The Ironclad
Background
"The remaining soldier of the Ironclads. Sold his soul to
harness demonic energies."
The Ironclad is the first of the four playable characters in Slay the Spire. He is capable of powerful
offense and sturdy defense. He can utilize his demonic powers to boost his strength and give himself special
abilities. He starts with 5 basic attacks, 4 basic defends, and a bash that inflicts vulnerability.
His starting relic is Burning Blood, which heals him for 6 health after every combat.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As the first character the player can use, the Ironclad is very beginner friendly. With the highest
starting health in the game, multiple cards capable of healing, and a starting relic that heals him after
every combat encounter, there is much more room for error compared to the others. Most of his cards
are straightforward and simple to understand, but still effective. He has multiple cards that boost his
attack damage until the end of a combat, allowing him to take large chunks out of an enemy's health in one
strike. Ironclad can inflict the vulnerable debuff more than any other character, which increases the damage
that specific enemy takes by up to 50%.
The main downside of Ironclad is that he can be hard to figure out in higher difficulties. He possesses cards
that utilize exhaust. When a card is exhausted, it cannot be used for the rest of combat unless it is brought
back by the few cards capable of doing so. Although most of these exhaust cards are incredibly powerful, they
take much more skill and thought to use. In the later stages of a run, Ironclad's defensive options are lacking.
Because of his large amount of health and healing abilities, it is easier to take the hits and recover later.
He also has many cards that hurt himself when played. These cards are useful, but if used improperly it can
lead to an early demise.
Strategies
Ironclad has a mixture of simple and complex strategies, with some working great in lower difficulties, and some almost being required for tougher challenges.
Defense Build
- This strategy revolves around defense. The idea is to always have block available, keeping you safe from most enemy attacks. The Barricade card is essential to this deck. Usually, all block is lost after you and the enemy both take your turn. Barricade allows you to keep any remaining block between turns. With this, you are able to accumulate as much block as you want, effectively making you untouchable. Cards that passively give you block like Metallicize and Plated Armor are useful, as well as basic block cards. Entrench is useful because it doubles your current block, and Body Slam is an attack that increases in damage the more block you have.
Strength Build
- This build is all about increasing your damage output. Strength is a stackable buff that increases the damage of any attack by 1 for each level of it. So every time you recieve strength, your damage gets bumped up by 1. Like block, there is no limit to how much strength you have, however it does reset at the end of combat. With this strategy, the goal is to rapidly gain strength and consistently deal large amounts of damage. Cards like Inflame, Flex, and Spot Weakness are quick, reusable sources of strength, while Rupture and Demon Form generate it over time. Limit Break is possibly the most valuable addition to this deck, as it doubles your strength. If upgraded, Limit Break will not exhaust, allowing you to use it repeatedly.
Exhaust Build
- There are a few different ways to make a deck around exhaust. The main similarity between them is that fights end fast once you get set up. Two prominent strategies are the Corruption build and Fiend Fire build. Corruption makes all skills in your deck cost 0, but they exhaust when played. This card works well with the Dead Branch relic, which adds a random card to your hand when a card is exhausted. It allows you to go through a lot of cards, and free skills means you will have a lot of block and temporary buffs. Fiend Fire exhausts every other card in your hand. For each card exhausted, an aditional amount of damage is dealt. This means a full hand of cards can do up to 90 damage if set up well.