Loop Hero – Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy)

Loop Hero – Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 5 - steamlists.com
Loop Hero – Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 5 - steamlists.com
So you want to be a Skele-Lord?

 
 

Deck

Loop Hero - Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 
 
“This is the ideal necro deck. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.” 
 

  • Road: Cemetery, Village*, Ruins 
  • Roadside: Spiders, Vampires, Battlefield, Blood Grove, Bookery*, Lantern 
  • Landscape: Rock*, Forest, River 
  • Special: Oblivion, Beacon 
  • Golden: Crypt*

*: cards you can probably do without but are helpful. 
 
You can check out the ‘More on the Deck’ section for more info, but do read ‘Strategy’ to understand the logic behind it! 
 
 
 

Stats

Loop Hero - Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 
 
a.k.a., what will make or break your loop. Pic unrelated. 
 

  • Skeleton Level ≥ Loop Level 
  • Mastery: 30-50% 
  • Max Skeletons: 3-4 
  • Attack Speed ≥ 100%

 
Skeleton Level is the most important stat. You want to overshoot it as much as possible while not letting the other two skeleton stats drop below their minimum: you need mastery at 30-50% to get Big Skellies and at least 3 skellies for survivability (you should have 4+ for the boss). Later on you can trade Mastery for Skeleton Level if it’s a huge trade and you were lagging behind (ie., you’re on loop 10 and you trade 25% mastery for +2.00 skeleton level and your mastery falls to 30% total). Forests + River should give you all the Attack Speed you need. 
 
Early game you will need some Regen HP per Sec because your Attack Speed won’t be high enough to summon Skeletons in time to avoid damage. All other stats (Evasion, Counter, etc.) don’t matter, but if you can try to prioritize Evasion. More Evasion never hurts. 
 
 
 

Skills

Loop Hero - Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 
 
“Build for this feel?” 
 
The Good

  • Field Practice (+0.25 Skeleton Level per loop) is THE best perk as a first pick, period. 
  • Unseen Care (+0.5 Energy HP per summon) is also a good early pick and can get downright cheesy if you farm Wooden Soldiers. 
  • Art of Control (max skellies +1) can be very useful in hitting stat milestones since it allows more flexibility when choosing items 
  • Lightning Fast (which on average translates to +30% skeleton damage) is also good but you may not have unlocked it yet.

(The Sort-of-Good)

  • Edge of Impossible (20% chance to summon 2 extra skellies and go above limit) is very good in the mid to late-game when your skeletons are sturdier and you summon them faster. Pairs well with Horde. 
  • Laying Down One’s Life (damage is evenly split) is quite good, particularly if you’re low on resurrection count. 
  • Horde (3 buffed skellies early in loop) is good for increased survivability but dependent on your map layout: if there are any A Village? early in your loop the Wooden Warriors will rip your skellies to shreds before you can get even get any benefit out of them. 
  • Residual Life (skellies heal you 3xLoop Level when they die) requires high attack speed, can be a crutch if you’re having trouble hitting the Skeleton Level milestone, but then again you should aim for this not to happen

The Bad & the Ugly

  • Counterattack (15% chance skellies counterattack when you take damage) can be an OK-ish pick on very long runs when your Max Skellie count gets very high and you have Horde to kickstart your summoning, but keep in mind it only triggers when you take HP damage, not Magic HP damage. 
  • Preparation for a Ceremony (first two summons each day are “””buffed”””) simply sucks because the bonus is negligible and skeletons are disposable. I guess it pairs well with the skill below. 
  • Ambitions of the Dead (skellies heal on kill and get buffed) only works well against multiple weaker creatures and you have very high Skeleton Level 
  • Omicron’s Technique (+1 resurrect) is overkill unless you went for the Arsenal instead of the Ancient Crypt, but even then it can be disregarded

 
 
 
 

Strategy

Loop Hero - Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy) 
 
The Loop never ends. Or actually it does, but whatever. 
 
Road and Roadside cards: 

  • We want Spiders for quickly building up a deck: they’re weak and numerous, and thus you can get lots of card drops to kick-start your early game and thus get to the boss earlier (the further down the loop, the stronger it gets). Drop them in corners on a snaky part of the loop so they spread eavenly, but keeping in mind future Lantern placement 
  • We want Vampires for the loot. Drop them near empty roads so you face them only with slimes at first, then around spiders as your Attack Speed increases. Use Oblivion cards on Mansions and Spiders to fine-tune encounter difficulty 
  • Keep encounters manageable by dropping Lanterns as needed. Prioritize corners and encounters with lots of enemies (e.g., goblins, spiders). Ideally all roads should have one touching its tile, two if a troublesome area. 
  • We want Cemeteries for the early loot. Adjacent road tiles should be empty of enemies. Later if they become troublesome you can Oblivion them 
  • We want Ruins for the great loot, since they almost always drop high rarity items (lots of stats) and this is usually very good for the Necro. The key to maximizing the benefit for this card is its placement: drop them only and only if a Bloody Grove is touching it, otherwise the worms escape and you don’t get the loot. Its adjacent road tiles should be empty (the road leading to it is priority). Plan ahead by keeping a Forest and Bloody Grove card handy. Do not drop them next to your campfire otherwise they will join the boss fight (!). 
  • We want Battlefields for the easy loot. Minimize overlap and encounters with other enemies. Later on you won’t need them. 
  • Bookeries are a mixed bag. If you add them to your deck, you should place them next to Vampire Mansions if encounters are manageable (ie., there’s a Lantern). Can be used to turn Forests into Thickets 
  • Drop down Villages if you find yourself in need for healing after encounters, increasing loot quality, and more XP. If you weren’t careful with your Lantern placement or your stats aren’t good they’ll be more a double-edged sword though 
  • Turning Villages into Count’s Lands is situational: it depends on how good your stats are and how much healing you need 
  • Consider not dropping even-numbered villages (2nd, 4th, …) without an Oblivion card in your deck because Bandits will spawn, who have a 5% chance to steal a random item in your inventory

 
Landscape cards: 

  • Build a River and lay Forests and Thickets around it. This is key to every good necromancer build. Plan its path ahead of time so you maximize usable terrain. It doesn’t matter much if you lay a Forest or Thicket as long as it touches the River 
  • Beware of A Village? spawning every 10 Forests/Thickets: initially they’re not much of a threat, but once your summoning speed is very high you may start hitting the dummies themselves and getting countered for a lot of damage! Keep an eye out and Oblivion them as needed. 
  • Rocks and Mountains (if you brought them) on a corner. Sometimes the RNG doesn’t like you and you may need some extra HP as a buffer, but not much, so the Mountain Peak is optional. I avoid it since Harpies don’t drop good loot, make encounters harder than they should be, and you don’t need much HP anyway since your ~skellies~ will be soaking up the punches. 
  • Drop a Forest near your camp, then aBloody Grove touching the camp. This will kill the boss(es) at 15% HP. You can take this one step further by dropping an Oblivion card on the Forest touching the grove so it becomes a Hungry Grove, killing enemies at 20% HP.

 
Special cards: 

  • Always keep a couple backup Oblivioncards handy! Remember they delay the boss encounter so it may ‘hurt’ you if going for an early boss kill 
  • Drop Beacons on the inner part of the loop so that they touch lots of road tiles; that way you get the most benefit per boss meter tick increase. Initially place them touching empty roads so your character goes faster and doesn’t let enemy count grow out of control (there are no Meadows so regeneration doesn’t matter). Place them touching encounter tiles as your Max Skeletons and Attack Speed grows. One should be touching your Camp.

 
And finally, but most importantly: 

  • Aim on facing the boss as soon as you hit all stat milestones (Skeleton level> Loop Level, 30-50% Mastery, 4 Max Skellies, 100+% Attack Speed), because you get diminishing returns on your stat upgrades the further down the Loop Level you go. Loops 6-8 are usually the standard, but you can take it higher if needed, just don’t go overboard (12+). Remember to use Oblivion cards to remove dangerous encounters unless you feel confident or feel like you can maybe get better items out of them (ie., Ruins)

 
 
 
 

More on the Deck

Those are my cards, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others. (Sort of.) 
 

  • Groves are a dangerous pick for the Necro at Ch2+ because even though Ratwolves are weak and numerous, their bleeding effect chews through Magic HP. Definitely don’t bring them along if you aren’t bringing Rocks and Mountains. 
  • Which brings me to the next point, if you feel confident with the game mechanics, Rocks and Mountains aren’t needed since early Regen HP per Sec is a good crutch for sustainability, and later on you’ll be summoning strong Big Skellies really fast and they’ll shield you from damage 
  • Arsenal is a good pick over Ancient Crypt if you’re briniging Rocks and Mountains, since Shields provide even more passive bonuses, but the Crypt is usually safer as you may not always get the Omicron Technique (+1 Resurrect) skill and there’s better picks. 
  • Wheat Fields suck. The Scarecrows attack in area and wreak havok on your skellies, and the extra healing HP isn’t necessary on the Necro. 
  • Swamps are usually a great choice to pair up with Vampire Mansions and have safer encounters with them, but Mosquitoes explode on death and deal a lot of area damage which are the bane of summoner builds, so that’s why I don’t bring them along. Furthermore they aren’t numerous so they don’t further your deck as you’d basically add them to get the Vampire loot. 
  • You don’t need Meadows. Your ~skellies~ and Magic HP mean you shouldn’t get hit as much. 
  • Deserts or Oases are optional. Add them only after you’ve placed a good number of Forests otherwise your skellies will drop like flies since the -HP% affects your summons 
  • Outposts hate the Necro, and you should too. They pair excellently well with the Rogue though 
  • You only bring Chrono Crystals to pair up with Meadows, but this is not our case 
  • Temporal Beacons are only good if you can hit the Watchers hard and fast (Rogue, anyone?), but our Necro’s summons are s l o w . 

 
 

Written by 1eyedking

This is all about Loop Hero – Full Necro Guide (Deck + Build + Strategy); I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!
 
 
 
 


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