Slay the Spire 2 launched into early access on March 5, 2026, with five playable characters — one more than the original game shipped with. Only one is available when you first boot up the game, but the unlock chain is fast and forgiving. You don't need to win a single run to get the full roster.
Quick answer: Start a run with each character in sequence. You don't have to win or even finish — simply beginning (and then abandoning) a run counts. Four quick give-ups later, all five characters are selectable.
Unlock order and requirements
Characters unlock in a fixed chain. Each one requires you to participate in a run with the previous character. "Participate" is generous here — you can start a run, immediately press Escape, choose Give Up, and the game still registers it as a completed participation. That means the entire roster can be opened in roughly five minutes if you're in a hurry.
| Character | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| The Ironclad | Available from the start |
| The Silent | Play a run with The Ironclad |
| The Regent | Play a run with The Silent |
| The Necrobinder | Play a run with The Regent |
| The Defect | Play a run with The Necrobinder |
Winning or losing doesn't matter. The unlock triggers the moment your run ends, regardless of outcome.
The Ironclad — Starting HP: 80
Starting Relic: Burning Blood — Heal 6 HP at the end of combat. Starting Cards: Strike ×5, Defend ×4, Bash
The Ironclad is the default character and the most straightforward one in the game. He hits hard with physical attacks, stacks Strength to scale damage, and sustains himself through Burning Blood's passive healing after every fight. That post-combat heal sounds modest, but in a game where restoring HP usually carries a steep cost, it adds up quickly over a full run.
A reliable early strategy revolves around Body Slam, which converts your current Block into damage. Focus your deck on defense cards, pile up Block, and let Body Slam handle the offense. It's simple, effective, and a solid way to learn the game's rhythms before branching into more complex builds.
The Silent — Starting HP: 70
Starting Relic: Ring of the Snake — Draw 2 additional cards at the start of each combat. Starting Cards: Strike ×5, Defend ×5, Neutralize, Survivor
The Silent trades raw power for versatility and damage over time. Her two primary build paths are Poison and Shivs. Poison stacks on enemies and ticks down their HP each turn, bypassing defensive mechanics like Plating and Hardened Shell. It's a patient strategy — you maintain Block while waiting for the toxins to do their work. Noxious Fumes is a standout Power card for this approach.
Shiv builds take a different angle, flooding the board with zero-cost attack cards. Cards like Blade Dance, Knife Trap, and Cloak and Dagger generate Shivs, while Accuracy boosts their damage. It requires more setup than Poison, but can shred enemies once the engine is running.
The Regent — Starting HP: 75
Starting Relic: Divine Right — Gain 3 Stars at the start of each combat. Starting Cards: Strike ×4, Defend ×4, Falling Star, Venerate
The Regent is one of two entirely new characters in Slay the Spire 2. He introduces a dual-resource system: standard Energy and a secondary pool called Stars. Stars persist between turns until spent and can be stockpiled up to at least 24 at a time. Many of the Regent's cards require both Energy and Stars, creating a push-pull dynamic where you're constantly generating and spending both resources.
The Forge mechanic offers a clean entry point. Forging activates Sovereign Blade, an Innate 2-cost card that starts as a strong single-target attack and scales with supporting cards like Seeking Edge, Conqueror, and Falling Star. Alternatively, you can lean into high Star generation and burn them all at once on rare cards like Seven Stars for massive burst damage.
The Necrobinder — Starting HP: 66
Starting Relic: Bound Phylactery — Summon 1 at the start of your turn. Starting Cards: Strike ×4, Defend ×4, Bodyguard, Unleash
The Necrobinder is the other new addition, and she's the most mechanically unusual character in the roster. She fights alongside Osty, a summoned undead hand that acts as a bodyguard. Osty has its own HP bar and a permanent ability called Die For You, which forces it to intercept any attack aimed at the Necrobinder. This effectively gives you an extra health buffer on top of the Necrobinder's low 66 starting HP.
Osty begins each fight with just 1 HP, but Summon effects (including Bound Phylactery) add to its current and maximum health. If Osty dies, it can be resurrected at the start of your next turn through any Summon effect, though it comes back at 1 HP with all bonus health lost. One important wrinkle: if Osty is destroyed through deliberate sacrifice cards like Bone Shards, it stays dead until the following turn regardless of Summon triggers.
The Necrobinder's second major mechanic is Doom, a unique debuff. When an enemy's Doom stacks equal or exceed their current HP, they die at the end of their next turn. This gives enemies one final turn to attack, but it lets you bypass Block and defensive abilities entirely. Building around Doom turns fights into a race to stack the debuff before you're overwhelmed.
The Defect — Starting HP: 75
Starting Relic: Cracked Core — Channel 1 Lightning at the start of each combat. Starting Cards: Strike ×4, Defend ×4, Zap, Dualcast
Returning from the original Slay the Spire, the Defect is an automaton that fights using Orbs. It starts with 3 Orb slots, one of which is automatically filled with a Lightning Orb by Cracked Core. Channeled Orbs provide passive effects at the end of each turn, and Evoking them triggers a stronger one-time effect.
| Orb Type | Passive (end of turn) | Evoke (one-time) |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | 3 + Focus damage to a random enemy | 8 + Focus damage to a random enemy |
| Frost | 2 + Focus Block | Larger Block gain |
| Dark | Gains 6 damage per turn (no passive effect) | 6 + Focus damage to lowest-HP enemy, plus 6 per turn charged |
| Glass | 4 + Focus damage to all enemies, diminishing by 1 each turn | 8 + Focus damage to all enemies |
| Plasma | Generates 1 Energy at turn start | Generates 2 Energy |
Orbs are Evoked either through cards like Dualcast or by overfilling your Orb slots, which automatically Evokes the leftmost Orb to make room. The Defect's natural rhythm involves channeling Orbs for passive value and then cycling through them via Evoke for burst turns. Stacking Focus through cards like Hotfix, Focused Strike, and Data Disk amplifies everything.
If the Orb system doesn't appeal to you, the Defect also supports a zero-cost attack build. Grabbing multiple copies of Claw and pairing them with All For One creates a fast, aggressive deck that can overwhelm enemies without touching the Orb system at all.
Full character stats comparison
| Character | Starting HP | Starting Relic | Playstyle |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ironclad | 80 | Burning Blood (heal 6 HP after combat) | Strength-based fighter |
| The Silent | 70 | Ring of the Snake (draw 2 extra cards at combat start) | Poison / Shiv hunter |
| The Regent | 75 | Divine Right (gain 3 Stars at combat start) | Dual-resource caster |
| The Necrobinder | 66 | Bound Phylactery (Summon 1 at turn start) | Summoner / Doom specialist |
| The Defect | 75 | Cracked Core (Channel 1 Lightning at combat start) | Orb-based all-rounder |
All five characters start each run with 99 coins.
Slay the Spire 2 is currently in early access, so specific numbers and mechanics may shift as development continues. Even failed runs contribute to the game's Timeline and Epoch systems, unlocking new cards, relics, and potions over time — so there's no wasted effort while you're learning each character's kit.