The Witch is the strongest class by far. It has amazing econ, good starting spells, great scouting, powerful upgrades, and high range. It also has an incredibly strong energy max refill ability. Basically, the Witch does everything you need to make a good, consistent run.
Amazing Economy: You get 6 gold for finishing a level without taking damage. This might seem daunting at first, but the Witch is very capable of eliminating/hiding enemies, avoiding direct damage, and evading levels if necessary. It’s likely the easiest class to avoid taking damage with since you can deal with problems in many ways. Aside from the 6 gold perk, you also have the damage to kill enemies, meaning you can get some gold that way. This is more of a passive income since you want to save your energy usually, but if you plan to use the energy max refill at the end, you can get a little bit more money. Similarly, you have enough tools to scout entire maps and get all the dead ends, using Pyrokinesis to scout unknowable tiles.
Starts with Damage: The witch starts with Pyrokinesis(6 energy, fire cone of base 2 range, 1 dmg), Banish(6 energy, hide enemy, 1 range), and Teleport(1 energy, linear self-move any horizontal/vertical distance). All of her Power spells cost 3 less up to NG+2, then 4 less from there. For the purpose of descriptions like Pyrokinesis, energy listed will assume NG+Max.
Pyrokinesis is an extremely strong scouting spell when upgraded. It upgrades with +1 Range, meaning it covers significantly more tiles each upgrade due to the cone shape. You’re uncovering around a third of the final map with a level 3 pyrokinesis. Combined with Strength tonic or the passive perk Surprise(+1 dmg to hidden enemies), you can use this to clear rooms very easily. Also good synergy with starting perk Desperate Hour(3 energy reduction if 1 hp) if you ever get low enough. Similarly, Meditation(2 energy reduction on 0-tiles) can be useful. School of Power(power spells cost 3/4/5 less) is also nice. In a dicey situation, can be used to scout for the king, followed by immediate escape. Overall powerful spell that works with many methods. One caveat is that at very high NG+ difficulties, you have to be careful not to reveal too much at a time with level 3 pyrokinesis, or you might find yourself unable to kill all the hidden enemies.
Banish is useful in higher NG+ difficulties when you can’t oneshot enemies with pyrokinesis, or the angle is awkward. I don’t really upgrade this one simply because Witch has insane upgrades, but it reduces energy from 6 to 4 which is efficient.
Teleport is a surprisingly useful utility spell due to its cost. It is useful for lining up other spells, teleporting over hidden roads to possibly safe tiles, and faster travel if enemy timers matter. With Meditation or Desperate Hour active, it is free cost. Upgrading it lets you move diagonally as well, but I don’t upgrade this due to how good her other upgrades are.
Other notable power spells include: Lightning, Fireball, Leech, Curse, Armageddon. The other spells won’t be listed here, but can be situationally useful.
Lightning is a bit too expensive for what it does. Effectively a worse pyrokinesis.
Fireball(4 energy,1 dmg, 4 turn cd) is a cheap linear damage ability that upgrades with -2 energy, then upgrades again for 2 damage. It complements Pyrokinesis well for finishing off tankier enemies, and is good with energy reduction skills.
Leech is useful in that it allows you to effectively trade energy for health while hitting an enemy. Can be used to heal to full pretty easily.
Curse isn’t too useful.
Armageddon is neat.
Great Scouting: Unlike some other classes(cough Leo cough) , you have no problem spending any amount of time out of combat. Pyrokinesis with sufficient upgrades lets you scout dangerous tiles easily, while sufficient damage or banish allows you to take monsters out. Teleport allows you to not get cut off as easily by poor road mapping. Some Oracle spells also exist, but I tend not to take those on Witch.
Powerful upgrades: Aside from previously mentioned spell upgrades, the Witch has a variety of useful perks.
Insight lets roads have numbers too. This isn’t the most powerful, but it is very helpful for scouting the entire map through logic.
Desperate Power (-3/4/5 energy spells when at 1 hp) lets you overcome most stages pretty easily with the base kit. I wouldn’t recommend sitting at 1 HP too long if you can, but you’re incredibly powerful at 1 HP. You can use Pyrokinesis to scout freely, sometimes even free when combined with other energy upgrades. You can teleport freely near enemies then banish them for almost free. As both have no cooldown, you can repeat for any enemies you see.
Loot(+30/60/100% to get 1 gold on enemy kill) is a trap. It’s not worth the opportunity-cost of getting a different upgrade.
Flawless upgrade is similarly not ideal.
Magic Hoard(get 3/5/7 energy on chest open) is actually pretty decent. I wouldn’t upgrade it too much, but this equates to a free spell or so every level, which helps significantly with clearing levels.
Omniscience(+8/10/12 gold for seeing all nonroad tiles) is not worth it.
School of Power upgrades(-3/4/5 energy cost on power spells) helps you do damage more efficiently, so it’s fine. Sufficient energy reduction skills together can make your spells almost free.
Meditation (-2/3/4 energy cost on 0 tiles) lets you freely teleport and stacks with school of power to make spells very cheap.
Surprise!(hidden enemies take +1 dmg) is the one I roll to try to get every time. It makes your spells significantly stronger and able to clear out weak enemies easily.
Dark Energy: This is your critical ability that lets you refill all of your energy at the cost of 10 turn cooldown and reveal/summoning X+1 monsters, X being the number of times the ability was activated. The easiest way to use this is to use it after the king has already been revealed, to refill your energy between stages. It revealing more monsters doesn’t matter if you’re strong enough to beat maps from full energy, which you should be able to do as witch. In emergencies, you can even use it before you find the king, albeit you have a time limit with new monsters coming in.
General Playstyle: When out of combat, use logic to go to as many tiles as possible, leaving only unidentifiable tiles left. Use Teleport to cross gaps if you need to since it is very cheap to use. Don’t take any risks you don’t have to because you want to get 6 gold for not taking damage on a level.
Use Pyrokinesis on unidentifiable tiles to try to open up new areas for logic. If it reveals enemies that are too tanky to kill, Banish them. At dead ends, all of the vendors are important. At the Smith, try to roll to get Surprise if possible, but beware of the increasing reroll price. At the Gym, try to upgrade Pyrokinesis, energy-related perks, and other damage spells. At Chovey’s, you want to try to stock up on any useful consumable items whenever they’re available. These will generally be your ticket to murdering the King easier on the final stage, or getting out of sticky situations. Buying the upgrades to energy and health don’t matter that much, where you can buy them as gold-sinks. However, on NG+5, Pyro costs 6 energy and you have 14 to start with. Therefore, buying +2 energy from Chovey lets you cast an extra pyro on that difficulty.
On levels that spawn with a trumpeter, try to rush them down if possible, using long-range pyrokinesis, teleport banish, consumables, etc. Levels become significantly easier when you aren’t on a combat timer.
