OFFICIAL STARTER GUIDE · teams
Venom Sanctum v13: handle reservoirs, Curse and the marked ally
Keep the ailment, recovery-block and cleanse jobs together. Two evidenced teams and one full-team alternative explain how to answer late Renewal.
Read the whole Renewal sequence
Use this article for newly entered dungeon-balance-v13 runs. An already-paid run keeps its pinned rules; do not apply a new counter window to an older saved encounter. These optional full-team examples are transcribed from the committed editorial guide. They do not guarantee a clear for every account; keep experimenting with the heroes you own.
On Very Hard and above, landed Poison or Burn collapses the three Toxic Reservoirs. Direct damage cannot destroy them. Then land Curse on Vesper for the recovery check. Three successful checks reopen each HP gate; each successful check creates new reservoirs until all three are earned. Successful checks stay earned. Curse alone still denies healing, but it does not replace reservoir collapse.
Each living ally gets a response turn before a check. An incomplete response window waits without advancing Enrage or consuming the check. A landed Curse is remembered for the current check even if the visible status expires; the check consumes that response. Reserve the next ailment/Curse skill for the next fresh check rather than treating one earlier application as a permanent solution.
Keep the marked ally alive
Cleanse the fresh Seed marks before the recovery check, or use appropriate protection. The Seed detonation is a different threat from ordinary damage. Repeated failed checks accumulate visible poison pressure: the frozen late rule allows twelve reservoir misses and thirty Curse-only misses before additional pressure begins. Beyond those allowances, each extra reservoir miss adds 12% maximum HP and each Curse-only miss 5%.
Defense and attack reduction do not reduce that accumulated poison. Barriers absorb at most 25% maximum HP from its pulse. A large shield therefore does not excuse leaving the counter sequence unanswered. Check which ally is marked and whether cleanse is actually available; an icon for a heal is not proof that the Seed was removed.
Two evidenced core teams
- Poison-transfer: Valkyrie, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Ganush and Cancer Female. Keep Curse, area Poison, transfer/cleanse and recovery coverage together.
- Phantom-poison: Phantom Knight, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Aquarius Female and Cancer Female. This combines Curse/ward utility with area Poison and growing recovery. The tested Phantom build uses support-weighted whole-item selection; the slower stock allocation is not the same farming recommendation.
The full Poison-Aquarius alternative is Valkyrie, Ophiuchus Male, Scorpio Female, Aquarius Female and Cancer Female. It replaces the tested Ganush slot as a complete evidenced lineup. It does not validate arbitrary swaps between all three rosters. Aquarius Female copies an ally debuff; copying does not itself promise the original mark was cleansed.
Build and retained evidence scope
The two cores and named alternative come from the retained frozen v12 completion bank for floors 6–8 and paired SSS+0, +10 and +50 equipment variants. The Forge-only v13 change preserves non-Forge results through compatibility checks; these are retained v12 results, not fresh v13 fights. These documented finite fixture builds provide no clear-rate or speed guarantee.
Use ordinary non-Chaos Z200 heroes: three prior-floor Bastion items per hero and six five-star Sigils. Floor 6 has floor-5 gear with two active affix lines and Heroic +12 Sigils; floor 7 has floor-6 gear with three lines and Legendary +15; floor 8 has floor-7 gear with four lines and Legendary +15. Damage/hybrid slots use four Fury Sigils with legal mains; supports favor Bastion and HP. Phantom Knight needs the stated support-weighted whole-item allocation. No refinement, Overdrive, mastery or collection/account multipliers are assumed. Read the finite pool in the build-plan article before investing.
If your roster is missing a piece
Search your owned kits for the missing job, then test the complete team at a floor you can afford. Replacing an entire hero changes affinity, attacks and utility together. The retained editorial controls warn against missing Curse, ailment or cleanse coverage; this is not an exhaustive ban on every unlisted hero.
Burn can collapse reservoirs, but the older conditional Burn team is not part of the minimum general recommendation. Serpentress is also excluded from general recommendations after disclosed unreliable allocations. Neither exclusion makes Curse/ailment coverage unavailable: the named cores above cover it. Earlier floors are more permissive and may be overgeared; a late fusion recipe is not an entry requirement for Very Easy.