Am i just an idiot

[RedEssence]

I can't win a single run on iron clad no matter how i try, most times i can't even beat the first boss, how the hell do you guys play him? because i feel like your need to be ultra lucky. Alot of the people that i watch that play slay the spire do barricade builds, or rupture/combustion gr8 for them cuz i can't ever get any of those two combos to drop. So if anyone has any help for playing as the iron clad its appreciated

[Songbird]

Rupture and Combustion are both pretty much garbage. Rupture has some use with Blue Candle but that's about it. Barricade is amazing later, but there is absolutely no way you're generating enough block per turn without Corruption or an energy relic and a bunch of high-block skills, deck thinning, etc... in other words it's a dead card in Act 1.

You don't need rare cards to beat an act 1 boss. You literally just pick up two high-power attacks like Carnage, Blood for Blood, Uppercut, or Clothesline and upgrade at least one of them (upgrading Bash if you don't have a more valuable card like Uppercut by the first campfire). Then you play it until you win. If you are trying to build a whole combo with no way to do damage quickly then you will lose every time.

[Evad]

Try taking on more fights early on instead of question mark in act 1 since you want to have as much as card options to build you deck. And don't be afraid to take on elites once you have 1 or 2 high damage cards.

Another useful tip for the first floor boss is if you're fighting the hexaghost, you actually want to have a lower HP fighting him. Since his big attack scales with how much HP you have left when fighting him.

[Songbird]

Originally posted by Evad:

Try taking on more fights early on instead of question mark in act 1 since you want to have as much as card options to build you deck. And don't be afraid to take on elites once you have 1 or 2 high damage cards.

Another useful tip for the first floor boss is if you're fighting the hexaghost, you actually want to have a lower HP fighting him. Since his big attack scales with how much HP you have left when fighting him.

Having a lower HP for Hexaghost only matters if you're going for a perfect. You shouldn't rest before the fight, though. But intentionally lowering your HP doesn't help; his first attack does 6 more damage for every 12 HP you have, no other attacks scale off your HP, and it's really important to kill him in under 9 turns (meaning you want some leeway to not block small hits every time), so you'll always have an easier fight with higher health.

Disarm and Flame Barrier are huge power cards against Hexaghost and The Guardian, while you really want the ability for a large burst against Slime Boss (splitting at 50 or less, ideally closer to 40), with a source of weaken if you can't split before his crushing attack. Plated armor or Thorns potions and Metallicize are great to save for Hexaghost and The Guardian, while Slime Boss is weak to direct damage potions (fire potion being the best), and having an energy potion can help a lot as well.

[Evad]

Originally posted by Lupus Albus:

Originally posted by Evad:

Try taking on more fights early on instead of question mark in act 1 since you want to have as much as card options to build you deck. And don't be afraid to take on elites once you have 1 or 2 high damage cards.

Another useful tip for the first floor boss is if you're fighting the hexaghost, you actually want to have a lower HP fighting him. Since his big attack scales with how much HP you have left when fighting him.

Having a lower HP for Hexaghost only matters if you're going for a perfect. You shouldn't rest before the fight, though. But intentionally lowering your HP doesn't help; his first attack does 6 more damage for every 12 HP you have, no other attacks scale off your HP, and it's really important to kill him in under 9 turns (meaning you want some leeway to not block small hits every time), so you'll always have an easier fight with higher health.

I think his multi attack might be based around your remaining HP as well? Seems to be lower when I'm at low HP? I'm not sure though since I never have high/full HP again against him since I know about his attack scaling with HP.

But yeah, not resting before fighting him when you have sufficient HP is important.

[Songbird]

The only attack that scales with your HP is the one he uses on turn 2. The one every 7th turn after that, which gives you 3 burns and upgrades all burns, does 2 damage 6 times (3 damage on ascension 4+). However, he will have given himself +2 strength by then (+3 on ascension 19+), so in practice it's 4x6, 5x6 or 6x6 depending on ascension level.

[RedEssence]

Ill try some of these thanks for the help

[Songbird]

Really, I want to emphasize what I said in the first post: Ironclad just wants to pick up a couple big attacks and upgrade them for Act 1, supplementing with a few basic defense cards like True Grit+ (you really want to upgrade True Grit to exhaust your strikes and status cards specifically), Shrug it Off, and Flame Barrier. Shockwave is a great pickup as well for any run, and Whirlwind+ is a good card for the first two acts (decent damage per energy, and having one AoE attack is immensely valuable for many fights).

If you get an early strength scaling card like Spot Weakness, you can opt for Sword Boomerang and Twin Strike over higher-cost attacks, since cheap cards become much more damage per energy with some strength, but the overall theme of act 1 is to have a good offense with just enough defense. Attacks that apply Weaken are very valuable for this reason.

[RedEssence]

So i tried your guyses help and died to the second boss

[bulbatrs]

ironclad is super easy, on 0 ascention just forget about barricarde, it's too ♥♥♥♥ earlygame. in the first floors pick up high damage cards, even if they hurt you /give wounds. kill minibosses and gain relics. even picking perfect srike is ok if you have a path with 3 bosses. focus on damage over defence, through shrugs are always nice, and you can just faceroll the whole game.... easy.

[RedEssence]

So i made it to third and the game decided to not give me any blocks and killed me with an attack from deca that did 44 damage, thanks game

[Lucasko]

In my 123 hours on Slay The Spire, I've used mostly Ironclad. I've made it up to Ascension 17 with Ironclad by using the following strategy:

***Focus on decreasing my deck size as priority.***
The starting choice, chose card removal if available. Every shop, I buy to reduce deck size. Every choice I get to remove a card, I do. This allows me to cycle cards I get very fast, unlocking great potential for things that grow in power. (Rampage is a great example, as are strength buffs. Also, shield builds can work great.) *Note: make sure you keep at least 2-3 attacks in your deck, or you'll lose at the regen-ing black blobs.
IT IS OKAY TO SKIP CARDS!

You're going to want these:
1 Offence- efficient damage cards, HIGH damage cards, or cards that offer strength.
2 Defense- efficient block cards

At a certain point, you'll get enough of something that has synergy.
Example:
A a +strength card with a way to double strength.
B a card to make Block permanent + a card to double block + a card to do the damage of your block
C rampage + cycle
Sometimes, I have an idea in mind and have to change it because something powerful comes (like Barricade or Limit Break)

Essentially, I've used both of the first 2 strats from the wiki, combined with a low deck size
http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Ironclad
I found these methods out by experimentation, not using the wiki.. But the wiki does a good job at referencing various options if you are unfamiliar with the cards offered.

***You'll want these, if you can get them
2 Card cycle- sometimes you need to cycle to your powerful cards ASAP, or need a big block or a big damage move to avoid lots of damage
examples: Shrug it off, Battle Trace, the attack that draws 2 when upgraded..
3 A way to exhaust cards- this protects you from bad cards, and helps you if you haven't shrunk your deck enough
4 Energy- you'll need this energy mostly from boss items. DON'T remove your starting relic to get this, as the healing from this relic is too valuable. 1+ extra energy can be crucial for certain builds (Demon Form is the best example of this).

The notable moments I've had from memory:
rampage 1-shoting a boss who respawns,
strength stacking into stupid high amounts,
defence stacking to 999,
using strength builds with aoe to hit everything like a truck.

It was mostly smooth sailing (1-5 attempts mostly) though I've failed A17 runs about 60 times- 4 times on the final boss itself.

Other Tips:

1 kill things that stack strength asap. Better to eat 8 damage now to output more damage early then 25 later.

2 Don't fight any bosses if you can, unless you know for sure you can kill them (once you have a good synergy set up). prioritize ? for potential loot. Items that increase loot in ? or remove encounters form ? are amazing.

3 Keep your health up. Healing at the right times can be much better than upgrading. Learn what is a must upgrade and what can be ignored in place of healing.

[RedEssence]

Heres my issue with the deck shrinking plan, i literally cannot get enough card removal, even if i bee line it for each shop half the time i don't have enough money for card removal whenever i play, so unless i get the pipe that lets me remove at campfires i cant really do that

[Dusk_Army]

Card removal is powerful, but rare. For the Ironclad, if you want to go for a really small deck, your best bet is to supplement it by using True Grit. Removed for the duration of the battle is almost as good as not in your deck at all.

It's entirely possible to have a deck that consists of less than 5 cards, but it requires a combination of knowing exactly which cards to keep, and getting lucky on random events.

All that said, everything is about playing the hand you've been dealt. Don't get a lot of card removal oppurtunities? Grab every Perfected Strike you find and make it into a one-shot death card. This game does have a place for large decks, and to an extent, it doesn't matter if you have 50 cards if all of them are good.

[Ackranome]

Demon form seems almost necessary to beat the final boss on most runs.

[MechaTails]

I thought all the classes were garbage until I played more and saw how more of the cards interact.

I thought Exhaust was junk, but I decided to just go with it after getting Charon's Ashes (3 damage to all enemies when you Exhaust.) Fiend Fire became mega savage, and there are of course lots of Ironclad cards that Exhaust. Plus there are Status cards and cards with Ethereal that Exhaust on their own. Really cool deck, too bad RNG bad draws killed me yet again.

I thought the Lose HP decks were junk, but those were similarly savage. That one did feel like I needed a lot of luck to get the required cards though.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the game gives you a break, like if you pick up a few exhaust cards in a row, it tends to spit out the relics/cards that may be good with it.