Dungeon Run Strategy
I had a much longer article started on the various strategy considerations one needs to ponder in order to clear Hearthstone’s Dungeon Run game mode with all nine classes. Then I realized that perhaps a TL;DR version might be better. So here it is:
Passive Buff:
- Captured Flag (+1/+1 to your minions)
- Cloak of Invisibility (permanent Stealth)
Treasure:
- Wax Rager (5/1 Deathrattle: resummon)
- The Candle (4 damage to enemy minions, reshuffle into deck)
You can win without this combination of passives and treasures, and you can absolutely lose even if you get all of them. Dungeon Runs are the typical Hearthstone clown fiesta of RNG cranked to 11. But the short version is that giving all your minions +1/+1 allows you to counter a ton of boss gimmicks, permanent Stealth bypasses targeted removal and bad trades, and Wax Rager can usually win the game on the spot with infinite value.
As far as deck composition, you will want two things: creature-based tempo plays and an emergency value generator. Spells are incredibly discouraged in Dungeon Runs, as Boss health generally makes it impossible to kill them before getting overwhelmed yourself, and several Bosses actively punish spell use. At the same time, it’s possible to run out of gas if you’ve been trading all game, and bosses have more cards than you do. In those cases, having an Antonidas or Lyra can pull you from the brink. Those value cards just can’t be your win condition themselves, as they are much too slow versus the bosses that win on Turn 5.
And… that’s basically it.
If you’re looking for tips regarding specific classes, it can basically be summed up as:
- Shaman/Druid/Rogue: Picks Jades.
- Everyone Else: RNGesus will guide you home
Priest was by far the worst class for me, although Shaman cut it close. In both cases, the starting deck is just bad, so you have to lean hard on getting good Passives/Treasures and strong card picks after each boss. I had perfect picks in half a dozen of my Priest runs, and it still took a total of 15 attempts before I squeaked by. Even then, the winning run was due Lyra giving me a Power Word: Glory, which I was able to leverage into an incredibly unlikely win versus Waxmancer Sturmi as he repeatedly copied the enchanted Sylvanas.
Posted on February 14, 2018, in Hearthstone and tagged Clown Show, Dungeon Run, Hearthstone, RNG, Strategy. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
In An Age 
I love dungeon run and it basically got me to quit HS entirely for Slay the Spire. Probably not what they intended, though I never spent any money anyway.
For jade classes Jade is by far the strongest, but if you take jades try to get double battlecries on sham/druid and double deathrattle on rogue. Invisible is ok but 1/1 is less good than just ramping them up faster, and double health is probably better than invisible anyway. Invisible is nuts against the darkness though, makes 2/3 of his deck unplayable.
I’ve never gotten quest rogue to work, but lord knows i’ve tried.
For Warlock and Priest, C’thun is an option too. It’s a fine backup for Druid as well. Double battlecry or summoning scepter is really needed for full potential. Oddly Warrior doesn’t have a C’thun option.
With paladin your best bet is big dudes. Summoning scepter is your friend. I think Paladin has dragons but I’ve never really made anything out of the synergy. Quest is bad, took me a lot of tries before I finally managed to win with it.
For mage your best bet is actually giants of all things. If you can get the summoning scepter then it becomes really stupid, as molten giant is free after taking 5 damage. A swarm of 8/8s is really hard for most of the bosses to do anything against.
With warrior the quest is an option. It also nearly instawins vs Candlebeard, the true final boss.
Of all the passives, really only garrosh armguards is straight up bad. The treasures have the
rod of roasting
three 8 damage fireball card
either piece of quel’dalar (completing quel’dalar is instawin but not worth gambling on most of the time)
mask that transforms your cards to target minion (tried many times to make it work)
The 2 mana spell that shuffles the decks and discounts your cards by 2 is a lot better than it looks. cenarius’ horn might not be good for your deck (jade, c’thun) but is good in most of them. Wax rager is s tier but unplayable vs sturmi or darkness without stealth. Wish is slow but usually instawins if you play it.
I’m glad there are no rewards for it, it means you can play around with garbage like quest paladin without feeling punished.
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I just picked up Slay the Spire due to the -20% Steam sale yesterday. And, yeah, it might be a good thing that I completed Dungeon Run on all 9 characters already.
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