Slay the Spire 2 is here, which means it's time to cast spells against the hordes of unruly monsters that stand in your way. Most of the time spent playing will be fighting various enemies that vary in difficulty. However, along with the normal, elite, and action bosses you'll fight, there's a secret boss that you can completely miss.
Bound to meet the fake merchant, the secret boss is actually this snake oil merchant trying to unload his fake Relics. Here's how to trigger the boss fight and what you get for defeating this enemy.
Dealer??? Secret boss walkthrough
Get the Foul Potion
Your first step in fighting a merchant??? is to get a fake potion from the potion courier. This is an Unknown Event that you can encounter that will give you a choice between getting up to three Fake Potions or one Uncommon Potion. If you want to fight this secret boss, you need to get Foul Potions as they are the only thing you can throw at a merchant to trigger a fight.
You can't get Foul Potions anywhere else and finding this Unknown event will signal that the Merchant??? appears either later in Act 2 or later in Act 3.
Don't waste them on a regular merchant who actually sells you cards, relics, and potions! Throwing them at him will give you 100 gold each instead of triggering a boss fight.
Slay The Spire 2: Multiplayer Guide
Building broken decks with friends.
Throw a fake potion at the merchant???
As for actually finding a fake trader, you'll have to land in an unknown event space and hope they show up. Unlike the normal merchant that appears in every act, you can go multiple times and never see this secret boss. It also seems that the Merchant??? it only has a chance to appear during your exit in Act 2 or 3.
Once you find a fake merchant, yYou will need to have Foul Potion in your inventory to start the fight. While still watching The Merchant???, select corrupted potion and move the arrow to this snake oil merchant. This will cause you to throw the potion at the merchant even though you are not in combat. Doing so will trigger a fight and start a fight with this enemy, so make sure you have the health to really deal with it.
As for the boss fight itself, The Merchant??? has 165 health and boasts attacks that deal 9 to 20 damage each. This puts him within range of a normal mid-level enemy, as he's fairly easy to deal with and doesn't have any unique tricks. You should now be able to destroy this enemy, as they will not appear until a little later in the game.
Since he doesn't have a lot of big, damaging attacks, you can be pretty aggressive when fighting the merchant???.
Dealer??? Boss fight rewards
Defeat the merchant??? he'll actually earn you his entire stash of relics he originally sold, along with his fake carpet (which does nothing) and 300 gold coins. This means that you get 4-6 Relics completely free, which, even though they are smaller versions, still give you benefits that are worth having on the run. Just make sure you actually read what relics do, as some of them have effects that may not be considered beneficial for certain strategies.
Alternatively, if you don't want to fight the Merchant??? you can always throw in all the bad potions like a normal merchant to get 100 gold each. However, I only recommend doing this if you haven't encountered the fake merchant during your run, like defeating the merchant??? they count out the money you would have made by throwing it at a real dealer.
Slay The Spire 2: The Silent Beginner's Guide
Here's what you need to know if you're facing The Silent in Slay The Spire 2.
