Slay the Spire

My friends Jamie and Shadey were kind enough to buy Slay the Spire for me as a Christmas present which I have recently beaten on my 7th attempt after almost 13 hours of play time. While it is true that I have technically beaten the game with the ‘Ironclad’ character and have a Steam achievement to prove it, Slay the Spire is not the kind of game where you should beat it just once. There are 4 different characters, 3 different play modes, lots of content to unlock and high scores to beat, but for now I can say I have slain the spire so have added Slay the Spire to my list of completed games. Below is some statistical data on my first victory, I think the key piece of information is my score of 757, something I should aim at improving next time.

Slay the Spire is a roguelike deck-building game which in short combines the elements of a deck building card game with RNG (random number generator) mechanics. While luck plays a big part in Slay the Spire and other roguelike games, the whole point is that players should try and ‘stack the deck’ to make their own luck. The goal is to climb the spire fighting enemies and their bosses along the way. The spire is broken down into 3 acts, each act has 16 floors which includes a boss at the end. As you progress the enemies get harder but with progression the player makes choices to improve their deck of cards (which are used to perform actions in each encounter), obtain and choose relics which typically improve your character for the remainder of your run and potions which are consumed when used.

I think Slay the Spire is brilliant with limitless unplayability. It’s a cross between games such as FTL: Faster Than Light which I blogged about 3 years ago (almost to the day) and a card game such as Magic: The Gathering Arena. It’s very likely that I will continue to play Slay the Spire from time to time, even if only to try and beat my current high score. All that’s left to say is thank you Jamie and Shadey, this was really thoughtful and generous of you.