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Cicadalek
May 8, 2006

Trite, contrived, mediocre, milquetoast, amateurish, infantile, cliche-and-gonorrhea-ridden paean to conformism, eye-fucked me, affront to humanity, war crime, should *literally* be tried for war crimes, talentless fuckfest, pedantic, listless, savagely boring, just one repulsive laugh after another
After 663 hours of playtime, I finally managed my first A20 win



(there's a Disarm+ at the bottom)

Not a super crazy deck or anything, it was mainly Snecko Eye and Corruption doing the heavy lifting, then Rupture+, Combust, and Feel No Pain for scaling. But hey, I did it.

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Murgos
Oct 21, 2010

Jedit posted:

If I want overexplanation I'll watch Lifecoach. Not only does Coach understand the first principles better than Jorbs, he is also willing to talk about them and is a lot more fun to watch. While I appreciate that Jorbs has done this a lot and is heartily sick of it, because of the change it's brought about in his attitude he is nowhere near as good a streamer now as he was before it became his full time job.

E: on the subject of Lifecoach, he set a new WR Ironclad streak yesterday and is currently at 15 wins in a row with an overall 84% win rate after 38 games.

Can you point to which of his videos are good and maybe a timestamp? Because I looked him up on youtube and there are a ton of 6-7 hour streams and gently caress that.

Llamadeus
Dec 20, 2005

Murgos posted:

Can you point to which of his videos are good and maybe a timestamp? Because I looked him up on youtube and there are a ton of 6-7 hour streams and gently caress that.
The recent runs are mostly in the 2-2.5 hour range, they're on Twitch but get automatically removed after a few months

https://www.twitch.tv/lifecoach1981/videos

KonvexKonkav
Mar 5, 2014

A 2 hour lifecoach run? For him that's like a speedrun lol.

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

KonvexKonkav posted:

A 2 hour lifecoach run? For him that's like a speedrun lol.

That's the point. He's doing what he calls the Turtle Speed Run Challenge - an attempt to complete 100 Ironclad runs in 200 hours play with at least a 60% win rate. At 200 hours he stops and any run not completed is a loss. He's also said that he'll stop if he reaches 60 wins, which considering he's on 35-7 at a bit over 90 hours after just ending an 18 streak seems more likely than him completing the 100 runs.

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

I saw some haters hating on Demon Form a few pages back. Well, let me let you in on a little secret: all you need to do is Neow swap to a Snecko Eye, get a Mummified Hand as your first relic, and then you can take 3 Demon Forms guilt free! :shepface:



This was also the run where I finally earned Eternal One by killing the Transient, which is fitting for such a stupid, stupid deck.

Chairchucker
Nov 14, 2006

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022




Mummified Hand is my absolute favourite relic, love to get it then slam pick every power card then die because I literally never draw block or attack cards.

Pain of Mind
Jul 10, 2004
You are receiving this broadcast as a dream...We are transmitting from the year one nine... nine nine ...You are receiving this broadcast in order t

Chairchucker posted:

Mummified Hand is my absolute favourite relic, love to get it then slam pick every power card then die because I get awakened one as one of the two A20 bosses and the weaker powers just become curses.

FTFY

Yoshi Wins
Jul 14, 2013

Big Mad Drongo posted:

I saw some haters hating on Demon Form a few pages back. Well, let me let you in on a little secret: all you need to do is Neow swap to a Snecko Eye, get a Mummified Hand as your first relic, and then you can take 3 Demon Forms guilt free! :shepface:



This was also the run where I finally earned Eternal One by killing the Transient, which is fitting for such a stupid, stupid deck.

18 FNP when all 5 were in play. lol. Looks like a fun run.

Deckit
Sep 1, 2012

More like Fear No Pain at that point.

Drunk Nerds
Jan 25, 2011

Just close your eyes
Fun Shoe
Got to A20 heartkill with every class but defect. Been stuck at A19 for about 5 months. Some serious family health stuff has really kept me from being able to do the deep thought to make the leap. Family health stuff might be over soon though.

... and so might my defect A19 slump. Got early Top which has allowed me to craft a really consistent near-infinite deck 2/3 through act 3. I need to find a shop with medical kit or another of the cards that let me exhaust a card to gain its energy.

Pretty sure I got offered one earlier and said "nah I dont need more energy" when I should have said "yes! I need all the exhaust we can get."

Wish me luck, goons. Gonna try tomorrow, too many drinks in me to play well tonight.

mark immune
Dec 14, 2019

put the teacher in the cope cage imo

Yoshi Wins posted:

Here's a beginner guide written by Baalorlord, one of the strongest streamers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LzL_gnXrDsK8cFfkGEQmJncnlPVZZsqxoRZShZssicw/edit

Baalorlord, Jorbs, Lifecoach, and TerrenceMHS are probably the strongest players of who stream, and they all have at least a little bit of stuff on youtube, so look for their vods on Twitch and youtube.

thank you for this, watching jorbs' intro video now, definitely a more analytic look than i've taken so far

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine
Man I am just having the shittiest luck today, first run started off good then I ruined it by saying yes to those vampires which got me killed, and then I've had three or four(they all happened so quickly I actually wasn't paying attention to the exact number) runs in a row I had to abandon within the first 5 or so floors(one of them I abandoned right at Neow in fact) because of ludicrously bad RNG just sapping out any will to continue(it really doesn't help that Silent has the most boring starting deck and stays that way for most of Act 1 unless you get really lucky with early pulls)

I have to ask how many runs did it take you guys to first successfully complete a run, cause this is run 20 now and it's starting to just plain be frustrating, doesn't help that most of my losses don't feel like I lost because of some great error on my part but rather just bad RNG and unfair game design, or that since at this point I usually can make it to somewhere in Act 2 before something screws me over that means at least a half hour to two hours of my time gets consumed for no tangible results

JesustheDarkLord
May 22, 2006

#VolsDeep
Lipstick Apathy

drrockso20 posted:

I have to ask how many runs did it take you guys to first successfully complete a run, cause this is run 20 now and it's starting to just plain be frustrating, doesn't help that most of my losses don't feel like I lost because of some great error on my part but rather just bad RNG and unfair game design, or that since at this point I usually can make it to somewhere in Act 2 before something screws me over that means at least a half hour to two hours of my time gets consumed for no tangible results

I don't really want to get argumentative but this is not a very slay the spire post

Chairchucker
Nov 14, 2006

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022




drrockso20 posted:


I have to ask how many runs did it take you guys to first successfully complete a run, cause this is run 20 now and it's starting to just plain be frustrating, doesn't help that most of my losses don't feel like I lost because of some great error on my part but rather just bad RNG and unfair game design, or that since at this point I usually can make it to somewhere in Act 2 before something screws me over that means at least a half hour to two hours of my time gets consumed for no tangible results

I lucked into a win on my second run, with the Silent and lots of shivs

I am Not Very Good at this game, but I've managed to rise to like, ascension 7 or something on all four heroes

Drunk Nerds
Jan 25, 2011

Just close your eyes
Fun Shoe

drrockso20 posted:

Man I am just having the shittiest luck today, first run started off good then I ruined it by saying yes to those vampires which got me killed, and then I've had three or four(they all happened so quickly I actually wasn't paying attention to the exact number) runs in a row I had to abandon within the first 5 or so floors(one of them I abandoned right at Neow in fact) because of ludicrously bad RNG just sapping out any will to continue(it really doesn't help that Silent has the most boring starting deck and stays that way for most of Act 1 unless you get really lucky with early pulls)

I have to ask how many runs did it take you guys to first successfully complete a run, cause this is run 20 now and it's starting to just plain be frustrating, doesn't help that most of my losses don't feel like I lost because of some great error on my part but rather just bad RNG and unfair game design, or that since at this point I usually can make it to somewhere in Act 2 before something screws me over that means at least a half hour to two hours of my time gets consumed for no tangible results

Awesome post! Share a seed and I will make a video where my kids and I debate every pick and, usually, get past act 3. We haven't done that in a while, been missing it. We can put you over.

Go to Statistics on the main menu, click Run History, then click the weird seed code in the top right to copy it to the clipoboard.

Edit: Oh, and the Neow gift you chose. Matching that up helps reduce the RNG variance between our runs

Edit: Oh and if you haven't unlocked everything, let us know your unlocks so we can limit our choices to those. I'm not exactly sure how to view that maybe someone itt can help with that, please

Drunk Nerds fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Sep 25, 2021

Chairchucker
Nov 14, 2006

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022




I'll also try the seed and fail spectacularly!

Shine
Feb 26, 2007

No Muscles For The Majority

JesustheDarkLord posted:

I don't really want to get argumentative but this is not a very slay the spire post

To elaborate, while there is RNG in this game, it's also extremely winnable, with the top players proving that you can win at the highest difficulty level the majority of the time (including a dozen or more games in a row), and lower difficulties are extremely winnable once you hone your skills. This includes knowing which paths to take and why, which cards to take and why, what known and potential challenges to prepare for and how, blah blah blah.

I'd suggest going to the run history screen and screenshotting it and posting it here for feedback. Or you could even just post the seed from that run, and the difficulty and character you used, and let people have a go at it to see how they do.

Bad RNG happens, but just as with XCOM, the skill you develop in StS is making enough correct choices that you're not at the mercy of the occasional bad bit of luck.

Shine fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Sep 25, 2021

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Chairchucker posted:

I lucked into a win on my second run, with the Silent and lots of shivs

I am Not Very Good at this game, but I've managed to rise to like, ascension 7 or something on all four heroes

Yeah I think that was how my first run that went to Floor 50 went too

the holy poopacy
May 16, 2009

hey! check this out
Fun Shoe

drrockso20 posted:

Man I am just having the shittiest luck today, first run started off good then I ruined it by saying yes to those vampires which got me killed, and then I've had three or four(they all happened so quickly I actually wasn't paying attention to the exact number) runs in a row I had to abandon within the first 5 or so floors(one of them I abandoned right at Neow in fact) because of ludicrously bad RNG just sapping out any will to continue(it really doesn't help that Silent has the most boring starting deck and stays that way for most of Act 1 unless you get really lucky with early pulls)

I have to ask how many runs did it take you guys to first successfully complete a run, cause this is run 20 now and it's starting to just plain be frustrating, doesn't help that most of my losses don't feel like I lost because of some great error on my part but rather just bad RNG and unfair game design, or that since at this point I usually can make it to somewhere in Act 2 before something screws me over that means at least a half hour to two hours of my time gets consumed for no tangible results

I'm not trying to be a dick, but it kind of sounds like you're not quite getting some fundamental parts of the game. Until you start piling on higher difficulty levels it's very hard to get truly RNG screwed.

To be fair, yes, sometimes the game hands you functional but dreadfully boring draws. Just because a run is winnable doesn't mean it's any fun whatsoever, and I don't think there's any shame in abandoning a run where e.g. you accidentally picked the Silent for any reason whatsoever. But without the higher difficulty modifiers pure RNG won't end runs unless you open yourself up to it.

Drunk Nerds
Jan 25, 2011

Just close your eyes
Fun Shoe

the holy poopacy posted:

I'm not trying to be a dick, but it kind of sounds like you're not quite getting some fundamental parts of the game. Until you start piling on higher difficulty levels it's very hard to get truly RNG screwed.

To be fair, yes, sometimes the game hands you functional but dreadfully boring draws. Just because a run is winnable doesn't mean it's any fun whatsoever, and I don't think there's any shame in abandoning a run where e.g. you accidentally picked the Silent for any reason whatsoever. But without the higher difficulty modifiers pure RNG won't end runs unless you open yourself up to it.

That's why I'm especially excited to try one of their seeds. I'm often like "hey, this is the right pick," and my kids shriek "no pick that! It's way more fun" and then I'll say, "okay but you gotta make this work" and they say "oh we will" and then we collaborate trying to make the run work with the more fun cards.\

Also silent is head-and-shoulders above every other class in terms of our enjoyment.

Drunk Nerds fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Sep 25, 2021

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine
Well on the first one where I was initially doing good, like I said the mistake was doing the Vampire deal as I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize that it would cost me a significant amount of health* nor did I realize that it would give me bite cards equivalent to the starting amount of Strike cards not my current amount(I had ditched at least two) and combined those both threw off my play and screwed me over when I ran into what's probably one of the worst things a Silent can run into; a multiple enemy encounter composed of multiple high health and highly aggressive enemies

As for the seed; ZZXG7G5ZTW1P

*as I had only encountered it before on Ironclad runs where I had a Perfected Strike in my deck so I would immediately say no as it would gimp one of my strongest attacks

the holy poopacy
May 16, 2009

hey! check this out
Fun Shoe

Drunk Nerds posted:

Also silent is head-and-shoulders above every other class in terms of our enjoyment.

I know goons have a certain reputation but it's really mean to mislead new players this way, the poor guy is suffering enough already.

Kiranamos
Sep 27, 2007

STATUS: SCOTT IS AN IDIOT
Have you tried adding Googly Eyes

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine
See I like Silent fine enough when I can get a Shiv or Poison engine going, but before that happens they have the most monotonous beginning point of the characters I currently have access to

cheeseboy58
Dec 14, 2020

drrockso20 posted:

Man I am just having the shittiest luck today, first run started off good then I ruined it by saying yes

Post a seed and ask specific questions if you need help with stuff. Blaming it on rng doesnt do anything when the first 10 ascensions are braindead easy

drrockso20 posted:

Well on the first one where I was initially doing good, like I said the mistake was doing the Vampire deal as I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize that it would cost me a significant amount of health* nor did I realize that it would give me bite cards equivalent to the starting amount of Strike cards not my current amount(I had ditched at least two) and combined those both threw off my play and screwed me over when I ran into what's probably one of the worst things a Silent can run i

Ok for this if you realize you made a mistake (it happens) you can save and quit the game which will restart the event. You can absolutely use this for cheating or to play honorably, the choice is yours

cheeseboy58 fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Sep 25, 2021

Chairchucker
Nov 14, 2006

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022




I like all the characters, the silent is fun for going shiv mad, the ironclad is cool for strength and block shenanigans, the defect for powers and CLAW and the watcher for being bad at maths

Drunk Nerds
Jan 25, 2011

Just close your eyes
Fun Shoe

drrockso20 posted:

Well on the first one where I was initially doing good, like I said the mistake was doing the Vampire deal as I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize that it would cost me a significant amount of health* nor did I realize that it would give me bite cards equivalent to the starting amount of Strike cards

This is a valid complaint: There are a lot of interactions where you aren't totally sure how it will work until you try it, which makes it tougher on newer players. I have a friend over who has about 200 played hours, and he asked if playing phantasmal strike twice in one turn gives you quadruple damage (it doesn't, it gives you 2x damage for 2 turns). There is a parsing of commands that makes most actions predictable over time, but a lot of it is learning curve.

Still, tomorrow we will enter the fray intending to play that seed, remove two strikes, get the vampire deal, and still see if we can survive.

What was your Neow choice in the beginning?

Sage Grimm
Feb 18, 2013

Let's go explorin' little dude!

drrockso20 posted:

As for the seed; ZZXG7G5ZTW1P

*as I had only encountered it before on Ironclad runs where I had a Perfected Strike in my deck so I would immediately say no as it would gimp one of my strongest attacks

Interestingly enough within the first 10 floors of that seed I had found two Perfected Strikes and a Pommel Strike! :v:

nrook
Jun 25, 2009

Just let yourself become a worthless person!
I love the silent because I love boring characters in all video games

Shine
Feb 26, 2007

No Muscles For The Majority
To be fair, RE: the Vampires(?) event, it does state explicitly that you will gain 5 Bites, not that you'll gain Bites equal to how many Strikes you had remaining.

"Remove all Strikes. Receive 5 Bites. Lose 30% Max HP."

There are some vague/weird interactions in the game, but this is one where it does literally what it says it'll do, so the lesson here is basically "read the event carefully" :)

Drunk Nerds
Jan 25, 2011

Just close your eyes
Fun Shoe

Shine posted:

To be fair, RE: the Vampires(?) event, it does state explicitly that you will gain 5 Bites, not that you'll gain Bites equal to how many Strikes you had remaining.

"Remove all Strikes. Receive 5 Bites. Lose 30% Max HP."

There are some vague/weird interactions in the game, but this is one where it does literally what it says it'll do, so the lesson here is basically "read the event carefully" :)

Oh look at this legend who isn't drunk as poo poo during everything they do, ever

Zore
Sep 21, 2010
willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d’etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things
Yeah, hell that event gives Defect/Watcher more bites than default strikes because all the starting decks are a bit different.

IC is 5 strikes, 4 Defends, 1 Bash
Silent is 5 Strikes, 5 Defends, 1 Neutralize, 1 Survivor
Defect is 4 Strikes, 4 Defends, 1 Zap, 1 Dualcast
Watcher is 4 Strikes, 4 Defends, 1 Vigilance, 1 Wrath

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Drunk Nerds posted:

This is a valid complaint: There are a lot of interactions where you aren't totally sure how it will work until you try it, which makes it tougher on newer players. I have a friend over who has about 200 played hours, and he asked if playing phantasmal strike twice in one turn gives you quadruple damage (it doesn't, it gives you 2x damage for 2 turns). There is a parsing of commands that makes most actions predictable over time, but a lot of it is learning curve.

Still, tomorrow we will enter the fray intending to play that seed, remove two strikes, get the vampire deal, and still see if we can survive.

What was your Neow choice in the beginning?

Honestly don't remember and that's one of those details the logs don't record

Sage Grimm posted:

Interestingly enough within the first 10 floors of that seed I had found two Perfected Strikes and a Pommel Strike! :v:

Hah

Also annoyed cause once again had a run going really good(Ironclad this time) right until Act 3 where after the first encounter went fine enough I had three in a row* that ground me into paste(in order Darklings, Four Shapes, and Spheric Guardian with Shapes), the "Artifact" style enemies are some of the most consistently obnoxious ones in this game I've come to notice...

Seed; 87RF4X9LPX6Y

*well had a merchant after Darklings but that's not super important

Deckit
Sep 1, 2012

It's 1am but I'm sure as poo poo gonna play that seed before I go to bed.

Shine
Feb 26, 2007

No Muscles For The Majority

Drunk Nerds posted:

Oh look at this legend who isn't drunk as poo poo during everything they do, ever

I can't safely clean and jerk while drunk, sadly :(

Various Meat Products
Oct 1, 2003

drrockso20 posted:

Seed; 87RF4X9LPX6Y



Killed the Transient, rested 0 times, Lizard Tail unused

This seed really wants you to go for strength scaling and smash things as fast as possible. Whirlwind with Chemical X really stood out as my best damage source, and Orichalcum probably saved me 100 hp. Some noteworthy choices include upgrading Bash in the floor 3 event instead of a transform, taking Immolate over Demon Form at the end of Act 1, and Pandora's Box over Fusion Hammer.

drrockso20
May 6, 2013

Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Various Meat Products posted:



Killed the Transient, rested 0 times, Lizard Tail unused

This seed really wants you to go for strength scaling and smash things as fast as possible. Whirlwind with Chemical X really stood out as my best damage source, and Orichalcum probably saved me 100 hp. Some noteworthy choices include upgrading Bash in the floor 3 event instead of a transform, taking Immolate over Demon Form at the end of Act 1, and Pandora's Box over Fusion Hammer.

Yeah I had quite a few Strength scaling cards and relics in that run too, including the absolutely ludicrous combo of Flex and then Limit Break(especially when the latter is upgraded so it no longer exhausts on use) like by the end of the Champ fight in Act 2 I was at like 64 Strength with the killing blow being like some mind boggling number over 200

Basically the big problem was that last three encounters were all enemies you really can't smash fast, at least not without taking a beating yourself(Thorns are probably one of the worst defensive traits a Ironclad can encounter on enemies since his ability to bypass those is relatively limited compared to Silent or Defect)

cheeseboy58
Dec 14, 2020

Various Meat Products posted:



Killed the Transient, rested 0 times, Lizard Tail unused

This seed really wants you to go for strength scaling and smash things as fast as possible. Whirlwind with Chemical X really stood out as my best damage source, and Orichalcum probably saved me 100 hp. Some noteworthy choices include upgrading Bash in the floor 3 event instead of a transform, taking Immolate over Demon Form at the end of Act 1, and Pandora's Box over Fusion Hammer.

Lol you beat me by 1 second. Pretty basic solid fun run

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Murgos
Oct 21, 2010

drrockso20 posted:

Basically the big problem was that last three encounters were all enemies you really can't smash fast, at least not without taking a beating yourself(Thorns are probably one of the worst defensive traits a Ironclad can encounter on enemies since his ability to bypass those is relatively limited compared to Silent or Defect)

Thorns can be hard to deal with if you don’t have some sort of damage that’s not attack based. However, thorns based fights often let you just tank out their infrequent or weak attacks and chip them down on the turns where you can get enough block to soak the thorns damage.

My first wins came from recognizing that defense is usually more important than offense. Making defense focused decks will vastly reduce variance. You really, only need one or two good attacks to dominate a game and having more than that can make your whole deck weaker.

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