Introduction
Monster Train is a deckbuilding roguelike where you defend a burning train from waves of demons. You pick two clans, build a deck around a champion, and fight across three floors of a vertically scrolling train. Unlike Slay the Spire, Monster Train gives you enormous control over your starting setup: you choose your primary clan (which determines your champion) and your secondary clan (which supplements your card pool). The key to high win rates is understanding clan synergies, knowing which champion upgrades scale into the lategame, and recognizing when to skip cards. This guide covers everything you need to push from your first win all the way through Covenant 25.
Clan Combinations Ranked
Every clan brings unique mechanics. Your primary clan determines your champion and starting cards; your secondary clan adds its own card pool and banner units. Here is how they stack up at high covenant:
S-Tier Combinations:
- Hellhorned / Awoken: The classic aggressive combo. Hellhorned provides rage scaling and armor strip; Awoken gives sustain through regen and massive damage output from Animus of Will. The key card is Awoken's "Roots of Life" for +25 max HP on your carry unit. Hellhorned's "Rage" and "Rageful" cards stack damage so fast that even the Divinity melts. Take the "Rector Flicker" champion as primary for the double extinguish triggers.
- Stygian / Awoken: Spell damage synergy is absurd when it works. Stygian's Incant units fire spells automatically while Awoken provides the sustain to keep them alive. Siren of the Sea with multistack and incant scaling can solo the entire run. Prioritize "Spellchain" upgrades on your damage spells — every chain triggers another incant.
- Melting Remnant / Hellhorned: Reform synergy with harvest triggers. Harvest stacks on your biggest unit snowball out of control while Hellhorned's rage triples your output. Lady of the Reformed with endless and multistrike is borderline unbeatable.
A-Tier Combinations:
- Umbra / Any: Umbra's morsel mechanic feeds your carry with HP and damage, but it can be inconsistent if you don't draw your emberdrain cards at the right time. Works best with Hellhorned secondary for emergency damage.
- Awoken / Stygian: The sustain-first approach. Slower but extremely consistent. Sweep units like Animus of Will clear waves efficiently while Stygian totems provide spell backup.
B-Tier:
- Melting Remnant / Umbra: Both clans want different things from their units. The reform and morsel mechanics fight for your capacity. Only take this if you get an early endless, multistrike combo on a banner unit.
Champion Upgrade Paths
Your champion is your most consistent card every run. You see them on turn 1 every single battle. Choosing the right upgrade path at each of the three upgrade opportunities is critical.
Hellhorned — Hornbreaker Prince: Take "Brawler" path. Brawler grants +10 attack and multistrike 1 at rank 1, scaling to multistrike 3 and massive HP at rank 3. This single unit with a decent weapon upgrade can solo the top floor. The "Reaper" path looks enticing with lifesteal but falls off hard against the relentless waves of Covenant 25 where enemies outscale your heal.
Awoken — The Sentient: "Explosive" path is the winner. Explosive Sentient adds sweep to her attack, clearing entire floors. The "Bristling" path (thorns) is bait — it works at low covenant but by Cov 25, enemies have too much HP for reflect damage to matter. "Channel" path (regen) is a support option for co-op runs but not for solo clearing.
Stygian — Tethys, Siren of the Sea: Go "Subsuming Blade" path. Tethys starts with 50 attack and gains +10 per incant plus sweep with the right upgrades. The "Resin" path (spike) wants to be a tank but Siren's base HP is too low. "Dredge" path is fine as a backup plan if offered garbage cards. For the Siren champion variants: "Siren of the Sea" wants +5 HP per incant (the "Molluscmorph" path) while "Siren of the Frost" wants the "Titan Sentry" path for armor generation.
Melting Remnant — Rector Flicker: "Fire Light" path is the strongest. Each rank gives +1 energy and draw. The "Dante" path (reform every turn) is good but inconsistent since you cannot control which unit reforms. "Permadeath" is for challenge runs only.
Umbra — Penumbra: "Monstrous" path for +40 HP and +10 damage per rank. The "Architect" path (capacity) sounds good but five capacity on a single floor is overkill. "Shroud" path (lifesteal) works if you have at least two morsel generators.
Best Units by Clan
Not all banner units are created equal. Here are the units worth building your run around:
Hellhorned:
- Railbeater: The best tank in the game. 120 HP base with armor generation on attack. Give it a "Large Stone" (HP upgrade) and multistrike, and it holds the top floor solo while your carry handles the backline.
- Deranged Brute: Starts with 10x3 attack. Multistrike on this unit doubles down. With rage stacking, each of its three attacks benefits from the full rage stack. This is your primary carry in Hellhorned-heavy builds.
- Alpha Fiend: 20x2 damaged attacker. Decent early but falls off. Use as a transitional unit until you find a Railbeater or Brute.
Awoken:
- Animus of Will: 5x3 sweeper. With multistrike, it attacks up to 6 times per turn, killing every backline unit on the floor. This is arguably the best non-boss unit in the game. Give it quick or large stone upgrades.
- Awoken Hollow: The regen engine. Every time it kills something, it gains regen. With endless + multistrike, it refreshes its own regen constantly. Pair with a tank in front and watch the healing stack to 30+ per turn.
- Keeper of Echoes: 40 HP base with +5 HP per kill. Good for harvest builds but needs multistrike to stack harvest quickly.
Stygian:
- Coldcaelia: 15x3 frostbite applicator. The frostbite DOT is percentage-based, so it scales into the lategame better than raw damage. Give it multistrike and watch boss HP melt.
- Siren of the Sea: 10 base with +2 per incant. If you can get her to 40+ incants, she becomes a 90+ damage sweeper. The key is having enough cheap spells to trigger incants rapidly.
Melting Remnant:
- Lady of the Reformed: Starts with reform trigger. With endless and multistrike, she hits, dies, reforms, and hits again. This infinite loop is one of the strongest combos in the game.
- Draff: The damage-over-time unit. 3x20 base with burnout. Pair with reform effects to keep him alive.
Umbra:
- Morsel-Made: Gains permanent stats from eaten morsels. With enough morsel generation, this unit reaches 200+ HP and 50+ damage by the end of a run.
- Overgorger: Gains 1 HP and 1 attack per morsel eaten forever. Even if you remove it from the floor, the stats persist. This is the single best scaling unit in the entire game.
Essential Spells & Artifacts
Spells win runs as much as units do. Here are the spells you should always take, and the ones you should skip:
Must-Take Spells:
- Holdover (upgrade): If you can put holdover on a key spell (like Inferno, or a consume restore), you get it every turn. This is the single strongest upgrade in the game.
- Inferno (Hellhorned): Deal 80 damage to all enemies in a floor and push them back one floor. The push effect resets their position, buying you an extra turn. With holdover, this spell alone can win runs.
- Restore (Awoken): Heal target friendly unit for 30. With spellchain and holdover upgrades, each cast becomes 60 sustain spread across your units.
- Frozen Lance (Stygian): Base 25 damage to any target. Cheap enough to chain incants and still do real damage. With +20 spell damage upgrade, it kills most backline enemies in one hit.
- Steam (Melting Remnant): Reform a random dead unit for the rest of the battle. Free value every turn if you have units dying.
Top Artifacts:
- Winged Steel: +1 capacity on every floor. More units = more damage. This single artifact adds more value than any other.
- Heaven's Gold: Gain gold equal to your pyre HP at the start of each battle. At high covenant where you take pyre damage, this generates enormous wealth.
- Molten Monument: Spells cost 1 less energy. This enables rapid incant chains and consistent holdover loops.
- Gorgon Tear: Add a +25 max HP stone to every unit you play. Turns fragile carries into frontline tanks.
Covenant 25 Strategy
Covenant 25 is Monster Train's highest difficulty. At Cov 25, every ring adds a new disadvantage: enemies have +35% HP, double dazed stacks, and a second trial door per fight. The gameplay changes fundamentally at this level. Here is what you need to adjust:
1. Prioritize Scaling Over Tempo: At low covenant, you can win with raw stats. At Cov 25, every enemy has 150+ HP by ring 5. You need multiplicative scaling. Rage (Hellhorned), incant (Stygian), and reform cycles (Melting Remnant) multiply your damage output. Flat damage upgrades are never enough.
2. Floor Stacking Is Mandatory: You should put all your important units on one floor almost every run. The "two floors" strategy spreads your defensive upgrades too thin. Pick your best floor, dump your best units there, and stack capacity upgrades. Use your champion to carry the early game solo while your banner units come online.
3. Skip Cards Aggressively: At Cov 25, a smaller deck is always better. You want your champion and 2-3 banner units, with 5-6 supporting spells. Every extra common unit or situational spell dilutes your draws. Skip skip skip. The "Remove" upgrade at the train upgrade screen is often worth more than any new card.
4. Trial Selection Is Crucial: Not all trials are created equal. Always take the "Remove Train Stewards" trial (ring 1 or 2) — getting rid of starter units is worth the challenge. "Enemies have multistrike" is run-ending if you are not ready. "Double dazed stacks" is free if you have sweep. Read the trial modifier and only take it if your deck handles it.
5. Relentless Phase Prep: At Cov 25, the relentless phase (where only the front unit and boss remain) lasts much longer. Your tank needs 200+ effective HP and your carry needs enough damage to kill the boss before your tank dies. This is where multistrike on your carry and damage shield on your tank separate winning runs from losing ones.
Boss Fight Tactics
Monster Train has three main bosses per run, plus the optional final boss in the DLC. Each requires a distinct approach:
Ring 3 — Talos, the Architect: Talos has two forms. In phase 1, he sweeps your top floor and applies -2 attack to all units. Do not put your carry on the top floor. Use the middle floor for your main group and the top floor as a speed bump with a disposable tank. In phase 2, Talos spawns a "Heph the Architect" add that gives him multistrike. Kill the add immediately with targeted spells.
Ring 5 — Daedalus, the Kingdom of the Dead: This fight is about wave management. Daedalus summons endless waves of adds on all three floors while periodically attacking with a massive single-target hit (200+ damage). You need your tank on the same floor as your main damage group, or your carry dies to the big hit. If you have a tank with damage shield, Daedalus becomes trivial — the shield absorbs the big hit and regenerates before the next one.
Ring 7 — Fel, the Eternal Flame: Fel has three phases. Phase 1: attacks the front unit of each floor. Phase 2: applies burnout to your entire team. Phase 3: sweeps every floor with 100 damage. The burnout phase is the run-ender. You need either a Melting Remnant clan to reform your burned-out units or a quick-kill strategy that ends phase 2 before burnout stacks kill your team. Having a "Cleanse" card or "Endless" upgrade on your key units is a lifesaver here.
Final Boss — The Last Divinity (DLC): The Last Divinity has 2000+ HP at Cov 25 and attacks every single turn with increasing damage. The fight has three phases marked by his HP thresholds (66% and 33%). At each threshold, he sweeps all floors. Your tank needs damage shield to survive the threshold sweeps. Your carry needs 100+ damage per hit with multistrike to burn through 2000 HP before your tank dies. Hellhorned's rage stacking is the most reliable way to hit these numbers. Do not attempt this boss without either damage shield on your tank or reform loops on your key units.