Slay the Spire 2 is here, which means it’s time to sling spells against hordes of unruly monsters standing in your way. Most of your time spent playing will be battling a variety of enemies that range in difficulty. However, along with the normal, Elite, and Act bosses you’ll battle, there is a secret boss you can completely miss.
Tied to the fake merchant encounter, the secret boss is actually this snake oil salesman who is trying to offload his fake Relics. Here is how to trigger the boss fight and what you get for beating this foe.
The Merchant??? Secret Boss Walkthrough
Acquire A Foul Potion
Your first step in fighting The Merchant??? is to acquire a Foul Potion from the Potion Courier. This is an Unknown event that you can encounter, which will give you the choice between getting up to three Foul Potions or one Uncommon Potion. If you want to fight this secret boss, you need to acquire the Foul Potions as they’re the only thing you can throw at the merchant to trigger the fight.
You cannot get Foul Potions anywhere else, and finding this Unknown event will signal that the Merchant??? will appear either later in Act 2 or down the road in Act 3.
Do not waste these on the regular merchant that actually sells you cards, relics, and potions! Throwing them at him will net you 100 gold coins each instead of triggering a boss fight.
Slay The Spire 2: Multiplayer Guide
Building broken decks with friends.
Throw The Foul Potion At The Merchant???
When it comes to actually finding the fake merchant, you’ll need to land on an Unknown event space and hope that he appears. Unlike the normal merchant who shows up throughout each Act, you can go multiple runs and never see this secret boss. Also, it appears that The Merchant??? only has a chance to appear during your ascent in either Act 2 or Act 3.
Once you’ve found the fake merchant, you will need to have a Foul Potion in your inventory to trigger the fight. While still looking at The Merchant???, select the Foul Potion and move the arrow over to this snake oil salesman. This will cause you to toss the potion at the merchant despite not being in combat. Doing so will trigger a fight will trigger a fight with this enemy, so make sure you have the health to actually deal with him.
As for the boss fight itself, The Merchant??? has 165 health and boasts attacks that deal between 9 to 20ish damage each. This puts him in the range of a mid-tier normal enemy, as he’s pretty easy to deal with and doesn’t have any unique gimmicks. By now, you should be able to burst this foe down, as he won’t appear until a little later in the game.
Since he doesn’t have a ton of big, damaging attacks, you can be pretty aggressive when battling The Merchant???.
The Merchant??? Boss Fight Rewards
Defeating The Merchant??? will actually earn you his entire stock of Relics that he was originally selling, along with his fake rug (which does nothing), and 300 gold coins. This means you will get between 4–6 Relics completely free, which, while lesser versions, still provide you with benefits that are worth having on a run. Just make sure to actually read what the Relics do, as some of them have effects that may not be seen as beneficial to certain strategies.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to fight The Merchant??? you can always throw all the Foul Potions like the normal merchant to earn 100 gold a piece. However, I only recommend doing this if you haven’t encountered the fake merchant during your run, as defeating the Merchant??? will net you the money you’d make throwing them at the real vendor in the first place.
Slay The Spire 2: The Silent Beginner’s Guide
Here is what you need to know if you’re struggling with The Silent in Slay The Spire 2.
