Loop of Inaction I would very often get into a loop where I'd remove all the hands and have no way to attack due to lack of action points. I know this a part of the strategy but maybe there's a base mechanic where you can get 1 free action point whenever you remove all active hands. That way you can still hit the enemy right away. Even if that means raising the enemies health to balance it - I just think it would kill my momentum less if I knew I could attack immediately (if I have a hand that hasn't gone).
Action items:
Synergies between upgrades I don't feel super empowered to build hands with strong synergies. There are upgrades that turn certain fingers into other fingers and upgrades that make certain finger types do more damage. I can see those coalescing into something fun but I never felt like I was getting the right things at the right times. You might need a bit of hidden logic to empower the player to build fun combos.
Action items:
Clarity of what upgrades do I wasn't always sure if an upgrade was going to attack the hands or if it was more damage to the player. Or if it was somehow both. There probably needs to be a bit more clarity in the descriptions based on the case where something is being used.
Clarity about how many hands I have in general Do I have a finite amount of hands? Can I view all my customized hands somewhere? Can I draw an infinite amount of hands?
Clarity for how hands fill up At first I thought I had to attack a hand with the exact fingers that were missing on that hand. For ex: If the opponent's hand had all fingers up except their thumb, I thought I had to attack them with a hand that had a thumb up. Once I understood it was ok but there was some initial tension up front due to being unsure. Maybe a preview of what an attack will do to an opponent would help?
Action items:
1. That it's a game of rock / paper / scissors or a riff on it. I would avoid hand shapes similar to the base RPS shapes during the tutorial as much as possible.