Big tip

[PersonalC0ffee]

Make the following rooms of common or standard rarity.

Security
Workshop
Conservatory
HLC
Pump Room
Boiler Room
Pool
Showroom
Utility Breaker
Laboratory
Office
Attic
Locksmith
Laundry
Kitchen
Commissary

This will be vastly helpful to those of you struggling.

[dmeister]

FYI I'm pretty sure a bunch of those are already standard rarity, you don't really need to change those. The ones that aren't that I think you may want to tweak would be:

Boiler Room (unusual rarity)
Workshop (unusual)
Conservatory (unusual)
Showroom (rare)

Also the Attic and Her Ladyship's Chambers are both Rare, but I don't think you actually need to lower their rarity to Standard. 🤷‍♂️

[Silyon]

The better question is what can be kicked up to Rare or Unusual safely. Anyone that's played Rogue-likes like Slay the Spire knows the value of running with a "Thin deck", and there arn't that many rooms with special drafting conditions that limit their appearance regardless of their rarity. Thus dropping everything to commonplace or standard doesn't help as much as you'd think unless you also raise the rarity of less-desired rooms to keep the pool reasonably small.

[ChickenStrip]

Originally posted by Silyon:

The better question is what can be kicked up to Rare or Unusual safely. Anyone that's played Rogue-likes like Slay the Spire knows the value of running with a "Thin deck", and there arn't that many rooms with special drafting conditions that limit their appearance regardless of their rarity. Thus dropping everything to commonplace or standard doesn't help as much as you'd think unless you also raise the rarity of less-desired rooms to keep the pool reasonably small.

"When everything is Common, nothing is"

[circletheskies]

My own top-five list to make commonplace would be...

1. Observatory. It appears to be a minor random bonus or two at first, but it gets better and better over time until it's almost a must-have. You'll want this commonplace for sure.
2. Courtyard. Dig spots become really valuable in some runs, often has a useful item, upgradeable.
3. Aquarium. Excellent shape, triggers all kinds of "per X color room" effects, has some very nice upgrades. I've got four Starfish Aquariums, thanks to the Chamber of Mirrors.
4. Show Room. Expensive items, but can be literally run-changing.
5. Cloister. A four-way room with some tasty upgrades and piles of dirt, if you can reach them. I got the luck buff on green rooms, axed the cost, and added a second to the drafting pool.

And since you also want to thin out the pool so the above actually are more common than the rest, my top five to make rare would be...
1. Empty hallways - the Corridor and the East/West Wing Hallways. Useful early on, but later they just become bloat; better to draft something in the same shape that gives you gems, keys or other stuff. Also could apply to Passageway, Hallway, Vestibule and Rotunda if you've got a better room duplicated. Give me copies of an axed Cloister over any of these, to be honest...
2. Closet. There's just... better picks. Even if it's upgraded, I'd prefer a Walk-In Closet or an Attic for items, or get a dead-end room that's a shop or the like.
3. Lavatory. It can be fine with the right room pairing, but not enough to keep it at standard.
4. Rooms that've been 'exhausted' (especially Red Rooms). There's some rooms that are very useful for certain puzzles but that after you never touch. Might as well push them to the deep end of the pool. If you're wrong on there being nothing else to do there it'll be a bit of a pain though.
5. Terrace. I like Green Rooms, but this one doesn't (as far as I know) offer much value. You'll save a few gems, but that's about it.

[dmeister]

Off the top of my head, in my games I've gone with (or plan to go with, I can't remember everything I've changed)

- I have Utility Closet and Security Room as Common. I take a Utility Closet and the first terminal I find basically every run to set the Security Doors to High frequency and unlock them. I know some people go a different route and make getting the Keycard easier, but I like the other benefits of the Utility Closet and getting a terminal early so I instead, for instance, went with an upgrade that makes getting the Foyer + Great Hall combo easier since that's a fun one. 😄

- I can't remember if I have already or not but for my runs I want the Commissary and Showroom to be Common since I buy a lot of stuff from them every chance I get. (The Showroom being Common isn't as useful early on when you don't have much of an allowance, but once your allowance is high enough the Showroom becomes really handy!)

- I also made the Workshop common, and I think I lowered the rarity of the Mechaniarium as well. The Workshop's usefulness is obvious, and the Mechanarium is just a very nice room for me since I've already set all or almost all the other Gear rooms to be Common or Standard.

Most other rooms I have at Standard, I think, just for variety sake honestly to make the runs a little more unpredictable but still not that hard to fill the entire house hopefully. 🙂 There are one or two rooms I'd make Rare or already made Rare, basically ones that have essentially a particular niche use in the overarching puzzles but once you've gotten that use out of them you don't need them again. For instance, I think I made the Furnace Rare since I already got what I wanted out it (from what I can tell). I may have also made the Lavatory rare, although maybe not since if you can negate its downside it actually has a decent benefit!

[PIGSgrame]

I strongly recommend to make the Trophy Room commonplace when you get the opportunity and also axe its costs (once you know what it means). This reliably grants me 8 gems for free on almost every run.

[jussr]

I prefer to have the laboratory rare once the grotto's open, and just use the daily undrafted remote connection to start my lab experiment from security.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by jussr:

I prefer to have the laboratory rare once the grotto's open, and just use the daily undrafted remote connection to start my lab experiment from security.

I don't like to do that because sometimes I use that instead to use the radiation overide from the shelter to unlock EVERY door.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by Silyon:

The better question is what can be kicked up to Rare or Unusual safely. Anyone that's played Rogue-likes like Slay the Spire knows the value of running with a "Thin deck", and there arn't that many rooms with special drafting conditions that limit their appearance regardless of their rarity. Thus dropping everything to commonplace or standard doesn't help as much as you'd think unless you also raise the rarity of less-desired rooms to keep the pool reasonably small.

That isn't what I was doing.

Every room I've listed is used in a puzzle or useful. Once you solve the puzzle you can make these things less common.

Furnace and Lavatory absolutely rare

Originally posted by dmeister:

Off the top of my head, in my games I've gone with (or plan to go with, I can't remember everything I've changed)

- I have Utility Closet and Security Room as Common. I take a Utility Closet and the first terminal I find basically every run to set the Security Doors to High frequency and unlock them. I know some people go a different route and make getting the Keycard easier, but I like the other benefits of the Utility Closet and getting a terminal early so I instead, for instance, went with an upgrade that makes getting the Foyer + Great Hall combo easier since that's a fun one. 😄

- I can't remember if I have already or not but for my runs I want the Commissary and Showroom to be Common since I buy a lot of stuff from them every chance I get. (The Showroom being Common isn't as useful early on when you don't have much of an allowance, but once your allowance is high enough the Showroom becomes really handy!)

- I also made the Workshop common, and I think I lowered the rarity of the Mechaniarium as well. The Workshop's usefulness is obvious, and the Mechanarium is just a very nice room for me since I've already set all or almost all the other Gear rooms to be Common or Standard.

Most other rooms I have at Standard, I think, just for variety sake honestly to make the runs a little more unpredictable but still not that hard to fill the entire house hopefully. 🙂 There are one or two rooms I'd make Rare or already made Rare, basically ones that have essentially a particular niche use in the overarching puzzles but once you've gotten that use out of them you don't need them again. For instance, I think I made the Furnace Rare since I already got what I wanted out it (from what I can tell). I may have also made the Lavatory rare, although maybe not since if you can negate its downside it actually has a decent benefit!

What benefit does Lavatory have? There's nothing in there.

[Silyon]

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

What benefit does Lavatory have? There's nothing in there.

It's a Red Room. All Red Rooms have some type of negative effect. Ever wonder what Lavatory's is? Try sheltering it, or saving a Knight's Shield for it. See what happens.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by Silyon:

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

What benefit does Lavatory have? There's nothing in there.

It's a Red Room. All Red Rooms have some type of negative effect. Ever wonder what Lavatory's is? Try sheltering it, or saving a Knight's Shield for it. See what happens.

I've seen it sheltered. It sometimes has a gem.

[dmeister]

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

Originally posted by Silyon:

It's a Red Room. All Red Rooms have some type of negative effect. Ever wonder what Lavatory's is? Try sheltering it, or saving a Knight's Shield for it. See what happens.

I've seen it sheltered. It sometimes has a gem.

FYI The Lavatory always has three items in it if you negate its negative effect when you draft it.

[Gorlom[Swe]]

Originally posted by dmeister:

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

I've seen it sheltered. It sometimes has a gem.

FYI The Lavatory always has three items in it if you negate its negative effect when you draft it.

I guess sometimes one of those three items can be a gem... So technically...
:p

But yeah, the implication that you only get a gem is wrong.

[adrien_perleflamme]

Originally posted by Silyon:

The better question is what can be kicked up to Rare or Unusual safely. Anyone that's played Rogue-likes like Slay the Spire knows the value of running with a "Thin deck", and there arn't that many rooms with special drafting conditions that limit their appearance regardless of their rarity. Thus dropping everything to commonplace or standard doesn't help as much as you'd think unless you also raise the rarity of less-desired rooms to keep the pool reasonably small.

You can use the library to switch to less common rooms once you've got enough of the common rooms you prefer.

[Silyon]

Originally posted by GorlomSwe:

Originally posted by dmeister:

FYI The Lavatory always has three items in it if you negate its negative effect when you draft it.

I guess sometimes one of those three items can be a gem... So technically...
:p

But yeah, the implication that you only get a gem is wrong.

The 3 items can be pretty much anything. Gems, keys, coins, major keys, "small" special items like the coupon book or a rabbit foot. Pretty much the only thing I've not seen show up in it are the "big" items like Shovel, Sledge, and metal detector.