Summary
Shogun Showdownis a tactical turn-basedrogue-like that features deck-buildingelements in the form of drafting tiles, which form a hand of combat abilities. As its name may suggest, the game takes on a distinctive, Japanese-inspired setting, beautifully realized in pixel-art.
After a year or so in Early Access,Shogun Showdownhas made it to 1.0 with flying colors. However, although the game features a brisk and well-taught tutorial, the game can be a bit tough for newcomers. For those that struggle early on, these tips might help to ease the initial difficulty curve.
6Consumable Items Don’t Consume Turns
Valuable Knowledge When Every Turn Is Precious
Every turn is precious inShogun Showdown, with every enemy taking their turn directly after the player’s. As a result, it can be hard to decide what to do on any given turn, with the player almost always having multiple options.
Consumable items are incredibly important inShogun Showdown, allowing players to compensate for mistakes or avoid an otherwise unavoidable death. However, brand-new players may hesitate to use these items for fear of wasting a turn. Thankfully,Shogun Showdownallows players to use these consumables for free, allowing players tochug down health potionswithout consequence.
5Upgrade AOE Attacks
Long Cooldowns And Large Groups Make AOE Attacks Necessary
There are a variety of attack tiles inShogun Showdown, enough to encourage a multitude of strategies. As each run progresses, players will find themselves with a set of unique attacks that they can combo together in interesting ways, but it could be argued that none are as useful as those that hit multiple enemies at once.
For example, one of the Wanderer’s starting tiles, “Swirl”, deals two damage to enemies both in front and behind the player. Throughout each run, players are able to upgrade these tiles using gold at the occasional shop, and it’s almost always a good idea to upgrade tiles that hit multiple enemies. Some encounters featurea great deal of enemies at once, and reducing the cooldown and/or increasing the damage of these attacks will make clearing the board much easier.
4A Bigger Attack Queue Isn’t Always Better
Sometimes Less Is More
One ofthe core mechanicsofShogun Showdownis the ability to queue up multiple attacks over the course of several turns before letting them loose in an explosive combo. However, most of the time, adding attacks to the queue consumes a turn, which can be dangerous.
Although players are often encouraged to take down multiple enemies with impressive combos, especially through some of the available upgrades, it’s not always in the player’s best interests to save up their attacks for one significant blow. Many enemies in the game have lower health pools, and at times it can be just as efficient to take out an enemy (or two) with a single tile, rather than trying to set up the perfect combo.
3Avoid Boss Mobs When Possible
Mobs Die When The Boss Is Defeated
Bosses inShogun Showdown, as withmany rogue-likes, can be stress-inducing opponents, thanks in no small part to the variety of mobs that can sometimes be summoned to assist them. By summoning regular enemies into the fight, players are often distracted and forced to work around their attacks.
While it can sometimes be beneficial to take out an archer or a particular enemy that’s closing in, sometimes it’s best to simply avoid the summons and instead hone in on the boss itself. This may not be advisable at all times, but when a boss is particularly low on health, it’s always a good idea for players to focus their effort on them and them alone, when possible. This is especially so because all mobs die when the boss is defeated, making the summons irrelevant to the win condition.
2Always Have A Ranged Option
Slippery Enemies Can Escape Melee Attacks
There are a myriad of powerful tiles inShogun Showdownthat can be incredibly enticing, but many of these tiles are melee attacks.While AOE attackslike the aforementioned “Swirl” can help, there are many situations thatShogun Showdownthrows at the player that require ranged attacks to get out of safely.
Enemies such as the Spike Charger and the Ashigaru Archer are long-ranged enemies that are hard to catch up to before running out of time. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to have at least a couple of ranged options, or a movement tile such as one of the dash tiles.
1Be Patient
Rushing Almost Always Results In Losing Health
Patience is a virtue, and this is just as true inShogun Showdown. Throughout the game, players will have to employ stunning levels of patience to succeed, as it’s sometimes necessary to wait out the enemy, but more importantly, rushing through each encounter will likely result in the bleeding of precious health.
Understanding the clear and present dangers in each encounter plays a key role in successthroughout each run. Thankfully, this is easy to do once players have learned the basic mechanics of the game, asShogun Showdown’senemies are relatively well telegraphed, allowing players to easily predict what enemies are about to do.
