Chaos Zero Nightmare (CZN)CassiusBuild and Guide

Quests

Cassius’ Pop Eyed Popper upgrade randomly starts one of four Quests, which last until the end of battle. These Quests can be completed just by playing cards, and they grant free Quest Cards with decent effects.

• Triple 0: Play 3 cards that cost 0 AP.
• Deals 40% damage per Attack card used this turn..
• Triple 0 is very difficult for Cassius to complete on his own, as all of his cards cost ≥1 AP at base; Dice Trick can be discounted to 0…but only if you complete 2 Quests first, creating a catch-22 situation. If you don’t have the right teammates, this Quest can brick for the entire fight. The Quest Card works as a nice single-target finisher after spamming a lot of 0-cost attacks.
• Triple 1: Play 3 cards that cost 1 AP.
• Deals 90% damage, and heals for 90%.
• Triple 1 is relatively easy to complete, but its Quest Card is quite weak. Healing is very situational and the damage isn’t great, making Triple 1 one of Cassius’s less powerful Quests.
• Straight: Play cards costing 0, 1, and 2 AP.
• For 1 turn(s), gain 2 stacks of Morale, Resolve, and Fortitude.
• Straight is also a difficult Quest to complete, as playing 2 AP cards isn’t something you can do particularly often unless you have access to AP generation. Because both Morale and Resolve affect card multipliers, you want to complete this Quest at the start of your turn to take full advantage of its effects. Quest progress carries over between turns, so we recommend leaving the 0-cost or 1-cost card until last so you can complete the Quest at the start of a turn.
• Full House: Play 1 card from each combatant.
• Draw 1 card.
• Full House is the best option here—if you’re lucky enough to get it. Its activation condition is extremely easy to fulfill, and getting a free Draw 1 is great.

Morale Down

-Morale causes enemies to lose -20% damage multiplier per stack of -Morale they have. This is especially effective at mitigating damage from enemy Consecutive Attacks.

4

Death Trick

Ego Skill

Create 2 Quest Card(s).
Decrease Morale of all enemies by 3 for 1 turn.

Show Effects

Death Trick

One of the most expensive Ego Skills in the game, Death Trick is a potent defensive tool. Its Morale -5 debuff on all enemies is especially powerful on enemies that deal multiple hits with Consecutive Attacks, sometimes reducing the amount of damage you take to 0. The generated Quest Cards are random, so you’ll usually want to activate this at the start of your turn so you know what you’re working with.

1

Card

Attack

100% Damage.​

Card

Cassius’ basic attack card. Its 1 AP cost can help complete the Triple 1 or Straight Quests. Potential 3-1 grants this a 30% chance to Draw 1.

2

Wild Card

Attack

220% Damage.​

Wild Card

Cassius’ other basic attack card. Its 2 AP cost can help complete the Straight quest. If you don’t have another 2-cost card in your deck, it may be worth keeping this until you find a better activator. Potential 3-1 grants this a 30% chance to Draw 1.

1

Mana Field

Skill

Heal 100%.​

Show Effects

Mana Field

Cassius’ basic healing card. Not very important for Cassius’ gameplay.

1

Pop Eyed Popper

Upgrade

Start a random 1 out of 4 Quests.

Pop Eyed Popper

Cassius’ main source of Quest Cards. [Pop Eyed Popper] randomly starts 1 of 4 Quests, which generate their associated Quest Cards upon completion. Play this as early as possible and reap the rewards.

1

Devil Dice

Attack

160% Damage.
Draw 1.​

Devil Dice

A single-target attack that also Draws 1. A good cycling card that also helps complete 1-cost Quest requirements.

1

Shuffle

Skill

[Exhaust]

Discard all cards in hand.
Draw for each.

Show Effects

Shuffle

Great card at base. Discards all your cards, draws an equal number of cards, and Exhausts. Shuffle can bail you out whenever you draw poorly or need to cycle through your deck faster. Note that Shuffle doesn’t include itself in the card count, so you’ll end up with one fewer card in hand than when you started.

2

Dice Trick

Attack

240% Damage.
Decrease cost by the number of completed Quests.​

Dice Trick

An expensive attack card that discounts itself by 1 every time you complete a Quest. Generally, a dead card until you can make it cheaper, but its 2 AP cost can help complete the Straight quest.

1

Joker

Skill

Choose 1 card(s) from Draw Pile to Draw.

Joker

Joker is Cassius’ signature card. It allows him to search the whole Draw Pile to draw a card of your choice. Extremely flexible and improves your consistency significantly, and it doesn’t even Exhaust like Shuffle! It’s much stronger at E1 because it also allows you to search the Discard Pile. At E0, you’re a bit sad if you draw this with nothing in your Draw Pile. Regardless, it’s an incredibly powerful card at base.

• 3-1: Grants a 30% chance to Draw 1 to both of Cassius’ basic attacks. 30% isn’t enough to count on, but it can help a little bit early in your run if you draw poorly. It’s not as impactful as some other Combatants’ 3-1s can be.
• 5-1: Increases his basic attacks’ damage. Makes them a little better to play in conjunction with 3-1, but you’ll likely still end up removing them from your deck.
• 7: Incredible. Getting Morale and Fortitude for a turn every time you complete a Quest makes Cassius an even more potent support. You already want to complete Quests early in a turn, but this makes it even more important if you want to take advantage of Morale.

Standard Playstyle

Cassius likes to start by setting up his Quest with Pop Eyed Popper, so you can get rewarded for playing cards for the rest of the battle. After that, you can use Cassius’ vast arsenal of draw effects to curate your hand. Draw more cards with Devil Dice, cycle out your hand with Shuffle, and draw the perfect card with Joker. All the while, you can complete Quests to generate Quest Cards and discount Dice Trick. If you’re facing down more damage than you can block, use his Ego Skill to reduce the enemy’s attack damage.

Tips:

• Quest Cards do not count towards Quest progression.
• Progress on a Quest, which is displayed below Cassius’ icon, carries over between turns.
• Always play your Draw effects first so you can plan out your turn with the most information.
• His Nightmare mode debuff inflicts 4 Stress every time he acquires equipment. Consider saving his slots until stronger late-run equipment becomes available.

Note

For every Epiphany, we're colored their name based on how useful we think it is compared to the other variants. Here's the key to the colors:

• Epiphany Name - the best variant,
• Epiphany Name - a good variant,
• Epiphany Name - a niche variant.

Recommended Loadout

1

Black Wing [2-PC]

[2-PC]: +12% Attack.

Executioner's Tool [2-PC]

[2-PC]: +25% Critical Damage.

Flex

2/2/2 is usually Cassius’s most flexible and best option in his strongest meta teams. Use a combination of 2P Black Wing and 2P Executioner’s with either 2P

Cursed Corpse [2-PC]

for maximum damage if Agony is present, 2P Tetra’s/Healer’s for more survivability, or 2P

Seth's Scarab [2-PC]

for slightly stronger Chaos early game.

Important!

CZN is a game of randomness; sometimes you’ll be offered generic or Divine epiphanies that are stronger than a character's standard five options. In these cases, breaking the listed build can result in an even more powerful save. Adjust as you see fit!

Build Comments

Cassius has two builds he commonly uses in save data game modes - which is better, being highly dependent on the team mates you pair with him and their decks.

• Quest Spam Build: This build is optimal for teams that can trigger Cassius’s quests multiple times a turn, making the investment in multiple Dice Trick upgrades worth the payoff. In most cases, this is limited to teams that can take advantage of the Triple 0 quest through generating an absurd amount of 0-cost cards, allowing Cassius to trigger 5-10+ Quests completions per turn.
• General Use Joker Build:: This build is one that should always be useful, no matter the team, and doesn’t rely on Cassius being able to complete multiple quests per turn to function effectively. The multiple copies of Joker ensure you’ll be able to reach your key cards when you need them, assuming you have the AP to support using them.

Card Removal Priority

• Card
  &
  Wild Card
  - These cards aren’t bad, but usually have no place in high-end save data Cassius decks, as they don’t directly help accomplish what Cassius is trying to do as a support or pseudo DPS.
• Mana Field
  - Cassius’s only direct heal in most cases and valuable in some teams for that reason alone, like in Tressa decks, but usually not worth keeping around outside of that. Keep it if you want for Tressa specifically, but remove it outside of that.

Card Dupe Priority

Dupe Priority

Joker

=

Dice Trick V

Cassius’s two main builds want either

Epiphany Alternatives

• Pop Eyed Popper
  - The majority of Pop Eyed Popper Epiphanies have their place depending on your tolerance for RNG and your playstyle.
  Pop Eyed Popper IV
  offers the highest consistency, allowing you to choose the quest you play with for the battle. Most Cassius decks want a very specific quest, so not having it for the battle either weakens him significantly or forces a restart (in save modes). If you’re okay not being able to choose, though,
  Pop Eyed Popper I
  has Initiation, meaning you’ll never have to dig through your deck to get quests rolling, and
  Pop Eyed Popper III
  offers more powerful quest rewards. All three are interchangeable depending on what you’re ok playing around.
• Devil Dice
  - Like above, most of the Devil Dice Epiphanies have a place depending on what you’re after.
  Devil Dice V
  is best for card thinning and has no real downside.
  Devil Dice IV
  offers strong card draw at the cost of discard, which in some decks can be converted into an upside.
  Devil Dice III
  offers the best card draw, assuming you’re going against an AoE encounter.
  Devil Dice II
  grants huge unconditional card cycling, but is very AP expensive and loses power after all its retrieves are used. Which is best will depend on your access to AP, whether discards are a penalty for your strategy, and the encounter you’re up against.
• Shuffle
  - Shuffle like Devil Dice is highly conditional on which you’d want to use with its top Epiphanies, each having a niche where they can shine. Overall, as long as you’re confident in playing out the majority of your hand,
  Shuffle III
  is a safe pick as it’ll consistently net you a strong amount of card draw in most decks.
  Shuffle II
  is usually the go-to for discard-based strategies, allowing you to choose the cards you want gone in exchange for more draws. Finally
  Shuffle V
  has huge potential in high cost strategies, potentially acting as a draw 3 for 0, but requires very specific deck builds to function.

Cassisus is a universal support that works alongside the majority of the cast in the game, making listing his synergies challenging, as we’d be listing the entire cast. With that said, he does synergize a little more strongly with some characters than others. The reason Cassius is primarily brought to teams is because of the following:

• Unique Quest mechanic when aligned with
  Full House
  provides a consistent card draw engine the entire battle for low cost investment, without restricting your team building options. The fact that this quest generates a draw 1 out of thin air makes it equivalent to a 0-cost draw 2 in value.
• Has other card cycling and draw mechanics through
  Shuffle
  and
  Devil Dice
  further emphasizing his ability to get your team to the cards they need quickly.
• One of, if not the best searching cards in the game,
  Joker
  , which allows you to choose any card in your deck to directly add to your hand, allowing combos to be assembled far more easily.

The above all works for the entire cast of characters; however, Cassius also has another quest option that is even more powerful, which, when combined with specific characters, truly pushes his kit to the next level. To activate this, he’ll usually need to be played with characters capable of generating multiple 0-cost cards a turn, like Tressa or Luke.

• Choosing the
  Quest: Triple 0
  instead of Full House allows Cassius to act as a DPS character at the same time as a support. This quest, when combined with characters like Luke or Tressa who are able to complete it 5-10 times a turn alone, allows Cassius to stack the Triple 0 card to obscene damage figures.
• When reliably able to trigger so many quests per turn, Cassius’s Dice Trick V epiphany that creates an additional quest reward when completing a quest gets pushed to a new power level, allowing Cassius to provide even more damage, buffing, and draw power.