Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire is a card battle game with roguelike elements released for the Nintendo Switch. It was developed by MegaCrit and published by Humble Bundle.

Gameplay
The game is a roguelite built around a card battle system and building the deck through playing. The goal is to complete all the levels in the spire. The game starts with the player selecting one of three character each with a unique ability and a basic deck with attack, defense and color-coded cards to their character. The levels have a number of encounters culminating in a boss fight. The player can encounter monsters to fight, campfires to heal and upgrade, shops to buy new cards and relics, chests and choices that affect the player's path.

The combat has each turn with the playing getting a hand of cards and a limited pool of energy points. The player can play any cards if they can pay the energy cost. Unused cards are sent to the discard pile. The cards can generally be dividing into damaging cards, skill cards whose effects only last one turn, and power cards which last the entire encounter. Winning a battle will earn the player gold, one of three random cards and the possibility of gaining relics or potions. When a player is defeated, they are sent back to the beginning of the spire, only keeping the relics. Regardless of where the player's journey ends, the player earns an overall set of points that unlock new characters, relics and cards to obtain in the spire.

The main strategy of this game is to develop a general strategy for their deck that takes advantage of their relics and refine their deck by removing weak or hard to play cards.