When you first start Armello Rot Victories can seem a bit daunting, but as you'll see below, with a few simple strategies they can be achieved even on a regular basis.

A Rot Victory is achieved when you manage to beat the King in Combat and your Rot is HIGHER than his.

If you haven't done so already you should read all about Rot and its effects (including Corruption) in the Rot and Corruption Guide.

Every Dusk Sequence the King gains one more Rot, so the earlier you can attack him the lower your Rot will have to be. However, the more Rot you both have, the more combat dice are added to your favor.

Just remember that if you do manage to Kill him but die yourself in the process you hand Victory to the player with the highest prestige (and you would have just lost all of yours for attacking the King).

So make sure your ready !

It may seem like stating the obvious but to ensure yourself of a Rot Victory you want to increase your Rot at any Chance you get. This guide provides you with a list of ways to do that, as well as a list of ways you can loose Rot either on purpose or because other players want to make you less evil.

One of the easiest ways to gain Rot is by playing cards that have a Rot cost.
Here is a list of all the cards that cost Rot to play (broken down by deck):

• Cubs Blood[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Poisoned Gift [wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Marauder's_Gauntlet [wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot; also a great piece of gear.

• Plague Bearers[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot

• Plague[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Malice Rising[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Call of the Worm[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot

• Warlock[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 2 Rot

• Bane Blade[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Raven's_Beak_Dagger[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot
  
• Poppit[wiki.armello.com] - Cost 1 Rot

There are also a number of cards whose effect is to inflict a Hero with Rot:

• Dark Influence[wiki.armello.com] Imparts 1 Rot on target and gives target a Plague card in their hand
  
• Plague[wiki.armello.com] Target receives 1 Rot and is Poisoned.
  
• Plague Spreaders[wiki.armello.com] Target loses 2 HP, if they die this turn they gain 1 Rot.

There are a number of other ways to gain Rot. These include:

• Once you have achieved a Rot Victory you will unlock the Spoil Amulet that gives you +2 Rot at the beginning of the game.
  
• Banes[wiki.armello.com]: Being killed by a Bane increases your Rot by 1. An Early game tactic is to Suicide against Banes, thus increasing your Rot.
  
• Being killed by a Player with the Raven's Beak dagger equipped will grant you 1 Rot.
  
• Once you are corrupted, if you kill a Bane you absorb some of its Rot as it dies and this increases your Rot by 1. Dying from Banes without killing them does not grant Rot to corrupted targets. There's a fun interaction of mutually killing a Bane at 4 rot- dying to the Bane brings you to 5 (corrupted), then the Bane's death "while you are corrupted" earns you a 6th rot point.
  
• Many quests that involve conflicts with Rotten creatures will impart 1 rot if your fail the Risk check.
  
• Once you are corrupted, the quest choice that would have rewarded a spirit stone gets replaced with a quest that rewards +2 rot as it's reward.
  
• Anytime you enter a dungeon, there's a chance you can play "The Goblin's Game". The Goblins will offer you the chance to drink their soup- giving you 2 rot; or Hand you the Raven's Beak dagger treasure which costs Rot to equip. Their middle option grants permenant scout at the cost of 1 Max Body; but has nothing to do with Rot.
  
• If you have least 1 point of Rot, anytime you enter a forest, there's a Chance you'll encounter "The Dark Temptation". The Ghoul will offer bonus to you at the "cost" of also receiving rot.
  
• Kings Decrees[wiki.armello.com]: There is 1 King Decree on Dawn 5, Blood Moon, which causes ALL Hero's to gain 1 Rot. Another option on that day causes Plague Perils to appear in all towns without Perils already.

As you can see from above there are quite a few ways to gain Rot, but if you think creatively you can combine these techniques in a number of ways in order to help maximise your Rotiness (is that a word ?).

Here are some ideas:

• Play Cub's Blood[wiki.armello.com] and then suicide to the Bane that comes to it.
  
• Play Malice Rising[wiki.armello.com] and then suicide to the Bane that is summoned.
  
• Play the Plague Card[wiki.armello.com] to yourself while standing on a Settlement or Swamp tile, give you +2 Rot (1 for playing the card and 1 for being infected by it).
  
• Play the Plague Bearers Card[wiki.armello.com] to yourself while on a Swamp or a Dungeon tile, when you are on 2 Health. Once again you will gain +2 Rot (1 for playing the card and one for its effects).
  
• Similarly, Dark Influence[wiki.armello.com] can be played on yourself and combined with the resulting Plague card will get you 3 rot in one turn; particularly useful if you land on the Plague tile at the end of your turn, as then its drawback will have no effect. - (Thanks TofuFox)
  
• Take quests that offer Rot Treasures as rewards if you think you can pass the tests, or quests that mention Rot as the conflict if you think you'll fail in hopes that Rot is the "punishment".
  
• Focus on getting corrupted before resolving your 1st quest. If you accept a new quest while corrupted, instead of being offered a Spirit stone reward you'll get +2 Rot.

Once you have gained more than 5 Rot you become corrupted. This dramatically changes the way you play.
Once corrupted you need to remember that:

• Players with any amount of Rot now take lose one (1) Health every Dawn, just like the King.
  
• Corrupted Characters die if they enter a Stone Circle (for any reason) and as a result quests will not direct Corrupted Heroes to Stone Circles.
  
• Corrupted Characters gain one (1) Health for every creature they kill in combat, similar to Banes.
  
• Banes are neutral to Corrupted Heroes - they will not attack them (but will still fight back if attacked). Killing Banes rewards you a point of rot INSTEAD of prestige.
  
• Corrupted Characters’ Rot dice hit and explode (grant a bonus roll), while their Wylds will miss and not explode.

• Sana changes things; she uses her Spirit state as combat dice when battling Corrupted creatures. She's much more dangerous to Rot path players, and similarly can hit Banes or the King pretty hard. This also means that increasing Fight for Sana isn't as useful as for other Heroes, as it will not increase your combat effectiveness in key situations; other bonuses [Dice/Swords/etc] do. - (Thanks TofuFox)
  
• Being Corrupted prevents you from usefully burning cards with Wyld symbols, which can be tricky as some of them you don't really want all that much. You need to consider a plan for card dumping in these cases. Just remember that Rot Cards now cause your dice to explode. - (Thanks TofuFox)
  
• Having other people corrupted but not as much as you is of course very useful. If you manage to increase your Rot very quickly, once you hit 8 or 9 rot, you may want to spread out the Rot gaining cards (i.e. stop grinding through the deck's looking for them ) rather than continuing to boost your own. This allows you to gain advantages in fights against the other Hero's.
  This is particularly true for Sana, as if you can get the other players Corrupted, but still with less Rot than you, it's going to be very hard for them to win fights against you, since you'll have at least 10 dice base before equipment / spells. - (Thanks TofuFox)

There are a limited number of ways to lose Rot. Some of these are voluntary but others you need to be on your look out for as other players will be able to play them on you.

• If you collect 4 Spirit Stones, then attain corruption, or vice versa you are automatically cleaned of all your Rot and are killed. The 4 Stones are retained to allow a Spirit Walker victory.
  
• If you run into Druids at a Stone Circle choosing the Tree option will causes you to be cleansed of all Rot.
  
• The card Cleansing Wyld[wiki.armello.com] can be played to any Hero and will cause them to loose 1 Rot.
  
• While it can't be used on other Hero's remember that Sana also has a Quartz ring that lets her lose 1 rot if she is in a stone circle at dawn - (Thanks WarpWind)