21 – Opponent Guide
Some of the opponents in the Survival Modes have special trumps, unique to them. This guide will help you recognize who's packing what, and how to defeat it. Note that some enemies come in multiple strengths. In general, the more marks,slashes, or prints are on their hood, the deadlier they are.
Tallyhead
A random enemy, his headsack marked by several vertical slashes and one diagonal. Tallyhead is perhaps slightly sharper than storymode Hoffman, but has no special trumps of his own.
Slashguy
This random enemy is recognizably by the side-to-side slashes across his headsack. He can be tough kill because he's always packing a large number of Shield cards, but then he usually sacrifices them to use his special trump.
Shield Assault: Slashguy sacrifices 3 Shields (2 with the upgraded version) to increase your bet (by 3 regularly, 5 with the upgrade). This card is vulnerable to Destroy.
Palmhead
This random enemy has bloody handprints all over his headsack.
Mindshift: You lose half your trump cards unless you play two during this round. Since you're usually going to be carrying a hefty number of trumps, playing two is the easiest way to be free of this one.
Desire: Raises your bet proportionately with the number of trumps in your hand. no problem if you intend to win, but if you're stuck with a losing hand, this can be devastating. Desire is vulnerable to Destroy
Happiness: Each player draws a trump card. Given how many enemies just hoover up trumps willy-nilly, that's quite kind.
Molded Halfhead
The final boss of Survival, and midpoint boss of Survival+, this guy looks a bit like the deputy head from the fridge.
Conjure: The Halfhead draws three trumps, but his bet increases by one.
Curse: The Halfhead discards a trump, but you're slapped with the highest value card in the deck. This isn't always a disaster, but cards like Exchange, Go for 24, and Return can mitigate it.
Black Magic: Like Perfect Draw, only the Halfhead discards half his trumps (in theory, at least; it's not like you can check), and your bet increase by ten (i.e.- instant death).
Utensilhead
The final opponent of Survival+. Has a lot of Perfect Draws, but this can actually be used against him.
Dead Silence: Prevents you from drawing any cards, even via trump. You can either Destroy this card, or use Exchange to try and get him to bust. This is an easy calculation if he's already used Perfect Draw- if your last showing card is higher value than his, Exchange will bust him for sure.
Oblivion: Cancels out the current round and starts a fresh one. Can't be countered. Lowest of the low blows.
The Elusive Mr. Big Head
An enemy that appears randomly in Survival+ mode; there are special Rewards for taking him down.
Escape: Like a Final Fantasy thief, MBH's special ability is to scarper. Because of his unpredictable appearances, it's always a good idea to keep a Destroy in reserve.