Choose a Map Route You Can Survive
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Open the map and follow the connected paths before choosing your next room. A useful Slay the Spire 2 route gives you chances to improve your deck while leaving enough health to survive what comes after. Your cards, potions and remaining HP should guide that choice.
Read the route before committing
Use the map legend to distinguish normal monsters, Elites, Rest Sites, unknown rooms, treasure, the Merchant and the boss. Trace a reachable path toward the boss and note where it offers another choice. A nearby room is only useful if your path connects to it. Community wiki: map locations
Compare the next few encounters as a sequence. One Elite followed by a reachable Rest Site is a different decision from committing to several dangerous fights before any recovery. When two routes look similarly useful, prefer one that leaves a connected alternative if the first fight goes poorly. Untapped.gg’s map guide
Do this before entering the branch. Once you have committed, you cannot jump sideways to a room on an unrelated path. Reopen the map after a reward or a costly fight and adjust at the next available branch.
Earn rewards without forcing Elites
Normal fights provide card rewards and Gold, with a chance of a potion. Elites are tougher encounters that also reward a relic. Avoiding every fight can leave you with fewer ways to improve the deck. Taking every Elite can end the run before those rewards help. Community wiki: combat rewards
Before choosing an Elite, look at how your last fights went. Were you able to deal damage promptly? Did you have enough defense when enemies attacked? Is a useful potion available? Keep room for an awkward draw; a route that requires every turn to go perfectly is a poor first-run bet.
A question-mark room is not guaranteed recovery. It can reveal an event, a monster, the Merchant or treasure. Read an event’s costs before accepting an option, especially when it asks for HP you may need in the next fight.
Choose Rest or Smith deliberately
The usual Rest Site choice is between Rest and Smith. Rest normally heals 30% of maximum HP, rounded down; Smith upgrades a card. You usually choose one action, and relics or other effects can change the available options. Read the choices shown. Community wiki: Rest Sites
Consider whether the upgrade improves a card you can use in the coming encounters. If your health leaves little room for a bad hand, healing may be worth more. There is no single HP threshold that decides this for every deck.
Give your Gold a purpose
The Merchant sells cards, relics and potions, and offers card removal. Inspect the whole shop and the displayed prices before buying. A potion for the next difficult fight may help more immediately than another card. Community wiki: The Merchant
Use card reward and deck decisions to compare adding, upgrading and removing cards. Then practise turn planning and Block so you arrive at the next map choice with more HP to spend.