I have both of these.
I am halfway through the 3rd dungeon, have all pieces of the key.
I have a feeling I’ll win this run. :)
Argh, I almost had finally beaten Act 3 with a potent block and poison deck on the Silent when I got cocky and didn’t read the stats on the little quartet of robots that appear in Act 4, including two that explode on a timer. I’d left several Defends unplayed, knowing I had lethal on the board next turn and thinking I’d blocked all incoming damage for the turn, when… BOOM. BOOM. RIP.
Dammit.
This really strengthens how much easier the game gets when you learn the enemies patterns and abilities/traits by heart. I died to those dummies self-destructing enough that they usually die in round one or two if I can swing it. I don’t mess around with them!
The game has now produced an Act 3 boss that is a perfect counter to my build 3 games in a row.
There’s still a part of me that’s bothered that I’m cruising on autopilot through most of the game, only to lose at the end. That kind of roguelike annoys me. I need consistently interesting decisions.
Anyway, I finished my warmup. I’ll play the hell out of the new character and then retire this again.
I’d argue that preparing a deck that won’t be countered by a stroke of bad act 3 RNG is one of the enjoyable parts of the game to me. Once you start act 3 you can go all in on a strat, but not leaning too heavily into a build that can be doomed by the final boss is definitely a learn-able skill.
Eh, yeah I agree that if there’s is a problem with build balance is that at the beginning of act 3 you usually know if you’re going to lose. You have tempo deck that browses through the whole deck in a turn? Boy do I have a nice slug person for you to meet.
I guess it makes more sense when you consider the heart to be a real final boss. That thing needs much more preparation than act 3 boss. I think if you aren’t ready to beat any act 3 boss then you won’t be able to fight the heart.
By the way, today (Jan 14) the new character enters the master branch of the game.
It’s another case where I’ve yet to memorize which boss the icons refer to, heh. I should just keep a wiki open and not frustrate myself.
I also forgot that Awakened One beats up power builds. I was so massively overpowered that I arrogantly tried to beat him that way anyway. Another letdown after 90 minutes of time invested.
As you go higher in Ascension levels, building a deck that can win a fight in multiple ways becomes more and more important. Especially at Ascension 20 where you face two Act 3 bosses. If your deck is one dimensional, you’re almost guaranteed to face the worst possible Act 3 boss. It’s vital to check which boss you’re up against in each Act and tailor your deck to counter them.
Don’t worry about “winning or losing” just have fun!
In case anyone doesn’t know, there’s a setting in the Game Settings for “Fast Mode” which you should definitely turn on after a few games. Makes the game flow much more quickly.
Yes I should’ve said 60 minutes. Maybe it’s less, I haven’t looked recently.
I’m not sure card games are ever “fun” for me. More like hopelessly compelling and addictive. That’s easier to justify when it’s Ascension and games take minutes. Lack of time to invest makes me extra cranky about it.
Anyway, I’ll try not to rant about my personal struggle too much. I still think it’s in my top 5 for 2019 or 2018 or whatever. I can’t wait to get home and try a frost build and then the new character.
Everyone needs to listen to this man.
You sound like an addict lol. It would make a great box quote:
Tim James: “…hopelessly compelling and addictive.”
After all that bitching, I beat the Heart for the first time ever on my second game tonight with The Defect. I took the random relic at the start and ended up with Snecko Eye. I got Creative AI and took a bunch of cards with high cost and card draw. I got a bunch of absurdly good relics that increased my power geometrically, like double relic and card draw at the end of fights. I ended up with 3 fairies for the final battle.
At that point, the only risky situation left came after the boss fight on the 4th floor. I ignorantly took the relic that removed all your debuffs if you play an attack, skill, and power in the same turn. On the second to last fight I played those on the first turn and lost my Snecko Eye. Oops! I was still able to destroy them pretty easily thanks to a few Turbo+ cards and the Ice Cream Cone.
For the Heart I had to decide which two of the three types of cards I wanted to play that turn. I had one arm tied behind my back and still won. Kind of silly to be honest.
Snecko Eye is the best relic in the game if you get it at game start :) Pick up a Mummified Hand and you are pretty much guaranteed a free win even on A20.
OMG.
+1 Like
I had that relic by the end as well. The list of relics almost made it to the end of the screen.
Good to know I won with the most overpowered build in the game by sheer luck. Haha!
Nice job Tim!
Getting Snecko Eye as your RNG starting relic is pretty unlikely, but when you know you can build your deck around the fact that 3 cost cards will almost always be discounted (sometimes made free, even!), it puts you in a pretty fantastic position because otherwise those cards can often be detrimental to pick in act 1 where they can feel very difficult to use with only 3 energy. With Defect, Meteor on act 1 is pretty comical, a 5 cost card that will be a max cost of 3, and cost 0 or 1 half the time.
Even 2 cost cards get discounted/made free 50% of the time, stay the same 25% and only go up 25% of the time. Which is a deal you should statistically be happy to make. It sure does make 0 cost cards terrible, though. So getting it at game start you can know to just stay away from 0-1 cards unless they are critical to your build.
I think Mummified Hand is just one of those generically awesome relics that is great in almost any deck, but it has that particular synergy with Snecko Eye because with smart use you can get it to make any cards that Snecko Eye rolled into a 3 cost into a 0, which offsets the downside of Snecko.
If you can’t tell I’m a pretty strong proponent of Snecko Eye in general. :)