How to survive the Construct Quarter - Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas tips and guide

The fourth quarter of Naxxramas is open, but it isn't the final one. The Frostwyrm's Lair will finish the adventure next week, after which we should have a review of the whole experience.

This new section, the Construct Quarter, shakes things up a little bit. There are four bosses rather than three for starters, and they're all a little bit odd.

But then you might expect that since they're all horrible conglomerations of experimental flesh. Faced with such terrors, it's understandable that you'd want to run through them and get your cards as fast as possible. So here's some suggestions to help you do just that.

This boss Abomination has the most bizarre deck we've seen in the game. It consists of one card, a 5 damage weapon, which he can always use. His mana goes toward his hero power, which destroys any target minion.

Since he gets initiative and can pummel you from the beginning, he may seem invincible. But he's easy to beat on both difficulty modes.

All you need to do is load up your deck with cheap Taunt minions. There's enough in the basic collection to do this in standard mode, with any class.

Since Patchwerk only attacks once a round you can summon them faster than he can kill them. Their power keeps you safe from his bludgeoning and you can just wear down his health until he's dead.

It's worth throwing a couple of Acidic Swamp Oozes into the mix. Plus Harrison Jones, if you have him. He just regenerates his weapon when it's destroyed by these cards, but it costs mana he could have used on his hero power.

It's a bit tougher on heroic since his power is cheaper, his weapon does more damage, and he has more health.

But the same basic approach applies. Use a Warlock, since they have an extra cheap taunt minion in the Voidwalker, and slip a bit of direct damage into your deck for the coup de grace.

You might need a few tries to get a decent draw, but you shouldn't have too much trouble disassembling him.

This repulsive-looking flesh giant is by far the most troublesome boss in Naxxramas yet, in both his modes.

The reason is twofold. First there's his astonshing hero power which does a point of damage to all minions, and summons a 2/2 slime if it kills anything. This gives him the potential to clear the board and summon a minion for the following turn all in one fell swoop.

Second there are the cheap slime-buffing cards in his deck. Since Echoing Slimes copy themselves at the end of the turn, he can buff one and get a free clone. If he's lucky, this combo can put two powerful taunting minions on the board excrutiatingly early in the fight.

The only consistent way I was able to win this frustrating fight was to use a big-hitting Druid deck. Forget tiny minions that'll just get wiped out by his hero power. Pack in tough minions with lots of taunts and buffs, plus Innervate and Wild Growth to get them on the board fast.

Back this up with some of those versatile Druid direct damage spells like Swipe, Starfire and Starfall. It should be enough to help you reduce Grobbulous to gobbets.

He's a colossal pain in heroic mode. Interestingly, much like Patchwerk you can use the same sort of approach to win in heroic matches. But experienced players will need a good selection of cards and a lot of luck to beat him at this level.

After climbing that fleshy mountain, Gluth is a gentle stroll down the other side in comparison.

The clue to beating him is in his hero power, which reduces the health of all minions to one. So, play him at his own game and field a bunch of low-health minions. For added security, protect them with divine shield.

Paladins are obviously tailor-made for this job, not least since they can summon 1-health minions as their power. Put together a standard Paladin weenie deck with lots of low-cost, low-health creatures, and a few cards like Raid Leader that give across the board buffs

But instead of the individual buff cards you might throw in, go heavy on divine shield. Argent Squires and Scarlet Raiders if you have them, plus Hand of Protection and Argent Protector from your Paladin stock.

You'll want to find space for those Acidic Swamp Oozes and Harrison Jones again, though. Gluth has a deck built around a super-annoying weapon that you must destroy to win the fight.

Re-using standard decks in Heroic seems to be a running theme in this quarter, and Gluth is no exception. But to stand a chance you'll need to mulligan for one of those weapon-removal cards and get it out of the way early.

This golem likes to think he's the hardest boss in the quarter. He isn't, but he does require a bit of lateral thinking to get past.

What makes this fight so odd, and so interesting, is his zero-cost hero power, which he uses every turn without fail. It swaps the attack and health of all minions, turning your usual game plans on their head.

The simplest answer to this is to make sure you put a lot of minions down that aren't affected by this because they have identical stats.

Paladins and Priests are both pretty effective at this job. But the former are perhaps better suited, with Blessing of Kings giving an equal buff, and a selection of weapons that aren't affected by Thaddius's power.

Whichever class you chose, make sure to use a couple of Nerubian Eggs. As 0/2 creatures, the reversing the stats kills them, giving you an instant 4/4 instead. It's a trick he uses in his own deck, and it's too good to miss.

You still have to watch what you're doing though. The stat-swap that happens each turn means the usual minion trades you might have been planning to make won't work out as expected. But try to plan in advance, keep control of the board and you should come out on top.

Yet again a similar approach works in heroic, albeit this time it's reliant on a generous pinch of luck. You'll need to mulligan for one of those Nerubian Eggs though, to catch up quickly with the powerful minions he starts the fight with.

The two class challenges in this quarter are Priest and Warrior. Both rely on obvious combos and gimmicks in their pre-made decks, but one fight is a lot harder than the other.

The tough ask is the Warrior against Grobbulous. The deck is full of minions that benefit in some way from being damaged. Many have the Enrage ability, others give you bonus cards or armour when minions get hit.

This ties in with Grobbulous's ability to cause mass damage, and you'll need to leverage it hard to win. It's a solid deck, and quite capable of beating the giant. You'll just have to trust to luck that he doesn't get any of those powerful slime-buffing combos out early.

The Priest against Thaddius is much easier. Indeed it's a good template for the sort of Priest deck you could employ in the standard fight. It's got Nerubian Eggs in it, plus a bunch of powerful creatures that either have matching attack and health or else play about with those stats in helpful ways.

You'll still need to watch the board carefully and make good trades to win. But any half-decent player ought to have little trouble.