Villain Profile
- Primary Damage Types: Toxic, Infernal, Psychic, Projectile
- Secondary Damage Types: Energy, Melee
- Most Dangerous Attack: PL626 Compound XI
- Most Dangerous Utility: Lab Raid
- Most Annoying: PL531 Compound Upsilon
- Card you most want to see: Potential Sidekick!
- Nemesis: Wraith
The drug-addled serial killer known as Spite disobeys practically all of the laws villains in this game tend to follow. He has no other targets in his deck. All of his important cards are indestructible. He has cards in his deck that heroes love to see. He even destroys the environment for you, making the landscape strangely clinical. Once he assembles all of his drugs and flips, he has a ruthless attack routine. He no longer draws cards, however, which means you know what he’s going to do every round… and you can beat it.
Tactics
Here’s the most important thing to realize against advanced Spite. There's almost no reason to attack him before he flips. In addition to healing whenever he deals damage and whenever he offs a victim, he heals H+2 every round, and 5H when he flips. Unless you have several ways to stop his progress or damage (like Nightmist’s Mistbound or Tachyon’s Hypersonic Assault), or you have some truly absurd damage potential readily available, then it’s just not going to happen, and you’re going to look silly.
Instead, it is far easier to do everything you can to prepare for when he becomes vulnerable. Heroes that can employ this preparation time to good effect will have the most success against Spite. Put those damaging powers away, and use the powers and abilities that let you put more things out or heal heroes. Build towards your hero’s ultimate combo, and slow down Spite if at all possible, as his drugs can really hinder your setup. Most importantly, play ongoings and equipment to the board. When PL531 Compound Upsilon comes out, you’ll want as many out there as you can get.
In addition to whatever normally makes your hero work, two things in particular are extremely useful. Anything that reduces damage Spite deals, like Visionary’s Twist the Ether or Wraith’s Stun Bolts, helps minimize his damage threat. Failing that, armor for your hero, like Haka’s Ta Moko or Legacy’s Fortitude, gives that hero much more staying power.
An important aspect of slowing Spite down is environment control. Early on, the biggest threat you face is the prospect of a Lab Raid. Make sure you kill every environment card you can, so he doesn’t swiftly bring out all of his drugs (and most importantly Upsilon or XI). Out-of-turn environment destruction like Unity’s Bee Bot is great for this, as well as cards that stop the environment from playing cards, like Bunker’s Adhesive Foam Grenade.
The Safe House
In general, Forced Entry makes it a gamble to rescue the victims. One option is to wait to save as many as possible until the turn before he flips. This minimizes the losses of the heroes, but likely kills several victims, making the Safe House less effective. If you’ve followed my advice above, his healing means nothing. In my experience, the only downside to losing most victims is that exacted by your conscience.
The better option is to save victims on a case-by-case basis. Let your tank rescue the Lost Child, as they can probably spare a couple hit points, even for no gain (if Forced Entry comes out). Let the player with 10 cards in hand rescue the Innocent Bystander – between Compound Upsilon and the Potential Sidekick, there’s always somebody with more cards than they could ever use.
The Good Samaritan is very difficult to save, since doing so hastens Spite’s endgame. It’s even hard to save him right before Spite flips, since he could undo all of your Safe House work with a Forced Entry. If you’re going to do it, I recommend waiting until Spite has all his drugs, then using someone like Visionary to stack his deck to make sure he doesn't play that.
The Potential Sidekick is there to be awesome for you. His noble sacrifice will not be forgotten. It’s not for me to tell you to throw little girls to the beast to try to keep this guy out as long as possible. You’ll have to make that choice on your own.
Just Say No
So you navigated the early game, saved some victims, and hit him in the face with the
Safe House. Now what? Simple. You use the ultimate setups that your heroes have arranged, and open fire. Here’s how to wage the War on Drugs.
“Demon’s Kiss” and “Mind-Phyre” are clear enough. These, as well as the attack listed on Spite’s card, deal six damage a turn. This is where the damage reduction comes in handy. Pre-empting the environment as described before is still quite useful to reduce the damage “Mind-Phyre” deals.
PL626 Compound XI is even more of a threat. You’ll generally have to use a lot of powers to claw through 80 hit points. The effects are within your control, though. Focus on attacks that don’t require constant power use. If your hero has to use powers to deal meaningful damage (Expatriette), make sure they are as effective as they can be. (For example, by fully loading her guns before Compound XI comes down.) The side effect is generally meaningless, but can be really good for Nightmist and Tachyon, and wonderful if a hero can access the trash.
Breaking through PL602 Compound Omicron is a pain, but easier with automatic attacks like Tempest’s Electrical Storm, since it only reduces the first damage each turn. Remember he still reduces all damage by one, due to his advanced rules. You can’t get rid of this, so you just have to punch through it. Use your big attacks.
Finally, his most annoying card would have to be PL531 Compound Upsilon. Starting turn one, everybody should play ongoing or equipment cards as much as possible, to prepare for when it comes out. Anybody who can play multiple cards a turn is great to have for this, especially Bunker and Tachyon – they can do it without one-shots or powers.
Exploits
Most villains have some exploitable weaknesses. Spite’s is merely the fact that all of the damage in his deck comes from him. This makes reducing his damage extremely powerful against him and removes a lot of the threat. If necessary, you can use Visionary’s Twist the Ether, and turn all Spite’s damage to a type to which your heroes are immune, courtesy of Legacy or Ra. Also exploitable is the fact that you know almost exactly what Spite will do every turn – indeed, this guide is predicated on that.
Try using
Bunker. His defenses seem engineered to counter Spite’s unusual methods of attack. Heavy Plating and Recharge Mode can make him practically immune to Spite’s damage, while Upgrade Mode counters Compound Upsilon handily. Bunker needs only one power to blow Spite away – his Omni-Cannon. Spite courteously gives Bunker plenty of time to charge it. Finally, Adhesive Foam Grenade is at its most useful.
Avoid
Fanatic. Her only way to deal significant damage to Spite without inflicting a ton of damage on herself is with the elusive Wrathful Retribution. She can keep up her life, and play good support (Redeemer Fanatic is usually far superior here), but a good number of her cards are rendered ineffective by Spite’s methods (End of Days, Zealous Offense, Chastise, and Final Dive, for instance). Divine Focus is at least a good way to remove the damage shield granted by Compound Omicron.