Monster Train: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Introduction — Your Honest Take on the Game

Yeah, this game can be brutal at first. You drop in, pick a clan combo, slap some cards together, and watch your Pyre get melted by the third ring because you thought stacking three copies of "Shard Queen" was a good idea. I’ve been there. I spent my first seven runs trying to make a pure Frost build work with the Hellhorned clan, and I got absolutely annihilated by the second boss every single time. It wasn’t until I stopped treating it like Slay the Spire that I finally started winning.

Monster Train is not a traditional deckbuilder. It’s a defensive tower-defense hybrid where you’re the monster, and the angels are the relentless horde trying to kill your flame. The core loop is simple: train goes up, enemies come down, you put dudes on floors to block them. But the depth is nuts once you understand that placement and unit synergy matter more than any individual card. That’s the secret nobody tells you.

What makes this game special is the verticality. You have three floors on the train, and you can move your units between them at specific points. The enemy waves path from top to bottom, then hit the Pyre at the bottom if they survive. This means you’re not just building a deck—you’re building a layered defense. A well-placed tank on floor one can buy you four turns to set up a DPS monster on floor two. That’s where the magic happens.

Anyway, enough gushing. You’re here because you’re stuck. Let’s fix that.

Why Players Struggle (Pain Points)

I’ve spent more hours than I’m proud of on Reddit threads and Discord rants, and here are the top five frustrations I see new players hit like a brick wall. If any of these sound like you, you’re not alone. And I have the exact fix.

• “I keep dying to the second boss (or third) no matter what I pick.” — This is the single most common complaint. The boss damage spikes hard after the first ring, and if you’re not ready for it, you’re toast. The fix? Stop trying to build a “balanced” deck. Specialize. Pick one win condition (a single unit or a spell combo) and build everything around it. I learned this after losing to the Talos boss five times because I had two half-baked tank builds instead of one fully upgraded Animus of Will.
• “I don’t know which cards to take from the shop.” — The game throws a million choices at you. Common trap: taking every card that looks cool. You end up with a bloated deck that draws nothing but junk when the boss hits. Solution? Skip more often. The shop is free to skip. Only take cards that directly support your win condition. I literally wrote a note on my monitor: “Does this card kill the boss? No? Skip.”
• “I can’t figure out the right clan combo.” — The starter clans (Hellhorned + Awoken) are great, but everyone wants to run Umbra because it looks edgy. Umbra is hard. Its morsel mechanic requires precise timing and floor management. If you’re new, stick with Awoken + Hellhorned until you can clear Cov 25 without blinking. Awoken gives you sustain and sweep damage; Hellhorned gives you armor and raw attack. It’s the easiest pairing to learn.
• “I’m wasting resources on upgrades that don’t matter.” — This hurts me. I’ve seen people spend 80 gold on a +5 attack upgrade for a unit they’ll never use in the final fight. Gold is scarce. Prioritize: Unit upgrades (multistrike, health, damage) > spell upgrades (holdover, cost reduction) > train upgrades (capacity, Pyre health). If you have 100 gold and a choice between upgrading a unit’s multistrike or buying a new card, go multistrike every time.
• “The game feels like RNG decides everything.” — Yeah, sometimes you get bad draws. But players who blame RNG usually aren’t scouting properly. The game tells you exactly which enemies are coming next. You can see the boss’s stats on the map before you enter the fight. Use that info. If the boss has 20 HP and sweep, don’t bring a unit with 15 HP. Adjust your play. RNG is a factor, not a sentence.

Now let’s get you out of the gutter.

Getting Started / First Steps

I wish someone had sat me down and said, “Stop building a deck, start building a defense line.” So I’m saying it now. Here’s what you actually do in the first two rings.

1. Pick your champion wisely. Your champion is the only unit you’re guaranteed to see every run. Treat them like the star of your team. For Awoken, The Animus of Will is S-tier because of its multistrike scaling. For Hellhorned, Shard Queen (the imp summoner) is a trap—she forces you to rely on imps, which are fragile and require constant management. Instead, pick Prince and spec into armor gain. He becomes unkillable with enough upgrades.

2. Understand the flow of a fight. Enemies come in waves from top to bottom. Your Pyre at the bottom has a health bar that carries over between fights. If it hits zero, you lose. So your first floor should be a wall—a tanky unit or multiple small units that can absorb damage. The second floor is your kill zone—high-damage units with multistrike. The third floor is emergency backup for stuff that slips through. I learned this the hard way after losing a run because I put my best DPS on floor one and they got killed before they could attack.

3. Prioritize unit upgrades over spells. Spells are nice, but units win fights. In the first shop, look for Multistrike or +10 HP for your main unit. I’d rather have one upgraded tank with Multistrike and 50 HP than three raw cards. A single strong unit can solo a boss if you support them right.

4. Use the “move” button strategically. Between waves, you can move units between floors—but only if there’s space. Early on, move your damaged tanks up a floor to heal (they regenerate between fights). Later, move your DPS down to the top floor to kill the first wave faster. Timing the move at the exact moment an enemy is about to hit is a pro-level play. Start practicing it now.

5. Don’t hoard gold for the final boss. Gold is worthless if you’re dead. Spend it in the first three shops to survive the early waves. The final boss can be beaten with a good enough build, but you can’t get there if you get steamrolled by the second ring. I used to save up 500 gold and then realize I had no upgrades and died. Now I spend every 50 gold I earn before the next fight.

Expert Tips & Tricks

Once you’ve got the basics down, start abusing these mechanics that pros use to win. I’ve logged over 200 hours, and these are the edge plays that separate a Cov 10 clear from a Cov 25 one.

• Learn to stack “Frost” properly. Frost reduces enemy attack by 2 per stack, and it stacks infinitely. Combine this with a tanky unit that has Damage Shield, and you can neuter a boss’s damage completely. The Frost Shark card is underrated—place it on floor one with an Endless upgrade (it comes back after death) and watch the boss hit for zero. I once made Talos do 3 damage per hit because I had 20 Frost stacks on him. They couldn’t touch my Pyre.
• Abuse the “Holdover” upgrade on key spells. Holdover makes a spell stay in your hand until you play it, instead of being shuffled back. If you find a spell like “Furnace Tap” (gives a unit +3 attack permanently) or “Hold the Line” (gives armor and a shield), put Holdover on it and play it every single turn. That’s astounding value for one upgrade slot.
• Tomb units are not just cannon fodder. The “Dark Feather” tomb (gives all friendly units +2 attack when it dies) is a run-winner. Place it on floor one, let the enemy kill it, and then your DPS on floor two gets a permanent +4 attack by the time the boss arrives. I’ve won runs I had no business winning because I stacked four tombstones on floor one and fed them to the first wave.
• The “Endless” upgrade is broken on certain units. Endless makes a unit return to your hand the turn after it dies. Put this on an Imp that spawns more imps (like “Imp-portant Work”), and you get infinite imps. Or put it on a unit that has “deathrattle” effects, like the “Fallen One” that reduces enemy HP by 10 when it dies. Endless is an auto-buy if you find it.
• Plan your floors around the boss’s mechanics. Some bosses hit multiple floors at once. Others only target the top floor. The third boss (the winged lady) has a sweeping attack that hits all enemies on the top floor. If you put all your units on floor one, she’ll ignore them and hit the Pyre. Spread your units across floors for that fight. The game literally tells you the boss’s attack pattern on the map. Read it.
• Don’t sleep on “Spikes” as a mechanic. Spikes damage enemies when they attack your unit. If you stack Spikes on a tank (via the “Spiked” upgrade or Awoken cards like “The Root of Wills”), your tank becomes both a wall and a DPS. A tank with 40 Spikes will kill the entire first wave just by existing. It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it saves you card draws.

One more thing: the “Artifact” shop is a gamble. Some artifacts are run-defining (like “The Heart of the Blade” which gives your units +2 attack per multistrike). Others are useless (like “The Ember Core” which gives +1 ember per turn but reduces unit damage by 25%). Don’t buy artifacts blindly. Read the effect and ask yourself: “Does this help my win condition?” If the answer is no, skip. I’ve wasted so much gold on artifacts that looked good but ruined my run.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

I died over and over to these exact problems. Learn from my suffering.

• Mistake #1: Overloading your deck with spells that don’t scale. Sure, “Flame Jet” does 15 damage, but by the third ring, enemies have 80 HP. That card is dead weight. Avoid low-damage spells unless they have a secondary effect like Freeze or Pierce. Take spells that scale with your champion or that provide utility (armor, shield, draw). I used to keep three copies of “Cauterize” (heal 3 HP) in my deck until I realized it was completely useless against the final boss. Cut them.
• Mistake #2: Ignoring the “Dead Weight” mechanic. Every fight, you draw a hand of 5 cards. If you have 30 cards in your deck, you’re drawing junk half the time. Keep your deck between 15-20 cards max, especially for the first three rings. The game gives you plenty of opportunities to remove cards (shops and events). Use them. I once won a run with a 12-card deck—every draw was exactly what I needed.
• Mistake #3: Placing your champion on the top floor. New players love putting their strongest unit on floor one to “get kills.” Bad idea. The top floor takes the most damage because all enemies hit it first. Your champion will die early unless they have insane sustain. Instead, put a disposable tank on floor one and your champion on floor two. That way, they clean up weakened enemies and survive longer. I lost three runs in a row because I put Shard Queen on floor one and she got killed by the second wave.
• Mistake #4: Never using the “Train Upgrade” slots early. Train upgrades (like +1 capacity or +20 Pyre health) are permanent for the run. They cost gold and relics (the little Pyre-shaped currency you find). A common mistake is hoarding relics for the final upgrade. But +1 capacity on floor one lets you place an extra unit, which can save you from a wave you couldn’t block. Spend at least one relic by the second ring. It’s worth it.
• Mistake #5: Playing passive against bosses. In Monster Train, you’re on a timer for each fight. The boss doesn’t take breaks. If you stall, you die. Don’t waste turns playing “setup” cards when the boss is hitting for 60 damage. Play aggressive. If you have a unit with Multistrike, make sure they’re on the floor where the boss will be. If the boss has a shield, use piercing spells. I’ve seen people die because they spent their turns building a perfect setup, but the boss killed the Pyre in three hits. Prioritize survival over optimization.

FAQ

Q: Which clan is the best for beginners?
A: Awoken + Hellhorned, no contest. Awoken gives you healing and sweep damage. Hellhorned gives you armor and upfront damage. Together, they cover each other’s weaknesses. Avoid Melting Remnant and Umbra until you’ve cleared Cov 10. They have weird mechanics (burnout and morsels) that require precise management.

Q: How do I deal with the third boss (Sickening, Despair, etc.)?
A: It depends on the boss, but the general rule is: spread your units out. The third boss’s attack pattern is usually “hit all enemies on the top floor” or “hit the floor with the most units.” Don’t clump everything on one floor. Spread across all three, and use the move button to shift DPS to where they’re needed. For Sickening (which applies poison), bring a unit with “Cleanse” or lots of HP.

Q: Is “Frost” a viable build?
A: Yes, but it’s situational. Frost is amazing against single-target bosses because you stack the debuff fast. But it’s weak against swarms (lots of small enemies) because Frost only reduces attack, not damage from spells. Pair Frost with an AoE sweeper unit to handle the crowds. I had a run where I used Frost Wyrm (a unit that applies Frost to all enemies on its floor) and a Multistrike tank, and I cleared Cov 20 with it.

Q: When should I skip a shop or event?
A: Skip a shop if you have less than 30 gold and the upgrades are garbage. Skip an event if it costs HP or removes a key card. The “Pact” event (where you sacrifice HP for a relic) is often a trap because the HP loss can kill you later. Only take it if you have a healing spell or high regeneration. I skip about 20% of shops and 10% of events. Use your judgment.

Q: What’s the best way to practice without feeling frustrated?
A: Play on Covenant Rank 1 (the easiest difficulty) until you can win three runs in a row without losing. Then bump it up. The game has a “training” mode where you can restart the same fight if you mess up, but I don’t recommend it—you need to learn to play from bad draws. Instead, save scum by closing the game if you make a terrible misplay. We all do it. No judgment.

Q: I keep getting “Pyre damage” in early fights. Is that okay?
A: It’s fine to take 10-20 damage to the Pyre in the first ring if it means you survive. The Pyre’s HP is a resource you can use. Don’t panic if it drops to 50-60 HP. You can heal it later via artifacts or events. I’ve won runs where the Pyre had 10 HP left. Just make sure you fix the leaks before the final boss.

Q: What’s the cheat code for this game?
A: There isn’t one, but here’s a close second: learn the card “Furnace Tap.” It gives a unit permanent +2 attack for zero ember. If you find it, put Holdover on it and play it every turn. Your main unit will have +30 attack by the last fight. That’s the kind of broken scaling you want to exploit. Abuse it before the devs nerf it (they probably won’t, because it’s already amazing).

Now go kill those angels. Your Pyre needs you.