Slay the Spire

This is the best game on Steam, especially if you're an adult. You can stop playing at literally any moment, you don't even need to pause; you don't need internet connection, so you can play on a plane; it's incredibly deep, brilliant, fun, and as immersive as you can afford to be immersed without punishing you for not being able to commit.
It's fun to learn, and once you have knowledge of the game, it's not about maintaining a skill (like FPSs) or constantly keeping up with the Dev's changes (like MOBAs). It's like riding a bike, so an adult can come back at any moment without feeling the frustration of being out of practice or getting steamrolled by the most recently buffed thing.
I hope that this kind of game is the future of gaming for adults.
Thank you for creating this.

Nothing feels as good as getting a good deck synergy going. Makes you feel like an absolute genius for knowing how to read.

I have over 6k hours in this game. I'm still playing it, i still boot it up all the time. It's incredibly, incredibly good. Absoloute gold standard. I could squee for years about it's design, but seriously.
SIX. THOUSAND. HOURS. PLAYING. THIS. GAME.
It's that much value for money.

Let me tell you, Slay the Spire is one of those games that feels like a chaotic, card-flinging whirlwind at first. You’ll dive in, gleefully throwing random attacks, eating curses for breakfast, and wondering why the elite just turned you into a squishy pancake in two turns. But here’s the thing: the more you play, the more you realize – this game is way less about luck and way more about skill.

At its heart, Slay the Spire is a masterclass in combos and synergies. Sure, you might pick up a seemingly random hand of cards at first, but once you start connecting the dots, it’s like solving a puzzle where each piece gives you a new power boost. Get the right relics, nail the perfect card synergy, and suddenly, you’re a juggernaut of destruction, making bosses look like confused kittens.

And let's not forget the randomness – it’s what keeps things interesting! Each run is different, and while luck can sometimes throw you a curveball, true Spire-slayers know how to adapt, turning even the most cursed hands into epic victories. The randomness isn't frustrating – it's exciting! Every run is like shaking a magic 8-ball that could either tell you you're about to destroy everything... or that you're about to get destroyed.

The beauty of this game is how it tricks you. It starts out feeling chaotic, but the more you play, the more you realize it’s a perfectly balanced dance of risk and reward. And the deeper you go, the more the "luck" turns into skill, knowledge, and—let’s be real—just pure card-flipping satisfaction.

So, if you're ready to flex your brain while occasionally cursing the RNG gods, and absolutely dominating the spire with your killer combos, this is the game for you. Happy slaying!

Slime Boss - Smash
The Guardian - Pass
The Hexaghost - Pass
The Collector - Smash
The Bronze Automaton - Smash
The Champion - Smash
The Awakened One - Smash
Time Eater - Pass
Donu - Smash
Deca - Smash
Corrupt Heart - Pass

I will not elaborate.

oh i haven't left a review for this yet.

enough has been said about StS, yes it's that good. It's honestly very rare for a game to inspire an entire genre and remain the best game in that genre for half a decade and counting. The magical thing about StS is it's a rare kind of video game you can revisit after a few years and, nothing in it has changed, but somehow, it feels completely different. You see the game with new eyes and suddenly all of your previous assumptions are a jumbled mess again. Your old reliable strategies suddenly stopped working, what changed? Cards you never looked twice at are suddenly crushing a run for you. A character you never fully understood clicks. A character you thought you'd mastered is completely eluding you.

Slay the Spire is a really good roguelike deckbuilder. But the thing it has that many of its would-be successors do not is mystique. Can this or that thing be made to work? Is it good? How do you know when you can take it? Was that a fluke, or did you just invent a playstyle you hadn't considered until its pieces materialized for you? You won a run, impressive. Can you do it again, but cleaner this time, without coming so close to dying at this or that point--that deck was fun, could you have built it better, what was its core, what did you think was necessary but wasn't?

Everything answer you arrive to in Slay the Spire is met with more questions. The game doesn't ask you them, it just presents problems and pieces of solutions. It teaches you to be curious, open-minded, and creative, beckons you to try and then try again. It isn't just special for the obvious reasons that it is well-designed, balanced, a fun interplay of little challenges and exciting rewards. It is special because it infects you with a mental itch that nothing else really seems to scratch. You begin by trying to overcome a run, and end up trying to overcome an ocean.

How incredibly appropriate that at the beginning of the game, we are greeted by a monstrous whale.

Review after 3309.5 hours. Currently on sale.
Single player.
Mouse/controller only.
Workshop support.
Customisable gameplay options.
Ingame tutorial with no wiki needed.
No demo.
No MTX.
Sequel announced.
Involves a lot of maths.
Addictive, difficult and RNG heavy. I consider Slay the Spire to be terribly balanced with an especially brutal start. Many losses after 5 minutes of gameplay. Many losses after 90mins simply down to rotten luck.
You pick a character with their own pool of cards & navigate 50 rounds (or y'know, 5 then dead). A round could be a text event with various outcomes, a shop, or a fight against a semi-random pool of enemies, including bosses and mini-bosses. After a fight you are given a choice of 3 cards to add to your deck. From there you mostly make do with whatever you are offered & press onwards.
There is no one size fits all. Enemies will have unique game mechanics that never show up again ingame that you must be prepared for. That said, at the hardest difficulty you generally aim for the few best combos.
There are 20 difficulty levels that you can unlock as you progress & I advise you play until you are no longer enjoying losing so often, then pick a lower difficulty that you can chill with. The moment it becomes a trial & error festival of playing the randomness to your advantage is when the game becomes tedious.
The art style is not my cuppa however the music is fantastic. Apparently the IOS version is buggy making PC the best way to play. Some bugs I however encountered on PC are weirdly long loading times when starting the game & music disappearing when save scumming. Otherwise it runs smoothly as expected.
Is generally difficult to nail down this games appeal & I hope the sequel has a demo so that perhaps more people will give STS the blast it deserves. While popular & (over) rated none of my friends seem to have tried it.
Yeah. A good game that I enjoy :)
Thanks, Pün̤ka