Slay the Spire - Catch all

I fell down a small hole last night after I watched Jorbs spreadsheet out some maths on colourless potion. I tried to create an excel sheet for expected return on an attack potion for a specific turn. As an exercise it certainly proved how complicated the game is once again!

Having just browsed the Depression thread, and feeling bad for one of the posters there, my first reaction to that was, "oooof."

In that context, that sounds like a terrible game.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Et0vk29XUAESaJE?format=jpg&name=large)

So this happened tonight, scored me the kill boss in one turn and 5 card deck acheivement

What the...?

I must be playing this game wrong

double post

Stele wrote:

What the...?

I must be playing this game wrong

I have over 500 hours on the game and this is the only time I have got a deck down to 5 cards, admittely it's not normally what I go for but I decided I wanted to get all the achievements.
Speaking of which , this deck just saw me complete a run in 16 mins.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Et3JYlKXIAErDrm?format=jpg&name=large)

Which led to

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Et3JrhxXIAk6Vx2?format=jpg&name=large)

Wow congrats!

For me I fell off playing, I did chase achievements for a while but I wasn't willing to put in the time to play like 50 runs with no real progress just to gamble the right cards and paths would come up one time to get one of the last achievements. But I have been in a bit of gaming funk in general so maybe I'll get back to it one day.

The reason I started chasing achievements was because I was getting bored of trying to get to and beat A20 with the Silent (already done it with Iron Clad and Defect, with Watcher on it but not beaten it yet) and I've never 100% a game before in terms of achievements.
I should get back to playing Wasteland 3 now, but I can't play that while watching telly or youtube.

So I'm back on the StS train and have a gripe.

I just finished a fantastic Ironclad run with a bunch of strength and corruption that ended in a nailbiting heart kill on A11 (saved at the last second by the Torii I picked up from Neow leaving me with 2 hp--just enough for a heavy blade to do like 250 to the heart and finish it off...)and the game froze up after the ending cutscene of the character ascending the stairs...and there's no record of the run. Ironclad still on A11 and no stats on the run in the compendium. Ugh.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, but lord is it frustrating. I expect it has something to do with a lot of my Switch time happening as I perform my morning ablutions in the bathroom with spotty wifi and the game not liking an hour long run happening in 4 15 minute sessions, half with wifi and half without.

Does anyone else have this problem or am I just cursed?

(Frustration aside, I will be jumping right back in. StS is kind of a forever game that I'll fall back into every couple of months at this point)

WellAdjusted wrote:

So I'm back on the StS train and have a gripe.

I just finished a fantastic Ironclad run with a bunch of strength and corruption that ended in a nailbiting heart kill on A11 (saved at the last second by the Torii I picked up from Neow leaving me with 2 hp--just enough for a heavy blade to do like 250 to the heart and finish it off...)and the game froze up after the ending cutscene of the character ascending the stairs...and there's no record of the run. Ironclad still on A11 and no stats on the run in the compendium. Ugh.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, but lord is it frustrating. I expect it has something to do with a lot of my Switch time happening as I perform my morning ablutions in the bathroom with spotty wifi and the game not liking an hour long run happening in 4 15 minute sessions, half with wifi and half without.

Does anyone else have this problem or am I just cursed?

(Frustration aside, I will be jumping right back in. StS is kind of a forever game that I'll fall back into every couple of months at this point)

I can only speak for the PS4 version but after nearing 1750 hours its never happened to me. Sounds like a great run by the way, I love having Tori for the heart!

Just won my first run! Took the Silent to victory with a poison-focused deck. The final battle was extremely tense - the Awakened and I were pummelling each other silly, and I would have lost had the battle stretched out one more turn. Fortunately the massive amount of poison I had built up proved decisive - I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!

Now to give the Ironclad or the Defect another try....

Good going Mind Elemental! It feels so satisfying getting a winning run for the first time.

I'm level 19 ascension with Ironclad, Silent & Defect, it feels unfair the damage numbers enemies (especially bosses) can do. The strength & defense lowering debuffs that elites like Lagavulin can put on you are ridiculous. You really need to get the right relics & card combinations to quickly despatch does otherwise you just get wrecked.

A couple of tips I didn't really come to understand for a long time would be to leave cards if they aren't suitable or don't add much to your deck. Cards that draw cards are absolutely invaluable. Case in point Ironclad, if you get Battle Trance (draw 3 cards, 4 upgraded) & you have Flex in your deck then at no cost you can use Flex & all the attacks you play will do extra damage. If you have Rage & you drew that card then every attack would give you 3 block, 5 if upgraded.

Keeping your deck extremely focused eg a poison deck for Silent & not taking Shiv or other cards that mean the poison cards won't come up as frequently. Lastly take cards that make use of your relics, like if you get tough bandages really try to go all out for cards that let you discard cards & you'll automatically get 3 block.

There's so many strategies & layers to STS that it's amazing what you can find out after hundreds of hours of play. Good luck!

Yeah, it's one of the best balanced games I've ever played. (And Snecko eye. :P)

I'm greatly struggling with the Watcher. The math is much more complicated compared to the other characters. It's clever, but all these months later I still don't like playing the character.

(No idea where I got Elemental from.)

I've gotten to acension level 5 with Watcher, its definitely a lot more complicated than the others. Saying that I've become a lot more accustomed to the play style & what the cards actually do. I agree it's not as enjoyable as the base 3 though.

Snecko potions only get used when I've nothing left to lose, I generally hate it but the odd time I get fortunate. I never take the relic.

Snecko is fabulous early in a run. Too late and it's pointless. Early enough it's pretty easy to retool and make it useful.

As has been argued to death and back here and around the net it's incredibly powerful, too powerful as some would say. I think it's an enjoyable curveball

Snecko Eye is the best relic in the game, hands down.

I so want the 2.2 patch to come to consoles, I need my 4 shiv blade dance please.

bbk1980 wrote:

I so want the 2.2 patch to come to consoles, I need my 4 shiv blade dance please.

There's a new patch coming to consoles?? What's included in it?

2.2 is entirely balance changes its been on PC for a while, the full list is here:

Spoiler:

Balance
Accuracy card buffed. Damage increased from 3 -> 4.
Accuracy+ card buffed. Damage increased from 5 -> 6.
Aggregate card buffed. Energy gained every 6 -> 4 cards.
Aggregate+ card buffed. Energy gained every 5 -> 3 cards.
Blade Dance card buffed. 2 -> 3 shivs.
Blade Dance+ card buffed. 3 -> 4 shivs.
Bloodletting card buffed. Energy gain increased from 1 -> 2.
Bloodletting+ card buffed. Energy gain increased from 2 -> 3.
Dramatic Entrance card buffed. Damage increased from 6 -> 8.
Dramatic Entrance+ card buffed. Damage increased from 8 -> 12.
Eviscerate card buffed. Damage increased from 6 -> 7.
Eviscerate+ card buffed. Damage increased from 8 -> 9.
Good Instincts card buffed. Block increased from 5 -> 6.
Good Instincts+ card buffed. Block increased from 8 -> 9.
Hemokinesis card buffed. Damage increased from 14 -> 15.
Hemokinesis card buffed. HP loss decreased from 3 -> 2.
Hemokinesis+ card buffed. Damage increased from 18 -> 20.
Phantasmal Killer card buffed. Cost reduced from 2 -> 1.
Phantasmal Killer+ card buffed. Cost reduced from 1 -> 0.
Reflex card buffed. Card draw increased from 1 -> 2.
Reflex+ card buffed. Card draw increased from 2 -> 3.
Reprogram card Focus loss decreased from 2 -> 1.
Reprogram+ card changed. Focus loss, Strength, and Dexterity changed from 1 -> 2.
Rupture+ card buffed. Strength gain increased from 1 -> 2.
Rupture+ card nerfed. Energy cost 0 -> 1.
Sadistic Nature card buffed. Damage increased from 3 -> 5.
Sadistic Nature+ card buffed. Damage increased from 4 -> 7.
Scrape card draws 3 -> 4 cards.
Scrape+ card buffed. Damage increased from 9 -> 10.
Scrape+ card draws 4 -> 5 cards.
Slice card buffed. Damage increased from 5 -> 6.
Slice+ card buffed. Damage increased from 8 -> 9.
Sneaky Strike card buffed. Damage increased from 10 -> 12.
Sneaky Strike+ card buffed. Damage increased from 14 -> 16.
Storm of Steel card buffed. Cost lowered from 2 -> 1.
Storm of Steel+ card buffed. Cost lowered from 2 -> 1.
Swift Strike card buffed. Damage increased from 6 -> 7.
Swift Strike+ card buffed. Damage increased from 9 -> 10.

From the Jorbs streams its definitely made the game easier, I think hes moved from a 50%ish heart kill rate on A20 to about 65%, hopefully it might get me to the heady levels of 15% when the patch gets to consoles!

Good, some of those were really needed to make those cards viable.

garion333 wrote:

Good, some of those were really needed to make those cards viable.

Indeed still need to figure out a way of blocking beat of death with all those Shivs though. I still dont think I have ever picked reprogram on Defect it just feels like an awful trade off.

The console and mobile patch has arrived. Please enjoy your sweet sweet buffed cards. Just got an ironclad A20 heart kill and new hemokenisis is brilliant in the early game and to be honest through the midgame now. Fear me Gremlin nob!

Slight correction: Consoles are all patched, iOS in the next month and no mention of Android.

garion333 wrote:

Slight correction: Consoles are all patched, iOS in the next month and no mention of Android.

Thanks for the correction, I read the megacrit tweet incorrectly.

I'm not seeing a patch on iOS

It's coming in the next month.

I too was bummed that the patch didn't hit Android, but I can fire up my Switch version...you know, since I own it on three platforms atm.

I beat the heart for the first time. Yeah!

Congratulations! I don't know that I've ever felt such a sense of accomplishment in any video game ever than when I did that. So cool.

I just got back into StS after a long absence. Learning the newest character.

Congrats, JohnKillo! I forgot how hard it was. I got to the heart in a play with The Silent a few days ago while relearning the game and "knew" I would win. I was crushed so quickly. It is quite the achievement