Slay The Spire

If you haven't yet beaten the game with any character, you may want to consider starting with the Ironclad, since that is the most common character to finish with first. However, my first clear came with the Silent, and I personally found this character to be the easiest to get used to. Mileage may vary. After you've played some, you should know which characters you're more comfortable with.

The goal of this achievement is to beat the boss of the third area. If you don't yet have this achievement, then your run will end in victory at that point.

It can be hard to adjust to playing as the Silent if you've been using the Ironclad, largely because the Silent has no built-in way to regenerate health. You have to think about every turn in combat. This means you need your deck to have a good means of defense. Keep this in mind when drafting cards. Blur is a fantastic card for this because it adds block that isn't removed until the end of the next turn. With multiple Blurs in your deck, you can get this effect to stack in order to keep your block for even longer. You'll also want to pick up Footwork to increase dexterity and/or Dodge and Roll for more multi-turn defense bonuses. But before you go grabbing every defensive card you see, read on, because I address the early game more below.

The Silent begins with a relic called Ring of the Snake that draws two extra cards at the start of a fight. This is a big hint that the Silent excels at card draw. A card that you will definitely want in your deck is Acrobatics, which draws three cards then discards one. This allows you to quickly cycle your deck and pick up exactly the cards you need. You also want to look for Calculated Gamble, which discards your entire hand and lets you draw the number of cards you discarded.

Now, there are a couple of Silent-specific mechanics you can focus your deck on, but the most popular is poison, which is a stacking damage debuff. If you're going for a poison deck, you'll want Noxious Fumes (3 poison to all enemies each turn once upgraded), Catalyst (triples poison on an enemy once upgraded), and Corpse Explosion (very useful for multiple-enemy encounters). Bouncing Flask and Poison Stab will be the offensive options you use to round out your deck. You'll also want to look for poison-based relics, such as the Specimen (transfers poison from one enemy to another when they die). Remember that relics will often determine the direction of your deck more than cards do.

The other mechanic you can focus on is Shivs. These are zero cost cards that do 4 damage when they aren't upgraded, but with enough card draw they are quite deadly. There are two crucial cards in a Shiv deck: Infinite Blades (gives you two Shivs per turn once upgraded) and Accuracy (increases Shiv damage by 5 once upgraded). Accuracy buffs stack, so take as many of them as you comfortably can and abuse ways to duplicate the card or its effect.

Make sure you focus on upgrading any card that says "once upgraded" above. This is especially true for Noxious Fumes, Accuracy, and Infinite Blades. Also, you want to focus on strong offensive cards BEFORE building defense. This is because your starting deck is weak, so you need to beef it up and kill early enemies before they can even attack. It is also the offensive cards that tell you what type of deck you'll play (card draw, poison, or shiv), so investing in them early will help guide you later. You'll also want to spend your coins thinning the Silent's deck early. You need deck consistency for your card combos, and that means you need to get rid of at least some of those basic attack and defense cards. Resist the temptation to buy a new card or relic that you don't really need when you could be removing cards to make your deck more consistent.

As mentioned a bit above, picking the right relics is often even more important than picking the right cards. For poison decks, you'll want the Specimen and Snecko Skull (adds an extra stack of poison every time it's applied). For shiv decks, you'll want the Wrist Blade (+4 Shiv damage). For draw/discard decks, you'll want the Tingsha (damages enemies for each discard).

If you're not having much luck, just keep playing the Silent. As you play this class more, you'll unlock cards and relics that will help you greatly. Some unlocks, such as the Smiling Mask relic and the Grand Finale card, are very strong. You also need to have a strategy for multiple-enemy fights, which are common after the first act. Corpse Explosion for poison builds and Die Die Die in any deck will help.

Because you can't heal with Silent cards, you need to pick routes with well-placed rest sites. Planning a good route from the start of each area is very important. Try to take paths with rest sites after elite encounters. If that isn't available, look for a route that spreads out rest sites. When in doubt, just pick the route with the most rest sites and upgrade your important cards if you're near full HP.

Finally, after speaking so much about offense, I just want to re-emphasize that you must not neglect defense cards when playing the Silent. You will be tempted to go all-in with offensive cards. However, the Silent is vulnerable, and this will cause many runs to very suddenly collapse. For example, poison can deal a ton of damage, but it does so slowly. Dodge and Roll, After Image, and Footwork will all help keep you alive while you wait out your offensive strategy. With good defense in the middle and late game, you'll have the time to really clobber your opponents. Er... stab and poison your opponents. You know what I mean. Good luck!

P.S. If you want advice on a specific boss, take a look at the achievement solutions for beating that boss.