Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire is a roguelike deckbuilder about fighting enemies to defeat the great evil at the heart of a mysterious tower. Taking inspiration from tabletop games, it pioneered the roguelike deckbuilding loop of using cards to defeat enemies, which earn you new cards that allow you to defeat more powerful enemies. Slay the Spire has sold millions of copies and remains one of the most popular roguelike deckbuilders.

In combat, your character appears on the left and enemies appear on the right. Each turn, you draw a hand of cards with various effects, such as dealing damage to an enemy or shielding you from damage. Each card costs energy to play. You typically have three energy to spend playing cards. At the end of your turn, you discard any unplayed cards and lose any unspent energy.

On the enemies' turn, they take similar actions, such as dealing damage or gaining shields. Each enemy has a symbol above its head that indicates what it will do on its next turn. This allows the player to strategize, such as defending if the enemy is about to attack.

After winning a fight, you earn money and can choose a new card to add to your deck. Elite enemies also give you relics, which have powerful effects such as giving you more energy or allowing you to draw more cards.

Out of combat, the player travels along a net-shaped node map, starting at the bottom and ending with the boss at the top. The player can only travel forward, not backtrack. Each node has a symbol showing if it's a fight, a store, a campfire, or some other type of event. Stores allow players to buy new cards or pay to remove unwanted cards. Campfires allow the player to either heal damage or upgrade a card to make it more powerful.

Slay the Spire also includes meta-progression features that make future runs different. You can unlock new cards, new relics, and new characters to play. If you do well enough on one run, you get a bonus on the next run, such as extra health or a powerful starting relic. There are many difficulty levels to challenge you if the base game becomes too easy. There are also unique daily runs and a thriving modding scene to keep providing you with interesting new experiences.

This description was written by Gwen C. Katz.