Went with Fiend Fire and it was lots of fun. Picked up Runic Pyramid at the end of Act 2, which made setting up my big hits really easy. IC15 completed.
I find the ascension mode fascinating as a thing because it presents as a final challenge while in some ways - if you choose to - it’s easier than a standard heart run.
Meanwhile, into the nitty gritty with new character.
Know enough to be trying specific tactics, and die enough to discover their limits when selecting too many cards aiming for said tactic without balance.
Might spoiler the below waffle as it's tentative and not everyone is seeing new build.
Spoiler:
So the third stance, enlightenment, or whatever it's called, is interesting. The obvious bread and butter of the character is switching between calm and wrath, using either retention or scry (see coming card draw in order) to slam damage at right time.
As you stay in wrath until you actively use a leave stance or go calm card, you can be in wrath (double damage in and out) for multiple turns.
Gaining mantra (or whatever the hell it's called) is expensive and enlightenment (3x damage +3 energy) is a one turn thing (you gain 10 mantra go enlightment, then have to get to 10 mantra again). Meaning you probably want to think about decks in terms of being either enlightenment decks or wrath decks, for the most part. (theres a 2 energy +5 mantra card that you could sneak into a wrath deck if you could cycle it enough, I guess, but generally, I wouldn't pick up weaker mantra cards unless you're really aiming that way.
Retention clearly the best mechanic to go with mantra as once enlightment drops you can hit with all your retained attacks.
I'm finding the X cost cards with this character particularly mental. The one that gives you 2 energy for the next x turns is great, but the X amount of smites to hand card is INCREDIBLE. Even with just wrath I've had between 4-6 smites (sometimes upgraded) in hand. If you've got the power card taking energy every time a card is retained, or you are swinging from calm to wrath on same turn, that can be between 90-180 hp a turn. If I ever get it going properly with enlightment, there'll be hands where smite is dealing minimum 45 per card!
Slayed the Spire! Beat the game with Huntress using a combination of extra first turn card draws, corpse explosion on first draw, multiple backstab+ and a shit load of poison. I also got the shovel, which dug up some great relics on the way.
I thought beating it might allay some of the addiction, but I was wrong.
Really you're at the beginning. What's amazing about this game is while I loved it when I completed it, I loved it even more when I'd completed it 20 times.
Yeah, so further to my above spoiler on new character, I went into fight with hexagon in act 1 with half health, but a lot of retention plus block. (plus gaining smites that ended up 0 cost.)
Basically managed to tank my way through x amount of turns of damage from him before unloading wrath and a bunch of upgraded smites with +2 vulnerability, wiped him out from near full health in one turn. Oh my.
I have had this and have been playing it since it came on Gamepass.
I maxed out all upgrades on all 3 characters early on but for whatever reason failed to complete all three bosses with any of the characters.
Just completed it with all 3 characters this evening. Well happy.
Yay first time up the spire! Just with the starting dude. I need to figure out an easy way to get the screenshot off my switch. Had a lot of good strength and power combos
Thought I was going to smash my way up the tower with the Ironclad earlier. Can't remember the names of some of the cards but I was rocking a few Body Slams and some BIG ARMOUR cards as well as Barricade. Combined with having got a bunch of the card that means you only take one damage per hit, I was just cycling through the deck building up for the mega hits.
On one of my wins I had 2x Immolate+ (28 damage to all enemies), one of which was drawn automatically in my first hand. Then had a relic that meant my first attack each turn that cost 2 or more power was dealt twice.
So a minimum of 56 damage to all enemies as my first move each combat and then again whenever those cards came around again.
@Tiger in general best way to win, especially early on, with Ironclad, is to go for strength build. Then start to look at deck manipulation. Early games you tend to ignore non damage or block cards, but those that can modify the deck can be key to success later on. Headbutt being a great card for Ironclad.
The game is fundamentally brilliant at making sure that you'll meet something that is the perfect counter to what you're doing. Combo of pathing, rng and where in the run you meet said problem is sometimes key.
Barricade/bodyslam especially with corruption can be amazing. But given they're both standard 3 cost cards, if you don't get them at the right time, it can take a while to be ready to lay smack down.
If you do get to have a deck with them as drivers at final boss stage, Woah, you can do some stupid damage.