Slay the Spire is a great roguelike game from Mega Crit Games, with a lot of details, factors, and features to consider while playing through. The game can bring a lot of difficulties, especially to an unprepared player, or who tries these genres of the game for the first time.
If you have difficulties with the Slay the Spire – it is absolutely normal. I have gone through almost all the levels of Ascension and I can say that even the smallest details can affect the outcome of each battle.
So, to help you learn Slay the Spire better, I decided to put together a list of the most important Slay the Spire tips and created this guide to help you get through the game as any character, improve and speed up your walkthrough, and complete the Ascension levels.
1. Check the Map and Plan the Path
One of the most important skills in Slay The Spire is planning, without which you won’t get far. This includes planning your path on the map ahead of time. Look at the location of campfires on the map, stores, elite enemies, and question marks. One good option at the start will be to think through the route across the rooms with campfires to restore health and improve cards. Whenever possible, you should go into the stores.
Moreover, don’t be afraid to experiment. During the passage, you can get certain artifacts that can make you prioritize rooms with elite enemies or with question marks. This is also worth considering when planning your route.
2. Fight the Elite Enemies
During your first playthrough of Slay The Spire, you’ll probably think you should avoid battles with elite enemies, but that’s a mistake. It took me a couple dozen hours of playing to realize this.
One of the best strategies of Slay the Spire is to balance your route and enter elite enemies in the first act because in these rooms you will be rewarded with good artifacts, lots of gold, and strong cards. Without this, you’ll have a harder time on the next, more difficult floors.
Also, by fighting against strong opponents you will learn how to better manage your resources and think through your combat tactics. However, don’t go after elite enemies too often in one go, because you won’t always be able to recover your health.
3. Combine Different Cards and Synergies
Slay the Spire has very interesting deck-building mechanics, as you can create many of the most incredible combinations. Sometimes some cards may seem useless or even negative to you, although, in fact, they are not. Often these cards will synergize well with certain artifacts or other cards.
It’s important to spend a few runs testing different mechanics to see not only the obvious combinations but also more complex and strong builds.
4. Do Not Add Extra Cards to the Deck
After every battle, you can add cards to your deck, and sometimes that decision can lead to negative consequences. One common mistake players make is when they are given a choice of 3 irrelevant cards, and they choose one of them and add it to the deck.
This can lead to having 35-40 cards in your deck at the end, and during a boss battle, one of the key cards will be one of the last cards, and you simply won’t have time to get it before your opponent beats you. In short, the more cards you have in your hand, the less likely you are to get the right card the next turn.
So, the main point of this Slay the Spire tip is don’t be afraid to skip adding cards to your deck if none of the cards fit your combination. Also, use the card removal service so that strong and needed cards come into your hand more often. Often a 10-card deck can be many times stronger than a 40-card deck.
5. Adapt Your Strategy
One of the most enjoyable things about Slay the Spire is the creation of strong synergies and combos. However, many, even experienced players, make one mistake. During the first act, you can get some cards from one combo, get hung up on it, and miss out on other strong cards, which can lead to bad results.
It’s much better to take most of the strong cards at the start to effectively defeat bosses and elite enemies. As you progress, you can finish one of the synergies by the end of the game and remove the other cards. That way, you’ll have a great, strong deck by the final boss. Don’t be afraid to experiment and don’t skip any strong cards.
6. Defend in Right Time
Defending in combat is important in Slay the Spire, but not always the right thing to do. You need to choose the right moment to defend, depending on the cards in your hand, on the cards you can get, and on the actions of the opponent. In combat, it is very important to roughly estimate the future actions of the opponent, the damage from his attacks, and from this to build your defense and attack.
There are situations when you can defend and get 5-10 damage, but after a few rounds you are missing a couple of attack points to finish the enemy, and he will do 15-20 damage points to you. Because of this, sometimes it’s important to calculate a couple of moves and miss a few damage points now so that you can finish off the enemy faster in the future and not take 3 times as much damage.
Moreover, there are some enemies that you can’t slow down at all, as they build up their power with the duration of the battle. In such cases, the best solution is often to attack.
7. Balance Your Deck
It often happens that you can’t build a full combination of cards, or you don’t find strong synergies. In such cases, you need to be careful when adding new cards.
Before adding new cards, look at what you’re missing in your deck: Defense or Attack cards. The main emphasis should be on defense, as missing an extra 10-15 damage can be critical. Moreover, if you don’t need to heal yourself, you can improve your cards.
Also, pay special attention to cards with damage on several characters at once, as they can be extremely useful when killing several squishy enemies or minions that total a lot of damage.
Furthermore, pay attention to your character enhancement or enemy-weakening cards. These can also become critical, especially during boss battles.
