Is Golden Compass good in Slay the Spire 2?

Golden Compass is a relic offered by the Act 2 ancient Tezcatara in Slay the Spire 2. It replaces the standard Act 2 Hive map with a fixed Golden Compass path that always has the same layout.

From Tezcatara - Colorless
Upon pickup, replace the Act 2 Map with a single special path.

Short answer: Golden Compass is usually a situational pick: it is safer than an average Hive Act 2 route and comes with two guaranteed treasure chests, but can be weaker than keeping normal map flexibility and taking one of the other two relics in your Tezcatara offer.

Golden Compass drop chance

Drop chance: It is only offered by the Act 2 ancient Tezcatara in its third option slot. The chance to appear is 33.33% as it is drawn uniformly from the pool of Golden Compass, Pumpkin Candle, Toy Box. As Tezcatara is chosen as Act 2's ancient only 29.17% of the time (Darv can be assigned to either Act 2 or Act 3), the total probability of it being offered is 9.72%.

All listed data is from patch version v0.99.1.

Golden Compass map path

It replaces the random Act 2 Hive Map with a fixed Golden Compass Map that always has the same layout:

Golden Compass vs normal Act 2 Hive map

To figure out if Golden Compass is a good pickup, we need to compare it to the standard Act 2 Hive map. If you took an average random path through Act 2, you'd encounter the following distribution of resolved rooms instead (after Unknown ? nodes are rolled):

We assume both Ascension Map modifiers are enabled:

• SwarmingElites changes the target elite count from 5 to 8
• Gloom reduces the act-specific rest count by 1

Now, the good part about normal Act 2, and a big downside of the Golden Compass Map, is that your actual route is not the average route. You can optimize it for the exact nodes you need: if you want to take on more elites or visit a second shop, you can do that.

Practically, the biggest differences to the standard Act 2 Hive Map are:

• The Compass Map has 17 floors compared with Hive's 15 floors. You gain two more floors with the Compass map, which can increase your economy and allow you to scale more for Act 3.
• You get 2 guaranteed treasure chests, one more than on Hive.
• Every Compass-owned "Unknown" node resolves to Event, not the normal mixed pool (Monster: 10%, Treasure: 2%, Shop: 3%, Event: 85%)
• On average, Golden Compass gives much more recovery (4 rest sites vs ~2.3), far fewer normal monster fights (3 vs ~6.1), many more events (4 vs ~1.8), and double the treasure (2 vs ~1.1).

Does Golden Compass work in Multiplayer?

Yes. If a single player picks up the relic in Multiplayer, the shared path will be replaced for everyone. The map change to Golden Compass in Multiplayer is that the third entry from the default list (the second Monster encounter) is removed.

Note that Multiplayer also removes one floor from standard Acts, so the benefit of 2 additional floors from Golden Compass still holds when playing with friends.

Is Golden Compass worth taking?

What makes Golden Compass weak is that it trades away both route flexibility and the chance to take one of the two other relics Tezcatara rolled for you. You should judge Golden Compass against two things at once: the normal Hive map you are giving up, and the other two relics in the current Tezcatara offer.

The best strategy if Golden Compass is offered to you is to plan your full Act 2 route ahead of time, count the encounters you'll have and compare it to the encounters you will receive in the Golden Compass map listed above. You can then decide if the additional nodes you'd encounter are worth giving up the other offered relics.

Don't forget that Golden Compass forces you into a single linear path, meaning you are giving up optionality that comes with the standard Act 2 Hive map. On the standard map, you can pivot to a different path later on which is useful if you end up taking more damage than you expected.

Overall, Golden Compass is a situational relic that is usually a skip on lower Ascension levels and gets better on higher ones (increased Elite rates and reduced rest sites on standard Act 2 map). So, is Golden Compass good in Slay the Spire 2? Usually no, unless your run needs a safer scripted Act 2 or the other relics offered are bad for your build.