Mecha Hoplite
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Most, if not all, of us have played some deck-building roguelikes. My question here isnāt which is your favorite, but over all that youāve players, which character classes have stood out as some of the most fun or intriguing?
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I have literally been playing Slay the Spire again today. The free fan sourced expansion Downfall is a blast, and I finally unlocked all of the characters in the alternate campaign.
After that it would be Monster Train. Nothing else comes even close. I have 434 hours of StS in just Steam alone (I have it on my iPad too for air travel) and Monster Train is at 91 hours. The next would be Dark Mist with a whopping 17 hours, not even close.
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I finally gave up on waiting for iOS cloud saves and started Slay the Spire on my iPad from scratch a few weeks ago; Iāve played at least one run a day. Since Iāve played StS on four devices (Mac, Switch, iPhone, iPad), I have no idea what my total hours are, but theyāve got to be insanely high.
I like Monster Train but I think I need it on mobile to really get into it. Certain games only click on certain platforms for me, and mobileās my preference for deck-building roguelikes.
To answer the question @Mirefox asked:
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The Professor in Dream Quest: building a deck from your opponentās cards is a cool way to flip deck-building on its head
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Varfa in Meteorfall: Journeys: why manage just one deck when you can manage multiple decks at once?
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The Defect in StS: donāt know how unique the orb-based system is but itās my favorite StS character by far
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The Watcher in StS: managing different stances was tough for me to figure out, but Iāve come to really enjoy this character as well
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Downloading Downfall now, and I havenāt beaten StS once yet!
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I was thinking of Varfa as I wrote this but Iām also currently playing Dawncaster and there are some builds I havenāt gotten around to yet that look intriguing. One set of cards in particular seems to have a bard/dancer mechanic where you begin a performance and then close with a finisher. There is no associated class, though, so you need to pick up the cards as you go. In fact, even though there are 6 or so classes in the game, it looks like there is a lot of āsubclassā potential based on the cards that you add.
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I somehow havenāt played Dawncaster yet. I assume youād recommend it?
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I would. There are 6 classes to chose from and a 7th class that I havenāt played but I believe is intentionally overpowered or can use all the cards or something.
Each class does feel different. The arcanist, for example, feels like your typical glass cannon spell slinger while the knight is more about the slower, defensive fights. Each class has its own progression system to unlock portraits, starting weapons, and weapon skills.
As for the game, you always have a choice of three places to go in any given area that include monsters, various merchants, āopportunities,ā and shrines to manipulate cards. Every victory gives you a chance to chose 1 of 3 cards to add to your deck. Cards come in varying rarity and can be upgraded. The cards themselves come in 4 different colors, plus a neutral. Some cards are mixed color, some instead can be paid for by health, and there is plenty of card manipulation. Some shrines, for example, let you swap the costs of cards, add keywords, etc. Many of the cards that can be found are more advanced than your starting cards. The arcanist, for example, tends to throw around spells of whatever basic element you build in to. But if you want, you can pick up dark magic-type cards where he is paying in blood, causing madness, etc. Iāve seen other āadvancedā card options that let you build shapeshifters, dancers, and seemingly an angelic being that ascends through different tiers of radiance. But you need to find these cards to build into these builds in-game.
Graphics are sharp, story is pointless, UI works wells. Overall it is good. There is an expansion that I havenāt bought and I suppose my only complaint thus far is that without the expansion to mix up zones, you will be playing the same exact path every run.
I bought the game when it was on sale for $3 and while I donāt have as much experience in the genre, not having played the PC-only games like Monster Train, itās pretty good.
Edit: Iād also add that it is very combo-heavy. There are some key words that trigger on combos and some that trigger based on playing a card first or the cardās position in your hand. I like this because you sometimes have to think about how youāre going to play your hand rather than just playing everything thoughtlessly.
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Thanks for the heads up - bought it today and really enjoying it. Feels finished and complete!
Might get expansion nowā¦.
Cool, I have a cross-country flight this weekend, so picked up Dawncaster to play on the plane. Looking forward to trying it out.
Iratus is free on the epic games store for the next couple of days. Itās taken more than a few pages out of the Darkest Dungeon book, with the twist being that you play it from the point of view of the bad guys.
I was a little irritated at first by itās brazen wholesale use of DDs mechanics (and itās mercifully short forced tutorial) but now the game is growing on me. Itās grown on me enough to recommend it at this price.
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Iratus is worth trying out for free. I will share my Steam review of it with you all though:
Slogging through normal mode takes forever, as even if you are doing bad, the game just keeps giving you life rafts (brains) to keep going. So there really does not appear to be a way to lose, meaning there is no challenge, and it just keeps going and going. I am literally on my first play-through and like 8 hours of gameplay (although to be fair, it is boring enough that maybe an hour or two of that is me just deciding to do something else before coming back.)
Maybe the next difficulty is a better experience with a challenge that is more than just a stamina test, but the truth is I am not all that motivated to try it when it just means a harder version of the same boring game.
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Holy wow - Dawncaster is amazing. The depth on the cards, the interactions, the ease to build and grow and combo your decks.
Won on normal with a Paladin and the Hunter to far. So enjoyable
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I am also enjoying it, and have only won with the Knight so far. My only minor complaint is that I wish there was more variation in the monsters/bosses.
Yeah, are there kind of like 3-4 monsters per zone?
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Iāve only managed wins as the arcanist, but in two very different ways. In my first, it was all lightning and I sat there chaining damage to extraordinary levels. The second I played almost all fire and relied on inflicting the burning status in large amounts.
I am absolutely terrible with the rogue class. Iāve lost in the first map with him a couple of times.
In Dawncaster, how are you all making it past that Swamp Boss, Bolgar something? I have only made it once, and I had a massive healing deck. He can tends to wipe me out in like 4-5 turns, and I just donāt have the opportunities to have decks with healing and cleanse in them that much.
I havenāt had any specific strategies against him other than going in with as much health as possible. Heās never given me too many problems so Iāll pay more attention to what I do when I next fight him.
What difficulty are you playing on? What class?
I just fought him and started around 45 HP. I was playing on normal difficulty and playing Arcanist. I was pretty much built glass canon, relying on chaining heavy lightning spells and hanging on to Gathering Storm for a big finale. I killed him in 4 rounds and he brought me down to 19 HP.
Like I said, I have only made it past him once. That was with the Knight. I think I am building slower decks and I need a faster one to get past him maybe. Poison and Bleed decks seem really slow against him.