Slay the Spire - Catch all

Well just got my first heart kill with the Watcher. It was actually a really good deck by the end with 4 flurry of blows two mental fortresses and crucially Shuriken and Kunai which i got just before the Heart fight, I was triggering them at least twice a turn so was pretty invincible. The Watcher really is a fascinating character, you can build some really broken combos but, if you dont watch your stance very carefully, and think about card order more than other characters you can really screw yourself. I have accidently killed myself with them more than a few times

I thought I was having a good Watcher run yesterday but it fell apart on Act 2 boss.

Got the relic that adds Mantra every turn. Never got through a 10 turn fight to trigger divinity and didn't have any cards to add it. But I had that Brilliance card that did 1 extra damage for each mantra, that was going well. Was hoping it was going to morph into something but I ran out of time.

Stele wrote:

I thought I was having a good Watcher run yesterday but it fell apart on Act 2 boss.

Got the relic that adds Mantra every turn. Never got through a 10 turn fight to trigger divinity and didn't have any cards to add it. But I had that Brilliance card that did 1 extra damage for each mantra, that was going well. Was hoping it was going to morph into something but I ran out of time.

i do find Act 2 to be the real stress test of your deck. If i can get through the Act 2 boss with more than half my health I'm usually pretty confident of getting through Act 3, the Heart is another matter of course. For some reason I crash against the Bronze Automaton far more than i do against the Champ or the Collector. I'm not sure if that's due to the way my deck construction leans, too small a data sample, bias in how i remember runs or if it is genuinely harder. Does anyone else find they have specific bosses trouble them more?

bbk1980 wrote:
Stele wrote:

I thought I was having a good Watcher run yesterday but it fell apart on Act 2 boss.

Got the relic that adds Mantra every turn. Never got through a 10 turn fight to trigger divinity and didn't have any cards to add it. But I had that Brilliance card that did 1 extra damage for each mantra, that was going well. Was hoping it was going to morph into something but I ran out of time.

i do find Act 2 to be the real stress test of your deck. If i can get through the Act 2 boss with more than half my health I'm usually pretty confident of getting through Act 3, the Heart is another matter of course. For some reason I crash against the Bronze Automaton far more than i do against the Champ or the Collector. I'm not sure if that's due to the way my deck construction leans, too small a data sample, bias in how i remember runs or if it is genuinely harder. Does anyone else find they have specific bosses trouble them more?

I haven't played enough to speak to overall difficulty, but there are bosses that definitely hose specific strategies. From the high-level play I've seen, a key part of the game seems to be specifically preparing for the boss you've got to face in the current act. So far I can't be arsed to put in that kind of effort; I just pay attention to my deck and hope the rest lines up.

Yeah I've never picked cards for a specific boss. Just trying to match relics and cards with each other when I can.

I think I do it but in a very basic form i.e I will lean to AoE if i know I have slime boss at the end of Act 1 and will maybe avoid powers if I have awakened one at the end of Act 3 but nothing beyond that.

Stele wrote:

Yeah I've never picked cards for a specific boss. Just trying to match relics and cards with each other when I can.

I haven't either, but there are definitely a few that are just an "I win" button for specific bosses/elites. The updated version of Fire Breathing just destroys the sentries and the ooze boss on map one, for example.

I had a couple of those "if previous card attack, gain 1 energy" cards, and barreled through slime with those one run. Was fun.

I bet! There's nothing like just crushing a boss or a tougher elite. I remember the first time I beat a lagauvalin without taking any damage, I was pretty stoked.

One of my favorite runs was with a Silent Poison deck. I had 2 upgraded catalists (triple poison) and a play next skill twice card plus a retain unplayed cards power. It was a ridiculously over powered deck. 9 poison would become 300 in a single turn I was even able to defeat the transient (the one with 999hp that disappears after 5 turns). The whole run was a cakewalk, even the awakened one at the end.

IMAGE(https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p180x540/100087354_826465507184_2587047583373328384_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_oc=AQlJj3Gb8TkraCn1ADhh82_QZrVUd_MO8dCtMOUMsbCPEA4ylSt4ZcXNVxXzH1fnI0g&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=0154367b094d4896dbb936786c0cec3c&oe=5EED38BE)

When this game ticks, it pulls me right back in. Look at all them orbs and focus.

onewild wrote:

IMAGE(https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p180x540/100087354_826465507184_2587047583373328384_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_oc=AQlJj3Gb8TkraCn1ADhh82_QZrVUd_MO8dCtMOUMsbCPEA4ylSt4ZcXNVxXzH1fnI0g&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=0154367b094d4896dbb936786c0cec3c&oe=5EED38BE)

When this game ticks, it pulls me right back in. Look at all them orbs and focus.

Hope there was a barrage in there too!

onewild wrote:

IMAGE(https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p180x540/100087354_826465507184_2587047583373328384_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_oc=AQlJj3Gb8TkraCn1ADhh82_QZrVUd_MO8dCtMOUMsbCPEA4ylSt4ZcXNVxXzH1fnI0g&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=0154367b094d4896dbb936786c0cec3c&oe=5EED38BE)

When this game ticks, it pulls me right back in. Look at all them orbs and focus.

In the words of Borat "very niiice" That's some serious power wielded right there, Fort Knox defense & Raiden level lightning ready to unleash.

STS is still stopping me play anything else on my Switch, the only thing I've put an appreciable amount of time in is Steamworld Quest at over 10 hours.

I've enjoyed getting very competent at The Watcher, she seemed like a damn rubik's cube when I first played. Now I've got her on Ascension level 4.

I've been stuck at ascension level 16 with Ironclad for an age, it's been a serious amount of time & tries. I still can't put this thing down.

I did not have a barrage, that would have been the cherry on the cake. I have to admist I did have to save scum the last fight because I messed up playing something which left me with no attack as I accidently got rid of all my lighting producing cards. So we just sat staring at each other not been able to damage each other.

Holy shot! I beat Slay the Spire with the Ironclad! Wow! I'm really excited! Eeeeeeee!

Congratulations sir, was it beating the heart or did you top out at act 3? Either way well played, what sort of deck was it?

Bought this for my Iphone 7 plus and it's very playable. I was worried that cards, etc. might be too small to read, but I've not had any issue.

I've only had a couple issues so far where I've tried to 'click off' of a card in my hand but it's played the card instead.

And while you do get achievements recorded for you and can see them in your statistics, at the moment you don't get a pop up in game for them. (I got the "Ooh, Doughnut" achievement on my 3rd run on my phone, but had to check in statistics to see if it counted)

Also I don't see a way to see what cards upgrade to when you're offered them. That's sometimes useful to know.

bbk1980 wrote:

Congratulations sir, was it beating the heart or did you top out at act 3? Either way well played, what sort of deck was it?

Hmm. I wound up beating some giant heart. As for my deck, I don't really recall, but I do remember I had an item which let me keep my armor from turn to turn and I had multiple cards that increase in damage if the word strike was written on them.

Beating the heart is a significant achievement.

Robear wrote:

Beating the heart is a significant achievement. :-)

Indeed very well played. Don’t think I have ever beaten act 4 with a perfect strike deck.

Robear wrote:

Beating the heart is a significant achievement. :-)

Cool!

bbk1980 wrote:
Robear wrote:

Beating the heart is a significant achievement. :-)

Indeed very well played. Don’t think I have ever beaten act 4 with a perfect strike deck.

The thing that let me keep my armor (which I added to every round as possible) was amazing. If the enemy didn't attack that turn that armor count CLIMBED.

I recently got back into STS after picking up a cheap physical copy on Switch. I was concerned about the controls, but I'm pleased to report that it is by far the best way to play. It's snappy and just fantastic to play on-the-go!

Prior, I had played 50-60 hours on PC. I never really "got" the deeper side of the game. I had a win with each of the 3 characters, but they always felt like luck.

In my 25 hours on Switch, I've beaten it again with all 3 characters...And reached the heart for the first time! I was shocked when I was able to win on my first encounter with it. I used the Ironclad with a fairly streamlined Perfected Strike deck.

The Watcher is very difficult for me, but I'm slowly learning. I'm looking forward to getting a win with her and climbing up some Ascension levels

So, I got StS on Switch during the current sale, after hearing about it for years now. I'm haven't really been a rougelike or a deckbuilding gamer to this point, but I picked it up entirely on reputation. Plus I prefer games like this on the Switch to PC, so I probably wasn't going to grab this on Steam.

On my first playthrough I made it up to the Boss of Act 2, and got him down to maybe 1/3 of his health before he started dumping huge damage, and my best defensive cards couldn't protect me. I dunno, this game seems pretty cool. It seems to have quite a bit of depth, but is also easy to approach and understand. I'm probably keep at this one for awhile.

A_Unicycle wrote:

In my 25 hours on Switch, I've beaten it again with all three characters...

One of the reasons I stopped buying Switch ports of recent games. There. are. four. characters! [/Picard]

I think Switch did finally get this update, just about 5 months late.

Haha yeah, I should have said "all 3 original characters" but even then, it's not quite accurate

I actually bought STS on Switch around December, and didn't touch it until the Watcher updated was released. It took a bloody long time, and I hope we don't have to wait nearly that long for any future updates.

Speaking of which, the Watcher update was phenomenal. It could have easily been paid DLC and I'd have had no issue paying extra.

It's finally out on IOS! Well worth the wait, got to middle of third act yesterday but then was just crushed by.. something, I think it did 90 damage in the space of three turns.

I'm not over the moon by the art, but rest is just pure gold. An absolutely perfect mobile game.

polypusher wrote:
A_Unicycle wrote:

In my 25 hours on Switch, I've beaten it again with all three characters...

One of the reasons I stopped buying Switch ports of recent games. There. are. four. characters! [/Picard]

I think Switch did finally get this update, just about 5 months late.

1. Watcher came to console versions in March

2. It was delayed to all consoles, not just Switch

How do we feel about the ghost event that gives you 5 copies of the card that makes you intangible for a turn at the cost of a bunch of your max HP?
I almost always skip this one, but I'm beginning to wonder if I should reevaluate. I could see taking just one damage being very helpful against some of the Heart attacks.

I have never taken it. It seems like a card that is good for regular fights but bad for bosses, and since bosses are the main way we die it didn’t make sense. Maybe in practice it is better than I think.

WellAdjusted wrote:

How do we feel about the ghost event that gives you 5 copies of the card that makes you intangible for a turn at the cost of a bunch of your max HP?
I almost always skip this one, but I'm beginning to wonder if I should reevaluate. I could see taking just one damage being very helpful against some of the Heart attacks.

It very much depends on my build at that point. If i have a way of replacing the max HP from like singing bowl or feed its a mst have. Runic pyramid is also great if you can get the apparitions upgraded, if I had a toxic egg i would always lap up the automatically upgraded ones. If you forced me into a figure i probably take it more than not.