# What “best” actually means
There is no single best build, because the right deck depends on three things: what the current patch rewards, what your path and relics offered, and what your deck can realistically cast against an elite. The archetypes below are the most reliable starting points — the plans that win most often when their pieces show up. Treat them as clusters to draft toward, not rigid lists.
# Ironclad
Strength scaling
Stack Strength and pair it with multi-hit attacks so every point of Strength is multiplied across hits. The premier boss-killing plan when the deck gets going.
Block & body
Turn defense into offense — gain heavy Block and convert it to damage. Outlasts long fights while staying nearly untouchable.
Exhaust engine
Reward exhausting cards while thinning the deck for free, raising draw quality and feeding payoff cards each fight.
Aggro frontload
Cheap, efficient attacks plus debuffs to end fights before enemies scale. Low ceiling, very high consistency on the climb.
# Silent
Poison
Stack Poison to bypass Block entirely and melt high-HP targets and bosses over time. Wants a thin deck and early stacking to maximise ticks.
Shiv burst
Generate a flood of zero-cost Shivs and scale them with Strength and 'on attack' payoffs for explosive, repeatable damage.
Discard / Sly recur
Churn the deck to trigger Sly payoffs and replay discarded cards, turning deck velocity into raw value.
Block & dodge control
Lean on Weak, Intangible-style mitigation, and efficient Block to trivialise damage while a slower win condition comes online.
# Defect
Lightning / Focus
Channel Lightning and stack Focus so passive orb damage snowballs every turn — a scaling engine that wins long fights.
Frost defense
Hold Frost orbs for a self-sustaining block wall that, with Focus, makes you almost unhittable while you out-value the enemy.
Dark burst / evoke
Build Dark orbs, then evoke for a huge delayed payoff. High-ceiling burst that deletes bosses in a turn or two.
Cheap-engine spam
Chain inexpensive cards and orb generators to play half your deck per turn — consistency through sheer card velocity.
# Regent
Star engine
Build a Star economy on top of energy so star-cost cards become cheap, then convert the surplus into oversized turns.
Finisher payoff
Bank toward a high-impact finisher and set it up with the Star resource for a decisive damage spike once online.
Tempo dual-cast
Use the second resource to play more per turn than your energy alone allows, snowballing board control early.
# Necrobinder
Osty / summon tank
Keep Osty on the field to absorb hits and contribute damage on its own scaling, freeing your turns for offense.
Doom execute
Accumulate Doom to delete high-HP enemies outright once it exceeds their HP — a clean answer to fat bosses and scalers.
Soul economy
Manage Souls as a second resource to fuel summons and execution effects, treating it like a parallel energy curve.
# How to choose a build
Don't lock a build at character select. Pick a lean, then let the run confirm or redirect it:
- 1
Start with a soft plan
Know your character's two strongest archetypes going in, but stay open in the first few fights.
- 2
Commit when the engine shows
Lock in once a key payoff or relic appears that pushes one archetype clearly ahead.
- 3
Draft the cluster, skip the rest
Add cards that serve the plan, skip the shiny off-plan ones, and thin toward consistency.
- 4
Pivot if the run says so
If your engine never arrives but another cluster keeps appearing, switch — a coherent off-plan deck beats a half-built one.
Dive into a character
Open a build hub for the full archetype breakdowns, tier lists, and linked card pages.