Dying as Silent constantly

[Shajirr]

I can clear act 1 usually, but almost always die on act 2 on ascension 3.

Most enemies deal between 20-30 damage each turn, and I simply die by attrition.
In last 6 games I had no way to heal myself, except for rest sites.
Or get a bad hand with no block and eat all that 30 damage in 1 turn in 1 battle.

Enemies are usually also way beefier compared to a1, so can't just burst them down, with 50-100 hp each. Some have unique mechanics to prevent them from attacking (birds/slimes), but most don't, and just dish out enormous amounts of damage each turn.

A good example is slaver elites - 3 enemies of 50 hp, dealing around 15 damage each, each turn - how am I supposed to deal with this? If I encounter even 1 elite past act 1 it is almost a guaranteed loss.

[Robin]

It's hard to give too specific advice since we don't know how you build your decks and approach your runs. But generally speaking you want to be using A1 to get upgrades/relics. take as many elties as you reasonably can to get gold/cards/relics.

You're definitely gonna take some damage in act 2, that's normal, I think. Have maybe 2 ways to apply weak helps a lot. If you get a couple Piercing Wails, definitely take them, they're awesome all game, but Act 2 especially has a lot of multi hitting nemies where it can mitigate so much damage for that 1 energy.

For elites. Make sure you use your potions well there. In the slaver fight you wanna rush down the back slaver quickly then the fight is almsot won at that point, but accept that you might take some (20-30) damage at the start if things go badly

[Shajirr]

On current run I didn't even make it past a 2nd starting room - Lagavullin debuffed my str and dex to the point where I dealt no damage and gained no block... I did have 2 cards that applied weak though...

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Sounds like you weren't playing aggressive enough. Focus on getting as many attacks as you can at the start of Act 1, and don't try to full block Lagavulin every turn - better to take some damage in order to end the fight faster than reach that point where the debuffs kills you.

[Adela]

Honestly? The Silent when I first played was my favourite character. Right until Ascension and I unlocked all her cards. Which reduces the consistency of getting all her *actually good cards*.

Look, I know deck building and draw consistency, I know recursion. I played in at least 5 Android: Netrunner tournaments and my Runner ID of choice was Chaos Theory ...

Unlike the Watcher, whereby you can form a viable strategy and build around it even late stage Act 2, simply because you can magnify your damage curve to match the growing resistance regardless of deck... the Silent simply *can't* ... she's way more Relic intensive, and damage and ending fights sooner trumps zero energy deflect cards.

Unless I get a few decent cards by Act 1, I simply abandon Silent runs because it's just a matter of frustration for me.

Every other character has capacities of chaining combos easily regardless of how the cards turn out. Beyond Shivs and poisons there's not much there. As you unlock more of her cards an more relics, reduces the consistency of drawing the cards that made early pre-Ascension runs viable.

The Silent is way more build intensive and build specific, far more than any other character. The Ironclad cards are simply better and more fluid.

If there was more options for player driven deckbuilding with the Silent, it would be fine ... but her cards often lack any solid ideas of deck builds on their own so it's just a crapshoot. I would seriously trade out her starting relic for something that simply gave her more card options when ending fights.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Hard to really tell you what you're overlooking without being able to see your play, but since you mention hating the unlocks I can tell you that Catalyst, Corpse Explosion, and Cloak and Dagger are all universally fantastic. Grand Finale can be strong but really requires you to build around it, and while Storm of Steel is rather niche I kinda like it when I get the right relics to make it worthwhile.

Concentrate is pretty much only good with Unceasing Top, and Bane, Accuracy, and Setup are just trash.

[DJDiceZ]

I say silent should have one of her rare cards replaced with a rare power that gives all enemies slow. Now that'd be interesting.

Just make it cost 3(2).

Maybe rework Accuracy to apply to all 0 cost attacks.

By the way OP, Silent is very good at blocking. She doesn't need Ironclad's regen because she is supposed not to take as much damage in the first place. If you feel like you're missing block, either you're really bloating your deck with bad non-block commons, or you aren't killing enemies fast enough. Poison is good against Lagavulin, but if you have decent attacks, it'll go down too as long as you don't spend too many damage opportunities on block.

Don't engage too many elites on later acts, but if you have Crippling Cloud, aoe attacks, etc... the slavers shouldn't be too much of a problem. Take out the back slaver asap and you should be fine afterward block wise. Focus non-aoe stuff on him. You have cards like piercing wail that just completely babify all enemies for a turn, malaise for permanent damage mitigation that can add up to a lot against certain enemies. Leg Sweep offers both strong block and weak, Dodge and Roll blocks over two turns and benefits a lot from Footwork (Dexterity is important, try to get some), Backflip helps having good hands, etc...

Of course if you don't have an energy relic by Act 2, it'll make Act 2 quite a lot harder, so don't be too scared of the downsides. As mentioned previously, potions are important, use them well.

As far as damage go, you want to add some attacks in Act 1, whether you're going poison or not, unless you get a massive ammount of poison within the first few floors. Afterward, either you have poison, and you shouldn't struggle too much taking down large HP bars, or you use a lot of attacks, which better be supported by good relics. Still nice to have a few good attacks like Predator or Dagger Spray though. If you still struggle, and especially if you give us a run recap or something, i could go into more detail.

Originally posted by Mega Missingno.:

Concentrate is pretty much only good with Unceasing Top, and Bane, Accuracy, and Setup are just trash.

Bane isn't that bad, Concentrate has more uses than Unceasing Top. Pyramid is an example, but there's more.

[Shajirr]

Silent is not good at blocking at all compared to Defect for example.
The only actually good block card I encounter is Blur, but its rare enough that it rarely makes a difference. All those cost 0 cards don't do much in Act 2 when enemies dish out 20-30 per turn. Dodge and Roll for 4 block? Yeah sure, encounter with 2 enemies, 1st enemy attacks for 15 and second for 20. If I get a Footwork or two I do live longer, but I don't even see these cards on many runs.

I also now avoid all elites past A1 since encountering them is around 80% immediate death.
By the time of encountering them I usually run out of potions anyway, and maybe have half health if that.

[Robin]

Silent is great at mitigating damage. For one she'll always have access to weak, she also has some great commons and uncommons (Piercing Wail, Cloak and Dagger, Leg Sweep, Dash, Footwork, Well Laid Plans). I find her one of the easiest to get deck together, but you have to get some damage cards first always (that's true for every class though btw).

You can't surive elites by out lasting them, since all have better scaling than you, so your first priority is to add a couple (2-4) damage cards to your deck.
In the common/uncommon pool we have: Cloak and Dagger, Dagger spray, Dagger Throw, Deadly Poison, Poison Stab, Quick Slash, Crippling Cloud, Dash, Flechette, Skewer. Which are all decent in most situations and shine in others.
If you get a lucky rare like : Die Die Die, Glass Knife or Corpse explosion you're already doing pretty well at that point.

A decent amount of the time you want to upgrade either Neutralize or one of your freshly gotten damage cards as your first two upgrades and hunt for elites in act 1. If you lose to elites in act 1 then learn how to beat them consistently. You should expect to be around 30hp end of act 1 going into the boss, that should be fine to defeat the boss too, that way you got a good deck at start of A2 that can actually do stuff.

Generally focus on cards that help you through act 1 at beginning and first half of act 1, then keep an eye out for cards that help in specific difficult encounters in act 2 (including elites), so you can actually defeat one or two of them during your climb through act 2.

But it seems you're focusing on damage mitigation for her primarily and neglecting your own damage output, maybe that's why you got so much trouble. Try getting 3-4 attacks first before adding mroe mitigation and see how it goes maybe

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Two words: Wraith Form.

[Alhimik]

While others have already provided good constructive suggestions, I want to add my own example of a run I did today to hopefully help you with decision making in acts 1 and 2. I went with ascension 3 so everything was identical:

ACT 1:
1. I chose 100g as whale bonus.
2. Removed strike at one of the shops, and got deflect, dagger throw, quick slash and well laid plans from hallway fights.
3. 1st elite was Lagavulin. Using noxious fumes that came with power pot I managed to defeat him rather easily, picking up Old coin and piercing wail.
4. Upgraded neutralize and quick slash in both campfires
5. Added setup, footwork and grand finale from hallway fights.
6. 2nd elite was Sentries. With well-laid plans and grand finale, the fight was over in 3 turns
7. Upgraded footwork at campfire and went into Hexaghost at 25HP. The fight lasted for 1 turn longer after he added 3 burns+ into my deck, and I used grand finale twice. I added glass knife and slaver's collar and went into Act 2 with 700+ gold

ACT 2:
1. Added bouncing flask+ from hallway fight
2. Declined event that gave 5 apparitions for half max HP to keep this run more challenging
3. Removed strike at the shop and bought dolly mirror to use on footwork+ (with 500g leftover)
4. Upgraded well-laid plans at campfire
5. Added piercing wail from hallway fight
6. 1st SUPER elite was ironically The Slavers. After immediately disposing of the one at the back with cunning pot and glass knife, the rest were easy to block with +6 dex. I added acrobatics for more card draw
7. Upgraded glass knife at campfire
8. 2nd elite was Gremlin Leader, which was more challenging, and I skipped card rewards
9. Got prayer wheel as my chest relic
10. Added caltrops+, footwork, wraith form and blur from hallway fights
11. 3rd elite was again The Slavers. I repeated the same strategy as before, and added backflip for more card draw and block
12. Upgraded wraith form at campfire and went into Bronze Automaton (hyperbeam man) at ~40hp. After manipulating card draw to kill the minions with grand finale, I used setup to hold 0 cost wraith form in hand with well-laid plans until the hyperbeam, using bouncing flask+burst as often as possible.

My overall thoughts on silent is that there are several cards which I consider as staples for her. In this run it was well-laid plans, footwork, piercing wail. The other good cards were caltrops, wraith form, blur, backflip but as you can see I didn't even get them until second half of act 2.

Also consider upgrading neutralize as having 2 weak is a big deal for damage mitigation, and if you think about it it's like having block.

[Spawnling]

You could upload a list of one of your decks. This might help people to see where you went wrong.
My general guess is that you lack up front damage.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by White Spirit:

Silent is not good at blocking at all compared to Defect for example.
The only actually good block card I encounter is Blur, but its rare enough that it rarely makes a difference. All those cost 0 cards don't do much in Act 2 when enemies dish out 20-30 per turn. Dodge and Roll for 4 block? Yeah sure, encounter with 2 enemies, 1st enemy attacks for 15 and second for 20. If I get a Footwork or two I do live longer, but I don't even see these cards on many runs.

I also now avoid all elites past A1 since encountering them is around 80% immediate death.
By the time of encountering them I usually run out of potions anyway, and maybe have half health if that.

Blur isn't even that good of a Silent block card unless it's in certain niche decks like one that has few cards, cycling, burst, and a few more things, etc...

Defect has frost, but his block cards are much worse than Silent's. Unless you have enough Focus, he usually does on par with or worse than Silent.

Enemies rarely attack for a lot on the first turn, giving you time to set up powers, key cards, or even kill off enemies immediately. Saying that all enemies deal 20~30 damage per turn is very misrepresentative of how the average fight goes.

Even Chosen, who is one of the hardest hitting hallway enemies, takes at least 3~4 turns before he starts doing that much damage.

Those 0 cost cards can do a lot when you have draw cards to put them to use. Let's not forget that Silent starts her first turn with 7 cards compared to the other characters (exception: relic swap).

Footwork with Deflect is 7 block for a free cost. It's 14 blocks spread out over two turns with Dodge and Roll. With an upgraded Leg Sweep you get 17 block and 25% damage mitigation.

Piercing Wail can give you an entire turn of complete safety in most encounters. Malaise can singlehandedly make a joke out of certain encounters. After Image adds up to the rest without costing you anything past the first use. All of those are great for enemies that inflict Frail.

You know where else you can get block? Relics. These matter too. Whether you have a Captain's Wheel, a Shiv deck with Ornamental Fan, Tungsten Rod to protect you from multihit attack, Paper Krane to make weak borderline OP, etc...

If with all this you can't find enough block on Silent, you aren't picking the right cards.

Let's further put this into perspective. Without Ascension, and the weakened value in parenthesis:

Spheric guardian - T1: 0 dmg. T2: 10(7) damage. T3: 10(7)*2 damage. This an enemy you're likely to kill before it gets to turn 3, but even if you don't, if you have a lot of weak, poison, wails, etc... you'll get to a point where it doesn't do much damage so you can block it even with frail.

Paired with sentry? The sentry only does 9(6) damage per turn, and none on the first turn. Big deal. Just kill one of them fast enough and the fight becomes manageable.

Shelled Parasite - T1: 10(7)~12(9) damage. T2: 10(7)~18(13) damage. One of the encounters you're expect to take damage on because of frail and being long lived. That's okay. You'll take damage no matter what in this game. If you systematically die on this encounter or the one after everytime, you're doing something wrong though.

Triple Byrds - T1: About 15(0) max, or nothing at all. T2: About 30(15) max, or nothing at all, etc... They are extremely vulnerable to multihit/spammy decks, aoe mitigation, and strenght reducing effect, aswell as damage reflection.

Thieves: - T1~T3: 20(14~17)~28(21~25). Aoe mitigation works well, weak works well. Most defensive cards do well against them. You'll rarely take more than 20~30 damage on this fight, especially if you kill one fast enough.

Triple Cultist - T1: 0. T2: 18(12~16). T3: 27(18~24). T4: 36(27~33). Etc... You'll probably have killed one by turn 2 or 3, lowering their damage until you kill the next one and so on.

Snake Plant - Does 21(15) damage or debuffs you. An annoying one, but if you malaise it, piercing wail, weaken etc... that gives you one more turn to kill it before it does much damage.

Snecko - T1: 8-15(6~11). T2: 8-23(6~17). T3: 8-23(6~17). Etc...

Centurion. - Deals at most 12 damage (deals a lot more when you kill the Mystic, which is why you kill him first). Unless buffed by the mystic, who give him 2 damage everytime she buffs, which means she doesn't heal or attack for 8. Honestly probably one of the easiest encounters.

So, the average is probably more around 20(15) or so, can you really not block that? All it takes is a good block card or two. Weak is plentiful with the Silent so it's reasonable to assume you have a weakened enemy most of the time, and that's without Paper Krane.

The biggest danger is elites. But you should NOT die to only one, and you shouldn't have to fight more than one. Which you likely don't want to. Stabby stab stab is susceptible to strenght down and weak, Goblin Leader is susceptible to AOEs, Slavers aren't that bad if you can kill the back slaver fast enough (then Middle if you have a deck that's weak to wounds, or Leftmost one if you still can't block enough, whichever is the most dangerous for your current deck).

Meanwhile Silent has a lot of good sources of Weak, one of which you have in your deck by default. She has Intangible which is the strongest defensive ability in the entire game, no contest. It's literally a "take no damage" button. She has Dexterity which makes all of your block cards better and seemingly innocent cards like Deflect and Dodge and Roll become potentially amazing assets. Great value block for two turns. She has two solid sources of strenght down, one of which is aoe and COMMON, and is one of the best damage mitigation cards, only weak to artifact. Silent is the best at shedding artifacts though. So many ways to constantly apply debuffs.

She has a few ways to draw (Adrenaline is great) to get good hands, aswell as Well Laid Plans which allows you to carry over attacks on turns you need them, and block cards on turns you need them. That seemingly not very good Deflect or Escape Plan that will be free block next turn when the enemy attacks. Now don't get me wrong, Deflect isn't amazing by any mean. But silent has cards that can make any block card that much more amazing, and that's part of why she blocks so well.

Not only that, but she has poison and thorns which allow her to deal damage while putting all of her energy into block. It's important you kill enemies before they become an issue though. You've got cards like Noxious Fumes, Corpse Explosion, Dagger Spray, Backstab, Glass Knife, etc... that can do that job quite well. Or whatever your deck's main source of damage is. Could be Shivs, poison, or even A Thousand Cuts, whatever works for the run your on. But it won't always be the same thing that works in a given run. Sometime it'll be a skewer with ice cream that deletes a boss while you tank all the damage for 10 turns even though skewer was useless the run before. That's what Silent and by extension, what Spire is.

If you still don't want to accept that, show us a run recap from your run history, and if after being shown that there's always somewhere you could have done better, then we can't do much for you and you should consider just sticking to the other characters.

[Shajirr]

I did manage to win the run to get to Ascention 3 in the first place, but it was heavily RNG stacked in my favour with like 5-6 actually useful relics.
And there were at least 4-5 fights in which I would have still died in if it weren't for Corpse Explosion.
The very last combat before 3rd boss I had to flee from using a potion, because that was a plant which was dealing 28 damage each turn with no breaks, if I didn't have a flee potion I also would have lost. Even the boss itself in its last phase deals less dmg per turn.

"That's okay. You'll take damage no matter what in this game."
Hmm not necessarily. Sometimes I have cleared entire floors with Defect taking no damage at all.

I'll try to use the card recommendations posted here, and post a card list of a failed run to check.
Some of the cards mentioned here, like Glass Knife, I never even picked.

[itssirtou]

Originally posted by White Spirit:

On current run I didn't even make it past a 2nd starting room - Lagavullin debuffed my str and dex to the point where I dealt no damage and gained no block... I did have 2 cards that applied weak though...

Lagavulin (and Nob) you need to realize that you'll take damage and try to burst them out ASAP.

Ironically in this game the rouge needs to play a lot more defensively than the caster or the warrior! Make sure you have a substantial amount of block cards.

In general I do well by splashing Sucker Punch and Footwork into every build, it's a lot of survivability. And even after the nerf I love Well Laid Plans, it's such a powerful effect to hold combo pieces or simply the right card for the right time.

Otherwise though I feel like her 'goodstuff' package is weaker than most and she relies a lot more on synergy and relics. She's much more 'feast or famine' than the others, sometimes she falls flat on her face, sometimes she gets 200 poison on a boss by turn 3. Relic hunting is even more important on her than others.

[Spawnling]

An example deck AS3 :

Malaise, Nigthmare+, Wraith Form+, Blur (added in Act 4), Bouncing Flask+, Catalyst+,
Footwork+, 2x LexSweep+, Masterful Stab, Noxious Fumes (Act 4), Backflip+,
Dagger Spray+, Deadly Poison+, Dodge & Roll+, Piercing Wail, Piercing Wail+,
Poisoned Stab, 5x Defend+, Neutralize+, 4x Strike+, Survivor, Panacea+

Edit: After asking for a failed example deck, I though I could provide a working one.
It beat the heart.
In 17 of the 27 fights I took no damage. That includes 6 of 9 elites and the first boss fight.
Seed: 3TJL1FXNY2PGJ
(Edit 2: You get an early Akabeko in the seed, so you need to unlock watcher level 4)
and the choices I made during act 1; they are listed as Encounter -card picked- damage taken (Comment):

Neow +7HP;
Mob -Skip- 0dmg (starting node: 3rd from left);
? Offer Strike;
?/Mob -Bouncing Flask- 1dmg (Skill Potion);
Mob -Skip- 2dmg (Fruit Juice);
Merchant -Masterful Stab & Liquid Memories-;
Elite:Lagavulin -Dagger Spray- 17dmg (Use Liquid Mem Bouncing flask);
Mob -Skip- 0dmg;
Campfire Neutralize+;
Treasure;
Elite:Gremlin Nob -Poison Stab- 13dmg (Use Fruit Juice, get Block Potion);
Campfire Bouncing Flask+;
Elite:Sentries -Catalyst- 0dmg;
Campfire Catalyst+;
Mob -Skip- 15dmg (intetional dmg vs Hexaghost [current HP less than 3*12-1]);
Campfire Dagger Spray+;
Boss:Hexaghost -Nightmare- Relic:Ectoplasm 0dmg;