Best card combos for the Ironclad?

[?Syntax Error]

Which cards should I keep and upgrade, what combos are best? Which cards should I skip? No youtube videos or guides please, I just want some advice from veteran players.

I'm new to this game and I find it very difficult to get past Act 3 :) Not that I mind, I just need a strategy .

[Zammy]

One simple and effective approach for ironclad is Body slam+ and upgraded block cards.

[Soul Love Base]

IN addition to body slam, if you can upgrade bodyslam to cost 0 energy and then use that card which produces 2 copies of an attack, you can produce 2 additional bodyslams with 0 cost and if you got some good block, you're going to do massive damage. Gonna need a bit of luck to accrue the cards you need and upgrade them, but if you do, my lord, that was my first win and it was a very manageable final boss.

[panurgy]

In general, the best approach isn't to just get a few good cards, but to build around a strategy. Some cards are useless on their own, but become OP when combined with a few other cards. Some cards end up gimping other cards, too.

I'm new to the game, but I'm getting the idea that Corruption is one of the best strategies. It allows you to play (exhaust) multiple cards per turn. You can synergize with Dark Energy, Feel No Pain, and other cards so that you can generate a lot of defense and play 10+ cards per turn. There are relics that amplify this card, too.

You have to plan to deliberately lose cards after essentially a few turns of barrage (that's the exhaust), then have the stripped down deck to finish. I'm still figuring it out. ;)

[?Syntax Error]

Thanks for the tips so far guys. I'm still learning and of course there is some luck and RNG involved too :) But it helps not playing to win at first and learning about the game .

[corbet]

probably the most reliable way. is the power that lets you draw card any time you draw status card.(tons of enemies put status cards in your deck, including the heart itself). then add the 3 other cards of ironclad that are solid cards but put status card in your deck. such as immolate, power through, etc. gives you good aoe, good blocks, etc.

[WolfWhiteFire]

One tip I learned is the importance of keeping your deck small, I knew that was a good idea in general, but after following an ironclad guide I learned just how important it is when I not only won my first ironclad game, but had the final boss and a lot of other enemies be extremely easy. The results aren't consistent of course, it mentioned three win conditions, limit break, demon's form, and barricade, and I ended up going down the limit break route with the cards I got, but I was able to tell how helpful keeping my deck small is. At this point I will often skip when offered fairly good cards that don't really suit my deck well, usually reaching a little over 20 cards total, though a smaller deck would still be helpful, and will take any chance I get to get rid of a card or transform strikes or defends.

[DJDiceZ]

If you expect to discover synergies on your own, this is a bit "spoilery", but you wouldn't really ask this in the first place if you didn't want to know combos:

Strenght in general is straight forward, easy to build a deck around, and pretty decent. Works well with Pummel, upgraded Heavy Blade, Sword Boomrang and Reaper. Demon Form or Spot Weakness, then add an upgraded Limit Break and Inflame on top of that. You don't need much more than that.

Feel No Pain is good even without an exhaust deck, even better with it. Yes, exhaust decks are a thing. Immolate is godly, upgrade. Carnage, Disarm, Shockwave, Uppercut, Shrug it off, Impervious and Bludgeon are nice. Upgrading Searing Blow a ton, plus having some Armaments can be fun. True grit is significantly better upgraded. Warcry doesn't do too much unupgraded, but it works quite well with Havoc. Battle Trance + Energy.

Upgraded Dual Wield + upgraded Perfected Strike, Searing Blow or upgraded Rampage when damage is high, or any good/low cost attack that exhaust. Rampage+Headbutt in a small deck is good.
Upgraded Double Tap with most of the attacks i've mentioned, or Dropkick if an enemy is vulnerable. If your deck is small enough, you can loop your deck. Feed's hp increase is good.
Barricade+Entrench+Metallicize+Rage+Juggernaut+Body Block+Iron Wave+other good block cards. Block decks feel a bit iffy to me though, they can be slow and costly.

Skip Fire Breathing, it's bad. Berserk is dangerous too, you can skip it most of the time. I didn't go over all combos, fyi. Some of them like Clash + Dual Wield + Sever Soul is kinda like... probably doable, but the cards individually aren't that great. Dark Embrace + Corruption i wouldn't recommend if you're starting out personally. Still, all this should give you some ideas.

[panurgy]

I just easily won with the Ironclad with:
Corruption, Dark Embrace, Barricade, Entrench, Feel the Pain, Juggernaut, Body Slam, 2 strength cards and a bunch of attack cards that were essentially interchangeable. (I had a few other cards like Heal, but they weren't essential.)

Corruption, Barricade, and Body Slam (plus ~10 defense cards) was the core, with each additional card (Entrench, Feel the Pain, Juggernaut) amping up the deck. 2 - 3 strength cards helps, too.

I slowly stripped all my beginning Strikes and a few Defends (replaced mostly with Shrug It Off). One of the keys was that I skipped taking new cards for the 2nd half of the game. I'd had hands that were nearly as strong in the past, but they got diluted with junk cards that blew the game.

I usually take Vampire/Ghost (or both, once) just for fun, but I resisted this time. I was so OP for the last six battles that it was ridiculous, with the biggest issue that I stalled a couple of times waiting for Barricade to pop.

I only had 1 Body Slam, and would have traded almost all the other attack cards for a second. I wanted Impervious but didn't need it at all. It took me until about halfway through the 2nd act to get all 3 of the core cards.

[JellyPuff]

Corruption+Feel No Pain might be the most consistent card combo for the Ironclad out there. Synergizes well with other cards/relics too, like Juggernaut, Barricade, Spoon or Dead Branch and of course other exhaust-related stuff.

[?Syntax Error]

Thank you all. God this game is gonna take a while to beat :)

What would be the perfect deck size then? I don't even know how many acts there are because in act 3 I mostly get smashed to death :p

[DuckSonata]

Originally posted by the barn:

keeping your deck small itself isn't how i win 90 percent. it's that. in conjunction with other things.

if you go too small too early you'll get destroyed by act 1 slime boss, or the orb that puts burn cards in your deck. smaller the deck the harder those status cards hit you for.

you gotta be smart how you do it. early on. you want to add in a few solid 'anker' cards, that can be your powerhouses, and then trim out the fluff basic strikes and stuff as you go. then past act 2 yes remove cards often as you can. even do so in act 1, but be weary of if you are lacking solid anker cards. if so, then pick alternate routes the facilitty waht you need for any given run, adapt as you go or for as your run is going at any given point.

Don't say it, Khor.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by ?Syntax Error:

Thank you all. God this game is gonna take a while to beat :)

What would be the perfect deck size then? I don't even know how many acts there are because in act 3 I mostly get smashed to death :p

Small Deck => Get to the good card faster, but you get destroyed by statuses
Big Deck => Less likely to draw what you want, but you are less likely to suffer from negative cards.

Big decks also dilute your starter cards without the need to remove them. Two things, the average quality (not rarity) of your card, and not having too many of a card type, are probably more important than raw card count. And if you found a win condition, you should in general try to limit the cards you add to those that actually help you reach your win condition faster, and avoid those that do the opposite.

There isn't a perfect size, it depends on several things, but as a range i'd say 20-30 sounds good.

[Kaerius]

It should be noted that factors such as your amount of card draw, and number of powers/exhaust cards, and innate/bottled cards can also affect how large your deck can be while still being efficient. I've had defect power decks over 50 cards that were still good.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by Kaerius:

It should be noted that factors such as your amount of card draw, and number of powers/exhaust cards, and innate/bottled cards can also affect how large your deck can be while still being efficient. I've had defect power decks over 50 cards that were still good.

That's a good point, one time i only took exhaust cards on Ironclad just for fun (just cards that exhaust themselves). Then at the end of act 3 the game was like, fine, here, have a deadbranch. But i didn't encounter any bloated deck issue until then.

Bottled Seek does a good job of solving any "my win condition is at the bottom of the deck" situation. Seek is the best card to bottle in the game, probably.

[?Syntax Error]

Oooooh, that boss in act 3 got me again ... Hehe :)

Like I said in my review , easy to play, hard to master. I had some good cards, but didn't really know the strategy :s

I'm happy I bought this game, it keeps my brain working :) Or what is left of it.

Btw, thanks all for the tips, I'm slowly getting better at it. Of course runs all depend on the cards/relics you get.