Summary
- Forever Flame cuts unit costs, freeing up Ember for spells and buffs.
- Immortality Potion gives units endless life, saving gold on upgrades.
- Guild Marker reduces merchant prices by 25%, which is crucial for upgrades.
Despite how niche it may sound, there are a surprising number of games within the deck-building roguelike genre, each bringing its own spin on the idea of snappy, fast-paced runs and deep customization of decks. Within this genre, Monster Train has a unique aesthetic and a slew of interesting mechanics that help it stand out, alongside some interesting lore and a level of addictiveness that few games will match.
5 Best Co-Op Deck Builders
Deck builders are typically single-player affairs, which is why these co-op deck-building games are such a breath of fresh air in the genre.
Whether players are long-time veterans eager for the second game's arrival or completely fresh on the scene, the first thing all players will do when beginning a new run is encounter artifacts - powerful totemic items each imbued with a bit of Hell's history and - beyond this - some game-changing effects. However, not all artifacts are made equal, and there are some that truly rise to the top as essential picks in any run. In order to showcase the most broadly useful artifacts, this list just includes entries that can be picked by all clans, not clan-specific artifacts that interact with their unique mechanics.
9 Forever Flame
Making Units Cheaper Can Be Run-Defining
- Effect: Units cost -2 Embers.
The Forever Flame has a simple, straight-to-the-point effect. Like in other deck-building games, such as Slay the Spire, initial effects can be hugely influential later on, and getting this artifact early can be the bedrock of an entire deck. However, even getting this item later on still frees up plenty of room in a turn for powerful spells alongside creatures that would normally use up all the Embers of a given turn to cast.
The Forever Flame reduces unit costs by 2 Embers, which is not an insignificant amount. Many one or two-cost units, which can now be cast for free, synergize excellently with more expensive units, which can now be cast at a more reasonable cost, or thrown down first to get the effect of spells and buffs instead. This item just makes a run easier, universally, and there's very rarely a reason not to take this one.
8 Immortality Potion
Perpetual Units Are A Uniquely Overpowered Effect
- Effect: Friendly non-morsel units gain Endless.
Immortality has been the end goal of many wizards and nefarious necromancers across a slew of different titles, but in Monster Train, the secret to eternal life is just waiting to be picked up on a run, with some sort of ominous-looking object pickled in an equally ominous liquid.
The Immortality Potion gives units Endless, meaning they are put back on top of the draw pile if they die. This means players save gold on a fairly pricey upgrade that affords the same modifier individually and also means that their most powerful units can be relied on for the entirety of a battle.
7 Guild Marker
Who Doesn't Love A Discount?
- Effect: Reduces merchant prices by 25%.
The merchant is a deceptively powerful playstyle in many JRPGs and open-world titles, and it's no surprise that money talks just as loudly in Monster Train. Upgrading spells and units at merchants' holdouts is the bedrock to pretty much any build in this game, and that 25% discount really adds up.
Balatro Fans Can Get Six Steam Deckbuilders at a Steep Discount
Humble Bundle offers a selection of six highly rated deckbuilding games, a tempting proposition for fans of games like Balatro and Slay the Spire.
There's no way to sell units or artifacts back for money in Monster Train. If players are 5 gold short of getting that Largestone or Multistrike upgrade, it's tough luck, unfortunately. The train must ride on. Making prices that little bit cheaper can have profound effects on how successful a run is - or if it's a success at all.
6 Cracked Helmet
Trivializing Armor And Shields Can Be Huge
- Effect: Damage spells get piercing.
Part of Monster Train's popularity lies in just how many options there are to become truly overpowered. Gaming the system and abusing mechanics are by no means essential to victory, but for people who like big numbers, the Cracked Helmet is here to help.
Giving damage spells piercing so that it bypasses damage shields and armor means players can focus exclusively on upping the damage output of their spells, not sacrificing any upgrades or bloating their deck to give them piercing. It also means that the optional trials that give all enemies armor or damage/spell shields can be selected far more often, with spells still available to help in these encounters.
5 Pyrestone Housing
Making Units That Much Stronger
- Effect: Units gain an extra upgrade slot.
Another one of these deceptively simple effects that can mean huge things for a run, Pyrestone Housing increases unit upgrade slots from two per unit to three. With the right upgrades, this can mean turning a unit into a one-shot machine.
Making a creature huge, endless, and multi-striking, for example, essentially trivializes non-boss encounters on the right card. Even just throwing a few cheap upgrades on a staple creature can be wildly useful.
4 Hell’s Banners
Embers Are A Vital Resource - The More, The Better
- Effect: When you summon the second unit during a turn, you gain 3 Embers.
There are many ways that Hell's Banners can simply redefine the trajectory of an entire run. Playing something with plenty of 0-cost cards, such as the Umbra clan and their morsels, means a free three embers to utilize.
Linked with some of the other artifacts on this list, Hell's Banners can summon up some massively destructive creatures, with enough embers left over to put some spells to use. This is one of those artifacts that should be taken whenever it appears.
3 Rationing Scales
Free Health Or Free Money - It's A Win-Win
- Effect: Before each battle, set Pyre health to 50. If this reduces Pyre health, gain 3 gold for each health lost.
For the aspiring shopkeeper or the big numbers nerd, Rationing Scales is an immensely satisfying artifact to get a hold of. Is the player's Pyre in dangerous territory? Teetering on the brink of destruction? Great, this artifact sets it at a low, but not unreasonable, level, no questions asked. Full up on Pyre health? Here are several hundred gold pieces for the player's trouble.
This artifact should come with the caveat that it's not for players new to the game, who should be protecting their Pyre as much as possible, but anyone who has played the game long enough to know how to protect their Pyre also knows how useful earning around 200 gold pieces from thin air can be for a run.
2 Split Anvil
Zero-Cost Spells Should Never Be Ignored
- Effect: When you play a spell, spells in hand that cost less are reduced to 0 Embers for the turn.
Rounding out this list is the Split Anvil, a favorite among spell-slinging builds on Monster Train that might utilize a clan like the Stygian Guard or Wyrmkin but is highly useful to players within any clan purely for its value production.
Casting a 3 Ember spell means players can now cast every other 2 and 1 Ember spell in their hand for free. Say players begin a turn with 5 Embers and they cast an X-cost spell to utilize all of them. All spells that cost 4 or less are now free, which can be enough to clear out an entire train if players have drawn a good hand.
Monster Train
- Released
- May 21, 2020
