Slay the Spire

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LordMortis
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Re: Slay the Spire

Post by LordMortis »

https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Act_4

Wait, I've never see any of this. Is this because I am playing ascension.
Then, upon starting a new run with any character, you will notice a strange triangular symbol next to your name
To get the Ruby Key, you need to go to a rest place and there will be an option called ''Recall'' to acquire it.
Now I gots more to look for when I get home.
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Zaxxon
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:01 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:59 am
LordMortis wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:58 am On the Wiki to look up the name of the Defect and I see... Act IV? What?

https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/ ... i#Act%20IV
If you obtain all three crystal shards in a run, then you get to Act IV. I usually ignore it as I've been more focused on increasing ascension levels. Act IV is... hard.
Crystal shards? There is a whole part of this game I don't know anything about I guess.
While playing on an Ascension level (any level), you'll see some special things--one is a crystal you can take at a rest site instead of an upgrade. Another is the 'special' Elite (with the flame behind it). The third you get by taking the shard rather than a relic at a chest. If you achieve all three of those and win the run, you move to act IV.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:09 am While playing on an Ascension level (any level), you'll see some special things--one is a crystal you can take at a rest site instead of an upgrade. Another is the 'special' Elite (with the flame behind it). The third you get by taking the shard rather than a relic at a chest. If you achieve all three of those and win the run, you move to act IV.
I have never seen (noticed?) any of that. Did act IV come later? It's possible I haven't beaten the game with the Ironclad and/or Silent since it was added?

Curiouser and curiouser
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:13 amIt's possible I haven't beaten the game with the Ironclad and/or Silent since it was added?
In my first attempt with the Watcher (Purple) after finishing the game with Silent (Green), I found a Ruby Shard while resting. I figured this was some sort of special thing the Watcher could find - but maybe anyone can. I had no idea since I'm trying to learn how to advance with that character.

I'd want to try to find Act IV with Defect (Blue). That character seems, by far, the best one I click with. It builds up really amazingly devastating rolling thunder that works with having a bloated deck. Lots of Power cards that get used up so you don't see them again.
Last edited by Paingod on Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:13 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:09 am While playing on an Ascension level (any level), you'll see some special things--one is a crystal you can take at a rest site instead of an upgrade. Another is the 'special' Elite (with the flame behind it). The third you get by taking the shard rather than a relic at a chest. If you achieve all three of those and win the run, you move to act IV.
I have never seen (noticed?) any of that. Did act IV come later? It's possible I haven't beaten the game with the Ironclad and/or Silent since it was added?

Curiouser and curiouser
That could be--I think you also have to have beaten it with all characters once.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:24 amI think you also have to have beaten it with all characters once.
I think maybe just the first three - Red, Blue, Green. I was finding Shards on my first attempt with the Watcher.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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I had to try Act IV again today (it's been awhile). So I ramped the Watcher back down to Ascension 1 and tried it. I had forgotten how much

Spoilered, in case folks don't want to see...
Spoiler:
Act IV can suck. You really need a quite high amount of block, as the 'Surrounded' pre-boss fight requires you to alternate your attack targets frequently and greatly raises the damage from the one behind you.

And then the final boss has a debuff that causes you to take damage every time you play a card, plus a damage limiter that means no matter how badass your attacks, you will need to survive several rounds before you can defeat it.
Needless to say, I did not win. I was killed with the final boss at about 70% health.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Got my ass handed to me at ascension level 4 twice with the watcher last night. I'm having the old hard time of mitigating luck. Building a deck to roll with the punches is hard. My relics are often antithetical to the deck I had building. I'm actually learning to even turn relics down. DAMN YOU TWIG that turns exhausts into random cards.

I had an awesome deck with the no discard relic and with alpha, beta, omega (which I will experiment with more). It was a total beast, but then I end up fighting a crew of three guys trying do a combined 45 damage plus every turn and putting wounds in to my deck... that I couldn't discard...

I haven't gotten to thinking about Act IV. I'm going to have to spend some time remembering the game, possibly back tracking to easier levels... or not...

This game is so great to keep coming back to, only it's really hard to remember the grooves of how you were doing well before.
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Re: Slay the Spire

Post by Zaxxon »

Steam tells me I'm at 202 hours, plus a few on Switch. Yes, this game is rather fantastic.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 1:18 pm...putting wounds in to my deck... that I couldn't discard...
One of the few benefits of my bloated nightmare decks - I never really cared too much if I got Wounded, Burned, or Dazed. It was extremely rare to draw up a hand with 3 or more of any card like that in a turn.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Paingod wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:01 pm
LordMortis wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 1:18 pm...putting wounds in to my deck... that I couldn't discard...
One of the few benefits of my bloated nightmare decks - I never really cared too much if I got Wounded, Burned, or Dazed. It was extremely rare to draw up a hand with 3 or more of any card like that in a turn.
Burns and wounds and a huge disadvantage to my minimal decks. Last night, I looked at some of my old winning decks that I don't remember, trying to re-familiarize myself with the game. I had one deck that was literally 15 cards, including powers and exhausts.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Scry is the key there.
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Re: Slay the Spire

Post by Torfish »

The Watcher is a lot of fun. Might be the easiest of the four characters. I have two unlocks left to go.

I'm approaching 100 hours on this game. It definitely has that addicting factor to it. Very good game.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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I tried the "Comunity Challenge" mode last night with Silent (Green) and am surprised that after days of struggling, that combo I used is pretty easy to replicate and win with. I beat the Challenge with 28 cards in my deck, pretty darn easily I might add.

The deck ran on: Back Flip (block 5/8+draw 2), Cloak and Dagger (block 6 + 1/2 shivs), Sneaky Strike (10/14 Dmg, +2 energy if discarded a card this turn), Accuracy (+3/5 Shiv damage), Caltrops (3/5 retribution damage), Concentrate (discard 3/2, gain 2 energy), Footwork (2/3 Dex), Neutralize (3/4 dmg/ 1/2 weak), Leg Sweep (2/3 weak, 11/14 block), Tactician (discard for 1/2 energy), Tools of the Trade (start of turn, discard 1/2 & draw 1/2), and a couple "Attack All" cards as well as a Bouncing Flask (3/4 poison x 3 hits). I also had an Exploding Corpse in there, but only used it ONCE the entire run - and it was often the easy target of a discard.

So LOTS of draw & discard, LOTS of block, and a good number of Shivs. I think that after all my powers were deployed I was cycling through 20 cards, but often played 7 to 10 per turn. I only know the count because enemies were getting Slow (+10% dmg for every card played) and I was getting them up to 70% to 100% bonus damage consistently.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Goal for the weekend. Groceries, Laundry, Watch more Naruto, complete Ascension level 5 of the Watcher. We'll see. Two more tries at level 4 last night went down down down. I has sweet 12 card deck with Alpha, gain block for every strike, and if this is the only attack in hand it does 40 damage, but I just couldn't get my defense to where it needed it to be against the given fruit loop and cootie catcher. The opened up with a combined 50 point strike followed by a combined 70 point strike on round 2. BRU TAL.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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All my ascension is a parity for level six. I went to play the Ironclad for the first time at ascension level 7 last night (which should finally unlock the boss level 4) Wow. That sucked. I'm trying to figure out my avenue for success now. I might have to go with hope for serious serious serious luck. I could find no way stave off losing HPs faster than they were being gained. Blocks are just too little and aggressive stances too slow. Pulling cards out, nope. Putting cards in, nope. So I'm thinking it's get early lucky lucky lucky relics and exploit them as best you can with what you are offered.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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I'm on 8, 7 (woo, up from 6 this week), 10, 10 for Ascension. I can generally get to Act 3 at least, but agree that certain combos just don't work once you get upward in Act 3.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Zaxxon wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:31 pm I'm on 8, 7 (woo, up from 6 this week), 10, 10 for Ascension. I can generally get to Act 3 at least, but agree that certain combos just don't work once you get upward in Act 3.
I've finished 6,6,6,6

My game tracking shows you as my friend. :wub: Assuming you can also see me, does it show my scores as weirdly higher than yours? That makes no sense if you are so much higher leveled than I am.

It's hard not to back track and play down ascension levels and then play back up because for the life of me I don't see how I'm going beat Ironclad level 7 and yet my wayback machine memories were that Ironclad was the easiest.

I'm also debating going backward so I can hunt for beating level 4 to see this other bit of game I've never seen.

I really do think this game is so dear to my heart because it is reminiscent of 1980's computer games, where a simple concept just got played over and over, ramped up in difficulty until you tapped out... Except Gateway to Apshai. Never did beat that stupid game. Never made it past level 8, so I have no idea if it replayed more difficult. Stupid blinking bats. Nearly 40 years later and I remember stupid blinking bats.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Those scores are weird. I wonder if the leaderboard is newish? In any event, some of those def aren't my highest. Watcher and Silent may be.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Played the level 7 Ironclad again last night. I think I may have to start going after elites just because you know an elite floor in Act II won't contain a snecko.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:59 am Played the level 7 Ironclad again last night. I think I may have to start going after elites just because you know an elite floor in Act II won't contain a snecko.
I tend to go after them early on if I'm doing OK, as those relics can really help later on. If I can enter Act III with a ton of relics, I'm generally going to be pretty strong even if some of them are duds.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Zaxxon wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:02 am
LordMortis wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:59 am Played the level 7 Ironclad again last night. I think I may have to start going after elites just because you know an elite floor in Act II won't contain a snecko.
I tend to go after them early on if I'm doing OK, as those relics can really help later on. If I can enter Act III with a ton of relics, I'm generally going to be pretty strong even if some of them are duds.
I hunt them depending on how I am doing as well, for the same reason. Only you seem to get certain elites at certain times, so say early act I, I won't hunt them unless I am skill light as that Giant Gremlin seem to be the main early elite, where as the late elite seems to often be the big virus looking thing that needs high blocks and hits or a very quick kill.

One day I also think I need to start paying attention to who the boss will be. They seem to affect the monsters you will face (oh and how you want to, you know, face the boss...) Like when Top Hat Goo is the boss, you seem to his a lot goo leading up to him, etc...
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Finished 7 for the Ironclad and silent this weekend, so I'm back to level 7 watcher. I'm definitely at the point where it takes tremendous luck (or I'm past my understanding understanding) to move forward. And it seems like every time I've built a good deck/relic thing, I still get hit with that "Oh, @#!%$" moment where you see the intent and then you draw and can see your doom.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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I unlocked Silent 9 earlier today.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Unlocked Ironclad 9 over lunch. I'm now sitting at 9,9,10,10. I fully admit that this run had a ton of luck. Might be the luckiest run I've ever had.

I started out intending to go Strike heavy to take advantage of an early Perfected Strike pickup. That worked well, as I picked up a bunch of other Strikes via combat wins while lucking into a couple of early relics that granted me armor on turns 2 and 3. I also upgraded the starting relic somewhere in Act 2 (from +6 heal after combat to +12), and gained a +2 on Power use from a ? room boss combat. With the combo of that early armor plus healing, plus very powerful Strike cards due to the sheer quantity I had stacked, I was ending most combats by turn 4 and therefore not needing to focus much on block via cards at all until Act 3.

I then added several Inflames and a Seeing Red to get my strength up for any combats that did go long. Lucked into an 'upgrade all strikes/defends' as well, so I wound up finishing with a 41-card deck where 40 cards were upgraded. Yegads.

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Re: Slay the Spire

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over lunch
I'm sloooowww... A typical successful run is like 90+ minutes for me. Over lunch is not an option. I want to say I was finished with 8,8,8,8 when I picked up a city builder to occupy my game time. I know I'm on x, x, x, x and x is the second tier of "elites are harder"

https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension

Nope. I guess I finished 7,7,7,7

I'm impressed with how many card you put in your deck. Something like that devolves into an irrecoverably bad draw somewhere for me in every game.

I'm not sure if I'm putting this back down for a bit or not. I suppose the coming weekend will let em know.

Edit Level 10
Start each run cursed. (Ascender's Bane)
:shock:
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Yeah, level 10 is hard. I haven't gotten 11 on any character yet. Figured I'd get to 10 on all first. One to go...

Ascender's Bane isn't too bad of a curse, but early on it's painful since your deck is so small. And you cannot remove it.

If you haven't yet, I recommend turning on Fast Mode. Makes runs quicker by eliminating some of the prettiness.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Whew, Ascension 10 unlocked across all four characters. Now which one to focus on for 11?
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Gulp...

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Re: Slay the Spire

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I don't rely on potions, like at all, so that wouldn't affect me really. It would just see me using them a bit less tactically to keep a spot open... or much more tactically, throwing them away to keep those special potions in reserve.

But just the idea of making it through with the dead curse card on the ground floor all the way through. Kudos.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Damn...

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Re: Slay the Spire

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Come on now; I needs me my gold!

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Re: Slay the Spire

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Do not want.

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Re: Slay the Spire

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Geez, turns out I'm pretty good with the Ironclad. Hadn't played him in awhile but these Ascension levels are just dropping like flies.

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Re: Slay the Spire

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Re: Slay the Spire

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This one sounds interesting...
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Re: Slay the Spire

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I don't remember seeing that one when I peeked ahead. What's a moveset? And yeah, it does sound interesting. I'll likely never see it.
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Re: Slay the Spire

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LordMortis wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 1:31 pmWhat's a moveset?
No clue, but my best guess is like adding an extra ability to attack type to their routine.

Instead of "Armor" and "Strike" maybe they have "Armor" "Strike" and "Thorns"
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Re: Slay the Spire

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Unlocked Ascension 12 for The Defect this morning. This was a crazy-effective build. Now sitting at Ascension 17/15/12/10 across the four characters. One of these months I'll get to 20 on one of them...

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Re: Slay the Spire

Post by Zaxxon »

Some time back we had postulated whether there are some seeds that are just too difficult to complete.

Turns out, we likely just suck.

I've still only unlocked Ascensions 17/15/16/10.
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