Nuking for Glory: Max Damage

Some of the best moments in SotM is when the cards just seem to keep coming, everything lines up, and you nuke the enemy into oblivion. This got me thinking: what is the absolute maximum damage a character can deal to any given generic opponent without help from anybody else? This is the result.

I simulated the conditions as follows:
No help from teammates. Any increase in damage must come from themselves, not teammates or the environment, or even the Nemesis Bonus.
The villain may oblige by hitting or damaging the hero as the case may be, but the damage type will be nonspecific (I'm looking at you, AZ), as well the amount of damage itself.
I counted damage dealt to only ONE villain target. No minions, just the big bad. I also didn't count damage dealt to self.
I used only the base card, no alternate arts, for simplicity's sake.

I, of course, recognize that some heroes are not meant to deal damage, but I included them in the experiment anyway, just for fun. I am also, of course, only human, so any comments, suggestions, or changes are welcome :) If you will notice, I don't have any of the ST or Promo heroes, so I couldn't do this for them. Anyone who has them is welcome to do it. Additions are awesome!

Here we go!

Haka: 41
Haka of Battle for 39 cards, then Crush.

Legacy: 11
Insipiring Presence and Surge of Strength give +2. Back-Fist Strike for 6, then Galvanize (another +1) and Motivational Charge (via Legacy Ring) for another 5.

Ra: 33
2 Solar Flares, The Staff of Ra and Imbued Fire collectively give Ra +6 damage. The opponent hits him duirng his turn for some reason, is dealt 8 damage via Flame Barrier. Play Flame Spike, hitting for 7. Use Blazing Tornado for 9, then use The Staff of Ra for another 9.

Tempest: 24
Gene-Bound Shackles gives him +2 to the highest HP Villain target (for our purposes, this is the case for our one target). Electrical Storm will hit for 3, then Vicious Cyclone will hit thrice (three cards discarded) for a total of 9. Lightning Slash will hit for 7, then Localized Hurricane will hit for 5.

The Wraith: 30
Again, pretty simple. All possible equipment is put down (total: 14), then Inventory Barrage for 28. Opponent somehow hits her on her turn for an extra 2 from Combat Stance.

Fanatic: 41
Fanatic starts with Divine Focus for 2, letting it reduce her life down to 1. Play Wrathful Retribution for 29. Due to two Embolden's on her, she may use a total of three powers on her turn. Exorcism (2), Absolution (3), and Sacrosanct Martyr (5) work for 10, with an Aegis resurrecting her from suicide via SM.

Bunker: 79
OMNICANNON. 38 cards underneath it. Play External Combustion for 3, then Omnicannon for 76.

Expatriette: 21
Unload. Tactical Shotgun with Hollow Points for 6. Assault Rifle with Shock Rounds for 2 and 1. Submachine Gun and Shock Rounds for 1 and 1. Pride with Hollow Points and Incendiary Rounds for 5, and then Prejudice with Incendiary Rounds for 3. Then Load RPG Launcher for another 2.

Mr. Fixer: 9
Harmony, Pipe Wrench, Grease Monkey Fist in play (+3). Play Charge for 5, then Strike for 4.

Tachyon: 74
Start with HUD Goggles and Pushing the Limits (3 card plays). Play two Lightning Reflexes for a total of 5 card plays. Play two Supersonic Responses (where the villain had hit Tachyon since the last turn) for 8 damage. 3 Lightspeed Barrages for 22 each.

The Visionary: 8
2 Twisting the Ethers on The Visionary. Demoralization hits for 3. Mind Spike hits for a further 5.

Absolute Zero: 39
(Oh God, this made my head hurt) Start with Isothermic Transducer, and Focused Apertures. Two Impales and a Cold Snap out will deal 8 cold. Frost-Bound Drain for 4 cold, then three fire to himself. IT kicks in, hits enemy for another 4 cold. Thermal Shockwave hits enemy for 2 cold, hits AZ for two cold, then hits AZ for twenty fire. IT kicks in again to hit enemy for 21 cold.

Argent Adept: ...negligible.
Sorry, my head hurt too much. Too many fiddly stuff. Suffice it to say, he does very little for a lot of effort. if anyone wants to work this out, then please do so and I will update here.

Nightmight: 26
Start with Amulet of the Elder Gods and Elder Ring. Heedless Lash(1) played, reveals HL(3): 4 damage to enemy, redirect 4 to self to enemy via Amulet. Play HL(3), reveal another HL(2). 3 to enemy, three to self. Play revealed HL(2), Oblivion(4). 5 to enemy, five to self. Play Oblivion(4), reveal two (4)s. 5 to all, 5 to enemy.

Special Case: Haka has Savage Mana, which lets him eat his opponents. This constitutes one of his best attacks, so I thought I'd include it here, although it involves significant Villain interaction. I chose the decks with the most targets in them.

Haka: 103
Haka of Battle for 38 cards, then Savage Mana with 20 Villain cards (courtesy of Matriarch) and 12 Environment cards (courtesy of Final Wasteland) will yield 32 cards for 64 damage.

Haka also gets a special note in that he has the potential for *infinite* damage (As noted by BlueHairedMeerkat), since he can keep racking up the Hakas of Battle to no end. Another note, as raised by Jimmy The Rat, is that, if we extend this to two turn plays, you can Haka of Battle on one turn, then Rampage on the next for even greater glory!

Haka of Battle can't discard itself, so your HoB discard numbers are 1 too high, but it can be cast on a previous turn since it's "next damage", allowing you to use Rampage for more damage.  Against the Matriarch, it'd be HoB 37 + Rampage 5 + Savage Mana 64 for 106.

Against a targetless deck with a targetless environment, it would be 45.  Either HoB 38 + Rampage 5 + Crush 2, or HoB 37 + Rampage 5 + Taiaha 3.

Actually, Haka can get n infinite number of damage; just use Haka of Battle on 40-card hands over and over again :P

Ooh, if you had Punish the Weak out with every target eaten, it would be -1 for the HoB number but it would increase both Rampage and Savage Mana, to a max of 107 against Matriarch/Final Wasteland.

BlueHairedMeerkat, that's technically true, but it's also rather silly.  I think a one HoB limit is best for these sorts of calculations, but Haka gets an asterisk for sure.

I was hoping to get the max for just the one turn, rather than the actions of two or more turns. As Meerkat said, that thinking could lead to infinite damage. And wouldn't you be able to discard HoB as well? given that you have the entire deck in your hand: you play HoB, it gets sent to the trash. You draw 2, so you reshuffle the trash into yoru deck, then you are able to redraw the Haka of Battle? If not, then thank you for pointing it out!
 

er, Meerkat, that is true :)) though perhaps for the purposes of this exercise, we should limit it to maybe one or two turns...

One-shots don't get sent to the trash until they're finished resolving, so it's not available yet (since it's still in play while you're drawing/discarding).

I think I shall limit this to one turn plays, as in, no Rampages :) But thank you for the input Jimmy! I shall edit.

Argent Adept: All instruments, 2 Subdominants, 2 Frost and Flames, Inspiring Supertonic, and Syncoplated Onlsaught. 2 xSilver Shadow and Poly Flare in hand.

Play Silvey Shadow, activate the accompany of Subdominant to use a power. Use Vocalize to Perform Onslaught for +1 damage. Play a second Silver Shadow to do Onslaught for 2 damage. Than play Poly Flare, take 3 damage and use the Bell. Using Both Perform and Accompany of Onslaught for +1 damage and deal 3(5) damage to the villain target.

First use the Harp to activate Perform of the Inspiring Supertonic to use a power. Use the Lyra and do the same with Perform. Now use the Pipes to trigger both Frost and Flames for 6 damage each (17 so far). Go back to the Lyra's accompany to do Onslaught for 3 (20) damage. The Harp's accompany will be used on the second Subdominant. Activate the horn to do Frost and Flame for another 6 damage, the accompany of the Subdominant again to use a power. Now use the Drum's power to do both the accompany of Onslaught and Perform of a Frost and Flame for another 9 damage. 35 damage total

Tachyon: Hud Goggles, Pushing the Limits, and 2x Synaptic Interruptions. In hand: 2x Sonic Vortex, 2x Lightning Reflexes, x3 Light-Speed Barrage.

Play both Lightning Reflexes, then both Sonic Vortexes. Hitting both the VIllain and Tachyon with them. Tachyon redirects both using both Synaptic Interruptions, for a total of 12 damage. Then play all three Light-Speed Barrage for 22 damage each. 78 damage total.

Did you forget to add in the bonus from the ring for NM?  So if she reveals HL(3) that would do 4 damage to the enemy and redirect 4 more at them, etc, etc for the rest of the chain.

I'm not sure but I think AA might be able to give himself +1 damage and then do 2 or 3 attacks with a base of 1 damage each to get up in the 6 range.  With silver shadow could maybe get another attack or something.  Heck he could silver shadow multiple times if necessary.  I bet on a perfect turn he could do something interesting but I don't have the cards here to look into it.

I need to point out that Volitile Parts hits the Villain target with the lowest, so you can't twist it to hit any Bots for you.

Also Powered Shockwave will be dealing 16 damage.

Fixed the volatile parts thing. Also, I'm pretty sure Shockwave only does damage = bots, so 14 (+1 for Champ).

Omni-X: All components in play, x2 Rocket Punch, Bio-Engineering Beam, Elemental Exochassis or Temporal Shielding, and Defensive Blast.

The Coil Blasters and Plasma Cannon deal 6 damage. First Deployment Unit plays Disruptive Flechettes, for 2 damage. Second plays Self Sacrifice destorying the 10 components for 20 damage. Play play phase will play a Slip Through Time. Use Defensive Blast for 4. End of turn play Singularity, destroying both Rocket Punches and the Plating for 3 damage. Engineering Beam for another 2. Making 37 damage.

The Scholar. Know When to Turn Loose, Truth Seeker.

Play know when to turn loose, discard 38 cards. Use Truth Seeker for 2. 40 damage.

Shockwave deals number of bots in play plus 1. So 14 bots +1= 15, plus 1 for Champion bot.

It's possible. However the way to do it I guess slightly breaks the "no help" rule as he would need a way to put the top card of his deck into play, which would be his last card, the Gatling Gun.

Even so, have the Gatling go under Omnicannon then, that'll increase it to 75 daamge, for a total of 79, which is the same as the other, dang it.

I know it’s one less, just being nit-picky (sorry).

Question though, if Bunkers deck is empty and he only has Gatling Gun in his trash, what happens if O-X Timeshifts him?

Nothing at all.

I hate it when i can't double check my cards. That means it says "reveal," right? Just checked. Yep, it does.

Well, thanks for taking the time out and answering the same question over and over again.

If zero uses Hoarfire instead of Frost-Bound Drain, targeting himself for fire, he does 3 cold to villain, 2 fire to self, redirecting 3 cold to villain, then deals himself 2 cold and 1 fire, redirecting 2 cold to the villain. Same amount of damage. However, it adds 2 cold total, adding another 2 to Thermal Shockwave. Without Null-Point Calibration Unit in play, this will kill him. If Null-point is in play (and cold to heal still counts as cold damage dealt, I don't have cards on me right now), he will survive, but deals one less, since he manages to heal to full. Still, that's 40.

If someone with cards could double check, that'd be great.

As for Promoes, the only ones that will change are Freedom Wraith, and Fanatic and Young Legacy. Haka would slightly change, but still do the same amount.

Young Legacy will do the same until Galvanize, she would isntead Atomic Glare for 5. Motivational Charge for 4. so 15 damage.

Wraith will actually get to use a power to deal damage. 1 damage to be exact. So 31 daamge.

Reedemer Fanatic would no longer have Exorcism. So she loses 2 damage, however she has one more hit point so Wrathful Retribution could deal 1 more point. so 40 damage.

Eternal Haka would instead have Taiaha in play. Discard 38 for Haka of Battle and deal 41.

It's actually the same amount of cold damage. Frost Bound will deal 4 and 4. which is 8. Where Hoarfire does 3, 3, and 2 which is still 8.

Oh, Chrono-Ranger isn't here either.

6 Bounties, Jim's Hat,  Compounded Bow, The Masadah, and Hunter and the Hunted.

Play all four Eye on the Prizes for 9 damage each (+6 for Hunter and Hunted and +2 for By any Means and Ultimate Target) so  far that's 36 damage. Lets say the villain actually hit him back the first time for backlash. So now Chrono can use a power, the Masadah for 14 (50) damage. Playing two terrible tech strikes for a total of 19 damage each (88). Lastly Compounded Bow for 18 damage. For a total of 106.

Edit: Did some bad math in it the first time.

Chrono-Ranger

Inplay: All bounties, Jim's Hat, Hunter and Hunted, Compound Bow, The Masadah

Play phase: Eye on the prize (9), Eye on the prize (9), Eye on the prize (9), Eye on the prize (9), Terrible Tech-Strike (10+9), Terrible Tech-Strike (10+9).

Power Phase: Compound Bow (9+9)

Any Phase: Villain damages someone, triggering "The Ultimate Target", The Masadah (14)

Total: 106

Wheeeee!

EDIT: Ronway posted while I was calculating, I think mine is correct, it's certainly higher!

He'll deal 3 cold, then 3 again (from redirect) , then 2 from redirect, then 2 to himself, which adds 2 to the total cold damage dealt this turn, which is used for Thermal Shockwave. Frost-Bound Drain deals 4 cold, then 4 from redirect, two less total cold damage.

Oh wait, I see, no null-point. Misread your intention, my apoligies.

Here they all are in order by most damage to least damage in a single round. First number is damage, the second is the amount of cards in play, played, discarded, and in the discard that are needed to do the damage.

Unity: 120, 17

Chrono-Ranger: 106, 16

Bunker: 79, 40

Tachyon: 78, 27

Fanatic: 41, 10

Haka: 41, 40

The Scholar: 40, 40

Absolute Zero: 39, 6

Omnitron-X: 37, 19

Argent Adept: 35, 14

Ra: 33, 6

The Wraith: 30, 16

NightMist: 26, 8

Tempest: 24, 7

Expatriette: 21, 13

Legacy: 11, 5

Fixer: 9, 4

The Visionary: 8, 4

Now divide it by amount of turns it takes to set up.

That is very tempting. Maybe i'll just put them in order of the number of cards required to be in play and played on that turn. Tachyon i'll also have to count the trash.

I think finding the maximum damage-to-setup-time ratio is probably a task for another thread, since there are so many different setups that would give good numbers.  Many of the setups in this thread are horrendously inefficient despite their impressive output.

There was a post earlier which did figure out the most possible damage which could be dealt by Argent Adept. One thing to note is that Subdominant card states that he may use a power now, and then destroy the card, rather than that he may use an additional power that turn. Thus, until the power use granted is finished, the card remains in play and can still be used. This means the ability listed can be used more than two times. What I’m not sure of is whether that actually makes a difference.

Would Arcane Cadence be a viable option for, well, anything? :))

And yes, thank you for pointing it out! Edited for NM errors -____-

I had forgotten that Subdomant could be used twice. I have now fixed it, it now adds another 6 damage to Argent's total, bringing him up to 35 damage, woohoo! It should also be noted that he is dealing 12 instances of damage. Meaning if his damage were to be increased by even just 1 more point, his damage dealt would be increased by 12.

Arcane Cadance wouldn't have an effect on the outcome. However will be essential to getting this set-up faster.

I.. am honestly surprised by how much AA can actually deal in a turn, given perfect set-up. I kind of wrote him off as low damage.

Argent Adept is actually a pretty descent damage dealer. He can get to the point where he is constantly doing 5 damage a round. Using the Lyra, Pipes, Inspiring Supertonic, 2 Frost and Flames, and Syncopated Onslaught. Throw a Harp in the mix and he regains 2 HP while doing 5 damage.

With the amount of neat things he can do, it isn't too often he gets the damage role. Teamed up with Legacy on the other hand will make him one of the best damagers in the team, depending who else is there. After all he can gain a +2, so he would be able to deal 15 damage a round if he gets his damage set-up.

As we are assuming the target can damage you during your turn, add another 8 damage to Omnitron-X's total for Reactive Plating Subroutine- 45 total

Edit: D'oh!I missed the "non-specific damage" clause, ignore this post

I wish I had my cards with me to look these up, but how about 3 of +1 healing and 3 of the turn healing into damage in play as well as the one that heals you for 2 at the start of the turn (I think it has some effect and then at the start of your turn heals for 2 and is destroyed.).  Thats 7 cards in play at the start of turn.  Also he needs to be down some Hp.

So start of turn he heals for 5 (2 base +3 total) and does 3 instances of 5 damage for 15.  Then he plays Know When to Turn Loose discarding 26 cards (he needed 7 in play, 6 to discard, and the KWYL itself) for 26 damage so he is up to 41 total.  Then for his power he heals for 4 (1 base +3 total) dealing 3 more instances of 4 damage worth 12 total giving him a total damage of 53 for the turn.

Resurrecting an old topic here... It wasn't clear from the initial stipulations: Can there be more than one target in play? That is, I know we're only counting damage to one opponent, but can the opponent have minions? If so, the Scholar does way better just ignoring Know When to Turn Loose and playing "Get Out of the Way" with the elemental setup described above.

SPOILERS!!!!

Setback can trump this whole thing, given enough time.

END SPOILERS!!!

Only to ONE villain target. Its up there No minions!

WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN UPDATED FOR VENGEANCE!!!!

Oh well, time to do it myself then.

K.N.Y.F.E.

In Play

Battlefield Experience x4

Primed Punch x3

Kinetic Neutralizer +1

Overdo It

Prototype Servo-Gauntlets +1 Melee

Focusing Conduit-Blade +1 Energy

Start of Turn

Primed Punch 6

Primed Punch 6=12

Primed Punch 6=18

Overdo It plays...

For The Greater Good

Energy Burn 5 + 4=27

Battlefield Experience 4 + 4=35 and plays...

For The Greater Good

Energy Burn 5 + 4=44

Battlefield Experience 4 + 4=52 and plays...

For The Greater Good

Energy Burn 5 + 4=61

Battlefield Experience 4 + 4=69 and plays...

Incidental Contact 3 + 3=75

Play Phase

Incidental Contact 3 + 3=81

Power Phase

Battlefield Experience 4 +4=89 and plays...

Incidental Contact 3 + 3 =95

Conversely The Sentinels top out at a massive 8!

2 ways I found of doing it

Horrifying Dichotomy for 3 from Medico and 3 from Writhe, then The Idealist uses her power for 2

OR

Coordinated Assault from Mainstay while his Chain is inplay and all The Sentinels are alive (for 6) and then The Idealist uses her power for the other 2

I have seen them wreck stuff all over the place but against a single target they seem to fall off badly

The Naturalist gives us a 12

In Play

Natural-Born Vigor

Natural Form's Power

The Deadly Crocodile

Play Phase

Predator's Eye (draw no cards) 5

Power Phase

Natural Form's Power 3=8

The Deadly Crocodile 4=12

(Thanks to Ronway for this one)

Parse benefits from her ongoing cards not being limited

In Play

Critical Multiplier

Critical Multiplier

Critical Multiplier

Snap Decision

Start of Turn

Discard for Snap Decision triggering each Critical Multipler +3

Syntactic Analysis reveals Recompile and Syntactic Analysis(2)

Syntactic Analysis(2) reveals Recompile and Recompile

Discarding 3 for each Recompile gives +30

Play Phase

Impossible Shot for 33 irreducible damage

Power Phase

Pinpoint shot for 2=35

How is Snap Decision producing +9? It's +3 surely, 1 from each Critical Multiplier for discarding the card to allow the extra play.

Setback plays Cause and Effect and his damage is only limited by the tokens in his pool so theoretically his damage is limitless. If you add in his two copies of High Risk Behavior then he also adds +2 damage per 3 tokens, I'm sure those villains will really feel those extra 2/3rds of your unlucky pool's limitless tokens!

Plus his power phase.

Setback can topple mountains, who knew!

Setback:

X tokens in play, Silver Lining, Looking Up, High Risk Behavior x2, play Cause and Effect.

Deal X + 2/3X to one target.   Probably die and get better.   Then deal 5 to that target.

It doesn't, you did not see that!

Actually, thinking about it with Wrong Time and Place in play he can redirect the limitless damage he is about to recieve at the villain again, limitless damage times 2 +2/3rds limitless damage!

The best thing is that without official tokens there is no limit to how many can be gained, so roughly 2.7 infinities of damage.

Parse can also do infinity; just Critical Multiplier forever, then unleash it all in a single shot.

Can't he only redirect damage from non-hero targets?  Or is it the first damage dealt to a hero target each round?  I the second, then yes, that equation would obliterate most single targets once.

edit - Yes, he can double-nuke.  So the total is 3 1/3rd X plus 5.  And I am ashamed for my lack of true Setback skills.  

Actually, it's only 2*Infinity + 2/3 Infinity +5. By spending the points to redirect Cause and Effect, he now has a pool of zero so the two High Risk Behaviours only apply to the initial damage, not the redirected.

True.  Still, divide each villain target's health by that much and you'll know Setback's guaranteed nuke range.  Looks like 36 tokens will toast anyone at 100hp.  Iron Legacy requires just a hair over 10 tokens.  And you need to survive having Wrong Tume and Place out for one round with 2x High Risk Behavior, or get a lot of card play assists.

Parse is being sadly underestimated! (Just because she only has 3 Recompiles in her deck doesn't mean that's all she can play in a turn!)

In Play

Critical Multiplier

Critical Multiplier

Critical Multiplier

Snap Decision

Deck: 16 cards

Start of Turn

Discard for Snap Decision triggering each Critical Multipler: +3

Syntactic Analysis(1) reveals Recompile(1) and Syntactic Analysis(2)

Syntactic Analysis(2) reveals Recompile(2) and Recompile(3)

Discard 3 for Recompile(3): +9

Deck: 6 cards

Discard 3 for Recompile(2): +9

Deck: 0 cards

Discard 3 for Recompile(1): +9 

   -Deck is empty for the draw, trash is shuffled into a new deck. Syntactic Analysis(2), Recompile(2), and Recompile(3) are in the deck; Syntactic Analysis(2) is drawn.

Play Phase 

Syntactic Analysis(2) reveals Recompile(2) and Recompile(3)

Power Phase

Pinpoint shot for 2+48=50

I bet The Super Scientific Tachyon can help out by allowing anyone to play two cards with her power..

When calculating damage I made a conscious decision to not reycle trash or almost everybody's damage goes up.

Reanimating this thread so that we can add Guise, Captain Cosmic, and Sky-Scraper.

Guise is pretty heavily neutered by “no help” restriction, which makes I can do that too, Lemme see that, and Uh Yeah I’m that guy useless, and the “one turn” rule makes Blatant Reference far less useful than usual. Also, I have no idea how we should handle Say Cheese.

Time to add what I got then.

Captain Cosmic is causing me so many headaches without the physical cards in front of me

Max Damage, Sky-Scraper style!

Colossal Left Hook->3

Colossal Left Hook->6

Colossal Left Hook->9

Undetectable Relinking->Take back 4 cards

Compulsion Cannister on yourself->11*

Compulsion Cannister on yourself->13*

Catch A Ride->15**

Catch A Ride->17**

Tiny power is incidental

*And 2 to yourself

** and 2 by another hero to the same target

Sky-Scraper is way more abusable than that.

Colossal Left Hook x3 -> 9 damage

Undetectable Relinking -> take back 6 cards

Compulsion Cannister x2 -> 13 damage (and 4 to something else)

Nah, man, for Sky-scraper, you need to chain those same compulsion canisters multiple times. Replace the catch a rides with a linking incursion and another undetectable relinking; this loop will repeat until you run out of those. I think there are 4 of each of those and relinking, so that loop can be done 4 times total. On the 4th loop, put the catch a rides in there. This will add an extra 12 damage, with an extra 12 damage to herself as well.

I got 29, BTW.

Colossal right hook X 3 for 9
Undetectable Relinking, pull up 4 cards
2 compulsion canisters for 4
Linking Incursion for 2 fodder links
Undetectable Relinking, pull up 4 cards
2 compulsion canisters for 4
Linking Incursion for 2 fodder links
Undetectable Relinking, pull up 4 cards
2 compulsion canisters for 4
Linking Incursion for 2 fodder links
Undetectable Relinking, pull up 4 cards
2 compulsion canisters for 4
Catch a Ride for 2
Catch a Ride for 2

Skip one iteration if there are only 3 linking incursions/relinking, but I am pretty sure there are 4.

Yeah, that seems right.

Nope, there's only 3 Undetectable Relinkings according to the spoiler.

Edited for better clarification, btw… Again…

Editted my response, when I realized that my math didn't work the way I wanted it too.

You don't need all the Linking Incursions, btw - just have the first Undetectable Relinking bounce as many extra links as you need extra plays.

I haven’t hit quite that high with Parse, but I have cleared 100 without needless goofing around. (We figured Skinwalker Gloomweaver was really going to hurt when he flipped, so we wanted to make sure we could burn him down in one round. Problem solved.)

Though with Prime Wardens Haka in the game, can’t any hero reach an arbitrarily high amount of damage, since he can pass the benefits of Haka of Battle off to another hero?

Yes, but that would count as helping, which is not allowed.

But unless you have a bunch of links in play already (possible, I guess) you need them to keep enough in play to keep replaying them.

Right, and I should have caught that. (And Parse has been able to achieve the same effect all along, so two mental lapses for the price of one.)

For some reason I felt a need to figure this out for Guise tonight and so I’m using necromancy. A few stipulations on this. One I’m assuming the villain has reactionary damage, second once I start using Say Cheese! the villain is at 5 HP after the hit, and lastly the villain can go into negative HP. I put total damage in [] as I list each card played

On Guise’s turn play Guise the Barbarian and Selling Out

At the end of the Environment turn I discard Gimmicky Character to allow me to play three one shots

First card play:

I Can Do That Too! using Guise’s base power Tough Choices to play

Best Card Ever! → 4 [4]

Best Card Ever! → 4 [8]

Look What I Found 5 [13]

Resolve Tough Choices - > 4 [17]

Second Card play:

Look What I Found → 5 [22]

Third Card Play:

Retcon → Destroy Selling Out and then choose to play a card Selling Out

Discard Gimmicky Character to Selling Out

First Card Play:

Look What I Found → 6 [28]

Second Card Play:

Where Did I Leave That to get Best Card Ever! back into hand

Third Card Play:

Best Card Ever → 5 [33]

Say Cheese! → 3 [36]

Say Cheese! → 3 [39]

Say Cheese! → 3 [42]

So a total of 42 damage from a single turn.

Edit: updated card plays and added second play of Selling Out.

Trivia Fact: Guise is the only Hero who's Max damage is "over 9000".

WHAT!?!?? 9000!!!!!!

With Infinite Scholar, his know when to turn loose damage is effectively doubled. His new base power reads: "Channel: The Scholar deals himself and 1 target X Infernal Damage, where X = the number of cards you've discarded since the end of your last turn plus 1."

Taking Sefirit's formula on the previous page:

Sefirit's total was 53, with a final heal for 4 = an additional 12 points of damage. BUT If his first heal got him to full health, Scholar of the Infinite can use his power phase to do an additional 30 damage to a single target. He wouldn't have been able to discard the full 26 cards, because then he'd take 33 damage and self destruct in the middle of his power phase. It would work out to be a total of 38 damage afterthe play phase with a 23 card discard from KWYL, and then Channel for 23 + 6 discarded for the forms +1 = 30 additional damage for a total 68.

(I'm assuming that because the text on his power mentions the Scholar first, that he's the first to take damage when using his power, and if he reaches 0, he can't finish the power due to being incapped, but this hasn't been established yet. If his power phase isn't interrupted by self damage, his Know When To Turn Loose with 39 cards can net him 79 single target damage with his power.)

Or have Legacy play Heroic Interception beforehand.

One thing I want to try is AZ + Twist the Ether + Coolant Blast + Hoarfire + Focused Apertures. Have one of the portions of Hoarfire's fire hit AZ, let the Isothermic Transducer and TtE keep bouncing it back at him as fire damage for additional damage each time, letting the final one hit someone else for cold damage, then doubling that damage output with Coolant Blast. I haven't done the math yet, but if he's starting from full health? You can count on a solid 50 damage in one turn.

Keep in mind the point of this thread is what a hero can with their cards and without cards or assistance from other heroes.

Ah, gotcha, I didn't realize that.

In that case

Absolute Zero: 39
(Oh God, this made my head hurt) Start with Isothermic Transducer, and Focused Apertures. Two Impales and a Cold Snap out will deal 8 cold. Frost-Bound Drain for 4 cold, then three fire to himself. IT kicks in, hits enemy for another 4 cold. Thermal Shockwave hits enemy for 2 cold, hits AZ for two cold, then hits AZ for twenty fire. IT kicks in again to hit enemy for 21 cold.

What about Hoarfire? It'd work out to 3 cold + 3 cold + 2 cold + 2 cold fueling Thermal Shockwave, 10 instead of 8. Or would that put him over the edge and kill him from Thermal Shockwave's damage? It'd be doable with Elemental Wraith, I think.

Elemental Wrath has less health than regular AZ.  If he had more health then yes, I think Hoarfire could squeak out a few more points of damage, but as it is my math comes out to 39 again.

Couple others looking through the list...

Expatriette: 21
Unload. Tactical Shotgun with Hollow Points for 6. Assault Rifle with Shock Rounds for 2 and 1. Submachine Gun and Shock Rounds for 1 and 1. Pride with Hollow Points and Incendiary Rounds for 5, and then Prejudice with Incendiary Rounds for 3. Then Load RPG Launcher for another 2.

If you use Prejudice first, and then Pride, you can then use Prejudice again (at least, it works that way in the app). Works out to the same amount of damage, though.

Now, with Dark Watch Expatriette, you can't get the RPG Launcher in, but Aim more than makes up for it. Unload, then Aim, Shotgun and Hollow Points (7), Assault Rifle (3) and Shock Rounds (2), SMG (2) and Shock (2), Pride with Hollow Points and Incendary (6) and Prejudice with Incendiary (4). Comes to 26.

Mr. Fixer: 9
Harmony, Pipe Wrench, Grease Monkey Fist in play (+3). Play Charge for 5, then Strike for 4.

There's a better way. With Duel Crowbars, Fixer can hit himself first then hit the villain and get the bonuses to stack up. So then it's

Charge (at Fixer) for 5, and hit the villain for 8; then Strike (at Fixer) for 4, and hit the villain for 7, a total of 15 to the villain.

Now, if you use Bloody Knuckles instead, let's see...

That means you can only use Strike once, but the first strike at Fixer is for 8 (+3 for the crowbars, harmony, and grease monkey fist, +2 for Bloody Knuckles' damage increase, +2 for Bloody Knuckles' increase of damage to Fixer) and the hit on the villain is 13.

This'd get a little more insane if you could have four sets of Bloody Knuckles' out, since it's not limited, but Fixer doesn't have any way to play additional cards.

Argent Adept: ...negligible.
Sorry, my head hurt too much. Too many fiddly stuff. Suffice it to say, he does very little for a lot of effort. if anyone wants to work this out, then please do so and I will update here.

Alright, I've done the math on this and it's actually a little frightening. The key is remembering that while you can only use each power once, you can use any of the Perform and Accompany effects as often as the instruments allow.

Okay, two copies of Scherzo, Syncopated Onslaught, Inspiring Supertonic and Alacritous Subdominant out and and Xu's Bell, Eydisar's Horn, Musaragni's Harp and Drake's Pipes.

Opening of the turn, Polyphoric Flare to Vocalize and hit Drake with Syncopated Onslaught. During the power Phase, Xu's Bell to activate Onslaught again and the Accompany of Subdominant to use another power (all the rest of this takes place while this power usage is being resolved, so the song card isn't destroyed until the very end). Use Eydisar's Horn to set off Scherzo (3 ice, 3 fire) and hit Subdominant again to use another power. Use Musaragni's Harp to activate Inspiring Supertonic's Perform to use Akpunku's Drum. Use that to set off the Accompany of Syncopated Onslaught (3 Sonic damage) and Scherzo again (3 ice, 3 fire). Musaragni's Harp still has an Accompany left, so use that on Alacritous Subdominant to squeeze one more power useage and blow Drake's Pipes to hit both copies of Scherzo (3 ice, 3 fire, 3 ice, 3 fire).

It works out to 27 damage.

Edit: Damn, didn't see Ronway's post on the previous page.

Honestly, Matchstickman did all the hard work there, I just have a couple of fixes to add.

Captain Cosmic, 21 Constructs in play, all attached to himself, minus Cosmic Crest, which is in his trash, Also Destructive Response, Unflagging Animation, and at least 2x Sustained Influence.

Start of turn: Discard for Augmented Ally: Cosmis Weapon ->3

Autonomous Blade ->5

Autonomous Blade ->7

Autonomous Blade ->9

Discard for Augmented Ally: Cosmic Weapon -> 12

Discard for Augmented Ally: Fabrication: Potent Disruption -> 17 (one of the used Cosmic Weapons at 4hp)

Triggers Sustained Influence bringing the destroyed Cosmic Weapon back into play: also triggers Destructive Response ->18

& 1 to a Dynamic Syphon: resurrected Cosmic Weapon ->21

The last Destructive Response damage to another Dynamic Siphon: unused Cosmic Weapon ->24

If he attacked a villain with retaliatory damage (Chairman, Miss Information) Wounding Buffer ->26

Wounding Buffer ->28

Wounding Buffer ->30

Since it's still the beginning of his turn, Sustained Influence now brings back a Cosmic Crest from the trash, and for his play phase: Construct Cataclysm destroys all 22 of them->52

Then Sustained Influence brings back Cosmic Weapon for his power phase: Cosmic Weapon ->55

There's still another Sustained Influence he could possibly use, but I don't see how he could get more damage out of it this turn. Autonomous Blades wouldn't activate again, since he's already done damage this turn. So yeah, looks like a max of 55.

If Sustained Influence brings back a construct during Construct Cataclysm, doesn't it just get destroyed again, the same way End of Days will keep trying to destroy Kismet's stuff even if Lady Luck is out?

If so, you won't be able to bring back Cosmic Weapon for it's power use, but you two more destructions by Construct Cataclysm, so you only get 54.

I believe it would get destroyed again.  So it would count towards Construct Cataclysm at least.  

Guise max damage over a round. Damage total in []

On Guise’s turn play Guise the Barbarian for normal play, Super Ultra Kawaii!! from Tough Choices, and then Blatant Reference and Best Card Ever through Super Ultra Kawaii!!

Best Card Ever damage → 4

Tough Choices damage → 3 [7]

Blatant Reference damage → 3 [10]

Next turn play Best Card Ever → 4 [14]

Play I Can Do That Too! to use Tough Choices

Play Best Card Ever → 4 [18]

Play Where Did I Leave That… to regain Best Card Ever in trash

Touch Choices damage → 3 [21]

Blantant Reference Damage → 3 [24]

Next turn play Best Card Ever → 4 [28]

Play I Can Do That Too! to use Tough Choices

Play Where Did I Leave That… to regain Best Card Ever in trash

Touch Choices damage → 3 [31]

Blantant Reference Damage → 3 [34]

Next turn play Best Card Ever → 4 [38]

Play Where Did I Leave That… to regain Best Card Ever in trash

Blantant Reference Damage → 3 [41]

Next turn play Best Card Ever → 4 [45]

Play Selling Out

Blantant Reference damage → 3 [48]

At the end of the Environment turn I discard Gimmicky Character to allow me to play three one shots

First one shot play:

I Can Do That Too! using Guise’s base power Tough Choices to play

Look What I Found! → 5 [53]

Resolve Tough Choices - > 4 (+1 damage from Look What I Found) [57]

Second one shot card play:

Look What I Found! → 5 [62]

Third one shot card play:

Say Cheese! → 4 (+1 damage from Look What I Found) [66]

Say Cheese! → 3 [69]

Say Cheese! → 3 [72]

So a total of 72 damage from a whole round. If Fixed Point is out the last Look What I Found! could be used to put the damage total at 77

Edit: Corrected mistakes in card play.

Santa Guise max damage in a turn:
This is more traditional instead of using the environment turn to deal max damage. The card plays of Say Cheese! won’t care about remaining health as they will get played due to the second power on Santa Guise
So after some setup rounds the second power of Santa Guise is used and reveals cards in the order (total damage listed in []):
First revealed card:
Guise the Barbarian
Second revealed card:
Look What I Found! → 5 [5]
Third revealed card:
Look What I Found! → 6 [11]
Fourth revealed card:
Look What I Found! → 6 [17]
Fifth revealed card:
Where Did I Leave That… (use to get Look What I Found! from trash)
Sixth revealed card:
Where Did I Leave That… (use to get Look What I Found! from trash)
Seventh revealed card:
Where Did I Leave That… (use to get Look What I Found! from trash)
Eighth revealed card:
Gimmicky Character used to play
Look What I Found! → 6 [23]
Ninth revealed card:
Best Card Ever! → 5 [28]
Look What I Found! → 5 [33]
Tenth card revealed:
Best Card Ever! → 5 [38]
Look What I Found! → 5 [43]
Eleventh card revealed:
Say Cheese! → 4 [47]
Twelfth card revealed:
Say Cheese! → 3 [50]
Thirteenth card revealed:
Say Cheese! → 3 [53]
Fourteenth revealed card:
Blantant Reference

No more revealed cards
End of turn:
Blantant Reference → 3 [56]

A total of 56 damage from Guise delivering gifts of pain to the villain. For an extra why not X-treeeeeeeeme!!! could be revealed after Guise the Barbarian.

Anyone want to try figuring out how much Omnitron-U can put out in one round, thanks to the new power?

It sould be able to effectively double the damage dealt by Self-Sabotage.

Singularity also wlll get more effective as well. ok so here we go. So we do 6 damage base beginning of turn plus 2 more from disruptive flechhettes which then destroy two ongoings such as slip through time reactive plating for an additional 4 we then go ahead and self sacrifice at the of the start of the turn sacking all 8 components for 16 damage and an additional 16 from the sacking feature current total damage =44. Next we go to play phase where we go ahead and play yet another slip through time. Play phase go ahead and use omni-U base power again and play singularity to blow up all but your plating for 6 additional damage play another disruptive flechettes for 6 by sacking both of the bio-beams you have in play and finish off with defensive blast on your second play phase for 4 more. So grand total 60 I think.

Previous round: Volitile Wiring

In play:
2x Focused Plasma Cannons [component]
2x Gaussian Coil Blasters  [component]
2x Innervation Ray  [component]
2x Electro-Deployment Unit  [component]
1x Temporal Shielding [plating, equipment]
2x Bioengineering Beam [ongoing]
1x Defensive Blast [ongoing]
1x Reactive Plating Subroutine [ongoing]
2x Rocket Punch [equipment]
1x Slip Through Time [ongoing]

Start of turn:
Deal 6 damage using components. [6]
Play 2x Disruptive Fletchettes. Deal 2x2 damage.  Destroy Defensive Blast, Reactive Plating Subroutine, 2x Bioengineering Beams.  Each triggers Volitile Wiring.  12 damage total.  [18]
Slip Through Time is destroyed.  [20]

Play a card:
Slip Through Time

Use a power:
Volitile Wiring
Play Singularity.  Destroy 2x Rocket Punch and Temporal Shilding.  3 damage, plus 6 Volitile Wiring triggers.  15 damage.  [35]

End of Turn:
Play Self-Sabotage.  Destroy 8 Components.  Deal 16 Damage, plus 16 wiring triggers.  48 damage. [83]
No available powers.

83 damage total.   see second edit

You could leave Bioengineering Beam in play to use it's power at the end, but you lose the 2 wiring damage, so it's a wash.  Saving Rocket Punch would sacrifice 5 damage for 3, and Defensive Blast would gain you 4 damage at the cost of 7.  You're better off with a clean board.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Powerhound, but as described in my last paragraph, my solution is slightly more optimal.  Also, Powerhound dropped the 2 damage from Slip through Time being destroyed, and forgot to double the wiring triggers from the Singularity equipment.

EDIT2:  Nevermind.  I forgot that the first Volitile Wiring trigger goes away at end of turn.  This means that you need to do Self-Sabotage first, and Sigularity second, and the wiring triggers for SIngularity shouldn't be doubled.  Which means that saving Rocket Punch is a wash like Bioengineering Beam, and Powerhound and I reached the same damage, if we had done the math correctly.  The correct answer is 77 damage total.

Updated mine to include the missing damage I forgot to add in.   Also I realize the power use is a wash over all but I figured I might as well use the extra power since the numbers came out the same anyways. 

We have a bunch of lovely new promos now.  Anyone want to see which heroes can get power boosts with them?

The most obvious is FV Tachyon: Instead of the 78 damage you get with regular Tachyon, or the 86 you could get from Super Scientific Tachyon, you get 101 damage.

Visionary Unleashed can have 8 ongoings in play.  So rather than 8 damage in her base form, she can deal 19 damage.

Captain Cosmic.  ugh.  First off, I've improved upon Natediggadoggity's 54 damage for regular CC.  Instead of playing Construct Cataclysm for his play, instead play Conservation of Energy destroying 3 constructs, (2 are brought back by 2 Sustained Influences), and then Harsh Offense hitting the unused Cosmic Crest for 2 and the last 2 Potent Disruptions for 5 each, and then Construct Cataclysm for 19.  That's 61 damage.  You can get to 63 if two of the in play constructs on top of the deck to get hit by Harsh Offense (you get +2 damage for each from Harse Offense, but -1 from Construct Cataclysm).  You can get to 65 if three more are on top of the deck (the net +1 per construct seen before, -1 for needing to destroy another construct for Conservation of Energy).  The third harsh offense pushes you to 67.  (Incidentally, there are exactly 9 constructs being used only for the Construct Cataclysm.  3 Energy Bracers, 3 Vitality Conduits, 1 Dynamic Syphon, 2 Cosmic Crests.  Even if we had more Harsh Offenses to play, they wouldn't be useful because we get more value from having the other constructs on the field)

Now, let's look at Xtreme CC.  (Warning: abbreviations galore.  please refer to Natediggadoggity's work if you are confused.)
20 constructs (no Cosmic Crest), 3 Sustained Influence, 1 Destructive Response
AA -> CW power [3]
revenge damage triggers WB x3 [9]
AB x3 [15]
AA -> CW power [18]
AA -> Play with Madness [40]
play CoE destroy 4 (including used CW & 2 AB)
SIx3 brings back CW & 2 AB (20 in play)
DR hits 2 DS + villain [41]
DS -> CW power [44]
DS -> CW power [47]
play HO hit both Cosmic Crests [51]
AB x2 [55]
play PD x3 [70] (17 in play)
play Construct Cataclysm [87]

Fused CC:
14 constructs (3 CW, 3 WB, 3 AA, 3 AB, 2 DS), 3 Sustained Influence, 1 Destructive Response, 1 Unflagging Animation
AA -> CW power [3]
revenge damage triggers WB x3 [9]
AB x3 [15]
AA -> CW power [18]
AA -> Play with Madness
play CoE destroy 3 constructs (used CW + 2 AB)
SIx3 brings back 3
DR hits 2 DS + villain [19]
DS -> CW power [22]
DS -> CW power [25]
play PD x3 [40] (get rid of the WB)
AB x 2 [44]
play HO x3 [62]
Constructs shoot CC for 22.
UA returns a construct (12 in play)
play Construct Cataclysm [74]

PW CC: (technically I know that he's not new, but he wasn't calculated before, and they changed his power to that it doesn't override destruction, although the cards are still shuffled into the deck.  This makes him… fun)  Also, note that I will be playing the odds so that the constructs drawn will be the most beneficial possible at all times.  Which we've done before with Parse, Scholar, and the like, but never to the absurd degree that I will be doing it here.
21 constructs in play, 1 Cosmic Crest in deck, 1 in hand.  In play: 3 Sustained Influence, 1 Destructive Response, 1 Unflagging Animation.  All other cards in hand.
AA (discard Destructive Response) -> CW power [3]
revenge damage triggers WB x3 [9]
AB x3 [15]
AA (discard Cosmic Crest) -> CW power [18]
AA (discard Unflagging Animation) -> Absorbtion
play PD (damage waits until everything else is done)

destroy AB
absorption shuffles it into the deck
play CoE destroy 2 used CW
SI x2 bring them back
play PD x2 destroy 2 AB [28]
absorption shuffles them, draw and play 1 (2 in deck)
DR hits 3 DS
AB [30]
CW x3 [39]
First PD damage finishes [44]


Unflagging Animation brings in Cosmic Crest (2 AB 1 CC in deck, 20 in play, 0 in trash)
Play Construct Cataclysm (ooh, boy)
destroy & shuffle 18 constructs (leave 2 DS) to draw 9 & play 8 (3x AB + 3x CW + 1 DS + something).  (18 destroyed)
play HO [50]
AB x3 hit DS x3 to use CW x3 [59]
destroy & shuffle 1 (19 destroyed)
play CoE (destroy, shuffle, draw, play 9 (3x AB + 3x CW + 3 DS) play HO [65]
AB x3 hit DS x3 to use CW x3 [74]
destroy & shuffle 10 to draw 5 play 4 (AB x3 + something) (29 destroyed)
play HO [80]
AB x3 [86]
destroy 1 & return it with SI (30 destroyed)
destroy & shuffle 4 to draw & play 2 (34 destroyed)
destroy & shuffle 1 to play Construct Cataclysm (35 destroyed for first Cataclysm)
destroy 1 to deal 3 damage with second Cataclysm [89]
first Cataclysm deals damage (35 destroyed) [124]

whew.  I'm not entirely convinced that this is optimal - I think that if we rearrange it a bit then it might be possible to "refresh" the Autonomous Blades a few more times. 

Does anyone else want to tackle the other promos?  Because I'm done for the moment.

EDIT:  I realized that a) I had been counting the destructions wrong at the end, and the total was really 123 damage, and b) I could get an extra point of damage by using the second Construct Cataclysm.  Incidentally, this now uses literally every single card in the deck.  Which is pretty cool.

Wow, I'm not up to trying any others right now but I would have suspected Xtreme CC capable of the most damage not PW CC.  

You would think that, but Xtreme CC only doubles the Cataclysm at the end, while PW can get pretty close to that by drawing and playing constructs during the destruction.  And of course PW CC can take advantage of the additional plays and draws elsewhere as well.

Wouldn't it be better just to use singularity to destroy everything (even the components) before the end of your turn?  Singularity deals 1 less damage per component, but each one gets an extra volatile trigger for 2, so you should net +8 damage, bringing your total to 85.

Edit: Nvm, I see now that you changed the order to play self-sacrifice first, and singularity destroys few enough cards that the extra damage from the card outweighs the lost damage from VW triggers.  I would just delete this post, but it says I can't, so I won't.

I think you still left a bit of damage on the table, and your changes (particularly when added to mine) are substantial enough that I figured they were worth writing out fully:

(Mostly due to Arcanis Lupus, Natediggadoggity, and/or Matchstickian)

In Play: 3xAutonomous Blade, 3xCosmic Weapon, 3xAugmented Ally, 2xDynamic Syphon, 3x Wounding Buffer (total of 14 constructs), 3x Sustained influence, Unflagging Animation, Destructive Response

Start of turn:

Augmented Ally: Cosmic Weapon->3

    3xAutonomous Blade Triggers->9

    Villain retaliates, triggering 3x Wounding buffer->15

Augmented Ally: Fabrication: Conservation of energy, destroying 3x Autonomous Blade, 2x Wounding Buffer 

    3xSustained Influence Triggers, returning 3xAutonomous Blade

    Destructive Response Triggers->16

        3xAutonomous Blade Triggers->22

        Hits Dynamic Syphon: Cosmic Weapon->25

        Hits Dynamic Syphon: Cosmic Weapon->28

    Play 6 cards:

        3x Harsh Offense each revealing 3 constructs->46

        3xPotent Disruption (3x Cosmic Weapon)->61

Unflagging animation Triggers (Cosmic Weapon)

Augmented Ally: Cosmic Weapon->64

Play Phase:

Construct Cataclysm (1xCW,1xWB, 2xDS, 3xAB, 3xAA)->74

Power Phase: pass

The extra damage comes from recycling your Autonomous Blade Triggers.  I'm not 100% certain this works.  I know from the video game that some cards that trigger "the first time [X happens] each turn" will trigger if X happens, then they enter play, and X happens again, even though it's not technically the first time, but I don't know if that's universal and I don't know if it works specifically for Autonomous Blade. However, if it does, this nets you an extra 6 damage.   I haven't looked at the variants yet, so I don't know if you can apply this technique to squeeze more damage out of them or not.

Edit: just realized that X on Consevation of Energy is one more than the number of constructs destroyed, so I destroyed one less, giving me one more from the Construct Cataclysm. This brings my total to 7 more than your 67.  I know that 6 of that is from the Autonomous blade recycle, but I'm not sure where that last one is from.  I think my math is right, though.  Maybe you forgot to use your last Sustained Influence, or possibly Unflagging animation? Also I see that your calculations for some of the variants include recycled Autonomous Blade triggers, so I take it that this does in fact work.

That should be 21 constructs.  Your damage calculations are correct, though, so I assume this was just a typo.

Yeah, it didn't occur to me to recycle the Autonomous Blades until I got to the PW CC accounting, so it can probably be fit into the other two counts as well.  It should work - according to the Fireside Chats, all "First time X happens" come with an implicit "since this card entered play".

Flipping the order to put the last Augmented Ally after Unflagging Animation was clever too.

If you use Requital (not "Play with Madness") as your second Augmented Ally Power, You can recycle another Autonomous Blade  with Potent Destruction/Unflagging Animation and trigger it when you swing with your refreshed Cosmic Weapon as your third AA power for 76 total damage.  Or, equivalently, you could just recycle  all three with Conservation of Energy and Sustained influence and use PD/UA to refresh your CW.

With PW CC, how are you playing Potent Disruption before Unflagging Animation Triggers?  As I read it, Absorption doesn't give you any free card plays until something is destroyed.

Huh. You’re right. I think that i got confused, and massively screwed up the math. Anyone up to fixing it for me? I’m burned out of CC math.

PW CC:

In play: 21 Constructs (no Cosmic Crest), 3 Sustained influence, Unflagging Animation, Destructive Response

(1 Cosmic Weapon has 1 damage on it).

All other cards in hand

Parenthes denote number of Constructs in play.

Angle braces <> and curly braces { } denote number of cards destroyed By inner and outer nested card plays, respectively.

   In other words, curly braces show the number of cards destroyed by a card which is played during the resolution of a card represented by angle braces.

Augmented Ally (Cosmic Crest): Absorption

AA (Cosmic Crest): damaged CW hits itself (20)

3x Autonomous Blade Triggers [6]

Villan Response for 3x Wounding Buffer Triggers [12]

Destructive Response Triggers [13]
hits 2x Dynamic Syphon->2x Cosmic Weapon [19]

Play Construct Cataclysm <0> 

Destroy and Draw 2 AB <2> (18)

Destroy Construct -> Play Conservation of Energy {0}  (17)

Destroy and Draw AB {1} (16)

Destroy Construct-> Play AB {2}

Resolve CoE to play 3 cards

Play 2 AB (18)

Play Harsh Offense (Cosmic Weapon and 2 others) [25]

3 AB Triggers [31]

Deck is now empty, trash has HO, CoE, 2 CoCr and 2 other constructs

Destroy AB->return with Sustaned Influence->shuffle trash->Draw CoE <3>(17)

...

wow, you can keep this going for quite a while,  Using CoE to (better than) double your plays/draws, HO to clear your deck, deal damage and trigger refreshed ABs, and SI or CoE to give you extra draws to refresh your one-shots.  I don't think you can go infinite, but I think you can probably get more than 124 out of this.  I wonder if you can do better by playing CoE before Construct Cataclysm, then cyclying like this for a bit, then playing the Cataclysm as part of the CoE trigger to restart the cycle.  The possibilities get really complex here.

Edit: The more I look at this, the more I suspect that the optimal damage may forgo Construct Cataclysm entirely and focus on CoE/HO deck-cycling shenanigans.

Edit 2: On second thought, you definitely need the Construct Cataclysm, if only so you can keep destroying constructs for free plays after letting a CoE resolve, but I think the only thing you ever actually do with those is play CoE.

Just a quick note I assume you are editing this post to make updates but due some forum oddness edits to posts don't show up to everyone.  

In play: 21 Constructs (no Cosmic Crest), 3 Sustained influence, Unflagging Animation, Destructive Response
All other cards in hand
Parentheses denote number of Constructs in play.
Angle braces <>, curly braces { }, and bars || denote number of cards destroyed by various cards.
When a card name at the beginning of a line is followed by a number in <>,{},or ||, that card is being destroyed by the Card designated <0>, {0}, or |0|, respectively.

“Any” means any construct card other than Autonomous Blade

Augmented Ally (Cosmic Crest): Absorption
Skip other two AA triggers
Unflagging animation plays CoCr (22)
Play Construct Cataclysm <0>
CoCr <1> (21)
Destructive Response Triggers, hitting 3 Dynamic Syphon->3 Cosmic Weapon [9]
3 Autonomous Blade Triggers [15]
Villain Retaliation->3 Wounding Buffer [21]
Play Conservation of Energy{0}
2 AB {2} ->Draw 2 AB (19)
AB {3}->Play CoE |0| (18)
Any |1| → Draw AB (17)
Any |2| → Play AB
Finish CoE with X=3 to Play 2 AB + Harsh Offense [27] (19)
3 ABs Trigger [33]
2 AB {5} (Return with Sustained Influence)-> Draw and play CoE |0|
AB |1| (return with SI) → Draw HO
Finish CoE with X=2 to play CoCr + HO[39] (20)
3 ABs Trigger [45]
Finish CoE with x=6 to draw CoE, HO, 3 SI, any
AB <2> → Play CoE {0} (19)
2 AB {2} → draw 2 AB (17)
Any {3} → draw AB (16)
3 Any {6} → Play 3 AB
Any {7} → Play HO (15) [51]
3 ABs Trigger [57]
3 AB {10} → Play 3 SI (12)
Finish CoE with X=11 to Draw CoE, HO, 3 AB, 6 any, leaving 1 Any in your deck, and CoE in your trash
Any <3> (Return with SI) ->Play CoE {0}
2 Any {2} (Return with SI) → Draw Any, CoE
Any {3} → Play Any
Any {4} → Play CoE |0| (11)
4 Any |4| → Play 4 any
Finish CoE with X=5 to Play 3 AB, HO, Any [63] (15), leaving 3 Any in your deck, and CoE, HO, 3 SI, 3 any in your trash
3 ABs trigger [69]
3 AB {7} → Draw 3 AB (12)
Finish CoE with X= 8 to Draw CoE, HO, 3 Si, 3 Any, leaving 3 Any in your deck and CoE in your Trash…

This is as far as I’m going today. Anyone’s free to pick it up from there or check my work. It seems like it’s still a ways away from running out of steam, but It’s hard to be sure. Even If you didn’t play another Conservation of Energy here, you can get at least another 3 full AB Triggers, 3 HO’s, 3 Potent Disruptions and 20 points of Costruct Cataclysm Damage from this point forward, so the max is definitely > 155. This is of course assuming my calculations are correct, but this is pretty tough stuff to track in your head. Somebody with actual cards needs to sit down and do it (I only own the video game- and yes, I know PW CC isn’t in that-- I looked him up) .

Yeah, that's unfortunate.  Just for the record Regular CC actually tops out at 74, not 73 (I destroyed one too many wit CoE, which gets added to the Construct Cataclysm Damage).  

Unless I'm forgetting a card or doing the math wrong, Hunted Naturalist can pump out a solid 20.

In Play:

The Deadly Crocodile;

Natural-Born Vigor

Natural Form's Power X2

Play Phase: 

Predator's Eye, no draw for 5 damage

Power Phase:

Deadly Crocodile's base power for 4 damage (9)

Base power, pick Gazelle and play Bestial Shift

Gazelle's effect, to use Natural Form's Power for 3 damage (12)

Crocodile's form, 5 damage, then use other Natural Form's Power for another 3 (20)

Unless Cornered Beast is in play and active, in which case it's 25

30, actually, because it's not Limited. I wasn't sure whether to include it, as the rules in the first post stressed it was about single-target damage, so I wasn't sure if I should count other targets as present.

So I saw some discussion of Scholar of the Infinite, but I didn't see a definitive number. So here goes.

In play: 3X Flesh to Iron, starting at full health

Start of turn, discard 3 to keep that in play.

Play Phase: Know When to Cut Loose, discard 32 cards = 32 damage

Power phase: Channel: 36 damage to enemy

68 total damage

Channel would only do 35 damage since Know When To Turn Loose wouldn't count towards the number of cards discarded.

Channel is the number of cars discarded + 1

Channel deals # discarded cards +1

That's right.  Nevermind then.  

What about Extreme Prime Warden Fanatic?
5 hero game, starting with her sword, sacrosanct martyr, embolden, and divine focus in play
Start of turn, take 4 damage to keep focus in play, putting her at 1 hp, then play wrathful retribution for 28 damage.
Use kill the spirit for 1 damage >29
use sacrosanct martyr for 5 damage >34
End of turn, embolden expires for 2 damage >36
Start of 4 hero turns, discard a card for 2 >44
Start of enviro, discard for 2 >46
Start of villain, discard for 2 >48
Start of her turn, discard for 2 >50
Divine focus expires and deals 4 >54
A total of 54 damage if we account for everything she can do in one round.

Figure it out that's what this thread is for. 

I did, it was basically a placeholder while I edited it. I came up with 54.

You might put it in a new post since edits don't always appear for everyone.  

Hm...  I think that Ra may have to be adjusted downwards.  While it's true that if Ra is fully set up with 2 Solar Flares, Imbued Fire, The Staff of Ra, Blazing Tornado, and Flame Barrier he can deal 33 damage in one turn, I don't think it's possible to reach that setup without aid from other players.  It takes two turns to play the Solar Flares, which means that Ra will be damaged by them 3 times.  Since Imbued Fire is out, they will boost themselves, meaning that Ra will take 8 and then 10 and 10 damage, which is 28 damage.  That in itself is survivable (barely), but Ra also has Flame Barrier out, which will damage him in response to each of those attacks.  And that makes him toasty.

Flesh of the Sun God would save him from Flame Barrier retaliation, but that in conjunction with Imbued Fire would prevent the damage necessary to keep the Solar Flares out. Hm.

Would playing Imbued Fire last help any?

Not really, because no matter what happens a fully setup Ra will take 28 damage from Solar Flares and Flame Barrier the turn before he plays Flame Spike, and he has to take some damage on a turn before that no matter the play order.

Looking over older ones Mr Fixer could do a bit more than this

>

Mr. Fixer: 9
Harmony, Pipe Wrench, Grease Monkey Fist in play (+3). Play Charge for 5, then Strike for 4.

Harmony, Dual Crowbars, Grease Monkey Fist in play.   Play Charge.  Mr Fixer hits himself for 5 and then hit a target for 8 damage.  Then use Strike to hit Mr Fixer for 4 and then a target for 7 giving a total of 15.  If you could keep Bloody Knuckles in play this could be higher.

Could he not hit one target for 5 and another for 8, then deal 4 and 7, making the damage output 24? Why would Fixer have to hit himself, rather than another vilain target?

Because per the thread

so it's damage to a  single target .

Ah. A single target. I remember now. Thanks! I was thinking total damage output.

He could still strike himself with the crowbar while under bloody fist to boost damage on said target or does AZ not get to use his self damage to boost his max?

He could, but one Strike with Bloody Knuckles isn't as good as Charge+Strike without Bloody Knuckles and Fixer doesn't have any way to play them both on the same turn.

I want to redo Sky-Scraper, I figured out how to do more than 29 damage. :)

Starting in small form with Proportionist in play, and all of her Links in play (important ones being 2 Compulsion Cannisters, and 2 Aggression Modulators) all 3 Undetectable Relinkings in hand, all 3 Colossal Right Hooks, and both Catch a Rides.

1 environment target with 13+hp in play [except Immutus ;) ]

Plays: Colossal Right Hook, and first deals 1 Melee damage from Proportionist, then 3 from the hook >4

2 more Colossal Right Hooks >10

Undetectable relinking to bring back 2x Agression Modulators, 2x Compulsion Cannisters, and 1 more link, to play the Aggression Modulators on the environment target, then both Compulsion Cannisters on that same target for 4 damage to itself, and 8 damage to the villain >18

then another Undetectable Relinking to do this same combo, for another 8 damage to the villain >26

last Undectable Relinking is almost the same, except you bring back 3 extra unnamed links >34 (environment target has lost 12hp from hitting itself)

and the extra links let you play both Catch a Rides for 4 from you >38

and 4 from someone else >38(4)

Power: Since she's stuck in small form, her power won't let her do any more damage, as her compulsion cannisters are already in play

So, a total of 42 damage dealt to the villain, (possibly 44 depending if Champion Bot counts*)

And for Extremist Sky-Scraper, even though I know she can do so much more by switching forms several times with Proportionist in play, you sadly wouldn't be able to add much more damage from Proportionist, since she still only has one power use, and her small form's power use has the most potential damage. But here's Extremist, all laid out:

Starting in small form with Proportionist in play, and all of her Links in play (All that can be on the target she wants to hit) all 3 Undetectable Relinkings in hand, all 3 Colossal Right Hooks, and both Catch a Rides.

1 environment target with 13+hp in play

Plays: (Exactly what I did above on the play phase) >38(4)

Power: At this point, she can only have 6 links on her target. Aggression Modulators can't be on the Villain, nor can Micro-Assemblers, and both Compulsion Cannisters are on the Environment Target. It wouldn't be worth to have put them on the villain with the 3rd Undetectable Relinking, as you'd be adding 2 damage from the power use, but losing 4 damage from the environment dealing amplified damage.

So, on the Villain she has: 2x Cortex Hyperstimulators, 2x Neutralizing Resonators, and 2x Rebounding Debilitators, uses Intravenous Assault for 7 damage >45(4)

then goes to normal size triggering Proportionist >46(4)

So a total of 50 damage (or 52 if the hero target she chose for Catch a Ride was Champion Bot*) dealt to the villain.

*Regarding Champion Bot, is that the only self buffing hero target? I can't think of any others. I'm not counting Naturalist's Croc form, or any other hero with a +1 to damage in play, because those are additional cards modifying a target, and that goes against the rules of the thread. Champion Bot specifically says on itself "increase damage dealt by Unity and by mechanical golems by 1"

I just joined the forums, so I came a bit late to the party but I have exciting news! I think I can get Argent Adept to deal 36 damage, which is one more than what Ronway had back on page 1. So, this isn't a huge contribution, but I am excited to share this since Argent Adept is one of two favorites (Zero) and this combo is fairly complex, especially with no cards to test it with (I only have the video game).

Setup: Base Argent Adept, all instruments, Inspiring Supertonic (IS), Alacritous Subdominant (AS) (I think only 1 is needed), 2 Scherzo of Frost and Flame (SFF), Syncopated Onslaught (SO). In hand: 2 Silver Shadow (SS), 2 Polyphoric Flare (PF).

The actions of the instrument are referred to as Instrument1 and Instrument2

Play: PF1 --> Use base power to activate Perform (P) of SO --> +1 damage. Pretty boring play phase, but it gets interesting fast.

Power: Bell1 --> P of SO --> +1 damage

Bell2 --> Accompany (A) of AS  --> Harp

Harp1 --> P of AS --> play Silver Shadows

Silver Shadows --> A of SO --> 3 damage x 2(6)  --> play PF2

PF2 activate Pipes --> P of SFFs --> 6 damage x 2 (12) (18 total)

Harp2 --> A of AS --> Lyra

Lyra1 --> P of IS --> Horn

Horn1 --> P of SFF --> 6 damage (24 total)

Horn2 --> A of AS --> Drum

Drum1 --> A of SO --> 3 damage (27 total)

Drum2 --> P of SFF --> 6 damage (33 total)

Lyra2 --> A of SO --> 3 damage (36! total)

AS then blows up.

Edit: Interesting Facts: This is enough damage to actually kill a few different non-team villains, every Ennead member, and all but 3 of this damage would go through if Omnitron had his Adaptive Plating Subroutine in play.

Welcome to the forums!

Ha! That's great, DMAN222.  Glad to have you join us! 

So, forgive me for bringing back this thread, BUT, since this morning's livestream, we now know all the cards in the Void Guard decks. Here's a link to of all the text that Nyx compiled, and DMAN222 posted on the Discord server (https://discord.gg/BNzX6Ry) It's all in a pastebin: 

VG Medico

https://pastebin.com/QjsVQxCF

VG Mainstay 

https://pastebin.com/5CcUDRrU

VG Idealist

https://pastebin.com/seZUBkgG

VG Writhe

https://pastebin.com/QJ5zcq61

And looking through these decks, I'm trying to figure out the best way to maximize their damage in one turn. I'll be trying to figure it out for the next few hours, but I want to make it available to everyone else in the forums, and see if we can get some additions to this thread.

I think maybe I'm figuring out the idealist. I got 92 damage total.

Cards in play - Strained Superego, Monster of Id, Focusing Tiara, 2 Karate Robots. in hand: Vivid Thoughts, in deck: 1 Better Punching, followed by 3 Sound Beating. This should leave 30 cards underneath 1 of the Karate Robots.

Beginning of turn, tiara lets her draw a card, which is better punching.

play: vivid thoughts, which turns up the last 3 cards in the deck, and plays them if they're fragments. They're the Sound Beatings, for 12 damage

Each sound beating goes under the karate robot, (33 cards under it now) and she uses the karate robots power, which does 70 > 82 total

Using a power triggers the tiara, which lets her put a card from the trash under the other Karate robot,

then at the end of turn, Id moves the card underneath it, but then superego moves it back, and gives her a power use. 

Using the power on Superego, playing your last fragment: Better Punching, which deals 2 > 84 total

Tiara triggers, letting you put another card from the trash under Karate robot

Better punching lets you use another power on her 2nd Karate robot, with 2 cards under it, deals 8 > 92 total

then Better punching goes under a Karate robot, ends turn and draws a card.

Notes: 

Monster of Id gives +1 to damage, and combos well with superego, as long as Id was played first.

Strained Superego also gives an additional power use, and has a power printed on it: play a fragment

Most damaging concept is Karate Robot, since all of its damage is x+1 and then doubled so you want most of your cards underneath it.

Karate Robot (with Id in play) when x=0, gives a base of 4 damage. x=1 equals 6, with each additional card under it adding 2 damage.

Most damaging one shot is Sound Beating, for 3 base damage each (3 copies) But also of note is Better Punching (3 copies), which does 1 irreducible, but also gives an additional power.

Her other concepts and powers don't have the economy of Karate Robot, though they are very useful for getting her set up quickly.

So, figuring out benchmark. Link to his cards: 

https://pastebin.com/3SAUD9AB

At the end of his previous turn, Benchmark has the following stuff in play- Hardware: "Inferno" Missile Pod ;Legion-Core Processer; Micro Fabricator; Onboard Cooling Systems; Secondary Cannon; Subcutaneous Cybernetics. Software: Multi-Point HUD x2; Shunt Energy 

In hand, he has at least 7 nonspecified cards, 1 nonspecified software, and Fly-by x4

On the environment turn he got hit, discarded a card for Subcutaneous Cybernetics, then put it under the missile pod. <1> On the villain turn he got hit, discarded a card, then put it under the missile pod. <2>

At the beginning of his turn, Legion core Processor lets him use a power, which is Multi-Point HUD, boosting his damage by one. 

Secondary Cannon lets him discard a card, to deal 2 damage, and put that card under missile pod <3>

Play phase, he plays all 4 Fly Bys, for 12 damage (14)

Last card play is the software card, Onboard Cooling systems triggers to let him hit 2 targets for 3 (17)

Power phase, uses 2nd Multi-Point HUD for increased damage

Secondary Cannon triggers, letting him discard a card, for 3 (20) then that card goes under missile pod <4>

2nd power (received from onboard cooling systems) is Shunt Energy, dealing himself 3 damage and 6 to the enemy (26)

He discards a card for Subcutaneous Cybernetics to heal for 1 since he just got hurt, that card goes under the missile pod <5>

Secondary Cannon triggers, letting him discard a card for 3 (29) then that card goes under missile pod <6>

Now at end of turn, Micro Fabricator lets him discard a card, and it goes under the missile pod <7>

Missile pod goes off with 7 cards under it, and deals 7 instances of 3 damage each, 21 for (50)

Now that's without him being forced to discard his whole hand, that consisted of his whole deck, like a couple of environment cards do.

If that happens, he could do 34 x 3 damage (would need to keep the legion core processor, the onboard cooling sytems, the missile pod, 2 multi point HUDs and the Shunt energy in play) for 102 damage from the missile pod, plus 6 from shunt energy for 108 damage total.

Okay, here's VG Mainstay, base variant. 

So, at start of turn, his equipment is: Sweet Rhonda, and Void Belter. His ongoings in play are: Shard Strength(+1 to damage), Mano a Mano, 3 Preemptive Paybacks, Headlock, and Leader of the Pack.

In hand: 2x Kick the Tires, 3x Drop the Hammer, 2x Bad to the Bone, and 1x Lonesome Highway.

8 equipment in trash. (3x Durasteel Vest, 2x Sweet Rhonda, 3x Void Belter)

Beginning of turn, Mano a Mano triggers and deals 3.

Play Phase: Kick the Tires to destroy Leader of the Pack (Pack allows a card play when it is destroyed, and Kick the tires allows an extra card play naturally)

Bad to the Bone (+1 to damage for the turn) which deals 4 damage now. (7)

Kick the Tires to destroy Headlock for 5 (12)

Drop the Hammer (also allows another card play) to destroy no equipment, but still deals 11 damage (23)

Drop the Hammer for another 11 (34)

Drop the Hammer for another 11 (45)

Bad to the Bone for 5 (50)

Power Phase: uses Base Power for 4 and then 4 damage again. (58)

End of turn, Mano a Mano goes off, and he destroys all 3 preemptive strikes for 6 damage each (76) (They allow him to destroy them if he'd take damage)

and deals 5 damage from the Mano a Mano itself (81)

Now sweet Rhonda triggers, letting you destroy Shard Strength. Shard strength allows you to use a power when it's destroyed.

Uses the power on Void Belter to deal 5 damage, and destroy itself for 4 and 4 damage. (94)

Now Sweet Rhonda lets you play a card which is Lonesome Highway for 4 (98)

And if Mainstay is the hero with the lowest hp, he deals another 6 (104)

There's possibly a way to increase this some more. I'm not sure about my Bad to the Bone timings, and I do have another Kick the Tires, but I think I used all the cards with useful "destroy" effects. There's technically one more of each in the deck, but Mainstay doesn't have any start of turn card plays. Anyone have any improvements?

If you play back to back Bad to the Bones  and move the drop the Hammers to the card play off sweet Rhonda, you then destroy Sweet Rhonda with the first drop the hammer. This should increase each ones damage by 2. Making His Total 110.

Actually thinking it thru a bit more

Going of mostly Nate’s work

So, at start of turn, his equipment is: Sweet Rhonda, and Void Belter. His ongoings in play are: Shard Strength(+1 to damage), Mano a Mano, 3 Preemptive Paybacks, Headlock, and Leader of the Pack.

In hand: 3x Kick the Tires, 3x Drop the Hammer, 2x Bad to the Bone, and 1x Lonesome Highway.

8 equipment in trash. (3x Durasteel Vest, 2x Sweet Rhonda, 3x Void Belter)

Beginning of turn, Mano a Mano triggers and deals 3.

Play Phase: Kick the Tires to destroy Leader of the Pack (Pack allows a card play when it is destroyed, and Kick the tires allows an extra card play naturally)

Bad to the Bone (+1 to damage for the turn) which deals 4 damage now. (7)

Bad to the Bone for 5 (12)

Power Phase: uses Base Power for 4 and then 4 damage again. (20)

End of turn, Mano a Mano goes off, and he destroys 2 preemptive paybacks for 6 damage each (32) (They allow him to destroy them if he'd take damage)

and deals 5 damage from the Mano a Mano itself (37)

Now sweet Rhonda triggers, letting you destroy The last Pre-emptive payback 6 dmg (43).

Now Sweet Rhonda lets you play a card which is Drop the Hammer (also allows another card play) to destroy sweet Rhonda, but still deals 13 damage (56)

Drop the Hammer for another 13 (69)

Drop the Hammer for another 13 (82)

Kick the Tires to destroy Headlock for 6 (88)

Kick the Tires to destroy Shard strength

Shard strength allows you to use a power when it's destroyed.

If I’m thinking correctly cards effects stay in play till there on destruction effects complete

So Void Belter to deal 6 damage, and destroy itself for 5 and 5 damage. (104)

Lonesome Highway for 4 (108)

And if Mainstay is the hero with the lowest hp, he deals another 6 (114)

Thanks for the update steveothemocker! I forgot that the effect of shard strength should still stay in play until it resolves.

Well, after people on the discord server were talking about how much damage VG Dr Medico's variant can do, I decided to do the math. They were right, his potential is huge. Mostly because he can heal several targets at once, and that combos with his variant power to basically turn all that healing into focused damage on one target.

Variant Power: Red Right Hand: Until the end of your next turn, whenever a hero target would regain hp, Dr. Medico deals 1 target that amount of energy damage instead.

His weakness is card play, he can basically only really play one card a turn, no good cards to combo card plays into each other. (One card does, but it just prevents damage to a target. it doesn't heal, do damage, or give powers)

And the important ongoing cards for the combo: 3x Prescription Strength - at the beginning of a hero turn, choose to destroy it to heal that hero for 3hp, then increase all their damage that turn by 1

x2 From the Brink - when a hero would die, prevents the damage, then lets all hero targets regain 2hp. (I'll be making hero targets = 5, for simplicity)

Regeneration(limited): at the end of each hero turn, he heals for 2hp, at the beginning of his turn, he destroys it, and can use a power.

Healing Pulse(limited): At the end of his turn, up to 3 targets can heal for 1 hp each, with a power printed on it: Dr Medico deals himself 2 energy damage, each hero character card other than himself can heal for 2hp

Universal Donor(limited): Whenever Dr Medico is dealt damage, a hero target other than Dr Medico regains 1hp, power on it: One target regains 2hp.

Second Opinion (limited): At the start of his turn, he can destroy this card to deal something 3 damage.

The only important one-shot here is Lifeforce of Will: deals himself 2 damage to heal each other character card for 2hp.

Setup: So previous turn, he played a regeneration, and used his base power, turning his regeneration into 2 energy damage x 5 for each hero turn prior to this one. (10) He's at 5hp. At  the beginning of his turn he had in play: 3x Prescription Strength, 2x From the Brink, Healing Pulse, Second Opinion, Universal Donor, and a Lifeforce of Will in hand.

Beginning of his turn, he destroys each Prescription Strength, and uses them on himself.  for 3 + 4 + 5 damage, and now has a +3 to each instance of damage (22)

Regeneration expires and lets him use a power, which is the one on Healing Pulse. - it first deals himself 5 damage, which would kill him, except for From the Brink, which now triggers and prevents that damage, and tries to heal each Hero target (I'm saying 5 of them for simplicity) for 2hp each. 5 instances of 2[+3] damage each = 25 (47) damage, then removes itself from the game.

Then the rest of Healing Pulse finishes and heals 4 other hero targets try to heal for 2, but instead Dr. Medico deals 4 instances of 2[+3] = 20 (67) damage. He can now destroy Second Opinion, for 6 damage (73)

For his card play, he plays Lifeforce of Will, which triggers From the Brink again, for another 25 (98) and then the last part of Lifeforce goes off, tries to heal 4 heroes for 2, dealing 4x 2[+3] for 20 (118).

For his power phase, he uses the one on Universal Donor, which turns into 5 (125).

At the end of his turn, Healing Pulse triggers, tries to heal 3 heroes for 1, instead deals 3 x  1[+3] for 12 (137)

If you played with 20 something constructs in play, and like 10 or so unity bots in play, and the sentinels, which have 4 hero character cards, you'd probably triple this amount, but I decided not to add that up, for simplicity. You also don't need to count the regeneration damage from the previous round, which is only 10, But 127 damage is still pretty darn good.

I was trying to figure out if he could also trigger his universal donor to take damage and deal more damage instead of healing, but I couldn't make it work, since he needs to prevent death twice to trigger both from the brink's and then still have enough hp to deal himself non-fatal damage to make that work, but any improvements would be appreciated.

The only changes I can see off that solid work is if you had an Experimental Medicine in play in between the first and Second Prescription Strengths the first heal would deal 4 then you don't take damage from Experimental Medicine and let it be destroyed. This would add +1 damage but the power on Universal Donor deals 5 and you added 7. So over all reduces the single turn to 126. 

If you're including the damage for the round. Regeneration says each turn from what I can tell not just hero so it goes off a total of 7 times. With Experimental Medicine each of those is 3 damage(21) totalling 147 for the whole round. 

Oh right, because experimental medicine isn't actually increasing damage with red right hand, it's increasing healing, which then turns into damage, I didn't see that distinction at first. And Regeneration would trigger 7 times, neat. That makes it better than I originally thought too, especially in low hero count games.

So, I've been trying to figure out how Writhe would do at this challenge. I can see he's really good at protecting other heroes, redirecting damage, and good at dealing regular damage to all the targets, and good at resetting after a wipe, but not so good at lots of direct damage to one target. It looks like most of his one turn would be limited by his (x2)Portable Dark Lab, which has a power that ends up letting him play the bottom card of his deck, but then destroys itself.

Equipment in play: The Shadow Cloak (+1 to damage), & (x2) Portable Dark Lab.  Ongoings in play: (x2)Concealed Assailant, & Unnerving Target, 

In hand: Lurking Shadows, Fight and Fade, and Nowhere to Hide

Play phase: Lurking Shadows for +1 damage to a target, and then it gives him a power use.

Power use on Portable Dark Lab, which lets him look at top 3 cards of his deck, put one on the bottom of his deck, and play it, then destroys the Dark Lab.

It plays a 2nd Lurking Shadows for +1 damage to a target, and gives him a power use. 

Power use on Concealed Assailant, which does a target 1 melee, 1 infernal, and 1 psychic, which becomes 4 of each, for 12 total, and destroys the Shadow Cloak

Villain has retaliatory damage to Writhe, and Unnerving target makes the villain deal themself 2 psychic damage (14)

Power phase: Uses Portable Dark Lab, which puts a Fight and Fade into play from the bottom of his deck for 4 (18) then puts the Shadow Cloak back into play, and gives another card play

Plays the 2nd Fight and Fade from his hand, for 5 (23), and gives another card play

Plays Nowhere to Hide, which deals 6 (29), and gives a power use

2nd Concealed Assailant power, which deals 12 (31) and destroys the Shadow Cloak. End of turn.

So, a total of 31. I tried to put Somber Tinker into the rotation, which takes an equipment from the trash and puts it into play, (for the dark lab) but that kind of dead ends. There's a 3rd Lurking Shadows, but that can only combo into a power, and if I used the 2nd Dark Lab power on his play phase, he wouldn't be able to use it to combo into Fight and Fade on his power phase.

I bet Fixed Point can turn Ra, Scholar of the Infinite and (especially) Absolute Zero into damage machines.

This is what I got looking of Nate's work on Benchmark

Hardware:

Lergion-Core Processor
Micro Fabricator
Onboard Cooling Systems
Secondary Cannon
Subcutaneous Cybernetics
Infernal Missile Pod

Software:

2 x Multipoint HUD
1 x Load On Initialization

In hand 4 x Fly by, 1 Software, Overhaul Load out, Handful of other cards

On the environment turn he got hit, discarded a card for Subcutaneous Cybernetics, then put it under the missile pod. <1> On the villain turn he got hit, discarded a card, then put it under the missile pod. <2>

At the beginning of his turn, Legion core Processor - Multi-Point HUD +1 Damage. 

Secondary Cannon deal 2 damage – 2 total - missile pod <3>

Load On Initialization you play a software card
Cooling deals 3 damage and Deal 3 to yourself discard a card  – 5 total – Missile Pod <4>

Play Phase –
Fly By x4  -12 damage – 17 total
Overhaul Loadout – Return  Subcutaneous Cybernetics, On-board Cooling and the Multi-Point HUD to your hand
Play Onboard Cooling and Multipoint HUD – This shoud “reset” them, 3more Damage and yourself again, discarding again – 20 Total – Missile Pod <5>

Power Phase -
Multi-Point HUD - +2 damage
Secondary Canon – 3 damage – 23 Total – Missile POD <6>
Multi-Point HUD - +3 Damage
Secondary Canon – 4 damage – 27 Total – Missile POD <7>

Micro Fabricator to Discard a card – Missile Pod <8>

Missile POD goes off 8 Times at 4 each – 32 Damage – 59 Total

Having played a number of games with Benchmark on the App version, His max damage seems to me the easiest one to actually pull off in a game. I think the hardest part would be to get all 4 Fly By's in hand at the same time. 

And as Natediggadoggity pointed out If you had to discard your whole Hand/deck to the environment, you could choose not to put 3 Over Haul Loadouts under Missile POD and then Draw One with Load On Initialization and use the other 2 to fuel Secondary Cannon Totaling 138 Damage I believe.

Okay, let’s see how much the Magnifica Gambit is worth at dealing damage to a single target! This is my first one of these, so somebody please check my math.

Assume that La Comodora has two cards in her deck, a copy of Run Aground and both Flintlock and Cutlasses in her trash, and two Harnessed Anomalies as well as the second Run Aground in hand. She also has a copy of Maria Helena’s Plot, Chronological Sweetspot, and Combat Timing, along with ONE Concordant Helm and all her other equipment (15 cards) with the Figureheads last in line. The other Helms are in the trash.

Start of turn: she lets all the portals on her ship close and fuels Chronological Sweetspot. All Equipments except for the Concordant Helm are destroyed. For each of the first 12 equipment destroyed, she deals 1 + 2x Figurehead boost damage to one target. The first Figurehead then causes 2 damage, and the last causes 1. Total: 12*3 + 2 + 1 = 39.

Draw: La Comodora draws the two cards in her deck.

Play: she plays Harnessed Anomaly, shuffling Run Aground into her empty deck and playing it. She shuffles 15 equipment cards into her deck, and deals one target 15 damage. (Leave two Concordant Helms, to prevent the limited keyword from interfering with the next step.) Total: 39 + 15 = 54.

For the card play on Harnessed Anomaly, she plays Weigh Anchor, putting all her equipments back in play and emptying her deck again.

Power: using her base power, La Comodora puts that copy of Harnessed Anomaly she played earlier from her trash under the top card of her empty deck, making it the only card in her deck.

End of turn: first, the Chronological Sweetspot goes off. La Comodora reveals her Harnessed Anomaly, choosing Flintlock and Cutlass from her trash. She deals one target 2 + 2 and 2 + 2 damage. For the extra card play, she plays the second copy of Harnessed Anomaly from her hand, choosing another Flintlock and Cutlass from her trash. She deals one target 2 + 2 and 2 + 2 damage. For the second Anomaly’s extra play, she plays Run Aground out of her hand, shuffling the last 2 Concordant Helms into her deck and dealing one target 2 + 2 damage. Total: 54 + 20 = 74.

Then La Comodora’s equipment effects trigger. The two Cannon Portals do 2*(3 + 2) damage to one target and the two Brig Teleporters do 2*(1 + 2) damage. (Subtotal: 16.) The two Temporal Rigging cards let her use the powers on the two Future-Tech Deck Guns, dealing one target 2*(1 + 2) damage. For one of the Deck Guns, she targets herself and would do 3 damage, but Combat Timing prevents it and La Comodora deals one target 2 + 2 damage instead. (She can also throw some damage at other targets here, if she wants. Subtotal: 10.) Total: 74 + 26 = 100!

For some extra support to other heroes at this point, she can now have Timeless Treasure award extra card draws or move the Paradoja Figureheads around. And the best part is, this being the expert time traveler La Comodora, she should be able to repeat the majority of this on her very next turn.

Thanks again to Dandolo for the reference guide!

Good job Trajector! It makes sense to me. I should point out a typo I made above, I wrote Writhe with a max of 31 damage, when it’s actually 41. Simple math error

Now, the only new heroes that don’t have an entry yet are Harpy, Luminary, and Stuntman. I won’t attempt action hero stuntman, but now I’ve played several games with base stuntman, I think I might be able to eventually figure out how much damage he can do throughout a whole round (just his own turn would be a little sad, given the theme of his deck)

Luminary shouldn’t be too hard. All his devices in play, destroy them all to profit from his ongoing, and then use the orbital laser. Maybe have him first in hero order, and use the villain turn to deal him and his stuff damage so he can use the backlash generators to deal tons of damage, and then use his turn to finish up the damage calculations.

Harpy also has a fairly stable full damage setup. Just get fully setup, and then play a couple cards and start flipping tokens, follow it to it’s natural conclusion.

For Stuntman, maybe use just one turn, but don’t necessarily use his turn.

So, Luminary. Now, if the villain deals damage to all hero targets while Luminary has all his devices in play, plus "All According to Plan" in play (It gives devices +1 to damage) his backlash generators can do 18 * 6 = 108... +6 (from a disposable defender taking extra damage for Luminary himself) so 114 total damage to the villain, which is more than he can do on his own turn.

On his turn, he needs an All According to Plan, all his devices in play (18), a Hasten Victory in hand, and 3 cards in his deck, which are in order: 2x Hasten Victory and Dangerous Vision. And the other 17 cards in his trash. 

For his play phase, play the Hasten Victory for 1 damage, which loops into 2 more (3) and then his dangerous vision, which destroys all his devices except for the orbital death laser, putting 38 cards in his trash, and dealing 1 damage per device destroyed, 17 damage (20) For his power phase, uses his orbital death laser for 38 (+1 cuz the laser is a device) damage and another 1 damage from All according to plan when it destroys itself, 40 damage, (60)

Heroic Luminary can get a little more I think.... She'd want the same setup, except with a Bared Blade in her deck under the 2 Hasten Victory's to give her an extra power. She'd play the Hasten Victory chain for 3 damage, and then her first power would be the orbital death laser for 23 damage (26) her second power would be her base power for 18 (44), and at the end of her turn 3 Sabre Battle Drones would destroy 3 other devices, like repair nanites for 21 damage (2 per drone automatically, 4 per drone because it destroyed another device, and then +3 more from Luminary as all according to plan triggers) for a total of 65 on her turn.

Now that makes me think.... if regular Luminary keeps 4 devices in play after his Dangerous Vision play: 3 sabre battle drones and 1 other, and only destroys 13 devices, that's 3 from the Hasten Victories,+ 13 from the destruction (16) and his laser will deal 36 damage (52) and then at the end of his turn, the first sabre drone deals 2 damage and destroys a non sabre drone for 4 (58), the second sabre drone deals 2 damage and then destroys the first sabre drone for 4 (64) and the third sabre drone deals 2 and destroys the second for 4 (70) +3 for 3 devices being destroyed, (73)

Huh, so I guess you get more total damage from destroying most of  their stuff with a Dangerous Vision than you do by using Heroic Luminary's base power with all devices out. how about that?

Backlash Generator doesn’t trigger off of each individual device being hit.  Only the very first one hit so the most you get out of Backlash Generator is 6 Damage.