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[Monster Train] Ive got fire in my caboose! Last Divinity dlc in beta!
Jubal77
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hell has frozen over. Only you can protect the final burning pyre from the forces of heaven and restore the inferno. Monster Train brings a new strategic layer to roguelike deck building, with three vertical play fields to defend.
Ive been on the fence about picking this game up. I did today and four hours later I am still wanting to play more. Monster Train is another in a line of games of the roguelike deckbuilding type. But I feel it distills it down into a much more friendly and playable formula. The game is developed by Shiny Shoe. The group that has had some decent games released. Games like the Banner Saga Trilogy. The Lucasarts remasters. Puzzle Raiders. Some decent games
.Its holding at 87 on Metacritic and overwhelming positive on Steam.
At its core the game is simple and holds to the roots of what you would expect from a roguelike deckbuilder. The main core mechanic that brings this game away from its competition is the tiered wave based fighting. You are riding a train into the center of hell to rekindle its fire. The deckbuilding portion is well thought out with the factions breaking up the various normal mechanics that exist in these games. The gameplay has been varied and fun even within the same faction.
It would take a long time to explain it all out and so below is a youtube of a tutorial from the developer of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqZiiJY8ivwI havent tried it yet but it also has multiplayer so it offers more to it than its competitors in that alone. From the website:
In the Hell Rush multiplayer mode, eight players compete in a frantic real time contest. Each player has the same resources as opponents to create a level playing field. With the clock ticking it’s a test of who can make the best decisions under pressure. Only a true speed demon can remain undefeated.
I feel this game deserves its' own thread and so lets share all the fun times to be had in this game!
Jubal77 on
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My initial concern is that healing is useless chaff in the deck because everything in my deck is Heartless (no healing allowed.). But I see there are multiple deck colors and this will inevitably change.
I agree cantino about the speed. In fact speeding it up makes the hit sounds speed up too and can be annoying heh.
I feel a strong urge to resurrect my dead computer to try it out.
The difficulty of even the trash mobs jumps so quickly that you do need to plan ahead an upgrade your key areas. Which you get after every fight.
I finally unlocked the last clan and im not sure if im a fan of the burnout mechanic or not. Seems like it could be really strong. I was looking forward to this clan for the harvest mechanic but I might just use them for a secondary group to go with the incant runs.
Building an Architect Penumbra and just loading the second level with 7 dudes, constantly chewing on Morsels, was deeply satisfying. I like how the feeding mechanic forces you to put your best dudes out front and take risks.
Almost all my wins have come from front loading damage with a Quickened monster, though, tbh.
Maybe I should stop focusing on feeding and instead try to do weird stuff with X spells.
I have every combination of victories that doesn't include Umbra, and both Umbra/Awoken and Awoken/Umbra, but just can't see to make it work with any other clan. I would have thought Wax/Umbra would be easy but it really relies on having a couple of very specific cards to function. Also your guys don't keep their Gorge buffs if you recycle them, so the whole Morsel thing may just be a trap.
Maybe they get better when you unlock things but all of their cards feel insanely low impact compared to Hellhorned or Awoken.
2 of the little totems that have incant: everyone on the floor gets armor 1, an artifact that caused incant abilities to happen twice, and the artifact that causes all armor gains to give 4 additional armor. Every time I cast a spell everyone on the floor got 20 armor, which given I was playing Stygian I was casting 3-4 spells per turn.(Fun Fact, armor caps at 999).
Then I got Battering Ram.
With the various spells giving spell weakness I managed to hit Seraph in his stupid face for over 30k damage.
I feel like trinkets are usually the biggest culprit for this as some of them are really powerful. In the last game I got one that gave all my demons multistrike. Having multistrike on one guy is powerful enough, but I was fielding about half demons at that point so it was a ridiculous power jump. Also things like the trinket that gives 2x spike damage or 2x regen healing are massive game changers if you play Awoken.
This is definitely true - even lower rarity ones like the trinket that dazes enemies that enter your Pyre room gives such a big amount of leeway so you can develop a build instead of picking just to stay alive.
The only Umbra champ I've found useful is the gorge one when I got a morsel maker+master on the same floor as him.
Just 288? I found out that the cap is 999. Funny thing is I almost died even so, my units were really crappy and my pyre was down to 18. Was worried that it dies just before the boss does, but thankfully all floors are resolved first and only then the surviving enemies ascend and the top floor fight starts.
Managed to unlock the last clan but didn't have much luck with it yet. Somehow managed to get to the last boss fight and lost it by exactly 1 hp - boss was doing 3x10 and two of my units had 30 hp so they were precisely killed before they got to attack. Boss had only a few hp left when it smashed my pyre.
Oh I mean it wasn't a Frostbite deck at all, it was a Large Plants With Swords deck that happened to get some cool Frostbite synergies in the last couple areas before the boss.
I've got all the factions now, and Awoken really feel by far the most consistent. Hellhorned can put out a lot of unit damage but have very little sustain, and the rest are all either too utility or combo focused and they struggle to get off the ground until you beat Daedalus (meaning you frequently die at Daedalus). Awoken gives you a guaranteed tank in your champion and a lot of healing that can cover for gaps in your deck until you get some good drafts.
Second run of the game, as Awoken: I am INVCINCIBLE
...Incidentally, 5 1 mana starting heals that heal 2, regen 1, and deal 60, and triple 0 cost heal & deal 12 (thanks duplicate card pitstop), and double 13 Attack, Sweep, Quick Husk Hermits (thanks again duplicate card pitstop), is really stupid.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Then I got a random event where I could choose to duplicate a card 1x or 5x.
Y'know what's really funny? A deck that's 30 cards, 10 of which wind up being "deal 100 to every unit." Got all achievements for killing major bosses before they even get to act pretty easily.
Melting Remnant are extremely good. Their revive spells can revive units from other factions, which is quite powerful — you just have to focus on the spells that extend their burnout. I usually permafrost one or two of those so I can churn through them, or put revived units behind the tank who adds burnout when she gets hit.
The 0-cost, high-attack, size 1 baseline troops are just fantastic. Ablative armour that buff themselves and get revived, or backline damage sources.
If you make a fat monstrous Penumbra build and sit him on the first floor and just pound through enemy ranks until he dies, and then just... resurrect him afterwards, it's pretty hilarious.
I haven't played them at higher covenants, but they feel extremely powerful to me. I also saw a youtuber struggling with them and complaining about their mechanic feeling underpowered.
You need your deck to lean in to one of two styles of play with them. Are you going to abuse Reform and intentionally sacrifice minions every floor to beef up your guys, or are you going to grab some of the burnout buff spells to stop your candles from dying. Do one or the other, don't try to do both.
Grab the Burnout 3 hero and put him on the bottom floor every fight and see what I mean. Get a Molded in your deck, reduce it's cost to zero and give it Holdover ASAP and laugh your way to the win.
This game really clicked for me when I realized that there are one or two key spells per faction that absolutely MUST be cost reduced or given Holdover so they're in your hand every turn. Hellhorned and Awoken are the exceptions because their units are so good. The other 3 factions you have to find a powerful synergy and devote all your gold early to getting it set up, or you'll die to Daedalus or Fel before you're up and running.
There's a reason why the spell shop always gives -1 cost reduction as the first option every time. Its THAT good, use it as much as you can.
Since creatures stay summoned, you can end up with really thin decks once everything is deployed, just casting your best spells over and over.
At 4+ you have to put them behind something, or let them die to get beefed up and resurrected, or deploy them higher up and get some time for buffs or blockers to deploy
The most annoying opponent for them is anything with a high volume of attacks, it's true