Armello - Sargon Character Guide (The Death Smeller)

Take Decay and Turquoise. Get rot treasures when they present themselves, go for spirit stones otherwise. Get a starting set of equipment and start milling the spell deck for rot cards. Win with Hot Rot Wine / Strategist, by breaching the palace when no other heroes are within 3 tiles, or prestige if things go well.

Introduction

Bio: Sargon was born with a special power, he was smarter than all his classmates in the rat scheming academy. he served in the rat military fighting tau and in the final battel against tau they were fighting and tau turned him to the rot and Saron turned against the night mother and killed her. his fur got corrupted in the battle which is why he doesnt not have fur, pls stop PMing me askin me why thats why.

Likes: hurtin people, bein badass, teleportation, Darcy (the dev), killing, death, punk, rock, turquoise rings, skulls, darkness, hot rats with big aprons who are bipolar, Darsy (on stream), earings, jewelry (magic kind not gay kind)

Dislikes: niceness, happiness, silver lances, rusty, cheap jewelry.

Stats And General Strategy

Before the Dragon Clan was introduced, Sargon was the de-facto hero for rot victories. His high wits and spirit allow him to effortlessly mill through the spell deck for rot spells, and his ability, Veil Gazer, let him snap up any rot cards that were sitting on top of the item or trickery decks. If you dared try for a rot victory with Sargon on the field, you would quickly find yourself outpaced and powerless against him as he took all your dice for his own.

Nowadays, his reign as a rot-lord isn't as sure as it once was. He can still mill the spell deck, make no mistake, but the trickery deck no longer contains rot (unless you want to kill yourself with Plague Bearers), and any spellcaster with the Ruin amulet can match or outpace your rot gain. This especially applies to Volodar and his scaled cronies, since even if Sargon can outpace their rot gain, he still won't gain the full benefit of their rot value should a fight break out. Dragons effectively have a free Mirror Image against anything with higher rot than them, which is rough for non-dragons who want to go for rot victories.

So what can we do with this ugly rat? Let's look as his stats:

• 3 Fight. The second lowest fight stat in the game, above only Sana's and Yordana's 2. You aren't going to be very physically imposing, but you could bump this stat up if you really wanted to (or if your quests push you towards it).
• 4 Body. The lowest body stat in the game. This is very dangerous. Two spell cards and you're just dead. If you can't decide on a quest (or amulet), seriously consider pumping this stat up.
• 5 Wits. Typical of the Rat Clan, the highest base wits stat in the game. It makes drawing and playing cards very easy, which allows you to find rot cards more often. Also helps clear those pesky perils.
• 4 Spirit. The second highest base spirit stat in the game. Combined with his high wits, clearing perils and playing spell cards becomes child's play. Drawing spell cards is also a great way to get rot (noticing a pattern yet?)!
• Veil Gazer: Lets you see the top card of each deck while drawing cards. In theory this should mean your hand is always full of the best, most relevant cards to your current situation, so you'll have an answer for everything. In practice, it means you get the privilege of seeing the garbage you're about to draw.

With a fight stat this low, kingslayer victories are not going to be likely. Prestige will also be hard to earn since killing heroes and banes will be harder (before you're corrupted), and Sargon has no way to mitigate this like Amber does with her diamond ring. So your best bets are spirit stone and rot victories. But how could anyone strive for goals so diametrically opposed? Wow, its almost like that's in his lore or something.

Loadout Options

I'm talking about rings first because there's a very important fact I want to get out of the way.

Turquoise Is Mandatory

Sargon's high wits benefit greatly from permanent evade. The downside to this ring is that it stays active inside the palace, meaning that after you breach the palace, anyone (including a King's Guard) can casually swat you away and take your place. Fortunately, Veil Gazer makes you that much more likely to grab a Hot Rot Wine or Strategist to play around its palace-breaching downside. You can also use things like Wall of Thorns to cover yourself and Teleport to breach during the day from an angle nobody is suspecting.

Tanzanite Is a Trap

You might be tempted to take tanzanite because it was included in the DLC you just bought, and Sargon has higher wits and spirit than any other Rat Clan member. And you know what? That MIGHT work against bots. But when a 2-fight Yordana or Sana waltzes up and you'll trade out for turquoise and never look back. Tanzanite is a giant "Bully Me" sign hanging over your head. Do not take tanzanite.

Decay is the amulet I always find myself wishing that I brought when I play Sargon. With such a low health pool, you must strive to keep healthy at all given times. Sargon is not a Dragon Clan member, so he loses one health every dawn when infected. This means every few turns you'll drop into kill range for most spells in the game. You'll probably get corrupted eventually, so those stone circles with the spirit stones you want as a plan B will become deathtraps. Oh woe is me! What ever shall we do? Decay solves both of these problems. It turns all those rot cards you're drawing into healing options, AND allows you to nab spirit stones without immediately kicking the bucket. This amulet puts in more work for Sargon than any other hero. It allows you to pursue rot AND spirit stones at the same time. Flexibility is powerful in Armello, therefore so is Decay on Sargon. BUT, it is difficult to unlock, requiring four rot victories with unique heroes. So feel free to take the next option. 

Soak is as good a choice on Sargon as it is for all heroes. It keeps you alive longer, makes you a less appealing target for spellcasters, and gives you a 10% bonus on body quests. I'd take this if you don't have Decay, or if you're feeling unlucky.

Feel is a greedy choice that will potentially let you cast more spells in a turn, which works towards your rot goal, and gets you closer to naturally playing Crystallize, which works towards your spirit stone goal. But it leaves you with 4 body and no healing options outside the designated healing cards, which is dangerous when spells are being thrown around. I'd only take this one when you're facing 3 brawny fighter-types who aren't going to be sending tons of spells/trickery your way.

Grow is an okay choice if you want to use Sargon for his age-old purpose of forcing a rot victory before you unlock Decay. It turns you into a pseudo-dragon that can almost ignore the dawn rot damage.

Spoil will help you get corrupted faster and force a rot victory. Again, take it if you really want another rot victory but don't have Decay yet. You'll have to win at least one Rot victory to unlock this, though.

Ruin is overkill. If you REALLY want to win a rot race against the likes of say, Volodar, go nuts.

My Favorite Combinations

A common component that all these builds have is that you can breach the palace whenever you feel like it, really. Veil Gazer makes it easy to get the cards necessary to breach the palace. (In case you didn't know, the trickery perils always take 1 Tree, 1 Sword, 1 Shield, and 1 Worm, while the spirit perils always take 1 Tree, 1 Sun, 1 Moon, and 1 Worm. If anyone plays cursed lands to a peril it will add 1 Worm to the total requirements.) If the other three heroes are all off on the other side of the map, or you have Hot Rot Wine / Strategist, feel free to use Veil Gazer to get all the burn fodder you need to breach. Wait until you can actually cleanse or kill the king first, of course.

I feel compelled to mention that you should not be suiciding to banes or poisoning yourself just to get rot. Any strategy that requires you to kill yourself at an inopportune time is a bad one. Trust the Spell Deck, just keep milling it until it gives you rot.

Hold onto the card Wyld's Warning if you get it. Your low fight stat will make it hard to displace other creatures from tiles you want to walk through. Wyld's warning, when played to the enemy, will force them to evade you as much as you evade them.

Lastly, beware of scouting. Scouting now cancels evasion, so an opponent with Sailor's Lantern or Spyglass is more dangerous than usual.

Decay will let you pursue both spirit stones and rot, and will keep you healthy while doing it. Turqoise will keep those mean fighter-types from invalidating you. You should still be worried about Thane throwing 4 or 5 piercing swords at you, and anyone with a good number of iron pikes or a silver lance, since they will still damage you through your evasion. With a health pool so small, even tiny knicks like those can really hurt. With this build, you can adapt your strategy to the moment. Get a quest with a rot treasure? Take it and start milling for those rot cards. Don't get a rot quest? Take the spirit stone quest instead. Also don't hesitate to start throwing rot around and get yourself corrupted. If you start by getting spirit stones, then get corrupted, but still want to grab a final spirit stone or two, Decay has you covered. Don't waste time milling the item deck for starting equipment. Chances are that you'll eventually get some serviceable equipment on the top of the deck, and it's yours to take with Veil Gazer.

Similar to the above build, but you'll probably have to commit to either rot or spirit stones depending on how your first quest goes. If you can get corrupted by or shortly after you first quest, go all in on rot. If not, try your luck collecting spirit stones.

Sargon can hold his own against a team fighters almost as well as Twiss can. If you're up against 3 fighters, trust your turquoise to keep you safe. You're free to wander around the map gaining rot or getting spirit stones, and only have to watch out for the occasional throwing axe. Just remember to hold onto a Wyld's Warning in case they try to block you from progressing.

This combination is entirely devoted to accumulating as much rot as possible. Remember, you only need about 9 or so rot to surpass the king near the end of his life. But sometimes that isn't enough. Sometimes you have to prove to everyone, including the Dragon Clan, that you are the one true lord of darkness. Race those filthy dragons (and Fang if he's there) to rot values so high that the bonus dice they give you start glitching out the battle tab. Prove once and for all that nobody out-rots The Death Smeller, no matter how many rot cards the devs convert to prestige costs!

Slightly more viable than Battle Twiss! Always take fight quests and pump that stat up to 6. Use your high wits and spirit for peril clearing instead of rot searching. This is a joke versus actual fighting characters like Horace, Sylas, Fang, Magna, etc. but can work surprisingly well if you find yourself up against 3 people with low fight values that don't bother increasing them. You'll probably still get immolated / aflamed / moonbitten / spiritstricken / mercenaried / sharpootered / hiddentrapped to death though. If you somehow get the mythical game against Sana, Yordana, and Volodar, remember this joke.

Countering Sargon

Seriously though, just play some damaging cards to him. He's made of paper.

Failing that, sources of pierce like Thane's hero power, Iron Pike, Silver Lance, Longbow, and Handcannons can damage him through his evasion.

His success feels so luck-and-draw-dependent that you really shouldn't spend too much effort worrying about him (wink).

As a final word before you go off and amaze the world with your big-brain plays, just remember to keep the following ideas in mind:

Do:

• Play Rot cards and start milling the spell deck as early as possible.
• Only draw from the equipment deck when you see something you want to equip, Hot Rot Wine, or a healing item.
• Be optimistic and choose quests based on their rewards (unless you really need more body).

Don't:

• Mill the item deck to get a full set of equipment asap. Those item cards will not leave your hand as quickly as you'd hope.
• Play Battle Sargon.

Source: https://gameplay.tips/guides/5248-armello.html					

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