Stupid NPC tricks

FrancisCrawford · June 2023

I just finished a game with a Proficient NPC. On the NPC's turn, I had 46 Prestige, while he had 40 Prestige and (eventually) 7 Power.

As his lact action, he flipped the Hunding patron, and thus lost 46-45.

FrancisCrawford · June 2023

In most recent games I've played against NPCs involving the Hlaalu patron, the NPC has Hlaalued away almost every card it could. Those matches commonly reached a stage where:

The NPC led by 15 or more prestige.
The NPC had nothing in its deck except basic cards it started with.
I went on to win comfortably.

To avoid boredom, I now never select the Hlaalu patron.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

hlaalu, reach, or rahjin decks are really good ways to beat the npcs with how dumb they are now with card sacrificing lol

i can 100% vouch for your experience with the hlaalu deck, if i want easy quick wins, i always make sure the hlaalu deck is in play

edit: corrected hunding to hlaalu lol

jaws343 · June 2023

I find the hlaalu play to actually make things harder. I've had an NPC get to 40 prestige while I was still sub 20 because they kept sacrificing cards for power and I couldn't keep up playing normally.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

jaws343 wrote: »

I find the hlaalu play to actually make things harder. I've had an NPC get to 40 prestige while I was still sub 20 because they kept sacrificing cards for power and I couldn't keep up playing normally.

if rahjin is not in play, you just have to get any decent power generating cards

if rahjin in play with hlaalu, its like extra super easy mode lol, you have -prestige and can slow them down even more with bewilderments

FrancisCrawford · July 2023

I recently got sloppy in a game with all 4 patrons being power operated. (Hunding, Pelin, Red Eagle, Druid King.)

Specifically, I let the NPC get 3 patrons flipped (not Druid King), and then had a turn on which I didn't generate 2 power.

On the next turn, the NPC had 2+ power, and did NOT take the immediate win. (And I in fact went on to win the game.)

That was a couple days ago, and I haven't played Tribute since.

FrancisCrawford · July 2023

This one was funny, or perhaps just sad: In a game with Red Eagle and Hlaalu, the NPC got down to 5 cards. 3 were 1-gold coin cards, and the other 2 1-power basic cards.

That's not the funny/sad part.

What's funny/sad is that the NPC kept reusing an already-favorable Red Eagle patron on every turn

Necrotech_Master · July 2023

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

This one was funny, or perhaps just sad: In a game with Red Eagle and Hlaalu, the NPC got down to 5 cards. 3 were 1-gold coin cards, and the other 2 1-power basic cards.

That's not the funny/sad part.

What's funny/sad is that the NPC kept reusing an already-favorable Red Eagle patron on every turn

i played an npc with the reach deck and they got a few of the agents that removed cards from their deck, and they ended up removing ALL of the cards from their deck, then those contract agents to have literally 0 cards to play, making it impossible to lose lol

FrancisCrawford · July 2023

So I'm playing a bit again.

I recently had a match in which I got two Forest Wraiths early. (Contract agent with 3 health.)

The NPC knocked one of them down to 2 health and the other one down to 1 health, and then didn't damage them further for the rest of the game.

netch_a_sketch · July 2023

Players sometimes do this kind of thing too, you just have to learn to counter it or try to beat them at their own game

Roxxsmom · July 2023

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

In most recent games I've played against NPCs involving the Hlaalu patron, the NPC has Hlaalued away almost every card it could. Those matches commonly reached a stage where:
The NPC led by 15 or more prestige.

The NPC had nothing in its deck except basic cards it started with.

I went on to win comfortably.

To avoid boredom, I now never select the Hlaalu patron.

I'm finding this too. I agree it's a boring strategy, but the npc tendency to spam whichever patron they decide to use in a game makes for less fun, regardless.

The weirdest thing they've been doing in my games where the crow patron is available is to turn the crow into the "up" position 1-2 turns in, for just one point. Now it's stuck that way until I have a turn later in the game with a ton of gold I can convert into points to take me over 40. Oh, and if I am about to win and the crow patron is available to them, they will buy a bunch of cards before they use it for just one point, even if they could have gotten enough points to pass me.

FrancisCrawford · July 2023

Roxxsmom wrote: »

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

In most recent games I've played against NPCs involving the Hlaalu patron, the NPC has Hlaalued away almost every card it could. Those matches commonly reached a stage where:
The NPC led by 15 or more prestige.

The NPC had nothing in its deck except basic cards it started with.

I went on to win comfortably.

To avoid boredom, I now never select the Hlaalu patron.

I'm finding this too. I agree it's a boring strategy, but the npc tendency to spam whichever patron they decide to use in a game makes for less fun, regardless.

The weirdest thing they've been doing in my games where the crow patron is available is to turn the crow into the "up" position 1-2 turns in, for just one point. Now it's stuck that way until I have a turn later in the game with a ton of gold I can convert into points to take me over 40. Oh, and if I am about to win and the crow patron is available to them, they will buy a bunch of cards before they use it for just one point, even if they could have gotten enough points to pass me.

Yep. I have similar experiences, so I also try to avoid the crow.

FrancisCrawford · November 2023

I just played an expert NPC whose deck wound up being Voracious Tomeshell -- and no other card.

That was unusual, but having an NPC Tomeshell down to 4 or fewer cards is actually pretty common.