One of the most innovative indie games of the last few years, Slay The Spire created a turn-based strategy/deck-building hybrid with roguelike elements that were like little anyone had seen before upon its release. Its success has launched a few imitators with varying degrees of success, but there are still plenty of other types of games out there that appeal to the same traits as those of Slay The Spire enthusiasts.
Whether a player likes the deck-building the best, the turn-based strategy, or the roguelike elements, the gaming market has more than enough interesting games to hit their tastes.
10 Star Renegades – Fighting 60 Seconds At A Time
From the off, Star Renegades has more expansive versions of Slay The Spire's roguelike elements. Each level is randomly generated with enemies, treasures, and other objectives scattered throughout. It also has procedurally generated bosses in a system that is reminiscent of the acclaimed "Nemesis System" from the Shadow of Mordor games.
The biggest intrigue comes in its combat style. It is turn-based but has an extra layer of strategy from regular turn-based combat. Every move in a turn takes place on a timeline of 60 seconds. If a character performs certain actions before another character, they can push their target's turn back. If an enemy's turn is pushed back far enough, then they won't get an action that turn. It shifts the focus of combat from all-out attacking power to pushing the enemies off the timeline and not letting them get a chance to act.
9 The Binding Of Isaac – Pure Roguelike Action
Arguably the most popular modern roguelike, The Binding Of Isaac showcases all of the most common tropes and mechanics of the genre in the best possible way. It doesn't perform any great twist on the genre, but it's not trying to. It just wants to be the best version of a roguelike it can possibly be, a feat it succeeds at.
The Binding Of Isaac has got procedurally generated levels, permanent unlocks, multiple endings, thousands of items, hundreds of secrets, and, most importantly, it's difficult. On top of all that, it has a very unique aesthetic and a story that, while vague, touches on the struggles of children of divorce or those who have suffered parental abuse.
8 Hearthstone – If World Of Warcraft Was A Card Game
One of the most famous deck-building games of all time, Hearthstone is perfect for the Slay The Spire players who like the deck-building and card-based combat of the game the most. Developed by Blizzard, Hearthstone takes cues from classic trading card games such as Magic The Gathering but rebuilt it from the ground up to work best in a digital format.
Hearthstone has all the makings of a good deck-builder, as players have to balance effect cards and minion cards, as well as the cost of each card, so they are not left high and dry in the early game when supplies are low. Without the roguelike elements of Slay The Spire, it allows players to have a much more clearly defined strategy with their decks in every game. Additionally, it has a lot of single-player aspects that make it very beginner-friendly.
7 Into The Breach – Turn-Based Battling Perfection
Into The Breach is for people who want something that expands on Slay The Spire's turn-based combat, as its battle system becomes this wonderful balancing act that avoids classic pitfalls of the genre. Each battle takes place on a grid-based map, and the player has three units that fulfill different functionalities. The goal for the player is not to protect their units but to protect the civilian buildings dotted around the grid.
To do this, players can attack the enemy directly or push them from one square to another, causing their attacks to miss. What the enemy is going to do is made very clear before the player acts, so it's all about making the right strategies and solving the puzzle to prevent any damage from being done.
6 The Solitaire Conspiracy – Solitare But With Spies
One of the weirder games out there, The Solitaire Conspiracy is a card-based puzzle game where players have to play a slightly altered version of Solitaire. To dig out all of the right cards, players must use different suits that all have different abilities and effects on the deck. These effects may often seem like hindrances at first glance, but with some clever strategy, they can actually be hugely beneficial.
On top of that, it plays host to a really charming and slightly whacky story about spies, and it messes around the stereotypical Bond-style moments in funny ways.
5 Moonlighter – Roguelike Shopkeeping
Moonlighter is a game with two sides. On one side, there are the roguelike dungeons that are a fantastic iteration of the formula. With a variety of weapons to chose from, players can take each dungeon at their own place and collect what they're really there for the enemy's loot.
This loot is important because the other side of the game is running a shop, where players must sell the loot they collected. There is a unique puzzle element to this aspect of the game, as players must work out what the right prices for items are by their customer's reaction to those prices. This leads to a game that meshes roguelike and puzzle mechanics in a really charming way.
4 Griftlands – Turn-Based Conversations
As another turn-based deck-builder, Griftlands is the game out there that is arguably closest to the Slay The Spire experience, except with an interesting twist. While Griftlands has its fair share of regular battles like in Slay The Spire. Often, players will be using their cards to navigate conversations rather than combat situations.
Whether the aim to persuade or intimidate, players will use cards that are focused on talking people around to their desired way of thinking. They must maintain composure to defend against their opponent's arguments while trying to inflict doubt in their opponent's argument in a similar balancing act to that of Slay The Spire's combat.
3 One Step From Eden – Real-Time Deck-Building
One Step From Eden shares many traits with Slay The Spire. Its deckbuilding mechanics are a little more basic but still very similar, and roguelike progression will be very familiar to Slay The Spire players. The key difference is that One Step From Eden's battles takes place in real-time.
Players and enemies have a 4 by 4 grid that they can move about at will, and the former can use their cards to cast spells that will affect a specified region of squares on their own or opponent's battlefield. This means that players have to pay very close attention to their own and their enemies positioning to effectively dodge and attack in equal measure.
2 FTL: Faster Than Light – Star Trek, But A Roguelike
From the same developers as Into The Breach, FTL: Faster Than Light takes the same careful and considered approach as with the former's great turn-based combat and applies it to real-time combat instead.
With clear systems in each ship performing different purposes, players can clearly see where they want to target. All the information of when their weapons will fire is given to them, allowing for some very complex strategies. It can get quite chaotic when exploring the cosmos, but the game comes with a handy pause button where players can still issue commands, meaning players can make the game move as fast or slow as they want.
1 Dicey Dungeons – Betting It All On The Roll Of A Dice
Gameplay in Dicey Dungeon is very similar to that of Slay The Spire. It is perhaps a little more basic, but with good reason, as every attack is made based on dice rolls. At the start of every turn, players will roll all their dice and get a "hand" of dice to play.
Players can use these dice in a number of ways. Weapons will generally deal damage based on the number rolled, but there are other defensive abilities or status effects that require more specific conditions. Some of these conditions are even or odd numbers, two of the same number on two dice, or just putting enough dice in to hit a target number. The game lets players mix and match these weapons in pretty much any way they want, meaning that good players can succeed even when they get unlucky dice rolls.