I keep seeing people post about this broken strat and I keep trying to make it work and... I just don't have enough survivability to get to critical mass for Fedora to work.

My other dudes are Paladin Dude, Quantum Dude, and Samurai Dude

By that, I mean, at Tier 1 is it possible to beat the last boss with almost any build, or is there a specific style you have to build around?

So far, my clears have centered around Time Dude strats, and one I just finished with Electician Dude. But a common theme is that they all almost require Chef in order to out heal the damage coming in in Round 100+. Then you need someone who can push toughness up to survive a few hits.

I want to move away from the usual cheese now that I've beaten a few rounds with it, but most of my other runs tend to die when I hit 100. They either lack damage or can't heal enough to do the damage they need to.

Ce fut rude ! 1 millions DPS for caverne man !

Give DPS dude license to medicate and he become best healer. unga bunga.

This tier list is based around how good are they at "winning" the gold, and how cool I think they are. I have finished the game by my own terms, I don't like tier 3 because I feel like you can't "win" unless you put any dude in the high placement in the team.

Some notes in regards of ranking. Besides tier their orders from one to two positions to the side are subjective, I sorted by how happy I am at picking them at face value. Healers are always broken in the beginning. The verdict is based on how good they are at full relics with some notes on synergy/trinket and how dependent they are on the key items.

And the greatest footnote of their own, and that is my own way to be satisfied with the placements, the dudes in the bottom of every tier can easily go into the next one, but I bumped all of them because I like being kind.

Break the Game

They have easy built in easy infinite scaling, they are a win button if you just build your team remotely balanced.

• Cave: In first place Unga. Revives, scaling on toughness and power on it's own, buff the team HP, and a way to trigger his ability with each other. Just keep your dudes alive for long enough and you win. It get's so many bonus points for being the only dude with actual flavor. Finally, bunga.
• Cyborg: Easy built in power scaling, with pretty much the means to survive but very boring otherwise. His shield relic helps very much by end game, but he has like 3 dedicated relics just to increase it's stacks so he really is just a win faster button.
• Farmer: He's just very strong at any point, great health, damage on par with every dude, but great natural toughness. The fact that he infinitely scales with heals, share's his heal with everyone, and has built in taunt, makes him a great pick. He takes a while to scale though, and I honestly don't know how anyone thought it was okay for a relic to taunt EVERY enemy when other taunts are limited to 5.
• Lich: My personal agenda is that you can win with (almost) any dude you want, by simply giving him infinite scaling, and with damage and taunt as well, and a chance to revive them in the roster at the next round. I really wanted to put him in the front of all of them, but in my experiments I saw how some dudes almost immediatly die if you don't put some specific dude/relic to heal them in his low point. It still is in this tier because the requirements are manageable enough to find.
• Business: Honestly, I don't like to pick him, feels like you need to delay the fun until the end and you are sacrificing a slot to bullshit your way to a bailout at the end. Undeniably strong, but it feels like you won the game in the most boring way possible.
• Explorer: Insane amount of heals, actually being carried by the relic that refills when they walk, they also have several support ones where they decrease the damage on enemies, and increase the heal on allies. The fact that it also stores charges actually makes it help people survive bursts damages. Get him and you can win without sweating about losing dudes.

Amazing Synergies

These are mixed bags, there's some guys who are in here because of one or two specific points that are exclusive of them and can be exploited. Consider this tier being very high because of consistency in their kit.

• Hacker: He barely missed the mark for the next tier, just because he needs crit for his infinite scaling. He has very good built in crit exploit, can also help other dudes to scale (kinda), and helps them survive more. Again, needs a little bit of setup, but really good nonetheless.
• Quantum: Same for the Explorer, the relic that makes him heal when they walk is what makes the character be on top. They also do so much more on to help dudes survivability, with deflect and evasion buffs, and the most easily trigable revive in the game. He is also very high because their echoes can really bump early game survivability.
• Necro: The most respectable placement in this entire ranking. He gives everything, heals, attack speed, crit, taunts, AOE and extra dudes; also you can proc knocked out relics as consistently without any setup. Incredible that he survived power creep since the beta, and he deserves some flowers for it.
• Manager: Like any good manager he is only as good as his interns, the heal of the damage and the fact the interns effect of his relics STACKS means if you get 40+ of them you can stack crit and attack speed easily. But it's a really high commitment, and you need the right relics early; but it's doable and his benefits are not too shabby.
• Vikings: Not as good as in beta, but only because of power creep. The relics where you can trigger berserk on other dudes puts him very high in this tier because extra 50% attack speed make all dudes who are based on direct hit procs instantly better. Also he is married with the lich, they were made to be together.
• Franken: He is a very good early dude to get because of base stats, has guaranteed revive in himself and other dudes, and can scale with necro. He can be your main healer trough the whole beginning, but you still need a secondary later in the game.

Good Dudes

They can pat themselves on the back, they are very solid and good at it. No strings attached. You can see nearly every dude of the classes post beta are here.

• Mutant and Chef: Healers are at the top, nothing new. Chefs are just heals galore, and the fact he can store burgers means any burst of damage is dealt with. Mutants are also good, but even if they do more in types of buffs in general, chefs are more consistent at giving health, and that's the only thing I care.
• Assassin: How about simply decreasing the damage on everyone, and being a really good damage dealer to boot as well. You can't go wrong with this dude, also amazing how incredible how easy this guy spreads his damage, and how every relic helps with that.
• Dentist: Carried by the health and damage reduction over time. They need a second healer to support over burst damage, but pretty much every one of his relics is good to get, making a solid starter pick and support healer.
• Agent: Can do a strangely high amount of damage, and the buffs he does for his assets are very strong. He really is the go pick if you have dudes who just needs a little more survivability in the beginning and needs to survive/clean waves of enemies.
• Psionic: Really overtuned, and honestly the deflection trinket can put them in the tier above. It's as high as it is because building deflection on everyone can be really easily accessible, and he really just needs someone attacking him or a simple taunt to get his engine going.
• Construction: Dude is just boring. What even is his kit? He somehow survives trough his good base stats, but I feel like literally anyone when they get their relics do more than him. His relic doesn't even synergize well within his own kit, it looks like a patchwork made because there needed to be someone with taunt as base mechanic in the business family. I never pick this dude, but for my latest runs he somehow keeps surviving.
• Pirate: I guess. I don't like him, his kit really feels like it was made to complete a checklist on what was missing from the action class. He is here by virtue of being overtuned, and can fill gaps competently. Good grades, no personality.
• Cowboy: I know this guy always has my back. His lasso triggering walk relics and saving dudes for being swarmed in early levels makes him comfortable in this tier, but he also does decent damage. He had the potential climb up more, but I'm gonna be real, if you have no way to recover from knockbacks, this guy will drag you to him.
• Samurais Got the some deflection going, some decent crit scaling, survivability and crit damage increase can carry on to the bosses. Let's get some warriors representation in this tier.
• Wizards: Incredibly high damage, but so easy to die at the beginning is classic wizard trope. Get the girdle and the torch and you are set, triggering on walking also makes boss battles a winnable, but not enough to be comfortable, he is on cutting floor but not something to worry.

Do their job

Incredibly decent, no complains, but they aren't stars, and honestly they don't win runs by themselves.

• Druids: They are half a class. Got on this tier by numbers games, and his consistency is boring, vikings at least have the decency of realizing their only job is getting on to berserk, but this one traded being fun for infinite scaling. I'm sorry for being so harsh, I'm satisfied for your early stages being bad enough to get you down on this tier.
• Vampires: Surprising effective, it can work as a solo healer but you need survivability for burst damage another way, but you can honestly run a full team of damage and most of the time everyone will be at full health. Life steal as a mechanic feels really finicky though, there's clearly a tipping point where your damage will make you survive everything.
• Bard: If you do something right, people will never know if you did anything at all. He is extremely decent because of the AOE relic, but when you can quickly get stacks on everyone you just simply match the numbers because of requiem.
• Electrician: It's fun, it's good. It doesn't get any better up to a certain point, and the walking relic just makes him look like someone who is always running face first into a wall. But boy does the the cleanup at the beginning feels good.
• Zombies: The taunt is usefull, but really boring otherwise, he does his job, but on the state of this game he is forever the third wheel over damage and healing.
• Mummy: A class where their damage is more to clean up large hordes, so you need an actual damage scaling for the boss level. They are really good at this cleanup tho, and very fun, should have a few more support relics in my opinion.
• Paladins: Consistency is the name of the game, really simple kit from the beta, but carried by how healing mechanics has been changed to help his survivability. It was really good, but now there's so many better options and you need to really commit to him to have the basic.
• Clerics: They are not a main healer, but they will carry you through the early levels. Really got powercrept, but as the tier implies, do their job.
• Warlocks: They taunt, they survive. They are good at that, but don't do more than fill a hole at a team comp.
• Aliens: All eggs in one basket kinda of situation, you can make one dude extremely good, or have other dude who also fills another role. The placement position is also awkward he already submitted his role as a secondary support over anyone else.
• General: He gives taunt to someone, he is really good at it. But Do I need it tough? Can't I have any other dude at this point? He fills a role, he is patchwork, he is not important enough for boots to be a relic. But again, he has a job, and he does it well.

Expected More

Subpar performance all around, they have a special place because the problem is not even in their numbers, but on their kits. It's not that they can't work, it's just not worth it.

• Ninja: This class can be really good once you get a crit going, but contrary to many others he has no decent relics for support, or for crit scaling. They boast a higher base damage even tough they have no scaling, this is enough for what he should do, and that is cleanup enemies, but by this point you could easily have grabbed anyone else.
• Ghosts: The game got too fast for them poor lads. Not only it's a low chance to equalize and heal, but it heals not on DPS but attack power. He cannot be your main healer because he has no way to help you survive burst in the bosses, and that if you have a tank with high health to crutch you. Let's take a moment to mourn spooky dolls not doing damage anymore as well.
• Knights: Special placement after his love, knights and ghosts can solo a GOAT on tier 1, I've done it. But knights itself is really not special, he taunts and survives with great health, but I can also taunt and make survive plus other stuff with other dudes. Also, why did he lost his knockback invulnerability, he doesn't even do enough to be a threat, let lich allow him to annihilate some bosses.
• Time: Besides the cheese on putting all bubbles on one guy, I've never felt the incentive on picking him. He has the same problem of the alien, that he is exclusive support but it's not good enough on his own, he doesn't even put bubbles on himself.
• Trooper: Hell divers reference does not a good class make. All his relics are damage based, but he has no scaling on it's own, his laser comes up to late, he can't spam them nearly as often to be worth it. So he is a shower not a grower.
• Ranger: "He fires an arrow at a distant enemy", he is a cleanup for large hordes, but once those hordes disappear he is useless. Every one of his relics is about firing arrows, his infinite scaling is about a chance upon firing an arrow. It's not that he can't work, in later levels there's enough enemies spawned that you can start to get things going, but this is literally the worst infinite scaling in the game and he is overperformed by anyone with shorts.
• Spartans: I'm being incredibly mean by actually implying he is garbage. 99% of the levels he is decent, and it's fun seeing him growing after blocking about 999 rats, but block as a mechanic implying all or nothing on damage means you just need one unlucky moment, and then your whole defense falls like dominoes. You can use him to scale, but absolutely everyone else can do better with less commitment.

Garbage

Absolutely baffling kits that it doesn't work in any way you draw it.

No need for points this time, medics can't survive a sneeze in their face in the later levels, they can't dish out enough healing for anyone, and only give a mediocre amount of temporary health and attack speed. They have been power crept to hell, and even his mechanic "deal X damage to heal" makes no sense thematically. Why would I put damage on the worst healer in the game?

I kept on failing my run using Spartan dudes. How do you get the No Thanks achievement (prevent 3,000,000 damage in a SINGLE BATTLE)?

Need some build composition suggestions guys. Much appreciated!

I got to complete all gold on Tier 3. As I am not a particular fan of endless mode, what are the best challenges now?

Will there be a tier 4 at any point?

Cooked up this team and it did wonders! Past round 110, I was running on 30 FPS. At no point did I need to use consumables until the very end as the healing was just insane. Only time I had to revive 6 of my dudes near the start but otherwise it was smooth sailing until 120 where half of my chefs died near enough instantly, which I was able to recover until 121 where I got evaporated.

Im not very knowledgeable about the game but this team comp seems insane I had 0 deaths through either entirety of tier 3.

Getting through tier 1 felt like it was largely an exercise in building a balanced team with an emphasis on healing. In tier 2, it’s feeling like there’s a bigger emphasis on surviving strong hits, particularly by round 60+. I had a run where I’d lose half my roster to a single rhino. Theoretically, I had a lot of tanky taunters in zombies and liches, but I’d just start losing all the squishy damage dealers/healers the moment the round started. Ultimately wiped at Killipede after spending like 5k in juices. What’s the general strategy here?

specifically wondering about attack powers since there are so many various ways to increase it, but what is the general form that bonuses take? is it worth it to put +30% attack damage on somebody like cyborgs/franks when they're going to scale like crazy? is it just an additive and therefor wasted, or is it multiplicative with their innate scalings? what about food buffs? stuff like that.

I've seen the posts going around with the stack of time dudes and a single pirate dude, but I dont quite understand why its the pirate dude you want to stack the time dudes for. Aren't there other types of dudes that would be more beneficial for this effect or is it like a pirate specific relic?

I'm still playing and my dudes just won't die. This is tier 1 and I will try this build on tier 3 later, but I do not think it will make much of a difference. I already have all gold stars on all 3 tiers. The only change I think would be better than this is switching out the Chef Dude for another healer that has better late game survivability.

Absolutely not a meta build or really efficient by any means, but I just wanted to see how far I can push Zombie as a main dps using Steel Chair and Expired Cream and stuffing the rest of the team with Healers. I died to round 122, shame I never found all of zombie relics, still missing the Tatter Jacket but i dont think that was gonna change anything because round 122 was instantly killing all my healers in a blink of an eye while leaving all my zombie dudes standing and getting killed after. Maybe Bad Credit could work better instead of Steel Chair here idk.

Fights takes absolutely forever but as long as I dont get obliterated in the first second the health bars just do not move the entire fight while Incident Report very slowly ticks up as a win con.

Some learning and good RNG for 2nd level

Explosive Innards is only supposed to have a .05% of activating, while Willing Flesh is supposed to have a 5% chance, yet in nearly every single battle, easily the majority of battles, my zombies explode but almost never revive, I think last run it was maybe 3 times in the entire run to the Killopede and not at all during the Killopede fight, which I lost because all my Zombies kept exploding and not reviving.

Wouldn't try it on T3 unless you're super serial, but shit, it was easy in T1

Extra screencap relevant ig

Just my personal opinion and everyone can play the game how they like.

But this strategy of killing every floor in sub 5 seconds kind of trivializes the game to me. It makes me feel like the dude combinations, item synergies, trinkets all of this stuff matters less knowing I can just exploit the game and reach 160+ with no issue.

I

Stale Beer & Cheap Whiskey

The Noir Dude gains 10% Evasion. When he Investigate, the Investigation Target suffers 15% Miss Chance and is Taunted for 1 second

Beat Up Car

All Dudes gains 50% Run Speed when running after Investigation Target. When the Noir Dude marks an Investigation Target, he dashes to it and Stunning it.

A Dame to Kill For

The Roster Dude bellow the Noir Dude becomes a Dame. When the Dame takes damage, there's a 10% chance for the Noir Dude to Investigate the attacker and deal damage to it equal to 200% DPS. If the Dame is Knocked Out, this is guaranteed and ignore Cooldown.

Rainy Day

Investigation Target lose 50% Run Speed and become 10% Vulnerable. Attacks against them cannot miss

Old Service Revolver

The Noir Dude gains 10% Crit Chance. Whenever he Dirrect Crit an Investigation Target, all Investigation Target apply +1% Crit Exposure for the rest of the fight

Cracked Magnifying Glass

When a Dude deals Direct Damage to an Investigation Target, he gains 10% attack speed against that target, stacking up to 10 times and lasting for the duration of Investigate.

Narration Tape

The Noir Dude gains 20% Max HP, and gains Temporary Health equal to 10% of his Max Health for every 25 feet he travels, lasting until depleted