Strategy for Dark Pharaoh: increase your odds

Dark Pharaoh is one nasty piece of demon avatar. To beat him you must have as much items as possible. The key to harvest sufficient amount of items is to play solo with one character. Which characters and allies to choose and why, is what this guide is about.

Characters

My suggestion is to have one or two strong characters. Because there's so little time to upgrade them. Having all four would be a waste of time and resources. Although, there are people who have managed to beat the Dark Pharaoh as 4-character team. It adds extra focus, but not that it's enough, if you haven't the items. Fail once and you're as good as dead.

So, here are the characters to consider:

1. Jenny Barnes: by far the strongest character in the game. With her ability to turn everything except the unique items into yellow+red glyph, she almost always have 8 glyphs at her disposal. More chance to win, more chance to harvest items. It is especially handy in the Dark Pharaoh campaign, because the common items and unique items may be locked until the next midnight. Jenny can simply ignore that, by converting, for example, a locked common item into red and yellow glyphs.

Thus she will always have trophies and items at her disposal, if you pick your adventures and allies wisely. I managed to beat the Dark Pharaoh with her and would have beaten the Black Demon, unless the terror effect that automatically fails the adventure.



2. Amanda Sharpe: my favourite character. With her ability she can complete multiple tasks within one conjure. With constant supply of items it is a very powerful combination. Also her stamina and sanity value of 5/5 is very good.

I barely managed to beat the campaign with her, because the clock was rushing and I was only one Elder Sign before the final battle. Most adventures would provide me that one Elder Sign. Since I didn't had that many trophies and items yet, I had to be very careful in terms of adventure selection and item acquiring. I managed to acquire 6 or 7 clues, which was just enough to beat both manifestations of the Elder One.



I conjured that last terror glyph with my last clue.

3. Sister Mary: since glyphs are often locked in this campaign, Sister Mary has the benefit to ignore this penalty. Also, she can ignore some of the Mythos effects, but, since most of the Mythos are about monster spawning and doom track advance, it doesn't help her much. Sadly, this ability does not apply to item locks.

4. Kate Winthrop: she can ignore terror effects and no monsters can spawn on her turn (except through Mythos effect). Since, those two things occur often in this campaign, Kate is a very valuable character for this campaign, especially because there are really nasty terror effects in the final two battles.

5. Marie Lambeou: she can turn any glyph into a result of her choice for 4 trophies. Since you have substantial amount of trophies, when you play solo, this ability often can save your adventure.

Allies

Paying 2 trophies to allies grants you beneficial effects:

1. Healer -– grants 2 staminas and 2 sanities. A must take, because the campaign is becoming really nasty towards the end and the medical costs are skyrocketing.

2. Anti-terrorist/glyph unlocker – cancels terror effects and unlocks locked glyphs. Less valuable for Sister Mary and Kate Winthrop, but still worth considering, because towards the end there could be even 3 locked glyph adventures on the map and every second adventure has the terror mark. Also the final battle has really nasty terror effects, e.g., "Doom +1", "Fail adventure".

3. Item unlocker – unlocks locked items. Not worth having for Jenny Barnes, since she almost always can conjure red and yellow glyph.

4. Red glyph provider – provides a red glyph. Often, it saves your adventure. Don't take her, if you're Jenny Barnes.

5. Reconjurer – perhaps worth having in the beginning, but since you can use him only once per turn, he's not that valuable, as you will be having plenty clues anyway.

6. Glyph locker – nice ability, but other allies are better in the long-term.

7. Monster slayer – don't waste your time on him, as monsters are relatively easy and you have to focus on Elder Signs anyway.

General progress

1. In the first two days, gather two allies. The first thing to do, is to remove the adventure that gives +1 doom in the midnight. Then gather an ally or two. On turn 3 to 5, complete a mission that spawns an other world location. Then complete that other world mission and acquire 2 Elder Signs. Equip yourself well, because you can't afford a failure. You won't have another that easy opportunity to get 2 Elder Signs and by having them you'll have to get only 4 more in the next round. Finally, during last turns in Cairo, buy as many items as you can. You can acquire them through missions, too; thus, you will have more money and a better score. But you'll probably will be spending items that you'll already have. So bazaar is the safest option, especially since it provides 2x items for the price of one.

2. In the desert, get another ally, if he's better than those you'll already have. Rush through Elder Sign adventures as fast as possible and get as much items as possible before you get the 6th Elder Sign, because the prices in Necropolis are twice as high. Speed is essential, because you don't want the Doom Track to advance much further.

3. Complete a relatively easy entry adventure and loose one sanity (unless you're playing with Rita Young). Proceed to Necropolis.

4. Necropolis – things start to get really crazy. Monsters are spawning, Doom Track is rushing and glyphs are locking. Get 3 Elder Signs as fast as possible and acquire as much items as possible before getting the 10th Elder Sign. You'll probably have enough trophies to buy the items from Dr. Pratley – it's the safest way. If you're playing with Jenny, you need to buy only clues, which are the cheapest, too. A lock spell might help, as well.

5. Dark Pharaoh – SHTF! Hope you don't fail and survive two battles.

Reward

The reward for completing the campaign is Luke Robinson (Lucid Dreamer). He can open portals to other worlds for 4 trophies.