Ironclad Builds Tierlist: Strongest, Strong, Average & Other

Ironclad runs six archetypes in Slay the Spire 2: Infinity Deck, Strength, Block, Exhaust, Bloodletting, and Strike. Key cards anchor each one, but none lock into a fixed sequence — exhausting unnecessary cards, retaining draw engines, and managing energy per turn determines how far any build goes.

UPDATE: The strongest build for Ironclad, so-called Infinity Deck, was nerfed with the developer patch from March 20, 2026. With fixed energy, the combination of Hellraiser & Pommel Strike cards lost their magic of imbalanced power.

Powerful Ironclad Build (Tier-A): Strike Deck

Perfected Strike scales by 2 damage for each card in the deck whose name contains Strike, turning the full Strike card pool into a damage multiplier with no additional Powers required.

Perfected Strike enters every run at 18 base damage, since Ironclad's starting five Strikes already sit in the deck. Each Twin Strike, Pommel Strike, and other Strike-named card added pushes that number higher without requiring Demon Form or Inflame to activate. Hellraiser operates differently here than in the Tier-S build — with a full deck rather than a stripped one, drawn Strikes fire automatically and builds pressure without requiring the loop to close. Expect a Fight covers the 2-energy cost of Perfected Strike, allowing it to resolve alongside block cards in the same turn.

The deck falls off in late Act 3 without secondary scaling, so Taunt's Vulnerable application or a Strength relic keeps damage output relevant against high-HP bosses.

Average Ironclad Build (Tier-A): Block Build

Strength build applies flat damage bonuses through Inflame, Demon Form, and Rupture, then deploys multi-hit attacks that multiply the bonus across each individual strike.

I see players drop Demon Form for its 3-energy upfront cost, but the card takes over any fight that runs past turn three. Whirlwind gains the most from Strength stacking because each individual hit receives the full flat bonus: 10 Strength on a five-hit Whirlwind adds 50 damage to the total output. Rupture opens a secondary engine when paired with Crimson Mantle or Brand, converting self-inflicted HP loss into additional Strength every turn. Strength does not expire between turns unless an enemy removes it, which makes the build scale better the longer an elite or boss fight extends.

The ceiling sits below the Infinity and Strike builds because Demon Form requires surviving a 3-energy setup turn, and early-game damage before it lands can be inconsistent against aggressive elites.

Weak Ironclad Build (Tier-В): Isolated Bloodletting

Bloodletting cards exchange HP for power, but without Rupture converting that HP loss into Strength and Reaper resetting the health bar, the self-damage accelerates the clock without generating a win condition.

Without Rupture, Hemokinesis and Brutality drain the HP pool without building Strength. Bloodletting generates 2 energy for 3 HP, which reads as efficient until Act 3 bosses hit for 30 per turn and the starting HP total has been steadily bled down across earlier fights. Offering's 6-HP cost for a hand refill compounds the problem without Demon Tongue converting that self-damage into a lasting buff. Burning Blood heals 6 HP after each combat, but a run built around self-damage cards burns through that restore in a single elite encounter.

Drafting both Rupture and Reaper alongside these cards moves the archetype into Tier-A territory; without either, the build loses HP with no structural return.

Strongest Ironclad Build (Tier-С): Legacy of Infinity Deck

The Infinity Deck was the most powerful Ironclad build before in Slay the Spire 2 early access — it runs on Hellraiser and Pommel Strike, but the configuration is flexible: burn unnecessary cards through Exhaust, retain draw pieces, and manage energy each turn.

Play Hellraiser, draw into Pommel Strike, it fires automatically against a random enemy, draws again, repeats. One Pommel Strike exits the loop before it closes — two copies are the minimum, and the upgraded version draws two cards per trigger rather than one, which tightens the cycle. Exhaust cards are not optional here: they strip the deck down during the run so each draw pulls what the loop actually needs rather than dead cards. The loop has one hard stop — enemies with a per-turn damage cap, including the Waterfall Giant boss, absorb every hit without dying, which requires an alternate win condition for those fights. Against standard encounters and most elites, a functioning loop closes the fight without additional setup.

Battle Trance is a forbidden card in this build. Playing it draws three cards but blocks all further draws that turn, breaking the cycle Hellraiser depends on — it is the single card that most directly dismantles the strongest Ironclad build in Slay the Spire 2.

Slay The Spire 2 Builds for Beginners

Ironclad starts at 80 HP and restores 6 HP after every combat through Burning Blood, absorbing the early mechanical mistakes that end lower-HP characters' runs outright. Our beginner guide recommends selecting Ironclad first, drafting cards that function without setup, and paying to remove basic Strikes at every Merchant visit. Block-first play suits new players because Shrug It Off generates both Block and a card draw in one play, and Body Slam converts accumulated Block directly into damage without an additional engine around it. Elites should be fought two to three times per act — each one drops a relic, which applies passive bonuses across every subsequent fight and compounds faster than individual card purchases at the shop.

Every campfire defaults to upgrading over resting unless HP sits critically low, since an upgraded Demon Form or Whirlwind alters boss fight outcomes more than the 24 HP a rest restores. Progression in Slay the Spire 2 runs through the epochs timeline, a global unlock system that permanently adds cards, relics, potions, Ancients, and alternate acts through score accumulation, elite kill counts, and act clears across all characters. One Ironclad run unlocks the Silent with no win required, so a failed first attempt still counts toward expanding the full roster.