Slay the Spire (Series)

[Moonface]

We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!

Features

• Dynamic Deck Building: Choose your cards wisely! Discover hundreds of cards to add to your deck with each attempt at climbing the Spire. Select cards that work together to efficiently dispatch foes and reach the top.
  
• An Ever-changing Spire: Whenever you embark on a journey up the Spire, the layout differs each time. Choose a risky or safe path, face different enemies, choose different cards, discover different relics, and even fight different bosses!
  
• Powerful Relics to Discover: Powerful items known as relics can be found throughout the Spire. The effects of these relics can greatly enhance your deck through powerful interactions. But beware, obtaining a relic may cost you more than just gold...
  

Slay the Spire left Early Access and comes with:

• Four characters that each have their own unique set of cards.
  
• 350+ fully implemented cards.
  
• 200+ different items to be found.
  
• 50+ unique combat encounters.
  
• 50+ mysterious events that can help or harm you.
  
• Daily Climbs allow you to compare yourself with every other player in the world.
  
• Custom mode that allows mixing and matching various crazy run modifiers.
  

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Man, I have become heavily addicted to this game since trying it out for the first time a few days ago, and although I have yet to win a run (not counting daily runs because they have custom rules) despite having probably done like 20+ of them so far this game never makes it feel discouraging somehow. Anyone else here interested in this game?

[ShiraNoMai]

I beat my first run on my second attempt. Still quite proud of that. Slow and steady wins the race (and good RNG, of course). Sure it was a near 3 hour run, and I had nearly 40 cards by the end, but hey. I got there lol

Sadly I haven't been able to get there since. I tried a few Silent runs; she is really hard to get through Act 1 with. Defect, on the other hand.... I nearly won first try with them! I needed just one more turn to end the Deca/Donut duo. >.<

Anyway yeah this game is good, just as addicting as everyone has always said it was. The mobile version is nice, but I can't tell you how many misplays I've done just trying to check a card and letting go just barely inside the field of "play"

[Moonface]

I beat my first run on my second attempt. Still quite proud of that.

My first victory was on a daily run, which I don't really count because I think it would've been impossible to lose with the modifiers they gave for it. If I remember correctly, it had these:

• Draft - Draft a deck of starting cards (15 choices, 3 cards to choose per choice).
  
• Midas - Enemies drop 200% more gold but you can no longer upgrade cards at Rest sites.
  
• Vintage - Normal Enemies drop relics instead of cards.
  

Not counting that though, then I got my first victory this morning with Ironclad, so started doing runs with The Silent and managed to win a run with her on my third or fourth attempt? Haven't fully upgraded her though so still need to do some more runs with them to unlock everything.

Back to daily runs, weirdly they've all been with The Defect every day except for the first one I did. I'm hoping the next one has a different character.

Slow and steady wins the race (and good RNG, of course). Sure it was a near 3 hour run, and I had nearly 40 cards by the end, but hey. I got there lol

I think most of my runs get into 35+ cards (provided I'm not dying early enough to not get a big deck going) but I play incredibly quickly in this game somehow. Most if not all of my runs don't top an hour to reach victory when they do, but I tend to just ignore any card in my hand that I know I don't have use for in a turn so I quickly just go straight for what I need to be using, i.e. if an enemy is attacking I will look for blocks first unless I can kill them before their turn, and if they're not attacking then I'll only scan for card names that I know do something offensive. Plus I can remember what cards I have that can benefit others if I play those first in a turn so the first thing I watch for on the hand draw is any of those.

Act 2 easily has some of the most annoying enemies though. The stupid baseball looking thing that stacks defense on itself like crazy does my head in, and the stupid healers that sit in the back on fights show up so often in that act. The two bosses that are both some form of armor suit can also go rust in the bottom of a ditch somewhere.

[Moonface]

Huh, so I wasn't aware that the devs have been sharing news and updates about StS2 on a monthly basis since it got announced, so here's a summary of (almost) everything for everyone else who was in the same boat as me:

• Enchantments
  • As the name implies, these are modifiers to cards in your deck which are applied for the remainder of your current run.
    
  • Like cards, Enchantments have varying qualities. The majority of common Enchantments will give you a slight edge here and there, but the more meaningful and potentially run-defining Enchantments can be discovered in rare Events and things like REDACTED throughout the game.
    
  • Image of the system in action.
    
    
• New Enemies
  • Nibbit, a feisty little monster you'll see often in the Spire.
    
  • Some bee infested nightmare...
    
    
• Map Changes
  • The map will now feature larger and colored icons, taking a page from the Colored Map mod for Slay the Spire 1.
    
  • Presumably it will also take the drawing feature of that mod too.
    
  • Image Preview
    
    
• New Cards (Ironclad)
  • Tremble (Skill) - Apply 2 Vulnerable. Exhaust.
    
  • CHAAARGE (Attack) - Deal damage equal to your Block to all enemies.
    
  • Dismantle (Skill) - ???
    
  • Bully (Attack) - Deal 4 damage. Deal 2 additional damage for each Vulnerable on the enemy.
    
  • Aggression (Power) - At the start of your turn, put a random Attack from your Discard Pile into your Hand and Upgrade it.
    
  • Cinder (Attack) - Deal 15 damage. Exhaust the top 2 cards in your Draw Pile.
    
  • Stone Armor (Power) - Gain 5 Plating. Lose 1 Dexterity.
    
  • Breakthrough (Attack) - Lose 1 HP. Deal 10 damage to all enemies.
    
  • Unrelenting (Attack) - Deal 12 damage. The next Attack you play costs 0.
    
  • Blood Wall (Skill) - Lose 2 HP. Gain 15 Block.
    
  • Hellraiser (Power) - Whenever you draw a card containing "Strike", it is played against a random enemy.
    
  • Pact's End (Attack) - ???
    
  • Forgotten Ritual (Skill) - ???
    
  • Setup Strike (???) - ???
    
    
• New Cards (Silent)
  • Anticipate (Skill) - ???
    
  • Flick-Flack (Attack) - ???
    
  • Fan of Knives (Power) - Shivs now hit all enemies. Add 3 Shivs into your Hand.
    
  • Pounce (Attack) - ???
    
  • Blade of Ink (Power) - ???
    
  • Production (Skill) - ???
    
  • Assassination (Power) - ???
    
  • Uncanny Dodge (Skill) - ???
    

• New Cards (Necrobinder)
  • Cleanse (Skill) - ???
    
  • Scourge+ (Skill) - Apply 17 Doom.
    
  • Tag Team (Skill) - ???
    
  • Swipe (Attack) - Deal 5 damage to all enemies. If they have Doom, deal another 5 damage.
    
  • Swipe+ (Attack) - Deal 8 damage to all enemies. If they have Doom, deal another 8 damage.
    
  • Carve Ghost+ (Attack) - Deal 11 damage. Add 2 Souls into your Hand.
    
  • Putrefy (Skill) - Apply 2 Weak. Apply 2 Vulnerable. Exhaust.
    
  • Friendship (Power) - Whenever you play a Soul, Summon 3.
    
  • Negative Pulse (Skill) - Gain 7 Block. Apply 4 Doom to all enemies.
    
  • Plague Carrier (Power) - Whenever Osty attacks, apply 5 Doom to the enemy.
    
  • Fearmonger (Skill) - Whenever you apply Doom this turn, gain 4 Block.
    
  • Time's Up! (Attack) - Deal damage equal to the enemy's Doom. Exhaust.
    
  • Grave Warden (Skill) - Gain 6 Block. Add 1 Soul into your Hand.
    
  • Drain Power (Attack) - Deal 6 damage. Upgrade a card in your Hand for the rest of combat.
    
  • Pull Aggro (Skill) - Summon 10. Gain 5 Block.
    
  • Oblivion (Skill) - Double the enemy's Doom. Exhaust.
    
  • Death's Visage (Attack) - Deal 7 damage. Apply 1 Vulnerable.
    
  • Blight Strike (Attack) - Deal 7 damage. Apply Doom equal to unblocked damage dealt.
    
  • Twist (Skill) - ???
    

• Card Packs
  • Instead of picking one card, you can now at times be offered a pack of cards to choose from instead.
    
  
  
• Misc. Changes
  • The main menu screen will now show you where you last left off if you have a run in progress.
    

[ShiraNoMai]

Map change image is literally me: do i take coward path or the greed path lmao

I like how some of these are echoes of existing cards, like CHAAAARGE just being Body Slam but hits everyone instead of one, or the Blood Wall being the Block version of the Hemokinesis card.

Card packs seems to be the most hype thing on that list right now, oh and of course the Map mod being added to the base game

[Moonface]

Enchantments are what have me most intrigued, because it'll give a lot more variety to modifying cards beyond the one and done upgrade system of StS1. I wonder if you could add a positive enchantment onto a curse card to try and get something out of it, especially on any curses you can't remove like Necronomicon.

Fan of Knives for Silent could become ridiculously OP if shiv builds can get as good as they currently can in StS1. Heck, just a shiv build with Envenom, Sneko Skull, and Kunai/Shuriken would lay waste to almost anything you come across. O_O

Doom on Necrobinder sounds like their version of Poison, but it can't work the same way as that because Scourge+ slapping 17 Doom on an enemy would be busted. Maybe when an enemy's health reaches less than their current Doom amount they die?
Summon and Soul are interesting too. My first thought for Soul is maybe Necrobinder can't heal at rest sites due to being undead and maybe you heal in fights using Soul? If not that, then the character sounds like the replacement for Watcher where managing Calm/Wrath/Divinity for her will be similar to juggling Doom/Soul/Summon for this new character?

@ShiraNoMai: That map image labelling one path as "coward" is all well and good until that ? room turns out to just be another battle instead. I've lost count how many times I've hoped for a ? room to save me from an extra fight only to get something like the book in Act 2 to be waiting for me.

[Moonface]

Slay the Spire 2 | May 2025 Neowsletter
Here's a summary of everything detailed in the most recent Slay the Spire 2 newsletter:

• If it wasn't yet obvious by some of the changes to cards from the first game, returning characters are getting full makeovers. This involves removing cards, adding new ones, and tweaking any remaining old ones that need it.
  
  
• Character Changes (Silent)
  • Blade Dance has been changed to now exhaust when used.
    
  • *NEW CARD* Flick Flack [1] (Attack) - Sly. Deal 7 damage to all enemies.
    
  • *NEW MECHANIC* Sly - If a card has Sly in its description, it will be played for free if it is discarded from your hand.
    
  • *NEW CARD* Master Planner [3] (Power) - When you play a skill, it gains Sly.
    
    
• There is beta art for all cards in StS2.
  
• The developers are considering making an art book for Slay the Spire in the future.
  

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Interesting that Sly was explained but we still don't know what Doom does for Necrobinder. Blade Dance becoming an exhaust card sucks because I love that card in StS1 and based on what we know it doesn't really seem worth taking in StS2. It can't even benefit from the Sly mechanic because you have to play it first to gain Sly on it from Master Planner, but then the card would be exhausted.
If Storm of Steel is still in the game though that card just became absolutely busted if you have a hand full of Sly cards. You'd get to play all of them for free and presumably still get the shivs from them being discarded.

[Moonface]

Aww man, I thought the first game was awesome but the sequel so far is such a massive step up!
Managed to get to the Act 3 boss on my very first run of the game with Ironclad, followed by a run with Silent and Regent that both ended before even making it to the Act 1 boss because I was being greedy with Elites. Did another Silent run and that was my first one to get a Victory? with, so I have more thoughts on her than anyone else right now.

Blade Dance being an exhaust now made me think it would just restrict broken shiv builds, but instead it seems to have made the card just borderline useless to take. Silent has other cards now that provide shivs without an exhaust attached, and one of them is the exact same as Blade Dance except initially it costs 2 Energy instead of Blade Dance's 1 Energy, but it costs one less energy every time you use it so after the first use it becomes a Blade Dance and after that it becomes a better Blade Dance. Maybe that new card is rare and I just got lucky to find it but Blade Dance wasn't showing up as a card reward more often instead to compensate for its changes.

Keeping on the subject of shivs, a shiv build can be more broken in this game than in StS1 by a massive margin if you get the right cards. My winning run was giving me shivs every turn, and I had a card in my deck that when played would play every single shiv I had played so far in that combat. I didn't get to watch it proc but my winning turn of the Act 3 boss fight had that card in my hand and would've played 34 shivs for 2 Energy, but the boss only had 8 health and shivs do 4 damage a pop, so I only got to throw two. ;w;
That said, upgrading that card just makes it even crazier because then every shiv it plays becomes upgraded, so instead of 34x4 it would have done 34x6. Add in Accuracy cards which add 4-6 extra damage to shivs and you can end up with horrific amounts of damage, and if you have Envenom it will do 1-2 poison damage per attack, so I could have potentially got 34x12+68 damage from a single card. That would be 476 damage which I think would kill most if not all bosses.

I don't even have all of Silent's cards, relics and potions unlocked yet so god knows what else she has, but already I've managed to find a ridiculous build with her.