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!

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. This is our second Clan guide for this game, if you're curious about the other(s), here's links to the others:
Pyreborne Clan Strategy Guide
Luna Coven Clan Strategy Guide
Underlegion Clan Strategy Guide

Anywho, enjoy as we discuss the nimble vanguards, the shifty angels that make up the Banished!

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

The Banished: Overview
Overview: The nimble fallen angels of Monster Train 2 lead the most mobile clan in the game, often taking their starting placement in the train as a mere suggestion, gaining benefits and adding flexibility to your run as you shuffle and reposition your units. They’re also stalwart defenders, choosing to gain defenses through Valor & Damage Shields, and have abilities & cards that strike enemies based on their Health & Armor levels.


Offensive strategies: A bit less straightforward than the other starting clan of the Pyreborne, the Banished have a unique status effect called Valor that increases both their offense & defense when used in the right configurations. Many units also gain various attack bonuses through “Shift”, a mechanic in which an effect is triggered based on the units moving about the train. While their magic cards overall lean in the direction of defense, they come with multiple equipment cards & support units strictly meant to increase their overall offensive output. Because they can so readily move about the train and many effects benefit an entire floor, many Banished runs see their offense grow as you stack floors of the train with more units than you could normally place, i.e. “Overstacking”.

Defensive strategies: As mentioned above, their unique effect of Valor is also a defensive trick, allowing the front unit to replenish their Armor between turns. Multiple Banished units are designed around the idea of continual Valor gain, which can give them enough armor to repeatedly defend against waves of enemies without needing Heals or other defensive tricks. Banished also make heavy use of Damage Shields, which are consumed to nullify damage, no matter how large or small. Finally, both Banished champions have at least one path each that helps specifically to defend their allies in the train.

Stat-influencing strategies: Not too many here. Though Valor raises Attack, this is a status effect and not an influence on unit stats. Outside of equipment, Banished only has two units that directly influence stats, the rare unit Death’s Dancer, and the Enchantress path for the champion Talos. Far more of their strategies rely on status effects over stat boosts.

Support strategies: Movement about the train in MT1 used to be relegated to a couple key cards or random in-game events, so Banished’s wealth of ways to advance/ascend/descend units creates new opportunities for other clans that they often do not have available to them. Talos’s Enchantress path is the only champion in the game that confers permanent bonuses to other units rather than just themselves. Additionally, three of their support units “Hymnists” confer bonuses to a floor like Quick, Trample, and Multistrike that are expensive or rare to apply to single units, much less entire floors of units.

Sweep/Backliner Strategies: A big weakness for the Banished, their clan offers only one single card that strikes all enemies, the (potentially) powerful (C) spell Cleave, which strikes all enemies for the value of attack on their front-most unit (the majority of Banished Abilities & Spells only target the front enemy unit). Beyond that, Banished’s only way of dealing with backliners is to destroy their way through to them, use movement cards to influence their location on the train, or counter-strike them with the Shield of Wyngh equipment. (These statements exclude clanless options like Iron Tongue or Inferno Room)

Valor: A highly unique status effect unique to the Banished that does double-duty in supporting both their offensive capabilities, as well as their defensive capabilities, albeit with an important caveat. Offensively, Valor is simply +1 attack per stat by default, and weaker than Rage as an offensive status effect. Crucially, any unit with Valor that is in the front of their floor at the end of battle gains an amount of Armor up to the amount of Valor, if needed.
There’s no status effect at all like this in Monster Train 2, so some clarifications are important:

a) The Armor gain from Valor will never happen if the unit does not end up in the front of their floor at the end of battle to trigger Resolve. It doesn’t matter if your Demonic Fledgling has 10 Health and 140 Valor, if he can’t survive a turn of battle and end up in front to Resolve, 10 Health is all he has to work with.
b) If your unit is afflicted with Corruption, the damage from Corruption happens before Valor's Resolve trigger gains you armor. So the unit in front must survive both the damage resulting from battle alongside the Corruption damage before Armor is earned.
c) The Armor potentially gained from Valor is a maximum threshold, not a flat gain. So for instance, say you’re playing Banished + Lazarus League and have the Hulking Mass unit who has 40 Armor when summoned. If you then give him 20 Valor, at the end of the turn he will not gain +20 Armor and reach 60 total. Instead, his Armor total will not change, because the Valor threshold is 20. If instead, he takes 30 damage (leaving him with 10 Armor), at the end of the turn he will regain armor up to 20, a gain of +10 instead. Depending on the situation, that means small amounts of Valor may be ineffective at sustaining your units, while large enough values can give incredible turn-over-turn survivability.

Because of the idiosyncrasies of how Valor works, it’s important to understand the volatility of as a defensive strategy. Very few effects in the game allow units to advance or retreat during combat, so getting your Valor-stacked units their armor requires careful timing to allow them to survive turns as the lead/vanguard unit. This could involve strategies like the use of Damage shields, trying to remove stronger offensive threats before battle takes place, or using the (U) Imprisoned Zephyr room to have your units move during battle instead.

Shift: This trigger is unique to the Banished. So, all sorts of units can shift in the game, but only specific Banished units trigger effects from being shifted (the lone exception is the [C] equipment card Windblade, which can give Shift triggers to any friendly unit). A shift Trigger happens when one of the following conditions happen:
a) A unit Advances or Retreats in a way that changes their formation on a floor. Example: there are two units on a floor, the one in back Advances to the front.
b) A unit Descends, Ascends, or uses Flight to change floors in a train.
c) A different unit moves in a way that alters another unit’s position. In both a & b, another unit on the floor is affected by the movement of the other.
Additionally, a Shift does not trigger simply because any unit moved on a floor. Example: The floor has units in order, C -> B -> A. You use an Advance effect on B, and the new order is C -> A -> B. Units A & B may trigger Shift, but C does not because its position was unchanged.

As a result, a single unit movement can trigger Shift for multiple units, and some Banished specific cards can trigger multiple Shifts on one unit by having both Advance & Descend/Ascend effects on the same card.

Merchant of Steel: Valor 8. An okay option for tanks, particularly if they’ll also use Dualism. Offensively, this is a somewhat underwhelming addition to your units, as the offensive addition of +8 attack is significantly lower than a Strengthstone’s +14. This is more potent Defensively, as a minimum threshold of 8 Valor is a modest bit of damage mitigation, particularly early in the game, as it can potentially absorb more damage turn-over-turn than the +25 Health from a Healthstone. Notably, a unit with Dualism would get 16 Valor from this effect, which is outdoes a Strengthstone’s attack and adds a more substantial pool of armor.

Banished Banner thoughts:
Grabbing a Banished banner is not as simple as some other clans’ considerations, even if playing Banished as a main. I say this cautiously because I love a lot of Banished banner units to death, and also have multiple times been burned by getting a bad option offered for my builds. Among their six Uncommon (U) banner units, two have their functionality almost entirely dependent on Shifting, and the other four are different flavors of tanks with damage-dealing support capabilities. Two of their three Rare (R) banners are also dependent on Shifting (with stronger effects, though), and the third is… a tank with damage dealing/shift capabilities.

As a result, a Banished banner has a decent chance of being a unit that relies on shifting, and if not, is probably a tank. There are some useful support effects built into the mix of these units, but if your build is flush with tanking or lacking in Shift abilities, a Banished banner might just be a deadweight for your team. E.g. if you’re playing Talos/without Just Cause and your Banished banner options are Battle Dancer & Demonic Fledgling, that feels bad. If you’re good on defense and get offered Firebrand & Swordmaiden, that’s rough.

Keep these considerations in mind as we discuss Banished units!

Battle Dancer: This unit essentially teaches players about both the strengths & weaknesses of Valor strategies. On the one hand, his starting stats are weak, and if you can only shift him occasionally, a gain of +3 Attack is very weak for a damage dealer. Conversely, if he’s shifted say, 4 or more times, his Health + Valor armor gain now surpass a Shield Steward’s defensive capabilities. If paired with cards & units that promote shifting, this fella can be an offensive threat who can also gain tons of Armor in the right floor configuration. Without these, I’d rather keep a Spear Steward.

Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism is a very big boost, doubling his Valor to 6 on each shift, which is a big boost to both offense & defense. After that, what you put on him depends on what you’re using him for. If you have Shifting and want him to defend, Titanite, Healthstone, and Largestone can all help him offset his rough start of 14 Health. If you want him mainly for damage support, Multistrike is welcome. Worthy of note that Dualism + Valorstone is a solid combo since you can place him on the middle floor and get him to 16 Armor even if you have zero shifting capabilities. He loves being paired with the (C) Windblade equipment to get yet more Valor going.

Demonic Fledgling: A unit that starts out terrible, but has a terrifyingly high ceiling if he’s moved enough. If you lack Shift capabilities, throw this guy immediately in the garbage as the Strike: Valor 1 effect is extremely weak on its own (compare this to the (U) Hellhorned unit Alpha Fiend who would gain +15 Attack instead). However, Shifting can happen much more often than Striking, so gaining 2 Rage is more impactful. If this fella gets moving & striking enough, particularly with Dualism, suddenly your zero will become quite the hero.

Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism again is a big winner here, turning his default gain to 4 Rage and his Strikes to 2 Valor, significantly upping his scaling. Multistrike is the other goal, allowing him to get more Valor from strikes and play off the Rage he’s hopefully been earning. His Valor gain & Health are terrible, so he generally shouldn’t be made to take hits unless you put a Largestone on him. If you’re stuck with him and can’t get better upgrades, Strengthstone is an easy way to start his damage higher. If facing Seraph the Dominant, you may want some Health on him just to survive ticks of Corruption. Finally, this guy loves Banished equipment… (C) Windblade can proc more Rage, (U) Everlasting Light is great particularly if he has Multistrike, and (R) Cursed Twinblade is the holy grail as his own Strike trigger offsets the loss of attack on the equipment.

Steadfast Crusader: A tank with a fun trick up his sleeve, Crusader’s respectable 30 Health is paired with Slam, an ability that allows him to instantly Advance and strike the front enemy for damage based on his Health+Armor totals. As a result he has a few cool interactions, as his ability can trigger Shift for units on his floor, he can “tag in” to tank for a unit in front that won’t survive, and he can do some pre-battle damage that the Banished largely are lacking. Because Valor helps raise his Armor to increase the damage of his ability, he’s a natural pairing with Banished units both for Valor & Shift. And even if not, he’s vastly superior to a Shield Steward everywhere outside of the Stewards’ Quarters.

Upgrades/Pairings: Health is the main goal for a Crusader, increasing his survivability and the damage of his Slam ability. Largestone is a gain of +50 damage, for instance! With him only costing 1 Ember, Endless is a potential option since he can use Slam right after being placed after defeat. If you want to keep him in the fight longer, Titanite is another solid option. Pairing his increased Health with the mighty (U) Shield of Wyngh equipment is a great way to turn him to an offensive threat as well. Because his Attack is low and you want Health on him, Equalizing Rings are a solid choice for him.

Swordmaiden: An odd inclusion for the Banished, Swordmaiden’s special talent and Artificer ability are based on Equipment cards. When summoned, Swordmaiden pulls one Equipment card from your deck at random. Because she can be deployed, that means she can functionally turn one of your Equipment cards to randomly become Deployable. The Banished have more unique equipment than average with four, but only one is (C) that might be seeded at the start of a run, so getting the most out of her might require you to deliberately seek out Equipment cards. Beyond that, she gains Valor if any ally unit on her floor is equipped, which is meant to offset her somewhat middling health of 20. The Valor gain is not enough to turn her into a meaningful offensive threat, so she should either be treated as a tank, or simply as a way to pull Equipment cards out of your deck.

Upgrades/Pairings: As mentioned before, Equipment is crucial to get anything special out of Swordmaiden, otherwise any of Banished’s other tanks will serve you better. Oddly, her best friend isn’t within the Banished, but in Lazarus League, where their Exiled champion Baron Grael is loaded with units that help trigger the Artificer ability. But without that specific pairing, you’ll need more survivability on her, so Health, Largestone, and Titanite can all help her overcome her middling health. If your build can get multiple pieces of equipment to trigger Artificer repeatedly, then Dualism is a worthy upgrade as 16 Valor gained will be quite substantial. If you’re lacking in other offensive options, Multistrike is okay on her if it can be used with cards that supports her offense, but there are much better offensive options available in most cases.

Avenger: I love this unit. His 2 Ember cost is a minor inconvenience for a unit that starts with very solid stats of 20/40, but his ability is a lovely bonus that debuffs everyone who strikes him with Melee Weakness, allowing him or other units to more easily clean up their health. Further, because he often will strike enemies with Melee Weakness, his 20 attack means he’s hitting them harder for a base damage hit of 40. While many of the Banished units need time & Valor to be effective, Avenger is ready the moment he’s summoned and is a powerful addition to many builds as a result.

Upgrades/Pairings: Largestone is my favorite upgrade for him, both substantially increasing his bulk, and with bonus attack to ensure his strike hits harder still. Other standard upgrades for tanks should be considered like Health & Titanite. Although his 2 Ember cost is a bit expensive for it, Endless is a pretty decent option since he might eventually go down, and unlike units like Swordmaiden or Firebrand, he doesn’t need time to be effective. Dualism increases his Revenge trigger to Melee Weakness 2 (aka 3x damage) which is a valid option, particularly if you can get a good Dualism bonus out of his other upgrades, like turning Valor 8 from the Merchant of Steel into Valor 16. Avenger loves the (U) Shield of Wyngh equipment to dole out even more punishment if you can keep his health up, and because he usually has much more Health than Attack, (R) Equalizing Rings aren’t a bad choice.

Firebrand: Another unit I love! While Avenger is ready to go when Summoned, Firebrand asks you to give her a bit of punishment to be effective. Very similar to Fel’s Vanguardian path, Firebrand gradually builds up her own Valor upon being struck. As she continually survives turns thanks to her rejuvenating Armor, both her bulk and her offensive capabilities grow. Because Valor can continue to scale as future enemy waves attack with more ferocity, she can become a one-woman army as long as you keep her Health & Valor gains outpacing the enemy offensve.

Upgrades/Pairings: I’ve been saying Dualism for many Banished units and this is no exception. If she gains 4 Valor on every Revenge tick, her Armor and offense will grow twice as fast. As with other tanks, Health, Largestone, and Titanite can all help to keep her in the fight longer. While I didn’t recommend Multistrike for Swordmaiden, Firebrand’s offense can grow enough to potentially justify it here, as long as you have cards & equipment to support her defensively, as the enemies will eventually be too strong for her 30 base Health to overcome. As with Avenger, the (U) Shield of Wyngh equipment is an incredible pairing.

Rare (R) Banner Units:

Death’s Dancer: The first of Banished’s Rare Dancing angels, Death’s Dancer is here to buff the hell into your units, giving every friendly unit on the floor a +4 Attack boost when she shifts. Because Banished loves floors full of units moving and triggering Shift abilities, Death’s Dancer can result in a significant gain in offense for your team, particularly if you have Multistrikers gaining the benefits. Although she is significantly better with Fel as your Champion due to Fel’s Multistrike and addition of Just Cause cards to trigger Shift, the Banished have enough cards to foster movement that I still feel like this is a mandatory unit to grab for the effect, even if you’re using Talos.

Upgrades/Pairings: Assuming you’re doing any reasonable amount of shifting, Multistrike is a solid upgrade for her, even though you might want it on a unit she’s dancing with instead. Because Shifting may sometimes result in her stuck in a compromising position, Health or various sustainability upgrades can be a reasonable choice. Reminder that unlike her fellow Dancer, Dualism has no effect on her Shift trigger. The (C) Windblade equipment is a great choice to proc extra Shift triggers. Beyond this, cards that foster movement/flight and friendly units ready to dole out punishment are her best friends. Oddly, Endless is an okay option for her, because all the Attack she gained while Shifting carries over to her card when replayed, meaning that if she dies to a boss during Relentless and there’s space behind a tank on another floor, she’ll have a lot of offense ready to go for Round #2.


Divine Dancer: The defensive counterpoint to Death’s Dancer, Divine Dancer instead showers your friendly units in Armor (read: immediate armor, not Valor), helping a shifting floor gain enough Armor to withstand assaults, whether that be Sweeping enemies, Corruption, or simply being “stuck in front” after some movement. One of Banished’s biggest struggles with a Shift floor strategy is the risk of a lower-health unit dying before Valor gives you Armor, and Divine Dancer is a hard counter to this concern. She’s a very welcome option if you’re packing glass-cannon units like Demonic Fledgling in your team.

Upgrades/Pairings: Depending on how Shift-heavy your build is, you might not even need Dualism, but it’s worthy of note since 10 Armor to all units is an incredible bonus for an effect that’s this easy to proc. Unlike Death’s Dancer, Multistrike and Endless really aren’t the way to go here. Instead, you can either do nothing, since she’s reasonably survivable on her own, or you can give her some Health/Titanite/Valor with the idea that she’ll eventually become the tank for a Shifting floor. Again, the (C) Windblade equipment is a gift here, giving additional procs of Armor for her floor. Several Banished spells & units do damage based on Armor levels, so seek these out as well.

Hostguard: Banished’s only 3 Ember unit, and for good reason… his absurd starting stats of 25/60 are pretty strong as is, but the real gift here come in the form of those gigantic metal wings he has. His ability Heaven Slam works just like Flight, except that the floor he lands on also has the front enemy unit eat damage equal to his Health & Armor (i.e. a combination of both Talos’ Flight & Steadfast Crusader’s Slam). As a result, you have a unit absolutely made for the Banished, who can move about the train, trigger Shifts, swoop in to tank on different floors, or just do huge damage that will make a Steadfast Crusader blush. A fun, powerful unit to grab if you’re lucky enough to find him.

Upgrades/Pairings: Because his ability damage is tied to his health and he can go anywhere he wants in the train, Largestone is a worthwhile upgrade even though I don’t normally love 4-space units. Health & Titanite are great upgrades if you’re having him swoop in to tank. Based on his starting Health, he’s the Banished’s strongest pairing with the already-powerful (U) Shield of Wyngh equipment. Though he’s Ember-expensive, his stats and ability being ready immediately still make him a plausible use of Endless. This guy’s a monstrosity that fits in with any Banished build, so it’s tough to go wrong here.

Every clan has some version of these non-Banner card units, and for Banished it’s Hymnists, all 1-space 2/2 little Birdy band members that seek to bolster other units on their floors.

Upbeat Warbler (C): Gives Quick to other units on the floor, a modest boost to Banished, though a lot more appealing if applied to a Sweeping unit of another clan. Getting seeded with 2 of these guys is a not-amazing result.



















Lead Songbird (U): Increases the offensive value of Valor on his floor by 1, essentially doubling the potency. This ability does stack with itself, so multiple Lead Songbirds will further increase the Attack granted.



















Punk Shredder (U): Grants Trample to units on his floor. Trample is a relatively rare effect and given Banished’s ability to scale very high attack, this can significantly improve the floor-clearing potential of offensive units.



















Deathmetal Hymnist (R): Very odd for a support unit, both in that he’s Rare, and his incredibly expensive 4 Ember cost. However, no other unit in the game gives Multistrike to other units, and Spells/Equipment that grant Multistrike usually come with heavy drawbacks, so this effect is a big deal. Like Lead Songbird, this effect does stack if you can manage to play this expensive Birdy twice.

















These rockin’ birdies have big tangible benefits for a floor if you can fit them in. Much like many other Banished strategies, their effects are more potent if applied to multiple units, so they’re best paired with strategies that move your units (or them) around the train to have a full floor benefiting from the effects. Note that three of the birds have Enchant as an effect, meaning they are not themselves affected by the ability, while Lead Songbird’s effect is universal, meaning he’ll get more out of Valor too… noteworthy if using champion paths like Fel’s Vanguardian or Talos’ Battle Cleric.

None of these effects can be influenced by Dualism, and they’re largely not meant to do anything but sit and play music, so getting Merchant of Steel upgrades on them isn’t always a high priority. However, with their low HP and Banished’s risks against Sweeping enemies, defensive upgrades may be worthwhile, or practically mandatory if facing Seraph the Dominant. Considering their effects work well with other units on a floor, and they largely don’t need Steel upgrades, stuffing these into a Jack in the Box if you get the Wondrous Boxes event is a pretty reasonable option.

Because their effects rely on them being alive, watch out in particular for Qel the Corruptor or Seraph the Dominant, both of whom can Corrupt your 2-Health birdies to death in a single turn and remove their benefits… consider a Health upgrade or Damage Shield to help offset this.

Fel (Standard)


Starting card:
Just Cause: An incredibly important and versatile card both for Fel herself, but for Shifting strategies, buffing units, and even for unusual circumstances like advancing a Collector, Deafening Herald, or Scourge-generating units like Profane Supplicants in front to be dealt with, or to drag enemies in front of Prayerstones. The better starting card by an unfathomably wide chasm, it’s just a shame both champions don’t get this card. Also rare that as a starting card, it’s potentially worth Holdover as a Merchant of Magic upgrade due to the preponderance of Shift strategies in this clan. Few starting cards are worth that investment, but a 0 Ember or Spellchain Just Cause can actually have a solid impact on your run.


Vanguardian:
Strategies: A fairly straightforward path that helps Fel sustain herself and confers Valor to units on her floor on Revenge, which ups their offense slightly and gives them a chance to potentially establish Armor for themselves before Relentless. In this path, you generally want Fel to be in front of the floor, triggering Revenge to up her Valor to help scale higher levels of Valor to re-establish Armor on Resolve. This path is less Shift-dependent compared to the other paths, as Fel’s best functionality is to stay in front, even if Shifting can benefit her floor or get her more Valor. Fel’s Health stats are low and scale very slowly if you continue in this path (40 Health is embarrassing for a tank late-game), so you’ll need to support her porous early Health until she establishes a Valor-cycle for herself. If you can overcome this early hurdle, she’s a fantastic tank who also buffs her allies while upping her survivability.


Unchained:
Strategies: This is a fun path that asks you to “invest” in Fel by shifting her as often as humanly possible, as it confers permanent Valor bonuses that will increase her damage & defense. Her third level uniquely offers another Multistrike (three hits) if you’ve reached 75 Valor, a very plausible permanent threshold if you’ve done a lot of Shifting and sought out opportunities to increase her Valor. Fel’s already-low Health is even lower on this path and she’ll typically need one Resolve to get Armor established, so you’ll often be playing her Middle or Top floor, at least initially. While she can become a one-woman tanking & offensive threat as the game progresses, it will only happen if you’ve Shifted her constantly in battles, sometimes even to the detriment of other strategies. Look for early cards like (C) Rising Rage or (C) Windblade to help ramp this up early, and remember that Steadfast Crusader has an ability to help trigger Shift (and patch up her early defensive struggles) if he’s offered. The potential Shift benefits are strong enough to consider the Spellchain upgrade on a Just Cause card to keep the effects coming, and the potential chaos of the (U) Room Imprisoned Zephyr is more valuable here than with any other build.


Savior:
Fel gains Ability: Savior > Savior II > Savior III – Cooldown 3, Advance. Additionally…
Savior: Gain 5 Valor, gain Armor equal to Valor.
Savior II: Gain 15 Valor, gain Armor equal to Valor.
Savior III: Gain 15 Valor, friendly units gain Armor equal to Fel’s Valor.
Strategies: An interesting path that has the strongest base stats (this is not saying much), and trades Triggered Valor gains for an ability that instantly gains Valor, immediately procs the Armor gain (rather than waiting for Resolve), and sends her to the front of the Floor to tank for you. This is the only path that can generally survive early waves without support, since her Ability establishes Armor instantly. However, it’s still best paired with lots of Valor-gaining abilities and cards. Often the best strategy is to use Savior the turn before Relentless, allowing her one last Valor gain and helping her tank the remaining hits before establishing Armor on Resolve. Because she can force extra Shifts with Savior, this path works well with Angels that want to be Shifted as well. Finally, taking this path all the way gives her the unique ability to Armor the units behind her, which is a very welcome addition, particularly if facing Seraph the Dominant, who can give some real problems to the Banished.

Flex potential: Because Unchained I & II have no measurable difference, flexing Unchained I into another path, or pivoting away from Unchained after I (say, you don’t feel you’re shifting her enough to make use of it) are both reasonable options. If you’ve not found a way to support Fel’s early low Health, adding Savior into the Vanguardian path can give her a new trick to stay alive longer. Adding Savior gives her the ability to Shift other units as well, so if you’re relying on other Shifting units, flexing a level or two of Savior can give you a new bonus option.

Talos (Exile)

Ability: Flight – Cooldown 2 to move to any location on any Floor

Starting card: Inspire In my opinion this is the worst starting clan card in the game. If you’re lucky enough to get Vola’s Tuning Fork or Celestial Cascade as your starting artifact, then hey, this isn’t fully terrible. If not, 1 Ember for 1 Valor is an awful effect that should only be used if you have nothing better to do with your hand. This card isn’t useful to any builds and should be excised if you’re unfortunate enough to be stuck with it. Fortunately, Talos herself isn’t nearly as bad as her card.











Special Note for Talos: Replication
Because Talos is very mobile with her Flight ability and all versions of her could proc their effects multiple times if duplicated, it’s worthy of note that the Clanless Room (R) Hall of Mirrors and the (U) Lazarus League spell Replicator Ray are extremely powerful on Talos to have two of her flying around the train. Because this applies to any of her three paths, I’m mentioning it here rather than calling it out on all three paths.


Battle Cleric:
Strategies: Fairly simple, Talos’s main goal here is to swoop down into a floor that’s otherwise at max Capacity, conferring Valor to all units each turn, increasing the damage of all units and the Armor of your front unit. Talos doesn’t have particularly high Health, but if she’s had multiple turns to establish Valor on your units, you can potentially Fly or Shift her in front (or to another floor) to gain some Armor to help your units survive future waves & Relentless. Valor tends to be best when stacked in large amounts, so it’s generally better for her to remain on one floor buffing several units than trying to Fly around affecting other floors. It’s generally a great idea to ensure Flight is ready in time for the boss’ arrival, as it can give you the flexibility to change her position.. say, Fly her in front if she’s had a chance to gain Armor, or fly her out of a doomed Floor to give a chance to Resolve Valor gain again before the end.


Celestial Radiance:
Strategies: Talos’ most offensive path, where her Shifts and Flight triggers Melee Weakness to entire floors of enemies, allowing her and her allies to do increased amounts of Attack damage to them. This path is a natural complement to Banished units, which tend to favor direct offense over Spells and Indirect damage sources. The value of increasing Melee Weakness is especially helped by allies like Punk Shredder who can ensure any big damage hits Trample over to the next enemies. Because Talos lacks Just Cause as an option, you should strongly seek out cards like (C) Windblade, (C) Rising Rage & Selfless Sacrifice, (U) Imprisoned Zephyr & Heroic Dive to maximize the amount of Triggers you can get. (U) Steadfast Crusader is a great early potential pull as well to force additional Shifts.


Enchantress:
Strategies: An extremely unique path unlike any other Champion’s in the game. In this path, Talos is deliberately very weak, but if she survives a boss battle, Celebrate is triggered, and all remaining friendly units on the train get permanent stat boosts, with more Health gained than Attack. Although her stats are quite bad to start with, her own stats are boosted by this effect as well, so if you can keep her alive after multiple battles, both she & her allies will be formidably bolstered. The potential ceiling on this path is huge, particularly if you go for the Titans, since Celebrate is another +10/20 trigger after beating Seraph. The importance of keeping Talos alive throughout the game is strong enough that you may wish to forego some Trials if you believe they will give you too much difficulty. Although any clan units will generally benefit from increased stats, note that Banished have specific units & cards that are directly affected by stats that get a significant boost if your units grow in their stats, such as the already-powerful equipment (U) Shield of Wyngh, or spells like (U) Deadly Plunge & Heroic Dive. (U) Steadfast Crusader & (R) Hostguard love this path for bolstering the strength of their Abilities as well.

Flex potential: Unless you’ve failed to keep Talos alive and are headed for a doom spiral, Enchantress is the only path that I think truly needs to be followed without flexing, as the final stage’s growth of +10/20 is incredible for late-game battles. However, if she’s been unable to Celebrate, you might want to flex into another path just so you get more value out of her. If you’ve been able to get lots of Shifting cards, flexing into Celestial Radiance is a great option since the effect is helpful at any level. If you’ve started on Celestial Radiance but can’t get movement cards, pivoting into Battle Cleric is perfectly fine to get a bit of both benefits.

(C) Windblade is the only way for a unit to -gain- a Shift Trigger option in the game. Although there's still plenty of value in moving friendly units around the train without Shift Triggers, only specific Banished units actually see bonuses conferred from this movement.

(R) Cursed Twinblade has an interesting caveat that it reduces its own attack power effectiveness with each strike, while simultaneously granting Multistrike. This means the weapon is far more effective on units with big single strikes compared to lower-attack units that already have multistrike. As mentioned above, Demonic Fledgling offsets this with his own Valor gain, but some of the best users of this belong to other clans… Hellhorned’s Alpha Fiend gets incredible mileage out of it, a strong Underlegion Troop stack loves multistrike, as do big offensive champions like Penumbra. Putting it on someone like Fel though and you may end up going down in attack overall.

(U) Everlasting Light is much better for someone like Fel since it procs every strike. However, note that because Valor is a status effect, a Dualism unit will actually give 4 Valor to each unit, making a Dualism + Multistrike unit amazing for this weapon.

(U) Shield of Wyngh I’ve bragged about multiple times here because of what a powerful combination it is with many Banished units & cards. It’s noteworthy however, that its damage is based on the unit’s Health, not Health+Armor like some other Banished Abilities & cards. So keep in mind that its value will diminish if you have no ability to recover your Tank’s health, or lack enough Armor/Valor to overcome the attacks & Corruption headed their way.

Cards like (C) Rising Rage, (U) Heroic Dive, & (R) Heavensward can each Trigger multiple Shifts since the movement happens up/down floors as well as with an Advance. Note that Rising Rage can be used on enemies (say, to yank a Collector/Supplicant out of the back line), while the others are for friendly units only. This also means that Rising Rage can manipulate Seraph's location, noteworthy because both the Savage & Entropic enchant the floors they're on, and Dominant heavily debuffs the tank he hits.

If you don’t need the damage conferred by Melee Weakness, Wyngh’s Radiance can be used on a friendly unit at 0 Ember to trigger a Shift! Note that it will cause Melee Weakness if done in a Spell Sanctum or with Emberstone reductions on the card.

(C) Penitent’s Bloodsuit & (U) Penitent’s Deathsuit are obviously meant to be equipped to enemies, but note that Flying bosses and Savagery Titan will move many times over the course of a fight, and thus may take a lot more damage than the average enemy. Reminder that cards that manipulate enemy movement can also trigger these Shifts! So although Banished don’t have much early damage in spells, you can equip a Penitent’s Bloodsuit to an enemy and use Just Cause/Rising Rage to trigger 30 damage for each Shift!

(U) Imprisoned Zephyr can mess with your normal expectations on the floor if any units have Quick or are enchanted by a (C) Upbeat Warbler. Because your units Advance upon strike, if anyone has Quick, the unit in front will not necessarily be your tank, but it will instead become the furthest-back unit with Quick that ends up in front afterward. This can be a crucial point of interaction because many Banished units are squishy without Armor procs from Valor, and since they often lack backline-clears, you could end up with a low-Health Quickly pushing themselves in front, only to be wiped out by the enemy’s offensive backliners.

If you merge (U) Everlasting Light with (R) Cursed Twinblade, the Valor gain offsets the loss of Attack on strike, even moreso if the unit has Dualism! Multistrike works just as well with (R) Void Armament as it does with the Twinblade, but the Ember cost is one higher and you put your unit at risk of permadeath, so be careful if so!

If you can protect the unit from damage, merging the (R) Cursed Twinblade with a (U) Glass Cannon is a huge net gain of Attack power. A (U) Swiftsteel Dagger is safer, but its +15 attack will "wear off" in 8 strikes in comparison, so ensure you have a way to regain Attack/Valor/Rage to offset the loss.

The (U) Shield of Wyngh is made more potent with equipment that raises the Health stat, and/or provides healing. Cheap Clanless options exist here such as (U) Meat Shield & (U) Exile's Diadem, and (R) Overgrowth Carapace. Alternately, if you raise the unit's Health stat enough as is, merge this with a (R) Equalizing Rings for an attack boost, or (U) Bloodthirsty Blade as the Shield's counter-strikes count as Slay triggers! If you're willing to "hide" for a turn or two, (R) Statis Crystal can get you a significant 20 Health boost per turn as well, if merged.

Though Valor’s armor gain can protect your units, Corruption & Offense that breaks through their Armor can still whittle down their health, especially as you establish it in the fight, so Wyngh’s Spirit can be a real game-changer to restore Health to your bigger tanks to keep them in the fight long enough to establish more Valor. I wouldn’t bother however if your sub-clan has ample Healing options.

Due to the Banished’s preference for getting their wings dirty and attacking/counterattacking their way through enemies vice blasting them with spells, Pyre of Savagery is extremely good for this clan to help gradually grow the offense of your attackers

Aquath’s Reservation’s +3 Ember can help pay for some painful early expenses like (C) Divinity, or later ones like (R) Sanctuary & (R) Deathmetal Hymnist. If your starting run is seeded with two Divinities, this is great. Otherwise whether you get enough benefit out of this is very dependent on the cards you take and if your sub-clan has expensive cards to pay for.

Lifemother’s Pyre is a reasonable option for this clan as a lot of its units are excellent if duplicated, and this Pyre gives you more options to replicate without forcing you down specific paths.

Banished has some extremely good Equipment cards, and if going for a Shifting strategy especially, wants its units out & moving as fast as possible, making Herzal’s Hoard a solid way to help ensure everyone is out and equipped as fast as possible.

Because the Banished have multiple ways to manipulate their own movement within the train, Capacity is often irrelevant, so Bogwurm’s Growth is not recommended for them.

Banished cards want a lot of expensive upgrades to be at their best, so particularly at higher Covenants, Fhyra’s Greed can help further bolster your coffers early on to afford a few more upgrades (i.e. simply choose to not play a Vengeful Shards to earn 10 Gold for 1 Pyre damage).

Because of a few cards that are more powerful under optimal timing and no guarantee you pull them when needed, Echo of the Time Father is an okay option for them if you’re looking to carefully time the use of spells.

Pyre of Dominion is both the best & the worst Pyre for Banished. Why? Because for Fel, losing Just Cause is just a huge nerf to Shifting strategies, and makes Unchained borderline irrelevant as an option. But for Talos, losing her garbage Inspire cards and replacing it with anything else is a wonderful gift. At high Covenants, I will only play Talos with Pyre of Dominion, but I would never choose it for Fel under any circumstances.

Pyreborne:
Firestarter (+): A simple card that will be modestly useful throughout the run, either to clear backliners early, or to apply Pyregel, which Banished are happy to exploit.
Bloated Whelp: Though some Pyreborne artifacts can improve their performance, Firestarter to me is a better option, particularly since it can take damage upgrades in the Merchant of Magic.

Banished’s Valor is a gentle escalation of damage by default, so Pyreborne’s addition of Pyregel is quite helpful to ramp up your offenses, particularly if working with units like Fel or with Cursed Twinblades to rack up multiple hits. Pyreborne come with a huge array of options of dealing with backliners, so they patch up a Banished weakness very well. Pyreborne also have many options for gaining money & artifacts, which is quite helpful as the Banished have some expensive upgrades they’d like to buy, and like most clans, some Banished artifacts can be game-changers. It’s worthy of note that Pyreborne do the absolute least of any clan to support survivability in your units, so you’ll need to mainly rely on Banished cards for sustainability and Pyreborne for offense & enrichment.

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 do some cool things combined with Angelic hosts. Healing cards can help top off unit Health to patch up damage lost while establishing Valor/Armor. Banished’s desire to overstack floors pairs very well with cards like (C) Moon Pixie or (U) Planetarium. And most importantly, Luna has multiple options for blasting pesky backline units into oblivion with offensive spells that the Banished largely are lacking. If you use some of Banished’s Health+Armor based offensive cards, Spell Weakness can lead to some eye-popping damage at times as well.

Underlegion:
Eager Conscript: An interesting option since Banished can Shift units such that Troops aren’t in front by default, and this card is helpful to Trigger Rally on Underlegion units if you seek them out. I’d argue there are better ways to get Troops going than through this card, though.
Sporetouch(+): My preferred option as Decay is a powerful effect and it gives Banished a crucial way to deal with backliners early on.

Propagate is a real gift to Banished whenever it comes to Damage Shield strategies, as the Banished cards that apply Damage Shields tend to be very expensive, while Underlegion cards that Propagate these effects are quite cheap in comparison. Underlegion brings a lot of potential tricks for survivability between Regen & Sap, and the use of Troop stacks can be massively bolstered by Banished’s propensity for Health-based damage and Valor for sustainability. Finally, Decay is a powerful offensive option for destroying enemies, though Underlegion, like Banished, largely lack in instant-damage options for backliners. As a result, you’ll either need to keep your Decaying units alive, or seek strategies that combine both clans’ strengths (e.g. gigantic Troop stack + HP-based damage spells & Equipment)

Lazarus League:
Secret Ingredient(+): My preferred option as Mixes can offer lifesaving effects like Lifesteal & Reanimate that will keep your Angels in the fight, or Unstable to clear backliners early on.
Erratic Assistant: Your absolute best friend if a Swordmaiden comes into the fray, and an okay option early on for bolstering the offense of some Angel units that start with low Attack.

Lazarus’ sheer versatility is a gift to any clan, and Banished are no exception. Effects like Reanimate & Lifesteal can keep your Angels fighting even when the effects like Corruption become too much. Lazarus has multiple options for helping Banished deal with backline enemies, their Assistants with some neat Equipment effects that Banished love (put a Twisted Back on Fel and enjoy!), and their units span a wide variety of offense & defense to help patch up whatever aspect your run is lacking.

Hellhorned:
Torch: An intentionally weak starting spell normally meant to clear weak backliners, but can also be used for Revenge Triggers on (U) Firebrand & Vanguardian Fel
Queen’s Impling: Does a lot more damage than Torch, but only to the front unit, and takes up 1 Space. Given how much Banished lack offensive scaling early, this still isn’t too bad of an option.

Rage is Hellhorned’s first gift to Angels, helping them ramp up their offensive capabilities faster than Valor does. Armor is their second gift, as it can importantly be applied to other units on the floor rather than just the front unit like Valor does, or can be stacked on top of Valor gains to help you get it established. Some of their Imps and Spell cards can deal with backline enemies, and Hellhorned even have some Ascend/Advance spells to help trigger Shifts!

Awoken:
Restore: A solid option to help overcome early survivability concerns (Fel & Talos both only have 10-20 Health at the start!). 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, Healing, and Regen to offset your lack of defense. Awoken have numerous options for dealing with backline enemies, patching up Banished’s biggest weakness very cleanly. They also come with a couple Descend & Advancing cards for Shifts, and multiple cards that directly increase the Attack values of your Angels, which is helpful as Banished tend to Attack their way through problems.

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 choose Forgone Power. It does give you some early direct spell offense that Banished lacks, but drops off in effectiveness quite a bit.
Forgone Power (+): The superior choice. 0 cost is easier to play, it can trigger Discard functionality with Stygian Offering cards, or crucially discard Scourge & Blight cards to avoid their Reserve effects.

Your oceanic buddies 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. Freezing cards can save units and Shifting cards for opportune times. Additionally, Stygian has multiple backline-clear/debuff & Sweep options to help patch up Banished’s biggest weakness. While Banished only has a small number of offensive spells, Stygian is loaded with them if you want more indirect offense. If you use some of Banished’s Health+Armor based offensive cards, Spell Weakness can lead to some eye-popping damage at times as well.

Umbra:
Shadesplitter: An okay card that guarantees a Morsel, which tends to benefit Umbra units more than Banished.
Plink (+): My preferred option as it does same damage & gives you an offense-upgrade option in the Merchant of Magic. Less reliable at giving Morsels if you intend to grab Umbra units though.

This clan combo is one that’s a bit odd: A lot of Banished setups want to overstack floors, which will generally leave no room for playing Morsels. Conversely, that means other floors have more room for Morsels which can either help to Gorge Umbra units if you take them, or let you have Banished Tank units eating Morsels to keep them in the fight longer. Umbra comes with multiple options to increase your Ember, which can help play for some of Banished’s more pricey cards. Note that Umbra have a fairly limited capacity for dealing with backline enemies. All told, making this combo work might revolve more around playing to their own strengths, though Ember gain & Lifesteal are pretty universally helpful effects.

Melting Remnant:
Dreg: Cheap chaff units that can help do a bit of damage or be Harvest-fodder for some Melting Remnant units. Okay for a bit of damage, but doesn’t do much specifically to help Banished.
Primitive Mold (+): My preference here as Reforming is a way to potentially Revive your units if they ultimately don’t make it, or because it plays into many Melting Remnant unit strategies.

Defeat isn’t the end of your units with your waxen buddies, which can be a relief if your Valor armor fails to keep you alive. That said, those returned units will by default return with only 1 Burnout stack, so that strategy needs some help on its own. Melting Remnant was MT1’s clan focused on Gold gain, so like Pyreborne, they can help a bit to increase your coffers for the expensive upgrades you want. Banished don’t have any Harvest triggers so they don’t get much direct benefit from Melting’s dying & reform strategies, and like Umbra, are pretty heavily lacking in ways to deal with backline enemies. Thus the main benefit your waxer buddies give beyond the Reform backup option is rare effects like Endless, Daze, Stealth, and Debuff-clearing effects that are incredible for removing pesky Sap/Corruption/Melee Weakness.

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. Fortunately, Banished come prepared with many cards granting Damage Shields, which is a pretty hard counter to someone trying to strike you for tons of Damage. While you’ll need some way to avoid having your units be butchered by Ragewing Assassins, hopefully your Shields can sustain you long enough to get big enough Armor reserves that Seraph’s 30 Attack is no longer the concern it once was. This version of Seraph brings out some incredible amounts of Health on enemy units, so hopefully you've built up a way to ramp up serious offense as well.

Mr. Entropy loves weakening your forces down to nothing with combinations of Sap & Silence, hoping to stop them from getting their offense going. Fortunately, Banished’s ability to gain lots of Valor or do damage with Health & Armor in lieu of Attack is a pretty solid counter to this. Deafening Heralds will seek to Silence your Shift triggers, and Purified Souls will laugh off any attempt to address them with a Holdover Cleave, so you’ll want to lean on your defense and try to outpace his Seraph’s Sap. Though his Sap can be fairly debilitating to a floor full of attackers, and silence is obnoxious, Seraph here does less to disrupt Banished strategies and is probably the safest of the three to deal with.

The Banished clan will see their wings start sweating when Mr. Dominion comes to town, as his penchant for Corruption and loading up your deck with Scourges can ruin their day pretty quickly. Though Damage Shields can buy your backliners some time, the reality is that you need to start contending with Corruption very early, which is bad news if you’re still sitting on units with 2-12 Health who need to get Valor Armor established. Further, because Corruption ticks hit before you Resolve Armor triggers from Valor, even mighty tanks that withstood everything else in the game to this point can go down hard and fast here. Be prepared with a way to offset the inevitable bleed-out of your units here, and consider if you have a reliable way to blast through Heretics that will sit in back and fill your deck with garbage Scourge cards. This is the toughest fight for Banished in my opinion, so best to prepare early for this one!

Personally, Banished to me are mid-tier at tackling the titans, neither amazing nor do they struggle necessarily. On the one hand, single-floor overstack solutions will result in Savagery beating on your Pyre, and later waves bring problems from every Seraph that Banished can typically struggle with. On the other hand, consistent Valor gain is a pretty strong way to counter the ever-escalating damage of the Titans and enemy waves, Damage Shields are a hard counter for Savagery’s Trampling Multistrikes, and Melee Weakness effects are one of the quickest ways to take Dominion down. Much of this will depend on the ways you’ve been tackling problems so far, and if you have enough sustainability (or Endless as backup) to survive.

This is guide #2 for us on Steam! X) If you have feedback and opinions, they’re very welcome! 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 winged escape artists! =)