New Slay the Spire 2 patch notes help you survive the early game, and rein in Acrobatics

New Slay the Spire 2 patch notes have arrived for the latest beta-branch update, and it's good news if you've found yourself falling foul of the whims of Act One. The opening floors of the roguelike deckbuilder can frequently prove some of its most threatening, throwing some serious threats your way before you've had much chance to start developing your deck. While Acrobatics is being restrained slightly, there's plenty of good news here, with an expansion to the list of Neow relics, some improved survivability for Ironclad, and a nerf to one of the most problematic normal enemies.

Every run of Slay the Spire 2 begins with Neow, and gameplay lead Anthony Giovannetti says he is eager to add more variety to the relics on offer here in particular. There are three new additions today, with more to come in the future. Neow's Bones is the most dramatic: it gives you two randomly selected Neow relics, but also adds a random curse to your deck. Phial Holster gives you an extra potion slot and two random potions, making it a fantastic way to smooth out your early game while still scaling later on. Winged Boots is an old face from the original, and lets you jump to other paths up to three times, helping you dodge any potentially run-ending encounters.

Living Fog has been nerfed. The "is this really not an elite mob" enemy now only spawns one bomb each round, making it far less imposing but still a serious threat if you come in unprepared. Both Skulking Colony and Byrdonis have their maximum health lowered, and the Tunneling Twosome fight in the Hive is gone altogether. Doormaker, Slay the Spire 2's most reworked encounter, now deals slightly less damage, gains less strength, and no longer applies debuffs to you during the fight.

"Doormaker maintains his troublesome powers," Giovanetti notes, "but gets several changes to make the fight more manageable and feel less oppressive." Regarding the other changes, he explains, "I have started removing some of the spikiness from Act One, with the long-term plan to shift some of the difficulty from Act One to Act Three." He adds that the latest adjustment to Skulking Colony "is hopefully the last for a while."

Moving onto individual classes, Mega Crit has "aimed at improving Ironclad's survivability in a big way." A new card has been added, 'Not Yet.' It costs two, heals you for ten (13 if upgraded), and then exhausts. That should free you up to use more of Ironclad's health-cost abilities, and upgrade more often at rest points. Slay the Spire 2 has largely avoided healing cards thus far, so I'll be very interested to watch how popular this one proves.

Colossus, one of the strongest defensive options in the Ironclad's toolkit (gain five Block and take 50% less damage from Vulnerable enemies this turn), has been moved from rare to uncommon, ensuring you'll see it much more frequently, especially at higher Ascensions. Grapple (the card that dealt damage when you gained Block) has been removed to make space for those changes; Giovannetti says it "was too low impact, and redundant with Juggernaut."

For the Silent, Acrobatics has been moved from common to uncommon. It's a small nerf, but one you'll certainly feel; it's actually the exact change I was hoping to see. As such an iconic draw engine, it'd be a shame to lose it, but it's a real powerhouse with the presence of so many Sly cards in StS 2. "I expect it to still dominate pick rates," Giovannetti notes, "while giving me the breathing room to not overly nerf Sly cards, and in fact maybe even give Silent buffs."

Speedster now deals two damage at base level when you draw a card, with its upgrade now making it an Innate Power so you can play it on turn one. Memento Mori deals one more base damage, and Follow Through has been reworked. It no longer hits all enemies, or applies Weak - instead, it now deals seven damage to a single target, nine if upgraded, and hits an additional time if you're holding five or more cards in hand. Honestly, that doesn't appeal to me nearly as much.

The final balance change for today goes to the Regent, with a change to the Regalite relic. It'll now grant you Block for any card you create, not just the colorless ones. "This change makes Regalite consistent with Arsenal," Giovannetti says, "and gives more love to the Regent's status-generating cards." There's also new art for several cards, relics, and Nonupeipe, the Ancient that reminds me of Zelda's Great Fairies.

Finally, Mega Crit has altered the way leaderboards work. For the time being, global leaderboards are gone, and you'll just see your friends. "We don't really want to incorporate invasive anti-cheat protection into the game," co-founder Casey Yano explains, "so it's sort of impossible for us to prevent people from putting in the maximum score." The calculations have also changed, and it will now prioritize if you won, the badges you earned along the way, and how quickly you finished.

Slay the Spire 2 patch 0.103.0 is live now on the beta branch. If you want to stay on the cutting edge of the game's ever-evolving meta, you can do so by right-clicking it in your Steam library, heading to the properties menu, and switching to the beta branch. Otherwise, expect the majority of these changes to arrive in the live game a little down the line.