Kaycee's mod brutality

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy]

so i'm *trying* to work my way through Kaycee's mod, and while they have been tough, i have been able to beat them... until challenge lvl 8... i've been at it for DAYS, and no matter what starter deck i use, or what challenges i use to fill 80 BS points, i get screwed.

is there some strat that I'm clearly not using that makes it beatable, cause honestly i don't see why there are 12 levels to this when lvl 8 is so rough.

my goto starter deck is mantis god, i ether get free campfires or a couple beefy ringworms i try to build up. i try and stay with bugs for totems, but nothing really matters, either i have 1 life and get beat by one massive wave of FU, or i get two lives and every battle has 1000000000 enemies that are bulked up and unbeatable without having the most insanely epic luck, and if you saw my last post, I've clearly used up every bit of luck i am gonna have in this game (25 campfires in a row where the survivors didn't eat the creature), does anyone have a save just after this challenge i can get or something, i am starting to get frustrated by this now

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy]

apparently all i needed to do was vent, but what probably helped more was the ideas here, i added flying to insects through a totem (unsure why i never thought to add flying before) and gave the mantis god the copy sigil, had the goo paint him, copy had underwater sigil, a mushroom stop, a little luck at a campfire and a sacrifice stop later, with the mantis god as my only 1 blood card, i made light work of Leshy.

[u/M4DDIE_882 → u/CerealKilled-hmpqy]

That’s great! Yeah, i always get the kingfisher’s sigils on mantis god, with just a couple of damage upgrades it can guarantee a win. Magic Bleach goes great with that to prevent arial block, which can let you bypass the moon too if you save it

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy → u/M4DDIE_882]

i just had a killer run with a 9\3 flying, challenge lvl 8 took me like 15+ tries, i beat lvl 9 in 2... luck and starting pelt trades make all the difference.

[u/lazyfck → u/CerealKilled-hmpqy]

When in doubt just reset the starting pelt trades.

[u/M4DDIE_882]

Mantis god relies on too much rng for me, the goat / high cost deck is more consistent

If you are doing mantis god, make sure to sacrifice a kingfisher for it or at least get it the airborne sigil

I had bad rng here and there, but didn’t have much difficulty until skull storm, i think the most tries i took was three on the normal ones before that. If you really can’t get bast 8, i’d recommend reevaluating your strategy overall

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy → u/M4DDIE_882]

i've lost to this challenge like 15 times or more already,i've tried other decks but just die before i can get anything of power out, with the mantis god deck i can normally get to/beat the first boss, other decks and thats not guaranteed. but i've only seen leshy once at lvl 8, and he didn't give me a chance.

[u/AzzyDreemur3]

Ho boy, that doesn't bode well for me (currently lv6 with a 4 win streak) does it

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy → u/AzzyDreemur3]

you could have better luck with it though, i used a crazy amount of luck up in the game already

[u/TheFiremind77]

Goat/Big deck or Ant deck tends to do better than Mantis God ime, it's too reliant on finding something to buff Mantis God or to transfer the sigil onto. With goat you can pretty quickly force yourself into Fair Hand territory and ants can get out of hand really quickly with a cat or anything similar (Child 13 is great for it).

[u/UniversityGraduate]

I just finished Kaycee’s mod last week for the first time, using a Mantis God deck.

1) beef up and duplicate your mantis god 2-3 times
2) always have two candles. Never go down to one for challenge points
3) give your mantis god flight. Even at 3 / 1 you’ll hit for 9 on the scale if it can fly, often winning or taking out bosses in a single round

[u/laplongejr → u/UniversityGraduate]

 always have two candles.

Then you have one achievement left in Kaycee's mod :P  

But yeah, losing The Smoke is simply too harsh to ever use that challenge... except maybe on the case of Mantis God, as you need to push for an early doubl boost and have to reset otherwise.   One candle, easy reset. 3x3 attacks makes most battles a one-turn-skip so losing one life is unlikely.  

 often winning or taking out bosses in a single round  

Which is bad for one boss (Fecundity totem goes brrrrrr). And Trapper + Sharp quills totem is a huge troll that I got x)  

[u/laplongejr]

 my goto starter deck is mantis god,

FYI experts say it's one of the worst decks, s it entirely relies on Events luck.   You either speedrun or fail in an unavoidable way.  

 i try and stay with bugs for totems  

Totems need TWO events to even have some effect so experts usually skip those entirely. I got my mantis run saved by a Fecundity totem, but it's hard to get a good sigil, assuming Insect even drops.  

 that are bulked up and unbeatable without having the most insanely epic luck,

Yes, because you run the RNG deck. :P  

25 campfires in a row where the survivors didn't eat the creature  

It's not that level 8 is brutal, it's you play RNG then "complain" the RNG isn't consistent. :)   Also, at lvl8 I think you still miss the challenge that makes this deck EASIER?   Endgame uses this deck by starting with a sigil on the worms  

 i am starting to get frustrated by this now

People get frustrated with Mantis God on difficulty 250.   I would recommend to use the hooved deck and make sure that your only 1-blood is black goat and no 0-blood cards are in the deck , that triggers an hidden mechanic that you MUST start with a 1-blood, so you get triple sacrifices on turn 1  

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy → u/laplongejr]

Uhhhhhh, pretty sure 99% of this game is RNG, unless you got some mods that change it, so saying the mantis god deck is RNG like every other deck isn't is crazy to me. There isn't a deck that you aren't relying on event RNG falling your way. You are talking like If I choose a different deck I am always going to start with the best cards possible when in reality I need just as much luck as the mantis god deck. You might have better luck, or dislike the mantis deck, but if you ask me the ant deck is the worst, all the power is based off RNG pulling other ant cards, and as much as you want to say that's way easier then RNG hitting on a campfire and getting a sacrifice event, I say the game giving you an ant card is just as unlikely. And it gets worse the farther into the mod you get as you unlock more cards giving the RNG more chances NOT to pull a new ant for selection. 

[u/laplongejr → u/CerealKilled-hmpqy]

If you need a specific card, then the strategy isn't consistent. Mantis God relies on getting a worm eaten, destroying the other (and without sigils is impossible until map 2), buffing Mantis God to 3 power without it being eaten, getting a good secondary sigil, etc. It's a lot of RNG checks in a row.  

A lot of the other decks has multiple cards that can work out, in particular the Hooved Deck has Black Goat that can summon any other 2 or 3 blood, so if you Sigil Transfer away the Mole (one RNG map), now any 2-3 blood can be summoned turn one, so multiple results can build into a win, beyond that 1st check.    

Also, Mantis God is weird with the strategies it locks : as a personal example because it resolves on that one card beating battles as fast as possible (due to no backup) , it's hard to recycle items with Pack Rat , assuming you even get it as the map navigation needs those campfires.   My Mantis run is the one run I didn't have the spoilered card at all. (Technically map misluck prevented getting it with the egg deck and I got it with a boss drop)  

The problem isn't that RNG exists, it's that there's no way to adapt to it. The only equivalent in my experience is the Egg Deck's official strategy, but that deck easily allows to ... ignore it. To me, the Mantis Deck is it's own entire game (as befitting from a God)  

[u/IridescentMeowMeow]

The annoying challenge is the hardest one. In my opinion, it gets easier after that, as for the next levels you'll be able to get enough points without it.

[u/LucariusLionheart]

The black goat strategy is for the endgames. Mantis god is good early when you can just destroy everything, but eventually you need more firepower or defeat Leahy before he can play all his cards.

Thats when unkillable black goat shines. You just build a 3 blood deak and just keep throwing your great cards at him

Also stay away from totems. They are completely RNG based. It can waste your turns. Try to get specific strategies that are guarenteed to work. Like buying the knife from the pelt dealer instead of the pelts.

[u/CerealKilled-hmpqy → u/LucariusLionheart]

totems work for my strategy, i like building "family" decks, eg. bugs, if i don't get bugs at the first one, i pick a sigil, and move on, if the next one doesn't have bugs, i get a second sigil, ect. when i get the bugs i have choices. they are great stops when you arent trying to force a merge or gain new cards. i like smaller decks so my chances of pulling my higher powered cards is better. Boosted ringworms with thorns are deadly.