Slay the Spire - Roguelike Card-em-up

[NickC]

Finished a Silent run yesterday. So much fun that character!

 

But I’m finding playing the Defect hard. I think I’m playing it wrong, I’m always far too light on block.

 

Any tips for a Defect beginner?

[BeeJay]

I'm personally finding ironclad much harder than the other 2. I'm convinced that I have an excellent ironclad build and then all of a sudden I'm dead. I've got within 1 turn of winning a couple of times now and must have played 20+ runs by now.

[bradigor]

Yep, same here. Ironclard is harder to build to the end I find. The Silent and The Defect are much easier to build.  

[BeeJay]

2 minutes ago, bradigor said:

Yep, same here. Ironclard is harder to build to the end I find. The Silent and The Defect are much easier to build.  

Maybe I'm just not seeing the ironclad builds as easily as the other 2 but with ironclad I'm constantly having to deliberate on decisions. With the other 2 I am usually completely clear on decisions, based on my current strategy.

 

The only ironclad that I can really see being consistent is retain block and build strength but the builder card has been pretty rare for me.

[bradigor]

Just now, BeeJay said:

Maybe I'm just not seeing the ironclad builds as easily as the other 2 but with ironclad I'm constantly having to deliberate on decisions. With the other 2 I am usually completely clear on decisions, based on my current strategy.

 

The only ironclad that I can really see being consistent is retain block and build strength but the builder card has been pretty rare for me.

 

The issue I find is that you cannot get a build around both to work properly, you need to do one or the other. I watched this earlier today and it shows how effective it can be when you manage to get a build focused on one only. To the point he mentions not caring about enemy intents as all he does is attack. 

 

 

[BeeJay]

33 minutes ago, bradigor said:

 

The issue I find is that you cannot get a build around both to work properly, you need to do one or the other. I watched this earlier today and it shows how effective it can be when you manage to get a build focused on one only. To the point he mentions not caring about enemy intents as all he does is attack. 

 

 

Thanks, can't watch that right now but will take a look later. I've had builds where i've been doing 150+ damage a card by the end but still been too weak to not get beaten down.

[ChewMagma]

I managed to fluke an Ironclad victory on only my third attempt - just improvising really as I felt I was still learning the game. Final boss I got through by using Barricade to stack tons and tons of Block and then slowly grinding him down. Also strongly helped that I got a couple of relics that gave me 2 extra Energy per turn plus Bloodletting that lets you stack even more as necessary.

[NickC]

For me the thing that clicked with Ironclad was getting my block nice and high and then using cards that used my block value as the damage value.

 

Might have just been lucky with synergies though.

[ChewMagma]

Anyway this is addictive as hell and the first game that has tempted me into taking my precious Switch on my commute so I can get a cheeky round in over lunch.

[ChewMagma]

I don't know if this holds true for the other characters and maybe it is obvious advice, but I saw a big improvement in my progress after I re-oriented my approach so I was prioritising preventing all or as much damage as possible every turn first and then doing what damage I could with spare Energy after or only focussing on doing damage on turns the enemy was intending to buff.

[catinthehat]

Anybody playing on Switch?  I'm finding the touch controls to be almost unusable, and using the controller is a bit hit and miss sometimes as well.  I get a weird bug where it doesn't seem to let me cast a card if I've been looking at the buffs etc. on an enemy, and it takes a few random button presses to get it working again. 

[ChewMagma]

12 minutes ago, catinthehat said:

Anybody playing on Switch?  I'm finding the touch controls to be almost unusable, and using the controller is a bit hit and miss sometimes as well.  I get a weird bug where it doesn't seem to let me cast a card if I've been looking at the buffs etc. on an enemy, and it takes a few random button presses to get it working again. 

 

I've had one crash which resulted in having to replay a fight, but otherwise not had any other issues of note - I've only played in handheld mode with joycons attached so far though.

[JLM]

Had a few crashes here and there. I find I have to play it a bit slower than I do on Steam. I've played so much that I sometimes stack up all the actions I want to do in a turn quite quickly and the Switch version doesn't like multi-tasking very much.

 

Going to slowly work my way up the Ascension ranks on this version. I'm taking the early runs very seriously as I want to have a great run history on this version. So far with The Silent it's been three wins in a row on regular/Asc. 1/Asc. 2. Want to see how high I can get before losing. Applying low Ascension strategies to Ascension 20 doesn't work, but applying A20 strats to the lower difficulties has proven to be very effective indeed.

 

 

[imp]

Oh my god, I had an absolutely blessed run this morning with the Silent.

 

I took the gamble had Neow transform two strikes right out of the gate, in exchange for some max HP, and to my surprise it was actually decent - backstab and bouncing flask. Neither of which I'm usually in a rush to take, but I liked the idea that backstab would still afford me early damage in act 1, while disappearing so I could cycle through to my good cards quicker, and a powerful poison card like bouncing flask would be ideal for letting me focus on block cards while doing damage passively.

 

However, soon my deck looked like this by the midpoint of Act I:

 

Which is basically all my favourite Silent cards. Uh, and endless agony, because I thought I could do with some burst damage for the Act I elites. Anyway, after the Act I boss, I got thousand cuts!

 

 

I was pretty sure I was close to good enough to beat Act III by this point, so I took the broken crown and played pretty conservatively, taking few chances and lo and behold, I beat the ascended one without even taking damage.

 

 

Here's the final deck:

 

 

I would have liked some better block and draw cards, as I don't think I could have taken on anything harder, but it was such a refreshing change to be able to play such a nice deck right from the outset.

 

[Gabzy]

FINALLY!!

 

 love the defect, only character I seem to really click with.

[JLM]

20 hours ago, strawdonkey said:

STUPID FUCKING BASTARD GAME

 

  Hide contents

Forgot that the heart penalises you for comboing off and playing loads of cards in a turn. My 10×Claw/2×Scrape/All For One deck couldn't quite get there, was one Scrape away from giving him the full 300.

 

Disappointing that both the heart and the Clock Sucker can accidentally ruin your run if you happen to specialise in that kind of deck - feels like it is railroading you into a "correct" way to play.

 

Shitty fucking best game.Edit

 

 

I initially thought that about ClockSucker as well but I've beaten and seen him beaten by shiv-tastic/giant combo decks enough times to know it's still achievable. Your Defect deck there might have to do more than one thing I guess, but there are many other fights in the game that require your deck to be flexible, and it might even have been a case of playing the deck you had but just being a bit more conservative with it. He punishes you for over-reliance on one thing just like Gremlin Nob punishes you for not having enough front-loaded damage, Gremlin Leader punishes you for not having AOE, The Champ punishes you for not having any scaling etc. Clocksucker's particular way of doing it is just a bit more on the nose than some of the others so it feels like more of a hard counter when it happens to you. It sounds like the scrape deck maybe needed a bit more mitigation in there to survive for one or two more turns but the fact you were one turn away means you could still have done it with fairly minor adjustments. May have even been a case of managing his counter a bit more carefully.

 

He does definitely present a a very specific challenge, but you could argue, for example,  that Awakened One's (aka Woke Bloke, that's the community's nickname rather than mine though) first form (particularly on A20) means you can't rely on a deck with loads of powers that might stroll through most of Act 3 but then turns him into a killing machine and accidentally ruins your run. You can often still do it though, you just have to make very difficult decisions about which powers you need to activate early, how early to do so, how many turns can you afford to keep drawing unplayed powers which basically become curses at that point etc. Your Powers-reliant deck might still be able to beat him but your plays have to be different, which can be a difficult adjustment to make when your deck has hit that point where you're steamrolling the rest of the game. I've had wins in that scenario where I was ballsy and activated one more risky Power because it felt like waiting to see it again would be too long, and I've lost there because I've held off on activating and then left it too late to get set up at all.

 

This is the only game I've ever played that gets me rambling on like I normally do with fighting games. It's so good.

 

 

[GamesGamesGames]

The three-eyed whale at the start of this is my favourite character in years.

[bradigor]

Taste that sweet sweet synergy!

 

 

Front loaded damage build, but with a ton of draw and energy if it goes beyond turn 1. 

 

I very nearly perfected all of Act 1 and the Cham gave me zero worries in Act II, break taken to actually do some work, but back to this later. 

[jiroczech]

This is addicitve as hell. I had a weekend with just me and the dog as my wife was away and instead of getting anything productive done we just did long walks and Spire. Is that a thing? Keeping a good run history? I dread to think what my run history is like, I got a win with the robot dude first time, but it's taken me ages to get anywhere with the other two. Finally got one with the first chap last night, some +3 Strength every turn power was the key. I have a suspicion that winning with each of the three is just the beginning? Anyway, it's great. Only negative for me would be the sound, fx and music are poor.

[bradigor]

Well it turned into and easy win* the in the end, but forgot to collect the bits needed to take on the heart. 

 

*One enemy got me down to 1HP but had a relic that gained me HP back over next few turns. 

[imp]

22 hours ago, JLM said:

Going to slowly work my way up the Ascension ranks on this version. I'm taking the early runs very seriously as I want to have a great run history on this version. So far with The Silent it's been three wins in a row on regular/Asc. 1/Asc. 2. Want to see how high I can get before losing. Applying low Ascension strategies to Ascension 20 doesn't work, but applying A20 strats to the lower difficulties has proven to be very effective indeed.

 

 

 

I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm 2W2D with Ironclad, 3W0D with Silent and 2W0D with Defect on switch. Meanwhile, playing on PC, I feel like I've gotten over the A15 hump, so I'm going to try and play to A20 there before going back to the switch with all the knowledge I've accrued from the PC version. 

 

Are the stats in the game known to be bugged though? I literally won back to back A12 and A13 games with the Silent yesterday and it still says I've only had a winstreak of 1 with the character. 

[imp]

So a friend of mine sent me this absolutely wild (IMO) Silent deck this morning.

 

 

I was absolutely convinced grand finale was an absolute nonsense card, but he swears by it, paring his deck to size so that his acrobatics will always allow him to fire it off. I can’t believe it’s such an amazingly balanced game that this decklist that looks so janky actually works for him!

[JLM]

Haha yeah I felt the same about Grand Finale but I’ve seen some amazing things done with it. As long as you’ve got well laid plans (or better yet runic pyramid) and enough card draw you can make it work.  Very easy to mess it up and it needs more maths each turn than I can usually be bothered with but it is also one of the most hype cards to use.  

 

2 grand finales in the deck is pretty baller though, would love to see that in action. 

[imp]

1 hour ago, JLM said:

 

 

2 grand finales in the deck is pretty baller though, would love to see that in action. 

 

Me too! He says he got a turn 3 kill on the transient and a turn 2 final boss! And upon asking a follow up question, HE DOESN'T LIKE TAKING RUNIC PYRAMID. 

 

Edit: I guess if you always take multiple acrobatics, all your cards are just going to fill your hand with the pyramid. Hm!

[Zael]

I find more and more these days I take pyramid if it's offered no matter what.

[catinthehat]

This crashes about once every couple of hours for me, on Switch.  Bit shit.

 

[JLM]

Yeah Runic pyramid is insanely good. You can make the case for Well Laid Plans being The Silent's outright best card, so keeping your whole hand is pretty broken really. 

[Lovelyman]

I'm loving this. 

[BeeJay]

All 3 done. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to play defect again after that run. It was ridiculous and broken to be honest. I had a power card chain with multiple creative AI (spawn a power card each turn), echo (play the first card twice), lighting, orbs, 2 heal HP and other power cards and multiple ascension cards. It was pretty OP and then about halfway through act 2 I got the "gain 2 hp for every power card played" relic and from there it just became beyond a joke. I also had 2 "do 9 damage for each channeled lightning cards" and the mayhem power card.

 

I did about 50% of the final boss's HP with a single "9 damage for ever channeled lightning" card which had an 18 multiplier, about 4 turns in to the combat. At some points in the run I was making over 100 block per turn. The repeated ascension cards and energy orbs being evoked meant that 15 card runs in a single turn weren't unusual.

 

[bradigor]

10 minutes ago, BeeJay said:

All 3 done. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to play defect again after that run. It was ridiculous and broken to be honest. I had a power card chain with multiple creative AI (spawn a power card each turn), echo (play the first card twice), lighting, orbs, 2 heal HP and other power cards and multiple ascension cards. It was pretty OP and then about halfway through act 2 I got the "gain 2 hp for every power card played" relic and from there it just became beyond a joke. I also had 2 "do 9 damage for each channeled lightning cards" and the mayhem power card.

 

I did about 50% of the final boss's HP with a single "9 damage for ever channeled lightning" card which had an 18 multiplier, about 4 turns in to the combat. At some points in the run I was making over 100 block per turn. The repeated ascension cards and energy orbs being evoked meant that 15 card runs in a single turn weren't unusual.

 

 

There is an in game achievement for getting 999 block