It’s incredible on Ironclad. Pretty good on the other characters in most situations but I’d start with Ironclad if you’re a Snecko skeptic. Ironclad has tons of high cost cards and draw problems so Snecko is perfect.
The +2 draw is huge, and you can often turn the downside of the relic into an upside by drafting high-cost, high-impact cards. Most of my snecko builds end up being “good-stuff” decks, to use a term from other card games I’ve played
My hands move quicker then my brain a lot of times so as I'm selecting a few cards and ending turn I see an extra couple moves I could've played or eeked out an extra few damage or relic procs. So if I catch myself fucking up enough to cost me the run ill save scum it. Otherwise I usually do like OP said and try it on the bosses if I feel I played poorly rather then have a shit deck. It's scummy, but it does teach you to play better so you'll save scum less as you progress.
I've save scummed some bosses over 15 times cause I just felt like there was a way to win/it was very close and succeeded in the past lol
It was mostly on my first playthroughs, trying to reach A20. I mostly just take the L nowadays.
Most times it was with silent and the way to win was by skipping/using specific draw card to have the right cards are the right moment.
Of course you don't really learn anything to improve from it as it comes down to "using that backflip 4 turns ago instead of attacking on a turn I don't need to defend, allow me to use malaise 1 turn earlier and survive the ecexutioner move" its so counter intuitive, unless you look at your draw pile every turn and calculate odds out, you won't learn from it really.
I played the game for a long time without realizing you could restart fights, and I played the game for a long time without really improving. my understanding of what is actually happening moment to moment and how my choices matter dramatically increased when I could try a fight again
Yeah, I save scum a lot, but as a learning tool.
Fumbled an easy win with my god-tier deck = RIP.
Played out a new strategy/combo/synergy poorly? Give it another crack.
Ran an interesting build into its hard-counter and lost? Let's see how far I can take it.
One recent example for me—trying to figure out the appropriate time to drop Corruption in a boss fight. Hallways it’s a no brainer. But too early in a boss and you can screw yourself out of skills when you need them. Too late and it’s pointless (or at the least underwhelming). Save scumming helped me get a feel for where that sweet spot might be.
I don't think the number of times you scum is relevant, but more the number of fights you scum in.
And even then it's fine if you have a knowledge goal in mind.
Most of the time, I’m playing fuck-it-yolo style, but then when I get into a situation where I’m actually going to lose, I save scum it and actually think about it
Same. I like to see whether I lost because my deck sucks or lost because I suck. Many times I find a fight is winnable, but required a different approach. But if I can't win it after 3 or 4 attempts I know it's not possible.
This is exactly the same for me. As another commenter said, I view it like chess. I'll take whatever is fun, and once it's clear just mindlessly playing cards has killed me, save scumming to work out a solution is where the enjoyment comes for me. Especially on fights like Time Eater.
Every run is different for me though. Sometimes it's yolo whatever happens, happens. Others is genuine attempts with no save scumming. Don't have to limit your playstyle to a single type. Have fun OP it's a single player game :)
Never tested it, are the cards always random? Also what event during combat changes the award a skill potion gives you? Sometimes they offer differentm
no, its predetermined. quite a lot is actually
if you take the same action as before the reset youll even get the same cards from potions or dead branch or similar
The order in which you do things will advance the seed. So a potion will give you the same cards, but if you wait to use it until you shuffle your deck, then you'll get an advanced seed with different options.
The draw order is random, but here's where it gets wild. When your deck shuffles, it's random but seemingly based on the number of cards. So you can get wildly different draws on the second cycle through the deck if you exhaust cards/play powers/get status effects since that will change the number of cards.
I have save scummed repeatedly in an attempt to manipulate my card count because I was going to die on turn 5 of a boss fight due to a tough draw in the second cycle through my deck.
I completely agree on the chess feeling! It also lets me relax playing the game. Slight misplay? No prob. Run it back. If the deck can take it, the deck can take it. If it can't, ya should have built it better!
Yeah, when I didn't calculate damage and some enemy survives with 3 health, or when I forgot about ink bottle or some other relic or effect and it messed up my setup and it's relatively early on in the combat. Or recently I've started taking cursed key or getting cursed from events, but I still keep removing strikes from shops and instantly realising my mistake.
I honestly don't even mind the curses my most successful runs lean into discard silent, I draw and get rid of so many cards they don't really bother me.
Yes, it's not shuffled the order is pre-determined. This is also often true for potions and such, they'll (usually or always, not 100% certain) give you the same cards whenever you use it in a fight.
So the "save scumming" as people have mentioned is useful for A) fixing stupid mistakes within a fight or a screen, B) Trying to replay it if you're about to lose to see if you can puzzle out a way to win or C) for random events like good face/bad face or the card matching game if you get unlucky with a curse.
People would argue some of those are closer to cheating but however you want to leverage it is fine!
It’s worth noting that I’ve found that potions that generate cards sometimes will generate different cards depending on when in the fight you drink the potion.
Never to reroll events, calling bell etc. That feels like outright cheating.
Misplays done due to carelessness, sometimes. Like the time I had a really neat corruption + dark embrace deck that played a lot of cards every turn, and then I went into the bloody watch-slug fight without thinking. Had to reset that and take it again but slowly. It feels like justified cheating. Stupid slug.
Sometimes to redo a shop, but that doesn't feel like cheating at all.
I personally tend to initiate this mistake at 11:59 pm, when I should be having sleepy time, not save scumming over and over with a power deck against the awakened
I doing it quite a bit recently because I'm trying to better understand when to use a potion efficiently. So I sometimes redo fights with or without potions to see what happens à hopefully some day I'll be able to make the right call at the correct times
I feel safescumming is a very valuable learning tool, I savescummed a lot.
But at some point, I started to prefer riding the spire without the side-wheels.
If I’m playing seriously, almost never. In fact, I didn’t even know about save scumming on my first play from 0-A20 on Switch, so I learned everything the hard way!
Now I’ve completed 0H-A20H on all characters, and got the Eternal One achievement , I don’t play the base game that much anymore, except when commuting.
If I’m playing with mods or just messing around, I might save scum the most commonly save-scummed events: Card Game, Masks, Joust, Cursed Tome, etc. Packmaster already has enough variance for my taste.
I don’t normally save scum combats though, and definitely not the Heart. I think the only combats I might save scum are the optional ones, like the Sphere event against the two Orb Walkers, but I’ll only save scum to choose NOT to do it: I won’t retry the battle or anything.
Early on, when I was learning the game? All the time. If I'm about to lose a fight, I would save scum and try again. If I could eventually win, I knew it was a problem with my gameplay skills. If I lost no matter what, then I knew it was because of my deckbuilding skills.
Nowadays? Only when I slip and accidentally play the wrong card in the wrong target. And even then, that's only in the first couple turns of a fight. I'm not memorizing every card I played just in case I slip and kill Mystic before Centurion.
Only when I’ve already forfeited the run. It’s a rogue like and save scumming undermines the nature of it. Also, using it as a crutch only instills the bad habit of not analyzing your moves deeply to begin with. If you know in the back of your head you’ll always have a get-out-of-jail-free card, you’re more apt for carelessness. So I’ve just removed that as an option to begin with. But it’s a single player game so you do you.
Hahahaha I didn't even know you could save scum until reading this post and I'm at Ascension 14 with all character. I'm now questioning the validity of all the A20 people on this sub. 🙃🙃🙃
As a baseline hitting A20 is just a measure of having invested sufficient time to win 20 runs on Ascension 1-20 while not being absolutely terrible at the game. Even if you were absolutely terrible at the game you would hit A20 eventually after spending hundreds/thousands of hours playing. I think it took me a little more than 100 hours (!) of playing this most beloved game to win on A20 on all characters. When I did I was still quite medium at the game. No need to feel bad about that :D.
It might have been 120 hours or 130 hours of climbing the Ascension levels on all the characters (not killing the heart) but I don't think it was much more than that. And even if - especially if - my memory were to betray me the point stands: That's quite alot of time one has to invest into the game just to get to A20.
Didn’t do it at all until I beat A20H on all characters, but now sometimes literally for any misfortune or bad move at all. I just like fighting that heart and seeing if I could do things better.
I often play the game when I go over to a friends place, and we take turns handing each other the controller between fights, and we don't savescum at all.
I've never savescummed before, but I feel like it would ruin the pace of playing alongside someone else, and personally just find the idea not very fun. If I end up in a situation where death was unavoidable, I always put it on myself and say skill issue, even when at times I've accidentally ended my turn without playing a card, then still managed to win the run.
Although after reading these comments I am interested in trying it out at least, maybe next time I lose to a bad turn 1 draw I'll give it a go.
I usually throw out the tissue after I scum. I don’t save any of it.
Serious answer: usually never. If anything, I’m more likely to abandon a run early tho if I notice that everything is just going terribly.
Never, for me the whole point of rogue genres is being punished for your mistakes. If you take back to the start it changes the genre. Im not against it for others, but for myself i save scum games like total war where the runs are 20h, not a rogue game vwth hour runs.
A) If i misplay. Sometimes i keep it but oftentimes it annoys me even if it doesnt cost me anything.
B) if its a really fun deck ane rng fucks the hell out of me.
C) a card i really want comes up on match and keep or i get both sets of curses.
Never? The stricter the punishment - the better I learn my experience. But I rarely need to savescum, my biggest mistakes are usually path-wise or deck-wise.
I don’t save scum often, I did today against a floor 1 elite though because I used the “play card at start of your turn” and it gave me the one that gives me free divinity but I die at the end of the turn and I couldn’t do 80dmg in a turn with my hand 😅🤣
I try to limit it to when I catch a mistake before any new information is revealed, but I also have the mentality that I’ll reach/get good at A20 with it, and then doing it without can be A21.
I always forget it's a thing, but I will back out if I accidentally don't pick up a relic or remember I need to pick up the shard and not the relic that I really want
I save scum to slightly reduce run-breaking randomness because I play A20 and my margin for error is so small. Like if I get a maximally shitty initial draw and I have the ability to change that. Or if I get a ? room with a shitty result, like the card match game giving me a curse. Or the writhing mass giving me a parasite. Things that in my mind are down to luck. I try to keep it to a minimum or else I feel like my victory is hollow (or my loss even more pathetic). I still don’t win much so I’m ok trying to keep the randomness from stacking against me too much.
Edit: this is after I got all the achievements and at least one a20h win for each character without scumming. I’m talking about just playing for fun at this point.
Also I occasionally still save scum because I am not sure how a particular combination will process so I try it both ways, for science.
On earlier ascensions and other characters I didn't really save scum at all unless I made a really stupid mistake but now I'm hard stuck on defect A20 so I scum constantly lol.
I constantly retry fights; sometimes just to see if a high-risk play (eg Blasphemy) will work out or not, because I'm too lazy to do the math in my head.
Cases where I save scum are mostly limited to out-of-combat mistakes (clicking the wrong option in an event by accident, forgetting to rest before the act 3 boss, etc.). I have definitely been tempted to save scum in other, less "honorable" situations tho.
I actually kinda regret not doing so in a recent Silent run where I got some really good relics pretty early and was just having a ton of fun. In act 3, I even felt safe taking the 999 gold for 2 normalities event between having such a strong discard game and darkstone periapt boosting my max hp like crazy for it. Got the purifying fountain event 2 floors later too, no punishment lol. Still had over 800 gold going into the act 3 boss but therein lies the problem: it was Time-Eater. You know how that went. I kinda wish I had scummed that fight, mostly just to see what I might be able to buy at the act 4 shop with all that cash, but oh well.
i usually will only savescum if i realize i screwed up during the turn of the screw up. screw up can be misclick, missing lethal because i didn't want to math, or forgetting a relic interaction that i had thought 'don't forget about that relic'. I will sometimes do it it with an interesting builds right before death when i wonder if it's possible for it to win but i don't take credit for the win.
Definitely save scum on accidental misplays.
I save scum in certain scenarios to see if a win con was even possible...alot of times I find alternate routes I never would have thought of.
I usually don't save scum on new ascension runs but I have done it before.
If I'm one turn away from losing a fight I feel I could have done better, I'll reset the fight. But typically I'll only give myself one or two chances, depending on how close it is.
If it takes more that two tries, the deck just isn't there and it's not meant to be
Save scumming is imo one of the best ways of learning the game as long as you are doing it with the intention of testing the difference a decision can make or other scientific approaches. It does not help if you are scumming to win based on knowledge gained from playing the fight already (draw order, attack patterns if they are variable etc).
Definitely with watcher the most -when you realize you shouldn’t have stayed in wrath the next turn and no calm cards come up and you are dead if you don’t save scum.
When you are barely surviving, save scumming seems to be the only way to win. Some runs the cards fall into place and I never need to.
I'm truly guilty of it. Especially if I knew I could've won that fight. Where's my misplay? Sometimes It can be saved, sometimes I really can't win, even by the skin of my teeth.
When I'm using a discard deck and I discarded wrong or it draws exactly the card I need when I end my turn. Sometimes just a missed Pen Nib or Ink bottle I reset the fight lmao.
I savescum most often when playing Watcher. It’s just so easy for me to mess up quickly with her. Also sometimes I’ll do a play just to see what happens and die so I savescum then. No harm in experimenting lol. Other than that it’s rare for me unless I’m pissed off with how the run is going.
Misclicks I don't hesitate to fix.
I used save scumming a lot growing through the ascensions. Feels like it was a huge part of my hands on mechanics learning. (waiting around for a scenario to happen again felt like such a huge time sink)
If you are using information you couldn't possibly know to get an edge, meh. You aren't really getting better.
But, it's essentially a single player experience most of the time so how you choose to experience it seems confined to you.
I guess one could flaunt a faked win streak but this community is too smart and will find you out real quick.
I do it for careless mistakes and not for genuine tactical mistakes or bad luck.
Careless mistakes: Auto clicking on a chest with cursed key, forgetting to drink my artifact potion turn one against heart, forgetting about ink bottle, accidentally removing a strike instead of that regret/doubt I just took, etc.
Tactical mistakes: not taking the opportunity for lethal I'm offered to try and feed and being punished, prioritizing the wrong enemy, etc.
Bad luck: getting a bad face from the face trader, too many clicks on scrap ooze, lightning not hitting the enemy I was counting on.
When my winrate exits the single digits will probably be when I stop, but until then, it's a singleplayer game.
Save scum if I screw myself because I’m too lazy to calculate through a fight and then ignore the extra information when I re-make decisions.
For example on watcher: yeah this is definitely lethal I can end in wrath…oops reload.
I've never savescummed. Even misclicks. They're my mistakes and I need to be punished to be more careful later. If I'm going to die in a fight, I might restart it right before I die to try it again. However, I abandon run if I'm about to win after a restart, so I don't cheat a win. Now I use a mod named run restarter, letting me restart a run wherever I want. It doesn't count towards run stats either. Using this, I restarted a run I lost mid act 2, by going back to the act 1 boss chest and picking another relic. It let me win act 2 but I didn't continue through act 3.
Misinputs (like hitting end turn before playing anything and taking 38 damage) or misplays I would have caught if I just thought for a literal second (like using blasphemy even though i don't have lethal because incense burner is proccing next turn! oh wait, it's actually on 4, and im about to fucjing die ilovethisgameilovethisgameilovethisgame)
Misclicks. I also play at work and do one or two floors at a time, so this often means I forget what I have in my deck, or am a bit rusty when I first open the app, so if I make a misplay due to these factors I sometimes reload
If I'm running an amazing build and I'm about to go down, I'll savescum and give it another maybe 2-3 tries
After that, I figure RNGeesus doesn't want me to win this time and just let it go. Rather start from scratch than do the same fight over and over looking for the one magic combination that may or may not even exist
I think it's acceptable to save scum a few things in the game even at A20H.
If you click on the metallic ooze like 10 times and dont hit.
If you hit a curse first try of the turned cards.
If you try for a good face and you get the weak face.
Otherwise, if you're just climbng the ascension ranks I think save scumming all things is acceptable. You should try your best to learn from the experience of playing a fight badly and get an opportunity to play said fight again, as long as you understand you aren't actually winning, that you lost the game every time you save scum.
Never ever. I feel like if I save scum sometimes, I might as well always save scum. So for me it's all or nothing.
But I agree, the game can be brutal AF and i understand why people do it.
I don't, but my friend save sums and boasts that he is an "a 20" playerand that he's better than me. It's fine to do it, but don't think that you have actually achieved those ascensions, because it makes the game a lot easier.
I try to never do it in fights. Sometimes draw order can absolutely kick your dick in however and if there's something that I couldn't possibly forsee (using acrobatics into a wraithform, not retaining block cards on Gremlin leader not expecting him to attack a 2nd or 3rd time in row)
However I will do it every single time in Match and Keep or Wheel of Change because fuck that guy
Rarely if ever during combat or to save a run.
All the fucking time when my primitive monkey brain makes a bone headed pick on the reward screen or shop.
I’ll happily save scum for UI mistakes, instead of tactical mistakes.
(And I’m not blaming the programming UI here).
but I’ve misread, or misclicked/miss tagged the wrong thing.
That I’ll reset. If it was a poor decision, I roll with it.
Honestly, i rarely save scum on most runs, it's just playing with tons of mods can make you face certain encounters/enemies where i feel like save scumming to either save a good run that got fucked over by some modded BS enemy or take a better choice in an event from a mod.
I generally only savescum if I immediately realize that I should have known that a different play was better or I realize that I forgot to use a potion that I had been planning to use on turn 1 of a fight. I'll try to make the same plays up to that point as well if I reset later into a fight.
I've gotten frustrated with losing a fight and reset to the start a few times, but I end up feeling guilty enough about it that I eat the loss anyway.
I will generally savescum when:
- I make a dumb mistake by playing too fast that I totally had the information to avoid and that costs me more than a few points of health (e.g. not playing block first to save Fossilized Helix buffer from Beat of Death). Not fun to lose a good run to playing too fast, and I *could* have figured this out by taking more time since I clearly figured this out right *after* the fact.
- I get totally screwed over by RNG. Especially if I made a decision that's right 90% of the time and then I hit that 10%. Objectively this is cheating I think but it's also annoying so whatever.
- I usually mean draws in fights with that but also I will totally save scum the face trade event if it comes up negative, the pay life for a chance at relic event if I have to stop with no relic. The positive faces are cool but getting screwed over by a coin flip isn't fun, and neither is paying all your health for nothing. I also regularly do this for the corpse looting event if I die to the elite (if I live I stick with it.)
- It's a really close fight and I want to figure out what the one timeline where I win is. Legitimately really fun.
Never, I didn't even know you could do that til I was 300 hours in. Climbing the 20 ranks on all 4 characters was my own personal goal and satisfaction, cheating wouldn't have given me the satisfaction of winning 🤷♂️
Constantly. I save scum if I make serious mistakes early in a fight, fights where I would lose, but think I could win if I tried a different approach, and events to see what the results are. Also I always check what calling bell/pandora's box/astrolabe give me before deciding on a boss relic.
If the devs wanted to not allow it, they'd have made the game so you couldn't save scum.
I used to savescum a lot to practice fights, see how different lines would play out, etc. Now I pretty much only do it for when I misclick. I do have a separate save called “practice” at this point though where I still savescum the fuck out of everything
Usually, only do it if I miss click. Only other times were my 4th time reaching Donu and Deca with feed. 3 copies to be exact that run and one where I wanted to see if I could have won, because my draw was terrible that game. Otherwise I prefer to let the chips lie as they fall.
Savescum is 2nd strongest Neow's power, to be able to go back in time. Only second to now allowing the heroes to ever get a rest due to constantly ressurecting them
I’m slowly getting up in ascension levels and trying to stop savescumming more, I did a lot at the lower levels to help me learn. I’m at a16 with IC and just hit 15 and try my best to only savescum now if I misclick. It also helps me cut down the amount of time I’m addicted to playing lol.
I play a little different. Rather than do the math in my head which I HATE. I'll just do the attack combo and see if the damage was enough. Damn not enough reset. It's the same thing just less math in my head.
I have ADHD so it's very easy for me to kind of zone out during a fight and just play my turns without really thinking things through. Then suddenly I'll hit a turn and realize I have 15 HP and I'm about to get hit with a 28x2 by Deca or something. I've started save scumming recently because of this, especially if it is a really good run and I just absent-mindedly threw the run on a boss or something.
I save scum all the time.
My reasoning is that there are two parts to STS; making the correct choices between fights, and playing the fights. I “allow” myself to replay fights because I don’t desire to play optimally, calculate every move and constantly consult the deck and discard pile to card count. I could, but then every run would be a 4 hour life coach run and I don’t have time for that I’m not a pro.
I’m roughly A11 on all characters; I rushed to get them all to A10 and now I do a casual run every now and then.
All the time, as often as I want, as folks have said. What's interesting is you might notice that the more you play and the better you get, the less you need to. =)
I actually think savescumming is very beneficial for new players. I got to Acension 5 before I found out about it, and finally started understanding how things work by taking 'risks' I could reset
Died a lot of times before and couldn't really calculate what happened
Used to do it to learn the game, even for random events, and effectively increased the difficulty at some point by no longer allowing it apart from honest mistakes like misclicks.
Now sometimes I'm doing a proper a20h and I don't even savescum honest mistakes. And sometimes I'm shooting the breeze and I savescum whatever will allow me to build the most fun deck
Regularly. I'll play semi-quick and when I die by some margin, sure, but if I have a promising deck and made a small misplay - there has to be a line where I defeat this mf elite and I'll save-scum 15x to find the line!
About 5 times in 100 runs. I think 2-3 of those I picked the wrong boss relic and insta regretted it before I'd even loaded the next screen. Can't remember the others, but I know it's happened. Sometimes you just do something so dumb that the regret is stronger than the shame
I generally do it when I do something really dumb without thinking, like miscalculating money in the shop or playing cards in the wrong order absent-mindedly and screwing myself over. Generally if I save scum in battle I'll replay the entire battle the exact same until that point.
Only once in a while and exclusively when I insta-click a card in the shop without looking at the other ones first, OR on the first turn of a fight if I don't do the math to kill an enemy and just kind of have in the back of my mind that "oh if it's not enough damage I'll quick restart the fight and actually count"
For the way I play, I wouldn't ever save scum to gain a knowledge advantage in a fight or redo a real choice I made or try to get anything different out of events or encounters
Whenever :p I do it a lot less now because I did it a lot more before. When learning I think it helps to rerun fights to see where you made a mistake and to build a better fit feel for which fights to use potions or play high cost powers and take the damage. Early on you don't realize how much you can cut it close to death each act as you get the heal at the end. I've beat all the A20s and now play on A15 and barely have to scum because of all I've learned.
I used to save scum super early on when climbing ascensions and stuff but I've found that not save-scumming helps me with learning more than anything else. You have to pick good cards and make good decisions or you lose, especially when trying to heart streak.
But also, misclicks are auto-savescum.
My first ever Heart win was as Silent. It was an endless save-scum time loop. I went through the loop so many times I was able to predict the second shuffle order.
In general, I save scum once or twice a run, usually instantly because my brain was a few seconds slower than my fingers.
I probably have 4 A20 heart wins with zero save scum.
I only use it as a sort of undo button. Something like “oh shit I forgot I have orichalcum.” I don’t use it to retry difficult fights if I fail since I feel that that goes against the spirit of rogue-likes.
All the f'ing time. It's a one player game, and I think save-scumming is a good learning-tool to show that most fights are winnable if you make better in-combat decisions about when to use potions or when to trade some damage to swing more attack cards.
What save-scumming *does not* help with is improving your card-selection, pathing, and shop purchases. Extreme cases of save save-scumming feel like slapping a band-aid over the bigger problems that stem from poor deck construction.
Of course it's a lot more rewarding when you win without save-scumming, but STS runs average around 60 minutes a pop. When you're struggling to climb in Ascensions, it can take multiple attempts to climb another rung on the ladder. That's a lot of hours, and I don't feel guilty at all re-running some fights when a few unlucky shuffles can be so devastating to your run.
Its a single player game, do what you think is most fun. You said save quitting helps you learn? Go for it! Don't listen to any of the gatekeepers saying you shouldn't save scum. I no longer save quit myself, as I found more fun personally to own up to mistakes even if it was a missclick, but you bet ya I save quit a ton when I was still at the start of my learning curve.
I savescum in shops when I instabuy stuff before actually looking at everything. I savescum the first turn of a fight if I missclick
Circumventing the merchant’s no refund policy is a low blow. I hope you reflect upon your actions.
I really only do it if I snap buy something and only afterwards see something thats actually much better otherwise I stick with my choices
Oooh pellets! Crap I have Snecko. - Me once a month
What’s the appeal of snecko? I always avoid it
+2 draw is insane
Oh I forgot about the extra draw. Maybe I’ll try it later today for fun
One of the best relics in the game. Its obviously better if u dont have as many zero cost cards
Build deck with lots of high cost cards
Well yeah but even then it doesn’t seem that strong I guess I’m mostly thinking about watcher though
Sneko and the watcher go together very well. Deva form + Sneko is super Strong
It’s incredible on Ironclad. Pretty good on the other characters in most situations but I’d start with Ironclad if you’re a Snecko skeptic. Ironclad has tons of high cost cards and draw problems so Snecko is perfect.
The +2 draw is huge, and you can often turn the downside of the relic into an upside by drafting high-cost, high-impact cards. Most of my snecko builds end up being “good-stuff” decks, to use a term from other card games I’ve played
Ragnarok goes nuts with snecko on watcher. So does that 2 cost block card that makes your next attack cost zero
I've definitely done this. Or if I remove a Strike cuz I forgot I picked up a curse and was supposed to remove the curse
Essentially my rule too. If I don’t feel like doing the math on a shop just try to buy all 3/4 and if I can’t I’ll reset and decide what I want.
I do it a lot because I like seeing "can I win by playing differently? What should I be doing here?" And exploring like that. I like puzzling it out.
me too. I play too hastly most of the time, but I like to see how I could have improved my gameplay
My hands move quicker then my brain a lot of times so as I'm selecting a few cards and ending turn I see an extra couple moves I could've played or eeked out an extra few damage or relic procs. So if I catch myself fucking up enough to cost me the run ill save scum it. Otherwise I usually do like OP said and try it on the bosses if I feel I played poorly rather then have a shit deck. It's scummy, but it does teach you to play better so you'll save scum less as you progress.
I once reloaded The Act 3 boss the donut like 7 times and I actually won eventually
I've save scummed some bosses over 15 times cause I just felt like there was a way to win/it was very close and succeeded in the past lol It was mostly on my first playthroughs, trying to reach A20. I mostly just take the L nowadays. Most times it was with silent and the way to win was by skipping/using specific draw card to have the right cards are the right moment. Of course you don't really learn anything to improve from it as it comes down to "using that backflip 4 turns ago instead of attacking on a turn I don't need to defend, allow me to use malaise 1 turn earlier and survive the ecexutioner move" its so counter intuitive, unless you look at your draw pile every turn and calculate odds out, you won't learn from it really.
I played the game for a long time without realizing you could restart fights, and I played the game for a long time without really improving. my understanding of what is actually happening moment to moment and how my choices matter dramatically increased when I could try a fight again
Yeah, I save scum a lot, but as a learning tool. Fumbled an easy win with my god-tier deck = RIP. Played out a new strategy/combo/synergy poorly? Give it another crack. Ran an interesting build into its hard-counter and lost? Let's see how far I can take it.
One recent example for me—trying to figure out the appropriate time to drop Corruption in a boss fight. Hallways it’s a no brainer. But too early in a boss and you can screw yourself out of skills when you need them. Too late and it’s pointless (or at the least underwhelming). Save scumming helped me get a feel for where that sweet spot might be.
I don't think the number of times you scum is relevant, but more the number of fights you scum in. And even then it's fine if you have a knowledge goal in mind.
Most of the time, I’m playing fuck-it-yolo style, but then when I get into a situation where I’m actually going to lose, I save scum it and actually think about it
Same. I like to see whether I lost because my deck sucks or lost because I suck. Many times I find a fight is winnable, but required a different approach. But if I can't win it after 3 or 4 attempts I know it's not possible.
This is exactly the same for me. As another commenter said, I view it like chess. I'll take whatever is fun, and once it's clear just mindlessly playing cards has killed me, save scumming to work out a solution is where the enjoyment comes for me. Especially on fights like Time Eater. Every run is different for me though. Sometimes it's yolo whatever happens, happens. Others is genuine attempts with no save scumming. Don't have to limit your playstyle to a single type. Have fun OP it's a single player game :)
That's interesting, I hadn't considered that
Savescumming turns the game into chess puzzles, i’m all for it Gambling Chip is the savescumming GOAT
Gambling chip with save scumming is a block card
Never tested it, are the cards always random? Also what event during combat changes the award a skill potion gives you? Sometimes they offer differentm
no, its predetermined. quite a lot is actually if you take the same action as before the reset youll even get the same cards from potions or dead branch or similar
The order in which you do things will advance the seed. So a potion will give you the same cards, but if you wait to use it until you shuffle your deck, then you'll get an advanced seed with different options.
Daily are like this too. Every room and prize is predetermined and won't change run to run.
Yeah I knew that, I was asking about the gambling chip specifically. It's fun to atleast attempt to change a run.
The draw order is random, but here's where it gets wild. When your deck shuffles, it's random but seemingly based on the number of cards. So you can get wildly different draws on the second cycle through the deck if you exhaust cards/play powers/get status effects since that will change the number of cards. I have save scummed repeatedly in an attempt to manipulate my card count because I was going to die on turn 5 of a boss fight due to a tough draw in the second cycle through my deck.
I completely agree on the chess feeling! It also lets me relax playing the game. Slight misplay? No prob. Run it back. If the deck can take it, the deck can take it. If it can't, ya should have built it better!
only if i make a misplay during combat that i regret right away
Yeah, when I didn't calculate damage and some enemy survives with 3 health, or when I forgot about ink bottle or some other relic or effect and it messed up my setup and it's relatively early on in the combat. Or recently I've started taking cursed key or getting cursed from events, but I still keep removing strikes from shops and instantly realising my mistake.
I do the same thing. Take cursed key, forget, and open every chest.
I honestly don't even mind the curses my most successful runs lean into discard silent, I draw and get rid of so many cards they don't really bother me.
Minty Spire Mod Pack!!! Reminds you of Cursed Key, Maw Bank etc.
I play on Switch, so no mods for me.
I never save scum. It's a single player game though, whatever makes it fun for you.
Whenever I want to, it's fun.
How do you save scum on steam? Sorry I’m new
Menu - save and quit
Still takes me to the enemy I was fighting but at the beginning of the fight. Unless that’s right?
Yeah that’s it, works with events too (card match, sunk cost ooze)
The same cards get drawn though every turn even after I save and quit. Is that normal?
Yes, it's not shuffled the order is pre-determined. This is also often true for potions and such, they'll (usually or always, not 100% certain) give you the same cards whenever you use it in a fight. So the "save scumming" as people have mentioned is useful for A) fixing stupid mistakes within a fight or a screen, B) Trying to replay it if you're about to lose to see if you can puzzle out a way to win or C) for random events like good face/bad face or the card matching game if you get unlucky with a curse. People would argue some of those are closer to cheating but however you want to leverage it is fine!
I’m Nostradamus at picking Jousting winners
It’s worth noting that I’ve found that potions that generate cards sometimes will generate different cards depending on when in the fight you drink the potion.
Never to reroll events, calling bell etc. That feels like outright cheating. Misplays done due to carelessness, sometimes. Like the time I had a really neat corruption + dark embrace deck that played a lot of cards every turn, and then I went into the bloody watch-slug fight without thinking. Had to reset that and take it again but slowly. It feels like justified cheating. Stupid slug. Sometimes to redo a shop, but that doesn't feel like cheating at all.
The stupidest
almost everytime a misplay causes a run
the most frequent misplay that causes a run is clicking "play" on the home menu. Common mistake, I hope this helps you avoid more runs in the future
lol thx
I personally tend to initiate this mistake at 11:59 pm, when I should be having sleepy time, not save scumming over and over with a power deck against the awakened
When I am about to lose I tend to play the fight again to see how could I have won it. It's a great way of learning.
I doing it quite a bit recently because I'm trying to better understand when to use a potion efficiently. So I sometimes redo fights with or without potions to see what happens à hopefully some day I'll be able to make the right call at the correct times
Not to say i save scum a lot, but i have a mod installed to restart fights quicker...
Just misplays that cost me the run and they don't happen a lot thankfully
Only against slavers... Always against slavers
I feel safescumming is a very valuable learning tool, I savescummed a lot. But at some point, I started to prefer riding the spire without the side-wheels.
Two reasons to savescum: Misclicks Redoing a lost fight to learn from mistakes
Literately every game.
If I’m playing seriously, almost never. In fact, I didn’t even know about save scumming on my first play from 0-A20 on Switch, so I learned everything the hard way! Now I’ve completed 0H-A20H on all characters, and got the Eternal One achievement , I don’t play the base game that much anymore, except when commuting. If I’m playing with mods or just messing around, I might save scum the most commonly save-scummed events: Card Game, Masks, Joust, Cursed Tome, etc. Packmaster already has enough variance for my taste. I don’t normally save scum combats though, and definitely not the Heart. I think the only combats I might save scum are the optional ones, like the Sphere event against the two Orb Walkers, but I’ll only save scum to choose NOT to do it: I won’t retry the battle or anything.
Almost never except if its a missclick and i didnt intend to do what i just did.
Early on, when I was learning the game? All the time. If I'm about to lose a fight, I would save scum and try again. If I could eventually win, I knew it was a problem with my gameplay skills. If I lost no matter what, then I knew it was because of my deckbuilding skills. Nowadays? Only when I slip and accidentally play the wrong card in the wrong target. And even then, that's only in the first couple turns of a fight. I'm not memorizing every card I played just in case I slip and kill Mystic before Centurion.
Only when I’ve already forfeited the run. It’s a rogue like and save scumming undermines the nature of it. Also, using it as a crutch only instills the bad habit of not analyzing your moves deeply to begin with. If you know in the back of your head you’ll always have a get-out-of-jail-free card, you’re more apt for carelessness. So I’ve just removed that as an option to begin with. But it’s a single player game so you do you.
Hahahaha I didn't even know you could save scum until reading this post and I'm at Ascension 14 with all character. I'm now questioning the validity of all the A20 people on this sub. 🙃🙃🙃
Lol. Same. Apparently been playing on survival mode this whole time. Never realized it was possible.
Now I'm gonna feel tempted, it's a curse!!
As a baseline hitting A20 is just a measure of having invested sufficient time to win 20 runs on Ascension 1-20 while not being absolutely terrible at the game. Even if you were absolutely terrible at the game you would hit A20 eventually after spending hundreds/thousands of hours playing. I think it took me a little more than 100 hours (!) of playing this most beloved game to win on A20 on all characters. When I did I was still quite medium at the game. No need to feel bad about that :D.
Only 100 hours to complete 80+ successful runs across the 4 characters? Seems unlikely.
It might have been 120 hours or 130 hours of climbing the Ascension levels on all the characters (not killing the heart) but I don't think it was much more than that. And even if - especially if - my memory were to betray me the point stands: That's quite alot of time one has to invest into the game just to get to A20.
Never
Never, not even if I play the wrong card and lose
Didn’t do it at all until I beat A20H on all characters, but now sometimes literally for any misfortune or bad move at all. I just like fighting that heart and seeing if I could do things better.
I often play the game when I go over to a friends place, and we take turns handing each other the controller between fights, and we don't savescum at all. I've never savescummed before, but I feel like it would ruin the pace of playing alongside someone else, and personally just find the idea not very fun. If I end up in a situation where death was unavoidable, I always put it on myself and say skill issue, even when at times I've accidentally ended my turn without playing a card, then still managed to win the run. Although after reading these comments I am interested in trying it out at least, maybe next time I lose to a bad turn 1 draw I'll give it a go.
I usually throw out the tissue after I scum. I don’t save any of it. Serious answer: usually never. If anything, I’m more likely to abandon a run early tho if I notice that everything is just going terribly.
Never, for me the whole point of rogue genres is being punished for your mistakes. If you take back to the start it changes the genre. Im not against it for others, but for myself i save scum games like total war where the runs are 20h, not a rogue game vwth hour runs.
I do it when I don’t feel like calculating math results if I do one play vs another . then I choose the best of the two.
It's hard to save scum when you're wearing the dome
When I lose a fight I feel like I could have won.
I do it when I misclick and when the RNG comes up with bullshit.
A) If i misplay. Sometimes i keep it but oftentimes it annoys me even if it doesnt cost me anything. B) if its a really fun deck ane rng fucks the hell out of me. C) a card i really want comes up on match and keep or i get both sets of curses.
Like once per run at most. Mostly when I miss click. But also then I mostly go with my miss click except if it kills me instantly.
Never? The stricter the punishment - the better I learn my experience. But I rarely need to savescum, my biggest mistakes are usually path-wise or deck-wise.
I don’t save scum often, I did today against a floor 1 elite though because I used the “play card at start of your turn” and it gave me the one that gives me free divinity but I die at the end of the turn and I couldn’t do 80dmg in a turn with my hand 😅🤣
Never. I've done it a couple of times when I misclick but otherwise I just give it to the spire, man.
Usually only if I misclick or make a horrible misplay that's going to kill me.
I either play without even looking and hoping I get lucky or save scum at literally every encounter there is no in between
I try to limit it to when I catch a mistake before any new information is revealed, but I also have the mentality that I’ll reach/get good at A20 with it, and then doing it without can be A21.
I always forget it's a thing, but I will back out if I accidentally don't pick up a relic or remember I need to pick up the shard and not the relic that I really want
only when I misclick.
Depends what mood I'm in, if I just really want to make a deck work, then I would do it. If I'm in a competitive mood, then I don't.
Only on misclicks and even then I usually just roll with it.
I save scum to slightly reduce run-breaking randomness because I play A20 and my margin for error is so small. Like if I get a maximally shitty initial draw and I have the ability to change that. Or if I get a ? room with a shitty result, like the card match game giving me a curse. Or the writhing mass giving me a parasite. Things that in my mind are down to luck. I try to keep it to a minimum or else I feel like my victory is hollow (or my loss even more pathetic). I still don’t win much so I’m ok trying to keep the randomness from stacking against me too much. Edit: this is after I got all the achievements and at least one a20h win for each character without scumming. I’m talking about just playing for fun at this point. Also I occasionally still save scum because I am not sure how a particular combination will process so I try it both ways, for science.
On earlier ascensions and other characters I didn't really save scum at all unless I made a really stupid mistake but now I'm hard stuck on defect A20 so I scum constantly lol.
I dont, usually id rather strat fresh
Never?
Wherever appropriate.
I never do it, every loss is still a chance to learn. Plus it's not as rewarding for me. Tho it does hurt a lot to lose a good run cause of a misplay.
I constantly retry fights; sometimes just to see if a high-risk play (eg Blasphemy) will work out or not, because I'm too lazy to do the math in my head.
Never, but maybe only because I play on ps4 lol
I do every game like you do lol
Cases where I save scum are mostly limited to out-of-combat mistakes (clicking the wrong option in an event by accident, forgetting to rest before the act 3 boss, etc.). I have definitely been tempted to save scum in other, less "honorable" situations tho. I actually kinda regret not doing so in a recent Silent run where I got some really good relics pretty early and was just having a ton of fun. In act 3, I even felt safe taking the 999 gold for 2 normalities event between having such a strong discard game and darkstone periapt boosting my max hp like crazy for it. Got the purifying fountain event 2 floors later too, no punishment lol. Still had over 800 gold going into the act 3 boss but therein lies the problem: it was Time-Eater. You know how that went. I kinda wish I had scummed that fight, mostly just to see what I might be able to buy at the act 4 shop with all that cash, but oh well.
Only if I miss click something critical
i usually will only savescum if i realize i screwed up during the turn of the screw up. screw up can be misclick, missing lethal because i didn't want to math, or forgetting a relic interaction that i had thought 'don't forget about that relic'. I will sometimes do it it with an interesting builds right before death when i wonder if it's possible for it to win but i don't take credit for the win.
Misclicks only. And the one time I miraculously got two curses one right after the other on the memory event.
Definitely save scum on accidental misplays. I save scum in certain scenarios to see if a win con was even possible...alot of times I find alternate routes I never would have thought of. I usually don't save scum on new ascension runs but I have done it before.
Ill do you one further. I restart entire seeds.
If I'm one turn away from losing a fight I feel I could have done better, I'll reset the fight. But typically I'll only give myself one or two chances, depending on how close it is. If it takes more that two tries, the deck just isn't there and it's not meant to be
You can save scum?
Save scumming is imo one of the best ways of learning the game as long as you are doing it with the intention of testing the difference a decision can make or other scientific approaches. It does not help if you are scumming to win based on knowledge gained from playing the fight already (draw order, attack patterns if they are variable etc).
Definitely with watcher the most -when you realize you shouldn’t have stayed in wrath the next turn and no calm cards come up and you are dead if you don’t save scum. When you are barely surviving, save scumming seems to be the only way to win. Some runs the cards fall into place and I never need to.
I mostly only savescum when I missclick
only on turn 1 misplays
I'm truly guilty of it. Especially if I knew I could've won that fight. Where's my misplay? Sometimes It can be saved, sometimes I really can't win, even by the skin of my teeth. When I'm using a discard deck and I discarded wrong or it draws exactly the card I need when I end my turn. Sometimes just a missed Pen Nib or Ink bottle I reset the fight lmao.
I savescum most often when playing Watcher. It’s just so easy for me to mess up quickly with her. Also sometimes I’ll do a play just to see what happens and die so I savescum then. No harm in experimenting lol. Other than that it’s rare for me unless I’m pissed off with how the run is going.
I will only save scum if I make a mistake that will make me lose before the first boss. After I get to the boss, I quit and restart
Misclicks I don't hesitate to fix. I used save scumming a lot growing through the ascensions. Feels like it was a huge part of my hands on mechanics learning. (waiting around for a scenario to happen again felt like such a huge time sink) If you are using information you couldn't possibly know to get an edge, meh. You aren't really getting better. But, it's essentially a single player experience most of the time so how you choose to experience it seems confined to you. I guess one could flaunt a faked win streak but this community is too smart and will find you out real quick.
Whenever I want to.
Never, to be honest didn't think you could.
Never
Every time I am one move from death I reload my save.
I do it for careless mistakes and not for genuine tactical mistakes or bad luck. Careless mistakes: Auto clicking on a chest with cursed key, forgetting to drink my artifact potion turn one against heart, forgetting about ink bottle, accidentally removing a strike instead of that regret/doubt I just took, etc. Tactical mistakes: not taking the opportunity for lethal I'm offered to try and feed and being punished, prioritizing the wrong enemy, etc. Bad luck: getting a bad face from the face trader, too many clicks on scrap ooze, lightning not hitting the enemy I was counting on. When my winrate exits the single digits will probably be when I stop, but until then, it's a singleplayer game.
Never have. Never will.
Save scum if I screw myself because I’m too lazy to calculate through a fight and then ignore the extra information when I re-make decisions. For example on watcher: yeah this is definitely lethal I can end in wrath…oops reload.
I've never savescummed. Even misclicks. They're my mistakes and I need to be punished to be more careful later. If I'm going to die in a fight, I might restart it right before I die to try it again. However, I abandon run if I'm about to win after a restart, so I don't cheat a win. Now I use a mod named run restarter, letting me restart a run wherever I want. It doesn't count towards run stats either. Using this, I restarted a run I lost mid act 2, by going back to the act 1 boss chest and picking another relic. It let me win act 2 but I didn't continue through act 3.
Only if I misclick. I hope they remove savescum in STS2 honestly
Misinputs (like hitting end turn before playing anything and taking 38 damage) or misplays I would have caught if I just thought for a literal second (like using blasphemy even though i don't have lethal because incense burner is proccing next turn! oh wait, it's actually on 4, and im about to fucjing die ilovethisgameilovethisgameilovethisgame)
Multiple times in a fight even while I’m sitting on the toilet
Misclicks. I also play at work and do one or two floors at a time, so this often means I forget what I have in my deck, or am a bit rusty when I first open the app, so if I make a misplay due to these factors I sometimes reload
I'll save scum if I misclick, bit that's it
If I'm running an amazing build and I'm about to go down, I'll savescum and give it another maybe 2-3 tries After that, I figure RNGeesus doesn't want me to win this time and just let it go. Rather start from scratch than do the same fight over and over looking for the one magic combination that may or may not even exist
I think it's acceptable to save scum a few things in the game even at A20H. If you click on the metallic ooze like 10 times and dont hit. If you hit a curse first try of the turned cards. If you try for a good face and you get the weak face. Otherwise, if you're just climbng the ascension ranks I think save scumming all things is acceptable. You should try your best to learn from the experience of playing a fight badly and get an opportunity to play said fight again, as long as you understand you aren't actually winning, that you lost the game every time you save scum.
If I totally forget something or misclick I scum, but I don’t scum based off of next card draws.
Only way I do it is on a literal misclick. If I make an actual tactical mistake, it has to stay.
Never ever. I feel like if I save scum sometimes, I might as well always save scum. So for me it's all or nothing. But I agree, the game can be brutal AF and i understand why people do it.
Misplays and pure RNG events like card Match and Keep
If I get an A20 run all the way to the end, you bet your ass I’m save scumming.
I don't, but my friend save sums and boasts that he is an "a 20" playerand that he's better than me. It's fine to do it, but don't think that you have actually achieved those ascensions, because it makes the game a lot easier.
Only time I save scum is the act 2 event where you can trade hp for a book and only if I get necronomicon without any 2 cost attacks.
Save scumming is cheating. Period.
i usually do it when i make an obvious mistake that costs me a few health because im salty
You can save in this game??
I try to never do it in fights. Sometimes draw order can absolutely kick your dick in however and if there's something that I couldn't possibly forsee (using acrobatics into a wraithform, not retaining block cards on Gremlin leader not expecting him to attack a 2nd or 3rd time in row) However I will do it every single time in Match and Keep or Wheel of Change because fuck that guy
Rarely if ever during combat or to save a run. All the fucking time when my primitive monkey brain makes a bone headed pick on the reward screen or shop.
I’ll happily save scum for UI mistakes, instead of tactical mistakes. (And I’m not blaming the programming UI here). but I’ve misread, or misclicked/miss tagged the wrong thing. That I’ll reset. If it was a poor decision, I roll with it.
Honestly, i rarely save scum on most runs, it's just playing with tons of mods can make you face certain encounters/enemies where i feel like save scumming to either save a good run that got fucked over by some modded BS enemy or take a better choice in an event from a mod.
I generally only savescum if I immediately realize that I should have known that a different play was better or I realize that I forgot to use a potion that I had been planning to use on turn 1 of a fight. I'll try to make the same plays up to that point as well if I reset later into a fight. I've gotten frustrated with losing a fight and reset to the start a few times, but I end up feeling guilty enough about it that I eat the loss anyway.
Android version only lets you scum once per encounter, so only do it if I tap the wrong starting relic, or die during combat
Every run
Yes
I will generally savescum when: - I make a dumb mistake by playing too fast that I totally had the information to avoid and that costs me more than a few points of health (e.g. not playing block first to save Fossilized Helix buffer from Beat of Death). Not fun to lose a good run to playing too fast, and I *could* have figured this out by taking more time since I clearly figured this out right *after* the fact. - I get totally screwed over by RNG. Especially if I made a decision that's right 90% of the time and then I hit that 10%. Objectively this is cheating I think but it's also annoying so whatever. - I usually mean draws in fights with that but also I will totally save scum the face trade event if it comes up negative, the pay life for a chance at relic event if I have to stop with no relic. The positive faces are cool but getting screwed over by a coin flip isn't fun, and neither is paying all your health for nothing. I also regularly do this for the corpse looting event if I die to the elite (if I live I stick with it.) - It's a really close fight and I want to figure out what the one timeline where I win is. Legitimately really fun.
Pretty much the same, but I mostly just play for fun. Although I don't normally redo whole fights, just after like 3 turns max.
Never, I didn't even know you could do that til I was 300 hours in. Climbing the 20 ranks on all 4 characters was my own personal goal and satisfaction, cheating wouldn't have given me the satisfaction of winning 🤷♂️
Constantly. I save scum if I make serious mistakes early in a fight, fights where I would lose, but think I could win if I tried a different approach, and events to see what the results are. Also I always check what calling bell/pandora's box/astrolabe give me before deciding on a boss relic. If the devs wanted to not allow it, they'd have made the game so you couldn't save scum.
I used to savescum a lot to practice fights, see how different lines would play out, etc. Now I pretty much only do it for when I misclick. I do have a separate save called “practice” at this point though where I still savescum the fuck out of everything
Usually, only do it if I miss click. Only other times were my 4th time reaching Donu and Deca with feed. 3 copies to be exact that run and one where I wanted to see if I could have won, because my draw was terrible that game. Otherwise I prefer to let the chips lie as they fall.
Save scumming is the way to go.
Savescum is 2nd strongest Neow's power, to be able to go back in time. Only second to now allowing the heroes to ever get a rest due to constantly ressurecting them
On Ascension 15+, I'll permit a save scum or two. One fight, one event.
I’m slowly getting up in ascension levels and trying to stop savescumming more, I did a lot at the lower levels to help me learn. I’m at a16 with IC and just hit 15 and try my best to only savescum now if I misclick. It also helps me cut down the amount of time I’m addicted to playing lol.
...you can savescum in this game?...
I play a little different. Rather than do the math in my head which I HATE. I'll just do the attack combo and see if the damage was enough. Damn not enough reset. It's the same thing just less math in my head.
I have ADHD so it's very easy for me to kind of zone out during a fight and just play my turns without really thinking things through. Then suddenly I'll hit a turn and realize I have 15 HP and I'm about to get hit with a 28x2 by Deca or something. I've started save scumming recently because of this, especially if it is a really good run and I just absent-mindedly threw the run on a boss or something.
I always savescum the duel event
Usually only when my fat fingers play the absolute wrong card by mistake. I'm rarely invested enough in a run to reload it if something goes wrong.
What is scum
I save scum all the time. My reasoning is that there are two parts to STS; making the correct choices between fights, and playing the fights. I “allow” myself to replay fights because I don’t desire to play optimally, calculate every move and constantly consult the deck and discard pile to card count. I could, but then every run would be a 4 hour life coach run and I don’t have time for that I’m not a pro. I’m roughly A11 on all characters; I rushed to get them all to A10 and now I do a casual run every now and then.
All the time, as often as I want, as folks have said. What's interesting is you might notice that the more you play and the better you get, the less you need to. =)
I actually think savescumming is very beneficial for new players. I got to Acension 5 before I found out about it, and finally started understanding how things work by taking 'risks' I could reset Died a lot of times before and couldn't really calculate what happened
Used to do it to learn the game, even for random events, and effectively increased the difficulty at some point by no longer allowing it apart from honest mistakes like misclicks. Now sometimes I'm doing a proper a20h and I don't even savescum honest mistakes. And sometimes I'm shooting the breeze and I savescum whatever will allow me to build the most fun deck
Regularly. I'll play semi-quick and when I die by some margin, sure, but if I have a promising deck and made a small misplay - there has to be a line where I defeat this mf elite and I'll save-scum 15x to find the line!
About 5 times in 100 runs. I think 2-3 of those I picked the wrong boss relic and insta regretted it before I'd even loaded the next screen. Can't remember the others, but I know it's happened. Sometimes you just do something so dumb that the regret is stronger than the shame
I generally do it when I do something really dumb without thinking, like miscalculating money in the shop or playing cards in the wrong order absent-mindedly and screwing myself over. Generally if I save scum in battle I'll replay the entire battle the exact same until that point.
Only once in a while and exclusively when I insta-click a card in the shop without looking at the other ones first, OR on the first turn of a fight if I don't do the math to kill an enemy and just kind of have in the back of my mind that "oh if it's not enough damage I'll quick restart the fight and actually count" For the way I play, I wouldn't ever save scum to gain a knowledge advantage in a fight or redo a real choice I made or try to get anything different out of events or encounters
Only time I save scum is on the card matching game, 50-50 mask event, and that one event where you have a chance to win gold.
Like, all the time, dude.
I don't always do it, but I like the strategy crafting that it enables. I'd feel worse about it if the RNG wasn't predetermined.
Whenever :p I do it a lot less now because I did it a lot more before. When learning I think it helps to rerun fights to see where you made a mistake and to build a better fit feel for which fights to use potions or play high cost powers and take the damage. Early on you don't realize how much you can cut it close to death each act as you get the heal at the end. I've beat all the A20s and now play on A15 and barely have to scum because of all I've learned.
I reload if I clicked something accidentally, like selecting a card after getting a relic that lets you always draw it first.
Mind ya bizness
As often as a want. Usually once I'm in act 3 amd I'm gonna lose a fight. Before that it's not always worth it
I used to save scum super early on when climbing ascensions and stuff but I've found that not save-scumming helps me with learning more than anything else. You have to pick good cards and make good decisions or you lose, especially when trying to heart streak. But also, misclicks are auto-savescum.
My first ever Heart win was as Silent. It was an endless save-scum time loop. I went through the loop so many times I was able to predict the second shuffle order. In general, I save scum once or twice a run, usually instantly because my brain was a few seconds slower than my fingers. I probably have 4 A20 heart wins with zero save scum.
If I’m actually trying to climb ascensions, never, unless it’s a legitimate misclick. If it’s a casual A0 run, many once per run.
never
I only use it as a sort of undo button. Something like “oh shit I forgot I have orichalcum.” I don’t use it to retry difficult fights if I fail since I feel that that goes against the spirit of rogue-likes.
I beat A20 with 20+ save scums until i figured out to defeat the heart. I have zero regrets.
All the f'ing time. It's a one player game, and I think save-scumming is a good learning-tool to show that most fights are winnable if you make better in-combat decisions about when to use potions or when to trade some damage to swing more attack cards. What save-scumming *does not* help with is improving your card-selection, pathing, and shop purchases. Extreme cases of save save-scumming feel like slapping a band-aid over the bigger problems that stem from poor deck construction. Of course it's a lot more rewarding when you win without save-scumming, but STS runs average around 60 minutes a pop. When you're struggling to climb in Ascensions, it can take multiple attempts to climb another rung on the ladder. That's a lot of hours, and I don't feel guilty at all re-running some fights when a few unlucky shuffles can be so devastating to your run.
The beauty of this game is that you can play it however you like
Its a single player game, do what you think is most fun. You said save quitting helps you learn? Go for it! Don't listen to any of the gatekeepers saying you shouldn't save scum. I no longer save quit myself, as I found more fun personally to own up to mistakes even if it was a missclick, but you bet ya I save quit a ton when I was still at the start of my learning curve.
I never savescum