TL;DR
Neow's Ancient relic drops off the Act 1 Boss, and it is the second-biggest draft decision in any run after your character. Take the picks that win Act 1 right now over the ones that pay off later. item:phial-holster, a choose-target item:pomander, and item:silver-crucible's three pre-upgraded card rewards are the picks we reach for first. item:booming-conch climbed into that top group after Major Update 2 gave it an extra Energy on every Elite open. Skip item:lava-rock on clean maps; its bonus relic lands too late to save the runs that actually die. Curse picks only earn their cost when your deck has the removal pressure or the Max HP cushion to absorb it, and after the seed rework, item:neows-bones is a true gamble you cannot steer.
What Neow Drops
Neow is the Ancient relic NPC who curates your Act 1 Boss reward. Clear the Act 1 Boss and it drops one Ancient relic from her pool, and that pick locks the run's first power spike before Act 2 begins. The pool splits in two. One side is a Positive subpool of no-downside relics. The other is a smaller Curse subpool, where each relic pairs a stronger effect with a long-term cost. You do not see the full menu. You see a presented set, and you choose.
We treat Neow's pick as the second-most-important draft decision in any run, behind only the character. It compounds for the next two acts, and an off-meta pick here forces you into a worse early-game shape than you needed. The framework below is the order we would take these in, deck by deck.
How Neow Works
The Act 1 Boss drops the Ancient relic. You do not meet Neow at the start of the run the way you did in Slay the Spire 1. She gates the Act 1 Boss reward instead: clear item:lagavulin-matriarch (or whichever Act 1 Boss your run pulled), and she presents a set of Ancient relics drawn from her pool.
STS2 also shifted the floor count under your feet. Picking your Neow blessing now sits on floor 1, and your first combat is floor 2. The elite spawn restriction stayed locked at floor 6, so you have one fewer prep floor than STS1 to find a damage card, an upgrade, or a removal before the earliest possible elite. That single-floor delta is why Act 1 is the deadliest stretch in STS2, and why Neow picks that pay out during Act 1 outclass picks that pay out later.
The pick is permanent. No re-roll. Know the pool cold before the boss fight rather than reading effect text under pressure.
A Curse pick is a deliberate trade: a downside now for a payoff that compounds across the next two acts. The math only works when your deck has the removal pressure or the Max HP cushion to absorb the cost.
The Top-Tier Picks
These are the ones we take across most decks, most of the time. Skipping any of them needs a specific reason in the rest of the offer, not vibes.
Phial Holster (Positive). Upon pickup, gain 1 potion slot and procure 2 random Potions. A permanent fourth potion slot plus two free fills, and the most aggressive Act 1 power spike Neow can hand you. The two free potions are live during the floor 6 to floor 8 elite window, which is the exact stretch the floor-renumber made tighter. The pick scales hard with Ascension: past A4 the baseline drops to two slots so Phial Holster doubles your stockpile, past A8 enemy durability forces more potion use per fight, and past A10 the double Act 3 boss gauntlet rewards potion-stockpiling outright. Strong at low Ascension, S-tier from A4 onward.
Pomander (Positive). Upon pickup, Upgrade 1 card. Choose-target upgrade is the difference between a generic +1 and a build-defining one. Point Pomander at your engine card. The targets shift by character: item:bash+ on Ironclad before item:demon-form lands, item:neutralize+ on Silent for the Weak 2 swing in Act 1 fights, item:zap+ on Defect, item:bodyguard+ on Necrobinder, item:falling-star+ on Regent. Permanent upgrade, no gold or rest-site cost. The ceiling pick for any deck whose Rare engine is already drafted.
Silver Crucible (Curse). The first 3 card rewards you see are Upgraded. The first Treasure Chest you open is empty. Three free upgrades on Act 1 card rewards is instant deck-direction before your first elite, and an empty chest is a cheap downside next to losing Act 1 elite tempo. The math only inverts when the map puts the Treasure Chest before any card rewards. Read the map. If three card rewards come first, take it.
Booming Conch (Positive). At the start of Elite combats, draw 2 additional cards and gain 1 Energy. The extra card draw was always good on the fights that decide the run; the added Energy after Major Update 2 turns it into a top pick on every character, not only the Defect and Regent decks that snowball off opening-hand quality. A 7-card hand and a fifth Energy on every elite turns those fights into setup-then-execute trades instead of scrambles. Acts 2 and 3 elites are where most runs die, and this is the pick that buys you the tempo to clear them clean.
Arcane Scroll (Positive). Upon pickup, obtain a random Rare Card. High variance, run-shaping ceiling. A Rare card injection on Act 1 is the cheapest path to a build payoff that would otherwise require a boss-reward roll. The floor is low (you can pull a card your deck does not want), but the ceiling rewrites the run. Strongest on decks that have a clear archetype, since a random Rare is most likely to slot in.
Leafy Poultice (Curse). Transform 1 of your Strikes and 1 of your Defends and lose 12 Max HP. Two free transforms on the basic cards every deck wants gone, with the cheapest curse downside in the pool: you do not lose any current HP, only the ceiling. Act 1 healing rarely hits the cap anyway. The transforms are random, so the floor is two filler cards and the ceiling is two playable Commons that displace dead basics on floor 2 instead of floor 12. Skip on Silent (lowest Max HP pool in the game) and tight Necrobinder runs. Take it on Ironclad, Defect, and Regent.
Neow's Bones (Curse). Upon pickup, gain 2 random Neow Relics. Add 1 random Curse to your Deck. This is a true gamble. After the Major Update 2 seed rework, the two random Neow relics and the random Curse roll fully independent of every other RNG stream in the run, so there is no pattern to read and no way to steer the result. The two relics can land Phial Holster plus Booming Conch, or they can land item:nutritious-oyster plus Lava Rock and leave you a Debt Curse to clean up. The Curse pool includes Debt (disables merchants), Regret (eats HP per non-played card), and Bad Luck. Strong on Ironclad and Regent, where common-pool cards (True Grit, Burning Pact, BEGONE!, GUARDS!) handle a bad Curse roll. Risky on Silent, Defect, and Necrobinder, whose curse-handling caps at Scavenge or Seance. Take it only with a Smith use planned and a deck that can survive the worst roll, because you cannot dodge it.
The Solid Picks
These are the middle-tier Neow Positive relics. We take them when the offer is weak or when our deck has the specific shape that asks for them.
Winged Boots (Positive). You may ignore paths when choosing the next rooms 3 times. Three free path skips with broad application across Act 1 routing problems. Take this when the visible map locks you out of an elite chain, when an Act 1 event drains your gold and you need to dodge a forced merchant, or when a campfire chain heals more than the same path's combat damage. Ceiling on Necrobinder and Defect runs where elite-tier Uncommons are the build's primary income source.
Kaleidoscope (Positive). Upon pickup, gain 2 card rewards with cards from other characters. Two extra card picks, but the cards come from off-color pools, so the floor is a pair of bricks your deck cannot cast. Take it on decks that already run a flexible engine or have removal ready to clear what does not fit. Mid-tier in most offers; it shines when your deck wants a Colorless-style splash and can afford the variance.
Fishing Rod (Positive). Every 3 normal combats, Upgrade a random card in your Deck. A slow free-upgrade engine that drips value across all three acts. It can hit a basic, so it pays best on decks that keep a stable core through Act 1, and worst on heavy-transform decks that keep churning the cards it would target. No immediate Act 1 spike, but the long-run upgrade total adds up on a deck that holds its shape.
Lava Rock (Positive). The Act 1 Boss drops 2 Relics. On paper a doubled Ancient draft is the highest long-term EV pick available. In practice the Act 1 Ancient pool is the weakest in the game, the bonus relic does not land until floor 16, and you spent the entire Act 1 prep window with zero immediate-power help while Phial Holster or Silver Crucible would have been winning you elite fights. Past A8 the floor drops further, since the bonus arrives in a run already statistically more likely to be over. Take Lava Rock only when the visible map forces three or more elites with bad campfire placement and every other Neow option is also weak. On clean maps the immediate-power picks outscore it by a wide margin. For where Lava Rock sits against the rest of the relic pool, see our Slay the Spire 2 Relic Tier List.
Nutritious Oyster (Positive). Upon pickup, raise your Max HP by 11. A modest permanent Max HP bump. Take it on decks that plan to absorb chip damage in Acts 2 and 3 (item:bloodletting Ironclad, Hemokinesis, any item:tungsten-rod build) or when Act 1 already chewed through your HP buffer.
Neow's Talisman (Positive). Upon pickup, Upgrade 1 of your Strikes and 1 of your Defends. Two permanent +1 basic-card upgrades. Strong on decks that plan to keep their basics rather than transform them out (Defect Frost shells, slow Regent decks). Weaker on Ironclad and Necrobinder where the basic Strike pile is the first thing to go.
Lost Coffer (Positive). Upon pickup, gain 1 card reward and procure 1 random Potion. A free Act 1 card reward is roughly a fifth of your Act 1 picks. Take it on decks still searching for direction; the extra roll gives the build another shot at a payoff card.
Stone Humidifier (Positive). Whenever you Rest at a Rest Site, raise your Max HP by 5. The catch: every Rest taken for HP is one not taken for Smith. Take only on decks already upgraded enough that Smith uses are luxury picks, or on tank shells where the HP scaling outpaces the lost upgrade EV.
Lead Paperweight (Positive). Upon pickup, choose 1 of 2 Colorless Cards. Variance-heavy. The Colorless pool has standout cards (Apparition, Bandage Up, Madness) but plenty of dead weight. Take on decks that already produce Colorless cards or that have removal ready to clear a brick.
Small Capsule (Positive). Upon pickup, obtain a random Relic. Low floor, high ceiling. The pool is the universal Common-through-Rare relic table. Take when the rest of the offer is uniformly weak; the random roll usually beats a bad Curse pick.
Precise Scissors (Positive). Upon pickup, remove 1 card from your Deck. Free card removal. The Inflation modifier at Ascension 6 raises card-removal costs at the Merchant, so a free remove is much more valuable on high-Ascension runs. Strongest on Necrobinder and Ironclad. Solid on Silent and Defect; situational on Regent, where the basic deck already feeds Star generation.
Golden Pearl (Positive). Upon pickup, gain 150 Gold. 150 Gold buys a Common relic outright or covers half a card removal at Ascension 6. Take when your deck has a clear shop target (item:brimstone for Ironclad, item:runic-capacitor for Defect) and the shop appears in your near-term routing.
New Leaf (Positive). Upon pickup, Transform 1 card. Converts a basic to a random card from the same character pool. Variance-heavy. Take when you have a specific dead weight card to delete (an unused Defend, a misfired Inflate) and the random replacement is unlikely to brick the deck.
Massive Scroll (Positive). Upon pickup, choose 1 of 3 Multiplayer Colorless Cards. Off-meta in solo runs since the Multiplayer Colorless pool is balanced for team play. Take only in 4-player co-op where the team needs the support card.
Neow's Torment (Positive). Upon pickup, add 1 Neow's Fury to your Deck. A free copy of Neow's Fury, a Colorless attack that now lets you choose which cards return from your Discard Pile instead of returning them at random. That choose-your-return change makes the card meaningfully stronger than it used to be. The downside is still one extra card diluting draws, so take it when your deck has removal headroom.
The Tradeoff Picks
These are the remaining Curse subpool relics. Each trades a downside for a stronger effect. The math is the same on all of them: only take if your deck has the cushion to absorb the cost. Silver Crucible, Leafy Poultice, and Neow's Bones are covered above as top-tier picks.
Large Capsule. Upon pickup, obtain 2 random Relics. Add an additional Strike and Defend to your Deck. Two random relics for two basic cards is a favorable trade on most characters, since basics are the cheapest possible deck dilution and the first cards you would remove at the Merchant anyway. Take on most decks with one card removal planned through Acts 1 to 2. On Ironclad the trade is tighter, since the basic Strike pile is already the heaviest dead weight in any Demon Form deck.
Hefty Tablet. Choose 1 of 3 Rare cards to add to your Deck. Add 1 Injury to your Deck. Three Rare cards offered, you pick one, an Injury comes free. A choose-from-three Rare pick is worth more than a fully random Arcane Scroll, and an Injury is a flat dead-draw card you will remove. Take on decks with one removal planned and a clear archetype that wants a specific Rare.
Scroll Boxes. Upon pickup, choose 1 of 2 packs of cards. Major Update 2 stripped out the old lose-all-gold cost, which turns this from a trap into a free card pack. A pack drops several cards at once into a deck still forming its shape, so the variance is real, but there is no gold penalty pulling against your Act 1 shop routing anymore. Take it on decks chasing a specific archetype where the pack contents are likely to slot in. The old read of this as bait no longer holds.
Precarious Shears. Upon pickup, remove 2 cards from your Deck and take 16 damage. Two removes for 16 HP. The math: 2 removes are worth roughly 100 Gold each after Ascension 6 Inflation, so you are paying 16 HP for 200 Gold-equivalent of deck-shaping. Take on decks with strong sustain (Burning Blood Ironclad, item:pantograph planned) and avoid on Silent and Necrobinder.
Cursed Pearl. Upon pickup, receive Greed. Gain 333 Gold. 333 Gold for a Greed Curse. Greed clogs draws but a Merchant remove costs 75 to 100 Gold, leaving you 230-plus Gold ahead. The catch is timing: you need a Merchant in the next two floors before the Curse costs you a fight. Skip when the next shop is mid-Act 2.
Silken Tress. Enchant all cards in the first card reward with Glam. Upon pickup, lose all gold. A Glam payoff for your whole starting hand, paid for with every coin you are holding. That cost competes directly with shop routing, so this only earns its slot on a deck built around Glam scaling. Niche pick. On any deck that is not chasing Glam, the lost gold buys nothing back.
Per-Character Preferences
The pool's relative tier shifts by character because each deck values different effects. These are the picks where the ranking flips on a specific character.
Ironclad. Phial Holster plus a Bash+ Pomander is the strongest opening line on this character. The fourth potion slot lets a Strength deck burn a Fire or Strength Potion on the Act 1 elite, and a pre-upgraded Bash pulls Demon Form's payoff window forward a full hallway. Leafy Poultice is also reliable here; Burning Blood healing blunts the 12 Max HP loss faster than on any other character. For the full Strength Ironclad gameplan, see our Ironclad Strength Build Guide.
Build: b5fe26a061fbSilent. Pomander on Neutralize is the ceiling line. The Weak 2 from an upgraded Neutralize swings Act 1 elites harder than any other Silent starter upgrade. item:bouncing-flask and item:catalyst are second-best targets. Avoid Leafy Poultice and Precarious Shears; her Max HP pool is the lowest in the game and the HP costs hit the survival math hardest. Avoid Neow's Bones unless the offer is otherwise empty; Silent's curse-handling caps at Scavenge and a Debt or Regret pull stalls the run with no way to steer the roll. The discard-driven sister build is covered in our Silent Sly Discard Build Guide.
Defect. Pomander on Zap is the highest-EV starter upgrade. Zap+ adds a free orb channel per play and accelerates the orb queue past the bottleneck that kills early Defect runs. item:dualcast and Self Repair are second-best targets. Booming Conch is even better here than its baseline ceiling, since Defect snowballs off opening-hand orb generators (Charge Battery, Ball Lightning) and the added Energy fuels an extra channel on every elite. Skip Neow's Bones on tight runs; Defect's only common-pool curse-handler is Scavenge. The Frost-tank pivot is in our Defect Frost Tank Build Guide.
Regent. item:mini-regent plus item:lunar-pastry plus a Pomander on Falling Star is the cleanest Star Battery acceleration in the pool. The doubled Star generation compounds against an upgraded Falling Star. Regent's common pool also includes BEGONE!, which makes it one of the two characters who can absorb a Neow's Bones Curse roll without running into a Smith bottleneck.
Necrobinder. Pomander on Bodyguard is the highest-EV starter upgrade. The 8-block-and-add-a-Slime swing on an upgraded Bodyguard is the cleanest tempo card the character has in Act 1. Precise Scissors is also stronger here than baseline; the Necrobinder starting deck carries the most basic cards relative to its Soul-engine payoff, and the basic Strike pile chokes draws in any deck running item:funerary-mask, item:bookmark, or item:big-hat. Skip Neow's Bones on tight runs; Necrobinder's curse-handling caps at Cleanse and Sculpting Strike, neither of which is in the common pool. The full payoff line is in our Necrobinder Soul Engine Build Guide.
FAQ
Should I take Lava Rock when I see it?
Rarely. The bonus relic does not land until floor 16, and Act 1 is the stretch where most STS2 runs die. Picking Lava Rock means you spend Act 1 with no immediate-power help while Phial Holster, Silver Crucible, or Leafy Poultice would have given you an extra elite kill or a pre-upgraded card reward in the prep window. Take it only when the map forces three or more elites with bad campfire placement and every other Neow option is also weak. Past A8 the pick degrades further, since the reward arrives in a run already more likely to be over.
When is a Curse pick worth it?
When your deck has either the removal pressure to clear the Curse card or the Max HP cushion to absorb the HP cost. Removal pressure means a drafted Precise Scissors, a Smith use planned, or a Merchant routed in the next two floors. Max HP cushion means Ironclad with Burning Blood healing, or a Pantograph plan already drafted. Silver Crucible and Leafy Poultice hold their math without strong removal because the downsides (an empty chest, a Max HP loss with no current HP cost) do not cascade. Neow's Bones and Large Capsule need at least one Smith use planned, since the random Curse from Bones can land Debt or Regret and stall a run with no removal in sight.
Is Neow's Bones still a safe gamble after the patch?
It is a real gamble now, and that is the point. The Major Update 2 seed rework made every random stream in a run genuinely independent, so the curse you draw from Neow's Bones cannot be predicted or steered. Take it only when you can survive the worst Curse roll: a Smith use planned, common-pool curse handling in your character's kit, and a Merchant in reach. On Ironclad and Regent that bar is easy to clear. On Silent, Defect, and Necrobinder it usually is not.
What if Neow only offers Curse picks I don't want?
Pick the smallest downside that fits your deck. Large Capsule's Strike-and-Defend addition is removable and the basic cards are the cheapest possible dilution. Neow's Bones gives you two random Neow relics, which can include several Positive picks that would have been better than the original offer. Cursed Pearl works whenever you can route to a Merchant in the near term. Leafy Poultice and Precarious Shears are the two to avoid on tight runs; their HP costs hit the survival math hardest.
Does the Neow pool change between characters?
The pool itself is the same on every character. The relative tier of each pick shifts based on what your deck wants. Pomander on Demon Form (Ironclad) is a different pick from Pomander on Bouncing Flask (Silent), even though the relic is identical. We have ranked each pick by general EV across all five characters in the top sections; the per-character section above flags the relics where the tier flips on a specific deck.
How do I prioritize when the pool feels weak?
Default to the highest-EV pick that solves your deck's most immediate Act 1 problem: Phial Holster for the potion power spike that wins early elites, Silver Crucible for three pre-upgraded card rewards before floor 6, Pomander for an unupgraded engine card, Leafy Poultice for the cheapest pair of basic transforms in the pool, Arcane Scroll for missing payoff cards, Booming Conch if your route runs through multiple elites in Acts 2 and 3. If the offer is uniformly weak Positive picks, Small Capsule's random relic roll is usually higher EV than the bottom of the Positive list. Skip Lava Rock unless the visible map locks you into a brutal elite chain with no other answer.