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Activist guide: pets, War Cry and the last boss

The Activist is the character you get by winning with the Janitor, and the one players most often say they do not know how to play. What follows is what the forum has worked out in the days since launch. None of it is official: the developers have not written a guide, so every card and number below is a player’s report.

How players say the pet engine fits together

The Activist’s animal engine as players describe itThe Activist’s pets and animals sit in the middle. Four animals in hand are supposed to trigger the Animal Lover foresight, which adds a War Cry, though one player says it does not always fire. War Cry buffs the cards in hand and makes them cheaper. A collar makes one pet permanent. Decay lets even weak animals one-shot enemies.Pets and animalsthe Activist's creaturesAnimal Lover foresightshould add War Cry at fourWar Crybuffs cards, makes them cheaperCollarmakes a pet permanentDecaylets small animals one-shot
Every box is a player's description from the Steam forum, cited in the sections below. The developers have not published these cards or their numbers.

Several replies say

  • Collect animals, as many as you can, and buff them.
  • A collar makes a pet permanent, so save one for the pet you keep drawing.
  • Data cards clog the deck more than they help.

Players disagree

  • Whether the Activist is the hardest character or an easy one.
  • Whether to rush the Menagerie building, or win without deploying it.
  • Whether machines are worth it without a stock of Data.
  • Whether making every pet permanent is good, or thins the deck for free.

The first camp is the hard part

The complaint that starts most threads is the opening. One player describes “having massive trouble either opening the chests and opening the exit door after the first camp”, and adds that they never have a way to feed at camp unless they find mushrooms (in Steam discussion: the activist). It ties into a wider gripe from launch week: “the basic exploration cards that everyone else gets for free are locked behind feeding something to another of the activists cards.” (in Steam discussion: Please Give an Unlocks/Quests Screen & other Feedback

The advice that came back was mostly about the ferret. “Get as many feed cards as possible”, one reply says, “You get two unlocks from feeding the ferret. The ferret lingers so you just rest till you get something to feed it.” The same reply says to take extra maximum health “from every option, even over feeding at camp”, because “Healing is so easy in this game.” (all in Steam discussion: the activist) The thread starter tried the pet-heavy approach and reported that it is not smooth: the ferret is hard to feed if the random camp cards do not help, and they found themselves “with nothing to do often early on in the camp.” See resting and camp for what a camp stop offers in general, and camp structures for the buildings players mention below.

The engine people settle on

The build that comes up again and again is animals plus War Cry. One player explains it as “a big pool of animal cards to trigger warcry as much as possible to buff all of your permanent cards and make them cheaper”, with decay letting even weak animals one-shot enemies (in Steam discussion: the activist). Another names the foresight that starts it: the Animal Lover foresight adds a War Cry when you hold four animals, “as it should” some of the time, and not others under what looks like the same conditions (the foresight thread: Steam discussion: Activist's innate Forsight doesn't always activate.). That inconsistency is a bug report, not a rule, so do not build a turn around it.

The most detailed recipe is one player’s reply. It says to chase “the bird that hits 3 times” as your main damage dealer, “take the collar so you can make it permanent”, and “Take Workbench first and start upgrading damage and extra strikes”. It also says “Don’t get data, it will junk up your deck”. (in Steam discussion: the activist) The thread starter came back later and reported the recipe “was on the money”, clearing the final boss “with 386 damage 3 times”. That is two players, not a tested consensus, and the Workbench they lean on was made to add less damage in patch 0.6.39, as the camp page notes.

Two smaller findings from the same thread: a rabbit that copies cards can be made permanent even though it “didn’t register as a pet”, and “You can get vending machine as the Activist”, contrary to an earlier reply that had not seen it. Whether to make pets permanent at all is a matter of taste: one player likes making the decay one permanent but is “also fine with not making them permanent” because it thins the deck.

When the Gunk Worm stops the engine

A build that flattens the first map can stall at the end of the second. One player who filled the field with creatures says the boss “hard counters that strat with the stupid curse cards” (in Steam discussion: Tips for beating gunkworm with the activist?). The fight is laid out on the Gunk Worm page; the counters players offer here are the ones that fit a pet deck:

  • Use a card that exhausts something, such as “Science! or Trial & Error or Toad”, on the discard curse, then kill the arms before the last body (in Steam discussion: Tips for beating gunkworm with the activist?).
  • Or, from a player who says they beat it first try as the Activist: a card that exhausts a card and makes a Data for 2 energy, used on the discard curse, “and you can play as many cards as you want” (in Steam discussion: Lab is too RNG coded).
  • The Janitor-side answer works too: Thick Sludge makes the curse Stubborn so it cannot be discarded, which the Gunk Worm page covers. The thread’s starter argues it only helps if the random discard lands on the right card, and that the Activist’s starting cards “don’t lend any help to the lab’s mechanics in the same way the janitor does” (in Steam discussion: Lab is too RNG coded).

How hard is it, really?

Opinions split. In launch week one player wrote that the Activist “is much more difficult with the current iteration of the game” (in Steam discussion: Please Give an Unlocks/Quests Screen & other Feedback). On Reddit one player calls the Activist the hardest to play so far, while another finds it far easier than the Janitor, and a longer Reddit thread collects tips under the title how to play Activist. The Janitor guide covers the character you have to beat to unlock this one.