Deck of Ashes: 100% Achievement Guide and some Tips

Ah, card battles. Such a turnbased joy and with a spice of comedy-horror.
Just my piece of cake.

The game is also very entertaining, each character has it owns mechanics and bosses also have their quirks and traits, all in all, you’ll spend hours figuring out the best way to approach runs with each of the 5 characters available.

The game is hard enough to be challenging but not to be frustrating so its a very good balance, it is pretty buggy but I didnt encounter any gamebreaking bugs.

There are no missable achievements but some will require to finish the game multiple times, like 20 times! A run is about 4 hours give or take.

Game Mechanics
The game is different from other card battlers in the sense that most cards are consumed on use and each character has its way to getting the cards from the discard pile back into the draw pile.

After each battle, you get your rest points back to full, dont worry about saving them.

You can right click on a card to easier reading.

Each trader at the camp uses a different resource to upgrade their shop, you can use the merchant to exchange these resources in case you really need that shop upgrade fast.
Ash is used to craft cards from recipes bought for gold but its also used to upgrade cards.

Each action (moving or mining a resource) costs a turn which is called an hour in game, portals have cooldowns which take hours.

Each node can be mined for resources but only once, you can mouseover to the node and it will say if the resources there are depleted or not along with how many, the nodes at the outer edges of the map give more than the ones close to camp.

Time does not stop in dungeons but the chapter boss will only get a bit closer (like one step closer) while you explore them and then exit, so you dont need to rush the exploration.

Ive never seen the chapter boss get closer after opening a chest or mining resources, I’ve only seen it moving after moving from node to node.

On the upper right side of the map, you can click the tent icon button to travel back to camp from anywhere on the map using the “travel stone”, there is a 20 turn cooldown after you do this and camp upgrades can be bought to reduce it.

You will be automatically teleported back to camp before the chapter’s boss fight.

If a card has a ghostly blue hue it means its Fragile and will disappear from your decks at the end of battle or when its discarded.

Common cards have white diamonds on top, blue for rare and golden for epics.
Card rarity determines craft, gold, renewal costs and also loot placements, two key chests have rares while boss chests and 3 key chests have epics.

You can right click on a potion to remove it from the slot so you can take a new one that you find in a chest.

On campaigns
The tutorial is very good and teahes you the basics, you should do it.

There are 3 main campaigns, the main campaign, the DLC campaign and the badlands campaign, Each has its own achievements to hunt and type of monsters, I suggest you start on a normal main campaign run to familiarize you with the game and then jump to martyr to test the waters.

There is no downsides of starting in Draft mode, you can build your own cool deck but if you rather start fast, go standard I suppose.

Chapters are randomly generated and it determines the type of enemy and boss you will face.
You will do 3 random chapters then chapter 4 is the valley of death.
A run takes about 3 to 5 hours depending on how fast you play and how many fights you do.

The DLC campaign is like the normal one but you can only choose the Dark Soul.
Camp is fully upgraded and you cant draft or mine for resources, there is also no chapter boss coming to get you so you need to kill 4 dungeon bosses instead.

The Badlands campaign mode does not have difficulty or draft options and its a more linear challenge than the normal campaign it also has its own achievements to achieve.
There are no camp upgrades and traits are bought with ash not gold.
This mode is good to get the “Upgrade X cards” achievements out of the way.

You cant craft cards but you can buy them or get them from chests, so dont think of cards as recipes since they will go directly to your deck!

You will need to defeat 3 map bosses then the final boss.
Each boss you defeat will give you a beneficial effect that lasts all run.
To complete, you’ll need to complete 3 maps, there is no final boss.
Run takes around 2 to 4 hours.

On character selection for achievements
You will need to do 4 runs per character at minimum.
Some achievements need plugins which cost points which you get by playing the game.
Only the Pyro and the Rogue have achievements tied to their plugins (see plugin section)
It is advised to play Warrior and Jester first then DLC Dark Soul if you have her so you can get points, after all 12 of their runs you should have enough points to buy Pyro’s and Rogue’s plugin decks to use on their runs.

New Chapter
Once you finish a chapter and start a new one do note:
*The resurrection rite effect still applies if not used.
*All your cards are renewed for free, you might want to pay gold to burn some ash cards to make the first battles easier.

Before facing the boss of chapter 3, use up all your gold and resources!
There is no camp on Chapter 4.
No use buying the resurrection rite, you will be dispelled.
There is only the boss fight here.
All your cards will also be put in the ash pile which might be very good or very bad.
All bonus stats bought from herbalist will also be removed.
You get to keep your trait which is nice.
Your “renew on strain” card will be removed, instead, you will get a card that randomly renews from ash pile so make sure you have at least 1 or 2 Discard cards to get rid of non-playables.

At the end of the game, you will get tokens based on your performance, including traits, stats bought, recipes crafted, teleports used, chests opened, enemies killed.

You can use these points to unlock special things in the treasury screen accessed through the main menu, everytime you enter the treasury, the options get randomized. it might be a good idea to only buy things you really want to keep the chances of unwanted cards showing up randomly.

Plugins are also bought with said points, you will need some of those for a few achievements.

On upgrades
I recommend starting with the Merchant’s Exchange Rate so you can freely convert any resource into another, then the ash master’s meditation to get free cards to keep or sell.

Using the gold you can buy the BlackSmith’s Trait and the Herbalist Stat boosts. Gold will also help you buy the recipes you need for your build and dismantle cards that your build does NOT need.

After that, rest point increase or free neutral care renewal would be nice.

Tips
You can burn cards in camp so they can start in your Ash pile, this way you can start battles with their bonuses, it costs some money but if you dont have cards that discard other cards, this is your only option.

Ash card effects stack, which is pretty cool and a viable deck build.

if you mess up a battle and feel you are about to die, you can exit to main menu and reload to restart the fight.

Be warned, if you use the resurrection rite, when you resurrect you will lose half your resources and all your recipes unless you have ash master upgraded. Dont die!

Crafting at the camp with the blacksmith is cheaper than using the tent outside.

These achievements pop-up from killing enough enemies or running enough dungeons.
Nothing too complicated here.
Each run’s chapters are random and tend to have more battles of one type than any other.
If you’re looking to finish a specific monster type grind, you can restart runs until you get a chapter that fvors the type you’re looking for.

Dungeons are special map nodes that let you go into a dungeon and explore for traps, altars and treasure until you find the boss, kill it and get the final chest.

Let’s take a look inside
Complete the Dungeon for the first time

Treasure Hunter I
Complete 5 dungeons

Treasure Hunter II
Complete 10 dungeons

Treasure Hunter III
Complete 15 dungeons

No one can beat me!
Complete the Dungeon on Heroic difficulty
*On Chapter 2 or above, you can choose an Heroic dungeon instead of a normal one when going into the dungeon, Heroic dungeons have more enemies per fight and higher level too so they will mess you up, be very careful! Achievement will pop when you finish looting the boss chest.

Cursebreaker I
Kill 250 enemies.

Cursebreaker II
Kill 500 enemies.

Cursebreaker III
Kill 1500 enemies.

Beastmaster I
Kill 50 Beasts.

Beastmaster II
Kill 100 Beasts.

Beastmaster III
Kill 250 Beasts.

Manslayer I
Kill 50 Humans.

Manslayer II
Kill 100 Humans.

Manslayer III
Kill 250 Humans.

Soul Calmer I
Kill 50 Ghosts.

Soul Calmer II
Kill 100 Ghosts.

Soul Calmer III
Kill 250 Ghosts.

Exorcist I
Kill 50 Demons.

Exorcist II
Kill 100 Demons.

Exorcist III
Kill 250 Demons.

Found in Dire Swamp.

Undertaker I
Kill 50 Undead.

Undertaker II
Kill 100 Undead.

Undertaker III
Kill 250 Undead.

Mostly found in Dire Swamp.

Decontamination I
Kill 50 Infestors.

Decontamination II
Kill 100 Infestors.

Decontamination III
Kill 250 Infestors.

Poacher I
Kill 50 sea monsters

Poacher II
Kill 100 sea monsters

Poacher III
Kill 250 sea monsters

These achievements need runs to be completed with a specific character or condition.
Difficulty achievements fall into this section and they DO NOT stack.
That means you’ll need to do at least 4 runs for each character: 3 difficulties and a badlands one.

Difficulty modifies the run as stated in-game but also increases Strain damage from the renewal card. I didnt feel you needed to do Heroic dungeons to win Martyr runs, I did normal ones and final boss wasnt hard, if my deck was strong enough, I even skipped chapter 3’s dungeons altogether.
———

First Blood
Die for the first time.

Reborn in Flames
Resurrect after being defeated.
*At the camp, you can pay gold to do a resurrection rite which will allow you to resurrect if you get defeated, you can’t do this on martyr difficulty.

The End of Prophecy
Complete the Epilogue

*To access the epilogue, you’ll need to complete story mode of each playable character which will open up epilogue runs when starting a new game.
———

A Weary Traveler I
Complete 5 runs on any difficulty.

A Weary Traveler II
Complete 10 runs on any difficulty.

A Weary Traveler III
Complete 20 runs on any difficulty.
———

Purist
Complete the game never owning more than 15 cards (except Fragile and Ailment cards)
*You can dismantle cards to open space then craft new ones but your total cards cant go above 15.
Having recipes does not count as owning cards.
Did this with a Shield-Domination-Empower Warrior Build.

Giant Slayer
Defeat 4 Badland’s Bosses in a single playthrough.

*You will need to choose a boss path at least once.
Move the map and find the path that leads to a boss before the boss cave.

Burned Badlands
Complete the Badlands as a Pyromancer

Serpent’s Badlands
Complete the Badlands as a Rogue

Bestial Badlands
Complete the Badlands as a Warrior

Enslaved Badlands
Complete the Badlands as a Jester

???
Complete the Badlands as a |Dark Soul

—-Character Campaign Achievements—–

A Little Spark
Complete a Pyromancer run on Wanderer difficulty.

A Ravenous Flame
Complete a Pyromancer run on Adventurer difficulty.

The New Sun
Complete a Pyromancer run on Martyr difficulty.

Beginner Thief
Complete a Rogue run on Wanderer difficulty.

Maniac with Experience
Complete a Rogue run on Challenger difficulty.

Incarnation of Vengeance
Complete a Rogue run on Martyr difficulty.

Rookie
Complete a Warrior run on Wanderer difficulty.

Dog of War
Complete a Warrior run on Adventurer difficulty.

Beast Commander
Complete a Warrior run on Martyr difficulty.

Jester
Complete a Jester run on Wanderer difficulty.

Harlequin
Complete a Jester run on Adventurer difficulty.

Mr. J
Complete a Jester run on Martyr difficulty.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_7
Complete a Dark Soul run on Wanderer difficulty.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_8
Complete a Dark Soul run on Adventurer difficulty.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_9
Complete a Dark Soul run on Martyr difficulty.

Boss enemies appear after 2 or 3 days after you are roaming the map.
Bosses scale with the chapter you find them at.

You might also find these bosses in Badlands mode and if you kill them there, it also counts for the achivement.

Hooked
Kill Leviathan.
*Found in Aqueous Lands
This boss has a passive attack that debuffs you eac turn in a random way.
You either discard all your cards at the end of the turn.
50% Chance of Reflecting back Strike damage (dangerous)
*Play only 3 cards
He also has an attack that deals double damage if you dont have any cards on hand, can be shielded.

Disinfection
Defeat the Primordial Miasma.
*Found in Dire Swamp.
Uses poison and ailments, it takes damages when you heal yourself.

Ghostbuster
Defeat the Soul Guide.
*Found in Exile’s Haven
This guy will try to add cards to your hand and force you to play his cards or you’ll get extra damage, he has a move that hits you for triple your max mana so it might be a good idea to ignore using those shards. This means you’ll draw less cards and will have less mana to work with each turn. He has high dodge. If you have shield, you can nullify his max mana attack.

Dethronement
Defeat King Octavius, the False God.
*Found in Human Kingdom
He likes to summon and apply bleed.

A Deal of Century
Defeat the Crossroads Keeper.
*Found in Devil’s Abode
This demon makes your ash cards go to the battle deck at the start of each turn, super annoying.
Likes to burn, bleed or poison. He also gives you some beneficial fragile cards that you can toy with.

Genome Reset
Defeat the Mutated Ancestor.
*Found in Forbidden Grove

A Tower of Bones
Defeat the Bone Giant.
*Found in Burial Grounds
Gives you a card called close position, if used, you get hit for 40 damage.
Loses HP every turn.
One shotted the thing with a 18card greater sacrifice, haha.

Bad Santa
Kill Crampus
*Crampus replaces Lady Death as the final boss of a campaign when you enable his plugin.

These achievements need you to do something specific in a battle or win/lose a battle in a specific way. You dont need a specific character for these but some are easier with certain characters than others.

Succumb to the Curse
Kill yourself with an Ash Pact.
*If you run out of cards to draw from your deck, you will get the Ash pact card which will renew a few cards into your deck at the cost of your HP, if you die while doing this, you’ll get this achievo.

Last Chance
Win the battle with 5 or less HP remaining.
*Easy to do if you can keep an enemy 1 hit away from dying then do some strains/wait for enemy damage to lower your HP before you win the battle.

Bloody Madness
Kill 3 opponents with Bleed for 1 combat.

Toxic Madness
Kill 3 opponents with Poison for 1 combat.
*Easier done with Jester

Nimble Killer
Draw cards 50 times in 1 battle.
*You can easily do this against Lady Death in the final fight.

Bite Them All to Death
Kill 3 opponents with Strike Ash cards in 1 battle.
*Cards that have both the Ash and Strike properties count for this, basically, the enemy has to die at the end of the turn because of the card, some enemies spawn other enemies by summon or death, I got it by killing a dude, it spawned a skeleton, end turn, killed that, then killed the one on the backrow with the ash card effect and this unlocked.

Ultra-Execution
Kill 3 opponents with 1 Strike attack in 1 battle.
*Not sure how it happened but I used a Strike card that does damage (Cindering Ring) and also discards a card and all 3 enemies on the screen died because of the Discard effect because I had like 8 Offensive Ash cards that triggered on Discard killing every enemy.

Ultimate Infestation
Have 20 or more Ailments in your Battle Deck.
*The Pyro has a card called potion of sloth that introduces 2 ailment cards to your deck, use this potion 10 times. Upgrade your renew on strain card so you can choose 5 cards to renew, the potion should be one of those, keep the ailments on the ash deck, when you start a new chapter, all ailment cards will be renewed for free and if you have 20 or more, when you start your first battle on the new chapter, this achievement will pop.

Ashbringer
Have 10 Ash cards in your Deck of Ashes.
*Just build a deck with lots of cards that give you ash bonuses while in the discard pile(ash pile).
This will trigger once you put 10 cards into the ash pile.

Egoist
Heal yourself for at least 50 HP in one round.
*Did it with the Ring of Purity(Treasury bought,heals 40 hp) + Pauldron(heals 10hp).

Loquacious Flame
Play 5 or more copies of Incineration in a single turn.
You need to buy this card from the Treasury, its for Pyro.
It costs 10 mana -1 for each burn applied to the enemy.

You could use Burnout to make its cost 0 then with 2 copies and 2 “Ash Pact+” that lets you choose which cards to renew, coupled with 2 “draw 3 cards” cards and that would give you 6 shots, make sure you find an enemy or enemies that can survive the onslaught, if only 1 enemy, you will need then to have at least 281HP((2+5)*40+1), you can find an enemy with lots of HP, an enemy with summons or an enemy that heals.

Power Overwhelming
Deal 100 damage or more with Critical Mass.
You must buy this card for 440 points in the treasury.
Its damage is equal to the Mana Cost of all cards in the battle deck.
Even though it says its a strike, it is NOT affected by Scrolls of Combustion.

I bought and crafted all cards I found with mana costs of 2 or more during chapter 2 and 3 and got it with around 60 cards.

So epic cards with high cost is your best bet to get this, Incinerate has a cost of 10, 4 or 5 of these puppies will go a long way to get that 100 damage. There is a boss that has a move that you can deal double damage to him in a turn, not sure if that would work for this.

Preparation Master
Play 5 Ash cards for 1 battle.
*Rogue Ash cards have the Preparation keyword, play 5 of them into the ash pile in a single battle.

Copy Machine
Play 10 Echo cards for 1 battle.
*Just spam Healing Bracelet until you get it, if you can make the card Phoenix, it’ll be easier.

Faster than Shadow
Increase your Speed to 15 when Stealth is applied on you.
*Rogue has a lot of speed cards, just go into stealth when you reach speed 15.
Tactical Retreat and Sprint are good cards for this.

A Favorite of the Shadows
Reflect back 40 or more damage with the Shadow Assistant card for 1 strike.
*Rogue has a card that you start all battles with called Shadow Assistant, it reflects a Strike from an enemy, you will need to reflect back a huge strike. Skeletons when you heal, can get strength boosts and do that kind of insane damage but I did it against Spirit Guide Boss once my Max MP was high enough.

Mass Inflammation
Kill 3 opponents with Inflammation in 1 battle.

Hunt Master
Play 4 different Mark cards in 1 battle.

Strength of the Beast
Increase your Strength to 10 points in 1 battle.
*Easily done with 3 empowering protection and a shield card.

Unleash
Discard 5 Ash cards in 1 turn.
*Have 5 Ash cards in the battle deck then shuffle cards until you have them in your hand, then use Ash Scar to discard them.

Absolute Erasure
Kill 3 opponents with Feral Ravage in a single attack.
*Feral Savage is an ability that is given by a collar Trait that deals 35 damage to all enemies, did it by fighting a monster that summoned eggs and keeping the summoner below 35 HP then waiting for the rage to explode.

Unarmed Slayer
Kill 3 opponents in one battle by dispelling their curses.

Living Anger
Keep the Phantom alive for 6 turns.
*The Phantom has 75HP and loses 25HP every time it attacks, there is a trait that doubles his HP, buy the phantom heal card and use it on it once, the epic card Stable illusion would also help.

Mass Curse
Play 3 different types of curse cards in one battle.

Master of Low Sweeps
Reduce the speed of 3 opponents to 5 in one battle.
*Curses reduce speed by 1 each. To the left of the enemy HP bar there is an (i), click there to check speed, curse 3 diff enemies until you get this, did it against Octavius’s minions.

Mind Master
Apply 3 obediences in one turn.
*The epic card Master of Chaos applies obedience to all enemies, find a fight with 3 of them and apply.

Deadly Volcano
Perform 3 eruptions in one battle.
*Eruption cards can be found in the standard deck.

*Yeah… you most probably came here to find more info about these.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_10
*You need to kill 3 enemies with 1 shot of Piercing Shot.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_11
*You need to summon six skeletons in one battle.
You can use the card Bone Lance to destroy them quickly so you can summon another one.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_12
*You need to kill 3 enemies in one battle by ùsing the card “Devour Life” which gives you life when you kill a summoned enemy (like sea eggs).

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_13
*You need to raise your speed to 15 in a single battle, you can use upgraded stats, skills, traits or potions.

NEW_ACHIEVEMENT_NAME_15_14
*Apply Hysteria 6 times in a single battle.

When you are starting a new game, you can click on the plugin square banner to enter a meny to buy and activate plugins, some of these plugins have achievements tied to them and they do say they have achievements in their individual description.

The plugins available depend on which character you selected, so the Pyro has certain ;plugins and the Rogue has another ones.

Halloween Carnival
Kill 6 Human opponents in the Town.
*You will need to buy the halloween card pack using points (9000) to activate this option.

Bad Santa
Kill Crampus
*Crampus replaces Lady Death as the final boss of a campaign when you enable his plugin.

*Rogue only.
You’ll need 35,000 points to unlock all rogue-exclusive achievements.
For the achievements that need to craft cards, just keep the recipes before finishing chapter 3 and craft them before the final fight, you need to have the cards in your deck after winning.

The Black Serpent
Expand the ability of Sly, turning to the Shadows.
*You need to buy the Silent Shadow pack (12000 pts) and have all four different cards on your deck at the moment of finishing the run.
Cards are:

• Unseen Strike
• Multiplying Dagger
• Shadow Support (Rare)
• We are Legion (Epic)

Elusive Predator
Track down your prey!
You need to buy the Ancient Scrolls deck in the plugins (11000 points) then in a single run, craft all 5 different cards and have them in your deck at the end score screen, you can find them like normal cards, chests, loots, merchant.
Cards are:

• Snake-like agility
• Rattling Tail
• Sudden Strike (You cant craft this one since Rattling Tail gives you them)
• Anaconda Grip (Rare)
• Shed Skin (Epic)

Advanced Alchemy
Use any items from the Alchemy Mastery event 6 times in a single playthrough.
*In chests and the store, you can find enw types of potions, use six of them during a single run and get this achievement, the pack costs 12000pts.

*Pyro only.
You will need 44000 points to activate all achievement plugins.

Lightbringer
Fight Ice Giant and bring the light ray to the cursed world
*You need to kill an Heroic Dungeon Boss while this plugin is enabled.(12000pts)

Pyrobite
Steal 60 Health from opponents in one battle.
*You dont need to do it in a single attack.(12000pts)

Rage of the Three
Feel the Rage of the Three.
*Have 3 of these cards in your ash pile in battle.(11000pts)

Purple Evolution
Get 3 Purple Plagues
*You need to have 3 purple plague cards in your deck, you can only get this ailment from the swamp location effect which gives you a 10% chance to give a random ailment at turn’s end.
(9000pts)

Face the Devil
Craft Inferno.

*A epic Pyro card that you can find being sold or in chests, I found mine in a dungeon boss chest.
You need 666 ashes to craft this, so you better save up, it is pretty powerful.

if you get lucky, an altar effect bugs the crafting system and actually GIVES you ash for crafting, idk whats up with that, check it out:

Only the starter deck cards can be upgraded.
You cant do drafts in badland runs, so you might as well go for these on badland.

A Modest Bonfire
Have 5 upgraded Pyromancer cards in your Battle Deck.

Highway Bandit
Have 5 upgraded Rogue cards in your Battle Deck.

Sergeant
Have 3 upgraded Warrior cards in your Battle Deck.

Inventor of Pain
Have 5 upgraded Jester cards in your Battle Deck.

Just a few observations.

Ring of Purity is an mazing card, when you renew an Ash card, you heal 40, if you combine it with a card or trait that makes you inmune or resistant to Strain damage and the “Renew of Strain” upgrade that lets you choose which cards to renew, you’ll have a very strong draw base.
You can buy the ring with points in the treasury, use a Unholy Tome or Shield of Pride to discard the ash card back to the pile.

If you play with non-playable Ash cards you will need a way to Discard them at the finalb oss fight.

Wide Holster draws all cards with the same name, even if they have different upgrades up to the maximum hand of 10 cards.

Pyro
Reduce to Ashes synergizes very well with Potion of Sloth as long as you can choose which cards to renew, the more cards in your ash pile, the more damage you’ll deal, random renews should be avoided. It gets bad at the start of the chapters though when all ailments get renewed.

Sacrifice cards that discard your whole hand are good to quickly send ailments and ash cards to the discard pile, this card is essential if you randomly renew cards out of the ash pile they also work best with incineration and energy scrolls, Greater sacrifice works with this and can do huge damage/heals.

Greater sacrifice works well with scrolls of reincarnation if you have its buff on you when played, remember to have some discard effect buffs on you before playing it, you might want to have other discard cards to get some ash scrolls into the ash pile before playign sacrifice.

The Sacrificial Chalice trait will give you a card that autodiscards itself every turn, this will trigger ash cards that trigger on discard, very powerful with the right deck.

This video by Sampstra Games explains the 0 cost offensive Strain build.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1740332361

Rogue
You can practically be immortal with one decent health card and enough stealth cards.

If you have Borrowed Support there’s a chance you’ll get a Burnout or a Phoenix’s Feather which can give you a Phoenix Unseen Strike with 0 cost which you can draw on every round making you immortal.

Healing Bracelet is top-notch healing card, specially if you use Speed buffs, make it Phoenix for infinite heals.

You can use Phoenix’s Feather on your Shadow Assistant Fragile Card to keep it from being destroyed.

Stepwise Elimination + Phoenix + Burnout, it wont cost 0 but it’ll cost 3.

Sprint + Switf Strike or Deadly Momentum, speed maxes at 15 though.

Hand Trick/Wide Holster + Quick Throw or Any card that has an effect on Draw.
Hand Trick/Wide Holster + Throw Dagger(Secret Set) + Bleed
Non-combat Contact + above.

Warrior
If you pick to start with the Standard Deck, you can upgrade all your 5 Hilt Strike cards to be Ash cards that do 2-3 damage at end of turn, combo this with a mark.

Empowering Protection goes well with hard hitting cards like Domination and Wrath of the Ancestors. Buy the trait Path of Rage for even more damage and grab a few shield cards of course.

Ancient Ritual has phoenix, lifesteal and scales excellently with the cards above.

You could actually stunlock all enemies with a few Awe-Inspiring Might, just make sure you have a small deck so you can always renew those and draw one of them when the turn begins, stuns dont stack but in a turn, you can draw 2 stuns, use one and keep the other for the next turn.

Jester
Jester has the best lines, just saying.
“Should you kneel or should I cut your heel?”

The Jester shapeshifts every 3 rounds making certain cards cost less mana.
Check the icon on the upper left of the card, that’s the type fo card it is, the Jester starts in a curse-favored form which favors voodo-doll curse cards.

Obedience debuff replaces the enemy attack, so if the enemy is going to do something nasty, apply this to make him change his mind.

Curse of Vulnerability gives you shield and you can build a deck that has tons of Shield as defense and Activate Curse as Offense, comboed with Healing Balm or Curse of Health for heals.

A poison deck kills super fast, try it out.

Dark Soul
Very solid character and I think the fastest way to get points.
You can play her as an archer applying arrowhead effects, a necromancer buffing your skeleton summon or using hysteria to always do double damage.

You can upgrade the card Dead Shot to hit all enemies and apply arrowhead effects.

Boundless Grief Trait with Rise! and Bone Spear coupled with some arrow attacks that hit twice.

Necrophobia applies Hysteria if you have a summoned skeleton, Hysteria is a wonderful debuff to use before hitting for 100% more damage but at a cost of 2 mana, maybe its better to just shoot the enemy with something else.

Wave of Terror and Heat of Passion can give you lots of Strength against a bunch of enemies.

Using the trait that renews 1 non-ash card per fear or hysteria debuff, you can play Heat of Passion very often giving you ridiculous amounts of strength!

Every kill you make will summon a weak skeleton but if you tag it with a necroarrow, it will summon an average skeleton instead, you can use Bone Spear to damage an enemy, then finish it off with another attack to get your skelly back.

Just a small section with notes on the bugs I found.

If you find any of these bugs, exit the game to steam library then reload your save, it should fix it.
*If you cant upgrade shops even though you have the resources.
*If you cant see the amount of ashes in the resource bar at the bottom.
*If you cannot click the end turn button in a fight.
*If traits arent working in dungeons. (There is a dungeon effect that disables traits, check for it)
*if you cannot see the upgrade cards option at the blacksmith.
*if you click ESC and still see enemies on screen.

-*-
If restarting the game doesnt work, try verifying the files and as a last resort, reinstalling.

Cards with wrong descriptions or just not working as intended.

An upgraded Healing Balm says that it Draws 3 cards but only draws UP to a hand of Six, so if you have six cards and use this card, it will only draw 1 card.
-Pyro-
The Black Grimmoire Card made when you have 5 pages in the ash pile has the wrong description, it SWITCHES your discard pile with your battle deck, it does NOT trigger discard Ash effects, unless.. it first removes all ash cards from ash pile, then once you dont have any discard ash effect it discards the battle deck, then populates it. Maybe it can work with ash sphere.

Critical Mass does not get bonus damage from Scroll of Combustion even though its a Strike card.

-Warrior-
Domination gives back all mana after a kill even without having Battle Rush.

-Dark Soul-
Heat of Passion says it increases enemy’s Strength, but it actually increases yours.

https://youtu.be/ER8HiVKeGWA