Slay the Spire 2 Event Choices: Optimal Picks and Outcomes

Events Are Free Power (If You Choose Right)

Event nodes are the ? marks on your map. They offer choices that can give you free card removal, relics, gold, healing, card upgrades, or transformation effects — often without a fight. The catch is that some choices have hidden costs, and the best pick depends on your current deck, HP, gold, and act.

There’s no single best choice for any event. But there are principles that make the decision obvious most of the time.

The Golden Rule: Card Removal Beats Almost Everything

If an event offers free card removal, take it. Removing a starter Strike or Defend improves every draw for the rest of the run. This is worth more than 50 gold, more than a random card, more than 10 HP of healing.

When your deck has more than 16 cards, removal takes priority over almost every other event outcome. Below 16 cards, you can start weighing other options.

High-Value Events

Wellspring (Overgrowth, Act 1a)

Offers straight card removal with no HP cost. Walk in, remove your worst card, walk out. One of the cleanest events in the game. Always pick the removal option unless your deck is already at 12 cards or fewer.

Amalgamator (Hive, Act 2)

Removes 2 Strikes and adds Ultimate Strike (0-cost, 18 damage, exhausts). The math is simple: you trade 2 weak cards for 1 strong one and your deck gets smaller. Net result is positive in virtually every situation.

The only exception is if you’re running Perfected Strike on Ironclad (which counts the number of Strike-named cards in your deck). Even then, the improved deck quality usually outweighs losing 2 Perfected Strike counters.

Doll Room

Offers a choice of relics. Free relic with no fight? Take it. The specific relic matters, but any relic is better than no relic. If the relic offered is D-tier garbage, you might still want it because even weak relics provide marginal passive value.

Grave of the Forgotten

A relic event that may require a small HP sacrifice. If you’re above 50% HP, the relic is almost always worth the cost. Below 30% HP, be cautious — dying to an event choice is the most embarrassing way to end a run.

Event Categories

Healing Events

Abyssal Baths — Heals a portion of your HP. Straightforward. Take it when you’re below 50% HP and heading toward tough fights.
Dense Vegetation — Healing option found in Overgrowth. Same logic: heal when low, skip when healthy.
Unrest Site — Another healing opportunity. If you’re above 70% HP, look for the non-healing option — it might offer something more valuable like a card upgrade or removal.

When to skip healing: When you’re above 60% HP AND the event offers card removal or a relic as an alternative. Long-term deck improvement beats short-term HP recovery.

Card Manipulation Events

Doors of Light and Dark — Offers card transformation or upgrade. Transformation turns a card into a random one of the same rarity. This is risky but can turn a bad card into a great one. Upgrading is the safe choice — pick your best unupgraded card and make it better.
Aroma of Chaos — Transforms cards in your deck. Transformation events are gambles, but if you have starter cards you’d rather replace, the expected outcome is positive. Random common cards are still better than Strikes.
Symbiote — Another transformation event. Same risk-reward calculation. If your deck has cards you actively want to get rid of, transform them.

Relic Events

Relic Trader — Trade a relic for a different one. Only do this if the relic you’re trading away is genuinely dead weight in your current build. Trading a situational relic for a random one is a coin flip.

Gold Events

Colossal Flower — Gold reward. Take it when you’re heading toward a shop and need funds for card removal.
Sunken Treasury — Significant gold opportunity in the Underdocks. Gold is deck construction fuel. 100+ gold means card removal plus a potential relic purchase at the next shop.
Jungle Maze Adventure — An Overgrowth event that offers exploration with various rewards. Pay attention to the risk description — some paths deal damage while others give gold or cards.

Decision Framework

When you hit an event node, run through this mental checklist:

Step 1: Do I Need Healing?

If you’re below 30% HP and a hard fight is coming, healing takes priority over everything. Dead players don’t benefit from better decks.

Step 2: Is Card Removal Available?

If yes and your deck has more than 14 cards, take the removal. Every card removed makes your best cards more accessible.

Step 3: Is There a Relic Reward?

Free relics are almost always worth taking. Even minor relics compound across dozens of fights.

Step 4: Can I Upgrade a Card?

Free upgrades are the next best thing. Upgrading your best damage card or your primary Power makes every fight going forward easier.

Step 5: Is Gold Useful?

Gold matters most when you’re heading toward a shop and can afford card removal or a key card purchase. If the next shop is 5+ nodes away, gold loses value because you might find better offers naturally.

Common Mistakes

Taking healing when full. Some events offer healing alongside other rewards. If you’re at 70%+ HP, the healing option is almost always worse than the alternative.

Avoiding transformation events. Random cards scare people, but the average random card at Common or Uncommon rarity is better than a starter Strike or Defend. If you’re transforming bad cards, the expected value is positive.

Ignoring events for elite fights. Some maps force a choice between an event and an elite. If your deck is weak and you need a relic, take the elite. If your deck is built and you need polish, take the event.

Hoarding gold past shops. Gold sitting in your pocket does nothing. If you passed a shop with 200 gold and didn’t buy anything, you wasted the gold’s potential. Spend at shops, earn more through fights.

Act-Specific Event Priorities

Act 1 Events

Card removal is king. Your deck is full of starter cards that need to go. Any event that removes a Strike or Defend is the best outcome.

Act 2 Events

Relic events become more valuable because your card pool is solidifying and relics provide incremental advantages across longer fights. Healing events matter more because Act 2 enemies deal serious damage.

Act 3 Events

Upgrade events peak in value. Your deck is final — you’re not adding cards, you’re perfecting the ones you have. Upgrading a key card from good to great can be the margin that beats the Act 3 boss.