The Best Builds For Each Character In Slay The Spire

Slay the Spire is the ever-popular deck-building roguelike by Mega-Crit Games. It sees players carve out their path to victory using unique characters, decks, relics, and potions. The game’s sheer depth and build variety can easily overwhelm new gamers who fall foul in their attempts at forcing builds to work, often missing key synchronizing items.

However, as players reach higher ascensions, knowing the best deck and corresponding relics for each character is key to guaranteeing great runs and furthering one’s skill. This article showcases the most powerful builds in-game that can be utilized to gain the upper edge and guarantee gamers are successful in the journey to Slay the Spire.

Slay the Spire

Dead Branch + Corruption

In Slay the Spire, there’s no combination more iconic than Dead Branch and Corruption on Ironclad. Twitch Streamer Jorbs used it to beat the heart in a single turn (one-turn kills are no longer possible because of that). To make this build, the following cards are required:

• Corruption: Skills are free, but exhausted upon use.
• Fiend Fire: Exhaust your hand and deal 7-10 damage per card.
• Offering: Lose 6 HP, draw 3–5 cards.
• Second Wind: Exhaust all non-attack cards and gain 5-7 block per card.
• Power Through: Acquire 15-20 block and add 2 wounds to hand.
• Barricade: Block is no longer removed between turns.
• Body Slam: Deal Damage equal to the current block (0 energy on upgrade).

Feel No Pain, Entrench, and Bloodletting are worth incorporating into this deck. Feel No Pain, especially, as it gives 3-4 block per exhausted card.

This build makes the player nigh near unkillable. All skills cost 0 and are self-replacing due to the combination of Dead Branch and Corruption. The relic bottled Storm ensures corruption is always drawn first. Fiend Fire and Second Wind exhaust the playable hand to deal damage and gain block, respectively. Meanwhile, Barricade makes block stay between rounds, letting Body Slam deal obscene damage. The build’s synchronization and late-game potential have made it revered by Ironclad players.

Slay the Spire

Poison Stacking And Defense

Admittedly, The Silent has plenty of notable decks, namely the Shiv and Accuracy builds. However, the best build focuses on her poison mechanic. The Silent applies poison to enemies who lose health equal to their poison stacks at the start of their turn. Poison is considered a negative status debuff. Thus, it is not an attack that can be damage-boosted by strength or Akabeko. To apply poison fast, there are several cards:

• Deadly Poison: The most cost-efficient method to stack poison by cost. Inflicting 5-7 poison stacks for 1 energy.
• Bouncing Flask: Apply 3 poison ticks, 3-4x at random.
• Noxious Fumes: Apply 2-3 poison at the start of every turn.
• Crippling Cloud: An AOE applying 4-7 poison and 2 weak. Weak is debuff that decreases damage by 25%.
• Catalyst: The best poison card, Doubling (tripling when upgraded) the poison stacks an enemy has.
• Corpse Explosion: Apply 6-9 poison. When the foe dies, they deal their max HP as damage to their allies (the effect is stackable).
• Burst: Burst plays 1–2 cards twice, enabling rapid poison stacking.

Twisted Funnel and Bouncing Flask aid in artifact-stripping enemies like Donu and Deca, who counter this build. Artifacts prevent status and debuff effects, like weakness and poison.

Avoid the temptation to neglect defense. Poison is slow to build, and The Silent is squishy. She NEEDS to stall out damage; the best card for this defense-wise is Footwork. It gives 2-3 dexterity, boosting block by +1 per point. Possessing multiple Footwork cards can make standard defense cards pump out a double-digit defense. Pair this build with Escape Plan to draw skills and gain defense for it too, for 0 energy.

Furthermore, players can acquire Wraith Form, a run-saving card that reduces any attack to its minimum damage. However, the card reduces dexterity by -1 per turn and this debuff is stackable. However, players can partially offset the negative effects with an Ancient Potion or Clockwork Souvenir.

​​Slay the Spire

Loads Of Power

The Defect is a sentient robot with a POWER-ful deck. The point of this deck is to draw and play power cards, which increase the capacity of his orbs and focus. Orbs are his form of offense, defense, and energy gain. However, this build will solely center on lightning and frost orbs, as they are the most effective. Whereas, focus improves the power of the Defect’s orbs by +1 per point. For example, a frost orb normally provides 2 block, but with 20 focus, it is 22 block per orb. Players will need the following cards for this build:

Power (Power Scaling)

• Echo Form: The first card played each turn is played 2x.
• Consume: Removes an Orb slot for 2-3 focus.
• Defragment: Gain 1-2 focus.
• Capacitor: Gain 2-3 orb slots.

Frost (Defense)

• Glacier: 7-10 block, channel 2 frost.
• Coolheaded: Channel 1 frost, draw 1–2 cards.
• Loop: Trigger the passive ability of the next orb 1-2x.

Electric (Offense)

• Storm: Whenever a power card is played, channel 1 lightning.
• Electrodynamics: Lightning hits all enemies, channel 2-3 lightning.

This build scales infinitely. Power cards last a whole encounter and give the Defect constant methods of increasing focus and capacity. He can continually channel orbs, get their passive effect, and evoke them. When orbs are evoked, they unleash a stronger effect and discard themselves. Orbs will evoke and replace themselves naturally due to Storm creating lightning orbs per power played, and the deck being almost exclusively power cards. During a boss encounter, it is normal to have over 100 passive block and attack.

However, this build is relic-dependent; the Mummified Hand is needed for momentum. Players can replace the Cursed Key with the Sozu relic. However, +2 focus and capacity potions can no longer be used with Sozu, which is a downside.

Due to the many power cards played per turn, it is common to struggle against The Awakened One, who gains 1-2 strength per power card. So, when facing him, prioritize building frost orbs and targeting the cultists who gain strength every turn. Use power cards that scale better than his strength gain!

Slay the Spire

The Rushdown Infinite

The Watcher is undeniably the most broken character. Leaderboards reflect this, as the Watcher has a Win Streak score of 2017!!! The Defect is miles behind as the closest character with 323 (on Xbox). The Infinite build focuses on drawing cards and switching stances between Calm and Wrath. Calm gives two energy when leaving the stance, and wrath doubles all damage dealt and received. To reliably “go infinite,” use these cards:

Wrath Stance

• Eruption: Deals 9 damage and enter Wrath stance.
• Rushdown: Upon entering Wrath, draw 2 cards, (expend 0 energy upon upgrade).
• Tantrum: Deal 3 damage, 3-4x, enter Wrath.

Calm Stance

• Inner Peace: If the Watcher is Calm, draw 3–4 cards. Otherwise, enter the Calm stance.
• Fear No Evil: Deal 8-11 damage and enter the Calm stance.
• Meditate: Put 1–2 cards from the discard pile into hand; retain them. Enter the Calm stance and end the turn.
• Vigilance: Gain 8-12 block and enter Calm.

Draw and Defense

• Vault: End the current turn and take another turn (triggers all end/start of turn effects).
• Scrawl: Draw cards until the hand is full (0 energy upon upgrade).
• Mental Fortress: Upon changing stance, gain 4-6 block.
• Empty Mind: Draw 2–3 cards and exit the current stance.
• Talk to the Hand: Deal 5-7 damage and gain 2-3 block per attack.

Have at most 10 non-exhausting cards. Remove Defend cards and replace them with Mental Fortress, Vigilance, and Talk to the Hand. That will allow gamers to guarantee that the deck is small enough to do an infinite consistently. Additionally, players can force this build, ignore half of the cards available to them, and skip card rewards. FORCING BUILDS IS NOT ADVISED FOR ANY OTHER CHARACTER.

The Infinite Build does not rely on relics but benefits immensely from the Runic Pyramid. It is a synergetic build: the Watcher obtains 2 energy upon exiting Calm (3 with Violet Lotus) and receives 4-6 defense from stance-switching due to Mental Fortress. Meanwhile, Wrath doubles the damage dealt, grants players +2 cards due to Rushdown, and gives players 2-3 defense per attack from Talk to the Hand. In Wrath, the damage received doubles, AVOID ending turns in Wrath. Moreover, Vault lets the Watcher retake her turn, while Scrawl allows her to redraw a full hand for 0-cost. Culminating in a powerhouse with an unending turn.

Overall, the Watcher melts bosses. She has tons of offense output, passive block, energy, and cost-free methods of redrawing her entire hand. Gamers can use alternative builds, like Alpha, Beta, Omega, or Divinity. However, they are weaker than just focusing on the infinite build, as it is stronger and consistent.