corsaren • vibecamping on sat

corsaren • vibecamping on sat

@corsaren

Mar 9

My thoughts on Slay the Spire 2 so far (as a player with an hour count on STS1 that is honestly embarrassing; asc20 on 3 different devices). I'm only like Asc5 right now on STS2 so opinions will change as I grind ascensions. # Enemies & Events: - Act 1 bosses Act 2 elites are the toughest part so far - Act 1 elites are also hard? I'm buying potions at Asc<5 which is not something I usually did in STS1. - Act 2 and Act 3 bosses are mostly pushovers - No Gremlin Nob single-handedly unwarps the entire game because you can actually pick skills in act 1. Seriously taking some conscious effort to break that habit. Yes, you still need damage for the elites, but a bunch of them can be stalled/solved with really good block and a boring-but-good skill is no longer a curse. - Similarly, no Time Eater or Heart means that card spam strats are now viable in ways they never were before (and it seems like no similar "hard counter" enemies will be added given where the character designs sit today). - None of the act 3 bosses feel like they punish any strats too much though. The gimmicks aren't super interesting imo. It's kind of just "kill a big enemy". I've started skipping elites and hallways in act 3 sometimes because I know if I just make it to the boss with a few upgrades, card removes, and high health I can probably win. - On that note, I'm taking a TON of chip damage in hallways and elites. Lot of fights with 20 damage on turn 1/2 where if you draw a poor opener you are just out of luck. This was normal at Asc20 in STS1 (e.g., Shelled Parasite) but I feel like it's happening way more than I would expect for Asc5. This is part of why the realization that I can just take block cards on floor 1 has been so huge. You don't need them for the actual floor 1-3 easypool fights but it feels worth it to get good block density early if you can. - Having multiple possible acts is super weird. I really like it conceptually but need to get used to it and how that should affect my deck building strategy. - The events are really fun (card enhancements go brrrrr). The eternal curses are kind of brutal though, but I think that is a good thing net-net. # Relics: - Relics for a while felt quite weak, but then i finished unlocking everything and now they feel stronger again, so idk. Part of the issue is that a lot STS1 relics got bumped up in rarity so it feels lame to get, say, Art of War as a rare relic. But the other issue is that there are a lot of "gain 4-6 block once" relics that are just...eh... - Relics are also now way more expensive in shops (at least common relics), which kinda sucks. These two facts combined make the relics just "feel bad" to me. I'm paying more but getting less. Idk. Opinion might change. - Overall the new Boss Relics/boons system is fantastic. Way more interesting choices, and can completely warp how your deck works. - However, I hate Pael. I always get Pael and he's the worst. I don't want goopy defends. Like, I do, but I also don't, ya know? - Apo with innate as a boss reward is perfect. Gets rid of the "you have to buy Apo because it's so powerful, but sometimes it's at the bottom of your deck and you die" problem. Now the experience is barbelled: bottled Apo or no Apo. Good design choice. - Also, apparitions being a boss reward with only a 10% max HP decrease is...broken as all hell? Right? - Lack of reliable 4th energy boss relics means you need to prioritize energy from cards (good STS1 players were already doing this); luckily there seems to be a bit more energy from cards on offer (except Silent for some reason?) - However, the new lantern relics might single handedly make up for the lack of 4th energy relics (why do you need extra energy after turn 3? are you stupid/not set up yet?) - No bottle relics (besides that one shop relic that doesn't work on powers) feels very significant? A lot of the game feels like drawing towards your superpowers, and bottles were one of your "outs" to mitigate that variance. # Card Design: - It seems like a lot more of the design space is now devoted to cards that require other cards in hand to be used effectively, making both hand manipulation card removes especially premium (this seems intended, as there are a LOT more retain grab card from discard pile effects). - However, the card pools are slightly larger (~18% on avg according to 5.4), which makes it noticeably less likely you will find the card pairs you need. Overall I have a very bad sense of what I can "count on finding during the course of a run" for each character. This is to be expected and will improve over time. - All of the characters seem somewhat designed for infinites, which is fun? Other than Silent, I think every character has a way to exhaust their deck there are things like the remove 5 boss relic. Also the enhancements make certain infinites trivial (for example, I de-exhausted Adrenaline and even went infinite on Silent just with a reasonably small deck). And again, no Time Eater or Heart is huge. Hopefully it doesn't become a dominant strategy though. - Colorless cards are way more useful now. Shockwave and Equilbrium being colorless is a great design choice. The zero cost 2 energy generation card is kind of insane. There's a lot of junk in there, but the colorless cards now feel like genuine cross-character utility additions that I am excited to add. I would love to end up in a place where I'm finishing 40% of runs with a colorless card added. - One implication of the last two sections: I'm finding myself pathing to shops purely for card removes a shot at finding my synergy cards, and less for relics. Obviously some relics (like the campsite tent thing) are still worth it / broken. But overall it kinda feels less exciting? # Character-specific thoughts: - Ironclad without Reaper is weird. All of this self-damaging strength synergy but nothing to use it on? Am I just supposed to rest a lot? Also we still have Feed but no dual wield or exhume shenanigans (and also no "pick a rare card" Neow reward), so no more 200HP runs I'd guess. Idk, the new cards are very fun (Hellbringer my beloved) but the lack of any way to convert self damage into healing feels kind of off to me. Maybe the idea is that you get 6HP worth of self-damage per fight that you earn from your starter relic, but my sense was that the starter relic is meant to offset the fact that ironclad is bad at blocking early game. Not sure how I feel about this tbh. - Silent is silent. No Wraith Form (except very rarely) or catalyst means that the two most boring degen playstyles are gone (it's fun to do once, after that it becomes very boring that catalyst can be the right pick even with no poison support). The Sly mechanic is great, but it does feel like discard is now a bit mandatory rather than an optional mechanic (lowkey true in STS1 too though). I find myself also getting pulled into shivs a bit more often than I'd like (there's just sooooo much support). The lack of energy gen besides tactician is weird. I guess Bullet Time is the move? Concentrate would probably be broken in this game, but still. Also Reflex and Tactician should be 2 cost, cmv. - Necrobinder is cool, and while I have some nits I think the character is really fun. I do think they need to iron out some of the behavior of when you vs Osty take damage, as it's hard to track right now. Also, Unleash being the only card that really benefits from how big Osty gets feels like a missed oppty. There's that one card that converts Osty into double block but if you have a big Osty that means you are able to keep him around which means you are blocking, no? Doom has grown on me more as I've gotten used to playing around the final enemy attack turn; you kind of want to ALMOST doom an enemy on one turn so that next turn you can deal a final blow and also block the attack. But I think the character really pops off with souls and card spam and infinites. The "Apply 3 Doom to yourself add 1(2) energy" card is completely broken because there is literally no downside if you never end turn. - Regent was my least favorite character until it clicked and now it is my favorite. Such a fun character. So much broken BS. Radiate, Stardust, and other multiattacks all the strength gain shenanigans go nuts. Black Hole and Child of the Stars are insane. Void Form is broken and probably needs a nerf? Kind of easy to just skip all fights and hit the boss with enough health to tank your Void Form turn and then you win. I'm a bit more mixed on Sovereign blade: it's very slow and scales only additively with buff sizes that are mostly in-line with normal big attacks like Bludgeon (1 energy for 10 dmg). Fine for early game, especially since you get 10 damage for "free", but it's a 2 cost attack, so the value just feels a bit suboptimal, and late game it kind of doesn't scale that well. You basically need Conqueror or Heirloom Hammer or Sword Sage and idk, lining those up is a pain in the ass (same for Summon Blade / Cosmic Indifference, which sort of do the same thing?). I find myself just holding onto the blade even with extra energy because once it leaves my hand, all my Forge cards become semi-useless. Also you need Seeking Edge for multi-enemy fights which is why I find my first path into doing Sovereign Blade stuff is from taking that card specifically, but again, it's poor energy to output with essentially 3 energy for 17 AOE damage. Also, why no way to make the blade scale better with strength? Also also Parry is such an awkward card why does it exist? Compare to Child of the Stars it's not even close. - Regent pt 2 because best boi: both of regent's main strats are quite prone to drawing the deck upside down. Most big star cards and multi-hits require star generation, and the Sovereign blade stuff can easily end with you not having your scaling done when your payoff cards arrive (also some of the big Sovereign scaling cards require stars, so you may have to wait until your second shuffle to even scale your big attack, much less play it and then replay it). Regent has a lot of hand manipulation to make up for this though, which is where the fun happens. But because of this need to line things up, I'm finding that 1. I really really really prioritize small decks and card removes, and 2. because lining up the combos takes time, I actually want a lot of my "power buildup" to come from defensive cards. So I'd rather have Gather Light over Solar Strike and Bulwark over Wrought in War. - Defect feels really awkward for me rn. The loss of permanent focus options (defrag as a rare, no consume, Bias Cog as a boss relic with no way to remove the debuff) all feel bad. Temp focus is, by it's nature, unreliable. I'm finding I need to take holograms and all for ones just to constantly bounce things like Hotfix. There's a lot of orb generation but maybe it's just my STS1 brainrot but I'm not really excited about stuff like Rainbow on zero focus. Consuming Shadow looks terrible. Most of the value I've gotten from orbs ends up relying on evokes, which is an interesting direction to push the character I suppose but it just feels very slow/unreliable. As an example, Voltaic is notably insane, but I'm so used to blocking with frost or genetic algo that I kinda don't know how to run a lightning defect deck. It's almost like I need to play my frost cards on the turns when the enemy ISN'T attacking so that they are lined up to be evoked when they do? Very clunky. Also, Genetic Algo being rare is dumb imo; the odds of seeing that card early enough to get value out of it are so low. On the other hand, claw and other zero cost shenanigans are seemingly very good now? The new claw buff has me unironically upgrading them, and Feral just makes them pop off. Also Bulk Up almost has no downside since fewer orb slots = more evokes anyways, and lets you block with cards instead of orbs. I haven't done too much with the status generation yet but maybe I need to push that direction more for fast burst output? The fact that all the statuses go in discard makes it very slow if you want to actually get value out of them. Overall it feels like Defect used to be a slow character that could reliably scale up into an indestructible fortress, and now he just...doesn't scale up into that fortress anymore? In theory I like the idea of shifting away from passive "end turn" strats but this will take some getting used to. FYI if you are still reading this then you have a problem and, like me, should probably uninstall the game. save yourself.

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