

Many of her cards discard and draw other cards, and even her starting relic, Ring of the Snake, draws two extra cards on turn one. This makes her less suitable for certain achievements related to deck size. Her starting deck is the largest with 12 cards - all the other characters have 10.

She only starts with 70hp, so she is rather weak. Silent is the first character you unlock. Add a Body Slam which deals damage equal to your block and you will mash anything. At some point you barely even need any attack cards as you will easily outblock any attacks and just keep building more and more block. And then you need a way to exponentially increase it to stupid amounts - Entrench is excellent here as it doubles whatever block you have. Then you need a way to keep it from turn to turn, i.e. To get a lot of block you should first find cards that actually give you that block, such as Impervious or Flame Barrier for example. There are two achievements for getting lots of block that are easier with Ironclad, although the Defect character can also work relatively easily. Anyway, over your dozens of hours of playtime you will have lots of chances to experiment. Personally, I hate this relic but I've seen people smashing the Heart with it so it is possible. Ironclad has quite a few expensive cards, so this character can work well with Snecko Eye, a relic which randomises the costs of cards in your deck.

More deck archetypes are possible, see the Wiki page for a list. Possible ways of building a deck with Ironclad include: maximizing strength through cards and relics and then playing Heavy Blade or similar big attacks maximizing defence and then using Body Slam to use that block in an attack or a deck using Searing Blow which can be upgraded any number of times, potentially resulting in a super-powerful attack by the end of the game.
Slay the spire achievements upgrade#
This is a very good option for a card upgrade as soon as possible, unless you have received a similar card that you prefer like Clothesline or Uppercut. His special starting card is Bash, which makes the enemy vulnerable and therefore receive more damage. This can be upgraded to a relic giving you double the HP gain. He has the most starting HP of any character, as well as one of the best starting relics in Burning Blood, which heals you 6 HP after any combat. The Ironclad is the first playable character available to you.
