Slay the Spire 2 Relics Guide: How to Stop Picking Garbage and Actually Win
The item pool got a real overhaul in the sequel, and a lot of the old instincts about what makes a relic strong don't transfer over cleanly.
Standing in front of a post-Elite reward screen used to be a fairly simple evaluation in the first game. That's changed. A handful of new systems mean some relics that look strong on paper are quietly weak now, and some that look unremarkable have become close to mandatory. Getting a handle on why matters more than memorizing any single item list. Anyone still working through the basics of surviving to these reward screens in the first place should check my survival guide before worrying about relic optimization.
The New Systems Reshaping Every Evaluation
Four mechanics specifically are responsible for most of the shift in what's actually good.
Durability caps how many times a relic or card can fire per combat, which means an item that sounds overpowered in a vacuum might only trigger twice before shutting off. That matters enormously against long fights, since a defensive relic that stops working two turns into a boss encounter leaves a real gap in coverage right when it's needed most.
Corrosion chips away at maximum HP at the end of every turn and can't be blocked, which quietly punishes anything built around stalling. Relics that speed up a fight, energy generators, immediate damage sources, gain value here specifically because dragging a fight out against Corrosion is its own kind of damage taken.
Pierce ignores block entirely, and it's arguably the single biggest reason pure block-amplifying relics have dropped in priority. Items that apply Weak or grant some form of damage reduction independent of block are the actual answer to Pierce, since stacking more armor against an attack that skips armor accomplishes nothing.
Soulbound cards can't be removed at shops or events once they're in the deck, which makes any relic rewarding a small deck size considerably riskier than it used to be. A single bloated Soulbound pickup can undercut that entire strategy for the rest of the run.
A Few Picks Are Close to Automatic
Most relic choices depend heavily on what a given deck's actually doing, but a small handful of items are strong enough to take regardless of character or build.
What Every Character Starts With
Every class opens a run with a unique relic shaping how Act 1 should be approached, and none of the five require any real grinding to access. Starting a run, opening the menu, and hitting Give Up immediately unlocks the next character in the chain, meaning the full roster is reachable in a matter of minutes.
Burning Blood heals the Ironclad after every fight, which forgives early mistakes better than anything else on the roster and pairs naturally with Strength scaling. Ring of the Snake draws two extra cards for the Silent on turn one, which matters more for her specifically than it would elsewhere given how low her health pool sits and how much she depends on finding her win condition fast. Divine Right hands the Regent three Stars at the start of combat, fueling the delayed, explosive turns his kit is built around. Bound Phylactery summons Osty immediately for the Necrobinder, giving her some board presence up front while her more fragile HP total is still a liability. Cracked Core channels a free Lightning orb for the Defect, which matters a lot given how draft-dependent her orb engine can be depending on what a run actually offers.
The Toy Box Is a Trap With a Correct Answer
Act 2's Tezcatara's Toy Box replaces a normal boss relic with four Wax Relics, and the catch is that they're temporary. Every three combats, the leftmost item in the inventory melts away for good, which turns the pick order itself into the real decision.
The fix is straightforward once it clicks: draft permanent-effect items first. Something like the Strawberry or Mango grants max HP the instant it's picked up, and that HP sticks around long after the relic itself has melted. Upgrades from something like the Frozen Egg or Whetstone work the same way, the benefit persists even once the item granting it is gone. Anything that needs to stay active on the inventory bar to keep generating value, like the Prayer Wheel handing out an extra card reward after normal fights, belongs in the last slot instead, since that's the position that survives longest before the melt catches up to it.
Managing Gold Without Going Broke
Shops feel tight for most of a run, and prioritizing purchases correctly matters more than any single relic on the shelf. The Membership Card is close to the best investment available, a permanent 50% discount on everything else that pays for itself almost immediately. Chemical X is worth grabbing too if the deck's running any X-cost cards like Whirlwind, since it directly fuels those payoffs. That said, removing a bad card from the deck usually beats buying a mediocre passive item. A thinner deck consistently outperforms an extra shiny trinket, and staying on top of side objectives helps keep gold flowing enough to afford both when they're actually worth it.
A Few Items Deserve to Stay on the Floor
Not everything offered is worth taking, and a few specific picks are tempting enough in the moment to genuinely wreck a run.
Busted Crown offers extra energy, which feels great when staring down a tight three-energy hand mid-fight. The cost is future card rewards shrinking down to almost nothing, and a deck that stops finding its win condition is a slow death sentence rather than a fast one. Glass Cannon is worse given how common unblockable Pierce attacks have become. Doubling incoming damage in a game where block already fails against certain enemies is closer to fatal than it sounds. Greed's Purse rounds out the list, offering extra gold on kill for two energy, a tempo cost that usually ends up worth more HP in a hard fight than the gold's actually worth.
