Regent Builds — Slay the Spire 2 Guide

The Regent is the second brand-new character in Slay the Spire 2 — an arrogant, star-headed alien royal whose kit runs on two mechanics: Stars, a secondary resource you generate with some cards and spend on stronger ones, and Forge, which permanently grows his Sovereign Blade's damage during a fight. This guide covers the four archetypes the material supports: Starfall (the star nuke), star mid-range ("good stuff"), the Forge sword build, and small-deck infinites.

How the Regent Works

Stars are a secondary resource generated by other cards and expended to cast more powerful ones; his card pool splits into star generation and star payoffs. His starting relic, Crown of Stars, grants 3 Stars at the start of every combat — and its upgraded version, which starts you at 6 Stars, is described as one of the best upgraded starting relics in the game because it lets you cast real payoffs on turn one.

Forge is tied to the Sovereign Blade (base 10 damage, costs 2, has Retain). Cards that say "Forge X" add X damage to the blade for the duration of the fight, and it stacks: Forge 10 twice means the blade hits for 30+. The first Forge card you play spawns the blade into your hand — but if it has already spawned, Forge will not spawn it again, so you rarely play the blade more than once or twice per combat.

Mobalytics' character guide lists his strengths as: very powerful when mastered, strong combo potential, and access to Retain and card generation. His weaknesses: a lack of reliable draw, and resources that are difficult to manage and micro. Community play (Caleb Gannon's character guide) adds one more crucial truth: the Regent's card quality is extremely bimodal — he has a higher density of outright excellent cards than anyone, but also a higher density of unplayable ones, with very little in between. Skipping draft picks is normal and healthy on this character. It also means cards matter more than relics: push for card rewards and hit shops until you have a functional core, then look for relic support.

A quick roadmap: Act 1 is precarious — take early damage and Block, grab max HP, and don't feel bad about resting. You come online in Act 2, and a successful build makes Act 3 the easiest of any character in the game.

Universal Early Picks (Any Build)

Card	Cost	Effect	Why it earns a slot
CHARGE!!	1	26 damage; gets rid of dangerous statuses like Infection and Wound	"1 energy for 26 damage is ludicrous" — potentially the strongest early damage pickup in the kit
BEGONE!	1	4 damage; turns a bad card into a 13-damage minion attack	Collectively 2 mana for 17 damage that also thins your deck
Guiding Star	1	12 damage; draw two cards next turn; costs 2 Stars	Great rate — but the Star tax means skip it until you have some Star generation
Photon Cut	1	10 damage, draw 1, put a card from your hand on top of your draw pile	Top-deck placement is how the Regent covers his weak draw; a great damage rate
Patter	1	8 Block, gain 2 Vigor	The best common Block card — and the Vigor quietly doubles as Radiate fuel later
Cloak of Stars	0	7 Block	Free Block; with Gather Light you Block for 14 on one Energy

Celestial Might rounds out the early game: with Patter's Vigor it upgrades from 8 damage × 3 hits to 30 damage for 2 Energy, and that duo can carry most of Act 1 on its own.

Build 1: Starfall — the Star Nuke

Play pattern: stockpile Stars and Vigor across a turn or two, then cash everything in at once — most reliably through Radiate, which deals damage to every enemy for each Star you gained this turn (3 damage per Star by default). With enough setup the video shows Radiate going from 3 to 52 damage in a single turn after banking 25 Stars. If you've played Magic: The Gathering, it plays like a storm deck: build up, then kill everything in one go. Starfall is the most reliable archetype community play has found — the backup payoff is Stardust, a spend-X damage card (cited at 5 damage per hit), weaker in multi-enemy fights.

Core cards:

Card	Cost	Effect	Why it earns a slot
Radiate	—	Damage to all enemies for every Star gained this turn (base 3 per Star)	The best Starfall payoff — an AoE nuke that scales without limit
Royal Gamble	5	Gains 9 Stars	Almost mandatory: 9 Stars makes Radiate a 27-damage AoE; take it even as a dead draw
Hidden Cache	—	The highest base Star generation in the kit	A setup turn of +3 Stars before the Radiate turn; also pairs with the 5–6 cost Star cards
Genesis	—	Sustained Star engine; the upgrade gives 3 Stars per turn	Passive Star every turn means passive Radiate damage every turn
Knockout Blow	3	30 damage; gain 5 Stars if you kill something	Feeds Radiate (5 Stars = 15 AoE damage); off your starting 3 Stars it opens fights at 9 AoE damage
Vigor	—	Gain 6 Vigor (8 upgraded); Vigor adds that much to your next attack, per hit	Pushes Radiate from 3 to 11 damage per Star — 9 Stars becomes 99 damage
Terraforming	—	Another Vigor source for stacking	Vigor persists across turns as long as you don't attack, so you can bank it

Relics: the material's relic advice for the Regent is thin — cards simply matter more. Crown of Stars (3 Stars at combat start, 6 upgraded) is the engine every Starfall plan uses, and the explicit advice is to push card rewards and shops first, relic slots second.

How to pilot it: the dream line is Decisions, Decisions into Royal Gamble — roughly 27 Stars in one turn, which kills almost anything with a small damage boost. Stack Vigor patiently (Patter, Terraforming), don't attack while banking it, and block until the big turn. If Radiate never shows up, Lunar Blast is a worse version that only makes sense with Decisions, Decisions (doubled into itself, replaying Monologue/Terraforming for Strength — the video's best case reached ~600 damage) or as an infinite-deck payoff.

Strengths and weaknesses: scales to absurd numbers and crushes bosses; but it leans on specific payoffs, and without Radiate/Royal Gamble you need a lot of sustained generation to get there.

Build 2: Star Mid-Range ("Star Good Stuff")

Play pattern: don't combo — just play the best Star cards and win on rate. Many Star payoffs cost no Energy, so your Energy goes to Block while zero-cost payoffs handle offense. Void Form supercharges everything: the first two cards you play each turn are free, including their Star costs.

Core cards:

Card	Cost	Effect	Why it earns a slot
Void Form	—	The first two cards you play each turn are free, including Star costs	"One of the strongest cards I've ever seen" — play it last in the turn and everything before it is free
Child of the Stars	—	10 free Block when played (15 upgraded); turns Stars into Block	The best Block engine on the character: bank Stars, then spend them all on Block only when needed
Glow	—	Star-and-draw engine (the upgrade gains 2 Stars and draws 2 cards)	The only S-tier common — run one or two copies in every deck
Comet	—	A massive damage number attached to debuffs; also scales other damage or Block	Blocks, damages, and enables — "really, really good"
Convergence	—	Retains your hand; the upgrade gives 2 Stars and an Energy next turn	Retention is effectively card draw on a character who lacks it
Big Bang	—	Energy, Stars, Forge and card draw in one card	"Just good" — goes in any deck with no real downside
Astral Pulse	0	14 damage to all enemies, paid in Stars	Turn-one AoE off your starting Stars (14–18 with Celestial Might's Vigor)
Shining Strike	—	8 damage, gain 2 Stars, puts itself on top of your draw pile	A steady two Stars every turn from one card
Foregone Conclusion	—	Next turn, take whichever two cards you want	Sets up combo turns with perfect consistency
Decisions, Decisions	—	Cheats big cards into play (Royal Gamble, The Smith, Big Bang)	A powerful enabler — just watch the hand clog

Relics: again Crown of Stars carries the plan — its opening Stars are what make turn-one payoffs like Astral Pulse real.

How to pilot it: the archetypes overlap heavily, so take quality cards first and choose a direction later — Convergence, Glow, Hidden Cache and Genesis fit roughly 80% of Regent decks. Solar Strike (8 damage, gain a Star) and Gather Light are solid role players that open future picks.

Strengths and weaknesses: forgiving and flexible, with great Act 2–3 tempo; it depends on hitting the character's high-end rares, so skip aggressively — the bimodal pool punishes mediocre picks.

Build 3: Forge — the Sovereign Blade One-Shot

Play pattern: play Forge cards to grow the Sovereign Blade (base 10 damage, cost 2, Retain) into a boss-killing sword, then one-shot something. Fair warning from every source: this is the archetype to avoid as a plan A. The blade rarely gets replayed in a combat, some bosses shut it down, and the rate is poor — Spoils of Battle spends a whole card to make the blade a 20-damage attack, while a plain common does 18 damage unupgraded by itself.

Core cards:

Card	Cost	Effect	Why it earns a slot
Sovereign Blade	2	10 damage, Retain; every Forge adds damage for the rest of the fight	The win condition — grow it, then remove a boss from the game
Seeking Edge	—	Makes Sovereign Blade hit all enemies (per the video guide)	The single most important Forge card — it fixes the one-enemy-at-a-time problem
The Smith	—	The biggest Forge card in the kit	Often solves a fight on its own; cheat it into play with Decisions, Decisions
Bulwark	2	13 Block plus Forge 10 (upgrade ≈15–18 Block)	A split card: Block for 2 now, a ~20-damage attack later
Sword Sage	—	Doubles the blade's damage	Combined with Conqueror, "insane amounts of damage"
Conqueror	—	Doubles the blade's damage	See Sword Sage — run both if you commit
Refine Blade	—	Essentially Forge for 0 Energy	Free scaling on a resource-hungry archetype

Relics: Electric Shrymp, an ancient relic, is the one named combo piece — it combos with The Smith to get the biggest Forge card into play.

How to pilot it: only move into Forge if Seeking Edge shows up; otherwise ignore Forge cards unless you're desperate. Treat Bulwark as your Block plan, not just a Forge enabler. Expect it to feel slow.

Strengths and weaknesses: spectacular one-shot kills and a unique playstyle; but it's the least reliable build here — slow, easily hosed by certain bosses, and out-scaled by the character's own commons.

Build 4: Small-Deck Infinites

Play pattern: the Regent has some of the best targeted exhaust in the game. Shrink your deck aggressively, survive on transformed Block, then loop Alignment and Glow to draw your entire deck every turn and win with whatever payoff you kept. Infinites are described as "quite easy to accomplish" for this character — you mainly need GUARDS!!! to make it work.

Core cards:

Card	Cost	Effect	Why it earns a slot
GUARDS!!!	—	Exhausts around eight to nine chosen cards, turning them into 0-cost, 9-Block minions	S-tier: massive deck thinning that also pays for your survival during setup
BEGONE!	1	4 damage; converts a bad card into a 13-damage minion attack	Early damage that later removes the last pieces of chaff
CHARGE!!	1	26 damage; clears statuses like Infection and Wound	Covers Act 1–2 damage, then helps prune the deck
Tyranny	—	Exhausts a card every turn	Fast passive thinning toward the critical deck size
Alignment	—	The infinite enabler	One uncommon is all the loop needs
Glow	—	Star-and-draw engine (upgrade: 2 Stars, draw 2)	The loop itself: Glow → Alignment → Glow → Alignment until your deck is in hand

Relics: none are specifically recommended for this archetype in the material — the same "cards first" rule applies.

How to pilot it: aim for a deck around 16 cards or fewer; at that size GUARDS!!! can assemble the infinite almost by itself. Use the 0-cost Block minions it generates to stall while CHARGE!! and BEGONE! remove the last few cards, then draw your deck and spend the surplus Stars on your finisher.

Strengths and weaknesses: the strongest late-game ceiling of the four and very repeatable once assembled; but it's draft-dependent — without GUARDS!!! (or heavy removal) the plan doesn't come together.

Which Build Should You Pick?

• Starfall if you want the character's best raw power and enjoy a one-big-turn playstyle.
• Star mid-range if you'd rather just play good cards — the safest route.
• Forge only if Seeking Edge appears early; it's a real but fragile archetype.
• Infinites if you draft GUARDS!!! and want the strongest Act 3 in the game.

Whichever you pick: skip mediocre cards freely, prioritize card rewards over relics, and expect a rough Act 1 before a dominant Act 3.

Related Pages

• Builds Overview — all five characters at a glance
• Tier List — every card ranked by tier