Act 1 · Underdocks · Slay the Spire 2

How to beat Waterfall Giant — Slay the Spire 2

A practical, spoiler-light breakdown of the encounter and how to play around its gimmick. Slay the Spire 2 is in Early Access, so exact HP and intent numbers shift between patches — we hedge specifics and link the wiki for live values.

Updated for Early Access patch 0.104.0

The gimmick

What Waterfall Giant does

The one thing that defines this fight — read this before you draft your route.

A large solo body whose signature trick is that it does not die at 0 HP — instead it detonates on its next turn, so the lethal blow is followed by a big explosive blast you have to survive.

Game plan

How to beat Waterfall Giant

Ordered priorities for the fight. Tools shift by deck, but these beats hold across most archetypes.

  1. Plan the kill turn around the detonation: hold or generate enough block for the turn after you drop it to zero so the explosion does not finish you.
  2. Because it is a single big target, raw single-target damage and Vulnerable are efficient — there is nothing to split focus across.
  3. Avoid the trap of killing it on a turn where your hand is empty and you have no block; sequence the lethal so you can still defend afterwards.
  4. Burst is good, but burst with a defensive follow-up is better — treat the explosion as a guaranteed incoming hit, not a surprise.

By character

Class-specific tips

How each kit leans into this matchup. Open a class hub for full builds and card priorities.

Ironclad builds →

Ironclad's block-and-Strength shells line up perfectly: dump damage, then tank the detonation behind Barricade-style block.

Regent builds →

Regent's defensive tools let you survive the post-kill blast comfortably while single-target damage handles the body.

Verify

Sources

Roster and mechanics cross-checked against the official wiki and EA boss coverage:

← All Slay the Spire 2 bosses