Sorry, I thought at the time that it was the easiest approach to winning. I experimented much more later on after the stream (but I still rerolled a lot of the times, even when trying different stuff), and got wins with a variety of runs, including (some of these overlap):
- One or more wins with red or red-mixed decks (the "angry meal" symbol with lots of extra dissolves is really powerful, and a red deck with good power increases is really powerful against most bosses and several enemies).
- One or more wins with yellow or yellow-mixed decks (both with greed, one run I got the money bag symbol (or two of them) as well as two wallet items, though several runs with yellow or yellow-mixed decks failed against the final boss, the "greed" of the final boss can hurt if you do not have defense, and I failed to get that in one run).
- One or more wins with green or green-mixed decks (green has gotten significantly nerfed it feels like, and the game has gotten harder, but symbols that deal damage as a proportion of health can work well against bosses and the final boss if you ensure that you engage the bosses with full health even if you have to avoid any and all fights. Also, the symbol that deals 1/5 to you and 1/2 to the enemy as proportion of health is extremely powerful, but will not guarantee you the win by itself).
- Maybe one or more 3+ color mixed decks. I might have won, or gotten really far, with a deck with bananas (extra damage per dissolved symbol), lots of dissolved symbols (maybe green, maybe yellow, I think at least the darts, maybe red), and the "angry meal" symbol, and maybe some purple.
- In some of the runs above, I mixed in purple symbols with success, but I have generally avoided most purple symbols, which I bet was correct in most cases, they are often interesting traps (which I like). In one run I decided to take a purple symbol, just to get confirmation that it was basically a trap (the eagle symbol), and I was confirmed in it being a trap, though I might have reached the final boss with it, due to mixing in the "blood orange" symbol. In another run, one specific purple symbol might have been the key part of the run, but I do not remember its name or its function, sorry.
I do not believe that I ever succeeded with a blue deck, one time I might have gone far, but messed up and attacked the wrong non-boss enemy in room 2 or 3. The first bosses, and many enemies in general, require strong offense, their attacks will get stronger and stronger (which they have to, otherwise you can farm them with yellow decks), and will eventually outscale your defenses. The key may be blue symbols like the one that converts defense into power, but that I never really experimented with that (and it might become risky, since with a blue deck, you might be relying on defense for protection instead of items). Mixing in money shield works, but money shield works really well in a pure-yellow deck.
The game can be very frustrating, and the last boss in particular is daunting, even if you have a strong deck. The "deflation" ability can quickly destroy the offensive potential of a deck, and then it is all but over. Even power-increasing symbols can be wrecked by deflation. The "greed" of the boss can be lethal for yellow decks, at least if they do not have sufficient defense. I began prioritizing symbols that were "resistant", like dealing damage proportionally, or dealing huge damage without relying on power. The "ace-type" symbols are also attractive for this, the red ace is automatically resistant and only slowed down by deflation, the yellow ace (a proportion of earned money dealt as damage?) deals enormous damage quickly as long as your money generation, the green ace dealing damage equal to half of health lost in current battle makes it for most decks excellent, at least if you ensure that you go into battle at full health. But how frustrating the game can be, including the trial and error, also makes it nicer when you do manage a win, even if getting a win is often up to chance.
Money costing symbols that cost money even when never hurt (the money shield/"Midas touch" symbol is not one of these, since it costs nothing if you do not get hurt), are interesting, even though they are dicey, unless your money generation and efficiency (like if you have the item that decreases cost) is so high that you gain money on any battle. If your money generation and efficiency is not sufficiently high, it may be best to avoid all battles and preserve both money and health, and only pick battles with great care, which is interesting and a kind of challenge.
When rerolling, I often avoided lemons and bones. The lemon symbol is not bad, but it makes it really difficult to get cost-efficient battles unless you pick up a cost-reducing item or get good money generation. I can see it being good against the first room boss however, even without cost reduction or money generation, if you save up, even by scrounging money off the floor. Bones is just weak almost always, both in theory and mostly in practice, but that does not make it bad, it is a nice puzzle for the player to figure out, and rerolling is quick (even if the player has to go into the menu to discover that they have the option of rerolling by restarting). I also often avoided some other symbols, typically the "fifth" symbol. I do not necessarily think these symbols should be removed from the start, it is part of the challenge to figure out what might and might not work.
The money generation of the game makes it harder to balance, but also makes it different and interesting.
The game is difficult to "balance", but it is also interesting.
Should the current mode be "Hard mode" or "New game+", since it is substantially harder than before I believe (not getting a choice of symbols from enemies makes it much more important to pick your battles well, and randomness plays a large factor)?
The boss battles in the first room are rather dangerous, and decreases the viable decks you can build early. Which is not necessarily bad, figuring out which decks are viable, and balancing long term vs. short term is interesting. I dislike the broken machine boss however, it felt too much like a "you get this boss, you lose even when you played well". Unless the purpose is to artificially increase how much of the player's time is wasted, it is frustrating. The only real strategy I found to be effective against it was the "banana" symbol, since "banana" is multi-color and the broken machine boss repeatedly introduces a huge number of "dissolve" temporary symbols, but you cannot easily get the "banana" symbol. I am tempted to suggest that you rework this boss or something, though it may just be a skill issue on my part.
I never timed the reels.
I tried a few mini-games, but the skill-based one, space invaders, was rather difficult and also felt random. But the whole game is about risk and reward and chance, it is fine for the arcade mini-games to be unfair.
The map generation has issues at times, and learning it includes trial and error, but the random nature of it and risk and reward fits the theme of the game.
Is the avocado symbol a pure green symbol? It has a red core in it.
Will a color-blind mode be added to the game, which specifies the "colors" of each symbol before picking or buying?
The game is fun in my opinion, but I remember it being difficult to understand and get into, and another poster here described how they like me in a previous demo day took a lot of time before they grasped the in-combat click-button mechanic. I do not have a good suggestion on how to improve this issue, however, but it might be really helpful if you figure out a good solution to it. My feeling is that a pure UI solution that does not change the gameplay might work.
(do not ask me how much I played this game, I spent more than a few hours off-stream).
