Basic strategy tips

Wildfrost can be difficult for new players, here are a few tips that can help you out!

Introduction

Wildfrost can be a hard game to get into, but it is incredibly deep and rewarding once you grasp the way it works. You might find it odd that I use the term "strategy" for a deck building game; that's because at its heart Wildfrost is as much, if not more, a tactical game than a roguelike deckbuilder. It is also very unforgiving, so here are a few small tips to help you along the way:

General tips

1. If on turn one you don't have any of the cornerstone cards of your deck, hit that bell! This is especially the case for creatures, because you want to get them out ASAP so they can start counting down and being useful.
   
2. For this reason, crowns are extremely powerful. They not only guarantee you get your most important cards from the beginning, but they are also basically free actions. By the time you get to the final boss you should be rocking at least 2-3 crowns.
   
3. Do not be afraid to hit that bell before it refreshes! It's better to forgo doing 2 damage with a sword so you can get more important cards for the next turn. This is particularly true on "waiting" turns when no enemy is about to attack. Take advantage of the lull in combat to prepare your defenses.
   
4. On the flip side, combat turns (i.e. when enemies are attacking) are when you should be at your most vigilant. Go carefully over the actions of each ally and enemy, because with so many stats and attributes it's easy to miss something. Don't end the turn before studying the board and shuffling the positions of your allies.
   
5. Because yes, positioning is everything in this game! Your units are all on the fragile side, and one mistake can end your run. Moving is free, and you should be doing it a lot. Try to share the damage across the board, and remember that as long as a unit has 1 HP it's the same as having full health. HP is a resource that needs to be managed, so don't be afraid to let even your most fragile units tank a hit if they can.
   
6. Don't forget to bench your units to let them heal. Letting them die and get injured can seriously hamper your next fight. However, if you do return them to discard, try to do it before hitting the bell. That way they will return to your hand sooner.
   
7. Positioning is helpful, but you must also always have access to mitigation. Focusing too much on damaging combos will leave you dead. Snow, ink, and frost (but mostly snow!) are all useful in that regard. Summons are also very useful for tanking incoming damage and effects. Make sure you always have one of these options in your hand. If not, strongly consider hitting that bell if you can!

Specific tips

1. Aimless is limited to just one row. So you can force those annoying bigfoots (bigfeet?) to hit your tank by leaving him alone on that row.
   
2. Similarly, you can force a creature with barrage to only attack one unit by placing it alone on the lane.
   
3. If you're one gold short from buying an item from the shop, click it several times and the shopkeeper will relent, giving it to you at a discount. This is useful more often that you'd think!
   
4. Every thing that has a sword icon, even if it does no damage, counts as a hit, and will trigger unit abilities.
   
5. Units with no sword icon will never attack, even if you give them +attack buffs. This can be useful to counter haze!
   
6. Naked gnome is your friend.

I hope you found this small list of tips useful. I'll add more if I think of any or if people suggest some in the comments. Enjoy!

[100thCustomer]

Wow this guide is crazy helpful. I was stuck with old habits from other deckbuilders of focusing on synergy and strong cars so just putting into perspective how strong crowns and redraw really are immediately allowed me to go from barely getting to the boss to winning a run and a 5 storm bell run back to back. Awesome stuff thank you.

[Joerpg84]

Thanks for the tips. I’m not really good at this game and playing on Switch.

Would be a great feature to turn on or off unlocked charms or cards from certain features or achievements.

[Tommy]

I'm so dumb I focused on completing quests instead of winning runs and now I'm stuck with a bunch of useless cards that I keep randomly drawing making it impossible to get any synergies. No guides can even help me at this point, I already know the mechanics, but my cards are always trash. The only way I have won is with Tusk and teeth, all other builds don't do near enough damage for mid-to-late game fights. This game makes me feel like a complete idiot.

[Mike]

Another tip:
There are some below average charms. May as well only unlock the above average charms to raise the average of what you find.
Don't do these achievements:
Stack 15 snow.
Save the gnome.
Stack up 50 shell armor.

[Shumai]

Thanks! This is legit super helpful lol, I didn't even know I could bug the shopkeeper into givin me a discount lmao