Slay the Spire 1 has 20 ascension levels. Slay the Spire 2 has 10. In both games each level also applies every level below it.
StS2 levels
| Level | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Swarming Elites | The map has 8 elite nodes instead of 5 |
| A2 | Weary Traveler | Ancients heal 80% of your missing HP instead of all of it |
| A3 | Poverty | Enemies and treasure chests drop 25% less gold |
| A4 | Tight Belt | One fewer potion slot |
| A5 | Ascender's Bane | You start with the Ascender's Bane curse |
| A6 | Inflation | Card removal at the Merchant starts at 100 gold and rises by 50 per use, instead of 75 and 25 |
| A7 | Scarcity | Rare and upgraded cards appear less often |
| A8 | Tough Enemies | Enemies use their higher HP values |
| A9 | Deadly Enemies | Enemies use their higher attack values |
| A10 | Double Boss | Act 3 ends with two bosses |
Matching levels between the games
The same penalties appear in both games at different levels.
| Change | StS1 | StS2 |
|---|---|---|
| More elites | A1: elite count ×1.6 | A1: 5 → 8 elite nodes |
| Less healing | A5: heal 75% of missing HP between acts | A2: Ancients heal 80% of missing HP |
| Less gold | A13: boss gold ×0.75 | A3: all combat and chest gold ×0.75 |
| Fewer potion slots | A11: 3 → 2 | A4: one fewer slot |
| Starting curse | A10: Ascender's Bane | A5: Ascender's Bane |
| Pricier shops | A16: Merchant prices ×1.1 except card removal | A6: card removal 100 gold, +50 per use |
| Fewer upgraded card rewards | A12: act 2 chance 25% → 12.5%, acts 3 and 4 50% → 25% | A7: part of Scarcity |
| Double boss | A20 | A10 |
StS1 levels with no StS2 counterpart: A6 (start at 90% of max HP), A14 (lower max HP), A15 (worse event outcomes), and the levels that make normal enemies, elites and bosses deadlier, tougher and give them harder movesets (A2 to A4, A7 to A9, A17 to A19).
Card rarity at A7 Scarcity
| Card reward | Rare chance | Common chance |
|---|---|---|
| Normal fight | 3% → 1.49% | 60% → 61.5% |
| Elite | 10% → 5% | 50% → 54.9% |
| Merchant | 9% → 4.5% | 54% → 58.5% |
Scarcity also halves how fast the rare chance grows after each card without a rare, and halves the chance of upgraded reward cards in acts 2 and 3.
How enemies scale
In StS2, every enemy has a normal value and an ascension value for its HP and for each attack. A8 switches HP to the ascension value, A9 switches attacks. Examples:
| Enemy | HP | HP at A8 |
|---|---|---|
| Queen | 400 | 419 |
| Aeonglass | 512 | 535 |
| Nibbit | 42-46 | 44-48 |
In StS1, each monster has its own higher numbers at the levels that affect it: normal enemies at A2, A7 and A17, elites at A3, A8 and A18, bosses at A4, A9 and A19. For example, Jaw Worm has 40-44 HP, and 42-46 HP from A7. Each monster page lists both sets of values.