A great deck for every character in Slay The Spire

Kill the Spire Combines the fun elements of a roguelike with the strategy of a deck-building game, encouraging you to use new decks to beat different acts of the game. With four characters to play as, each with their own unique quirks and playstyles, it's easy to lose hundreds of hours to Slay the Spire.

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Slay The Spire: Best builds and remnants to use with Dosh

While Slay The Spire's Defect isn't the easiest character to play, these builds and relics bring out the best in them.

It's also very easy to get overwhelmed as a new player. Figuring out which decks are powerful is difficult in a game that ultimately boils down to chance. To help you get a better idea of ​​what each class is like, here are their best build archetypes to shoot for.

January 21, 2026 Updated by Jacob Whaling: Slay the Spire 2 is right around the corner, making it the perfect time to return to the original. We've updated this list with even more great builds for each character to explore.

Ironclad: Bunker

As the character's name implies, Ironclad can fortify his health with plenty of blocks to become a tank. Thanks to some unique cards, you can turn your block rating into damage, allowing you to face some of the toughest enemies in the game from safety.

Body Slam, Barricade, and Entrench allow you to build up a large block value, which can be used to damage any enemy that stands in your way. Keep an eye out for remnants like block cards and calipers and anchors.

Ironclad: Power

As far as damage scaling goes, Ironclad's power cards allow him to deal absurd amounts of damage with each attack. Instead of measuring your block value to deal damage, you're measuring a buff called Strength. which deals bonus damage equal to your power stack.

These cards allow you to gain a large amount of power over a short period of time, allowing your attacks to deal substantial damage. Strength cards should be complemented with multi-attack cards like Sword Boomerang. and the storm.

Ironclad: Exit

When you discard a card, you place it in the discard pile, where it cannot be used for the rest of the encounter. This build essentially forgoes defense or setup, instead burning through your deck to kill the enemy as quickly as possible.

This is only possible with Power Corruption, which makes the skill cost 0, but every time you use the skill, it expires. Corruption pairs well with card drawing skills like Warcry, Battle Trance, and Shrug It Off, but Relic Dead Branch lets you take this build to the next level, adding a random card to your hand every time you drop a card.

This playstyle definitely takes some getting used to, but it's an extremely strong archetype that works against almost every single encounter in the game, making Corruption a great choice every time you see it, even without other exhaust cards to pair it with.

Silence: Shiva

Death by a thousand cuts is the best way to describe this build. While relying on special cards and relics to come online, a good Shiva deck can destroy multiple enemies and bosses through an onslaught of zero-cost attacks. It will struggle against Time Eaters and bloated decks, but those who play their cards right can create some of the funnest hood-assassin-like builds in the game.

Some other great cards include Infinite Blades, Finisher, and Backflip. For leftovers, you have several options. Keep your eyes out for Wrist Blades, Shuriken and Kunai, as these will help scale your Shiva in the endgame. The goal is to throw as many Shivas at the enemy as possible while maintaining a high block value if you can't kill them.

Silence: Abandon and draw

Of course, this build can be a bit difficult to use to its full potential, so it's more suggested for pros with Slay the Spire. The whole goal of this build is to use drawing and discarding cards to get what you need.

This build lets you get quick access to the strongest cards in your arsenal, even easier if you keep your deck small and powerful. Upgraded cards are key here, both for attack and card manipulation.

Silence: Motion

This can be another tricky build to use as it relies heavily on unsizing top residue. Essentially, this build revolves around playing as many cards as possible to output incredible damage against your enemies.

A tricky part is making sure you have enough strong cards to pull off the build, while making sure those powerful cards are low cost. If done right, you can burn through the game with little resistance, although some boss fights can still be tough.

Silence: Poison

Arguably the strongest mechanic tied to Silent is Poison, a debuff that deals damage to enemies equal to their current poison stack. Silent has a few cards that apply and multipoison, allowing you to consistently deal large amounts of damage each of your turns.

Silent's card pool has few poison cards, so you should be able to create a poison deck in your runs with relative consistency. If you get a sample Residue during your run, your poison is strong enough to clear enemies. Try to keep your deck a little smaller so you can rotate between your stronger poison abilities like Catalyst. as often as possible.

Fault: Frost tank

Dosh relies heavily on its Orb mechanic to survive, using them to either bolster its defenses or deal obscene amounts of damage. This build leans towards the former, spawning as many Frost Orbs as possible to get a bigger block rating. Since Frost Orbs grant block itself, you're free to use damage and utility cards on your turn once the Orbs are set up.

Once you've deployed enough Frost Orbs, you can either focus on increasing your Orbs or using other cards to output damage. It will boil down to the cards you are offered in a given race. Try to focus on buffing your Orbs if possible, using cards like Recursion and the loop To squeeze as much use out of your Orbs as possible.

Blame: Lightning Spam

If you want to be in your face with enemies as much as possible and spam a ton of lightning, this build is for you. There are many ways to use this build, but the key is to reduce your orb slots while powering off frequently.

If you're able to perfect this build, you'll melt enemy health bars like it's nobody's business. While this is a highly risky build, don't forget to include some contingency plans for when things don't go your way.

Dosha: Power

Power cards are some of the most fun to play in Slay the Spire, and some of the most synergistic in Defect. While Creative AI is the backbone of this deck, you can only get and run it by spamming every power card you come across.

Heat Sinks let you draw a little more of your deck with each new power you create and play, but to make the most out of each turn, you need more energy, which you can further stack with Plasma Orbs or Turbo.

Each encounter takes a bit of setup before things get going, but once they do, you'll steamroll a lot in each battle, and you can use self-healing to heal yourself later. Be careful when going into a fight with Awakened in Act 3, as this boss shuts down this strategy quickly.