Hand of Fate
- Always visit stores that might sell any items you haven't identified yet, you don't need to buy them in order to learn what they do. Stores may also change their stock when revisited.
- Always keep as much Food with you as possible, you never know when a 'Pain' card will destroy a bunch of it and leave you to starve. Many beneficial events also require giving up Food, sometimes in large amounts.
- You'll keep any tokens you won even if you die or forfeit a game, so it can be worth it to go for a token even if it'll cause problems in your current playthrough. For example opening the 'Cursed Treasure' will give you 3-5 curses, but is also the only way to get the card's token and permanent unlock.
- It's impossible to stack your deck with purely beneficial cards like 'The Maiden' and 'Soul Gem', so it's important to keep an eye out for other low-risk high-reward cards. 'Maze of Traps' for example is a great card as there's no RNG involved in beating it and the traps are fairly easy to avoid. Another example is 'Dead King's Hall' which involves a fight but tends to pay off better than most other combat encounters.
- Many initially good cards get grow worse as you progress through the game, so don't hesitate to retire old staples when necessary. 'Treasure Chest' for example starts good but eventually becomes really dangerous as it often turns out to be a Mimic even if you manage to reach and open it.
- It's generally better to keep combos short in combat as you'll lose the whole chain if you keep swinging at an enemy that just died, plus most bosses will counterattack after taking a set number of hits in a row. Of course his behavior can also be exploited to your advantage as it makes them more predictable.
- Powerful rings are a good way to fill your equipment slots as you can wear an unlimited number of them. One rare curse punishes you for wearing many at once and it might also lead to small bandit ambushes when visiting stores, but these aren't significant downsides.
- There are some very crippling curses in the late game, one of note being the run-killing 'Cowardice' (incapable of choosing combat options in encounters). Keeping some money saved for their removal is very recommended, and the card 'Soul Gem' should have a permanent place in your deck once unlocked as it allows you to remove a random curse for 5 Food.
- The DLC encounter chain which starts with 'Land Locked Lubber' culminates in an extremely tough boss fight that you can't remove from your deck until you beat it. The rewards for clearing it are amazing, but it's brutal if you happen to stumble on it early in a dungeon. The encounter that unlocks the fight itself is called 'Sea Journey', another tough clear as it requires a bunch of Success cards in a row.