I beat Ironclad Ascension 16! Also got the achievement for playing 25 cards in one turn. And I almost beat the Transient. Had him down to 72 hp.
Basically an exhaust deck with dead branch, charon’s ashes, corruption, couple of fiend fire, etc. Once corruption is down, any skill card costs zero and adds a random card to your hand. If you randomly get the right power cards, each one also gives you block and lets you draw a card. Sentinel becomes a very good card. I also got medical kit, which means even wounds are good cards.
Yeah, I could see that. But it was the combo of “you don’t get any choices in the cards you get, and oh, BTW, they’ll all be random cost but you’ll be a ton of energy to play them with” that was so hilarious. Fun game. On to the third character!
A barricade+ entrench + bodyslam deck that is slimmed down is almost gamebreaking. 999 block plus 999 damage. It’s not the easiest deck to build, but when you’re there you’re there.
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.
Just started my first run, went up to and through the Guardian and saved/quit. I think I can see why so many people are so addicted to this game. After I shut it down I just wanted to fire it up again and had to stop myself so I could go Be Productive.
I tried all of the content mods (none of the class mods) in @Therlun post and some of them were cool but most of them seemed a little out there, and the terrible art / temp art was killing it for me, so ultimately I decided to opt out of all the mods and I’ll just stick with the professional content for now. I love the modding community exists for the game, but as with most games, mods just aren’t for me.
What does it mean when I consistently cruise through the game and die to the Act 3 boss? Am I not being aggressive enough early on, or do my builds just suck?
I don’t need to win every time, but I definitely don’t want to spend an hour with no risk and then roll the dice on the boss. That’s the mark of a bad roguelike. Surely I’m doing something wrong.
