Slay the Spire 2 Keywords and Terms: The Complete Glossary
Every Slay the Spire 2 keyword and status defined in one scannable glossary: buffs, debuffs, card rules, and orbs, with quick side-by-side comparisons.
Slay the Spire 2 keywords, sorted so you can find any term fast
Card text in this game is dense on purpose. A single common card can carry three keywords, and misreading one of them is how you lose a fight you should have won. This is the Slay the Spire 2 keywords reference: every buff, debuff, card behaviour, and orb term explained in plain language and grouped so you can look anything up in seconds. Keep it open on a second monitor and stop hovering every tooltip mid-combat.
Buffs: the good stuff on your side
Buffs are the effects you actually want. The two you will meet on almost every run are Block, which soaks up damage for the current turn, and Strength, which adds flat damage to every Attack you play. The difference between them shapes half your decisions: Block is loud and immediate, and Strength is quiet and compounding. A card that gives you 2 Strength looks weak next to one that Blocks 12, but over ten turns the Strength has quietly added far more total damage. Learn to value the effects that last the whole fight over the ones that expire when the turn ends.
| Keyword | What it does | How it behaves |
|---|---|---|
| Block | Absorbs incoming damage this turn | Clears at the start of your next turn unless a power or relic keeps it |
| Strength | Adds flat damage to every Attack | Lasts the whole fight and multiplies with multi-hit cards |
| Dexterity | Adds Block to any card that grants Block | Also lasts the whole fight |
| Artifact | Cancels the next debuff applied to you | Each stack eats one debuff, then pops |
| Regen | Heals HP at end of turn | Ticks down each turn; great in long fights, dead weight in short ones |
| Buffer | Prevents the next instance of HP loss | Stops even unblockable damage once per stack |
| Metallicize | Grants Block automatically at end of turn | Passive defense with no card played |
| Thorns | Deals damage back to anything that attacks you | Punishes fast multi-hit enemies hard |
Debuffs: what you stack on enemies, and what they stack on you
Debuffs cut both ways. You pile Vulnerable and Weak onto enemies to tilt a fight in your favor, but those same words show up on your own status bar the moment a boss hits back. Vulnerable is the aggressive one: a Vulnerable target takes roughly half again as much damage from your Attacks, so applying it before a big hit is one of the highest-value plays in the game. Weak is the defensive mirror, cutting the damage the target deals by about a quarter, which turns a scary enemy turn into a survivable one. Poison is the odd member of the group; it ignores Block completely and just drains HP every turn, dropping by one stack as it ticks.
| Keyword | Who it lands on | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Vulnerable | Enemies, sometimes you | Target takes roughly 50% more damage from Attacks while it lasts |
| Weak | Enemies or you | Target deals roughly 25% less Attack damage |
| Frail | Usually you | You gain roughly 25% less Block from cards |
| Poison | Enemies | Loses that much HP each turn, then the stack drops by one |
| Burn / Wound / Dazed | Your deck | Junk cards shuffled in that clog your draws |
| Entangle | You | You cannot play Attacks next turn |
| Strength Down | Enemies | Lowers their Strength, softening big incoming hits |
- Poison ticks on every enemy turn and falls off slowly, so it rewards long fights and hits straight through Block.
- You invest a few cards early, then let the numbers work while you defend.
- It is weak against enemies you kill in a turn or two, because the Poison never gets time to add up.
- Attacks boosted by Strength and Vulnerable land their full value the instant you play them.
- Front-loading kills a threat before it acts, which is usually safer than a slow drip.
- It falls behind against high-HP tanks, where every extra turn is another turn of incoming hits.
VerdictMost winning decks lean one way and splash the other. Pick your plan from the enemies in front of you, not from whichever cards look shiny in the shop.
Card behaviours: rules printed into the card itself
This is the category where new players quietly lose fights. Card behaviours are not effects you apply to something else; they change how the card moves through your deck. Exhaust is the one to understand first. When a card Exhausts, it leaves play for the rest of the combat instead of returning to your discard pile, so you will not draw it again this fight. That sounds like a downside, and often it is, but it is also the point of some of the strongest cards in the game: a one-time nuke that Exhausts is happy to spend itself, and whole archetypes are built around triggering effects every time a card Exhausts. Read Exhaust as a cost on cheap cards and as a feature on powerful ones.
| Keyword | Meaning | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Exhaust | Card leaves play for the rest of combat instead of going to the discard | Gone for the fight; use it to thin junk or to feed Exhaust payoffs |
| Ethereal | Exhausts on its own if still in hand at end of turn | Play it this turn or lose it |
| Innate | Starts in your opening hand every fight | Guarantees a turn-one effect you can build around |
| Retain | Stays in hand instead of being discarded at end of turn | Lets you hold a card for exactly the right moment |
| Unplayable | Cannot be played from hand | Only relevant through effects that discard or exhaust it |
| Exhaustive | Can be played a set number of times, then Exhausts | Strong but finite; spend the charges wisely |
Orbs and channelled resources
Orbs are their own little vocabulary, and if your character does not use them you can skip this section. An orb is a resource you summon into a limited row of slots; while it sits there it does a passive effect each turn, and you can trigger its bigger payoff on demand. The words below describe how orbs move rather than any single orb type, so they hold up no matter which orbs you have access to. The key tension is slot management: you only have so many slots, and channelling a new orb when your row is full shoves out your oldest one, firing its payoff whether you were ready or not.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Channel | Summon an orb into your leftmost open slot |
| Evoke | Trigger an orb's payoff and remove it from your slots |
| Orb slots | The limited number of orbs you can hold at once |
| Focus | Increases both the passive and the evoke output of your orbs |
| Passive | The effect an orb does automatically each turn while held |
How to read any new card in about five seconds
- Spot the card type first, Attack, Skill, or Power, so you know its basic rhythm.
- Scan for card behaviours like Exhaust, Innate, or Retain, because those decide whether you will ever see the card again.
- Check which buffs it gives you: Block for defense that expires, Strength for offense that lasts, and note which one it is.
- Check which debuffs it applies and to whom; Vulnerable and Weak on an enemy are almost always worth it.
- Only now look at the raw numbers. The keywords tell you what the card is, and the numbers tell you how much.
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Guide FAQ
What does Exhaust mean in Slay the Spire 2?
Exhaust means the card leaves play for the rest of the current combat instead of going to your discard pile, so you will not draw it again this fight. On a weak card that is deck-thinning you want. On a strong one-time effect it is simply the price of a big swing, and several builds actively reward you every time a card Exhausts.
Vulnerable vs Weak, which debuff should I apply first?
It depends on what you are trying to do that turn. Apply Vulnerable before your own big Attacks, because it makes the target take roughly 50% more damage and you want that multiplier live when your hits land. Apply Weak when the enemy is about to attack you, since it cuts their damage by about 25% and buys you survival. Vulnerable is offense; Weak is defense.
Is Poison better than raw Attack damage?
Neither is strictly better; they suit different fights. Poison ignores Block and stacks up over many turns, so it shines against high-HP enemies and long boss fights. Raw Attack damage, especially boosted by Strength and Vulnerable, kills threats immediately, which is safer against enemies you can drop in a turn or two. Match the tool to the length of the fight.
Where can I find all the Slay the Spire 2 terms explained in one place?
Right here, grouped by category so related keywords sit next to each other. In game, you can also hover any underlined keyword to see its tooltip, but reading them as four buckets, buffs, debuffs, card behaviours, and orbs, is what makes new cards instantly legible instead of a wall of text.
Why did my Block disappear before I used it?
Block is temporary by default. Any Block you are holding clears at the start of your next turn unless a specific power or relic tells you it carries over. That is why over-Blocking wastes cards: build only enough to cover the incoming hit, and spend the rest of your energy on effects that last.
How do I get better at reading card combos quickly?
Practice grouping keywords instead of reading each card as a fresh puzzle. Once you can glance at a card and instantly tag it as, say, a Strength-scaling Attack that also applies Vulnerable, you start seeing how two cards chain together. Speed comes from pattern recognition, and the four-bucket sort in this glossary is the fastest way to build that muscle.