Edit: Big Thank to Droid (dev) for balancing the difficulty levels even more. High tier Monsters come a bit later, but are much harder to fight now in Ultra. I will do a full Playthrough with v1.0.6 to test it out. Hopefully we do not need House Rules any longer for a Ultra+.

Btw. I dislike House Rules in general, coz to have them is like a "forced diet, sitting in front of a table full of delicacies, denying them".

Have fun with v1.0.6, and then we will see if there is still any need for further action (House Rules).



House Rules:

1) We play gem decks with 3 empty slots, one of them is the Pair slot. 2 are up to you. They may be different from fight to fight.

2) And: Every kind of gems is limited by 2 (exceptions: Junk and Diamond=Pure Damage. Otherwise the start would be too difficult).

3) No Lightning against “Demons”. Consider them as immune to Lightning. Take your Lightning gems out against Demons. They are meant to be really strong coz of their increasing Rage. But they cannot bring out their strength when being stunned all the time.

I really would prefer if at least one kind of M would be immune against Lightning. I guess “Demons” are a good pick for that, to make them a real threat again. With this “House Rule”, it will work.

Like that, “Ultra+” is not only harder than vanilla “Ultra”, but also has more variety and is much more balanced:

“To stun an M without giving him a chance to hit even once” will not be so easy any more (Lightning limited to 2 gems). And “to trigger huge amounts of stacked Rage with just a low Cluster gem in a Pair slot” is also no option any more (although you still can do that with a higher tier Cluster gem).

In the beginning the 2 empty slots (beside the Pair slot) could be the 2 highest (=rarest) slots: SF and RF.

Later, with lots of Jokers, the slot “2 Pairs” will be the rarest. The other one to keep empty might be “Full House”.

Let’s say you keep the Full House (FH) slot empty. Now you still can put a FH line on the table. This is counted as if you had a Junk bead in that slot. You still do some damage, but just a tiny bit.
One should keep in mind which gems are where, and what slots are empty, when placing the cards. In other words, strategic playing is more rewarded.

You still are able to use a highly effective Lightning /Poison deck. Put Lightning in the 4s slot, another Lightning in the Straight or the 5s slot. Add 2 Poison and – may be – 2 Ice. Your flawless Diamond from Chloe fits into the RF slot. Making a real badass gem deck (specially with high INT).

If you decide to go for a Rage /Cluster /Shield deck, a high tier Rage goes into the 4s. A Lightning in the 3s slot for timed stuns is always helpful (against Demons take Cluster instead).

Since a low Cluster in Pair is not possible any more (house rule), you need middle and high tier Cluster gems to trigger stacked Rage. These are more expensive ofc, but do more damage too (compared to a Cluster in the Pair slot).

With the Molly /Chloe combo, 5s are quite easy to place on the table at will. Like that, 5s is a recommendable slot for a high tier Shield gem. If you need Shield, you put a 5s if you can. If you don’t need Shield (having enough already), a 4s will do, refusing to place a 5s.

Enjoy your experiences ;)