Slay the Spire 2 Ironclad Builds: Best Deck Archetypes Ranked

Why Ironclad Is the Best Character to Learn

Ironclad has 80 HP (highest in the game), heals 6 HP after every combat through Burning Blood, and his archetypes are straightforward enough to read without a spreadsheet. He’s the character that teaches you how Slay the Spire 2 actually works. And his ceiling is high enough to carry you deep into Ascension.

He has 87 cards across attacks, skills, and powers. Here are the four builds that win runs.

Strength Build — The Big Numbers Strategy

This is the build most Ironclad players gravitate toward first, and for good reason. Strength adds flat damage to every attack you play. Stack enough of it and even a basic Strike starts hitting like a truck.

Core Cards

• Inflame — Gain 2 Strength. Cheap, immediate, reliable. Take it early.
• Demon Form — Gain 3 Strength at the start of every turn. This is your late-game engine. It’s slow (costs 3 Energy) but unstoppable once it’s online.
• Limit Break — Doubles your current Strength. The card that turns big damage into absurd damage. It exhausts after use unless upgraded, so prioritize that upgrade.
• Heavy Blade — Deals damage with 3x Strength scaling instead of 1x. At 10 Strength, this hits for 44 damage. At 20, it’s 74.
• Sword Boomerang — Hits 3 times randomly. Each hit gets your full Strength bonus. Multi-hit cards are where Strength scaling really shines.

Supporting Cards

• Bash — Your starter. Applies Vulnerable (50% more damage taken). Upgrade it early for 3 Vulnerable instead of 2.
• Stoke — Widely considered the best Ironclad card in the current patch. Provides immediate Strength plus card draw.
• Offering — Lose 6 HP, gain 2 Energy, draw 3 cards. The HP cost is nothing on a character that heals after every fight.

How to Pilot It

Get Inflame or another Strength source in Act 1. Take multi-hit attacks when you see them. Demon Form is your Act 2-3 pickup that closes out runs. Don’t overload on Strength generators — you still need block cards to survive long enough to scale.

Exhaust Build — The Engine That Eats Itself

This is the most satisfying Ironclad build when it comes together. You treat your deck as fuel — cards get exhausted (removed for the rest of combat) and that triggers powerful effects.

The Holy Trinity

• Corruption — All Skill cards cost 0 Energy but exhaust when played. This is the engine’s ignition switch. Every Defend, every block card, every utility skill becomes free.
• Dark Embrace — Draw a card whenever you exhaust a card. With Corruption online, every free Skill replaces itself immediately.
• Feel No Pain — Gain 3 Block (4 upgraded) whenever you exhaust a card. Now every exhaust is also defense.

Put all three together and your turn goes: play a Skill for free, draw a card, gain Block, repeat until you’ve drawn and played half your deck in one turn.

Supporting Cards

• Burning Pact — Exhaust 1 card, draw 2. An excellent early pickup that provides card selection and feeds your exhaust triggers.
• True Grit — Gain Block and exhaust a card from hand. Works as both defense and an exhaust trigger before you find Corruption.
• Sentinel — Gain Block. If exhausted, gain 2 Energy. With Corruption, this gives you free Block plus Energy.
• Feed — Kill an enemy to gain 3 max HP permanently. The card exhausts, which triggers your engine while making you tankier for the whole run.

The Dream Relic

Dead Branch turns this build from strong to broken. Whenever you exhaust a card, Dead Branch adds a random card to your hand. Combined with Corruption and Dark Embrace, you’re playing an entirely new hand every turn with infinite resources. If you see Dead Branch in a shop and you’re building Exhaust, buy it immediately.

How to Pilot It

Pick up Feel No Pain and True Grit in Act 1 — they work on their own before the combo assembles. Dark Embrace is the priority in Act 2. Corruption comes last because it’s useless without the support pieces. Playing Corruption too early (without Dark Embrace or Feel No Pain) just burns through your skills and leaves you with nothing.

Block Build — The Immovable Wall

Block builds turn Ironclad into a fortress. The key card is Barricade, which lets Block carry over between turns. Without Barricade, your Block resets to zero every turn. With it, you stack indefinitely.

Core Cards

• Barricade — Block no longer resets at start of turn. The entire archetype depends on this one card.
• Body Slam — Deal damage equal to your current Block. This is your win condition. Stack 60 Block, then Body Slam for 60 damage.
• Entrench — Double your current Block. At 30 Block, this puts you at 60. At 60, you hit 120. The scaling is exponential.
• Colossus — A newer card that generates massive Block numbers. Pairs perfectly with Body Slam.
• Impervious — Gain 30 Block. The single biggest Block card in the Ironclad pool.

How to Pilot It

This build is slow to assemble and needs Barricade to function. Without it, you’re just a mediocre block deck. In Act 1, pick up generic block cards and survive. Barricade is rare, so you might not see it until Act 2. Once it lands, take Body Slam and Entrench as priority picks. Upgrade Barricade first (reduces cost from 3 to 2 Energy) to get it online faster.

Vulnerable Rush — The Act 1 Destroyer

This isn’t a late-game scaling build — it’s a fast, aggressive strategy that wins by keeping enemies Vulnerable and hitting hard before they can set up.

Core Cards

• Bash — 2 Vulnerable from your starter deck. Upgrade it for 3.
• Uppercut — Applies Vulnerable and Weak in one card. Efficient and strong against single targets.
• Pummel — Multi-hit attack that benefits massively from Vulnerable. Each hit gets the 50% damage bonus.
• Clothesline — Deals damage and applies Weak. Reduces incoming damage by 25%.

How to Pilot It

Take every source of Vulnerable and Weak you find in Act 1. Pair them with high-damage attacks. This build peaks in Act 1 and early Act 2. By late Act 2, you’ll need to transition into one of the scaling builds above or the bosses will outpace you. Think of Vulnerable Rush as your early-game foundation that buys time for a real build to form.

General Ironclad Tips

• Burning Blood (6 HP per combat) means you can afford to trade HP for advantages. Fight more elites than other characters.
• Offering is almost always a take. 6 HP for 2 Energy and 3 cards is an incredible rate on a character that self-heals.
• Don’t overload on attacks. You need block cards to survive. A 70/30 split of damage-to-defense sounds right but usually isn’t — aim closer to 50/50 in practice.
• Upgrade Bash early. The difference between 2 and 3 turns of Vulnerable affects every fight in Act 1.
• Strength applies to ALL attacks, including multi-hit cards. That’s why Sword Boomerang with 15 Strength hits harder than Heavy Blade with 5.