The original Slay the Spire is a game that I’ve played practically my whole adult life. Hundreds of hours spread over the years, etching at the highest Ascension levels with the whole roster, were spent in different cities and on different systems.
Every time someone asked me what my favorite games were, the list may change, but Slay the Spire is strongly embedded in there. Whether vanilla, modded, seeded, or daily runs, it was a comfortable game I could always come back to for fresh runs.
Despite coming in as a grizzled veteran, the sequel has been humbling me with its many changes and new enemies. As I relearn the game all over again, now is the ideal time to go over the best Slay the Spire 2 tips.
Build with the cards you get
If you’re coming in from digital card games like Magic: The Gathering Arena and Hearthstone, there might be an urge to come in expecting to build certain archetypes or specialized decks per run. This just isn’t possible in Slay the Spire 2, as you’ll need to stay flexible to build with the cards and relics you receive in each run.
Forcing a predetermined deck creates bad choices when choosing card rewards. Oftentimes, this manifests in choosing combo pieces without the proper setup. How many times have you picked up Sly cards for Silent and couldn’t find enough Discard? Or the times you’ve skipped out on Forge cards for Regent because that’s what you already built in the previous run?
It’s the very essence of a roguelike deckbuilder. No matter how many times you’ve played that character, every run is a fresh start.
Create balanced decks before specializing
Building balanced decks means drafting to cover all your bases and cover your weaknesses. This Slay the Spire 2 tip is especially more important now compared to the first game. One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s more punishing to build into specialized decks built around one core card.
Some cards that created infinite loops, like Ironclad’s Dropkick and Defect’s 0-cost loop, are absent in the sequel. It’s also the reason why I think Watcher, a character so broken once players figured out how consistent it was to create an infinite, was removed in Slay the Spire 2. Additionally, Silent has to really work to stack Poison now that the absent Catalyst isn’t there to double or triple stack.
Another reason is that the enemies have adapted in Slay the Spire 2, with many of them built particularly to counter certain decks. Some examples are the Waterfall Giant boss, a tempo check that punishes slow decks with poor offense, and the elite in the Underdocks with a hard cap on how much damage it receives per round.
An important Slay the Spire 2 tip is to build solid cards that function well on their own, before slowly specializing with synergies. Pick boring cards that do what your basic cards do, but better.
Newcomer Necrobinder has many 1-cost cards that have more damage than a basic Strike and block than a regular Defend, yet come with additional effects like applying Vulnerable, Doom, or Draw. Ironclad has many cards that are a better version of Strike, but hit harder while buffing him up.
Proactively thin your deck
The best Slay the Spire 2 tip for reaching higher Ascensions is achieving deck consistency. You want every hand to feel like a good turn or flexible enough for most situations. Yet, this isn’t made by getting every single card given to you; this is through thinning and compressing the deck.
- Skip cards that don’t make your deck better; they’ll bog down your draws and bloat the card pool.
- Visit the shop and ask the Merchant to remove a card from your deck. It’s best to remove the basic Strikes and Defends since you’ll be adding better cards as you go along—aside from taking off curses, of course.
- Events often have ways to remove cards by paying gold or choosing the option.
Now, thinning your deck means removing the duds and not strictly meaning having an arbitrary maximum deck size. The best players in the original game often ran with deck sizes that would sometimes go near or above 30 cards.
Path towards elites, not away from them
Relics are a major source of power in Slay the Spire 2. Most of the time, they provide bonuses that help with combat encounters, while other relics, like Mummified Hand, are core pieces for certain builds.
Because of that, another Slay the Spire 2 tip is to aggressively path towards elites. Elites are challenging fights, but the rewards are more than worth it: relics and more gold, on top of the normal card rewards and possible potions. I like to save my time by challenging 2-3 elites in the first act, and if I don’t make it out, then I simply die and go again.
Treat health as a resource
In Slay the Spire 2, you lose the run when you lose all your health. This obvious fact is a reminder that as long as you’re above 0, then you still have a chance to make it to the top. In one run, I gambled a little too hard and ended with a single point of max HP. Did I win? No, but I surprisingly went all the way to Act 2 with the bare minimum health.
Get comfortable with pathing through the map with lower health; this will mean that you can Smite at Rest Sites to upgrade cards, or trade health at events for better rewards.
Adding on to this Slay the Spire 2 tip is that you need to stop hoarding potions and use them often. Oftentimes, potions aren’t going to salvage a boss fight gone bad, but using them in elites or combat encounters means that you’re finishing the fight faster and taking less damage.
Unlock Epochs for more options
Here’s a Slay the Spire 2 tip that’s unique to the sequel: unlock more Epochs through your timeline for more options to use during the run. You may have been acquainted with the epoch system and timeline already, as it’s how you unlock playable characters. But this is also the game’s main metaprogression for unlocking everything from relics, cards, potions, Ancients, and locations.
If you’re stuck, browse through the timeline and find achievable goals like beating acts, bosses, and elites with certain characters. Maybe trying new characters and following these Slay the Spire 2 tips is enough to clear your first Ascension.
