Unlock Joker and build around a carry
Unlock all nine kings to unlock Joker Mode, then choose a nine-card starting deck that mixes cards from across the kings and customize the run’s rules. Build around a carry with compatible support, such as Paladin with Farm and Blacksmith, or a spellcaster with Library and useful enchantments.
Treat your mixed deck as a connected strategy. Decide which troop or tower should do the fighting, which cards help it grow, and where those support cards need to sit before filling the remaining deck slots.
Complete the king unlock objectives
Check each locked king’s card for its unlock objective and current progress. Complete that objective during a game, then look for the new-king pop-up on the ending screen. Work through the remaining locked kings until the full roster is available.
Joker Mode arrived with version 1.0, and its unlock requirement is unlocking every king. Daily Mayhem has a separate requirement: complete all 81 quests on any difficulty. Keep those goals separate when deciding what to tackle next.
Set up your mixed-king run
- Choose the carry for your nine-card starting deck. Give the deck a clear purpose by deciding which troop or tower you want to strengthen before choosing its supporting cards.
- Add support from the kings whose cards complete that plan. Joker allows cards from all nine kings, so you can put a carry and its supporting interactions into the same starting deck.
- Set your starting resources, including gold, lives and rerolls. For a useful comparison between deck variations, keep these settings steady while changing the cards you want to evaluate.
- Choose the enemy kings for the run. Use that control to practice a matchup that interests you, then compare how your chosen carry performs with different support around it.
- Disable events if you want to focus the experiment on your deck’s interaction. Keeping the surrounding conditions consistent makes it easier to decide whether a card change helped.
- Configure the decrees around the strategy you want to try. Joker includes decree settings among its custom rules, giving you another way to shape the run alongside your starting deck.
- Play the core interaction before expanding the plan. Use the adjustable starting resources to check how your carry and support work together, then reconsider unrelated cards that compete for the plots they need.
Choose a combination your cards can support
Cards from different kings can connect through adjacency, enchantments, empty-plot placement or pit discards. Start with the interaction your deck can already perform, and give each additional card a clear job in that plan.
| Core cards | Placement and payoff |
|---|---|
| Paladin with Farm and Blacksmith | Place Farm and Blacksmith beside the Paladin plot. Farm supplies additional units, while Blacksmith’s damage buffs also increase the Paladins’ HP. Concentrate that support around the troop you intend to keep growing. |
| Wizard with Library and enchantments | Place Library beside the Wizard plot and apply an enchantment for it to copy. Wizards gain damage from the enchantments they carry, so useful copies strengthen the carry while retaining the enchantments’ own effects. |
| Hourglass with a neighboring Camp | Put Camp beside Hourglass and preserve empty plots for cards to land on. Camp buffs its neighboring plots when a card lands on an empty plot, giving the slow tower damage and attack-speed growth from your placements. |
| Recycler beside your main carry | Place Recycler beside the troop or base you want to strengthen, then throw spare cards into the pit. Those discards increase adjacent plots’ damage and HP, turning cards you do not need into support for your main threat. |
Match perks and decrees to the interaction
An ordinary king comes with its own deck, decrees and king perks. Joker’s custom starting deck lets you combine cards across kings and configure the run’s rules. When choosing among the perks available in your setup, favor effects that target cards you actually use.
For a Wizard plan, Arcane gives Wizards +1% damage for every enchantment they bear. For a Warlock plan, Sorcerous gives Warlocks +1% HP for every Tome used. Match these effects to the actions your deck repeatedly performs.
Decrees can reinforce a different part of the same plan. Overwork makes support buildings apply their effects one more time, while Havoc supplies a random destruction card whenever you destroy a plot. Choose around the trigger your deck can sustain, then keep the other settings steady while trying it.
Adjust the plan when the pieces do not fit
Give Library something useful to copy before investing further in that arrangement. A Wizard and an adjacent Library need an existing enchantment to start the copying plan. If your current cards cannot supply that interaction, simplify the deck around support you can use immediately.
If Hourglass has no Camp, pause additional Hourglass upgrades and put a Beacon beside it for yearly attack-speed growth. This gives the tower support while you work toward the intended combination.
A Recycler needs spare cards to keep producing buffs. Protect the cards required for your core interaction, and discard those you have no useful place for. Keep the intended beneficiaries beside Recycler so the discards strengthen the right plots.
Before committing an upgrade, hold it over the target plot to preview which stats or effects it will improve. Use that preview to choose between strengthening your carry and improving the support already working around it.