Slay the Spire 2

Short answer: Take cards liberally in early Act 1, get increasingly selective through mid-run, and skip most rewards by late game. Aim for ~20-25 cards by end of Act 3.

By Stage of the Run

The Key Question

Before every card reward, ask: "What bad draw does this card replace?" If the answer is "nothing," skip.

A card is worth taking when it fixes one of three jobs:

1. Early damage (kills things before they kill you)

2. Early block (survives hits you can't avoid)

3. Scaling (wins long fights against bosses/elites)

Ideal Deck Size

Smaller isn't always better:

• Status effects and curses dilute tiny decks proportionally harder
• Some builds (Perfected Strike, large-hand Ironclad) want more cards
• Strong card draw makes a 30-card deck feel like a 20-card deck

But too fat is usually bad:

• 40-card deck = might not see key cards until turn 8
• Drawing the right block card vs a 45-damage boss becomes a coin flip

STS2 vs STS1 Shift

This is a big change from the original game:

• STS1 meta: High-level players skipped ~85% of card rewards and aimed for ultra-thin "infinite" decks
• STS2 shift: Devs actively pushed against low-decking. Infinite combos still exist but tank your win rate due to increased RNG
• STS2 rewards well-rounded decks with AoE, spread damage, and minion control. Pure single-target combos get punished more often
• Quest Cards (new mechanic) add dead weight to your deck until completed — your deck needs to carry that extra weight

Character-Specific Notes

Regent: Wants 12-14 cards. Star Engine builds need tight cycling — 20+ cards means dead turns. Every card needs a clear purpose.

Ironclad: More flexible on size. Strength-scaling builds are most consistent at high ascension. Exhaust cards are premium since they don't clog after use. Perfected Strike / Hellraiser builds can run 25-30.

Silent: Starts with extra draw (Ring of the Snake), compensating for slightly larger decks. Acrobatics is near-mandatory. Wraith Form + draw is the key to high-ascension clears.

Necrobinder: Osty builds want focused decks where most draws make Osty attack, grow, or survive. Build the engine before chasing flashy payoffs. Souls builds are most reliable at high ascension.

Defect: Rewards careful selection more than any other character. Cards can actively conflict (Consume vs Hyperbeam). Accidental bloat is especially punishing. Echo Form is the single most important card to prioritize.

Rules of Thumb

1. Remove Strikes and Defends aggressively — card removal at shops is one of the highest-value plays in the game

2. Upgrade at rest sites ~95% of the time vs healing — upgraded cards noticeably improve win rates

3. Exhaust cards are premium — they don't clog your deck after use, effectively "free" additions

4. Build the engine before the payoff — don't draft payoff cards before you have the support to activate them

5. Card draw changes everything — evaluate deck size relative to your draw power, not just raw count

6. Prefer consistency over flashiness — a card that works on most turns beats a flashy card that misses half the time

7. Synergy-focused decks have ~40% higher win rates than raw damage builds (from early access data)

No formal community-consensus tier lists exist yet (game launched Early Access March 5, 2026), but aggregating guide evaluations and community discussion across multiple sources:

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ACT 1: NEOW (The Whale) — 20 blessings

Always appears at the start of every run.

S Tier (Almost Always Pick)

A Tier (Strong / Reliable)

B Tier (Situational / Mixed)

C Tier (Generally Avoid)

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ACT 2: OROBAS (The Rainbow Dragon) — 10 blessings

Cheerful space wyrm focused on colorless cards, cross-class synergy, and rule-breaking.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

C Tier

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ACT 2: PAEL (The Melting Dragon) — 10 blessings

Slow, somber dragon rewarding patience, sequencing, and delayed gratification.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

C Tier

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ACT 2: TEZCATARA (The Woman / Witch) — 10 blessings

Sweet old witch offering powerful-but-temporary "deal with the devil" blessings.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

C Tier

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ACT 3: DARV (The Hoarder) — 12 blessings

Legacy boss relic pool from STS1. Foundational, run-altering mechanics without trickery.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

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ACT 3: NONUPEIPE (Serendipity Incarnate) — 10 blessings

Princess of absurd economic and mechanical extremes.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

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ACT 3: TANX (Khimera King) — 10 blessings

Pure aggression specialist. Rewards attack-heavy, multi-card-per-turn decks.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

C Tier

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ACT 3: VAKUU (The First Demon) — 10 blessings

Highest-risk Ancient. Potent effects with horrifying downsides.

S Tier

A Tier

B Tier

C Tier

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ANCIENTS THEMSELVES — Overall Ranking

Best Act 2 Ancients:

1. Pael — Pael's Blood is universally strong; several other blessings are excellent

2. Orobas — Driftwood and Sand Castle are top-tier; cross-class options are exciting

3. Tezcatara — Strong short-term power but blessings often expire or have significant downsides

Best Act 3 Ancients:

1. Darv — Most consistently strong pool (Runic Pyramid, Snecko Eye, Empty Cage are proven)

2. Nonupeipe — Highest ceiling with Apotheosis, 999 Gold, and Fur Coat

3. Tanx — Excellent for aggressive decks; Throwing Axe is a standout

4. Vakuu — Highest risk; some blessings are amazing but many can destroy your run

5 orb types total. 4 returning from STS1 + 1 new (Glass).

Lightning Orb

• Passive: 3+Focus damage to random enemy (end of turn)
• Evoke: 8+Focus damage to random enemy
• Focus: +1 Focus = +1 passive dmg and +1 evoke dmg. E.g., at 3 Focus: passive 6 dmg, evoke 11 dmg.
• Key cards: Zap, Ball Lightning, Electrodynamics, Thunder Strike

Frost Orb

• Passive: 2+Focus Block (end of turn)
• Evoke: 5+Focus Block
• Focus: +1 Focus = +1 passive Block and +1 evoke Block. E.g., at 3 Focus: passive 5 Block, evoke 8 Block. This is why Frost was the turtle engine in STS1 — high Focus made every Frost orb generate massive Block each turn.
• Key cards: Coolheaded, Glacier, Cold Snap, Ice Lance

Dark Orb

• Passive: Adds 6+Focus to stored evoke value Y (end of turn). No combat effect on its own — just grows.
• Evoke: Deal Y damage to lowest HP enemy. Y starts at 6 when channeled.
• Focus: +1 Focus = +1 added to Y per turn. E.g., at 3 Focus: stores 9 per turn instead of 6. After 4 turns with 3 Focus: Y = 6 + 9×3 = 33 damage nuke. Compounds over time — the longer it sits, the bigger the payoff.
• Key cards: Darkness, Doom and Gloom, Null

Plasma Orb

• Passive: Gain 1 Energy (START of turn — different timing from others)
• Evoke: Gain 2 Energy
• Focus: NOT affected. Always 1 Energy passive, 2 Energy evoke regardless of Focus. The only orb immune to Focus.
• Key cards: Fusion, Meteor Strike

Glass Orb (NEW in STS2)

• Passive: 4+Focus damage to ALL enemies (end of turn). Countdown decreases by 1 each turn — passive fades over time.
• Evoke: 8+Focus damage to ALL enemies
• Focus: +1 Focus = +1 starting passive dmg and +1 evoke dmg. E.g., at 3 Focus: passive starts at 7 AoE (then 6, 5, 4... as countdown ticks). Evoke deals 11 AoE.
• Unique: built-in timer. Best evoked before countdown expires.
• Key cards: Glasswork, Refract, Spinner

General Mechanics

• Orb slots start at 3 (expandable via Capacitor etc.)
• Channeling when full evokes the oldest (leftmost) orb
• Cracked Core (starter relic) channels 1 Lightning at combat start
• Lightning/Frost/Dark/Glass passives: end of turn. Plasma: start of turn.

No dedicated Pael tier list exists yet (game is 6 days old), but aggregating scattered community opinions:

Top Tier

1. Pael's Blood (+1 card draw per turn)

Universally the best. Extra draw every turn of every combat, no conditions. Good on every character, every build. Comparable to a permanent extra draw relic.

2. Pael's Wing (sacrifice card rewards → relic every 2 sacrifices)

Gets "very very silly" with relic stacking. You skip card rewards but accumulate relics at absurd rates. Especially strong on Silent (kill-reward attack synergy). Also thins your deck by skipping adds.

3. Pael's Tooth (remove 5 cards, 1 returns upgraded per combat)

Massive immediate consistency boost — 5 free removals. The return rate is slow and cards come back upgraded, so net positive. Universally strong.

4. Pael's Flesh (+1 colorless energy from turn 3 onward)

Extra energy per turn is always strong. Turn 3 delay is the only downside, but hard fights last well past that. Energy-hungry characters (Ironclad) love it especially.

Mid Tier

5. Pael's Eye (skip playing cards → exhaust hand + extra turn, once per combat)

Game-breaking ceiling if built around, but requires deliberate "skip turn" which is costly. Build-around pick, not a safe default. Best in exhaust-heavy or near-empty-hand decks.

6. Pael's Tears (unspent colorless energy → +2 energy next turn)

Praised for adding utility to "dud turns." Good energy smoothing but requires leaving energy unspent. Anti-synergy with X-cost cards. Colorless energy only.

7. Pael's Growth (enchant a card with Clone — duplicate at rest sites)

Entirely depends on what you clone. Clone a key Rare = game-defining. Clone a mediocre card = waste. High ceiling, low floor.

Lower Tier

8. Pael's Legion (double Block from a card, then sleep 2 turns)

Only fires every 3rd turn effectively. Best with massive single Block cards but the cooldown makes it inconsistent vs always-on relics.

9. Pael's Horn (add 2 Relax to deck: 15 Block, next turn draw 2 + gain 2 energy)

Serviceable but adds 2 cards to your deck (dilution). The Relax cards are decent but exhaust on use. Not exciting.

10. Pael's Claw (enchant all Defends with Goopy: exhaust + permanent +1 Block)

Weakest pick. Your Defends exhaust after use — you lose them permanently during combat. The +1 Block scaling is glacially slow. Losing Defends early leaves you vulnerable.

Character-Specific Notes

• Silent: Wing is exceptional (kill-reward synergy), Blood always good
• Ironclad: Flesh (energy hungry), Legion (high-Block cards like Barricade)
• Defect: Blood and Tears (energy banking works well with orb turns)
• Necrobinder: Blood and Tooth (deck thinning helps Doom/Soul cycling)

The Defect has 4 main archetypes, with a major philosophy shift from STS1: Focus is now mostly temporary, killing the old permanent Frost-Focus turtle strategy.

1. Claw / Zero-Cost Spam (strong, fan-favorite)

• Claw gains +2 damage permanently each time any Claw is played in combat
• Feral (NEW Power) — returns first 0-cost card played each turn to hand (Echo Form for 0-costs)
• All for One retrieves all 0-cost cards from discard
• Key support: Scrape (cycling), FTL, Go for the Eyes, Hologram
• Keep deck lean, intentionally de-emphasise orbs
• More reliable than STS1 thanks to Feral

2. Orb / Focus Build (Lightning + Frost)

• Classic Defect: channel orbs, boost with Focus
• Big change: Defragment moved to Rare; Biased Cognition removed (Ancient-only now)
• Most Focus gains are now temporary (current turn only)
• Coolheaded — universally must-take (Frost + draw 2 upgraded)
• Key cards: Ball Lightning, Cold Snap, Glacier, Capacitor, Loop, Thunder
• Can't turtle with permanent Focus anymore — play more aggressively

3. Dark Orb Build

• Dark Orbs passively increase stored damage each turn, nuke lowest HP enemy on Evoke
• Consuming Shadow — channels 2 Dark Orbs and evokes leftmost at end of turn (no need to fill all slots)
• More viable than in STS1 thanks to new support cards
• Good scaling for longer boss fights

4. Status Card Archetype (NEW to STS2)

• Intentionally generate Status cards, then exploit them
• Flak Cannon — exhausts all Status cards for scaling damage
• Smokestack — 5 damage to all enemies per Status created
• Fight Through, Compact — more Status interactions
• Entirely new build path that didn't exist in STS1

New Orb Type: Glass

• AoE orb: deals 4+Focus damage to ALL enemies each turn
• Ticks down by 1 each turn, disappears at 0
• Key cards: Glasswork, Spinner, Refract

Big Changes from STS1

• Focus mostly temporary now (biggest shift)
• Defragment: Uncommon → Rare
• Biased Cognition: removed from standard pool
• Consume: appears to be cut entirely
• Must prioritise damage in Act 1, can't just stack Frost
• More multi-enemy encounters make AoE more valuable

Core Mechanic

Transform removes a card from your deck and replaces it with a random different card of any rarity. It's simultaneously a removal + addition, triggering relic effects for both.

Key Rules

Not garbage in, garbage out. Input rarity does NOT affect output. Transforming a Strike has the same chance of yielding a Rare as transforming an Uncommon. Every eligible card in the pool is equally likely.

Color-locked:

• Class cards → random card of the same class
• Colorless cards → random colorless card
• Curses → another curse (curses stay curses)
• Special cards → colorless card

Cannot transform into:

• Itself (always a different card)
• Basic cards (Strike/Defend)

Cannot be transformed:

• Irremovable cards (e.g., Necronomicurse, bottled cards)

What happens with Apotheosis?

Apotheosis is colorless, so it transforms into a random different colorless card. You won't get a class card from it. With 64 colorless cards in STS2, this is a wide pool — could be great or terrible.

Relic Interactions

• Ceramic Fish — grants gold on the card addition
• Omamori — can negate a curse being added (effectively free curse removal)
• Darkstone Periapt — grants +6 Max HP when a curse is added
• Molten Egg — if the new card is an attack, it auto-upgrades

Sources of Transform

• Astrolabe (Ancient) — transform 3 cards, upgrade them
• Pandora's Box (Ancient) — transform ALL Strikes and Defends
• Transmogrifier (Event/Shrine) — transform 1 card
• Various other relics (New Leaf, Phylactery Unbound, Claws)

No — one enchantment per card max. You can enchant multiple different cards in your deck, but each card can only hold one enchantment. They're permanent and can't be removed.

Every enchantment is a risk/reward trade-off with a mandatory downside (shown as purple text on the card). Examples:

• Corrupted: +50% damage, but lose 3 HP per play
• Others reduce cost but lower max HP, or apply debuffs but cost extra energy

Best practice: put enchantments on cards you play frequently but can absorb the downside (e.g., HP-drain on a card in a high-block deck).

These are all from the Ancient Nonupeipe (Act 3). Considered one of the strongest Ancient pools.

Ranking for this specific run: Brilliant Scarf > Jewelry Box > Looming Fruit

Brilliant Scarf is the pick here. Reasons:

1. Apotheosis is diminished by Molten Egg — your attack cards (which in a Doom build are a large chunk) already auto-upgrade on pickup. Apotheosis only adds value for skills/powers picked up without upgrades. With only 20 of 28 cards unupgraded, and many of those being attacks that Molten Egg already covers for future pickups, the ceiling is lower.

2. A free 5th card every turn is permanent, unconditional value. In a Doom deck you're playing lots of cards per turn — Doom stackers, block cards, powers. Hitting 5 cards is easy, and the free one essentially gives you ~1 extra energy per turn with no downside, forever.

3. Your energy situation is inconsistent. Happy Flower is every 3 turns, Bread costs you 2 energy on turn 1 then gives +1 after, Art of War only triggers if you play no attacks (awkward). Brilliant Scarf smooths this out by making one card free every turn — reliable in a way your current energy relics aren't.

4. Apotheosis costs a draw and 2 energy (1 upgraded) on the turn you play it. With Bread's turn-1 energy penalty, spending 2 energy on Apotheosis turn 1 could leave you very vulnerable.

5. Looming Fruit (+31 HP) is the safe/boring pick. Fine if you're dangerously low on health, but doesn't make your deck stronger.

When Apotheosis IS the pick

If you had very few upgrades (say 2/28) and no Molten Egg, Apotheosis would be the clear winner. It's a great card — just less impactful in this specific situation.

The character is officially called The Necrobinder (not Necromancer). She's a lich who fights alongside Osty, a reanimated skeletal hand. 4th character unlock (after Ironclad, Silent, Regent).

Three Main Archetypes

1. Doom (strongest shell)

• Doom is a persistent debuff. When stacks >= enemy's current HP, they die instantly at end of their turn.
• Stacks don't decay. Dealing regular damage lowers the execution threshold.
• Key cards: No Escape (10 Doom + 5 per 10 already stacked), Scourge, Doom Spike, Oblivion
• Playstyle: Control — set up kill conditions, survive until they trigger

2. Osty / Summon

• Osty auto-enters combat with 1 HP, absorbs hits for you (not Block — persists between turns)
• Resummons himself next turn if killed, or via Summon cards
• Key cards: Squeeze (25 base dmg, +5 per Osty attack in deck), Flatten
• Key relic: Bone Flute (2 Block whenever Osty deals damage)
• Playstyle: Commit fully to Osty cards. Needs specific relics early to work.

3. Soul / Exhaust Cycling (most consistent)

• Souls are 0-cost generated skills: draw 2 cards, then exhaust
• Thin deck to 5-10 cards via exhaust effects → enter infinite loop
• Haunt (power) makes each Soul deal HP damage that ignores Block — stacks multiplicatively
• Key cards: Dark Pact (exhaust to draw 2), Soul Siphon, Haunt, Undeath
• Playstyle: Engine builder. Once assembled, solves nearly any boss.

Other Notable Mechanics

• Ethereal — cards removed from deck if unplayed at end of turn (interacts with exhaust/cycling)
• Scythe — permanently increases damage for rest of run each time used
• Undeath — self-replicating card, more copies appear in combat the more you use it

Community Consensus

Don't hybrid — commit to one archetype. Doom is the easiest to draft, Soul cycling is the strongest when assembled. Osty is the most niche and relic-dependent.

Colorless cards are class-neutral cards usable by any character. STS2 has 64 of them (up from ~20 in STS1).

How you get them

• Shops — most common source
• Events — some events (e.g., Sensory Stone) offer colorless picks
• Quest rewards — completing quest cards can grant specific colorless cards
• Relics — Prismatic Shard adds all colors (including colorless) to normal card rewards

They do not appear in normal post-combat card reward screens.

Colorless Energy (new in STS2)

STS2 introduced colorless energy — a wildcard energy type that can pay for cards of any color. Sources include:

• Automation (Power): gain 1 colorless energy per 10 cards drawn
• Ectoplasm (Relic): +1 colorless energy/turn but locks out all gold gain
• Pael's relics reference "colorless energy" (e.g., Pael's Tears and Flesh)

New in STS2 vs STS1

• Pool expanded from ~20 to 64 cards
• Some formerly class-locked cards moved to colorless (e.g., Scrawl)
• Co-op colorless cards added (energy/block sharing between players)
• Colorless energy as a resource type is entirely new

These are all relics from Pael, the Melting Dragon — an Ancient who appears at the start of Act 2 with 10 possible relics. You pick from a subset.

The Three Relics

Ranking: Tooth > Tears > Eye (for most builds)

Pael's Tooth — Strongest of the three. Removing 5 cards immediately is enormous for deck consistency — equivalent to 5 shop/campfire removals. Yes, one card comes back upgraded after each fight, but: you choose which 5 to remove, they return upgraded, and the immediate thinning is worth more than the gradual return costs. Universally strong.

Pael's Tears — Solid but conditional. Banking unspent energy into +2 next turn is good in decks with cheap turns (lots of 0-cost cards, block-heavy turns). Awkward with X-cost cards like Malaise since those consume all your energy. Rewards careful energy planning.

Pael's Eye — Highest ceiling, highest risk. An extra turn once per combat is incredible, but you must play ZERO cards on a turn AND your entire hand gets exhausted. Devastating if triggered wrong. Best in Exhaust-heavy decks or decks that can set up near-empty hands. In the wrong deck it's a trap.

Context: Pael's Best Overall

Blood (+1 draw/turn) and Flesh (+1 energy from turn 3) are generally considered Pael's strongest picks — unconditional scaling with no setup. If those are in your offered pool alongside these three, they may be better picks than any of these.

Card Stats

Ranking: Adrenaline+ >= Malaise+ >> The Hunt

Adrenaline+ — Near-universally rated as one of Silent's best cards. 0-cost, gives you +2 energy AND 2 cards — essentially an extra half-turn for free. Every archetype wants it. No conditions, no downsides. Also synergises with Malaise (more energy = bigger X).

Malaise+ — Also an "always take." Permanent Strength reduction + Weak destroys multi-hit enemies and bosses. The + version is especially good because even at 0 energy remaining it applies 1 Str loss and 1 Weak for free. Build-agnostic. Main weakness: single-target and burns all your energy.

The Hunt — Niche snowball card. 10 damage (15 upgraded) for a kill trigger that gives an extra card reward. Strong in Act 1 where you can finish off weak enemies, but falls off hard in later acts where enemies have too much HP for Fatal to trigger. Not on major tier lists. Accelerates deck-building but doesn't help you win fights.

Verdict

If choosing between these three: Adrenaline+ first, Malaise+ second, The Hunt distant third. Adrenaline and Malaise are both "take every time" rares. The Hunt is situational and mostly an Act 1 accelerator.

The two top picks also synergise together — Adrenaline gives you more energy, which means a bigger Malaise X value.

Yes, elites give better card rewards — but exact STS2 numbers aren't datamined yet (game has been in Early Access less than a week).

STS1 Numbers (confirmed from decompiled source, likely similar in STS2)

Elites gave 3.3x the rare chance (10% vs 3%) in STS1, plus a relic on top.

STS1 also had a pity timer: rare chance starts at -5% offset per act, goes up +1% for each common rolled, resets to -5% on seeing a rare. Caps at +40%.

STS2 Status

• Community confirms elites DO have better rarity odds — qualitatively similar to STS1
• No exact percentages published yet
• Unknown whether STS2 uses the same pity timer system
• STS2 is built in Godot (not Java), so datamining requires different tools

Probably skip it. Speedster is a Sly/Draw-Discard archetype card, not a Shiv card.

• Speedster is a 2-cost Power: "Whenever you play a card, deal 4 damage to a random enemy"
• In a Shiv build you play lots of cards, so it does something — but your 2 energy is much better spent on:
• Accuracy (+4 damage to ALL Shivs — this is your primary scaler, stack multiples)
• Blade Dance (burst 3 Shivs)
• Infinite Blades (passive Shiv each turn)
• Afterimage (gain Block every card played — defensive engine)
• Cloak and Dagger (Block + Shiv)

Speedster gives 4 damage per card played. If you play 8 cards in a turn, that's 32 extra damage. But a single Accuracy makes every Shiv deal 4 more, and with Blade Dance that's 12 extra damage from one card play — and it stacks multiplicatively with more Shivs and more Accuracy copies.

When Speedster IS worth it: If your build is hybrid Shiv + heavy draw/cycling, or if you're lacking damage scaling and nothing better is on offer. It's not terrible, just not a priority.

No, there is no base mechanic that gives better cards for taking no damage. Card reward rarity is determined by fixed probability rolls unrelated to combat performance.

However, two specific systems can make it feel like flawless play gives better rewards:

1. Lava Lamp (Relic)

A shop relic — "At the end of combat, Upgrade all card rewards if you took no damage." This makes offered cards appear as upgraded versions (e.g., Strike+), which look and are objectively better. But it doesn't change rarity distribution — just upgrades whatever cards you'd have gotten anyway. You only get this effect if you've bought the relic.

2. The Trial (Act 3 Event)

An event with a boss-rush that tracks consecutive flawless fights:

• 1 flawless: 3 Rare Cards
• 2 consecutive: 150 Gold
• 3 consecutive: 3 Relics
• 4+ consecutive: 1 Rare Relic (repeats)

Block loss ≠ damage — only actual HP loss resets the streak.

Most Likely Explanation

If you're seeing better cards after flawless fights, you probably have the Lava Lamp relic (check your relic bar). Or it could be confirmation bias / the normal rarity RNG being streaky.