two tips for you, since you welcomed backseating: your habit of not playing blocks when you don't need to sometimes gets you into trouble. for instance at 16:40, you don't play charge battery because no ones attacking, and completely miss an extra energy on the next turn that would've helped a lot considering how much draw you got that turn with skim. there are also a lot of relics based on how many cards you play that you may not notice/remember you have, but are important to increment. imo it's better to get into the habit of just playing your cards with your extra mana frivolously and then only *not* doing that when you specifically have a relic/fight where you want to limit the number of cards you play. the other tip is just to watch your orb order. you're pretty good at getting orbs in the order you want (i.e. placing darkness towards the back), but you often add a bunch of orbs, and then dualcast at the end, leaving an empty slot, when you could've just dualcasted earlier. obviously that doesn't apply in every situation, but the thought process should be something like "which of my orbs do i want dualcasted (do i want block? damage?)" -> "is it front of the line already or does it need to be moved there by adding orbs" -> "how can i dualcast it as early as possible so i don't end up with empty slots at the end" obviously difficult to keep everything in mind while commentating but i hope that the above can be boiled down into easy mental rules to follow 95% of the time (play extra cards, dualcast early) edit: oh also, try the "remove starting relic for a random boss relic" sometimes! the defect's starting relic isn't great, and the boss relics are either going to be excellent or really weird and fun to try and play around. since it's an early choice it's super easy to restart too if you get something completely unworkable.
It's doubtful you'll see this comment, NL. I wanted to thank you for this bespoke RU-vid series of a classic game from your channel. I got into Isaac about 11 years ago and that's when I found your channel. I've been watching ever since. Then your Slay the Spire series was just as captivating as Isaac. You're voice has been the backdrop of many sleepless nights. The voice I laughed to as I struggled with self hatred and depression. My best friend in the entire universe, my cousin grew to love your work as much as I did. He would tell me to shareplay Isaac on PS4 and "talk like Northernlion" so he could sleep. He was murdered a few years ago and that shattered me. I stepped away from your channel for a few years. I came back to find you had finally ended your time with Isaac. I was sad of course as I'm sure most people were. But I watched your new era and really grew to love that for what it is. It's wonderful how much you've grown and changed. You endure. You're the most pogged, the most based, and dare I say... the most zany of RU-vidrs. This series takes us all back to when we were younger. It's nostalgia incarnate. This comment will wash away under the waves of humor from your adoring fans. Nothing matters. You don't know or care of my life. But you've made all the better anyhow. Thank you, egg.
Biased Cognition is like orb duplication. You basically double your current orbs for 2 turns then have upgraded orbs for 2 turns. Great with lightning, or ice with claws. You instantly get stronger and don't have to use all your energy to cast it (unlike Echo Form). It's like 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 orbs per turn when cast with full lightning, it's like double that with full ice, it scales dark orbs slightly faster but the decay is also less impactful, it doesn't impact plasma. Fights are usually over by the time the unupgraded version returns to neutral; if you're orb maxing.
Hey NL. Two things I noticed that could perhaps help your runs. First, always looking at your act boss, before pathing, can be EXTREMELY helpful: For act 1 I take DIFFERENT card reward choices BASED off my act boss (IE: I take way more damage output against slimeboss, I know weakness is better against hexaghost, etc.). Second, although it may be tempting to get into the habit, ZAP is not always the best upgrade! Certain cards just have simply magnificent upgrades: Cards like Coolheaded drawing an extra card, Seek allowing you to grab an extra card, Hologram not exhausting etc. So taking the time to look at your full deck of cards- and even pondering on the rest of the act layout - can help a ton. Lastly, you may be playing runs faster for content purposes (if so, right on), but seriously taking the time to think through small nuances in combats, or really considering the small differences in pathing can make a huge difference. I know in my first few a20 wins, my games went quite long- I had to really think through every decision! I have beaten A20 on defect and silent, and am still a student of the game, good luck with future runs!
We’d love to see you grab the 3 Keys and attempt the Heart fight. Even if you lose against the Heart you’ll still unlock next ascension by beating 3rd Act Boss
i know we meme on nl and the runs today were rough, but the speed at which his valuations are improving (e.g. valuing combats over events) is actually so fast and im pegging out of my damn gourd for it
First run hurt me. Refuses to remove strikes because of the sunk cost of strike dummy, takes mutagens instead of transforming the strikes THEN gets rid of the strikes anyways to clutter his deck with bites THEN takes necronomicon with no 2 cost attacks in his deck and then has the audacity to blame the run on not picking sozu instead of any of the huge act 2 mistakes.
Him justifying why he isn't removing strikes for strike dummy, but then without hesitation mid sentence goes on to accept the bite quest holy shit... he can't keep getting away with it
Ah. The Return of The King. I really appreciate these STS Vids Eggdaddy. Your skill was great then, and you're still just as sharp. Plus, I love watching the colorful circles whip around the screen at Mach FUCK.
Biased Cognition is on Echo Form's level if you are evoking a lot of orbs. Even if you don't kill for 3 turns you're at +1/+2 focus which is a Defrag Loving the StS vids
The easy heuristic is hit normal mobs in Act 1 and build damage. This gives you cards and gold for shops. Hit elites in act 2. This gives you relics, and you should be able to handle them with your Act 1 boss relic. Dodge everything in Act 3.
4:10 "I don't think we can do anything with that" (referring to strike dummy) while playing lethal on a turn that wouldn't have been lethal without it.
NL, you can click on the map button in the top right before choosing your Neow bonus to see what your pathing is going to be. Might help you decide a starting bonus.
At 10:40 not playing both powers was a misplay. Not a HUGE misplay. But a misplay nonetheless. Coulda finished in one turn with less damage because of the lightning orbs hitting every bird and channeling two lighting every hit. Think you kill in 3 hits at that rate
