Card Variety...How?

Next Fest is over. I have received some feedback and the game kept improving. However, there is still one issue that I haven't solved yet so I want to make a post about it. This issue is card variety. How do I make sure that there is enough variety among monster cards?

Most roguelike deckbuilders suggest 3 cards after each battle so there is no issue there. But in Blue Hunter, the cards come from the monsters themselves. So this "basic" feature isn't possible, unless every battle has 3 monsters. Not practical.

So let's say each main quest has 10 monsters, 3 bosses and 3 gods. Each main quest should have 16 cards. In total, that's 48 cards. You might think it's good enough, but these cards don't move between quests.

For example, if you want a monster specific to quest II, you can never have his card in quest I. This means that I need to add other ways to get cards, in order to make sure there is a wide range of cards even in quest I.

Some ways to do this are the following.

1) Side quests in battle:

This is perfect for bonus rewards. The problem is getting an extra card might be seen as a bad thing, depending on how small you want your deck to be. So this doesn't work, unless the card is only suggested.

2) Shop:

I just added 6 "poison" related cards in today's patch. The shop is one good place to have cards that can move between quests.

3) Pain Trial:

I will add one last room called "Pain Trial". The concept is simple: you have 3 rewards with one of them being recommended. You can choose any reward you want, but if you don't choose the recommended rewards you get a penalty (negative skill). This room can contain cards related to monsters you don't fight against.

4) Treasure chest:

I can add card options here instead of just having skills.

5) Rest:

Same as 4). If healing isn't enough to make the room viable maybe having a card too will make it more interesting.

6) Skills:

Add skills that suggest cards. For example: "When you beat a boss, get a random uncommon card."

That's all I have so far. If you have better ideas let me know.

Discord is here.

Thanks, NourSaiFR