Janitor guide: winning the hardest runs

The Janitor is meant to be the hard character, and the developers’ own numbers show it. The habits below come from forum players, several of whom report winning with him, so they are field notes rather than official strategy, and patch 0.6.39 has already made a first round of tweaks to him.

Why he plays so differently

He is built to be harder on purpose. In their reply about him the developers wrote that “Our goal with Janitor (and the second path overall) is to deliver a more complex, challenging experience for players who have mastered the first pathway.” They also named the two systems that trip people up, saying they have been aware “that things like Gunk and Machines could slow the game down a lot, or even cause dead hands.” Their tweaks so far focus on “making gunk cards playable (at a higher cost) or being able to make cards sparkling so they hit twice.” (Team Lazerbeam, in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor) Elsewhere in the thread they add that “We’re already working on a catch of card reworks that will buff the Janitor!”

What patch 0.6.39 changed

The developers say the patch was aimed at exactly this problem: “our biggest focus with gameplay tweaks has been to address the feedback that The Janitor and The Facility are too challenging or complex for most new players.” They add “We didn’t change anything drastic to make the janitor outright stronger, but made tweaks that should make this new playstyle easier to pick up and more fun to master.” (both in Steam announcement: Shroom Patch Notes: 0.6.39) The notes list card and camp changes without saying which character owns which card, so read the list as the patch’s own account, not a Janitor-only one:

A few more lines are worth knowing if you build around gunk: “You can no longer get multiple ‘Skin and Bones’” and “The Facility Explore danger scales a bit faster.” (in Steam announcement: Shroom Patch Notes: 0.6.39) The camp side of the list is picked up on camp structures, and what happened in the Facility is on the Facility page.

How players took the tweaks

Reactions in the days after are mixed, which fits a patch that says it is not a buff. One player who cannot beat the Facility as the Janitor was told that “Once you understand Janitor’s toolkit it’s one of the most consistent characters”, and warned that “Life Support is a trap, it doesn’t come into effect unless things have already gotten out of hand”, with two other foresights suggested in its place (in Steam discussion: The game was pretty cool, until I got to the Facility.). Another thread asks whether the starting deck really needs two Scavenges, noting the extra one “costs 1 instead of 0 now”, and gets three replies calling Scavenge fine as it is (in Steam discussion: Does the Janitor ~REALLY~ need two Scavenges?). Whether that cost is part of 0.6.39 is not in the notes.

What players recommend

1. Keep the combat deck tiny. This is the advice that comes up most. One player says “with Janitor I rarely take any cards” (in Steam discussion: I understand the Janitor now), another advises you to “just focus on buffing one or two cards and removing anything else you can”, and a third reports that “I literally just made one of my slaps attack 3 times for 100 damage with a deck of <10 cards.” (both in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor)
2. Treat gunk as a way to hold cards. A gunked card is not dead weight. One player explains that gunk “keeps those cards from being discarded at the end of your turn” (in Steam discussion: Issue with Janitor), and another sums it up as “Gunk gives cards RETAIN” (in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor).
3. Clean a card that is already clean. The result is a sparkling card that plays twice. The developer explanation is on tips.
4. End turns with energy left over. “The janitor has the ability to use elbow grease if you save at least one energy at the end of round during combat.” (in Steam discussion: I understand the Janitor now)
5. Build the vending machine early. Several players lean on it between fights: “Vending machine is OP for healing in between fights” and “the vending machine gives really good healing” (both in Steam discussion: I understand the Janitor now). The other buildings are compared on camp structures, and the trade-offs of camping are on resting and camp.
6. Save an exhaust card for the boss. Players describe losing Janitor runs to the Gunk Worm, whose curses punish playing cards. One player points out that “Theres an excellent exhaust card the janitor has that straight up removes the random discard first curse.” (in Steam discussion: Love the game, hate the janitor) The whole fight is on the Gunk Worm page.

Data, the Facility’s currency

Players describe the shops in The Facility taking data, which is easy to run short of if your deck is not built around machines. A player answering that complaint names two places it comes from: a newspapers dig site at camp, and a scientist camp upgrade that often offers data when a card lands a fatal blow (in Steam discussion: Blue mechanical room need tweeking.). The two pathways are compared on map and pathways.

A build players have named

On Reddit, players who have won with the Janitor describe a lean deck carried by a card called Clunker, one of them listing the rest of the deck they won with (r/ShroomAndGloom thread). Treat it as one route that worked for them, and check the card on a fan database before building around it: cards and the two decks explains where to look a card up.

Once he is beaten, the Activist opens up. Every character and what unlocks them is on characters and unlocks, and the planned fixes are tracked on the Early Access page. If the Activist is next on your list, players’ notes on that character are on the Activist page.