When I tried out the Slay the Spire board game in 2024, I was really impressed by how well it adapted the videogame to the tabletop—and especially its clever addition of a co-op mode (nearly two years before Slay the Spire 2 did it!).
I assumed, though, that it was a one-and-done box. The base game covers everything in the original Slay the Spire, there wasn’t anything left to add. But now publisher Contention Games is back with a Kickstarter campaign for a new expansion, and it’s drawing on an unusual source for its content: one of the game’s most popular user-made mods.
Downfall is based on the beloved mod of the same name, with the same simple hook: what if you could play as the bad guys? The set will let you play as the Slime Boss, Hexaghost, and Guardian enemies, as well as the mod’s one standard hero, the Hermit. Each comes with its own player board, full selection of cards, and miniature.
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It also comes with new enemies and bosses to fight—including versions of the heroes from the base game—as well as extra relics, potions, colourless cards, and more.
I can’t think of any other examples of a board game adaptation of a videogame basing expansion content on a mod (correct me in the comments if you can think of one!). It’s certainly testament to the enduring success of Downfall—despite being fan-made, it practically holds the position of being an official add-on in the community’s eyes, with an Overwhelmingly Positive rating based on over 2000 reviews on its Steam page.
If you choose to pledge on the Kickstarter page, you can get a copy of the new expansion, and you can also get a bundle including the base game if you don’t own it. As ever with these board game campaigns, however, it’s not cheap—it’s $84 for just Downfall, $119 for a collector’s edition with upgraded components, and $268 for the bundle with the collector’s edition of the base game, and those aren’t even the most expensive tiers.
So, is it worth it? Well, as I said in my impressions back then, I’m of two minds about the game. On the one hand it’s about as perfect a recreation of Slay the Spire on the tabletop as you could want, and boasts tons of content and a really premium feel. On the other, it’s so completely faithful that it’s hard not to directly compare it to the videogame, which offers a far quicker, easier, and cheaper version of the experience.
Now that we have Slay the Spire 2 it’s maybe even a harder question to answer. We now have a more modernised, updated sequel to play, and the board game doesn’t include any of the changes or updates that people have been enjoying there. That may make it feel a little outdated today.
But if you are keen to add Downfall to your collection, you’ve still got until April 8th by my reckoning to back the Kickstarter. Alternatively, the more patient among you should be pretty safe waiting for it to come to retail—unlike many crowdfunded board games, the base game has been pretty widely available in stores over the last two years, so I’d expect about the same for Downfall.
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