Action economy and board control are your main keys to success. Most of the game is about staying ahead on tempo while not letting your companions die, while you set up your combos.

Here are a few tips and tricks to help new players get off the ground.

1. Always play companions early in the fight. even if you need to ring the bell to draw them if they are in the back half of your deck.

2. Cycle your units around to distribute the damage. Don't recall your companions until they are about to die and its the only way to prevent them from dying. They lose all the cooldown progress you have made and they don't do damage while they are in the deck. Move your companions around so that not just your tanks but even your 3hp guys soak hits. Have your damage dealers fall to 1hp before rotating them back to the backline. Just watch out for spikes, smackback, and barrage.

3. BUY CROWNS, every crown you buy comes with the benefit of "Draw your best card and take an extra turn" starting a fight with 4 companions in play already counting down is a sure fire path to success. Buy every single crown that you can and put them on all of your companions. If you find a better unit later you can unequip the crowns and move them around between battles. If you have 75 gold and a shop is an option you should be buying a crown before considering anything else. They are that strong.

Fights are a lot easier when turn one looks like this

4. Press the redraw bell instead of playing scrappy sword. Drawing through your deck for the best cards is crucial. Unless you are 1 card away from the bell refreshing you should always consider ringing the bell to dig for your best cards instead of playing scrappy swords and Tar blades.

5. Don't bloat your deck. Units can be put in reserves, but items and treasures can make it hard to find your key pieces when you need them. Cards that apply snow, summon a unit, or block a hit are incredibly powerful. But only if you have them when they are needed. Aim to have ~6 cards in your deck once everything is deployed on the board or consumed so that you can always draw your best cards every turn.

6. Don't waste time playing damage cards. Unless it kills a unit or is killing something with spikes you are usually better getting units down, applying status effects or buffs, and setting up future turns.

If all your good cards are on the bottom. Don't wait for the free refresh, just press the bell.

7. Put your upgrades on cards that multiply their effects. +2 attack should go on units that have Barrage or multiple attacks on a short cooldown. +snow/shroom charms should go on cards that have Noomlin or barrage. Try upgrade companions first and stack multiple charms on a single card to get the most possible out of it. Try and make sure you have at least 2 sources of snow or ink so that you can stall and let your companions do all the damage. instead use your spells for supporting your companions and finishing off low hp enemies.

8. Some of the most powerful cards I would recommend for new players are in no particular order:

For items:

• Blank Mask
  
• Noomlin Biscuit
  
• Snowcake
  
• Molten Dip
  
• Pepper Flag + Spice

For Companions:

• Big Berry
  
• Snoffel
  
• Chikichi + any sacrifice outlet
  
• Foxee + any attack buff
  
• Yuki + Snow.

All of the strongest cards come from interactions with charms and other cards. Try and get as many charms as possible to fish for powerful effects like Noomlin, Frenzy, Smackback, Snow, and Barrage.

9. Noomlin is the best Keyword in the game. Noomlin lets you play multiple cards a turn and break the action economy wide open. Noomin Biscuit can let you play your best card every turn for the rest of the combat and becomes broken if you have more than one card with Noomlin. This also leans into pressing the redraw bell to get to get to your power cards and keeping your deck thin so you can redraw them quickly.

Its hard to lose if you can play 3 cards every turn

10. For boss rewards I recommend picking in this order.



Though it depends on your specific run, certain synergies can make charms and bells that would be otherwise weak incredibly strong. As well as certain charms and bells being better early game vs late game. The only Certain rule is that if you see a crown you pick a crown.

When picking the card draw bell vs the refresh bells, it's only worth picking the refresh bells once you have gotten at least 2 munchers and your deck is small enough that you no longer have any weak cards. Once you intend to play every single card you draw then refresh bells become much better. Though in my experience once your deck is refined to that point and your entire deck is deployed on the field you have already won or lost before the extra refresh matters. The speed and consistency given by the Sun Bell of Hands is better as it helps you snowball the fights early by making your opening hand better and getting everything set up sooner.

Most of my wins come from setting up the board, then playing and replaying 1-3 buffed up cards with a final deck size of around 6 cards once everything is deployed on the board. For this style the card draw bell is just always the best option so that you don't miss drawing your best cards.

11. Watch the reinforcements counter. Sometimes you can kill everything before the next wave is ready to come in. Instead of killing them use that time to set up your board. Play your Woodhead and Flamewater. Apply debuffs before you need them and redraw into your best hand before the next wave comes in. You don't want to lose by being stuck with a hand full of Scrappy Swords when the next wave comes in.

12. If you are ahead try and farm with Gooblings and combos. Having enough gold to buy crowns and charms is what will make you stronger and is a key point of every successful run. Every 'hit' on a Goobling gives you 4 gold. so if you are already ahead consider hitting Gooblings with your 0 and 1 attack hits for a little extra gold. In addition if you kill multiple enemies on a single turn you get a combo multiplier on the gold that you earn. More gold means more crowns and charms which leads to a better chance of winning.
Also, if you are one gold short the shopkeeper will sell you the item regardless if you are persistent and keep asking.

Look at all that extra money

Slow down and read every card, enemy, and keyword. A single misplay by attacking into spikes or getting hit by an Aimless enemy you weren't expecting can kill you in a single turn.

Once you are established on the board and have a tempo lead on the opponents, it is much easier to take them out one at a time. Get ahead early and stay ahead by smartly blocking and using frost instead of recalling companions.

The game is not easy, but it is fantastic and i hope this helps others enjoy it as much as i do.

If you have more tips or tricks to help those struggling, please leave them in the comments and ill try and add them to the guide if i have time.