Cut through the noise. K.N.Y.F.E. is your aggressive striker—a close-quarters specialist who converts tempo and hand resources into huge single-target bursts, with tools to pierce DR, hit multiple times, and finish priority threats before they snowball. This guide keeps it practical and spoiler-light.

Boot Up – Find a repeatable damage source (power or equipment), plus one damage modifier.

Go Live – Chain multi-hit turns (extra powers / follow-ups) to outpace villain healing and DR.

Surgical Finish – Convert hand/resources into irreduci­ble or boosted burst to delete the highest-value target.

Repeatable Damage / Weapons: Your reliable ping every round. This is your floor; everything else multiplies it.

Multi-Power Enablers: Anything that grants extra power uses or after-power follow-ups—this turns one decent swing into two or three.

Damage Buffs: Static +1s, conditional boosts, or self-amps. Multi-hit heroes scale exponentially with small buffs.

Piercing / Irreducible Lines: Answers to high DR or shielded bosses; save these for the problem target.

Mobility / Targeting Tools: “Choose another target,” “hit adjacent/secondary targets,” or ways to reposition your damage to where it matters.

Stabilizers: Small self-DR, temporary shields, or self-heal to keep you online after a big commit.

Card Flow / Tutoring: Draw, filter, or top-deck access that assembles the above pieces faster.

T1: Equip/establish repeatable damage. If you whiff, draw/fetch for it.

T2: Add a damage buff or an extra power effect. Use your repeatable hit.

T3: Layer a second enabler (buff or extra power). Consider a short burst only if it removes a key threat.

T4: Alpha turn: multi-power → repeatable → follow-up/one-shot. Keep a backup card in hand in case of villain cleanses.

Rule of thumb: Floor (repeatable) → Buff → Extra power → Burst.

Wide boards (many minions): Use multi-hit lines and conditional splashes to trim adds while still tagging the boss each turn.

Tall bosses (few, beefy): Stack buffs and save irreducible for the big swing; avoid wasting pierce on small fry.

High DR / damage caps: Lead with piercing/irreduci­ble or stack multiple small hits that each benefit from buffs.

Environment-heavy: Spend a turn to remove the worst tile; one clean board often equals two free K.N.Y.F.E. turns later.

Extra power granters: Let you run repeatable → repeatable → finisher in one turn.

Global damage buffs / enemy debuffs: Every +1 multiplies across multi-hit turns.

Card draw engines: Keeps your hand full so you can convert cards → damage when it matters.

Protection / redirection: Cheap DR or interception lets you stay aggressive without folding to AOEs.

Deck manipulation: Setting your next draw to a finisher makes your alpha turns consistent.

Blowing burst before buffs: You run out of gas.

Fix: Establish buff + repeatable first; then cash in.

Overcommitting into a cleanse: Villain wipes your board, you stall.

Fix: Stagger plays; keep one enabler in hand.

Pierce on low-value targets: You’ll miss it on the boss.

Fix: Reserve irreduci­ble for DR walls or flip thresholds.

Ignoring defense: Pure face-tank = dead DPS.

Fix: Slot a stabilizer (DR/heal) before long commits or known AOEs.

Order of operations: Apply static buffs → use repeatable power(s) → finish with your largest one-shot for maximum scaling.

Breakpoints > overkill: If a boosted repeatable already kills, save the finisher for the next target/phase.

Two-turn lethal: Turn N: second buff + chip; Turn N+1: multi-power chain into irreduci­ble finisher for clean boss flips.

DR math: Against heavy DR, multiple small boosted hits can out-DPS a single big hit—unless you go irreducible.

Establish repeatable damage

Add a damage buff

Secure extra power uses

Alpha: repeatable → repeatable → piercing/burst

Stagger enablers, keep one answer in hand