Slay the Spire 2 Defect Card Tier List (Patch v0.102.0)
Frost, Dark, Plasma, and Glass: every Defect card ranked for Patch v0.102.0
The entity:defect's card pool in v0.102.0 splits across four orb types and a handful of Focus stackers. This ranking reflects high-Ascension play and community discussion as of the April 2026 balance pass. The v0.102.0 Inflation modifier raises the cost of card removal at Ascension 6+, which pushes the value of lean, high-impact cards up and redundant filler down.
S Tier
These cards either win games on their own or form the spine of the two or three most powerful builds in the current patch.
entity:synchronize is the single best Focus source in the game. When all three orb types sit in your queue simultaneously, entity:synchronize hands you free Focus every turn it stays in play. That snowball is fast: two or three stacks of Focus transforms your Frost block from "decent" to "unkillable," and your Dark evokes from "threatening" to "boss-ending." Getting entity:synchronize early in Act 1 or 2 is the single clearest pivot signal in the entity:defect's card pool.
Shatter pays off the entity:synchronize investment. Evoke every orb at once, collect all their passive and evoke effects simultaneously, and the fight ends. A full queue with three or four Focus behind it will deal 80 to 120 damage and generate 30 or more block in a single Shatter activation. At 83 cards in the entity:defect's pool, this is the one rare you always take.
entity:capacitor sets the ceiling for everything else. Three orb slots is the default; entity:capacitor pushes that to four or five. Each additional slot means one more passive trigger per turn from every orb type you're running. A Frost Tank with five slots generates block that no Act 3 boss can outrace. Take it unconditionally if you see it before Act 2.
Echo Form stays in S tier because it doubles the first card you play each turn for the rest of the combat. In a Frost build, that means two Cold Snaps or two Glaciers per turn without spending extra energy. In a entity:synchronize deck, it doubles your Focus-generating plays. The note in the wiki flags its v0.102.0 status as unconfirmed, but community sources consistently list it as top-tier rare.
A Tier
Strong in most builds. Take freely, but they need a supporting engine to hit their ceiling.
entity:cold-snap is the most efficient Frost generator at common rarity. One energy buys damage and a Frost channel; in a Focus-heavy deck, each Frost orb it generates starts passively producing 3 or 4 block per turn from the moment it lands. It is the correct Act 1 card in any Frost-leaning draft.
Glacier generates multiple Frost channels from a single card play. Where entity:cold-snap is about consistency, Glacier is about density: it builds your block engine faster in the mid-game when you need to stabilize before an Act 2 Elite. The slight awkwardness is energy cost; two Glaciers in a single turn is a 4-energy ask. Still A tier because the ceiling is high and the floor rarely punishes you.
entity:defragment is the cheapest Focus source outside of entity:synchronize. A Power card that grants permanent Focus for one energy is roughly the equivalent of entity:ironclad's entity:inflame but for orbs. Pick up one or two by Act 2 and your Frost block and Dark damage both scale independently.
Sunder is the entity:defect's answer to high-HP enemies that do not die to Dark evokes. Large single-target damage with an orb interaction makes it flexible: useful in Frost builds as a finishing blow after you've blocked everything the enemy had, and useful in Dark builds as a direct damage supplement during the turns your Dark orbs are still charging.
entity:dualcast is in the starting deck for a reason. Evoke the leftmost orb twice from a single card play. Early game it pushes out Lightning evokes for quick damage; late game it triggers Frost cashouts or primes Dark stacks for a turn-early evoke. It does not scale as well as the true S-tier cards, but it is a reliable inclusion into Act 3.
B Tier
Situationally good. These cards earn their slot in specific builds but are not automatic includes.
Zap generates a single Lightning channel. In the starting deck, it is your only damage source outside of Strikes. As the run progresses, raw Lightning channels get outscaled by Frost and Dark, but Zap earns its slot in Synchronize decks where you need all three orb types present simultaneously. One Zap in a 15-card Synchronize deck is correct; more than that dilutes your focus generators.
Dark Shackles applies a debuff to an enemy when a Dark orb is evoked. In the right build, pairing Dark Shackles with Sunder or another high-damage attack during the Weakened window produces large damage spikes. It is narrow: outside Dark decks it does nothing. Inside Dark decks it bridges the gap between your Dark ramp turns and your evoke payoff.
Reboot shuffles your discard into your draw pile and draws a card. Its value is almost entirely deck-composition dependent. In a thin deck built around seeing Echo Form or Synchronize every turn, Reboot is a liability. In a bloated mid-run deck where you need to find your Focus cards, it earns its slot by pulling you through the discard cycle faster.
C Tier
Cards that are outpriced as the run progresses. They fill function early but become dead weight without active removal.
Redundant single-orb channels that do not generate block, Focus, or evoke effects fall into this tier by late Act 2. A second or third Zap in a Frost deck, a Lightning-only channel card in a Dark Nuker, a block card that does not interact with any orb mechanic: these all become candidates for entity:merchant removal once the Inflation modifier makes removal cost meaningful at Ascension 6+. The right move is to recognize which early-run pickups no longer fit the engine by Act 2 and remove them before they dilute your draws in the final boss fight.
FAQ
What is the best entity:defect archetype in v0.102.0?
Frost Tank is the most consistent archetype for new players and experienced ones at high Ascension. It has the strongest defensive ceiling in the game when Focus stacks behind five or more orb slots worth of Frost channels. The Synchronize Mix variant is higher ceiling but requires hitting three specific orb types in queue simultaneously, which makes it more demanding to pilot. Dark Nuker is the fastest win condition but the shakiest floor: if you run out of Dark stacks before the boss dies, you have no backup plan.
How does Glass Orb compare to the other orb types?
Glass Orb is the new orb type added in Slay the Spire 2. Its passive and evoke effects deal damage across multiple enemies, filling the gap that Frost (block), Dark (single-target burst), and Plasma (energy) leave open. Community data on Glass Orb is still thin as of v0.102.0. The early read is that it rewards wide-board encounters more than the single-target bosses where the entity:defect already excels. Builds that add Glass Orb channels alongside Synchronize get a free third orb type for Synchronize triggers, which makes the combo worth exploring.
Is Frost Tank or Dark Nuker stronger in the current patch?
Frost Tank is stronger in the median run. It comes online more reliably because entity:cold-snap is a common card and Focus sources show up frequently. Dark Nuker peaks higher, particularly against single-target Act 3 bosses with large HP pools, but it punishes you harder if you get disrupted before the orbs charge. If you are playing high Ascension and trying to maximize consistency, draft Frost first. If Synchronize shows up early and you have orb slot support, pivot to Synchronize Mix instead.
What is the role of Focus in orb scaling?
Focus adds +1 to both the passive and evoke values of every orb except Plasma. A Frost orb at zero Focus passively generates 2 block per turn and evokes for a larger block amount. At three Focus, that same Frost orb generates 5 block per turn. Each additional Focus stack compounds across your entire orb queue every single turn. In a five-slot Frost build, three Focus stacks produce 25 passive block per turn before you play any cards. That is why entity:defragment and Synchronize rank so high: they feed the core multiplier.
Can the Defect still run infinite Echo Form combos?
The v0.100.0 patch closed several infinite loops across all characters. The Defect Echo Form combos that relied on generating energy mid-loop were among the targets. As of v0.102.0, Echo Form remains one of the strongest rare cards in the pool, but purely as an efficient doubler of your best card each turn, not as an infinite engine. Runs that built around the pre-v0.100.0 loop now play as conventional Echo Form decks, which are still very strong.