Silent

*"A deadly huntress from the foglands. Eradicates foes with daggers and poisons"*

 The **Silent** is one of four playable characters in Slay the Spire. She is a huntress themed on a rogue fantasy build. This cunning character weakens her foes with numerous cuts and poison, while using cheap tricks and agility to avoid their attacks. With many powerful cards that draw and discard, the Silent ensures that she will always be one step ahead of her enemy. She starts with a relatively low 70 hp.

The Silent's starting Relic is , which draws 2 additional cards when starting combat.

## Cards

### Starting Deck

* 5
* 5
* 1
* 1

## Relics

Uncommon Relics: ,

Rare Relics: , ,

Boss Relics: ,  (replaces ),

Shop Relic:

## Strategy

The Silent does not have any reliable ability to heal or an abundance of starting health. Therefore, she is often focused on damage mitigation through  and  chaining, and gaining explosive advantage to end the encounter at opportune times. Many of her cards draw cards, reduce costs, or give additional , allowing her to chain momentum together to overcome low individual impact.

### Starting Deck & Relic

The Silent's starting deck is the largest of the 4 characters, at 12 cards, compared to the Ironclad's, Defect's and Watcher's starting deck, each of which have 10 cards. This means more Strikes and Defends are encountered in Act 1, and it's slightly more difficult to remove all starting cards from The Silent's Deck. The Silent's starting deck is also the cheapest, with its 2 non-Strike non-Defend cards costing 1 and 0. This means it's easier to take strong 2-cost card options earlier in the game, such as , , and .

Her starting Relic, , ensures that the first turn of every fight is slightly stronger than all of the other turns. This makes  cards slightly better for Silent, since they only take up 1 of 7 cards instead of 1 of 5 cards. The "Bottle Relics" (, , and ) have improved utility for similar reasons.

Owing to these properties, the Silent's early-game performance is by far the weakest out of the four characters. Her lack of upfront damage leaves her ill-equipped to deal with Act 1 Elite encounters, particularly the Lagavulin and Gremlin Nob, if players do not fix the damage density of her starting deck. Thus, even getting a run started can be a challenge with the Silent, particularly on high Ascension levels. However, if players can overcome this hurdle, they will realize Silent's incredible late-game potential, where her performance is conversely the strongest on average. Her access to the strongest damage mitigation tools in the game, as well as consistent long-term scaling damage and card manipulation, make even decks that seem weak able to clear the Act 3 boss gauntlet and even the Corrupt Heart with correct play.

### Synergies

Listed below are the standard synergies that Silent decks build towards, which may give you an idea of direction for your own runs. Some important things to keep in mind:

* Most of these builds aren't mutually exclusive. Think of each of the archetypes listed below as an engine that you can incorporate into your deck; depending on the situation, you are more than able to adapt or combine multiple of them.

* In particular, the different aspects of Silent's strategies can organically mesh with each other — you can have part of your damage or block plan be from one source and part from another. Keep synergies in mind, but don't turn down powerful cards just because they don't appear to match a synergy that you have.

* It's important to not "force" a particular build from the outset of the game. Build your deck to solve your immediate problems first and foremost, then allow an archetype to come to you organically. The only exception would be if you run into cards or relics in the early-game that are both individually impactful *and* form the crux of an entire archetype, and such situations are few and far between.

#### General

Cards that are generally good in any Silent strategy include:

* . The ability to hold key cards for when you need them most is amazing, and part of why Silent is so strong into the late-game. You can hold that crucial  +  for when you've stacked up a critical mass of ,  for an enemy's biggest hits, etc. Even outside of these examples, simply holding over damage or block on a turn where you don't need either one quite yet can let you answer whatever the enemy throws at you.
* . Potions are an incredibly strong resource in *Slay the Spire*, especially as you climb the Ascension levels, owing to their ability to be deployed whenever you need them, or saved for crucial fights. A card that provides more of this resource thus makes every deck stronger.

Cards that provide card draw:
* is Silent's main cycling tool, allowing you to see 3 (4) new cards from your deck at a low cost, and even allows you to trigger discard synergies, all on a Common!
* allows you to see an extra card every turn.
* draws 2 while providing a small amount of . If your late-game Block plan involves stacking , this can provide an incredible amount of incidental Block for you while you look for your key cards.
* is nothing special unupgraded, as it merely replaces itself. However, Prepared+ is a very strong tool that allows you to dig further through your deck for free.
* allows you to see an entire new hand, and when upgraded, no longer Exhausts, meaning you can do this every cycle.
* is by far the weakest out of Silent's card draw tools, as it is conditional, and she wants to keep a large hand anyway. However, if you have no other sources of draw that increase your hand size, it will do in a pinch.

Cards that benefit off discards:
* is a premium frontloaded damage option for a deck that cycles a lot. It will frequently cost nothing and slam an enemy for a good chunk of damage, and synergizes well with any source of  or even  if fully discounted.
* refunds itself if you've discarded anything during the turn. By itself, it's a decent damage button for the early-game that retains some value later on. Later on, if you find any way to discount it (such as with the otherwise niche ), it can even become an  generator!
* gives a huge burst of  for decks that have a surplus of draw but not enough Energy generation. It becomes absolutely broken with , as you will almost be guaranteed to have a full hand, and Concentrate will make hand space for you to continue your turn.
* grants 1 (2)  when discarded. If your deck can reliably discard , then it has a steady supply of , which makes most of your turns much more efficient. With a small enough deck, you can actually guarantee discarding  multiple times, which can become infinite.
* draws 2 (3) cards when discarded. While not as crucial in a deck with a lot of Backflips and Acrobatics, it still has a strong place in Silent's kit. A fully upgraded  combined with , upgraded , and a small deck can go infinite.

While Silent's card draw power is usually in service of her other synergies, discard can occasionally be a win condition all by itself. The aforementioned infinites are one aveune for that, but these are some others:
* / deals 3 damage / grants 3 block on each discard. If you can get these relics, you can simply spam discard to fight for you without even having to play output cards!
* can be your entire damage solve, as if you cycle enough, you can end up playing it on every single turn, removing the need to line it up carefully. Slamming the enemy with double damage Eviscerates and Sneaky Strikes can sometimes be enough even in the absence of traditional scaling.
* , while often niche, has its best showing in particularly discard- and draw-heavy decks, especially if you have . Because you can control how much you draw every turn, with enough careful planning, you can get the Finale off with reasonable consistency.

#### Offensive

* , on its own, will gradually build up more and more poison until the enemy dies. It allows many builds to play much more defensively, and stall out fights with full-defense turns, as they are passively dealing more and more damage. Synergizes amazingly with  Builds. However, this playstyle struggles with enemies that scale by buffing their own strength.  is a great addition to a  build.
* is a decent damage source on its own, which becomes better when you have a  deck and can reliably stack .
* , if you're able to play it multiple times, can exponentially increase  to ridiculous levels in a single turn. With  or  (or both), you get extra plays out of your , which can quickly stack up hundreds of . This build has incredible single-target damage, but is very bad at damaging multiple targets (without ), and requires a decent supply of draw/energy. Very good for all single-target encounters, and becomes worse the more enemies there are.
* Average  cards are not that great on their own, and only become stronger if you already have a  deck built around them.
* adds  onto all of your attack cards. Works extremely well if you are able to play many attack cards in a turn. Synergizes well with cheap attacks like , multiple-hit attacks like , , and , and pretty much all -generating cards.
* could help solve the lack of AoE damage of .
* is very strong for poison decks; it simply just gives more poison to your existing poison cards. You get the best value from this using poison sources that give small stacks of poison at a time: namely,  and . It also works well with , since it applies poison multiple times.
* gives poison decks much-needed multi-target damage. This is a must-have if you encounter this relic and have committed to making a poison deck.

* , , and  are absolute musts for the archetype. All add  to your hand. Amplified by strength cards and relics (i.e. , , , ). Don't forget to upgrade  first so it appears innately in your hand.
* amplifies not only  but Silent's other 0 energy attacks, such as  and . 0 energy attacks also have great synergy with  and .
* can quickly jump start your first turn every combat.
* amplifies your shivs. The more, the better. Beware of The Awakened One.
* applies  while you attack with barrages of . Couple with the  relic for easy clears. also combines extremely effectively with it; the  from  will trigger the damage from . This strategy can serve as a bridge between  and  builds in case you end up with a mix of cards and relics suitable for each.
	+ can be a great finisher if you have .
* A couple of  give you great survivability due to card-spamming nature of this archetype.
* After unloading all your ,  adds free damage.
* -  when played, and so benefit from relics that trigger on card .
* is useful for surviving while setting up your combo since your initial setup will take up most of your energy (, , , etc.)
* provides a good AoE damage for this deck.
* offers strong single-target damage in a  deck. Also, since  causes the target to lose life instead of taking damage, it bypasses enemy .
* is very good for refilling your hand after playing your low-cost // cards.
* Since you will be playing a lot of , which is an Attack, you will trigger relics like , , , and  many times.
* Shiv decks struggle against Time Eater (because shiv decks rely on playing large volumes of cards) and Corrupt Heart (because of Beat of Death), so have a plan to account for those. Envenom can help by adding passive damage to each shiv.  can mitigate Beat of Death entirely if the run is at low enough Ascension or if the player has  as well.

#### Defensive

Sources of :
* , which gives you 2 (3)  for the rest of the combat. One or two copies can be enough, but it never hurts to include more — as many as you're able to without harming the consistency of your first cycle through the deck.
* , which gives you 1  every time you play 3 Attacks in a single turn. This synergizes beautifully with -generating cards, which basically turn into Dexterity generators while also dealing damage. If you find this relic early and lean into Shivs, you might not even need Footworks!  becomes particularly good with this relic.

Sources of :
* +
* +
* is AoE  that can mitigate a large amount of damage while providing some  ticks.
* is a card that provides both  and  at the same time. It doesn't benefit as much from  due to its high cost, but excels in stopping single-target damage.

Block cards that benefit most from the accumulated :
* is not only a good draw card but, as mentioned in the previous section, can incidentally generate lots of  while helping you cycle if you have ample Dexterity.
* goes from being relatively low-impact to potentially blocking for double-digit numbers for 0  once you've put all the Footworks down, making it a good inclusion, particularly if you have lots of draw to find it consistently.
* scales with  twice, and gets extra value when you know you will be attacked every turn.
* is very good at stacking  over multiple turns if you find yourself frequently overblocking. However, it's not as consistent as Ironclad's  at doing so, since it only lasts one turn. You need to use it wisely or have multiple copies of Blur if you are reliant on this for critical turns in the endgame.

Other considerations:
* is another strong card, as it basically doubles the  of your next  card (or *two* when upgraded!) It goes very well with all the above  cards, especially  and , and is generally a strong card for turning on your damage engine as well.
* Base  cards are actually quite strong with these types of synergies, and shouldn't be removed from the deck. If you identify that this will be your main defense solve, consider taking **[Simplicity]** at Ancient Writing to upgrade them to bolster your base numbers even further. It's also one of the clearest applications of accepting  by taking **[I Am Awake]** at Mind Bloom, because it will also upgrade all of the other  cards you've added to your deck alongside any Footworks that haven't been upgraded, which can result in you taking no damage for the rest of the run.
* amplifies the effectiveness of your  from 25% to 40%. Due to how rounding in *Spire* works, this can mitigate a lot more damage than you expect, so definitely take advantage of this relic if you find it.

* is perhaps the best example of this. It's a Common card that takes away 6 (8)  from enemies for that turn — it completely shuts down multi-hits, notably completely blocking the Corrupt Heart's Blood Shots all the way into the *third* cycle, and can control multi-enemy encounters, all for just 1 . For multi-stage boss fights such as the Awakened One or Time Eater, playing Piercing Wail on the turn they "reset" (before you kill the first phase of the Awakened One, or on the turn that Time Eater clears debuffs and heals back to half) will cause them to permanently lose that much Strength. Every deck benefits from at least a few copies of Piercing Wail.
* is one of the strongest cards in Silent's card pool, being able to not only keep  on an enemy but also permanently reduce their , neutering multi-hits in the process. It is one of the very best solutions to Time Eater in particular, and can buy enough time for  strategies to scale without fearing giving the boss too much .
* is a very good  card with huge value throughout every combat. For 1 , you get usually at least 4-5 block every turn for the rest of combat. It synergizes very well with card-generation cards and 0- cards, and goes particularly well into  strategies.
* is one of the most powerful individual cards in the game, giving you  for 2 (3) turns. Often times, this is enough time to straight-up end hallway fights because you can now focus all of your  on attacking without much fear of taking damage. If you have multiple copies of Wraith Form or a way to duplicate it (such as with ),  to block chip damage, or  to erase the -down debuff, you can even ignore its downside completely. On Ascension 19 and 20, it also lowers the Corrupt Heart's  damage down from 2 or 3 to 1.

Other considerations:
* can be a difficult card to pick, but with enough card manipulation and the correct targets (most of which are defensive), it can provide an out to every fight in the game. It is best with cards listed in this section, such as Malaise, After Image, and Wraith Form, as they all become significantly stronger in multiples. However, it can also be used to duplicate  as well, in case you don't have enough for a particular fight. Two copies of Nightmare (one used to duplicate the other) can allow you to duplicate cards indefinitely, so long as you have the  for it. Nightmare can also duplicate  to increase your chances of finding strong Potions, most notably Ghost in a Jar which is a free turn of .

## Unlocks

The Silent is unlocked by completing a run with The Ironclad.

## Gallery

The Silent in-gameThe Silent appearing in her Steam BackgroundThe Silent featured prominently in the card art for Die Die DieThe Silent appearing alongside the Ironclad in official game artThe Silent's character select screenThe Silent alongside the Ironclad in official game artworkThe Silent seen in the Launch Trailer alongside the Ironclad and the Defect