Strategies thread!

[NemoParticipant]

I’ll be honest with you! To this day I never found out (but tried) if swiftfoot does or affects anything at all. I think it doesn’t. Same for turn delay. Perhaps the turn indeed is delayed, but it’s barely noticeable and most often it’s not noticeable at all. But I’m glad that you managed to see the light in it :). Maybe I haven’t put enough resources and dedication into this.

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Cainohpue

[CainohpueSpectator]

While I saw some changes in the turn order based on the units’ Swiftfoot/Slowfoot values, I never deemed it worthy to build a strategy around it.

There’s one really important factor when it comes to delay strategies: The moment you have chosen a card, the new turn order based on the card’s effect and the (pre-)selected target is already shown. That means you need to keep an eye on the turn order before and after selecting the card/target in order to notice any changes. Furthermore, you need to achieve certain delay values until the turn order changes. By firing off, for example, a single “Gravity Burn” (0.3 delay for all enemies), all enemies are immediately set back in the turn order, but hit an enemy with three “Knock Backs” (only 0.05 delay for each hit) and you might not see a change yet.

Ultimately, there seems to be a limit to how much turn orders can be affected, so at least some enemies can’t be delayed ad infinitum. It’s still satisfying, though, when they’re already on the verge of death on their first turn – just to have their only attack damage negated by the “Mark of Guidance” treasure. 😀

[SpoilerSpreeParticipant]

My guess is the turn order like Final Fantasy Tactics.

Everyone have x/100 turn bar. Your speed change value to that bar per tick, same with turn boost/delay. When someone turn bar reach 100 they can act. If several reach 100 at same time, the faster character can act first.

At full sticker buff you have 20 speed so swiftfoot is not noticeable. Without sticker everyone have 10 / 11 / 12(+3 if theme 1) speed. Adding swiftfoot here would boost a lot.

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Cainohpue

[CainohpueSpectator]

Thanks, that would be a reasonable explanation. I never turn the stickers off, and during my recent theme deck 1 dungeon runs, I couldn’t really notice any differences in the turn order based on the Swiftfoot values. While I like to earn myself the opportunity to one-shot through JRPGs, it’s safe to assume that this game forces the player to play more strategically when turning certain permanent benefits off.

Did anyone of you fail a dungeon run because a strategy didn’t work as imagined? The game even provides a “hints screen” if you fail a dungeon run. I’ve only failed one dungeon run so far, and it was totally my fault. I wasn’t even defeated, I was only stupid by maneuvering myself into an unwinnable situation. During a theme deck 1 dungeon run, I relied on “The End”, which doubles the power of the next attack card used, with the caveat that the used attack card is removed for the rest of the battle (I mistakenly thought that removed cards would be moved back to the deck if there were fewer than 5 cards to draw, but that’s not the case). In a boss fight, I actually managed to remove all of my attack cards this way, but still failed to kill the boss. Since I didn’t acquire any damage dealing treasures or Sheep Cards during that run, all I could do was let myself get slaughtered, even though I had the healing means to prolong the battle ad infinitum. Actually, this was also the first time I saw the “enemy gets stronger counter” reach 0, so at least I could get myself killed a little bit faster.

[CainohpueSpectator]

I really need to advertise the acceleration/delay strategy (theme deck 4) once again. There’s one (difficult to achieve) way to make this strategy even more broken.

Let’s assume you manage to obtain 3x “Aero Sonic” (a multi-hit card that costs 2 mana and accelerates the user at the end of the turn), alongside strategy supporting treasures (the most important being “Swift Disc” that boosts acceleration/delay effects by 50%). Let’s assume further you can always reach an initial mana value of 6 (e.g. 2 “Secret Room” upgrades and one treasure), and you made the deck so small that you always draw your 3 “Aero Sonics”.

Now during any battle, fire off your 3 “Aero Sonics” and watch the turn order. I couldn’t believe it at first, but if you fire off 3 “Aero Sonics” in this setup, the user is accelerated so fast that (s)he gets another turn – and the same on the following turn. It’s practically an infinite turns setup.

You start theme deck 4 runs with 1 copy of “Aero Sonic”, and even though this card only has a “normal” rating, it seems to be hard to obtain further copies. I’m seriously considering at this point to dial back the “Secret Room” settings that favor the appearance of high/secret/ultra rare cards.

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Nemo, Victar, Jesusalva

[SpoilerSpreeParticipant]

The most broken combo is 2 Grave Sheep + Digging Work + 0 cost attack

Grave Sheep cost nothing to bring back 2 card in discard to hand. The idea is keep getting this or Digging work (0 cost, bring 1 card from discard to hand).

battle start
0 cost attack
digging work
0 cost attack
grave sheep
0 cost attack
digging work
0 cost attack
2nd grave sheep
repeat till enemy dead

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Nemo, Jesusalva, Cainohpue

[CainohpueSpectator]

Interesting approach. I’ve preferred basic “Abyss Slash”/”Hard Slash”/”Slash Pick” strategies so far when using Theme deck 1. It’s not exactly guaranteed to obtain 2x “Grave Sheep” during a dungeon run, but you can, of course, raise your chances with the “Stuffed Toy Sheep” treasure and the pay-to-shortcut DLCs “+1 choice” and “always swap once” (and you can even add Sheep Cards permanently to your deck by obtaining the “Edible Gold Coin” treasure).

I will stick with theme deck 4, since it works for me, even if I don’t come across so many useful cards during a dungeon run. Theme decks 1 and 2 in particular are a lot less fun if you can’t obtain the cost-reducing treasures (“Relax Tingling” and “Sword Girl Statue”), although theme deck 2 is satisfying to play if you manage to pull off a (nearly) infinite “Attract Chain”/”Grave Chain” loop.

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Jesusalva

[CainohpueSpectator]

I just had a very fun “Tower of Trial” run with theme deck 2, beat the boss with a 157 hit combo in one (on the first) turn. My deck was composed of 2x “Chain Whip” (from the start), 2x “Attract Chain”, 1x “Grave Chain” and 1x “Limitless Swordflash”, which basically creates an endless loop, provided you’re able to obtain the “Sword Girl Statue” (which reduces the cost of all “Chain” cards by 1, making all “Chain” card costs of the deck above 0). And of course, having a “Collection Doll” treasure and encountering many “Cheap Cards” shops to get rid of cards is a necessity, too.

The strategy is simple: Use the “Chain Whips” whenever possible to reduce your hand, then “Attract Chain” to draw/copy cards (with 2 copies in a 6 cards deck, by drawing 5 cards, you’re guaranteed to draw one copy on the first turn), and finally “Grave Chain” in the right moment to add the cards from the “Discard” pile to your hand to continue the loop. The “Attract Chains” can also copy themselves (and their copies), so it can get a bit tedious when you’re drawing them for a while, which is why 2 copies of them are enough. This is also the reason why I added a “Limitless Swordflash”, because it deals an additional 5 HP damage for every card used in this turn, so each time you draw it, you can fire it off at the right moment for a few hundred HP damage.

If you didn’t like theme deck 2 before, maybe this is the strategy that can reconcile you with the deck, though it might prove difficult to obtain a “Grave Chain” and a “Sword Girl Statue” treasure (both ultra-rare) during the same run.

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Jesusalva

[Shram86Participant]

I unlocked all cards, and roughly 80% of stickers. I finished the main story, with a time of 33 hours and change.

It wasn’t the best. Most side quests become run a previous dungeon 3 or 4 times to clear it at a certain Karma level. The plot is meh.

As for blightstone boosts, I can fairly confidently say that purchasing the boosts that increase the card drop rate of uncommon and rare cards are going to be more worth your while than the MP+ boost, at least for the main game. In practice, you will be beholden to the cards that you draw from treasure chests – and if you can’t get a few of the main good rares, you are going to have trouble. Add that to the loooong amount of time it takes to accrue 3000 blightstones – virtually the entire game – and it suddenly seems worthless.

For instance, Step Charge, Recycle, Throw Away and Particle Cannon/Hades Blow (from either deck 3 or 4, I believe) has by far the highest damage potential – not because of their numbers, but because the chance of getting those cards is more reliable than other card combos.

The next best I’ve used is probably Chain Call / Foam Sword / Endless Swordflash. There are a variety of ways to keep pulling cards and getting small, 0-cost hits, especially if you combine these cards with the Slash Button treasure or the treasure that reduces slash cards by 1 mana. Starts to feel overpowered pretty quickly versus other decks which take a lot more effort to get an effective combo set.

At the end of the day though, the strategy involved in this game is fairly minimal.

• Once you learn what cards increase your damage potential the most, all the other cards are just noise.
• I’ve found that a deck of size 14-16 keeps the rotation of strong cards fairly common.
• Multiple copies of strong cards are actually recommended. The fastest run I’ve ever done was with two Recycles and two Hades Blows.
• Turn-by-turn, you either use a card or your don’t. There is barely any when-and-where selectivity. As long as you consistently pick strong cards, you can mash the A button to beat any dungeon.
• Certain treasures, like certain cards, are clearly much more preferable than others. If you have the option of getting the Lucky Pig, for instance, you absolutely will take it. Some cards and treasures have clear downsides, others have none at all.

I got screenshots of the credits and submitted my time to HLTB. I don’t really see myself playing this again – it’s far too repetitive, and only has the illusion of strategy.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Shram86.

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Jesusalva, Cainohpue, Victar

[CainohpueSpectator]

I can’t really refute what you’re saying, but at the same time, I don’t think this verdict does the game justice. You probably spent a lot of time to discover your favorite combos (mastering the game doesn’t mean it’s devoid of any strategy), and the fact that I prefer other combos than you should at least demonstrate a certain degree of variety (that “Pig Statue” treasure that you mentioned, for example, is totally useless when using my favorite combos).

I think the game has a lot to offer when it comes to resource management, decision-making (prioritization) and even the story, and I never thought I could have this much fun with a rogue-like game of this sort (I still prefer classic JRPG experiences, though).

You, on the other hand, probably won’t go for 100% completion rate in everything; my playtime is five times as much as yours – and I’m still stuck at 99% event completion rate.

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Jesusalva