2020-08-24 23:26:09 (edited by arceus 2020-09-19 17:12:34)

Edit2
Corrected more grammar mistakes. discard deck is on the way, also with one more cool poison/damage combo i discovered recently.
edit
I corected some grammar mistakes and edited the retain and divinity deck with  couple more of helpful advice.
Edited the shivs deck to provide some more help since that looked a little blunt.
I'm working to update the discard strategy right now. I have some ideas to play with, i'll see if they work and will update that section asap.

Disclaymer

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to Wensber for creating the accessibility mod and provyding us with  hours of enjoyment and entertainment.
Second,  my english isn't the most accurate so i apologise if there will be any grammar mistakes to this guide
Third, some of the tips here are provided from some online websites i looked into. I'll provide the links and resources at the end of the guide for refference.
I'll also be glad if someone which will see anithing that i've missed in this guide will corect or help me improve anything wich may seem wrong.
The rest of the tips and tricks are provided from my own experience dying rather than slaying the spire.
but as you know, every mistake is an oportunity to learn!
without further ado, lets get into it!

introduction

I'm sure many of you have or had throuble slaying the spire. it's a tough and tedious proces to do, more so for a beginner
but with the right cards and enough kindness from the fates themselves, if you  like to believe in the Greek  legend, slay the spire can become a fun and lovely massacre, on your part. on Them evil nasties part, it's a innevitable path to the door of death.
if you feel that you dye too quickly or that your progress isn't that impressive, i'm here to give you a helpful hand.

General tips and tricks

Don't rush with attacking. if you have the chance, preffer to defend rather than attack excessively. Unlike the monsters, you will lose far more important things when you dye.
Try focusing on a general strategy rather than evolving your deck constantly. Yes, the game does appreciate if you can be adaptive and shift to a new situation, for example if you see the first cards you pick up on your way are blocking chards, try to be creative and see if you can transform  the block you gain from those cards into damage
No matter how tempting some cards might look, push your inner will and don't take them if they can be counterproductive to your deck. If your deck relies heavily on shivs, don't take noxious phumes or crippling cloud. They might look good on paper, but they have nothing to do with your strategy and might end up breaking your initial draw.
That's everything i had to say here. Let's move on to the actual characters and theyr strategies.

The Ironclad and it's massive power of destruction

The ironclad is more or less our warrior. Our brute. A warrior wich has sold his soul to the demons for increased powers. He can be a tricky one to master, despite being the first character you get in slay the spire. Let's see some of the deadly strategies this character has to offer.

The exausting turtle.

The exausting turtle is a fun and challenging strategy involving body slam, barricade, impervious and the necessary exausting chards. It basically requires you to gain as much block as possible, diminishing your deck, and doing massive sweeps of dammage with the block you've gained.
I know i sayd earlier keep your decks small, but remember the exausting decks will worck no matter how big your deck can be, since the drawing pile diminishes quickly.
The cardds you will need for this deck, besides the ones i told you about above, are the following.
very very necessary. corruption, feel no pain, entrenk, barricade, impervious, as many as you can. Body slam is a must be also.
common chards. shrug it off, as many as you can, offering, dark embrace, power through, evolve. ghost armor, second wind, and anithing wich says defend is worth picking. Try avoiding cards such as carnage, bluggeon, or too many strenght related cards. if you want, you can pick up an inflame too. it's a power card, so it disappears from your draw imediatelly as you use it. flame barrier, thrue grith+, intimidate, judgernaut, they all work. burning pact works too. basically, anithing that exausts itself is worth picking too, thunderclap is a wonder.

The powerfull brute

This strategy revolves nearly like the turtle deck, but it focuses on dealing as much damage as possible in as less turns possible.
necessary chards. corruption and feel no pain are and will always be in this list, along with limit break+, demon form, inflame, flex but it might be reliable rarely.
for damage you want to focus on heavy blades for the most part. Rupture,  brutality and spot weakness will help you always, and offering is a great addition. dark embrace is worth picking and the more strenght gaining cards you get, the more damage you do.
Some other cards worth mentioning are hemochinesis, battle trance and bloodletting.
Don't forget about reaper, the card wich will surely save you if you use it when you got high strenght. if you feel like it, get an impervious and you will be ok for the most part.

The minimalist.

This deck will work if you play it in custom mode, or if you, by luck, manage to get everything removed from your deck and remain with these 5 cards.
All you need for this deck is:
2xDropkick
1x bash
1x shrug it off
1x clash
Some relics wich can help you achieve this are empty cage and peace pipe.
Sounds simple, huh? if you look at what these cards can do, you will generate a minimalistic infinite combo wich will never fail. I'm not sure if it will properly work on the time eater, though. But if you were  so lucky than to remain only with these 5 into your deck, you'll be lucky to don't encounter her as the final boss either... I hope.

The strike deck.

Everyone hates strikes, that's no secret. They're useless and should be far, far away from your deck.
Except the times when you get the card perfected strike! You hate your strikes? you'll get to love them!
This deck revolves around the idea of strikes. The more  cards containing the word strike you have, the more damage these lovelies can do. Consider upgrading 2 of them and getting an inflame around, and you're all set.
These are all my deck ideas for this character. Feel free to jump in if you have some other lovely ideas.

The silent and her deadliest arsenal

I wont lye to anybody. I love the Silent and her strategies. I'm always pleased to finish off my enemies with a well executed finisher combo or with a flury of countless shivs. if this isn't enough, poisoning my enemies and being quick on my feet gives me immense satisfaction.
You feel the same? That's great, since we can begin!

the poisonous deck

The poisonous deck is a tricky deck to master. You need enough judgment to decide wich cards you feel suited to your deck and what cards don't feel that way.
To give you a simple base, remember that you won't be doing any actual damage while using your deck. focus on deadly poison as much as you can. Cathalist is a must be in this deck. It's recomended that you pick only one, upgrade it, and then go for nightmare. It should deal more than enough damage on a monster to finish it off
Bevare of gremlin hob if you're doing this approach. A fight with it might be tricky to master.
Adrenaline, master of strategy and setup are also necessities. Blur, dodge and roll, footwork, deflect, good instincts, panic button, and generally any block cards wich cost 0 are worth adding to your deck. If you get cloak and dagger on your way, wich i'm sure you will, don't be tempted to pick up envenom. It might kill your initial draw and the poison you will apply with those shivs won't change anithing in the long run.
If you don't find nightmare but you did built up a good poison deck, don't give up  yet! Burst is a good alternative to nightmare, but this requires you to have more copies of chatalist+. Crippling cloud might look good on paper, but it isn't. it costs 2 energy, and that energy is better kept for cathalist and deadly poison. if you do manage to get another additional energy by either stacking up multiple copies of adrenaline or by relics like icecream, I wouldn't say no to adding one to my deck. Noxious Phumes is also super helpful, if you want to counter the artifacts some of the more pescy enemies have, such as the sentries. Be sure to pick a piercing  wayl or two on your way to negate ani other possible artifacts. If you end up getting in a tougher fight, i advise you to have at least 1 corpse explosion. It can save you the time of dealing with other enemies. That's only if you didn't get the specimen yet.
if you encounter the following relics in your run, switch to a poisonous approach asap if you didn't allready start with another strategy.

  1. sneko skull

  2. Twisted Funnel

  3. The specimen.


the shivs

The shivs are a mirracle! They work in killing even the strongest of enemies, chipping theyr health bit by bit. Any deck wich costs 0 isn't worth using in a time eater battle, though. Infinite combo decks will never work on her.
If you want to get a good shivs deck you need to get a fairly good dose of blade dance. Infinite blades are a must be, and cloak and dagger is a very good add. Don't forget about accuracy. It's the most useful card in all your deck. the more of them, the more damage your shivs will do. If you feel like that 3 energy you start with isn't enough, pick up some outmanever or adrenaline on your way. They never disappoint.
If you don't get that many blade dance cards on your way, you can pick up slice and endless agony. They are both 0 cost cards and if you happen to pick up wrist blade, relic which increases all damage from 0 cost cards by 4, it'll make them more powerful. Backstab, masterful stab and dramatic entrance also benefit from this.
If you want to cause even more havoc in the battlefield, a finisher will be very useful.
So for a final checkup. Blade dances, any block cards, finisher if you want, as many accuracy cards as you can... and that's it.
relics which will save your day are wrist blade and ninja scrolls. Dead brank might be useful, but i didn't experiment with it much.

the discard strategy

This, saddly, is the strategy  i have the most throuble with. I can provide the least tips to it. Try getting as much tactician cards as possible, and focus on dagger throw, prepared, and quick slash. I would like to get any other tips regarding this strategy from other users.

The defect

First of all, I have the least experience with this character. The folowing thext is from a website which gave me all the tips and hints.
click Here If you want to read it.

Intro

This automaton may look like an easy build, but it is the toughest class to master in the game. While, a well-made Defect deck can tackle a huge number of Ascension levels with ease, it's harder to put together a "good stuff" deck with the Defect than the other two classes.
When you do put something together though, and it starts clicking, watch out. But be warned that the class tends to struggle if it can't get its engine going, and its lack of exhausting abilities means that you have to be laser-focused in your deck building.
The Defect's starting relic is called the Cracked Core, and it allows you to start every battle with one lightning orb. This starting relic introduces us to the main mechanic at the Defect's disposal: orbs.
The Defect starts every battle with three spots for orbs, and this can be increased to a maximum of ten slots. There are four different types of orbs, each with a passive ability and an invoke ability.
Passive abilities trigger at the end of every turn, and invoke abilities are triggered by cards or by channeling another orb when every slot is filled. Triggering an invoke ability use up the orb.
Here's what the different orbs do:
•Lightning: The most basic orb. Its passive ability deals damage to a random enemy, and its invoke ability deals more damage (usually around double).
•Frost: Frost orbs provide you with a small amount of armor. Its invoke ability provides you with more.
•Dark: Every turn, Dark orbs increase the potential amount of damage they can deal through their passive ability. However, they won't actually damage anyone until they are invoked.
•Plasma: Plasma orbs provide you with extra energy at the start of your turn, and they provide you with two energy when they are invoked.
Focus
Focus is a stat that can increase and decrease, similar to Strength and Dexterity, that improves the effectiveness of your orbs. Every point of Focus gives your Lightning one more damage and your Frost one more armor. It also helps your Dark increase faster, but it has no effect on Plasma orbs.

The mammot

The most reliable deck for the Defect follows a pattern established by the successful decks of other classes: utilizing a massive amounts of Block. This is best done through accumulating more orb slots and Focus as well as through cards like Glacier and Chill. Plenty of cards provide Frost orbs, but these are going to be two of your power players.
Other cards to look out for in this build are things like Defragment and Capacitor. These increase your Focus and the number of Orb slots you have respectively.
Once you've built up your defenses, you can kill enemies with whatever else you've collected. If you're gaining 30 or 40 Block automatically each turn, you won't have a ton to worry about.
Keep your eye out for the Calipers relic as well. This causes you to lose only 15 Block at the start of your turn, instead of all of it, and it makes you basically unstoppable.

Always number 0

Another viable strategy with the Defect comes from the number of effective 0-cost cards that are available to the class. 
All for One is an amazing rare that you can land with this deck, as cards like Claw can get out of hand in a hurry if you're playing them every turn. 
Scrape is also crazy strong when you have lots of cards that cost nothing to play. Reuse extra energy, inflict status effects on your foes, and blast them down to nothing in no time flat. You'll still have energy left over at the end.

Never powerless.

The Defect has a ton of power cards available to use, and they can snowball in a hurry if you get the right ones. If you have ways of building extra energy and drawing through your deck in a hurry, you can use cards like Storm and Electrodynamics to burn through enemies before they even get a chance to damage you.
This deck tends to lose its effectiveness when Ascensions start to get serious. However, it is a lot of fun to plow through early Ascensions by doing an impression of Zeus.

The darkest defect

This one is difficult to set up, but it is absurdly powerful if done right. That's a big "if" though.
You essentially have to get rid of your Cracked Core (the starting relic), find a way to reliably channel a Dark orb early, and work up a ton of mana to use Multi-Cast to plow through everything in your way. When it goes off... watch out.
If you can get rid of the Cracked Core and get your hands on the Symbiotic Virus relic, this is not a bad build to shoot for.

Cards wich  you should look for

There aren't a ton of must-have Defect cards, as there are so many different reliable builds, and some cards will be great in one of them and worthless in another. However, there are a few cards that should always trip your alarm bells no matter what build you're running:
Turbo
Mana acceleration at Common rarity is great, and the drawback is fairly negligible — by the time you get to that Void, you should already be in a dominant position or have blasted your enemies into smithereens. Nearly every deck will benefit from a copy or two of this.
Boot Sequence-Auto Shields 
The biggest danger as the Defect is surviving the times when you can't put together your plan quickly. That's why cheap, heavy Block cards like these are a must-have in nearly any deck.
Seek 
Do you want to search through your deck and find exactly what you need when you need it? How about doing it twice if its upgraded? Seek is almost always a windmill slam of a pick, but be careful not to use it if you draw it near the end of your deck.
Echo Form 
This is one of the all around best  in the game. Start every turn with a big damage card (Sunder + Echo Form) or with a swingy power to cast it twice.
The only issue with Echo Form is that it will sometimes get you punched in the mouth early on. However, the long term payoff is amazing.
All for One 
There are so many strong 0-cost cards in every Defect build, and All for One allows you to set up some stupid combos with them. If you're playing a 0-cost build, this will be your MVP.

Watch. Remember. Live. This is the Watcher's mission.

The watcher has a very unique mecanic in slay the spire. It revolves around stances, the powers wich help you change the tide of battles.
I'll explain the stances first:
Calm: Whenever you exit from this stance, you gain 2 energy.
wrath: When you enter this stance, you and the enemy both do do double dammage.
Divinity: When you gain 10 mantra and enter this stance, you do tripple damage and your enemies remain at normal damage.
The watcher also has unique cards wich have the retain flag, wich means they won't be discarded out of your hand. The retain strategy is the one we will begin with

you'll love to end your turns

Surely all of us hate to end our turn with no energy and the best cards in our hand. Seeing them go into the discard pile is one of the most hardest things you can watch smile
But the watcher has some lovely cards you'll never discard!
Sands of time is a card which has an awesome power. The longer you hold in your hand, the lesser it costs. This one, protect, perseverance  and windmill strike will always be cards you should look out for if you want to do a retain deck.
This deck will usually cycle through calm and wrath to harvest  the powers of the increased powers your cards gain while you wait and block damage. To do that quickly, i'd reccoment crescendo for entering wrath and tranquility for entering calm. They're both 1 cost cards, and if you can pick up establishment on your way, they'll both decrease to a neat 0 cost in no time. Establishment is crucial if you want to have a cost free retain deck, since it allows every card you keep in your hand to drop its cost by 1. This way, not only all your windmill strike cards be free, you'll be able to do massive sweeps of damage with them by entering wrath too.

'Cause all you ever do is chant the same old mantra

Never overlook divinity. This deck will have you feel like the most enlightened monk in the world while destroying your enemies without a care.
To start off, you should look for devotion, a card which gives you 2 mantra every turn. The other cards are pray, 3 mantra card,  worship, a 5 mantra card and prostrate, the card which gives the least mantra, only 2 mantra. It's good if you can stack  up multiple copies of these cards.
Remember, this deck mostly concentrates on mantra. Don't get too many offensive cards. Be sure to have enough on your hand to do good damage. battle imn probably is a good power card, since it gives you smite every turn and that probbably should be enough. The other cards you want to get are defensive ones.

These 2 decks are the ones i'm experimenting with right now. I'll update this section if i find new ones.

Ending

I hope this guide has proven useful into giving you even a little more understanding as to how the characters work. If you feel that there are any mistakes or any updates i should make, let me know.
Don't worry if the strategies discussed here won't work from the first time. The more you try achieving them in a deck, the better you learn to use them.
Happy slaying the spire, and thanks for staying with me through the end!

Resources

Ironclad exausting deck
Ironclad example decks and general strategy tips
This kind of little silent deck i kind of forgot about
My inspiration for the silent poison deck

Real ending

That's it! if you enjoyed, i'd kindly suggest you to give me a thumbs up.
Happy slaying the spire!

"Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man's will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself."

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