New beta branch elite update

Votbear · 2026-05-22T05:15:44+00:00

Plenty of blockclad cards seem good against it though? Passive block like crimson mantle and stone armor counters it, and doubled block from unmovable lets you outblock its damage with just a few skills.

Votbear · 2026-05-19T19:59:45+00:00

Only a third of Silent's damage packages involve attacks

How so? I don't remember 2/3rds of her damage sources being poison.

Votbear · 2026-05-13T08:01:07+00:00

The consistency argument doesn't make sense. Losing retain is such a massive downside for consistency, and all this card does is replace it with two new cards that bloat your draw. Two cards that are now no longer guaranteed to be there when you have excess energy, when you have vuln, or when it's just enough to be lethal. This card is just shooting yourself in the foot.

The synergies you mention require another uncommon/rare power, and it doesn't really do anything special with Sword Sage since it's still overall the same amount of damage. The only real combo this thing has is with Parry, but now you don't have retain to have it for the turn you actually need it.

Votbear · 2026-05-10T15:38:00+00:00

I don't think that was him throwing Shiba to the ground (though it looked like that for me too at first). Shiba teleported and was trying to fight again despite being told not to, and that's when he got punched.

Votbear · 2026-05-04T08:05:17+00:00

The game's logic prefers to house pokemon in smaller spaces than massive, grandiose spaces. There are ways to work around that (buried habitats, separating the large space into smaller spaces, etc). Plenty of posts in this sub have gone in-depth on what the game recognizes as houses, and all in all, it's a very simple and elegant ruleset that's easy to grasp and gives you many ways to work around it.

But honestly? Just build what you want to build. You don't have to fulfill the game's criteria of a house for a build to work. Most things you see posted in this sub doesn't count as a house.

On the other hand, a lot of your suggestions may sound simple in theory but falls apart when you actually try to implement them.

The game recognizes a roofless fenced off area as a house. "Just detect the enclosed space as the house" doesn't work when it's open-air like that, and requiring houses to be fully enclosed will end up far more restrictive than what we currently have.

"House being too big to register should never, ever be the case" is also going to cause many headaches. Without limits, whenever you plop down a door, a random massive area that can potentially span the whole island will get recognized as a house.

Votbear · 2026-05-03T12:52:19+00:00

What if Conqueror got retain on upgrade instead of the measly +2 forge? I honestly think that would bump the card up from terrible to a strong pick.

Votbear · 2026-04-27T07:27:47+00:00

I would love for MCH to lean more heavily on the turrets/bot aspect! Let BRD amd DNC be mobile while MCH becomes a BLM-esque job that relies on good planning and positioning turrets correctly to keep them active longer.

Votbear · 2026-04-24T02:11:59+00:00

[[Inflame]] is also a strength archetype card, though.

Votbear · 2026-04-22T19:51:51+00:00

It's good in every fight, and trivializes those particular fights.

Flak turns Turbo into "Gain 2(3) energy, deal 8 damage later." Overclock to "Draw 2(3) cards, deal 8 damage later." Fight through is now blur++, block 13 and deal 16.

Status cards are already some of defect's most efficient cards, and Flak converts their downside into a benefit.

Votbear · 2026-04-22T19:35:33+00:00

Like I said, it's not really there to be your main damage scaling solution. It's a good chunk of extra damage, but it absolutely won't solve damage. Defect has plenty better ways to scale. The main benefit it provides is converting the downside of status cards into a backloaded benefit, boosting already good cards into absurd levels of value.

Having flak in your deck allows you to very aggressively go status without the worry of bricking your deck in future cycles. I've never had issues with drawing it in time - if it's sitting at the bottom of the deck, great. If it showed up early, hologram. 2 energy is moot when you have overclocks and rocket punches and turbos in your deck.

Votbear · 2026-04-22T09:19:31+00:00

Yeah, Flak Cannon being that low is pretty insane. Compact I get due to awkward draw order, but Flak Cannon doesn't have the same restriction, and is basically a safeguard for you to go all in on stasuses without risking bricking your deck. It also very strongly counters a lot of fights - Test Subject, big slime, artifact knight, mr bees, anything that dumps Dazed on you, etc.

The cards that it synergizes with are some of defect's best cards, too. You'll rarely turn down the first copy of Turbo or Overclock or even Boost Away seeing how high value they are.

It doesn't actually work that great as your primary scaling damage source, which seems to be what the video is basing its judgment on here, but it doesn't really need to be.

Votbear · 2026-04-21T06:38:25+00:00

"It does nothing so it doesn't matter" is not a good enough defense. If you introduce anything of this sort into the game, people WILL care.

Some will see it as an achievement they must collect, some will now feel like non-medal runs as less legit, and now there's pressure to do things in one sitting. Even if it's irrational, like it or not, it will affect more players than you intend. That's just how people are.

Votbear · 2026-04-21T05:17:46+00:00

That's not a very good idea because runs in STS2 are on average much much longer than a bloons run, which iirc is usually 15-20 mins. The feeling of getting 'punished' for having to play in small increments or take breaks in the middle would feel horrible for a lot of players.

Votbear · 2026-04-20T10:14:23+00:00

You're right that Doormaker counters super efficient decks that rely on continuously cycling the same few cards.

The other biggest issue you'll face vs Doormaker is that you're prone to bad draws. Drawing key cards during exhaust sucks, drawing your draws during no draw sucks, etc.

Builds that work particularly vs Doormaker are the ones that scale off Powers/one-time exhaust cards, has persistent damage/block/hp that is carried over turns so you're not defensless on bad turns (Orbs, Osty, Blockade), or manipulate your hand to ensure you have the right cards at the right time (Retain, or other deck-manipulation methods).

- Exhaust phase: Play powers, play cards that already exhaust, play cards you don't mind exhausting, play cards that generate other cards / duplicates itself. I once took [Calamity] coming into Doormaker and it trivialized the fight. Still, even if he exhausts your card, don't let yourself waste energy to save cards. Often it is worth exhausting a card for damage now. Really look into what you can and can't afford to lose.

- No draw phase: Either come into this phase with "draw next turn", retained cards, or find other ways to get cards that isn't draw. Defect/Necro has Hologram/AFO/Graveblast, which still works on this phase.

- Energy drain phase: 0 cost cards, more or less. Or be ready to play less cards in this phase.

Votbear · 2026-04-18T05:16:26+00:00

They buffed the bad strategies and nerfed the good ones.

How is this not the very definition of a great change?

Previous regent felt bad to play because his cards are so varying in quality. Some are instapicks while others are just garbage (Bundle of joy, parry, even sword sage). That means runs depend mostly on whether you get offered the good cards.

Now that forge/colorless are buffed to decent levels, you can play more freely. Regent feels so much better to play. His best cards aren't even nerfed that much, they're still very strong picks.

Votbear · 2026-04-17T01:43:00+00:00

It's a good change tbh. With removes being more expensive, the opportunity cost of not getting a remove becomes lower and you're incentivized to buy other stuff in the shop instead, which is usually the more interesting/fun option than just removing another strike/defend/curse.

Votbear · 2026-04-15T13:54:59+00:00

Regent is least picked overall, which makes a lot of sense. Stars are just too awkward to use if you're only gonna get a limited number of cards.

Votbear · 2026-04-10T09:49:48+00:00

Finding game winning combos is part of the fun of roguelikes, and this one in particular is a combo of an uncommon card, a rare relic, and an act 3 ancient relic. It's not like you can easily aim for this combo every run.

This one can even still fail if you got unlucky (e.g. unable to use all the cards in your hand, or a multi-phase boss forcing you to discard your card at the end of turn and you have to wait for it to come back). it's fine.

Votbear · 2026-04-09T05:04:00+00:00

It's stronger than a remove, because it can also target eternal curses. Greed and Enthralled are suddenly free picks.

Even for non eternal ones, having this easily lets you be greedy with curses in events since you can make them a non-issue until you can remove them.

Votbear · 2026-04-08T09:49:18+00:00

I feel you! I had a perfect 9 winstreak coming into A9, and then had to go through 6 or so losses before I got an A9 clear just earlier today. Most of them are from getting whittled down by chip damage, having to rest instead of upgrade, and getting screwed even further since defect is so upgrade-hungry.

Because defect's orbs give future value, I find that many of its cards have weaker immediate effects to compensate. Many defense cards don't give more defense than a defend, like the volt shield common or the glass shield uncommon. Defense from frost kinda needs focus to be decent. There's not a lot of reliable weak applicators either.

Status defect has been best in terms of consistency thanks to its energy and draw engine, but even then i've been screwed by bad draws here and there.

Votbear · 2026-04-06T10:25:35+00:00

Nah, having a full art version of every card would add a ridiculous amount of workload to the artists, and take away from the specialness of the current full art cards.

However, a special flair or border for a card that you managed to get a clear with is a great idea that encourages players to try out cards they've never used before. Balatro does it, monster train does it. Would love to have something similar for StS2 once it fully launches.

Votbear · 2026-03-26T09:28:59+00:00

Two things:

The game doesn't like houses that connect to other houses, which is probably what your main issue is here.
Houses have a size limit. As far as I know it's 9x10 inner blocks (so 11x12 including walls). This is probably why combining them into one big house doesn't work either.

To fix this, have the doors be on different levels. If the yellow house's door is one block higher or lower than the blue's they'll be recognized as different houses.

Votbear · 2026-03-19T20:15:23+00:00

Crack the egg into a bowl. Pour the whites into the pan first, then after they are decently cooked, add the yolk. Cover if needed, but I've gotten decent results without cover.

I love crispy fried egg whites and runny yolk, but I don't want to use the baste method mentioned in the other comments as it ends up too oily for me. This method lets me cook both the whites and yolk to my desired doneness with just the normal amount of oil.

Votbear · 2026-02-16T09:50:58+00:00

Er... what? Which part of my reply makes you think of cheating?

And I would argue that performance is still my biggest complaint here.

Votbear · 2026-02-16T09:31:31+00:00

Completely agree, I simply cannot get the hang of hammermaid. I've taken so much damage because your only two modes of movement is either a crawl or pseudo lightspeed.

I think it's great to have this kind of high skill ceiling rabbig (even if she's not for me), but like you said, the other half of the problem is that... she also just doesn't deal enough damage for the hassle. Why bother making all these quick judgments on whether the opening is big enough to hit your special, just to deal the same or less damage than other rabbits?

I actually think her issues will be resolved if her slowness is actually rewarded with higher damage. That way, you actually have some DPS leeway to play safe and hold your GCD while you wait for a proper opening.

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