izigame.me

It's really sad to see this DLC being reviewbombed because of Paradox's money-grubbing pricing and obnoxious launcher. The DLC itself is very good and certainly worth a purchase. Just uh... oh sale, or on G2A. This is one of the few times I genuinely think you should opt for a key reseller because fuck Paradox's pricing.

Ulminin Desert itself

It's a fun region. Most enemies in this area focus on Holy or Dark (so get your Courage cards early) with several enemies focus on a lot of weirdness with buffs and curses. There's some fun encounters although there's an equal amount of trickery in the desert. I don't think this region is overly unfair and there's good loot to be had... with one rather notable exception.

Basthet

Any time reading the reviews for this DLC and you have probably learnt about the Basthet fight. I'm going to be honest this fight is just a massive fucking troll if you don't know this game's lore, and I mean... imagine caring about Across the Obelisk lore lol.
Gonna be real chief: outside of the achievement for fucking up once, there's zero fucking reason to fight Basthet. Do yourself a favor and open up the Fandom Wiki to check the riddle answers yourself. If you answer correctly you get some insanely strong free crap. If not you get to bash your head against a wall for a couple of rounds and get a handful of shards as a participation trophy.

Items

Unfortunately documenting the new items added in this DLC is a pain in the fucking ass since the Wiki doesn't keep track of these things and you can't sort the in-game Tome of Knowledge by DLC items. Regardless I think I found all the Sands of Ulminin items and there's some interesting ones I suppose. I don't know how to get most of these but I will still mark them as spoiler regardless.
Durandal is a fucking absurd item for any Scout who isn't Sylvie, and is somewhat obviously made for the new character Laia. It offers big boosts to slashing damage and consistent self-healing, and if you're willing to fucking cheat the Basthet quiz this item is literally free.
Fists of the Damned are clearly meant for the counterpart character Navalea and plays into her self-damage role. Unfortunately said self-damage gimmick is really obnoxious even on Navalea herself, but this item can be very good for any Dark, Ice, or Crack team (mostly Ice / Crack)
Defeating the boss of this region gets you the Burial Mask item which is BONKERS for any Dark character since the Scourge debuff is so strong and so hard to get normally.
The Crimson Raiment armor is basically designed for Laia's damage build but is also a very solid armor choice for Cornelius or any Wet team.
"The Juggernaut" is funny on Heiner if you don't mind going last literally every round. Also free from kitty mumther Basthet.
Architect's Ring is just a solid boss drop. Very good for Wilbur enjoyers.
Desert Jam is fine for a low tier item.
The Holy Rune is a low tier item basically designed for Sanctify spammers. Same with the Shadow Rune but for dark, obviously.

Pets

Let's just call them what they are: "Sanctify Pet", "Dark Pet", and "Meme Pet."
Fenny has some value for Bleed decks or piercing decks that aren't Sylvie. Feels rather redundant overall other than funny fenfen.
Sanctify Cuby is probably more useful. Dark Cuby stronger when Corrupted. The good thing is if you go to Ulminin with the new character(s), you can get the Corrupted version of these pets fairly reliably.

Laia & Navalea

I think this is the real bulk of this DLC since you can always play with these characters, meanwhile the new region and items are tied to going there in your run. So what do the characters offer?
Laia is borderline overpowered lol. From what I heard it was way worse on release. The combination of Warrior and Healer makes her an insanely good support, and she also has a strong DPS build focused on self-burn.
Laia's support build is genuinely kinda busted with her having consistent mana cheating, self-dispel, and Sanctify stacking. Not to mention that her level 1 trait means you will pretty much only have to worry about protecting your back row since Laia can keep herself topped off while also healing Row 3 and Row 1.
Unfortunately her DPS build is tied very heavily to the Zeal mechanic which has very few cards and no real perks that support it. I will also say that unless you REALLY need a source of Purge in your deck, Heavenly Protection (lvl 4 Left) is so much better than Heavenly Justice (lvl 4 Right)
While Laia is very "splashable" (fits any team) Navalea is built largely around Dark, Frost, and Crack comps. The good thing is that these comps all tend to stack well and are generally speaking quite strong, and Navalea fits into them like peanut butter and jelly. Her gimmick is based around being a "revenge damage" character of sorts and honestly I think the gimmick isn't worth playing into. Playing on Death's Door is too dangerous.
Building for Chill / Crack is... alright. She only really gets one major Chill booster and the rest of her talents are based around her death's door gimmick. I will say that the gimmick does actually present a compelling Frost Tank build with the Ice Barrier Mage card and other Ice spells that cause self-chill. But other than that you're basically building this around the inherent synergy Chill / Crack has with a focus on deckbuilding rather than your talents.
Her Dark build however is fucking bonkers, and that's because Scourge is a far stronger effect than Zeal and Navalea dishes it out in fucking spades. Get Zek to come with you, maybe Malukah, and just destroy the world with Darkness. The problem is that the final boss resists Dark heavily but if you don't mind having a difficult final battle, Dark Navalea is an incredibly potent build / teamcomp.

Is it Worth?

The question ultimately comes down to "do you think Laia looks fun?" and "do you want to build funny Chill / Crack or Dark decks?" I personally bought this DLC because I'm a sucker for anything paladin-coded, so I mean yeah I wanted to play Laia lol she's my "main" of sorts.
This DLC is fun in its own right but there's nothing here I'd go out of my way to buy. The game is feature-complete on its own and all you're getting with this DLC is icing on an already great cake. It's really a shame that the icing is so fucking expensive though.