M2E+Hungering+Darkness

Return to Ten Thunders | Return to Neverborn **Hungering Darkness, Ten Thunders/Neverborn Henchman/Totem (Lynch)** ** DARKENED, SPIRIT ** toc

=__Overview__= The Hungering Darkness is a powerful spirit, an ancient entity that spreads its corrupting energies outward, flooding the physical world with a rush of addictive magical energies called Brilliance. The Hungering Darkness has bonded with the gambler Jakob Lynch and uses Lynch as an anchor to affect and infect the physical world.

The Hungering Darkness (sometimes called "Huggy" because of his adorable monster appearance) is a melee beatstick with powerful control abilities. It can force enemy models into obedience, crush them with powerful melee-range Casting attacks, spread Brilliance, heal itself, and travel around wreaking havoc. Huggy is an insubstantial Spirit, so it's very slow to damage with most attacks, and it can heal back again when injured.

The Hungering Darkness is Jakob Lynch's Totem and costs 0ss when Jakob hires him, which is pretty much always. He can also be seen leading his own Crew as a Henchmen thanks to **The Real Power**, but he won't ever be seen working for another Master.

=__Mobility__= Huggy has Wk 6 and Cg 6, with Incorporeal so he can breeze through models and terrain. He doesn't really have any other major movement tricks, but at that high level of base speed he doesn't really need it.

=__Offense__= Hungering Darkness serves as Jakob's catspaw and personal beatstick, so it's appropriate that he has many ways to attack.

//**Tendrils**// A Ca 6 Mask attack with 2/4/6 damage, and a positive twist on attack and damage against models with Brilliance. What's more, it has a long 3" melee range. //- **A Sliver Remains**// gives **Under The Influence**, which gives Brilliance and sets up for future attacks - while **//Envelop//** raises damage to a frightening 4/5/7.
 * Tendrils** is a vicious and powerful attack. It's all the more dangerous because of the three possible triggers:
 * //- Drain//** heals Huggy 2 damage


 * //Envelop//** needs a Ram[ ♥︎ ]. Both **//Drain//** and **//A Sliver Remains//** require just the built-in Mask[ ♦︎ ].

Heed My Voice
A control spell that only affects enemy non-Leaders, with a medium range, a high Ca 7 Mask[ ♦︎ ], and a positive flip [+] against models with Brilliance. This is similar to a short-range Obey (target takes a (1) action under your control) that only affects enemies, it also makes the enemy friendly for the action, which means you can't force the opponent to attack Huggy and auto-fail the Terrifying Duel. There's a trigger, with another Mask, that also makes **Under the Influence** (from Tendrils or another source) last for the rest of the game. Use Heed My Voice to throw enemies out of position, make them attack other enemies, or use self-destructive abilities.

Consume Brilliance
Equal parts offense and resilience, this Tactical Action heals Huggy 1 damage per nearby model with Brilliance-this is likely to include most of Huggy's core crew, plus any enemies who have been hit with Brilliance-then they all need to make a Horror check. Use this ability only when you have enough good cards in your hand to cheat for each model with Brilliance within range, or when you're willing to risk Paralyzing some of your own Minions to heal Hungering Darkness.

=__Resilience__= Hungering Darkness has **Df 3** and only **7 Wd**, but has a lot of Resilience tricks to make up for it.

First, he has Incorporeal, which halves all damage from **Sh** and **Ml** Attack actions. This will seriously slow down any attempt to kill Hungering Darkness. Note that this doesn't protect against **Ca** attacks.

Second, he has **Terrifying (Living) 12**. This won't stop any attackers, but is likely to slow down living enemies and force them to drain their cards.If Huggy is hired by Jakob, who takes **Endless Hunger**, this changes to **Terrifying (All)** 12 instead, which can be a big plus if you're expecting to face a lot of non-living models.

Third, Huggy is good at healing himself. He can use the //Drain// trigger on **Tendrils** or the **Consume Brilliance** action to regain his Wd very quickly. If he can survive, he'll probably get better quickly...

...and if he //can't// survive, there's still hope! If you're playing Hungering Darkness with Jakob Lynch and Jakob has the Upgrade **The Rising Sun** Huggy gets buried instead of killed and can come back when an enemy model with Brilliance is killed within 6" of Jakob. Bringing him back requires some setup but it does let you play a bit more aggressively with Huggy and can deter your opponent from trying to kill him in the first place.

=__Upgrades__=

Jakob's Upgrades
Jakob Lynch's two Limited Upgrades both buff up Hungering Darkness. The Rising Sun brings Hungering Darkness back when an enemy model with Brilliance is killed near Jakob. Endless Hunger gives Hungering Darkness an extra AP for Casting (which can affect both Tendrils and Heed My Voice) and changes his Terrifying from (Living) to All.

Use **The Rising Sun** on Jakob if your opponent's Crew has a lot of Ca actions, or if you think your opponent is likely to hunt Hungering darkness aggressively. Use **Endless Hunger** Jakob if you want a more powerful and less expendible Hungering Darkness.

Addict
Usable in either Faction. Friendly Darkened Minion models get a positive twist against models with Brilliance. This is fantastic if you're playing with a lot of Darkened Minions, since they all synergize already with Brilliance and Huggy. This can make your Beckoners and Illuminated really shine. In a Jacob Lynch crew it's a toss up whether to take this on Huggy or Lynch, Huggy is generally easier to draw line of sight to than Lynch, but he can often get end up far removed from your other models, so plan accordingly.

Broken Promises (Ten Thunders Only)
An expensive Upgrade at 2ss Broken Promises is discarded to give enemies a negative flip when attacking Huggy for the Turn. This is a lot of ss for defense, but it may be very helpful for keeping Huggy alive.

Recalled Training (Ten Thunders Only)
One of the best Upgrades available. Discard the Upgrade at the start of your activation to give a positive twist to all flips for the rest of the Turn. This is great for both offense and defense, and is much more efficient than almost any other way to spend a Soulstone. If you're playing Ten Thunders, the only reason not to take it is if you already have 3 other models who want it more.

Nexus of Power (Neverborn Only)
Friendly models that spend a Soulstone within a 6 aura heal 1 damage. Note that this includes Hungering Darkness himself. Since Hungering Darkness has so few wounds, this can make a big difference to recovery, but Hungering Darkness already has two built-in ways to heal, so it may be going overboard unless you expect to get wounded a lot. The advantage of this over Huggy's built-in healing is you can heal off-turn while defending, although not if you're spending stones on damage prevention flips.

Fears Given Form (Neverborn Only)
Can be handy if you're facing another melee Crew. Models within your engagement range must make a Df 14 Duel or suffer 3 damage. Since Huggy has such a large engagement range and is often in melee this can be a great way to spread damage around or force your opponent to spend cards to avoid it.

Pact (Neverborn Only)
Huggy can cheat on a Black Joker. This doesn't come up often, but even one critical moment can justify its use. Some people never take it. Others always do. Your mileage may vary. May be more useful when Hungering Darkness is leading his own Crew.

=__Tactics and Tips__= There are a few different ways you can play Hungering Darkness:


 * Distant Controller:** Hungering Darkness can camp someplace safe and use Heed My Voice to control and disarm enemy models. This may be how you use him in early turns. Pulling enemies out of position and making enemies attack eachother can wreak havoc in the enemy lines. Especially good if you're facing Gremlins, since they have low Wp and plenty of damage output. Watch out for long-range spellcasters.


 * Melee Beatstick:** This is the most common way to play Hungering Darkness. Send him into combat with enemies. Don't let him get too surrounded. Spread Brilliance and heal him up as often as possible so he doesn't get worn down. This is safer if Huggy is working for Jakob Lynch with The Rising Sun, since he can come back again in this case. Brilliance is especially important here! Coordinate with other models to spread Brilliance, or use a combination of **Tendrils** and **Heed My Voice** (with triggers for both) with a trigger to keep enemies full of Brilliance.


 * Big Objective-Runner:** Hungering Darkness can move quite quickly, and can eat up other objective-runners he may encounter along the flanks. This may seem like a waste of resources, but it can be a great way of stocking up VP. One way to do this is to have Hungering Darkness take the flanks, while Beckoners and Illuminated hold the center.

=__Leading a Crew__=

Hungering Darkness is usually found only with Jakob Lynch but he's very effective as a Crew Leader in a Henchman-scale game. In his own crew he works well with Darkened models because of the Brilliance related synergy.

Strategies and Schemes
Hungering Darkness does well with Turf War, since he has some very hardy models that can hold territory, and with Reckoning since he can usually kill a model in a turn and can leave another one for his Crew. He can serve as a very good objective-runner himself since he's fast and durable, but strategies and schemes that require multiple objective runners (such as Squatter's Rights and Protect Territory) might be harder for him. If he needs objective runners, he'll need to hire outside his own synergies. Tengu in Ten Thunders or Silurid or Terror Tots in Neverborn are usually a good bet.

Building a Crew
Hungering Darkness really likes to work with Darkened models since they help Hungering Darkness heal, attack and spread Brilliance. He also can help them work more efficiently with his **Addict** Upgrade and his own ability to inflict Brilliance on the enemy.

Darkened Models that are likely to work well with Hungering Darkness:
 * The Illuminated: The backbone of a Darkened crew. Illuminated are incredibly durable, have good attacks and can spread Brilliance.
 * Beckoner **(Neverborn only)**: Great at spreading Brilliance and pulling enemies in for the kill. For Ten Thunders you may be able to use an Oiran instead.
 * The Depleted **(Neverborn only)** : Weak disposable minions with some surprising durability and movement tricks.
 * Stitched Together **(Neverborn only)** : Not much synergy with Hungering Darkness but they're solid minions in their own right.
 * Mr. Graves: An efficient model with a mixture of forced movement, durability and straight damage.
 * Mr. Tannen: A walking debuff aura with some nice scheme control and synergy with Mr. Graves.

=__Playing Against Hungering Darkness__= There are a few things to keep in mind against Hungering Darkness:


 * ** Use Ca** **attacks**. Huggy takes half damage from Ml and Sh attacks but he only has ** 7 Wd ** . If you hit him with damaging ** Ca ** attacks he'll die quickly.
 * **Be prepared for Heed My Voice**. Keep Papa Loco away from him. Keep behind cover. Avoid bunching up near one of your own melee beatsticks if you can avoid it so that you don't give any easy opportunities for control.
 * **Don't try to whittle him down**. Huggy is great at healing on his own turn. If you want to try to kill him, do so in one swoop, preferably after he's activated. If you can't commit the resources to dropping him in a single turn you might be better off leaving him alone for now.

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