Overview[]
Burning Pledge is an ultra-rare card that was released during the v0.80 update on July 14th, 2019. This card costs 0 bits and give the user 3 extra bits, but applies Eternal Burn on the caster.
However, the eternal burn from this specific card does 2 + 1% damage of the caster's maximum health within the range of 4-10 damage per turn, unlike Eternal Flame.
This card is very similar to other bit-gain cards like Shadow Trade and Sugar Rush, but Burning Pledge is overall much more punishing than either of the two. However, Burning Pledge gives more bits to the player to compensate for this.
Burning Pledge can only be currently obtained as a drop from Waelyn Cindra. It can also sometimes be obtained by defeating Dark Mages if they were summoned with World Tear in the fight with Thaamoth, Hallowed Spirit.
Strategy[]
Aside from using Burning Pledge for strategies to quickly defeat enemies, if a player wants to use it casually, its in their best interest to use the eternal burn as an advantage rather than a penalty.
The first way is to use Vampire's Claw or Claw Impale, which both get their base damage and heal doubled if the caster also has eternal burn on them. As not all enemies can apply eternal burn, if a player wants to reliable use these cards to their max potential, it can be worth it to use Burning Pledge beforehand.
Another way it utilize the eternal burn is Zealot's Manuscript, giving you a bit refund if under Eternal Flame
Other ways to use the eternal burn as an advantage is to use cards such as Rest and Recovery, which has its main drawback in being that the caster loses their next turn in exchange for a higher heal in comparison to Afternoon Delight. By having eternal burn, it ensures that the sleep effect will never work as a player would just awake again due to the damage the burn would apply.
It is important to remember that although these benefits listed may not outweigh the damage taken from the burn over time, using Burning Pledge also will give the user 3 bits, which is a huge amount that can quickly snowball if used correctly.
Burning Pledge at a technical standpoint can be compared to Shadow Trade. Unlike Shadow trade, Burning Pledge deals damage over turns instead of straight-up dealing a certain amount of damage. This means if a player can end a battle quickly enough, Burning Pledge would be much better than Shadow Trade.
In the current version of Hexaria, Shadow Trade deals 35 damage to a player at level 30 (Without the Enraged effect from cards such as Ancient Prayer). Therefore, in 7 turns, the eternal flame effect has done more damage than Shadow Trade has. However, because the Burning Pledge gain one more bit than Shadow Trade, at a bit-per-health taken ratio, it would take 9 turns for Burning Pledge to be worse than Shadow Trade. Although 9 turns does not seem like a lot, it can actually be a very long time. Even if a player cannot defeat their opponent in that amount of time, they will have still gained an extra 3 bits, and receive the previously mentions benefits.
Trivia[]
- Players commonly refer to this card as “BP” to save time on typing.
History[]
- On May 15th, 2020, the Eternal Flame damage was reduced from 8 to 6.
- On November 1st, 2021, the Eternal Flame status deals damage based off of 1% of the target's maximum health within the range of 2-8 damage.
- On November 28th, 2021, the Eternal Flame damage was changed to deal 2 extra damage in addition to the 1% within the range of 2-8 damage.