Full Walkthrough#
ℹ️A “full walkthrough” in this game means the three-act skeleton and each act’s goal, not a fixed map route — the map is procedurally generated, and alternating acts change what each act contains.
The Skeleton of a Run#
Pick a character
↓
Act 1 → inter-act Ancient blessing (Neow is always here)
↓
Act 2 → inter-act Ancient blessing (drawn from a random pool)
↓
Act 3 → beat the Act 3 boss → run completeA run is complete when you defeat the Act 3 boss. That character then unlocks Ascension 1 and the difficulty ladder begins. The entire deck and all relics reset at the end of a run; what persists is epoch and character-unlock progress — the permanent layer (character unlocks only require finishing a run, win, lose or abandoned).
Each Act Has a Different Goal#
All three acts are “walk, fight, reach the boss,” but each one solves a different problem:
Act 1: Define Your Win Condition#
- What wins this run? You need at least a preliminary answer before this act ends.
- Your deck is at its thinnest now, so card removal pays the most — every dud removed raises your draw quality the most visibly. Remember that Ascension 6 (Inflation) makes removal pricier over time, so “remove early” holds at every difficulty.
- Don’t stockpile mediocre cards here. Your deck’s thickness at the end of Act 1 basically sets the tempo for the next two acts.
Act 2: Patch the Gaps, Make the Win Condition Real#
- The win condition exists but usually still lacks a payoff engine or lacks defense.
- This is the main window for elites and relics, and the best moment in the inter-act blessing to double down on your established direction.
- Alternate as needed: if recent fights were “won but lost a lot of HP,” add defense; if you “can’t close out fights,” add damage.
Act 3: Convert Everything Into “Survivable + Lethal”#
- This act is no place for grand pivots — only fine-tuning.
- The goal is for the deck to answer two questions at once: survive the boss’s burst turns and kill the boss before you run out of steam.
- Before the boss room, run the self-check list on the deck-building page.
Current Act 3 boss pool (verified): The Queen, Test Subject (specimen #C8), and Aeonglass. The Doormaker was removed in Beta v0.105.0 and replaced in v0.107.1 — stop preparing against it per old guides. That’s why “tech cards against a specific boss” pay poorly here; general deck strength is more reliable.
Choosing Map Routes#
The map is a branching node graph, and every path choice is a trade-off. Usable heuristics:
| Current State | Priority Node |
|---|---|
| HP healthy, deck direction clear | Elites (trade HP for relics — the best return) |
| HP low | Rest site / low-risk normal fights |
| Obvious deck gap | Shop (buy certainty with gold) |
| Deck already thick | Event or shop options that remove cards |
| Near the boss with HP to spare | Elites / chests — squeeze every resource out |
There is exactly one core question: at my current HP, which route gets me to the boss alive. “Most rewards” is not the criterion; “arrive alive” is.
Inter-Act Ancient Blessings: Three Run-Defining Choices#
Each act opens with a blessing set from that act’s Ancient. Three verified structural details:
- Three blessings each time, pick exactly one — there is no “skip” option.
- Neow, Mother Revived, anchors the Act 1 entrance; the Act 2 and Act 3 Ancients are drawn from their own random pools.
- Choices are permanent for the run (modifying the whole run), some granting relics and some granting Wax Relic-style temporary relics that melt away after combat.
By category, blessings roughly split into:
- Card blessings: add, transform or upgrade cards
- Relic blessings: grant relics, sometimes with a drawback (or Wax Relic-style one-shot power)
- Resource blessings: gold, max HP, and the like
- Enchant blessings: attach permanent properties to cards
- Removal blessings: delete cards from your deck
Recommended focus per act:
| Act | Focus | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1 | Removal / deck quality / permanent relics | These choices compound across two more acts |
| Act 2 | Double down on your direction, or patch a clear gap | The win condition is set; this act makes it real |
| Act 3 | Immediate power; avoid breaking existing synergy | No time left for long-term payoffs |
One discipline: in Act 3, don’t take options that disrupt existing synergy. At this point “not making a mess” beats “a small power bump.”
The Pre-Boss Checkpoint#
Before every act boss, stop and ask four questions:
- Is my win condition still intact? (Did this act drift?)
- Can I survive one burst turn? (Do I have block or mitigation?)
- Did I waste a removal opportunity? (Is the deck still diluting?)
- Are my potion slots empty? (Base 3 slots; Ascension 4 cuts it to 2 — do I have a trump card for key turns?)
Any “no” means you can afford one more lap on the map — don’t rush the boss room.
How Co-op Differs#
Co-op runs on the same three-act skeleton with a few rule changes:
- The map is shared, but relics, cards and gold are per-player.
- The Ancient offers each player their own set of blessings; events allow different branches per player.
- Rest sites add Mend alongside the usual options, letting you heal a teammate.
- Ascension progress is independent from single-player and shared across the five characters within co-op; the selectable starting level is the lowest among the party.
- Division of labor and communication are the real difference: shared map, individual resources, enemies scale with player count — four decks should be built to complement each other, which makes building around team composition worthwhile.
The co-op win condition matches single-player: beat the Act 3 boss, with enemy HP scaling per player (a third-party estimate of roughly +50% per player — unofficial).
About the “True Ending”#
The official roadmap lists a deeper endgame layer (True Victory) for early access, but currently without specifics or dates. This guide therefore makes no claims about true-ending conditions — any concrete “how to trigger the true ending” story circulating right now fails verification.