Donu & Deku---the most OP final boss

[Cujo]

Beat the others...no problem. This duo is a pain my arse. Playing with the Emerald deck so maybe the IronClad deck would work better as a greater and quicker damage.

The strength bonuses go up very quickly with them and I always found the emerald deck needs more time to build up for the final finishing move.

[Kuro]

Really the only strategy against this boss is to rush Donu.

[Cujo]

Originally posted by Fox:

Really the only strategy against this boss is to rush Donu.

yeah, tried that . I was pullling all the wrong cards in the last match and my triple poison cascde came up too late. Eventually this game needs to allow playing the same seed again so I can get another chance at this duo rather than go through the randomization until they come up again.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

Didn't you make this thread before? I recall a thread with the same typo in it.

Their names are Donu & DECA. Its supposed to be a pun on donut and decahedron(even though Deca isn't a decahedron, but rather an octahedron).

[Rett]

You can easily build both a Silent deck and an Ironclad deck that can deal with both Deca and Donu. It's a boss that punishes decks that are slow to ramp up, but that's the choice you made when you decided to make a slow deck, and failed to do anything to make it faster when you saw what boss you had in Act 3.

I'm more than certain that you had a poorly optimised deck which caused you to lose (that, or RNG was particularly cruel, which in a game with RNG doesn't make the boss OP, just you unlucky).

Just like the Awakened One punishes you if you stack lots of powers/can't burst the cultists quickly, and Time Eater punishes deck that play large amounts of low cost cards, Deca and Donu punish decks that ramp too low.

[Gankatron]

I don't have trouble with D&D using Ironclad and an exhaust deck with Feel No Pain + Corruption, bloated with block + bodyslam.

Of course adding cards such as Dark Embrace, Juggernaut, Barricade, Callipers, and if you are very lucky the artifact Dead Branch, makes you OP.

Of the exhaustable cards, upgraded Shockwave and Disarm will add survival value.

I also love upgraded Armament, which helps any deck.

[Shovel Priest]

The Silent has some fast builds. Poison decks using Catalyst and Corpse Explosion go a long way, though you do need some extra debuffs to punch through one of their artifacts. She's also better at making decks where you can draw, discard, and generate energy, which also burst them down really well.

[Terronidus]

Originally posted by Fox:

Really the only strategy against this boss is to rush Donu.

First boss I beat, and the only boss I think I've consistently beat. Majority of wins on Silent.

I usually focus deca.

[ZapDoggo]

Donu and Deca aren't really an easy boss duo.I think it was a Silent Run with the 'Specimen' Relic, and a bunch of poison stacking cards that I beat the Duo with.
It was the only way I won though, I don't think I can replicate it again without getting REALLY lucky and finding Specimen again.
I haven't beaten the Duo with Ironclad yet, and I probably never will, unless I get incredibly lucky draws in a 'strength stack' deck, or maybe a bodyslam deck. I could also try exhausting a lot, But I'd need a larger deck, right? Someone please tell me how I should do an exhaust deck, its not really something I explored much (I always die to the first boss trying.)

[Rett]

Originally posted by Terronidus:

Originally posted by Fox:

Really the only strategy against this boss is to rush Donu.

First boss I beat, and the only boss I think I've consistently beat. Majority of wins on Silent.

I usually focus deca.

Deca alternates between attacking +putting 2 dazed in your deck, and putting 16 block on both Deca/Donu

Donu alternates between attacking, and giving both Deca and Donu 3 strength (since they always attack twice, it's +6 damage every two turns).

Unless you're running like a Clash/Dual Wield deck, there's not many good reasons to go for Deca first. The longer Donu lives, the more likely you are to not be able to block enough damage to not die. Deca doesn't scale at all, so if you can block Deca when Donu dies, you'll be able to block him the same 50 turns from now.

[Sentient_Toaster]

If you have low DPS -- maybe you're relying on Noxious Fumes and envenomed shivs, say, and without Catalyst -- you're going to need very strong defense and energy to keep it going.

I had a successful Silent run vs. them, with miserable DPS, but I had 2 After Image (1 upgraded), 2 Footwork (1 upgraded), Blur, Burst+ (which is neat with Blur), 3x Cloak and Dagger, 2x Outmanuever, etc. I was basically throwing three 2x envenomed shivs a turn (w/o Accuracy...), for +6 poison and pushing +3 poison from fumes, and trying to stack Blur to keep defenses up high enough. It would have been better to have had a more focused deck (e.g. full poison, with flask + fumes + catalyst, and ideally Snecko Skull) or have a few Accuracy+ for more shiv damage.

Ironclad tends to have more smashy-smashy methods, like stacking strength with Flex and Limit Break and cards that really benefit from strength like Heavy Blade and Pummel; or stacking Entrench w/ Barricade and using Body Slam for offense.

Agreed that Donu is normally the priority, with the one exception being if you have a very tight deck that depends upon quick cycling, and which will be badly broken by Daze spam. That Daze spam gets crazy if you're Ironclad with Dead Branch, though...

[Gankatron]

@xephosarkeyus:

I generally like to go into games without watching videos or reading best build forums because most of the fun for me is figuring it out myself, but this is what works for me.

As far as an exhaust deck goes, I generally use a block focused build centered on Feel No Pain which gives you block for every card you exhaust, which when the cycle gets rolling can give you an obscene amount of block, which paired with Body Slam gives you an obscene amount of attack.

Now to fuel that Feel No Pain you will likely want to use Corruption to make your skills be set at 0 cost and be exhaustible, and don't be shy about grabbing as many block giving cards as possible as they will be an important fuel source.

The main problem you don't want to run into is burning through all your skills prior to defeating the AI, keeping in mind that usually you will not have to worry about that on the 1st board even without Feel No Pain if you play smartly since the mob are squishy.

Always upgrade Feel No Pain asap, although I tend to pick up and upgrade Armaments first as it can quickly upgrade many of your cards, which is especially helpful when your deck is a fat one.

Using the synergistic core of Feel No Pain and Corruption I grab as many exhaustible cards as possible (too many to cover them all), and look out for Barricade and potentially Calipers so you can hold onto all the block that you rapidly acquire, and then look for cards that synergize, such as Dark Embrace to get additional draws when exhausting, Juggernaut to do damage while getting block, Entrench to rapidly build block. True Grit is great to not only build block, but also to rid yourself of those pesky curses and status cards, but it needs to be upgraded asap to really be most useful.

Also recognize synergy between cards such as Warcry and Havoc where you can play in more expensive cards, especially powers like Corruption and Barricade, by first sending them to the top of the deck with Warcry and using havoc to bring them in for 1 cost.

As far as relics are concerned Dead Branch being the perpetual motion machine (pair that with Fiend Fire and watch your screen light up like a pach-inko machine), and other cool ones such as Charon's Ashes to do damage while exhausting.

...and probably one of the coolest aspects of the Feel No Pain build is when you run into a Daze producing mob (such as Deca), as these cards actually help you as they get turned into free block when they exhaust.

Maybe I have forgotten a few things, but this is good to get you up and running, just be careful with playing Corruption to early against mob with greater health if you don't have Feel No Pain yet, as your exhaustible engine may exhaust too early.

[gradualsmith]

Originally posted by Cujo:

this game needs to allow playing the same seed again so I can get another chance at this duo rather than go through the randomization until they come up again.

You can replay a battle from the beginning with the same seed. If you click the setting icon in the top right, then press "save and quit", then reload the game and press continue, you'll start the fight you're on at the beginning with the same order of cards.

So if you lose but you think you could have won but think you made some dumb errors or if you want to try out a different starting combo then you can do that. I just did this with Donu & Deca and the first time I lost by a huge margin but the second time I won by a huge margin. It's amazing what difference just your opening choices can have...