Indies’ Lies is a roguelite deck-builder from developer Fun Square Games and publisher Erabit. Set in the world of Mekaa, the game puts you in the shoes of a hero delving deeper and deeper into dangerous territory. Given its roguelite nature, many challenges await in Indies' Lies—and the random results aren’t always in your favor.

Fortunately, we've put together an Indies’ Lies beginner’s guide with plenty of tips to help you on your journey. Our Indies’ Lies guide discusses the core mechanics for each hero class, as well as general concepts to keep in mind when starting your run. We also tackle what you can expect with each playthrough, as well as additional content from Story Mode and the Dragon Abyss dungeon.
 

12 tips to help you succeed in Indies’ Lies

Indies’ Lies has nine heroes across three classes—or 12 characters across four classes if you own the Alrayan Undertow DLC. By default, each character comes with initial talents and unique cards that suit their playstyle.

You’ll begin each run with your hero all on their lonesome, though you’ll be able to recruit partners (i.e. other hero companions) upon defeating each chapter's boss. As you successfully complete each adventure, you’ll earn character-specific rewards such as secret cards and exclusive talents.

Wizards: Activating the Psychic Circle

The offensive and defensive capabilities of Wizard class characters are dependent on the Psychic Circle. The idea is to play specific cards in the proper order—such as Attack, Attack, Skill—in order to gain a Block and Psychic buff. Each Block value mitigates a point of damage, whereas Psychic points ensure that your offensive moves hit harder.

Playable Wizard heroes: Albert, Karma Twin, and Daniel

 

Rangers: Stabbing and increasing Combo Stacks

Rangers are all about getting into the thick of it with the use of poisons, thorns, and combos. Ranger cards that have the Combo attribute add a Stack for the current round. The higher the Combo Stacks, the higher the damage.

The Ranger playstyle is primarily geared toward drawing Stab cards, which are frequently used for quick strikes and rapid Combo Stack buildup. Just remember that your Combo Stacks also reset at the end of your turn.

Playable Ranger heroes: Oleg, Sigourney, and Keely.

 

Mechanists: Managing the Overload and Superload mechanic

If playing as a Mechanist-type hero, you have to be mindful of the Overload/Superload mechanic. Each card you play, regardless of type, increases the Overload value (outside of additional modifiers).

Upon reaching +5 Overload points, you can play cards with the Superload characteristic to trigger unique effects. For instance, there are Superload effects that automatically draw extra cards, as well as ones that deal additional damage. There are also other intricacies to consider:

• Upon reaching 10 Overload, the next card causes Overheat. This halves your remaining energy and resets the meter.
• You won’t be able to gain Overload until your next turn. Thus you have to keep playing more cards to build up the meter or you won’t be able to trigger Superload effects.

Playable Mechanist heroes: Janssen, Evelyn, and Diego.

 

Knights: Self-healing and purging heresy

Knights are a DLC-only class, with characters that specialize in purging foul creatures. This is done by condemning a target as a Heretic and then using a card that grants an additional effect on those opponents. Knights also have cards that trade health for other boosts—such as Gold or Block value—though there are also abilities that allow them to heal themselves.

Playable Knight heroes: Grace, Rohan, and Perry

 

Understand each card’s usage and effects

Most cards in Indies’ Lies have an Energy cost, which is denoted by a number in the upper-left corner of the panel. It goes without saying that you should consider cost-effective cards, as it’s always better if you’re able to do more actions in a single turn.

These are the types of cards that you can encounter during your playthrough and their uses:

• Attack: Generally used to deal damage to enemies.
• Skill: These have utility effects, including defensive boosts, passive buffs, card draws, dispels, and negative status effects for your foes.
• Power: Once a power card is used, the effect lasts until the end of the battle.
• Status: These tend to have debilitating conditions that afflict your characters.
• Curse: A curse card persists throughout your journey, unless you’re able to remove it. This is done via random events, by using certain skill cards, or by purifying yourself at an altar.

Think twice about card replacements

Each hero in Indies’ Lies comes with their own starting cards, including basic offensive and defensive moves (i.e. Strike and Defense). Once you win battles or check out the merchant shop, you should be able to acquire additional cards and can then select which cards to replace in your deck.

We suggest building your deck carefully, while considering each character’s and class’s strengths. Too many Skill cards could lead to a lack of offense, whereas focusing too much on Attack cards means you might lack passive boosts. Note that passing on card rewards at the end of battles grants gold, which is a good way to earn more money for vendor shops.

 

Choose partners that fit your party’s composition

Upon defeating the boss in each chapter, you’ll be able to recruit a partner or hero companion. Ideally, you should think about the type of role they'll inhabit to complement your character’s capabilities. For instance, a support Wizard like Karma Twin can help improve the survivability of a tanky Mechanist like Diego, while a poison specialist like Oleg benefits from a fellow debuffer like Evelyn.

It’s worth mentioning that partner heroes can only have up to four cards in their deck. You can still replace them with other character-specific cards that you come across.

Lastly, you can decide to forgo companion recruitment at the end of each chapter. Doing so nets you a legendary talent or passive. However, future battles will be tougher with only one character.

 

Change your party’s formation

Whenever a new companion joins your team, it’s important to check your party’s formation. This is done by clicking on the handshake icon in the upper-right part of the screen.

There are two reasons why you should check this panel:

• Most enemy attacks focus on the person in front of the squad (i.e. the one furthest to the right). This position is best suited for a character with high survivability.
• Some character cards have additional effects, such as being able to hit twice depending on the partner’s positioning.

Pick talents that bolster your character

Talents in Indies’ Lies help boost your own hero’s capabilities further. You can earn Talent Sparks (i.e. talent points) by:

• Spending gold at any merchant’s shop you encounter.
• Defeating elite enemies (marked with a large skull icon) on the map.
• Random events, designated with a book or question mark icon.

Maximize the potential of your cards using runes

As you continue your adventure in Indies’ Lies, you’re bound to collect runes that can be used in battle to great effect. However, these items can also be socketed into cards to boost them significantly. This is done via the Runesmith NPC—look for hammer icons on the map.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Punch: This action creates a rune socket for the card. You can only do this once per Runesmith shop that you visit.
• Attach: Allows you to select a rune that will be attached to a card with a socket. You can do this as many times as you like, provided that you still have runes.

Attaching a rune grants their respective effect to the card. For example:

• Opportunity Runes: These ensure that a card will always appear in your hand at the start of combat. This is viable for Power-type cards so you can utilize their game-changing effects as early as possible.
• Energy Runes: Lowers the energy cost of a card, though it cannot go below +1 energy point.
• Retain Rune: Keeps a card instead of putting it in the discard pile at the end of the turn.

Remove curses and heal using Altars

Each chapter map has a few Altars denoted by a crystal icon. Be sure to visit these since they offer amazing benefits. These include:

• Bless: Heals the entire party for up to 35% of their maximum HP.
• Pray: Select a companion to increase their maximum HP.
• Purify: Allows you to transform a card into something else that’s completely random. You may also remove a curse card by transforming it into something else.

Try each character’s Story Mode and the Dragon Abyss dungeon

When you’re finished with your usual treks, we encourage you to try the other game modes in Indies’ Lies. First, each character has their own Story Mode, which is unlocked once you’ve completed at least one run with them.

Story Mode is presented as a 2D map of a city, and you'll learn about each character’s motivations and unique plight. Apart from battles, you can also expect to encounter random events, merchants, and recruitable partners.

Then there’s Dragon Abyss—a 10-floor dungeon where your hero is entirely on their own. The idea is to move across hexes until you reach a boss. Once defeated, you automatically proceed to the next floor. Upon completing a run, you'll earn coins based on your score and can exchange this currency for unique outfits.

We hope our Indies’ Lies beginner’s guide helps you build a great deck and master the game. While random events and cards can make things tricky at times, we urge you to keep trying until you achieve victory. After all, each setback is a learning opportunity.

If you'd like to experience deep deck-building mechanics and challenging combat then you should pick up Indies’ Lies, available now on the Epic Games Store. We also suggest grabbing the Alrayan Undertow DLC, which adds the aforementioned Knight class, three new characters, and a new region to explore.