A new Slay the Spire 2 patch has just landed on the roguelike deckbuilder’s beta branch, and developer Mega Crit is rolling back a couple of its more experimental card redesigns from the last update. While the alterations to Mirage and Pillar of Creation didn’t work out in the end, there are more balance changes and reworks on the table today, along with the first implementation of a new keyboard-only control scheme, and a sparkling art upgrade.
Both the Silent and Regent were hurt by the loss of the old versions of Mirage and Pillar of Creation, which offered some particularly unique approaches to block generation, so their return is welcome. With this new Slay the Spire 2 update, they’re back in business. Mirage will again grant block equal to the poison on all enemies, and as a bonus it no longer exhausts, making it a repeatable solution. Pillar of Creation awards block with each card created as it used to, but suffers a slight nerf from its old incarnation, down to 2(3) block from 3(4) per activation.
But wait, Silent players cry, what about that powerful energy generator that Mirage was turned into? Good news: Mega Crit isn’t getting rid of it. Instead it’s removing Scare (the one-use ‘apply weak to all enemies’ skill), and in its place we get Sidestep, a zero-cost skill that grants you one energy (two if upgraded) on the next turn. There are more reworks to look forward to as well, so let’s go through the rest of the list.
Sticking with the Silent, Haze now applies weak to all enemies alongside its poison effect, and does so for two energy instead of three, but it no longer has the Sly tag, so you can’t discard it to play it for free. Well-Laid Plains (the power that now lets you retain your whole hand at the end of turn) has been bumped up from costing 1(0) to 2(1).
Outbreak, the power that damaged enemies when you applied poison, has been reworked into a three-cost skill that applies 9(12) poison to all enemies and then immediately triggers the poison tick effect. It’s also been moved from uncommon to rare, so in order to make space for it, Echoing Slash (the ten-damage sweep that replays if an enemy dies) has been bumped down to uncommon.
Alongside its Pillar of Creation change, Regent’s Regalite Relic has been adjusted so that it grants six block instead of two from creating a card, but can only trigger once per turn. The class gets two more buffs as well, gaining more vigor from Terraforming, and dealing more damage with Crush Under. Ironclad also jumps on the buff train, with both Mangle and Pact’s End getting damage upgrades.
For the Necrobinder, Eidolon’s redesign into a card that plays all your exhausted Ethereal cards remains intact, but it can no longer be generated mid-combat. Blowing up Osty with Sacrifice will now afford block equal to triple his max health (instead of double), and each use of The Scythe will now permanently increase its damage output by 5(7) up from 4(5).
Last on the list is the Defect. Rather than immediately going from two-cost to zero when you create a status card, Rocket Punch will now reduce its price by one each time. There are three buffs to compensate: Biased Cognition gives more focus, Refract hits harder, and Synchronize no longer has exhaust on its base version, with the upgrade instead raising the focus it grants for the turn from two to three.
The Ancients also get their share of shakeups. Neow’s Abundance, the card afforded from the new Dowsing Rod quest, will now always give you the choice between three upgraded powers. If you upgrade it, it’ll now cost zero energy instead of one.
Tezcatara’s Toasty Mittens now exhausts a card from your hand rather than your draw pile at the start of turn in exchange for the strength it affords. That’s probably best considered a nerf, as it’ll mean fewer cards in your hand for the turn. Her Seal of Gold is buffed, however, and now takes just three gold per turn to grant an extra energy, down from five.
Nonupeipe’s Beautiful Bracelet can now enchant four cards instead of three with Swift, but will only grant them each two card draw rather than three. Still, that’s more consistency, so I think I’d take that in most cases. Her Fur Coat marks one more random combat room to curse its inhabitants down to just one health, while her Signet Ring is nerfed slightly from affording 999 gold to 888.
The previous buff to Vakuu’s Fiddle is gone; it’s back down to just two cards drawn at the start of turn (with the downside of no further draws). The Relax cards granted by Pael’s Horn get a tiny buff to give you one more block than before, Tanx’s Whistle now costs two rather than three, and his Maul cards created by the Claws relic gain 2(3) damage per use instead of 1(2).
That’s all for the balance changes, but there’s plenty more to look out for across the rest of the patch notes. There’s a big handful of new card art, and all of the character models now have special visual effects when using their various unique forms. The ‘Potions’ tag will now be made gold whenever it shows up, and a bug causing some Epoch unlocks to mysteriously vanish and block your progression has been fixed (if you’ve been affected by this, it’ll be repaired when you load the game).
As mentioned, you can now use a keyboard-only control scheme if you wish. Among the other bug fixes, tricks to discern shuffle order “in certain scenarios” have been stamped out, and uncommon cards will show up slightly more often than before (bringing them to their intended rates). Multiplayer softlocks have been resolved, and the option to abandon run should now correctly show up outside of combat.
Slay the Spire patch 0.110.0 is live now on the game’s beta branch. If you’re not currently on the test build and want to take part, simply right-click the game in your Steam library, bring up the properties menu, and navigate to ‘game versions and betas.’ Your save will be handled separately from the base game, but you’ll want to make a backup just to be on the safe side.