The Waterfall Giant is a deceptively tough boss in Slay the Spire 2. This boss is encountered in the Underdocks, one of the alternative locations for Act 1. It definitely serves its purpose as a gatekeeper for higher acts, since it blocks slow decks from progressing further.
What makes the Waterfall Giant challenging is that it tests players on whether they can make a balanced deck in time for the boss. Preparing your deck along the way is especially important, which is why we’ll also take a look at the best cards for each character to defeat the boss.
Waterfall Giant is a battle of attrition
The Waterfall Giant is a straightforward speed trial, demanding you beat it fast before it ramps up a mechanic that can put an abrupt end to your run.
Waterfall Giant’s key mechanic is called Steam Eruption, represented by the steam cloud icon at the bottom of its health bar. When killed, Steam Eruption will deal its final amount to the player at the end of the next turn. The boss spends its turns ramping up the damage every turn while also slowing down the fight with debuffs and heals.
There’s no need to memorize patterns for this boss. Waterfall Giant does a combination of attacking, blocking, healing, and applying Frail to lower attack, all while cranking up the damage on Steam Eruption. It’s a battle of attrition, and it’s worth tanking a few hits just to end the fight sooner.
When killed, Waterfall Giant will change its intent to a bomb icon and then explode at the start of your turn. This is why it’s important to finish the fight faster, so you’ll need fewer blocks to survive this explosion. Potions that grant block and dexterity will come in handy for this phase.
Preparing for Waterfall Giant
Since Waterfall Giant attempts to wear you down while ramping up Steam Eruption, builds with high, sustained damage or scaling are how you’ll beat the boss effortlessly.
Ironclad and Regent will have the time of their lives here. The boss can’t do anything about Ironclad’s scaling strength and hard-hitting attacks, while Regent is free to stack up damage on Sovereign Blade. Waterfall Giant is a free boss for these two, and it’s Soul Fysh that they should be more worried about.
Defect and Necrobinder also have enough ramping damage and many defensive tools to protect them from Steam Eruption. However, this still depends on whether they can pull their ramping cards before the fight.
For Defect, a Dualcasted Dark orb is a painless way to end the fight. However, you’ll need ways to ramp up Focus for Lightning. The 0-cost build centered around Claw is also effective, but it might be too early in the game to have all the core pieces ready.
Necrobinder’s Ethereal cards have many high-damaging but low-cost attacks that make quick work of Waterfall Giant. Builds centered around ramping up Osty and Unleash can also melt through the boss’s huge health pool with a few turns of set-up. Just be careful that Osty doesn’t go out early, or you’ll need to ramp Summon cards all over again.
Finally, Silent has the hardest time against Waterfall Giant. Most of Silent’s gameplay is built on attrition and defence, too. Two immovable objects mean that this fight will stall out into later turns.
At the very least, Silent has consistent defensive options to keep alive on the final explosion. Commit to cards with Poison effects like Bouncing Flask, Envenom, and Poisoned Stab as these can add up fast to deplete chunks of Waterfall Giant’s health.
