The Ironclad is one of five playable characters in Slay the Spire 2 and one of three returning from the original game. He’s a warrior commonly built around stacking Strength, converting defense into offense, or using Exhaust and card draw to churn through as much of your deck as possible in a single turn.
What's Changed in Slay the Spire 2?
There are a few big changes:
- Vulnerable is now a full archetype complete with cards that revolve around applying, stacking, and rewarding Vulnerable in some way.
- Self-damage is a very real build. A bunch of cards lean into losing HP as a cost or trigger.
- Strength scaling is a bit more refined this time around. Still intact, but more measured.
Ironclad 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 Ironclad's main build archetypes. In the meantime here’s an idea of what looks popular.
Strength Scaling builds around Demon Form and Inflame to stack Strength early, then letting lots of cheaper cards like Setup Strike deal lots of damage. Combine it with Colorless cards like Exterminate to really pile on the pain.
Exhaust builds synergize around Corruption, making all skills cost 0 Energy but “burning” them after use. Others like Feel No Pain and Dark Embrace let you stack Block and card draw for every time you do so. Fiend Fire and Stoke will reward you for Exhausting large numbers of cards while restocking your hand.
Barricade is the key card for Block builds that like to stack huge numbers of defense and then use cards like Body Slam to do huge amounts of damage.
With the right cards you can make a build around damaging yourself. Rupture converts HP loss into Strength and Inferno causes each of those 1 damage pings to yourself to do 6 damage to all enemies.
Cards like Bully and Dismantle could be powering a new build focused around making your enemies have Vulnerable stacks. Especially if you manage to combine Cruelty and Paper Phrog to increase the damage bonus from 50% to 100%.
Exclusive Ironclad Relics
The Ironclad’s exclusive relics reinforce the same build pillars as the card pool. There’s very clear support for Strength scaling, Exhaust synergies, Vulnerable, and self-damage with very little overlap between them.
You can find the full list here.
Exclusive Ironclad Potions
There are three Ironclad exclusive potions: an Exhaust synergy tool, straightforward sustain, and a temporary buff to your strike cards.
You can find the full list here.
Exclusive Ironclad Mechanics
As what is essentially the introductory character to Slay the Spire, the Ironclad is actually the only character without any exclusive mechanics.