1
Hunting Instincts
Upgrade
[ Initiation ]
When an Upgrade or Skill Card is activated, 1 Commence the Hunt
Daily Reset Weekly Reset
by Adhanakedited last month
A Heidemarie deck that doesn't over-depend on Season 3 engravings nor Cassius
No comments yet. Be the first to share your take.
Sign in to join the conversation.
As for most of the decks I try to craft, the main goal is to have a comfy and fun deck that can reliably execute its planned combo while having decent sustain. It is by no means optimized to deal the most damage / one shot bosses.
Most equipments and refinements are suggestions. Some explanations and alternatives can be found in the "Details" section of this guide.
Abc -> Combattant
Abc -> Card
Abc -> Mechanic
Abc / Abc / Abc -> Equipment
[Abc] -> Memory fragment set
While the Heidemarie-Hugo teamup is pretty common, I wanted to try something else for the third slot instead of Cassius (mostly because I don't like reusing the same character in multiple teams).
As an alternative, we're using Tiphera who serves several purposes:
It could be argued that her damage boost capabilities are a bit wasted here, but I still find this team comfortable and very fun to play while keeping a more than decent damage output.
We also take advantage of both Heidemarie and Hugo being Rangers to get two Driven Hunts. The synergy repartition should be 5 Survival, 3 Claim and 1 Inquiry to maximize the boosts (7 Morale per turn).
The first turn is pretty straightforward thanks to having Initiation on Hugo's Hunting Instincts.
Play both before anything else to start building Hunt stacks.
If you draw into Fixer's Approach, play it if you are confident in your AP management. If not you can wait for the second turn to play it.
After that, the only goal is to find and activate Effulgent Expansion in order to enable Sword Rain.
Here are several plans you can follow depending on the starting hand:
Once Effulgent Expansion has been played once, you can simply follow the normal turn guide.
The main source of damage of this deck will come from the 20 blades actiuvated via Sword Rain and Hugo's Extra Attacks on each of them. This means the goal is to enable all the boosts before using the full burst, namely both Driven Hunts.
For that, the best option is Attack! which lets you directly target the card in the draw pile (or another draw card if you have a bad hand).
Next, you can use Quick Fix, Dingo Howling and Sample Collection for more draw (in particular, Dingo Howling will specifically target attack cards which is what we want).
Use Quantum Seed if you need extra AP and to try and keep Hugo's Hunt stacks always capped to maximize the damage. Try to save the Archetype cards for when you have Event Horizon in hand to maximize gains.
Once all boosts are online, the next goal is to build 5 Hunt stacks then play Sword Rain and repeat that 4 times.
Finally, if the enemy isn't dead or if this the last turn of the fight, you can end the turn by using Effulgent Release for a final burst.
HeidemarieSince we want a Survival Desire card for Heidemarie, the only Chaos we can use is Kaleidoscope Hatchery.
Weapon
There is no required weapon for this build to work.
As usual for DPS combattants, Criticism of Discord is the go-to choice if you manage to get it. Second Method is another very obvious choice and Shell Bug Horn can also work as a generic Crit Damage booster. Abyssal Bug Tooth can also work if you want a bit more damage via DoTs (or if you need more debuffs in general).
Armor
There is no required armor for this build to work.
Contaminated Coccon Cape / Pagna Mushroom are great picks for every combattant that doesn't need a specific armor piece. You could also go with Remnants of Succession for more DoT, but the weapon and accessory unique equipments are preferred here.
Accessory
There is no required accessory for this build to work.
If the unique equipment slot is not used yet, Pulsating Egg is the best option here. Invader Observation Logs and Essence Fragmented Necklace can work but are usually better for AoE content (which isn't this team's objective). Dimensional Cube can work but usually won't be at it's maximum potential since we don't always discard 3 cards per turn.
The core of the combo. This team should generate enough AP and draw to avoid bricking the hand in most cases. If needed, one or two of the draw divine epiphanies can be changed to cost reduction.
A targeted "Draw a card of this unit" divine epiphany can also work if you roll into that.
This version of Hero to All makes it easier to activate Effulgent Expansion by granting Linked to any card (or to draw the card itself as early as possible). If it doesn't feel necessary, the Haste version that draws 1 card is also a viable option.
This version of Thread of Light boosts the blades without needing to play it. It can also be used to trigger Effulgent Expansion during the first turn. If the deck somehow runs into draw issues, you can technically remove this card.
This version enables all Sword Rains after being activated a single time. In subsequent turns, it can be ignored (or activated via another Linked card if it doesn't disrupt the combo).
It is possible to use the upgrade version of Effulgent Blade for longer fights (-12 blades on turn 1 and -4 on turn 2) to increase the damage of each blade, get one more attack card per turn to trigger Hugo's Hunt (N.B: will require one more AP) and to thin the deck (it will also guarantee 1-2 discarded cards every turn to activate some effects).
This card is usually only used at the end of fights as it exhausts all blades in the graveyard, requiring Effulgent Expansion to be played again if we want to continue the combo.
While it is a bit of extra damage and can help with activating Dimensional Cube (without burning draw as it will always stay in hand), it can make hand space management harder. It can be removed if you find it easier.
The main (and pretty much only) reason why we use Season 4 instead of Season 3. Since the synergies we want are 5 Survival and 3 Claim, the easiest combination here is Survival 2 / Claim 1.
SylviaHeidemarie's signature partner and usually the best for personal damage. Her Ego Skill isn't particularly usefull in this team and will mostly just be used on already Linked cards to get the damage boost.
MarinSince Heidemarie's blades are created, Marin works surprisingly well with her if you have her.
SoliaThe battle pass partner honestly has everything Heidemarie needs in this deck.
Rosaria
DaisyBoth Rosaria and Daisy have very similar boosts, with Rosaria being slightly better (especially when running the upgrade version of Effulgent Expansion). They are perfectly fine as alternatives if you don't have a 5* partner to use.
HugoHugo want pretty much the exact same equipment as Heidemarie and, like her, needs a Survival Desire card which limits the chaos to Kaleidoscope Hatchery (incoming copy/paste from Heidemarie's section).
Weapon
There is no required weapon for this build to work.
As usual for DPS combattants, Criticism of Discord is the go-to choice if you manage to get it. Second Method is another very obvious choice and Shell Bug Horn can also work as a generic Crit Damage booster. Abyssal Bug Tooth can also work if you want a bit more damage via DoTs (or if you need more debuffs in general).
Armor
There is no required armor for this build to work.
Contaminated Coccon Cape / Pagna Mushroom are great picks for every combattant that doesn't need a specific armor piece. You could also go with Remnants of Succession for more DoT, but the weapon and accessory unique equipments are preferred here.
Accessory
There is no required accessory for this build to work.
If the unique equipment slot is not used yet, Pulsating Egg is the best option here. Invader Observation Logs and Essence Fragmented Necklace can work but are usually better for AoE content (which isn't this team's objective). Dimensional Cube can work but usually won't be at it's maximum potential since we don't always discard 3 cards per turn.
Thanks to Tiphera, we have more than enough skill cards to generate Hunt stacks which let's us get by with only two Hunting Instincts.
I really like the "At the start of each turn, when this card is the first card used, draw 2" divine epiphany on one Hunting Instincts to make the setup turn easier, but you can easily go for a Morale divine on both to maximize damage. A simple cost reduction can also work if you find it hard to get enough AP.
A simple draw tool to make the deck more consistent. Note that the base epiphany with a neutral draw also works perfectly as it can target attack cards if it suits your taste more.
Hugo's second draw tool that specifically targets attack cards. This deck tries to balance normal draw with targeted draw to maximize consistency, but depending on how it feels you can opt to copy Dingo Howling instead of Quick Fix.
The upgrade version can also be used, in which case a Morale divine epiphany is usually preferred.
Nothing much to say here, a simple boost to almost all of Hugo's damage. No reason to remove this card.
The second Driven Hunt of the deck which brings us to a +120% damage taken by the target. Not quite as good as the Season 3 Persona cards and engravings but the synergy effects also help balance things.
Similar to Heidemarie, the best synergy combination here is Survival 2 / Claim 1.
Quick Shelling can be replaced with Negotiate or even Shy Gardener for some extra damage and / or negative statuses. You can also omit it and both divine epiphanies on Hunting Instincts in order to allow for an extra copy of one of the draw cards.
TinaHugo's signature partner. Having an extra draw with her Ego skill is quite nice.
SoliaThe battle pass partner also works quite well with Hugo.
RosariaDaisySimilar to Heidemarie, both Rosaria and Daisy can be used. Rosaria is still preferred as her Ego skill can help get Fixer's Approach early.
TipheraTiphera doesn't require a Survival card, but without at least 1 Survival Synergy it will force one of the two other combattants to have a triple Survival Desire card, making it much harder to obtain.
As such, Kaleidoscope Hatchery is still recommended, although it is possible to go for other base Chaos.
Weapon
There is no required weapon for this build to work.
Tentacles of a Ruined Age are the perfect option here to support both Heidemarie and Hugo's damage.
Alternatively, Crimson Blade, The Exsanguine or a simple Flashbang can all be used to apply more debuffs.
Armor
There is no required armor for this build to work.
Contaminated Coccon Cape / Pagna Mushroom are still great picks here. Tiphera can also make use of Chitin Shield or Psionic Combat Suit for some extra survivability.
Accessory
There is no required accessory for this build to work.
Sphere of Randomness can be used to make the setup turn easier. Voracious Swarm or Absolute Zero Tetrahedron will also work fine.
The easiest Quantum Seed to use in order to avoid filling the draw pile. By always picking "Square", we can maximize profits while minimizing risks.
We only copy this card twice in order to have extra Faint Memory for other divine epiphanies.
While this card isn't specifically needed, it serves three purposes:
If you don't like it, it can be removed from the deck.
This version of Dual Creation can fully enable Event Horizon on its own while also generating 2 AP. Counting itself, it is also 5 skill cards to create Hunt stacks. Just be careful with hand space when playing it.
Helps Tiphera stay draw neutral while also counting as one more skill card. It can be removed if you really don't like it but is usually a net positive for the deck if you can manage AP properly.
Tiphera's Desire card. With the recommended Synergy types on the other two card, this one will need Inquiry 1 / Survival 1 / Claim 1 to fully get all the bonuses.
Other desire cards can also be used, but this one has the advantage of being draw positive while giving an extra proc for Hugo's Hunt.
Probably my favorite neutral card that I use everywhere I can fit it. It gives enough adaptability to the deck to either help setting up the necessary boosts early or get some more draw when you need it.
It can also be removed to allow for an extra copy of Quantum Seed, but there isn't much benefit to it considering we already generate enough of all needed resources for the deck to work.
TianaTiphera's signature partner (and her sister). She brings a free 6% Crit Chance to the whole team and can also target draw Hero to All (which in turn lets you draw any card you want).
NyxNyx is always a great pick for all Controller combattants and the damage increase for the team will be very easily activated.
ArwenTiphera doesn't have many other good picks for partners. Arwen can be used as a last resort if you don't have anything else.
Full Scale Offensive: TODO
Spiral Tower of Screams: Watch on Google Drive
All floors were cleared in a single turn with pretty much no challenge. The last floor (150) was actually kind of fun in figuring out how to deal with the summons while keeping enough firepower to down the boss in the same turn.
The only two "difficulties" were trying to remember to not use Attack! on an empty deck and making sure to exhaust all Archetype cards before finishing a wave.
Personal deck score (1=bad, 5=good)
Deck obtention: 4 -> The decks are quite straightforward and should not be too hard to obtain. Admitedly, getting two Survival events in the seasonal Chaos isn't guaranteed, but it is still common enough that I consider it easy.
Ease of use: 4 -> While the deck is extremely easy to use and has more than enough AP and draw, the first turn can be slightly annoying and hand space management also stops me from giving a score of 5.
Power: 4 -> While the deck can reach 200k per turn, it required a bit of luck with the draws (I also need more crit stats on my Memory Fragments). 150k+ is achieved very easily however.
Sustain: 4 -> With Tiphera being able to both shield and heal, this team has no issues with survivability (The Survival 3 synergy also helps a bit). The few enemies that could pose a threat were also usually killed before they could act.
Total: 16/20
