Slay the Spire: Defect A20H Strategy, Six Powerful Synergies Worth Knowing

Image credit: © Mega Crit Games, LLC. Slay the Spire (PC/Steam version). This article uses a limited number of screenshots to explain gameplay strategy. The screenshots are from the Japanese version of the game.

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Note: This article is about the original Slay the Spire and assumes Ascension 20 and an attempt to beat the Heart.

This time, I’d like to introduce several powerful Defect synergies worth knowing. Besides commons and uncommons, I’ve also included combinations that use relics and rare cards.

1. Loop × Dark Orbs

This combination needs only a few cards, yet on its own it produces enough damage to get through boss fights.

You’ll want at least one copy of Loop. Cards that channel Dark Orbs are also worth taking if you don’t have any other notable source of damage.

As a way to evoke Dark Orbs, Dualcast alone can deal plenty of damage. If you have Multi-Cast, it’s extremely strong.

The common card Recursion also lets you reuse a grown Dark Orb.

2. Consume × Inserter

This alone solves the problem of growing your Orb slots and Focus.

Consume takes away an Orb slot, so it’s hard to use while you still have only the starting three. But the boss relic Inserter keeps adding Orb slots as turns pass, all the way up to the limit.

If you’ve picked Consume and don’t have Inserter, Runic Capacitor and Capacitor become top priorities. Aim for about three extra Orb slots.

Also, this combination doesn’t use Powers. That makes the Awakened One (an Act 3 boss that gains Strength whenever you play a Power), a tough opponent for the Power-reliant Defect, much easier to beat. That’s a big plus.

3. Biased Cognition × Artifact

Biased Cognition gives a very large amount of Focus, but it also applies a debuff that makes you gradually lose Focus.

So if you play Biased Cognition while you have Artifact, you get only the Focus buff with no downside.

Even a single Biased Cognition secures at least enough Focus to beat the Heart, so this is a very effective approach.

For Artifact or ways to remove debuffs, you can use cards like Core Surge and Panacea, or relics like Clockwork Souvenir and Orange Pellets.

Even without these, you can save an Ancient Potion for the Heart fight.

4. All for One × 0-cost cards × card-count relics

This synergy uses All for One to reuse 0-cost cards and combines them with relics that trigger based on how many cards you play.

Good 0-cost cards for this include Beam Cell, Go for the Eyes, FTL, TURBO, and Recycle+. Card-count relics include Shuriken, Kunai, Ink Bottle, and Nunchaku.

Kunai in particular is surprisingly strong. If you have All for One and 0-cost Attacks and can cycle them enough, even your starter Defends become a defense that holds up against the Heart.

5. Seek+ × Seek+

This one is about having multiple copies of the same card. If you can get several copies of Seek+, bad draws become rare, and it’s very strong.

Seek+ is a card you want to draw as early as possible in combat. With multiple copies, the chance that all of them sink to the bottom of your deck drops a lot.

On top of that, you get a chain where Seek+ fetches another Seek+ along with other key cards. As long as you draw one Seek+, you can use it as a starting point to pull the cards you want into your hand all at once.

In fights against the Spire Shield and Spire Spear and against the Heart, where setup speed matters, this is very reassuring.

6. Echo Form × Echo Form

This is another combination of the same card.

If you play a second Echo Form while the first one’s effect is active, the first three cards you play each turn are played twice, which is extremely strong. On top of that, the effect kicks in from the turn you play the second Echo Form.

So Echo Form is worth actively taking even as a second or later copy.

Creative AI can also generate Echo Form, so keep this combination in mind when that happens.

I hope this helps!