Fans of roguelikes and CCGs found a perfect match in Slay The Spire, a game widely praised as one of the best examples of either genre. With the game now arriving on iOS, players can climb the Spire on the go. For anyone who hasn’t tried this revolutionary game, now is a great time to get started.
While Slay The Spire uses a simple set up and easy to understand card mechanics, the complexity of putting together a deck that will survive the entire run makes the game much more challenging than it seems at first glance. The Silent is the second character that players will encounter and lacks some of the mechanics that many players depend on when they begin with the Ironclad. However, with a little practice, the Silent can produce some deadly builds that will help players conquer the hidden Heart.
Silent Card Drafting in Slay The Spire
Players may find it difficult to adjust to playing the Silent after learning the game using the Ironclad because of one important distinction – the Silent has no way to regenerate health. This means that players must weigh every turn of combat and decide whether any potential damage will be worth the risk. As a result, building a successful Silent deck depends even more so on a solid defensive foundation.
Thankfully, the Silent has some strong defensive plays that help build a defensive engine. One of the most influential cards that the Silent can take is Blur. Blur grants five points of block which, importantly, aren’t removed until the end of the next turn, creating a situation similar to what Barricade can do for the Ironclad. If a player manages to get more than one Blur in their deck, they can create a Blur lock as the effects stack, giving them a powerful armor bonus that never disappears. Picking up a Footwork power to increase dexterity or Dodge and Roll to give more multiple turn defense bonuses will amplify the defensive ability of the Silent.
Silent Card Draw In Slay The Spire
Looking at a character’s starting relic is a good way to understand how the character functions. The Silent’s starting relic, Ring of the Snake, draws two extra cards at the beginning of each combat and shows one of the areas where the Silent excels – card draw.
The Silent has a large number of plays that will pull additional cards, which is always a powerful ability in a CCG. One of the most important cards in a Silent deck is Acrobatics, which draws three cards and requires a discard of one. By using these cards, players can cycle through their deck quickly to get the exact cars they need to set up their engine or deliver a powerful blow.
Another important card to look for is Calculated Gamble, which discards the player’s entire hand but draws the same number of cards. By using both of these cards, players can move through their entire stack of cards in a single turn.
Poison Builds In Slay The Spire
There are a couple of unique mechanics players can pursue to build a powerful deck with the Silent. One of these is poison, a debuff applied to enemies which stacks, dealing damage equal to the number of poison counters applied and reducing by one each turn. Key cards for these builds are Noxious Fumes, which applies three poison to all enemies each turn after an upgrade, Catalyst, which triples poison after upgrades, and Corpse Explosion, which applies poison and then deals the equivalent of an enemies health to all enemies.
There are many attacks and skills that help establish an aggressive poison build, such as Bouncing Flask and Poison Stab. Another important thing to look for is poison-based relics, such as The Specimen, which transfers any poison from one enemy to another upon death. In fact, a key determiner for many strong Silent builds is which relics the player encounters as these can have run winning combinations.
Shiv Builds In Slay The Spire
Another route to follow when constructing a deck is to use the unique shiv cards that are available to the Silent. Shivs are zero cost cards that only do four damage before any upgrades, but when combined with the Silent’s increased card draw can become extremely dangerous.
There are a variety of cards to look for when building a Shiv deck, but there are two that are crucial. Infinite Blades places two shivs in the players hand at the beginning of each turn after an upgrade, and Accuracy increases the damage that shivs do by five after an upgrade. Accuracy is one of the few powers where stacking becomes a priority. With three upgraded accuracy buffs on the Silent, Shivs do 19 damage at no energy costs and makes quick work of most enemies.
Slay The Spire is available on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and iOS.