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Marvel's Midnight Suns features an abundance of ways to strengthen the heroes and earn useful rewards, and one way to do this is by acquiring Arcane Chests and the treasures within them. In order to find more of these, players will need to explore the Abbey, and this, in turn, requires the Words of Power. To get said Words of Power, players will need to complete the four Elder God Trials.
In Marvel's Midnight Suns, the Elder God Trials are special combat encounters where players may only use the Hunter and Charlie, and mainly consist of taking on waves of demons and having to eliminate a set amount whilst surviving a set number of rounds. For some of the tougher Trials, players will need to carefully consider their Hunter deck and build around the various demon types encountered within the Trial, which is where this guide will help.
Trial of Oshtur
This is the first Trial available to players and the only one that is mandatory as part of the main story. It also serves as the tutorial for Elder God Trials and is, fittingly, quite a simple affair compared to those that come after it.
This first trial exclusively features shadowhound enemies, and though they don't show up in combat outside this trial until Act 2, they aren't difficult to fight. Quick cards will allow the Hunter to eliminate large numbers of them without too much difficulty, while Charlie's howl allows her to mark them so that any attack that KO's them will refund a card play. Combo Howl and Bite to restock cards and keep the combo going a bit longer, and make good use of redraws to replace cards that won't be useful.
There's also a good number of environmental objects for players to use to dish out some extra damage quickly. Unlike the other Trials, this one is just a single set of enemies to defeat, so it'll be finished in no time as long as players make good use of everything at their disposal.
Trial of Atum
The second Trial is the Trial of Atum, which is unlocked using the Moon Seal obtained from restoring the Elemental Altar. The Blood Gate leading to the Trial is just north of the Standing Stones, and the trial itself is a four-wave encounter where players must take on both shadowhounds and guardians. Players have to defeat at least 16 demons total to pass the Trial.
The new enemies here, guardians, are tough demons with a lot of health that will always attack the last character that damaged them. Players should bear this in mind and take advantage of it to stop one character from getting ganged up on and spread damage between the Hunter and Charlie.
It's very useful for the Hunter to have healing cards in their deck for this encounter, along with several quick cards, so that they can keep themself and Charlie topped up on health and eliminate multiple enemies without expending a card play. Healing+ is a particularly good card for this, allowing the Hunter to draw two cards if they overheal their target, restocking the hand for further plays.
Since the only reinforcements to appear in this fight are shadowhounds, players should take full advantage of these as targets for Charlie's Howl and Bite, along with the Hunter's Quick cards, to restock cards and rack up extra KO's.
Eliminating the Guardians is fantastic where possible since they tend to be the biggest threat in this Trial, and using knockback to throw them into shadowhounds or throw shadowhounds into them is a great way to kill two birds with one stone here. The Hunter's whip cards are fantastic for this, but run the risk of discarding something useful. Environmental attacks are also excellent for taking out multiple foes without spending card plays.
Trial of Hyppus
The Third Trial, unlocked using the Moon Seal gained when solving the Shaw's Church mystery, can be found in the Everflowing Glade. The Trial of Hyppus introduces a third demon to the mix and tasks players with surviving four turns while taking out 16 demons.
This new demon, the dark legion, splits into two copies of itself after taking damage if it survives the attack. This alone makes them dangerous to contend with, but they can also spend their turn duplicating another nearby demon, usually a guardian. This means taking them out quickly should be a priority, and AOE attacks can be very useful for eliminating multiple clones at once.
Equipping the Hunter with AOE attack cards, such as Bladestorm and Holy Burst, will help them deal with the sheer number of demons that appear in this fight, and using the Environment well to eliminate foes without expending card plays is also critical here.
The strategy with Charlie remains largely the same, using Howl and Bite to restock cards and refund card plays while also enabling the Hunter to use their non-quick attacks without spending card plays as long as they KO something Charlie marked.
The guardians remain a huge problem here, so eliminating them whenever possible will help reduce the damage Charlie and the Hunter take. It's also important to keep the number of enemies down to a reasonable number, even as reinforcements arrive on later turns to make this more difficult, since the cloning capabilities of the dark legion can quickly overwhelm players who are unprepared or allow them to grow unchecked.
Trial of Set
The final Trial, the Trial of Set, is accessed after getting the final Moon Seal repaired by Agatha and heading to the Blood Gate to the east of Lilith's Greenhouse.
This Trial introduces Revenants, powerful demons that link together using the Soulbound status effect, making it impossible to KO them unless all Soulbound demons are KO'd on the same turn. They can also add other demons to their Soulbound network with their action, making them potentially devastating if given time to set up. Eliminating Revenants and dark legion should take priority in this challenge.
To win, players will need to eliminate 16 demons and survive four turns. This can be very difficult as the Revenants resist getting eliminated rather well, necessitating plenty of AOE and/or knockback cards, and as always, healing is highly recommended for keeping the Hunter and Charlie alive.
Bladestorm can be very helpful for mass clearing enemies and dealing with Revenants, and Holy Burst can let the Hunter do some healing while also taking out groups. Making good use of environmental damage can chip away at stronger foes, and Charlie's Howl and Bite continue to be critical to success here.
Marvel's Midnight Suns is available now for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S and is coming soon for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
