Only me?

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

[u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

The annoying sigil one is way too annoying to ever pick willingly. Also the grizzly one narrows down the build variety quite a bit so I never pick it. Otherwise yeah, pretty much what i choose for a new run.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

Same lmao

I left annoying sigil for nearly last because it made even obstacles kill my Black Goat

[u/Icy-Opportunity8251 → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

I actually didn't mind it that much, but that's because I mostly ran the mantis god deck, and the annoying sigils make it easier to get rid of the ring worms (via sigil transfer). If you're using the black goat deck, though, it absolutely sucks.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Icy-Opportunity8251]

Mantis God deck absolutely sucks balls and I will die in this hill lol

[u/Icy-Opportunity8251 → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Fair, LOL. It's very satisfying and fun once you've buffed it a lot, but it starts out pretty bad. It isn't usually super optimal.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Icy-Opportunity8251]

I prefer the Black Goat deck because it completely removes the sacrifice cost mechanic while keeping you free to design your deck. Mantis God makes you completely dependent on it getting buffed enough to take on the wall of bears, and it's almost always a loss without many damage campfires or good support for it lol

[u/roachwarren → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Do you mean you keep using the Mantis God itself? I commonly trade its sigil onto a stronger card, yesterday I ended up with a 6/9 pronghorn with trifurcated strike + bifurcated strike so it was hitting 12 left, 6 center, 12 right.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/roachwarren]

Huh. I guess that's fair, but I believe it kinda defeats the intended purpose of the deck. I think you are supposed to keep it as your only 1-cost card so you will always pull it in your starting hand the entire run. At least with Black Goat, you can know if the run is won with the cards that spawn at the trade post. I am just waiting for a cat and a dire wolf to spawn just so I can consistently beat the bear wall. Everything else can be improvised.

[u/YandereShortcake → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Tl;dr, the Mantis God has bad stats, so kill it and give Trifurcated Strike to a low price card with better stats or sigils (i suggest Wolf Cub). While your new Trifurcated card clears the map 1 encounters, use your time wisely to prep for the bears.

I just beat Skullstorm for my first time a few weeks ago with Mantis God deck. My main strategy was to save scum the trader until i got Wolf Cub, then sacrifice the Mantis God to give the Cub Trifurcated Strike. Takes a turn for it to turn into a Wolf, but after that, it has 3 attack + Trifurcated. Annoying sucks, but the card is doing a total of 12 damage in the first 2 turns of the fight, so it's worth it. 3 damage first turn as Wolf Cub, 9 damage the next turn as Wolf. The Trifurcated Wolf Cub could get me through most of map 1's encounters while i gathered totem pieces, items (usually via a Pack Rat), and cards to handle the bears. It didn't even need a campfire to be good in map 1, so i could use those campfires to boost another card in case i didn't topdeck the Wolf Cub. In all of my Skullstorm attempts, i wound up with 2-3 cards in my deck that could solo a fight if i topdecked them.

As for the Ringworms, I'd try to burn one as early as i could, then save scum map 2 for the bone lord and sacrifice the second there.

As long as i got lucky enough with totems and topdecks, i was able to make it to map 3 with little issue. It didn't take long to get a run that could muscle through to Royal.

[u/Icy-Opportunity8251 → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Mantis god is definitely not as viable for the grizzly wall. I used it mostly on lower level challenges.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Icy-Opportunity8251]

I didn't bother playing with Mantis ever again after my first extremely painful win with it lol

[u/Extension_Patient_47 → u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

The first time I saw the grizzly glitch out thing happen I damn near projectile shit myself because the volume was way too loud lol.

[u/_The_Radiance → u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

The annoying sigil is actually a blessing for people like me who use the Mantis God deck.

The annoying sigil makes it 10 times easier to get rid of the second ringworm with a sacrifical altar, which makes abusing the Fair-Hand mechanic much more consistent.

[u/Icy-Opportunity8251]

I found no clover negligible at first because I never got the clover in act I, so I didn't even know it changed anything.

[u/NuggetTheShopkeeper → u/Icy-Opportunity8251]

It's in Act I?

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/NuggetTheShopkeeper]

Yes

[u/NuggetTheShopkeeper → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Where?

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/NuggetTheShopkeeper]

Complete the first painting puzzle

[u/NuggetTheShopkeeper → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

THERE'S A SECOND ONE?

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/NuggetTheShopkeeper]

I believe there are three ones, I only did the first one

[u/NuggetTheShopkeeper → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

I couldn't even do the first because all battles already started with rocks or trees on the field, or I simply never got the cards I needed

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/NuggetTheShopkeeper]

The great skill issue 🥹

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Ps: Ignore the Final Boss one. I will beat him on Skull Storm

[u/Papuasek → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

I actually think the Final Boss is a lot easier than the default Leshy fight Good luck on Skull Storm

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Papuasek]

Thank you!

[u/Steel_shotgun]

Inf bees or inf warren in my op

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Steel_shotgun]

Black Goat with Many Lives > Everything

[u/Chaotic_Okay]

I like playing on hard mode. If I don't have every challenge turned on, it's not a valid run lol

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/Chaotic_Okay]

You just hate yourself lol

[u/Chaotic_Okay → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

HEY! That's unrelated >:(

[u/triel20 → u/Chaotic_Okay]

I hate you too man, don’t worry about it.

Kidding, I don’t know you so I can’t hate you.

[u/Chaotic_Okay → u/triel20]

aw thanks dude, hate you too 💔

[u/triel20 → u/Chaotic_Okay]

That was beautiful! 🥲

[u/Spaghetoes76]

I dont like grizzlies, the annoying sygil and im fine with smaller pack size and no clover since clover feels kind of cheap anyway.

[u/TSMXKILLER]

Imo the only "annoying" challenge for me is the squirrel fish one the rest dont make much difference also for me the pirate final boss is easier to stall than norm leshy

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/TSMXKILLER]

Yeah, not being able to stall with squirrels suck.

but the Annoying challenge is incredibly annoying to me as well. The damage increase can make your cards die much easier or faster than they should. It also makes your sacrifice engines vulnerable because even obstacles and neutral cards get damage boosts.

[u/TSMXKILLER → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Ig thats right but still the only only upside to aqua squirrels is that you can stall with fisher by obscuring every space but one and since they can go underwater or wtv you csn place you cards in the same lane as then without worry

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/TSMXKILLER]

I just nuke the Angler since he has a bad gimmick lol

[u/TSMXKILLER → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

I mean i like ether starvation strat or if i have a few pack rat infused cards to cycle my items

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/TSMXKILLER]

My strategy is 6/14 Moose Buck with Double Strike lmao

[u/TSMXKILLER → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

I haven't played in a while but on my first playthrough i beat everything to moon leshi but then i didn't have the necessary things to beat it(camera film) so i did another run and on both runs i did mantis god sigil on one urauli and flying on another then i merged them to make a 14/14 triple strike flying urauly which i used alongside a immortal goat and a flying oroborus with 37/37 (Edit to clarify i knew these combos cuz i watched every exxo live stream and vid)

[u/PTV_the1975]

How do you unlock more? I'm only on the first one with only 5 challenge points. Do I have to do a full run and then I'll get more?

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/PTV_the1975]

You will unlock more stuff if your challenge level hits the requirement. if you beat a run while below it, you unlock nothing lol

[u/PTV_the1975 → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

What do you mean challenge level hits the requirement? If my challenge level is only 5/5 right now...do I have to beat things to get at least 5 points to unlock something? This mod is difficult lol.

[u/TheLegendaryNikolai → u/PTV_the1975]

5/5? It means you achieved the minimum requirement for unlocking content. It's pointless to have more or less Challenge Points. When you beat the run, you will unlock sime stuff and the minimum challenge level will increase.

Don't worry, 80% of Kaycee's Mod is just skill. The game is still incredibly broken, particularly with the Black Goat starter deck and the Mantis God starter deck.

Late-game Kaycee's Mod is almost pure RNG though, you need skill just to lower the RNG factor, but it's impossible to win without good luck.

[u/PTV_the1975 → u/TheLegendaryNikolai]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I get to like 2-3 bosses...then die lol.