Vigor is a damage coupon with no expiry date. It adds a flat number to your next Attack card, and it sits there until you spend it.
That sounds trivial. It is not, because Vigor is the only common buff in Slay the Spire 2 that your own card choice can throw away.
The rule in one line
Your next Attack deals X additional damage, where X is your Vigor. Then the Vigor empties.
Ten Vigor, a 12-damage attack, 22 damage out. Same card, ten extra damage, one buff consumed.
Three details make it playable:
- Only Attacks spend it. Skills and Powers leave it intact, so you can set up freely.
- It stacks as Intensity. Several sources add together before you attack.
- It is Conserved between turns. Nothing decays at end of turn, so hoarding works.
Every source, with real numbers
The Vigor pool is small, which makes it easy to memorise.
| Source | Type | Vigor |
|---|---|---|
| Akabeko | Relic | 8 at the start of each combat |
| Terraforming | Regent Skill, 1 Energy | 6 (8 upgraded) |
| Patter | Regent Skill, 1 Energy | 2 (3 upgraded), plus 8 Block |
| Prep Time | Colorless Power, 1 Energy | 4 (6 upgraded) at the start of each turn |
| Terror Eel’s Thrash | Enemy move | Gives itself 6 Vigor |
Two things fall out of that table.
Akabeko is the cheapest access. One relic, 8 Vigor, every combat, no Energy spent. For a deck full of single big attacks it is close to a permanent +8 on your opener.
Prep Time turns Vigor into a per-turn resource. Four Vigor every turn, six upgraded, means the buff refreshes whether you spend it or not. Hold it one turn and you are sitting on eight or twelve.
Why Terraforming and Patter want different decks
Terraforming is pure Vigor for 1 Energy. On its own it does nothing this turn, so it only earns its slot if the following attack is large and cheap enough to justify the setup cost.
Patter pays 8 Block and 2 Vigor for the same Energy. It is the safer card and the weaker payoff. Defensive Regent shells take Patter; shells that end fights with one swing take Terraforming.
The wiki’s current numbers differ slightly from the game card data on Terraforming, which lists 6 base and 8 upgraded against the wiki’s 7 and 10. Values moved between patches, so check your build before trusting either.
The mistake that costs the most damage
Vigor empties on the next Attack played. Any Attack. Including the 0-cost poke you threw out to draw a card.
That is the whole skill of the keyword: order your turn so the biggest attack eats the stack. Play your Skills first, your Powers whenever, and your weak Attacks only after the buff is spent.
The second mistake is the opposite one. Players burn Vigor immediately because it feels like a resource sitting idle. Since it is conserved between turns, banking it across a turn boundary is usually correct on Regent, where a single Forge or Star attack can absorb the whole stack.
What is still unclear
Multi-hit attacks. The wiki’s live wording describes a flat bonus to the next Attack, while an earlier revision of the same page said the damage applied per hit. Those two readings produce wildly different numbers on a multi-hit card.
Until someone tests it against a known multi-hit attack, treat the flat reading as the default and do not build a combo around the per-hit one.
Short version
Vigor is a stored hit. Play it on the biggest attack you have, keep it through your setup cards, and let it ride across a turn if nothing good is available.
The Doom keyword is the same idea with a different trigger. Card tier list ranks the attacks worth spending Vigor on.