Facewon wrote:

I would be a lot more successful at this game if I was less of a gambler.

? Rooms, transform card options at the start. Everything. Even though at higher AC the game literally tells you the odds are worse, still I do it. Even simple card selection, so often, I'll take a card I like that's so dependant on getting some other stuff I don't have, and still, there I go...

Good lols are had though.

My twin brother. I literally can’t avoid a question room unless I’m shopping or beating on elites.

b0r1s wrote:

Facewon wrote:

I would be a lot more successful at this game if I was less of a gambler.

? Rooms, transform card options at the start. Everything. Even though at higher AC the game literally tells you the odds are worse, still I do it. Even simple card selection, so often, I'll take a card I like that's so dependant on getting some other stuff I don't have, and still, there I go...

Good lols are had though.

My twin brother. I literally can’t avoid a question room unless I’m shopping or beating on elites.

The game does goad you though. How many of us take the second fight in the arena even when we know its the wrong choice? Or even early on, who doesn't poke the corpse until the elite appears?

yea that one can be a real bitch, especially if you get lagavulin as he will debuff you on turn 1. 

I think the amount of risks I take decreases as the run progresses. In act 1 I will often take curses in exchange for gold hoping that the next question mark will give me a chance to remove them, which isn't always the case. I'm not good enough to take a mediocre deck into act 2 and have a good chance of taking it all the way, so I play for high rolls in act 1 instead. 

The question mark I'm least  inclined to chance my luck with is those two pyramid robot fuckers in act 3.

My least favourite ? is the 'Nice Face' one - I always fall for it and never get anything good.

That’s yer heart down by the Watcher. Done all four now.

Now the slow slog of getting Silent, Defect and Watcher to Asc 20.

I’m 13, 13, 11 so only a few months then.

11, 3, 4

Oh I’ve only Hearted on Asc 1

So

Ironclad - 20 (Heart 1)
Silent - 13 (Heart 1)
Defect - 13 (Heart 1)
Watcher - 11 (Heart 1)

(Think I'm around AC5-8 with everyone on Ipad.)

I'm 9s across the board. Really struggling with them all on 10.

Push through mate, I haven't checked actual in games, which will be lower, but steam ticker says 1450 for me.

I'm starting to wonder if this is having a net negative impact on my life. Did I ever mention I think I have permanently damaged my ulnic nerve as a consequence of playing too much? During my first phase of obsessively playing this (there have been 3 obsessive phases in total) I used to sit for hours on end with my elbows resting on my wooden desk while I played. But I did this for a few too many consecutive hours and eventually lost the feeling in two of  the fingers on my left hand. This was 18 months ago and I've had my elbow bandaged ever since so the nerve damage would have a chance to heal. My neurologist said I should regain feeling after 6 months, but that was in September 2019, and here I am still not feeling anything. I can't even exercise my arm without the numbness getting more intense, so what little muscle I had has wasted away. Back to chopstick arms for the foreseeable future. Now when I play I have to do so in a carefully arranged circle of cushions to prevent my elbows coming into contact with any hard surface as it causes me a lot of discomfort. 

Anyway, quite aside from all that I think it might be destructive in that doing anything else other than playing Slay the Spire often feels super inconvenient. So in the moments where I have nothing on- no tasks nor obligations- it almost always comes back to firing up Slay the Spire. Sometimes I plan on doing something else, but often I will convince myself to have one quick game first, and then the other thing I planned to do just doesn't happen. No other time-passing activity has this level of accessibility. It's instantaneous feedback, reward, progress, happiness chemicals pumping about my brain. Where else am I getting that kind of comprehensive package of joy? I worry it's rewiring my brain in a way  I've not experienced since I first got a smart phone. 

And then there's the fact that I've been taking Ritalin for a few months, and this basically just doubled how good the game is. Or maybe it doubled how bad/destructive the game is. Really Slay the Spire and Ritalin is a dangerous cocktail, because you can actually just sit down and hammer out game after game after game after game after game and it just keeps on getting better better better and my tactics keep getting better better better and suddenly I notice I've been playing all day with a smug grin on my face; basking in the satisfaction of feeling like a rather accomplished player. 

Yep. Going to stop. 98 hours left. Better start rationing them.

They’re talking about opening up a gamer addiction clinic in the U.K., you sound like you could do with that!

Maybe try rotating onto a game which is rewarding and allows you to focus, but isn't quite as moreish. I personally feel like STS doesn't give a feeling of resolution or significant satisfaction at the end of each run (even if you kill the heart), so it's easy to slip into another go. 

Not sure if this is helping, but I bet Trials Rising + Ritalin would be great.

Whoa, that's some serious ocd equinox.
Don't bust your arms for a game dude, not worth it. If you feel like you're spiralling out of control (pun intended) you should visit a gp to talk about it.