Slay the Spire - Catch all

Finally got the Common Sense achievement (beat the game with only common cards). Played the Ironclad and wound up doing a Perfected Strike deck. I had Snecko Eye and 5 energy- which usually isn't possible -but at the start I traded in the starting relic for Sozu (+1 energy but can't pick up potions) and got Fusion Hammer (+1 energy but can't upgrade at rest sites) at the end of Act 2. I had the special relic which upgraded a random card in your hand each turn to help counteract the not upgrading downside, plus I had a lot upgraded already by the end of Act 2. Bag of Prep also helped to ensure I had plenty of good cards to play in my first turn.

I beat the Time Eater on turn three.

I finally got a heart kill with the Ironclad, which is my favorite class.

Now that I've beaten the heart once, I'm moving onto some mods - in particular the necromancer, slime, and jungle mods, all of which have been really fun.

I found a problem with the mods last night - if you end up in the jungle with the Slimebound, your armor icon (at the left of your health bar) is hidden behind a bit of the scenery, as the slimebound character is so wide.

I've only been using one mod at a time, but that's good to know.

Finally cracked Ascension 2 with the Silent. Took about 3 dozen attempts after breezing through 0 and 1 with very little difficulty. The card pool felt much more diluted for some reason, and I just couldn't form a useful deck by the time I hit the act 2 boss. Ended up with a real hodge-podge of poison, shivs and mill cards that just got me through the time eater but was too deep to take on the shield and spear. I was determined to power through the heart at my current ascension level, but I'm hitting peak frustration with my previously favourite class.

It took over 20 more tries but I finally got the one relic achievement tonight. I traded in my starter relic and got the choker (+1 energy per turn, but can only play 6 cards). I was offered a Searing Blow after the first fight (the attack card that can be upgraded multiple times). Got it up to +8, plus had Apotheosis in my deck to upgrade call cards. I beat The Awakened One with only 1 HP left.

Pro-tip that I learned from watching Slay the Spire players on Youtube:

The Awakened One's strength in his second form is determined by the strength he has at the moment when his first form dies, so if you've played some powers in the first phase but have something like Dark Shackles or Piercing Wail which both lower the target's strength for a turn and can play it on the turn you kill him, you'll neutralize any strength he gained for the whole second phase.

Also, I finally got the Ascension 20 achievement! I had a barricade/strength deck and pretty easily beat Donu and Deca, followed by The Awakened One. I didn't enter Act 4 on this run though, because I picked up Pantograph (At the start of boss combats, heal 25 HP) in the final chest rather than take the key to help ensure I'd get the achievement.

I've finally managed to beat the heart with all three classes. And with that (and 427 hours of play time logged) it's off my hard drive until they release some new content. I need to give some other games some love, and StS is just too easy to jump into if it's sitting there.

Am I the only person that truly hated the Heart fight and the new elite (pre heart) fight? I beat the heart with Defect ( my favorite) but then had no desire to do it with the other two. I did like the idea of the mechanic with the new elite and the facing 1/2 dmg. However, the actual fights with that and the heart just seemed to narrow the amount of viable decks. One of the things I love about this game is there are so many viable decks.

I agree. Hated is probably too strong a word for me, but I don't like the fights and don't really feel any desire to push to beat them. I like the facing mechanic and it would be cool for some room/elite fights.

I guess the good news there is that if your goal is to see how high an ascension level you can reach, you can ignore the Heart area, since going there isn't necessary to clear the ascension level.

Timespike wrote:

I've finally managed to beat the heart with all three classes. And with that (and 427 hours of play time logged) it's off my hard drive until they release some new content. I need to give some other games some love, and StS is just too easy to jump into if it's sitting there.

I did precisely the same: the last run I did was beating the heart with the ironclad to complete the trifecta. That was after a solid month and a half of playing nothing but the Slay the Spire. And I haven't touched it in the month and a half since.

Still no word or leak on Switch release?..

chooka1 wrote:

Still no word or leak on Switch release?..

Every month they say it's the next month, but the latest is late April: https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespir...

garion333 wrote:
chooka1 wrote:

Still no word or leak on Switch release?..

Every month they say it's the next month, but the latest is late April: https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespir...

Thank you. Very insightful.

Well. At least that Steamworld deck building game has a release date.

-chad

Over the past two days I have done five runs trying to get the only common cards achievement. Three of the five I have died on the final boss, ugh frustrating. My one complaint with Slay the Spire is if I die it is like I just wasted 30 minutes of my life for nothing. I wish it had some kind of progression mechanic where if you didn't finish there was still a benefit to doing the run, even just something like extra gold in the next run depending on how many floors you cleared.

You're leveling yourself

Is the enjoyment you got out of the run worth nothing?

Oh it is, but it is also frustrating that I 'have nothing to show for it' if you know what I mean, no progression like many other games.

I tried at the all-commons achievement a few more times but I think I am done for a while. Just had the most frustrating one yet where I had a good Ironclad deck and got the Timekeeper as the last boss. Had her down to 6 health before she got me, so close!

Ah, but the frustration you feel now will make the feeling of satisfaction all that much sweeter when you complete the achievement.

Love, Dad

Well, at the beginning you had points to earn to unlock all the cards. You’re just well past that point now.
Also, I do like the full reset each time you start a run. It means that each time you start a run you’re starting from the exact same starting point. You’re success in this run isn’t dependant on how well you did in the previous run.
But yeah, it’s kind of frustrating for me too to die anywhere on the 3rd floor.

I made it up to A10 on Ironclad, and there were some frustrating runs in there where the right cards just never came. For example, I’d get a strength deck going, but high block cards would never come through and I’d get monsters leveling faster than I could cope with.
I did get one win on Corruption / Dead Branch, but that is such a random pairing it’s tough to plan for. I keep getting offered Corruption in the first or second round of cards, but it’s a terrible card on it’s own. Feels like the game is teasing me. I’ve only seen the Dead Branch relic once so far, so it’s not even like I’m skipping over it.

Have any of y’all ever replayed a whole game by entering in the seed #? I’ve had times where I felt like I could have done the run better as I missed a key card in the beginning. It feels like cheating though. I’ve been happy to Save / Continue Run to take improve my run against a tough boss. That doesn’t seem to feel like cheating for some reason. Curious if anyone else did it and what their thoughts were.

Still no word on a Switch release?:(

chooka1 wrote:

Still no word on a Switch release?:(

I know, I'm eagerly awaiting this one, even more so after watching Mark Brown - Game Makers Toolkit analysis, it sounds great.

Switch version releases June 6th

Awesome.

Anyone tried the PS4 version that released this week?

Anyone getting this for Switch? In principle, I refuse to buy games for another platform when I own it on pc but this might be the game for which I make an exception. I'd like to hear the Switch port is successful/not-broken and then I'm insta-buying.

Planning on double dipping.

I've been waiting for the Switch release since I got one, as I don't own it yet So I now discovered that it's impossible or at least very difficult to already order it online on the e-shop before I get home...

Yeah, I've reduced my PC play time waiting for the Switch release. Assuming the port is good this will be my main method of playing (and possibly the only thing I do ever again). May pick it up on the PS4 as well just because I love this game so much.