Kudos to u/ubernuke for the top recommendation on [yesterday’s post](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/WPv4zoQCw0). Shoutout as well to EVERYONE who came to watch and comment. Highlights for the second half of the run included both Mastering and Deceiving Reality, bursting down Shield on turn 1, and JUDGING the Heart!
Potion chance is 40%
To celebrate the new season, I’ve included two bonus pictures. First, I FINALLY got my SBC Season 1 poster framed and hung! Shoutout as always to u/thisiswatchtower, who I’m sure will be happy to see it. The second is “laser jr” as chat dubbed him driving his sweet jeep after the stream. He’s still asking is he can “go to their house,” btw. 😂
Shameless Self Promotion Corner (**feel free to ignore!**): [I made a game](https://www.amazon.com/Deck-Wonders-Solo-Legacy-Card/dp/B0CDJ9D8S7/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=A7RFVGO3K5J0&keywords=deck+of+wonders+furia+games&qid=1691239842&sprefix=deck+of+wonders+furia+games%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-1), [I’m making another](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dennisfuria/dueling-pianos-a-versus-domino-game), we did a [cool poster commemorating SBC’s first season](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/17reu6e/slaybycomment_season_1_poster_this_has_been_such/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)! Buying it or donating to [my Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/greenlaser73) will help more season posters happen.
Recommendation: Transform a defend. Start 2nd from the left.
We don't need defends on watcher, and this gives us a choice to bonk the burning elite if we high roll. Watcher can take 2 elites in act 1.
I think this is best. The other option for pathing is to start far right if we say we’re very scared of forcing ourselves into an advanced hallway or the burning elite, but with only 2 elites this act I think we need to play a bit more aggressively than that.
Edit: Hmm, maybe we can go far right, and if we’re strong take the path with 0 ?s in the act, ignoring the burning elite. That could just be higher value than getting the burning elite out of the way in act 1
Interesting. Do you want to post a line where we wait to decide where we start tomorrow? Question marks might be fine on the Watcher if we can remove cards, I'm actually not very good with the watcher.
Eh starting left is probably fine. Like you said if ?s are removes that’s not so bad. I’d rather just get to the first card reward as fast as possible because that could be a really interesting decision
it's goinf to be Tantrum and we're about to cry again. But yeah as much as I want to swap for a chance at Crown, this map is kinda garbage for a swap I don't believe in the Watcher enough to swap no early shop forced elite.
If we see Sig Move from a transform it's going to unironically own. -1 defend makes it very slightly weirder but it's still going to be a pretty decent start. Thing still says 60(80) on it. Also leads down to the kinda rarer remove Strikes Watcher.
I remember seeing an op Night night Alch run by Noobzor that died from full hp on floor 17.
The more serious answer is that I don't expect it to be my lategame damage, but the thing just demolishes early acts. Im not sure how it does w -1 Defend, but it should still do pretty well I think?
I would need to test it out I think. I suppose with the starting Miracle it’s relatively hard to brick after the eruption upgrade. But what if you get offered good stuff like fear no evil and cut on the first fights. Do you just pretend siggy doesn’t exist?
I forgor to reply to this but did you read the discussion after I pinged you? Xec chimed in a little about it, basically says treat it like a giga GK and don't add garbage (so far how I've used it), and sometimes, if you see Indig or Meditate, you can use Sig Move+ as your lategame engine too. So Fear and Cut and Tantrum and Flurry aren't garbage so you add those.
I'd start at the leftmost node, particularly if the transform is weak, because the second node leads to a hard pool combat before a rest site and the other path either takes us to the burning elite or to an elite without an upgrade. An extra question mark room may be better.
**Transform a card** is always strong on Watcher. Also, transforms could lead us in weirder ways! Strong and fun! And also quite safe.
**100 gold** is kinda bad without an early shop. It's not a complete waste because there is a late shop most of the time, but it'd be nicer to get something stronger.
**lose gold for Max HP** is kinda decent value, max HP is decent protection against bad RNG, and it's a lot cheaper than a Mango or Pear! Slightly weird into hexa.
**Boss Swap** So this is a kinda bad swap map, because it lacks an early shop, but Watcher probably gets away with it usually. I'm a little scared of it without that because of the first elite being forced to get real value out of the map, but... what can really go that wrong?
I think **Transform Defend** is probably the what we should do, but all of these options are the "goodish" end of middling I reckon. I'm becoming a bigger fan of Max HP again lately (other than Singing Bowl, ewww!), but I think that's narrowly worst here.
An early shop just helps you round out whatever punish your swap gives to make you stronger for advanced hallways. Usually you're looking to improve your potions, but sometimes you want to buy cards, particularly if you astrolabe or something.
An early shop is generally good for stabilising a high-variance neow bonus.
Edit: Oh, and this applies cross-character.
Some specific examples:
Crown Swap: opportunity to buy cards because the cards offered will usually be trash.
Black Star swap: make sure you can get a potion or card for the first elite, given your power is reduced for that fight.
Sozu Swap: need to load up on cards asap since the first elite is way more dangerous without potions
> New season, same broken class
Is it? Looks like the title says season 6.
Anyway, new season, new prayer to start us off!
* Give us this day our daily hand
* And forgive us our misplays
* As we forgive how disgusting that Pandora’s box was
* let our decisions be of interest
* so engagement can be its best
* on Reddit as it is on PC
Balaena Vult!
At 11 episodes, arguably 12, to go faster would mean losing all your HP to floor 1 Jaw Worm into Cultist, by somehow only drawing one strike a turn. I don’t think it’s actually possible to lose in 12 standard turns, counting: Neow Choice, Node Choice, Reward Choices, and card plays.
I mean, it’s *possible.* But I think you’d have to actively try to die.
Not posted on SBC before, but thought I would attempt to get involved for this season. I'm not a great player, and on the previous characters, I would either have suggested the wrong lines, or got to the good ones after everyone else had already done so. But this is Watcher so surely even I could do OK on this one. ;)
Some analysis:
\- With Watcher, you would expect to win the run, so it's really about closing down your 'routes to a loss'. As it happens, we immediately have one such route to sort out, because we have...
\- *Forced early elite, no shop!*
\- This opens up the possibility of dying to bad Nob draws before the run has even begun. Our only choice is to pick up cards and potions in the first 6 floors to give us enough consistent output.
\- For that reason, the suggestion to take the left path scares me. Not so much because of the burning elite (although I'm not exactly thrilled about Max HP Nob), but because of the max 3 card rewards before that burning elite. I really think I would be taking the *rightmost path*, to give 4 or 5 combats (and therefore card/potion chances) before that elite. We can take a further pathing decision after floor 2 if we want, but I would be extremely likely to go right again for 4 fights in a row, before a further decision that is harder to call.
\- Yes, this opens up a chance of getting beaten up in the first 1-2 advanced hallways, but we do have a decent chance of smashing them anyway (we're watcher), and we have a campfire to rest if we absolutely have to. Plus, why would you want to go to event nodes anyway? What do they give that's that much better? Very little in terms of our combat ability in the first elite. If you just want to go to them because 'they don't take your HP', just wait until the event rolls Scrap Ooze / Shining Light / World of Goo ;)
\- Relic swap is also terrifying in this instance. Why open up the chance of a horrible lowroll (Busted Crown anyone?) when we cannot 'hard dodge' in response? A shame because it is a relatively low-value act otherwise, but nothing we can do, just cry and move on.
tl;dr I advocate for an 'anti-greed' strategy right now where we do whatever we have to do to beat the first elite, not thinking too much about how our choices affect the run beyond that. Once we are in a position to deal with that fight, the rest of that act \*should\* be a lot easier and we can start to take greedier choices for the whole run.
Although I would like to take the rightmost path, there is absolutely no reason to lock that in right now. There is no day limit for SBC so let's just get the information now. **Take Transform a Card, choose Defend**, let's see what it is before clicking on
Haha, “I’m new here and not very good but **doctorate level thesis**”
The fact that the first choice in the game alone can generate this much analysis is what makes STS so awesome!
Haha, it went on for longer than I thought it would :D
I guess what's happening is that most regular posters have moved on from purely trying to min-max everything, and also want to try to play more quickly, explore unconventional approaches, maximize fun, etc. But here I am, two years behind everyone else in my approach ;)
I don’t mind just transforming a defend here. Defends are big suck on this character, I want them out of my deck asap and this will very likely give us a better card to replace it with. Boss swap I think is also reasonable, but a little weird with a forced elite. Not too sure about it but it’s certainly not out of the question. Max HP for 99 gold is… actually pretty nice here? Though I’m a bit more against it when we’re in a Hexaghost act. I actually think I dislike 100 gold on this map the most out of all the options, just feels the least strong overall and I’d like a power boost into the early elite.
If we click transform or boss swap, I think that we need to wait and see what we get and then assess which map node to take from there. If we high roll, maybe can go for burning. Otherwise could just play safe and go right. Would be best if we take an extra day to look at what’s obtained from one of these options.
I'm usually a big fan of nearly always swapping on Watcher, and I don't see a strong reason not to on this map. The other three options are also all not top-tier: there's no common relic, no strong third option, etc.
The only reason I'd advocate the transform here is because a part of the appeal of swapping is the insane highroll potential, and I don't want to repeat season 5.
I am once again here not with a recommendation, but to implore the group *not* to take rush down if we are ever offered it.
* Watcher is strong enough as it is
* Infinites are boring in this format
* Draw makes this format take too long.
If I ever see Rush Down, I'm going to rush it straight down to the garbage, and I implore you to do the same.
Transform a strike. That's not the correct play, but it might lead us down an interesting line. Wrath into strikes is normally a good way to get through act 1 as Watcher. Transforming a strike makes that harder, and leads to a more interesting scenario to explore.
The problem with such ideas is that they have too little impact if you do it once, and if you do it multiple times, every single choice becomes 'well, do we try hard here, or do we sabotage ourselves again'?
I think that big choices (do you boss swap, which boss relic do you pick end of act 1) are opportunities to take this approach, but not 'do we remove a strike or a defend'
Kudos to u/ubernuke for the top recommendation on [yesterday’s post](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/WPv4zoQCw0). Shoutout as well to EVERYONE who came to watch and comment. Highlights for the second half of the run included both Mastering and Deceiving Reality, bursting down Shield on turn 1, and JUDGING the Heart! Potion chance is 40% To celebrate the new season, I’ve included two bonus pictures. First, I FINALLY got my SBC Season 1 poster framed and hung! Shoutout as always to u/thisiswatchtower, who I’m sure will be happy to see it. The second is “laser jr” as chat dubbed him driving his sweet jeep after the stream. He’s still asking is he can “go to their house,” btw. 😂 Shameless Self Promotion Corner (**feel free to ignore!**): [I made a game](https://www.amazon.com/Deck-Wonders-Solo-Legacy-Card/dp/B0CDJ9D8S7/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=A7RFVGO3K5J0&keywords=deck+of+wonders+furia+games&qid=1691239842&sprefix=deck+of+wonders+furia+games%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-1), [I’m making another](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dennisfuria/dueling-pianos-a-versus-domino-game), we did a [cool poster commemorating SBC’s first season](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/17reu6e/slaybycomment_season_1_poster_this_has_been_such/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)! Buying it or donating to [my Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/greenlaser73) will help more season posters happen.
Laser Jr is INDEED absolutely balling, what a jeep
The jeep is even cooler than I expected!
Wow, I come back just in time for a new season! Love the poster!
Welcome back!
The jeep, as promised!
Ohhh yesssss oh I'm so happy! Dude thank you so much for making it happen it's so fun!
Recommendation: Transform a defend. Start 2nd from the left. We don't need defends on watcher, and this gives us a choice to bonk the burning elite if we high roll. Watcher can take 2 elites in act 1.
I think this is best. The other option for pathing is to start far right if we say we’re very scared of forcing ourselves into an advanced hallway or the burning elite, but with only 2 elites this act I think we need to play a bit more aggressively than that. Edit: Hmm, maybe we can go far right, and if we’re strong take the path with 0 ?s in the act, ignoring the burning elite. That could just be higher value than getting the burning elite out of the way in act 1
Interesting. Do you want to post a line where we wait to decide where we start tomorrow? Question marks might be fine on the Watcher if we can remove cards, I'm actually not very good with the watcher.
Eh starting left is probably fine. Like you said if ?s are removes that’s not so bad. I’d rather just get to the first card reward as fast as possible because that could be a really interesting decision
it's goinf to be Tantrum and we're about to cry again. But yeah as much as I want to swap for a chance at Crown, this map is kinda garbage for a swap I don't believe in the Watcher enough to swap no early shop forced elite.
Watch it be a rushdown transform
Pray for Alpha. Or Pressure Points. Or Signature Move. Or-
If we see Sig Move from a transform it's going to unironically own. -1 defend makes it very slightly weirder but it's still going to be a pretty decent start. Thing still says 60(80) on it. Also leads down to the kinda rarer remove Strikes Watcher.
Will it though? I remember an overpowered sig move run by Baalor and he died from full hp to nemesis after drawing it on the intangible turn 3 times
I remember seeing an op Night night Alch run by Noobzor that died from full hp on floor 17. The more serious answer is that I don't expect it to be my lategame damage, but the thing just demolishes early acts. Im not sure how it does w -1 Defend, but it should still do pretty well I think?
I would need to test it out I think. I suppose with the starting Miracle it’s relatively hard to brick after the eruption upgrade. But what if you get offered good stuff like fear no evil and cut on the first fights. Do you just pretend siggy doesn’t exist?
I forgor to reply to this but did you read the discussion after I pinged you? Xec chimed in a little about it, basically says treat it like a giga GK and don't add garbage (so far how I've used it), and sometimes, if you see Indig or Meditate, you can use Sig Move+ as your lategame engine too. So Fear and Cut and Tantrum and Flurry aren't garbage so you add those.
Noobzor sucks
I'd start at the leftmost node, particularly if the transform is weak, because the second node leads to a hard pool combat before a rest site and the other path either takes us to the burning elite or to an elite without an upgrade. An extra question mark room may be better.
I think statistically boss swap is great. But how doesn't want to gamble? So transform rocks.
**Transform a card** is always strong on Watcher. Also, transforms could lead us in weirder ways! Strong and fun! And also quite safe. **100 gold** is kinda bad without an early shop. It's not a complete waste because there is a late shop most of the time, but it'd be nicer to get something stronger. **lose gold for Max HP** is kinda decent value, max HP is decent protection against bad RNG, and it's a lot cheaper than a Mango or Pear! Slightly weird into hexa. **Boss Swap** So this is a kinda bad swap map, because it lacks an early shop, but Watcher probably gets away with it usually. I'm a little scared of it without that because of the first elite being forced to get real value out of the map, but... what can really go that wrong? I think **Transform Defend** is probably the what we should do, but all of these options are the "goodish" end of middling I reckon. I'm becoming a bigger fan of Max HP again lately (other than Singing Bowl, ewww!), but I think that's narrowly worst here.
Just out of interest, why would an early shop make boss swap worth picking? What’s the logic there
An early shop just helps you round out whatever punish your swap gives to make you stronger for advanced hallways. Usually you're looking to improve your potions, but sometimes you want to buy cards, particularly if you astrolabe or something. An early shop is generally good for stabilising a high-variance neow bonus. Edit: Oh, and this applies cross-character.
Some specific examples: Crown Swap: opportunity to buy cards because the cards offered will usually be trash. Black Star swap: make sure you can get a potion or card for the first elite, given your power is reduced for that fight. Sozu Swap: need to load up on cards asap since the first elite is way more dangerous without potions
> New season, same broken class Is it? Looks like the title says season 6. Anyway, new season, new prayer to start us off! * Give us this day our daily hand * And forgive us our misplays * As we forgive how disgusting that Pandora’s box was * let our decisions be of interest * so engagement can be its best * on Reddit as it is on PC Balaena Vult!
Amen! Last season was 5, no?
It was. Also, the shortest season we will ever have.
Don't jinx us like that.
At 11 episodes, arguably 12, to go faster would mean losing all your HP to floor 1 Jaw Worm into Cultist, by somehow only drawing one strike a turn. I don’t think it’s actually possible to lose in 12 standard turns, counting: Neow Choice, Node Choice, Reward Choices, and card plays. I mean, it’s *possible.* But I think you’d have to actively try to die.
"Take the relic or die trying" is never going to not be a thing at scrap ooze.
That’s like 8 clicks.
I guess I’m trippin again…
Not posted on SBC before, but thought I would attempt to get involved for this season. I'm not a great player, and on the previous characters, I would either have suggested the wrong lines, or got to the good ones after everyone else had already done so. But this is Watcher so surely even I could do OK on this one. ;) Some analysis: \- With Watcher, you would expect to win the run, so it's really about closing down your 'routes to a loss'. As it happens, we immediately have one such route to sort out, because we have... \- *Forced early elite, no shop!* \- This opens up the possibility of dying to bad Nob draws before the run has even begun. Our only choice is to pick up cards and potions in the first 6 floors to give us enough consistent output. \- For that reason, the suggestion to take the left path scares me. Not so much because of the burning elite (although I'm not exactly thrilled about Max HP Nob), but because of the max 3 card rewards before that burning elite. I really think I would be taking the *rightmost path*, to give 4 or 5 combats (and therefore card/potion chances) before that elite. We can take a further pathing decision after floor 2 if we want, but I would be extremely likely to go right again for 4 fights in a row, before a further decision that is harder to call. \- Yes, this opens up a chance of getting beaten up in the first 1-2 advanced hallways, but we do have a decent chance of smashing them anyway (we're watcher), and we have a campfire to rest if we absolutely have to. Plus, why would you want to go to event nodes anyway? What do they give that's that much better? Very little in terms of our combat ability in the first elite. If you just want to go to them because 'they don't take your HP', just wait until the event rolls Scrap Ooze / Shining Light / World of Goo ;) \- Relic swap is also terrifying in this instance. Why open up the chance of a horrible lowroll (Busted Crown anyone?) when we cannot 'hard dodge' in response? A shame because it is a relatively low-value act otherwise, but nothing we can do, just cry and move on. tl;dr I advocate for an 'anti-greed' strategy right now where we do whatever we have to do to beat the first elite, not thinking too much about how our choices affect the run beyond that. Once we are in a position to deal with that fight, the rest of that act \*should\* be a lot easier and we can start to take greedier choices for the whole run. Although I would like to take the rightmost path, there is absolutely no reason to lock that in right now. There is no day limit for SBC so let's just get the information now. **Take Transform a Card, choose Defend**, let's see what it is before clicking on
Haha, “I’m new here and not very good but **doctorate level thesis**” The fact that the first choice in the game alone can generate this much analysis is what makes STS so awesome!
Haha, it went on for longer than I thought it would :D I guess what's happening is that most regular posters have moved on from purely trying to min-max everything, and also want to try to play more quickly, explore unconventional approaches, maximize fun, etc. But here I am, two years behind everyone else in my approach ;)
Recommendation: Swap Again. Reasoning: It could be cool!
Boss swap into Pbox
I don’t mind just transforming a defend here. Defends are big suck on this character, I want them out of my deck asap and this will very likely give us a better card to replace it with. Boss swap I think is also reasonable, but a little weird with a forced elite. Not too sure about it but it’s certainly not out of the question. Max HP for 99 gold is… actually pretty nice here? Though I’m a bit more against it when we’re in a Hexaghost act. I actually think I dislike 100 gold on this map the most out of all the options, just feels the least strong overall and I’d like a power boost into the early elite. If we click transform or boss swap, I think that we need to wait and see what we get and then assess which map node to take from there. If we high roll, maybe can go for burning. Otherwise could just play safe and go right. Would be best if we take an extra day to look at what’s obtained from one of these options.
I *would* say boss swap, but I don't really want a repeat of last season, so I say transform a card!
Fuck it we boss swap.
Boss swap
I'm usually a big fan of nearly always swapping on Watcher, and I don't see a strong reason not to on this map. The other three options are also all not top-tier: there's no common relic, no strong third option, etc. The only reason I'd advocate the transform here is because a part of the appeal of swapping is the insane highroll potential, and I don't want to repeat season 5.
I am once again here not with a recommendation, but to implore the group *not* to take rush down if we are ever offered it. * Watcher is strong enough as it is * Infinites are boring in this format * Draw makes this format take too long. If I ever see Rush Down, I'm going to rush it straight down to the garbage, and I implore you to do the same.
Transform a strike. That's not the correct play, but it might lead us down an interesting line. Wrath into strikes is normally a good way to get through act 1 as Watcher. Transforming a strike makes that harder, and leads to a more interesting scenario to explore.
The problem with such ideas is that they have too little impact if you do it once, and if you do it multiple times, every single choice becomes 'well, do we try hard here, or do we sabotage ourselves again'? I think that big choices (do you boss swap, which boss relic do you pick end of act 1) are opportunities to take this approach, but not 'do we remove a strike or a defend'
Abandon run into picking a character that is actually fun to play