This is a translated guide is an adaptation of the original Armello guide by Comm, with a dedicated attempt to preserve its unique style and mood. My initial plan was to just use neural networks for the adaptive translation, as doing it all manually is simply much slower. But then it hit me: I could spice up the dense text with interesting AI-generated pictures. So, this entire translation is now accompanied by neuro-content, created using the prompt: "create a hyper-realistic copy of this scene."

If you think the pictures aren't great, let me assure you - this is the best I could get, and there were plenty of attempts to re-generate them.

Speaking as the translator of this guide, I must say that I disagree with Comm on many points. I find his guide to be overly subjective and, to my great surprise, incomplete in places—some content isn't covered at all, while other topics are described too sparingly.

Nevertheless, this work remains highly useful for beginners who are interested not just in running around for fun, but in actually learning how to win.

Armello is an incredibly complex and cutthroat game disguised as a simple dice-rolling casino with furry critters. It's filled with a ton of completely non-obvious mechanics that the developers never bothered to explain to the players.

We'll start by covering the basics and then gradually dive into the subtle nuances that aren't obvious even to grizzled maestros. If you find yourself thinking that you already know all this and you're bored - then skip ahead. You're bound to find something new.

Honestly, I'd recommend just reading the sections that interest you. This guide is far too large to digest in one sitting.

Some strong language and banned words are partially censored with asterisks (*). Otherwise, Steam would remove them entirely, which just ruins the aesthetic of the text.

All the strategies and tactics described in this guide are written from the perspective of playing against experienced, equally skilled opponents without relying on lucky dice rolls or card draws. These are the toughest possible conditions, offering you no quarter. These are the conditions I most often played in (within the RU community, with familiar players) and used to stress-test every strategy. You don't truly learn the essence of Armello when you're lucky, but when you're unlucky, and every single mistake you make is punished mercilessly.

The developers have conditioned players with a false model: "Complete all your quests, enter the Palace, and kill the King - or just win by Prestige." All new players fall into this trap and obediently run after their quests like Pavlov's trained dogs. So, what's the trap?

The trap is that you only manage to complete all your quests in about 50% of your games. If you get killed a couple of times on the way to a distant quest - that's it, you can forget about your quests; you simply won't have enough time.

At this point, many players hit a wall: without quests, the Palace is locked, and without getting into the Palace, you can't win the game. What follows is a frantic, panicked scramble. The player clutches at any straw - farming Prestige, gathering the occasional Spirit Stone, wandering through dungeons, tilting, and then quitting... None of this is a serious strategy.

A serious approach begins when you realize a simple truth: you can calmly enter the Palace without completing a single quest. There are three ways to do it.

The Palace Trials have strictly fixed sets of symbols:

Wyld-Rot-Sword-Shield (Tests on Wits)

Wyld-Rot-Sun-Moon (Tests on Spirit)
Knowing this, we can simply collect cards with the required symbols to burn them in the Palace Trials.

If you need Wyld, Rot, Sun, or Moon symbols, draw from the Spells deck. You can also often find Wyld and Rot in the Items deck, but if you already have a good equipment setup, there's no point in cluttering your hand with torches, spyglasses, and other junk.

If you need Sword and Shield symbols, draw from the Items deck.

You can also draw from Trickeries—they have plenty of swords and shields, too. However, they contain far fewer useful cards compared to the Items deck.

Therefore, our tactic is simple: we draw cards hunting for symbols. We keep the ones we need in our hand and burn the useless ones in fights and other tests.

If you collect the right combination—you walk into the Palace. If you don't—then you either try to complete whatever quests you can, or you start farming dungeons.

Most heroes in the game have fairly low Spirit, so the Wits trial is usually the one to crack. All the symbols for cracking the Wits test can be found in the Items deck, allowing you to kill two birds with one stone: hunt for both symbols and gear in the same deck.

This one is simpler: we just walk in, roll the dice, and pray to all the gods. Let me be straight with you: for this to work, you need at least 2 dice per symbol. Cracking four symbols with just six dice is practically impossible. This leads to two conclusions:

You need the Discipline Amulet. This wonderful amulet gives you +2 dice during your clan's time of day, and you also get +1 die from the clan day/night cycle itself. That's three extra dice total—which significantly boosts our chances.

Before entering the Palace, you still need to try and gather matching symbols. Draw from the appropriate decks (see above), get 1-2 symbols to burn, and then head to the Palace.

This way, we make the task easier for ourselves.

Let's break it down with an example:
You have 5 Wits (which gives 5 dice for a Wits test), it's your clan's time of day, and you have the Discipline Amulet (+3 dice in total).

Total: 8 dice for 4 Palace symbols. Not great. Not reliable. That's only 2 dice per symbol.

Now, you draw from the Items deck and find one Shield and one Sword. You burn them in the Palace.

Now you have 6 dice left for 2 symbols (Wyld and Rot). That's much more reliable—3 dice per symbol.

Overall, this method works with about a 50/50 success rate. You either make it or you don't. Sometimes you'll roll 10 dice for 1 symbol and still miss. It's a complete random number generator.

So, our plan is simple: we try to break into the Palace during our clan's time of day, and in the intervals between these attempts, we farm dungeons and capture settlements, optionally killing any nearby rivals.

If you're having bad luck with your quests, it means someone else is having good luck. And if that's the case, you can use their success for your own gain.

Figuring out which player has completed all their quests is quite simple: the sum of their stats (Fight + Body + Wits + Spirit) will be either 20 or 21.

By default, all heroes start with a stat sum of 16.

Completing all four quests raises this sum to 20, as each quest gives +1 to a stat.

Don't forget about the amulets Scratch, Soak, Think, and Feel, which give +1 to a respective stat. If a player has one of these equipped, their final stat total will be 21.

Make it a habit to periodically check your rivals' stats. This will keep you informed about everyone's quest progress.

The specific Palace tile where a player will have their entrance (the "final quest") is determined as follows:

From the direction of your clan's lands, there are two closest Palace tiles. Your future quest entrance will be on the right-hand tile.

This makes it easy to deduce where every player's entrance will be.

Therefore, when we see that someone has finished their quests, we try to stay close to their future Palace entrance. When our "prey" enters, we pounce on them and kill them (or at least shove them out).

So, if we're unlucky with quests, we can use the three methods described above to get into the Palace. However, completing all four quests remains the most solid and reliable way to enter.

It's the "classic approach" you shouldn't overlook. Quests give us not only a hole in the Palace wall but also stat boosts and (if we're lucky) valuable treasure cards and followers.

However, when the King is down to 3 HP, the game enters a critical phase—the late game. This means there are only 6 turns left until the game ends. It also means that if you haven't finished your quests by this point, it's too late for that; you need to be thinking about how to kill the King.

By this time, usually at least 2 players have completed all their quests and have an entrance into the Palace. The remaining players are either finishing their 4th quest or are deep underdogs who have only completed 1-2 quests.

Here is a list of foolish, rookie mistakes you can make in the late game:

1. Continuing your quests without monitoring your rivals.
If you're 1-2 turns away from safely completing your 4th quest without handing victory to an enemy, then go for it. But if an enemy is lurking near the Palace or is already inside—drop everything.

2. Continuing your quests when someone has already opened a Palace entrance near your clan lands.
The primary function of quests is to provide a passage into the Palace. Stat boosts, treasures, followers, Spirit Stones—these are all secondary. If someone has already opened the Palace near your spawn, why are you still wandering around on quests? Dinner is served! Drop everything and go kill the King!

3. Making victory plans that take 2-3 turns when an enemy is in the Palace.
"I'll finish this quest, then enter the Palace, then kill the King" is a 3-turn plan, while an enemy can win in 1 turn. Feel the difference? There are only about 6 turns left to play anyway, if the King isn't killed sooner.

4. "I can't kill him anyway, I'd better go do a quest."
A maxed-out hero with full health and powerful equipment, standing in the Palace, is a death sentence for a King with 2-3 HP in 90% of cases.
If you don't have any alternative 1-turn victory plans (like bursting into an adjacent Palace tile with Hot Rot Wine), you are obligated to do something to interfere with someone else's victory. At least deal some damage!

5. Farming Prestige when you're more than 4 Prestige behind the leader.
A Prestige victory is the most unreliable win condition in the game. A gap of 1-4 Prestige can still be closed, but if it's larger, abandon Prestige and focus on killing the King.

6. Venturing to the middle of nowhere away from an opened Palace entrance.
You must always keep your finger on the pulse of the game. You must always be ready to react to any Palace infiltration during the late game. If you're sitting on the edge of the map at this time, with no damaging Spells or Trickeries in your hand, you are doing something wrong.

So, we've covered the most critical problems for newcomers—the specifics of breaching the Palace and the rules of conduct for the late game. Now, let's talk about the game's basic mechanics: dice and cards. We'll start with the dice.

Let's imagine a perfect fight.

Player A is attacking Player B. Each of them has 6 dice. The time of day is Day. No items or buffs are present, no one is burning cards. Both players have zero Rot. No Exploits occur.

Both players roll their dice, and both get the exact same combination of all Armello symbols: Wyld, Sword, Shield, Sun, Moon, Worm. What's the outcome?

Sword, Sun, and Wyld count for Attack — that's 3 Attack.

Moon and Worm are Misses.

Shield counts for Defense — that's 1 Defense.

Let's analyze this result from a probability standpoint:

50% of the dice resulted in Attack.

33.3% of the dice were Misses.

16.7% of the dice resulted in Defense.

As you can see, Armello's combat system has a clear and intentional bias towards offense. Any given die has a 50% chance (which is a VERY high probability) of rolling an Attack symbol, and only a 16.7% chance of rolling a Defense symbol.

50 : 16.7 ≈ 3.

An Attack symbol is three times more likely to appear than a Defense symbol!

What conclusion can we draw from all of this?

Therefore, you should equip 2 defensive items and 1 offensive item. Or 1 defensive item, 1 offensive item, and 1 hybrid item (providing both attack and defense).

If an item gives you an extra die, you should basically count that die as a Sword, because in the vast majority of cases, dice roll attack symbols.

Now, let's look at the probabilities for passing Trials.
An Armello die has 6 symbols. Therefore, when we roll a single die, the probability of any specific symbol appearing is 1/6, or 16.7%.

Let's assume we need to pass the "Lightning Strike" trial. It requires 3 symbols: Sword, Shield, and Sun. We have 6 dice because our Spirit is 6—we're playing a powerful mage hero.

We've already obtained the Sword and Shield—we simply burned cards with those symbols. That's two symbols down. Now we just need to get a Sun with our four remaining dice.

According to probability theory, the chance of rolling at least one Sun on four dice is 51.8%. Roughly speaking, it's a 50/50 chance—like a coin flip. Not very impressive, is it?

We're playing a mage with 6 Spirit, we've burned two out of three symbols, and we still have a whopping 48.2% chance to fail the trial and get struck in the face by lightning. That's all you need to know about dice in Armello.

What if we don't burn any symbols and just throw all 6 dice, hoping to roll a Sword, Shield, and Sun? I can't be bothered to calculate it, but a neural network suggests the probability is a mere 9.26%.

(We're not factoring in the probability of Exploits in these calculations, but I don't think the probabilities would increase substantially with them.)

Just in case, here is a list of probabilities for rolling one specific desired symbol (any of them) with a different number of dice:

1 die – 16.7%
2 dice – 30.6%
3 dice – 42.1%
4 dice – 51.8%
5 dice – 59.8%
6 dice – 66.5%
7 dice – 72.1%
8 dice – 76.7%
9 dice – 80.6%
10 dice – 83.8%

This means that with 6 dice while using an "Iron Pike," you will get your desired Sword with a probability of 66.5%. It might seem like a fairly solid chance, right? But look at it from the other side: the probability of not rolling a single Sword is 33.5%, which is also a very substantial probability—like playing a shell game.

Cards are our tools for character development. To develop efficiently, we must know exactly which tools we need and which decks they are in.

A Brief Overview of the Decks:

Items: Equipment, healing cards ("healies"), and Hot Rot Wine.

Spells: Damage, Rot, and transport (buffs are secondary).

Trickeries: A pile of junk where only a few diamonds can be found.

Experienced game masters have all three decks memorized and know how many copies of each card exist in the game. To see the number of copies of a card in a deck, click on the card and hover your cursor over its bottom-left corner.

Common – 4 copies

Uncommon – 3 copies

Rare – 2 copies

Unique – 1 copy

Now, let's analyze all three decks in more detail. This will be a massive section with tons of text, but it's all absolutely essential. You must draw cards with purpose. At the start of every turn, you should know exactly what you want, here and now. Need a heal? Draw Items. Need Rot? Draw Spells. Need to stop a rival urgently, but have no magic? Draw Trickeries. It is impossible to play effectively without knowing the composition of the decks.

The Items Deck
The most essential, important, and sought-after deck in the game. You could literally draw only from the Items deck for the entire game and still win comfortably.

The Items deck contains 102 cards.

Our goal is to assemble a worthy loadout (a set of equipment) over the course of the game.

A good loadout, as I mentioned earlier, consists of 1 offensive item and 2 defensive items, one of which can be a "hybrid" (providing both).

A good offensive item must reliably provide either 2 Attack, or 1 Attack and 1 Die, or 1 Pierce. The items that fit these criteria are:

Battle Hammer (+2 Swords, -1 Exploit) – 2 copies
Bastard Sword (+1 Sword, +1 Die) – 2 copies
Heavy Flail (+2 Swords and +1 Exploit when attacking) – 2 copies

The Silver Lance also fits this definition, but it is a Treasure (we'll discuss treasures in another section).

Please note: There are only 6 top-tier offensive item cards in the entire 102-card deck, which is 5.9%. This means only 1 in 20 cards you draw will be a top-tier offensive item.

This is why sometimes you get completely unlucky with offensive items: they just don't show up in your hand. In such a situation, you can use weaker items as a temporary offensive solution, such as:

Oak Spear (+1 Sword, +1 extra Sword on defense) – 2 copies
Shining Steel Sword (+1 Sword) – 4 copies
Iron Pike (Pierce/Block on the first Sword from dice) – 4 copies
Longbow (1 Pierce when burning a Sun/Moon) – 3 copies
Specifics and drawbacks of these items:
Oak Spear & Steel Sword: Their only flaw is low attack power.
Iron Pike: See the "Armello Dice Analysis" section. The Pike fairly often fails to provide any benefit.
Longbow: This item is used almost exclusively for piercing Guards, heavily armored heroes, and for killing a nearly-dead King with 1-2 HP.

The Bow is typically used by mage heroes, as they usually have few dice in combat. But it can also work for a warrior as a temporary stopgap. Carrying "ammo" cards for the bow is an expensive luxury, as it heavily clutters your hand. Therefore, the bow is usually only used offensively. Just draw from the Spells deck before a fight—it has the highest concentration of Suns and Moons.

The aforementioned "weak offensive" items make up 12.7% of the deck and are encountered relatively frequently.

Final Analysis:

Top-Tier Offensive Items: 5.9% of the deck
Weak Offensive Items: 12.7% of the deck

Result: Offensive items make up a total of 18.6% of the deck. However, I must emphasize: the only items truly worth equipping are the Battle Hammer, Bastard Sword, and Heavy Flail, which constitute a mere 5.9% of the deck. The rest are a pitiful ersatz replacement when you have nothing better.
Now, let's briefly talk about hybrid items.

1. Marauder's Gloves (+1 Sword, +1 Shield, +1 Rot) – 1 copy
2. Hare Halberd (+1 Die for you, -1 Die for your opponent) – 2 copies

These items can be classified as both "weak offensive" and defensive. They can be used as a replacement for an offensive item if you can't find something stronger. However, I'll analyze them separately, as many players don't fully understand them.

Marauder's Gloves are an excellent item, but they give us Rot. If you are playing a warrior hero, I strongly advise against getting Rot (I will explain why in the chapter on Rot).

For now, just consider this: if you fail to out-rot the King, that single point of Rot gives him 1 extra die. And that die has a 50% chance of rolling an Attack symbol, negating the Shield from the Gloves, or a 33.33% chance of rolling a Defense symbol [a Wyld symbol counts as Defense for the King], negating the Sword from the Gloves. So, essentially, the Gloves turn into just a simple Sword or a Shield. On top of that, the Rot damages us at dawn, which is not great.

The Hare Halberd is a safe analogue of the Marauder's Gloves. The +1 Die is straightforward—we know the probabilities, we can consider it a +1 Sword. But the "-1 Die for your opponent" property is much more interesting. It's essentially like a +1 Shield, only slightly better.

We are taking a die away from the opponent, preventing them from rolling either +1 Attack or +1 Defense. This is even more useful than just having +1 Shield, because sometimes we attack a much weaker rival and aren't afraid of taking damage. We don't need defense; we need attack to quickly kill the enemy in one strike without wasting another move on a follow-up. The Halberd helps with this because it prevents the defender from rolling a Shield on one die: it simply takes that die away.

Therefore, don't underestimate the Hare Halberd: it's a genuinely valuable item. If you have to choose between equipping a regular Shield or the Halberd, confidently take the Halberd: it's a +1 "Super Shield" with a +1 Die as a bonus. Essentially, the Halberd is a defensive item with a pleasant bonus. Don't hesitate to use the Halberd as a full-fledged defensive item.

There are more defensive items in the deck than offensive ones. This is because Armello's combat system is heavily skewed towards attack (see "Dice Analysis"). If there weren't so many defensive items, every fight would end with both combatants dying.

The absolute top-tier defensive items have the ability to convert missed dice:
Chainmail Shirt (+1 Shield, first Miss becomes a Block) – 2 copies
Royal Guardsman Armour (first 2 missed Sun/Moon dice become Shields) – 2 copies

Top-tier treasures like the "Royal Shield" will be covered in another section; here we're discussing the core Items deck.

Why is converting misses so crucial? Because your equipment must be primarily designed for fighting the King. Most victories in the game are achieved by battling the King, and he has a very treacherous trait: he takes all of your missed dice for himself. Therefore, we are highly motivated to have as few misses as possible. And the more dice we have, the higher the probability of misses.

An important nuance: If you have few dice in combat, the probability of misses is lower. This means equipping the Guardsman Armour isn't always advisable, especially if you're playing a weak mage without the Discipline amulet and are unlucky with Rot. In that case, it's better to equip a "reliable shield" to have a guaranteed +1 Shield in battle.

However, the Chainmail Shirt is almost always worth equipping. It is the best defensive item in the game, second only to the "Lionheart Breastplate."

So, if you have many (6-7) combat dice, wearing both the Chainmail and the Guardsman Armour is incredibly powerful. But what if you can't find these items? Then equip simpler defensive items:

Tower Shield (+1 Shield, +1 extra Shield on defense) – 2 copies
Battle Armour (+2 Shields, -1 Die for you) – 3 copies
Hare Halberd (see above) – 2 copies
Leather Armour (+1 Shield in fights and peril) – 4 copies
Plumed Helm (+1 Shield, +1 Prestige) – 2 copies

These items are characterized by providing either 2 Shields, or 1 Shield with a nice bonus. Note that Battle Armour slightly hampers your offensive capability by removing a die.

And finally, if we're utterly unlucky, we can simply equip a Trusty Shield (+1 Shield, 4 copies in the deck) – cheap but effective. And an Iron Pike will do in a pinch—it's still better than running around naked.

Final Analysis:

Top-Tier Defensive Items: 3.9% of the deck

Mid-Tier Defensive Items: 12.7% of the deck

"Trusty Shields": 3.9% of the deck

Result: Defensive items worthy of equipping make up a total of 20.5% of the Items deck—meaning, essentially, every fifth card.

A special mention for Heavy Plate (+3 Shields, -1 AP): equip this item ONLY inside the Palace. If you get knocked out of the Palace, take that armour off immediately to avoid moving only 2 AP per turn. The reason is simple: AP is the most valuable resource in the game, which you convert every turn into character development. No amount of Shields can compensate for the monstrous slowdown in moving across the board.

The remaining equippable items like the Strider's Cloak, Spyglass, and Seafarer's Lantern are junk. You can equip them to free up hand space and use their minor benefits, but they have no place in your final loadout. Only combat items hold real value.

Exception: The Mahogany Staff can be very useful for a mage in the early and mid-game, but again, it won't help you in a fight with the King. And mages often win by Rot, meaning fights with the King and Guards are inevitable.

Consumables are items that aren't equipped but are used once and then discarded. The most important consumables are Hot Rot Wine and healing items ("healies").

I. Hot Rot Wine (-1 HP, +1 AP, +1 Rot) – 3 copies
Hot Rot Wine is the king of all consumables. It allows you to enter the Palace and attack the King in a single turn. This card is the primary reason why Prestige victory is pushed to the background in this game. You can farm all the Prestige you want, bomb everyone with spells, and guard the Palace like the apple of your eye, but a rogue dash into the Palace with Hot Rot Wine is almost impossible to counter.

You can't control it because cards that steal cards aren't that common and don't stay in hand for long. Moreover, Hot Rot Wine often drops into a player's hand completely by chance right before they enter the Palace, so there's nothing to steal from them beforehand: they just randomly get the Wine at the start of their turn and realize: "It's now or never!"

If you are a warrior hero, save Hot Rot Wine for your attack on the King. While you're still leveling up and gathering gear, just run quests, keeping this card tucked away in your hand. If it gets stolen—fine. If not—great. Because if you enter the Palace without Hot Rot Wine, you'll have to spend an entire turn standing there under a hail of Spells and Trickeries. Everyone will try their hardest to kill you. Hot Rot Wine saves us from having to endure all that.

You can also burn Hot Rot Wine in a Palace Peril as a Worm symbol. This is a debatable move, but personally, I don't consider it a mistake if the situation is critical and you desperately need to breach the Palace at any cost. This is usually necessary if the Palace Peril has been complicated by "Cursed Lands" (which adds +1 Worm symbol), and you either didn't notice or couldn't prepare for it.

If you are a Rot-focused mage hero, you have two options:

If you are already sufficiently corrupted (5+ Rot), save the Wine for your King attack.

If you have less than 5 Rot, you can use the Wine to gain Rot. After all, no one knows if more Rot cards will come, and hand space isn't elastic—you need to free it up for control cards (more on control in the corresponding section).
II. Healies (Healing Cards):
Herb of Bounty (+2 HP) – 4 copies

Potion of Bounty (+4 HP) – 4 copies

Bramble Dust (+1 HP, +1 Magic, -2 Exploits) – 3 copies

Total: 11 instant-heal cards.

The Items deck contains the most healing cards, so if you need to heal urgently, always draw from Items. Don't rely on healing Spells: there are only 7 instant-heal cards there, and 4 of them are the rotten "Leech."

The first two healies are straightforward, but I want to note a few points about Bramble Dust:

If the situation allows, try to use the Dust after nightfall to get the extra point of Magic, since Magic resets at dusk. If you use it before dusk, you'll waste that bonus point. This point is very important (especially for warrior heroes) as it allows you to cast more "expensive" spells.

However, don't be greedy if the situation is critical and your HP is low. Use the Dust to heal. The best defense against mages' damaging spells is a high health pool.

Bramble Dust can be used as a debuff on an opponent to reduce their number of Exploits before a fight.

Using Bramble Dust as a debuff on Royal Guards is useless, as they have no Exploits. However, you will still get the Bounty.

Remember that depriving yourself of Exploits means losing roughly 1-2 attacks in a fight. Heal with Bramble Dust cautiously and try not to use it on yourself before important battles (especially before fighting the King). But if your HP is low, sometimes you have to prioritize survival over optimization.
III. Other Consumables
Moon Tincture (+2 Magic) – 4 copies

An incredibly useful item for casting spells that exceed your standard Magic reserve (especially Teleport and Banish). Drink it after nightfall to avoid wasting this Magic.

Mountain Moss (Temporary -2 Rot) – 3 copies

A useful item if you are rotten. List of uses:
a). Pass through a Stone Circle if you have 5+ Rot.
b). Use on Ghor to lower his Rot below yours and kill him.
c). Use on a rotten rival to lower their Rot below yours and defeat them in battle.
d). Use on a rotten rival standing in the Palace to make their Rot lower than the King's.
e). Use on yourself before battling the King if your Rot is lower than his.
f). Use on yourself before dawn (if you have no more than 1-2 Rot) to avoid the -1 HP from Rot at dawn.

Throwing Axe (-2 HP) – 3 copies

A rather expensive thing (a whole 2 gold!) with a range of only one tile. This is arguably one of the most inefficient damaging cards in the game. It usually doesn't make sense to hold it for long; if you want to control the board, it's better to look for damaging Spells: they don't cost gold and have longer range.

Oddly enough, the most useful and frequently used function of the Throwing Axe is to kill yourself. This is usually done after completing a distant quest (to return to your spawn, near the next quest) or to deny enemies the Bounty for your head.

All other consumables like Boldergrog, Serpent Venom, etc., won't be detailed here: they are self-explanatory. They usually just clutter your hand, and you should get rid of them quickly to free up space for finding proper cards.

The Items deck consists of 102 cards.

Top-Tier Offensive Items (6 cards) – 5.9% of the deck

Top-Tier Defensive Items (4 cards) – 3.9% of the deck

Weak Offensive Items (13 cards, 3 of which are Longbows) – 12.7% of the deck

Mid-Tier Defensive Items (13 cards, including 2 Hare Halberds) – 12.7% of the deck

"Trusty Shields" (4 cards) – 3.9% of the deck

Healing Cards (11 cards, 3 of which are Bramble Dust) – 10.8% of the deck

Rot Cards (8 cards, 3 of which are Hot Rot Wine and 1 is Marauder's Gloves) – 7.8% of the deck

Moon Tinctures (4 cards) – 3.9% of the deck

Mountain Moss, Throwing Axes (3 + 3 cards) – 5.9% of the deck

Junk – 32.5% of the deck

This deck plays a supporting role. Even if you are a mage, you shouldn't draw exclusively from the Spells deck for the entire game: you still need to assemble a decent loadout, which means you must occasionally dip into the Items deck.

View the Spells deck as a pile of single-use tools for achieving victory. These tools are excellent, but you cannot build your entire gameplay around single-use consumables. If you get unlucky and fail to draw the right spells at a critical moment, and you have no gear, you'll just sit there sadly watching another player win.

We will discuss the specifics of mage gameplay in a corresponding section, but for now, let's dive into an analysis of the cards themselves.

The Spells deck consists of 76 cards.
This is the smallest of all decks (Items: 102 cards, Trickeries: 103 cards). However, I must note that it has the highest concentration of useful cards.

All spells can be divided into 5 categories:
I. Transport
II. Damage (Direct Damage)
III. Rot
IV. Buffs
V. Other


I. Transport (7.9% of the Spells Deck)
Teleport (3 Magic) – 2 copies

Banish (4 Magic) – 2 copies

Sprint (3 Magic) – 2 copies

These cards (especially the first two) help you save 1-3 turns while completing quests, and that is incredibly powerful. Action Points (AP) in this game are the most valuable currency, which we convert into character development.

The Spells deck is worth drawing from, if only for the existence of these transport cards. And for the same reason, you should aim for 3 Spirit, even if you're playing a warrior hero: 3 Spirit allows you to use two of the three transport cards (Teleport and Sprint).

Note: Banish is used on yourself 90% of the time, to teleport closer to a distant quest on the other side of the map. You should only use this card on other players when they enter the Palace and there are no other ways to eliminate them.
II. Damage (17.1% of the Spells Deck)
I am only counting "direct damage" cards, meaning those that can be played under any circumstances if the target isn't in Stealth.

Embrace (2 Magic) – 2 copies

Moonbite (2 Magic) – 2 copies

Ignite (2 Magic) – 3 copies

Lightning Strike (5 Magic) – 2 copies

Spirit Strike (X Magic) – 1 copy

A special mention for Leech (1 Rot) – 3 copies (3.9% of the deck)

Damage cards are the most reliable tools for board control. It's always useful to keep one such card in hand to finish off a wounded target with a bounty on their head.

Total: 10 non-Rot damage cards (13.2%) + 3 Rot damage cards (3.9%)
Overall Sum: 13 cards (17.1% of the deck)

Note: A significant advantage of "going Rot" as a mage is access to Leeches. Non-Rot damage cards make up only 13.2% of the deck, roughly speaking—only about 1 card in 10. Leeches very often save the situation, "finishing off" a victim for that missing -1 HP.

III. Rot (10.5% of the Spells Deck)
Leech (1 Rot) – 3 copies

Pestilence (1 Rot + 1 Rot if cast on yourself) – 1 copy

Call Worm (1 Rot) – 1 copy

Influence (4 Magic -> 2 Rot) – 1 copy

Malice (1 Rot) – 1 copy

Satiate (6 Magic -> 2 Rot) – 1 copy

Total: 8 Rot cards (10.5%), from which you can extract a total of 11 Rot points.

The Spells deck is the richest in Rot. It contains 10.5% Rot cards, and it's the smallest deck, meaning it can be completely exhausted in one match and then start yielding Rot again.

The Items deck also has 8 Rot cards, but the Items deck is larger (102 cards vs. 76), and consequently, the concentration of Rot in it is lower. Furthermore, 3 of the 8 Rot cards are Hot Rot Wine, which in many cases players try to save until entering the Palace.

Also, everyone draws from the Items deck—both warriors and mages. Therefore, Rot cards from the Items deck get "spread out" among players, and it's quite difficult to become corrupted through this deck. So, it's inconvenient for a warrior (for whom Items are the main priority) to go Rot. It's much more convenient for a mage.

And the Trickery deck has only 2 Rot cards out of 103. Don't even look there.

Conclusion: Need Rot? Draw Spells.

IV. Buffs (21% of the Spells Deck)
Frenzy (2 Magic) – 3 cards

Oak Skin (2 Magic) – 3 cards

Evil Eye (3 Magic) – 2 cards

Focus (3 Magic) – 3 cards

Bloodlust (2 Magic) – 2 cards

Reflect (2 Magic) – 3 cards

Total: 16 cards (21% of the deck)

Buffs are cards that provide a temporary stat increase or a cool combat bonus "here and now."

Please note that all buffs last "until the end of your next turn," and many beginners interpret this as "lasts for 2 turns." You must understand it exactly as written: until the end of your NEXT turn. That is, the immediately following turn.

Oak Skin can be considered a heal, as the added HP does not disappear if it doesn't exceed your maximum health when the buff ends. But, as I said before, if you need to heal urgently, it's better to draw Items.

Evil Eye and Focus are very useful for cracking Palace Perils with a dice roll.

If you have to choose between Frenzy and Reflect, buff yourself with Reflect: Frenzy dice can be wasted, but Reflect ironcladly removes 2 dice from the enemy, which they could have used to defend against your attack (or deal damage to you).
V. Other Non-Junk (18.4% of the Spells Deck)
Wyld's Warning (Evade on yourself/another hero) – 2 cards.
A very valuable card, usually used not on yourself, but on an enemy hero. The most common use is to play it on a hero in the Palace just before dawn, so that in the morning the Guards attack and eject them from the Palace. You can also play it on a strong opponent blocking your path to a quest, etc.
If a hero has the Lionheart Breastplate, Wyld's Warning will not move them. They will Evade but will not move after the fight. Always check your target for the Breastplate before playing this card.

Wyld's Cleansing (-1 Rot, removes Poisoned) – 2 cards.
If you have no Rot to get rid of, use this card on a Rot-focused rival to slow down their Rot accumulation.

Cursed Lands (+1 Worm symbol in a peril) – 4 cards
Remember: this card should ONLY be used on Palace Perils to make it harder for your rivals to breach the Palace.
You can, of course, complicate regular perils (especially those between you and an approaching opponent when you're in the Palace), but this is usually far less effective at slowing down opponents.

Wall of Thorns (makes a tile impassable until dawn) – 2 cards
Either place this spell on an enemy's quest (if you know its location) or place it on a key chokepoint tile near the Palace to force enemies to go around the wall on their way to quests. There are many application possibilities. The main thing is, don't place the wall right before dawn.

Glamour (Steal a card) – 4 cards
During other heroes' fights, try to watch carefully which cards they burn and which they keep in hand. If they cleaned their hand during an easy, guaranteed fight but kept 1-2 cards—steal from them confidently.
If you lack that info, prioritize stealing from mages: they always try to keep something tasty in their hand, especially Sargon.
But never steal cards from a player's starting hand (cards dealt at the match's beginning): usually, all the most valuable cards from the starting hand are used immediately. The hand is left with junk that players try to dump at the first opportunity. Don't help your rivals by taking their starting junk! It's better to play Glamour on yourself to get rid of it.

The remaining cards are junk: meaning they are useful situationally, but far from always. Usually, they just clog your hand.

Total cards in the deck: 76

Transport: 6 cards (7.9% of the deck)

Damage: 10 cards (13.2%) + 3 "Leeches" (Leeches are counted under Rot)

Rot: 8 cards including Leeches (10.5%)

Buffs: 16 cards (21%)

Other (Non-Junk): 14 cards (18.4%)

Junk (Situational Cards): 22 cards (29%)

From a Warrior Hero's Perspective:
They will only need Transport, Damage (without Leeches), and Buffs—that is, 42.1% of the deck.
If we subtract from that the spells costing more than 3 Magic, we are left with 36.8% of the deck. Sure, you can get Magic from "Items" or by delving into a dungeon at night, but that's up to luck.
Result: Almost two-thirds of the deck (57.9% - 63.2%) is useless for a warrior hero.

From a Mage Hero's Perspective:
They will primarily need Transport, Damage (with Leeches), Rot, Buffs, and Wyld's Warning—that is, 55.2% of the deck.
Result: Almost half of the spells (44.8%) are junk even for a mage.

Nevertheless, thanks to its small size, the Spells deck remains the most densely packed with useful cards. In matches between experienced players (who manage their hands well and use Magic actively), the Spells deck is often exhausted completely and reshuffled by the time the King is down to 3-4 HP. This allows players to once again draw Damage, Teleports, and other valuable things from it during the late game.

The most inefficient, most expensive-to-use deck in the game. Essentially, the developers added it as a place to dump gold once your equipment is already assembled. And to have some way to influence the board when you're out of Magic.

The Trickery deck is overflowing with all sorts of situational junk. It's like a bucket of st with specks of gold floating in it. You can, of course, try to fish for those specks of gold, but be prepared that with every scoop from this bucket, your hand will be covered in st.

Furthermore, Trickery cards suffer greatly from being highly dependent on the terrain they are used on. Very few cards can be played directly on other heroes without any additional conditions.

So, the entire Trickery deck (103 cards) can be divided into the following categories:

I. Strategist
II. Palace Damage (damage that works inside the Palace)
III. Regular Damage (outside the Palace)
IV. Prestige Cards
V. Theft
VI. Shops
VII. Junk (even more situational cards usually not worth the gold)

I. Strategist (~1% of the Trickery Deck)
The only card in the game that allows you to enter the Palace and immediately attack the King without suffering any penalties like Rot or health loss (as with Hot Rot Wine). Very expensive—a whole 3 gold. But the result is worth it.
II. Palace Damage (2.9% of the Trickery Deck)
Sharpshooter (-1 HP + -1 HP per Bounty level) – 2 copies

Beheaded (-2 HP for each Follower) – 1 copy

That's all. Just 3 cards (2.9%) that can damage a player in the Palace. This is very bad, as damage is needed most acutely precisely in the Palace.

Overall, I don't consider "Beheaded" a good card because players often have no Followers.

III. Regular Damage (12.6% of the Trickery Deck)
Hidden Trap (-1 HP, -1 AP) – 3 copies

Plague Bearers (-2 HP, +1 Rot on kill) – 2 copies

Mercenaries (-2 HP, -1 AP) – 3 copies

Crooks (-2 Gold. -1 HP and -1 AP if insufficient gold) – 3 copies

Arson (Forest -> Swamp, -2 HP) – 2 copies

Total: 13 cards out of 103 (12.6% of the deck). Moreover, the only truly good card among them is Mercenaries, because it can be played on any tile except the Palace. This is important, as waiting around with a hand full of s**t for an opponent to stop on the specific terrain type we need is a huge luxury.

So, I consider all other cards in this category junk. And Mercenaries are only 2.9% of the deck.

IV. Prestige Cards (7.8% of the Trickery Deck)
Patronage & Industry (+1 Gold, +1 Prestige from settlement) – 2 copies

Allies’ Pact (+1 Prestige per turn) – 3 copies

Slanderous Toads (-2 Prestige, steals prestige from the prestige leader) – 2 copies

Game of Thorns (steals -1 Prestige from everyone) – 1 copy

These are cards that provide Prestige in one way or another. Not much to say about them, except for a couple of points:

Play Allies' Pact on a player who meets the following criteria:

Has lower Prestige than you

Has high HP and won't die immediately
If you are tied in Prestige (e.g., at the game's start), play the Pact on someone who has already ended their turn in that day phase. Then you will get the Prestige first, not them, and the Prestige leadership will be yours.

Do NOT play Patronage & Industry on a settlement located in enemy territory or in a high-traffic area (e.g., near the Palace). It will be taken from you, and you can do nothing about it: you'll just be investing in someone else's victory. The ideal target is a village on the edge of the map, within 2-3 tiles of your clan lands.
V. Theft (21.3% of the Trickery Deck)
Cat Burglar (Steals a random equipped Item) – 2 copies

Wandering Circus (Steals 2 cards) – 4 copies

Pick Pockets (Steals 2 Gold. Steals 1 Item if you have Scout) – 3 copies

Bribery (Steals a random Follower. If the target has The Stranger, it always steals The Stranger) – 2 copies

Crime Lord (Steals 2 Gold from everyone) – 1 copy

Blackmail (Steals 1 Gold per turn) – 2 copies

Hoodwinked (Unequips all items from a hero) – 2 copies {Strictly speaking, this isn't theft, but I'll include it in this category}

Blood Money (-1 Gold per Wound) – 2 copies

Grand Heist (Steals a Spirit Stone) – 1 copy

Merry Thieves (-3 Gold, give 1 Gold to the poorest player) – 3 copies

In this category, only three cards are truly worthwhile: Cat Burglar, Bribery, and Crime Lord (combined 4.9% of the deck).

Hoodwinked can also be considered—it can literally destroy a less wealthy rival's economy and knock them out of the game for 3-4 turns. But unfortunately, it can only be played in Villages and Dungeons, which severely limits its effectiveness.

Important Information:
The Cat Burglar card is bugged. If someone is dragging cards around the screen or performing any manipulations with cards (especially with the "Battle Armour" card) while "Cat Burglar" is being resolved, there is a high risk of a critical screen bug: the entire screen turns brown, you cannot move, and nothing can be done. Therefore, always warn players about this card so that no one touches anything and everyone sits still while "Cat Burglar" is being played.
Bug Warning:
Exploiting this well-intentioned warning to avoid having "Cat Burglar" played on you is extremely dishonorable and unsportsmanlike, and it is prohibited in our community.
Remember, the "Cat Burglar" bug can occur even if someone enters a peril titled "Cat Burglar"! Therefore, if someone enters that peril, do not look at it and do not touch your cards.

VI. Shops (7.8% of the Trickery Deck)
Betty’s Bargain Brews (Potion shop) – 2 copies

Simeon’s Arms (Equipment shop) – 2 copies

Biff’s Black Market (Treasure shop) – 2 copies

Roxy’s Recruiting (Follower shop) – 2 copies

Useful cards, but you won't always get lucky and find something valuable in them. You will be offered 2-3 completely random options.

The most valuable item in Betty's Brews is Hot Rot Wine.

The most valuable items in Simeon's Arms are the Bastard Sword, Battle Hammer, Heavy Flail, Chainmail Shirt, Royal Guardsman Armour (basically, top-tier gear).

What to buy in Biff's Market and Roxy's Recruiting—see the sections on Treasures and Followers, where I will detail which ones are best.

Try to place shops so that enemies cannot use them. If you have no choice, try to protect the shop (e.g., by standing on the village yourself). Don't invest in someone else's victory!

Total – 7.8% of the entire deck.
All other cards I haven't mentioned are highly situational, meaning—in most cases—they will just clog your hand.

The deck consists of 103 cards.

I. Strategist: 1 card (~1%)

II. Palace Damage: 3 cards (2.9%), including Sharpshooter (~1.9%)

III. Regular Damage: 13 cards (12.6%), including Mercenaries (2.9%)

IV. Prestige Cards: 8 cards (7.8%)

V. Theft: 22 cards (21.3%), including Cat Burglar, Bribery, and Crime Lord (4.9%)

VI. Shops: 8 cards (7.8%), including Biff, Simeon, and Roxy (5.8%)

VII. Junk (Situational cards – sometimes useful, but more often not) – 46.6%

I've noted "including" in some categories regarding the most valuable cards (those specks of gold). In reality, if we calculate just those specks of gold—the cards truly worth drawing from the Trickery deck for—we get this list:

Strategist (1%)

Sharpshooter (1.9%)

Mercenaries (2.9%)

All Prestige Cards (7.8%)

Cat Burglar, Bribery, Crime Lord (combined 4.9%)

Biff's, Simeon's, and Roxy's Shops (combined 5.8%)

Total Valuable Cards: 24.3%

Everything else (75.7% of the deck) is, essentially, junk you can easily live without.

This means that, on average, only 1 in 4 Trickery cards is truly worth spending your gold on. We usually don't have tons of gold, and most Trickery cards are quite expensive—with that same gold, you could easily equip yourself with a good loadout.

And if you aren't playing for control and have given up on Prestige, then the Prestige cards (7.8%) will be useless to you. That leaves 24.3% - 7.8% = 16.5%. So, for you, only 1 in 6 Trickery cards will be useful, and the remaining 83.5% of the deck is complete garbage.

I want to say a few words about slowdown cards (cards that remove AP from an opponent).

The core problem with slowdown cards is that almost all of them require either a specific terrain type or specific conditions to be met (for example, "Crooks" can be played on any terrain but only remove AP if the opponent has less than 2 gold). This is precisely why I've classified almost all of them as "junk," because they are very situational, and you often can't play them at the right moment. Holding them in your hand is inefficient—they aren't valuable enough to warrant clogging your hand.

The only card that can be played on any terrain and guarantees AP removal (and HP damage) is Mercenaries, of which there are only 3 copies in the entire deck.

Full list of slowdown cards:

Spells Deck:

Awaken Trees – 2 copies (Forest)

Tanglevine – 2 copies (Forest, Plains, Swamp)

Snowstorm – 2 copies (Mountains)
Total: 6 cards out of 76 = 7.9% of the deck

Trickery Deck:

Hidden Trap – 3 copies (Forest, Mountains, Dungeons)

Witch Hunters – 2 copies (Villages, Dungeons, Stone Circles)

Mercenaries – 3 copies (Anywhere except Palace)

Crooks – 3 copies (Anywhere except Palace, if opponent has < 2 gold)
Total: 11 cards out of 103 = 10.7% of the deck

The need for slowdown cards most often arises in the late game, when players are rushing to the Palace, and every AP counts. A single Action Point denied to an enemy at a critical moment can save the game for you.

What do we need to know, and what should we draw, if we urgently need to slow down an opponent?

Slowdown cards that match the exact terrain the enemy is standing on are quite rare. You might draw a couple of slowdown cards, but not the right ones.

If you have slowdown cards in hand that don't match the opponent's terrain, try placing them as Perils in their path. But this is, of course, a risk: there's always a chance they'll pass it.

The Trickery deck is slightly more saturated with slowdown cards. But it's also much more saturated with junk.

If you draw from Spells, even if you don't find a slowdown card, you'll likely find something else tasty (like a Buff or Damage).

If you draw from Trickeries, you will either find the desired speck of gold or end up with a handful of s**t. The latter is more probable.

When drawing from Trickeries with the goal of slowing someone down, you should ideally have enough gold to afford Mercenaries (3 gold by default).

If the enemy is in a Forest: It doesn't really matter what you draw—Spells or Trickeries. The chances don't differ much (remember, the Trickery deck is larger!). Draw what you can afford resource-wise (gold, magic). But if you specifically remember that Tanglevine and Awaken Trees have already been played at least once—draw Trickeries.

If the enemy is on Plains or in a Swamp: It doesn't matter what you draw. But if Tanglevine has been played at least once, then draw Trickeries.

If the enemy is in the Mountains: Better to draw Trickeries, hoping for Hidden Trap or Mercenaries. Snowstorms are usually already used by someone by the late game. But if you also need a Buff or Damage, then draw Spells. If you don't find a Snowstorm, you might find something else cool.

If the enemy is in a Village, Dungeon, or Stone Circle: Definitely draw Trickeries; there are no Spells for these tiles. Villages and Dungeons are particularly nasty tiles because many Trickery cards work on them.

Always remember you can place a Peril between the opponent and their target (most often, the Palace). If the opponent has low Spirit (<4), they will likely fail a Spell peril. If they have low Wits (<5), they will likely fail a Trickery peril. Think, look at the tiles, decide which deck to draw from.

If you don't know what to draw at all, but need to slow someone down somehow—then draw Trickeries, provided you have the money. Whatever, the chances and probabilities aren't that different between these decks, and maybe you'll get lucky and draw Mercenaries? Plus, in the late game, it's often good to stock up on Prestige, and Trickeries are the only deck that allows you to seriously accumulate Prestige.

This section shows the concentration of symbols across all three decks. This is crucial for gathering the right symbols to breach the Palace or pass a serious peril like "Lightning Strike." Furthermore, it's useful before a fight with the King: a burned symbol can't be stolen by the King.

Items: 102 cards
Sword: 34 cards (33.33%)
Shield: 27 cards (26.47%)
Sun: 5 cards (4.90%)
Moon: 9 cards (8.82%)
Wyld: 14 cards (13.73%)
Rot: 13 cards (12.75%)

Spells: 76 cards
Sword: 0 cards (0%)
Shield: 13 cards (17.11%)
Sun: 21 cards (27.63%)
Moon: 17 cards (22.37%)
Wyld: 11 cards (14.47%)
Rot: 14 cards (18.42%)

Trickeries: 103 cards
Sword: 30 cards (29.13%)
Shield: 31 cards (30.10%)
Sun: 14 cards (13.59%)
Moon: 26 cards (25.24%)
Wyld: 0 cards (0%)
Rot: 2 cards (1.94%)

Conclusions & Rules:
For Swords and Shields, draw from Items or Trickeries.

If you already have a good loadout, draw Trickeries: junk Trickeries are easier to dispose of by playing them, whereas you don't want to equip junk Items over good ones.

If you don't have a good loadout yet, draw Items.

Never draw from Spells for Swords.
Never draw from Items for Suns.
Never draw from Trickeries for Wyld or Rot.
They either aren't there or are nearly nonexistent.

For Wyld, Rot, Suns, and Moons, draw from Spells. These are precisely the symbols needed for the Spirit Palace trial. Sometimes, when playing a mage, you will purely by chance draw the perfect symbol combination for the Palace in one go.

Before a fight with the King, it's better to draw from Items: they have plenty of offensive symbols (no less than Trickeries). And even if you don't draw them, you might potentially draw a heal, Hot Rot Wine, or a great piece of gear—which is important. But if you have no gold, then draw Spells: they also have many useful symbols, and you might draw a buff.

Many newcomers don't understand the true value of various treasures. Here is a brief description of each.

Silver Lance
The top-tier offensive treasure. Guaranteed Pierce without any conditions is super powerful.

Lionheart Breastplate
The top-tier defensive treasure. A full two Shields and guaranteed immobility. Even Wyld's Warning won't move you: you'll dodge while standing your ground, like Neo from The Matrix. An incredibly strong item, especially when you're in the Palace and everyone is trying to remove you.

Royal Shield
Another top-tier defensive treasure. It insures against all Sun/Moon misses and, unlike the Royal Guardsman Armour, also allows you to burn "missing" Sun and Moon cards for Defense. This means if you burn Sun cards at night, they will count as Shields for you.

Hero's Shield
An excellent treasure that can be considered a "hybrid": it gives a die (effectively, attack), plus a Shield with Block (effectively, another +1 attack and +1 defense).

Helm of Heroes
A perfectly worthy treasure, providing +1 Wits and +1 Shield. It's not great in combat (on par with a "Trusty Shield"), but it allows you to hold +1 card in hand and gives +1 die in Wits perils—which is very, very cool. This treasure helps you develop your character faster.

Wyldfyre Staff
A good treasure for a mage, allowing for even more effective board control. Useless in combat, so it's better to swap it for something combat-oriented before attacking the King.
Bane Blade
A very controversial treasure. On one hand, many dice; on the other, those dice can be wasted, and the price for them is high: -1 HP after every enemy you fail to kill is very painful and annoying, especially when you're in the Palace fending off Guards.
I'd say this treasure is primarily useful for Rot-focused mages. It gives a lot of Rot (a whole 2!) and allows them to fight warrior heroes on equal footing. But warrior heroes should avoid equipping the Bane Blade (see the section on Rot).

Reaper's Trident
A useless treasure. Only good for getting yourself +2 Rot and then swapping it for a better offensive item. Why?

Firstly, +3 Swords and -2 Dice means you only get one Sword as "net profit"; the other two Swords are just your own dice forcibly converted into Swords. Given that Armello's combat system is already heavily skewed towards attack, and dice have a 50% chance of being attack symbols, this isn't much of a gain.

Secondly, those three Poisoned Swords are, in 90% of cases, simply blocked by the opponent's first three Shields. If your opponent has decent defensive gear, you will never poison them.

Raven's Beak Dagger
An interesting treasure, it's just a shame it only gives +1 Sword. Inflicting Rot on killed enemies is very, very powerful, but unfortunately, this item alone isn't powerful enough to kill enemies consistently.

Poppet
Not particularly useful. A situational item. The Poppet is usually helpful in 2 cases:
A. To kill the King with 2 HP.
B. To exhaust a tanky rival with consecutive attacks.
I wouldn't equip it as a permanent offensive item; it's better to find something better.
Royal Banner
Just +3 Prestige. Useful for holding the Prestige lead in the first half of the game, but later you'll have to decide: either Prestige or good gear. Unfortunately, the Banner is utterly useless in combat.

Royal Pardon
Very situational junk. It's profitable to equip it to clear your Bounty, and then swap it for a proper item.

Moon Scythe
Junk.

Masquerade Mask
A good item for the first half of the game (especially for mages), but later you'll have to decide: either slightly better board control or good combat gear. Usually, the latter is chosen.

Bane's Claw
Junk.

Winged Boots
A good item for the first half of the game, but again, you later have to decide: either a non-combat bonus or good combat gear. Usually, the latter is chosen, as it provides more benefit.

Wyld Talisman
Only useful for those who unsuccessfully tried to go Rot and then it didn't work out. In all other cases, it's junk.

Mirror Cape
A good item for the first half of the game, but again, you later have to decide: either randomly copying an enemy's item or having a guaranteed good item. Usually, the latter is chosen.
Furthermore, the Cape is useless against the King, as in combat with him, the "Mirror Cape" is programmed to always copy the "Crown," which provides no combat bonuses.

Hand Cannons
A good item for mages, especially physically weak hard controllers: if you're decked out in good defensive gear, this treasure helps you pierce through Guards and other players, pushing them off tiles.
Very effective against a King with 1-2 HP: just burn cards for Pierce, and sayonara.

Blacksmith
The best follower in the game. No comment needed.

Trader
Consider it two portable villages in your pocket. Unlimited money.

Apprentice
A magical piggy bank that almost doubles the number of spells you can cast. In the hands of a controller—lethal.

Brilliant Fool
+2 dice in perils—incredibly useful for cracking the Palace. Consider it a key to the King in your pocket.

Warlock
Incredibly useful for board control, especially hard control via Rot. It's like the Apprentice, but a dark Apprentice. The main thing is not to forget you can cast spells using HP.
But if you are not going for Rot, do not equip him. Burn him so an enemy doesn't get him.

Squire
Ideal for attacking the King. You can load up on offensive items and burn everything for attack to guarantee killing the lion.

Spy Master
Allows you to better predict other players' actions and understand the logic behind their moves.
are also good (except for the Conjurer and The Stranger). In contrast to Treasures, practically all followers are useful. And they don't compete for inventory slots with items, so most of the time you'll just equip them all: you can never have too many followers; each one finds a use.


Conjurer: Usually useless, because spell perils are placed quite rarely. Experienced players tend to cast spells directly to give the victim no chance.
Exception: Placing a "Lightning Strike" on a tile so a player fails it, immediately ends their turn, and cannot attack the caster.
The cards provided by the Conjurer are completely random. And quite often, they just clog your hand, so this follower can even be detrimental.

The Stranger: An outright saboteur follower that adds even more uncontrollable RNG to an already random game. For players going for a Rot victory, he is deadly dangerous, as he can drag you into a Stone Circle.

Note: If you are a controller, keep in mind that sometimes The Stranger can help an enemy reach the Palace (or any important tile) by pushing them forward.

The most unreliable, unpredictable, and random victory type in the game. Don't even think about winning via Stones consistently: circumstances will rarely align perfectly for it. To help you understand my point, let's analyze the ways to obtain Stones:

I. Obtaining Stones from Quests

This is the most reliable path among all unreliable ones, but:

Firstly, it's still a gamble, and even with a 70% chance, you risk failing it.

Secondly, the game won't always give you quests for your high stats. For example, when playing Bears, Stone quests are often for Wits or Fight, which are this clan's weakest stats.

And thirdly, if you focus on Stone quests, you will develop your character imbalancedly, making it harder to compete with those who ignored Stones and built their character optimally.

II. Obtaining Stones from Stone Circles

Absolute randomness:

Spirit Stones spawn randomly in circles. They can happily spawn on the opposite side of the map for half the game, and you can do nothing about it—they will go to your enemies.
The only known rule about Stone spawns is that a Stone will never spawn twice in the same Stone Circle.

The Stone Circles themselves are placed randomly on the map. One player might have three circles near their clan lands, while another has only one. If the map generates poorly, your chances of a Stone victory plummet.

Stone Circles are often located away from the Palace, sometimes even on the edge of the map. This forces you to deviate from the shortest path to your quest and go out of your way. In doing so, you risk exposing yourself to enemies who might kill you before you even get the Stone if you're not combat-ready.

III. Obtaining Stones from Dungeons

An even fiercer level of randomness. During the day, a Spirit Stone has a 5% chance to appear; at night, it's 10%. It's pure gambling. And note: Amber's ability does not affect the chance of finding Spirit Stones at all.
IV. Obtaining Stones from Rare Random Events: "The Ancients" & "Whyteshadow"
Event "The Ancients": Enter a Stone Circle at night, and with a 25% chance, this event will trigger (once per match). The Druids will offer you choices: "Stone" (Spirit Stone), "Sickle" (the treasure "Moon Scythe"), and "Salvation" (removal of all Rot).

Event "Whyteshadow": If you enter a Forest tile during the day with at least 1 Rot, there is a 1% chance for this event to appear. It will offer you:
a). A random Treasure
b). A Spirit Stone
c). Fully restore your Health
*Choosing any option will also give you +1 Rot.*

What can I say? The events are quite rare, that's all.

Conclusions
You cannot play for a Stone victory in every match. I believe going for Stones is only viable if you were lucky enough to get two easy Stones within the first 5-6 turns—for example, a Stone spawned near your clan lands, and then you managed to get another from a quest or a dungeon. Then you can commit to this path.

At that point, you can take further Stone quests (but only if the success chance is at least 40%) and hunt for Stones spawning in Stone Circles.

And keep in mind: once you collect 4 Stones, you become "Public Enemy Number One." Everyone will fear and hate you. They will do everything to keep you away from the Palace, and all damage will be primarily directed at you. If you get a Hot Rot Wine, I advise you to save it and use it for a sudden dash into the Palace.

And remember: using Hot Rot Wine with 4 Spirit Stones costs 2 HP, not 1 (due to the Rot it gives).

The second most unreliable victory condition after Spirit Stones. Let me explain why:

I. "Hot Rot Wine" & "Strategist"

These cards are the primary reason for the fragility of a Prestige victory. You can control the board like a god, cast spells and trickeries with genius timing, farm Prestige into double digits, and so on. Yet, all of this can be nullified in the late game at any moment: an underdog player simply enters the Palace, pulls out Hot Rot Wine, and kills the King in one turn. And you can do very little about it because:

Card-stealing cards are not that common: 4x Glamour in Spells, 4x Wandering Circus in Trickeries, plus 2x Awaken Trees to destroy a couple of cards.

It's far from certain you'll draw these cards at the right time.

It's far from certain you'll steal from the right player.

It's far from certain you'll steal the Hot Rot Wine and not junk.

Hot Rot Wine often appears in the late game completely at random. A player draws from Items, and bam—they get lucky. Without a second thought, they dash into the Palace (usually, someone has already opened a path by then) and attack the King.
These are the cases you absolutely cannot prevent. It's impossible to kill everyone who comes within 2-3 tiles of the Palace.

Therefore, dragging the game out to the final turn is usually disadvantageous: with each turn, the chance increases that someone will draw Hot Rot Wine and use it as soon as they get within 2-3 tiles of the Palace. And the King is an unpredictable creature; he might just die for no reason to a half-dead mage with a spear, losing all his dice.
II. You Can't Control Everyone

Even if you were a triple genius at board control, the statistics speak for themselves: in the Spells deck, only ~22.3% of cards are suitable for direct control (Damage, Banish, Wyld's Warning), and in the Trickery deck, it's ~14.5% (Damage, of which only the 2 "Sharpshooter" cards are truly useful in the Palace).

This means your supply of control cards will be exhausted very quickly. You kill one, eject another—and your hand is empty. Meanwhile, a third player is storming the Palace, followed by the other two crawling in from the edges of the map... You might hold on for a couple of turns, but if you draw junk for two turns in a row, someone will slip through to the King.

III. The Ease of Gaining Prestige in the Late Game

Even if you have a solid Prestige lead, don't relax just yet: in the late game, your opponents can easily overtake you. Why?

Everyone goes to the Palace and gets Bounties, which anyone can claim.
A classic scenario: A player with 6 HP and 1 Rot enters the Palace at night without Hot Rot Wine, earning a level 1 Bounty. They get scratched a bit (-1 HP) but aren't pushed out. You get unlucky and draw no damage cards to finish them. You position yourself closer, planning to attack the intruder during the day. You have a 4-Prestige lead, you're the leader, you're on top of the world.
Day comes, the Bounty increases to level 2. The player loses another -1 HP at dawn from Rot. Guards scratch the intruder for another -1 HP (3 HP left). Then, your closest Prestige rival blasts them with a saved Lightning Strike and grabs a whole 3 Prestige. Then they kill some Ghor in a village (+1 Prestige), liberate it (another +1 Prestige), and suddenly you've lost your leadership in a single turn. Game over, and the good cards still aren't coming your way...
Situations like this happen frequently: players in the late game constantly get Bounties, and others try to kill them. Whoever gets lucky with damage cards wins the prize.

The Late Game is the phase of active Trickery deck use.
In the late game, everyone has assembled a decent loadout and now spends gold on Trickeries. And Trickeries are the only deck that houses cards for accumulating Prestige (the Plumed Helm and Boldergrog from the Items deck don't count).
You can be the undisputed Prestige leader, but bam—Slanderous Toads; bam—someone made an Allies' Pact with an underdog; bam—someone built Patronage & Industry on a village, and suddenly your lead is dangerously unstable. This isn't even mentioning the theft cards that can steal your control cards, your gear, your followers, your gold, your apartment, your mother...

IV. Sometimes the Match Itself Thwarts Your Prestige Efforts from the Start

Sometimes, it just doesn't happen. Someone on the other side of the map gets Allies' Pact early, uses it on another player—and now they're both farming Prestige, while you can't kill them because you're not getting any gear or damage—no matter how hard you try.
Or someone keeps spawning and killing Ghors in dungeons.
Or someone snipes a player with a Bounty using Spirit Strike, while you, of course, get no damage cards.

There are many situations where you simply have no luck, while your opponents do. Therefore, if you see the match unfolding unfavorably for Prestige accumulation—don't try to fight the current. Follow the Dao, go with the flow of the universe.

Conclusions
Prestige leadership should not be viewed as a key to victory, but rather as a tool for board control and as insurance in case someone does attack the King. If the attacker and the King both die, you win.

And if you're unlucky with gear, if you're unlucky with Rot, if you realize you can't handle a fight with the King—Prestige allows you to painfully drag the match to the final turn and somehow eke out a win. It will be a very hard, exhausting victory, heavily dependent on whether you draw enough control cards. But it will still be a victory.

Perhaps killing the King is the most reliable path to victory in Armello, despite all the game's inherent randomness. Sure, the King is utterly unpredictable in combat, but if you've leveled up, assembled a good loadout, and have 4-5 HP, the King will die in about 75% of cases. That is a VERY good probability for a casino like Armello.

I consider a Rot victory a subtype of a regular kill. There's nothing fundamentally special about it: it's the same act of killing, just accomplished through a massive number of dice granted by Rot supremacy.

Given all the criticism of Prestige and Spirit Stone victories outlined above, I recommend you always prioritize killing the King as your primary win condition.

Even if you aren't playing a warrior hero, you should still aim to kill the King. When he's down to 1-2 HP, any bum armed with a toothpick can finish him off (if they get lucky with the dice).

Now, let's talk about Rot in more detail...

Rot in this game is an extremely controversial mechanic that perfectly embodies the essence of turning to the dark side: evil gives you power, but this power isn't as potent as it seems, and it also painfully hurts its wielder.

The primary goal of accumulating Rot is to out-rot the King, giving you a huge pile of dice in battle against him. However, this entire pile of dice can, at any moment, turn against you and side with the King, nullifying Rot's benefit.
An Example:

Let's imagine a classic late-game scenario:

Day 6, the King has 6 Rot, 7 Fight, and 3 HP.

You have 7 Rot, 5 Fight, and 5 HP. Your gear gives you 2 Swords and 3 Shields. It's Day (+1 die, and it's your clan's time). You get +6 dice from the King's Rot.

You have a total of 5 (Fight) + 1 (Day) + 6 (Rot) = 12 dice.
The King has 7 dice.

Let's roll. Assume the dice land perfectly evenly: equal proportions of all symbols. Let's say Exploits yield attack and misses in a 50/50 split for realism.

Your Dice (12):
2 Wyld = 2 Misses -> go to the King
2 Swords = 2 Attack
2 Shields = 2 Defense
2 Suns = 2 Attack
2 Moons = 2 Misses -> go to the King
2 Worms = 2 Exploits (+2 Attack), yielding another Sword and Wyld (+1 Attack, +1 Miss)

Result: 7 Attack, 2 Defense, 5 Misses.
Add Gear (2 Swords, 3 Shields): 9 Attack, 5 Defense, 5 Misses.

King's Dice (7 base + 5 your misses = 12):
2 Wyld = 2 Defense (remember the King's gear)
2 Swords = 2 Attack
2 Shields = 2 Defense
2 Suns = 2 Attack
2 Moons = 2 Misses
2 Worms = 2 Exploits (+2 Attack), yielding another Sword and Wyld (+1 Attack, +1 Defense)
Result: 7 Attack, 5 Defense.

The Outcome:
The King hits you with 7 Attack, breaks through your 5 Defense, and deals -2 HP.
You hit the King with 9 Attack, break through his 5 Defense, and deal -4 HP.
Victory! You survive (3 HP left) and kill the King (removing his 3 HP with 1 point of overkill).

Now, the question: Did you feel a substantial advantage from the Rot? Did it feel like a guaranteed kill without significant risk? That's my point exactly. With decent gear and perfectly even dice rolls, we barely managed to kill the King, without a decisive advantage.

Now, let's consider attacking the same King with the same gear, but with 0 Rot.
You have 2 Swords, 3 Shields from gear + 5 dice from Fight + 1 die from clan day. We roll our ideal, even 6 dice (only 1 Exploit, let's say it becomes a Sword, given Armello's attack bias):
Sword, Sun, and Wyld count as Attack = 3 Attack + 1 Attack from the Wyld exploding into, say, a Sword.
Moon and Worm are Misses = 2 dice for the King.
Shield counts as Defense = 1 Defense.

Result: 4 Attack, 1 Defense, 2 Misses.

Add Gear (2 Swords, 3 Shields): 6 Attack, 4 Defense, 2 Misses.

King's Dice (7 base + 2 your misses = 9): Let's have 6 dice land evenly, and the remaining 3 dice + 1 from an Exploit follow the most probable outcome: 2 Attack, 1 Defense, 1 Miss.

Even 6 dice:
Wyld +1 Defense
Sword +1 Attack
Shield +1 Defense
Sun +1 Attack
Moon - Miss
Worm +1 Attack-Exploit, yielding another +1 Attack (Sword)
Remaining 3+1 dice:
Sword +1 Attack
Sun +1 Attack
Moon - Miss
Shield +1 Defense

Result: 6 Attack, 3 Defense.

The Outcome:
The King hits you with 6 Attack, breaks through your 4 Defense, and deals -2 HP.
You hit the King with 6 Attack, break through his 3 Defense, and deal -3 HP.
Victory! You survive (3 HP left) and kill the King (removing his exact 3 remaining HP).

Of course, both combat scenarios are modeled under ideal conditions with evenly distributed symbols. But please tell me, did you feel a substantial superiority of the "Rot" fight over the regular one?
The only difference in the end was 1 extra damage to the King. And you could have been unlucky. The more dice you have, the more misses you generate. And the King has better probabilities than you—his Wyld symbols count as Defense.
In general, Rot fights with the King usually follow two scenarios:

You get lucky, have few misses, and deliver a brutal overkill of 10-15 attacks, while the King doesn't even scratch you.

You get unlucky, give at least half of your huge dice pile to the King, and you kill each other.

Therefore, Rot provides no significant advantage. However, its drawbacks are quite substantial:

-1 HP every morning.
An extremely unpleasant thing, as it effectively turns your, for example, 5-HP character into a 4-HP character. And 4 HP means you can be easily killed by two damage "twos" like Moonbite and Embrace. If you also get into fights or walk through swamps, you're practically a walking corpse. Living on 1-2 HP isn't living; it's stalling inevitable death, especially if there's an experienced controller in the game. In this game, every HP is worth its weight in gold.

Inability to enter Stone Circles.
An even more unpleasant debuff. Being unable to enter certain tiles robs you of mobility and tactical flexibility: you are forced to spend AP to bypass dangerous tiles. You are forced to take disadvantageous, long routes. Moreover, Stone Circles are often located near the Palace, which can severely hinder your quest progress and late-game movement when everyone is rushing the Palace. If a Stone Circle stands between you and an enemy in the Palace, you cannot reach them, effectively giving them a great chance to win.

Thus, we arrive at a simple conclusion: The benefit from Rot is insignificant, while the harm is quite high. I do not recommend you go Rot, especially if you are playing a warrior hero.

For warriors, the priority deck is Items, and Items have relatively little Rot (since Hot Rot Wine makes up almost half—3 out of 8—of the Rot items, and in most cases, you won't want to use it just for Rot; saving even one for a King attack is a blessing!).

The only heroes for whom Rot provides a substantial advantage are... no, not the dragons. They are mages without the Discipline amulet, playing a hard control style. Why?

Because a mage hero without Discipline is extremely weak in combat and needs some way to kill the King (since Prestige is unreliable and Stones are random). Therefore, Rot is the only somewhat reliable way for them to get a good number of dice in a fight with the King.

Additionally, many Rot cards are very useful for control, especially Leeches and those that apply Rot to other players (this weakens them and gives us an extra die/dice in fights against them).

A mage with Discipline (a soft controller) can kill the King without it, as during their clan's time of day, their dice pool (5-6) will be equal to an average warrior's, and with good gear, killing a King with 3 HP is very realistic. So Rot doesn't give them particularly strong bonuses.

But we'll talk about the specifics of soft and hard control in other sections.

For now, let's talk about how to rot correctly.

There are 5 ways to obtain Rot:

1 Rot Cards
2 Death by a Bane (without having 5+ Rot)
3 Devouring Banes
4 Quests
5 Rare Rot Events

Items Deck: 8 Rot cards (7.8% of the deck), yielding a total of 8 Rot points:

Hot Rot Wine (+1 AP, -1 HP, +1 Rot) – 3 copies
Marauder's Gloves (+1 Sword, +1 Shield, +1 Rot) – 1 copy
Poisoned Dagger (All rolled Swords are Poisoned, +1 Rot) – 1 copy
Poisoned Gift (Consumable-Poison, +1 Rot) – 2 copies
Spawn Blood (Teleports the oldest Bane, not the nearest, contrary to card text, +1 Rot) – 1 copy
Spells Deck: 8 Rot cards (10.5% of the deck), yielding a total of 11 Rot points:
Leech (1 Rot) – 3 copies
Pestilence (1 Rot + 1 Rot if cast on yourself) – 1 copy
Call Worm (1 Rot) – 1 copy
Influence (4 Magic -> 2 Rot) – 1 copy
Malice (1 Rot) – 1 copy
Satiate (6 Magic -> 2 Rot) – 1 copy
Trickery Deck: Only 2 cards (1.9%) can give Rot (and not immediately, only under conditions):
Plague Bearers (-2 HP, +1 Rot on kill) – 2 copies

Therefore, when hunting for Rot, it's easiest to draw from Spells—the concentration of Rot cards is higher due to the deck's smaller size.

You'll be drawing from Items anyway to get gear (important for both warriors and mages). Rot in Items will come to you more or less by chance: you're looking for gear, and bam—a Rot card, nice.

But don't actively search for Rot in Items. Everyone draws from Items, as it's the most sought-after deck, so Rot gets "spread out" among players. You can draw Spells even with no Magic, as the vast majority of Rot cards don't require spending Magic.

Trickeries are not worth mentioning: obviously, 2 Rot cards out of 103 is too few to search for.

Getting Rot through cards is the primary method. You shouldn't start the game by throwing yourself at Banes—it severely slows your development. First, try to accumulate Rot through cards, and only then think about Banes. The moment of death must be chosen wisely.

Tip: Pestilence is most often played on yourself, not others, to get the extra +1 Rot.

Essentially, accumulating Rot through cards is always a casino. Sometimes Rot cards flow into your hand, other times you can draw Spells all game to no avail, with all the Rot going to your rivals. The most dangerous moment is when you have 3 Rot and it stops "dropping." This is where Banes can help.

This method should be considered alternative, even "emergency." As stated, deaths seriously hinder your development. Dying to a Bane is only profitable if:

a) You've completed a distant quest on the opposite side of the map and want to die quickly to teleport to your spawn for the next quest.
b) You've been damaged down to 1-2 HP and realize you won't reach a quest quickly—other players will kill you, especially if you have a Bounty.
c) A Bane is right next to your clan lands, and you have a high chance of dying to it in 1 turn (you have low defense, few dice, low HP)—thus, you won't lose much development and spend only 1 turn to get Rot.

All other cases are unprofitable. Systematically spending multiple turns suiciding into Banes is only justified if you have 3-4 Rot and Rot cards absolutely refuse to show up. If you only have 1-2 Rot, consider the option of "abandoning Rot and just playing infected." Giving the King 1-2 extra dice is unpleasant, but livable.

1 If a living, unmasked creature with less than 5 Rot is near a Bane, the Bane will immediately attack it.

2 But if there's a village without a Bane or a rotten hero nearby, the Bane will go to the village, ignoring all nearby living creatures. If someone is in the village, the Bane attacks them.

3 When a Bane spawns from a dungeon and sees no one nearby, it moves 1 tile towards the nearest village by the shortest path.

4 If there are multiple shortest paths, the Bane chooses one randomly.

5 If two/three equally distant villages are near the dungeon, the Bane picks a random village and goes to it via the shortest path.

6 If you are in Stealth but standing on the shortest path to a village, the Bane will still "bump into" you and attack, even without seeing you.

7 If the nearest village is burned, the Bane still goes towards it.

8 If the nearest village is occupied by another Bane, the Bane chooses another village and heads there.

9 A Bane never moves adjacent to a player with 4 Spirit Stones (a "Stoner"). If a "Stoner" is near a spawning Bane, the Bane will try to move away immediately. If all retreat tiles are blocked or are the map edge, the Bane simply dies from "rout."

10 Banes never enter Stone Circles and never attack those standing in them. If a Bane is pushed into a Circle, it dies.

11 A Bane can freely move through mountains and over settlement palisades/stone walls. It spends only 1 AP on any movement.

12 If multiple unmasked, non-fully-rotten creatures are near a Bane, it attacks a random one. The Bane doesn't care if it's a Guard or a hero—pure random.

13 If Wall of Thorns is played on the nearest village, a spawned Bane will skip its turn and not move.

14 If Stonewall Sentries are on the nearest village, the Bane still moves towards it. But upon reaching the village, it cannot enter. It will stand still, skipping turns until the Sentries disappear.

15 If Wall of Thorns is played on a dungeon from which a Bane is supposed to spawn at night, the Bane remains in place after spawning.

16 Sometimes (rarely) Banes move not towards the nearest village, but who knows where. I think this is related to certain circumstances bugging their behavior algorithms.

It's highly desirable to attack a Bane when you have 1-2 HP. There's always a chance the Bane will be weak, fail to kill you, and die itself. Remember: your HP acts as "meat shields" and can prevent you from dying even without defensive gear.

If you have strong defensive gear, it will be quite difficult to die to a Bane, even with 3-4 Rot. Better not bother; in 75% of cases, you'll end up with nothing.

Always remember "smoking" dungeons: Banes emerge from them at night. You can stand next to a smoking dungeon in an open area (not in a forest) so the Bane sees you upon spawning and immediately devours you. This saves you a turn attacking the Bane. You can also burn junk cards on it—convenient.

If you have 4 Rot, and you attack a Bane (on your turn) and die in battle TOGETHER with it, you get +2 Rot: one for dying to a Bane (when you had 4 Rot) and another for killing the Bane (when you reached 5 Rot). This exploit is due to the coded order of Rot calculation. However, if you have 4 Rot and die together with a Bane NOT on your turn (i.e., the Bane attacked you), you only get +1 Rot.

If you already have 5+ Rot, you do not get Rot for dying in battle with a Bane.

When burning junk in a Bane fight, I don't recommend burning cards with the Shield symbol if you want to die. Any shield is an obstacle to your rotting. Burn any other junk cards!

When you have 5+ Rot, you get +1 Rot for each Bane you kill in battle (with your own hands—this is important!).

Once you reach 5 Rot, rotting becomes much easier: even if Rot cards aren't flowing, you can rot by devouring Banes. Not much else to say, but there are subtle points:

As mentioned, with 5+ Rot, you do not get Rot for dying to a Bane—suiciding is no longer an option.

If you are "rotten" (5+ Rot), you do not get Prestige for killing Banes, even if you kill them with cards, not in battle.

If you accumulate 8-9 Rot, there's no more need to farm it—it will last you until the end of the game.

Always check a Bane's Rot count before attacking. If an old, long-lived Bane has more Rot than you, it usually means automatic death. Many novices get too caught up slicing Banes and wander the edges of the map instead of focusing on more profitable activities (quests, breaching the Palace).

If you kill a Bane not in battle (e.g., with River's bow shot), you do not get Rot.

If you are rotten, in Stealth, and standing on the shortest path to a village, a Bane will still refuse to attack you on its turn (even though it can't see you). The Bane will simply go around you.

Some penalties for failing a quest give +1 Rot.

If you are rotten, quests with a "Spirit Stone" reward are replaced with quests rewarding "+2 Rot."

There are three rare Rot events where you can get Rot:

Activation: 3% chance when entering any dungeon at night. No Rot or other conditions required.
Choices:
a) "By Soup!" - Gain +2 Rot
b) "By Eye!" - Permanently lose 1 Max HP, but gain permanent Scout (like the Seafarer's Lantern).
c) "By Raven’s Beak!" - Gain the treasure Raven’s Beak Dagger (+1 Sword in battle, gives +2 Rot when equipped, and gives +1 Rot to anyone you kill in battle).

Advice: I don't recommend "permanent Scout": -1 Max HP is a very high price. Exception: maybe if you have 6 base HP and are against Twiss or Sargon with the Turquoise Ring (permanent Evade). If you want Rot and already have gear, take the +2 Rot. If you lack good gear, take the Dagger (replace it later). If you don't want Rot, take the Dagger and just don't equip it; burn it somewhere so an enemy doesn't get it.

Activation: 1% chance when entering a Forest tile during the day with at least 1 Rot.
Choices: a) Random Treasure, b) Spirit Stone, c) Fully restore Health.
Any choice also gives you +1 Rot.

Activation: 20% chance when entering a Swamp tile while Poisoned (look for the skull & crossbones icon).
Choices:
a) Let the poison spread (Left): +1 Rot, cure Poison.
b) Beg for help (Middle): Permanently +1 Max HP, cure Poison, reduce your current HP to 1. Your gold is randomly increased or decreased by a random amount (usually lose 3-4 gold, but reports say you can lose/gain over 10).
c) Begone! (Right): Gain a Hot Rot Wine card. That's all.

This event is interesting because the consequences are hidden. You only see the option names.

Advice: You usually enter a Swamp poisoned to intentionally die. So, taking "+1 Rot, cure Poison" (Left) often makes no sense, as it prevents death. "+1 Max HP" (Middle) is much more tempting, even though it also prevents death. Permanent HP is never bad—take it if the situation allows, but expect to lose most of your gold. The third option, Hot Rot Wine, is perhaps the most optimal—it's never superfluous. If you want Rot but haven't reached 5 yet, you can use the Wine to get Rot. You can also use it to suicide if you lack the AP to die.

Now that we've covered the fundamentals, let's move on to the question: "How do I play?"

In Armello, there are three primary strategies: Classic, Rush, and Control. These three strategies often blend and flow into one another because you simply cannot stick to the same strategy in every match. Sometimes, you even have to jump from one strategy to another at different stages of the same game. Why?

Because this entire game is pure randomness. The board is generated randomly, cards are drawn randomly, dice are rolled randomly in fights and perils, and quests spawn randomly. Therefore, remember the golden rule:

Your strategy is determined not by personal preference, but by the game circumstances that develop.

Your personal preferences only determine your strategy at the hero, ring, and amulet selection screen. After that, the trap snaps shut, and you are forced to play with the hand you're dealt.

First, we'll examine the Classic playstyle, as it is the foundation, the bedrock for all other strategies, tactics, and their subtypes.

I'll go even further, adding a bit of dramatic flair: It is the only true playstyle that exists, and everything else is a forced perversion resorted to either out of bad luck, boredom, or a foul temperament.

Further in the text, I will use the words "strategy" and "playstyle" as synonyms.

The Classic playstyle is about completing all your quests and entering the Palace with the goal of killing the King. As I've said before, you usually only manage to complete all quests in about 50% of matches; the other unlucky 50% force you to resort to various "perversions."

Let's break down the strategy for the Classic playstyle using a warrior hero as an example. We'll discuss mages in the "Control" section, as they are the most complex heroes, requiring perfect knowledge of all decks and card concentrations.

Our goal is to complete quests while simultaneously gathering a good loadout for the King attack. We must manage our gold and magic wisely, focusing on purchasing Items. First, let's look at how to draw cards


Items are our primary deck.

Magic is a supporting tool. Essentially, in the Spells deck, we are mainly only interested in transport cards: Teleport, Banish, and Sprint. All other spells are secondary, incidental, and you can live without them.

When we have at least 3 Magic, we draw from Spells—just in case we get lucky and draw a transport card. Transport is crucial as it saves us a lot of AP, which we can then invest elsewhere.

Most of the time, Spells won't be very useful, so we just use them, burn the junk, and end up with no Magic until the next night.

When we're out of Magic (but have gold), we draw from Items. You need to be very frugal with gold if you have less than 5-6 coins. What if you draw a Chainmail Shirt next turn and you're broke? Junk Items costing 1 gold can be burned by equipping them. But junk costing 2+ gold should ideally be burned in fights or perils if money is tight.

If you have no money, draw from Spells if night is coming soon. If dawn is approaching (and village income is coming), then assess the situation.

Trickeries are the deck for those who have already assembled a decent loadout and have money to burn. Got your gear? Great, you've entered the "Trickery Phase" and can afford to scheme and plot (though most of the time you'll just sit with a hand full of s**t).

This is the general card-drawing scheme. Now, let's talk about deviations:

If an enemy with 1-2 HP and a Bounty is within spell range, you can draw Spells hoping for damage to snipe them.

If a fight is imminent (you're in a chokepoint near an enemy or standing on their quest), draw Items. No money? Draw Spells hoping for a Buff.

In the late game, you can try a desperate tactic and just spam-draw Items hoping for Hot Rot Wine. But this is for the truly desperate.

Before entering the Palace (if you have no Hot Rot Wine, don't need damage, and have cash), it's better to draw Items: you need heals and Hot Rot Wine to have any chance of surviving the storm of damage from control mages that will rain down upon you.

But of course, these are just templates, not strict rules to follow blindly. You must draw cards based on the game state. Armello is a life simulator, a trainer for mindfulness.

Before every turn, you must ask yourself: "What do I actually need? What am I planning to do?"

This is useful in real life too: you wouldn't believe how many people IRL don't know what they need or why they're doing things. They drift with the current like dead fish, hoping the waves will take them somewhere.

But knowing the answer to "What do I need?" is only half the battle. You need to know which deck that "need" resides in.

Need gear, a heal, Hot Rot Wine? -> Draw Items.

Need damage, transport, Rot? -> Draw Spells.

Need to urgently kill/weaken someone, but have no magic and have spare gold? -> Draw Trickeries.

Urgently need gold? -> Enter a dungeon during the day.

Urgently need magic? -> Enter a dungeon at night.
This, in short, is the most important thing you need to know about the Classic style. Now, let's talk about Rush.

A "Rush" is an attack on the King when he has more than 4 HP. If you breach the Palace when the King has 4 HP or less, that's not a rush—that's just a standard Palace breach.

The Rush is a playstyle intended either for the bored or the unlucky. The bored are those tired of the Classic style and wanting to add spice and excitement. The unlucky are those who, by mid-game, have barely completed 1 quest.

The Essence of a Rush: You play a warrior hero, complete one quest (two max), then stop wandering for quests and prepare to breach the Palace: farm gold in dungeons and villages, gather gear. Actively burn junk cards on anything to keep your hand clean. Then, break into the Palace and take out the King (if you're lucky).

Let me be clear: A Rush is only effective against inexperienced players who aren't accustomed to such unconventional gameplay. If you're playing with experienced players from our community, they will actively screw you over by placing Cursed Lands on Palace Wits perils, making your rush significantly harder, if not impossible.

Therefore, against experienced players, a Rush is more of a "tactic of desperation" when you're having extremely bad luck. Another key weakness of the Rush is the King's unpredictability.

The King only becomes somewhat reliably killable when he's down to 3 HP. At 4 HP, the kill probability is around 60%; at 5 HP, it's 50/50. You could even derive a formula:

Probability of Defeat (%) ≈ King's HP * 10
Even with top-tier gear and full health, the chance to kill a 5-HP King is about 50%. That's very low.

Thus, a Rush cannot be considered a serious, foundational strategy: it is always secondary, alternative.

The Rusher's Gameplay Loop
A classic rusher's gameplay looks roughly like this:

Pick a Warrior Hero (Fight above 3, Spirit no higher than 3, and HP preferably above 4).

Equip an Amulet: Either Discipline or Resilience.

Equip a Ring:
Wolves: Rubellite
Rabbits: Sunstone
Rats: Obsidian/Ruby
Bears: Amethyst/Aquamarine
Bandits: Pink Topaz
Dragons: Sulfur/Axinite

Start the game, quickly burn your starting junk, and go to your first quest (if your Wits are below 4, always take the Wits quest).

Draw from Items while moving to quests. The ideal loadout is:

1 Offensive Item (Battle Hammer, Bastard Sword, Heavy Flail)
1 Defensive Item that converts misses (Royal Guardsman Armour, Chainmail Shirt)
1 Another Defensive Item providing 1-2 Shields (Tower Shield, Chainmail Shirt, etc.)

If your second quest is far, try to reach it once. If you make it, great. If not, okay, stop trying and abandon quests.

If you completed the second quest, keep crawling for more, gathering gear along the way. If you're being hard-controlled, killed, hindered, or just unlucky—then abandon quests, search for gear, and prepare to breach the Palace.

There are two ways to crack Palace Perils (see methods at the start of the guide):

A) With "Discipline": Just bash your head against the Palace during your clan's time of day. If it fails, go farm gold and search for gear.

B) With "Resilience": Collect cards with the required symbols to burn them in the Palace.
Generally, when rushing, you can draw exclusively from the Items deck—it has plenty of symbols for the Wits trial, plus gear, Hot Rot Wine, and heals. That's all we need.

So, you've gathered great gear and entered the Palace. Got Hot Rot Wine? Go for it! No Wine? Then your fate is entirely in the hands of control mages. Pray. If they have damage, you're done for. If not, they'll be the ones praying.

Kill the King. Or don't. It's up to luck. Even top-tier gear and stats guarantee you nothing.
1 What to draw before attacking the King? If wounded, draw Items to find a heal. If not, you can try drawing Spells for a buff: Reflect, Frenzy, or Oak Skin. Regardless, you'll never go wrong drawing Items: it's the universal deck with many useful cards and attack symbols (in a King fight, prioritize burning for attack; your body will act as the shield if you're not badly wounded).

2 You can breach the Palace early, "for growth," if you suddenly gather the right symbols but your gear isn't ready. But check your surroundings: it's better not to breach when strong rivals are lurking nearby, capable of killing both you and the King.

3 I strongly advise against going for Rot. You are a warrior; your main deck is Items. Everyone draws from Items. Rot from the Items deck gets "spread out" among players. The primary source of Rot is the Spells deck, which plays a secondary role in your style. You cannot compete with mages in the Rot race, so abandon these futile attempts. Sometimes, of course, Rot cards flow into your hand, but in 90% of cases, it won't work out.

4 Only draw Spells in three cases:
a) You urgently need to kill someone at a distance (e.g., someone entered the Palace, or you need to claim a bounty on a wounded target).
b) You need symbols for the Palace breach (Wyld-Rot-Sun-Moon from Spells; Sword-Shield from Items/Trickeries).
c) You have no gold, only magic.

5 Never draw Trickeries. This is the most useless deck for a rusher (don't hope for a Strategist; search for Hot Rot Wine in the Items deck if any remain).

6 Drew Hot Rot Wine? Save it for a breakthrough into the Palace to avoid standing for a full turn under a hail of spells from controllers. But if you're breaching the Palace by matching cards (not with Discipline), you can absolutely burn the Wine for a Worm symbol. This isn't a mistake, especially if the peril is complicated by Cursed Lands. But usually, the Wine is saved until the very end. Sometimes people win solely because they held onto a Hot Rot Wine from the very start of the match and slipped into the Palace at the right moment.

Control is playing a mage hero focused on accumulating Prestige (as a backup) and killing the King in the late game (as the primary win condition).

It is extremely dependent on the Spells and Trickeries you draw. If the cards aren't flowing, control smoothly devolves into miserable wandering on the edges of the map, waiting for the "decisive moment" to enter the Palace.

Important Warning: Control is only more effective than the Classic or Rush styles if you are extremely attentive and focused on the game.

If you are slow and inattentive, control is definitely not for you. Control does not forgive mistakes. An experienced controller is a player who constantly monitors all character sheets, inventories, Prestige counts, gold, magic, Rot, and everything else.

A Controller is a prison guard with a hundred surveillance monitors. They are always tense, concentrated, constantly running calculations in their head, weighing different scenarios, and so on. The same card, played at different moments within the same turn, can yield completely different results. Control requires flawless, memorized knowledge of all decks and all card features—both obvious and non-obvious.

Despite this, the win rate of controllers doesn't vastly exceed that of others. This is largely due to the human factor: even the most experienced controllers sometimes make errors. Mistakes in control are unacceptable because a controller's entire power lies in their cards. Good cards are always in severe shortage, and a misspent card can easily ruin your entire game.

As long as you play flawlessly, you will have an advantage over others in about 80% of cases. But make just one mistake, and you will instantly fall to the very bottom, below one-button warrior-rushers.

Therefore, if you just want to relax, chill, and enjoy the game, pick a warrior hero and don't sweat it. When you play a warrior, you can calmly drink beer, eat chips, watch videos on your phone, go to the bathroom/kitchen between turns, get distracted by kids/cats/neighbors, and you will still be reasonably effective and productive. Of course, attentiveness gives you an undeniable bonus (Armello generally dislikes the inattentive), but overall, if you know how to draw cards and burn junk wisely, you'll play quite decently, at a "B-grade" level.

The control style is usually chosen by those who specifically want to torment and challenge themselves, to test their mind (and their nervous system in general). The pleasure from control is mainly derived by latent sadists/masochists, those underloved in childhood with nascent psychological deviations. A mentally healthy person who is a controller is a great rarity.


[/h]Useful Notes for Controllers [/h1]

1Control only works well when you are playing with experienced, vetted players who maintain game balance. If you try to play control against dumb random animals, it will be either too easy or too hard: f***ing idiots will run around the map with a 1-HP Traitor's Bounty, will get offended by you, will go for a quest when the King has 2 HP and an enemy is in the Palace, and so on.

2 I personally believe the Discipline Amulet is mandatory for mages (exception: Dragons). This is crucial because good spells don't come every turn, and if magic fails you, it's time to start cracking skulls. That's also a form of control, in a way.

3 Don't obsess over Spirit Stones. They are far too random—sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. If circumstances are favorable, collect them, but not at the expense of your quests. Quests are more important for you than for a rusher: a warrior hero is fine even without quests (the first one is often enough), but mages often suffer from a lack of a couple of stat points needed to unlock their full potential.

4 If you're looking for damage, draw Spells. Trickeries have almost no direct damage; it's an "emergency only" deck. For Bears and Twiss, I highly recommend the Amethyst Ring: you can fill your magic pool from zero just by burning spells on a peril or a Guard.

5 If you have a card that steals gold, rob the poor, not the rich. The rich player doesn't care; they have more. A poor player will take a long time to recover from losing 2-3 gold.

6 Cursed Lands is a card used exclusively for complicating Palace Perils.

7 If you lack Magic, enter a dungeon at night. Magic appears with a 15% chance during the day and a 25% chance at night. Gold appears with a 50% chance during the day but only a 25% chance at night.

8 If you want a player's Bounty to increase at dawn and then kill them, keep the camera on that player at night, during the last player's turn. As soon as the last player's turn ends, immediately play your damage on your target. The game will slow down to process your damage, allowing you to kill the player with the increased Bounty. You can also use this game slowdown to equip an item before the King's Decree is revealed.

Alright, let's begin. Control can be divided into two sub-styles: Soft Control and Hard Control.

Soft Control is playing by leveling up Fight and equipping the Discipline Amulet. This wonderful amulet provides two super-advantages:

The ability to crack the Palace with a dice roll.
A controller typically has high Wits and Spirit, providing a solid 5-6 dice for a peril. Discipline adds +2 dice, and the clan time of day itself gives +1 die.
This gives us a whopping 8-9 dice for Palace breaches. We'll likely also gather a couple of symbols, ultimately allowing us to crack the Palace peril with a 50-60% probability—a titanic chance for Armello!

The ability to fight warrior heroes, Guards, and the King himself.
If we gather gear and level up Fight, we can fight on nearly equal terms with warrior heroes during our clan's time. Discipline also allows us to kill the King without accumulating Rot, which is fantastic.

Essentially, a soft controller is a half-warrior, half-mage. They play a mage but prioritize leveling Fight, which allows them in the second half of the game to kick ass even without good magic cards.

A soft controller can manage perfectly well without Rot. Discipline evens the odds with warriors, and with good gear, a soft controller can reliably take down a 3-HP King in the late game.

If the King has 2 HP, with buffs (Reflect or Frenzy), it's quite possible to kill him even without Discipline.
If the King has 1 HP, any lucky bum can kill him. And a Longbow shot will guarantee it.

So, to take Rot or not is your personal choice. In practice, very few Rot cards have inherent practical value by themselves (ignoring the Rot they provide). The most useful Rot cards are:

Hot Rot Wine (3 copies) - We'll use this for the King attack anyway.
Marauder's Gloves (1 copy)
Pestilence (1 copy) - Good, but terrain-dependent and not essential.
Influence (1 copy) - Can be played on a rival without taking Rot.
Leech (3 copies)

So, overall, you'll only experience deep soul-searching over "to rot or not to rot" for 4 cards: the three Leeches and the Marauder's Gloves. Leeches are very useful for finishing off wounded targets, often providing that last point of damage needed to claim a bounty.

In general, decide for yourself. But remember, the harm from Rot is substantial: a permanent -1 HP and a significant loss of tactical flexibility from being unable to enter Stone Circles. On top of that, drawing Rot cards is pure casino luck; if you're unlucky, you'll waste tons of time suiciding into Banes.

Personally, I believe it's better to avoid Rot if possible. But ultimately, game circumstances dictate, and if the game forces you to rot—don't resist. Strategy isn't dictated by whims.

As I've said, you shouldn't initially aim for a Prestige victory (see the Prestige Victory section for why). Prestige is your insurance, nothing more. If someone suddenly breaches the Palace, attacks the King, and you can't stop them, Prestige gives you a chance to win if the King kills the attacker.

Thus, our core strategy in Soft Control is: While the King has more than 3 HP, we farm Prestige, gather gear, and complete quests. Then, when the King is at 3 HP, we enter the Palace and strike under the effects of Discipline.

Stat progression (Fight-Body-Wits-Spirit) in Soft Control aims for the golden ratio of 5-5-5-5 or 4-6-5-5 (when playing heroes who start with 2 Fight). With these stats, a soft controller becomes a well-rounded, dangerous opponent in the late game, capable of effectively dishing out punishment with both sword and magic. They can kill the late-game King even outside their clan's time of day.

An important point about control: Your priority is to farm Prestige, not to prevent enemies from completing quests.
The main function of quests is to provide a Palace entrance. Against experienced players, you cannot prevent them from entering the Palace. Even if you stifle them and prevent them from completing more than 1 quest, they will simply breach the Palace by matching cards or rolling dice with Discipline. So, a Palace showdown in the late game is inevitable. Don't waste excessive effort preventing quest completion.

Focus on Prestige, on your insurance. Spend damage primarily on those with a Bounty (even if they just completed a distant quest, which ironically helps them reach their third quest). Prestige is a powerful insurance against defeat because the King is often a bastard.

A typical soft controller's gameplay looks roughly like this:

1 Pick a Mage Hero (Spirit > 3, Fight < 4, exception: Brun).

2 Equip the Discipline Amulet.

3 Equip a Ring:
Bears & Bandits: Amethyst
Dragons: Sulfur
Rats: Obsidian
Rabbits: Rainbow Quartz
Wolves: Can go f**k themselves. (They lack a pure mage).

4 Start the game, quickly burn starting junk, go to your first quest (if Wits < 4, always take the Wits quest).

5 Travel between quests, keenly watching—is there a wounded target? Who can be easily killed? Who has a Bounty? Where can you loot Prestige?

6 If you have Magic, draw Spells. Burn all junk, but save control cards for later. Control cards are those that deal damage or displace: Ignite, Banish, Wyld's Warning, etc. But primarily, damage.

7 When an easy kill with a Bounty appears—kill them. Sometimes it's worth letting them live until morning to claim a larger Bounty. Bounties are your primary tool for gaining Prestige. Even if you're behind by 2-3 Prestige—don't worry, a couple of kills and you're the leader. Wait for the right moment; don't waste damage frivolously; keep an ace up your sleeve.

8 If we want Rot, we take it willingly. Suicide into Banes if needed. Reach quests with Teleports and Banish. We need Rot to be able to kill the King at any moment, as we aren't as strong as warriors.

9 We do not strive for a Prestige victory. Prestige leadership is, first and foremost, a way to control the game through King's Decrees and insurance against rushers with Hot Rot Wine. If a hapless rusher dies with the King, we win. But preventing an attack by an experienced rusher with Hot Rot Wine is almost impossible, especially if they breach the Palace with a simple Discipline dice roll. Therefore, in 90% of cases, there's no point in dragging the match to the very last turn, waiting for the King's natural death. Hot Rot Wine cannot be countered. Our classic path to victory is to gather Rot, breach the Palace with Discipline, and kill the King ourselves. However, if circumstances aren't great, we can try to drag the game to the final day, but this will be very laborious, nerve-wracking, and highly dependent on drawing damage cards.

10 When we have no Magic, draw Items to have at least some gear. It will usually be worse than a rusher's, but that's just how it is. We must be able to throw down if we're unlucky with magic.

11 When the King has 3 HP left, the late game phase begins: everyone starts storming the Palace. You need to control the situation fiercely: don't rush to blast the first person who enters. Wait until everyone fights. Wait until they damage each other. Then, finish off the survivors and enter the Palace yourself. There are many nuances here that you'll learn simply through experience.

This is where the real "pain in the a**" begins.

Hard Control is playing a mage with the Think Amulet and the Amethyst Ring.

What does this mean? It means your entire game is based on cards. You have extremely few dice in combat; you can't even push a Guard off a tile. Fighting is not an option. Your maximum is to deck yourself out in defensive gear and be like an armored turtle, crawling across the map, staying far away from dangerous opponents.

You level up purely Wits and Spirit. You become a walking artillery piece—slow and weak up close, but lethal from a distance. You shoot rarely, but accurately: by accumulating enough damage cards, you unleash a firestorm upon your opponent, wiping them off the face of the earth. But most of the time, you try your hardest to conserve damage, and your primary prey is wounded opponents (just like in Soft Control).

In Hard Control, accumulating Rot is mandatory: it's your only way to kill the King, as you have a catastrophically low number of dice. In combat, you have so few dice (2-3) that they are barely enough to burn junk on a Guard.

The main drawback of Hard Control is that you are far too dependent on the cards you draw. A Soft Controller can still kick ass even with unlucky card draws. You don't have that luxury; you must operate your cards with surgical precision. And sometimes you will have matches where you are simply doomed to lose: no Rot drops, no damage drops—nothing at all. You might as well cry.

This is why I don't like Hard Control: it's too extreme, too card-dependent. Although, in this casino, any playstyle is doomed to fail with terrible luck, so "to each their own..." Personally, I prefer playing mages with Discipline.

Hard Control can be seen as a good training mode for playing mages. If you've played warriors for a long time and want to master "higher" playstyles, I advise playing 20-30 matches using Hard Control: the lack of Discipline will teach you meticulous card management and the skill of playing with the Amethyst Ring. Then, switch to Soft Control.

Let me be clear about the Amethyst Ring: Without this ring, Hard Control is impossible. You simply cannot compete with other playstyles (assuming all players are of equal skill).

Even with 6 Spirit, you can only cast 2-3 spells over 2 turns (night-day): two "threes" (Regenerate, Teleport) or three "twos" (Moonbite, Embrace). Or just one big-caliber spell like Lightning Strike. Minor 1-Magic spells don't count.

This is very inefficient and clearly won't be enough for you to effectively control the game's flow. Therefore, you need the Amethyst Ring to be able to farm magic out of thin air at any moment by burning junk spells in fights and perils. And your 5-6 Wits will help you perfectly with this. For example, you can place a spell peril for yourself, burn junk in it, and then unleash "hell and damnation" upon your enemies.

It turns out that for Hard Control, only Bear heroes and Twiss are suitable; the others are out of luck. A very specific strategy overall.

The gameplay for a Hard Controller is similar to a Soft Controller's, but cross out any attempts to beat anyone up with your fists (except when you're buffed). The exception is Brun, but he's a truly unique hero; we'll talk about him separately later in the "Heroes" section.

Let's summarize:
Hard Control is playing a weak, combat-ineffective mage who relies solely on their mighty Wits and Spirit (6-7) and the Amethyst Ring, which provides virtually unlimited magic.

Rot is mandatory! Without Rot, we cannot kill the King at all, and Prestige is too unreliable a victory condition, serving only as insurance against defeat.

These tips apply to both sub-styles—Soft and Hard Control. In fact, they are applicable to any playstyle, as even rushers are sometimes forced to exert a bit of control depending on the game's circumstances.

When you play control, you will constantly face the problem: what to draw? Items or Spells? (We exclude Trickeries; that's the deck for those who have already assembled their gear).

It's difficult to derive precise, rigid patterns: you must assess the game situation yourself and decide what is more important for you at that moment—spells or gear.

The most valuable things in Spells are: Damage, Rot, and Transport.

The most valuable things in Items are: Gear, Heals, and Hot Rot Wine.

Therefore, before every turn, ask yourself: "What do I want?"

If you need to urgently snipe a 1-HP player with a Bounty -> Definitely draw Spells. No Magic? No problem, we'll farm it with the Amethyst Ring.

If you want to snipe someone, but a dangerous, aggressive warrior is lurking nearby, you're close to a quest, have no gear, and need to survive at least one turn -> Then draw Items, try to get defensive gear, and move away from the enemy.

If you urgently need Rot -> Unambiguously draw Spells. Don't rely on Items.

If everything is fantastic, you're ahead of everyone in development, etc. -> You can draw Items so your gold doesn't sit idle.

In general, Items are better to draw when you have an opportunity to clean your hand of junk painlessly. For example, if there's a King's Peril three tiles away directly on your path (usually Tanglevine or Awaken Trees), you can burn your entire junk-filled hand without loss.

Essentially, every time a controller draws Items, they slow their development a bit, because cleaning your hand of junk Items is much harder than cleaning it of junk Spells. Spells can be played painlessly—after all, Magic replenishes every night, and with the Amethyst Ring, junk Spells are converted directly into Magic—it's a zero-waste production!

But you can't get rid of Items so easily: earning gold is much harder than earning Magic. It's a pity to spend gold on any old junk. Furthermore, you'll face the problem of inventory slot management: you have to swap one junk item for another and face moral dilemmas—what's more useful? A Seafarer's Lantern or an Adventurer's Kit? Is it even worth equipping and spending the gold?

Spells, in turn, offer many more opportunities for development: primarily, transport cards that allow you to complete quests quickly. Every time a controller draws Spells, they either grow in development or stay in place (but don't slow down), because cleaning your hand of Spells is the easiest.

Later, in the late game, when your gear is already assembled, you can spend gold on Trickeries. But if you need damage, you should still look for it in Spells. Searching for damage in Trickeries is an act of desperation, when you have no Magic and an enemy is already in the Palace.

The same patterns apply to Trickeries as to Items: Trickeries are greedy; they drain your wallet very quickly. But at least Trickeries have many peril cards, so you can place a Trickery peril for yourself to burn other Trickeries in it.

If you're lucky enough to assemble decent gear quickly, I recommend not spending time drawing Items to get a super-perfect loadout. When a player has assembled decent gear, they enter the "Trickery Phase."

When you enter the "Trickery Phase," you gain an additional advantage over other players because you can spend money to weaken your rivals. Essentially, the Trickery deck is a deck of weakening, not killing. Trickeries bleed, exhaust, and slow down—and this plays into your hands, especially if you are a controller.

And a Cat Burglar will allow you, with sufficient luck, to turn your decent gear into ideal gear.

To successfully complete quests, we first need to understand the quest spawning mechanics. The system works as follows:

Every quest in the game has its own specific terrain type on which it must appear. This is why if you burn a forest containing a quest with the Arson card, the quest will disappear and respawn on a different tile. It was a forest quest, and now it's a swamp.

Every quest has an AP Distance. AP Distance is the number of Action Points (AP) you would spend traveling from the completed quest to the next quest's location (if you don't die).

The AP Distance is strictly tied to the quest sequence.
The first quest ideally spawns 5 AP from your clan lands.
The second quest ideally spawns 6 AP from the first quest.
The third quest ideally spawns 7 AP from the second quest.
The fourth quest ideally spawns 7 AP from the third quest.

Why "ideally"? Because a tile of the suitable terrain type won't always be found at the ideal AP distance. This introduces the concept of the "AP Range."

AP Range is the permitted "deviation window" from the ideal AP distance when no suitable terrain type is available at the ideal spot.
So, if the AP Range is 4-8 tiles, it means the quest can spawn 4-8 AP away from the previous quest if no suitable tile exists at the ideal distance.

List of AP Ranges:
First Quest: 3 - 7 AP
Second Quest: 4 - 8 AP
Third Quest: 5 - 9 AP
Fourth Quest: 5 - 9 AP

Two quests from different players cannot be on the same tile simultaneously. Therefore, if another player's quest is on the ideal AP distance tile, the game will choose a different tile from within the AP range.

The game always tries to select the tile closest to the ideal AP distance.

Remember: AP Distance is calculated from the tile of the previous quest, not from the tile where you ended your turn!

The game accounts for the presence of Celestite and Winged Boots. Therefore, they do not provide any advantage in quest completion; the game will simply spawn the quest further away to keep your effective AP Distance unchanged.
The game also accounts for fortified settlements (although I'm slightly doubtful about Elyssia's walls; it seems stone walls do increase the AP distance for all other players, giving Elyssia an advantage).

Many quests mention their terrain type in their description. Some quests directly name their tile type. Dragon quests are written in pictograms, each with a specific meaning (see image), and many hint at the terrain type.

You can find the complete list of quests for all clans in this file:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16c2620WFz0gzT-jOmRNZNu9QDVt0Ga7Ibv5aAqfgCUI/edit?gid=519305430#gid=519305430

The Palace Quest is independent of AP Distance and AP Ranges. It always appears on the right-hand tile of the two Palace tiles closest to your spawn.

As you understood from the previous section, each subsequent quest spawns further and further from the previous one. Therefore, you need to move across the map very thoughtfully, not wasting your AP frivolously.

As I've said, AP is the primary resource in the game, which we invest every turn to get various benefits: gold, prestige, rot, quest progression, and so on. Every turn, we strive to "sell" our AP at the highest price and most effectively, extracting maximum value from them.

The first rule you must remember is:

The "Corridor" refers to the tiles that surround and border the Palace. These are the most central tiles, and therefore, all players constantly move back and forth through them for their quests, as it's the shortest path.

Illustration of the corridor (corridor tiles marked in red)

Many players make this mistake: they end their turn in the middle of the corridor when a stronger player is clearly moving in that direction nearby. Consequently, the strong player sees no reason to go around you and waste AP (especially if your gear is crap) and attacks you.

Don't do this. It's better to step aside, spend an extra turn completing the quest, but stay alive. Don't be greedy.

The second rule:

When you complete a distant quest (a quest located more than 6-7 AP from your clan lands), you must immediately think about how you will complete the next quest—even before you press "End Turn" and start choosing the next quest.

Many novices make this mistake: they really don't want to die and continue wandering the map with 1-3 HP.

Remember the third rule:

Experienced players usually strive to die after completing a distant quest because, most often, the next quest will be near their clan lands. They proactively look for convenient swamps, convenient opponents, and convenient cards for suicide.

Useful fact: The card Immolation deals -4 HP when you use it on yourself.

But if you have 4-6 HP when completing a distant quest, suicide will be too long and tedious: it shouldn't take more than one turn, otherwise it's not suicide but a loss of development tempo. Suicide must be quick, easy, and profitable.

Therefore, if you have 4-6 HP, spend your remaining AP (if any) to move closer to the Palace: the closer you are to the center of the board, the closer you are to your future quest. Don't go to villages on the edge of the map; don't engage in farming without a VERY good reason.

Any farming (spending AP purely to get gold/magic/prestige/rot) is a delay in development and must be VERY justified; otherwise, it's simply a bad investment.

Many novices often get attached to villages and meticulously capture them. Don't do that. A village is just +1 gold every two turns. And 2-3 AP is half a completed quest. If you spend half a quest's worth of AP for that pitiful coin, you are simply holding yourself back.

The fourth rule:

When you have 1 HP, it's a huge sign on your back that says "KILL ME." And if you're playing with experienced players, you are guaranteed to be killed. Try to die, selling your AP for a high price one last time: you'll save time and "heal up" to start a new attempt as soon as possible.

The fifth rule:

While you're a novice, you'll get lucky with quest rewards. But when you become a seasoned veteran, you'll find that you get unlucky more and more often. Like, at all. The higher the skill, the lower the luck. It's as if God Himself is nerfing you to give everyone else a chance. I don't know why, but it's a fact.

Exception: No-lifers—they are lucky in games, as if in compensation for their messed-up lives.

Therefore, over time, you will understand that it's better to take quests for the stats you need, so your character develops harmoniously and effectively. A well-leveled character isn't much worse than one with a treasure.

The sixth rule:

Explanation:

4 King HP is the moment when all more-or-less lucky players have already completed all their quests. So, check your rivals' stats: if they are 20 or 21 (as explained earlier), they will likely head to the Palace now (provided they have good gear and no strong opponents nearby).

3 King HP is the start of the late game, where completing quests loses meaning (unless you're one step away from your 4th quest). Usually, by this time, someone has already punched a hole in the Palace or is about to, so keep your ears perked. Also, start considering the prospect of breaching the Palace yourself. But I've already written about this at the beginning of the guide.

Here, I'll write down tips that didn't fit into any other section.

1 When attacking a player standing on a Palace Wits tile, try to attack them from the center tile. This way, even if you don't finish them off, they will be forced to retreat into the King and die from being Routed.
If you attack from the side, the wounded rival will simply retreat to the side and then attack you on their turn.
This trick doesn't work with Spirit perils: they are located on the edges of the Palace, and a Rout is only possible if some tiles are occupied by heroes/guards/banes.*
2 Never forget the possibility of suiciding into the Palace: it's a fantastic opportunity to burn junk cards and die.

3 If you are Poisoned but need to enter the Palace urgently, try to heal first in a nearby Stone Circle (if you have the AP). The trick is that entering the Palace consumes all remaining AP, and you will lose a total of 3 HP from Poison (as it deals damage per AP spent).
But if you enter a Stone Circle first, you will lose 1 less HP (see screenshot).


4 When fighting the King, remember: your HP is your "meat armor." If you have a lot of HP (5-6), don't burn cards for Shields. Burn for Attack, and let your body act as the shield. The King often rolls a lot of defense, and breaking through it can be quite difficult.

5 A typical mistake of a novice controller is spending damage cards without finishing off the opponent (wounding but not killing). This is extremely unprofitable and risky, as another rival can finish off the wounded target and claim the Prestige. Hold your damage in hand, save it for the "decisive moment": someone will inevitably get a Bounty!
The only situation where "spreading damage" is justified is when an enemy is in the Palace, and you need to wound them as much as possible at any cost so they die in the fight with the King.

6 A typical mistake of any novice is "Village Sickness": the player clings to their villages and spends a monstrous amount of AP to keep them. Remember: a village is just a measly +1 gold every two turns. Spending a whole 3 AP to recapture a taken village means treading water for an entire turn for a pathetic penny, while your enemies complete quests and level up stats, becoming stronger than you. If you need money, it's easier to farm in a dungeon during the day on the way to a quest than to trek to the middle of nowhere for a coin at dawn.

7 If you only have 2 Spirit, this means the Spells deck is only useful for "two-cost" buffs (like Reflect) and "two-cost" damage (like Moonbite). From this, we conclude: we only draw Spells when we need to snipe a wounded target or buff before a fight.
In all other cases, drawing Spells is pointless; they will just clog your hand. So, even if you have no gold and have 2 Magic, still draw Items: what if you draw an awesome piece of gear that you can save up for later? This is better than later running around with a hand full of useless, expensive spells trying to get rid of them.

8 If you have 3 Spirit, this means it's generally profitable to draw Spells whenever you have Magic: what if you get a Teleport or Sprint? And if you have 4 Spirit or more, then drawing Spells is practically mandatory: what if you get a Banish or a couple of tasty "two-cost" damage spells?

In the image, you see a table with dungeon probabilities. Let's summarize them in text:

Gold appears with a 50% chance during the day and a 25% chance at night.
Magic appears with a 15% chance during the day and a 25% chance at night.
A Bane appears with a 10% chance during the day and a 20% chance at night.
A Treasure appears with a 5% chance during the day and a 10% chance at night.
A Follower appears with a 10% chance during the day and a 5% chance at night.
A Spirit Stone appears with a 5% chance during the day and a 10% chance at night (just like Treasure).

The Stranger always has a 5% chance to appear (if enabled in game settings).

Teleportation to a random dungeon always has a 5% chance to occur.

What conclusions can we draw from this?
Entering a dungeon at night is quite dangerous: a 20% chance for a Bane and a 5% chance for a portal. This means there's a 25% total chance you'll be kicked off the dungeon tile.

Roaming dungeons during the day is relatively safe and even profitable: a 50% chance for gold and only a 15% total chance of being kicked off (10% Bane + 5% Portal).

Night offers the highest chances for Magic, Spirit Stones, and Treasures. Mnemonic: "Night is for magical, legendary things."

Day offers the highest chances for Gold and Followers. Mnemonic: "Day is for human, mundane things."

A Few Notes:
I strongly advise against entering King's Perils in dungeons. The King often places the most malicious things there: Banish, Influence, Cat Burglar, Hoodwinked, and other such nastiness.

In many cases, entering a dungeon during the day for gold is more profitable than capturing a village. A village will give you +1 gold only at dawn (if it isn't taken from you), while a dungeon gives you 1-4 gold immediately.

If you urgently need to reach a specific tile and every AP is critical (e.g., to get to the Palace or a quest), do not enter dungeons unless absolutely necessary. It's better to go around them if possible. What if a Bane appears?

Amber's Ability works as follows:
Decreases the chance of a Bane appearing by 5%.
Decreases the chance of finding 1 Gold by 5%.
Increases the chance of finding a Treasure by 5%.
Increases the chance of finding a Follower by 5%.
These adjustments apply both day and night.
The "Adventurer" Follower works as follows:
Decreases the chance of finding 1-2 Gold by 10%.
Decreases the chance of finding 1-2 Magic by 10%.
increases the chance of finding 5-6 Gold by 10%.
Increases the chance of finding 5-6 Magic by 10%.

The Most Crucial Details You Must Remember:

I won't talk about "Paws of Fate" (Day 2, 7 King HP, all players swap cards)—everyone knows about them already.

1 When the King has 5 HP left (Day 4), the decrees "-2 Gold from all" and "Steal a random equipped Item" appear on the same day.
This means you can be robbed in both ways—it's impossible to fully insure yourself since you never know which decree will pop up.

2 When the King has 4 HP left (Day 5) – this is the most "Rot-filled" day. Almost all decrees on this day are Rot-based: Pestilence, +1 Rot to all, 3 Banes emerge from dungeons, etc.

3 When the King has 3 HP left (Day 6) – this is the day of the most terrible decrees: "All players discard their hand", "-4 Gold to all or become Poisoned", "Banishment on Stone Circles". Be prepared for this day.

4 When the King has 2 HP left (Day 7) – this is the day of brutal humiliation for the Prestige leader: "Give all your Gold to the crown", "Give 1 Prestige from yourself to every player", "-2 Prestige and replace all cards in your hand with random ones".

5 When the King has 1 HP left (Day 8), the following decree can appear:

6 The Toll Bells Sing: The King loses 2 Fight for the rest of the game. Every creature in the Palace (including Guards) is struck by Lightning Strike (-3 HP).

The rest is less critical

Note: The vast majority of rare events can only appear once per game. The only known exception is the event "A helping paw..." (The Apothecary event): it can appear any number of times until someone takes the Apothecary into their inventory.

Requirements: Enter a Settlement during the day with only 1 HP remaining.

Chance: 30%

Choices:
Fully restore all HP.
Permanently gain +1 Body (Max HP).
Gain the follower Apothecary (+2 HP every time you heal by any means).

Analysis: The Apothecary isn't that useful, so I usually choose either "Full Heal" (if I need to survive urgently) or "+1 Max HP" (if I want to die soon anyway).


Requirements: Enter any Plains tile with The Stranger follower.

Chance: 5%

Choices:
Left Option – Gain a Teleport card.
Middle Option – Nothing. Game files suggest you steal 1 card from each rival, but this doesn't work in practice.
Right Option – Get rid of The Stranger.

Analysis: I usually choose the Teleport option, as it greatly helps with quest progression and compensates for the previous harm caused by The Stranger. But overall, getting rid of this freak is also great.



Requirements: Enter any Dungeon at night.

Chance: 3%

Choices:
a) "By Soup!" – Gain +2 Rot.
b) "By Eye!" – Permanently lose 1 Max HP, but gain permanent Scout (like the Seafarer's Lantern).
c) "By Raven’s Beak!" – Gain the treasure Raven's Beak Dagger (+1 Sword in battle, gives +2 Rot when equipped, and gives +1 Rot to anyone you kill in battle).

Analysis: I do not recommend taking the "permanent Scout": -1 Max HP is a very high price in this game.

If you want Rot and already have gear, take the +2 Rot.

If you don't have good gear yet, take the Dagger (replace it later with a better offensive item).

If you don't want Rot, take the Dagger and simply do not equip it. Burn it somewhere so an enemy doesn't get it and to free hand space.



Requirements: Enter any Forest tile during the day with at least 1 Rot.

Chance: 1%

Choices: a) Random Treasure, b) Spirit Stone, c) Fully restore Health.

Important: Any choice will also give you +1 Rot.



Requirements: Enter any Swamp tile while Poisoned.

Chance: 20%

Choices:

a) Let the poison spread (Left): +1 Rot, cure Poison.
b) Beg for help (Middle): Permanently +1 Max HP, cure Poison, reduce your current HP to 1. Your gold is randomly increased or decreased (usually lose 3-4 gold, but reports say you can lose/gain over 10).
c) Begone! (Right): Gain a Hot Rot Wine card. That's all.

Analysis: This event is interesting because the consequences are hidden. You only see the option names.

You usually enter a Swamp poisoned to intentionally die. So, taking "+1 Rot, cure Poison" (Left) often makes no sense, as it prevents death.

"+1 Max HP" (Middle) is much more tempting, even though it also prevents death. Permanent HP is never bad—take it if the situation allows, but expect to lose most of your gold.

The third option, Hot Rot Wine, is perhaps the most optimal—it's never superfluous. You can use it to get Rot or even to suicide if you lack the AP to die.


Requirements: Enter any Stone Circle at night.

Chance: 25%

Choices:
"Scythe": The treasure Moon Scythe.
"Stone": A Spirit Stone.
"Salvation": Removal of all Rot.

Analysis: The Moon Scythe is a junk treasure. Take it only if your gear is truly terrible.

If you have Rot and want to get rid of it – choose "Salvation".

If none of the above applies – then take the Spirit Stone; it can't hurt.

In essence, there are only three viable amulets in the game: Resist, Discipline, and Think.

The other amulets cannot offer them worthy competition: they either provide lower efficiency or are simply too situational. And in this game, the word "situational" = "junk." A good amulet should provide benefits steadily and regularly, not only in specific circumstances.

Note: Essentially, amulets and rings are additional abilities you give your hero. Often, these additional abilities are far more useful than the heroes' own unique abilities. Therefore, take amulets and rings extremely seriously: they are a truly important, key element of the game that genuinely influences your playstyle (unlike many hero-specific abilities).

+1 Shield in Fight – This means you get +1 die (effectively, like +1 to your "Fight" stat) that is guaranteed to be a Shield. We always need defense, as its probability on a die is only 16.7%, unlike Attack, which has a 50% chance.
Thus, this amulet is unequivocally better than Scratch, which just gives +1 Fight—i.e., just one die that can still miss.

+1 Shield in Peril – This is fantastic because most perils in the game have a Shield symbol. Many of these perils are quite dangerous—like Lightning Strike or Mercenaries.

Finally, the cherry on top: this Shield in perils helps us crack the Palace Wits trial. Warrior heroes traditionally suffer from low Wits, usually around 3-4, max 5.

The Resist amulet frees us from the need to find a Shield symbol, thereby giving us more free hand space to gather the other symbols for the Palace trial.

First and foremost, Discipline is a tool for breaching the Palace, not for crushing rivals in combat. With Discipline, you can breach the Palace even with total bad luck, low stats, and no symbols. The success rate feels like it's always 50/50: you either get lucky or you don't.

Overall, the probability of gathering a full set of symbols with the Resist amulet feels about the same: sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. You can sometimes run around all game without collecting the set, so I consider Discipline to be at least equal in strength to Resist.

Discipline is great because it allows you to storm the Palace in an emergency when there's no time to gather symbols. This trick won't work with Resist: if you have few dice, you'll likely fail the breach without a full symbol set.

Another advantage of Discipline for Palace breaches: it allows you to attempt both the Wits and the Spirit trial. This is important because Cursed Lands are most often played on Palace Wits trials. If the trial is complicated twice, passing it becomes almost impossible, even with the Resist amulet.

Discipline allows you to bash your head against the Spirit trial with decent chances if you gather at least a couple of symbols.

If you don't like or don't want to breach the Palace, I strongly advise against Discipline: without that, it loses half its potential. Take Resist and don't overthink it.

The second major advantage of Discipline is its hurricane power in combat. Don't expect defense from it; it's made for delivering a large amount of attack. It's primarily needed by mages to level the playing field in fights with warriors. But it's also useful for warriors to guarantee piercing/killing enemies during their clan's time of day.

And, as I've said a hundred times, Discipline is useful for any warrior or mage as a sledgehammer for breaching the Palace. I will never tire of repeating this, because not using this advantage is simply a crime. This doesn't mean you must bash the Palace every match, but just don't forget that you always have a 50% key to the Palace in your pocket.

Discipline also helps pass regular perils, of course, and this is the third plus of this wonderful amulet.

Personally, I take Discipline on all heroes except Dragons (it doesn't work on them). On Dragons, I generally take Resist.

A universal amulet that boosts the most useful stat in the game: Wits. Why is this stat so important? Because the amount of free hand space = your speed of development in the game, the speed at which you "filter" cards through yourself.

Wits is more important than Spirit because +1 Magic and +1 spell range don't provide the same significant efficiency as +1 slot in your hand.

This amulet is usually used in Hard Control, but overall, it looks appropriate on any character with any playstyle. It doesn't give any super-duper direct advantages; it's just a pleasant, useful bonus that works always and everywhere.

I wouldn't say it's quite on par with Discipline and Resist, but it is certainly substantially more useful than all other amulets. Just a good "workhorse," that's all.

I call "false" those amulets that seem cool and useful, but aren't. They cannot compete on equal footing with the amulets listed above.

This amulet is often used by inexperienced players on heroes whose abilities activate on certain terrain types—e.g., Elyssia, Ghor, and Hargrave.

What's the mistake here? The mistake is that these people are trading gold for copper. They are giving up the easy Palace breach and combat advantage (provided by Discipline and Resist) for the constant activation of their hero ability.

But this is an unequal exchange. Hero abilities in Armello are always secondary, incidental. Armello is not Dota or Overwatch; all heroes are played more or less the same, regardless of abilities.

Abilities in this game just give nice little bonuses; in 99% of cases, they have no substantial impact on gameplay. And giving up a "skeleton key for the Palace" for them is foolish.

As I wrote in the section on Rot, the advantages of Rot are quite dubious, while the harm is substantial.
Ruin gives you an easy way to rot, but in return, it deprives you of the ability to win by Prestige. Furthermore, your successful rotting is not guaranteed: often the map generates with a small number of villages, and you can't squeeze much Rot from them.

Control mages don't need Ruin: they successfully rot in 80% of cases anyway thanks to the Spells deck.

Warriors don't need Rot at all. The only exception is Fang... Perhaps only on Fang does this amulet look somewhat decent, but again: equipping Ruin means giving up the "skeleton key for the Palace."

Is it worth it? Personally, considering this hero's low Wits and Spirit, I prefer to equip him with Discipline.

Dragons don't need this amulet either. Dragons feel perfectly fine without Rot.

Again, just ask yourself: "Palace breach or episodic weakening of enemies in combat?" The answer is obvious. You can defeat enemies without this amulet, but breaching the Palace without Discipline or Resist is very difficult, especially if it's been complicated.

All other amulets in the game are situational junk, incapable of any competition whatsoever. The only possible exception is the Soak amulet on 4-HP heroes like Zosha, but even that isn't as cool as the ability to breach the Palace.

Initially, I wanted to write separate sections for heroes, clans, and rings, but upon reflection, I decided these three topics are inseparable. Therefore, I will write comprehensively about each clan.

Before we begin discussing the heroes, let me clarify a few things upfront:

We never build our gameplay around a hero's ability. Any ability in Armello is just a nice bonus. Building an entire strategy around a bonus = losing to those who build their strategy around stats and game circumstances.
The developers of this game tried their hardest to make abilities as bland and non-game-influencing as possible. They almost succeeded: 50% of heroes in Armello are junk with junk stats and junk abilities. True, they still managed to create a couple of blatantly imbalanced heroes, but I'll talk about that later.
In short, just accept it: there is only Classic, Rush, and Control. Other strategies are non-competitive, and the pitiful attempts to "play through abilities" are simply laughable.


The Armello developers had no idea how to play their own game. It feels like they determined the game's balance in matches against bots.
Therefore, the card decks are stuffed with situational junk, half the heroes are s**t, almost all amulets and rings are s**t, and the game itself is a crooked, buggy piece of s**t. To a novice, much in this game seems cool and interesting, but that's only because they haven't suffered enough in matches against skilled monsters.
All my notes are written from the perspective of years of experience playing with seasoned, hardened veterans of the RU community. I will evaluate heroes precisely from the position of "we are playing against pros," not "we are playing with dumb animals in random matchmaking."
And when we do that, we immediately discard 90% of this game's content to hell: unplayable, uncompetitive, too weak, too situational!

We evaluate heroes primarily based on the following criteria:

Stats (They determine the entire gameplay and entire strategy).

Ability (If the stats are okay, then who gives a f**k about the ability, as it's just a bonus).

Starting Capital (A large capital allows you not to worry about earning gold for the first 4-5 turns and immediately equip any tasty, expensive gear you find = dominate in early fights against paupers).
*We note starting capital as "+1," i.e., +1 gold given to everyone at the start in addition to base gold.*

Affinity (Clan time of day) also holds some value.

Night clans have an advantage in early duels—situations where two neighboring heroes have their first quests on each other's territories. Since the second turn of the match (when the fight happens) is night, the night hero has an advantage over the day hero, especially with Discipline.

Day clans have an advantage in fights with Guards when entering the Palace: the hounds attack an intruder in the morning, and with Discipline, the intruder will feel quite confident (this is especially relevant for mages, particularly Bears).

I believe that when leveling a hero who starts with 2 Spirit, you should still level Spirit to 3, unless you plan to rush from the very start (and I don't consider rushing from the start an effective tactic—it's pure casino).
3 Spirit allows you to use the most valuable transport cards (Teleport and Sprint) as well as "three-cost" buffs (Regenerate, Evil Eye), and this significantly increases the efficiency of drawing from the Spells deck.
But overall, it's not mandatory: you can play quite comfortably and even win consistently with no-brain, beer-in-hand builds using 2 Spirit. It's just that when you have at least 3 Magic, your range of options to influence the game almost doubles.

The only pure warrior clan in the game – not a single mage! Great rings, strong heroes with simple, straightforward, and useful abilities. If you're a newbie, this is the perfect clan to learn the game and hone your skills. Everyone loves the Wolves – seasoned vets included.

The one major downside of the Wolves is their poverty. Their low starting gold forces them to be very frugal. Wolves usually can't afford the luxury of "burning junk items by equipping them." And as for tricks? Forget about it – a Wolf typically spends every penny they earn on gear and healing potions.

– one of the best rings in the entire game, allowing you to run over mountains as if they were plains. This ring gives you tactical flexibility and maneuverability: "chokepoints" (narrow corridors formed by mountains) simply don't exist for you. You can bypass any obstacle or any dangerous enemy by going over the mountains. You can easily take a stand on a mountain to get a powerful defensive position: not everyone will be willing to spend a whole 2 AP just to get to you.
However, Celestite doesn't give you an advantage in completing quests; the game accounts for this ring and usually spawns quests one tile further away to keep things fair. But it's no big deal.

In short, when in doubt, take Celestite and stop overthinking it: it's great on absolutely every hero, including Fang.

+3 Fight when you have 3 HP or less.
A good ring for rushers. It gives you insane power when you're wounded. Enemies will think twice before picking a fight with a injured Wolf. Plus, Rubellite offers some insurance against spell damage: opponents will know that if they wound you, they're essentially buffing you.
Rubellite also almost guarantees you'll snag the rewards from Fight quests. Just wound yourself down to 3 HP (e.g., by stepping on a swamp), and then tackle the quest.

But if you're not rushing, Celestite is preferable: it helps you move faster and live longer thanks to its tactical flexibility.

All other rings for the Wolves are trash, as they are either too situational or don't offer the same bang for your buck.

Stats: 5-5-3-3
Ability: Burned Swords ignore Shields.
Starting Gold: 4+1

The gold standard for warrior heroes. The AK-47 of Armello's world. If you're wondering "which warrior hero is the best?", always compare them to Thane.

Thane has great stats 5-5-3-3, making him a dangerous killer right from the start. Be sure to upgrade his Wits first.

Thane's ability is the benchmark for what an ability should be. It's extremely useful and synergizes perfectly with his classic warrior stats. It's a warrior ability on a warrior hero, which maximizes his efficiency.

Notes:

We need Swords mainly in two cases:
a). Attacking the King: Use the Items action before the fight; there are plenty of Swords there. Even if we don't draw a single Sword, we might potentially get healing potions, Firebrew, cool gear, or at least other useful Fight/Defense symbols.
b). To evict someone from the Palace, displace, or kill an armored player with a ton of Shields.
c). To kill a player with a Breastplate or an evasive hero.

Only hoard Sword cards specifically before attacking the King. Otherwise, there's usually no point in clogging your hand with Swords: you slow down your development and deny yourself the ability to cycle through cards. Only draw for Swords right before a fight. And don't look for Swords in Spells; they aren't there at all.

When burning cards in a fight, burn Swords first: they will punch through the enemy's first Shields. Burn other symbols afterward. Otherwise, you might end up in a situation where your "normal" attacks get blocked by the enemy's Shields, and your "shield-piercing Swords" hit their health as regular attacks.

I recommend building Thane either as a 6-6-5-3 (pure warrior) or the more complex 6-6-4-4 (warrior-half-mage).
The first build gives you a larger hand for drawing gear and Swords. It's for those who don't like to overthink things, who just want to chill with a beer and still be highly effective.
The second build allows you to use Banish to complete quests, use two buffs at once, and control the Palace decently in the late game. Upgrade Wits with the first quest, Spirit with the second.

Stats: 4-5-4-3
Ability: Fires a bowshot before battle (-1 HP).
Starting Gold: 3+1

Good warrior stats. Usually, take Fight with the first quest, otherwise River is a bit weak. But in general, you can win early duels for the first quest thanks to the Wolves being a night clan.

Her ability is good, allowing you to kill a 1-HP King like with Spirit Stones. And even if the King has more than 1 HP, the bowshot still helps a ton, since it's often that one single point of damage that you're missing.

But sometimes this ability can backfire: when attacking a 1-HP creature (not just a hero, but also guards/banes), River simply snipes it and stays put. This is crucial as it can ruin your entire late game when there are half-dead wounded guards in the Palace and wounded banes roaming the map.

Also, River's ability counters Ghor's ability: the bowshot removes his bark before the fight.

I recommend building River the same as Thane: either 6-6-5-3 (pure warrior) or 6-6-4-4 (warrior-half-mage) [see explanations in the Thane section].

But don't build River as a pure mage! If you try to make her a magic controller, you'll only be able to boost her Spirit in the second half of the game, and until then she'll be neither fish nor fowl: weak in fight, and in magic – a pathetic puff that runs out of steam. If a hero has 4 Fight, it's stupid to let it go to waste.

Plus, the Wolves don't have decent magic rings; they can't compete with Amethyst or Rainbow Quartz. Farming magic with a "Moonbite" via kills is a massive pain. In short, trying to make a controller out of a Wolf is like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Overall, personally, I think Thane is better than River (and the best of all Wolves): his ability is more useful and never backfires. And his starting gold is 4+1, not 3+1 like the other Wolves. No wonder he's the prince.

Stats: 5-6-3-2
Ability: Burned Shields reflect attacks.
Starting Gold: 3+1

Great stats for a pure "no brain" warrior-tank. Don't like to think? Don't want to follow the game closely? Just want to wander the map with a beer? Magna is your girl!

Magna's ability is nowhere near a worthy competitor to Thane's, because Thane can displace weakly-attacking, heavily-armored enemies, while Magna cannot.

Her ability only works when the enemy has high Attack. Otherwise, a weak enemy's attacks simply won't reach her "reflecting Shields."

Builds:
A. "No brain" 7-7-4-2 (You absolutely must upgrade Wits with the first quest, even if you're a hardcore beer-drinker!)
B. "One brain cell" 6-7-5-2 (I think this build is the most optimal for beer-drinkers. Lots of cards, lots of HP)
C. "Smart girl" 6-6-5-3 (A wide hand for picking gear and the ability to use transport spells)
D. "Half-mage" 6-6-4-4 (Late-game control {for degenerates})

Stats: 6-5-3-2 and +1 Rot from the start.
Ability: If, during an attack, you kill an enemy and land 3 additional strikes after their death, you ignore the enemy's counter-attack damage.
Starting Gold: 3+1

The most meme-worthy. The most terrifying. The most useless of all the Wolves. Ask why? I'll tell you: Rot.

Fang's entire tragedy lies in that single starting point of Rot: it turns his 5 HP into effectively 4 HP. And it ticks down his health every two turns. If it weren't for the Rot, Fang would be one of the best heroes in the game. But alas, he's an underdog, and people usually pick him just for the lulz.

What's more, it's very hard for Fang to properly "rot up." To efficiently gain Rot, you need high Wits to cycle through cards quickly, and high Spirit to burn junk spells, freeing up your hand (remember, you find Rot in Spells!).

Fang has neither. He's the epitome of a brute – dumb and spiritless. He can, of course, try to boost his Wits and Spirit through quests, but that only happens in the second half of the game. Until then, he'll be running around perpetually wounded, perpetually broke, and with a hand full of junk.

And as if that's not enough – Fang's own ability prevents him from rotting! When Fang tries to get wounded by Banes, he often ends up killing them outright with his ability, completely ignoring any counter-attack damage from them. What were the developers even thinking?

Therefore, getting Rot on Fang is pure luck. If you see that Rot just isn't coming to your hand in the first few turns, it's better to abandon the idea altogether and keep running with just 1 Rot.

If you're lucky enough to find the spell "The Cleansing Wyld" – it will be your salvation, instantly turning you into a super-predator.

Also, you might sometimes get lucky with the "Druids" event (night, stone circle, 25% chance): always choose the "Salvation" option to be completely cleansed of Rot.

There is, of course, another option – take the amulet "Ruin." This is perhaps the only situation where this amulet is justified. But then you're trading the ability to break into the Palace for getting rotten.

This means that to get into the Palace, you'll most likely have to use holes made by other players, since completing all quests with Fang is quite difficult: he's always half-dead, and he's always getting killed because of it (after all, it's much easier for a mage to pick off wounded targets than to spend a bunch of cards on full-health heroes!).

Fang's meager starting gold doesn't allow him to quickly acquire equipment. A perpetually-killed, penniless Wolf often becomes the community punching bag.

Don't you dare rely on his ability and deck Fang out in pure attack items! Remember, his ability only works on your turn. On the defense, you're screwed, and for example, when storming the Palace, the guards will beat you up first, and then controllers will finish you off.

And frankly, it's quite hard to kill a full-health hero with any defensive gear using Fang's ability. At best, you'll just kill them, without any overkill or special effects. Fang's ability works best on seriously wounded opponents.

Is that all? No, that's not all. Fang also has an unpleasant psychological effect: he's subconsciously perceived as a serious threat, a dangerous opponent, even if he's a deadbeat bum with trash gear.

His design is just very aggressive, his ability sounds fearsome, fights with Fang and his "GRRRRAAAAA!!!" are very memorable and get stamped on the subconscious of our "monkey brain." So even experienced players often take potshots at a wandering Fang just in case, who knows what this aggressive bum might get into his head... And this further ruins the experience.

And in random matchmaking, 80% of players think Fang is OP and often gang up on the poor wolf.

In short, Fang was born to suck, and there's nothing you can do about it. Pick him strictly for the lulz.

Fang's only advantage is that he can survive fights even on 1 HP thanks to his overkill ability. He can even afford the luxury of "attacking the King on 1 HP and winning." In all other respects, he's an underdog.

Build him as follows:
A. 6-6-5-3 (Standard Wolf)
B. 7-6-4-3 (Slayer-Killer)
C. 6-6-4-4 (For degenerates who want to try late-game control with Fang)
D. 6-7-5-2 or 7-7-4-2 (Hardcore beer-drinker build)

The wealthiest clan in the game. Almost all Rabbit heroes start with 8-9 gold in their pocket, which lets them gear up VERY quickly and boldly steamroll anyone in their path. The abilities of most Rabbits are kinda crap, but their stats are quite good (and that's more important than abilities). Plus, Rabbits have some very nice rings – a whole three worthy, solid rings for different strategies.

All of this makes the Rabbits one of the top clans in the game. They're very comfortable and enjoyable to play (even Barnaby), the abundance of gold allows for rapid development and hand cycling, and it forgives minor resource management mistakes.

Their controllers are a bit weak due to the lack of an "Amethyst" and somewhat low Spirit, but Rabbits partially compensate for this with "Rainbow Quartz."


1. Rainbow Quartz: +1 Gold, +1 Magic at dawn.

Essentially, it's a pocket village that also gives you magic. This ensures you always have at least 2 gold at dawn, and even lets you cast spells a tier above your Spirit. For example, being able to cast "Banish" with only 3 Spirit is a royal luxury; it means you can cast practically every transport spell in the game with the standard 3 Spirit.
This is arguably one of the best rings in the game, on par with Celestite. It might not give a tactical advantage on the map, but it provides a powerful and steady stream of resources.

2. Pink Topaz: Doubled income from settlements.

Also an excellent ring, but worse than Rainbow Quartz. First, villages can be stolen. Second, villages can spawn in bad locations. And third, the Topaz doesn't give magic, meaning you miss out on the ability to cast higher-tier spells.
In short, I'd recommend leaving this ring for the Bandits. Rabbits deserve better: they take Rainbow Quartz and have a blast.

3. Sunstone: +1 Sun in fights and peril during the day.

A good combat ring, an essential tool for rushers. It allows you to crack a Palace Spirit peril even if you only have 2 Spirit: remember, Rabbits are a day clan and get +1 die in fights and perils during the day.
So, here's the math: You have the Sun symbol, +2 dice from Spirit, +1 die from your clan's time of day. Those three dice are exactly enough to burn the three remaining symbols (Wyld, Moon, Rot) to break the Spirit peril. The Rabbits' mighty Wits (all their heroes have at least 4 Wits at the start) allows them to efficiently cycle for cards with the right symbols. Pretty cool, huh?

And if you combine this ring with Discipline, you get a build called "The Sunny Bunny": you turn into a fearsome death machine during the day, tearing to shreds anyone who crosses your path. Sure, you'll be a bit weak at night, but during the day – it's pure joy. And it wrecks the King pretty hard too.

So, if you want to rush and wreck everyone, this ring is for you. But for classic play and control, I'd still recommend taking Rainbow Quartz.

All other Rabbit rings are non-competitive trash.

Stats: 3-5-4-4
Ability: Slightly higher chance to find a Treasure/Follower in a dungeon, and slightly lower chance to pull a Bane from a dungeon.
Starting Gold: 8+1

Amber is the richest hero in the game (tied with Barnaby). Newbies love her for her very simple and fairly useful ability, but in reality, this hero isn't suited for beginners.

You must play her strictly through soft control: prioritize upgrading Fight first, and everything else second. Control isn't a style for newcomers; it requires thinking, not just grinding dungeons all game. New players often just farm dungeons the entire time and never unlock Amber's full potential.

She's not suitable for hard control because the Rabbits lack an "Amethyst."
She's not suitable for rushing because she's a bit weak: she's not a warrior; she's a half-mage from the start, and it's foolish not to utilize her elevated Spirit and Wits.

Here's how Amber's ability works:
Standard Bane chance: Day 10%, Night 20%
Amber's Bane chance: Day 5%, Night 15%
Standard Treasure chance: Day 5%, Night 10%
Amber's Treasure chance: Day 10%, Night 15%
Standard Follower chance: Day 10%, Night 5%
Amber's Follower chance: Day 15%, Night 10%

Builds:
A. "Jack of All Trades": 5-5-5-5
B. "Warrior": 5-6-5-4
C. "Tank": 4-6-5-5

Stats: 4-6-4-2
Ability: A replaced item doesn't vanish from your inventory but returns to your hand with its cost reset to zero.
Starting Gold: 8+1

An extremely wealthy but utterly lousy hero with a downright detrimental ability. The developers intended for this hero to collect two sets of gear and swap them situationally. But you know what? In this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ casino, it's hard enough to assemble one decent set!

Every warrior hero spends the entire game sifting through a ton of crap from the Item deck looking for proper gear. "Burning" cheap junk by equipping it plays a crucial role. And Barnaby's ability completely cripples this burning mechanic.

So, you have a ridiculous amount of gold (because you're a rich Rabbit), but you can't fully utilize your wealth: you're forced, like some penniless Wolf, to loiter around perils and attack guards just to burn junk from your hand!

This is really bad and significantly lowers Barnaby's rating in our eyes.

You can only pinpoint two minor advantages to his ability:

The ability to constantly equip/unequip "Heavy Armor" (AP isn't consumed if you unequip "Heavy Armor" before starting your turn).

The ability to "unequip" a symbol (an item with a symbol) to burn that symbol in a peril (especially a Palace one).

But overall, the ability is trash that ruins the game.

Builds:
Prioritize Fight first, otherwise Barnaby won't be able to punch through anyone. Given his slowed gear acquisition, this can become a serious problem.
A. "Bogatyr" (Epic Hero): 6-7-4-3
B. "Warrior": 6-6-5-3
C. "Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4 (for degenerate lovers of late-game control)
D. "Beer-enjoyer": 6-8-4-2 or 6-7-5-2 (No magic = no need to think)

Stats: 5-5-4-2
Ability: At the end of turn on Plains/Stone Circles, deals 1 damage to all characters within 1 tile.
Starting Gold: 7+1

His Majesty Hargrave. The Great and Terrible. The best hero of the Rabbit Clan. The true locomotive of the entire clan. One of the best warriors in the game and a shining example that stats, not abilities, are what truly matter here.

His ability is truly useless, and the dumbest thing you can do is try to stop on plains and stone circles more often.

The entire essence of Hargrave lies in his stats and money. 5-5-4-2 is any warrior's dream. These stats allow you to immediately boost Wits to 5 with the first quest and become an uber-machine for sucking gear out of the Item deck and killing anything that moves. You can boost Spirit later; it's less important.

Regarding money: I've already explained this, so no need to reiterate the obvious. Lord Hargrave is so rich he could easily buy a couple of penniless she-wolves like River and Magna for his personal harem, and spin the rest of the Wolves around on his massive... cannon barrel.

Playstyle, like all warriors: classic (Rainbow Quartz) and rush (Sunstone).

Builds:
A. "BelAZ Driver" (Unstoppable Truck): 7-7-4-2
B. "Intellectual": 6-6-5-3
C. "Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4
D. "Beer-enjoyer": 6-7-5-2

Stats: 3-5-5-3
Ability: At the end of turn in a settlement, builds permanent stone walls in it. Entering the settlement now costs 2 AP for everyone except Elyssia.
Starting Gold: 5+1

Ah, Elyssia... The favorite character of all the mentally ill, autists, schizoids, psychopaths, and just plain weirdos. There's something in this character's design that magnetically attracts all the unloved, rejected, despised people who were bullied in childhood.

Probably, it's because the character herself is cold, detached, arrogant, considering everyone idiots (a clear distancing from the "society of ignorant normies"), and her ability targets two painful vectors of the schizoid psyche at once:

"Mine! Won't give it up!" (The vector of anal greed, hoarding the treasure: claiming settlements and fencing them with high walls).

"I'll spite them! I'll get revenge! You shall not pass!" (The vector of sadism, revenge on society, suppressed cruelty: the desire to ruin and break the lives of offenders, complicating the map's terrain, erecting barriers and obstacles everywhere for enemies encroaching on "my precious").

But anyway, that was a lyrical digression. Just know that people who love playing Elyssia/Sargon/Yordana are usually precisely that sort. We are normal, right? We view Elyssia simply as a hero, not a tool for venting suppressed libido, right?

So, first about the stats.
Stats 3-5-5-3, frankly, mean the following: this character is "neither fish nor fowl" early game; they can neither fight nor cast spells effectively – only draw cards. Consequently, Elyssia only starts unlocking her potential fairly late: only after completing the first two quests.

This means she's unsuitable for rushing, and for control too (until mid-game). Elyssia needs to carefully crawl across the map until she completes those two quests.

I believe that, considering her good starting gold, the good Rabbit ring "Rainbow Quartz," and her ability, the following conclusion is obvious: Elyssia should be played through soft control.

With Discipline, she can at least dish out some punishment. High Wits allows for good drawing of items and magic, and "Rainbow Quartz" will let her cast expensive spells.

Accordingly, her build paths are similar to Amber's:
A. "Jack of All Trades": 5-5-5-5
B. "Warrior": 5-6-5-4
C. "Tank": 4-6-5-5

Now about the ability.
The worst disease you can catch while playing Elyssia is "Elyssia Syndrome."

Symptoms: The patient is obsessed with fortifying settlements; they won't rest until they've walled up every settlement on the map; they perceive the capture of a fortified settlement as a personal insult. They play for Prestige, constantly draw Tricks, thus walk around with crap gear and can't even beat up a guard. Prone to stacking a bunch of shields and crawling across the map like a turtle. A kind of "hard control for potheads."

In short, you get the idea: you mustn't do this. We never build our entire strategy around the ability. Fortifying settlements is a nice bonus, not a sacred duty. If it's more beneficial for us to pass by a settlement and end our turn in an empty field – we'll do it, we won't give in to temptation.

Remember: even if you have many settlements, you are not obligated to draw Tricks. We only draw Tricks when we genuinely need them. Before drawing Tricks, ask yourself: "What card do I actually want? What am I hoping to draw?"

If the answer is "Uhh, dunno, something to mess with them," then think again. Is your gear set complete? Would a teleport spell be more useful to you, perhaps?

That's the idea. Ultimately, your Elyssia should become a half-warrior, half-mage capable of dishing out punishment with her hands, magic, and tricks.

The smartest clan; almost all heroes (except Zosha) start with 5 Wits. And they are second only to the Rabbits in terms of wealth: they all have at least 6+1 gold at the start. And their abilities are all awesome, useful, and needed.

This would probably be one of the most powerful clans in the game, if not for one "but": they have the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rings in the game, you couldn't think of anything worse. Even the Dragons with their "Grey" surpass them in the jewelry department.

1. Ruby: The first Sword symbol rolled on dice explodes.
At first glance, it seems like a decent combat ring. But let's analyze it with probability theory...

Let's say we have 6 dice in a fight. We usually burn a couple of symbols, leaving us with 4 dice. The probability of rolling at least 1 Sword on 4 dice is 51.8%. And the probability that the extra die gained from the explosion will actually hit is 66.7%.
Thus, the correct description of the Ruby ring sounds something like this:

"Gain, with a 51.8% chance, an extra die, which with a 66.7% chance will be useful to you."

Not so awesome now, huh? Overall, this ring performs okay for rushing, but for classic play and control, I'd recommend looking at Obsidian.

2. Obsidian

The in-game text says this ring provides Scout on all your settlements and on anyone who takes a settlement from you. But in reality, that's not the case: the ring is hopelessly bugged.
In practice, the ring gives Scout on any settlement captured by any player. And Scout is also applied to those players. But... drumroll... that Scout is bugged too! It works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it works partially: two tiles have Scout, the rest don't. Some players get Scout, others don't. Sometimes Scout gets stuck on one tile for several turns, other times it disappears immediately.

So, the correct description of the Obsidian ring sounds something like this:

"Gain random, chaotic Scout across the entire map."

And, frankly, thanks to this bug, you can actually play with this ring quite effectively, because in its intended, "developer-approved" version, this ring is unplayable.

If you're tormented by pangs of conscience like "I'm a bug abuser, I'm using a bugged ring" – relax, it's compensated by the fact that the Armello developers never had the slightest clue about balance. It feels like the rings were handed out to clans not from a balance perspective, but from a roleplay one, like: "Hrrrn, Wolves strong, give them powerful combat rings; hee-hee Rabbits rich, give them money rings; ooooh Bandits are thieves and robbers, let's not bother and just write that they stole rings from other clans."

So, since the devs had no idea what they were doing – it absolves you of the guilt of breaking the balance. Especially since the ring is nowhere near overpowered: it still can't compete with Celestite or Rainbow Quartz. I'd gladly wear a Grey over Obsidian, but we don't have a choice.

Chaotic Scout gives us a lot of info about perils and player quests – and that can sometimes save your game. "Information is power." Information insures us against a sudden "Plague," "Lightning Strike," and other surprises from the King.

Sometimes, though, Obsidian can backfire: for example, you cast a Wyld's Warning on a player in the Palace, attack them – and the player doesn't dodge because Obsidian gave you Scout on them. But this is rare, and you can ignore these cases.

Otherwise, the ring is quite useful. I'd say it's the only truly useful ring the Rats have. The benefit from valuable information often outweighs the benefit of an extra die or an extra coin, as it protects us from bad perils, gives info about harmless perils (to burn cards), and reveals enemy quests (allowing us to predict their moves).

3. Cat’s Eye: -1 gold discount on the first Trick played each turn.

A controversial little ring that only really looks good on Griotte. As I've written before, the Trick deck is a late-game deck, when your gear is already assembled and you have spare gold. So, if you're not playing Griotte, this ring will mainly only be useful for you in the late game.
You might say: "But what if I just draw 1-2 Tricks per turn, using the discount?" And I'll answer this way: you can't draw Tricks just 1-2 cards at a time; there's too much situational crap in there.

You either draw Tricks by the handful (like a filter-feeding whale scooping up tons of water hoping to filter out plankton), or you don't draw them at all.

You need to draw Tricks with a clear understanding of which specific card you need at that specific moment:
"I want a Sniper/Mercenaries to snipe a player with a bounty, because I have no magic."
"I want Toad's Slander to overtake the prestige leader, because it's late game and there's no one to kill."

And so on. This requires good knowledge of the Trick deck. If you're drawing Tricks just for the sake of it, purely so your little discount ring doesn't go to waste, then you're just like those normies with promo codes who are willing to order any Chinese piece of ♥♥♥♥ from a marketplace just so the coupon doesn't expire.

And, accordingly, in most cases, that's exactly what you'll get: a Chinese piece of ♥♥♥♥ like "Witch Hunters," "Plague Bringers," "Stone Wardens," and other incredibly useful (sarcasm) cards. And you'll be left wondering how to get rid of them.

In short, you should either draw Tricks with a clear goal and by the handful, or not draw them at all. So if you don't know what you want – it's better to just take Obsidian (on Griotte too) and stop overthinking it.

Also, note that Cat's Eye requires serious attention: you might accidentally play a free card first, and the discount will be wasted on it. Always play your expensive cards first, then the cheap ones.

4. Turquoise: Evade everywhere and +2 Explosions.

I absolutely do not consider this ring good for one simple reason: the Evade from Turquoise works even in the Palace. This means you will be guaranteed to get kicked out of the Palace even by guards. And that hurts a lot, because, as I've said before, you shouldn't count on a prestige victory. The main path to victory is to kill the King.
Probably, Turquoise only looks good on Sargon, turning him into something resembling Twiss.

The rest of the rings are pure trash. Sure, there's a strategy with Tanzanite involving setting up perils on yourself and farming gold from them, but you need to be lucky for that. I'm unlucky, and I constantly fail perils even with 10 dice in my pocket. So I don't consider rings based on luck to be strong.

Stats: 4-5-5-2
Ability: When capturing a settlement from an enemy, steal 1 gold from them.
Starting Gold: 6+1

A solid, middle-of-the-road warrior with powerful starting Wits and a fat wallet. His ability is pleasant, useful, and low-maintenance: it often helps you get that one missing coin to buy a cool piece of gear.

Playing Mercurio is just... pleasant. He's not a top-tier warrior, he's no match for Thane, but he forgives many more of your mistakes thanks to his "financial stability." If you don't want to think and just want to chill with a beer – this character is for you.

Mercurio suffers greatly from a lack of combat power, so be sure to upgrade his Fight first. Every warrior should ideally have 6 Fight and 6 Body to confidently win battles and survive under fire from controllers.

Builds:
A. "Warrior": 6-6-5-3
B. "Beer-enjoyer": 6-7-5-2

Stats: 5-4-4-3
Ability: Stealth everywhere at night.
Starting Gold: 6+1

A powerful warrior hero with a fantastic ability, severely hampered by low health.

Frankly, I really dislike warrior heroes with 4 Body; it's a kind of perversion. It's very hard for a warrior to play with 4 Body because they are so easy to snipe with a spell, especially if they take a bit of damage from swamps or some guards.

The most annoying thing is that the game doesn't allow you to upgrade Body with the first quest: only the second. This means you'll have to run across the entire map once with just 4 Body – and that's no easy task.

So, you absolutely must get Zosha's Body to at least 5; playing without it is impossible. Mages love farming Prestige from low-health heroes, and you will be their favorite target.

But her ability is truly magnificent, one of the best in the game. It allows you, for example, to enter the Palace at night and be completely immune to direct damage spells. To snipe you with a spell, they have to make you visible – and doing that without a direct attack is almost impossible, unless they get lucky with Scout, which isn't common either.

Zosha's ability prevents enemies from burning cards in battle against her, doesn't let them track her movements clearly at night, and protects her from Bane attacks.

Builds:
"Tank": 7-6-4-3
"Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4 (Upgrade Spirit first to be able to use Banish or two buffs all game)
"Warrior": 6-6-5-3

Stats: 4-4-5-3
Ability: +1 die at night for each Trick played during the day.
Starting Gold: 7+1

Another character, like Elyssia, who primarily attracts people with a broken psyche. And these people play Griotte completely wrong, because they sit down with her to cause chaos, not to win.

The developers initially misled players by positioning Griotte as a "crazy butcher-killer" who stacks a ton of dice and then goes to slice everyone into sushi rolls. And naive fools, blindly following this media template, obediently go to fulfill this scenario. And what's the result?

The result is you just blow all your money on Tricks, and you have no money left for decent gear. Without decent gear, any fight with a moderately strong warrior hero is lethal for you: all your dice will go into attack, you'll have almost no defense, and you and the enemy will just kill each other. You're a dead rat with 4 Body; you can be killed with two sneezes.

Accordingly, typical Griotte enthusiasts run around the map like penniless bums, without gear or money. During the day, they spend their last pennies on new Tricks, and at night they die like kamikaze drones against Banes and heroes. And it's not even certain they kill anyone: usually, they just die shamefully.

So, remember once and for all: Griotte's ability is not a weapon; it's a lockpick. A lockpick for the Palace.

Your signature strategy is to level up (especially Body), assemble decent gear, and then (and only then!) use your ability to stack a pile of dice and break into the Palace at night.

However, if you don't have Firebrew/Strategist, your attack on the King will be during the day, when you no longer have your pile of dice. This means you need to strike the King (during the day) when he has no more than 3-4 HP left, since you'll be relying solely on your stats and your gear.

Alternatively, you can first break into the Palace, then leave it (you'll probably get killed anyway), and then arrange for your attack on the King to happen on another night, when you once again, for the second time, stack a pile of dice with your ability, specifically for the fight with the King.

All your attempts to "go on a bloody rampage" against experienced players will end the same way: players, seeing the huge number of dice, will simply stay away from you. And it will be disadvantageous for you yourself to deviate from your route just to chop someone up.

It's very difficult to time it so that you can "walk a bloody path" right on the way to a quest. Any deviation from a quest must be justified, at a minimum, by a fat bounty on an enemy's head. But the enemy, if they're not fools, won't get close to you before nightfall.

Therefore, when you play Griotte with experienced people (like in our community), your ability will work in 90% of cases exclusively as a lockpick for the Palace, and that's it. Exceptions will be more like accidents. They will try to control you with magic, not engage in a fight against a pile of dice.

Builds:
Be sure to get Body to at least 5, preferably 6. We play either as a warrior (classic/rush with the ability) or as a soft controller.

A. "Classic Warrior": 6-6-5-3
B. "Soft Control": 5-5-5-5 or 4-6-5-5
C. "I Want to Be a Complete Piece of Sh*t": 4-6-6-4 or 4-5-6-5 (Soft control with a large hand full of cards, at the expense of combat effectiveness).

I don't consider builds for Griotte without upgrading Body: you'll get killed too often.

In short, Griotte can be built in many different ways; find your own style that suits you. Remember: before drawing Tricks, you need to know exactly what you want. If you don't know or don't want to – it's better to draw Items.

Playing Griotte as a standard warrior is not a mistake.
Not using Griotte's ability all game is not a mistake.

The mistake is drawing from a deck when you don't need it at all. Even if your soul asks for it. Even if you really want to. Even if your discount ring is making your hand itch and the money is burning a hole in your pocket.

Screw that. Always ask yourself: "What cards do I need right now? What am I even doing (with my life)?"

We don't draw cards blindly, forming a strategy after the fact. We first think about what we need -> draw from the deck that contains what we need -> look at the cards and adjust our plan, trying to get the maximum out of what we drew.

And this applies not only to Griotte. It applies to any hero in general.

Stats: 3-4-5-4
Ability: Sees the top card of each deck.
Starting Gold: 6+1

One of the two most overpowered heroes in the game.

Where does his overpowered nature lie? In this game, which cards you draw matters A LOT. Every card is a tool for development. Having the ability to see what you're drawing is a HUGE luxury.

Usually, experienced players decide what they need before starting their turn and commit to one deck: they choose it and draw-draw-draw until their hand is full.

If the needed card is found (e.g., a "teleport"), the player switches to another deck: found the needed spell, now draw Items until the hand is full.

Sargon has a completely different approach: he sees what he's drawing. He doesn't need to plan anything and can just look at the tops. If he planned to draw Spells but sees "Chainmail" on top of the Item deck – he'll definitely snatch it. Other heroes don't have that luxury; they will blindly draw Spells.

This is extremely overpowered because there are a number of cards that are always desirable in almost any situation: these are top-tier items (like chainmail), transport cards, and Firebrew. These cards work perfectly with any playstyle.

And besides, Sargon can "steal" cards from the top of decks that are useless to him personally but valuable to enemies. For example, if one of the opponents is stacking Rot, Sargon can take a rot card he sees on top of some deck. Just like that, so the enemy doesn't get it. Cool, huh?

Is that all? No, that's not all. Sargon can also remember what was on top of the decks, and then watch the opponent who moves right after him – which decks will they draw from? That is, he will know about at least one card in their hand. In some situations, this can be useful for predicting the opponent's actions.

And another useful trick: if Sargon has only one slot left in his hand, but the tops of all three decks are junk, Sargon can take the least junky card. Or the card that is easiest to get rid of: for example, it's cheaper in cost.

Also, Sargon can very, very easily pick up symbols for passing perils – both Palace and regular ones. And this is also very overpowered.

In short, Sargon's ability allows him to multiply the quality of the cards he draws. He can even afford to freely draw Tricks until his gear is fully assembled, if there's something tasty on top.

Sargon also has very high Wits (a whole 5 – not every mage can boast that!) and a large starting capital, allowing him to quickly acquire tasty gear and equip it.

So, Sargon is OP. You should play him through soft control: give him Discipline, upgrade his Body and Fight – and he will be the perfect half-mage, half-warrior. Even if he's unlucky with control cards, he will always beat the enemy with his hands, because Sargon will definitely get good gear, no doubt about it.

He's not very suitable for hard control because there's no "Amethyst," and his magic will run out quickly.

Going rot with him isn't necessary, but he does it quite successfully thanks to his ability: he always sees a rot card if it's there.

The most important thing is not to catch "Sargon Syndrome": this is when you completely stop thinking about which cards you need and just look at the top cards every turn.

When the tops of all three decks are junk, those afflicted with "Sargon Syndrome" fall into a stupor and start randomly clicking on different decks – and there's more junk! And more junk! And more! The patient ends up with a hand full of non-functional crap because they have completely forgotten how to "drill" one deck to the end of their hand and have forgotten how to meaningfully consider their needs: they just take what God sends.

Many people who play Sargon consistently almost stop playing other heroes: it becomes unpleasant and unfamiliar for them to draw cards blindly. And they develop a false sense of "skill," because winning with an OP hero isn't exactly rocket science.

So, I highly do not recommend Sargon for beginners: he's like a drug, corrupting and enslaving, getting you hooked on the "card shopping" needle. Play him when you've learned to play other mages properly.

Builds:
A. "Jack of All Trades": 5-5-5-5
B. "Musclehead": 5-6-5-4

A very difficult clan, definitely not for beginners. All its characters are mages and half-mages. This means the Bears require significant game experience and deep knowledge of the decks to be played effectively. If you just want to relax with a beer – pick anyone but them. Mistakes are not allowed; any carelessness is brutally punished by a severe development setback.

Unfortunately, the game's developers were guided primarily by aesthetics and roleplay, not common sense, when creating these heroes. Therefore, the Bear Clan heroes have rather illogical stats: they have huge health (a mage doesn't need 6 Body at the start!) and extremely low Wits (a controller mage without cards is nonsense!).

So, early in the game, it's vital for Bears to upgrade their Wits to at least 4, and only then upgrade Fight (for soft control) or Spirit (for hard control).

Amethyst: Gain Magic when burning Spell cards.

The most important ring for the Bear Clan; the other rings are f*cking useless. If you play a Bear hero without an Amethyst, you're simply depriving them of half their potential.

Amethyst is specifically made for soft and hard control. It allows you to farm a pile of magic out of thin air, from absolute zero, and keep casting spells. It lets you cast spells far more expensive than your Spirit. In short, an indispensable ring that no other Bear ring can compete with.
But Amethyst requires you to constantly keep a mental tally of your magic counter: How much do I have now? How much will I have after burning? Will it be enough to play this and that card? What if I set a peril (costing 2 magic) and then burn three spells in it – will that be enough to play this other card?

Amethyst requires a long adjustment period and constant practice. It's easy to make mistakes with it. It's like a complex, high-tech, fragile apparatus that you must operate with extreme care to avoid ruining the scientific experiment.

But if you learn to play with it, you can from that moment on consider yourself capable of playing a control style.

Never forget: "No magic? No problem!" Fill your hand with spells, burn almost all of them, and play the remaining 1-2.

Stats: 2-6-3-5
Ability: In battles against Rot creatures, use Spirit instead of Fight.
Starting Gold: 3+1

A good mage with a fantastic ability that allows her to kill the King even without Rot. Like all Bears, she's played through both control styles thanks to Amethyst.

Sana has three main problems: she's incredibly weak in combat (even with Discipline), incredibly dumb (3 Wits!), and incredibly poor.

And we'll spend the entire game fixing these problems, because until the second half of the game, Sana relies exclusively on cards.

Always upgrade Wits with the first quest. After that, it depends on your playstyle.

If we're playing soft control, we need to upgrade Fight and Wits. If hard control – then we ignore Fight and upgrade Wits and Spirit.

Avoid guards, avoid heroes, crawl around slowly. Hope to draw transport spells for quick quest completion, because without upgrades, Sana is unplayable.

Builds:
A. "Soft Control": 4-6-5-5
B. "Hard Control" (with "Thinker" amulet): 2-6-6-7

Stats: 4-6-3-3
Ability: Temporarily gains +1 Fight for each spell played, until he fights or until the next turn ends.
Starting Gold: 4+1

One of the most complex heroes in the game. A mighty half-mage, half-warrior, demonstrating extraordinary feats of martial arts and control. If you can play Brun – it means you know how to play Armello.

That said, I can't even give any specific advice, because Brun simply requires practice, practice, and more practice. Brun is a constant balancing act between sword and magic, perpetual resource management, virtuoso play with the Amethyst.

Amethyst unlocks Brun's potential to the maximum: you can farm magic with Amethyst before a fight, boost your Fight by playing a couple of cheap spells, and then charge into battle.

Or, for example, first initiate a "preparatory fight" where you burn junk spells. Then play the remaining spells, increasing your Fight, and attack "for real."

There are many tricks, and they are only learned through experience. The most important thing – upgrade Brun's Wits and Spirit to at least 4 for comfortable play. And I recommend not relying entirely on his ability and upgrading Fight to at least 5, so Brun can put up a fight even without magic.

Builds:
A. "Soft Control": 5-6-5-4
B. "Hard Control" (with "Thinker"): 5-6-5-5 or 4-6-6-5
C. "Beer-enjoyer": 6-6-5-3 or 6-7-4-3 (but you'd be better off picking another hero for chill play; Brun is not Magna or Horace)

Stats: 3-6-3-4
Ability: Upon ending turn in a Forest, gains a "Bark Armor" that blocks the first instance of damage received.
Starting Gold: 4+1

Probably the sh*ttiest stats a mage could possibly have. Weak, fat, dumb, and not even a great caster. On top of that, he has a combat ability (let's call it "bark skin") designed for ignoring damage in battle. The developers must have held a contest among themselves for the "most contradictory hero."

But the ability is primarily aimed at defense against controllers: they'll have to spend damage first to break the bark, and only then finish him off – which is inefficient; it's easier to find simpler victims. As a result, Ghor can run around the map with impunity all game, never dying once.

Combined with Discipline (and/or powerful attack gear), Ghor can excel at killing Banes and players if he's under the effect of his bark skin.

Overall, despite the contradictory stats, Ghor is one of the best controller mages in the game: he completes quests quite briskly, he's hard to snipe with cards, and thanks to his ability, he can fight with impunity.

Builds:
A. "Soft Control": 5-6-5-4
B. "Hard Control" (with "Thinker"): 3-6-6-6

Stats: 2-5-4-5
Ability: Burns spells in her Cauldron, gaining unique "Pact-Curses."
Starting Gold: 4+1

The Granny. The most complex hero in the game. The absolute most. Playing Granny is like piloting a state-of-the-art jet fighter with a bunch of complex gadgets, but without autopilot, without an onboard computer, without help from a navigator or air traffic controller – purely manual control, just mechanics!

One mistake – and you've crashed into a mountain. Granny can grant you immense power, but she brutally punishes the inattentive and the dumb.

Granny's ability works like this: Pacts (let's call the curses "Pacts") depend on the "digested" symbol. Each symbol has its own Pact.

List of Pacts (The Victim is the one the Pact is cast on):

Rot: Steal the victim's highest stat.

Wyld: Make all perils more difficult for the victim (+Rot symbol in perils).

Moon: Gain Stealth; the victim cannot see you.

Sun: +1 HP for each combat fragment the victim makes (the most useless Pact).

Shield: Truce: If either of you attacks the other, you temporarily lose 2 Fight. But if you attack, you also lose 2 Fight.

If you throw multiple symbols into the Cauldron at once, the game picks a random symbol and gives you the corresponding Pact. Therefore, if you want a specific, needed Pact, burn only 1 symbol in the Cauldron. Or multiple symbols, but they must be identical.

The biggest mistake all Yordana players make is fixating on "Rot Pacts," i.e., stealing stats. Don't do that.

When you steal an important stat from an opponent, they immediately develop a desire to either die quickly or kill you. They don't want to run around the whole game without a stat; they want to shake off this Pact at the first opportunity.

So, if you constantly steal stats, you become "Enemy #1": don't be surprised if everyone starts ganging up on you hard. People won't care who the faction leader is or who really needs to be pressured. They will be concerned with their own skin (which you stole). And even if you aren't pressured, that stolen stat won't last long anyway: an experienced player will complete a distant quest and die in a couple of turns.

The most valuable Pacts, in my opinion, are the "Moon Pact" (Stealth), the "Wyld Pact" (complicating perils), and the "Shield Pact" (Truce).

Moon Pact: A fantastic tool for defense against mages and half-mages. Cast it on controllers to become immune to direct damage spells – they'll be forced to find other victims.

Wyld Pact: Excellent insurance against Palace breaches. If you cast it on a warrior hero, they most likely won't break into the Palace until they get rid of this Pact.

Shield Pact: Provides decent insurance against attacks. Situational, but sometimes very useful, especially in the late game.

You can play Granny, like all Bears, through both soft and hard control. But you must decide clearly: are you going Rot or not?

If you're playing soft control, you might not even need to go Rot; it's not strictly necessary: upgrade Fight, kill the King with Discipline. In this case, you'll burn Rot cards for stat-stealing Pacts.

The most tempting target is Wits, to draw more cards (we're controllers, right?). But really, any other stats are good too. We could also use Health to survive attacks from "outraged owners of stolen property."

If you're playing hard control, going Rot is mandatory. In this case, we don't burn Rot cards in the Cauldron; we use them on ourselves. Primarily, we use Moon and Wyld Pacts to hide from enemies and complicate their Palace breaches. Honestly, if you're going Rot, you'll use your ability fairly rarely. Rarely, but precisely.

Also, nothing prevents you from going Rot with soft control; it's not a mistake, it's just your choice (I mentioned this in the section on soft control, but just a reminder).

And the most unpleasant feature of Granny is that she cannot cast spells on herself during her own turn. A terrible drawback, just terrible. You will howl and tear your hair out when you once again accidentally burn "Banish" or "Dark Influence" in the Cauldron.

You cannot buff yourself on your turn, so drawing spells right before an important battle is a rather poor idea.

Therefore, when playing Granny, you must be extremely attentive and careful, constantly on your toes. Granny can indeed achieve higher results than other heroes, but only if you are very focused and fully immersed in the game. And, of course, you must know all the cards by heart.

So, Granny is a hero for hardened Armello veterans. Highly not recommended for beginners. That said, Granny has wonderful stats: 2-5-4-5 – a true dream for any mage. And these stats allow for excellent map control: 4 cards in hand from the very start (unlike other Bears), plenty of magic.

Builds:
A. "Soft Control": 4-6-5-5 or 4-5-6-5 (Prioritize upgrading Fight first)
B. "Hard Control" (with "Thinker"): 2-5-7-7 or 2-6-7-6

A fairly powerful, versatile clan with heroes who have simple, straightforward abilities that work on their own and require zero brain strain.

Almost all Bandits suffer from severe poverty (except Scarlet), but this is compensated by their powerful rings. According to the developers' lore, the Bandits stole one ring from each clan: Celestite from the Wolves, Amethyst from the Bears, and so on.

This is how the developers justify their laziness and unwillingness to come up with something new and unique. But oh well – who knows what nonsense they could have come up with, given their "love" for balance... The Bandits were given three very powerful rings – Amethyst, Celestite, and Pink Topaz, which allows players to tailor Bandits for a wide range of tactics.

[/h]Bandit Clan Rings[/h1]

1. Amethyst: Gain Magic for burning Spell cards.
I've already written about it in the "Bear Clan Rings" section, so I won't repeat myself. This ring is strictly mandatory for Twiss, and for the other Bandits – it's optional.
If you want a Bandit warrior to have decent late-game control, sniping the Palace with damage spells, then Amethyst is your choice. But if you're not good with magic, don't know how to use Amethyst, and don't know the decks, then it's better to take Pink Topaz for the warriors of this clan: it will be chill, stress-free, and very effective.

2. Pink Topaz: Doubled income from settlements.
As I mentioned, almost all Bandits suffer greatly from poverty. Therefore, I consider Pink Topaz the ideal choice for Sylas and Horace, and it wouldn't even hurt Scarlet. Thanks to this ring, you can farm gold powerfully and buy gear.

3. Celestite: Move over mountains as if they were plains.
Also an excellent ring. If you think you can farm gold somehow without the Topaz, then feel free to take Celestite – as I wrote in the "Wolf Clan Rings" section, it gives you amazing tactical flexibility.

All other Bandit rings cannot compete with the ones listed above.

A special note about "Serendibite"
the Bandits' only unique ring: it was originally conceived as a ring for Sylas, to farm gold from guards without losing Prestige. But practice shows that farming gold with Pink Topaz is much more efficient. Guards are fickle creatures; they're here today, gone tomorrow. They won't always move in a way that makes it convenient to farm gold from them. And in the late game, when you're cutting through the guard to enter the Palace, you won't really need gold that much anymore: by the late game, you'll have assembled some kind of gear. A ring should provide a stable bonus at all stages of the game, and Serendibite doesn't meet this requirement.

And running around with Sylas with a permanent bounty on his head is a typical newbie mistake (more on that in the Sylas section).

Stats: 3-4-5-4
Ability: Evades attacks everywhere except the Palace. When evading, steals one card from the attacker.
Starting Gold: 2+1

The most overpowered mage in the game. Even more OP than Sargon. Let me explain why:

All mages in the game share one major weakness: warrior heroes are stronger than them in combat.
A warrior can, in most cases, kick a mage's ass if they get to them. Any mage. Except Twiss.
Twiss is the only mage in the game stripped of this key weakness. Twiss cannot be punished: she is virtually invulnerable in combat.

Twiss's ability is almost impossible to counter.
You might say: "What about Scout?!" Just think about it: how many cards in the game actually grant Scout?

Sailor's Lantern – 2 out of 102 Items (1.9% of the deck)
Divination – 3 out of 76 Spells (4% of the deck)
Rangers – 4 out of 103 Tricks (3.9% of the deck)

Spy Network – 2 out of 103 Tricks (1.9% of the deck)
So, we can discard Sailor's Lanterns: it's a junk card we replace at the first opportunity with real gear. We never run with a "Sailor's Lantern" into the late game, as it's useless in fights against the King and other players. Plus, it's 1.9% of the deck! What are the odds you'll have it exactly when you attack Twiss?
Spy Network is good but very expensive. Spending three coins just to kill a squirrel? A bit much, no? And it's a one-time use: once you kill the squirrel, the Spy Network expires. It's also rare: 1.9% of the deck, only 2 copies.
That leaves only Divination and Rangers as accessible, common, and cheap cards: 4% and 3.9% respectively. Now think: how often do warrior heroes even draw Spells and Tricks? Their main deck is Items, and they usually have little free hand space. Drawing from a non-dominant deck just to attack a squirrel – isn't that too much honor for the squirrel? You're slowing your development, hindering your gear acquisition, just to kill one damn squirrel!
And we can't even sum the probabilities of drawing these cards because Rangers and Divination are in different decks. Before attacking the squirrel, you must choose only one deck: either draw Spells for Divination (4% of the deck) or draw Tricks for Rangers and Spy Network (combined 5.8% of the deck).
It seems slightly more promising to draw Tricks. But let's not forget that Spy Network costs a whopping 3 gold, and having a discount from settlements is pure luck, heavily dependent on village spawns. Can your wallet handle that card if you miraculously draw it? Are you willing to pay the cost of a "Battle Hammer" for a single attack on Twiss?
Given the rarity of Scout cards, we can safely say that countering Twiss's ability is practically impossible.
"What about Thane's ability? Hot Iron Wine? Hand Cannons? River's ability with Chrysocolla?" someone might ask. My answer is simple: these are even rarer cases than Scout cards.
There's no guarantee you'll get the symbols for Thane and Cannons at the right moment (if you're even playing Thane or have Hand Cannons). And if they do appear, there's no guarantee they'll appear in the exact quantity needed to kill the squirrel. Most often, you'll just wound her, not kill her.
I've already talked about the crapness of Hot Iron Wine. Even if it hits, what's the point of one poke at the squirrel? Does it compare to a full-fledged battle using all dice? And River's ability also only deals one poke. Chrysocolla? What if you're not playing River? What if someone else took River, and you're playing another hero?
And really – isn't it too much honor for a single hero to specifically pick certain heroes with certain rings just to counter them? Against all other heroes, you can pick anyone and anything and play quite effectively. Only with the squirrel do these ritual dances with tambourines begin. Maybe we should just admit the squirrel is OP and be done with it?

Twiss's ability not only saves her from combat but also PUNISHES the attacker by stealing a card.
Experienced players often save and hold onto cards they'll need later: Firebrew, Teleport, damage cards, valuable gear they can't afford yet, etc.
At the same time, experienced players usually manage their hand well and don't like running around with a full hand of crap. And Twiss players, reveling in their impunity and invulnerability, often stand in warriors' way: "Well, what are you gonna do about it?"
So, when Twiss is blocking your shortest path to a quest, and you have 1-2 valuable cards in hand, you face a difficult choice – risk it or go around? It's very frustrating to just hand over a valuable card to the squirrel for no reason.
Moreover – if you have 1 valuable card and the rest is junk in your hand, you can't even burn that junk in a fight with the evading squirrel! That junk is precisely what protects your valuable card from being stolen. And it's not even certain the squirrel will steal the junk. I've had many situations where out of 4-5 cards, the squirrel stole that one, single valuable card.

Twiss has "Amethyst" and ideal stats.
This is pure terror and horror! While Sargon at least doesn't have Amethyst, the squirrel does. And with this ring, she can perform incredible miracles.
The squirrel has fantastic stats 3-4-5-4 – these are literally the ideal stats for a mage; none better exist in the game. Mighty 5 Wits easily compensates for the slight Spirit shortage and allows her to stack mind-boggling amounts of magic with Amethyst. And once her stats are upgraded, the squirrel becomes a walking artillery battery.
The squirrel can even hard-control without the "Thinker" amulet: her base Wits are sufficient to draw a bunch of cards and Evade (remember, Evade uses Wits, not Fight!).
Just slap "Discipline" on the squirrel – and she becomes the god of Armello, capable of dishing out punishment at any range, by any means, and with absolute impunity.

The squirrel's weaknesses are very minor and don't balance her mighty advantages at all: she has a pauper's starting capital (fixable) and low health (also fixable, considering our combat invulnerability, and health can be upgraded later).

In short, the squirrel is the most imbalanced mage in the game, and in skilled hands, she turns into a death machine. No other mage can compare: super-stats, super-ability, super-ring.

Builds:
I believe you should still get +1 Body for the squirrel in any case, otherwise she'll be too easy to kill with spells, as there are no other reasonably effective ways to counter her.

"Soft Control": 5-5-5-5 or 5-6-5-4
"Hard Control": 3-5-6-6 or 3-5-7-5 (without "Thinker")
"Super Hard Control": 3-5-8-5 or 3-5-7-6 (with "Thinker")

Stats: 5-5-3-3
Ability: +1 Sword in battle for each Bounty level on his head. In battles against Guards, these "Bounty Swords" are Piercing.
Starting Gold: 2+1

One of the best warriors in the game: good stats, useful ability.

His only weakness is terrible poverty: he is the poorest warrior in the entire game. 3 gold at the start is so little that he can't even buy Chainmail or a Bastard Sword if they appear early. But, as I said, this is fixable with "Pink Topaz."

The most common mistake when playing Sylas is the desire to always run around with a Bounty on his head. Why is this a mistake?

The thing is, a good warrior can perfectly well fight and kill without any extra Swords. You can calmly play without the activated ability and lose nothing. If the Bounty gave extra Shields, I'd understand the point of a "permanent Bounty": at least the body stays healthier in fights.

A Bounty on your head, however, makes you a priority target for controller mages. When you're heading to a distant quest, you will inevitably get wounded: step in a swamp, encounter a tough guard, scrap with another hero... And all this time, a controller mage will be watching you closely, firmly clutching a couple of damage cards.

As soon as your health drops to 2-3 Body, you'll be sniped immediately. They won't let you reach the quest. They'll herd you like cattle to the slaughter. And you'll even give the controller a bunch of gold and Prestige: they'll get even more opportunities to control the map through strong Prestige leadership, choosing decrees unfavorable for you. And with their greater wealth, they'll choose decrees that take away gold, gear, and other unpleasant things. And you're already poor.

So, you must not feed the controllers. Our ability is just a nice bonus that activates when circumstances align on their own. We don't try to put a Bounty on ourselves: we just play calmly, and the ability does its own thing. If a guard is on the shortest path to a quest – okay, we fight him, get a Bounty. If not – we don't go out of our way to find one.

The exception to this rule is late-game battles for the Palace. For example, an opponent is in the Palace, and we're preparing to evict them. There's a guard nearby – bam, so first we fight him (to get the Bounty), and then we attack the enemy, having an extra Sword in battle.

Always remember that you get the Bounty after the fight with the guard, not before.

I'd say the main function of our ability is the extra Swords in the fight with the King, since when entering the Palace, we automatically get a Bounty. This is especially useful for breaking in with Discipline: enter the Palace at night, and by morning we have a 2nd level Bounty: +2 Swords is awesome, it compensates for the lack of Discipline during the day. Plus, the King's Guards can never evict us from the Palace in the morning because against them, the Swords are Piercing.

Builds:
"Warrior": 6-6-5-3
"Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4
"Tank": 6-7-4-3

Stats: 5-6-3-2
Ability: If he has no Bounty, Horace doesn't fight Guards but simply swaps places with them.
Starting Gold: 3+1

The ultimate "beer-enjoyer" hero in the game. Thinking is not required, period. If you're tired, stressed, and just want to zone out in front of the screen – pick Horace, pour yourself a beer, grab some chips, turn on a series, videos, memes, and just dissolve into nirvana.

His ability works passively on its own and requires zero owner participation. Wits and Spirit are extremely low: few cards in hand, even less magic. And since we have almost no cards or magic – there's not much to think about, we take what God sends and plod along on quests.

At the same time, Horace is very hard to kill: he's fat (6 Body!!!) – meaning controller mages aren't very interested in him, because you'd have to wait forever for Horace to get seriously wounded. Horace doesn't fight guards and doesn't get Bounties because of it: this finally kills any controller's interest in our Knight of Beer. So in most cases, you can walk your quests calmly and safely.

The main danger to Horace is enemy warrior heroes, but even here our brave beer-enjoyer can fight back: he has 5 Fight, 6 Body – he's strong, he's mighty, he'll survive. Pink Topaz will give us gold for gear – and we don't need more than that.

You can also put Celestite on him, and then playing Horace turns into some kind of walker/explorer game from the 90s-00s: click on the inventory, move across squares, avoid hostile mobs...

And with all this, Horace is a perfectly respectable contender for the throne: he quite often completes all his quests, enters the Palace, and kills the King while everyone else is busy with each other.

The only inconvenience when playing Horace is the difficulty of cleaning your hand. Our Wits are a bit low, and we can't clean our hand on guards – so we have to burn cards on Banes and perils. Equipping junk items is too expensive since we're short on cash. But overall, it's quite manageable. We just methodically draw Items and filter them like all warriors do.

There's also a meme strategy called "The Dark Knight": take the "Ruin" amulet, take the "Celestite" ring, and then find a guard standing in a settlement (or next to one). Guessed it yet? We just start wildly farming Rot and gold, constantly swapping places with the guard back and forth, pillaging and restoring the village. But this isn't a "winning strategy," it's just a meme; its effectiveness is very questionable due to the lack of upgrades and the inability to clean your hand properly. But it will be fun.

Builds:

"Knight of Beer": 7-7-4-2 or 6-7-5-2

"Warrior": 6-6-5-3

"Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4 (for late-game control {for deg*ner*tes})

Stats: 4-5-4-3
Ability: When liberating a pillaged (burning) settlement, Scarlet gains a random Follower.
Starting Gold: 6+1

The most default warrior with a bland, situational, rarely useful ability. I don't have much to say about Scarlet: her main asset is her nice fox model, which makes her wildly popular.

The most important thing is not to become a slave to her ability. Don't deviate from the shortest path to a quest just to liberate some burning village on the edge of the map: you'll slow your development, and the Follower you get is random. It's far from certain you'll get a "Blacksmith" or "Merchant": usually, you'll get "Bards," "Warlocks," "Miners," and other crap.

This ability just works from time to time: if there's an opportunity to "extinguish" a village without harming your development – okay, take it.

The fox has very pleasant stats, nothing excessive, plays and upgrades like all default warriors. And her starting capital (the fox is the richest Bandit!) allows her to quickly stock up on gear in the early stages of the game, significantly increasing her survivability.

Builds:
"Warrior": 6-6-5-3
"Tank": 6-7-4-3
"Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4 (Just upgrade Spirit early – and we can use "Banish" etc., all game. With Amethyst, the fox can soft-control decently throughout the game)
"Soft Control": 5-5-5-5 (Only with Amethyst)

The Dragons are a rather... strange clan. The developers wanted to create a unique, unusual clan based on Rot, but the result was a piece of crap.

Rot is primarily for mages. Going Rot on warriors is tough. And yet, the Dragons weren't given a single decent ring for farming magic, weren't given the ability to use Discipline, weren't even given a single magical ability!

Essentially, the Dragons were just given "Rot tolerance" and told: "Now go fck yourselves, figure it out." And frankly, the developers clearly cut corners when releasing this DLC: the Dragons have almost no unique sounds (they whine like Wolves), their clan grounds are unnamed, and they have a significantly smaller pool of available quests – because of this, the game often places Dragon quests further than the ideal AP distance, forcing them to travel longer. In short, the Dragons were made in a great rush, with minimal manpower and resources, and the result is an unfinished piece of sht.

Accordingly, the Dragons cannot fully compete in magic with the Bears or even the Rabbits. They cannot fully compete in combat prowess with the Wolves and Bandits. They always occupy some intermediate position: "neither fish nor fowl," "useless for any practical purpose."

However, this doesn't mean the Dragons are unplayable: you just have to accept your position as the "eternal middle child" and squeeze the maximum possible out of your "in-betweenness." What are the Dragons' strengths?

First, your "Rot tolerance" gives you every right... not to go Rot. Yes, yes, you can just run around with 1-2 Rot and never fully commit. You can equip "Marauder Gloves" with impunity, heal with "Lich" in a pinch, cast "Plague" on an opponent, drink "Firebrew" – all without the nasty effects of Rot infection. And even if you slightly exceed the 2 Rot threshold, you still won't suffer too much: okay, you'll give 1-2 dice to the King, but if he's low on health – you can kill him anyway.

It's precisely in this state of "initial rot" that the Dragons find their true strength. As I've said before, Rot doesn't actually provide such significant advantages, and drawing rot cards is completely random. It's much easier to scoop up just a tiny bit of "rotten power" – and stop there.

That said, it doesn't mean you should never go Rot. If conditions are favorable – you certainly can, since you're free from one of the most annoying Rot penalties (dawn damage). Play it by ear, and your "Rot tolerance" will back you up.

Second, almost all Dragons have quite decent starting capital and fairly good stats (except Agnia). This allows them to buy gear from the start and level up in a balanced, steady way.

Third, the Dragons have a very good ring – "Sulfur" – the only decent ring this clan has. It gives them good survivability on trips to distant quests and in late-game Palace fights.

Overall, the Dragons can be played effectively if you know all the ins and outs of this game. But if you constantly try to force them into a Rot playstyle, turn them into mages, focus heavily on their abilities, etc. – then you'll be a perpetual underdog.

The strangest, dumbest, and most absurd rings belong to the Dragons. When I read their ring descriptions, I just get stumped: "Why?! What is this ring for?! What's the point? What playstyle does it fit? How can these rings possibly compete with other clans' rings? What were the developers thinking?"

However, one single decent ring can be highlighted – "Sulfur". Let's talk about that one.

1. Sulfur: No damage from Swamps.

At first glance, this ring seems mediocre. But in practice, swamp damage is a very annoying mechanic that helps your opponents (especially controllers) finish you off. The more Health you have, the less controllers look in your direction. And the higher your chance of reaching a distant quest.
Furthermore, swamps are quite often located near the Palace, specifically on the path to "your" Palace tiles. Taking -1 HP for no reason on every Palace run is very unpleasant. "Sulfur" keeps your health intact and safe.

So, feel free to take this ring on all Dragons and stop overthinking it. The only downside of this ring is that you can't commit suicide in swamps. But that's tolerable overall. Use the Palace to enter and die there.

2. Axinite: +1 die in fights and perils for a kill in battle (until the end of your next turn).

This ring is a pale, pathetic substitute for "Discipline." It can be used, for example, when rushing, to get an extra die for Palace breaches and fights. But "Sulfur" is still better: it's universal and always useful.
All other Dragon rings are complete sh*t and cannot withstand the slightest competition with other clans.

Stats: 3-4-4-5
Ability: Ending your turn next to a Bane "recruits" it, causing it to stay in place and attack anyone who approaches, except you.
Starting Gold: 5+1

This is arguably the most feeble mage in the game. He cannot properly soft-control because he can't use Discipline. He cannot properly hard-control because he has no Amethyst. His only way to kill the King is through Rot, but even his own ability hinders him from rotting up...

Speaking of his ability. Let me be clear: the ability is useless and worthless, providing benefit extremely rarely. Mostly, this ability only causes harm: for example, we want to get wounded by a Bane, so we stand next to it with 1-2 HP, hoping it attacks and kills us so we can burn junk cards. Unfortunately, this method doesn't work for Volodar because, by ending our turn next to the Bane, we "recruit" it, and it won't attack us.

Or, imagine this situation: a Bane is blocking our path. It's standing on our quest or in a corridor. We can't kill it, but we can hide nearby in a forest and wait until night when it moves towards the nearest village... But not with Volodar. If we sit next to the Bane, we "recruit" it, and it stays put. So we have to move two tiles away – that's almost a whole turn.

Volodar's only merit (besides Dragon Rot tolerance) is his stats and starting capital. His stats are very good, almost ideal. The capital is also solid – with 6 gold, you can equip a couple of good items early on. But that's where Volodar's merits end...

So, overall, you can only play Volodar in two ways:

A. "Pseudo Soft-Control with the 'Resilience' amulet": 5-5-5-5, upgrade Fight, control the map, try to go Rot, but if you're unlucky with Rot, just abandon it halfway (Dragon tolerance allows this).
B. "Pseudo Hard-Control with the 'Thinker' amulet": 3-5-7-6, upgrade Wits and Spirit, control the map, go all-in on Rot to kill the King.

With both control styles, Volodar will suffer greatly from a lack of combat power (no Discipline), difficulties breaching the Palace (without Discipline, you have to rely on slowly collecting symbols), and a severe magic shortage (no Amethyst for hard control).

In short, I don't recommend Volodar: he's aesthetically very beautiful (like all Dragons), but he loses the competition to all other controllers.

Stats: 5-5-4-2
Ability: When attacking, burns a random enemy Spell, takes its symbol for herself, and gains that many Explosions (equal to the card's Magic cost).
Starting Gold: 5+1

The best warrior of the Dragon Clan. Also known as "The Smoker's Hargrave," because her stats are exactly like Hargrave's, but she lacks the amazing Rabbit rings and Discipline – only the Dragon Rot tolerance and a cooler ability.

Oxana's ability seems "meh" at first glance: so we burn a spell, get a symbol (if we're lucky), and it only works on offense... But you need to look deeper.

Burning spells primarily targets controller mages, as they are the ones most often holding tasty, valuable cards in their grasp. And Oxana's ability keeps them constantly on edge: even if they're armored to the teeth, Oxana will burn their "Teleport," "Banish," or some damage spell like "Ignite" when she attacks... This is very unpleasant, as such cards are always in short supply, and controllers save them carefully for the right moment.

Therefore, controllers fear Oxana and try not to get close to her. This slows down their development: Oxana restricts their freedom of movement.

And even if the opponent has junk spell cards in hand, their symbols can seriously harm their owner, especially if they are Wyld symbols. Plus, increasing the number of Explosions for Oxana (who has only 2 Spirit) is pretty cool; it increases potential attack damage and the likelihood of a full kill.

So, Oxana has a mediocre but quite useful ability. And excellent stats: 5-5-4-2 allows us to be fully combat-ready right from the start, with a good hand size. Not being able to cast spells well isn't a big deal for a warrior.

A starting capital of 6 coins is quite decent and comfortable. Dragon Rot tolerance allows us to get a little rotten without penalty.

Overall, Oxana is a perfectly respectable warrior hero. I wouldn't say she's better than Thane (I measure all warriors against Thane), but she certainly has a right to exist.

Builds:
A. "Goliath": 7-7-4-2
B. "Warrior": 6-6-5-3
C. "Late-Game Control": 6-6-4-4

Stats: 4-6-3-3
Ability: After killing any creature in battle, gains Regenerate +1 HP for the next 2 turns.
Starting Gold: 4+1

If Volodar contends for the title of "The Most Feeble Mage in Armello," then Agnia contends for "The Most Feeble Warrior in Armello."

Let's start with the stats. 4-6-3-3 – exactly the same as Brun's. But Brun has an ability that compensates for his lack of raw power. Agnia has no such ability: she's just a feeble turtle with four pathetic dice, three cards in hand, and a Spirit of 3.

So, she can't fight well, can't cast spells well, and only draws three cards. Bingo. Combo. Weak, dumb, and spiritless. Not a warrior, not a mage, just a punching bag with six HP.

You grasp the scale of the disaster, right? Now let's look at her ability. Her ability... drumroll ...is for killing in battle! So, the devs created the weakest warrior in the game and gave her a killer's ability that heals her through kills.

And how are we supposed to kill anyone, dear developers? You can't put Discipline on Agnia: maybe "Bruiser," but then we miss out on a solid tool for Palace breaches (the 'Resilience' amulet). And 'Resilience' gives a Shield, not a Sword: that amulet doesn't help with killing.

Thus, Agnia's ability only starts being truly useful in the late game, after we've upgraded our Fight and assembled some gear. Until then, we're just a weak hero without a functional ability, while Thanes, Mercurios, and Sylases strut around all game with good stats and useful abilities.

But that's not all. Agnia's ability has the loooongest animation in the game. You will wait fooooorever for that huge purple a**hole to complete all its sacred rotations around that stupid meat carcass. And the worst part is, your turn timer keeps running during the animation!

So, when you play Agnia, you need to think very quickly. Because if you decide to kill someone, the kill will take at least 5 seconds. So, if you find yourself in a difficult situation requiring careful thought – Agnia won't grant you that luxury; she'll say, "Master, hurry up, I still need to stick my shovel in the ground and kneel before the Beloved Wyrm." And you'll tear your hair out in frustration when this a**hole eats up your entire timer and forces you to end your turn with unspent AP.

The starting capital isn't great either – 5 coins: not too little, but not particularly much either.

In short, Agnia is just bad on all fronts. She doesn't have a single good quality. She can't compete with other warrior heroes. Even her own clanmates – Oxana and Nazar – are far more effective warriors than she is.

Builds:
A. "Warrior": 6-6-5-3
B. "Tank": 6-7-4-3
C. "Late-Game Control": 6-6-4-4

Stats: 4-4-4-4
Ability: Places an illusion-double using a special, respawning-every-turn card with a Rot symbol.
Starting Gold: 3+1

The most interesting character among all the Dragons. Very flexible and versatile. He's quite difficult to play – Nazar requires you to have a good understanding of all aspects of his ability and the game in general.

First, let's talk about the ability.


Let me say this right away: don't even hope to fool live players with your illusion. Nazar is very easily spotted due to the following:

At dawn and dusk, the real Nazar gains magic and gold (numbers above his head).

The illusion does not gain Stealth in forests at night.

Nazar's illusion does not glow with a rotten aura when Nazar is infected with Rot.

Nor does it glow blue when Nazar collects 4 Spirit Stones.

Furthermore, it's quite difficult to place the illusion in a way that looks believable, as if you really would have gone there. In most cases, heroes patrol the corridor around the Palace, and if Nazar suddenly deviates from the corridor in another direction – it looks suspicious.

Note:
Nazar's illusion gets the fortified icon (shield above its head) if placed on a mountain. If you stand with the illusion on two adjacent mountains simultaneously, it can look quite convincing.

Note #2:
Hargrave's ability cannot be fooled by the illusion: he will shoot at both Nazars at once.

So, Nazar's illusion almost never fools an attentive player.
We use the illusion mainly to deceive Banes and (occasionally) guards.

Nazar's most common, signature move is to place the illusion next to a smoking dungeon, while he himself hides in a forest or moves away entirely. At night, the Bane, emerging from the dungeon, attacks the illusion – thereby moving to where we want it.

This is useful, for example, for protecting your settlement: we distract the Bane and lead it away from the village.

Fun Fact:
Banes will go for the illusion even if Nazar is infected with Rot.

We can also use this trick to lure a Bane off a tile where we have a quest. Or, for example, attract a Bane to a convenient tile to fight it later and burn cards (or use it to gain Rot). Or simply place the illusion and stand nearby so the Bane attacks us not with 100% probability, but with 50%.

Fooling guards is much rarer. Guards, unlike Banes, move more than 1 tile. If a guard attacks the illusion and still has AP left, it will go attack the real Nazar.


Nazar's illusion is a full-fledged card with a Rot symbol that can be burned.

First and foremost, this is useful for Palace breaches: we always equip Nazar with the 'Resilience' amulet, which gives a default Shield. And the illusion gives a Rot symbol. This means we always carry two symbols for the Palace Wits peril with us. This significantly simplifies finding the remaining symbols, as neither the amulet nor the illusion takes up hand space (the illusion spawns every turn on top of all other cards).

Secondly, the Rot symbol is useful for passing many very nasty perils, like "Plague." Also, if any peril is made more difficult by "Cursed Lands," Nazar's illusion will help with its Rot symbol.

Thirdly, if Nazar is fully rotten, this illusion is a free extra die in battle: remember, Rot symbols explode for rotten heroes.

Fourthly, if you want to intentionally fail a peril or die in battle, you can burn the illusion card to "lose" one die by providing the Rot symbol.


You can send the illusion onto a tile with a peril to remove it. This is very useful, for example, if you suspect/know that the tile has something like "Lightning Strike," "Thief Cat," or "Banish."
But don't disarm perils willy-nilly: remember, they can also complicate your opponents' lives, so only disarm the tiles you need!


Nazar can place the illusion to "block" a tile. Application examples:

Place the illusion in River's path so she "kills" it with her bow shot and stays put.

Place the illusion on an unfavorable tile so the Stranger doesn't take you there: it will consider the tile occupied.

Place the illusion to set up an opponent for a "rout" or change the direction of their retreat after a fight.

Phew, that should cover the ability. In short, Nazar's ability is the most multifaceted and multi-functional ability in the entire game (if you don't count Yordana's Pacts). I hope you understand that it's far from useless.

Now, let's talk about stats.

What do stats of 4-4-4-4 even mean? It means Nazar is a bit weak in combat (only 4 dice), squishy (4 Body), but has a decent hand size and a decent amount of magic.

Does this mean Nazar is a controller mage? No. The Dragons have no decent magic rings and no Discipline. You can't get far on bare stats alone. Cast a couple of spells – and that's it, we're powerless.

At the same time, Nazar has a fairly solid Fight stat – a whole 4. That's on par with Barnaby, Mercurio, River... You know, it's foolish to let that Fight go to waste. 4 dice is clearly not enough for confident combat, but it's still warrior-level, not mage-level. Mages usually wander around with 2-3 Fight dice and compensate with Discipline (for soft control) or Amethyst (for hard control). Nazar has neither – which means he makes for a so-so mage.

So, I consider Nazar a warrior-half-mage. Upgrade his Fight and Body – and you'll get a good, flexible warrior with some map control capabilities. You can cast a couple of small spells or one big one (especially "Banish"); you can snipe from quite far away and teleport (if you're lucky with "Teleport").

The starting capital is poor, like a Wolf's (4 coins). Buying gear will be problematic, and that's bad: our little gecko isn't great in combat to begin with.

Builds:
A. "Warrior-Half-Mage": 6-6-4-4
B. "A Pitiful Imitation of a Full Mage": 5-5-5-5 or 4-4-6-6 (for degenerates)

Thank you for the reading. I hope this guide was helpful to you. Please let me know if there are any translation or naming mistakes in the comments.

The original conclusion only provides a link to the Telegram chat and Discord server of the only Russian-language Armello community that is still active.