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!

Pyreborne Clan Strategy Guide
Banished Clan Strategy Guide
Luna Coven Clan Strategy Guide
Underlegion Clan Strategy Guide
Lazarus League Clan Strategy Guide

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. Anywho, enjoy as we discuss the Furious Demons & Curious Imps that make up the Hellhorned!

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

Overview: Hellhorned do not like the Train, but Demons are a girl’s best friend, and they fully intend to take their Rage out against those who would foolishly face them in combat. Hellhorned’s Demonic denizens lead a clan with fairly simple effects, using Rage to increase their damage, Armor to withstand some punishment, while sprinkling in some simple triggers like Strikes & Slays to gain more of these buffs. They also have a cavalcade of Imp units that provide a wide variety of beneficial effects to supplement your run. If those don’t cover it, they have multiple offensive spells ready to directly strike down the enemy lines to skip battle altogether.

Offensive strategies: Hellhorned has a lot of offense in its kit! Rage is everywhere here… Champions, units, Imps, Spell cards, triggers… many other clans have Rage but none have as much of it as Hellhorned. As a bonus, they have a Rare unit & an Artifact that also increase the potency of Rage, allowing their damage to ramp up even further. Because this was MT1’s “first” clan, their deck of Spell cards also heavily features strong offensive spells that were easy for new players to understand. A pair of their Imps also do immediate damage on Summon, and there’s even a Spell & Ability that Sacrifice imps to do damage. Offense is all over their kit, you don’t have to look very far to find it.

Defensive strategies: Armor is the #1 way Hellhorned chooses to survive battles, as they have no healing or lifesteal mechanics in their kit. However, Spells, Units, and Equipment all exist within their deck to keep sustaining your units’ Armor. Imps’ disposable nature also allows them to frequently block hits for your allies as well. That’s about it! They have a single good spell card that inflicts Daze, but for the most part it’s Armor, Imp-Blocking, or simply beating the enemies up before they can hit you back.

Stat-influencing strategies: Only Attack-boosting effects are to be found in Hellhorned’s kit, and even that’s pretty minimal, exclusive to the unit (U) Alpha Fiend, and the Champion paths Reaper Hornbreaker Prince & Royalty Shardtail Queen. That’s it! No Health boosts, and no way to boost other clans’ stats… just lots and lots of ways to Rage instead~

Support strategies: Surprisingly, Hellhorned has a few extra bonuses it can offer up in a run, mostly tied to their Imps. (U) Impish Scholar can return Consumed cards back to your hand, (U) Pyre Chomper can get you a big boost of Ember, and (U) Imp-ortant Work can both Draw a card & get you an Ember boost. They also have two Ascend cards that can be helpful for moving your units & enemies around the train, one of which does Daze as well! So, they like burying axes in skulls, but they have some other options available!

Sweep/Backliner Strategies: Hellhorned’s units have no traditional sweepers, though their Exiled Champion Shardtail Queen’s Imperialist path can hit all enemies by tossing Imp units at them, and the (C) Molting Imp enemy damages all enemies on summon. You’ll mostly be relying on Spells here, as Hellhorned a few targeted spells like (C) Torch & (C) Horn Break, and some AoE spells that are on polar opposite sides of the spectrum… (C) Vent which does a little bit of damage, or (R) Inferno which does massive damage to friend & foe alike. Options like Molting Imp & Vent are useful early on both often don’t scale enough to consistently be solutions at endgame, so you may need to supplement this with your sub-clan or combine different effects.

(R) Consumer of Crowns now has a flat 4 Ember cost (rather than his Imp-dependent cost in MT1) and has gained the Ability: Warlord’s Tithe - Cooldown 2, which allows you to Sacrifice an Imp on his Floor to immediately Attack with him.










(C) Fortify has been changed from a Spell card to the Equipment card (C) Fortified Pauldrons, which also gives the attached unit Armor turn over turn.

now has gained the Ability Culling > Culling II > Culling III, allowing him to Attack immediately. A very welcome change to give players the flexibility to proc more Slay triggers and defeat enemies before battle. It's not awful anymore!!!

no longer Tosses Imps on Resolve, and now gains the Ability Imp Toss > Imp Toss II > Imp Toss III to throw your Imps on-demand. A substantial change here, as it now allows you to leave Imps on her floor without having them automatically thrown, and gives Hellhorned a new option for pre-battle Sweep damage.

(R) Rage Room is a new Room card for the Hellhorned, giving all units on the floor Rage bonuses on both Strike & Revenge. Great for everyone to escalate their offense, but particularly good with Sweepers, Multistrikers, and Overstacked floors.

Merchant of Steel: Furystone: Rage 12. A nice offensive upgrade, the base-level Attack boost of this is 24, significantly stronger than a Strengthstone’s 14. However, Rage degrades over time, so this can erode to be weaker, particularly during a protracted Relentless Boss battle. A Dualism unit increases this bonus to a fantastic 24, which should take away any concerns about this weakening over time. Personally I like this upgrade a lot, particularly since it’s only typically offered with Hellhorned, and there are many ways to keep Rage going with this clan.

…and that’s it! Hellhorned are currently the only clan that has no unique buff, debuff, or trigger. This was also the case in Monster Train 1 though, as Hellhorned were meant to gently onboard players with simple effects like Rage, Armor, and Slay. Quite the change from MT2’s starter clans of Pyreborne, who have many unique effects, and Banished, who has complicated ones like Valor & Shift!

Hellhorned Banner thoughts:

A little bit of a mixed bag here. On the one hand, this is a safer option than most MT2 clans, because Hellhorned banner units largely stick to Tank or Damage Dealer roles, avoiding some of MT2’s Banner units that only function with one sub-clan card or same-clan ally. On the other hand, Hellhorned is the only clan with a 4-Ember costing Uncommon unit (and you can technically be offered that and its 4-Ember Rare unit as well), and one of its Uncommon units needs to get Slay triggers to work well in your team.

Fortunately, deadweight pulls are rare here; it’s relatively safe to grab a Hellhorned banner, and might be worth it just for the chance of pulling one of its powerful Rare units in (R) Apex Imp and (R) Deranged Brute. But sometimes you don’t want ‘safe’, you want something powerful that will help define your run, and many Hellhorned Banner units aren’t quite that. Finally, this clan is very hungry for Multistrike, Dualism, and Endless (more often for Imps) as Merchant of Steel upgrades, so if your existing units already want these, maybe a Hellhorned banner isn’t for you.

Keep that in mind as we discuss Hellhorned Banner units!

Branded Warrior: A hybrid Damage Dealer and buffer, Branded Warrior starts battle with a bit of Rage, and if he can get some Slay triggers, he buffs all units on his floor with Rage as well. Naturally the idea here is to have turn-over-turn escalating damage where both he and his allies get stronger, making the Slays come more naturally as each turn passes. You’ll need to work to support him a bit, as his baseline Attack & Rage are fine, but aren’t going to do anything to get one-shot kills without some help as the run progresses. He is, however, a potent source of continual rage if you have the capability to keep the Slays coming!

Upgrades/Pairings: Three upgrades in particularly are great for Branded Warrior: 1) Multistrike, which gives him the opportunity to Slay multiple units per turn. 2) Dualism, which buffs both his starting Rage and his Rage-buffs to allies up to 10. And 3) Furystone/Rage 12, which helps get his Attack much higher at the outset, and doubles to 24 if paired with Dualism. Largestone & Strengthstone are reasonable options as well. Speedstone can work but be careful if he’s not strong enough to quickly kill the Front-line tanks. The most important thing to do here is to both set him up in situations where he has a chance of getting Slays, and then pair him with Allies that will keep the damage coming as he gifts them Rage. Any Multistriking partners like (U) Horned Warrior are nice, but he especially loves buffing Brawler Hornbreaker Prince, or enjoying the huge boost to Rage from a (R) Deranged Brute.

Horned Warrior: A vanilla-flavored Damage Dealer, Horned Warrior is a perfectly fine, no-nonsense Attacker. No abilities, triggers, anything but a nice 15x2 Attack stat that is asking to be increased through Rage & Equipment. Sometimes your run just needs a dude with an axe to smack enemies with, and he here’s to provide that for you!

Upgrades/Pairings: All you’re really looking for here is yet more offense, so that can come from Strengthstones, Furystones, Largestones, Speedstones, and even more Multistrike if you need it. Hellhorned is full of Rage-generating cards & allies, so anything that strikes multiple times gets more benefit out of it. So, (C) Fledgling Imps, (R) Rage Room, (U) Branded Warrior, Spell cards & Equipment are all welcomed here.





Railbeater: His 10 Health belies his Tanking prowess, given he has 30 Armor by default, well-surpassing a Shield Steward’s bulk. And as an added bonus, his Strike adds Melee Weakness for the next ally to exploit for extra damage. This can be very powerful with high-Attack units like (U) Demon Fiend or Royalty Shardtail Queen in particular, but has plenty of use across many other clans’ Attackers as well. You’ll still need a bit of support to keep him around long-term, but there are plenty of options within Hellhorned alone for doing so.

Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism is a particularly awesome upgrade here, as it increases his Armor to 60 and makes his strike do Melee Weakness 2 instead. Beyond that, his Health could use some boosting with a Heartstone or Largestone to keep him in the fight longer, and Endless is great for him since he’ll regain his lost Armor when Re-summoned. Note that if fighting Seraph the Entropic, his starting Attack will get Sapped to the point of not striking, unless you can boost that with Rage or Attack-upgrades from Merchant of Steel or Equipment. Most important is to stick a high-damage unit behind him to exploit that Melee Weakness, which is particularly awesome if they have Trample to spill over that damage. (U) Demon Fiend is a lovely friend here, but as mentioned, Royalty Shardtail Queen’s huge potential Attack can make for some very fast boss-kills as well.

Steelworker: A unit archetype we haven’t seen since Banished’s (R) Divine Dancer, Steelworker is a support unit that increases Armor for the entire floor on Resolve, giving your floor some passive survivability and staying-power for Relentless. This guy is a real gift when fighting Seraph the Dominant & Qel the Corruptor to protect your backline units from dying to Corruption. Though 6 Armor isn’t much, it can be enough to keep your Tanks in fighting shape longer, and help any Attacker behind him survive longer during Relentless boss fights. Neither overwhelmingly strong nor ever really useless, he’s a safe addition to just about any team.

Upgrades/Pairings: Another Hellhorned, another Dualism recommendation, as 12 Armor to all units each turn is suddenly a pretty strong effect, rather than a decent one. What you do from here is up to you – he’s neither a good tank nor a good attacker by default, and Endless isn’t as useful for a unit with a Resolve trigger. So, patch up his stats with whatever you need, and try to get him on an Overstacked floor with lots of units to protect. If you’re lucky enough to pull (R) Apex Imp, he loves being paired with Steelworkers!

Alpha Fiend: I think this was honestly my least favorite Banner unit in MT1, and fortunately he’s a bit improved here. For one, his original Strike trigger of +5 has been tripled to +15, and there are new ways to get him Striking more frequently in this game. He still has the same downsides as an Attacker though, taking up 3 Space for 2 Ember with a quite-low 25 Health isn’t a fantastic combo by any means. Thus you’ll need to figure out where on a floor he belongs, and then get ways to increase his amount of Striking. If you do, fortunately you’ll be rewarded with an Attacker that grows very powerful on his own turn by turn.

Upgrades/Pairings: Of course it’s Multistrike here, by any means you can obtain it. The Strike trigger is affected by how many times/units he strikes, so if you can get him Trample or Sweep effects, his offense will grow considerably faster! Those aren’t easy to come by, though, and currently the only way to give him Sweep is the (U) Iron Tongue Equipment, which also caps his Attack (though you can replace it with other Equipment after he’s Attacked several times!). If you intend to leave him out front, he’ll need Heartstones to survive, or a Largestone, though that will make him an onerous 4 Space. Smidgestone can offset that or help tuck him into a tighter floor situation. Finally, although he’s 2 Ember and 3 Space, Endless can be an option on him, as every Attack boost he gained from Strike will carry over to the Endless version of him. Finally, beware of Seraph the Entropic, as he can get Sapped low enough to not Strike at all.

Demon Fiend: Vermillion Gorilla here really hopes you didn’t need that Deployment Ember for anything else, as he’s the only 4-Ember cost Uncommon Banner unit in the entire game. That’s a “risk” you’ll take with any Hellhorned run, as you might be seeded with this as your starting unit. Fortunately, for that 4 Ember, you get massive stats in 60/60 with Trample as the cherry on top, allowing him to both Tank and brutalize early waves while making use of the powerful Trample effect in a clan loaded with ways to Rage him further. Reminder that if you do not have the Herzal’s Hoard Pyre Heart, Demon Fiend will be potentially unplayable at the start of a run if you take a Pyre Damper (-1 Ember) challenge.

Upgrades/Pairings: Finding ways to play him at all might be your first concern, as the starting Deployment Ember is 4, enough to only play him and your Champion, as there are no 0-cost Banner Units in the game. If you can, you’re through the hard part and can focus on whatever your run needs! Largestone can be absolutely worth the 4 Space here since it gives him a tremendous 110 Health to work with, and can be pared with a Smidgestone to shrink him right back down, or with Titanite for a monstrous defender. Multistrike can be really important here so he has a better chance of Trampling through multiple waves of enemies. Whether he’s worthy of Attack-based upgrades like Strengthstone / Speedstone / Furystone vs. Defensive upgrades like Titanite / Largestone / Heartstone will likely depend on how he fits in with the rest of your teammates. Finally, he's a fantastic pair with (U) Railbeater, who generates Melee Weakness for this beast to exploit with Trample damage.

Apex Imp: Puberty is a confusing time for us humans, but it’s an Enraging time for Demons. Apex Imp is one of MT1’s highest-ceiling Attackers, and fortunately he continues to be a terrifying presence here as well. On his own, an Apex Imp doesn’t look like much, with 10/10 stats and a mere 5 Armor. However, gaining equivalent Rage to all Armor gains is the big selling point, because he remains Raged even if his Armor is depleted for any reason. Armor effects are available with all sorts of Hellhorned cards, and plenty of other clans have that effect as well. Get him out on the field, fortify him with Armor, and watch as his Attack stat spirals out of control in the process!

Upgrades/Pairings: Multistrike is a highly-desired effect here since his offense will grow tremendously over time. If you require him to be at the front at the start of a fight, you may want a Largestone to ensure he can take the first few hits. Dualism doesn’t do much by default (only increasing his starting Armor to 10), but can be very powerful if you continually give him buff-increasing effects. Most important here is to pair him with Armor effects and watch the fireworks… a (C) Welder Helper gives him more Rage than the 3-Ember Spell (C) Ritual of Battle! Cards like (C) Fortified Pauldrons and allies like (U) Steelworker are awesome for giving turn-over-turn Armor. Multiple other clans have Armor effects as well, so seek out any opportunity to get more Armor on him to get a mighty, Raging-hormone teenager working for you!

Deranged Brute: This shackled & battered prisoner of a Demon is a very powerful support unit who boosts the Rage buff on his floor from +2 Attack to +5 Attack per stat, more than doubling its usual offensive potency! With the fortunate 1 Ember cost and 25 Health to offer some modest survivability, he’s easy to fit on a floor and can easily be turned into a tank or Attacker depending on the needs of your run. Much like Apex Imp needs to seek out Armor to be powerful, Deranged Brute does need Rage effects to see his potential flourish, so much of his use will come down to finding Rage-giving cards to pair with him.

Upgrades/Pairings: Again, you can go either way on this. A Furystone/Rage 12 on himself (or any unit on his floor) is an incredible +60 Attack boost by default, so you can easily turn him into a strong Attacker with that, combine it with Dualism for more Rage, or give him Multistrike so his Rage-filled hits find more targets. Or, put the Rage on his allies instead and consider giving him tanking-friendly upgrades like Heartstone, Titanite, Largestone, or Smidgestone to cram him in a floor full of units. Here you really want Rage however you can get it… great options are (C) Fledgling Imp, (U) Branded Warrior, (R) Rage Room, Wrathful Hornbreaker Prince, and really any spell card with the word “Rage”. Bigger floors full of Rage-boosted allies gets you the most benefit here. Remember, several other clans have access to Rage as well, giving some fun potential combos! Deranged Brute is awesome, is a must-pick when he shows up for us, and at a mere 1 Ember, is an awesome unit to copy at an Empyrean Well.

Consumer of Crowns: A big change from MT1, Consumer now has the Ability Warlord’s Tithe: Cooldown 2 to Sacrifice an Imp on his Floor to Attack immediately. At 4 Ember and 3 Space, he’s a hefty investment to make. Compared to (U) Demon Fiend, he loses some Health and goes all the way up to 100 Attack with an Ability to Strike out of turn, but loses Trample. Oddly enough this makes him… okay overall, nowhere near the offensive threats that his other Rare Hellhorned units can be. He’s much better if he gets Multistrike to Attack multiple times when using his Ability, and a bit better with Shardtail Queen due to her abundance of Imp allies.

Upgrades/Pairings: Another Hellhorned unit, another Multistrike-desiring Demon! Getting 100x2 or even 100x3 out of his Ability is a huge difference, and is by far the most important thing you can do for him. Feel free to pursue any Attack of Defensive upgrades as needed (even something like Titanite can be workable here if paired with an Endless (C) Welder Helper), but more important is to ensure he has Imp buddies ready to make the Sacrifice for him. Endless Imps are great here, and the Ability to Sacrifice them on his floor is particularly nice for Imps like (C) Welder Helper who can otherwise clog up your ranks. Crucially, his Ability is Cooldown 2 by default though, so I prefer 1-Health chump-blocking Imps when possible to ensure you get frequent use out of their Summon triggers too. Imp Parade Shardtail Queen is an awesome partner for this big guy for that reason!

Every clan has some version of these non-Banner card units, and for the Hellhorned it’s Imps!
...friendly little scamps that have a variety of very useful effects. There are numerous Spell cards in this clan that specifically interact with Imps, alongside multiple paths for Shardtail Queen, so these have a bigger presence as Support units in this clan than most others.




Queen’s Impling (C): Exclusive to Shardtail Queen, these little babbling baby Imps actually do the highest single-hit damage of any starting clan card (Forgone Power does more over multiple turns), enough to put a decent-sized dent in early tank & meatshield enemies. 16 Damage will drop off in usefulness as the run progresses though, and these will likely be use to trigger other Imp-related cards & Abilities instead.








Fledgling Imp (C): A very important unit to many Hellhorned strategies, Fledgling Imp’s floor-wide Rage gift is a powerful, simple tool for increasing the offensive potential of your floors. This can be a crucial unit to keep Rage from degrading over time, and for making units like Brawler Hornbreaker Prince & (R) Deranged Brute more useful. A borderline mandatory grab, particularly if playing with Hornbreaker Prince.








Welder Helper (C): A potentially helpful little Imp who gives a pretty significant 20 Armor to your front unit on Summon… which can be itself if you play it in front. This is a pretty solid return on Ember, but the problem is unlike every other Imp, you don’t necessarily want to play him in front, and with 1 Attack, he won’t do much in the backline. So either you have a 1 Health+20 Armor blocker, or you need a way to dispose of the Welder Helper after its Summon effect is done.







Molting Imp (C): A real potential godsend early in a run, where 10 AoE damage can be enough to clear a huge variety of backline units, and can make a real joke out of Mark of Invasion trials if pulled early. Although it still has some potential use late in the game, unfortunately the 10 Damage can’t be scaled up in any way, and scary units like Purified Souls that could be nuked by this are often paired with Deafening Heralds to stop its Summon trigger. Great early on, Molting Imp still has potential to clear dangerous units like Ragewing Assassins late-game, but particularly at higher Covenant levels, will be insufficient to resolve the bigger backline problems.





Impish Scholar (U): Ah-hem! A weird but welcome addition to this clan, Impish Scholar brings the ability to resurrect Consume cards, which is otherwise exclusive to one Rare Underlegion card in MT2 currently. Generally this is a nice benefit as Consume cards tend to be strong, but this can also be used strategically to make a very powerful Consume card (say, a Doublestacked (R) Alloy of the Ancients), and put Endless on Impish Scholar to continually pull it over and over again. This can also make him a nice ally for Incant strategies as well.






(U) Pyre Chomper: A nice 4 Ember boost (minus the Ember to play it) here, this can be a helpful unit to grab if you think you’ll be needing some high-Ember cost turns in your future. This could potentially allow you to play even very-expensive cards as Holdover effects each turn! If you’re lucky enough to pull the Hellhorned artifact The Unbroken Horn, Pyre Chomper is a particularly great pull.








(R) Transcendimp: A crazy Imp that is anywhere from “fine” to “world-endingly powerful” depending on how many Summon effects you’ve been triggering in your run. Generally the idea is to use him on Imp-heavy strategies, but Summon effects can come from many other different clans too… Umbra’s Architect Penumbra, Pyreborne’s (U) Greed Dragon, Underlegion’s (U) Waxcap & (U) Cheery Deathcap, to name but a few examples. If you’re barely using these, Transcendimp probably isn’t worth the 2 Ember, but if you’ve got plenty of Summons, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.





Generally these are all potentially great candidates for Endless, though again with Welder Helper, you’ll need a way to consistently destroy/Sacrifice it if you want its Armor to go to your frontline Tank. If you don’t, its 20 Armor is functionally no different as a Blocker than an Imp with a Heartstone… though while we’re at it, if you intend to keep having Imps block for you until the endgame, a Heartstone upgrade to take more than a single hit might be welcome!

The offensive power of Queen’s Impling & Molting Imp will diminish over time, so these should only be Endless if you desperately need a Blocker, or have a card like Holdover (U) Imp-pressive to exploit them with. Dualism is very powerful on Fledgling Imp & Welder Helper, and can be for Transcendimp as well (it won’t show anything on its card, but its Summon effects will get Dualism-bonuses).

Imps were an extremely strong strategy in MT1, though that was influenced heavily by the “essence” system in the DLC content where a single Imp could have multiple effects on Summon. Without that, they’re good, but aren’t quite the powerhouses they were before. Additionally, beware of Deafening Heralds, typically if fighting Seraph the Entropic, as they’ll simply shut down your Summon effects entirely. The clanless Room (R) Hall of Mirrors is quite fun for doubling the Summon effects if you can afford the reduction in Space to make it work~

Starting card:
Torch: The simplest starting card in the game, with three potential viable uses: 1) Pick off weak backline enemies/reanimating enemies, which is still useful late in the game if given +20 Consume. 2) Nuke your own Imps/Support units that are clogging up space on your floors. Or 3) Use its low damage to trigger Revenge on your own units, like Wrathful Hornbreaker Prince.


Brawler:
Strategies: Two things should immediately stand out here: 1) Wow, that’s a lot of Multistrike! And 2) Wow, those stats are atrocious! Multistrike 4 at level III is currently the most of any Champion in the game, and 6 Attack is uh… less than a Shield Steward! So the goal with this path is either to give him lots and lots of Rage so he hits hard, or give him Equipment to boost his Attack instead. Some cool options are Clanless Equipment like (U) Glass Cannon that would make him 56x5 with some Armor to offset the Fragile, (U) Iron Tongue so he’s doing 30x5 Sweep damage, or (R) Overgrowth Carapace so he gets +20 Attack each turn. If you’re not seeded some Rage cards and you start this path, make sure you grab any Rage you can find, and take trips to the Merchant of Arms, or Hornbreaker will be borderline worthless. Luckily, this is Rage-clan, so it’s not terribly hard to improve this build.


Reaper:
Hornbreaker Prince gains the Ability:
Culling: Cooldown 6 to Attack Immediately
Culling II: Cooldown 3 to Attack Immediately
Culling III: Cooldown 1 to Attack Immediately

Strategies: *sigh of relief* oh thank god. Reaper was (debatably?) the most godawful, no-good, terrible Champion path at high Covenant levels in MT1. But the good news here is the addition of Culling has breathed new life into this path. Hornbreaker’s starting Attack levels are decent on this path, but grow considerably on Slays. The only difference to Culling is how frequently you can use it… At level I that’s only once per Battle, ideally to get one extra Slay before he Attacks on his turn. At level II, that’s typically twice in a fight. Level III is the big change though, letting him Strike every turn, potentially gaining an extra +50 Attack every round, or simply helping you put a dent in big Meatshield enemies.

Hellhorned’s Ascend cards can be very helpful here to either Ascend enemies up to Hornbreaker’s Floor for easy kills, or to move Tanks out of the way for him to pick off other enemies. You want to get lots of Slays here, so consider pairing him with Rage effects, a (U) Railbeater to exploit the Melee Weakness, and you should excitedly seek out Multistrike effects from (R) Onehorn’s Tome or (R) Void Armament if offered. Finally as a reminder, though his Health is quite low, if your sub-clan offers Spikes, any kills from Spikes damage also count as Slays.


Wrathful:
Strategies: An interesting reversal of fortunes, as Wrathful was probably Hornbreaker’s most consistent path in MT1, and now it’s jealous of Reaper! Anywho, the idea here is for Hornbreaker to be a tank rather than a Damage Dealer, as he gains Armors on Slays. There’s a bit of hybrid damage dealing too, as he gains substantial Rage on Revenge to help him be strong enough to get those kills. Often, we use his Torch cards on Hornbreaker himself as Rage triggers to get his Attack high enough! However, this path needs some real support to be viable, as his starting Attack escalates very slowly for someone that needs to get Slay triggers, and without those Armor boosts, his Health won’t do the trick at high levels. You’ll want to support him a bit, either with more Health/Armor to survive longer, or more Rage to ensure he gets Slays. The two most ideal situations for this path are either the Clanless Equipment (U) Iron Tongue, where he’ll get Sweep kills to get numerous procs of Armor, or Spikes from his sub-clan, which also count as Slay triggers to keep the Armor going.

Flex potential: Brawler has been a frequently-flexed path since time immemorial, since both Reaper & Wrathful have Slay triggers, and striking multiple times gives the option to proc that repeatedly. If you can’t get Rage/Equipment to boost Brawler up, flexing Reaper into it can be very appealing to get Attack boosts from Slays, and give him the Culling ability. Interestingly, all three paths have a level III effect worth considering… Brawler’s impressive Multistrike 4, Reaper’s every-turn use of Culling III, and Wrathful’s jump to 75 Health with Armor 25 on Slays.

Starting card: Queen’s Impling Who let these adorable babbling babies into battle? Oh, they do the most single-target damage of any starting card, and are crucial to Shardtail Queen’s Champion paths? Sounds like they’re ready for combat to me! Early on these are helpful for whittling down frontline tanks, they’re always an option for Blocking hits, and late game they’ll probably only be used to Block & help trigger Shardtail’s Champion path effects.


Imp Parade:
Strategies: Shardtail has some sizeable Attack on this path, makes all Imps 1 less Ember on her floor, and gives you at least one free Imp each turn. At the start, these Queen’s Implings may be plenty to Block for her, but the Queen’s Health remains very low, so future levels are intended to tuck her in back behind more reliable tanks. Level II is a substantial change, giving you a “free” 5 Rage from a Fledgling Imp to everything on her floor each turn, enough to boost both her, and any tank or attackers also on the floor while Blocking one hit.

Level III is an even bigger change – giving a Welder Helper as well, with some weird implications… you probably don’t want to give your Fledgling Imp that 20 Armor, so ideally you’d play the Welder Helper to Armor your tank, then the Fledgling Imp to Rage everyone. The downside here is you can only do this so often without running out of Space, unless you can also Sacrifice/defeat your Welder Helper, or instead put them in front to Block 21 Health of damage as well. The best case to me is with a Holdover Sacrifice Imp card like (U) Imp-ortant work or (U) Imp-pressive to get use out of the Welder Helper. Without that, or a partner like (R) Apex Imp that desperately wants that Armor, I’d flex out of this path instead of going to level III.


Royalty:
Strategies: A simple, straightforward path with very simple implications… play Imps on her floor to trigger Rally, Shardtail Queen gets more Attack and uh… that’s it. Draft Imp cards as they come up so you have more chances to Rally her, make them Endless to continually trigger this. Her Attack can grow considerably on this path, so she can be a nice strong pairing with (U) Railbeater, who will gift some Melee Weakness for her to stab her tail into. This path has some extra synergy with Melting Remnant’s disposable units, and insane potential with Underlegion’s huge amount of Spawn/Rally effects. However, without Trample or Multistrike, she’ll be limited to “one big hit”… this makes her powerful during Relentless boss phases, but weaker throughout the waves. You should seek out any way to get her Trample/Multistrike, like from (R) Onehorn’s Tome or the clanless Equipment (R) Void Armament.


Imperialist:
Shardtail Queen gains the Ability: Cooldown 1 to
Imp Toss: Destroy all Imps on her floor, then do 20 Damage to enemy units per Imp.
Imp Toss II: Destroy all Imps on her floor, then do 40 Damage to enemy units per Imp.
Imp Toss III: Destroy all Imps on her floor, then do 60 Damage to enemy units per Imp.

Strategies: A very welcome change from MT1, now giving Shardtail the on-demand Ability to chuck Imps versus her MT1 iteration where she did this on Resolve. What’s interesting about this path is that 20 Damage from a single Imp in level I is enough to clear some of the most dangerous backline late-game threats like Discordant Heretics as as-is, going to level II gets 40 Damage, enough to defeat even higher-Covenant threats like Chosen Supplicants, while level III's 60 Damage even beats Chosen Assassins. In a clan with no traditional Sweep effects, this is a pseudo-Quick Sweep option… as long as you have Imps! Even if it lacks the eye-popping damage of Royalty for Relentless, this path is very strong at solving major problems with both Seraph the Savage & Dominant, so I like it a lot.

Endless Imps are quite desirable here, and a (U) Welder Helper’s typical issue of being “stuck in back” is negated quite nicely if the Queen simply chucks him at enemies. If you pull too many Imps on a turn, put some down, throw them, and enjoy the freed-up space to throw some next turn! Reminder that these are a single source of damage even if multiple Imps are destroyed, so these will not fully destroy Reanimating enemies like Deformed Duos and Undying Wretches… a nice use of (C) Molting Imp here though! For extra fun, use the clanless (R) Hall of Mirrors after Shardtail’s down… now each Imp Summoned will be copied, both doubling their Summon effects, and increasing the damage of Imp Toss.

Flex potential: Imp Parade is quite interesting as a path, because flexing even one level of that will make Imps cost -1 Ember on her Floor, which is a potential great benefit to either other path. Further, Imp Parade III’s extra addition of a Welder Helper could actually be a detriment to your strategies if you don’t have space/Ember to utilize them. Starting with Imperialist and flexing into Imp Parade is very cool, as Shardtail will give you a free Imp to Toss each turn, and any other Endless Imps you’re utilizing will cost -1 Ember. Imperialist III does go up to a decent Health stat of 80, and doing 60 AoE Damage per Imp can be impressive if you have a steady supply of Imps or a (R) Hall of Mirrors. Royalty’s Attack ceiling is pretty high at III, but I’d only stick with this path if you’ve found a way to give her Multistrike/Trample, or you’re playing Underlegion sub-clan for the sheer boss-killing damage potential.

(C) Hidden Passage has a lot of uses in just about any clan. For Hellhorned this can be things like:

• Send units up a floor with (U) Steelworker to benefit from his Room-wide Armor
  
• Free up space after using a (C) Welder Helper that’s clogging up Space on a floor.
  
• Move a high-Attack Champion like Royalty Shardtail Queen or Reaper Hornbreaker Prince up to the back of a higher floor with fresh Tanks to have more turns to attack during Relentless.
  
• Ascend weaker enemies out of the backlines/Tanks out of the way to give Reaper Hornbreaker Prince and (U) Branded Warrior opportunities for easy Slay triggers.
  
• Put (R) Rage Room on the Middle/Top Floor and Overstack these floors with lots of units to take advantage of the Rage effects.
  
• Pull Cael’s Cherubs out of their floors to prevent them from being Eaten.
  
• Move Seraph Aeternus to a different floor to remove Enchant effects on one floor and have it focus its Attacks elsewhere.

...There’s tons of potential uses here, way too many to mention. But this is one of those cards that may seem unimpressive to new players, particularly if they didn’t utilize Banished’s fantastic (C) Rising Rage.

Since it hits twice, (C) Horn Break is particularly nice for clearing Reanimate stacks off enemies. Interestingly, with a +10 Upgrade, its 36 Damage is perfectly enough to defeat deadly high-covenant threats like Chosen Supplicants, or obnoxious tanks like Celestial Bastion. It will need +20 to be able to handle a Chosen Assassin, however.

(U) Branding Rite is a real gift to Wrathful Hornbreaker Prince, since it both increases his Armor, and gently damages him to proc his Revenge. Though expensive, this can still be used in a pinch to defeat enemies or Imps, but (C) Horn Break would be generally better for this purpose.

Freezestones at the Merchant of Magic can be amazing for this clan, as cards like (R) Last Stand, (R) Reinforce, and (U) Battering Ram are all expensive, and best utilized when Rage/Armor are well-established later in a battle. Battering Ram can become very powerful on a floor with a (U) Steelworker!

The Fragile effect from (R) Onehorned’s Tome is potentially scary, but reminder that the Armor effects on this clan can help you avoid having your Health be hit here, as enemies don’t do Piercing damage. It can be given Doublestack to increase that Multistrike effect, so try to make this happen if you can! It does mean you can’t use (U) Branding Rite on them anymore, though.

If used on an enemy on the top floor, (U) Tiresome Climb is the same as doing your Pyre’s Attack damage to that enemy twice before they can counterattack. This can be given Doublestack to an impressive Daze 4, which is also a pretty potent way to neuter Savagery during the Titans fight.

The devastating power of (R) Inferno can theoretically be a decent option to Holdover if you’d like to clear a lot of scary enemy threats each turn, but it’s not as useful as it sounds. Both Seraph Aeternus the Savage & Dominant have counters to this: the Savage has Terrifying Amalgams that will strike your Pyre if the floor is empty, and the Dominant has Deformed Duos with multiple Reanimate stacks. Heck, this doesn’t really work on Athane: Last to Fall either, who will resummon another Prayerstone, or Rax the Overblessed who’ll simply go to the next floor with even more buffs. So yeah, it’s not as good as it sounds, outside of maybe Seraph the Entropic, or combined with a unit in Stasis. A different potential option is to give it a Freezestone and use it as a last-resort strike to anything about to reach the Pyre chamber.

If used on an Endless Imp, (U) Imp-ortant Work will redraw that Imp immediately! Quite fun if you'd like to keep triggering that Summon effect repeatedly.

(C) Vent isn’t terribly strong, typically used early on 1 Ember early on to clear weaker enemies or Collectors. However, giving it a +20 Consume means it will do 20 Damage minimum even used at 0 Ember, enough to beat up a lot of backliners throughout the game. +10 Works too, but puts its damage shy of defeating Discordant Heretics, Enthralled Ardents, and Harpist Protectors.

Though (R) Dark Deal is fun to use on Revenge-triggered units like Wrathful Hornbreaker Prince, it’s still usable in a pinch to defeat weak backline enemies, or clear away an Imp that’s clogging up space.

The power of (R) Imp-olate scales based on the amount of Imps you have in your deck, which includes any that Imp Parade Shardtail Queen is summoning! Also very powerful when paired with (U) Imp-in-a-Box or with the Imp-cicle Artifact.

(U) March of Shields is an excellent card to reshuffle your floors, and is particularly great on floors with (U) Steelworker where you can put “new” Tanks in front as the fight progresses. A very solid option for Holdover; also very fun to yank Athane: Last to Fall out in front of her stupid Prayerstones!

The (C) Fortified Pauldrons are fortunately a 0 Ember card, so Merging them onto any other Equipment will simply give you the Armor benefits with no added Ember costs! This is particularly nice for clanless options like (U) Meat Shield and (U) Exile’s Diadem, but really this can go with just about anything that will be Equipped to a Tank, or any of your low-Health backliners when fighting bosses like Qel the Corruptor, Athane: Last to Fall, Seraph the Dominant etc.

This section will briefly highlight the artifacts of the CLAN. Artifacts can range from "nice bonus" to "run-defining power" and though there are too many potential interactions to discuss, I'll make a point of ones that are particularly potent. Fortunately, Hellhorned is packing a high rate of useful artifacts, partly due to the simplicity of their effects.

Reminder: All Hellhorned Banner units are Demons, not Hornbreaker Prince or Shardtail Queen.


(++) Starting off with a bang, this Artifact is amazing, duplicating the effect of every Imp's Summon effects. Greatly improves Molting Imp and Queen's Impling's long-term use. However, this effects every Summon effect, so many other clans can get bonuses here, such as: Architect Penumbra, Cheery Deathcap/Waxcap, Greed Dragon, Meddler, Legion of Wax, Dante the Dependable... the list goes on.


(+) Pretty nice, this is the equivalent of at least 2 Attack saved each turn, and is especially important if you have Deranged Brute or Resonant Shard to increase the value of Rage. Very helpful during protracted Relentless battles.


This is a mid-battle gain of Attack, not Permanent. Nice for Multistrikers, but is at its best with Sweep units from other clans. Otherwise, Rage is just as useful and doesn't require Slays.


(++) Absolutely fantastic for this clan, a helpful boost regardless, a massive increase for all three of its Rare units, as well as both Demon Fiend & Alpha Fiend. A must-get if you're utilizing Hellhorned Banner units.


(+) Fun! Unless you're utilizing Imp Parade Shardtail Queen, most of these cost 1 Ember to be played and you may not always need their effects, but they can be quite useful. A great artifact if you have a Transcendimp to ensure it's replicating a variety of effects.


(+) An awesome artifact with Shardtail Queen and her Queen's Implings, and very good if utilizing an Endless Imp strategy. One of the two Hellhorned effects that Draw cards, along with Imp-ortant Work.


(+) +4 doesn't seem like a lot if it's simply changing Railbeater to 34 Armor and Welder Helper to 24, but it's a much bigger deal with Steelworker providing +4 more Armor to all units on the floor, and Fortified Pauldrons offering 10 instead! Reminder that many other clans have Armor effects, and this increases those as well.


(+) A flat 50% boost to Rage is lovely, particularly fantastic for Rage-stacking strategies for units like Apex Imp and Branded Warrior, or if utilizing an Endless Fledgling Imp and/or Imp Parade Shardtail Queen.


Not bad, enough to help survive bits of Corruption or add a tiny bit of bulk to blocking units. 5 Armor isn't much long-term though.


A little boost to the Attack levels of everyone on Summon. Not an overwhelming effect unless this is combined with other Rage-boosting effects or Collection of Tails.


(++) Extremely useful for all sorts of clan combos, giving extra value to Ember-increasing effects like Pyre Chomper, and allowing you extra flexibility to play expensive cards more often! It's a very good idea to add a Freezestone to "Spike" spells or other useful X-cost cards and wait to spend them for a huge effect in battle when needed!

Hellhorned has lots of Armor, but no way to recover Health on their own, so if your sub-clan has no Heals or Lifesteal, Wyngh’s Spirit can be another way to help keep them in the fight.

Pyre of Savagery is quite strong with many of Hellhorned’s units, with Tramplers, Multistrikers, and Slay-triggers scattered throughout the clan. They do have a fair amount of powerful spells to beat enemies and units like Molting Imp that can steal kills though, so there are situations where this wouldn’t be desired as much, and thus you should consider your sub-clan when choosing this.

Aquath’s Reservation’s +3 Ember can be useful for paying for expensive early spells like (C) Ritual of Battle, and may be the only way you could play a (U) Demon Fiend. Hellhorned has numerous 2-4 Ember cards as the game progresses to keep utilizing this.

Lifemother’s Pyre is one of those options that works on just about any clan or any build. Copying good Imps can be very helpful to ensure you draw them earlier, for instance.

Considering this is the only clan with a 4-Ember Uncommon Banner unit in (U) Demon Fiend, Herzal’s Hoard is a safe option for any clan, but can be a real lifesaver in particular if he’s offered, or if you want to Deploy some Equipment/Rooms that can massively improve the run.

Fhyra’s Greed is a pretty helpful pyre for generating some extra cash, particularly at higher Covenants where you can simply choose not to play a Vengeful Shard to get 10 Gold.

There’s no guarantee that Freezestones show up in the Merchant of Magic, and given how important the timing can be of their Rare spell cards or Imps, Echoes of Time Father is an okay option to freeze your cards if they come up at the wrong time.

Because Imps can factor heavily into Hellhorned runs, and this is a very Dualism/Doublestack-hungry clan, Malicka’s Shifting Pyre can be a decent option if you’d like some Imps or Spells to be Drafted with pre-loaded upgrades. There’s no guarantee you actually get Dualism/Endless etc. and this can definitely mess with Banner drafts, but it’s really nice when this works out!

Pyre of Dominion is a perfectly good option for Hornbreaker Prince since his Torches don’t really factor strongly into any of his paths, and it can get you some early Imp drafts, or just superior cards like (C) Horn Break. This is a riskier option for Shardtail Queen though, as all of her paths utilize her Queen's Implings to some degree.

Generally I dislike Heart of the Pact, but Shardtail’s Imp Parade path makes this extremely easy to trigger since her ‘free’ Imps will always count as using a Hellhorned card each turn.

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 have a lot of ways to move units up & down floors, and units like Steelworker & Branded Warrior love floors full of allies. Valor is another way to generate Armor, and Damage Shields are an extra bonus, significantly increasing this clan combo’s ability to defend itself. Banished has a lot of cards based on Health & Armor effects, which can be quite potent as you build these up! Hellhorned has a fair amount of ways to deal with backliners that Banished struggles with. Considering how Multistrike-heavy the Hellhorned are, Banished has multiple Rare cards that can also offer Multistrike, which are excellent to have access to. Finally, their Hymnists can give rare bonuses like Trample & Multistrike that are massively welcomed here.

Pyreborne:
Firestarter: A simple card for doing a bit of damage and applying Pyregel. Very similar to Torch; nothing special here.
Bloated Whelp: Their ability to destroy themselves and do a bit of damage is good early in the run, but will drop off considerably later on. An excellent option if you think you’ll be using Royalty Shardtail Queen, who loves Rallying off these.

Pyreborne tend to offer the same benefits two benefits to any clan, that being a) Pyregel, a simple debuff for increasing your damage output, and b) Money & Artifact gain. That money can be particularly nice here since almost every Merchant of Steel is an opportunity to buy Endless/Dualism/Multistrike upgrades, and Hellhorned have many run-defining Artifacts in their pool. Pyregel can be very nice here given the Slay triggers found in Hellhorned units, or just to be exploited by Multistriking Demons. Pyreborne’s Dragons lack defense which can significantly benefit from Hellhorned’s Armor. Pyreborne are loaded with ways to destroy backline enemies as well, so this combo should have no problem cleaving through the various enemies hiding in the back.

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(+): A slightly better option, since it’s important to several Luna Coven units if you intend to grab some. Hellhorned has tons of spell cards that are happy to benefit from Conduit boosts.

A very fun combo, Luna Coven’s Conduit buff is very helpful on all of Hellhorned’s offensive spells (particularly with the Attuned effect on (U) Imp-pressive!), and their collective mix of Heals & Armor can make for a very survivable clan combo. Conduit floors can combine with Mageblade effects to get some huge damage numbers out of Multistrikers like Brawler Hornbreaker Prince, (U) Horned Warriors, or the mighty Trampler that is (U) Demon Fiend. Or, go the other way and throw Rage on a crazy Multistriker like Luna Coven’s (U) Nightingale. Finally, Hellhorned’s Ascend cards are again super useful for making big floors with (U) Planetarium or (C) Moon Pixies. I really like this combo! Careful not to grab (U) Branding Rite if you're going to use it on a Conduit floor though =)

Underlegion:
Eager Conscript: An option to help trigger Rally on Underlegion units if you seek them out, to give some early survivability. A fantastic choice for Shardtail Queen’s Royalty path.
Sporetouch: Often my preferred option as Decay is a powerful effect, but by default is nothing special here when Torches can do a similar effect.

Rage & Armor tend to come in very large quantities, so Propagate isn’t quite the game-changer it’s been for some other clans. Underlegion adds a lot of survivability, giving some options to add Regen effects alongside Hellhorned’s Armor effects. Underlegion tends to struggle with late-game offense scaling, so Hellhorned’s substantial Rage can really help patch up that issue. Though Royalty is far from my favorite path on Shardtail Queen, here it’s extremely fun as Underlegion can Rally her far more often than any other clan could.

Lazarus League:
Secret Ingredient(++): My preferred option as Mixes offer you a wide variety of effects that Hellhorned lacks like Lifesteal, or Spikes for extra Slay triggers.
Erratic Assistant: Their damage, utility, and ease of triggering Rally are perfectly fine such that you needn’t avoid these necessarily, but Secret Ingredient offers more flexibility overall.

Lazarus’ sheer versatility is a gift to any clan, and Hellhorned are no exception. Spikes are lovely for extra Slay triggers, and Lifesteal is a great way to supplement Hellhorned’s Armor for additional survivability. Lazarus has some fantastic Graft Equipment that can be incredibly good for Hellhorned units, like (C) Twisted Back giving Trample to Royalty Shardtail Queen and Rage on Strike for Brawler Hellhorned Prince. There’s honestly too many fun potential combos to mention, but I’ll put a special note that Lazarus’ Replicator Ray can duplicate units in battle… kind of insane for Champions like Reaper Hornbreaker Prince or Imp Parade Shardtail Queen.

Awoken:
Restore: A solid option to help overcome early survivability concerns. 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.

The OG clan combo for MT1 veterans! Fortunately, they’re as useful of a pair as they ever were. Awoken’s Heals can help improve survivability alongside Armor, Awoken has tons of Card Draw effects that can be awesome for finding your better Imps faster, and the Spikes effects can help you get Slay Triggers. Awoken has multiple Damage Dealing units like (U) Animus of Will and (U) Animus of Speed that function very well when combined with Rage effects. Awoken even has a Descend card to complement Hellhorned’s Ascend, giving multiple ways to shuffle units between floors.

Stygian Guard:
Frozen Lance : One of MT1’s worst starting clan cards is… still bad unfortunately. However, it’s okay for some early offense and to put +20 Consume onto.
Forgone Power (+): My preferred 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.

Stygian has a lot of powerful Spell cards that can help clean house whenever Hellhorned’s Demons aren’t quite axeing their way through problems fast enough. This is a situation where Stygian is helped more with Hellhorned’s Armor & Rage than Hellhorned is helped by Frostbite & Spell Weakness typically. Stygian comes with some unique effects like Freezing cards, Drawing/Discarding cards, and some very powerful debuffs in Sap & Mute that can help shut enemies down. Despite not having direct synergy, there are still some very powerful interactions here, like Stygian’s Spell Weakness effects being used before Imperialist Shardtail Queen throws an Imp, or before hitting with powerful spells like (U) Battering Ram, (R) Imp-olate, (R) Inferno etc. Stygian’s (R) Frostpiercer equipment can do incredible damage if paired with high-Attack Hellhorned units like Royalty Shardtail Queen or (R) Apex Imp.

Umbra:
Shadesplitter: An okay card that guarantees a Morsel, which is helpful for Umbra units in particular.
Plink(+): I prefer Plink as it does a bit of damage and gives a starting offensive spell that helps Shardtail Queen hit backline enemies.

Umbra’s Morsels can be a very helpful addition to various Hellhorned units, allowing them access to effects like Lifesteal, Damage Shield, and stat-increases that Hellhorned entirely lacks. Umbra likes expanding the Space on floors, which can be quite helpful to make more room for Imps, or to help stack big floors for units like (U) Branded Warrior & (U) Steelworker. Umbra several ways to generate Ember, which may not be necessary for Hellhorned in certain builds, but can be fantastic if it involves frequently playing 2-3 cost Spell cards. Plan ahead if you’re fighting Seraph the Savage, as his Sweepers will destroy Morsels and any low-to-mid Health Demons if you don’t destroy them first.

Melting Remnant:
Dreg: Cheap chaff units that can help do a bit of damage, but these are more important for Melting Remnant for Harvest triggers. Royalty Shardtail Queen gets Rally triggers off these too.
Primitive Mold(+): Adding Reforms is a cool trick that helps resurrect non-Endless Imps, and this makes multiple Melting Remnant units perform better, so this is my preferred option.

Reforms are a pretty nifty trick for bringing back your defeated Imps that don’t have Endless – a Holdover Reform card can be enough to ensure any level of Imperialist Shardtail Queen has Imps to toss every round. Though units Reform with 1 Burnout by default, Reform is a nice backup plan if your Demons go down sooner than expected. 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. Your waxer buddies give can give a variety of other options beyond Reform with rare effects like Endless, Daze, Stealth, and Debuff-clearing effects that are incredible for removing pesky Sap/Corruption/Melee Weakness. The Room (U) Memories of the Melted can turn everything Endless, which is awesome for Imps, (U) Railbeater, Reaper Hornbreaker Prince & Royalty Shardtail Queen. Finally, units like (C) Draff are tiny and can do a decent bit of damage, so they love being on Rage-floors if you can sustain their Burnout.

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. None of our champions are capable of surviving that 90 damage hit on Summon, so you may need to Block a bit until you’ve established defenses. The next problem is Ragewing Assassins, who can sweep your backline units away… Imperialist Shardtail is a great counter here as she only needs one Imp with Imp Toss III to defeat a Ragewing and Chosen Assassin. Hornbreaker will need some assistance, a (C) Molting Imp can defeat a Ragewing for instance, but not Chosen. Finally, The Savage brings out huge Health pools of enemies to get through, so get that Rage & Offense going, since you’ll need to clear 1000+ Health floors at times here.

Whether this is the “hardest” fight is debatable, but this is definitely a very obnoxious fight for Hellhorned, as Mr. Entropy loves bringing in Deafening Herald enemies that Silence your floors, stopping Imps from doing anything on summon, Muting both Reaper Hornbreaker Prince & Imperialist Shardtail Queen’s Abilities, and taking away the important trigger effects that are found all over its Banner units & Champion paths. Something as simple as a Holdover (C) Horn Break or (C) Vent with a +10 upgrade are enough to solve this, but if you didn’t draft these earlier, you’re going to have to fall back on other options like Ascending it away, going nuclear with (R) Inferno, or using something from your sub-clan or the clanless kit to address it. Sap is also brutal here, as it can completely neuter units like (U) Branded Warrior that are looking for Slays to get going, (U) Railbeater who won’t Strike to give Melee Weakness, and if you don’t have enough Rage/Equipment, Brawler Hornbreaker Prince will be useless too. Hellhorned should prepare early for Entropic, there are numerous ways to address this concern, but if you don’t, this will be a tough fight.

Mr. Dominion’s got a few tricks that make him particularly obnoxious for clans: Tank-melting double-Corruption, backline-melting Corruption, and waves of Reanimating backliners protecting Supplicants that will bury you in Scourge cards. Hellhorned is relatively good at addressing these though, a (U) Steelworker alone will offset the Corruption on a floor, and an Endless Imp with a Heartstone may be enough to completely protect you from the rising tide of Corruption on your Tanks. Heretics & Supplicants in the backlines are going to be an issue here. Again, Imperialist Shardtail Queen easily solves these by throwing an Imp, but Hornbreaker will need alternate options for doing the 20-35 Health needed to stop them from loading your deck with Scourges. Hellhorned is pretty good at solving this Seraph’s problems all told.

Hellhorned is roughly mid-tier for me at tackling the Titans. Their potential escalation of Rage can make for some quick kills, but Imp-blocking strategies will be laughed away by Savagery’s Trample effect, and with Entropy also Attacking every turn, you’ll need a great deal of Armor to offset these. Hellhorned can get this far easily without needing that much Armor, so that can be a real wakeup call. I mentioned before adding a Heartstone to Endless Imps to Block more hits, but this can even be a situation where a Largestone Endless Imp can do you favors instead. If you can protect your Demonic pals, there shouldn’t be any real surprises here to address, so keeping them alive will be the challenge long-term. Consider grabbing (U) Tiresome Climb if offered, as the Daze effect can be a lifesaver as Savagery’s offense escalates throughout the battle.

This is guide #6 for me on Steam! X) This one was a bit more tedious to do since Hellhorned are very straightforward, but I wanted to cover their options fully since they still may be new to MT2 players. I’ll still update these occasionally as we find more strategies we haven’t come across, any card changes happen etc. 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 stay tuned for future installments as I chip away at this.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your runs with these adorable manifestations of Rage! =)

• 10/30/25: Added Artifacts section!