What am I doing wrong?

[UwUberEats]

Only made it to the end of the first map once (first play through, so I imagine it may have had some in game help?) after that I have not been able to clear the first in the following 11 play throughs.

I am not quite sure what I am doing wrong?

It feels weird when I only do 5, 5, 5 damage then get slapped for 20+ damage. Then I can only heal for 2 or get a small shield for 4 damage? Uh.....

[Elzheiz]

I think the game is in an odd state because it's very difficult to get a build going. You have absolutely no control over the bullets you get, and even the scout option is silly/mostly useless (how are you supposed to know which unit has which trait like Pawn, String, etc?)
I went for an aquarhythm build, and yet I only got 6 units of that type in the whole run....

I managed to beat the first game (3 maps) with a combo build, but I'll be honest it felt very messy and unclear how I actually won. I did get a few good cartridges (like 12 monochromes = 3 delay twice).

My advice as far as I can tell is:
- even if you use a bullet that goes 10 "seconds" after a monster's turn, its timer will start after that so use your big bullet at the very end of your turn if possible and there are no monsters after to essentially "steal" time
- avoid events because you might run into a boss fight that ends your run
- use the free option to swap cartridges to legendary ones once you've decided on your build (combo, heart, drones, etc) and gotten a couple units for it
- the bullet that deals damage based on MaxHP - HP is REALLY good, along with Claude (20 damage on all mobs/exclusion)

[Makina Icyterror]

(1st map)
1) Rely on RNG to get strong cards and cartridges passive effects.
Ex. Starting a battle with xxx armor or Delay random enemy at the start of battle.
2) Know boss attack pattern and understand what cards you should prepare ahead.
Ex. Bring a bunch of AOE or instant kill card for 2nd boss fight since she gonna be
spamming summons a lot
3) Note down the traits of the cards you often use so you can summon them back to back
via shop tickets.
4) Stack up Drone cards. They are more useful & easier to use than other combo. This can
provide you free attack/shield/heal every turn. It's a slow build up but it's very useful for
long boss fight
5) Poison is very effect on most bosses and they are stackable
6) Use small cost-cards because it's easier to set up a combo with them. Only use a high cost card near the end of your turn.

Sample run. I already beat the final boss and one more map after that (will upload later).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25PFcRMTu60

[Makina Icyterror]

No there are certain map like the gunner one where you SHOULD SPAM EVENT because the best cards are all there. On the otherhand you should avoid all event from final boss area because most of them have negative effects.

The minibosses are also good way to get decent cards and they less annnoying to deal with than mob since they are alone.

Ex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUPJ2KLUaZw

[William Shakesman]

I did a run of Monochrome and beat it first try but I played quite a bit on the demo.

Notice the time track and enemy actions and abuse those pretty hard. Anything over the last enemy on the time track is free, otherwise try to stick to cost-effective cards within that limit. If the enemy isn't attacking, don't use shield cards but use armor, etc. You get a free draw every play and you draw to a full hand each turn, so cards that give card draw are fairly weak, and cards that discard are seldom serious cost. This game isn't as tight as Monster Train, I am not even sure of the proper route economy but at least in Monochrome I would say fights are a fairly weak space on average after the first couple to get your deck built. Unless your deck can stay health positive, you are trading hp for cash (Only good for single use consumables) and a random card pull. Maybe 3 star fights give great stuff but I have yet to experiment. If you can spend enough at the shop to get the shopkeep card for free, it is nice healing. It is really hard to make a proper engine but Monochrome should be beatable with just decent attack, defense, and regen. Naturally, cards from games that aren't the one you are currently playing are going to have trouble churning their engines without a bunch of pulls to support them, but stuff like Combo can still fire rarely even with weak support. Heartsplosion almost needs a romance game deck though.

In the demo, the card pool was diminished enough that it was really easy to pull Monochrome's "card discards -> damage" engine cards and just shred with that but the full game has much more to pick from and it is really hard to guarantee any of it.

[Penny]

Originally posted by Makina Icyterror:

No there are certain map like the gunner one where you SHOULD SPAM EVENT because the best cards are all there. On the otherhand you should avoid all event from final boss area because most of them have negative effects.

The minibosses are also good way to get decent cards and they less annnoying to deal with than mob since they are alone.

Ex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUPJ2KLUaZw

To be fair, most maps you basically want to play it like that. Avoid fights, go to events, treasure and shops as much as possible. 2* and 3* fights imo are always not worth it, because the enemies are so darn deadly but the rewards are still piss poor. When a 1* fight already puts many people down to their knees, don't try to do the higher ones unless you have King Dutcholi in turn 1 ready to slap everyone.

I've beaten all of the worlds, and if I had to judge the order of the difficulty of each world from hardest to easiest: Brawlers > Bullet Break > Aquarhythm > Phoneix > Monochrome > Stage Princess > Seasons.

[Makina Icyterror]

Done I already beat all stages.

For mobs fight, it will be much less of hassle to deal with if you can get a bunch of cartridges that boost the first bullet damage. Then use AOE card for quick a wipeout.

The best damage cards are those that stack up more attack the more times you use cards within your turn. You just need a set up that allow you to spam 0 cost or low cost cards every turn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg-K_cvzhsQ

[Catratio]

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

In the demo, the card pool was diminished enough that it was really easy to pull Monochrome's "card discards -> damage" engine cards and just shred with that but the full game has much more to pick from and it is really hard to guarantee any of it.

So the demo is not indicative of the real game? It sounds like the demo is almost easier. I can't even clear the demo. I can't beat 1-2's boss. I get there with 100% health and a ton of shield/armor cards but the heal options are pathetic. She summons those helpers that can do 40 damage a turn each and no amount of shields is enough when you can't heal properly. I only had 110 max HP and she hit me with 50 damage. I just wonder how much of this game is skill vs luck, because if you draw no poisons, or drones, or whatever to synchronize together you're just screwed, maybe before the fight even starts you'll just stand no chance.

I expected the game to be like you are meant to fail a lot, but at each loss you get to keep 1 card, so over enough game overs you can build a strong enough deck, but you die and you lose everything and it just restarts you with the same weak cards as always. Then it just comes down to luck or not if you get anything decent.

[Makina Icyterror]

The only skill needs here is to know the right cards to pick/use AND NOT thinking that spaming ARMOR/SHIELD is the only way to net you a victory. You do have some control over what cards you can pick up so don't go blaming everything on RNG because that isn't the case at all.

The real reasons the first map were tough are because
A) You are clueless about what cards to use or pick.
B) Some of the base cards they give you are trashy so you do need to replace them asap.
C) You put in way too many defensive cards in your deck but barely any attack cards. The key to 2nd boss is just to kill the adds as soon as possible. All of 3 of them do not attack you immedietely so there are plenty of time. They only become a threat because you leave them alive for far too long. Anyway the Spear guy has self-attack buff so he needs to die first.
D) Badplay Samples
D.1) Using high cost card at the beginning on the turn instead of at the end.
D.2) Wasting armor & shield card on a turn that enemy doesn't attack you. W
D.3) Using armor cards eventhough boss is about to hit you with Armor removal skill
D.4) Not buying consumables. Don't just hoard the gold.

Here some example of good cards you can get in the Demo
(Event) King Hornslime - (Burst3) Damage go up the more card you use / AOE
Traits: Monochrome / Pawn / Brash / Monster / Slime
(1/3 Box) Mao - Completely Negate all damage for 1 turn
Traits: Brawlers / Intermediate / Brash / Red Panda / Soft
Riko Amari - Discarding this bullet to gain 10 shield & 10 armor
Traits: Stage Princess / Witching Tales / Calm / Big Sis / WItch
Leila Kanda - Discarding this bullet to gain 10 / Attack+12 for each discard within this turn
Traits: Stage Princess / G.L.I.M. / Calm / Earnest / Glass Slipper / Princess
Marin Narumi - 2 turns instant kill countdown (enemy only)
Traits: Stage Princess / Tragic Heart / Calm / Princess / Mermaid
Rulo - (Burst5) Damage go up the more card you use
Traits: Monochrome / Knight / Zealous / Blackking Fan / Spear
Claude - Attack 15 for just cost of 3. Also AOE (Exclude)
Traits: Monochrome / Knight / Independent / Adventurer / Sword

Good Starting Cards
Dinky Devil - Low cost good attack power - Discard other card you select.
Bad Starting Cards
Spectrose & Ninette - Cost too high for what they do. There are better options.

[Makina Icyterror]

Originally posted by 1:

I had 3 red pandas (complete invulnerability to damage until your next turn) 2 the bullets that deal damage based on missing health (easy 100 damage), the bullet that attacks ten times with 10+ attack damage for first turn, and even then I beat the final boss of monochrome with 1 health remaining even though I hit her for 200 health on the first turn. I dont know if the game is even playable without red pandas if enemies on third map casually swing for half your health, and three of those enemies spawn at once.

You simply don't want to fight them unless you have attack/delay effect cartridges on. The key point here is to finsih up your deck before the last map and avoid unnessary battles. Replacing the bad cards with good ones. Shop Discard is pointless.

[Ultima546]

It took me about 3 tries to finish Monochrome.

It’s not very difficult, but does seem to expect the player to use more advanced strategy than you would expect for a ‘first level’.

The starting deck is also not great, and the bosses get a very large increase in HP between each other.

So really I think it’s just a balance problem with Monochrome.

[lufia22]

I read some of these tips, but in my first battles I sometimes have to block 30+ damage right away. Like the max the default deck can block is 20 if I manage to draw all of them, and two of those bullets are really expensive. I don't even have time to build a deck before the game wants to lay on the damage.

Items also seem very weak for their price. Woo...one poison. A whole 3% health. WOW. So worth it.

[Catratio]

Originally posted by lufia22:

I read some of these tips, but in my first battles I sometimes have to block 30+ damage right away. Like the max the default deck can block is 20 if I manage to draw all of them, and two of those bullets are really expensive. I don't even have time to build a deck before the game wants to lay on the damage.

Same. Then I spent the rest of the map avoiding battles and trying to find the healing squares and end up missing all the chances to find good cards. The healing cards it starts you with only heal 2-3 HP and are a joke.