Greetings to all Slay the Spire fans and strangers on the internet as well! Welcome to my guide about The Hermit modded character. I'm fairly experienced StS player, who plays the game at the moment mostly on highest difficulty (Ascension 20). I have successfully completed a dozens of runs on A20 with this character. And i want to share my experience with this mod, also provide my analysis, opinions, suggestions and value judgments on Hermit's cards, relics and archetypes. Each sentence is not said at random, but is written on the basis of real material, tests and thought effort. Obviously, this information will help you to better understand and play this class. Lastly, i hope developers notice this guide as valuable external feedback from the player with different perspective and we all will get positive changes in Hermit's gameplay design.

Perhaps, you want to ask me. "Why are you doing a guide for modded character?". Well, there is at least a hundred Slay the Spire clones out there, i think, and the Downfall mod is better than pretty much 99% of them! And Hermit is one of the best modded characters for Slay the Spire! It's made on professional level of quality. That's not surprising, it's actually from the professional developers of another roguelite called "Monolith", highly rated by players, basically a shoot'em'up hybrid game.
As for Slay the Spire itself, i think this game is amazing, even genius. I have never seen a game with such smart, deep, varied and interesting game mechanics before. This game is a great exercise for your mind. And if your mind wants intellectual stimulation, then the best tool in the field of singleplayer games is hard to find. The ability to play StS on high level is an art, but the impression that Slay the Spire is a game heavily dependent on luck is misleading. However, in order to understand this, you need a game experience of several hundred hours. From "Skill" , or rather from experience, knowledge and correct decision-making, oh, how much depends here.

Now then, you could turn on this music vid for appropriate ambience and let's start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfRZmvGibEY

When i first started playing Slay the Spire long ago, i thought that this game is full of obscure and useless cards that it makes no sense to take into the deck. The major trick of this game is that - there are simply no useless cards, in fact. Any card has its own use and benefit, but sometimes it is not obvious and even intricate.
There is close to no sense to evaluate the cards and assign them a direct rating. As a rule, Slay the Spire does not have both absolutely useless/mediocre cards, and those that must be taken all the time, regardless of play style, deck archetype, combinations with other cards/relics, and time stage of a current run (unless it's Silent's "Wraith Form", lol). It's almost impossible to score cards directly, because there are too many factors involved. For this reason, i will just talk about the pros and cons, as well as the moments when it is profitable or not to pick/play the card under review.
In my opinion, most valuable aspect of a card is universality and high performance on average. But other factors i also try to take into account. Based on this factors, i want to point out cards that are worth picking most of the times or not and do/don't perform well enough. For sure, some cards increase a win rate, but it's possible to beat A20 with some of these "bad cards" added to the right decks. That's actually one of the reasons why this game is so great!

The Hermit is a cursed gun-slinging, undead, cowboy-themed creature. Character's art and sound design is truly great. The sharp sound effects of shooting, the artwork, aesthetics and card art are all superb. This easily could be an official character, "The Hermit" is such a polished, flavorful and well executed mod.

My goal with mechanics review was simply highlight character's strong and weak spots. Then it turned out that Hermit has not so many strong points! I have come to conclusion what - developers intentionally made him weaker on purpose, but have went a bit overboard. I think, he is NOT balanced well enough in regards to four original heroes (actually three, but whatever...). And this section has become a Critique of the character's gamedesign for the most part. Despite this, i enjoy playing as him, oddly enough.

What is the strongest point of this class from the start? This is a burst damage, thanks to accessible vulnerability from starting relic "Old Locket". But this advantage only last until the middle of Act 2. The Hermit's starting relic is better than both Defect's and Watcher's. However, both classes have a lot of truly amazing cards to compensate, unlike the Hermit. His cards aren't simple and straightforward at all. Majority of his cards is gimmicky as heck, conditioned in one way or another and/or with low individual impact.

Hermit is highly offensive oriented class, but unlike Watcher, his defensive options is quite strong too. However, he is lacking in scaling segments, and he mostly struggling with energy shortage. He's also relatively limited with card draw and "consistensy" options. And his cards... Again, too many of them are not worth its rarity status (in a bad way), overly conditioned or way too harmful or too costly, for the most part.
This character attempt to making you rethink typical strategies and approaches that were applicable to all of the original characters, at the same time introducing new mechanics. Partially it's a successful effort with "Dead-on" mechanics and with "Self-harm/debuff archetype", but with "Cursed" and "Strike" builds it's more of a fail, in my opinion.

Energy issue
Hermit is a character that can't generate a lot of energy, and this almost always does feel like much of a problem. It's kind of wrong, when Silent's common skill "Outmaneuver" seems better than most of Hermit's energy options. Additionally some of his cards plainly overpriced, they are unable to generate enough value per point of energy.

Expensive scaling
Hermit seems really strong against regular mobs, but sorta weaker against bosses. That's because scaling is more Costly for him on average, than for other classes. Every type of scaling he has also necessarily comes with a drawback, unlike the other characters. I think that this circumstance is determined Hermit's aggressive playstyle - try to convert early advantage in elite fights to strong cards and relics, which *hopefully* will cover this serious gap.

Too bad coherence of cards, despite purposed "enforce of synergy"
It's a common enough situation, when Hermit's deck feels like it's constantly fighting itself. There are too many cards that are poorly combined with each other, or even come into harmful conflict. I mean, large number of anti-synergies between different categories of cards exist. Also cards that is doing nothing on it own, this character has a way too many of them! I have come to conclusion that you can't beat high ascensions with a literal "Good stuff" deck, without real core theme to it. You can't just pick up whatever - this doesn't work. So the Hermit requires very specific build patterns.
Additionally to that, the Hermit is ridiculously highly combo oriented class, which is a negative with character's relatively low consistency and limited-ish card draw options. For Silent or Ironclad (he's mostly straightforward, though), that wouldn't be too much of an issue – draw & discard or exhaust exists there. Hermit, however, lacking of such mechanisms mostly, so you really don't want to stuff your deck with not flexible, situational, sub-optimal cards. Consistency of your deck is the big part of success, actually.
There is a contradiction in such design, and it seems flawed.

Boring cards is a problem
This is the character with pretty Fun playstyle. You can call majority of Hermit's cards conditioned, not efficient enough or flawed in one way or another, but in spite of they are exactly "fun to play with". And there is another contradiction in card design of the Hermit. The cards with dull, simple design like "High-cost, but Big damage. That's all!" is against design philosophy of this class and conceptually doesn't fit him. This is wrong, there is already IronChad for such approach in design and playstyle. So, cards like "Purgatory", "Reprieve" and new "Eye of the Storm" must be reworked! Adding a gimmick or interesting condition - is an easy thing. That is tolerable, if card is situational or humble, but if it's boring or anti-fun is NOT.

Colorless cards is overall more useful, more viable for Hermit, than for other classes
For example, you are unironically Happy to have "Thinking Ahead". It's strange, when a rare colorless card for 200+ gold copies the effects of the usual red card for like 30+. But for this character it's a solid choise, considering Hermit's relative lack of tools for consistensy and draw.
"Blind" is Unconditional source of weakness that is great for stacking this defensive status effect with native sources of this class. And this is truly great addition in terms of defense. For Silent this card is not interesting enough, but for Hermit that's different story...
"Deep Breath" is good for faster repetition of your strongest cards (more importantly scaling), which can't be repeated in current deck cycle otherwise. This is advantageous feature with cards like "From Beyond", "Maintenance", "Snipe", "Heroic Bravado" etc. By the way, Defect has common "Hologram" for this utility, which is a latently strong card.
List can going on and on... So if you highrolled in events with gold, when going to shop and buying colorless cards can be a strong, viable option. This is a weird state of affairs, when picking up cards like "Impatience" is a much more valid strategy with Hermit compared to vanilla characters. And that's saying something...

Slay the Spire has a big variety of playstyles for each character. An archetype defines a group of cards that caters to a detached, specific playstyle. I single out 7 main archetypes of the Hermit and a few more minor ones. I also want to clarify that, in the vast majority of cases, you will be playing a deck of mixed, hybrid archetypes, due to the randomness of the dropping cards and the difficulty of removing cards from the deck. You can't force an archetype, or rather you can try, but it will most likely lead to defeat - this is how not to play this game. The major archetypes of the Hermit not pair very well, but you don't really need a pure archetype for win. It's even useful to diversify your deck, because some archetypes work worse against some opponents or even get countered by them. The most striking example of this is the bosses of the third Act. Again, it's a bad idea to force anything, it's far better to go with the flow. Now, let’s review the Major archetypes of the Hermit from best to worst.

"Dead On" archetype
Cards with "Dead On" key-word have an additional effect that applies, if it's played from the middle of your hand. You can manipulate card draw/discard/exhaust to get cards positioned in current hand, so you can make use of their added benefit. A lot of tactical decision-making with "Dead On" deck is a great feat in design of this class.
The "Dead On" gimmick is interesting and fun to play with, it adds a joy twist on sequencing card plays. Alternatively you can just use "Concentration" buff to ignore cards positioning. Concentration is a buff you can get from some cards that ensures the next card you play that turn will activate its "Dead On" effect, no matter where the card is in your hand. Oddly enough, this buff does not stack...
This is the highest archetype of the Hermit, because it's great in terms of both design and efficiency. Currently this class has 12 cards with "Dead On" effect, excluding few combo-cards that interacts with "Dead On" theme. There are enough good cards for offence, defense, scaling and even utility, so this deck is easy to assemble and deep enough, unlike some other archetypes of this guy. And plan with deck building in this style is natural, simple, yet potent - have a decent number of cards of this type and just maximise the number of cards played with bonus output.


"Self-Debuff/Harm archetype"
This archetype revolve around "Determination" power in offensive component. I would say, +1 STR in exchange for a minor debuff (preferably) is actually a great deal! Approach to capitalisation on strength is not that different to "Strength build". But "Self-debuff/harm" deck has different foundation and deeper than STR build, because there is also utility and defensive component in this playstyle.
Defensive cards of this type is strong on their own, even with counting a downside. Such as "Gestalt", which isn't the most frightening Hermit's card that gives a debuff. Usually 2 charges of Rugged makes the self-vulnerable a minor issue. "Hole Up", "Low Profile" and "Virtue" is a solid choice for defense most of the times, especially in case of enemies that debuffs you.
If you playing this kind of deck, then look for "Orange Pellets" shop-exclusive relic. This is a relic that removes all your debuffs if you play a power, attack, and skill in the same turn. Note that this relic can remove the debuffs inflicted on yourself via cards like "Gestalt", "Qickdraw", "No Holds Barred", "Overwhelming Power" and "Hole Up", this can make such cards more valuable. Also the "Horseshoe" relic is an all-class relic that reduces vulnerability, weaken and frail debuff duration by 1 turn. With this relic Hermit can now use "Memento" without inflicting vulnerability on himself, but it will trigger "Determination" effect.
This is a strong, worthy archetype. This build is relatively easy to assemble, the only rare card here is "Overwhelming Power", which you want real bad anyway. Almost all combo-cards of this build are good enough individually, and synergistic effect of playing this cards in combo is powerful.


High Strength*(also Bruise/Vigor) offense archetype
Yep, this Guy has THREE kinds of strength in his arsenal! Standard strength is a buff that increases damage dealt by any attacks, you should already know that. Well, unlike Strength, "Bruise" is a debuff that must first break through an "Artifact" charge (negates a debuff), so, if simplify, it's a worse analogue of STR. Enemy with "Bruise" applied take One more damage per Bruise point from the next attack it receive. And "Vigor" is a temporal kind of strength that only adds damage to your next attack.
The Hermit also has exclusive uncommon Bruise potion (aka "Black Bile" that applies 6 points of Bruise). It's decent most of the times, but less flexible than something like fire potion. In my opinion "Black Bile" is not worth its uncommon tier rarity.
"Strength* build" is pretty simple and straightforward. Your plan focuses on increasing *Strength* and multiplying its power through the choice of attacks. Attacks that hit multiple creatures, or hit target multiple times scale more effectively with strength. If Hermit's strength-scaling tempo is strong or fast enough, then he can win most fights in bursty fashion with minimal amount of defense. The better your raw offensive power, the better it can make up for the lack of a defensive component.


"Hermit's native scaling method" deck
Sorry, i can't properly name this deck for some reason, maybe you can help with name suggestion... Actually, this is not an archetype in common sense, this also isn't a "Good stuff" deck. What i mean though, this is a foundation that makes "Good stuff" deck possible. It is seriously important to know which cards interact with which, such good combinations are what are called archetypes. But you don't need an archetype if you have raw power, i mean a lot of energy, card advantage and "consistency".
There is an alternative approach to scaling in this game, for example like "Black Star" relic, which allows you to double the rewards from elite encounters and win by simply having a lot of impactful relics. Or just money and "Membership Card". Though this topic is about native alternative scaling of this character.
Native scaling cards of the Hermit for energy gain, card draw and consistency is sometimes enough for a success. On the other hand, such approach mostly relies on the rare powers to get useful. The cards you need mostly are - "Eternal Form" & "Overwhelming Power" for energy, "Fatal Desire" for card draw.
With this kind of deck you'll just have lots of mana*(it's pseudo energy with "Eternal Form"), so you can have lots of expensive cards, or you can use "Luck of the Draw" to draw lots of cards. Then just throw some costly*, heavy stuff in big amounts at enemies... and win! If exclude deck assembly struggle, the only issue here is setup of powers, but it's just a part of the cost.

"High Defense" archetype aka "The Turtle deck"
This build based around playing defensively. This means drafting a smaller deck than usual, and focusing on getting enough Defense to block/prevent all damage every turn consistently. The balance of this deck type is skewed, so the battles becomes stalled out, but victory can be achieved with minimal amount of offense with playstyle like this. There is no need to rush, this is the opposite to "Kill faster than they kill you" playstyle.
"The Turtle deck" is universal archetype for any class in the Spire, because if your character got powerful combination of solid defensive cards and relics, then you can compensate the lack of offense power. I mean, once you defend against all of the incoming damage every turn, then it doesn't really matter what are you using to win.
This class is definitely sufficient in terms of defense. The Hermit have some beefy, sturdy blocking cards in his arsenal, which are also relatively easy to find, because they're mostly common-tier. Though this character rarely uses one defensive plan, and more often he mixes them to survive different situations.
Strength reduction from "Flash Powder" and Weak debuff from "Glare" and "Ghostly Presence" can help reduce enemies' attack damage, allowing you to maintain Block. The Hermit also have a few passive block sources and unique "Rugged" mechanic. "Rugged" buff reduces maximum *Attack* damage to 2 points, to simplify - it's Intangible-lite for one single attack. Rugged potion aka "Tonic" is excellent option in case of blocking one heavy blow and it's a common rarity! In addition to all of that, he also got a native healing card!
"Toxic Egg" is one the biggest relics for "High Defense archetype". It simply enables picking most blocking cards from the get-go, which is suboptimal policy without T-egg. T-egg for turtle deck ;)


"Strike(&Defend) archetype" aka "Simpleton Meme" build
An archetype "Centered" (actually not) on your standard, starter Strikes and Defends, which you already have, by the way "Cursed" build don't have this "advantage" (in sarcastic sense). At least this type of deck can be often useful at the first half of the game, unlike "Cursed" archetype gimmick...
The concept behind this approach is actually kind of interesting, this archetype seems to have been created as a way to get veterans to rethink the value of starter cards and whole process of removing them. Implementation of it is rather failed, as strikes&defends anyway feels like burden in your deck almost always.
Why Chad's "Perfected Strike" is actually a viable example of approach to "Strike" issue? Because it's a strong-ish card here and now, not after playing other scaling card, which are uncommon and rare in case of Hermit. The starting cards of any character are the weakest - it's better to just remove them. Unless scaling card played, Hermit's strikes&defends is not impactful. There is also anti-synergy with some other archetypes, other cards that are not exhausted are basically interfere with tempo/speed of scaling. As for "Showdown" and "Short Fuse" attacks, they both sort of trap cards, which can be burdensome in the late game.
In my opinion, Developers overvalue "Strike" archetype and pretending that it's powerful, though in reality it's not. Unlike "Dead On" archetype, it's not worth focusing only and purely on this synergy and skip universally good cards that doesn't fit well. This is because each floor has an "Opportunity Cost", so if the floor doesn't improve your deck, it's like your character got slightly worse. Also for original characters, almost always removing "Strike" or "Defend" are a highest priority, so removal opportunity is valuable option. Building around scaling starter cards supposed to be good enough to compensate a waste of card-removal opportunities, but in reality it compensate almost nothing. In context of wasting an opportunity, forget about "Pandora's Box" boss relic. Yes, this relic is mostly a gamble, but average positive effect of it is rather strong.
My main complaint is the following. Sadly, as i described, the concept of "revalue" strikes is failed, because it's still better to just remove them, lol. And there is too much contradictions in building around this combination of cards.


"Cursed archetype"
This archetype is the lowest and most problematic. "Learn the many ways to reap the benefits of your curses" - the Devs said, huh. Unlike vanilla characters, Hermit is able to turn curses into positive thing, kind of. Great, isn't it? But i think that Pure "Cursed archetype" is a major trap! This concept is great on paper, but implementation of it is rather failed and there are multiple issues.
The risk is just too high, when playing around curses, but reward is not so. This build can be acceptable, but it's mostly an opposite to "just the simplest and easiest way of success". In other words - it's far from the Core/Meta of this character. Additionally "Cursed" archetype is also not full-fledged, in my opinion, despite being claimed as. You have "cursed" damage scaling only with "Charred Glove", which is a Rare relic. "Grudge" doesn't count, because it's not fast enough, as well as "Determination", because it's not full-fledged part of "Cursed" foundation. So, in reality, it's a defensive archetype mostly.
Yes, theoretically it's possible to build a potent cursed deck with Hermit's native cards and some lucky drafts of cards/relics. Practically it is highly risky, relic reliant, complicated and, therefore, often not worth focusing build direction. This is an archetype possible only for extrimely highly expiriensed players, or for flexing purpose. There is NO smooth transition to this build, you always kind of forsing it. And the fact, that Hermit already has starter curse "Memento" and some of his cards generate curses doesn't matter much.
Deck filled with curses is only good when "Shadow Cloak" is in play, and having curses in your deck make it longer/harder to draw it. Remember that Hermit need Huge amount of draw to run a cursed deck! Additionally, i think that the Hermit lacks an analogue of Ironclad's "Evolve" for alternative compensation method of curse drawing. Yes, there is a "Clasped Locket" boss relic with kinda similar utility, but, come on, it's too weak and too hard to find. There is also a couple relics in Spire that interact with Curses, but they tend to be some of the worst relics in the game. That's because curses aren't frequent enough to be good, or rather to reliably doing anything at all.
Sometimes you can just use curse combos partially in your deck with solid results, but that doesn't change the fact that this build is a GIMMICK. Scaling foundation, like universally good "Fatal Desire" power, is what matter mostly here, and what combo you use to win is secondary. I mean, you could use "Dead On" with the same or even better results. Second major issue is unreliability, as i described. Finally some curses is simply harmful, seriously nasty stuff like "Normality" or "Pain" should be avoided or removed ASAP.


That's all folks! We are finished with Hermit's Major archetypes.

This section includes secondary specific playstyles based on a single card or a small group of cards. For example, this is a deck based on colorless cards, build based on the rare attack "Roughhouse". Also included are decks based on such relics, which define a specific playstyle. These are "Snecko Eye", "Unceasing Top" and "Dead Branch". About these and similar relics that create their own archetype, i want to tell you more.

"Snecko Eye" build
The power of this relic is not obvious at all, even for pretty experienced players. It's one of those relics that can be very good given the correct deck/artifact combo in the right circumstances.
"Snecko Eye" causes the average cost of all your cards to be 1.5 points of energy, while drawing 2 more cards. Therefore plan is simple - you should draft any 2+ cost cards that you need, and probably you need almost all of them. With an optimized deck, this relic breaks the game's energy economy! If you have a lot of expensive cards in your deck, it means that in the worst case, you are playing cards at a fair price. But that's not all, this relic also combines very well. With any energy relics. With relics and cards to draw - more cards means more chances for free cards and cards at a discount. Powerful combo with "Gambling Chip" - this is how you assemble a deadly strong starting hand. Combo with "Ice Cream" - you play only cards at a discount, and spend the accumulated energy at a time when the random number generator does not favor you. A huge number of combinations with cards that i will not list - it will take up too much space. Finally, the negative effect of the "Snecko Eye" can be completely leveled, unlike most energy relics. Hermit's card called "Virtue" can negate caused "Confusion" debuff, and turn this relic to just +2 cards per turn.
Are zero and one cost cards contraindicated in a deck of this kind? No, it is NOT contraindicated - the chances of getting the card at its native price are not so bad. The price of the card is not always randomized, according to my observations, this happens in about 40% of cases. If the card is a cheap but necessary power, then there is no need to be afraid to pick it up - you just need to come to terms with the fact that you will not always be able to play it. And then, you will almost certainly play a cheap card for 3 energy if all the others cost zero, which is not so unlikely.


"From Beyond"/"Dead Branch" build
Both builds has almost the same foundation! Exhaust many cards, then make use of added benefit. It's as simple as that. More about "From Beyond" you can find out in card review section of this guide. I want to tell further about "Dead Branch" relic.
Inexperienced players have a prejudice against this relic, and for good reason. Yes, in a small number of cases, this relic can harm you, for example, if you have a deck with a small number of cards that combine perfectly with each other. In this case, you do not need extra cards that will break the combination. However, in a really large number of cases, "Dead Branch" can provide tremendous value, especially with a deck optimized for this relic.
The resulting effect from the branch can be viewed as a pseudo draw. Additional cards obtained from exhaustion increase the number of options for play and provide more potential for profitable combinations. More cards in a hand generally equals a more efficient round. You make a net profit until the first shuffle of your deck. In other words, "non-playable" cards will start to enter your hand only from the third or fourth (depending on the size of the deck and the draw) of the round. The fight can end before the first shuffle happens, and "Apotheosis"-type talents and cards played in the first cycle mitigate the potential harm from the branch effect. And yet - there are not many "unplayable" cards, in fact.
Also this relic is a source of scaling material. You can even win fights, which otherwise doomed to fail without "Dead Branch". This relic sometimes helpful even if you don't specifically build around it. But if you find the Stick early enough, then building the deck around it is 100% worth it!


"Roughhouse" build
"Roughhouse" is one and only rare card with "Dead On" bonus effect. "Roughhouse" sub-archetype is a niche combo deck, and requires most or all of the deck to be built around it to work. Also there are a few cards needed specifically to make it work. More about this card you can find out in card review section of this guide.


"Desperado" build
This sub-archetype is barely worth mentioning in archetype section... On the other hand, if you get lucky, it might work remarkably.
This attack alone create its own sub-archetype, among other things. But it's not just heavy build-around card, it's ridiculously demanding. Keep the deck small, add cards to support "Desperado", preferably upgraded one, and try to build the deck to play it repeatedly/consistently/looping it.
If your relic and card quality provides super fast scaling and tempo, that's that matter mostly. So if you managed to build the deck around "Desperado" and win, then most likely you would win with almost any damage method. And don't forget that flexibility is so much more important than archetypes.

"Prismatic Shard" build
"Let's throw away the balance of characters" relic, huh, also known as "Prismatic Shard". More of meme, "for flexing purpose" and difficult to achieve, but potentially powerful build direction. This relic is the reason of possibility of truly ridiculous "Dead Branch"+"Corruption" combo on any character.
"Prismatic shard" is a relic you can obtain only from a shop for about 150 gold, which allows you to get colorless cards as a reward for battles, as well as cards of other characters. By purchasing this relic, you will get the opportunity to create a cross-class hybrid, such a Сhimera hero. This not only allows you to radically change the style of the game, but also theoretically collect imbalanced card combo. Such as super-strong combo "After Image" + "Juggernaut". Cards for shivs looking amazing with available strength. Some cards are good on their own - "Echo Form", "Terror" or "Fusion+", which gives energy from a plasma sphere every turn. Even the normal cards of other classes, which have a better block/damage to energy ratio, can be beneficial for the Hermit.
If you take the "Prismatic Shard" in the first act, then you put yourself at great risk. The probability of finding excellent cards is not bad, but it is not a fact that this probability is realized. And 150 gold can always be spent on strengthening, for example, on potions. However, if you want to control the situation and use this relic safely, then you can take the "Prismatic Shard" only after you form a capable deck. And in this case, the shard is almost not needed - you will pay gold for a slight chance to improve your deck. Here is such a dilemma. Be that as it may, there are in the game such high-risk relics as the "Black Star" - it's up to you.


"Unceasing Top" and (semi)Infinite combinations
Unceasing Top: Whenever your hand is empty, draw 1 card. "Eternal Spinning Top" has the highest potential for the Defect, which relatively easily, with the right cards, can generate dozens of units of energy. Trying to force "Unceasing Top" build with Hermit is a bad idea, even if you managed to find the Top very early in a run. This build can't exploit relatively high average cost of Hermit's deck. I mean, potential and sufficient opportunity frequency for such combo is lowest compared to vanilla characters. It's not worth even trying, in my opinion.
The Major issue here - the Hermit doesn't have good enough zero cost cards. He has only one(!) repeatable zero cost attack - "Called Shot", and it's a trash with Top. Only "Enervate" (Dropkick-like attack) is compatible decent enough for this kind of combination.
Theoretically, the "Unceasing Top" is one of the strongest relics in the game, and the potential of the Top is really great. However, in practice, it is very difficult to optimize the deck for this relic. To realize the potential of infinite loops, and this is exactly what you should strive for, several conditions must converge at once. "Unceasing Top" should drop early. Zero cost cards, and other synergistic cards and relics, should also come in. You must get rid of most of the starting cards.
The Time Slug boss and enemies that throw status cards into your deck are a counter to infinite loops and can completely ruin this build. Curses and other unplayable cards also break combos. You will need additional tools to counter this, like "First Aid Kit" or "Blue Candle" to deal with statuses. "Shuriken/Kunai" relics will also come in handy so as not to sag over time in front of scaling opponents. The relic "Peace Pipe" will help get rid of standard strikes and defenses.

Memento

"Memento" is a curse, which is auto-generated by "Old Locket" starter relic. At the same time, it's an offensive power booster, which is always great at the start of the run. Basically it is a "Crescendo"-lite, but it doesn't exhaust and turn of vulnerability can be prevented in more ways. "Memento" also has built-in retain, it's easy to play it at a convenient moment. Applying vulnerable to yourself is usually fine, either by defeating enemies in one turn or having rugged buff. One of the reasons to keep "Memento" in your hand is that sometimes it makes "Dead-on" effects easier to execute.
"Memento" really help you kill stuff, this is exactly Act 1 demand. This is the reason why Hermit seems really strong against regular mobs and Elites. Besides this, it has a lot of minor synergies - convenience with dead-on cards, "Malice" AoE attack, Curse synergy, scaling with "Determination". There is almost no reason to exhaust it with "Covet", but you may want to exhaust it with "Malice" for crowd damage. If you are "Blue Candle" holder, then playing "Memento" will exhaust it for the rest of combat. You losing "Memento", if swap starter relic at Neow's offering, obviously. It is almost never redundant as a source of vulnerability and is useful until the end of the run.

Strike

A standard offensive card that you actually want to get rid of, but you need to do it in a timely manner. Why to remove them, tho? Well, if we simplify the picture, then starting cards are relevant only for the first Act and after that moment they become a burden, they begin to bring harm.
In the case of the Hermit, it's always better to begin from removing "Defend". If you want to minimize the risks, then only after you find a good attacking card, you can, and even need to, remove the standard "Strike". "Memento" is the part of a reason to keep strikes for Exordium at least. Another part is Hermit's skills like "Fully Loaded", "Maintenance" etc. There is also "Strike Dummy" relic, which makes "Stike" do additional damage.
Trivia - "Strike" of Hermit gives you some fun sound effects to get you through the boring beginner fights. That's an upside in my book.

Defend

The context of different characters is various. For example, for Silent basic defends are quite useful - they are far not as bad as her strikes. In the case of the Hermit, it's almost always better to begin from removing "Defend".
What is your main defense in first act? Right answear - it's mostly character's HP pool. Conclusion is simple - you don't need defense much in the first Spire level. Also character's contex is simply against starter defend - every Hermit's blocking skill is better numerically and/or having beneficial bonus effect. I have come to simple algorithm about defend remove - don't remove it if first boss is Guardian. Start to remove defends firstly if act boss is Slime or Hexagon.
Is "High Noon" power the reason to leave your defends be? Well, yes, if you find this Rare power firstly and then quickly spend Luxurious upgrade on it. Otherwise absolutely not.

Covet

Great flavorful name, but i think this starter card is lacking. I mean, it's looking like trash for unexpiriensed players. That is not very far from truth, "Covet" is a pure utility card, and its effect is mostly situational and often minor. It causes card disadvantage - not every hand will have at least one irrelevant card to trade in, recovering the card disadvantage. Besides that, use cases for it is actually complicated, but not strong. Yes, you can burn curses by discarding them with "Covet", though this is not a solid reason to take curses. You can discard some nasty stuff, or discard ethereal card, which you want to play later, like "Apparition" or "Reprieve". This can be used for squeeizing passive damage from cards like "Panache" colorless power. Last but not least, it helps you get "Dead-on" effects.
"Covet" used to be a deck-thinner tool. And i like old card design more, not to mention that old "Covet" was quite powerful.
Unlike Silent's similar skill "Prepared", you have to discard the card before you draw, so it's worse than "Prepared" in that respect. But upgrade doesn't require an additional discard, and when "Covet" is a hand's last card, then it discard nothing and just draw a card(s).
You want to upgrade "Covet" very much. After upgrade it draws additional card, so "Covet" becomes more of consistency-tool, desirable for Hermit. Do i have to explain why doing this is a luxury?
Besides mentioned very marginal, infrequent use cases, "Covet" doesn't have synergies, which fuel its strength. On the other hand, this card has no straight analogue - you don't find something better to replace original. Considering everything, i have come to conclusion that as a starter card "Covet" is fine.

Snapshot

This card doesn't look like something decent at first. But this impression is deceptive and wrong.
"Snapshot" was reworked one more time, and now it's truly great starter card with additional "Dead-on" benefit. New version of "Snapshot" is strong defensive... attack, weirdly. It's almost like Blind lady's cheaper "Wallop" now, but with added condition. And presently, it is more combo-centric card, which can be deeply impactful in late game in term of defense.
The block gained from Snapshot's dead-on effect will scale to the increased damage. Using vulnerable, strength, bruise, vigor to increase the damage of this card also increases the block gained from it. This makes it much better than playing regular "Defend" cards in near future. You can additionally double the gained block with "Snipe" skill or "Pen Nib" relic.
Snapshot's new iteration is so beneficial, it's a pity, it can't arrive in card reward screen. But even so, it's a balanced card, since added value is not guaranteed. In addition, unblocked damage only counts, and "Snapshot" doesn't care about dexterity at All. So you must play around this conditions, and this is actually Fun.

Some of Hermit's common cards is surprisingly good, especially want to note his blocking skills. Most of them are really strong for a common category and he got "Dive" and "Vantage" common cards with build-in scaling! His common card pool is overall solid, but there is no hidden gems among this cards like Silent's "Acrobatics"/"Piercing Wail" or like Robot's "TURBO"/"Hologram".

Headshot

Very simple card by the Hermit's standard, but it doing its job excellent. "Headshot" is Hermit's undisputed best common attack, with solid damage potential! It is great early on it own, and often i don't mind to get multiple of it. Actually, it's a latent multi-hit attack, so it's potent receptor of Strength/Bruise/Vuln./Vigor scaling. Headshot's damage is trippled if played with "Snipe" skill. It is so good and universal - it pairs well with almost any offensive character's direction. This is auto-pick card, if you somehow lacking in frontload damage department.
"Headshot" was nerfed recently - damage downed by 1, so it's dealing 7(9) damage presently. It's a fair change, the card is still too good for a common attack.



High-Caliber

This is another one of that straight damage commons that doesn't scale well later on. But by the standard of the first act this Common attack is kind of bursty. "High-Caliber" no longer place a "Strike" in discard pile anymore, it's two attacks in one now. After first hit, it adds the "Strike" to your hand, so it is a solid pack of frontload damage. Sadly, first hit deals only 15 damage, down from 18, when upgraded. Although it is more flexible presently - you can attack one more time or hit another target with added strike. To be honest, this card must be upgraded, only then it would be valid problem-solver for Exordium. And you never want more than one copy, probably. Taking more than one of this feels ok for now, but not fine later. By the standard of late game, adding another "Strike" during the boss fight almost equals having a curse.
"High-Caliber" is combo-piece of "Strike&Defend archetype". But even in this kind of deck, adding another strike can be a bad thing. You must play your scaling cards first to power up starter cards. Damage to defense ratio and draw order is important in this type of deck as well... It's hard to give precise recommendations, but deck's tempo and scaling speed that's what really matters, not the number of strikes.

Itchy Trigger

More like energy-utility, than an offensive card. That's really desperate solution to energy problem though. "Dead-on" bonus is already not guaranteed and hitting a random card with cost reduction is unreliable at best. But this card is clearly stronger in focused dead-on deck, especially in combination with cards like "Snipe" skill.
"Itchy Trigger" is mediocre for damage, but sometimes the Hermit has to work with it. It's better than it seems in early game, it's acceptable in situation of early damage hunger. This card provide more energy and damage - it's exactly an Act one demand. In the late game "Itchy Trigger" will provide more value, since you will spend received energy more efficiently, when you improve some of the cards and get rid of most of the starting strikes and defenses. Also, card will help in the case of energy relic's absence.
Not a good card to combine with "Eternal Form", without having many high cost cards or having "Combo" power as well.
It's true, that "Itchy Trigger" not a strong card, but (pseudo) energy is valuable resource and i can see some late game usage of this card.

Misfire

I consider card's art design and taste enjoyable - this card is kind of funny pun. Imagine, you can misplay the card called "Misfire" in hope for a trickshot! In terms of efficiency it's not good, though.
People hatin' "Wild Strike", and "Misfire" is sort of hate-worthy as well. This is basically a stronger strike with as many as two detrimental effects. This are - random target (can sometimes screw you), and curse, which is goes to Draw pile. Is this compensation reasonable for high-ish 13(17) damage output? I don't think so, but in first level of the Spire fights usually will be over before the downside of this attack will actually matter. Big-number attacks like "Misfire" get extra benefit from the vulnerability applied by "Memento", as they get a larger numerical increase in damage.
If generated "Clumsy" curse went into the discard pile, this card would be much better than it currently is. Though "Clumsy" is pretty tolerable downside in early game, when Hermit is limited by energy and rarely play out his hand fully. But if you have this attack, don't recommend you to take many zero cost cards. Curse can be neutralised or even made beneficial later, you can play around this by adding "Shadow Cloak" power or "Charred Glove" relic, either some other more minor curse-combo cards. But don't hope for significant value - it's possible, but stars must align first. There is also card's synergy with "From Beyond" and "Dead Branch".
"Misfire" is an early game trade-off card with some potential, which is unreasonably hard to realise. So there is almost no reason to take this card after the first Act.

Pistol Whip

Seemingly, this attack is very similar to "Wide Open", both is equal damage-wise with starter deck. But vulnerability has more impact than bruise, the better numerically base damage attack has. Vulnerability is multiplier, when this card's bruise is just flat +3(4) damage per hit. Though "Pistol Whip" combines better with multi-hit attacks like "Spite", "Spray n' Pray" etc. And you already have "Memento" for making bursty damage with "Pistol Whip", and you better upgrade it fast for this implementation. This common comboing well with new version of starter attack "Snapshot". So, it's easy early pick.
Bruise has the issue of wearing off, when turn finished (it's kinda temporary strength). So if you need to play this and two defends, then "Pistol Whip" just became a basic strike. You can extend bruise effect to next turn only by playing this together with "Horror" skill.
Unlike "Wide Open", this attack is almost restricted to pick Act-1-only. The reason is that it's scaling for later not that well. But it can play a solid role in high damage bursty turns later for sure.

Quickdraw

"Quickdraw" is great common card, but it's even better considering character's context. Unfortunately, Hermit's card draw is not that accessible.
It's extra good with "Dead-on" card pool, actually it's working well with almost anything. Card advantage, provided by this card, does not lose relevance a whole game. As for "but draw one less next turn" condition, card's debuff is always -1 card draw per turn, if it's stacked, then you gain just one negative draw several turns. I mean, this effect stacks with number of turns, not number of cards drawn less. It turns out this is pretty minor negative, so it's not scary at all to have 2+ of this attack in the deck.
"Quickdraw" has a great combo with "Virtue" skill. Draw up to 3 cards and get away with it without punishment - this is premium possible value for a common card. There are plenty of other ways avoiding debuffs in the game... "Determination" power is also worth mentioning in context of strong combinations, see that card's topic for more info.
Card's upgrade is great, because it's draw-positive with the upgrade mostly. Starting from second Act, you have a chance of upgraded card to appear. On Ascension 12+ this chance is 12,5% for Act 2 and 25% for Act 3. Plus version of "Quickdraw" is almost always worth taking, if something luxurious not offered to you at the same time!

Roulette

Fine damage-chunk of attack for early game survival, and can be valuable later mostly as "Calculated Gamble"-like deck cycling utility. This attack can one-shot almost any small enemy, it's also good against larger targets with added vulnerability. "Roulette" can cycle cards in hand to supplement drawing or dig for key powers and other scaling cards. The larger hand, the better "Roulette" is for this implementation. Decent card with "Snecko Eye" and "Runic Pyramid". Can be good with "Cheat" and "Shadow Cloak" in some circumstances. Amazing target for most energy cost reduction effects - alone it's way too costly and uncomfortable to be considered as consistency tool, unless you have energy problem solved completely. Make sure that gamble is calculated enough in play with "Roulette". Remember, you need 5 energy in total to play 3-cost card digged this way.

Spray n' Pray

I consider recent card's nerf fair, since rare "Magnum" didn't look great compared to this common attack.
This is solid multi-shot attack. Damage potential of this common card is actually Huge and pretty easy to extract. Base damage of it 4x3(5x3) is already fairly high. And accessible сombo with bruise from "Pistol Whip+"... perform 8x4 or 32 damage After both cards nerf, it's like 8x3 or 24 damage. This numbers from the combination of two common cards is tremendous impactful by the standard of Act One. With such damage, you have high chance to avoid dealing with card's downside at all in some normal fights. And earlier i thought, that "Spray n' Pray" is not an act one card, mostly. I was wrong.
Amazing card to combine with Flex and Black Bile (Apply 6 Bruise) potions. Not upgrade reliant.
Seemingly, this is a mediocre damage card with noticeable drawback, but most of Hermit's offensive powers have a good synergy with it.
"Determination" combo is great. Both cards can fuel together, actually.
As for the curse in draw pile - you already have "Covet" to deal with it sometimes. You can exhast generated "Doubt" with "Adapt" or "Malice". And curse can be even beneficial, if you also got "Shadow Cloak" or other curse combo-cards. However, draw order must be right, as adding a curse is mostly an obstacle in performing that plan... New Hermit's "Clasped Locket" boss relic is good to deal with curse as well, but this relic is too weird at the moment, and there is possibility that it will be reworked in the future.

Tracking Shot

Hermit's Worst attack, in my opinion. It's not that bad by any measure, but card's ceiling is very low - it's so blatantly basic. You are picking this only when you're devoid every other attack after first couple of fights. Sometimes this card will earn you extra droplet of value. But what for it's worth taking? Almost any damage common will be better for offense in the beginning. As for Dead-on enabler utility - you really don't need it too early, because there is nothing to support yet, besides "Snapshot". This can help playing cheap-cost Dead-on cards sometimes, but it's not interesting enough early, and later even more so. "Tracking Shot" feels to me like a textbook definition of sacrifice/trade-off survival card. Only other reason to take "Tracking Shot" is a "Spyglass" relic, which turns T-shot to "Flying Knee" if you end turn concentrated. Value of such combination is mediocre at best.
I wish this card would be zero cost, with damage reduction, of course. Greater flexibility and convenience with dead-on cards will make this attack far more attractive. Also it's weird, that this class have only one repeatable zero-cost attack - another zero cost attack is desireable on him, i guess.

Wide Open

I hate Chad's lousy "Bash" and i love this card! "Wide Open" is a well-balanced, universal common card. Generally good for damage in almost any build. Vulnerability is highly valuable debuff in context of a class with mighty physical damage and scaling. Extra round of vulnerability makes a big difference, so card's upgrade priority is very high. It's a solid and simple addition in first act, and you may want it later, if you do not have it yet. This is an unusual common card, that is even worth buying in the shop sometimes! This all is a great properties for a common card, actually. The only downside is that "Wide Open" basically requires an upgrade.

Body Armor

Quite strong skill for a common category, but foremost you need to add card draw component to make "Body Armor" worthwhile, as it causes card disadvantage. Also Act 1 short-term goal of your is damage, not defense, and this priority acting not in favor of disputed card. Also it scales twice on the negative dexterity from Laga's debuff and it's a skill for Nob's Raaage, so it's kinda bad against early elites.
This card used to be a defense-centric cousin of "High Caliber" and a part of "Strike&Defend archetype", but now it's a Universal blocking card, which is a straight positive change. Now it's more good on average with "Dead-on" cards for better sequencing card plays, but not only. Also can be handy for trading nasty curses/statuses for gaining bonus block. Useful in certain situations with "Glare+" and other skills with build-in retain, which is always available for discarding if needed. Simple discarding utility has minor value, but it's useful non the less - you can discard some stuff to unclog your hand sometimes, or discard ethereal card, which you want playing later for some reason.
"Body Armor" can be avoided in favor of the Hermit's other block options, but not if Dex is accessible. In fact, Dexterity apply twice on "Body Armor" with its bonus effect, so it's worth picking up if "Maintenance" skill is presented in deck and/or any other sources of Dex.

Coalescence

More like consistency-utility and support skill, than a defensive card. It's an "Equilibrium"-lite, if simplify. Unlike Robot's card, this skill is more flexible - it cost one energy, and you can choose which cards to retain or even pass completely. Also you actually can change the order of the retained cards, which is useable with "Dead-on" direction. And "Eternal Form" does work with cards that are retained, which is pretty sweet.
This is quite useful card, considering Hermit's deep consistency problems. Value of retaining 2(3) cards for one turn is really not obvious. I think, this card is higly underrated, especially by inexpirienced players. But it's not that appealing from the get-go, it must be supported. It working poorly with starter deck and you need card draw to use "Coalescence" to full. Also card's block is far from spectacular, it must be upgraded... just to block for average amount.
Addition of consistency is always valuable. It's kind of scaling that does not lose relevance a whole game. There is a consensus opinion in the community - "Runic Pyramid" is a top-tier relic. And unlike pyramid, this skill don't care about curses/statuses. However "Coalescence" is not performing well in pair - the number of cards retained is just increased this turn, if "Coalescence" is played twice, which is counterproductive, wasteful.

Dive

I wish this card would be slighly more about Plated armor, and consequently slighly less about straight block... But this common defense is fine. Common source of defensive scaling like "plated armor" is noticeable thing, it's a rarity for any character, in fact. But forget about "staking P-armor" without multiple copies of it or comboing card's plus-version with "Snipe" skill, only then it feels serviceable as scaling tool. And even in this case, it is not way too ahead to fair.
Personally, i never want "Dive" in Act one, without "Toxic Egg" or "Thread and Needle" or something like that, because you don't need to block that much early. As well, it must be upgraded and advisably supported with "Dead-on" enabler to be really productive.



Feint

Pretty much a Chad's "Flex" combined with Silent's "Deflect" in one zero cost skill. Amazing? Not really, because context of a character is different. This card is decent enough for the beginning, but scales badly in later game. Combinations with "Feint" is weak, barely any noticeable. Combo with new version of starter attack "Snapshot" is good, though. Character's relatively low consistency and limited card draw reflects poorly on all his zero-cost cards. However, zero-cost cards is good for implementing other card's "Dead-on" bonus in basic 5-card hand. It's good with 3 energy, but the more energy you have the more awkward it become in cheap-cost decks. Besides that, Hermit has no common AoE attack at all, which makes implementation of AoE-bruise rather difficult. Though this effect is useful for artifact removal in Sentries elite fight of Act 1.
Place of this card is not more than compromise tool for early surviving. Simply any attack common would be better to take in the beginning of Act one. And later i don't see a place for "Feint" in the deck.

Glare

One of the best Hermit's common cards, surprisingly enough. One copy of this card will not hurt almost any deck. Unlike "Feint", this zero-cost skill performing well late game. "Glare" is one of two character's native cards applying weak, and this one is common. Weak source is very valuable, if you didn't know, and it's scaling well to the late encounters. Weak will make powerful foes a lot easier to deal with. Of course, vulnerable is valuable as well, 1.5 damage multiplier is significant even occasionally. When upgraded, "Glare" retains in hand, but applies 1 less Weak when before. Less defense, but more consistency added recently. It's not the part of "Dead-on" synergy, but it gives more flexibility in playing dead-on combos, especially early. This is a great artifact washer, in addition. Finally, "Red Scarf" relic makes "Glare" give 4 additional block - not too shabby for zero cost.

Hole Up

I can't belive this is a freakin' Common card! "Hole Up" is really Beefy, efficient blocking skill, especially considering its rarity tier. But with drawback, which seems scary, but it's not, when you know how to build the deck with it. In terms of block this card comparable to Chad's uncommon "Power Through", but HoleUp's detrimental effect is far more mild and, additionally, can be negated in a few ways. Play this skill last if you also attacking this turn, to minimise offensive waste. Though it's a common tip - just plan and play turn better for fairly high HP savings in current act. I hate "Ginger" relic on average, but in context with "Hole Up" i'm really glad to have it. Also this is combo-piece of "Self-harm/debuff archetype". With "Determination" (gives you 1 Strength whenever you get a debuff) power in play, you rather don't care about being weakened.
Some cards aren't really pickable, unless they're given to you upgraded. This is Not that case, weirdly, 12 block units for one energy is a lot by any measure! Plus version of "Hole Up" with sturdy 16 block number is Hermit's most efficient blocking card. Though it's not that shiny in context of character, he does have plenty of good blocking cards.
Probably, first Act is not the place to pick up this card, edge in offense is very important there. But later, this card appears to be quite useful.

Low Profile

"Low Profile" is a common conditional blocking skill, that gives extra 4(5) block for every debuff you have. This skill doesn't do much better than basic defend, if Hermit is not debuffed. But there is also an instance then this card generate numbers ridiculously excessive for just a puny common. Block generated by this card is very variable, it's highly depend on deck composition, consistency or current enemy.
While skill's effect scales with Hermit's debuffs, you actually don't need that many debuffs to get big rewards, even 1-2 is reasonable. If you take "Low Profile", then your goal is maximize its average value with addition of draw/consistency. "Virtue" skill is amazing addition in case of this card. The objective of pairing with "Virtue" is clear - first get block value with "Low Profile", and then remove debuffs... profit!
Does Dexterity apply twice on "Low Profile"? It's not, but that's fair. This card is not reliable on average deck, but "Low Profile" is a great defensive tool to have if you running "Self-debuff/harm archetype".

Manifest

Somebody asked Hermit to send nudes, huh?
Without character's context, this is a big chunk of basic block. Usually not worth taking for the block alone - block to energy ratio is frankly bad. It's more interesting with Snecko, tho. And it's really good with "Eternal Form", when E-form is in play, you can suffer from wasted energy if you lacking card draw and if your cards is mostly cheap. In fact, if you already have "Eternal Form", and you capable to easily set it up, then "Manifest" is an easy defensive card to take on board.
Also "Manifest" is a combo-piece of "Curse" builds. Sometimes it'll exhaust your "Ascender's Bane" without needing to waste a draw on it. It's good with "Misfire", "Spray n' Pray" and "Fatal Desire" for the same reason. Well, drawing a curse from draw pile is not straight positive effect on it own, it can be a negative too. But it can be really strong if you have a good curse setup, which is not a common case, sadly. Also "Manifest" can be situationally used to assemble strong finishing attack with "Final Canter".

Vantage

In this case, "Vantage" cannot avoid comparison with "Armaments". Let's look at beginning at both cards without the context of characters. "Armaments" is sort of stinky without upgrade, and it is one of those upgrades, that feel better than they are in practice a lot of the time. It's good for boss fights, but in hallway fights you're not actually getting that much value. This is because usually you already spent one energy on "Armaments" itself, meaning you can only play one or two of the newly-upgraded cards that turn. Unlike "Armaments", "Vantage" card is more about straight block than utility, in my opinion. At the same time could be very impactful as utility in Thin decks, to the point where you do not want to use bonfire to upgrade nothing at all.
8(11) block is good enough to take versus Guardian Boss in Act 1, but i recommend to temporarily pass this card otherwise. As for utility - it is form of scaling, but in short fights it is not that helpful. Card can be kind of awkward, because a lot of times you have to play other cards to get it into right position, and you might not even get to upgrade 2(3) random cards. But in a longer fights and with concentration support from "Take Aim" or "Snipe+", it'll eventually upgrade a big piece of your deck. Card's provided scaling is solid for a common skill, but slow. It's slower than "Armaments", but it doesn't matter if your deck is already upgraded by the most part.
This can be part of a reason to take "Fusion Hummer" boss relic, having "Vantage" is weighty part of this decision, though not ultimate.

The Hermit has some really weird stuff in his uncommon pool...
In addition to attacks and skills, there are powers among the uncommon cards of the Hermit. The power card disappears from the deck when it is played, and grants a passive ability that will last for the duration of the fight. Unfortunately, uncommon powers of this character are far from universal and convenient, unlike original characters. These are powers that can be picked up only in a specific situation, depending on the of deck direction, relics, play style and other conditions. I want to point out "Determination", though - this power is strong, cheap and only slightly situational.

Called Shot

One and Only Hermit's repeatable zero cost attack, let me remind you that Hermit can't generate a lot of energy. Another characters have a few zero cost attack for a reason. The reason is survivability with low energy, so this is another one of a weird design decisions of this class...
This attack costs zero energy, so it won't play under very rare circumstances. It is doing pathetic damage alone without synergistic effects, but it's a flexible card and its "Dead-on" effect is rather accessible. This card doing more damage with "Fatal Desire" in play, "Called Shot" is better with any card advantage. In addition, this card is more convenient with other dead-on cards, as it makes getting a card you want to be in the middle of your hand easier.
"Called Shot" was changed to drawing attacks only with its dead-on effect, but 1(2) attack draw is still valuable outcome for zero cost. It's handy and useable after this nerf, it's also sort of digging tool, which can make your scaling tempo faster. If you draw attack(s) this turn, than you are closer to your key scaling cards next turn, at least in first deck cycle.
"Called Shot" is an easy card to take almost any time in the run. But it is often not possible to pinpoint a specific card and this is uncommon card, so you can see not a single one for a whole run, for example. Think about it, before trying to force "Unceasing Top" build.

Cursed Weapon

Meta-scaling damage uncommon attack, mostly suitable for normal fights and some elites. Interesting for picking up in early game only, in addition - at uncommon circumstances. Constant HP drain might easily bring you down, so you must have a way of sustaining, to scaling this attack constantly. Obviously, good combination with "Meat on the Bone" relic. Damage scaling of "Cursed Weapon" is slow and very limited, so it's almost never grow to something ridiculous. Card pairs well with weird things like "Black Wind" and new "Reprieve". Shot from "Cursed Weapon" doesn't wear off your Rugged charge.
Why this card is so punishing? It's cursed after all, i get it. But compare this to Robot's "Genetic Algorithm" meta-scaling card, which is more valuable (1 block > 1 damage) and versatile and only a little-bit harmful at the beginning of a run.
I wish "Cursed Weapon" would work in style of "Overwhelming Power" and would combine with "Determination" and "Virtue". It would be great to sometimes avoid self-damage, from the point of both playstyle and efficiency. Otherwise this card is way too situational and harmful to be any good.

Deadeye

Strength scaling attack via "Dead-on" effect. More reliable than Chad's "Spot Weakness" in my opinion, with correctly built deck. Almost always more universal and convenient sourse of damage scaling than "Brawl" or "Smoking Barrel", though sometimes you want to have both. Besides that, strength gain from "Deadeye" is both Repeatable, unlike "Brawl", and Permanent, unlike "Smoking Barrel", also this card doing damage by itself. Suitable card for early game and hallway fights, great in any elite and boss encounters. Last, but not least - it doesn't require high support.
Strength bonus is more effective when combined with multi-attack cards like "Spray n' Pray" or "Magnum". Upgrading "Deadeye" matters, it increases the Strength gain by 50% or from 2 to 3. Such scaling tempo increase is important enough to spent a campfire.
"Deadeye" - great tool overall, because it's not overpriced and universal, unlike most of Hermit's other scaling cards. Or in short - genuinely good stuff, and it's easy to grab multiple copies of this.

Desperado

This attack was a common card before and sort of resembling "Hemokinesis". Now it's uncommon and shifts to poor variation on Chad's "Rampage" attack. By the way, why this is still called "Desperado"? New card's essence more like antonym to previous. Not a fitting name for reworked version of this attack.
This attack alone create its own sub-archetype, among other things. But it's not just heavy build-around card, it's ridiculously demanding. Keep the deck small, add cards to support "Desperado", preferably upgraded one, and try to build the deck to play it repeatedly/consistently/looping it.
It's definitely grow faster than "Rampage", but often can't be the main damage source - scaling is Limited not only by deck size, but by energy cost as well. Pretty much only synergize well with "Gambit" - this is the only way it can be played one more time in current deck cycle, and even then it's still fairly slow. There is also questionable combo with "Lone Wolf" and "Itchy Trigger". Just OK card for help at defeating first act Boss, i guess. This is the fight where this attack can be used repeatedly, good luck at playing it at 4 energy cost, tho.
I rate "Desperado" as mediocre card, interesting only in situations, when you can't find "Head Shot" or something decent for an early damage. It is a mistake to take more than one copy of this card. It's a mistake to take this in deck fatter more than 20 cards. And upgrading "Desperado" is desireable, but very controversial matter. Later it's only good in Thin deck with "Snecko Eye" or with another method of playing it no matter the cost, like with "Cheat" or something. You can just pass the alternative scaling method, but then "Desperado" is slightly better "Strike".

Enervate

Chad's "Dropkick" except the condition is "Dead-on". This card is not notable in terms of damage, but this is an easy pick if found in first few rewards of Act 1. It seems too scary to take this card without concentrate dead-on enabler, but it's usually good enough even alone. Obviously, you can not trigger valuable bonus effect always, but with 5-card hand you have actually many opportunities. If picked early, there will be plenty of time to modify a deck to make this attack more reliable later.
You can make infinite, based on 2x "Enervate", with tiny deck and application of "Adapt" power and/or other cards with self-exhaust condition. Another great card to combine this attack with is "Snipe", in this instance only one "Enervate" is enough for infinite cycle.

Golden Bullet

This is rather simple card in terms of Hermit, unexpectedly, but with a twist. Treat "Golden Bullet" as a side quest you can finish. Card's scaling is limited by energy cost, yes. But you only have to get it down to zero cost, then you no longer care if it fatal or not.
This is one of the best picks at easy-pool fights in the beginning of a run. And the earlier it is picked, the more it influences a run. At this moment, even in basic form, this is better than standard strike and it's pretty easy to scale. Probably, "Golden Bullet" can be picked later, but in most instances not worth taking outside of Act one. But forcing this is possible anytime, if you are doing good. If pumped to zero cost, this is a burst-damage, great for first half of a run.
Upgrading this card is almost pointless, so its upgrade priority is very low.

Grudge

Actually, decent AoE attack, even in basic form. The gimmick of this card is that it's scaling not only from strength, vuln. etc., but also from curses, which you both - generate and acquire. With Hermit's starter relic it doing not 9, but already 11 damage. And if you apply vulnerable with Hermit's "Memento", it's x1.5 more! Also "Grudge" is rare case, when card is more powerful at higher Ascensions due to "Ascender's Bane" curse.
There is a slight contradiction in card's concept. "Grudge" is less good in combination with cards, which put a curse in a draw pile - then it's less likely to draw it, but in crowd fight you want to draw it ASAP. Also in general, you don't need slow scaling on high-tempo straight damage AoE attack.
Damage scaling of this card with curses is very slow, even if Hermit generate 2-3 curses per turn, which is a lot. So, in context of scaling, unlike Defect's "Blizzard", "Grudge" can't overgrow its niche of just multi-foe attack. And probably, there is little reason to pick it after middle of Act 2. Though "Grudge" can be powerful in it's niche, but this is absolutely not the reason to take curses.
Card's upgrade is very questionable - it is already good as it is.
This is weird, but unlike other classes, Hermit has no common AoE attack at all. "Grudge" is uncommon card, so you can see not a single one for a whole run. Even Watcher, with her ridiculous burst damage has common AoE attack!

Malice

This is a multipurpose attack. It is a fairly conditioned card, but useful in majority of fights. The list of conditions - unreliability of AoE implementation, relative inefficiency of damage to energy ratio and slow payoff with exhaust mechanic scaling. Card's damage to single target is moderate, though you taking this attack with aim to crowd-damage. And this is just a fine tool for hallway fights with grouping enemies. In most cases, "Memento" curse is available to enable AoE damage with "Malice", and with "Fatal Desire" in play, you can use "Memento" to 1.5x increase the AoE damage.
Card exhaust maybe seen by newbies as a negative, but in fact it's card's upside. Though value of exhaust is insignificant in short fights and there is no dedicated exhaust synergy this class has. In longer combats it stripping your deck of starters, curses, statuses, and anything else you want to remove for the current combat. You might draw it in a hand where there's nothing to exhaust, but if that's happening a lot, then you probably shouldn't have added it to your deck in the first place. Works best with decent sources of draw or "Gambit" to help it do its job faster. At last, "Malice" can be just played without exhausting other card if it is a last card in hand. And this is a beneficial card for combination with "Eternal Form".

No Holds Barred

Surprisingly enough, it's better attack with higher ceiling, than rare "Purgatory". Though it's an underpowered card as well in second half of the game, without solid combinations. In such instance, alone this card looks like it's not worth the downside. The drawback seems severe, you actually paying 3 energy to play this card normally. But you can avoid being punished with "-1 energy next turn" debuff by finishing encounter quickly or with debuff-removing card/relic.
Card's Bruise application looks weird early. As spending 2 energy for a card usually meant you had no energy left to play an attack to follow up and benefit from that bruise that was just added. But that bruise can be impactful later with more energy. Also good combined with "Eternal Form" in play, since you don't cripple yourself with card's downside, if your next hand is mostly zeros.
Like any other AoE attack, great tool for beginning of the run. "No Holds Barred" is not offered after Boss fights, unlike trashy "Purgatory" and mediocre "Roundhouse Kick". Yes, i consider this a positive.

Ricochet

Equivalent of Silent's "Finisher" except the condition is "Dead-on".
This attack usually takeable early, because it's doing 7(9) damage on it own (that's important actually), and Hermit at least have default "SnapShot" to combine with. Do you remember that guy in green bedsheet? Unlike "Ricochet", his combo-centric multi-attacks "Finisher" and "Flechettes" have zero individual impact. But it's more safe to pick "Ricochet" if you already pick at least one common dead-on card. Good combo with "Combo", surprising isn't it?
This card is definitely potent enough to be Hermit's finisher-like multi hit attack in proper Dead-on deck. It's fine too, if "Ricochet" just occasionally doing decent enough damage. Mindset of "It's all, or nothing!" is harmful in this game, in my opinion. Like any other attack of this kind, it's more good with more energy and strength-vigor-bruise bonus(es). And "Ricochet" can be truly devastating in a deck optimized for it.

Short Fuse

What a suitable name for a card! As i think this card is a trap mostly, if you don't know what you are doing. The context in which this card is effective is rather narrow, so in figurative sense fuse is really short. It's an early survival tool, just like most regular attacks. After the first act, such things, as a rule, lose their relevance. It must be understood that "Short Fuse" is mostly a compromise. In the first act, the card gives an advantage in offense, but later it most likely become a burden and the first candidate for removal from your deck. Pick only if you really struggling in offense, but without properly builded deck, you'll regret it later highly probably.





Showdown

It's a fun card, but in terms of efficiency it's mostly a crutch for first-half of a game. Take it to make Act 1 really breezy for you, but then there are problems later. The more cards you take, the more your strikes drowned in other stuff and the chances to assemble multi-strike hand are falling.
"Showdown" was a 2-cost card, now it's buffed to always 1-cost, deal 8(13) damage and self-exhausts. Strikes hit random targets, by the way. Don't know why this info was removed from description, maybe because reading of extra sentence in a card description will made young generation mad. Self-exhaustion is good for such early-damage trade-off cards. Any card draw/consistency will do for helping in assembling multi-strike hand. Also Hermit has a way to generate more strikes with "High Caliber", so you could potentially get up to 9 strikes in your hand, though it's super unlikely.
With addition of some draw, this card can be a win-condition versus Slime mobster, beefy Gremlin or any other "damage-race" in a run's first level. "Showdown" can hit really hard if "Maintenance" is played before it in combat. It also can draw multiple cards for 1 energy if "High Noon" is played before it in combat. It's not reliable and draw order must be perfect for such value. Chances for outcome like this is low, and it's lower with every added card. Nonetheless, "Showdown" has some late game potential.
Upgrading this kind of attack is rather pointless. I mean, +5 to base damage for a one time use card is pretty laughable. But pointless upgrade is not always a bad thing, as i actually like that Showdown's upgrade is useless so you're not pressured to keep up with so many upgrades.

Spite

Why this attack is in Uncommon tier? There is no real reason for this, "Spite" is a decent 5x2(6x2) damage card, but doesn't shine at what it's doing, kind of like "Twin Strike" with subpar bonus effect. Even nerfed "Headshot" is better on average. And "Malice" is far more desirable attack to do evil things with. This is just not what you are looking for. Nuff said.

Cheat

More like hocus-pocus now actually, this card is not unfair enough to be called like this, i guess... Especially after nerf. But it's still simply one of the best Hermit's utility cards, it's a safe pick almost always. "Cheat" is a card with sort of pseudo draw, pseudo energy and semi-scry effect, except play one of the cards shown instead of discarding. On average, i would rather take it over some lacking rare cards, like "Dissolve" or "High Noon". It totally deserves to get a fast upgrade, 2 additional cards matter much. This card is mostly important for playing powers or other scaling cards in current turn, which you can play only next turn normally. "Cheat" definitely will make your scaling tempo faster overall. And this utility can be a difference between defeat and victory in harder fights.
After using "Cheat", if draw pile is not empty, then you already approximately know what will be drawn. It's important to pay attention to your draw pile, before playing this skill! You must know target for play first, but at least you can just pull off some trash, which you otherwise do not want to draw next turn. Also "Cheat" increases combo potential - virtually you have +3(5) cards to choose one from, and then play in combination with current hand's cards. And sometimes you know next draw exactly, for example, if you have only 3(5) cards or less in draw pile. Obviously, this skill can be used to just play some heavy stuff with discount. Also "Cheat" is "Dead-on" compatible card - you can play dead-on cards with bonus effect from your draw pile. This is generally good and always useful card, unless your draw pile is totally empty.

Dead Man's Hand

Eww, it looks Nasty! You beholding "Dead Man's Hand" - stinky and unattractive utility skill. DMH frequently feels bad to play, when it is not upgraded. Also this setup-tool often totally unrelaible and clumsy in play. After discarding all your hand, you draw 3 random rarest cards to present hand with this... thing. So, firstly, there is no increase in consistency or combo potential for a current turn. Secondly - you should have at least uncommon cards worth drawing this way. Common pool usually too diluted with basic strikes and defends. Finally, the saddest moment, when your DMH is on the bottom of draw pile. Then most likely you drawing some common stuff or simply passing. Curses and statuses is equal to common cards in rarity, by the way, lol. And this card has almost zero combo potential (maybe, except new "Eternal Form")! Thus, why it's so compromised?
Card can be used as a "draw three", once it's the last card in your hand. Combo with "Magnum" and "Eternal Form" allows this utility. Beside this, probably, it's the worst thing you can take for card drawing.
Sure, there is possibility that you got 2+ "Overwhelming Power" in draw pile, and if DMH is in opener hand, then you are rockin'. DMH mostly good when its draw is predictable, strong and consistent. It can be relevant when your deck is already strong and you are doing good. However, this card can't help you get stronger from start and it's a niche, must-support skill, to the point where it's bad. Probably, i am overdramatizing here, but this card is far from general goodness. It should take another round of balancing...
Trivia section. The cover of this card is another pun and cultural referense to poker and western film genre. By the way, in poker "Dead Man's Hand" is a combination of Four cards, not three. And i think this card should be buffed, guess exactly how. Strengthening will kill a proper sinister flavour of this card, tho. But you know what? Mummyfied hand is awesome, and this hand deserve to be good too.

Eye of the Storm

Non repeatable energy card, better analogue of "Seeing Red". "Eye of the Storm" was "Dead-on" card, but not anymore since recent change. This is actually a buff, because "Dead-on" condition was rather dissapointing. Card didn't do nothing, unless in "Dead-on" position, and it didn't work with "Snipe". As well "Combo" power didn't generate "Eye of the Storm" (actual dead-on card) before, sadly. New "Eye of the Storm" is less conditioned, better on average and more flexible card.
Energy problem is Major issue for Hermit and this card is very helpful. Though "Eye of the Storm" need to be supported with draw and/or high cost cards. It's getting better the more Base energy and consistency Hermit gain. Still, this skill doesn't do anything if you already have more energy than the maximum.
There is a small bug - card is still highlighted when in the middle of the hand. There is also a contradiction with card's name and new mechanic. Honestly, the name should be changed to fix this conflict.

Flash Powder

"Flash Powder" value changes dramatically based on the upcoming fights. "Flash Powder" is subpar scaling in most fights in Act 1, besides Hex and Guardian bosses, yet very relevant skill against Act 3 bosses and Act 4 as well. The Artifact charges of some enemies really screw with card's main effect, so it might be a good idea to have debuff-cards like "Glare" to wash it. 5 units of block is more like a bonus to strength drain, but it's sweet.
This card is Super upgrade-greedy, though it doesn't feel terrible unupgraded. After the first Act, "Flash Powder" is close to "auto-pick card" status, if it's a plus version or you have none for now (and there is an upgrade opportunity). The main value of "Flash Powder" - it mitigate Multi-hit attacks, which is Most threatening attacks in the game. It's a great addition to Rugged by the same reason. In my opinion this is the better, more flexible skill than Chad's "Disarm"! Unlike "Disarm" it's decent against encounters with multiple foes, like Darklings, because this skill give 5 straight block and it's also an AoE mitigation.
Did i already mention that it needs to be upgraded?

Fully Loaded

At first glance it seems, that this card is doing almost nothing. But of course that's not true - this skill has some utility. Firstly, there is not-so-obvious synergy with "Showdown" uncommon attack. And being able to simply clean your draw pile from basic cards is often quite useful feature - the next few turns guaranteed to be more powerful. Also this skill can be handy for card manipulations to enable "Dead-on" effects. To be honest, all of the above is situational, niche, gimmicky uses, but at least this card is not boring. This card is not strong for sure, but can be good in first Act, when Hermit is not get rid of starter cards yet and playing them mostly.
"Fully Loaded" can be great with addition of that weird, usually unexciting colorless skill "Forethought+". Also card is useful with some relics - "Dead Branch", for example. But mostly valuable as deck cycle accelerator, IF it is pulled out to opener hand. Yes, if..., but draw up to 8 cards is a worthy effect.
I'm fine with this card, though. Not every card should be top-tier.

Gestalt

Outstanding, S-tier card! To be honest, "Gestalt" is imbalanced card at the time, and card's nerf will be not a surprise at all.
"Rugged" buff works like this now - if you take unblocked damage from attack, reduce it to only 2 damage and lose 1 Rugged. Rugged don't reduce any non-attack damage type, like damage from "constricted" debuff applied by Spire Growth, but also don't removed by it. Rugged buff restricted to only two cards: the uncommon "Gestalt", which gives you 2 Rugged and 2(1) vulnerable and exhausts; and the rare "Heroic Bravado", which gives only 1 Rugged and it's ethereal card and the cost of the card rises with each use. If choose between these two cards, then "Gestalt" is an obvious choise, which is more accessible in addition. And this is wrong.
Rugged is almost a Robot's Buffer buff, but cheaper! Notably though, because rugged stays around until you get hit, if you managed to find a "Gestalt" early in Act 1, it mostly trivializes scary enemies like Laga, Nob and Huge-slime. Rugged is a complement to other defensive directions like straight or passive block, weakness, strength drain and other. It goes well with all mentioned sorts of defense and it's even better, if you be able to preserve this buff.
Combination with "Determination" is not an intricate matter. Furthermore, "Gestalt" isn't the most frightening Hermit's card that gives a debuff. Usually 2 charges of Rugged makes the self-vulnerable a minor issue. "Gestalt" is not good against multi-attack, but if staring down a multi-attack it's better than nothing.

Ghostly Presence

Weak is highly valuable status effect, so straight block is less important part of this skill. It's not common kind of weak, but more beneficial crowd-weak, incidentally. It's solid, but not so obvious for newbies, way of scaling character's defense. The power of weakening enemy is not very significant in normal beginner-tier fights. But in the Boss fights... from 40 points of damage, the weakening already cuts off Ten, it's like two ordinary defenses for zero energy (if consider weak a free bonus effect).
I don't quite like taking "Ghostly Presence" in the first act, because it need some support and it's possible to get away with the standard defense, but, again, the decision depends on the situation and combinations. This skill is not very easy to play consistently with bonus effect, but it's definitely will help in surviving. And i think "Ghostly Presence" is mostly worth it, in case of consistent trigger of its "Dead-on" feature.
Upon upgrade, the weak effect is applied for one more turn, so this is +100% effect duration. Though this is not enough to constantly keep the enemy under the status effect of the weakening. Making opponent perma-weakened is a solid tactic in boss fight, and addition of "Blind" unconditional colorless skill is welcomed in this instance.

Horror

It is kind of +3(5) temporary strength for two turns, just like slightly better "Flex". Using this skill with aim to AoE-value is pathetic. Main idea behind this card, seemingly, is to help with setting up the killing turn. Charge up Bruise stack with it and bring down the foe with Huge multi-hit finisher. But practically, you are facing some issues preventing this goal... It must be supported with high consistency and appropriate tools. About intention of keeping a stack of Bruise permanently - possibility of such utility is so unlikely, this is out of the question.
"Horror" is way too narrow card and only impactful, when you have other bruise source and your deck is already doing good. This card, probably, will not really help to get stronger, so it's just not something that you take from the start or mostly at all.

Lone Wolf

Previous version of this card was about making chosen card zero costing for the rest of combat. This was a thing with an eye on cycling combo. Now it is kind of weird pseudo energy solution only for one turn, this card definitely made weaker. And i don't see the solid reason why. Maybe purpose of change was combo with ever-cost-increasing cards like "Heroic Bravado" and new "Desperado". But seriously? Your consistency must be close to perfect for this use, which is highly unlikely...
It's not giving straight energy, so it can't be called a repeatable energy card. Good with "Roughhouse", "Purgatory" and other 3-cost Hermit's cards. First, try to find these Rare cards. It's usually meh for using on 2-cost cards, even with huge card advantage. By the way, with huge card advantage you already must be fine mostly. This card is not a decent solution to Hermit's energy problem, sadly.
This card can be relevant with "Unceasing Top" relic. It also can be used to force the dead-on effects, so it's sorta enabler too. Potentially this synergize with "Combo", but yeah... combination of two controversial cards is doing something decent - Hooray!
And again - "Lone Wolf" is clumsy with standard size hand. Also it's inflexible with 4+ base energy, even with good card draw. And it feels like disaster if your cards mostly cheap. Finally, it's purposeless, until upgraded.
Most likely, "Lone Wolf" is the worst card in current Hermit's Meta - it's super situalional. Its effective use limited to conditions, which is unlikely to met. I am fine, when it generated by Branch or something. But taking it in my deck? I wish "Lone Wolf" was ever worth taking right from the start.

Luck Of The Draw

Just a skill for card drawing purely, but, as is often the case with this character, with interesting gimmick. Card draw for 1 energy is not always good, for example, if you presently only with 3 basic energy per turn. However, the more energy you gain (not necessary in form of relics), the more the value of card advantage increases. But is it worth picking for the sake of the future? Rather yes, than no.
This is good tool for digging a scaling key-cards in second half of the run. You don't want it too early, while your deck is full of basic cards - there's not much to dig for. But more importantly LOTD is a provider of card advantage. And this term equals more consistency and combo potential. This skill is drawing right past most curses and statuses (which is without cost). So, it's handy in curse shenenigans, also it's relevant if Hermit's draw pile is clogged with statuses. This skill obviously good with zero cost cards, however this combination is not nearly something strong and not worth focusing on. As well don't forget about hard counters for this tactics - enemies like Sneck and Time-Slug.

Maintenance

"Maintenance" was buffed, but majority of community thinks it's been nerfed, lol. That restriction to scaling defensively with only "Defends" was really awful! And new addition of +1(2) Dex is slightly worse with basic "Defend" cards now, but universally great with ANY block cards. Dexterity gain is the Main value of this card at the moment, it's correct to consider this card a defensive scaling mostly. Repeatable card for +1(2) Dex is generally good with any block cards, without counting starter cards at all. As for "Strike" pumping, in most cases, +3(4) damage with strikes is important only early, so it's more of a bonus effect in my opinion. But this skill is Strong for offensive use, if it's super early. And it's not upgrade-hungry, if "Maintenance" used for offensive purpose only.
It's quite a helpful card for scaling, even if it can be a bit slow to setup and it's rather upgrade-reliant. Very good card to take in easy-pool fights of Act one - its setup cost is justified in fast fights. Can be played multiple times, but it's limited by the reasonability of a cost, though cost can be cheated with "Snecko Eye" etc.
"Maintenance" is not a bad candidate to put it into opener hand with "Bottled Lightning" relic. There is no method to play this skill another time in current deck cycle, other then "Liquid Memories" potion or "Deep Breath" colorless. So if you want to repeat it more quickly, then you need quality tools for drawing and deck cycling.

Midnight

Wow, it's not one of this "Yet another must-upgrade card". "Midnight" is a unique card with cool design and it's one of most fun cards of this class. 12 block units in basic form is solid reason to take it, just ignoring early game damage priority. I mean, it's straight "Leap+" with disadvantage, which is start to be harmful after a deck shuffle mostly. So "Midnight" is a great blocking card for short fights, but adding curse is a harsh punishment in longer fights. "Impending Doom" is a curse, which is added on the right of your hand, and doing 13 damage to everyone, if curse in "Dead-on" position. Though this curse can be used intentionally for AoE offense, and it's pretty fun to play around this drawback.
If you have no way to counter the curse generation, then card's self-exhaustion is actually an upside for boss fights, where multiple rotating curses can be a lose condition. So card's upgrade is very controversial matter...

Scavenge

In short - Meh.
Passive block source - good isn't it? But with its tiny stats it'll probably never make or break your game alone. Not bad for Act1 though. 4(5) plated armor doesn't seem like a lot. And that's the way it is, if Hermit's overall defense is not sufficient. It's a little better if you can stack it with other passive block or plated armor effects. Like relics as "Thread and Needle", "Brass Tacks" or "Orichalcum". Notable in combo with "Dissolve" rare defense.
As for Meta-scaling aspect. Unfortunately, it's just not that relevant most of the times and card is not worth upgrading for (maybe) gain +5(10) gold. "Scavenge" is not important in both things it's doing - not for defense or scaling with gold.



Snipe

This is a scaling card for "Dead-on" build, and after upgrade it also becomes best available "Dead-on" enabler. If upgraded, it feels almost like different card, so that upgrade is sweet.
Bonus effect of "Dead-on cards" is valuable, it often outweighs the main value of the card! So doubling this effect is powerful feature. However "Snipe" is fairly conditioned skill. Firstly, some dead-on cards required for getting value from. Also this is a combo-card, which is limited to "Dead-on archetype" only. And some consistency required to play "Snipe" with cards, which you need and when you need it.
Who would've ever guessed, Snipe's buff actually stack, unlike concentration buff. It's a very rare case, but if you play two "Snipe" cards in the same turn, then dead-on effect will NOT be tripled! Instead of this, one charge of snipe buff just will be used.
"Snipe" is a card with potential, but fairly specialized. You can try to force it from the beginning, besides anything it's essential to add something for card draw. The odds for successful use are favorable, but obviously not guaranteed.

Take Cover

Really weird card with contradictory design. "Take Cover" is a X-cost card at first play, then it disintegrate to bunch of 0-cost defends, which are also limited by free space in current hand. So, unlike most X-cost cards, it's not good for dumping in all your energy. It's kind of poor with "Chemical X" relic, because of one time use condition. Regarding the use of 0-cost blocks - they dilutes your deck mostly, this will lead to disproportion and instability of deck in the next cycle. That's until your deck optimized with "Luck of the Draw", "Unceasing Top" or just a ton of card draw. This optimization is not easy at all, generally you want to keep parity between these 0-cost cards and amount of card advantage. And it's a conditionally free draw with "Luck of the Draw"/Top... only in the Next deck cycle (it could be turn 4 or even later)! Poor interaction of zero-defends with "Eternal Form" is worth to mention as well in context of this skill.
Another short topic is synergy with "High Noon" rare power. Conjunction with "Take Cover" for (semi)infinite combo with 0-cost defends looks tempting. But the major issue is that you don't want either of those cards without already having the other one. And no one canceled optimization for better interaction - this combo will do poorly in whatever deck. Positive side of this combo is that Hermit's usual "Defends" can be removed, as they are burdensome and not needed, unlike "Strikes".
This card is mostly a sad filler. Requirement of "Take Cover" is to build around it (that's actually not an obvious point), but payoff is somewhat mediocre. In most cases, there are too much hassle to try maximizing convenience and value of this card.

Virtue

This card has so many different non obvious, but interesting and helpful uses. "Virtue" is quite powerful skill alone, considering players often don't realise or forget how many debuffs there are in the game. Debuffs can be nasty and dangerous, they are often applied by the enemies, and removing them is useful feature. If the debuffs become too much, "Virtue" is a skill that reduces each of character's debuffs by 1(2). Also it can be used for multiple purposes - mitigation, scaling or utility.
Very good with "Panic Button" colorless Cheap&Hardy blocking card. This skill removes confusion debuff caused by Snecko, and "Snecko Eye" as well! I mean, opportunity of turning "Snecko Eye" to simply "+2 card drawn this turn" without much detriment is a big thing by itself. "Virtue" also removes Chosen's Hex. It removes draw-down form "Qickdraw", removes energy-down from "No Holds Barred", removes health-down from "Overwhelming Power", removes weak from "Hole Up". Useful card with Flex/Speed potion.
Besides use cases together with cards with self-debuff downside, this skill is a good pair to "Determination" and "Low Profile" cards as well. "Virtue" is more comfortable with any added card draw. Upgrade doubles card's efficiency and mostly worth spending a campfire on it.

Brawl

Rather trade-off scaling card, which is surprisingly commonly appear in my decks. Can be simplified to just two Chad's "Inflames" stapled together, only worse. It starting to work only from the next turn and must break through artifact before that, furthermore it's numerically mediocre. Unlike "Deadeye", this card not suitable for early game and hallway fights - it can be difficult to put into play without taking high damage.
Often you take thought about damage scaling just before an act boss. Then "Brawl" is offered and, if you desperate for more damage, in that case (so be it, fine) you take it. "Brawl" is bright example of compromise card - often you don't want it, but otherwise you'll die or at least struggle dealing damage. Positive side is that it is universal offense scaling for Hermit, though too expensive. And sometimes your deck just can support Brawl's easy setup, in spite of it mostly an emergency choice.
What is this ugly weirdo on card's cover? Is it how Slaver looking without the hood, or is it not referenced to Spire at all? Somebody know?

Combo

Very interesting scaling method in terms of play, but... If early, it's a Heavy build-around card, and it seems at first there is no good reason for it - it's not strong enough. The 2-cost is a HUGE issue, and it just painful to upgrade for cost reduction, when there are always many other potent options. This power is generally strong with a thin optimized deck, because in this case you can setup it fast and you only need 1-2 dead-on card to start an engine. In fatter and more diverse deck it needs more trigger-cards to be executed, it also creates possibility of diluting deck with irrelevant stuff. Adding random unupgraded "Dead-on" cards on the right of your hand is often not higly impactful, but energy costly and unreliable. Hermit is Always energy starved, especially at the beginning, by the way. Though "Itchy Trigger" energy solution can be revealed by this power, it's super unreliable. In addition, "Ricochet" attack can't be generated this way.
Maybe, you are interested in this card in act Two, if you searching for scaling engine/solution and having appropriate deck. It's good when this power gained from "Discovery" colorless or from power potion, sure. Otherwise it's definitely pickable late if your deck is already strong and can support setting up "Combo" without much detriment, then it's just more scaling for boss fights at least. For sure, "Combo" is attractive enough late with "Eternal Form" synergy, when pseudo card draw from this power will do the job well. Also it's good in small 5-card hands, then with support of correct cards you have an opportunity to not waste your energy, even without Any card advantage. Therefore it's synergise well with "Adapt" and "Lone Wolf". And in Optimized deck this uncommon power can be quite strong, even game winning.
Maybe there is a reason, why you need second "Combo", but i don't found it. "Combo" is not that great in early game if you don't fully focus on it, in my opinion. And another reason to avoid this power early - strikes and defends will be the obstacle of unleashing the potential. I have come to ridiculous conclusion with this card - "Combo" feels like trash at first, but it's actually decent with more energy and properly builded deck.

Determination

This is a Combo-Engine and it's strong! This power is the Core of "Self-debuff/harm" archetype, but it's decent even without dedicated synergies, and can solely solve most scaling problems with damage. I used to think, that this is a late game card mostly. In fact, you usually already have "Memento" to debuff yourself from start, so "Determination" is actually pickable from there. "Determination" can be also used in combinations with curse cards, but it's not full-fledged part of "Cursed" foundation.
This power does nothing until debuff is applied to you. However, you shouldn't wait to enemies, it's way better to apply debuffs to Hermit by yourself. Doing so is fairly easy. This power can be really game-Winning if you manage to boost a strength-scaling tempo by several cards, preferably repeatable, with self-debuff effect. It's very beneficial to play this combo with several "Quickdraw" attacks, downside of which is minor and tolerable. Addition of some minor curses can be a nice thing too, like "Doubt" from "Spray n' Pray" common attack. It's advisable to also pick any multi-attack to effectively "dump" gained strength.
"Determination" is worth focusing and building around in early game, but it can rather often fit already formed deck later. "Determination" doesn't fit all decks well, but it's often decent enough damage scaling, considering the fact how many enemies debuffs you alone. With this power, sometimes you want to take debuff intentionally, even when you can prevent the penalty. Given how much effect does a single card provide, you will probably would not need more, but another copy of this power can be taken almost without detriment.

Shadow Cloak

The Core of "Cursed" defensive Engine. In a vacuum, 6(9) units of passive block per curse is freakin' solid - that's a lot of defense! Though transition to effective curse combinations is difficult to find.
Hermit's card draw is not that accessible and this is a limiting factor to "Shadow Cloak". This power with multiple curses is a good option only if you have tons of card draw, most notably from "Fatal Desire". Draw order and deck's tempo matter much as well. This course is dubious as it relies on a specific combo, though it does generate a lot of block. If you add a lot of curses to your deck, but don't get "Luck of the Draw" or "Fatal Desire" or some relic for draw, you're just screwed.
Unfortunately, character's context just makes it difficult to put "Shadow Cloak" to appropriate use.

Smoking Barrel

Unlike almost any Hermit's power, this card does have an immediate effect on the battle. I mean, wow, it's Not one of this "yet another power, which starting to work only from next turn". Previous sentence is mostly an irony, but ease of setup and non-slowness is a good propertys. However "Smoking Barrel" is not effective with starter deck - this power working efficiently only in enough focused Dead-on build, so it's a very narrow combo-card. I think, it's not that powerful to be worth forcing, unlike Silent's "Catalyst". So you must assemble "Dead-on deck" first, and "Smoking Barrel" is not performing grate in mixed builds.
Stacking "Vigor" buffs with usage of "Dead-on skills" is viable option. The non-attack "Dead-on" cards may work really efficient, since you can accumulate "Vigor", which doesn't dissapear until the discharge. It's a potent plan to stack this bonus and then play a multi-hit card for massive damage output. Combo with "Ricochet" attack is worth mentioning in the current context.

Take Aim

This is a power, which allows a first dead-on card played next(this) turn will activate its bonus effect, no matter where the card is in your hand. Sounds good, but how it's performing on average? This power is not interesting enough at the beginning of a run and with a cheap deck. If your cards is primarily zero/one cost, then it's easy to rearrange your hand to get the "Dead-on" effects to proc. Also you don't need "Take Aim" in the Pure dead-on deck, there your cards is mostly dead-on, like in the build based on "Combo" power. To make the most of "Take Aim", you need to have high-cost cards presented. Every cumbersome non power card is very hindering in play with dead-on cards. Also "Take Aim" performing well in mixed archetypes, in case if you trying to splice "Dead-on archetype" with curse build or any other direction, where dead-on doesn't coexist well with. But to get the acceptable value out of this card, it's enough to just have "Roughhouse" or maybe "Vantage".
Take Aim's concentration effect doesn't stack anymore and it's not used up until you play a card with dead-on or your turn ends. So, you absolutely NEVER need more than one "Take Aim". It's a bad property for any power-card, in my opinion. Why concentration can not be stacked presently, at least for a current turn? This design decision is really strange...

These are, of course, the most powerful cards of this class. Does it mean that if such a card appears, then it automatically needs to be taken into the deck? Not everything is so clear. Yes, among the rare cards there are those that you can always take. But most rare cards, although they can have a powerful effect, require a specially built deck for them or other conditions.

Black Wind

If Hermit is healthy, it doing almost nothing. So, "Black Wind" really starting to be impactful if character got only half health or less. And half-dead Gunslinger can one-shot Elites, if deck is small enough and/or with the right draw order. This direction is highly risky, but highly rewarding and worth focusing on, if it's early enough. You can even take damage intentionally, to force "daredevil playstyle". "Black Wind" is attack for aggressive risky plays mostly, with aim to grow fundament of advantage in elite fights. It doesn't work well otherwise, but "Black Wind" still can occasionally help in instance of struggling. Don't count on it, tho.
Self-exhaustion condition is awkward, but it's rather positive for burst-damage type of cards in later game, when its role has been played already. You can don't worry much about removing it later, because it's not more diluting deck after first cycle.
"Gestalt" skill is very appropriate for a playstyle arranged by this rare card. But it's universaly great skill at the moment, and you want it anyway... Also "Black Wind" is great target for playing by "Cheat", because this attack is very high-tempo oriented.
This attack must be upgraded for cost reduction as soon as possible! It's very uncomfortable with its cost in basic form.

Dead or Alive

Meta-scaling rare card, sort of cousin to "Hand of Greed" colorless attack. Both cards is must-pick in act 1, among other. Scaling with gold is one of the strongest ways to grow in power in this game! And this is invariably one of the best cards available to character.
If this attack is fatal, it gives small amount of gold in normal fights, but this can really add up to significant numbers. It also exhaust, which is usually good for the end game. It's like a one-time-use slighly stronger "Skewer". But unlike Silent's context, Hermit's environment far more favorable for front-load damage with accessible sources of vulnerability and all his Strength/Bruise/Vigor damage scaling. Also this attack scaling with any energy sources and some front-load damage themed relics, as well. Though it can be very awkward with Hermit's relatively low consistency.
Keep your greed under control in boss fights, because "Dead or Alive" is basically a curse until you play it. Maybe you don't survive until that third, forth... who knows what deck cycle because of this. And maybe it's better to get rid of it, which is simple.
"Dead or Alive" is crazy good with "Bloody Idol" event relic - you can heal one more time after fight. Also great pair to "Ice Cream" relic, which conserve energy between turns. I would say it's skillfully designed and fun to-play-with card. But there is one Sad thing - act 3 Boss(es) doesn't have reward screen to claim the bounty. What if you going for act 4? What a scam!
Besides all, who we see drawn on a poster? It's a Romeo - leader of "Red Mask" gang! You can thank me for this useless knowledge in comment section below. Also like, subscribe and whatever.

Final Canter

I don't get the name and cover of a reviewed card, but whatever.
A good early game damage card, with the potential to get stronger later on, if you manage to adapt to it. 13(16) damage for 0-cost is strong enough in first third of a run to easily justify it. With "Memento" and ascension curse in the same hand, it is even more damaging. Frontloaded damage card with great offensive ratio, which retain and exhaust is comfortable enough, but actually it's not that flexible in terms of play, you need to wait appropriate moment to use it competently. This is because "Fatal Desire" is not a reusable card, and i don't see a notable reason why.
Some of Hermit's attacks and "Midnight" skill generate curses to fuel card's strength, by the way. Most notable is "Fatal Desire", which you often want to pick as soon as possible, makes "Final Canter" more potent. This rare attack potentially can be ridiculously powerful in combination with both "Fatal Desire" and "Charred Glove" relic, to the point where it doing huge damage or even just one-shot bosses. But there is issue here - all last mentioned stuff is rare...
Otherwise, in late game, "Final Canter" is way too conditioned and not impactful on average to be worthy enough. Also card's upgrade is truly awful with such tiny number increase.

Magnum

A real Banger of Hermit's arsenal! Though it's a balanced card and far from "press X to win", obviously. Without card advantage or high strength it's more like fair even. Ok, if early, it's a lil-banger with high potential to grow, which is pickable enough even without support. "Magnum" is limited in offensive power with standart 5-card hand and slightly awkward. But strong point is that only one "Magnum" is sufficient for strong-ish attack turn. And if you need to play other cards, then just play this attack last or pass. Lastly, discarding your full hand is not even always a bad thing and can be used to your advantage!
With this rare attack Hermit capable to do up to six hits, if there is enough cards to discard of course. You choosing which card to discard, if there is more than seven cards in current hand. Combo of "Runic Pyramid" and "Magnum" is truly powerful, because assembling 10 card full-hand is easy in this case. Besides that, you can clean your hand from unplayable cards easily as well. Since each of Magnum's hits count as individual attacks, strength buffs such as from "Girya" or "Flex" potion can significantly increase attack's total damage. This attack is doing up to *ridiculous* damage with any kind of bonus strength, considering its low energy cost. There is also "Pen Nib" relic and various sources of vulnerability...
Sometimes it can even be used for enable Dead-on cards. "Magnum" can be awkward with retained cards, but this is minor negative condition. Another negative thing worth to mention is an anti-synergy with "Adapt".

Purgatory

Sadly, this card is not that Hot anymore. I sort of like old design more - for 1 energy deal 30(36) damage to everyone, including Hermit himself. I like the concept, not implementation. Changed "Purgatory" doing 24(30) AoE damage for 3 energy - this is just sad energy to damage ratio, even considering Hermit's easy access to crowd-vulnerability. New card version is nigh-impotent, just compare this to Silent's flexible and sharp crowd-attack "Die Die Die". Even in comparison with Defect's "Hyperbeam" this card looking ugly. Hermit's rare AoE is way too expensive, for its mediocre ratio, and it's very inflexible in play. "Purgatory" is awful with all "Dead-on" cards in addition. Its application space is also too narrow - almost no synergy with something or some unusual usage.
It's hard to balance card like this, but "Purgatory" only working good in Act 1. It's probably decent in second Act, you better find some way to make it one-shot lethal, like Dupe potion or "Necronomicon". The fatter deck becomes, the more irrelevant this card becomes. And if you already have "Grudge" or "Malice", then you not super interested in "Purgatory" even early. And later this cards appearance is just a waste of opportunity for rare card, which you really desire.
Strangely enough, self-exhaustion is actually a pure positive, as you don't need such awkward thing in solo fights.
"Purgatory" has no late game potential - it interacts poorly with almost anything that Hermit has. It's just AoE damage, it's nothing more than a compromise solution for crowd fights. To be honest, this card is not frankly bad, but not something generally useful and rare-worthy. And new design is simply disappointing, in my opinion. It's boring and conceptually doesn't fit this class.

Roughhouse

This card resembling in some sense "Grand Finale" and "Meteor Strike". But it's on one level lower in both "build around" condition and power tier as well... "Roughhouse" is fundamentally awkward and very demanding attack in terms of play, but that is for the sake of balance. In early stages of the Spire its cost feel uncomfortable for sure. Also, without bonus effect, this is a fairly humble card... But it's a beginner trap, i think, to plan playing "Dead-on" cards Only when you meet the condition. They can be worth playing even for just the base effect alone sometimes. In addition, this card is mighty build-around worthy, and that's mostly necessary.
This card singlehandedly creates its own Sub-archetype. Every Hermit's card from "Dead-on archetype" is costing zero or one energy, except "Combo" power in basic form and "Roughhouse". Yep, this card has different playstyle. Also it is highly potent, but it's hard to implement efficiently. Actually, this is the Strongest defensive option of this character! And in form of attack, ironically. If you somehow solve an unreliability of bonus effect, then it's a solid increase in defense.
In a vacuum, all you need to beat like 90% of things the game can throw at you is a pair of "Roughhouse" attacks and some scaling in form of synergistic cards like "Snipe" and/or "Cheat" or sort of pure/pseudo energy solution. You also must remove basic garbage and keep the deck thin, but that's another story... In my opinion, it's worth taking early and try making this a reliable defensive card. "Roughhouse" seriously need a support to make it happen. You will need something like "Take Aim", "Snipe+", "Eternal Form", "Snecko Eye" etc. However, this attack is not good with "Smoking Barrel", nerfed "Gambit"... and most of card-pool of this class. Nonetheless, this card is just fun!

Roundhouse Kick

I adore the flavour of this card - it's totally flashy, deceptively impressive and simply practically uneffective, just like that fighting move from 90's action movies.
It's great in Act one as a crude AoE damage weapon. Later, "Roundhouse Kick" mostly interesting for Stun feature. With only 3 energy, stun doesn't do much more than reset your hand, in case if you managed to apply it. Though this card is more comfortable with more energy. And it's way better if you have ways to retrieve "Roundhouse Kick" like Pyramid, "Coalescence", "Gambit" etc. I mean, the better your consistency is, the better it is.
Stun is a very powerful effect, especially in Boss fights, that's true. But stun only works when the enemies do NOT want to attack you, unfortunately, they do that a bit too infrequently. Also enemy's charge of artifact buff prevent this effect. Furthermore, in some fights it simply can't be applied, because opponent is simply always attack.
This card looks like garbage in straight comparison with Purple lady's "Vault". In late game fights, often i feel like this attack just slowing down pace of my deck. Card's upgrade is very insignificant, like its influence to general damage output. This is a low-tier rare card, in my opinion, which is not appealing outside of Act one, besides cases with "Snecko Eye", "Necronomicon" etc.

Dissolve

Outside of first Act, this defensive card is weak alone. Block-to-Energy ratio of "Dissolve" is mediocre - 12(18) block units for 2 energy is slightly better than Hermit's standard defense. Obviously, main value of this rare skill is block retain feature. And if you already got some character's strong block options, then block retain effect starts to matter. Good with "Panic Button" colorless or other hardy but cheap blocks. It's a temporary effect, tho. This character can effectively generate block even with his native commons, so saving block surplus in current round can greatly increase the flexibility of future turns. But if you lacking in defense, then this card alone would not help much. This card exhaust, so it's purpose not stacking block, but give you more time to set up your powers/combos. Though it works mostly poorly without block surplus...
Pretty fair card, which is bad-ish for a rare tier. Also new card's concept is sort of dull - what a pity.

From Beyond

This thing makes bad guys jiggle! Amazing theme and flavour this card got - it feels really like something alien and out of place. It's also hilarious if this card generated by "Dead Branch" relic.
In terms of mechanics, this card stands apart from whatever offensive attack-based Hermit's builds. Card's damage is not straight, but rather enemy losing health by effect. It's kind of semi-passive damage card, which completely ignores enemy's block in addition. Can be a counter against Spheric Guards from act two, though, unlike Robot's "Melter", this card is less specialised. This type of damage don't care about being weaken, so it's good with "Hole Up" defensive skill. Though card's damage don't care about vulnerability and strength too.
Scaling exhaust feature directly into damage is an interesting mechanic. In majority of cases, card's scaling is way too slow in short fights and must be charged somehow for better application. If you only can exhaust "Memento" with "Covet", then it's not a good condition in this context. Obviously, it's better if most of added cards is self-exhausted. There is few generally good cards with self-exhaust, which you want anyway, like "Gestalt" or "Flash Powder+". Don't forget about some ethereal colorless cards as well. And there is "Adapt" power for burning garbage, and therefore it fuel scaling of "From Beyond" and make deck cycles more frequent. This card performs more well in Boss fights, and can be a handy tool, if you lacking scaling damage somehow.
"From Beyond" is viable with "Medical Kit" and "Blue Candle", which are allows to exhaust non playable statuses/curses. Worth to mention, "Makeshift Battery" is an energy relic, which generate slimed-status each turn, and can be turned to perpetual source of card exhausting.

Gambit

Previous card design was pretty much reverse "Violence" colorless skill, which worked poorly, unlike original. "Violence" is high tempo card for agressive play, unlike slow "Gambit" in old design, which was not rare-worthy at all then.
New version of "Gambit" skill is far better and overall more impactful. Now combos of "Gambit" with just plain common attacks can be very bursty damage-wise. Card allows surprisingly strong combinations with "Quickdraw", "Wide Open", "Pistol Whip" commons. "Gambit" can be good even with ordinary strikes!
Sometimes can be bad/unplayable if in opener hand - this is the only downside condition of this skill, minor in addition. "Gambit" is one of the best cards for taking in the beginning of a run, and later, this is a rare case with Hermit, it is always stay attractive. This card is limited only for offensive applying, it's not universally useful, but card's pseudo energy and draw often gain you benefit in offense.
Gambit now costs 1 energy, instead of zero. Pre-nerf "Gambit" was S-tier card, now it is barely on a power-level of a rare card, unfortunately.
Why this card is called "Gambit", tho? Maybe before was a risk or a sacrifice associated with this skill, but now card's name has no sense.

Heroic Bravado

This card was overnerfed, in my opinion. It feels at the moment like suboptimal defensive skill, for a rare card at least, since most threatening attacks in the game are multi-hit. Bravado is unreliable, but still good in basic form - it's cheaper Robot's "Buffer" analogue, which is not a power and can be repeated. Sadly, there is no way you can repeat it in current deck cycle with Hermit's native cards. And plus version of it - not bad, but just fair. At least this card is not upgrade reliant, as "Heroic Bravado" is probably the last thing you want to upgrade. As it'll better to self-exhaust, as soon as it costs 2+.
It's looking not so precious in comparison to uncommon "Gestalt" S-tier skill. Unlike it, Bravado can't be retained somehow, because of ethereal condition. And Gestalt's higher tempo matter very much outside of boss fights. Also it doesn't combine with "Determination" power.
Though, with all the shortcomings, this card is not a bait and hollow bragging. "Rugged" is a powerful buff, and you can make great value out of it sometimes.

Reprieve

Let's talk first about how Disgusting this card was before Downfall update 4.1.15. So, what did "Reprieve" skill do? It just used to exhaust all Curses from your card piles. You really don't have many reasons to take curses, to begin with. Card's utility was impractical, to put it mildly. Furthermore "Reprieve" even come into harmful conflict with Hermit's "Сurse archetype", where you want to have curses and make value from them... Therefore, i literally Never taken this (except for trial tests), even very late game. And it was just sad moment, when this weird thing appear in reward screen. So, it's not surprising this card was reworked.
Reworked version is noticeably better, though new design is far more boring. It's analogue of Robot's "Self Repair" now. Therefore, "Reprieve" is giving healing... sometimes. That's equivalent of mediocre defense card, but with opportunity to fill Hermit's HP pool, if foe is finished in the same turn or fast enough. Always playing Repair-eve is a mistake, don't be too greedy with it. It's almost not possible to stall fights with this, because card is ethereal - that's good from the point of gamedesign, actually. It's great in combination with Boat-themed and with any other strong defensive relics. Obviously it's a great thing with Snecko orb or Apparitions. Card is more attractive for greedy players, but i think it's a kind of trap if said relics is absent. Healing sources are precious in this game, tho.
I'm almost sure, that this card can't be generated by Branch, Codex etc. Upgrade of this card is a kind of waste, +3 HP or +25% healed, seriously!? Nonetheless, this is often enough a relevant card. Also this is a reason to take "Coffee Dripper" and vice versa.
This card would be good enough for any of the Original four characters, because the energy issue is much less of an issue for them. As for the Hermit - he often struggles to find the extra 2 energy to play "Reprieve", so in the context of this class, this is not such an appealing card. Finally, this skill almost looks like garbage compared to "Bandage Up" colorless healing card, which is not that good by itself.
Fun fact (hopefully) - Defect at the time of his beta testing had the card with the same name. It was repeatable Focus gain card, which didn't make it into the final version.

Adapt

Now "Adapt" is slower than before - this power only start to work from the next turn, but gives more passive block and at the time it's better, more handy with "Dead-on" archetype. It neutralises drawbacks of Hermit's native cards, which add curses to your deck, it makes "Dead-on" cards easier to play efficiently. This rare great even alone, just for 8 passive block units and for deck thinning. You can slim down your deck depending on what tool you need, get rid of statuses/curses/starters, and gained block is not affected by frail. Deck thinning equals overall more consistency and combo potential in course of the fight, if you still don't know.
Like any other high cost power, "Adapt" can be detrimental in high-tempo short fights, if you can't setup it fast and easy. It's not good in multiples without stable card advantage - additional copies increase the number of cards exhausted per turn. Though card exhaustion is optional and can be skipped.
Early pickup of it might be risky, but grabbing it often worth it - scaling potential is that solid. "Sundial" relic is an awesome addition to "Adapt" and reasonably thin deck with some draw.
Both concept and art design of this card is clever, respect for this one.

Eternal Form

I don't like "Eternal Form"!!!
I'm just kidding - it's a top-tier card. As you may have noticed, Hermit is ridiculously energy-starved character. "Eternal Form" is very unusual, but productive way to do energy, and this power Alone just can solve this problem, but for a deserving price, of course. You want to play this power as fast as possible - success in most fights in second half of the game depending highly on set up speed of scaling cards of this kind. This card is a pain to set up in early game, but you Absolutely need this card later, so skipping it on the first level is a mistake.
This power-card was reworked reсently. Mostly weakened, but slighly, and this is a fair change, frankly. Previous version was ridiculously powerful, almost broken. This was enable taking and playing heavy stuff like "Purgatory" or "Roughhouse" easily. New version is a little bit slow and more costly to set up, but still crazy powerful. And unlike old version, after playing new E-form you still gain energy at the start of next turn, this mean no more anti-synergy with "Overwhelming Power".
This rare power is generally good with any high-cost cards. You can even face the wasted energy problem, when your cards is mostly cheap and card advantage is non existent. Two copies of this power is pretty much solving All Hermit's energy problems. Though, you don't need second E-form much, but with two copies your chances to draw&play one faster is simply higher. Not to mention, second card will be easier to set up.
"Snecko Eye" is insane with "Eternal Form" - this is the Hermit's combo, which is closest to "Dead Branch" + "Corruption" level of power! This power is not upgrade reliant, worth buying in the shop and it's a simply must-take card in the vast majority of cases.

Fatal Desire

Simply Best card drawing spell, that is available to Hermit. +2 card per turn doesn't seem like great power booster, but it actually is. If you don't have it yet, besides some rare cases, it's an auto-pick card. This is a great power for normal fights, which usually will be over before the main downside of this power will become a problem. Clearly, this card's downside is less harmful not only in short encounters, but also with the Big deck. In Boss fights "Fatal Desire" will slowly clog a deck with curses, this will lead eventually to situation with atrocious hand, full of garbage. "Adapt" is best solution to this issue, but there is another methods around this. Actually good combo with "Blue Candle" relic, it's worth a health loss if you don't want to mess with generated curses in long fights.
Card's mechanic is quite shady, and need to be explained. "Injury" curse, generated each turn by "Fatal Desire", doesn't count as drawn card. This is the reason why it's not working with "Shadow Cloak" in first deck cycle. Moreover, it's added not after "Fatal Desire" draw extra cards, instead of this, "Injury" just placed on the random slot. So you never want more than one "Fatal Desire", beside the instance you play around "Curse" synergy. Otherwise you clog your hand with two curses each turn and waste a card draw.
As i mentioned above, trying to combo "Shadow Cloak" with "Fatal Desire" is a slow approach. As you only start to get passive block from those injuries only after you have gone through your entire deck once. But if deck is Thin - that's another talk.
You want to upgrade this soon real Bad. Once plussed, it becomes Innate. And even after upgrade it's sort of slow, it doesn't really do anything until the start of your second turn.

High Noon

Wow, after playing this, your starters became Shrugs and "Quick Slashes", but worse. "High Noon" is Low-tier scaling card, which don't deserve to be rare. Seriously, this is not a power level of a rare card in this game. You *Maybe* want this card early, and rare status hinders this. Also this power is pretty clumsy and hard to setup in early game with 3 basic energy - it's interfere much in normal fights. Upgrade correcting energy-clumsiness, but it just feels bad to upgrade for cost reduction, when there are so many other better options. And nobody guarantee you that this power will not be at the bottom of draw pile. In this sense, ease of setup, or rather absence of it, is another negative condition.
"High Noon" can only be theoretically powerful... If you already have something like "Frozen Egg" relic, and after if you somehow find 2+ of this and if it's early enough. Too many if, to be a good card.
"High Noon" is not even a Core of "Strike&Defend archetype"! It's bad in late game, as well, when you partially remove your starter cards. When it appears too late, it's often a Waste of opportunity for decent rare card. Removing starters is just a proper, surefire strategy. It can also be pretty hilarious if you have "Eternal Form" power. But, you know, whatever tool for card draw is good when "Eternal Form" is turned on.
Tumbleweed on the cover is the only superb aspect of this card.

Overwhelming Power
Premium stuff! In other words, this is a must-pick Hermit's card - it's simply a burst of value. Although this card is balanced by dangerous debuff, which make character losing life while finishing turn with zero energy. So, this power can't be converted straight into a victory and require smart play.
Don't be afraid of card's downside much, in fact it's pretty manageable. I like how this card designed - there is plenty of ways you can avoid being punished by it. You can apply anti-debuff relics or cards, like Hermit's native "Virtue", or simply try to finish encounter fast enough. Or just store energy reserve with "Ice Cream" relic. Any healing relics will do too... This is what you should strive for. And this card for sure will see you through many floors, while you seeking for mitigation of harmful drawback.
You must calculate risk, before playing "Overwhelming Power" too early in boss fight. With this card, you must keep in mind Big Blue Birb especially. "Overwhelming Power" almost always worth buying from a merchant. One of the best cards available for this class, despite it is basically worsened version of "Offering". This is bright example of how character's card pool context really changes the value of a card.

Somebody want a Tier List from the author of this guide? If you interested enough, just ask me in the comment section. I will make this bonus content, if this guide will resieve a positive response and people show interest.