Dark Orbs accumulate damage every turn at a rate of 6 + Focus, and release all stored damage when Evoked. The longer you wait before Evoking, the larger the burst — a single Dark Orb with Focus 4 and 5 turns of accumulation deals 50 damage in one shot. Channeling multiple Dark Orbs simultaneously multiplies this effect dramatically. The challenge is surviving long enough to reach the burst window, making early defense and Focus investment essential.

• Darkness: Channel 1 Dark Orb — the primary channeling card. Also triggers all Dark Orb passives when played (accelerating accumulation immediately).
• Rainbow: Channels Lightning, Frost, and Dark in one card — use the Dark component for initial setup while also generating Frost for defense.
• Defragment: Gain 1 Focus — directly increases how fast each Dark Orb accumulates per turn. The single most important scaling card for this build.
• Biased Cognition: Gain 4 Focus immediately — massive spike in accumulation rate. Use when you can end fights within 4-5 turns before Focus decays.
• Dualcast: Evoke your rightmost Orb twice — doubles the burst from a single Dark Orb on demand.
• Multi-Cast: Evoke your rightmost Orb X times — with a fully charged Dark Orb, this is a one-shot finisher.
• Capacitor: Gain 2 Orb Slots — more slots mean more Dark Orbs accumulating simultaneously, multiplying total burst potential.
• Loop: Trigger your rightmost Orb passive at turn start — gives Dark Orbs an extra accumulation tick each turn without spending Energy.

• Data Disk: Start each combat with 1 Focus — every Dark Orb accumulates 1 extra damage per turn from the very start.
• Symbiotic Virus: Start each combat with 1 Dark channeled — free head start on accumulation before you even draw cards.
• Gold-Plated Cables: Rightmost Orb passive triggers twice — if your rightmost slot is a Dark Orb, it accumulates at double speed.
• Emotion Chip: When you took damage last turn, all Orb passives trigger at turn start — grants free accumulation across all Dark Orbs.
• Essence of Darkness (Potion): Channel a Dark Orb for each Orb Slot — instantly fills the board with Darks for a decisive burst window.

1. Channel Dark Orbs early — ideally 2-3 by turn 3. Use Darkness and Rainbow for initial setup.
2. Invest in Focus through Defragment before committing to accumulation — Focus 2-3 roughly doubles the speed of each Dark Orb's growth.
3. Fill remaining Orb slots with Frost Orbs if available to generate passive Block while Darks accumulate.
4. Watch enemy intent — Evoke your charged Dark Orbs the turn before a big enemy attack lands to eliminate the threat preemptively.
5. Against multi-enemy encounters, target the highest-threat enemy when Evoking; Dark Orbs hit a single target for maximum concentrated damage.
6. Once Dark Orbs reach 60+ total accumulated damage, use Dualcast or Multi-Cast to unleash everything in one turn.

• Must pick: Defragment, Darkness, Capacitor
• High priority: Biased Cognition (fast fights), Dualcast, Multi-Cast, Loop
• Situational: Rainbow (early coverage), Glacier/Coolheaded (survival while accumulating)
• Skip: Cards that dilute the Orb slots or require Orb cycling (this build wants Darks to sit and accumulate)

• Do not Evoke prematurely — patience is the key. A Dark Orb with 8 turns of accumulation at Focus 3 holds 72 damage; Evoking at turn 2 wastes most of that potential.
• Against bosses with phase transitions or self-heal, plan your Evoke timing carefully — burst just before a phase ends or between heal windows.
• Biased Cognition's Focus decay hurts long fights. Combine it with quick finishers (Multi-Cast, Dualcast) rather than extended accumulation.
• Symbiotic Virus relic effectively gives every combat a free Dark Orb head start — extremely high value for this build.
• If you have Capacitor and 4 Orb slots filled with Darks, a single Multi-Cast at X=4 can one-shot most Act 3 elites.