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Introduction

This is a fan made strategy guide for one of my favorite rougelikes: Slay the Spire. It's meant to help beginners and experienced players alike, focusing somewhat on the decision-making behind playing the game. Currently the endgame content - strategies to beat high ascension levels - isn't touched upon.

Slay the Spire is a highly successful roguelike deck-building indie game developed and published by Mega Crit. It's available for PC on Steam, on GOG, and on Mega Crit's website, for mobile on Google Play, and for the Nintendo Switch.

The game is set in a mysterious tower housing monsters, treasures and magic: called the Spire. Choose one of 4 characters and embark on a journey towards the top. Collect cards and relics on the way and do your best to survive!

Game News

The game's much anticipated sequel, Slay the Spire 2 is in development and is set to release in 2025. Check out the trailer on YouTube.

New Player's Guide

It's a difficult and complex game, don't get discouraged by losses. That said, the game provides plenty of resources and opportunities, so once you get familiar with most mechanics you'll see great results.

All runs are randomly generated, so you can't memorize upcoming events. You can learn the mechanics instead - and adapt to each unique situation. The game provides all the info you need to make decisions, make sure to use them: read your cards, effect descriptions, and check out enemy actions before making a move. You can view your Discard and Draw pile in combat or check your whole deck before modifying it in any way.

In general think before taking any action and watch out for developing bad habits. I'll provide examples where it applies.

If you're struggling to win, focus on learning one aspect of the game first, then move on to the next. Start with combat, then deckbuilding, then exploration and finally resource management.

Rundown on how to win a run

Starting out:

  • Choose a starting bonus: Neow’s Lament applies to Elites and bosses as well – so if any is within 3 combat locations that means an easy treasure for you. Replacing your starting Relic or picking up a strong card are also good options.
  • Try to pick up easy treasure, otherwise target enemies for cards and gold. Don't face elites without picking up strong cards first or if your health is too low.

Combat:

  • In combat prioritize dealing damage to kill opponents. That's the best way of mitigating damage. Many enemies have a way of growing in power, so don't be too defensive. Regular foes are easy to take down without getting hurt, but against elites and bosses it's worth sacrificing a little health now, to avoid taking a lot more later.
  • If you can do it quickly, start by killing the most threatening foe. Killing numerous weaklings is a good alternative. But never deal damage aimlessly, always focus on killing.
  • Don't underestimate opponents who put Status cards in your hand or deck. If your hand gets clogged and you become a sitting duck, you won't be able to attack or defendb properly.

Deckbuilding:

  • Your starting attacks and defensive cards are weak, find a way to "remove" them. The easiest solution is by adding better cards, so you'll have alternatives to play. Not every card needs to be good in your deck, of the starting 5 you draw, initially you can only play 1-3 with your energy. So, if about ~60% of your deck is good that'll do. That's why you don't need to delete or upgrade every card you start with. It also gives you cushion - if you picked up a wrong card, alone it's not enough to ruin your deck. It takes repeated, unfixed mistakes to lose.
  • At the start you don't have synergies in your deck, so pick cards based on their individual value. Cards with big impact, that aren't too costly in energy. You need better attacks first, don't take too many defenses early. Some high impact cards have drawbacks, but with thinking you'll find workarounds to them. Your double-edged attacks and offensive skills will be the basis of your deck and provide a foundation to build synergies on. Once you have meaningful support for an archetype, it's time to pick up some matching niche cards. Be careful, some cards are too niche and have too little payoff for their high risk.
  • Not every deck needs to specialize, you can win a run just by picking plain high-quality cards and using them smartly. It's better than forcing a synergy you don't have enough support for and losing because of it.
  • Other than choosing what to pick, it's important to consider if you should pick a card at all to begin with. Don't pick up cards automatically, always compare your options to your current deck. If the new addition doesn't have a higher value than the average card in your deck, then skip it. For niche cards try to estimate how often it will work, versus how often it will let you down. (Multiply their impact with their usefulness chance to get an expected value. Though card value cannot be measured in a vacuum, you also need to take into account the possible situations in which you'll be holding them.)
  • An important part of deckbuilding is energy management. It's good to pick up low cost or 0 energy cards, because they increase the number of actions you can take in a turn. A free defensive card can free up energy to attack with more power. A free attack can make a costly combo-piece worth playing, increasing your damage output. Most powers are risky to play due to their delayed impact, free cards can remedy that.
  • But don't pick up too many of them! If your hand consists of mostly cheap cards, chances are you can't spend all your energy, and without good synergies their impact will be low.
  • On the flipside don't take too expensive or niche cards without support, they will sit in your hand never to be played. Powers are the worst offenders many don't have an immediate impact.
  • Overall, it's good to balance your deck by picking free cards to have more options and expensive ones for their high impact.
  • Once you raise your max energy above 3, you can commit more to expensive cards or build decks that rely on elaborate comboes. Increasing your energy is one of the most effective ways of getting stronger. Your only source of permanent extra energy is boss relics offered for bosskills. They all come with a heavy drawback, think it through carefully which one you can handle the most.
  • Cards that generate energy (or reduce cost) tend to be excellent picks for most decks despite their drawbacks or restrictions.
  • Card draw is less important early on. On its own it does nothing but spends your energy. However, it synergizes well with cheap cards and increased max mana. Themed decks gain consistency by cycling through the deck faster and the increased hand-size enables more synergies. Rush decks gain extra fuel. In the luckiest cases it completes an infinite deck.

Choosing your path:

  • Chests and campsites are always good to visit. Campsites are crucial for healing, otherwise should be used for upgrading your most important cards.
  • While you have plenty of health and need more cards, attack enemies for their rewards. It also lets you measure the quality of your deck, giving you ideas on how to further improve it. If your fights are easy, it's good to hunt down elites for relics. Their paths often lead to chests for more treasure.
  • Events are unpredictable, unless your health is too low they are worth the risk.
  • You should ignore shops until you have a decent amount of gold, this is the only location without a guaranteed reward. Buy cards if you need more power/synergy, remove unwanted ones if your deck only needs refinement. Relics tend to be expensive, but if you have the gold for it, and they support your deck then buy them. Potions are the least important, only buy them if you have excess gold, or need help for an elite or bossfight.
  • The biggest mistake to make is to keep fighting well into low health, other than that all routes are fine.

Fighting Elites and Bosses:

  • They work much the same as regular fights however due to their high HP and damage you must come prepared. Don’t start the fight with low health, pack some potions and have a deck that’s really efficient or is flexible enough to handle different threats.
  • Some bosses/elites have unique abilities, take the time to read what they do and come up with countermeasures. They all punish a certain playstyle, which makes it risky to build a one-trick pony deck. Not to get hard-countered always have some flexibility in your builds.
  • Some bosses have more than one phase, so don’t waste your consumables in the fight.
  • These fights tend to be long, which is the perfect opportunity to use powers. Elaborate combos or poison also help a lot.
  • When facing a boss/elite with minions you only need to kill the main threat. The rest will flee without their leader.

Following these tips will help you complete the acts and possibly win you the game.

Advanced Strategies

Each character has their unique mechanics and playstyle and requires a different set of skills to play efficiently. To find more character-specific advice check out their Characters page.

Search through their card collection for theory-crafting!

Below are some recommended sites for further aid.

Recommended Sites

For detailed description on every in-game effect, list of all cards and plenty of deck archetypes and many more, visit the Wiki.

Check out Steam guides for detailed player-written walk-throughs.

Watch famous Slay the Spire players on YouTube for their insight:

If you have recommendations too, share them on the Feedback page.