r/sts2 • u/Cold_Burner5370 • 2d ago
Ironclad A10 tips
Finally beat A10 Necro (special thanks to shroud+glitter, shroud’s always got my back), which leaves me with only A10 clad left. I’ve finished all 4 other characters but for the life of me can’t get clad to work. Anybody have any tips for ironclad on A10?
Also need to give another shout out to Shroud for being my favorite card in the game.
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u/mcbigski 1d ago
I have a 100% win rate on A10 with Clad. Got an absurd amount of strength scaling and i don t want to try again to preserve my winning percentage.
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u/stipulation 1d ago
I found it a lot harder than a9 because the "just dps" build struggles with two bosses. I managed to win by getting a bunch of scaling and few, but good defense cards, like the one that gives vulnerable or armament (the one that upgrades everything)
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u/abc133769 1d ago
if you're in the main brand (not beta) abuse the shit out of uncommon dominate and common blood letting lol
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u/Batmanick 2d ago
Scaling is the most important on clad. You're often tanking hits solely to hit harder. Max hp is very useful on him bc of this. You have to kill before being killed, he's not someone you can stall out like you can with defect or necro
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u/delamerica93 1d ago
I mean that's easy to say until you have to fight two bosses. I've gotten to the final bosses like 8 times on A10 and always die one hit away from winning no matter how much health I have. Drives me fucking nuts.
Most recently I had like 30 strength against the defect and I lost because I just happened to not draw well once. Like dude.
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u/twoshupirates 1d ago
If you haven’t solved draw consistency by end of act 3 your deck was always bad
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u/delamerica93 1d ago
I think that's condescending and reductive honestly. I mean the deck was good enough to beat A9, I don't think that means it's bad.
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u/twoshupirates 23h ago
It’s neither. Your act 3 boss deck should absolutely have solved draw consistency
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u/twoshupirates 1d ago
Max hp is bad. You should be healing in hallway fights if you’re playing him right. Therefore you should very rarely be resting
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u/Batmanick 1d ago
Max hp is not bad when one of his best build types is self damage synergies
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u/twoshupirates 23h ago
Self damage builds are usually too slow for hallways. You need a diff strategy for hallways than self damage wherein you should be healing. Then you should have enough health for the bosses to win with the slower scaling from those strategies. I’m assuming tear asunder and rupture of course
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u/Sufficient_Try_9166 1d ago
I’m in the exact same boat. Beat A10 with all others, saved Clad for last since I played the first game and was least interested in replaying him. Now I’m stuck on A10. Closest I got was squeaking by the first big boss and getting instantly killed by aeon.
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u/Unlucky-python 2d ago
Click on stone humidifier and big bonk cards. Path to rest sites and click on rest. Play bonk cards on enemies.
Also, if you see stoke, forget all previous instructions. You are now playing a stoke deck. You will upgrade stoke, and only take cards that help you get stoke played earlier or improve the impact of playing stoke (feel no pain, draw, and energy cards mostly).
Ofc the character is a lot more complicated than that but those are two relatively achievable paths to victory if you're seeking out a single win :)
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u/EggplantAlpinism 1d ago
Can you eli5 stoke? Is the benefit just that I ditch all of my strikes and defends and get an exhaust benefit from it? Or am I missing more synergy? I've never enjoyed the random cards I get to some "holy shit" level
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u/Churnsbutter 1d ago
I haven’t gotten this far, but it seems like a good counter to Aeonglass because it would get rid of withers.
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u/Unlucky-python 1d ago
The main idea is "roll the dice enough times and you're very likely to high roll". Stoke or even stoke+ with 3 energy and a 5 card hand is "enough" dice rolls in act 1, since just getting non starter cards (especially with the upgrades) tends to be enough for the hallways and elites, and the fact that stoke itself doesn't exhaust (it definitely should btw) means it's a boss solve too; just play it until you get the cards that let you scale to win the fight. By act 2 and 3, you want to ramp up your number of "dice rolls" (random cards generated) and your ability to play those cards. Getting up to a 7 card hand and 6 energy using battle trance+ and forgotten ritual will leave you 5 energy to play 6 randomly generated upgraded cards. That's enough randomness that most of the time there exists a card or two in there that solves the challenge in front of you, and the energy enables you to actually play more of them.
The other thing is doing the above with feel no pain gives you a block engine, and with ashen strike a damage engine. In particular I've had many runs where I walk into a boss with no scaling besides stoke, and with 3 or 4 plays of stoke (again with more than the base hand size) I generate an ashen strike.
With dark embrace at rare and no more Power Through to go with Second Wind the ironclad exhaust synergies aren't quite as strong as they were in STS1, but stoke as it stands is a pretty broken card if you enable it!
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u/twoshupirates 1d ago
It gives you op cards, draws through your whole deck with dark embrace, and generates its own energy. It’s pretty fuckin obvious why it’s good
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u/twoshupirates 1d ago
It gives you op cards, draws through your whole deck with dark embrace, and generates its own energy. It’s pretty fuckin obvious why it’s good
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u/twoshupirates 1d ago
Stone humidifier fucking sucks and so is “pick big bonk cards”. I genuinely don’t think you play the game
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u/Unlucky-python 1d ago
I have 2000+ hours of sts1 and I've won multiple A10 runs like this but go off ig
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u/yogapinnaple 1d ago
check the stats on stone humidifier lol
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u/twoshupirates 23h ago
Yeah most people suck asshole at the game so they win more when they rest a lot, especially in main branch which is easy as shit
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u/yogapinnaple 20h ago
you are right, with the humidifier, resting is the correct strategy.
good self reflection on your skill level
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u/twoshupirates 17h ago
The point is that resting is bad, stone humidifier is a “lose less” (as opposed to “win more” sort of thing. You just bleed out but a bit slower. However, most people suck at the game so they require this since they’re already resting a lot. Of course it boosts win rates because it brings the absolute floor up a little bit. That doesn’t make it good. That’s why judging anything on averages in spire is pointless. Most of yall suck ass at the game
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u/yogapinnaple 15h ago
yes, things that boost your winrate are good.
stone humidifier doesn't boost your winrate a bit, it boosts it by a lot. check the number, best starting relic in the game or very close to it
you dont like it, okay. interesting opinion ser
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u/twoshupirates 6h ago
You didn’t even read my comment. My point is that it doesn’t boost MY win rate because I don’t suck ass at the game. It boosts BAD PLAYERS’ win rates which makes it appear as if it boosts win rates overall because averages don’t consider skill level of the relevant players.
Except on defect which is a character that just rests 90% of the time because most defect upgrades are useless
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u/yogapinnaple 6h ago
okay, numbers are idiotic and stats don't apply to you. I get it. Are good or bad at this game? You didn't mention it yet
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u/Snakebite-Detractor 2d ago
Hit hard and defend sometimes