Colorless Cards & Replay Mechanic Guide

Where to find colorless cards

• Shops: Every shop sells two colorless cards alongside character-specific cards. The colorless options rotate per shop. Prices range from 60-180 gold depending on rarity.
• Unknown room events: Several events offer a choice of colorless cards as rewards. These are free but random — you choose from whatever the event offers.
• Dingy Rug relic: Adds one colorless card option to every post-combat card reward screen. This is the only way to see colorless cards in regular rewards.
• Toolbox relic: At the start of each combat, choose 1 of 3 random colorless cards to add to your hand. The card costs 0 energy for that combat only.
• Orange Dough relic: Adds 2 random colorless cards to your deck at the start of each combat. Less controlled than Toolbox but provides volume.

The Replay mechanic: Hidden Gem explained

• Replay is permanent for the combat. Once a card gains Replay, it keeps the effect for every play for the rest of that fight.
• Replay stacks: if you play Hidden Gem on a card that already has Replay 2, it gains Replay 4 (playing 5 times total). Multiple Hidden Gem uses on the same card create exponential scaling.
• The target is random — Hidden Gem enchants a random card in your Draw Pile, not your Hand. You cannot choose which card receives Replay.
• Deck size matters for targeting: The fewer cards in your Draw Pile when you play Hidden Gem, the higher the chance of hitting your best card. Play Hidden Gem after a large draw turn when few cards remain in the pile.
• Attack cards with Replay deal damage three times. A Heavy Blade with 3x Strength scaling played three times is 9x Strength in a single card play.
• Skill cards with Replay apply their effects three times. A Block card with Replay 2 grants triple Block. A Catalyst (double Poison) with Replay 2 would multiply Poison by 8x (2x2x2).
• Power cards with Replay do not re-apply their effect — Powers can only be played once per combat. Replay on a Power is wasted.

S-tier colorless cards

• Apotheosis (2 energy, Rare Skill): Upgrade ALL cards in your deck for the rest of combat. Exhaust. Every card in your hand, draw pile, discard pile, and exhaust pile becomes its upgraded version. In a 25-card deck, this is equivalent to 25 Smith actions compressed into one card play. Apotheosis is strongest when bought early (Act 1-2) so you benefit from upgrades across more fights. Upgraded Apotheosis costs 1 energy instead of 2.
• Scrawl (1 energy, Rare Skill): Draw cards until your hand is full. Exhaust. If your hand has 2 cards and the cap is 10, Scrawl draws 8 cards for 1 energy. This is the most efficient draw card in the game. Formerly a Watcher-exclusive card, now available to all characters.
• Panache (0 energy, Rare Power): Every 5th card you play in a turn deals 10 damage (14 upgraded) to ALL enemies. The counter resets each turn. In decks that play 10+ cards per turn (Silent Shiv builds, Defect 0-cost builds, Regent Star cycling), Panache triggers 2-3 times per turn for 20-42 free AoE damage.
• Master of Strategy (0 energy, Rare Skill): Draw 3 cards. Exhaust. Three cards for zero energy is the best draw-to-cost ratio of any single card. The Exhaust means you only get it once per combat, but that one use often enables a game-winning turn.
• Hand of Greed (2 energy, Rare Attack): Deal 20 damage (25 upgraded). If this kills the target, gain 20 gold (25 upgraded). In Act 1, Hand of Greed often one-shots small enemies and funds your next shop visit. The gold generation compounds across an entire run.

A-tier colorless cards: strong utility picks

• Dark Shackles (1 energy, Uncommon Skill): Target enemy loses 9 Strength (15 upgraded) for the turn. Exhaust. Against bosses that hit for 30+ damage, Dark Shackles reduces that hit to single digits. A lifesaver against Act 3 boss attacks.
• Secret Technique (0 energy, Rare Skill): Search your draw pile for a Skill and put it in your hand. Exhaust. Finds your best defensive card exactly when you need it.
• Secret Weapon (0 energy, Rare Skill): Search your draw pile for an Attack and put it in your hand. Exhaust. Finds your finisher or scaling card on demand.
• Discovery (1 energy, Uncommon Skill): Choose 1 of 3 random cards. The chosen card costs 0 energy this turn. Exhaust. Free card generation with a choice — the flexibility makes this consistently good.
• Thinking Ahead (0 energy, Uncommon Skill): Draw 2 cards, then put a card from your hand on top of your draw pile. Costs no energy and manipulates your draw order. Strong in decks that care about draw-pile ordering.
• Dramatic Entrance (0 energy, Uncommon Attack): Innate. Deal 11 damage to ALL enemies. Exhaust. Starts in your opening hand every combat and deals free AoE damage. Excellent in Act 1 for clearing multi-enemy fights.

When to buy colorless cards vs. character cards

• Buy colorless when no character card solves your problem. If the shop's character cards are mediocre but Apotheosis or Dark Shackles is available, the colorless option is clearly superior.
• Buy colorless when the card is S-tier. Apotheosis, Scrawl, and Panache are stronger than most character-specific Rare cards. These are worth buying even over decent character options.
• Prefer character cards when building toward a specific archetype. Ironclad Strength scaling, Silent Poison stacking, and Defect Orb builds need character-specific cards to function. A colorless card that does not advance your build plan is a distraction.
• Prioritize card removal over mediocre colorless cards. Removing a Strike (75 gold, +25 each removal) improves every future draw. A B-tier colorless card adds one situational option but dilutes your deck.
• Early acts favor character cards (you are building your core strategy). Late acts favor colorless cards (your core is complete and you need utility or burst).
• Relics like Dingy Rug, Toolbox, and Orange Dough change the calculus entirely. If you have Toolbox, you already get a free colorless card every combat — buying more from shops becomes redundant unless the card is S-tier.

Best character synergies with colorless cards

• Ironclad + Apotheosis: Ironclad has the most cards that gain significant power from upgrades (Bash: 8 to 10 damage + 3 Vulnerable, Heavy Blade: 3x to 5x Strength scaling). Apotheosis in an Ironclad deck often adds 30-50% total damage output.
• Ironclad + Hidden Gem: Replay on Heavy Blade or Limit Break creates exponential Strength scaling. Heavy Blade with Replay 2 and 10 Strength deals 150+ damage in a single play.
• Silent + Panache: Shiv builds play 8-12 cards per turn naturally. Panache triggers 1-2 times per turn for 10-28 free AoE damage, solving the Silent's weakness against multi-enemy fights.
• Silent + Hidden Gem: Replay on Catalyst (double Poison) is devastating. Catalyst with Replay 2 multiplies Poison by 8x (2 x 2 x 2), turning 10 Poison into 80 in a single card play.
• Defect + Scrawl: Defect decks that generate 0-cost cards (Claw, Scrape) benefit enormously from drawing the entire deck in one turn. Scrawl fills the hand, then 0-cost cards empty it for another cycle.
• Necrobinder + Master of Strategy: Drawing 3 cards for 0 energy feeds the Exhaust engine without spending energy. The card Exhausts itself, triggering Dark Embrace and Feel No Pain equivalents.
• Regent + Hidden Gem: Replay on a Star-generating card like Big Bang (0 cost, generate Stars) triples Star output per play. Combined with Black Hole (damage per Star event), this enables massive burst turns.

Cards to avoid

• Ultimate Strike (1 energy, Attack): Deals damage but is weaker than most class-specific attacks at the same cost. No synergy with any archetype.
• Ultimate Defend (1 energy, Skill): Grants Block but is worse than class-specific defensive options. Ironclad's Shrug It Off draws a card on top of giving Block.
• Fasten (1 energy, Power): Grants an additional 5 Block from Defend cards. Only relevant if you still have basic Defend cards in your deck, which you should be removing, not buffing.
• Mind Blast (1 energy, Attack): Deals damage equal to draw pile size. Inconsistent and anti-synergistic with deck thinning — the better your deck gets, the weaker Mind Blast becomes.

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