Three professional gamers have spent hundreds of hours with Slay the Spire 2, and they want the rest of us to know exactly what they think. The trio — Evan Lahti, Harvey Randall and Austin Wood — have compiled a joint verdict on the game’s design, cards, best bits and annoyances after 6 months with the title. The result is a set of opinions that are sharp, specific and often amusingly conflicted.
The game has been a monster hit. At launch, 574,638 people were playing Slay the Spire 2 simultaneously, a figure that utterly demolishes the genre’s previous record on Steam. It is also the most-played card game on the platform by a wide margin; Magic: The Gathering Arena has about 1/7th as many concurrent players.
The Numbers Behind the Verdict
Strategic Director Lahti has 426 hours and 441 runs as Silent under his belt at PC Gamer. He is also an evangelist for Monster Train 2, a game he has won in 30 minutes with every character. Randall is a Staff Writer there with 212 hours and at least one A10 win on every character. Wood is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+, with 256 hours and a streak of A10 victories across every character, one by one.
The trio’s combined tally stands at 894 hours and hundreds of runs across the game’s four playable characters.
Act 1 Punishes Everyone
The main complaint concerns the opening part of the game. Lahti and Wood both say that Act 1 is too punishing and too dull, and they cite a straightforward mechanic to make their case: resting at every chance.
“This is the main reason that the Miniature Tent relic is the absolute turbo nuts in Act 1 but just good later on,” Wood writes. “The entire act is a health check, throwing tons of unavoidable damage at you immediately and forcing you to either high-roll a monstrous build within 10 cards or top up for the HP tax of the final boss.”
Wood says that Act 1 almost feels built around Ironclad, leaving the rest of the cast to bear the brunt of the design. The act’s structure, especially in the godforsaken Overgrowth, strips the life from some of the most enjoyable early choices in Slay. Aggressive pathing and drafting aren’t even worth considering much of the time, according to the editors’ argument.
“If you don’t spike within the first five floors—something like Cursed Pearl into a fat shop or Silken Tress handing you an ‘I win’ card—you’re usually in for a tame Act of conservative plays,” Wood writes. “If you do roll high out of the gate, the Act just becomes a stomp.”
The imbalance draws players toward dramatic Neow relics such as Silver Crucible, which leaves many runs feeling plain or brief. Wood believes some of the challenge from Act 1 should be moved over into Act 3.
Shiv Spam and Sly Are the Most Fun
For sheer enjoyment, Lahti points to the Shiv spam build as the standout. The mechanic, he argues, showcases the simple delight of Slay the Spire 2: playing lots of cards and getting stuff for free.
“Sly is a likewise straightforward ‘something for nothing’ mechanic,” writes Lahti. “In a game where energy management is generally a resource-pinching puzzle, sly lets you cheat, playing a dozen cards in a single turn.”
Most of the victories come from Ascension 10, driven by how many card pairings this build brings together. The Shiv card pairs well with Shuriken, Helical Dart, Ornamental Fan, Kusarigama, Letter Opener, Nunchaku, Pen Nib, Cloak Clasp and Kunai. Getting hold of a few of these cards lets you play three or four Shivs at once, which raises your strength or dexterity and adds extra damage or block.
“It’s the joy of low input, high output: the same feeling of a single click in Peggle that translates to a cascade of points and particle effects,” Lahti writes.
Silken Tress Is Worth the Risk
Randall admits he always chooses Silken Tress, despite the fact that it is arguably bad. The relic consumes all your gold, and every card in your first reward gets replayed 1 the very first time it is put into play during combat.
“Compared to some of Neow’s other Relics, the Silken Tress doesn’t have a high chance of returning on your investment,” Randall writes. “If you get three cards that suck, that’s curtains for your run.”
He will continue to choose it because it works well in practice. Glam is enjoyable, and usually weak cards, such as Setup Strike, gain real power during the first round of fighting thanks to a free replay.
Another reason is strategic: A10’s first few floors are mostly about fixing your damage problem, and a mid-tier damage card with Glam on it accomplishes that task.
Randall’s admission of secret shame comes from being willing to simply drop a run when his Silken Tress reward disappoints him. He finds Ascension 10 too demanding to bother playing through Act 1 with a dead card. The gamble of picking a reward is one he knows has paid off or hasn’t by the time the first combat ends.
Multiplayer Needs Its Own Identity
Wood’s final opinion is that Slay the Spire 2 needs multiplayer-specific fights and relics. His opinion on multiplayer shifted dramatically in the game’s first couple of weeks.
“At first it felt underwhelming: fighting the same enemies with more HP, felt less satisfying because the rhythm of those enemies was totally different: you were no longer making rhythmic decisions about defending, attacking, and scaling, you were making contributions to a group project,” Wood writes.
He also finds it frustrating that runs take significantly longer, depending on your teammates. Yet as he played more, the experience of being carried by someone else’s absurd build became surprisingly fun. The synergies you get from one player grabbing a relic like Miniature Tent hit several times harder.
Wood writes “My opinion on multiplayer shifted dramatically in the game’s first couple of weeks,” and she describes it thus: “At first it felt underwhelming: fighting the same enemies with more HP, felt less satisfying because the rhythm of those enemies was totally different: you were no longer making rhythmic decisions about defending, attacking, and scaling, you were making contributions to a group project.”.
Wood usually resents “More content plz” feedback from fans, but in this case he thinks multiplayer needs to become more distinct as development continues. His guess is that multiplayer sessions only make up maybe 10% of playthroughs.
A Table of the Three Editors’ Runs
| Editor | Role | Hours | Runs | A10 Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evan Lahti | Strategic Director, PC Gamer | 426 | 441 | — |
| Harvey Randall | Staff Writer, PC Gamer | 212 | — | Won at least once on every character |
| Austin Wood | Senior Writer, GamesRadar+ | 256 | — | Won an A10 streak of every character, one by one |
What This Verdict Actually Says
The editors are not complaining about Slay the Spire 2 being broken. They are complaining about the game being too predictable in its early stages. Act 1 is a health check, not a test of skill, and the game’s popularity has created a snowballing dynamic where early success determines everything.
The Shiv spam build shows that the game has room for low-input, high-output fun. And Randall’s willingness to drop a run at the first sign of a bad Silken Tress reward speaks to a broader truth about Slay the Spire 2: the game is unforgiving, but the players love it anyway.
The Verdict on the Verdict
These three editors have devoted hundreds of hours to playing the game. Their views come from people who have watched it fail and succeed, and their criticisms are not offhand complaints but finely honed observations.
That they are enjoying themselves even as they complain is the most revealing sign. Slay the Spire 2 demands harsh treatment, yet it also repays close observation, endurance and an openness to failure. The writers are not demanding the game become any less challenging; they are requesting that its opening stages be made more equitable.
The game’s popularity is a sign of its staying power, even as its flaws are laid bare. Slay the Spire 2 is the most-played card game on Steam by a wide margin, and it has earned that position.
The editors’ verdict is a set of opinions that are sharp, specific and often amusingly conflicted. They are worth reading for anyone who wants to understand what makes Slay the Spire 2 tick.
Source material: “After 894 hours in Slay the Spire 2, these are our 12 strongest opinions,” PC Gamer.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.