Nexus Read

Dice Throne announced the final hero in their Nexus Kickstarter (launches October 13th). Overall I'm very excited for the new set, and here are my thoughts.

This is an extremely early read. I only have their boards, their leaflets and a handful of cards, and Dice Throne could change any of the kits before release. My understanding of the heroes could also be wrong, and I'm sure I've misread something. I'll update this page as I learn more and as the community collectively solves the heroes.

The big unknown is each hero's own cards. A board tells me what a hero wants to do, and the deck decides how often they get to do it. A few good cards could change a hero's whole play style (cough Fowl Friend II), so everything below could be moot once we learn about the heroes' cards.

Each hero gets the same walk through the kit. I start with the abilities, then the status effects, then the other effects that matter, then the hero cards I've seen and my first impressions. Hover or tap any ability, status or card name to read it.

A quick note on the numbers. The tables have two different kinds of number. The odds column is the chance of making one ability if I aim at it alone. When I say a hero "ends the turn" on an ability some percent of the time, that is a different number. It is how often best play finishes there when every ability is available, and it is lower because best play reaches for the higher-value abilities first and falls back on the rest. A "typical turn" is the average value of the ability a turn finishes on. I measure value in delta, where 1 damage is 1, a CP is 1, a card is 2 and damage that skips the defense roll is worth 2.5 more. The values I put on tokens like Ghost Step or Lock-On are my own estimates, so those are the softest numbers on the page.

Here is where I'm at so far.

• Hacker has the best offense of the four and the weakest defense, and the Hack turns a long build-up into one big swing.
• Ghost Runner has the most complex engine of the four. She is also the hero most sensitive to losing sixes.
• Punch-A-Tron 3000 looks like the simplest and the steadiest. The board is easy to read, and the Fuel Cell engine makes even his basic ability dangerous.
• Snyper has the sharpest ideas and the most unknowns. Her offense leans on a deck I have not seen, and going Prone looks expensive.

Hacker

Hacker is a control hero whose whole kit puts Virus on the opponent's abilities and then cashes it all in at once. It's the one I'm most curious about, because so much depends on where the Virus goes. This section goes through the kit in the order the pieces fit together, status effects first and then the abilities, with the full card text for each. Hover any expected value to see how the number is built.

The die

Hacker's die has a 3-1-1-1 layout, which I represent with the letters A, B, C and D.

Status effects

Virus

Unique status effect · Stack limit 6 · Value 1.8

• Place When inflicted, on any of your opponent's Offensive Abilities, except an Ultimate Ability.
• If an Offensive Ability with Virus on it is successfully activated, remove all Virus tokens from that ability and reduce any Attack dmg by 1 per token. Attack Modifier.
• Hack If the Hacker's Attack successfully deals dmg to an opponent afflicted with at least 5 Virus tokens, they may Hack that opponent at the end of the Roll Phase.
  • Remove all Virus tokens from them
  • They lose 1 CP
  • The Hacker immediately targets them with an additional Offensive Roll Phase. If it results in an Attack, it becomes undefendable.
• This token may not be transferred by any means (but can be removed).

This is one of my favorite status effects because of the decision making and skill expression it asks for. The Hacker picks where each Virus goes, and getting the most disruption out of them means knowing the strengths of the opponent's hero. I wouldn't put one on an offensive ability that doesn't result in an attack, because the tokens are removed when the ability is activated anyway. So the choice is among the attacks the opponent can actually make. I can spread the Virus out or stack it on specific abilities, and either way I decide which abilities.

If I stack, the natural targets are the strong abilities they're likely to activate. The Virus either deters them from activating it or I get the damage reduction. That's a fine line to walk, because each Virus generally gets more value when the opponent doesn't activate the ability it's on through Hack or Enter the Mainframe. The best case is putting Virus on an ability they want to chase and having it scare them off. As the opponent, you may need to call the bluff and activate the ability through the damage reduction, so the Hacker doesn't get better value elsewhere from those Virus.

Virus accounting

A Virus does three jobs.

• It takes 1 damage off the ability it sits on. This is the least valuable job, so I generally don't want a Virus to be used in this way.
• It adds 2 damage to Enter the Mainframe while it is on the opponent.
• It counts toward the five I need for a Hack.

The second and third jobs aren't mutually exclusive, and I think chaining them together will be one of Hacker's signature lines. I cover it further down.

A Hack is worth 13.3 up front, which is the extra roll phase (a typical turn of 10.27), plus the CP they lose, plus some value for that phase's attack being undefendable. Generally I'd chase a higher damage defendable attack that can inflict more Virus (Master Hack, Hardware) in the Hack's roll phase, but sometimes I'll end up on an ability that is undefendable anyway (Glitch Injection, Untraceable), so we don't benefit from the undefendable from the Hack. A Hack also uses up the Virus it cashes in. That makes a Virus hard to price, so I look at two ways.

Option 1 A Virus is worth only the damage it takes off, 1, and I leave the Enter the Mainframe bonus out of the price because it only pays when I roll that ability. I give the Hack its full value when it lands and take the Virus it spends off that, so a Hack nets 8.3. This is unintuitive though, especially since we generally want to avoid Virus being used for this effect anyway as best as we can.

Option 2 A Virus carries part of the Hack. Each Virus gets a share of the Hack's value when I place it, up to 2.66 each, and the Hack is then counted net of the Virus it uses up. At the full share the Hack's whole value is already counted when I place the Virus, so cashing it in adds nothing new on top. The extra roll phase and the lost CP still happen, they are just already in the price.

I went with a hybrid of the two, with a Virus at 1.8, between 1 and the full share. A Hack is 13.3 up front, uses up five Virus worth 9.0, and nets 4.3. I picked it because Virus generally exist to build toward a Hack, and counting the Hack net keeps me from counting it twice. The 1.8 is a judgment call, and Enter the Mainframe pays more on top of it when I roll it, so it is on the conservative side. I'm open to better ways of measuring a Virus's expected value if anyone has better ideas.

The Hack is optional, but I don't expect many situations where it would be better not to Hack when you are able to, especially since the next attack is undefendable. Some niche situations may arise where skipping a Hack is the right move.

Malware

Unique status effect · Stack limit 2 · Value 5.9

• Roll 1 die in the Upkeep Phase of the player afflicted with this token
  • On 1, inflict 2 Virus and remove this token
  • On 2 to 5, inflict Virus
  • On 6, they are dealt 1 dmg, then remove this token
• This token may not be removed or transferred by any other means.

Malware sits on the opponent and rolls in their upkeep, so one I place on my turn first ticks at the start of their next turn. A token lives 3.0 upkeeps on average and inflicts 3.0 Virus plus 0.5 damage, which makes it worth 5.9. One token gives no Virus at all 16.7% of the time (a 6 on the first roll still deals 1 damage), three or more Virus 48.1% of the time and five or more 21.4% of the time. Two tokens left alone reach five Virus by the second upkeep 14.8% of the time, by the third 48.0% and by the fifth 60.6%, so two Malware reach five Virus on their own about three times in five. Once Malware is rolling, I expect about 1.85 Virus a round. 0.52 comes straight from abilities, 0.93 comes from the Malware those abilities leave behind and 0.4 comes from Fire Wall.

R.A.M.

Positive status effect · Stack limit 2 · Value 1.33

• A player with this token may spend it during any Roll Phase to gain 1 additional Roll Attempt.

R.A.M. can be spent in any roll phase. Generally you'll use it for your offensive roll phases, but there may be times where you need the 2 damage prevention from Fire Wall to survive one more turn, and you may need to use it there. An extra roll attempt is worth 1.33 to their typical turn, which is less than the 2 I would value a whole attempt at, because the board already covers a lot of final hands.

Here is what extra attempts do to the odds of making each ability if I aim at it alone.

The first R.A.M. usually adds the most, and the second adds less on most abilities. Only the hardest ones gain more from the second than the first. Untraceable goes from 10.4% to 21.0% with one and 33.4% with two, and Server Meltdown goes from 1.3% to 3.7% and 7.7%.

Abilities

Each ability shows what it needs, the odds of making it, and its expected value. Odds are the chance of making the ability in three attempts if I aim at it alone. Expected values are in delta, with no Virus on the opponent yet, and you can hover any of them to see where the number comes from.

Reconfigure Offensive

Needs A A A · Odds 98.4% · Value 4.0

• Deal 4 dmg

Needs A A A A · Odds 87.9% · Value 5.0

• Deal 5 dmg

Needs A A A A A · Odds 51.3% · Value 7.0

• Deal 7 dmg

You'll prefer to never have to use this ability. It doesn't add anything to the Virus engine, but 7 damage isn't the worst if you're able to use it after a Hack to make it undefendable and you aren't concerned about inflicting Virus. I'm thinking that after a Hack, when the opponent is at less than 7 health, this is the most reliable chase to close it out, especially if you have R.A.M. to spend.

Hardware Offensive

Needs small straight · Odds 61.5% · Value 9.3

• Gain R.A.M.
• Deal 8 dmg

Needs large straight · Odds 26.1% · Value 12.1

• Gain R.A.M.
• Inflict Virus
• Deal 9 dmg

You won't be upset to roll these once you've got your Virus engine going with Malware, and you'll likely stumble onto these quite often when chasing Enter the Mainframe due to the dice overlap. These are a bit more sad if you don't have the Virus engine going, as they do little to add to it.

Master Hack Offensive

Needs A A A B B · Odds 34.9% · Value 11.6

• Deal 8 dmg
• Roll 1 die
  • Inflict half the value as Virus (rounded up)

It averages 2 Virus, but can inflict 1 to 3. It is the best way to seed Virus without a Malware. Once the opponent has 4 or more Virus on them, this ability has diminishing returns because of the Virus stack limit.

Its dice, A and B, are the opposite of what the Malware makers want, so chasing it means giving up that plan. In practice you probably won't hard chase this one too often.

Glitch Injection Offensive

Needs C C C · Odds 35.5% · Value 13.4

• Inflict Malware
• Deal 5 undefendable dmg

This is one of the 3 Malware makers, and you'll likely be chasing it or Screen Presence when the opponent doesn't have 2 Malware. It deals an acceptable amount of undefendable damage too, so overall it's a strong ability that will always be good if there is room to inflict Malware.

Untraceable Offensive

Needs D D D D · Odds 10.4% · Value 18.0

• Inflict Malware and 2 Virus
• Deal 6 undefendable dmg

This is an incredibly strong mini ult if the opponent has room for a Malware. You won't chase it without dice mods or a good amount of luck on the first roll, but I'd strongly consider using dice mods to make this one happen if it's early enough in the game to see the delta return on the CP spend. It's especially strong if the opponent is already at 3 Virus, as you'd be able to chain into a Hack, leaving the opponent with no opportunity to burn the Virus at 1 delta each in their turn.

Screen Presence Offensive

Needs C D D · Odds 54.3% · Value 10.8

• Deal 6 dmg
• Roll 2 dice
  • For each A, add 2 dmg
  • For each B, gain 1 R.A.M.
  • For each C, inflict 1 Virus
  • On D, inflict Malware

The easiest of the three Malware makers to reach. The Malware only comes when a D shows on the rider, which happens 30.6% of the time. The rider pays out the rest of the time in damage (A), R.A.M. (B) and Virus (C). I'd strongly consider using Six-It! or Try, Try Again! here to chase a Malware if there is room to inflict one. This is a solid ability.

Enter the Mainframe Offensive

Needs A B C D · Odds 60.7% · Value 4.8

• Inflict Virus
• Deal 1 dmg
• Add 2 dmg for each Virus that opponents are afflicted with

Its value depends almost entirely on the Virus already on the opponent. With none, this is one of the Hacker's worst abilities, and every Virus waiting adds 2 damage on top. Generally you'll chase this when the opponent already has some Virus on them (ideally 4), so you can swing big for 11 damage, Hack with the 5 Virus, and follow up with a different attack. Ideally you'd follow up with a Virus generator such as (Master Hack, Hardware) to keep the Virus engine going alongside Malware.

Fire Wall Defensive

Defense roll, 1 die · Value 2.2

• Roll 1 die
  • On A, prevent 2 dmg
  • On B, gain R.A.M.
  • On C, inflict Virus
  • For each D, inflict Virus and roll this die again

Every face does something. Averaged over a defense roll, that comes to 1.2 damage prevented, 0.2 R.A.M. and 0.4 Virus. The chance of at least one Virus is 33.3% and of two is 5.6%. It is the weakest defense of the four, but it seeds Virus on the opponent's turn. This is a meh defense with great meme potential to inflict 6 Virus.

Server Meltdown Ultimate

Needs D D D D D · Odds 1.3% · Value 24.8

• Inflict Malware and 3 Virus
• Deal 11 dmg

This is one of those ultimates you're hoping for either very early in the game, or in a few specific spots throughout it, otherwise its value is greatly diminished. If there is room for a Malware and 3 Virus on the opponent, I'd consider this one of the stronger ultimates I've seen in Dice Throne in terms of expected value, especially if the opponent already has 2 Virus on them, so you can chain into a Hack and another undefendable attack.

If the opponent is already at the Malware limit, that drops the value significantly. The same goes if they already have 5 or more Virus.

Hero cards

Server Wipe!

Main Phase Action · 4 CP

• Remove all status effect tokens from a chosen player
• Deal 1 dmg to that player per status effect token removed, up to a maximum of 5 dmg

Depending on the status effects being removed, this card can be incredible or not worth the CP in most cases. Unless it's a killing blow, you probably don't want to remove a large stack of Virus with this card. Not only are you only getting the base 1 value per Virus, but you're paying CP for it. You'll want to save this for either killing blows during main phase, or removing valuable status effects from the opponent such as Retribution, Feathers, Tactical Advantage, etc. Even then, it does cost 4 CP so you must weigh the benefit versus cost carefully.

Lines to chase

This is an extremely early view on how to play Hacker, but in general I think most optimal lines will look something like this.

1. Get Malware on. If the opponent doesn't have 2 Malware on them, I chase the Malware makers (Glitch Injection, Untraceable, Screen Presence) to get the Virus engine going. If every reroll goes toward a Malware maker, at least one lands 43.5% of the time in three attempts and 59.7% with a R.A.M. to spend. The cost is the Hardware damage I give up by chasing it.
2. Let the engine run. Once the Malware are rolling, they feed the Virus every upkeep, and I keep the pressure on with whatever else the dice give me.
3. Swing at 4 Virus. Once the opponent has 4 Virus on them, I hard chase Enter the Mainframe. It adds the fifth Virus and hits for 11 damage, and I Hack at the end of that roll phase to run it back.
4. Chain out of the Hack. In the extra offensive roll phase, I follow up with a different attack, preferably a Virus generating ability (Master Hack, Hardware), so the engine keeps going alongside the Malware.
5. Reseed. When a Malware rolls off the opponent, it is probably best to go back to chasing the Malware makers to get one back on.

Matchups I would guess at

Virus only reduces an Offensive Ability, so I think they are best against heroes who lean on one or two abilities and cannot dodge the tax. Token-heavy heroes are also soft targets for Server Wipe!. A Hack into a high defense hero is great too, since the extra roll phase is undefendable. I'm cautiously optimistic that Hacker could be a good answer to Forgemaster, especially since Forgemaster doesn't seem to mind the 2027 rule changes much.

Their trouble is speed. The defense is the weakest of the four, and the first Hack is a mid game event. A fast hero who can kill them before turn four never has to care. Damage that does not come from an Offensive Ability does not care either. A companion, a card or an Ultimate sails past Virus entirely, so Raveness pecking away with Nevermore looks like a hard matchup to tax.

First impressions

If I had to guess which of the four ends up strongest, I'd say Hacker. The Malware math is excellent, the Virus has lots of room for flexibility and rewards understanding your opponent's gameplan, and the Hack is a big swing. What worries me is consistency. Their objectives are hard, they have the highest chance of finishing with nothing, and I have not seen any economy to help them. If their unique cards fix that, I think they are a top hero. If not, they will win through a good board and lose through variance.

Ghost Runner

Ghost Runner builds toward a full board, and she never has to leave her own board to find the next thing to do. Almost everything she does either fills one of four Step Slots or pays one off.

Abilities

Her die has three Blade faces, two Grid faces and a single Ghost face. The table shows the odds of finishing a turn on each ability and what each is worth with no slots filled yet.

The top row. Wraith Walk wants three Blades and a Ghost for 6 damage, Duppy Dash wants two Blades and two Ghosts for 7, Revenant Rush wants one Blade and three Ghosts for 9, and Spectral Sprint wants four Ghosts for 10. Each rung swaps a common Blade for a rare Ghost and pays more for it. Every one of them is a bet on sixes. If I keep every six I roll and reroll the rest, I hold at least one after three attempts 93.5% of the time, at least two 69.9%, at least three 35.5%, at least four 10.4% and all five 1.3%. A fourth attempt moves those to 97.4%, 83.4%, 53.3%, 21.0% and 3.7%.

Each of the four sits above a Step Slot, and the slot is what makes the ability interesting. Wraith Walk pays a CP, Duppy Dash gives me Ecto-Blades, Revenant Rush gives me Ethereal and Spectral Sprint draws two, but only when a Ghost Step is sitting on it.

The bottom row. This is where most of the tokens come from. Cloaked Crawl draws a card and gives me Ecto-Blades and a Ghost Step. Phantom Pace is the straights, and both sizes give a Ghost Step, with the large one adding 1 damage for every Ghost Step I hold. Doppelgang Dart is the one symbol ability that needs no Ghost at all. It deals 6 and rolls a die for a rider, where a Blade adds 2 damage and a Grid or a Ghost gives me Ethereal. Apparition Assault is the ultimate, and it gives me Ethereal and two Ghost Steps along with the damage.

With empty slots, best play ends the turn on Wraith Walk 22.3% of the time, small Phantom Pace 22.9% and large Phantom Pace 17.0%. It chases Ghost Steps first. Wraith Walk, Cloaked Crawl and both straights all give one, and together they end about two early turns in three. Those shares are lower than the odds in the table because best play reaches for the higher-value abilities first, and Wraith Walk is what it falls back on. A typical early turn is worth 8.7.

Shade Step. Her defense rolls four dice against three lines. Two Blades (68.8%) deal 2 damage, two Grids (40.7%) give Ethereal, and any Ghost (51.8%) gives a Ghost Step. Four dice can never meet all three lines and can never miss all three, so Shade Step always does something, and it does two things 61.3% of the time. At these values it is worth 3.23, well above the 2.5 an average defense is worth.

Status effects

Ghost Step. It goes on an empty Step Slot, and once it is there it stays until I decide to spend it, because opponents cannot remove it or take it. Her offense hands me about 0.69 of them a turn, and Shade Step adds another 0.52 each time I defend, which is about 1.21 a round. Four tokens is about 3.3 rounds away if none of them are wasted.

Ecto-Blades. Two dice, and the gap between them is bonus damage. A gap of 1 happens 27.8% of the time, 2 happens 22.2%, 3 happens 16.7%, 4 happens 11.1% and 5 happens 5.6%. Matching dice, which happen 16.7% of the time, steal 2 health instead. I count a steal as 4, two damage and two healing, so an average roll is worth 2.61. Spending a Ghost Step to change a die lifts that to 4.56, an extra 1.94, which is almost exactly what I value a Ghost Step at. I'd save that bonus for the turn the first roll comes up weak.

Ethereal. It halves an incoming hit, rounded up, and costs a card. Against a hit of 6 that nets 1 after the card, against 8 it nets 2, against 10 it nets 3 and against 12 it nets 4. I take a typical hit to be 8, counting attack modifiers and status effects, which prevents 4. Since I value a card at 2 delta, the discard takes half of that, so I value Ethereal at 2.

Other effects that matter

The full board. When all four Step Slots hold a Ghost Step, every one of her statuses picks up a bonus that costs a Ghost Step to use. Ghost Step itself becomes an extra roll attempt, Ecto-Blades lets me change one of its dice after rolling, and Ethereal lets me pay a Ghost Step instead of discarding a card.

The extra roll attempt lifts a typical turn by 1.05, which is less than the token is worth at these values. I'd use it to chase one specific ability. It takes Spectral Sprint from 10.4% to 21.0% and Revenant Rush from 31.0% to 48.5%.

Which slots to fill first looks like the real puzzle. Because the bonus fires on every use, the first tokens belong on the abilities I'll use most. Once the board is full, Duppy Dash is the most common finish at 28.1%, then Revenant Rush at 17.5% and Wraith Walk at 13.3%. Spectral Sprint finishes only 5.3% of full board turns, because four Ghosts is a lot to ask. My first guess is to fill Duppy Dash, Revenant Rush and Wraith Walk first and leave Spectral Sprint's slot for last. Its draw two will barely ever fire, but the fourth token is what unlocks everything else. A full board makes a typical turn worth 9.12, or 10.17 with the extra attempt, where Revenant Rush becomes the most common finish at 26.1%.

Matchups I would guess at. Six of her nine abilities need a Ghost face, so a turn with no sixes is a slow one. Only Raveness can inflict Hex right now, so I wouldn't build my view of her around it, but it does hit her harder than anyone else in this set. Moon Elf's Entangle, which costs a roll attempt, looks uncomfortable for the same reason.

She has almost nothing that skips the opponent's defense, only the ultimate, so a hero with a big defense roll should be able to blunt most of her turn. In the other direction, the core of her kit is hard to touch. Ghost Step cannot be taken or removed, so status removal and token theft only reach Ecto-Blades and Ethereal. Those are the payoffs, and the engine stays untouched. Her defense also makes Ethereal 40.7% of the time, which halves a big hit, so burst heroes might find her a hard target.

Hero cards

None have been shown yet.

First impressions

She is the one I most want to play. The engine is the most interesting of the four, and her defense is worth 3.23. The risk is variance. Her best abilities need Ghosts, so a turn with no sixes is a slow turn. I'd guess she looks great into heroes that cannot stop her tokens. Her cards could change that either way, especially if they add or protect Ghost Steps.

Punch-A-Tron 3000

Punch-A-Tron looks like the easiest hero to pick up and one of the hardest to ignore. The board is simple. The engine is two tokens that both hit hard.

Abilities

His die has three Punch faces, two Juice faces and a single Fury face. The table shows the odds of finishing a turn on each ability and what each is worth with nothing banked.

Turbo Fists is the plain damage. It wants three, four or five Punch for 5, 6 or 7.

The Suckerpunch makers. Bubbling Anger (two Punch and three Juice) deals 7 and gives a Suckerpunch. Tempered Approach (a Punch, two Juice and a Fury) heals 2 and gives a Fuel Cell and a Suckerpunch.

Rage Bomb (a Juice and three Fury) rolls three dice and deals their total, and gives a Fuel Cell if none of them is a Fury. Three dice average 10.5, and I get a Fuel Cell 57.9% of the time, so the ability is worth 11.9. It is the only ability on the board with real spread. It reaches 14 or more 16.2% of the time and 15 or more 9.3%, and it comes in at 8 or less 25.9% of the time. It also needs a Juice and three Fury, which I only line up 26.8% of the time in three attempts.

The straights. One-Two Punch is the small straight for 6 damage and a two die rider. The rider says "On" for each symbol, so it counts once. A Punch shows up 75.0% of the time and adds 1, a Juice shows up 55.6% and adds 2, and a Fury shows up 30.6% and gives a Fuel Cell. The whole ability is worth 8.62, a little under the 9 I hope for from a typical turn. Powered Punch is the large straight for 10 and a Fuel Cell.

Cyber Uppercut (four Fury) deals 8 undefendable and gives a Fuel Cell. Radioaction! (five Fury) is the ultimate, and it gives a Suckerpunch and a Fuel Cell along with the damage.

With nothing banked, best play finishes on One-Two Punch 22.7% of the time, Bubbling Anger 21.3% and Powered Punch 19.7%. It ends on Rage Bomb only 5.6% of the time even though the ability is worth more, because the sure thing beats the gamble. A typical turn is worth 8.99, and he finishes with no ability at all 1.9% of the time, the lowest of the four.

Guard Stance. His defense rolls five dice. He prevents 2 for every Fury, which averages 1.67, and a pair of Juice (53.9%) gives a Fuel Cell. At these values that is 3.01. It does nothing at all 13.5% of the time, and it is the only defense of the four that can.

Status effects

Fuel Cell is a stronger Honor. Honor pays 1 for one token or 3 for two, which is 1 or 1.5 each. Fuel Cell pays 2 for one token or 5 for two, which is 2 or 2.5 each. That is 67% to 100% more per token. It stacks to two.

About 0.95 Fuel Cells a round arrive, 0.41 from offense and 0.54 from Guard Stance. That is a pair about every two rounds.

Two is the limit, but I can spend the pair on an attack and then collect the ability's own Fuel Cell afterward, so the cap costs little on my own turn. A turn with two banked is worth 13.7, against 8.99 plus 5 for the spend, a gap of only 0.29. The tax I would worry about is on defense. Guard Stance hands me a Fuel Cell on the opponent's turn, when I can't spend one, so it is wasted if I'm already full.

Suckerpunch stacks to one and deals 2 damage to whoever attacks me. I get about 0.3 a round, and it punishes opponents who attack him every turn.

Other effects that matter

The loaded turn. With two Fuel Cells banked, even the basic becomes real. Turbo Fists is 10, 11 or 12 damage at 98.4%, 87.9% and 51.3%. A turn is worth 13.7, and the plain abilities take up nearly a quarter of the finishes. A normal turn is ordinary and a loaded turn is better than almost anything on the board.

Matchups I would guess at. Like Snyper below, he does his damage in one big hit, so I'd guess he struggles into the same heroes. Multiplicative prevention, like Moon Elf's Missed Me, which prevents half, or Ninja's Smoke Bomb, takes a percentage off the whole pile of Fuel Cell bonuses together.

The bigger problem is probably anything that handles his tokens. Both of his tokens are plain statuses. A Tactician can move a status effect from one player to another, and the removal cards take one Fuel Cell at a time, which still breaks a pair. Against a Paladin holding Retribution, a big Fuel Cell spike is also a big reflection, since half of a 14 damage hit comes straight back.

On the other side, Guard Stance feeds the engine every round. I'd guess he does well against heroes that cannot stop a spike. A pair of Fuel Cells turns an ordinary turn into 14 or so damage, and the opponent can see it coming but cannot do much about it unless they can remove tokens.

Hero cards

I have seen two, and both are attack modifiers. Top Off! costs 1 and gives a Fuel Cell, so it nets 1.5 once the cost is paid. Tantrum! costs 1 and rolls a die, adding 2 damage on a Punch, giving a Fuel Cell on a Juice and giving a Suckerpunch on a Fury, and it is worth 2.17 for that cost.

First impressions

He looks like the most predictable hero of the four, and I mean that as a compliment. He has a high floor, a simple plan and a payoff that scales with how well I manage two tokens. I'd expect the skill in playing him to be spending Fuel Cells in pairs at the right moment and never sitting on a full stack. My main worry is that the same simplicity makes him easy to answer. If an opponent has status removal and a big defense, he has fewer ways to adapt than the others. His cards could change that, so I'll be looking for whether they add new lines or only more attack modifiers.

Snyper

Snyper is a deck manipulation hero with a hard decision at the center of her kit. Her offense is cheap, her defense feeds her engine, and the question every turn is whether to stand or to go Prone.

Abilities

Her die has three symbols. I will call them A, B and C, with A on three faces, B on two and C on one. The table shows the odds of finishing a turn on each ability and what each is worth while standing.

Ballistics is the plain damage. It wants three, four or five A and deals 5, 6 or 7.

The Ricochet abilities. Skillshot (three B and a C) draws a card, gives two Intel and Ricochets. Steady Aim (a small straight) deals 7 and Ricochets. Piercing Shot (a large straight) deals 8, inflicts a Lock-On and Ricochets. Precision Fire (four C) deals 5 undefendable, gives an Intel, inflicts two Lock-On and Ricochets. It is the mini ultimate, worth 16.5 at these values, and it ends 3.7% of standing turns.

The control abilities. Wallbang (two A and three B) takes a CP from the opponent, inflicts a Lock-On and deals 6. Pinpoint Accuracy (an A and three C) inflicts two Lock-On and deals 8.

Standing, best play mostly finishes on Steady Aim (23.7%), Skillshot (17.1%) and Piercing Shot (16.8%). The Ricochet abilities together end about six turns in ten. A typical turn is worth 9.42, and she finishes with no ability at all 4.6% of the time.

Counter-Snipe. Her defense is where the engine starts. Four dice and three lines. Two A (68.8%) give an Intel, two B (40.7%) give a Ricochet and any C (51.8%) gives a Lock-On. As with Ghost Runner, four dice can never meet all three lines or miss them all, so every defense roll does at least one thing and does two things 61.3% of the time. At these values that is 3.77, comfortably above an average defense.

Headshot! is the ultimate. It deals 12 plus 3 for every Lock-On already waiting if I go Prone, so 12, 15, 18 or 21. If the two tokens it inflicts can be spent in the same attack, three waiting reaches 27, though I'd want to see the final card text before counting on that.

Status effects

Lock-On sits on the opponent and stacks to three. It does nothing until I attack while Prone, and then each token I spend adds 3 damage. Over a round she makes about 1.01 of them, so three Lock-On is about 3.0 rounds away if nothing gets removed.

Intel lets me draw a card and then put any card from my hand back on top of the deck, and it stacks to two. She makes about 1.07 a round. I value it a little above a plain draw because of the filtering.

Other effects that matter

Ricochet reveals the top card of my deck. I can discard it to deal double its CP cost as undefendable damage, or put it back and either gain an Intel or deal its CP cost the same way. It costs me nothing to use, and she makes about 1.02 a round.

What a Ricochet is worth depends on a deck I have not seen, which makes it the biggest unknown behind her numbers. The 18 base cards average 1.22 CP, with 16.7% costing nothing and 33.3% costing two or more. Discarding the average base card is 2.44 undefendable damage, and putting it back is 1.22. If her unique cards cost more than the base cards do, Ricochet gets better quickly. For now I value it at 2.5.

Prone is a card I choose to go into during my upkeep. While I am Prone I cannot use my deck at all, so there is no drawing, no Intel and no Ricochet, but I can spend Lock-On. At the end of the turn the card goes back. If my offensive roll phase fails to deal any damage, I remove it early and draw a card.

Going Prone skips my draw, shuts off Intel and kills the Ricochet on any ability I use that turn. At these values that costs about 3.7 before I cash a single token, most of it the card I don't draw. Each Lock-On I cash adds 3 damage and was worth about 2 while it sat on the opponent, so it nets 1.

At these values going Prone doesn't pay even with a full stack of three Lock-On, which is the limit. It gets close, and it flips if a Lock-On is worth more than I give it, if the draw I skip is worth less, or when the damage is lethal. I'd treat Prone as a finisher.

Prone changes which abilities matter. With the deck locked, Ricochet is worth nothing, so the plain abilities move up. With two Lock-On waiting, Wallbang ends 22.9% of turns and the three Ballistics tiers together end about 36%. A turn is worth 13.58, and with three waiting it is worth 16.52.

The loop I see on paper is to stand, defend and chip with Ricochet, then go Prone only when the burst is lethal or close to it. This doesn't feel right though. Intuitively I'd go Prone when I can deal lethal damage or when I'm at the stack limit for Lock-On, so my read may be completely off.

Matchups I would guess at. I think her best targets are heroes that live behind a defense roll. Ricochet, Precision Fire and Headshot! all skip it, and a pile of Lock-On is extra damage on an attack that still has to get through. She should be a better matchup against heroes who like long, patient games than against heroes who race.

The tougher matchups are probably heroes with easy access to multiplicative damage prevention, like Moon Elf's Missed Me, which prevents half, or Ninja's Smoke Bomb. Her plan is to stack flat bonuses onto one big Prone turn, and a percentage cut shrinks the whole pile at once, Lock-On included.

Status removal is a smaller worry. Cleanse, Get That Outta Here! and Buh, Bye! each take a single status, so they cost me one Lock-On or one Intel and leave the rest of the stack. Fast heroes look like a problem too, since they punish the turn I spend going Prone. Prone is also chosen in upkeep, which tells the opponent exactly what is coming.

Hero cards

I have seen one. 360 No-Scope! cannot be played and costs 2, so a Ricochet that reveals it can discard it for a clean 4 undefendable damage. It exists to make Ricochet turns better, and I'm curious how many more like it are in her deck.

First impressions

Snyper is the hero I'm least ready to rate. She depends the most on a deck I have not seen, since every Ricochet is only as good as the card on top. The defense looks strong and the board has real texture, but Prone as printed looks costly, mostly because it skips a draw. If her unique cards give her a way to get Lock-On to three quickly or to go Prone without paying the draw, I think she moves up a lot. If they do not, she may be a good hero that is hard to play well.

Putting them side by side

Fully set up means all four slots full for Ghost Runner, Snyper Prone with three Lock-On waiting, two Fuel Cells for Punch-A-Tron and five Virus on the opponent for Hacker.

Before anyone is set up, the four are within about a point and a quarter of each other. Hacker has the best offense, Snyper the best defense and the highest total, and Ghost Runner the lowest total. Where they differ is in how much a good setup is worth. Snyper's setup adds three quarters, Hacker's and Punch-A-Tron's add about half again, and Ghost Runner's is smooth and small.

All four lean on sixes, so Hex would hurt each of them. Only Raveness can inflict it for now, so I treat this as a footnote. Ghost Runner would lose the most, then Hacker, then Snyper and Punch-A-Tron.

Their own cards will move all of this. When they show up I'll check Hacker's economy and anything that adds Virus quickly, how many of Ghost Runner's cards add or protect Ghost Steps, whether Punch-A-Tron's cards add variety or more of the same, and Snyper's costs and any cheap way into Prone. Then I'll come back and fix whatever I got wrong.

A tier list, because why not

I think a tier list at this point is probably a bit useless, but I love a good tier list, so why not. This is a gut call from the kits and not a measured tier. It is bound to change as new information comes out, so take it with a grain of salt.

• Hacker. Feeling Low A. Best offense and the weakest defense. A Hack is a big swing, but it spends the Virus that built it, so the ceiling is lower than it first looks and the reliability is the lowest of the four.
• Punch-A-Tron 3000. Feeling High B. The steadiest kit, with a loaded turn that hits hard, but a percentage cut and status removal both blunt him.
• Ghost Runner. Feeling B. The most complex engine and a good defense, but her payoff is smooth and small, and she needs sixes.
• Snyper. Feeling A to C. The best defense and the most unknowns. I think most of her strength will come from her hero specific cards, so her rating could land anywhere in that range.