Regarding Sandblast, I have identified the source of the problem. Slay the Spire has a concept of "cost for turn" and by default this cost gets reset to the base cost whenever the card is discarded or shuffled back into your draw pile. So, for example, if you have eviscerate in hand and reduce it's cost by discarding cards, and then you discard eviscerate, it will return to it's base cost of 3. If you then discard more cards, Eviscerates cost will reduce while it is in your discard. However, if you trigger a shuffle of your discard pile, Eviscerate will be back to 3 cost while it's in your draw pile (it then will return to it's reduced cost if you draw it the same turn, because they update the cost on draw).

Given that the abyssal actually cares about the cost of the cards while in the draw pile (because of Ransom), and cares about knowing the cost of the cards in the discard pile (because of Dig mechanic), I have just done away with the method used by the base game and Sandblast should always reflect its costs whether it's in draw or discard.

Retaliation damage is inconsistent. I've noticed it being a little wonky but I was attacked by a mushroom today while vulnerable. The intent was for 15 damage (so 10 * 1.5) but Retaliation only did 6 which makes me think it wasn't taking strength into consideration. Is that intended?

edit: also seems to take the characters strength into the calculation. Is that interaction intended?

Originally posted by Osprey:

Retaliation damage is inconsistent. I've noticed it being a little wonky but I was attacked by a mushroom today while vulnerable. The intent was for 15 damage (so 10 * 1.5) but Retaliation only did 6 which makes me think it wasn't taking strength into consideration. Is that intended?

edit: also seems to take the characters strength into the calculation. Is that interaction intended?

yeah, that should be working correctly. I'm not sure how to best make this clear for the player, but the way it works is it takes the base damage of the intent (ignoring their strength, their weak, your vulnerable), and then applies your strength, your weak and their vulnerable. At least you can see the damage calculation as a qol, but people are frequently thinking it's bugged (unfortunately).

so, for example, Awakened One has a 6x4 attack. Retaliate will always behave like the card's base damage was 6x4, regardless of anything modifying the attack for Awakened One that turn (like strength, etc.). so if Awakened One was Vulnerable, you would attack for 9x4.

Originally posted by Ithilian:

Originally posted by Osprey:

Retaliation damage is inconsistent. I've noticed it being a little wonky but I was attacked by a mushroom today while vulnerable. The intent was for 15 damage (so 10 * 1.5) but Retaliation only did 6 which makes me think it wasn't taking strength into consideration. Is that intended?

edit: also seems to take the characters strength into the calculation. Is that interaction intended?

yeah, that should be working correctly. I'm not sure how to best make this clear for the player, but the way it works is it takes the base damage of the intent (ignoring their strength, their weak, your vulnerable), and then applies your strength, your weak and their vulnerable. At least you can see the damage calculation as a qol, but people are frequently thinking it's bugged (unfortunately).

so, for example, Awakened One has a 6x4 attack. Retaliate will always behave like the card's base damage was 6x4, regardless of anything modifying the attack for Awakened One that turn (like strength, etc.). so if Awakened One was Vulnerable, you would attack for 9x4.

Would you consider changing the damage to always be what the number above the enemy is? I think it would feel a lot cleaner to use that way but I also understand that would be a buff to the card (not necessarily). So far I don't think the card is ridiculously strong or anything

Originally posted by Osprey:

Would you consider changing the damage to always be what the number above the enemy is? I think it would feel a lot cleaner to use that way but I also understand that would be a buff to the card (not necessarily). So far I don't think the card is ridiculously strong or anything

I'm unsure of this. There are a few different ways this could be designed:
* base damage of card is what is shown as the intent by the enemy, and then is modified by player strength/etc.
* final damage of the card is what is shown by enemy intent, but it deals this no matter what and isn't modified.

in the first scenario, you could easily damage cap the heart on it's multi attacks with a little bit of strength or vulnerable (which feels like it might be too strong). This design might open up some interesting plays, though, like intentionally buffing awakened one, or making use of being vulnerable.

The second scenario feels a little awkward because of fight specific modifications. so if byrds attacks you for 2x6, you deal 2x6 back (not modified by their flying), and it would ignore Nemsis' vulnerable stage. The other downside of this design is not being able to leverage vulnerable or strength. That being said, it might be fine for an attack to function fundamentally different that other attacks.

What are your thoughts on it?

the temporary strength debuff on chain shot doesn't work correctly with artifact, it still gives the enemy 6 strength next turn, which is not the case for piercing wail and dark shackles

Is head to shore not supposed to stack? Feels like it should let you dig twice.

Not really a bug, rather an engine limitation:
Stacking time warp. I reckon you can't track the last X cards played, but perhaps you could create "echoes" (ethereal+exhaust) of the last card played instead.

Unrelated short story for fun:
https://imgur.com/a/5o65lmG

Originally posted by Zu:

Is head to shore not supposed to stack? Feels like it should let you dig twice.

Not really a bug, rather an engine limitation:
Stacking time warp. I reckon you can't track the last X cards played, but perhaps you could create "echoes" (ethereal+exhaust) of the last card played instead.

Unrelated short story for fun:
https://imgur.com/a/5o65lmG

yeah, this will be a design change. Originally I though it made sense to have it go for multiple turns, but this is contrary to how Scout Ahead works, so I will update in this in a future release

When genetic splice is used on a target with less than the threshold ink of 3(2), you gain 0 dexterity (rounded down).

Originally posted by Bolimar:

the temporary strength debuff on chain shot doesn't work correctly with artifact, it still gives the enemy 6 strength next turn, which is not the case for piercing wail and dark shackles

This is fixed now

Originally posted by Osprey:

When genetic splice is used on a target with less than the threshold ink of 3(2), you gain 0 dexterity (rounded down).

this is fixed

For a very minor QoL feature, while cephalpod form is in play and the enemy has no current ink, could flexible limb apply ink before the check occurs so that it draws 1 and gives 1 energy? I wasn't originally going to say anything due to its esoteric nature but I've had this happen 4 or 5 times now.

I suspect that this might require some hacky code to make this work. If that's the case, I understand not implementing it

Originally posted by Osprey:

For a very minor QoL feature, while cephalpod form is in play and the enemy has no current ink, could flexible limb apply ink before the check occurs so that it draws 1 and gives 1 energy? I wasn't originally going to say anything due to its esoteric nature but I've had this happen 4 or 5 times now.

I suspect that this might require some hacky code to make this work. If that's the case, I understand not implementing it

This would be a fairly straight forward change, but it’s not consistent with the base game. Actions that trigger when you play a card, trigger after the card has resolved (from what I can see anyway). So for example, if you have thousand cuts in play, and you play ritual dagger on an enemy that has 1 health, the enemy will die to ritual dagger, not thousand cuts.

Originally posted by Ithilian:

Originally posted by Osprey:

For a very minor QoL feature, while cephalpod form is in play and the enemy has no current ink, could flexible limb apply ink before the check occurs so that it draws 1 and gives 1 energy? I wasn't originally going to say anything due to its esoteric nature but I've had this happen 4 or 5 times now.

I suspect that this might require some hacky code to make this work. If that's the case, I understand not implementing it

This would be a fairly straight forward change, but it’s not consistent with the base game. Actions that trigger when you play a card, trigger after the card has resolved (from what I can see anyway). So for example, if you have thousand cuts in play, and you play ritual dagger on an enemy that has 1 health, the enemy will die to ritual dagger, not thousand cuts.

Ah I see. Completely understandable!

When stacking multiple Fire At Will powers, the power description says "... the 2first ..." (with missing space) instead of "... the first 2 ...". Terribly important, I know.