The random nature of Slay the Spire means that even the best players can be stuck in no-win situations, but those that understand each of the game's classes can significantly increase their odds of surviving each act and finding victory.
The Silent can thrive with a number of different deck archetypes, but she requires the most finesse and consistency to keep alive. Despite her lack of big single attacks, picking the right set of card upgrades and relics makes the Silent an incredibly powerful character.
Noxious Fumes Is A Staple Of The Silent's Poison Archetype
Poison builds are a crucial game mechanic in Slay the Spire. For the Silent, she ditches strong, direct attacks in favor of poison that harms enemies over time. This effect can deal massive damage, but it struggles to build steam without a few staple cards.
One such keystone is Noxious Fumes. The damage dealt by poison goes down by one each turn, but Noxious Fumes applies two stacks of poison to every enemy every turn after it's used. This automatic application means that the Silent can focus on building defense and doesn't have to worry about the number of enemies in the encounter.
Accuracy and Infinite Blades Are Musts For The Silent's Shiv Archetype
The Silent has the option of playing a deck focused on shivs. These weapons cost nothing and only deal four damage by default, but a few different support cards can increase both their prevalence and potential damage. Accuracy boosts shiv damage by four or six if it is upgraded.
This doubling of damage adds up extremely quickly when players are using a handful of shivs every turn and is a necessary increase in later acts. This card combos well with Infinite Blades, which puts two blades in the player's hand at the start of every turn.
Calculated Gamble and Acrobatics Are Great In The Silent's Card Draw Archetype
The Silent can focus on drawing and discarding extra cards to find good cards faster and trigger discard effects. Calculated Gamble and Acrobatics are both cards that play into this strategy extremely well. Acrobatics lets the player both draw three cards and release a card.
While the discarding can sometimes be negative, it's useful for cards that have a "when discarded" effect or negative status cards. Calculated Gamble acts as a sort of "get out of jail free" card that lets the player dispose of their entire hand to draw a new one of the same size.
Focus On Strong Offensive Cards Before Building Defense
The starting deck that players are given with the Silent is relatively poor both offensively and defensively, but early enemies have low enough health pools that hitting them hard can often end an encounter before the player takes significant damage.
Furthermore, it's the offensive cards that establish the deck archetype, so players will want to determine their play angle early to guide later card picks. While building defense can be tempting in roguelites games with permadeath, it's better to invest in defense after a handful of battles.
Spend Coins To Thin The Shilent's Deck Early
While the Silent has a few different possible playstyles, each of them is more demanding of deck consistency than many of the other playable characters' decks in the game. Poison, shivs, and discarding are all extremely dependent on multi-card combos, and drawing basic attack and defense cards can shut these strategies down even after they've started rolling. It may be more exciting to buy new cards and relics at shops, but paying for the removal service as often as possible increases players' odds of frequently getting the cards they need in hand.
Choose The Right Relics For Each Of The Silent's Playstyles
It's important to know which relics best support each type of deck. Relics can have a huge impact on games, and players will often want to build their decks around their available relics instead of the other way around. Snecko Skull adds an extra stack of poison every time a stack is applied, which makes it one of the best options for poison decks.
Players opting for a shiv-focused deck will want to look for Wrist Blade, which increases shiv damage by four. The Tingsha is powerful in a draw-and-discard deck with the ability to damage enemies for each card that a player discards.
Play The Silent More Than Once Or Twice
While players will clearly get better with each character the more time they put in with them, the Silent doesn't start to really shine until after quite a few runs. As has become common in roguelite games such as Returnal, death doesn't mean that players lose all of their progress.
While a given run may come to an end when the Silent is killed, each playthrough unlocks more cards and relics for the Used class that may appear in future sessions. Some of these unlockables, such as the Smiling Mask relic and Grand Finale card, are extremely strong and are beneficial for returning players.
The Silent Needs To Have A Strategy For Multiple-Enemy Encounters
The Silent is extremely effective at single-enemy combat, but surviving multiple foes can be a big problem. Multiple-enemy encounters become more common and difficult after the first act, so players need to know how their deck archetype can handle these situations.
For poisons builds, look for Corpse Explosion, which deals massive damage when a poisoned enemy dies. Die Die Die harms all enemies simultaneously and works great in any of the offensively oriented archetypes.
The Silent Needs Well-Placed Rest Sites
The Spire is filled with terrifying monsters that resemble notable horror fantasies like Doctor Sleep, and rest sites are needed respites for the Silent in between battles. Unlike some other classes in Slay the Spire, the Silent does not have any healing cards available to add to her deck. As a result, planning a route through encounters is critical for success.
While the maps are randomized, there are usually two or three rest sites per act. Look to take paths that have rest sites after elite encounters. If that's not possible, look for routes that spread rest sites out to regain health.
Don't Neglect Defense Cards When Playing The Silent
The Silent's potential to rack up huge card combos with any of its deck archetypes makes it tempting to go all-in on cards that inflict damage or status conditions. While it makes sense, it's critical not to forget that the Silent is a fairly vulnerable character who needs a good defense to survive.
In particular, the poison's massive damage happens fairly slowly, so it's important to collect a solid stable of defensive cards to wait out your enemies as they bleed hit points. Dodge and Roll, After Image, and Footwork can all be particularly potent cards to keep the Silent alive. With an adequate defense, the Spire's resident huntress can thrive and progress far in the game.