How to unlock and beat OVERCRANKED mode (22 bell strength)

This is my in-depth guide on how to unlock the 13 Bells and beat 🞛 OVERCRANKED 🞛 mode (22 Bell strength).

Either if you are trying to improve your game or if you have already reached the true ending, I've compiled some useful tips that will help you beat the game's most difficult challenge: OVERCRANKED mode.

I've also included a section to help players increase the Storm Strength Limit, and unlock all the bells, which is a pre-requisite to achieve the game's true TRUEST ending.

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🞛 Pull the lever and lets get in! 🞛

🞛 INTRO 🞛

🞚 What is this guide about? 🞚

• On 11/Dec, Deadpan/Gaziter announced the Storm Bell update which included, among other things, balance adjustments, and the new Storm Bell difficulty system, containing 13 bells, each bringing its own set of trials.
  
  

  After you finish unlocking the 13 Bells, you are faced with the final challenge:

  
  
  
  
  

  Let's get started!

• In the first section I'll touch the best strategies on how to unlock the bells and then beat the final challenge.
  
  
• This guide is a compilation of some tips and strategies I used in my successful Overcranked runs. Please note this is all based on my personal opinion and I'm not familiar with Wildfrost's content creators, so there is a high chance some of the things I mention here conflict with other guides/videos you may have seen.
  
  
• Even thought some tips may be obvious, I'm sure there is always something to be learned :)
  This is also not an exhaustive list, and I intend to update it with my findings every now and then.
  
  
  

🞛 BELLS 🞛

⟐ Unlocking the Bells ⟐

• To enable OVERCRANKED mode you have to first grind your way until you reach 10 Bell strength. To achieve this, you must defeat the 'true' final boss in Heart of the Storm multiple times, each time selecting at least one new bell, and increasing the Bell Strength by 1.
  
  
• During this phase, you can select any Bells that you prefer, as long as the Bell Strength is at the maximum available every time.

⟐ Bells and How to Deal with them ⟐

⬦Tyrant Bell: Some Crowns will be Cursed

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⤞ As I'll cover later, having as many Crowns as possible is critical to start comboing as early as possible, and preventing your Leader from taking damage from Barrage and Aimless.

⤞ Ideally you should have at least 3 Crowns in the last fight, so it is likely that you will have to take at least one cursed crown, either by buying it, or as a Treasure reward during the run.

⤞ Cursed Crowns cannot be removed, and if used on a Companion or Leader, will decrease its HP and attack by 1. Because of this, it is highly recommended that you save it for an Item, such as The Lumin Vase itself.

⤞ Another good option is saving the Cursed Crown for a 'Tank' Companion, or giving it to a 'Support' Companion, such as Snoffel, Vesta, Biji or Dimona, as they will be less impacted by the debuffs.

⬦Titan Bell: Bosses and Minibosses will be upgraded with Charms

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⤞ This one is self-explanatory. You can find the complete list of Charms in the official game Wiki[wildfrostwiki.com].

⤞ Each Boss and Miniboss will get their charms from a pre-determined list, which means you will quickly get used to their new stats and modifiers. You can check what they are on their individual Wiki Page[wildfrostwiki.com].

⬦Gunk Bell: Gain a Gunk Fruit after each Boss Battle

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⤞ Pretty straight-forward. You gain a 1 Attack useless Item which fortunately has Consume, so it is usually a good idea to get rid of it early by using against Gobling (enemy that drops 4 Blings when hit), or Clunker enemies (the ones with Scrap instead of Health).

⤞ Always prioritize removing this item when if you find the Muncher event during the run.

⬦Bell of Death: Companions temporarily become Injured when they die in Battles

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⤞ If you have played the game before the latest updates, you are probably used to this mechanic. Once your Companion gets killed, they will have their Health and Attack halved until you win the next battle.

⤞ You don't necessarily have to play with the Injured Companion on the next battle, so if you have another decent Companion on the bench, you can replace them, and they will still be fully healed after you win the next battle.

⤞ If you absolutely cannot avoid receiving fatal damage in a Companion, always sac the support companions mentioned earlier, as it will have much less impact then sacrificing a 'Tank' or 'Damage'.

⤞ This will also play at your advantage when you have unsuccessful runs, because in the next run there is a chance you will get the Injured Companion map event, which will resurrect Companions from a previous run while keeping their active charms.

⬦Swarm Bell: Reduced Enemy Wave Bell counter during Boss Battles

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⤞ This means you will have less time to prepare in between Enemy Waves.

⤞ Keeping the Gobling alive and using the Pom Mask and Sheepopper Mask will ensure that there is always less dangerous enemies on the screen. Sometimes it is even a good idea to keep Clunkers, Puffball, and Shrooters alive if you can apply Snow and Ink to them.

⤞ When there are no dangerous enemies on screen, make sure to use your buff items before hitting the Wave Bell. This includes reducing the Counter of your allies.

⤞ It is also a good strategy to hit the Wave Bell right before an ally with Barrage attacks, so you get a full row of enemies and maximize damage. Just be careful with this mechanic when the additional enemies may arrive with Smackback, Teeth, and other 'on Hit' stats.

⬦Gobbler Bell: Add a Gobbler to each Boss Battle

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⤞ The Gobbler is a 7 Health, 3 Counter, 1 Attack, enemy that gains the Attack of the enemies you defeat.

⤞ This is usually not a threat, as they don't have Resist Snow, but watch out for the ones with Charms.

⬦Frostbourne Bell: Some enemies in the Frostlands will be upgraded with Sun Charms

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⤞ After the second Boss Battle, up until you face the Eye of the Frost, some enemies will attack you before you have the chance to place all your allies in the field. This is one of the reasons why using Snow is so overpowered in this game mode.

⤞ Enemies that attack every other turn, will become a lot more challenging, and sometimes start hitting you in the very first turn, potentially ruining the run.

⬦Horde Bell: Reduced Enemy Wave Bell counter

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⤞ Same as the⬦Swarm Bell, but for all battles (not only for Boss Battles).

⬦Dread Bell: Some enemies will be upgraded with Charms

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⤞ Same as the⬦Titan Bell, but for all enemies (not only for Boss and Minibosses).

⤞ Remember to always check the enemy's charms before attacking. Sometimes this can also play at your advantage, for example, enemies using the Durian Charm will have all their Modifiers removed.

⤞ Be extra careful with enemies wearing Sun Charm, as they have reduced Counter , attacking earlier than you are used to. Also watch out for leaving enemies wearing Frog Charm (+4 Damage) alone in their row, specially when they have have Frenzy (2x) or Wild.

⬦Blood Bell: Your leader loses half Health before entering the Frostlands

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⤞ After the end of the 6th combat, your hero will permanently lose half Health. I recommend always getting the Sun Bell of Health whenever you have the chance, even if your Leader already has 10+ Health. This is also useful to leave another slot open for getting a modifier Charm for your Leader, instead of using the Heart Charm.

⤞ The Pinkberry Juice item is also very useful here. Always have at least one of this item in your deck if you've got the chance. This is also one of the reasons why you should get rid of all useless items in the Muncher event, so you can draw Pinkberry Juice quicker.

⤞ Never get Item Treasure rewards unless they are absolutely useful. Especially the ones from Gnome Traveller if they are accompanied by a Junk item.

⤞ Avoid the 'Trash X' modifiers unless you are using the Mini Mika Companion, otherwise it will become increasingly harder to draw not only +X Health, but other useful items during battles.

🞛 TRIBES 🞛

⟐ Which One to Choose? ⟐

• Long story short, It is doable with any Tribe. Personally, I like to look at all the available leaders and choose the Tribe based on the one that has the best Leader at that time. However, my success rate is higher with Clunkmasters. Bellow is a list of tips involving tribe-specific Items and Companions. Please refer to the game's Wiki[wildfrostwiki.com] in case you need to remind yourself of the cards mentioned.

⟐ Tribe Strengths, Companions and Strategies ⟐

⬦Snowdwellers:

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⤞ As earlier mentioned, having easy access to Snow via Snow Stick items, will make the whole run easier. Because of this I always get the Snowffel Companion (available to all tribes) and 99% of the time it's a good idea save the Sun Rod (Counter -2) Item and the Sun Charm (-1 Counter) for him.

⤞ The Yuki Companion (+1 Attack each time Snow is applied) paired with Snowffel Companion (apply Snow to all enemies) is an amazing combo. If you can get your hands on Snowcake (apply 10 Snow), Yuki will become a Nuke. In this scenario, I almost always duplicate Snowcake in the Shade Sculptor Map Event.

⤞ Even though Stormbear Spirit (8 Damage to a Snow'd enemy) deals a lot of damage, it is a very risky item without a low Counter ally with Snow modifier, so I usually avoid it.

⤞ Shell can also be a very strong stat when combo-ing Chompom, Kernel or Shelly with the Acorn Charm (+8 Shell), and the Nutshell Cake (+9 Shell/-2 Health), Shell Shield (+4 Shell), and Shellbo (+4 Shell) items for dealing damage and tanking hits.

⤞ Another good, but unsafe strat is using the Pengu Charm (Snow -> Attack) and applying Snowcake on a 2x/3x or Barrage ally. This is super risky because you have to either use Cleanse, or Recall your ally to get rid of the Snow stat, which may cost you a few turns.

⤞ Unless your Leader can apply Spice (to themselves or the ally behind), I wouldn't get other Spice-based Companions and Clunkers, as Spice is not very strong for allies without 2x/3x or Barrage due to it being removed after attacking.

⤞ Unlike Spice, Shroom is also a noticeable Snowdweeler strength because it keeps dealing damage after the first Attack. You can use the Slapcrackers item on the Fungun Companion (+1 Shroom when hit), to make them apply 6 Shroom (12 Shroom with the Lumin Vase). The Wort Companion is also a good choice here when paired with other Charms with modifiers, and his Aimless can help you get through the enemies front-line.

⤞ Get rid of your Scrappy Swords in the Muncher Map Event. They will only delay getting your useful cards during combat.

⬦Shademancers:

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⤞ Summons. They will be your primary resource for Tanking enemy hits and farming Attack.

⤞ Monch Companion. This little fella is the MVP of Shademancers. As it is the case with Bom Bom, you will have to work with less allies on screen, which is not too easy to pull off when dealing with Frost Jailer's Unmovable. It is critical to get Blank Masks with this build. Use it to duplicate the Monch itself or your leader, depending on how early you get it, but remember to leave Monch in the rightmost slot when there is other duplicated Monchs about to attack, otherwise the original Monch will be sac'd, leaving it Injured. When other summons are attacking in the same row, remember to move the other summons to the right, so they attack first before Monch eats them.

⤞ The Pom Mask (all allies gain Barrage) is also a great item that will help you throughout most of the run. It will be hard to deploy it in Heart of the Storm due to the enemies' high Health, however. Sheepopper Mask (summons on the enemy side and deals 8 Damage to all enemies when destroyed) is also pretty good early on, reducing the number of enemies on screen, and dealing damage on enemies 'hiding' behind their front-line.

⤞ Soulbound Skulls is a very risky item, and I usually avoid it. Since your summons will be used to Tank damage, there is a high chance you are wasting a turn if the enemies destroy your summons instead of them being sacrificed.

⤞ Get rid of your Tar Blades in the Muncher Map Event. They will only delay getting your useful cards during combat.

⤞ I also avoid getting Tiger Skull, Tigris Mask, and Yeti Skull as they are very situational Items, and don't help much in the last battle.

⤞ Should you replace a strong Attack with Overburn (Flameblade Charm)? Yes, in the end it is pretty much the same, with the bonus of dealing 'Barrage' damage, and cascading into a massive Combo.

⤞ The Lamb Charm (+2 Health/+2 Attack to Summon) is super useful when paired with Shade Wisp (clones an enemy as your ally), because it gives the opportunity of the 'Cloned' enemy to attack more then once, or attack then still be sacrificed by Monch.

⤞ Vesta Companion and Azul Candle Item (double target's Overburn) are too situational, and I usually avoid getting them.

⤞ Egg Companion is a good choice, it will help your Monch increase Health and Attack quickly, with the benefit of it Tanking the enemies' most difficult modifiers, such as Haze (next attack is a friendly-fire). The only downside to him is that he will be constantly Injured, and start with lower Health.

⬦Clunkmasters:

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⤞ Just like Snow, Ink is pretty OP during the entire run. It will force the most difficult enemies in the Heart of the Storm, such as Frost Lancer (Aimless) and Frost Bomber (Barrage) to attack your front-line, which hopefully consists of Tank Companions and Clunkers. It also denies Frost Jailer's Unmovable, making it easier to distribute incoming damage across your allies. I recommend getting B.I.N.K (apply 2 Ink to all enemies), as most of the time you will not have allies in both rows that can consistently apply Ink.

⤞ Be careful when using Ink in Boss fights though, as it will deny Krunker's Bombard (making it attack your front-line directly), and prevent Truffle from doing its meiosis thing (reducing the amount of Bling you can get from combos).

⤞ With Clunkmasters it is possible to completely neglect Attack for your allies, as there are plenty of Companions with Bom. Some good combos are Biji, Fizzle and Foxee with Lumin Ring (+1 Modifier)/Bom Charm (+1 Bom). When Bom is paired with an ally with Barrage , such as your Leader or Bombom, it will maximize results.

⤞ Always get Clunkers like Sunglass Chime (Trigger all allies), and Gachapomper (add Barrage to all allies in the row) when given the chance, as it will cascade Bom into a clear screen. Clunkers such as I.C.G.M, Mega Mimik and Tootordion are also good choices, not specially for their modifiers, but to tank damage as your front-liners.

🞛 GENERAL TIPS 🞛

⟐ Additional Strategy Tips ⟐

⬦ First of all, it is not possible to win every run as randomness plays an important role in roguelike deckbuilders. Don't get sad though, your best companions can return (Injured Companion map event) in the next run, giving you a major head start.

⬦ Base stats for Leader: 4 (or less) Counter, Barrage or 2x/3x (with Aimless or not), Snow or Ink.

⬦ For Overcranked, avoid allies with 'on Kill' modifiers, as you won't be stacking anything during Heart of the Storm. Smackback is also risky as you are trying to avoid damage at all costs.

⬦ Best pets: Lil Gazi > Snoof > Loki (debatable)

⬦ Instead of equipping the Charms you bough/gained right away, go through all the Map events in the route first. You may find a Companion or Item that is better suited for it.

⬦ If you have Blings for both a Charm and a Crown, buy the Charm first, if it is not good, it will help you decide if you are going for another Charm or the Crown itself.

⬦ Consume is the way the game tells you the Item is overpowered, so cloning it on Shade Sculptor is usually a good idea, specially if it has Charms attached (they are cloned too).

⬦ If no enemies will attack for a few turns, its best to deploy your Companions first, instead of using your Items right away, as their Counter will countdown, giving you a turn advantage.

⬦ Using the Noomlin Charm on the Noomlin Biscuit Item gives you a lot of versatility.

⬦ If your 'Draw Cards' Bell is at 1, its best to just use a card instead, as you are skipping your turn anyways. If there is only Junk, see if you can trigger the enemy's Bom, or hit the Gobling with it.

⬦ Your Leader's main task is to survive. Early in the run it's best to save a good Charm until you find a decent Companion and give it to them if your leader doesn't have Frenzy/Barrage. If it gets too difficult, its ok to reset as you are not losing too much progress.

⬦ If you can apply more Ink than the enemy's Counter, wait until your enemy is right about to attack, so it will deny their modifier twice.

⬦ Don't waste Frenzy on Pombomb (Hits all undamaged enemies), as they won't be hit twice (since they are already not at max Health) [Yeah, I've made this blunder].

🞛 FULL RUN 🞛

⟐ Final Thoughts ⟐

This is it for now. I'll be uploading a few of my runs once I finish editing it (to skip the parts that I spend more time than I should doing basic Math, lol).

[lore]

Sometimes notable: getting rid of flame water on snowdwellers over a sword can be worth, depending on.. factors.

[viacheslav.krilov]

2. Ignore charm machines, almost always! Might be the hottest take here, but they are nearly always worse than items and crowns, as the charm they give is random and not all charms contribute to your deck's effectivness, while any defencive card can allow you to stand against the Heart of the Storm for a little bit longer, and, more importantly, cards and companions on their own already have tons of good synergies, some of which don't even need charms. (lumin vase+dragon pepper+pombomb+spice stones+spice stones(copy) kills 4 out of 6 guardians turn 0!) So, using charm merchant and boss rewards as almost a sole sourse of charm lets you get one or two really good charms while ensuring your deck is consistent.
3. It's a good idea to learn to play charmless and without using cursed crowns for a good part of the run. On the final boss fight you will need every bit of synergy you can get, so waiting for as long as it's physically possible before commiting them can win you quite a few runs.

[viacheslav.krilov]

I would like to add a few general tips to the list.

1. ALWAYS prioritize frozen companions over other map events (except for the shop, naturally) for a few first battles. Getting a compaion worthy of building your deck around is vital to almost all strategies and increses your chances significantly. Easiest examples: Nova and Tiny Tyko, as both of them can obliterate the Heart Of The Storm given the right charms and supporting cards, sometimes turn 0-4. Less obvious would be Snoffel, who can't win against the final boss on his own, but can freeze 4 out 6 enemies given you are willing to spend a lumin vase on him, + something like Poki or a Boost charm, after which you only need defencive items to slowly grind guadians down. Finally, someone like Jumbo, or any other card which can attack several times or several enemies as their sole ability, while lacks game breaking abilities, is simply a good damage dealer, given you get them some spice or increase their attack in any other way.

[Gabriot]

On a similar note avoiding yeti skull is just so wrong, it's also up there as one of the strongest spells for the clan. Huge aoe snow is unbeatable. By the way, going back to Chikichi - that unit makes these sacrifice spells soooo much easier to use. But Chikichi isn't necessary by any means, simply it just makes the sacrifice spells incredibly smooth to play. Plenty of other ways to make the sacrifice spells fine though, in particular noomlin.

It should also be worth mentioning that fallow mask is an incredibly strong card that should almost ALWAYS be added as well. High hp and barrage w/ a decent cooldown and it doesn't even consume. That summons a unit that is on the level of quite a few companions even. Often it can take a few hits, and then when it's low on hp, you can just sacrifice via a spell like yeti skull, you can put soulbound skulls on it, and also any other sort of sacrifice synergies you may have going on in your deck.

[Gabriot]

Great guide! One area for improvement - I think the shademancers advice is a bit off. Chikichi is by far the mvp of this clan, and Monch w/out Chikichi is actually quite underwhelming and I'd place several companions above Monch here. There's also very little room for error w/ Monch, moreso than probably any other card in the game, and no matter how good you get you'll still make mistakes on every single run.

Also Soulbound Skulls is arguably the best spell for this clan, especially at high difficulty considering you are going for heart of the storm and also other difficult fights like the shade cats it trivializes.

[ChipCheap]

I cannot believe that this guide actually MVPs the 2 units I found absolutely worst so far. Then also proceeds to discredit the Soulbound Skulls that can single handedly automatically win the final boss with any x2 synergy.

Munch has like what, 6 2 4 or whatever and disables an entire row for your hero, as he will eat you and instantly lose you the run. All he does is to merge stats, but never generate any and on top of it, he is super slow with a chunky 4 timer.

Snoffel only needs, like, the singular best charm in the game to even do ANYTHING useful, maybe pops off with Yuki, but you first have to run a useless 4 X 4 guy.
I'd rather run any damage that can take a 3 -> 2 countdown on the sun charm, or even better, the godly 2 -> 1 upgrade.
No idea how you made it happen with either of these units, so props for that, lmao.

[Lykurgos]

Further thoughts . . .

3. Having a couple of the apply 10 snow cards with crowns on them is extremely helpful both for the final battle and throughout the game - they are a top tier pick and for duplication AND for applying a critical charm to if you gain one to make it apply 20 snow.

4. Delayed gratification is very helpful for charms. If you can survive the earlier fights, holding back great charms until they can be applied to a great card can he really helpful.

For example, if you get a Apply Snow charm early, it can be worth holding on to it until you can apply it to -

A low countdown hero with barrage
A card with barrage
A card that hits all enemies (the ink one, I think there is just one, excluding Pombomb)

[Lykurgos]

A few thoughts after those 60 attempts . . .

1. The build choices from very beginning need to be ALL about the final battle and not the journey to get there.

For example, any companion <6 health that therefore cannot survive a single barrage is entirely non-viable (without a reliable health boost or shield option) no matter how helpful they may be during the rest of the run.

2. Ink feels close to essential to help counter the final battle special abilities, which can be sometimes ruinous. i.e., if you go in with a lean deck and the mob that destroys your rightmost card has a reduce countdown charm . . . game over

Lots and lots of snow can be an alternative since the mobs with the ruinous special abilities do not have the snow blocker on them, so if you can stack snow high with companions and cards, that can be enough to negate the abilities too.

[Lykurgos]

Reporting in after at *least* 60 Overcranked attempts.

Out of 60 . . . .

2 full wins, one heavy on snow, another heavy on shield / acorn.

Reaching Heart of the Storm about 1 time in 4-5 attempts, but often with a hopeless deck for winning the final battle.

I have *almost* pulled off wins with spice, poison and blue-stuff that explodes focused builds, almost but . . . failed on the final battle each time.

[Scrublord]

Just wondering how to handle weaker strats like Spice, Sacrifice, and Trash runs? I have beaten the final battle 6-7 times but none of those strats were used and I can't get anything to work, the spice one really annoys me cause even when I'm given the clunker with retaining spice it gets shot down by the final fight