My Review thous far..

[The_Shepherd]

Wheres the Difficulty setting??
I've played like 8 times and no matter the boss I get whopped when I get to them... Games no fun(and wont buy) if you cant make progress. I play this type of game all the time, this ones difficulty ramps up far too fast. Compare this to Slay the Spire where I kill the boss most of the time unless I have bad luck on the run.

Other Fixes that could be made...
#1 = Most of the Relics are poop, hell half of them come with a negative.
#2 = I would suggest adding more types of die or give the ability to upgrade a die with a shard to a D8 or D10, ect.
#3 = Or add the ability to add an additional die with a shard. Or maybe buy a die at the shop for some gold.
#4 = I would change the shard card level up system, make the shards a socket item that you can move around to different cards whenever you want(not in combat.)

[wowscapewow]

You get better as you play more. Trust me. Shards are a priority. That said, I wouldn't be opposed to being able to move the shards around. I don't know if you a referring to a relic or artifact. I don't believe any relics have down sides except the ones that effect block. Which might be 2? The artifacts with downsides are usually very powerful. Like more power at the start of every turn but 2 less block on every spell. There's another that lets you roll another die but has a pretty big downside but rolling another die is huge!

You get a better eye for synergy as you play. I still make plenty of ♥♥♥♥ decks. And not all loadouts are created equal. Countdown cards work amazingly together and are generally simple decks to put together. Very powerful.

[sage40]

Artifacts > Shards IMO unless you happen to find really good spells to put the shards into. Passive synergies can be crazy if you get the right setup.

I beat the final boss (stage 4) using this setup:

https://i.imgur.com/FGzCOrA.png

Sometimes it's luck in getting the right artifacts offered to you, but also in the paths you take to encounter artifact-dropping bosses, artifact-selling stores, or random rewards.

Potion shops sometimes sell shards, or sell a potion which gives a random chance of a potion/artifact/spell on the map, but an artifact store is preferably if you have gold built up.

If you don't have gold then it's probably better to have monster battles so you can build your wealth. Even if you don't get gold directly you can get extra spells to sell at your next store.

It probably is a good idea to have an 'easy' mode in the final version for newbies so they're not discouraged (I died in act 1 my first go too!). It seems they already have a 'hard' more unlocked via checking the "transcendance" box, which increases the damage enemies do but gives you a "relic" instead of a shard when you beat a stage boss. Not sure what relics are yet, I'm trying it now.