Isn’t there a whole Adventure Time episode about this? (I realize someone may have already made this joke/observation upthread:) )
This is on sale. I’m on board now.
Just replying to myself to say great purchase Late Adopter Jenkins.
That there is a fun game.
Woohoo, finally won a Daily challenge !!!
Booo, my 32K is only good for 247th. :)
So I finally got to Covenant 25 after 40ish hours. So far, I have a 3 win streak on Covenant 25. It’s unbelievably how much this game got right. I’m not just talking about gameplay but interface, the social aspect, modes. It’s crazy.
I don’t think game is better balanced than StS since StS have quite a bit less moving parts. It’s not really fair to compare the 2.
Is it a better game though? IMO, 100%
That is an impressive feat! While I liked Monster Train, I never got into it as much as StS. I’m sure I’ll play MT some more - maybe it will suck me in for longer. Regardless - covenant 25 is pretty awesome, congrats.
Having reached max Ascension on Slay the Spire and max Covenant on Monster Train I have huge admiration for both games but will pick Monster Train for ‘fun’ at least 8 times out of 10 over Slay the Spire. The latter really felt like hard work sometimes, and hugely constraining in terms of viable choices. With Monster Train, even at max Covenant, it still felt like ‘play’.
. . . and I freaking love the poor doomed morsels. Their little nonsense utterances are just lovely and hilarious and endearing, and then they get eaten :-)
I have not played with the recent DLC yet . . . just waiting for it to appear on sale and then I will cycle back to this with glee.
Yeah, I love it. I keep sitting down and putting in more time. I unlocked everything playing on the lower Covenant levels and then started by Covenant push. I am stuck at 24. (I have about 240 hours in it).
Wow! That’s amazing, as a chronically slow deckbuilder player! I’m around 40 hours in and haven’t gone higher than covenant 4 yet, hah.
I hate myself for not jumping on this sooner. Mea culpa.
I have been playing on the Switch and I have liked it so far but it also seems pretty easy. I’m playing random and picking a lot of random artifacts and cards early to see what is out there and still winning more than I lose.
Does it get harder at the upper covenant levels? I have been avoiding reading about it to not spoil the discovery.
Yes. It’s quite doable at the low levels (though if you look earlier in the thread, you will see people complaining about difficulty, so that feeling isn’t universal). I didn’t actually go that high on the covenant levels but my understanding is that it gets much harder, yes. They gradually add more cards you don’t want to your deck, increase cost of things, decrease starting pyre health, increase enemy damage and event health, etc
On Covenant 25 with the DLC (fighting the true boss) , MT is around a 8/10. Around Ascension 15 difficulty on Slay the Spire. Keep in mind the base game is extremely easy if you have the DLC but don’t fight the True Boss.
Oh my yes, hehe, it gets tougher. I made it to max covenant and my win rate at that and approaching it was probably significantly less than 50%, and maybe as low as 25%. Now that said, this is still far less difficult than Slay the Spire at max Ascension, and I regard that as a good thing. I found Slay extremely challenging but also, thanks to RNG-god benevolence or malevolence, a bit of a slog and a pain at max Ascension.
So, this is my top 5 reasons why Monster Train is the best deckbuilder.
- The scoring. MT is eerily similar to another genre I love. Shooters or Shumps. Initially when you’re starting you’re playing for survival. Once you master the ability to win you’re playing for score. The opens up a whole new whole of challenges for MT.
- Deck Variety. There are simply too many types and style of deck that one can play. I don’t think you can play the same game twice even if you try.
- The seeds. This enables a solo game to be a shared experience. Wants to see how your friend can compete on a run you just completed? Want to play the same deck as a streamer? Want to start the tournament? It’s all possible with how the seeds in MT.
- Defense and offensive variety. The key to the longevity of many deckbuilders is how they enable the player to give and mitigate damage. For offense scaling, MT have at least 10 different scaling options and 6 different defense options. Most game have 1 or 2. Once again no 2 games of MT will tickle your brain the same way.
- The game encourages you to get better and experiment. Winstreaks, seeds, divinity stamps, game statistics, etc.
You feel so good once your winrate shoots up. I just finished a 11 winstreak on Cov 25 and that 12th game felt INSTENSE.
All those things. I can’t really put my finger precisely on why I can play this daily and have 300+ hours in it.
I know I play too fast and am NEVER careful as my biggest streak was 4 and now I just seem to win every other time.
Hoo boy, this is high praise. I’ve been on the fence about this one for a while, poked at it a bit on Game Pass (not currently a subscriber), but let me ask you something, though you may not be able to answer from experience: should a new player get the expansion right away? I’ve read conflicting things about the stuff it adds being good right away vs power creep unbalancing the base game and new players being recommended to avoid it at first. I do love deckbuilders so it’s just a matter of time before I grab this one, but I’m not sure if it would be better to wait on the expansion or what.
I would wait and get a feel for the base game first. Or just play without it turned on. There’s ahead a lot to absorb. You can also get plenty of play out of the base game.
You won’t be able to use the full rules/extras of the expansion besides the new clan until you finish the game once (or twice?). So I wouldn’t worry about expansion making the game too complicated for the new player.
The expansion is amazing and really opens up the game. It does make the early Covenant a little easier (especially if you don’t fight the true boss) but Covenant 25 stays the same.
There just too many stuff to do/experiment in this game!
I’ve just discovered the joy of the reforming imp deck.
So many broken combos in this game.
Imp is the best deck. So much fun and puns.
I finally completed Covenant 25 with all the clan combinations. I was playing random + random so this much longer than it should.
Still can’t beat my Covenant 25 win streak though. Some clan combos are just brutal (Stygian + Umbra, anything with the main Umbra clan starting)
