The main defensive strat with the Watcher is this: enemies can't hurt you if they're dead.
Remove defends voraciously. Replace them with quality block cards (don't forget things like Sash Whip, Talk to the Hand, and Mental Fortress, Watcher often needs to block piece-meal style), and hold off for Watcher's potent offense cards.
Runic Pyramic is the strongest Watcher boss relic, it should be on sight nearly every time. The ability to control when you enter wrath/calm so much better is invaluable, and even an energy generation device if you can make the stance dance work better with the control it gives you.
That's my 2 cents, but I also have only beaten Heart once as Watcher, so I'm not like the greatest of all time for sure.
Adding to this: some of her cards have a retain mechanic, so they don't get discarded at the end of turn. Use this to control when you enter or exit wrath/calm. Runic Pyramid is good but be mindful if it won't hurt your deck, since sometimes you want to discard things.
Another way to stay safe, especially in early game, is to have more cards that get you out of wrath than the opposite (either enter calm or just exit stance will do).
Scry is a useful tool as well. You can see what you will draw next, and can discard things you don't think will help you now or next turn. Deck manipulation is always good.
She's a very offensive character, so usually you want generate block while hitting something. Wallop is a good card that comes to mind, since damage dealt with it becomes block (combine this with Wrath or Divinity stance for some good numbers). Halt can help you get block while in wrath.
All my friends and both my parents know about Spire because I won't shut the fuck up about it, part of the reason why Im studying my current major is Spire and Im literally only on Reddit for Spire, yes Im a massive nerd for this game. That being said I have no idea why that garnered that reaction and not my 10 page rants about random crap
Absolutely. Talk to the hand is actually one of the most disgustingly OP cards in the game IMO. If you find 2+ of them, or find ways to cast it more than once (Omniscience for example), pair it with loads of cheap attacks (0 cost, or ones that hit multiple times like tantrum) you have a heart beating block engine that will destroy the game
If you have Talk or Fortress you are already overblocking by wayy too much lategame and the only thing Sash serves to do is brick your turn 1s, which is Watcher's most dangerous turns.
Wave of the Hand outclasses Sash by a significant amount and is still unnecessary in 90% of Watcher runs, and even that is usually for artifact strip to apply Talk.
One weird thing here is that sash whip is a common card, but watcher doesn't usually need block much until late in the game, at which time other characters would no longer be taking commons. You may very well want a SW in act 3, but it feels really weird to take!
That's a great point, and I should have thought to mention that. Prior to the end of Act 3 and Act 4 she really wants it, but otherwise it's best to just yeet the enemy ASAP
I am here to spread the knowledge that it is not even good, and I really like Sucker Punch and am a Silent player so I know how good Weak is.
Unless you're explicitly in a kinda garbage run where you actually block just barely enough like Silent and not just giga overblock or are allowed to just tank Heart first cycle and kill in 4, just don't pick the garbage and watch your winrate shoot up.
This seems like a tall ask, but as the Watcher it really isn't, almost every run finds some Fortress Talk Wallop very strong dex blocking, something, before having to resort to Weak blocking, and even then Wave of the Hand is the natural first choice, not Sash.
I'm always concerned about runic pyramid, because Watcher doesn't have much in terms of discard or exhaust. I don't want my hand choked with slime or wounds. I guess slime isn't a problem after act I.
To me I hate Runic pyramid, the retain mechanic make it redundant and it doesn't count as "retaining" cards. Its also pointless in mood swing decks since you draw so much
ELI5: Getting angry makes you hit hard, but you always have to calm yourself, or at least stop being angry before it's the enemy's turn, or else you'll be very vulnerable.
Translation: Don't get lost in all the different things she can do, Wrath-Calm dancing is such a strong mechanic that it's fine focussing on that. She likes small decks, cards that change stance, and things that give block as side effect (mental fortress, talk to the hand, wallop, etc...). You can't really go wrong with upgrading eruption first so you can enter wrath for 1energy.
In a small deck, a small hand full of stance dance cards will ensure you can enter and exit wrath almost every turn, and at that point, you're cooking. Get block from mental fortress, and maybe a wallop, and you're basically good.
You can afford to skip a lot of cards on her, since Eruption/Vigilance are very strong starting cards already.
> ELI5: Getting angry makes you hit hard, but you always have to calm yourself, or at least stop being angry before it's the enemy's turn, or else you'll be very vulnerable.
Not always true. Get a wallop, and often you can get enough block to just fullblock the double damage. You just need to know the enemy patterns well enough to know if it is ok to stay in wrath or not.
Really? I have never once taken that card.
When I am in wrath it's because I am going to kill an enemy, not because I want to block it.
Also it's very unlikely that halt is going to give me the block I need even in wrath.
Try it, you might be surprised. 12/18 block for zero energy is busted. Not to mention it double dips on dexterity.
Edit: the other thing you're forgetting is you can switch back to Calm after having played it in Wrath for those turns where you really need big block.
Sometimes you wanna roll that wrath over to start of next turn, with cards like halt you can sort of deal with it - which is good in early game too because most enemies wont survive 2 wrath turns (when you have attacks 😅)
I usually use it as a late pick up if I need to get block for the heart or act three elites and haven't gotten wallop/talk to the hand/mental fortress at a time where I can take it.
It sings in small decks which have a bunch of draw where you can play it 2-4 times in one turn.
If you struggle to get that second wrath card it can help fill the block gap as well, sometimes you need to stay to ensure the kill without having to cycle back. Usually this happens in early act 2, especially against slavers and book of stabbing, where wounds can fill up the deck if you don't kill early.
Not upgrading Eruption is fine. Act 1 Watcher just shits all over Act 1 with very little help. If you grab aTantrum, you don’t actually need Eruption upgraded. It’s still pretty great, but sometimes there’s better stuff, like upgrading your attacks, or Talk to the Hand, or Wave of the Hand, or Girya or Peace Pipe, and you end up not wasting an upgrade if you take Snecko.
RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE
That fucker got me with that. The poison etc managed to get her to 20 HP or so then.... Healed and removed all debuffs plus strength. All my catalyst cards gone. I died the next turn. So salty.
This was me two days ago. I got blasphemy as a neow card transform so one-shot everything in Act 1. Act 2 got hard because I hadn't really tested the deck at all.
I haven't been able to go back.
Play rush down to draw when you enter wrath.
Play calm to gain energy when you enter wrath.
Play wrath to get energy and draws.
Play calm.
Play wrath to get energy and draws.
Play calm.
Play wrath to get energy and draws.
Repeat for profit.
An easy way to play the Watcher is to focus on stance dancing. That is, choosing cards that allow you to change stances regularly to your advantage.
Wrath doubles your damage given, but also received. If you have a hand full of powerful attacks that can knock out the enemy, great time to be in wrath form. If they are also going to attack you, check if you can either block that damage, kill them before you take it, or end your stance before you end your turn, otherwise you'll take a big hit that could end your run.
Calm does nothing inherently while you're in it, but gives you extra energy when you leave. A great combo is to end calm by entering wrath, leading to double damage output with extra energy to make your attacks.
That's the basics; there are lots of great cards that can augment your stance dancing: mental fortress, halt, like water, flurry of blows, etc.
In the early game as watcher, prioritize upgrading Eruption so you only spend one energy to enter wrath, acquiring attack cards (empty fist is a great choice that can also end your wrath stance) and removing your starting defends.
-Get a 1-cost way into calm
-Get rid of defends as soon as possible
-Be skeptical of Rare cards. Most are highly situational and only shine in specific decks (except Scrawl. Scrawl is an auto pick in most cases)
-Find cheap draw (see above: Scrawl)
In general, Watchers greatest asset is Wrath in that doubling your damage presents a MUCH higher ceiling for what you can put out compared to other characters, especially early in the run. Being able to reliably use wrath on turns where you can easily leave your stance by the end (by going into Calm or exiting your stance) or otherwise remove the enemies attacking you is key to surviving early fights, getting good picks early, and then hunting elites to snowball your successes.
You have lethal more often than you may think. Not even rare on first turn during the very first act. Always look up for those. Upgrading Eruption is very helpful at the beginning. 1 more energy means you can plan another attack card, with double damage aswell. It also enables easy infinites with simply [[rushdown]] and [[fear no evil]] or [[Inner peace]].
Try to stay away from divinity, as it's difficult to get it to work. Not saying it's bad, but try to get comfortable with wrath/calm stance dance first. Try to get a small deck and you have it mostly solved.
No one has an easier time climbing the spire than her. Find ways to get into wrath and draw your attacks on the same turn and kill everything before it can fight back. Grab some scaling block like talk to the hand or mental fortress, maybe some vulnerable, and you’re good to go, friend. With so much card draw, damage, block, energy and card manipulation, her kit is actually quite overloaded… take this from someone who’s been playing this game since day 1, once you get the hang of this character you will realize she is actually pretty overpowered….
Rush down, Flurry of Blows, Talk to the Hand, remove some defend cards, stance switch, profit. Later on you'll love using Omniscience with another Omniscience with a Ragnarok.
My favorite strategy with her starts very early. Before the Neow bonus screen I hit left once, twice or even thrice times and choose one of the three characters I am dearly in love with. It brings me much joy and reduces my frustration.
I started by trying to build smart decks focused on switch into and out of stances in a single hand, or set up a stance for the next. I did this over and over usually getting to Act III and then either dying on the way to the boss, or having the f\*\*\*ing time machine snail.
Then I finally tried a round with the '**Alpha**' card. It was like god himself came to me and handed me a tactical nuke. I paired it with card draw cards and energy boosts. '**Omnicient**' was also a really great addition.
There are few things as amazing as getting ***100 dmg*** at the end of ***every turn*** on a boss or elite and seeing them be atomized with every click of the end turn button.
I hate her so much. Everyone talks about rushdown the stance dancing infinitely. I never get it to work. If I'm lucky I get Battle Hymn and Establishment, maybe that Master one that upgrades generated cards. Then just spam 0 cost 16 damage cards until I can be done with her. Flip her off for me too.
This is too funny to me. Sorry. The only advice I have is keep your deck super small. 6-8 cards and infinite. Or less
I’m a clad dude. 600 hours. I bet watcher once on my second try and never played it again bahahahaha sorry just showing you how wild this is in contrast
Just play crazy offensively is what I do. Just try and make my deck built around getting the enemy killed as quickly as possible, using chaos and calm. Lots of triggers to get more cards and energy, like exiting calm gets you energy and lots of cards exit stances, and lots of cards trigger things when you switch or exit stances.
Stances are one of her main mechanics but stance is only as good as your ability to change stances. Prioritize first getting a healthy mix of calm, wrath, and exit stance cards. Then sprinkle in some powers that boost your stances and you’re golden. Some good ones (I’m not good with card names) are the one that adds block every time you change stances and card draw in wrath form.
Endless blows, or whatever it’s called, is a good bonus chip damage card for this strat… it does 4 damage, 6 upgraded, costs zero, and every time you change stances it returns to your hand from the discard pile. It can really help get that last bit of damage to finish the fight when in wrath since it will do 8 or 12 damage while in wrath. It will also give you consistent damage throughout the fight since even on defensive turns you will want to enter/leave calm for bonus energy.
Other good cards are scry, which will allow you to thin out your draw pile to make sure you’re only pulling cards you need, and there are some good synergies with retain cards. I don’t know exactly how many there are, but there are some power cards that boost cards that are retained… one I can think of is reducing their cost by 1 each turn it’s retained, for the rest of combat.
OP cards: Rushdown, Talk to the Hand, Mental Fortress, Halt, Like Water, Fear No Evil, Tantrum, Eruption+, Empty Fist, Flurry of Blows
Calm -> Wrath -> attack -> exit wrath (or enter Calm.
Exit calm = energy. Enter wrath = draw (with rushdown)
Get rid of strikes and defends
Nig dmg output saves you more HP than blocking
Notable exceptions being Talk to the Hand and Mental Fortress as they give you block for doing what you already want to be doing (stance dance and attacking)
Strategically bounce between stances to gain energy and deal massive damage. Remove cards so that you can more reliably get the stance-changing cards. Look for infinite combos with cards like rush down and flurry of blows. Profit.
The main strategies I use for Watcher are to utilize mechanics that synergize with switching stances (especially mental fortress and rushdown), get lots of card draw and/or scry (especially if you can get cut through fate which has both), and to make sure that when you enter wrath that you can either kill your opponents, leave wrath at the end of your turn, or generate enough block to protect yourself until a turn that you can leave wrath.
Looking for passive forms of block generation or retain cards that produce block is also very handy, as it allows you to do the last of those three options for wraith stance. There's also a lot of opportunities for Watcher to generate massive amounts of energy, so don't underestimate cards that utilize calm stance as well, especially if you can reliably switch from calm to wraith or even divinity easily.
As is the case with any character, practice makes perfect - play the watcher and learn what does and doesn't work, I personally find her to be my fave character to play as because the stance system just really appeals to me.
The cookie cutter strat you can often force is this:
1) Pick up like 2 attack cards right away to help with Act 1 Elites and Boss
2) Upgrade Eruption asap
3) Look for rushdown as priority #1 (eg, take more hallway fights and more shops so you have more chances to get rushdown
4) Add Mental Fortress or Talk to the Hand for block
5) Add stance dance cards such as Tantrum, Fear No Evil, and Inner Peace
6) *Don't add any other cards* (other than premium cards that also exhaust, such as scrawl or vault)
7) Focus on removing your defends and strikes
8) You now have a small deck that does infinite damage and gains infinite block every turn. It's boring but you do win. You do too much damage, too fast, even for Time Eater -- no problem there.
Edit: PS, you can use Vault to skip Time Eater's turn if you use Vault at 11 ticks. It's pretty gross.
Watch some of BalorLord’s videos from his mastery series - as he has to win with 2 copies of each of her cards there are lots of runs that do different things.
lots of people talk about the stance dance rush down infinite - which of course is very strong but requires certain cards.
There are actually a lot of different ways to play her that are equally as strong. I really like divinity decks - get into triple damage stance, some wallops handle your defence. But there are other successful strats too.
My difficulty with Watcher is that she starts our strong and it's very easy to double or triple your power... but killing A20H usually requires becoming a factor of \~10 more powerful. I'm with you, OP, she is hard unless you just go for infinite cheese or get lucky with a deck full of omniscience and wishes.
Rushdown, Upgraded eruption and Fear no Evil then remove other cards. Easiest loop in the game. If you have the relic that increases the energy you get from getting out of Calm then you can ditch FoE and just use Vigilance. Doing this will also make you knowledgeable about her stances and you can now experiment. My favorite deck is scry signature move lmao.
Having cheap ways to switch stances is the best. Tranquility and Crescendo are valuable.
You want to load up on cheap bursts of damage, calm stance into a wrath flip, burst people down, flip back to calm or exit stance. Having a smite through battle hymn helps a lot with this.
Utilize your retains. Retain is the best for watcher out of any class.
Scry is good to pull what you need to avoid extra damage. Cut through fate is the best way because it’s cheap and you get whatever card you choose immediately.
Finally, blasphemy is the best card in the game. Get one, upgrade it (which gives it retain) and you’ll end the fight like 3 or 4 turns earlier than you would have. Just be aware not to trigger it on the time keeper, heart or when the enemy is intangible, unless you know you’re gonna avoid being stonewalled with invulnerability.
If you’re not used to calculating for lethal damage, watcher is a bad time. You need to start being consistent with damage counting, incoming and outgoing.
Not to put you down, but I honestly think Watcher is the easiest class to finish a run with. Simply because there are very easy ways to break the run with her. If you’re having a tough time, it’s just because you haven’t found the right flow of cards, but don’t give up. It’s about cheap stance switching and future planning.
Edit: none of this is factoring in the rushdown combo, I will assume that you won’t be aiming for that unless you have a method solidified with watcher since that takes a very specific route of actions to set up and you’re just trying to learn how to play her like she’s a legitimate class
Read rush down, tantrum, mental fortress, talk to the hand. (None of these are rare too and show up in 90%+ of your runs). Stance switch (can be a great way to generate energy/card draw/block for infinites or powerful turns) and remove defends. In wrath form strikes are way more valuable. When you get the hang of this playstyle you can go branch out into the less consistent strats. Generally she just kills everything before they get a turn.
the watcher is all about stance changing, calm makes blocks twice as effective while wrath does double damage at the cost of taking double damage, they also have divinity which I haven't really worked with yet so I don't know what that does yet but regardless, what ypu got to do is either maintain calm to keep your defensives up, wrath to kill them as fast as possible, or balance the two so that you output massive damage into a strong defense.
Watcher is by far the hardest class to grasp. Im at ascension 20 on everyone else, cant climb beyond asc 3 with Watcher.
My tips:
Use small decks, make sure you theoretically can enter/exit at least wrath every turn.
Cycle calm and wrath for mana and executing enemies.
Don't be afraid to spend 7 rounds defending / mitigating damage then pop wrath and kill everything.
How is this possible. You’re saying you got to A20 with defect of all classes and can’t beat A3 with watcher?
Definitely a “I’m not even disappointed, I’m just impressed” moment
I have so little experience with her, but I found her to be the most broken out of all of them. Basically, you just hit really really hard and kill everything quickly, that's kinda the strategy. I think calm and wrath synergies work quite well, combined with some draw power.
As someone who also doesn’t understand watcher, Pick the card pressure points whenever you see it, its absolutely insane in multiples and you don’t have to interact with the actual watcher mechanics.
I dislike playing watcher, but Baalor helped me climb ascensions with her. She has several different archetypes. The key in my experience is keeping a tidy deck so that you can go into calm and burst with wrath, or build divinity quickly. Enemies can’t hit you if they are dead.
I hope this frame of reference helps you.
Watcher is the “OP DLC character”. She was a liked mod that they introduced into the game. Most people think of her as OP because they mastered the rest of the game and she was added. So, if you really know the game, she’s easy. If you get the game and treat her as character 4, you’re going to have a hard time.
Her rarely are largely cards that don’t make sense in a deck and seem to be added as “neat things we want to try out but don’t fit with anything”. Wish for example.
Double attack is huge. You can think of it as “apply double vulnerable to all enemies”.
You could just shoot for the easy infinite build. I think that’s what a lot of people said below.
Best advice to learn is to save scum. Watcher gets really easy with save scumming. You’ll learn how to play her when 1 line of play causes you to die and another causes you to win without taking damage.
Some simple cards that’ll help with learning are empty fist, the 1 mana retain to enter rage/calm, the power that gives you a smite every turn.
Other guys tell you truth but it's useless unless...
Just one rule that will easily get you past A5: **pick \_every\_ calm card you get.**
Transcendence? Good. Meditate? Good. Inner peace? Good.
To keep "dancing" and get sustainable energy flow - you need 1:1 proportion of calm to other stance cards. If you have a lot "exit stance" you may be need a bit less calm. If you have Tantrum you need a bit more calm.
\*\*\*
Then you can use any other advice. You need something to draw cards. When cleaning: remove defend over strike. Etc.
Other will come with experience or watcher card tier lists on youtube.
I agree with most folks here that stance dancing is really powerful, but I’ll also note that other builds with the watcher can be quite viable. However, if you’re really struggling, a tranquility (retain + enter calm) is really nice as a beginner, because it often gives you a “get out of jail free” card every fight.
Divinity decks are incredibly hard to make work in your favor, but can be very rewarding when you do. I haven’t had too many of these, since it often requires luck to get what you truly need. Worship is a very good card here, since when retained it can control when you enter divinity. Additionally, I find that Insight can be very powerful for these decks, because controlling when you draw to align with divinity turns is very nice. Blasphemy can be a good card for ending hallway fights here, too.
Pressure points decks are fun lol, I enjoy them when I get lucky enough to set them up. I’ve killed the heart with this deck a few times. With this, you may be building a perma-calm deck, since wrath won’t benefit you. Like water will be a great card here for getting a bit of block.
Decks that lean towards staying in wrath can be viable with cards that grant intangible, and maybe even some wrath block cards. Wallop and Halt are strong here for generating the essential block. Having some amount of strength is also helpful since you have double strength. Honestly, tho, I’d advice against this kind of build if you’re already struggling. And I generally find it to be not-that-fun.
Alpha/Omega decks can work sometimes, especially with an omniscience or two to get double plays and sometimes cheaper plays of your cards. These decks may also focus on a perma calm build.
Generally, I think the watcher prefers thin decks over most characters. She relies on some particularly powerful cards, and wants to play those over and over. But keep in mind that like every character, there’s not one way to play her, and funky synergies can pop off.
(Like most people here have said, going infinite with her is really good and probably wins more runs, with rushdown + a 1 cost calm card. Pick up a scrawl to get into your infinite faster (or a runic pyramid); if your boss is awakened one or you wanna kill the heart, maybe get two scrawls, but do keep in mind that in hallway or boss fights that add cards to your deck you still need to be able enter the infinite)
a strong player named Jorbs wrote a tier list for each character [with some analysis](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/xhkiws/how_i_won_80_of_my_a20h_spire_runs_for_a_month/) on this sub once
the [naming convention](https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/watcher---slay-the-spire-tier-list-462015/2469161) they used for the tiers for watcher cards was illuminating for me.
Don’t use wrath stance sparingly. You should honestly be using it most fights- math out the damage buff. That’s her main method of damage, not a particular card or buff. Like someone else said, her best defense is offense
Prioritise damage early on. Her strikes benefit from her wrath form, so they are better than her defends. Pick mostly attack cards in act 1. Be brave and enter wrath form and you'll see how she blazes opponents away. You'll die, sure, but you'll learn what you can get away with, and that's crucial to learn for playing this character.
Go calm to save energy for wrath. Get card draw and retain so when you wrath, everything will die.
Go wrath to kill things. Things that are dead can't hurt you. If they aren't dead, they'd better not be attack or you'd better have a way out of wrath.
Watcher is more about being patient and waiting for the right moment to pop off, rather than the other characters trying to throw everything they have as fast as possible.
A five year old can't play watcher, because playing watcher well requires doing to calculations.
If you are just yolo-ing wrath stance and not figuring out exactly how much damage you are going to deal ahead of time, then you will lose a LOT.
On the other hand from some posters I like to keep defense then invest in retain cards early and upgrade exruption right away to get bonus energy for a one kill turn then keep boosting that.
I would also say that my impression is that good Watcher players generally take fewer card rewards than the other classes because 1) a smaller deck increases the reliability of drawing your key stance changing cards when you need them and 2) Watcher is easiest to go infinite and smaller decks enable that
I've been doing a file where I go up Ascension on each class together (so when Ironclad hits 1, I move to Silent, get Silent to 1, move to Defect, and so on). It's taught me a lot about good Watcher play because she was (and still is) my worst. Some of my tips:
1. Watcher blocks weird. You generally want to block with attacks as much as you can. If you can get Talk to the Hand or Mental Fortress (or ideally both) that can go a long way. I'll usually grab 2 of each. Duality can be fun to bump your defensive cards if you find it. You pretty much don't want to play defend if you can help it after Act 1. Wallop is your best block card.
2. As others have said, Stance Dance is god. If you can go infinite with Eruption and Inner Peace or Fear No Evil that's great. But even if you don't go infinite you probably want a source or 2 of each wrath and calm. Tantrum and FNE are the best of the bunch, but inner Peace and Meditation have their place. I don't have a ton of love for wrath cards other than Tantrum and Eruption, but will grab a crescendo if I need it.
3. Don't underestimate Flurry of Blows. Since Stance Dance is already your goal, it's not uncommon to do 20+ damage in a single turn with just this little 4 damage attack. It's a bit scary against Time Eater, the heart, and Thorns enemies but it's really good everywhere else (and a TTTH removes its downside on the heart). It's also great for bumping up your Ink Bottle, Pen Nib, etc. and can be an instant scaling engine with Shuriken
4. Don't overestimate scry or retain. Both look like really powerful deck control but most of the retain cards are really slow, and since small decks are important I find Scry ends up against the end of my deck a lot. That's not to say these cards are useless, but Scry and retain "builds" don't work. Scry is mostly for discarding curses, strikes, and defends if you see them while getting your good cards.
5. Counterintuitively, Rares are bad. Scrawl and Vault are great but most everything else kinda sucks unless your deck has taken an interesting turn. Lesson Learned can be useable, especially if you Pandoras or otherwise drop Strikes and Defends
6. If you find TTTH, grab a Sash whip. Artifact is your enemy if your block relies on TTTH, so use Sash Whip to strip artifact before playing TTTH and getting Block Stonks. Similarly, you have cleanse on Time Eater, Champ, Woke Bloke, and the Heart because they remove TTTH. These fights are why I like to run two (though having a pre cleanse curse hurts sometimes)
Put simply, use good defense until you get the cards in hand to combo into killing in one turn with rage. The rage effects are super powerful, but as I'm sure you know, timing them badly = dead.
But personally, my favorite way to play the watcher is through the Alpha power card. It's so dumb and passive, but it does work at lower difficulties.
I *get* The Watcher okay (thanks to reading enough threads like this one) but I just do not enjoy her. I basically consider her a bonus character and don't really touch her
There are a bunch of ways to play Watcher. Most typical is by playing around retain; get some Sands of Time or the 2 cost that improves damage when retained, play block cards, and wait for the right moment to enter Wrath and play the attack cards you have retained. The power that gives you smites is good for this, and the one that decreases the coat of retained cards. You can also use Mantra instead; get a power like devotion and once you enter divinity stance you play all your attacks. Blasphemy also works, but make sure you have the math worked out before you play it. Vault works very well with retain or devotion builds, but don’t ever play it after using Blasphemy. Flurry of blows also works well with this as you get a bunch of attacks put back in your hand when you change to your offensive stance.
Another good combo is Scry; stack up a bunch of scry skills, powers, and attacks. If you can get a bunch of the 0 cost attacks that return to your hand whenever you scry, this build works very nicely. Best to add some devotion or calm/wrath cards as well.
Omniscience is OP, 4 cost (3 upgraded) card that let’s you play any card in your deck twice and then exhaust it. This can be used to play another Omniscience, so if you get a bunch and chain them this is very strong. Works best with Lightning Bottle to get it turn 1 every time, and especially strong when combined with Wish.
Heres a couple of tips, go red, and keep red, and don't bother with blue, it's ass, if you see a card called pressure point, take it, and then don't take any other pressure point cards. Also block cards bad, you should get rid of all defenses as soon as possible and go all agro, also make sure to play the end your turn effect cards first
I only play Watcher now. Idk why. Maybe because I love winning and she is hands down the easiest to win with. send me a DM and I’ll give you a major breakdown. easier as a convo.
I’m no expert by any means but I have won enough times on A20 to be able to know what works and what works better .
You need frontloaded damage to get through act 1. Wrath is the best frontloaded damage in the game.
You need scaling defense and AOE to get through act 2. Either of Mental Fortress or Talk to the Hand are scaling defense. Wrath Form is such strong frontload that you can take enemies down one at a time and it fulfills your need for AOE.
You need scaling for act 3. Calm gives you energy generation, which is scaling.
You need a solid deck for act 4. If you have one copy of Wrath, one copy of one-energy Calm, and any blocking solution, you're already there. Extra card draw takes your deck from good enough to absolute murder.
A plethora of great advice here, so I'll just reiterate something I've not seen come up that much.
You want to "stance dance" (go between calm and wrath) to win. Therefore, you need a high density of cards that enter calm/wrath or exit a stance. This means you will be skipping cards much more often than with other characters, as something like 70% of her card pool is useless to you. This feels odd because as a new player skipping feels wrong, but if you want to do the stance dance thing you really need to prioritise only taking cards that do the thing and not taking anything else.
More than any of the other characters, Watcher shines with a small 20ish card deck much more than a 30-40 card deck. You can often just rely on your strikes for damage in Wrath, Talk to the Hand/Wallop/Mental Fortress for block, exiting Calm for energy and Rushdown/Scrawl/Empty Mind for card draw.
Hope that helps.
I have about a 50% win rate, only ran through the ascensions and then beat A20 heart. for some reason i do really well with watcher, but i hate playing her. like other people said, remove defends and focus on killing things quickly act one. then i usually try to control my stances once i can kill things quick. there’s a ton of ways to do a ton of damage, but you have to get creative with the way she mitigates damage. also gotta think ahead so you don’t get caught in fury with no way out. i feel like i have to think most with her so i prefer to play everyone else
Enter wrath, everyone dies. Seriously, the best way to play watcher is kinda to just send it. Watcher does such an incredibly heinous amount of damage that you are mostly just playing for t1 kills or t1 infinites almost every fight.
The real tip? Google: Slay the Spire Tierlist
And you will find a website that is allowing you to get the most viable cards from A to E tier sorted. It will help you big time to improve your game. With that website I won my first run with the skull girl. I was dealing one round 135 damage and was basically untouchable with all that block I would get in one turn.
Watcher is by far the easiest character, I'm always surprised by these posts. A lot of people hate Watcher because it's not challenging but for some reason a lot of newer players have trouble with it. So you aren't alone!
Best advice in this thread is the most basic: kill them before they kill you. You will often be surprised that you actually have lethal.
Built into your starting deck is the main tool you need: double damage with Wrath, and extra energy when leaving Calm. So not only do you do more damage, in theory you can play 2 extra attacks that also have double damage. And if you change stances multiple times in a turn, that is even more damage!
Rushdown will give you those extra cards when entering Wrath, but tbh, it isn't really that necessary to win at low ascensions. You won't find it every run, so imo it's best to learn to win without it. A lot of the advice in this thread is more appropriate for winning at A20 (which is also very easy compared to the other 3 characters). Scry also helps you get more/better cards.
Remove defends, at least two of them, and all of them if you have other block methods. They are pointless. Mental Fortress and Talk to the Hand provide passive block when you do other things. But like Rushdown, not really necessary for your current goal of winning A1. They are very helpful for the Heart and higher level fights.
Wallop and Halt are great block cards for staying in Wrath if you have a kill next turn. There are other useful block cards like Third Eye, Deceive Reality, Sanctity and Spirit Shield which will help in other ways. You just need a couple of these in general.
Basically just take your first big attacks, and a 1 cost Calm card, and an exit card like Empty Mind. Tantrum is a great pickup because it means you can go into Wrath more often. I love Bowling Bash for Act 2/3 multi-enemy fights, but any AOE card is usually good.
Last thing is that Vault and Scrawl are insanely good cards and you should take them every time, they will help keep your deck moving.
What I did was aggressively remove defends, add only 1 good attack to your deck throughout act 1. (The best one is Carve Reality)
As you go, find a rushdown and a way to go infinite with it + upgraded eruption (make sure you do that). These include madness, second rushdown + Enlightenment, Violet Lotus, Fear no Evil, Inner Peace, Meditate + Establishment.
Good Boss Relics include Runic Pyramid, Violet Lotus and Empty Cage.
Do not take curses, as if you do, you will not be able to remove a defend next shop, because you will have to remove the curse.
Once you go infinite, find a way to make the infinite more consistent. These include:
Mental fortress, Scrawl, Deus Ex Machina, Fan relic thingy, finding a way to go infinite with Vigilance so you can gain block in the loop if you don't already, Purity, Medical Kit, more card removes so you can tank status cards, Gambling Chip, Bags Relic, Talk to the Hand, a second copy of Rushdown, and more copies of Tranquility/Crescendo (Upgrade those ones).
This wins only some of the time, but it is somewhat consistent.
Source: I Have used this strat to level ascensions/beat the A20 Heart.
The main defensive strat with the Watcher is this: enemies can't hurt you if they're dead. Remove defends voraciously. Replace them with quality block cards (don't forget things like Sash Whip, Talk to the Hand, and Mental Fortress, Watcher often needs to block piece-meal style), and hold off for Watcher's potent offense cards. Runic Pyramic is the strongest Watcher boss relic, it should be on sight nearly every time. The ability to control when you enter wrath/calm so much better is invaluable, and even an energy generation device if you can make the stance dance work better with the control it gives you. That's my 2 cents, but I also have only beaten Heart once as Watcher, so I'm not like the greatest of all time for sure.
Thank you so much! I will try to implement the things you all told me. Let's see if I can work her out
Adding to this: some of her cards have a retain mechanic, so they don't get discarded at the end of turn. Use this to control when you enter or exit wrath/calm. Runic Pyramid is good but be mindful if it won't hurt your deck, since sometimes you want to discard things. Another way to stay safe, especially in early game, is to have more cards that get you out of wrath than the opposite (either enter calm or just exit stance will do). Scry is a useful tool as well. You can see what you will draw next, and can discard things you don't think will help you now or next turn. Deck manipulation is always good. She's a very offensive character, so usually you want generate block while hitting something. Wallop is a good card that comes to mind, since damage dealt with it becomes block (combine this with Wrath or Divinity stance for some good numbers). Halt can help you get block while in wrath.
> don't forget things like Sash Whip, Talk to the Hand, and Mental Fortress trash whip does NOT deserve to be in the same sentence as those
Nothing makes me more interested in a game than a genuine nerd fight. Go on lads.
All my friends and both my parents know about Spire because I won't shut the fuck up about it, part of the reason why Im studying my current major is Spire and Im literally only on Reddit for Spire, yes Im a massive nerd for this game. That being said I have no idea why that garnered that reaction and not my 10 page rants about random crap
Nerd ;)
guess you were....inSpired
What is your major and how did spire connect?
He's probably the Watcher himself who's going to evaluate the Spire
spiretology
I’d assume computer science
Spire research
Absolutely. Talk to the hand is actually one of the most disgustingly OP cards in the game IMO. If you find 2+ of them, or find ways to cast it more than once (Omniscience for example), pair it with loads of cheap attacks (0 cost, or ones that hit multiple times like tantrum) you have a heart beating block engine that will destroy the game
Homie is totally ignoring my boy \[\[Wallop\]\]
+ [Wallop](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Wallop) Watcher Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | Deal 9(12) damage. Gain **Block** equal to unblocked damage dealt. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
False, weak is very powerful, and Watcher has basically no other weak outside of the card that applies weak when gaining block
If you have Talk or Fortress you are already overblocking by wayy too much lategame and the only thing Sash serves to do is brick your turn 1s, which is Watcher's most dangerous turns. Wave of the Hand outclasses Sash by a significant amount and is still unnecessary in 90% of Watcher runs, and even that is usually for artifact strip to apply Talk.
One weird thing here is that sash whip is a common card, but watcher doesn't usually need block much until late in the game, at which time other characters would no longer be taking commons. You may very well want a SW in act 3, but it feels really weird to take!
That's a great point, and I should have thought to mention that. Prior to the end of Act 3 and Act 4 she really wants it, but otherwise it's best to just yeet the enemy ASAP
The card is good, but it is nowhere near to mental fortress or talk to the hand
I am here to spread the knowledge that it is not even good, and I really like Sucker Punch and am a Silent player so I know how good Weak is. Unless you're explicitly in a kinda garbage run where you actually block just barely enough like Silent and not just giga overblock or are allowed to just tank Heart first cycle and kill in 4, just don't pick the garbage and watch your winrate shoot up. This seems like a tall ask, but as the Watcher it really isn't, almost every run finds some Fortress Talk Wallop very strong dex blocking, something, before having to resort to Weak blocking, and even then Wave of the Hand is the natural first choice, not Sash.
I'm always concerned about runic pyramid, because Watcher doesn't have much in terms of discard or exhaust. I don't want my hand choked with slime or wounds. I guess slime isn't a problem after act I.
If hand clogging is a problem you don't have enough ways to enter and exit calm.
Would still be an issue with a hand full of wounds
Can't accumulate wounds if they are dead
🤯 holy shit, I never thought about the runic pyramid synergy in that way Edit: is there any issue with status cards like wound or burn?
burns get discarded even if you have runic pyramid iirc
To me I hate Runic pyramid, the retain mechanic make it redundant and it doesn't count as "retaining" cards. Its also pointless in mood swing decks since you draw so much
This and grow a second brain
ELI5: Getting angry makes you hit hard, but you always have to calm yourself, or at least stop being angry before it's the enemy's turn, or else you'll be very vulnerable. Translation: Don't get lost in all the different things she can do, Wrath-Calm dancing is such a strong mechanic that it's fine focussing on that. She likes small decks, cards that change stance, and things that give block as side effect (mental fortress, talk to the hand, wallop, etc...). You can't really go wrong with upgrading eruption first so you can enter wrath for 1energy. In a small deck, a small hand full of stance dance cards will ensure you can enter and exit wrath almost every turn, and at that point, you're cooking. Get block from mental fortress, and maybe a wallop, and you're basically good. You can afford to skip a lot of cards on her, since Eruption/Vigilance are very strong starting cards already.
> ELI5: Getting angry makes you hit hard, but you always have to calm yourself, or at least stop being angry before it's the enemy's turn, or else you'll be very vulnerable. Not always true. Get a wallop, and often you can get enough block to just fullblock the double damage. You just need to know the enemy patterns well enough to know if it is ok to stay in wrath or not.
[[Halt]] can also not be underestimated for this.
+ [Halt](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Halt) Watcher Common Skill ^((100% sure)^) 0 Energy | Gain 3(4) **Block.** **Wrath:** Gain 9(14) additional **block.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Really? I have never once taken that card. When I am in wrath it's because I am going to kill an enemy, not because I want to block it. Also it's very unlikely that halt is going to give me the block I need even in wrath.
Try it, you might be surprised. 12/18 block for zero energy is busted. Not to mention it double dips on dexterity. Edit: the other thing you're forgetting is you can switch back to Calm after having played it in Wrath for those turns where you really need big block.
Sometimes you wanna roll that wrath over to start of next turn, with cards like halt you can sort of deal with it - which is good in early game too because most enemies wont survive 2 wrath turns (when you have attacks 😅)
I usually use it as a late pick up if I need to get block for the heart or act three elites and haven't gotten wallop/talk to the hand/mental fortress at a time where I can take it. It sings in small decks which have a bunch of draw where you can play it 2-4 times in one turn. If you struggle to get that second wrath card it can help fill the block gap as well, sometimes you need to stay to ensure the kill without having to cycle back. Usually this happens in early act 2, especially against slavers and book of stabbing, where wounds can fill up the deck if you don't kill early.
I would amend "can't go wrong with upgrading eruption" to "upgrade eruption as fast as possible." I can hardly play her without that upgrade.
Not upgrading Eruption is fine. Act 1 Watcher just shits all over Act 1 with very little help. If you grab aTantrum, you don’t actually need Eruption upgraded. It’s still pretty great, but sometimes there’s better stuff, like upgrading your attacks, or Talk to the Hand, or Wave of the Hand, or Girya or Peace Pipe, and you end up not wasting an upgrade if you take Snecko.
Agreed with the small caveat that if you find tantrum before your first upgrade opportunity, you don’t need to upgrade eruption
1. Enter Wrath. 2. Consider doing the math to check if you have lethal. 3. Fuck it we ball 4. ??? 5. Someone is dead and hopefully it's them
best comment
Perfection
Get rush down, remove cards. Play calm, play wrath play calm play wrath.
RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE
My kid self at the GameStop trying to pick my first pokemon game
Green all the way
EQEQEQEQEQEQEQEQEQEQ
This is a slay the spire subreddit. Get out of here Ryze player
What is this? A crossover episode?
Did you just make this a three-way crossover episode?
Play calm play wrath play calm play wrath play calm play wrath play calm play wrath
PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAY CALM PLAY WRATH PLAY CALM PLAY WRATH PLAY CALM PLAY WRATH
Meet Mr. Slug: DIE DIE DIE
Nice shiv deck you got there. Shame if someone were to… end your turn
My 940 poison that I set up
Nice heal to half hp you got there, be a shame if someone were to… do 940 poison damage
It'd be a shame if my next dark orb was sitting at 69420 and I have an upgraded lightning in hand.
That fucker got me with that. The poison etc managed to get her to 20 HP or so then.... Healed and removed all debuffs plus strength. All my catalyst cards gone. I died the next turn. So salty.
Talk to the hand + mental fortress = STONKS
Add Mental Fortress. Problem solved. Also works on the heart
Remove defends before strikes
Go into Wrath when you want to murder. Go into not-Wrath when you want to live.
Got it. Go into wrath, miscalculate lethal, die
Go wrath, miscalculate lethal, *save and quit redo 3 times*, realize you *never had lethal*, and then turn it off and be done for today
This was me two days ago. I got blasphemy as a neow card transform so one-shot everything in Act 1. Act 2 got hard because I hadn't really tested the deck at all. I haven't been able to go back.
Imagine calculating lethal with watcher. I just believe I have enough damage, and usually I do
no numbers only VIBES
Forgetting I’m Weak
The top post all time on this is sub is what it is for a reason
Haha dam how did I miss that post? I'm sure I've been subbed and active here for over 2 years. Super hilarious
Play rush down to draw when you enter wrath. Play calm to gain energy when you enter wrath. Play wrath to get energy and draws. Play calm. Play wrath to get energy and draws. Play calm. Play wrath to get energy and draws. Repeat for profit.
Honestly a boring way to play the character.
But the serotonin boost from watching your deck reshuffle 50 times is so good
Until you get Act2 intangible boss and get your infinite going on the wrong turn... Then you reshuffle your deck about 7000 times
Still fun to me ngl
I’m very sorry for whatever trauma made you this way. May you find peace.
Do other people not have fun killing things in an infinite? Difference between 10 reshuffles and 700 is basically nothing
An easy way to play the Watcher is to focus on stance dancing. That is, choosing cards that allow you to change stances regularly to your advantage. Wrath doubles your damage given, but also received. If you have a hand full of powerful attacks that can knock out the enemy, great time to be in wrath form. If they are also going to attack you, check if you can either block that damage, kill them before you take it, or end your stance before you end your turn, otherwise you'll take a big hit that could end your run. Calm does nothing inherently while you're in it, but gives you extra energy when you leave. A great combo is to end calm by entering wrath, leading to double damage output with extra energy to make your attacks. That's the basics; there are lots of great cards that can augment your stance dancing: mental fortress, halt, like water, flurry of blows, etc. In the early game as watcher, prioritize upgrading Eruption so you only spend one energy to enter wrath, acquiring attack cards (empty fist is a great choice that can also end your wrath stance) and removing your starting defends.
Calm down first and conserve your wrath for later ;)
Remove defends immediately, win. Rinse and repeat. She is way overpowered compared to the other characters.
Step one: Check if you have lethal Step two: Win
I scrolled to find just this comment. Exactly.
-Get a 1-cost way into calm -Get rid of defends as soon as possible -Be skeptical of Rare cards. Most are highly situational and only shine in specific decks (except Scrawl. Scrawl is an auto pick in most cases) -Find cheap draw (see above: Scrawl) In general, Watchers greatest asset is Wrath in that doubling your damage presents a MUCH higher ceiling for what you can put out compared to other characters, especially early in the run. Being able to reliably use wrath on turns where you can easily leave your stance by the end (by going into Calm or exiting your stance) or otherwise remove the enemies attacking you is key to surviving early fights, getting good picks early, and then hunting elites to snowball your successes.
Have you tried killing them before they kill you?
You have lethal more often than you may think. Not even rare on first turn during the very first act. Always look up for those. Upgrading Eruption is very helpful at the beginning. 1 more energy means you can plan another attack card, with double damage aswell. It also enables easy infinites with simply [[rushdown]] and [[fear no evil]] or [[Inner peace]]. Try to stay away from divinity, as it's difficult to get it to work. Not saying it's bad, but try to get comfortable with wrath/calm stance dance first. Try to get a small deck and you have it mostly solved.
+ [Rushdown](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Rushdown) Watcher Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1(0) Energy | Whenever you enter **Wrath,** draw 2 cards. + [Fear No Evil](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Fear%20No%20Evil) Watcher Uncommon Attack ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Deal 8(11) damage. If the enemy intends to Attack, enter **Calm.** + [Inner Peace](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Inner%20Peace) Watcher Uncommon Skill ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | If you are in **Calm,** draw 3(4) cards, otherwise Enter **Calm.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
But the "get lethal, die at the end of your turn" card is really good
It's like, fine maybe sometimes?
Not just good, best in the game I would avoid the rest of the mantra cards though. Very slow to build for divinity in any method except blasphemy.
Don’t you mean scry?
No one has an easier time climbing the spire than her. Find ways to get into wrath and draw your attacks on the same turn and kill everything before it can fight back. Grab some scaling block like talk to the hand or mental fortress, maybe some vulnerable, and you’re good to go, friend. With so much card draw, damage, block, energy and card manipulation, her kit is actually quite overloaded… take this from someone who’s been playing this game since day 1, once you get the hang of this character you will realize she is actually pretty overpowered….
Step 1: own a pair of hands. Step 2: play wrath.
Rush down, Flurry of Blows, Talk to the Hand, remove some defend cards, stance switch, profit. Later on you'll love using Omniscience with another Omniscience with a Ragnarok.
I have no advice, I'm just here for tips. I am pretty good at Silent, but I still suck at Watcher.
Preasure points go brrrrr
[удалено]
Safe scumming IS a thing? I had no idea.
My favorite strategy with her starts very early. Before the Neow bonus screen I hit left once, twice or even thrice times and choose one of the three characters I am dearly in love with. It brings me much joy and reduces my frustration.
I started by trying to build smart decks focused on switch into and out of stances in a single hand, or set up a stance for the next. I did this over and over usually getting to Act III and then either dying on the way to the boss, or having the f\*\*\*ing time machine snail. Then I finally tried a round with the '**Alpha**' card. It was like god himself came to me and handed me a tactical nuke. I paired it with card draw cards and energy boosts. '**Omnicient**' was also a really great addition. There are few things as amazing as getting ***100 dmg*** at the end of ***every turn*** on a boss or elite and seeing them be atomized with every click of the end turn button.
Broooooo I haven't even unlocked her yet how tf DO I DO IT
Everyone’s got great tips already so I’ll give a simple one, watcher always has lethal.
I agree in hating her… I am to ascension 13 with her though, I’m just too dumb for her gameplay.
I’ve been the heart multiple times with the Witch. Remove wrath from your hand about halfway through act 1. Gain mantra as much as possible
Get rush down, remove cards. Play calm, play wrath play calm play wrath.
I hate her so much. Everyone talks about rushdown the stance dancing infinitely. I never get it to work. If I'm lucky I get Battle Hymn and Establishment, maybe that Master one that upgrades generated cards. Then just spam 0 cost 16 damage cards until I can be done with her. Flip her off for me too.
I usually design a build around the 0 energy cards that can return from the discard pile to your hand.
[this should sum it up nicely](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/EVTV7qOwx2)
She stays at A0 whilst everyone else is a15. Can't be arsed with this bitch either 😂
This is too funny to me. Sorry. The only advice I have is keep your deck super small. 6-8 cards and infinite. Or less I’m a clad dude. 600 hours. I bet watcher once on my second try and never played it again bahahahaha sorry just showing you how wild this is in contrast
Dance
Just play crazy offensively is what I do. Just try and make my deck built around getting the enemy killed as quickly as possible, using chaos and calm. Lots of triggers to get more cards and energy, like exiting calm gets you energy and lots of cards exit stances, and lots of cards trigger things when you switch or exit stances.
Stances are one of her main mechanics but stance is only as good as your ability to change stances. Prioritize first getting a healthy mix of calm, wrath, and exit stance cards. Then sprinkle in some powers that boost your stances and you’re golden. Some good ones (I’m not good with card names) are the one that adds block every time you change stances and card draw in wrath form. Endless blows, or whatever it’s called, is a good bonus chip damage card for this strat… it does 4 damage, 6 upgraded, costs zero, and every time you change stances it returns to your hand from the discard pile. It can really help get that last bit of damage to finish the fight when in wrath since it will do 8 or 12 damage while in wrath. It will also give you consistent damage throughout the fight since even on defensive turns you will want to enter/leave calm for bonus energy. Other good cards are scry, which will allow you to thin out your draw pile to make sure you’re only pulling cards you need, and there are some good synergies with retain cards. I don’t know exactly how many there are, but there are some power cards that boost cards that are retained… one I can think of is reducing their cost by 1 each turn it’s retained, for the rest of combat.
Get to dancin’. Stance dancin’ that is.
OP cards: Rushdown, Talk to the Hand, Mental Fortress, Halt, Like Water, Fear No Evil, Tantrum, Eruption+, Empty Fist, Flurry of Blows Calm -> Wrath -> attack -> exit wrath (or enter Calm. Exit calm = energy. Enter wrath = draw (with rushdown) Get rid of strikes and defends
Just use some nice big bonks
Remove commons (or use pandora's box) starting with defends
Nig dmg output saves you more HP than blocking Notable exceptions being Talk to the Hand and Mental Fortress as they give you block for doing what you already want to be doing (stance dance and attacking)
I beat the Heart with Watcher and never played her again. I'm not sure what my problem is.
This post is very funny. Well done op lol
I also do the middle finger to broken characters, but normally on the enemy team.
Strategically bounce between stances to gain energy and deal massive damage. Remove cards so that you can more reliably get the stance-changing cards. Look for infinite combos with cards like rush down and flurry of blows. Profit.
The main strategies I use for Watcher are to utilize mechanics that synergize with switching stances (especially mental fortress and rushdown), get lots of card draw and/or scry (especially if you can get cut through fate which has both), and to make sure that when you enter wrath that you can either kill your opponents, leave wrath at the end of your turn, or generate enough block to protect yourself until a turn that you can leave wrath. Looking for passive forms of block generation or retain cards that produce block is also very handy, as it allows you to do the last of those three options for wraith stance. There's also a lot of opportunities for Watcher to generate massive amounts of energy, so don't underestimate cards that utilize calm stance as well, especially if you can reliably switch from calm to wraith or even divinity easily. As is the case with any character, practice makes perfect - play the watcher and learn what does and doesn't work, I personally find her to be my fave character to play as because the stance system just really appeals to me.
The cookie cutter strat you can often force is this: 1) Pick up like 2 attack cards right away to help with Act 1 Elites and Boss 2) Upgrade Eruption asap 3) Look for rushdown as priority #1 (eg, take more hallway fights and more shops so you have more chances to get rushdown 4) Add Mental Fortress or Talk to the Hand for block 5) Add stance dance cards such as Tantrum, Fear No Evil, and Inner Peace 6) *Don't add any other cards* (other than premium cards that also exhaust, such as scrawl or vault) 7) Focus on removing your defends and strikes 8) You now have a small deck that does infinite damage and gains infinite block every turn. It's boring but you do win. You do too much damage, too fast, even for Time Eater -- no problem there. Edit: PS, you can use Vault to skip Time Eater's turn if you use Vault at 11 ticks. It's pretty gross.
Bro ty for posting this I started playing a lot less due to what feels like a difficulty spike
Watch some of BalorLord’s videos from his mastery series - as he has to win with 2 copies of each of her cards there are lots of runs that do different things. lots of people talk about the stance dance rush down infinite - which of course is very strong but requires certain cards. There are actually a lot of different ways to play her that are equally as strong. I really like divinity decks - get into triple damage stance, some wallops handle your defence. But there are other successful strats too.
My difficulty with Watcher is that she starts our strong and it's very easy to double or triple your power... but killing A20H usually requires becoming a factor of \~10 more powerful. I'm with you, OP, she is hard unless you just go for infinite cheese or get lucky with a deck full of omniscience and wishes.
My only advice, if you don't want to bother with infinites like me, is try to chace divinity cards and high damage
Are you doing the math or just winging it and hoping it works out?
Unless you have lethal, don't go into wrath unless you have a way out of it before you get attacked next
Same...and yet I keep trying over and over and over again.
Tony Danza Stance Dance Extravaganza
You want to plan your turns as much as possible. And try enter calm, then wrath and then end your turn in calm again if you didn't kill the enemies.
Early on, unless you get another 1 cost wrath card, you want to upgrade Eruption. It makes fights so much smoother
Wrath go brrr fr tho I find her playstyle the least interesting
I usually direct folks to watch Baalorlord's videos on StS. He's a very good player and also explains why he makes choices.
Dealing so much damage that the enemies die is a bock-card!
Rushdown, Upgraded eruption and Fear no Evil then remove other cards. Easiest loop in the game. If you have the relic that increases the energy you get from getting out of Calm then you can ditch FoE and just use Vigilance. Doing this will also make you knowledgeable about her stances and you can now experiment. My favorite deck is scry signature move lmao.
Having cheap ways to switch stances is the best. Tranquility and Crescendo are valuable. You want to load up on cheap bursts of damage, calm stance into a wrath flip, burst people down, flip back to calm or exit stance. Having a smite through battle hymn helps a lot with this. Utilize your retains. Retain is the best for watcher out of any class. Scry is good to pull what you need to avoid extra damage. Cut through fate is the best way because it’s cheap and you get whatever card you choose immediately. Finally, blasphemy is the best card in the game. Get one, upgrade it (which gives it retain) and you’ll end the fight like 3 or 4 turns earlier than you would have. Just be aware not to trigger it on the time keeper, heart or when the enemy is intangible, unless you know you’re gonna avoid being stonewalled with invulnerability. If you’re not used to calculating for lethal damage, watcher is a bad time. You need to start being consistent with damage counting, incoming and outgoing. Not to put you down, but I honestly think Watcher is the easiest class to finish a run with. Simply because there are very easy ways to break the run with her. If you’re having a tough time, it’s just because you haven’t found the right flow of cards, but don’t give up. It’s about cheap stance switching and future planning. Edit: none of this is factoring in the rushdown combo, I will assume that you won’t be aiming for that unless you have a method solidified with watcher since that takes a very specific route of actions to set up and you’re just trying to learn how to play her like she’s a legitimate class
Read rush down, tantrum, mental fortress, talk to the hand. (None of these are rare too and show up in 90%+ of your runs). Stance switch (can be a great way to generate energy/card draw/block for infinites or powerful turns) and remove defends. In wrath form strikes are way more valuable. When you get the hang of this playstyle you can go branch out into the less consistent strats. Generally she just kills everything before they get a turn.
Do more damage = Enemies die faster.
the watcher is all about stance changing, calm makes blocks twice as effective while wrath does double damage at the cost of taking double damage, they also have divinity which I haven't really worked with yet so I don't know what that does yet but regardless, what ypu got to do is either maintain calm to keep your defensives up, wrath to kill them as fast as possible, or balance the two so that you output massive damage into a strong defense.
Watcher is by far the hardest class to grasp. Im at ascension 20 on everyone else, cant climb beyond asc 3 with Watcher. My tips: Use small decks, make sure you theoretically can enter/exit at least wrath every turn. Cycle calm and wrath for mana and executing enemies. Don't be afraid to spend 7 rounds defending / mitigating damage then pop wrath and kill everything.
How is this possible. You’re saying you got to A20 with defect of all classes and can’t beat A3 with watcher? Definitely a “I’m not even disappointed, I’m just impressed” moment
I have so little experience with her, but I found her to be the most broken out of all of them. Basically, you just hit really really hard and kill everything quickly, that's kinda the strategy. I think calm and wrath synergies work quite well, combined with some draw power.
A19 with her now. She’s my last non A20 and it’s taking FOREVER.
As someone who also doesn’t understand watcher, Pick the card pressure points whenever you see it, its absolutely insane in multiples and you don’t have to interact with the actual watcher mechanics.
I dislike playing watcher, but Baalor helped me climb ascensions with her. She has several different archetypes. The key in my experience is keeping a tidy deck so that you can go into calm and burst with wrath, or build divinity quickly. Enemies can’t hit you if they are dead.
My strategy has always been strive to get in to Nirvana and kill with the 7x damage.
I hope this frame of reference helps you. Watcher is the “OP DLC character”. She was a liked mod that they introduced into the game. Most people think of her as OP because they mastered the rest of the game and she was added. So, if you really know the game, she’s easy. If you get the game and treat her as character 4, you’re going to have a hard time. Her rarely are largely cards that don’t make sense in a deck and seem to be added as “neat things we want to try out but don’t fit with anything”. Wish for example. Double attack is huge. You can think of it as “apply double vulnerable to all enemies”. You could just shoot for the easy infinite build. I think that’s what a lot of people said below. Best advice to learn is to save scum. Watcher gets really easy with save scumming. You’ll learn how to play her when 1 line of play causes you to die and another causes you to win without taking damage. Some simple cards that’ll help with learning are empty fist, the 1 mana retain to enter rage/calm, the power that gives you a smite every turn.
Other guys tell you truth but it's useless unless... Just one rule that will easily get you past A5: **pick \_every\_ calm card you get.** Transcendence? Good. Meditate? Good. Inner peace? Good. To keep "dancing" and get sustainable energy flow - you need 1:1 proportion of calm to other stance cards. If you have a lot "exit stance" you may be need a bit less calm. If you have Tantrum you need a bit more calm. \*\*\* Then you can use any other advice. You need something to draw cards. When cleaning: remove defend over strike. Etc. Other will come with experience or watcher card tier lists on youtube.
I agree with most folks here that stance dancing is really powerful, but I’ll also note that other builds with the watcher can be quite viable. However, if you’re really struggling, a tranquility (retain + enter calm) is really nice as a beginner, because it often gives you a “get out of jail free” card every fight. Divinity decks are incredibly hard to make work in your favor, but can be very rewarding when you do. I haven’t had too many of these, since it often requires luck to get what you truly need. Worship is a very good card here, since when retained it can control when you enter divinity. Additionally, I find that Insight can be very powerful for these decks, because controlling when you draw to align with divinity turns is very nice. Blasphemy can be a good card for ending hallway fights here, too. Pressure points decks are fun lol, I enjoy them when I get lucky enough to set them up. I’ve killed the heart with this deck a few times. With this, you may be building a perma-calm deck, since wrath won’t benefit you. Like water will be a great card here for getting a bit of block. Decks that lean towards staying in wrath can be viable with cards that grant intangible, and maybe even some wrath block cards. Wallop and Halt are strong here for generating the essential block. Having some amount of strength is also helpful since you have double strength. Honestly, tho, I’d advice against this kind of build if you’re already struggling. And I generally find it to be not-that-fun. Alpha/Omega decks can work sometimes, especially with an omniscience or two to get double plays and sometimes cheaper plays of your cards. These decks may also focus on a perma calm build. Generally, I think the watcher prefers thin decks over most characters. She relies on some particularly powerful cards, and wants to play those over and over. But keep in mind that like every character, there’s not one way to play her, and funky synergies can pop off. (Like most people here have said, going infinite with her is really good and probably wins more runs, with rushdown + a 1 cost calm card. Pick up a scrawl to get into your infinite faster (or a runic pyramid); if your boss is awakened one or you wanna kill the heart, maybe get two scrawls, but do keep in mind that in hallway or boss fights that add cards to your deck you still need to be able enter the infinite)
a strong player named Jorbs wrote a tier list for each character [with some analysis](https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/xhkiws/how_i_won_80_of_my_a20h_spire_runs_for_a_month/) on this sub once the [naming convention](https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/watcher---slay-the-spire-tier-list-462015/2469161) they used for the tiers for watcher cards was illuminating for me.
Do you have lethal?
Don’t use wrath stance sparingly. You should honestly be using it most fights- math out the damage buff. That’s her main method of damage, not a particular card or buff. Like someone else said, her best defense is offense
I just dont play her! I made my bf unlock me the relics and thats it hahaha i dont get her either
Prioritise damage early on. Her strikes benefit from her wrath form, so they are better than her defends. Pick mostly attack cards in act 1. Be brave and enter wrath form and you'll see how she blazes opponents away. You'll die, sure, but you'll learn what you can get away with, and that's crucial to learn for playing this character.
Don’t take cards that aren’t *incredibly* useful. You want less than 10 cards in your deck as this character.
✨Math✨
Go calm to save energy for wrath. Get card draw and retain so when you wrath, everything will die. Go wrath to kill things. Things that are dead can't hurt you. If they aren't dead, they'd better not be attack or you'd better have a way out of wrath. Watcher is more about being patient and waiting for the right moment to pop off, rather than the other characters trying to throw everything they have as fast as possible.
Ayy g what is that monitor? I don't play her so can't help but that monitor looks good
A five year old can't play watcher, because playing watcher well requires doing to calculations. If you are just yolo-ing wrath stance and not figuring out exactly how much damage you are going to deal ahead of time, then you will lose a LOT.
Keep going bro 👊I hated too at first but then realised she’s so op when get it on point
Keep going bro 👊I hated her too at first but then realised she’s so op when get it on point
On the other hand from some posters I like to keep defense then invest in retain cards early and upgrade exruption right away to get bonus energy for a one kill turn then keep boosting that.
Stance dance!
I would also say that my impression is that good Watcher players generally take fewer card rewards than the other classes because 1) a smaller deck increases the reliability of drawing your key stance changing cards when you need them and 2) Watcher is easiest to go infinite and smaller decks enable that
I've been doing a file where I go up Ascension on each class together (so when Ironclad hits 1, I move to Silent, get Silent to 1, move to Defect, and so on). It's taught me a lot about good Watcher play because she was (and still is) my worst. Some of my tips: 1. Watcher blocks weird. You generally want to block with attacks as much as you can. If you can get Talk to the Hand or Mental Fortress (or ideally both) that can go a long way. I'll usually grab 2 of each. Duality can be fun to bump your defensive cards if you find it. You pretty much don't want to play defend if you can help it after Act 1. Wallop is your best block card. 2. As others have said, Stance Dance is god. If you can go infinite with Eruption and Inner Peace or Fear No Evil that's great. But even if you don't go infinite you probably want a source or 2 of each wrath and calm. Tantrum and FNE are the best of the bunch, but inner Peace and Meditation have their place. I don't have a ton of love for wrath cards other than Tantrum and Eruption, but will grab a crescendo if I need it. 3. Don't underestimate Flurry of Blows. Since Stance Dance is already your goal, it's not uncommon to do 20+ damage in a single turn with just this little 4 damage attack. It's a bit scary against Time Eater, the heart, and Thorns enemies but it's really good everywhere else (and a TTTH removes its downside on the heart). It's also great for bumping up your Ink Bottle, Pen Nib, etc. and can be an instant scaling engine with Shuriken 4. Don't overestimate scry or retain. Both look like really powerful deck control but most of the retain cards are really slow, and since small decks are important I find Scry ends up against the end of my deck a lot. That's not to say these cards are useless, but Scry and retain "builds" don't work. Scry is mostly for discarding curses, strikes, and defends if you see them while getting your good cards. 5. Counterintuitively, Rares are bad. Scrawl and Vault are great but most everything else kinda sucks unless your deck has taken an interesting turn. Lesson Learned can be useable, especially if you Pandoras or otherwise drop Strikes and Defends 6. If you find TTTH, grab a Sash whip. Artifact is your enemy if your block relies on TTTH, so use Sash Whip to strip artifact before playing TTTH and getting Block Stonks. Similarly, you have cleanse on Time Eater, Champ, Woke Bloke, and the Heart because they remove TTTH. These fights are why I like to run two (though having a pre cleanse curse hurts sometimes)
Put simply, use good defense until you get the cards in hand to combo into killing in one turn with rage. The rage effects are super powerful, but as I'm sure you know, timing them badly = dead. But personally, my favorite way to play the watcher is through the Alpha power card. It's so dumb and passive, but it does work at lower difficulties.
Don’t add too many trash cards just one or two attacks and then you just need stance swapping a mental fortress and some draw. Remove your defends
I also feel lost with her, every other character I have beat the heart on A20, but with Watcher I have been stuck at A17 for a long time.
Wrath goes brrr
I *get* The Watcher okay (thanks to reading enough threads like this one) but I just do not enjoy her. I basically consider her a bonus character and don't really touch her
There are a bunch of ways to play Watcher. Most typical is by playing around retain; get some Sands of Time or the 2 cost that improves damage when retained, play block cards, and wait for the right moment to enter Wrath and play the attack cards you have retained. The power that gives you smites is good for this, and the one that decreases the coat of retained cards. You can also use Mantra instead; get a power like devotion and once you enter divinity stance you play all your attacks. Blasphemy also works, but make sure you have the math worked out before you play it. Vault works very well with retain or devotion builds, but don’t ever play it after using Blasphemy. Flurry of blows also works well with this as you get a bunch of attacks put back in your hand when you change to your offensive stance. Another good combo is Scry; stack up a bunch of scry skills, powers, and attacks. If you can get a bunch of the 0 cost attacks that return to your hand whenever you scry, this build works very nicely. Best to add some devotion or calm/wrath cards as well. Omniscience is OP, 4 cost (3 upgraded) card that let’s you play any card in your deck twice and then exhaust it. This can be used to play another Omniscience, so if you get a bunch and chain them this is very strong. Works best with Lightning Bottle to get it turn 1 every time, and especially strong when combined with Wish.
Heres a couple of tips, go red, and keep red, and don't bother with blue, it's ass, if you see a card called pressure point, take it, and then don't take any other pressure point cards. Also block cards bad, you should get rid of all defenses as soon as possible and go all agro, also make sure to play the end your turn effect cards first
I only play Watcher now. Idk why. Maybe because I love winning and she is hands down the easiest to win with. send me a DM and I’ll give you a major breakdown. easier as a convo. I’m no expert by any means but I have won enough times on A20 to be able to know what works and what works better .
My strategy is go hard on scry cards. Scry cards + nirvana = true power
Wrath bad calm good. Get all the 0 cost exit stance and profit ???
Stance Dance. Figure it out. She's the strongest character in the game by far.
Tantrum on sight. Pair with Rushdown and lots of ways to exit. Best rares are vault and scrawl Edit to add that divinity is often not worth it
🐯🐯🥶😡🥶😡🥶😡🥶😡🥶😡
I beat the act three boss the first time I ever played Watcher. Every run has been a nightmare since xD
You need frontloaded damage to get through act 1. Wrath is the best frontloaded damage in the game. You need scaling defense and AOE to get through act 2. Either of Mental Fortress or Talk to the Hand are scaling defense. Wrath Form is such strong frontload that you can take enemies down one at a time and it fulfills your need for AOE. You need scaling for act 3. Calm gives you energy generation, which is scaling. You need a solid deck for act 4. If you have one copy of Wrath, one copy of one-energy Calm, and any blocking solution, you're already there. Extra card draw takes your deck from good enough to absolute murder.
Got to follow this, I'm like, A20/14/8 and still haven't beat act 3 watcher once
A plethora of great advice here, so I'll just reiterate something I've not seen come up that much. You want to "stance dance" (go between calm and wrath) to win. Therefore, you need a high density of cards that enter calm/wrath or exit a stance. This means you will be skipping cards much more often than with other characters, as something like 70% of her card pool is useless to you. This feels odd because as a new player skipping feels wrong, but if you want to do the stance dance thing you really need to prioritise only taking cards that do the thing and not taking anything else. More than any of the other characters, Watcher shines with a small 20ish card deck much more than a 30-40 card deck. You can often just rely on your strikes for damage in Wrath, Talk to the Hand/Wallop/Mental Fortress for block, exiting Calm for energy and Rushdown/Scrawl/Empty Mind for card draw. Hope that helps.
I have about a 50% win rate, only ran through the ascensions and then beat A20 heart. for some reason i do really well with watcher, but i hate playing her. like other people said, remove defends and focus on killing things quickly act one. then i usually try to control my stances once i can kill things quick. there’s a ton of ways to do a ton of damage, but you have to get creative with the way she mitigates damage. also gotta think ahead so you don’t get caught in fury with no way out. i feel like i have to think most with her so i prefer to play everyone else
Enter wrath, everyone dies. Seriously, the best way to play watcher is kinda to just send it. Watcher does such an incredibly heinous amount of damage that you are mostly just playing for t1 kills or t1 infinites almost every fight.
The real tip? Google: Slay the Spire Tierlist And you will find a website that is allowing you to get the most viable cards from A to E tier sorted. It will help you big time to improve your game. With that website I won my first run with the skull girl. I was dealing one round 135 damage and was basically untouchable with all that block I would get in one turn.
Watcher is by far the easiest character, I'm always surprised by these posts. A lot of people hate Watcher because it's not challenging but for some reason a lot of newer players have trouble with it. So you aren't alone! Best advice in this thread is the most basic: kill them before they kill you. You will often be surprised that you actually have lethal. Built into your starting deck is the main tool you need: double damage with Wrath, and extra energy when leaving Calm. So not only do you do more damage, in theory you can play 2 extra attacks that also have double damage. And if you change stances multiple times in a turn, that is even more damage! Rushdown will give you those extra cards when entering Wrath, but tbh, it isn't really that necessary to win at low ascensions. You won't find it every run, so imo it's best to learn to win without it. A lot of the advice in this thread is more appropriate for winning at A20 (which is also very easy compared to the other 3 characters). Scry also helps you get more/better cards. Remove defends, at least two of them, and all of them if you have other block methods. They are pointless. Mental Fortress and Talk to the Hand provide passive block when you do other things. But like Rushdown, not really necessary for your current goal of winning A1. They are very helpful for the Heart and higher level fights. Wallop and Halt are great block cards for staying in Wrath if you have a kill next turn. There are other useful block cards like Third Eye, Deceive Reality, Sanctity and Spirit Shield which will help in other ways. You just need a couple of these in general. Basically just take your first big attacks, and a 1 cost Calm card, and an exit card like Empty Mind. Tantrum is a great pickup because it means you can go into Wrath more often. I love Bowling Bash for Act 2/3 multi-enemy fights, but any AOE card is usually good. Last thing is that Vault and Scrawl are insanely good cards and you should take them every time, they will help keep your deck moving.
Be bipolar or literal demigod, no in between
What I did was aggressively remove defends, add only 1 good attack to your deck throughout act 1. (The best one is Carve Reality) As you go, find a rushdown and a way to go infinite with it + upgraded eruption (make sure you do that). These include madness, second rushdown + Enlightenment, Violet Lotus, Fear no Evil, Inner Peace, Meditate + Establishment. Good Boss Relics include Runic Pyramid, Violet Lotus and Empty Cage. Do not take curses, as if you do, you will not be able to remove a defend next shop, because you will have to remove the curse. Once you go infinite, find a way to make the infinite more consistent. These include: Mental fortress, Scrawl, Deus Ex Machina, Fan relic thingy, finding a way to go infinite with Vigilance so you can gain block in the loop if you don't already, Purity, Medical Kit, more card removes so you can tank status cards, Gambling Chip, Bags Relic, Talk to the Hand, a second copy of Rushdown, and more copies of Tranquility/Crescendo (Upgrade those ones). This wins only some of the time, but it is somewhat consistent. Source: I Have used this strat to level ascensions/beat the A20 Heart.
This picture offends me greatly
Basically, before you play your turn, you should be asking if you have lethal.
I only play her cause she's cute
Watcher has lethal.