Beginner’s Guide#
Slay the Spire is a single-player roguelike deckbuilder: every run starts from a fixed point, climbs a randomly generated map, builds a deck through combat, and ends when you die. Community tracking puts the average run at 45-90 minutes (not official data). This page walks you through your first run; all data is verified, and editor-experience advice is clearly labeled.
The Core Loop#
A run cycles through these phases:
| Phase | Content |
|---|---|
| Map progression | Several nodes per act; choose your route upward |
| Combat | Turn-based card battles; intent icons above enemies telegraph their next move |
| Combat rewards | A card pick after victory; elites and bosses also drop relics |
| Campfire | Rest (heal 30% of max HP) or upgrade a card — choose one |
| Shop | Buy cards, relics, potions, or pay for card removal |
The Act 1 boss sits on floor 16 and the Act 2 boss on floor 33; after Act 3, collecting all three keys opens the hidden Act 4 and the final boss — see Secrets.
The Fundamentals of Turn-Based Combat#
- Each turn you receive a fixed energy pool; playing a card costs its energy. Some relics and cards alter energy supply
- Cards come in three types: Attacks deal damage, Skills provide block, draw, and buffs, Powers stay active for the whole fight once played
- Block lasts only for the current turn — unspent block vanishes when the enemy turn ends (some cards change this)
- Your hand is discarded at the end of the turn (some cards change this)
- Enemy intent is the first input of every turn’s decision: read the intent, then lean toward offense or defense
Campfires: Rest or Upgrade#
- Rest: heal 30% of max HP (official value)
- Upgrade: strengthen one card; upgraded cards have better numbers or effects
- Trade-off experience (editor’s advice): rest when in danger, upgrade otherwise — upgrades compound over a run. When judging, check the gap between campfires on the map — a short gap lowers the value of resting here
Potions: Bankable Burst Resources#
Potion rules (official mechanics):
- They persist across floors: potions do not vanish when you climb to the next act — the old-guide claim of “gone next act, use them or lose them” is wrong
- Slots: 3 potion slots by default, 2 from Ascension 11; the “Potion Belt” relic adds 2 more
- Resolution: using a potion costs no energy and doesn’t count as playing a card
- Drop rate: 40% base chance after combat wins (±10% per fight), with a 65/25/10 rarity split
Three verified potions:
| Potion | Effect |
|---|---|
| Dexterity Potion | Gain 2 Dexterity; doubled to 4 with Sacred Bark |
| Regeneration Potion | Gain 5 Regeneration; doubled to 10 with Sacred Bark |
| Ghost in a Jar | Gain 1 Intangible; doubled to 2 with Sacred Bark. A Silent-exclusive rare |
Other potions’ effects weren’t compiled in this verification pass — defer to in-game text.
Relics: Run-Long Passives#
Relics persist for the whole run once obtained. Sources, rarity tiers, and drop data are in Items and Relics. Each character starts with one relic:
| Character | Starter relic | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Ironclad | Burning Blood | Heal 6 HP at the end of each combat |
| Silent | Ring of the Snake | Draw 2 additional cards at the start of each combat |
| Defect | Cracked Core | Channel 1 Lightning orb at the start of each combat |
| Watcher | Pure Water | Add a “Miracle” to your hand at the start of each combat |
Boss relics are offered after defeating a boss — strong benefits usually come bundled with a drawback — evaluate the cost before taking one.
Map Nodes and Route Intuition#
| Node | Yields | Beginner’s instinct |
|---|---|---|
| Normal combat | Gold and card rewards | Fight plenty early; get the deck functional |
| Elite combat | Relics and more gold | Fight when confident; detour when not |
| Event | Good or bad outcomes | Play unfamiliar events conservatively |
| Treasure chest | Relic | Always grab on the way |
| Shop | Cards, relics, potions, removal | Prioritize card removal |
| Campfire | Rest or upgrade | Rest only when endangered |
Opening Trade-offs (Editor’s Experience, Not Official Data)#
- Removal beats addition: leaner decks draw key cards more reliably; shop removal is a long-term investment
- HP is a resource: eating controlled damage for a relic or key reward is worth it — but leave yourself healing windows
- The elite criterion: rule of thumb — with healthy HP and healing available, consider elites; with HP low and no healing, detour decisively. Exact thresholds vary by build and Ascension
- Read the map globally: confirm elite, campfire, and shop positions when the map opens, then plan the first floors
- Don’t take “maybe useful” cards: when a reward offers no game-changer, skipping is the correct play
Act 1 Bosses at a Glance#
| Boss | Verified essentials |
|---|---|
| Slime Boss | HP 140 (150 on Ascension 9+); always splits at half HP into two large slimes inheriting its current HP |
| The Guardian | HP 240 (250 on Ascension 9+); enters defensive mode once damage taken hits the threshold (30/35/40) |
| Hexaghost | HP 250 (264 on Ascension 9+) |
Full mechanics and counterplay for each boss are in the Boss Guide.
First Look at Ascension#
- Ascension has 20 levels, stacking penalties per level, each also adding 5% score (a full +100% at 20)
- The official per-level definitions (more frequent elites, harder normals, harsher debuffs, fewer potion slots, pricier shops, etc.) are in the Ascension quick table on the hub page
- Ascension 20 is the hardest: two consecutive bosses at the end of Act 3
- Advice: stabilize one character at low Ascension first, then branch out to others
Character Learning Order (Editor’s Subjective Ranking)#
| Order | Character | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ironclad | Intuitive Strength scaling; the starter relic gives reliable sustain |
| 2 | Silent | Poison is intuitive, but the pace is slower and HP lower |
| 3 | Defect | The orb system costs more to understand |
| 4 | Watcher | Highest ceiling, lowest error margin — learn the mechanics first |
Character deep dives: Ironclad, Silent, Defect, Watcher.
The Nine-Step First Run (Editor’s Experience, Not Official Data)#
- Learn the nodes first: when the map opens, locate campfires, shops, and elites — hold the whole picture before setting out
- Early normal fights: treat them as transitions; prioritize attacks with great damage-per-energy
- First campfire: upgrade your core attack if healthy; rest only if endangered
- First shop: removal before buying cards — hold the clutter down
- Before elites: assess HP and deck maturity; detour if unsure — losing an elite costs far more than missing one relic
- Event nodes: pick low-risk options in unfamiliar events; gamble on high rewards once you know them
- Audit the deck every act: does damage end fights on schedule, can defense hold elites, is clutter hurting draw consistency
- Before bosses: review boss mechanics (see the Act 1 table above) and plan potions and block
- Review every loss: did you bleed out on a greedy elite, or does the deck lack damage or defense — carry the conclusion into the next run
Uncompiled Content Notice#
- The exact starter deck composition (card names and counts) wasn’t compiled in this verification pass — defer to your in-game deck
- Full card pools per character, shop pricing, and event outcome values await verification; this site won’t fill them in speculatively