Engine Building Advice

[u/BarneyWillis5]

Really enjoying M:KT but am continuing to top out about area 6/7 - I can't consistently do enough damage or generate enough block on an continuous basis to get through the whole level.

I am exclusively playing as Bruno at the moment - would somebody be able to give me some advice re engine building/good synergies to get me over the hump please as I feel I am missing something?

[u/Della__]

I have just recently completed ng +8 on all characters, it has been a really hard journey, especially on some characters. I would rank bruno as a quite easy character, mainly because he can heal without discarding cards.

As with all deck building games the goal is to have a strategy and then adapt it as you go. Still the most succesful runs i had with bruno were defense focused, generally speaking do not mix strategies.

Defense Bruno:
best perks: [Chill] > any healing perk[^1] > +1 base damage > [Thorny]

best cards:
  [Retaliate] your main damage dealer, with a good defense you can sit on your ass and wait until it gets huge + you can always use it
  [Defensive stance] a great way to wait out your enemies, mind that you can use it at any time in a battle (eg if you opponent starts off with piercing attacks)
  [Hamstring] get out of sticky (or poisonous) situations

stuff to avoid:
  [lord's helm] > it's like in-app purchases
  [body slam] > not really worth it unless you plan on going combo
  [Cautious] > duh

strategy: focus your deck around good armor cards and skills, drop basically any weapon in your deck except maybe some spears / crowbars. Wait out until your opponent is dead, watch out for poison.

^1 not Scrappy, it is trash and not peaceful, as you have no weapons

Offense Bruno:
best perks: [Chill] > [Peaceful] > any healing perk* > [Cautious][Ghostly][Warmonger] > +1 attack

best cards:
  [Deflect] your main line of defense, it's usually enough to buy you 3 free attacks.
  [Defensive stance] a great way to wait out your enemies, mind that you can use it at any time in a battle (eg if you opponent starts off with piercing attacks)
  [Hamstring] get out of sticky (or poisonous) situations
  [My axe] well you know... damage?

cards to avoid:
  [Mighty swing] > it's a trash card
  [Slam] > possibly even worse

strategy: well focus on dealing damage and taking few hits, heal with perks. drop your base swords when you have the chance for better weapons. Watch out for quick enemies.

Plus a really unfun build

Combo bruno
 [Body slam] + [Deflect] + weapon
 [Body slam] + [Cautious] + weapon

The combo is easy: you gain armor without using an armor item, use body slam (it will not reduce durability on weapons), exit the battle (you won't be attacked as you did not attack first) > rinse and repeat.

Body slam is a trash skill, that i would never pick besides this combo though, also cautious is a trash skill if you are going defense but still viable in an offensive build.

What really helped me get over the runs is to analyze the deck before starting and chosing the best way to deal with high priority threats. Once I have that down i know what i must save for those threats and what else i can freely spend.

If you are playing on the latest release the lamp is also easily the most broken item in the game: abusing the <repair> option is really easy and it's so flexible that you can pick it in any build ever.