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WithSlay the Spire IIwell on its way, many players arelooking back on their fond memories of the original: lucky runs, fantastic decks with brilliant synergies and enough number crunching to make your head spin.
When everything comes together, and Lady Luck shines down on you, you’ll be left laughing maniacally as you take down the ascensions one by one.
Of course,Slay the Spireisn’t without its challenges. Few can say they’ve beaten Ascension 20 with all four characters. What may seem like 80 runs, in reality,will turn into many more.
Yet, naturally, the more you play, the more you improve. Pathing will seem like second nature and synergies illuminate the darkness.
Slay The Spire: Hardest Bosses, Ranked
Slay the Spire has some tricky bosses, and these are the hardest.
As we await Slay the Spire 2, perhaps it’s finally time to return to that looming tower and crush it once and for all.
Adapt & Overcome
While it’s all well and good to suggest a “perfect” deck build, frankly,your deck will very rarely check all of the boxes required for the “God” build. Slay The Spire is a game all about adaptation and patience.
One of the most important tips is toprepare for the near future and not the far.Is the Slime Boss coming up? Well, you need tools to burst him down quickly. Is there an elite in your path? No point in picking Catalyst if you have no poison cards.
While it can seem tempting to have your preferred deck in mind, if the puzzle pieces don’t show up, well you’ve just wasted a card pick that could have synergised well with something else.
Tips & Tricks For The Long Climb
Before we get into the cards, here are a few quick tips to make your Ascension 20 runs a little smoother.
The Ironclad
Ironclad is arguably the most simple class to reach Ascension 20, due to itsstraightforward playstyle and easy-to-understand mechanics.
Gain 2/3 Strength
Limit Break
Deal 14 Damage. Strength affects this card 3/5 times
Heavy Blade
Double your Strength
Deal 4/5 damage to all enemies. Heal HP equal to unblocked damage.
There are a couple of builds worth mentioning concerning the Ironclad, the most basic being a strength build. This run will have you searching for cards like Limit Break and Inflame to build up that strength bonus, as well as strong attacking cards like Whirlwind and Heavy Blade.
If you use Flex while having an artifact, you will just get the strength bonus without any downsides.
Due to this deck’s high aggressiveness,you may want to look for some healing cards like Reaper that benefit from an added strength bonus, as well as Thunderclap for strong vulnerable AOE damage. If you see Brimstone or Offering, take them.
In the early game consider strong quick damagelike Twin strikes to deal with Act 1 Elites and Bosses. In addition, Necronomicon can be incredible here, so focus on question marks in Act 2.
Corruption
Skills cost 0. Whenever you play a Skill, Exhaust it.
Dark Embrace
Whenever a card is Exhausted, draw 1 card.
Feel No Pain
Whenever a card is Exhausted, gain 3/4 block
Deal damage equal to your current block
One of the more complicated, yet rather satisfying decks to play, depends on the Power card Corruption. If you find the combo piece in Dark Embrace, and build your deck mainly with skill cards, this deck can deala serious amount of damage by utilising your block as attack power.
Important cards to look for are Body Slam (this is essential), Entrench, and Barricade, although if Calipers are an option, this is preferred. Barricade can be a very slow card early on.Cycling through your deck is the name of the game hereand exhausting cards so you can build up your block and annihilate foes with a strong Body Slam.
If Dead Branch is an option, consider a Fiend Fire combo for more possibilities.
Consider strong single-target damage for Act 1 and AoE damage for Act 2. Act 3 will be all about refining your deck.
The Silent
Corpse Explosion
Apply 6/9 Poison. When the enemy dies, deal damage equal to its max HP to ALL enemies
Double/Triple an enemies poison
This turn, your next 1/2 Skill(s) is(are) played twice
Choose a card. Next turn, add 3 copies of that card into your hand
Wraith Form
Gain 2/3 Intangible. At the end of your turn lose 1 Dexterity
This class is one of the trickier classes to play, especially in Ascension 20, asher early game potential is extremely low.
Right out of the gate, The SIlent doesn’t have access to many strong damage-dealing moves, so coming up againstGremlin Nob and Lagavulin can be a pain.On the other hand, if you make it through the first two acts, The Silent can skyrocket in power, and beone of the easiest to clear the final challenge.
Of the most consistent decks, and the one I used to beat Ascension 20 Act 4, is the poison/ Wraith Form deck. This deck will focus on damage mitigation while you slowly build up poison on the enemy.Nightmare & Wraith Form can give you so much time to help set up your poison combo, which can sometimes be tricky to pull off.
In terms of poison, you’re going to want to have cards like Corpse Explosion and Crippling Cloud for consistent AoE damage. If you can find Burst and Catalyst, then this deck is almost complete. Using an upgradedBurst and Catalyst gives you incredible single-target potential, often unlike any other deck. 999 damage is almost a certainty here.
Of course, if you see Snecko Skull or Specimen, don’t even think, just grab it.This deck doesn’t have to play many cards in one turn to be strong, making it great against bosses like the Time Eater.
Slay The Spire: 10 Best Relics, Ranked
These relics can make or break your run in Slay the Spire.
While I would also suggest a Shiv deck, in practice, I found this deck to be too inconsistent in Ascension 20. It needs a lot of pieces to work well and really struggles against the aforementioned Time Eater and Corrupt Heart. Also if you don’t pull Blade Dance early, might as well pack up and head home.
Whatever deck you decide to play, Piercing Wail and Malaise can be great pickups later on in the run. Getting rid of enemy artifacts to clear the way for your poison is a top priority.
The Defect
While The Defect may seem like one of the most complicated classes to play when starting Slay the Spire,it’s his incredible amount of buildsthat make him one of the most consistent and fun-to-play characters in the game.
The first two builds I want to suggest are all about harnessing the power of the elements to your advantage.
Channel 1 Frost for each enemy in combat
Deal 4/6 damage for each Channeled Orb.
Defragment
Gain 1/2 Focus
Biased Cognition
Gain 4/5 Focus. At the start of each turn, lose 1 Focus
Core Surge
Deal 11/15 damage. Gain 1 Artifact
Number 1 involves building up your block with frost orbs and increasing your focus to make those numbers spiral.Once you have all nine orb slots filled with frost orbs, you’ll be almost invincible.Cards like Glacier and Chill are your friends here. If you can get your hands on anInserter or Runic Capacitor,then all the better.
Cards that increase your Focus, are almost always great for The Defect, Defragment and Biased cognition spring to mind. Similarly with The Ironclad, if you can get your hands on something that gives you an artifact, like Core Surge,you can mitigate negative effects like from Biased Cognition.Free 5 focus, nice! Also similarly to the Ironclad, Calipers are great here too.
In terms of attack power, Blizzard is a bit of a trap. It’s far too slow to be useful. Instead, consider Barrage, or even employ some Dark Orbs to hide behind your frost orbs for late-game damage.
While cards like Hyper Beam may not seem useful in the long run,they can get you through a lot of Act 1 and 2 multi-enemy fights.
Electrodynamics
Lightning now hits all enemies. Channel 2/3 Lightning
Deal 8/11 damage. Apply 2/3 Lock-On
Channel x(+1) Lightning
Reinforced Body
Gain 7/9 Block x times
If the previous build is defensive, consider this to be the offensive counterpart. Instead of building up your orb slots,you’re going to want to keep it small. Less is more after all. And this makes it much better for evoking your damage-dealing lightning orbs.
Of course, cards that give you lightning orbs are great here, like Ball lightning and Electrodynamics for a strong AoE.Bullseye can be very valuable for increasing the damage of your evokes.
If you can increase the amount of energy you have, Tempest can be a fantastic card for finishing off enemies. Similarly with Thunder Strike, though it can cause you to brick if you pick this too close to the start.
Due to the offensive nature of this build, you may be stuck with low health a lot of the time. Cards likeReinforced Body can help deal with this issue, and if you throw in a few Power cards, then don’t be afraid of adding in a Self Repair or two. It never hurts to be careful.
ensure you upgrade Zap and Dual-cast super early on in the run.These cards will be with you for the whole gauntletand having 0-cost cards is fantastic in the early game, or when paired with something like All For One.
This turn, your next 1/2 Power(s) is (are) played twice.
The first card you play each turn is played twice.
Whenever you play a Power card, draw 1/2 card(s).
Equilibrium
Gain 13/16 Block. Retain your hand this turn
The final build I would recommend has taken me to the end of Ascension 20 Act 3 multiple times as I fight to reach the Heart. The power build can be all or nothing sometimes. It focuses onusing power cards with Mummified Handto stack abilities on top of each other.
Key cards in this strategy include Amplify and Heatsinks, as well as a host of other power cards to keep that draw engine functioning. This deck is a little more open-ended and can be mixed with all sorts of orbs depending on how lucky you are in the run.
Consider strong Power Cards like Echo Form and Creative AI so you never run out of cards, as well as Equilibriumso you can control what comes in and out of your hand.
This deck can get out of control very quickly with the right cards. Though one Boss is likely to stop you dead in your tracks.The Awakened One specifically counters Power Buildslike this one. Without strong defence or a frost engine, you’re likely to die to his second form if you stack too many Powers.
With all Classes: Beware of Reptomancer. She’s a run killer, and will often down you by turn 2. Prepare with AoE cards, or suffer the consequences.
The Watcher
The Watcher isarguably the easiest Class in Slay The Spire, due to the nature of her abilities and the cards that she can find. Getting double damage in Wrath Stance, is just so powerful. On top of this, when equipped with cards like Scrawl+,she can cycle through her deck extremely quickly.
Deal 5/6 damage to a random enemy 5/6 times.
Wreath of Flame
Your next Attack deals 5/8 additional damage.
Crush Joints
Deal 8/10 damage. If the previous card played was a skill, apply 1/2 Vulnerable
One of the more simple builds to play is the Wrath/ Ragnarok deck, which sees you stacking buffs with Wreath of Flame tounleash a mega Ragnarok down the road. Now if you pair this with cards that cause vulnerability like Crush Joints,you’re getting 50% vulnerability status on top of double damage.
Safe to say, just your starting deck with a single strong attack can often clear Act 1 by itself. Never mind Ragnarok.
Slay the Spire Adds The Fourth Playable Character on Consoles
Today, Slay the Spire on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One gets the Watcher, the game’s fourth playable class that first came to PC a few months ago.
If you manage to find Divinity, well thenpretty much all your hallway fights are sorted. Just be careful not to miscalculate. I’ve had an embarrassing number of runs lost because I thought I had the kill with Divinity and ended up sending myself back to floor 1.
Naturally, relics that give you more strength are great too,as they scale with Wrath Stance.
Like Water
At the end of your turn, if you are in Calm, gain 5/7 Block
Talk to the Hand
Deal 5/7 damage. Whenever you attack this enemy, gain 2/3 Block
Mental Fortress
Whenever you switch Stances, gain 4/6 Block
Spirit Shield
Gain 3/4 Block for each card in your hand.
Though it may not be obvious at first, one of The Watcher’s strongest points isn’t her attack, but her ability to stack up defence. Similarly to Frost Orb Defect,The Watcher can build up a lot of passive blockthrough cards like Talk to the Hand, Like Water and Mental Fortress to name a few. If you’re able to stack a few of these together, then all the better.
This build loves to play a lot of cards on the same turnand constantly switches between stances to get the most out of each one. Switching to calm will give you energy and changing to Wrath will give you damage potential. Utilise cards like Wallop to not only deal damage but gain block back too.
Vault gets a mention of its own here because it ispretty much broken in every deck you play it in. Who doesn’t want an extra turn?
Be careful with cards like Wish. While it seems great on paper, learning when to pick the right option is harder than it seems. Picking the wrong choice, when you could have focused on damage output can be a run-ender. Don’t be greedy.
Whenever you enter Wrath draw 2 cards.
Fear no Evil
Deal 8/11 damage. If the enemy intends to Attack, enter Calm.
Deal 9 damage. Enter Wrath.
I don’t usually like to mention infinites, but The Watcher’s isparticularly easy without you having to force it, unlike other contenders. The key to this deck is keeping it small and getting rid of basic cards that we don’t need.
What makes this deck work is Rushdown. Every time you switch to Wrath form, you’ll draw 2 cards. When you have your whole deck in your hand, by switching to calm and back to wrath,the cards that were just played will end up back in your hand. Is this fun? Yes. Does it feel like you’re cheating? Also yes.
This deck can take you through almost every fight in the game, though by using it, you may miss out on other fun builds that the Watcher can employ. Just look out for Time Eater, as usual.That card play limit can mess this deck up if you’re not careful.
Be sure to consider Runic Pyramid or Mental Fortress to give this deck a bit more survivability while you set up your combo.
10 Games To Play If You Love Slay The Spire
If you need a break from Slay the Spire but are still craving similar games, check out this list to find a great similar experience.
What makes Slay The Spire so amazing, is that you don’t always play the same deck. While you may have similar cards, you will always have unique variations on the same build, and the events and relics provide so much replayability. Even once you’ve cleared Ascension 20, don’t be surprised if the Spire pulls you back in to top your previous score.
