In Depth: Absolute Zero

This guide is an in depth, card by card look at the hero deck of Absolute Zero. If you're new to the deck or you still haven't fully grasped all of his mechanics, this isn't a bad place to start.

Introduction and Classifications

Absolute Zero is the most complex hero of the base game, scoring a 3 on the Complexometer. He does a lot of self-damage but makes up for it with healing, in fact, it's his self-damage that causes the healing! He's powerful enough to stand up on his own in the late game (I've seen him win with everyone else incapacitated) but his ability to do so depends entirely on whether or not he can keep his equipment, particularly his Module cards, in play.

In the future, this section should have shorthand notes specific to the hero in question, when I get around to all the other heroes, but for Absolute Zero I won't need any.

I'm not using the entire cards as images (just the art as you can see) but I've provided the card text (without flavour). Additionally, I'm not providing images for character cards that aren't in the game as that's where I'm getting images from. If you have the game open in the multiverse tab you can look through the deck while you read here as that'll be quicker than scrolling up and down all the time.

Lastly, I say "Num: X" in the card descriptions, X is the amount of that card in the deck

Oh, and shoutout to jagarciao for the hero icons I'm using, they can be found here: http://spiffworld.com/sotm/non-spiff.cfm along with some other cool print and use resources

Most Essential Cards

Isothermic Transducer











Limited, Equipment, Module
Whenever Absolute Zero is dealt fire damage he deals one target that much cold damage.
Num: 4

I can't stress the importance of this card enough, a lot of your cards do fire damage to yourself, so at the very least this allows you to turn that self-damage into enemy damage which is a bonus in addition to whatever else the card does (generally cold damage to non-hero targets)

Null-Point Calibration Unit











Limited, Equipment, Module
Whenever Absolute Zero would take cold damage, he regains that many HP instead.
Num: 4

This card is slightly less important than the other Module but this healing, when combined with the first module can allow you to ignore or even benefit from your self-damage. Without the other module though there's not a lot of healing you can do. It's important in some cases to remember that the self-dealt cold damage isn't dealt, it's prevented by the replacement effect that causes healing.

On-Board Module Installation











One-Shot
You may draw a card.
Search your deck for a module card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck.
You may play a card.
Num: 4

This is Absolute Zero's cyclical card, meaning that it contains a draw and a play in addition to everything else it does, effectively for the price of a play you get a draw and play as well as searching for a module so the module search is free. The result is that this card is strictly better than the two modules as it is one of those modules (your choice) and a card draw if you choose to play the module you search up that is. It's recommended that you hold onto this card if you have both modules in play and no way to recover any from your trash as, if one goes this can replace it.

Focused Apertures











Equipment, Limited
Increase cold damage dealt by Absolute Zero by 1
Num: 3

Necessary to gain health from fire damage if nothing else boosts your damage, though it also gives you more damage out to non-hero targets. It's important to play if you don't have someone like legacy to help you heal with damage boosts.

Cryo Chamber











Equipment, Limited
Increase cold damage dealt to Absolute Zero by 1
Reduce fire damage dealt to Absolute Zero by 1
Power: Absolute Zero deals himself 5 fire damage. Destroy this card.
Num: 2

The increase in cold damage means more heals, however the reduced fire damage is almost counterproductive, as it doesn't increase healing but instead prevents you from doing one fire damage to yourself for all the healing that lets you do. Personally I've never used the power of this card, I've always felt that I could use the healing for my other powers more and I've felt other powers to be more useful. Though I can understand using it to end the game or if you're on full HP and want to hurry things along.

Modular Realignment











One-Shot
Select 1 equipment card from your trash and put it either into your hand or into play.
Absolute Zero deals himself 1 fire damage and 1 cold damage.
Num: 4

What's important to note is that although it's named for his modules it allows any equipment to be recovered. The damage on this card asks for his modules to be in play though this card helps with that in the event of equipment destruction or card discards and you get that setup from your trash before doing the damage.

At this point I want to add a note on healing from fire damage. There are two things to remember here:

• You need to survive the fire damage. Don't kill yourself trying to heal.
  
• The net amount of healing is equal to the amount that the cold damage is modified and is independent of the fire damage taken.

More Cards

Frost-Bound Drain











One-Shot
Absolute Zero deals 1 non-hero target 3 cold damage
Absolute Zero deals himself 3 fire damage.
Num: 3

3 cold damage is pretty neato and the self-damage can be used to heal or do more cold damage. Requires the setup though to be used properly of course, but with just the Isothermic Transducer you can do 6 damage to the villain which can finish them off.

Hoarfire











One-Shot
Absolute Zero deals 1 target 2 cold damage.
Absolute Zero deals a second target 2 fire damage.
Absolute Zero deals himself 1 cold and 1 fire damage.
Num: 2

This card is very flexible for one you can choose yourself as one of the two targets for damage in addition to the self-damage at the end leaves you with a lot of manoeuvrability. For example, you can hit yourself for 2 cold damage to heal, and then do fire damage to another target, or the other way around or just do 2 non hero targets 2 damage each! It's a mini smorgasbord of options!

Coolant Blast











Ongoing
Power: Absolute Zero deals 1 non-hero target x cold damage where x = the amount of fire damage that has been dealt to Absolute Zero since the end of your last turn.
Num: 2

In most cases the fire damage comes in the form of one shots played this turn which means you'll almost never use this power the turn you play it. In those few cases where the environment or villain does fire damage you need to remember exactly how much you've been dealt which is annoying (although in the video game you can check this number by right clicking the card and looking at the side note), especially if you drew this off of on board module installation and weren't expecting it. Keep that scenario in mind. In games where you can get out of turn plays or powers or even against a fire heavy villain or environment this card can get up to a lot of damage, though I haven't seen that happen.

Thermal Shockwave











Ongoing, Limited
Power: Absolute Zero deals up to 3 targets 1 damage each. Absolute Zero deals himself x fire damage, where x = the total amount of cold damage dealt by Absolute Zero this turn.
Num: 2

This card is what makes Absolute Zero complexity 3 as if you aren't careful this x can be very large (>40) and can kill you (due to the next few cards and Focused Apertures). Remember you can point one of the damages at yourself to heal instead, and that the damage is prevented by healing, which is important for not dying to the x fire damage here.

Cold Snap











Ongoing, Limited
At the start of your turn, Absolute Zero deals each non-hero target 1 cold damage.
Num: 2

With Focused Apertures this card can do a lot of damage all around on a continuous basis, which can make Thermal Shockwave unusable if there's a large number of targets. Depending on the scenario (very little to no out of turn fire damage, or you're entirely dependant on Thermal Shockwave for damage or you've no other useful power) you might want to avoid playing this.

Impale











Ongoing
Play this card next to a non-hero target.
At the start of your turn Absolute Zero deals that target 2 cold damage.
If the target leaves play, destroy this card.
Num: 2

Impale works best on the big bad, rather than a minion as the time it takes to do the damage which means you want to get a lot of uses out of it or it feels like a bit of a waste. Remember that it counts toward Thermal Shockwave too, but it's generally not as devastating as Cold Snap.

Fueled Freeze











One-Shot
Destroy up to 3 ongoing cards.
Absolute Zero deals each non-hero target x cold damage, where x = the number of ongoing cards destroyed by this card.
Num: 2

This is a great card for villain ongoing destruction but remember that you can play it and not destroy 3 villain ongoings. If there aren't enough villain ongoings in play you can also use hero ongoings that aren't in use such as the kind that destroy themselves at the start of that hero's turn that have already exhausted their effects (ask permission first for other types).

Glacial Structure











Ongoing
Power: Draw 3 cards. Destroy this card
Num: 2

If you are having difficulty setting up because you don't have the right cards then this is your friend. Don't forget to consider the economics though. Normally if you skip your play and power you get 1 more card, but with this you can spend that same play and power on 3 cards. That's 2 more cards for the same price.

Sub-Zero Atmosphere











Ongoing
Any villain card which would act at the end of the villain turn instead acts at the start of the villain turn.
Num: 2

This is a very strange card as to use it effectively requires knowledge of the villain deck rather than your own. The advantage here is that anything the villain plays won't act at the end of their turn, the disadvantage is that if Sub-zero atmosphere gets destroyed during the villain play phase then the cards that acted at the start of the villain turn as a result of it will act again at the end of that turn. However if you know what you're up against it can be a great play.

Variants

Regular: Thermodynamics (29HP)
When you ignore the rest of the deck and look only at the innate power on each regular hero in the base game I believe Absolute Zero has the most interesting power, as it tells you a fair bit about the deck. Anyway, this power requires you to get the module cards to work it unless you want to manipulate who's on the highest HP. Once you have your modules out you can use this power for attacking or healing.

Freedom Six: Elemental Wrath (27HP)

This is a much more aggressive version of Absolute Zero, has a harder time healing as a consequence but hits harder in the early game. If you're up against a fast villain or a damage race scenario Freedom Six Absolute Zero can save the day. The only variant that truly benefit from playing Focused Apertures on turn 1.

Interesting Incapacitated Ability: One target dealing itself 1 damage can be interesting in cases like The Chairman, Miss Information or the Perfect Pompadour.

Termi-Nation: Violent Shivers (25HP)

First thing to remember is that self-damage is increased twice so the healing you get is greatly increased, but so is the damage you take to do that, this power requires the full setup more than the base variant does as and your HP will fluctuate much more wildly. The problem is that in order to actually get the benefit of the healing you need to avoid all the damage you can. Hard to use but more fun when it comes together.

Freedom Five: Pilot Light (28HP) {not yet in the video game}
Absolute Zero deals himself 2 fire damage. If he takes damage this way search your deck for an ongoing card and put it into play. Shuffle your deck.

This Absolute Zero can make some impressive plays on turn one, generally I mean Isothermic Transducer should be played first, which makes the damage on the power beneficial but then you also get any ongoing, though there are only 6 to choose from the options are still considerable. If you aren't sure what you want try answering these questions: Do you want to do damage at the start of turn? One target or all of them? Is sub-zero atmosphere useful against this particular villain? Do you need more cards? Are you set up for thermal shockwave? Can Coolant Blast be used effectively (or do you need fodder for ongoing destruction?) The possibilities, whilst far from endless are rather diverse.

Synergies

Heroes that work well with Absolute Zero
Visionary is a massive help against single target villains when she uses Twist the Aether on them, allowing her to choose the damage type that Absolute Zero or the Villain do to Absolute Zero to make it cold or fire as you wish. On top of that, if Absolute Zero has Twist the Aether (or imbued fire is out), and Fixed Point from Time Cataclysm is out, you can do one (maybe two or three) instances of unbounded damage (can't be infinite but you get to choose how high to go) by having hime hit himself with ever growing fire damage. (This will Incapacitate him when Fixed Point is destroyed)
Generally speaking anyone who can do fire or cold damage to Absolute Zero or even redirect it to him is a boon. That means Tachyon (redirects), Nightmist (redirects), Mr. Fixer (with dual crowbars), Expatriette, Ra (with a drawback described below), Argent Adept, Chrono-Ranger and Tempest can help out this way.
Coolant Blast likes you to have out of turn plays and powers so Argent Adept, Prime Wardens Fanatic, America's Greatest Legacy, Captain Cosmic, Parse, Setback, Freedom Five Bunker, The Scholar, Omnitron-X, K.N.Y.F.E. Rogue Agent, Parse and Parse Fugue State.
Additionally Void Guard Medico helps you heal, and La Comodora can have you play an extra card (Harnessed Anomaly).
Mr. Fixers Salvage Yard and Sky-Scrapers Micro Assembler can help get your Modules to the table if needed as well.
Any sort of damage increase (specifically cold or otherwise) like Legacy's Galvanize and inspiring presence, Argent Adepts Syncopated Onslaught, and Visionary's Twist the Aether is here again. These are damage increases that specifically increase your healing, remember that all heroes benefit from increasing damage to villain targets (except The Dreamer)
America's Greatest Legacy can give Termi-Nation Absolute Zero a power right before his turn for (almost) free buffs!
Sky-Scrapers Micro Assembler is a godsend when you can't find any of your stuff.

Heroes with Negative Synergies when playing Absolute Zero
Anyone who redirects, or makes you immune to, your self-damage: Legacy, The Scholar, Setback, and Sky-Scraper have effects of this nature that are non-optional once initialized. The Naturalist has an optional effect (Indomitable Force) but in the video game if your settings are locked in to automatically activate it and you're playing multiplayer (so you can't change it) then he does this too. The Wraith's Smoke Bombs will only redirect villain damage and you can choose for Null Point Calibration Unit to prevent the damage before the redirect.

Ra's Imbued Fire {and Dr. Medico Malpractice's Red Right Hand Power} will prevent you from healing and Tempest's Shielding Winds can reduce your larger healing bursts, so watch out for that.

Villain Synergies
Some Villains have one or two things that deal fire or cold damage, they are:

• Ambuscade's Explosive Launcher
  
• Baron Blade's Slash And Burn
  
• Mad Bomber Blade's Front Side Damage
  
• La Capitán's Siege Breaker
  
• Citizen Dawn's Challenge Mode, Citizen Hammer, Citizen Summer, Citizen Winter
  
• Deadline's Subduction Super-Zone and Unleashed Hurricane
  
• 10 cards in The Ennead's deck and Nephthys' Hand Ability
  
• Gloomweaver's Cursed Acolyte
  
• Two of Grand Warlord Voss' Minions and the TCF Conqueror
  
• Infinitor's Recalescent Hellion
  
• Kaargra Warfang's Triragon Rex (I'm ignoring the Ashclaw R'velos because he stops you from reacting)
  
• The Titles Indiscriminate and The Seeker (you hit with fire and then your self-cold gets increased)
  
• Miss Information's "Old Lady" In The Street
  
• Progeny's Elemental Outburst and Scion of Frost and Flame
  
• Wager Master's Burning Sense of Failure

Additionally Citizen Dawn, Grand Warlord Voss, The Chairman and Kismet have ways of increasing damage dealt to you.

Villain Negative Synergies
Pretty much any villain that destroys equipment, particularly Citizen Dawn and Omnitron as they destroy all equipment cards at once. Otherwise the most destructive are probably Chokepoint, La Capitán and Miss Information as they are themed around stealing your stuff

Team Villain Synergies

• Ambuscade's Magman and Too Many Guns do fire damage.
  
• Biomancer's Incapacitated Side increases your self-damage.
  
• Citizen Hammer deals a lot of fire damage but sometimes that damage has a negative effect attached (and his flip side increases fire damage dealt to you which is a negative in disguise)
  
• Greazer's Thermobaric Mine is amazing if it ends up in your play area
  
• Miss Information has very little fire damage but quite a bit of hero card destruction.
  
• Sergeant Steel's deck has some fire damage in it, but the deck is very variable and the two cards might not stay in play for long (they do widespread damage)
  
• Only one card among all of the Vengeance Five does fire damage: Proletariat's Radioactivist

Team Villain Negative Synergies
Ermine, Miss Information, Baron Blade and Citizen Hammer & Anvil all have more than one equipment destroying card, some even target only equipments too, they are threats to your setup. Friction's incapacitated side also destroys stuff. Bugbear's Ammit and Ermine's Calypso both reduce fire damage if Ra is in the game, which can stop you from taking fire damage.

Environment Synergies

• Insula Primalis' Volcano and River of Lava do fire damage and Obsidian Field increases all your self-damage too.
  
• Megalopolis' Targeting Innocents does fire damage but has bad consequences when it does
  
• The Ruins of Atlantis' Phosphorescent Chamber increases your healing twice. Once as damage and again as HP recovery.
  
• Wagner Mars Base has Fire in the Biosphere, but watch out for Oxygen Leak as it reduces fire damage
  
• Rook City's Blighted Streets increases your self-damage and therefore healing.
  
• Realm of Discord's Imbued Frailty damage (and therefore healing) increase.
  
• Tomb of Anubis has The Challenge of Fire for 2 fire damage to each target each round
  
• The Block's Char deals fire and toxic damage, so any gain from the fire might be negated by the toxic
  
• Time Cataclysm's Fixed Point can save your stuff and allow you to perform negative health actions like massive Thermal Shockwave damage.
  
• The Enclave of the Endlings has Urdid who is similar to Char with melee damage and fire damage
  
• Magmaria is full of fire damage but has some equipment destruction as well (theoretically 10 equipment destroyed per round)
  
• The Temple of Zhu Long can give out of turn card plays for Coolant Blast
  
• The Final Wasteland's Abominable snowman does melee and cold like Urdid and Char above do some fire and other damage
  
• Silver Gulch, 1883 has the Explosive Wagon's damage boost to help you heal.
  
• Freedom Tower has Frost's Cryo Chamber which increases all cold damage and decreases all fire damage and on top of that deals cold damage.
  
• {I can't say for certain, but Nexus of the Void has artwork of lava flows, so there might be some fire damage there (I kind of doubt it because of the other environments with that kind of thing though)}

Environment Negative Synergies
Megalopolis and Pike Industrial Complex both have a card that overrides your damage type (Close Quarters Combat, Irradiated Cyclohexane Vat) meaning no healing or reaction from self-damages. The Block's Defensive Displacement can stall everyone out, but it reduces your healing so I'm mentioning it and Time Cataclysm's Atlantean Throne Room. Other than those, Magmaria and Omnitron IV have some more than usual equipment destruction and Realm of Discord's Imbued Vitality can cause you trouble.

Summary

When considering whether or not to bring Absolute Zero to a game, you need to consider a few things.

• Is Coolant Blast going to be useful in this game? It needs either fire damage or out of turn plays to be most effective
  
• Will my equipment last? In a game where some cards destroy only equipment cards without the option of ongoings instead where nobody else is bringing someone like The Wraith, you might want to avoid Absolute Zero.
  
• Is Ra, Megalopolis or Pike Industrial Complex involved? You can't heal while any of their damage type changing cards are out so stay away from them.

Those are the big things to avoid, and The Ennead are great for the amount of fire damage they do so you can generally feel free to bring Absolute Zero to them.

When deciding on which variant to bring consider the following:

• If you're looking for the game to end fast, then Freedom Six (Elemental Wrath) Absolute Zero is the one to use.
  
• If you will want a specific ongoing card real fast then Freedom Five Absolute Zero is your best option (if you feel like Sub-Zero Atmosphere is a good option and it'll not be destroyed you can get it on turn one)
  
• If you don't expect to take many separate instances of damage, then Termi-Nation is a considerable option with much greater healing potential but also much more dangerous fire damage.
  
• Finally, if you aren't sure which to take the base variant works well for the first time you play Absolute Zero and still holds up against the other ones as a safe option, though, when cryo chamber is out your innate power is only useful for healing.

Conclusion

At this stage try asking yourself, what exactly makes Absolute Zero complexity 3?
My answer is threefold:

• You've to keep track of 2 variables: the amount of cold damage you've dealt this turn and the amount of fire damage you've taken since the end of your last turn.
  
• Your HP will get low and high and low again and it can be tricky to get it to stay high sometimes. Accidental self-incapacitations do happen when you aren't paying attention.
  
• It's very easy to get stuck just healing yourself, instead of losing HP to do damage.

Once you get the hand of Absolute Zero though, he can do great work.

[Fosforo]

great great guide. one of the best I ever read.

[Meemitone]

I've been told that low res images with the copyright on them works, but want to confirm what's low res enough. after that I should be good to load up on images

[Natediggadoggity]

Well then, good news. On the main discussions section, stickied in the forum thread, is a link to Spiff's SoTM Resources. There, he has print and play files for all of the heroes and their variants. Not every card, but the heroes. http://www.spiffworld.com/sotm/printable.cfm
His resources are also linked from the Greater than Games forums. I can guarantee the devs are alright with that. :D

Also on the greater than games forums is an exhaustive google doc where all the card text of every card in the game has been typed up. The Dev's have allowed this to exist, and are alright with people using it for reference.

Now, no pressure to put images up if you don't want to, but I do think it helps increase readability.

[Meemitone]

The problem with using card images is that the guides could end up being used as a print and play source, (which I'm pretty sure would be illegal or just a bad thing to do anyway) so I'm taking the safe approach and asking about what I can use before trying to use anything. I think I could be told to take out card texts as it is anyway, so I'd rather play it safe until then.

[Natediggadoggity]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using images of the cards. Look at the first guide made for this game: Unlocking the Base Variants. It's been up since this game was released on steam, and there's been no problems with it. In fact, I think a few card pictures help break up the text and make it more readable.
Good job though!