Traitor's Requiem: Fighting the Gold Smoke Knight - Part 2 Gear (Patreon)

Last week we dove into the makeup of the gold experience and this week we'll use what we learnt in order to establish our attack and defense vectors for the fight. As I have mentioned previously, the GSK (Gold Smoke Knight) is a very limited and tight focus creature who seeks to cause damage through a rather one dimensional route (mostly big hits) and protects itself from damage via surge defenses, scary reactions and high toughness. As mentioned previously this is core game stuff only, it gets a LOT easier when you mix in expansions because more options = more power.

I will not be giving entire builds, because at this point you should know how your builds work and also there are so many different variations you instead just need to figure out what your offensive and defensive focuses are, then build around those. A lot of it is pretty self explanatory (i.e. Use the First Aid Kit with Phoenix Armor for that green affinity)

So we are looking for the following defensive 'gates' (in order):

• Hit protection
• Evasion
• Armor points

Usually hit protection sits behind evasion in this ranking (for other monsters) but here, because the GSK inflicts hits without making attack rolls the order is flipped.

On the offensive 'vectors' we are looking for (not in order):

• Automatic wounds
• Devastating
• Sharp
• High Strength
• Deadly/Luck
• Distance

Defensive Gates

The first and most important defensive tool you can get is this:

While Block X is a solid ability, the way you can 'fire and forget' with Deflect is what the entire GSK fight it about. It was designed with Deflect in mind, and while you can get Deflect 1 from the Oxidized Lantern Sword, that is greatly inferior to the Oxy Bacon Shield above. 

Your main objective post Watcher is to get 2+ of these sorted out and they will be the core of your defenses vs. the GSK's Blacken, attacks and various other things.

You can also get hit protection from the Phoenix Armor via the Plackart. (This also works with Warlord Armor in the expansions).

And because this ability is not deflect, it works in addition to it! However you'll want to support that survivor with extra insanity points gained. I recommend this helm on another survivor to help with that.

(There are also a bunch of other useful parts of the Screaming Antelope armor set, but we should all be aware of that by now).

Outside of that, the main things are the usual suspects work well. Lantern Armor (with clubs), Screaming Armor and Phoenix Armor are your best three, but you might have a Rawhide Armor + Bow DPS/Support still because of how good range + 

Yeah, the defense side is pretty limited, because the good options are limited and also the narrow focus of the GSK causes a lot of other things to just not be viable.

Offensive Vectors

Let us start with the simplest of all, automatic wounds thanks to our friend, the most broken weapon in the game.

Skipping the hit location deck draw and scoring an automatic wound for a perfect hit is an excellent way to not have to worry about the trap, reactions or 27 toughness. In addition you can increase the power of this by getting the Timeless Eye fighting art, which can be "tutored" (guaranteed) by beating the L3 Phoenix (which also gives you the amazing Crest Crown  HL card, so no excuses for core game players). 

You can further leverage by giving your survivor -accuracy via the bone witch event. Meaning that no matter how many dice you roll for your attack, you will either miss 80% of the time or score automatic wounds. It is a variant of this build which I used to kill the GSK in the first attack during one campaign.

In expansions you have access to the less broken, but very powerful Acid-Tooth Daggers (Gorm) or the even more powerful and broken Red Ring (Spidicules). Which can perform variants of this strategy.

Exemplifying the combination of high strength, devastating and sharp is the incredible Dragon Slayer. While you do need to watch out for the Super Dense HL, the 1 speed on this weapon makes that a relatively simple chore. Use HL control while it is still in the deck and then don't worry so much when it's in the discard pile. 

Devastating in particular is a great ability vs. Nemesis monsters because it doubles the amount of wounds you deal without increasing the number of toughness rolls + HL reactions you have to deal with. About the only downside of this weapon (remember the Death Dice can boost its strength even further) is the 50% accuracy. Remember that Synchronized Strike and the Blind Spot are both things.

As an alternative style for this I also recommend Lantern Armor + Bone Club & Skullcap Hammer on a Club Master. However it takes more work to get this on line.

There are a bunch of other weapons that also fit into this category, but the best core only ones are the Dragon Slayer and the Oxidized Lantern Glaive (which we will look at below). With expansions we have a huge amount of other options available, so it becomes more varied and interesting.

Do you remember last time that I told you to keep in mind the Death Dice ability to add +1d10 movement? This is why. 

Instead of getting +1d10 strength to a single attack roll, the combination of the Death Dice +movement and Phoenix Armor's charge gives you up to +10 strength on your charge attacks. Now you absolutely want to combine this with a sharp, reach weapon, so you have a little more leeway in how you operate this item. If you charge 'past' the GSK but end up 2 spaces away from it. You can still attack. This means that the very best weapon to combine with Phoenix Armor is:

Also, don't forget the +2 movement if you are insane (from the Phoenix Faulds) and the expansion fighting art Harvestman (Spidicules). This is one of the highest potential strength attacks in the game right now. A maximum roll on each dice (with Harvestman) gives you potentially:

10 (movement) + 6 (weapon strength) + 10 (death dice movement) + 10 (Sharp) + 10 (Dice roll) + Survivor strength. That's ahead of the Black Sword (but absolutely not as good as that weapon).

Though you need a lot of fortune and a huge run up, which means it's not practically possible in general terms. This + the Phoenix Plackart ability makes 1x set of Phoenix Armor a must have for core only campaigns. You'll also benefit from the Arc Bow, Crest Crown, Hollowpoint Arrow and Bloom Sphere.

You've been using them all campaign, but do not think that just because it's basic and bog standard that it doesn't work wonders here also. The combination of a Deadly X weapon (especially Bow Masters) with the Lucky Charm is another way to bypass the 27 Toughness and also avoid a lot of the nasty reactions. The best way to do this is to use:

In the hands of a bow master (who is Deadly 2 baseline when using bows, so 40% chance of critical wounds and a high strength bow with very good range when not getting the crits).

The final, cheeky way, to get around the GSK's toughness is to load up for a Red Charm build. Here you don't care about what your weapon's strength is, instead you have a flat 50% chance to wound with every dice roll you make. What weapon you choose to use here is up to you, but a non-frail, 2-3 speed devastating weapon is probably the optimal choice.

Finally, even though it was a horribly designed mess that took FAR TOO LONG to explain why it was badly designed to Adam. The Hours Ring gives you a do-over on the GSK fight. So if you're not confident and you're still learning, this gives you a dummy run and it doesn't even ruin a victory if the wearer happens to die because it's optional.

It's also relatively cheap to make.

And that's pretty much it! As for the other support gear, the usual suspects all help. But don't bother with mood control as this monster doesn't get into a mood.  So Monster Grease, Dried Acanthus, HL Control (Circlet, Crest Crown), First Aid Kit, Bandages, Arrows etc etc are all as good as they have been all campaign.  For example; the Claw Head Arrow can help a lot when you are attacking with Dragon Slayers. 

I could walk through all the expansion stuff, but that would be another article and I'm not sure how much more beneficial it would be, because I would just be highlighting the best options from each expansion in a list form with a short paragraph on each. Let me know if that is something you want.