Cards RPG The Misty Battlefield Hard Mode Cavalry & Scout - Late Bloomers in Open Desert (Stage 13)
8I got no explanation for how the game got so much easier than the desert. I think it is because I upgraded cards (many can even be free, though the stale drops and finds when not enhancing them get repetitive), increased action cost points for close range characters, and minmaxing the free skill tree resets for who to unlock.
I took out the wizard as my scout could survive should perfect evasion miss, and move faster while giving more visibility, and thief was better than heavy infantry who is slow but gets a 5 shield bonus to start battles.
The weakness ability of the scout shows the weapon that can stun or do or more damage during the first turn. It takes 3 or 5 weapon weakness hits to increase the odds of stunning an enemy (break effect). I did learn even if trick attack can do 1 damage at 0 cost, it can help stun lock bosses due to a weapon weakness, which if you slip up, you can die, so it's still challenging, which hard mode just allows small damage otherwise outside strength of arms.
Paralysis also works on bosses btw and poison can kill before they attack. There are also cards that Ignore defense like strength of arms, and defense and offense lets you attack while defending (nerfed on higher levels but breaks easy mode).
The open desert makes both my scout and cavalry (vanguard ladies man yay lol) much better than in the earlier parts of the game which barricades undermine the straight line and lateral movement (why have visibility if I can only go in 1 direction).
The enemies also hit harder (I am not sure if playable boss dlc makes it easier but it is not worth the money), so maybe it is based on my voltage leading to stat boosts (I think these reset every stage), let alone the growth accessories that do this lead to more healing as you regain full health upon these level ups (also helps to use healing items before battles, though it is tough as you can’t use them mid-battle).
I also don't know why early game you are stuck with 5 characters despite 3 available unlocks and get a 6th one to use later on, and village has a 7th, which I had to set to normal mode given wolves poison and have more hp.
This is stage 13: footsteps in the sand, for the switch version (physical has art and sound). They patched the game for pointless stuff like text size instead of quick save, auto placement, and auto ending turn to default on yes instead of no, though I heard they balanced hard mode, though no idea why the difficulty spikes before these desert levels. The game has 20 stages.
I wouldn't bother with the research lab doing hard mode as it's a marathon but I can bowl them over again with better cards (a sneak attack can put me at low health on normal). I also had a card disappear on me by glitch.