The Oresan Safari: Enemies & Encounters Guide

Discover the wildlife which lurks beneath Oresa! Your trusty handbook to the Enemies, Elites, and Bosses you'll encounter during your journey. Includes enemy stats, possible intents, strategies, and more!

Introduction

The ruins of Oresa are a dangerous and unforgiving place. Few who delve into the city's perilous depths live to tell the tale, and fewer yet have had the foresight to share the details of their expedition with the Compilers.

Luckily, you've come prepared with a copy of BTrizzle's Oresan Safari, the City of the Gods' foremost authority on the mutants, machines, cultists, and other nefarious denizens that lurk... Beneath Oresa.

Guide Contents

Use the sidebar to navigate to the relevant sections of the guide. You are not expected to read this guide top-to-bottom. Continue reading the Introduction if you want to know what each section contains.

The Basics

An overview of the game mechanics relevant to Combat and Encounters. If you've played the game for a few hours it will mostly be familiar. Feel free to skip this section.

Foes Guide

This section contains general information about individual non-Boss enemies you can encounter, including their max HP, abilities, movesets, and extra information or trivia. It also includes a general strategy that tends to be effective against that enemy, regardless of other enemies that may appear alongside them during encounters. For enemies that only appear in a few encounters, you may be referred to the strategy in the Encounters Guide to avoid duplicated information.

The foes are organized by their faction; any given encounter will only contain enemies selected from a single faction. Within a faction, they are ordered by the Floor at which they can first appear.

Bosses are detailed only in the Encounters portion of the guide, since including them in both sections would be redundant.

Encounters Guide

This section details the many different Encounters, or groups of enemies, the game will throw at you. It includes all the possible Encounters on each Floor, including Regular Encounters, Elites, and Bosses. It also separates the Regular Encounters which are part of the "Easy Pool" — easier fights that are only encountered at the beginning of a Floor.

It includes information about which enemies appear in each Encounter, both as starting enemies and reinforcements (where applicable). I also describe a general strategy that I've found success with for each fight.

Appendix

You may be referred here for additional non-critical information on certain aspects of the game. Feel free to skip this section.

Recommended Usage

Unfortunately, Steam doesn't support hyperlinks within a guide for fast navigation. The sidebar has been organized to give you easy access to the most relevant information during your run.

You may want to use 2 tabs to have easy access to both the Encounters section (for the fight you are currently in) and the Foes section (for extra information on the enemies within that fight).

You can find the name of the enemies by hovering your mouse over them in-game! Then you can use Ctrl + F (or Mac equivalent) to find them within the guide.

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Disclaimer:
I'm not a perfect player! While I've had reasonable success on the highest difficulty, I'm sure my strategies are not perfect. Feel free to point out flaws or offer alternatives in the comments!


Guide by BTrizzle. I've had one of my guides stolen & reuploaded, so I've decided to scatter some "watermarks" throughout the guide out of spite. Perhaps you'll get some entertainment out of them :D

If This Guide Helped You

If you find this guide helpful, please consider rating and/or favoriting the guide! It would mean a lot to see appreciation for my hard work, and it will may help others too. If you're feeling particularly generous, a community award would make my day! It ain't much, but it's honest work.

You Can Help Too!

I've done my best to make sure all the information in this guide is complete and correct, but there's always a possibility that I've missed something or made a silly mistake! If you find an error including but not limited to:

• Missed enemies
  
• Missed encounters
  
• Missed abilities
  
• Missed intents
  
• Incorrect or missing values for HP, damage, buffs, etc.
  
• A bad strategy D:
  
• Typos
  
• Poor formatting
  
• Suggestions to improve clarity, readability, etc.

...please leave a comment (with as much relevant information as possible) and I'll do my best to rectify it! I want this guide to be the best it can be, and your help is very much appreciated.

─────── [The Basics] ───────

This section explains some basics of Beneath Oresa that are relevant to the rest of the guide, but are not specific to any enemies or encounters. If you've played the game for a few hours, you should be familiar with most of these concepts. Feel free to skip this section.

Zones, Movement Attacks, and Intents

Zones

The battlefield in Beneath Oresa has two Zones that combatants can occupy. The Zones are always described relative to the combatants: if they are in the same Zone, they are "Near" each other, while if they are in opposite Zones they are "Far" from each other.

Many aspects of the game depend on how characters are positioned on the battlefield:

• Some Attacks require you to be Near the target to play them.
  
• Enemies may sometimes move Far from the player when they attack.
  
• Foes may have buffs that apply only to allies that are Near them.
  
• ...and many more!

Note: The game includes battles in a wide variety of environments. However, the differences are purely cosmetic; every arena in the game functions identically.

Movement Attacks

Being able to adjust your position on the battlefield, as well as the position of your enemies, is a very important part of building a functional deck in Beneath Oresa. This is done through the use of Attack cards with certain keywords, which I collectively refer to as "Movement Attacks":

• Knockback (Tainted Ones & House Agiça de Ferady): This Attack moves its target to the other Zone.
  
• Evasion (Guild of the Ruinfarers): Move Far from the target before your attack.
  
• Point Blank (Guild of the Ruinfarers): If the target is Near, push it Far.

Note: Melee attacks (available to all factions) allow you to move to the same Zone as the target, but are not included in the "Movement Attack" category.

Intents

Every Turn, each enemy's Intent for that Turn will be revealed.

Basic Intent Types

• Melee: The enemy will move to the player's Zone when they attack.
  
  • Note for House Agiça de Ferady: only Melee attacks can be Countered.
• Ranged: The enemy will not move to the player's Zone to attack.
  
• Zone Attack: The enemy will not move when they attack, and will hit ALL other combatants in their Zone (including other enemies).

Buffs and Debuffs
Some enemies will occasionally provide a Buff to strengthen themselves and/or their allies, or a Debuff to weaken the player with a negative Status or effect.

Buffs and Debuffs can come in addition to an attack, or they may be the only thing a foe does for their Turn.

Intent Modifiers
Intents may have a modifier that describes special behavior the enemy will have. These modifiers may determine how an enemy will move on their turn, how damage is calculated for their attack, and more. Hover over the Intent icon in-game to get more information. Common intent modifiers include:

• Evasion (Ranged only): The enemy will move Far from the player before attacking.
  
• Aim (Ranged only): The enemy deals 50% more damage if it is Far from the player.
  
• Focus (Ranged only): The enemy deals 50% more damage if it has not been damaged this Turn.
  
• Imprecise (Ranged only): While Far, this foe hits their ally Near you instead of you.
  
  • It will still hit you if you are Far but have no enemies Near you.
• Hail (Ranged only): The enemy flees Far before attacking. Hits you and their allies Near you. Each of their allies Near you takes 5 damage intended for you.
  
• Protection: The foe will negate one Attack that targets it (including all effects of the card).
  
  • Only negates Attack cards; Antiqorums, damage-dealing Maneuvers, etc. still work normally.
• Blessing: The foe grants a positive effect to all Near allies.

There are many more Intent Modifiers specific to various enemies. They are detailed throughout the rest of the guide.

Reinforcements & Turn Order

Reinforcements

Some Encounters have additional enemies that enter the fray after their comrades are defeated. Each Encounter has a specific set of enemies that come as reinforcements, in a pre-determined order. You will know if an Encounter has reinforcements if the Reinforcement Icon (see right) is present above the End Turn button.

Whenever an enemy is defeated exactly one reinforcement will come to replace them at the beginning of the following turn. Therefore, if a battle starts with 3 enemies, there will always be 3 enemies on the battlefield at the start of each turn (until all reinforcements have been depleted).

Note:
If all enemies on the battlefield have been defeated but there are still reinforcements, your turn will automatically end! Make sure you've played all the cards you wanted to (e.g., Programs) before clearing the field of baddies!

It can often be a good idea to refrain from killing multiple enemies on the same turn to prevent multiple reinforcements from overwhelming you on the following turn.

Enemy Turn Order

Enemies for a given Encounter will always act in the same order.

• The order of the initial enemies (i.e., enemies who are not reinforcements) does not necessarily seem to follow a pattern between Encounters (needs more investigation).
  
• Enemies called as reinforcements will always act LAST, and act in the same order they are called into the fight (which is deterministic, even if multiple reinforcements come on the same turn).

Note:
Unfortunately, I did not keep close track of the order of initial enemies for every encounter while making this guide. Do not assume that order foes are listed in the Encounters guide is the same as the order they act in-game (unless specified)!

• I may work to improve this in the future.
  
• Reinforcements ARE listed in the correct order, and you can safely use this guide to predict when enemies that were called as reinforcements will act.

The Map

An example of a Floor 2 Map.

Map Locations

Regular Encounters: The most common and weakest type of Encounter. Defeating them rewards the player a choice between 3 Cards.

Elites: Less common and more dangerous Encounters. Defeating them rewards the player with a choice between 3 Antiqorums.

Bosses: Very dangerous Encounters that take place at the end of each Floor. Defeating them rewards the player with a mini-game to select 1 of 5 Antiqorums (which may be from an extra-powerful, Boss-only set).

Scavenges: Non-combat nodes that provide the player with a wide variety of miscellaneous effects, such as card removal, Antiqorums, or healing. Often gives a choice between a few options.

• Non-base Removal nodes are a specific type of Scavenge, which give you the option to remove some non-base cards.

Regroups: Non-combat nodes that give the player an opportunity to upgrade a Card, Heal 30% of their HP, or increase Companionship by one level.

Floors

Each of the 3 Floors you will explore contain a fixed set of map locations (nodes). The number of nodes of each type is the same for every run, but the order of the nodes is randomized each time. There are some limits on how the map can be laid out: the Boss is always the last node, Elites can't be the first combat on a Floor, etc.

Floor 1

• 3 Regroups
  
• 6 Scavenges (including 1 Non-Base removal)
  
• 4 Regular Encounters (2 Easy Pool)
  
• 1 choice of Regular Encounter vs Elite
  
• 1 forced Elite
  
• 1 Boss

Floor 2

• 3 Regroups
  
• 6 Scavenges (including 1 Non-Base removal)
  
• 3 Regular Encounters (1 Easy Pool)
  
• 1 choice of Regular Encounter vs Elite
  
• 1 forced Elite
  
• 1 Boss

Floor 3

• 3 Regroups
  
• 6 Scavenges (including 1 Non-Base removal)
  
• 3 Regular Encounters (NO Easy Pool)
  
• 1 choice of Regular Encounter vs Elite
  
• 1 forced Elite
  
• 1 Boss

The "Easy Pool" Encounters

On the first 2 Floors, your first fight or two will come from that Floor's "Easy Pool". These fights have significantly weaker enemies than usual, and provide an opportunity to improve your deck before taking on the rest of the Floor. Easy Pool Encounters are indistinguishable from Regular Encounters on the map.

• You will face two Easy Pool Encounters on Floor 1.
  
• You will face one Easy Pool Encounter on Floor 2.
  
• There are zero Easy Pools Encounters on Floor 3.

───────── [Foes] ─────────

This section describes individual foes that are encountered throughout the game, excluding Bosses. It includes max health, abilities, intents, and a brief general strategy for the enemy.

Note:
All values for damage and max health are the base values, and do not include modifiers, such as extra HP from Architect's Curse difficulties, Fury, or Intents that modify damage.

When playing on higher difficulties, keep in mind the relevant Architect's Curse modifiers:

• Enemy health is increased by 5 HP per Floor at Curse 4, and 5 additional HP per Floor at Curse 10.
  
• Foes in Regular Encounters start with 1 Fury on Curse 2.
  
• Foes in Elite Encounters start with 1 Fury per Floor on Curse 5.

Guide by TheTrizzler, available on Steam only.

Foes: The Burnt Ones (1/3)

The foes in this section are first encountered in the Floor 1 Easy Pool (first 2 combats). Many return in later fights.

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Vicious Bruiser (Vanilla)

Not to be confused with Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery).

Max Health: 16

Abilities

• None

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	4 to 5
Ranged - Evasion	4
Ranged	5

Strategy:
Total pushover. Can safely be left alone while you deal with scarier threats due to their low damage, or can be dealt with in about 2 attacks. On higher Curse difficulties, generally not worth targeting since the extra HP isn't worth fighting through while you're being attacked by heavier-hitting enemies.

Additional Notes:

• Has redder skin than Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery), and wields an axe rather than a club.
  
• The game labels both foes simply Vicious Bruiser.

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Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)

Not to be confused with Vicious Bruiser (Vanilla).

Max Health: 22

Abilities

• Final Mockery: When this foe is destroyed, a random foe gains 5 Fury.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	5 or 7
Ranged - Evasion	6
Ranged	5
Melee + Debuff	5	Shuffles a Stun into the draw pile.

Strategy:
A bit more threatening than the Vanilla variant, but similar in function. Should usually be dealt with last so that the Fury from Final Mockery can't be applied.

Additional Notes:

• Has bluer skin than Vicious Bruiser (Vanilla), and wields a club rather than an axe.
  
• The game labels both foes simply Vicious Bruiser.

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Raging Grunt

Max Health: 18

Abilities

• Strength in Numbers: Each round, this foe gains 3 Temporary Fury for each Near ally.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	6 or 8
Buff		Gains 3 Fury.

Strategy:
High priority target. Strength in Numbers and their Buff can quickly mean they deal high double-digit damage, which is far more than other early-game enemies. Their low HP means they can usually be eliminated in the first turn or two, which should be the goal.

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Crimson Claw

Max Health: 40

Abilities

• Spiteful Rending: Each time you attack this foe, they gain 3 Temporary Fury.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	4	Shuffles a Bleed into the draw pile.
Melee	3
Buff		Grants 1 Fury to self or ally.

Strategy:
Medium priority target. Ideally, go after her when she Buffs so she can't take advantage of the Temporary Fury. Her low initial damage means you can play pretty defensively until you get a good opening. You can sometimes hit her once while she's attacking and still full-block to get consistent damage in. Shouldn't be left alive for too long or the Bleeds will pile up; they become difficult to manage once you have more than 2 or 3.

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Stubborn Grunt (Gray)

Not to be confused with Stubborn Grunt (Red).

Max Health: 13

Abilities

• May randomly gain Protection for a turn.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	3 to 5

Strategy:
Another pushover. Can be left alone due to his low damage, or you can just kill him in a couple hits if given an opportunity to reduce incoming damage. Usually worth ignoring while he has Protection up so you don't waste an attack.

Additional Notes:

• Has grayer skin than Stubborn Grunt (Red), and wields a sword and flimsier shield. Does not wear a helmet.
  
• The game labels both foes simply Stubborn Grunt.

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Foes: The Burnt Ones (2/3)

The foes in this section are first encountered in Floor 1 after the Easy Pool (third fight and beyond). They can also reappear on later Floors.

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Stubborn Grunt (Red)

Not to be confused with Stubborn Grunt (Gray).

Max Health: 27

Abilities

• Sly Attacker: This foe gains 1 Fury every time you target a different foe.
  
• May randomly gain Protection for a turn.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	5 to 8	Never deals 7 damage (?)

Strategy:
Not too scary to begin with, but can't be left alone for too long or their Fury will become hard to manage. They usually take priority once the must-kill enemies are gone (e.g., Deft Shooter).

Additional Notes:

• Has redder skin than Stubborn Grunt (Gray), and wields a spear, sturdier shield, and horned helmet.
  
• The game labels both foes simply Stubborn Grunt.

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Noxious Doc

Max Health: 41

Abilities

• None.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	5	Shuffles 1 Spreading Infection into the draw pile.
Zone Attack	15	Only initiates if it starts Near the player.

Strategy:
While they don't do that much damage with their standard attack, the Spreading Infections mean these guys shouldn't be left around for long. They clog your draw pile and replicate exponentially unless you spend 1 Pulse each, which can cripple your deck if the fight goes too long.

The Zone Attack can be used to great effect against your foes, with Knockback or Point Blank attacks useful to clump the enemies together and maximize damage. Be wary of enemies' move order, as enemies can move out of the blast zone before the Noxious Doc acts (very relevant in the Horde boss fight).

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Scavenging Shooter

Not to be confused with Deft Shooter.

Max Health: 38

Abilities

• Fragile Accumulator: Until wounded, this foe has 5 Fury.
  
• Fast Hands - This foe always acts first.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Hail	12 or 15
Ranged - Evasion	2 x (5 dmg)

Strategy:
A very interesting foe that you can use to your advantage. Try to use Knockback or Point Blank attacks to set enemies for the Hail attack. If you can get it to hit two other baddies, it saves you 10 incoming damage and nets 10 free damage for you. If an enemy is at 5 HP or less, the Scavenging Shooter will finish them off and you'll also be facing one less attack!

It's important to deal at least a bit of damage to remove the Fury from Fragile Accumulator, even if you plan to keep her around for a while. This will significantly reduce her damage output, especially from the 2x5 attack.

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Deft Shooter

Not to be confused with Scavenging Shooter.

Max Health: 30

Abilities

• Tactical Position: Each time this foe changes zone, they gain 1 Fury

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Evasion	2 x (5 or 6 dmg)
Ranged - Evasion	5 x (1 dmg)
Ranged - Aim	4 x (2 dmg)
Ranged - Aim	8

Strategy:
High priority target. Their 5-hit multiattack combined with Fury gain can quickly overwhelm your early-game block if left alone. Also particularly scary on higher Curse difficulties since they get innate Fury. Not quite as bad if you're playing Guild of the Ruinfarers since your ranged attacks are less likely to make them move.

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Drugged Enforcer

Not to be confused with Nervous Enforcer or Fanaticized Enforcer.

Max Health: 55

Abilities

• Price of Courage: When this foe is destroyed, gain 15 Guard.
  
• May randomly gain Protection for a turn.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	7 to 11
Melee + Buff	7	Grant 1 Fury to all allies (including self).

Strategy:
Doesn't do enough damage to be a huge threat, but annoyingly tanky especially considering their ability to get Protection. It's good to chip them down when possible while they don't have Protection up; they can then be left alive until a turn where you need an influx of Guard. That said, it's sometimes the last enemy I kill simply because there's bigger threats and their bulk takes time to chew through.

See Floor 1 Elites for information specific to the triple Drugged Enforcer encounter.

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Foes: The Burnt Ones (3/3)

These foes first appear in Floors 2 and 3.

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Nervous Enforcer

Not to be confused with Drugged Enforcer or Fanaticized Enforcer.

Max Health: 115

Abilities

• Price of Prowess: When this foe is destroyed, gain 2 Fury.
  
• Kadlagni's Chosen: Gain 3 Fury each round. Each time this foe is wounded, they lose 2 Fury. (Includes the first round.)
  
• May randomly gain Protection for a turn.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	10	Shuffles a Stun into the draw pile.
Melee	11 to 15

Strategy:
Not too scary if you can keep their Fury under control, so try to throw a cheap attack at them occasionally while focusing on the more threatening enemies. Area of Effect attacks are particularly good, as are Antiqorums that deal damage at the start of each round. I don't usually bother trying to rush them down to get the 2 Fury reward while there's a more dangerous enemy around.

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Fanaticized Enforcer

Not to be confused with Drugged Enforcer or Nervous Enforcer.

Max Health: 135

Abilities

• Price of Valour: When this foe is destroyed, gain 1 Pulse and 1 Card.
  
• Galvanizing Presence: Each round, gains 1 Fury. Each ally heals 10 HP, gains 10 max HP, and 2 Fury. (Includes the first round.)
  
• May randomly gain Protection for a turn.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	7, 9, or 18
Buff		Random Ally gains 1 Fury and 10 HP. (Can't affect itself.)

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Regular Encounters or Floor 3 Regular Encounters.

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Vengeful Mutax

Max Health: 145

Abilities

• Vengeance: This foe gains 3 Fury each time an ally is destroyed.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	28
Melee	2 x (10 dmg)
Buff		Self or Ally gains 3 Fury.

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Elites or Floor 3 Regular Encounters.

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Guardian of the Fluid

Max Health: 350

Abilities

• Risky Brew: Loses 8 Fury after each of their attacks.
  
• Vindictive: Gains 4 Fury each time they are attacked.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	30
Ranged	40
Ranged	50
Zone Attack	55
Buff		Calls an Ally as reinforcement.

Strategy:
See Floor 3 Elites.

Additional Notes:

• Noxious Doc, Crimson Claw, and Stubborn Grunt (Red) are possible allies that can be called as reinforcements.
  
  • List may be incomplete; needs further testing.

He burns things like I'll burn people who steal my Steam Guide.

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Foes: The Psychomorphs (1/2)

The foes in this section are first encountered in Floor 1 after the Easy Pool (third fight and beyond). They can also reappear on later Floors.

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Psy-Linked Gunner

Not to be confused with Psy-Linked Shredder.
A weaker version appears alongside the Elevated Form boss.

Max Health: 55

Abilities

• Psylink Relay: When this foe is destroyed, all foes take 25 damage.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Evasion	7
Ranged - Aim	7

Strategy:
Not very threatening, but often worth killing first to deal a respectable 25 damage to all enemies, especially if you can't get an early kill on the more dangerous foes (e.g., Custodians). This becomes a somewhat less attractive strategy on higher Curse difficulties, as their higher HP will mean you're spending more resources to get the same 25 damage, delaying when you can eliminate the important targets; it can be better to simply ignore the Psy-Linked Gunners.

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Harmonized Sentry

Not to be confused with Healer Sentry.

Max Health: 75

Abilities

• Nano-Harmonization: This foe gains 8 Reconstruction when a foe is destroyed.
  
  • Reconstruction: At the end of the round, heals this amount of HP and reduces Reconstruction by 1.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	8 or 10
Ranged - Focus	2 x (5 dmg)	Deals 50% more damage if no damaged received this round.
Buff		Self or Ally gains 3 Fury and 5 HP.

Strategy:
Not too dangerous individually, so I usually target other foes first. This does mean they get the Reconstruction buff, but I don't usually find it a big problem. If they've gained some fury, it can be important to hit them when they use their Focus attack to reduce incoming damage.

In fights with multiple, try to focus on one at a time, and prioritize the ones with the lowest Reconstruction first (i.e., kill the reinforcements early). This lets you kill them faster, and minimize the number of turns you're getting attacked. Once there's only one or two left, you should be able to quickly burst them down even though the Reconstruction. Exceptions can be made if one has accumulated a lot more Fury than others.

Additional Notes:

• Can be visually differentiated from the Healer Sentry by their tentacles; the Harmonized Sentry has them together in a bundle, while the Healer Sentry has them separated.

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Healer Sentry

Not to be confused with Harmonized Sentry.

Max Health: 100

Abilities

• Nano-Release: When this foe is destroyed, all foes heal 25 HP.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	7	Shuffles a Stun into the draw pile.
Melee	20
Ranged - Focus	16

Strategy:
Surprisingly heavy-hitting and tanky. Usually a pretty high priority, unless they're alongside an enemy who's much easier to kill (e.g., a Psy-Linked Gunner). Killing them late means their heal-on-death ability won't do anything, which is something to keep in mind.

Additional Notes:

• Can be visually differentiated from the Harmonized Sentry by their tentacles; the Healer Sentry has them separated, while the Harmonized Sentry has them together in a bundle.

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Psy-Preacher

Not to be confused with Psy-Machinist or Psy-Nanosmith.

Max Health: 135

Abilities

• Major Psylink Relay: When this foe is destroyed, all other foes take 65 damage.
  
• Psy Preaching: Each round, a random foe heals 10 HP.
  
• Explosive Psy-Brain: When this foe is destroyed, all Near combatants take 15 damage. (Damage dealt to you is non-lethal)
  
• On turns where they buff, gain Psy-Shield: Adds 1 Neural Assault to your draw pile if attacked.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	12
Ranged - Evasion	13
Buff		Gains 2 Fury. Also gains Psy-Shield during this turn.

Strategy:
See Floor 1 Elites.

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Custodian

Not to be confused with Upgraded Custodian or Defective Custodian IM2.

Max Health: 90

Abilities

• Fast Hands: This foe always acts first.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Evasion	3 x (6 dmg)	If you're reading this outside of Steam, there's a thief on the loose...
Ranged - Imprecise	20
Melee	18
Buff		Gains 2 Fury. Also gains Protection during this turn.

Strategy:
Outputs relatively high, consistent damage. The multi-attack can get scary with the Fury buff, so it shouldn't be left alone for too long.

The Imprecise attack can usually be used to hit an enemy, which both saves you 20 damage and deals 20 to one of your foes. The enemies often set it up themselves, but if not it's definitely worth using your own Knockback (or Ruinfarer equivalent) attacks. Take care not to break the setup by absent-mindedly playing a Knockback card at the wrong time.

While playing House Agiça de Ferady, keep in mind the Custodian's only Counterable attack comes on Turn 3. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to play Zeal cards, and cards that gain or lose Charge. If you miss the Turn 3 opportunity, the next opening is on Turn 7.

Additional Notes:

• Can be differentiated from the Upgraded Custodian and Defective Custodian IM2 by its seemingly less worn, bluer appearance. This variant's torso is also completely exposed, while others have armor plating protecting the pilot.

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Foes: The Psychomorphs (2/2)

These foes first appear on Floors 2 and 3.

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Psy-Linked Shredder

Not to be confused with Psy-Linked Gunner.

Max Health: 55

Abilities

• Minor Psylink Relay: When this foe is destroyed, each Near foe takes 10 damage.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	3 x (5 dmg)	Shuffles a Psy-Energy into the draw pile.

Strategy:
High priority target. They deal high and consistent damage, especially on higher Architect's Curse levels due to innate Fury. They don't have a ton of HP so it's not too difficult. The 10 damage to Near foes upon death can be OK, but don't go out of your way to set it up if it'll cost you HP.

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Psy-Machinist

Not to be confused with Psy-Preacher or Psy-Nanosmith.

Max Health: 83

Abilities

• Psy-Machinist: Each round, a random foe heals 15 HP.
  
• Explosive Psy-Brain: When this foe is destroyed, all Near combatants take 15 damage. (Damage dealt to you is non-lethal.)

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	10	On this turn, gains Psy-Shield: Adds 1 Neural Assault to your draw pile if attacked.
Ranged - Evasion	11
Buff		Near Allies (including itself) gain 1 Fury and 15 HP. Seems to require at least 1 Ally to be use this intent (Near or Far doesn't matter).

Strategy:
Their 10-ish damage attacks are not particularly dangerous by the time you'll fight these guys, so they'll mostly act as annoying healbots. I generally try to kill Gunners or Custodians before them, but Sentries after. Knockback and Point Blank attacks are good to break up their Area of Effect heal.

---

Upgraded Custodian

Not to be confused with Custodian or Defective Custodian IM2.

Max Health: 175

Abilities

• None.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Evasion	25
Ranged - Aim	25
Melee + Debuff	35	Shuffles an Energy Leak into the draw pile. Also gains Protection during this turn.
Melee - Charge	30	Deals double damage if charging from the other zone.

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Regular Encounters.

Additional Notes:

• Can be differentiated from the regular Custodian and Defective Custodian IM2 by its rusted brown color. This variant's pilot is protected by armor plating, unlike the regular variant.

---

Psy-Nanosmith

Not to be confused with Psy-Preacher or Psy-Machinist.

Max Health: 100

Abilities

• Psy-Nanosmith: Each round, all allies heal 10 HP.
  (Does not heal itself.)
  
• Explosive Psy-Brain: When this foe is destroyed, all Near combatants take 15 damage. (Damage dealt to you is non-lethal.)

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	15	On this turn, gains Psy-Shield: Adds 1 Neural Assault to your draw pile if attacked.
Ranged - Evasion	30
Buff		All Allies gain 3 Fury and 15 HP. Buff hits ALL Allies, not just Near Allies (despite Blessing tooltip).

Strategy:
Very dangerous, and should usually be finished off first whenever they appear. Their buff is very significant, and they can also hit harder than most enemies they appear alongside (30 damage is no joke!).

---

Foes: The Cult of the Ladder (1/2)

These foes first appear on Floor 1.

---

Anointed Urn

Max Health: 25

Abilities

• Cursed Contents: When this foe is destroyed, add 1 Curse to discard pile

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	6
Melee + Buff	4	Heals Self for 4 HP.
Ranged - Evasion	5

Strategy:
Very easy. Still, it's nice to kill them early to avoid the consistent ~5 damage per turn; it doesn't take much, given their low HP. The curse isn't a very big deal since you only get one per enemy, and they go to your discard pile so it'll take a while to see them (the fight may even be over by then). Their occasional 4 HP heal barely makes any difference.

Additional Notes:

• See Appendix: Curses for more information about which Curses can be added.

---

Tainted Obelisk

Max Health: 45

Abilities

• Attack Anathema: The first time each round you play an Attack Near this foe, add 1 Curse to your draw pile.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	10
Ranged - Evasion	10

Strategy:
Much more annoying than their Anointed Urn cousins. Not too bad in terms of raw damage, but their ability to add Curses when you attack them or their Near Allies make them a chore. The Curses go to the draw pile, which has a bigger impact on your tempo than the discard pile. Try to avoid activating their ability until you can kill them in 1 or 2 turns to minimize the Curses you receive.

Bonus tip: an attack that kills the Obelisk or Knockback attacks that send them to the other zone don't trigger the ability, so use that to your advantage when possible.

Additional Notes:

• See Appendix: Curses for more information about which Curses can be added.

---

Foes: The Cult of the Ladder (2/2)

These foes first appear on Floors 2 and 3.

---

Anathemis Discipuli

Max Health: 230

Abilities

• Manoeuvre Anathema: The first time you play a non-Curse Manoeuvre Near this foe, add 1 Curse to draw pile.
  
• Spawns with one of the four Orbits. See Appendix: Orbits for more information.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	22 or 27
Ranged	3 x (10 dmg)
Debuff		Applies 3 Weak and shuffles a Curse into the draw pile.

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Regular Encounters or Floor 3 Regular Encounters.

Additional Notes:

• See Appendix: Curses for more information about which Curses can be added.

---

Artisan of the Impossible Design

Max Health: 290

Abilities

• Unstable Floating Soerk: After you attack this foe, they buff themselves (5, 5, 10, or 15 Temporary Fury). If they exceed 40, they lose it all and take 10 non-lethal damage.
  
• Heavy Vulnerability: Draw 1 Card after you attack this foe with a Heavy Attack.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Buff	30	Heals 15 HP.
Melee + Buff	35	Applies 3 Weak to the player. Bug: The intent shows a Buff, when it should be a Debuff.
Ranged	2 x (15 dmg)
Buff		Gains 5 Fury.

Strategy:
See Floor 3 Regular Encounters.

Additional Notes:

• The Artisan's two melee attacks appear very similar when looking at the intent (one gives you 3 Weak, the other heals the Artisan for 15); you can figure out which one the Artisan is doing based on the damage. Remember to factor in Fury and Weak.

---

Devotee

Max Health: 550

Abilities

• Ether Intolerance: Each time a Curse is Erased, this foe takes 50 non-lethal damage.
  
• Deadweight: When combat begins, add 5 Curse to your deck.
  (Curses go to the discard pile.)
  
• Spawns with one of the four Orbits. See Appendix: Orbits for more information.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	44 to 45
Melee + Debuff	45	Shuffles a Curse into the draw pile.
Ranged - Evasion	3 x (16 dmg)
Buff - Blessing		Gains 2 Fury and 20 HP. Devotee never appears alongside other foes, so the fact that it's a Blessing is irrelevant.

Strategy:
See Floor 3 Regular Encounters.

Additional Notes:

• See Appendix: Curses for more information about which Curses can be added.

---

Carrier of the Carved Stone

Max Health: 400

Abilities

• Power of the Carved Stone: Each round, gain 3 random resources selected from Card and Pulse.
  
• Spawns with one of the four Orbits. See Appendix: Orbits for more information.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	52
Melee	40
Ranged	65
Ranged - Aim	55
Buff		Heals 25 HP.

Strategy:
See Floor 3 Elites.

---

Foes: Guardians of the Temples

---

Keeper of the Temples

Max Health: 45

Abilities

• Enraged: The first time this foe is wounded, they take 8 non-lethal damage and gain 3 Fury.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	5
Ranged - Evasion	6

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Elites or Floor 3 Normal Encounters.

---

Arcane Leech

Max Health: 200

Abilities

• Leech of the Subtle Body: This foe adds 1 Vital Point Corruption to your hand each round. If hand contains 5, they are Erased and the Arcane Leech feasts on your vital force.
  
  • Gains 10 Fury and restores 100 HP.
    
  • Once this ability is activated, ALL Vital Point Corruptions in the deck are Erased (even if they were in the draw or discard pile). No more Vital Point Corruptions will be created for the rest of the encounter.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	28
Melee	2 x (10 dmg)
Ranged - Evasion	30
Debuff		Doesn't seem to do anything? Possibly bugged?

Strategy:
See Floor 2 Elites.

Btrizzle says: hottest enemy in the game?

---

They Who Forbid

Max Health: 225

Abilities

• Forbidding Words: Each round, 1 non-Fleeting, non-Fading card in hand gain Limited.
  
• Original Principle: At the start of combat, add 1 Break Chains to hand.
  
• Vengeance: This foe gains 3 Fury each time an ally is destroyed.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	40 or 45
Ranged	55
Ranged - Evasion	30

Strategy:
See Floor 3 Normal Encounters.

---

───────── [Floor 1] ─────────

Hey it's me, BTrizzle (the author), plz no reposting :(

[1F] Regular Encounters (Easy Pool)

The first two fights of Floor 1 come from the Easy Pool, with much easier foes than later in the Floor. You will always face the same two combats in every run, but the order is random.

Easy Pool - 1A

Combatants:

• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)
  
• Vicious Bruiser (Vanilla)
  
• Raging Grunt

Strategy:
Simple fight. Kill the Raging Grunt first, then the Vanilla Bruiser, and save the Final Mockery Bruiser for last. The fight is easy enough that you should usually come out of it with minimal HP loss, even on higher Architect's Curse difficulties. Once the Raging Grunt is gone, focus on blocking even if it means the fight takes a few extra turns.

Easy Pool - 1B

Combatants:

• Crimson Claw
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Gray)
  
• Raging Grunt

Strategy:
A bit trickier than the other Easy Pool fight, but not too bad. Go for the Raging Grunt first, then attack whichever enemy is convenient at the time; Crimson Claw when she's not attacking (or when you can block her powered-up attack) and Stubborn Grunt when he doesn't have Protection. Again, you should be able to get out of this fight relatively unscathed, so blocking a few damage points is usually better than playing an extra attack.

---

[1F] Regular Encounters

After the Easy Pool, the remaining combats throughout Floor 1 come from this pool of encounters. The encounters have been ordered by faction for organization purposes, but they can be encountered in any order during a run.

[The Burned Ones]

Burned Ones - 1A

Combatants:

• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Deft Shooter

Strategy:
Kill order should usually be Deft Shooter, Stubborn Grunt, Vicious Bruiser. Ideally Deft Shooter dies on the first or second Turn to avoid much Fury gain; it can be worth taking a bit of damage to get this done rather than focusing on just block. Once she's down, you can take a breather and put more Pulse into blocking, and put damage on the Stubborn Grunt when convenient. It's an easy cleanup once only Vicious Bruiser is left.

Burned Ones - 1B

Combatants:

• Noxious Doc
  
• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)
  
• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)

Strategy:
Focus on the Noxious Doc first to avoid getting too many Spreading Infections, and to minimize the Final Mockery buffs. You can use the Doc's Area of Effect (AoE) attack for some extra damage against the Bruisers if you can set it up. If the Doc's AoE attack kills a Bruiser first, that's definitely fine too; just remember that the other Bruiser might get the buff and attack for a bit more than you expect.

Burned Ones - 1C

Combatants:

• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Drugged Enforcer
  
• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)

Strategy:
Stubborn Grunt should usually die first, to prevent him from scaling. After that, the order can go either way. The Drugged Enforcer is harder to kill quickly but gives 15 Guard on death and has a higher damage output. The Bruiser is easier to kill, but doesn't reduce incoming damage by much;
he would stop attacking for 6-7, but the Enforcer's damage increases by 5.

You can also be a bit cheeky and try to kill the Bruiser right before the Stubborn Grunt; there's a chance the buff will go to the soon-to-be-deceased Grunt, effectively cancelling it out.

Burned Ones - 1D

Combatants:

• Noxious Doc
  
• Raging Grunt
  
• Deft Shooter

Strategy:
Raging Grunt should be dealt with first, as usual. The Deft Shooter is usually the next target, to keep her damage from scaling too hard. Remember to use the Noxious Doc's AoE for extra damage when possible, and try finish the fight quickly so that the Spreading Infections don't cause issues.

---

[The Psychomorphs]

Psychomorphs - 1A

Combatants:

• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Healer Sentry

Strategy:
Kill the Gunner first to get that sweet, sweet 25 damage (and reduce incoming damage, of course). The Healer Sentry isn't super threatening, but you might have some trouble blocking the 20-damage attack. Not much you can do about it, though.

Psychomorphs - 1B

Combatants:

• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Strategy:
Pretty much the same as above; kill the gunner first. The Sentry gets a bit of Reconstruction, but it's not a big deal (the 25 damage from the Gunner should make up for it anyway). Even if the Gunner isn't dead yet, it's smart to hit the Harmonized Sentry once when they're using their Focus attack to prevent a bit of damage.

Psychomorphs - 1C

Combatants:

• Custodian

Strategy:
Ugh. This guy has three threatening attacks in a row, which your deck might have trouble handling. Not much strategy here other than the standard "block what you can, then attack with what's left". Very annoying that there isn't another chump to eat the Imprecise attack, but alas...

For House Agiça de Ferady, keep in mind the Custodian's only Counterable attack comes on Turn 3. If you miss the Turn 3 opportunity, the next opening is on Turn 7, so think carefully about playing Zeal cards or cards that affect your Charge.

---

[The Cult of the Ladder]

Cult of the Ladder - 1A

Combatants:

• Anointed Urn
  
• Anointed Urn
  
• Anointed Urn

Strategy:
Easy fight. You shouldn't have much trouble blocking their attacks, and they're all pretty quick to take down. The curses are a slight annoyance, but not impactful enough to worry about.

Cult of the Ladder - 1B

Combatants:

• Tainted Obelisk
  
• Anointed Urn
  
• Anointed Urn

Strategy:
I typically go for the Tainted Obelisk first to minimize the Curses from its Attack Anathema ability. You'll probably still get one or two Curses, but at least it'll stop activating while you're working on the Urns. Leaving the Urns for last also means you probably won't have to draw the Curses they give upon death.

---

[1F] Elites

Triple Drugged Enforcers

Combatants:

• Drugged Enforcer
  
• Drugged Enforcer
  
• Drugged Enforcer

Strategy:
The name of the game is to kill one Enforcer ASAP to drastically reduce the damage you'll be facing. If possible, start with an Enforcer that doesn't have Protection. Even if they have Protection on the following turn, don't switch targets unless you can get another enemy to lower HP on that turn (or if you're only playing one Attack that'd get eaten by Protection). Otherwise, you should fight through the Protection; you don't want to be spreading your damage between the enemies.

The beginning of the fight demands aggression, so be selective with which block cards you play. Rule of thumb would be to play non-Base defensive cards, but skip basic Defends unless you have leftover Pulse.

• There's room for a lot of nuance here! If you can get an enemy to low HP but can't kill them this turn, check your draw pile to see how easily you can kill them next turn. If you have enough Attacks in the draw pile, you can choose to play a defensive card over an Attack now under the assumption that you will kill next turn, saving some HP!

Once one Enforcer is down, the fight becomes much more relaxed. Continue to focus on whichever Enforcer has the lowest HP, but you can start to put more effort into blocking.

Remember to use the 15 Guard you receive upon killing an Enforcer to your advantage! This makes the turn you kill one relatively safe, without having to spend Pulse on Maneuvers.

Additional Notes:

• The Enforcers' Protection buffs are independent. 0, 1, 2, or all 3 Enforcers can have Protection on a turn.
  
• Individual Enforcers don't seem to follow a strict pattern with their Protection. They can go multiple turns in a row with their shield up or down, or can alternate turns.

---

Psy-Preacher & Gunners

Combatants:

• Psy-Preacher
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner

Strategy:
Focus down one Gunner at a time and leave the Psy-Preacher for last. You don't have to be too aggressive here, since the incoming damage in this fight isn't too high and the foes' scaling is slow (only Psy-Preacher occasionally gains Fury). Once the first Gunner is down, the 25 free damage should make the second one easy to finish off.

On characters with easy access to melee Attacks, it's good to keep the Gunners Near each other so that you can prevent both Gunners' Precision bonus at the same time. You can use Knockback/Point Blank Attacks to help set this up. This is less important on Flynn/Zakaan since they tend to have trouble moving around in the first place.

When the Psy-Preacher is alone, continue to play defensively and gradually chip her down. If she has the Psy-Shield up, it's still usually worth it to attack her if you have 2+ Attacks (or 1 particularly strong Attack). The Neural Assaults don't have much short-term impact (think of each as -1 draw and -1 Pulse each time it's drawn; skipping 2 Attacks is equivalent to wasting 2 draw and ~2 Pulse), and the fight should be over before they become a major issue.

Remember that the Psy-Preacher does 15 damage upon death if you're Near her! Kill her with a Knockback attack or remember to play some block cards beforehand to prevent unnecessary HP loss.

---

The Goon Squad

Combatants:

• Scavenging Shooter
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)

Reinforcements:

• Drugged Enforcer
  
• Deft Shooter

Strategy:
Since this fight has reinforcements, it's less important to speedrun killing enemies as they'll just be replaced the following turn. Ideally, you'll kill one enemy per turn so you aren't overwhelmed by multiple fresh reinforcements. Use the Scavenging Shooter's Hail attacks against the other enemies to reduce the damage you're taking and wear down the enemies.

Attack the Scavenging Shooter at least once on Turn 1 to get rid of its Fury. Then, get one of the Stubborn Grunts to low HP, but try not to kill it outright. While it's still safe to do so, damage the other two enemies, prioritizing the other Stubborn Grunt. If there's a turn you'll take significant damage, then it's time to finish off the low HP Stubborn Grunt (this may be on Turn 1, and that's fine).

The Drugged Enforcer that comes as reinforcements is tanky and doesn't have super high damage output, so it's not worth prioritizing. Continue to spread damage around while you aren't in too much danger. The next enemy you should finish off is the second Stubborn Grunt, so it's Fury doesn't get out of control.

The final reinforcement is a Deft Shooter, which can be very dangerous if left unchecked. Since there's no more enemies coming, it's time to focus down the highest damage output enemy, which is the newly-arrived Deft Shooter. The Scavenging Shooter is also probably low by now, so she can be finished off when convenient. From there, you should have an easy time mopping up the Drugged Enforcer.

In summary, the overall kill order of the fight will typically be:

1. Stubborn Grunt
   
2. Stubborn Grunt
   
3. Deft Shooter
   
4. Scavenging Shooter
   
5. Drugged Enforcer

There's definitely some wiggle room in the ordering, so if you have a good opening to eliminate a foe, don't hesitate!

---

[1F] Boss: The Horde

Combatants:

• Preacher of the Altar (see below)
  
• Deft Shooter
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)

Reinforcements:

• Noxious Doc
  
• Raging Grunt
  
• Crimson Claw
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery)
  
• Drugged Enforcer
  
• Deft Shooter

Preacher of the Altar

Max Health: 140

Abilities

• Banner of the Altar: Each round, each Near foe gains 5 Temporary Fury and all other foes gain 3.
  
• Disorderly Assault: When a foe is destroyed, gain 1 Pulse and 1 Card.
  
• Galvanize: Whips a Near ally to strengthen them.
  
  • (Both Preacher of the Altar and the target gain 5 Fury.)
    
  • Does not need a Near Ally to initiate this intent.
    
  • Also deals 2 non-lethal damage to the target.
    
  • If no ally is nearby to be whipped, nobody gains Fury.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	10
Melee + Buff	7	Gains 1 Fury.
Buff (Galvanize)		Galvanize: See Abilities above.

Strategy:

Complex fight with a lot of moving parts. The general strategy should be to take out the handful of highly dangerous enemies ASAP, and otherwise chip away at the less critical foes (including the Preacher). If the Preacher is going to Galvanize an enemy, your main goal should be preventing it from activating, either with a Knockback attack or by killing the foe(s) Near the Preacher. It gives 5 permanent Fury to both the enemy it targets and the Preacher, which will haunt you for the rest of the fight.

The reinforcements don't get the Temporary Fury on the Turn they arrive, so if you can chain together consecutive kills the fight becomes quite manageable. Thanks to the Disorderly Assault ability, you can spend all your Pulse on killing an enemy, then use the extra Pulse to play a defensive card or deal even more damage. Keep in mind that you lose this benefit if you kill the Preacher.

Generally, the Preacher will outlive most or all of the other enemies. Turns out he's a total chump when he doesn't have nine roided-out goons to back him up.

Enemy Priorities
Priority #1 is the Deft Shooter. Because of the Temporary Fury from the Preacher, her multi-attack can shoot you for 30+ damage on turn 1. Ridiculous. Plus she gets extra Fury gain from her normal ability. Noxious Doc will reinforce once she's gone.

Next on the chopping block is Stubborn Grunt so his Fury doesn't get too high. You can use the Noxious Doc's Area of Effect attack to deal some extra damage to you foes while you're working on the Stubborn Grunt (but keep in mind that Preacher moves first, so it might move out of the way). Stubborn Grunt will be replaced by a Raging Grunt.

Raging Grunt and Noxious Doc are about even in terms of priority; Grunt does more damage but Doc shuffles very annoying Spreading Infections into your deck. Finish them off in any order, but make sure to keep the Spreading Infections in check — it's often worth the extra Pulse to Erase them. Crimson Claw and a second Stubborn Grunt (Red) will come as reinforcements.

Again, Crimson Claw and Stubborn Grunt are similar priorities. Attack the Claw when it won't benefit from the Temporary Fury it gets, and finish them off in any order. They'll be replaced by a Vicious Bruiser and a Drugged Enforcer.

Drugged Enforcer is usually the better target since your foes get buffed when the Vicious Bruiser dies, but neither of these are too threatening. This is also about when you might have racked up enough damage to kill the Preacher, which would also be a fine target.

Whichever one dies, another Deft Shooter will come and should be focused down. She's the last reinforcement, so once she's gone it'll be an easy cleanup job on whoever is left.

[1F] Boss: The Twin Heralds

Combatants:

• Ire Absorber (see below)
  
• Deft Shooter
  
• Deft Shooter

Ire Absorber

Max Health: 350

Abilities

• Shaman Twin: If this foe is Near you before they attack, the shaman twin drain your combativeness to gain 5 Fury.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	12 or 16	Shaman Twin: See Abilities above.
Quarrel		Does nothing.

Strategy:

Definitely the most straightforward of the bunch. You will definitely kill the Deft Shooters first, but you don't necessarily have to rush finish them off. They can be useful as "anchor points" that allow you to move away from the Ire Absorber with a melee Attack to prevent it from gaining Fury. Still, if they're going to hit you for a lot of damage it's time to get rid of them. This will probably happen within about 2 to 5 Turns.

Once the Deft Shooters are gone, there's only the Ire Absorber left to deal with. Knockback, Evasion, and Point Blank attacks are critical here, since they'll prevent the Boss from gaining Fury; hopefully you have at least 2 or 3. You can be as aggressive as your life total will allow, since you'll heal to full after this combat. It's better to keep the fight short by taking a few hits early than let The Twins gain a bunch of Fury in a drawn-out slog. There's not many hard decisions to make — just remember to play your movement cards last!

BTrizzle says: tag yourself in the comments!

[1F] Boss: The Council

Combatants:

• Envoy of the Key
  
• Envoy of the Seed
  
• Envoy of the Chain

Envoy of the Key

Max Health: 135

Abilities

• Cursed Key: Add 1 Forbidden Name to draw pile each time this foe attacks.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	6	Cursed Key: See Abilities above.
Ranged - Evasion + Debuff	9	Cursed Key: See Abilities above.
Ranged - Aim + Debuff	10	Cursed Key: See Abilities above.
Ranged - Focus + Debuff	10	Cursed Key: See Abilities above.

Additional Notes:

• Has orangey-yellow coloration roughly between the other two Envoys.

Envoy of the Seed

Max Health: 115

Abilities

• Seeds of Abeyance: Each time a card is Erased, this foe heals 2.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	10
Ranged - Evasion	6
Ranged - Aim	10
Ranged - Hail	14

Additional Notes:

• Has a darker red or brown coloration compared to the other Envoys.

Envoy of the Chain

Max Health: 150

Abilities

• Unchained Power: When this foe is destroyed, gain 3 Pulse and Cards. Then, add 3 Forbidden Names to discard pile.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	5
Ranged - Aim	10
Ranged - Focus	16
Buff		Gains 1 Fury and heals 5 HP.

Additional Notes:

• Has the yellowest coloration of the Envoys, perhaps bordering on green.

Strategy:

Not a very complicated fight. The enemies barely scale at all, so as long as you have half-decent block you shouldn't have much trouble; feel free to play defensively. Each Envoy you take down makes the fight much easier, so focus on one at a time.

Use Knockback/Point Blank cards to move enemies into the Envoy of the Seed's Hail attack. It's usually good to use a cheap attack to prevent the extra damage from a Focus attack or move towards an Aiming enemy, even if that enemy isn't who you're currently focusing on.

I usually kill them in this order:

1. Envoy of the Key: Medium damage output, but shuffling Forbidden Names into your deck every turn is annoying. The others Envoys will heal some of the HP they've lost, effectively giving them more than their starting HP and (arguably) making Envoy of the Key the easiest to kill.
   
   
2. Envoy of the Chain: Has the biggest attack of all the Envoys and can gain Fury, albeit slowly. The bonus you get from killing it is really good, which would be wasted if it's the last enemy.
   
   
3. Envoy of the Seed: Doesn't have any particularly heavy-hitting attacks, and the Hail attack can help you out a bit while the other Envoys are still alive. It'll also heal consistently if Envoy of the Key is putting a bunch of Curses in your deck, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to kill it early (despite it's lower HP on paper). It also heals from your own fading cards, which means it would tend to recover more HP early in the fight rather than later when they've been Erased.

Other experienced players suggest a kill order of Envoy of the Chain -> Envoy of the Key -> Envoy of the Seed. This allows you to take better advantage of Envoy of the Chain's excellent death bonus when there are two enemies alive and the help is more needed.

Forbidden Names:

Da'Marh: Usually worth playing if you can block the extra damage, or if you aren't full-blocking and it gives a chance to draw a Guard card. 2 damage isn't much to worry about.

Id'Jah: Worth playing if your hand is really bad (e.g., mostly basics or multiple Forbidden Names), but usually not worth spending the Pulse. Spending two Pulse on two mediocre cards is usually better than spending two Pulse to play one good card.

La'Am: Worth playing if you are alone in your Zone or are about to kill the enemy that receives the Fury, not worthwhile otherwise.

Ton'Geret: Worth playing if you don't care really care about the cards you have in hand. The Erase can even be beneficial if you have a bunch of basics!

───────── [Floor 2] ─────────

Guide by BTrizzle, available on Steam only.

[2F] Regular Encounters (Easy Pool)

On Floor 2, your first encounter will be one of the following three options. You will only get one Easy Pool encounter on Floor 2, compared to two on Floor 1.

The Floor 2 Easy fights are all similar, with one Custodian, one Sentry (Healer or Harmonized), and one Psy-Linked enemy (Gunner or Shredder), which may be a reinforcement.

While playing House Agiça de Ferady, keep in mind the Custodian's only Counterable attack comes on Turn 3. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to play Zeal cards, and cards that gain or lose Charge. If you miss the Turn 3 opportunity, the next opening is on Turn 7.

Easy Pool - 2A

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner

Strategy:
Kill the Psy-Linked Gunner first to get the 25 damage. Then, I usually target the Custodian next since it outputs the most damage. The Harmonized Sentry isn't particularly dangerous, and the fight shouldn't last long enough for its Fury scaling to become a major threat. Use the Custodian's Imprecise attacks against the other enemies to get some free damage. If the Sentry is using its Focus attack, it's good to hit it once to prevent a bit of extra damage.

Easy Pool - 2B

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Reinforcements:

• Psy-Linked Shredder

Strategy:
I usually go for the Custodian first due to its high damage. You can probably sneak in one of the Custodian's Imprecise attacks on the Sentry to get a bit of free damage. Once the Custodian is gone, a Psy-Linked Shredder will take its place. It will generally be a bigger threat than the Sentry, so start targeting him unless the Sentry is already low on HP.

Alternatively, killing the Harmonized Sentry first lets you use the Custodian's Imprecise attack against the Shredder, but it will be harder to block on most turns.

Easy Pool - 2C

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Healer Sentry

Reinforcements:

• Psy-Linked Gunner

Strategy:
The Healer Sentry seems like the best target to start with. The enemies' patterns line up to allow the Custodian's Imprecise attack to hit the Sentry without any setup, which makes the Custodian's damage output lower than the Sentry's. It also makes the Sentry quite a bit quicker to kill, which is great. Once the Gunner comes you should kill him next, since he's squishy and deals 25 to the other foe upon death.

---

[2F] Regular Encounters

After the first fight, the remaining combats throughout Floor 2 come from this pool of encounters. The encounters have been ordered by faction for organization purposes, but they can be encountered in any order during a run.

[The Burned Ones]

Burned Ones - 2A

Combatants:

• Nervous Enforcer
  
• Nervous Enforcer

Strategy:
Not much to say. Choose one of the Enforcers to focus on, and whittle him down while blocking as much damage as you can. You can whack the other with a few cheap (or Area of Effect) attacks if their Fury gets too high to deal with, but the fight usually won't last long enough for that to be important (and you don't want to slow down your first kill too much).

Burned Ones - 2B

Combatants:

• Fanaticized Enforcer
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Deft Shooter

Strategy:
The Deft Shooter has to die fast, since her multi-attack will shred you if he gains much Fury from the Enforcer. Ideally she dies Turn 1 or 2. The Stubborn Grunt is next up, since he'd gain a ton of Fury if you only focus on the Enforcer. He'll be a bit tough to fight through since he gets Protection and heals 10 per turn from the Enforcer, but your deck should be able to manage. Once the Fanaticized Enforcer is alone, he's not that hard to deal with.

---

[The Psychomorphs]

Psychomorphs - 2A

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Psy-Linked Shredder

Strategy:
Kill order is usually Shredder, Gunner, Custodian. As usual, use the Custodian's Imprecise attack against the other enemies; the Shredder is guaranteed to set this up for you.

If you can kill both the Shredder and the Gunner on the same turn, of course go for the Gunner first to make it a bit easier. You'd need a strong deck for this, though.

Psychomorphs - 2B

Combatants:

• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Upgraded Custodian

Strategy:
Definitely kill the Gunner first, since the Upgraded Custodian is just so tanky. After that, the fight isn't too complicated, but you'll be attacked for big damage every turn. Hope you packed enough block cards.

Keep the Custodian's pattern in mind, since getting hit by its charge attack while it's Far will hit for a devastating 60 damage. Make sure you don't absent-mindedly hit him with a Knockback attack while he's using his Aim or Charge attacks.

Note that the Upgraded Custodian does NOT have an Imprecise attack like the normal version, so don't get your hopes up about using the Gunner as a meat-shield.

Psychomorphs - 2C

Combatants:

• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Strategy:
Kill order, if you can believe it, is Sentry -> Sentry -> Sentry. Focus on one at a time, but hit any Sentries that are using the Focus attack to get some free block. Once the first Sentry is down, pick whichever sentry has the most Fury to focus on next.

Not much else to say, and the fight usually isn't too hard.

Psychomorphs - 2D

Combatants:

• Psy-Machinist
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner

Strategy:
Pretty easy fight, kill the Gunners first then move on to the Machinist. They can only attack for maximum 20-25 per turn combined, and once the Gunners are taken out you should have no trouble (though Machinist can technically provide some scaling if the fight goes on for an eternity).

Watch out for the 15 damage from Explosive Psy-Brain when you kill the Machinist; either block before finishing her off or use a Knockback/Point Blank/Evasion attack.

---

[The Cult of the Ladder]

Cult of the Ladder - 2A

Combatants:

• Anathemis Discipuli

Strategy:
Definitely an annoying one. If possible, you can avoid some Curses by playing your Maneuvers while Far (either by starting your Turn Far, or playing a movement attack to get there). It's worth it if you have a good opportunity, but isn't worth taking excess damage over. Its debuff turn will give you an opening to deal a bunch of damage, and other than that just block what damage you can.

The Orbits it can get aren't too impactful (and there isn't much you can do about 'em anyway), but hopefully you don't get Orbit of Fate; the 3 extra Fury means 9 more damage from the multi-attack. Yikes!

---

[2F] Elites

Mutax & Friends

Combatants:

• Scavenging Shooter
  
• Vengeful Mutax
  
• Nervous Enforcer

Strategy:
Hard fight. Hit the Scavenging Shooter at least once on the first Turn to get rid of her 5 Fury. The most dangerous enemy is definitely the Vengeful Mutax, so he should usually be your primary target. Use the Scavenging Shooter's Hail attack to get some extra damage in; since the Mutax and Enforcer are both melee, they'll usually going to set it up for themselves. You can also use Knockback attacks if needed. While the Nervous Enforcer isn't as big a threat as the Mutax, it can be good to occasionally whack him to keep his Fury under control (damage-dealing antiqorums are also great for this).

Once Mutax is gone, neither Scavenging Shooter nor Nervous Enforcer are too hard to deal with. I usually kill the Scavenging Shooter first since Hail isn't as useful when there's only 1 other enemy, and she's much faster to bring down.

---

Psy-Machinist & Friends

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Psy-Machinist

Strategy:
I'm honestly surprised this is an Elite, since it's not much harder than many Floor 2 Regular Encounters. Neither the Psy-Machinist nor the Harmonized Sentry are major offensive threats, so focus on the Custodian first. The Psy-Machinist can heal the enemies up somewhat, but your damage should be able to easily outpace it (including the 15 HP Area of Effect heal). By this point in the game, you should be able to consistently block most of the damage on most of the turns, so be conservative with your HP (though of course some chip may get through due to unlucky draw order or intents).

Once Custodian is gone, the Sentry is a good next target; once it has some Fury, its Focus multi-attack becomes scarier than anything the Psy-Machinist will use. When you're done with that, Psy-Machinist should be easy to mop up. Like with Psy-Preacher, you can justify attacking him when he has Psy-Shield up if you're using 2 or more attack that turn, or one strong attack.

Remember that the Psy-Machinist will damage you if it dies Near you, so try to get 15 Guard before finishing it off or use a Knockback/Point Blank/Evasion attack!

---

Arcane Leech

Combatants:

• Arcane Leech
  
• Keeper of the Temples
  
• Keeper of the Temples

Strategy:
Kill the two Keepers first; they have low HP and it'll save at least 10 damage per turn. Focus them one at a time so that they can't take advantage of the Fury boost they get upon taking damage.

Once they're gone, turn your focus to the Arcane Leech. She hits pretty hard, but you should be able to block most of it. It would be a pretty standard fight if not for the Vital Point Corruptions (VPC) she adds to your hand. Even if you decide to play the VPCs, you won't be able to go more than maybe 7-ish turns without Arcane Leech getting their buff. (VPCs are NOT erased when played; they go to the discard pile so you'll redraw them eventually.)

I find it's only worth it to play VPCs if you have excess Pulse on a turn, or if you're close to killing her but will trigger the ability before getting over the finish line. Playing a VPC can be thought of as spending 2 Pulse now to buy yourself another turn where you can spend 3-4 Pulse, which might be enough to get the kill. I rarely play more than 1 or 2 VPCs per combat; if you're playing more than that, it'd be more efficient to simply accept that the buff is going to happen and spend your Pulse on cards that actually do stuff. Of course, VPCs also make good targets for Discard/Erase effects if your deck has them.

If you can't kill the Leech before she buffs, it's not the end of the world. She gains 100 HP and 10 Fury, which means you'll probably take some extra damage but it's not too hard to fight through. You won't have to worry about any more VPCs, which simplifies the fight.

---

[2F] Boss: The Distiller

Combatants:

• Distiller (see below)
  
• Protector (see below)

The Distiller

Max Health: 200

Abilities

• Poison Vials: The Protector has 1 Fury while the Distiller is still alive.
  
• Bearer of the Distillate: Add 2 Distillate to draw pile if the Distiller is destroyed.
  
• Non-Combatant: If alone, the Distiller takes 200 non-lethal damage.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Non-Combatant		Does nothing.

The Protector

Max Health: 550

Abilities

• Blood Trail: If you are Bloodied at the start of combat, add
  2 Bleed to your discard pile.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	10 x (3 to 4 dmg)
Melee	40 or 45
Zone Attack	20 x (2 dmg)	Does not hit the Distiller.

Strategy:

The main decision you have to make in this fight is whether or not to kill the Distiller. Getting rid of the Distiller means fighting through 200 more HP, but you're rewarded with reduced Fury on the Protector (a big deal) and 2 Distillates (also a big deal). The Distillates equate to at least 2 Fury and 40 HP, plus a bit of deck thinning if they're used on crappy basics (which they usually should be). I'd say it's usually better to kill the Distiller before the Protector (>80% of the time).

As for the actual fight, there's not much to say. Focus on not dying, and whittle down the enemies with Attacks when able. Use Knockback/Evasion/Point Blank or target the Distiller to get out of the way of the Protector's Zone Attack. Keep in mind that the Zone Attack doesn't hit Distiller, so don't bother trying to corral them into the same Zone. You'll almost certainly take some hits here and there, but if you can kill the Distiller you'll get an influx of healing and reduce the Protector's most dangerous attacks.

Bonus Tip:
Antiqorums that reduce Fury or apply Weak such as Peacemaker of Agorat or Frozen Shard are at a premium here. This fight is a great reason to pick them throughout Floors 1 and 2. The same goes for cards that provide Weak.

TheTrizzlers Note: the Distilla is a Killa

[2F] Boss: The Abandoned

Combatants:

• Defective Custodian IM2 (see below)
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner

Defective Custodian IM2

Max Health: 600

Abilities

• Broken Sensors: Each time a foe changes zone, you gain 5 Temporary Fury.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Debuff	25	Shuffles a Quick Recovery into the draw pile.
Ranged - Evasion	40
Ranged - Imprecise	20
Ranged + Buff	3 x (12 dmg)	Gains 2 Fury.
Melee + Debuff	45	Shuffles a Hasty Move into the draw pile.
Deactivated		Does nothing. ("Their system is restarting.")
Melee + Buff	35	Gains 3 Fury.

Strategy:

Defective Custodian IM2 follows a deterministic pattern (see above)!

This fight is relatively straightforward, though that doesn't mean it's easy. The boss hits hard and consistently, and can soak up a lot of damage.

Knockback attacks are nice to give yourself a Temporary Fury buff, so play those before your other attacks. You can freely kill one of the Psy-Linked Gunners, likely on the first turn. The other can be left alive until Turn 3, when the Defective Custodian uses its Imprecise attack; this is a good way to finish off the Gunner while also saving yourself 20 incoming damage. It's definitely not worth keeping a Gunner alive to try and do the same thing on the second cycle.

Once both goons are down, the Custodian has no more intents that care about being Near/Far; there's no Aim or Charge attacks that you need to worry about. Now you basically just hit it until it dies, while focusing on minimizing the damage you take. You can reference the enemy's pattern laid out above to help plan future turns.

Additional Notes:
The Gunners' Evasion attacks technically give you the Temporary Fury buff, but it wears off at the start of your turn before you can take advantage of it.

[2F] Boss: The Elevated

Combatants:

• Elevated Form (see below)
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner (weak version; see below)
  
• Psy-Linked Gunner (weak version; see below)

Elevated Form

Max Health: 600

Abilities

• Defensive Protocols: Each round, if this foe is the last foe, they call for reinforcements.
  
  • Calls two Psy-Linked Gunners (weak version).

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	35
Ranged	35	Shuffles a Neural Assault into the draw pile. Does not show debuff icon (bug?).
Ranged	40
Ranged - Heavy Hail	40	Heavy Hail: Flees Far before attacking. Hits you and their allies Near you. Each of their allies Near you takes 10 damage intended for you.
Buff		Near allies gain 2 Fury.

Psy-Linked Gunner (weak version)

Max Health: 30

Abilities

• Psylink Relay: When this foe is destroyed, all foes take 25 damage.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	4
Ranged - Evasion	5

Strategy:

This fight revolves around the Psy-Linked Gunners that the Elevated Form calls throughout the fight. They help you deal a lot of damage upon death, and can block half the damage from the boss's Heavy Hail attack.

On low curse difficulties, you should almost entirely focus on the Gunners. You can kill one Gunner with 30 damage, then only need 5 extra to kill the other after the Psy-Link Relay damage. That is, you spend 35 damage worth of attacks (or a bit more, since you're unlikely to get exact lethal) to deal 50 damage to the boss. This is without even factoring in the Hail attack, which only requires dealing 20 damage to one of them to get both kills, if it hits both Gunners.

It's best to kill both of the Psy-Linked Gunners on the same turn if possible. If only one is left alive, you'll have to wait an extra turn to get reinforcements — missing out on a chance for 50 more damage. It also means a Hail attack on the following turn would do 30 damage instead of 20.

On higher Curse difficulties, the Psy-Linked Gunners get enough extra HP that it's no longer as beneficial to focus on them. They still do a total of 50 damage to the boss when destroyed, but now take more than that to kill (50 HP for the first, then 25 for the second). It's still good to eliminate them occasionally with the help of the Elevated Form's Heavy Hail, but it's more efficient to direct some attacks to the boss itself. Getting rid of them also prevents about 10 incoming damage.

The buff is almost entirely irrelevant and can be treated as a free turn, since you'll be killing the Gunners often enough that they won't be able to rack up meaningful Fury.

───────── [Floor 3] ─────────

It's ya boi, the author. Don't steal plz.

[3F] Regular Encounters (1/2)

Unlike Floors 1 and 2, Floor 3 does not have an Easy Pool. You may face any of the following encounters at any point in the Floor.

[The Burned Ones]

Burned Ones - 3A

Combatants:

• Scavenging Shooter
  
• Vengeful Mutax
  
• Nervous Enforcer

Strategy:
This fight is identical to the Floor 2 Elite, so see Floor 2 Elites for an in depth strategy. The strategy on Floor 3 is the same, but your deck should have improved enough to make the fight much less dangerous.

Burned Ones - 3B

Combatants:

• Fanaticized Enforcer
  
• Scavenging Shooter
  
• Drugged Enforcer

Reinforcements:

• Noxious Doc
  
• Stubborn Grunt (Red)
  
• Nervous Enforcer
  
• Deft Shooter

Strategy:
Similar to the Floor 2 encounter but jumbo-sized. Luckily, this one doesn't start with a Deft Shooter deployed (with her devastating 5x multi-attack), and instead has the much less threatening Scavenging Shooter. You should hit the Scavenging Shooter once to remove her starting Fury, then you can simply focus down the Fanaticized Enforcer. Once he's gone, it'll pretty much trivialize the rest of the enemies; you've been crushing most of these guys since Floor 1.

---

[The Psychomorphs]

Psychomorphs - 3A

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Healer Sentry
  
• Healer Sentry

Strategy:
One of the Healer Sentries should be dealt with first. Their patterns will overlap and give you trouble when they use their big attacks. As always, use the Custodian's Imprecise attack against the Sentries; they'll set it up for you on Turn 2. Once one sentry is down, it doesn't matter too much which you take down next, but I usually just do the other Sentry. If you want to min-max, you can check the Custodian's cycle to predict whether you'll be able to get another Imprecise attack to hit the Sentry before you kill it, which can be a good way to finish the it off and save some damage.

Psychomorphs - 3B

Combatants:

• Custodian
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Psy-Nanosmith

Strategy:
Nanosmith takes priority here. Her buff is particularly strong on the Custodian since it has a multi-attack, but she can also just output a lot of damage with her 30 damage attack. Once she's gone, I'd focus on the Custodian next, leaving the Sentry for last. Exceptions can be made if the Sentry has already gained substantial Fury.

As always, use the Custodian's Imprecise attack to deal some extra damage if you can.

Psychomorphs - 3C

Combatants:

• Psy-Nanosmith
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Strategy:
Kill the Nanosmith first, then the Sentries become almost a non-issue. The Nanosmith's buff is very significant (3 Fury and 15HP), and the every-turn healing is annoying as well. The Psy-Shield is usually worth fighting through, since the only good Nanosmith is a dead Nanosmith. She isn't much tankier than the Sentries anyway, so should go down quickly. Just watch out for the Explosive Psy-Brain damage!

Psychomorphs - 3D

Combatants:

• Psy-Nanosmith
  
• Psy-Nanosmith

Strategy:
Yeah, not much to say. Kill them one by one, watch out for the Explosive Psy-Brain. You should be able to block most of their attacks, but if they both do the 30 damage one on the same turn it can be a challenge.

---

[3F] Regular Encounters (2/2)

[The Cult of the Ladder]

Cult of the Ladder - 3A

Combatants:

• Anathemis Discipuli
  
• Anointed Urn
  
• Tainted Obelisk

Reinforcements:

• Tainted Obelisk

Strategy:
Not much different than the Floor 2 Encounter without the extra scrubs. Kill the Urn and Obelisk first to reduce the incoming damage, then shift your attention to the Anathemis.

If possible, you can avoid some Curses by playing your Maneuvers while Far from the Anathemis (either by starting your Turn Far, or playing a movement attack to get there). It's worth it if you have a good opportunity, but isn't worth taking excess damage over. Its debuff turn will give you an opening to deal a bunch of damage, and other than that just block what damage you can.

The Orbits it can get aren't too impactful (and there isn't much you can do about 'em anyway), but hopefully you don't get Orbit of Fate; the 3 extra Fury means 9 more damage from the multi-attack. Orbit of Resilience (self and near Allies gain 5 HP per round) is also a bit more annoying now that the Anathemis has allies.

Cult of the Ladder - 3B

Combatants:

• Artisan of the Impossible Design

Strategy:
Annoying fight. Generally you just want to play it slow and safe, only attacking if you can do one of the following:

• Kill the Artisan this Turn.
  
• Guarantee (or nearly guarantee) the Temporary Fury resets by getting the Artisan to 45+ Fury.
  
• Fully block, even if you the Artisan rolls maximum Fury (15).

You need 9 attacks to 100% guarantee the Fury resets, while 5 attacks gives a roughly 50/50 shot (53.9%, to be precise). If you have 6 or more playable attacks plus decent block available, it's often worth throwing 1 or 2 attacks out as a "test"; if the Artisan rolls high Fury, you should be able to clinch the reset. If they roll low, you can stop attacking and simply put more Pulse into blocking.

The Buff turn is a great opportunity to deal a bunch of damage without worrying about the Temporary Fury. You can also try to get value out of Heavy Vulnerability (draw 1 card when you play a Heavy attack), but I rarely find it relevant.

See Appendix: Artisan Math for more in-depth probabilities that can help you decide when to attack or not.

Cult of the Ladder - 3C

Combatants:

• Devotee

Strategy:
Hate this guy. Big damage and adds a bunch of Curses to the discard pile. The gimmick here is that Erasing each Curse deals 50 damage to the Devotee, making them great sources of damage. You typically want to draw them earlier rather than later to shorten the fight, so it can be worthwhile to forgo some Attacks in favor of drawing extra cards to cycle through your deck faster. You should still be blocking, of course. Obviously it can be a bit annoying to have a bunch of Curses clog your hand, but it's worth the 50 damage they deal. Make sure to play them if they don't have Fleeting, or else they won't do any damage.

Use the Buff turn as an opportunity to deal a bunch of extra damage. The 5 Curses deal 250 damage total (plus maybe 50-100 from the extras the Devotee occasionally adds), so you still have to deal 2-300 damage with attacks.

See Appendix: Curses for more information about which Curses can be added.

Note:
Discarding a Fleeting Curse from the draw pile (with Precog, various Tainted Ones cards, etc.) does NOT erase those Curses, and therefore does not damage the Devotee. They are only erased if discarded from your hand.

Oh, look, you're reading on Steam! How'd I know that? Since that's the only place it's available... unless it's stolen :(

---

[The Guardians of the Temples]

Guardians of the Temples - 3A

Combatants:

• They Who Forbid
  
• Keeper of the Temples
  
• Keeper of the Temples

Strategy:
Floor 3 is truly the lair of the aggressively annoying enemies.

In general, killing the Keepers early doesn't help very much, since They Who Forbid gets 3 Fury for each one destroyed. They attack for 5-6 when undamaged, which means you'd only stop about 3 damage per turn each (though if they do become damaged, it may be worthwhile to kill them since you'll save ~6 damage). It can also be worthwhile to kill one if you have Companionship bonuses/antiqorums that trigger on enemy death.

Always scan your hand at the beginning of the round to see what card gained Limited. It's easy to brainfart and play a Limited basic attack when you have a Cursed Strength or whatever that you'd much rather play.

Break Chains is an interesting addition to this encounter. In theory you could use it as your hand fills up with Limited cards over time, but the fight rarely seems to last long enough for this to becomes a major issue. Rather, I find it's best used as a draw 3 when you're looking for some extra block or a lethal attack. Keep in mind that it Erases ALL Limited cards, not just the ones that gained Limited from They Who Forbid's ability — you'll lose all those cool free energy/draw cards you drafted.

Beyond that, the fight is a pretty standard one. You've heard it a million times: block what you can, then deal damage with whatever Pulse you have left over.

---

[3F] Elites

Guardian of the Fluid

Combatants:

• Guardian of the Fluid
  
• Raging Grunt

Strategy:
A huge pain. I usually kill the Raging Grunt first since it's basically free, but if your deck is low on Movement attacks the scrubs can sometimes be used to get away from the Guardian's Zone Attack.

As for the Guardian himself, he's definitely a tough cookie. If your deck is very good at blocking, you can play quite a few attacks before the Guardian's Fury becomes a problem. You can still expect some chip damage, especially from the bigger Ranged attack.

It's also possible to slow-roll the fight, playing just a few attacks per turn so the Fury never gets very high. You should focus on playing your most impactful attacks, but expect to spend most of your Pulse on block. This is usually the safer option, but requires patience. Gross.

The Turns where he calls for reinforcements can be a good time to do a bunch of damage. If you can kill on that turn or the following one, he won't get to use take advantage of the extra Fury anyway. If you don't think that's possible, you can opt to hold back somewhat, though it might still be worth eating a bit of extra damage so the fight doesn't drag on too long.

---

Psy-Nanosmith and Quadruple Harmonized Sentries

Combatants:

• Psy-Nanosmith
  
• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Reinforcements:

• Harmonized Sentry
  
• Harmonized Sentry

Strategy:
The Psy-Nanosmith does more damage than the sentries and heals his allies every turn; he needs to die. Don't worry too much about hitting him when he has Psy-Shield up, pushing extra damage will generally be worth it. Once he's gone, the sentries aren't too hard to clean up. Ideally you burst them down from full HP to 0 in a turn or two so they can't take advantage of their Reconstruction. By this point in the game your deck should heavily outclass sentries.

---

Carrier of the Carved Stone

Combatants:

• Carrier of the Carved Stone
  
• Anointed Urn
  
• Tainted Obelisk

Strategy:
Friendliest foe in the game? Gives you a bunch of Pulse and Cards every turn, but in exchange repeatedly hits you like a truck. The extra resources tend to make this fight relatively tame, but if you get very unbalanced Pulse/Card RNG, you can have a bad day. Not a whole lot you can do to strategize around this mechanic.

Start with the Tainted Obelisk and Anointed Urn to reduce the damage you're taking. They're Floor 1 chumps and will go down quickly; try to minimize the Curses that Tainted Obelisk puts into your draw pile if you can, but getting 1 or 2 isn't the end of the world.

Once they're gone, it becomes a straightforward fight where you block what you can and hit with any leftover Pulse you have. The main thing to be aware of is his Aim attack, which will hit for a whopping 82 damage if you're not in his Zone. Avoid playing Knockback/Evasion/Point Blank cards if you don't have a way to get Near the Carrier afterwards.

---

[3F] Boss: The Matrix Triarchs

Combatants:

• Psy-Preacher (Red) (see below)
  
• Psy-Preacher (Blue) (see below)
  
• Psy-Preacher (Green) (see below)

Psy-Preacher (Red)

Not to be confused with Psy-Preacher, the Floor 1 Elite enemy.

Max Health: 280

Abilities

• Network Feedback: When this foe is destroyed, each foe gains 9 Fury.
  
• Reprisal Protocol: While you are not Bloodied, this foe's ranged attacks add 1 Energy Leak to draw pile.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

This enemy's ranged attacks include a Debuff icon, since they add an Energy Leak to your draw pile if you are Bloodied. The Debuff icon appears even if you are not Bloodied.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged + Debuff	19
Buff - Blessing		This foe gains 6 Fury and Near allies gain 3 Fury.
Zone Attack	16
Ranged + Debuff	25	Sorority Blast: Deals 15 extra damage as long as they have allies in their Zone.
Melee	18

Psy-Preacher (Blue)

Not to be confused with Psy-Preacher, the Floor 1 Elite enemy.

Max Health: 350

Abilities

• Network Feedback: When this foe is destroyed, each foe gains 9 Fury.
  
• Last Stand Protocol: If this foe is the last foe, it gains 10 Fury.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	17	Sorority Blast: Deals 15 extra damage as long as they have allies in their Zone.
Ranged	17	On this turn, also gains: Psy-Shield: Adds 1 Neural Assault to your draw pile if attacked.
Ranged - Evasion	17
Ranged	17	On this turn, also gains: Psy-Shield: Adds 1 Neural Assault to your draw pile if attacked.
Melee	18

Psy-Preacher (Green)

Not to be confused with Psy-Preacher, the Floor 1 Elite enemy.

Max Health: 280

Abilities

• Network Feedback: When this foe is destroyed, each foe gains 9 Fury.
  
• Destruction Protocol: While you are not Bloodied, this foe gains 1 Fury with each attack.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

This enemy's attacks include a Buff icon, since this foe gains 1 Fury if it attacks while you are Bloodied. The Buff icon appears even if you are not Bloodied.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee + Buff	19
Melee + Buff	16
Ranged - Evasion + Buff	16
Buff - Blessing		This foe gains 6 Fury and Near allies gain 3 Fury.
Melee + Buff	14

Strategy:

These foes follow a deterministic pattern (see above)!

Short Version:
The order I typically kill them is Red -> Green -> Blue.

• The Red Preacher's Energy Leak ability is very annoying, and it has moderate damage (more than Green, less than Blue). It uses its AoE Fury Buff early in its cycle, so it should be easy to prevent it being used twice.
  
• The Blue Preacher has the highest damage output. If you leave it for last, it also gains 10 extra Fury. This generally keeps it ahead of (or on par with) what the Green Preacher gets through Ability and Buffs. The Blue Preacher also attacks every turn, meaning the Fury is relatively more potent than on the others. It's the only Preacher that gets Psy-Shields, which can be avoided at your discretion if you keep another enemy alive to target.
  
• The Green Preacher has the lowest base damage per cycle, and its Fury scaling shouldn't be fast enough to make it a bigger threat than the other two.

Extra Detail:
This is definitely another "focus on one enemy at a time" type of fight. When one enemy dies, the others gain 9 Fury. This means that damage output will stay roughly the same after one enemy is killed, as the surviving enemies get a total of +18 Fury, while the newly-deceased enemy would have been attacking for about 20 per turn. When you go from two Triarchs to one, however, the damage goes down dramatically; the enemy you killed was attacking for about 30 per turn, but only gives 9 Fury to the last enemy.

If you aren't Bloodied, the Red and Green Preachers' abilities will be active. The Red one gives you Energy Leaks, while the Green one gains 1 Fury with each attack. The Red one's ability activates twice per cycle (on Ranged attacks), whereas the Green one's activates four times per cycle (any attack). Still, Energy Leaks are much worse than a bit of extra Fury, so I'd recommend taking down the Red Preacher first.

Be aware of the Triarchs' pattern to prepare for future turns. For example, the Red Preacher does a Zone Attack on turn 3 that can damage the other foes if they are positioned correctly. The AoE buff provided by the Red Preacher on Turn 2 or the Green Preacher on Turn 4 are very significant (up to 12 Fury if all enemies are Near one another), making them great to disrupt with Knockback (or similar) attacks.

If you're very close to half HP, it might be good to intentionally let enough damage through to get yourself Bloodied and turn off the Red/Green Preachers' abilities. It's definitely not worth taking a lot of damage though (say, more than 10).

[3F] Boss: The Wardress

Combatants:

• Wardress of the Unending Tower (see below)
  
• Burning Coil (see below)
  
• Burning Coil (see below)

Wardress of the Unending Tower

Max Health: 800

Abilities

• The Tower's Iron Reserve: Each time a Burning Coil is destroyed, another is called as reinforcement.
  
• Vexed: Each time the Wardress attacks and deals no damage, she gains 3 Fury.
  
• Spawns with one of the four Orbits. See Appendix: Orbits for more information.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	50
Melee	40
Melee	2 x (25 dmg)
Melee	20	Vengeance: Gain 25 Temporary Fury each time an ally is destroyed.
Buff		Absorption: Absorb all Fury from allies.
Ranged - Evasion	60	(Pattern restarts.)

Burning Coil

Max Health: 15

Abilities

• Burning Coil: Each round, this foe gains 3 Fury.
  
  • (Includes the first round of combat, but not the round new Coils are summoned.)

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged - Evasion	1
Ranged	2 x (1 dmg)
(No Intent)		Gains Protection during this turn.

Strategy:

Wardress of the Unending Tower follows a deterministic pattern (see above)!

This encounter requires you to defeat the extremely chunky Wardress while dealing with the Burning Coils she continually calls as reinforcements. The Coils need to be cleared out every once in a while to stop them from accruing too much Fury, but you shouldn't let them distract you too much from the Boss.

On low Architect's Curse difficulties, the Coils are pretty easy to kill whenever necessary, probably dying in one hit (or 2 if Protection is up). On higher difficulties, however, they're surprisingly spongy and require some forethought to be able to kill on demand. It's wise to attack them early, even if you don't plan to kill them for a few turns. I typically keep them alive for about 2-3 Turns, but this is very context dependent, so use your judgement.

The Wardress' pattern isn't too complex, with four of her intents being simple — but dangerous — attacks. These go in the typical "block what you can, then do damage with whatever is left" fashion. The interesting part comes on turns 4 and 5, when she does her Vengeance and Absorption intents. You definitely want to avoid killing the Coils on the Vengeance turn, but try to get them both to low HP; they need to die on the following turn when the Wardress uses Absorption to avoid a big influx of Fury.

The Wardress gains 3 Fury every time one of her hits gets fully blocked. If you can line up a block that lets a bit of damage through, it could save you HP in the long run. This min-maxing certainly isn't critical for the fight, but you can keep an eye out for opportunities if you expect the fight to be close (i.e., you have low HP or a mediocre deck).

BTrizzle says: stealing guides is mean :(

[3F] Boss: The Wielder

Combatants:

• Wielder of the Last Arcane (see below)
  
• Arcane Anchor
  
• Arcane Anchor

Wielder of the Last Arcane

Max Health: 825

Abilities

• None.

Moveset
This foe follows a deterministic pattern! They will use the moves listed below in order before repeating the pattern.

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Melee	27
Ranged - Evasion	44
Ranged	95

Arcane Anchor

Max Health: 50

Abilities

• Mystical Anchor: Each round, give 1 Fury to every Ally.
  
  • Does not give Fury to itself (but net effect of both Anchors is 2 Fury to Wielder, 1 to each Anchor)
• Mystical Backlash: When this foe is destroyed, gain 90 Guard.

Moveset

Intent	Damage	Additional Notes
Ranged	3 to 4
Ranged	2 x (3 dmg)
Ranged - Evasion	4

Strategy:

Wielder of the Last Arcane follows a deterministic pattern (see above)!

This fight is quite simple. You'll be attacked for 30 to 60-ish damage on most turns, which should be manageable for a deck that's made it this far. The big gimmick of this fight is the Wielder's massive attack every third turn, which is extremely hard to block unless you use the Arcane Anchors' on-death ability to gain 90 Guard.

On the first 2 turns, get at least one (but ideally both) of the Arcane Anchors to low HP, but DON'T kill them. When the Wielder's big hit comes around, finish off one of the anchors (and maybe play an extra Guard card) to block the attack. Easy.

In the meantime, spend whatever Pulse isn't needed for blocking on attacking the Wielder (or setting up Programs and stuff, you know the drill). Be careful about Area-of-Effect or randomly targeted attacks so that you don't accidentally kill an Anchor prematurely, which would open you up to massive damage from the Wielder's big attack.

This fight essentially has a time limit, since once you kill both Anchors it'll become very hard to block subsequent 100+ damage attacks. You can probably survive one extra attack with your HP and a few Guard cards, but beyond that is definitely pushing your luck. Try to finish the fight before you get that far.

──────── [Appendix] ────────

Pirating Steam Guides is a crime (?)

Appendix: Curses & Statuses

Forbidden Names

These Curses are added to the deck by the enemies in the Floor 1 Boss encounter "The Council". In particular, they come from:

• Envoy of the Key: 1 Forbidden Name is added to the draw pile each time it attacks.
  
• Envoy of the Chain: 3 Curses are added to the discard pile when it dies.

Curses (Cult of the Ladder)

These Curses are added by the enemies in the Cult of the Ladder faction. The enemies that can add them are:

• Anointed Urn: 1 Curse is added to the discard pile when it dies.
  
• Tainted Obelisk: 1 Curse is added to the draw pile when you play an Attack Near it.
  
• Anathemis Discipuli: 1 Curse is added to the draw pile when you play a Maneuver Near it. 1 Curse is added when it uses its Debuff intent.
  
• Devotee: 5 Curses are added to the discard pile at the beginning of combat. 1 Curse is added when it uses its Melee + Debuff intent.

If the game generically says "Curse", it means they will be pulled from this pool (such as for the "Gem of the Ladder" antiqorum).

Psychomorphs Curses

These Curses are added by the enemies in the Psychomorphs faction.

Neural Assault:

• Added to the draw pile when an enemy with Psy-Shield is attacked.
  
  • Enemies that can gain Psy-Shield are Psy-Preacher, Psy-Machinist, Psy-Nanosmith, and Psy-Preacher (Blue; Floor 3 Boss).
• Added to the draw pile when Elevated Form (Floor 2 Boss) uses its 35-damage Ranged attack.

Psy-Energy: Added to the draw pile whenever a Psy-Linked Shredder attacks.

Hasty Move: Added to the draw pile when Defective Custodian IM2 (Floor 2 Boss) uses its 45 damage Attack + Debuff intent (fifth turn of its cycle).

Quick Recovery: Added to the draw pile when Defective Custodian IM2 (Floor 2 Boss) uses its 25-damage Attack + Debuff intent (first turn of its cycle).

Misc.

Stuns are added by various enemies:

• Vicious Bruiser (Final Mockery): Adds 1 Stun to the draw pile when he uses his Melee + Debuff attack.
  
• Nervous Enforcer: Adds 1 Stun to the draw pile when he uses his Melee + Debuff attack.
  
• Healer Sentry: Adds 1 Stun to the draw pile when it uses its Melee + Debuff attack (first turn of its cycle).

Bleeds are added by various enemies from The Burned Ones faction:

• Crimson Claw: Adds 1 Bleed to the draw pile when she uses her Melee + Debuff attack.
  
• Protector (Floor 2 Boss): Adds 2 Bleeds to the discard pile by if you are Bloodied at the start of combat.

A Spreading Infection is added to the draw pile when a Noxious Docs uses their Melee + Debuff attack.

BTrizzle Says: Thank goodness the pandemic is over.

Energy Leaks are added by various enemies of the Psychomorphs faction:

• Upgraded Custodian: Adds 1 Energy Leak to the draw pile when it use its Melee + Debuff attack.
  
• Psy-Preacher (Red): Adds 1 Energy Leak to the draw pile when it uses a Ranged attack while the player is not Bloodied.

Players also start each Boss combat with an Energy Leak in their draw pile on Architect's Curse 9 and above.

Vital Point Corruption is added to your hand every turn by the Arcane Leech (Floor 2 Elite).

Upon reaching 5 Vital Point Corruptions in hand, the Arcane Leech "feasts on the player's vital force" to gain 10 Fury and 100 HP.

2 Distillates are added to the draw pile when the Distiller (Floor 2 Boss) is killed.

Appendix: Orbits

A number of the Cult of the Ladder enemies will spawn with a random "Orbit" which gives them a unique ability for that fight.

• Orbit of the Black Moon: When combat begins, Add 1 Shadow of the Black Moon into draw pile.
  
  • Appears as a black and blue dodecagon.
    
  
  
• Orbit of Defiance: Each time this foe is injured, they heal 3 HP.
  
  • Appears as an orange and yellow orb on a spike.
    
  
  
• Orbit of Fate: This foe gains 3 Fury and 3 Weakness for this combat.
  
  • Appears as an orange covid-looking thing.
    
  
  
• Orbit of Resilience: Each round, this foe and each Near ally heal 5.
  
  • Appears as a blue pyramid.
    

Four enemy types can gain Orbits:

• Anathemis Discipuli (Floor 2 and 3 Regular Encounter)
  
• Devotee (Floor 3 Regular Encounter)
  
• Carrier of the Carved Stone (Floor 3 Elite)
  
• Wardress of the Unending Tower (Floor 3 Boss)

Appendix: Artisan Math

The following table lists the probability that a given number of attacks will cause the Artisan of the Impossible Design to reset its Temporary Fury.

The most important row in most cases is the bottom one! This is the one to look at when the Artisan has 0 Temporary Fury!

Number of Attacks → ↓ Fury Required	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	B
10	0.5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	T
15	0.25	0.75	1	1	1	1	1	1	r
20	0	0.5	0.875	1	1	1	1	1	i
25	0	0.1875	0.6875	0.9375	1	1	1	1	z
30	0	0.0625	0.4062	0.8125	0.9688	1	1	1	z
35	0	0	0.2031	0.5937	0.8906	0.9844	1	1	l
40	0	0	0.0625	0.375	0.7344	0.9375	0.9922	1	e
45 (Reset )	0	0	0.0156	0.1836	0.5391	0.832	0.9648	0.9961	1

Note: All probabilities are written as decimals: 1 = 100% chance to reach the target Fury, 0.5937 ≈ 59%, etc.

You can also use this table to help decide whether to continue attacking if the Artisan has already gained some Temporary Fury.

For example, say that you started with 6 available Attacks. Since there was an ~83% chance to reset the Temporary Fury, you decided to begin attacking. The Artisan was attacked three times, but it only gained 5 Fury each time (15 total). Is it smart to continue attacking despite your initial bad luck?

• The Artisan must gain (45 - 15) = 30 more Fury to reset.
  
• You've used 3 of your 6 Attacks, so have 3 left.
  
• Looking at the row for 30 Required Fury and the column for 3 Attacks, there's only a 40% chance that you will reach the threshold!
  
  • You should probably stop attacking to save yourself some damage!

───── [Thanks for Reading!] ─────

If you made it this far, you're a maniac (in the best possible way)! Hopefully your newfound knowledge has proven useful in your travels beneath the City of the Gods.

Please consider rating, favoriting, and/or giving a community award to the guide! It would mean a lot to see appreciation for my hard work.

<3 BTrizzle

[Gizmoto16]

Thank you, this helped me beat The Abandoned and get to Floor 3!

[BTrizzle]

@ForgottenAlready Thanks, confirmed and updated!

[ForgottenAlready]

Got a new floor 1 encounter I don't think is listed. It's a regular encounter with Noxious Doc, Raging Grunt, and Deft Shooter.

[DmNerd]

This is fantastic work. Thank you!

[The Sinless Assassin]

DAMN good work on this! This game not only needs more attention, but it sure as hell needs more comprehensive guides for it like this one. It can be daunting to understand at first, but when it clicks it just CLICKS!

[arbo18]

Fajne i pomocne

[Tametis]

Thank you! Very helpfull to know the ennemies patern.