Introduction

This guide will be much cleaner to read if you disable print layout (in the “view” menu).

Characters in Gloomhaven don’t have a fixed gender, so that you can roleplay your character as the gender of your choosing. I played my first Bruiser as a man, so I’ll be using he/him pronouns. Feel free to choose a different gender for your Bruiser!

The Bruiser, true to his name, is a class that loves to get up close and personal with his enemies. Using his high health and modest hand size, he’ll be the first one into the fray. He’ll move up close, knock enemies around, disable them, all while tanking quite a few hits himself. He’s one of the most straightforward classes in Gloomhaven, while still managing to be one of the most interesting. Each of his tools is simple but also unique, meaning you have a high degree of versatility when choosing your hand for the scenario. Long resting with the Bruiser will always be painful because you need to pick which card to lose, and every card you have brings something unique and powerful to the table.

Even though the Bruiser is simple, there are still a few different ways you can build the character. He’s going to be successful no matter what you pick, but sticking to a theme will give the Bruiser just a bit more consistency. As such, there are a few builds you can examine when leveling up your character. You certainly don’t have to follow any of these builds; you can blend

them together, make modifications, or else simply read the card analysis and then make your own decisions. The Bruiser’s actions are all strong in a vacuum, so you really can’t go wrong.

The first build, the “Bounding Bully”, combines the Bruiser’s ability to quickly reposition with his ability to knock enemies around. With this build, you’ll be initiative dancing like crazy, pushing enemies away and running backwards to avoid hits, then running back in with a disarming hit. There’s a subtheme for this build available only from level six onwards that allows you to convert your movement into extra attacks.

The second build, the “Bastion Brawler”, stands his ground right from level one. He aims to absorb the majority of the enemy’s attacks, and reflect a chunk of the damage with retaliate. This build can absorb all of the enemy hits if you support it with other classes that grant defensive effects, or it can aim for a more moderate stance, looking to avoid damage and tanking only when necessary.

Level 1 Cards

Eye for an Eye

Eye for an Eye is the first of the Bruiser’s tanky options. It has very fast initiative, which is what you’re looking for when you want to make sure you get into position before enemies hit. On top, you have a hybrid tank ability: shield for one, and retaliate for one. This isn’t really enough damage mitigation to tank an entire room, even at level one, but if you pair it with another source of shield then you’re starting to get into true tank territory. Once you do, the retaliate will deal a respectable, if not impressive, amount of damage. This is your only top shield at level one, so you will need to use this action if it’s your goal to tank the whole room for a round.

While the top requires some cards in combination to look impressive, the bottom is strong all on its own. Three self healing should sustain you for a long time at lower levels, or else remove some pesky conditions at higher levels once three health isn’t much anymore. The earth isn’t something you can find value for, but if you’re playing with a Craghart or a Spellweaver, you can communicate to make sure they use it well.

Fearsome Taunt

Even faster is Fearsome Taunt. With three damage and a very large push, you’ll be able to avoid a good number of hits using this action. Of course, you’ll need to choose your targets carefully. Archers at level one will often have 3+ movement and 4+ range, so pushing them three away won’t accomplish much. Conversely, if you’re hitting a living corpse, this will almost definitely buy you a round of safety, and will occasionally buy you two. The other primary benefit is managing enemies with retaliate. If you push an enemy with (non-ranged) retaliate away from you, then the retaliate won’t go off. The card works perfectly as a level one card, as you can decide how valuable the push is and then choose whether or not to bring the card to the scenario. If there are shambling melee enemies, enemies with 2 or more retaliate, or if there are negative hexes (like traps) to take advantage of, then you’ll definitely want to bring this one. If not, then you have much stronger damaging options with other potential effects. Finally, do note that this is your fastest initiative at level one. You have a few other strong options, but against very fast enemies, it’s worth considering this simply for speed.

The bottom action is a simple shield. You’ll need to plan for this in advance, because you want to position yourself to take hits when shielding, but this card doesn’t move you. It should be easy enough to initiative weave in order to ensure this finds value. In the previous round, use one of your slow initiative options to move in after all of the enemies have acted. Then on this round, use the fast initiative from this card to ensure that you get the shield off while you’re in

position. Unlike traditional initiative weaving, which needs to be coordinated with the entire party to ensure nobody gets hit, this card works to protect your entire party from harm. If you stand next to an ally, you can take the attacks for them. This can be good to allow allies to run a bit out of position for a powerful melee attack; each of the other level one starters has at least one strong melee attack they would like to use, and every single one of them (except the Cragheart) needs your help staying alive. This action is also excellent insurance against enemies with multitarget attacks. You won’t be able to reliably line it up, since you don’t know what enemies will do ahead of time, but if an enemy pulls a multitarget hit, you can take both hits on yourself. Redirecting the hit is optional, so if you suspect that an attack will cost you a card and your ally is reasonably healthy, you can let it fall normally.

Shield Bash

Shield Bash is the first of your loss actions. It’s respectable damage with stun, at an initiative that all but ensures you’ll be able to land it on the ideal target before they act. If the enemies end up pulling very nonthreatening cards, you can use this as an attack two instead, sacrificing only a bit of damage in order to save the stun for a round where it really matters. This is a generically good loss; it’s not incredibly powerful, but it’s incredibly versatile. It’ll find strong value on most rounds.

For cards that have loss actions, you’re hoping that the other half is a spammable action that you’re happy to use for most of the scenario. You never want to be forced to use a loss or a basic action at an inopportune time just because the other half of the card does nothing for you. For that reason, you usually see loss actions paired with simple and straightforward actions, such as sizable movements and standard attacks. Here, your spammable action is a bit of movement and a bit of shield. A bit of repositioning will help this shield to go very far. Two movement isn’t enough to chase enemies down, but it should be enough to ensure that you can get out in front of your allies if you need to tank for them. Remember: one shield isn’t enough that you’ll be able to readily and repeatedly tank an entire room of attacks, especially with three allies, but it should be enough to let you stay up front a turn or two longer. If you really want to absorb all hits, be sure to pair this with another shield source, such as Eye for an Eye.

Warding Strength

The top of Warding Strength is one of your strongest abilities. It may not look like much, but being able to disarm while dealing some damage is immensely powerful. You want to make sure that you use this on an enemy where the disarm is as good as stun. If you’re moving more quickly than the enemies, then this is easy; hit something planning to hit back. However, the initiative here isn’t really fast enough to guarantee you beat the enemies. Ideally you’ll pair this with something quicker, but Gloomhaven isn’t an ideal place, so eventually you’ll need to hit something without knowing what it might pull on the next round. When that happens, you’ll want to choose enemies that frequently attack, rather than those with other effects. Archers attack every single turn, making them strong candidates. In comparison, cultists only attack about half the time, and many of those attacks are weak. Their real power is summoning, and disarm doesn’t stop that, so using this on a cultist is likely to be underwhelming.

The bottom action is a large chunk of defense at lower levels. This will nearly always block six damage, failing only in the rare case where there are piercing enemies abound. When that’s the case, you should definitely avoid using this action until you’re sure they’re all dead. Otherwise, you typically want to play this on the first round where you don’t need movement. Blocking damage early is a big deal to ensure you gain early tempo. It’s also good to play early for stamina purposes. When you play a loss card, the next time you regain cards after resting, you’ll have two fewer cards rather than one. Whenever your hand size is odd, that means you’re

giving up a turn. As a result, it’s usually better to play a loss action when you have an even hand size. As a ten card class, this means if you are going to play a loss, you usually want to play it either on your first rest cycle or on your third. Expect the retaliate to work about half the time, since the ability will still advance when you’re attacked by ranged enemies, wasting the retaliate. There are some things you can do to mitigate this, like muddling or immobilizing the enemies, but for the most part it’s not worth planning around. Just assume that this action is six shield and 2-4 retaliate, and you’ll still be very happy with it.

Provoking Roar

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The top of Provoking Roar isn’t really a defensive card, but it does encourage you to take hits. You can pull in an enemy and muddle them before setting up a strong retaliate action. If you pair this with a bottom shield effect, the shield from Warding Strength, and a few defensive items, then this should be enough to allow you to tank the entire room for a round, while retaliating for a ton of damage. This is especially strong against ranged shielded enemies, which tend to have very low health and might simply die to this. The muddle is especially valuable here, since it means a ranged enemy won’t bother backing up to avoid disadvantage, and as a result they’ll suffer the retaliate damage as well.

The bottom action also allows you to pull an enemy in closer. This can be used as a somewhat safer version of a move four, allowing you to handle enemies from very far away without diving into the pack. It’s also especially powerful when lining up AOE abilities, of which you have many.

Leaping Cleave

Your first AOE ability is a very straightforward one. All you need is two adjacent enemies, and you get to hit for six damage, plus two modifiers. Multitarget attacks are worse than single large attacks against very high shield enemies, and are worse at finishing off enemies before they deal damage. However, they eventually become much stronger on average due to perks improving your attack modifier deck. Once you’ve made a few improvements, you can expect multitarget attacks like this to be much more powerful than single large hits. You should have no trouble positioning to hit two enemies with this. Regardless of whether you do, you get an XP for your troubles. Just make sure to pair this with a more decisive initiative. Fast initiatives are often what you’re looking for, but going reliably slow can be important when avoiding enemy hits. Middle initiatives like this are the worst ones, since you don’t know if you’ll go first or last when planning.

The bottom action provides a few different things. Three movement isn’t a ton, but you’ll find the jump valuable when lining up your AOE attacks. It’s also helpful when lining up the push. Two push isn’t really enough to stop most enemies from attacking, but you might be able to put a ranged enemy out of position, shove an enemy through a trap or two, or simply push the enemy into formation for an AOE attack the following round.

Sweeping Blow

Sweeping Blow is usually stronger than Leaping Cleave. You might have to do a bit of work to line the enemies up in this pattern, but a bit of pull with Provoking Roar does the trick quite nicely, and the moderately fast initiative means it’s likely you’ll get to act before the enemies move and mess up your plans. If you can enable the pattern, then you get to hit an extra target, and muddle the pack. The attack will be for one less damage per target, but with an extra target, making the attack worse against shielded enemies but stronger once you have perks. Of course, if you use this to open a room, then you get a bonus damage anyway, making it strictly better than Leaping Cleave. As enemies become stronger, you’ll spend more of your time wailing on enemies that have already been hit, so you’ll have to work harder to reach new targets or settle for less damage. It’s tempting to bemoan Leaping Cleave for frequently being weaker, but at the end of the day, having two powerful AOE attacks is better than having one. If you are high enough level to only bring one, this is usually the better choice, but it’s rare that you’re cutting one and not the other.

Four movement is incredibly valuable for melee classes, and this is one of only two instances at lower levels. Ranged classes will often find themselves with bottom actions they don’t care about, and will use them to make slow and steady progress towards the door. Melee classes will nearly always benefit from a basic move to reposition so that they can line up their hits on the most important targets. As a result, you can use this big move to catch up. There will be times

when you need a large movement to hit an enemy, and when you do, the reasonably quick initiative makes this the better option.

Skewer

The top of Skewer is very similar to the top of Leaping Cleave, in that you’re hitting two enemies for three damage each. The shape the enemies need to make is identical, but your position will typically be harder to achieve here. Enemies like to encircle you, meaning they will already be in place for Leaping Cleave, but not for Skewer. It only takes two movement to get into place, but you have enough valuable nonmove bottom actions that this is occasionally a real cost. The real benefit to Skewer is the wind consumption. This is your only element consumption at any level, although you do gain a few additional wind producers as you advance. With wind, this becomes one of your strongest attacks at level one, and is completely invaluable against shielded enemies. The initiative is very mediocre, so if you can get away with it, be sure to pair this with something a bit quicker.

The bottom is a very situational loss. Seven movement can be useful for diving the backlines, but the stamina loss is very significant. Most of the time, you’ll be using this to pick up the treasure chest at the end of a scenario and snag two XP. That’s not a problem at all, given how powerful the top action is! There will be times where this saves you during a battle, but you shouldn’t try to engineer them. Instead, treat this as a get-out-of-jail-free card when needed, and an experience pad otherwise.

Overwhelming Assault

Overwhelming Assault is the Yang to Skewer’s Yin. For one thing, it has seven attack to mirror the seven move from the previous card. Seven attack is just a bit under curve for a top loss, but the simplicity is hard to argue with. You don’t have to predict how valuable a stun will be, guess where enemies might stand, or make other allowances. You just have to hit hard. Just as with Skewer, this will usually be the action you end the scenario with, but there will be times where you use this prematurely and it saves your party.

The bottom action is really why you bring this card. The initiative is not quite late enough to be reliable, but the movement is your easy source of wind. You’ll want to play this right before Skewer to line up the wind. It feels like these two cards are training wheels, teaching you how elements work so that when you graduate to one of the more complex locked classes, you’ll be looking out for one-two combos like this one. The extra 2-4 damage on Skewer is the perfect reward for a job well done.

Balanced Measure

Balanced Measure is one of the coolest cards to play. The top deals damage equal to how far you moved, and the bottom moves equal to how much damage you’ve dealt. For now, it’s the top you're most interested in. It’s easy to line this up with a move 4 and boots for a reliable attack five that comes at a fairly fast initiative and with an XP attack six if you pick up the perk for some extra movement after resting. That’s not really better than the damage from your AOE actions, but concentrated damage is stronger for killing off threats before they fight back. Plus, you can virtually always pull this off. You don’t need to plan ahead, and you don’t even need the space to run around; as long as you have a few spaces, running back and forth is enough to satisfy “having moved five spaces”. It’s tempting to play this with the move seven on Skewer to create an attack 8-9, but the loss of tempo (plus the loss of Skewer) makes that underwhelming unless the movement makes a huge difference or it ends the scenario.

The bottom usually isn’t worth planning around. If you’re hitting hard enough to generate decent movement here, then you probably needed to move into position to land the blows. And if you are already in position and trying to run away, the odds that you need a ton of movement is very slim. If you run 7-8 spaces away, then you’re probably not going to reach the enemies again to attack them the following round. If you expect that your top attack will kill off the last enemies, then this can be fine to advance you towards the next room if you’re in a particularly large

passage. Most of the time, however, it’s simply better to rely on your move 3s and 4s to get around, and use the top for its insane damage.

Trample

The top of Trample is an action with a clear-cut purpose. You hit a heavily shielded enemy, and that enemy has a bad day. At lower levels, this can straight up kill enemies such as Living Spirits and Flame Demons that have very high shield values and very low health pools. Even at higher levels, there will be enemies with 2-3 shield where this effect is massive. The initiative is also getting to the point where it’s high enough to be reliably slow.

On bottom, you have a very fun action. You get to run through a clump of enemies, hitting each one for three damage, and getting an XP for each one. You’ll typically want to use your boots with this, so that you can run through three enemies; if you only hit two, it’s a bit underwhelming. You can even use Balanced Measure afterwards, to follow three attack threes up with one final attack five, for a loss turn that will make your Spellweaver jealous. Just be sure to watch your stamina; as a ten card class, you don’t really want to use more than two losses before the end of the scenario.

Spare Dagger

Spare Dagger is one of the most reliable cards there is. On top, it’s a lot weaker than your other attacks when it comes to raw damage, but the flexibility of having a single ranged attack is massive. You’ll frequently be able to use this action to attack from a distance when running in would be deadly. You can use it to finish off an enemy in the backlines without sacrificing your defensive position, while using a non-move bottom for some extra shield or healing. You can use it to reach enemies when you’ve just opened a door and they’re too far away. This action is rarely your goal, but you’ll find yourself relying on it very frequently, and it’s not often that it disappoints you.

If you don’t need the range, then the bottom will do immense work. Bottom attacks are very powerful on melee classes, allowing you to nearly double your damage output. The attack two isn’t much, but it’ll often finish off an enemy, and the pierce will frequently find value. It also comes with a very powerful enhancement dot, which will usually be your first priority.

Grab and Go

Grab and Go is one of the strongest level one loot actions there is. By nature of being a top loot, you’ll usually be able to use your movement to position yourself such that the loot finds maximum value. Even when you can’t, you were probably in melee range while fighting, meaning you might not need to move to be near the coins. Either way, you get two healing, which is a perfect ability to perform when the enemies are dying or dead. It’s absolutely not your strongest action, and when the scenario looks to be too challenging you should drop it. However, the benefit of the loot over time will make scenarios easier, so you should think long and hard about sidelining this card, especially at lower levels.

The bottom action is a reliably late move 4. This makes it ideal for initiative weaving. Move in slow with this action, after the enemies have advanced, and hit them hard. The following round, use one of your quick initiatives to attack first, then retreat. If your entire team can perform this maneuver in sync, they’ll be able to avoid two full rounds of hits while still being perfectly effective. This is much easier in smaller parties, of course, but even if you can’t synchronize your entire team, it’s still worth doing. Battles often get split enough that solo initiative weaving can block two or three hits.

Level-Ups

Level 2

The value of Intimidating Growl’s top action depends entirely on how valuable the push is for you, since the damage and initiative is iffy when compared to your level one AOE options. Two push probably won’t be enough to stop hits from all but the slowest enemies, so you’re looking for two things: can you use this to line up AOE abilities for your next turn or for your allies; and can you use this to knock enemies into negative hexes. For your allies, the triangle shape is often what they’re looking for already, so it’s not common that this helps. However, you can use this for yourself to line enemies up for a Sweeping Blow or a similar pattern next round. This makes this attack strongest when you can go slowly, so that you know you can get your attack in the following round before they move out of this new position. The bottom, conversely, is incredibly strong. Adding a bit of extra movement can be the difference between hitting two targets or hitting three, or the difference between avoiding a hit. If you can line it up, you can use this to add an extra move to your Balanced Measure hit. This is especially strong if you can play this before resting, leave it up (ideally without losing stamina), then get +3 movement from this, your boots, and your long rest.

The top of Juggernaut is stronger than it appears. Getting a small bit of movement before attacking enables a ton of options. You can run in with this and hit, then retreat, doing all your initiative weaving in one fell swoop. You can run in and hit with this, then stand your ground and use a bottom action to attack, heal, or shield up. You can simply combine this with bottom movement to run in and hit from very far away. Or, you can play this while moving from room to room and ignore the attack entirely, just to traverse the scenario a bit more quickly. The ability is much like that of Spare Dagger in that it doesn’t provide an impressive amount of damage, but it’s incredibly versatile, and you’ll end up using it more often than you would expect. At lower levels, the bottom action is just ok. When most attacks are hitting for 2-4 damage, this blocks 12 damage on average. This is reasonably comparable to Warding Strength, which blocks six damage and likely deals 2-4 damage. However, as enemies start to hit harder, this action scales up impressively and leaves Warding Strength in the dust. Most of the time, when you pick this card you should expect to use it for the top until the monsters level up a few times, at which point you can definitely plan to use the bottom in a high-pressure situation. Do note that this blocks any source of damage, so be careful about small instances such as ticks from wound or repicking on a short rest. And for the love of god, tell your Cragheart to be careful with their small damage pings.

Bounding Bully: Intimidating Growl improves both your leaping and your shoving capabilities.

Bastion Brawler: Neither card is a massive improvement now, but against some very hard hitting enemies, the bottom of Juggernaut will make a massive difference.

Level 3

Hook and Chain’s top action is an improved version of Spare Dagger. You get one extra range, and you get to pull the enemy as much as you would like. Typically this action will be best if you can use it slowly, use the pull to get an enemy into an AOE pattern, and then act quickly the following round to hit them before they scatter, presumably running away afterwards. The initiative here is very underwhelming, so be sure to plan around that. The bottom action is one of your strongest, and debatably your most fun. It’s a move four, with the bonus that you get an attack equal to your movement if you ran in a straight line. Solving the puzzle of how you can line up the longest sprint, especially if you can pair this with Balanced Measure afterwards, is incredibly rewarding. There’s no better feeling than pairing this with a few movement boosts and lining up two attack sixes. This action can actually encourage jump boots over those with a movement boost, to secure a consistent move 5 (with the long rest perk) without having to clear an empty path, only an empty destination. It also adds further emphasis to top movement cards such as Juggernaut, allowing you to line yourself up before charging. No matter how you swing it, this is a card worth building around.

For the top action, Unstoppable Charge is a bit of a misnomer. You usually won’t be using this like Hook and Chain or Balanced Measure, working to perform a massive sprint to empower this action. Rather, it’s empowered as long as you perform any move, so you’ll typically pair this with one of your small moves with a benefit. The bottom of Overwhelming Assault is the perfect

choice, since you need to generate the wind at some point during the fight, and since most of your best battle actions don’t involve moving. The top is a simple and reliable action, making the bottom a perfect place for a situational loss. Stunning a cluster of enemies can be a great boon, although the initiative isn’t what you normally look for in a crowd controlling effect. Still, this action should frequently buy you the time you need to reduce the threat enough to take back control of a scenario that’s spiraling.

Bounding Bully: Hook and Chain is a defining card for this build, especially for the bottom half.

Bastion Brawler: The last mediocre pick for this build. The stun on the bottom of Unstoppable Charge will likely find strong value, and the top is a good ability, if not in line with your objectives, so you can pick that up for now.

Level 4

Push through is seriously a lot of healing. You probably don’t want to use it during battle except during boss fights or other scenarios without downtime, but being able to heal up this much between rooms means you won’t mind if you take damage that puts you in critical positions. It’ll almost build bad habits for future classes that don’t have the ability to completely reset between rooms. The bottom action is perfect to pair with your AOE abilities. You should always strive to make this at least +2 damage, and it will frequently cash in for +3. The movement is enough that you should be able to get into the ideal spot. Of course, you won’t be able to use push or pull effects to line up the perfect patterns, so make sure that you actually have the shapes you’re looking for before you push for that third target. Also, note the abysmal initiative; if you’re pairing this with something slow, don’t expect the enemies to be where they started. Sweeping Blow is the perfect choice to pair with this action, since you have a relatively respectable initiative and three targets to work with.

Whirlwind is a massive AOE attack. You shouldn’t bother with it unless you can get at least four targets, but with your various pull effects, that shouldn’t be an issue most of the time. The wind is kinda cool for enabling Skewer, but since you can only do this once, you should still bring

Overwhelming Assault. If you can somehow line up five or six targets, you should use this immediately; you’ll more or less win the scenario outright, and get 5-6 XP for your troubles. The bottom action is a TON of push on a TON of targets. Three push gets you in the range of preventing attacks on some monsters, so this is an action you’re happy to carry around while you wait on the perfect AOE opportunity for the top action. You don’t have to use all of the pushes, so you can move into position, push some enemies, then attack the others.

Bounding Bully: This is the point where the two builds diverge. Shoving: The bottom of whirlwind will prevent a lot of damage, and when the time is right, the top will deal a ton of damage. Leaping: The bottom of Push Through, when paired with an AOE attack, does incredible work.

Bastion Brawler: Not quite the shield you’re looking for, but this much healing lets you begin your transition to true tanking.

Level 5

If you plan on taking Defensive Tactics, you can read the top as “permanently gain 1 shield and 1 retaliate”. Realistically, you’re going to be able to generate a shield or retaliate with your cards each round you expect to be attacked, and quickly enough to be relevant, so you shouldn’t really ever expect to be hit while this isn’t active. The one catch is that this card somewhat discourages stacking shield and retaliate abilities, at least right at level 5, since you barely have enough shield and retaliate abilities to use each round .Once you pick up a few more as you advance, you’ll be able to combine them a bit more. There’s one notable exception to this: since your retaliate perks remain active until you use them, you can predict their arrival (unlike your shield perks, which are simple and rolling). This means that you can take a round without using any defensive abilities on your cards and still generate the value from Defensive Tactics. The bottom action is extremely powerful. Pulling two enemies into position means you’ll be able to line up whichever AOE abilities you would like without any difficulty. Remember: you don’t have to use the whole pull, so you can get an enemy into position for abilities that require them to be two spaces away, like Skewer or Intimidating Growl.

The top of Skirmishing Maneuver is basically the top of Juggernaut, with an extra attack two beforehand. There will be times where this doesn’t do anything, because you were using the

move to get into range (perhaps before retreating). There will also be times where you pretend the movement doesn’t exist, and use this simply as two attacks on the same target. It’s not extremely common that you use both attacks and the move effectively, with one notable exception: if your first target dies, or looks like they are going to die from wound or from an AOE ability your ally will perform, you can use the movement to switch targets between the attacks. This will ensure that if your first attack pulls well, you aren’t wasting the damage from the second. Conversely, if you were expecting the first attack to kill, but pull poorly, the second attack is good insurance. The bottom of this card is an improved version of the jump on Overwhelming Assault. It’s not a very large upgrade, but both the initiative and the movement are in a place you should be very happy about. It’s possible to evaluate this action ignoring the element, as move 5 jump is a reasonable action without the wind, but Skewer is still a good enough action that the wind will absolutely find value. With that in mind, it’s a very natural choice to use this to replace Overwhelming Assault. The biggest catch here is that, if you think you want to rely on the top of this action, then you won’t be able to set up Skewer at all, since you don’t have any other (non loss) wind sources. Conversely, you don’t really want to bring both unless you care about the top action, since the top of Overwhelming Assault is definitely outclassed at this stage, and you don’t ever care about the second wind in a cycle. If you do bring both, the way to do it is to use Overwhelming Assault as the wind generation for a while, using the top of Skirmishing Maneuver for its attacks until you lose Overwhelming Assault to a rest. Once that happens, you switch Skirmishing Maneuver to be a movement, until you lose Skewer, at which point you use it for attacking again.

Bounding Bully: Shoving: With all of your AOE picks, the bottom of Defensive Tactics should find excellent value each cycle. Leaping: Both halves of Skirmishing Maneuver increase your mobility in powerful ways, and line you up nicely for your signature loss next level.

Bastion Brawler: Defensive Tactics makes up for all of the middling picks up to this point.

Level 6

Immovable Phalanx is the first instance of shield you’ve gained since level one. The setup of this card really emphasizes the fact that the Bruiser is a Bruiser, not a true tank: instead of getting two shield with a defensive bonus at level six, you get one shield and a decent attack. The initiative is quick enough that you can lead with this card and still be reasonably certain that you’ll be early against many enemies, and with luck you’ll be able to eliminate one enemy while tanking the rest. The bottom action is one of those revolutionary losses that makes you reevaluate the entire class. Each round, you can use one of your move abilities as an attack ability of equal value. Being able to treat each and every one of your bottom actions as an attack 2, and most as attack 3s or 4s, is incredibly valuable. If you do plan on taking this action, then top moves and large bottom moves increase significantly in value. You can also convert the movement on the top of Juggernaut and Skirmishing Maneuver into damage, although if you do that, you can’t also convert the bottom. That’s fine; you still need to move sometimes, and even when you don’t, you have enough nonmove bottom actions that are excellent in combat that you can still have a fully-impactful stationary turn. Just make sure that you don’t forgo movement altogether. If you won’t be able to escape your attackers, then hitting them an extra time is certainly worthwhile, but it’s nearly always going to be better to dodge a round of hits than to smack one additional time. Also, it’s now worth reconsidering the bottom of Balanced Measure. The top is still incredible, but now that you can convert the bottom to damage, you’re going to want to

prioritize that each cycle. Note that the final attack has a strength equal to all of the damage you’ve dealt, including on multiple targets and including modifiers. It’s not at all uncommon for that last hit to be in the double digits. Finally, do note that the limit is once per turn, not once per round. If you have an ally who can grant you movement, or an item that lets you move during an enemy’s turn, you can use this to convert it into an attack.

The top of Run Through looks a lot like the top of Skewer, with a bit of Sweeping Blow built in. Compared to Skewer, you get an extra target, you get twice the pierce for free, and you get the bonus damage on undamaged enemies rather than with wind. That makes this perfect for taking out Living Spirits and the like in one blow. Since the extra benefit here is just one damage, don’t be afraid to use this on enemies that have already suffered some, especially if you can hit all three targets. Attacking for nine, with a bit of pierce, is a great use of your time at this stage. The bottom is extraordinarily powerful. Walk up to a melee threat, knock it back, and ignore it for a round. Bottom action crowd control that doesn’t need any other abilities to enable is extraordinarily rare, and this is very consistent. Obviously it loses a lot of its luster against ranged enemies, but most scenarios will have at least one monster where this puts in true work. Just be sure that you have something else to hit afterwards, or else pair this with one of your ranged attacks to follow through.

Bounding Bully: Shoving: Run Through provides two excellent options that synergize with your existing plan. Leaping: Immovable Phalanx is your signature persistent that lets you explicitly transmute some of your mobility into raw damage.

Bastion Brawler: No more bad picks for you. The top of Immovable Phalanx is your first shield since level 1, and you’re very happy to see it.

Level 7

Let Fly’s top action can either be mediocre or busted, depending on how much work you put into it. An attack 4 wound and stun is simply not worth a level seven loss no matter how far you push the target. However, each target you push through adds another four damage and wound (though you only stun the primary target). The damage on each secondary target is direct damage, which is probably less damage than the initial attack due to a strong level seven AMD, but if you push through heavily shielded targets you prefer what you get here. Remember that you can push in a zig-zag pattern, as long as each space you push through is further from you than the one before it! Overall, if you can line this up to push through two secondary targets, especially if they are shielded, then this loss is worth your time. Until you can set it up, the bottom will be straightforward. Bottom attack that also lets you move is an incredible boon. The obvious combo here is to hit an enemy you’re already next to, push them into position for an AOE, move to where you need to be, and then land a powerful pattern. If you’re creative enough, this action should nearly always enable an extra target in something, meaning the action here is more like 4-5 attack than 2. You can also just push three on a slow melee enemy and walk in the other direction, ignoring their attacks for a turn or two, or else ignore the push entirely. Plus, of course, pairing this with Immovable Phalanx means you get an extra attack, provided you ignore the push or have another target in range.

The top of Selfish Retribution is aptly named. Moving 1 and looting 2 is not an extraordinarily powerful loss action at level seven. You aren’t taking this because it will help your team to win scenarios, or even because it will pick up loot your team would otherwise miss. You’re taking it because, at 8 initiative and with an extra bit of movement, you’re going to steal all of the loot in the second room. You’re already likely in the thick of where the battle was, so you might not even need to use your other move action before looting, meaning you can then run ahead and snag another far away coin with your end-of-turn loot. Beware frustrated allies who will loot during battle just to get _something_ if you use this card to its full potential. Using it in the last room, to clear up loot in the far corner, is the altruistic mode for this card. Fortunately, the bottom of this card is extremely selfless. Using this, you walk into the frey with a large amount of retaliate. You can assume if you’re using this that you’re probably running Defensive Tactics and that you played something else for a shield, meaning you’re marching in with two shield, three retaliate, and a few defensive items, which is enough to justify suffering through all but the meanest of barrages. The fast initiative should ensure you get this up in time, and the three movement should ensure that you’re in the best place to take all the hits you want to, and none of the ones you don’t.

Bounding Bully: Shoving: Let Fly continues the trend of flexible forced movement. Leaping: Neither of these really do what you’re looking for, so you’ll actually go back to level six for Run Through. It’s a bit of a weak level, but you’re probably too busy being excited about Immovable Phalanx to mind much.

Bastion Brawler: No shield this round, but bottom retaliate at your best initiative at any level is certainly good enough.

Level 8

Crippling Offensive isn’t very much damage you can easily beat that at level one but two target CC is nothing to sneeze at. The odds are high that you can prevent two attacks with this; if you can’t, you can find a better use for your time. It’s a very simple yet situational action. When it’s good, it’s great; when it isn’t, it’s very inefficient. The bottom, conversely, is fairly universally solid. A big move at strong initiative, plus muddle and shield to ensure you survive any attacks. Even without Defensive Tactics, this is an ability worth considering at level eight. With the persistent, you should be able to pair this with a top shield and reliably tank virtually all damage for the round.

The top of Frenzied Onslaught joins Juggernaut and Skirmishing Maneuver in the top-move-attack family. This time, you get two attacks and two movements. All of the benefits from the previous actions apply. The second movement can’t be converted with Immovable Phalanx, so you should try to time this card for when at least one of the moves will find value. This can be using the first movement to get in close and hit something twice, or to transfer targets after the first enemy dies. This heal is absolutely absurd. It’s not difficult to deal 10-15 damage at level eight in one round with multitarget attacks. On a lucky round, this can literally heal you for your entire health pool. The danger here is that, if you deal a ton of damage and then use your bottom action to heal, the things you were just hitting are right there to knock you back down. By this point, you’re

surely aware that tanking an entire room without defenses can be costly even from full health against a bad draw. You can mitigate this by using a top action with movement to back out, but you’ll reduce your heal as a consequence, since all of your top movement options end with an attack. Usually, you’ll want to use this at the tail end of a room, when the attacks are likely to kill a few of the targets and leave you with something your refreshed health pool can handle.

Bounding Bully: Shoving: There’s no shoving on either card, but the bottom of Frenzied Onslaught combos very well with how much damage you’re doing with your AOE cards. You should be able to find one round each cycle where you can stand still, hit a ton of targets, and heal back up to full. Leaping: The top of Frenzied Onslaught is just the type of action this build enjoys. You have two options for converting a move to an attack, or can use both to pick the perfect targets.

Bastion Brawler: If you exhaust on a round where you use the bottom of Crippling Offensive, you have only yourself to blame. The combination muddle and shield should keep you alive in all but the most dire of circumstances.

Level 9

Brute Force is the long-awaited two shield card. With this, you can finally muster up four shield for the turn before items and other assistance. This action is ideal to pair with Fearsome Taunt, so that you can redirect attacks towards yourself, or with Crippling Offensive, so that you can move into the fray and muddle the threats. With enough attacks, the movement here can be impressive, and you can use the pushes for a number of uses. The push on allies is tough because, if you’re pushing them out in front, they’re surely taking the attacks instead of you. More commonly, you’ll use the riders to put enemies in their place, either for your own AOE abilities or for those of your allies. If this is paired with Immovable Phalanx, you can convert every movement into an attack for one since the limitation is once per turn, not once per round; but then either you’re skipping Defensive Tactics or you’re setting up two persistent losses on a ten card class, which really only works for a very short scenario. The bottom action represents a ton of value. Increasing your pushes by one will accomplish more than you think; extending a push 2 to a push 3 can be the extra hex you need to stop that stone golem from attacking this round. Perhaps more valuable is the direct damage you get. If you can knock an enemy into a crowd, the entire crowd takes a direct damage. It’s like you get a mini version of Let Fly on every single push. This being a level nine card and the first explicit synergy for forced movement means you probably haven’t been selecting cards just because they pair well with this, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have push actions on the other half of

what you’ve been using. Reconsider all of the choices you’ve made up until this point to determine if there are any actions you’ve been dismissing that are validated by this loss.

The top of Face Your End is incredibly satisfying. By adding an initial attack with a pull, you’re able to grab two targets and force them into the cleave pattern, then hit them all again. This enables 13 attack on key targets and requires very little setup. If you already have some enemies in the pattern, you can use the ranged attacks on other enemies to spread your damage as efficiently as possible. It’s not the strongest level nine but it is one of the most consistent and flexible. Remember: at level nine, multiple small instances of damage become especially strong due to your powerful attack modifier deck. On the bottom, you get a simple attack seven. Your health pool is large enough that, excepting against bosses, you should be able to find the value out of this the vast majority of the time; if your health drops low, use one of your many heals to pick yourself back up first. This card really encapsulates what it means to be a Bruiser; you get rewarded for fighting from close range, and for remaining healthy enough to continue to do so.

Bounding Bully: Shoving: The bottom of Brute Force is a nice capstone loss that rewards you explicitly for all of the pushing and pulling you’ve already been doing. Leaping: You aren’t gaining new movement capabilities, but that’s ok when you’re gaining five top attacks or a bottom attack seven.

Bastion Brawler: Two shield at once is an essential upgrade, now that the enemies hit so much harder.

Perks

Numerical Perks

A classic perk for consistency. Upgrading your negatives to positives means you can more easily predict when your attacks while kill.

This perk doesn’t make your deck more consistent, but it does allow for some huge hits. Perks like these are strongest with advantage, since you’ll be bypassing your negatives to reach this kind of raw power.

Standard Non-Numerical Perks

Stuns on perks are unpredictable. You’re usually trying to kill your targets, and stunning a dead target won’t do much. Still, there are big enemies that you’re hoping to bring down, and when your goal is to take a hit or two, the stun can save you a ton of health.

Modest damage, but off the charts utility. Two healing is very strong for a perk, and the odds that this is wasted are much lower than that of the stun.

Similar to the stun perk, unreliable push is questionable. However, it’s quite strong when you’re already planning on pushing, because the pushes stack, letting you send the enemy very far away. Between that and the number on this modifier, which is actually quite strong, this perk stands as one of the better options overall.

Everything from the stun perk applies here. Adding in a rolling modifier is of negligible difference to replacing a card with the same value plus an effect. The distinguishing factor between the two is whether a stun is more valuable than a disarm and a muddle. Against enemies that solely attack each round, like archers, disarm and stun are equivalent, making the muddle a free benefit. Conversely, for enemies whose main value doesn’t come from attacking, such as cultists who summon, the muddle and disarm are very weak.

It’s unsurprising that the Bruiser has the perk which allows them to wear armor. This is one of the strongest iterations of that perk, giving your deck a significant raw boost while improving your survivability options. Practically every Bruiser should take this perk first.

Unique Non-Numerical Perks

This perk has a lot of things going for it. You remove negative value from your deck, raising your average damage; you effectively make your deck smaller, improving your consistency; and you get to shield up for the round, augmenting your survivability. The last benefit is the one that’s the most dependent on your playstyle. All Bruisers like consistently high damage, but only some plan on taking hits. If your goal is already to stack shield, then this perk probably finds full value each time it’s pulled. If you’re trying to avoid most incoming damage, then the perk is still nice for hitting hard, but loses some value.

One of the cooler perks, and amongst your stronger options. Replacing your zeroes with what are effectively rolling +2s is an insanely valuable perk. It’s not quite that straightforward, with a few pros and cons over a more traditional rolling modifier. The damage being delayed is a mixed bag. On the one hand, damage now is typically more impactful, as killing monsters prevents attacks. On the other hand, if the original attack kills, delaying the damage means it isn’t wasted. The perk being direct damage means it goes through shield. It won’t be denied when you miss, but it also won’t be compounded if you crit. Finally, the fact that the perk sits until used decreases your deck’s value while it’s waiting, which is fine if you’re already trying to take some hits, but otherwise a bit awkward. It is certainly nice that the perk isn’t wasted on ranged enemies, meaning that unless you exhaust, it will always find value.

Non-AMD Perks

Double perks tend to be very strong, and this perk is no exception. Once each scenario, you get a free loot one action and a refresh of your armor. This card gives you the flexibility to drop your loot card after the first room even on easy scenarios, or to leave it at home when the going gets tough. You’ll be able to perform one loot as a free action, and get some damage mitigation to boot. Note that you can do this immediately after killing an enemy! The flexibility and strength really validates itself.

With a free movement after long resting, you have a few options. The obvious one is to follow up with the top of Balanced Measure and/or the bottom of Hook and Chain for an immediate heavier hit. You can also use this to charge further into a room, retreat more rapidly when opening a door, and several other excellent benefits. Do note that this doesn’t work with Immovable Phalanx, as you can’t modify the movement before converting it into an attack.

The strength of this perk is simply going to depend on your party. Firstly, smaller parties have less attacking characters than larger ones, inherently reducing the value here. Secondly, different characters prioritize different actions in the first round. As the Bruiser, you usually hit the ground running, so you’ll almost always attack round one. Most of the starting characters are in a similar boat, making this a great early perk, but there are a few things to watch out for overall. A character like the Spellweaver might have items or other abilities granting them advantage for their AOE hits, wasting this somewhat. Also, some characters have turn one setup to do, meaning they usually don’t attack until round two. As a result, try to get a feel for how often your party is making an immediate assault without advantage, and based on that information, decide whether or not this perk is urgent.

Masteries

This should be very easy to do in your first three scenarios. This won’t work with Fearsome Taunt unless you push into a trap, since if you kill on the attack you don’t get to push. There are a good number of traps in the first two scenarios, so you could line it up this way. Otherwise, you’ll want to use either half of Provoking Roar. Either pull something that’ll die to the two retaliate, or else just use the bottom and kill it using an attack. It’s not a huge deal if it misses because you only have to do it once in the scenario, so you can reset after resting.

This mastery is one of the best designed. It really highlights what is most fun about the Bruiser: a large variety of actions that let you knock enemies around however you like. Dealing 7 damage three rounds in a row is certainly easiest with you AOE abilities. Once you put some improvements into your perk deck, you should be able to handle this quite easily even with your level one cards if you can find a room of non-shielded enemies. Sweeping Blow, Leaping Cleave, and Skewer are all in very good shape to do this, with the biggest hurdle being enough enemies to survive this and whatever your allies are cooking up. If you can convince them to stop attacking for these three rounds and buff you up instead, it’ll be fairly easy the first time you find a room with enough health to survive your onslaught. It might be worth bringing an item that lets you deal extra damage for the turn you use Leaping Cleave, since this is the one that is the most likely to fall short of the seven damage threshold.

Bounding Bully Build

Summary

The Bounding Bully combines the Bruiser’s mobility, push and pull effects, and AOE abilities to knock enemy heads together. You’re happy to take a hit here or there, but it’s not your main goal, just a means to an end. Your primary objective is to find patterns in enemy positioning to efficiently and effectively hit groups of enemies. When they aren’t lined up, you can push them around until they are. This build is an especially good choice for a new player, as it doesn’t rely on fancy combos, and it’ll help you to feel powerful and effective while teaching you skills such as initiative weaving and damage mitigation. That being said, don’t sleep on the Bounding Bully as an experienced player, especially once you get to level six and can convert some of your jumps into damage.

Build Highlights

What are the tools that make the Bounding Bully so successful? Firstly…

Line ‘em up…

The Bruiser has plenty of abilities that allow them to push or pull enemies. Depending on the scenario, this can be used to maneuver enemies into traps or hazards, and depending on the enemies, this can be use to push enemies away and avoid attacks. Alternatively, he can work to move enemies into the patterns for himself and for his allies.

…and knock ‘em down…

The Bruiser has several AOE patterns right from level one, and gains a few more as they level. After using forced movement to create a pattern, the Bruiser can deal immense damage to the enemy forces. He doesn't have many large attacks like the Silent Knife, but once his AMD improves a bit, he’ll be much more effective against a crowd of weaker foes.

…while jumpin’ ‘round.

With several abilities that explicitly reward him for large movement, the Bruiser has an incentive to move far. He has several early options for converting his movement into raw damage, which is emphasized even further at higher levels.

Best Friends

This build is strong on its own, but some parties work better than others. If your party has these things, you can expect your build to be even more impactful.

_Allies with AOE patterns._ Your pushes and pulls are only going to find value around half the time if you’re only using them for your own purposes. Traps and hazardous terrain are the easiest way to compound the value, but you can’t bank on them appearing in every scenario. Instead, you can use these to line enemies up for your allies in order to deal extra damage. Classes like the Spellweaver and Cragheart have enough abilities that care about patterns that you’ll be able to massively improve their prospects.

_A tanky friend._ This build is happy to take a hit here or there, but it’s not your goal to absorb the damage for your whole team. If you’re taking the full force of the enemy team each round, you’re going to drop quickly. Ideally you’ll avoid as many hits as you can, but inevitably damage is going to slip through, and you can’t afford to take it all. Convince an ally to help you absorb some of the damage, either directly by taking hits themself, or indirectly by contributing additional crowd control on the deadliest foes.

To Push or not to Push?

The above emphasizes two ways to enable your AOE abilities: moving yourself into the best position offered by the enemies, or forcing the enemies to form a pattern closer to where you are now. At lower levels, you need to combine these two paths, but as you level, you can specialize somewhat. It was possible to present this as two distinct builds, but as the playstyles are very similar up until level six, instead the two versions will be presented as variations on the same build. The _leaping_ variant will emphasize your own movement, and at level six, picks up a transformative loss that changes the way you approach combat. The _shoving_ variant will still take some movement, but will prefer abilities that push the enemy around, and will emphasize AOE abilities just a little bit more. There’s a _ton_ of overlap, which is why the builds are being presented as one. You should definitely mix and match, taking the cards you find most interesting or those that mesh well with your party; this is just two of the many ways to play!

Level 1 Cards

Core Level 1 Cards

Attacks

Movement

Utility

These are your cards that you will bring to every single scenario, until you gain a few levels and find stronger replacements. You’ll be sorting cards into three major categories: attacks,

movement, and utility. Some cards will have the flexibility to be used in multiple roles; as these arise, they will be marked in yellow.

All four of these attacks are easy picks from level one. The three AOE patterns each represent 6+ damage, which is amazing so early, and with just a bit of work, Balanced Measure is in the same ballpark. You probably want one or two more attacks to round out your hand, but these are the ones you should emphasize whenever possible.

Overwhelming Assault isn’t particularly great movement, but it’s a jump movement that provides the wind you need for Skewer. You’ll keep this one around for as long as you keep Skewer around, and typically drop them both at the same time. Provoking Roar, meanwhile, has the pull necessary to enable all three targets on Sweeping Blow.

As far as utility goes, Eye for an Eye is such a powerful action on bottom that it makes its way into your core cards even though your goal isn’t to tank and heal. You shouldn’t really ever be using the top of this action intentionally; even against high shield enemies, you have better tools.

Example Level One Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

You’ll need four more cards to round out your hand. Shield Bash and Grab and Go round out your movement. Shield Bash is a good pick for the quick initiative and extra bit of tankiness; you aren’t trying to absorb an entire room of hits, but it’ll help a lot for the inevitable attacks you will take from time to time. In a perfect world, you’ll want to use the top of Grab and Go to loot

whenever possible; but for scenarios with longer movement, you’ll need to prioritize its bottom action to get you from place to place. Don’t be afraid to use Sweeping Blow for movement as well if you find you’re still not keeping up. This means you have just one more card to take. All of the remaining cards are worth considering, depending on what types of threats you’re facing. With a few hard hitting enemies, or in smaller parties, bring Warding Strength for the top disarm; if you expect to take more hits than you would like, or in quicker scenarios, bring it for the bottom to tank up. If there are some enemies with 2 or more shield, Trample will find immense value; if not, it’s an easy cut. Fearsome Taunt is great for when there are slow moving melee enemies where a push three is likely to block a hit. If none of the above apply, then Spare Dagger is an incredibly flexible card. It goes in utility, since its primary use isn’t raw damage but flexible damage.

Openers

Here is an example of what your first few turns of a rest cycle might look like. You don’t have a ton of setup to do, so you can use this when starting the scenario or when bursting into a new room.

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

Especially when opening a new door, it’s safer to let the enemies come to you for a round. Ideally, you can convince one of your ranged allies to open the door, step back, and toss in a long ranged attack. By acting slowly, the enemies will hopefully approach before your turn, allowing you to have a round of safety. Use Overwhelming Assault to slowly leap into the best position and cleave 2-3 enemies for three damage each. Try to get two adjacent enemies if you can, so that they’re lined up for next round. Using the wind, you’ll get to Skewer on turn two. It’s very likely that you’ll need to move to get two targets out of this; Shield Bash lets you do it quickly and protect yourself all the while. Then, on your third turn, use Grab and Go to line up a large hit with Balanced Measure. You can use your boots to make this an attack five, which will hopefully finish off the final foe. It’s tempting to charge into the new room with Balanced Measure, especially once you get the perk for an extra movement following long rests. You’ll

easily be able to find a target, but make sure that you can handle the onslaught from those enemies. Hitting for 6 or 7 isn’t worth it if you have to pitch 2-3 cards to damage.

Strategy for Leveling

Unlike some of the more complex classes, the thing that makes the Bruiser special is the large number of unique and fairly independent abilities. Most abilities offer something that works without needing support from other cards, so there’s almost no card you won’t consider. That being said, both versions of this build prioritize AOE abilities very highly. The leaping variant also prioritizes anything that offers movement, whereas the shoving variant prioritizes you guess it push and pull abilities. As mentioned earlier, mixing and matching to align with your party or playstyle is heavily encouraged. Both variants pick the same cards until level four, although they use the cards somewhat differently, so if you’re starting at level one you have until then to get to know the class.

Level 2 Level-up Choice

Level 2 Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Intimidating Growl works well whether you want to push using the top or sprint using the bottom. It’s tempting to use the bottom before you rest to get an extra movement, which will add +3 to your balanced measure hit after resting (between the ability, the perk, and your boots). Just make sure you don’t do this when the number of cards before resting is odd. Losing one card to

rest and leaving this card up will end you with an odd hand size, which means you get one fewer turn in the next rest cycle. It’s definitely not worth losing a turn for one extra damage, so you should only leave this active if it won’t cost you a turn. You’ll usually only want four dedicated attacks per cycle, and Leaping Cleave is the least flexible card overall. The top is easy to use, but the initiative is poor and the push on bottom isn’t versatile enough to justify the card.

Level 3 Level-up Choice

Level 3 Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Hook and Chain replaces Shield Bash. Without shield stacking, a single shield isn’t going to make a big enough difference to bother planning around, and while fast initiatives are important, they aren’t something you’re lacking. The top of Hook and Chain can be nice when breaking into

a new room, ideally paired with Grab and Go for the big move and slow initiative. That will allow you to perfectly react to the enemy’s position and line up another AOE attack perhaps full targets on Intimidating Growl. However, remember that the main draw is the bottom action. Don’t stress about always perfectly lining up 4+ movement hits (although they are nice when you can get them). If 2 movement and two hits will take out a big threat or line up another AOE, then you should take what you can get.

Level 4 Level-up Choice

Level 4 Hand

From here on out, the two variants will choose different cards, in preparation for the divergence of playstyle that appears at level six.

Top Actions

Bottom Actions

Utility

For lack of a better location, Immovable Phalanx slots into the utility category. You’ll typically set this up on turn one, and then plan to stay up front as a powerhouse for the rest of the scenario.

The line between attacking and moving begins to blur with this build, so the categories will change to instead emphasize top and bottom actions, with the understanding that at any time you can stand your ground and convert a move on either half into an attack. Balanced Measure and Intimidating Growl swap places to make better use of the new persistent loss. After using top actions to deal a ton of damage, the bottom of Balanced Measure becomes an absurd attack. However, at this stage three small attacks on a monster are likely to pull well with your modifier deck, and will often be worth more than the sum of their parts. Spare Dagger is let go at this point; it was mostly kept around for the bottom attack, which is of course now redundant.

Mid-Build Reflection

The playstyles have diverged to the point where it’s worth examining how each build would approach busting down a door. The pushing build is the one most similar to how you would play at level one.

Shoving

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

Note that there really isn’t much difference from turn to turn. This is build that has a ton of ways to do the same thing: move, pull monsters into formation, and then hit two or three of them. The biggest thing to pay attention to is what position you can create for the monsters, whether it makes sense to go fast or slow, and when the added effects (pierce, muddle, push, and undamaged) are most appropriate. Recall that you can use the push from Intimidating Growl to line up enemies for turn two, and the slow-fast initiatives mean that it’s unlikely the enemies will move in between.

The two builds diverge late enough that there is only a single difference in perk order.

1. The obvious first choice is ignoring negative item effects. Adding two +1s is almost good enough on its own, so you should definitely snag this first.

2. The first time you line up two perks at once (such as completing a battle goal while leveling up), you should take the loot perk. It’s great value both for looting and survivability, even with the starting hide armor.

3. The extra movement after long resting will be very valuable when opening a door. You can use it to run back and buy more time for the enemies to advance, or you can use it to get that extra bit of distance for Balanced Measure, Hook and Chain, or simply for lining up an AOE.

4. Consistency is key, so replace your (-1)s with (+1)s next.

5. Here is the one difference in perk order. The leaping build doesn’t care much for random push effects. They will occasionally find value, but more often than not, you can expect these cards to simply be +2s, and while adding a +2 is a fine perk, it’s a bit under curve. However, the shoving build will often be pushing already, and pushes compound. The extra shove will occasionally be the difference between whether or not the enemy gets to attack, and will sometimes push so far that they miss two rounds. Thus, for the shoving build, take these now, whereas for the leaping build, delay them a bit further.

6. Now that your deck is reasonably improved, removing cards will find immense value. You don’t really have strong feelings about the shield or retaliate effects (though you won’t complain), but you love the fact that those cards more or less remove themselves. This class doesn’t really give itself advantage, so rolling modifiers might as well be ignored when calculating damage. Replace the (-1)s first for more impact.

7. Advantage on the opening volley can make it much easier to coordinate the destruction of a particular threat. If you have lots of classes that set up for a round, you can delay this longer. Otherwise, you should take it now.

8. The heals are very likely to find value no matter when you pull them, so you should pick those next. They fail when you’re full health, but then you’re probably winning the scenario anyway.

9. Grab the +3 next for some raw damage. If you have an ally who is constantly granting you strengthen, consider picking this up earlier as a second pseudo-crit.

10. Even though the push might not find much value on the leaping build, additional damage is still worth picking up, so snag these now.

11. Since your goal is usually to kill what you hit, stuns and disarms lose a bit of value. Of course, many large enemies won’t be killable, so these perks aren’t worthless. Still, you prefer anything that bumps up your damage to perks that stall the enemies. They’re still worth taking, but they’re the last picks.

Items

As with perks, there are only a few small differences in item selection, so there will only be one section. In order to keep this spoiler free, the item recommendations will be split into several sections. After an initial suggestion for level one items, spoilers will be given through prosperity three, five, seven, and nine, with a round for high reputation items, and then one final round including random items and item designs. Each section will get its own header, so if you don’t want to be spoiled on items, please stop reading before you reach the spoiling section.

Initial Purchases

If you’re starting at level one, there are a lot of things you want. The rulebook recommends Weathered Boots and a Healing Potion, which is almost certainly the best choice. Winged Shoes are great for Hook and Chain in particular, but for most other purposes, the extra movement is more valuable and more flexible. As tempting as it might be to begin with armor, wait to pick that up until you have the perk which lets you ignore negative item effects; you can’t afford the negatives.

Prosperity ≤ 3

Boots: Weathered Boots and Winged shoes are both straightforwardly excellent. I would typically go with Weathered Boots, but if you’re trying to line up a big Hook and Chain hit, Winged Shoes will usually go further towards ensuring that you always have the space to run. Hands: In true Bruiser fashion, you’ll want a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other. The heater shield is the only option, but once you get some reputation, you can choose to replace your poison dagger with either an iron spear or a jagged sword. All three are great, so pick what suits your party’s needs. Iron Spear in particular can be great with Hook and Chain to give you more flexibility in lining up the big sprint, although it will be harder to pair with Balanced Measure. Chest: Hide Armor into Chainmail is the only reasonable choice. Even though tanking isn’t your main concern, it’s still important to use your HP as a resources as efficiently as possible. Head: Iron Helmet is essential. Not having to fear a crit changes which risks you can take. It might only block one crit every other scenario, but that one blocked crit will usually save the scenario. Small Items: Healing Potion is your top priority. It’s extremely efficient for someone who will spend most of their time in the front line. You can also pick up a stamina potion to buy an extra turn or reuse a particularly nice AOE ability, or a Power Potion for the turn where you manage to pull off four attacks (between an AOE and the bottom of Spare Dagger).

Prosperity ≤ 5

Boots: Endurance Footwraps are valuable since you’ll have a good number of big moves, but they’re expensive. It’s perfectly ok to skip them and keep your existing boots and prioritize your money elsewhere. Hands: Battle-Axe can also be sweet to double a seven damage Balanced Measure hit. If that doesn’t sound good, you can grab a Tower Shield and/or Light Targe (if you’ve got the reputation). Chest: No change Head: No change. Small Items: Adding a Major Healing Potion is a no-brainer.

Prosperity ≤ 7

Boots: No change. Hands: Heavy Mace is very high value, if you wanted to bring that with an offhand shield. Otherwise, no change. Chest: No change. Head: Horned Helm is a cool choice if you want to play a bit riskier. You’ll need to handle the occasional crit, but you’ll move four frequently enough to get the damage around half the time, which is excellent value. Small Items: You certainly want a Major Stamina Potion. Strategist’s Ring is also great if you’ve reached the level that enables your persistent loss (six for leaping, nine for pushing).

Prosperity ≤ 9

Boots: No change. Hands: Long Spear is bonkers, especially if you’re running Balanced Measure. At low levels, you double the large top hit; at higher levels, you can use Skewer or Run Through to hit in a line to build up damage, then double that damage on the same line and take out two massive foes all at once. Chest: No change. Head: No change. Small Items: You’re probably the character to claim a Ring of Haste, especially if you’re the leaping variant. An extra bottom action means you can reposition _and_ convert movement to damage, which is pretty sweet.

High Reputation

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: Platemail is the obvious upgrade to Chain Armor. Head: No change. Small Items: Doom Powder is generically pretty strong.

Additional Items

NOTE: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL ITEMS IN THE GAME. PROCEED AT YOUR

OWN RISK

Obviously, there’s a lot of items here and you might not have access to them all. Here are some of the ones that you might like in each slot, in decreasing order of priority. Boots: Charged Boots and Boots of Bracing are both amazing for the leaping variant; since you’ll often stand still and use your move actions for damage, you aren’t playing very suboptimally by standing still for a few rounds each cycle. You can also consider Gust Striders if you’re not bringing Skewer or if you have both sources of wind. Hands: There are a lot of cool damage items, but tanking items are usually more efficient. The Spiked Shield is an excellent pick. Harrow Hook is also insane, letting you reposition while still using a bottom ability (or converting that move to damage). Chest: Swordedge Armor if you’ve found it; otherwise, no change. Head: Necklace of Teeth can be an alternate to the Iron Helm, letting you heal off the damage as you go. Small Items: Heart of the Betrayer is a sweet choice, blocking a hit and dealing some damage back. Steel Ring blocks less damage and doesn’t hit back, but is much cheaper.

Enhancements

There are a few great options at lower levels. The extra heal on Eye for an Eye is cheap and probably the best early enhancement. You can also add extra damage to Skewer, or an extra target to Sweeping Blow. +1 damage on trample is also quite valuable, and the extra damage from being an AOE is countered by the discount for being a loss. It’s a bit expensive to add the damage to Intimidating Growl, but well worth it. If you are completely flush with cash, add more hexes to it.

Bastion Brawler Build

Summary

The Bastion Brawler leans hard into the tanking side of Bruiser. You have a decent amount of shield and a bit more retaliate, making you the tankiest character of the starting six. You don’t have quite enough longevity to absorb every hit in a four player party, but between shield, crowd control, and other similar effects, you should be able to provide your team with the space they need to whittle down the foes, all while dealing a respectable amount of damage yourself.

Build Highlights

What are the tools that make the Bastion Brawler so successful? Firstly…

Bruise-less Bruiser

The Bruiser has a ton of defensive abilities, even at level one. By tanking up as much as possible, the Bruiser can absorb enough damage to let the rest of the team play more aggressively, dealing much more damage without the need to properly defend themselves.

“...makes the Whole World Blind.”

Since you’re planning to take most of the hits anyway, you might as well put up some retaliate to dish out some damage. You’ll need to find a good balance between fully shielding and fully retaliating, because you won’t always be able to do both.

Dazed and Confused

The Bruiser has just enough crowd control to make sure that if there’s a particularly threatening enemy, it won’t plow through his defenses. Stun, disarm, immobilize, and muddle the largest threats for as long as possible, while letting the smaller ones bounce off your defenses.

Best Friends

This build is strong on its own, but some parties work better than others. If your party has these things, you can expect your build to be even more impactful.

_Glass cannon allies._ All of this tanking won’t kill the enemies, even with maximum retaliate. You’re going to need your allies to finish the job. Encourage your allies to play riskier, since they only rarely need to worry about taking hits.

_Tank enablers._ You can tank a decent amount, but at higher levels you just don’t have enough shield to handle every hit, especially in a larger party. If any of your allies can grant you extra shield, curse the enemies, or otherwise offer you more damage mitigation, you can go from a great tank to more or less unkillable.

Level 1 Cards

Core Level 1 Cards

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

These are your cards that you will bring to every single scenario, until you gain a few levels and find stronger replacements. You’ll be sorting cards into three major categories: Shield/Retaliate,

Crowd Control, and Healing/Utility. Some cards will have the flexibility to be used in multiple roles; these will be marked in yellow.

You’ll take every instance of shield and/or retaliate at level one. This gives you two different ways to shield for one while you use your top action to attack or to retaliate. This isn’t quite enough mitigation to handle everything yet, which is why you’ll need to rely on allies, crowd control, and good old fashioned initiative weaving to survive. Once you gain a few levels, you’ll have the tools to push through.

For Crowd Control, you’ve got Sweeping Blow, an AOE muddle that’s perfect for starting a new room, and Warding Strength, a top action disarm that deals fine damage. It’s tempting to drop down Warding Strength instantly for the shield and retaliate and if the first room is a swarm of melee, low-damage enemies, you should do so. However, if a room has at least one heavy hitter, or enough ranged enemies that you expect the retaliate to not find value, then the disarm will do enough work that you should delay Warding Strength for a while. You’ll still activate it at some point until you cut the card, but there’s no rush; it’ll find the same value later on.

Eye for an Eye is incredible on both halves. It’s in the utility category for now as your only real source of healing for a while, but the top is your only way to get two shield in a round, and gives you a retaliate as a nice bonus. It’ll bounce around from category to category as you level, but you should definitely use both halves as needed. In general, the top is better when you’re working to tank a bunch of smaller enemies, and the bottom is better when there’s a few big hits where one shield doesn’t quite cut it. Finally, Grab and Go is an obvious choice, with a bit of healing, a bit of looting, and a late initiative with a big move that’s perfect for cracking open doors. You can potentially drop this on harder scenarios, but otherwise it’ll be a staple for quite some time.

Example Level One Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Other

You’ll need three more cards to round out your hand. The Overwhelming Assault into Skewer combo isn’t bad, but it requires too much precise positioning, which this build doesn’t really have time for. Similarly, Balanced Measure requires you to use a large movement during combat, which contests all of your excellent defensive bottom actions. This leaves Leaping Cleave, Trample, and Spare Dagger. These are all flexible cards that deal decent damage without having to invest too much work in positioning, which leaves your bottom actions open for tanking. If the majority of the enemies are shielded, it can be worth dropping two of these cards for Skewer and Overwhelming Assault, but unless the pierce is finding consistent value it’s simply not worth it. A few of these cards are slotted into a temporary “Other” category, since you don’t have ten cards yet that fit the strategy. That will quickly change, so that last category will only last a few levels.

Openers

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

If the enemies are close enough that you can’t avoid hits by initiative weaving, you should skip turn one and move straight to turn two. Otherwise, go slowly and let them run up. You can disarm an enemy if there is one hitting harder than its buddies; if not, simply use Sweeping Blow or another attack to soften up the crowd. Once it’s time to take hits, you want to try and pair two tanky cards at the same time, so that you get as much value as possible from tanking your hits. You can use double retaliate with a shield on the first turn, since you’re likely at or close to full health. Then, on your second turn, you can use double shield and retaliate, using a healing potion if necessary to stay on your feet. If there are only one or two enemies left at this point, then instead use Eye for an Eye to heal, and use any of your top actions to attack perhaps Spare Dagger, if the enemy isn’t nearby. Tanking and Retaliating is more effective the more

enemies there are, and the weaker they are, so don’t be afraid to back off from the full tank strategy if the enemies are too few or too strong.

Strategy for Leveling

Leveling for this build is fairly straightforward: you will pick up every shield and retaliate option that you can. When you aren’t presented with one, and can’t go back for one, you’ll instead pick up healing if possible, or crowd control. Remember: you have a lot of tools that deal damage, but your goal isn’t to dish it out, it’s to take it.

Level 2 Level-up Choice

Level 2 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Other

Juggernaut isn’t technically shield, but it blocks damage, so it gets to live in the top category. Be careful not to let it trigger on small instances of damage, and it will do incredible work. If you anticipate lots of weak attacks in the first room, use the top action to position yourself, perhaps paired with a bottom attack or heal. Trample is an easy cut; even when there is shield, your retaliate will cut through it much more elegantly.

Level 3 Level-up Choice

Level 3 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Spare dagger isn’t bad, but it’s the last card in the other category, so you’ll have to live without. Meanwhile, Unstoppable Charge is a strong attack that you can use until the last room, where it earns its place in the Crowd Control category. You can use it earlier if there are well-positioned

enemies, or if it looks like the stun will prevent a lost card. However, since the effect is one-and-done, it’s usually going to be better to save it for as long as possible.

Level 4 Level-up Choice

Level 4 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Push Through gives enough healing that you are now mostly ready to commit to full tanking, rather than a hybrid. While it would be ideal to use it between rooms, don’t be afraid to use it

mid-combat if it means you can tank for another full round. You get to drop Leaping Cleave, leaving you only with cards that shield, retaliate, disable, or heal.

Level 5 Level-up Choice

Level 5 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

With your signature persistent, it’s time to ensure that you play at least one shield or retaliate card each round. Dedicating Eye for an Eye to this category means you’ll have four to work with. In earlier rooms, this typically means you can play one each turn (other than the first) for consistent low amounts of shield and retaliate. Once you go a few rounds, and have less turns per cycle, you can start using Eye for an Eye for healing again, and you can stack your shield and retaliate effects for higher impact. The cut here is situational typically, Sweeping Blow is the weakest, but if you’re facing swarms of weak enemies, cutting Juggernaut might be better, as the damage blocks are strongest against a few large enemies.

Level 6 Level-up Choice

Level 6 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

More shield from Immovable Phalanx lets you switch from spreading it out to stacking it up more rapidly. Provoking Roar is the cut here unless you’ve got an extremely weak room, one shield isn’t going to cut it, so you’ll want to emphasize shield abilities over retaliate abilities.

Level 7 Level-up Choice

Level 7 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

While retaliate on a top action is underwhelming, as a bottom action it’s quite potent. Paired with the best initiative to date, Selfish Retribution is an excellent addition to the build. In most scenarios, try to pair the effect with a top action shield, to give yourself sufficient survivability. Warding Strength is the cut at this stage, since you have enough defenses that the disarm gains diminishing return. It can still be worth considering against particular hard-hitting enemies, or those with multitarget, where it’s worth spending a whole turn to prevent the attack over simply tanking up.

Level 8 Level-up Choice

Level 8 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Eight shield/retaliate cards is what you like to see. You have enough shield options now to play one every single turn, and two most turns, which gives you insane survivability. The two healing from Grab and Go is has certainly fallen off, although feel free to bring it back for easier scenarios for the loot.

Level 9 Level-up Choice

Level 9 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Unsurprisingly, Brute Force slots right in with the rest. It’s actually Juggernaut that you drop, rather than one of your remaining level 1 cards, since they both provide shield, and that’s something you aren’t willing to compromise on. At this stage, it’s unlikely that you block four hits large enough to justify using Juggernaut for its loss, and if it does seem like that’s going to happen, you can use Unstoppable Charge to stun the culprits.

Perks

1. The obvious first choice is ignoring negative item effects. Adding two +1s is almost good enough on its own, so you should definitely snag this first.

3. Since you plan on taking hits, it’s extremely likely that the shield and retaliate modifiers will find value. The retaliate modifiers are more consistent, since they stick around until used, but the shield ones have a higher ceiling. You can take these in whichever order you prefer. It’s worth noting that, if you know you have a retaliate modifier to spare, you can plan a round where you use that to activate defensive tactics, rather than a card. It’s not extremely consistent, and only gives one shield, but it can occasionally be worth planning around, especially at early levels where you don’t have that many defensive cards.

4. An occasional heal is fantastic, especially for removing wound and poison.

5. The stun, disarm, and muddle modifiers will give you a lot of survivability. It’s possible that the stun or disarm could mess with your retaliate, but you can always choose to skip them if need be. Remember: your goal isn’t to deal damage with your attacks, but to tank. The few attacks you do make are incidental, and blocking additional damage is icing on the cake.

6. Your allies will likely appreciate having a strong opening to the first room. You can’t use this yourself, since your first turn is always setting up Defensive Tactics, but you’re getting diminishing returns on the rest of your perks from this point on, so unless you know that nearly all of your party will need the round to set up, take this next.

7. Similarly, the perk for movement after long resting isn’t likely to be a huge deal, but it will occasionally let you get into better tanking position, and it’s better than the rest of your options.

8. The rest of your options are good perks that are unlikely to matter with how infrequently you’re attacking. In most parties, take the replacement cards before the added cards to keep your AMD small, but the difference is marginal and the choice is up to you. If you’re at this level, you’re only attacking once every few rounds at best, so it’s not likely that these perks will make a huge difference.

Items

In order to keep this spoiler free, the item recommendations will be split into several sections. After an initial suggestion for level one items, spoilers will be given through prosperity three, five, seven, and nine, with a round for high reputation items, and then one final round including random items and item designs. Each section will get its own header, so if you don’t want to be spoiled on items, please stop reading before you reach the spoiling section.

Initial Purchases

If you’re starting at level one, there are a lot of things you want. The rulebook recommends Weathered Boots and a Healing Potion, which is a fine choice, but a heater shield is likely to be more immediately useful for this build than the boots. You’d take hide armor if you could, but at level one you care enough about attacking that you can’t add the -1 cards in, so that’ll be your first big purchase.

Prosperity ≤ 3

Boots: Nimble Legguards are excellent for saving your allies. At higher levels, these remain very potent as your tanking capabilities skyrocket. Hands: A Poison Dagger will go well with your Heater Shield to start off with. Once you gain some prosperity and reputation, you can pivot to an Iron Spear or Jagged Sword. Chest: Hide Armor into Chainmail is the only reasonable choice. Even though tanking isn’t your main concern, it’s still important to use your HP as a resource as efficiently as possible. Head: Iron Helmet is essential. Not having to fear a crit changes which risks you can take. It might only block one hit every other scenario, but that one blocked hit will usually save the scenario. Spoiler alert: you’re not really considering anything else, ever. It’s that good. Small Items: Healing Potion is your top priority. It’s extremely efficient for someone who will spend most of their time in the front line. You can also pick up a stamina potion to buy an extra turn or reuse a particularly nice AOE ability, or a Power Potion for the turn where you manage to pull off four attacks (between an AOE and the bottom of Spare Dagger).

Prosperity ≤ 5

Boots: Heavy Greaves are especially great against large enemies, and can be used against ranged enemies to ensure they retaliate against you. If you have the reputation for them, they’re an excellent pick. Hands: Battle-Axe can also be sweet to double a seven damage Balanced Measure hit. If that doesn’t sound good, you can grab a Tower Shield and Light Targe (if you’ve got the reputation). Chest: No change Head: No change. Small Items: Adding a Major Healing Potion is a no-brainer.

Prosperity ≤ 7

Boots: Steel Sabatons are incredible. You won’t always be able to stand still, but there will be enough rounds where you don’t need to move that these will provide insane value. They’re very expensive, but well worth it. Hands: Heavy Mace is very high value, if you wanted to bring that with an offhand shield. Otherwise, no change. Chest: No change. Head: No change. Small Items: You certainly want a Major Stamina Potion. Strategist’s Ring can be used to quickly drop Defensive Tactics while still getting a full turn, or even later on to drop an extra bit of shield on a critical round.

Prosperity ≤ 9

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: No change. Head: No change. Small Items: Ring of Haste will let you drop an extra shield or retaliate on a particularly dangerous round.

High Reputation

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: Platemail is the obvious upgrade to Chain Armor. Head: No change. Small Items: No change.

Additional Items

NOTE: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL ITEMS IN THE GAME. PROCEED AT YOUR

OWN RISK

Obviously, there’s a lot of items here and you might not have access to them all. Here are some of the ones that you might like in each slot, in decreasing order of priority. Boots: No change. Hands: Spiked Shield is a simple choice. Chest: Swordedge Armor if you’ve found it; otherwise, no change. Head: No change. Small Items: Heart of the Betrayer is a sweet choice, blocking a hit and dealing some damage back. Steel Ring blocks less damage and doesn’t hit back, but is much cheaper.

Enhancements

The only good option at lower levels is extra healing on Eye for an Eye. None of your low level shield or retaliate options have enhancement capabilities, for good reason, so if you’re low level and fully kitted out, you can enhance some of your movement cards to provide a bit more flexibility. If you do hit level six, extra shield on Immovable Phalanx is a powerful but expensive option, as are the shields on Crippling Offensive and Brute Force.

Introduction

This guide will be much cleaner to read if you disable print layout (in the “view” menu).

them together, make modifications, or else simply read the card analysis and then make your own decisions. The Bruiser’s actions are all strong in a vacuum, so you really can’t go wrong.

Level 1 Cards

Eye for an Eye

Fearsome Taunt

Shield Bash

Warding Strength

Provoking Roar

‘

Leaping Cleave

Sweeping Blow

when you need a large movement to hit an enemy, and when you do, the reasonably quick initiative makes this the better option.

Skewer

Overwhelming Assault

Balanced Measure

passage. Most of the time, however, it’s simply better to rely on your move 3s and 4s to get around, and use the top for its insane damage.

Trample

Spare Dagger

Grab and Go

Level-Ups

Level 2

Bounding Bully: Intimidating Growl improves both your leaping and your shoving capabilities.

Bastion Brawler: Neither card is a massive improvement now, but against some very hard hitting enemies, the bottom of Juggernaut will make a massive difference.

Level 3

Bounding Bully: Hook and Chain is a defining card for this build, especially for the bottom half.

Level 4

Bastion Brawler: Not quite the shield you’re looking for, but this much healing lets you begin your transition to true tanking.

Level 5

The top of Skirmishing Maneuver is basically the top of Juggernaut, with an extra attack two beforehand. There will be times where this doesn’t do anything, because you were using the

Bastion Brawler: Defensive Tactics makes up for all of the middling picks up to this point.

Level 6

Bastion Brawler: No more bad picks for you. The top of Immovable Phalanx is your first shield since level 1, and you’re very happy to see it.

Level 7

Bastion Brawler: No shield this round, but bottom retaliate at your best initiative at any level is certainly good enough.

Level 8

Level 9

what you’ve been using. Reconsider all of the choices you’ve made up until this point to determine if there are any actions you’ve been dismissing that are validated by this loss.

Bastion Brawler: Two shield at once is an essential upgrade, now that the enemies hit so much harder.

Perks

Numerical Perks

A classic perk for consistency. Upgrading your negatives to positives means you can more easily predict when your attacks while kill.

Standard Non-Numerical Perks

Modest damage, but off the charts utility. Two healing is very strong for a perk, and the odds that this is wasted are much lower than that of the stun.

Unique Non-Numerical Perks

Non-AMD Perks

Masteries

Bounding Bully Build

Summary

Build Highlights

What are the tools that make the Bounding Bully so successful? Firstly…

Line ‘em up…

…and knock ‘em down…

…while jumpin’ ‘round.

Best Friends

This build is strong on its own, but some parties work better than others. If your party has these things, you can expect your build to be even more impactful.

To Push or not to Push?

Level 1 Cards

Core Level 1 Cards

Attacks

Movement

Utility

These are your cards that you will bring to every single scenario, until you gain a few levels and find stronger replacements. You’ll be sorting cards into three major categories: attacks,

movement, and utility. Some cards will have the flexibility to be used in multiple roles; as these arise, they will be marked in yellow.

Example Level One Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Openers

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

easily be able to find a target, but make sure that you can handle the onslaught from those enemies. Hitting for 6 or 7 isn’t worth it if you have to pitch 2-3 cards to damage.

Strategy for Leveling

Level 2 Level-up Choice

Level 2 Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Level 3 Level-up Choice

Level 3 Hand

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Level 4 Level-up Choice

Level 4 Hand

From here on out, the two variants will choose different cards, in preparation for the divergence of playstyle that appears at level six.

Spare Dagger, but if the scenario is particularly challenging, you should cut the loot instead, in favor of a more impactful combat action.

Leaping

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Skirmishing Maneuver is a very clean upgrade to Overwhelming Assault. Two extra movement and an improved initiative will let you set up Skewer without sacrificing as much the turn before.

Unless you see the dream Hook and Chain move, this is your ideal card to pair with Balanced Measure’s big hit at least until next level, when you change gears entirely.

Level 6 Level-up Choice

Level 6 Hand

Shoving

Attacks

Movement

Utility

extra damage. As a result, unless there are an abundance of shielded enemies, you can bring the more flexible Spare Dagger instead, cutting both Skewer and Overwhelming Assault.

Leaping

Top Actions

Bottom Actions

Utility

Mid-Build Reflection

The playstyles have diverged to the point where it’s worth examining how each build would approach busting down a door. The pushing build is the one most similar to how you would play at level one.

Shoving

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

Leaping

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

Level 7 Level-up Choice

Level 7 Hand

Shoving

Attacks

Movement

Utility

The bottom of Let Fly is another push that’s likely to prevent some damage, and the top is the perfect situational loss. With this many ways to be impactful on bottom, Spare Dagger has

outrun its usefulness. You’ve nearly always got something better to do on bottom than a single weak attack, and the ranged attack and initiatives are both outclassed.

Leaping

Top Actions

Bottom Actions

Utility

Leaping Cleave was fine but it’s certainly outclassed at this stage. Swapping in Run Through is a significant improvement, offering more damage, more targets, and some potentially relevant

pierce. It might seem a bit redundant with Skewer, but while having two great yet similar tools is unusual for the Bruiser, it’s definitely not a bad thing.

Level 8 Level-up Choice

Level 8 Hand

Shoving

Attacks

Movement

Utility

Frenzied Onslaught finally bumps out Grab and Go. You can still bring it for easier scenarios, but between your loot perk and your constant moving, you should be able to get enough gold to

buy and enhance. You should now be able to more or less stand your ground for two rounds, moving quickly on the second to land a huge AOE hit and heal for the damage dealt.

Leaping

Top Actions

Bottom Actions

The two builds diverge late enough that there is only a single difference in perk order.

1. The obvious first choice is ignoring negative item effects. Adding two +1s is almost good enough on its own, so you should definitely snag this first.

4. Consistency is key, so replace your (-1)s with (+1)s next.

8. The heals are very likely to find value no matter when you pull them, so you should pick those next. They fail when you’re full health, but then you’re probably winning the scenario anyway.

9. Grab the +3 next for some raw damage. If you have an ally who is constantly granting you strengthen, consider picking this up earlier as a second pseudo-crit.

10. Even though the push might not find much value on the leaping build, additional damage is still worth picking up, so snag these now.

Items

Initial Purchases

Prosperity ≤ 3

Prosperity ≤ 5

Prosperity ≤ 7

Prosperity ≤ 9

High Reputation

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: Platemail is the obvious upgrade to Chain Armor. Head: No change. Small Items: Doom Powder is generically pretty strong.

Additional Items

NOTE: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL ITEMS IN THE GAME. PROCEED AT YOUR

OWN RISK

Enhancements

Bastion Brawler Build

Summary

Build Highlights

What are the tools that make the Bastion Brawler so successful? Firstly…

Bruise-less Bruiser

“...makes the Whole World Blind.”

Dazed and Confused

Best Friends

This build is strong on its own, but some parties work better than others. If your party has these things, you can expect your build to be even more impactful.

Level 1 Cards

Core Level 1 Cards

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

These are your cards that you will bring to every single scenario, until you gain a few levels and find stronger replacements. You’ll be sorting cards into three major categories: Shield/Retaliate,

Crowd Control, and Healing/Utility. Some cards will have the flexibility to be used in multiple roles; these will be marked in yellow.

Example Level One Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Other

Openers

Turn One Turn Two Turn Three

Top Action

Bottom Action

enemies there are, and the weaker they are, so don’t be afraid to back off from the full tank strategy if the enemies are too few or too strong.

Strategy for Leveling

Level 2 Level-up Choice

Level 2 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Other

Level 3 Level-up Choice

Level 3 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

enemies, or if it looks like the stun will prevent a lost card. However, since the effect is one-and-done, it’s usually going to be better to save it for as long as possible.

Level 4 Level-up Choice

Level 4 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Push Through gives enough healing that you are now mostly ready to commit to full tanking, rather than a hybrid. While it would be ideal to use it between rooms, don’t be afraid to use it

mid-combat if it means you can tank for another full round. You get to drop Leaping Cleave, leaving you only with cards that shield, retaliate, disable, or heal.

Level 5 Level-up Choice

Level 5 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Level 6 Level-up Choice

Level 6 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Level 7 Level-up Choice

Level 7 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Level 8 Level-up Choice

Level 8 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Level 9 Level-up Choice

Level 9 Hand

Shield/Retaliate

Crowd Control

Healing

Perks

1. The obvious first choice is ignoring negative item effects. Adding two +1s is almost good enough on its own, so you should definitely snag this first.

4. An occasional heal is fantastic, especially for removing wound and poison.

Items

Initial Purchases

Prosperity ≤ 3

Prosperity ≤ 5

Prosperity ≤ 7

Prosperity ≤ 9

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: No change. Head: No change. Small Items: Ring of Haste will let you drop an extra shield or retaliate on a particularly dangerous round.

High Reputation

Boots: No change. Hands: No change. Chest: Platemail is the obvious upgrade to Chain Armor. Head: No change. Small Items: No change.

Additional Items

NOTE: THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR ALL ITEMS IN THE GAME. PROCEED AT YOUR

OWN RISK

Obviously, there’s a lot of items here and you might not have access to them all. Here are some of the ones that you might like in each slot, in decreasing order of priority. Boots: No change. Hands: Spiked Shield is a simple choice. Chest: Swordedge Armor if you’ve found it; otherwise, no change. Head: No change. Small Items: Heart of the Betrayer is a sweet choice, blocking a hit and dealing some damage back. Steel Ring blocks less damage and doesn’t hit back, but is much cheaper.

Document

Summary & Guide

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Document

Summary & Guide