The goal is to work through several levels of a spire, each level having a number of potential encounters distributed in a branching structure with a boss character at the end of the level. At the start of a playthrough the player selects one of three predetermined characters, which sets a starting amount of health, gold, a starting relic that provides a unique ability for that characters, and an initial deck of cards with basic attack and defense cards as well what potential color-coded cards tailor to that character they will see through the run. Slay the Spire is a combination of roguelike-like gameplay with a deck-building card game.

Mobile versions for iOS and Android are planned for 2020. It was released for PlayStation 4 in May 2019, for Nintendo Switch in June 2019 and for Xbox One in August 2019. The game was first released in early access for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux in late 2017, with an official release in January 2019. Slay the Spire is a roguelike video game developed by American studio MegaCrit and published by Humble Bundle.

Slay the spire free