Slay the Spire 2 Beginner Guide: How to Get Started and Win Your First Run

I remember my first StS2 run. Picked Silent because she looked cool. Took every card the game offered me. Had a 38-card deck by the Act 1 boss. Died on turn 5 having drawn exactly zero of the poison cards I'd drafted.

The game taught me nothing. It just said "Defeated" and dumped me back to the menu. So here's what I wish the tutorial had explained.

Pick Ironclad First

I know Silent looks cooler. I know Defect seems more interesting. Pick Ironclad.

His starting relic, Burning Blood, heals 6 HP after every combat. Over the course of a full act, that's 40-50 free HP. It means you can take more aggressive fights, path toward more elites, and recover from mistakes that would kill any other character.

His cards are simple. Play attacks. Gain Strength. Hit harder. Bash applies Vulnerable, which makes enemies take 50% more damage. That's it. No orbs to manage, no poison stacks to track, no Souls to count, no Quests to juggle.

Learn the fundamentals on Ironclad. Branch out later.

The Single Most Important Thing: Skip Cards

Every combat gives you a choice of three cards. You should skip this reward more often than you take it.

Here's the math. You draw 5 cards per turn. A 15-card deck cycles in 3 turns. A 25-card deck cycles in 5 turns. A 35-card deck cycles in 7 turns.

Most hallway fights should end by turn 4 or 5. If you add a great card to a 35-card deck, you'll draw it roughly once every 7 turns. You might not draw it at all before the fight ends. That "great card" is effectively not in your deck half the time.

Now consider that the longer a fight goes, the more damage you take. A thin deck that draws its good cards consistently ends fights faster and saves HP. A thick deck takes longer, takes more damage, and dies to attrition.

Take cards that deal 12+ damage for 1 energy early. Skip setup cards, niche synergy cards, and anything that says "this will be good later." Later you'll be dead.

The Ancients System

This is the biggest StS2 change and new players constantly mess it up.

In the original game, beating an act boss gave you a boss relic — usually +1 energy with a downside, or some other powerful effect. In StS2, you get an Ancient blessing instead. Three choices. Each has a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is permanent.

+1 energy per turn but -20% max HP. Upgrade all cards but no more campfire healing. Start each combat with block but enemies get +25% HP. Draw 2 extra turn 1 but all enemy attacks deal +3 damage.

There's no universal "best" blessing. The right pick depends entirely on your deck. If you have Reaper or Feed sustain, HP penalties hurt less. If Corruption makes all your skills cost 0, you don't need the +1 energy. If you've got a thin deck with tons of draw, the +2 draw blessing is redundant.

The mistake I made for my first 10 runs: I picked the blessing with the biggest upside number without reading the downside. Don't do that. Read all three. Pick the one whose penalty hurts your specific deck the least.

Pathing 101

Your map matters as much as your deck. Before each act, plan your route.

Act 1 priority: campfires (upgrade Bash or best attack first) > normal combats (need card rewards) > 1 elite max (only if you have upgraded attack + damage potion + 35+ HP) > shops (save gold for Act 2) > ? rooms (riskier in StS2 than StS1).

Act 2 priority flip: AoE mandatory. Triple-slaver fight destroys single-target decks. Whirlwind, Cleave, Immolate, Die Die Die, Electrodynamics — pick up at least one before Act 2 starts. Elites become more valuable. ? rooms become riskier (events that don't let you leave).

Act 3: path toward campfires if key upgrades remain. Path toward elites if deck is strong. Last campfire before boss: rest unless 80%+ HP.

Five Characters, Five Playstyles

Ironclad — straightforward damage, high HP, self-healing. Strength scaling (Inflame, Spot Weakness, Limit Break, Heavy Blade) or exhaust engine (Corruption, Dark Embrace, Feel No Pain).

Silent — fragile, high damage ceiling. Poison (Noxious Fumes, Bouncing Flask, Catalyst) or discard cycling (Prepared, Tactician, Reflex, Eviscerate).

Defect — orb management. Frost for block, lightning for damage, dark for burst. Focus scales everything (Defragment, Biased Cognition).

Necrobinder — Souls from kills power massive attacks. Soul Harvest stores Souls. Reap detonates for double AoE. Weak early, strong late.

Regent — Quests give permanent bonuses mid-run. Balance Quest completion against survival. Bonuses stack up and make every card overperform by Act 3.

Shop Priorities

First shop: remove a Strike. 75 gold. Best value in the game.

Second shop: remove another Strike or buy a relic that supports your emerging build.

Do not buy cards at shops unless critical. The markup isn't worth it. Save 150-200 gold for the Act 2 shop — it often has build-defining relics.

Card removal costs increase: 75, 100, 125, 150. Remove Strikes first (they're your worst damage by Act 2), then Defends.

Heart Kill Plan

If you want to beat the true final boss, you need three keys across one run. Ruby from campfire Recall (skip rest/upgrade). Emerald from burning elite (flame icon). Sapphire from skipping a non-boss chest relic.

All three in the same run. Miss one and Act 4 doesn't open. The burning elite is usually the hardest — super elites are already buffed, and on higher Ascensions they can end your run.

The Heart applies Doom stacks (delayed burst damage) plus the original Beat of Death (damage per card played). You need passive block (Frost orbs, Feel No Pain, After Image) or a damage engine that kills before turn 8.

Co-op Mode

Four players, shared spire. Enemies have more HP. You can target allies with certain effects. Synergy between players' decks is a whole new optimization problem.

But for your first 10-20 hours, stick to solo. Co-op adds complexity you don't need while learning fundamentals.

Expect your first win around hour 10-15, first Heart kill around hour 30-50. StS2 is genuinely harder than StS1. The game rewards patience and punishes greed. Skip cards, remove Strikes, read Ancient blessing fine print. That's the whole secret.