If you haven't read Part 1, please do so here. This guide will help you ascend the Spire. Note that this guide is not meant to force you into one way of playing, but to inform you of generally accepted strategy.

When you start a run, the game will generate a map from around 20 quintillion possibilities, or seeds. A seed is denoted by a unique alphanumeric code. The seed determines every map location, reward, and Neow's blessing.

Thus if you sent a friend a seed code they could replay the same run you played as long as certain conditions are met. These conditions are: both of you have the same unlock level, both of you either reached the Act 1 boss during the previous run or both of you didn't reach the Act 1 boss during the previous run, both of you are playing on the same ascension level, and you're playing the same character.

Note that "seeded runs" as they're called disable achievements and leaderboards to avoid giving an unfair advantage. Also, >99.9% of seeds are winnable with optimal play.

Avoid curses and try to avoid randomization when you're first starting out. If you see an early shop, consider one of the blessings that awards gold. Some generally good blessings include common relic, upgrading cards, and remove cards.

As you get better at the game, randomization blessings become acceptable. These include card addition, card transformation, and swap starter relic for boss relic.

The blessing "First 3 Encounters are 1 HP" can either be worthless or somewhat useful. If you see a clear path where an elite will be encountered within the first 3 encounters, you may select this blessing. Do not take this blessing if there's an event somewhere within the path to that elite, as it may turn out to be an encounter as well, making the blessing worthless as well as potentially dooming you to an early elite that you're unprepared for, which is the worst outcome.

In terms of the downsides, blessings that cost you 99 gold are more acceptable the farther away the first store is. If your chosen path has no stores, then the 99 gold isn't very meaningful if the blessing being taken is worth it. Taking damage from blessings can be costly if you're not Ironclad, as it will generally guarantee you'll need to use at least one more campfire to rest.

Rest sites (AKA Campfires) are the best map locations. When learning the game, use them to heal when you're below 50%. As you get more comfortable with the game you can lower this healing threshold to 20%. Otherwise use campfires to upgrade cards. Prioritize upgrading cards that reduce their energy cost. Once all energy cost reducing upgrades are done, generally the upgrade priority is rares, then uncommons, then commons, then defends, then strikes (these last two are flipped for Watcher).

Treasure rooms are the second most valuable map location after campfires. The only time they lose value is if you have Cursed Key.

Whenever you have enough gold (at least 100, but this amount increases as you remove cards and as you get better at the game) try to get to a shop. Shops are basically free stops, so use them to take a breather if you can't reach a campfire and bypass an encounter where you'd take near-fatal damage. Your top priority should be to remove curses from your deck, followed by strikes and then defends (unless playing as Watcher, then this defends are removed before strikes). If you see a path that contains multiple shops, consider if you'll have enough gold to make them all worth it. If not, consider changing paths, as visiting a shop without enough gold is a waste.

Events are wildcards. In general, you should prefer them over regular enemy encounters and shops when you don't have enough gold.

Regular encounters are the least valuable map location in the game. They are more valuable than shops when you don't have enough gold. They are only more valuable than elite encounters if you think your deck isn't ready or if you think the elite encounter would cost too much HP. As you improve at the game you'll get a feel for when your deck is ready to take on the boss. It's at this point that you'll really want to avoid regular encounters as they'll just bog you down, as it's far more likely they'll take HP from you rather than give you a card worth adding to your already completed deck.

Elite encounters are low-priority early and high-priority towards the end of each floor once you feel comfortable in your deck. Make sure to smartly plan when you're heading towards elite encounters, as you don't want them back to back or in a spot where you can't avoid them if you're going to take on too much damage beforehand. Silent and Defect generally take longer before they're ready to take on the Act 1 elites compared to Ironclad and Watcher.

The first three regular enemy encounters are easier than the rest, so try to pick a path that maximizes these early while minimizing them from then on.

In Act 1, the game challenges you to build the damage side of your deck. The elites in this act challenge you to kill them as quickly as possible, as once you fall behind you might be unable to recover, even if you started a fight at full health. Because of this, you may have to pass up more desirable powers and skills for less desirable attacks.

The three bosses of Act 1 are Slime Boss, The Guardian, and Hexaghost. Slime Boss and The Guardian both challenge you to deal damage to them quickly enough to prevent their large attacks.

Slime Boss adds Slimed cards to your deck. When reduced to half-health, Slime Boss will split. When these two slimes are reduced to half-health, they will split again. Thus the battle against Slime Boss can see you fighting up to seven enemies, with the only way to avoid a split is to kill Slime Boss or one of the large slimes in the same turn they reach half-health. A good strategy is to accept damage to deal damage if you've already caused a slime to reach half-health, as any further damage you do is effectively doubled as it effects both resulting slimes' Max HP.

The Guardian starts in offensive mode and switches to defensive mode when dealt enough damage. The damage required to force a mode switch increases each time it happens. While in defensive mode, it grows thorns which damage the player when attacked. These thorns disappear when it switches to offensive mode. Because of this, you need to weigh the value of attacking the Guardian in Defensive Mode to the damage that you'll take, as you can lose the fight if you refuse to attack during this mode entirely.

Hexaghost acts differently, as it doesn't react to your attacks like the other two bosses. It deals a large attack based on your current health on turn 2. Because of this, consider not healing before this fight as it could buff this attack disproportionately compared to the amount you heal. Hexaghost also adds Burn cards to your deck and later in the fight adds Burn+ cards.

In this act and the third, the first two enemy encounters are easier than the rest. This act is where you play catch-up with your deck, as you'll seek out less attacks and more powers and skills to round your deck out.

Elites are more dangerous, so be more careful than in the previous act if you're low health or your deck isn't up to snuff. Two of this act's elites challenge the AOE side of your deck, so you'll look for cards that either affect all enemies or energy generation so you can hit multiple enemies with your single targeting cards. If you feel your deck is capable, maximize your elite encounters in this act, as the difficulty of regular encounters compared to Act 1 is much higher than the difference in difficulty between the Act 1 and Act 2 elites.

The rest of the path logic is the same as Act 1.

The bosses in Act 2 are Bronze Automaton, The Collector, and The Champ. Bronze Automaton and The Collector continue the AOE theme of the act, while The Champ fights you solo.

Bronze Automaton starts the combat by spawning two orbs to aid it in battle. It will not spawn any more orbs for the rest of combat. These orbs have the unique ability to steal cards from your draw pile. When killed, the stolen cards are returned to your hand. Because of these traits, it's wise to kill both of these orbs first.

The Collector starts the combat by spawning two Torch Heads to aid it in battle. Unlike the Bronze Automaton, The Collector can spawn replacements when these minions are killed, however only two can be alive at any time. Because of this, a useful strategy can be to kill one Torch Head and allocate the rest of your energy towards The Collector, as it will want to keep its full compliment of Torch Heads in the battle. Note that killing one is not a guarantee The Collector spends the next turn spawning a replacement, but it is decently likely.

The Champ starts the combat decently strong, but when his health is reduced by half, he uses Anger, causing his abilities to greatly increase in strength. Because of this, try not to end a turn with his health at half or lower. Instead, leave it slightly above 50% so you can deal more damage the next turn and reduce it further. By fighting the battle this way you'll postpone Anger by a turn.

At some point before or during Act 3 you may consider your deck complete and not take any further cards. New players will often make the mistake of ruining a complete deck by adding more cards during this act, but there are runs where your deck will never feel complete and you'll be adding cards up until the boss and can win.

Unless you think you can take them, minimize elite encounters as they can now legitimately kill you or leave you at an unrecoverable low health. As you get better at the game you can take them on more often as you'll get a sense of when your deck is capable. The elites in this act don't have a theme, but they're all very powerful. The rest of the path logic is the same as Act 2.

This act's possible regular encounters contain several monsters that can prove just as challenging as elites, so even regular encounters shouldn't be considered safe. If you feel your deck is complete, try to avoid these as well.

The Act 3 bosses are Awakened One, Time Eater, and Donu and Deca. There's not as much of a theme to these bosses like the previous acts, as they each challenge your deck in a unique way.

Awakened One starts combat in an unawakened state. This doesn't mean it isn't attacking you, but it is attacking you with weaker attacks. While in this state, it gains two strength each time you use a power, thus forcing you to weigh the value of each power with making it stronger. Assisting the Awakened One are two cultists, who are programmed like minions, meaning you only need to kill the Awakened One to win the combat, however most of the time it's probably in your interest to kill them first. When the Awakened One is "killed" the first time, it awakens the following turn. In the interim before you end your turn, it cannot be attacked any further, so keep this in mind if there are certain attacks that make more sense to use over others. Once awakened, it no longer gains strength from using powers, but its attacks are much stronger and some of them are accompanied by adding Void to your discard. In addition to all of this, the Awakened One heals 10 HP a turn in both states. To summarize, Awakened One challenges power-based decks that need time to set up.

Time Eater immediately ends your turn and gains strength every 12 cards you play. Because of this there are times where you should consider ending your turn early so you have enough card plays the following turn. More simply, try to avoid ending your turn on 10 or 11 cards played as your next turn will be dangerously short. Once Time Eater goes below half health, it will heal back up to half health the following turn. Because of this, unless you can kill Time Eater, don't waste card plays dealing it further damage past half health before this heal occurs. To summarize, Time Eater challenges decks that rely on a lot of card plays and prevents decks from going infinite.

Donu and Deca are the most straightforward of the Act 3 bosses. Each of them alternates between an attack and an ability, so that each turn you're being attacked by one while the other is casting something. Donu's ability is granting both of them strength while Deca's ability is granting both of them block. Additionally Deca's attack adds Dazed cards to your deck. This added wrinkle is a misdirection on the game's part, as your first target should be Donu as the strength buff is far more dangerous. To summarize, Donu and Deca challenge your deck to scale with your opponents and deal a balanced amount of attack and block each turn or you will fall behind.

You cannot face the same Elite twice in a row, but you can see the same Elite the first and third time in 3 Elite encounters. Note that the Dead Adventurer event does not follow this rule.

The first spot in all routes will always be a regular encounter. The last spot before the boss in all routes will always be a campfire. The middle spot in all routes will always be a treasure room.

You can see who the boss of the current act is as soon as you start it, as each boss has a unique map picture.

After reading this you should feel comfortable traversing the Spire. If you have any questions or need anything clarified feel free to comment below.

The next part of this guide, dealing with Act 4, can be found here.