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Who the best Slay The Spire 2 character is can be a tricky question. On paper everyone can be strong if you build your deck meticulously and get just the right luck on a run - even the weakest option can pull off nasty combos that obliterate enemies.
Of course, if you’re just starting out and struggling to get your first clears, none of that matters. You'll just want to know which characters will give you the easiest time, especially if you’re still learning the rules of the game? While “best” can be slightly subjective depending on your criteria, below you’ll find every character in Slay The Spire 2, ranked in a tier list from “pretty strong” to “maybe a little busted.”
If you're worried about how to unlock characters in Slay the Spire 2, then that's a simple process where playing as one character unlocks the next. So if you want to access later characters faster, you can just throw matches to bank a run and get the unlock.
Slay the Spire 2 best characters tier list ranked
- S tier - The Silent
- A tier - The Ironclad
- B tier - The Necrobinder, The Defect
- C teir - The Regent
Because every character in Slay The Spire 2 has skyhigh damage potential, characters are ranked for consistency and performance overall, across all three acts. Afterall, a build that can deal 100 damage per turn in Act 3 is useless if it can’t actually make it out of Act 1. Characters with access to strong, non-rare cards will naturally have an edge over ones who need very specific card synergies.
Also, characters are evaluated based here on a beginner to intermediate level of the game. High level players are generally approaching Slay The Spire 2 differently, working with deep knowledge of every card in the game to build towards infinite combos (creating decks that are designed to never actually let the enemy attack). This isn’t how beginners will play, and I’d advise against chasing those strategies until you really know what you're doing. That said, while expert players aren’t the target audience here, their rankings might not be terribly dissimilar to my list below.
This list also does not take Slay the Spire 2 multiplayer into account, as that wildly reshapes how you’ll play with each character and exists on a separate progression track. So higher Ascensions need to be unlocked separately in each mode.
5. The Regent, C tier
The Regent is a point of contention among Slay The Spire 2 players, as many of his intended builds are underwhelming at the moment. The Forge mechanic, designed to build up a powerful sword throughout battle, lacks the consistency and damage output to really be worth the investment. Its other gimmicks, like summoning minions or creating colorless cards, don’t have a strong payoff either yet. Combine this with many underwhelming rare cards are bloating his pool, and it’s easy to see how runs can be hard to get off the ground.
Having said that, it wasn’t an easy decision to give The Regent the bottom slot. His central Star mechanic, which his default deck points you towards, is quite strong once it gets going. When you can balance high Star generation with high-power cards that cost Stars, The Regent’s damage output rises fast. This is a straightforward strategy to build around too, as you can intuitively tell which cards your deck will need throughout your run.
If I were a betting man, I’d say The Regent is due for buffs in the future. If some of its weaker cards get a little fine tuning, then his majesty’s spot could easily jump higher on this list.
4. The Defect, B tier
The returning Defect has one of the hardest learning curves. It’s not that hard to understand technically, but knowing how to fully utilize its orb mechanic takes practice. It does have access to strategies that don’t involve channeling orbs, but you need to draw specific synergetic cards early on to really make that work.
Despite it's issues it gets the edge over The Regent for two reasons. First, if you do happen to build decks that, say, load it up with negative status effect cards that all exhaust and do damage afterwards, the payoff can be big. Second, by aggressively channeling and evoking orbs, The Defect can reliably push high early game damage, and stack tons of valuable passive abilities in the late game. It takes practice to master, but once you get a handle on how to build it, The Defect’s robotic powers absolutely shine.
3. The Necrobinder, B tier
The Necrobinder’s undead companion, Osty, is a valuable asset no matter how you use it. It’s a persistent wall that can eat damage for you throughout combat, and The Necrobinder starts with the powerful Unleash card that scales with Osty’s HP. This lets you focus on drafting strong defensive cards in the early game, which The Necrobinder has an abundance of. The fact that she has easy access to debuffs like Weak helps her bulk too.
This isn’t even getting into The Necrobinder’s Soul generation mechanic, which lets her draw potentially dozens of cards per turn with the right strategy. And with easy access to cards like Wisp and Borrowed Time, The Necrobinder can boost her energy high enough to actually utilize those giant hands. The Necrobinder’s only real downsides are that her Doom debuff requires a bit of luck and investment to really get powerful, and some of her card draws that involve making Osty attack aren’t really worthwhile. Regardless, once you get a handle on The Necrobinder’s mechanics, it’s easy to make her sing and absolutely conquer runs.
2. The Ironclad, A tier
The Ironclad is appropriately easy to play as the starter character. You can can easily make synergetic builds with just The Ironclad’s common cards and little knowledge of the game - perfect for beginners . Even the default Strike cards that most other characters would race to get rid of can kind of work for The Ironclad. On top of that, healing six HP after every battle makes The Ironclad very comfortable to play, especially in the early game. Shaking off chip damage adds up over the course of battles, especially since this gives you more leeway to upgrade cards when you find campfires.
Once you get more familiar with The Ironclad, that recoverable HP becomes a deadly resource. Cards like Bloodletting provide The Ironclad with a huge chunk of extra energy for a measly HP cost, and attacks such as Pommel Strike make it easy to draw more cards to use that extra energy on. This can set up wild amounts of damage per turn, and both of those are just common cards! This does push The Ironclad into more of a berserker role than a heavily armored tank, which can feel scary. But when you can dish out enough damage to kill enemies before they attack, you’ll realize that the best defense really is a good offense.
1. The Silent, S tier
The Silent is the absolute queen of Slay The Spire 2. The Sly keyword is too good; these are cards you can play for free upon being discarded and are just so exploitable - especially since The Silent starts the game with a powerful block card that also discards. From there, the more Sly cards you add alongside cards that draw and discard, the more your turns become absolute onslaughts of attacks and skills. You might notice that all our three top picks here have some way to draw and play tons of cards every turn, but The Silent gets you into that playstyle without even trying. It’s vicious in a way that all skill levels can easily use.
The Silent’s Poison and Shiv builds aren’t quite as strong as going all in on Sly, but they don’t necessarily demand all-in investment to contribute to combat either. So even if you haven’t mastered every one of The Silent’s cards and just take what looks strongest, you can still pull off clears of runs at lower difficulties with relative ease. For those who need a win in Slay The Spire 2, The Silent is absolutely the best character to play.
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