Because of these two abilities, it's crucial to keep an eye on every number on the screen during your turn. The Heart can only take 300 damage each turn, so even if you pull off a giant combo it will still take at least three turns to finish the Heart off completely.

The Corrupt Heart's other insurance against crazy burst damage from the player is Invincible. The Tungsten Rod relic is absolutely invaluable if you can find one, reducing all of the hits on your health bar to 0, but keep in mind that it doesn't protect your Block from Beat of Death damage as well. This damage will target your Block first, so you can use that to protect you from some of the damage, but keep in mind it can chew through your block quickly enough as well. The ability helps to soften you up to its other attacks and can quickly add up to a ton of damage if not careful. Whenever you play a card, you take 1 damage. The main ability that can make the Corrupt Heart so frustrating is the Beat of Death. With a few frustrating abilities, strong attacks, and a massive 750 health, you'll need a lot of skill and some luck to boot to take down this final adversary. The Spire Spear has a weaker attack that will add two Burn status cards to your discard pile, a buffing skill that'll increase it and its partner's strength, and a strong multihit attack that will become much scarier as its strength increases.īy far the hardest challenge in Slay the Spire, the Corrupt Heart you've whacked away at all those times at the top of the Spire is now fighting back in earnest. The Spire Shield has a weaker attack that lowers your strength, a fortifying skill that grants both enemies Block, and a stronger attack that will also generate some Block for just it. As for actual attacks, the Shield and Spear are unsurprisingly more defensively and offensively oriented, respectively. Once one of the enemies is defeated the Surrounded condition ends, so try and take down one of the two as quickly as possible. You can turn around either by targeting one of the enemies with an attack or by using a potion, so make sure to end your turn in the direction that'll mitigate the most damage. While both are still alive, your back will always be to one of them, taking 50% extra damage from behind. At the start of the fight, your character is inflicted with the Surrounded condition, representing how they have been flanked by these two enemies. The Spire Spear and Spire Shield act as a final miniboss and behave quite similar to one of the potential Act III bosses Donu & Deca, who take turns buffing each other and striking for large amounts. There is at least one chance to find such a chest in each Act, but the opportunities are still fairly limited so lean towards the side of getting the Key as early as possible so it's not a worry for the rest of the run. Some relics will be linked with the Key, and you must choose between the relic and the Key.

Last, the Sapphire Key is earned from one of the many relic-containing chests throughout the Spire. There is only one such icon per Act, and once beaten it won't show up in future Acts, so plan your route accordingly. This elite will be one of the ones normally encountered in that Act but will have an extra buff such as extra max HP, extra strength, or health regeneration every turn. You can differentiate this enemy from normal elite enemies on the map by the flame effect behind their icon. The Emerald Key is earned by defeating a powered-up elite enemy. Keep in mind this will always be an option until the Key is taken, so wait until there isn't a more important Rest Site option to take, like recovering health or upgrading a crucial card. The keys that have already been collected can be seen in the upper left corner of the screen, and each key is found through a slightly different method: The Ruby Key is earned by choosing the Recall option at a Rest Site. Once you've satisfied this first requirement, you'll be able to earn all three keys on a single run up the Spire in order to unlock Act IV.

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