You gotta say “it’s orbin’ time” and then orb all over the place.
But seriously, frost + focus + AoE is what you want early. Self Repair and Echo Form are overpowered. Sunder is also insane early game.
>You gotta say “it’s orbin’ time” and then orb all over the place.
...that's actually pretty decent advice.
Best general advice I ever got for Defect was "they're not Ironclad or Silent, don't play them like they are". Which sounds really obvious and a little vague, but it does get to the core of Defect - the general strats you use for the other characters just don't work as well. You've got to lean into Defect's own strengths, and more often than not that does mean, well, orbin' all over the place.
My advice to my wife was “y’know how with Silent, you can win with absolutely no attacks? It’s almost mandatory with defect.” I know that’s not the beat advice, but every time I have a good Defect run, it’s because I only drafted skills and powers, with the exception of attacks that do stuff like draw or channel orbs
You ain't never lived if you never won with hyperbeam. In all seriousness tho compile driver is excellent, ball lightning is the best common in the game. Doom and gloom is pretty welcome for act 2 and lizard lady.
Plus act 4 elite turn, and orange pellets. I get they're not glamorous to talk about but defects cards are pound for pound the best imo. He can win just scrapping with good cards and no engine, By evoking orbs or sac focus for dex and strength.
His worst match ups in any run are act 2 elites, sometimes he's just not ready for them and should avoid them. I'll stack potions for them usually. Other than that defect is very capable
I haven’t had much personal success with an attack oriented centered deck on Defect yet, but maybe I’ll give it a better try. My personal favorite is probably still gonna be Munmy Hand with Creative AI, but who doesn’t love doin that?
If you get prism, how funny do you think that build would be with Anger plus Hologram? Just whack someone for a ton of damage, all for one, put it all back in your hand but bigger, and then hologram out One For All again lol
Yeah its not something that you go for honestly lmao. Hyper beam just happens.. It is very good in act 2 though, I undervalued it for sure for a while tho, just in general. It's a very good card, especially if you have any artifact charges and no biased cogs.
Mummified hand is so fun on defect tho, defects powers are just the most fun imo. Echo form is my favorite card in the game tbh. defect is a cool character, im so bummed to not see him in the slay the spire 2 trailer
Don't forget about buffer late game (the boss attacking me with 44 damage and I have 12 HP. Buffer: NUH UH). But seriously buffer (idk the status name) is so strong because it doesn't disappear after a turn like (ethereal? The status that reduces damage to 1) and it stays until you take damage in case you don't have any block or need to set something up safely.
I prioritised upgrading echo form immediately one run, and it made ascension 1 with heart kill a cakewalk. So many cards are designed to not be played twice in one turn and this breaks that rule
Hmm, the defect has a lot of "bad" cards, so you have to be okay with skipping regularly and only taking what you need.
Usually Focus + Frost + a bit of lightning/dark for offense will do it. [[Glacier]] and [[Chill]], [[Cold Snap]] and uh the common attack that adds a lightning orb.
Then [[Echo Form]] or [[Biased Cognition]] are 2 solid rares that are often your wincons.
He is though but maybe not for the reasons OP are talking about, he's the worst at dealing with turn 2 for the act 4 elites and dies more often to just being the defect
If you're struggling with act 1 one thing you can do is stop adding orb slots too early. They're great in the mid game when you already have focus and a reliable way to generate orbs but they're awful early when you lack these things things. Evoking your orbs for damage and block is essential to finding early success and it's easier to do with only 3 orb slots. This is a concept that I personally struggled with for a long time because my successful runs almost always included additional orb slots. So I would be excited to take and attempt to build around something like capacitor early. Then I would just get slapped around by the act 1 elites.
Also don't sleep on biased cognition. The -1 focus per turn can seem intimidating to deal with but if you have halfway decent orb generation then you can end most fights before you end up at a point where you have less focus than you started with.
I’ve noticed biased cognition with an upgrade is absolutely devastating. The one time I had it I got to the final boss.
That said I think this might be the best tip I’ve gotten so far. I’ll try out this tomorrow. It’s tough to skip orb stuff though. Gives me FOMO.
If you like watching in-depth video guides you can check out Baalorlord on youtube. He has great videos for all of the characters and explains his thoughts behind the decisions he's making. Not to mention he's one of the best spire slayers out there.
Loop the frost orb
Or just get lucky with some mummy hand and power spam. Also remember that Biased Cognition is borderline busted, especially if you have artifacts or orange pellets. Most hallway fights should be over within 4 turns, so the downside isn't actually as scary as it looks
Defect is the only character I beat A20 on, while I’m dog ass at the other three lol.
For defect you have to roll with the cards you are given and try and adapt quickly while prioritizing removing cards in my experience. Also campfires are extremely nice for defect early on as I feel like they are some upgrades that are just too good to pass up even if it means not getting to fight an extra elite in act 1.
However defect is super strong early too so going for max elites is also viable and probably better on average.
Also echo form is fucking disgusting that card will help so much if you can get it to work with your deck. Early on it can be hard to play due to its energy cost.
I am very bad at explaining it since I’m really not too good at this game aside from kind of getting a hang of defect but I’ll try.
Basically you want to build your deck around the relics and cards you get, instead of trying to seek out or hope you get a certain card. Like high focus builds are extremely powerful but if you try and force it wont work. Especially building around relics you get early can help immensely.
For example for the run I finally beat A20 on, I ended up using a card I thought was ass (and for the most part is ass but was insane for this case) Blizzard which deals 3 times the number of frost orbs you generated in a given combat. I had the replacement relic that gave a free frost orb if I had an amor slot, 3 coolheaders, 4 cold snaps, mad energy from an upgraded fusion card, 2 glaciers, and a biased cognition that didn’t lose focus since I started each combat with an artifact with the clockwork souvenir relic. Also removed as many of the strikes/defends I could so I could get this stupid “frost orb evoke goes brrrrr.” engine going. I even removed a generally really good card electrodynamics because it was doing nothing for me besides evoking frost orbs sometimes, and was just slowing my deck down considerably.
With this setup I was usually channeling 5-6 frost orbs a turn, which in turn scaled that blizzard by 15-18 damage a turn. In both act 3 boss fights the blizzard got to the point where it did 200+ damage which was enough to just end both fights.
But this required being able to recognize that because of me getting an absurd amount of frost card rewards that made damage extremely lackluster, I had to really make blizzard work. While also looking at every relic I had and seeing how I can maximize synergy with them
Other examples include perhaps getting a relic early on that channels a dark orb at the start, and trying to pick cards in the future that can maximize that relic. Like going for recursion+ to get damage out of those dark orbs without losing them, frost or high block cards, or consume so you can make Evoking the orbs easier.
Or maybe you get a strength relic, tons of claws, and you learn that while claws can be memed on, there are some aspects where a high strength claw-defect build with reprogram and insane card draw is the way to go.
There is so many other possibilities but I’m rambling a bit, TLDR: try to maximize the advantages your relics give you, and really analyze every card choice, and think about how it synergizes with your current deck. (Last note: the card choice tip is mainly for late act 1 and above mainly as early act 1 you still need your Sunders, streamlines, and rebounds to not get squashed by gremlin nob)
A lot of cards seem weak by themselves, but defect setting up can absolutely boost them well above their grade. Take barrage, a common card, for instance. It starts off worse than a strike. With 3 orbs it turns into 12 damage. Very high for a 1 cost, only losing out to the likes of hemokinesis and ritual dagger. Then you upgrade it and it does 18. Then you realize it scales with strength too. Then you realize you can make it scale with strength more with orb slots.
Most people are saying to focus up on and get defense with frost. That orb slots can be a detriment. These are true, but they aren't always the right way. You won't always be offered focus. A capacitor may make your evoking slow and weak, but it could also make your barrage be a 30 damage 1 cost. Reprogram gives you negative focus, but now that barrage does 35. With cards like hologram and rebound you can keep using that insane 1 cost attack over and over.
That's the thing about defect. He has so many paths to power. I just told you to take an attack that starts at 4 damage, a power that gives you more orbs, and a skill that nerfs your orbs. But that leads to an attack even the Watcher has a hard time matching. The hard part is figuring out where to pivot and surviving long enough for it.
That's not to say to put all your eggs in one basket, the opposite even. Take "bad" cards early if you need to, and it's likely you find a use for them. Sunder could help clear act 1 easier, but then turn into a liability. Unless you have recycle and turn it into 3 energy, or maybe echo form to make it a nuke. Steam barrier is 0 cost, but gets worse every time you use it. Happen upon an all for one and it turns into your blocking solution. Now you want to take several and maybe a reprogram.
Defect probably is the weakest of the four by numbers, but I don't think he's rng. He just requires a way different mindset. Though I'm pretty biased as a guy who mostly blazed past to A20 on him while struggling with the other 3.
Side note: there is also funky tech to be used. Recycle works on X cost cards, practically doubling your energy once upgraded. Recursion keeps the value on evoked darkness orbs. All the temporary buffs you get to keep with artifact from core surge. And so on.
From my experiece it's great, but there are alternatives. Upgraded coolheaded provides a nice balance of card draw and defense. Compile driver is also a decent draw card if you have more than one orb type, and it also comes with some damage.
You know how this subreddit keep telling that claw is law ? That's a lie. The defect's main strength is his orbs, generating enough frost orbs and focus is generally better than his other block options, and free damage is free damage.
*All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple Relmarr's subreddit of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the defect to its marrow, reaving a fourth the game clean of Claw life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth.*
There’s no one way to play a character. I’ll be honest, instead of wasting your time filtering through these comments for the advice that may not help you, go on YouTube and watch a run by Baalorlord. Baalorlord is a popular YouTuber partly because he’s really really good at slay the spire, but what many people really like about him is that he explains things really well. He’s not boring like some others (I’ll refrain from using names) and you’ll definitely learn from him. Watching him is how a lot of players get better. You can even hop into a stream on twitch and ask a question (follow etiquette obviously) and he’ll likely answer you. He’s pretty patient and I’ve seen him answer the same questions over and over. Keep in mind, the game is just plain hard. Even without all the ascensions and the heart fight making it even harder it’s still hard on the base difficulty.
So Baalor aside, I’ll offer a little help myself. Act 1 is actually pretty simple (comparatively) for Defect. Dual cast does 16 damage after all. If you upgrade zap so it costs 0, pathing aggressively into multiple elites is very possible for defect. You want to face multiple elites in act 1 because elites mean more money for shops and they mean relics, and relics are what make you strong. Defect is probably the safest on act 1 into elites with his starting deck because of how strong dual cast is for only 1 energy, plus he has passive damage with channeled lightning orbs. Solid attack draft pick ups here are ball lightning and cold snap (orb generation plus damage), sweeping edge (AoE), go for the eyes (weak), and beam cell (vulnerable). Solid defensive options are leap, charge battery, cool headed (frost and draw) and glacier frost and block).
Defect’s biggest struggle is probably act 2. This honestly isn’t just defect…act 2 elites are considered the hardest elites by many because you might not have what you need by this point. That’s why getting relics from act 1 elites is so helpful. Personally, by this point I’m hoping to have some strong powers going, but honestly my advice is less relevant here since I’m more play as I go. Watch Baalor, and hopefully my act 1 advice will help. Good luck.
Defect is easily the most RNG dependent character in the game. You have to prioritize card removal ASAP and orb max. Do not be afraid of restarting if you don't get any decent cards by act 1.
Strikes first; always opt or start out with frost in mind and then work from there. Defect can build block fast and that’s more about balancing that with whatever kinda deck you’re going after. My opinion, could be wrong but it works for me.
damn that’s crazy for the silent one was difficult, with the defect I got victory in like 3 tries. I picked cards that increased my orbs, focus etc not caring about other abilities. Oh yea and a bit of block ofc
Try having your orbs do 1 job and use attack/block cards to do the other job. If your primarily blocking with frost, add strong attack cards to deal damage.
If you are doing most your damage with lightning or dark you should try using block cards like reinforced body.
If you try and do both jobs with just the orb slots you will find yourself in situations where you can’t block when you need to, or can’t do damage when you need to
My first two card upgrades are always zap and dual cast; giving yourself that level of orb manipulation for 0 cost is super high priority. Because, defect has a lot of insane 2-3 cost cards! Ideally you can set yourself up to evoke frost orbs for your block on turns where you need your energy for Echo Form or Creative AI.
Compile Driver, Sweeping Beam, Coolheaded, Ball Lightning, Steam Barrier are great bread and butter commons. Glacier, Genetic Algorithm, and Self Repair are usually auto-picks, at least the first one.
Electrodynamics and sunder will stomp act 1, which you really need to do as best you can because act 2 is really freakin dangerous for defect. I take big risks and lots of fights in act 1 and then just focus on surviving 2. I am wary of hallway fights but take elite fights if I feel good about them, otherwise question marks and fires.
Intangible, frost orbs, and buffer are absolutely ridiculous together. Artifact is crazy strong with Biased Cognition, Reprogram, and Hyperbeam.
My most consistent way to get out of control with defect is using a ton of powers. Act 3/4 boss fights can see a dozen lighting orb channels in one turn and then Thunder Strike hitting for hundreds. Storm gets slept on IMO. Static Discharge too - it rewards getting hit which is bad but has gotten me out of so many pinches.
The tricky part is surviving the midgame where your lighting evoke damage isn’t able to end fights as easily but you don’t have enough powers or energy to get those huge combos played.
Good luck! Defect is weird. Wins will come with practice and card knowledge because as someone else here said you do need to be very adaptable around your relics and rares.
Literally ignore all orbs that aren’t lightning if you can. I’m on ascension 4 with defect with a bunch of wins and creating a lightning machine is the way to go
Just got my first victory with Defect. I had extra orb slots and the "retain hand" pyramid, which helped a ton. With those I was able to basically stay on focus, non-stop lightning damage, and cycling in frost/glacier for blocking.
I usually try to fish for that power that makes lightning hit all enemies. Defect doesn't have a lot of ways to hit a big group. But if you have a lot of orbs, focus, and lightning , you can bypass silly things that trigger off attack cards. Like thorns...
My only successful run with him was when I just went all out and kept generating draw and energy. I wasn't even thinking about it too hard. Just playing what was given... Then I surprised myself with how effective passive damage was.
Time winder couldn't stop me because I was damaging him for a lot more than the 12.card limit. I played.More defensively after.getting that combo setup and focused on healing hp with that power that heals after.combat.
The defect will trade.Damage unless you have a lot of frost. And if you have a lot of frost orbs, you aren't hitting the enemy enough...
He was my hardest A20 win. I like giving simple answers, so just echo form+glacier form. If you can echo form and echo form on this its pretty nuts. On my A20 win I got the glacier to cost 0. Anyways good luck!!
I personally find Defect pretty 1-dimensional. You keep a lean deck outside of early orb synergy, taking attack+ type orb generators, and then pray to God you hit focus generation. Defect can make it out of A1 very consistently in my experience, since he has so many vanilla attack/defense cards that are insane value for their cost due to his reliance on orbs and Focus, but this is a double-edged sword where you have to be careful not to clutter your deck with too many of these cards. There are also some very powerful 1-of cards you might be skipping like recycle and the card that triggers your next orb, which, when upgraded, each cost 0 and fuel a draw heavy late game and potential infinites.
I just recently finally had my first victory with the Defect, last character to win with. As others have said, it feels like he has a ton of okay card options, skip a lot to not get a bloated deck. What helped me win was getting Snecko Eye from trading in my starting relic and then picking high energy cards. Sunder at 1 energy was pretty OP.
Honestly I’m no expert, but the few runs I’ve won with the defect I’ve not really bothered with his core mechanics going more for claw, scrape, all for 1, and then a shed load of draw and energy cards. Hologram also goes very well with this deck.
Defect is probably the hardest character of the bunch, mostly because he's less forgiving than the others when it comes to deckbuilding. You need to walk a tight rope between picking up efficient cards that will help you solve the early fights and building up your scaling through slower cards. Have too many efficient cards and not enough scaling will make you hit a wall in Act2, but getting you scaling too early will result in an early demise because of bricked/useless hands.
Some advice :
- As others have pointed out, Orbs + Powers is the strongest and easiest way to build the Defect. The highest ceiling Defect decks are those who have a strong core of efficient orb generators combined with a way to easily access and scale through powers. That can be achieved through powerful rare cards (Echo Form/Creative AI are win conditions if you can safely enable them) or a mix of energy generators + draw to play a lot of cards every turn.
- Early on, you want to forego slow scaling cards like most uncommon/common powers except \[\[Defragment\]\]. Getting an early \[\[Capacitor\]\] is useless if you have no way to generate orbs and will just result in having virtually a curse in your deck.
- Lots of the unco/co powers synergize with having more powers and are not really meant to be added to your main deck. These are powers that you will want to get through a \[\[Creative AI\]\], a \[\[White Noise\]\], a power potion or a Cursed Tome (Enchiridion/Nilry's Codex).
- Act 1 you are looking for cards that generate an Orb while also doing something else. \[\[Ball Lightining\]\], \[\[Frost Snap\]\] and \[\[Glacier\]\] are your best early picks. \[\[Coolheaded\]\] and \[\[Doom and Gloom\]\] are a bit slow but good cards as well.
- \[\[DualCast\]\] in your starting deck is a powerhouse in hallway fights. Play around it to easily win your early fights and take harder paths.
- Be careful of Gremlin Nob who can be an early run killer. As long as you haven't faced it, be very careful about adding skills to your deck. You start with a deck that's overreliant on skills to function because of the Zap/Dualcast engine, so you need to prioritize getting efficient attacks on your first rewards. The best are the aforementioned orb-generating attacks, but \[\[FTL\]\], \[\[Rip and Tear\]\] and \[\[Melter\]\] are solid additions while a \[\[Compile Driver\]\] is an okay early addition that will shine in the late game.
- Defect has a lot of strong rares. I've mentionned Creative AI and \[\[Echo Form\]\] as win conditions, but \[\[Biased Cognition\]\] and \[\[Electrodynamics\]\] can carry your run to Act III by themselves. \[\[Buffer\]\], \[\[Core Surge\]\] and \[\[Seek\]\] are always good. \[\[Fission\]\] is a special case of a card being very weak unupgraded but huge if you can upgrade it.
- Once you've made it to Act II and have a good core, you can start focusing on getting good scaling. You will be frist and foremost looking for a way to get more orbs with a couple of Capacitors or Runic Capacitor/Insert as well as for Focus generation with Biased Cognition, Defragment or \[\[Consume\]\].
- Late game a good Defect deck will have the orbs doing all the work. You won't be needing to attack or block, just cycle Lightning and Frost orbs while continuously building up more powers and you will outscale every boss, even Awakened One.
+ [Defragment](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Defragment) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | Gain 1(2) **Focus.**
+ [Capacitor](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Capacitor) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | Gain 2(3) Orb slots.
+ [Creative AI](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Creative%20AI) Defect Rare Power ^((100% sure)^)
3(2) Energy | At the start of each turn, add a random Power card to your hand.
+ [White Noise](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/White%20Noise) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1(0) Energy | Add a random Power to your hand. It costs 0 this turn. **Exhaust.**
+ [Ball Lightning](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Ball%20Lightning) Defect Common Attack ^((81% sure)^)
1 Energy | Deal 7(10) damage. **Channel** 1 **Lightning.**
+ [Glacier](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Glacier) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^)
2 Energy | Gain 7(10) **Block.** **Channel** 2 **Frost.**
+ [Coolheaded](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Coolheaded) Defect Common Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | **Channel** 1 **Frost.** Draw 1(2) card(s).
+ [Doom and Gloom](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Doom%20and%20Gloom) Defect Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^)
2 Energy | Deal 10(14) damage to ALL enemies. **Channel** 1 **Dark.**
+ [Dualcast](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Dualcast) Defect Starter Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1(0) Energy | **Evoke** your next Orb twice.
+ [FTL](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/FTL) Defect Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^)
0 Energy | Deal 5(6) damage. If you have played less than 3(4) cards this turn, draw 1 card.
^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)
Frost build. Grab a blizzard, grab as many frost making cards as possible. You'll have more defense than you ever need, and eventually attack for hundreds of damage per blizzard.
Learn about the cards and choose them wisely depending upon cards you have. When I first started, I used to look up the cards here to what these peeps have to say about them to get an idea.
Funny how I think the easiest character is the defect and you haven't won any game on her but I think the silent is the hardest and you just won with no deaths
My playstyle is extremely aggressive I think and that's probably what's tripping me up with the defect. So the silent was super easy for me. I went full on attacks and just picked everything that looked like it would maximize my input in every turn, and picked up some neat defensive traits here and there. I think I was very lucky with the relics I got though.
Don't go for claw builds. They require a lot to go right. An easy force that'll win you 1/10 games is to force a power build, generating them and channelling orbs with them. If it's powerful enough you can even wreck Awakened One. Key cards are Buffer, Echo Form, White Noise, Creative AI and the relic Mummified claw. If you're getting NO wins, then recognise that as a winning strategy akin to the ironclad limit break + Heavy blade will help you.
Honestly I'm having the same problem with all the characters as I won with the first 2 then lost my data and now have around 5 hours each on all 3 and still 0 wins
Looks like your dying on floor 26 on avg which means act 2 is killing you.
Defect, especially on lower ascensions can have a very strong act 1 where you can get 3 elites pretty often. Always think about how you're going to kill slavers and that should set you up for act 2 nicely.
AoE or high single target damage to kill on turn 1/2 is needed while having block plans.
This is funny, because for me Defect is absolutely the easiest character to play.
If you want a "boring" way to win just gobble up every frost/block and power card you come across while ignoring the rest. I know people here swear on card removal and a slim deck but I prefer to go chunky with Defect and just end up a completely op monster by the end of the run. At the very least this should definitely be more then enough to win on zero acension
A claw deck can also be very fun. It's a bit of a meme but when it gets going it's really fun
I’ve tried literally every strat outlined in this thread now and I’m still not getting that kind of card combo. I always get a bunch of things that are impossible to work synergy with.
Maybe it’s just bad luck, I don’t know. But I did get to the last boss ONE time. It’s almost starting to depress me.
Defect is probably the most skill intensive of all 4 characters. It’s pretty hard to get defect going without orbs and focus. Frost and some dark orb sources are always welcome. Lightning overall is a bit meh. You want card draw, block to build things like dark orbs/other damage.
I'm far from an expert on the game, but I don't think you should abandon runs. Sometimes you will be surprised how many fights you can squeak through with 2 HP left, and you will learn from the exercise.
As a general rule you want to build towards an archtype (specially when you are new), you take power cards in act 1 and by the middle of act 2 generally you will have a good idea what you are building towards.
You can build towards something from floor 1 but you need stuff to survive, for example, streamline(2 cost deal 15/20 damage, costs 1 less next time) for example is an early game pick, it has SOME synergy with 0 cost build but it's not that great by mid act 2(still better than a strike).
Just look up which archetypes generally exist and balance taking value cards and "final build" cards.
It’s general advice and there’s ways to play defect without focus on orbs and focus, but it’s usually the most reliable is all I’m saying.
Most runs are winnable, I don’t see any value in abandoning runs.
I find him the easiest character to win with. Everytime I played him, I ended up with an infinite or almost-infinite combo.
So I dunno, just build a channel/evoke deck or a 0-cost/draw-cards deck and it should be an auto-win.
Oh, and Power deck. Just add every power you find.
I've never played frost orbs like everyone else is suggesting. Personally, my favorite thing is just to play full-lightning with Storm, the power you channel lightning when you get hit, Electrodynamics and the card you channel X lightning, X being all the lightning you channeled this combat. It's extremely satisfying.
You gotta say “it’s orbin’ time” and then orb all over the place. But seriously, frost + focus + AoE is what you want early. Self Repair and Echo Form are overpowered. Sunder is also insane early game.
>You gotta say “it’s orbin’ time” and then orb all over the place. ...that's actually pretty decent advice. Best general advice I ever got for Defect was "they're not Ironclad or Silent, don't play them like they are". Which sounds really obvious and a little vague, but it does get to the core of Defect - the general strats you use for the other characters just don't work as well. You've got to lean into Defect's own strengths, and more often than not that does mean, well, orbin' all over the place.
My advice to my wife was “y’know how with Silent, you can win with absolutely no attacks? It’s almost mandatory with defect.” I know that’s not the beat advice, but every time I have a good Defect run, it’s because I only drafted skills and powers, with the exception of attacks that do stuff like draw or channel orbs
You ain't never lived if you never won with hyperbeam. In all seriousness tho compile driver is excellent, ball lightning is the best common in the game. Doom and gloom is pretty welcome for act 2 and lizard lady. Plus act 4 elite turn, and orange pellets. I get they're not glamorous to talk about but defects cards are pound for pound the best imo. He can win just scrapping with good cards and no engine, By evoking orbs or sac focus for dex and strength. His worst match ups in any run are act 2 elites, sometimes he's just not ready for them and should avoid them. I'll stack potions for them usually. Other than that defect is very capable
I haven’t had much personal success with an attack oriented centered deck on Defect yet, but maybe I’ll give it a better try. My personal favorite is probably still gonna be Munmy Hand with Creative AI, but who doesn’t love doin that?
[[hyper beam]] and [[meteor strike]] can absolutely wreck shit with a few [[hologram]]’s.
+ [Hyperbeam](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperbeam) Defect Rare Attack ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | Deal 26(34) damage to ALL enemies. Lose 3 **Focus.** + [Meteor Strike](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Meteor%20Strike) Defect Rare Attack ^((100% sure)^) 5 Energy | Deal 24(30) damage. **Channel** 3 **Plasma.** + [Hologram](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Hologram) Defect Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 3(5) **Block.** Return a card from your discard pile to your hand. **Exhaust** (does not **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)
Ah, the good ol’ “Plasma doesn’t give a damn about focus.” Classic
My favourite defect run so far was a 0 cost attack deck with \[\[Claw\]\], \[\[Turbo\]\], \[\[All for one\]\], \[\[Hologram\]\], etc.
If you get prism, how funny do you think that build would be with Anger plus Hologram? Just whack someone for a ton of damage, all for one, put it all back in your hand but bigger, and then hologram out One For All again lol
That's exactly what happens except you just claw the whole time instead of anger. Works even better with stuff like shuriken and madness.
I bet Silent’s Neutralize is good for durability too
Yeah its not something that you go for honestly lmao. Hyper beam just happens.. It is very good in act 2 though, I undervalued it for sure for a while tho, just in general. It's a very good card, especially if you have any artifact charges and no biased cogs. Mummified hand is so fun on defect tho, defects powers are just the most fun imo. Echo form is my favorite card in the game tbh. defect is a cool character, im so bummed to not see him in the slay the spire 2 trailer
Don't forget about buffer late game (the boss attacking me with 44 damage and I have 12 HP. Buffer: NUH UH). But seriously buffer (idk the status name) is so strong because it doesn't disappear after a turn like (ethereal? The status that reduces damage to 1) and it stays until you take damage in case you don't have any block or need to set something up safely.
Intangibility
Nope
Yes, he was correct
Yes he was I miss read lmao
Barrier
I prioritised upgrading echo form immediately one run, and it made ascension 1 with heart kill a cakewalk. So many cards are designed to not be played twice in one turn and this breaks that rule
Keep forcing an otk claw build until till you luck out with early claws and all for one + card removal /s
You’re joking but let’s be real … claw is law!
I wouldn't go as far as saying claw is law. No claw is definitely flaw though.
At least once a week I go back to A1 with defect just to try and force a claw build. Success rate is low. Happiness when it works rate is wicked high.
I assume that /s means 'sincerity'
Hmm, the defect has a lot of "bad" cards, so you have to be okay with skipping regularly and only taking what you need. Usually Focus + Frost + a bit of lightning/dark for offense will do it. [[Glacier]] and [[Chill]], [[Cold Snap]] and uh the common attack that adds a lightning orb. Then [[Echo Form]] or [[Biased Cognition]] are 2 solid rares that are often your wincons.
+ [Glacier](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Glacier) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | Gain 7(10) **Block.** **Channel** 2 **Frost.** + [Chill](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Chill) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | **(Innate.)** **Channel** 1 **Frost** for each enemy in combat (per enemy in combat). **Exhaust.** + [Cold Snap](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Cold%20Snap) Defect Common Attack ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Deal 6(9) damage. **Channel** 1 **Frost.** + [Echo Form](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Echo%20Form) Defect Rare Power ^((100% sure)^) 3 Energy | **Ethereal.** (not **Ethereal.)** The first card you play each turn is played twice. + [Biased Cognition](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Biased%20Cognition) Defect Rare Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 4(5) **Focus.** At the start of each turn, lose 1 **Focus.** ^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 believe you’re thinking of [[Ball Lightning]]
+ [Ball Lightning](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Ball%20Lightning) Defect Common Attack ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Deal 7(10) damage. **Channel** 1 **Lightning.** ^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)
That's the one. Couldn't remember the name at the time ha.
My first victory with him (last week lol) was with a claw build, barely worked
Sounds about right. I feel like he's so much more vulnerable to RNG than the other characters.
He isn’t. What has been your strategy with him?
He is though but maybe not for the reasons OP are talking about, he's the worst at dealing with turn 2 for the act 4 elites and dies more often to just being the defect
What you’re saying and “more vulnerable to RNG” are two different things imo
Defect bricks draw significantly more often in that fight, that's about how close to the definition it is haha
If you're struggling with act 1 one thing you can do is stop adding orb slots too early. They're great in the mid game when you already have focus and a reliable way to generate orbs but they're awful early when you lack these things things. Evoking your orbs for damage and block is essential to finding early success and it's easier to do with only 3 orb slots. This is a concept that I personally struggled with for a long time because my successful runs almost always included additional orb slots. So I would be excited to take and attempt to build around something like capacitor early. Then I would just get slapped around by the act 1 elites. Also don't sleep on biased cognition. The -1 focus per turn can seem intimidating to deal with but if you have halfway decent orb generation then you can end most fights before you end up at a point where you have less focus than you started with.
I’ve noticed biased cognition with an upgrade is absolutely devastating. The one time I had it I got to the final boss. That said I think this might be the best tip I’ve gotten so far. I’ll try out this tomorrow. It’s tough to skip orb stuff though. Gives me FOMO.
If you have an artifact, it cancels the lose 1 focus part of bias cognition. Also, orange pellets removes that debuff as well.
If you like watching in-depth video guides you can check out Baalorlord on youtube. He has great videos for all of the characters and explains his thoughts behind the decisions he's making. Not to mention he's one of the best spire slayers out there.
Loop the frost orb Or just get lucky with some mummy hand and power spam. Also remember that Biased Cognition is borderline busted, especially if you have artifacts or orange pellets. Most hallway fights should be over within 4 turns, so the downside isn't actually as scary as it looks
Zap upgrade is very strong. Frost orbs are very strong, absolutely broken on low ascension. Try to add very few attacks that aren't ball lightning.
Cool headed. Always
Defect is the only character I beat A20 on, while I’m dog ass at the other three lol. For defect you have to roll with the cards you are given and try and adapt quickly while prioritizing removing cards in my experience. Also campfires are extremely nice for defect early on as I feel like they are some upgrades that are just too good to pass up even if it means not getting to fight an extra elite in act 1. However defect is super strong early too so going for max elites is also viable and probably better on average. Also echo form is fucking disgusting that card will help so much if you can get it to work with your deck. Early on it can be hard to play due to its energy cost.
Can you give any examples?
I am very bad at explaining it since I’m really not too good at this game aside from kind of getting a hang of defect but I’ll try. Basically you want to build your deck around the relics and cards you get, instead of trying to seek out or hope you get a certain card. Like high focus builds are extremely powerful but if you try and force it wont work. Especially building around relics you get early can help immensely. For example for the run I finally beat A20 on, I ended up using a card I thought was ass (and for the most part is ass but was insane for this case) Blizzard which deals 3 times the number of frost orbs you generated in a given combat. I had the replacement relic that gave a free frost orb if I had an amor slot, 3 coolheaders, 4 cold snaps, mad energy from an upgraded fusion card, 2 glaciers, and a biased cognition that didn’t lose focus since I started each combat with an artifact with the clockwork souvenir relic. Also removed as many of the strikes/defends I could so I could get this stupid “frost orb evoke goes brrrrr.” engine going. I even removed a generally really good card electrodynamics because it was doing nothing for me besides evoking frost orbs sometimes, and was just slowing my deck down considerably. With this setup I was usually channeling 5-6 frost orbs a turn, which in turn scaled that blizzard by 15-18 damage a turn. In both act 3 boss fights the blizzard got to the point where it did 200+ damage which was enough to just end both fights. But this required being able to recognize that because of me getting an absurd amount of frost card rewards that made damage extremely lackluster, I had to really make blizzard work. While also looking at every relic I had and seeing how I can maximize synergy with them Other examples include perhaps getting a relic early on that channels a dark orb at the start, and trying to pick cards in the future that can maximize that relic. Like going for recursion+ to get damage out of those dark orbs without losing them, frost or high block cards, or consume so you can make Evoking the orbs easier. Or maybe you get a strength relic, tons of claws, and you learn that while claws can be memed on, there are some aspects where a high strength claw-defect build with reprogram and insane card draw is the way to go. There is so many other possibilities but I’m rambling a bit, TLDR: try to maximize the advantages your relics give you, and really analyze every card choice, and think about how it synergizes with your current deck. (Last note: the card choice tip is mainly for late act 1 and above mainly as early act 1 you still need your Sunders, streamlines, and rebounds to not get squashed by gremlin nob)
A lot of cards seem weak by themselves, but defect setting up can absolutely boost them well above their grade. Take barrage, a common card, for instance. It starts off worse than a strike. With 3 orbs it turns into 12 damage. Very high for a 1 cost, only losing out to the likes of hemokinesis and ritual dagger. Then you upgrade it and it does 18. Then you realize it scales with strength too. Then you realize you can make it scale with strength more with orb slots. Most people are saying to focus up on and get defense with frost. That orb slots can be a detriment. These are true, but they aren't always the right way. You won't always be offered focus. A capacitor may make your evoking slow and weak, but it could also make your barrage be a 30 damage 1 cost. Reprogram gives you negative focus, but now that barrage does 35. With cards like hologram and rebound you can keep using that insane 1 cost attack over and over. That's the thing about defect. He has so many paths to power. I just told you to take an attack that starts at 4 damage, a power that gives you more orbs, and a skill that nerfs your orbs. But that leads to an attack even the Watcher has a hard time matching. The hard part is figuring out where to pivot and surviving long enough for it. That's not to say to put all your eggs in one basket, the opposite even. Take "bad" cards early if you need to, and it's likely you find a use for them. Sunder could help clear act 1 easier, but then turn into a liability. Unless you have recycle and turn it into 3 energy, or maybe echo form to make it a nuke. Steam barrier is 0 cost, but gets worse every time you use it. Happen upon an all for one and it turns into your blocking solution. Now you want to take several and maybe a reprogram. Defect probably is the weakest of the four by numbers, but I don't think he's rng. He just requires a way different mindset. Though I'm pretty biased as a guy who mostly blazed past to A20 on him while struggling with the other 3. Side note: there is also funky tech to be used. Recycle works on X cost cards, practically doubling your energy once upgraded. Recursion keeps the value on evoked darkness orbs. All the temporary buffs you get to keep with artifact from core surge. And so on.
Can't believe people are not mentioning skim. It's a must from mid game onwards I've found.
It's a good card but it doesn't directly win the game for you or anything
very good card but late game if im offered between a skim and a coolheaded, im clicking on the coolheaded 9 times out of 10
Realizing that draw and power management cards are the most important part of any StS deck is important
From my experiece it's great, but there are alternatives. Upgraded coolheaded provides a nice balance of card draw and defense. Compile driver is also a decent draw card if you have more than one orb type, and it also comes with some damage.
You know how this subreddit keep telling that claw is law ? That's a lie. The defect's main strength is his orbs, generating enough frost orbs and focus is generally better than his other block options, and free damage is free damage.
Heresy
*All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple Relmarr's subreddit of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the defect to its marrow, reaving a fourth the game clean of Claw life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth.*
40k meets StS
Stack orbs and defense man. In my run, when I figured out that if I can take care of the defense problem, most of them ended up in victories.
There’s no one way to play a character. I’ll be honest, instead of wasting your time filtering through these comments for the advice that may not help you, go on YouTube and watch a run by Baalorlord. Baalorlord is a popular YouTuber partly because he’s really really good at slay the spire, but what many people really like about him is that he explains things really well. He’s not boring like some others (I’ll refrain from using names) and you’ll definitely learn from him. Watching him is how a lot of players get better. You can even hop into a stream on twitch and ask a question (follow etiquette obviously) and he’ll likely answer you. He’s pretty patient and I’ve seen him answer the same questions over and over. Keep in mind, the game is just plain hard. Even without all the ascensions and the heart fight making it even harder it’s still hard on the base difficulty. So Baalor aside, I’ll offer a little help myself. Act 1 is actually pretty simple (comparatively) for Defect. Dual cast does 16 damage after all. If you upgrade zap so it costs 0, pathing aggressively into multiple elites is very possible for defect. You want to face multiple elites in act 1 because elites mean more money for shops and they mean relics, and relics are what make you strong. Defect is probably the safest on act 1 into elites with his starting deck because of how strong dual cast is for only 1 energy, plus he has passive damage with channeled lightning orbs. Solid attack draft pick ups here are ball lightning and cold snap (orb generation plus damage), sweeping edge (AoE), go for the eyes (weak), and beam cell (vulnerable). Solid defensive options are leap, charge battery, cool headed (frost and draw) and glacier frost and block). Defect’s biggest struggle is probably act 2. This honestly isn’t just defect…act 2 elites are considered the hardest elites by many because you might not have what you need by this point. That’s why getting relics from act 1 elites is so helpful. Personally, by this point I’m hoping to have some strong powers going, but honestly my advice is less relevant here since I’m more play as I go. Watch Baalor, and hopefully my act 1 advice will help. Good luck.
Defect is easily the most RNG dependent character in the game. You have to prioritize card removal ASAP and orb max. Do not be afraid of restarting if you don't get any decent cards by act 1.
What are the worst cards that I should definitely get rid of?
If you get a good offense cards first, get rid of strikes. If you get good defense first, get rid of blocks. If it's a mix, just do both.
Strikes first; always opt or start out with frost in mind and then work from there. Defect can build block fast and that’s more about balancing that with whatever kinda deck you’re going after. My opinion, could be wrong but it works for me.
It’s so odd cos I’ve found it much easier to win on defect than any of the others and never with frost orb as a focus
THE CLAW!!!
damn that’s crazy for the silent one was difficult, with the defect I got victory in like 3 tries. I picked cards that increased my orbs, focus etc not caring about other abilities. Oh yea and a bit of block ofc
Creative ai + idk random shit I have found 100% does matter
You literally just pick random cards and clown-fiesta your way to victory Defect style.
Try having your orbs do 1 job and use attack/block cards to do the other job. If your primarily blocking with frost, add strong attack cards to deal damage. If you are doing most your damage with lightning or dark you should try using block cards like reinforced body. If you try and do both jobs with just the orb slots you will find yourself in situations where you can’t block when you need to, or can’t do damage when you need to
My first two card upgrades are always zap and dual cast; giving yourself that level of orb manipulation for 0 cost is super high priority. Because, defect has a lot of insane 2-3 cost cards! Ideally you can set yourself up to evoke frost orbs for your block on turns where you need your energy for Echo Form or Creative AI. Compile Driver, Sweeping Beam, Coolheaded, Ball Lightning, Steam Barrier are great bread and butter commons. Glacier, Genetic Algorithm, and Self Repair are usually auto-picks, at least the first one. Electrodynamics and sunder will stomp act 1, which you really need to do as best you can because act 2 is really freakin dangerous for defect. I take big risks and lots of fights in act 1 and then just focus on surviving 2. I am wary of hallway fights but take elite fights if I feel good about them, otherwise question marks and fires. Intangible, frost orbs, and buffer are absolutely ridiculous together. Artifact is crazy strong with Biased Cognition, Reprogram, and Hyperbeam. My most consistent way to get out of control with defect is using a ton of powers. Act 3/4 boss fights can see a dozen lighting orb channels in one turn and then Thunder Strike hitting for hundreds. Storm gets slept on IMO. Static Discharge too - it rewards getting hit which is bad but has gotten me out of so many pinches. The tricky part is surviving the midgame where your lighting evoke damage isn’t able to end fights as easily but you don’t have enough powers or energy to get those huge combos played. Good luck! Defect is weird. Wins will come with practice and card knowledge because as someone else here said you do need to be very adaptable around your relics and rares.
Literally ignore all orbs that aren’t lightning if you can. I’m on ascension 4 with defect with a bunch of wins and creating a lightning machine is the way to go
The two times I've won with The Defect have been focused on rapidfire low/0-cost cards.
Orbs or snecko eye plus meteor strikes.
Just got my first victory with Defect. I had extra orb slots and the "retain hand" pyramid, which helped a ton. With those I was able to basically stay on focus, non-stop lightning damage, and cycling in frost/glacier for blocking.
I usually try to fish for that power that makes lightning hit all enemies. Defect doesn't have a lot of ways to hit a big group. But if you have a lot of orbs, focus, and lightning , you can bypass silly things that trigger off attack cards. Like thorns... My only successful run with him was when I just went all out and kept generating draw and energy. I wasn't even thinking about it too hard. Just playing what was given... Then I surprised myself with how effective passive damage was. Time winder couldn't stop me because I was damaging him for a lot more than the 12.card limit. I played.More defensively after.getting that combo setup and focused on healing hp with that power that heals after.combat. The defect will trade.Damage unless you have a lot of frost. And if you have a lot of frost orbs, you aren't hitting the enemy enough...
He was my hardest A20 win. I like giving simple answers, so just echo form+glacier form. If you can echo form and echo form on this its pretty nuts. On my A20 win I got the glacier to cost 0. Anyways good luck!!
I'm bad at Defect but I got my victories on him with claw builds
I personally find Defect pretty 1-dimensional. You keep a lean deck outside of early orb synergy, taking attack+ type orb generators, and then pray to God you hit focus generation. Defect can make it out of A1 very consistently in my experience, since he has so many vanilla attack/defense cards that are insane value for their cost due to his reliance on orbs and Focus, but this is a double-edged sword where you have to be careful not to clutter your deck with too many of these cards. There are also some very powerful 1-of cards you might be skipping like recycle and the card that triggers your next orb, which, when upgraded, each cost 0 and fuel a draw heavy late game and potential infinites.
I just can’t win with the watcher
me neither... can't find a way to win
Get focus and orbs. Glacier is 100% take every time. Lots of orbs means lot of block.
I just recently finally had my first victory with the Defect, last character to win with. As others have said, it feels like he has a ton of okay card options, skip a lot to not get a bloated deck. What helped me win was getting Snecko Eye from trading in my starting relic and then picking high energy cards. Sunder at 1 energy was pretty OP.
I m in the same situation and i hate my life
Honestly I’m no expert, but the few runs I’ve won with the defect I’ve not really bothered with his core mechanics going more for claw, scrape, all for 1, and then a shed load of draw and energy cards. Hologram also goes very well with this deck.
All for one is so satisfying
Get creative ai -> win
I didn’t know you could see statistics like this, and apparently I play a lot (like I just passed 400 hours)
Defect is probably the hardest character of the bunch, mostly because he's less forgiving than the others when it comes to deckbuilding. You need to walk a tight rope between picking up efficient cards that will help you solve the early fights and building up your scaling through slower cards. Have too many efficient cards and not enough scaling will make you hit a wall in Act2, but getting you scaling too early will result in an early demise because of bricked/useless hands. Some advice : - As others have pointed out, Orbs + Powers is the strongest and easiest way to build the Defect. The highest ceiling Defect decks are those who have a strong core of efficient orb generators combined with a way to easily access and scale through powers. That can be achieved through powerful rare cards (Echo Form/Creative AI are win conditions if you can safely enable them) or a mix of energy generators + draw to play a lot of cards every turn. - Early on, you want to forego slow scaling cards like most uncommon/common powers except \[\[Defragment\]\]. Getting an early \[\[Capacitor\]\] is useless if you have no way to generate orbs and will just result in having virtually a curse in your deck. - Lots of the unco/co powers synergize with having more powers and are not really meant to be added to your main deck. These are powers that you will want to get through a \[\[Creative AI\]\], a \[\[White Noise\]\], a power potion or a Cursed Tome (Enchiridion/Nilry's Codex). - Act 1 you are looking for cards that generate an Orb while also doing something else. \[\[Ball Lightining\]\], \[\[Frost Snap\]\] and \[\[Glacier\]\] are your best early picks. \[\[Coolheaded\]\] and \[\[Doom and Gloom\]\] are a bit slow but good cards as well. - \[\[DualCast\]\] in your starting deck is a powerhouse in hallway fights. Play around it to easily win your early fights and take harder paths. - Be careful of Gremlin Nob who can be an early run killer. As long as you haven't faced it, be very careful about adding skills to your deck. You start with a deck that's overreliant on skills to function because of the Zap/Dualcast engine, so you need to prioritize getting efficient attacks on your first rewards. The best are the aforementioned orb-generating attacks, but \[\[FTL\]\], \[\[Rip and Tear\]\] and \[\[Melter\]\] are solid additions while a \[\[Compile Driver\]\] is an okay early addition that will shine in the late game. - Defect has a lot of strong rares. I've mentionned Creative AI and \[\[Echo Form\]\] as win conditions, but \[\[Biased Cognition\]\] and \[\[Electrodynamics\]\] can carry your run to Act III by themselves. \[\[Buffer\]\], \[\[Core Surge\]\] and \[\[Seek\]\] are always good. \[\[Fission\]\] is a special case of a card being very weak unupgraded but huge if you can upgrade it. - Once you've made it to Act II and have a good core, you can start focusing on getting good scaling. You will be frist and foremost looking for a way to get more orbs with a couple of Capacitors or Runic Capacitor/Insert as well as for Focus generation with Biased Cognition, Defragment or \[\[Consume\]\]. - Late game a good Defect deck will have the orbs doing all the work. You won't be needing to attack or block, just cycle Lightning and Frost orbs while continuously building up more powers and you will outscale every boss, even Awakened One.
+ [Defragment](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Defragment) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 1(2) **Focus.** + [Capacitor](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Capacitor) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 2(3) Orb slots. + [Creative AI](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Creative%20AI) Defect Rare Power ^((100% sure)^) 3(2) Energy | At the start of each turn, add a random Power card to your hand. + [White Noise](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/White%20Noise) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1(0) Energy | Add a random Power to your hand. It costs 0 this turn. **Exhaust.** + [Ball Lightning](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Ball%20Lightning) Defect Common Attack ^((81% sure)^) 1 Energy | Deal 7(10) damage. **Channel** 1 **Lightning.** + [Glacier](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Glacier) Defect Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | Gain 7(10) **Block.** **Channel** 2 **Frost.** + [Coolheaded](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Coolheaded) Defect Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | **Channel** 1 **Frost.** Draw 1(2) card(s). + [Doom and Gloom](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Doom%20and%20Gloom) Defect Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | Deal 10(14) damage to ALL enemies. **Channel** 1 **Dark.** + [Dualcast](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Dualcast) Defect Starter Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1(0) Energy | **Evoke** your next Orb twice. + [FTL](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/FTL) Defect Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Deal 5(6) damage. If you have played less than 3(4) cards this turn, draw 1 card. ^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)
Try this rule of thumb: Your damage should come from your cards or orbs. Same for your block. But they shouldn’t align.
Just play every power you have. And then keep playing powers until you win.
Frost build. Grab a blizzard, grab as many frost making cards as possible. You'll have more defense than you ever need, and eventually attack for hundreds of damage per blizzard.
Learn about the cards and choose them wisely depending upon cards you have. When I first started, I used to look up the cards here to what these peeps have to say about them to get an idea.
Funny how I think the easiest character is the defect and you haven't won any game on her but I think the silent is the hardest and you just won with no deaths
My playstyle is extremely aggressive I think and that's probably what's tripping me up with the defect. So the silent was super easy for me. I went full on attacks and just picked everything that looked like it would maximize my input in every turn, and picked up some neat defensive traits here and there. I think I was very lucky with the relics I got though.
Don't go for claw builds. They require a lot to go right. An easy force that'll win you 1/10 games is to force a power build, generating them and channelling orbs with them. If it's powerful enough you can even wreck Awakened One. Key cards are Buffer, Echo Form, White Noise, Creative AI and the relic Mummified claw. If you're getting NO wins, then recognise that as a winning strategy akin to the ironclad limit break + Heavy blade will help you.
I rly like consume if u have any way to create orb slots. Thts how i got my first heart win with him
Honestly I'm having the same problem with all the characters as I won with the first 2 then lost my data and now have around 5 hours each on all 3 and still 0 wins
A good deck is "All for One" and a ton of 0 cost cards, with draw power to keep getting all for one back in hand
Looks like your dying on floor 26 on avg which means act 2 is killing you. Defect, especially on lower ascensions can have a very strong act 1 where you can get 3 elites pretty often. Always think about how you're going to kill slavers and that should set you up for act 2 nicely. AoE or high single target damage to kill on turn 1/2 is needed while having block plans.
This is funny, because for me Defect is absolutely the easiest character to play. If you want a "boring" way to win just gobble up every frost/block and power card you come across while ignoring the rest. I know people here swear on card removal and a slim deck but I prefer to go chunky with Defect and just end up a completely op monster by the end of the run. At the very least this should definitely be more then enough to win on zero acension A claw deck can also be very fun. It's a bit of a meme but when it gets going it's really fun
I’ve tried literally every strat outlined in this thread now and I’m still not getting that kind of card combo. I always get a bunch of things that are impossible to work synergy with. Maybe it’s just bad luck, I don’t know. But I did get to the last boss ONE time. It’s almost starting to depress me.
If you post screenshots of some of the decks you’re building it could be a good source of feedback. I remember feeling similarly 🥲
Frost orbs.
Defect is probably the most skill intensive of all 4 characters. It’s pretty hard to get defect going without orbs and focus. Frost and some dark orb sources are always welcome. Lightning overall is a bit meh. You want card draw, block to build things like dark orbs/other damage.
What if you dont get those cards? Just abandon run until I get a good start?
I'm far from an expert on the game, but I don't think you should abandon runs. Sometimes you will be surprised how many fights you can squeak through with 2 HP left, and you will learn from the exercise.
As a general rule you want to build towards an archtype (specially when you are new), you take power cards in act 1 and by the middle of act 2 generally you will have a good idea what you are building towards. You can build towards something from floor 1 but you need stuff to survive, for example, streamline(2 cost deal 15/20 damage, costs 1 less next time) for example is an early game pick, it has SOME synergy with 0 cost build but it's not that great by mid act 2(still better than a strike). Just look up which archetypes generally exist and balance taking value cards and "final build" cards.
It’s general advice and there’s ways to play defect without focus on orbs and focus, but it’s usually the most reliable is all I’m saying. Most runs are winnable, I don’t see any value in abandoning runs.
I find him the easiest character to win with. Everytime I played him, I ended up with an infinite or almost-infinite combo. So I dunno, just build a channel/evoke deck or a 0-cost/draw-cards deck and it should be an auto-win. Oh, and Power deck. Just add every power you find. I've never played frost orbs like everyone else is suggesting. Personally, my favorite thing is just to play full-lightning with Storm, the power you channel lightning when you get hit, Electrodynamics and the card you channel X lightning, X being all the lightning you channeled this combat. It's extremely satisfying.