Looking for tips!

[LooseChange]

Heya guys i got Slay the Spire recently and i am really enjoying it. I do notice that i am kinda bad at the game tough(which is fine ofc) I have only beaten act 3 once with the Silent and beside Ironclad i havent tried the other 2 classes yet. But im looking for some tips/advice. Can be general advice for the game or advice for the Ironclad class. I have 0 experience with card games/deckbuilding so maybe thats why i am struggling a bit. Thank you!

[LHGreen]

I wasn't very good at first, either, and I'm still not great. But I do have experience with card games and TCG/CCGs, and I can tell you that not having prior experience with them is actually helpful in this case. There's several things that work or are even crucial in this game that I would never do in any of those. And it really works much differently than any of the ones I've played. Trying to learn more about how to play those now may not help you here. But that's okay, at least there's no habits that you have to break.

[BattleMouth]

Just try every new card you see and determine if you think they're worth a slot in your deck.

You can also choose not to have a card, having smaller decks means you can rotate your favorite cards more often.

Trial and error

[mldb88]

I'm still not 'great' at the game either, but I've definitely learned quite a bit along the way. A few things that definitely helped me, as well as some bad habits I had to kick in order to really start getting more consistent.

1: Don't go into a run with a deck in mind. Saying 'I'm going to go poison build, or exhaust build, etc this run' usually ends in disaster as you try to force a deck. How does the saying go? God laughs at the well laid plans of man? Well so does RNG.

2: Plan for Everything. It may sound counterintuitive and this is where a lot of people with a strong CCG background like myself get tripped up, but STS actually rewards well rounded decks more than hyper focused ones. Your deck shouldn't be COMPLETELY random, but if you're going poison lets say, it doesn't mean you should ONLY grab cards on theme. By the end of act one you should have at least one of the following:

-crowd control cards like cleave
-chunky damage (10+ damage for a single card, or a card that nets you 10+ damage in a single turn like the one that makes 12 damage worth of shivs)
-some sort of block plus card (not Block+, but a card that blocks and does soemthing else, like shrug off)

Don't worry if your deck doesn't have a 'theme' by the end of act 1, you start focusing it more in act 2 and 3 mostly.

3: Don't be afraid of early elite fights. Once you know how to prepare for them you can easily do 2-3 Act 1 elites no problem in vanilla runs. You'll want to farm them in act 1 as best you can because those early relics can make or break a run.

4: Consider your relics when choosing cards. There are some really nice synergies (boot plus sword boomerang or pummel to auto scale the damage up to 5 for instance, or limit break and brimstone for hyperscaling strength).

5: Don't hoard potions. There's definitely some you'll basically be holding on to until they're used like fairy in a bottle, but if you have a block potion and are staring down 20 damage from Lagamuffin with no block cards in hand, chug that bad boy down, especially if you're at full potion slots. You'll get more potions no problem, be it from drops or an upcoming shop.

6: HP is a resource. I know it might sound weird, but it is. A good part of the higher ascensions is figuring out the best use of HP. Obviously losing it in hallway fights is the least ideal option, but there are plenty of events where you have to weigh your options of is it worth it to spend HP based off of what you're coming up to next. For example, slime goop is almost always worth the 11 or so HP for the gold, mausoleum trading HP for the relic almost always isn't unless you have a way of quickly recouping it like a blood potion or if its specifically for a rare relic.

7: Plan your routes. From the start of a floor you'll know what the boss is, and be able to plan a route to best prepare you. In act 1 go for early fights and elites, then sprinkle a few events in towards the end if need be. If you don't feel confident you have the scaling to take on act 2 elites, avoid them in favor of normal fights and shops or events (Act 2 has some REALLY good events). Also don't be afraid to pick up fringe cards specifically for a certain boss, like firebreathing or evolve vs slime boss, flame barrier for guardian, etc.

8: More of a minor one here, but revive relics and potions count as healing. Learned this the hard way when my fairy in a bottle did absolutely nothing after picking the event that said I can't heal anymore.....

Might be a tiny bit more indepth than you were looking for but hope this helps!

[LooseChange]

Originally posted by mldb88:

I'm still not 'great' at the game either, but I've definitely learned quite a bit along the way. A few things that definitely helped me, as well as some bad habits I had to kick in order to really start getting more consistent.

1: Don't go into a run with a deck in mind. Saying 'I'm going to go poison build, or exhaust build, etc this run' usually ends in disaster as you try to force a deck. How does the saying go? God laughs at the well laid plans of man? Well so does RNG.

2: Plan for Everything. It may sound counterintuitive and this is where a lot of people with a strong CCG background like myself get tripped up, but STS actually rewards well rounded decks more than hyper focused ones. Your deck shouldn't be COMPLETELY random, but if you're going poison lets say, it doesn't mean you should ONLY grab cards on theme. By the end of act one you should have at least one of the following:

-crowd control cards like cleave
-chunky damage (10+ damage for a single card, or a card that nets you 10+ damage in a single turn like the one that makes 12 damage worth of shivs)
-some sort of block plus card (not Block+, but a card that blocks and does soemthing else, like shrug off)

Don't worry if your deck doesn't have a 'theme' by the end of act 1, you start focusing it more in act 2 and 3 mostly.

3: Don't be afraid of early elite fights. Once you know how to prepare for them you can easily do 2-3 Act 1 elites no problem in vanilla runs. You'll want to farm them in act 1 as best you can because those early relics can make or break a run.

4: Consider your relics when choosing cards. There are some really nice synergies (boot plus sword boomerang or pummel to auto scale the damage up to 5 for instance, or limit break and brimstone for hyperscaling strength).

5: Don't hoard potions. There's definitely some you'll basically be holding on to until they're used like fairy in a bottle, but if you have a block potion and are staring down 20 damage from Lagamuffin with no block cards in hand, chug that bad boy down, especially if you're at full potion slots. You'll get more potions no problem, be it from drops or an upcoming shop.

6: HP is a resource. I know it might sound weird, but it is. A good part of the higher ascensions is figuring out the best use of HP. Obviously losing it in hallway fights is the least ideal option, but there are plenty of events where you have to weigh your options of is it worth it to spend HP based off of what you're coming up to next. For example, slime goop is almost always worth the 11 or so HP for the gold, mausoleum trading HP for the relic almost always isn't unless you have a way of quickly recouping it like a blood potion or if its specifically for a rare relic.

7: Plan your routes. From the start of a floor you'll know what the boss is, and be able to plan a route to best prepare you. In act 1 go for early fights and elites, then sprinkle a few events in towards the end if need be. If you don't feel confident you have the scaling to take on act 2 elites, avoid them in favor of normal fights and shops or events (Act 2 has some REALLY good events). Also don't be afraid to pick up fringe cards specifically for a certain boss, like firebreathing or evolve vs slime boss, flame barrier for guardian, etc.

8: More of a minor one here, but revive relics and potions count as healing. Learned this the hard way when my fairy in a bottle did absolutely nothing after picking the event that said I can't heal anymore.....

Might be a tiny bit more indepth than you were looking for but hope this helps!

Hey i appreciate how indepth you went. I will be sure to keep these tips in mind for my next play session, thank you!

[mldb88]

Minor correction, the mausoleum event is adding a curse not HP loss lol my bad. Though on the topic, curses are almost NEVER worth it unless you have Onomori to negate them.

[Spawnling]

Some things that weren't mentioned yet.
-Think your turns out before you play a card: Check your draw pile (shortcut A) and think what you will draw the next turns and act accordingly.
-Think about your card selection: look at your current deck and think what do I need this card for, how will it impact my deck.
-Chances to find a Potion go up after each fight, where you didn't find a potion. If you pay attention to it, you'll get a feeling for when you should get the next potion.
-Same for rare card rewards.
-Elites have higher chances of offering rare card rewards and potions.
-Get a feeling for how much HP you need for each Elite fight, as mentioned above HP are a ressource.
-Upgrade a card or visit a shop before your first elite fight.
Edit:
-Your deck balance. How many attacks and how many block cards you have.

[Zu]

Originally posted by Spawnling:

Think your turns out before you play a card

Honestly, this is a big reason why newcomers die more than I expected.
Little misplays add up, like blocking on instinct and taking 2 damage when you could've spent that 1 energy on another strike to kill that louse.
Even the first few ascension levels exemplify how harmless numbers make a difference, like how errything hits you for like 1 more damage or takes 1 more strike to kill. It adds up.

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by mldb88:

Minor correction, the mausoleum event is adding a curse not HP loss lol my bad. Though on the topic, curses are almost NEVER worth it unless you have Onomori to negate them.

You can afford curses if you know you're gonna hit a shop soon and be able to purge it. That's why I consider the Sssssssserpent's event in Act 1 to be worthwhile. It's money to remove the curse you get, and 100 extra gold on top of that. They also help out Ironclad with some of his powers and abilities. The things that give you curses can be pretty helpful, too, so it's more of a risk assessment thing. You usually don't want more than a 1-2, though.

Originally posted by Zu:

Honestly, this is a big reason why newcomers die more than I expected.
Little misplays add up, like blocking on instinct and taking 2 damage when you could've spent that 1 energy on another strike to kill that louse.
Even the first few ascension levels exemplify how harmless numbers make a difference, like how errything hits you for like 1 more damage or takes 1 more strike to kill. It adds up.

Yup, and that's why Save and Quit is so important. Just restart the battle and try something else.

Originally posted by Spawnling:

-Upgrade a card or visit a shop before your first elite fight.

Not absolutely necessary. On lower and middle Ascensions, anyway.

[mldb88]

Originally posted by LHGreen:

Originally posted by mldb88:

Minor correction, the mausoleum event is adding a curse not HP loss lol my bad. Though on the topic, curses are almost NEVER worth it unless you have Onomori to negate them.

You can afford curses if you know you're gonna hit a shop soon and be able to purge it. That's why I consider the Sssssssserpent's event in Act 1 to be worthwhile. It's money to remove the curse you get, and 100 extra gold on top of that. They also help out Ironclad with some of his powers and abilities. The things that give you curses can be pretty helpful, too, so it's more of a risk assessment thing. You usually don't want more than a 1-2, though.

Gotten so used to having Ascension's Curse I kinda forgot it's not standard issue anymore lol, In low ascension/vanilla yea it's not TOO bad but the higher up you go the less net positive the deals end up being imo.

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by LHGreen:

Originally posted by Spawnling:

-Upgrade a card or visit a shop before your first elite fight.

Not absolutely necessary. On lower and middle Ascensions, anyway.

Not necessary, but also no reason to learn bad pathing just because you can ;)