In Midnight Suns, combat items are cards you can take into battle to use alongside your heroes' decks. They don’t cost card plays, provide debuffs to enemies or buffs to allies, and with research, you can bring up to three with you. However, you can’t equip more than one of the same at a time.

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Combat items can be crafted in The Forge or using Agatha’s cauldron, but you’ll sometimes loot them from Arcane Chests too. Crafting them at The Forge requires essence, whereas crafting at the cauldron requires various regents; consistently stocking up on both is a must for preparing for the fight ahead.

10 Vial Of Shadows

midnight suns magik 2
  • Select a hero to gain Concealed.

When an ally is concealed, they can no longer be directly attacked, regardless of whether they’re targeted. This makes Vial of Shadows particularly useful when someone you need to stay in the fight is in low health. Nico, Magik, and Hunter are always valuable assets to keep in tip-top shape because of their magical abilities that can quickly turn the tide in a fight.

Hunter is required for healing and completing mission goals, and Nico is also essential for healing and taking out lower-level-group enemies like Hellhounds. In contrast, Illyana is vital for combos and knockbacks.

9 Major Strength Tonic

Marvel Midnight Suns Wanda's Journal's Featured Image
  • Select a hero to gain one Overpowered and two Vulnerable.

When a character is overpowered, they’ll deal more damage; when they’re vulnerable, they’re more susceptible to attacks. Because of this give and take with the card, you’re best off using it while an ally is at or near full health and towards the end of a fight.

Using this tonic is a little dangerous since it could cause the hero who used it to be knocked out. That means it is best to only equip it when going into tough boss fights where you wouldn't survive many of their attacks anyway. The best heroes to use this card with are Captain Marvel, Hunter, and Scarlet Witch.

8 Charm Of Clarity

Heroes walking towards the next mission. Robbie Reyes, Hunter, and Nico Minoru.
  • Gain one redraw.

The great thing about having eight cards in every deck is the opportunities that come with it. Add enough variety there, and you’ll have everything you need to win the fight. Unfortunately, sometimes you’ll get unlucky with the hand you’re dealt, which is where redrawing comes in, and if you’re incredibly unfortunate, these redraw items might still bring out useless cards.

With the Charm of Clarity, you gain an extra free redraw, a fantastic play for when one of your heroes is down, and you have an overwhelming amount of their cards in your hand.

7 Rune Of Vertigo

Johnny Blaze speaking to Hunter at the aftermath of a fight.
  • Target an enemy, and they will be KO'd if knocked into a Drop.

Rune of Vertigo is an ideal card to equip when Ghost Rider is in the party since his “Hellmouth” card creates a drop you can knock back enemies towards. This card will ensure they’re subdued once falling into the hole, which is already pretty much a given for smaller-health enemies but is handy for taking out Elite foes.

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When you’re facing an enemy with upwards of 300 health, and Ghost Rider is with you, you’ll also want to bring Rune of Vertigo to get an easy kill without putting your team in danger.

6 Blessed Blade

Nico MInoru looking worried during a cutscene.
  • Gives attack cards in your hand the Critical status for the rest of the mission.

Blessed Blade gives all attack cards in your hand the Critical status effect for the remainder of the mission. So if you’re at the tail end of a mission with six attack cards in your hand, they will take on this status effect until the end.

Picking the right moment to use this is key. After all, there’s no reason to use Blessed Blade with a few leftover enemies still alive but rather a couple of rounds from the end of the mission when there is still plenty of work to do. Nico and Blade’s cards are helpful in this case because of their high damage that paired with a critical status will quickly knock out the opposition.

5 Greater Healing Salve

Hunter wearing their combat outfit, which is black with white and silver highlights.
  • Select a hero to recover 50 percent health.

There are plenty of situations where playing a healing card is no longer an option. Whether it be because there isn’t one in your hand or you’re out of card plays, and you’re likely to have your entire team wiped out if you end your turn, this is where the Greater Healing Salve comes in to save the day. Using it will restore 50 percent of a single hero's health, which may not do much in the long run but will keep you on your feet to make a bolstering attack in the next round.

As always, Hunter is vital to keep standing on the battlefield, but any other heroes well-versed in powerful damage cards that can knock out multiple enemies in one move are also worth spending this card on to keep alive.

4 Vampiric Essence

Marvel's Midnight Suns New Gameplay With Wolverine In Action
  • Select a hero, and their damage cards will gain Lifesteal for two turns.

Lifesteal can be just as vital as a plain-old healing ability since you can complete two things at once; damage an enemy unit, and heal the selected hero. When you use Vampiric Essence on a character every damage card this hero uses will have the Lifesteal effect for two rounds, making it best used at the start of a round and on a hero close to being knocked down.

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While Nico can apply Blood Magic to others using the card of the same name, and Blade has the Lifesteal effect on some of his cards, this item allows any team to briefly gain the ability. It is recommended you bring Vampiric Essence with you when neither of these characters are in your team.

3 Fury Totem

Midnight Suns Cinematic Attacks, Ghost Rider attacking with Wolverine and Blade
  • Select a hero, and they'll draw a card every time they KO an enemy for two turns.

Fury Totem is the number one combat card to use in conjunction with chain attacks and knockbacks, especially with the heroes Nico, Wolverine, and Spider-Man. These three are excellent at chaining attacks with a single card, and since every KO draws an additional two cards, you’ll clear much of the playing field without sacrificing your entire deck.

Fury Totem can only be applied to one hero, so choose wisely which character will benefit the most. Also, the effects will only last for two turns, meaning you’ll want to ensure you get a good few kills while it’s activated.

2 Ironoak Charm

Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, and Carol Danvers standing by the war table.
  • Select a hero to gain Block for each enemy targeting them.

Blocking can be easily forgotten in Midnight Suns when stronger abilities like chain attacks and cards that deal 100+ damage exist. However, it’s imperative that you keep using block whenever given a chance. Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Hunter are the best characters to give a block bonus, although others can benefit from the extra protection.

Using the Ironoak Charm, you’ll gain an extra Block for a hero for every enemy that is targeting them. So when groups of foes roll in, and you have multiple of them attacking solely one character, use it to prevent them from falling in battle. The hero resistance you’ll gain can help quite a bit.

1 Phoenix Flame

Carol and Blade talking to Hunter at the end of a meeting that was called.
  • Revive an ally.

There’s nothing worse than having zero revives left when you are only a few moves away from winning the round, and that’s where Phoenix Flame comes in. With this card, you can revive a teammate for free, giving you one last opportunity to get one of your teammates back on their feet. It is a legendary item, so it’s not especially easy to make bundles of, so you’ll only want to use it when necessary.

Story missions are the obvious choice, but they can also be helpful when playing on one of the higher difficulties since you get fewer revives to use in those instances. You’ll need to do quite a bit of research before you can craft the combat item, so this won’t be something you can utilize until the end of the game.

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