Slay the Spire 2 makes painful but necessary nerfs, and some scary buffs, in a big new balance overhaul

A new Slay the Spire 2 patch is here, and it's going to hurt a little more than the abundance of fresh cards we were handed two weeks ago. Sometimes, making a game that stands the test of time requires making careful cuts around its most beloved parts, and Mega Crit has proven itself a master of this over the years. Log into the roguelike deckbuilder's beta branch now and you'll find a lot of dramatic balance changes; there are some striking buffs I'll be looking forward to, but a handful of nerfs that strip away some of the strongest picks in the game. Either way, you're going to want to read your cards closely.

I'll start with something fun. Neow has two more relics that you can find when you start a fresh run of Slay the Spire 2 The first is Dowsing Rod, which gives you a zero-cost quest card that transforms after you have entered five mystery rooms. It becomes Abundance, a one-cost skill with exhaust that lets you choose one of three powers to add into your hand, which you can then play for free this turn. If you upgrade Abundance, the options presented to you will likewise be their upgraded versions.

The other relic is Neow's Sacrifice, which gives you an Ambergris potion and a Guilty curse card (unplayable, removed from your deck after five turns). The new potion is basically a one-time get out of jail free, healing you for 50% of your max health and granting you an extra turn after the current one. It might not be the most immediately enticing option, but having a safety net that lets you take on Act One elites with more confidence is certainly strong, and it's often going to be even stronger in the late game.

Okay, nerfs. Nonupeipe's Diamond Diadem (take half damage if you play two or fewer cards in a turn) has been redesigned. It now starts you with 20 block, and stops block from being removed at the start of your turn, meaning it still has the potential to be extremely good, but is slightly more reliant on having a deck to match it. Tanx's Meat Cleaver now only grants five max health instead of nine when cooking at rest sites, although I'd argue that removing two cards from your deck at a time is still the part of it you actually care about.

The History Course relic will now only repeat your last-played attack at the start of your turn, ignoring skills. Three of the new multiplayer cards get nerfed: Midnight's damage has been significantly reduced, and the scaling per use on The Ball lowered. Blade Symphony now costs two for its two Shivs given to every player, with the upgrade dropping its cost back down to one but not giving you an extra Shiv.

Regent loses one of its most potent block generators in Pillar of Creation, which now grants you more block when creating a card but only does so once per turn. The class also sees a damage decrease on Collision Course, one of the best companion pieces for that generation. Necrobinder's Eidolon is no more - instead, it now plays all Ethereal cards that have been consigned to your exhaust pile, then exhausts itself. That's such a dramatic redesign that we're going to have to test it to see whether it's actually practical, because often when you let Ethereal cards go it's because you don't want them any more.

With the exclusively bad news out of the way, there's quite a few other changes to talk about. The Ironclad's Bloodletting (lose three health, get two energy) is now uncommon. That is another nerf, but fellow generator Expect a Fight no longer stops you from gaining additional energy that turn, bringing back some potential infinites. Cruelty and Dominate have had their rarities swapped, and Taunt is moved from uncommon to common to give a more reliable source of vulnerable, but with slightly less block attached.

The Silent gets three reworks. Well-Laid Plans is now rare, but instead of retaining one or two cards, you simply keep your whole hand when your turn ends. It's also now available in multiplayer. Mirage, which previously generated block based on enemy poison stacks, is now a zero-cost skill that gives you one (or two) energy the next turn. Welcome back, Outmaneuver from the first game. Finally, Expertise now draws just two (three) cards instead of six (seven), but they gain retain for that turn.

The Defect's changes are less notable, with small damage buffs on Hyperbeam and Sunder, and Trash to Treasure's upgrade lowering its cost instead of providing innate. Going back to the Ancients, however, there are a couple of potential heavy hitters to watch out for. Tezcatara's Toybox now gives five wax relics instead of four, but it's Vakuu's Fiddle that's scarier, giving you three additional cards at the start of turn instead of two (with the same downside of no extra draws).

There are a couple of enemy adjustments as well. Act Three boss Aeonglass is still being reined in, if only a touch. It now hits a little less hard with Ebb at 22 (26) instead of 26 (32), making the first turn slightly less scary. Conversely, Torchhead Amalgam gets a new turn-one attack, Strong Tackle, making it hurt a lot more than before on that initial round at 26 (32), up from its previous 18 (22).

Elsewhere, multiplayer will now allow you to use "nearly any potion" on other players, and map ink circles should be consistent across your team. Game seeds have been made 12 characters long (up from ten), with a larger internal seed. The patch also introduces new art, initial support for Traditional Chinese, and a hefty helping of bug fixes. Of particular note is that the VSync setting in the options menu will now actually correctly show whether it's on or off (previously it had a tendency to visually reset).

Slay the Spire 2 patch 0.109.0 is live now on the game's beta branch. You can switch over by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting properties, and navigating to the 'game versions and betas' menu. If you'd rather stay on the live build for now, expect the majority of these changes to make their way across some time in the weeks to come.