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Hellhand in a nutshell
Hellhand is a kind of mini game in the game. You can find the playing table close to the second blacksmith. It is a pretty neat card game and independent of the main dungeon crawl game. Hence, you can completely ignore it if you want, however, you can win some items by beating your opponent at specific levels. These items you will find in the chest next to the playing table.
Hellhand is a Collectable Card Game by playing the game you can collect additional cards to strengthen your deck. This should help you to beat the computer player at a higher level.
You play with a deck of 30 cards and have to defeat your opponent (perhaps the second Blacksmith) by reducing your opponent's health to zero.
There are two types of cards in the game:
- minions: usually needs a turn to attack, stay on the table until they are killed, can have special abilities, and if they don't have an opposite, they attack the opponent directly
- spells: activate immediately, then they are discarded
You can get more cards by winning on the levels with a card-background, or buying three random cards for 2100 stonerunes. (You get +500 stonerunes when you level up).
How to start
The start screen of Hellhand shows the main actions:
- Play: to play the game
- Decks: to modify your deck
- Get 3 Random cards: to get additional cards for which you first need to collect 2100 stonerunes by increasing your player level
- Tutorial: shows a very brief summary of the rules (for a more extensive explanation see Hellhand Rules)
- Exit: to leave the game
Moreover in the center you can see how many card you have collected and what your current level is, how much experience you have and how much you need for the next player level, while in the top left corner you see how many stonerunes you have.
New players will already get a set of cards and a deck that is suited to beat the computer opponent at lower levels of difficulty. Hence, you can directly start to Play. However, once you collect more cards or want to beat the computer at higher levels it is advised to change your deck. You can create three different decks which enable you to experiment with cards and playing styles. Deck 1 is already created for you and can be used to play. Decks 2 and 3 can be created by selecting Decks in the start screen.
If you beat a computer at a specific computer level it will be marked with a green tick and you might get a reward. Levels with a card background (marked in red in the picture, not in the game) give you two additional cards which you can select in your deck. Levels with a chest (marked in yellow in the picture, not in the game) give a small present in the chest next to the table which can be used by your characters in the main game. You only get rewards the first time that you beat a specific computer level. By beating a computer level you also gain experience points which increase your player level. You can multiple times select a computer level for gaining experience. Each time you collected sufficient experience for a new player level you get 500 stonerunes, hence after 5 level ups you have 2500 stonerune which enables you to get 3 random cards which you can use in your deck.
| Level | Opponent's health | Your health | Experience gained | Max in version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 35 | 1 | |
| ... | ||||
| 56 | 64 | 35 | 17560 | 1.5.39 |
| ... | ||||
| 66 | 100 | 35 | 27910 | 1.5.48 |
| ... | ||||
| 85 | 150 | 35 | 56964 | 1.6.13 |
Currently the game has 85 levels (version 1.6.13, previous versions had less). The none visible levels can be selected by sliding the screen up/down.
A higher level of the opponent gives your opponent more health and stronger cards, however, the card play of the computer does not improve. Initially it might be discouraging if your opponent plays some extremely strong cards that wipe out your side of the field. However, by adjusting your deck there are multiple strategies to very consistently beat the computer at even the highest level. When you reorganize your deck, you need to select exactly 30 cards from all the cards you own. There are some limitations, since you have a subset of all available cards, and those cards have limited deck-allowance number as well. You can have three decks saved.
You need mana to play out your cards, the required mana is shown on the left upper corner on the card. Your available mana starts with 1 and increases every turn, however left over mana from the previous round does not carry over. Hence, the first turn you can use 1 mana, the second turn 2 mana, independently how much you have used in the previous turn. Not used mana is essentially lost if not spent.
The game is turn-based, you play out your card then your opponent does the same and it goes on and on until one of you dies.
Strategies/Tips[]
- I found that in the beginning it is easier to handle and eventually win a game if you have low-mana cost cards, so you get better starting cards with better probability percentage.
- Also it is important to use carefully the passives/special attacks of the cards. Like for example don't start with a Crayfish if possible, because it can't heal a friendly minion if it is the first one down. (and so on-)
- Look out for the enemies OP cards, like Starfire and Hellfire, and that low mana-cost healer one