Anubis too weak earlygame?

[Kitty]

I have a lot of trouble getting Anubis off the ground, much moreso than any other character. His entire kit is built around purchasing items, which is inherently slow given the general sparsity of coins, the necessity of prioritizing survivability also, and more than anything, the complete randomness of item availability. If you can get a Greed kit going early enough, or anything that helps Anubis actually take hits long enough to keep a good income going per level, then he starts to shine, but neither are guaranteed without any helpful starting items.

I struggled to achieve victories on him in Classic, requiring multiple attempts per power, but particularly in Expert, he is incredibly weak for the first 1-4 levels, as the unpredictability of those extra enemy attacks weaken his freedom with pathing considerably. His powers are all fairly lackluster as they come with zero guarantees, and his 3rd power even detracts from his overall aim.

I know a tweak was made to make Transmutation marginally better, but in general he is still among the weakest characters, despite being tied for the highest hp. I don't know that any change to his powers is really the right direction to make Anubis significantly better, however, and the focus should more be on his items:

A change in line with his kit would certainly be starting with Merchant Token, to both combat the randomness of stores and allow for more customized kits earlier. Starting with Gold Key or Golden Skull could also go a long way in increasing income when presented with suboptimal tiles. Something to give a nat Greed would be great, Diamond being the prime pick for Expert mode, but also Lemon or Grape, and would be easy to build off later with things like Emerald or Greed Ring, providing some more solid direction for his play.

Beyond or in place of those, I'd also be intrigued to see a unique Anubis-exclusive item added that synergized with his coin-gathering goals. Say an item that healed 1hp per each coin tile, to give more immediate benefit to hitting coins over shields. Or an item that used stockpiled coins as a buffer against damage, ie "every 10 coins blocks 1dmg, capping at 5dmg", or "every enemy attack, spend 5 coins to absorb up to 3dmg". Naturally the values could be skewed up or down for balancing, but just to give a rough idea.

Anyone else with things to add or suggest, feel free. Even a critique on my methodology for playing Anubis is fine; I tend to see others praising him, so I must be doing something wrong, and maybe I am the only player who perceives him as needing a rework.

[Twotinydice]

That's interesting!
In classic mode, the win rate with Anubis is about average. But you are right about the expert mode, the win rate is very low.
So I think it's the expert mode that is badly balanced (for all the characters). I'd have to change that.

Maybe adding 1 or 2 gold cards with this character in expert mode could solve the problem. I'll think about it.

Thanks for your feedback, it's interesting :)