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Author Topic: Slay the Spire  (Read 21191 times)

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theorel

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #25 on: August 08, 2019, 09:31:18 am »
0

Actually, usually in an infinite-deck you'll have some source of block (vestigial though it may usually be), and since you're infinite, you can generate as much as needed.  At least, that's how my infinite (and near-infinite) deck ran.

The thing that kills infinite decks IME is the 5? status cards, and the damage limit.  They didn't quite stop me, but those are the things that made me sweat. Because I couldn't kill him turn 1, and starting turn 2 I couldn't go infinite any more...also, a significant portion of my cards were useless status effects.
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math

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #26 on: August 08, 2019, 09:40:52 pm »
0

I beat act 4 with all characters a few months ago, and I have been playing some modded Steam Workshop characters as well.  I have over 500 hours in this game, it's great.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #27 on: August 11, 2019, 09:39:31 pm »
0

Actually, usually in an infinite-deck you'll have some source of block (vestigial though it may usually be), and since you're infinite, you can generate as much as needed.  At least, that's how my infinite (and near-infinite) deck ran.

The thing that kills infinite decks IME is the 5? status cards, and the damage limit.  They didn't quite stop me, but those are the things that made me sweat. Because I couldn't kill him turn 1, and starting turn 2 I couldn't go infinite any more...also, a significant portion of my cards were useless status effects.
That's my perception of developer intent even though I had a similar suspicion infinite decks had enough errant block to deal with the effect.

What's the damage limit?
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pubby

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #28 on: August 11, 2019, 10:44:47 pm »
0

Against the heart boss you can only do a certain amount of damage to it per turn. After that it's invincible until you end your turn.

The first time I had a deck go infinite was against Nemesis... on a turn he was intangible. Each attack dealt 1 damage out of his 200 HP. I was using claw, so after 1000 clicks he was defeated and my claws were at 400 damage.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #29 on: August 19, 2019, 12:50:50 pm »
0

I'm trying to beat the game on level 3 with each character now.

I've found I never really beat the heart unless I'm playing a deck that's infinite or something like it.  There's these cards in the game that look cool like Demonic Form that suggest other strategies but those strategies tend to seem too linear to beat the heart.

I think it's partly because none of these strategies can generate block - and actually when I think about it, I might be lying, the one time I did pull it off I think it was using lots of ice orbs as the robot guy, because focused Ice orbs do generate block.  A lot of the other ways of generating block encourage you to go infinite anyway.  There's that card that gives you a little block every time you attack.. well I should play the cantrip attacks shouldn't I... the one that gives you block when you trash a card... hm there's a power that draws me a card whenever I trash a card I could pick up.. etc.

It kind of feels like beating the donut and the diamond should be considered doing a successful run, not beating the heart, because the overall balance of potential strategies is flatter if you think of it that way.  They don't have a damage cap so having a cool one shot attack for killing the diamond rewards you by letting you survive without infinite block loops.
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theorel

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #30 on: August 20, 2019, 08:06:55 am »
+2

I don't always acquire all the keys...which is funny because those runs are successes, when the ones where I went on to fight the heart and then died were more "successful" by any reasonable metric, but are marked as failures.
They should have 3 levels of success: Failure=died before end of act 3, Success=defeated act 3 boss, Success+ = defeated the heart.

I've only "Succeeded" twice as the Defect, once before I got access to the Heart, and once when I finally beat it.

I finally beat the heart with the Ironclad, it wasn't an infinite-deck, it was just a fairly quick strength-building deck (Flex+the strength-doubler) which had a couple Heavy Blades, and a lot of block somehow.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #31 on: August 20, 2019, 02:06:48 pm »
+1

When you use the Ascension increased difficulty levels, if you fight the heart and die against it on like, difficulty level 2, you will unlock difficulty level 3.  So in at least some senses dying against the heart is marked as a success.

I think I've only beaten the heart once or twice as Defect, but I'm more likely to beat the game at all with Defect than I am with Ironclad, whom I find to be a tempting trap of yolo aggressive strats.  With the Silent I get a lot of both kinds of wins. 

One of the best things about the game is the earlygame/midgame/lategame balance.  Sacrificing health for longterm power can be necessary but can also get you killed, and there's a point you should stop taking mediocre commons but that point is non-obvious.
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theorel

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #32 on: August 21, 2019, 05:02:41 pm »
0

Yeah, it's just funny looking at my stats.  Ironclad/Defect are currently Ascension 6, Silent is Ascension 7.
Stats show:
Ironclad: Victories: 6, Deaths: 46
Silent: Victories: 7, Deaths: 24
Defect: Victories: 3, Deaths: 22

So, if you go by beating the act 3 boss, I've got 6 victories as defect vs 19 deaths.  I did 1 extra Silent run pre-ascensions, but mostly, I just barely made it through act 3 with the Silent, where when the Defect was working I managed to grab all the keys each time.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #33 on: August 21, 2019, 07:24:27 pm »
+2

How long did it take you to figure out that you should trash strikes before defends

I'm embarrassed about how long it took me
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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #34 on: November 07, 2019, 05:22:03 pm »
+3

Recently saw a Youtuber playing this, it reminded me it was on my wishlist. Watched a bit more and decided yep, I need this game.

Currently 0-1, so I'm doing well! But it's fun so whatever.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

ThetaSigma12

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #35 on: November 07, 2019, 06:49:50 pm »
+1

Recently saw a Youtuber playing this, it reminded me it was on my wishlist. Watched a bit more and decided yep, I need this game.

Currently 0-1, so I'm doing well! But it's fun so whatever.

Same here, I saw some footage of it and instantly got hooked. I got 12 hours in over last weekend, mainly playing the silent.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #36 on: November 07, 2019, 06:55:55 pm »
0

It's a really good game

I feel like it would have better strategy diversity if the game ended after Act 2, especially for the Ironclad

Is that a hot take?
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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #37 on: November 08, 2019, 05:17:21 pm »
+2

Won my second attempt at the spire, with Ironclad. Dealt about 260 damage in a single 1 cost attack in the final fight, using Body Slam + Vulnerable + the card that makes your block permanent. Now I'm no expert but I feel like this is probably not something I should get used to doing.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

sitnaltax

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #38 on: November 08, 2019, 07:07:53 pm »
0

Won my second attempt at the spire, with Ironclad. Dealt about 260 damage in a single 1 cost attack in the final fight, using Body Slam + Vulnerable + the card that makes your block permanent. Now I'm no expert but I feel like this is probably not something I should get used to doing.

The Ironclad has some excellent defensive cards: Shrug it Off, Impervious, True Grit, and more--that are good in many decks, and Body Slam is common. (And it upgrades to 0 energy, which is great). So whether or not you run into Barricade, you can build the core of defense-as-offense into your deck if it works with what you get early. Barricade, as you've seen, is a win condition against elites and bosses if you have the defense to back it up, and is kind of dead against hallway fights. Where you'll run into trouble is, especially in later ascensions, fights where you need to deal damage fast or suffer big damage. You'll either need a way to tank EVEN MORE damage or a way for emergency offense when you need it.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #39 on: November 09, 2019, 12:00:27 am »
0

Spamming block is pretty much the ironclad's way of beating the Heart.  That and going infinite.

The stuff like "deal 2 more damage for every strike in your deck" tends to be too linear to make it later on.
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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #40 on: November 10, 2019, 06:47:25 am »
0

Currently had two failed runs with The Silent. First time I felt like my deck was garbage, didn't really know what to focus on and had a hodgepodge deck as a result. Somehow made it to the final boss anyway. Second attempt, I decided to take a risk with Neow's options and traded my starting relic (which feels a little underwhelming for the Silent to me, compared to the Ironclad and Defect), for a random boss relic. Got the +1 energy, only get 1 card choice Relic, which... yeah, not great for deck construction. Decided I might try and rely on merchants to get the cards I want, then ended up with really lame Merchant spawns, usually only one per route, or if it was two it was an otherwise bad path. So yeah, didn't go too well in the end.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #41 on: November 12, 2019, 01:33:52 am »
0

Currently had two failed runs with The Silent. First time I felt like my deck was garbage, didn't really know what to focus on and had a hodgepodge deck as a result. Somehow made it to the final boss anyway. Second attempt, I decided to take a risk with Neow's options and traded my starting relic (which feels a little underwhelming for the Silent to me, compared to the Ironclad and Defect), for a random boss relic. Got the +1 energy, only get 1 card choice Relic, which... yeah, not great for deck construction. Decided I might try and rely on merchants to get the cards I want, then ended up with really lame Merchant spawns, usually only one per route, or if it was two it was an otherwise bad path. So yeah, didn't go too well in the end.
I hardly ever buy cards from the merchant.  It's obligatory to buy the "trash a card" option and desirable to keep enough gold in reserve to do that again if a question mark turns out to be a merchant.  Then once you get that nest egg going you can buy some very powerful, key cards or relics from the merchant.
Buying a good common or rare from the merchant is usually bad because of opportunity cost.  You'll get offered that common or rare as a battle reward, potentially so many times you have to start declining it.  Trashing and relics are more unique to the merchant.
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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #42 on: November 21, 2019, 05:15:09 pm »
0

Now completed a run with every character once. Definitely still don't feel like I understand how the characters can play in general but I've at least found something that works for everyone. For Ironclad, as mentioned above I did a huge defence stack thing. For Silent, I had a rapid poison deck (adding about +5-6 poison to all at the start of each turn, and two "triple one targets poison" cards). For Defect, I managed to build a Frozen core, lots of 0 cost card Claw deck with a number of cards to draw up those 0 costs like Scrape and All For One, felt really effective. Even with Time Eater being the worst final boss for this deck, I still destroyed it fairly easily, and I think never fell more than 10 HP below max in act 3.

It feels to me like I've had the most success seeing what my first few cards are, and then basically just going "I want to build a deck around this particular strategy" and then focusing on stuff for that. When I've tried to instead flow a bit more naturally and just seen where the rewards lead, I've found that I don't usually end up leading into anything that works. Like, in this winning run I'd picked up an All For One (I think from transforming a card) and only had one 0 cost card, I think it was late in act 1 or even early act 2 I decided to just start focusing on 0 cost cards and seeing what happened. I'm sure with more experience I'll be able to play in a bit more of an open minded way, ready to adjust based on rewards and relics and stuff, but for now I'm finding that tricky. Maybe I should focus on a character at a time for a little bit to get used to what they can do.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #43 on: November 21, 2019, 05:36:25 pm »
0

I’m confused about what you are saying. By the end of act 1 / beginning of act 2, you should definitely be trying to focus your deck. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but if you don’t have any synergies going through act 2 and later, you’re definitely going to lose.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #44 on: November 21, 2019, 06:51:08 pm »
+2

I’m confused about what you are saying. By the end of act 1 / beginning of act 2, you should definitely be trying to focus your deck. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but if you don’t have any synergies going through act 2 and later, you’re definitely going to lose.
I think he's saying that previously his plan was "if I see a really heavy pattern like 3 Claws in my deck, or 3 Heatsinks in my deck, or 2 Barricade in my deck, that's when I will say it is time to commit to this specific strategy and start picking commons over rares for being on theme."

His new plan is "when I see my second Claw, or get a Heatsinks, or get a single all for one, I immediately start picking cards heavily based on theme."

This is a progression I've had too and I think it's largely because deck thinness is so important in the game and it doesn't have as much trashing as dominion, to the extent that that might be an apples to apples comparison.  So it's more important to quickly get to the point where you're skipping offtheme cards or at least picking cards that aren't damaging to a theme and that's more important than confirming you'll have several of the most powerful synergy cards from the same theme somewhere in your bloated deck.
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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #45 on: November 22, 2019, 02:38:16 am »
+1

I guess part of what I'm saying is that I'm starting to realise that adding cards that don't fit exactly what your deck is trying to do is not helpful from much earlier in the game than I first thought.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #46 on: December 07, 2019, 05:43:28 pm »
+1

Just beat the Corrupt Heart for the first time, Silent on Ascension 1. Got +250 gold from Neow, 2nd floor was a shop, bought Prismatic Shard because it sounded fun (also weak, but fun). Ended up with a deck that basically just outlasted enemies and could flood itself with low energy cost cards, which it could play thanks to lots of good card draw.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #47 on: December 10, 2019, 11:36:06 am »
0

I was considering getting this while it was on sale for Switch, but didn't end up doing so. The graphical style is somehow a huge downside for me. I wish there were a demo so that I could give it a shot. Barring that, I guess I'll pick it up if it ever goes on sale for $5 or less. That's about my impulse-buy price for games these days.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #48 on: December 10, 2019, 12:32:29 pm »
+1

The game is definitely ugly af and I think there's a way in which with Binding of Isaac grew on me and I got an appreciation for it but with Slay the Spire it's just like, I've seen this thing for the 90th time and it's still ugly.
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popsofctown

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Re: Slay the Spire
« Reply #49 on: December 10, 2019, 12:33:40 pm »
+6

I'm morally obligated to tell you to buy the game if it's gameplay is good even if the art is bad, though, because I am posting on a message board dedicated to dominion.
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« Last Edit: December 10, 2019, 12:34:52 pm by popsofctown »
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