Getting a little braver seeking out Elites in Slay the Spire

My deck building is still a little wonky but we're getting somewhere one fight at at time. Live from twitch:
/ primepalindrome
/ primepalindrome

[@gothenmosph5151]

Nice job! You're getting better. My advice for playing cards is to draw first before doing anything else. Theres a few instances you may not want to, but 95% of the time you want to draw first. It allows you to see all your options with the most energy possible.

[@primepalindrome5768]

Thank you, a helpful rule of thumb 👍🏻 ☺️

[@timkvernen4852]

The heart isn't available unless you're playing on Ascension. You need to finish act 3 to open it up.

[@primepalindrome5768]

Thank you, didn't know that. Finishing the third act will have to be the new goal :)

[@kinnikillerkiwi]

You actually need to beat act 3 with Ironclad, Silent and Defect to open it up. Ascension has nothing to do with it.

[@BedrockBlocker]

nice seeing you learn the game :-)

[@primepalindrome5768]

Ty!

[@kinnikillerkiwi]

One important hint I can give is to try not to rush your turns. Look at your hand and plan out your moves before executing. For example, if an enemy has 10HP, it can be killed by 2 strikes, but not by 1 strike and 1 neutralize, thus playing the neutralize on them is a waste of damage. For that first Lagavulin fight, it would have been better to wait for the following turn so you could put all your energy into attacks. And on the Slime Boss, since he doesn't attack on turn 2, it's best to get it as close to half as possible that turn while still above half, so you can split in the following turn while lowering its HP as low as possible so the splits have less HP. Going after more Elites is indeed a good strategy. They are more rewarding than a normal fight not just because of the relic, but you also get more money from them than normal fights and there's extra chance you'll see rare cards in their rewards. You shouldn't be too afraid of boss relics with downsides, they're worth the price most of the time. I have more stuff I could say but I don't want to overwhelm you. You can ask me if you have any questions, though. And also, nice job on defeating the Champ. Little by little you're getting better.

[@primepalindrome5768]

Thank you again for your advice, I've already learned a lot by it! I was rushing a little, next time I'll try and plan even better. The elites definitely felt worth it even though I don't fully see through them yet. How would you beat the three life linked black slimes in the beyond? I definitely felt a more aggressive approach was needed. Thanks again! I really appreciate it :)

[@kinnikillerkiwi]

@@primepalindrome5768 Having some more aoe helps, being more aggressive to be able to kill them faster also helps, but investing a little more on defense so you can tank their attacks can work as well. Only the left and right slimes can do multi-hit attacks, so focusing on them first is generally a good idea. They don't really demand a specific strategy. Your issue on this one was that your deck wasn't optimized enough. I think you only removed 2 defends and no strikes? Even with an attack focused deck, removing most if not all of your strikes is still a good idea, since you'd much rather keep redrawing your actually good attacks. Plus you didn't have nearly enough draw to make proper use of energy gain cards like tactician, so it was basically a dead draw.

[@primepalindrome5768]

@@kinnikillerkiwiI see! Lots to consider on my next run, thank you very much for explaining 😊

[@paliophysical4481]

This can be hard as its an odd concept for new players but try to plan around having lethal. Ie if you can kill next turn and theyre attacking this turn then block as much incoming damage as possible as the next turn their actions wont matter.

[@primepalindrome5768]

The deck building aspect definitely is a steep learning curve for me, thanks for the tip!

[@paliophysical4481]

@primepalindrome5768 no problem I just recently climbed to ascension 14 with silent so I understand how hard it can be. But thats why I like it to.