In the Deckbuilder, you are able to swap in and out any Encounter Cards (These are the cards used as spaces on the board.) that you have collected, like all cards, you will have no idea what it will do until you encounter it for the first time.

Often these cards will have a small bronze symbol at the bottom, these symbols are Tokens, meaning that very encounter has a hidden task that needs to be met. These tasks will often be paying of resources, epic battles, Games of chance, or maybe just wits. If you complete the task, you will gain the Token, which will give you new cards to use once your run of that level has finished, regardless of whether you win or lose it.

Tokens will have Two symbols on them when looking at the card; a Sun, or a Skull.
A skull means that the encounter will disappear once beaten however this card's task is usually dangerous, and will often be locked into the deck until youve claimed its token.
A sun means that , once it's token is claimed, the card can then be put into or away from your deck inbetween levels, via the deckbuilder (Thanks to the Devs for pointing this out!).
Purple Encounter cards, are specific to that level only and thus cannot be obtained or put into your deckbuilder for future levels, though you may find a version of that very card later on in your playthrough.
The DLC's added new encounters with new symbols. Any of these will indicate that it is from that expansion.

A Word of Warning
As The Dealer says, some of the encounter cards and other things gained by these Tokens, you will wish you had never touched for they can be harmful or very dangerous. But dont worry, these usually contain more Tokens that are very rewarding, so never be afraid to try a deadly encounter again and again.

Often in Encounters you will have to deal with Games of Chance. These games involve 4 revealed cards that will have a mixture of Success, Failure, Huge success or Huge Failure, the mix being dependant on the encounter itself. They will be turned face down and shuffled around from their original postions, where you will then have to choose one of those cards to reveal.
If its a sucess, congrats! Good things will happen. If its a failure, then usually something bad will happen to you. The "Huge" cards just means the result will be even stronger.

These cards may seem very random, but the truth is far from it despite its name. If you see a card pulled in last it will then be placed last and so on. Meaning that if you focus on where that sucess card is pulled into the deck, you will figure out when it will be placed, and in turn where.

This can be extremely difficult to do as chance games get harder, with the Four Chance Cards being shuffled and replaced at extreme speeds, but always remember;

It is never truly random!

Eventually you will reach a point where the difficulty of some encounters, combined with the difficulty of the boss you are facing, is making the possibility of getting those tokens virtually impossible.

Well fear not! For this guide has a cunning method, to be specific two, with individual Pros and Cons.

Method No 1: Meeting "old friends" again.
You can replay any level, you've previously beaten in story mode. Bear in mind that any bosses you've beaten before could still appear in the deck, even if they are the same boss as the one in the level.

Pros - Difficulty or specific challenges that level had are easier or even favourable compared to your current challenge.
- You still have your individual deck, so you can optimize it for dealing with that encounter

(e.g.) if its gold you needed grab every gold giving card you have!

Cons - Those previous levels are shorter/ have less floors, meaning there are chances that the encounter card you're trying to beat might not even appear that round.

Method No 2: The Ride Never ends.
Play endless mode and try to unlock those Tokens there!

Pros - So long as you keep on surviving each floor, you will inevitably find that encounter card.
- Because its endless, you might have gained massive amounts of resources by the time you've reached it
- No starting curses! HUZZAH!!

Cons - Because its endless you might have lost massive amounts of resources by the time youve reached it.
- It could take an absolute age to find that one card during your run.
- Remember every card you despised and were glad to swap out of your deck? well every card you've obtained is in endless mode, so Guess whose here again?
- You will quickly gain Curses as you go further in that round.

Whilst the Combat is fairly simplistic there are still some important tips you will want to know.

Always Be aware of your surroundings

Some of the battlefields where you will fight in will contain traps that are both harmful to you and the enemy. always be aware of where they are otherwise you will risk taking even more damage.

Be aware of the enemies' attack signals too, it is far better to just dodge an attack then to be reckless and risk losing even more health for the sake of killing one foe.

For some enemies be aware of where they died, they may be revived later on or their very corspes could still do damage to you if you dont tread carefully in fights.

Be aware of your combo meter

when you do successful hits your combo indicator at the bottom increases. You will do even more damage the further it increases, however your attacks will also start to be slower and more dramatic.
the moment you take any damage, have your attack blocked by a shielded enemy, or you simply swing your weapon blindly at nothing, the combo indicator goes back to 0.

The Dealer often refers to how food and health are bound to each other, this is no mere metaphor or ramblings from an immortal smugman, but important advice.

Whenever you move from one encounter to the next you lose 1 food, The moment it reaches 0 you will then lose 10 health until you get some more. Encounters may require food or health to suceed, so always stock up on spares, lest you really want to risk starvation.

Besides encounters you can always get food from shops, with each shop selling it at different prices or amounts


1 Food = 4 gold All shops except mages sell at this rate (mages sell 1 food = 6gold because they are stingy)
3 Food = 11 gold Everyone else but mages sell at this rate
5 Food = 18 gold Tinkers sell up to this rate.
10 Food = 30 gold Healers and Shops sell up to this maximun rate.

as you can tell its is far better to buy in bulk if you can.
Low on gold? well dont worry, you can always sell equipment you have at any store for gold. If you sell your last armour or weapon you get given the light armour or a rusty axe, these cards are purple, and cannot be sold at all.

Inventory
So long as you are not in the middle of an encounter or combat, you can check your inventory, to swap out equipment, or look at your Blessings and Curses.

You can only have one weapon, shield. helmet, armour, gloves or artifact equipped on you at any one moment, so plan in advance and dont be afraid of selling the spares if you need to.
You can have as many rings equipped as you want, but remember some curses will harm you if you are wearing rings, so Pimping aint easy.

Artifacts will have a number on them, this number indicates how many times you can use it in any round before it breaks. If youve got spare artifacts on you, or are getting close to the boss, go nuts, but if you want it for that boss battle, then save a couple of charges till then.

Whenever you are supposed to gain an equipment card of a certain type i.e. shield, armour, ring etc. your deck will be searched through until you find it.
ALL THE CARDS THAT WERE SEARCHED THROUGH ARE RESHUFFLED INTO THE DECK
so if you are doing any achievements that require equipping specific gear bear that in mind.

You can have as Many rings equipped as you want, so become sonic and dont be afraid to get them all.

Default Curses (in purple) cost from 150-400 gold to remove.
Curses you gain later on cost 30-80 gold approximately, usually in the 30-50 range.
later on in the game you will unlock encounters that may be able to remove curses, though these will have other expensive conditions.
Thus consider bringing encounters that could give you curses for rewards (e.g. Cursed Treasure) only if you are capable of removing them, or if you feel ready to tackle playthroughs with multiple curses weighing on your shoulders (The Dealer believes in you!)

There are 4 suits of enemies you will encounter in hand of fate.
*note - [TOP PRIORITY] means you should try to kill these enemies first. however a general idea is the following
King of Scales>dust bandits>Plaguerats>Scales>skulls

The Dust Bandits

they will appear in groups of 2-6
The dust bandits are the simplest of enemy types, though later on they will all have ranged attacks, so make sure to kill them at some point.

Their King will heal all other bandits and has a very explosive ranged attack [TOP PRIORITY]
The Queen is relentless and has an automated-crossbow that will attack you from afar
The Jack hits as hard as the king and drains away gold with every hit.

The Skulls of undead

they will appear in groups of 2-6
The skulls are the first shielded enemy who will block your standard attacks (they will enter a noticable stance when doing so) and also have riflemen whose attacks you cannot counter, so now is the time to learn how to shield bash and dodge.
Later on they will all have a chance to reanimate(bosses included), so usually kill these guys last.

The King fires a slowly spinning ray, and summons suicidal skeletons who carry bombs
The Queen carries a Blunderbuss and has a totem that summons more skulls (provided that there are no more normal skulls left), she aso throws posionous grenades.
The Jack can reanimate other Skulls enemies, though it takes time and he enters an obvious stance (which can only be stopped by shield bashing) [TOP PRIORITY]

The Plague Ratmen

The Plague Ratmen carry no shields but occasionally have non counterable attacks, and most importantly, when killed they leave a noxious gas where their corpse is for a short amount of time. this combined with their ranged spearmen being able to attack rapidly, means you need to be very aware of your surroundings.
they will appear in groups of 4, 6 or 8
Later on they can leap at you, so running or dodging away does not always mean your safe.

Their King is a master of the shadows (and possibly an apprentice to TMNT's Shredder) he will strike at you multiple times, teleport which if you dont move, will pounce and bite at you. he also teleports and strikes at you with 3 mysterious shadows of him. ALL of his moves cannot be countered!.
Fortunately hes very arrogant and likes to laugh manically after he hits you, so strike back relentlessly and time your dodges!

their Queen casts a spell that will drag you to her so she can dropkick you, the kick can be countered, though she also has an uncounterable attack when hit. She has a plague totem that will spit out disgusting poision if youre near it.

Their jack attacks relentlessly with unavoidable attacks, and will enter a state where attacking him damages you frequently, he is the fastest and will follow you everywhere. [TOP PRIORITY]

The Lizard Scales

They will appear in groups of 2-6
The Lizardmen of scales are the most brutal of suits. they are elite soldiers with shields and have uncounterable attacks after being hit. their ranged lizardmen spam fireballs. All of their attacks hit hard and later on the lizardmen can enter burning states where attacking them will damage you.
Make sure to use shield bashes to break their guarding stances then strike, but fight them with extreme caution a single mistake could mean taking 15+ damage in one strike. Be as defensive as they are.

Their King makes the rest of the lizardmen immortal, and has an aoe-like shield bash of his own. he will also spin his tail at you, with most of his attacks being uncounterable [TOP PRIORITY]

Their Queen has a fiery totem, and will spit fireballs at you whilst having an uncounterable firebreath attack.

Their Jack has an attack where he slams his tail onto the ground damaging anyone next to him

So You REALLY want to miss out on meeting these enemies with little warning of their powers?
Fine.

The Goblins
These greedy chums are actually harmless, however if you value your resources you will kill them quickly. After a certain amount of time they will escape into a portal, any wares of yours they stole will be lost for that run.

The Mages
will always appear in groups of three.
Mages are the second special enemy, and is purely ranged.
They fire homing magic missiles (look like green orbs) that do small damage if they hit you, though you can reflect them back. occasionally they will shield your attacks however they are fragile and die as easily as dust bandits.
The real threat about them, is that if left too long they create a triangular ritual on the batllefield. Anyone that isnt a mage that steps on it takes damage. Thankfully it will dissappear afterwards and will anyway after a certain amount of time. The mages cannot die as they perform this so just stand back otherwise you might end up taking more damage then you bargined for.

The Lich
The Lich is another ranged enemy though it (she? He?) is far more deadlier then mages, yet far more rarer too
It will fire a singular orange version of the magic missile that does far more damage. after a certain amount of time, or if It's taken enough damage, it will teleport around, leaving behind a pool of hellish magic at her original position. Stand in it and you will take even more damage so, as soon as she teleports, dodge immidiately.

The Lava Golems
Lava Golems will appear in groups of 1-3, and are melee-centric enemies.
They have a counterable attack where they swing the warhammers they're holding around, and an uncounterable attack where they swing it overhead.
However attack them enough times, they will then create an explosive shockwave, that damages themselves slightly and everything near them that isnt a lava golem.
So do a couple of attacks then dodge backwards. They are far more tankier and stronger then the previous enemies.

The Minotaur
You will learn to fear him, any reckless onslaughst you make will be dashed, and if you are not careful, he will easily destroy you.
The minotaur only has 2 attacks however both of them are uncounterable and do large amounts of damage.
If you are far away he charges at you. If he hits the edge of the battlefield or a wall, he will be stunned briefly.
If you are right next to him, he proceeds to smash his flail at your face around 4-6 times, do not try to walk around him when he does this as he turns very quickly, so you must dodge constantly.
He is relentless so only make 1-2 attacks at him whenever he's finished attacking.

The White Minotaur
You thought the Minotaur was bad enough? Want more of a challenge?
This boss is a tankier version of the minotaurs whose icy flail covers the ground in shards of ice that will slow you and deal damage when stepped upon. Now having to watch where you step AND kill it will become a pain

The Kraken
Found only by specfic encounters, The Kraken is a boss fight of it's own with it's own battlefield. it has several stages to deal with
It will summon members of the Scales to deal with getting progressively difficult each stage. It will always summon these, so try not to waste time killing them and just dodge their attacks.
Stage 1: 2-3 scales
Stage 2: 2-3 scales and a Jack
Stage 3: 2-3 scales and a Jack
It will pierce the ship you are on from underneath, creating a small electrical aoe for a small amount of time.
Then it will slam down its bladed (Yes you heard me, bladed) tentacles onto the ship dealing damage to any fool underneath, quick reflexes will be need. The tentacles have a joint next to the blades, proceed to slice into them and they will retract forcing the Kraken to come closer to the wreck.
The Kraken will then breath fire from whatever direction it is coming from so head to the other side. Once its stopped spewing hot fire, keep attacking without hesitation, doing so will injure it completeing one stage. You will effectively repeat this process 3 times to kill it.
Congratulations if you suceed you are officially a Kraken Slayer.