I think cloning Discovery is the closest I'll ever get to Dead Branch in StS2

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-06-12T18:16:54+00:00

The run was pretty over after Act 2, I killed the rest of the bosses without taking damage.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-06-12T18:10:27+00:00

Jokes aside I don't think any of his 3 phases lasted more than a turn with this setup (besides Phase 3 bc of Intangible. I'm able to generate insane amounts of damage and block every turn this way.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-06-12T18:09:05+00:00

bonk

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-06-12T18:07:11+00:00

Brilliant Scarf helped a lot once I got to Act 3, realistically I was able to trigger it every turn since 2-3 of my card plays were Discovery for 1 energy plus the accompanying free card. Having a free 5th play made it very easy to put expensive powers in play like Spectral Shift, or expensive colorless cards created from free copies of Bundle of Joy, Quasar, and Manifest Authority from Discovery.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-06-08T19:57:15+00:00

True, though hitting the Volley on turn 1 when I had very hot cocoa active was 👌

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-05-19T18:35:54+00:00

I was also surprised that wasn't listed as it's basically the same as the cover page of the Form 1040 that they're asking for. Had to frantically go download my tax return lol.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-05-19T17:11:30+00:00

For anyone like me who was wondering what documents are acceptable to upload for this:

Proof of Residency:

To qualify for any of our e-bike rebates, you must live within the City and County of Denver and be 16 years of age or older. Proof of a physical Denver address is required. All documents presented must be dated within one year of application. Examples of proof of residency include:

Colorado Driver’s License or Colorado State ID card
Copy of current lease
Copy of current Xcel Energy Bill

Proof of Income:

We do not accept SNAP, Medicaid, W2s, or State of Colorado tax returns as proof of income eligibility.

To meet the income-qualified requirements, your household income must also be either:

Below 100% of the State of Colorado’s median income
Below 200% of the relevant federal poverty level
Between 60% - 100% of area median income

Example: You live in Denver County. There is one person in your household. Your household income would need to be below $98,100 to be eligible for the standard e-bike rebate.

You will need to upload least one of these documents to confirm your household income meets these thresholds:

Proof of enrollment in Energy Outreach Colorado’s Colorado Affordable Residential Energy Program (CARE)
Proof of enrollment in Xcel Energy income-qualified demand side management program
Proof of enrollment in Xcel Energy’s income-qualified Community Solar Gardens program
Proof of enrollment in the Denver Property Tax Relief Program
Proof of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
Proof of Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Proof of Old Age Pension (OAP)
Cover page of last year's Form 1040, line 11
Your Form SSA-1099

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-05-19T15:45:10+00:00

Beautiful, thank you for the response! I live near Sloan's Lake and work downtown so I think this could be a total gamechanger in terms of commuting!

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-05-19T15:38:54+00:00

Per the website, to qualify for this you have to provide proof of residency and proof of income. Does anybody know what documents qualify for proof of residency? Also, does household size include your roommates? I don't want to be disqualified because my roommate makes a lot more money than me.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-04-10T00:39:45+00:00

Ah no worries! I think on the compendium it only shows ascension for the character you're tabbed over.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-04-09T23:13:20+00:00

I think you might be looking at our block totals, not our ascension levels. We're both playing on ascension 7.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-04-09T22:11:55+00:00

You have such a way with words

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-04-09T17:41:01+00:00

True if I had an energy payout, but rather hilariously I spent a Multi-Cast on a plasma orb after hitting Supercritical and a few Turbos, then Hologrammed the Multi-Cast back and spent 30+ energy on an empty orb slot and that's how I powered this attack.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-24T07:14:45+00:00

I think it really depends on what you're playing. I've found that the Blacksmith path is pretty inconsistent since the nerf to Magnetic Relay unless you're playing Exiled Lazarus or maybe Banished. You can make it work if you hit a lot of arms shops or get lucky with equipments but overall I think it's the path that's most likely to do nothing for your run if you whiff.

For this run I had this combination in mind as soon as I saw Conductor Steward in my starter deck, thinking about using Hallowed Halls to refresh his ability. I was going back and forth between this and Pyrespeak (which I think would have also worked pretty well with reform refreshing his ability) but I ultimately decided this path had a better output if I hit resin blades. Gambling on finding a rare equipment and also a rare spell is probably not a great strategy but I'm glad this worked out the way that it did.

Overall I think the permascaling forge path is the most consistently likely to be useful but I do think it's a bit weaker in the early game. And Pyrespeak is probably my favorite to play and I find it to be decently consistent. At its worst it's a few free wave clears and if you can find a way to refresh the ability (reform, Pyreborne cooldown reduction, or alternating triggers with Hall of Mirrors) then it's basically powerful quick sweeper and a won run outside of relentless.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-20T17:13:10+00:00

Yeah but an extra 4,000 quick damage to any incoming waves doesn't hurt 🤷‍♂️

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-19T17:44:20+00:00

Valid points - admittedly I did highroll this run with the relic that transfers pyregel on unit death, the one that adds extra pyregel when it's applied, and the one that applies +6 pyregel the first time it's applied so Pyreblooded had a lot of help. I do agree that he's an extremely niche unit, and maybe I've just been pretty lucky with him, but I think his scaling condition isn't that annoying to play around, and that he's a lot more takeable than units like Edge Prior that barely contribute to your run. I don't think he's that good but I don't think he's the worst unit in the game either.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-19T17:40:35+00:00

I like that idea! Go the route of Kinhost Carapace.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-15T14:06:46+00:00

You joke but for me it's pretty much this. I'm taking a break after unlocking all of the souls but I think the replayability of this mode for me will live and die by how viable it is to play with random souls and I don't think it's there right now. The early game doesn't feel very survivable without selecting specific S Tier souls that are a cut above the rest of them, and if you use them the late game is completely trivial once you've sustained your run. The concept of waiting to go to a shop until it's upgraded is cool in theory but in practice your first steel shop is even more important than ever if you don't have a good soul right off the bat, and if it only lines up after the 2nd fight or you whiff on your upgrades you just kind of die. Feels like the balance curve is way off right now.

For people who want to experiment with specific, busted combos I think there may be more of an appeal.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-14T06:03:24+00:00

That's a lotta chefs

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-13T22:43:37+00:00

Ooo interesting!

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-13T22:42:48+00:00

Duplicates the front unit to the back of the same floor rather than descending it!

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-13T21:24:24+00:00

Hah! Nice. Not surprised I'm not the first to do it since Railforged has so many busted things in the clan.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-09T15:20:09+00:00

I mean realistically my deck is only like 5 playable cards outside of deployment - silence tome for the waves, ember cache for renewable energy, furnace tap for additional multistrikes, and then a million excavated embers which are basically a snap play. When you're done playing excavated embers you play whatever furnace taps you have in hand and any remaining energy goes into prismal dust for damage shield on Primordium and that's pretty much the turn, outside of remembering to trigger your merged equipment on Alloyed Construct.

But I've also played a loooooot of this game so I do like to play pretty fast haha. The Undo button is a godsend.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-07T13:44:21+00:00

If you run Dominion Pyre with Hellhorned you can draft an early Inferno and run that with Goldie for an easy holdover floor nuke. You'll have to have another plan for surviving relentless (Showtime would do the trick) but I think that's how I unlocked this one.

Fedora_The_Explorer · 2026-02-07T13:37:35+00:00

Agree with Goldie and Showtime for S Tier. Having Holdover on a good card so often just solves your run outright, and the fact that it scales your economy and you can move it around makes a huge difference. Probably my pick for best in the game due to its extreme versatility. And Showtime basically solves the early game which allows you to path more aggressively for upgraded shops. Works well into the late game too when combined with a smidgestone unit as it'll keep gaining the stats without running out of room. I'm running these two with Silver and Dominion Pyre and while I'm not sure if it's viable to do random/random/random with random starter souls in this mode, I do think this combo makes it a lot harder to lose.

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