Slay the Spire 2: 10 Best Relics, Ranked

Relics are a core part of the Slay the Spire 2 experience, helping add a huge amount of variety to every game, simply due to the sheer number of them. So, you can imagine how difficult it was to whittle this number down to a top 10!

Oftentimes, relics will give you a little buff, maybe giving you some extra Max HP or starting every combat with some extra block. However, there are also relics that are so powerful that they completely alter the way you play, often incentivising you to build your deck around them.

Let’s take a look at some of the greatest relics and why they’re pretty much an instant pick whenever you see them!

10 Mummified Hand

Free? Don’t Mind if I Do!

It’s pretty obvious to most Slay the Spire players that the sheer power is offered when playing a power card. They provide buffs that stay with you throughout the combat, meaning you’re often going to play these cards whenever you draw them.

However, more often than not, these cards don’t do much when they’re played, meaning you lose a good amount of momentum for long-term gain.

Mummified Hand completely nullifies this drawback, making a random card in your hand free to play. This means you can still perform an action, like blocking, while setting up your Powers. In the best-case scenario, this lands on a very expensive card, or even another power, meaning you’re able to play yet another free card!

A Solution to Every Problem

Toolbox is a pretty simple relic, yet it can widely change the course of your fights. The first turn of each combat is generally the most important and most valuable turn you’re going to have, so making the most of it is crucial.

Toolbox gives you a choice from 3 random colourless cards at the beginning of your first turn. Value-wise, colourless cards are generally a bit stronger than normal cards; however, they can have game-changing effects too.

Best-case scenario: Toolbox gives you a massive turn 1 powerspike due to a brilliant pick. Worst case, you get a decent free card each combat. Either way, Toolbox is a positive.

8 Lizard Tail

Reborn From the Ashes

Have you ever looked down the barrel of a massive 40+ damage attack in Act 3, watched yourself perish, and then had your jaw drop when you miraculously survived? Well, chances are you picked up a Lizard Tail early on and totally forgot you even had it. Don’t worry; it happens to the best of us.

Lizard Tail activates when your HP reaches 0. As soon as this happens, you instantly get restored to 50% of your Max HP. Not only does this relic save your life once per match, but it generally gives you at least 30+ more HP when it procs.

If you have a character who has been building HP aggressively through the match with relics like Dragon Fruit or Chosen Cheese, you can easily restore 50+ just with this relic. You can afford to play way more aggressively when you know you’ve got a lifeline in the bank!

7 Bread

Don't Fill up on Carbs

Bread is a tricky one, but one I’ve learned to appreciate over time. When you start a combat, you immediately lose 2 energy. However, on each subsequent turn, you gain 1 extra energy.

This reminds me of some of the risky boss relics from STS 1, which have a major drawback in exchange for long-term power. Bread is a really risky pick early on, but it scales brilliantly in later acts, when fights become longer and more drawn out. Every turn past turn 1 is great value.

In addition, this relic is superb if you can mitigate its penalty. For example, with something like Lantern, or even a relic like Anchor, which prevents a lot of damage on your first turn. While you can’t pick it blindly, this is a run-winner under the right circumstances.

6 Cloak Clasp

No Such Thing as Too Much Block!

Defence relics are always strong, whether it’s something like the aforementioned Anchor or Tuning Fork, which gains value the more cards you play. However, many of these relics don’t have value every single turn.

Cloak Clasp is an exact answer to this problem. Doesn’t matter what turn it is; Cloak Clasp is always going to provide value based on how many cards are in your hand. Naturally, this gets more powerful depending on how much card draw and deck-cycling you have.

The thing is, Cloak Clasp is just always a good pick. It’s strong early-game, when you can’t play many cards, but enemies are weaker. And it’s stronger in the late game when you can draw more, but you also want to be aggressive to stop enemies from ramping too much. Suddenly, even those useless Status cards can provide value too!

5 Dolly’s Mirror

Don’t Stare Into the Mirror Too Long

Dolly’s Mirror is rather simple, and yet always powerful. You can pick this up at the shop and immediately duplicate a single card in your deck. Yep, that Adrenaline you’ve been playing every single combat? Well, now you have 2.

Rare cards can be wildly powerful under the right circumstances, but the chance that you get 2 of the same is slim to none. Now imagine you had 2 of them. Not only is this a massive power spike, but more importantly, as your deck gets bigger and more unwieldy, a duplicate gives you more draw consistency, meaning you’re more likely to draw into your most important card more often.

And don’t get more started on Hang runs with Dolly’s Mirror! That’ll win you the game right there!

4 Pocketwatch

What’s the Time? Time to Get A Watch!

Remember when I mentioned there are certain relics that can completely change the way you build a deck? This is perhaps one of the biggest.

Pocketwatch draws you 3 extra cards if you played 3 or fewer cards the previous turn. When you’re constantly trying to cycle through your strikes and defends, trying to find your important cards, having strong card draw is crucial.

This relic incentivises you to play powerful high-cost cards every single turn, maximising value, while keeping the number of cards played very low. The fewer cards you play, the more likely you’re going to draw your combo pieces, and the quicker you can cycle through the deck, meaning they come up again. An early Pocketwatch is a ridiculously powerful tool in the right hands.

3 Bag of Preparation

Pot of Greed Allows Me to Draw 2 More Cards…

I talked a bit earlier about the power of your starting turn in Slay the Spire. Getting a quick advantage over your enemies is really important. However, it’s pretty easy to draw a bunch of duds and have little to do on your first turn.

Bag of Preparation draws you 2 extra cards! Nice and simple, right? This gives you way more consistency on your first turn, giving you more tools and more options to play around with.

But arguably more important is the rarity of this relic. Bag of Preparation is a Common relic. This means that, unlike many of the Rare and Shop relics on this list, your chances of getting this in any given run are way higher. Now you don’t have to worry as much about card-draw and getting your combo pieces and powers to set up each combat. Power and consistency: it’s a match made in heaven.

2 Gambling Chip

Whoever Said Gambling was a Slippery Slope?

So, Bag of Preparation is strong, right? Well, Gambling Chip is a bit like that, but on steroids. With Bag, you may be able to draw more cards, but you might still have a hand full of strikes and defends.

Gambling Chip allows you to ditch any number of cards in your starting hand, and then redraw new cards for every one discarded. This basically lets you select your ideal starting hand for every combat and get the perfect first turn.

In later Acts, you can draw into your stronger combo pieces, while drawing even more energy-generation cards, like Adrenaline, Offering and Neurosurge, which in turn prolongs and bolsters your 1st turn even more! With relics and cards like these, you can wipe out your enemies pretty consistently on the 1st or 2nd turn without fail. Now, that’s broken!

1 Miniature Tent

Why Choose When You Can Have Everything?

I lose a good amount of runs in Slay the Spire, and I would say probably around 80-90% of those are because I got way too greedy, choosing to upgrade my cards or dig up a pointless relic rather than rest up.

Miniature Tent scoffs at such things. Picking up this relic means you no longer have to spend minutes deliberating on the Rest Site screen. Instead, you can pick every single option! Fancy some health? Maybe an upgrade, a relic, some strength or even clone a card? Hey, why not?

The thing is, even at its baseline, having the option to upgrade a card and rest at the same time is absurdly strong. Every single time you gain an extra option with relics like Shovel and Girya, this value exponentially increases, incentivising you to pick the path with the most rest sites for maximum value.

There’s no situation in which picking up a Miniature Tent isn’t flat-out great for you. And the most important thing… It’s so much fun to play around with! What’s not to love?