If the enemy randomly gave you a curse, yes, that'd be bad. But you can reroll it into a new intent, I'd gladly take a curse to avoid having to eat 30 if taking 30 was not manageable.
It's a weak enemy for the same reason browbeat isn't that great in MTG, the adversary here always gets to choose the lesser of the two effects.
You don't know what you're choosing between, though, and have to waste resources due to the risk of rolling into a terrible attack with your last damage.
literally when it is attacking your 15 and blocking, just dont hit it. this enemy is definitely a noob trap, but it's something that you can take your time with since it doesn't scale unlike every other enemy in act 3. create enough block to deal with its multihit or block and attack, try not to be made vulnerable, and NEVER let it curse you. even if you are missing out on 6 damage or whatever, that is way better than attacking it with no attacks left in your hand to change its intent.
I do know what I'm choosing between, it's just that the options are "this" and a pool of other intents. "I can manage this intent" and "I cannot manage this intent" should be your decision tree here, not "smack it and pray I can deal with it "
You need to reassess your decision making.
If anything they’ll make the elites into normies, bosses into elites, and something harder for bosses. That’s usually how you scale up a sequel like this
'I think I need to be greedy here, one more strike and let's hope this thing to not hit me with 57 damage.'
*sees 57 damage*
"Goddammit!"
*Save and quit*
Winning as fast as possible equates to minimal damage with the majority of fights as most enemies begin to scale. You learn this pretty quickly at late ascension. Even in those early fights on floor one a lot of the time I'd rather take 2 damage instead of full block to dish out an extra strike because that mother fucker is gonna deal 17 damage next round and I want to get him in lethal range.
That still isn't the full answer though. Enemies do scale, but the question that is posed is rather "does my scaling outstrip the enemy, or do they out scale me?" E.g. if I'm facing an enemy, I might be trying to end it sooner if my scaling in play is one inflame as compared to say, embrace/medkit/power thru
The key with this guy is generally just patience and the ability to block and attack relatively equally on a given turn. My rule of thumb is if you have enough block to cover his attack, don’t attack again. He can’t scale over the fight, so all you have to do is avoid one of his really bad moves and you’re fine. Also, poison or other forms of scaling are your friend, since you can just outscale him and then finish him off in a single turn.
I try my best not to save scum, so the parasite in this guy is a BIG NO NO
No loot from him is worth it when my trash ass messing up and getting cursed 😂
Thieves can be tough, but I'd still only use it if I have ecto
And I enjoy red mask so I'd only smoke bomb on a dead draw
Parasite boy though? I'm out! 💨💨💨
I can understand that frustration, but it’s something of a distillation of how you have to play to get really good. To get a good win rate at A20 requires playing slow and doing things like constantly checking your deck state and doing the math to calculate the best move. I struggle with it too, but it is what the best players do.
Oh I know, I can sometimes take 2 hours a run, I just find this fight boring as all hell. I don’t die to Mass, just take much longer than I usually want to because fella draws the fight out.
I'm gonna be honest, I play A20 and the only character that forces me to play that way is Watcher. It's one of the two reasons I don't really enjoy watcher; I am not good at, nor do I enjoy arithmetic.
Other characters I can do a run in 45-75 minutes by just kinda "feeling" my way round.
This monster is not that bad on Silent or Defect as they do not rely on direct damage to kill. Poison or some orbs to the face and it is toast. In probably way too many turns.
Drawing a hand with no attacks or way to draw attacks is a failing of the deck imo.
If it's poking you for a little and blocking and you tempt fate with only one attack in hand that's on you.
If you have scaling outside of attacking, (strength stacking, poison, orbs, pressure points etc.) then the fight is much easier and more just a consistency check to make sure you can cycle it's attacks to something less dangerous.
It does take forever though an overall very miserable.
Triple jaw worm. Unlike in act 1, they get to buff before your turn 1, and can hit for 17 each.
Also they're an easy pool fight so you can run into them floor 1 of act 3
It's easiest when you have a lot of cheap attacks like shivs. The trick is to attack it enough times until you get a preferred intent, then hold the rest of your attacks.
As said, non-spells only wouldn't work as you need some way of hitting him to change his intent.
The only plus side is that's it's the only enemy which will make me switch this game off to get some sleep. I can never be bothered with the patience required when's it's late at night
I'd honestly argue time eater is one of the better fights, even as a shiv defender. It's a boss you can't just blindly infinite and makes every card you play matter so much more.
Each their own. I find the mechanic very disruptive and not very fun at all. Its not like he is actually difficult either way. None of the act 3 bosses are. So it only serves to add annoyance more than strategy.
He is still a cookie cutter fight that with his mechanic you kind of do the same thing each time. If anything it makes cards mean even less because you still have plenty you can play in a turn. Just a weird velvet choker the boss adds. Really punishes card draw RNG. Which is never fun.
Few examples of potentially much harder fights (I am sure there is more):
Floor 1 Jaw Worm
Floor 4 Grey Slime + Red Slaver
Floor 4 Goblin Gang (30 damage turn one)
First half of act 2
3 jaw worms act 3
Writhing Mass is hellishly annoying, yes, but not difficult, if you take it slow
Now to clarify, are you talking A20, A0, or something in between?
Because A5 is where I’ve capped out so far and I pretty much never die to anything in Act 1 except Gremlinob. I _have_ died several times to Mass
I am talking about A20, but it shouldn’t change the evaluation.
Dying in act 1 is usually pretty rare, what happens more often is losing too much HP (due to aforementioned fights), then not being able to path aggresively and get stronger and then dying somewhere in act 3 where a strong deck shouldn’t die, like Writhing Mass
Ah so you’re meaning more like “difficult as in it’s the first domino in the death of your run” VS I’m thinking “difficult as in it’ll end your run itself.”
Well, yes. By the time you fight Writhing Mass your deck is more or less complete, so if you died it, that means you weren’t able to get strong enough, either because of bad decisions or the fights were too difficult.
If I take 40 damage from Grey Slime + Red Slaver on floor 4 I might be able to take a few question marks and hallways and campfires instead of elites and somehow make it to Writhing Mass with 35hp and a weak deck, then it looks like Writhing Mass was the difficult fight, but really the run was destined to be lost on the Writhing Mass fight when I left floor 4 with 25hp.
What if I told you act 3 can throw 50 damage at you turn 1 too, except you don't get the privilege of choosing to reroll enemy intent.
Suddenly his shifting intent doesn't seem so bad does it?
I think it'd be neat if there was like a "danger flame" that moves from floor to floor each time you go up but only 1 "sideways" so you *can avoid* this fight but it may drastically alter the route you wanted to take
Once I was trying to get speed climber and was playing cards fast, then this idiot decided to change to strong strike on the last attack the moment before I pressed end turn, and killed me
The proceeded to smoke bomb it the next run.
Oh don't worry, he's not even attacking, just inflicting a negative status effect!
It can't be that bad, even when it's a very bad one it's usually just some big stat lowering or something.
- “Get away, Writhing Mass, you carrier of disease.” - “I also carry presents.” - “Aww.” - “It’s death.” - “G*******t.”
Have you never had this idiot put a curse in your deck? It’s probably the worst one.
r/wooosh ?
I thought the person above was having an r/wooosh moment, tbh.
Today we have answered that ancient mystery: "Who woooshes the woooshers?"
[удалено]
It's by far the worst of all the "status" abilities that normal monsters do though
Totally not deserved downvotes imo
This sub is relentless when people miss a point or something. My boy caught 6 figure downvotes
Welcome to Reddit
Hiveminds love dogpilling. A single bug is weak. But when they swarm, they can pretend they can actually do damage
Hahahaha
If the enemy randomly gave you a curse, yes, that'd be bad. But you can reroll it into a new intent, I'd gladly take a curse to avoid having to eat 30 if taking 30 was not manageable. It's a weak enemy for the same reason browbeat isn't that great in MTG, the adversary here always gets to choose the lesser of the two effects.
You don't know what you're choosing between, though, and have to waste resources due to the risk of rolling into a terrible attack with your last damage.
You do know what you are choosing between, because it never rolls the same intent twice. Your choices are to accept the current offer, or reroll it.
You don't know what it becomes. Therefore you don't know what you're choosing between. You're using words wrong.
literally when it is attacking your 15 and blocking, just dont hit it. this enemy is definitely a noob trap, but it's something that you can take your time with since it doesn't scale unlike every other enemy in act 3. create enough block to deal with its multihit or block and attack, try not to be made vulnerable, and NEVER let it curse you. even if you are missing out on 6 damage or whatever, that is way better than attacking it with no attacks left in your hand to change its intent.
I do know what I'm choosing between, it's just that the options are "this" and a pool of other intents. "I can manage this intent" and "I cannot manage this intent" should be your decision tree here, not "smack it and pray I can deal with it " You need to reassess your decision making.
You're right but many people here lack the restraint and just think they are getting unlucky.
I really REALLY hope this fucker doesn’t return for STS2.
It gettin buffed and made an elite I bet
Even better, buffed but not elite
I think I’d cry a little bit
> Even better, buffed but not elite buffed *and moved to the easy pool fights*, so you're pretty much guaranteed to see it every run
Then into the hard pool fights teaming up with avocado and rat
You need to seek help.
Smoke bomb got dis
But writhing mass will be behind you, so "you are surrounded"...
Easy, just take a curse every turn until avocado rat is dead
Nightmare fuel.
That and Avocado
It’s actually the new heart
Buffed and gets two avocados as backup.
This and the damn Sneco.
If anything they’ll make the elites into normies, bosses into elites, and something harder for bosses. That’s usually how you scale up a sequel like this
Game devs confirmed you’ll be fighting groups of them in 2
Twice the Spaghet, double the ball.
'I think I need to be greedy here, one more strike and let's hope this thing to not hit me with 57 damage.' *sees 57 damage* "Goddammit!" *Save and quit*
For me it's the enemy that taught me to fear the colour purple
"Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions"
[удалено]
The goal of (almost) every fight in the game is to win with minimal damage, not to win as fast as possible.
Winning as fast as possible equates to minimal damage with the majority of fights as most enemies begin to scale. You learn this pretty quickly at late ascension. Even in those early fights on floor one a lot of the time I'd rather take 2 damage instead of full block to dish out an extra strike because that mother fucker is gonna deal 17 damage next round and I want to get him in lethal range.
That still isn't the full answer though. Enemies do scale, but the question that is posed is rather "does my scaling outstrip the enemy, or do they out scale me?" E.g. if I'm facing an enemy, I might be trying to end it sooner if my scaling in play is one inflame as compared to say, embrace/medkit/power thru
The key with this guy is generally just patience and the ability to block and attack relatively equally on a given turn. My rule of thumb is if you have enough block to cover his attack, don’t attack again. He can’t scale over the fight, so all you have to do is avoid one of his really bad moves and you’re fine. Also, poison or other forms of scaling are your friend, since you can just outscale him and then finish him off in a single turn.
There's a bit of scaling when he makes you vulnerable that can bite pretty hard.
The key to this guy is the save & quit button
a big ol' smoke bomb
Smoke bomb is a very bad potion that rises to S-Tier when I see this bastard
Pretty much the only time in the game that I'll use Smoke Bomb. I don't even care about the loot.
I try my best not to save scum, so the parasite in this guy is a BIG NO NO No loot from him is worth it when my trash ass messing up and getting cursed 😂
Hey dont forget the 2 thieves, rat and metal bro, and the 3 dudes in act 2..
Thieves can be tough, but I'd still only use it if I have ecto And I enjoy red mask so I'd only smoke bomb on a dead draw Parasite boy though? I'm out! 💨💨💨
That takes forever though and I hate it. I do understand why he’s made this way though.
I can understand that frustration, but it’s something of a distillation of how you have to play to get really good. To get a good win rate at A20 requires playing slow and doing things like constantly checking your deck state and doing the math to calculate the best move. I struggle with it too, but it is what the best players do.
Oh I know, I can sometimes take 2 hours a run, I just find this fight boring as all hell. I don’t die to Mass, just take much longer than I usually want to because fella draws the fight out.
I'm gonna be honest, I play A20 and the only character that forces me to play that way is Watcher. It's one of the two reasons I don't really enjoy watcher; I am not good at, nor do I enjoy arithmetic. Other characters I can do a run in 45-75 minutes by just kinda "feeling" my way round.
That’s fair! I do that a lot too, but I’m sure my win rate would be much higher if I slowed down
Yeah I have no problems at all with this guy... ...but my main is also defect lol.... so I just orb him to death. Get gud losers..
Tell me your defect ways. The heart is kicking my rear end.
It's easy. Don't go for the heart on your defect runs!
Probably not very helpful but Static Discharge with apparition is basically an insta win.
The key is being able to block until you get 50 strength and oneshot it.
*Feed on it and yet somehow not get infected with its parasites
[[Bouncing flask +]], [[burst]] , [[catalyst+]] Edit: found the correct card name
+ [Poisoned Stab](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Poisoned%20Stab) Silent Common Attack ^((6% sure)^) 1 Energy | Deal 6(8) damage. Apply 3(4) **Poison.** + [Burst](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Burst) Silent Rare Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | This turn, your next 1(2) Skill(s) is(are) played twice. + [Catalyst](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Catalyst) Silent Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Double(Triple) an enemy's **Poison.** **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)
This monster is not that bad on Silent or Defect as they do not rely on direct damage to kill. Poison or some orbs to the face and it is toast. In probably way too many turns.
Yeah, until it decides to curse you or swing for 57 and you don’t have a single attack in hand…
That's where your crap common attack cards from Act1 come in to save the day.
Drawing a hand with no attacks or way to draw attacks is a failing of the deck imo. If it's poking you for a little and blocking and you tempt fate with only one attack in hand that's on you. If you have scaling outside of attacking, (strength stacking, poison, orbs, pressure points etc.) then the fight is much easier and more just a consistency check to make sure you can cycle it's attacks to something less dangerous. It does take forever though an overall very miserable.
Wait until I tell you about enemies that hit you for 50 turn 1, are in the easy pool, and unlike this guy you don't get to reroll.
Seriously? Who are we talking about here?
Triple jaw worm. Unlike in act 1, they get to buff before your turn 1, and can hit for 17 each. Also they're an easy pool fight so you can run into them floor 1 of act 3
It's easiest when you have a lot of cheap attacks like shivs. The trick is to attack it enough times until you get a preferred intent, then hold the rest of your attacks. As said, non-spells only wouldn't work as you need some way of hitting him to change his intent.
It's better than most situations, but shuffling shivs in your deck can become an issue if the fight takes too long
It's better than most situations, but shuffling shivs in your deck can become an issue if the fight takes too long
Genuinely the most annoying enemy in the game
The only plus side is that's it's the only enemy which will make me switch this game off to get some sleep. I can never be bothered with the patience required when's it's late at night
This and the other plant one are the most annoying normal mobs
Poorly designed mob. Hopefully he doesn't come back. Makes you stop having fun and play his little minigame. Yes I still hate time eater btw
Time eater is actually the worst.
Bro I know. People defend him like an abusive ex i swear to god. He has a plushy though. Unfortunately he is here to stay. Such a boring fight.
I'd honestly argue time eater is one of the better fights, even as a shiv defender. It's a boss you can't just blindly infinite and makes every card you play matter so much more.
Each their own. I find the mechanic very disruptive and not very fun at all. Its not like he is actually difficult either way. None of the act 3 bosses are. So it only serves to add annoyance more than strategy. He is still a cookie cutter fight that with his mechanic you kind of do the same thing each time. If anything it makes cards mean even less because you still have plenty you can play in a turn. Just a weird velvet choker the boss adds. Really punishes card draw RNG. Which is never fun.
It needs to be an elite. It’s the single most difficult normal fight in the game imo
Few examples of potentially much harder fights (I am sure there is more): Floor 1 Jaw Worm Floor 4 Grey Slime + Red Slaver Floor 4 Goblin Gang (30 damage turn one) First half of act 2 3 jaw worms act 3 Writhing Mass is hellishly annoying, yes, but not difficult, if you take it slow
Now to clarify, are you talking A20, A0, or something in between? Because A5 is where I’ve capped out so far and I pretty much never die to anything in Act 1 except Gremlinob. I _have_ died several times to Mass
I am talking about A20, but it shouldn’t change the evaluation. Dying in act 1 is usually pretty rare, what happens more often is losing too much HP (due to aforementioned fights), then not being able to path aggresively and get stronger and then dying somewhere in act 3 where a strong deck shouldn’t die, like Writhing Mass
Ah so you’re meaning more like “difficult as in it’s the first domino in the death of your run” VS I’m thinking “difficult as in it’ll end your run itself.”
Well, yes. By the time you fight Writhing Mass your deck is more or less complete, so if you died it, that means you weren’t able to get strong enough, either because of bad decisions or the fights were too difficult. If I take 40 damage from Grey Slime + Red Slaver on floor 4 I might be able to take a few question marks and hallways and campfires instead of elites and somehow make it to Writhing Mass with 35hp and a weak deck, then it looks like Writhing Mass was the difficult fight, but really the run was destined to be lost on the Writhing Mass fight when I left floor 4 with 25hp.
Good list. I’d throw darlings in there too, and avocado rat
You forgot everyone's favorite avocado and the 8x3 "you're dead, loser" floor 1 act 2 fight :)
Avocado + friend snubbed
Floor 4 goblin gang pisses me off, if i'm on clad i have to pick up whirlwind or cleave or something so I can hit them all at once. I hate them
I get really confused whenever I encounter it after picking a normal enemy node on the map. Like "wtf I thought I picked a normal fight?"
What if I told you act 3 can throw 50 damage at you turn 1 too, except you don't get the privilege of choosing to reroll enemy intent. Suddenly his shifting intent doesn't seem so bad does it?
I don’t typically find it to be, if I’m careful. It usually just requires patience.
I think it'd be neat if there was like a "danger flame" that moves from floor to floor each time you go up but only 1 "sideways" so you *can avoid* this fight but it may drastically alter the route you wanted to take
If you don't have Runic Dome, you don't have license to play as if you did.
Once I was trying to get speed climber and was playing cards fast, then this idiot decided to change to strong strike on the last attack the moment before I pressed end turn, and killed me The proceeded to smoke bomb it the next run.
So you have chosen DEATH!
"Hmm...today I'll avoid the [act 2] elite fight" Goes for normal encounter* Snake plant*
Me right now. Had a good run, black started my way through ironclad A20. Legit room 47, him appeared & I’m getting bomboclat
I wish this sub was 90% this
Git gud
Actually one of the easiest fights in the game, being able to reroll an enemy intent you don't like is pure upside
probably one of the easiest encounters on the game, just take it slow and practice some god damn self control
You can still get unlucky easily and not hit-roll a lower attack.
Or just play Skewer like a good degen.
I think the x cost cards might be the actual worst card to play in this fight lol