The Defect
75 HPMax HP on floor one. No Ascension level changes it.
An automaton eternally modifying itself to survive.
Deploys Orb technology when it must fight.
Gold
99 GoldGold on floor one. No Ascension level changes it; Ascension 3 only cuts what fights and chests drop.
Card pool
88 cardsCards only the Defect finds: 29 Attacks, 39 Skills, 20 Powers. The card list also shows 3 playtest cards, marked, that the live game leaves out.
Starting relic
Cracked CoreIn hand from floor one. Hover the name for what it does.
Cracked CoreIn hand from floor one. Hover the name for what it does.
Play a single run with The Necrobinder to unlock this character.
Starting deck
Defect relics
Defect potions
How the Defect plays
Runs onChannelChanneling an Orb puts it into your first empty slot. If you have no empty slots, your first Orb is automatically Evoked to make room.
Keep reading221 more words
Orb basics
- The Defect has 75 HP, 3 Energy, 99 Gold and three Orb slots.
- Channeling an Orb puts it into the first empty slot. If every slot is full, your first Orb is Evoked automatically to make room.
- Each Orb has a passive that fires every turn while it sits in a slot and a stronger Evoke effect when it is consumed.
The five Orbs
Lightning hits a random enemy for 3 a turn and 8 on Evoke.
Frost is 2 Block a turn and 5 on Evoke.- Dark adds 6 to its Evoke every turn, then hits the enemy with the least HP.
Plasma is 1 Energy a turn and 2 on Evoke.- Glass hits every enemy for 4 a turn, dropping by 1 each turn, and Evokes for double that.
Focus adds its amount to every Orb value except Plasma's.
Starting deck and relic
- The starting deck is ten cards: four Strike, four Defend, one Zap, Channel 1 Lightning for 1 Energy, and one Dualcast, Evoke the rightmost Orb twice for 1.
Its relic, Cracked Core, Channels 1 Lightning on the first turn of every combat, so Dualcast on turn 1 is 16 damage for 1 Energy.
Playstyle
- Its damage is mostly passive and random-target: strong against groups, slow to focus one enemy.
Defect orbs
Defect card pool
Adaptive Strike
Attack
2
Deal 18 damage.
Add a 0 copy of this card into your Discard Pile.
Add a 0 copy of this card into your Discard Pile.
Quadcast
Skill
1
Evoke your rightmost Orb 4 times.
Biased Cognition
Power
1
Gain 4 Focus.
At the start of your turn, lose 1 Focus.
At the start of your turn, lose 1 Focus.
All for One
Attack
2
Deal 10 damage.
Put ALL 0 cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand.
Put ALL 0 cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand.
Genetic Algorithm
Skill
1
Gain 1 Block.
Permanently increase this card's Block by 3.
Exhaust.
Permanently increase this card's Block by 3.
Exhaust.
Buffer
Power
2
Prevent the next time you would lose HP.
Flak Cannon
Attack
2
Exhaust ALL your Status cards.
Deal 8 damage to a random enemy for each card Exhausted.
Deal 8 damage to a random enemy for each card Exhausted.
Ignition
Skill
1
Another player Channels Plasma.
Exhaust.
Exhaust.
Consuming Shadow
Power
2
Channel 2 Dark.
At the end of your turn, Evoke your leftmost Orb.
At the end of your turn, Evoke your leftmost Orb.
Helix Drill
Attack
0
Deal 3 damage for each previously spent this turn.
Modded
Skill
0
Gain 1 Orb Slot.
Draw 1 card. Increase this card's cost by 1.
Draw 1 card. Increase this card's cost by 1.
Coolant
Power
1
At the start of your turn, gain 2 Block for each unique Orb you have.
+79 moreSee all Defect cardsOur picks
DefragmentPower1Gain 1 Focus.
GlacierSkill2Gain 6 Block.
Channel 2 Frost.- All for OneAttack2Deal 10 damage.
Put ALL 0 cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand. 
Echo FormPower3Ethereal.
The first card you play each turn is played an extra time.
Machine LearningPower1At the start of your turn, draw 1 additional card.
What to pick up
Fixing early Block
- The starting deck has only four Defends, so early fights drain HP.
- Glacier is the best fix: 6 Block and two Frost for 2 Energy, then 4 more Block at the end of every turn.
- Ice Lance deals 19 damage and Channels three Frost, enough for the first elites.
Go for the Eyes costs 0, applies Weak to an enemy about to attack and stays useful all run.- Strikes are the first cards to remove.
The Frost plan
- The strongest plan blocks with Frost and deals damage with attacks.
- Defragment is the only permanent Focus a card reward can offer: 1 Focus raises three Frost from 6 to 9 Block a turn, or 12 upgraded, and every Lightning hits harder.
- The Ancient cards Biased Cognition and Quadcast never appear as rewards.
- Echo Form plays the first card each turn twice and helps any deck in long fights, but costs 3 and is Ethereal until upgraded.
- Machine Learning costs 1 Energy once and draws an extra card every turn, so each plan finds its pieces sooner.
The 0-cost pool
- The pool is full of 0-cost cards.
- All for One deals 10 damage, 14 upgraded, and puts every 0-cost card in the discard pile back into the hand.
- Upgraded Zap and Dualcast cost 0 as well, so it fits most decks, not only Claw builds.
Status decks run Overclock, Boost Away and TURBO, which cost 0 and add a Status. Each Status makes Rocket Punch cost 0 until it is played.
Keep reading58 more words
Upgrade order
- Upgrade Defragment first, then Buffer, which stops two HP losses instead of one, and Machine Learning, which becomes Innate.
- Glacier gains only 3 Block from an upgrade and can wait.
Ball Lightning and Sweeping Beam are traps: fine on the first floors, but taking them after Act 1 lowers a run's odds of winning.
Notes
The Defect is the last character in the unlock chain: play a run as the Necrobinder, won or lost, and it appears on the Timeline afterwards.- Cracked Core only fires on turn 1. Plasma ignores Focus entirely.
- Focus can go negative but cannot push an Orb's value below 0.
Tempest and Multi-Cast upgraded use X plus 1.- Modded raises its own cost by 1 each play, and Momentum Strike costs 0 for the rest of the combat after its first play.
Biased Cognition and Quadcast, which Evokes the rightmost Orb 4 times for 1 Energy, are its Ancient cards.
Changes by version
- Fixed Defect's power-up animation freezing when interrupted while playing Echo Form card
- Added new multiplayer Defect cards; Hibernate: Uncommon - Skill - Cost 2 - "Channel 2(3) Frost. This turn, your Frost grants ALL allies Block."; One For All: Rare - Power - Cost 1 - "EVERYONE'S 0 energy Attacks deal 3(4) additional damage."; Imitation Learning: Rare - Skill - Cost 1 - "Choose another player. The next 2(3) times they play a Power, you play a copy of it. Exhaust."
- Defect power up
All 35 patch notes32 older
- Added Defect power up animation
- Fixed state divergence related to Defect orb passives triggering during a player choice
- 12 Mar 2026Bug fixFixed an issue when viewing run histories in Russian where the player played as The Defect
- The unlock instructions for The Regent, Necrobinder, and Defect now display the name of the pre-requisite character instead of ??? if that character is unlocked
- Updated some Epoch text
- Defect's 2nd card unlock set unlocks Flak Cannon rather than IterationChangeTURBOScavengeFeralSupercriticalInternal playtestDefect's last card unlock set unlocks Turbo and Scavenge rather than Feral and Supercritical
- Defect's Black Beam card renamed to NullBug fixCompactSubroutineSmokestackInternal playtestUpdated atlas references for renamed Defect cards (Compact, Subroutine, Smokestack)
- Added new Defect Chapter 6 Epoch
- Unlocking Defect now requires playing a run with the Necrobinder now (was reversed)
- This week's patch brings a big balance pass as well as some reworked cards, relics, and enemies. The Defect also gets a few new cards this week!
- Defect: Energy Surge, IgnitionChangeNeowTURBOBoost AwayGunk UpInternal playtestChanged Neow's Bundle blessing: Defect's Evolve/Turbo/Boost Away bundle changed to Compactor/Gunk Up/Boost Away
- Changed Seeking Strike card: moved card pools from Defect to Colorless
- Bug fixInternal playtestSearching Status cards in Compendium now shows Defect cards with the term "Status" in its description
- Updated Defect Epoch textBug fixBig MushroomInternal playtestFixed orbs touching relics when Defect's scale increased from the Big Mushroom relic
- Some Defect-related unlock text is now more accurate and colorful
- Added a missing period to The Defect's character selection screen descriptionTextInternal playtestRemoved stray quotation mark from Defect's "Ooh Shiny!" Epoch description
- Necrobinder and Defect continue to get content and balance passes as we clean up some bugs from a lot of the combat logic cleanups which we're still bringing in
- Added various placeholder Epoch portraits
- Now consistently using "rightmost orb" wording instead of "next orb" wording on Defect cards
- Can receive Defect cards from Orobas and Colorful Philosophers event now
- The Defect is playable again!
- Colorful Philosophers event no longer shows you Necrobinder or Defect cards
- Necrobinder and Defect cards are now prevented from showing up via Prismatic Shard relic
- Added colored card trails for Silent, Defect, Regent, Necrobinder
- Added some logic to lock Necrobinder and Defect for now
- Updated Defect orb art
- The Defect's end-of-turn orb effects now trigger before your hand is discarded
- Fixed Defect animation
- Added casting animation to Defect cardsArtInternal playtestAdded character icon for DefectArtInternal playtestAdded in Defect combat animationsArtInternal playtestAdded Defect animations & set blendingArtInternal playtestImplemented Defect character selectArtInternal playtestImplemented Defect energy artArtInternal playtestImplemented Defect orb artArtInternal playtestImplemented Defect rest site artArtInternal playtestTweaked Defect proportionsInterfaceInternal playtestDefect orbs now stick around after the combat victory
- Defect now starts with orbs during Battleworn Dummy event
Internal playtest notes are from before the Early Access release. Names and numbers in them can differ from the game today.
Goes well with
Defect+Regent
- Hammer Time hands the Defect a Sovereign Blade that grows every time the Regent Forges: single-target damage its random Orbs do not have.
- Ignition gives the Regent a Plasma orb and with it 1 Energy every turn for the fight.
- Energy Surge gives both players 2 Energy in one card.
History
The story ofThe Defect7 chapters of the Timeline, from Blight to Invitation, and the first game
The first game Slay the Spire, character selectSlay the Spire (2019)
The Defect was one of the four who climbed in the first game, which introduced it as
A combat automaton from the Spire that became self-aware.
Blight Chapter 1 of 7Laser Beams
The Defect punctured the Heart with a magnificently charged BEEEAAAAM!!
Mission accomplished...?
Damage Sustained: <CRITICAL>Next Objective:
Relocate to Scrapyard for evaluation.
Flourish Chapter 2 of 7Hello! Hello!
In the Scrapyard the Defect pondered its fate and purpose.
Is being okay at a host of functions not desirable? Do we all need to excel at a distinct function? While processing these questions—
“Hello!” pops out another construct.
“Hello!” Defect responds.
“My name is Flaw!”
Flourish Chapter 3 of 7Resolving Bugs
Defect and Flaw fast became friends and exited the Scrapyard; it was sad there.
They return to the Spire’s mid floors and are met with a MASSIVE BUG INFESTATION!!
The pair get to work in an attempt to reduce the bugs to a reasonable level.
Flourish Chapter 4 of 7Confrontation
They confronted the source of the worst bugs:
A toxic wasp colony residing in triangular nests.PYEEEEWWWW!!
The Defect empties its energy reserves and tears the hexapolis wide open!
The Flaw fires a salvo of laser pulses to keep the cloud of stinging retaliation at bay!It's not enough.
Invitation Chapter 5 of 7Booting Up
The Defect reboots!
Surrounded by a wreckage of molten metal, ash, and thousands of dead bugs!?
DATA LOG: <CORRUPT>.Its core barely held together, limbs barely responsive, the Defect scavenges broken panels and pieces from other constructs to patch itself together.
Invitation Chapter 6 of 7Tricked
Neow resurrected the defective construct, no simple feat even for an Ancient.
“Construct... what you.. ..lost....
Your creator... ..abandoned you.. ...hides..... at the... ..top...”
The Defect thanks Neow and heads for the top, seeking answers.
Invitation Chapter 7 of 7Ooh Shiny!
The Defect entered a disorderly chamber filled with treasures, trinkets, weapons, exotic animals, art pieces, books, and all manner of junk and doodads.
The amount of disorder and information is overwhelming for the poor Defect’s processing core.
“Outta tha way!” Shouts a megafaunal humanoid riding a threat-level: 9 reptile, but then stops in its tracks and turns to the Defect with a strange grin.
“I've got somethin' for ya!”
Purchase today
If you haven't bought Slay The Spire 2 yet, it's time. Support the devs, they made an amazing game.
Get it on Steam