One of the most popular card game formats is deck builders like Slay the Spire.
This card-based roguelike has been fantastic to play ever since it came out. It also has plenty of replayability, as you can build a different deck each time.
If you love Slay the Spire but have been playing it for far too long (like I have), it’s time you move onto modding the hell out of it.
And here are some of the best mods for new cards, characters, and levels.
Once you start installing mods made by different people with different design philosophies, you’ll start to realize how hard it gets to differentiate between fundamental things – such as what effect counts as a buff or a debuff.
These Colored Powertips will help you in that regard by changing the color of the pop-ups you get when hovering over friendly or enemy units.
Buffs are shown in green boxes, while debuffs get a red color.
If you happen to be colorblind, you can change the color combination in the game’s settings.
A simple but handy mod you need to get is Curses Come First, which moves all curse cards in your deck to the first position on the card removal screen.
This’ll definitely save you a lot of time, considering curse cards are always going to be the first thing you go for.
It also keeps you from forgetting you had a curse card to dispose of ever again.
This is simply one of those quality-of-life improvements you’ll never want to play the game without.
Slay the Spire is an awesome game, but it’s not perfect.
Several of the events you’ll bump into during your adventures are a bit lacking in the creative department, so they’re not as memorable.
A Better Third Choice aims at improving the game’s narrative by expanding your choices in several previously low-effort events. Now, choosing to do something out of the ordinary may have exciting unforeseen consequences.
It can really elevate some of these events, and you’ll have fun hunting these new choices down during a playthrough.
Mods stop being compatible with game updates all the time.
And unless you’ve got a dedicated mod developer making sure everything runs like it’s supposed to, some mods die out in obsolescence.
The 2.0 Compatibility Fix aims to bring some of these mods back to life by fixing many generic issues that conflict with mods made for Slay the Spire’s previous builds.
I’ve always been a pariah for defending the simple opinion that using mods shouldn’t necessarily keep you from getting achievements.
I mean, how is replacing my character with an anime girl going to help me get achievements easily?
Is it too hard to make a distinction between QoL improvements and game-breaking mods?
This Achievement Enabler is the way we modders take back our rights so we can play with a Colored Map and with Colored Power Tips and still get our hard-earned achievements.
The Arknights mod is based on a famous mobile tower defense game of the same name.
It lets you play as Arknight’s main character, Doctor, on your way up the spire.
Doctor has access to a unique card archetype that can enhance card effects by consuming SP. You can play him as one of eight main classes – each with its own unique abilities.
Relics are some of the most important things you need to get when climbing the spire.
Obtaining the right relic at the right time can make a world of difference, and it can really change how your run plays out.
The Reliquary mod adds a lot of replayability by introducing 61 new relics for some extra variety.
These include the Sideboard, the Broken Clock, the Red Cape, and the Boiling Flask – all of which have unique and well-designed effects that don’t damage the game’s balance.
If you’ve grown a bit tired of the base game’s narrative, consider The Elementarium – an alternate Act 2 revolving around raging elementals and powerful golems.
There are new bosses, elites, and events to discover as you come upon the remnants of an ancient conflict.
This new adventure is faithful to the original game’s style, but brings many new ideas to the table that make these new fights feel fresh.
Anything can happen here – you might even get turned into gold if you’re not careful – so keep an eye out.
Once you have your Touhou characters, you can move on to Gensokyo – a massive mod introducing three brand new acts based on Touhou media.
Each act features three new bosses, three elite enemies, lots of hallway fights, and new events to experience.
Of course, there’s also a plethora of new cards to go with the new setting of Gensokyo.
What I like the most about Gensokyo over other scenario mods is the musical choices – all remakes and remixes of classic Touhou tunes any self-respecting fan would recognize in a jiffy.
If you’ve been watching anime for a long time and aren’t afraid to dabble in the magical girl genre, you’ll be familiar with CLAMP’s Card Captor Sakura.
This mod introduces the show’s main character, Sakura, as a playable character.
It also features over 100 new cards.
There are 52 Clow cards, 52 Sakura cards, 8 spell cards, and some event cards.
These themed cards feature fantastic high-quality artwork from the show. Each type of card works with unique mechanics, so you’ll have a lot of fun figuring out how to work it all together for maximum success.
Spire Arcade is an incredibly high-quality mod, put together by a group of big names in the StS modding scene, to commemorate the third anniversary since the release of ModTheSpire – the base that every other mod is built for.
Well the Spire Arcade mod adds an event that can spawn in any act.
When triggered, it makes you choose between three randomly-selected mini-games. They’re all pretty good, and it’s a fairly varied library.
If you prevail in these mini-games, you’ll get some prizes that’ll make continuing to slay a little easier.
It’s a really sophisticated mod. And it can make a new playthrough really unique.
Library of Ruina is a fantastic game by ProjectMoon you can find easily on Steam.
In it, defeated enemies turn into books, and you must fight to the best of your abilities not to become a page-turner.
This mod takes inspiration from this popular game and introduces new themed cards, relics, enemies, and even hidden content. It also features a new character.
This next entry in our ranking brings us an all-new Act 2, also based on Library of Ruina.
This new adventure lets you explore a mysterious library full of books that used to be living beings. Now, these monsters are freeing themselves from the pages of their books, and it’s up to you to defeat them.
It features three new bosses, three elite fights, and several new cards and relics.
Note that this content is compatible with the Library of Ruina mod, but also works as a stand-alone product.
I love well-designed QoL compilations that completely pimp your experience.
Minty Spire is probably the best available for StS.
It brings a lot of new features and improves several visual cues.
Among other things, it makes the Pantograph relic glow before a boss room, makes intangible creatures transparent, and adds a “hide” button to card selection screens in combat so you can check out the battlefield.
The intro splash screen also gets skipped, which is invaluable if you’re trying out new mods a lot.
Hollow Knight is one of the best Metroidvania games I’ve ever played.
It’s challenging, looks gorgeous, and the eerie abandoned vibe of Hallownest is perfect for such an exploration-heavy game.
The Bug Knight will bring HK’s main character into your StS as a playable character, with 80 unique character cards and 13 new relics with new mechanics based on Hollow Knight gameplay.
Something that sets this mod apart from most other character mods is that this warrior bug will change character models depending on how your deck is built. Talk about polish!
Do you know what’s even better than an official expansion to your favorite game?
A fan-made one that’s 100% free!
Infinite Spire adds countless new relics, cards, events, and bosses so you can continue to slay in new innovative ways.
You’ll also be able to keep climbing after the 3rd floor – even on normal runs!
The new cards and relics feature new mechanics to play around with and develop strategies around. They’re meant to make the game more interesting, rather than harder or easier.
It does include some overpowered cards here and there. But it’s well-balanced for the most part.
Based on a fantasy novel series by Julia Karamell, The Marked introduces a wealth of new cards, relics, potions, and more.
This mod shines for its high-quality visual effects and custom sprite animations, along with the care put into crafting deck archetypes that actually made sense and felt different from one another.
These 75 new cards were designed to introduce new gameplay ideas and offer an authentically different experience.
But they’re simple enough that they won’t overwhelm anyone. It’s something even card game giants like Konami tend to get wrong from time to time.
As I mentioned, I love Hollow Knight. It’s just an amazing game with beautiful artwork and interesting world-building, and the humanoid bug denizens of Hallownest show remarkable character design.
Acts of Hallownest opens a bridge to this city of bugs, and lets you experience three all-new acts inspired by Hollow Knight.
You’ll visit several iconic locales in Hallownest, battle enemies and bosses from the game, and collect a nice array of new cards.
All of the characters from Hollow Knight have been beautifully ported to Slay the Spire. The mod is amazing visually and gameplay-wise. Well worth a try.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
