If you’ve spent any time in the grimy, card-shuffling world of Defiant Development’s Hand of Fate series, you know the feeling. It’s that split second of genuine anxiety when the Dealer flips a card and your entire run—the gold you spent an hour hoarding, the health you've been clinging to—hangs in the balance. Hand of Fate stones, or more accurately, the equipment and shards that define your survival, aren't just loot. They are the difference between a triumphant crawl to the finish and a humiliating death at the hands of a Ratman.
Honestly, the game doesn't care about your feelings. It’s a deck-builder trapped in an action RPG’s body, and if you don’t understand how the gear pieces—often referred to by players as "stones" or "shards" depending on which specific encounter they’re obsessing over—interact with the RNG, you’re basically just meat for the grinder.
What People Get Wrong About Hand of Fate Stones and Shards
Most players think they can just skill their way out of a bad draw. Wrong. While the combat in Hand of Fate 2 is more fluid than the first game, you can't out-parry a lack of preparation. When we talk about Hand of Fate stones, we’re usually diving into the mechanics of "Fate Shards" or specific artifacts like the Stone of Fortune.
These items aren't just stat sticks.
They are modifiers. They change the very rules of the game. For instance, the Brimstone card or various stone-themed equipment often carry heavy penalties. You’ve probably noticed that the most powerful items in the Dealer’s deck usually come with a "cursed" or "heavy" cost. It’s a gamble. A lot of beginners skip these because they’re scared of the downside, but that’s a rookie mistake. You need the high-variance items to survive the late-game challenges where the Dealer starts stacking the deck against you with "Failure" cards.
The Gritty Reality of the Dealer’s Game
The Dealer is a jerk. He’s voiced by Anthony Skordi with such a perfect level of condescension that you almost want to lose just to hear him talk. But don’t. He uses the stones and cards to tell a story, one that usually ends with your character face-down in the mud.
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In Hand of Fate 2, the introduction of the "Shards of Fate" mechanic added a layer of meta-progression that people still argue about on Steam forums. Are they too grindy? Maybe. But they force you to engage with the "silver" and "gold" tier challenges. If you aren't collecting these, you aren't seeing the full story. You're just playing a shallow brawler.
Why the Brimstone and Fate Shards Change Everything
Let's look at specific examples. Take the Brimstone gear. It’s heavy. It’s slow. But in a crowd of Empire soldiers, that weight is what keeps you alive.
- The Weight Factor: Heavy weapons and stones affect your dodge window. It’s subtle. You might not notice it until you’re trying to roll away from a Mage’s fire blast and you realize your "stone-heavy" armor just made your recovery frames twice as long.
- Luck vs. Logic: Items like the Stone of Fortune (if you’re lucky enough to pull it) don’t just give you more gold. They actually change the shuffle.
Ever noticed how some shuffles feel rigged? They sort of are. The game uses a "weighted shuffle" for many of its gambits—the pendulum, the dice, the cards. Certain Hand of Fate stones and artifacts effectively "grease the wheels," making that Success card just a little bit easier to track with your eyes.
Don't Trust the Tooltips
Seriously. The tooltips in this game are notoriously brief. They tell you "Adds 10 Health," but they don't tell you that the item also increases the likelihood of encountering a specific monster type in the next three floors. This is where the community expertise comes in.
I’ve spent hours testing the Moonstone and Sunstone interactions. In the original game, these felt like minor flavor items. By the sequel, they became part of a complex ecosystem of "day/night" mechanics that can completely ruin a run if you aren't paying attention to the clock.
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The Strategy Behind Building Your Deck
If you're going into a Trial like The Hierophant or The Devil, you can't just pick your favorite looking swords. You need to build a deck that counteracts the Dealer’s cruelty.
- Balance your Gold sources. If you take too many "stone" type equipment cards that require high gold to activate, you’ll starve.
- Respect the Pendulum. If a piece of equipment mentions it affects the pendulum gambit, keep it. Even if the stats are lower. The pendulum is the hardest mini-game to master, and anything that slows it down is god-tier.
- Food is Life. I’ve seen more runs end because of a lack of "Life Stones" or food-related artifacts than because of a boss fight. You can't fight if you're starving.
It’s all about the synergy. A stone that increases your defense is useless if you don't have the "Gladiator" cards to trigger the bonus. You have to think three floors ahead. What happens when I hit the "Blizzard" card? Do I have the warm gear? If not, that shiny new stone weapon won't do anything while you're freezing to death.
The Complexity of the Dealer’s Motivation
Is the Dealer the villain? It’s a genuine question. By the end of the second game, you realize that the Hand of Fate stones and the deck itself are tools for a much larger purpose. He’s training you. Or maybe he’s just bored. The nuance in the writing suggests that the "Fate" you’re fighting isn’t just a random number generator; it’s a narrative cycle.
When you find a rare stone-based artifact, look at the flavor text. It usually points toward the fall of the Old Empire or the rise of the Corrupted. The game hides its best lore in the items people most frequently overlook.
The Hidden Mechanics of Shuffling
Let's talk about the physical act of the shuffle. When the Dealer moves the cards, it’s not just an animation. In many of the gambits, you can actually track the card you want.
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However, some high-level encounters introduce "cursed stones" that blur the cards or speed up the shuffle to a humanly impossible rate. This is where your equipment comes in. Some stones act as "anchors," slowing down the animation just enough for a focused player to snag the "Huge Success."
If you aren't using your gear to manipulate the meta-game, you're playing at a massive disadvantage.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Run
Stop playing Hand of Fate like a standard RPG. It’s a resource management sim.
- Prioritize Gambits over Stats: A sword that gives you +5 damage is worse than a ring that gives you a "re-roll" on a dice gambit. Every single time.
- Farm the Shards: If you’re stuck on a boss, go back to an easier challenge and focus on completing the "token" requirements for your cards. This unlocks the "Platinum" versions of equipment, which often remove the negative "stone-weight" penalties.
- Watch the Dealer’s Hands: In the card shuffle, he has tells. They are subtle. But they are there.
- Check the Requirements: Some of the most powerful Hand of Fate stones require you to have a specific companion, like Colbjorn or Estrella. Don't waste a deck slot on a stone you can't even "ignite" because you brought the wrong friend.
Ultimately, the game is a conversation between you and the Dealer. He lays out the stones, and you decide which ones are worth the weight. Just remember: in this game, "Fate" is a deck that you help build. If you keep losing, stop blaming the RNG and start looking at the cards you put in your own hand.
The most effective way to improve is to stop chasing the "Perfect Run." It doesn't exist. Instead, focus on "Mitigation." Build your deck so that even when you pull a "Failure" card, you have a stone or an artifact that lets you survive the fallout. That’s how you actually beat the Dealer. Focus on the cards that provide "Gain" even on a loss—those are the real game-changers.
Next time you see a stone-based equipment card with a massive penalty, don't just click past it. Ask yourself: Does this penalty actually matter if I can end the fight in ten seconds? Usually, the answer is no. Take the risk. Grab the stone. Win the game.