So you’ve decided to join the ranks of delivering pizza in Neon District. It’s a pretty easy task making an account and getting a basic team set up for Tier 1 deliveries in the Neon Pizza game mode. However with 6 different characters and 9 different weapon types, combined to have over 400 unique CARDs among them, it can feel like a daunting task to jump into Tier 2 deliveries or attempting ambushes/retribution without knowing much about building an effective team.
There isn’t one “perfect” choice when making a team as it is highly dependent upon pairing weapons and characters well for lethal combos during battles, and picking counters against the team you are facing to effectively neutralize them. However I will go through and share some good choices of characters and weapons when building your team, while also pointing out CARDs to keep an eye out for among your inventory to try and build around. If something doesn’t seem to work, then try tweaking stuff until you find a combo that works well for you with the assets you have.
Disclaimer: these tips are not meant to be an exhaustive guide of every item in the game. There are many valid CARDs that also pair well together not mentioned below. This is meant to be a high level crash course for newer players building their first team. Expert players looking to maximize the effect of their team further can learn about all 400+ CARDs and exploit effects here.
What Characters should I have on my Team?
Best: Ghost, Doctor and Jack
Having a few of these characters is a must for most all teams due to either having effective lvl 0 cards or highly useful cards in their pool.
Ghost
Ghosts are a must for their poison abilities which cause passive damage greater than almost all attack cards and come with a solid level 0 card Just a Taste that can inflict Poison (1-2). Poison is incredibly useful for wearing you opponent down quickly (and isn’t affected by defense or shield). Even better if you manage to have the effect card Night’s Breath which gives poison (2) to all enemies and is a good way to start giving damage to the back 3 enemies. Additional cards that are highly useful are The Hard Stuff and Relapse each piling on the poison. If you want to go for devastating moves, Catalytic Blow is a great card to have because once you have piled on the poison (or if they have piled on the poison to your characters), this card can easily do 1k+ piercing damage.
Doc
Having a Doc on your team is highly recommended to keep your team healed and surviving as much as possible. Heal All cards are desirable like Nanobot Storm and Nanobot Profusion or a full heal such as Revitalize. If possible, pair you doc up with a drone weapon. At its base form, a drone has three level 3 cards that give def boost and shield which is a good way to keep your front team member alive longer (and being a level 3 means it will get selected over a level 0 if drawn). Additional cards on the drone that can maximize a doc's usefulness are Regen All cards such as Continuous Repairs and Field Repairs which are helpful in counteracting damage take from poison.
Jack
This character specializes in Hacking/Interact cards which will be primarily useful in PVE when Environmental Objects will get added. Despite this, there are a few specialized cards a Jack can bring to the team that are beneficial in Neon Pizza. This entirely revolves around cards that give teammates Regen which is effective against poison such as Restoration, Patch and Optimization.
Better: Heavy, Demon and Genius
These characters are all viable options if well rolled. In many cases, another character above could be a better choice over a poorly rolled Heavy, Demon or Genius.
Heavy
A Heavy tends to skew slightly higher HP and DEF than any other character and can be useful as a tank at the front of your team to take hits. To maximize the usefulness of your heavy, you would want some of the cards that help prolong life such as Just a Scratch, I Like it Rough or Just Getting Started or the damage dealer Defense is the Best Offense.
Demon
A Demon can provide high damage for your team as it has the highest attack stat of all the characters. A Demon is also useful in reducing the tick count of themselves or teammates, helping them attack more frequently. Cards such as Blade Master, Dual Master, Haste and ArchDemon are useful at reducing tick count when paired with Blade/Dual weapons. Otherwise pairing a Demon with another high damage weapon such as a Rifle is a good way to maximize damage output.
Genius
A genius is good at boosting stats or dealing piercing damage. Cards such as Attack, My Minions! and Hold Fast, My Minions! are useful in giving stat boosts to all members of a team. As for doing damage, Metacosmic Blast, Go Nuclear and Volatile Wormhole are effective Nuke cards for doing piercing damage. Pair a Genius with any energy weapon to maximize the Nuke card effectiveness.
What Weapons should I equip on my Team?
For weapons, there is no obvious winner or loser. It will come down to what cards a weapon has, and if it can pair well with other cards on a character. For example, a Demon has some effects that reduce ticks if you attack with a Blade or Dual weapon, so if you have a demon with those cards, it would be wise to pair them with a similar weapon. Another example is Energy weapons as they have lvl 0 cards that give 120% damage bonus to Nuke cards, and Geniuses have 7 Nuke cards in their cards pool when leveling that would pair well. Below is a list of all weapon types and suggestions on character pairings and some effective card strategies.
Blade
Strategy 1: Load up with Maneuver ability cards and pair with Candyman on a Ghost to get additional poison damage
Strategy 2: Equip to a Demon with Blade Master to reduce ticks
Strategy 3: Load up with counterattack cards like Engarde!, Anticipation or Bon Appetit and equip on a Demon with Anticipate. Put this unit in front with a strong supporting healer to get extra hits against the enemy using counterattack.
Console
Load up with cards that effect ALL teammates such as Rewire, Scrub and Version 2.0 to help your team last longer and do extra damage on attacks
Drone
Get as many Regen/Shield cards as possible and pair with your Doc/Jack for maximum HP benefits. Regen cards such as Field Repairs, Continuous Repairs and Deploy Nanobots are ideal. Shield cards such as Auto Shield and Protective Field are useful in avoiding hits entirely. As a bonus, all Drones come with three Atomic Cement cards on their base form which give shield to your character. This is especially ideal as it will be selected for play over a lvl 0 card that is drawn.
Dual
Strategy 1: Load up with Maneuver ability cards and pair with Candyman on a Ghost to get additional poison damage
Strategy 2: Aim for multi hit cards that allow attacking 2+ times such as Up for the Down Stroke, Cuts Both Ways, Both Hands or Back and Forth. This is a super effective way to beat that pesky shield as only the first hit will be blocked allowing the rest to go through.
Energy
This Weapon is all about Nukes and Piercing Damage. It comes with two level 0 cards that increase damage from Nuke cards by 20%, never replace those. Plasma Storm is top dog for this weapon (and one of the top cards in the game). Pair this weapon with a Genius loaded with Nuke cards for high damage output. Additional cards to consider are Set to Disintegrate to do piercing damage with any attack card or Engine of Destruction to gain Focus Nuke (2) and improve your odds of pulling those Nuke cards.
Pistol
Strategy 1: Focus on Poison cards such as the base lvl 0 Payload along with Toxic Splatter, Dirty Load, Biotics and Blood Tap. Pair this with a ghost for maximum poison effects.
Strategy 2: A pistol with multiple High Noon cards pairs well with the pistol card Fountain of Corruption. For maximum benefit, pair with a doc that has Piece of Me (does 30% of the docs current HP in damage).
Returning
This weapon is all about the +X00 or +% atk cards. Really any combo of those cards is good for this weapon, but be careful of the high tick cost of this strategy.
Rifle
This weapon rolls some of the highest attack stat cards of all weapons. This weapon is also loaded with +X00 attack cards that you cant go wrong with. Best cards to keep an eye out for are damage All cards such as Load Mortar and Hell Unleashed, or use Time’s Up for a supercharged finishing blow.
Thrusting
This weapon commonly rolls high HP cards while leveling so is great to pair with a Heavy for maximum HP. For the ultimate benefit, focus on getting cards with Temporary (1) and pair it with a heavy that has Just Getting Started or The Best Offense is a Good Defense. As the cards are used and removed from the pool it will make it more likely to pull one of those other Heavy cards.
What Armor should I equip on my Team?
Armor is the primary driver to improve your characters STATs. Each piece of gear has a tendency to pull certain types of STAT cards while leveling. Some have higher odds of pulling HP cards, others may be Defense, or some will pull one of the 5 skills. With the current level 5 cap on characters, I recommend to focus on leveling armor that tends to have +all upgrades. (It boosts the stats in HP, atk, def, and all 5 skills). Once the level cap is raised to 15, it will start to be useful leveling a specialized skill piece of armor to give a big boost to a specific STAT. For now I recommend using the gear below which tends to roll the +all STAT cards more often when leveling.
Arms
Yume Forger: Renegade | Yume Forger: Paragon | Ceres Infector: Paragon | Ceres Infector: Renegade | Mimir Assault
Body
Ceres Infector: Paragon | Ceres Infector: Renegade | Jejune Geek
Head
Bliss Fixer: Renegade | Bliss Fixer: Paragon | Ceres Infector: Renegade | Ceres Infector: Paragon | Jejune Hustler
Legs
Factor Fabricator: Renegade | Factor Fabricator: Paragon | Ceres Preserver: Paragon | Ceres Infector: Renegade
As one last piece of advice, with the current level cap of level 5, you are more likely to find your best gear in the rare and uncommon rarity that you manually level up than the ultra rare and legendary rarity that was auto rolled. Ultra Rare and Legendary weapons just select the highest ranked upgrade to apply and randomly replace an existing card on the weapon. I recommend leveling lower gear up and selectively choosing which cards to replace and choosing the best combo of cards (which may not necessarily be the highest ranked upgrade option). The same goes for armor, where auto-rolled Ultra Rare and Legendary gear may select a higher ranked upgrade that only improves a single stat, when a slightly lower ranked card with a +all upgrade may have been a better choice.
