Take Me to the Dungeon! – How to Set Yourself Up to Beat the Boss

I’ve been seeing lots of reviews saying the game is too hard. It’s not, if you know how all the mechanics work.

Guide to Set Yourself Up to Beat the Boss

Сrеdit gоеs to andyisverydumb!

Tl;dr

• Stack aura/halo before mid-boss.
• Don’t bring ANY effects that are not the focus of your build, because it affects relic spawn.
• Poison / burn are very powerful with the aura buff.
• Max out the runes.

Aura/Halo

You get these buffs from discarding cards. When you discard, you feel like you’re losing power, but these buffs remain when you rest, so the right way to play is:

• Before the midboss rest: aim to discard 3 cards, then take a short rest to get them back. Don’t pick the rest that resets the aura buffs!
• During the midboss fight, discard as many cards as you can. I’ll rest with a full hand, if I know the midboss is going to die from debuff damage.
• When approaching the hot springs, aim to discard 3 cards again.

The problem with playing this way in the early dungeon is that you’ll be getting hit, and can’t heal before the midboss. Bring some healing.

Passive treasures / relics

• If you’re not planning to do lots of bleed / burn / whatever don’t have ANY in your deck, because this affects the treasure spawn (You only get burn related relics if you have burn dealing cards in your deck).
• Also, There’s 3 types, mutation, treasure, common, and they appear in different places. I’m too lazy to list them, but figure out which ones are important for your build, and try to hit the spots (mutated / elite / treasure / shop) that gets it. Usually every build needs a few pieces from each type.

Combos

Charge + Charge + Tiger Strike

• It takes only 2 Charge II or 1 Charge III runes to get up to max (6) Charge on a card.
• And charge is consumed only on attacks, so get max Charge on a healing card of your choice.
• Combined with the Tiger Strike card, which adds 2.5 times to charge damage, I was consistently outputting 50 ~ 100 damage on that card. This is the most consistent source of direct damage, and heals in the combo chain, which helps with discarding in early game.

Poison + Follow Up / Counterattack

• Poison is the only DoT that doesn’t fade over time. With a few treasures, you’ll be getting great value in long fights against high HP bosses.
• The aura / discard that deals poison on followup attacks is one of the best things to go for. You can easily get 2~3 stacks before the final boss. Add on the more poison relic, you can get 4~5 stacks per followup. Plus the counterattack, it’s fairly easy to get 20~30 stacks of poison per turn. The DoT is limited to ~60 before it resets, but percentage damage is generally OK against bosses. Also, counterattack stacks up to 8, so you can get ~40 points worth of poison for free every time you get hit.

Burn

• Burn also has a nice aura that adds burn to every attack (does not include follow ups) Stacking that aura gets you 10~20 stacks of burn per turn. With the treasures that increase burn damage and decrease decay, you end up with a stable state of 30~80 burn in long fights (it fluctuates wildly). It fires before enemy, so it sometimes saves you a hit, but as it currently is, it’s weaker damage-wise than poison.

Item Stalling

• If you’re fighting a boss, and you’re running out of cards, you can stall with items. If you have high DoT stacks, and your deck has good heal / shield, this can help you eke out a win.

Runes

When you beat a dungeon, dip into the next level to collect the higher tier runes, then buy all the runes you need to craft the special runes. There’s no point saving gold. There’s too much.

My build that I won the game with:

• Sever: innate , charge III, Splash III, ATK III
• Morale: charge III, surplus III, surplus III, recovery III
• Treasure Bag: Charge III, surplus III, recovery III, recovery III
• Tiger Slash: Splash III, Pierce III, ATK III, ATK III

Main direct damage combo

• Avalanche: Innate, Follow up III, Charge up III, ATK III
• Lightning: Innate, Follow up III, ATK III, Splash III

Debuffs, priority cast when useful

• Bloodseeker: ATK III, ATK III, ATK III
• Magic Missile: Splash III, ATK III, ATK III, ATK III

Blue attack

• Blizzard: Splash III, ATK III, ATK III, ATK III
• Poison Strike: A Posteriori, Follow up III, ATK III, ATK III

Poison combo, be sure both auras are maxxed before the final boss

• Key relics: heal -> damage (witch hat?); more poison; more poison damage