Ive been grinding 22 bells and its a very different game.

No longer can I pick a weaker companion in hope of building up a run because the Heart of the Storm dictates a certain level of efficiency, lethality, and / or control.

I feel I need solid damage locked in before the first boss. The first companion I choose is usually what dictates Bamboozle or Infernoko being my wall. Something like a Jumbo pre-charm and post-charm is a very different companion.

The crown gold increase is also fiendish. Again, depending on my companion picks, and clan, multikills really dictate your gold income. If a run is behind the curve on lethality then crowns are typically a full gold investment.

( Dont get me started on vase pieces deciding your path )

22 bells feel like death by a thousand papercuts, which is fine and I enjoy the difficulty, but I also feel somewhat railroaded into certain picks.

Gold bordering the cards feels like Im supposed to just pick the optimal run every single time and hope a stray card or two get gold bordered along the way.

I missed the game pre-22 bells so Ive been doing 10 again but I feel so obligated to always play 22.

Im maybe looking to get into Modern for MTG. I mainly play EDH lightly atm but miss the comp card tournaments from when standard was THE format for any card game.

I played MTG and YuGiOh alongside Hearthstone, Eternal, and Shadowverse.

I want to get into a comp TCG scene as a hobby but what is mainstream? Is MTGs EDH the only real popular solution?

To preface: I LIKE ROR2. THE ROGUELIKE SHOOTER IS A UNIQUE GENERE NICHE.

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• Lack of synergy hurts builds, items need more crossover

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The only true synergy in this game is damage proc chains. You hit something, your hit launches an ATG, your ATG procs a band, you band procs a stickbomb, the sickybomb procs a uke, etc.

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Other item catagories dont have that luxary and it leaves builds feeling... meh. So what are the catagories and what do they do?

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• Damage - proc chains. Your damage has a chance to trigger other damage. Variety in damage sources not only scale multiplicitively but also in consistency.

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• Attack speed - the only catagory I think is fine with no synergy because its synergy is damage.

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• Movement speed - Modifies your base speed. Sometimes theres a stipulation. No synergy, just stacking.

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• Healing / damage reduction / shields - Does what it says on the tin. Synergy is sub par or non-existant. All items offer some form of survivability though do nothing but give you survivability.

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Items need more crossover. It would basically take an entire redesign of RoR2 items but the game should have more effects like "every 10 hp healed, gain .5% speed permanetly" or "sprinting for 5 seconds makes your next attack shoot twice".

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In a game about stacking items and variety multiplying stats, a large majority of them items do not scale well or exist in a lukewarm state.

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• The player agency problem

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There are a few design choices I think take away from the interest of the game for me.

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The scrapper printer interaction. Printers and cauldrons are RNG. You can get literally any item in them. Sometimes you get an ICBM with no missiles. Sometimes you get Aegis. Sometimes you get Laser Scope on a 100% crit Voidfiend run. The RNG Im ok with. The problem arises with gambling for said printer / cauldron items. Im not sure about other people but personally, I fucking hate gamble mechanics in games. Yes Im skipping out on an ATG printer because I have 1 band and 1 hunters harpoon, Im not gambling the band.

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That brings me to scrappers. They delete EVERY item in a stack ( as you typically dont have more than 10 anyway ). Those 3 death marks youve picked up because there hasnt been a scrapper until stage 5 but its integral to your build? Just stuck with 3 of an item that scales horribly. Now that red cauldron on the moon that would boost your damage risks taking all 3 death marks.

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On their own, neither mechanic is truly that much of a problem. The problem lies in scrapper stage RNG and gambling. Its 2 levels of RNG tied to a gamble mechanic...

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The player has little agency over the potency of their build in a game where item stacking and item variety is the core mechanic.

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• These 2 issues detract from the roguelike experience

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Now, its a roguelike. The fun of it is using the tools you scavenge for yourself and try to utilize it to the best of your ability.

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But other roguelikes dont have bloat items.

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Other roguelikes give you choices, not force you to gamble run defining elements.

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Dead Cells has unique weapon variety. The difficulty of the run depends on how well you use the weapon and its your decision to change weapons.

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Darkest Dungeon heroes have varying abilities but are frequent enough to collect that you can build a variety of multiple teams.

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Astrea is a dice based RNG fest of a deck builder but comes with a healthy dosage of rerolls and effect altering abilities.

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Slay the Spire lets you choose your path up a level, gives you multiple choice when choosing cards, shops where you can choose what to buy / delete, etc.

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Good roguelikes give the player agency in control over their run and quality item variety.

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• TLDR

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I terms of a roguelike, I think the experience is pretty weak. Im not having fun getting to Mithrix with an aegis, 1 energy drink, 4 green scrap, and all of my damage is a hikers boot and 1 APR as the standout items in my build ( Im a full loot player ).

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In terms of a bullet hell / crowd clear shooter I think the game excells. I think looping EVENTUALLY gets you to the point where youve finally seen enough items that you were going to have a synergistic build regardless of how you played.

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The core roguelike experience is hampered by lack of player input on choices, item gambling, and scrapper mechanics.

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