I love my strikes

looks like I'm about to get my first back-to-back a20 heart victories with silent. deck is so op with block scaling + thorns i don't see how I could lose. went infinite for the first time with this character on the elite fight before too.

cheers. i definitely got worse at silent recently, but i'm hoping i've turned the corner now and am back on the upwards trajectory. it's not even rustiness; rather I think i internalised a mistake in my understanding of how to play her about a month ago and this resulted in me rarely making it past act 3. I'm still not sure what exactly this mistake was, so throwing more hours at the game was the only way to inevitably iron out the creases and override whatever mistakes i had suddenly started making. 

anyway, I don't think being caught between shivs and poison isn't necessarily a bad thing, as they are both answering different questions that could be asked of your deck during the run, though naturally it helps if there are some synergies involved in addition to an awareness of the risks. so in act 1 i'd be more inclined to take poison if i'm facing hexaghost or guardian, and with the latter i'd also gravitate more toward a balance between block and attack cards at the act's conclusion (silent definitely starts at an attacking disadvantage, in comparison to the other characters)

shivs isn't something i go too wild with, unless i have shuriken and the other dexterity relic (i forget the name in this moment, somehow). but even then it's good to resist the temptation to lean too heavily in that direction. a blade dance can be an asset to most act 1 decks, but things like cloak and dagger often aren't much use (imo) unless they are upgraded or contributing to attack/dexterity scaling. removing strikes should absolutely be a priority. I think this is one of the reasons astrolabe is my favourite boss relic. further, I try to only path into shops if I have enough cash to remove a strike in addition to picking up a relic, should a good one be available. so 250+ gold.

Incidentally, if I have a bias for silent it's for discard. this can be a bit challenging as various components of the engine (calculated gamble, reflex, tactician, concentrate) are not very useful in isolation, nor early in the run, with the exception to this perhaps being acrobatics. nonetheless, if I am offered the chance to lean into discard, I will almost always take it, albeit carefully. 

reading this handful of words back i realise how little help it is. fuck, this might actually be the hardest game to offer general advice for. It's even hard to explain why it's so hard to explain. There are always too may outliers and exceptions for broad statements to be particularly useful. As a game that is at its core all about balancing a vast quantity of intractable probabilities, I find it interesting how the 'correct' decision [although it is ultimately unknowable]- the one someone might advise for any given scenario- can oscillate back and forth repeatedly in accordance with the player's understanding of the game. Given a binary choice between two cards, for example, a beginner might be drawn to option A, while an intermediate player could understand that option B makes more sense. But then it doesn't end there, because a player who has crunched the numbers for hundreds of hours more could understand that- due to X Y and Z- actually option A is more likely to result in winning the run, but then another player who has clocked a further 1000 hours could have good reason and understanding to believe that option B presents the most potential. This process can seemingly continue indefinitely, and I find this a bit of a mindfuck. 

The process of improving at this game is such a personal one. Two theoretical players who have put in the same quantity of playtime and hold the same win rate won't have the same understanding of the underlying mechanics. the variables they hold an awareness of- the things which affect their decision making- will differ greatly, as each facet is a composite of every failed or successful decision they made in the game to date, with each attempted strategy nudging the players' preference in a given direction, rightly or wrongly. i don't think the bulk of this sort of subconscious data can be summarised; it only exists as an intuitive response.

I think it goes much further than that. the synergies of relics and cards will only help you to win each fight as it comes, but this alone will only get you- I dunno- maybe 1% win rate at a20? to win consistently you also need to be aware of the vast additional probabilities in pathing decisions (which events/enemies can occur on which floors, which opponents/events your deck/synergies are not equipped to deal with, which turns potential enemies could leave you especially vulnerable (so that relics like sundial, incense burner, flower can be primed in preparation) etc etc), keeping mental notes of which relics have appeared in shops so far (each only appears once, so don't rely on being offered orange pellets, for example, if you already saw it in act 1), when you are 'due' to be offered rare cards (there's an invisible timer, which can help a lot on predicting how/when certain possibilities are likely to appear), which potions potentially plug shortcomings in your deck's capabilities, which particular battles you should be saving those potions for, keeping an awareness of which future boss relics could help or hinder your progress (again, each only appears once), when to prioritise removing cards, understanding which sorts of decks/synergies depend upon having a large/slim deck. I'm sure there are loads more points that don't spring to mind at this moment, in addition to even more factors that as of yet have never even occurred to me.

Aye, knowing enemy attack patterns and when certain enemies are bound to pop up is crucial when trying to ascend. As is deck size management in trying to reduce the luck factor to a minimum.

Maybe I should start thinking about timing my relics. I really never bother with it - too much of a mental load.

If there's something I could get much better at, it's knowing how to choose my path based on the strengths of my deck. I'm probably a little to cautious with camp fires, and not very good at assessing my chances against some of the elites - particularly in act 2.

Interesting insights. Still have a lot to learn about the game.

I can stop playing silent now. 



Somehow I've managed to rack up nearly 500 hours played.

As much as I love this game, I've gotta speed through each run. Boggles my mind when I see peeps doing runs of 1, 2, 3 or more hours.

Congrats on the a20.

I think most runs coming in at 75+ mins are usually going for the heart. Act 4 might be only two fights, but they can be a real slog, and it’s especially hard to blitz through the heart’s big attacks without a bit of planning. Think I only managed a single run in under an hour.

[img=0x0]blob:https://imgur.com/13b31617-01dc-4f44-be21-1b81c7d6b653[/img]
this was an insane run, and really different from anything I can recall having in the past. 

the engine is energy generation through turbo, recycle and double energy, and card draw with overclock, cool headed, and skim. in tandem with hologram is could almost go infinite with this alone, but the thing that really tipped the deck over the edge into OP territory was dead branch and medkit, with the latter allowing me to burn all the status cards added into my deck via turbo or overclock. crazy that the deck could be so shit hot without any focus scaling whatsoever. 

incidentally, does anyone else find it really hard to gauge how a deck plays from these sort of screenshots? even with my own decks I really have to pause to put all the pieces back together in my mind. I find it considerably easier when I see the cards displayed as pictures from one of the in game menus.

that ever occurred to me, but it makes sense.

any of the eggs into pandoras box is always a treat

Had a new (for me) infinite with defect last night, powered by sundial. The deck had loads of draw with skim+ and cool headed+, in addition to a couple of recycle+, too. The strategy was straight forwards, exhaust most of the deck except 1 cool  headed, 1 skim, and 1 claw. playing skim with both an empty draw and discard pile triggers sundial twice (i didn't realise  this, but it makes sense as each card drawn is cycling the deck once, so 3 cards drawn cycles the deck 3 times, enabling sundial to trigger 2+ energy), giving infinite energy scaling, while the coolheaded provides infinite block, and the claw offers infinite attack

Somehow I only realised the deck could pull off this combo consistently in act 4, which I guess is a shame as I think I had all the necessary components going into act 3 already.

equinox_code wrote:

Had a new (for me) infinite with defect last night, powered by sundial. The deck had loads of draw with skim+ and cool headed+, in addition to a couple of recycle+, too. The strategy was straight forwards, exhaust most of the deck except 1 cool  headed, 1 skim, and 1 claw. playing skim with both an empty draw and discard pile triggers sundial twice (i didn't realise  this, but it makes sense as each card drawn is cycling the deck once, so 3 cards drawn cycles the deck 3 times, enabling sundial to trigger 2+ energy), giving infinite energy scaling, while the coolheaded provides infinite block, and the claw offers infinite attack

Somehow I only realised the deck could pull off this combo consistently in act 4, which I guess is a shame as I think I had all the necessary components going into act 3 already.

Not only are you playing this on a different level to me, I think might be playing a different game. Love Reading how you approach this thing, I'm so more basic.

voices wrote:

Not knowing shit the cards can do is a reoccuring theme. I only found out yesterday how well the med kit synergises with Ironclad's exhaust mechanics.

 

medkit can be mad good with a bunch of ironclad powers. feel no pain, dark embrace, evolve etc. it's been a real life saver for me in act4 numerous times, when suddenly all the crap that gets stuffed in your deck becomes ammo for draw and block. 

RedDave2 wrote:

equinox_code wrote:

Had a new (for me) infinite with defect last night, powered by sundial. The deck had loads of draw with skim+ and cool headed+, in addition to a couple of recycle+, too. The strategy was straight forwards, exhaust most of the deck except 1 cool  headed, 1 skim, and 1 claw. playing skim with both an empty draw and discard pile triggers sundial twice (i didn't realise  this, but it makes sense as each card drawn is cycling the deck once, so 3 cards drawn cycles the deck 3 times, enabling sundial to trigger 2+ energy), giving infinite energy scaling, while the coolheaded provides infinite block, and the claw offers infinite attack Somehow I only realised the deck could pull off this combo consistently in act 4, which I guess is a shame as I think I had all the necessary components going into act 3 already.

Not only are you playing this on a different level to me, I think might be playing a different game. Love Reading how you approach this thing, I'm so more basic.

cheers. I would certainly hope the stupid number of hours I've thrown at this were  bringing some improvement (up to 1140 now. utter madness). there have been 4 or 5 occasions where I've thought I was done with it, but it keeps surprising me. every time  I squeeze a little more optimisation from my decision making the amount of fun I'm having also increases, and there is really no limit to how optimised you can get with this thing; the skill ceiling just goes way beyond the horizon. 

still, I think there are lots of areas where I have been quite slow on the uptake. it's only within the last couple of hundred hours that I can be confident in myself not to play a 5 block card with my last energy when I have orichalcum. that used to happen all the fucking time.