• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

Help me be less terrible at Slay the Spire

Welp, I somehow went from "A9 might be where I stop playing" to "I've beaten A9 with every character" in the span of three days. Topped it off today with an absolute dream of a Defect run. I was offered the Golden Pearl as my starter relic and saw a shop at the second level, so I went for it and was immediately rewarded with the Miniature Tent (one of my favorite relics). My first two card rewards were Rocket Punches, I picked up an Overclock soon after, and I was off to the races. Picked up a couple more status-creating cards and was rewarded with Flak Cannon after beating the first boss. It was one of those magical runs where everything else falls into place. My Act 3 relic ended up being the Cleaver, which was an insane synergy pick alongside Miniature Tent and let me trim every single bit of fat from the deck before the final boss.

This was one of my favorite runs I've ever had. Give me this deck any day of the week.

(Also, I somehow ended up with eight potion slots. It was so many that it pushed the clear time all the way over to cover the seed! Look at this.)

mSU2w88.jpeg
 
Thanks! With what I've learned over the weekend, I think A10 will be doable, it's just a matter of time. I nearly got there with the Silent today, but my first boss in Act 3 was Aeonglass and I was one or two turns too slow to win the fight. I'm gonna keep at it for now.
 
Got my first A10 win tonight! After failing to get off the ground with Ironclad for a couple of days, I randomly switched to the Regent and won on my first attempt. I honestly didn't even think this deck was anything special, aside from the honestly hilarious relic combo of Dragonfruit (gain one max HP every time you gain gold), Chosen Cheese (gain one max HP after every combat), and Emerald Aubergine (enemies drop an extra 15 gold). So starting somewhere in Act 2, I was gaining three max HP after every single combat encounter.

27OVakB.jpeg


If you're wondering about the randomly upgraded basic Strikes and Defends, it's because the Fishing Rod was my best option for the Act 1 relics and by best, I mean "least worst". History Course was very nice, but the real MVP was actually the Crossbow relic from Tanx. Even without any synergy for creating cards, being able to get a random free attack every turn ended up being the lift this deck needed to get through encounters quickly. Cloak Clasp also helped shore up the defensive side, and double BEGONE! plus Photon Cut and Glimmer meant that I didn't have to fear Aeonglass too much. That was my first Act 3 boss, and I only ended up taking five damage in that fight. I went into the Queen with almost full health (I think I was at 98/110) and just had to keep a cool head since that boss isn't too tough.

I'm confident I can win with all the characters now. After that, I think I'll probably chill for a while and come back to the game once it's out of early access. Unless I manage to line up a multiplayer run with anybody, which I still haven't done!
 
Trying to beat A10 with Ironclad is frustrating as hell. After a week of runs that mostly failed to get anywhere (with a few exceptions that died at either of the final bosses), just now I was at the second Act 3 boss with an absolutely killer deck. I was fighting the Queen, I got down to just her and was a couple of turns from winning. She was about to attack for 45 and I was at 42. I just needed to survive her next attack to turn the corner, and...I failed to draw a single block card.

In hindsight, I probably should've focused more attacks on her instead of on her minion early on. But either way I'm posting this in hopes that the age-old tradition of "complain about a thing on the internet so you beat it next time" will hold true.
 
I've been playing Ironclad a bit lately, myself, though I only just cleared A2 last night. I had a nice-ish A2 with him the previous run but, kinda like what happened with you, I lost to the Queen in Act 3 when I only needed like 1 extra turn to win. However that was also after save-scumming the fight 4 or 5 times lol, so my deck had some Issues that time. Still, my next A2 run with him went well and I had a pretty strong-feeling deck, even if I still end up with too bloated of a deck a lot of the time.

I got everyone to Ascension 2 and then I decided I should focus on 1 character to push Ascension levels and see how far the modifiers go. I never really got deep into Ascension in the first game. Hades is really the only roguelike where I've pushed those difficulty modifier-type things (even in Monster Train I didn't do it much).
 
YangusKhan said:
that was also after save-scumming the fight 4 or 5 times
Click to expand...
No shame in playing the game how you want to play the game! You bought it to have fun, do what's fun.

YangusKhan said:
I got everyone to Ascension 2 and then I decided I should focus on 1 character to push Ascension levels and see how far the modifiers go. I never really got deep into Ascension in the first game. Hades is really the only roguelike where I've pushed those difficulty modifier-type things (even in Monster Train I didn't do it much).
Click to expand...
I didn't do any Ascensions in the original Slay the Spire because I felt like it was hard enough (cf. this thread's title), but for whatever reason this time around it felt more natural to keep going. I will say, in my own experience, going up the Ascensions has definitely made me a better player and a better deck builder, but it can absolutely be a tough road. I took the opposite route and decided to raise every character evenly. Firstly because it kept me from getting bored if I got stuck with a particular character, but also I liked being exposed to all the different things each character could do and broadening my general knowledge pool that way.

Having gotten everyone up to A10, I would honestly say there aren't that many difficulty spikes once you know what you're doing. A1 - A5 feels relatively flat, A6/7 are a little annoying, A8 is a step up, and then A9/10 are their own world beyond that. I don't think I'll continue playing on A10 after I get a win with everyone!
 
I got a nice streak with Ironclad from A2->A5 where I only lost once. I largely built the same kind of deck every time, but I do think the run I lost was when I tried forcing the same deck again, but the pieces weren't coming.

So anyway, I do think going deep on Ascensions has helped me get better at the game in general. I have become a bit more judicious when adding cards to my deck, and I really keep my eye out for the early powerful cards worth building around. Also just knowing that I can kind of rely on Colorless cards at the merchant for efficiently filling some holes in my deck if it comes to that (I'm talking about like generically strong Block or card draw).
 
Nice job! Always fun to get on a win streak.

On the flipside, I have not broken my losing streak while chasing an A10 Ironclad victory. It's been like two weeks straight of losing, so it's time to take a break. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, and I can't seem to figure out why I suddenly can't cross the finish line anymore. I can identify what a deck needs to win and where its holes are, but I still have trouble knowing what to do when I'm not offered any ways to fill said holes. I'll get there eventually, with a clearer head.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top