Silent Guide
Control the hand first. Let Poison or Shivs do the killing.
Silent's dependable engine is card flow: draw, discard, Retain and Sly. Take immediate damage and one group answer first. Add Poison or Shiv payoffs only when the deck already has a way to find them and survive while they work.
Start with the engine
How Silent actually wins
Ring of the Snake gives Silent a seven-card opening hand, but ten of her twelve starting cards are plain Strike or Defend. She sees more cards than other characters; the real task is turning that volume into a useful turn instead of a larger hand of basics.
Discard and Sly form the most flexible Main-branch chassis. Poison gives the deck a clock for long fights, while Shivs reward repeated attacks and cards played. Neither package replaces Block, Weak or card flow. In the strongest decks, those systems share the work rather than competing for a pure label.
Floor-one priorities
Act 1: draft answers, not a fantasy deck
- 01 Fix immediate damage
Predator, Dagger Throw, Poisoned Stab, Ricochet and Dash can win the next fights without asking for a full package.
- 02 Add one group-fight answer
Flick-Flack, Echoing Slash or Dagger Spray prevents a multi-enemy floor from eating the health you hoped to save for an elite.
- 03 Do not draft Sly backwards
The starting deck has only Survivor as an active discard. Find Prepared, Acrobatics or another repeatable discard tool before filling the deck with expensive Sly cards.
- 04 Build in a useful order
Immediate damage, one area answer, basic defense, then card flow and scaling. Three Powers before the deck can survive a setup turn is not a build.
- 05 Prefer cards with two jobs
Poisoned Stab, Dagger Throw and Cloak and Dagger help now and still fit a later package. That is safer than a payoff that is blank until two other cards arrive.
Three packages to recognize
Silent builds that have a real game plan
Treat these as packages, not shopping lists. Move in when you already own the signal cards; keep taking standalone answers when the package has not shown up.
Sly discard loop
Turn discard from a cost into free cards, damage, Block and Energy while cycling to the deck's real answer.
- Core cards
- Prepared · Acrobatics · Calculated Gamble · Reflex · Tactician · Tools of the Trade
- Support
- Speedster · Ricochet · Serpent Form · Escape Plan · Backflip
- Relics
- Tingsha · Tough Bandages · Letter Opener · Ring of the Drake
How a turn plays: Draw before choosing the discard so newly drawn Sly cards can be played for free. Expand the hand, play anything that must not be lost, then use Calculated Gamble on what remains.
What breaks it: Expensive Sly cards arriving before active discard. End-of-turn discard does not trigger Sly, Tingsha or Tough Bandages, so the deck needs deliberate enablers.
Poison with a defense shell
Set a damage clock, then use draw, Weak and Block to survive while Poison handles scaling enemies.
- Core cards
- Poisoned Stab · Bubble Bubble · Bouncing Flask · Noxious Fumes · Accelerant
- Support
- Backflip · Footwork · Leg Sweep · Afterimage · Well-Laid Plans
- Relics
- Snecko Skull · Twisted Funnel · Paper Krane · Ring of the Drake
How a turn plays: Apply Poison before Bubble Bubble or other payoffs. Use card flow to find the scaler and keep enough Weak and Block to give it a second deck cycle.
What breaks it: Taking only Poison cards. Slow damage without draw and defense means the enemy gets more turns than the deck can afford.
Shiv multi-hit
Generate cheap attacks, then make every Shiv carry damage, Block or relic triggers beyond its printed number.
- Core cards
- Leading Strike · Cloak and Dagger · Hidden Daggers · Accuracy · Phantom Blades
- Support
- Fan of Knives · Knife Trap · Afterimage · Strangle · Serpent Form
- Relics
- Kunai · Shuriken · Helical Dart · Ninja Scroll
How a turn plays: Play Accuracy, Afterimage and Weak effects before unloading Shivs. Count attack thresholds for Kunai or Shuriken and keep enough hand space for the generated cards.
What breaks it: Collecting generators with no payoff. Extra one-off Shivs can clog the hand and still fail damage checks when no card or relic scales them.
Items worth changing your plan for
Recommended relics and why they fit
Tough Bandages
Active discard becomes Block, so the engine can cycle and defend in the same action.
Natural end-of-turn discard does not trigger it.Snecko Skull
Each application adds more Poison, improving every repeatable source instead of only one finisher.
It still needs real Poison applications to matter.Paper Krane
Neutralize gives Silent a Weak source from floor one, so stronger Weak immediately reduces incoming damage.
Plan for enemies that resist or cleanse debuffs.Ring of the Drake
Extra draw across the first three turns helps Powers and engine pieces enter play before the fight accelerates.
It is an upgrade opportunity, not a relic you can assume every run will receive.Kunai
Shiv turns can convert repeated attacks into Dexterity and a durable defense plan.
Do not force low-quality attacks when the threshold is not reliable.Execution wins close fights
How to pilot the deck cleanly
- Prepared and Acrobatics draw before you discard, so a newly drawn Sly card can be the card you throw away and play for free.
- Do not press Calculated Gamble immediately. Play must-keep cards and expand the hand first, then redraw the weakest remainder.
- Price a Sly card by the discard access in your deck, not by its best-case free play. Without an enabler, the printed Energy cost is real.
- In Poison turns, apply Poison before Bubble Bubble or Mirage. In Shiv turns, put Powers, Weak and Tracking in place before the multi-hit sequence.
- Beta Well-Laid Plans costs 2 before upgrade. Install it on a safe turn; spending the whole turn to feel clever later is often how the run loses HP now.
- A mixed deck is normal: Sly can provide the engine, Poison or Shivs the clock, and Footwork or Weak the survival plan.
Common mistakes
- Calling the run a Poison build because the first reward was Poisoned Stab. A useful transition card is not yet an engine.
- Taking several Sly cards before finding active discard. Build the trigger side before raising Sly density.
- Taking Poison but no draw or defense. The damage needs enough turns to tick.
- Adding every Shiv generator without Accuracy, Knife Trap or relic payoffs. More tokens alone do not solve scaling.
- Filling Act 1 with Powers because the opening hand is large. Each Power still consumes Energy and a setup turn.
- Using Main text to explain Beta Haze, Outbreak, Mirage or Well-Laid Plans. Their jobs changed, not just their numbers.
Current experimental branch
What Beta v0.111.0 changes for Silent
Beta v0.111.0 keeps the Poison and retention reworks, then changes Mirage to a 1-cost-at-both-levels card that Exhausts until upgraded. The branch is still young, so this guide calls the package improved rather than declaring a solved best build.
Poison gains a practical group-fight setup and defense tool, while discard loses one premium Sly target.
The card now compresses setup and payoff into one explosive turn instead of rewarding repeated applications over time.
The upgraded card remains the repeatable form, while the base card is a one-time Poison-to-Block conversion.
The ceiling is much higher, but the unupgraded setup turn is substantially slower.
Go one layer deeper