Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire came to mobile phones in 2020, bringing with it a genre it had essentially founded on PC back in 2019 — the card-based roguelike, where the player fights through a floor-by-floor tower using a deck of cards gradually assembled from finds along the way up. Every run through the tower is a different combination of cards, relics, and enemies, so replayability is at the core of the whole concept and no two attempts are alike. Combat is turn-based, so the player always has time to think through the best card order, which sets the game apart from more frantic action roguelikes.

Touchscreen controls feel surprisingly natural, since dragging and playing cards with a finger gesture is actually more direct than clicking with a mouse, and decision-making between turns loses none of its clarity or room for forward planning on a small display. Mega Crit, the game's creators, spared no detail on the mobile version and carried over the complete content of the PC version, including all four playable characters and their distinct strategies.

The game was released as a paid app without ads or microtransactions, which, in a genre where competitors often rely on free-to-play with card packs sold for money, proved to be a far more player-friendly approach and a boost to the studio's reputation. Slay the Spire's influence on the following wave of card-based roguelikes is still visible across the whole genre, from smaller indie titles to major studios, and many later games openly admit what inspired their creation.

Why play it: For card game players and roguelike enthusiasts who want a complete, honestly ported experience without ads and without paying for advantages.