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Characters / Slay the Spire

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Playable Characters

     The Ironclad 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ironclad.png
The remaining soldier of the Ironclads. Sold his soul to harness demonic energies.
A man clad in iron armor and imbued with demonic powers who ascends the spire in an attempt to regain his lost honor. Begins with 5 Strike cards, 4 Defend cards, and 1 Bash card.

Ironclad specializes in two major areas: Strength stacking and Defense stacking. Of all the playable characters, Ironclad has the most cards meant for Gathering Steam, often dramatically buffing his stats over time. While it takes a while for the ball to get rolling so to speak, if the Ironclad can really take off, he'll either be doing absolutely absurd amounts of damage or otherwise be so well defended that enemies can't even penetrate through his utterly massive wall of block.

His primary card manipulation mechanic is Exhaust, which removes a card until the end of the combat. A number of his cards exhaust on use, when not used, or allow him to exhaust other cards of his choice. While this seems risky, it actually helps with thinning your deck down enough that you would reach your key cards more frequently.

His primary card color is red. He begins with the Burning Blood relic, which restores 6 HP at the end of every battle.
  • After-Combat Recovery: Burning Blood lets him restore 6 HP after each fight. Black Blood is an Ironclad-specific boss relic that replaces the former and increases the health recovery to 12 HP.
  • Alien Blood: The Ironclad's "burning blood" is mostly a metaphor, but his starting relic can be upgraded to "Black Blood" that regenerates even more health.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Has green skin.
  • The Atoner: The demon who gave him power also corrupted him into killing his entire clan. Seeking penance, he ascended the spire to restore his honor. He succeeds in his ending.
  • BFS: Long, realistically broad, and with a forward hook to the tip of the blade. The Ironclad's sword is something like a two-handed version of a Kora.
  • Boring, but Practical: The Silent, Defect and Watcher can be very unwieldy and their large variety of strategies can make it difficult to build towards specific decks. The Ironclad on the other hand is much simpler, and thus his deck archetypes are much easier to achieve. While he won't reach the insane potential of the other characters as easily, he can unleash some devastatingly powerful combos if built right, such as the Block stacking strategy enabled by his Barricade card. Where the Silent unleashes dozens of knives or the Defect rotates out orbs to buff himself to high heaven, Ironclad simply stacks his block to extremely high levels and becomes functionally invincible.
  • Cast from Hit Points: Has various Blood Magic cards that also cost HP to use, or give you a powerful buff at the cost of some HP every turn. A card named Rupture increases your attack damage every time you lose HP from these cards, and you can build a deck around hurting yourself to gain more strength and regain lost health with Reaper or his starter relic.
  • Cursed with Awesome: His demonic blood turns him into an exceptional warrior at the cost of selling his soul.
  • Deal with the Devil: His lore literally states he sold his soul to the devil for more power.
  • Gathering Steam: While all of the characters invoke this to some extent, Ironclad embodies this the best. All of his Powers work best if invoked early, turning him into a serious menace to deal with if he's able to play his correct cards.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The clear fighter of the main trio, with a simpler deck relying on brute strength.
  • Life Drain: Reaper steals HP equal to unblocked damage dealt, and killing enemy with Feed permanently increases your max HP, which also heals you for the increased amount.
  • Magic Knight: Heavier on the knight, but he has some demonic magic thanks to a Deal with the Devil.
  • Mighty Glacier: His common archetype. He's slow and rather simple to play in the early game, but if his deck becomes strong enough it will slaughter anything with ease.
    • Can veer into Lightning Bruiser type by employing various cheap attacks such as Anger or Twin Strike and quickly ramps up attack power using Spot Weakness and upgraded Limit Break.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack:
    • "Disarm" reduces the strength of an enemy.
    • "Intimidate" applies the 'weak' status to all enemies on the field.
    • "Shockwave" applies weak and vulnerable.
  • Pain & Gain: Rupture increases his attack power every time he loses HP from cards, including the buffs from some power cards that drains HP.
    • Offering is a powerful card that gives a good energy boost and draws a bunch of cards (3 by default, 5 if upgraded) for no energy cost, but 6 health points.
  • Playing with Fire: One benefit from his demonic pact seems to be pyrokinesis, as seen in cards like Combust, Flame Barrier, Fire Breathing, Inflame, Searing Blow, Fiend Fire, and Immolate.

     The Silent 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silent_3.png A deadly huntress from the foglands. Eradicates foes with daggers and poisons.

A woman from the tribe of swamp dwellers, who has come to ascend the Spire after being honoured by her sisters for her skill at the hunt. Begins with five Strikes, five Defends, 1 Survivor, and 1 Neutralize.

The Silent specializes in two major areas: Knives and poison. The Silent can either construct a deck based around drawing a high number of low-damaging but extremely cheap Shivs that slowly ramp up in damage (and are supplemented by a wide variety of other knife-based attacks as well) or a deck based around applying a damage-over-time debuff on her enemies to penetrate through their defenses.

Her primary card manipulation mechanic is drawing and discarding, helping her cycle through her deck for a critical card to end the fight quickly.

Her primary card color is green. She begins with the Ring of the Snake relic, allowing her to draw 2 more cards at the beginning of each combat.

  • Achilles' Heel: Poison builds tend to struggle against enemies with a high Artifact rating, since poison is considered a debuff and Artifact negates those. They can cut through it eventually, but it will drag out the fight and make it more likely to cost health or force the player to burn potions.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: One of the reasons why a poison build is so powerful is because poison goes around block and acts first before an enemy does, meaning that extremely tanky enemies will eventually be brought low.
  • Blade Enthusiast: Most of her attacks involve knives. Stabbing you with knives, tossing knives, tossing a lot of knives, poisoning you... by stabbing you with a knife, etc. The card art for Grand Finale, Die Die Die and Infinite Blades demonstrates that the entire inside of her cloak is lined with knives.
  • Brown Note: Piercing Wail is so awful all enemies loses a potent amount of Strength on their turn.
  • Card Cycling: The Silent has several cards that draw extra cards in exchange for discarding other cards, and this helps her sift through her deck for important combo pieces. Some of her cards give her additional perks if they get discarded.
  • Challenge Seeker: Her memory in the Sensory Stone event indicates her ascent of the Spire is a tribal ceremony. She killed the creature whose skull she wears in combat as the last stage of a ritual to prove her worthiness.
  • Damage-Increasing Debuff: While cards that inflict vulnerability status aren't uncommon, the Silent's Terrify card is far superior. Terrify makes an enemy vulnerable for 99 turns when other cards usually last one or two turns!
  • Death by a Thousand Cuts: Her shiv builds run on this. Shivs do low damage (at least at first), but boy howdy can you produce a lot of them, and if looped properly, will allow you to draw 0-cost shivs to chuck at the enemy perpetually, allowing you to one-turn-KO even the Final Boss! (Not the Time Eater or the True Final Boss, though: the former forcibly ends your turn after you play 12 cards, and the latter has a cap of taking 300 damage per turn and has 700 hp.)
    • She even has a card named A Thousand Cuts to accentuate this by inflicting 1 damage (2 if upgraded) each times she uses another card.
  • Draw Extra Cards:
    • Her starting relic, Ring of the Snake, gives her two extra cards at the start of combat. It can be exchanged for the Ring of the Serpent, which lets her draw one extra card each turn.
    • A Rare card exclusive to the Silent is Adrenaline, which lets her draw 2 cards and gain some extra energy for free. Compared to the Defect's Overclock or Reboot, or the Ironclad's Offering, Adrenaline has the fewest downsides.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The clear thief of the main trio, relying on speed, deception, poison and more complex cardplay.
  • Fragile Speedster: One of her major archetypes is clearly based around this. She forgoes the slow-but-safe measure of the Ironclad or the risky-but-rewarding orb generation of the Defect in exchange for expending a lot of cheap and rapid attacks. A number of her cards support playing a lot of cards in a turn. She can quickly cycle through her deck by rapidly drawing and discarding cards. Prior to the Watcher, she was the only character that does not have an exclusive way to heal herself. This, along with her low health pool, means that she relies even more on mitigating incoming damage than other characters.
    • Also her ways to 'block' an attack is primarily dodging things by jumping around or moving very fast. Even her power card that increases Dexterity (which increase block gained from cards) is called Footwork.
  • Glass Cannon: She has low health and lacks the long-term resilience of the Ironclad or the access to passive block generation that the Defect gets from their orbs and the Watcher can get from powers; even the powers she has that do grant block typically do so as a reward for actively playing cards. However, she can throw around a lot of hurt, especially with the right relics or cards like Phantasmal Killer; you don't need to block if the enemy is dead before they deal damage!
  • Master Poisoner: Since the Watcher update, the Silent has an exclusive access to Poison, which damages an enemy through their block. Her arsenal includes multiple ways to directly poison the enemy, envenoming her attacks, or multiplying one on the target. She can also find Poison Potions to toss at her enemy, and has an access to relics that help her with inflicting poison as well.
  • Nemean Skinning: The Sensory Stone event depicts the Silent standing triumphantly over the remains of a Nemesis, taking its skull as a trophy and hat.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack:
    • "Piercing Wail" significantly decreases the strength of all enemies on the field, though the card is exhausted after one use.
    • "Leg Sweep" gives her additional defense while decreasing the attack of an enemy.
    • She has several Skill cards that exclusively inflict Poison.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: She notably wears the skull of a Nemesis, with the spine still attached.
  • Storm of Blades: Shiv decks again, particularly the rare card "Storm of Steel", which discards all the cards in your hand and replaces them with an equivalent number of free knives.
  • Why Am I Ticking?: Corpse Explosion causes the enemy afflicted with it to blow up once it dies, dealing damage equal to its max HP to all enemies on the field.
  • You Are Already Dead: An enemy afflicted with enough poison will die on their turn before they even get to act.

     The Defect 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/defect.png Combat automaton which became self-aware. Ancient technology allows manipulation of Orbs.

A combat automaton who has recently gained sentience and is exploring the spire in order to understand the meaning of their newfound intellect. Begins with 4 Strikes, 4 Defends, 1 Zap, and 1 Dualcast.

The Defect has a unique mechanic: orb generation. The Defect can generate up to three orbs that each have a passive effect and an active effect. Passively, the orbs float around the Defect and give them bonuses such as increased energy or free block, but they can also be invoked to consume them and deal a more noticeable effect such as a burst of damage.

Its primary card color is blue. Its relic is Cracked Core, which allows the Defect to automatically generate one Lightning orb at the beginning of each combat.

  • Armor-Piercing Attack: The Melter card will do 11 points of damage and instantly remove all the block on an opponent, this is great for enemies with high block like the Spheric Guardian and Shelled Parasite.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Defect can put on an impressive show, using tons of self-buffing Scratch attacks with Scrape to spam even more, or calling down ten lightning strikes per turn. Some complicated combos make the character exceptionally effective, but you're usually not going to get the right cards to make these synergies work as well as something the Ironclad's buffs or the Silent's poison.
  • Cyber Cyclops: Has a large 'eye spot' in the middle of its face plate, giving it this aesthetic. It has another, smaller 'eye spot' above, though.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Where the Ironclad and Silent are much safer picks to win a run, the Defect defines itself primarily based on luck to a much greater extent than those two. It relies heavily on its orbs, and getting just the right draw in just the right circumstance means it can be extremely difficult. At the same time, the Defect can enjoy a veritable tidal wave of free buffs if it draws properly, either causing it to dish out tons of damage with its Lightning, have a great amount of block with Frost, and so on.
  • Eye Beam: Can fires blue laser from its eye spot.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The clear Mage of the main trio, with complex cards and additional ability and more potential than its simpler counterparts.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Can channel Lightning orbs and Frost orbs. The 'Fire' part comes from either Dark orbs (which seem to have a rather fiery explosion) or Plasma orbs.
    • The Defect also has the Melter card, which plays the 'Fire' part a tad straighter.
  • Gathering Steam: Usually requires some time to set up its orbs properly with slots and Focus, but once everything is in place, it is pretty much game over for the enemy.
    • Claw is a 0-cost card that deals a pitiful 3 damage to a single enemy — literal Scratch Damage. It also increases the damage of all Claws in your deck by 2 for the rest of the battle. In a properly-built Claw deck, those same 0-cost cards will be doing tens of damage each after enough turns.
  • Golem: As a construct in a primarily fantasy universe, it fits.
  • Grew Beyond Their Programming: It is ambiguous whether the Defect gained sentience on its own or through Neow, but it can be agreed that it is no longer one of the automatons that protect the Spire.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Defect's Buffer card will completely stop the next single attack (2 if the card is upgraded).
  • Lightning Bruiser: The Defect has the potential to be this. It has a decent amount of health, good defense via Frost orbs, and decent damage via Lightning orbs, Dark orbs, powerful attacks like Sunder and Streamline, and Claw. However, the Defect can also veer into two extremes, either by becoming an impenetrable glacial fortress with Frost orbs and Focus, or by evaporating all of the enemies before they can retaliate. It'll all depend on whether you can draft the right cards for it, as a poor mixture of both archetypes will leave it a Master of None.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter: None of the other characters normally have orbs, and their management is the core element of the Defect's playstyle.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: "Bullseye" gives the target 'lock-on' status, increasing the amount of damage they take from orbs.
  • Personality Chip: Has an exclusive relic called "Emotion Chip", which triggers all orbs at the beginning of the turn if the Defect takes damage the previous turn, as if they can now resonate with the Defect's pain. Its flavor text is a simple "...<3...?".
  • Power at a Price:
    • Overclock lets it draw two (three if upgraded) cards for free but puts a damaging Burn card into discard.
    • TURBO gives it two Energy (three if upgraded) for free but puts an Energy-sapping Void card into discard.
    • Consume increases the potency of its orbs at the cost of an orb slot.
    • Reprogram gives Strength and Dexterity at the cost of its orb potency.
  • Robot Wizard: Is just as capable of using spells as any other player character.
  • You Are Already Dead: Channeled Lightning orbs strike at the end of your turn, meaning an enemy with low health or not enough block will die well before they can move.

     The Watcher 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/watcher_2.png A blind ascetic who has come to "Evaluate" the Spire. Master of the divine Stances.
A blind ascetic who has come to "evaluate" the Spire, following her peer who had mysteriously disappeared and stopped reporting about it.

The Watcher's unique mechanic is her stances: Calm, which grants her bonus energy when she leaves it, Wrath, in which she deals and receives twice as much damage, and Divinity, in which she gains a large bonus energy and deals triple the amount of damage. Managing your stance properly is a key to play the Watcher to her full potential.

Her primary card manipulation mechanics are Retain, which means the card will stay in your hand between turn, and Scry, which allow you to see a number of cards on top of your draw pile and may discard any of them.

Her primary card color is purple and her relic is Pure Water, which adds a Miracle (a colorless card that gives her 1 Energy and Exhausts) into her hand at the start of combat.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Blue, to be exact.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Almost all of her attacks that don't involve her hitting the enemy with her staff have her using martial arts.
  • The Berserker: Wrath mode is this in a nutshell, doubling damage dealt and taken. Uniquely, you can switch out of it almost at will, and timing your Wrath is an important aspect of playing the Watcher to her full potential.
  • Blind Seer: She is blind and many of her cards allow her to Scry, letting the player see upcoming cards and move some of them to the discard pile.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Watcher's religion is never explained, but from her cards it is a mix of Buddhism (Meditate, Nirvana, the "Empty" series of cards), Hinduism (Deva Form) and the more smite-happy western religions that imply a power from the above (Ragnarok, Smite, Deus Ex Machina).
  • Death or Glory Attack: Blasphemy gives you one turn of Divinity stance to kill your foes in… and kills you the turn after if you failnote.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Calm stance lets you oversee an immense amount of slaughter despite being, well, calm. Downplayed in that leaving Calm stance for the bonus energy it provides is usually more dangerous.
    • Played straight with the power card Like Water, which grants block if you are in Calm at the end of your turn, allows you to be calmly whacked in the face without much scratch.
  • Ditto Fighter: Foreign Influence grants her a choice of three attacks of any colour, enabling her to use the attacks of other characters.
  • Enlightenment Superpowers: Zig-Zagged: While a lot of the Watcher's cards suggest this with cards like Vigilance, Nirvana, Inner Peace, and Insight, a number of her Wrath cards like Eruption, Tantrum, Simmering Fury, and Indignation also imply that the Watcher is not necessarily always in harmony with her spiritual peace. This implies that the Watcher is either not so enlightened, or that inner peace and goodwill isn't a requirement for enlightenment in this universe. It's exaggerated with Reach Heaven, which produces a powerful attack card Through Violence.
  • Extra Turn: Vault lets her take an extra turn, but it's expensive and also ends her current turn on use. Unless you've upgraded it to reduce its cost or have extra energy, its best use is to fish for a new hand with any Retained cards.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Due to being blind. They also help establish her as a spiritual character.
  • Glass Cannon: Wrath stance causes her to deal and receive twice as much damage.
  • Handicapped Badass: The Watcher is blind, but this doesn't stop her from potentially slaying the Spire.
  • Limit Break: Divinity stance normally acts like this, providing powerful bonuses but requires a buildup of Mantra to enter and lasts only one turn.
  • Master of All: Divinity stance not only combines the benefits of Calm and Wrath stance without the drawbacks, it also enhances them.
  • Reality Warper: Seems to have this power to some extent, with cards like Carve Reality, Deceive Reality, and Master Reality, all of which related to card creation.
  • Religion is Magic: The majority of her cards draw inspiration from various religions, and they prove to be a powerful arsenal.
  • Super Mode: Divinity stance has tedious requirements, but provides an energy boost and TRIPLES your damage output. Other than lasting only a turn, it does not have other major downside.
  • Stance System: The Watcher has two main options (Calm and Wrath), and a difficult-to-achieve but oh-so-rewarding Master of All stance (Divinity).
  • Sword and Fist: Staff and fist, but close enough!
  • Stealth Pun: Calm stance does nothing until you exit it, meaning it is ideal to leave it right before aiming for a massive combo: It's the "Calm before the storm".
  • Time Master: Scry allows her to see the future and effectively chose her next draw and Vault allows her to take an entire extra turn, an ability reminiscent of the Time Eater's capacity to end the player's turn early.
  • The Strategist: She has multiple cards that retain themselves, with many becoming stronger or cheaper over multiple turns, can Scry cards to see her next card draw and remove potential "dead cards", and cards which enhance or are enhanced depending on which type of card you played last turn. Much of her game plan involves cycling between stances, going into Calm stance for energy gain later and going into Wrath stance to deal extra damage and exiting out to avoid taking more damage.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Wrath stance… is actually an aversion. While doubling damage dealt is incredibly powerful, doubling damage taken means that enemy could very well kill you on their next turn. It is HIGHLY recommended to leave Wrath before ending your turn unless you are absolutely sure you can deal lethal damage.
  • Wax On, Wax Off: Perseverance implies this through both its current and beta artwork, depicting the Watcher training by either rolling a large boulder up a hill, or by carrying the Ironclad up a staircase on her shoulders.
  • You Are Already Dead: Her Omega power deals damage at the end of every turn after it is activated, potentially killing enemies before they can retaliate.

Allies

    Neow 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neow.png "Hello... Again..."
A whale-like entity which greets the player on the first floor. She will give you one of the two blessing to help you on your journey. If you have reached the boss of the first Act in your last run, her blessings options will expand to four.

In the "Cursed Tome" event, it is revealed that Neow is an Ancient of resurrection who was condemned to the bottom of the Spire, and has since tried to seek her vengeance by sending an adventurer up the Spire to destroy it, resurrecting them again and again until their quest is complete.
  • Big Good: Can be considered one in this game, as she seeks to destroy the Spire that has corrupted the land... though she wasn't motivated to help before she had reason to seek revenge, and her pawns are mostly unaware that she keeps resurrecting them over and over until they succeed.
  • Creepy Good: She is a talking whale carcass with three glowing eyes.
  • Defector from Decadence: Dark shapes that may be other Ancients can be encountered in an event, identifying the player as one of Neow's "toys". They don't seem to take either of you very seriously, and offer to give you powers of intangibility in exchange for dramatically reducing your max health, apparently because it would be fun to watch; none of which suggests anything pleasant about their society.
  • Fantasy Aliens: She seems to be some kind of Space Whale, possibly, given what little is known of the Spire and its origins.
  • Go-to-Sleep Ending: Once the player puts the Spire to rest by destroying the Corrupt Heart, Neow will appears after the credits, saying that she can finally sleep in peace.
  • HP to One: Can give the player the Neow's Lament relic, which would set the HP of all enemies on the first three battle to 1. It even works on elites and bosses! ...if you are lucky enough to reach one without the relic running out first, that is.
  • Mysterious Backer: Has a shade of this. Her main motivation seems to be vengeance, and she keeps resurrecting the adventurer again and again, repeatedly sending them on what amounts to a Suicide Mission.
  • Power at a Price: The third and fourth blessings that are added when the player has reached the boss of the first act always have a hefty cost for their more powerful effect. The third one might require you to lose some max HP, take some damage, lose all gold, or obtain a curse. The fourth one is always losing your starting relic for a powerful relic that would drop after defeating a boss.
  • Sapient Cetaceans: However, it is unclear whether she is a whale, possesses a whale, or takes the form of one. The other Ancients don't seem to look much like her even in silhouette.

     The Merchant 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/merchantwithprops.png "Hi! Buy something! Buy buy buy!"
A masked man clad in blue who can be found in various places. He sells cards, relics, and potions, as well as offers you a card-removal service.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Downplayed. Only the card removal service gets more expensive the more you use it, and even that can be nullified by the Smiling Mask relic.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: He is blue.
  • Cat/Dog Dichotomy: One of his quotes is "are you a dog person or a cat person?" In Act IV, he might mention his own alignment: cat person.
  • Discount Card: A bizarre case of one. There is a relic called Membership Card, which grants a hefty 50% discount on all items. It can only be bought from the Merchant himself as it is a shop-exclusive relic.
  • Friend in the Black Market: Despite his greed and the price of his goods, all the products that he offers are very useful.
  • Hidden Depths: One of his quotes is "I used to be like you," implying that he was once an adventurer like the player.
  • Intrepid Merchant: He can be found all over the Spire despite its omnipresent dangers. He even set up a shop two rooms before the Corrupt Heart itself!
  • Money Fetish: He really, really loves gold.
  • Money Sink: His very presence is this, as there are not many ways to spend your gold. Not to mention his prices are usually near a hundred or well above.
  • Nice Mice: His pet, in the form of the relic named The Courier. It helps refilling his stock of cards, relics, and potions, and also causes him to grant you a 20% discount.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Based on the relic Smiling Mask, his mask seems to evoke this effect.

     The Cleric 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleric.jpg "Are you interested in my services?!"
A blue humanoid creature with fantastic powers. He appears in a couple of events.
  • Creepy Good: He may look shady, but is ultimately a good character.
  • Eye-Obscuring Hat: Wears a golden helm which seemingly hides his eyes. If he has any, of course.
  • Good Is Not Nice: If you refuse to give him your money while he disguises himself as an old beggar, he will coldly condemn you to failure.
    The beggar looks to the floor as you pass.
    "You will never make a difference... You never do."
  • Heroic Build: He is positively ripped.
  • Large Ham: He is loud. His events always have him shouting when he announces himself to the player.
  • Secret Test of Character: One of an event in the second act is the Cleric disguised as an old beggar. He will ask for you to spare him some money. If you obliged, he will reveal himself and reward you with a card removal service.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Wears only a robe and a helm.
  • White Magic: He can heal the player, or relieve them from their burden by removing a card.

     Ranwid 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wemeetagain.jpg "We meet again!"
A cheery fellow that you sometimes run into. His only in-game appearance is in the event "We Meet Again!", where the player can give him gold, a potion, or a relic for a random relic in return. His presence is more prominent in flavor texts of many relics, which paint him as some sort of researcher.
  • Badass Bookworm: You can run into his cheery self in any act, no matter how dangerous it is. One must wonder how he has survived this long, still thriving, still studying.
  • Extreme Omnivore: You cannot choose which potion to give to him as his choice of potion is predetermined, so he could ask for your Explosive Potion, Fire Potion, Smoke Bomb, or Poison Potion, and immediately drink it afterward with no side effect.
  • Meaningful Name: His name is an anagram of Darwin, referencing the great scientist Charles Darwin. Both are great academics, and Ranwid studies flora and fauna like his namesake.
  • Nice Guy
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: A minor one. The player may choose to punch him instead of giving him an item, causing him to run away.

     N'loth 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nloth_6.jpg "N'loth hungry. Feed N'loth."
An odd hunchbacked creature with tentacles sprouting from its back. Known for its strange appetite for relics. He appears in an eponymous event, asking for a relic to eat in exchange for an event-exclusive relic.
  • Adorable Abomination: Aww, he is just a miserable Lovecraft Lite creature asking for food!
  • Big Eater: His signature trait. He is very, very hungry.
    N'loth's Face flavor text: You feel hungry.
  • Extreme Omnivore: He eats relics. Granted, some of them are food, but he might also wish to eat your pillow, ninja weaponry, or a stone calendar.
    • N'loth's Face relic, obtained by trading your face for it in "Face Trader" event, makes you so hungry that the next non-boss treasure chest you opened does not contain a relic because you supposedly eat what's inside.
  • Matryoshka Object: N'loth's Gift, his reward for you feeding him, is a wrapped gift box that is described as endlessly containing another box of the same kind inside.
  • Random Drop Booster: The function of N'loth's Gift. It triples the chance to receive rare cards as a monster fight reward. For reference, the base chance of that happening is -2%, and it goes up by 1% for every non-rare card you see until you do find one, at which point it resets to -2%.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Averted. Refusing to give your relic to him just makes you shake your head in refusal, and he hunches away miserably.

Monsters

Debut in Act 1

     Cultist 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cultist_pretty_3.png "CA CAAAW!"
A masked individual clad in feathered robes. Seemingly has a fascination with crows. Their unique ability is to apply a Ritual buff on themself, gradually increasing their Strength. This means that they will get stronger the longer the fight is. Fortunately, they do not block nor debuff you, making fighting against them rather straightforward. The player may find a Cultist potion, which will duplicate the buff — as well as make them call out "Ca Caw!" themselves.

In Act 1, you may encounter a battle against a single Cultist on the first 3 floors. Further into Act 1, they may appears with a Louse or a medium-sized Slime.

In Act 2, they may appear alongside a Chosen, or appear as a group of three.

In Act 3, two of them will accompany Ascended One in its boss fight.
  • Animal Motifs: Crows. They dress in feathered robes, wear bird-like masks, and frequently "CAW" during battle.
  • Cult: Members of a cult that worships crows. One event allows you to sneak into one of their cathedrals and steal either the knife they perform blood rituals with or a bunch of their money.
  • Flunky Boss: Two of them appear alongside the Awakened One.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: They hit harder every turn. This becomes problematic when they appear with another enemy or as a group of three and you do not have good area damage, as you either have to focus the Cultist down before they get dangerously strong, or kill the other enemy that will plague you with debuffs and/or stronger bursts of damage.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: They wear a crow-shaped mask. It may look goofy, but the wearer definitely wants to kill you.
  • Mooks: Ultimately is this for the Awakened One army.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Proclaim "YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!" or "MY POWER IS UNMATCHED" as they buff themselves with Ritual.
  • Religion of Evil: They worship the Awakened One, the malevolent crow god.

     Fungi Beast 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fungibeast.png
A zombified giant rat infested by giant fungi. Has the Spore Cloud innate buff, which causes it to apply Vulnerable on you when they are killed, causing you to take more damage for several turns.

In Act 1, you may encounter two of them in a battle, or one of them alongside a Louse or a medium-sized Slime. They also appear in a group of three to battle you if you choose "Stomp" in the "Hypnotizing Colored Mushrooms" event.

In Act 2, they may appear alongside a Shelled Parasite.
  • Dead Man's Switch: Spore Cloud basically causes you to temporarily take more damage after you kill a Fungi Beast. It becomes troublesome when the monster is accompanied by other creatures.
  • Festering Fungus: The "actual" enemy. Its host rodent is seemingly dead long before the fight.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: It can use Grow to gain Strength. If you leave it on its own for too long, it can become problematic.
  • Puppeteer Parasite: It infests the body of a rodent, turning the carcass into a weapon.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: It's unclear whether the rat is enlarged by the fungi, or it is that size by nature.
  • Status Effects: Can indirectly inflict Vulnerable on you, amplifying the damage you take.

     Gremlins 
A group of small gremlins. They come in five variations; Fat Gremlin, which has a low-damage attack that inflicts Weak, reducing your damage; Mad Gremlin, which gains Strength every time it takes a hit; Shield Gremlin, which grants block to another enemy; Sneaky Gremlin, which attacks with a single, high-damage hit; and Wizard Gremlin, which takes two turns to charge up a devastating attack.

In Act 1, you may encounter a group of four random types of gremlin.

In Act 2, up to three of them can be summoned by the Gremlin Leader, and she starts with two of them already by her side.
  • Flunky Boss: The Gremlin Leader Elite enemy starts with two Gremlins on the field and can summon more.
  • Status Effects: Fat Gremlins inflict Weak when they attack, and on higher Ascensions inflict Frail as well.

     Jaw Worm 
A multi-eyed, toothy creature. It is one of the simpler enemies in the game, focusing equally on blocking and attacking. It can also Bellow to increase its Strength.

In Act I, Jaw Worms appear alone early on, and with either a Louse or medium-sized Slime later on.

In Act III, a trio of Jaw Worms can be encountered. These are special "hard mode" Jaw Worms that have the strength gained from one Bellow right out of the gate.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Can use Bellow to gain Strength. The three "hard mode" Jaw Worms have a stack of Bellow on them at the start of the fight.

     Looter 
A humanoid thief who aims to steal from people in the Spire. Both of the Looter's attacks will take the player's gold away with its Thievery buff. Eventually, it will throw out a smoke bomb and get a large amount of block; if it isn't killed after that happens, it'll run away and take the gold with it.

In Act I, Looters appear by themselves or alongside a Louse or medium-sized Slime.

In Act II, a Looter can only appear early on, but it'll be accompanied by a Mugger, a slightly stronger variant.
  • Bandit Mook: Steals gold from you whenever it attacks.
  • Karma Houdini: If it escapes, you’ll never see your gold again or be able to take revenge.

     Louses 
Fuzzy bugs that serve as low-level vermin in the Spire. The red Louses focus on dealing low damage that increases when they buff themselves, while green Louses spit webbing to reduce the power of attack cards. Both types will curl up after being hit for the first time, giving them a lot of block for that turn.

In Act I, Louses can appear in groups of two or three, or alongside many of the other Act I enemies.

     Slavers 
Slave drivers who wear bright-colored cloaks and wield sharp hook-based weapons. Blue Slavers do nothing but attack, occasionally applying Weak when they do; red Slavers apply Vulnerable instead, and carry around a net that they can throw to prevent the player from using attack cards for a turn.

In Act I, a red or blue Slaver can appear by itself, or alongside a Louse or medium-sized Slime. The red slavers are significantly rarer.

In Act II, a red Slaver and blue Slaver always accompany the Taskmaster, and don't qualify as minions, meaning they have to be killed along with their boss.
  • All Webbed Up: The Entangled Dubuff inflicted by Red Slavers looks like a spider web, and prevents playing attacks until it wears off.
  • Status Effects: Blue Slaver’s Rake inflicts Weak, and Red Slaver’s Scrape inflicts Vulnerable. Red Slaver can also use Entangle, which inflicts a debuff preventing the playing of attack cards for that turn.

     Slimes 
Greenish blobs that come in three different sizes each; small, medium, and large. There are two types; Acid Slimes, which are lime-green and get more eyes as they grow in size, deal less damage but can apply Weak, and Spike Slimes, which are gray-green and always cyclopian, deal higher damage and specialize in Frail. The medium and large Slimes can stick Slimed status cards into your deck, which clog it up until they're removed with energy. At its largest size, the Slime will split apart when it loses half of its health, turning into two medium Slimes with health equal to what the large Slime had left when it split.

In Act I, Slimes appear in various configurations: a small alongside a medium, five small Slimes, one medium along with another Exordium enemy, or a single large Slime. The Slime Boss will turn into two large Slimes when it loses half its health.
  • Asteroids Monster: Large Slimes split into two medium Slimes when they reach half health.
  • Blob Monster: They're slimes. Their only visible organs are their eyes and spikes, and cutting them in half just makes more of them.
  • Status Infliction Attack: The Acid Slime's Corrosive Spit and Spike Slime's Flame Tackle add Slime status cards to your discard pile, filling up your draw pile with useless cards. They also have a Lick attack that inflicts a status depending on their type — Weak for Acid Slimes, and Frail for Spike Slimes.

Debuts in Act II

     Byrds 
Winged creatures with green feathers. Until they are knocked out of the air by being attacked 3 times in one turn, they take half damage from attacks. They can appear in groups of 3, or 1 Byrd alongside a Chosen.
  • Achilles' Heel: Due to its many attacks per turn, they are uniquely vulnerable to the "Thorns" buff that deals return damage for each hit.
  • Airborne Mook: They take half damage because of their ability to fly, until they're knocked out of the air, that is.
  • Beak Attack: Their primary attack consists of pecking at the player 5 times in a row.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Can use Caw to raise its Strength, making its Peck attack increasingly deadly due to its multiple hits.

     Centurion and Mystic 
A heavily-armored knight and a squishy cleric who always appear together.
  • Carry a Big Stick: The Centurion attacks with a large, spiked mace.
  • Combat and Support: The Centurion fills the combat role, being the main damage dealer and having enough HP to tank hits while defending the Mystic. The Mystic is the Support, having weak attacks but the ability to heal and buff itself and the Centurion.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: The Mystic has a roughly 1/3 chance each turn of increasing the strength of it and the Centurion by 3, though it can't do this more than twice in a row.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Averted. Although the Mystic is a tempting target, the Centurion Turns Red when she is killed and starts dealing heavy damage, so taking him out first is generally preferred.

     Chosen 
Higher-ranking and more powerful members of the bird cult than the cultists that are encountered on the lower level of the Spire, though they sometimes appear together. Rather than relying on brute strength, the Chosen are adept at inflicting status effects on their opponents while buffing themselves.
  • Animal Motifs: Less extreme than the Cultists, but their robes have cowls that mimic bird heads and their arms are covered in blue feathers.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: After the first two turns, they have a chance each turn of using Drain, which increases the Chosen's strength by 3 while applying Vulnerable to the player.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: The Chosen inflicts the Hex status on you, which adds a useless Dazed card to your deck each time you play a card that isn't an attack. This starts off harmless, especially since any in your hand are removed at the end of your turn, but if you don't end the fight quickly, you'll find it almost impossible to get the cards you need to block her attacks or deal enough damage to get rid of her.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack:
    • They can do an attack that deals no damage but applies 'Hex' to your character — every time you play a card other than an attack, a useless Dazed card is added to your draw pile.
    • Their Drain attack applies Vulnerable to you while increasing their own strength.
  • Religion of Evil: Like the Cultists, they worship the Awakened One, the malevolent crow god.

     Shelled Parasite 
A grotesque parasite whose attacks are weak, but is defended by a thick layer of Plated Armor that renews its block every turn.

May appear alongside a Fungi Beast.
  • Life Drain: Its Suck attack heals it by the amount of damage it deals to you.
  • Stone Wall: Its attacks are nothing to write home about, but its Plated Armor and ability to heal itself with Suck means that you'll likely slog through battles with it.

     Snake Plant 
A carnivorous plant with a large flowering pink bud, surrounded by biting vines that attack multiple times each turn.
  • Hydra Problem: Snake plants have malleable, which lets them gain increasing amounts of block every time it's attacked in the same turn. Death by a Thousand Cuts is much less effective against it than one or two more powerful attacks.
  • Man-Eating Plant: It bites you with its three vines.
  • Our Hydras Are Different: It has three vines with small heads that bears some resemblence with a Hydra.

     Snecko 
A strange, enormous reptile dwelling in the Spire that seeks to confound its opponents with its glare.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Because it randomizes the cost of your cards, it's pure luck whether a battle against it will be a breeze or a nightmare.
  • Mix-and-Match Creatures: It's a combination of a snake and a gecko, having the overall body shape of a snake but a gecko's large bulging eyes and a set of forelimbs with large round toes.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: The most notable thing about it is that on its first turn, it inflicts the 'Confused' status on your character, which randomizes the cost of the cards in your deck.
  • Shout-Out: Its Tail Whip attack is one to the move of the same name from Pokémon. In Pokémon, it lowers the opponent's defense by a stage; here, it inflicts Vulnerable on you.

     Spheric Guardian 
One of the numerous artificial creatures created to defend the spire, this floating orb makes up for its pitiful HP stat with its huge amount of block.
  • Achilles' Heel:
    • The Defect card Melter, which removes all block on an opponent and deals 10 damage. As its only defense was its huge amount of block and ability to pile it on very quickly, it's very easy to take it out once this card has been played. Melter even shows a destroyed Spheric Guardian on its art.
    • Judgement, a Watcher card, sets an enemy's HP to 0 if they have 30 or less HP, completely ignoring block, which kills the Spheric Guardian at any point it's used since the its Max HP is lower than 30.
  • Armored But Frail: Has only 20 HP, which is very low for an enemy encountered in acts 2 and 3, but has a huge amount of block to compensate for it, as well as the unique 'barricade' trait: extra block is NOT lost at the end of its turn.
  • No-Sell: Starts the battle with three artifact charges, rendering it immune to the effects of relics that impose status effects on the first turn of battle like Bag of Marbles or Red Mask and making it difficult to inflict Vulnerable onto it to cut through its block.

Debuts in Act III

     Darklings 
These slime-like enemies appear in packs, and will regenerate if killed unless the whole pack is taken out quickly.
  • Blob Monster: Made of a black sludge with yellow eyes. Since they don't appear in the Slime Boss fight and have a slightly different mechanic linking them together, their relationship to the slimes from Act 1 is unclear.
  • Gemini Destruction Law: More like a Triplet Destruction Law since they always spawn in threes. You have to defeat the rest of them in 2 turns after one dies to defeat them all, or the defeated one will be revived with half HP.

     Exploders 
One of the three shape enemies found in the Beyond. They eventually explode if not destroyed in advance.
  • Action Bomb: After two turns of attacking with Slam, on the third turn, the Exploder will always, well, explode, kiling itself and dealing 30 damage that ignores status effects, either positive or negative.

     The Maw 
A larger and much more dangerous Jaw Worm.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: It occasionally increases its power, and one of its skills has its attack power higher the longer the battle lasts.

     Orb Walker 
A spherical robotic construct.

     Repulsors 
One of the three shape enemies found in the Beyond. Capable of dazing their opponents

     Spikers 
One of the three shape enemies found in the Beyond. They have spikes that serve to protect it and deal damage to those that try to harm it.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: In an interesting twist, the spikers' damaging attack remains a consistant 7 (9 in higher ascensions) which is pretty low, even compared to the other shapes. What they do to become more lethal is increase their Thorns condition to cause more damage to you when they get hit.

     Spire Growth 
A tentacle-like monster that seems to have grown from the spire itself.

     Transient 
An ephemeral powerhouse made of shadows and starlight that vanishes on its own after five turns.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Whatever it is, it is not from here, and it will inevitably go back.
  • Hold the Line: Although it has 999 HP and fearsome-looking attacks, you have to survive for 5 turns before it disappears. To aid survival, the Transient's damage for the turn also goes down based on the damage you inflict to it.
  • Living Shadow: It looks like an animate hole into the void, with asymmetric limbs and a single twinkling eye-like star.
  • Metal Slime: Surviving until it vanishes is one thing. Dealing 999 damage to properly kill it before that happens is another thing entirely, and is worth an achievement.

     Writhing Mass 
A dense tangle of green tendrils and mossy growths, wrapped around a few glowing red cores.
  • Boss in Mook's Clothing: Unlike any other enemy in the game, even bosses, the Mass changes its intentions whenever it takes unblocked damage, making each turn into a roulette of deciding how many times to attack it and whether its current intentions are manageable. And also unlike any other enemy in the game, it can curse you mid-combat, when ordinarily you'd only gain status cards - curses are otherwise reserved as drawbacks for relics or event choices.
  • Shout-Out: It looks rather like an overgrown Tangrowth the size of a whole grove of trees.
  • Tentacled Terror: Tentacles or vines are the only features that can be clearly identified as a part of it, burying any other body parts it may have.

Elites

Act I Elites

     Gremlin Nob 
A very tall angry gremlin.
  • Bad with the Bone: Nob drags the entire spine, ribs, and skull of another creature into battle with it to use as a Primitive Club.
  • Rush Boss: Its first turn will be spent gaining Enrage, which will make it stronger whenever you play a Skill, including most cards that block. It turns the rest of the fight into a race to see who can Attack! Attack! Attack! the other to death first.

     Lagavulin 
A giant sleepy monster that resembles a hermit crab wearing an unusual bone-white shell.

     Sentry 
A strange, floating metallic contraption that wanders the lower areas of the Spire in search of intruders.
  • Degraded Boss: Initially appears in a group of three in act 1 as an elite encounter, but can be found later in act 2 with a Spheric Guardian as a regular enemy.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: Sentries alternate between regular attacks and adding two useless Dazed cards to your deck.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: They can use an attack that does nothing but adds two Dazed cards to your discard pile, which starts off harmless but quickly becomes maddening the longer the battle goes on.
  • Wolfpack Boss: Each Sentry isn't too hard on its own, but juggling between the attacks and the debuffs of a group of three proves to be a challenge until you thin the crowd.

Act II Elites

     Book of Stabbing 
One of several seemingly sentient books of ancient lore left among the Spire's ruins. Unlike others that you can encounter, the Book of Stabbing has no interest in trying to drive you to madness with its knowledge. No, it just wants to stab you. A lot.
  • Blade Spam: Its preferred method of attack is to stab you with many small, rapid strikes in a single turn. It starts with 6 stabs per turn, and that number goes up the longer the battle goes on.
  • Books That Bite: A much more actively hostile example than most, as just encountering it is enough to earn its wrath, and it won't rest until either you or it are dead.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: The longer the fight with it goes on, the more attacks per turn it can make.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: The Book of Stabbing miniboss adds a useless Wound card into your deck each time you take damage from it... which is an issue, since it attacks with a Blade Spam of at least six individually weak attacks each turn, and all of them can potentially add a Wound to your deck.

     Gremlin Leader 
The leader of the gremlins, who may call upon them during combat to help her.
  • Flunky Boss: Starts the fight with 2 gremlins and will regularly summon two more if she has less than two.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Encourage lets her buff herself and all her gremlins with additional strength. Killing a gremlin makes sure that the next one to come won't carry that buff, but the Gremlin Leader's strength continuously increases until end of the fight.

     Taskmaster 
Perhaps only another one of the slavers who live in the spire. He's exclusively found in the city, different from the slavers that sometimes appear in act 1.
  • Flunky Boss: Fights along a red and a blue slaver on their elite fight. The colosseum fight includes them and a gremlin nob, but the nob is not exactly just a mook.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: Will add wounds to your deck everytime they attack, starting at 1 on lower ascensions, but going up to 3 later on.
  • Whip of Dominance: The Taskmaster is a whip-wielding Flunky Boss, always accompanied by other lesser slavers. His Scouring Whip can inflict wounds that can fill the player's deck, as a gameplay translation of the torturing aspect of a whip.

Act III Elites

     Giant Head 
A giant statue head that is deadly but takes a while to get going.
  • Achilles' Heel: Its "Slow" attribute makes it take more damage for each card played in the turn. This means Spam Attack decks can take out a lot of its health before it even finishes its countdown.
  • Time-Limit Boss: It spends the first five turns counting down, and in the meantime its attacks are relatively weak. Past that point, it unleashes powerful attacks nonstop.
  • Why Won't You Die?: If you manage to survive its first attacks after the countdown, it wonders "Why are you still here?"

     Nemesis 
A spectral reaper with deadly scythe attacks and is difficult to hit.
  • Scratch Damage: Periodically goes Intangible which reduces all damage it takes to 1.
  • Token Motivational Nemesis: Name aside, the Silent seems to have deliberately imitated the Nemesis - wrapped in a green robe, wearing a horned skull, and carrying a crooked blade - before coming to the Spire, perhaps to kill it specifically.

     Reptomancer 
An assassin who conjures floating knives to cut up her enemies.
  • Flunky Boss: Begins the fight with two floating knives and will summon more if they are not taken down.
  • Master of the Levitating Blades: The animated knives around her attack in a cycle while she summons their replacements.

Act IV (SPOILERS)

     Spire Spear and Spire Shield 
Disembodied appendages that serve as the final line of defense to the Heart of the Spire.
  • Combat and Support: The Spire Spear deals more upfront damage while the Shield supports with raising large amounts of Block for both combatants.
  • Dual Boss: The Shield and Spear cooperate and surround you to get an advantage in combat.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter: You fight them in the unique Surrounded condition, where you need to consider who you've attacked last before ending your turn. Attacks from behind will deal more damage. You also can't use the Smoke Bomb until this condition is cancelled by defeating one of them.

Bosses

Act I

     Slime Boss 
The biggest slime of them all, with a small bowler hat just to drive home the point. Slime Boss is an Asteroids-type boss, splitting repeatedly into other slimes every time it or they reach half health.
  • Asteroids Monster: Splits into two large Slimes when it reaches half health, which in turn split into two smaller Slimes when they reach half health.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Calls out "Slime... CRUSH!" when it is about to use its Slam attack.
  • Charged Attack: It needs to spend a turn preparing itself and taking no action before dealing a huge amount of damage with its Slam attack.
  • Eyes Always Shut: It is the only slime in the game with human-like eyes, but they are always kept shut.
  • Hat of Authority: Its superiority over the lesser slimes is denoted by its jaunty black bowler.

     The Guardian 
A shapeshifting automaton-seed-bird-thing. The Guardian shifts between an attack and defense mode, controlled by how much damage the hero does to it. In attack mode it deals heavy damage and inflicts debuffs. In defense mode, it has weak attacks, but is protected by its sharp hide.
  • Stone Wall: In attack mode, it alternates between powerful attacks and high amounts of block; if dealt enough (unblocked) damage, it switches to defense mode, instantly gaining armour while it deploys thorns that hurt you whenever you attack, then switching modes again after a few turns. Getting around its defences while still consistently protecting yourself is key to beating it quickly - striking hard on the right turn to make it switch modes, inflicting passive damage using poison or orbs, or simply swiftly overpowering it.
  • Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Has some tones of this when confronted by the Defect, as it seems to be the highest-tier version of the same class of security droid that the Defect was before it awakened. Their skills have diverged, but they still have the same build and stance.

     Hexaghost 
A fiery apparition. Hexaghost deals fairly weak attacks, adds damaging Burn cards to the hero's deck, building up to a mega attack it inflicts every six turns once each of its fires is lit.
  • Arc Number: It's a six-flamed catherine wheel. All of its attacks are multiples or divisions of six.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: The Hexaghost adds Burn cards to your deck when it attacks, which take up space and deal Scratch Damage if you end your turn with them in your hand.
  • Percent Damage Attack: Its Divider attack scales against your current health, effectively halving itnote . Thankfully, Hexaghost only uses it once, and you can also apply the Weakened status to it to decrease the damage.
  • Playing with Fire: Most of its attacks, such as Sear and Inferno, not only use fire but shuffle Burn cards into your deck.
  • Time-Limit Boss: After the initial Divider attack, its damage is minor, but over time the combination of Inflame with accumulating burn cards will overwhelm you. Surviving the Hexaghost is often a matter of killing it before Inferno hits or as quickly as possible after.

Act II

     Bronze Automaton 
The mightiest defense construct that blocks the hero's path. This headless suit of armor summons minions that lock away two of the hero's cards, usually the rarest. It builds up to a HYPER BEAM attack that is one of the most powerful direct one-shot attacks in the game.
  • Animated Armor: Looks like a headless suit of armor.
  • Flunky Boss: Spawns Bronze Orbs at the beginning of the fight.
  • Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: The mooks that the Bronze Automaton spawns steal the cards with the highest rarity from your draw pile, refusing you access to them until you either win the battle or kill the mooks.
  • Mooks Ate My Equipment: Its two minions will steal the two cards with the highest rarity in your deck that you haven't drawn yet — if the draw pile is empty, they will steal from your discard pile. You gain your cards back after winning the battle, but can get them back early by killing the minions.
  • No-Sell: Starts the battle with three artifact charges, rendering it immune to the effects of relics that impose status effects on the first turn of battle like Bag of Marbles or Red Mask.
  • Shout-Out: Its Hyper Beam attack is a reference to the move of the same name from Pokémon. Both hit extremely hard, but require the user to do nothing on the. turn afterwards to recharge.

     The Champ 
A heavily armored gladiatorial champion with a high opinion of himself. He has a wall of HP and a balanced range of abilities and attacks, as well as a Turns Red mode once he reaches half health.
  • Badass Normal: Unlike the other bosses that are some mix of Golem, Eldritch Abomination or monster, The Champ seems to be a normal (albeit strong) human in a suit of armor. He'll still tear you apart.
  • Lightning Bruiser: After he Turns Red.
  • Mighty Glacier: Has extraordinarily high HP for an Act 2 boss.
  • Turns Red: At half health, he'll rid himself of debuffs and gain a significant increase in strength, then begin using the "Execute" move to do massive damage.

     The Collector 
A higher member of the bird cult whose signature move is to inflict every single debuff at the same time (thankfully only once). She also has minions she can repeatedly respawn and empower.
  • Black Magic: Her attacks take the form of afflicting the player with multiple debuffs to weaken their defenses via magical needles, then raining fireballs down with her staff.
  • Fireball Eyeballs: Her only visible facial features are the glowing green fireballs where her eyes should be.
  • Flunky Boss: Summons Torch-Head minions at the start of her battle. While they don't deal significant amounts of damage, she'll repeatedly buff them throughout the battle and will summon more if the player kills them.
  • In the Hood: Everything except for parts of her arms and legs is completely hidden by a long black cloak.
  • Magic Staff: Wields a gnarled wooden staff that is lit with the same green fire as her eyes.
  • Slouch of Villainy: Spends the entire battle lounging on a throne made from an enormous bird skull.

Act III

     Awakened One 
Possibly the head of the avian cult that infests the Spire, the Awakened One appears to be a cultist that has fully transformed into a transcendentally powerful bird creature. The Awakened One punishes Power-heavy decks, and has a Turns Red mode once it hits zero health the first time.
  • Adaptive Ability: The Awakened One starts with a buff called Curiosity, causing it to gain strength whenever you play a Power; the indication is that it's watching you cast them and becoming empowered as it learns. In its second, fully-awakened phase, it loses Curiosity but retains its strength buffs, letting you play your Powers safely if you can survive with them uselessly clogging your deck first.
  • Animalistic Abomination: A strange human crow hybrid that came to be through what's implied to be mutation.
  • Creepy Crows: An evil blue crow god, hunched on the ground with a ritual knife still embedded in its stomach. After awakening it also gains Glowing Eyes of Doom and grows crystalline feathers from its limbs and back.
  • Flunky Boss: Begins its battle with two Cultists accompanying it, though by this point the player will have no trouble dealing with them.
  • Healing Factor: Regenerates a small amount of health every turn.
  • Turns Red: Once its health drops to zero, it'll go dormant for a turn. Then it Awakens, and gains a brand new health bar.

     Donu & Deca 
Two extremely large shapes, similar to the other inexplicable, non-biological entities found throughout the Spire's Beyond. Donu and Deca have a very simple but powerful rotation of abilities, and punish defensive decks.
  • Achilles' Heel: Since they both have the same amount of HP, a Silent with Corpse Explosion in her deck only needs to kill one of them to win.
  • Boring, but Practical: They have only two moves each as opposed to the range of attacks from the other Act III bosses, and alternate between using them every turn until the battle ends. They have no unique abilities or aces up their sleeves, compared to the Awakened One’s second phase or the Time Eater automatically ending your turn. But they are incredibly dangerous nonetheless.
  • Dual Boss: They fight as a team to ensure a steady damage output while steadily increasing their strength: while one buffs the two of them, the other attacks, forcing the player to chose between defending themselves or taking them out before they grow too strong.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Both of them permanently gain strength whenever Donu uses Circle of Power.
  • Meaningful Name: Well, halfway. Donu is a donut, but Deca is an octahedron.

     Time Eater 
A robed, watch-wielding mollusc that welcomes your company... unless you're the Watcher. Time Eater punishes spam and mill decks.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Each time you play 12 cards total, it grows stronger. Decks that rely on using many weak but low-cost cards will have an incredibly difficult time with it.
  • Time Master: It's in the name, showing its mastery by regulating your actions and interrupting your turns.
  • Turns Red: The turn after it's reduced to less than half health, it will heal itself back to half and remove all of its debuffs while gaining a huge amount of block.
  • Was Once a Man: Their hostility to the Watcher (declaring that they "never liked [her]") and the similarity to both of their robes suggests that the Time Eater is actually the Watcher's missing colleague, now transformed into something else by the Spire.

Act IV (SPOILERS)

     Corrupt Heart 
  • Big Bad: Implied to be sentient, very, very malevolent, and at the heart of the corruption twisting the Spire, its inhabitants, and the post-apocalyptic world the heroes inhabit.
  • Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Every few turns, Corrupt Heart gives itself a powerful buff, causing more damage per card played, adding wounds on each unblocked hit, and finally large increases in strength that will end the fight in short order if it's not killed in time.
  • Master of All: Corrupt Heart has ways to counter almost anything you throw at it:
    • Its Beat of Death buff deals a little amount of damage every time you play a card, punishing spam decks and infinite combos. It also makes blocking less effective.
    • Its Invincible buff limits the amount of damage it can take per turn, hindering decks that rely on big attacks and further negating infinite combos.
    • The Blood Shots attack reduces the effectiveness of the Weakened debuff and the Intangible buff by making sure that it will hit for a minimal amount of damage.
    • And even if you debuff its strength to cripple its Blood Shots, it still has its Echo attack that hits for a huge amount of damage.
    • The Heart also buffs itself every 3 turns starting from turn 4, gaining an ever-growing amount of strength and Artifact charges, improving the damage of its Beat of Death and gaining the dreadful Painful Stabs buff. And just when you thought that you could keep its Blood Shots at bay by debuffing its strength, the self-buff also removes the penalty. The constant scaling punishes slow and turtling decks and the artifact charges reduce the effectiveness of debuffs. After five rounds of buffing it gains a gargantuan 50 Strength that's certain to overwhelm even the tankiest of builds.
    • And to further cement the Heart's status as a Master of All, it will use its first turn to debilitate you by throwing every basic debuff at you and shuffling a copy of every status card in your deck.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Played straight before Act 4 is unlocked, but subverted when all keys are gathered, being very much active, very threatening... and quite a bit more difficult than everything before it.
  • True Final Boss: Gather all three keys (recalling the Ruby Key at a Rest Site, taking the Sapphire Key from a chest in place of a relic, and defeating a souped-up Elite for the Emerald Key) before confronting the heart, and you'll be able to take it on. This also means you need to finish one run as the Ironclad, Silent and Defect each before you even get the ability to face it.

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