Fans of roguelike deckbuilders rejoiced when Wildfrost hit the market in April 2023. With its adorable art style, fluid gameplay, and an absolute banger of a soundtrack, this new title out of Deadpan Games and Gaziter made waves after arriving on Nintendo Switch and PC. But what was originally perceived as a silly and cute competitor to Monster Train quickly came to be known as one of the most difficult games of its genre.
If you’re anything like me, you might need a few pointers to get your first win in Wildfrost. Although I’ve been a fan of card battlers for years, I don’t claim to be the best; it took me a whopping 20 hours to get my first Wildfrost win, after all.
But what I can confidently say from those 20 long hours is that I learned a lot about Wildfrost—and, more importantly, I learned how to finally win a run.
A win lies on the road to riches—and combo kills
Throughout your journey to banishing the frost, you’ll collect gold, which can be used to buy new cards, Charms, or Crowns from the Wooly Snail and Charm Merchants. And while it may not seem like you get a ton of money from battles at first, there are several ways to maximize the gold you get from each encounter.
I always aim for a minimum of 60 to 75 gold from each battle so I have enough gold for a crown and potentially one card by the time a shop appears after the second battle.
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Killing an enemy drops a small amount of gold. If you chain-kill multiple enemies in the same turn, however, you’ll be rewarded with even more money, and that amount only goes up the more enemies you combo kill. To get a chain kill, pay close attention to your unit ordering and consider saving certain attack cards for enemies your companions are about to hit, as I did in the video below. If you can line up your attacks and kill a minimum of two enemies in each combo, you’ll be rolling in riches by the end of every battle.
Aim to kill every opponent in each battle. Before you kill the boss, knock out those minions first, unless circumstances are looking dire. If I’m running out of options and need to end a battle to avoid losing my leader, I’ll kill the boss instead. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than losing all the time I put into the run just for the chance at extra gold.
You should also milk the Gobling for all the gold you can get. If you’re running a deck with access to Snow, you can easily freeze the little rascal in place, preventing him from fleeing the battle. His effect causes him to drop gold every time he’s hit, not every time he’s damaged. So if you’re running a Junk deck—an archetype that relies on Junk, cards that normally don’t deal damage but can hit units anyways—you can play those Junk cards on the Gobling, causing him to drop gold without dealing any damage. This also keeps him on the field for longer, allowing you to smack him as many times as possible and rake in tons of gold.
Crowns are key
So you’ve piled up all that gold. Now what to buy?
One of the best options to spend your gold on is a Crown, which always costs 80 gold from the Wooly Snail. Like Charms, Crowns can be attached to cards. Where they differ from Charms, however, is in their ability to be removed from cards and swapped around. Crowns allow you to play a card at the start of a battle for no cost, just like your leader. And if you crown your companions, you won’t need to waste a turn placing them on the field.
The sooner you can get your companions’ countdowns ticking down, the sooner they can attack and trigger their effects.
Having companions on the field also often means protection for your leader in worst-case scenarios. If you place your companions on the board at the start of the game, you won’t need to burn a turn to play them later on when you really need them. Of course, you should try to avoid sacrificing a companion if possible. But if it comes between your leader and your companion? Well, let’s just say your trusty companion made a noble sacrifice.
Find beginner-friendly deck archetypes you enjoy playing
Each of Wildfrost’s three tribes boasts multiple archetypes and unique ways to play. My favorite was the Clunkmaster Trash builds (who knew lobbing Junk at enemies could be so fun?). That said, I scored my first win with the Shademancer’s summon-and-sacrifice archetype.
The summon-and-sacrifice playstyle is one new players will particularly take to. Messed up your turn and now an enemy with 15 attack is winding up to strike? Goodbye, Junjun! It was nice knowin’ ya. Need to freeze an entire row to give yourself some room to breath? Hello Yeti Skull, have you met my Fallow?
This playstyle can give you plenty of stall options if you struggle with staying on top of your enemies’ countdowns and provides a nice buffer to protect your leader if you accidentally slip up.
But make sure to diversify your deck!
If you build a deck solely around one archetype, you run the risk of being hard-countered. Many of the enemy strategies revolve around a particular mechanic: For the Snowland Bears, it’s all about stacking Snow and gaining additional attack through this mechanic. Others, like Queen Globerry and her fruitful friends, rely on restoring and dealing damage equal to their health. If you don’t have any big damage dealers or cards to negate their effects—like Ink, for example—you’re in for a bad time. But if you add just one or two cards or Charms with the Ink effect to your deck, it can render many of the Globerries completely useless.
Diversifying your deck can help prevent having your run end in a single fight. As you collect cards, occasionally take a peek at your deck and consider what cards or effects you’re currently lacking and choose the options that can help fill those gaps.
Carefully review the board before ending every turn
Alright, this one may seem like a given. But when you’ve spent hours on other deckbuilders that are a bit more forgiving, it’s easy to get into the habit of trying to speed-run your way through a battle, especially if you’re 20 hours in and impatiently gunning for your first win.
Wildfrost has many layers to it. Character placements, attack orders, countdowns, varying effects, gold management, health pools—there’s a lot to keep an eye on. Take the time to review each play before you end your turn. One of the most important factors to keep in mind is attack order. Who will attack who and when? While countdowns give an indication of when a character will strike, which row they’re in also influences the order they attack. All enemies will attack before your companions do, and the ones in the top row and closest to the middle move first.
It can be difficult for new players to remember the order of operations for a game as nuanced as Wildfrost. Luckily for new players, the devs added a feature in June that will clearly show players the attack order, allowing them to review a play before characters strike. Click the eye icon in the upper right-hand corner, which is highlighted in yellow in the image below, to view attack orders before ending your turn.
Once you feel like you’ve crossed all your t’s and dotted your i’s, go ahead and make your play. As you continue to practice, running through your mental checklist will become second nature.
Complete challenges to unlock new cards
As you play through Wildfrost, you’ll slowly rebuild the town of Snowdell. And as you construct different buildings, like the Pet Hut and the Workshop, Snowdell’s inhabitants will offer you new cards in exchange for completing a few tasks, like achieving combo kills and buying discounted items from the Wooly Snail.
These cards will offer new ways to play and can be found throughout future runs once you’ve unlocked them. Similarly, you’ll also eventually gain access to the Charm Statues by completing tasks, and after you’ve done so, new Charms will be added to dispensers or the Charm Merchant.
If you’re struggling to get your first Wildfrost win, it’s worth focusing on completing these challenges to unlock new cards and get an extra bit of practice in. Who knows? You might even find your favorite playstyle.
Perhaps the biggest—and most obvious—piece of advice anyone can give to improving at any game is to simply practice, practice, practice. There’s no quick recipe to success in a game like Wildfrost, but that’s what makes it so great. This game will teach you to be cautious and make you second-guess your skills, but it’ll keep you coming back with its fantastic music, addicting gameplay, and heartwarming art.
Even if it takes you 20 hours to get your first Wildfrost win, you’ll feel like those 20 hours were well worth it in the end, and you’ll still want to keep grinding away.
