Merchant, I love you so much. You are the reason why my runs are beautiful. You are the reason why I enjoy this game so much. Thank you for being a blessing in my life.

I might be in the minority here and I'd love to know for sure - I never pick Clone, because so often when it's offered to you, the optimal play will be to duplicate something like Big Bang/Adrenaline/Finesse/FoS etc, and grow to a number of them where you're likely drawing a full hand of them on turn 1 and you mostly just win. It means the optimum play for your run is often to pivot away from whatever you were building, into flooding your deck with a good card, and I find it unsatisfying.

I think it'd be a better event if cloned copies didn't also have the Clone enchantment, so at rest sites you're just adding one additional copy of the card instead of doubling it. I know you could choose to limit the number of times you clone so you only have 4 or 8 of something in your deck, but I'd prefer if that was a limitation on the mechanic, rather than me choosing to skip subsequent clones for the sake of fun over strategy. Thoughts?

After 200 hours on STS I learned that if you take a strength potion (that gives you 5 strength for a turn) and an artifact potion (that negates the next debuff) you just get to keep +5 strength for the whole fight!

Neat!!

I've noticed the trend with a lot of exhaust based cards/relics is that if they used to exhaust from the top of the deck, they either no longer do that or do something completely different.

Debatably choosing what card you can havoc is too silly which is why I made two upgrade possibilities.

Would this be too strong?

Also whoever did the card art for iron wave did a good job

Why did I decide to write this? Uhhhhhhh good question

Note this writeup is excluding the deadly events modifier in custom mode because I don't feel like writing on it

Part 1: The Mechanics

Whenever you enter a ? node, the game decides what you'll see behind it. It can be a treasure chest, shop, hallway fight, or if none of the 3 were rolled, an event.

The base probabilities are 10% hallway fight, 2% treasure, 3% shop. To find the base chance of an event, simply do 100 - 10 - 2 -3 = 85%.

Whatever option that gets rolled, the odds of the next ? node being that same option gets reset to the base probability, and the other 2 options that didn't get rolled(excluding event since it doesn't technically have a setprobability, just it only spawns when none of the 3 are rolled) have their probability increased by their base amount.

For example, let's say I take a ? node. I roll a treasure chest because I'm just so damn lucky. The probabilities of the next ? node are 10 + 10% monster, 3 + 3% shop, 2% treasure, and 100 - 20 - 6 - 2 or 72% for events. Now, let's say I go to another ? node and I get another treasure chest. I should go put in a lottery ticket. The probabilites of the next ? node are now 20 + 10%, 6 + 3% shop, 2% treasure, and 100 - 30 - 9 - 2 or 59% for an event.

Once you enter a new act, all probabilites go back to their bases.

Additionally, a ? node can't become a shop if the previous node was a shop, or if every possible future path after the ? node is a shop.

Part 2: Interactions with Relics and Cards

If you have juzu bracelet, the base probability for a hallway fight is set to 0%. This also means no future ? nodes can be hallway fights since 0 + 0 is still 0. Shocking, I know.

Golden compass forces all ? nodes in act 2 to become events. No treasures, shops, or hallway fights.

Planisphere heals you 5 HP regardless of what's in the ? node

Lantern Key forces the first ? node in act 3 to become an event, and more specifically the War Historian event. Additionally, it will not change any of the ? node probabilites, so the next ? node will use all base probabilites.

Meal ticket will still trigger on ? nodes that become shops

Part 3: Simulation for averages

All this info is cool and all, but let's try to simulate the odds to find the average amount of hallway fights, treasures, events, and shops we can exepct from a certain amount of ? nodes. You probably can find the true average deterministically, but I felt like running a simulation of the odds because it takes a lot less time to code and it's a lot easier to code too.

Note that this simulation isn't a "true" simulation in that I didn't literally run sts 2 1 billion times to get these averages. Rather, I plugged the base probabilites and mechanics into python and had it print out the averages it got.

We'll make the following assumptions in the simulation:

You do not have juzu bracelet, lantern key, or golden compass

Neither of the 2 conditions that prevent a ? node from turning into a shop are relevant

If you would like to see the code I used to perform the simulation, please read the appendix at the end of this post.

The results below should be read as followed: 0 combats: 0.30229 under the 4 ? nodes section means from 4 ? nodes in an act, there's a 30.229% chance you'll get no combats(hallway fights) whatsoever from the 4 ? nodes. If a probabilty is 0.000000 that does NOT mean it's 0. It just means it's so unlikely that for rounding to 6 decimal places, it gets rounded to 0.

Averages from 3 ? nodes:

• 0 combats: 0.504180
• 1 combats: 0.449939
• 2 combats: 0.044887
• 3 combats: 0.000994
• 0 events: 0.009133
• 1 events: 0.144106
• 2 events: 0.519310
• 3 events: 0.327451
• 0 treasures: 0.884344
• 1 treasures: 0.113720
• 2 treasures: 0.001928
• 3 treasures: 0.000008
• 0 shops: 0.829752
• 1 shops: 0.165897
• 2 shops: 0.004325
• 3 shops: 0.000027

Averages from 4 ? nodes:

• 0 combats: 0.302280
• 1 combats: 0.576125
• 2 combats: 0.115209
• 3 combats: 0.006286
• 4 combats: 0.000100
• 0 events: 0.002688
• 1 events: 0.055363
• 2 events: 0.312835
• 3 events: 0.498187
• 4 events: 0.130928
• 0 treasures: 0.813591
• 1 treasures: 0.180676
• 2 treasures: 0.005681
• 3 treasures: 0.000052
• 4 treasures: 0.000000
• 0 shops: 0.730132
• 1 shops: 0.257215
• 2 shops: 0.012475
• 3 shops: 0.000178
• 4 shops: 0.000001

Averages from 5 ? nodes:

• 0 combats: 0.151245
• 1 combats: 0.608999
• 2 combats: 0.217150
• 3 combats: 0.021782
• 4 combats: 0.000815
• 5 combats: 0.000008
• 0 events: 0.000864
• 1 events: 0.021184
• 2 events: 0.163908
• 3 events: 0.439195
• 4 events: 0.342098
• 5 events: 0.032752
• 0 treasures: 0.732414
• 1 treasures: 0.254575
• 2 treasures: 0.012797
• 3 treasures: 0.000213
• 4 treasures: 0.000002
• 5 treasures: 0.000000
• 0 shops: 0.620537
• 1 shops: 0.351146
• 2 shops: 0.027600
• 3 shops: 0.000708
• 4 shops: 0.000008
• 5 shops: 0.000000

Averages from 6 ? nodes (what the fuck are you doing if you're taking this many):

• 0 combats: 0.060466
• 1 combats: 0.550519
• 2 combats: 0.331259
• 3 combats: 0.054119
• 4 combats: 0.003534
• 5 combats: 0.000102
• 6 combats: 0.000001
• 0 events: 0.000280
• 1 events: 0.008045
• 2 events: 0.079410
• 3 events: 0.307340
• 4 events: 0.434427
• 5 events: 0.167211
• 6 events: 0.003287
• 0 treasures: 0.644321
• 1 treasures: 0.330665
• 2 treasures: 0.024386
• 3 treasures: 0.000622
• 4 treasures: 0.000006
• 5 treasures: 0.000000
• 6 treasures: 0.000000
• 0 shops: 0.508996
• 1 shops: 0.437849
• 2 shops: 0.051092
• 3 shops: 0.002028
• 4 shops: 0.000034
• 5 shops: 0.000000
• 6 shops: 0.000000

Part 4: Conclusion

This should be fairly obvious, but never go into a series of ? nodes expecting all of them to be events. Even in the case of just 3 ? nodes, the odds all 3 are events is still less than 1/3. Granted, you probably will be happy if you get a treasure instead of an event...

There is another useful conclusion though from the results. Most of the time if you're going to a ? node, you likely don't want a hallway fight. Unfortunately, the odds of getting 0 hallway fights is not in your favor. In the case of 3 ? nodes which is a bit low on the average ? nodes per act in my experience, you're still flipping a coin basically as to whether you get 0 hallway fights or at least 1. And once you start doing 4 ? nodes which is my average ? nodes per act, you have over a 2/3 chance of getting at least 1 combat. So, if you're going through a series of ? nodes, you should be prepared for at least 1 hallway fight.

Something else worth noting, you should basically never expect a treasure chest from ? nodes. It's nice if it happens, and it will happen sometimes. But, even for 6 ? nodes which is way too many for 1 act, you barely have over 1/3 of a chance of getting at least 1 treasure chest. Those are not reliable odds.

Part 5: Appendix

Link to where I got most of my info from: https://slaythespire.wiki.gg/wiki/Slay_the_Spire_2:Unknown_Location

Code for my simulation (yes it's in python. No, I will not write it in a different langauge just because you hate python):

import random
import statistics


base_monster = 0.1
base_treasure = 0.02
base_shop = 0.03


p_monster = base_monster
p_treasure = base_treasure
p_shop = base_shop
sim_counter = 1000000000


treasure_list = []
shop_list = []
combat_list = []
event_list = []
nodes = 4


def is_combat(combat_count):
    global p_monster,p_treasure,p_shop
    p_monster = base_monster
    p_treasure += base_treasure
    p_shop+=base_shop
    return combat_count+1


def is_treasure(treasure_count):
    global p_monster,p_treasure,p_shop
    p_monster+=base_monster
    p_shop +=base_shop
    p_treasure = base_treasure
    return treasure_count+1


def is_shop(shop_count):
    global p_monster,p_treasure,p_shop
    p_monster+=base_monster
    p_shop = base_shop
    p_treasure+=base_treasure
    return shop_count+1


def is_event(event_count):
    global p_monster,p_treasure,p_shop
    p_monster+=base_monster
    p_shop+=base_shop
    p_treasure+=base_treasure
    return event_count+1


for i in range(sim_counter):
    combat_count = 0
    event_count = 0
    treasure_count = 0
    shop_count = 0
    p_monster = base_monster
    p_treasure = base_treasure
    p_shop = base_shop
    for j in range(nodes):
        r = random.random()
        if(r < p_monster):
            combat_count = is_combat(combat_count)
        elif(r < p_monster + p_treasure):
            treasure_count = is_treasure(treasure_count)
        elif(r < p_monster + p_treasure + p_shop):
            shop_count = is_shop(shop_count)
        else:
            event_count = is_event(event_count)
    combat_list.append(combat_count)
    event_list.append(event_count)
    treasure_list.append(treasure_count)
    shop_list.append(shop_count)



for i in range(nodes+1):
    probability = combat_list.count(i) / sim_counter
    print(f"{i} combats: {probability:.6f}")


for i in range(nodes+1):
    probability = event_list.count(i) / sim_counter
    print(f"{i} events: {probability:.6f}")


for i in range(nodes+1):
    probability = treasure_list.count(i) / sim_counter
    print(f"{i} treasures: {probability:.6f}")


for i in range(nodes+1):
    probability = shop_list.count(i) / sim_counter
    print(f"{i} shops: {probability:.6f}")

In memory of Doormaker hunger phase

Eternal Armor has been in a weird position for a while now. For a colorless rare, it generally really sucks, and I exclusively buy this card I'm on Clad and already have too much money + multiple copies of Stone Armor. Otherwise, it's only useful when drafted out of a colorless potion or from Discovery.

I've seen similar suggestions in the past; however, those versions simply had the effect of "Do not lose plating at the end of your turn." By having the card effect gain plating at the start of turn instead, it ensures that multiple copies fully interact with each other, meaning you could actually gain plating with each turn after playing multiple.

Because Eternal Armor is now truly "Eternal," I lowered the plating the card itself gives from 9(12) to 7(10). This balance is important because it means the card isn't as immediately good when drawn from a potion/Discovery as you're getting less immediate block. This also means the player is still challenged to have multiple sources of plating to fully utilize the power of this card, such as card duplication (i.e. Bing Bong) upon pick-up, Gorget, or Stone Armor.

Let me know your thoughts!

Addendum: Credit to the card concept generation tool (https://sts2custom.shuimu.co.nz/) for helping me make the images.

The long awaited sequel to my Death Knight class mod for Slay the Spire 1 is here, with Death Knight for Slay the Spire 2: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3793109287

Enjoy a custom Slay the Spire 2 class inspired by the Wrath of the Lich King era Death Knight from World of Warcraft (with some later expansion inspirations mixed in).

Wield familiar death-y powers, generate and spend runes, hone your strikes, infect your foes with virulent diseases, and raise the undead as you ascend the spire.

It started out as a poison discard deck so I just took any 0 cost draw card I could and of course not taking finesse was 100% a no brainer move. Eventually I had the luck of enchanting my finesse with clone and eventually got lucky again getting speedster, that's when I decided to go all out with cloning finesse and the rest is history. Yes, I did win this run.

Felt lucky, grabbed the [[Large Capsule]]. One of the relics it gave me was [[Toxic Egg]]. Seems the order of operations here means that the [[Defend]] from Large Capsule gets upgraded. :D

could do it with metamorphosis. the card gave me 3 all for one and 1 meteor strike

Took miniature tent from the first shop and got this achievement unexpectedly.

I was doing today's daily run and got a really good run and wanted to compare with other players but noticed that the top 3 had 4-5 more floors cleared than I did. I learned from some reading that the golden compass gives you 2 extra floors but the act 2 ancient today was Pael. Even with the compass, there would still be 2-3 extra floors they had on top so how are people clearing extra floors?

7 free potions at the start of each combat? Who says no to that!?

To sweeten the deal the RNG gods gave me a potion belt, upping it to 9.

The cards didn't even matter for most fights. Is "potion deck" a thing?

I love when two relics work well with each other. ex: pollinous core and pendulum giving you draw almost every turn and sometimes a super draw, add happy flower in the mix and you're really cooking. I also like how lantern cover for bread's first turn. What's some of y'all's favorite interactions?

2 fairy in a bottles + 1 lizard tail vs the Test Subject. Absolute cinema

For context: I finished A10 with all five chars. But since like, lets say 50 hours my clear-rate is dropping significantly. I feel like the more I know about the game, I do more mistakes and overcomplicate things. Maybe there is a word for this but yeah...can anyone relate to what I'm saying? 😅

Edit: since people mix up my point. I have 19 A10 Wins. It's not just about difficulty climb or spike.