Slay the Spire 2 does not unlock anything by itself. Every card, relic, potion, character and Ancient you earn sits on the Timeline until you claim it with your own hands.
That one sentence explains most “my card pool feels thin” complaints. Players finish twenty runs, unlock a dozen Epochs, never open the screen, and then wonder why the game still deals them the starter spread.
The difference from the first game
In Slay the Spire 1, unlocks were silent. Beat a run, and new cards appeared in the pool. You never had to do anything.
Slay the Spire 2 replaced that with the Timeline, a screen built from Epochs. Each Epoch is a milestone with a reward bundle attached. Meeting the condition turns the Epoch gold. Claiming it adds the contents to your game.
The trap is the order. Meeting the condition is not the same as receiving the reward. Unclaimed Epochs do nothing.
Check the Timeline now
If you have played at all, do this before your next run. Main menu, Timeline, look for anything glowing, claim it.
Then do it again every few runs. It takes ten seconds and it is the highest-value ten seconds in the game.
What sits behind an unclaimed Epoch:
| Category | What the claim adds |
|---|---|
| Cards | New cards enter the pools for that character |
| Relics | New relics appear in chests, shops and boss rewards |
| Potions | New potions enter the drop table |
| Characters | Some roster slots open through Epoch progress |
| Ancients | Act-opening Ancients join the rotation |
How Epochs unlock
Two routes feed the same screen.
Route one: run progression. Finishing runs, win or lose, moves things forward. Dying is not wasted time in the meta sense.
Route two: character milestones. Each character carries the same seven-step chain. This is where most of the card pool lives.
| Step | Condition | Typical reward |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Play a run with the character | Opens the next character in the chain |
| 2 | Beat Act 1 | A batch of new cards and relics |
| 3 | Beat Act 2 | A second batch |
| 4 | Beat Act 3 | A third batch, usually including a potion |
| 5 | Kill 15 Elites | A smaller, stronger batch |
| 6 | Kill 15 Bosses | A smaller, stronger batch |
| 7 | Beat Ascension 1 | The character’s late-tier cards |
The lesson is that grinding one character does not just cap that character. It stalls the roster behind it.
The roster order
Five characters, one linear chain. Only Ironclad exists on a fresh save.
| Slot | Character | Unlocked by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ironclad | Available from the start |
| 2 | Silent | Win a run as Ironclad |
| 3 | Regent | Win a run as Silent |
| 4 | Necrobinder | Win a run as Regent |
| 5 | Defect | Win a run as Necrobinder |
So your first Ironclad win is the most valuable run on the account. It is the key that turns one character into five.
Ancients have their own gates
Ancients are the Act-opening relic gods that replaced boss relics. Some are available immediately, some need specific proof.
| Ancient | Unlock condition |
|---|---|
| Neow | Finish your first run |
| Orobas | Play a run with every character |
| Darv | Encounter every other Ancient at least once |
That last one is a chain, not a grind. You cannot farm Darv directly. You have to meet the rest of the pantheon first, which happens naturally across many runs.
The Ancients guide covers all eight, which act each appears in, and how their relic pools are split.
Ancient cards are not unlocked, they are earned mid-run
This is where most searches go wrong. “How to unlock Ancient cards” implies a menu. There is no menu.
Ancient cards arrive inside a run, from an Ancient blessing that rewrites a card you already own. Two examples:
- A blessing that transforms a starter card into its Ancient version, which is how characters reach their signature Ancient card.
- Darv’s character-specific Ancient card, offered as part of his relic choice.
So the answer is not a checklist. It is a run condition: be on the right character, meet the right Ancient, and pick the transforming blessing when it appears.
Miss it and the card does not exist for that run. That is why players report seeing an Ancient card once and never again.
Co-op counts
Epoch progress from co-op runs counts towards the same Timeline. If you play with friends, you are not falling behind.
Solo-only players should still finish the character chains, because the milestone conditions are per character, not per mode.
The one known bug
Before the 0.98.2 hotfix on 6 March 2026, the Timeline screen could freeze. That blocked claiming entirely, which meant blocked unlocks.
If your Timeline will not respond, update first. Anything older than that hotfix had the bug.
A short routine that fixes the pool problem
- After every session, open the Timeline and claim everything glowing.
- Play the character whose chain is least finished, not the one you like most.
- Target the 15-Elite and 15-Boss steps deliberately, because those reward tiers are dense.
- Push Ascension 1 on each character. The final chain step is gated there.
- Rotate through all five at least once, or Orobas never appears.
Do those five things and the card pool catches up to your playtime within a few sessions.
Characters overview covers what each one plays like. Ascension changes explains the climb that gates step seven.