tips for the silent?

[8BitAether]

the only class i haven't won a legit run with (i've won a daily run with it but that doesn't count obviously), i've gotten to the act 3 boss one or two times but have always died there or along the way, even if i get a good deck starting (high damage shivs, poison deck, good balanced deck, and even a colored prism deck with a bunch of ironclad cards (that was most likely my fault for that loss).

i can't get the hang of the class and my biggest issue with it is that i can't be able to deal enough damage and i'm not good enough to be able to build a stable deck for it. so any help or tips?

[8BitAether]

Originally posted by Riedy:

My favorite combo is Footwork (Gain 2 (3) Dexterity [Power]) with a nice discard/draw deck (like gain energy by discarding). With that you can also build up poison without taking much damage.

ok so comboing cards like knife throw and tactician? and i'm guessing the poison could come from something like envenom.
i like the idea but it sounds like it has a lot of room to fail without having tried it, especially with the possibility of getting time eater.

[chaos4u]

im in no way qualified but read the why did they nerf posion, thread there is some good tips in there, what worked for me is of course a good posion stacking deck apperantly there is more creative ways to build such a deck which i have yet to luck up on .

so posion stack and a lot of attempts thats how i managed my emerald, oh yeah by some health potions. and hope you dont get time eater.

[Songbird]

"Discard decks" are generally bad because they waste a lot of card picks on cards that do nothing and pick a lot of cards that are godawful if you don't get specific other cards offered to you. Then all they actually do in the end is try to go infinite and thus die to Time Eater. They're a very fun way to go for the turn 1 boss kill achievement, though.

If you want damage to get through Act 3, which demands you take out slowly scaling 300+ bosses, you're looking for cards like Noxious Fumes, Catalyst (don't take this too early), Deadly Poison+, Crippling Cloud+, and Bouncing Flask. These are cards that will pretty much always work. However, depending on what you're offered early, what rare cards you see, and what relics you get, you may end up scaling with cards like Thousand Cuts, Afterimage and/or Envenom instead which raise the value of shivs.

The Silent is extremely combo-heavy with cards like Burst and Nightmare, so Runic Pyramid and Well-Laid Plans are extremely invaluable to ensure you can actually use your combo cards together. Nightmare on Footwork, Wraith Form or Afterimage can very easily ensure you win the final boss battle. Nightmare on Catalyst+ can multiply a target's poison by 81. Since all three pieces of this (Nightmare, the scaling card, and Well-Laid Plans) are good on their own, it's much more reliable and safer to pick up these pieces individually than trying to take cards like Reflex and Tactician.

Remember, in any given run, you cannot afford to go in with a pre-set strategy. The only thing that's really pre-set in a given run is that you want to be able to beat the elites in each act so you can get relics and more rare cards, which generally means taking attacks in early act 1, answers to the boss in late act 1, AoE and strength down cards for act 2, and more intense scaling for the act 2 boss and act 3 enemies (with some answer for Reptomancer as well if you don't already have cards from early game that deal with her daggers).

[chaos4u]

this the deck that i manged to win with
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1678517572

[8BitAether]

Originally posted by Lupus Albus:

"Discard decks" are generally bad because they waste a lot of card picks on cards that do nothing and pick a lot of cards that are godawful if you don't get specific other cards offered to you. Then all they actually do in the end is try to go infinite and thus die to Time Eater. They're a very fun way to go for the turn 1 boss kill achievement, though.

If you want damage to get through Act 3, which demands you take out slowly scaling 300+ bosses, you're looking for cards like Noxious Fumes, Catalyst (don't take this too early), Deadly Poison+, Crippling Cloud+, and Bouncing Flask. These are cards that will pretty much always work. However, depending on what you're offered early, what rare cards you see, and what relics you get, you may end up scaling with cards like Thousand Cuts, Afterimage and/or Envenom instead which raise the value of shivs.

The Silent is extremely combo-heavy with cards like Burst and Nightmare, so Runic Pyramid and Well-Laid Plans are extremely invaluable to ensure you can actually use your combo cards together. Nightmare on Footwork, Wraith Form or Afterimage can very easily ensure you win the final boss battle. Nightmare on Catalyst+ can multiply a target's poison by 81. Since all three pieces of this (Nightmare, the scaling card, and Well-Laid Plans) are good on their own, it's much more reliable and safer to pick up these pieces individually than trying to take cards like Reflex and Tactician.

ah so that's my problem, i don't pick up the cards i generally need and instead go for what fancies my eye, except for some cards like afterimage, bouncing flask or thousand cuts. those cards alone can help me get through some of act 2, but aren't gonna be enough to carry me to or past act 3.
only reason i got to act 3 was because i have a balanced deck that did well at damage and block, but wasn't enough to get me through the boss, which happened to be the awakened one. which i spent most of the first phase killing his minions so they don't kill me with a 24 strength attack while i fight the main boss. but still failed because the deck wasn't good at damage or block even though i had good cards like afterimage.
new plan, keep an eye out for the strategic cards as they'll benefit me in the long run and also play smarter so i don't lose all of my hp to an attack.

[Blood Flowers]

Here is a thread of general tips on how to play StS.

and a guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1613845715

[Drecon]

Pretty often the key to winning with silent is to be able to do a lot of different things during a turn. SIlent has a lot of ways to abuse card draw and 0-cost cards. There's also a lot of things that interact well with relics.
In general, block a lot, find a way to scale damage and make sure you have a way to make sure the fight doesn't last too long.
Silent has lots of different things, from Dexterity Scaling to poison scaling to infinite combos. Generally, you need a mix of different things to actually win the run.

[Leange]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1256241787
This Guide helped me greatly. As a matter of fact silent is probably my fav char because of it.
Though i always try to play poison, never had any real success with a shiv deck.

[K E N N I]

I'm not a great player, but the Silent is my best hero and I'm doing a lot better than you, so here are a few tips.
Watch out for relics you can build around. This applies to every character and is especially important if you're struggling to win. Examples: you get Kunai or Shuriken - go ham on attacks (not only shivs), you get Snecko Skull - go for poison or Envenom, you get Ice Cream - you can try to set up some big Skewers.
Don't shoehorn yourself into the most popular deck archetypes, i.e. Shivs and poison. A lot of different builds can work if you find some relic synergy, or even if you don't. One particularly often overlooked archetype is straight up attacks and block, Ironclad style. No one talks about it, but I often end up winning with a deck like this. The best cards for it are Terror and Glass Knife+.
Don't go too hard on card removal. Your starting deck is terribly bloated and removing all this ♥♥♥♥ is a hopeless task. Removal through events is nice, but in the shop it's very expensive. It's usually better to buy a card to enhance your deck than to pay for removal. It's even better to buy a useful relic.
Don't take Nightmare unless you have a good reason to do it. Yes, it can be very powerful, but if it is and you can afford to play it, you're probably winning anyway. It's a win-more card.

[8BitAether]

yea i can somewhat follow these ideas but here's my main problems that still exist:

a. i can't be able to begin to build a good archetype.

b. i usually can't be able to do enough damage or block in the first act. thus repeated deaths by the elites and my first death to a burn card.

c. i'm really unlucky.

[K E N N I]

Please stop recommending 5 cards or even infinite decks, this requires a ton of luck to pull off. OP would get killed in act 1 95% of the time trying to do this, and in act 2 5% of the time.

[8BitAether]

thanks for the tips! i just won a silent run right now and the ending was a lot easier than the beginning. resulted in making a shiv deck with not a lot of relics but with a LOT of powers, like 3/4 accuracies, envenom, infinite blades, thousand cuts, footwork, tools of the trade and maybe a few others. i also got unceasing top which helped me play more cards and shuriken which just made me overpowered.
final boss was donu and deca which was the best one for me, so i'm glad i ended the run on a high note!

[Shucks]

The trick to staying silent is to really focus on not talking.

[Burdpal]

Originally posted by Buck the Duck:

The trick to staying silent is to really focus on not talking.

Technically the truth.

[FraGmenToR]

You dont need an archetype for silent. I think thats generally where people go wrong. See this deck for an example:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/955226815242986258/37781075C5BA71B5C5D40048F7AE98AC18839F3C/

With Silent, my suggestion is focus closely on your first 10 cards (basically the first Act). Initially you want 3 or 4 damage cards. Key examples are:

Riddle with holes
Infinite blades (free damage each turn)
Slice
Poisoned stab
Backstab
Predator
Skewer
Endless agony
Blade dance

From there you want 3 or 4 of the supporting debuff/buff defensive cards:

Dash
Leg sweep
Blur
Dodge and roll
Cloak and dagger
Piercing wail
Backflip

Depending on which cards you get, you can then add in the supporting cards, which is basically everything else. But try and steer clear of these until you have about 8 from the above picks. The exception being footwork, which you should nearly always pick up.

In Act 2, this is where you should have more idea of where your deck is going. Its at this point you might want to consider cards like catalyst, bouncing flask, thousand cuts, choke etc. But primarily you want to upgrade as much as you can.

In Act 3, if played correctly, you want to hit elites for relics. You can hit elites in act 2, but generally you need a board clear like corpse explosion or some good relics.