I recorded gameplay of defeating the final boss of the Puzzle Quest 3 storyline deathless.
It was done on a level 44 Assassin, 100% F2P, in just under a week.
Good luck everyone on your adventure!
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I very highly doubt I’ll be half as lucky as you.
I cracked up when the battle started and I saw three copies of the same spell. I cracked up even harder when you took like 1200 damage in the first hit, and when I saw your Blackjacks were level 1. Stuns being able to stack was not something I expected to be possible, that’s heavily abusable and you showed its full potential here. Insane run, well done.
This spell was clutch. Did you get the extra copies from Chests?
The insane stat discrepency.
You missed a Stun at 0:35 btw. 
True, was more focused on the needed purple mana. Got a really clutch board stun near the end of the video.
1 copy of blackjack is obtained at level 30 assassin, the uncommon one was from chest, and the other common was from the mage after chapter 12.
Similar to Gems of War, there are only 3 spell stats that seem to matter:
- Stun (which is basically this game’s version of extra turn)
- Create Gems (which result in stun and mana)
- Explode (board clear + insane mana accumulation)
Not sure about the other classes, but Assassin gets all 3. Gem creation around level 10 when paired with terror, explode with Smoke Bomb at level 20, and stun with Blackjack at level 30.
I was unable to get higher rarities of the gem creation or explode spells, so just went all in with stun lock. It can fail though, as the end of that battle showed. Luckily the board had a stun on it.
According to my datamined spell list I published yesterday, the classes have (regarding Stun, Create, and Explode respectively):
- Assassin has Blackjack, Unnerving Strike, and Smoke Bomb.
- Necromancer has Mask of Terror, no Gem creation (only Skulls), and no explode.
- Paladin has Shield of Retribution, Smite, and no explode.
- Shaman has Cockatrice Venom, Poisonous Toads/Spirit Mask, and no explode.
- Berserker has Intimidate, Ancestral Ferocity/Relentless Assault, and no explode.
The other classes are either missing Gem creation or have colors that notably do not align with their gem creators. Additionally, Smoke Bomb appears to be the only spell that explodes which is available for free. I believed this before learning that, but Assassin is absolutely the best class in the game right now.
Necromancer however seems like it would do quite well earlier on if you use Mask of Terror, which gives you a comparable stun option (conditional on when Terror is active) before you acquire Blackjack.
Yes, Assassin is easily S tier. I had a feeling it would get some of the strong PQ1 and 2 spells given how strong it was in both of the other games, particular PQ2. Blackjack is definitely a lot weaker in PQ3 compared to the other 2 games, but unlike the other 2 games this game allows using multiple of the same spell with no cooldown.
The only other person I am aware of who completed the game did it with smoke bomb assassin. The uncommon version explodes 2x as many gems compared to the common version, which I unfortunately have yet to find.
Are you certain? I’m trying to implement rarities and levels into the Spell compendium site and I’ve been having trouble figuring out the rarity scaling. I thought the Common exploded 2, the Uncommon 3, and the Rare 4.
What you said is probably correct. Not sure since I don’t own the higher rarity ones.
This video was amazing, thanks for sharing Tacet! Definitely helps highlight some uh, balance issues…
Nerfs incoming…
Puzzle Quest 3.1 Patch Notes:
- Blackjack now reads “Deal 6 damage. There is a 2% chance to stun the enemy if it is a Tuesday in May and it is raining a city whose name ends in K that is in a timezone 3 hours from now.”
- Assassin heroes cannot stun.
- Shadow Gems now decrease Dark damage dealt by 90% while on the field.
- Purple gems have been removed from the game.
Don’t give them ideas, on top of Tacet’s brash challenges to game balance?! 
There is a reason PQ1 didn’t have purple gems. There is also a reason I leveled into purple every single level up in Gems of War. Not sure why, but every game Infinity Plus 2 makes that has purple gems in it they make purple the strongest color.
The most likely balance is some bosses will get immune to stun.
Biggest issue with nerfing stun is people are just going to shift to do similar with board control and mana accumulation methods. It will have about the same effect as when freeze was added to Gems of War.
Blackjack, and non gem creating stun locks, are actually the less efficient way of winning in Puzzle Quest 3. Only reason I used it is I didn’t have any of the stronger methods.