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About Deck of Haunts
In Deck of Haunts you become a haunted house, a cursed domain that whispers secrets and hides terror behind every wall. Your purpose is to lure daring humans, manipulate their fears with a deck of cards, and drain their essence to grow your dark influence.
During daylight you design a labyrinthine mansion, protecting the Heart room while placing traps and special rooms. At night you lure explorers, play haunt cards to shift hallways, summon spirits, and drive sanity to the brink before harvesting their essence.
01 / THE GUIDE
Sinister Role and Core Objective
You assume the role of a haunted house, not a character, and the core objective is to ensnare humans, play on their fears, and drain their essence to expand your influence. Success is measured by how much essence you harvest and how many new cards or rooms you unlock.
The game encourages you to build tension, push explorers toward madness, and protect the Heart room, which concentrates your power. As you grow, tougher targets such as law enforcement, priests, and the Stone Masons appear.
- Observe which card effects cause the fastest sanity drop and prioritize them.
- Track which types of visitors trigger higher essence yields for future design tweaks.
02 / THE GUIDE
Daytime Mansion Construction
By day you meticulously design the mansion’s layout, placing rooms, traps, and twists to form a death‑trap maze. The design phase lets you protect the Heart room and create pathways that confuse intruders.
Special rooms with unique powers can be added, and the overall maze should funnel guests toward high‑tension zones where haunt cards will be most effective.
- Place protective rooms near the Heart to shield your power source.
- Create dead‑ends that force guests to backtrack, increasing exposure to scares.
03 / THE GUIDE
Nighttime Haunt Card Play
When night falls you lure explorers into your home and use a deck of terrifying cards. Cards can summon spirits, shift hallways, and unleash horrors directly on guests or within rooms.
Playing cards raises tension and drives sanity down; the right combination can push a victim to the brink of madness, after which you may harvest their essence.
- Combine a hallway‑shifting card with a spirit‑summoning card for compounded confusion.
- Reserve high‑impact cards for moments when guests are already near critical sanity.
04 / THE GUIDE
Heart Room Protection and Essence Harvest
The Heart room is the core of your power; keeping it safe while you drive guests toward insanity is essential. Once a guest’s fear reaches critical levels you can extract their essence.
Extracted essence is used to strengthen your mansion, unlock new rooms, and attract more dangerous targets such as law enforcement or priests.
- Position the Heart centrally to make direct access harder for guests.
- Add defensive rooms around the Heart before increasing haunt intensity.
05 / THE GUIDE
Progressive Unlocks: Cards and Rooms
As you harvest essence you can unlock and collect new cards, expanding your toolbox with tools of terror like bone‑chilling screams, phantoms, and shifting walls. New rooms become available, each offering unique powers to aid your hauntings.
These unlocks increase your infamy, drawing tougher and more rewarding targets while providing fresh strategic options for both design and night‑time play.
- Prioritize unlocking cards that complement your existing layout for smoother synergy.
- Experiment with newly unlocked rooms to discover unexpected defensive combos.
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