Adaptive Strike Attack

Is Adaptive Strike good in Slay the Spire 2?

In Slay the Spire 2, Adaptive Strike is a rare attack from the Defect card pool. Its effect: Deal 18 damage. Add a 0-cost copy of this card into your Discard Pile. The data flags it as a weaker pick, settling at D tier — usually one to pass on unless your deck specifically wants it.

Over 231 tracked runs its win rate sits at 20.6%, 6.8% ahead of the 13.8% all-deck baseline. It sees niche play, included in only 1.1% of eligible runs. Offer data argues the other way: taken 22.7% of the time it is shown, runs that picked it win 24.1% against 26.8% for runs that passed — a -2.6% pick lift across 158 decided runs. Within Defect runs it’s drafted 5.0% of the time, making it a regular part of that class’s decks. Decks that include it run about 1.1 copies on average.

Its standout pairing so far is Creative AI, which lifts its win rate by +26.8% when the two share a deck. On the relic side, Pantograph is its standout companion, worth a +24.4% win-rate swing alongside it. It costs 2 energy, gets upgraded 31.9% of the time, and tends to be picked up near floor 15.

Upgrading the card adds +5 Damage to its stat line. Of the runs that drafted it, 47 ended in victory against 181 deaths and 3 abandons. Its most common run-ender is Queen Boss, finishing 6.9% of the runs it shows up in. See the synergies, class split, and threats below for the full picture of where Adaptive Strike fits a Defect deck.

Pick or Skip: Adaptive Strike

Players take Adaptive Strike in 22.7% of the 722 offers it appears in; those runs win 24.1% against 26.8% for runs that passed, a pick lift of -2.6% over 158 decided runs.

Taken 164 times out of 722 offers.

Pick rate when offered counts offers, not runs: out of every time the game put this in front of a player, how often it was taken. It is not the same number as the share of runs that end up containing it.

Pick lift is the sample-adjusted gap between runs that took the option and runs that passed on it. It is the fair way to rank choices, because raw win rates put the smallest samples on top.

When to Pick Up Adaptive Strike

Of the 4 pickup windows recorded for Adaptive Strike, Act 3 is the best: 41.7% across 12 runs.

Win rate of runs by the act Adaptive Strike entered the deck. Acts that have not reached the sample floor show their run count only.

Best Cards to Pair with Adaptive Strike

Adaptive Strike’s strongest card pairings so far are Creative AI (+26.8%), Supercritical (+23.3%), and Flak Cannon (+19.6%), each shown with the win-rate lift it adds.

Creative AI+26.8%27 runsSupercritical+23.3%38 runsFlak Cannon+19.6%15 runsGlacier+18.4%26 runsEcho Form+17.6%33 runsMad Science+16.6%17 runs

Based on small co-occurring samples — treat these as early signals, not final verdicts.

Adaptive Strike Win Rate by Class

Exclusive to the Defect, Adaptive Strike posts a 20.1% win rate over 227 tracked runs.

The Defectappears in 5.0% of its runs (227 tracked)

Best Relics for Adaptive Strike

The relics that swing Adaptive Strike’s win rate the most are Pantograph (+24.4%), Joss Paper (+23.6%), and Happy Flower (+20.5%), with each lift shown.

Pantograph+24.4%19 runsJoss Paper+23.6%15 runsHappy Flower+20.5%51 runsData Disk+20.4%34 runsPetrified Toad+20.4%17 runsAkabeko+20.2%22 runs

Based on small co-occurring samples — treat these as early signals, not final verdicts.

Adaptive Strike Card Details

A 2-energy rare attack, Adaptive Strike is upgraded 31.9% of the time and tends to enter the deck around floor 15.

Deal 18 damage. Add a 0-cost copy of this card into your Discard Pile.

Upgrade: +5 Damage

What Ends Runs with Adaptive Strike

Runs holding Adaptive Strike end most often against Queen Boss (6.9%), Aeonglass Boss (6.5%), and Kaiser Crab Boss (5.6%) — the share of its runs each accounts for is shown.

• Queen Boss6.9% of runs
• Aeonglass Boss6.5% of runs
• Kaiser Crab Boss5.6% of runs
• Knowledge Demon Boss5.2% of runs
• The Insatiable Boss4.8% of runs

See Also

Keep exploring Slay the Spire 2 tier lists and stats below.