Slay the Spire: The Board Game

Objective

Cooperatively climb the Spire by defeating all enemies on the map, culminating in defeating the Act Boss. You can play through 1, 2, or 3 Acts — a full run takes approximately 3–4 hours. If any player's HP drops to 0, the party loses immediately.

The Basics

Slay the Spire is a cooperative roguelike deckbuilding game. Each player controls one of four heroes (Ironclad, Silent, Defect, or Watcher), each with a unique starter deck and ability. As you fight through encounters, you improve your personal deck by adding new cards, removing weak ones, upgrading existing ones, and collecting powerful Relics. Every run starts fresh — if you die, you begin again.

Setup

Each player chooses a character and takes their player board, miniature, starter deck, card rewards deck, rare rewards deck, and a starting Relic. Set the HP cube on your character's maximum HP. Set the Energy cube at 3.

Take out the Act I board and place a randomly chosen map on it. Shuffle dark map tokens face-down and place on dark spaces; do the same for light map tokens. Flip all tokens face-up. Place the chosen Act I Boss face-down on the boss space. Place the Boot Meeple at the bottom of the map.

Set out the following decks (each Act uses its own decks): Encounter, Elite, Event, Summon (don't shuffle), Daze, Status/Wound, and Curse. Shuffle all except Summons.

Deal each player a Neow's Blessing card — gain the red reward automatically, then choose one of the three blue options. This gives your starting boost.

Begin with the "1st Encounter!" cards for the initial combat.

The Map

The Boot Meeple tracks your progress up the map. After each encounter, you move the Boot along one of the available paths to a new room. Room types:

• Encounter — Draw 1 Encounter card per player and set up combat.
• Elite — A harder enemy with better rewards.
• Event — Draw an Event card; each player chooses from the options shown in yellow brackets.
• Campfire — Each player may Rest (+3 HP) or Smith (upgrade a card).
• Treasure — Each player gains a Relic.
• Merchant — Flip the board to the Merchant side; spend Gold on cards, relics, or potions. Costs shown on cards: Common/Uncommon/Rare rates are on the board.
• Boss — The final room of each Act. Defeating it completes the Act.

Combat Setup

Place 1 Encounter card in each player's row. Each card shows an enemy (or multiple enemies). Place the enemy figures or tokens in those rows. Some enemies Summon additional pieces from the Summon deck.

Combat Round

Each combat round follows these steps:

1. Start of Turn — Reset all players' Energy to their character's maximum (usually 3). Reset Block to 0. Draw 5 cards into your hand.
2. Roll the Die — Determines enemy behaviors and triggers certain Relic effects.
3. Player Actions — Players discuss strategy openly, then take turns (or act simultaneously if they prefer). On your turn, you may:
   • Play card(s) from your hand by paying their Energy cost.
   • Activate Relics with triggered abilities.
   • Use Potions.
   • Discuss targeting and plan with teammates.
4. End of Player Turn — Discard all remaining cards not marked "Retained." Resolve any "End of Turn" abilities.
5. Enemy Actions — Enemies act in row order (top to bottom). Each enemy's action is shown on its card; dice results may modify behavior. After acting, move any Cube enemies along their tracks.
6. End of Round — Check if all enemies are defeated. If so, combat ends and you collect rewards.

Block and Damage

Block absorbs incoming damage. Any damage not covered by Block reduces HP. Block resets to 0 at the start of each new round. Excess Block is lost — it does not carry over.

Rewards

After defeating enemies, draw from your Card Rewards deck: reveal 3 cards, pick 1 (or skip). Golden Ticket cards allow a draw from the Rare Rewards deck. You may also gain Potions, Relics, and Gold. Between rooms, you may Remove, Upgrade, or Transform cards at appropriate locations.

Deck Management

• Remove — Permanently eliminate a card from your deck (great for removing starter Strikes and Defends).
• Upgrade — Flip a card to its upgraded side (green text). Available at Campfires and some Events/Relics.
• Transform — Remove a card and replace it with a random card from your rewards deck.
• Exhaust — Some cards Exhaust: they go to an Exhaust pile and are removed from the current combat (but stay in your deck for future combats).

Between Acts

At the start of Acts II and III, replace all Act decks with the next Act's versions. All players heal to their maximum HP. Shuffle your Card Rewards deck (including any you previously skipped) but don't shuffle Rares.

Key Rules

• Status and Daze cards are removed from your deck at the end of each combat; Curses stay permanently.
• Powers (played cards that stay on the table) return to your deck at the end of combat.
• Potions can be traded between players outside of combat.
• Nothing else — cards, Relics, gold — can be traded.
• Playing solo: start with the Loaded Die relic.

Ascension & Unlocks

The game includes locked content in surprise boxes that unlocks as you complete milestones, adding harder Ascension levels, new bosses, and new cards. Start with base content and unlock as you progress.

At the Table

Coordinate deck improvements between players — if one player handles Block, another can focus on damage. Relics drive the most powerful builds; prioritize Elites for their Relic rewards when your deck can handle the challenge.