Last week, I talked about a roguelike card game called “Balatro.” I briefly mentioned the genre and some other popular titles. One of those would be the infamous “Slay the Spire,” said to be the best single-player card video games out there.

As discussed in previous issues of the Icebox, a roguelike is a strategy game in which a player progresses through different enemies with options to acquire items, weapons and other tools to help improve their performance and make it further into the journey. The game ends when either the player wins against the predetermined conditions or if they finally fall after a seemingly endless wave of battles and upgrades.

“Slay the Spire” has the standard objective, which is in fact to slay the “spire” which is actually a domain of evil that appeared in the mortal realm one day. The domain attracts and houses all kinds of monsters and villains.

Upon starting a new game, you select a hero and start with their deck. Then, you defeat enemies in each level and progress on a map where you can choose the route you will take. Be careful, as you cannot go backward and cannot switch to a parallel route once you have chosen another path. In between enemies you might run into a merchant for items. These items include potions for temporarily enhancing strength, dexterity, health, energy or money as well as cards and charms for permanent buffs. There are also some locations where the player can rest and either choose to restore health or upgrade a card. There will be more about upgrading later.

After defeating all enemies in a level, you are rewarded with money that can be used at the merchant’s place or during random interactions on the map, some of which can be beneficial or very cursing. At the end of the round there is the chance to add a new card to your deck or gain some extra health to keep you going. The faster you beat the enemies, the better your health bar will look.

Some enemies may inflict you with junk cards or Curse cards. Junk cards fill your deck for the remainder of the round and have no ability but cost energy. Some of them might give you temporary disadvantages. Curse cards are far worse. They can be acquired through bosses or events and stay in your deck indefinitely, often packaged with extremely detrimental effects when you attempt to delete them.

On the other hand, you always have the option of upgrading cards. Upgrades can be done through events and by some items. They mostly enhance the numerical stats of a card, so damage, health, block or the energy cost. It’s good to constantly upgrade as many cards as possible to maximize damage output per round.

The Ironclad deck is centered around standard practice of strength and attack power. The best way to build this deck is to maximize strength while having a solid base defense for quick rounds. The Silent deck is centered around poisoning and dexterity. The strategy for this deck is to maximize dexterity and to take advantage of effects that weaken the opponent. 

The Defected deck is Slay the Spire’s version of a magic-caster. This character has three slots above its head for different spells that each have a passive effect and an “evoked” effect which occurs when you displace the spell from its slot. The displacement can happen by flooding your spell slots or using an item or card that evokes the spell. Once evoked, the spell is gone and the passive ability goes away with it. The strategy for Defected decks is to maximize your spells, possibly grouping them together, so that your passive damage and enhancements alone can be bad for your enemies.

The Watcher deck focuses on holding different stances: Calm, Wraith, Divinity. Each of them comes with its own perks both for entering and leaving the stance. A deck for the Watcher should focus on a clean transition between stances and maximizing the output when entering and leaving each.

It is understandable that all of this might just be too much information for you to grasp. I recommend trying the game for yourself either on PC or Mobile to see if it’s good for you. I promise that slaying the spire is not very time consuming and it would not take you long to be good at it.