Slay the Spire - Catch all

I thought Defect was my favorite and went back to it after winning with all 3. But I've had 4 terrible runs, a couple where I didn't even beat the first act boss. And no I did not turn on Ascension 1, I was just playing the regular mode, in case I want to try the special final boss.

Dammit. Great Ironclad run today. Got the event to change basic strikes to 7 attack heal 2hp cards but lose max up. Took it.

Got the "kill enemy with this, gain max xp" card way late in 3rd act. So I was stuck with 50hp most of the game. But I got all the final boss keys no problem. Thought this might be the run.

Died on awakened one boss act 3. Got him to 2 health but couldn't finish on that turn when I was down to 18 or so. He won. Very frustrating to get so close.

Stele wrote:

He won. Very frustrating to get so close.

I know! That’s what sometimes pushes me to give up on this game sometimes! Then I go back in for one more run, and it pulls me back in. I’m about to start Defect now. I’ve taken Ironclad and Silent up to Ascension 10. I just keep playing the same class over and over. Really helps to start learning all the key cards / relics that way. What strategies work better for some bosses.
Also, the transient is a real pain in the ass for the silent. My runs usually depend on lots of block, and the Transient needs lots of *consistent* attack power to survive. I’ve proudly “nope’d” out with a smoke bomb when I can.

Vector wrote:

I’m struggling to wrap my head around the Defect. I get it’s mechanics but I’m not sure how to utilize them best.

Ironclad took me about 5 tries for my first win, but my first couple losses were largely due to me not understanding the general game mechanics very well yet. I won first and third attempts on Silent. That one just clicked instantly for me.

My first Defect win came tonight after 8 attempts. I thought I had identified some possible strategies early on, but they didn't work very well in practice. Defect feels like it's more dependent on having a well curated deck than the other two characters.

The run I won centered around channeling lightning lightning whenever I could, stacking block cards, and nuking hard with Thunder Strike when good opportunities arose.

Your experience has been near identical to mine (Silent victories on 2nd and 3rd runs). I’m even trying a similar strategy with Defect right now. Very heavy on power cards and having a bunch of energy.

Finally got my first win. Ironclad with a solid strength buff build. Some really good relics and decent ? finds. Kept my deck below 30 for some good churn on my heavy hitting cards.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/yc4uVda.jpg)

Congrats! I got my first Ironclad win yesterday too. Went heavy on block and got extremely lucky with relics. Ended up with the relic that caused the next two chests to contain an additional relic. Also got a ? event that upgrade all of my strikes and blocks. By the end of the run, only had 1 card not upgraded (Bash).

Almost had my next win. I was a power and poison heavy deck with a relic that made power cards make another card cost zero. Of course my last boss was the one that gained strength for every power used and that rebirthed after death. I think I would have had the win against nearly any other boss

Got through ascension 8 and 9 with Ironclad the last couple of days. It took about five tries and really drove home that Act 2 is the make-or-break point for most runs. If you can make it through Act 2 you have a pretty good chance of winning. I am trying for the ascension 10 achievement to tick that box.

Antichulius wrote:

Almost had my next win. I was a power and poison heavy deck with a relic that made power cards make another card cost zero. Of course my last boss was the one that gained strength for every power used and that rebirthed after death. I think I would have had the win against nearly any other boss

you can still win those games. Just hold your less-important powers for post-transformation.

Finally got my first win on Switch with the Silent. It was one of those over-powered decks with tons of poison and drawing/discarding cards that combined with the cards that benefitted from being discarded. At one point, some elite boss had 728 poison by the time they died. I knew I was winning long before the second boss. Think I had 4+ cataclysm cards.

Free wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Almost had my next win. I was a power and poison heavy deck with a relic that made power cards make another card cost zero. Of course my last boss was the one that gained strength for every power used and that rebirthed after death. I think I would have had the win against nearly any other boss

you can still win those games. Just hold your less-important powers for post-transformation.

Good to know. Didn’t realize the buff would go away.

Antichulius wrote:
Free wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Almost had my next win. I was a power and poison heavy deck with a relic that made power cards make another card cost zero. Of course my last boss was the one that gained strength for every power used and that rebirthed after death. I think I would have had the win against nearly any other boss

you can still win those games. Just hold your less-important powers for post-transformation.

Good to know. Didn’t realize the buff would go away.

Another thing about the Awakened One that is not obvious is that the strength he has in his second form is determined by how much strength he has when his first form dies. So if you play a card that gives him minus strength for a turn (like dark shackles) and then kill him that turn, when he comes back his strength gain will be negated.

Got my Silent win! Ended up with a shiv and power heavy deck. Lucked out with 2 shiv damage powers and 2 shield when you play a card powers. Plus the wrist blade relic. So I had plenty of defense as I rolled 18 damage shivs. Barely scraped by boss 2 but boss 3 was cake this time.

Interestingly it was the same boss I beat on my ironclad win. The big circle and square, I think?

Good tips. Awakened kicked my ass last night. So close to Defect win. Had the final boss items early and was rolling. Then boom.

Same thing the night before. That elite boss that gains strength when you block. I played it wrong but damn. Starting to hate Defect.

Just want to at least see act 4 but this week has been brutal.

Tscott wrote:

Another thing about the Awakened One that is not obvious is that the strength he has in his second form is determined by how much strength he has when his first form dies. So if you play a card that gives him minus strength for a turn (like dark shackles) and then kill him that turn, when he comes back his strength gain will be negated.

Ooo, that's really cool. I was only able to beat him tonight through another trick I just learned.

Cast artifact on yourself somehow. Then drink one of those potions that gives you +5 for just one turn. I was using Dexterity in particular. The artifact will cancel the part that removes 5 at the end of your turn. So the +5 ends up being permanent!

Never knew that until tonight, and it gave me the edge I needed to beat The Awakened one. Have to look for that bonus in the future.

Stele wrote:

Same thing the night before. That elite boss that gains strength when you block. I played it wrong but damn.

I really hate the Gremlin Nob. He always seems to be the emerald Key boss so he's extra hard and appears early in Act 1. The Silent deck starts out being Skill heavy so it's a near impossible fight so early. He's only slightly easier with The Defect. Ironclad is the one best suited for him.

I’m having such a difficult time wrapping my head around the Defect that I might be done with the game without a successful run. I just don’t find it’s mechanics fun at all.

Finally won with Defect. Now that I’ve won with all 3, I think I’m going to take a break away. Won with a claw and card draw heavy deck with some bonus strength and random orb channeling. Worked well but also lucked out with some solid relics and some good draws (heal 10 x2 ftw). A few times I was down to just 1-3 hp and healed back up over a few good fights. Also lucked out on the final boss— the same shape-pair I won against my other 2 times.

markcov wrote:
Stele wrote:

Same thing the night before. That elite boss that gains strength when you block. I played it wrong but damn.

I really hate the Gremlin Nob. He always seems to be the emerald Key boss so he's extra hard and appears early in Act 1. The Silent deck starts out being Skill heavy so it's a near impossible fight so early. He's only slightly easier with The Defect. Ironclad is the one best suited for him.

If you're going for Act 4 my advice would be to avoid the emerald key in act 1 almost always. Get it in act 2 or 3 when you've (hopefully) built yourself a stronger deck. Gremlin Nob can be bad enough early on in act 1, but when it's the emerald key boss they always get a random bonus ability that makes them even harder.

More good tips on Artifact. Thanks guys.

I finally saw Act 4 today with Silent. Not even close on the final boss. Ugh. But it felt good to beat Act 3 again for the first time in about 15 runs. Had the "transform all strikes and defends" artifact and therefore ended up with 35 cards, probably too much. Got the whenever you deal poison, deal an extra 1 poison relic too, so lots of poison was rolling.

Also tried ascension 1 after that. Was going really smooth for a while. But then I had to take an EB path in Act 2 and the Gremlin Leader kicked my butt. Weird.

I have had a tough time getting an Ascension 1 win on either Silent or Defect, but I just made it through on Silent and managed to get all the way through Act 4 in the process. I ended up with 4 fully upgraded dexterity cards, so by the time I had them all rolling, my weakest block card gave me 17. I used those to tank through everything and relied on Shivs for damage with the Shuriken relic to gradually build my strength during battle.

It sure was satisfying to have a run where I felt borderline invincible after so many failed attempts.

Silent run last night also fell apart on EB in act 3. Had upgraded hp to 100 and all strikes and defends transformed. Not good enough.

Back to Ironclad this morning for Ascension 1. Had metallicize, barricade, 2 entrench cards, and a body slam. On several EB or boss fights I was building up so much block, not being touched, and then unloading with 50-100 damage to finish them. I really liked my deck so I grabbed the act 4 keys right at the end. Act 3 boss (donuts) was really easy, won with 90 block. Died on the EB before the final boss. Couldn't weaken them or build up enough block.

Good news is that still counts as beating Ascension 1, so A2 is unlocked for Ironclad now.

Spikeout brought his Nintendo Switch around and showcased Slay the Spire. I went hands on. It is fantastic! I now own it on PS4! Let's see how this unfolds!

I'm having an absolute blast. What a creative masterwork this is.

I have a run at the moment, with the Ironclad, with some tidy relics and cards.

Pear: +10 to Max HP
Regal Pillow: Rest grants an additional 15 HP
Runic Dodecahedron: Full HP grants Energy at turn start
Maw Bank: 12 Gold per floor
Runic Cube: If you lose HP draw a card

Barricade: Block is not removed at the start of your turn.
Armaments +: Gain 5 Block. Upgrade all cards in hand for remainder of combat.
Flame Barrier: Gain 12 Block. When attacked, deal 4 damage back.
Bloodletting: Lose 3 HP. Gain 1 Energy.
Pommel Strike+: Deal 10 damage. Draw 2 cards.
Demon Form: At the start of your turn, gain 2 Strength.
Infernal Blade: Add a random Attack into hand. It costs 0 this turn. Exhaust.
Dual Wield: Choose an Attack or Power card. Add a copy into your hand.

Compared to my first run this is brilliant. That run (the whole save actually) was crashing constantly after the (PS4) 1.02 update, so I deleted and started over.

Got all the unlocks for Ironclad and Silent this week. Close on Seeker.

Still haven't won again the last few days though. Some really random runs.

Stele wrote:

Still haven't won again the last few days though. Some really random runs.

I bought it soon after release on Switch and I still haven’t won yet

I wish Switch version showed friends stats. It just says offline mode for me.

I think I'm at 16-17 runs for each class. 2 iro6nclad wins and 1 for each of the others. So 4 in 50... 2% win rate. Ugh

I still haven't figured out the Defect. With Ironclad and Silent, each ascension level is a matter of optimizing and pursuing new ways the cards work together but I understand the foundations. I am completely lost on Defect. I think I'm building an awesome deck as I breeze through the floors only to be utterly crushed by a boss. I think my deck is beyond disjointed but I make it to the final boss in Act 3 and have a heart breaking loss.

Any tips?

That sounds right. I've had a couple of heavy lightning decks that do all kinds of DoT and I just cruise through every fight then boom, boss destroys me