I have not been play base game much lately, mostly Downfall and other mods. But here are some wins on base characters from last year to give you some ideas:
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How are you approaching it? My best runs come when I’ve got something to build around, as most of the heroes have some pretty clear archetypes (eg, Body Slam for the Ironclad, poison for the Silent, etc). Each hero does have multiple directions you can go, of course. That direction doesn’t become clear until I get at least one rare card, usually, so I push for those early. And I don’t take basic cards that don’t fit an archetype—most of them only work well in one deck.
I try not to fight elite battles unless I’m sure my deck is strong enough and my health is relatively high. Relics can be great, but I’d rather save gold and buy them at the shop than go up against a monster that might kick my butt.
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I try to fight all elite battles on the first map, on the 2nd it depends on how my deck has shaped up. It is rare on the 3rd unless I have to. But on the first map, I literally try to path to hit as many elites/campgrounds as possible.
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Keeping in mind that I’ve only beaten the game (I understand that getting to the heart is not technically a victory) as the ironclad and I’ve only beaten Ascension 1, here’s how I’ve been playing:
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I tend to build around whatever powerful card I find first, especially if it is a power.
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I tend to fight every elite I can, especially in the first Act or 2, because relics seem awfully important.
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I try to thin out my deck as much as possible through merchants, especially the starting cards.
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I don’t always take card rewards. I even pass up rare cards if they don’t seem to fit my build (maybe this is a mistake?)
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My most successful runs have been from using Perfected Strike+ and grabbing as many Strike cards as possible, plus cards that double my attacks. I may have won with on block deck but my success has come primarily from this.
Are there any specific cards for each character I should be on the lookout for to build a deck around? Part of my problem may be that I’m not seeing the obviously powerful cards in the right way.
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I’ve found https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/ to be really helpful identifying for StS hero archetypes and what cards are great building blocks.
Off the top of my head, since I’ve been playing a ton of Ironclad runs on my iPad lately, my favorite building blocks for that hero:
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Barricade: great paired with cards that let you stack up a ton of block (Impervious, Ghostly Armor, Flame Barrier) and a Body Slam or two
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Juggernaut: works well with the above block cards, but also things like Metallicize and Rage, as the amount of block you gain isn’t as important as gaining it regularly.
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Fire Breathing: Ironclad has useful cards that throw a ton of junk into your deck (Power Through, Immolate, Wild Strike, Reckless Charge), so Fire Breathing lets those cards do damage. Helps to have cards like Second Wind or Sever Soul that exhaust non-attacks so your deck isn’t complete garbage against elites.
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Demon Form: get a ton of strength and overwhelm your opponent quickly. Really nice with Heavy Blade, and I set a personal Ironclad high score the other day with a Demon Form deck that had two Reapers in it. Let my strength climb over a couple of rounds, then hit enemies with Reaper and gained back most of the HP I’d lost.
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Ok, I’ve played quite a lot of Slay the Spire over the last two weeks and my opinion is that is it…just ok?
I played enough to unlock everything on each of the 4 characters. I “beat” the game with each at least once. I did make it to the last act once and got absolutely destroyed by the mini boss right before the final boss. I had no desire to do that again.
I will give credit where credit is due and acknowledge that while StS wasn’t the first, it was one of the games that really drew attention to the genre. Also, the two more advanced characters were unique and interesting. The first two, not so much.
Part of my issue is that I didn’t feel there was enough variety. Every run felt the same. It’s a problem inherent in the genre but StS felt more repetitive than others. I also wasn’t excited by many of the cards.
Maybe part of my apathy comes from having played similar games that I think are probably newer and better. I like Dawncaster far more, for example.
I’m glad I put my time into it and while I didn’t accomplish everything I could (Ascension 20? Sounds insane), I think I got my money’s worth. I don’t know that I see it as one that I keep coming back to but time will tell.
Leaving for a holiday trip today and I’m going to put time into Monster Train. And probably plenty more Dawncaster.
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So the more I play Across the Obelisk, the more I really like it. There are two main game modes.
The first is a roguelike, but with progression between games where you unlock new characters, cards and modes. So if you want to play it for all of the unlocks you can.
Once you have a character at level 3 in the “campaign mode” you unlock a more traditional Roguelike experience, where you start from scratch each run. It has a really cool setup though, as you build your starting deck with “packs” of 3 cards per pack (and you can see the cards). Then you get some character boosts and a pick at a piece of equipment. So there is a lot of controlled random elements at the beginning of a run that gives you a very fresh feel each attempt.
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I do like that game as well - I played a lot of early access up to the third map. Haven’t been able to crack the fourth yet!
Looks like Dawncaster just dropped a major expansion.
Anybody tried it out yet?
Just as I thought I was out…
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Thanks for the head’s up. I’ve put enough time into the game that another expansion is a no brainer for me. It might be a couple days before I get around to it, though.
The base game is also on sale for anyone who hasn’t bought the game yet.
Whoa whoa whoa, I was duped. I believe the new expansion is free. However, there is some cosmetic banner for $3.99 bearing the same name as the expansion, and it is completely pointless to me.
As far as the new content, I played one game as a divine knight and saw some new cards but didn’t build anything new.
I do like that you can pick where your next map will be, though.
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Has anyone tried Tacape on iOS?
They just gave some more news on Dawncaster, from their Discord channel:
GET READY FOR ’ Masks of Misery '!
Masks of Misery will be our 3rd content expansion, set to release the 17th this April, and will cost $4.99 (or a comparative amount in local currency).
The expansion contains three brand new maps, exploring some of the turmoil within Brightcandle after some of its most noteworthy citizens go missing. We will briefly leave Aethos itself and visit a mysterious isle far outside the Shattered Realms, and finally we’re invited to revisit an old ‘friend’ …
Each map will offer a wide array of new enemies, mini-bosses and bosses for both the main game and the Sunforge.
Alongside the content expansion we will also launch our free mini expansion of 40+ brand new cards to aid you in the fight against the ‘macabre, the strange and the sinister’. In these next couple of weeks we’ll post some of the new cards to ease the wait, as well as continue to update the game in preparation for the launch of MoM. (People experiencing some bugs with certain cards/talents that trigger on inflicting afflictions will have already seen some of the un-intended consequences of some behind the screen updates ^^’).
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I’m always down for more content. I would love, though, if they could think up a new class.
I tried out Pirates Outlaws on iOS since it is dirt cheap. It is a fairly competent Slay the aspire clone that does little to excite me but doesn’t offend me much (except for that stupid name…something about it screams “bad/cheap localization). Many things in the game are locked behind gold, which is earnable; I’m just hoping it can be earned at a reasonable enough rate that it doesn’t feel like I am being forced into buying the currency with real money. I also wish the cards had text on them, but that is a nitpick. I may continue to play a run here and there but this one is too much exactly like StS to have gotten it’s hooks in me - not that StS is bad but that I’ve already played this game before, more or less.
The unfortunate thing about the iOS version of Pirates Outlaws and its purchase regime is that it does not allow for purchase of a full unlock. Unfortunately they went down the path of having users buy some coin doubler thing which helps double the pace of unlocks but still places dependency on grinding for access.
The PC version I understand does not have this.
For iOS, they could have kept the doubler if they really insisted but then also added a full unlock price.
As it is now, even with the doubler, there is grind required to access the next maps and characters. Compare to StS where unlocking the next character is just by beating a run with previous character, where for Pirates Outlaws you will have to either beat many, many runs, or work out the most economic point to jump off and start again run, after run after run.
I really enjoyed what I played of Pirates Outlaws but ultimately I think it was the purchase regime that had me give up.
I don’t mind grinding per se as I will usually grind away in these games to unlock everything. When it feels as though they’ve purposefully made it overly-expensive to “force” IAPs I have a problem.
Dawncaster is running a little challenge on Discord where they post a weekly challenge and you post your high scores within their constrictions. The winners may have a chance to design their own card for a future expansion.
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On a completely other topic…
Rogue Legacy 2 has its hooks in me…
Damn this genre, keeping me away from all the other good stuff…pretty sure something with a capital D released recently, but eh…
Is it a good step up from the first?