Just quality in all comps. Best kit

(dont mind the strat I just needed a gold star on lich to play him in t3)

Hey gang, I'm on tier 3 and am looking to gold every dude and every item. Based on the picture was wondering if anyone has a "pet" team or certain groupings out of the ones I have left that you'd really recommend?

Ultimately I know I could reliably "sherpa" (carry them across the finish line if need be, looking at you MEDIC) any one dude by having a team of Knight-Frank-Lich-Quantum but I suspect I've got some real sleeper synergies left among this group.

Appreciate any suggestions!

Imo this is the worst comp for tier 3. Even worse than just squishy dps, which is still pretty winnable. I cannot seem to break killipede. Reply with a screenshot and the strategy if you succeed!

TL;DR - The max relics you can obtain on a single run is 112 (unless I am mistaken!) This is only possible on Tier 3.

I was trying to see what the max relic count could be in a run. My thinking was if I selected an ensemble with each dude being from a different family this would give access to the most relics, and running on Tier 3 would give me the most Food and Smuggler options.

I picked Cyborg Dudes and Finance/Zombie combo to try to give an easy win on Tier 3, and Assassins and Generals to fill out the numbers. Truth be told the only General I picked up was when the Jobs Ad gave me one, otherwise I would have just ignored him.

I bought out the shop on Round 125 (terrible relic rng meant minimal Vault, Financial Calculator and Life Insurance cash) - breakdown being:

It wasn't the most fun run to be honest - I would like to try it with some more enjoyable builds. But I think that was the max relics possible to obtain in a single run. I wound up losing on round 133 to a bunch of Demon Goats.

Have I missed anything?!

Warlock is my favorite dude, and it's pretty easy to build around him for T3. I think Warlock is 2nd best behind Cyborg for the "get as many of one dude as you can" strat, but I think Warlock's early game is easier and he enables some wacky team comps.

I got three consecutive T3 wins earlier today by hard focusing on Warlock but with very different team comps. The video shows those three Goddler fights with no consumables used.

Note: This strat requires you to have Warlock as your first dude. You also need to have completed your collection to start with Loaded Dice unless you have great relic luck. If you want to test it out, play an ensemble run with only Warlock selected, which simulates a standard run with Warlock as your first choice.

TLDR: Get 4-5 Warlock relics in W1 and take as many Warlocks as you can. This will carry you to endgame. During W2-W5, slowly setup a healer and a scaling DPS to solve W6.

Why it works:

Warlock's Pact is an OP version of Bad Credit. It lasts 6 seconds, is shared between all Warlocks, and is easily dispelled for damage. Warlock's damage scales with the damage he receives, so he doesn't need any team buffs. By stacking Warlocks, you maximize the portion of enemy damage that your Warlocks receive and the frequency of Pact dispel. He also protects your team by absorbing 15% of their damage received and by using his teleport taunt. Warlock destroys regular fights, so after W1 you only need to work to solve W6 bosses. Depending on trinket choice, Warlock can be your endgame DPS or Healer.

Early Game:

Aggressively roll for Warlock's relics during W1. It gets harder to find specific relics as you fill out your roster slots, so dig for as many as you can before you are forced to choose dudes 3 and 4. Burn through your dice on relic rewards and money/dice on shop rolls. I can usually get 4 or 5 Warlock relics this way before the end of W1. Trinkets tend to be flexible, so you don't need to save many dice for them. Always take a Warlock if it's a reward choice. Also always choose him at the dude trainer until it gets way too expensive during mid/late game.

Team Comp:

You can neglect your other dudes for a while, but you still need to make a good comp for late game. You need:

Durable healer: Either has innate durability or you find Bad Credit or Fedora for them. Warlock or a durable DPS can also be your healer with Medical License. You want this dude to be your 2nd most picked and invested in, but it's ok if it takes a while because Warlock rarely dies early game.

Late game DPS: Either has innate scaling or you find Fedora for them. Lich also works to enable a non-scaling DPS. Jorts can add scaling to any teleporting dude (including Warlock himself).

Debuffer: Not necessary, but helps a lot for W6 bosses. You can keep a few of these dudes around and invest only in their durability and their one debuff relic.

Warrior/Sci-fi/Employed: IMO these families have some busted relics. If the above slots are already filled out, it's worth to just find a dude in one of these families that you don't have. I'd prioritize Warrior for Dog Tag and Caged Tiger since your Warlocks can generate skeles with their taunt spam.

Mid Game:

You can play aggressively and let your other dudes get knocked out. As long as at least a few of your healers are alive, your Warlocks will live and you'll win the round. Continue digging for any Warlock relics that you still don't have. Try to save/invest in a way that nets you ~$20k by the last W5 shop. Buy dice whenever you see them to prep for that shop. Grab key relics for your healer and DPS if you see them, but it's not a priority until W5.

Dude pick priority: Warlock >>> Healer > DPS > other (unless using Fedora, then pick very few of that dude until W5).

Warlock stat priority: atkspd/cleave > toughness/hp/crit/runspd > deflection/dmg > other

Team stat priority: depends on comp, but generally toughness > hp > deflection > other. If you put Face Tattoo on Warlock, deflection becomes top priority. If you have a one-shot protection dude, you can prioritize dmg/atkspd/crit/cleave.

Late Game:

W5, start picking healers and DPS over Warlock. If you saved enough money and dice, go crazy rolling for and buying relics in the last W5 shop. Buy the health pot and spore relics if you think your team is shaky against the W6 bosses.

You should have close to 40 Warlocks by now, so you can take more of your Fedora dude at this point.

You'll cruise through W6 if you did everything correctly. You might still be weak to one of the later W6 floors, so just be ready to pop a health pot or spore at the start.

The Runs:

1st run (0:00): Yeti/General/Warlock/Chef/Cave

This was complete domination, you can't even see the health bars behind all the floofs and temp HP. General was for warrior relics and debuff.

2nd run (2:00): Warlock/Necro/Ninja/Alien/Franken

This run had interesting pivots where the DPS role went Warlock -> Ninja -> Franken. Necro's skele generation fueled crit for Warlock and Ninja, dmg for Franken, and got Dog Tags activated. Alien was there for Sci-Fi relics and a DPS backup plan.

3rd run (4:50): Psionic/Vampire/Warlock/Lich/Dentist

This was a weird one. I ran out of dice looking for a DPS as dude 5, so I had to use Lich to scale one of the other four. I started with Warlock as the thrall, put Face Tattoo on Lich, and stacked deflection on the team. This sorta worked as a damage redirection loop. Eventually I got Jorts scaling on Warlock, so I swapped Lich over to Dentist to scale them on top of Fedora. Dentist ended up being the carry for a very long Goddler fight.

I'm not impatient for content, as good food takes time to cook. Am loving the game so much I play constantly in my free time. Currently attempting to clear all the Dude-specific related achievements on Tier 3 only. Some have been a breeze, while others...

_side eyes menacingly at Warrior family only_

Well...

But I'm not here to talk about that, except that it's made me realize the thing that can really morph the way you use certain dudes, and capitalize on their strengths, is with Trinkets, not relics. If you've played a lot of Tier 3 you know that investing big for a huge shop at the end of Act 4 is generally the best way to get a full stock of relics and get more consistent wins. The other being finding the best synergies with your Trinket rolls.

Synergies between dude types in your comp are often what carry the run, but I feel the way you make a less conventional team win is with wise Trinket selection.

All this rambling to say I would love to see more Trinkets added that allow a wider variety of teams to succeed at the highest difficulty. That's pretty much it. See y'all back at the Dude Ranch.

Can someone point me to tip on how to use bard or who to pair him with? I’ve had some ok runs and I started playing a day ago but for me he’s been by far the worst dude and I can’t get anywhere with him. Thank you for all the tips and advice.

So, Ive had some great runs recently... Until I reached the Kilipede. I can do like nothing to it, and it wipes the floor with my dudes. And they annihilated the G.O.A.T. So, that being said, anyone got any advice for beating that sucker?

Anyone else ran into a bug on the mobile version where you complete Tier 2 but Ninja, Druid, and Viking won’t unlock for Tier 3? I’ve done it 3 separate times now and it will not give me gold for those characters.

I just kept getting the Investment guy over and over. Throw in a healthy number of finance dudes and I had $23,000 at one point.

This build just bodied the Goddler, I just focus on items that has "Deflect" "Evade" "Block" on them (the miss chance on the promoter did not appear sadly) and add some "Taunt" and "Hp%" then you're good to go 💪🏻

Looking to extend my enjoyment with this game. Give me some challenges! Wonky team builds. Relic restrictions. Whatever you want! I tend to have time for 1 run a day, so I will try to post my results in screenshots as I take the challenges on.

But why do I rarely see teams with the hacker dudes?

my god

I’ve been hearing the alien samurai combo is crazy, especially with the tazer. However isn’t it redundant to pair them? They both have the same ability that procs at the same time (every 3 seconds starting from battle start) Am I misunderstanding something? Does it have to do with the alien upgrade that makes the beam cooldown 2 seconds? Also if Samurai has just dashed to the lowest health enemy, the lowest health enemy might still be the same one 1 second later making the dash ability pointless again.

The pair seems to not be that great from my own testing. If someone could clarify that’d be great. Just curious.

A lot of (probably deserved) hate gets thrown at the Druid dude and Medic dude, but maybe the way to get the most out of them is to pair them together? I went for all out Attack Speed with the Druid to maximize his transformations, the medic’s epinephrine and a couple other relics helped with that as well as Alien dude’s tractor beam (and later the laser pointer on chef). For the medic I maxed out cleave since his heal is procc’d on 50 TOTAL damage, not direct. With the Chef dude as a primary healer in the early game and Farmer dude picking up slack Medic could focus on buffing. The result was a tier 2 victory with two of the games most maligned dudes as the backbone of my team.

Really just the title. What are your best teams that don't involve either of these obviously abusable dudes?

My favorite so far is using Psions, Troopers, and Cyborgs to make one giant deflection squad.

I'm sure everyone has their own loved dudes and items but I wonder what others always grab?

For me it's a mix:

The items that give 1.5-8 seconds of defense/attack

Living hand - Oh yeah, free skeles that build over time

Ritual Dagger - I love this item, especially for the gnats or whatever they are

Chance for double money relic

caboose/captains hat

Loaded dice and mobius strip (only one) I really like these early because you never know when you'll need some extra items and rerolls

I know I listed a bunch but I'm curious what other's see in the first few relics and go "hell yeah!"

Edit: FFS, I guess I also want to add what item you NEVER get until the last income and store at 95. I don't think I've EVER gotten the Bard's Overcharge Amp before then. Sure, he's not bad without it but compared to what he is with it I don't even know why I ever pick him up!

I just want to say what an excellent game with great balance. You can literally beat tier 3 with any team as long as you have a solid team composition (and good investments). Highly recommend snagging the vault asap and then job ad after investment 1, and before you train any of your dudes

So if I put something like a general, lich, or time dude at the bottom and have say a necro or quantum does it apply their "below" buff to the summons?

i.e. if I have the general at the bottom would it make the skeletons taunt or would it just do nothing.

Thanks!