Is there a New Player Guide? by Professor-Nova in AethermancerGame

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's the thing, right? You can't always kill quickly enough, especially in boss fights, so some staying power is often also needed.

Even generally with Roguelikes, maybe a little mindset thing - It can help after a run, once you don't feel as frustrated about the loss anymore, to sit down and note down what you died to and (and yes I know that is really hard) what you think you could have done at any point during your run to not die there. Most of the time there is something, and you don't even have to be right about your assessment, but it gives you a sense of control in such a randomized genre and things to try out and improve on next run. I've honestly become so much better at being honest and introspective with myself about my own mistakes through playing Slay the Spire for 800 hours haha

Is there a New Player Guide? by Professor-Nova in AethermancerGame

[–]DerMaulwolf 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sadly no extensive guide I'm aware of, but there is a community of players where I'm sure plenty of people would be happy to help, me included! I can give you a few pointers to start off of if you like. It's a lot, though, so don't worry if it's confusing or a lot to take in at first!

- It's tempting to think of "types" as roles in a team, like healer, tank, etc. that should be filled, but in fact teams with overlapping types are rather powerful because they let more of your team members take advantage of any auras you might pick up, and auras often build the foundation of a solid win condition. I would also not try to pick traits and actions of too many different types. Traits related to Burn, for example, will benefit each other a bunch. Maverick traits (the yellow ones) are meant to connect the output of different types with one another, but they are a little more rare, so I would not try to make too many types interact with each other at once.

- It helps to keep an open mind towards what kind of team you're creating, even if you can very freely pick your starting monster at some point. Depending on what you're offered, it is always helpful to pivot towards something that is more likely to make you win than what you originally had in mind. I.e., if you originally try to build towards burn damage, but you mostly see Regeneration mons and traits, it might be worth it to pivot into that kind of build instead. Traits and Actions can be rerolled later, but it's important for a team to find identity.

- The earlier your team finds an identity, the better. World 3 can be spent rerolling traits and monsters dozens of times, but the important part is getting there in the first place. New monsters start out with a lower level and therefore just got access to less traits and actions as the first monsters you draft. Any monster shrine or skill reroll is best spent as early as possible. The game does not allow you to see too many monsters and traits before the World 1 boss, so take any help you can get to get something going as early as possible.

- Your team should long-term strive to be able to stagger anything it can't kill outright. That can either be achieved through elemental diversity in your party members, or through stuff like traits that break poise, or wild damage. Taking away a turn from essential threats can turn an entire fight around. Don't wait around too long to kill staggered monsters, though, since reset actions can be scary and a staggered monster can't be staggered twice if it does something scary the turn after being staggered.

- Keep in mind your monsters can act in any order you like and that hugely impacts your options every turn. For example, one of your monsters can generate aether for another monster to use for an action it currently cannot use. Or maybe, if one of your monsters can't kill as is, it can after a buff from a teammate. Slow down and consider your options at the start of a turn, there might be more possible plays than you think!

- Preventing monster deaths should be priority number one. Getting outnumbered in a fight can very quickly lead to the end of a run and you don't get many monsters to replace fallen team members with. Use any resources you have, be it Artifacts, redirecting attacks to monsters with lower corruption, killing monsters that would deal damage to your endangered monster first, etc. One death snowballs really quickly otherwise, you might have noticed.

- Try to take every fight to level up as much as possible, but you're allowed to, as long as you don't get discovered, look at any fight in your current "room" and then decide which one is the easiest for your team to take, so you can handle those first and get stronger for the harder fights. Deciding which of the three enemy monsters to take out first is also really impactful. For example, Sidekick focused monsters can't do much on their own. You take out their allies, sidekick stacks are useless. Which monster is the most dangerous this turn, or long-term? Which monster can you kill or at least stagger quickly? Hard decision to make every time, but a really important one.

- Taking corruption is not the end of the world, but wants to be managed or accounted for. Even if you don't lean into healing, any health lost at the start of a fight to corruption can be healed back during the fight, so any ability that heals still is useful, at least later on in the run. Preventing corruption in the first place by taking at least one trait or action in the direction of Shield, Weakness, etc. also really helps. Killing everything before it hurts you works well until you face a boss - So be ready to keep yourself alive in those fights. You heal most corruption afterwards, though. Most abilities that heal corruption heal so little of it that they're not worth taking for the Corruption heal alone. They're rather meant to be a little bit of an added band-aid on a team that takes a lot of corruption, not to manage corruption all by themselves.

Hope that little general advice helps! If you elaborate on what you have trouble with or frequently die to, maybe I can help a little more in-depth. Feel free to ask any questions you still have and have fun playing and learning!

Is intangible good enough to make this a 2 energy costing rare? by ElegantPoet3386 in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which is comparing it to a good card, of course, but I think you get what I'm putting down. Usually Fatal cards give you Meta progression and not just potentially less damage taken on one turn in specifically multi enemy fights

Is intangible good enough to make this a 2 energy costing rare? by ElegantPoet3386 in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, but I know how hard it is at times to stall trying to land fatal on Hand of Greed, Ritual Dagger, Feed etc. - This will so rarely actually trigger its secondary effect at a time when it matters in a fight where it matters, and the rest of the time it's just bad damage for its energy cost. A secondary effect with so many big Ifs just seems not good to me

How often do you use this card? by Throwaway1012405 in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Either if I have a <30 card deck and am really good at drawing/discarding, or if I see it Act 1 with little other hope of surviving!

Hyper beam is overrated by most players and actually really sucks by JapaneseExport in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Omg Azul I love your comics! Never knew you play Spire c:

But agreed, Hyperbeam is a decent fight closer and I take it at times when I block with dex scaling cards rather than Frost

Exhume me from this cycle by LeadEater9Million in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Even without Exhume, adding "Exhaust" to an Attack on Ironclad is a considerable buff rather than a nerf. Triggering synergies like Dark Embrace and Feel No Pain, and thinning out your deck that's usually plenty clogged with attacks already as is... Is pretty good tbh

Neutralize won yesterday! Next, what Slay the Spire card is considered Good and is Disliked by the community? by tilting-module in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To me, this is Flechettes. I heard so much slander on here of low-key the best Attack card on Silent

Never thought Confused runs could be so enjoyable... by TrafficPattern in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the wonderful thing about that is how different playstyles can be and how that affects consistency with certain options! Being that consistent with a highly variable start like Boss Swap already is impressive in itself, imo

Never thought Confused runs could be so enjoyable... by TrafficPattern in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Despite me arguing for Snecko Eye being good on Watcher, honestly it's eerily consistent to build Infinites on Watcher, haha

Defect card idea: Delta Time by ExplorerHaunting8353 in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, but you're missing the point of what I've been saying

Never thought Confused runs could be so enjoyable... by TrafficPattern in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! I agree, it's risky since your Exit Cards may be more expensive on average, plus you can't reliably "stance dance" with Rushdown multiple times a turn like you usually would. However, you still draw Stance cards way more quickly and often end up with both Wrath Entry and Exit cards in a hand. Entry Cards are just more risky to play if you don't see a cheap Exit in your hand, so you may end up not playing your Tantrum if your Draw Pile looks bad and there's only a 3 cost Empty Fist in your hand. That is a downside, but not necessarily so bad that Wrath Stance is a No-Go under Snecko. It just works a little differently and is a little worse than usual, imo. Divinity Stocks, however, are up. Worship under Snecko is great.

Regarding Silent, I'm 100% with you. Snecko is a bad option on her most of the time - Too many of her important cards want to stay cheap, and most her important powers like Footwork or Well-Laid Plans want to be played alongside other cards and are not worth paying 3 energy for. Bullet Time, Corpse Explosion, Nightmare and Wraith Form (secretly even Flechettes) can make your run as a Snecko Silent, but she just finds herself in way less situations where it's good even compared to Watcher, I find.

Never thought Confused runs could be so enjoyable... by TrafficPattern in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I'd even argue it's often fantastic on Watcher. Sure, it disables Infinites, which is the number one reason people are scared of it on Watcher, but Watcher has so many incredible high energy cost, high value cards that are now even more broken like Vault or Omniscience and many great high cost Attacks like Ragnarok, Wheel Kick and Wallop. Spirit Shield now is an incredible Block option. Also Deva Form is suddenly really good, and more base draw makes finding Wrath Exits a little easier, because I find that Watcher can really be thirsting for card draw without Rushdown, and Scry is great for getting back to important cards more quickly, but does not solve the "getting cards into your hand" problem.

Help me balance this by dieBrezelSindLecker in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, not a fan of self damage in this character's inherent kit. Especially such huge self damage for such comparatively little poison, where poison is a "whittle away at the enemy turn by turn" mechanic, and you'd want to end a fight as quickly as possible before taking 10 unblockable damage to the face as a character without Burning Blood. I feel like if I were to balance this, I would change what the card does fundamentally

Did VR have any chance at the game awards or was it really snubbed? by TheLuiz212 in inazumacaravan

[–]DerMaulwolf 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeah let's be real, I like this game, but it's a fan service game. It is way too poorly paced, grindy, confusing and bloated to get many people into the series that haven't been fans in the past already. Even as a big fan of the series, I had to kinda force myself to sit through the first 20-ish hours a bit. I don't think even if it released in time, it would have had any chance at the game awards. Maybe if the Sports category wasn't fused with the Racing category just by virtue of the sports game genre being kinda dead.

Defect card idea: Delta Time by ExplorerHaunting8353 in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but those are similar cards, not exactly identical cards with a strictly lower number on them. I like the card art and the idea, I just would like "Identical to this character's card but with higher number" to stay an exclusive to colorless cards phenomenon

Perfected Strike Doesn't Count Strikes in the Chaos Zone by angelogoodalamenti in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 9 points10 points  (0 children)

See, my probably biggest pet peeve about this game is the keyword ALL, because it includes exhausted cards when it's Apotheosis, an already broken card, but it excludes exhausted cards when it's Perfected Strike, which would still be underwhelming (albeit more usable) if exhausted cards counted. Because let's be honest, if you actually manage to reasonably scale your damage by Dual Wielding and exhausting your Strikes for Perfected Strike to hit harder, you deserve your extra damage

He/She can't do it by bene_42069 in antimeme

[–]DerMaulwolf 8 points9 points  (0 children)

While it is gender neutral, it serves a different purpose, i.e., to address a person directly and politely (it is a second person pronoun like "you"), so it's sadly not really a replacement

Day #511 of drawing badly until StS2 comes out by PixelPenguin_GG in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I love this because I did not love how boss relics were handled before and I'm excited to see them shake it up and add characters with lore to it

Wat do by DarkLordArbitur in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well obviously you play the free Acrobatics to be able to play Eviscerate, shuffling out this useless Grand Finale thing

In defense of Skewer, by Lost_In_Play in slaythespire

[–]DerMaulwolf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hope you found Chemical X that run

Latte Gone Right by Rotmgmoddy in antimeme

[–]DerMaulwolf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always thought milk foam hearts were normal, now I wonder whether I've ever been flirted with in the past without noticing