The Spirit Lift: Comprehensive Game Guide, Tips, and Tricks

Introduction to The Spirit Lift

"THE SPIRIT LIFT" is a retro horror deckbuilder roguelike game that immerses players in a haunted 1990s hotel. Players guide a team of teenagers through 13 floors filled with monsters, mayhem, and secrets, all while utilizing a magic elevator. The game blends familiar deck-building gameplay with a survival horror twist, featuring stylish visual flair and a turn-based combat system.

Core Gameplay Mechanics

At its heart, "THE SPIRIT LIFT" is a dungeon-crawler where players explore randomly generated rooms within the Vexington Hotel. The primary objective is to reach the penthouse and defeat one of the hotel's charismatic bosses. Along the way, players gather cards, gold, and gear to strengthen their team. The game features turn-based card battles where players use an equipment deck to fight creatures. If a run ends in permadeath, players restart, but with lessons learned for the next attempt.

Character Selection and Initial Strategy

One of the most crucial strategic decisions in "THE SPIRIT LIFT" occurs at the start of each run: choosing your team of three characters. This selection is vital as your starting team directly determines your initial strategy, providing a different deck of cards and unique gear items. For instance, Sako might offer cards like Tennis Rackets, while Briar focuses on art and healing cards. The chosen characters also react differently as the story unfolds, and their relationships and individual strengths can be utilized to bypass dilemmas. Cards found later in the hotel will often fit the archetypes of your chosen characters, emphasizing the importance of wise initial choices.

Navigating the Vexington Hotel

Players navigate through hallways and wander from room to room across 13 haunted floors. Rooms can contain surprises such as gold, useful cards, and equipment, but also monsters that must be defeated to progress. Engaging in combat and events is crucial for leveling up, strengthening your deck, and earning money for the shop. While it's possible to avoid some conflict by not entering every room, doing so will likely result in a weaker deck later on due to missed experience points. Exploring also allows players to uncover clues and evidence that reveal the backstory of the Vexington Hotel.

Mastering Card Combat

Combat in "THE SPIRIT LIFT" is turn-based and plays out similarly to other deckbuilding roguelikes, where enemy intentions are displayed, and you use your hand of cards to attack and defend. Key mechanics to master include:

Each enemy gets one action per turn, so the goal is to eliminate them before they can eliminate your team.

Deckbuilding and the Spirit Shop

Deckbuilding in "THE SPIRIT LIFT" involves making choices between two cards found in rooms, which can add a random element to your deck's evolution. As you gain experience, you'll find new cards and relics, and have the ability to upgrade your existing cards. The game allows for blending four different deck focuses to customize your playstyle and progression.

The Spirit Shop, accessible from the main menu, is a vital component for long-term progression. Here, you spend accumulated points to unlock various modifiers that can significantly boost your runs. These modifiers include increasing starting health, gold, and adding additional gear slots. Early acquisition of more gear slots is highly recommended. The shop also offers options like skipping upgrades for a small heal, or even making the game harder for additional challenges.

Progression and Unlocks

"THE SPIRIT LIFT" encourages repeated playthroughs. Death is an expected part of the experience, and each run, even failed ones, contributes to your overall progression. New characters, bosses, and events are unlocked by playing multiple times and experimenting with different strategies. Interestingly, simply abandoning runs can also lead to unlocking new characters. The game's progression system rewards the volume of attempts, allowing players to learn from each run and refine their approach. Mysterious files found during exploration are tied to the deeper story and unlock lore and content through challenges in the Library.

Surviving the Higher Floors

The first few floors of the Vexington Hotel are generally manageable. However, the difficulty significantly increases from floor 9 onwards, with monsters becoming much harder to defeat. Players should be prepared for permadeath and use lessons from previous runs to adapt. Maximizing resource management and ensuring your deck is as strong as possible before reaching these later floors is crucial for survival. Runs typically average around 30 minutes, making it feasible to iterate and learn quickly.