Slay the Spire: The Board Game

Digital Slay the Spire is one of those games that has kept me awake: either because I absolutely want to finish one more run, or because I have gotten so annoyed that I cannot fall asleep. When the board game was announced, my reaction was basically, “lol, good luck guys,” and I moved on. Thankfully, I was wrong. The moment I saw it up close, I quickly corrected that oversight, and it hit the table with three people on the very day it arrived.

The foundation is that familiar run feeling, brought into a cooperative board game. Some cards and mechanisms have been simplified or are missing compared with the digital version, but the adaptation remains very good and, more importantly, it genuinely plays beautifully on the table. Each run is relatively short, so the game keeps its pace and does not wear you out before you get to enjoy its decisions.

In the battles and the run’s choices, the group has to communicate and build a shared strategy. The bookkeeping is pleasantly simple, since damage, healing, and HP generally use neat multiples of ten, which saves needless calculation and keeps your mind on the plan. With more players there is plenty of cooperation, and for me three is clearly the sweet spot.

I do not expect it to replace the 200 or 300 hours that fans of the mobile and PC game can put into the digital version. But that is no reason to underestimate it: this is a very entertaining co-op that creates some wonderfully satisfying moments and promises many hours at the table. And yes, they probably saved some things for an expansion—after all, they have to sell something too.