Slay the Spire

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 97%2019

The verdict

A foundational roguelike deckbuilder with deep, endlessly replayable runs and a hugely addictive loop. Skip it if heavy RNG and losing runs to bad draws frustrate you.

Great for

Players who love deckbuilders, roguelikes and strategic puzzles, and enjoy learning from failed runs

Main risk

Runs can feel decided by RNG and hard-countering bosses, making losses feel unfair

What players love

Extremely addictive 'one more run' loop

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“The gameplay loop is ridiculously addictive.”
Steam review · 30.2 h played ↗

“My only complaint with Slay the Spire is how devastatingly addictive this game is.”
Steam review · 48.3 h played ↗

“It has that very 'one more run' effect that pulls you in for dozens of hours.”
Steam review · translated · 255.2 h played ↗

Deep strategy and satisfying deckbuilding

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“The game has tremendous depth and the longer you play, the more you can appreciate it.”
Steam review · 680.6 h played ↗

“simple, easy-to-grasp base rules combine with incredible depth of synergies”
Steam review · translated · 226.4 h played ↗

“Extremely satisfying deckbuilding loop.”
Steam review · 64.5 h played ↗

Huge replayability

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“I've played the game at least a hundred times, the replayability is amazing!”
Steam review · 26.4 h played ↗

“there are a lot of excellent design choices that come together and make the game worth playing again and again and again.”
Steam review · 244.3 h played ↗

“The replayability is insane, it's terribly addictive.”
Steam review · translated · 190.8 h played ↗

Great for short sessions and casual play

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“You can stop playing at literally any moment, you don't even need to pause; you don't need internet connection, so you can play on a plane”
Steam review · 4.4 h played ↗

“A great casual game. I like to play this game for a little 10 or 20 minute session”
Steam review · 95.8 h played ↗

Easy to learn, hard to master

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“Easy to learn, challenging to master, and that's what makes it fun.”
Steam review · 300 h played ↗

“this actually allows you to learn and improve at the game at your own pace”
Steam review · 14.8 h played ↗

Four characters with distinct playstyles

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“Each of the four characters feels absolutely unique”
Steam review · translated · 226.4 h played ↗

“Each character offers a very different playstyle, giving the game a huge amount of variety and replay value.”
Steam review · 14.4 h played ↗

What players complain about

Too reliant on RNG

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews

“It's a luck simulator.”
Steam review · 1.9 h played ↗

“StS does a better job hiding the fact that it's a slot machine than most modern roguelikes, but make no mistake -- it's still a slot machine.”
Steam review · 57 h played ↗

“90% luck, 10% skill”
Steam review · translated · 8.2 h played ↗

Overly punishing difficulty and balance

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“The difficulty scaling of this game is absolutely ridiculous.”
Steam review · 60.9 h played ↗

“the game was already difficult, now It's insane.”
Steam review · 127.2 h played ↗

Repetitive with limited content

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“Seems fun to play during the first few hours, then it becomes a chore when you have to play the same content again and again, ad nauseam.”
Steam review · 204.3 h played ↗

“Most of the gameplay involves selecting the same cards over and over again, fighting opponents we've faced many times before.”
Steam review · 7.2 h played ↗

Weak sense of progression or reward

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“Nothing in the game feels rewarding, the only progress you make between runs are 3 new available cards for each charatacter you level up.”
Steam review · 7 h played ↗

“Doing the same thing in circles a hundred times without progressing gets very tedious.”
Steam review · translated · 15.3 h played ↗

Bosses and elites hard-counter your deck

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews

“any time you build a decent deck with good synergy, you're thrown the exact fight your deck is not built for, and you will lose.”
Steam review · 42.3 h played ↗

“That's not fun or challenging when you have to preemptively build something specific for a boss you don't know you've been seeded against.”
Steam review · 24.4 h played ↗

Deck thinning and building feel limited

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 negative reviews

“Needs more ways to remove cards from deck”
Steam review · 12.2 h played ↗

“Every strategy guide says thin your deck (a very basic strategy for deck builders) but the only way I can find to do that is at shops?”
Steam review · 12.3 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Verified

Minimum

OSWindows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10

Processor2.0 Ghz

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics1Gb Video Memory, capable of OpenGL 3.0+ support (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)

Storage1 GB available space

OSWindows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10

Processor2.0 Ghz

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics1Gb Video Memory, capable of OpenGL 3.0+ support (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)

Storage1 GB available space

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