Wiped the first time with Hood, DD, KK… so I attempted the Thing Essential. Beat it with 1 cover Thing (green), DD and Hood.
Went back to Carnage Rules, played DD, Hood, Blade… and managed to keep everyone alive and stave off Threaten. Actually was able to get Ambush out there, stun a couple of times (had to stun Muscle once when tile was on 1 instead of stunning Carnage and then was able to clear that tile) and actually lived long enough to use Twin Pistols right after one Threaten went off to take care of the strike tiles. All 3 survived… but barely.
The other two nodes felt much easier once Carnage Rules was over. Hood didn’t live too long in the 2nd to last node, but the other two carried on.
No ridiculous cascades on the part of the AI, but I did get one ridiculous cascade in my favor early on in the final node. I’ll activate confirmation bias and pretend it didn’t happen and that it was all skill.
Thank you for the tips. I was super frustrated last night when I tried. This afternoon I was in a better state of mind and better prepared.