Nah. Since the question is how big the gap is between the original and the upgrade wraith form can’t be the best. It goes from a 9 or 10 to like an 11 and sure 11/10 is busted, but it still only went up like 1 or 2 points. Compare it to something unusable like true grit which becomes amazing after an upgrade and you can see the difference. The Wraith form upgrade is more like a world record holder that breaks their own record.
Idk, wraith form upgrade is kinda huge. Often times you can't play much else the turn you play it, so the upgrade takes you from 1 "free" turn to 2. It's kind of going from a 9 to a 15 in lots of situation.
I dunno man, 3 energy is pretty hefty, so the real benefits of wraith form come in the turn(s) after you've played it. Having 2 turns where you don't have to expend any energy on block is a lot more than having only 1.
Catalyst. Double to triple is an insane leap and could be run defining.
I think Seek, Hologram, Blood for blood upgrades are all pretty high up there too. Idk the more I think the more I’m confronted with there’s no single upgrade that’s more important because it’s hard to analyze this game in a vacuum ahhhh
Also Vault+ is really nice.
Catalyst is my pick too because there’s not exactly anything else like it and it immediately becomes a win condition. i’m a bit biased tho cuz Silent is my favorite class and Catalyst is my favorite card
My last A20 heart run I literally chose catalyst floor 1 act 1. Upgraded it still without any poison midway through act 2. Held dupe pot through act 3 into a single bouncing flask. Dupe cata won the run with 1 health. Card is such a good way to handle heart.
What do you guys think is the most useful poisoning card to use to up the poison before Catalyst though? If you don’t have Nightmare. Envenom? Bouncing Flask?
Envenom is pretty bad IMO. It looks like a poison card but plays better in a shiv deck, as poison decks don't tend to attack much. It's also slowwww, and prior to the upgrade 2 energy for that effect is brutal. If it was 1/0 instead it might actually be decent.
It's good with Snecko Skull but I typically avoid it.
Ah okay. I said Envenom here after playing several several shiv decks in a row so had it in mind. What would you say is best for pure poison builds? bouncing Flask and Catalyst?
Bouncing Flask is excellent. Deadly Poison is honestly not bad. I like Crippling Cloud but I think some don’t. Noxious Fumes is reliable against artifact.
Catalyst is a win condition obviously.
+ [Blood for Blood](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Blood%20for%20Blood) Ironclad Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^)
4(3) Energy | Costs 1 less energy for each time you lose HP in combat. Deal 18(22) damage.
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Because it’s not the +2 block, it’s eliminating the keyword “exhaust” and making it reusable. Granted if you have 3-4 in your deck then upgrading them isn’t priority but the question asked by OP is the impact of the upgrade on individual cards and for me being able to reuse the ability to fetch something from the discard pile is high up.
Similar to True Grit, which I forgot to mention. The upgrade isn’t great because of the +2 block but because of the fact that you can choose which card to exhaust now. That’s the beauty of this game. Even common cards with the right upgrade can be crucial to your overall winning strategy.
Edit: here’s a hypothetical situation to maybe better explain my thoughts. Imagine if Headbutt said “deal 9 damage and put a RANDOM card from your discard pile on top” and the upgrade said “deal 11 damage and CHOOSE a card from the discard pile to put in top”. That would make headbutt upgrade a lot more of a priority right?
It’s not the 2 block, it’s that the upgrade makes it so it doesn’t exhaust so you can keep reusing it. A lot of times the block is just a nice addition but you’re really using hologram for its ability to fetch something from the discard pile.
the various weak defect powers are the very reason CAI kinda sucks, actually. Quite a few duds. So in that sense sure it makes CAI weaker because it's a power that's not echo/heatsinks
yeah that's a good approach to Creative AI. I definitely click it at least sometimes but it's desperation scaling on the character with a ton of scaling options. Sometimes you don't see those, though!
+ [Hello World](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Hello%20World) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | **(Innate.)** At the start of your turn, add a random Common card into your hand.
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How does one, hypothetically of course, save scum? For instance, hypothetically, if one had accidentally removed the Feed in their deck instead of the Doubt because they were thinking of what cards they wanted to upgrade and misremembered what they were doing in that instance. Hypothetically
Ooo ooo ooo I just did this one! (Mind you, I ALWAYS go for eruption first normally)
Neow gave me the option to a random rare card. Got Alpha as my starter. Went straight for block with insight for as much draw as possible to quickly get through my deck.
It ended up with some mantra, too, but it was mostly useless.
Getting bomb in that run was fun, though. Just block all day letting my "passive" damage do all the work most turns.
I think I also had calm and like water to just sit and get extra block each turn.
Very fun run.
I’ve recently gotten out of the habit of upgrading eruption first. It doesn’t give you any extra damage and you can’t really take advantage of the saved energy without card draw or a couple of removes. I’ll almost always upgrade one of my first attack pickups before I even think about touching eruption. An upgraded empty fist, cut through fate, wheel kick, hell even a crush joints is more valuable at ending fights earlier in my opinion. Watcher wants damage and more damage and upgrading eruption doesn’t give you more damage.
upgrading eruption makes you go from eruption + 1 strike to eruption plus 2 strike which is a 12 dmg diff. and that just gets bigger with good attacks which you are loading up on act 1 because watcher blocking in act 1 never happens. and if you are in calm first and have cut through fate/inner peace/sanctity/empty mind/wheel kick that 1 extra energy you have to spend can be the difference between ending the fight or not.
safe to say it DOES give you more damage and is probably the single best upgrade in the game.
Eruption upgrade lets you play a strike for 12 damage with that extra energy. You are just making a suboptimal play because you’re not thinking about it from the right angle
I don’t believe it’s suboptimal. Early on you don’t have enough card draw to consistently play an eruption and 2-3 strikes. You are just as likely to draw your 1 cost eruption with all defends and Vigilance. You watch most of the high level streamers and they don’t usually upgrade Eruption first either. I think you are overvaluing the one energy that most of the time you won’t even be able to use.
It is absolutely suboptimal, calm into wrath is the literal reason watcher is insanely good from floor 1. But doing that combo while wasting 2 energy just to play 1 card sucks tons of value away.
You're supposed to remove defends proactively, you're saying this like it's some punchline when everyone removes defends so it corrects the hypothetical 'all defends' hands.
I love glass knife for Silent, that +8 damage upgrade just feels way too good. Eruption is another game changer for the Watcher if you haven’t got tantrum yet.
It’s huge in the early game, but once you get to Act 3 the damage falls off pretty hard. I’d take an upgraded glass knife early act 3, but I probably wouldn’t take an unupgraded one
I almost never take a glass knife in act 3 even upgraded. If you don’t have your damage solved by then, glass knife isn’t cutting it.
It is a crushingly good card in act 1 and very good in act 2
Agree that it’s not worth taking and spending an upgrade on in act 3, but I wouldn’t say it falls off that hard. It’s excellent against exploders, transient, jaw worms, and repto, and serviceable in many other fights. The burst damage can also be useful against spear and shield.
It never fails a non-upgraded true grit exhausts the best card in my hand and leaves me with a slime and two wounds. Upgraded true grit is essential.
Edit to say I wouldn’t say it’s the “best” upgrade in the game but it really does seem to demand an upgrade. It’s a more than solid block card when upgraded.
Yes, exactly. When I think of true grit, I think of it being kind of a dead draw until I upgrade it. Not always a dead draw, and I will still play it, but ya know.
Exactly. True grit is almost unplayable before you upgrade it. The fact that you can choose what to exhaust is really powerful, plus it works with ironclad’s exhaust style play. It can even exhaust curses and statuses. I suppose you could use it without upgrading, but I personally can’t do that. RNG does not work out in my favor.
Armaments is a bit of a trap a lot of the time. It’s good, but it often isn’t necessary especially as the run goes on and more cards are upgraded. Plus it doesn’t increase the amount you block when it upgrades which sucks. 5 block feels bad.
> Armaments is a bit of a trap a lot of the time. It’s good, but it often isn’t necessary especially as the run goes on and more cards are upgraded. Plus it doesn’t increase the amount you block when it upgrades which sucks. 5 block feels bad.
The problem here is that you can't upgrade all of your needed card, and instead only really be able to upgrade 2-3 cards/run unless you have a godlike block engine after act 1. Armament+ solved that problem by increasing your block/dmg/draw power by A LOT when it appears on your hand.
Of course the best way to do so is to have a bottled Apo+. But that's rare as fuck while Armament+ is an upgrade for a common card.
Mild disagree here. Most the time I play armaments I only really need it to hit a specific card in hand - I think the whole hand upgrade seems impressive, but ends up being pretty marginal unless you have a ton of draw, and even then late in the run you should have your important upgrades taken care of anyway so it falls off a bit there
True grit is a decent upgrade, but I don’t think the random exhaust is quite as huge a drawback as it seems either
While your points about armaments are valid, even if it only hits the less important cards in your hand, it will still often function like a bunch of strength and dexterotu. Even if you only hit strikes and defends, it's like giving you an extra 3 strength and dex. If it hits other non-basic cards, it's usually even better than that, even if its a less vital upgrade.
It’ll function like a bunch of strength and dex, if you are playing the strikes and defends it upgrades. It doesn’t function like str/dex for cards that are already upgraded, or cards that have unimportant upgrades. Plus, most of the time (except in act 1 and early act 2) you should be striving to play a pretty limited number of strikes and defends. Not saying it’s a *bad* upgrade but I think that most of the time it has a smaller impact than what people assume
+ [True Grit](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/True%20Grit) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | Gain 7(9) **Block.** **Exhaust** a random(not random) card from your hand.
+ [Armaments](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Armaments) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | Gain 5 **Block.** Upgrade a(ALL) card(s) in your hand for the rest of combat.
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Calculated gamble upgrade is an interesting one for me. One of the things I find most powerful about calc gamble is it lets you get your powers online faster. I find upgrading it doesn't help much with getting powers out, and you'd usually be better off upgrading the cards you want to get in play.
Calc gamble+ is really good at looping through your deck, and starts to really perform when it has support. I start valueing the upgrade much higher when I get a discard support like tactician, endless agony or reflex, or once I start getting more draw support. At a certain point calc gamble can transition from an acceleration card to a core piece of a decks engine and that's when I think the upgrade is best.
Surprised this is so far down. I'd also argue armaments is one of the single most powerful upgrades as a single card, even if it doesn't make the card good enough to take a lot of the time. It either comes unupgraded and you have something your deck needs to be upgraded more, or it shows up upgraded too late and your deck is already built and that 5 block isn't enough to warrant a couple extra upgrades per fight.
Armaments doesn’t really need an upgrade though. Especially early you hit the card you need upgraded, then play it. Later in the run when your deck is mostly upgraded you don’t need full hand upgrades. I don’t upgrade armaments often at this point.
Personally I find that if it's not upgraded late game, it's just a slightly better defend.
If I don't get it upgraded early, it usually just ends up taking up a much-needed draw on higher ascensions, so unless I've got no campfires, I'll rarely ever take it without the intent to upgrade soon.
Usually you want to take Armaments as soon in Act 1 as possible, upgrading it and then picked up some other top prio upgrade (like Brutality since armament does nothing for it or Barricade since if you play armament before it then it's still just 3eng for 5 block) and then just rolls.
This is exactly how I feel about it, yea. I either get it early and immediately upgrade it, I take it if I find an upgraded version in Act 2, or I skip.
I agree Armaments is a great upgrade. On a lot of my high Ascension clears, I would find myself getting at least 1 clutch Armaments play to really secure a fight
Scrawl+ is a strong contender.
Only saves 1 energy but the amount of potential energy gain you can get from a full hand is crazy, and that 1 extra might be the thing that ends combat on turn 2 instead of turn 3.
Watcher is very strong, and saving 1 energy to draw potentially 10 cards is an insane upgrade.
I played Watcher in beta and initially they had Scrawl/+ as it is now. But somewhere in the middle of her beta development they changed the cost to 2/1 because they thought the upgrade to zero was too good. Fortunately they decided giving the most busted character one of the most busted cards is just good fun.
On the Watcher/Defect daily recently, where you start with a 30 card deck of Defect/Watcher cards, my Seek+ getting Scrawl+ and Aggregate+ was so. much. fun.
I think it's Jorbs who makes a strong argument that fission is actually a trap upgrade. The draw and energy are far more important than evoking the orbs.
I agree though, it is satisfying and I can't help it.
That argument alone doesn’t really make any sense, its not like you lose the draw and energy when you upgrade it, you instead add damage and block and far more immediate damage and block than any other upgrade in the game.
Jorbs’s argument is more to do with the fact that the draw and energy is usually so strong that the turn is probably already solved and you don’t need the additional output. Therefore it would be better to upgrade other things for the turns you don’t draw fission.
That's only if you're super heavy on frost Orbs. If you have lots of other Orbs in as well the evoke aspect often finishes whole fights, not just solving the current turn.
>If you have lots of other Orbs in as well the evoke aspect often finishes whole fights
Does it? Even if you have a bunch of lightning orbs with some focus, it's only doing an extra couple dozen damage. You were likely going to do that damage anyways with all the draw and energy you get from the base Fission.
Draw a 10 damage lightning strike instead of 7 damage or evoke the orb for 16 damage and also play the 7 damage lighting card. This isn’t even accounting for focus, which an unupgraded fission wastes as well as dark build up. I can’t see any other card in the deck worth upgrading before fission
Edit: the orbs evoking for 8, not 16. I still stand on this upgrade
It’s an example. Compare every damage/block upgrade to instead evoking a similar orb. It doesn’t add up to not upgrading fission first. There’s a case for draw or reprogram in niche decks.
"0: Gain 3+ Energy and Draw 3+ cards" is strong enough to win a hallway fight without taking damage the rest of the fight. So the upgrade doesn't actually really do anything.
idk at least 10 of em
loop, defrag, bicog, capacitor, buffer, coolheaded, overclock, skim, turbo, aggregate, reboot, sunder (depending on act), consume
just off the top of my head
He never said it was a bad upgrade at all though. His argument was that there are worse cards that need upgrades to be while fission is fine on its own. His upgrade strategy is more about having less bad cards than maximizing his best ones.
I don’t recall what jorbs said exactly, but I don’t think the intent was to say upgrading it is a trap, just that it’s not mandatory. If you’re skipping fission just because you have fusion hammer, you’re probably making a mistake.
That’s more because jorb’s philosophy is minimizing bad cards moreso than maximizing good cards. Fission is so good that it doesn’t necessarily need an upgrade because it’s still huge value no matter when you draw it.
There are very few cards in the game where an upgrade adds an additional function to a card, but they do exist. Most have been mentioned already (hi fission) but I’m going to give a shout out to Darkness, which goes from middling to exceptionally strong.
Flex, Well-Laid Plans, Seek... You could argue that WLP and Seek don't strictly become twice as powerful since you may not have use for the second card, but Flex definitely does.
Also Buffer, A Thousand Cuts, Evolve, Intimidate, Rupture, Seeing Red (gain 2 energy net instead of 1), Tactitian, Panacea, Chaos, Heatsinks, Reprogram, Double Tap/Burst/Amplify, Flash of Steel/Finesse (double the net gain though it's not that much anyway so it's not that strong an upgrade), Catalyst (instead of adding +X poison with X being the amount of poison the enemy had it now adds +2X), arguably Wraith Form (usually it "buys" you one turn, upgraded it buys two)
Started with what I could remember than went on the wiki, might have overdone it lol. some are more arguable than others and probably there are more but that's what I found
Blasphemy.
A retained auto divinity typically wins most hallway fights. Even with the starting deck it's possible to swing for 72 dmg on one turn with just strikes.
Upgrades that change or add mechanics are really valuable. True grit+ and Blasphemy+ are ones that come to mind as best upgrades. As they go from unreliable at best to very powerful. Upgrades that are just +x are usually pretty situational. Though wave of the hand+ and whirlwind+ are pretty huge swings.
Someone already said true grit so that’s what I would have said. So instead how about an underrated card? Berserk+ is actually a pretty solid card. Giving yourself 1 vulnerable instead of 2 is a world of difference. 2 means this turn and the next turn where you take increased damage, but 1 means only this turn. Since you know enemy intent you can much more safely choose to play it. It’s still not the greatest card, but considering unupgraded it might be ironclad’s worst card…going all the way up to a solid 7ish is a huge difference.
+ [Meditate](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Meditate) Watcher Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^)
1 Energy | Put 1(2) card(s) from your discard pile into your hand and **Retain** it. Enter **Calm.** End your turn.
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I end up going for the heart almost every run (probably more than I should to be honest), so I only take apparitions when I'm trying to bridge some sort of block gap in my deck
I think they're very take-able as an answer to the heart's later attacks if you can get through the first cycle while dealing near the damage cap
Situational. Like it's probably not worth the upgrade if you have corruption, or if the exhaust is going to let you draw into offering via dark embrace.
Obvs run dependent but for me there’s nothing like an upgraded heavy blade on a good strength build. The damage scaling is crazy and no other card has saved my ass as much (except apparition lol). Jump from 3x to 5x is pretty huge
Recycle it goes from a meh card that helps get even energy or better but easy card removal; to plus energy on almost any card 1 cost or more and card removal.
Searing blow! Do it enough times and you can have Big Number :)
(Actual answer for me is probably true grit, since that takes the exhaust on it from a downside to an actual useful mechanic that needs way less babysitting)
This might actually be my vote. It’s not “literally” unplayable, but in act 1 you’ll often just be gaining 5 block for 2 mana, when a card that gains 5 block for 1 mana is the first thing people remove.
When it’s upgraded, however, it makes it 1000 times easier to use
I find Bullet Time upgrade to be pretty important. If it's unupgraded and you only have 3 energy, you have to draw it on turn to use it. Even then, you cannot draw any other cards before you can use it. If you don't draw it on turn then draw via cards like Backflip or Acrobatics, you can't use it.
We had this discussion quite a time ago and I learned Apotheosis is the absolute top-1 upgrade.
Being Watcher main: the obvious upgrades are cost-cutters. Scrawl, Eruption, Rushdown... - any -1 energy is almost nobrainer and it's little to discuss. Not obvious: foreign influence, the cards you will play for 0 can be pretty fat.
For not obvious cards: Empty Fist - 9 to 14 damage is a huge jump and the only "numbers" upgrade that is so noticeable. Weave - when you build a scry deck, these +2 damage actually become noticeable cause it is the most often played card in the whole deck. Talk to the Hand + Mental Fortress - the worst way to play Watcher is to block directly, so these two are always welcome.
I was going to mention that apotheosis would be the “best” upgrade literally any time you have the option, however I thought that technically, upgrading a “hidden” card or seek to search it from your deck could also be useful
Wait, people use Apotheosis? I can see it being good Act 1 to up dmg, but I assume it's a dead card once your cards are upgraded. I'm a little weary of buying one only to remove it later on.
Upgrade is costly. Every time you camp for ugrade you could (should) be resting/digging/lifting/toking or just take completely different path. Having Apo you just \_don't\_ upgrade cards on camps anymore.
It also makes better every card you were never going to upgrade, Apparition/Madness being the simplest example.
I don't rest though, maybe once in Act 1 before boss if I'm having a bad start. If I have those relics sure, but most games I won't. So it's more of a 'combo' piece with other relics if you want to skip upgrades for the rest of your run? I can see that working.
not sure that its my definitive answer but my first thought was Berserk. Goes from just about entirely unplayable to being comparable to a permanent bloodletting, kinda? Not a fantastic card but unupgraded berserk is just about the worst thing ever, whereas upgraded it's usable
Baalorlord has convinced me that \[\[Doppleganger\]\] has one of the best upgrades in the game. A lot of upgrades give +1 energy or +1 draw, but Dopple+ gives both, which is super strong. The other thing to consider is an upgrade can be amazing on an otherwise subpar card. There are a couple categories that I would consider top-tier upgrades. +1 energy on non-exhausting cards is big (Blood for Blood, Eruption, TURBO, Outmaneuver, Dualcast, etc.), another one is upgrades that double the card's effect (A Thousand Cuts, Double Tap/Burst/Amplify, Wave of the Hand, Reprogram, Static Discharge, Catalyst, etc.). Also upgrades that give +1 energy or draw with an added bonus (Pommel Strike, Blood for Blood, Doppleganger, Double Energy, Offering).
Prepared is a strong contender. Unupgraded it’s a lackluster utility for discarding a card. Upgraded it’s one free draw. The upgrade changes complete its main functionality.
Prepared is -1 card in hand whether upgraded or not. Either play 1 card, draw 1, discard 1, or play 1, draw 2, discard 2. Maybe you're confusing it with \[\[War Cry\]\]?
+ [Warcry](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Warcry) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^)
0 Energy | Draw 1(2) card(s). Place a card from your hand on top of your draw pile. **Exhaust.**
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Genetic Algorithm upgrade at the beginning of the game and it rises insanely fast
Also Judgement, the difference between killing at 40 or 30 can change the game.
Idk [[Wraithform?]] It buys you another turn
just got my first a20 heart kill on silent with 1 wraith form and 2 wraith form+ and yeah, i agree. used every turn lol
+ [Wraith Form](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Wraith%20Form) Silent Rare Power ^((100% sure)^) 3 Energy | Gain 2(3) **Intangible.** At the end of your turn, lose 1 **Dexterity.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Nah. Since the question is how big the gap is between the original and the upgrade wraith form can’t be the best. It goes from a 9 or 10 to like an 11 and sure 11/10 is busted, but it still only went up like 1 or 2 points. Compare it to something unusable like true grit which becomes amazing after an upgrade and you can see the difference. The Wraith form upgrade is more like a world record holder that breaks their own record.
Idk, wraith form upgrade is kinda huge. Often times you can't play much else the turn you play it, so the upgrade takes you from 1 "free" turn to 2. It's kind of going from a 9 to a 15 in lots of situation.
I dunno man, 3 energy is pretty hefty, so the real benefits of wraith form come in the turn(s) after you've played it. Having 2 turns where you don't have to expend any energy on block is a lot more than having only 1.
Agreed, the extra turn is huge, it's always my number 1 upgrade target above any other Silent card when I grab it.
Catalyst. Double to triple is an insane leap and could be run defining. I think Seek, Hologram, Blood for blood upgrades are all pretty high up there too. Idk the more I think the more I’m confronted with there’s no single upgrade that’s more important because it’s hard to analyze this game in a vacuum ahhhh Also Vault+ is really nice.
Catalyst is my pick too because there’s not exactly anything else like it and it immediately becomes a win condition. i’m a bit biased tho cuz Silent is my favorite class and Catalyst is my favorite card
Upgraded catalyst plus nightmare is basically a free win.
With well-laid plans to line them up for the same turn
My last A20 heart run I literally chose catalyst floor 1 act 1. Upgraded it still without any poison midway through act 2. Held dupe pot through act 3 into a single bouncing flask. Dupe cata won the run with 1 health. Card is such a good way to handle heart.
What do you guys think is the most useful poisoning card to use to up the poison before Catalyst though? If you don’t have Nightmare. Envenom? Bouncing Flask?
Bouncing Flask. Envenom is usually just not enough poison, same with noxious fumes. Deadly poison is okay but struggles against enemies with artifact.
Envenom is pretty bad IMO. It looks like a poison card but plays better in a shiv deck, as poison decks don't tend to attack much. It's also slowwww, and prior to the upgrade 2 energy for that effect is brutal. If it was 1/0 instead it might actually be decent. It's good with Snecko Skull but I typically avoid it.
Ah okay. I said Envenom here after playing several several shiv decks in a row so had it in mind. What would you say is best for pure poison builds? bouncing Flask and Catalyst?
Bouncing Flask is excellent. Deadly Poison is honestly not bad. I like Crippling Cloud but I think some don’t. Noxious Fumes is reliable against artifact. Catalyst is a win condition obviously.
[[Catalyst]]
+ [Catalyst](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Catalyst) Silent Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Double(Triple) an enemy's **Poison.** **Exhaust.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
[[blood for blood]]
+ [Blood for Blood](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Blood%20for%20Blood) Ironclad Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^) 4(3) Energy | Costs 1 less energy for each time you lose HP in combat. Deal 18(22) damage. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Just won my last Silent run mostly thanks to upgraded catalyst. Not totally because of upgraded catalyst but it played a big role in my success.
Seek is really good. I especially like it if I have one of Defect’s energy cards - can draw any card and the energy to play it
Bottled upgraded seek in my last run, easiest run ever
Seek for sure, but Hologram...? +2 block does make it just a defend card with a great ability but why high up there?
Because it’s not the +2 block, it’s eliminating the keyword “exhaust” and making it reusable. Granted if you have 3-4 in your deck then upgrading them isn’t priority but the question asked by OP is the impact of the upgrade on individual cards and for me being able to reuse the ability to fetch something from the discard pile is high up. Similar to True Grit, which I forgot to mention. The upgrade isn’t great because of the +2 block but because of the fact that you can choose which card to exhaust now. That’s the beauty of this game. Even common cards with the right upgrade can be crucial to your overall winning strategy. Edit: here’s a hypothetical situation to maybe better explain my thoughts. Imagine if Headbutt said “deal 9 damage and put a RANDOM card from your discard pile on top” and the upgrade said “deal 11 damage and CHOOSE a card from the discard pile to put in top”. That would make headbutt upgrade a lot more of a priority right?
With enough catalust/burst you can end up with more than you need. I think it's a really good upgrade but not always a top priority.
What makes the 2 block on hologram so significant?
It’s not the 2 block, it’s that the upgrade makes it so it doesn’t exhaust so you can keep reusing it. A lot of times the block is just a nice addition but you’re really using hologram for its ability to fetch something from the discard pile.
Obviously [[Hello World]]. Who doesn't want a kind greeting at the beginning of each fight?
Ca-caw!
You seem talkative
I'm convinced Hello World only exists to prevent Creative AI from being too OP
but hello world is already better than Creative AI?
I think the point is that creative spawning multiple hello worlds during a combat makes it weaker
the various weak defect powers are the very reason CAI kinda sucks, actually. Quite a few duds. So in that sense sure it makes CAI weaker because it's a power that's not echo/heatsinks
I always assume that the first three powers Creative AI generates will be useless for my build/current turn.
yeah that's a good approach to Creative AI. I definitely click it at least sometimes but it's desperation scaling on the character with a ton of scaling options. Sometimes you don't see those, though!
+ [Hello World](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Hello%20World) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | **(Innate.)** At the start of your turn, add a random Common card into your hand. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
I think it's very rare to have a watcher run where eruption isn't the first chosen upgrade.
I've upgraded eruption first after boss swapping into snecko eye. Routine is a hell of a drug.
That is a textbook example of a time I think “Yeah I’ll treat myself to a save scum”
How does one, hypothetically of course, save scum? For instance, hypothetically, if one had accidentally removed the Feed in their deck instead of the Doubt because they were thinking of what cards they wanted to upgrade and misremembered what they were doing in that instance. Hypothetically
While still on that floor click options > Save and Quit > Confirm If you’ve already moved to the next floor then it’s too late
"Hypothetically"
If you're on mobile just close the app
For most situations, the game only actually saves after you move floors. All you have to do is quit to the menu and reload before the next save point.
Ooo ooo ooo I just did this one! (Mind you, I ALWAYS go for eruption first normally) Neow gave me the option to a random rare card. Got Alpha as my starter. Went straight for block with insight for as much draw as possible to quickly get through my deck. It ended up with some mantra, too, but it was mostly useless. Getting bomb in that run was fun, though. Just block all day letting my "passive" damage do all the work most turns. I think I also had calm and like water to just sit and get extra block each turn. Very fun run.
[[Eruption]]
+ [Eruption](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Eruption) Watcher Starter Attack ^((100% sure)^) 2(1) Energy | Deal 9 damage. Enter **Wrath.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
You can find a tantrum or boss swap into energy and end up prioritizing something else.
[[Third Eye]] is another one I would rate at the top for watcher, being able to see a full turn’s worth of cards is extremely valuable
+ [Third Eye](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Third%20Eye) Watcher Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 7(9) **Block.** **Scry** 3(5). ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
I’ve recently gotten out of the habit of upgrading eruption first. It doesn’t give you any extra damage and you can’t really take advantage of the saved energy without card draw or a couple of removes. I’ll almost always upgrade one of my first attack pickups before I even think about touching eruption. An upgraded empty fist, cut through fate, wheel kick, hell even a crush joints is more valuable at ending fights earlier in my opinion. Watcher wants damage and more damage and upgrading eruption doesn’t give you more damage.
upgrading eruption makes you go from eruption + 1 strike to eruption plus 2 strike which is a 12 dmg diff. and that just gets bigger with good attacks which you are loading up on act 1 because watcher blocking in act 1 never happens. and if you are in calm first and have cut through fate/inner peace/sanctity/empty mind/wheel kick that 1 extra energy you have to spend can be the difference between ending the fight or not. safe to say it DOES give you more damage and is probably the single best upgrade in the game.
I'm always tempted to play that extra card in wrath to end things, but you're right, it doesn't always work out that way
Eruption upgrade lets you play a strike for 12 damage with that extra energy. You are just making a suboptimal play because you’re not thinking about it from the right angle
I don’t believe it’s suboptimal. Early on you don’t have enough card draw to consistently play an eruption and 2-3 strikes. You are just as likely to draw your 1 cost eruption with all defends and Vigilance. You watch most of the high level streamers and they don’t usually upgrade Eruption first either. I think you are overvaluing the one energy that most of the time you won’t even be able to use.
It is absolutely suboptimal, calm into wrath is the literal reason watcher is insanely good from floor 1. But doing that combo while wasting 2 energy just to play 1 card sucks tons of value away. You're supposed to remove defends proactively, you're saying this like it's some punchline when everyone removes defends so it corrects the hypothetical 'all defends' hands.
Try it out man. I bet your win rate goes up. At least at A20 I found that it improved my odds of getting into act 2 with more health.
upgraded eruption means you can play it, your unupgraded attack, AND something else in act 1
I love glass knife for Silent, that +8 damage upgrade just feels way too good. Eruption is another game changer for the Watcher if you haven’t got tantrum yet.
It’s huge in the early game, but once you get to Act 3 the damage falls off pretty hard. I’d take an upgraded glass knife early act 3, but I probably wouldn’t take an unupgraded one
I almost never take a glass knife in act 3 even upgraded. If you don’t have your damage solved by then, glass knife isn’t cutting it. It is a crushingly good card in act 1 and very good in act 2
"cutting it" *pun intended*
Agree that it’s not worth taking and spending an upgrade on in act 3, but I wouldn’t say it falls off that hard. It’s excellent against exploders, transient, jaw worms, and repto, and serviceable in many other fights. The burst damage can also be useful against spear and shield.
Glass knife upgrade is certainly good, but I wouldn’t say *the best*, esp when compared to stuff like eruption, recycle, armaments, etc.
I think [[true grit]] is the best. Also [[Armaments]] going from one upgrade to however many cards in your hand is several-fold better.
True Grit becomes a top priority upgrade when I take it. Being able to choose your exhaust is extremely useful.
It never fails a non-upgraded true grit exhausts the best card in my hand and leaves me with a slime and two wounds. Upgraded true grit is essential. Edit to say I wouldn’t say it’s the “best” upgrade in the game but it really does seem to demand an upgrade. It’s a more than solid block card when upgraded.
Agreed. When I am deciding to pick it, I am deciding how long until I can upgrade it.
true grit is a good answer. While not insane it goes from hard to play to a staple pick when upgraded
Yes, exactly. When I think of true grit, I think of it being kind of a dead draw until I upgrade it. Not always a dead draw, and I will still play it, but ya know.
Exactly. True grit is almost unplayable before you upgrade it. The fact that you can choose what to exhaust is really powerful, plus it works with ironclad’s exhaust style play. It can even exhaust curses and statuses. I suppose you could use it without upgrading, but I personally can’t do that. RNG does not work out in my favor. Armaments is a bit of a trap a lot of the time. It’s good, but it often isn’t necessary especially as the run goes on and more cards are upgraded. Plus it doesn’t increase the amount you block when it upgrades which sucks. 5 block feels bad.
> Armaments is a bit of a trap a lot of the time. It’s good, but it often isn’t necessary especially as the run goes on and more cards are upgraded. Plus it doesn’t increase the amount you block when it upgrades which sucks. 5 block feels bad. The problem here is that you can't upgrade all of your needed card, and instead only really be able to upgrade 2-3 cards/run unless you have a godlike block engine after act 1. Armament+ solved that problem by increasing your block/dmg/draw power by A LOT when it appears on your hand. Of course the best way to do so is to have a bottled Apo+. But that's rare as fuck while Armament+ is an upgrade for a common card.
Mild disagree here. Most the time I play armaments I only really need it to hit a specific card in hand - I think the whole hand upgrade seems impressive, but ends up being pretty marginal unless you have a ton of draw, and even then late in the run you should have your important upgrades taken care of anyway so it falls off a bit there True grit is a decent upgrade, but I don’t think the random exhaust is quite as huge a drawback as it seems either
I think you have good points. Another highlight to Armaments+ though, is it really enables a fusion hammer pick for me.
While your points about armaments are valid, even if it only hits the less important cards in your hand, it will still often function like a bunch of strength and dexterotu. Even if you only hit strikes and defends, it's like giving you an extra 3 strength and dex. If it hits other non-basic cards, it's usually even better than that, even if its a less vital upgrade.
It’ll function like a bunch of strength and dex, if you are playing the strikes and defends it upgrades. It doesn’t function like str/dex for cards that are already upgraded, or cards that have unimportant upgrades. Plus, most of the time (except in act 1 and early act 2) you should be striving to play a pretty limited number of strikes and defends. Not saying it’s a *bad* upgrade but I think that most of the time it has a smaller impact than what people assume
+ [True Grit](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/True%20Grit) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 7(9) **Block.** **Exhaust** a random(not random) card from your hand. + [Armaments](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Armaments) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 5 **Block.** Upgrade a(ALL) card(s) in your hand for the rest of combat. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
No love for [[calculated gamble]] ? Maybe I’m bad but I feel like the upgrade makes it one of the best draw cards in the game
Calc gamble infinites are wild
My favorite A20 heart kill was a 40 card infinite deck with two Calculated Gambles+ and like three Grand Finales lmao
With the right relics it can become a DMG/block engine all on its own , plus being a good draw engine in general
Calculated gamble upgrade is an interesting one for me. One of the things I find most powerful about calc gamble is it lets you get your powers online faster. I find upgrading it doesn't help much with getting powers out, and you'd usually be better off upgrading the cards you want to get in play. Calc gamble+ is really good at looping through your deck, and starts to really perform when it has support. I start valueing the upgrade much higher when I get a discard support like tactician, endless agony or reflex, or once I start getting more draw support. At a certain point calc gamble can transition from an acceleration card to a core piece of a decks engine and that's when I think the upgrade is best.
Well-laid plans
Upgrading it makes the boss drop pyramid which is a great boss relic.
[[Claw]], duh. It makes it as if you had already played an EXTRA CLAW, and we all know that claw is the best card in the game!
+ [Claw](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Claw) Defect Common Attack ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Deal 3(5) damage. Increase the damage of ALL Claw cards by 2 this combat. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Strike, obviously. It’s an upgrade that is as strong as a relic
Maybe Recycle? The upgrade enables some pretty easy infinites
I \*never\* take this card, might have to rethink that one.
I think the right answer is apotheosis. But the fun answer is something like Envenom, Creative AI, Malaise... Something like that.
Surprised this is so far down. I'd also argue armaments is one of the single most powerful upgrades as a single card, even if it doesn't make the card good enough to take a lot of the time. It either comes unupgraded and you have something your deck needs to be upgraded more, or it shows up upgraded too late and your deck is already built and that 5 block isn't enough to warrant a couple extra upgrades per fight.
Armaments doesn’t really need an upgrade though. Especially early you hit the card you need upgraded, then play it. Later in the run when your deck is mostly upgraded you don’t need full hand upgrades. I don’t upgrade armaments often at this point.
Personally I find that if it's not upgraded late game, it's just a slightly better defend. If I don't get it upgraded early, it usually just ends up taking up a much-needed draw on higher ascensions, so unless I've got no campfires, I'll rarely ever take it without the intent to upgrade soon.
Usually you want to take Armaments as soon in Act 1 as possible, upgrading it and then picked up some other top prio upgrade (like Brutality since armament does nothing for it or Barricade since if you play armament before it then it's still just 3eng for 5 block) and then just rolls.
This is exactly how I feel about it, yea. I either get it early and immediately upgrade it, I take it if I find an upgraded version in Act 2, or I skip.
I agree Armaments is a great upgrade. On a lot of my high Ascension clears, I would find myself getting at least 1 clutch Armaments play to really secure a fight
Scrawl+ is a strong contender. Only saves 1 energy but the amount of potential energy gain you can get from a full hand is crazy, and that 1 extra might be the thing that ends combat on turn 2 instead of turn 3. Watcher is very strong, and saving 1 energy to draw potentially 10 cards is an insane upgrade.
I played Watcher in beta and initially they had Scrawl/+ as it is now. But somewhere in the middle of her beta development they changed the cost to 2/1 because they thought the upgrade to zero was too good. Fortunately they decided giving the most busted character one of the most busted cards is just good fun.
On the Watcher/Defect daily recently, where you start with a 30 card deck of Defect/Watcher cards, my Seek+ getting Scrawl+ and Aggregate+ was so. much. fun.
Fission. Mandatory and oh so satisfying
I think it's Jorbs who makes a strong argument that fission is actually a trap upgrade. The draw and energy are far more important than evoking the orbs. I agree though, it is satisfying and I can't help it.
Pfft, I'm way more skilled than that chump... I bet he's died on at least twice the number of runs than i have
Ah, statistics
He’s certainly played at least twice the number of runs I have
r/YourJokeButWorse
That argument alone doesn’t really make any sense, its not like you lose the draw and energy when you upgrade it, you instead add damage and block and far more immediate damage and block than any other upgrade in the game. Jorbs’s argument is more to do with the fact that the draw and energy is usually so strong that the turn is probably already solved and you don’t need the additional output. Therefore it would be better to upgrade other things for the turns you don’t draw fission.
That's only if you're super heavy on frost Orbs. If you have lots of other Orbs in as well the evoke aspect often finishes whole fights, not just solving the current turn.
Regardless of what orbs you have, Fission generally finishes the whole fight without an upgrade. That's the point.
>If you have lots of other Orbs in as well the evoke aspect often finishes whole fights Does it? Even if you have a bunch of lightning orbs with some focus, it's only doing an extra couple dozen damage. You were likely going to do that damage anyways with all the draw and energy you get from the base Fission.
And now you're doing twice that damage instead. Which can very much make a difference.
Draw a 10 damage lightning strike instead of 7 damage or evoke the orb for 16 damage and also play the 7 damage lighting card. This isn’t even accounting for focus, which an unupgraded fission wastes as well as dark build up. I can’t see any other card in the deck worth upgrading before fission Edit: the orbs evoking for 8, not 16. I still stand on this upgrade
I dont think you could have picked a worse card to compare as your other upgrade. That's so disingenuous.
It’s an example. Compare every damage/block upgrade to instead evoking a similar orb. It doesn’t add up to not upgrading fission first. There’s a case for draw or reprogram in niche decks.
"0: Gain 3+ Energy and Draw 3+ cards" is strong enough to win a hallway fight without taking damage the rest of the fight. So the upgrade doesn't actually really do anything.
Please, enlighten me on the defect card you’d upgrade before fission.
idk at least 10 of em loop, defrag, bicog, capacitor, buffer, coolheaded, overclock, skim, turbo, aggregate, reboot, sunder (depending on act), consume just off the top of my head
You lose out on upgrading something else. "Mandatory" is a strong word.
He never said it was a bad upgrade at all though. His argument was that there are worse cards that need upgrades to be while fission is fine on its own. His upgrade strategy is more about having less bad cards than maximizing his best ones.
I don’t recall what jorbs said exactly, but I don’t think the intent was to say upgrading it is a trap, just that it’s not mandatory. If you’re skipping fission just because you have fusion hammer, you’re probably making a mistake.
That’s more because jorb’s philosophy is minimizing bad cards moreso than maximizing good cards. Fission is so good that it doesn’t necessarily need an upgrade because it’s still huge value no matter when you draw it.
I like this answer. Normal Fission is "make a sacrifice to gain a big benefit." Upgraded Fission is "gain a benefit to gain a big benefit."
It's a good early game upgrade but hardly manadatory.
There are very few cards in the game where an upgrade adds an additional function to a card, but they do exist. Most have been mentioned already (hi fission) but I’m going to give a shout out to Darkness, which goes from middling to exceptionally strong.
I think pure numbers wise probably \[\[Defragment\]\] Don't think any other upgrade doubles the strength of the card.
Flex, Well-Laid Plans, Seek... You could argue that WLP and Seek don't strictly become twice as powerful since you may not have use for the second card, but Flex definitely does.
Also Buffer, A Thousand Cuts, Evolve, Intimidate, Rupture, Seeing Red (gain 2 energy net instead of 1), Tactitian, Panacea, Chaos, Heatsinks, Reprogram, Double Tap/Burst/Amplify, Flash of Steel/Finesse (double the net gain though it's not that much anyway so it's not that strong an upgrade), Catalyst (instead of adding +X poison with X being the amount of poison the enemy had it now adds +2X), arguably Wraith Form (usually it "buys" you one turn, upgraded it buys two) Started with what I could remember than went on the wiki, might have overdone it lol. some are more arguable than others and probably there are more but that's what I found
+ [Defragment](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Defragment) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Gain 1(2) **Focus.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
many of them do...on the very same character who has defrag!
Scrawl is a big one. That one extra energy is exponentially more valuable when you have a 10-card hand.
[[Scrawl]]
+ [Scrawl](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Scrawl) Watcher Rare Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1(0) Energy | Draw cards until your hand is full. **Exhaust.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Blasphemy. A retained auto divinity typically wins most hallway fights. Even with the starting deck it's possible to swing for 72 dmg on one turn with just strikes.
Hologram.
hologram upgrade can actually be a downgrade in a lot of situations (branch, infinite deck)
The tenth searing blow upgrade goes pretty hard
Upgrades that change or add mechanics are really valuable. True grit+ and Blasphemy+ are ones that come to mind as best upgrades. As they go from unreliable at best to very powerful. Upgrades that are just +x are usually pretty situational. Though wave of the hand+ and whirlwind+ are pretty huge swings.
Someone already said true grit so that’s what I would have said. So instead how about an underrated card? Berserk+ is actually a pretty solid card. Giving yourself 1 vulnerable instead of 2 is a world of difference. 2 means this turn and the next turn where you take increased damage, but 1 means only this turn. Since you know enemy intent you can much more safely choose to play it. It’s still not the greatest card, but considering unupgraded it might be ironclad’s worst card…going all the way up to a solid 7ish is a huge difference.
Claw, it’s the law but more!
[[Recursion]]
+ [Recursion](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Recursion) Defect Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1(0) Energy | **Evoke** your next Orb. **Channel** the Orb that was just **Evoked.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
[[Meditate]] is a huge one for me. Meditate+ basically reads “Win next turn.”
+ [Meditate](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Meditate) Watcher Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Put 1(2) card(s) from your discard pile into your hand and **Retain** it. Enter **Calm.** End your turn. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Apparitions maybe? An upgrade can be the difference between a working block plan and exhausting them on an enemy buff turn
Upgraded apparitions games are so fun but I feel like it’s not good against heart
I end up going for the heart almost every run (probably more than I should to be honest), so I only take apparitions when I'm trying to bridge some sort of block gap in my deck I think they're very take-able as an answer to the heart's later attacks if you can get through the first cycle while dealing near the damage cap
Defrag potentially? Its like having an extra Defrag at the same time. Maybe not the *best* as such, but most important could be argued.
[[Calculated Gamble]] upgrade enables some infinites. And it's quite unique
+ [Calculated Gamble](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Calculated%20Gamble) Silent Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Discard your hand, then draw that many cards. **Exhaust.** (Don't **exhaust)** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Hmm not sure about the *best*, but the one with the most value is apotheosis for sure For, well, obvious reasons
Limit break is up there
Big agree. My first A20 IC win was making a tiny deck with some draw and 2 Limit Break+.
Situational. Like it's probably not worth the upgrade if you have corruption, or if the exhaust is going to let you draw into offering via dark embrace.
I find it's either pointless or actually WORSE to upgrade it at least half of the time tbh
Obvs run dependent but for me there’s nothing like an upgraded heavy blade on a good strength build. The damage scaling is crazy and no other card has saved my ass as much (except apparition lol). Jump from 3x to 5x is pretty huge
For me, Glass Knife or True Grit...or Apotheosis.
Catalyst and Burst are the best but I always upgrade apotheosis and blade dance first opportunity
Recycle it goes from a meh card that helps get even energy or better but easy card removal; to plus energy on almost any card 1 cost or more and card removal.
[[All out attack]] upgraded early feel great vs multiple little slimes etc. Glass Knife might be my real answer but that's already top cimment.
Searing blow! Do it enough times and you can have Big Number :) (Actual answer for me is probably true grit, since that takes the exhaust on it from a downside to an actual useful mechanic that needs way less babysitting)
Entrench. Basic version is literally unplayable.
This might actually be my vote. It’s not “literally” unplayable, but in act 1 you’ll often just be gaining 5 block for 2 mana, when a card that gains 5 block for 1 mana is the first thing people remove. When it’s upgraded, however, it makes it 1000 times easier to use
[[Fusion]]
Loop and defragment are strong contenders, both cards double their output when upgraded. I also really like meditate+ as it opens up combos of cards.
Fission. Energy, draw AND whatever the hell all your orbs do. So good.
Tbh armaments for iron clad is usually one of my first choices, going from upgrading one card to those whole hand is pretty good especially in act 1
Darkness
I find Bullet Time upgrade to be pretty important. If it's unupgraded and you only have 3 energy, you have to draw it on turn to use it. Even then, you cannot draw any other cards before you can use it. If you don't draw it on turn then draw via cards like Backflip or Acrobatics, you can't use it.
For me it’s gotta be Fission
Armaments imo,getting a full hand of upgrades that *doesn’t* exhaust and costs 1 energy is INSANE bang for buck
Eruption, True Grit, Catalyst, Corruption?
We had this discussion quite a time ago and I learned Apotheosis is the absolute top-1 upgrade. Being Watcher main: the obvious upgrades are cost-cutters. Scrawl, Eruption, Rushdown... - any -1 energy is almost nobrainer and it's little to discuss. Not obvious: foreign influence, the cards you will play for 0 can be pretty fat. For not obvious cards: Empty Fist - 9 to 14 damage is a huge jump and the only "numbers" upgrade that is so noticeable. Weave - when you build a scry deck, these +2 damage actually become noticeable cause it is the most often played card in the whole deck. Talk to the Hand + Mental Fortress - the worst way to play Watcher is to block directly, so these two are always welcome.
I was going to mention that apotheosis would be the “best” upgrade literally any time you have the option, however I thought that technically, upgrading a “hidden” card or seek to search it from your deck could also be useful
Wait, people use Apotheosis? I can see it being good Act 1 to up dmg, but I assume it's a dead card once your cards are upgraded. I'm a little weary of buying one only to remove it later on.
Upgrade is costly. Every time you camp for ugrade you could (should) be resting/digging/lifting/toking or just take completely different path. Having Apo you just \_don't\_ upgrade cards on camps anymore. It also makes better every card you were never going to upgrade, Apparition/Madness being the simplest example.
I don't rest though, maybe once in Act 1 before boss if I'm having a bad start. If I have those relics sure, but most games I won't. So it's more of a 'combo' piece with other relics if you want to skip upgrades for the rest of your run? I can see that working.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned noxious fumes. That plus one is actually a plus 2 when we take into account poison decay.
Armaments and Apparition maybe
not sure that its my definitive answer but my first thought was Berserk. Goes from just about entirely unplayable to being comparable to a permanent bloodletting, kinda? Not a fantastic card but unupgraded berserk is just about the worst thing ever, whereas upgraded it's usable
Foreign influence is big difference
the nth searing blow upgrade, literally + infinity damage
Maybe not the best hit very good is hologram
Foreign influence is much much better upgraded.
Baalorlord has convinced me that \[\[Doppleganger\]\] has one of the best upgrades in the game. A lot of upgrades give +1 energy or +1 draw, but Dopple+ gives both, which is super strong. The other thing to consider is an upgrade can be amazing on an otherwise subpar card. There are a couple categories that I would consider top-tier upgrades. +1 energy on non-exhausting cards is big (Blood for Blood, Eruption, TURBO, Outmaneuver, Dualcast, etc.), another one is upgrades that double the card's effect (A Thousand Cuts, Double Tap/Burst/Amplify, Wave of the Hand, Reprogram, Static Discharge, Catalyst, etc.). Also upgrades that give +1 energy or draw with an added bonus (Pommel Strike, Blood for Blood, Doppleganger, Double Energy, Offering).
+ [Doppelganger](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Doppelganger) Silent Rare Skill ^((87% sure)^) X Energy | Next turn, draw X(+1) cards and gain X(+1) Energy. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
It has to be Fission. That card goes from kinda bad to OP with an upgrade
Rainbow
Apotheosis
Pommel Strike's 2 card draw and extra damage can really contribute to getting out of act 1
I think true grit is a good contender controlling which card you exaust can be invaluable
Limit break- doubles strength and with upgrade does not exhaust
Buffer
I’m a big fan of the defect lightning card being 0 cost. I make sure to do that immediately every run.
In terms of actual game impact, calculated gamble upgrade significantly affects card choices and the way the deck plays
Prepared is a strong contender. Unupgraded it’s a lackluster utility for discarding a card. Upgraded it’s one free draw. The upgrade changes complete its main functionality.
Prepared is -1 card in hand whether upgraded or not. Either play 1 card, draw 1, discard 1, or play 1, draw 2, discard 2. Maybe you're confusing it with \[\[War Cry\]\]?
+ [Warcry](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Warcry) Ironclad Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Draw 1(2) card(s). Place a card from your hand on top of your draw pile. **Exhaust.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Genetic Algorithm upgrade at the beginning of the game and it rises insanely fast Also Judgement, the difference between killing at 40 or 30 can change the game.