How do you unlock all Slay the Spire 2 characters? With five characters to pick from, each with their own unique playstyle, it could take you hundreds of hours to master everyone in the game. Before you even consider how to play the other STS 2 characters, you'll have to unlock them first, and with the new Timeline section of the main menu, this is a bit more involved than you might be used to.
There are additional cards, relics, and potions in Slay the Spire 2 that require you to meet certain criteria, and the characters are no different in the roguelike game. We've broken down the best characters with a handy STS 2 tier list, along with their unlock requirements in case you still haven't acquired everyone.
Slay the Spire 2 character tier list
This tier list is representative of the game's balance based on the main branch, not the beta build which receives balance updates every few weeks. The main branch hasn't received any of the balance updates introduced on the beta just yet, but they're on the Slay the Spire 2 roadmap so we suspect they will be arriving in the near future.
Here are the best characters in Slay the Spire, ranked from best to worst:
| Rank | Character |
| S | The Silent |
| A | The Defect, The Necrobinder |
| B | The Ironclad |
| C | The Regent |
The Silent
- How to unlock: Play a run with The Ironclad.
- Starting Relic: Ring of the Snake - At the start of each combat, draw two additional cards.
The Silent relies on quick strikes and damage-over-time effects to wear down her opponents. Equipped with the brand-new Sly keyword, she can play cards by discarding them from her hand. She also utilizes poison to great effect, and can fell even the strongest enemies with her shivs.
The Silent is undoubtedly the best character in STS 2 right now, thanks to the Sly mechanic that allows her to play powerful cards just by discarding them. You already want to cycle through your deck to get to the best cards, and now you're rewarded even further for doing so by discarding anything with the Sly keyword attached to it.
In multiplayer, The Silent is a huge asset thanks to cards like Piercing Wail and Expose that can make difficult fights a breeze for the rest of her team. She never feels like a burden on the team and can always pull her weight by dishing out considerable damage without much setup. And as the character with the easiest ways to build decks that go infinite, you'll likely have to wait a while for The Silent to finish their turn…
The Defect
- How to unlock: Play a run with The Necrobinder
- Starting Relic: Cracked Core - At the start of each combat, Channel 1 Lightning.
The Defect utilizes orbs to either buff themselves, protect themselves, or, of course, damage the enemy. Choose whether to build up a large amount of orbs and burn them all for some immediate, devastating damage.
The Defect's orbs ensure you're always attacking and blocking, even when your card draw isn't the best. Once you have your orbs up and running, it's difficult to lose from this winning position. It also has access to several game-swinging power cards, capable of propping up even the worst-built decks.
A strong character in multiplayer, The Defect is the most flexible in terms of what type of role your party needs. If you need a way to finish fights, The Defect can shift into the damage dealer role, building up orbs of lightning to destroy everything in sight. Likewise, it has access to multiplayer-exclusive cards that can provide additional Mana to players, making it useful in most situations.
The Necrobinder
- How to unlock: Play a run with The Regent
- Starting Relic: Bound Phylactery - At the start of your turn, Summon 1.
Another new character, The Necrobinder, comes with her own little summon - a rather large, undead hand named Osty. Osty tanks damage for The Necrobinder and can be buffed and used as an offensive weapon. The Necrobinder also deals in Doom, which executes enemies when they reach a certain HP threshold.
Just like The Regent, The Necrobinder has a high skill ceiling, even for returning players, due to the new mechanics on offer. While it's straightforward to understand how Osty works at a basic level, there are unique mechanics that you can take advantage of to really get the most out of your summon. In multiplayer, Necrobinder shines thanks to her debuff cards that can help take the sting out of any high-damaging attack.
The Necrobinder's Doom mechanic feels like it needs more work to be brought up to the same standards as The Silent's Poison archetype. They both have different strengths and weaknesses, but right now it feels like The Necrobinder leans more towards the weaker side. The Souls archetype is so strong that it outshines every other archetype right now, but we could see this changing in the future.
The Ironclad
- How to unlock: The Ironclad is available by default.
- Starting Relic: Burning Blood - At the end of combat, heal 6 HP.
Imbued with the limitless power of a demon, The Ironclad can deal enormous amounts of damage using physical attacks, some of which can cause self-damage. To counteract this, his starting relic heals just enough at the end of each fight to recover most of the damage you take. There are plenty of ways to build The Ironclad, from leveraging the effects of Vulnerable to kill the enemy before they can kill you, to hoarding hundreds of block to both protect yourself and crush your foes.
The Ironclad was always going to be strong based on the previous game, and even with some tweaked cards at his disposal, he's still a force to be reckoned with. In multiplayer, he can act as the team's main source of damage, and he has exclusive cards that let him share any block he earns with another player. He also can help the party burst down enemies with all his Vulnerable cards, making Ironclad the first person to attack in almost every fight.
The Ironclad can feel awkward to pilot as its best archetypes, Exhaust and Vulnerable will force you to take huge risks at times, but that's also what makes this character so strong. After all, you can't win big unless you're willing to risk everything.
The Regent
- How to unlock: Play a run with The Silent
- Starting Relic: Divine Right - At the start of each combat, gain three Stars.
A regal presence, and not a pleasant one - The Regent is one of the new Slay the Spire 2 characters. He has access to two resources, the Mana system, and another named Stars, capable of unleashing game-breaking damage when managed correctly. He also has the Forge keyword, allowing him to build towards the Sovereign Blade that slowly gets stronger over the course of a fight.
The Regent has the highest skill ceiling in the game, though that may be down to the fact that some of his cards aren't weighted equally to one another. When utilized perfectly, The Regent can build up tens of Stars to do virtually anything you want, from blocking every attack with ease to forging a sword capable of dealing hundreds of damage in one swing.
The problem with The Regent is that it can feel somewhat inconsistent to build a strong deck. Once you know which cards to avoid, primarily Forge cards, that task certainly becomes a lot easier. When paired with a party filled with other Regent players in multiplayer, this character becomes borderline broken with the synergies available.
That's all you need to know about the Slay the Spire 2 characters tier list - now it's time to climb the Spire with all this newfound knowledge. Remember that failure is all part of the process, but it won't take long before you end up unlocking all the Ascension levels the card game has to offer.