Max
Max is an unlockable character. Max's cards are dark blue.
Max's playstyle is to manipulate the game's mechanics in a variety of weird ways, making him a very unique crewmate.
"A hacker. His cards enhance and exhaust other cards, and gamble with hand position."
Strategy
Max is likely the weirdest character in the game, his cards are rarely straightforward and become combo pieces for other cards for himself or other characters.
The Exhaust Pile
Some of his cards have a weird relationship with Exhausting and the Exhaust Pile itself, Admin Deploy and Static Noise can exhaust other cards, the Basic cards in particular become targets for exhausting as their effects are underwhelming.
Admin Deploy and Clean Exhaust can cheat the cost of certain cards, playing them for free or a very reduced cost.
Cloud Save allows the player to recover a card that has been previously exhausted, doubling the use of very powerful tools that normally are played once.
Hand Position and Gambling
Admin Deploy, Backup Stick and Root Access care about the position of cards within your hand, using or applying effects to them.
Escape Artist and Reroute make it so cards at either edge of the hand also move the ship.
And there's a few cards that can manipulate the position of cards in hand, getting cards in more favorable positions for the effects described above.
Shields
While Max isn't as capable as Dizzy when it comes to shielding the ship, he has access to a few shielding cards. His starting Reroll can help with your early-game defense.
Utility and Breaking the Game
Max has access to cards that can draw a full hand of cards, cheat the cost of big cards, alter their behavior by adding Retain and Recycle, play exhaust cards over and over again, copy cards, exhaust cards...
He can create situations that other characters simply can't on their own, but it's hard to make Max shine on his own, as his cards and artifacts mainly support others.
Unique Mechanics
Clean Exhaust: All exhaust and single use cards become free to play, an excellent tool to play expensive exhausting cards and getting rid of trash cards, especially those pesky Genesis Canisters.
Autododge: Similar to the dreaded GNAT, Autododge will evade shots left or right, Autododge Left is incredibly useful due to the order of shots from the enemy.
Autopilot: Grants a similar effect to what the Tiderunner has by default, evading for free depending on which cards are played.
Save/Load State: A peculiar movement tool, you can save your position with Save State and return to it with Load State, can be used to completely avoid a barrage of shots.
Boost: While Evades are considered statuses and can be boosted, other statuses normally assigned to exhaust cards can also be boosted, Ace, Strafe, Payback, Overdrive, Powerdrive just to mention a few. The player needs to be careful about negative statuses as they can consume the boost and grant additional penalties.
Artifacts
Works well with hand-shuffling techniques like Reroll, and can be a significant boost to damage if you keep playing your rightmost card, especially with many 0 cost cards like Basic Shot A.
Removing exhaust from a powerful card you intend to play over and over again is incredibly useful, it keeps that property even if upgraded, a few good candidates are Overpower A, Extra Battery, Charge Beam, Corrosion Beam, Cloud Save, Glimmer Shot.
If applied to a 0-cost card that exhausts and draws more cards, such as Math.Max B, Serenity B, or Quick Thinking B, it's quite easy to go infinite with those cards and a Basic Shot A - Max's ability to exhaust cards can help you do this even if your deck has more than 10 cards. If applied to AI Overflow B, you've got a 1-card infinite, that easily extends to a lethal one with a single Basic Shot A.
Adding Retain to a powerful "get out of jail" card or a card that is difficult to find a right moment to play is a powerful asset, not to mention that cards that retain will eventually sit on the left side of the player's hand where Admin Deploy can target and play for free.
The Boost this provides is a powerful tool with powerful statuses like Ace, Strafe, and the like. In the worst case, it can usually be cashed for 1 Evade. The player has to be careful about negative effects as they get boosted too, while it's better to wait for a good effect to make use of the boost, sometimes it's better to just sacrifice it to a minor effect like Evade than take too much damage.
If played correctly, this means the player has a 7 card hand (in most ships) instead of 5, sequence of plays becomes more important with it. It can be awkward with expensive cards too, as you could draw them when you cannot afford them. (Root Access can help with this, and this card also helps Root Access target the card it wants to target.) Could be a bit dangerous on the Tiderunner since the Anchor could be drawn at a bad moment. It has interesting implications for Right Click as it means that most of your cards will be in the rightmost slot at some point.
Getting rid of the cockpit, reducing the ships' footprint and removing a weak point (in higher difficulties) is usually worth the cost of half the maximum hull points.
It's an incredible setup tool, guaranteeing a powerful card to be drawn and played at the start of combat, good candidates for buoyant are any cards with a powerful permanent effect or a good setup effect, such as Max's own Clean Exhaust.
Cards
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