Slay the Spire

>Draw block when enemy is buffing/debuffing
>Draw damage when the enemy is attacking
BROS THERE'S NO WINNING MOVE WTF

>thinking you actually need that many catalyst in your deck when nightmare exists.

by forcing very specific strategies mostly
a17+ is pretty much outright unfun, its just a grind to line up the broken shit that can actually keep up with the batshit buffs most of the enemies and bosses get

>you could draw on a bad turn
you don't need blocks when you win on the first turn :^)

*heart damage caps in your path*

im at 12 myself

savethespire.com/
You can try to put some cool cards into your starter deck. Like that card which gives you gold every time you kill enemy with it. Or sacrificial dagger. It is literally game changing experience which gives you more fun ways how to play.

The most most most reliable build is turtle warrior. 0 costs deal damage equal to the block and 1 costs card double the block are insane very reliable combo which can beat any boss / elite. You dont even need barriage. Just have enough block and draw cards and you cant lose.

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>cheat
is not the answer on how to overcome difficulty you fucking casual shit.

I got 20 ironclad, 18 silent, 18 robot. I do like maybe 1-2 runs a week. Game is very fun, but once you get into the high ascensions you gotta have plans and know how to build around relics.

I was stuck on 13 for a while then took a break and shot up to 19. I thought I was hot shit but after taking a break, something clicked. I think I was just playing a lot slower.
You'll get there user.

>Pick Ironclad
>Get Dead Branch from whale
>Get Corruption from store/fight
>win

I want this game on switch

It's coming to switch you idiot binbingwahoo.

How the fuck do you beat the heart? I feel like you have to have a perfect run to kill that big purple nigger.

general
>DO NOT DRAFT ARCHETYES
>archetypes is pigeonholing yourself into a "build"
>"block" "poison" "exhaust"
>you don't just pick corruption floor one and hope the game gives you good draftables
>draft cards that help you accomplish goals
act 1
>take as many elites as possible
>relics increase your power
>make sure you have rests before and after the elite fights
>make sure your path is branching so you have a plan B
>remember when i told you draft cards that help you accomplish your goal?
>elites in act 1 require frontloaded damage
>gremlin faggot and lagacunt are a damage check
>sentries are a damage check
ACT 2
>in act 1 you drafted frontloaded damage
>now you need AOE
>remember when i told you to draft to your goal?
>act 2 elites include 1 damage check via book of stabbing
>the other elites require a good AOE
>your deck also needs a way to survive the boss

if you understand all of that then act 3 is piss easy

btw i don't go for the heart because i'm a bitch but have a20 on ironchad

Act 2 is where most runs end. If you're not even making there then your fundamentals are fucked up because like 80% of your runs should be fine in act 1.

You need something to help you against the x15 attacks.
Disarm, Piercing Wail, Dark Shackles, Malaise... etc
As Defect, Static Discharge with a bunch of frost orbs.
Torii is super good here also if you're lucky.

>Learns the value of short decks while doing challenges
>Immediately go back to filling decks while saying how great small decks are.

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end of may smile

Fuck the Heart.

Initially I thought going for the heart limited your build options too much.

Seeing that balding fuck Jorbs kill 100 Hearts in 30 days makes it seem to have much more leniency.

Slay the Spire is one of the games where I enjoy watching the people who have puts thousands of hours into it.

Opinions on Rhapsody playing this game?

Only brainlets play this game modded.

looking forward to seeing how fucked up the control scheme is on PS4 next week

NL my boy, you got to git gud.

R8 my current deck. Everything above this is just the strikes (2 of which are upgraded via whetstone) and defends. And yes, I tornado'd my upgraded Inflame when I had demon form. The DF wasn't upgraded at the time. And even then I was thinking that Inflame could give me an immediate boost for 1 energy, instead of blowing turn 1 on a DF.

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Does anyone enjoy playing any of the mods, or do you guys just play vanilla?

...

>echo form+ multiple static discharges + electrodynamics
watching an enemy hit you and get obliterated by lightning almost instantly is great

I rate it Clash/10
Also no shockwave, i have never drafted an ironclad deck without shockwave, it just doesn't happen.

>channeling so much lightning at once the audio fucks up

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no something inherent to the genre of dungeon crawlers is that you can be completely fucked over on runs

Pretty much every mod is balanced like shit or filled with gimmicks and memes that make the game unfun, not worth it

The fuck is this post?

the necromancer and slime mods are kino

I like the Disciple and Slimebound, but Slimebound is totally broken.

How to win at Slay the Spire.

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I never came across Shockwave after any fight yet this run. Also, I never really viewed Shockwave as a "must have"
I know why it would be considered so good, but I rarely even take it.

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clash is a bad card, at least at higher difficulties
and with that amount of strength scaling you don't need so many attacks (3 cleaves and a thunderclap is overkill, even taking 1 cleave is a push for me), you'll want to fill the rest of the deck with damage negation and draw in order to last until you scale, and to get to your key cards faster
unless you get reapers, then you can facetank everything

>build a zero cost deck
>get sneko eye
>here we go.jpg
First hand of the act 3 boss i got two All for One and a hologram+, all three 0 cost. Easy turn 1 kill on the donuts.
My second favorite round right after the time i got a Burst+, a zero cost nightmare and a zero cost catalyst at the same time.

Sneko eye has to be my favorite artifact, i have a surprisingly high winrate with it.

>There are virgins that don't take brimstone or demon form whenever it shows up
How does it feel having a small pee pee?

This has to be the worst normal fight in the game.

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That's not the spaghetti monster

That's not 8x3 plant.

not it's the fucking twin thieves
20 damage three fucking turns in a row and then they fuck off. So you either try to kill them and take damage or you protect yourself and lose gold

Oh well, speak of the devil.

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Hey NL!

>it's another "user miscalculates shiv damage and throws his whole run away" episode
reeeee

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Pretty sure there are certain combinations of cards and relics that just win any fight, so play until you get that :D

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>clash
no
>demon form + limit break/inflame
dont do this, they require very different synergies to work
demon form wants a lot of defensive cards to ensure you survive long enough to build str
limit break + [basic strength source] wants a smaller deck and ways to cycle the card faster than normal like deep breath and headbutt

you also probably have way too many offensive cards (which i assume you took to enable the clashes, dont do that)
like you dont need a thunderclap and 3 cleaves
but pommel, shrug, battle trance are good for basically any deck and the clothesline is a good weak source so theyre all good

>Good face Bad Face Chad
Based. Anyone who takes anything other than that is a coward

No I mean the one that gives you a parasite

Hardly.
Act 2 plant is a bitch no matter what your deck is.
Also a notable mention to getting CAW CAW CAW as first act2 fight after picking the philosophers stone. The beta art for regret is perfect because of this.

That's not the spaghetti monster, either. Transient is actually a good fight.

Is there any reason to not take Adrenaline for every silent deck? Like unless another choice is the perfect synergy for what you have going on I can't think of any reason you wouldn't pick it.

Nothing feels as good as a strength build + sword boomerang. Good and fun run.

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>Act 2 plant is a bitch no matter what your deck is.
*disarms/malaises your path*

Transient is a based fight unless you're a defense cuck

choker is a good reason, otherwise it's generally beneficial

Am I the only one who got genuinely unnerved when seeing the Transient for the first time? Something about him is just so terrifying/creepy.

It's one of the best generic non synergy cards in the game, if not the best.

How to play the game you retard.

the best is discovery without question
it is good though

F U C K
U
C
K

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Choker or Snecko Eye make it not good, otherwise it's always a good pick up.

I always take discovery whenever I see it. I know it can start to clog up your deck with useless cards but I always have so much fun getting a free echo form or demon form

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>Risk...
>..reward....

I rarely ever take Snecko or Choker when I do silent runs unless I have like an expensive poison build going on. But that might just be because I naturally gravitate towards shiv

Is there any cuter couple than Deca 'n' Donu?

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fuck that gay little hop donu does when he attacks
i have fun corpse asploding them with Silent

>successfully pulling off the 5 card deck
It's so hard, but it's so good

Can someone explain how to play the Defect. I lose like 70% or more of my runs. Even on these super low ascensions.

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Claws
Or frost if you're a fucking pussy

Focus and frost orbs.
Then just find a way to do damage.

Try doing a 0 cost deck, take every claw you see and get a load of draw and spam beam cells. Then realise 0 cost decks are garbage and just hope for power synergy with mummified hand.

see

Claw builds can work at low ascensions but they'll fuck you once you get out of baby-mode.

Here's an A20 deck I won with the other day

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>mfw when double tap reaper during act 2 elite gremlins fight to go from 5hp to max

you actually have to play with the orbs, you cant just opt out because it makes your brain hurt

Looks like you got the bad end of the 50%, user.

>Run out of blocks vs Awaken One/Champ

Oh no, I'm relatively smart and not that stupid. My biggest problem comes with figuring out whether I should try to focus as much orb related cards as I can, or try to go attacks, and build that way.

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having a ball lightning and a zap as your only offensive options going into act 2 isn't a very good look

Who? Is he cute?

I should have paid :(

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No shit, you aren't going to clear a fight like that with so few damage cards.

youtube.com/watch?v=h6Pjl-ydx4g

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how the hell do i unlock the 3 key things for the true boss?

Aha! fuck you user! I hit the middle one twice with the lightning orb and lived! Too bad Fuckface Plant will kill me.

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>this is what a brainlet thinks

You get one from a relic chest, you have to skip the relic for it
You get one from a campsite, you have skip the rest/smith for it
You get one from a super elite, there is one in each act.

For fucking around, sure
Then I go back to vanilla

the keys never even show up in my runs

Beat the game with all three characters first.

You have to beat the game with each class on at least Ascension 1 first.

ball lightning is a good early card
the rest of that deck is kind of a mess

work on identifying small synergies rather than trying to fit all the pieces together as you go
for example, hologram works well with cards you can play for free or benefit from being played multiple times
loops not a very high value card on its own but its value increases exponentially with focus and it works very well with dark orbs in particular

and for the rest:
coolheaded and hologram are not very good unupgraded
white noise is in general just a gamble and not a very good one because the cards it provides are unupgraded
steam barrier is generally only high value in decks that work with 0 cost cards

and i think in general you should probably have more orb generation than that at that point
the defect needs to be generating orbs constantly, the passives are mostly weak but the evoke effects are extremely strong and are a big part of what what allows him to function as a character, lean more into that

EVERY class on ascension 1? I haven't even beaten ironclad on ascension 1. i haven't even cleared the game as defect.
do you have any idea how many runs thats gonna take?

Real talk, Ascension 20 is mostly just rolling dice. If you don't get the good cards and the good relics and don't get the 'fuck you' encounters then you lose.

You can optimize your chances of not getting fucked, but you can't just win consistently unless you're prescient.

3?

Non-ascension, brainlet.

Yes you have to beat the game with Ironchad and Defect.

>do you have any idea how many runs thats gonna take?
3 runs assuming you haven't beaten the game at all

i have played a lot more than 3 runs as defect and still haven't cleared the game

Yeah you have to beat the game you idiot.

How do you expect to beat the heart if you can't even beat act 3?

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Define consistently.
Do you mean every run? If so, then yeah, you can't win every run unless your prescient.
But top players can manage 20-30% win rates vs the heart at A20.
That's pretty consistent and way above random chance so skill plays a huge factor.

I think it's possible to streak but you have to already know a lot of unconventional outs to encounters.

Like the game doesn't give you any form of str scaling? That's probably a lie because there's a big chance there's some sort of combo you missed with your relics and card choice.

A20 isn't about winning consistently in my opinion, it's more about pushing your winrate as far as it'll go

>RNGfest
No fucking thanks.

So you're saying the best players at the game might only have a 20% win rate and you're saying that's consistently winning?

If the win rate is only 20% then luck clearly plays more of a factor than anything else. You're saying that the best players are screwed by luck of the seed up to 80% of the time.

When are you all going to move on to the real thinking mans card game?

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if a good player can push his winrate higher than you consistently, then that means that luck is less of a factor than the average player feels
if a player could play completely optimally, the winrate could be a lot higher. yes the game is not always winnable on every path, but that's because the game is not balanced around A20.

Why is Spire like the only game that's thoughtful of its players? Small touches like relics and cards glowing when their activation window opens show how much care is put into it.

based
this game has god tier art and atmosphere.
Gameplay gets grindy real fast, but fuck me if i wasn't tearing my hair out like a crazed cultist driven to desperation

had a long EA period with weekly updates, wasn't uncommon for suggestions to be implemented the same week

It's amazing how good the EA for Spire was. It was really professional and consistent. The dev seems like he was a disciplined guy who respected his sprints.

So do I need to get the three keys each time to unlock the next Ascension level, or do I just need to beat Act 3?
I can't seem to remember

Just need to beat Act3, the keys are only for the heart.

Also if you're dying to the heart don't just Abandon or you won't get your Ascension level. I learned that the hard way.

You just need to beat the Act 3 boss to unlock the next Ascension.
Not getting the keys or dying in Act 4 will still unlock it.

go to their stat tracker and see what cards get picked by winning ascension 20 runs I guess.

can i shill my friend's shitty mod?

Sure.
I played a bunch of mods recently, they were mostly fun

ah so you might have played it already
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1678617599 Its a rather large content mod though the artwork isn't extraordinary since the last time i played.

Are there any potions that i should avoid outright?

I tend to discard attack and skill potions over most of the others but they'll still save your ass, sometimes.
There's no reason to ever AVOID a potion, considering you can just discard them if they end up getting in the way.

nah, no potion is detrimental. the weaker ones tend to be the temp +5, 10 damage to all, +3 thorns, +1 artifact

they all have their uses though, just depends on the situation

It's worth mentioning that the temporary +5 potions will last the whole fight if you negate the temporary debuff using an artifact.

Same with Flex and other cards.

nah
ironclad's blood potions are very weak though, really bad compared to the other two classes' exclusives

>just don't get hit bro

What are the best Spire clones right now?

fuck snecko pots and snecko eye and snecko in general

>want to be claw chad
>no claw cards drop
>have to settle for lightning virgin
feels bad man

snecko eye is one of the strongest boss relics

I tried that "Deck of Ashes" one and it was pretty meh at best.

youtube.com/watch?v=vouas6s6rCk

eat shit snecko

Hearthstone adventure mode is okay in small doses. Not as good of a deckbuilder game since it's lacks the depth, but it's pretty fun.

Snecko eye is the best relic in the game.
+2 draw per turn is huge.
Also makes Barricade and Demon Form actually playable.
And you never have to upgrade cards that lower in cost, so you can focus on cards with better effects.

>he's a pleb who's never built a sneko decko
I pity you for missing out on so much fun

It's possible to win every run before any choices are made.
The flaws are that you don't know what cards you'll get down the road or what events. And planning around every eventuality will fuck you. Planning around too few will fuck you.

>it'd be possible to win every run if you knew everything but you don't know everything
Great post, idiot.

>get juzu bracelet
>very next room is an arena fight

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>get omamori
>not a single curse event

he has a point
you can work to make the best decision at the time, but that won't necessarily mean it's the best decision long term. for example i could skip a corruption with just my basic defends and get a dead branch later, but never bump into a corruption again
sometimes making the sub-optimal decision at the time might lead to a victory, it's just the nature of a constantly evolving game like StS

Luck sets the available pieces. Player skill dictates usage of said pieces. The player has considerably more say in the progress of a run than how the run is set up by luck. If you took a good player's A20 Heart-killing run seed and gave it to a bad player, they'd very likely fail despite that seed having been proven to be able to beat A20 Heart.

Uhh. Dunno about that one, bruv.

The deviation in randomized costs makes some of your turns absolutely horrendous; which is not a good trade-off for making some of your turns godly, on account that a bad turn makes you take 30+ damage and a good turn might not even end the encounter. You don't care so much about good turns as you do about not having bad turns in this game, since your optimal strategy is to minimize the damage you take per encounter.

Consequently it's only any good if you actually have the higher cost cards, which tend to have a larger impact and so are much more likely to actually mean you take less damage. If your deck is all 0 and 1 cost cards snecko eye actually decreases the average effective card-energy you can play even though you get +2 card draws. That is to say if you could play 3 1-cost cards before having the eye in a turn then you have effectively played 3 energy worth of cards per turn, but with the eye you might only be able to play 2.5 energy worth of cards on average.

Snecko eye is fun, but it's definitely not particularly good *on average*. At least, not for Silent and Defect who don't have as many good higher cost cards as Ironclad.

Plus if it's an act 2 boss drop then you can't really fully renovate your deck to make good use of it.

I mean, compared to cursed key it's not really much of a contest outside of a one-in-a-million run.

Thank you.

Nigga that's the second best boss relic you can get. +1 energy will almost always let you get 5 more block, if that extra energy pays off 4 times it becomes equal to a rest.

>get omamori
>>have blue candle, vu du doll and darkstone

It's far more suited to Ironclad, that is true.
Ironclad already has very few 0 cost cards and quite a bit more 2+ cards than the other two.
It's not going to be an insta pick every time it's offered, but that doesn't stop it from being one of if not the strongest relics in the game.
The +2 draw is what really smooths it out, and I think most people really overlook the increased cycling speed of your deck when evaluating Snecko.