Builder is impossible

[Himsl Games YT]

always has to be one achievement like that huh? before it was wizard now it's builder. Builder requires 5 cards.... that's insane. the enemy team only gets 9 cards, so you gotta get the right 5/9. statistically impossible. like winning the lotto. High Tower Requires Ramparts and Cathedral requires Cardinal. So you technically need 3 cards but the prerequisites is another 2.

[dinksmallwood1985]

And imagine the pain of actually getting all those cards and then losing the run!

I'm so glad Crypt of the Necrodancer has already cured me from the "must get every achievement" disease

[Himsl Games YT]

I got all the other achievements, was pretty fun.

[zyffe]

I finally got all achievements. Builder, Wizard (pre-nerf) and Benevolence took me probably 20+ hours each. Good luck. I got the cards ONE time and managed to barely squeeze out the run with getting the final card on the final floor before the final boss. I agree it is terrible to grind for and maybe he nerfs it as he did with wizard in the future.

[TheMoomin]

You also can't pick any card which removes the rook as you need one rook to get trowel or highest dungeon.

[Himsl Games YT]

well you need ramparts which adds a rook anyways. I gave up on this, and am just playing endless forever.

[Cemtrixfour]

As someone who recently got this I will say that it was a real pain to get since I also lost a run with those cards in hand. I will offer a guide that can maybe shorten the time to get it.

0- Is it really worth your time? You need enough determination and time for this, if you really want to be a completionist at this then go on and if you think this is a waste of time, then you can also go on and read for how ridiculous it is, I don't know.

1- Try to achieve it in Rank 1. It is better there than Rank 3 because even if you can get Trowel earlier there you will end up having 3 Nightmarish Rooks later on, this Rank is simple to beat, with you only destroying the Knight and walking on black squares in phase 1.

2- See if you can get two cards out of the five in the first 2 phases. The core of the guide is getting the cards earlier on, if you don't get one in those phases then resign, it IS tedious, but don't waste time like playing 9 phases only for noticing you will not get all the cards.

3- Try to not get cards that add other pieces. You should focus on leaving only Pawns, a Queen and 2 Rooks. You can get rid of the Knight with the Scouting card and one of the Bishops with the Revolution card.

4- Cards that get you out of or avoid Checks: you will usually have almost no Pawns in the board, so you need cards like Taunting Hop, August Present or King's Shoulders to take care of Queen and Rook's Traps. But prioritize the 5 white cards over those decisions.

5- In the 12 phase, focus on the Rook. Don't make my mistake of attacking the King not realizing that he was losing 1 hp because of the Rook at his side. once the Rooks are out of the board, shoot the King while keeping track of the Queen's turn, if done correctly you will be able to destroy her and then come back to the King.
OBS: If the Rooks aren't near the King and don't offer danger yet, You can get a shot or two at the King, BUT ALWAYS CHECK THE TIMER FOR THEIR TURNS.

Anyway, I want to know whose idea was it to make such a sadist challenge based more on luck than technique on damn chess.

I also thank this whole discussion for telling me it was actually 5 cards instead of 3, I would probably never get the achievement without it's existence.

[🆂🆃🅴🅿]

Guys if you really want to get builder (or any other 3-card achievement), I would recommend to at least save some time using cheat engine speed increase. I do not know much about this program nor do I promote cheating, but in case of these so highly RNG-based achievements it can make grinding process a bit less frustrating as you can save some time doing it and as a person who tried this myself I can say that this fast-paced gameplay is really fun, because its speed is only limited by you and not by the game itself. I can’t say that moves in the game are slow, but loading levels and cards animations are. And removing that part feels like a totally different game.

Otherwise if you don’t want to invest your time in this achievement, it is possible that the devs will patch it like they did with the Wizard achievement.

[Last_Sinner]

I think I can top anyone being trolled the most by Builder.

I once got it lined up. However, my gun and blade were both reduced to 1 damage with the other things I was forced to pick with the components. It was impossible to win. And just now...

Floor 1 - Remparts
Floor 2 - Cardinal
Floor 4 - Highest Dungeon
Floor 5 - Cathedral

Trowel didn't show up...

I have a screenshot to prove it...

Go again, I guess...

[Sinister_P1g]

I just got this achievement while i was doing an iron king run, but i turned on folly shields but didnt use them but it didnt give me iron king

[🆂🆃🅴🅿]

Man, getting Iron King is nothing compared to your luck getting the builder. Congratz!

[mvalesco]

Got builder a while ago. I must say that this achievement is a big grind. Not recommended for people that doesn't have the patience and expect some fail runs along the way.

[Elmo3000]

Late to this but wow, this is definitely the worst achievement in the game by far. I knew that you needed Ramparts to get Highest Dungeon but I didn't know until I looked that you also needed Cardinal to get Cathedral. This definitely needs a nerf, like the "Get 4 Wands" achievement. Expecting the player to get five specific cards in a single run is just too much, especially because it's one of the more difficult combinations to win against, so good luck capitalizing on your one chance to win every 40 hours.

I've reluctantly enjoyed the rest of the achievements, finally got Royal Retainer yesterday and the rush of relief was incredible, but I just don't think I can go for a 5-card combo achievement. They could at least rig it so that picking up Cardinal and Ramparts guarantees that Cathedral and Highest Dungeon show up later, albeit preferably not at the same time.

EDIT: Got Highest Dungeon and Cathedral by Floor 6... No Trowel. Just pain.

[Elmo3000]

Builder Update: I asked the devs on Twitter "Hey, great game, do you have any plans on making the Builder achievement easier?" and they replied "We'll make it a bit easier with the new update this Summer. :) "

Very nice of them to listen to the feedback and to respond so promptly.

[Eugoth]

Originally posted by Elmo3000:

Builder Update: I asked the devs on Twitter "Hey, great game, do you have any plans on making the Builder achievement easier?" and they replied "We'll make it a bit easier with the new update this Summer. :) "

Very nice of them to listen to the feedback and to respond so promptly.

Thank god! I've been closing in on getting all the achievements and i've been dreading getting it and the rank 15 one for some time now. Even removing one card like trowel would be huge and make it much more doable.

[Last_Sinner]

This is worth reviving. Because of Patience and Bold Plan being added in the new patch, Builder is now quite doable. Just got it at long last.

If the crazy flukey RNG achieves were your bane previously, have a shot with the new patch. Patience and Bold Plan give you WAY BETTER chances to complete the combo achieves since they allow you to search Black and White cards respectively. With the proviso that the boards/cards meet the requirements for cards.