nick_md wrote:

20 cards from a ?... Don't think I've ever seen that and I've got about 80hrs on the game now. I look for elites and bonfires in act 1 yeah. I try to avoid the elites in Act 3.

Pick one card from 20 I think.

To go into act2 you're aiming to have a decent selection of cards, relics, and upgrades. Naturally you will want to hit at least 2 elites, each of which will punish you if you take too long to kill them, so emphasis should be on picking up damage inflicting cards. The best generalist advice I could give is to build a deck that can counter each of opponents you are likely to face in the near future. Don't lean too hard into any one archetype unless the potential synergies are so strong that they can overpower all the enemies you can think of. So, for example, if you have damage that scales quite well, perhaps via poison with silent, or strength gains for ironclad, shift you focus to improving the things your deck doesn't do well instead, because for every weakness your deck has, there is an enemy on the horizon who will exploit it. 

With that in mind, here are some general deck building and pathing tips for act1.

- you are likely (but not certain) to face gremlin nob as your first elite. he buffs himself every time you play a skill (except on turn1), so unless you have some exceptional early skill based synergies coming together, it makes sense to prioritise picking up attack cards to inflict damage (so not channeling orbs, poison etc). You really want to have enough damage in your deck to kill him by the end of turn 3 at latest. If you pick up a fire potion or artefact potions are worth hanging onto for this battle, as it can stop you being made vulnerable, or even help you win the fight a turn earlier

- the 3 sentries elite fight will fill your deck with shit cards, so you want to kill them quickly. You absolutely want to prioritise picking up one card that hits multiple enemies at once, and should also probably consider getting it upgraded. As they alternate between 1 sentry attacking then 2 on the next turn, it's often worth taking some damage on the first turn to ensure you can kill one of them on the next. Keep an eye on your draw pile, as this can give you a good indication of how much damage you are likely to be able to inflict on any given upcoming turn, and this info can help you make an informed decision which particular sentry to target. fire, explosive, and card draw potions are often useful to hang onto for this fight.

The final elite, Lagavulin, sleeps for up to 3 turns before waking up and then attacking. It will attack for 2 turns for 20 damage each, then on the third turn it will debut you. The debuff will reduce damage from all of your attacking cards, and with silent in particular (who has a lot of low damage, low cost attacks) this can render victory impossible if you aren't careful. If you have many such low cost, low damage cards in your deck, then you need to be playing as many attacks as possible on each turn. Alternatively, if your attacks are high energy/damage, it is generally better to block as much of the incoming attacks as possible. As with before, keep an eye on your draw pile. Ideally you want to wake him i) after you have played any useful power cards, and ii) when you look likely to draw a decent hand of blocking cards after he awakes. Useful potions: fire, poison, block, that one which puts a card from your discard pile back in hand but I forget the name.

Aside from the obvious of hitting bonfires and elites, there are also some factors to consider when hitting question marks. The two potential hallway fights before the first and last elite on the level have a statistically higher chance of being a (usually) much harder fight. This could take the form of the 5 little blob things, or a bunch of goblins. These fights can wreck you, unless your area of effect game is very strong. Consequentially, it can be beneficial to choose a path which hits question marks at these statistically significant points on the map. 

Of course, you also need to be building your deck with a view to killing the boss at the end. I intended to give some tips for this too, but not at the expense of me overcooking my lunch, so maybe I can come back to it later

Nice post Noxy.

RedDave2 wrote:

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For Ironclad, I've only really had big success when I can build a deck around big defence paired with barricade, juggernaut and bodyslam

I think you've said this before. It absolutely fascinates me. Those cards are so specific. Ie, I only take em if deck is already looking a certain way. (generating def with exhaust for instance makes jugger uber fun.)

Straight up strength and just smashing stuff is the default for ic. It's actually hard to avoid. How have you not accidentally won building str?

Denom form being the longest route there, Tbh, better to build with the double damage card upgraded etc.

Exhaust mechanic with ic is my favourite. Have probably ruined some runs trying to shoehorn it in sometimes. So much fun.

I find I always think about taking cards in the early game that will help me kill the elites, I always try and go for the path where I can fight at least 2 (bonfire permitting). I find the relics really are the key to sucess when making a run for the heart. I always take an area effect damage card early if I can to help against the sentries and goblins/blobs and a good block card. Worst fight in the opening act is that pink twat that webs you and the blob.

Not sure i know what exhausted discard or scry means. But I guess I'll find out.

Got to the second boss with orb dude but then nerfed my orbs by having focus go down each round, which goes negative pretty swiftly. Sigh. Nearly had him even so, but no joy. Got some extras cards for orb dude at least. So yeah, slowly getting there I guess...

What does "the next" mean there? How are they ordered? How you make it cancel the right thing not the wrong thing? Not that I've seen any artefact stuff yet, that I recall anyway.

Have seen exhaust shift innate shizzle though.

Get annoyed when I have energy but no cards. Or block but nobody about to attack.

I'm a cunt, I know.

nick_md wrote:

I'm a cunt, I know.

+1

It's lucky that face happily fills your gaping void

I think Watcher has the best cards, but it's easiest to mess up her fights through user error.

The game is at it's best as you progress up the ascension levels, so you're now well placed to crack on with that.

At some point on the route to ascension 20 you realise how ludicrously brilliant the game's tuning is.

@face well that's a game changer. I didn't realise that artifact stopped the negative consequence of your own cards outside of the vulnerable or weak status. Hence I've usually avoided using cards like the focus one mentioned above.

When folks say artifacts here, what do you mean? I thought they were like protection against debuffs or something?

I deserved that.

Aye that's what I figured, was struggling to see how artifacts would play strongly in a build but I'm probably missing something.

b0r1s wrote:

For example the relic that gives you artefact on turn one combined with the experiment relic that gives you +3 strength in the first turn doesn’t remove as the first relic keeps it active for the rest of combat. Unless another debuff hits you before the end of the turn.

That combo was the gateway drug for me.