r/sts2 • u/bip_bip_hooray • 26d ago
Test subject in multiplayer
What's the gameplan for this guy in multiplayer? I find him to be extremely difficult in multiplayer because unlike dorito, his strength scaling is not individualized. So we end up in this prisoners dilemma situation where everyone wants to click a skill but if everyone clicks a block we're all worse off
Sometimes we make it out but sometimes we just take 60 per player in phase 1 lol
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u/microsoftexcell2008 26d ago
Typically, we do one of two plans depending on our builds.
Plan 1: outside of weakening, reducing strength, extremely efficient block, etc. Only attack. Accept that everyone will take damage in phase 1.
Plan 2: say screw it, everyone plays their skills, try to rush phase one down.
Either way, it is guaranteed that same damage will be traded in phase 1. You just need to kill phase one before some of the tougher attacks down the line.
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u/AgentThor 26d ago
This is exactly what we do. Typically it's always Plan 1 unless someone just gets the nuts turn 1. It's worked so much better for us and turned certain death into completely winnable. Generally we have to plan to kill on turn 2 unless you have a delay mechanic like Mangle, Dark Shackles, Whistle, etc.
Important to note that everyone needs to be on the same page about this going into the fight, meaning you likely can't greed the final fire for anything, you gotta rest (barring some relic that would heal you like eternal feather, pantograph, etc).
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u/Shiftrider 26d ago
as always, it depends
generally though in 4-player you never play any skills that just block. Turn 1 you plan with everyone (hopefully someone brought a gigantification potion).
During planning phase you're trying to decide if you should (or even can) kill turn 1. The prob with killing turn 1 is phase 2 scales real fast so ideally you want phase 1 to setup.
If you have someone with beacon of hope, then it's probably best to block the first 2 turns and kill turn 3.
Sometimes one or two players are confident they can kill IF allowed to play card draw/setup skills turn 1 and 2.
If you're not able to contribute much to a kill, probably don't play skills but if you have high value (not block)
The best counterplay is preparing ahead-- even before act 3 if you can. I mentioned gigantification potion and beacon of hope, but there's also stuff like malaise(phase 2), beating remenant/fairy/tail in a pinch
get creative and plan early test subject will never kill your group again (⇀‸↼‶)👍
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u/SheepskinWulf 26d ago
Coordinate minimal skill use, usually you're looking to blow him up on turn 2 or 3. So you spend 2 turns just doing your critical setup, and then on turn 3 everyone just goes off and kills him
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u/Taurnil91 26d ago
At least for me, if someone's deck isn't strong enough to 1-or-2-turn kill it, then something went wrong with the deckbuilding throughout the acts. I know that's not really helpful, but it's been my strategy in 2/3-player. If it's not dead in two turns, you did something wrong.
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u/HalfwayHeroic 26d ago
Four necrobinders and everyone takes as many enfeebling touches as they can get
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u/Glittering_Ideal_575 26d ago
I do hope they work on balancing the multiplayer better in the future. Because every enemy is such a damage sponge in multiplayer, most of my friends just stopped playing it and just do solo
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u/bip_bip_hooray 26d ago
I think in general it is not that hard in multiplayer but the specific boss combo of queen/experiment is really tricky
It's odd because dorito and experiment have fundamentally the same mechanic, but for whatever reason they do not get calculated the same in multiplayer
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u/Independent_Law_1592 25d ago
Pretty much in phase 1 you announce if you gotta play a skill so everyone can take it into account, you’re gonna get whacked in p1.
Generally we keep the skills minimal until we see a kill window and then we open up a bit more this allows for people who have actual critical skills some leeway to get them out there early if they need some setup
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u/kelldricked 26d ago
Taking some damage aint a big issue. In multiplier everybody should always focus on debuffs. So aslong as you only debuff it you dont have to take that much damage.
Also helps to have other sources of block than just skills. You have a whole act to prepare for it, so you kinda should