making builds....

[crazypumpkins]

Does anyone have any tips to make a good build for beating peglin on higher cruciball levels? I end up with a huge amount of orbs with all of them doing all sorts of things...should I be skipping orbs sometimes? which orbs work well with each other? thanks! :)

[Magus Coldfire]

Deck Size
Most important: Keep your orb deck SMALL. I usually have 6-10 orbs at the end of my run. It gives you MUCH more orb control. If you need a specific orb from your deck for a certain situation/boss, the amount of orbs can literally lead to game over. Lets do some math

Example 30 orbs:
On average, this specific orb will be somewhere in the mid. If it's on spot 15, you need at least 7 rounds until you can use this orb if you discard an orb every turn.

Example 8 orbs
On average, this specific orb will be at spot 4. Now you only need 2 rounds if a discard an orb every turn.

Within 7 rounds, you may be already dead, but within 2 rounds? Enemies usually need time to get to you. So you can react with specific orbs quite fast with a small deck.

And another very important think about deck size: Try to get rid of orbs you really don't need. For example: If you don't build around your stone pebbles, then try to remove them with the shop or through certain events. And if you don't go for crits at all, then removing dagger is a viable option to get more deck control.

Build focus
The second tip is, decide quite early in the game, what kind of build you wanna make. So what will you focus on?
Usually, I wait 2-3 encounters or questionsmarks and take a look, if I find a really good orb or a relic that can give a huge boost to certain orbs. And then I start building around that orb/relic and try to get some nice synergies going on.

Example: In my last run I got an item that says "whenever you get bulwark, get +2 bulwark". Then I went for orbs that gave my +4 bulwark for each 9th pin hit. But instead of +4, I got +6 now thanks to the glove, which is an 50% increase. Then I got the unique relic from the boss, that made all pins sturdy. That means, every pin took like 3 hits before being removed. That, combined with bulwark, often let to +80 bulwark, if the pin setup of the stage was good. I was literally invincible

Another example: In my run before, I had an item that gave me 20% interest of my current gold, when I entered a questionmark field. So I saved as much money as possible and found an orb that git +1/+2 for every 17th gold I had. I ended the run with 2400 gold and therefore my pin did 141/282 damage per pin touched. Then I got the unique again that made all pins sturdy from the first boss. At the last boss, this pin did 7500 damage and I think it could've been ober 10k with some luck. On top of that, I concentrated on relics/orbs that healed me, so that I had some sustain.

As you can see, focusing on certain orbs/relics helps. Don't randomly add stuff just because it sounds good. Always think about, if the orb/relic fits your deck or makes it worse.

Gold
If you have encounters, try to get as much gold as possible out of the pins. Gold is such an important ressource and only concentrating on winning battles will usually lead to leaving half the gold behind. The enemy is still 3 spaces away and you think the battle is under control? Then don't go for damage with your next shot, aim carefully for the gold pins. +5 to +10 gold per encounter is HUGE on the long run. It means more upgraded orbs and you can use the shop way more effective.

Experimenting and knowledge
Sometimes it's also good to experiment with stuff you don't understand yet. Because some mechanics can lead to brutal synergies, but it only works if you understand what certain orb/relics do. Yes, experimenting can lead to a fast game over sometimes. But you get knowledge that may be crucial in future runs.


Hope that helps.

[crazypumpkins]

thanks so much for the information! it helps a lot

[Magus Coldfire]

Originally posted by crazypumpkins:

thanks so much for the information! it helps a lot

Glad I could help. Enjoy :)