Last year I finished Slay the Spire with Silent and then set the game down. Over Christmas I got Jon into StS and decided to try a few more runs when I got back to my PS5.

Defect

Defect was my worst character the first time around. I got the orbs and all, but getting them multiplied/buffed enough to matter took way too many turns. Self Repair became a necessity with every build simply because he can't get enough block out. I had a pretty fun build with his card creation/cycling power cards but in the end it took a frost build (because defense) with Claw and All for One to beat the heart.

Watcher

Alpha is a pretty tempting card for Watcher. You need to draw and play Beta and then Omega, but the latter stacks 50 damage per turn every time you get it out. That's great for the the Heart and a variety of sub-bosses, but it's a bit of a liability in most combats. That said, with scry cards and Scrawl, it's easy enough to get to Omega by the second turn.


My Alpha build ended up with Conjure Blade (create Expunger, an attack card that deals 9 damage X times). It wasn't great until I hooked it up with Deva Form (linear energy growth). Then it was just a matter of surviving until I could conjure a really badass blade. With Watcher's various beast modes, a powerful Expunger can finish a battle pretty quickly.

Just made it.

Not pictured: my Ironclad deck (shield and slam).