Slay the Spire exam
Note: The original version of the exam has been modified with several errata; please see the updated version below (and check back for likely future errata).
This is a written exam about the video game Slay the Spire. Why does such a thing exist, you might ask? The main reason is that I thought it would be really funny. Also, I think it's a cool way to share some tactics puzzles and some fun trivia about the game. But mostly it's for the memes.
The exam was released on 2025-08-28. The solutions will be released no earlier than 1 week later (2025-09-04), so that people have time to try it. (I may delay longer, if people are still having fun or if anyone requests it or if I'm busy playing Silksong.)
If you have a written submission and would like me to check your answers, feel free to send it to me. If you don't want to write things up but just want live commentary as you look at it and answer some of the questions, I would also enjoy hanging out in your STS Discord stream or Twitch chat or whatever, just let me know.
Exam PDF [version 2: 2025-08-31]
Solutions PDF [to be released]
Errata:
1a,1b,1c,1h,1i: minor rewording for clarity.
1e: major rewording to patch unintended solutions.
1g: added clarification regarding Reaper and Wallop.
1j: changed the number 25 to 46.
2b: temporarily removed, as my computations were extremely wrong.
2e: added new extra credit question.
Some commentary: The exam is unreasonably long and difficult. You probably shouldn't attempt the whole thing in one sitting, though I'm not stopping you. The idea is to have fun; some questions might strike you as unreasonable amounts of work, in which case you should skip them. Of course, if you send me a submission, it will be graded, but yknow it's not like it counts for anything.
The SHA256 of the solutions PDF is b5d75fef