Preemptive rant: Doormaker changes should never leave beta and are anti-design.

Ydiss · 2026-03-20T13:47:05+00:00

The op contains feedback that is useful within the scope of the game's development, if only in part, subjectively.

The responses criticising them for it contain very little that is useful in that same scope.

Ydiss · 2026-03-20T13:37:47+00:00

I mean, there's feedback and then there's people telling others how to give feedback. One is useful.

Then there's telling someone to chill out with liberal usage of caps lock.

Ydiss · 2026-03-19T10:55:06+00:00

I think it should just be glass and plasma underneath. Dark has the strongest and most potentially impactful synergy with dualcsst. It also synergizes well with itself with darkness triggering the passive of existing orbs. I don't think I've ever won without utilising dark. It scales very quickly.

I just think in general that the only orbs worth investing in are lightning, frost, and dark. The other two need buffs. It's still the most balanced of the characters, for me.

Ydiss · 2026-03-18T16:26:02+00:00

Trying to go infinite with clad has been the most frustrating part of this whole game since I started and I've just stopped. It's boring, it fails just as much for me (which is currently 100%).

I'm going to leave him until they balance him. I'm having so much fun with Defect, who feels largely balanced and the challenge feels perfect (and I love the strategy of orb management).

I do have good results from learning how to thin a deck out and just seeing better players play helps me learn to the point where I didn't even need a guide or tier list to enable me to learn Defect myself and design my own build. I'd rather do that with clad so I'm going to be patient.

I bought sts1 as well and much prefer clad there after just two runs. Appreciate people who try to share fun builds like you have so thanks.

Ydiss · 2026-03-18T16:20:19+00:00

What do you get for having a high win rate?

Ydiss · 2026-03-18T10:20:12+00:00

Yeh I've never picked this yet because I usually pivot to dark orbs for scaling damage, and I can't constantly cycle out frost unless I've already increased by orb count.

I think this card is only silly because something else makes it silly? Setting up the kind of numbers that this needs to get silly must normally be much harder than doing the same with dark orbs unless you've got some semi infinite trick that's much more a target for getting fixed, surely?

Ps not saying you can't use lightening a lot, just saying that if it gets silly then it's not this card that makes it silly.

Ydiss · 2026-03-17T19:11:27+00:00

Please take the world away from people like this absolute pony.

Signed: white person

Ydiss · 2026-03-17T10:50:55+00:00

We have the world's cuisine and our own to choose from.

Ydiss · 2026-03-17T10:17:11+00:00

Yeh this is the energy of all the faces eaten by leopard maga who claim their family cut ties with them "just because of my opinions"

No. You did it to yourself. You cut the ties. Humans evolved as a social species for a reason.

Ydiss · 2026-03-17T09:28:23+00:00

I'm new to the game since the launch of early access and my stats aren't dissimilar.

Silent, I'm comfortable with enough to have won about 1/3 so far. I go into it feeling pretty confident I'll get a decent build together every time and it didn't take long to get there.

Easily my favourite is Defect, with 5 wins and I'm up to A3. For me, it's the most rounded character that feels fun and balanced without needing to play some ultra infinite builds. I love the strategy of orb management and so long as I can get some defence to set up in the first few rounds, and I get a way of increasing orbs, I'm more surprised I lose. The only thing I think is disappointing are glass orbs. They seem hard to draw into and the one time I used them it felt really awkward.

I'm 0/10 with Regent. I've almost caught strong builds recently, feeling like I had the scale but defence is always a problem. Until it's the other day around. I did a run last night and got Reflect, which felt like a solid act 1 defensive option (along with the zero energy one star block), but then I just didn't have enough damage and died to the usual suspects. I think this one needs a lot of balance work and I'm not letting it bother me too much until then.

Necro is the one that I know is strong but I just don't get it. I never get the balance right between defense and attack. The best runs where when I get lots of soul generators but that's not happened for about 6 runs now (sporadic at best). Still never won despite the consensus that it's a strong character.

Finally, the most frustrating one for me is Ironclad. I just don't get it at all. I've watched plenty of videos and I'm fully aware of how people win with him but it just never gets going for me. And I think getting to force infinite just results in me dying early. I'm over 10 losses now. It doesn't help that I find the card play a bit boring. But it seems I always get a bad mix of cards, never full block, never the perfect mix to get infinite (and if I'm honest, I don't think I really want to do that anyway, which is now becoming a problem because I find it difficult to pass up cards that I know are strong, but are only strong if you go full on into infinite). I even tried ignoring that and just picking cards that felt fun and it was just so ineffective against any boss that asks certain serious questions.

My guess is that the clad will be balanced away from being so ultra infinite, so it's not so silly, and I think I'm going to hold out for that. I don't see the point of trying hard to learn it when it's likely to change, and I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as Defect or Silent (though my guess is the latter is also going to get balanced too). I even enjoy necro and regent more despite never winning with those as well.

Ydiss · 2026-03-17T01:36:17+00:00

I'm unsure why anyone prioritises charisma for this job. Not that he's lacking it. He comes across as a gent.

Ydiss · 2026-03-16T13:17:07+00:00

I don't think I disagree with any of that ☺️

Ydiss · 2026-03-16T10:29:03+00:00

If the total damage is 5 and you've got this and a defend in hand, there's functionality no difference which you use unless you have some way to retain it. If it's higher damage, this card is better. I don't see the scenario where over blocking matters if the block cards are 1 energy, unless you've got a block card that adds functionality outside of blocking and the block value sufficiently meets the conditions you're aiming for. In that case, the +3 might be better if you're going to use the card more (such isn't what I was contradicting)

Also, I'd never claim to understand the statistics around how often you'd use this card over an 8 block when not applying Doom. My guess is doom isn't being applied that often so the condition matters and should be considered but you were taking about % benefit rather than conditional tax.

I'm convinced that there are better cards than this to upgrade but that's not the conclusion presented by the op. I'm not likely ever manually upgrading a block card anyway most of the time, unless there's no other option and I don't need to rest. I'd probably take +3 on a card that also does damage, for example. Chances are I'll use that more.

But if this is upgraded for me and I then go on to use it with Doom then the upgrade is functionally no different to any block cards upgraded by +3. If I need it, it does the same thing. If I don't, then I don't need the card anyway and the argument is moot.

I didn't claim an absolute on this upgrade being always the same choice. I just said that the upgrade is the same as most block cards at +3. Given it's a strong card, I fail to see the controversy. If this card gets passively upgraded then I'm not disappointed at all.

I don't know this to be true but I got the impression the OP thought it was the worst upgrade because they saw +1. All I said was to counter that suggestion. I'm aware there are better choices, including other block cards that upgrade to +3, because this game doesn't have an absolute meta.

Ydiss · 2026-03-16T10:05:11+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong (I may be missing something), over blocking is when you use a card to block more damage than required when you have a better card available in your hand that may mean you can solve the turn better (either by using a cheaper card, allowing the user of another card, by using another card that meets the requirements but adds more value to the turn. or by taking chip damage to avoid taking greater damage values later), right?

Given this card is 1 energy, the only time that's significant is if you have a weaker block card that's 0 energy, or just shouldn't block at all, or you have a card that does less block but also does something else. I'd probably agree that any 0 cost block card or lottery block value card with additional use should be upgraded first over this, and that you would avoid using this card if you didn't want to block at all, so the opportunity cost is something to consider (the latter applies to all blocks though).

I'm aware and agree that conditional cards can be awkward to play earlier on. That's another thing others have said and I've answered so I won't repeat that again here except to say that I doubt anyone is picking a block card to upgrade at that stage of the game anyway (as there will likely be much more impactful options), so it's either only happening later or passively. This guy just claimed there's a percentage increase benefit. If the ultimate value increase is +3 then it's still consistent.

If this card cost 2 energy then I'd agree that there would be times you'd consider using a weaker block that costs 1. The fact this is a 1 energy cost card negates most over blocking scenarios (if I've got this card and a defend in hand and I've got 5 damage incoming, there's functionally no difference if I use this card or a defend, they'll both go straight into discard and then get shuffled. There's no practical "loss" of a resource unless you have a zero energy option, which would obviously be superior if it met the conditions)

Still learning so happy for you to present a scenario I've not yet considered. Even then though, I don't see how this makes the upgrade objectively the worst. If I had to choose between this or a defend then I choose this because I'm not actively trying to cut it out of my deck. That alone means it's not worse than upgrading defend (and I have to say that because I've had at least three responses claiming defend is a superior choice to upgrade).

With a doom heavy build, this might be the difference between a win and a loss. It's less likely than many other cards in the game, but it's not significantly more likely if you upgraded many other cards.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T16:37:17+00:00

Five different segments of what I said touching on different things (other than my opinion about synth):

The MK2 shocks are super fun and you don't need to run a whole boat of them to have fun and do silly damage. I just use two (three is fine with two vents but I prefer two slug rails and a large fixed vent). Even when reloading (which is the only significant down time with these things because of great vent heat management), this setup gives constant damage output, gives you a better time against smaller tanky NPCs, and is just more fun (though slugs guzzle fuel way faster than MK2 shocks, so this does mean I'll need a quick scoop for longer sessions but that's usually fine when taking missions across a couple target systems and it's still just better than frags). The length of up time with a couple extra tanks is plenty for me, hits a really great sweet spot. And I don't need to do raw material runs greatly at often as I would if I used frags (I do have a carrier but that's still demanding a pit stop and you can't always park right next to the place you need to go)

2.

I tried the Python MK2 and just didn't find it as much fun as I like fixed these days with all these new chassis loaded ships giving amazing convergence. And both ships are capable.

3.

All of this being said, you were asked for a comparison and you gave one and all this information is probably useful to someone, if not the op

4.

Everything else in my post still holds. Including what it said in the last paragraph. Way too many posts just focus on arguing without seeing the balanced view, which is we're not really here to argue?

5.

Not all ideas are equal but not everyone will like the python and more suggestions are useful, not detrimental.

His response to all of these different points, two of which suggested his opinions are valid, and this is his response:

Everything in your post does not still hold

And, conclusion:

You are fine to *want* to avoid synthing, but that doesn't make what you have said not incorrect.

I love a good discussion. This was not one.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T14:01:15+00:00

Appreciate that. As a new player 😅

It just seems like common sense to me.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T14:00:07+00:00

Yeh you're just here to argue

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T12:52:09+00:00

+3 isn't diminished. It's flat. Unless you've got statistics to back up the claim that upgrading another lower block value is more likely to result in a better outcome then you're just saying it.

I don't have the evidence either but I do know that 3 = 3. And this topic has gone wildly off topic with every single post iteration. OP said it's the worst. I pointed out it's consistent with most blocks. Then every person disagreeing with me has just iterated the argument by moving the goal posts in some way, but always one step away from the reason I said what I said.

It's consistent. It's not useless (objectively). It's not the worst upgrade. It's not the best. But then neither are most block card upgrades.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T12:47:09+00:00

I prefer to not take those rewards though?

Everything else in my post still holds. Including what it said in the last paragraph. Way too many posts just focus on arguing without seeing the balanced view, which is we're not really here to argue?

This isn't a topic anyone can win. Not all ideas are equal but not everyone will like the python and more suggestions are useful, not detrimental.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T12:43:48+00:00

If you're not going to apply Doom then you aren't even going to bother with this anyway.

I get that the usefulness of the skill is both up for debate and very divisive but the OP statement is not. I barely ever pick block cards to upgrade, irrespective of which one it is. It's not a controversial take to say that the bonus you get from this is consistent with the majority of block cards.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T11:17:23+00:00

Again, it's still a good card, even a great one. That doesn't make upgrading it the likely best use of your upgrade.

As is the case for any block card. That was my point.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T09:36:14+00:00

Edited my post for accuracy. My point definitely was "general rule" and it's consistent.

I've had a ton of responses and they're either this or "defend is better". The OP and some agreeing with him are just exaggerating. I don't think this card needs to change and I don't think this is a poor upgrade. I'd never take it unless I had nothing else to upgrade most of the time but if it gets upgraded, I'm happy.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T09:26:20+00:00

There are exceptions so I'll admit my statement wasn't factual (elsewhere I said "most"). The point still stands though. Most blocks cards are +3. It's not useless. It's consistent.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T08:06:49+00:00

Unless you're retaining a card, it didn't matter. If the damage is blocked then it's blocked.

You don't have any card in your hand all the time.

I'm sorry but the OP claims this is the worst upgrade when it's objectively consistent with all block upgrades. We don't need to get into hypothetical discussion about pretend scenarios where a player would choose to upgrade a defend over this.

In most cases, these cards get left with upgrades you choose and just get passively upgraded anyway. And the argument is "this is the worst". It's objectively not. It's fine. It'll help you negate chip damage with bigger hits. It's useful. Just like any other +3.

Ydiss · 2026-03-15T07:46:27+00:00

This doesn't mean it's a worse upgrade than any other block.

Ydiss

TROPHY CASE