If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. - The Art of War, Chapter 3, Canto 18 This proves Sun Tzu dealt with reality rather than cards and RNGs, but the principle remains valid 2.4 millenia later. You may choose to learn your enemies by engaging them repeatedly until you learn all their cards, or you might check http://wiki.cardhuntria.com for maps and deck lists. Either method works. Then build the best you can for what you will face with what is available to you. Don't Bring Dead Cards Piercing/Slashing attacks are dead vs foes with Only Bones or Tough Bark armor. Crushing Attacks are dead vs foes with Amorphous Body. Fire and Electrical are dead vs foes with Risiatant Hide. You can change these with armor removal cards, but armor removal is dead vs foes with no armor. Parry is dead vs foes with no melee attacks. And so forth. Note: Penetrating attacks usually do less damage than non-penetrating attacks of the same quality, so while not dead, they may be weaker vs unarmored foes. Exploit Weaknesses Such as applying flame to combustible enemies. Use Cycling Traits Positive traits can enhance your abilities. Negative traits don't, but are sometimes harmless and allow better items for a low token cost. Nightling is currently the best negative in the campaign (IMO) if you aren't playing in Mitternacht. Cycling traits are a means of "thinning" your deck to get to your good cards faster. If you have positive traits or buffs you want to keep, minimize the variety of other traits. You can find trait evaluations in the Deck Building forum. Movement Positioning is crucial in this game and, particlarly in the early stages, you'll probably not have much movement. It is generally best not to move first on your initial turn unless: - you need to establish a fighting position (such as a choke point) before the enemies get to it. - you need to take cover from ranged attacks. - you want to be on a victory square in case they pass. - you desperately need to be further from adjacent foes. (Brought an elf wizard to Path of Champions, did you?) - Anything else reasonable, but not listed. Otherwise, play a buff or pass. Most of your opponents will have extra movement cards in their decks (which is knowable), and it's usually best to let them burn their moves coming to you. If you don't have a reason to move, it's often best not to.
Also, memorize what EVERY CARD does. This game MASSIVELY rewards those with good memories. The next time you're in-game, click on the little button in the top right that has horizontal lines. This brings up the main menu. Choose "options". Click the button that says "Pause New Cards" until it says "Pause All Cards". This will make ALL cards, including those played by the enemy, hover in front of you when played until you click. READ THESE. Memorize their names. Memorize their base damages. Memorize their ranges. Memorize what color they are [because that dictates what kind of card they are]. Memorize what they do and what they DON'T do. There's some 700+ cards in Card Hunter, and while about 150 or so can only be used by enemies, the VAST majority can be obtained by and played by you, once you get ahold of them. NEVER FORGET, You can hover over all underlined keywords in a card to see what they mean. I can't stress how important this is for beginners. This is ESPECIALLY important with regards to @Sir Veza's tips, up above; as soon as you see that an enemy has a card that has the Immunity keyword, you'll wanna read that again so that you know what that enemy is [usually] Immune to. It won't do to keep using your Bludgeons on Black Slimes when they have Amorphous Body in their hand. Another tip, STAY AWAY from Multiplayer [MP] until you've completed the main campaign. MP, as it currently is, is SAVAGE, especially for beginners/novices who haven't truly learned the game, yet. Unless you clear a Campaign mission that is at least Lv17, keep away from MP; by the time you've finally cleared a Lv17 mission, you have a repertoire of items that will allow your team to not completely suck, and, by extension, collect even better and more powerful items because of it; remember that you get NOTHING for losing a ranked MP battle, so, you wanna make sure you know what you're doing before you step into the vicious, savage jungle that is Ranked MP. Another thing: DO NOT co-op a mission that you haven't beaten, yourself, yet. You'll unlock Co-op once your Renown hits 5 [by completing any Lv5 Campaign mission just once]. While it seems awesome that you can Campaign with other people, I have to stress that there is no Ranked Co-op; you will ALWAYS earn more items playing by yourself than you will playing with others, especially considering how much Passing goes on in the overage Campaign Co-op battle. Co-op is OK in moderation, but, you also have to learn how to play the game yourself, BY yourself, with your own characters, using your own skills and judgment, if you're ever gonna get good at any aspect of it. Most importantly, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP IN WORLD CHAT. The community for this game is, for the most part, pretty decent outside of MP. When it comes to Campaign advice, most are more than willing to tell you what you're doing wrong. Try to take that advice to heart the next time you tackle that mission when you keep getting Mighty Bludgeon'ed to death; it could make more of a difference than you realize. Good luck, and have fun.
Pause All Cards is a good practice for beginners, but memorizing all cards in the game is clearly too much for such people to be practical. Therefore, I recommend that you only memorize the best cards. If you prepare for the deadliest things your enemy can throw at you, you're also automatically prepared for anything less. What constitutes the best cards isn't always obvious, but usually it's defined by damage and range per quality. Every point of range has its nuance that you should keep in mind. I'll explain them below. Melee Ranges Range 1: The primary melee range. If you're facing ranged enemies, your warrior should be packing enough moves and using them wisely to get to this range. If you're facing melee enemies, you can opt to fight the damage race, but often that's just not going to work. If so, you should try to stay away, or play a lot of Parries. Range 2: The secondary melee range. Stabs are obviously this, but Step 1 attacks also have effective range of 2. You will face most Stabbing enemies early in the campaign. Effective answers to them can be found elsewhere on the forum. Step attacks are great companion for range 1 attacks. If you want to play Stabs, you should play your moves even more carefully to stay in this range. Note that the best range 2 attacks, Impaling Stab and Vicious Thrust, do 9 and 7 damages respectively. Range 3: The Step 2 range. There are not many attacks that belong here. However, these cards can immensely help you catch otherwise elusive enemies. On the other hand, if your enemy is using these attacks, you should try to intercept them with your warrior, who presumably does more damage. Both Step 2 attacks deal 4 points of damage. Magic Ranges Range 4: The control spell range. There are many cards at range 4 that mess with movements. Your wizard should ideally be 3 to 4 squares behind your warrior, to support each other. Range 5: Not many cards have range of 5. People end up in this distance mainly when range 6 is not accessible, or when they are planning to get closer with another move. Range 6: The primary magic range. Most magic attacks have this range. If a ranged enemy is 6 squares away from you, expect attacks. If you can't retaliate, try to move out of their sight. The best magic attacks deal 5 to 10 damages. Range 7: Only Burst 1 attacks(4 to 5 damages) has this range. Until you see one of these cards, you can assume that you are not engaged. Range 8: The secondary magic range. Wall Of Fire is the only attack at this range that's commonly available and good. Later on, there are Cold attacks(4 to 10 damages) and Burst 2 attacks(2 to 4 damages), but don't worry about them if you're just starting. Range 9+: Not many cards reach this far. Aside from Volcano, you can safely assume that you are not engaged.
hum hum firestorm and Nimbus are absolutly not useful in pve http://wiki.cardhuntria.com/wiki/Cards/Impenetrable_Nimbus http://wiki.cardhuntria.com/wiki/Cards/Firestorm in fact 5 is perhaps the most important distance, you want to be out of range of your mate firestorm and in range of your mate nimbus
These are indeed farming staples. I didn't mention them because this thread is for campaign novices, and such people wouldn't have either of it.
Know your characters' strengths and weaknesses. In particular, don't rush forward with your fragile elf wizard, preferring to save movement for escapes and late-in-round sniping positions. Also, once your Elf realizes one's racial Skill potential, consider cards that let you reveal your enemies' hands, accomplishing two things: yet more general learning of Card Hunter cards you'll be dealing with, and specific learning of what your enemy can and cannot do in the current rounds of the current battle. The multiplayer-focused side of the community is decent, too. $;^ ]
