Exhaust Build — Slay the Spire 2 Build Guide
Exhaust & Body Slam build for the Ironclad in Slay the Spire 2: core cards, relics and step-by-step strategy.
Turn every exhausted card into Block with Feel No Pain and Evil Eye, then finish fights with a zero-cost Body Slam.
Exhaust / Block Engine with Body Slam
The alternative plan: build an exhaust loop that generates enormous Block, then kill with Body Slam — an Attack that hits for your current Block, and upgrades to zero cost.
The engine core:
| Card | Role |
|---|---|
| Feel No Pain (A) | Gain Block whenever a card is exhausted — the archetype's backbone |
| Evil Eye (B/S*) | Eight Block, doubled if you exhausted a card this turn — "ludicrously efficient" when triggered |
| Burning Pact (A) | Draw two plus exhaust a card — fuels and filters at once |
| True Grit (C) | Exhaust a card for Block; upgrade it to choose the target |
| Ashen Strike (B) | Damage that scales with your exhaust pile — "easy to see this doing 100 damage" |
| Forgotten Ritual (B) | One-time big Energy if you exhausted this turn |
| Body Slam (C→win condition) | Hits for your Block; upgraded it costs zero — a deck can win with this as its only Attack |
How it plays: exhaust cheaply and repeatedly (True Grit, Burning Pact, status-cleansing), bank Block through Feel No Pain and Evil Eye, then slam. The asterisk on Evil Eye: the video review ranks it S-tier, the community table B — it's exactly the kind of card whose stock rises the longer a run goes.
Related
- Ironclad build hub — all archetypes overview
- Builds Overview
- Ironclad card table
- Card Tier List