Culdcept BEGINS Chapter 15: The Nondeath Boss Guide

Chapter 15 in Culdcept BEGINS is a hunt stage against Nondeath, whose body is a Nondeath Core plus five Nondeath Tentacles, one for each element, with an Abyss Soldier in the way. The Core costs 250, has 100 AT and 60/60 HP and is Anti-Spell, so no Spell can be aimed at it — the stage is won by taking land to shrink the tentacles' HP and then finishing the Core with one strong attacker. Clearing it awards seven story-only Extra cards and hands you Onyx.

The Nondeath Core: 250 Cost, 100 AT, 60/60 HP

Its territory stops all passing Cepters other than you, so you cannot simply walk past it to reach softer targets. The advice printed on the card is blunt: petty tricks will not work, and it is most effective to defeat it with one powerful hit. Destroying the Core makes Nondeath's body wither away, which is why the Core is the last thing you kill, not the first.

One consequence follows from that last line. Because the Core has an Item Limit, its own Forbidden Art is aimed at a deck that has no Item to spend — so equip an Item on the creature that fights it, or take 100 Scroll Attack damage for free.

The Five Nondeath Tentacles

All five cost 100, all five stop passing Cepters other than you in their territory, and each carries the same printed advice: destroy the tentacles to defeat Nondeath, and watch out for each tentacle's abilities.

The HP Rule That Decides the Fight

Each elemental tentacle reads "In battle: HP-(territories held by enemy Cepter x10)" with its own element on it, which in practice means each tentacle's HP drops by 10 for every territory of that element you hold. The more board you control, the softer the tentacles get: a Fire tentacle sits at 60/60 while you hold no Fire territory and at 40/40 once you hold two.

The Neutral tentacle is the exception. It has no territory reduction and instead says its HP and MHP cannot be altered by spells, so it is a straight 60/60 fight against a 50 AT creature.

Three of the six bodies resist Spells. The Core, the Neutral tentacle and the Water tentacle are all Anti-Spell, so no Spell can be aimed at them — a target-all effect still reaches them, but a single-target Spell never does. The Air tentacle attacks first, so the creature you bring has to survive the first strike; Great Tusker, which neutralizes attacks from creatures with Attacks First, is the published answer and sits in the Chapter 15 Support Deck for that reason.

The Abyss Soldier: 60 Cost, 30 AT, 30/30 HP

A Neutral creature that guards the stage. On a successful attack it steals magic equal to twice the damage it dealt to the enemy creature, so its attacks drain your magic while the territory it occupies weakens Nondeath once you take it. Beat it, take the land, and expect to be short on magic on the turns after.

How to Clear Chapter 15: Land First, Then One Strong Hit

• Take land first. Every territory of the matching element you hold cuts a tentacle's HP by 10, and that is the only thing that makes the fight easier.
• Protect the land you take. The opponent throws direct-damage Spells and land-lowering effects at you, so a territory that cannot be targeted is worth more than a larger one.
• Kill the tentacles, not the boss. The tentacles revive quickly and restore their land levels, so a rush at the Core leaves all five back on the board.
• Bring one strong attacker for the Core. Aim for roughly 80 to 100 damage in a single hit, which means a creature with at least 50 AT.
• Expect a turn limit. With the number of turns capped, card draw is worth more than card search.
• Finish with the Core. One powerful hit is the published answer. Spells are not.

Why Spells Are the Wrong Tool Here

Direct-damage Spells such as Magic Bolt and Evil Blast cost money and gain you no territory. Every point of magic you spend on them is a point you cannot spend on invading, and because the tentacles' HP is decided by territory rather than by damage, a Spell does not even shrink the target you need to kill. You can end the match short of the target magic because you paid for damage instead of for land.

The Substitutions the Chapter 15 Deck Uses

• Land protection goes back in. A territory that cannot be Spelled is what keeps the HP reduction running.
• A third Grimalkin for spell protection, because the opponent's direct damage is what ends your turn early.
• Gift instead of Foresight. The turn limit makes drawing cards worth more than searching for one, and Gift draws two where Foresight only adds one.
• Turn to Wall, or anything that transforms a creature, counts as beating a tentacle — though actually winning the battle is better, because you gain a decent territory level.
• Fly, Evil Blast, Sword of the Falcon, Prismatic Wand and Wall of Stone are the listed substitutes for cards you do not have.

The full Support Deck for Chapter 15, with its deck code and every card in it, is on the best decks page.

The Seven Cards This Battle Uniquely Awards

All seven are Extra rarity, the tier that is limited to a single copy in a Book — card rarity and the Extra rules covers that limit and the twelve Extra cards you can actually collect. These seven are story-only: they exist inside the Chapter 15 battle and nowhere else, so none of them appears in the game's 400-card set. That set is 400 cards across Normal, Strange, Rare and Extra, and the full 400-card list has it.

The Chapter Reward: Onyx

Clearing Main Story Chapter 15 hands you Onyx: a 100 cost creature with 40 AT and 40/40 HP that neutralizes Scroll Attacks, Critical Hits creatures with 40 or more MHP, and takes Land Effects from territories of any element. In the story it arrives at the end — after the last tentacle falls, the protagonist's father entrusts Onyx to you.

Because Onyx is one of the twelve Extra cards and only one copy is allowed in a Book, it is a slot you commit to once rather than a card you stack.