I’ve cleared the 3rd boss now, and have the top of the tree left to do. Technically, this is 3/4 of the content, but I am going to assume that it’s much less in terms of time. Some extra bits I’ve considered since.

• RNG is king. Full stop. God-level items can make or break a run.
• The RNG aspect is clearly weighted, in that not all cards are equal. Vampire Mansions are more common than Blood Groves – at least 4:1, for example
• Deck building is crazy important, and you generally want to have as few possible choices in any run. This increases the odds of getting ‘good’ cards
• Sadly, as you kill more bosses, you unlock more traits. Traits that are generally worse than what you have, which dilutes the pool of options. It’s really weird to be penalized for killing a boss.
• Some cards are borderline worthless, unless you’re hunting specific achievements OR farming (e.g. storm temple)
• There are some significant ‘under the covers’ mechanics that are not at all explained in the game proper. On the one hand, it’s fun to find interesting mechanics, on the other hand some of these are massive power increments and could use with a hint or two. Like collecting items after death, what are the skull icons?
• Hunting for a specific stat usually comes with a specific look of the item. It’s neat for lower level items – less so as you start getting the super rare ones
• Each class favors a very specific build, without a whole lot of wiggle room. The most flexible that I’ve found is the necromancer, as they only have 4 stats to manage. I cleared the 3rd boss with level 2 rings.
• Each class also favors a specific type of enemy.
• It’s entirely worth restarting a run to get an optimal layout and early slimes. Straight to start, 2 U-bends with one near the campfire are my go-to.
• Map tiles can only spawn 4 creatures on the map, but can spawn 5 in battle (+ ranged). Battlefields will not spawn chests if there are 4 creatures on their map tile.
• Bandits are ok when starting, but can destroy a late run with a destroyed item that is equipped. I’ve now built the habit of never deploying a 2n Village card unless I have an Oblivion card in hand to get rid of the Bandit Camp.
• Goblin Camps + quest + vampire = you’re going to die. You need to count the number of rock/mountain tiles laid out and stop at 9 until you get an Oblivion card.
• Farming is fine, but the RNG on specific cards + layouts is annoying. Doing 8 loops and not getting that 1 material is frutrating.
• The best tiles for 4+ enemies seem to be Overgrown Fields, at least to me. Even Ransacked Villages are good. 4x spiders works.
• The boss designs are really quite neat. I particular like the Priestess’ mechanics.
• A boss fight deals nearly 3x the damage of an entire loop. In practical terms, this means finding a way to drastically reduce incoming damage AND a way to rapidly restore it. Regen per second is an absolutely worthless stat for bosses.
• Attack speed is king, and doesn’t appear to have a cap.
• Rogues are great for farming, but I can’t seem to make them take any boss down.
• The game speed default should be 2x, and the ‘fast’ one should be 5x. It’s not like you can actually do anything while battles are taking place.
• I am annoyed that I cannot save an expedition mid-run. 8-10 loop runs are ‘normal’, and that’s an hour or so without the ability to save. You can pause just fine though.
• To its credit, the game absolutely nails the ‘one more loop’ mechanic.

It’s an impressive package, all told. Hades still take the crown for best rogue-lite, but Loop Hero is pretty darn close in terms of accessibility. I’ll see if I find the time for boss #4. My gut tells me that I’ll need to boost some other base parts before I am in a good enough space to take it on. Or have some crazy good RNG luck.