Expansion Combinations and Synergy - Part 3: Nemesis Monsters (Patreon)

So the iconic babby's first nemesis monster is a creation that's intrinsically linked to the core game quarries via the Mask Maker. In fact, due to the abortion of the Lantern Festival, the failure of the Gold Smoke Knight's Introduction and the lack of buffing to the Watcher it's now clear that the Butcher IS the core nemesis of People of the Lantern and the Core game.   His Mask Maker location has more links to the core game quarries than any other item out there, and while it contains a couple of duff masks (Man, God), on the whole it's a one of the most interesting locations in the game.

The nerfs to the Forsaker Mask are a huge shame, but in truth this has little impact on the Butcher's Synergies. It remains forever a part of the Core Game monsters, more so than even the other core game monster synergy creations (Lion Knight, Slenderman, Lion God).  In addition it's axe contribution means that it's great for supporting axe campaign progression.

Good with: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Lion Knight, Sunstalker.

Bad with: Nothing

King's Man

I have written and spoken about the King's Man multiple times in the past and I don't really have much more to add.  The King's Man is a true anti-synergy monster that provides very little outside of (occasional) access to the Lantern Halberd and a little bit of spear training. 

However the punishment this monster hands out is just awful, it's a very difficult fight (which is fine), that is beaten by certain cheese strategies (not so fine) and then the curse it gives not only ruins a character (unless they have Crystal Skin), but it also destroys the armor in the location the curse hits - each time the curse triggers (confirmed by Poots).  Which means that a survivor who is hit by the King's Curse is basically useless because of the cost of losing a new piece of armor each hunt is horrific.  So cursed survivors are essentially dead.

Basically the King's Man is a complete shit in every form, either it's causing massive destruction to your settlement or doing almost nothing at all against Shields and Crystal Skin.  I'd say it's the worst designed monster in the game right now because of how pointless it is.

In short, this thing has nothing it works well with. Replace it with the Slender Man and never look back.

Good with: Nothing 

Bad with: Eh... Maybe the Gambler's Chest will make this worthwhile.

The Hand:

Oddly, despite providing some decent rewards and a sword focused Secret Fighting Art, The Hand is like the King's man, he just doesn't have any synergies outside of giving your survivors straight stat bonuses for the 'Applause' reward.  Swordsman's Promise is a very weak fighting art that is not worth the effort of gaining.  So while there should be synergy between The Hand and monsters that give you sword specific gear, there just isn't enough to make it worth bothering. However, the Hand will get a mention in the alternate campaigns section.

Good with: Nothing

Bad with: Nothing

Manhunter:

The Manhunter is up there with the Slender Man as being one of the best designed nemesis expansions in the game.  It doesn't destroy any content, it is hard without being overwhelming and it creates a whole bunch of interesting builds because of the Deathpact and Toolbelt.  It's a fantastic creation and one that I recommend with so many things because of how high its synergies are.

Good with: Dung Beetle Knight, Vagabond Armor, Sunstalker, Spidicules, Slenderman

Bad with: Nothing (though it gets very unpleasant in LY16 if played alongside the Lion Knight)

Lion Knight:

The Lion Knight is another complete shit of a nemesis; however unlike the King's Man, the Lion Knight does at least have some interesting elements to it.  Chief of which is the Hybrid Armors, that give you new ways to combine parts of core game armor sets, and that's the large part of the Lion Knight's synergy. If the expansion was just a smidge better it would be an excellent addition to the core game, but as it stands it's.. Lacking.

The Lion Knight is a very Katar and Axe focused expansion on the weapon front, this weapon focus means that there are minor synergies with the better Axe and Katar expansion monsters (Sunstalker, Gorm, Spidicules, DBK).

Aside: If you want an interesting variant, use the Lion Knight as a replacement for the King's Man.  It'll still bring in some punishment (if that is your kink), but there is still interesting content surrounding it.

Good with:  White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Lion God, Dung Beetle Knight, Sunstalker, Gorm, Spidicules (without replacement).

Bad with: Nothing outside of the expansions' general lameness

Slenderman:

Another one of the 'improves the core game monster' nemeses; the Slenderman makes use of previously unused monster resources in order to build unique and powerful gear.  There is very little in the way of bad things from this expansion (though the Gloom Katana is not very good considering how tricky it is to make and fully activate with the sheath).  

On the whole the Slenderman enables core game quarries more, supports bows and provides a great way to keep survivors alive and hunting longer with the Gloom Cream. It's just a great expansion overall without being too easy.

Good with: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Spidicules, Sunstalker, Flower Knight

Bad with: King's Man, because the Slenderman stomps that piece of shit out of existence.

Lonely Tree:

So the Lonely Tree got a LOT worse with the nerfs to the saviors making the Drifting Dreamer Fruit an awful reward (except right near the end of a campaign, where the harsh exp gains are not an issue).  So we're at the point where you want to consider what builds you can do with the Lonely Tree fruit when you are at the point where your survivors do not die so often.

The Jagged Marrow Fruit works best with a lot of +strength tokens which means Acanthus Doctors.  The Porous Flesh Fruit works well with any token generation builds (slowly), but it's a pretty weak ability due to the activation cost on it and the Blistering Plasma Fruit does work in an offensively based self bleeding build using the Red Ring.  But on the whole these abilities are not worth going out of your way to construct builds for because it's hard to get these fruit more than once per campaign and the earlier level fruits are even rarer.

In addition, due to its weakness to axes, the Lonely Tree works well with anything that gives you more axes.

Good with: Spidicules, Flower Knight, Gorm, Sunstalker

Bad with: Nothing

Next time I'll write about some campaign combinations you can use and explain why they work together!