So I played the new update and here is what I think: It feels quite a bit harder than the previous version, the enemy has some really strong units in the first battle which caused me to lose a few time. However, once I got the plus 2 buff on 3 tiles before the end of preparation it got a lot easier and I was able to breeze through much of the second battle and pretty much all of the third battle except for the last battle in which I tied and then won the game.
Here's what I think of the items:
not really good, honestly I don't think its worth investing in items except for the first battle they all seem kind of bad for the most part after you start scaling up your stats which you absolutely need to do to have any shot at winning.
Here's what I think of the units:
the disposable: might be okay early-mid game when you don't have a lot of stats or have a discard ability but overall it's not that good and there are better options.
The selfless: surprisingly quite decent, not that great early game but at mid and late game getting to plus 7 hp given actually isn't that bad since stats matter a lot late game.
the manifester: a bit of a weird one, he's actually pretty good early game all the way to late game if your smart and put him in the hold slot since when you sell him he sells for 3 gold and is an extra body on board which is nice. He does fall off a bit late game since the bonus is a bit redundant but is essentially free if you keep him in the hold slot for 2 round. I feel like if the game was a bit more balanced around wanting to hold units It would be more balanced. As of now he's essentially just a free body to sell whenever.
The brawler: not very good
The madame: for some reason I don't get this unit that often, the unit however, is very good from the beginning to the end of the game since the affect to use ability's on death is extremely useful.
The pig: not that great might be okay early game but besides that not really worth it.
The dog: didn't use it that much, maybe the affect scales a lot after a while but I'm not sure how good it would be since the starting ability isn't very good.
The underestimated: extremely good early and mid game, falls off a bit late game since everything is super overstated but it's still very good. Summoning units, even low stated ones is super helpful which leads me to.....
The hermit: definitely the best unit in the game due to it's ability to get very high unit stats mid to late game. I originally thought the underestimated was the best but after beating the game hermit definitely seems the best due to how much attack the spawned unit have after being upgraded.
the miner: not entirely sure how to use it? I think it just triggers the cell affect again which isn't that good.
the fish: not very good, would only be good if your trying to infinitely get gold abusing the item sell ability feature overall a bad unit.
the caregiver: I believe the stat increase is permanent so this card is really good, probably the second or third best unit in the game. Permanent stat increases are a must in this game.
Abilities: the stat increases ones for the tiles at the end of the preparation phase are definitely the best ones since you want to scale quickly. discard attack one isn't half bad either. pretty sure you can infinitely reroll if you get enough abilities where you get gold by selling items but it's not worth it since you really want the stat boosting abilities. the ability where it deals damage to an enemy equal to your gold is really good late game where your build is pretty much established. also, having the positive affect tile is nice.
In conclusion: pretty fun game but is probably way too hard early game right now, I think it took me like 5 attempts to get a good enough build going to endgame but the average player probably won't get pas the first battle or if they do their gonna lose pretty quickly in the second due to how RNG reliant the game is right now. most units seem not worth it and the game seems to be falling into a trap one of the previous versions had which is the unit spawning being so much better than the other options you have to pivot into that and nothing else. Overall it's a fun game and I look forward to seeing the future builds!