Slay the Spire

Games
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Updated mod suggestions

The best rougelike and game of the year for 2018 and 2019, and most other years.
If you haven’t tried Slay yet apply the warpaint and finally join before the price increases! Experience a game of exceptional makeup. Eyeshadows will mark you as you won’t be able to stop playing this great game.

For those who already enjoyed Slay a lot and want to try out additional stuff here are my personal mod recommendations.
This is an updated list of my previous mod overview.

Disclaimer: Some of these mods I used for quite a long time. Especially with the added content mods I often I couldn’t tell you which one added some specific content without checking. These are the surviving mods I think are generally well done and that have no or little negatives that made me uninstall weaker mods.
The opposite is also true, there might be really good mods that developed well over their lifetime I don’t list because I played, disliked and removed an early version and haven’t tried them since.

4 dependency mods:
- Basemod, - Stslib, - ModtheSpire and -Friendly Minions as shared libraries. Their initial use was to allow mods for Slay before the official support but they developed into and now form the base for many of the other mods by providing and unifying mechanics. As time goes on these might become partially obsolete and superfluous but currently many mods require them.

General added content mods:
Relics, events, monsters, bosses, cards, card mechanics, game mechanics and the like. Often not as balanced as the base game by a fair bit. Combined they create a glorious mess of fun ideas and overpowered interactions (intentional and not).
If you want to try out added content mods install all of these. The additional interaction from all of them combined is almost always a net positive.

  • Replay the Spire
    The oldest of the “big” mods. Well done and decently balanced. The whole package adds a nice variety of content in all areas.

  • Hubris
    Adds a decent amount of everything with a focus on strong things having drawbacks or side effects. It’s similar to Replay the Spire in scope and direction but with its own distinct approaches and flavours.

  • Infinite Spire
    Another added content mod. Allows you to turn every run into an endless run (which is an option I don’t like and recommend you disable). Adds a very fun quest log with randomly generated quests though. Now includes a special resource system. Quests grant you shards which are persistent and can be spent in special shops on extremely powerful cards and relics.

  • Aspiration
    Adds a medium amount of stuff. Has some nifty ideas.

  • vexMod
    I’m kind of running out of stuff to write about these. Another content mod, mostly relics, that I generally found adds positively to the entertaining mess of modded Slay.

  • Trackpad
    More relics worth adding.

Specific content mods
These add self contained content or specific QoL improvements

  • Better Rewards
    Adds an alternative (you choose at run start) for starting benefits. Instead of a single Neow blessing you spend money (based on your previous run) in a shop, with some added random options.
    Often makes your start very notably stronger and a run easier. Can still be fun and provides some start of run variety.

  • Relic Sorter
    Allows you to change the order of your relics, if you want to do that sort of thing.

  • The Jungle
    A modder collaboration adding an alternative second act. Unique enemies, events and bossed with more coherent theme and mechanics than the general content mods.

  • The Factory
    Similar to the Jungle an alternative third act. Notably less good but still entertaining for a couple of tries.

Class mods

Good ones

—/update: several of these have been combined with additional content in the very good Downfall mod.—

  • Slimebound
    Slimebound is one of the most complete, coherent and well integrated character mods. Lots of unique interactions, lots of flavourful ideas. Has a good amount of mechanics and paths for cards.

  • The Guardian
    From the maker of the Slimebound mod. Similarly well rounded and complete. Has an interesting gem socketing mechanic for cards.

  • The Construct
    Less flavourful in interactions but strong on the mechanical side for card abilities and variety.

  • Marisa
    Some random anime character. A good quality complete package of a mage style character.

  • The Cursed
    A character focused on a couple of its own distinct mechanics. Curses, curse manipulation and benefits from curses. Rituals and “activating” cards.
    I found it decent but not great and would normally have put it in the next category. It’s the highest rated character mod and basically even the highest rated content in the workshop though so it gets a bump… I guess.

Well done but not as good/complete

  • The Beaked
    Some good ideas mixed with some mediocre ones. The resulting gameplay is interesting. Somewhat overpowered and has time consuming healing mechanics.

  • Mad Scientist
    Decently designed and balanced with some unique aspects. Lacks a bit in content but is fun to try.

  • The Administrix
    An overabundance of mechanics pressed into one character. Most of them are very powerful and decently interesting.

  • The Blackbeard
    An old character mod that is still actively updated. Lots of smaller scale mechanics. Terrible card art.
    When I last played it it was hideously overpowered but it got lots of balancing updates since then.

  • Astrologer
    Coherent character package. Not top tier but decent.

Other noteworthy character mods with certain caveats. Characters I haven’t played a lot that might be interesting.

  • The Bug Knight
    Coherent and flavourful mod based on Hollow Knight. Emphasis on higher difficulty. Does not work well with other mods and base game content. You can disable the enemies from this in the settings but on the whole the mod is still played best as a completely separate piece of content with no other mods at all and no base characters.

  • The Thorton
    Mismatched and thematically disruptive mod. Has some interesting ideas though and is worth trying out.

  • Prisma Phantasm
    Random anime character. I only tried this once so far but it seemed to be decent quality and it’s highly rated.

  • The Problem Sleuth
    Some webcomic (?) inspired mod with distinct style. Haven’t played this enough to evaluate. Could be good with a number of its own mechanics, could be terrible.