I need as many dragon sweat tips as possible

[TheJubbinator]

I've tried to beat dragon sweat twenty-something times now and I can't do it. It's been pissing me off how ridiculously close I have gotten only to have a retarded event happen that screws me over. Here's the best strategy I've come up with personally so far. Any advice from people who have beaten it or have gotten close would be great.

1. I restart new games until I have one where I can research flambe, repair engineer draw pod, move to a planet, and hopefully taste test to burn cards all on the first round of turns.
2. I prioritize researching other flambe and duct tapes first.
3. I get cheap ingredients into hands to increase worth for bigger items later on.
4. After I start getting gloves, diplomabots, burnilizers and toasters, etc. I focus on getting power and burning cards as quickly as possible.

For Captain I just focus on going to ingredient planets and moving quickly through space if possible.
For Chef I burn cards left and right, use exhangitrons to cycle through flambes as much as possible, and diplomabots for crises.
For Scientist I research for flambes, engineer duct tape and wrenches, and the needed ingredients.
For Engineer I get pods and shields repaired first. I don't repair doors or scientist/captain research nodes unless I have extra repair points.

I go for ingredients early for more worth but after getting better cards, I'll eventually burn ingredients if I don't need them for the objectives. Late game I go for high power cards over ingredients, yes for job cards but more importantly for the infuriating damage events, especially the shield shortage one. I've lost to dragon sweat 5 times due to losing my shields and then dying immediately afterwards. Damn you devs, the shield one is the only event that completely pisses me off when it happens.

Anyone beaten dragon sweat? Or come close? What are your strategies?

[Lord Strong]

exchangatrons are very nice but i find having around 2 power gloves on chef and at least one gamma toaster helps more. getting flambes early is a tremendous help. sometimes on single player games you can save and reload when looking for a specific card. when I do that I try to get two flambes and maybe 1 dumpster dive on chef. a lot of cards can kind of wait or just add to how the game plays out. most players need to experiment read some the posts on my sylk and ingredients thread and maybe find where you are struggling. lot of 'extra' cards are like sugar coating. helpful but not needed to win.

not repairing doors depends on chef getting diplomabot early enough in game.

if you concentrate thinning the chefs deck then thinning the engineers deck to just a few 'necessary' cards. a lot of players told me they destroy the cook cards and get the dumpster dive. dont be afraid draw a leftover if a card is needed more on another character.

too many 'extra' cards can be just that.

most 'unessary' cards should be gone late game in chefs and engineers deck.

I know how to win this game but I cant win every time.

I rather draw a leftover than a card with no power sometimes.

Your zapmart is mostly for holding ingredients for when your chef is ready to cook them. sometimes i draw leftovers on cook if theres cards that engineer want. sometimes you may try to buy a card and trade it to engineer. u kind of almost have to have a feel for what cards to take. over time it gets easier. I find mostly i play for fun. winning isnt as important since i beat it once.

this game has given me a lot of enjoyment.

there seems to be at least a few strategies that work on this game or a combo.

I would say find where you strategy is weak and experiment a bit. a lot of things done in this game requires some thinking. thats why i enjoy it. if you play and just play without some logical thinking you will never win dragon sweat. I find I can change strategies sometimes and approach game at a different angle sometimes. best thing to do is find little things that get you closer. but for the most part it boils down to honing and channeling out cards you need and dont need.

although ingredients add value the common ingredients dont add power. so think twice when drawing these. I wouldnt mind giving a few more rare ingredients to scientist and engineer for the power and if chef has his dumpster dive researched i can cook a lot of ingredients piled up on like scientist.

[Lord Strong]

in solo games be picky with starting cards and maybe in multiplayer games too. my best start is captain with ask around and at least 1 engage and at least 2 tastes of futures. chef should start with at least one taste test preferably both. science should start with at least one research and 2 tastes of future. if chefs reasearch is broken restart. engineer should start with wrench and at least 2 tastes of future. i try for flambes before engineer research. but sometimes labs break. go for quantom cores or duct tape. save wrench to get if pirates take yours if possible. some players like to start with a mutate and others with a flambe researched. in solo games when going for win you can redo turns if you don't let it proceed to the next character turn.

[Lord Strong]

are you getting games you are running out of time or getting destroyed early a lot? gettng destroyed early can be do to bad luck choosing planets or not having enough repair power. running out of time is do to having bad luck finding ingredients or science not researching ingredients fast enough. I have trouble this sometimes. for most part captain can be fast as possible but use ask around as much as you can. maybe do some math and see what planets you have time to explore and determine when you need a more direct approach when collecting ingredients. hope this helps.

[Lord Strong]

early it seems finding ingredients has priority seems sooner found the better and try have dumpster dive if you are going to draw ingredients on anyone besides chef. i dont recomend too many extra common ingredients but maybe one or two extra to give chef easier chance to cook it on his turn. you might be able to calculate who should draw the ingredient and weather the chef be able cook it on next turn. redo turns if you feel you made error in the math. at start dragon sweat games players draw 4 then 5 if drawpod is fixed.

[Lord Strong]

say theres a common ingredient you need to cook. if engineer has 2 cards in his drawpod and science has more than 5 cards science should probably take it. if chef has dumpster dive on his next turn. so figuring out little things like this could make a difference. dont be afraid draw leftovers if the other cards dont really help the characters deck can always burn em later with flambe.

[Lord Strong]

From another post I got the info for what cards to get in each characters deck:

Captain:
Claw and Claw of duty are very good.
researching both overdrives when you can and at least one backtrack for when you need get back to planets towards the end of your travels.
sylk helps some on captain but he doesn't always get enough at the right time. i would say just a few be all he needs.
you might try to get him an xray but its not always a great card but i get it if no other card to add to zapmart.

Chef:
He mainly needs to get his ingredients and cook them I try get him a dumpster dive and destroy his cook cards and most all his taste of futures. taste tests i use almost every chance i get.
i like to get flambes early as possible to destroy unneeded cards in mainly chefs deck and engineers deck.
I try to get him one or two gamma toasters.
2 powergloves are nice help to chefs deck.
exchangatrons are a very nice card but Im leaning more for getting power gloves.
I never put sylk on chef unless i plan on trading it to engineer.
diplomabots are nice to have on chef because he usually has a small deck so can play them almost every turn. I try get 2 these on him if possible.
diplomabots and gamma toasters are very versatile if you dont need them they can be used as power to cook.

science:
I research his breakthroughs if I can. but other cards are more important. they do help keep research costs down.
his mimic card is kind of nice If i use it i like to mainly mimic power gloves.
I try get sylk and remotes mainly from zapmart and sometimes ingredients if chef has dumpster dive.
sometimes i will get an xray on scientist.

engineer:
i like get one power glove and 2 gamma toasters on engineer.
It seems better to research his duct tapes than quantom cores. but its more a preference. dont need to research 3rd wrench unless you have bad luck with pirates.
sometimes i like to get the ingredients on engineer with +2 power and +2 value. just a couple sylk here and there is all he needs to repair or gamma toast.

for the most part engineer and chef should try keep small decks and get a little value in engineers deck with ingredients. it seems for drawing ingredient cards a lot of them can be drawn on captain and science.

dont over do cards that draw more cards like power gloves and claws. i did this once and had engineer with about 5 gloves and toasters. it was a long thai hot game i eventually won but took almost 200 turns lol. Remotes seem to work best on captain or science to help the other two characters. but its a little flexible how you draw them. captain might be best candidate for remotes.

my best games as far as time are at 80 turns. as far as difficulty levels this game it seems to be just a lot more disasters on thai hot and dragon sweat so its more or less you almost need a perfect game to win. a few bad moves at wrong time can make a difference. I sometimes play medium if im longing for a win and a little easier time at winning.

[TheJubbinator]

Most of my losses are due to bad luck with an event that destroys my shields and kills me. I have had a lot of games where I eventually end up with 1-3 HP and my engineer doesn't have any job cards, and I lose 3-4 shields and my HP in a span of 3 turns.

I do think that if I didn't lose to losing all my health, I would probably run out of time to cook everything. I forget just how important discard dive is for other crew ingredients.

[Lord Strong]

as far as cook cards i almost think chef needs one cook card and one discard dive then maybe at least one free sample. sometimes too many cards without enough power gloves on chef can bury his important cards. goal for chef is getting most his deck into play each turn if not all his deck for the sake of assisting himself and other characters. once i have a gamma toaster and a diplomabot all his taste of futures are history. taste of futures help early game for cooking first recipe but once you have power from gamma toaster and diplomabot they seem just to add to chefs bloating. I ussually taste test all his taste of futures and one cook card as fast as possible.

Im debating wether i should keep his hall pass or not. seems he kind of needs it to assist other chars. or can bring cards to burn to him. theres a couple ways to play chef with or without hall pass. I experiment with both.


most players probably lose more than win at this game. its still fun though.

[Lord Strong]

Honestly there's a few approaches that seem to work for this game. For me it seems each player develops their own strategy that works. There's just a few minor adjustments players need to make to win. For me it was I felt I needed to mutate wrenches as soon as possible. some cards we need for sure to win but some cards are just extra cards.

[mr.deagle]

I managed to basically cheat my way through by using dozens of resets for getting just the right research and for undoing those times I travelled to a planet with a bad event that I wasn't prepared for.

My general strategy:

• Prioritize the Engineer's quantum cores and wrench at the beginning (because the backlog of broken draw pods hurts you greatly, and you can't allow the Engineer to be backlogged at the end of his turns).
  
• Avoid duct tape because you generally want the best odds of getting a wrench and quantum core in the same hand.
  
• Flambé's are the next priority.
  
• A single Diplomabot on the chef suffices for the entire game because he has the cleanest hand. Once you have it, you can destroy all the hall passes.
  
• Give junk to the chef when you have an opportunity, before the hall passes are destroyed.
  
• If you have a Diplomabot, don't risk ending a character's turn outside of their job area.
  
• Balance card destroyers amongst everybody who is not the chef (he already has Taste Tests).
  
• Job cards to destroy as soon as you have an opportunity: 1 Cook, 1 Upgrade Ship, 1 Foresight (if you cheated like me)
  
• Navigate to each destination efficiently (order doesn't matter) while picking up ingredients along the way.
  
• Captain ability unlocks aren't really necessary until near the end, where I use Backtrack to deliver each meal.
  
• Claws and Claws of Duty can synergize really well, but are only really useful on those whose decks have not been cleaned. I end up burning them later.

[Lord Strong]

Originally posted by mr.deagle:

I managed to basically cheat my way through by using dozens of resets for getting just the right research and for undoing those times I travelled to a planet with a bad event that I wasn't prepared for.

My general strategy:

• Prioritize the Engineer's quantum cores and wrench at the beginning (because the backlog of broken draw pods hurts you greatly, and you can't allow the Engineer to be backlogged at the end of his turns).
  
• Avoid duct tape because you generally want the best odds of getting a wrench and quantum core in the same hand.
  
• Flambé's are the next priority.
  
• A single Diplomabot on the chef suffices for the entire game because he has the cleanest hand. Once you have it, you can destroy all the hall passes.
  
• Give junk to the chef when you have an opportunity, before the hall passes are destroyed.
  
• If you have a Diplomabot, don't risk ending a character's turn outside of their job area.
  
• Balance card destroyers amongst everybody who is not the chef (he already has Taste Tests).
  
• Job cards to destroy as soon as you have an opportunity: 1 Cook, 1 Upgrade Ship, 1 Foresight (if you cheated like me)
  
• Navigate to each destination efficiently (order doesn't matter) while picking up ingredients along the way.
  
• Captain ability unlocks aren't really necessary until near the end, where I use Backtrack to deliver each meal.
  
• Claws and Claws of Duty can synergize really well, but are only really useful on those whose decks have not been cleaned. I end up burning them later.

I agree with most your post. Personally Im not a fan of cheating or reloading to get better luck. I have had events like reboot, spacetime flies, and all things realitive put my game at abrupt stop. I admit I have cheat at this game. but seems more fun to make it without cheating. i use ask around as much as I can. Foresite can help learn where science research needs to be. But have you tried ignoring most of science and engineers lab and focus on getting mutate and most the chefs job cards researched. u can repair a lot without cores and duct tape just a few sylk and a gamma toaster. engineer can do well with just 4 cards and the rest his cards destroyed. theres a few aproaches this game is winnable.

[mr.deagle]

Originally posted by Lord Strong:

I agree with most your post. Personally Im not a fan of cheating or reloading to get better luck. I have had events like reboot, spacetime flies, and all things realitive put my game at abrupt stop. I admit I have cheat at this game. but seems more fun to make it without cheating. i use ask around as much as I can. Foresite can help learn where science research needs to be. But have you tried ignoring most of science and engineers lab and focus on getting mutate and most the chefs job cards researched. u can repair a lot without cores and duct tape just a few sylk and a gamma toaster. engineer can do well with just 4 cards and the rest his cards destroyed. theres a few aproaches this game is winnable.

It's more ethical to not cheat for favourable RNG, but as you said earlier in this thread, you can't win every game. I've only done it once to see how much easier the game becomes, and the answer is "quite a lot".

As for Ask Around, I always use it until I have the entire route scouted because knowing what lies ahead is important for optimizing your turns as the Captain, as well as nearby planets because you can get unlucky with an EMP that you can't dodge.

As for skipping Quantum Cores, I haven't tried that yet, but mathematically it doesn't really make sense to me until mid/late-game, when you've cleaned out your decks. Even if you assume that you unlock the third Wrench, the two Quantum Cores (12 Power for the Engineer's deck) costs 7 Power for the Scientist, but it already costs 9 Power for the Scientist just to give 3 Power to somebody else's deck. The Quantum Cores become even more useful later if you can afford Exterminator. On Dragon Sweat I think you'd need to be quite lucky to survive on mutations alone along enough to even get to the point where the Engineer's deck is clean, but it's possible if you're able to both find and afford card destroyers early enough.

[Lord Strong]

I found cheating to get flambes does help for thinning decks earlier but you got to start with the right cards and be able play them first turn. I got to where i dont need to cheat as much on thai hot. I kind of play out games to see how far i get on different approaches. mutation does well on thai hot and dragon sweat but its those nasty encounters that determine win or lose. I think I kind of want to get to where I don't need to cheat to win. but I find few wins. I mostly run out of time last few games. My weakest character is science but I get better choosing specific cards to unlock. Flambes I would prioritize cause I like to get small decks. sometimes chef thins his deck faster than other characters give him cards. But I had it the other way around too. I dont have to cheat every turn like it sounded like you said. and I won multiplayer once without cheating. Just saying its possible to win without cheating if you face the RNG and make the right moves.

I just didnt know players could cheat on multiplayer thats the first i heard it.


Its fair to say cheat or not cheat does seem make a difference. :)

[chaney]

FWIW, when I was playing a lot, I was beating Dragon Sweat about 1 game in six, never using the turn restart exploit. 3 games in 6 were quickly aborted as implausible to win, the other two ran pretty far along but usually ended on the clock.

I've talked about my thoughts on good play on these forums and in someone's guide. It's pretty close to what is discussed above for the most part, but I almost compulsively get ONLY the Wrench for the Engineer, and only after Foresight has identified it (no turn restarts.) Some good luck is required for sure. The game WILL beat you up, the best thing to do is to prepare for the big hits by taking smaller sacrifices early on. You don't have much margin to spend, and you need to be aggressive beyond "safe" limits because of the time limit. Sometimes the Pirates can be very helpful - think out of the box and use your Captain for repair, too. Having The Chef take a junk card, which he can fairly easily destroy, to save a decent Zapmart offering for The Engineer can be helpful.

Above all, thin aggressively. Destroy the least critical card. Never pass the opportunity to destroy a card (99% of the time.) Research no card that isn't a CRITICAL Job card for the Engineer or Captain. You can take some chances with The Chef (because he can destroy the non-critical stuff he gets) and Scientist, but don't drive up the Scientist's cost too much until he has the Breakthrough to keep the costs possible to reach. Have good luck, some of it you will have to make, and some bad luck you will have to prepare for. Pay attention to every detail and consider the consequences.