Slay the Spire is one of those games where the more I play it, the worse I do. I did better at this game when I didn’t know what I was doing then I do now after hundreds of hours in the game.
At the moment, I am trying to clear ascension 20.
My chance of winning the game up to ascension 5 is > 50%.
IMHO StS gives the player bad habits in the lower difficulties (and the difficult spike when reaching the heart is not that great).
Some tips stolen from better players than me:
- You really have to play optimal and think about every card to minimize life loss (This could also mean taking a hit early and kill off an enemy faster vs. blocking an early hit and taking massive damage later.)
- The bosses especially can be seen as problem to solve. Look ahead, do you have the right card(s) in the deck to solve the problem?
- The first hall is mostly about about up front damage, in the second you will need some area of effect damage etc.
- Before adding a card to your deck, answer the following questions:
- How high is the chance I can even play this card? (Example: You have 3 energy and a card costs 2 Energy. If you have another 2 Energy card, you know increase your chance of a dead draw, because you can not play both if they appear in the same hand)
- Does this card has any synergy with the cards I already have in my deck or with any artifacts?
- Does this card solve a problem (e.g. boss or enemy) I have? IMHO all the generic advice is not wrong (like having as little cards as is possible), but the point about playing the higher ascensions is really more seeing ‘the whole’ instead of focusing on one aspect. For example, if you have Corruption in a bottle and Dark Embrace, all of a sudden you want to have as many skills a possible… OTOH, if you have two Dropkicks, you want everything which destroys cards to have an endless Dropkick-Engine as soon as possible.
- Take care of immediate problems you know you will face (like the boss of the current hall), instead of speculating on card combinations which might or might not show up in the future. (Exception to the speculation rule: Iron Clad has Limit Break, and it is total reasonable to expect to find some strength boost as an Iron Clad, so LimitBreak is usually the one card which I never think about picking up)
tldr: Picking your strategy and adding/removing of cards must be seen in the context of artifacts, energy and the bosses you will see. Optimize for your next known problem, instead of betting in cards to become available. You can have 1-2 cards for special situations or as speculation, but adding for example another attack card if you already have enough of attack, simply doesn’t solve a problem or makes your deck stronger.
The key is ALWAYS (almost) paying for card removal at the shop. I plan the path I take by looking for the one that hits the most shops and always remove a card.
That, and often not taking the free card if it doesn’t have great synergies.
I prefer mini-boss fights (better cards), shops (removal), and random encounters, not easy fights and card quantity.
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I got to the final heart boss exactly one time and I can’t see any way that I would ever defeat it given it has 750HP and some other insane buffs.
My problem is that my brain can’t grasp skipping the reward for winning a battle. Success should feel good. But skipping cards feels really bad.
Here’s the key thing to realize with deck builders: every card you take reduces the number of times you’ll see every other card in your deck by a small amount. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of “this looks useful, I’ll take it” over and over again.
The best decks in Slay the Spire have 5 or fewer cards and they go infinite in on turn 1. Of course in most runs you don’t have the opportunity to create a deck like that. Instead, you want to think about what the core of your deck is right now. Think “if I could remove as many cards as I want right now, what sort of broken thing could I do with the rest?” If your deck can’t do anything broken even after all those removals, then see if adding a card would change that.
If your deck can do something broken after removing all those other cards, and none of the reward cards on offer would change that, why take them?
There are many opportunities to remove cards throughout a run. Take them as much as you can. Try to get rid of as many filler cards as possible. Strikes and defends, for example, have no business being in your deck at the end of the game.
Ironclad, being the first character you can play in StS, is meant to teach you this concept (he also teaches you other concepts, such as health being a resource). He has a number of cards that exhaust other cards and he can frequently build into a deck that’s capable of exhausting down to a winning core. Try playing an exhaust based ironclad and see what you can do with an eye towards creating a broken core.
The reward is seeing cards. You only click one of it makes your deck better.
Since each game is seeded your card rewards are set from the start, you can look at it like there’s a huge pile of cards that never shuffles that you draw from. You need to dig deep sometimes to find what you need.
Me too. Took me a bit. Since your deck always reshuffles no matter what, your best strategy is to make the smallest deck with the best cards so you found get them more often.
Absolutely. The reason for this is that as you get to understand the mechanics more you’ll naturally start adopting higher risk play which provides access to higher potential rewards, and that is in some ways necessary to progress, and also really incredibly satisfying when it pays off. But the risks will bite you more often, which then feels like you’re just “being worse at the game”. The progression and scaling mechanics of games like these basically force you to adopt riskier strategies to overcome the challenges that higher levels of play bring.
The really experienced high level players do a very delicate balancing act of min/maxing to do get the absolute most they can out of the minimum level of risk they need to realistically have a sensible chance of success. Finding that sweet spot in the ocean of randomness is the real skill, and people will all have their own different sweet spot of risk vs reward, but in almost all cases there will always be a significant risk of losing because that’s just how the game is balanced especially for higher level play. Luck and trying to make perfect decisions with imperfect information are always a factor.
This is one thing that Baltro has hands above StS. Each character really only has a few builds that can really skyrocket, but trying to build them can make it very annoying if things don’t go the way you need and it very hard to pivot to another type of build. Where as Baltro makes it pretty easy to pivot to another type of build if you suddenly get a great joker.
I agree, but as you progress you unlock more cards which water down your pool. So going for a build becomes more luck dependent. Haven’t played in a while but I remember this being a frustrating factor.
Tbf there are not many unlocks in sts, it feels they are slightly more advanced cards they want to keep from beginners and they open so many doors. Each character starts with 75 and unlocks 9, which isn’t nothing but really doesn’t prevent you from making a cohesive deck.
True, that’s what I was trying to imply when I said it’s necessary to progress. I suppose someone could maybe devise a mod to provide evidence to the contrary, but I’m pretty sure the starter deck pool simply wouldn’t have enough scaling to survive at higher ascension levels.
That said, I would absolutely love some kind of mechanic that allows you to control the contents of the overall pool to some limited degree as well. (Too much freedom would essentially trivialize the game and I’m not sure if there’s any mechanic that would provide effective counterplay to a literally stacked deck)
Yeah but you can remove cards as well, can’t you?
From your deck, yes. From the pool, no.
Thanks for clarifying, it had been a while and I wasn’t near a save file
Yes, item bloat is very real. Binding of Isaac had too much of it, but at least Edmund started buffing bad items a bit more with the DLCs and patches.
Ever since getting a copy on Steam and not being able to bring my save over, I have found that my win ratio is 0. It was never high to begin with, but it’s cratered with 0 wins.
Me with Hades.
The best run that I went the farthest on was like, my 3rd one? The RNG wss just right and I was effectively immortal as long as I kept dashing and attacking. Died to like the 4th or 5th boss in a single hit. Can’t out heal that! 😫
I have never made it beyond the second boss since.
Keep at it, the mirror unlocks really help (plus you just get better at dodging etc)
I had a hard time with it too. God Mode made it much better for me, don’t be afraid to use it if needed!
I’m not as down on it as I am with Returnal. I actually want to know wtf is going on in that one and the story is entirely RNG too lol
If you play on PC, use mods. Trust me… just use the damn mods. Life’s too short to be banging your head against the wall over and over again.
Returnal can be fun, worth playing, and has a great story to piece together. But it has some of the most git-gud toxic bullshit design choices I’ve ever seen from developers. Find a level of mod usage that gives you enough difficulty that you’re comfortable with.
Also, as an FPS player, I do not understand how anybody could play this game on controller. I ditched that shit about 30 minutes into it and immediately raised my skill level threefold with the mouse.
Also, as an FPS player, I do not understand how anybody could play this game on controller. I ditched that shit about 30 minutes into it and immediately raised my skill level threefold with the mouse.
The accessibility options and the game’s natural autoaim mechanics basically give you aimbots by turning up all the assistance options as well as making the crosshair as large as possible.
Source: I have it on PS5. 😭
I struggled for a while but eventually I unlocked all the mirror stuff and got it dialed in so I could get specific duos to become godly OP every run I did. It took a lot of memorization of what boons were needed to get those duos, and when to reroll though!
I did a similar early run. Everything clicked and then took me FOREVER to get past the 2nd one again.
I watch expert twitch streamers’ play to learn the plays, card picking and risk control. It helps greatly in playing A20H and start your first win streaks. You can also see them making mistakes, which gives a point of reference
and feel superiorAlso you will feel like you are experts while watching their playHave you tried Inscryption?
It’s a lot like slay the spire, but shit gets weird. (In a good way)
I guess… I found the card game itself to be kind of bland. However, I will say that I never finished the game, and without spoilers (I honestly don’t really know specifics) I understand things get… Different. So maybe it gets better
Yeah, you didn’t even get through the “tutorial.”
Maybe… That said, if the “tutorial” was boring as fuck and 8 hours long, then maybe it should be adjusted
Thanks for the recommendation, never heard of this before.
I love Inscryption very much but my favorite game the creator of Inscryption did is his previous game, “The Hex”. I recommend anyone reading this go in blind, don’t trust the screenshots you see on Steam, everything makes sense after less than an hour of playing and it gets so much more nuts and creative from there.
Pony Island is also great. Everything that guy touches is great.
Pony island is the weakest of his games for me, but it’s still great, like you said! I’m SO PSYCHED for Pony Island 2!
The Hex is such a great and innovative game.
I’ve got both of these games, which one should I play first? I’m fully expecting to put hundreds of hours into each so I guess I want the smaller/simpler one first, but if you’ve played both and can make a (spoiler free) recommendation then please do!
Inscryption is an interesting story designed around an interesting card game, and it ends when you finish the story. The devs other games work with this game to build a deeper world (The Hex, Pony Island, etc), and the lore of Inscryption goes pretty deep too, so look on YouTube for a breakdown once you finish and your mind will be blown.
Slay the Spire is a roguelike with a bit deeper mechanics, but incredibly shallow story (if you can call it that). There are multiple classes with different play styles, and you will likely take a different strategy each run depending on what cards you see.
I highly recommend both, but it depends on what excites you more, interesting story or replayability. Inscryption has horror elements in the storytelling, Slay the Spire is basically just a weird fantasy theme.
My preference is Inscryption, but I’m more into story than gameplay, all else being equal. Both are solid.
I’m not really that fussed about story, it’s a nice bonus but the gameplay is what keeps me hooked. Sounds like Inscryption is the one to play first; Slay the Spire sounds more like the Binding of Isaac, something I’ve probably put a thousand hours into already!
Inscryption is a story driven deckbuilder with a number of puzzles you need to solve that aren’t directly related to the core game. The reason to progress the game is that you enjoy the story and want to see it unfold, not because you enjoy the deckbuilding gameplay. If you want an infinite mode of the deckbuilding gameplay, there’s a mod for that, but IMO it goes against the spirit of the story.
Slay the Spire has no story and the reason to progress is because you enjoy the gameplay. Winning unlocks a new character, and winning with each character unlocks more difficult bosses.
If you want to play a great deckbuilder, play Slay the Spire, Balatro, or Monster Train. If you want to play a great game that happens to be a deckbuilder and will make you reflect, play Inscryption. All those games I mentioned are great, but I much prefer Inscryption and think about it far more often.
Just as an alternate opinion, I found the actual card game itself, in Inscryption to be a bit shallow and bland. The most compelling part (of what I played, admittedly), was everything but the card game itself.
Your mileage may vary.
I will just say, if you’re expecting a deck builder card game like sts, you might be disappointed.
I’m not sure it’s the best rec for someone looking for another sts.
So both are card game rogue likes, but…
Slay is more like “shuffle a deck of cards and try your luck”
Inscryption is more “I’ve created some puzzles for you to solve.”
Youre right. Ive never completed a ascension 20, I dont even have every character that high, but if I turn ascension off I clear the game easy. Youre more skilled than it looks like you are, just revert to base game and watch.
