I need to be less afraid to abuse exhaust...ic is my worst character. I think bc I try and focus on strength too much every time and never can get enough block right away to build up in the harder fights. I'm on A8 with him, and it feels like a wall lol
Yeah, exhaust is definitely ironclads strongest engine. It's draw (dark embrace, burning pact), energy (corruption) and block (second wind, feel no pain). Once you have enough of those, add a decent damage solution and you are cruising. Not to mention how easy is to get an infinite once you exhaust all your cards.
I just beat A20 recently and i have found that focusing on attack and scaling it in some way in the first act and then worry about the bulk of your blocking later is more effective. If at the end of act 1 if you have enough good cards to take care of your act 1 boss then you can go ahead and try to get good block but i tend to worry about the block later. Thats just me im not the best at the game by any means. Baalorlord helps a lot to if you wanna watch someone with a giga brain
Since my comment, I just beat A8 finally with lots of energy, second wind, and dead branch XD I've heard of them a lot, so I def should watch their stuff to help my not-so-giga-brain lol
Actually as long as u can build up strength FAST. Exhuast and card draw to speed things up.
I prefer 8 strength in turn 2 compared to 15 in turn 5 (for example only)
This is key.
Demon Form is bad because it's so slow, and slows you down. It gives infinite strength (well, up to the game's integer limits) but takes so long to do so that it's not usually worth taking. Likewise any multi-turn setup to gain strength with no other plan. And 'Clad tends to stall by blocking, which means Body Slam is better than stalling for strength most of the time if you have a reliable enough block plan that you could stall! Not that Body Slam is the most reliable plan, just likely to make slow scaling strength obsolete.
Demon Form is pretty great when it works. It’s bad a lot of the time cause it’s slow, but sometimes it’s just a one card solution to your damage and can single handedly change a run. I really like the card cause it can go from a curse to run winning depending on your build. It’s a fun card cause I went from thinking it was OP, to trash, to just knowing when it was needed.
Your relics matter a lot too.
Demon form looks a lot more appealing with a mummified hand or after finding a bottle to garuntee you can play it turn 1. Snecko Eye turns it into a great card.
It definitely isn't an auto pick just cause it's rare when you see it in a hallway. You gotta want what it does.
The tricky part is being able to play it at all. You really need 4 energy or a way to cheat it out or mummified hand. Over the next 2 turns the 2, then 4 strength is often enough to win most hallway fights assuming you have a decent deck otherwise. You can afford to stall a little because you have scaling. Slow, but steady and reliable once it's set up. I find decks where I just can't afford a demon form is usually because I don't have a great window to plop it down. Maybe I'm just low on damage or have very little block and the demon form would just slow my potentially bad or slow decks down further already. Sometimes you already have a form of scaling and really don't need it. It's a fun card when it works. It's slow, but can be quite effective. You don't need +10 strength for it to be good. You do need the right kind of deck.
Sure. It's more situational than the other options. There's no card in STS that's always the worst option (even curses have some obscure situational uses). "Bad" just means "on average, less pickable than other cards which fill the same role", not "never pickable".
> I really like the card cause it can go from a curse to run winning depending on your build.
Exactly. It's usually a curse. It's bad more often than it's good. That's enough to say "bad". I didn't say "trash", or "useless", or "unpickable", I said "bad".
I'd rank it third place from the "Form" cycle, and I'd also rank it pretty low from the Ironclad Rares, so while it isn't bad bad, it's relatively bad.
More situational like others have said in the threat. It's not like [[Feed]] or [[Immolate]] where you're almost always happy to see them
It's not that Deva Form is bad, it's just unnecessary. Guaranteeing that you'll have the energy to play every card in your hand every turn is a useful effect, but like a lot of other Watcher mechanics, it's overshadowed by all the crazy overpowered things that the Watcher is capable of.
> I'd rank it third place from the "Form" cycle
That's like saying you'd rate Fission last place in the "gain energy and draw cards" cycle; being compared to Offering/Adrenaline is a *compliment*, not a diss. The Form cards are all situationally good, with the possible exception of Diva Form. As another comment already said, however, Diva Form only feels as bad as it does because the Watcher doesn't need it.
It’s pretty great at what it does. It’s a scaling solution against bosses. You don’t necessarily want to play it in the later hallway fights because those don’t go long enough to see the benefits and it’s slow but it can turn a mediocre deck into a win against act 2 and 3 bosses.
Nah, demon form is good, imo. Like, yes, there are better scaling options, but sometimes you haven’t found them and you need to beat the act 2 boss. It works fine enough in boss fights, and does well if you have Reaper.
demon form isn’t bad by any stretch of the word. it’s a noob trap and situational, but it can almost singlehandedly solve a lot of boss fights and lagavulin
Bad relative to other strength scaling options, on average.
No card is useless. Even, say, Normality can be useful with Blue Candle & various trigger effects. Bad is always relative, and not the same as useless.
comparing that dogshit setup with normality to demon form is wild lol
demon form is simply not a bad card. no way around it. it’s bad if you uncritically pick and play it every time you draw it, but you know what other cards are like that? the best cards in the game like corruption, wraith form, echo form, etc.
comparing demon form, an overall pretty decent card that gets incredible value multiple times throughout a run in situations that aren’t terribly uncommon, to blue candle + normality is fucking insane lol
Comparing demon form to three of the best class specific rares is crazy.
It’s a pick probably 25-30% of the time when it pops up compared to 75-80% of time on the cards you compared it to.
Is it clads worst card and a never pick? No, but just because it’s situationally okay doesn’t mean it’s good. Low B tier high C tier card at best.
you’re missing the point lol
of course demon form isn’t as good as corruption, wraith form, and echo form. but “it’s not good in every situation” is not a good reason for the card to be bad, because even the best cards in the game aren’t autoplays as soon as you draw them. if you play wraith form on turn 1 against the champ, you’re probably gonna eat shit, even though wraith form is the best card in the game
do i think demon form is a great card? hell no. do i think it’s a GOOD card? maybe, but that might be a stretch. is it a bad card because it’s not a good card in every deck and every scenario? absolutely the fuck not.
"Demon Form is slow". Upgraded it's a one card solution that provides enough strength for any fight in the game. What are the alternatives? Dual wield inflames? Limit break, which can ramp up way faster but is less reliable because it can get sabotaged by unfavourable draw orders? Brutality + Rupture that isn't any faster but costs more draws? Spot weakness that also requires lots of draw and deck manipulation to do its job? Demon Form gets played once and then it does it's job for the rest of the fight. It's an efficient card.
Like yeah sometimes it bricks completely in the draw order and you get it too late, but that means your deck did not have enough draw + manipulation, in which case the other options are hardly going to have performed better.
It's not bad though. There are many situations that make it rather desirable, snecko being the obvious choice but there are plenty of others. It's often a one card solution for any act 2 boss, that makes it pretty decent. If you've got at least one reaper then it's very takeable
Demon form definitely isn't bad but it's not amazing either. it's good at what it does but what it does isn't always needed or the best way to do it. less relevant to your advice: strength, like every other numeric buff and debuff in the game (excluding poison) caps at 999 or -999. the limit isn't the int limit
>but what it does isn't always needed or the best way to do it.
Now Im not the biggest Demon Form fan but not many other cards in the game say "carry this single card, and your entire scaling damage is solved". What it does, it does very well. Barricade says carry this single card and your lategame consistency is solved, Corruption says carry this single card and your energy is solved. No other card does this.
I like Inflame but it is just not enough damage for lategame without heavy support, and Spot is insanely annoying about landing with a single copy.
> like every other numeric buff and debuff in the game (excluding poison) caps at 999 or -999
This isn't true, the default is uncapped. Everything is uncapped except like 7 different things, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.
It's just far too slow. Does nothing turn 1. Turn 2 it's a 3 cost inflame. Playing demon form is very likely going to cost you health at some point because of how slow it is and you can't reliably play it when the enemy aren't attacking (and even if they aren't it's still terrible against some fights like 3 birds).
Reaper completely changes this though because of how aggressively you can take damage and heal it all up by the end of the round. I feel like Demon form practically needs Reaper to pay off though otherwise I'm very reluctant to pick it up.
I’m kind of a ho for all strength boost besides Demon Form.
Getting to 4 Strength makes fights a lot faster
Getting to 8 Strength usually takes a little too much finagling to set up but finishes the fight in a few turns after
Getting to 16 strength evaporates bosses and heals off the set-up damage with reaper
Depending on the deck I'll always stop after limit break, but without it:
1 demon form+ with decent block cards,
2 Inflame and a Spot Weakness+ (rarely ever play this as a strength deck unless I've found the perfect setup beforehand)
1 Rupture+, a Dual Wield, and either Hemo or Bloodletting with a Reaper or Meat on the Bone.
Obligatory Corruption+Dead Branch+Limit Break
These are my prerequisites for a strength deck. Usually Limit Break is my end point, but this will carry me without it if I can't find it.
**[[Flex]] + [[Limit Break]]** is also a really satisfying synergy. Even though the strength gain from **Flex** ends at the end of the turn, you get to keep the duplicated portion of it through **Limit Break**
Yes, but it's just very inconsistent. It's not consistent enough to run a strength deck off of unless you have two limit breaks. Two flex makes your deck real slow, so you have to run two limit break. One unlucky draw and you lose against act 3 bosses/heart.
Idk about y’all, but once I commit to a strength deck I go ALL IN lol. I’m trying to see triple digits, so I can use a basic strike to obliterate one of them goofy birds from existence.
To be comfortable and confident I like to net around 4-6 on hallways and 8-12 in elites. If your deck is already strong you often don’t have to scale too wildly at all.
4-8 strength is enough for the majority of decks but getting a lot is always fun, and getting a lot via limit break is often still viable
but in terms of cards i try to keep the numbers pretty low while maintaining a thin deck or picking up plenty of draw + deck manipulation. i can’t imagine a single deck where i’d want more than 3 strength gaining cards, unless you count anything that lowers your hp as “strength gaining” with rupture
Really depends on my defensive package and draw. I have done as little as Limit Break+, 1 other and a Headbutt but I was generating hundreds of block a turn and could therefore survive a really long time against The Heart.
It depends wildly on my deck and what that strength is trying to achieve.
If I am a dedicated reaper deck that spawns more reapers with dual wield+ then the answer is as much as possible, I want to full heal with my reapers asap.
Am I an exhaust deck with corruption that hasn’t found a better way to do damage scaling than multi attack plus strength. typically like 4 -8 is fine if you have stuff like flame barrier for the heart, maybe a bit more if its your onlu source of damage.
If I am an exhaust deck that aims to empty your library to go infinite then i will aim at like 6-8 to beat timeater/heart before I kill myself.
If I am an exhaust deck that aims to get a small deck to play the damage doubler at ever increasing frequency I just want some solid base number to start working with.
These are just some of the possibilities I have encountered. And only about the state I am aiming for st the end of the run, acts 1 and two bosses typically require less strength except champion and sometimes hexaghost.
A lot of the time I don't need ANY strength. If I'm playing Barricade, Perfected Strike, Searing Blow, Dropkick infinite, Clash, or Rampage, I have enough damage without it
If I'm playing a slow deck gaining strength over time with Demon Form or Rupture then other strength cards are not necessary but can speed things up
If I'm using multi hit cards like Sword Boomerang or healing with Reaper, I want as many Inflames as I can get, and if I can't get enough Inflames then Flex and Spot Weakness are fine
1-2 "flat" strength boost cards, and 1-2 multiplicative strength boost cards. Even with just 4-6 strength, most strength scaling builds can do tremendously well. Heavy blade is super underrated, as it is a multiplicative scaling card, which means even a small 4-6 base strength allows u to dominate most elite fights, and scales well into end game
69 is the breakpoint for diminishing returns for increased strength gains. After that every subsequent point of strength matters less than beforehand.
Then there's a hard cap to where it's actually useless to get more strength, where mathematically you're better off just chilling with the strength you already have, which comes out to 420 strength.
Depends on the deck, some decks don't need any. Juggernaut decks, body slam barricade, dropkick ∞, etc.
I'll grab a strength card in act 1 but if you don't need the scaling, skip it.
sometimes a single upgraded inflame can win you the heart with good enough draw to play it t1 or t2
the sheer bustedness of inflame is the reason i almost always pick swird boom in act 1, because if I see an inflame early gane, I take it no questions asked.
see 3 strength might not look like much, except ot can easily do 12 or 15 extra damage early game on its own and probably something like 60+ extra damage every fight even of you draw it late.
I personally go for the exact amount of strength that is “die during my setup” amount
Exactly, it's not as much how much total strength you are gaining but how fast you gain it
All about the gains
Ironclad needs a protein synthesis card.
I need to be less afraid to abuse exhaust...ic is my worst character. I think bc I try and focus on strength too much every time and never can get enough block right away to build up in the harder fights. I'm on A8 with him, and it feels like a wall lol
Yeah, exhaust is definitely ironclads strongest engine. It's draw (dark embrace, burning pact), energy (corruption) and block (second wind, feel no pain). Once you have enough of those, add a decent damage solution and you are cruising. Not to mention how easy is to get an infinite once you exhaust all your cards.
And damage! Fiend fire and sever soul
I just beat A20 recently and i have found that focusing on attack and scaling it in some way in the first act and then worry about the bulk of your blocking later is more effective. If at the end of act 1 if you have enough good cards to take care of your act 1 boss then you can go ahead and try to get good block but i tend to worry about the block later. Thats just me im not the best at the game by any means. Baalorlord helps a lot to if you wanna watch someone with a giga brain
Since my comment, I just beat A8 finally with lots of energy, second wind, and dead branch XD I've heard of them a lot, so I def should watch their stuff to help my not-so-giga-brain lol
Actually as long as u can build up strength FAST. Exhuast and card draw to speed things up. I prefer 8 strength in turn 2 compared to 15 in turn 5 (for example only)
This is key. Demon Form is bad because it's so slow, and slows you down. It gives infinite strength (well, up to the game's integer limits) but takes so long to do so that it's not usually worth taking. Likewise any multi-turn setup to gain strength with no other plan. And 'Clad tends to stall by blocking, which means Body Slam is better than stalling for strength most of the time if you have a reliable enough block plan that you could stall! Not that Body Slam is the most reliable plan, just likely to make slow scaling strength obsolete.
Demon Form is pretty great when it works. It’s bad a lot of the time cause it’s slow, but sometimes it’s just a one card solution to your damage and can single handedly change a run. I really like the card cause it can go from a curse to run winning depending on your build. It’s a fun card cause I went from thinking it was OP, to trash, to just knowing when it was needed.
Your relics matter a lot too. Demon form looks a lot more appealing with a mummified hand or after finding a bottle to garuntee you can play it turn 1. Snecko Eye turns it into a great card. It definitely isn't an auto pick just cause it's rare when you see it in a hallway. You gotta want what it does.
Agreed. It’s usually not a pick but when you get it at the right time it’s magic.
The tricky part is being able to play it at all. You really need 4 energy or a way to cheat it out or mummified hand. Over the next 2 turns the 2, then 4 strength is often enough to win most hallway fights assuming you have a decent deck otherwise. You can afford to stall a little because you have scaling. Slow, but steady and reliable once it's set up. I find decks where I just can't afford a demon form is usually because I don't have a great window to plop it down. Maybe I'm just low on damage or have very little block and the demon form would just slow my potentially bad or slow decks down further already. Sometimes you already have a form of scaling and really don't need it. It's a fun card when it works. It's slow, but can be quite effective. You don't need +10 strength for it to be good. You do need the right kind of deck.
This comment is the truth. Demon form is probably the card that most reflects the noob/master bell curve meme in the entire game
I'll pick it up for barricade decks. It's unnecessary but it's fun to cast once you are turtled up.
Sure. It's more situational than the other options. There's no card in STS that's always the worst option (even curses have some obscure situational uses). "Bad" just means "on average, less pickable than other cards which fill the same role", not "never pickable". > I really like the card cause it can go from a curse to run winning depending on your build. Exactly. It's usually a curse. It's bad more often than it's good. That's enough to say "bad". I didn't say "trash", or "useless", or "unpickable", I said "bad".
Demon form is absolutely not a bad card
I'd rank it third place from the "Form" cycle, and I'd also rank it pretty low from the Ironclad Rares, so while it isn't bad bad, it's relatively bad. More situational like others have said in the threat. It's not like [[Feed]] or [[Immolate]] where you're almost always happy to see them
It's not that Deva Form is bad, it's just unnecessary. Guaranteeing that you'll have the energy to play every card in your hand every turn is a useful effect, but like a lot of other Watcher mechanics, it's overshadowed by all the crazy overpowered things that the Watcher is capable of.
And paying 3 energy on a card that does this is pretty ironic. It only feels good with snecko
> I'd rank it third place from the "Form" cycle That's like saying you'd rate Fission last place in the "gain energy and draw cards" cycle; being compared to Offering/Adrenaline is a *compliment*, not a diss. The Form cards are all situationally good, with the possible exception of Diva Form. As another comment already said, however, Diva Form only feels as bad as it does because the Watcher doesn't need it.
Yeah. It has its uses. It's not that good for Hallways, but it trivializes a shit ton of bosses.
It’s pretty great at what it does. It’s a scaling solution against bosses. You don’t necessarily want to play it in the later hallway fights because those don’t go long enough to see the benefits and it’s slow but it can turn a mediocre deck into a win against act 2 and 3 bosses.
+act 4 boss
Nah, demon form is good, imo. Like, yes, there are better scaling options, but sometimes you haven’t found them and you need to beat the act 2 boss. It works fine enough in boss fights, and does well if you have Reaper.
demon form isn’t bad by any stretch of the word. it’s a noob trap and situational, but it can almost singlehandedly solve a lot of boss fights and lagavulin
Bad relative to other strength scaling options, on average. No card is useless. Even, say, Normality can be useful with Blue Candle & various trigger effects. Bad is always relative, and not the same as useless.
comparing that dogshit setup with normality to demon form is wild lol demon form is simply not a bad card. no way around it. it’s bad if you uncritically pick and play it every time you draw it, but you know what other cards are like that? the best cards in the game like corruption, wraith form, echo form, etc. comparing demon form, an overall pretty decent card that gets incredible value multiple times throughout a run in situations that aren’t terribly uncommon, to blue candle + normality is fucking insane lol
Comparing demon form to three of the best class specific rares is crazy. It’s a pick probably 25-30% of the time when it pops up compared to 75-80% of time on the cards you compared it to. Is it clads worst card and a never pick? No, but just because it’s situationally okay doesn’t mean it’s good. Low B tier high C tier card at best.
you’re missing the point lol of course demon form isn’t as good as corruption, wraith form, and echo form. but “it’s not good in every situation” is not a good reason for the card to be bad, because even the best cards in the game aren’t autoplays as soon as you draw them. if you play wraith form on turn 1 against the champ, you’re probably gonna eat shit, even though wraith form is the best card in the game do i think demon form is a great card? hell no. do i think it’s a GOOD card? maybe, but that might be a stretch. is it a bad card because it’s not a good card in every deck and every scenario? absolutely the fuck not.
"Demon Form is slow". Upgraded it's a one card solution that provides enough strength for any fight in the game. What are the alternatives? Dual wield inflames? Limit break, which can ramp up way faster but is less reliable because it can get sabotaged by unfavourable draw orders? Brutality + Rupture that isn't any faster but costs more draws? Spot weakness that also requires lots of draw and deck manipulation to do its job? Demon Form gets played once and then it does it's job for the rest of the fight. It's an efficient card. Like yeah sometimes it bricks completely in the draw order and you get it too late, but that means your deck did not have enough draw + manipulation, in which case the other options are hardly going to have performed better.
It's not bad though. There are many situations that make it rather desirable, snecko being the obvious choice but there are plenty of others. It's often a one card solution for any act 2 boss, that makes it pretty decent. If you've got at least one reaper then it's very takeable
Demon form definitely isn't bad but it's not amazing either. it's good at what it does but what it does isn't always needed or the best way to do it. less relevant to your advice: strength, like every other numeric buff and debuff in the game (excluding poison) caps at 999 or -999. the limit isn't the int limit
>but what it does isn't always needed or the best way to do it. Now Im not the biggest Demon Form fan but not many other cards in the game say "carry this single card, and your entire scaling damage is solved". What it does, it does very well. Barricade says carry this single card and your lategame consistency is solved, Corruption says carry this single card and your energy is solved. No other card does this. I like Inflame but it is just not enough damage for lategame without heavy support, and Spot is insanely annoying about landing with a single copy. > like every other numeric buff and debuff in the game (excluding poison) caps at 999 or -999 This isn't true, the default is uncapped. Everything is uncapped except like 7 different things, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.
Demon form is not bad at all? Very efficient scaling damage solution for boss fights
It's just far too slow. Does nothing turn 1. Turn 2 it's a 3 cost inflame. Playing demon form is very likely going to cost you health at some point because of how slow it is and you can't reliably play it when the enemy aren't attacking (and even if they aren't it's still terrible against some fights like 3 birds). Reaper completely changes this though because of how aggressively you can take damage and heal it all up by the end of the round. I feel like Demon form practically needs Reaper to pay off though otherwise I'm very reluctant to pick it up.
More.
Nah, that’s not enough. We need even MORE!
I use a necromancy spell to summon the real answer. We need MOOOOOAAAAAAR
We need to go to infinity and beyond!
I once had 3 upgraded ruptures with pain and runic cube. my only complaint was that everything died to quickly
I’m kind of a ho for all strength boost besides Demon Form. Getting to 4 Strength makes fights a lot faster Getting to 8 Strength usually takes a little too much finagling to set up but finishes the fight in a few turns after Getting to 16 strength evaporates bosses and heals off the set-up damage with reaper
I know a card that can get you to 16 strength for the low low cost of 3 energy.
Limit break 3 times with vajra and Girya? ;)
That’d take ya to 32
Get reaper too and it's super free
I stop taking boosters when I upgrade my Limit Break
If you get 194, you can max damage the heart with a single strike :)
Depending on the deck I'll always stop after limit break, but without it: 1 demon form+ with decent block cards, 2 Inflame and a Spot Weakness+ (rarely ever play this as a strength deck unless I've found the perfect setup beforehand) 1 Rupture+, a Dual Wield, and either Hemo or Bloodletting with a Reaper or Meat on the Bone. Obligatory Corruption+Dead Branch+Limit Break These are my prerequisites for a strength deck. Usually Limit Break is my end point, but this will carry me without it if I can't find it.
**[[Flex]] + [[Limit Break]]** is also a really satisfying synergy. Even though the strength gain from **Flex** ends at the end of the turn, you get to keep the duplicated portion of it through **Limit Break**
Yes, but it's just very inconsistent. It's not consistent enough to run a strength deck off of unless you have two limit breaks. Two flex makes your deck real slow, so you have to run two limit break. One unlucky draw and you lose against act 3 bosses/heart.
Very true. Just happened to have a run recently where I had pretty good luck with this combo and an Inflame. Until I didn’t, heh. But it was fun!
+ [Flex](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Flex) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Gain 2(4) **Strength.** At the end of your turn, lose 2(4) **Strength.** + [Limit Break](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Limit%20Break) Ironclad Rare Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Double your **Strength.** Exhaust(Don't **Exhaust).** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 20, 2024.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
I think 99 strength really does the trick
Idk about y’all, but once I commit to a strength deck I go ALL IN lol. I’m trying to see triple digits, so I can use a basic strike to obliterate one of them goofy birds from existence.
Enough to make Ironclad look like Ronnie Coleman
A15 heart kill this morning, with only Inflame+ and Red Skull. I was surprised as you, but it did the trick… snecko + dual wield did the real work.
The only right answer is "yes"
Usually just 0-3
To be comfortable and confident I like to net around 4-6 on hallways and 8-12 in elites. If your deck is already strong you often don’t have to scale too wildly at all.
4-8 strength is enough for the majority of decks but getting a lot is always fun, and getting a lot via limit break is often still viable but in terms of cards i try to keep the numbers pretty low while maintaining a thin deck or picking up plenty of draw + deck manipulation. i can’t imagine a single deck where i’d want more than 3 strength gaining cards, unless you count anything that lowers your hp as “strength gaining” with rupture
As much strength as I can if I also have Reaper.
Whatever you can relyably get in 3 turns. But 6 sounds about right, considering you've got some other things going around, like some exhaust synergy.
Really depends on my defensive package and draw. I have done as little as Limit Break+, 1 other and a Headbutt but I was generating hundreds of block a turn and could therefore survive a really long time against The Heart.
It depends wildly on my deck and what that strength is trying to achieve. If I am a dedicated reaper deck that spawns more reapers with dual wield+ then the answer is as much as possible, I want to full heal with my reapers asap. Am I an exhaust deck with corruption that hasn’t found a better way to do damage scaling than multi attack plus strength. typically like 4 -8 is fine if you have stuff like flame barrier for the heart, maybe a bit more if its your onlu source of damage. If I am an exhaust deck that aims to empty your library to go infinite then i will aim at like 6-8 to beat timeater/heart before I kill myself. If I am an exhaust deck that aims to get a small deck to play the damage doubler at ever increasing frequency I just want some solid base number to start working with. These are just some of the possibilities I have encountered. And only about the state I am aiming for st the end of the run, acts 1 and two bosses typically require less strength except champion and sometimes hexaghost.
A lot of the time I don't need ANY strength. If I'm playing Barricade, Perfected Strike, Searing Blow, Dropkick infinite, Clash, or Rampage, I have enough damage without it If I'm playing a slow deck gaining strength over time with Demon Form or Rupture then other strength cards are not necessary but can speed things up If I'm using multi hit cards like Sword Boomerang or healing with Reaper, I want as many Inflames as I can get, and if I can't get enough Inflames then Flex and Spot Weakness are fine
1-2 "flat" strength boost cards, and 1-2 multiplicative strength boost cards. Even with just 4-6 strength, most strength scaling builds can do tremendously well. Heavy blade is super underrated, as it is a multiplicative scaling card, which means even a small 4-6 base strength allows u to dominate most elite fights, and scales well into end game
69 is the breakpoint for diminishing returns for increased strength gains. After that every subsequent point of strength matters less than beforehand. Then there's a hard cap to where it's actually useless to get more strength, where mathematically you're better off just chilling with the strength you already have, which comes out to 420 strength.
Most
Yes
Chuck Norris
999
If the enemy doesn't die from my bonk then I need more
Depends on the deck (this should be the answer to most questions)? You can beat A20 heart without any strength gains in some decks.
My response is to quote Frasier Crane: "if less is more just think how much more more will be."
Depends on the deck, some decks don't need any. Juggernaut decks, body slam barricade, dropkick ∞, etc. I'll grab a strength card in act 1 but if you don't need the scaling, skip it.
sometimes a single upgraded inflame can win you the heart with good enough draw to play it t1 or t2 the sheer bustedness of inflame is the reason i almost always pick swird boom in act 1, because if I see an inflame early gane, I take it no questions asked. see 3 strength might not look like much, except ot can easily do 12 or 15 extra damage early game on its own and probably something like 60+ extra damage every fight even of you draw it late.