Slay the Spire is a deck-building roguelike that will regularly bring players right back to the starting screen. The bosses and elite enemies are challenging in their own right, but even a regular foe can spell untimely disaster if players aren't careful. As such, having the best relics available is vital to surviving and thriving.
The Watcher is the newest character class in Slay the Spire. She has a unique play-style, switching between different stances (Calm, Wrath, and the elusive but powerful Divinity) to balance damage and energy. Because of this, her best relics will generally differ a little from other classes.
10 Pen Nib
More than any other class, the Watcher has many ways of controlling the cards they draw and retain in their hands. This makes it easy for Watcher players to plan around the Pen Nib, a common relic that doubles the damage of every 10th Attack card played.
The Watcher’s Wrath stance doubles damage dealt and damage received, demanding short bursts of quick attacks to end combat quickly, much like the Silent. This guarantees that the 10th attack comes around very often, which can be combined with some of the Watcher’s most devastating attacks to deal damage that easily scales into triple digits.
9 Holy Water
Holy Water is a boss relic and an upgrade to the Watcher’s starting relic, Pure Water. Pure Water adds a Miracle card to the player’s hand at the start of combat. Miracle is a 0-cost card that provides 1 energy upon being played and has the Retain feature, which means it isn’t discarded at the end of each turn.
This allows the player to save the Miracle for the most opportune moment. Holy Water instead provides three Miracle cards at the start of combat. This is the equivalent of an entirely new turn in energy, for free, whenever the player needs it. It's simple but highly effective.
8 Violet Lotus
Violet Lotus is another Watcher-specific boss relic that provides more energy whenever she leaves Calm stance. The Watcher works primarily around two stances: the aggressive but reckless Wrath stance and the steady, easy-to-chain Calm stance. Whenever the Watcher exits the Calm stance, the player gains 2 energy, allowing them to chain additional energy into powerful bursts during Wrath.
Violet Lotus increases the energy gain from exiting Calm to 3. Having three additional energy is already great, but adding this to Stance Dancer decks (which focus on switching stance as often as possible to gain energy from Calm) can provide exponential returns. It also works well with the Teardrop Locket relic, which starts the player in Calm each combat, immediately providing a pool of potential energy.
7 Singing Bowl
An uncommon relic, the Singing Bowl is an excellent relic that, despite not being as essential for the Watcher as it is for other classes, remains a solid choice regardless. The Singing Bowl allows players to increase their maximum health by 2 when skipping the chance to add cards to their deck.
The Watcher starts with a relatively low 72 HP, so more health is always appreciated. In addition, the Singing Bowl provides an incentive to refuse card rewards, preventing deck bloat. However, unlike the other low-health classes, the Defect and the Silent, the Watcher often benefits from larger decks. As such, the Singing Bowl is less of a must-have and more of a decent addition whenever the player gets low-quality cards as rewards.
6 Vajra
Vajra is a simple, powerful, common relic that gives the player 1 Strength at the start of combat. The Watcher has a lot of incentive to make many attacks quickly, and it also has many attacks that deal damage multiple times. Both situations match favorably with Strength increases.
Vajra is more desirable than its sibling relic, the Oddly Smooth Stone, which gives the player 1 Dexterity at the start of combat. Dexterity can be helpful in its own right. However, ending combat quickly is better for preventing damage than blocking, which makes Strength the superior choice in a well-rounded deck.
5 Incense Burner
The Incense Burner is a rare relic that gives the player 1 intangible every six turns. Intangible reduces all incoming damage to 1. This combines with Tungsten Rod, which reduces all incoming damage by 1, to functionally prevent all damage for an entire turn. In addition, since Intangible works like poison, it can be chained from one activation of Incense Burner to another through the liberal use of cards like Wraith Form and Apparition.
Intangible is a strong buff, but it works fantastically as training for the Watcher and sometimes acts as a protective measure for new players who find themselves stuck in Wrath with no way out. It also encourages more experienced players to put themselves in those risky positions for the extra damage, knowing that the Incense Burner will protect them.
4 Damaru
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A common Watcher-specific relic, Damaru gives the player 1 Mantra at the start of each turn. Once the player acquires 10 Mantra, they enter a special stance called Divinity, gaining 3 energy. While in Divinity, the player deals triple damage. They then exit the stance at the start of their next turn. The energy gained upon entering allows the player to drop a Ragnarok or Brilliance for upwards of triple-digit damage.
Mantra decks are complicated to build and take a while to get going, but once Divinity begins, it can tear through bosses. Damaru is not necessary for Mantra decks, but it helps round out the start of combat where powerful cards like Devotion, which also provide Mantra each turn, are not guaranteed.
3 Ice Cream
Ice Cream is a rare relic that conserves unspent energy between turns. A suitably powerful relic for any class, Ice Cream works fantastically with the Watcher, who has even more methods of generating energy.
Ice Cream works particularly well when combined with Deva Form. This expensive card increases energy gain each turn, starting at one extra energy and scaling upwards. So, with Ice Cream here and a little saved energy there, players can quickly collect energy in the double digits for X-cost cards, which play a number of times equal to the player’s remaining energy.
2 Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is another relic that improves attacks. The first time each turn an Attack card that costs 2 or more energy is played, it is played twice. The minimum energy cost ensures that only the strongest attacks are doubled, maximizing damage. As a result, attacks like Ragnarok, Sands of Time, and Signature Move go from merely powerful to decisive for late-game bosses, even disregarding Wrath and Divinity's multiplicative effects.
Necronomicon has one pretty severe downside. When taken, it curses the player with Necronomicurse, adding an unremovable card to their deck. The Omamori relic can prevent this, but it is otherwise inescapable. On the other hand, Du-Vu Doll and Darkstone Periapt boost the player’s Strength and maximum HP for every curse they acquire, turning a detriment into a potential power-up.
1 Unceasing Top
Unceasing Top is a rare relic that is perfect for creating infinite loops. The player draws a card whenever they have no cards in their hand. This relic also benefits significantly from the Watcher’s Scrying mechanic, which allows players to curate the top of their deck for prime rotation with Unceasing Top. Fantastically, Unceasing Top can be acquired at the very beginning of the game, with the Random Rare Relic starting bonus.
Unceasing Top also supports the Watcher’s most obscure deck archetype. The Alpha deck is built around playing an Alpha card to shuffle a Beta card into the deck to then shuffle an Omega card into the deck. Omega then deals 50 damage to all enemies at the end of each turn. While difficult to pull off, the payoff is worth it in extended combat. This is because Unceasing Top combines with the Watcher’s premier energy generation to move as many Alpha cards into the player’s hand as possible.
Slay the Spire is available on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.