Source
r/slaythespire•
Life_Intern

Any way of skipping ascencion levels ?

TLDR: I'm not willing to play A1 to A20 with a 20% winrate, because that's 100h at least and I won't enjoy the 80h in the middle. Can I skip to A5/10/15/20 straight up ?

Long version with newb feeling and wide stary eyes:

I got the game a few days ago, died a few times to being inatentive, miscounting, bad card choices, overstuffing the deck, etc, then tidied my play, skipped a lot more card rewards, and tada, just completed ascension 1 on Silent. Overall winrate is probably around 15-20% if I discount of "ha fuck no, shouldn't have picked that, let's just drop the run", so my ego is super bruised.

I think that run basically felt onto my laps though. Whale-dude gave me the Black Star (so I ended with a nice stack of 36 ok-relics), solid events (including the upgrade all strikes/defends one), I talked to myself like I was explaining it to someone, it helped a lot.

Nonetheless, the idea of playing all the ascension levels one by one pains me though, is there a way to skip some of them ?

Thanks !

Posted Mar 27, 2019, 12:44 AM UTC

015
ImPancake_•

Not that I know of, and I wouldn't suggest it either. The difference between 1 and 20 is massive and you'll need the grind to learn how to play at those upper ascensions. They get far more brutal and unforgiving.

20
JellySejeong•

Yes i agree, you may even have more fun on earlier ascensions compared to at A20, currently at a 30 lose streak as ironclad

5
Oddity83•

You can edit your save to change Ascension. I will paste it below, but I don't recommend it. There is a small new learning curve every level, and if you are only winning A1 20% of the time it will be disgusting to jump 5 levels.

If you want to fix your ascension level manually.

preference folder

File: STSDataTheSilent

at the end of the file change

ASCENSION_LEVEL":"10"}

same with STSDataVagabond

11
Life_InternOP•

Thanks, that's exatly what I was looking for ! :o I'll just edit the file to be able to try Ax, and skip a few levels here and there.

I looked up the statistics in the sidebar, and the overall winrate seems pretty low (20% at A0, to 10% at A20), but how are the number collected ? Is it using all the available data on steam ? Only what people submit ? Other biases ? What's the winrate of average players ? Winrate of the best ones ? That game seems like a very deep rabbit hole :p

Thanks again ^^

-6
Oddity83•

This is an example of data being interpreted wrong. Just because A0 shows a 20% winrate, and 10% at A20, that does not mean that you will win A0 20% of the time, and A20 10% of the time.

I can say with relative certainty you will lose A20 100% of the time until you either get the skill to build a deck and pilot it to victory, or get incredibly lucky. But certainly in the 1% range.

Meanwhile, if you take a player who plays A20 all the time, I think it's safe to say they will win A0 100% of the time. And there are players who win A20 upwards of 60-70% of the time.

That's why I recommend not doing the skips, and just playing as you go. You will have a lot of fun, and learn a lot. I thought I knew how to play this game well when I first started winning games, but then every time I gained an Ascension level, I lost some, until I figured out why I was losing and fixed it.

Now I just beat A20 for the first time on Silent, and I still don't know alot. I'm not winning consistently at A20 and I haven't even done A20 yet on Defect or Ironclad (Defect is at 19, Ironclad is at 16).

My point is by short circuiting the Ascension levels you're not doing yourself a service, and I think you will have less fun. But this is a single player game, so to each his own!

16
aesdaishar•

Honestly by a20 it feels close to impossible to luck into a win, especially if you're coming straight from a1/5/10/whatever.

I didn't feel like how I played the fights themselves actually mattered much until I got this deep, where splitting the difference for like 1 hp gains actually felt super relevant and rewarding.

3
skippyfa•

Hahahahahaha

1
Avispar•

You could do custom runs as long as you don't care about achievements. If you do care about achievements I wouldn't suggest cheating to get them.

5
DogTV•

if you're struggling at lower levels why would you want to throw yourself into the hardest challenges?

4
Life_InternOP•

I'm not struggling, I'm suffering temporary setbacks :p But overall because taking on challenges that are over your skills is often a good way to improve fast and/or catch ideas. And it's a videogame, not tightroping over the grand canyon, so the penalty for losing are null ^^

1
NoxTempus•

I suuucked (still suck?) at this game. With 60 hours I had 10? Wins. But with lots of practice, grinding and a bit of research I went on a tear and won Ascension 4-7 back to back.

The more you play, the more you’ll see this game is very skill based. Sometimes you get screwed by RNG, but that’s card games.

3
Liesera•

Take it as a scaled learning system. Most people only win 10% climbing up, but you'll be surprised at how easy lower ascension is supposed to be after playing the higher ascensions. If you're still having a hard time against A0, you'd likely need some godly highroll for A15 and up.

2
BossOfGuns•

I can tell you that, most streamers and people who can actually beat a20, can speed run a0 to a10 within 5 hours, and a10 to a 15 in the next 5 hours, and that’s adjusting for potential losses due to misplays. If you truly think you can beat a20 then you should be able to speed run no problem

2
HumanityNotIncluded•

I agree that spending time at lower ascension levels is kind of a waste, because the rules of the game change at each level.

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It means that what can be a good strategy for A0 becomes a stupid move on A20.

If your goal is to practice for consistent A20 win rate, then you should not bother with lever levels.

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But if you want to play the game with progressive reward, then you need to go through all levels and get the adrenaline rush every time you beat Act3.

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Also a big difference in play style is that you dont have to go for the heart when you just want to climb !

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I much prefer A0 and trying absurd strategies to get to the heart, than going tryhard mode for ascension...

1
everythings_alright•

If you have 15% winrate on asc 1, you dont want to play higher ascension.

1
skippyfa•

20% winrate is very impressive. It's definitely less than 80 hours if you win that often.

-1