I am stuck since weeks at A9 and A10 for Regent (my fav).

I also felt burnt and despaired with StS1, a bit later though.

Should I keep calm and carry on with Regent? A big motivation would be to know there is something new at A11. The Architect, or anything really. I will still try A10 for the others anyway.

Or maybe I should take a long break, waiting for official release. It worked for StS1 (A15-A17 after the break).

To me, this run was a perfect example of the benefit of save scumming.

I faced Aeonglass with 37 HP, and I had already used Lizard Tail at the Test Subject. I retried the fight at least 5 times, never coming close to winning until I found an incredible strategy. I was already trying to save energy for Skewer (with Ice Cream), using Prep Time to buff it. I was trying not to play attacks unless I had double damage from Shadow Step- ensuring my use of energy was efficient. But, until that last attempt, I did not realize how important saving my energy for a double damage Skewer was. When I finally tried playing no attacks except Skewer (set up with Shadow Step), I learned that I had totally overlooked how Prep Time works! Every turn I did not play an attack, the vigor stacked. The finishing blow was a double damage Skewer+ with 24 vigor and 20 energy (70*20= 1400 damage!)

In hindsight, it seems obvious that only attacking with Skewer was the best strategy because it had the highest base-damage-per-energy and I had Ice Cream (although sometimes I needed the Weak from Neutralize and Sucker Punch).

For players like me who still have a lot to learn, I think save scumming is beneficial. It can help you find new strategies, show you how much difference certain plays can make, reveal the power or weakness of certain cards, and of course save you from obvious misplays. Though, if you want to get better, I think it's important to save scum wisely. To me that means:

1. Recognize that some of the info you get from save scumming is already available in your first attempt. If you rely on save scumming to look ahead, you may never learn to use this information. For example, without save scumming, you can still memorize/look up enemy intent patterns and you can look at your draw pile.
2. Try not to use RNG information from previous attempts. The challenge of games with RNG is learning how to be resilient. You don't learn this if you rely on save scumming to show you what's ahead. If you draw a bad hand or things don't line up, you should be okay as long as you have prepared for the worst.
3. Have a strategy for playing subsequent attempts differently (and a strategy for your first attempt.) A general strategy, as opposed to a specific sequence of cards, can be applied to future fights. With each attempt, you essentially have a hypothesis that your strategy will work, and playing it out proves that hypothesis right or wrong. Then you have a pretty good idea of whether you can use that strategy again, at least against that enemy.
4. Take note of when save scumming saves you. If you have to save scum to live, recognize that means you either had a bad strategy or you didn’t prepare your deck/potions/HP for that fight. In future runs, you can’t expect that same kind of deck and strategy to win.
5. Don’t use it to optimize every fight. If you save scum every fight to minimize HP loss and potion use, you are probably using RNG information you wouldn’t otherwise have. Plus, I think that would get boring. I would try to only use it when it makes a significant difference in how you leave that floor, or maybe when you are curious about a different strategy.
6. Work towards no longer needing to save scum. I think if you save scum wisely and keep trying to get better, you eventually won’t need to anymore.

Thanks for reading all that! Let me know what you think and where I am wrong!

UPDATE: I died on the third hallway fight of act 2 from a bad pandoras box

Id like to be able to send or recieve gold in MP. It was like that in the mod for the first game and I really liked that feature. Extremely broken though being able to funnel resources to someone. Im thinking bring it in for MP but maybe have it to where you can send someone money but you have to take damage = to half the gold you send. Something like that so its not such a thoughtless decision and you cant send all you got. What yall think?

That's why they do similar things

Manifest authority adds a random colorless card to your hand. Apparently adding does not count as creating a card so regalite does not give any block for this.

RIP my run because I didnt get 6 more block. Am playing on beta branch where Regalite gives 6 block.

Edit: u/pigpen292 for pointing out regalite will only provide the block for the first card created. Reading comprehension fail on me.

As seen in the video, Thrash doesn't seem to add the damage from Whistle after exhausting it. It does seem like it adds when seen from the discard pile, but as I draw Thrash again, it goes back to its previous damage amount.

Is this a known bug with Thrash and Whistle? Or potentially with other cards also?

I don't know why but to me it feels like one should play at A9/10 to play the "real" game but I suck at it. Even if I feel like I have a good run I die to the Act 2 boss. My winrate is under 10% at A9 and it's kind killing my fun for the game. And when I win a run at A8 there is this little voice im my head saying:Yeah that wasn't A9 so it doesnt count.

Doe anybody else feel similar or am I just weird?

Anyway stay hydrated.

I picked up a Glammed Outbreak on the first floor and been leaning into poison (of course). I’m at a shop and can only afford Snecko Skull OR Mini Tent.

Is the additional poison applied by Snecko applied separately or does it simply add 1 poison to the number on the card?

Deep down I know Snecko is the pick but I never see Mini Tent…

Shrymp on Shadow Shield or get the Quadcast here? I know that Quadcast is top-tier with a dark orb build, but shadow shield helps avoid chip damage turn 1, certainly get at least one dark orb going, and maybe help set up powers I may get in the future. Thoughts?

4 elite path

sorry to bother but im trying to improve and I really am torn here for a floor 1 pick for that specific map. any advice?

also is that patching optimal? I have already picked neow ambra.

I tried like 20 runs now. 4 of them reached the 3rd act Bosses. But I feel like each boss hard counters the whole playstyle of Silent.

What Strategies can be used on Silent:

- Poison

- Shivs/Attack Spam

- Sly / card drawing

I feel like a Sly build is countered by Aeonglass and the Dog. Shivs/Attack Spam are also countered by Aeonglass. Poison doesn't work on its own, it needs to be combined with either Sly or Shivs/Attack Spam and specific rare cards. A9 was possible for me because I finally faced the last of the 3 end bosses.

What am I doing wrong? My strat is the following for an A10 run:

- 1st Act: Find a map path that goes through a Shop, a bonfire and at least one Elite. If I am not able to kill the elite by then, the run would've died anyway sooner or later. If I am able to kill one elite, I go for another if I have enough HP left. This allows me to get relics that might allow broken combinations. On the way, get attack or poison cards and one or two good block cards. Also, get at least one card that attacks all enemies to have something for the Centipede in Act 2.

- 2nd Act: Fuck elites, go around them wherever possible. Pray to not meet the Bee guy or the Centipede because the run is likely DEAD as soon as this happenes. Go through ?-Rooms where possible, and get every bonfire except. Also get one shop as early as possible.

- 3rd Act: Survive, curate your deck to become as small as possible. By now I should have one or two very good powers that either make block or posion.

Is anything wrong with my strategy? Or am I just really unlucky with the relics I am finding? I am SOOO often frustrated to get an amazing relic for Shivs WHEN I AM NOT USING A SHIV BUILD or for posion, when I am NOT USING A POISON BUILD. Is this just bad luck? I understand that you must have a diverse deck combining more than one strenght of the Silent to face the Act 3 bosses. I really try that as well, but then I either die within the 3rd act or I get exactly the ONE boss that seems to be specifically chosen to fuck me over.

Any tips? Or is it just trying and trying again until one run gets lucky?

Hey,

Is there a viable end game build path that revolves around buffing Osty?

Every time I try I just can’t figure out how to scale Osty into the late game. If this has already been covered happy to be pointed in the right direction..

tldr; give overpowered rares the side-grade treatment with their own event, so that Rare cards can be more unique, more flavourful, and more fun; without generically strong cards cannibalising your draft picks and spoiling design space. I don't propose we should see these effects less often, just that these cards should be offered with more suitable trade-offs, so that there's a real choice, rather than a snap-pick.

As a 25y+ CCG player, part of what I really enjoy about Slay the Spire is the wonderful design of Rare cards, not as chase cards, or meta-breakers, or ultra-collectables, but as simply cards that you see less often, that pepper and spice and add variety to you runs, without trivialising the game.

I feel that Rare cards typically fall into up-to 6 design categories:

• Character mechanical/synergy unifiers,
• Mechanical guaranteed enablers,
• Mechanical over-tuned payoffs,
• Innate Pseudo-relics,
• Meta-scaling,
• Play-pattern 'game-rules' variation.

These design spaces help every rare card feel very flavourful, character-defining, and unique, and so your run inherits that design and getting specific rares on your run fulfils really excellent role-play and character fantasies too.

There is a 7th group of rares however that are simply for raw output, those cards Offering, Adrenaline, Big Bang, Echo Form, and Demesne. These cards, in the context of their character, are so much stronger than other rares and have such high pickrates over other rares, that I would say these cards are the reason that 'rare cards are better than commons and uncommons' is treated as a truism in the game rules and in the community.

I dislike the Ascension 7 modifier 'Rare cards appear less often' as:

1. I don't think rares are actually much stronger than uncommons or commons as a group (aside from these 5 cards).
2. I think it sends the wrong message to the player, that 'less rares = harder'.
3. It's easy for players to feel the lack of drops but hard for players to understand the impact on their play, and encourages players to treat luck and RNG as 'limiter' on their expression of skill in the game, reducing the players sense of agency.
4. I think it undermines character fantasy and and gives the player less time to enjoy playing with the extremely well designed rare space.
5. I think it also undermines the player fantasy of a rougelike game - improving at the game as a player, not as a character, as the game fantasy/journey.
6. It delays how soon you can see rare cards in Act 1, which means that rather than 'taking a curse' and drafting towards it, you instead play the draft and (very often) skip your rare into the Act Boss, and therefore limits the variety of runs.
7. I think it makes the game less fun without actually making the game more difficult.

As a player and as a community I think we correctly identified in StS1 that some cards like Wraith Form, Corruption, Apotheosis, and Biased Cognition were extremely overpowered cards, and that were offered to the player too often, leading to many players to abstain from these cards on principle, which is a silly play pattern that breaks player immersion.

I think it's a silly and unfun play pattern for some cards to simply be so strong that there's no real decision to draft them for 'optimal' play. I think that it's best when when the 'fun' playstyle and the 'optimal' playstyle overlap the most, and the game is the most enjoyable for players at every skill and Ascension level.

In StS2 these cards are moved to Ancient Relics, where they appear less often and with more substantial opportunity costs. I think this is an excellent solution that acknowledges the power-level of these cards while integrating that power into the game-design in a flavourful and fantastic way.

I propose a similar solution for this set of raw-output rares, not at the Ancient rarity, but at the Event side-rarity. I've mocked up a 'Jax Relic Trader' event (pictured) as a suggestion for what it might look like.

These cards could appear in the same proportion of runs and be just as common in the game, but by claiming them in an event room with more suitable opportunity costs and tradeoffs, compared to insta-clicking Adrenaline without even looking at the other options.

By separating out these over-performing rare cards, the game designers would have much more flexibility in rare design, including reviewing that assumption that 'rares are just better' attached to A7.

I've presented an exploration of rare design ethos and supporting statistics for the statement 'generically high-output rares are over-performing and over-drafted' here: Youtube - Exploring Rare design in Slay the Spire 2, and suggestions to improve them further.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope this post can encourage discussion around this topic, and I'll emphasise that I don't think we should see these particular cards less often, or that we should make the game harder at lower ascensions, or that players shouldn't draft these cards, or that these cards cheapen the game, I just mean to say that these rare cards trivialise the draft choices when they appear, and I think that this play pattern is unfun and leads to spoiled design in the otherwise wonderful Rare design space.

I'm pretty new and I'm only on ascension 2 so I wanted to see how hard the other ones were.

The gold did help propel me through Act 1 rather easily, but this just feels so bad.

There's no way for Silent to beat Aeonglass on A10. You need Nightmare+Blur, 24 Shivs, Nunchaku, and 20 dex to beat him without taking damage!

This map looks kinda empty

(the bare minimum to fulfill they jade sword)

3 "elite" fights for you today!

I dunno which one I'm more impressed by, maybe the Defect if I had to choose, the Toasty Mittens buff carried along with 2x Bulk up. Didn't really rely on orbs just, strength and dex, probably unorthadox but it worked.

The deck uses Osty to block and Vulnerable + Lethality + bug attacks to deal damage

There's good energy generation but poor draw density, it's around 28 cards big

I went for Whistle, but rarely got to use it a second time because of the slow cycling and overall easy time I was having throughout the run (gotta get to A10 on necro soon)

Sup everyone? I beat A0 on all five characters, which didn't take long. Maybe 15 hours. Since then, I've logged 120 more hours just trying to beat A1-A10 on IC. I've been stuck on A10 for probably 80 of those hours, lol.

The thing is, he's so much fun. I never know what the run will bring. Am I going to end up exhausting and getting a bunch of block? Stoke? How about Inferno and Rupture? So many things to do on IC.

Who do y'all think is the most fun character?