Slay the Spire 2 has a big task ahead of it. Developer Mega Crit must not only justify its existence as a full, standalone sequel to one of the best roguelikes of all time, but contend with heavy-hitting deck builders such as Balatro and Monster Train 2 that have muscled their way into the space. Along with the overhauled art style and alternate paths, the introduction of new characters is certainly a big draw, and having now seen the Necrobinder in action more comprehensively, I might just have a new favorite on my hands.
With the Slay the Spire 2 release date now expected in March, we’ve got a while longer to hold out as Mega Crit continues to cook. Fortunately, its latest amuse-bouche is a real treat. “At long last, the time has come to dive deeper into the first new character we announced for Slay the Spire 2: The Necrobinder, a sassy lich who relies upon a giant, reanimated hand called Osty in battle,” the team writes. He’s lovingly animated and immediately adorable, and as someone who grew up with Thing from The Addams Family, I’m already on board.
The Necrobinder’s kit takes advantage of sinister mechanics such as Doom and Souls, which we’ll get to shortly, but let’s start with her faithful companion. Osty is an adorable giant hand, seemingly comparable in size to the Necrobinder herself. He’s treated as a separate entity with his own life pool, can target enemies independently, and isn’t affected by debuffs his master picks up.
He will, however, take any attack damage sent her way, as long as he has the health to do so. Depending on your build, you’re able to dramatically raise his HP pool to have him act as a permanent bodyguard, or you can instead resummon him repeatedly after he falls. This also allows you to make use of cards such as Bone Shards, which causes Osty to deal nine damage to all enemies and grant you nine block, but then die.
The Necrobinder isn’t exclusively about Osty, however. Next on the kit is Doom, which stacks up in a similar manner to Poison but doesn’t deal damage or tick down over time. Instead, once you’ve built up a Doom level that equals or exceeds the target’s current health pool, it instantly dies. That makes it function like an alternate source of damage, but it allows you to circumnavigate healing.
There are also some interesting ways to play tricks with Doom. New Necrobinder power Neurosurge, for example, grants you three additional energy points and draws you two cards when used, acting as a major tempo boost. However, it will then apply three points of Doom to you each turn, placing a ticking clock on your lifespan. While we don’t see any teased today, I would be shocked if there aren’t some clever ways to turn your own Doom stacks against your foes.
The final mechanics we get to see today (although not the last ones the Necrobinder will bring to the table) are Souls and transformations. Soul cards are single-use skill cards generated by other actions, and they let you draw two cards for zero mana before exhausting. That’s an incredibly powerful engine.
Transformations, meanwhile, are more of an overarching theme for options that will apply specific keywords across your deck. The one-mana Sculpting Strike attack deals eight damage and makes another card in your hand ethereal (meaning it’ll be removed from your deck if you end the turn without playing it). For the same cost, the Transfigure skill grants the ‘replay’ effect to a card, but also makes it more expensive to play.
That’s all our teases on the lich and her perfect pal for today, but co-founder Casey Yano also answers a couple of community questions. Firstly, he confirms that “you can still save scum” by quitting and reloading in Slay the Spire 2, giving you the freedom to “play how you want.” He also says that he’s not sure whether we’ll see any collaboration events: “I don’t know about collabs, I feel like it dilutes the identity of games. Then again, it depends on the genre.”
Slay the Spire 2 releases into early access in March 2026. You can read Mega Crit’s latest ‘Neowsletter’ to catch up on community questions and the latest attempt to guess mystery monster designs.
We’ve dealt out a winning hand of the best card games on PC right now to tide you over until StS 2 arrives. If you’re a big fan of the first, play it on the go with the best gaming handheld in 2025.
What mechanic would you give the Necrobinder if you were designing her loadout? Let us know via the PCGamesN community Discord, where you can join thousands of readers.
