I give up.

[rob]

Yes, tell me I suck. Tell me to 'Git Gud" or whatever people say these days. Let me start over so this isn't a total whinefest.

I don't get this game. I can't beat Act 2. It's embarrassing. According to one post I read on here somewhere, an idiot should be able to complete a standard run blindfolded, or something like that (on his first try).

I've tried guides on how to build the best decks for each class....I rarely to never see the recommended cards.

I've tried every single path. Avoided battles where possible...took all the battles I could....no elites...all the elites...same thing.

I have no clue about deck size. I was in the habit of taking a group of cards that I thought looked strong, and later found them all on a list of "weakest cards for...." Keep the deck small. How? I remove strikes and defends where possible, but it doesn't come up that much. Don't take a card every turn, I read...when do I not? You can't win with strikes and defends.

If you've read this far, thank you. I really want to like the game, but you can only hit your head on the same wall so many times before you stop running at that wall.

[Spawnling]

Watch Jorbs, he also has an overexplained series. Otherwise it's hard to say what you do wrong without seeing your decks, apart from saying 'skip cards'.

Once you get into the game you'll get a 90% win rate on lower ascension, but on the other hand people need 50 hours+ to get to the point where they beat the game once.

Hope you'll be able to enjoy the game in the future after taking a break, maybe ^^.

[rob]

Originally posted by Spawnling:

Watch Jorbs, he also has an overexplained series. Otherwise it's hard to say what you do wrong without seeing your decks, apart from saying 'skip cards'.

Once you get into the game you'll get a 90% win rate on lower ascension, but on the other hand people need 50 hours+ to get to the point where they beat the game once.

Hope you'll be able to enjoy the game in the future after taking a break, maybe ^^.

Thank you, Spawnling. I will check Jorbs out.

[HAWAIIANpikachu]

Git Gud

Best for you to record some gameplay of your run for us to give the most help.

[Sailor Paladin]

Just get out. It's seriously not worth it.

It's obvious that you just have no deckbuilding skill and, trust me, you don't want to put in the time needed to acquire one.

I have put 205 hours into this game. I beat asc. 20 with 2 separate characters without watching a single YouTuber\Twitch streamer of this game, out of pure spite. Just to prove to myself that I actually can.

I feel only emptiness. No sense of accomplishment whatsoever.

I hate this game, I hate the genre, I hate myself.
Seriously, get out. Play something that's actually good.

[MazyRun]

Originally posted by rob:

I will check Jorbs out.

Yep, with games like these it helps immensely to watch pro's play and listen to them talk about their approach.. I found Jorbs channel when I was only about 150 hrs in to this game and it was a big game changer..

He has a long playlist of in-depth Spire chats (bout 10-15 mins each ep.. I binge watched them all), extremely informative. Just by watching his high ascension runs you can learn the kinds of things you need to think about (even when doing low ascension runs).

A combination of grinding the game and watching tutorials will help you get into a space where you think about aspects of the game more conceptually, until you reach a point where all the game's mechanics make sense.

The game is very well designed, it has many tactical layers, so remember that even after hundreds of hours of experience you will still be learning new ways to think about strategies.. this is a sign of good game design (and yes it will mean constant defeat at first, just as it would if you were new to chess or poker).

You still have to put the hours in, do multiple runs, don't worry about win rate or constant losses, learning through multiple failures is actually pretty rewarding because you feel gradual improvement despite the fails (you start seeing a pattern in the things you're doing wrong and adjust each time).

If, like me, you don't want to get too into the math of it or get too deep into micromanaging absolutely every aspect of a run, you can still play it pretty casually up to a decent ascension level..

..I might get to A20 one day, I'm happy with the wins I've had so far with all characters, the replay value is really high (which is the most important thing here, if it was easy it wouldn't have the same level of replayability).

[Athor]

The paths are more determined on what abilities you have at the moment.

I started playing the game by picking the route with the most ?.
Then my style changed to going for the most relics by going for elites and switching to most ? If I get seriously injured by a fight.

I just take cards that fit my play style(not build), and leave behind those that don't.

The game is more about rng gives me [] what can I do with it, or do I just leave [] relic, card, upgrade chance, or potion behind.


Also some relic character unlocks go to all character's relic pools.

[fractal9091]

Originally posted by rob:

Yes, tell me I suck. Tell me to 'Git Gud" or whatever people say these days. Let me start over so this isn't a total whinefest.

I don't get this game. I can't beat Act 2. It's embarrassing. According to one post I read on here somewhere, an idiot should be able to complete a standard run blindfolded, or something like that (on his first try).

That guy was a jerk and not constructive. He also wasn't accurate - when Slay the Spire was released, I watched a number of experienced card game streamers have a bunch of trouble with the game. Ignore him.

I've tried guides on how to build the best decks for each class....I rarely to never see the recommended cards.

I've tried every single path. Avoided battles where possible...took all the battles I could....no elites...all the elites...same thing.

I have no clue about deck size. I was in the habit of taking a group of cards that I thought looked strong, and later found them all on a list of "weakest cards for...." Keep the deck small. How? I remove strikes and defends where possible, but it doesn't come up that much. Don't take a card every turn, I read...when do I not? You can't win with strikes and defends.

I wouldn't worry too much about deck size. Yes, it's nice to draw your best cards more often by having a small deck, but don't go far out of your way for it. Especially early on, add the cards you like. There's value to a small deck, but for most decks it's not a large effect. Tuning your deck to stay particularly small is a more advanced strategy.

Similarly, if you get an effect to remove a card from your deck, then sure! Remove a Strike or a Defend (the default is usually to remove Strikes, and make up for it by adding better attack cards you find). However, you probably don't want to pick the boss relic to remove two cards - you'd be better off picking something that gives you +1 energy. Along those lines, most of the +1 energy boss relics are worth it - even with the disadvantages they, +1 energy is a big deal.

If you've read this far, thank you. I really want to like the game, but you can only hit your head on the same wall so many times before you stop running at that wall.

We want you to like the game too! It can be a lot of fun, in part because of how challenging it is, and we hope you can get to the point where you enjoy it.

As others have mentioned, sharing a decklist or a recording of your play might help us provide feedback.

[DuckSonata]

This game is not easy to learn, mainly due to how chaotic (in the mathematical sense) the gameplay is. Chaos means that while the rules and basic mechanics of the game are cut and dry, there are so many diverse interactions that it is impossible to predict the behavior of the entire system.

It is therefore very tricky to get reliable feedback from the game as to whether this or that decision was a good one. It can be very difficult to pin down what the exact effects of any given action actually are. It's honestly surprising that anyone has managed to succeed at this game.

So, don't worry too much if you've seen people who seem exceptionally dumb bragging about winning their first game because it's just that easy. They probably are that dumb and just got lucky, they're just too dumb to realize what happened. Show me someone who says this game is easy to learn, and I'll show you someone who hasn't learned the game yet.

That said, the default difficulty is pretty forgiving once you know what you're doing. It's forgiving enough that people using bad overall strategies are able to do well enough to brag about it. So, you're probably doing something(s) wrong that's getting in the way of you learning the game.

The best advice I have has already been given: look at how other people play, see what a win looks like. Don't try to reinvent the wheel out of whole cloth (cloth wheels can't support much weight, anyway), get a blueprint. Your instincts may be telling you to do things that are actively bad, and it could turn out to be something easily fixable. Time to get a new perspective, come at the wall from a different angle. Hang in there, it's almost Friday. Uhhh....buy war bonds? I guess I'm out of stuff.

[rob]

Thanks guys. I've already watched some Jorbs and am working to apply his techniques. I just needed some encouragement. I have a feeling this is one of those games where something just "clicks" one day and you are able to progress more.

[HAWAIIANpikachu]

Yeah one day it just clicks together and you feel big brain.

Don’t feel like you need to rush up to A20 or heart though. A0/A1 is a good training ground for combos and experimenting.

[fractal9091]

Two other suggestions:
1. If you want to try fighting a battle a different way, exiting back to the menu screen and reentering will restart a battle in progress. Trying different strategies to see which ones work better could speed up the learning process.
2. Each day's Daily Challenge has three random modifiers; many of them are beneficial. You might try playing in a Daily Challenge both for variety, and for a possibly easier experience.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by rob:

Thanks guys. I've already watched some Jorbs and am working to apply his techniques. I just needed some encouragement. I have a feeling this is one of those games where something just "clicks" one day and you are able to progress more.

That's pretty much just how CCGs work in general. One day you start playing, and suddenly your deck lines up time and time again, you make short work of fights you had problems with, and you manage to recover from sticky situations.

[HAWAIIANpikachu]

While StS asc 0 is easy it's not that easy for someone just starting the game to complete the game unless they have tons of background info as they do have to figure out enemy attack patterns and abilities, what cards exist, events, relics, path navigation, etc.

It certainly is beatable on the first attempt but assuming most players would go through a game "blind" to try and figure things out for themselves its not going to be an ez instant win for them

[Nyuu]

here some help for the new character the watcher i made a tier list of the cards .( i win everytime on Ascension 20 )
with the Watcher it's easier to win if you dont take a boss relic

https://tiermaker.com/list/card-games/slay-the-spire-the-watcher-329578/648830

Side note :dont take the card fasting if you dont have one of the relics to remove the debuff

[grumpydaddy]

Play more, try to enjoy getting beat. I've been playing for awhile and it only recently dawned on me how powerful cards are that exhaust other cards. I played recently with a 10 card deck and found it extremely powerful. I found out that shivs are useful with certain relics. The possibilities are endless, but sometimes the mental gymnastics needed to use them can be quite difficult. Play the daily challenges, they keep you from playing your normal game and force you to play cards that never seemed worth taking.