Just bought the game

[Adeptus]

any beginner tips? what hero to use etc. I only was able to beat the first boss but after that i get killed off every time.

[Zu]

Take
more
value
over
time.

See if such cards get you any farther. Then you can start thinking about preparing for elites.

[movte]

trust me just play and discover it yourself, you will have alot more fun this way

play the normal game and if it gets boring there are tons of mods for it

[GenSec39]

Just keep playing. Unlock characters, relics, cards, try different combinations. StS is deep and complicated game. It will consume a lot of time, There is really not much to recommend if you have not seen most of the game. Until you reach, lets say, act 3.

I can give you only one important tip atm - avoid any guides which promise you something like "SUPER deck for Ironclad", "ULTIMATE card build for Silent", "KILLER cancer curing combo for Watcher" and so on. These 'tips' do more harm and actually divert you from understanding of the game.

[TimTim3000]

My beginner tip would be to play aggressive. Enemies tend to get more powerful (and make you weaker) as the battle goes on, so when you'r'e on the fence as to whether to play a block or an attack card, go for the attack.

[Nibbie]

All the characters can win easily at the starting difficulty (when played by an experienced player, obviously as a new player you can have struggle with any of them), so try them all and play whichever you like. Only two short-term caveats to that. You get unlocks for doing runs as each character, which are mainly cards for that character, but there are also a few relics for any character you can unlock, so trying to hit all the unlocks on each character is worth doing. There is also feature unlock that requires you to beat the game once as each of the first three characters. Once you do those though, there is no particular reason to play anything but what you want.

As for tips, a few basic ones. Every act 1 elite and boss punishes you for having low damage, so your first several floors should be focused on doing fights and choosing damage cards. With a few good damage cards, you can start doing elites for relics, which will help the rest of your run. Once you get your damage in a good place, you can start worrying more about defense and finding a way of scaling into the late game. In general, the path you want to pick is the one with the highest combined total of campfires and elites, since those are the best permanent upgrades to your run, but there are plenty of exceptions and edge cases to that guideline, such as getting to a shop when you have lots of gold.

Lastly, don't be afraid to skip cards. Once you have a basic deck theme established, you can start skipping cards that don't fit it. If you are running a Shiv deck in Silent, skip poison cards, for example; making one strategy really strong is typically better than having several weaker strategies. A smaller deck means you can draw the cards you want more often, and the limited amount of upgraded cards you can get cycle back around more quickly. This means that later in a run, you can skip even cards that are good for your deck because you already have enough of that effect. If you already have five upgraded shiv cards, you may not need a sixth, seventh, and eight card, since you just shuffle and redraw your upgraded cards instead. However, a deck that is too small can be ruined by enemies that add dazes, wounds, burns, etc. to your deck, and you generally have fewer options and utility than a larger deck. In general, I try to keep my decks between 20-35 cards, depending on the character and build.

[mldb88]

The biggest hurdle just starting out is the knowledge curve. Even though it may not look it at first glance, every enemy has a unique set of behaviors and gimmicks, and while there is some overlap between acts for a few, most are unique to their respective acts. This is doubly so for elites who are pulled from a pool of 3 possible encounters unique to each act.

Without going into spoiler territory, the best advice I can give is don’t focus on winning at the start. It might happen eventually where things come together, but it’s more important to just take it all in and learn the basics of how each enemy functions, what strategies work well against them, and when they usually start showing up. Even just having a very rough understanding of that will help you make more informed card choices and better plan ahead for future acts or prepare for elites and bosses. For example knowing the goblin nob (big red) elite in Act 1 uses enrage turn 1 to give himself a passive that boosts his attack whenever you play a skill, you’ll know you’re better off leaning into attacks early if you’re tackling an early to mid act elite so you can keep his damage as low as possible, or pick up skills that cut attack power if you are picking up any block/damage mitigation to counter his strength gain.

If you don’t mind a more spoilerific series of tips, read this. The intro does have some good general advice but later on I do break down each elite and boss so if you want to keep yourself mostly blind just don’t read past the general bit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2673443183

[TimTim3000]

^^ that looks like an awesome guide

I got a couple good tips for myself just skimming it

[We're Rich]

Try to find out what cards you should take early and what cards you should leave for later. My personal favorite character to learn with was silent there are tons of viable builds with her but i had the most fun playing around with decks built around drawing cards and shivs every run is very different too like one run i might get nothing then i might have a run where i can draw my whole deck every turn and do pretty much infinite damage before the enemy even gets a turn then i might have a run where i lack some mana. Honestly runs are all based off relics if you get bad relics and spend your hitpoints getting them you are pretty much screwed especially if u didnt get high value cards in act 1 but sometimes you can have a bunch of trash and get 1 relic that just carries you through the game like its nothing.

[We're Rich]

another huge huge tip for a beginner is DO NOT take a card reward from every combat if all 3 cards are not suitable for what you are building toward just skip it a thinner deck is often more consistent than say a 40 card deck that is not consistent every fight. i usually try to keep my deck under 25 cards but if you have a lot of draw/discard you can push this to around 35 cards.

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by eve:

another huge huge tip for a beginner is DO NOT take a card reward from every combat if all 3 cards are not suitable for what you are building toward just skip it a thinner deck is often more consistent than say a 40 card deck that is not consistent every fight. i usually try to keep my deck under 25 cards but if you have a lot of draw/discard you can push this to around 35 cards.

The important thing to remember about thin decks is that you're sacrificing most of your flexibility for that extra consistency, in a game where flexibility is just as important, and often slightly more so. Meanwhile 30+ card decks can give you both, if you build them right.

Originally posted by eve:

Honestly runs are all based off relics if you get bad relics and spend your hitpoints getting them you are pretty much screwed especially if u didnt get high value cards in act 1 but sometimes you can have a bunch of trash and get 1 relic that just carries you through the game like its nothing.

Not necessarily, although that does tend to get more true as you climb ascensions.

[76561199455560242]

I would say the most beginner-friendly class is Ironclad, as he's fairly straight forward and has health regeneration each combat through his starting relic. Most winning decks depend on his strength scaling cards, which you will need to overcome the harder parts of the game.

Best tip I can give is to not bloat your deck with too many cards. StS is fairly unique to other deck building games in the sense that not every card pick will make your deck stronger- in fact, in some cases it can actually make you weaker. Consider the skip option in every pick. Most decks will end up around 30-40 cards by endgame, but this is merely a rule of thumb and can be broken when you have a better understanding of the game (i.e. it's more about your card draw and how quickly you can draw through your deck, and you can go well below this if you are able to assemble an "infinite turn" deck).

Ultimately, this game is so complex that you really just need to play the game and learn through experience. Also, the youtuber Baalorlord is excellent at teaching the game, would highly recommend checking out a run or two and listening to his thought processes.

[Firewalk]

One thing that helped me immensely when I started was using the merchants to remove the weak Strike and Defend cards as I picked up better cards that did the same. Adds major consistency to your deck.

[Creamium]

These are a bunch of tips that I wrote at one time and will hopefully be helpful to you!

General

- Always consider your pathing: take a few minutes to look at your starting options from Neow and your path through the act. You want to maximize Elite nodes and fires, and about 3 regular combats before the first fire. For upgrading, not for sleeping. Even tho sleeping is required sometimes, you should avoid it as much as possible and instead upgrade a card. Even tho this is less important on low Ascensions, it's still important to keep in mind early on.
- Starting options: always a good idea to take money, a relic, pick a rare colorless or rare card. When you get Hand of Greed or Apotheosis early? Major boon for your run. Random rare is less good. If you get a curse as a downside, you need to be able to remove that asap. Curses very bad. Boss swap option can be very good, but I wouldn't do it if you're starting out. Boss swap is best on Watcher and Defect, worst on Silent.
- If you're picking a rare card to start: consider that incredible powers like Corruption/Echo Form etc can be dead weight bc of the cost and lack of effect early on. You may take these for the long term, but there's a high chance you'll get punished for it. An early Immolate will be WAY better for you than an early Barricade.
- Which leads me to the very important lesson: focus on the problem in front of you (next Elite, Act boss), not the one you will face in 2 acts. There are a bunch of cards that are fantastic late game but will weigh you down early on. Consider that and see below for what those act-specific problems are.
- I bet you love taking '?' nodes right? Quick, easy, get you through the act faster? Well, stop doing that. Especially early on it is not recommended to take a lot of events as these don't give you card rewards. You need to add cards early on to help you shape your deck, events won't do that. You need some good frontload damage to tackle your first Elite, so focus on that. You should aim to do at least 3 regular combats in Act 1 (the so called 'easy pool' fights) before your first fire or Elite.
- So prepare for those Elites and don't be afraid of them: they give relics and these can help you shape your run. Do as many as possible in every act. That is why A1 is often considered to be easier than A0 bc you can get more Elites. This is relative tho: if you didn't get good card rewards or relics and feel weak, path away from Elites and try building your deck further. You should continue to evaluate your deck/condition at all times.
- What helped me a lot is attaching a theme to each act: act 1 is all about frontload, on every character. Take pure damage cards in your first rewards (Carnage, Predator, Ball Lightning, Wheel Kick, etc) bc all you need to worry about is killing your first Elite and the act boss. Regular strikes and defends won't cut it, so add frontload. Act 2 is where AoE comes in. The Elites here are very scary and they will test how much damage you can deal. If you have a good AoE source (like Electrodynamics on Defect, Whirlwind on Clad, etc), the Act 2 fights will become a lot easier. If you added too many setup/defensive/'do nothing immediately' cards the Act 2 encounters will very much kick you to the curb. Act 3 will test your scaling, both in offense and defense. If you don't have any scaling (strength, dexterity, focus, poison, etc) you will have a hard time here. An example of the amazing design in Spire: each act 3 Elite will test your deck in different ways. If you die to a Act 3 Elite, chances are you would've died to one of the final bosses anyway. Nemesis tests consistency, Giant Head tests how much you can do each turn and Repto is there to destroy you if you're too slow in setup.
So, act 1 = frontload (add an AoE card if you can), act 2 = AoE + build your deck theme/synergies, think about scaling and add it, act 3 = a test for your scaling and damage/defensive output.
- The Elites not so subtly remind you of - and teach you - the principles I've mentioned above. Gremlin Nob gains strength every time you play a skill. Translation: you need to bonk this guy to death asap and not block. If you added a bunch of block/skill instead of offense early on, Nob will teach and punish: add frontload, add damage, or go back to Neow. Lagavulin is hard for Silent if she doesn't have good frontload either. Learn what each Elite tests.
- In the same vein, always look at the boss on top of the map. This is very important, as it can guide your build/run. If you see Hexaghost, know that damage is of the utmost importance, otherwise the burns/Inferno will overwhelm you. Guardian however requires a bit of block/consistency in your deck. AoE and frontload also helps for Slime boss, a boss that can easily overwhelm Silent. in Act 3, the Awakened One will gain strength for each power you play. So if you see his icon, maybe consider adding less powers if they don't seem essential. There is a reason why the act boss is shown: so you can prepare for them. You will learn how these bosses work over time, or by watching streams/vids.
- Make removing strikes and defends a priority. These are bad cards, you don't want to see them. There are a few relics (like strike dummy) that make strikes better in the early game, but generally you need to make it a high priority sidequest to get rid of this garbage. Get removes in the shop, remove events are great and even the Empty Cage boss relic is fantastic if you have a small deck that works well but needs refinement. You need to get to your good cards fast, so every strike or defend removed is amazing value. That is why removing keeps getting more expensive in the shop, because each new removal is better than the last. Remove event curses asap too. You may think that a few curses aren't that bad, but they will brick your draws and cause you problems.
- This is important in combination with card draw. If you have powers/good attacks/skills you want to get to these quickly. You can keep adding (good) cards as long as you have the card draw to match it. Early pommel strike on Clad, Backflip/Acro on Silent, Coolheaded/Skim on Defect, the top tier Scrawl on Watcher... card draw should always be a priority. Your most important card will be bottom-decked sometimes, so you need ways to cycle through your deck faster. But again, this is relative: as Defect I won't add a Skim as a first pick, since I'll only be drawing into strikes and defends. In Act 2/3, when I have more ways to generate energy... I'll add that Skim or Coolheaded.
- Save your potions for Elites or fights where you can avoid a ton of health loss upon usage. Don't be afraid to buy potions in the shop. They are a VERY important resource.
- Keep looking at your relic bar! Over time you will learn synergies and see which relics can inform/influence your run. If you get a shuriken or kunai early on Silent, then you should start taking Shiv cards as they will offer a great amount of scaling. Mummified Hand on Defect is insane as Defect has a ton of great powers.
- Skip cards! Early on you need to add cards to get stronger, but as your deck starts to form, you will come across card rewards that don't add value. You will learn when to skip by playing more, I guarantee. Most of my decks tend to be 25-30 ish cards, but a tight deck that cycles quickly can be even more satisfying. They didn't put in the minimalist achievement for nothing: to show that you can beat the game with a very low amount of cards.
- Relic/card synergies are everything. There are so many cards/relics that work with each other and the only way to learn them is to play, or watch someone like Baalor (see below).

This is already quite the infodump so I'll just restrain myself and add a few more class-specific tips

Ironclad
- Such a cool class. I wasn't a big fan of Clad early on but now he's probably my favorite.
- Take risks with him. You heal 6 hp every fight, so you can be more offensive. Self-damage can be healed back with burning blood, so Offering is an amazing card that you should always take.
- His exhaust mechanic seems weird (why would I want to delete my cards??), but is very powerful. It allows you to get rid of garbage and keep the good stuff.
- Try getting the Clad 'Exodia' so to speak, which is: Corruption + Dark Embrace + Feel No Pain. These powers in combo are insane: 0 cost skills that exhaust, draw new cards and each exhausted card gives block. The first time you get this combo (together with a relic like dead branch), you'll feel like a god.

SIlent
- The most straightforward character. A Silent poison build is probably the easiest win you can have on low ascensions. Take a few poison starter cards, add a Catalyst (even better with Burst) and you're good to go.
- Silent has a damage problem early on, so be on the lookout for good frontload in Act 1. Don't take too many skills early as Nob/Laga will ruin you.
- There are a lot of relics that work with shivs too: shuriken, kunai, fan, Girya, Vajra, nunchaku, pen nib, wrist blade boss relic... A good shiv build is always a great time.

Defect
- Important tip: do not add powers like Capacitor early on. More orb slots may seem great, but not if you can't fill them fast. 3 orb slots is enough for act 1. Later, if you see that you are filling slots fast, you can add more slots.
- Add at least one good block card early on or look for frost/focus, bc Act 2 can be very difficult for orb boy if you don't have a defensive solution. Genetic Algorithm is a great card to pick up early, as is Glacier, charge battery, reinforced body, but also boot sequence to help the robot in his setup.
- See a defrag, take a defrag. Focus on Defect is the best way to gain scaling, so don't ignore it. Biased Cog is also fantastic and with a relic like Orange Pellets you can even remove the downside, or add Core Surge for a free artifact. Core Surge + Biased is a great combo!
- Don't try to juggle too many orb types. If you get good frost early on, try to add more regular attacks for offense and less electric orbs. If electric orbs are your offense, add more physical block.
- Hidden in the tooltips: dark orbs always target the enemy with the lowest health. Dark orbs are fantastic scaling in general and a good way to beat a boss like the Champ: let the orb cook and dualcast when it's reached a high number.

Watcher
-Not adding a lot here since she is the advanced character and mostly recommended if you know your way around the game already. She is the most powerful class tho, with insane damage output. Watcher is busted.
- With 'stance dance' (calm/wrath/calm, etc) it's possible to go infinite, which means having turns that don't end. Every class can do this, but it's easiest on Watcher. You can look up how this works, it's the most common way to play Watcher.
- Remove defends early. Watcher hates defends as she always wants access to her damage. In Wrath, you can end most hallways in the first or second turn.

Look up Baalorlord on YouTube/Twitch: he's informative and entertaining, you can learn a lot just by watching his regular runs bc he always explains his choices/path through the act. Baalor has a background in teaching and it shows, highly recommended to watch his videos. I have spent a ton of time watching his streams/YT and I have learned so so much. For instance there are his character-specific guides on low ascension: 'How to kill the Heart as X'. These are not only good character-specific vids, but teach you a lot about the game in general.

When you start looking for card tier lists: watch the ones from Baalor/Jorbs, ignore that 'Spirespy' site that gives Dark Embrace a D-. Also, tier lists for cards in this game are weird because the value of cards is very situational.

Hope this wasn't overwhelming, just focus on having fun with the game and learning classes early on.

[Khor]

I'll never not be amazed by how Baalorlord became jorbs 3.0

Guess it helps being an actual likable person

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by Khor:

Guess it helps being an actual likable person :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

Lol, and I can just pretend I had some kind of vague, indirect influence on that.

Originally posted by Creamium:

Also, tier lists for cards in this game are weird because the value of cards is very situational.

No, tier lists for cards in this game are, in many cases, futile endeavors that can be rendered almost, but not quite, pointless because card value (and even play style) is very situational.

Pressure Points is pretty close to objectively low-tier, though.