Cover artwork I generate from the game data. I do not use publisher artwork.
Game profile
Slay the Spire
Card based battles against ever stronger enemies demand smart deckbuilding and careful risk assessment at every step. The roguelike structure means no run ever plays out the same way.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Deckbuilder / Roguelike, set in a fantasy world. Visually it is built on pixel art, and the overall tone stays dark throughout. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
It is genuinely demanding, and repeated failure is part of how it is designed. There is no story to speak of, the systems carry everything. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- Pioneer of the deckbuilder genre
- Extremely high replay value
- Deep strategic gameplay
This fits you if
- you enjoy being made to think
- levelling, looting and optimising a build is your kind of loop
- cutscenes annoy you and you just want to play
- you want real resistance and are fine with dying a lot
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you are watching your budget
Look elsewhere if
- you want to relax and not be punished for mistakes
- you play mainly for narrative
- you want something light and easy going
- pixel art puts you off
What it costs you in time
About 35 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 6 weeks, or 18 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 93 out of 100, which puts it above 95 percent of the 1206 games here and at rank 51 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, Deckbuilder averages 83 points across the database, so this one sits 10 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 537 collected ratings.
Released in 2019, so it has 7 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2019
- Genres
- Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Strategy
- Playtime
- approx. 35 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Demanding, punishing
- Story weight
- None, pure gameplay
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Visual style
- Pixel art
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Mobile
- Critic rating
- 93 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slay the Spire | 2019 | approx. 35 hrs. | 93 | Budget |
| Slay the Spire II | 2026 | approx. 60 hrs. | 85 | Mid price |
| Monster Train 2 | 2025 | approx. 35 hrs. | 87 | Mid price |
| Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors | 2026 | approx. 15 hrs. | 63 | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- Slay the Spire II Shared: Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Fantasy, longer
- Monster Train 2 Shared: Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Fantasy
- Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors Shared: Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Fantasy, shorter
- Monster Train Shared: Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Fantasy
- Wildfrost Shared: Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Fantasy, shorter
- Against the Storm Shared: Roguelike, Strategy, Fantasy, longer