Remember that you can change your hand actions at the start of a battle, except for move left/right.

The detonation hand action is generally useless, but it’s very useful against the Master’s beasts, so it’s worth getting if you struggle against the Master.

You can be tactical about when to allow enemy beasts to collect a twelfth drop of ink in beast battles. For example, full-health beasts get no benefit from healing, and some enemies benefit less than others from halos (e.g., Sir Snail and the wolf pilgrim won’t deal any additional damage). Note that the cook exploder’s stew catapult attack deals ‘fixed damage’ (i.e., from an explosion), so halos won’t cause this beast to deal additional damage.

Don’t underestimate beasts with weak attacks. For example, the bow-wielding pigeon’s attack is good for destroying armour and removing danse macabre from allies.

Instant death effects are probably best for bosses, especially Death (has a lot of immunities and health) and St. Francis (can be given armour by the wolf pilgrim). The bellow-wielding devil and Sir Snail are good for this. Death is immune to fire sparks, but not immune to a puff of bellows.