Yes, you can increase your ally limit - there’s a universal perk called Leadership, and I think at least one later associated perk increases the limit again. And there’s probably other ways, perhaps for specific summon-heavy classes if nothing else. As I understand it the hard limit is 9, but I’ve yet to figure out how you would get there.
No, there is not a way to remove allies from play without killing that instance of them. To the best of my knowledge, allies only level while in play and it is never carried over to another copy. As such, it’s generally not worth worrying about XP on temporary summons. (The card that summons them can level up, though.) And you probably want to keep permanent summons up unless you get something better.
Only way I saw is through perks. Most summon-heavy classes have “summoner” perks that increase the number of allies, I think? I’m playing as a Necromancer now and it has such a perk there.
Okay thanks, I’ll look for those perks. I have 3 unique allies up currently and I’m reluctant to lose one but I’d like to deploy another unique I just got that handles undead. As a Shadow I could certainly use the help on undead even though my main weapon is a blessed silver mace that does major damage to them. I have a ranged offhand with sneak attack to deal my major piercing damage and deal with flyers.
Speaking of allies, I’ve figured out that they can attack a stunned enemy without getting attacked in return. There may be other conditions like that where they can attack without fear of reprisal but I have found them so far.
My Shadow is at level 10 now and I’m really enjoying the game.
Thanks what I want to play! I need to unlock it first though.
So far it’s really fun to play. I liked all the classes I tried so far (Warrior or whatever the default one is, Mystic, Animist, Witch, and now Necromancer), but the Necromancer might be my favorite so far. It’s awesome when you kill an enemy and that enemy joins your ally area as a zombie. ;)
You have way, way more control over your deck and character progression than StS or anything similar. Any cards you own you can edit in or out of your deck literally at any time (though obviously the changes won’t affect cards you’ve already drawn and have in hand). Same goes for equipment. And you just pick perks and stat upgrades. That said, card and encounter rewards will be randomly presented and shop inventories also, though it’s easier to reset them. But you have a core set of cards for race and for class that are always available based on character level and mastery of that race and class.
There aren’t really relic equivalents per se - as in, things you loot or get from encounters that have a constant passive effect. Perks probably serve a roughly analogous role, though, as they can permanently modify effects globally on cards. Not in as many interesting ways, from what I’ve seen, though. Everything else is a card. Equipment plays that card over and over or generates it in your hand every turn, the former for most equipment, the latter for weapons and maybe a few other things. Consumables are consumable cards. Hideouts and headquarters are “allies” that stay in play, as are actual allies, etc.
Thanks for the thorough reply, sounds like I’d really enjoy this. I’ll have to pick it up soon!
StS really lost me once I realized I always won when I got certain relics and always lost when I didn’t. Many of the card-based games released lately are so StS-inspired that they fall prey to the same problem, so I’ve taken to checking before I buy.
Yeah, I’d say it’s less luck based than Spire in terms of the cards you can get. It’s really quite a different game, though.
The adventure mode has a maps with nodes of towns, cities and other locations you can visit. At each location are a bunch of places you can explore.
Each of those locations has nodes with battles, encounters, traders, events and other stuff that can happen. Towns and cities at those locations can also be visited for shopping or recruiting allies, etc.
There are cards to find but also a lot of equipment you can get and use for your character along with one time consumables and also ally cards (you can have 3 in play (by default at start) but can collect as many as you can find).
There are also a lot of perks you can give your character as they earn unlock perk points. There are also class skill cards which unlock with mastery points.
The card mechanics themselves are probably the most complex of any card game I’ve played. A card (or equipment) when played can pass effects onto the next card played. It can lead to a bunch of wild possibilities. It’s pretty fun and deep.
Wish I pulled the trigger on it when it was on sale. I figured the Steam Summer sale would give me more time to consider and then they didn’t participate in this sale. Next time! It’s not like I’m short of things to play.
Yeah, it was on sale just last week. I posted something here in the thread about the sale last week so you must have missed it. I had just missed the sale prior to that one so I know just how irritating that is.
I grabbed it a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale (sorry, @vinraith) and have tried it a few times. In the tutorial I feel like I’m missing turns, like after I do whatever the tutorial says, I read the next line of the tutorial and it seems like I missed a line or two between them. After a couple of tries at it I jumped into Adventure mode and finally find what appears to be the beginner area and take out the first group of baddies only to have another group attack immediately. I don’t see how I as a single 15HP (or whatever) dude is supposed to take a couple of waves of baddies that combine to have like 100HP or more. I was a generic fighter dude and didn’t appear to have much in the way of healing. I’ll try it again, as I feel I’m missing something and it’s still super intriguing.
When you finish a group of enemies and end your turn, you’ll automatically move to the next node. Most nodes in the game have groups of enemies in them, a few have encounters, and of course there are bosses (but in Adventure mode you generally have to specifically go after a boss to encounter one).
As far as surviving - I haven’t played the warrior class so I don’t know their specific toolkit, but here are some possible strategies:
disabling or weakening attacks: weaken reduces the enemies’ potential damage output. Stun will prevent them from attacking.
Use cards that give you defend (which absorbs damage 1-for-1) or slashing/bludgeoning/piercing resistance (the most common damage types). In particular, I think one of the Human class cards can synergize to give you resistance to a damage type you’re using, but I don’t remember exactly.
killing everything before it can hit - that’s been my usual fare playing shadow…but if you can’t get them all…
damage things enough that they switch from offense to using a defensive move like healing or shielding. I forget what the general threshold is, but I think it’s like 1/2 to 1/3rd remaining health. It’s actually better to hurt as much as you can to this point than to kill a smaller amount of the enemy, because it will do more to reduce incoming attacks.
if you’re surviving individual groups but attrition is wearing you down, I believe clicking the hourglass after you’ve defeated a group but before you move to a new node will give you some options, including one to heal somewhat, or one to leave the area prematurely. I just found out about this and haven’t used it myself yet.
I think you start with some money, if not loads. You could drop into town and at least pick up a weak armor or healing consumable(s).
Thanks for the quick guide! I was attempting the ‘kill it all quick’ tactic. I think there was one healing spell/something that I was able to use in the middle of my firs battle with the 3 baddies. My problem was that after this I was immediately jumped on by 3 or 4 more baddies. If there was a way to avoid/rest/go to town, I missed it. It almost felt like a giant single battle that there is no way I could see me winning. That’s why I figure I’m missing some obvious ‘out’ after the first fight. I’ll go back thru the tutorial again and probably get a little further along which hopefully gets me over this initial hump.
When you finish a battle at a node, you do not move on to the next node/battle until you hit the ‘end turn’ or ‘continue’ button (depending on whether there’s a battle or an event there, respectively). So, after finishing a battle you can open your backpack, get out some healing or AP restoring potions and use them before hitting end turn and moving on to the next node/battle. You can also change your equipment and your deck between battles that way.
As far as early battles go, there’s usually one mob that does more damage than the rest. Prioritize attacking them. If you can get their HP to 50% or less, they will try to take defensive actions or heal rather than attacking you. Stun cards are also very useful to prevent damage. A stun 3 card can keep a mob from doing anything for 3 turns. Also, when you get some ally cards, an ally can attack a stunned mob without retaliation. Very handy.
Look for equipment that will heal you automatically after each turn. It’s a godsend. There’s an emerald pendant, I believe, that will heal you 4 HP every turn. Defensive equipment, like leather armor, can also prevent a lot of damage early on in the game.
You don’t have to wait for the battle to be over. you can change either of those things at any time on your turn. the deck changes just don’t propagate until it’s reshuffled. The equipment does, though.
Also see above re: the hourglass. Lets you spend AP to “scout ahead” (not sure what that does as I haven’t used it), spend a ration to camp and regain 10 HP/AP, spend AP to “prepare” one of four class cards, or escape the area (in adventure mode at least) and go back to the menu where you can go to town, etc.
PSA: Nether Horrors are fuckers. Perma-flying, so you can’t damage them except with ranged and indirect damage. Immune to Kill, Weaken, Vulnerable, and Sneak Attack, so that’s Shadows out. Plus Bewitched, Burning, Envenomed, Immobilized, and Entangled. And huge resistances to Piercing (most ranged weapons), Poison, Dark…everything except Fire and Slashing, basically. You know, all those ranged Slashing attacks. Only weak to Consecrate, Blessed, and Banish. Demon Shadows have neither of the former, and the only reason I had Banish is I recruited a unique priest ally with a multicast undead blasting spell and a Circle of Protection that’s mostly defensive but can do a whole 6 points of Banish…which does nothing unless they’re down to 6 HP. I basically only managed to kill it because I had a few Alchemist Fire Bombs and sometimes I could find them in my backpack, combined with occasionally managing to hit a Double Damage roll on my throwing knives so they did anything at all. Oh, and they’ll randomly sneak attack you in the middle of doing stuff on your turn, not sure if there’s a specific trigger. I wasn’t in any serious danger, I had ally generated 19 HP worth of healing every turn and a ton of concealment and echoing defense, etc, and I obliterated reinforcements instantly. But what a slog.
