The HP Cost Build treats your health bar as a resource. Offering and Bloodletting trade HP for massive Energy bursts, letting you play far more cards per turn than your base 3 Energy would allow. Crimson Robe passively converts 1 HP per turn into Block. Blood Boil and Malice then recycle that HP loss into Strength or draw, turning a weakness into a compounding advantage. The strategy is aggressive — burn HP early, close fights fast, and regenerate at rest sites.

• Offering: 0 cost, exhaust, lose 6 HP, gain 2 Energy and draw 3 cards. The engine card — this single play can let you chain multiple other cards in the same turn.
• Bloodletting: 0 cost, lose 3 HP, gain 2 Energy (3 when upgraded). A lighter Offering; stack multiple copies for large Energy pools.
• Crimson Robe: Power costing 1. At the start of each turn lose 1 HP and gain Block. Free, repeating Block generation with no card slot needed.
• Blood Boil: When you lose HP this turn, gain Strength equal to the amount lost (once per turn). Offering + Blood Boil = +6 Strength in one activation.
• Malice: When you lose HP, draw 2 cards. Pairs with Offering to turn a 6-HP loss into 3 draws from Offering plus 2 from Malice.
• Second Wind: Exhaust all non-Attacks, gain 5 Block per card exhausted. Cleans up a hand clogged with cheap cards and generates Block simultaneously.

• Burning Blood: Heal 6 HP at the end of each combat. Counteracts the steady HP drain between fights; one of the best relics for this build.
• Runic Cube: Draw 1 card whenever you lose HP. Stacks with every Offering, Bloodletting, and Crimson Robe tick for explosive draw.
• Self-Forming Clay: When you lose HP during your turn, gain 3 Block. Pairs with Crimson Robe's passive drain for free Block every turn.

1. Open with Bloodletting or Offering as early as possible to flood your hand and generate Energy for follow-up plays.
2. If Blood Boil is in hand, use it before Offering so the 6-HP loss grants 6 Strength that boosts all your attacks this turn.
3. Chain Malice draws into more HP-loss cards; a single Offering can trigger Malice then Bloodletting which triggers Malice again.
4. Use Crimson Robe early in a run so it generates small but consistent Block for every fight.
5. At rest sites, always consider healing over upgrading — your HP is your fuel, and running low forces you to play conservatively.

• Offering / Bloodletting: Must take — these are the engine.
• Blood Boil: Highest priority if Offering is in the deck; converts HP loss into Strength you keep permanently.
• Malice: High — the draw engine that keeps the chain going.
• Crimson Robe: High — consistent Block generation with no active Energy cost.
• Healing relics (Burning Blood, etc.): High — sustain lets you burn HP more aggressively per fight.
• Runic Cube: Very high if available — draw advantage on top of Energy advantage is overwhelming.

• Track your HP floor. Once you drop below ~20-25 HP, start skipping Offering plays to preserve enough buffer for the boss fight.
• Boss fights that deal burst damage before you can act punish this build hard. Go in with enough Block-generating cards to survive an opener.
• Upgraded Bloodletting costs 0 and gives 3 Energy — take every upgrade opportunity on it.
• Strength from Blood Boil persists for the whole fight; using Offering on turn 1 is almost always correct if you have Blood Boil in hand.
• If the relic Runic Cube appears in a shop, buy it. The synergy with Offering alone makes it worth most of its cost.