Cera build

[Ryan]

Can anyone share how they build her? I’m at a loss how to play her effectively. I’m able to build rose/thorrn/wither but it takes ages, and then often I get more generation cards instead of the snipe card.

All told I swapped Reggie for her and my team feels a lot weaker even though Reggie was my weakest link. Running Sophie willow and amber.

What cards/items are critical to have? What’s the actual playstyle?

[Mr. Kalzone]

Rose & thorns alone are pretty good if you stack a bunch of LIFE. If you’re having trouble drawing wither i’d recommend using the card forage(on use turns into a rare card in your deck). She has the best hybrid stats in the game. Running things like Snipe CM, poison arrow, star hammer are all very viable with items like friendship ring(+INT/DEX when you use a traded card, chaos axe, victory ledger etc)

[Rean]

For Cera, I ran a steady mix the following up to the finale:

-Red Equips-

• Fingerless Gloves (cheap STR buff, take 1 damage when using Bloom)
  
• Badge of Fate (extra redraws)
  
• Long Bow (20% STR boost when not near units)
  
• Ultra Weapon (+ draw rate on a gold rarity card if it's the only one in her deck)
  
• King's Crown (redraw has a 3/10 chance to be a 2-cost 8-tile range STR nuke)
  
• (4x) Mythril Sword (flat STR buff)
  
  ~Alternative Red Equips (that I probably should have used) include~
  
  
• Ghost Blade (expensive, but good. gain MP for the first time you hit any enemy)
  
• Carrot Crossbow (Carrots buff STR instead of LUK - great with Moon Symbol)
  
• Temporal Bracers (doubles buff duration. less flower picking, more pew pew)
  
• War Axe (cheap STR buff at the expense of INT. good if you need to fill gaps)
  
  
  
  

  -Blue Equips-

  
  
• Bottled Fairy (one time anti-death in a bottle. gives +1 MOV when it procs)
  
• Pillow Case (cheap DEF/RES buff)
  
• Bramble Shield (small DEF/RES buff, 50% chance not to lose thorns on hit)
  
• (4x) Life Orb (HP boost w/ exponential gain. Ex: 1x = 3*[1^2], 2x = 3*[2^2], etc.)
  
• Angel Guard (-15% AGI, never take more than 50% of max HP in a single hit)
  
• Cactus (passive thorn gen every round. getting hit while building stacks sucks...)
  
• Crimson Petal (take 20% max HP damage each turn, but never past 30% max HP)
  
• Holy Robes (25% AGI->RES. I'll be honest, others had all my good Blue Equips)
  
• Marked Cards (every time you kill, get a free redraw point)
  
• Vampire Teeth (every time you kill, regen 20% max HP. mostly here for +3 STR)
  
• Moon Symbol (gain a Carrot every time you heal - lifesteal, on kill, ally heal, etc.)
  
• Sandals of Time (if you have more Blue Equips than Red Equips, gain MOV equal to the difference in number. this is why there are some questionable but cheap choices - for insane movement and positioning potential)
  
  ~Alternative 3+ cost {i.e. better, but I had them on other units} Blue Equips include~
  
  
• Weightless Saddle (small DEF bonus, enter +10% STR stance at start of turn)
  
• Knight's Visor (moderate DEF bonus, enter +10% DEX stance on taking damage)
  
• Power Band & Mana Clover (lowers Sandals by 1, but 20% chance to MP refund)
  
• Demon Guard (STR/INT buff, and take 20% more damage. good for thorns)
  
• Cloak of Endless Sand (30% AGI buff, and 2x damage taken. it's nerf or nothin')
  
• Godly Plate (+15% HP, which can be of use as a damage buffer or for reflecting)
  
• Astramentis (+10% all stats. if only I didn't have it equipped elsewhere....)
  
• Glass Platemail (Expensive AF, but trades some DEF/RES for HP - meaning more consistent and higher max Thorn damage)
  
  
  

  -Green Equip-

  
  
• Dream Fragment (give someone else Excalibur and Maiden Mace to share it's damage buff, and instead let Cera have that sweet, sweet +10% stat buff and her signature card)
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
  

  -Card Deck-

  
  
• (3x) Bloom (eevery roooose has it's thooooornn [1-cost, get one Rose per Thorn])
  
• (3x) Volley (1-cost STR attack, and repeats the range of the last card used)
  
• (1x) Thorn Shot (1-cost, low range STR attack. trades 10% current HP for 1 Thorn)
  
• (2x) Decay (turn Roses into Wither, buffing STR based on missing HP%)
  
• (2x) Snipe (the money shot. 2-cost with a range from 2 to 12 if you Rose/Wither)
  
• (1x) Fracturing Arrow (the gold card, a nuclear 3-cost 4-range chain lightning)
  
• (2x) Cloak (1-cost, can reduce threat or give crit. redraw buffs STR/INT/DEX by 2)
  
• (1x) Clone (her ultimate. 2-cost decoy with the same stats/buffs as unit)
  
  ~Alternative Cards (again, better choices... but they were on others) Include~
  
  
• Avarice (0-cost, +8 STR/INT/DEX for 1 turn. can't beat that)
  
• Sleep Walk (1-cost, +1 move. only really for allies or the next card, which is...)
  
• Wishing Star (+3 MP, but 50% chance to inflict Sleep on self. Sleep Walk gives immunity)
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
  

  -The Idea-

  
  
• high STR
  
• high mobility (mine had 12 MOV)
  
• can utilize Bolting while building Thorns up to give range pressure in early rounds
  
• massive range that is easy to refresh once her Thorn stacks are at 5
  
• can hide from enemies, letting them hit an ally as she buffs, then uncloak & crit
  
• can redraw very frequently. I've left bosses with 50+ redraws waiting to be used
  
• can clear groups and lines relatively quickly with her gold card, which draws often
  
• Thorns and Clone make for a nasty combo with such high HP (and you have a minimum of 3 hits before going down thanks to Angel Guard and Bottled Fairy), but even without that card to preserve your own Thorn stacks, getting hit nonetheless deals decent damage as a counter while Roses lifesteal a good chunk back

some notes:

- she has a high MP cost with most of her skills, being 2 and 3 to attack before using Volley, and she can't benefit from the Purge card without losing all of her Roses, Wither, AND Thorns... meaning another 5 turns to set up her stacks fully if you don't use the Thorn Shot card
- most of her damage is single target. while she is certainly a boss nuker and carried me during the finale, she needs enemies to be lined up to sweep them. thankfully, they tend to bunch together quite often if you can lead them the right way