legendary card that put bleeding with each shot. Basically she can apply bleeding 4 times with upgraded basic attack card+bow special. Also you can teach your fox to apply bleeding when you summon him. Long story short - Sigismund ended up suffering 300-400 bleed dmg per turn. He was also burning at the same time) With Bjorn i did the same using double sharpened claws effect and other cards + bleed armor set combo. Don`t underestimate bleed synergies) Praise Khorne !

[ZeroandZero]

What difficulty are you playing at? Bjorn gets doubly punished for higher difficulty because half(or more) of the time your HP is your resource for playing cards. A smaller HP pool means your cards cost a greater percentage of your total health making mistakes more costly. at the highest difficulty, just don't play Bjorn.

Transforming

In general, weather or not you want to be in lycan form depends on where you are in your deck cycle and what cards you have in your deck.

• If you are about to reshuffle your deck, you'd allow enemies to take you into the form by getting hit avoiding an additional curse/potential curse in your deck, or avoid going into the form entirely.
  
• If you have two or more full turns before reshuffling and/or can end the fight with the increased strength you want to enter lycan form as quickly as possible to maximize your damage and scaling.

when playing one of the three classes that deal with curses, avoid getting persistent curses in your deck as much as possible. Getting cursed to the point of not being able to play is one of the main ways Bjorn loses the game.

equipment

You can make most equipment work but ideally focus on getting more HP and ways to scale throughout combat.
Orc's helm and Spirit cap require a special mention here, DO NOT USE THEM they will kill you.

armor

Elf set and troll sets are best for Bjorn to start with, either avoiding damage entirely or regenerating large amounts of HP.

weapons

Bjorn's starting axe is one of the few ways you have to scale over time in combat. It's usually best to keep over most options and swap out your secondary. most two handers aren't worth using over the starting axe. Bloodletting is also a really good attack.
Look for multi hit attacks, bleed, and stuff that scales over the course of a battle.

Deck Construction

Adding Cards

• Ferocious cards are a death sentence, don't add them. These are the kind of cards that get you excited for their potential for explosive power but end up killing you with exploding costs.
  
• Bleed cards are typically pretty solid options but don't rely on the cards alone without support from your items.
  
• Skipping is actually a great option a lot of the time. Bjorn needs a balanced deck so you draw your basic skills consistently(healing on draw) and most of his cards are attacks.

Bjorn's legendary cards are all over the place. Most are straight up bad while a few will win your run for you. Examples of great cards include:

• Sharpened Claws
  
• Frantic Race
  
• Blood Thinning

Removing Cards

Basic attacks and curses. Don't remove Bjorn's Basic skills.

Class specific tips

Turnskin

Exiting Lycan Form the turn you enter is easy the first time so you have more options on when you can shape shift early on. Turnskin is pretty basic beyond that so it's a good place to learn.

Stray

This isn't Bjorn, its a completely different character. Its best to avoid learning with this character as they will give you bad habits for playing Bjorn. Staying in the form is good.

Lunar Druid

This class requires you to plan your current turns around what you expect to draw next turn or even the turn after. Building up spirit is easy. Avoid staying in the form at the end of your turn as the curses you get persist as soon as they're added to the deck.

Madman

This class is very similar to turnskin but gets tremendous value from playing at low health. Make use of your extra turn ability as much as possible.

Act specific tips

Act 1

Stay toward the center or left side of this act (elves and humans) if you're not super confident in your abilities. Dwarves are a nightmare since Bjorn tends to play only attacks. The dwarven bosses however are generally easier than the elven ones and the steppe is an easier area than the bog

Act 2

If you're in the bog, avoid fights, avoid getting cursed and just try to make it through. If you're in the steppe try to extract as much advantage as you can, shops aren't great here unless you high roll or hit specific events. What to do here depends a lot on how many times you've done a particular event. this game isn't really your typical rougelike and it starts to show mostly in Act 2

Act 3

This is more general advice for the Act than specific to Bjorn. Unless you're feeling overpowered, avoid the Gatekeeper. Bjorn does suffer more against him than the other characters like he does against the dwarves but the fight is brutal regardless.

[Sader]

Originally posted by ZeroandZero:

What difficulty are you playing at? Bjorn gets doubly punished for higher difficulty because half(or more) of the time your HP is your resource for playing cards. A smaller HP pool means your cards cost a greater percentage of your total health making mistakes more costly. at the highest difficulty, just don't play Bjorn.

Transforming

In general, weather or not you want to be in lycan form depends on where you are in your deck cycle and what cards you have in your deck.

• If you are about to reshuffle your deck, you'd allow enemies to take you into the form by getting hit avoiding an additional curse/potential curse in your deck, or avoid going into the form entirely.
  
• If you have two or more full turns before reshuffling and/or can end the fight with the increased strength you want to enter lycan form as quickly as possible to maximize your damage and scaling.

when playing one of the three classes that deal with curses, avoid getting persistent curses in your deck as much as possible. Getting cursed to the point of not being able to play is one of the main ways Bjorn loses the game.

equipment

You can make most equipment work but ideally focus on getting more HP and ways to scale throughout combat.
Orc's helm and Spirit cap require a special mention here, DO NOT USE THEM they will kill you.

armor

Elf set and troll sets are best for Bjorn to start with, either avoiding damage entirely or regenerating large amounts of HP.

weapons

Bjorn's starting axe is one of the few ways you have to scale over time in combat. It's usually best to keep over most options and swap out your secondary. most two handers aren't worth using over the starting axe. Bloodletting is also a really good attack.
Look for multi hit attacks, bleed, and stuff that scales over the course of a battle.

Deck Construction

Adding Cards

• Ferocious cards are a death sentence, don't add them. These are the kind of cards that get you excited for their potential for explosive power but end up killing you with exploding costs.
  
• Bleed cards are typically pretty solid options but don't rely on the cards alone without support from your items.
  
• Skipping is actually a great option a lot of the time. Bjorn needs a balanced deck so you draw your basic skills consistently(healing on draw) and most of his cards are attacks.

Bjorn's legendary cards are all over the place. Most are straight up bad while a few will win your run for you. Examples of great cards include:

• Sharpened Claws
  
• Frantic Race
  
• Blood Thinning

Removing Cards

Basic attacks and curses. Don't remove Bjorn's Basic skills.

Class specific tips

Turnskin

Exiting Lycan Form the turn you enter is easy the first time so you have more options on when you can shape shift early on. Turnskin is pretty basic beyond that so it's a good place to learn.

Stray

This isn't Bjorn, its a completely different character. Its best to avoid learning with this character as they will give you bad habits for playing Bjorn. Staying in the form is good.

Lunar Druid

This class requires you to plan your current turns around what you expect to draw next turn or even the turn after. Building up spirit is easy. Avoid staying in the form at the end of your turn as the curses you get persist as soon as they're added to the deck.

Madman

This class is very similar to turnskin but gets tremendous value from playing at low health. Make use of your extra turn ability as much as possible.

Act specific tips

Act 1

Stay toward the center or left side of this act (elves and humans) if you're not super confident in your abilities. Dwarves are a nightmare since Bjorn tends to play only attacks. The dwarven bosses however are generally easier than the elven ones and the steppe is an easier area than the bog

Act 2

If you're in the bog, avoid fights, avoid getting cursed and just try to make it through. If you're in the steppe try to extract as much advantage as you can, shops aren't great here unless you high roll or hit specific events. What to do here depends a lot on how many times you've done a particular event. this game isn't really your typical rougelike and it starts to show mostly in Act 2

Act 3

This is more general advice for the Act than specific to Bjorn. Unless you're feeling overpowered, avoid the Gatekeeper. Bjorn does suffer more against him than the other characters like he does against the dwarves but the fight is brutal regardless.

Thanks for all the tips.
I'm trying to do bjorn's challenges and as far as I'm aware it's a set difficulty, so there is no choice between hard or normal.

in act 2 you mentioned that stores aren't great there unless I high roll or hit specific events- we can manipulate what we get in stores based on doing events? I wasn't aware of that, if that's the case, what can I to get best items\sets for bjorn from the stores?

lastly, is there any specific items and sets I want to go for while playing druid or madman? especially madman as by what you described it seems like a very challenging class as it always walks on a very thin line of hp

[ZeroandZero]

There are certain events which give you a store that tends to be better.
For madman, Troll gear is best, coupled with cards & items that allow you to spend or manipulate your health.

Equipment example - Berserk Axe.
Cards - Devouring, Rely on Instincts

For Druid, focus on cards that let you shape-shift. Cursed boots are good if you're not able to avoid curse entirely.

[Sader]

Originally posted by ZeroandZero:

There are certain events which give you a store that tends to be better.
For madman, Troll gear is best, coupled with cards & items that allow you to spend or manipulate your health.

Equipment example - Berserk Axe.
Cards - Devouring, Rely on Instincts

For Druid, focus on cards that let you shape-shift. Cursed boots are good if you're not able to avoid curse entirely.

which events improve the stores in the game?

[ZeroandZero]

Underground town gives you lucky shop. it's only in the steppe sometimes, it doesn't improve future shops but just has a good one.

[Mozetronick]

Originally posted by Forever Blonde:

This game is very unique and one of the best card battlers. But as it happens with indie games they are niche. Difficulty, specific genre, absence of promotion and maybe simple unluck - my guess.

I do not know if I have caught some kind of miner or not, but for the past 5 months I have been haunted by contextual advertising right in the Steam store, even on the pages of other games when I try to buy them. I'm completely tired of this NEW RELEASE - BUY bar. So I'll say for myself, the ads are hanging and they're just annoying. I don't think I'll buy something like this in the near future, now I'm waiting for other releases, and yes, they should find other ways to promote their game rather than embed themselves in extensions to collect game price statistics. Otherwise, I have no idea where it's coming from.