Slay the Spire Characters Tier List

Slay the Spire Tier Breakdown

There is no perfect tier list in Slay the Spire. Relics, early rewards, and experience change everything. Still, some characters are more consistent across Ascension levels and Heart runs.Here is a quick overall comparison based on ceiling, consistency, and difficulty.

Watcher

• Starting Relic: Pure Water
• HP: 72
• Gold: 99
• Cards: 10

As for me, Watcher is the strongest character in Slay the Spire, as she has really strong mechanics and cards. She uses 3 stances during the battle, and can easily achieve high damage through them. She can deal double or even triple damage, which allows her to defeat enemies really quickly.

The Watcher is a versatile character, as she can switch stances to adapt to the situation. Moreover, she has several strong strategies, that are not so hard to make. So, I am sure Watcher deserves to be at the top of the Slay the Spire tier list.

However, Watcher is rather hard to play, as she can be easily defeated in 1 turn because of misplays. So, I recommend checking the possible builds and strategies for Watcher to better understand the character. 

To unlock Watcher you need to finish the run on Silent.

Silent

• Starting Relic: Ring of the Snake
• HP: 70
• Gold: 99
• Cards: 12

Silent is the second playable character in Slay the Spire, who specializes in poison, Shivs (zero-cost attacks), and has the ability to draw cards from the deck easily. 

I like Silent, as she is not very hard to play. For example, she has strong Poison cards like Deadly Poison or Noxious Fumes, that bypass enemy block and deal damage over time.

Moreover, one of my favorite strategies on Silent is to play with Shives (Blade Dance / Cloak and Dagger), using Shuriken and Kunai relics. This makes gameplay on Silent insane! However, you should be really lucky to find everything in one run.

Silent also has a high ability to draw and some strong defense cards like Footwork, Blur, or Dodge and Roll. 

I know that many players calls Silent the weakest character in Slay the Spire, but I've reached all 20 levels of ascension on her, while she is not so hard to play, in compare to other characters.

You can unlock Silent after you finish the game on Ironclad.

Ironclad

• Starting Relic: Burning Blood
• HP: 80
• Gold: 99
• Cards: 10

Ironclad is the first playable character in the game. He has the biggest health at the beginning, and a strong starting relic Burning Blood, which allows him to heal after each battle. This allows Ironclad to play more aggressively and trade health for damage output without worrying too much about taking some damage along the way.

Ironclad has several cards to increase his Strength like Inflame or Demon Form. Thanks to that, he can deal massive amounts of damage in a single turn, especially AOE damage.

Ironclad also has solid defensive options with cards like Shrug It Off, Iron Wave, True Grit, or Barricade.

However, I think that Ironclad is a bit slow. He is strong in the early game, but you need good cards and relics to continue the game. As for me, he is the weakest character in Slay the Spire, but maybe I just don't get how to play him properly. So, thanks to other players' feedback, I decided to put him in 3rd place among 4 characters.

Defect

• Starting Relic: Cracked Core
• HP: 75
• Gold: 99
• Cards: 10

The Defect was my first favorite character, who uses several Orb types during the battle. Some of them are obvious and easy to use, but properly combing them may be complex. 

Defect’s cards allow you to create a wide range of builds, like aggressive damage-dealing decks, defensive, or control-oriented. He also has several most impactful power cards in the game like Self Repair, Buffer, or Echo Form.

However, besides I like this character, he is not really strong enough. He is very slow and need some time in each battle to enhance Focus and activate his orbs. Moreover, his damage is not enough on the higher levels of ascension and during the 3rd act. Moreover, his strong Power cards cost lots of energy, so you may not be able to play them during your turn.

You can unlock Defect by finishing the game on Silent.

Criteria for Slay the Spire Tier List

Determining the strongest and weakest characters in Slay the Spire is subjective and depends on various factors, including skill, playstyle preference, and RNG elements. So, here are the main categories which I considered during creating the Slay the Spire characters tier list.

• Versatility: How adaptable is the character to different combinations, and the possibility to succeed with multiple types of cards
• Consistency: How reliable is the character across multiple runs? Are their strengths easy to capitalize on, or do they rely on specific cards or relics?
• Scaling Potential: How well does the character scale into the later stages of the game?
• Damage Output: Can the character deal with both single-target and AOE threats effectively?
• Defensive Capabilities: Can the character effectively mitigate or avoid damage to survive longer encounters?