Ascend without fighting the heart

[Narco Polo]

A friend sent me this game as a gift about a week ago, and I got absolutely obsessed with it. There is just one thing, well I guess its not a question, but that I have on my mind.
I am closing in on Ascension 15 with silent and am close to 10 with the others, aiming to beat Ascension 20 with all four characters. But here is the thing I thought might be weird, I have NEVER played Act 4! I understand you need to "unlock" this by getting certain relics and picking the right way or such, I have just never tried or happened to do so even by chance!

If I had done this prior to ascending, would I then need to fight and beat the heart on every ascension level to get to the next one; or is it more of a "optional" way to beat and get more score on each ascension?

I just get to the "dialouge-figh" where I attack, get how much dmg me and other players have done, and then the game is completed and the next ascension level unlocked.

[Zu]

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

heart is optional

Idk why I stitched the answer together using words from your quote but ye. You could've even been dying in act 4 and still made ascension progress.

[Narco Polo]

Haha I guess it´s because of the way I asked the question. I could just as well have summarized my post as "Is heart optional in ascensions?", but for some reason wrote half a book instead

But it does feel a little bit weird to not even have seen act 4 after 80 hrs playtime!
Anyway, thanks for your answer/confirmation :)

[Dusk_Army]

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

Haha I guess it´s because of the way I asked the question. I could just as well have summarized my post as "Is heart optional in ascensions?", but for some reason wrote half a book instead

But it does feel a little bit weird to not even have seen act 4 after 80 hrs playtime!
Anyway, thanks for your answer/confirmation :)

Honestly, it's not that strange (though maybe I'm biased since I've been playing since before the Heart was added). But since it is optional, keep in mind that it's a lot harder than the rest of the game. You might want to jump back to Ascension 1 the first time you try it.

[Narco Polo]

Ok so there is actually something fishy going on. I have googled, a LOT, but cant find anyone with my problem. I simply do not have any "marked elite", nor do I have the symbol next to my name where the "keys" should go. Others who reported similar problems, all seem to beconnected to having played modded version and/or playing before the patch adding act 4 and for some reason getting this issue due to problems with that.

For me however, I got the game 1-2 weeks ago, never played it before, beat the game on several ascension levels on all 4 characters. Still, there is no way for me to collect keys :/
I tried even without ascension, no difference......

WTF?

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

For me however, I got the game 1-2 weeks ago, never played it before, beat the game on several ascension levels on all 4 characters. Still, there is no way for me to collect keys :/
I tried even without ascension, no difference......

WTF?

Achievement: Sapphire
Beat the game with the Defect.

Your steam account is missing this one.
Beat the game (again) with Defect on any difficulty.

(Feel free to reply if your still having trouble, there's other ways to unlock act4 if your game is bugged.)

[Narco Polo]

Originally posted by Spawnling:

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

For me however, I got the game 1-2 weeks ago, never played it before, beat the game on several ascension levels on all 4 characters. Still, there is no way for me to collect keys :/
I tried even without ascension, no difference......

WTF?

Achievement: Sapphire
Beat the game with the Defect.

Your steam account is missing this one.
Beat the game (again) with Defect on any difficulty.

(Feel free to reply if your still having trouble, there's other ways to unlock act4 if your game is bugged.)

Why did I not check this? And thank you a lot for doing it for me! I will try right away, just finnished unlocking the characters over again on a new profile to try and see if it changed once I switch back to my original one, I should have just done this instead.

I will let you know in 30 min (No I am not that slow, but I got to walk my dog first ;) )

[Naeromar]

I have this same issue with the Watcher, have gotten past the gate multiple times but do have the beat the game one yet. Is there resolution?

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by Vesuvius:

I have this same issue with the Watcher, have gotten past the gate multiple times but do have the beat the game one yet. Is there resolution?

Sometimes achievements take a while until they are unlocked. My last one took about 24 hours until it was unlocked on steam.
You can check if you got the achievement in game ->Statistics->Character Stats.

If you're playing with mods achievements will not unlock.

[Jacked]

So you have to beat the game with all three or 4 characters before you get to attack the heart and act 4? I was wondering why I just attack the heart once and die and game over.

[alterNERDtive]

For what it’s worth, I have the exact same problem as OP. When I ran into this initially after the “release” of Act 4, I even reset my progress entirely and started from scratch. I’ve beat at least normal + Ascension 1 on all (now 4) characters, and I still don’t get access to Act 4.

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by alterNERDtive:

For what it’s worth, I have the exact same problem as OP. When I ran into this initially after the “release” of Act 4, I even reset my progress entirely and started from scratch. I’ve beat at least normal + Ascension 1 on all (now 4) characters, and I still don’t get access to Act 4.

You can check your gamefiles.
In steam right click Slay the Spire-> Properties-> Local Files-> Browse Local Files.
This will open the folder StS is installed. From there go to the preferences folder and open STSPlayer with a text editor. In it you should find the following lines
"IRONCLAD_WIN": "true",
"DEFECT_WIN": "true",
"THE_SILENT_WIN": "true",

If not you need to complete a run with this character. If this doesn't change the property to "true" it's bugged and you can try changing it directly in the STSPlayer file.

Now how to unlock act 4 in game spoiler:
You need to collect three keys.
Ruby Key is obtained by choosing to obtain it at a campfire
Emerald by fighting a super elite (burning elite icon)
Sapphire Key by choosing it over a Relic found in a chest.

[alterNERDtive]

> You can check your gamefiles.

Fun. It doesn’t have an Ironclad win registered. I do have the achievement and I was on like Asc9 or 10 before I reset, now on 3. No comment.

Adding the line appears to have fixed it. TYVM.

[Naeromar]

It says that I have won a game each of the three, set to true, and that my Watcher_spirit is set to 1, yet I do not have the achieve still for watcher like I do for the other three.

[Psylisa]

Originally posted by Dusk_Army:

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

Haha I guess it´s because of the way I asked the question. I could just as well have summarized my post as "Is heart optional in ascensions?", but for some reason wrote half a book instead

But it does feel a little bit weird to not even have seen act 4 after 80 hrs playtime!
Anyway, thanks for your answer/confirmation :)

Honestly, it's not that strange (though maybe I'm biased since I've been playing since before the Heart was added). But since it is optional, keep in mind that it's a lot harder than the rest of the game. You might want to jump back to Ascension 1 the first time you try it.

I don't find the heart "harder" than the original game, it just requires a different strategy to tackle than what the game offers. All of the characters have a good strategy to tackle the heart, but because it's different - you don't necessarily pack the cards to do so. And Act 4 has such a short time frame that last-minute changing your deck isn't possible.

[Narco Polo]

Originally posted by Spawnling:

Originally posted by Narco Polo:

For me however, I got the game 1-2 weeks ago, never played it before, beat the game on several ascension levels on all 4 characters. Still, there is no way for me to collect keys :/
I tried even without ascension, no difference......

WTF?

Achievement: Sapphire
Beat the game with the Defect.

Your steam account is missing this one.
Beat the game (again) with Defect on any difficulty.

(Feel free to reply if your still having trouble, there's other ways to unlock act4 if your game is bugged.)

Damn, I forgot about this account. But yeah, you were right. So checking your achievements is probably a goodr place to start if you encounter this problem.

Thanks!