Dante the Deceptive

1

When played, gain a stack of **Multistrike** for each Blight card in your deck.

**Dante the Deceptive** is a Clanless  Banner Unit.

## Lore

*Little is known of Dante, and what I do know I can't truly trust. While he seems to reign from Hell, he's made friends with many winged casting doubt on the place of his origin. But, he's always provided his help in the direst of times, so I will not question his allegiance.*

### Battle Quotes

* *Dante, at your command!*
* *Dante, at your service!*
* *Instruct me as you see fit, my friend!*
* *My sincerest apologies for your imminent loss.*
* *Ah, I see you've noticed my candles.*
* *Oh, it's just a scratch.*
* *I'm sorry, did that hurt?*
* *Please, quit your yowling!*
* *I might be willing to trade sides...for a price.*
* *Is your train always so drab?*
* *Hold this for me, will you?*
* *Don't worry, you can trust me.*
* *You can't shake these old bones!*

## Strategy

**Dante the Deceptive** joins your train 2 rings after the Mysterious Figure event if you choose to accept the 3 Dante's Candle items. **Dante the Deceptive** is a very strong unit that is capable of being the focal point of your run. Since you will always have at least 3 Blights when you receive him - the 3 Dante's Candle items that he gives you before joining - he will gain at least 3 Multistrike when played, and if you are playing on higher Covenant Ranks and start with Deadweights this will be higher - causing **Dante the Deceptive** to strike enemies at least 6 times on Covenant Rank 25. When upgraded and given  buffs, this means **Dante the Deceptive'**s damage will quickly spiral out of control.

It is more worth taking Concealed Caverns events than usual with **Dante the Deceptive**, as the Ember Deposits and Penance Yard events are extremely beneficial with **Dante the Deceptive** (and the Artifact you get with him, Dante's Cloak), as they give **Dante the Deceptive** more Multistrike and those events cause Dante's Candle to be even more beneficial to your deck than they already are.

While **Dante the Deceptive** can improve the deck significantly, choosing to take or not to take **Dante the Deceptive** is usually more about the survivability of the player in the 2 Rings before getting Dante with additional Dante's Candle cards. Especially on high Covenant Ranks, taking on the candles can be a high risk.

### Pacts & Unit Essence (The Last Divinity (DLC) only)

Probably the strongest fusion you can do involving **Dante the Deceptive** is to provide him with a way to scale his  by fusing a unit with an essence that provides this into **Dante the Deceptive**. There are several ways to do this - Alpha Fiend is an example of a particularly strong one.

Alternately, if you have access to a Hellvent and already have good ways to scale **Dante the Deceptive'**s , fusing it with a copy of itself effectively gives it 2 additional Multistrike - one directly from the fusion, and another because **Dante the Deceptive'**s "When played..." ability resolves after his **Summon** ability. This is particularly strong with the Melting Remnant's **Reform** mechanic, allowing you to scale **Dante the Deceptive'**s Multistrike along with its  and  - provided you are able to handle how many Dante's Candles this will put in your deck.

Alternately, **Dante the Deceptive** when fused into another unit provides Multistrike with a more manageable downside than most other Unit Essences that provide Multistrike. This isn't commonly a good idea because it involves sacrificing (a copy of) **Dante the Deceptive**, who can often be more effective than the unit you are merging into, but it may be worth considering in certain runs.

## History

*See: Version History*

 1.0.7
 1.1.2