The Manacle

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The Manacle

Type

Boss

Description

-1 Hand Size

Stats

Minimum Ante

Any

Score Requirement

2x base

Reward

5

Compatibility

Matador

✗ No

The Manacle is a boss blind that reduces the hand size by 1. For example, if the player's usual hand size is 8, it would be 7 only for this round.

• The Manacle can be less punishing on Painted Deck ( {{hl|orange|+2}} hand size, <br> {{hl|red|-1}} Joker slot Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Green}} difficulty or harder Painted Deck.png), as the boss would only reduce the player's hand size to 9 instead of 7, which is still plenty of space to find desired cards (assuming no alterations to hand size were previously made).
• Purchasing the Paint Brush ({{hl|orange|+1}} hand size Base Paint Brush.png) and Palette ({{hl|orange|+1}} hand size Reduce your hand size down to five cards. Upgraded Palette.png) Vouchers can help offset The Manacle's penalty.
• Juggler ({{hl|orange|+1}} hand size Common Effect N/A (Passive) Juggler.png), Troubadour ({{hl|orange|+2}} hand size, <br> {{hl|blue|-1}} hand each round Win {{hl|orange|5}} consecutive rounds by <abbr title="Discards are OK to use.">playing only 1 hand</abbr> Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Troubadour.png) and Turtle Bean ({{hl|orange|+5}} hand size, reduces by {{hl|red|1}} each round Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Turtle Bean.png) all give hand size, helping offset The Manacle's penalty.
  • The Juggle Tag ( Juggle tag.png) can also be used to counter The Manacle (assuming the tag appears right before the boss blind or the player uses skips).
• Avoid Jokers that reduce hand size such as Stuntman ({{Chips|+250}},<br>{{hl|orange|-2}} hand size Earn at least 100 million (100,000,000) Chips in a single hand. Rare Chips Independent Stuntman.png) and Merry Andy ({{hl|red|+3}} discards each round, <br>{{hl|red|-1}} hand size Win a run in {{hl|orange|12}} or fewer rounds Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Merry_Andy.png) as the effect will stack with The Manacle.
• Jokers with held in hand abilities vary with The Manacle's effectiveness.
  • Baron (Each {{hl|orange|King}} held in hand gives {{xmult|1.5}} Rare Multiplicative Mult On Held Baron.png), Shoot the Moon (Each {{hl|orange|Queen}} held in hand gives {{mult|+13}} Play every Heart card in your deck in one round. Common Additive Mult On Held Shoot the Moon.png), and Reserved Parking (Each {{hl|orange|face}} card held in hand has a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|1}} Common Economy On Held Reserved Parking.png) are all weakened due to holding fewer face cards in hand.
  • Inversely, Raised Fist (Adds {{hl|orange|double}} the rank of {{hl|orange|lowest}} ranked card held in hand to Mult Common Additive Mult On Held Raised Fist.png) actually benefits, as the player is less likely to hold a card with a low rank at any moment.
• Be mindful of Ectoplasm (Add [[Card Modifiers#Editions|{{hl|edition|Negative}}]] to a random {{hl|orange|Joker,}} {{hl|red|-1}} hand size Available from start. Spectral Ectoplasm.png)'s and Ouija (Converts all cards in hand to a single random [[Card Ranks|{{hl|orange|rank}}]]<br>{{hl|red|-1}} hand size Available from start. Spectral Ouija.png)'s hand size penalty when using them if The Manacle is the current Boss Blind of the Ante.
  • In particular, repeated Ectoplasm usage may make it impossible to form certain Poker Hands feasibly, which is only compounded by the Boss Blind's innate ability.
• The Manacle is able to decrease hand size to 0, resulting in an instant game over, so avoid selecting it with a hand size of 1 if possible.
• It is possible to use the temporary reduction of hand size from the Manacle to unlock Palette ({{hl|orange|+1}} hand size Reduce your hand size down to five cards. Upgraded Palette.png).
• Luchador (Sell this card to disable the current [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]] Uncommon Effect N/A (Passive) Luchador.png) and Chicot (Disables effect of every [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]] Find this [[Jokers|Joker]] from the [[Spectral Cards|{{hl|sblue|Soul}}]] card. Legendary Effect On Blind Select Chicot.png) disable the boss blind when their effect is activated, restoring the player's original hand size.
  • Due to how Chicot "disables" boss blinds, having multiple copies of Chicot (Disables effect of every [[Blinds|{{hl|orange|Boss Blind}}]] Find this [[Jokers|Joker]] from the [[Spectral Cards|{{hl|sblue|Soul}}]] card. Legendary Effect On Blind Select Chicot.png) can allow the player to permanently increase their hand size, with each copy increasing it by 1. This is a more niche strategy of obtaining the elusive naneinf score. However, it is incredibly difficult and expensive to pull off without a lot of set-up.

• The icon for The Manacle is the Phoenician letter Zayin (𐤆), which represents a weapon or manacle in the hieroglyphics from which it is derived.
• A "manacle" is a device used to restrain or confine one's hands (eg. a handcuff or a shackle). This ties into the boss's effect of lowering the player's hand size by 1, which can make it harder to draw certain cards from their deck.

• The Manacle makes an appearance as a boss enemy in Vampire Survivors.