Nate Dogg III

This was a fun one: And they say you should keep your deck small, etc. Once again the early Mummified Hand defined the run, was pretty much about hoovering up powers from then on. Strong contender for best relic in the game imo, and certainly up there for best energy relic. However The Courier was also v important (refreshes merchant stock when you buy something, with a 20% discount). I thought that, when you bought something, it replaced it with something else. For relics this is obviously true because you can only have one of each of them. But I guess it doesn't do that with cards, because I bought the four Footworks in a row. Combine that with Mummified Hand, then throw in what that much Dex does to the Nightmare/Intangible combo, and you've got something pretty nuts. Should have gone for the heart really but the final chest offered me Dead Branch and I clicked on it hungrily before realising my error. The late Branch almost killed me as well, I had like 60 cards in my deck by the end of the act 3 boss because every time a Shiv exhausted it gave me some other muck.

I actually struggle the least with clock bastard, and the most with awakened one, as his strength gets going so quickly.

I cleared ascension 20 with ironclad before even trying the heart but I’m not sure it was the ‘right’ thing to do because then you’re starting with the a20 heart which is a hell of a way of taking the stabilisers off. If you’re still early on I’d focus on just working your way up the ascensions, then if you get to act three and feel like you’re having one of those special runs then go for the keys.

Page two! Unacceptable. Realised the other day that by ignoring Defect and Watcher I had an incomplete relic pool. And I’ve been getting a bit bored of the other two so figured it was time I branched out. Got all of Defect’s unlocks and my word that’s a fun character. Working my way through the ascensions, figured I’d ignore the heart until I’d got my head round the character. But my A3 clear last night stomped through act 3 to such an extent that I could probably have taken it on. Resolved to give it a go whenever I next felt like I had the deck for it. That ended up happening on the very next run. Took 250 gold and a curse from Neko, first store gave me membership card and mummified hand, and I knew I’d be picking up every power I was offered. Turns out Defect has some pretty sweet powers. Got frozen egg off an act 1 elite and a couple of white noise+ and that was that. Just played all my cards and laughed. The heart barely stood a chance. My 6yo was watching me, went to a store and he asked why I was ignoring Kunai because I almost always take it. ‘I’m not sure we’re going to need to hit anything, son.’ So it proved. Not sure if I‘ve mentioned it before, but this game is very good.

I can’t be mashing buttons of an evening until Brown The Youngest starts sleeping properly. Well up for reviving it in principle though, I can play Slay The Spire while sitting at the back of the queue. Thread needs more @cale though.

Unless you can get those two to commentate it just won't be the same. I retired at my peak. Sad decline since. Sort of Gazza situation in a way.

*sigh*

Holy shit!

do you still have this anywhere? My crowning glory, lost in the mists of time. I miss this thread.

I’m trying to get the achievement for finishing the game in sub 20 minutes. I had two runs on the spin yesterday where I got Immolate in act one and got to the final boss in 15 minutes. Both times I thought my time had finally come, but you just can’t rush the act three bosses. I got done in both times. Getting closer though! Onwards.

Poison is definitely the silliest thing she can do, yeah, but Nightmare/Intangible+ is one of the strongest combos in the game and brings a lot of other strategies into play. Providing you can last long enough to get the parts you need, anyway. I die an awful lot on act one with Silent. Doing all three chars at once is a really nice idea though. My brain couldn’t deal with that, I don’t think. Hats off.

Limit Break is kinda essential for it because it's not the fastest engine in the world, particularly if you only have one proc per turn (Combust is the standard - I got both Brutality from the Pandora's Box). I don't normally bother upgrading Limit Break but it felt sort of essential here with only Spot Weakness to rely on otherwise.

No, there's also Rupture, which adds 1 strength when you lose HP from a card. The two Brutality and Combust proc it, likewise unblocked Burn etc. Weirdly you can have as many Brutality as you want but it only procs Rupture once. Spot Weakness was just a nice bonus, really. With the Shrugs and Battle Trances, and the two Brutality drawing two extra cards every turn, I was seeing that Limit Break every three turns max, so things quickly got silly.

Speaking of cathartic A1 Ironclad runs: So much to note here. I had exactly 100 strength on the killshot, which I don't think has ever happened before. I finished on 169 health (nice). Didn't have a Reaper (I passed over one for Ice Cream) but still ended with an unused Lizard Tail and two blood potions that I picked up somewhere in act 2. Early Feed is the best.