My Brute!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pinky]

Pick your opponent's wisely. I know the area match-making system only lets you see their HP and stats, but that's fine. Opponents with high HP isn't that big of a deal as long as you can out-damage them. High stats are more dangerous. Choose an opponent with even stats rather than an opponent with a single high stat, that way they won't strike too hard, strike too often, or evade too often. Beware brutes that have both low HP and low stats - that means they've been collecting weapons, specialties and pets on level-up.

You can also manually check their weapons/specialties/pets by opening a new tab and typing in http://NAME.mybrutes.com/cellule where the brute's name obviously goes into the name area. Periods (.), commas(, ), colons(: ), semi-colons(; ), spaces and the like MUST be replaced with a dash (-). Only shift-number symbols are kept as-is (!@#$%^). Multiple "replaced" symbols stringed together are still worth only one dash (K. Sasaki is k-sasaki).

Polearms (counter-attack), clubs (high damage), shuriken (high speed, counter-attack), and whips (high speed, counter-attack) are to be avoided.

Untouchable (raise evasion), extra-thick skin (damage% reduction), thief (steal your weapon), impact (disarm on strike), sabotage (disarm on strike or discard weapons in reserve) specialties are to be avoided.

Shield (improved blocking), armor (slight damage reduction), fierce brute (double damage, once per battle), Pugnacious (may strike after being hit, does not interrupt attacking brute), tragic potion (recover HP), and tornado of blows (raises chance to multi-strike) specialties can go either way. Sometimes they're not so dangerous, sometimes they chance the tide.

Panther (gray wolf) and bear pets are to be avoided. Panther attacks a lot for moderate damage (10-15), bear has over 100 HP and deals high damage. Only attack these pets if you have Net or Cry of the Damned.

If your character depends on multiple pets then avoid opponents with Cry of the Damned specialty (scares all pets away) or if you depend on a single powerful pet then avoid opponents with Net (will always be thrown at strongest pet, and enemy will never hit the pet to release it).

If you have impact or sabotage, then avoid opponents with Master of Arms specialty (often draws/switches weapon) and a decent collection of weapons which will effectively negate impact/sabotage.

Smart opponent selection will see you winning more often than not.