Current Events > Should I purchase Slay the Spire for the Switch?

(+) Yeah! (+)

As many as you can handle. I feel like without Relics, even if you got some optimal cards and upgraded them via smithing, it would still be really hard to take out Act 3 bosses.

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How the crap do you play Watcher?

I'm gonna have to keep doing some experimenting. I played one game and I had no clue what to do.

Gonna go back to Silent and finish figuring that class out next. Might try my first ascension run on Ironclad soon, too.

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I just can't win with the Silent. I did the "get rid of your starting relic, get a boss relic" which gave me a Bell which gave me three relics. One of them was the Shuriken. So I figured, hey, I'll aim for the Shiv style deck. I even got the Boot early on.

Dead in Act 2. Smh.

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pegusus123456 posted...

I just can't win with the Silent. I did the "get rid of your starting relic, get a boss relic" which gave me a Bell which gave me three relics. One of them was the Shuriken. So I figured, hey, I'll aim for the Shiv style deck. I even got the Boot early on.

Dead in Act 2. Smh.

My wins with Silent have always been with stacking poison. There is a card that at the base doubles, and smithed TRIPLES the level of poison a target has. Had the Act 3 boss taking well over 60 poison per turn after a couple rounds.

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I've tried that on every other run, but I just can't win the war of attrition with it.

I act like I've done it a ton. I'm playing really casually though, so it's probably been ten or so runs <_<

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The thing is, you also have to play with the card options you get. I found my problem at first was I would go into a run trying to tailor it to what I wanted rather than what it was curving me into.

I've won 3 times with Ironclad. Once it was with a Block/Body Slam deck that came together like that. Another was through deck cycling that card that increases with every use plus Pommel Strike to get it back every other turn.

Act 1 I basically take the best card available. Act 2 is when I look at my entire deck and see what I can curve into.

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I got some pretty good cards for a Strength/Shiv build, I feel. Quite a few 0 cost attacks, a couple that did multiple small hits many times, and the power that put a Shiv in your hand each turn.

On the other hand, I did pass up two Catalysts, so maybe you have a point.

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The other thing I would ask is how big do you let your deck become?

Even if it is with a lot of 0 cost cards, having a deck beyond maybe 30 cards (IMO) is not ideal. Makes it too hard to have a card you NEED to survive another round pop up. I've had the best success with decks between 24-26 cards, usually having removed a couple Strikes and a couple base guard cards.

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That's a problem I have too, but I don't think I had enough time on this run to rack up that many.

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Just beat the Heart for the first time. Dead Branch + Corruption really is OP

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Ha, finally pulled it off. It was like a redemption run. Did the exact same thing and replaced my starting relic. Once again got the Bell. Once again got the Shuriken. Once again went for a Shiv build. Went much, much better. I even beat the Time Eater when he seems to directly counter this kind of deck. The big tipping point was probably the Shovel. Thanks to it, I had 22 relics on this run.



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please don't remove your neutralize it's an extremely good card

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PMarth2002 posted...

I'm curious, how many elites do you guys try to fight each act?

Acts 1 and 2 I try to get as many as possible within reason. Like if I have a choice between a path with 4 elites but no bonfires vs 2 elites with 1 or 2 bonfires, I'll usually go with the path with bonfires unless I know I can handle the elites without losing much HP.

Act 3 it depends on my deck + relics and who the boss is. If I feel like my "build" is good enough to beat the boss but might lose to a particular elite, I'll try to avoid the elites. If I feel like my build loses to the boss, I'll start going after the elites to try. And if my deck is steamrolling through everything, I'll take the elites since I'm most likely going to be able to steamroll them too

pegusus123456 posted...

Ha, finally pulled it off. It was like a redemption run. Did the exact same thing and replaced my starting relic. Once again got the Bell. Once again got the Shuriken. Once again went for a Shiv build. Went much, much better. I even beat the Time Eater when he seems to directly counter this kind of deck. The big tipping point was probably the Shovel. Thanks to it, I had 22 relics on this run.

In the future, with that blad dance and cloak and dagger set up, upgrading After Image to become Innate should be an EXTREMELY high priority. Also in higher ascensions, you won't be able to get by without more defense and card manipulation. So that many blade dances won't work as well even though they're giving you strength a bit of defense w/ After image (after After Image is played). Also Riddled with holes isn't... great.

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Stalolin posted...

2-3 but every time I fight an elite in act 3 I die. So usually none in act 3.

This.

kirbymuncher posted...

I dunno what to say if you took over 60 damage from the first hallway fight in a2...

what was your deck? what did you fight? were you wearing a blindfold?

Didn't get a chance to play yesterday but I'll look this info up when I can.

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Drpooplol posted...

Also Riddled with holes isn't... great.

Huh, I figured it was alright. It turns any strength gain into a x5.

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pegusus123456 posted...

Huh, I figured it was alright. It turns any strength gain into a x5.

True, and this was one of the few cases it worked for you with your du Vu doll and shuriken. The issue is that silent usually lacks for strength gain

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Oh, yeah, I wouldn't have taken it if it wasn't for that. Even with a shitload of strength, it was sometimes tough to find a place where spending two energy on it was worth it.

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kirbymuncher posted...

I dunno what to say if you took over 60 damage from the first hallway fight in a2...

what was your deck? what did you fight? were you wearing a blindfold?

Alright

Pure Water
Bag of Preparation
Slaver's Collar

Establishment
Empty Body
Eruption+
Conclude+
Follow-Up
4 x Strike
Deceive Reality
2 x Halt
Vigilance
Rushdown
Pressure Points
Parasite
Weave
4 x Defend

I took 68 damage. IIRC, it was the whatchamamonster that casts hex on you and I kept drawing a bajillion Dazed cards and could neither defend nor attack.

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DevsBro posted...

Alright

Pure Water
Bag of Preparation
Slaver's Collar

Establishment
Empty Body
Eruption+
Conclude+
Follow-Up
4 x Strike
Deceive Reality
2 x Halt
Vigilance
Rushdown
Pressure Points
Parasite
Weave
4 x Defend

I took 68 damage. IIRC, it was the whatchamamonster that casts hex on you and I kept drawing a bajillion Dazed cards and could neither defend nor attack.

-You didn't remove any Defends or Strikes. Watcher is the only character where you usually remove Defends first.
-Pressure Points is not good. In the extremely niche situations it is passable (to remove artifact or for tiny cycling decks), your deck isn't built to service those edge cases.
-You have Establishment, but no Meditate or Retain verbs (except for Deceive Reality after playing it twice) to use it.
-You have Weave but no Scry to use it.
-You only got one relic in all of Act 1. Your pathing wasn't aggressive enough. Aim for more Elites, stores, and events.
-You probably don't need 2 Halts.
-Slaver's Collar doesn't help you in hallway fights so you probably had energy issues.
-You don't have any cheap entries intro Calm to help with those energy issues.
-You have a curse (Parasite) which seems to indicate you didn't fight the mushroom rats in Act 1. Always fight them, they give a good relic. My bad if you picked it up an other way, but there's no reason to take curses in Act 1 95% of the time. The smaller the deck the worse curses hurt. Only exception is the super powerful relic that auto-upgrades cards each turn.
-Rushdown is great (because card draw is amazing), but try to find more sources of wrath to abuse it.

Basically there are some overly conservative pathing decisions and your cards/relics have no synergy.

in addition to all that^

I feel like you're really just plain lacking things that do damage. you've got your starter cards, a conclude+ (pretty good but ending turn can be awkward), a follow-up attack (barely strong than a strike), and a weave (pretty much useless to you without scry). One of watcher's strengths is very high damage output in early acts without much setup, so you should try to grab a few cards to really put on that damage and fight lots of elites act1. relics are very useful, even the ones that seem minor add up when you have lots of them

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Well some good info to take into account but some of this stuff is obvious but also prone to deck screwing.

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OMG
OMG
OMG
OMG

I ALMOST finally beat it with

Got to the Floor 2 Boss [The Knight ] and f'n destroyed it for 90% of the fight until he swung back at me for 48x2 and I couldn't quite finish it off

here is what I had -

I FINALLY got to see the power for all the Stance switching. I never get combos like this

https://i.imgur.com/EH25Jy8.jpg

My death -

https://i.imgur.com/W4WtAlm.jpg

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DevsBro posted...

Well some good info to take into account but some of this stuff is obvious but also prone to deck screwing.

You mean not drawing the right cards, or not having the right card options offered to you? Drawing can always mess you up if you're unlucky but in terms of card options watcher has so many good cards it's hard to be really left for dead on that front

Bad_Mojo posted...

My death -

you realy should make removing curses a very high priority. Aside from the fact that they're giving you constant negative effects, tthey also clog up your hand; I don't think it's that unimaginable you could have won this if you had 2 extra real cards there instead. but yeah, making good use of wrath stance is key to playing watcher and once you get used to this, things suddenly become way easier.

tbh I would almost say you should never carry a random curse into a boss fight unless you have no other choice (all rules have exceptions but just following this all the time will probably not lead you wrong)

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kirbymuncher posted...

You mean not drawing the right cards, or not having the right card options offered to you? Drawing can always mess you up if you're unlucky but in terms of card options watcher has so many good cards it's hard to be really left for dead on that front

Well drawing can be a problem too but Watcher probably has the best protection against that, with all the retaining you can do. But I meant more about getting card offers. or example, Weave but no scry options.

Also the Slaver's collar was because Act 1 boss relic options tend to be total garbage. Like, as in, I wish I could just decline on probably one in two or three runs.

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Got them both after my last store. Shit happens. I always delete cards, I like small decks.

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Hmm, I never switch my starting Relic. I'll try that for once for the fun of it

Pandora's Box

I now have 1 attack in my hand, lol

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Bad_Mojo posted...

Hmm, I never switch my starting Relic. I'll try that for once for the fun of it

Pandora's Box

I now have 1 attack in my hand, lol

I'd never take it on Ironclad or Defect. Ironclad has the best starting relic and is something you don't want to lose. Defect's isn't that great, but that extra bit of damage every turn and the ability to use that 1 card that evokes your orb without needing to set it up helps out a lot in Act 1.

Watcher and Silent on the other hand can consider it. They don't lose out on much by giving up their starting relic, so it could be worth trading it in. Getting a bad relic will still hurt though.

DevsBro posted...

Also the Slaver's collar was because Act 1 boss relic options tend to be total garbage. Like, as in, I wish I could just decline on probably one in two or three runs.

hmm

sounds like you really aren't appreciating the value of an extra point of energy enough. there's a few boss relics that are pretty disappointing all around (like the potion one lol) but a lot of the time a 4th energy is worth the downside of the relic as well

Bad_Mojo posted...

Got them both after my last store. Shit happens. I always delete cards, I like small decks.

I guess what I mean to say is that if there were no stores you could path to, you probably should have taken the other options in the events that you got these from. unless you got them from the card matching game in which case ):

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kirbymuncher posted...

I guess what I mean to say is that if there were no stores you could path to, you probably should have taken the other options in the events that you got these from. unless you got them from the card matching game in which case ):

I took one of them to get a free Relic. The other was take damage or a curse, and I was already pretty low on HP.

Take other routs. . .Yeah, well, I'm not the best player in the world, lol

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oh I was thinking the other one was from the 275 gold event (or however much it is, I know it's a ton). I probably wouldn't have taken the relic for a curse though without a way to remove it, some curses are really bad

either way seems like you're kinda getting the hang of the watcher so I'm sure you'll get past there soon enough

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Why does Calm seem to not reduce damage sometimes? You know those 3 mobs you fight that kind of look like crystals? They have 3 Artifact, the middle goes first, and then 1 and 3 attack. . .Well, if I use Calm at the start of the fight, I don't reduce any damage. Why is that?

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Bad_Mojo posted...

Why does Calm seem to not reduce damage sometimes? You know those 3 mobs you fight that kind of look like crystals? They have 3 Artifact, the middle goes first, and then 1 and 3 attack. . .Well, if I use Calm at the start of the fight, I don't reduce any damage. Why is that?

Calm in itself doesn't reduce damage. Wrath just doubles the damage you take. You start off with no stance so you take the same amount of damage as if you were in Calm

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Wait, what? If I play Calm at the start of some fights it will reduce the the damage of the first round of attacks. Sometimes it doesn't. You start out "normal" so what does Calm do for you but reduce damage? Oh wow, I guess it doesn't reduce the damage. . .Then how. . .then . . what? I f'n swear if I play Calm as my very first card it reduces the damage. . .but. . .okay, yeah, this is a Mandela Effect, lol

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Bad_Mojo posted...

Wait, what? If I play Calm at the start of some fights it will reduce the the damage of the first round of attacks. Sometimes it doesn't. You start out "normal" so what does Calm do for you but reduce damage? Oh wow, I guess it doesn't reduce the damage. . .Then how. . .then . . what? I f'n swear if I play Calm as my very first card it reduces the damage. . .but. . .okay, yeah, this is a Mandela Effect, lol

You're probably confusing the stance calm with the card that gives you 8 (I think) block and puts you into calm.

The stance itself just gives you a couple of energy when you exit it.

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Never buy anything digital on the switch, there's a no refund policy on there so if you get a game that runs like shit on it, tough shit.

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DevsBro posted...

Also the Slaver's collar was because Act 1 boss relic options tend to be total garbage. Like, as in, I wish I could just decline on probably one in two or three runs.

You can skip boss relics. Act 1 boss relics aren't any better or worse than act 2 relics. Its all the same pool.

DevsBro posted...

You're probably confusing the stance calm with the card that gives you 8 (I think) block and puts you into calm.

The stance itself just gives you a couple of energy when you exit it.

Which frankly is a much better effect than a few points of block.


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there's also a power that gives you block when you end turns in calm, which maybe you had for a few runs in a row and forgot it's not a default effect of calm (I made this mistake a lot at first)

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Also if you guys want high-level StS content, check out this dude named Jorbs, he's insanely good at the game.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpjr4aOTbpvat8Y77e8dd_Q

And he has some really detailed "overexplained" runs, where he takes over 3 hours to get to the 2nd act boss from discussing his thoughts so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Pjl-ydx4g&t=7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skOUhJyWvgI&t=8468s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdE_vtx2Hcs&t=12s

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Yeah jorbs is my favourite StS player by a long way, his streams on Twitch are great too

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I'm so terrible at Defect. Finally got what I thought was a decent deck and I still managed to get killed by a fucking Act 2 regular mob lol

Don't think I've ever had a winning Defect deck that didn't revolve around Creative AI/Storm

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Hey, its this topic. Im the guy from post 2 who was debating getting this game. I did grab it, but didnt install until yesterday. I then proceeded to dump six hours into it. What a great game.

I regressed as Watcher. Cant even get past the first boss. Also Ironclad is still super hard for me for some reason?!!!

NeoShadowhen posted...

Hey, its this topic. Im the guy from post 2 who was debating getting this game. I did grab it, but didnt install until yesterday. I then proceeded to dump six hours into it. What a great game

lmao

Stalolin posted...

I regressed as Watcher. Cant even get past the first boss. Also Ironclad is still super hard for me for some reason?!!!

Ironclad doesn't have any cheap passive abilities like Silent's poison or Defect's orbs. I think this is the main reason he was tough for me.

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Got my first victory on Silent this morning. I was impressed how much synergy a Silent deck can get between it's cards and the artifacts. Was regularly getting turns with 6+ energy, playing upwards of 10 or so cards a turn between low cost and card draw. It was pretty fun. I had the shapes boss for Act 3 and it honestly was a cake walk.

Definitely feels like early game Acts 1 and parts of 2 are harder on Silent than Ironclad.

Gonna move onto Defect next. Still haven't tried and Ascension runs.

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@NeoShadowhen

Really happy you're enjoying it.

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i really had more trouble with silent than anyone else. I still havent unlocked everything for defect and watcher.

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...

Fuck the time keeper boss.

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