DICEOMANCER: How to Build Gatling Guns and Tesla Towers

To play the Builder class effectively in DICEOMANCER, prioritize defensive mitigation on turn one, deploy persistent contraptions once incoming damage is absorbed, and drag high dice rolls directly onto contraption stat values. Unlike instant attack cards that discard after resolving, Builder contraptions remain on the board and trigger autonomously across rounds without demanding fresh energy every turn.

Choosing Between Gatling Guns and Tesla Towers

Your primary machine selection depends on whether the encounter demands concentrated burst damage or wide board control:

Gatling Guns for Single Targets: The Gatling Gun fires a burst of low-damage ballistic hits. Because its damage is distributed across multiple projectiles, it scales heavily with flat damage enhancements and the Vulnerable debuff, which amplifies each individual strike. Pair it with ammo refills or reload cards during long boss encounters to prevent the turret from going dormant.
Tesla Towers for Swarms and Adds: The Tesla Tower distributes electrical shock damage across multiple enemy targets. It excels in fights with frequent minion spawns, automatically stripping shields and eliminating secondary units before they can act. In solo boss encounters, unaugmented Tesla Towers offer lower single-target pressure unless you modify their damage triggers or targeting parameters with dice.

Dice Manipulation Priorities for Contraptions

In DICEOMANCER, dragging rolled dice onto card text permanently alters numerical parameters on active contraptions for as long as they stay in play. Overwriting persistent machinery values yields far more value than buffing a one-time attack card because the altered stat triggers every round the machine fires.

Contraption Component	Default Characteristic	Ideal Dice Overwrite	Strategic Impact
Gatling Gun (Shots)	Fixed burst (3–4 hits)	High Roll (5 or 6+)	Increases total damage output without extra energy cost
Gatling Gun (Damage)	Low base damage (2–3)	High Roll (5 or 6+)	Bypasses enemy armor thresholds on every bullet
Tesla Tower (Targets)	Limited chain (1–2 units)	Moderate to High Roll (3+)	Spreads shock damage to the entire enemy board
Assembly Cost	High energy cost (2–3 Energy)	Low Roll (1 Energy)	Allows early deployment alongside defense
Machine Durability	Finite charges	High Roll (5 or 6+)	Keeps lethal weapons firing for the entire encounter

Turn-by-Turn Combat Execution

Deploying heavy machinery creates a tempo deficit on the turn it is played. Use this sequence to safely build and maintain your board:

Stabilize on Turn One: Check incoming enemy intents before committing energy to installations. Play blocks, defensive barriers, or decoy cards to absorb telegraphed turn-one attacks. Only deploy a Gatling Gun or Tesla Tower if you have surplus energy after securing player defense.
Deploy and Overwrite: Once defenses are established, spend energy to place your contraption. Immediately drag your rolled dice pool onto its core attributes—such as shot count on a Gatling Gun or target count on a Tesla Tower—before ending your turn so the weapon fires at peak capacity.
Sustain and Debuff: In subsequent rounds, let the machines handle combat output automatically. Use your hand to apply Vulnerable to priority targets, replenish contraption ammo and activation charges, and stack armor to outlast the remaining enemy phases.