[anonyfox]

At some point I stopped playing it (after, well, 100s of hours), because somehow I felt that its only getting harder without me getting any reward outside of the raw challenge itself - which then feels just like working.

Is there anything I didn't really notice that feels rewarding on higher levels?

[reidjs]

I like that it requires a small amount of mental energy to perform the 'optimal' play in every situation. The obvious example is doing basic arithmetic to calculate whether you should block more or attack.

At first, the game feels like it's deterministic with sprinkles of randomness, however, at high ascension levels it is the opposite - random chance until you get a broken deck that makes winning trivial. It's a slot machine.

[cyrialize]

As the other commenter said, it actually isn't like a slot machine.

I recommend watching runs from players that are going for win streaks. Many of the runs in win streaks are not slot machine decks. Going for a win streak forces you to take cards that you otherwise wouldn't have.

Watching runs in general will also show you that players win without broken decks. It's just that videos with the highest views tend to have broken decks because those are the most entertaining.

[chessgecko]

jorbs manages to get 15 win streaks on a20 beating the heart. I wouldn’t call it a slot machine

[cyrialize]

I absolutely adore playing at A20.

For me, the reward is having a deck that works well enough to tackle anything thrown at you.

This means many different things, but basically amounts to having the right amount of cards or relics that give you scalability for your attacks, a plan to mitigate attacks (with statuses or blocks), and a plan to handle beating the heart.

After a certain point, grabbing cards to beat the heart leads to beating other things easily - including Sword and Shield and the double Act 3 boss.

Funnily enough, I have the opposite problem. I'm often building decks that can beat everything easily except for the heart.

[msp26]

> Is there anything I didn't really notice that feels rewarding on higher levels?

The thought that you put into strategy matters more when the game is harder. Personally, I don't find it fun past ascension 17 but if I play at a0 it's a bit mindless which is not as fun anymore.

[NineStarPoint]

No, the point of the ascension mechanic is that it gets harder and harder so that you need to play more and more optimally to have a chance at winning, there aren’t any benefits past ascension 1. If you aren’t the sort of person who wants a harder challenge just for the sake of challenging yourself, then there’s no point yeah.

[cyrialize]

The game is actually balanced at A5, so I usually recommend people to play there.

[suzzer99]

I'm currently trying to beat A20+heart with the four characters, then I will lose interest. I've only beat it with Watcher so far. Working on Defect now, then Ironclad, then Silent (ugh). Watching Baalord's videos on youtube really helped.

[nottorp]

> without me getting any reward outside of the raw challenge itself - which then feels just like working

Do you prefer being spoon fed rewards for grinding endlessly, like in your average free game?

[airstrike]

At some point you don't even see the cards... All you see is blonde, brunette, redhead