Combat Deck & Explore Deck
Combat cards handle battles. Explore cards help you navigate dungeons, modify cards and unlock new abilities.
How it works
Use Combat cards to handle enemies and Explore cards to get through rooms. When choosing a reward, ask which half of your run needs help.
Example
An Explore card that improves an attack can make your next fight easier. Do not judge exploration rewards only by what they do in the current room.
Common mistake
Evaluating every card only by immediate combat damage.
Card growth
Cards can grow and be modified. Their initial form is not necessarily their final form.
How it works
Both starting cards and rare cards can grow or be modified. Read the card’s growth condition: different cards improve in different ways.
Example
When comparing your upgraded attack with a screenshot, compare the full text instead of assuming that a matching name means matching damage.
Common mistake
Assuming two cards with the same name still deal the same damage after upgrades.
Eating & healing
Enemies can become recovery: the game supports eating them for health and using roasted enemies in soups.
How it works
Read each food card for its healing amount and extra effects. Before making soup, check what ingredients it uses and what you get back.
Example
Before spending a food card, compare the recovery it offers now with the other uses your current hand explicitly allows.
Common mistake
Assuming every food restores the same amount or follows a recipe from an older build.
Foresight
Each launch character has a base Foresight card that changes how they play.
How it works
Read your character’s base Foresight alongside their starting cards. A card that helps trigger it can be worth more than an isolated damage upgrade.
Example
Before building around a trigger, check the Foresight shown for the character you selected.
Common mistake
Following a Demo unlock or carry-over guide without checking whether it applies to your game. This page does not yet cover every Foresight or how to unlock it.
Rest, Warmth & Threat
Treat exploration Rest as a resource refresh with a room-dependent risk, rather than a guaranteed heal.
In the runs used for this guide, exploration Rest restores energy and cycles cards, but staying in a room can increase danger. Check the room warning before resting again; warmth and hazards affect how long you can stay.
Before you rest
- Have a reason to stay. Name the tool or resource you need: a dig, an unlock, a reveal or a way to use a structure.
- Check the warning again. Look for predicted damage and objects that change when you rest. Do not assume that the previous turn’s safe state still applies.
- Use relevant protection first. If a card can add warmth or address the displayed hazard, check its target and cost before refreshing your hand.
- Keep an exit plan. Compare the possible reward with the health and tools needed to reach the next encounter.
The exploration Rest action is different from a card named Rest. Do not assume the action heals you just because a card does.
Energy
Check a card’s current cost against your available energy before committing to a sequence of plays.
When you run out
If you cannot afford an exploration tool, Rest may let you draw or play what you need. First check whether staying is worth the danger. Read the room warning before resting.
Example
Count the total cost of your planned plays, including any changed costs. Producing a useful card does not guarantee enough energy remains to play it this turn. Recheck after each cost change.
Common mistake
Spending all your energy setting up a combo, then having none left for the finisher. Count the whole sequence before playing the first card.
Fatal, Consume, Exhaust & Linger
These keywords tell you when an extra effect triggers and what happens to a card after you use it.
Fatal
A bonus tied to a killing hit.
Use other attacks to bring a target within the intended finisher’s range. Dealing damage without killing the target does not meet the stated fatal condition. The bonus depends on the card; it is not always healing or growth.
Consume
Consume destroys the card after use.
A consumed tool may solve the current obstacle but be unavailable later. Check whether you need to preserve it for another room. Consume does not by itself mean food or healing; read the rest of the effect before using it.
Exhaust
Exhaust removes a card for the encounter rather than deleting it from your run.
Do not plan to redraw an exhausted card later in the same fight. Inspect the actual tooltip before carrying that assumption into another type of encounter. Exhaust and Consume describe different availability limits.
Linger
Linger keeps a card in your hand at the end of the turn.
Keeping one part of a combination can let you wait for its partner. This does not mean the card is free to play or immune to other removal effects; check its full text.
Also inspect limited-use counters. A battery charge, a consumable tool and an exhausted card have different implications for later encounters.
Gunk, Data & Machines
Gunk can make affected cards more expensive. Cleaning can bring the cost back down, but some cards reward adding or removing Gunk. Check which effect you want to trigger before cleaning your whole hand.
Use Data to activate a Machine. Read the Machine’s effect before choosing a target: repeating a random attack will not guarantee a hit on the enemy you want to finish.
Before taking another Machine, check whether the deck has enough activation and draw to use it. Before taking a Gunk payoff, check whether the increased cost leaves the hand playable. See the Facility build checklist.
Why won’t Data activate Splatter Saw?
This can be a game bug. A September 11 launch-period report showed Data failing on Splatter Saw, and Team Lazerbeam acknowledged the problem.
If you hit the same issue, use another playable attack or Machine instead of spending the turn looking for an unstated combo requirement. The developer’s reply promised a fix but did not identify a fixed version.
If it still happens in your build, include a screenshot of both cards when reporting the issue. This report concerns Splatter Saw; it does not mean Data fails on every Machine.
Automatic saves
The game saves after you win a fight or escape a dungeon.
Common mistake
Quitting halfway through a fight may not preserve that exact moment. Finish the encounter before relying on the autosave.