Slay The Spire: Best Builds And Relics To Use With Watcher (2024)

Slay the Spire is a tough roguelike game that can often come down to the finest of margins. As a result, it is important to make sure that you're using the most efficient builds possible for each of the game's four characters.

The Watcher was the fourth character to be added to the game and has a deck that focuses on energy generation and producing cards mid-combat. She begins the run with 72HP, and a ten card deck that includes four Strike cards, four Defend cards, one Eruption, and one Vigilance. Here is our guide on the best builds to use with The Watcher.

Updated July 7, 2022 by Matthew Pentleton: The Spire has evolved, so we've updated this guide to keep you in the know on all the latest Watcher strategies.

How To Build Decks For The Watcher

The rule of thumb in Slay the Spire is that you can't really build decks at will, due to the amount of RNG in the game. Because of this, the best approach is to work with the cards and relics given to you, rather than trying to make a different kind of deck happen, as you might never see the cards you're hoping for, and end up with a deck that's too weak as you haven't taken enough cards.

For example, rather than deciding you want to do a Divinity deck and ignoring cards that don't work with Divinity, if you get a strong stance-shifting card like Tantrum from your first card reward screen, it's probably a good idea to be on the lookout for other cards that synergise with this, and ultimately building a deck that utilises stance-dancing.

Stance-Dancing Build

Though the sheer number of unique mechanics she uses can be intimidating, the Watcher is widely regarded as the easiest character to win with in Slay the Spire if you know how to play her, and the reason for this is her stances - a complex, but powerful mechanic. A stance-dance deck focuses on switching between two stances: Wrath and Calm.

When in Wrath, the Watcher both deals and takes double damage, making her very strong but also very vulnerable to any attacks. Going into Calm doesn't do anything, but when exiting Calm, you get two additional energy, meaning if you go straight to Wrath from Calm, you'll have extra energy to spend on dealing massive damage.

There are two main ways to achieve this, the first of which involves constantly switching between stances to deal damage in Wrath with cards like Ragnarok and Wheel Kick while ensuring you never end a turn in Wrath.

Cards that are good as they don't exhaust are:

• Eruption, which deals damage and puts you into Wrath.
• Tantrum, which deals damage multiple times and then puts itself back into your draw pile.

For non-exhaust options to get out of Wrath before the turn ends, good options are Empty Body/Mind/Fist, which gives block, draw cards, and deal damage respectively as well as exiting your current stance, along with Inner Peace.

This puts you into Calm (though it can be used to draw cards if you're already Calm), Meditate, which lets you bring back a card from your discard pile, puts you in Calm, and ends your turn, and Fear No Evil, which puts you in Calm if the enemy intends to attack.

Other cards that work well in this build are Mental Fortress, which provides a little bit of block whenever you change stances, Flurry of Blows, which is free, and deals damage and returns to your hand whenever you change stances, and Rushdown, which lets you draw cards whenever you enter Wrath.

The other main way of utilising stances is saving up for one massive Wrath turn using another key Watcher mechanic - retention. A retained card remains in your hand when your turn ends, and Tranquility and Crescendo are retain cards that put you into Calm and Wrath respectively before exhausting, allowing you to have a one-use stance-switch you can hang onto until you need it.

Cards like Master Reality, which upgrades any cards created mid-fight, and Establishment, which lowers the cost of retained cards, work brilliantly with a deck like this. You can also use Windmill Strike, which retains, and gains additional damage every time you don't play it.

Defensively, the Watcher is a little bit lacking in comparison to other characters, but there are options. For the first type of stance-dance deck, Halt is nice, as it gives more block if played while in Wrath, meaning you can play it, then switch back to Calm to reap the profits.

Wallop serves a similar purpose, dealing damage and granting you block equal to the damage dealt, meaning you can capitalise on Wrath's strength to maximise your block.

Protect and Deceive reality work well with the Crescendo type of deck, as the former retains, and the latter provides a small amount of block while giving you a card that blocks for more and retains. Similarly, Perserverance retains, and gains additional block every turn it sits in your hand.

Spirit Shield is also a great defensive option in any Watcher deck, and Talk to the Hand must be mentioned - while it's an attack, it'll cause you to gain block every subsequent time you attack that enemy for the rest of the fight.

Pressure Points Build

Pressure Points is one of the Watcher's best offensive cards that doesn't rely on stances. When you use Pressure Points on an enemy, it applies eight mark (11 upgraded) to them, and then ALL enemies take damage equal to their current mark.

This is incredibly strong due to how fast it scales - playing three upgraded Pressure Points on one enemy will cause them to take a minimum of 66 damage, and for just three energy, and that's not counting any additional damage dealt to other enemies with existing mark.

This means that, for example, once you're set defensively, you can scry all non-Pressure Points cards to maximise your chances of drawing good offensive hands. Scry is very strong with any Watcher deck, so don't be afraid of taking good scry cards regardless of how you're dealing damage.

The most notable scry cards are Third Eye - which gives you seven-block (ten upgraded) and lets you scry three (five upgraded) meaning you can see and discard the top three cards on your draw pile - and Foresight, which lets you scry three (four upgraded) at the start of each turn.

Scry benefits greatly from additional draw, so Inner Peace, which draws cards while in Calm, and Sanctity, which gives block and draws cards if the last card played was a skill (such as Pressure Points) are excellent choices. Evaluate can also be worth taking - it gives you block and shuffles an Insight (a free card that draws two more cards when played) into your draw pile.

Since a lot of the cards you'll be looking to take in a Pressure Points deck give block in addition to their draw or scry, there are plenty of defensive options, and many of the retain cards that work well in stance decks work well here too. Another one worth mentioning, though, is Like Water, a power that causes you to gain five (seven upgraded) block at the end of your turn if you're in Calm.

A few of these can make a great defensive core, and since you don't need to ever switch stances since Pressure Points doesn't benefit from Wrath, staying in Calm once you're in it (you can do this using your starting Vigilance, which is also a decent block card) to take advantage of Like Water and Inner Peace can be very beneficial.

Divinity Build

Though Wrath and Calm are the most commonly used stances, the Watcher does have a third stance: Divinity. When in Divinity, all your attacks deal triple damage with no drawbacks, and you gain three energy upon entering the stance. You also exit Divinity when the turn ends. Getting into Divinity isn't as simple as Wrath or Calm, though - to get into Divinity, you need to build up ten Mantra.

Mantra is gained from cards such as Worship (which gives five) Pray and Prostrate (which both give two), and Devotion (a power that gives two per turn). There's also Blasphemy, the only card that immediately puts you into Divinity. When you play this card, though, you die the next turn, so be sure you can end the fight in the same turn as playing Blasphemy before you play it.

As for how Blasphemy decks actually work, they're largely similar to Crescendo decks - build up a strong offensive hand using retain so that you can deal devastating damage once you enter Divinity. You can also use scry to manipulate your draw for your Divinity turn, letting you take advantage of strong non-retain attacks like Ragnarok.

Defence will look similar to a Crescendo deck too, and as far as relics go, by far the most complementary for a Divinity deck is the Damaru, which gives you one Mantra at the start of each turn.

Alpha - Beta - Omega Build

Alpha is a very interesting Watcher card. It's a skill that costs one energy, and when played, it shuffles a Beta - another skill - into your draw pile before exhausting. Beta costs two energy and shuffles an Omega into your draw pile, then exhausts. Omega is a power, costing three energy, and dealing 50 damage to all enemies at the end of every turn.

Putting this in play, while a bit of a task, is incredibly valuable, as Omega alone can serve as your damage for any fight in the game, with the possible exception of the heart.

Having some extra energy really benefits this deck so that Omega doesn't take up a whole turn - Art of War works well here too, and most if not all energy relics from the boss chests are good considerations. Deva Form is obviously fantastic too.

Draw is helpful too, as being able to at least play Alpha and Beta in the same turn to speed up the process is very helpful. Generally, the strategies are very similar to those of Pressure Points - scry and draw are particularly beneficial, and all the same defensive principles apply.