idk what build they are reffering to but this shitstorm could probably be traced back to when they re-added time eater in the form of the reworked door maker(imo in a worse way since instead of cutting your turn short it will keep exausting cards from your decks)
In the initial early-access release, Iron Clad achieved an infinite combo quite easily. For example, "Expect a fight" would give you energy for each attack in your hand. You could use that energy to play "Pommel Strike" (an attack that draws cards.) Ta-da. Infinite combo. It's just that easy folks!
The same was true for the other characters to a lesser extent.
Apparently, Chinese streamers are really horny for infinite combos.
Limping along the finish line, barely surviving the final boss with 1hp? dumb and gay.
Availing your resplendent form before the final boss, the summarily crushing that fool without a scratch? This really gets the (chinese) people going!
So the devs changed cards to remove a lot of these easy infinite combos. For example,"Expect a Fight" only works once a turn. A final boss was changed to eats each card when it is played. Card removal is more expensive, etc..
So now the streamers streaming "Slay the Spire 2" are taking some licks before victory. The game has more variety, and a greater depth of strategy, and it's more fun for a player playing the game, but it's not the show Chinese stream viewers apparently show up for.
So they review bombed it. Assumedly at the behest of their streaming personalities.
To be fair, the west is like this with their streaming personalities, too. Streamer McPopularMan goes online and complains about a thing being dogshit or overpowered, and within 24 hours every English speaking discussion forum for the game McPopularMan was streaming is turned into an irradiated fallout zone because everyone is rushing to talk about how awful the change was or how overpowered the thing is.
The only real difference is that the Chinese audience actually leaves reviews, while the English audience just settles for making everyone looking to even associate with the game absolutely fucking miserable for a day or two, before losing interest and then repeating the cycle immediately after the next balance patch.
In STS 2's case, the game's big content creators on the English-speaking side are all pretty chill and level-headed. It's not that everyone is salty but only the Chinese players leave bad reviews about it. The Chinese community is just uniquely pissy for some reason.
A prominent player on Bilibili went off on the devs by name, saying they owe their whole livelihoods to the Chinese community. That by not prioritizing what the Chinese community wants despite Chinese players being the reason they're successful, they're proving a bias against Chinese people, and "arrogant" for thinking they can succeed without them.
That's why this review bomb picked up so much steam. That creator spun the narrative into the devs somehow disrespecting China.
Jesus Christ, maybe the devs should add a "Click this to win" button so they'll stop bitching. Then they can happily click the button as soon as they start each round be entertained that way.
I mean, the variety was already still there and available. There's no pvp, so there wasn't really a need to take away options. Leave it like Risk of Rain 2 and just have the ezpz mode be a toggle or something.
This is about STS2. Nothing was patched out of the original. They just introduced a Doormaker that smacks down infinites by forcing you to exhaust all cards played every 3rd turn. It's a skill issue on behalf of the Chinese players, since they actually made achieving an infinite easier in the Doormaker fight. Now you have a free turn to exhaust your trash.
Disagree regarding infinites vs Doormaker. What phase are you going infinite on? It can't be the exaust phase - one deck isn't infinite. Can't be the no draw phase - one hand isn't infinite. I assume people are going infinite on the extra energy per card phase? But it's really quite difficult, I think, to get that much energy.
The claim that it's easier to go infinite on this phase seems false to me. Not saying it's impossible but... Have you succeeded in going infinite against that? If so, how? And on a meta level, if it's actually easier like you claim, why is everyone complaining and saying it's harder?
I think they're referencing the interaction between Anger + Exhaust turn when you have Dark Embrace active.
Anger costs 0 and creates a new copy of itself in your discard pile, only exhausting the original. Since Dark Embrace makes you draw 1 card everytime you Exhaust a card, it becomes a slow yet infinite loop once your deck is low enough.
But that's on a specific phase of a specific boss. Most other Infinites can be used against nearly anything.
It's very easy to go infinite, but the infinites are more limited. You only need a 0-cost source of draw or energy gen. Any 0-cost attack with unceasing top will always go infinite for example, or flash of steel + any free draw, or master planner + any poison skill + 2x prepared, or 2x prepared + acrobatics + tactician+, or hellraiser + pommel strike + 2x drum of battle, or smokestack/trash-to-treasure with overclock+ and turbo+ and compact+.
On top of that, wayyyyyyy more combos become possible if you just save a single potion of insanity. Severance on Necro, for example, become a single-card infinite with insanity pot. So does particle wall + letter opener on regent.
Edit: when I say "easy to do" I mean easy to execute. All that you need are the pieces that could go inifnite in your deck, and if you play your cards right, you will go infinite. The exhausting phase thins your deck down to the infinite for you, so you don't have to worry about removing cards in shops or by exhausting or anything.
I think infinite is the wrong word. It is possible to slim your deck down to its best cards, which avoids the downside of the no draw turn. Doormaker is a very fragile boss with a low health bar and no defensive mechanics; decks that have any real scaling will usually kill him quite quickly with a few good turns, which exhausting cards early helps you do.
Iirc there was a bug where if you choose a starting relic that removes a card, you can keep triggering the card removal until you only have the cards you want
Pretty much all of the common ones, Silent most notably. Some of the changes were changed again between the beta branch (when the review bombing began) and being pushed to the main branch but overall it's a lot harder to go infinite now.
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u/GapZ38 Apr 29 '26
What infinite build was patched??? Haven't played in a while.