Slay the Spire

I love how games dress your powers up to make them sound really exciting, I always have, but the game which really got me thinking about it recently was Slay the Spire. I have a big crush on it right now - I don't know why it took me so long to get around to playing it.

In Slay the Spire, what you're doing sounds great. You don't simply hit someone a few times: you Riddle with Holes. You don't simply do damage and draw another card: you Headbutt. And you don't damage every time you play a card: you Choke. It goes on and on.

I love what this does. I love how it obscures a mundane truth lurking backstage. Because behind it all, it's just numbers. We all know that, just like we know an illusionist on the stage isn't doing magic for real, but we suspend our disbelief because it's more fun. If you really wanted to, you could reduce it to a spreadsheet with numbers on, but why would you want to?

Read more

Slay the Spire

When I was a kid, Sailor Moon was my jam. Do you know what's also my jam? This super cool Sailor Moon-themed Slay the Spire mod that adds her as a playable character, along with 75 new cards and 20 new relics. This isn't just a one-dimensional reskin: Creators Aelie and KumaGorath have created some entirely new mechanics to learn, too. It's all very impressive.

Though I'm far from a Slay the Spire pro, I've taken this mod for a run and was surprised by how comprehensive it is. The modders created a fully animated Sailor Moon avatar, and well over half of her cards have unique animations when cast. But what's really cool is how Sailor Moon plays compared to Slay the Spire's main cast.

Unlike normal Slay the Spire characters that have a few core features (like Defect's orbs), Sailor Moon has a bunch of different keywords and mechanics you have to keep track of. Her most basic stat is Magic, which increases the damage dealt by Magical cards up to a certain limit. In order to max your Magic stat, though, you'll need to periodically play Transformation cards which increases your Magic Capacity.

One little touch I like a lot is Teamwork cards, which have combo effects when played after using certain cards. All of these are themed like the other Sailor Scouts, and when using one they'll temporarily join you on the battlefield to cast their spell.

It's a lot to take in and, like with any new StS character, I'm struggling to connect the dots on how to best draft new cards and make a viable build. I'm not sure how well balanced all of this is, but I'm having fun just tinkering around with the all the bright, colorful spells and imagining poor Sailor Moon having to run an endless gauntlet of card-based horrors.

You can download the mod from the Steam Workshop (be sure to download the other required mods, too). 

Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

A fourth playable character is coming to Slay The Spire for free, developers MegaCrit Games announced today. They’ve muttered before about the possibility of adding more dungeoneers, and confirmed it today while also blasting the first update since their delightful deck-building dungeon-crawler left early access in January. My favourite Spireslayer is the Defect, the character which Mega Crit added long after the first two – and which seemed to really benefit from them getting a better idea of the shape, flow, and possibilities of Spire. I am mighty keen to see what new cards and systems they’ll throw in now.

(more…)

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey everyone,

It's been quite a while since release. The past few months have been pretty busy with ports and the patching of those ports but we wanted to update the PC version to contain all of the fixes, optimizations, and quality of life changes we worked on during this process.


What’s in the Works?
  • All the ports! Eventually, you'll be Slaying the Spire on your smart fridge (not really, but never say never).
  • Additional translations.
  • Free DLC containing a 4th character and additional content.


Official Merchandise!?

Whoa, did we team up with Fangamer and now you can get an awesome Slay the Spire shirt by Nina Matsumoto? Yes. Get one here!

We'll be getting more merch soon. Stay tuned!


Touchscreen Compatibility
A lot of work has been put into ensuring that players who use touchscreen computers (or Steam Link on mobile) can enjoy the game fully!

Two-step confirmations have been added to several screens so you can review options before you choose a card/boss relic/shop item. To turn this on, toggle the Touchscreen Mode option found at the bottom of the Input Settings screen.


Community Fan Art
The amount of fan art we received since release is outrageous and we’re happy to have inspired so many brilliant works of art! Let’s take a look:


The Silent by Fausuto


Demon Form and Wraith Form by selemina


r... rain? by bluehightoptrainers


Chibi Silent by LuriaHirai


This shiny portrait of The Champ by @fraudulentyoshi


The Silent Fire by Densetsu VII


A fusion of the Act 1 Bosses: Hexaslimedian! by /u/Dragonclaude


This gritty rendition of the Silent by @TheHalret


Gremlin Leader except I get lazier the further right the pictures goes by /u/pulfian


This cute Silent by @ewilio


Modding
While we’ve tried our best to keep backwards compatibility as stable as possible, many performance and UX improvements that were added will inevitably break some mods.

For this release we worked a lot closer with our modding community and very grateful for sharing their insights in making the game more modder friendly, bug free, and generally helping the community stay informed of upcoming changes.

These kind folks include (but aren’t limited to) BDWSSBB, Blank The Evil, brianfubar, Evil Pickle, and kiooeht. They have done tons of optimizations, fixes, moddability improvements, and even features like the sort bar in deck view screen! As always, if you have questions about modding or want to get into modding yourself, visit the Slay the Spire Discord’s #modding channel!

Maybe just stop by to thank a modder for all their hard work :).


Archived Versions
Version 1.0 of Slay the Spire (January 23, 2019) will be archived in the Steam branch: [V1.0] can be found in the BETAS tab for the game (Similarly to how you would access the beta branch).

Patch Notes

Hotfix (07/05/2019)
  • While the potion popup is open, the potion's tip is now displayed.
  • JPN reverted to previous JPN translation.
  • Updates for GRE, ITA, and SPA.
  • Updates for TUR credits.

Hotfix (07/17/2019)
  • Exit Game button now changes button asset if the button is remapped.
  • Fix for issue where Save Slot 0 wasn't reloaded upon deleting a different Save Slot.
  • Fix for non-Steam builds always showing 0 damage at the heart.
  • Fixed issue where playtimes and some character data was copied to a new save slot.
  • Fixed run save files not being deleted when deleting slots, allowing continuing of runs from deleted profiles.
  • Fixed unnecessary dispose() calls on monster assets.
  • Fixing touchscreens requiring you to double tap to do anything.
  • If width or height is set lower than minimum allowed, your display config resolution is now reset.
  • Updates for DEU, DUT, EPO, GRE, ITA, JPN, KOR, POL, UKR, RUS, SPA, THA ZHS, ZHT.
  • Updates for EPO credits.

Content
  • Added Eternal One achievement, unlocked when all other achievements are unlocked.

Balance
  • Berserk card buffed. Self Vulnerable 3 -> 2.
  • Blood Potion buffed to heal 10% -> 25%.
  • Bottled Flame no longer appears if all of your Attacks are starter cards.
  • Bottled Lightning no longer appears if all of your Skills are starter cards.
  • Heel Hook+ card buffed. 7 -> 8 damage.
  • Bullseye card buffed. Lock-On 1 -> 2.
  • Bullseye+ card buffed. Damage 10 -> 11.
  • Colosseum event now appears only at the top half of Act 2.
  • You no longer run into The Cleric or Beggar events if you do not have enough gold.

UI and Effects
Many quality of life changes such as a larger potions menu, a long-press End Turn option, sorting options for your deck, improved rendering for tips, and a condensed top panel have been added.

  • Patch Notes screen is back.
  • Touchscreen Mode can now be enabled in the Input Settings (at the bottom).
  • End Turn button can now utilize long-press confirmations for controllers and keyboard (not mouse). Turn on/off in Game Settings.
  • Improved trackpad support for laptops.
  • Potion menu is way bigger now (easier to click on for mouse/touchscreen).
  • Top panel's floor number indicator is now an icon + number.
  • Top panel gold icon, health icon, potion slots, and modifiers now scale up when hovered.
  • Top panel elements gets their spacing updated.
  • Adding a right stick button asset when highlighting volume sliders via controller.
  • Ascension description tips are now numbered in English.
  • Ascension level is now an icon + number in the top panel (gold when max level).
  • Black screen when viewing a grid of cards (such as removing a card from deck) is now darker (50% -> 70% opacity).
  • Boss node on map now has a hover reticle when using controller.
  • Campfire sleep VFX is now slightly darker.
  • Cards with glowing effects now have a border that appears instantly along with the VFX.
  • Cleaning up the tick asset used on various checkboxes and dropdowns.
  • Combat reward screen's items now get a reticle when hovered/highlighted. Much more noticeable.
  • Completion percentages in save slot view do not show tenths place if 0% or 100% now.
  • Confirm buttons now place the controller prompt icon dynamically, preventing text overlap.
  • Credits screen can now be scrolled up/down using controller.
  • Custom Mode screen's modifiers are now more obviously hovered/highlighted.
  • Defect gets a glow-version asset at Rest Site like Ironclad/Silent.
  • Disabling particle effects now disables the particles which appear upon applying buffs/debuffs.
  • Fixing some grammar and typos in Potion popup text.
  • Game and Input Settings tabs get larger hitboxes.
  • Game Saved VFX now appears below the top panel if more than 3 game modifiers are enabled.
  • Grand Finale card is now 0.3s faster in Fast Mode.
  • Highlight box now resizes so text isn't blocked when highlighting view upgrade option in Card Library.
  • Highlighted cards in RunHistoryScreen are now more obvious when using controllers.
  • Letterboxing for unsupported aspect ratios no longer have a 1px gap.
  • Line spacing in Menu Panel headers reduced by 15%.
  • Lose HP action is now much faster in Fast Mode.
  • No Run Histories found text is now centered and has improved line spacing.
  • Offering card is now faster in Fast Mode.
  • Options in Custom Mode screen are now more obviously highlighted.
  • Plated Armor power description is more accurate now.
  • Removed the 'Build:' text on version number as it's unnecessary.
  • Rich Presence now contains Ascension level (unless 0).
  • Seek card now organizes cards by rarity and alphabetically.
  • Silent's starting Strikes are put before Defends (to be consistent with other characters)
  • Sort button's highlight UI when using controllers are now dynamically sized based on text length.
  • Static Discharge card now clarifies that it triggers when you receive unblocked attack damage.
  • Text in Game Preferences settings now aligns better with checkboxes.
  • Tips for boss relics are now offset so they can no longer cover a relic when hovered/highlighted using controller.
  • Tips for potions now show up when hovered in Reward screens and Shops (not just in the Potion panel after acquisition).
  • Vampires and Council of Ghosts events now show how much Max HP is lost (rather than showing %)
  • Well-Laid Plans card plays slightly faster now.
  • When hovering various tips in the Game Settings, they're now rendered on the left side instead of at cursor position.
  • When previewing card for upgrade via controller, the upgrade result is now hovered, no longer obscuring your view.
  • When viewing your deck, you can now sort it by obtained order, alphabetical, rarity, and cost.
  • With controllers, end turn now disables cards from being hovered, so cards don't obscure enemies.

Performance
A lot of work was done to improve boot time, rendering performance, and to find and fix memory leaks which led to crashes when playing for extended periods of time.

  • Card UI elements now utilize a texture atlas (uses less VRAM and improves performance)
  • Compressed lots of images.
  • Fixed memory leaks in several monsters, events, ui, and other objects.
  • Flame Particles and Lightning Orb VFX assets are now pre-loaded.
  • Font generators are now cached better, improving load time and reducing memory usage.
  • Hexaghost and Lagavulin enemies now pre-cache music so there's no lag when music starts mid-combat.
  • Improving render performance of several UI, VFX, and Fonts.
  • Merged 3 identical fonts, reducing memory usage and improving load up time.
  • Removed dual initialization of several assets.
  • Removed a lot of unused assets.
  • Many VFX assets are now pre-cached, preventing stutter when certain cards or moves occur.

Code Cleanup
Most of this improves moddability, extensibility, and future-proofing various functions and objects within the game.

  • Confusion and Corruption cards utilize improved hooks.
  • Improved lifesteal logic for Reaper and Shelled Parasite.
  • Refactored Hologram card to not have to verify number of cards in the card itself.
  • Specimen relic now uses the same code as other relics for applying its effect.
  • Unhardcoded various cards, relics, and enemies.

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed card and relics unlocking earlier than they're supposed to.
  • All-Out Attack, Madness, and Reboot cards no longer affect Card Rewards when used (rng issue).
  • Astrolabe relic now works even if your deck contains 3 cards or less.
  • Back button is now hidden in Save Slots screen if all saves are deleted.
  • Blank The Evil's bug fix for Card Reward screen non-skip issue.
  • Bottled Cards upgraded from Mind Bloom event have their description updated correctly.
  • Can no longer accidentally bring up the rename screen with controller when navigating through Settings.
  • Changed Input settings are now correctly retained when changing save slots.
  • Darkstone Periapt relic now works with Hoarder mod.
  • Empty Cage relic now works with 1 or less valid cards in your deck.
  • Envenom's Poison is now applied immediately after the damage occurs.
  • Fix for Cost X cards utilizing extra energy when playing quickly.
  • Fix for crash when pressing RIGHT using controller when viewing 5 cards in grid card select screen.
  • Fix for Map and View Deck top panel buttons sometimes skipping card rewards.
  • Fix for part of the map UI remaining on the screen after hitting Return in certain circumstances.
  • Fix for thank you message in credits displaying prematurely.
  • Fixed Automaton's orbs preventing scaling of Genetic Algorithm and Ritual Dagger.
  • Fixed Bag of Preparation not drawing cards affected by Confusion power.
  • Fixed bug where a certain set of actions could disable tips for a card for the rest of combat.
  • Fixed bug where deleting a save slot would generate dummy files in a ghost slot.
  • Fixed bug where dialog bubbles moved faster if higher resolution.
  • Fixed bug where Exhaust Pile can be viewed using controller even if it's empty.
  • Fixed bug where screenshake and SFX were played when navigating to locked character select option via controller.
  • Fixed card tips that remained on screen when you died.
  • Fixed certain Status and Curses triggering their end of turn effects by playing them normally with Medical Kit or Blue Candle under specific circumstances.
  • Fixed crash when attempting to hover view upgrade in Card Library using controller.
  • Fixed crash when highlighting mods in top panel using controller.
  • Fixed crash when navigating left on controller when colorless cards are sold out.
  • Fixed crash when opening deck view if you have 0 cards (e.g. when you start a run with the Draft modifier)
  • Fixed crash when pressing down on controller on 3rd option at Rest Site if you have 4 options.
  • Fixed crash when pressing right on controller in Run History with 0 runs.
  • Fixed damage and block values showing green increased values when the end value was the same.
  • Fixed enemies not applying powers if they died in the process (e.g. Thorns).
  • Fixed enemy order issues in Slime Boss, Gremlin Leader, and Reptomancer encounters.
  • Fixed Enlightenment+ not reducing cost of cards with 1 or 0 cost for turn.
  • Fixed errors with moving around relic compendium screen with a controller for Event relics.
  • Fixed exploit of playing Normality while already having played 3+ cards.
  • Fixed Fission+ evoking Orbs in reverse order.
  • Fixed non-Steam platforms showing 0 total damage dealt on the victory screen.
  • Fixed inability to inspect relics when Shopscreen is open via controller.
  • Fixed incorrect scaling on draw and discard piles making them very large on high resolution.
  • Fixed Invincible power with interactions such as The Boot and Block.
  • Fixed issue where ending turn with Retain while hovering the player could make the leftmost card act strangely via controller.
  • Fixed issue if cards are queued and turn is ended after an enemy dies, Nilry's Codex can open and cause issues.
  • Fixed issue where map can be opened during room transitions, cancelling certain functionality.
  • Fixed issue where moving cursor to bottom of window would cause cards in hands to bounce indefinitely.
  • Fixed issue where Rest Site option text wasn't placed correctly (scaling).
  • Fixed issue where tips weren't appearing correctly in single relic popup view.
  • Fixed issue where up/down on controller in potion drink/discard also navigated to monsters/cards during combat.
  • Fixed issue where you briefly see the map when you start a run due to its default transparency.
  • Fixed lingering campfire sounds from rest sites.
  • Fixed Machine Learning card affecting hand size even when negated.
  • Fixed Meal Ticket not working on Shops from ? rooms.
  • Fixed Nemesis gaining Intangible too early and messing up damage from Thorns.
  • Fixed Normality card not stopping cards affected by Setup and Forethought.
  • Fixed Regret causing less HP loss than normal if other cards played themselves first.
  • Fixed Reptomancer not triggering some important logic after death.
  • Fixed Rip and Tear, Sword Boomerang, and Thunder Strike continuing its hits over Thorns and Shifting powers.
  • Fixed Second Wind doing its effects in reverse and only gaining one instance of block.
  • Fixed slash attack VFX used by some enemies being the wrong size in high resolutions.
  • Fixed Spit Web move's VFX appearing from wrong spot in high resolutions.
  • Fixed the opening of Input Settings allowing skipping of unskippable screens and potentially getting to an unplayable state.
  • Fixed the seedSet flag not resetting, preventing Achievements from unlocking in subsequent runs before game is reloaded.
  • Fixed Wrist Blade not affecting Sword Boomerang, Rip and Tear, and Thunder Strike.
  • Game and Input Settings panels are now taller so the input rows stay within the panel.
  • Improved precision of volume sliders with a controller so that values can be set precisely back to 50%.
  • Knowing Skull event can no longer give you a potion if you have the Sozu relic.
  • Leaderboard filters labels are now displayed for the options selected when opening the screen.
  • Library event can no longer contain duplicate cards.
  • Neow's Lament relic now grays out when it is used up.
  • No longer possible to interact with the map with a controller while single card view screen is open.
  • Relic Collection menu no longer scrolls erratically in some cases when using controller.
  • Removed note about Leaderboards being reset weekly as Early Access is over.
  • Reptomancer no longer creates daggers with more HP than intended.
  • Reset To Defaults option in Option Menu now resets all controller mappings properly.
  • Run History screen's cards and floor nodes can navigated easier with controllers.
  • Shop and Boss BGM now correctly mutes when game is minimized with the Mute While in BG option on.
  • Slider in the Character Stats menu no longer gets stuck before reaching the bottom with a controller.
  • Torch particles in Exordium now rise at the same speed on all resolutions.
  • Twitch plugin now works if language isn't English and system encoding isn't set to UTF-8.
  • Various card selection effects that don't update RNG are now seeded.
  • When a dropdown menu is open in RunHistory screen, the controller up/down no longer affects selection outside the dropdown menu.
  • WobblyLine VFX used in Snecko's glare is now larger and scales correctly with resolution.

Localization
Thai and Turkish languages are now available. Big thanks to our community translators :D.
New languages and localization improvements, hooray!

  • Portuguese Brazilian was out-of-date so it has been removed from main branch.
  • JPN translation overhaul by Kakehashi Games.
  • JPN and THA now have translated Merchant Shop images.
  • THA fonts updated.
  • Updated credits for JPN, POL, THA, and TUR.
  • Added logic to disallow periods to cause line breaks in Asian languages.
  • Rewrote how Asian languages are rendered, fixing several formatting issues.
  • Asian languages now utilize lineSpacing variable in renderSmartText.
  • Asian languages no longer have A~Z sorting filters in Card Library screen.
  • JPN renders card descriptions from left to right.
  • Rest Site options' rest option info text now uses localized period character.
  • Run History and Daily Screens now use YEAR/MONTH/DAY by default for dates except in English.
  • Run History date format in JPN utilizes localized AM/PM.

Note: Asian languages referred to in these patch notes refer to Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional) which utilize a separate way of rendering text.


Slay the Spire

I've never been much into card games on PC, unless you count poker—which is why when a fantasy card game has some poker in it I tend to pounce. I played We Slay Monsters last year, a turn-based RPG built around poker hands, but more recently I starting using The Poker Player mod for Slay the Spire.

The Poker Player mod adds a new character, who unfortunately doesn't have any custom art so it just looks like the Ironclad. But where the mod lacks art it makes up for with a fun twist on Slay the Spire. It adds 40 playing cards with suits (clubs, diamonds, aces, and hearts) and ranks (1-10). There are also a bunch of new specialty cards built around the poker systems, and new relics to enhance your play.

The general idea is that you're trying to build the best poker hand—pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush. The fun thing about the mod is that your poker hand gets played at the end of your turn: the showdown. So rather than trying to do damage, add block, and use buffs during your turn, you mostly do it at the very end when your hand is put together. It's a fun twist on standard Slay the Spire, and takes some getting used to.

Your poker cards each cost one energy, and you can discard them in exchange for a new one from your draw pile until you're out of energy. (Or if you've put together a good hand you can end your turn early.) Each suit also does something specific: clubs deal damage to all enemies, diamonds do damage to the enemy with the lowest HP, spades give you block, and hearts (cleverly) heal your own HP. These effects are boosted by how good your poker hand is when you've reached the showdown at the end of your turn. So in addition to trying to build a good poker hand, you're trying to build a hand in the suit that benefits you most depending on your current monster situation.

It can get tricky at times. You can still find a few standard cards when adding to your deck, but they kind of get in the way of your poker hands since when you use them you wind up with fewer than five cards in the showdown. And when you're fighting enemies that add cards to your deck (like slimed or dazed) and your deck fills up with those extra cards, it can be hard putting together anything besides a pair or three of a kind. But that's the challenge, and it's fun. (You are protected from the first six status cards added to your deck thanks to the default poker relic, but six is never enough, is it?)

There are some nice zero-cost cards added by the mod that let you discard unwanted cards or peek at your draw pile to see what's next or add a few extra cards of a certain suit. And you can upgrade your poker cards just like you can standard cards—so if you're not making enough straights you can craft a six out of an extra five, and so on.

As you might guess there are number of vanilla cards, potions, and relics that the mod restricts you from using because they'd really muck things up (like Runic Pyramid, which lets you keep cards at the end of your turn, and the Swift potion, which lets you draw three cards). Even some events have been modified to fit the poker theme.

I do wish the art in the mod was better, but The Poker Player has been very well thought out and I'd recommend it to poker lovers and anyone who is looking for a new twist on Slay the Spire—it really lets you approach the game differently. You can subscribe to The Poker Player in the Steam Workshop here, and you'll also need these three base mods: Basemod, StsLib, and Mod The Spire.

Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

While I can’t claim to have sunk hundreds of hours into it like Alec, I’ve still lost entire evenings to Slay The Spire‘s deck-building. If you’re one of those people who regularly finishes it, it might be time to change things up a little. The game already has an active modding scene, and while it’s just a small collection, here’s a bundle of minor mods to lightly spice up the game, some all-new characters to play as, and a pair of fan-made expansions to fill out your decks.

(more…)

Slay the Spire - Mega Crit Games


It’s Finally Here!

You can now play Slay the Spire wherever you want, and we think that’s pretty sweet. We know it took awhile but thank you so much for your patience, without your support this wouldn’t exist.

Check it out: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/slay-the-spire-switch/


Slay the Spire - Mega Crit Games


Slay the Spire is now On-The-Go

It’s been a while, but we finally have a 100% locked-in date for the release date of Slay the Spire on Switch! We know this has been pretty heavily anticipated, so we can’t wait to get this thing out the door for you all.

Get ready to climb the Spire on the bus/train/plane/automobile (passenger side please).

Go click this link in a few weeks: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/slay-the-spire-switch/
Slay the Spire - Mega Crit Games


Rejoice!

Today is the day we officially spread beyond our PC roots to our console friends! You can now play Slay the Spire on your couch, with a controller in hand. This is just the first step to bringing Slay the Spire across more platforms to reach an even wider audience, and we could not have done it without the support of our PC players.

Here is a store link to check it out on the PS4.

One last thing.

Now, this may bring up questions about the Switch port, and all we can say is that we’re close SO close. Once again, we want to err on the side of caution before announcing anything but a lot of progress has been made and we hope to have some official news soon enough.
Slay the Spire

Above: This is not the 'final' boss I'm talking about, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone still working their way there.

I thought I had finally won roguelike deck-builder Slay The Spire. In building my Silent deck I focused on card draw and energy production, which allowed me to generate near-infinite loops that, even if ended by a bad draw, generated so much block that nothing could touch me. 

I was strong as hell. There's a regular enemy in the third act with 999 health, and you don't have to actually beat it, just outlast it, because it dies on its own after a set number of turns. With this deck, I felt confident I could've killed it even without the timer. Nothing could stop me.

And then I got stomped by the final boss. Just wrecked.

My deck contained too many useless cards that created the potential for what happened: drawing the worst possible hands at the worst possible moments. It was unrefined, and missing some key components that would've given me a truly infinite loop. It was a great deck until it was terrible. (Alas, I didn't screenshot it at the time and it'd take forever to find it among my other runs, but it's nothing unbelievable.) 

One of the many brilliant things about Slay the Spire is how often it's possible to reach the end, whether or not I'm strong enough to beat the bosses. I can take easy routes, hitting events and rest sites and merchants and avoiding elite enemies, build a decent deck, feel good, and then stare down 60-or-whatever incoming damage with a hand that can do nothing about it and realize my deck is complete trash.

This is evidenced by the achievements. 60.3 percent of players have beaten The Shapes, the boss that appears at the end of the third act, but far fewer have reached and completed the ending beyond that. Many arrive, few survive.

I love that about Slay the Spire. I'm often turned off by roguelikes because, heck, I don't want to play the opening level or act or section 100 times to learn how to handle whatever's after it. I could never get into Spelunky for that reason, although I respect that its design clicks for others. (We gave it one of our highest review scores ever.)

What makes Slay the Spire different to me is that I don't start a new run thinking, 'Can I reach the end this time?' I know I can reach the end. The question is, 'When I reach the end, will I be a god?'

To that end, plenty of my runs do end in the first or second act, because you don't become a god without taking risks. Sometimes, I start building a deck that I know will be weak until I find the right card, and just don't find it before eating dirt. Other times, I die because I targeted elite enemies too aggressively, hoping for a key relic drop (if you haven't played, relics are items with passive effects that can completely change the deck you build).

Dying can be frustrating in Slay the Spire, but these are calculated deaths, and that softens them a lot. I'd rather not reach the end of the game if I'm not going to be strong enough to win it all—or at least have a chance—so really it's better if I die early when things aren't panning out. Rarely in a game have I died and thought, "Well, this is for the best." That's part of what makes Slay the Spire so hard to put down. 

And, generally, that's just one of the reasons Slay the Spire is currently my favorite game of the year—Evan nicely encapsulates many other reasons in his review. 

If you haven't picked it up, Slay the Spire is on Steam. If you're not into card games or roguelikes, this is the game to change your mind.

...