The Queen is a 400 HP Act 3 Glory boss, but she is never alone. Her Torch Head Amalgam brings another 199 HP, so the room totals 599 HP — more than Aeonglass’s 535 on Ascension. She also hands you 99 stacks each of Frail, Weak and Vulnerable, which at that size simply means the rest of the fight.
That combination makes her the fight where “kill the boss” and “kill the add” give opposite answers, because her pattern actually checks whether the Amalgam died.
The fight at a glance
| Act | Act 3 — Glory |
| Type | Boss (with one minion) |
| HP | 400 (419 on Ascension 10) |
| Amalgam HP | 199 (211 on Ascension 10) |
| Room total | 599 (630 on Ascension 10) |
| Opening | Puppet Strings → You Are Mine |
| Biggest hit | Off with Your Head, 3×5 = 15 (4×5 = 20) |
Every move, with numbers
| Move | Intent | Damage | Ascension | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Puppet Strings | Debuff | 0 | 0 | Applies 3 Chains of Binding |
| You Are Mine | Debuff | 0 | 0 | Applies 99 Frail, 99 Weak, 99 Vulnerable |
| Burn Bright for Me | Buff + Defend | 0 | 0 | Gains 20 Block |
| Off with Your Head | Attack | 3 × 5 = 15 | 4 × 5 = 20 | Five separate hits |
| Execution | Attack | 15 | 18 | Single hit |
| Enrage | Buff | 0 | 0 | Gains 2 Strength |
Her two opening turns — Puppet Strings and You Are Mine — deal zero damage. That is 2 free turns before the fight actually starts, and the largest single opportunity in the encounter: 400 HP is not that far away if you spend two turns setting up a scaling engine instead of blocking.
The 99-stack problem
You Are Mine applies 99 of each debuff. Weak at 99 reduces your attack damage for the rest of the fight; Frail at 99 does the same to your Block; Vulnerable at 99 means every hit she lands is amplified.
You cannot out-wait 99 stacks. Three practical consequences:
- Artifact is close to mandatory. A single Artifact stack absorbs one application — but she applies all three at once, so you need three stacks to blank the turn entirely.
- Do not build around a debuff cleanse you do not have. Plan for the debuffed numbers: assume your Block is worth 75% and your attacks 75%.
- Kill speed matters more than usual. A long fight under 99 Vulnerable is a losing position, because every Torch Head Tackle at 18 becomes worse.
The Amalgam branch
The cached pattern is explicit: after the two opening debuffs she alternates between Burn Bright for Me if the Amalgam is alive and Off with Your Head if it has died.
| State | Her move | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Amalgam alive | Burn Bright for Me | 0 damage, 20 Block gained |
| Amalgam dead | Off with Your Head | 15 damage (20 at Ascension) in 5 hits |
So killing the 199 HP add does not calm the fight down — it switches her from a defensive turn to a 5-hit attack. Leaving it alive means eating Torch Head’s own rotation while she shields.
Torch Head Amalgam’s numbers:
| Move | Damage | Ascension | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tackle | 18 | 19 | Single hit |
| Tackle 2 | 18 | 19 | Single hit |
| Beam | 8 × 3 = 24 | 8 × 3 = 24 | Three hits, no Ascension bump |
| Tackle 3 | 14 | 15 | Single hit |
| Tackle 4 | 14 | 15 | Single hit |
Its Beam is the biggest number in the room at 24, and it does not scale on Ascension at all. That is the one turn where the add out-damages the boss.
Kill order maths
Two plans, two different totals.
| Plan | Total damage needed | Damage per turn over 8 turns |
|---|---|---|
| Queen only (ignore the add) | 400 | 50.0 |
| Queen + Amalgam | 599 | 74.9 |
| Queen + Amalgam at Ascension | 630 | 78.8 |
Killing both costs 199 extra damage — roughly 50% more work — and switches the Queen into her attack pattern. In most decks the correct line is to leave the Amalgam alive, block its 24-damage Beam turns, and race the Queen’s 400. The add’s damage is smaller than the tempo cost of chewing through 199 HP while she gains 20 Block per alternating turn.
The exception is a deck with strong area damage. Hyperbeam (28 to all enemies, 36 upgraded) and Crash Landing (21 to all, 26 upgraded) hit both bodies for full value, which changes the maths: at 28 per Hyperbeam the add dies in 8 casts as a side effect of damage you were already dealing.
Turn-by-turn
| Turn | Queen | Amalgam | Your plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puppet Strings (0) | Tackle 18 | Free turn. Play powers. Block 18. |
| 2 | You Are Mine (0) | Tackle 2 18 | Second free turn. Take the debuffs, keep scaling. |
| 3 | Burn Bright (20 Block) | Beam 24 | Block 24. Do not dump attacks into her 20 Block. |
| 4 | Off with Your Head (15/20) | Tackle 3 14 | Block 20 at Ascension. Attack window on the add. |
| 5 | Burn Bright | Tackle 4 14 | Block 14, build damage. |
| 6 | Off with Your Head | Tackle 18 | 20 + 18 = 38 incoming at Ascension. |
Two free opening turns is a real budget. If your deck can produce 50 damage per turn from turn 3, the Queen dies on turn 10 with the add still standing at roughly half HP.
What to bring
- Three Artifact stacks or none. Partial Artifact is wasted here; three blanks You Are Mine entirely, which removes Frail, Weak and Vulnerable in one turn.
- Per-hit Block. Off with Your Head is 5 hits of 3 (4 at Ascension) and Beam is 3 hits of 8, so Dexterity and Thorns scale well against both.
- Scaling that does not need Vulnerable. With 99 Vulnerable on you the fight is short either way; Strength and Dexterity on your side are not affected by her debuffs.
- One area attack if you have it. It converts the 199 HP add from a cost into a free by-product.
“Off with Your Head — Attack, 3 damage × 5 hits (4 × 5 at Ascension).” — STS2 boss data, slaythespire.wiki.gg
Where to go next
The boss table ranks every Act 3 fight by HP, and the monster index has the Amalgam’s full stat line. For the deck side, the cards database lists every area attack and its numbers, and the relics database is where the Artifact relics live. The Ascension page covers the +19 HP step.