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Memory in the Mirror guide

This is a guide meant to help out new players and give tips to more experienced players as well. It
covers the basics of the mode, the factions, various deck types and even a strategy for getting
achievement Ultimate challenge. I hope you’ll find this guide useful.

Table of contents
Intro 1 Chapter 4. - Shops 20
Chapter 1. - Basics and game layout 1 Chapter 5. - Stages of a run 25
Chapter 2. - Factions 4 Outro 34
Chapter 3. - Keywords and strategies 6

Chapter 1. - Basics and game layout

Before really diving deep into strategies, I feel like we should all start from the beginning, that
being how this game works and explain the layout of the game. If you already know the game
basics, you’re free to scroll over this chapter. I’d still encourage you to look for words in bold text
as those are very important and almost necessary to understand. For those who just started playing
this game, you can start playing the mode at difficulty 0 and read this chapter along the way.

In this game, many memories have lost their sanity and as a result they are your enemies. Luckily
not all of them have fallen for the evil and so you can hire them as your companions. Deploying
companions is the equivalent of buying minions.
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Each minion comes with attack value (how much damage they do) and
HP value (how much damage they can take before dying). The stars
represent their level at which you can obtain them, up to level 6. A
majority of them also have the name of faction they belong to. All of
them come with a description of an effect. Most of them have a common
keyword. You can check what it means by clicking on the minion.

You buy minions from a shop by dragging them down. Each one costs 3 gold. When you buy a
minion, you get their card into your hand. You can then drag the card onto your board to summon
them. By dragging them again you get to change their position. Once you summon a minion, you
can only sell it to remove from board. Minions in your hand can be reserved for future use, but they
don’t get to protect you from enemies. If you manage to get three copies of the same minion, they
get synthesized into a powerful golden minion with higher stats and improved effect. You also get a
reward in form of a ticket, which you can open to receive one of three random minions of your
current level. Minions on board or hand can be sold for 1 gold by dragging them into the shop.

In order to win, you must fight many battles to reach the end. You can check the
magnifying glass icon to see what enemies are ahead. You can click on the
enemies to check their description. There are three ways to win a battle:
A) there are no enemies left
B) there are no minions or enemies on either side
C) neither your minions nor enemies can attack each other (a very rare case)

When you’re done buying and summoning minions, you press Fight. It then initiates an automatic
battle. Minions and enemies always attack from left to right. Frontline minions and enemies get
to attack first while the backline ones attack after. On your side it’s the higher row that acts as the
frontline, while on enemy side it’s the lower row. After the last minion attacks, the cycle repeats
until the battle is won or lost.

After a successful fight you gain some gold and 2 exp. You
use gold for buying minions while exp is for your level. You
spend gold for buying minions, but you can also convert
gold into exp for faster level up. When you level up (or
upgrade as it’s called), you get an upgrade reward card that
let’s you choose one of three beneficial effects.
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The Black Swan icon tells you which floor you are on. The Owl icon tells you about an upcoming
event. You can plan around that by saving your gold, which is preserved for next floors.

Equipment is a special type of cards that you

can put onto your minions. Each minion can
hold up to 2 equipment and you can unequip
them anytime by clicking on the minion and
removing the equipment from them.

Beware! Bosses have a unique frame and come with a special effect that
usually power up other enemies. Make sure to form you strategy to
counter them.

You have 3 lives to work with. Losing a battle causes you to lose a life
and when all of them are gone, it’s game over. Thankfully after losing a
life you still gain some gold and exp, so you have a chance of finishing
the run.

Question: I’m struggling with higher difficulties and keep losing lives. Is the game that hard?
Answer: I myself kept losing once I reached hard 7. I felt overwhelmed with so many factions,
keywords and different effects, that I couldn’t process everything at once. Also, I personally have
never played an auto battler before, so this all was my first time experience. The game does give
you an option for “casual mode” which gives you 5 lives instead of 3, but I resorted to choosing
lower difficulties and practising factions that way. Once I learnt all minions and perfected my
opening strategy, I was able to complete multiple perfect difficulty 10 runs using various strategies,
which later inspired me to write this guide. My advice is simply keep trying and don’t be afraid of
exploring. There’s a lot to this game that I don’t think I am capable of including in this document.
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Chapter 2. - Factions
There are 6 factions in this mode. On harder difficulties where you must choose multiple of them,
the player can still work with just one faction. However, there is no such thing as “Warrior deck.” It
is primarily the effects of minions that the player chooses to work with that help identifying the
deck, such as “shield warriors” or “entry and embed warriors.” All factions share almost every
keyword. This makes it easier for the player to mix two or more factions into one deck such as
“shield warriors and dragons.” As a result, you can find some similarities between factions, but each
one still introduces something unique. Here is a brief description for each faction.

Warrior
Knights and heroes, these people work together to achieve victory. They help and protect others
through buffs like entry and embed. They also specialize in equipment and shield keyword.

Beast
Feral and unpredictable, beasts are great at dealing non-direct damage and triggering their effects
after dying. Their entry effects should not be underestimated, as they are able to improve minions in
shops as well.

Machine
Destroy, learn, produce. Machines improve their offence with embedding minions onto others.
Their exp and gold generation helps faster level ups. They also summon minions in combat as
death-rattle effect.

Natural Type
Plants, fungi and sprites. They grow, they prick others with their thorns, they reward you for
patience of finding gold minions. And when they sell other minions, they only grow stronger.
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Ghost
Rulers of death, birthplace of dread, a total nightmare. They summon dead which only get stronger
with music of the dead. They haunt others with madness keyword. Finally, they grow stronger with
kill keyword.

Dragon
Loyal and trained, these dragons are well prepared for any fight. Their first hand effects help them
define their role. And even in death, their death-rattle effects help others staying alive.

Neutral
Minions with no faction listed on them belong to Neutral faction, a default one which every
difficulty includes. They mostly consist of effects that each faction might be interested in. The most
popular picks from this list are Chameleon and Magic Mirror, both of which help you fill out the
third copy of a desired minion to turn them gold. Almost all equipment cards are technically
Neutral, with only 6 of them belonging to each of the factions.

Question: I have more than one minion that I can turn gold with Chameleon. Which one is it going
to pick?
Answer: Chameleon first targets the minions in hand. Then it takes the minion that is in the frontline
to the left, proceeding to backline right, which is basically following the attacking order.

Question: Is there any faction that is weaker than others?

Answer: Generally speaking, each faction is better at something that others are not. While not all of
them have similar progress of reaching the goal, each one has at least one or two very strong
minions that are beneficial for any deck. Something as simple as buffing minions can still get you to
the end and finish the run. My goal is also to introduce as many strategies as possible, so that you
can choose the path that you are the most comfortable with and able to understand.

Question: Should I buy the DLC factions to be able to finish the hardest difficulty?
Answer: It is not mandatory, but the choice is completely up to you. I was able to finish the
difficulty 10 run with the base 4 factions and no life lost. By purchasing other factions you get to
support the developers and you get more minions to play with! The only difficulty comes to
understanding each faction and keywords. All of that varies from person to person. Some people
prefer working with keywords while others trust high stats more.
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Chapter 3. - Keywords and strategies

There are 15 keywords spread throughout different factions and equipment. Some of them allow for
a themed deck, while most of them are generally useful for any deck as they work well on their
own. Knowing how they work and when they activate is going to help you organising minions into
right positions and making appropriate purchases. This chapter showcases each unique keyword,
some tips and even effects that don’t necessarily have a keyword, but appear on more cards and can
be built with in mind. Below each strategy you can find the amount of cards featured in each faction
alongside their percentage in parenthesis, so you can see how often they appear there.

Growth
Growth is the most straight forward keyword that you can find. It triggers right at the start of battle.
What it does is making stats changes permanent, like growing HP or attack. It is featured mostly in
the base 4 factions. There are a lot of equipment growth cards available to every faction. Natural
Type has the best growth support in form of Elven Light that triggers growth with its entry effect.
Also available to everyone is Spring Spirit that triggers growth effects twice. An odd case for a
growth card is Research drawings equipment provided by Machine faction. You can trigger it again
with Elven Light with its entry effect.

-4 (14,8%) -4 (14,8%) -3 (11,1%)

-5 (18,5%) -1 (3,7%) -1 (3,7%) -9 (33,3%) =27

Shield
A very easy keyword to understand. It blocks damage one time after which the shield breaks and
minion is exposed to damage like normal. This is a great defensive tool because even if enemy’s
attack is higher than your minion’s HP, your minion is going to survive otherwise lethal damage.
Everyone has access to this keyword through equipment, however Warrior has the best shield
support. They can provide other minions shield without the need of equipment and even have
multiple stacks of shield thanks to Shielded Warrior. Dragon is right behind this faction with similar
way of granting others shield. Stellar Dragon gains stats whenever any ally shield is broken.
Meanwhile Holy Warrior grants others the permanent stats buff the same way.

-9 (37,5%) -1 (4,2%) -1 (4,2%) -6 (25%) -7 (29,2%) =24

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Death-rattle
Another fairly simple keyword. The minion activates its effect once it dies. This keyword is heavily
featured in Machine, following by Dragon and Beast. Every faction has at least one death-rattle
minion, because any of them can be summoned with Mechanical dog and Soul-binding Coffin. The
strategy involving this keyword varies. Sometimes you want to capitalize on the fact that minions
keep dying with minions like Scavenger. Other times the minion has great effect when dying, such
as Scouting plane, that greatly benefit other minions. Maybe you want to make the minion as strong
as possible, so that Bleached Bone Dragon Spirit can pass that strength onto other minion. This
keyword might become your very first choice of a consistent strategy.

-2 (4,5%) -7 (15,9%) -14 (31,8%)

-3 (6,8%) -3 (6,8%) -8 (18,2%) -7 (15,9%) =44

Sweep
Sweep is a battle keyword that makes minion attack all enemies in the same row, in other words
horizontal damage. The damage dealt is divided in such a way, that the enemy the minion is
attacking receives full damage, while the other two receive half damage each. If your minion is very
strong, this keyword can turn them into an absolute monster tearing up anything in front of it.
However, sometimes you encounter certain enemy formation that puts a lonely tank in the front,
making sweep very weak. In that situation it’s better to postpone the attack of sweep minion, or use
pierce instead.

-1 (14,3%) -1 (14,3%) -1 (14,3%) -2 (28,6%) -2 (28,6%) =7

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Pierce
Pierce is another battle keyword that makes minion attack all enemies in the same column, in other
words vertical damage. Each enemy in the column receives the same damage as the minion’s attack.
Much like with sweep, if your minion is very strong, this keyword can potentially make them kill
two enemies with just one attack. However, after the frontline is fully cleared, the keyword becomes
useless. In conclusion, both keywords have their uses and each one can shine in one way or the
other. If the minion has both, which is very hard to achieve, that can be your win condition.

-1 (14,3%) -1 (14,3%) -1 (14,3%)

-1 (14,3%) -1 (14,3%) -2 (28,6%) =7

Entry
Entry triggers when you summon the minion from your hand. It does not trigger when the minion is
summoned by other means. This keyword is mostly present in the base 4 factions, with Beast
heavily utilizing it. While the keyword is simple enough to understand, making the best use of it is
another story. An entry minion often has a good effect when summoned. Keeping that minion
around though is not as useful. As a result, you might want to replace it by outright selling it and
summoning another entry minion. The spot of your choice becomes reserved for this keyword and
will often include a very weak minion compared to your entire board. Treasure Hunter is a very
powerful inclusion to this kind of deck. Sleepless Sheep is a Beast that improves minions in the
shop, including embed minions. Bunny is another Beast that triggers entry effects that were
previously used. If you can find an upgrade reward that returns a minion into your hand, this kind of
minion is the best target for it. Technically speaking there are 36 entry minions, but the two featured
in Neutral faction are gold Chameleon and Magic Mirror, both of which are hard to get and not
even worth pursuing.

-6 (17,6%) -8 (23,5%) -6 (17,6%)

-7 (20,6%) -3 (8,8%) -1 (2,9%) -3[5] (8,8%) =34[36]

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Embed
Embed minion can be dragged onto a minion on board. They then combine together and share all
effects and stats. Embed minion must share the same faction as the minion that you want to use it
on. This type of minion can be used as a 3 gold cost stats boost or as a way of granting a powerful
effect to a minion of your choice. This keyword shines the best in Magic Gallery shop that gives
each produced minion +2 strengthen. Machine is very fond of this keyword and thus features the
most minions with this keyword. Ghost and Dragon also include some very strong embed minions.
Bodyguard is a Warrior that provides shield. Little Bee is a Beast only worth buying from Magic
Gallery so it can carry over the strengthen bonus. Parasitic Mushroom is very situational embed
minion that needs two Natural Type minions if you want to embed it onto something before selling.
Magic Boots is a unique embed minion that you can use on anything.

-2 (11,1%) -2 (11,1%) -6 (33,3%)

-1 (5,6%) -3 (16,7%) -3 (16,7%) -1 (5,6%) =18

First hand
This keyword triggers at the start of combat, but doesn’t provide any permanent stats change. The
effects range from ranged damage through temporary buffs to some unique effects like doubling HP.
If you have multiple minions on board with first hand effects, first they get to trigger all the buff
effects and then the damaging ones in the same order as if they were attacking. Dragon has the best
first hand support in form of Water Beast that triggers it additional times. Because this keyword
does not make changes permanent like growth, your strategy can be changed as you go further.
Dynamite airship for example can completely change its death-rattle effect depending on what
minions or equipment you include in the same row.

-2 (7,4%) -1 (3,7%) -2 (7,4%)

-4 (14,8%) -13 (48,1%) -5 (18,5%) =27

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Strengthen
Strengthen improves minion’s attack and damage from its effects. Minions with a death-rattle or
first hand effect that deals ranged damage really like this keyword. It can be mostly found in
equipment cards, or you can visit Magic Gallery and purchase minions with +2 strengthen.

-1 (10%) -1 (10%) -8 (80%) =10

Kill
This keyword triggers when the minion kills an enemy via attack or its effect. It does not occur
when defending. It is mostly present within Ghost faction. Huge Demon is a prime example of you
choosing a very aggressive minion that is going to kill anything in front of it. Harvester and Soul
Desecrator want to kill enemies with very low HP and have as much strengthen as possible.
Ghastly Dragon is the hardest minion to work with because it requires a death-rattle minion on
board to make use of its effect. Diver gloves can completely change your run if obtained early.

-1 (7,1%) -1 (7,1%) -6 (42,9%) -2 (14,3%) -4 (28,6%) =14

Madness
Madness makes minion attack an additional time. You’ll commonly find it within Ghost faction in
form of early Soul Snatcher. There are also a lot of equipment cards available for everyone that
either provide madness or give bonus stats depending on how much madness you have. These
minions need high HP or shield to avoid early death. Giving them a kill effect makes them stronger.

-1 (9,1%) -4 (36,4%) -6 (54,5%) =11

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Preparation
Preparation takes place at the start of the next floor. The effects tied to this keyword are not meant
to be abused by the player under normal circumstances. Scientific Device is the easiest minion to
use as it can be found very early on and will naturally produce exp. Mandragora on the other hand
appears a little bit later and requires an empty slot. After a single battle it exiles and gives you entry
cards in return. Mushroom King is the hardest minion to work with as he’s a 5 star minion and
might need to catch up with the power of your board. Both of these Natural Type minions greatly
benefit entry and selling strategy and can even get you needed golden minions.

-1 (25%) -2 (50%) -1 (25%) =4

The dead
The dead is a 3/3 minion that is summoned onto battlefield by certain effects, most commonly
death-rattle. The gold version of this minion has its stats doubled, so instead of a 3/3 you get a 6/6.
This minion can be larger thanks to two entry minions and one growth minion. If you were to
summon Piper of the Dead, a normal dead is going to be a 5/5, but a golden one is going to be a
10/10. This keyword is exclusive to Ghost and as such is heavily relied on one faction. It also
requires careful placement of minions for correct summoning and space for entry minions. For the
most efficient use of this keyword you have to find a way to get gold minions as those will provide
strong enough summons against growing enemy force. Dead Reaper is the only card with a
percentage effect, because of his potential of summoning dead from another dead. If you don’t want
to pursue the dead deck, you can still use some of these minions for simple death-rattle or minion
summoning strategy.

-9 (100%) =9
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Taunt
Taunt appears on only 2 equipment cards. A minion wearing one of these equipment obtains an
effect of attracting enemy attacks. This is a niché option that can be used to great effect if you have
a very strong minion and you want to keep others alive as long as possible. Another use of this
keyword is if you want a specific death-rattle minion to die first before others.

-2 (100%) =2

Self-destruct
Self-destruct is a keyword featured on only 2 equipment cards. Their effect takes place after the
battle is over and makes the equipment destroy itself. The effects of these two cards are so powerful
that the only way to balance them is making them go away after just one fight. As such, use these
very carefully and save them up for the best moment possible.

-2 (100%) =2

Gold minion
Do you like gold minions? Natural Type does too! Tree Demon is an excellent addition to any deck
as she can destroy enemy shield or provide a heavy burst of damage at the start of battle. Flower
Sprite can come in handy as a big fighter when all you have are just small minions. Spore Witch
might not be as common as these two, but she can come late in the run if you still have a low star
minion on board. Mushroom Elder is a general growth support.

-4 (100%) =4
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Exp engine
Some minions can provide exp. Those are called exp engine. Machine gives you three choices of
exp engine. Research is an equipment that can be carried by anyone. Scientific Device needs to be
on board, but can provide 2 exp if it’s gold. Drill, while not giving exp, gives gold when you level
up, which makes converting gold into exp less of a headache. Forest Watchman has decent stats and
requires selling minions in order to provide exp. He combines very well with entry and sell deck.

-3 (75%) -1 (25%) =4

Faction loyalty
Some minions only work with allies of the same faction. This has both upsides and downsides.
Minions that get stronger when allies of the same faction are summoned or deal damage tend to be
harder to work with. Meanwhile minions that grant additional effect to the same faction are much
easier to work with as it is with Machine and Natural Type. Spore Warrior and Mushroom King can
still be used for entry and sell decks that don’t care about factions. Skilled Mechanic can come in
handy in any situation as he can provide embed minions of one of your factions already on board.

-1 (9,1%) -4 (36,4%) -4 (36,4%) -1 (9,1%) -1 (9,1%) =11

Self harm
Normally you don’t want your minions to take too much damage when fighting, but sometimes that
damage is a benefit. This strategy is most common in Natural Type. Lusty Quagmire and Little
Sprite are an example for your early combo. Pumpkin King can become really deadly if Lusty
Quagmire can trigger its first hand effect multiple times… maybe too deadly. This deck can go too
far and accidentally kill your minions as well, in which case you have to include some strengthen to
kill as many enemies as possible before you leave yourself completely exposed.
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-1 (12,5%) -5 (62,5%) -1 (12,5%) -2 (30%) =8

Ranged damage
Some minions deal damage outside of combat damage, most commonly as death-rattle or first hand
effect. This kind of damage is great for breaking enemy shields or finishing them when they’re at
very low HP. You can also increase their damage with strengthen. Beast and Machine prefer doing
this kind of damage with death-rattle, Natural Type and Dragon with first hand and Ghost with kill.

-6 (27,27%) -6 (27,27%) -3 (13,64%)

-1 (4,55%) -3 (13,64%) -3 (13,64%) =22

Area of effect (AOE)

Much like ranged damage, AOE is perfect for breaking shields before any attack happens. Foreign
Assassin, Lusty Quagmire and Pumpin King also deal damage to your minions, which may be
undesirable if you decide to include shields for yourself. Soul Desecrator can trigger its AOE
multiple times depending on how many enemies it kills. Lusty Quagmire is the only AOE minion
which you can get at the beginning. The rest of the AOE options are locked behind level 4 and
higher. It’s recommended to have at least one AOE in case you come across shield enemies.

-1 (12,5%) -1 (12,5%) -2 (30%) -1 (12,5%) -3 (42,5%) =8

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Summon minion
Some minions are able to summon others that are not the dead as a death-rattle effect. This can
serve as another way of triggering minions that react to death. Mechanic Matryoshka is the only
minion with devour and it means that it consumes a minion of your choice when summoned from
your hand. It then summons a copy of the devoured minion with death-rattle.

-3 (60%) -2 (40%) =5

Gain minion
Some minions can produce others into your hand, most commonly with entry effect. These can help
you swarm the field in the early game, or in combination with Natural Type sell these to gain more
exp or power up other minions. Mandragora is a tricky minion to use because you need an empty
space and make it useful for one combat before it can trigger its preparation effect.

-1 (16,7%) -4 (66,7%) -1 (16,7%) =6

Sell minion
Selling minions can trigger other effects such as gaining exp or powering up others. Natural Type
has a lot of tools that help this strategy in the form of Forest Watchman, Crazed Sprite and others.
Thorn Weapon is an equipment that can appear if you include this faction. The only exception is
Assault Mech which gains a death-rattle of the last minion sold this turn. This minion doesn’t really
need to synergize with other selling minions, as he can just work on his own with his effect.

-1 (14,3%) -6 (85,7%) =7
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Can’t attack
Some minions cannot attack during combat. They can serve as wall minions to protect your
vulnerable support or attackers. Minions with lower HP like Sleepy Bat serve more as support that
prefer to be in the backline. In this case they allow your larger attackers to attack often. Soul
Devouring Dragon is an interesting minion in a sense that he starts out weak at the start of combat,
but gains more stats when your death-rattle minions die. He serves more as a finisher by staying in
the backline and then letting himself getting attacked. You can use neutral equipment to turn any
minion into a wall if you wish doing so.

-3 (25%) -3 (25%) -1 (8,3%)

-1 (8,3%) -1 (8,3%) -3 (25%) =12

Same column/row
Some minions require you to pay attention to the minion placement. Depending on which minion
you want to attack first, you have to reorganize your field. There’s no clear answer of if they prefer
to be in the frontline or backline, just consider if you want a large attacker to go first or a weaker
minion to break any shield.

-2 (25%) -1 (12,5%) -1 (12,5%)

-2 (25%) -1 (12,5%) -1 (12,5%) =8

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Minion dying
Some minions can react to general dying rather than relying on just death-rattle effect. They can
work alongside death-rattle strategy, or stay in the backline and let other minions die before they get
to attack to gain the most benefit.

-1 (20%) -2 (40%) -2 (40%) =5

Double stats
Rarely you’ll find minions that double their stats under certain conditions. Most of them are star 5
or higher, meaning they are hard to obtain. Some of them need to be upgraded in order to provide
double stats like Parasitic Mushroom. Energy Drink is a prime example of an equipment that needs
to be saved for the best possible moment.

-1 (11,1%) -1 (11,1%) -1 (11,1%) -2 (22,2%) -4 (11,1%) =9

Equipment
Some minions get stronger the more equipment they hold. Armored Knight and Pigskin Backpack
grant an additional equipment slot for example. Weapon Master and Telescope share their
equipment effects to all allies in the same row which is a very powerful effect.

-3 (33,3%) -2 (22,2%) -1 (11,1%) -3 (33,3%) =9

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Halve stats
Halving enemy’s stats is very powerful because you can either kill them faster or avoid a huge
amount of damage. Jungle Wildkin and Vengeful Spirit are the only minions that halve the HP of
enemies.

-1 (20%) -1 (20%) -1 (20%) -2 (40%) =5

Transform
Transform appears only on one equipment and one upgrade reward. What it does is changing the
minion into a different one while keeping its stats unchanged. Essentially you get to replace their
entire effect. There’s no potential for a transform themed deck, this is more or less a tool that you
can use on minions that you don’t find useful at the moment like an entry minion that is already on
field or an exp engine once you are already at level 6.

Duplication
You can duplicate any card via a 6 star equipment or an upgrade reward. This rare effect is super
powerful and not easy to obtain. As such, it must be timed perfectly for the biggest impact.
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Boss card
One upgrade reward is capable of giving you a boss card that you defeated before! This option is
more RNG depended, but when you hit the right card, it can heavily improve your deck. Their stats
might be weaker compared to your minions, however their effects should make up for such
downside.

Question: How do I decide what strategy to pursue?

Answer: It kind of depends on RNG. Early in the run you don’t go for any strategy quite yet as you
purchase minions based on their power. You should decide your main strategy between floors 11
and 17, That’s when your board should be setup for early assault, leaving plenty of room for
exploration. I’ll go into details in chapter 5.

Question: If it’s all RNG, how do you even achieve consistency? What’s the point of even trying?
Answer: Use shop events effectively. That’s where you can find just what you need. Save as much
gold as possible in the process. You’ll find more details about shops in chapter 4, but basically event
shops will provide you with more tools than regular ones.

Question: How many strategies can I combine in my deck?

Answer: As many as you want, but for simplicity you can stick with just two or three. Some
strategies work together as a strong pair like death-rattle summon, entry sell and madness kill.
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Chapter 4. - Shops
Every once in a while you come across an event that let’s you choose which special shop to visit.
On difficulty 10, shops appear on floors 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19. It is very important to keep as
much gold as you can, ideally around 10 to make at least two purchases. Having more than 10 gold
is often very impactful with certain shops. As for shops themselves, your very first shop will be
either Strength, HP or Potion Shop. After that, any kind of shop can appear. It generally depends on
your current situation which one is the best. There are few shops which are suited for any situation.

“The best defence is a good offence!“ “The best offence is a good defence!”
Both shops are generally good. A lot of death-rattle minions tend to have higher attack while wall
minions higher HP. Depending on what you are looking for, you can choose one of these shops to
improve one of their stats. These two shops stop appearing after you reach level 5. Instead of those
two you then get Portrait Shop which improves both stats.

“Every memory has its own unique

colour. *hic* Wanna see yours?”
This is the best shop that you can find. Early in the run you can
boost two or even three minions just by few purchases. Later in
the run you can improve your whole board depending on how
much gold you have. If you’re not sure which shop to visit, try
out this one!
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“B-b-buy two, g-g-get one free!”

This shop can give you one or a couple of random tickets. If you
have a lot of gold in hand, you can potentially find the right
match to get the gold minion and as such produce more tickets.
If not, then getting minions of your current level can be helpful.
Question: How much is “a lot of gold”?
Answer: 15 or more. Having around 10 gold is still enough for
couple of purchases. Having over 20 gold is a luxury that is
going to give you a lot of advantage.

“Two companions and one additional surprise!”

This shop can give you one or a couple of random equipment
cards. If you have a lot of gold in hand, this can be a great way
of producing equipment cards. You can also sell these later if
they are not needed.

“May the light guide your way forward!”

This shop can give you one or a couple of random upgrade
rewards. If you have a lot of gold in hand, this can provide a lot
of helpful tools to improve your board. The higher level you are,
the better effects you can get.
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“The right equipment allows you to do more with less.”

If you feel pretty confident with your current board, you can
purchase equipment to improve it even further. You can try
finding equipment that provides madness, strengthen or AoE
attack.

“Don’t underestimate the true value of an

item, just because of its low price. Prrrrr!”
This shop can come at the right moment when you don’t have a
lot of gold in hand and would like to purchase some minions. If
your deck relies on producing minions and selling them, then
this shop can become extremely powerful as you can just keep
buying and selling minions over and over again. If you have a
lot of gold in hand and your deck does not rely on buying and
selling a lot of minions, consider if the other shop is more suited
for your current situation.

“Genuine items at fair prices. We

never overcharge our customers.”
If you’re looking for some powerful upgrade rewards or
equipment, this is the shop for you. It always presents one
minion, one equipment and one upgrade reward. With that said,
if you are in a desperate need for minions, then maybe this shop
is not the right one at that moment.
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“Everyone wishes that I could make

their frames… well… more perfect.”
If you’re looking for minions that deal damage through other
effects like first hand, death-rattle or as a reaction to other
minions dying, then consider visiting this shop to improve their
offence. Embed minions also work great with this shop as they
can give that strengthen to other minion.

“I know what you want.”

This is a unique shop which takes into consideration your
current board. Upon entering, it presents you with minions of
the faction that you have the most present on board. This can be
really helpful if you rely on one of faction’s playstyles like
summoning dead with Ghost or death-rattle Machine. Take this
shop if you are looking for minions from one faction. If you
have got two factions with equal number of minions, the shop is
going to pick a random one.

“Want to see some extraordinary magic?”

This is another unique shop much like Black Market. Once
again, it takes into consideration your current board, but this
time the very first offer presents you with three minions that you
already have on board regardless of your current level. After you
reset the shop, you don’t get such offer. If you’re looking for a
specific match to get the gold minion, consider taking this shop.
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“Do you want a star of your own?”

Arguably the most RNG depended shop in the game. The way it
works is that once you sell a minion, a random one in the shop
turns into a minion of one star higher. If you buy two minions,
leave a single one in the shop and then start selling, you can
potentially get a good 5 star or even 6 star minion when you’re
at just floor 8. Minions that provide some kind of permanent
effect like Trapped Octopus or Dream Tree are fantastic
purchases in this shop. You can also find a big minion with
strong keywords like Crocodile or Lord of Souls which you can
then power up with other effects like growth. For the most
impactful outcome, you need to be at level 3, have at least 7
gold in hand and additional one or more minions to sell. On
higher floors with higher level it becomes easier to fish for 6 star
minions. Selling minions from the field is a desperate act which
is very risky. Generally this shop requires a little bit of
knowledge, so it might not be for everyone. With some practice
and experience, you can achieve a very powerful effect with this
shop, but it is okay to skip it if you don’t feel comfortable with
too much RNG. If other option doesn’t help you either, you can
use this shop as if it was a regular one, ignoring its selling
gimmick. Just beware when you are about to sell something.

“Offence and defence are equally important!”

This is a rare shop that you can find only if you are at level 5 or
6. If the other shop does not help your current situation or if you
are not sure which one to choose, then this is the safest option.
 25

Chapter 5. - Stages of a run

Here’s a guide for completing a run on difficulty 10 with no life lost. This is an achievement called
Ultimate challenge. Difficulty 10 features 20 floors and 7 shops. You also need to choose 4 factions.
Prior difficulties come with less floors and less required factions, but about the same strategy. The
goal of this guide is not to tell you “exactly” how to play the game, but just to give you an idea of
how to deal with the randomness and how to use RNG in your favour. It might take at least 50 tries
to get it right, but practice makes us learn.

1. Beginning
Floors 1-4
While it may seem like a self explanatory stage, there’s actually some strategy that helps you
establishing the main board in the next stage. You can either purchase only one minion (so called a
starter) and keep it until the first shop, or purchase two and then maybe follow it with Potion Shop
which gives +1/+1 per purchase. The main reason for this is trying to keep around 10 gold for the
first shop, which makes the next stage more flexible.

Types of starts
A. Lonely starter – Purchase a starter minion. This minion is going to deal with everything in the
first four floors. On floor 3, check the enemy side to see what enemies are there. This is the right
time to convert your gold into exp and get an upgrade reward to help your single minion dealing
with the threat. If your minion has higher attack, it’s generally better to give it more HP and vice
versa. Make sure to check the enemy side with magnifying glass icon, it is very valuable
information! Against resurrecting and shield enemies, you want to make sure the minion has enough
stats to deal with both threats.

Floor 1: Buy Lumberjack Floor 2: Do nothing. Floor 3: Upgrade and Floor 4: Lumberjack is strong enough to
power up Lumberjack deal with both threats
 26

B. Two is better than one – Purchase a starter minion. If the second floor has the copy of your
starter minion, purchase it as well. These two companions shall work together and potentially get an
early ticket. The third and fourth floor might not have the third copy of the starter, but that’s
completely okay. These two should be able to deal with floor 3. In floor 4 convert gold into exp and
use your upgrade reward accordingly.

Floor 2: Buy second Lusty Quagmire Floor 3: Do nothing Floor 4: Upgrade and use the reward to
either power up Lusty Quagmire or get
additional exp. This fight is no problem

Question: What minions are best starters? Are there any I should avoid?
Answer: Among great picks you have got Lumberjack, Robot, Magical Sapling, Lusty Quagmire,
Wandering Spirit, Ghostly Treasure Chest, Flame Whelp and Draconic Speaker.
Minions Sentry, Patient Spider, Mechanical Teddy, Headless Walker and Bleached Bone Whelp can
also work although they might be replaced later or require too much effort to be made reliable.
Minions that can be afforded after second floor (in case you need some kind of help on floor 2) are
Fisherman, Wolf Puppy and Pumpkin Scout.
Avoid minions Portrait and Defensive Turret, those are not strong starters. Portrait doesn’t hold up
after the first stage and Defensive Turret works better if purchased from Magic Gallery.
 27

C. Golden starter – With more factions included, this is the least likely start you’re going to get,
but it is the most beneficial one. It follows the previous steps, with the exception of finding the third
copy of your starter on floor 3. Thanks to this action you get a free ticket, but don’t open it just yet!
The golden minion should be able to handle floor 3, but once you get to floor 4, convert gold into
exp and then open your ticket. You’ll get a much better minion from it. You may use upgrade
reward if you want, or keep it until the first shop to see what you get offered.

Floor 3: buy third Robot Floor 3: Put golden Robot on field. Do not Floor 4: Convert gold into exp and open
open your ticket your ticket. Use the minion and reward
afterwards

Question: If I follow the B start and happen to find the third copy on floor 4, should I go for it?
Answer: Yeah! You should have enough gold for the third purchase and converting gold into exp for
better ticket reward.

2. Establishing the main board

Floors 5-10
This is the stage where you fill your board with minions and then strengthen the offence. In the first
shop purchase at least couple of minions. Those can be 1 star or 2 stars, with 2 stars often offering
better effects. Minions that produce others with entry effect are viable choices. You shouldn’t force
any kind of strategy just yet, only look for minions that you think have some kind of survivability or
offer some kind of buff. It may look like a random mix of factions, but as long as they have high
stats or at least one interaction between each other (for example Forest Hunter reacts to entry
minions), then it’s a good setup. On the following floors, you may purchase minions that either help
you getting an early gold minion (can be either 1 or 2 stars with a worthy effect), or help you
buffing one or two others. Look for minions that can help your early game. Be it a support (exp,
gold, attack or HP) or a big fighter. Ideally find a way to get to level 3 before floor 8.
 28

My floor 5 event is going to be HP I managed to turn Lusty Quagmire gold Floor 6: I get second copy of Piranha
Workshop and found early Drunkard Plant and Dirk equipment

I convert my gold into exp to reach level 3 Floor 8 event is going to be Fairy Shop I found and used some entry minion and
before floor 8 put down Forest Watchman. I keep one
minion I purchased in hand
 29

I managed to turn another minion gold and Floor 10 is when I start making some I sell one minion to use entry minions in
found another equipment and Chameleon tough decision my hand

Creating golden minions of level 1-3 is easier in this stage rather than later.

3. Looking for the main strategy

Floors 11-17
This is the stage where you should look for something that can establish your main strategy of the
deck. This is where level 4 and 5 comes in. Creating golden minions in this stage makes this search
a little easier, although it is not required. Even your starting board can still fight, as long as they
have enough attack and HP. Selling minions that started in your second stage may also occur more
often so they can be replaced with much more powerful minions. Here you can apply one or more
strategies showcased in chapter 3. You can even buy cards and keeping them in hand so they can be
used later for either getting a golden minion, selling some minion on board once they prove to be
useless later or using a powerful effect of equipment in the most desperate situation. Saving gold
before the next shop event is going to help a lot.

Question: My board is already perfect! I don’t need anything!

Answer: I would not be so sure about that. Sure, it can clear out these floors no problem, but be
prepared for the future. If the board is destroying enemies no problem, that’s a great opportunity for
saving gold so you can use event shops more effectively!

Question: Keeping cards in hand? What if I need them on board?

Answer: If you have a copy of minion already on board, you don’t need a second one. That card is
perfectly okay to keep in hand even for multiple floors. You should eventually find the third copy.
Cards like Energy Drink should be saved for the best possible moment so its effect is not wasted.
 30

Floor 11: I chose Potion Shop event in This is my floor 11 board On floor 12 I found an AOE card, so I can
hopes of finding entry minions replace Lusty Quagmire if I so choose

Floor 13 shop fits perfectly for my And this is where a lucky ticket offered Currently my main strategy is Piranha
strategy so far me Treasure Hunter Plant and Drunkard being big fighters
with Vengeful Sprite being a support wall
 31

On floor 15 between Peace Hut and Magic Sometimes you might end up with a lot of I trust these minions are strong enough
Gallery I chose the one that offers minions cards in hand and no clue what to replace against this threat

On floor 16 I found some other useful Floor 17 is Mystery Box and I finally Here I found Dream Tree which helps in
equipment and decided to use one of my reached level 6 selling minions and Blessed Warrior that
Flower Sprites ended up being my high HP wall
 32

4. Improving the win condition

Floors 18-20
Now that your board is fully prepared, it’s time to finish it with some details like trying to assemble
the high level golden minions or finding powerful equipment. Getting to level 6 is definitely an
advantage, but it is not required to successfully finish a run with no life lost. Your board might end
up with nothing but level 4 or higher minions, or you still have a starter minion with big stats. You
might have all golden minions, or maybe luck was not on your side and you have some grey
minions. All of this can still result in a successful run, provided that you find the right tools to deal
with other obstacles (like with shield, pierce or sweep).

Question: What if I don’t find the third copy of a minion I want? I keep refreshing the shop and the
minion is not there!
Answer: I have had cases where I wasn’t able to find the third copy either at floor 20. My advice
would be paying attention to other offers such as other minions or high star equipment. Even an
AOE equipment is going to help you more than wasting 3 gold for empty refreshes.

Question: Are there any videos showcasing the run that you just described?
Answer: Yes! I have a YouTube channel called “SailorRaybloomDZ” where I upload my runs in the
collection “Memory in the Mirror.” It’s got over 30 videos by the time I am writing this.

A big surprise awaited me when I decided I decided to clone Hurricane Staff Now my Blessed Warrior gains a lot of
to purchase Cloaning Device attack thanks to Flower Sprite and
Drunkard
 33

My last event on floor 19 is General Store Final shop provided me final materials to And with that I claim my victory!
where I hope for good upgrade rewards improve my board

General tips
Learn as many cards as possible. I know that the learning process can be tedious, especially in
video games, but when trying to complete the Ultimate challenge, having some sort of knowledge is
going to give you a lot of advantage in the run itself. At the start of the game you can choose any 4
factions you want, so use those that you are most familiar with.

One big fighter is valuable in any deck. Even if you go for strategy such as death-rattle or first
hand ranged, having one big fighter somewhere on the board is going to cover any unfortunate rolls
either in shops or even combat itself.

Have at least one AOE attack. Be it a minion or an equipment, there are going to be enemy
formations with lots of shields. Instead of brute force, why not just get rid of one big problem with a
single solution? Granted, the equipment AOE cards are 4 star, but even ranged damage can help you
destroy few shields to make combat a little easier.

No need to rush your game. Just take your time, look through magnifying glass a couple of times,
plan out your minion formation carefully. Speed comes with practice and even then, sometimes
pausing for a second can help you recognizing the problem of the current floor.

Question: What’s the difference between choosing factions and “Randomly add” option?
Answer: Randomized start gives a small challenge where you have to figure out which factions you
were given. That can be figured out on floors 1-5 by observing the shops. After that the run plays
out like normal. Aside from replay value, you don’t get anything from completing this kind of run.
 34

Thanks for reading my guide! I hope you learnt

something new and I wish you good luck in your game!
SailorRaybloomDZ