Somehow, extended maintenance returned

This is the stupidest deck I’ve ever played. How the hell does this even work

Belial is a really shit win condition - he’s too slow, Evo Abyss has too little offensive pressure to compete in this current meta, and opponents can easily kill you dead by Turn 10+.

Shakdoh is also a really shit win condition - a deck full of 2/3 cost cards suck, Shakdoh might possibly whiff, and many opponents will try to avoid staying below 16 HP if they see you running a single Shakdoh card.

Put them together…. And it’s still really bad, but they complement each other weirdly well.

You aren’t fully dependent on Belial to win, so you can still play him to board clear and it doesn’t feel too bad.

The moment Belial drops, the opponent will completely forget about whatever suspicious Shakdoh cards you played and immediately try to rush you dead ASAP, and will rarely guard themselves against chip damage. This lets you jump them with Shakdoh at the end.

Alternatively you could also just play Belial normally. Arguably works better.

Sandalphon is there to fill up your hand size as you reach turn 10. He sometimes gets to sneak a kill.

The 7-cost Steal spell is also unexpectedly good. Stealing Scarlet or Erntz can let you bullshit the weirdest wins

TLDR: Play this like a Belial deck, except he’s spent too much time in the casino.

After managing to get maxed out SW Lv 999 in Currency Wars thrice this week, I figured I'd write this to help people get her too.

I swear, Currency Wars is like crack.

All of the Bond

The fun part about SW is that she gives you so many resources, you can easily max Cyrene for multiple emblems, gems and smelting furnaces, letting you stack any combination of bond link you want.

This makes it extremely useful for completing Bond Links which are otherwise difficult to win with, such as Heal, Planet of Festivies, Shield, or Bloodflame, helping you complete achievements and collect stellar jade.

How max Lv. 999 works

SW is a win con which you build up over the course of the whole run, making her a lot more fun (and luck based) to play around than Cyrene, who only appears at the end of the run.

Her gimmick is that she starts as a 3-cost, but promotes in rarity with every merge. That means you need to find three 3-cost SW999's and two 4-cost SW 999's to even reach Cyrene's starting point, after which you need to find EIGHT 5-cost copies of her.

This is, put simply, difficult to achieve. Even setting aside the difficulty of finding her, you need to sink in a huge amount of resources, which might result in numerous losses and cost you the whole run.

Playing for the SW 999 win con is high risk, high reward. But there are ways to help you achieve it semi-consistently.

Investment Environment - Peppy MVP

Yes, really.

When you start the run, keep an eye out for these two Investment Environments.

1. 3-Star Peppy: Obtain a Peppy wearing three random emblems.
2. Clumsy Peppy: Gets a Peppy wearing three random Emblems. The clumsy Peppy sometimes drops Emblems in your inventory.

I will personally die on the hill that these are the best starts for any run.

Three emblems provide a huge amount of stability and resource generation to your run, even if you cannot equip them to other characters.

There is, however, a third option.

3. Long Term Gains: After refreshing 30 time(s) by spending Gold Coins, receives 20 Gold Coins. Afterwards, refreshing only costs 1 Gold Coin in this game.

This is the one most people recommend. However, I dislike it.

I actually find this less useful at higher ranks because it provides zero combat benefit.

At Wealth Creator, enemies become VERY difficult, and you will lose fights very often. With this, it's very easy to end up dying in the first half of the run.

You CAN still make this work, but it's too risky for my liking.

If you don't get any of them, just reset the round.

Notable Bond Links

Peppy's three emblems gives you a HUGE head start in early game by letting you complete several bonds very early. This is important for both avoiding losses and maintaining long win streaks (for more money).

In order of most useful:

Cosmic Scholar: The most important Emblem. Ordinarily mediocre due to all members having questionable synergy and requiring lots of levels and stars to be useful, but Peppy providing one emblem let you play Dr Ratio (FuA), Asta (DoT) and Ruan Mei (Break) in their regular teams while generating free resources.

IPC: Three member effect gives 3 gold per node and a 25% boost to Aventurine and Jade. Can win you the game through money alone.

DoT: The 4-member effect causes dead enemies to explode for huge damage. This is normally balanced by requiring 4-cost Hysilens or 5-cost Black Swan, but with Peppy, you can activate it stupidly early with Sampo, Kafka and Asta, letting you blast through the entire first stage win a full win streak.

Shield & Heal: Improves your single sustain's defensive capabilities. Shield also buffs party damage.

Express Cohort: Passively increases on/off field damage for everyone by 20% to compensate for all members having no synergy otherwise. This lets you activate it for free with March.

Planet of Festivities: Significant buff to many supports which would otherwise not be run together. Black Swan and Sparkle become much stronger.

Elation: Fixes this Bond's flaw of a weak early game, since Trailblazer and Sparxie are both 4-cost. Lets you activate the 3 member effect with Yao Guang and Evanescia, and the 4 member effect with SW.

FuA: Makes Dr Ratio even stronger (will explain later).

Wolf Hunt: Levels up based on equipment equipped. Peppy's three emblems count towards that, so you can get Hoolay active VERY early. Note that this runs a very high risk of becoming a Hoolay run instead.

Most other bonds are less impressive. Peppy holding the emblems means you cannot share the perks with other party members.

Notable Recruits

Obviously, your recruitment is dependent on the emblems. But there are a few standouts.

Dr Ratio: THE BEST UNIT FOR THIS STRATEGY. FuA and Galactic Voyager lets him hard carry your early and mid game with big single target damage, and Cosmic Scholar means free money.

Asta: The second best unit. Replaces Ratio if Peppy gives you a DoT emblem. Also free money with Cosmic Scholar.

Ruan Mei: The only off-field Cosmic scholar buffer. Grab her to activate the 4-member bonus, or the 2-member version if you lack the Cosmic Scholar emblem.

Aventurine: Here due to Ratio association. He's the sustain option for FuA, so you need him to maintain Ratio's damage.

March: Express Cohort and Shield both provide partywide damage buffs at 2-members. March is the only member which gets to double dip in both and is only 1 of 2 off-field shielders.

Dan Heng PT: Trades Astral Express for Night Demigod. Worse than March unless Peppy gets both Shield and Night Demigod.

Sampo: Extraordinarily broken if Peppy gets both DoT AND Belobog emblems. Also Galactic Voyager, meaning he buffs Ratio even harder.

Investment Strategies

Procurement Officer: Gold - For each 7 refresh(es), the Store will restock 5 characters with the same cost as the leftmost character in your preparation area

Will guarantee you a SW 999 at the endgame. However, it does not help you survive the early or mid game. Like Long Term Gains, you can potentially take too much damage if you pick this as your first strategy.

What you SHOULD look for is any Strategy that consistently earns you free money or EXP.

More EXP = more party space = more bonds to chain and overlap via Peppy's three emblems = more resources and damage.

Also, remember that SW starts as a 3-star and progresses to a 4-star. Levelling up can greatly improve the odds of 3, 4 and 5-cost units appearing in the shop.

Some examples are:
Passive Income: When entering a new Node, gain Experience equal to the base cost of the leftmost character in your preparation area

Struggle Protocol: Purchasing EXP consumes 6 squad HP instead of Gold Coins. Restores 50 squad HP after boss battles

Copy: Gets a duplicate of an Emblem you already own to receive 24 EXP.

Talent Pool: At the start of a Node, if there are 8 or more characters in the preparation area, gains 3 EXP. (Just buy a bunch a units and sell them later when you need it)

Regular Benefits: Immediately gains 4 Gold Coin(s), and gains 2 Gold Coin(s) each time you enter a new Node.

Doctoral Studies: At the start of combat, if the Cosmic Scholar bond is active, a random 1-cost or 2-cost Cosmic Scholar becomes 3-Star. Gains "Asta" and "Ruan Mei". (Will supercharge Cat Cake's levels and resource generation)

Gas Station: Now and every time you enter a new Node, obtain 1 free refresh(es) and immediately receive 8 Gold Coin(s).

Additionally, there are some strategies which give several free timed refreshes. If you get these, set SW999 to tracking and search for as many duplicates as you can.

Market Chaos: During the preparation phase at Reward Nodes, your Store will forcefully refresh once every 4 seconds for 7 time(s).

Efficient Decision: Gains 9999 free refresh(es), but only lasts 45s. When the duration ends, remove all your free refreshes. (Only choose if you are at least Level 7)

Common Mistakes

1. Trying to use SW 999

Elation team is very powerful, but almost useless in the early game. All the members are practically dead weight unless they are deployed all at once.

Purchase Yao Guang and Evanescia copies, but only pivot to a full Elation team if Peppy gave you an Elation Emblem or if you get Sparxie/Trailblazer unusually early. Don't try to force it.

Focus on building your team around Peppy's Emblems. Don't be afraid to let the SW copies sit in a corner for the whole game.

2. Too much Cosmic Scholar

Cosmic Scholar is a very weak bond, combat wise. It's main value lies in generating resources. Don't be afraid to swap out Asta and Herta for actually useful options in tougher combat nodes (keep them around for reward nodes). Likewise, it isn't advisable to try running a full Cosmic Scholar team.

3. Picking Hard Difficulty

This strat doesn't require loads of equipment. The gold obtained from the harder difficulty challenges is usually not worth risking your win streak over.

4. Not Levelling Up

You don't want to waste too much money on levels, but not levelling up can easily cost you a run and win streak bonus. Spend a bit of gold if you are on the verge of the next level.

5. Night Demigod

Generates resources similar to Cosmic Scholar, but lacks flexibility to combine with other teams (the core strength of the Peppy strat) because half of its members are Bloodflame (Mydei, Evernight, Castorice) and one is Cerydra.

Only consider picking up Cipher if Peppy also has the FuA emblem, because you'll need her for Ratio anyway. And make sure to upgrade your Aventurine because she is practically made of tissue paper.

6. Day Demigod

Member bonus provides temporary equipment. Not worth trying for.

7. Picking a second Peppy

(This is getting out of hand) Only consider if he has a Wealth Gem. Most other strategies are typically more worthwhile.

8. Picking a third Peppy

RESIST THE URGE.

9. Jiaoqiu

It won't. (Only pick him if Debuff Emblem)

Actually Getting Silver Wolf 999

Try not to refresh the store unless you are level 7 (will have a 1% chance of 5-costs). Buy duplicates of team members if they show up naturally.

Immediately buy Topaz or Black Swan if they happen to show up. Also buy Cyrene.

Topaz has a chance to generate free gold when attacking, and Black Swan has a bonus card which increases drop rates of 5-cost characters.

Cyrene is your backup. You are refreshing the store en-masse anyway, so you might luck into a 3-star version of her, which also earns you so a ton of resources that you should easily finish SW 999.

It is recommended to start refreshing the store shortly after obtaining your third investment strategy in the final wave, unless you are a few EXP away from the next level. This both lets you upgrade your team to better survive the final few nodes while also maximizing the chances of Black Swan and Topaz.

Additionally, when you upgrade SW to a 2-star 5-cost, you get a Hacking Component. You ideally want to get here as early as possible to maximize on the potential resource benefits.

Data Copier: Immediately grants 1 Silver Wolf LV.999. After every 2 battles the wearer participates in, obtain a 1-star copy of this unit. For every wearer obtained in any way, there is also a 30% chance to obtain a 1-star copy of this unit.

Trotter Virus: In non-boss battles, enemies have a chance to turn into Trotters. Defeating Trotters will drop rewards.

Make use of all the above, and you'll have more than enough gold and refreshes to find fish for Silver Wolf.

What Happens If I Don't Get Her

If you're at the final node, you've run out of gold and STILL don't have maxed Wolf.

Well, you have two choices.

1. Defeat the final boss and win the round. Peppy's three emblems should have given you SO much team power that the final boss is a cakewalk regardless. Ratio could probably solo it.
2. Be an Aventurine. Sell off every party member one at a time to continue refreshing. Only do this if you are 1 SW copy away from max. Going too far will compromise your win. If you are doing this, sell Black Swan last (her rarity bonus buff is lost when sold)

Personally, I'd go with option 1. Peppy still gets you the win, after all.

That's it. Good luck.

Managed to get both the Break emblem and Gallagher

Break in CW is ludicrously good. Remarkably consistent at survival and damage, and scales well at both early, mid and late game.

Unfortunately I got the combo of negative affixes which randomly imprisons the team and randomly freezes them after action. Lost a few matches purely due to that.