The Defect
IntermediateAn ancient combat automaton that channels Orbs — Lightning for damage, Frost for block, Dark for scaling damage, and Plasma for energy. Focus amplifies all Orb effects.
📦 Starting Deck
✅ Strengths
- +Incredible passive defense with Frost + Focus
- +Best AoE with Electrodynamics
- +Echo Form doubles everything
- +Self Repair provides sustain
⚠️ Weaknesses
- −Slow start — needs Focus online to function
- −Orb slots limit scaling without Capacitor
- −Biased Cognition's Focus loss requires planning
- −Vulnerable to early Act 1 without Frost setup
💡 General Strategy
Focus is everything for Defect. Defragment and Biased Cognition are game-defining. Frost orbs with high Focus make you nearly invincible. Coolheaded is the best common. Echo Form is one of the strongest cards in the game.
🎯 Build Archetypes
Lightning/Electrodynamics
Electrodynamics makes Lightning hit ALL enemies. Storm generates Lightning from Powers. Incredible AoE damage.
Frost/Focus
Stack Focus with Defragment and Biased Cognition. Frost Orbs passively generate Block equal to 2+Focus each turn. Glacier is the core card.
Dark Orb
Dark Orbs accumulate damage (6+Focus per turn). Evoke for massive single-target burst. Dualcast doubles the evoke.
0-Cost/All for One
Claw scales infinitely. All for One recovers all 0-cost cards from discard. Scrape draws and keeps 0-cost cards.
📇 Card Tier List (71 cards)
S Tier (8 cards)
Channel 1 Frost. Draw 1 card.
Gain 1 Focus.
Gain 7 Block. Channel 2 Frost.
Deal 14 damage. Put all 0-cost cards from discard into hand.
Gain 4 Focus. Lose 1 Focus each turn.
Ethereal. First card each turn is played twice.
Lightning hits ALL enemies. Channel 2 Lightning.
Choose a card from draw pile and put it in hand. Exhaust.
A Tier (20 cards)
Deal 7 damage. Channel 1 Lightning.
Deal 6 damage. Channel 1 Frost.
Deal 7 damage. Draw 1 card per unique Orb.
Gain 3 Block. Put a card from discard to hand. Exhaust.
Gain 2 Orb slots.
Gain 2 Focus. Lose 1 Orb slot.
Deal 10 damage to ALL enemies. Channel 1 Dark.
Double your Energy. Exhaust.
Deal 5 damage. If <4 cards played this turn, draw 1.
When you play a Power, draw 1 card.
First Orb triggers its passive an extra time.
Heal 7 HP at end of combat.
Draw 3 cards.
When you play a Power, channel 1 Lightning.
Next Power is played twice.
Next time you would lose HP, don't.
Deal 11 damage. Gain 1 Artifact. Exhaust.
Add a random Power to hand at start of turn.
Draw 1 extra card each turn.
Channel 1 Lightning, 1 Frost, 1 Dark. Exhaust.
B Tier (33 cards)
Evoke your next Orb twice.
Channel 1 Lightning.
Deal 3 damage. Apply 1 Vulnerable.
Gain 7 Block. Next turn gain 1 Energy.
Deal 3 damage. ALL Claw damage +2 this combat.
Deal 3 damage. If attacking, apply 1 Weak.
Gain Block equal to discard pile size.
Gain 6 Block. Loses 1 Block this combat each play.
Deal 6 damage to ALL. Draw 1.
Gain Energy for every 4 cards in draw pile.
If you have no Block, gain 11 Block.
Deal damage equal to 2x Frost channeled this combat.
Innate. Gain 10 Block. Exhaust.
Deal 8 damage. Apply 2 Lock-On.
Channel 1 Frost for each enemy. Exhaust.
Channel 1 Dark.
Gain 13 Block. Retain your hand.
Channel 1 Plasma.
Gain 1 Block. Permanently gains 2 more Block. Exhaust.
Remove all enemy Block. Deal 10 damage.
Draw 2 cards. Add a Burn to discard.
Exhaust a card. Gain Energy equal to its cost.
Gain 7 Block X times.
Deal 7 damage. Draw 4 cards. Discard non-0-cost cards drawn.
When you take unblocked damage, channel 1 Lightning.
Channel X Lightning. Exhaust.
Gain 2 Energy. Add a Void to discard.
Add a random Power to hand. It costs 0. Exhaust.
Remove all Orbs. Gain 1 Energy and draw 1 per Orb.
Deal 26 damage to ALL enemies. Lose 3 Focus.
Deal 24 damage. Channel 3 Plasma.
Shuffle hand and discard into draw pile. Draw 4 cards. Exhaust.
Deal 7 damage to random enemy for each Lightning channeled this combat.
C Tier (8 cards)
Gain 9 Block.
Deal 9 damage. Next card played goes on top of draw pile.
Deal 15 damage. Costs 1 less each play.
Channel 1 random Orb.
At start of turn, add a random Common card to hand.
Lose 1 Focus. Gain 1 Strength and 1 Dexterity.
Deal 7 damage to a random enemy twice.
Deal 24 damage. If fatal, gain 3 Energy.