Hi! I'm a Monster Train vet and fanatic who's looking to share knowledge accumulated over hundreds of hours of runs both triumphant and nail-biting. The guide is targeted at new & established players of the game looking to expand on their knowledge and understanding of how to utilize the various MT2 clans. If you're already an expert, this won't have much for you, but I welcome feedback and considerations if you feel I've missed something.

These clans guide will not inherently make assumptions of Covenant levels when describing strategies, but because we play at Covenant 10 and fight the Titans regularly, some biases will work its way into this guide, as certain strategies that are "fine" at low levels may not work as well later on, and some Card/Strategies overcome steeper challenges at higher difficulties than others.

For other guides of this nature, see the following links:
Banished Clan Strategy Guide
Luna Coven Clan Strategy Guide
Underlegion Clan Strategy Guide


Anywho, enjoy as we discuss the cunning, greedy, all-gas-no-brakes clan of Dragons, the Pyreborne!

Key reminder for card rarities: (C) = Common, (U) = Uncommon, (R) = Rare

Overview: The greedy dragons of Monster Train 2 lead the least defensive clan in the game, eschewing defense and survivability for a powerful offensive debuff and cards that seek to enrich the player. In doing so, their access to Gold & Artifacts is unparalleled, allowing players to develop new strategies and afford more indulgences at shops.


Offensive strategies: Designed to ease you into a fairly complex game, Pyreborne lean on direct offensive spells, and a simple debuff that can turn any puny whelp into an offensive threat. Additionally, they have multiple units that grow more powerful based on aspects such as Gold or the Dragon’s Hoard, allowing the player to both accumulate wealth and power up in battle simultaneously.

Defensive strategies: Virtually none. Health and defensive cards are almost entirely absent from this clan, and outside of very minor bonuses, must be sought out from the other clan in your run. The only substantial exception to this rule is the powerful (U) banner unit Greed Dragon, who gains health based on the Dragon’s Hoard value when summoned. The only other point of interest is that they’re the only clan with a Pyre-healing card, which can be powerful if used in conjunction with Dragon’s Hoard accumulation strategies. The strongest single defensive card they have is a Doublestacked (R) Soldier of Fortune (30 Armor), but this is a rare Consume card that draws a random unit, which might just be a Whelp!

Stat-influencing strategies: Minimal. Some Dragons Hoard artifacts increase stats, and a few Pyreborne unit cards have their stats influenced by other circumstances. However, 2 of the 3 units in question are Rares, or only available through Lady Gilda’s Lady Avarice path. Noteworthy, none of these can influence another Clan’s ability to modify stats, only the Pyrebornes themselves. Once again, the only exception is the Rare card Soldier of Fortune, which pulls a unit randomly, but grants +30 Attack.

Support strategies: Through combinations of Gold-nabbing cards & status effects, alongside their unique Dragon’s Hoard mechanic, Pyreborne have multiple ways to have you swimming in Gold, and looting more Artifacts than any other clan. This will, however, often be a choice you must choose to pursue, as few of these effects give you meaningful benefits during the battles in which you utilize them. (e.g. the common card Alchemy costs 3 of your Ember and without specific other cards, will not help you in any way during that battle.) That said, a run with 15 Artifacts simply has more flexibility to overcome problems than one with 2, and these greedy Dragons have no problem earning them!

Sweep/Backliner Strategies: Multiple spell options with (C): Flicker & Pyreball; (U): Greed, Make it Rain, Dragon’s Breath. (R): Pyreclasm. Also includes the (U) unit Hot Head’s ability “Fire Breath”, Lord Fenix’s “Fenix Fire” ability, the Rare unit Zealot, and the rare equipment Cursed Dragonstaff. Likely due to their focus on offense, this clan has many more options than most for clearing away the backline enemies.

Pyregel: A simple, powerful debuff that helps ensure enemies take more damage than they “should” from all damage sources. Put simply, a unit hit with damage will have that damage increased by their Pyregel stacks. So even though your puny whelp only has 4 attack, if he hits a boss with 50 Pyregel, he does 54 damage instead. This effect has tons of synergy both with other clans (e.g. Frostbite/Decay/Spikes do extra damage) and various artifacts/weaponry (e.g. Traitor’s Quill/Toten of a Traitor/Jackstrips all do extra damage, Cursed Dragonstaff 1-damage hits are multiplied by Pyregel, or Shield of Wyngh counterattacks for even more etc.)

Avarice: A Gold-making status effect only, if a unit with Avarice connects unblocked damage, you instantly earn Gold equal to their stacks of Avarice. All clans like Gold for spending on upgrades, but Pyreborne also have multiple interactions both in Units & Spells related to how much Gold you have.

Merchant of Steel: Avarice 3. This is a fairly weak effect and takes five “hits” to even pay for itself, but if purchased earlier in the run or paired with things like Dualism or Multistrike, this can earn you some modest cash throughout the run.

Dragon’s Hoard: A system unique to Pyreborne, in which you can accumulate up to 8 stacks of the Hoard (represented by golden eggs, and with potential to go up to 13), which can then be “looted” between battles for money, unique Dragon’s Hoard Artifacts (typically slightly weaker than traditional artifacts), and Artifacts from the usual pool as well (Clanless + Pyreborne + Clan #2). Additionally, some spell & unit cards interact with the Hoard’s stacks for other beneficial effects. Note though it gives you the option to Loot at the end of battle, you can also loot on the World Map – helpful if you’re a few Gold short of a crucial Merchant upgrade, or you misclicked.

Explosive: Damage dealt with an explosive attack, if it exceeds the unit’s remaining Health+Armor, will strike all remaining enemies for the remaining value. Thus these effects get the most impact from destroying low-health units, as the leftover damage becomes a Sweep effect. Like Lazarus' Unstable explosion, this effect only applies to enemies. E.g. even if a friendly unit is destroyed by an explosive attack, enemy units will take the explosive damage, not friendly units.

Pyreborne Banner thoughts:
Pyreborne’s units have a lot of synergy with each other, and because some have very strong inclinations between strategy builds related to Hoard, Pyregel, or neither, I strongly prefer to seek out multiple Pyreborne banners early when playing as this clan to help focus our strategies.

Conversely, if this is your sub-clan, or you’re simply pivoting to prioritize the other clans’ units, I’d be cautious about grabbing single banners, especially as the run progresses. For instance, grabbing a Pyreborne banner in ring 5 might only offer you Miser & Gildmonger, two units that would have helped much earlier in the run. Ditto for circumstances like Greed Dragon with no Hoard collection strategies in place. If we're grabbing Dragons, we personally want multiple of them established early on to get strategies set up.

Keep these considerations in mind as we discuss Pyreborne units!

Uncommon (U) Banner Units:
Gildmonger: Essentially this is just a barely improved, smaller Shield Steward with the important bonus of conferring a Dragon’s Hoard egg upon its death. With a decent health stat of 30, it’s deliberately tough to extinguish him multiple times early on, even if you get Endless on him. Regardless, he’s a reasonable choice if you’d like to passively earn some Hoard.
Upgrades/Pairings: Endless is an obvious choice to keep earning Hoard, eventually Health to help him tank better as needed. If you’re lucky to pair this with Melting Remnant or Lazarus League, Wickstones for quick burnouts or Reanimate for multiple extinguish procs is great.






Magma Mauler: A good support unit that comes with a surprisingly high 25 Health, but whose main purpose is to load an enemy up with Pyregel. Not an amazing choice if you’re using Pyreborne as a sub clan and not focused on Pyregel, but otherwise is a great unit for helping to rack up damage.
Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism & Multistrike both play off his effects to stack even more damage, particularly the latter since his second strike is more powerful due to the first’s application of Pyregel. Given his respectable Health, a Largestone to help him be a decent tank is perfectly viable. If fighting Entropy Seraph, you’ll want more Attack on him, or he’ll be sapped to 0 and will not attack. Speedstone isn’t a bad choice as it ensures any other units attacking on his floor will be hitting the enemy debuffed by his Pyregel. Although not as important on him as it is on Magma Cultist, the Hellfurnace room is a nice pairing.


Miser: Theoretically this is a bad unit, having only 8/8 stats, making him weaker than even Spear Stewards. However, he has important features, that being that he only takes up 1 slot, has Avarice 10 for earning you money, and unlike a Spear Steward, is a banner unit that can be deployed. On the average early game battle, this means he can earn you 50+ gold (plenty more if he’s repeatedly striking the boss during Relentless), vastly increasing your standard earnings. So while he’s not strong and will never be strong, if you consider drafting him as an opportunity to easily earn hundreds of Gold, Miser’s value comes more into frame. He’s extremely easy to fit into your team and will ensure a constant stream of cash.
Upgrades/Pairings: Both Dualism & Multistrike again will double his overall output, though keeping in mind those upgrades themselves are expensive and will need multiple fights to pay dividends. Otherwise you’re mainly using him to hit enemies & get money, so any Attack-granting boosts are welcome, as Entropy or Adamant Shieldbearers may Sap him down to nothing.

Hot Head: His ability is the selling point for this fella, as his stats are underwhelming at 5/20 with a 2 Ember cost. However, his ability strikes every enemy twice for the current value of his Attack, helping him easily clear out dangerous backline threats & healers. The default cooldown for this is 2, which can be knocked down to 1 with the Mind Cage equipment or Tome of Contracts spell. Mind Cage can be deployed and Tome can be Intrinsic to ensure he fires every turn. Many clans (including this one) have ways to bolster his attack stats or Rage him to ensure the damage of this ability keeps scaling to high levels. Be cautious however that Purified Souls have two spell shields that block this effect, and a Deafening Herald will silence this ability unless they are themselves silenced/destroyed first.
Upgrades/Pairings: Anything that boosts his attack is great, including Largestone as it will help him survive a bit longer and will only get him to size 3. Other clans can offer things like Valor or Rage to help increase damage. He loves equipment for the same reason, so try merging Mind Cage with other equipment to have a powerful unit that can damage entire waves every turn on his own (a fun combo is Largestone and then merge Equalizing Rings + Mind Cage for two hits of 74 AoE damage each turn). Fight Club is a another simple choice that pays dividends on him as it increases his damage by 30 to every enemy, or things like Sacrificial Chamber or Bloodthirsty Blade as he’ll tend to get many kills on his floor.

Greed Dragon: A monstrously strong unit whose base stats of 20/35 grow on Summon by 10 each for every Dragon Hoard you have at the time. His 2 Ember cost and 3 space are a bit heftier than the average unit, but this is offset by the ceiling he can reach if you obtain and Hoard (get it?!) eggs throughout your run. Crucially, if you plan to forsake Hoard entirely, this is an underwhelming pick as those are hefty costs for a middling tank/DD. However, Pyreborne is loaded with ways to obtain Hoard, all of which contribute toward this being an extremely powerful tank, and one that unusually is great to deploy later in the fight, since you may be obtaining Hoard throughout a battle and are thus increasing his stats when he arrives. Be cautious to not summon him on a floor with Deafening Herald, who will silence his summoning trigger.
Upgrades/Pairings: Endless is an amazing ability here, because any unit that dies & is returned via Endless/Reform retains its max Health & Attack stats (but not status effects). That means previous Summon bonuses remain and he will simply grow in stats again… be sure you’ll have space & Ember for him though! Smidgestone is excellent to tamp down on his size burden, and this can also be paired with Largestone for a massive Health influx. If used strictly as a tank, Titanite can help him last quite awhile, as does Stoic Platemail or Meat Shield. Due to his high attack ceiling, Multistrike can be the most important upgrade if intending to use him for damage.

Magma Cultist: A unit that goes from “okay” to “murderously powerful” depending almost entirely on how heavily your team can build up Pyregel. He has an immediate benefit in his 1-slot size, offset a bit by his 2 Ember cost. By incanting up enemies on the floor, he can weaken entire lines of enemies to be destroyed by other units. However, 1 Pyregel alone isn’t much, and if that’s all you’d ever get out of him, he would not be worth the cost. Pyreborne is loaded with tools to increase this however, which will be discussed in the Upgrades. Get some nice Spellchain cards going, loot some nice artifacts and this little guy might just become a world-ender.
Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism is a simple answer here as it turns 1 Pyregel into 2 Pyregel. He also enjoys some other-clan effects like Stygian’s Incant Armor or Luna’s Conduit. However, the most important boosts for him aren’t in the Merchant of Steel. The Rare room Hellfurnace is an ungodly boost to him, quadrupling his base-level Pyregel output. Ditto for artifacts like Hellfire Bellows, Sparkflint Catalyst, and Gel Transfusor that ensure tons of Pyregel is flowing. Lord Fenix’s Pyremaniac path is a perfect companion to this unit. Finally, the Rare weapon Cursed Dragonstaff is made for this fella, allowing him to continually strike enemies for damage as he casts spells to weaken him.

Rare (R) Banner Units:
Goldtooth: A unit with an incredible offensive ceiling on him, Goldtooth’s decent 15/30 starting stats and Avarice 5 are nice enough, and he fortunately only costs 2 Ember. His potential instead lies in that fact that his attack grows by +15 for every 100 Gold you have at the start of each turn. So, if you have 500 Gold on hand, this is suddenly a 90/30 unit that can keep growing stronger as your Wealth accumulates. Given Pyreborne’s propensity for wealth and gold accumulation, Goldtooth is incredibly powerful and very easy to make use of with the tools his clan offers.

Upgrades/Pairings: His attack naturally escalates so Multistrike is the greatest gift here. Dualism will increase his Avarice to 10 but that’s not nearly as important as it is to pair him with other money-making ventures. The Greed & Soldier of Fortune spell cards, Sacrificial Chamber room, Wealthy & Stuck Up Whelps, Miser, and looting the Dragon Hoard all help. If paired with Lady Gilda’s Lady Avarice path in particular, enjoy the show!


Pyreblooded: While the other two Rares I believe are must-picks if they show up, Pyreblooded is a little less universal, and should only be chosen if you intend to lean on Pyregel strategies. Essentially, Pyreblooded’s wimpy 5/10 stats and are offset by the fact that he’s only one space and one Ember, but more importantly, he comes with an ability that can massively increase his attack. Empower means every 3 turns, he can gain attack equal to the stacks of Pyregel on all units on the train. The ceiling for this is incredible, particularly on Flying boss fights as they continually accumulate it from your effects, and both champions have a path that loads enemies up with Pyregel. However, if you’re foregoing Pyregel build-up as a strategy, he won’t gain enough to be worth it. Otherwise, be ready to enjoy a unit that can gain hundreds of attack in a single turn!

Upgrades/Pairings: Multistrike is the main upgrade here as you’d love his massive attack stat to hit more than once. Any other Upgrades/Pairings should focus on survivability as his 10 health is very wimpy. Beyond that, what you really want is lots of Pyregel pairings for him. Snotty Whelp, Magma Cultist, Zealot, Hellfurnace, Pyregel-stacking artifacts, Lava Flow, Dragon’s Breath, Pyrecask, Superheated, Lord Fenix’s Pyremaniac path, or Lady Gilda’s Bloat Matron path… get enough of these going and Pyreblooded is the ultimate zero-to-hero unit. You can do him a real solid too by decreasing his Cooldown with things like Mind cage or Tome of Contracts too!

Zealot: Pyreborne’s only 3 Ember unit, and for good reason… his respectable 10/20 stats come with the amazing bonus of both Sweep, and a start-of-turn Action effect where he immediately applies 5 Pyregel to everything before striking, ensuring that he does more damage before his own hit. This is a powerful effect, particularly because he’ll repeat it every turn during a Relentless boss-phase, ensuring that any boss that gets through him is heavily debuffed. 3 Ember is a hefty cost, but this unit is as close to a mandatory choice as I can imagine for just about any build.

Upgrades/Pairings: Speedstone is a huge one (or a deployed Swiftsteel Dagger), getting his attack to 20 and allowing him to immediately kill tons of backline nuisances, including Purified Souls, Ragewing Assassins, Discordant Heretics etc. Dualism isn’t bad either as he’ll apply 10 Pyregel by default instead (nuts when you consider a base Magma Cultist would need 10 incants to do that). Largestone isn’t bad if you want him in front for a bit as it also increases his sweep damage. Multistrike isn’t bad as he’ll strike his debuffed enemies twice (he does not apply Pyregel twice however). Otherwise, just about everything I said about Magma Cultist’s Pyregel-friendly pairings apply here, as he loves artifacts that increase/spread Pyregel, and gets very simple utility out of things like Fight Club or Equipment that bolster attack.

Every clan has some version of these non-Banner card units, and for Pyreborne it’s Whelps, all 1-space 4/1 little dragon buddies that come with helpful abilities.

Bloated Whelp (C) (exclusive to Lady Gilda/Exiled sub): Cooldown 1 to destroy itself and do 1 damage to all enemies. Meant for clearing weak enemies early on but also helpful to trigger Harvest effects and reclaim space on a floor. Any Avarice applied to this unit counts when using Indigestion, as long as Damage Shields or Titanskin don't reduce the damage dealt to 0.







Snotty Whelp (C): Cooldown 2 to do 1 damage and then put Pyregel 12 on the front unit. This is a lot of Pyregel notably, and if the 1 damage destroys a unit, the Pyregel goes onto the next unit behind them.









Stuck Up Whelp (U): Cooldown 3 to give Avarice 2 to all other units on the floor. Useful obviously for getting more money in a run, particularly if he gifts this to Multistrikers.









Wealthy Whelp (U): Cooldown 2 to earn 5 Gold for each Hoard you have on hand. While that’s a max of 40 Gold at the start, there are multiple ways to increase Hoard maximums, leading to a lot of potential Cash if he’s able to use the effect repeatedly.








There are many potential synergies here from the more obvious (Stuck up/Wealthy increases Gold for Goldtooth/Lady Avarice Gilda… Gildmonger Hoards eggs for Wealthy Whelp… Snotty Whelp adds tons of Pyregel for Pyreblooded/Pyremaniac Lord Fenix) to the more unusual choices like the viability of both Endless (drop a Whelp out to chump-block and eat Dominion’s Corruption, but get a free use of their ability first) or even Duality (Stuck Up now gives 4 Avarice and Snotty does a whopping 24 Pyregel).

These may otherwise seem underwhelming compared to other clans’ 1-Space support units, but note that there are multiple Pyreborne & Dragon’s Hoard artifacts that significantly increase the utility of Whelps specifically. Collect enough of these effects and they can have a very large impacts on a run, closer to the potential impact of other clans’ more substantial support units like Hellhorned’s Imps or Luna Coven’s Fae & Selene support units.

Lord Fenix (Standard)

Ability: Fenix Fire – Cooldown 3, deals Fenix’s Attack in damage to a chosen unit on his floor, then gives 4 Pyregel to remaining enemy units.

Starting card:
Firestarter: A simple starting card meant for targeted damage against weak backliners, or to rack up Pyregel status on stronger enemies. A good choice for +20 Consume to have it strong enough to clear even Discordant Heretics. Okay to discount down to 0 cost, particularly with Pyregel-heavy strategies, though better options may come up as the run progresses.







Overlord:

Fenix Fire Upgrades to Fenix Fire II (adds Explosive) and Fenix Fire III (now does 2x Fenix’s Attack).
Strategies: If my starting artifact isn't Attuned Manacles, then I don’t like this path at all; I consider it among the worst in the game and would personally never choose it. Ideally, the goal is to use Fenix Fire liberally to destroy enemies, increasing his attack permanently, where the Explosive feature of Fenix Fire II increases the kill-rate, until it’s powerfully blasting enemies and getting +2 Attack per kill. My problem with this path is his Health is embarrassingly low for a 3-space champion, it has almost no synergy with other Pyreborne units, and this ability that’s crucial toward getting kills is Cooldown -3-, meaning its key functionality won’t be usable often unless you pick up specific Cards in your run, none of which can be seeded to you at the start. Without very lucky lining up of enemies, he’ll only get kills every 3 turns, leaving you with a very underwhelming unit that can’t tank or DD. The absolute best case for him is Attuned Manacles with an Endless Whelp, barring that, if you get an early Mind Cage, a lucky early pull of Tome of Contracts (Intrinsic + Spellchain is most ideal for 1 Cooldown), or you have Lazarus/Awoken sub and can get him some Spikes slays (prior to him dying from his terrible Health). Plausibly, Fenix Fire III can be strong if paired with Rage, Attack Equipment, another clans’ attack scaling to help him out, or Melting Remnant reforms could resummon him with his Cooldown reset. Those are a lot of “ifs” and considering his other paths are more functional without these caveats, I largely avoid this path.

Golden Crown:

When Fenix uses an ability, Conjure is triggered.
Strategies: This path has two benefits to it – a) it has the most Health of his paths, helpful since he takes up 3 slots and Pyreborne have few true tanks, and b) gaining Gold & Dragon’s Hoard a couple times per battle results in very tangible benefits to multiple Pyreborne strategic paths. As I mentioned (lamented) in the Overlord path, reducing his Cooldown to use the ability more frequently is great, particularly since despite the ‘lower’ attack, it’s still strong enough to clear your typical backliners and debuff the remaining enemies. Interestingly, Conjure works regardless of what his ability is, so if you were to give him an ability from other clans like Flight or particularly Evergrow instead, you can Conjure even more rapidly to fill your coffers. You’ll certainly need to rely on other units to do your heavy-hitting, but overall this is a useful, easy to understand path.

Pyremaniac:

Strategies: This version of Fenix balances the stats between the other two paths, seeking to debuff the enemies more directly, with just enough Health and Attack to contribute slightly to either tanking or DDing. His Firestarter cards are the strongest in this path, debuffing enemies more potently, and giving a clear line to taking cards like Lava Flow to load enemies up with Pyregel. A Magma Cultist is an amazing pair with this fella, cranking out tons of Pyregel on a floor at high speed. Essentially if you have this path and you see Pyregel-granting effects, you go for them whenever they can fit in your build. The (C) equipment Lava Armor is a great early pull as each Revenge trigger is amplified, for instance. The biggest downside here is his Health stats drop off at level 3 in favor of a big boost to Pyregel, so if you relied on his reasonable Health for tanking at lower rings, that will stop being feasible later on. Additionally, Fenix & his Firestarter cards alone won’t be enough Pyregel, you’ll need to seek it from other sources to scale this up appropriately. That isn’t a huge caveat though, as Dragons love Pyregel and it’s all over their cards & artifacts for a reason.

Flex potential: Personally I’d only ever flex Golden Crown into other paths so there’s an additional benefit to using Fenix Fire. Relying on him for Attack-based Slays/damage is not a strategy I like, and Pyregel is best applied aggressively & liberally, so I generally wouldn’t mingle other paths. If you’ve started Pyremaniac and ended up with Cooldown reductions, Overlord flex twice to offer Explosive + Slays is reasonable if you’re okay with reduced health and foregoing Pyregel as a key strategy.

Lady Gilda (Exile)

Starting card: Bloated Whelp - Cooldown 1 to destroy itself and do 1 damage to all enemies. Meant for clearing weak enemies early on but also helpful to trigger Harvest effects (Bloat Matron) and reclaim space on a floor. Beware of Titanskin challenges as they’ll be unable to defeat 1 Health enemies unless they have Pyregel applied.







Gildmother:

Gilded Egg 0/5: Retreats. On celebrate, gain 2 Dragon Hoard.
Gildeder Egg 0/15: Retreats. On celebrate, gain 4 Dragon Hoard & 50 Gold
Gildedest Egg 0/30: Retreats. On celebrate, gain 6 Dragon Hoard & 400 Gold
Strategies: Okay it may be tough to “get” the idea from reading it this way, but the idea is straightforward: Gilda is huge in this path at 4 Spaces, and upon putting her down, she’ll summon a fancy egg behind her that if it lives to the end of the battle, Celebrates to earns you Hoard > Hoard & Gold. As a bonus, she has huge Health stats and Trample, which helps potentially clear multiple enemies that make it up to her (you DID put her up to middle/top floor, right?!), or survive one last stand against the boss. Early on she’ll be strong enough to put up a hefty fight, but as the game progresses, you’ll be relying on the Hoard & Gold she’s earned to protect her and her precious eggs for big payouts. You’ll likely be looting the Dragon Hoard multiple times in this path, and the Hoard payout only happens on Celebrate, meaning this is not as synergistic with Greed Dragon as Fenix’s Golden Crown path. Looting the Hoard repeatedly has tons of other synergies though, so get to defending your precious egg! This path also has hilarious interaction with the Hall of Mirrors room, summoning two Gildmothers that each summon an egg (if you can fit her, that is).

Bloat Matron:

Strategies: While her Bloated Whelps didn’t factor into Gildmother at all, here they play a crucial role. Instead of costing 1 Ember, they cost 0, and beyond their self-sacrificial behaviors, their death causes a cascade of Pyregel to all enemies on the floor. However, Harvest works in both directions, so any enemies that die on this floor also trigger Pyregel to hit remaining enemies. The Whelp ember reduction helps the Bloated Whelps stay useful as they can either deliberately die to cause the Harvest trigger, or stay tucked behind her to blow up on command later on. Any type of Whelp given Endless can help greatly with this path as well. While this path has reduced Health compared to Gildmother, it’s designed to be used on lower floors to debuff enemies with Pyregel for other units to clean up, rather than hide at the top. Reminder that Harvest is a trigger, so beware of Deafening Heralds that will neuter this effect and stop Whelp abilities at the same time.

Lady Avarice:

Strategies: Lady Gilda gets her claws dirty on this path, eschewing some Health for a potentially huge ceiling of offense, while directly earning you Gold without the necessity to protect a fragile egg. Enchant effects all friendly units on your floor, but with her already taking up 3 space, her army of Whelps can help greatly here by racking up Gold either by exploding (damage must be unblocked so beware Titanskin and Purified Souls), or attacking directly. Once she reaches her second form, her Attack will begin dynamically scaling even as Gold is earned within a battle, allowing her own Avarice enchantment (and any other sources) to strengthen her further. Because you should be earning crazy amounts of Gold with this path, our Lady should eventually have monstrous attack stats to go with her reasonable bulk. Conversely, this path has the lowest Health of any paths, and spending Gold in shops, while crucial for improving your run, will temporarily weaken her. She also lacks Trample, so be cautious of getting her to gigantic Attack numbers only to strike a single weak enemy. Once again, an Endless Bloated Whelp can earn you tons of Gold if it gets to repeatedly explode, with Sacrificial Chamber & Greed cards being Lady Gilda’s best friend on this path, and a Void Armament might be worth the expense as her Attack spirals out of control.

Flex potential: I personally don’t like any Flexes with Lady Gilda, as each path has a very defined role that’s completely different than the others. Plausibly the only one I’d consider is bringing a level or two of Lady Avarice into Bloat Matron if you wanted your Whelps to both proc Pyregel and earn money with the -1 Ember discount. Though theoretically you might not need the sheer excess of Level 3 Gildmother, her extra size + summoning the Egg makes flexing either of her other paths less effective anyway.

Soulsmelter has the potential to earn you a full Dragon Hoard within a single fight, but note the two crucial interactions: Siphon requires enemies to die on that floor, and Celebrate requires the unit holding it to be alive at the end of the boss fight. The best case scenario of this requires your “killing floor” also has someone equipped with this who can survive the boss, so make sure your build can sustain this combination of factors if you try to utilize this expensive weapon.

Golden Touch can be used on your own units to earn Hoard, which might surprise MT1 players who were used to Petty Theft (which could only target enemies).

Greed hits all units including your own, but this can also earn you more cash if you’re destroying disposable units in the process.

Due to the way Explosive works as an effect, Pyreclasm & Pyreball (or Fenix Fire II & III) can also be used on your low-HP Whelps to maximize the explosive damage if you’re willing/eager to be rid of them.

Though an expensive combo, merging a (U) Soulsmelter with a (U) Iron Tongue can be a powerful combo, as the Sweep damage from Iron Tongue will result in many Siphon triggers, and it can be utilized on any unit that's safe in your backline. Be ready for the 4 Ember cost though!

(C) Lava Armor's 10 Health is helpful but not a huge boost, so it's great to merge with a (U) Meat Shield to also aid in the unit's survivability. Remember that if equipped to a unit with Dualism, Lava Armor gives 6 Pyregel instead!

Lifemother’s Pyre benefit of copying cards requires extra cash, and no clan is as wealthy as Pyreborne, allowing them multiple uses of this effect.

Due to their extreme lack of healing and a couple higher-HP units like Lady Gilda, Golden Crown Fenix, and Greed Dragons, Wyngh’s Spirit can be helpful to send them back to full Health.

While Pyre of Savagery is not a perfect pyre for this clan as it has a lot of spell damage and indirect kills, Hot Head in particular is incredible if he were to gain permanent attack from his Ability. Zealot too if you should be lucky enough to find him.

Aquath’s Reservation’s +3 Ember can help pay for some painful early expenses like Alchemy, or later ones like Pyreclasm.

Pyreborne has a fair amount of 2 Ember units and potential expensive equipment combos worth deploying to make good use of Herzal’s Hoard.

Although potentially redundant with a clan swimming in Gold, Fhyra’s Greed can help further bolster your coffers for units like Lady Avarice Gilda or Goldtooth.

If you’re using Lady Gilda, Pyre of Dominion is not recommended, as two of her paths in particular make heavy use of her Bloated Whelps. Lord Fenix is welcome to do it, but I would only do so if the sub-clan's support card is worth skipping, as Firestarter isn't a bad card.

Banished:
Just Cause (++): Always pick this over Inspire. It has a lot of utility and certain Banished units are very weak without access to this.
Inspire (--): Never choose this. It’s the worst clan starting card and locks away certain strategies.

Your angel buddies can help significantly with survivability given their preponderance of Valor and Damage Shield. Their ability to move units up & down floors can have powerful effects for overstacking floors, particularly for circumstances like Lady Gilda enchanting Avarice, or tucking a Soulsmelter-equipped unit safely away. The mighty Shield of Wyngh equipment and Health-based attack spells like Deadly Plunge have some incredible synergy with high Health-monstrosities like Lady Gilda and Greed Dragon.


Luna Coven:
Witchweave: Not particularly good without Conduit to strengthen the Heals, but at least it costs 0 and is a good +20 Consume option.
Moon Ritual(+): Also not particularly great, but it’s free and is important to several Luna Coven units if you intend to grab some.

Your bug buddies can help Pyreborne in numerous ways. Healing & Armor cards can help with survivability, Conduit has amazing synergy with a ton of Pyreborne spells, and they offer many ways to repeat & pay for strong spells. One cannot overstate the sheer devastation wrought by cards like Pyreclasm being gifted with Conduit stacks, or even otherwise-weaker cards like Fanning the Flame.


Underlegion:
Eager Conscript: The more defensive option as it can save you some damage, and can help with Bloat Matron Gilda’s harvest triggers, or help Rally Underlegion units if you seek them out.
Sporetouch(+): My preferred option as Decay is a powerful debuff that scales violently with Pyregel.

Ready for it? Yep, survivability! Underlegion is loaded with defensive capabilities between Regen, Sap, Health-gain effects, or simply spawning Troops to take hits for you. Bloat Matron Lady Gilda loves disposable Troop units to die and repeatedly proc Harvest triggers. If you go the Decay route, Decay + Pyregel is a murderously powerful combo for racking up damage. Their unique Mossystone Merchant of Steel upgrade is a uniquely helpful way to keep Pyreborne tanks alive longer. Although Propagate is a great effect, it’s not particularly strong combined with Pyreborne’s unique effects of Avarice (a few more bucks, yay?) or Pyregel (Dragons have tons of ways to load up on this).


Lazarus League:
Secret Ingredient(+): My preferred option as Mixes can offer lifesaving effects like Lifesteal & Reanimate that Pyreborne lack. Also great for Magma Cultist incants.
Erratic Assistant: An okay option as they’re 0-cost and 1-space, which can help for racking up damage on Pyregel-debuffed enemies, or you can grab their free Scissor Hands after a free chump-block. You'll hope you chose these if you're seeded with a Pincushion, certainly.

Reanimate alone as a mechanic adds some new wrinkles, like Gildmonger repeatedly triggering Extinguish in a battle, or Lady Gilda’s Bloat Matron harvesting a friendly unit repeatedly. Getting Regen+Spikes going on Fenix is one of the few alternate ways to get Overlord Fenix enough kills to be worthwhile. Certain equipment can be incredibly strong when gifted to Dragons, like Hot Head with an Organ Harvester, Greed Dragon with Vampire Tooth, or Zealot with Twisted Back. Lifesteal/Regen/Reanimate offer multiple ways to keep your squishy Dragons in the fight longer.

Hellhorned:
Torch: An intentionally weak starting spell only meant to clear weak backliners, but is probably the game’s best option if you want to make use of the Taskmaster’s Lash Hoard artifact.
Queen’s Impling: Does a lot more damage than Torch, but only to the front unit, and requires 1 space. Makes some Imp-based cards more viable and makes Soldier of Fortune worse, so eh~

Because Dragons generally lack their own stat scaling, Hellhorned’s frequent gift of Rage can help escalate the damage of units like Fenix & Hot Head. Armor helps Dragon survivability a bit. Imps’ disposable nature with useful Summons can be used for multiple purposes like Lady Gilda’s Bloat Matron harvest triggers. While I don’t typically talk single artifacts here, it’s worth noting that Hellhorned’s Ashes of the Fallen artifact has amazing synergy with Greed Dragon & Gildmother Lady Gilda paths for double-stat summons or summoning two Gilded eggs.


Awoken:
Restore: Since your Dragons lack Healing, this can sustain them a bit early on. If you think you may grab Awoken banner units, three of them interact with Heals/Regen from cards like this.
Rootseeds: One of MT1’s best starting clan cards is now more just ‘fine’ as +2 Atk doesn’t mean as much and Draws are easier to come by. Still, it’s generally useful.

Your plantborne buddies tend to offer the same benefit to all clans, that being Card Draws, and Healing & Regen to offset your lack of defense. As mentioned before, they have a few options to add Spikes that can help Overlord Fenix get slay triggers. Magma Cultist loves this clan for its abundance of spammable, spellchain-friendly cards to keep the incants coming. While not overwhelming, they also have some direct attack & health boosting effects to gently bolster your units.


Stygian Guard:
Frozen Lance (-): One of MT1’s worst starting clan cards is… still bad unfortunately. It’s not as blatantly terrible as Inspire, but I’d still always choose Forgone Power.
Forgone Power (+): The superior choice. 0 cost is easier to play, Frostbite can trigger extra damage with Pyregel repeatedly, and its Discard functionality can trigger Stygian Offering cards, or crucially discard Scourge & Blight cards to avoid their Reserve effects.

MT1’s least-defensive clan isn’t going to help your Dragons’ survivability much, but it brings a host of quality-of-life spells & effects to improve your performance that help any clan like discarding Blights, or Muting/Sapping/Dazing enemies. Frostbite, like Decay can lead to some massive damage combined with Pyregel. Freezing cards can save units like Greed Dragon for the opportune time if you’re gaining Hoard mid-battle. Spell Weakness effects can bolster some of the stronger Pyreborne spells or things like Hot Head’s Fire Breathing. Crucially this is MT2’s least defensive two-clan combination, so you’ll need to either find creative solutions to their lack of defense, and/or play off their crazy utility & offense to overcome your porous defenses.


Umbra:
Shadesplitter: An okay card that guarantees a Morsel, which tends to benefit Umbra units more than Pyreborne.
Plink (+): My preferred option as it strikes twice, meaning it can do some nice damage with Pyregel setups. Less reliable at giving Morsels if you intend to grab Umbra units though.

Lifesteal is an incredible gift to keep up the survivability of both Champions and Dragon tanks, and Umbra’s various Ember & Space-increasing effects play very nicely with the Pyreborne’s lust for expensive cards and stacking floors with units. Morsels in general can help bolster the stats and survivability of your Dragons, and the two types that attack (or ALL in a Fight Club) can rack up some nice damage if you’ve been using Pyregel-stacking mechanics. Because Lady Avarice Gilda enchants everything on the floor, her path loves big Umbra-boosted rooms full of creatures to earn more Gold. Because a few Dragons like Dualism, it’s noteworthy that the already-helpful 3 Damage Shield upgrade from Steel becomes 6 Damage Shields on a Dualism unit.


Melting Remnant:
Dreg: Cheap chaff units that can help do a bit of damage or be Harvest-fodder, similar to Erratic Assitants from Lazarus. They’ll burnout on their own, so a bit less reliable for Pyregel hits on bosses.
Primitive Mold (++): My strong preference here as many Dragons go down fast, and Reforming them is one way to keep in the fight. Extremely strong with Greed Dragon and helpful with Gildmonger too.

Defeat isn’t the end of your units with your waxen buddies, which can be a relief when your mighty Dragons fall in battle. Reforms allow you to immediately reuse Dragons’ cooldown abilities, burn out a Gildmonger quickly, or keep resummoning the mighty stats of a Greed Dragon. Melting Remnant was MT1’s clan focused on Gold gain, so naturally there are some powerful interactions with Goldtooth & Lady Avarice here as well. Tiny nuisances like Dregs & Draffs can do tons of damage against Pyregel-debuffed enemies, and Tombs (particularly Remnant Host) are a gift for Bloat Matron Gilda’s Harvest triggers. If you manage to lose Gildmother Lady Gilda with or without losing her Egg, you can reform a new version of her to summon another egg too!

Mr. Savagery loves melting through even modestly-beefy units by Enraging floors of attacks and sweepers, and any tank on Floors 2 or 3 at the outset will have to contend with 60 or 90 damage (Titan trial) first turn if you don’t have a way to block that hit. Pyreborne have tons of offensive options, so your main goal is to destroy those violent enemies before they get you first. You’ll be relying on your sub-clan if you want any other mitigation-based strategies like Damage Shields, Daze, or Sap to offset it.

Mr. Entropy loves weakening your forces down to nothing with combinations of Sap & Silence, hoping to stop them from getting their offense going. Pyregel is a fantastic counter to this, as enough built up on enemies can help offset the loss of damage from Saps, and helps cut through his HP, which is the highest of Seraphs. Note that enough Sap buildup may completely neuter units like Magma Mauler that must Strike to proc their effects. If you’re relying on Abilities, make sure you have some strong spells ready to deal with Heralds, or Rooms like Room of Silence/Inferno Room to neuter them first.

Mr. Dominion loves to whittle down the HP of your units and spam your deck with painful Scourge cards if you can’t deal with the Heretics. Any strategies that rely on low-HP units like Whelps, Magma Cultist, or Miser must be ready to contend with the gradual poisoning of their health through Corruption, while your frontline tanks will similarly be brutalized by escalating stacks of this. Have something ready to blast his Scourges into oblivion, and consider how you might need the use of your sub-clan or barring that, the Scaleshell Hoard artifact to offset Corruption damage.

Personally, Pyreborne are among my favorite clans to tackle the Titans with, simply because the sheer potency of Pyregel allows you unparalleled means to cleave through the huge Health pools of each Titan. Enough Pyregel and even unassuming artifacts like Jackstrips can mean Savagery is being brutalized every turn just moving about the train. Units like Magma Cultist, Bloat Matron Gilda, Pyremaniac Fenix will keep loading Entropy up with Pyregel over and over for quicker kills, and bits of it can even go to Dominion to facilitate quicker kills with Pyre Lights. Hopefully by this point you’re ready to deal with the swaths of enemies and the hefty damage dealt by Savagery & Entropy, and if you have chump-blocking Whelps, they’ll gladly eat some Corruption for you in the process as well. Titan fights are often a “race” against time, and few clans hit the gas pedal as hard as Pyreborne do.

So it's been a while since I wrote up a guide on gamefaqs, and it's my first time creating one on the Steam Community. Bear with me if some of my thoughts or organization could be better X) I think I spent a lot of time covering various important aspects about playing a clan in detail... I don't personally think it would help to go over every single card or sub-boss. But if I'm wrong, this guide is useful to you, and you'd like to see some other point of discussion, please let me know!

We've got enough practice and wins under our belts that I'm ready to write up guides for each clan, but this takes more than a bit of time to do, so (hopefully?) stay tuned for future installments as I chip away at this.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your runs with these fiery moneymakers! =)