You can still choose what cards go into your deck even at chapter 2. Because the decks are relatively small, every single card matters.
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Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech |OT| Clockwork Knights
- Thread starter jariw
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You can still choose what cards go into your deck even at chapter 2. Because the decks are relatively small, every single card matters.
OP
OP
In chapter 2, Deck Building has been unlocked (it was unlocked when you talked to the lady in the wagon at the beginning of chapter 2). Even if you haven't found any extra cards in hidden chests, you should now have many more cards than can be put in the party member's deck.
Do you have any gear equipped? I can't remember exactly my load out in Chapter 2 but I'm also playing on Hard and it took me two or three tries to take that boss out. Equipment (or even cards) is usually hidden in the hidden chests and it helps a lot. If you haven't already done so go back and look for any hidden chests you may have missed. Also, Copernica's combo move (team barrier) is really strong in the early game. Bosses definitely require some tinkering around with decks/load outs.
Been playing on legend and the only issue i have are bosses and not because they are hard but because I have no clue what they are capable of before fighting them. My build would never be effective against the boss. If I could identify the boss before fighting him then I can be more prepared. That is my only issue so far. I am to ch8 and have no come up against a boss that frustrated me so much that i turn off the console.
Game is great and I would love some DLC.
Game is great and I would love some DLC.
I've made a post early in the thread giving advice for that fight, check it out if you need help.
Thanks everyone.
I've found a few chests and have all the items I have equipped.
As far as cards go, I have very few different types to pick. What does it matter what buff I pick or if I choose book bash or the sword when they do less than 15 damage on someone with 650 hp and a lifelink attack that heals for more damage than I deliver and an attack that can kill a character in 3 hits? It's all variations on dying before they are even down half their hp.
Why is this boss weak to ele when there are no ele cards yet? Also, can I not see what their cards do? I'd like to know what they are playing with.
Man, I'm so disappointed with this game. The exploration is crazy weak (walk around hitting a) and the card gimmick is just an aesthetic way of picking standard jrpg attacks.
I've found a few chests and have all the items I have equipped.
As far as cards go, I have very few different types to pick. What does it matter what buff I pick or if I choose book bash or the sword when they do less than 15 damage on someone with 650 hp and a lifelink attack that heals for more damage than I deliver and an attack that can kill a character in 3 hits? It's all variations on dying before they are even down half their hp.
Why is this boss weak to ele when there are no ele cards yet? Also, can I not see what their cards do? I'd like to know what they are playing with.
Man, I'm so disappointed with this game. The exploration is crazy weak (walk around hitting a) and the card gimmick is just an aesthetic way of picking standard jrpg attacks.
Shop? That woman that gave me shout earlier? I have to go back in this liner game to the previous chapter to beat this boss?
I have no elemental cards except fire and ice and neither is any good.
Fire attacks are fairly good though and some of the ice ones have good debuffs (brain freeze) but maybe you don't get those cards until later.
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If you feel it's too difficult on the hard difficulty, just change it to medium.
I have only played on medium, but to me it feels very wrong to use book bash in a deck for a chapter boss. She has much more suitable cards that boosts the steam meter.
BTW, the game hasn't really started in chapter 2. You're still in the tutorial part of the game.
All I want to know is what tactic other people used on hard? It's possible apparently but I'm getting wrecked.
He just took over 60 health in one shot and killed Gallilao. How can I deal with that?
Also, I don't have any other cards to build steam that book bash with Capernicus.
He just took over 60 health in one shot and killed Gallilao. How can I deal with that?
Also, I don't have any other cards to build steam that book bash with Capernicus.
It has always been a thing with RPG bosses (especially on harder difficulties) where the first attempt is mostly just to find out what loadouts you should bring.
I really haven't had to do that very often though in this game, more in the early game and much less so in the later chapters. If you really don't want to spend the time for the first attempt you can just look up a walkthrough. I did that for the secret chests anyway since I don't care about hunting for them.
I really haven't had to do that very often though in this game, more in the early game and much less so in the later chapters. If you really don't want to spend the time for the first attempt you can just look up a walkthrough. I did that for the secret chests anyway since I don't care about hunting for them.
I've only done four chapters so far. It's okay, I don't think I've blown away or anything, but this particular genre (turn based isn't normally for me. I just wanted to buy it because I like and trust the devs.
I do wish the exploration side was a lot more interesting.
I do wish the exploration side was a lot more interesting.
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The Mana Shield (or whatever it's called) is available right from the start of the game. That card builds 1 step of steam.
I don't remember exactly what I did with that boss or what cards were available but you should focus on building chains with Coppernica (the easiest way is to avoid having to much steam consuming cards and focus on the steam building ones like the shield and book bash). Early on, going with a more defensive tactics is the easiest way imo.
If that particular boss is giving you too much trouble you can always lower the difficulty for it and go back to hard right after.
Here's my general setup for the game so far (Chapter 16) in case anyone is interested on how to better evaluate the cards and decks. I think part of the fun of the game is figuring out your own setup so I don't recommend reading these unless you have to.
Copernica is by far the best damage dealer all game for me. I have almost never taken her out of the team.
I've equipped the fire damage up accessory from the shop and also a general +magic accessory.
Her magic stats are the best out of the group by quite a margin, and the team barrier is always nice to reduce damage taken.
There's no proper terminology I think so I'll just call cards that generate steam action cards and everything else skill cards.
Cards:
Fire Pillar: Definitely the MVP. Upgraded twice, it deals about 270% magic damage just for 1 steam. Combined with Copernica's mag stat, No other card comes close to the damage dealing potential. Why spend 2 or more steam and makes your turns much more clumsier when you can just spend 1 and deal a lot of consistent damage?
Deck: 3-4x Fire Pillar, then 3-5 action cards At this point it's 1x Arcane Detective, 1x Burning Desire, and 2x Searing Lash (If the dungeons get though, I substitute an action card for Sleep to slow turns down to heal and regen)
I find that the other elements are too conditional or random and doesn't come close to fire for her.
With Copernica as the MVP, my next character would be to support her damage dealing abilities and that would be Armilly.
Intercept: Definitely the MVP. You deal a good chunk of damage and get to stop one action from your enemy (bosses tend to have 2 actions). Pretty much guaranteed intercept after upgrading once.
Fiery Bash: Upgraded once it gives you two levels of fire debuff on a single enemy for three turns. Often times the debuff isn't really used because it's pretty much dead anyway, but great for tougher enemies.
Other than that it's just fire support.
Deck: 2x Intercept, 1x Fiery Bash, 1x Encourage (remove pesky debuffs), 4x Hot Iron (fire damage action card)
So the last slot is just support and healing. Orik works great for me because he has another interrupt, his weapon ability allows you to play more cards, and Bushido giving crit is such insane damage buff to any character. Orik doesn't have good magic stats so take care to not use his mag cards.
Stone Lion: 0 cost skill card that gives you guaranteed intercept, why not.
Bushido: Upgraded once gives you 75% crit chance on any character
Deck: 2x Stone Lion, 2x Bushido, 1x Fascination (only heal I need, I'll use healing pots if damage is too high), 2x Iai, and 1x Inspiring Grace (for those 5 card turns)
With this setup I've been pretty much clearing last few chapters without any problems so far. It's still challenging to play though. And yeah, I almost don't use any cards costing more than 1.
I've equipped the fire damage up accessory from the shop and also a general +magic accessory.
Her magic stats are the best out of the group by quite a margin, and the team barrier is always nice to reduce damage taken.
There's no proper terminology I think so I'll just call cards that generate steam action cards and everything else skill cards.
Cards:
Fire Pillar: Definitely the MVP. Upgraded twice, it deals about 270% magic damage just for 1 steam. Combined with Copernica's mag stat, No other card comes close to the damage dealing potential. Why spend 2 or more steam and makes your turns much more clumsier when you can just spend 1 and deal a lot of consistent damage?
Deck: 3-4x Fire Pillar, then 3-5 action cards At this point it's 1x Arcane Detective, 1x Burning Desire, and 2x Searing Lash (If the dungeons get though, I substitute an action card for Sleep to slow turns down to heal and regen)
I find that the other elements are too conditional or random and doesn't come close to fire for her.
With Copernica as the MVP, my next character would be to support her damage dealing abilities and that would be Armilly.
Intercept: Definitely the MVP. You deal a good chunk of damage and get to stop one action from your enemy (bosses tend to have 2 actions). Pretty much guaranteed intercept after upgrading once.
Fiery Bash: Upgraded once it gives you two levels of fire debuff on a single enemy for three turns. Often times the debuff isn't really used because it's pretty much dead anyway, but great for tougher enemies.
Other than that it's just fire support.
Deck: 2x Intercept, 1x Fiery Bash, 1x Encourage (remove pesky debuffs), 4x Hot Iron (fire damage action card)
So the last slot is just support and healing. Orik works great for me because he has another interrupt, his weapon ability allows you to play more cards, and Bushido giving crit is such insane damage buff to any character. Orik doesn't have good magic stats so take care to not use his mag cards.
Stone Lion: 0 cost skill card that gives you guaranteed intercept, why not.
Bushido: Upgraded once gives you 75% crit chance on any character
Deck: 2x Stone Lion, 2x Bushido, 1x Fascination (only heal I need, I'll use healing pots if damage is too high), 2x Iai, and 1x Inspiring Grace (for those 5 card turns)
With this setup I've been pretty much clearing last few chapters without any problems so far. It's still challenging to play though. And yeah, I almost don't use any cards costing more than 1.
I can do that but capernica only deals 7 damage per hit with book bash. 7! Against 600 that's ridiculous.
I don't want to go back to normal, I want to know how it's possible on hard at this stage in the game with just these cards.
I am only to ch8 so it has nothing with big balls. I am just telling my experience with the game so far. You seem threatened for some reason.
Anyway I used Armilly/Orik solely for damage, copernica solely for her shield and Galleo just for health. Then I swap out cards for specific bosses weaknesses or if they have a card that is wrecking my team like confusion/sleep/etc. Since the game is still all about some chance, if I don't start off right I would get destroyed. I like to start off with copernica chain to get the shields.
If you still want to be snippy go ahead.
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You can build steam with her shield. Sometimes you'll have to throw out the occasional book bash for no damage just to build steam for more powerful spells from her or Armily.
Also, three Coppernica cards on the same turn will give all party members an overshield. So even if you're doing 3 book bashes for relatively little damage, you're essentially negating the boss' next turn.
Thanks, done it now. Didn't realise Coppernica's shield bonus was so good. As soon as I noticed that I made sure to keep topping up the heath.
Phew, on to the next meltdown.
Glad it stepped up your quality of life.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is the next character's Poison card. It has super high value relative to its cost.
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Good to hear that you solved it! I just restarted a new game on legend now, to test until the chapter 2 boss. It wasn't any problem basically just doing a consistent chains and occasionally using Armilly's Shout and Galleo's Mend. When Canary is up to 5 steam cogs, it's also very important to have made a Copernica chain just before (that's when the boss unleash the biggest weapons).
All of his emotions changing on the mask is infinitely entertaining to me.
He's been my favorite character so far. Both him and Copernica synergize pretty well, building steam and having Haste + Electrolize for card/turn advantage. Cyclone Slash is a pretty great card even against Storm resists.
He's completely replaced Armilly as my primary DPS. Bushido + Cyclone Slash after building gears with Copernica and Galleo is insane.
I'm on chapter 11 and still really enjoying it.
I mostly use the three original characters just because I seem to like their cards the most, but I might change it up again for a chapter just to experience the others a little more. In the little while I had Orik active I could tell he can lay down some serious damage.
Length seems to vary wildly from what I've read, which is strange. I've heard 15-20 hours to 10 at most.
Does anyone know how many chapters there are?
I mostly use the three original characters just because I seem to like their cards the most, but I might change it up again for a chapter just to experience the others a little more. In the little while I had Orik active I could tell he can lay down some serious damage.
Length seems to vary wildly from what I've read, which is strange. I've heard 15-20 hours to 10 at most.
Does anyone know how many chapters there are?
Kinda disappointed after finishing it on the hardest difficulty. While the game is fun, I never felt challenged to explore new builds or characters. I stuck with the original 3 members with 80% of the core skills the same between acts 2 to the end.
By the time I got cool cards on Yellow and Purple, they were vastly outlevelled by my main party and I took the path of least resistance - which in my case was brute force with my static party and play smart.
I built my party around Red's upgraded fire bash, intercept, and self buff and spam Blue's fire lash + pillar. Green as full support/build steam/heal.
Even when enemies have fire resist, Blue can outdamage with all the fire+ and magic+ buffs she gets, and because of Red's fire bash it doesn't even matter. With fire absorbing enemies (few and far between), it's easy enough to just use red's raw single target damage with brave buster and intercept and bleed combo to down them as well while blue spams Shields and shield combo to entire party.
I feel like 1 steam cards like fire pillar and intercept with damage buffs are way too efficient to consider using anything else. The other cards feel like fillers that buff or generate resource.
Also there are a lot of conceptually cool cards that I am not bothered to use because other simple cards straight up over power them in raw numbers. Maybe I need to force myself to explore these options on a second playthrough or maybe they need to balance some cards, idk!
Feel like the game ended too fast, hoping for a challenging DLC because I think the artwork and game play of the game set up a great framework to explore deckbuilding - the game just needs to give players a bit more time and difficulty to play around with the cards.
By the time I got cool cards on Yellow and Purple, they were vastly outlevelled by my main party and I took the path of least resistance - which in my case was brute force with my static party and play smart.
I built my party around Red's upgraded fire bash, intercept, and self buff and spam Blue's fire lash + pillar. Green as full support/build steam/heal.
Even when enemies have fire resist, Blue can outdamage with all the fire+ and magic+ buffs she gets, and because of Red's fire bash it doesn't even matter. With fire absorbing enemies (few and far between), it's easy enough to just use red's raw single target damage with brave buster and intercept and bleed combo to down them as well while blue spams Shields and shield combo to entire party.
I feel like 1 steam cards like fire pillar and intercept with damage buffs are way too efficient to consider using anything else. The other cards feel like fillers that buff or generate resource.
Also there are a lot of conceptually cool cards that I am not bothered to use because other simple cards straight up over power them in raw numbers. Maybe I need to force myself to explore these options on a second playthrough or maybe they need to balance some cards, idk!
Feel like the game ended too fast, hoping for a challenging DLC because I think the artwork and game play of the game set up a great framework to explore deckbuilding - the game just needs to give players a bit more time and difficulty to play around with the cards.
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Wow, you started a new file just to see what Canary was like. Thanks!
I guess I didn't know the importance of chains but I do now.
I also didn't know the 5 cogs related to his biggest attack. I thought there would be some special animation.
There are 19 chapters.
I ended up finishing the game last night (took 11 hours but I was just playing on normal) and I loved every second of it. The difficulty of the game was just right for someone like me who isn't that experienced with the card battling genre. I found the dialogue to be very witty at times and I thought each of the characters brought something new to the conversation.
The only thing I didn't care for was the fact that you can't see if you got 100% of the chests until you actually finish the level. This meant I had to repeat a few stages early on but I got around this problem in later stages by quitting out of the game when I was close to the end of the stage, backing up my save file, loading the game back up and then defeating the boss. If I had nabbed all the chests then great but if I had missed one I simply downloaded my save from the cloud and went hunting for the remaining treasure. The process is pretty snappy due to how fast the game loads up and it was certainly quicker doing this than having to repeat the whole stage again.
So, yeah, fantastic game and definitely my favourite out of the SteamWorld games.
Here are a few snaps I took from the ending scenes of the game. I think they are beautifully drawn.
Hi all, we're having a blast reading all your comments.
Sorry for the delay and thanks a lot - both for the example (the spoiler alert one), which is both specific and valuable, and for the kind words! I've passed on to the team so they can tweak if they feel it's necessary. We've naturally completed the game on Hard mode internally multiple times in testing (would be a joke otherwise) and nothing wrong with a difficulty spike here and there, but I agree that the game may seem unbalanced if it's only sometimes way off the charts. And finally awesome to watch you guys get together here to crack the different spikes. <3
Yep, having a blast reading all your comments, insights and "solutions" here. Thank you! :D We never know what to expect in terms of reception for our games. The reactions we typically get from players are "I didn't think I'd like this type of game, but..." and so on. We even toyed around with the idea of making "The best games you have yet to play" the official studio slogan. ;) It looks like there's a lot of people out there still on the fence about Quest, as card-based battlers tend to divide populations more than we thought... So I don't know if this request is kosher at all - and please tell me off if it isn't - but feel free to take to other social media and say what you think about #SWQuest, I'm sure it helps to make up minds.
...and now back to reading your comments. Cheers! /Brjann
...and now back to reading your comments. Cheers! /Brjann
Finished the game on legend around 19 hours. The last few bosses took several tries each and I had to rework my decks so that was great. I personally think that most of the bosses was tuned to my liking, aside from some easier ones around chapter 12-16.
I do agree with the sentiment that the power to cost curve seems a bit off.
I do agree with the sentiment that the power to cost curve seems a bit off.
I started playing yesterday, and just having finished chapter 3 there now, and I'm really enjoying it so far. The combat has been interesting and the overall presentation from the art, music to writing is probably the best they've done so far. I'm excited to see where it goes from here.
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I wonder how a system with more challenge or a system that invites/forces to deck building could be implemented in this game, without breaking the mechanics. As I see it, the game is a toolbox with limited resources. You can choose your own focus on where you want to put those limited resources (such as invest them in the current deck/party or invest in something new), which is a big strength in the game. It's a bit like BotW, where you can focus on whatever game mechanics you want to, but with the difference that in this game you can't farm/grind as easily.
To make the player seek different deck builds or different party setups, they might have to disable some mechanics at the start of the game (such as "no chain mode" or "no card upgrades mode" or "no item mode" or ...)? IDK...
IMO, the length of the game is perfect for multiple runs with different approaches. After a while, there are such a huge array of cards to choose from, that there seems like the game has almost endless approaches to how it could be played.
Did anyone have a rough time with the standard mage enemies in Ch. 10? Their ability to apply a third-tier dodge to their team seems a little broken on Legend.
Those are some great ideas. To be honest I would be happy with a mode with no upgrades, and certain cards got core upgrades automatically for free (the core upgrades being ones that are not simple damage +15%). This would reduce upgrade anxiety by committing to a set of cards you upgraded at the first half of the game and encourage players to seek out more builds.
One of the main reasons I didn't try new builds is like you said - grinding is required to craft every card and get all the important upgrades.
I know I gave these criticisms of the game but I should say that I absolutely adore the game. It's because I like it a lot that I felt that I should provide my honest input. Steamworld Heist is my 2019 GOTY when I grabbed it on sale a few months ago and I enjoy this game almost as much!
It has been already mostly noted, it does it stem from a couple of problems.
1. It's too easy to find a powerful set of decks that can be used all game with minor tweaking.
2. The enemy resistances don't matter enough and encounter design too narrow to deter from using said decks.
3. There's high cost to experimentation, again deterring from switching from decks.
4. Heroic Chain effects generally being really good which means you want to prioritize using it all the time.
5. This means that higher cost cards are often too inflexible to use, and they also don't give enough power to compensate for it.
6. This also leads to a limited viable card pool to build decks from.
Not to say that it isn't possible that a high cost, big skill cards deck can work well.
Still a terrific game though with far better difficulty balancing than a lot of games with card battle systems out there.
1. It's too easy to find a powerful set of decks that can be used all game with minor tweaking.
2. The enemy resistances don't matter enough and encounter design too narrow to deter from using said decks.
3. There's high cost to experimentation, again deterring from switching from decks.
4. Heroic Chain effects generally being really good which means you want to prioritize using it all the time.
5. This means that higher cost cards are often too inflexible to use, and they also don't give enough power to compensate for it.
6. This also leads to a limited viable card pool to build decks from.
Not to say that it isn't possible that a high cost, big skill cards deck can work well.
Still a terrific game though with far better difficulty balancing than a lot of games with card battle systems out there.
Where the hell is the 5th treasure chest in chapter 2?
EDIT: found it, holy balls thats out of the way
EDIT: found it, holy balls thats out of the way
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I especially kept him in the party once I found out how well he synergizes with all those "forcibly catch status ailments for great effects" attacks, considering he has a move that dispels all status ailments and converts them into A BEATDOWN!!!
One hit per dispel, and you know some mother fathers gonna put dispair or poison on your whole team! That's when they get THE BEATDOWN!!!
Can I change to earlier chapters somehow to collect more loot? I am in the middle of new chapter right now.
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You can select earlier chapters to find the remaining chests at least. Don't know if you get any coins for re-beating enemies.
If you cancel the current chapter, you'll loose the progress made in that chapter.
You get coins and XP. The XP gained is pretty minimal, unless you are revisiting the chapter you just beat; even then, you'll only get enough for one level.
So one chapter in Act 4 is showing up with 137% chest completion for me. Is that right (I know indie games especially love the cheeky over 100% completion rates)?
Also, after finishing the game, are there any good grinding spots for the colisseum?
Also, after finishing the game, are there any good grinding spots for the colisseum?
I would love if I could have multiple decks for each character and select which deck I want for each fight. Right now, I don't experiment as much as I want because the deck building is a chore to swap cards back and forth.
I am glad I read this thread and switched to Legend after chapter 1. Legend has been a good balance for me and I consistently find each Boss hard.
I am glad I read this thread and switched to Legend after chapter 1. Legend has been a good balance for me and I consistently find each Boss hard.
Once you get to the college, beware of 1-way teleporters. They can act as points of no return, and there's one at the beginning of chapter 9 (which was way longer than any previous chapter), and I missed a chest there since my completion is at 89%.
That kind of stuff plus having to replay entire chapters if you want to collect a chest you missed is my one major gripe I have with the game. It doesn't help that when replaying chapters skipping dialouge/cutscenes is slow and you still have to fight bosses. Preferably the chest percentage would just be there on the map screen as you go, and there wouldn't be points of no return.
Otherwise though I'm really enjoying it and finding it very well designed.
That kind of stuff plus having to replay entire chapters if you want to collect a chest you missed is my one major gripe I have with the game. It doesn't help that when replaying chapters skipping dialouge/cutscenes is slow and you still have to fight bosses. Preferably the chest percentage would just be there on the map screen as you go, and there wouldn't be points of no return.
Otherwise though I'm really enjoying it and finding it very well designed.
Had a bit of a marathon this evening and finished up the game.
I adored every bit of it. Image and Form are so good at creating likeable characters, man.
The ending art + music was beautiful. Good lord.
For someone with previously very mixed feelings about any game revolving around cards, this one truly stole my heart. What a great time.
I adored every bit of it. Image and Form are so good at creating likeable characters, man.
The ending art + music was beautiful. Good lord.
For someone with previously very mixed feelings about any game revolving around cards, this one truly stole my heart. What a great time.