The problem with the home bar is you basically have two options: 1) The correct way. The way it's done here, unfortunately. The bar fades out and requires one swipe to activate and then another to swipe the app away. This is the way it should be done, but unfortunately with a game like StS that has the most important part of its UI hidden under the faded out home bar...yeah, problematic. 2) Hiding the home bar entirely. Of course it solves the issue of your cards being obscured, but with a game that is so dependent on having to either tap or swipe where the home bar should be, you're bound to either return to the springboard or at least activate the multitasking screen (whatever it's called) ad infinitum. Yeah, we just can't win without an entire overhaul to the UI. :/ I don't know how probable that is and I can't imagine an elegant fix to it in the current state. Perhaps the way Void Tyrant does it?
Congrats. Still trying to go for my first ironclad win, about 6th run in. 5th run I lost out about halfway up the first act. It can be brutal.
Thanks. I found it easier with The Silent. Once I saw I could apply poison, I just went all out with that tactic and focused on those cards. Maybe I got lucky with the relics but I tend to focus on a fixed strategy right from the start and look to collect relics whenever possible.
Im in love with The Defect right now. I have only scratched the surface with him, but I can tell, with the right build, The Defect is a weapon of mass destruction. Im finding what sets StS apart from other titles on the app store is you have to be much more deliberate with your card selection. You almost envision the deck you want to build with whats available and do the best you can to build up a crazy deck from there. This tickles that part of me that BoI did; some runs, I could see you be so over powered that the game is almost broken. Thus far, i've completed runs with The Ironclad, and The Silent (tho both were Daily Climbs as opposed to standard runs). I have had several issues with the UA, but for the most part have managed to work around it comfortably. This game is digital amphetamines. It is the epitome of the "one more run" paradox..... It is so good. SO SO GOOD.
Hey, since you have completed a run with The Silent, you're the right person to ask this. Did The Watcher also unlock for you? After I completed a run with The Silent, The Defect unlocked. I stopped playing there. Upon returning I saw The Watcher unlocked too. Can't remember whether both got unlocked after The Silent run. Two characters unlocking in one go - seems like a bug. I read online that in order to unlock The Watcher, we need to complete a run with all 3 previous characters unlocked. But I just unlocked The Defect (3rd character). So seems to me it's working differently on iOS.
The release of this game made me realize even more how much I love Dream Quest and even more so, Meteorfall. Its interface is just sooo perfect on mobile. It‘s everything broken down to the most important. Essential gaming. StS looks nice, but feels slightly bloated and in terms of screen space, a bit wasted. I enjoy the other two games a lot more on my small screen.
No, the watcher did not unlock for me yet. I completed a daily climb with The Ironclad after unlocking the defect, and upon completion of that climb, I did not have the watcher afterwords. I believe you have to complete a STANDARD run in order to unlock her, I don’t think you can unlock her through daily climbs... that’s my assumption tho. I’ll report back when I clear a standard run.... I haven’t gotten to the top of the tower on a standard run just yet lol.
I have been playing all day, guilty as charged. The only problem is the card dragging mechanism is hit or miss. Hope they can fix it as there are so many card games on iOS and I do not understand the choice. Anyway, "Anger" is so OP if used right.
Okay. Thanks. I have completed one daily run with The Ironclad and one standard run with The Silent and have all characters unlocked. Hehe. Not sure how that worked.
I'm still trying to figure out how to play the Silent. I'm really bad with poison decks. I just can't figure out how to win while I'm slowly losing health while waiting for poison to kill my enemies. There's probably some better cards to unlock. I did the worst with her by far. My first run in the game was with Ironclad and I ALMOST beat the game on my first playthrough. Unfortunately I got one of the hardest bosses (based on all my runs). The boss that revives after death and it's like 300 + 300 health. I could beat the first one but once he revived I knew I was screwed. My favorite is definitely the Defect. I got my first win with him and I love the orb play-style along with the cool robot design. I'd say my preference is The defect > The Watcher > The Ironclad > The Silence. The Watcher I'm mixed about. I really like her but if you get the wrong cards you're screwed. Since she has things that increase power / damage taken. If you use it at the wrong time and get caught with a bad hand, it's a dead end.
That bloody home bar. Gosh I wish Apple would just give people the option to either have it or not have it. It’s just a damn annoying “feature”. I haven’t bought the game yet (waiting for all the interface issues to be fixed up) but no doubt all you guys having issues with the home bar are aware of Guided Access? While it is a bit cumbersome to get it operating (though you can tweak the way it opens and closes) it does get rid of the home bar. I only use it on my iPad when the home bar is an issue, so I don’t know if it causes some other consequences for iPhone users.
StS is pretty gentle about letting you win now and again compared to most roguelikes. It's perfectly happy to very occasionally give you a godlike build from the RNG, and you can just run the entire course with it. 80%+ of the games are well-balanced, but just like you occasionally get killed off in the middle of the first map, you occasionally swing the other way too and can own everyone. I think that's actually a great quality in a roguelike. I enjoyed Rogue more than Nethack on a lot of levels for actually getting to see the amulet of Yendor now and again, and god builds are always fun. It also helps keep the unlocks going.
Finding it hard to get time to spend on games lately but I just managed to grab an hour with this one. I have to start off by saying I haven’t had any issues as others have said with the home bar nor with the size of the text or any UI really. But I do agree the viewing of a card could be improved. So far I’m happy with the game, although so far it doesn’t really seem any better than a lot of the others I’ve played. Although I’m only an hour in and from the sounds of it a lot of it is on the unlocks and replay-ability of the game? And of course all seems very good so far I don’t mean that comment as a put down on the game as it isn’t at all. Anyway I’m happy with it and the price didn’t phase me at all as I’m sure I’ll get my monies worth out of it in time spent playing eventually when I grab more time with it.
I still haven’t bought dream quest and meteorfall I’ve only gotten to play a bit... I still will get STS one day as I’ve wanted it on mobile since i heard about the game and don’t play on Mac enough to get it on the computer. I realize the negative I have heard for STS is all based on it being a port vs the other games being Mobile games. Likely just have to live with it!
For me it’s the other way around, all the other card rogue likes on mobile made me desperately wish StS was on mobile because there was nothing quite as good. I like those games and others, but StS has always been my favorite in the genre. So glad to be playing it on the go!
I cannot get over how good this game is. It makes the REAL StS clones (looking at you Pirates, Magic Booty Quest(??), and Dimension of Dreams) PALE in comparison. It just SO GOOD. I am seeing tho how NotFM and Meteorfall have more in common with DQ than StS.... I will always love meteorfall btw... it’s now my second favorite Card-roguelike on iOS. StS is king.
It’s good to see someone so decisive about what they prefer of these games on iOS. But I really don’t understand how Meteorfall can top any list of deck building rogues, for mobile or not. The game is just so binary. Everything apart from the deck building is just a ‘yay or nay’ approach. You literally have only one card in play at a time and draw one card once you’ve ‘Yayed or nayed’ that card. That’s it. I get that mobile is the platform where simplification helps, but just because of that, I don’t need a game that is THAT simplified. And I especially cannot understand how Meteorfall could at all compare to the likes of StS or Dream Quest which offer full unrestrained depth. I prefer the full experience on mobile, even if there’s some UI issues as a result. Sure, Meteorfall has some depth, but it’s really no where near the others and it just can’t be by definition if you’re drawing and playing one card at a time. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest about that game.
Sorry but this is quite against my experience as well. Not defending all of the them, but Pirates Outlaws certainly does offer even more than StS on many grounds, if you’ve played it. Here’s some highlights. - Choices of relics matter even more because you only have 5 (unlockable to 7) relic spots. You therefore have to actually sell relics when you get too many, making for tough decisions. StS is a matter of basically acquiring as many relics as you can. - Pirates outlaws has more characters with vastly different play styles (StS has 4 but yes they are quite different). - Pirates Outlaws does the 3 acts thing, also has 6 locations to play through those 3 Acts. Each location brings with it new enemies and new cards particular to that location. StS basically has one location and the same 3 acts (sort of). - In PO you must select a reward after battle. New players will think this is bloating, but it’s not exactly. There are mechanics and choices to be made on those mechanics to deal with it. For instance, you can re-roll the rewards at a cost, in the hope of acquiring a relic instead which in worst case you can later sell that relic. StS has the ascension thing which is great for replayability. StS is supreme here, but PO has the Arena which simulates a similar thing. -StS has daily runs. PO does not. That’s a big pro for StS as well. But I’m pretty sure PO is working on new content which might close this gap a bit. - In PO, enemy positioning in battles matter. You have to hit the front line only if you have melee cards only. This factors in to deck building to make sure you can hit or shuffle enemies as needed. StS has no enemy positioning constraints. Imo this is added depth for PO. - Similar to above. Your deck in PO needs to not just have the familiar mix of defence, attack, and power cards as in StS, but also needs to factor in ranged and melee damage, or shuffle. Imo that’s another strategic layer. - StS I think is easier to make broken and fun decks. But PO has this too, just not quite as easy. There’s many more differences but I think these ones are the best to highlight. My main point here is that I really don’t buy in to plonking StS straight on the top when games like PO offer some really deep mechanics where StS just has nothing for that. Don’t get me wrong though, StS is a great game, it could well even be the best for me too, but PO for instance is in fact a near entirely different game in this genre differentiated with great mechanics offering a lot to the gameplay.
I put StS over Pirate Outlaws easily. It’s an unfair comparison to even say it has other locations. Sure for 5000 gold and 500 repute each. Even with a doubler it’s insanely grindy. I’ll take a fully premium experience
