Tips for Kaycee's Mod

[proud2bNs]

I just finished my plat and want to share the best tips, strategies and mechanics I found on the internet and through trial and error:

 

 

RNG manipulation:

1) The map layout is randomized, but you can manipulate it. You can infinitely get new map layouts if you quit to main menu and continue the run on the very first node of a new map before moving. This works at the very start of a run and after each boss fight. If you desperately need a specific map node, use this to your advantage and manipulate RNG.

 

2) You can quit to main menu and continue during any point in a fight to retry the entire fight from the beginning without having to accept the defeat. This also works on bosses. Did a mistake? Just try again.

 

3) The order you draw your cards in is fixed before you start the fight. If you retry the fight using 2) you can't hope for better draw RNG. 

EDIT: If you go back to the title screen during a fight and then start the regular game from the beginning, the card order will be changed. You don't even have to complete the tutorial - just exit as soon as the game allows it.  THX @Foremanskin for this trick.

 

4) You can save scum. This is especially useful to figure out if using a campfire twice would destroy your card or not. Quit to main menu doesn't work on campfires because losing a card is an instant save.

 

5) At the very beginning of a run, you can always draw two cards for pelts. The cards offered to you are random, but you can infinitely redraw cards by quitting to main menu and continuing the run again. Combine this with 1) to get the best possible start to enhance your starting deck. Never abandon a run and let Leshy kill you in a fight instead or you'll lose a pelt for an Opossum card.

 

 

How to win:

1) Most important point is to have at least one One Turn Kill (OTK) card in your deck. You need a card that does at least six damage (more is better) preferably with sigils that let you hit more than once.

 

2) Second most important thing is to have a small deck. It's always better to have just 3-4 good (enhanced) cards instead of 10 crap cards. This also greatly increases the chance to draw your OTK card(s). You deck can grow larger when you have a 100% way to draw your OTK card(s), e.g. by having a magnifier sigil to find it in your deck in turn 1. But in general it's better to get rid of unwanted cards instead of drawing new ones, unless you are desperately looking for something. Avoid drawing cards e.g. by intentionally failing challenges and by never buying pelts.

 

3) You can manipulate your starting hand by crafting a good deck. The game uses an algorithm to ensure that you'll always draw a card that is playable in turn one. The entire algorithm is greatly explained here: https://sites.google.com/view/kaycees-mod-general-info/mechanics#h.f4j7tkbc3pnq. The website is fantastic in general and your should read it, if you want to understand more mechanics.

 

The most important thing to take away is: There are special cases, but 99% of the time you will draw a one blood card at the beginning of a fight. That also means, if you only have one card with a blood cost of one in your deck, you'll always draw this card. Just make sure that you never pick new cards with a blood cost of one and get rid of all unwanted cards form your starting deck.

 

tl;dr: Carefully craft one or more One Turn Kill cards and ensure that you can always play it in turn one by manipulating your starting hand. This will trivialize all normal fights and make you win them in round one once you have the combo you want.

 

 

But what about the bears in "All Challenges" runs?

1) They are actually super easy to ged rid off! Just rely on items! Make sure you unlocked all three items from the oil paintings, they are really powerful. Always be aware of your progression on the map and keep an eye on item map nodes before every boss fight. You just need one out of two items:

- Scissors / Skinning Knife: Get rid of one bear immediately and free up the lane to deal direct damage with you OTK card.

- Clock: The clock will move/rotate all cards on the board on position to the left. When you use it immediately when the bears appear, the leftmost lane will be free to deal direct damage. Just make sure that you played your OTK card in phase one with the moved positioning in mind!

 

2) The gold digger boss fight even becomes easier with the bears, because he doesn't turn all your cards into gold anymore during the phase transition. So one OTK card is usually enough to win in all challenges.

 

 

Strong decks / combos i used:

 

1) Black Goat + Magpie + Dire Wolf (Starting hand: High cost (the one with the black goat))

 

Manipulate the starting draw until you get at least the Dire Wolf. Always pick bird and two blood cards until you draw Magpie, Upgrade dire wolf damage on a camp fire at least once to get 6+ damage in two attacks (one turn). Transfer the sigil from Magpie to your Black Goat. Make sure that Black Goat is the only one blood cost card in your deck, so that you will always have it in your starting hand.

 

Once you have your combo, you can win all fights in round one: Squirrel -> Black Goat -> Pick Dire Wolf -> Play Dire Wolf on empty lane -> instant win.

 

2) Mantis God (Starting hand: Mantis)

 

Transfer a sigil from Mantis (gives you five strikes total) or Dire Wolf (4 strikes total) to Mantis God and upgrade damage of MG on a camp fire. Make sure Mantis God OTK cards are the only blood cost one cards to always get one in your starting hand. If a Ring Worm dies in a campfire, you can always use the campfires twice without any risk or save scumming. This strategy is especially strong in "All challenges" runs, because the ring worms will have a sigil on them and you can get rid of them easily in a sigil transfer map node.

 

 

 

I hope this will be helpful for some people. Feel free to add any useful strategies or information you found. The game is amazing and i had a lot of fun in crafting strategies and looking up mechanics. Don't be scared by the difficulty of this game, it's actually not that hard once you figured it out.

Edited September 6, 2022 by proud2bNs

[AugustUnder]

Thank you for putting this together. I have been doing some of this, but knowing you can manipulate (to a certain degree) the beginning hand is a good tip. I did have a run or two where I was given no pelts at the start at all, which annoyed me greatly and obviously was going to be a big negative. Despite how frustrating a bad run can be, I am still obsessed with this game. 

[Foremanskin]

Good news everyone, I just found a way to manipulate your starting draw in a fight. If you go back to the title screen during a fight and then start the regular game from the beginning, the card order will be changed. You don't even have to complete the tutorial - just exit as soon as the game allows it. 

 

This also changes enemy behavior (for example, the enemies might get a different totem now). I haven't got the plat yet, but this basically makes the game a cake walk with the Mantis God deck.

 

[Radister]

I might be wrong but I think if you quit a game early by the menu and hit end run, Leshy will punish you in your next run with less pelts.
To get round this, I just went into a battle and let myself get killed. and in the next run had 2 Pelts again.

[proud2bNs]

5 hours ago, AugustUnder said:

Thank you for putting this together. I have been doing some of this, but knowing you can manipulate (to a certain degree) the beginning hand is a good tip. I did have a run or two where I was given no pelts at the start at all, which annoyed me greatly and obviously was going to be a big negative. Despite how frustrating a bad run can be, I am still obsessed with this game. 

 

4 hours ago, Radister said:

I might be wrong but I think if you quit a game early by the menu and hit end run, Leshy will punish you in your next run with less pelts.
To get round this, I just went into a battle and let myself get killed. and in the next run had 2 Pelts again.

 

Never abandon a run before you killed the first boss. Each time you abandon you will get one pelt less. Just get killed as @Radister said.

 

4 hours ago, Foremanskin said:

Good news everyone, I just found a way to manipulate your starting draw in a fight. If you go back to the title screen during a fight and then start the regular game from the beginning, the card order will be changed. You don't even have to complete the tutorial - just exit as soon as the game allows it. 

 

This also changes enemy behavior (for example, the enemies might get a different totem now). I haven't got the plat yet, but this basically makes the game a cake walk with the Mantis God deck.

 

 

I'll add it to the top post. Nice find!

[Woodzy_5]

On 06/09/2022 at 8:34 AM, proud2bNs said:

I just finished my plat and want to share the best tips, strategies and mechanics I found on the internet and through trial and error:

 

 

RNG manipulation:

1) The map layout is randomized, but you can manipulate it. You can infinitely get new map layouts if you quit to main menu and continue the run on the very first node of a new map before moving. This works at the very start of a run and after each boss fight. If you desperately need a specific map node, use this to your advantage and manipulate RNG.

 

2) You can quit to main menu and continue during any point in a fight to retry the entire fight from the beginning without having to accept the defeat. This also works on bosses. Did a mistake? Just try again.

 

3) The order you draw your cards in is fixed before you start the fight. If you retry the fight using 2) you can't hope for better draw RNG. 

EDIT: If you go back to the title screen during a fight and then start the regular game from the beginning, the card order will be changed. You don't even have to complete the tutorial - just exit as soon as the game allows it.  THX @Foremanskin for this trick.

 

4) You can save scum. This is especially useful to figure out if using a campfire twice would destroy your card or not. Quit to main menu doesn't work on campfires because losing a card is an instant save.

 

5) At the very beginning of a run, you can always draw two cards for pelts. The cards offered to you are random, but you can infinitely redraw cards by quitting to main menu and continuing the run again. Combine this with 1) to get the best possible start to enhance your starting deck. Never abandon a run and let Leshy kill you in a fight instead or you'll lose a pelt for an Opossum card.

 

 

How to win:

1) Most important point is to have at least one One Turn Kill (OTK) card in your deck. You need a card that does at least six damage (more is better) preferably with sigils that let you hit more than once.

 

2) Second most important thing is to have a small deck. It's always better to have just 3-4 good (enhanced) cards instead of 10 crap cards. This also greatly increases the chance to draw your OTK card(s). You deck can grow larger when you have a 100% way to draw your OTK card(s), e.g. by having a magnifier sigil to find it in your deck in turn 1. But in general it's better to get rid of unwanted cards instead of drawing new ones, unless you are desperately looking for something. Avoid drawing cards e.g. by intentionally failing challenges and by never buying pelts.

 

3) You can manipulate your starting hand by crafting a good deck. The game uses an algorithm to ensure that you'll always draw a card that is playable in turn one. The entire algorithm is greatly explained here: https://sites.google.com/view/kaycees-mod-general-info/mechanics#h.f4j7tkbc3pnq. The website is fantastic in general and your should read it, if you want to understand more mechanics.

 

The most important thing to take away is: There are special cases, but 99% of the time you will draw a one blood card at the beginning of a fight. That also means, if you only have one card with a blood cost of one in your deck, you'll always draw this card. Just make sure that you never pick new cards with a blood cost of one and get rid of all unwanted cards form your starting deck.

 

tl;dr: Carefully craft one or more One Turn Kill cards and ensure that you can always play it in turn one by manipulating your starting hand. This will trivialize all normal fights and make you win them in round one once you have the combo you want.

 

 

But what about the bears in "All Challenges" runs?

1) They are actually super easy to ged rid off! Just rely on items! Make sure you unlocked all three items from the oil paintings, they are really powerful. Always be aware of your progression on the map and keep an eye on item map nodes before every boss fight. You just need one out of two items:

- Scissors / Skinning Knife: Get rid of one bear immediately and free up the lane to deal direct damage with you OTK card.

- Clock: The clock will move/rotate all cards on the board on position to the left. When you use it immediately when the bears appear, the leftmost lane will be free to deal direct damage. Just make sure that you played your OTK card in phase one with the moved positioning in mind!

 

2) The gold digger boss fight even becomes easier with the bears, because he doesn't turn all your cards into gold anymore during the phase transition. So one OTK card is usually enough to win in all challenges.

 

 

Strong decks / combos i used:

 

1) Black Goat + Magpie + Dire Wolf (Starting hand: High cost (the one with the black goat))

 

Manipulate the starting draw until you get at least the Dire Wolf. Always pick bird and two blood cards until you draw Magpie, Upgrade dire wolf damage on a camp fire at least once to get 6+ damage in two attacks (one turn). Transfer the sigil from Magpie to your Black Goat. Make sure that Black Goat is the only one blood cost card in your deck, so that you will always have it in your starting hand.

 

Once you have your combo, you can win all fights in round one: Squirrel -> Black Goat -> Pick Dire Wolf -> Play Dire Wolf on empty lane -> instant win.

 

2) Mantis God (Starting hand: Mantis)

 

Transfer a sigil from Mantis (gives you five strikes total) or Dire Wolf (4 strikes total) to Mantis God and upgrade damage of MG on a camp fire. Make sure Mantis God OTK cards are the only blood cost one cards to always get one in your starting hand. If a Ring Worm dies in a campfire, you can always use the campfires twice without any risk or save scumming. This strategy is especially strong in "All challenges" runs, because the ring worms will have a sigil on them and you can get rid of them easily in a sigil transfer map node.

 

 

 

I hope this will be helpful for some people. Feel free to add any useful strategies or information you found. The game is amazing and i had a lot of fun in crafting strategies and looking up mechanics. Don't be scared by the difficulty of this game, it's actually not that hard once you figured it out.

I have been restarting trying to get the dire would in my starting hand and it just doesn't want to appear. can you get it when you go to spend your pelts? 

[proud2bNs]

3 hours ago, Woodzy_5 said:

I have been restarting trying to get the dire would in my starting hand and it just doesn't want to appear. can you get it when you go to spend your pelts? 

 

Dire Wolf is unlocked as a reward for completing challenge level 2. After unlocking it, it can be bought for pelts or chosen in card pick events later in the run, if it's drawn. Your starting deck is always the same and is chosen before you start a run.

[Woodzy_5]

12 minutes ago, proud2bNs said:

 

Dire Wolf is unlocked as a reward for completing challenge level 2. After unlocking it, it can be bought for pelts or chosen in card pick events later in the run, if it's drawn. Your starting deck is always the same and is chosen before you start a run.

yeah I realised that after I beat it for the first time my bad ?‍♂️?

[Woodzy_5]

On 07/09/2022 at 4:01 PM, proud2bNs said:

 

Dire Wolf is unlocked as a reward for completing challenge level 2. After unlocking it, it can be bought for pelts or chosen in card pick events later in the run, if it's drawn. Your starting deck is always the same and is chosen before you start a run.

hey man any ideas on how to go about getting rookie mistake? I'm upto challenge 8 and still don't have it ?

[proud2bNs]

21 minutes ago, Woodzy_5 said:

hey man any ideas on how to go about getting rookie mistake? I'm upto challenge 8 and still don't have it

https://sites.google.com/view/kaycees-mod-general-info/mechanics#h.9bmrcl9pnlm9

[Woodzy_5]

11 minutes ago, proud2bNs said:

https://sites.google.com/view/kaycees-mod-general-info/mechanics#h.9bmrcl9pnlm9

thanks mate appreciate it ?

[BENJAM1N_LINUS]

On 9/8/2022 at 8:17 AM, Woodzy_5 said:

hey man any ideas on how to go about getting rookie mistake? I'm upto challenge 8 and still don't have it

Nice humble brag. I'm also up to challenge 8 and I believe I only had less than 10 misplays once ??

[GrimReaperMakoto]

There's another work around I just found, requires unkillable on a beehive, the bees that come out of it cost nothing to summon and also gain the unkillable buff, stall the game in round 2 after getting 4 bees till starvation kicks in and fly over the cards for an easy win! This lets you farm mantis stats area 1-3 and hopefully gives you enough to carry.

Edited September 20, 2022 by DivineNocturne

[Snake_1302]

On 9/20/2022 at 1:26 AM, DivineNocturne said:

There's another work around I just found, requires unkillable on a beehive, the bees that come out of it cost nothing to summon and also gain the unkillable buff, stall the game in round 2 after getting 4 bees till starvation kicks in and fly over the cards for an easy win! This lets you farm mantis stats area 1-3 and hopefully gives you enough to carry.

I accidentally stumbled upon this exploit too and wanted to share it. The same strategy also works for the Skink. If you put the unkillable sigil on him it also activates on the broken tails he leaves behind. They are also zero cost cards and can be used to summon other cards.

I've also had a lot of success putting the sigil from the corpse maggots onto stronger cards. You can essentially play 3 blood cost cards by letting an opposing card kill a squirrel.

[BlackTorito]

Thanks for the tips, they helped a lot. Also I’m not sure what the skinning knife is, I never saw it in the game.

 

I recorded my Skull Storm run here, with a bit of commentary at the beginning. I actually beat it twice since I thought by level 12 I unlocked every challenge lol. The mantis deck is pretty reliable once you know how to build it and RNG manipulation makes the runs much more easier.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by BlackTorito

[proud2bNs]

11 hours ago, BlackTorito said:

Thanks for the tips, they helped a lot. Also I’m not sure what the skinning knife is, I never saw it in the game.

 

Unlockable Item from the painting puzzles.

[motojontko]

How challenge levels work with Start // Finish trophy? When I will unlock all challnges, do I need to keep playing on level 12 or can I come back to easier levels and complete missing runs with all decks I’m skipping ? It’s not easiest game for me and I really enjoy it, so I miraculously crawled to Mantis God deck and using it for all challenges. No idea how to make waterborne deck useful for instance

Edited November 13, 2023 by motojontko

[fenris-lima]

24 minutes ago, motojontko said:

How challenge levels work with Start // Finish trophy? When I will unlock all challnges, do I need to keep playing on level 12 or can I come back to easier levels and complete missing runs with all decks I’m skipping ? It’s not easiest game for me and I really enjoy it, so I miraculously crawled to Mantis God deck and using it for all challenges. No idea how to make waterborne deck useful for instance

After you finish level 12 you will unlock the last challenge for the "Skull Storm" trophy, then you can play without any challenge active for the weakest decks

[UK-Danny-93]

23 minutes ago, motojontko said:

How challenge levels work with Start // Finish trophy? When I will unlock all challnges, do I need to keep playing on level 12 or can I come back to easier levels and complete missing runs with all decks I’m skipping ? It’s not easiest game for me and I really enjoy it, so I miraculously crawled to Mantis God deck and using it for all challenges. No idea how to make waterborne deck useful for instance

You can do the the Start // Finish trophy runs on any challenges level. The last one I needed was the egg deck and I don't think I activated any skulls for that run. And the waterborne deck isn't great but you could try buffing kingfishers as high as possible. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I used the same strat as any other deck, buffing any multi-hitter to the point it can one shot most encounters. That works for every challenge level until you need a plan for Grizzlies at the end.

[motojontko]

Great tips @fenris-lima and @UK-Danny-93, i have focused on Skull Storm and recently completed it so now I can work on these useless decks. I wanted to share tip that helped me with Skull Storm: you can also manipulate what items come in backpack by same trick we did for new hand of cards. Quit, start prologue, continue run and work on picking scissors and clock. Then you need to keep in mind that for Grizzlies you need to place OTK card on second left place, use clock that will empty first lane and then scissors to empty next one so bifurcated/trifurcated hit will land on empty lanes. For final boss, first shake menu on backpack stop for bleach brush and time out opponent then shake menu for better hand and you have easy win   

[fenris-lima]

Don't forget you don't have to keep any of the starting cards. I could usually have swapped most of everything to a 1hko by the first boss or a little after, just keep the same strategy of only one cost 1 card (usually black goat) and few cards or have it with the seek ability