Augmenter

Augmenter is an event found exclusively in Act 2. You encounter a shady man who wants to do an experiment on you, for science.

Options

• [Test J.A.X] Obtain a J.A.X.

• [Become Test Subject] Choose and Transform 2 cards in your deck.

• [Ingest Mutagens] Obtain a Mutagenic Strength.

Dialogue

Encounter
A man with an eyepatch and a devilish grin strides up to you.
Shady Man: "Hey there, stranger. Interested in advancing science? I can make you stronger than any training or blessing. You're gonna need it if you're one of those heroes with a death wish."
Shady Man: "Whad'ya say?"
Test J.A.X
Shady Man: "Excellent."
The man hands over a dangerous looking syringe filled with a glowing liquid before skulking off into a shadowy alleyway.
Become Test Subject
Shady Man: "Superb."
The man injects you with three unknown substances and pulls out a notepad. As you begin to feel light-headed, he starts to frantically write down notes.
Losing track of time completely, by the time you regain your senses, the shady character has disappeared.
Ingest Mutagens
Shady Man: "Marvelous."
You quaff the mysterious substance. Immediately, you are invigorated and feel your muscle fibers twitch.

Strategy

• If your deck is about losing HP with cards (particularly Ironclad's Rupture deck) or if you are not afraid to pay your HP for more damage (for instance, if your deck can generate a lot of Block to prevent incoming damage, or if you have a steady source of Intangible), consider choosing [Test J.A.X] to obtain J.A.X., since it is a fairly powerful source of Strength that can be used repeatedly.
• Mutagenic Strength from [Ingest Mutagens] gives you a heavy buff at the start of combat. Consider choosing this option if:
  • You can reliably draw multi-hit attack, or multiple cheap attacks, on the first turn.
  • You have a powerful Innate or Bottled Attack card.
  • You have a Bag of Marbles to apply Vulnerable at the start of the combat.
  • You have a reliable way to obtain Artifact or to remove debuffs on the first turn, to negate Strength Down and retain bonus Strength.
    • Relic such as Clockwork Souvenir and Orange Pellets can help you with this feat.
• If you rely on setting up on the first turn without much attacking, consider avoiding [Ingest Mutagens] as Mutagenic Strength would become fairly useless.
• Transforming cards is best when you have Strikes or other bad cards you would like to remove.
  • Keep in mind that transforming a Curse will result in another Curse.

Trivia

• This event was named "J.A.X. Dealer", and has the internal name of "Drug Dealer". However, its name was changed to "Augmenter" as its effect expanded beyond giving J.A.X., and probably to distance itself from the negative connotation (and possibly censorship) of the word "Dealer".

Update History

• Weekly Patch 51: Recursion
  • Minor text cleanup for Augmenter event.
  • Typo fix in Augmenter event.
• Weekly Patch 46: Adrenaline
  • Fixed punctuation in Augmenter event.
• Weekly Patch 44: Chrysalis
  • Augmenter event transform option now allows choosing 2 cards to Transform instead of selecting 3 at random.
• Weekly Patch 40: Forethought
  • Augmenter event no longer incorrectly upgrades transformed cards.
  • Augmenter event will no longer give out duplicate relics on Endless mode.
• Weekly Patch 39: We Meet Again!
  • J.A.X Dealer event reworked.
  • J.A.X. Dealer event renamed -> Augmenter.
• Weekly Patch 21: Channel Lightning
  • J.A.X. Dealer event's cost of J.A.X. updated 100 -> 77 Gold.
• Weekly Patch 4: Full speed ahead!
  • Incorrectly using wavy text in JAX event fixed.