King IX with All Kings (Outdated)

Steam Community guide by ALBANIAN MAFIA.

Introduction

I've tried doing King IX difficulty with each king for no good reason.
Some were pretty easy, some were nightmare, a specific king is a pure torture.
This guide explains how to beat the "last" difficulty with each of kings and how to not go insane in the process.
THE GUIDE HASN'T BEED UPDATED SINCE KING OF TIME PATCH.
Some stuff still works, some stuff doesn't. The riskier stuff (like King of Nothing) is much easier to do with the newest perks using different strategies (I've beaten 9-6 with Soldiers\Paladins decks from the first try). Basically, in theory, most of the stuff should still work but for the riskier kings there are much better options. I might update later on when I have nothing else to do.

The basics

The kings would be reffered as [stone], [spell], [nothing] etc.
The cards would be reffered as {Offering}, {Overhaul}, {Soldier} etc.

Some tips to save your sanity

In order to beat this difficulty you often need the stars to align so, like, if the conditions aren't met - just restart.
If something goes very wrong (like wasting all of your gold early on and not getting anything you need) - restart.
If you're getting tilted - close the game.
If the king you want isn't here yet - just wait.

Some gameplay tips

1. You must play the cards until you have only two left - sometimes you have to waste or sell your stuff, pick wisely
2. You can use tip #1 to buy a bunch of worthless cards in the shop in order to play the cards you were saving
3. {Earthworks} used on an upgraded slot returns you up to 3 cards, even if you use it on lvl 100 Rat. Mortage, however, returns gold for all the levels.

Available strategies

[Blood] - the easiest one to pull off and the most consistent.

[Spell] - the second easiest.

[Stone] - it is getting a bit annoying.

[Progress] - would likely end up in a bunch of restarts even if you get the perfect start.

[Nothing] - it's okay.

[Nature] - Rough starts.

[Greed] - it is painful. The worst king at the moment.

[Nomad] - pretty straightforward in terms of strategy, took a few tries to understand the optimal way to play him and a single try to beat King 9 after figuring him out.

Kings as enemies

[Nothing] - has a strong frontline and a decent DPS in the back. He's somehow well-balanced around both offense and defense and usually becomes a problem if you have a weak frontline without much DPS going towards his archers. Poison Thorn can somehow ease this problem.
[Spell] - he has a... weird frontline. On higher difficulties warlocks are becoming a big issue due to AoE attack and tons of HP since their damage also scales. Then, you have mages at the back that would demolish your frontline completely. And finally, the shaman would make a run for it once he crosses outer half of the map. His weakness is that his mages are weak in duels against other ranged units and that they usually gather in one spot after beating your army.
[Greed] - Greed is abysmal when you play him, but when against him? That's the whole another topic. Thieves are a unit with one among the highest damage and Mercs have a ton of stats. Usually this combination would slaughter any well-balanced army... however, there's a fatal weakness - [Greed]'s army loves to gather in a single spot. Any AoE damage ({Carnage}, {Mothership}, {Treant}) would end up nuking his thieves and then dealing a ton to his mercs so you can finish them off.
[Blood]'s army has one of the highest DPS in the game. It has a lot of units, with imps being the fastest or the second fastest unit in the game. Devils, however, are extremely slow and usually neither tanky or strong. [Blood] Has two weaknesses - first, just as greed, his units would gather in a single spot, valnurable for AoE damage (and they're pretty squishy) and then, devils, are way too slow to reach your base if you have any towers that can actually do damage (even somehow leveled dispenser would do the trick).
[Nature] - weak front, weak mid, high burst but low DPS overall (due to a small number of units). Usually, he's an issue only during early game because the elves are extremely tanky. Manual base control here is a must early on.
[Stone] - has a high burst damage and a decent swarm. His melee units are pretty weak but Balistas are extremely strong due to how the game works. Having only a melee army against him is a no-no idea. Ranged, usually, wouldn't be able to handle the swarm alone... but if you add something that would help them to get rid of the swarming melees - whole another topic. His weakness is that if you get rid of his melees - his balistas would never reach the base. Poison Thorn can also solve an issue - for every hit on your units Balistas would get poisoned and likely would end up dying before it fires a third shot.
[Progress] - this one is pretty tricky. It is a swarmer with the tankiest unit in the game (defender) and the second most annoying ranged unit. The weakness? - they're pretty slow and aren't exactly good at enduring poison. Poison Thorn would make them the most useless army and poison generally would end them before they can reach your base.
[Nomad] - So far, about as strong as [Nature] or a bit weaker. He's, pretty much, never an issue and easy to bully.

King of Blood

King of Blood is the most consistent by far.

Perks

You need Summoner x4, Cultist x2 and Pagan x1 (yes, only one). That's pretty much it but if you want to change something - don't make your base or regular troops too strong.

Strategy

1. Roll for something that isn't [Stone] or [Nature]. Preferably [Nothing].
2. Set your base somewhere in the backline or in the middle so it wouldn't interfere with your build.
3. Put 2 {Graveyards} between 2 squads of {Imps}
   
4. Blue circles is what is a must, purple ones - you can go for {Farms} or {Graveyards}, doesn't really matter (I prefer farms but it is really whatever, you can do both).
5. For the augment, go for doubling the altar stats or 50% summon stats. Don't waste gold for rolls until your second augment if everything is fine. Save your gold for augment rolls.
6. During the rainbow round, you can get {Razing} or {Echo} (for the altar during the late game but, once again, you don't really need it - the three devils you have will be too much to deal with anyway).
   Tip #1: You don't really need a {Graveyard} in your starting hand. Just get it before, like, year 5 or something.
   Tip #2: Don't upgrade the altar too early. Upgrade it to 2 somewhere during years 10-15 and to 3 during years 15-20. You don't want your devil to crush your enemy too fast.

Loot

[Nothing]: {Farm}, {Wildcard}
[Progress]: {Overhaul}
[Greed]: {Over-invest}
[Rainbow]: {Echo} (for the Altar), {Razing} (you have a bunch of not used slots)

Friends and foes

A must: No one, really. I prefer progress because they kill a lot of imps.
Friends: [Nothing]
Foes: [Stone] (you can wage a war against them when you think that you're strong, their buffing cards are pretty good), [Nature] (would target the devil).
No-no: None.

King of Spell

King of Spell, by far, is pretty easy to pull off due to his overpowered base and the recent changes in the perk system.

Perks

You might think that this is a bit silly but actually it is extremely silly. We need Ruthless at 4 (20% chance to oneshot) and Ingenious at 3 (+15 base levels).

Strategy

1. Roll for [Progress], put your base in the back and just keep upgrading it. [Spell]'s base hits in AoE and with the perks we're using it can oneshot a few dozens (or 100s) of enemies.
2. The units, towers and other constructiosn do not matter - they're a resource for {Offering} and {Overhaul} ({Overhaul} > {Offering}).
3. The best unit you can have is a Thief - they're practically the only useful unit on this difficulty because they can actually slowdown enemy troops and, in our case, gather them in one spot.
4. For the augmentation we go for doubling base's attack speed. First one is a must, the second - not really. The other decent augmentations - Crit chance, Crit Damage, Gold, Rolls
5. During the Rainbow wave grab yourself a {Temple} and multiply it with your tomes while upgrading it with {Overhaul}.
   

Loot

[Spell]: {Offering}, {Base}
[Progress]: {Overhaul}
[Greed]: {Overinvest}, {Thief}
[Nothing]: {Wildcard}
[Rainbow]: {Temple}
[Nature]: {Clone}
[Stone]: {Earthworks} (if you have a Temple, Ranbow round usually appears after year 20)

Friends and foes

A must: [Progress]
Friends: [Nature], [Nothing]
Foes: None
No-no: None

King of Stone

King of Stone doesn't exactly require you to be lucky, rather, not to be unlucky. It might be a bit annoying.

Perks

Pretty much everything here is essential. The core is Impervious x3, Sturdy x2, Brewer x2 and Warden x2.

Strategy

1. Roll [Nature] without [Greed] or [Blood]
2. Build your base in the edge of a top row (if one random unlocked slot appeared there - great. Otherwise - not exactly essential)
3. Lose a life to get {Walls} and {Cauldron} (don't waste rolls if you didn't pick a perk yet and don't intentionally lose)
4. You need to get Towerdome perk as your first perk. If you didn't get it - I suggest restarting. Perks afterwards don't really matter but I suggest Crit chance or anything related to poison.
5. In the bottom 2 rows build a mix of {Walls} and {Forests}:
   F-W-F
   W-F-W
   
   (Base and Cauldron can be put anywhere in the backrow)
6. That's pretty much it. You don't really need more than 3 upgraded {Walls} and {Forests}. Just keep upgrading everything. {Walls} are the priority, then {Base} and {Cauldron}.
7. During the rainbow round, pick {Patronage} or {Cross}

Loot

[Stone]: {Cauldron}, {Wall}, {Base}, sometimes {Earthworks}
[Nature]: {Forest} and {Clone} (to clone forest)
[Progress]: {Overhaul}
[Greed]: {Over-invest}, {Bank}
[Rainbow]: {Patronage}, {Cross}

Friends and foes

A must: [Nature]
Friends: [Progress]
Foes: [Blood] (not a good start)
No-no: [Greed] (unless you cheese the HP blessing - you ain't surviving the thieves)

King of Progress

King of Progress enters the realm of "The Stars need to align".

Perks

The core is Scientific x4, Innovator x2, Opportunist x1 and Bellicist x2 (you can swap the last two if you like, crit allows to survive for a bit more while money allows you to have more rolls early on).

Strategy

Nature

1. Roll for [Nature] AND have a {Rat} in your starting hand AND don't have [Stone] as your opponent (having [Spell] is bearable, but not preferable)
2. Put your base on one of the backline edge slots, put a {Rat} between your base and the opposite edge slot, use both of your {Reinforces} on the {Rat}
3. Search for additional {Rats}, {Clones} and {Earthworks} (use {Earthworks} on your second, third or whatever {Rat}, DON'T use it on the one with {Reinforce}
4. Connect additional {Rats} to your original one so every time you set a new {Rat}, every single one of them levels up a bunch of times giving your patient zero an absurd amound of attack
5. For your first perk, search for Poison Thorns > Doubling the {Rat} level > doubling the crit damage. Afterwards - it doesn't really matter, if you've passed year 10, that's it, pretty much
   

Stone

1. Roll for [Stone] AND have a {Executioner} or a {Rat} in your starting hand, AND don't have [Nature] as your opponent
2. Place {Base} in the middle of backrow, {Executioner} one slot lower to the left or right and put {Reinforce} on it. Then, search for a {Rat} to put it below the empty slot
3. If you don't face [Stone] in your first 3 years - you likely need to restart
4. When facing [Stone], first, go for {Earthworks} to use on your {Rat} and, when you have one or two, search for {Cauldron} to place it adjasted to your {Base}, {Executioner} and a {Rat}, you need only one
5. Put a {Reinforce} on your original {Rat} when you have more than one {Rat}
6. If you manage to pull off 2 {Earthworks} - that's it
   TIP: Control the base manually early. It is useless but it does some impact early on, enough to barely win.
   TIP #2: When facing [Stone] Early, your base, when controlled manually, can prolly take out all the {Balistas} on it's own

Loot

[Progress]: {Rat}, {Overhaul} (if you already have a bunch of {Rats}
[Nature]: {Clone}
[Stone]: {Earthworks}, {Cauldron} (an option when you don't have any other options, it might help against the [Stone] himself

Friends and foes

A must: [Nature] or [Stone]
Friends: [Nature], [Blood]
Foes: [Progress], [Spell]
No-no: [Stone]

King of Nothing

King of Nothing was pretty difficult with the old perk system, but right now? The guy is fine.

Perks

Realistically, the only two things we need are Acricultural x3, Protector x2 and a bunch of rerolls. Everything else he's is just for making our lives easier.

Strategy

1. Roll for [Spell] and don't have [Stone] as your opponent. You need a {Soldier} or a {Paladin} as your starting unit
2. Throw your {castle} onto the edge of your backrow, set your {unit} in the middle, surround him with two {farms} (upgrade one)
3. First, focus on upgrading your {unit}
4. As your first augment pick {Poison Thorn} - it would solve all of our low DPS problems early on and would turn [Nothing] and [Progress] into easy rounds. As for the other perks - always go for Double HP (Feast), but if you can't, then doubling the poison is a weaker alternative (one that just multiplies, not the second Thorn)
5. You need to get {Libraries} as fast as possible, place them adjusted to your {unit}
6. During the [Rainbow] round - get {Gigantify} (Year 11)
7. Get your hands on {Carnage}
8. When you have at least 10 stacks of {Carnage}, add at least one stack of {Poison}. Paladins, technically, can bruteforce it without the additional poison, but that requires an early {Temple} or an additional {Gigantify}
   
   TIP: Don't add stuff like {Reinforce}, {Vampirism} or whatever enchantments - they're useless and would only make your life worse when targeted by your {Libraries}. You can do so during the Year 33 but that's it.

Loot

[Nothing]: {Unit} > {Wildcard} > {Farm}
[Blood]: {Carnage}
[Nature]: {Procreate}, {Clone}, {Poison} (apply it during year 30 or later)
[Spell]: {Library} > {Offering}
[Greed]: {Bank} > {Over-invest}
[Progress]: {Overhaul}
[Stone]: {Cauldron} (place it behind the {castle} or between the {castle} and {unit} (you'll overhaul or whatever it away afterwards))

Friends and foes

A must: [Spell]
Friends: [Nature], [Greed], [Progress]
Foes: None
No-no: [Stone]

King of Nature

King of Nature is pretty straightforward but it does need a bit of luck to pull off.

Perks

Castellain x3 and Healer x2 would make our base much stronger which is exactly what we need for the early game [Nature] struggles with. Other than that, Spreader x2 is the only thing you'll need as a natural means of tanking by adding more units. Anything else is up to your preference (except for rerolls - they're always a must).

Strategy

1. Roll for [Stone], preferably with {Boar} in your starting hand.
2. Place your {Treant} somewhere in the backline. If there's a spot between the thing and the {shroom} - perfect. If not - not a big issue.
3. Place a {Forest} on one of the frontline edges, {Boar} right next to it (also on the frontline). If you don't have the {Boar} - place {Elves} on the opposite edge (they're a good tank, just isn't exactly what we need - we'll sacrifice them later. Basically, your frontline would look like this:
   {Damage Unit} - {Boar} - {Forest}.
4. When fighting [Stone], first, go for {Cauldron} and place it next to {Treant} in the backline (once again, it is prefered to connect the thing to {Shroom}. Don't bother with {Orchard}'s position (it should be in backline (if you have it that is), just know that it doesn't really benefit from any buffs other than damage (for some reason the roots don't apply poison and high attack speed just swaps the rooted units). {Cauldron} with {Treant} (and {shroom}) is, pretty much, the strongest early-midgame combo in the game, creating Miyazaki's wet dream - constantly spreading poison swamp.
5. For the first augment, go for Venom (multiplies poison, making it so your {cauldrons} are basically x2, like level 2 {cauldron} would act as if you have 4 of them). If you cannot - doubling the HP is always a good option.
6. For the second fight with [Stone], go for {Balista} and place it next to our first {Boar}. Then, just level everything up giving a preference to {Cauldron}, first {boar} and {balista}.
   

Loot

Nature: {Boar}, {Clone}, {Procreate}, {Orchard} (don't place multiple - just level up one), {Base}
Stone: {Cauldron}, {Balista}
Progress: {Overhaul}
Nothing: {Wildcard}, {Steel coat}
Blood: {Carnage}
Spell: {Offering}

Friend and foes

A must: [Stone]
Friends: [Greed], [Blood]
Foes: [Spell]
No-no: None

King of Greed

King of Greed was originally a torture to play, but after the update (and making {Base}'s ability to actually work) he's fine, easy even.
First, let's start with what makes him strong:

1. He has a lot of gold
2. His base oneshots and turns enemies into gold equal to {base}'s level. Level 8 {Palace} provides 8 gold per kill
3. With the base being of high enough level, {Mercs} and {Dispenser} can become quite strong right away. Meaning that if before you actually had to get lucky with an early {Dispenser}, now you're likely fine even if you already "converted" one of your lives into gold
4. Mercs would provide a meat wall even as a level one unit
5. Strong shopping rounds
   And the problems:
6. The start is kinda rough and depends on you not getting an abysmal luck
7. Unlike the most of other kings, [Greed] doesn't really have a stabilizing mechanism if he got unlucky. If you lost a life without