New Eggs are way too OP

[moofles]

Time for a hot take based on a small sample size!

So I just played my first game on the new patch, and I came away wondering if the changes to the eggs (future cards you acquire of the respective egg types are automatically upgraded) might be a mistake.

I was lucky enough to get a Toxic Egg early on floor 1 playing as the Silent. Possibly my first Elite fight, I'm not sure if I remember correctly. Every skill card I got came in shiny and upgraded. Seemed really fun. For... a little while.

The thing is, I feel like almost every card in this game is pretty awesome when upgraded, especially skills. I've always found that the challenge in the game revolves primarily around deciding whether or not I can afford to risk upgrading a card at a fireplace instead of healing, picking the best cards to use my limited upgrades on, and designing my deck so that it's either thin enough or has enough card draw that you can use those few precious cards as my win condition. It affects what cards I decide to acquire. A lot of cards only feel worthwhile if you spend an upgrade on them. Do I really want this Malaise? I know it's going to be great against tough solo elites and bosses, but unless I upgrade it to X+1 so I can play it for a benefit at 0 energy, I'm rarely going to have time to play it in a mob encounter without dying and it could be the dead draw that winds up killing me. What to do?! Thinking! Fun! etc.

Long story short, with an early Toxic Egg, I just kind of... clicked buttons. I wound up easily destroying my final boss encounter using a 35 card deck that had relatively little in the way of theme or synergy. Just a ton of ridiculously powerful cards.

And that was Ascension lvl 10.

It was kind of entertaining, but not as much fun as the struggle I had fighting through the first 9 phases.

This was one run, so maybe other people will have vastly different experiences than I did. My run was fortunate in some other ways: on floor 2 I picked up the "get swole at campfires up to 3 times" relic, which I was able to use with impunity since the egg made upgrading cards unnecessary (and because enemies weren't, you know, hurting me). I later got the encounter where you trade a relic for the gift that makes rares appear more often, so floor 3 was a stream of me picking up a stupid amount of upgraded rares.

I only tried one egg on one run, so maybe they'll be fine overall. Just saying, if game balance is in question, it might be something worth keeping an eye on.

I also think that might be cool if they were rewards for rarer 2 part question mark encounters, along the lines of the golden/bloody idol and the jaxx/addict or blood vial/vampire options. Could be more rewarding, and also less snow-bally if they came on floors 2 or 3.

Anyway, just my 2 cents (or 200 cents... that's two whole dollars!).

[robofish126]

I'm not sure if such is a bad thing. As it stands it often feels like healing at Rest spots is a concession, because it means you screwed up bad enough to take piles of damage you need to heal, and missing out on upgrades will mean you then take even more damage. It does significantly boost the power of the Regal Pillow, Peace Pipe, Girya, and Shovel. I'd argue that the new Eggs are more a healing Relic than anything, in that they say "its ok to just Rest when you are hurt, you won't need very many upgrades".

Moreover the decks which gain the most benefit are suboptimal fat decks that just can't resist grabbing every card they see. I've had decks where every or virtually every card is upgraded with Rests to spare, thanks to the Simplicity Event or Orrery Relic. Also do remember that in the later stages of the game, upgraded cards are often available following Monster encounters, though strangely not from Shops.

[Ashardalon]

also depends when you get it
getting it on the first elite is great but getting it later means you have to consider upgrading a card or removing it to replace with an upgraded
getting a significant relic on the first elite always makes it seem increadibly strong
think its a good change, previously those relics where almost as dissapointing as fruit
but will need more testing before i can really tell

[moofles]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

also depends when you get it
getting it on the first elite is great but getting it later means you have to consider upgrading a card or removing it to replace with an upgraded
getting a significant relic on the first elite always makes it seem increadibly strong
think its a good change, previously those relics where almost as dissapointing as fruit
but will need more testing before i can really tell

It's a fair point that getting anything strong early is very impactful. If the whale blesses you with an adrenaline, you're probably going to have a good run. Still, I've played a lot and had a number of very fortunate runs where I got good stuff early, I've just never experienced something quite so straight up game breaking as this. This was far from the most powerful or coolest deck I was ever able to make, just the easiest and most mindless.

I agree that it's not going to be as good later on, though I suspect you can still probably just take powerful stuff with impunity. As I said in the OP, I think it would be cool to see them be a special quest reward on level 2 or something.

We'll see how it feels when a lot more people have done significant testing.

[MKT]

Well, the only run that i played with this patch i found an molted egg on act 1, was pretty interesting.
I reached to face the Time Eater and he sendme home... (Ascencion 4 - Silent)

[kebabsoup]

Shhhh! Please don't get too much attention and get it nerfed again! My favorite Ironclad build is Corruption/Feel no Pain exhaust. And Toxic Egg is just.... BONKERS! WHOOOOOOOOO! I have never felt so powerful!