The Nemesis Feels Too Strong—Aeon’s End Beginner Guide to Start Winning

Aeon’s End is a cooperative game where you and your team—Breach Mages—fight a terrifying enemy called the Nemesis.

Many articles talk about reviews or individual cards. But beginners often run into the same problem:

“The Nemesis is just too strong.”

And you’re right—at first, it really does feel overwhelming. The good news is that Aeon’s End rewards a few simple habits and priorities.

In this guide, I’ll break down:

What to focus on in the early game to build a winning plan

The basics of how to defeat the Nemesis

The quick takeaway: big spells, the casting delay, deck-thinning, and roles

Here’s the short version:

• Split roles: have an attacker and a healer/defender. Once your healer/defender can reliably generate enough Aether, they should start grabbing spells too.
• New spells don’t pay off right away: in most cases, you won’t be casting a spell you just bought until turn 3 or later.
• In 4-player games, deck-thinning matters a lot.
• In 4-player games, the Nemesis acts twice for every player turn.
• Aim to deal 100+ total damage to the Nemesis plus any minions by around turn 15–16.
• To hit that number, you need to buy and cast high-damage spells efficiently.

Let’s break these down one by one.

　

Early-game decisions that lead to wins

Role division

The biggest early-game mistake is everyone trying to do everything.

In most games, it’s cleaner to split into two jobs: an attacker and a healer/defender. If everyone rushes spells, you’ll fall behind on healing and protection—and that’s how games spiral.

The attacker should start buying spells early, open breaches quickly, and reach a point where they can prepare two spells.

The healer/defender should focus on gems first.

For example, before the Nemesis and minions really start hitting hard, one solid plan is stacking two copies of Diamond Cluster (great on Brahma or Adelheim).

If Jade is more readily available in your market, it’s perfectly fine to opt for that instead.

With two Diamond Cluster, you’re making 6 Aether, which makes it much easier to hit 10 Aether hands.

Also worth considering: V’riswood Amber, Sifter’s Pearl, and Burning Opal.

While you’re doing that, keep building charges so you’re ready to heal or defend when the pressure ramps up.

And once you’re stable, the healer/defender should also pick up one or two high-cost spells—both to add damage and as a backup plan in case the Nemesis forces you to discard prepped spells.

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Nemesis basics: deck size and turn structure (4 players)

Before the strategy, here are the assumptions for a 4-player game.

The Nemesis deck has 31 cards total:

• Tier 1: 11 cards
• Tier 2: 10 cards
• Tier 3: 10 cards

In a 4-player game, the turn order deck has 6 cards:
4 player turns + 2 Nemesis turns.

That’s why powering up each individual character is harder (and why 2-player often feels smoother).

Since the Nemesis gets two turns per cycle, you’ll go through the entire Nemesis deck by about turn 16.

Most Nemesis effects roughly fall into these buckets:

• spawning minions
• forcing discards
• unleash effects
• damage to players
• damage to Gravehold

And of course, you also need to think about what kinds of minions show up and how you’re going to answer them.

　

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The delay between buying a spell and actually casting it

Across the game, each character will get about 15–16 spell phases and 15–16 main phases.

But here’s the catch: after you buy a spell, you usually won’t cast it until at least three turns later (with some exceptions). So when you spend Aether, remember you’re investing for a few turns down the road.

　

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Deck-thinning (especially in 4-player)

Buying strong spells is important—but in 4-player, you don’t get endless chances to repeatedly cast your best cards. If you can thin your deck, do it. Getting the right cards back into your hand faster is huge.

　

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Why “100 total damage by turn 15–16” is a useful target?

The Nemesis usually has around 70 HP (it depends on which Nemesis you’re fighting).

Minions often sit around 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13 HP, etc. Since you have to kill minions and push damage onto the Nemesis, it’s reasonable to plan for 100+ total damage by around turn 15–16.

　

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So, how do you actually reach 100 damage?

To hit 100 damage, you need to buy and cast spells efficiently.

Most characters (except Z’hana) start with 3 to 4 Sparks. In theory, over two turns that could look like:
(3–4 damage) * 4 players = 12 to 16 damage.

And since casting starts on turn 2, you might think by turn 16 you could reach:
(12–16) * 8 = 96 to 128 damage.

…but that’s only if you never buy anything else. In real games, you’ll grab gems and relics, your deck gets thicker, and cycling slows down.

On top of that, 1 damage at a time can’t keep up once minions start piling up—you’ll get overwhelmed.

If a minion appears on turn 1, it can start unleashing and dealing damage from turn 2 onward, so the attacker should usually start buying spells immediately.

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Summary (quick checklist)

1. Split into an attacker and a healer/defender. Once Aether is stable, the healer/defender should buy spells too.
2. Expect a 3-turn delay from buying most spells to actually casting them.
3. In 4-player, deck-thinning is a big deal.
4. In 4-player, the Nemesis acts twice per cycle, so you have less time than you think.
5. Plan for 100+ total damage (Nemesis + minions) by around turn 15–16.
6. To get there, prioritize high-damage spells and cast them efficiently—especially early.

Even if you buy expensive spells, you won’t cast them a ton of times. That’s why role division—who buys spells vs. who buys gems—can give you a big early advantage. I want to test these ideas more and get into specific matchups, too.

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As you play, you’ll also start wondering:

• “This card is amazing against this Nemesis.”
• “If you collect four copies of this card, it’s broken.”
• “If you open all four breaches, this spell becomes unstoppable.”

Can you actually pull that off consistently? I want to dig into that as well.

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See you next time!