Slay the Princess The Pristine Cut: all Princesses and routes from worst to best

Our personal ranking of all the different Princesses you can meet in The Pristine Cut

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Slay the Princess is all about reactivity, and while people fell in love with the Princess in the 2023 release, The Pristine Cut allows us to meet three more sides to her. Don’t get us wrong, we love every part of the Princess, but some of them are certainly more terrifying than others. This is our personal ranking of all the different Princesses you can meet in The Pristine Cut.

Read more: Slay the Princess - The Pristine Cut review: falling in love over and over

While this list is as spoiler-free as possible, if you’ve never played the game, you will encounter them. We recommend that you complete at least one playthrough before you read this article.

22. The Wraith (the worst route in Slay the Princess)

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To be fair to the Wraith she’s only this evil because you were mighty mean to her, but she is still terrifying. It might be one of creator Abby Howard’s favorites, but we can’t help but feel disappointed in ourselves every time we land on her. We’re sorry Princess, we just wanted to see every side of you. Having seen The Wraith though, we’d be happy if we didn’t have to again.

21. The Adversary

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The Adversary is a drama queen who is spoiling for a good fight, and while we were the ones who started the fight, now that we roughed it out, we’d rather leave it all in the past. We like to settle our differences with our words, not our fists, but The Adversary finds it difficult to see things our way.

20. The Damsel

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The Damsel is the Princess you find if you continually try to help her, but there’s something more going on behind her eyes. This Princess is a needy people pleaser, and while we’re sure she has her own desires somewhere in there, she’s become attached to you like a bird just hatched from an egg. She does lead to one of the best Princesses in the game so we can’t be that mad at her.

19. The Beast

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The Beast acts on instinct and her main instinct is that she wants to eat you. There are definitely some unique paths you can find from being swallowed whole, but not knowing what to do next is still a scary experience. She’s also pretty hesitant about being saved on anything but her terms, and we can respect that, but we still wish we could hash things out.

18. The Eye of the Needle

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The Eye of the Needle is all about trickery, and we would rather not be underhanded with those we love. Most of her story revolves around trapping her in a narrow tunnel – hence the name – and it just doesn’t feel like a fair fight. We might have thrown The Wraith into the abyss, but at least she knew what we were trying to do.

17. The Tower

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Vore fans have The Beast and those who love big dommy mommy energy have The Tower. While we appreciate the big girl boss, yas queen energy, we just wish that we had a little more to say in the matter. Seeing the Princess turn into a dominatrix is fun, but what’s more fun is safe words and consent.

16. The Razor

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Slay the Princess never stops surprising us, no matter how many times we’ve seen things through to the end of the world. The Razor has her own tricks up her sleeve, so to speak, and it was how she caught us off guard that surprised and delighted us. She can get a little overexcited, but you’re constantly locked in a fight to the death so who can blame her.

15. The Cage

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One of the new versions of the Princess for The Pristine Cut, we weren’t sure what was going on when she first appeared. While The Cage gave us a new insight into the overall meta-narrative of Slay the Princess, it just felt underwhelming when compared to the other new ending that made it near the top of this list. That said, we know that she did this to herself, but we still didn’t expect her to make a comeback.

14. The Apotheosis

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The Apotheosis is what happens when you think you can defy fate, but fighting against the odds, even when all feels hopeless, you always have a chance. This Princess is a look towards the end of the game, and while we love her, and her ethereal soundtrack, we wish we were on more equal footing.

13. The Wild

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The Wild is one of those meta endings that make Slay the Princess what it is, and while the Princess herself is a little too obtuse for our tastes, we appreciate that something a little different came out of this encounter.

12. The Stranger

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This is the route you get when you think you’re going against what the developers intended, only to find out it’s exactly what they wanted. In fact, it’s the route creator Tony Howard-Arias thinks you should take first. It gives players an interesting peek behind the curtain of what Slay the Princess is all about, even if you don’t understand it until your second full playthrough.

11. The Moment of Clarity

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The Moment of Clarity takes away all of your free will, and in many ways, there is something freeing about that. Your terrible decisions led you here in the first place so maybe it’s good that the Princess takes things out of your hands. She may be terrifying but she’s also what you made her, so really it says more about you than anyone else.

10. The Witch

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Sure, The Witch definitely wants to murder us, but don’t you just love her cheeky personality? Let’s be real, we were the ones who tricked and then murdered her first, so it’s only natural that she wouldn’t trust us and try to claim the upper hand. We understand The Witch and she’s so surprisingly upbeat that we can’t help but be charmed. Maybe that says something about us personally.

9. The Prisoner

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The Prisoner seems to be cold and uncaring at first, but she’s a lot more than that. She has learned to close herself off, but she will still judge you by your current actions. Show you are trustworthy and she’ll relay that back, but cross her and things can go very wrong very quickly.

8. The Grey

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Unlike the other Princesses that can still be formed by your actions, there is little left for The Grey to give. Things have gone too far, and The Grey’s two paths show what happens when you earn someone’s trust and then turn around and betray them. It also shows how unconditional love can be dangerous and that true love is earned.

7. The Spectre

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The Spectre is the story of forgiveness as the Princess is willing to forgive you despite all the slaying you’ve done. She shows us all how you can stay kind even in the face of those who refuse to be kind to you, and there is something beautiful in that message. It doesn’t work in every situation, just like it doesn’t work with every Princess, but it shows there is a path to kindness even in the darkest situations.

6. The Nightmare

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Despite the name, The Nightmare is not the most terrifying Princess, and despite what you’ve done, she still has some humanity left. The Nightmare is still more than willing to give you a chance for redemption, and though she is shutting down your organs as she does so, that’s not really her choice. Despite her appearance and voice, the Nightmare is still willing to react to you, and that’s something beautiful.

5. The Fury

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The Fury is angry. She’s perhaps the angriest we’ve ever seen the Princess, but then the path here is filled with a lot of bloodshed and betrayal so we can hardly blame her. The thing is, at the end of it all she is a complete person, and this softer side among the anger made us fall for her.

4. The Den

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The Den is the only Princess which won’t talk to you, and while you’d think we wouldn’t be a fan of that, it teaches us just how well people can communicate without speech. You can believe in The Princess and put your trust in her, even though you have no real reason to, and that’s what Slay the Princess is really about, trust. Without saying a word, this route tells us everything you need to know about relationships and their ever-changing nature.

3. The Th-orn

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On the theme of trust, The Thorn is a Princess who knows all too well how it feels to betray someone and how it feels to be betrayed. Yet after all of that, The Princess can learn to trust you, and you have to learn to trust her in return. This leads to one of the sweetest paths in the game, and the most heartbreaking. Or you could just slay her — it’s what you’re here to do after all.

2. Happily Ever After

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When we played the original version of Slay the Princess, all we wanted was our happily ever after shown to us unambiguously. We don’t mean the happily ever afters that there might be when you leave the cabin, but the one in the here and now. Despite the name, this path doesn’t always lead to that, but there is a way to seem truly happy with the Princess, and it gave us everything we wanted.

1. The Princess and The Dragon (the best ending in Slay the Princess)

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This is the best ending in the game and as such we don’t want to spoil it for you. But just to give you a little taste, this is the most Slay the Princess path out of all of the Slay the Princess paths, and considering some of the others we’ve talked about, that says a lot. Needless to say, this path is a must-see for any fan.