Slay The Spire

This is a difficult, RNG heavy achievement that will take reasonable knowledge of the game - as cards and relics needs to be picked and played at a glance- but I'll offer some advice that helped me.

There is an option in the settings menu for fast mode. This should be turned on before going for this achievement as it will help combats go faster

The best character to use is definitely Ironclad, as they are best suited to an all out offence. In the end I had removed all my defends and only taken 6 new cards (one of which was a mistake to take and wasn't useful - Dual Wield). The key to winning like this is maximizing energy, AoE attacks and Strength whilst maintaining a small deck size.

I used a deck built around Strength and Whirlwind+ as the Strength bonus is applied to each of Whirlwind's hits which leads to massive damage.

Useful cards to look out for (in loose priority order):
- Whirlwind+ (X cost, High AoE damage, play after Thunderclap)
- Demon Form+ (Gives +3 Strength each turn)
- Thunderclap (AoE damage + AoE Vulnerability)
- Double Tap (Plays next attack twice, powerful before a Whirlwind+)
- Cleave+ (AoE Damage)
- Clash+ (0 cost, high damage, requires all cards in hand are attacks)

Useful relics to look out for (in loose priority order):
- Bag of Marbles (Enemies start with 1 Vulnerable)
- Velvet Choker (+1 energy, max 6 cards played per turn)
- Philosopher's Stone (+1 energy, enemies +1 Strength)
- Busted Crown (+1 energy, 2 fewer card choices at reward screens)
- Lantern (+1 energy first turn)
- Vajra (+1 Strength)
- Girya (Train up to +3 Strength from rest sites)
- Paper Phrog (Vulnerable enemies take 75% more damage not 50%)
- Happy Flower (+1 energy, every 3rd turn)
- Ancient Tea Set (After a rest site, +2 energy first turn)
- Pen Nib (Double damage, every 10th attack)

Here's a screenshot of a 15 minute run I got:


I want to try and replay the seed when I get a chance to get footage, but I'm not sure how feasible/useful this will be.

Please help me improve this guide by leaving a comment

Edit: I replayed the same seed to give an example of a full sub-20 minute run. I got it down to 12 minutes this time:

Most guides I saw focused on Ironclad, so I wanted to offer a different perspective. I got this after five tries using Silent, and I think you can do the same with any character.

Focus first on completing the Ascend 20 achievement with your favorite character. This will force you to get extremely familiar with cards, relics, and the most efficient way to clear floors. Then come back and go for Speed Climber on ascension 0. When you return, you'll find that you can clear floors like a warm knife through butter.

A few things to keep in mind:

- If possible, choose the Neow option that the "first 3 fights have 1 health." Then try to target an Elite within this limit. This will get you a quick relic and save you several minutes.
-Take a few extra seconds to choose your path at the beginning of each act. It will pay off in terms of several minutes in the long run.
- In general, try for as many ?, campfire, and store floors possible. The only exception is to make sure you get two elites in Act I, as you will need the relics and rare/uncommon cards. Other than that, choose the fastest path possible.
- Grab frontloaded damage and AOE cards. Remove weak defensive cards when possible.
- Smith your frontloaded damage and AOE cards early and often.
- Don't sweat small mistakes. Ascension 0 is very forgiving after slogging through A20. So focus on quick thinking rather than perfect choices.

I also found watching this glitchless 8 minute Silent speedrun by Forgotten Arbiter to be super helpful. I wasn't nearly as lucky or skilled and still finished just under 20 minutes.


Here was my very sloppy run that squeaked in just until 20 minutes.



Enjoy!

The other guides don’t mention this but save scumming is incredibly easy in StS, just pause and then save and return to title. Provided you haven’t finished the fight you can continue to restart and your timer will be right at where you were at the start. This can also be used in events to inspect the rng and check if you get a desired result.

This can be helpful if you want to pre-plan certain harder fights. Your card draw/enemy rng/potion rng will all be the same so you can try and find a reasonable line through a few turns and then reset and race through.