Slay the Spire is a deck-building roguelike indie game with an extensive endgame that allows for constant improvement. A large part of that endgame comes from the many relics available to players. While playing the Silent class, a roguish character emphasizing quick attacks and powerful poisons, players have access to 139 standard relics; with the Silent-exclusive relics, this number jumps up to 150.
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With such a wide variety of relics, knowing which ones to pick and which to leave behind in your quest to slay the spire can be challenging. Some relics are decisive in any build; some work exceptionally well in particular builds but feel lackluster in others; others still have the potential to destroy an otherwise excellent run.
10 Ring Of The Snake
The Ring of the Snake is the starter relic for the Silent class. Simple but efficient, it allows the player to draw two additional cards on the first turn of each combat. The Silent has the lowest starting health of any class (70HP) and must make do with blocking, so getting no block cards on the first round of a combat early game can result in a lot of unwanted damage. This relic alleviates that risk.
However, it maintains a powerful option later in the run too. The first round is often considered the most important in Slay the Spire because a solid start helps build momentum to end fights more quickly.
9 Gambling Chip
The Gambling Chip is a rare relic that allows players to discard any number of cards from their hand at the start of each combat and draw that many cards back. In a game where combat is decided as much by good draws as by skillful play, the Gambling Chip allows players to alleviate some of that uncertainty and leave the game's outcomes up to their gaming prowess.
In addition, the relic becomes even more reliable with smaller decks, which is recommended by many pros and speed runners in the Slay the Spire community, so it also encourages more precise and thoughtful play. All in all, the Gambling Chip is a powerful relic for any class, Silent included.
8 Bottled Lightning
Building on the Ring of the Snake, the Bottled Lightning relic meshes fantastically with the Silent's tendency for explosive first rounds. Bottled Lightning is an uncommon relic that allows the player to select one Skill card in their deck; that card is then guaranteed to appear in the player's hand at the start of each combat. Since many of the Silent's best cards are Skills (Adrenaline, Cloak and Dagger, and Terror, to name a few), this guarantees that every combat starts with a bang. While it doesn't have the Gambling Chip's ability to reshuffle a terrible starting hand into a great one, Bottled Lightning allows decks built around a specific card to start out strong in every combat scenario.
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An argument can be made for this relic's sibling relics, Bottled Flame (which works with Attack cards) and Bottled Tornado (with Power cards). However, many of the Silent's best decks work by landing many blows in quick succession: one guaranteed Attack from Bottled Flame will rarely be enough to change the scope of the encounter on the first turn, and Powers guaranteed by Bottled Tornado are most effective in long combats, which creates risk for more damage.
7 Twisted Funnel
Another relic that activates at the start of your first turn, the Twisted Funnel is a Shop relic that applies 4 poison to every enemy at the beginning of each combat. Poison builds are the Silent's slowest deck archetype, favoring constant blocks and poison buildup over bombastic attacks and energy management. This play style is riskier with smaller enemies and can take a while to really get going in combat, but it can do considerable damage very quickly when the ball starts rolling.
Simple yet effective, Twisted Funnel helps that ball get rolling sooner, allowing the player to focus more on defending against their enemies' first attacks without worrying about running out of poison.
6 Shuriken
The Shuriken is an uncommon relic that works wonders with the Silent's shiv decks (decks that focus on making as many attacks as possible with her zero-cost shiv cards). With the Shuriken, the player gains 1 Strength for every three attacks they play in a single turn, further empowering their attacks until the end of combat.
This can allow for overwhelming snowballs when used with cards like Blade Dance, Infinite Blades, and Storm of Steel, all of which give the player more Shivs to use.
5 The Specimen
The Specimen is another relic that works excellently for poison decks: a rare relic that transfers the poison of any enemy that dies to another random enemy. This adds much-needed multi-target capabilities to a deck archetype that often struggles to manage more than one enemy.
It also provides a tangible reason to deal with summoned creatures in boss fights like the Collector's minions, since defeating them can apply even more poison to the Collector, bringing the player one step closer to a poison snowball.
4 Dead Branch
The coup de grâce relic of shiv decks, Dead Branch is an uncommon relic that adds a random card to your hand whenever you exhaust a card. Combining this with a constant barrage of Shivs gives players a consistent intake of cards from every class, not just the Silent's, allowing for interesting combinations that are otherwise difficult to acquire.
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Be careful: Dead Branch can saturate small decks with unwanted randomness; however, with the correct application, it makes a fantastic addition to any Silent deck.
3 Singing Bowl
The Singing Bowl is where relics on this list elevate from strong to run-defining; Slay the Spire is a hard game, like many roguelikes, but with the next few relics it becomes considerably easier. An uncommon relic, the Singing Bowl increases the player's maximum health by two whenever they skip the chance to add cards to their deck. Just like the Gambling Chip, this relic is strong in any class; and just like the Gambling Chip, it helps to encourage smarter play by discouraging bloated decks.
The Silent makes the most use of this relic since it has the lowest starting health and the largest starting deck of any class. This makes health even more important while making more cards even less important, which fits perfectly with the Singing Bowl.
2 Unceasing Top
The Unceasing Top is the centerpiece of the Silent's momentum deck archetype. The Unceasing Top is a rare relic that allows the player to draw a card whenever they have no cards in their hand. Momentum decks combine the low average cost of cards in the Silent's repertoire and capacity for playing a vast number of cards in quick succession with the Unceasing Top's ability to constantly refresh the player's hand and create one-turn kill situations. The Unceasing Top is unlikely to work every combat (much less every turn), making its ability unreliable at best; however, when it does work, it can end combat by itself.
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Unlike other relics on this list, Unceasing Top decks have a significant, run-ending weakness: unplayable cards like curses and statuses. The Blue Candle, Peace Pipe, and Medical Kit relics are must-haves in a robust momentum deck, but such decks are still mighty undertakings; newcomers beware.
1 Snecko Skull
The last and most powerful relic on this list is the Snecko Skull. A simple and unassuming common relic, the Snecko Skull increases each individual poison stack by one. Using cards that quickly and constantly apply small increments of poison like Envenom, Crippling Cloud, and Noxious Fumes can quickly bring even the strongest bosses to their knees.
This relic also works as the bridge between shiv decks and poison decks. Envenom is a power that applies 1 poison every time the player deals unblocked damage; that poison is effectively doubled by the Snecko Skull, which allows for the unrelenting barrage of attacks from a shiv deck to apply ungodly amounts of poison exceptionally quickly which will help players in defeating the game's final boss.
Slay the Spire is available on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
