Beginner guide · Steam Demo
Combat basics: plan the turn before you attack
Read enemy intentions, budget your energy and give the killing blow to the card that earns the reward.
Demo build 23718635The short answer
Check what each enemy will do, decide which threat must stop this turn, then reserve enough energy for your finisher. Use ordinary damage to prepare a kill for Roast or Hungry blade instead of spending your best fatal trigger first.
In this guide
Cards explained in this guide
Start with the enemy, not your biggest card
Hover over each enemy’s intent and status icons before playing. An enemy that cancels its attack when damaged needs a different answer from one that retaliates when damaged. Check the condition on this particular enemy; hitting everything once is not a universal defensive plan.
Choose the immediate goal: kill the dangerous attacker, interrupt an attack whose tooltip allows it, or survive the remaining damage. Count your energy and identify the cards that can achieve that goal now. A future draw or a fatal-hit refund is not energy you already have.
Leave the right amount of health for the finisher
At base values, Stab deals 4 for 1 energy and Roast deals 3 for 1 energy. Against a 7-health enemy with no damage modifiers or retaliation, Stab followed by Roast costs 2 energy, kills the enemy and produces Toasty. Reversing those two cards still kills, but Roast no longer lands the fatal hit and does not make the food.
Treat this as a turn-planning example. Armour, status effects, multiple hits and upgraded values can change the result. Use the current damage preview, and recalculate after the first action.
Food-producing finisher
Roast1 energy · Combat
- Deal 3 damage
- On a fatal hit: Create 1 Toasty
Its food comes from the fatal trigger. Spending Roast on a healthy target without a follow-up plan can lose both the food and the energy needed to finish.
Full effects, properties & growth →
A different reward for the killing blow
Hungry blade1 energy · Combat
- Deal 5 damage
- On a fatal hit: Increase damage by 2
The base attack deals 5 and gains 2 damage on a fatal hit. Give it a safe kill when you need future damage; use a food-producing finisher when recovery is more urgent.
Full effects, properties & growth →Spend setup energy only when it changes the result
- Read the current costs of the setup card and the finishing attack. Keep the finisher’s cost available.
- Check whether a status effect or damage increase actually reaches the kill threshold. Avoid spending a card just because it is playable.
- If using Flash, check its remaining battery. Zero energy does not mean unlimited uses.
- Make the setup play, inspect the enemy again, then deliver the intended fatal hit.
- Use generated food according to health and eating triggers. Check for retaliation or other effects triggered by playing a card before eating several pieces.
Before ending the turn
| Check | Decision |
|---|---|
| A dangerous enemy is still attacking | Compare its incoming damage with your current health and any remaining affordable response. |
| You have food and missing health | Decide whether healing now changes survival; do not assume food is safe against every status combination. |
| You have no energy | A positive-cost card cannot use a refund that only happens after it is played. Look for an actual affordable action. |
| Your plan relies on a card staying in hand | Check Linger, Temporary and other properties before ending the turn. |
A useful first-run exercise
For one encounter, pick the intended finisher before playing your first attack. After each kill, check whether you received the food or damage growth you expected. If not, look at which card actually killed the target.
You are learning to turn the same amount of damage into a better reward. Once that order feels natural, add food growth and camp upgrades to the plan.