Regent

The Regent is one of two brand new characters in Slay the Spire 2. He’s an arrogant alien heir carried around on a throne by his minions and his kit is built around two core archetypes: generating and spending his exclusive energy resource and using a special sword to deal lots of damage.

Exclusive Regent Mechanics

The Regent does have some exclusive mechanics to learn:

• Stars - A secondary resource that sits alongside energy. Generated by various cards, Stars don’t reset at the end of your turn and have no cap.
• Sovereign Blade - The Regent’s personal weapon, created the first time you play a card with the Forge keyword each combat. Grows stronger with each Forge.

Regent Builds

Slay the Spire 2 is still fresh and the meta is still being figured out. We're working with experienced players to put together in-depth guides for each of the Regent's main build archetypes. In the meantime here’s an idea of what looks popular.

Exclusive Regent Relics

The Regent’s exclusive relics mostly focus on Star generation and spending, but it also contains some Colorless synergy and automatic Forging at the start of combat.

You can find the full list here.

Exclusive Regent Potions

There are three exclusive Regent potions: free Stars, free Forging, and Colorless card generation.

You can find the full list here.

Early Game:

Now that we have covered his new mechanics lets talk about his early game. The early game on this character is typically centered around finding the powerful cards that use stars as a resource as well as getting the star generation to support being able to play them more than once. 

Astral Pulse is a very powerful common attack that deals 14 damage to All enemies for 0 energy and 3 stars. Regents starter deck has 3 base stars from his relic but only has 2 more each time through your deck with Venerate. This means that in your second cycle unless you draw venerate before drawing Astral Pulse again you may not be able to play it. This is very important and means that you have to be mindful of the amount of star cards you add to your deck.

Common Attacks:

Astral Pulse, Collision Course, Photon Cut, Solar Strike, Wrought in War, Celestial Might. 

Of these Astral Pulse and Solar Strike are the main two I want to see. However, you can not be too picky in your first few floors so I can see situations where I pick any of these. One common card I want to specifically call out that I did not include is Guiding Star. Guiding Star is a good card. For 1 energy Dealing 12 Damage and drawing two cards is amazing. However it does cost 2 stars to play. There are a lot of more premium star cards to take so I have noticed that I often regret taking guiding star if I am offered a Astral Pulse or other premium star card early since my deck doesn’t have enough star generation to support both cards in the early game.

Common Skills:

Know Thy Place, BEGONE!, Cosmic Indifference, Gather Light, Glow, Hidden Cache, Glitterstream.

From your common skills in the early game you are looking for either star generation to spend on your strong cards or block. It is important to remember to still take a block card when you are focused on taking star cards and generation or else you might continually take damage in each fight.

Uncommon Attacks: 

Gamma Blast – A good Source of vulnerable and weak on a 0 energy cost attack.

Radiate – If you get some star generation going this can be a good source of damage.

Shining Strike – This generates 2 stars and is placed on top of your deck. It can become detrimental later as you lose 1 draw with it but is great if you need the stars.

Kingly Kick – This card is not your first choice as an attack that costs 4 energy but it can be enabled by draw/deck manipulation cards since it reduces by 1 energy when drawn. Photon Cut and Cosmic Indifference are cards that can put Kingly Kick on top of your draw pile to speed up the cost reduction.

Uncommon Skills:

Particle Wall – This card is just okay until you get star generation going but it is a very premium block source later so worth it to take.

CHARGE!! – Transforms 2 cards in your deck into 0 cost attacks that deal 13 and exhaust to your deck. This both helps to make your deck more consistent later and is a powerful effect early.

Manifest Authority – Blocks for 7 and Generates a Colorless Card. 

Reflect – Blocks for 17 and Reflects attack damage. It costs 3 stars but blocking for 17 for 1 energy is very premium.

Bulwark – Gain 13 Block Forge 10. This gives you a good amount of block and helps with damage. One of the best forge cards.

Uncommon Powers:

Child of Stars – Gain 2 block for each star spent. One of the main things you focus on with this character is stars so this is a great block source.

Furnace – At the start of your turn, Forge 4. This can be a good way to deal with the Act 1 boss if you need scaling. Consistently increasing your Sovereign Blade damage could be just what you need to have enough damage for a boss even if you have no other Forge cards.

Orbit – Every 4 energy you spend gain 1 energy. If you can upgrade this card it is one of the few ways for this character to generate energy so it is worth taking.

Stars:

Stars are the resource that separates Regent from every other character in Slay the Spire. Unlike energy which resets every turn, stars must be actively generated and managed across your deck. You start each combat with 3 stars from Divine Right but as you saw with Astral Pulse and Guiding Star, adding too many star costing cards without the generation to support them will leave you with powerful cards you cannot reliably play. This section covers the premium star cards worth building around and the generation needed to support them.

Star Cards:

Astral Pulse, Gamma Blast, Reflect, and Particle Wall are still good for the reasons mentioned earlier.

Comet – This is bigger Gamma Blast. For 5 stars it Applies 3 weak and vulnerable and deals more damage.

Dying Star – Powerful card that deals 9 AOE Damage and makes enemies lose 9 strength. It does however have Ethereal which is somewhat awkward with star cards as it can be correct to hold off on playing star cards to make sure you have stars available for more important turns.

Decisions, Decisions – 0 Energy 6 stars Draw 3 skills and play a skill from your hand 3 times. This can be very poweful if you have the stars to play it and even lead to you being ahead on stars if you use it on something like Hidden Cache.

Star Generation:

Glow – Gain 1(2) star(s) Draw 1 card. Next Turn Draw 1 Card

Hidden Cache: Gain 1 Star Next Turn Gain 3(4) Stars.

Royal Gamble – 0 Energy 5 Stars Gain 9 stars

Genesis – At the start of your turn gain 2 (3) stars.

These are your main star generators and for the most part they don’t really do anything besides generate stars and the cost energy to play. This is one of the main reasons why its so important to primarily take premium star cards and generation, as well as to not take too much of either. Both energy and stars are a limited resource that you must manage well to succeed with the Regent.

Potential Traps:

Crescent Spear – This is a card that gets stronger the more star cards you have but if you have multiple star cards your deck should already be strong. So I don’t see the place for this.

Devastate – 1 Energy 4 Stars Deal 30. This is a lot of damage for 1 energy however you need a lot of star generation to support it. 

Seven Stars – 2 Energy 7 Stars – Deals 7 Damage 7 times to ALL enemies. Again this is a lot of damage but the Star cost is not easy to support at all.

Forge: 

Forge is Regent's other scaling mechanic and works alongside your star cards rather than competing with them. Unlike stars which require constant generation and management, Forge is more of a passive scaling tool that rewards you for taking certain cards without demanding you build around it exclusively. Sovereign Blade starts at 10 damage but with a few Forge cards picked up naturally over a run it can become a reliable finisher that your opponent has to respect. The key cards to know here are the ones that provide Forge efficiently enough to be worth the deck slot on their own merits rather than requiring full commitment to see results.

Forge Cards:

Bulwark – This is the glue that allows you to even really consider playing around Sovereign Blade. Since it is a fine block card on its own merits the forge section is a great bonus. Even without committing more than 3 slots towards Sovereign Blade with 2 Bulwark and a Furnace Sovereign Blade has done very respectable damage for me.

Furnace – I previously mentioned that this is something I primarily would take to have enough damage for an early boss. That is still the primary situation I would take it in unless I have other very clear signals to lean into forge.

Seeking Edge – 1 Energy Forge 7 Sovereign Bladenow deals damage to All enemies.
This is something you may transform into and see early that makes it a bit more tempting to lean into Sovereign Blade. However the Regent has Astral Pulse which does 14 aoe for 3 stars as 1 common card vs 17 damage for 3 energy for a rare card so by itself is not enough compared to other things Regent does.

The Smith – 1 Energy 4 Stars Forge 30 – This is a big amount of Forge and worth considering building around. It can be compared to Devastate which does its damage right away and doesn’t require 2 more energy spent. However, the Sovereign Blade does have Retain so it can better lineup with damage amplifying effects like vulnerable.

Conqueror – Powerful effect if you are into Sovereign Blade that allows you to double its damage however there are some enemies that counter this playstyle like Skulking Colony, the Cockroaches, or Slippery enemies that limit the amount of damage you can do in 1 attack. 

Summon Forth – Forge 8 Put Sovereign Blade into your Hand form anywhere. This is a great card to get Sovereign Blade back for a 2nd attack but being a 2 cost attack with retain it will typically want to be used as a finishing blow.

Forge is worth paying attention to when the cards justify themselves independently. Bulwark is the clearest example of a card you take for its block value and get Forge as a bonus. Beyond that the degree to which you invest in Sovereign Blade depends on what the run offers you. A few naturally acquired Forge cards can turn Sovereign Blade into a meaningful finisher without demanding full commitment, but chasing Forge at the expense of star cards and generation is rarely the right call.