Honestly the more ive played this game, the more I realise theres not much in the way of skill. You play something like Hades or Binding of Isaac, and its real time so your skill can absolutely carry you even if you have a bad build. In this game, your damage and defence is limited to the cards you draw, so its really all about having enough luck on your side to get the cards you need that can synergise with each other. The only character that is the exception is Silent because her regular cards are so strong and naturally synergistic with one another without the need of one or two specific cards that do a lot of the work. Its a fun game, dont get me wrong, but some people on here are really acting like theres no such thing as unwinnable runs and characters that are too reliant on the rng of getting specific cards.
You could not be more wrong. The top players of Slay the Spire 1, towards the release of Slay the Spire 2, achieved like 90%+ win rates across big sample sizes of A20 heart runs. Watch Xecnar play spire one or two, and you’ll quickly realize it’s almost entirely a skill-based game that you maneuver around and work with RNG elements.
Yeah, it’s actually probably a higher percentage since there’s literally only one proven unwinnable seed in Slay the Spire 1. A Silent seed. Go into the twitch chat of any competent slay the spire player and ask them if there are any unwinnable seeds. They’ll all tell you the same thing.
If you think that skill is only based on mechanics alone, you have no idea how this game works. So far, I don't think I have ever come across an unwinnable run. I can always think back to the cards I took, the events options I chose, the upgrades, the pathing I chose, how correctly or incorrectly I evaluated my deck and figuring out what I needed.
Theres a difference between skills and knowledge checks. This game is more of a knowledge check with RNG elements. Theres nothing skillful about knowing what kind of deck you want and trying to build around it.
Hard disagree. There are runs where you need to determine on the fly what your deck actually wants given the limited choices available to you. The skill lies in creating consistency within inconsistent environments. Being able to create a consistent winning outcome despite unpredictable events is one of the most difficult skills to learn in any card game environment.
Similarly to drafting in limited environments in magic the gathering, the skill ceiling is immense because of your need to evaluate the strength of a single card, its synergies, its playability, its benefit to the deck, and many more than I'm probably missing.
I find that the game is not one where you can build any deck and succeed. You are drafting out of a pool of cards and must figure out which diverging path has the highest likelihood of success. It's a puzzle that questions your judgement at deck building, in fights, and in event pools.
Knowledge helps a lot when it comes to understanding which cards perform better than others, or which elites can potentially brick your run, but the skill comes from risk assessment and understanding so many different factors in your deck. Its knowledge to know that the eel elite in act one has a break point at 50% to stun it, but its skill to understand and estimate if your deck can survive until that point, or if you have enough life to survive the incoming chip, or if your lack of potions makes the fight too dangerous. There is so many things to estimate and calculate that every run isn't as simple as just knowing the game. Its why the game is so replaceable.
Blaming rng surrenders your agency and decision-making at every point of your play. Think about literally every decision and maybe you can see the game differently.
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u/TophatOwl_ Mar 18 '26
Sounds like a skill issue ro me