General Strategy
Unsung Heroes is about managing your hand of cards in order to win the last round. However, it is important to compete for Minion cards in the first 4 rounds to earn their Powerups and Treasures.
While it is important to make sure you have a lot of cards going into the last round, not all cards are created equal. In general, Player Cards are better than Common Cards, Treasure Cards are better than Player Cards, and Gold Cards are the best.
As such, during the first rounds, if you can bait our Player Cards for your Common Cards, you will have an advantage. Just make sure you do secure some Treasure. Unless you have a good card advantage over someone it can be tricky to overcome many treasure cards.
Even though players tend to save their Gold Card until the end, you can consider playing it early to secure an additional Treasure. Conversely, since 2nd place still gets a treasure in 3+ player games, playing for 2nd can be a sneaky way to accumulate more treasures than if you played for 1st each turn.
There is generally one card in each character’s deck that is the best card to Nope. If you can bait your opponent into Noping another card instead, you have an advantage.
If you are currently winning the round, it makes all the sense in the world to pass. If another player beats your score, you still have an opportunity to play additional cards before the round ends.
In the same vein, you can sometimes force other players to play cards in the last round. For example, in a 3 player game, if the person winning passes and you have the next turn, you could also pass. This puts the 3rd player into a position where they have to play a card, or end the game. Be careful, however, if that person has no cards, you can end the game prematurely.
Make sure you do not end up stranding cards in your deck. Unless you have a plan, make sure you end each round with 5 cards or less in your hand so that you can draw 2 cards. The decks are designed so that you will draw your entire deck over the game.
Alfred Strategy
Alfred should aim to use tie breakers to his advantage. His predictable scoring means that he can win the round by only a point or 2. This makes him ruthlessly efficient in trading out cards and gaining advantages.
He specializes in rolling a lot of D4, partly because blue is his favorite color, and partly because rolling more dice is fun and leads to more stable results. The D4 can be a blessing and a curse, however. No one wants to force you to reroll them, or swap them, but it never seems like a good idea for you to reroll them either.
Wanda Strategy
Wanda’s strategy is to play big cards that force her opponents to use multiple cards to catch up. All of her Player Cards give dice, and her Comedy of Errors, makes even rolling 1s great.
However, going too big too quick can make her a target. Everyone has a Nope to cancel out a card, and if Wanda get’s too out of control, she could get Noped more by the table, which is a huge drag.
Also, you don’t need to use every ability on a card, such as a reroll when you already have high numbers.
Jerry Strategy
Jerry is opportunistic. Where other players can preplan their big rounds, he needs to constantly watch the state of the game. Playing the table and getting people to play their Nopes on each other can be worth it and is one of Jerry’s more cunning characteristics.
Subtlety is key. Just because the person winning an 8 on a die and you have a 1, doesn’t mean you need to swap them directly. Also, nothing states that you need to swap dice to yourself. You could build up good will by swapping the winning player’s high die with the losing player’s low die. This doesn’t effect your score, and, if done at the right time, might not change the order of who is winning. This could let you avoid a Nope.
Now, It might also just so happen that you have an unNopeable Swap up your sleeve for when the time is right.
You can use Jerry’s passive to fish for low rolls. Again, nothing states he needs to pick the highest die. If you have a bunch of dice you do not want to swap out, consider choosing the low value die to keep to later swap.
Tilda Strategy
Tilda can look weak early, but is a late game powerhouse. Whereas other players may have their starting hands clogged with a Gold Card, hers is safely buried for the last round. This gives her card playing advantage.
Also, because her player cards let her replay Item cards, she can afford to play some of her better cards early. This can let her gain favorable trades on a long term out look on life.
Make sure to charge up your passive for the last round. getting a positive trade on someone, losing the round, but still gaining a +1 bonus out of feels real good.
Betty Strategy
Betty is a tough cookie to crumble. Her Rage ability can ensure she never has a 1 on any of her dice. On a round she is losing, she may also use her Rage to reroll dice that are not at 1 in order to hunt for a 1 to be mad at. To get the juices flowing, she sometimes breaks her own dice as a show of force.
Karl Strategy
Karl takes the game into his own hands and makes Gold Bars. In the early rounds, he enjoys Forging as efficiently as possible and ideally enters the last round of the game with four +1 Gold Bars. He can use any card to Forge with his dice, and so if he rolls high on a die, in the last round it can be effective to Forge that die and all his +1 Gold Bars into a new Gold Bar. This way it is protected from rerolls, swaps, and all the other joys of the game.
Greg Strategy
Who needs luck when you have faith? Greg’s all about sharing the love and spreading the wealth. To himself. His cards provide set dice values that, at first glance, do not appear that dynamic. However, all that Tithing adds up. A common strategy is to get his dice to above average, but not maxed, as to hedge his bets against rerolls.
Ellen Strategy
Ellen is a master of Puppets, pulling strings and “pushing buttons.” She uses her Puppets to bide her time until she can work up an unstoppable advantage. Her favorite tactic is to use her Puppet to delay playing cards to force her opponents to commit resources first. Be mindful of how many cards you play, you can only stuff so much into those Puppets.
