I love SNKRX and after beating NG+5 with a few builds I wanted to see how far I could take the Loop option and get to the furthest wave possible. After much playtesting and theorycrafting this really fun build was able to get to wave 75 on NG+5 and I lost because it killed the boss too fast and enemies just kept spawning without ending the wave which I was unprepared for since I thought the wave was over. I hope others can try this build or please suggest ways to make it better, and shout out any other late-game focused builds!

Before getting into the details I will go over the inspiration of the build.

Many of the units in this game have damage numbers in the shop but that doesn't really help when you can't see how much health the enemies have, so all the numbers helped with is comparing units to each other. I had a lot of fun with many of the builds in this game but none of them stacked up, such as Forcer + Warrior did NO damage to elites since that build's damage comes from the items that do damage on contact with the walls and elites don't get pushed. Ranger + Rogue was fun, but did not survive once the damage dropped off. Building around the mage, curser, builder, swamer, nuker, voider, all very fun builds once you get them going, but eventually they all stop being able to kill any enemies. After getting to late game several times and feeling how the enemies just weren't dying quick enough, the class that I saw that had the best scaling is the Mercenaries, for one particular unit and item: Dividends and Gambler.

• Dividends multiplies all damage done by Mercenaries by the amount of gold you have as a percentage. If you have 2900 gold then you will be doing +2900% damage which is 30x damage.

• The Gambler's attack does double your gold as damage, and the level 3 ability chains that attack to up to 4 enemies.

Focusing on this synergy I designed a run with units completing the Merchant and Sorcerer classes, and focused all items on making this build go as far as it can.

I am going to go over Items next now that the core of the build has been established. In the next section I will go into detail about the specific units, but in service of making the Gambler pop I have filled both the Mercenary and Sorcerer class bonuses, which leaves 3 units to spare that I have filled with healers.

Here is the real core of the build. 12 is the maximum number of units you can have through loops and NG+. On NG+5 you start with all 12 slots so you can always pick up your endgame units as they come up. Money is core to getting the Mercenary class to scale, and the Sorcerer class multiplies the effectiveness of the Gambler, so both of these will be filled. The Gambler fills one of each of these slots, so only 3 more Mercenaries and 5 more Sorcerers are needed.
Units are selected based on their ability to impact the late game, which is NG+5 Lv.25+

When selecting units to fill the synergies it is almost easier to use process of elimination.
Starting with the Mercenary units, their damage is based around the Dividends item, so the 4 Mercenary units should all deal damage, so of the 5 total Mercenaries the Merchant is left out.
Now for the 6 Sorcerers, of the 8 total I prefer the ones with utility then AoE, which leaves out the single target damage of the Arcanist and Artificer. The remaining Sorcerer units are Gambler, Silencer, Warden, Witch, Vulcanist, and Psychic.

This leaves 3 flex positions, which I would be sure to take at least 2 healers. The last could be another healer or a sorcerer, or even something else with more utility to help survive. Please let me know your best suggestion for this final unit.

The details for each unit are below:

• Merchants
  
  • Gambler
    
    • Deal 2X damage to a single Random enemy where X is your gold. Level 3 effect: 60/40/20% chance to cast the attack 2/3/4 times.
      
      • Around level 50 I have 2000+ gold, so combined with the Dividends item a single hit from the gambler does (2*2000)*20 = 80,000 damage. With a high chance of chaining this attack kills even elites in one shot and is very satisfying to hear the audio cue through everything and watch enemies just evaporate, especially elites. Also this attack is not a projectile and has infinite range.
  • Miner
    
    • Picking up gold releases 4 homing projectiles that each deal 40 damage. Level 3 effect: 4 > 8 homing projectiles that pierce twice.
      
      • Early game the Miner is not good, but late game there is a lot of gold dropping and each shot with dividends will deal 40*20= 800 damage, and each shot is seeking and piercing, and each gold picked up releases 8 of these.
  • Thief
    
    • Throws a knife that deals 104 damage and chains 5 times. Level 3 effect: If the knife crits... whatever
      
      • 104*20 = 2080 damage, chained 5 times. No crit in this build but whatever.
  • Usurer
    
    • Curses 3 nearby enemies indefinitely, dealing 52 damage per second. Level 3 effect: If the same enemy is cursed 3 times it takes 520 damage.
      
      • 52 dps * 20 = 1,000 damage per second to three targets.

• Sorcerers (Gambler above)
  
  • Warden
    
    • Creates a force field around a random unit that prevents enemies from entering. Level 3 effect: 2 units are shielded.
      
      • This bubble shield has a nice range that can be used to knock enemies away and give yourself some breathing room. Very helpful in higher waves, and with the sorcerer bonus I have had many times where the shield is around 4 units briefly and I can spin and knock everyone away to escape swarms.
  • Silencer
    
    • Curses 5 nearby enemies for 6 seconds, preventing them from using special attacks.
      
      • The biggest threat late game is enemy abilities, such as the blue enemies that explode on death. Mitigating these enemies is very helpful.
  • Witch
    
    • Creates an AoE that also shoots and chains, all of which doing 67.6 damage.
      
      • The Witch has surprisingly consistent damage because they spit out a ton of stuff. Even if it's not enough to kill it definitely helps.
  • Vulcanist
    
    • Creates AoE volcanoes that explode 4 times dealing 52 damage...
      
      • The volcano is on a very long cooldown, but when it pops up it is nice to use as a safe space since enemies usually die before getting close.
  • Psychic
    
    • Creates a small area that deals 52 AoE. Level 3 Effect: The attack can happen from any distance and repeats once.
      
      • Not great but needed to fill out the Sorcerer class, and it's AoE with infinite range so it works well with the playstyle.

• Other
  
  • Fairy
    
    • Creates 2 healing orbs and grants 2 units +100% attack speed
      
      • Double attack speed on any unit except Miner is great. Double speed Gambler is insane...
  • Priest
    
    • Creates 3 healing orbs every 12 seconds Level 3 effect: picks 3 random units and grants them a buff that prevents death once.
      
      • This is the utility that is useful late game. 3 units with undying, and a lucky Warden shield with that could save a bad situation.
        Other sorcerer units: deals damage. Level 3 effect: deals more damage/list]
    • Flex position
      
      • I usually put another sorcerer here just to keep damage going out as much as possible.

Last step in the build is to put them in a good order. Position important units towards the middle to keep them safe.

1. The head of the snake is one of the most likely to die first, so put something here that won't cripple your functionality if it dies, like one of the damage sorcerer units.
2. Usurer is good in position 2 so you have better control over the curse.
3. Gambler is position 3 to take advantage of the Speed 3 item.
4. Thief just behind gambler so it can use the Speed 3 in case one of the positions ahead dies.
5-7: Miner, Warden, Priest to keep them safe
8-12: the remaining sorcerer units

Now all that's left is to drive the bus.
Priority #1 is staying away from enemies.
The biggest threat to this build is the enemies that explode on death, since everything gets killed before it has a chance to do damage.
Priority #2 is collecting gold, since accumulating gold increases your overall damage, and in the level the Miner launches their barrage on gold pickup.
Then just collect healing orbs and stay away from enemies and try to keep your eye on the snake through all the effects on the screen!

Good luck with this build, let me know if you try it or if there are any ways to make it survive longer!