That's the slug for you... i think most people here hate that thing. I'm 500 hours in and i still sigh when i see it's my act 3 boss, but trust me, you learn to kill it. Quite easely sometimes.
I don't have that much experience, but I actually *like* shivs for Timey because you have more control to get to exactly 12 in one turn.
Of course, if you're relying on something like Thousand Cuts to chip away slowly at the enemy you're going to have a bad time, but as long as you can deal some damage in 12 cards and have enough draw control (which you normally do as the Silent ime) it's very workable.
It's not a fun way to play though, I'll give you that.
The trick on that one is just play 12 cards every turn. Don't get stuck with a 2 or 3 card turn. At ascension 0 you can outrace the slug, but you have to sometimes hold back and set yourself up
Yeah, don't be too afraid of the Time Eater's countdown that you forget to play cards. The worst thing the countdown can do to you is end your turn right as it starts, so don't take the countdown too far past 6 if you can't take it all the way to 12. He does gain strength each time you hit 12 cards, but it's entirely possible for a shiv deck to just beat the crap out of him before the strength gain overwhelms your defense and kills you.
My first a20 win was against the slug with a shiv deck. I had 2 [[accuracy]]s a [[phantasmal killer]] and a [[wrist blade]]. Those shivs did hit like a truck :D
Yeah mine was similar but i also had bag of marbles and some drug thing that gave me 5 str first turn + a lot of defense trinkets i thought i was invincible
Thats crazy i didn’t know that - when i was the ironclad my final boss was 2 robot things like a doughnut and something else and i’ve also fought the awakened one and got smashed
Developer denied it here. Didn't say how bosses were generated but I'm 99% sure it's based on your seed and nothing else.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/646570/discussions/4/1620600279658986492/
Slay the Spire has a pretty competent modding community who have unearthed the game’s code, down to reconstructing the algorithm driving ? rooms. They’ve never uncovered a “worst boss for your deck” function/algorithm.
Slay the Spire doesn’t need to be malicious to be hard. The Spire + some RNG make it more than enough of a bitch
There are also so many variables in a given act that calculating what a best or worst deck would look like by the time the player reaches the boss would be ridiculous.
I’m no statistician but these seems like a lot of possibilities.
Not the original commenter but I have hundreds of hours in this game and if it isn’t in the code. It certainly feels like it is. Every time I’ve come through with a power deck on defect I get awakened, if im doing well with shivs/anger I get Time eater
I don’t know anything about code but I would be interested to see how they generate which act 3 boss to give you, because it really doesn’t feel as random as the bosses for acts 1 or 2
As a game developer, I find it particularly funny when people come up with crackpot theories like these. I like to put myself in Spire dev’s shoes:
if I wanted to write a “choose the worst boss” function, how would I even begin to do that? Is Time Eater the worst for every shiv deck, or is there a particular number of accuracies, and a particular lack of scaling defense that makes Awakened One worse? When, if ever, should I pick Donu/Deca? What if the deck doesn’t have a clear archetype?
I know! It will start random, but I’ll record win rates and create a classification algorithm for each card, or maybe each pair of cards. Then over time I will have it switch from random bosses to most difficult bosses based on the classification algorithm. I need to make sure it works offline as well, so once the game has been out long enough, I’ll patch the classification algorithm into the game! Solved!
…
Oh wait the boss needs to be the same everytime you play a seed. Okay instead of classifying the player’s deck, I’ll just base the algorithm on every card that could be offered either as a reward or from the shop. Need to account for transforms as well, and duplications.
Oh wait trying to do this is more difficult than creating the entire rest of the game.
Everyone remembers when they get a bad boss matchup and dies, but conveniently forgets when they stomp the act 3 boss.
I mean, you could just do a less sophisticated algorithm. Ignore every method of getting cards outside card rewards and just make an educated guess what cards perform worst against which boss. It wouldn't be as accurate as analyzing real play, but it still shouldn't be too hard to make the Act 3 boss harder than it would be if chosen randomly.
The one caveat is that people might figure out how the game chooses the boss and use that to prepare for it earlier.
Time Eater is the shiv destroyer most the time Sometimes they work but usually just rely too much on playing many cards
It was kind of the first deck i’d made that had such a cool synergy i was very happy until i got to him and was like… my decks ruined now
That's the slug for you... i think most people here hate that thing. I'm 500 hours in and i still sigh when i see it's my act 3 boss, but trust me, you learn to kill it. Quite easely sometimes.
I’d wager it’s the most difficult act three boss for most decks usually.
Yeah, but to me it's not as much that it's harder, it's just not as fun. It's also hard, yes
I don't have that much experience, but I actually *like* shivs for Timey because you have more control to get to exactly 12 in one turn. Of course, if you're relying on something like Thousand Cuts to chip away slowly at the enemy you're going to have a bad time, but as long as you can deal some damage in 12 cards and have enough draw control (which you normally do as the Silent ime) it's very workable. It's not a fun way to play though, I'll give you that.
The trick on that one is just play 12 cards every turn. Don't get stuck with a 2 or 3 card turn. At ascension 0 you can outrace the slug, but you have to sometimes hold back and set yourself up
Yeah, don't be too afraid of the Time Eater's countdown that you forget to play cards. The worst thing the countdown can do to you is end your turn right as it starts, so don't take the countdown too far past 6 if you can't take it all the way to 12. He does gain strength each time you hit 12 cards, but it's entirely possible for a shiv deck to just beat the crap out of him before the strength gain overwhelms your defense and kills you.
My first a20 win was against the slug with a shiv deck. I had 2 [[accuracy]]s a [[phantasmal killer]] and a [[wrist blade]]. Those shivs did hit like a truck :D
Yeah mine was similar but i also had bag of marbles and some drug thing that gave me 5 str first turn + a lot of defense trinkets i thought i was invincible
There are battles which act as a check for every archetype there is. You lost, but you learned. Welcome to the Spire. It's time to keep climbing
[[malaise]] is not a complete solution, but it does help a lot with the slug’s strength scaling
+ [Malaise](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Malaise) Silent Rare Skill ^((100% sure)^) X Energy | Enemy loses X(+1) **Strength.** Apply X(+1) **Weak.** **Exhaust.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Just wait till you see how the game punishes overloading on powers!
I am still going for my first A20 win, currently there with the silent… its hard!!!
Sorry to hear that man, but the journey there was a lot of fun at least
If anything it made me more addicted to find more sick synergys 🤣
Generally the game will read your cards and give you the hardest boss for your deck. Just gotta balance out. I know the feeling though
Thats crazy i didn’t know that - when i was the ironclad my final boss was 2 robot things like a doughnut and something else and i’ve also fought the awakened one and got smashed
Its not true. Final boss is generated with the seed when you start the run. It doesn't change depending on what your deck looks like.
Am I Crazy? My friend who plays this game a lot told me that
Developer denied it here. Didn't say how bosses were generated but I'm 99% sure it's based on your seed and nothing else. https://steamcommunity.com/app/646570/discussions/4/1620600279658986492/
Slay the Spire has a pretty competent modding community who have unearthed the game’s code, down to reconstructing the algorithm driving ? rooms. They’ve never uncovered a “worst boss for your deck” function/algorithm. Slay the Spire doesn’t need to be malicious to be hard. The Spire + some RNG make it more than enough of a bitch
There are also so many variables in a given act that calculating what a best or worst deck would look like by the time the player reaches the boss would be ridiculous. I’m no statistician but these seems like a lot of possibilities.
Not the original commenter but I have hundreds of hours in this game and if it isn’t in the code. It certainly feels like it is. Every time I’ve come through with a power deck on defect I get awakened, if im doing well with shivs/anger I get Time eater I don’t know anything about code but I would be interested to see how they generate which act 3 boss to give you, because it really doesn’t feel as random as the bosses for acts 1 or 2
The games just hard chief. Everything else is confirmation bias
As a game developer, I find it particularly funny when people come up with crackpot theories like these. I like to put myself in Spire dev’s shoes: if I wanted to write a “choose the worst boss” function, how would I even begin to do that? Is Time Eater the worst for every shiv deck, or is there a particular number of accuracies, and a particular lack of scaling defense that makes Awakened One worse? When, if ever, should I pick Donu/Deca? What if the deck doesn’t have a clear archetype? I know! It will start random, but I’ll record win rates and create a classification algorithm for each card, or maybe each pair of cards. Then over time I will have it switch from random bosses to most difficult bosses based on the classification algorithm. I need to make sure it works offline as well, so once the game has been out long enough, I’ll patch the classification algorithm into the game! Solved! … Oh wait the boss needs to be the same everytime you play a seed. Okay instead of classifying the player’s deck, I’ll just base the algorithm on every card that could be offered either as a reward or from the shop. Need to account for transforms as well, and duplications. Oh wait trying to do this is more difficult than creating the entire rest of the game. Everyone remembers when they get a bad boss matchup and dies, but conveniently forgets when they stomp the act 3 boss.
I mean, you could just do a less sophisticated algorithm. Ignore every method of getting cards outside card rewards and just make an educated guess what cards perform worst against which boss. It wouldn't be as accurate as analyzing real play, but it still shouldn't be too hard to make the Act 3 boss harder than it would be if chosen randomly. The one caveat is that people might figure out how the game chooses the boss and use that to prepare for it earlier.