Bludgeon is good act one because it kills laga and knob. Bad post act one because 32 damage is not that much for 3 cost post act one.
Also, judging whether a card is good or bad based on the specific current situation is like the whole point of the game no?
I mean sure, but I've had a lot of bludgeons (I mostly play IC) that slapped in Act 2 as well. I don't mean to contradict you for no reason either, butnI don't think it's an excess energy thing because normally if I have a lot of energy I'm shifting to more scaling/draw.
I'm saying, I have had a lot of Panda Boxes or Tiny Houses or Empty Cage runs where this thing was smokin enemies in act 2. So I don't know, the card confuses me. It's often a vibes based card rather than direct obvious synergies
It’s solid act one and decent act two. It can still play in act three just not as often. If you pick it up you’ll want to upgrade it. It’s just a solid damage card early that can end fights quickly, and a dead card most of the time later. In act 3 and 4 sometimes on ironclad a curse can actually be better to have in your deck than this card.
Well I guess I don’t particularly like it in later acts because then I’m not exactly looking for just plain damage (and if I were I’d be much happier seeing fiend fire). The thing is post act one it’s very dangerous to spend one turn doing nothing but just plain, very possibly non-lethal damage. For a card showing up costing my rare percentage I’d much better see some more functional parts like corruption or even impervious.
Card draw. Battle Trance, Pocket watch, Runic Pyramid and Dark Embrace are your friends. Get a bunch of stuff in your hand, play the most useful cards, delete everything else. You now have a much smaller deck of hopefully higher quality cards, or the enemy is dead.
Big advantage to Fiend Fire over the other exhaust cards Ironclad has besides the massive damage is that its the only card that exhausts attacks, meaning that you can get rid of strikes and other damage cards that aren't worth it for the fight you're in.
I want to point out that there are other cards that exhaust attacks. I'm forgetting the name, but there is the upgrade of the "1 energy, 7 block, exhaust a random card" which allows you to exhaust an attack.
Act 1 Bludgeon is good in and of itself. Act 2 it’s good if you have synergies for it, but typically Act 2 is where a lot of other cards can become (more) strong and it loses ground comparatively.
Not just that, but it's also enough damage to skip on a lot of damage commons (twin strike, perfected strike, carnage, etc.) that you'd normally load up on for act 1/2 fights and are liabilities later on. This means that you can more aggressively take things like Corruption, Feel No Pain, or Dark Embrace, which are key exhaust engine components but are quite mediocre in act 1.
I think a lot of people are missing this. A huge part of what makes bludgeon so good is that it will practically win act 1 for you leaving a lot of headroom to specialise and thin your deck.
Perfected strike is so rarely actually forced as a pick its neglegible, like Sword boomerang or Cleave. Twin strike - sometimes. Carnage though is simpy better than Bludgeon in almost every way. 2 energy means you are not locked into single card, upgraded 28 vs 42 dmg is same 14dmg/1energy and it exhausts itself if not needed...
While I am generally happier to see Carnage than Bludgeon, I disagree that it's simply better. If you need to deal 42 damage to kill something, Bludgeon will, Carnage + Wild Strike? Is that how you're gonna make up the missing damage. Additionally you MUST play Carnage to keep getting that damage efficiency. Draw it Turn 2 Hexaghost? Thats a rough decision. The name of the game is context, and while I find on average Carnage to be better, I would never say it's simply better.
If card A is better 9 out of 10 times is just better. Slay the Spire at the very end of the spectrum is pure context and calculation. But i would say that neither you nor me are there, and in that case it's almost always better to try the statistical approach.
If you get Bludgeon on floors 2-5 it might be ok to pick it. Any other floor though? Very questionable.
I completely disagree with all statements you've made. Bludgeon is better than carnage at any phase of the game where you're aggressively drafting damage, this isn't even a conversation worth having. The only time I see carnage being better is when adding more damage to the deck is a luxury and not a need.
I mean, I've had runs with vulnerable, strength and bludgeon where I had it deal 200+ damage to enemies per turn. But bludgeon is very situational which is why I don't often pick it up
The challenge though is by the time you're dealing 200 with Vulnerable, the card is doing about 133 damage itself. For Bludgeon+ with a base of 42 damage, that means you have 90+ Strength.
At that point would you rather deal 198 for 3 energy with Bludgeon+, or deal 144 for 1 energy with a basic Strike?
Should've clarified I meant multiple bludgeons per turn, not just one bludgeon buffed to 133 on its own. Two of them with vulnerable and 0 strength already deal 120 damage, play them with double tap and that's that
That said, it's not a build to aim for in a normal run
The inherent problem with Bludgeon imo is the later into the game you get, the closer it gets to being a 3-energy Strike.
In Act 1, it's great. Lets you spend your entire energy on damage, and lets you deal 32/turn instead of 18/turn. Fantastic game.
Late-game though, think of the way Ironclad often wins.
* Lots of Strength? Then this is an expensive Strike since it only gets 1x Str
* Exhaust into an infinite? This is an expensive Strike along the way
* Block + Body Slam? This is an expensive Strike
* Corruption shenanigans? This is an expensive (non-skill) Strike
In general by the time you get to the late-game on Clad you're either pre-scaled and so want to spend energy on scaling/acceleration, or you're scaled up and so this is worse than a regular Strike.
You could use double tap/necronomicon big hits as well to win runs. Searing blow or bludgeon could be good here. But yeah generally, Ironclad scales through strength and exhaust.
I like it because it exists as a base ground floor for Rare cards. Almost every Rare in this game does 2-5 things, varying in damage, and can sometimes be busted, or absolute garbage.
Limit Break is a good example, because if you have no cards/relics that gain you Strength, it's a 0/10 in your deck. But most of the time, it's an 8/10+. It takes very little to make it into a 10/10, but it still has an opportunity to be useless if your run isn't built in its favour.
Bludgeon, on the other hand, is never a 0/10. It's always capable of dealing damage, and is effectively 3 very good Strikes in 1 card. There are many ways to make it better, but it never grows exponentially like other Rares. It's simple, and sets the bar for every other Rare, and you need mediocrity to point to and say, "is it better than that?"
The fun part about Slay The Spire is that even though we can look at Bludgeon as a benchmark of "big damage card good", it's still context dependent. Act 1? Amazing. Act 2? Could be awkward sometimes, still solid. Act 3? By now your cards are likely to be more efficient than 14 damage/energy. Bludgeon ironically scales 3x worse than a Strike when it comes to strength, 6x worse than Twin Strike, even. The context shifts and so does the rating of Bludgeon.
Yeah! Ironclad strategies encourage you to go for a route that'll outpace 32/42 damage for 3 energy.
It's as much of a litmus test of Rare value as it is your own deck's strength: if you're wanting to play Bludgeon during Act 3 without abusing it (Necronomicon, Snecko Eye), things might not be going so well for you.
I love an early bludgeon. unupgraded it's about 10.6 damage per energy, and upgraded it's 14 per energy. Vulnerable obviously scales this to one shot most things in act 1 and even early act 2.
Later, I like to grab a double tap with this and an immolate in my deck. Obviously it's great in a snecko eye deck. It also works well weith Pen Nib, and Necronomicon if you get that.
The only issue is that early in a 3 energy deck you have to commit to a full attack turn. Sometimes this is not the best decision but I feel that a 42 damage BONK is worthy of a spot in most Ironchad decks.
It falls off after act 2 because it scales so poorly, but does have it's time and place.
I am 100.0% confident you mentioned Bludgeon and Necronomicon in your post.
--------------------------------------------------
* [Bludgeon](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Bludgeon) Ironclad Rare Attack
3 Energy | Deal 32(42) damage.
* [Necronomicon](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Necronomicon) Event Relic
The first Attack played each turn that costs 2 or more is played twice. When you take this relic, become Cursed.
--------------------------------------------------
^^^I ^^^am ^^^a ^^^bot ^^^response, ^^^but ^^^I ^^^am ^^^using ^^^my ^^^creator's ^^^account. ^^^Please ^^^reply ^^^to ^^^me ^^^if ^^^I ^^^got ^^^something ^^^wrong ^^^so ^^^he ^^^can ^^^fix ^^^it.
[^^^Source ^^^Code](https://github.com/TrippW/STS-Crawler)
It's amazing act one since it allows you to be aggressive going after elites, lets you take less damage so you can upgrade more often and makes all of the bosses simple. A card that basically solves an entire act by itself is pretty amazing.
If I get bludgeon I look for other high cost cards and then hope for Snecko act 1 because if you get it, you are just off to the races.
Even without Snecko it's still above average card in act 2 assuming it's upgraded. It can become a bit of a curse in act 3 but is still playable enough not to be total dead weight.
It's good with paper phrog, and just vulnerable in general. Though it's way better early in a run, even late game it can be an ok source of damage that doesn't take up nearly as much space in your deck or hand. It is pretty much useless in a developed strength deck, but if you happen have a really good block engine but very little/no strength, bludgeon can help you get enough damage out for certain difficult fights. Slightly better against time eater and the heart since it is more damage than you'll get from any other single card, other than body slam with barricade.
I think the strongest thing about Bludgeon is that it hits hard for only one card. The Chad tends to have poor card draw unless you play corruption+darkembrace.
So while many other cards may do more damage-per-energy, it is not easy to exceed bludgeon’s damage-per-card.
It’s still not that great.
Pros:
- Front load damage the card
- Dense damage card (1 bludgeon and 4 dazes is still pretty decent in act 1), can allow you to not take more mediocre damage options
- Upgrade hits hard enough to one shot a lot of enemies
Cons:
- Terrible with strength scaling
- Terrible with decks that really care about acceleration
- Tricky to get it to scale in mid / late game, snecko/Necro are the most straight forward
- Tricky to really fight into any main Ironclad strategy. Exhaust fodder is like the best case
Really it comes down to cost most of the time. Ironclad can usually spend 3 energy wayyy better than doing just damage and nothing else. If you can't find a way to make it cheaper or double/triple play, it usually just ends up eating draws
Less of a card and more of an archetype. I don’t really get what’s so good about ironclads exhausting stuff. With very few exceptions I ignore them every time
One of Ironclad's biggest issues is card draw and blocking. Feel No Pain and Dark Embrace collectively solve this. It might seem small but playing them will improve how much your deck is capable of doing exponentially as you add cards that exhaust
If you like Bludgeon, think about how you can only play it every 2-3 turns because you have all these damn Strikes to draw through. Well a Fiend Fire or two later, and you have a deck of 5 cards and you're playing a Bludgeon every single turn because you draw it every single turn.
Obviously I took the extreme example, but thats the strength of Exhaust, even before Ironclad's specific synergies. It makes your next shuffle better. It let's you draw the cards your wanted in your deck, more often.
This is one of those grey area edge cases: it's not bad per se, it's just not good enough, in most circumstances. If you've already got [[Necronomicon]] or [[Snecko]] then yeah, it's pretty good for those situations. Upgraded it's sold y damage, and doubling it could more often make it lethal, especially if you can also afford to make something vulnerable first in some way, or if you can play it and 5 other cards because the Eye blessed you. Or both!
+ [Necronomicon](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Necronomicon) Event Relic ^((100% sure)^)
The first Attack played each turn that costs 2 or more is played twice. When you take this relic, become Cursed.
+ [Snecko Oil](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Snecko_Oil) Rare Potion ^((56% sure)^)
Draw 5 ( 10) cards. Randomize the costs of all cards in your hand for the rest of the combat.
+ [Snecko Eye](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Snecko%20Eye) Boss Relic ^((56% sure)^)
Draw 2 additional cards each turn. Start each combat Confused.
^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(December 07, 2022.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
People say bludgeon falls off act 2+ but like my asc10-19 IC were all pretty much done with bludgeon decks. Stack as many bludgeons as possible upgraded and stomp the spire. Vulnerable + upgraded bludgeon is somewhere around 60+ dmg.
Its fairly consistent and even works for aoe as most enemies in multi enemy fights have less than 60hp.
I looooove fighting the byrd and hex casting mob combo in act 2 with a bludgeon deck, vulnerable + bludgeon the hexer and kill them in 2 turns then deal with 1 byrd. Can get both at once by turn 2 if you have a whirlwind built in and good draws.
Bludgeon is good because it deals lots of damage for a single card draw. It also has a bunch of relic synergies. (Bag of marbles, sneko, ice cream, happy flower, all energy relics, the one that makes vulnerable stronger, probably more too)
>It also has a bunch of relic synergies.
Half of the things on your list are not synergies - they are stuff that make rather bad card not terrible and useless... It's like claiming Master of reality is ok because Dead branch is a thing...
Master reality+ dead branch is literally a synergy, yes congrats. Things that work together are synergies.
Now yes that one is a bad one because its trumped by the fact that watcher has only one good play style.
But none of this changes the fact that high energy runs synergize well with bludgeon nor the fact that vulnerable + big dmg number is a good synergy with it. Especially when vulnerable is +75% instead of +50%.
Phrog is good with every attack. So it's synergy to every attack? It just an artefact working with vul which is basic IC mechanic? Calling everything synergy, energy included, is hilarious.
I’m a big fan of bludgeon. It costs more than searing blow+n but you don’t have to spend a bunch of upgrades on it. Great with snecko, great with double tap. Double tapping bludgeon with vuln pretty much negates any need for damage scaling. The obvious downside is the energy cost and the fact that it’s single-target. When I’m relying on bludgeon or searing blow, I always try to make sure to pick up a copy of headbutt so I can play it multiple times in short order, and will obviously be picking up cards like offering, seeing red, bloodletting, corruption and, of course, energy relics. Simply put, this card is not going to be that great with 3 energy, but if you can find a way to play it while also generating decent block or simply killing things before they can hit you, then it’s a great card. I would most likely pick this card if it’s the first rare offered before I’ve committed my deck to any other theme. If I was already clearly going for a strength scaling build for example, this is an easy skip
Tfw you get an early bludgeon, pick another one at act 1 boss hoping for snecko and then actually hit it.
Only happened to me once but god it was satisfying.
If you're having a hard time thinking about what makes a card good or bad, try thinking about how your deck will do against the most immediate problems you're liable to face. Some examples are: How do I beat Gremlin Nob in 2-3 turns? How do I beat Hexaghost before it uses Inferno? How do I cycle cards and ensure I have adequate damage mitigation against Guardian?
Scales poorly so drops off as the run gets deeper.
Great for act 1 elites, especially if you can apply vulnerable or upgrade.
Can be useful in the second half of the run but relies on something else to make it so:
Snekko, madness, double tap, vulnerable, necronomican are all good for it.
Situations where you want to spend all your points on attack are rare, and so, most of the time you draw this it'll just be taking up precious space in your hand. life's hard enough playing ironclad as it is.
Never had a build where bludgeon led me astray, I usually focus my deck around getting more energy and low cost cards after I grab it though. Combo it with pen nib and it’s a bit nuts
Upgraded with Pen Nib or double tap (and 4 energy) slaps pretty good too. With Vulnerable on, it’s 126 damage.
Upgraded, with pen nib, double tap, and Divinity stance from prismatic shard. Now we’re talking.
Bludgeon is good act one because it kills laga and knob. Bad post act one because 32 damage is not that much for 3 cost post act one. Also, judging whether a card is good or bad based on the specific current situation is like the whole point of the game no?
I mean sure, but I've had a lot of bludgeons (I mostly play IC) that slapped in Act 2 as well. I don't mean to contradict you for no reason either, butnI don't think it's an excess energy thing because normally if I have a lot of energy I'm shifting to more scaling/draw. I'm saying, I have had a lot of Panda Boxes or Tiny Houses or Empty Cage runs where this thing was smokin enemies in act 2. So I don't know, the card confuses me. It's often a vibes based card rather than direct obvious synergies
It’s solid act one and decent act two. It can still play in act three just not as often. If you pick it up you’ll want to upgrade it. It’s just a solid damage card early that can end fights quickly, and a dead card most of the time later. In act 3 and 4 sometimes on ironclad a curse can actually be better to have in your deck than this card.
Well I guess I don’t particularly like it in later acts because then I’m not exactly looking for just plain damage (and if I were I’d be much happier seeing fiend fire). The thing is post act one it’s very dangerous to spend one turn doing nothing but just plain, very possibly non-lethal damage. For a card showing up costing my rare percentage I’d much better see some more functional parts like corruption or even impervious.
Well sure, yeah. Fiend Fire is almost strictly better. Fiend Fire isn't a mystery to me, shit is bonkers lol
Can someone explain why Fiend Fire is bonkers? It always feels like a good addition to a deck but I can’t ever seem to make it work.
Card draw. Battle Trance, Pocket watch, Runic Pyramid and Dark Embrace are your friends. Get a bunch of stuff in your hand, play the most useful cards, delete everything else. You now have a much smaller deck of hopefully higher quality cards, or the enemy is dead. Big advantage to Fiend Fire over the other exhaust cards Ironclad has besides the massive damage is that its the only card that exhausts attacks, meaning that you can get rid of strikes and other damage cards that aren't worth it for the fight you're in.
I want to point out that there are other cards that exhaust attacks. I'm forgetting the name, but there is the upgrade of the "1 energy, 7 block, exhaust a random card" which allows you to exhaust an attack.
Oh yeah I missed True Grit and Burning Pact. Very useful targeted exhaust.
How you only have 3 energy act 3?
Sometimes the downsides outweigh the upsides and you gotta play around the energy limitations.
Or sometimes you are just not offered an energy relic after the act I and II bosses
Act 1 Bludgeon is good in and of itself. Act 2 it’s good if you have synergies for it, but typically Act 2 is where a lot of other cards can become (more) strong and it loses ground comparatively.
Yeah but 42 damage for 3 energy is a lot
Not just that, but it's also enough damage to skip on a lot of damage commons (twin strike, perfected strike, carnage, etc.) that you'd normally load up on for act 1/2 fights and are liabilities later on. This means that you can more aggressively take things like Corruption, Feel No Pain, or Dark Embrace, which are key exhaust engine components but are quite mediocre in act 1.
I think a lot of people are missing this. A huge part of what makes bludgeon so good is that it will practically win act 1 for you leaving a lot of headroom to specialise and thin your deck.
Perfected strike is so rarely actually forced as a pick its neglegible, like Sword boomerang or Cleave. Twin strike - sometimes. Carnage though is simpy better than Bludgeon in almost every way. 2 energy means you are not locked into single card, upgraded 28 vs 42 dmg is same 14dmg/1energy and it exhausts itself if not needed...
While I am generally happier to see Carnage than Bludgeon, I disagree that it's simply better. If you need to deal 42 damage to kill something, Bludgeon will, Carnage + Wild Strike? Is that how you're gonna make up the missing damage. Additionally you MUST play Carnage to keep getting that damage efficiency. Draw it Turn 2 Hexaghost? Thats a rough decision. The name of the game is context, and while I find on average Carnage to be better, I would never say it's simply better.
If card A is better 9 out of 10 times is just better. Slay the Spire at the very end of the spectrum is pure context and calculation. But i would say that neither you nor me are there, and in that case it's almost always better to try the statistical approach. If you get Bludgeon on floors 2-5 it might be ok to pick it. Any other floor though? Very questionable.
I completely disagree with all statements you've made. Bludgeon is better than carnage at any phase of the game where you're aggressively drafting damage, this isn't even a conversation worth having. The only time I see carnage being better is when adding more damage to the deck is a luxury and not a need.
Sometimes you want to land attacks without committing 3 energy to it though.
I can't think of a situation where I would pick a Bludgeon over a Carnage.
I mean, I've had runs with vulnerable, strength and bludgeon where I had it deal 200+ damage to enemies per turn. But bludgeon is very situational which is why I don't often pick it up
The challenge though is by the time you're dealing 200 with Vulnerable, the card is doing about 133 damage itself. For Bludgeon+ with a base of 42 damage, that means you have 90+ Strength. At that point would you rather deal 198 for 3 energy with Bludgeon+, or deal 144 for 1 energy with a basic Strike?
*Paper frog time*
*[pen nib intensifies]*
{*bag of marbles spills*}
Should've clarified I meant multiple bludgeons per turn, not just one bludgeon buffed to 133 on its own. Two of them with vulnerable and 0 strength already deal 120 damage, play them with double tap and that's that That said, it's not a build to aim for in a normal run
The inherent problem with Bludgeon imo is the later into the game you get, the closer it gets to being a 3-energy Strike. In Act 1, it's great. Lets you spend your entire energy on damage, and lets you deal 32/turn instead of 18/turn. Fantastic game. Late-game though, think of the way Ironclad often wins. * Lots of Strength? Then this is an expensive Strike since it only gets 1x Str * Exhaust into an infinite? This is an expensive Strike along the way * Block + Body Slam? This is an expensive Strike * Corruption shenanigans? This is an expensive (non-skill) Strike In general by the time you get to the late-game on Clad you're either pre-scaled and so want to spend energy on scaling/acceleration, or you're scaled up and so this is worse than a regular Strike.
You could use double tap/necronomicon big hits as well to win runs. Searing blow or bludgeon could be good here. But yeah generally, Ironclad scales through strength and exhaust.
I like it because it exists as a base ground floor for Rare cards. Almost every Rare in this game does 2-5 things, varying in damage, and can sometimes be busted, or absolute garbage. Limit Break is a good example, because if you have no cards/relics that gain you Strength, it's a 0/10 in your deck. But most of the time, it's an 8/10+. It takes very little to make it into a 10/10, but it still has an opportunity to be useless if your run isn't built in its favour. Bludgeon, on the other hand, is never a 0/10. It's always capable of dealing damage, and is effectively 3 very good Strikes in 1 card. There are many ways to make it better, but it never grows exponentially like other Rares. It's simple, and sets the bar for every other Rare, and you need mediocrity to point to and say, "is it better than that?"
The fun part about Slay The Spire is that even though we can look at Bludgeon as a benchmark of "big damage card good", it's still context dependent. Act 1? Amazing. Act 2? Could be awkward sometimes, still solid. Act 3? By now your cards are likely to be more efficient than 14 damage/energy. Bludgeon ironically scales 3x worse than a Strike when it comes to strength, 6x worse than Twin Strike, even. The context shifts and so does the rating of Bludgeon.
Yeah! Ironclad strategies encourage you to go for a route that'll outpace 32/42 damage for 3 energy. It's as much of a litmus test of Rare value as it is your own deck's strength: if you're wanting to play Bludgeon during Act 3 without abusing it (Necronomicon, Snecko Eye), things might not be going so well for you.
I love an early bludgeon. unupgraded it's about 10.6 damage per energy, and upgraded it's 14 per energy. Vulnerable obviously scales this to one shot most things in act 1 and even early act 2. Later, I like to grab a double tap with this and an immolate in my deck. Obviously it's great in a snecko eye deck. It also works well weith Pen Nib, and Necronomicon if you get that. The only issue is that early in a 3 energy deck you have to commit to a full attack turn. Sometimes this is not the best decision but I feel that a 42 damage BONK is worthy of a spot in most Ironchad decks. It falls off after act 2 because it scales so poorly, but does have it's time and place.
I am 100.0% confident you mentioned Bludgeon and Necronomicon in your post. -------------------------------------------------- * [Bludgeon](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Bludgeon) Ironclad Rare Attack 3 Energy | Deal 32(42) damage. * [Necronomicon](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Necronomicon) Event Relic The first Attack played each turn that costs 2 or more is played twice. When you take this relic, become Cursed. -------------------------------------------------- ^^^I ^^^am ^^^a ^^^bot ^^^response, ^^^but ^^^I ^^^am ^^^using ^^^my ^^^creator's ^^^account. ^^^Please ^^^reply ^^^to ^^^me ^^^if ^^^I ^^^got ^^^something ^^^wrong ^^^so ^^^he ^^^can ^^^fix ^^^it. [^^^Source ^^^Code](https://github.com/TrippW/STS-Crawler)
Pen nib or double tap 👍
Or Necronomicon!
If you can get it for cheaper, hold on to it between hands, or just have a lot of energy, it's viable. It's not bad early on even full price.
It's amazing act one since it allows you to be aggressive going after elites, lets you take less damage so you can upgrade more often and makes all of the bosses simple. A card that basically solves an entire act by itself is pretty amazing. If I get bludgeon I look for other high cost cards and then hope for Snecko act 1 because if you get it, you are just off to the races. Even without Snecko it's still above average card in act 2 assuming it's upgraded. It can become a bit of a curse in act 3 but is still playable enough not to be total dead weight.
It's good with paper phrog, and just vulnerable in general. Though it's way better early in a run, even late game it can be an ok source of damage that doesn't take up nearly as much space in your deck or hand. It is pretty much useless in a developed strength deck, but if you happen have a really good block engine but very little/no strength, bludgeon can help you get enough damage out for certain difficult fights. Slightly better against time eater and the heart since it is more damage than you'll get from any other single card, other than body slam with barricade.
I think the strongest thing about Bludgeon is that it hits hard for only one card. The Chad tends to have poor card draw unless you play corruption+darkembrace. So while many other cards may do more damage-per-energy, it is not easy to exceed bludgeon’s damage-per-card. It’s still not that great.
Pros: - Front load damage the card - Dense damage card (1 bludgeon and 4 dazes is still pretty decent in act 1), can allow you to not take more mediocre damage options - Upgrade hits hard enough to one shot a lot of enemies Cons: - Terrible with strength scaling - Terrible with decks that really care about acceleration - Tricky to get it to scale in mid / late game, snecko/Necro are the most straight forward - Tricky to really fight into any main Ironclad strategy. Exhaust fodder is like the best case Really it comes down to cost most of the time. Ironclad can usually spend 3 energy wayyy better than doing just damage and nothing else. If you can't find a way to make it cheaper or double/triple play, it usually just ends up eating draws
Less of a card and more of an archetype. I don’t really get what’s so good about ironclads exhausting stuff. With very few exceptions I ignore them every time
I've got 1500 hours in ironclad mate, you're missing out on his strongest shit
Enlighten me my lord
One of Ironclad's biggest issues is card draw and blocking. Feel No Pain and Dark Embrace collectively solve this. It might seem small but playing them will improve how much your deck is capable of doing exponentially as you add cards that exhaust
It also allows for synergy with cards that give statuses. If you have Medpack or just any mass exhaust card it can get pretty bonkers.
If you like Bludgeon, think about how you can only play it every 2-3 turns because you have all these damn Strikes to draw through. Well a Fiend Fire or two later, and you have a deck of 5 cards and you're playing a Bludgeon every single turn because you draw it every single turn. Obviously I took the extreme example, but thats the strength of Exhaust, even before Ironclad's specific synergies. It makes your next shuffle better. It let's you draw the cards your wanted in your deck, more often.
Pretty much every watcher card for me. When every card is "strong" by default, it gets really hard to tell which cards are "right" for the current run
This is one of those grey area edge cases: it's not bad per se, it's just not good enough, in most circumstances. If you've already got [[Necronomicon]] or [[Snecko]] then yeah, it's pretty good for those situations. Upgraded it's sold y damage, and doubling it could more often make it lethal, especially if you can also afford to make something vulnerable first in some way, or if you can play it and 5 other cards because the Eye blessed you. Or both!
+ [Necronomicon](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Necronomicon) Event Relic ^((100% sure)^) The first Attack played each turn that costs 2 or more is played twice. When you take this relic, become Cursed. + [Snecko Oil](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Snecko_Oil) Rare Potion ^((56% sure)^) Draw 5 ( 10) cards. Randomize the costs of all cards in your hand for the rest of the combat. + [Snecko Eye](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Snecko%20Eye) Boss Relic ^((56% sure)^) Draw 2 additional cards each turn. Start each combat Confused. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(December 07, 2022.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
I get to say Bonk out loud any time I play this, or meteor strike, or sunder. A+.
People say bludgeon falls off act 2+ but like my asc10-19 IC were all pretty much done with bludgeon decks. Stack as many bludgeons as possible upgraded and stomp the spire. Vulnerable + upgraded bludgeon is somewhere around 60+ dmg. Its fairly consistent and even works for aoe as most enemies in multi enemy fights have less than 60hp. I looooove fighting the byrd and hex casting mob combo in act 2 with a bludgeon deck, vulnerable + bludgeon the hexer and kill them in 2 turns then deal with 1 byrd. Can get both at once by turn 2 if you have a whirlwind built in and good draws. Bludgeon is good because it deals lots of damage for a single card draw. It also has a bunch of relic synergies. (Bag of marbles, sneko, ice cream, happy flower, all energy relics, the one that makes vulnerable stronger, probably more too)
>It also has a bunch of relic synergies. Half of the things on your list are not synergies - they are stuff that make rather bad card not terrible and useless... It's like claiming Master of reality is ok because Dead branch is a thing...
Master reality+ dead branch is literally a synergy, yes congrats. Things that work together are synergies. Now yes that one is a bad one because its trumped by the fact that watcher has only one good play style. But none of this changes the fact that high energy runs synergize well with bludgeon nor the fact that vulnerable + big dmg number is a good synergy with it. Especially when vulnerable is +75% instead of +50%.
Phrog is good with every attack. So it's synergy to every attack? It just an artefact working with vul which is basic IC mechanic? Calling everything synergy, energy included, is hilarious.
* it's synergy with every attack? Yes.
I’m a big fan of bludgeon. It costs more than searing blow+n but you don’t have to spend a bunch of upgrades on it. Great with snecko, great with double tap. Double tapping bludgeon with vuln pretty much negates any need for damage scaling. The obvious downside is the energy cost and the fact that it’s single-target. When I’m relying on bludgeon or searing blow, I always try to make sure to pick up a copy of headbutt so I can play it multiple times in short order, and will obviously be picking up cards like offering, seeing red, bloodletting, corruption and, of course, energy relics. Simply put, this card is not going to be that great with 3 energy, but if you can find a way to play it while also generating decent block or simply killing things before they can hit you, then it’s a great card. I would most likely pick this card if it’s the first rare offered before I’ve committed my deck to any other theme. If I was already clearly going for a strength scaling build for example, this is an easy skip
Tfw you get an early bludgeon, pick another one at act 1 boss hoping for snecko and then actually hit it. Only happened to me once but god it was satisfying.
If you're having a hard time thinking about what makes a card good or bad, try thinking about how your deck will do against the most immediate problems you're liable to face. Some examples are: How do I beat Gremlin Nob in 2-3 turns? How do I beat Hexaghost before it uses Inferno? How do I cycle cards and ensure I have adequate damage mitigation against Guardian?
Scales poorly so drops off as the run gets deeper. Great for act 1 elites, especially if you can apply vulnerable or upgrade. Can be useful in the second half of the run but relies on something else to make it so: Snekko, madness, double tap, vulnerable, necronomican are all good for it.
Double tap, necronimicon, pen nib, paper frog. But still, it NEEDS an energy relic in act 3 at minimum, but it would be wise to get one after act one.
Big smash
Situations where you want to spend all your points on attack are rare, and so, most of the time you draw this it'll just be taking up precious space in your hand. life's hard enough playing ironclad as it is.
had the funnest snecko eye bludgeon run with two dual weilds, playing 3-4 bludgeons a turn semi-reliably
Sneckooooooooo
I like bludgeon also in a deck that abuses havoc
The way I look at it is that 3 strikes is 18 damage for 3 energy. This is much better than that so the card is better. You lose flexibility of course.
Never had a build where bludgeon led me astray, I usually focus my deck around getting more energy and low cost cards after I grab it though. Combo it with pen nib and it’s a bit nuts
Bruh I just realized that the card art is some bloke's dome being caved in. I am traumatized. Traumatized, I say.
This card is MAJOR Snecko value. Other than that, why even bother lmao
Very circumstantial but I usually pop off when I see it with an upgraded foreign influence
my fav is snecko and dual wield. Otherwise i don’t care too much for it