What's the core strategy for Astrea?

[Mattrex]

I know, I know, "it depends". But allow me to elaborate on what I mean by "core strategy".

Deckbuilders typically have, if not necessarily a single "meta" strategy, at least a particular way of engaging with the game that facilitates success. Slay the Spire is "about" pruning a thin deck that can be cycled through quickly, repeatedly using key cards turn after turn. Monster Train is "about" unit scaling; while there are many units you can use and many different ways to scale, success hinges on how fast and how far you can ramp up units during a battle.

The fact that in Astrea, each "card" has six separate, randomly-determined effects complicates the task of evaluating just what I'm "supposed" to be doing. Is a thin dice pool or a thick one usually more effective? Do successful runs revolve around one or two very strong dice that are repeatedly drawn, or does one simply stack dice related to certain keywords/mechanics? Does the core strategy revolve around mitigating the risk of risky dice or are they only an occasional complement to a good dice pool? Should enemies be burned down as quickly as possible or should fights be taken more slow-and-steady to build strength?

My first run with Moonie was a success because I decided to go full chaos yolo unga-bunga and took almost exclusively risky dice, using conversion to mitigate those times where I rolled bad faces. That obviously doesn't work with Cellarius, with whom I am having trouble even though on the surface he appears to be even MORE of a yolo unga-bunga kind of character than Moonie is.

[Cyiel]

You are trying to find an optimal way of playing and you are struggling because there isn't. Some enemies must be taken down quickly, some others not. Sometimes you want risky die sometimes not because it will depends if you have passives/die which synergized with these (Safe/Balanced/Risky) pools.

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

I'm sure players better than me will chime in, but the impression I've gotten is that the only thing you "need" is a good ratio of draw/reroll sides to whatever you're doing. Sure, a small dice pool and a strategy of cycling through your one duplicates Mega-Dice over and over is fine, but I don't think it's required, or even necessarily viable every time (or fun lol). My average dice pool is probably like 18 or so, and I have a significant bias towards Balanced dice

There's a lot of nuance lost in this next paragraph but generally, I think it's best to focus on a single scaling mechanic when drafting. It can be tempting to splash in dice that seem good, but I find that dice that don't directly contribute to scaling or survival just gets in the way. You can scale multiple things at once (e.g. Moonie can scale Hex and Research with a Star Blessing), but I think that's a good general rule of thumb.

[Pachy]

The strategie will always depend on what you get and which character you are playing, but generally what is often done is forging and spam duplicating a strong risky scalling dice.
This is not necessarily the best and only strategie but it's a way to have a consistent deck. As said before, being able to cycle your deck will also do the same, which is also why the draw sentinel is really good to take.

Another thing that I think is kinda mandatory is having some defensive dices, ennemies at A10 will often hit for more than 6dmg.

[Bumc]

One of the big strategies is similar to Monster Train actually -- you find a good die to forge, you forge it at shop and dupe until your pack is full of 'em.

Unlike monster train, it requires more setup than just that, and some support things to not perish while you're sitting on stacks of cash, or on a single strong but not duped yet die.

[CATGIRL]

Here's your core strategy

Add something with high throughput to your deck, ie Punch with 8 damage on it.

Add a high value combo to your deck, for example Relief + Thing that x2s relief when you get 7 or more sands of time. Use the punch to help you survive long enough to get your engine running

Figure out how much defense you need in order to survive for your high value cards to go off

Remove low value cards like Purify and Lesser Shield while adding more high value dice

And see if it works. If not, adjust your strategy- maybe you needed another relief, maybe you needed more defense, who knows.

Less dice in your deck = more consistent, typically higher quality, but also very weak to hex dice and some enemies/bosses add 2+ to your deck at a time.

More dice in your deck = more muddled, but consistent throughput.

[Tiggy]

Remove starter dice. Get the good dice. Only take synergistic dice, skip the trash. Some safe die are amazing like the Reroll die. Utility sentinels are better than damage sentinels (unless playing the Sentinel based hero) cause they only roll one die so you almost always will be able to use their die ability (e.g. reroll). Always go for the risky battles (for more loot). Always sacrifice a heart for a blessing (or shards if you have 1 heart). Choose blessings that give you more dice draw, more purification, or some ability that synergises with your build.

The game is all about mitigating risk while maximising damage. So I take a lot of rerolls for this reason (or precision).

At one point I had one sentinel with incorruptible and one sentinel with reroll. And some die with Precision. You can tell where that leads.

[Raptor]

First, build knowledge. Even Starter dice can be rendered insanely valuable with the correct Star Blessing. Just like in STS, your ability to make good, informed decisions comes not with Some Optimal Strategy but instead from experience and knowledge. And, just like in STS, a huge deck can still be functionally powerful when tuned by an appropriately informed player.

However, there is one absolute truth in Astrea: since the number of dice you roll is exactly your number of actions available, rolling more dice means you gain more actions. Seek diceroll count.

[Cronus]

The thing about Astrea is, you are getting RNG'd twice - Getting initial die you need / want and getting the best roll for each die.

It can be mitigated with draws, rebound, seek ( astral calling or void seek ) and timeless ( keeping X dice permanently in hand until used )

You got a bad roll ? re-roll it ( usually most character has re-roll virtues / guaranteed re-roll die without corruption / purify on any faces in their starter kit ie. Cellarius ), other options include Precision action - pick and choose your die face , convert - bad corruption die turns good purify die or discard - its a discard, what more do you want, you better be grateful when you can't avoid losing heart on the unforgeable "dissolve life"

Star blessings and black hole blessings are important to redefine your build and forging die helps a ton to avoid catastrophic rolls especially risky dies ( 1/3 chance to some better odds are so good - unless moonie, she wants that convert),

Sentinels can also help you too - usually there's one sentinel curated especially to pair with your character's kit, but more frequently they're just to support and patch up your weaknesses ( ie. more damage, get shields, re-roll, draw extra die etc ) - and I HIGHLY recommend you getting some as early as possible.

Virtues are also key in the game, virtues refresh every time your corruption get past it, exception for the special virtue beside your health bar. You can refresh all of it including the special one with "refresh". You can technically spam Cellarius purify 2 virtue by getting damaged by 2 from Max health, use it, then heal at least 1, and get damaged again ( at least 1, or if full heal; 2 - depending on how many health you healed past the virtue ) and use it again.

other than that, thinning your deck by removing starter die set is fine in most cases ( Hevelius rearm / repair is an exception - unless better alternatives are there ), save scumming the game is acceptable ( nobody cares, we've done it a few times ) and just enjoy the game. If you want to restart or unable to pass bosses / elites, lose the game instead to get exp ( i have countless times restarted out of habit where i lost around 3k/4k exp by doing so... )

Happy rolling your dice and may you get multiverse cube on every run.

[Anolise]

In terms of building your deck, the default should be to try to keep it as thin as possible, with only dice that you really want to draw. Thin decks are good in most deckbuilders, but especially in this one because the forge/duplicate mechanics are so strong, and you want to draw forged and epic dice as often as possible. (Big decks can be good in Slay the Spire because they protect you from status effects, but here the statuses will probably kill you anyway because they deal scaling damage the more status effects you have...)

The exception is if you have a blessing that specifically requires you to bloat the deck. This could be something like the Dicesmith (+5 to all damage at the end of a run, if you keep adding more dice) or Hevel's Charged Body blessing that can singlehandedly kill the enemy if you have a lot of safe dice.

For the dice you do pick, they should ideally have some kind of synergy that creates a potential for overwhelming damage. For example Dodge, Riposte and Crit on Austra. Avoid dice that deal generic damage, but do pick up some Shield/Barrier/Incorruptible so that you can survive against powerful attacks.

[DJDiceZ]

Same as with almost all others deckbuilders. This one follows a pretty standard STS formula, and thus strategies are applicable here too.

- You want to skip or remove dice that bring down the value of your deck, and take those that increase it a lot. There's two types of value you can get from dice: Raw/Inherent value, and Synergistic value. Self explanatory, the former are good by themselves, the latter need to be combo'd with other things to take off. You want scaling but also have inherently good dice. The average value of the average dice you will draw is part of what consistutes the deck's value.

Thus it's pretty customary to remove at least a couple starter dies unless you get the blessing that improves them early, and even then. It's also standard not to add everything you're offered. Note i'm not saying you have to keep it as thin as possible. This is a common strategy, but some people overrate it, it's not the only way. The goal is to draw a dice that will help you, and if the 30 dies in your deck will help you, then that's fine. If the 30 dies in your deck prevent you from getting to the die you need to draw *right* now, that's not good. Thin decks have some critical weaknesses: Hexed dice can be deadly for them, which is one of the main concerns. What you want to have, is a deck that can cycle through dice. Deck manipulation is important so that you can draw, discard, reroll, recall, etc... Mitigating what would otherwise be a deck that is too big. So you can also increase the value of your deck in other ways than removing dice. For example, duplicating a good dice means you will draw it more often, and thus offset how often you draw worse dice. You may even increase the value of your average hand.

- You want a well rounded deck that can handle a lot of different potential situations (each enemy has their strenghts), especially tailored toward those you KNOW you will encouter, if you have a given boss at the end of an area for example. But you also want a deck that specallizes in a synergy, without being too weak in other areas. Specialize, but don't become a one trick pony relying on a combo that spells life or death. Because death will come inevitably. Don't overload your deck with high risk dice if you can't handle them. Look at your dice, the odds of them doing good or bad to you. You want to keep a relatively balanced ammount of cards that will protect you vs cards that will damage you or enemies.

- It's preferable to pick your dice not based on how good they might become and how good other dice will make them, but how good they are and how good they'll make other dice. So you want to avoid a die that will bring no immediate value to the deck unless you know what you are doing and can get away with it, if the die is just too good, etc... For example, you should avoid getting a die that will trigger wave if you don't have any wave in the deck yet. You are supposed to adapt, and trying to force a build, "i want a wave build!" is usually one of the most basic mistakes players make.

- Your health (hearts) is a ressource, and a ressource is meant to be spent. You need to avoid taking unnecessary loss, but you shouldn't be overly conservative with it either. Especially when it comes to trading it for blessings.

- Prioritize elite fights as much as possible. They are one of the main sources of your increase in power. Ideally you'd never skip one, but at higher difficulties it could be dangerous.

- Don't underestimate upgrading sentinels, going to epic shops, events, forging, and so on. Sentinels can be a pretty strong part of your build, and don't forget you can spend your corruption dice on them too. And an important thing to keep in mind is that you will be rewarded sentinels at the end of the two first boss fights. Which means that you may not have to spend any shards on buying sentinels at all.

- As much as it sucks, while you do want to get as many blackhole and star blessings as possible, sometimes you do have to skip one that is too risky.

That's most of the general roguelike card battler/deckbuilder standard tips. Also, i'd guess that going for money and other things over dice rewards on the map may be more interesting in general.

[Silyon]

In reductive terms, Asteria is the same as Slay the Spire. Or similar enough that there's no functional difference in the strategies you employ. Each of the six characters has a pre-determined set of archetypes you want to build into, some of which only get their enablers after leveling the character up some via normal play, and your goal is to run as thin of a "deck" as possible while still having all your essential synergistic effects. Failing a thin deck, heavy draw power to enable you to get to your "big" dice as frequently as possible.

For example, Moonie has two primary builds available from the start. Convert involves getting dice with high corruption values and flipping them into an equal amount of purification (which is also indirectly buffed by doom stacks), which allows her to take more risky dice than any other character safely. Enhance takes purification dice with values of 1 (such as most of her starter dice) and boost them up to a more respectable 6, or higher once you start unlocking dice with the "research" buff. The third main Moonie build is unlocked later on, one that gives strong effects with the penalty of adding Hex dice to your pool, but also having effects that scale off of how many hexes you have. Each of these builds have varied viability on higher corruption teirs, but all are able to win on lower teirs if you can get the synergies going and don't run into something that hard-counters it.

The same idea is true for every character, but Cellarus has an issue where most of his enablers are some of the last unlocks he gets. Forceful Wave is a Level 3 or 4 unlock that by itself turns him from impossibly hard to win with to kind of easy. Purging Anchor is a self-buffing build akin to Ritual Dagger in StS, but is literally his last unlock. The best you have to work with until you level him a bit is Soothe Mind plus "Shark" cards (there's a dice that scales off "Shark" named dice, similar to Perfected Strike), ideally with healbot sentinels to guarantee healing from the large amounts of self-damage you'll end up taking.