Slay the Spire 2 Blade of Ink After the Nerf — Inky Shivs Rebuilt

Published 2026-05-09Updated 2026-09-194 min read

Blade of Ink's Inky enchantment dropped from +2 to +1 damage in 0.105. What the nerf actually costs, what the card still does, and how to rebuild the Silent's Inky shiv plan.

The 0.105 patch hit the Silent's pet card: Blade of Ink's Inky enchantment damage bonus dropped from +2 to +1. The card still does its job — it just pays out a little slower. Here is what changed, what didn't, and how the Inky plan rebuilds.

The Silent character art in Slay the Spire 2
One less damage per knife. The knives didn't notice.

The exact change

Blade of Ink (Rare Skill): "Add 2 (3) Inky Shivs into your Hand." The Inky enchantment on those shivs carried a +2 damage bonus before 0.105; now it carries +1. Per copy, per shiv, per cast — a small trim repeated across a long fight.

What the nerf does NOT change

  • The shiv count. Blade of Ink still manufactures 2 (3) knives per cast — volume is untouched.
  • The synergies. Every multiplier that made Inky shivs strong still applies: Accuracy (+4 (6) per shiv), Fan of Knives (shivs hit ALL enemies), the Boot's 5-damage floor, Pen Nib's every-10th-attack double, and Finisher's per-attack tally. The Inky bonus was one layer of several.
  • The exhaust-pile plan. If you are feeding Knife Trap, shivs care about existing, not their printed damage — the replay plays them regardless.

The rebuild

The post-nerf Inky plan simply shifts weight from the enchantment to the classic engine:

  1. Accuracy is mandatory again. At +4 (6), it out-earnest the nerfed Inky bonus from turn one; two copies is normal, three is not greed.
  2. Play the volume game. Blade Dance, Fan of Knives and Up My Sleeve produce more knives per turn than one point of Inky damage ever added.
  3. Keep the payoffs. Finisher, Pen Nib and Knife Trap all count shivs, not shiv damage — the nerf never touched them.

The honest verdict

Before 0.105, Blade of Ink was quietly a rare-tier auto-pick: production plus a damage enchant in one card. After it, the card is a very good shiv generator with a bonus — still worth taking in any knife deck, no longer the reason the deck wins. The Inky plan survives; it just needs its engine back around it.

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