Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire

The Packmaster
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
(Gk) Erasels  [developer] Jan 18, 2023 @ 1:24pm
Balance Feedback
This character is a lot, so there's bound to be some issues. If you have feedback on balance post it here. Please be cognizant of the fact that simply writing "X is too strong" is not too helpful.

Please explain your thoughts on why things should be differently balanced.

Please keep in mind to update to the latest version, we buff and nerf a few things every update!

You can find the changes for next version in the Bug&Crash reports thread.
Last edited by (Gk) Erasels; Feb 17, 2023 @ 12:19pm
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Showing 61-75 of 91 comments
brickey.8 Jul 23, 2024 @ 8:59pm 
From the Basics pack, Ockham's Razor may be the single most parasitic card in the whole mod (in the sense of "If you use this it needs to be your whole deck"). Two copies of that, stuff as many Basic Waves and Simplifys into your deck as possible (and maybe a Conjure Defend), and that's pretty much your entire offense and a moderate defense. The only thing left you'd want from other packs is extra draw/energy and exhausting cards that aren't named Basic Wave, and any powers that scale with cards played. Admittedly I happened to do this in a run where I got After Image, so that made the 3-cards-for-1 from basic wave even stronger.

I guess this isn't necessarily a design flaw, but it certainly wouldn't be hard to make that card less centralizing if you wanted to. Just increase its damage but cap how many times it triggers per turn.
Last edited by brickey.8; Jul 23, 2024 @ 9:00pm
Zepdrix Aug 25, 2024 @ 9:14pm 
Pinnacle > Bucket of Dregs

One of the only cards in the game that actually gets worse when upgraded. It is quite a bad card, even when not upgraded.

Bucket of Dregs
Unplayable, Retain
When Retained, heal ALL enemies for 6HP and gain 3 Block.
[Upgrades to]
When Retained, heal ALL enemies for 10HP and gain 5 Block.

Suggested Change:
[Upgrades to]
When Retained, heal ALL enemies for 6HP and gain 5 Block.

Honestly, this is a weird pack XD The rares are quite powerful, Top of the Sky is innovative and fun. I dislike all of the other cards. (Stone Sword is fun in Snecko.)

(As a side note, this pack has the worst card art I've ever seen. Please, someone generate some AI art for these cards and get rid of the toothpaste-blue images.)
david.maciver Sep 24, 2024 @ 2:46am 
Sneckpot seems very unbalanced. I like the snecko deck a lot, but sneckpot is so powerful that it instantly takes over play as soon as I'm offered it because of how strong a single target damage dealer it is.

I think the biggest problem with it is that it's an X cost card that is extremely strong even when it's zero cost, because it's based on your total hand cost, so unlike most X cost cards it gets stronger the more of it you take - play sneckpot, draw sneckpot, play it again for essentially the same amount of damage you did last time. Would it nerf it too much to make it deal damage only equal to the total cost of the cards drawn?
(Gk) Erasels  [developer] Sep 24, 2024 @ 3:04am 
I completely agree, I've workshopped multiple approaches to nerfs/reworks that make it adhere more to its original design goal. None of them really panned out, so I haven't released them.
Your idea isn't that good in practice, generally you'll have cards cost ~1.5 energy (this is with a lot of high costs in the deck) so a 3 energy sneckpost would be 4 damage.Even if you high-rolled, it'd be 9 damage.

Maybe an approach could be draw/muddle x cards. Deal 9 damage for every 0 cost. Values pending, but it would adhere more to the jackpot flavor I was going for.
david.maciver Sep 24, 2024 @ 7:53am 
Sorry, said the wrong thing. I meant apply the damage multiplier to only the energy of the cards drawn, not to also drop that multiplier down to 1. Although I think you're right that that's still not enough damage - ends up at 4-5 damage per energy, which is a bit rubbish. Perhaps if you made this change and upped the damage multiplier to 6? Then it would be 9 damage per energy spent, which I think is pretty competitive.
brickey.8 is RIGHT it *might* be the WORST pack.
The new bladestorm pack while fun feels completely overpowered.
Let's Talk about Doppel. Is it intended that Wormhole played 2 or more times causes doppel-orbs to be affected by strength and dex 2 OR MORE times?. After 2 wormholes played the values because really outrageous.
modargo Feb 23 @ 6:05pm 
Originally posted by TohaHeavyIndustries:
Let's Talk about Doppel. Is it intended that Wormhole played 2 or more times causes doppel-orbs to be affected by strength and dex 2 OR MORE times?. After 2 wormholes played the values because really outrageous.
Definitely intended with how its coded. We'll see if the statistics we have show it as being too strong once the Doppel pack has been out for longer, but worth noting that it is a 3-cost rare power.
Okay, I get what youre saying, having two echo forms is also pretty gamebreaking. this is all coming from an A20 only perspective by the way, but Doppel, Siege and Eldritch Horror are by far my most consistent winning packs.

Tides is another card from that pack that's worth to look at, it scales fantastic with strength, it gets better the more doppels you have and it lets you channel one with 0 conditions. (Not to mention it's easy to get to 0 cost) The card does too much too well.
I suggest changing the card that it only channels a Doppel with the upgraded version.
modargo Feb 24 @ 1:32pm 
For what it's worth, I've also found the Doppel pack to be strong. All the commons and uncommons make doppels, and essentially every card provides high value overall. All the commons even draw cards! In my experience it's usually right to pick them when they show up in rewards, which in turns makes it easy to pick the synergy rares (Turbulence/Worm Hole) when you see them. It's a very smooth path to a strong deck (if the cards show up, at least).

So this is definitely on our radar as something to take a look at, but no promises on exactly when that happens or what conclusions we draw.
Zepdrix Feb 25 @ 10:31pm 
Doppel is so unbelievably good. I hope it doesn't get overly nerfed though. It's one of the few packs making orb strategies fun.

If I had to pick one outlier... It is clearly Summon.
It outshines the other commons: Big card advantage + Ability to doppel powers.

Perhaps it needs more adjustment than that single card... but just an observation :D
Keep doing what you're doing, guyssss! Best mod ever! Packmaster woooo!
Last edited by Zepdrix; Feb 25 @ 10:31pm
Commenting on the rework of the Into the Breach pack, flamethrower sticks ot like a sore thumb. 6 ignite is mediocre, especially for a rare, and the secondary effect doesn't matter much because the pack has no other ignite.

Solution would be to let the card apply ignite to all enemies. It would make it sufficiently unique, the secondary effect would matter more and it's more like flamethrower actually works in into the Breach.
I love that Witches Strike got a rework. I used to loath randomly getting it, since it was very mediocre by itself (without any other orb packs). It synergizes well, even with other non-orb packs.
Balance-wise I can't tell yet where it's at. But I like it more for sure.


Also, I agree with the sentiment that dopple is too strong.
Every single card in the pack is too strong.
Even the commons. Like the ones that draw 1 and channel an orb are insane. It's like 8 damage, or 8 block, draw a card, channel an orb, and if orb slots are full, it's also gain energy (cuz the dopple thats released is free). Way too many things happening for a 1 energy common card. Not even cut through fate is that good.

Making the doppled card stay the cost it was when it was doppled, instead of always being free would probably be a good start to balancing it, though even then dopple would still be too strong.


It is really really fun though. But out of like the 12 A20H runs I've done with dopple, I think I may have lost just 1.
Calcifer Mar 18 @ 7:36am 
Commenting on the rework of the witches strike pack, id like to go into a little bit more detail, i played half a dozen rounds with it to A20 with various random or custom draft combinations.

Bullet Climax: pretty okay, scales with strength which you have to build around with other packs, not particulatrly noteworthy.

Heel Tornado: probably the worst source of arcane, this card is still pretty decent. punished by time eater and the heart

Full Moon Halo: The best common, 12 block + an easy extra 4 is extremly respectable, scales with dex very well, strong synergies with Arcane Orbs, excellent for 1 energy.

Flow of the Sword: Decent power, fire spirits are huge, but for 2 energy this card is suprisingly reasonable.

Witches Twist: super good skill, its effectivly 4 temporary dexterity. super good with the full moon halo and all the zero cost block cards.

Crystal Moonlight: Now we get to the broken stuff. The Best Source of Arcane Orbs. Any source of card doublication or a little extra focus and this becomes extremly busted. im talking first turning spire sword and shield level busted. Playing this with a couple of dodge offsets is just ludicrous.

Space Slip: Id actually say this is not quite as good as Crystal Moonllight. Its still extremly potent tho. particularly if you have both cards.

Wicked Weave: The main offender. One must be very careful with access to fire spirits since they give focus and scaling damage if you have a running orb engine. This Card is just unfair.

Ill give the pack a few more spins, i suspect its not quite as powerful as i made it out here (i gave myself some synergies in custom draft which resultet in broken runs). But i think its powerlevel is up there.
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