Slay the Spire is a pretty cool game

[agris]

This is literally my first and only game that involves cards. I can't say cards were a problem.

Star Traders: Frontiers man, check out a gameplay video or something. It was my first (and only) game with cards, and it convinced me that the mechanic doesn't need to be shit.

Although they feature less prominently than they appear to here. I haven't played StS, but saw it come up in the 2019 GOTY results and was looking for a couch-friendly game.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I picked this up during the sale last week and have already sunk nearly 40 hours into. I've also ignored my responsibilities as a parent to play this game while "taking care of" the baby and letting my wife sleep ("eh, he's 3 feet away from all electrical outlets, I can squeeze in a floor or two"). Game is addictive as fuck. I won my very first run with the Ironclad and my 2nd attempt with the Defect, but I cannot make any headway with the Silent after like 40 runs. Rarely even make it past the Act 2 boss. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, but am having difficulty seeing where. I tend to focus on shedding basic defends and strikes and gaining defensive cards for Act 1, poison or spike damage as a secondary priority. Generally take on Elites for Act 1 although those sentries sometimes really fuck me. For Act 2 I try to focus more on getting spike damage, debuffs, and poison, and I avoid elites as best I can. Priority cards across the board are Acrobatics, Prepared, Alchemize, Tools of the Trade, Burst, Backstab, and Flying Knee. Where am I going wrong here?

 

[J1M]

Sounds like you need some kind of evade to survive longer.

Maybe forgetting to use potions.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

and I avoid elites as best I can

That's generally a no-no with the potential caveat that sometimes, SOMETIMES in high ascension it's worth trying to avoid elites so your HP has a more comfortable buffer against the boss. You almost always want to hit as many elites as possible though, since they're your most reliable way of increasing your power (Better card rarity in their rewards and of course the relic which can really kick your deck into overdrive) and by taking elites you can strengthen yourself so you can take elites easier and then snowball until you can stick your thumb up the boss' ass.

Like J1m mentioned, probably your stumbling point is not enough defense. Silent often thrives on playing defensively and using poison or Thousand Cuts or some other relatively "Passive" damage (Cloak and Dagger works too, as do Caltrops), with one or two handy cards like Skewer for dumping mana and kicking out larger damage. Footwork and Leg Sweep are some of the best defensive cards among the characters and Silent can play a solid defensive game. And when I say poison, you don't have to go ham on it. One or two sources of poison can do, you don't want to bloat your deck so you get a hand of all attack cards and then catch a hyper beam to the face. One or two upgraded poison cards and maybe an upgraded Catalyst (Since you do need SOME speed for bosses and elites) will probably do you.

Also worth mentioning that your skill in each act will improve as you get more used to the game. Heading into act 2 for example, there are a lot of really strong group-fights, so sources of AoE damage are much more valuable in act 2 than act 1. On the flip side, you mention gaining defensive cards in act 1 where you should focus on offensive cards in act 1. Even to the point of taking some fairly ho-hum cards just so they're better than basic strikes. You need those offensive cards to get through the act 1 elites, especially if you take the most elite-heavy route possible, which will stack up the most relics and most uncommon and rare cards to keep you trucking through act 2.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm not a good player, I'm on Ascension 3ish, but I found Silent the easiest to do OP regular runs once I got the hang of it.

You can stack poisons until kingdom come (e.g. nightmare -> upgraded 3x poison card = suddenly boss has like 600 poison damage ticker)... even better if you can get the relic that transfers the ticker to the next enemy.

Or you can stack on card draws & shivs until you're playing like 18 cards a turn and going through your entire deck every two turns - add in anything that adds damage per attack, and you're doing a thousand cuts to everybody every turn.

On regular runs I think you generally want to hunt for elites for relics - if you're always running away from them you're trapping yourself into being gimped.

 

[tripedal]

Came back to it after a year or so in order to try the Watcher but I couldn't get into it...

 

[Jasede]

The Watcher is boring.
The game is great fun. Try getting those Ascension 20's!

I quit after they added the watcher but I played several hundred hours to get A20 and the heart with everyone.

I'm going to disagree with Eyestabber slightly. Some defense is important but the higher Ascension you go the more important it becomes too kill things fast. When you're a new player you avoid elites, when you get better you hunt them down like they're a reward, barring specific situations. Early and powerful offense is key to being able to take out elites. I tend to ignore them on the third stratum, though, unless the run is exceptional.

 

[Curratum]

A lot of reviews I see for the game claim RNG plays too much of a role and often ruins the fun. How true is that?

 

[Jasede]

It can feel that way when you're just starting out. And it getting feeling that way as you get better because you keep increasing the Ascension level. But once you're comfortable with 10+ Ascension and then crank the difficulty back to 0 for a lark you basically can't lose and realize that what you used to blame on bad RNG was just poor planning on your part.

I'll say that A20 feels very RNG though, but again, that's the absolute top of difficulty and completely optimal.

 

[Curratum]

I don't even have any idea what Ascension is. Is that like NG+ diff spikes you choose to impose on yourself?

 

[Berekän]

Yes, every ascension level is basically a + on NG, with each level adding a new different handicap, say you no longer heal after bosses, elites have more health, etc... with all these being cumulative.

 

[panda]

I don't like ascension above 15 becuase it limits decks way too much IMO, e.g. pretty much only block stacking for Ironclad or poison for Silent(especially if you aim for the heart), but below that you can run with almost any sane deck or even risky one(Searing blow ftw!) and have fun with it. Highest ascension offers really tough challenge for those who wants one.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I don't like ascension above 15 becuase it limits decks way too much IMO, e.g. pretty much only block stacking for Ironclad or poison for Silent(especially if you aim for the heart), but below that you can run with almost any sane deck or even risky one(Searing blow ftw!) and have fun with it. Highest ascension offers really tough challenge for those who wants one.

Yep, I'm in the same boat. I enjoyed climbing up to and beating max ascension but after I did that I have more fun playing low/no ascension casually so I can do sillier shit and still have a chance. Same reason doing the daily challenge can be fun, they're almost always super easy mode but getting in the top 100 on the leaderboard is a hoot.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Ahhhhahaha. Thanks for the help guys. Starting to see how the synergies on Silent work. Just owned The Champ in 3 turns by stacking poison to 240 in turn 2. We'll see if I can pull off Act 3. Had poor relic drops in Act 1, but Act 2 has been very kind so far. Got The Specimen, Meat on the Bone, and Bottled Tornado w/Caltrops+ all in the first couple floors of the Act. Incidentally, Caltrops is a card that I was completely misunderstanding due to lack of reading comprehension; I thought it dealt damage every time you received damage- not every time you were attacked- and thus never picked it up even once. Doh!

 

[KK1001]

Another good tip from someone who has 600 hours in the game:

If you have a deck that is working, don't fuck it up by adding bullshit, no matter how tempting.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Got to stab the Spire's heart for the first time today. Great game.

 

[covr]

How many hours have you put into the game? I am at almost 90 and Spire's heart rapes me every time. Am I retarded?

 

[Dodo1610]

How many hours have you put into the game? I am at almost 90 and Spire's heart rapes me every time. Am I retarded?

Don't worry I am already 87h in and still haven't beaten the game with the Defect.

 

[tripedal]

Just get orb slots and most importantly focus, it's almost impossible to lose at low ascensions.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I’ve found Defect by far the easiest. Got up to Ascension 6 with him, whereas can’t beat A3 with Ironclad and juuuust barely eked out an A1 with Silent. Also have yet to win at all with Watcher, but have only done 2 or 3 full runs with her; she seems less interesting than the other chars, but maybe I just haven’t gotten the cool unlocks.

 

[Tigranes]

How many hours have you put into the game? I am at almost 90 and Spire's heart rapes me every time. Am I retarded?

Probably well over a hundred hours now. I'm on Ascension 5 or so with the three characters.

For me the first "oh hey ok I've figured out something decent" builds were Body Slammers (stack up defence, smash that 0-cost body slam), Poisoners (multiple 3x venom cards for literally like 999 poison damage), and Power Recyclers (Storm card for lightning orb w/ every power card play, the Red hand for random card becomes 0-cost w/ every power card play, then stack up on a million power cards & draw-cards = every turn you play like 20 cards and summon like 10 lightning orbs).

There are of course many many smart combinations, but those were my baby step "oh ok now I can stab the spire" things.

 

[Eyestabber]

Or you could just use nightmare and wraith form. Do it the way way.

Edit: I fell asleep writing this.

 

[SecondAmendment]

Got this game recently on Switch. Sunk vast amounts of time and now on Ascension 10 with everyone. Ironclad sucks balls. I hate how there is really only one viable strategy with him: get Barricade.

I so need the 2.0 patch and the new char. I'm needful of new combos to discover.

10/10 would play again best game since Stardew Valley.

 

[Norfleet]

Star Traders: Frontiers man, check out a gameplay video or something. It was my first (and only) game with cards, and it convinced me that the mechanic doesn't need to be shit.

That game isn't truly about cards. It isn't, in fact, actually about cards at all. Various minigames present themselves as cards, but there's no real card play involved.

 

[Theodora]

Sometimes I get annoyed at how meaningless 'roguelike' has become given the prevalnce of roguelites almost as a default among indies nowadays, but then something like Slay the Sprire comes along and you're grateful permadeath, procedural generation, and run-orientated gameplay became so acceptable — at least enough to make these games financially viable via early access.

Deckbuilding in general is such an underexplored area of game design.

Anyone who really likes Spire should check out Dream Quest. Probably the biggest candidate ever for "don't judge a book [well, game] by its cover". Also available on mobile. It's the spiritual predecessor to StS, although somewhere at the back of my mind I feel like the devs actually admitted it to be a direct inspiration for the game.