Master the dungeon with these advanced tips and complete rule explanations.
Scoundrel is a deceptively simple game. You are an adventurer exploring a dungeon represented by a standard deck of playing cards (minus the jokers). Your goal is to traverse all the rooms (deal with all the cards) without your health dropping to zero.
You start with 20 Health points.
Cards are dealt in groups of four, representing a room in the dungeon. You cannot see what is coming in the next room. In each room, you must interact with (click/tap) at least three cards.
Once three cards are gone, the fourth card remains. You then deal three new cards from the deck to fill the room back up to four. This means you are constantly carrying one card forward, which is a key strategic element.
Monsters (red-tinted cards) are your enemies. Their strength is simply their numeric value, ranging from 2 to 14. Higher numbers represent stronger monsters.
Fighting Barehanded: If you don't have a weapon equipped, you take damage equal to the monster's full value. Fighting a 14 barehanded implies taking 14 damage, which is often fatal.
Weapons (blue-tinted cards) help you slay monsters. Their "attack power" is their face value (2-14). Attacking a monster with a weapon subtracts the weapon's value from the monster's strength.
Important Rule: When you use a weapon to kill a monster, it doesn't break immediately. However, you can only use it again on a monster of equal or lower value than the previous one you killed.
Potions (green-tinted cards) heal you. Their healing amount is their face value. You can only drink one potion per room. If there are multiple potions in a room, only the first potion used will be applied to you, the rest if used will not be applied in that same room. Your max health depends on the difficulty (20 for Normal); any healing above this is wasted.
The key to winning Scoundrel is "chaining" kills with your weapon. Since a used weapon can only kill equal or weaker monsters, you should try to kill high-level monsters first, then work your way down.
Example: You have a 10 Weapon. If you kill an 8 Monster, your weapon is now "bound" to max strength 8. You cannot use it on a 9 Monster anymore. Try to kill the strongest monsters possible with your strong weapons to get maximum value.
Remember that you leave one card behind in every room. You can use this to your advantage. If you have a low potion (2 or 3) that you don't need, leave it behind! It will stay in the room while you deal 3 new cards. Strategy involves clearing the "bad" cards (monsters) and keeping "good" cards (potions/weapons) available for when you really need them.
Sometimes it is better to take 2 or 3 damage from a weak monster barehanded than to waste a high-level weapon charge or break a good weapon chain. Save your High Value Weapons for the strongest monsters (11-14).