Astrea not only becomes quite difficult at the higher levels but also has the randomness of a rogue-like game on top of the randomness of dice rolling. So, I think even with very good play you can expect to lose runs. Still, the game also gives you a lot of great tactical tools to work within the randomness. This guide will dive into a number of those tools, but first what is the general shape of a winning run?

Most of the time, building a small (9-13) collection of highly-impactful, synergistic dice by the end of the game the easiest path to victory. This means adding only a few dice, forging and duplicating the best additions and using a lot of removes to get rid most of your starter dice. This reduces the randomness, as when you are drawing 6-8 dice at the end of the game they are all useful and work together.

Many successful builds center around going to a forge after 2-4 battles with enough shards 400+ and one great risky/balanced die that is the center of your build. You can forge over one or two of the bad sides then duplicate the die and maybe duplicate the die again now or later in the run. Done correctly this can be a power spike that can carry you into the end game while you refine your die pool adding a few other dice blessings that help and removing the rest.

At higher difficulties, the game does a great job of keeping you constantly challenged early in the run so you don't have enough time to search for the strongest dice or the "best" build. This means even in the first few rewards you must grab a couple dice and blessings that work together and start a build using them. For this reason, much of this guide is devoted to possible synergies to exploit with each Oracle making the best path easier to spot.

A good traveler has no fixed plans. ~ 老子

This guide contains spoilers. I will hide big spoilers using the spoiler tag, but I will reference the many blessings/dice/Oracles that are unlocked without spoiler tags. This is the best compromise I can come up and still keep the guide reasonable. If this is a problem you may want to fully level up all the Oracles before reading this guide.

• Unlike most deck-builders, the draw action on dice isn't generally useful even when you can choose the die drawn. There are a number of mechanics in this game that punish playing a lot of dice notably the final boss and the dice you draw may not even roll to the correct side. Even the draw++ dice have so many non-draw sides that they usually aren't helpful. The epic draw+++ die is reasonable though if there is nothing better.
  
• Draw from sentinels is useful though. Though copycat is generally better.
  
• When you get a Sentinel choice from an boss, event or or Sentinel Shop the level of Sentinel offered is level 1 if you don't have two Sentinels and one higher than your lowest current Sentinel level if you have both. So, you can save some shards upgrading Sentinels if you go into a boss fight with two Sentinels of the same level.
  
• On higher levels, grabbing one powerful damaging die very early can make the first few fights much safer even if it doesn't help with any builds. One good example here is Punch+. Some oracles need this more than others.
  
• An early die that permanently forges other dice can be quite helpful in cleaning up the bad sides of risky/balanced die.
  
• Consistent, small amounts of (especially A.O.E.) light shield are very useful in the later half of most runs. This can save your hearts, Sentinels and prevent over-corruption. Avoid over doing it though.
  
• Save your re-rolls until after you have drawn any new die that you are going to roll this turn. You never know what side will show up.
  
• Be careful not to exit the game immediately after an enemy especially the final boss is defeated. It will restart the battle at the beginning!

• Removal is one of the best nodes of the game for making your build consistent.
  
• Duplication can be even better though once you have a great die to duplicate.
  
• Events are generally quite good but vary wildly in quality.
  
• The last node before the Ground Zero boss will give you two blessings for a single heart.
  
• 50 shards are often better than a dice node.
  
• The shark opponent can be deadly even for otherwise good builds that don't deal a lot of consistent damage every round. On higher difficulties you may need to choose the first easy battle in the Ground Zero to avoid the Shark.
  
• Save your re-rolls until after you have drawn any new die that you are going to roll this turn. You never know what side will show up.
  
• The Corruputed Moonie fight is brutal especially if you take my advice and play with a small number of dice. I've died on this fight way more than any other fight and it is worth pathing to skip this fight.

• Multiverse Cube[astrea.wiki.gg] works on all rewards (dice, sentinels and blessings) and will win you runs when grabbed early as it is much easier to find synergies.
  
• Bottled Aurora[astrea.wiki.gg] is amazing on almost every run

• Serenity Aura++ is a great target for forging and then duplication. All oracles can make a build using the Aura especially if it is found early enough. The non-aura version Serenity++ is more situational.
  
• Defensive Aura++ can be that late game light shield solution.
  
• The epic die Copycat++ gives a copy of the most useful die you drew that round and a well-forged die can be more useful than most epic dice.

Moonie is labeled as the least complex oracles but that doesn't make it the easiest to win with. A number of Moonie's builds are tough to make work. However, with a re-roll virtue, its unique convert virtue and a draw virtue, Moonie is more forgiving in battles than other Oracles especially when it comes to risky die and handling hex dice.

Moonie's Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Different types of conversion die vary pretty wildly in usefulness.
  
  • Converting individual die using basic convert die can be difficult to pull off as a winning strategy. Doom and hex die can be useful here but it is tough to consistently draw the right balance of convert and corruption/hex die.
    
  • However, Manipulate (converting enemy die) can make most runs much easier.
    
  • Noctuan Comprehension++ (converting all dice) makes the core of conversion many conversion builds. Note this converts your die, enemy die _and_ Sentinel die. Amazingly powerful and with some re-roll and maybe a way to toss the die when it rolls the wrong side. Combines well Twilight Sigil and Forging Corruption. For a fun combo add Selenic Domination later in the run.
    
  • Eureka (permanent conversion) is quite valuable early. It probably won't scale into the end game but it can buy you time through the mid game and it combos well with risky die. Note, Doom doesn't work with permanent conversion. When you leave combat the die face remains converted but at its original strength.
    
• Enhancement also has associated strong and weak builds.
  
  • Enhancing or Amplifying dice can be difficult to pull off as a strategy as the right combination of the enhance action, knowledge and a value one die must all be drawn in the same turn. Lunar Alignment or Ingenious Touch just adds even more die you need to pull off the combo.
    
  • Bright Enhancement (the permanent version) can be powerful early and will get you through the mid-game. Especially with a source of knowledge. The starter Stellar Cleanse makes a good first target.
    
• As a risky die, Scarlet Sigil++ works on itself! Copy the die 3-4 times. It isn't the best scaling build but with good blessings it can work.
  
• Hex dice related builds and Moonlight just don't seem powerful enough to counter all the inconsistency problems of dice that add hex dice during battle.
  
• Haunted Chalk[astrea.wiki.gg] can enable a crazy build with Reduction, Enhancement and Manipulate. I've never been lucky enough to the components early, but I bet it is viable.

• One die that deals a large amount of corruption, like Acceptance++ Embrace+ or Embrace++, can simplify early battles as a target for your convert virtue.
  
• Don't take Uncanny Candle[astrea.wiki.gg] early in the run but it feels good to find it lateand it slays the final boss.
  
• Sacred Magnifier[astrea.wiki.gg] is essentially a draw power with few downsides for most builds.

Once you are proficient at using self-damage to trigger virtues, Cellarius can be quite powerful early game. This can give you some time to find some good synergies in your dice and blessings. Cellarius also has viable builds that are fairly straight forward and some good support dice. This makes the oracle one of the easier to win with.

Cellarius' Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Abilities associated with Empower work quite well together and have a fairly smooth path to victory.
  
  • Sharpen Fin is a great combination of giving empower and doing purification at the same time.
    
  • Hammerhead Will and/or Devonian Heir can also make the core here but you have to be more careful to mix in purification sources as well.
    
  • The easiest source of empower though is the die Vendetta++ (or Vendetta+++) or the blessing Vengeful Idol[astrea.wiki.gg] which give exactly one Vendetta. One application of Vendetta can also boosts damage from sentinels on some fights. The three Vendetta on the Vendetta Fever die will just get you killed, though. Combos with a bit of Shark Rush.
    
  • A single Eridanian Wrath die becomes the killing blow in many of these builds.
    
  • Forge Area Purify synergies perfectly removing the bad sides of dice and adding a side that scales well with empower.
    
• Wave builds have a harder early game but there are a lot of different useful die to help get start scaling into the end game.
  
  • One or both of the Trident of Depths[astrea.wiki.gg] and Tamed Remoras[astrea.wiki.gg] blessings makes wave builds much easier at higher difficulties.
    
  • Area Enemy Wave and High Tide apply wave efficiently.
    
  • While I don't like draw dice in general, Surf dice (even the safe version!) work well in these builds as they apply wave and draw.
    
  • Maelstrom Impact gives the most single target damage to wave builds but Wave Crasher does great damage and will also keep you alive.
    
  • Forceful Stream does an excellent automated job turning wave into damage but you will need to combine it with consistent light shield to protect you from its awkwardly timed self-damage.
    
• Finding a Purging Anchor in the first few die rewards requires only a little luck and some later duplication to become an a great source of damage.
  
• Anchor Judgement is just great damage in the later sections of a run. You need other ways of finishing off enemies but it is helpful for almost any build.
  
• Some Indigo Soul (though not the questionable Indigo Rite) can save hearts in the mid to late game and can help many Cellarius runs.

• Many cellarius builds can often end up over-healing the oracle and the sentinels making Astrium Soul[astrea.wiki.gg] and Astrium Vessel[astrea.wiki.gg] useful.
  
• Divine Prism[astrea.wiki.gg] enhances an already strong early game allowing even more time to put together a good build.

Hevelius is quite strong in the early game as it starts with two sentinels. This is countered by having a max of two hearts making it harder to survive and obtain blessings. The oracle does have a number of good paths to victory but some of them can be complex to pull off.

Hevelius' Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Area Sentinel Auto-Turret is the most straight forward build for Hevelius. Combine with light shield and a bit of self healing and do whatever you can to keep your sentinels (and yourself) alive while they grow. The risky Auto-Turret die forged and duplicated is best here.
  
• Area Sentinel Empower gives a similar path but is more difficult. It almost requires sentinel boost later, the correct sentinels and like the previous a good defense. Again the risky/epic dice are the only ones that scale fast enough. The epic die version Sentinel Uprising helps a lot, but as a lot of risky die are already involved in this build the risky version might be too much.
  
• Charged Body++ forged (especially with area light shield) and duplicated can be very powerful. The balanced version Charged Body+ doesn't scale as well but can still win.
  
  • Remember Barrier triggers Charged Body as well.
    
  • Forge light shield can help with the corruption die faces and combos particularly well here.
    
• Breaking and repairing sentinels can be a quite complicated way to win as you tend to need many different interacting dice in the right quantities. Still the builds can work well.
  
  • Voltaic Scrapping scales up to a lot of damage even with the safe die! Quite powerful even early on, but you will need many duplicates of it to really scale. Look out for the Stasis Clock sentinel as it applies light shield to itself after every repair.
    
  • Radiant Bomb (maybe with a little Vile Repair) has a slower cadence as you need to break/repair less often. You will need a lot of Radiant Bomb particularly risky/epic versions.
    
  • Tinkerer Lunge dice scale a bit too slowly to be a great source of damage, but it can work with a good enough break/repair engine. You will only need 1-2 Tinkerer Lunge dice. Duplicated Recycle or Clever Scrapping dice allow you to break many times.
    
  • Systematic Repair is often the most useful repair die especially if your engine has a lot of safer die.
    
• Duplicates of Player Vorpal Plate, especially the risky version, can scale to the end game. You will need a couple Defiant Alarm or Mechanical Domination die in the mid game or you will lose to enemies that don't attack you directly. Also, you will then need a way to protect yourself from bad defiant alarm rolls or the aoe corruption. Very complicated. Link: Rock Plate seems like a great solution with Defiant Alarm but I've never gotten it at the right time. Very tough to pull off but at least the Vorpal Plate is quite useful by itself early game.
  
• There is a light shield build with Shield Bash and/or the Bright Resonator[astrea.wiki.gg] blessing. Glowing Reactor[astrea.wiki.gg] seems necessary before the late game for this to really scale well.
  
• Don't sleep on Serenity Aura++ for Hevelius. Your sentinels do great damage with serenity. Discharge and Heal Bot go a long way and a few synergistic blessings picked up later on can be enough to win.
  
• Area Sentinel Boost is good utility for many runs.

• Divine Prism[astrea.wiki.gg] allows you to really take advantage of the corruption virtue in the early game. You can quite often use that virtue twice and get 6-12 extra damage a round.

The fourth oracle, Austra, adds a lot of random special actions on top of an already quite random game. While many of its special actions are designed to mitigate the randomness of its other random special actions, but many of them don't work well enough as you need to draw the mitigation dice either with the random special action. Even then some special actions still leave a chance of very bad things happening that will often lose you a heart.

Despite Austra's generally questionable special actions, it can still win a decent amount of the time because it can interact very well with a number of blessings. The blessings you find will often drive your build more than the dice.

Austra' Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Crumbling Skies, Lightning, Thunderstorm and Forge Thunderstorm all deal multiple hits of purification making them ideal for many interactions with blessing and other dice that add damage to each purification instance.
  
  • The neutral die Serenity Aura++ synergizes perfectly here. After being forged and duplicated multiple times it becomes enough scaling to win a run.
    
  • Serenity++ and Excruciatus++ work similarly but are not nearly as easy to win with.
    
  • The Dicesmith Helmet[astrea.wiki.gg], when picked up very early on, will win you a run if you grab as many dice as possible. You need to get to 40+ as soon as you can and 60+ near the end of the game. Lightning Sting, Area Confuse and safe die that do purification and something else at the same time all become strong dice with this build.
    
  • When you have the Astrium Soul[astrea.wiki.gg] blessing, Inner Peace+ and Lightning can deal great damage while keeping you topped off.
    
  • Hornet Dust also works extremely well with lightning but can be awkward if you need to heal yourself. Try using light shield and your sentinels for keeping Austra alive.
    
• Sky Piercing and Meteor Rain can scale into the end game but is a little hard to get started.
  
  • Grabbing the blessing Sun Eye[astrea.wiki.gg], Moon Eye[astrea.wiki.gg] or early make this path much easier. [astrea.wiki.gg]
  • The three Comets++ and the two Comets+++ dice make the best sources of Meteor Rain but others work fine.
    
  • Mixing in an Apian Skyfall die can be ok later in the game.
    
  • Dodge++ or Area Dodge with Drifter Catcher[astrea.wiki.gg] does combo but is very complicated to get working.
    
• Critical, Critical Muliplier builds can be difficult. You want to stop using your thunderstorm virtue at some point so you don't waste your crits and you need to find a couple big purification die.
  
  • Hive Module[astrea.wiki.gg] or Auspicious Dandelion[astrea.wiki.gg] can give you the time to get your combo together.
    
  • Hurricane with duplicated Criticical Muliplier dice and one area purification and one big single target purification can work, but it is difficult to get the pieces at the
    
  • Tinkerer Lunge dice scale a bit too slowly to be a great source of damage, but it can work with a good enough break/repair engine. You will only need 1-2 Tinkerer Lunge dice. Duplicated Recycle or Clever Scrapping dice allow you to break many times.
    
• Brilliance dice have confuse sides already included. The rare version, forged and duplicated seems like it should be the core of a build. I've never been offered the die early enough to try it though. Likely a little crit would help it scale.

• Be very careful with thorns! It doesn't play well with multiple damage instances.
  
• Many Austra builds can often end up over-healing the oracle and the sentinels so look out for Astrium Soul[astrea.wiki.gg] and Astrium Vessel[astrea.wiki.gg].
  
• Hive Module[astrea.wiki.gg] buffs your sentinels quite a bit even when you don't have any crit die and is a nice grab for most builds if you don't see a more synergistic blessing.
  
• Tempest Pollen[astrea.wiki.gg] will help your virtues, Thunderstorm and Crumbling Skies through the early and mid-game. Sometimes using lightning on yourself can be the most efficient way to purify enemies with this blessing.
  
• Zenith Ring[astrea.wiki.gg] interacts with your Lightning virtue quite nicely for early game damage.

Sothis presents a number of difficult problems. The timing of Sothis's Special Actions are often problematic. Self-Affliction/relief happens at the end of your turn making it tough to survive damage and trigger virtues multiple times. Re-roll from Sands of Time can happen at awkward times and can roll onto corruption. So, Sothis often focuses on balanced and safe dice.

Also, while Sothis' abilities tend to scale well in the end game they often start quite weak or require levels of soul heat that are tough to reach. This makes the early game rough going. Sothis often needs one or two just basic damage die early just to survive to the mid game.

Sothis' Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Chanting presents a great and simple scaling purification solution. You just need to take many chanting dice and quickly get rid of starting purification dice. However, Sothis' weak early game presents a problem while you are getting the chanting build up and running. Though as chanting dice are generally good you can take more dice in this build than a normal run while you work on removals.
  
  • A very early Forge Chanting die or two really accelerates chanting builds.
    
  • Balanced chanting dice often work better than their risky versions for forging and duplicating.
    
  • Special mention here for Searing Ritual chanting/relief combo die especially the balanced version.
    
  • Auspicious Chanting keeps the chanting chain rolling. Again the balanced version works wonders.
    
  • Quicksand Dance struggles as the core of chanting build but is a very strong addition to other chanting builds
    
  • All of the epic chanting dice round out these builds wonderfully.
    
  • Dicesmith Anvil[astrea.wiki.gg] and especially Dicesmith Hammer[astrea.wiki.gg] gives you some advantage from purification dice you can't play and can smooth out the rough transition to pure chanting.
    
  • Singing Urn[astrea.wiki.gg] and really any other non-dice source of damage may give enough time for the build to come online.
    
  • Exalted Sistrum[astrea.wiki.gg] gives you even more chant but does overwrite your re-roll virtue so should be considered carefully.
    
• Relief based builds struggle also struggle in the early game and scale well in the late game.
  
  • Again, balanced relief dice often work better than their risky versions for forging and duplicating.
    
  • Sunny Flares doesn't scale as well, but it is still the preferred choice for relief builds as applying multiple relief gives more Soul Heat which can help early and late game. Try to pick up State of Plenty[astrea.wiki.gg] especially when you get sentinels.
    
  • Area Relief also pairs amazingly with State of Plenty[astrea.wiki.gg] but really only then.
    
  • Soulburn dice can help later on but are too weak early.
    
  • Flammable Chakram definitely scales into the end game, but can struggle early to apply enough relief. Forge and duplicate the risky Flammable Chakram++ version for the best results.
    
  • Try to pick up a Syphon Hourglass+ and and area affliction die and re-roll 50% of the time.
    
  • Tainted Khepresh[astrea.wiki.gg] triggers Relief twice every round!
    
• Glass Daggers helps with Sothis' poor early game but isn't really the core of a build by itself without some damage boost. Also, Glass Daggers only can purify opponents so you need to find a bit of self healing though that can come from sentinels.
  
  • Serenity Aura++ forged and duplicated solves the scaling problem cleanly. The single target Serenity++ works nearly as well here as glass daggers is single target anyways.
    
  • Abrading Touch++ spreads serenity and can be duplicated without forging but you need to find ways of avoiding over-corruption. The area effect Abrading Wave is powerful but the area affliction presents a difficult problem to mitigate.
    
  • Fire Breath works with Contemplation Sarcophagus [astrea.wiki.gg] but that is a lot of moving parts.
    
  • Azimuth Ring[astrea.wiki.gg] won't solve the scaling problem but offers time to find a solution.
    
  • If no serenity solution is available, consider transitioning to a Flammable Chakram build.
    
  • An early Dicesmith Helmet[astrea.wiki.gg] doesn't work as well as with Austra but a huge number of safe and especially Glass Dagger dice can defeat the final boss... if you can survive that long.
    
• Forged and duplicated Shamanic Domination++ dice is literally playing with fire, but can work. You don't need a lot of Purging Eruption or Cleansing Conflagration and the safe versions are best. In fact, try to have as few dice as possible and some way (maybe sentinels) to deal with hex die!
  
• Hourglass Mirage can be amazing late in the game if you can trigger 10 Soul Heat regularly.
  
• One Sands of Time++ in the mid game can help many builds but only those that don't add self-affliction.
  
• One Sand Shaping+ die doesn't really combo with much but choice of purification or light shield can be convenient instead of the usual light shield that is added to many builds.

• Play your most important die and most risky die early so Sands of Time will be more likely to trigger on your better die and if your dice re-roll poorly you have more time to react.
  
• Watch out for refreshing your Eclipse Blast virtue when you are stuck at 10 Soul Heat.
  
• Hourglass Module[astrea.wiki.gg] makes your sentinels very strong in the end game and doesn't decrease your Sands of Time, but doesn't really do enough for Sothis' weak early game.
  
• Moon Eye[astrea.wiki.gg], Sun Eye[astrea.wiki.gg] and Spectral Harvester[astrea.wiki.gg] all support any Sothis run that adds affliction either on purpose or accidentally.

Orion presents some complicated tactical problems surrounding controlling orbs, but also has some quite forgiving virtues with a 3 dice re-roll and Cleromancy allowing the use of powerful risky dice. Also, the starting kit for Orion gives fairly good early damage allowing some time to find some dice that work together.

The extra time will be necessary as many of Orion's better builds require 3+ different dice working together. Thankfully, dice that trigger orbs, which are necessary for most runs, can be taken early for damage even if no immediate synergy presents itself. The options and synergies can be overwhelming though and there are likely viable possibilities that I've missed below.

Orion's Special Actions[astrea.wiki.gg]

• Most Orion builds involve triggering orbs multiple times per turn. It's reasonable to take dice that trigger orbs early as they give advantage and will be useful in various builds. For Orion, these can replace other sources early damage that you might need on a higher difficulty run.
  
  • Oscillate++/+++ dice offer the generally most useful way to trigger orbs. Triggering two different orbs can be important for some runs and Oscillate can still work for builds that only worry about a single orb.
    
  • Exceptional Conjure++ and Conjure++ focus the run on single orb builds.
    
  • Other orb triggering dice are much more situational.
    
• Also, many Orion builds require getting to a particular orb to be able to trigger it. Retrograde+ and Retrograde come in handy for this. I recommend taking one even if I don't know how it will be used yet. Reversal Renovation+ gives a less safe option with a bit of draw included.
  
• Builds based on risky Aegis Worship++ or the epic +++ version combine lots of damage with putting light shield on enemies. Unfortunately, this method of damage requires a lot of different dice, but it can work and destroys enemies that rely on self-corruption
  
  • Brightful Decree+, even the safe die, applies enough light shield and only requires the orb to be triggered once per turn which makes the build easier. Still it is a three step process of applying the Brightful Decree, triggering the orb and then Aegis Worship for damage.
    
  • Bright Inscription only comes in a safe version, so it doesn't need to be forged, but a duplicate or two is probably necessary. Still combined with Oscillate++/+++ it makes for a great and scaling method to splash a lot of light shield before landing a big Aegis Worship.
    
  • Platinum Star[astrea.wiki.gg] can augment or replace Aegis Worship, especially when using Oscillate as the orb trigger. The build may need a Cosmic Expansion die or two to make sure the Cosmic Orb hits the enemies.
    
  • Note, Phased Incantation on the Devotion Orb applies three light shield which can give good early game damage.
    
• Goddess Verdict++/+++ works similarly to Aegis Worship. It brings more safety as its builds apply life shield to Orion, but it doesn't scale damage as well.
  
  • Multiple Protective Sacrament dice will be needed to do enough damage but have the advantage of only needing a single trigger of the orb each round.
    
  • Sacrament Inscription combined with Oscillate++/+++ allows for scaling and the light shield protects from the karmic bursts. Still it can be awkward as you may trigger karma before applying enough light shield.
    
  • Righteous Conjuration can be a nice addition to these builds in the late game and splashing a bit of light shield to enemies and sentinels as well.
    
• The epic Aquarian Flux+++ combined with enough Oscillate++ and/or Revolution+ dice can do major damage, but requires an early epic die to build around and getting rid of starter dice quickly. Combine it with some form of light shield like Protective Sacrament. A bit of Redemption Inscription can help with Revolution triggering Karma.
  
  • Aeon Tentacle[astrea.wiki.gg] helps with the rotation, but requires Redemption Inscription.
    
• Serenity Aura++ wins runs for Orion like it does for other Oracles. As always, it likes to be combined with many instances of damage.
  
  • Oscillate++ and Conjure++ on the Cosmic Orb purify many times but it can be tough to forge/duplicate both the Aura and the dice for triggering orbs. Consider the safer or epic versions of the die and Astrium Soul[astrea.wiki.gg].
    
  • Shooting Star[astrea.wiki.gg] and Revolution or Oscillate+/++/+++ makes for an easy run.
    
• Fragility Pact++ can work like a poor Serenity Aura++. The two serenity side helps a lot. Still, it doesn't quite scale to the end though even with Shooting Star[astrea.wiki.gg].
  
• Comet Convergence++ does 25 damage. Forge and duplicate for damage, but it will need to be combined with healing and defense.
  
• Fission Expertise+ scales well but many duplicates are necessary. It doesn't really need to be forged though. Pair with Oscillate and Harvest Inscription and, if you can, a Cosmic Expansion+++. This is a lot of different dice but can be put together piecemeal and still work.
  
• Penitence Burst++ gives wonderfully scaling damage. Of course the difficulty comes from managing the self-damage. There are a couple great star blessings that synergize really well here.
  
  • Sacrament Inscription, Penitence Inscription+ and Oscillate combine to trigger Penitence Burst and protect Orion at the same time. Merciful Convergence is a great source of forgiveness here.
    
  • It seems like there should be an Oscillate and Catalyst Convergence build where you oscillate to the Knowledge Orb and trigger Astrium to heal, but I've never been able to make it work. Timing of Karma damage and Astrium healing together makes for a difficult run. Maybe Karmic Exchange for forgiveness here.
    
  • Clamor Pact++ offers a strong way to trigger Karma with a few extra effects. Karmic Exchange adds forgiveness here, and Protective Sacrament offsets the karma damage and protects Orion.
    
  • Mirror of Thought[astrea.wiki.gg] makes scaling the Penitence Burst easy for builds based on Conjure or Clamor Pact++.
    
  • Condemnation Tear[astrea.wiki.gg] amazingly gives both Forgiveness and Guilt. Finding this blessing early eases the way for Penitence Burst runs.
    
  • Watch for Martyr Puppet[astrea.wiki.gg] as it is similar to having one forgiveness and helps against some enemy damage as well, but it doesn't work well with Condemnation Tear or other forgiveness sources. Still it can be a useful bridge.
    
  • When the other pieces are in place Melancholic Revelation++ can super charge these builds late game.
    
• You-Tuber Rhapsody found a really interesting infinite combo based on Cosmos Elixir[astrea.wiki.gg] refreshing the Oscillate 2 Virtue from Superposition Blip[astrea.wiki.gg] which in turn triggers Astrium.
  
• Someone has probably combined Calm with Solar Cradle (and maybe Prediction Convergence?) to get Ultranova++ working, but I've never figured it out.

• Don't forget about your Phased Incantation virtue and end up stuck on your Knowledge Orb at the end of your turn, but also don't be afraid to use Phased Incantation for self damage early in a turn to trigger other virtues.
  
• I find Astrium-based damage like Alchemist Combustion and Alchemist Missile awkward to use at higher difficulties and toss the Astrium starter dice first on almost all runs.