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Author Topic: Slay the Spire  (Read 21200 times)

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market squire

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Slay the Spire
« on: March 04, 2018, 08:38:38 pm »
+5

So I got this game on Steam about a month ago (http://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Slay_the_Spire/) and must say I am super addicted, Steam says I've already sunk 47 hours into it... If anyone else tried it I would be interested in your opinion. Otherwise I can only recommend it. The game is yet in Early Access, but already very solid and has lots of replay value. They even added in a Daily challenge mode with hard rule modifiers last week.

Slay the Spire is often described as a mixture of a deckbuilder, a Rogue-like and a dungeon crawler. It is a singleplayer (PvE) game that you can play in ~2 hours per run.

The main designer is a big fan of Netrunner (he hosts the fan site stimhack.com). What bugs me about LCGs like Netrunner or Hearthstone is the metagame, that you have to build your deck in advance of the actual game, while considering thousands of possibilities and counters. In Slay the Spire, the deckbuilding part is naturally built into the game. Step by step during your run, you may add a card to your deck after each fight. There are some rare possibilities to get rid of cards as well. I really enjoy this idea of "procedural deckbuilding".

The two main "currencies" on the cards are Attack and Defend. You can see the enemy's intentions and play accordingly. This makes it quite interesting. Defending is very important because you don't automatically heal up your HP after a fight (and if you get killed, you must start from the beginning again).

The "playing the deck" part is working just like Dominion. You will shuffle quite often. There are some small differences. Cards are just played into the discard pile, so some infinite combos are possible. But they are hard to pull off because you only have 3 Energy to play cards regularly. Also, they won't work in every case because each enemy behaves differently.

You can collect Relics that give you special abilities which will make each run unique. Also there are 2 different characters to play with, each with a huge set of possible cards. One additional character will be added on the full release, but the two are already very very interesting.
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DG

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2018, 09:06:57 pm »
0

Monsters Slayers is another similar game that's fun for a while.
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sitnaltax

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2018, 08:24:05 pm »
+1

I second the recommendation. (Jorbles and I both talked about it briefly on the roguelike games topic.) I've had it a couple weeks and am enjoying it a lot (just unlocked Ascension mode).

The first game of this type was Dream Quest, which is excellent but very idiosyncratic--very primitive graphics and a sometimes-devastating difficulty curve. I highly recommend it to anyone here, although I'm not sure how someone who's used to the pacing and polish of Slay the Spire will like it. I briefly tried Monster Slayers but couldn't get into it--it seemed like a watered-down but polished version of DQ. The developer of Dream Quest went on to be hired by Blizzard for Hearthstone, and the Dungeon Runs minigame associated with the K&C expansion was clearly his doing (he was the lead designer for that expansion).
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Drab Emordnilap

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2018, 09:53:47 pm »
+1

I have 93 hours played. I'm not particularly proud of that. But yeah, it's really good.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2018, 02:16:57 am »
0

Netrunner is a lot of "work" but it's pretty fun
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werothegreat

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2018, 08:09:32 am »
0

Sooooooo it's like Hearthstone's Dungeon Run?
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sitnaltax

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2018, 08:36:52 am »
+1

Sooooooo it's like Hearthstone's Dungeon Run?

Yes, that's very close. I would say the biggest difference is that you play more cards every turn and they act right away rather than building up a board.
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blueblimp

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2018, 07:09:53 am »
0

Apart from the tactical encounters being quite different compared to Dungeon Run (as sitnaltax mentioned), another difference is that in DR, usually the only outcome that matters from an encounter is whether you win it. In STS, you can bring consumable potions into battle to use, and if you take damage then it persists past the end of the battle. That's a better design, in my opinion, because it makes it less likely that a single tough encounter will end your whole run.

That said, STS didn't really grab me when I tried it. Maybe I'll give it another try.
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sitnaltax

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2018, 11:25:52 pm »
+2

I've been playing this a lot more. I'm a little surprised it hasn't drawn more attention from Dominion fans. The interplay of cards-as-a-resource and energy is very cool both from a deckbuilding and play standpoint.

A couple cards that I thought were of particular interest from a Dominion standpoint:

Battle Trance: 0 energy, draw 3 cards; you can't draw any more cards this turn. "You can't draw any more cards this turn" would be a fascinating restriction to put on a Dominion card.

One-shots: StS has a bunch of cards that trash ("Exhaust") themselves when played. Typically they are more powerful than comparable cards (others would be too powerful if stacked, or meaningless to play twice). Dominion has Pillage and Spoils, but this is much easier ground to explore in StS since you play the same deck repeatedly in various encounters.

Ethereal: The other side of the coin are "Ethereal" cards that Exhaust themselves if you don't play them. These are efficient cards, which means you have a difficult decision if you draw, say, a defensive Ethereal card in a turn you aren't being attacked. Do you play the card so you can draw it next time through your deck, or let it go and play offense instead?
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pacovf

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2018, 06:14:56 pm »
0

I've played v0.7. It's definitely fun and worth a try. One thing it does nicely is to keep play moving along. It doesn't drag much.

The Yahtzee-style dice manipulation in particular is quite fun, but after I got used to that, I feel like the rest of the game isn't as interesting. In combat, it feels like you're usually trying to do the same thing every turn. Slay the Spire solves that with systems like showing enemy intents and combat with multiple enemies. I think that enemy intents might work even better in DD than they do in StS, because in DD you almost always have access to all your abilities every turn. (I haven't played much StS, though, mostly because of pacing.) Here's an article about the StS intents: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/19/why-revealing-all-is-the-secret-of-slay-the-spires-success/.

Pacing?



I've been playing some Slay the Spire. It's good, but does not necessarily scratch the rogue-like itch that much, kind of like FTL. Also kind of like FTL, a run takes one to two hours, so it's not nearly as much of a time commitment as, say, a DCSS run.

It does have fairly granular difficulty levels, which is good, because the basic difficulty is on the easier side. You might still die a bunch as you get used to the mechanics. There's currently three characters (with maybe more coming after launch as DLC?) which play very differently. I think some balance still has to be ironed out, but for an early access game it's already excellent.

I'm actually not enamored with the intent system. It's mostly there to make the existing defense system viable (pay energy for cards to block damage, with block expiring at the end of the turn), and I think StS would have been a better game with a different defense system altogether. Cards like Barricade, Blur, or heavy Ice sphere channeling somewhat break the game. But overall it gets the job done.

Something that I was a bit worried about at the beginning was the artstyle, but it's grown on me. The whole thing feels somewhat oniric and original. The newer assets look a lot better than the older ones, and the main characters have no animation (besides idling), but eh.
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singletee

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2018, 06:02:06 pm »
+3

I played an unusual strategy on yesterday's daily climb. It was the one with the Silent where you started with 5 copies of one rare card. As it happened I got Wraith Form (3-cost Power: Gain 3 Intangible, lose 1 Dexterity every turn). I had never had much success with Wraith Form before, mostly because after the 3-turn timer runs out you are unable to defend yourself due to the Dex loss. But with 5 of them...

They weren't too useful in the early game because of the high cost, and the fact that there were so many interfered with my ability to attack and avoid the chip damage with my Defends. But eventually I got my hands on After-image (1-cost Power: When you play a card, gain 1 Block). Then I was able to upgrade it to be Innate. Crucially, the Block gains from this effect are not affected by Dex. So I was able to set up the After-image effect on the first turn of every fight, likely get Intangible the next turn, and from that point on I just literally did not care about how hard the enemies (tried to) hit. I also picked up a sixth Wraith Form, an Anchor to protect me on the first turn before I had a Wraith Form out, and a Setup and Bullet Time to let me play Wraith Forms for free. Beat Big Blue Bird easily without taking damage. Success!

jonts26

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2019, 06:21:59 pm »
+6

Finally beat Act 4 on all characters at Ascension 20.
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sitnaltax

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2019, 07:25:21 pm »
0

Finally beat Act 4 on all characters at Ascension 20.

Congrats!

I was tired enough of high ascension that I decided that doing act 4 on A15 would be sufficient. Ascension 17-19 makes the game too punishing for my tastes. (I did get to A20 with all 3 on act 3).
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shraeye

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2019, 11:58:57 am »
0

I picked up slay the spire.  This is a very fun game.  It took me the longest time to figure out The Silent, finally did and won with that (unlocking the possibility of killing the heart) and immediately played Silent again and beat said heart.  I think I'm about to move up to ascension 1. eeeeeeee!

(posted this elsewhere, but moved it for relevance)
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shraeye

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2019, 11:59:25 am »
+1

Oh and I beat the heart with 1 hp left, which was super exciting
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #15 on: August 04, 2019, 04:59:09 pm »
+4

I started playing this yesterday

Would it be a good life choice to stay home all week and lose my job and play slay the spire

because that is what i'm leaning towards
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shraeye

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #16 on: August 05, 2019, 08:00:59 pm »
0

I started playing this yesterday

Would it be a good life choice to stay home all week and lose my job and play slay the spire

because that is what i'm leaning towards
Yeah man, sounds awesome.

You having good success so far?
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #17 on: August 06, 2019, 09:02:31 am »
0

I cleared the three characters in about 5 runs, playing suicide deck on the red guy and powerspam deck on the robot.  Don't remember the archetype I used on the green guy or maybe I didn't really have one and just played good cards.

I've died like six times to replay the red guy and forfeit 3 rewards to collect the 3 magic stone things you are offered.  I guess the rewards turn out to be really important to keeping you strong (or rested).  Do they appear throughout the game or do you have to pick them all up in act 1?  Sometimes I get to the boss with a really bad deck.
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jonts26

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #18 on: August 06, 2019, 09:16:53 am »
+1

Are you talking about the red/blue/green keys? Yeah you can pick those up in any of act 1-3. Generally you will want to take them later, but sometimes it makes sense to take them earlier. You'll take the blue key early if your relic reward is super bad for instance.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #19 on: August 06, 2019, 12:01:55 pm »
0

Yes knowing that will help a TON.  I thought not taking the key destroys it.

It's a lot easier for a relic reward to be "super bad" late in the game too, like relics that generate too many options for what to do at a campfire, or that doesn't fit your deck archetype or etc or etc.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2019, 12:04:00 pm by popsofctown »
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jonts26

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #20 on: August 06, 2019, 12:23:52 pm »
+1

I would encourage you to not think about your deck as a certain archetype. Add cards/relics that will help you win fights you currently can't. Even if those cards don't fit into whatever archetype you think your deck has. I've picked up crappy cards like dagger spray in act 3 just because my poison heavy deck couldn't do AoE well enough and I was afraid of reptomancer.

Also, very few relics will make your deck worse no matter what your deck already looks like. Some will do little to nothing though. But as far as the blue key is concerned, even a weak relic in act 1 is usually worth picking over it just because a weak relic over the entire run can still help overall and the blue key does nothing to get you through the early game. 
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #21 on: August 06, 2019, 03:36:48 pm »
0

IDK I had a run that was doing really well until I picked the relic where I Militia myself every turn and things started to get really really bad.
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jonts26

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #22 on: August 06, 2019, 04:27:04 pm »
0

Well the boss relics are the ones with explicit downsides. Generally you want some way to deal with the more damaging of those.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #23 on: August 07, 2019, 12:32:25 pm »
0

Well the boss relics are the ones with explicit downsides. Generally you want some way to deal with the more damaging of those.
I hadn't noticed that trend, that explains why the daily challenge yesterday was so easy.  It was "every normal battle gives a relic instead of a card".  So crazy.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #24 on: August 07, 2019, 02:33:02 pm »
0

Oh I finished a 3 key run.

The final boss had a thing that pings me by 1 every time I play a card, which seems like maybe it's meant to kill people who are playing a deck that goes infinite, but I had the relic or power (power I think) that draws me a card whenever I lose life, so it made me go quasi-infinite instead XD
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