Dance of Cards – Guide to Custom Mode Character Differences

This is to explain the major and minor differences characters can have when they go from Quickplay mode to Custom Game.

Custom Mode Character Differences

Please note: all credit goes to ESN 64!

Intro

While Quickplay automatically puts everybody at the highest level with everything maxed out and automatically selects the item for them, Custom game allows you to drastically change a lot of things in the game. Some characters benefit immensely from this, and some other characters either get very little or even nothing at all. Overall, I consider this mode a lot more unbalanced than Quickplay, but it has a lot of special quirks to it and it might be helpful to know some of the more abusable stuff if you want to do a match with it.

No Worthwhile Changes

Unfortunately, not everybody is a winner, there is 1 character who gets literally nothing, not even a funny gimmick.

Lev’s superior design shows its flaws here, all his Talents, stats, and items are objectively better the higher they are, so there’s no point in giving him any changes from Quickplay mode aside from your choice of accessory unless you deliberately want to handicap yourself. Just comfort yourself in knowing you picked the character with the snazziest stache.

Gimmicks

You can be funny, and you can even be successful, probably, maybe.

What? Archie/Archibald? All his Talents are strict upgrades and so are his items, why isn’t he in with Lev? Well it’s because of something silly, but maybe potentially useful. Depending on how often you want to trigger Bad Boy, you can intentionally skip on getting Composure boosts and make it easier to enter Panic. You could also boost your Composure even further to prevent Bad Boy more but that’s boring and you might as well just go for the funnier option.

Dita has the option to forego Golden Ring (TP: 9, TP Recovery: 2) for Silver Ring (TP: 12, TP Recovery: 1) which is…… an interesting choice to say the least. The benefits of 2 TP Recovery are huge and not worth losing for 3 extra max TP, but it is worth noting that Silver Ring Dita can start a match with double Charm (Golden Ring has to wait an additional turn to do it), and if Franz is backing you up the extra TP really helps. Realistically though, just use Golden Ring.

Small Changes

Actual worthwhile changes that aren’t just gimmicks, though they’re also not anything too major.

Level 2 Gift might be appealing, the difference is 25 chips, so even though your allies get a little less you can use it a little more often. Money Trap is also worth downgrading, 9 TP is expensive, and oftentimes 100 chips is enough for a trap, so taking it at Level 1 makes it a lot more usable, and you can punish people for trying to get extra turns by making small bets.

Downgrading Just One Glass to Level 2 or even Level 1 can be worth it since you can use Happy Drunk and Sad Drunk more often, at the cost of using Total Drunk less. Level 1 leans more towards Happy Drunk if you want to affect chips more, Level 2 lets you use Sad Drunk more to continue draining TP. Personally, I think Level 2 is the better option, since you get a lot more control over what level you land on and can aim for Total Drunk occasionally, but all levels are good options I feel. Also, you have the option of fine tuning your Composure to control when you go into Panic and activate Bottoms Up, but I’d be wary because going into Panic during Rehab is really annoying.

Mask of Tragedy is actually a pretty good choice for your item, 16 is a lot for Max TP, and Classical Training already lets you grab additional TP anyways, so you don’t miss 2 TP Recovery that much. You also have the option of taking Level 2 Makeup if you’re confident your team can deal with characters that run them, though you lose the ability to just completely invalidate a lot of things and Simon, you’ll be able to use it more to keep the important debuffs off your team. If you’re going solo you may even be tempted to do Level 1 Makeup, but I still wouldn’t be too eager to go alone in Custom Game with people like Douglas running around.

You have the same choice Dita has between keeping an amazing 2 TP Recovery or throwing it away for 3 extra Max TP, except your TP costing Talents aren’t nearly as absuable, even if you have Franz backing you up. Level 1 Provoke is a lot cheaper and should let you use it more reliably, with the loss of extra turns not really mattering that much (though even if it did, Level 2 is still an option), Threat maybe could be downgraded as a gimmick but the most I could see is slightly more spam with Level 2. The real big thing for Joseph however is that you can max out your Composure even further which, when combined with Strong Will, means you basically never have to worry about Panic.

Big Changes

Funny card man

Funny hat woman

Respectable gentleman with a high class suit.

Unrespectable “gentleman” who I want to punch in the face.

Poor Esmera

Rich Raymond

I still think her portrait is really neat, I like it.

Huge Changes

Franz is cracked as ♥♥♥♥.

Look him in his merciless eyes, and cry for a god who can not help you.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 8085 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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