Slay the Spire 2
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Slay the Spire 2 1.0 release: Sep 2027Not announced: our best guess from Mega Crit's 1 to 2 year Early Access plan.
Best guessMega Crit's Early Access FAQ on Steam says it will stay in Early Access "Until the game feels great! Last time we thought it would be about a year and it took about 1.5 years. So perhaps in the same 1 - 2 year range." We count 18 months from the Mar 5, 2026 Early Access launch, as the first game took, to the first Thursday of Sep 2027 (Mega Crit ships on Thursdays) at 10 AM Pacific, the hour of the Early Access launch. Steam

10Months6Days

Characters

Slay the Spire 2 has five playable characters in Early Access: the Ironclad (80 HP), the Silent (70 HP), the Regent (75 HP), the Necrobinder (66 HP) and the Defect (75 HP). The Ironclad is available from the start and each run, won or lost, unlocks the next; the Watcher is not in the game, and a sixth character is in development but unnamed.

Slay the Spire 2 has five playable characters: the Ironclad, the Silent, the Regent, the Necrobinder and the Defect. The Ironclad, the Silent and the Defect return from Slay the Spire (2019), while the Regent and the Necrobinder are new, which the Steam store page describes as "some of whom will be familiar to seasoned Slayers and two of whom who are brand new". Only the Ironclad is open at the start; playing one run with a character, won or lost, unlocks the next, in the order Silent, Regent, Necrobinder, Defect (TheGamer's unlock guide, Mar 6, 2026). The game is still in Early Access, and Mega Crit lists a new character among the content it is actively working on (Aug 14, 2026).

Quick facts

Playable characters 5: Ironclad, Silent, Regent, Necrobinder, Defect
New in Slay the Spire 2 The Regent and the Necrobinder
Starting character The Ironclad
Unlock rule Play one run with the previous character, win or lose
Every character starts with 99 Gold and 3 Energy
Highest and lowest HP Ironclad 80, Necrobinder 66
The Watcher Not in the game
Sixth character In development, unnamed (Mega Crit, Aug 14, 2026)

Sources: Spire Codex (game data, v0.107.1), read Oct 26, 2026; TheGamer, Mar 6, 2026; Mega Crit's August 2026 Neowsletter.

All five characters

Each character has a fixed starting deck, a starter relic and a mechanic of their own. Mega Crit chose not to add alternate starting decks, because, as Casey Yano put it in the June 2025 Neowsletter, players "would just choose the best one"; the variety at the start of a run comes from Neow instead.

Character Max HP Starting deck Starter relic Mechanic Unlocked by
Ironclad 80 5 Strike, 4 Defend, Bash Burning Blood: heal 6 HP at the end of combat Strength, Vulnerable, Exhaust, self-damage Available from the start
Silent 70 5 Strike, 5 Defend, Neutralize, Survivor Ring of the Snake: draw 2 more cards at the start of each combat Shivs, Poison, discard and Sly A run as the Ironclad
Regent 75 4 Strike, 4 Defend, Falling Star, Venerate Divine Right: gain 3 Stars at the start of each combat Stars, Forge and the Sovereign Blade A run as the Silent
Necrobinder 66 4 Strike, 4 Defend, Bodyguard, Unleash Bound Phylactery: Summon 1 at the start of your turn Osty, Summon, Doom, Souls A run as the Regent
Defect 75 4 Strike, 4 Defend, Zap, Dualcast Cracked Core: Channel 1 Lightning at the start of each combat Orbs (3 slots) and Focus A run as the Necrobinder

Source: Spire Codex (game data, v0.107.1) for HP and decks; PCGamesN's character list (Apr 28, 2026) for relics and mechanics; TheGamer (Mar 6, 2026) for unlocks; read Oct 26, 2026.

Each unlock is an Epoch on the game's Timeline, and Epochs cannot be earned in Daily or Custom runs since Mega Crit's v0.100.0 notes (Mar 20, 2026). Unlocks are kept per player: Mega Crit blocked one co-op event while any player in the party still has only the Ironclad (Apr 16, 2026). Unlocks and the Timeline lists every Epoch.

The Ironclad

The Ironclad is the starting character and the sturdiest, with the highest HP of the five, 80. The game calls him "The last soldier of the Ironclads", and his starter relic Burning Blood heals 6 HP after every combat. PCGamesN's Ironclad guide (Apr 8, 2026) names three builds, Vulnerable, Body Slam and Exhaust, and says Vulnerable "replaces the old Strength build". Mega Crit added the healing card Not Yet in v0.103.0 "directly aimed at improving Ironclad's survivability." See Ironclad, Ironclad Cards and the Ironclad Guide.

The Silent

The Silent is the second character, with 70 HP and the only 12-card starting deck. Ring of the Snake draws two extra cards at the start of combat. Her new keyword is Sly, which Mega Crit defined in its May 2025 Neowsletter: "Sly cards are automatically played for free when they are discarded." PCGamesN calls Sly "the most powerful new keyword" and lists Sly, Poison and Shiv builds. See Silent, Silent Cards and the Silent Guide.

The Regent

The Regent is the first of the two new characters a player meets, unlocked after a run as the Silent, with 75 HP. Mega Crit introduced him in its December 2025 Neowsletter as "heir to the Throne of Stars", a domineering alien whose second resource, Stars, does not reset at the end of a turn and has no cap. Divine Right gives him 3 Stars at the start of each combat, and his Forge cards create and grow the Sovereign Blade, a weapon with Retain. See Regent, Regent Cards and the Regent Guide.

The Necrobinder

The Necrobinder is a lich who fights alongside Osty, a giant reanimated hand, and has the lowest HP of the five, 66. She was "the first new character we announced for Slay the Spire 2", per Mega Crit's October 2025 Neowsletter, which explains that Osty takes attack damage meant for her "as long as he has HP to give" and that Summon raises his HP or revives him. Her other tools are Doom, a debuff that kills a creature whose Doom meets or exceeds its HP at the end of its turn, and Souls, zero-cost cards that draw. See Necrobinder, Necrobinder Cards and the Necrobinder Guide.

The Defect

The Defect is the last character to unlock, after a run as the Necrobinder, and starts with 75 HP and 3 Orb slots. Cracked Core channels 1 Lightning at the start of each combat, and Focus raises what its Orbs do. Slay the Spire 2 adds a new Orb, Glass, which Mobalytics' keyword guide describes as dealing damage to all enemies and decreasing every turn. At Major Update #1 Mega Crit said the Defect had seen "the least amount of changes of any of the characters". See Defect, Defect Cards and the Defect Guide.

Which character is easiest

Guides disagree on the easiest character: most name the Ironclad, while Kotaku and one PC Gamer editor name the Necrobinder. Game Rant's difficulty ranking (Mar 10, 2026) puts the Ironclad as the easiest, then the Silent, the Necrobinder, the Defect ("the most complex character") and the Regent as hardest ("a glass cannon"). TheGamer's beginner tips (Mar 9, 2026) agree on the Ironclad first and the Silent second, call the Necrobinder intermediate, and rate the Regent and Defect hardest because both manage a second resource; TheGamer suggests learning the Regent before the Defect, as Stars are simpler than Orbs.

The other view puts the Necrobinder first. Kotaku's Lewis Parker (Mar 18, 2026) calls her (as "the Necromancer") the easiest, followed by the Silent. In PC Gamer's panel (Sep 18, 2026), Evan Lahti says storing block on Osty is "defensive scaling that makes Necrobinder a particularly new-player-friendly character."

Which character is strongest

The two published character tier lists both put the Silent on top and disagree below her. PCGamesN's tier list (updated Apr 28, 2026, ranking the main branch as of Apr 17) has the Silent in S tier, calling her "undoubtedly the best character in STS 2 right now", the Defect and Necrobinder in A, the Regent in B and the Ironclad in C. Pocket Tactics' tier list (updated Oct 5, 2026) has the Silent in S, the Defect in A, the Ironclad and Regent in B and the Necrobinder in C.

Character PCGamesN (Apr 28, 2026) Pocket Tactics (Oct 5, 2026)
Silent S S
Defect A A
Necrobinder A C
Regent B B
Ironclad C B

Sources: PCGamesN; Pocket Tactics; read Oct 26, 2026.

The lists explain their calls differently. PCGamesN says other characters improved more than the Ironclad, and calls the Regent the highest skill ceiling with a consistency problem. Pocket Tactics says the Ironclad is a good starting character with a low ceiling, the Regent is weak early, and the Necrobinder suffers because Doom resolves after your turn ends, not before enemies attack. The Card Tier List compares the card rankings.

How much each character is played

Players pick the five characters almost equally, leaning slightly toward the first two. Mega Crit's May 2026 Neowsletter charted each character's share of all runs: the Ironclad 24%, the Silent 22%, the Defect 19%, the Regent 18% and the Necrobinder 17%. Mega Crit said the community played them "almost the same amount", leaning toward the Ironclad and the Silent, the first two available. These shares measure popularity, not success: Mega Crit has not published a win rate per character.

The same Neowsletter gave an overall win rate of 25% across 240 million runs: 16% at Ascension 0 and about 17% at Ascension 10. Each character climbs Ascension separately in single player.

The Watcher is not in Slay the Spire 2

The Watcher, the fourth character of Slay the Spire, is not playable in Slay the Spire 2. Game Informer reported that the Feb 19, 2026 Early Access trailer confirmed five characters with the Watcher absent, and PCGamesN's character list does not include her. Players can add her through a fan mod: PCGamesN's best mods list (updated May 6, 2026) names "The Watcher" by lamali, which brings back her stances. See Mods and Steam Workshop.

A sixth character

Mega Crit is making a new character but has not named it or shown its kit. The roadmap in its April 2026 Neowsletter lists a "New Character" among the content to come, and the August 2026 Neowsletter puts "New character" under "Things we're actively working on". The September 2026 Neowsletter teased a new area of the Spire and "some sort of small, floating, excitable being" from it, without saying whether it is playable. No character has been added by any patch from launch through the beta's v0.111.0. See Early Access and Roadmap.

Frequently asked questions

How many characters are in Slay the Spire 2? Slay the Spire 2 has five playable characters in Early Access: the Ironclad, the Silent, the Regent, the Necrobinder and the Defect. The Regent and the Necrobinder are new, and Mega Crit is working on a sixth, still unnamed.

How do you unlock characters in Slay the Spire 2? In Slay the Spire 2 you play one run, won or lost, with each character to unlock the next: the Ironclad unlocks the Silent, the Silent the Regent, the Regent the Necrobinder and the Necrobinder the Defect, per TheGamer. Daily and Custom runs do not count.

What is the best character in Slay the Spire 2? Both published character tier lists put the Silent on top in Slay the Spire 2: PCGamesN (Apr 28, 2026) and Pocket Tactics (Oct 5, 2026) both rank her S tier. They disagree below her, with PCGamesN putting the Ironclad last and Pocket Tactics the Necrobinder.

What is the easiest character in Slay the Spire 2? Game Rant and TheGamer name the Ironclad as the easiest character in Slay the Spire 2, while Kotaku and PC Gamer's Evan Lahti name the Necrobinder. The Ironclad has the most HP, 80, and heals after every fight.

Is the Watcher in Slay the Spire 2? No, the Watcher is not playable in Slay the Spire 2; the Early Access roster is the Ironclad, the Silent, the Regent, the Necrobinder and the Defect. A fan mod, "The Watcher" by lamali, adds her back, per PCGamesN.

Will Slay the Spire 2 get a new character? Yes: Mega Crit listed a new character as content it is actively working on for Slay the Spire 2 in its August 2026 Neowsletter. It has not named the character or given a date.

Which character do most people play in Slay the Spire 2? The Ironclad is the most played character in Slay the Spire 2, at 24% of all runs in Mega Crit's May 2026 count, just ahead of the Silent at 22%. The Necrobinder is the least played, at 17%.

Sources

Moments

Slay the Spire 2 Beginner’s Guide | Important Tips You Need to Know

IGN

  1. Slay the Spire 2 has five playable characters: the Ironclad, the Silent, the Regent, the Necrobinder and the Defect…
  2. The Defect is the last character to unlock, after a run as the Necrobinder, and starts with 75 HP and 3 Orb slots…

How To Win With the Ironclad | Slay the Spire 2 Guide

Caleb Gannon Gaming

  1. The Ironclad is the starting character and the sturdiest, with the highest HP of the five, 80. The game calls him "The…

How to Win with the Silent | Slay the Spire 2

Caleb Gannon Gaming

  1. The Silent is the second character, with 70 HP and the only 12-card starting deck. Ring of the Snake draws two extra…
  2. The two published character tier lists both put the Silent on top and disagree below her. PCGamesN's tier list…

Slay the Spire 2 - 15 Biggest Changes From Slay the Spire 1

IGN

  1. The Regent is the first of the two new characters a player meets, unlocked after a run as the Silent, with 75 HP. Mega…
  2. The Necrobinder is a lich who fights alongside Osty, a giant reanimated hand, and has the lowest HP of the five, 66…

Slay the Spire 2: Q&A with Anthony & Dani of Mega Crit

Manifest Conference

  1. Mega Crit is making a new character but has not named it or shown its kit. The roadmap in its April 2026 Neowsletter…

Characters

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See also

Last updated Oct 26, 2026 by the Vi.ki team. Page text CC BY-SA 4.0.

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