Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire

The Buxom [UPDATE!]
Balance Audit (0.9.5)
I'll be completely honest, after having played this for a few days, the balance on this mod is really frustrating. To me, it feels like you're punished for engaging with the main mechanic and it feels really really bad. It bothered me so much that I felt the urge to suggest reworks for nearly a third of the cards (and at least one core mechanic) that actually make them rewarding instead.

The Bounce Problem
This mechanic does not need to exist as its own stat.
Buxom turning into Bounce does nothing but confuse the players and obfuscate an otherwise simple mechanic. It would be much simpler both for the player and mechanically if it were just worded as "Creates a bounce status card in your draw pile for each time your buxom goes over the [insert better name here] limit"

More frustratingly: None of the cards engage with the Bounce status cards well. The moment you start generating more than 2 status cards in your discard pile per turn you start losing your ability to draw the cards you put in your deck with no upside. This is because they are generated every single turn with no counterplay.

There are three very obvious solutions to this issue:
1 - Change the starting relic. Capacity just isn't as integral to the playstyle as being the starting relic implies.
Instead of providing capacity, guarantee that the player will always draw at least 1 non-status card at the beginning of their turn. This will greatly off-set the downside of generating such a ridiculously gigantic number of status cards without completely ruining the balance.

2 - Make card draw way way way better. There're two ways to do this, and frankly you'll need to sprinkle a bit of both on each of them. Card draw should be equally split between guaranteeing that you draw a specific kind of card (non-status, power, skill, attack) or if it's more general it should have retain. This character generates too many status cards for the draw cards to not be either specific, retained, or both.

3 - Make more ways of increasing the bounce limit. There just isn't enough interplay with this limit, as right now there's only one card that increases the bounce limit and it's a power. Both high buxom and high capacity builds are greatly kneecapped by the sheer bulk of status cards that are added and without a way of decreasing this it makes those builds incredibly difficult to run with.

With that out of the way, it's time for me to propose my reworks:

What I would change
Omegabsoption - Basic should already draw 2 cards. Upgraded should gain retain. As-is, the card's value is kneecapped by how many status cards the character generates, and it just doesn't feel powerful enough given that. By increasing the base card draw and giving retain when upgraded it allows for keeping the same synergies without greatly upsetting the balance.
Bra Closet - Should guarantee a draw of 2 non-status cards. To me it feels like if this card is going to exhaust that it's better to give it a little more value than to just give it basic card draw because it just never feels like it has the value it should have.
Brain Drain - Add Retain.
Omega Bonk - Remove gaining bounce, instead have it inflict 2 damage on the player for every status card currently in hand. This keeps the riskiness of the card without the annoyance of adding yet further status cards. Plus it gives a chance to synergise with other mechanics like status removal. As is it only contributes to the frustrating amount of status cards, which just don't have enough ways to draw/remove them.
Panic Lactation - Upgraded should change the energy cost to 0 instead of adding 1 milk gain. It's almost never worth playing this card as is because it just doesn't generate enough milk to ever be worth it, the energy cost being changed allows it to be a less risky card on runs where you have 3 or fewer energy and overall increases the value.
Watcher Cosplay - Lower energy cost by 1. This in theory should be equivalent to Bouncing Lactation but the exposed synergy allowing for extra damage doesn't make up for how little milk gain it provides by default. This change increases the card's value across all deck archetypes.
Chibi Offering - Make common. Lower milk gain to 6 when basic, return to 10 when upgraded. This card is essential for exposed runs, and being uncommon kneecaps that build and makes it significantly more difficult to play.
Hardheaded - Upgraded should gain retain.
Malfunction - Upgraded should gain retain.
Pop, Pop, Pop! - Should guarantee drawing non-status cards.
Bovine Form - Missed potential. Replace "Gain 10 Lactating" with "For the rest of combat, any block gained becomes milk gained." The original was just incredibly low value for the energy cost because it's essentially equivalent to a decreasing block each turn. Even assuming that a monster doesn't attack for a turn you're only getting 19 temporary hp, and this decreases over time. With my change it becomes a much higher value card and better justifies the 3 energy cost without becoming too powerful.

Concluding Thoughts
I really do enjoy this mod (and not just because of the lewd) and it feels so close to being just as fun as it is ~"engaging", and the amount of effort that was put into it is apparent from the moment you start playing. It's why it felt so frustrating to me that the balance is so shaky. I don't want that effort to be wasted by under-powered cards that don't make up for the status mechanic's downside.
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Xiro 6 Apr @ 7:45pm 
Having reached A20 with the Buxom, I actually agree that her capacity mechanic is fairly underutilized, with her only cards interacting with it being Omega Flare (which is 2 strength for 1 energy if you're within capacity), White Bikini (which gives more permanent starting buxom if you're within capacity at battle end) and Swelling Tight (Energy if within capacity after a buxom boost). I definitely wish there was more to it than just these three cards, but it is what it is.



Having said that, I heavily disagree with the idea that there is no counter play to having a sizable buxom/ bounce count. There is definitely a high variance between having the run-defining options and not, wildly swinging the effectiveness of the character, but to say there's no options at all is hyperbole.

Relief - the best possible option and having one greatly increases the longevity of a run. Feel No Pain for a character that naturally generates her own self-exhausting status cards is incredible, and even in a dead hand you're guaranteed 15 block with just the base 5-card draw.

Feel It Out, Brain Drain, Omega Burst - Cards that can fix either your current or future hands are very strong. The former two are commons so you're highly likely to get one in the first act, so picking up one or the other makes your high-Buxom runs much smoother.

Big Bounce, Chibi Command, Omega Force, Bouncy Block, and Omega Dunk - Outlets that become stronger with a full deck/ hand of status makes the detriment into a positive. Definitely high variance, as a high-Buxom deck with only Chibi Command or Omega Dunk is much more effective than only a Bouncy Block, but any kind of upside is better than simply passing turn.


As for the card changes, I'm not the biggest fan of most of them, as slapping "non-status draw" onto everything is fairly boring and attempts to circumnagivate the character rather than interact with it, lowering energy costs on a character that is already rewarded by the Embarassment tag to have low costs can very easily make the character too strong, and specifically Omega Bonk fulfills a satisfying niche that floods your discard with status intentionally to set up things like hyper-strength buff Chibi Commands.

Really, if there were any card I would want changed, it would be Hungry Dwarf, but I'm not certain if I'd want it pushed to uncommon to free up the rare pool or with more damage/benefits so you have more incentive to secure kills with it. Probably too strong though, and STS isn't afraid of putting terrible cards in its pools, so I'm perfectly content with where it is.
It boggles the mind really that the spergs who care about balance in a literal titty mod and made it so the bigger you booby, the worse your character is. It should be the opposite. The bigger, the better in all cases. Who cares about balance in a titmod?!? The balance should incentivize going as big as possible. 1/10 because concept and killer art. -9 for le autismo "balance" in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boob mod.
*Machine translation
Here are my impressions after clearing A20H.
・Strength gain options are too strong and the values are too high.
Compared to Dexterity boosts, which only come from random-activated X-cost powers, Strength gain is too readily available.
Especially when taking Embarrassment, just swapping stances with Silent Cosplay and Phew grants +2 (or 4) Strength per activation, and Omega Flare also gives 2 (3). As a result, Buxom becomes more of a nuisance than an offensive asset—even though it's a core mechanic.
At this point, the character feels like a mix of Ironclad and Watcher diluted by 1.5, and it’s easy to deal high damage without even boosting Buxom.
Since Slay the Spire generally rewards speedy kills, symbolic elements like Milk or Buxom don’t make it into viable choices for more “stoic” playstyles.
Embarrassment could be raised to 2 cost.
I just want to use more Buxom.

・Risk vs. reward and disruption caused by Buxom
Growing Buxom introduces such a massive influx of status cards that even Sentries pale in comparison, yet the payoff from reference cards is too random to be reliably strong.
Utilizing status cards generally takes a second cycle through the deck, which makes activation too slow.
(Yes, some cards can insert them, but if you go for a status-heavy build, there simply aren’t enough.)
It can work well in boss fights. I won’t deny that.
Still, I want to use Buxom more even in regular battles.

・Hungry Dwarf
Only viable in multi-enemy battles, and needing to land the finishing blow makes it too situational to include in your deck.
Strong AoE cards are low rarity and often outshine it, so it's easy to miss the opportunity to use Hungry Dwarf effectively.
If the effect were slightly weaker but the card became uncommon, it could become a more viable option.

・Massive Growth
This card feels like it’s trying to be a genetic algorithm-style effect, but I don’t understand why it has random discard. It makes the card unappealing and hard to use effectively.
Even the Buxom gain alone is borderline useful.
Boosting Buxom early just adds more Bounce, which isn’t satisfying.
In regular fights, it’s usually better to improve hand quality and go for damage. In long fights, Buxom increases naturally through other cards, so early boosts often feel like overkill.
It doesn’t function like an algorithm that “buys safety” nor does it bring burst damage, so it just doesn’t have a compelling reason to pick it.
At minimum, the discard should be removed.
If it’s going to be Ethereal, it should offer a real risk-reward tradeoff when played.
Maybe change it to 2 cost and add Lactating Growth: it’s risky on the turn played, but provides safety the turn after—that kind of design might better suit the card’s concept...
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