Slaying the Spire for Fun and Profit, Part 1: The Basics

Slay the Spire is a rogue-like deckbuilding card game wherein the player assembles a deck of cards to fight their way through three Acts to defeat the Heart of the Spire and escape the nightmare.

I have been playing it a lot lately and wanted to share my thoughts and advice on the different strategies available for players who have unlocked all the cards and relics. Please note, not all cards or strategies will be available when first starting the game; play more to unlock new cards and open up new strategies!

THE BASICS

The game initially launched with three characters:

• The Ironclad: A fighter-themed sword-swinger
• The Silent: A masked witch
• The Defect: A robot trying its best

Later, another character was added:

• The Watcher, a stance-switching monk

Each character gets their own unique starting relic and a very basic deck. The basic deck is usually 4 Strike cards, 4 Defend cards, and one copy each of two cards that are unique to that character. The unique cards and relics will try to push players into certain strategies or demonstrate some of the character's strengths. Each character also starts with a different amount of health or HP.

The player selects their character and works their way through a series of procedurally-generated rooms along branching paths until they reach the Boss at the end of the Act.  Rooms may contain normal monsters, Elite monsters, Rest Sites where the player can heal or improve their deck, Markets where they can add new cards to their deck or obtain more relics, or treasure chests where they gain useful loot.

The player must carefully manage their HP, as they can usually only heal at Rest Sites or after completing an Act. Elite monsters give better loot when defeated, but are more likely to leave the player bloodied and bruised. Do you risk taking on the Elite, or take the safer path and hope your deck is good enough to fight the Boss?

The following strategies are by no means the only strategies available to these characters. They are summaries, however, of strategies that I have used successfully to beat the game. Slay the Spire rewards replay, so feel free to find your own path.