Slay the Spire Relic Tier List

All 179 relics ranked inside their own rarity: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Boss, Shop, and the event pickups.

Data from build 10180494, updated 12 Aug 2026

Relics decide a Slay the Spire run more than any single card does. The Boss relic you take on floor 16 changes how you draft for the next two acts, and the wrong one quietly ends the climb somewhere in Act 3. These placements are opinion: community consensus for high-Ascension play, plus a lot of my own A20 losses. Nothing in the game's files ranks a relic, so read this as a strong default rather than a rule. Snecko Eye sits at the top here, and people will still argue about it.

How we ranked it

Relics are ranked inside their own rarity, because that is the actual decision in front of you. A Boss relic only ever competes with the other two Boss relics on the screen, and a Common never competes with a Rare. Everything assumes Ascension 20 with the Heart at the end: chip damage matters, potions matter, and anything that costs you Rest Sites or potions is priced accordingly. Character-locked relics are judged for the character who can actually find them, so Gold-Plated Cables is rated as a Defect relic and Paper Krane as a Silent one. Where a relic is famous for splitting the community, the note says which side this list lands on.

Boss relics lead because they're the one relic pick where you see three and keep one.

You pick one of three after each Act 1 and Act 2 boss, and the choice shapes everything that follows. Every energy relic comes with a tax, and on Ascension 20 the tax is what kills you, not the energy. This is where the famous arguments live.

S tier: Worth the boss slot

A tier: Great, with a tax

B tier: Good, not run-defining

C tier: Only if forced

D tier: The famous traps

Shop relics only ever cost gold, which makes them the one rarity you genuinely choose. Prices run roughly 150 to 300, so most runs buy one or two and that is the end of it. Walk past anything that needs a deck you do not have.

S tier: Buy on sight

A tier: Worth the gold

B tier: Buy if cheap

C tier: Only with spare gold

D tier: Walk past these

Rares turn up in roughly one chest in twenty, and in shops you can afford maybe twice a run. Several of them flip a losing run outright. When a shop is selling one and you have the gold, the default answer is yes.

S tier: Run-winners

A tier: Excellent, with conditions

B tier: Strong but narrow

C tier: Middling rares

D tier: Rare in name only

Uncommons are the bulk of what chests and elites hand you from Act 2 on. This is where deck synergy starts deciding things, because half of them do nothing without the right cards. Be picky in a shop, never at a chest, where you take what you get.

S tier: Run-shaping uncommons

A tier: Draft around these

B tier: Reliably good

C tier: Situational at best

D tier: Leave them be

Commons pour out of Act 1 chests and elites, and you will see most of this list every run. They are cheap and plentiful, so you cannot really be picky, though a couple are worth routing a Treasure room for. The gap between the best and worst Common is smaller than in any other rarity, which makes the bottom tier here dull rather than dangerous.

S tier: Take these every time

A tier: Nearly auto-picks

B tier: Good, not exciting

C tier: Fine filler

D tier: Dead weight

These come from events, Neow and the Cursed Tome, plus the four relics each character starts the run holding. You rarely pick them freely, so the ranking is really about which event outcomes are worth taking. The bottom of this board is where the game's joke relics live.