Slay The Spire's daily runs are proper good now
Climb that spire!
It's not news that Slay The Spire is great--we've written about that oh so very much--but you might have missed how great its 'Daily Climb' daily run mode has become. On the deck-building roguelikelike's journey through early access, developers Mega Crit Games have kept adding daily modifiers that change the game in strange ways, and it's become my favourite way to play. I'm not even in it for competing on the leaderboards, I just like these strange variants - especially after Friday's patch added a Draft modifier that makes spire-climbers build their own starting deck.
The modifiers are what make Daily Climbs sing, combining in interesting ways to make runs that I'd never see in the regular game. One modifier causes your deck to fill up with Curse cards while giving you items which translate those into powerful buffs that can kinda balance it out. Another starts you with a deck of 50 random cards. The new Draft mode has us build our own starting decks, picking cards from three options until we're full. Some give extra cards, or cards from the other character. One delightful modifier makes the game spit out dozens of Relics across a run, packing in across the top of the screen to make you ridiculously (and often confusingly) strong. Some modifiers are simply negative, and some buff you and enemies in the same way. Throw a few together and each day is interesting.
It's taken a while to get the balance right. Though Alec liked Daily Climbs from the start, I thought it had too many modifiers which were too irritating and didn't dig it. A rebalancing in the middle of the March tweaked the modifiers to push interesting situations more than tough challenges, and extra modifiers added since then have made it into a daily must-play for me.
Daily Climbs: they're good now. This isn't my competitive streak either (unlike The Binding Of Isaac's daily runs, where I shouted the first time I got in the top 100). I'm not good at the Daily Climbs. Some I don't even finish. I'm not shooting for the top and don't think any pals are playing to compete against. This mode throws up runs I'll never see in regular Slay The Spire, and I am hugely enjoying them. Go on, give 'em a go.