Definitely getting an STS-like “ascension 0 just ain’t that hard” vibe here, but I’m not mad.
Had a really fun win with my first run with uh whatever the spellcasting flavor of demons are. Second boss battle I chose “everyone gets a million attack when they board the train” as a challenge mode cuz what the heck, I just murder everything with spells anyway, right?
Yeah, you have to actually not suicide your champion and half your good minions into the first wave on the bottom floor in the first round with no spells in your hand for that to matter.
Figured I was boned, but hoo doggy is the “enemies are dazed when they enter level 3” artifact real damn powerful. Rode that plus an enraging minion and a whole bunch of spell damage to beating the level with no damage.
Took the equivalent of the STS poison deck out to go meet Seraph. Worked sort of okay. She had the whole “cut debuff stacks in half” thing going on, which was a bummer. Still didn’t matter because my doubled “freeze and murder all the things” spell got shit done.
Whatever the map thing that lets you clone a card is probably always the best thing. Man. Upgrades are the jam.
The game is definitely more combo-wombo than STS. One is very well advised to figure out where the cards are leading you and follow to the exclusion of all else. Don’t just draft shit because it’s there. That advice is even more pertinent here.
Really enjoying this so far, thanks for the recommendation. I am already liking it more than Slay the Spire, although I liked that one less than the original game that started it all: Dream Quest. This one mixes the formula up more.
I’m worried it’s a bit too easy, as I won my first real game as the plant guy. The basic strategy was to use the stat that enemies get damaged when healed on the champion, and chain it with cards for regen, armour, and some glass cannons in the backline. I found I didn’t really need the other two floors as most things got wiped as soon as they entered (including bosses). I’m glad to see there’s this ascension system that makes the game more difficult as you progress, good stuff.
That’s amazing! What time period would that cover?
At any rate, they’ve created something very cool and they deserve it. From what I’ve seen, they are quite receptive to feedback and I think they will continue to add new features if it is doing well.
I have not beaten the game yet with my first couple of runs but the last run where I used the blue guys in the plant guys I made it to the final boss but did not quite have enough damage to do him in. Still enjoying it but you guys beating it all the time are obviously much better than I am at this!
The key is to have enough damage to not fall behind, and enough tricksiness to kill the bad guys who really need to die asap.
Upgrades are stupid good and cheap even if they’re not exactly what you’d pick for a card. Holdover is especially insane but don’t sleep on any of them. I have been buying 4-6 upgrades per shop and just rolling.
Just finished a hard win at covenant using Woken hero (plant) with thorns + Bramble (multiple thorn in attack damage) + with Stygian ally. Covenant 3.
The end was a close one with my 2nd level of heroes another backup thorn unit launching a bramble that finished Seraph. Bramble had holdover which was fantastic.
This is addictive…
Edit: Thinking back I think I would do much better if I had placed my Thorn hero at the 2nd level and then use the first level to clean out the enemy minions. Bramble needed a clear line of sight to the boss.
It’s ok. I’ve played 20 hours and hoping to win my 4th run. Hell, I also played the demo for a good 5+ hours and I had already watched streamers play for 15-20 before the game came out, so I understood the mechanics going in. It’s STILL kicking my ass regularly. There’s quite a learning curve, but I’m having a blast.
Just finished that Covenant 3 run and my last upgrade stop was ridiculous. I duped my 1-cost, doublestack Grovel card, got the double gorge artifact (would have been nice earlier, but still doubled my Overgorger’s attack (started at 170) by the time he fought Seraph, and reduced my hand size by 4-5. But the real kicker was that I got a permafrost upgrade for Furnace Tap, so I was absolutely certain I had it in hand when Seraph entered the train (it gives multi-strike for my overgorger but it also has Emberdrain 4, and I didn’t have the energy production to use it early). I have lost a run because I didn’t have the card I needed at a pivotal moment.
Ok so I did just have a successful run. So I’m now great at this!
It was the first 2 factions using Thorned Hollows and Railbeaters with the Demon champion in the back on the 1st floor. I’d put a Thorned guy, and then a Railbeater behind him, and the Champ in the back (I got an artifact that expanded floor space by 1 and I took one of those crystal things that does it another time). The thorned guy would take care of most smaller mobs, then the railbeater would shove the tank out of the way and the Champ with multistrike 1 and slay 20 would kill 1 or 2 smaller mobs and start getting buffed out the wazoo. For some boss battles he had over 200 damage and with multistrike that… pretty good! For extra fun I was able to give the champ Quick a couple of times.
I’m now 4/4 on Covenant 0 after my initial loss on my first game. Just finished a red/purple run.
Armor stacking isn’t the worst. Got to live the dream and whack one boss for 462 and another for 562 with Battering Ram. Didn’t get to drop that on the final boss, but did kill him in the first room with a multistriking Rail Beater with like 154 attack or something by the end.
Decline cards, guys. Commons that don’t play into any of your themes are awful. I think I took like two purple spells (daze the enemy team for 1…yes please) and two purple dudes (gain armor when you play a spell on their floor).
By the by, dudes with Incant: Armor 3 that then get an upgrade that gives Incant: Armor 1 and then you get the artifact that gives “every time your dudes get armor, they get that much +3.” Yeah, that was a thing. Recommend.
Glad you said this, I felt like I hit a wall at 9. Then I had a magical run with…the burn bright variant of rector flickeris. I sense a theme :)
The dazed on level 10 is such a neat difficulty increase that isn’t just more numbers.
I can’t tell if the upgrade system is randomly distributed or intentionally built, but it seems to be somewhat cleverly laid out such that I never seem to get very many artifacts or events if I pursue too many unit/spell upgrades.
I’d be interested in leaderboards or whatever, here’s my friend code: 41366256
I know that works, and I’ve tried it, but not had a successful run with that so far. I’ve tried getting 2-3 incant dudes on same row, but it just doesn’t scale enough. I’m doing something wrong.
For whatever reason, I never got into Slay the Spire, but I am loving this game. I can’t believe people are beating it on their 2nd or 3rd runs. I just finished my 3rd run and lost on the 6th fight. Of course I tend to not think and just pick whatever sounds good.
Really stupid question, but what do they mean by “stack”? Like apply +2 rage per stack. I assume it just means that rage is a stackable bonus, right? At first I thought I was thinking stack, like monster stack, but that obviously wasn’t it.
It’s just a stack of buff/malus effects. For example, Rage is +2 attack per Rage point. So Rage 7 is +14 attack, and you lose one Rage per turn. Or Regeneration 5, or etc.
