Back in summer 2019, I played Slay the Spire and thought it was awesome. A deck-building game where you picked either a warrior-kinda character, a thief-kinda character, or a wizard-kinda character and then had to deck your way to the top… adding and removing cards, picking up relics, and making new discoveries along the way. Oh, and dying. Dying a *LOT*. The warrior was straightforward (mostly). Direct damage, blocking, and buffing. The thief was indirect… poison, debuff synergies, and cards that gave you zero-energy-to-play cards. The wizard didn’t do a whole lot of direct damage but it summoned stuff that did a *LOT*. Improve the stuff you summon, give buffs to the stuff you summon, let the stuff you summon destroy everything.
I played the heck out of that game. Then I got it out of my system for a while and then, right at the beginning of the lockdown, they added a new character. The monk-kinda character played completely differently from the other three. You had two stances, one gave better defense and gave you more energy to play cards, the other did a *LOT* of damage (but gave you double damage). Jump back and forth between stances and turn your enemies into salsa.
The addition of this new character made it easy to get back into playing it and, let’s face it, Safe At Home made it even easier.
Well, after Slaying the Spire with the new character, and going back and visiting with the old ones, I got the game out of my system again.
I played a bunch of games trying to find the same fun, though. Griftlands came close… I think that Griftlands might be a better game when it comes to the initial playthrough, actually… it’s not just rewarding for playing two or three times in a row. (Too much story! Too much reading!) Monster Train captured the “dumb” fun with the whole “just one more game” thing but it was a B+ to Slay the Spire’s A+. A host of other games that were good for a playthrough until you beat it… but not really worth going back to.
And then I saw that there was a fan mod for Slay the Spire.
It introduced The Hermit. A gunslinger-kinda character.
Hoo boy.
Well, so far, I’ve found about two really different ways to play. One is a weird kind of curse synergy. There are cards that give you curses and cards that remove cards (and if you remove a curse, get a bonus). There are cards that do damage based on how many curses you have. There are cards that give you bonuses for the debuffs that the curses give you. It’s weird. There’s also a “Dead On” mechanic. Any given “Dead On” card does something… but if the card is played from the middle of your hand, the card does something *AND* something else. (In the case of an even number of cards in your hand, both middle cards count as being in the middle.) So any given “Dead On” card might give you defense (but not as good as what you’d get with a generic block card) but if played from the middle? Defense *AND* attack. Or do double damage. Or apply a debuff to enemies. Or… well, there are a lot of tasty options.
I don’t know how to play him just yet… I haven’t found the perfect synergies… but he’s interesting. (I’ve only beaten the spire once with him and I don’t know if that was because I was lucky or good or in what proportion.) BUT I AM GOING TO FIND OUT.
Hrm, you may be saying. A new character… is that all?
No. That’s not all.
They’ve also added a mode where you play as one of your favorite level bosses. So far I’ve only gotten the slime and the razor boss (hey, I’ve been playing the Hermit) but, jeez, it’s like they’ve added not *ONE* new character, but SIX NEW CHARACTERS.
If you’ve never played, know that the $25 price tag is nowhere near steep. This game has a *HUGE* amount of replayability. Just one more game. Just one more game. Just one more unlock. Just one more game.
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is the hermit screen from Slay the Spire. All screenshots taken by the author.)
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