Slay the Spire 2 just got 15 new cards out of nowhere, including some big co-op heavy hitters

A new Slay the Spire 2 patch has just hit the beta branch, and this is a big one. In fact, you might want to pay attention even if you aren't one to toy around with the testing side of the roguelike deckbuilder, because there's a whole heap of additional cards that are designed to enhance co-op play, and some of them sound particularly strong. There are also a bunch of fresh balance changes in the works, a shiny visual overhaul for the latest boss Aeonglass, and some modding fixes that are planned "to come to the main branch soon." Let's take a look at exactly what's in store.

The most exciting element of this Slay the Spire 2 update is the new cards. They might be specific to co-op, but playing with friends has quickly established itself as one of the best ways to enjoy StS 2, and if you haven't tried it out yet, I'd highly encourage it. There's one new colorless card, two for the Regent, and three for all of the other classes. Alongside this, Mega Crit has nerfed how much enemy block values scale up in two-player multiplayer specifically, making foes a little less tanky when you're just in a pair.

You can read through the full list below, but the most notable takeaway is that a lot of them feel really strong, which seems to lean into the vibe of co-op Slay the Spire 2 being more about setting up cool combos and synergies rather than careful strategy. A lot of them will require you to communicate with your teammates that you're going to play them (as they'll affect the strength of their cards). The notable risk on some, such as Outrage, is that you'll want to be careful you don't accidentally mess up your teammate's carefully built deck.

Here are all the new Slay the Spire 2 co-op cards:

Ironclad

• Midnight (rare attack): Cost 12 - Deal 99 (120) damage. Costs one less for each card exhausted this combat by anyone.
• Blaze (uncommon skill): Cost 2 - Give another player 5 (7) strength.
• Outrage (uncommon attack): Cost 0 - Deal 9 (13) damage. Add a copy of this card into everyone's discard pile.

Silent

• Blade Symphony (uncommon skill): Cost 1 - Add 2 (3) Shivs to all players hands.
• Concoct (uncommon skill): Cost 0 - Another player's attacks apply 3 (4) poison this turn.
• Fade (uncommon skill): Cost 0. Retain. Another player gains 6 (9) dexterity this turn.

Regent

• Plot (uncommon skill): Cost 1 - Next turn, all players draw 2 (3) cards.
• Constellation (uncommon skill): Cost 0 - Another player draws one card, gains one energy, and gains 9 (12) block.

Necrobinder

• Underworld (uncommon skill): Cost 2 - Whenever other players deal attack damage this turn, apply that much doom. Exhaust (upgrade removes exhaust).
• Soulbound (uncommon power): Cost 1 - (Upgrade adds Innate.) Choose an ally. Whenever you create a Soul, add a Soul to their draw pile.
• Cacophony (rare power): Cost 2 - Every 33 cards drawn by all players, deal 66 (99) damage to a random enemy.

Defect

• Hibernate (uncommon skill): Cost 2 - Channel 2 (3) Frost. This turn, your Frost grants all allies block.
• One For All (rare power): Cost 1 - Everyone's zero-energy attacks deal 3 (4) additional damage.
• Imitation Learning (rare skill): Cost 1 - Choose another player. The next 2 (3) times they play a power, you play a copy of it. Exhaust.

Colorless

• The Ball (uncommon attack): Cost 1 - Deal 10 damage. Increase this card's damage by 15 (25) this combat and give it to a random ally.

That's an incredible amount of power across the board. Being able to create double the Souls, duplicate power effects, or enhance all of your partners' attacks with the likes of doom or poison is almost assuredly going to lead to some very broken combos. I'm curious to see whether Mega Crit is just pushing the boat out to test whether this is a fun setup designed to embrace the more casual nature of co-op, or if it starts reining things in over future patches.

Across the rest of the balance changes, the most notable are a re-ordering of end-of-turn effects to help keep you safe from doom. Both the healing effect of the Regen Potion and the passive effects of Defect's Orbs now trigger before doom is calculated, meaning you will now stay alive in cases where doom on your character would have previously killed you. This also means Orbs will be more effective at finishing off a doomed enemy.

Most of the other balance tweaks are buffs, although there are a few small block nerfs for the Ironclad and Regent, along with a cutback to the Silent's Tracking. There's also a randomize button for custom runs that will shuffle in two good modifiers and one bad one, along with picking a character for you. The Bestiary continues to expand with a stats section and event combat encounters, and there's a handful of new art and animations.

Finally, Mega Crit has introduced a few major modding improvements, along with a handful of more niche minor ones that are specific to mod creators. It notes that modded and unmodded saves are kept separate from one another "as a protective measure," which previously made it look as though progress had been wiped. Now, instead of starting fresh, your modded save will import a copy of your unmodded one (although progress after that will be kept separate). There should also be fewer 'version conflict' errors in modded multiplayer.

Slay the Spire 2 patch 0.108.0 is live now on the beta branch. You can take part via the properties menu, accessed through your Steam Library. Mega Crit is hoping to bring those big modding upgrades to the live version of StS 2 as soon as it can, while the other changes will likely arrive a little further down the road.