Slay the Spire 2

Got a tiny patch today with one important hotfix for players playing in Traditional Chinese!

BUG FIXES:

• Synced corrected Traditional Chinese translations to fix broken plural evaluation

Another beta patch is here, Slayers! This one brings a host of balance changes, bug fixes, and new Epoch art. We've also begun to translate the game into Traditional Chinese (no timeline just yet on official support for other languages, but we'll let people know when we are looking for additional translators.) Perhaps most notably, two new Neow relics have been introduced, one of which grants a powerful, exclusive potion and the other a brand new quest card (with some cute beta art!)

CONTENT & BALANCE:

Ancients:

• Added new Neow relic, Dowsing Rod - "Upon pickup, add 1 Dowsing to your Deck."

• Dowsing - Quest - 0 cost - "After entering 5 more ? rooms, transform this into Abundance."

• Abundance - Ancient - Skill - Cost 1 - "Choose 1 of 3 (Upgraded) Powers to add into your Hand. It is free to play this turn. Exhaust."

• Added new Neow relic, Neow's Sacrifice - "Upon pickup, procure 1 Ambergris and add 1 Guilty to your Deck."

• Ambergris potion - "Heal for 50% of your max HP. Take an extra turn after this one."

• Reworked Nonupeipe's Diamond Diadem relic: "Whenever you play 2 or fewer cards in a turn, take half damage from enemies." -> "Start combat with 20 Block. Block is not removed at the start of your next turn."

• Moved Orobos' Sand Castle relic moved from Pool 1 -> Pool 2 (second option instead of first option)

• Changed up Darv blessing pools for more variety (will see Energy relics more often)

• Nerfed Tanx's Meat Cleaver relic: HP gain decreased from 9 -> 5

• Buffed Tezcatara's Toybox relic: relics gained increased from 4 -> 5

• Buffed Vakuu's Fiddle relic: card draw increased from 2 -> 3

• Changed Vakuu's Sere Talon and Distinguished Cape relics: swapped downsides

Enemies:

• Nerfed Aeonglass: Ebb move damage decreased from 26(32) -> 22(26) to lower its front-loaded damage

• Buffed Torchhead Amalgam: now starts with a new Strong Tackle move on turn 1 to increase front-loaded damage from 18(22) -> 26(32)

Events:

• Nerfed History Course relic: now only repeats Attacks, does not affect Skills

Ironclad:

• Buffed Demon Form card: Strength gain increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

• Buffed Expect a Fight card: no longer says "You cannot gain additional this turn."

• Buffed Primal Force card: Giant Rock token damage increased from 16(20) -> 20(24)

• Changed Taunt card:

• Block gain decreased from 7(8) -> 6(7)

• Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common

• Changed Bloodletting card: rarity increased from Common -> Uncommon

• Changed Cruelty card: rarity decreased from Rare -> Uncommon

• Changed Dominate card: rarity increased from Uncommon -> Rare

Silent:

• Reworked Mirage card: Uncommon - Skill - 1(0) - "Gain Block equal to Poison on ALL enemies. Exhaust." -> Uncommon - Skill - 0 - "Next turn, gain 1(2) Energy."

• Reworked Well-Laid Plans card:

• Uncommon - Power - Cost 1 - "At the end of your turn, Retain up to 1(2) card(s)." -> Rare - Power - Cost 1(0) - "At the end of your turn, you no longer discard your Hand."

• Now also available in multiplayer, was previously singleplayer-only

• Reworked Expertise card: "Draw cards until you have 6(7) in your hand." -> "Draw 2(3) cards. They gain Retain this turn."

• Buffed: Outbreak card: damage increased from 3(4) -> 4(5)

• Changed Accelerant card: rarity decreased from Rare -> Uncommon

Regent:

• Reworked Pillar of Creation card: "Whenever you create a card, gain 3 Block." -> "The first time you create a card each turn, gain 5(7) Block."

• Nerfed Collision Course card: damage decreased from 11(15) -> 10(14)

Necrobinder:

• Reworked Eidolon card: "Exhaust your Hand. If 9 cards were Exhausted this way, gain 1 Intangible." -> "Play ALL Ethereal cards in your Exhaust Pile. Exhaust."

Defect:

• Buffed Hyperbeam card: damage increased from 28(36) -> 30(38)

• Buffed Sunder card: damage increased from 24(32) -> 26(34)

• Changed Trash to Treasure card: upgrade changed from gains Innate -> lowers cost by 1

Multiplayer:

• Added new Regent card, Tutor: Rare - Skill - 1(0) - "Another player chooses a card in their Draw Pile to add into their Hand."

• Nerfed Midnight card: damage decreased from 99(120) -> 60(72)

• Nerfed The Ball card: scaling decreased from +15(25) -> +10(15)

• Nerfed Blade Symphony card:

• Cost increased from 1 -> 2(1)

• Upgrade no longer increases Shiv count

USER EXPERIENCE & INTERFACE:

General:

• Seeds are now 12 characters long and internal seed is larger

• Removed faint white outline from game cursor

Multiplayer:

• You can now play nearly any potion on another player

• Map ink circles are now the same for all players

ART:

General:

• Added Epoch art for:

• Annihilation

• To Kill

• Futility

Ancients:

• Added assets for Dowsing Rod and Neow's Sacrifice relics

• Added asset for Ambergris potion

• Added beta portrait art for Dowsing and Abundance cards

Enemies:

• Swapped Aeonglass double and heavy attack animations and improved the double attack VFX

Multiplayer:

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• The Ball

• Plot

• Created "Failed to join" text VFX

WRITING:

Localization:

• Added Traditional Chinese (zht) as a selectable language with English fallback

• Added Traditional Chinese fonts (Source Han Serif TC, Noto Sans Mono CJK TC)

• Updated translations for various languages

• Fixed translation errors for French, Italian, Russian, and Thai

• Removed stale translations for redesigned Well-Laid Plans, Fuel, Outbreak, Sere Talon, Cacophony

BUG FIXES:

General:

• VSync setting in Graphics options now shows the correct On/Off state after restarting

• "Power wears off" notification no longer blocks mouse input

• Placeholder Orb numbers no longer briefly show up at the start of combat

• Correctly snapped scrolling menus at low FPS

Ancients:

• Fixed Tanx's Whistle card preview and tooltip snapping to the top-left corner when hovered

Enemies:

• Fixed awkward delay when Osty and Kaiser Krab would spawn at start of combat

• Fixed Fabricator animations that weren't playing right

• Fixed Fat Gremlin sometimes spawning without a bag of money when it should

Silent:

• Expose card now properly triggers Hand Drill relic

Necrobinder:

• Soulbound card now shuffles souls into Draw Pile instead of putting them on the bottom

Multiplayer:

• One for All card no longer previews damage up on X-cost cards

• Fixed Unmovable card causing other players to receive double Block from Demonic Shield card when it was not the first Block card played

• Imitation Learning card now clones cards before they are played instead of after, allowing enchantments like Swift to apply to the cloning player

• Underworld card no longer causes Doom to be applied to players when enemies deal attack damage

• Fixed an issue where, if a player played The Ball card while another played had History Course relic, History Course could incorrectly end up playing a copy of The Ball next turn

• Fixed divergence that would sometimes occur when ending combat with The Ball card

• Hibernate card no longer gives block to dead players

• Hibernate card now correctly displays stacks in its power icon

• If Huddle Up triggers a choice for another player, the playing player is no longer blocked from playing cards

• The Ball now triggers the playing player's relics, not the receiving player's

• Fixed card effects breaking when a player dies while their own card is still resolving (e.g. to Thorns)

• Fixed divergence that would occur if one player took a long time to enter combat

• Player icons are rendered above the ink circle on the map

• Resolved issue where, if Epochs were deprecated, that player could no longer join multiplayer games

MODDING:

• Merged SavedPropertySerializationCache into ModelIdSerializationCache. SavedProperties are now included in its hash.

• Models from non-gameplay-affecting mods are now properly excluded in the hash

For all you beta testers who have been chomping at the bit for a new patch to chew on... here it is! Today's beta patch brings a ton of fixes, balance changes, some UX additions, a BIG batch of new multiplayer cards, and new art additions--including some animations for the latest boss, Aeonglass!

We've also got some big updates in the modding realm to call out...

Modding Updates

Thank you to our incredible community of modders (and mod players) for all of your feedback since we released Steam Workshop support! We've got quite a few changes that will be relevant to modders at the bottom of the notes, but first we wanted to specifically call out some major fixes and changes that affect players.

Previously, when launching the game with mods enabled for the first time, it appeared as though your progress was wiped. That is because unmodded saves are saved separately from your modded ones as a protective measure, and we defaulted to having the modded saves start entirely from scratch. Now, your unmodded saves are automatically copied over to the modded saves and a popup appears to explain the process to new mod users. They are still saved separately, though, which means any progress you make when playing with mods enabled will not be reflected after switching to unmodded and vice versa.

Additionally, players have been frequently encountering version conflict errors when doing modded multiplayer runs. We're introducing some fixes which should reduce those instances and more detailed error popups when they do occur. Note that we still recommend having the same exact mods enabled as your teammates, particularly if they actually affect gameplay and are not merely cosmetic.

We plan for these changes to come to the main branch soon, so non-beta-testers can keep an eye out for that! For more info on modding and playing with mods, check the patch notes from Major Update 2. Now it's time for the rest of today's patch notes...

CONTENT & BALANCE:

General:

• End-of-turn Orb passives now trigger before Doom

• This means that, if a player would die to self-Doom (ex. from Neurosurge card) but also has an Orb with an end-of-turn passive that would kill the last remaining enemy (ex. Lightning Orb while the enemy is at 3 HP), they will now win the combat instead of losing it after ending their turn

Enemies:

• Buffed Torch Head Amalgam: increased damage at Ascension 9

• Weak Tackle damage increased from 14(15) → 14(16)

• Tackle damage increased from 18(19) → 18(22)

Potions & Relics:

• Changed Regen Potion: its healing effect now triggers before Doom, preventing the player from dying to self-Doom in certain situations

Ironclad:

• Nerfed Colossus card: Block gain increased from 5(8) → 4(7)

• Nerfed Crimson Mantle card: Block gain decreased from 8(10) → 7(10)

• Buffed Howl From Beyond card: Damage increased from 16(21) → 18(24)

• Buffed Setup Strike: Strength gain increased from 2(3) → 3(4)

Silent:

• Reworked Outbreak card: "Every 3 times you apply Poison, deal 15 damage to ALL enemies." → "Whenever you apply Poison, deal 3(4) damage to ALL enemies."

• Buffed Anticipate card: Dexterity increased from 2(3) → 2(4)

• Buffed Flick-Flack card: damage increased from 6(8) → 7(9)

• Nerfed Tracking card: "Weak enemies take double damage from Attacks." → "Weak enemies take 50% more damage from Attacks."

Regent:

• Buffed Devastate card: damage increased from 30(40) → 35(45)

• Buffed Divine Destiny relic: Star gain increased from 6 → 7

• Nerfed GUARDS!!! card's Minion Sacrifice token: Block gain decreased from 8(11) → 7(10)

• Buffed Resonance card: Star cost decreased from 3 → 2

Necrobinder:

• Buffed Haunt card: HP loss increased from 6(8) → 7(9)

• Buffed Reave card: damage increased from 9(11) → 10(13)

• Buffed Soulstorm card: additional damage increased from 2(3) → 4(6)

Defect:

• Nerfed Compact card's Fuel token:

• No longer draws cards

• Upgrade changed from increasing card draw → granting 1 additional energy

• Buffed Momentum Strike card: damage from 10(13) → 11(15)

• Changed Scrape card: no longer discards cards whose energy costs are temporarily set to 0 by global temporary effects (ex. Pounce card's "The next Skill you play is costs 0 Energy" effect)

• Changed Shatter card: now Exhausts

Multiplayer:

• Added new multiplayer Ironclad cards:

• Midnight: Rare - Attack - Cost 12 - "Deal 99(120) damage. Costs 1 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."

• Buffed and slightly reworked Tank card: "Take double damage from enemies. Allies take half damage from enemies." → "Take 50% additional damage from enemies. Allies take 50% less damage from enemies."

• Added new multiplayer Silent cards:

• 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."

• Changed Flanking card: rarity increased from Uncommon → Rare

• Added new multiplayer Regent card:

• Plot: Uncommon - Skill - Cost 1 - "Next turn, ALL players draw 2(3) cards."

• Constellation: Uncommon - Skill - Cost 0 - "Another player draws 1 card, gains , and gains 9(12) Block."

• Added new multiplayer Necrobinder card:

• Underworld: Uncommon - Skill - Cost 2 - "Whenever other players deal attack damage this turn, apply that much Doom. Exhaust. (Lose Exhaust)"

• Soulbound: Uncommon - Power - Cost 1 - "(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."

• Changed Legion of Bone card: no longer Exhausts

• Added new multiplayer Defect cards:

• 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 0 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."

• Changed Ignition card: rarity decreased from Rare → Uncommon

• Added new multiplayer Colorless card:

• 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."

• Nerfed enemy block scaling in 2-player multiplayer

• Nerfed Beacon of Hope card: cost increased from 1 → 2

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

General:

• Added a Randomize button to the Custom Run screen which randomly selects 2 good modifiers and 1 bad one, and randomizes the selected character

• The run timer is now paused while the Pause Menu is open during a single player match

• Added a selection reticle for potion holders

• Created a stats section in the Bestiary

• Added event combat encounters to the Bestiary

• Hid moves with duplicate animations for some monsters in the Bestiary

• Slightly adjusted selection arrow in Bestiary monster list

• Players can now see which rooms were affected by Fur Coat relic in the Run History

• Relics skipped in the Merchant?? event are now recorded in the Run History

• Room Full of Cheese event now shows the cards that were skipped in the Run History

• All controller input deadzones have been set to 0.5, meaning joysticks should feel less sensitive and trigger buttons must be pressed in slightly more before the input is received now

Regent:

• Pale Blue Dot power now counts down the number of cards that need to be played before it procs next to its icon

Multiplayer:

• Version mismatch error now contains more information

ART:

• Added portrait art for Wither status card

• Added Aeonglass animations

• Updated Gremlin Merc animations

• If you kill Gremlin Merc before it steals any of your gold, Fat Gremlin now spawns without holding a bag of gold

• Added Epoch art for:

• Ablaze

• Arise

• Darv

• Preon

• Slumber

• Spireborn

• The Architect

• The Pact

• Added Orb passive activation VFX

• Added card removal VFX

• Added new card Exhaust VFX

WRITING:

• Big Game Hunter modifier's hovertip now specifies that it makes elites drop rare card rewards instead of just "better rewards"

• Helix Drill card's wording has been updated to be clearer that it only counts energy spent on other cards

• Clarified that Silken Tress relic applies only to the player who chose it in multiplayer

• Updated translations for various languages

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Details are now included in the Steam initialization error popup

• Saving is now retried when antivirus or cloud sync briefly blocks the save file

• Run timer no longer starts a run hidden if you have "always show run timer" toggled on

• Fixed crash when returning to the main menu while a card-selection prompt is open

• Fixed broken controller navigation to the "mod settings" button in the main menu

• Fixed controller navigation breaking if you opened up the deck view while holding a non-targeted card

• Fixed combat music sometimes continuing on the map and other non-combat screens

• Fixed Epoch paginator arrows becoming unclickable

• Fixed softlock when opening the Bestiary in the treasure room from a fresh save/reload

• Fixed Run History death quote getting cut off if it was too long

• Run History now shows the boss icon for old runs that fought The Doormaker

• Fixed stats screen showing that you have discovered more monsters than there exists in game

• Fixed the Daily Run leaderboard failing to load for some dates

• Fixed many instances of weird RNG behavior (shoutout again to tckmn!)

• Fixed being able to controller navigate to Byrdpip

Ancients:

• Fixed Elite music playing in Neow room if you died to an Elite your previous run

• Tezcatara's Toy Box relic no longer flashes once it is used up

Enemies:

• It is no longer possible to get two encounters in a row that contain Slime monsters

• It is no longer possible to get two encounters in a row that contain Snapping Jaxfruit monster

• If an attack enchanted with Replay kills the last enemy on its first play, the subsequent plays are now skipped

• This fixes an issue where, if a card with Replay is enchanted with Corrupted, the player would lose extra HP even after the first play killed the last enemy

• Fixed a visual issue where, if the player uses Thorns to kill a monster that spawns more monsters on death (i.e. Axebot, Phrog Parasite), the dead monster's attack wouldn't visually occur until after the new monsters had spawned

• Fixed Cubex Construct's intents overlapping with its body if it takes damage while transitioning to its charging animation

• Fixed Inklet's head getting cut off during Doom animation

• Fixed Slithering Strangler playing its hurt animation for its Thwack move

• Fixed Wrigglers spawning offscreen in 4:3 aspect ratios

• Fixed Torch Head Amalgam's laser attack VFX not reaching the player when it was shrunk

• Fixed impact SFX playing for Kin Priest Soul Beam move in the Bestiary

• Kaiser Crab no longer covers the monster title in the Bestiary

• Repeatedly clicking Knowledge Demon's Curse of Knowledge move in the Bestiary no longer causes its animation to stop playing

• Added missing Tunneler animations to the Bestiary

• Tunneler animations can now be played regardless of Burrowed state in the Bestiary

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed an issue where Bone Tea relic could fail to upgrade your hand if you also have Toolbox relic

• Fixed an issue where, if a player auto-plays their entire start-of-turn hand draw (via an effect like Hellraiser), Unceasing Top relic may not trigger despite their hand being empty

• Fixed Planisphere relic proccing twice in the Battleworn Dummy event

• Fixed Pollinous Core relic counting up past 4 if you end combat after your turn but before you draw cards

• Lasting Candy no longer procs if the reward set has no card rewards

• Unsettling Lamp relic no longer get used up if the target's Artifact blocks the debuff

• White Beast Statue relic no longer decreases your normal potion odds when it guarantees getting potion rewards to prevent you never rolling potions again if it gets removed mid-run

• Fixed several ways you could obtain duplicate relics on the first run

• Fixed Flex Potion description appearing twice on the character when applied

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when throwing multiple Foul Potions in quick succession

Events:

• Fixed an issue where Vigor was only applying to the first of Mad Science card's 3 hits when it was created with the Violence option

• Fixed death quotes for dying to Punch Off and Mysterious Knight encounters

Colorless Cards:

• Fixed Entropy card being able to transform curses into Ascender's Bane

Ironclad:

• Hellraiser card no longer infinitely plays Shining Strike card when it's enchanted with Swift

Silent:

• Nightmare card can no longer be generated during combat

Regent:

• Fixed Minion Strike card becoming stuck on screen if played too quickly

• Fixed History Course copy of Shining Strike card going back into your Draw Pile

• Fixed Supermassive card not scaling from cards generated by Mad Science card

Necrobinder:

• Fixed a crash that could happen when an enemy dies to Doom

• Transfigure card can no longer be generated during combat

• Fixed Enfeebling Touch + Misery combo causing enemies with Artifact to gain Strength next turn

• Forbidden Grimoire card's card removal reward will now show up after Battleworn Dummy fight if you are successful

Defect:

• Disabled controller navigation to Orbs while in another card selection screen

• Fixed the Subroutine power hovertip typo if you have more than 4 Subroutines

• Feral card no longer puts History Course copy of Helix Drill card back into your hand

• Fixed Gold Plated Cables relic flashing if the Orb's passive is not firing

• Gold Plated Cables relic now procs if Emotion Chip relic triggers Orbs at the start of your turn

Multiplayer:

• Fixed even more instances of Daily runs diverging based on player net ID

• Fixed divergence caused by discarding a potion while moving to a new map point

• Fixed bug where you could set yourself ready for the next act two acts in advance

• Fixed state divergence caused by taking a reward as you are transitioning to another map point

• Fixed divergence caused by host changing the Ascension as the game is starting

• Fixed divergence when player has Music Box relic and combat ends while making a choice

• Fixed divergence when playing cards very fast while killing yourself

• Fixed Ghost Seed relic adding Ethereal to Strikes and Defends generated by other players during combat

• If you open a screen during a treasure room relic fight, the hands now behave correctly

• Fixed mouse remaining hidden forever if the game ended while in potion targeting

• Event RNG seeds are now consistent across all multiplayer Daily Runs

• Jungle Maze Adventure event no longer appears if a player doesn't have enough HP for the solo option

PERFORMANCE:

• Compressed various combat background assets

MODDING:

• Unmodded saves are now copied to the modded save directory if you are launching modded for the first time

• Added controller support for Modding menu

• Fixed Steam mods causing ReflectionHelper.ModTypes to return nothing

• SavedProperty IDs from mods are now properly sorted for multiplayer

• Content from mods with affectsGameplay set to false are now sorted to end of ID maps

• Mods can now register multiple assemblies

• SerializableSave.NumReloads is now consistent across peers

• Steam mod now takes precedence over local if the version is greater

• Batched the Steam Workshop call for checking branch support, meaning mods should load faster

• Began publishing STS2.dll XML documentation

• Fixed issues in multiplayer where players with the same mods would get "version mismatch" (thanks to OLC of RitsuLib for helping out with this!)

• Build the serialization cache from ModelDb instead of via reflection

• Sort content by ModelId instead of typename

• Use more tiebreakers when sorting

• Sort epoch IDs in ModelIdSerializationCache

• Exclude non-gameplay-affecting models from the ModelIdSerializationCache hash

• The correct mod lists are now logged in the non-gameplay mod mismatch warning

Hey Slayers, our second major main branch update is here with 4 patches in 1 (not including hotfixes)! While we'll be covering a lot of things that beta players will already be used to, there are also a few big changes that will be totally new for everyone. One of those has been highly requested by the community in the past few days and another has been very highly requested by the community in the past few months, so let's get into it!

RNG Rework

Ed here, one of the Mega Crit engineers. It turns out that everyone complaining about receiving Debt too often from Neow's Bones was right! We did, in fact, have some unusual RNG problems.

Huge shoutout to tckmn for doing the research - their eight-hour descent into madness was an entertaining watch, and we wouldn't have caught the issue without it. If you're interested in the nitty-gritty, read tckmn's full writeup. Here is a short version.

Most games, including STS2, use pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs). A PRNG is fed a seed value, and given the same seed value, a PRNG will always generate the same sequence of random numbers.

Each run has one primary “run seed”, a sequence of twelve numbers and letters. However, a run actually contains multiple PRNGs that individually influence your deck draw, your combat rewards, your event choices, and the rest of the random elements in the run. Each one uses a seed derived from the run seed.

Since we fed different seeds to each PRNG, we expected their results to be completely unrelated. But we were wrong, and it turns out that our strategy allowed players to predict outcomes given knowledge of unrelated parts of the game.

Let’s visualize one example: the correlation between your first act and the curse you receive from Neow’s Bones. In both cases, we generate a decimal between 0 and 1, but from different PRNGs.

• For your first act, if the decimal generated is less than 0.5, you get Overgrowth; otherwise, you get Underdocks.
• For Neow's Bones’ curse, we use the decimal to pick from a list of ten curses. Between 0 and 0.1 you get Clumsy, between 0.1 and 0.2 you get Debt, and so on.

Here is a scatterplot of the raw numbers generated given 10000 random run seeds on v0.103.3:

There is clear correlation in this result. For example, if our act roll is >0.5 (we’re in the Underdocks), then it’s highly likely that our Neow’s Bones curse roll will be <0.5, which cuts the potential curses you can obtain in half.

Aside from the balance ramifications: once knowledge of this exploit is out there, players are naturally incentivized to use it to play optimally. We don’t want to encourage rote memorization of correlation tables, as it is tedious and unfun.

Thus, in v0.107.1, we replaced our PRNG implementation with a more modern one (xoshiro256**). The resulting scatterplot is evenly distributed, exhibiting no human-detectable correlation.

Rest assured that your suffering is now truly random!

Speaking of updates that will be new to all players, I’ve also been busy working on support for…

Steam Workshop

We built STS2 with modding in mind, and the game has had an integrated mod loader from day one. It's been awesome seeing the outpouring of creativity from the community! But we purposefully haven't been advertising mod support, as we knew it still needed some work.

Previously, the only supported way to install mods was to download them and place them next to the executable. With this patch, Steam Workshop support has officially been added! Now, you can browse and install mods directly from the workshop, and they will be automatically downloaded to all devices where you play on Steam.

If you are a mod creator, upload your mods using the tool (https://github.com/megacrit/sts2-mod-uploader).

And if you're interested in playing some mods, check out the new workshop.

That’s all the updates from Ed! Passing it off to Casey to introduce…

The Bestiary

Casey here! This patch brings in the Bestiary, which Beta testers will already be familiar with. This was a much requested feature for the first game, but at the time I didn't want to create it as there wasn't a good delivery mechanism for an overarching story. However, in the world of Slay the Spire 2, we have a lot more on the narrative side, more creature animations, etc. so we've been hard at work creating this final screen in the compendium (outside of the Achievements page, which is to come much later).

Currently, players can find a list of monsters they've encountered here as well as their moves and animations. In the future we plan to include all sorts of information about the game's enemies, including stats and lore.

Enemy Changes

As many of you have heard by now, The Doormaker has been removed from the game. As we said in the patch notes of the beta patch that brought this change: while Doormaker had interesting micro decisions in the fight, he was over the complexity threshold of what we want and had lingering issues. We decided that starting over fresh will let us hit what we actually want for an Act 3 boss.

Thus a new boss, Aeonglass, is here! We don't want to spoil it too much for non-beta testers, so that's all we're gonna say.

Another big change you'll notice is Hive's Infested Prism enemy has been totally reworked--but again, no spoilers here.

Alright, now it's time to get into the nitty gritty notes!

CONTENT & BALANCE:

General:

• The Bestiary is now available in the Compendium

• Added three more Badges:

• Damage Leader - Dealt the most damage to enemies in multiplayer

• Debuffer - Applied the most Debuffs in multiplayer

• C-c-c-Combo - Played 20 cards in a single turn

• Terminal run modifier can no longer bring a player below 1 HP

Ancients:

• Added new Neow relics:

• Kaleidoscope - "Upon pickup, gain 2 card rewards with cards from other characters."

• Fishing Rod - "Every 3 normal combats, Upgrade a random card in your Deck."

• Silken Tress - "Enchant all cards in the first card reward with Glam. Upon pickup, lose all gold."

• Reworked Tezcatara's Pumpkin Candle relic: now extinguishes after 5 combats and can be Kindled at rest sites (was: extinguishes at the start of Act 3)

• Buffed Neow's Scroll Boxes relic: no longer makes player lose all gold

• Buffed Neow's Booming Conch relic: in addition to drawing extra cards, now gains 1 Energy at the start of Elite combats

• Buffed Neow's Fury card: now lets you choose which 2 cards (or fewer) to return from your Discard Pile instead of selecting randomly

• Buffed Tezcatara's Nutritious Soup relic: in addition to making your Strikes cost 0 and giving them Eternal, now makes all your Strikes deal 3 additional damage

• Moved Tezcatara's Seal of Gold relic to option 3 so it shares a pool with Pumpkin Candle

• Changed Pael's Eye relic: if an enemy has Vulnerable and you take an extra turn, the enemy's Vulnerable no longer decrements before your extra turn (also applies to Frail, Intangible, Weak, and other powers that decrement at the end of the enemy's turn)

Enemies:

• Replaced the Act 3 boss Doormaker with a brand-new boss, Aeonglass (its moveset and Wither / Withering Presence mechanics were refined throughout the beta)

• Reworked Infested Prism

• Reworked the Axebots fight into a single, more challenging Axebot

• Changed Skulking Colony:

• HP increased from 70(75) -> 75(80)

• Hardened Shell increased from 15 -> 20

• Smash move removed; now uses Zoom on turns 1 and 2

• No longer gains Block

• Now gains +1 Strength on its Strength-gain turn at high Ascension

• Changed Haunted Ship: now applies 3 Weak on Turn 1 instead of when it attacks; Ramming Speed move removed, now alternates between Swipe and Stomp (always starting with Swipe after Haunt)

• Changed Punch Construct: Fast Punch now leads into Strong Punch (instead of the reverse), Ready now leads into Fast Punch, and it applies Frail instead of Weak

• Adjusted enemy HP at the extremes of the Ascension curve (slightly lower at low Ascension, slightly higher at high Ascension):

• Scrolls of Biting: 31(32)-38(39) -> 30(33)-37(39)

• Owl Magistrate: 234(243) -> 231(247)

• Slimed Berserker: 266(276) -> 261(281)

• Buffed Soul Fysh: Scream move damage increased from 11(12) -> 13(15)

• Nerfed Ruby Raider Assassin: damage decreased from 11(12) -> 10(11)

• Nerfed Vantom at lower Ascensions

• Nerfed Waterfall Giant: HP healed at lower Ascension decreased from 15 -> 10(15)

Events:

• Changed Slippery Bridge event: no longer offers to remove the same card multiple times unless it has already offered every other card in your deck at least once

• Something special now happens if you have multiple Lantern Key cards (does not apply to multiplayer)

Potions & Relics:

• Buffed The Boot relic: damage increase now also applies to Osty's attacks

Colorless:

• Buffed Gold Axe card: in multiplayer, now deals damage equal to the number of cards played by ALL players, not just its owner

• Nerfed Fasten card: additional Block decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)

Ironclad:

• Reworked Conflagration card: now deals 2 damage to ALL enemies 4(5) times (was: 8(9) AOE damage plus 2(3) per other Attack played this turn)

• Reworked Drum of Battle card: now a 1-cost Uncommon Skill that draws 2 cards and grants 2(3) Energy when Exhausted (the Energy gain respects Replay and card-duplication effects like Duplicator potion)

• Buffed Howl From Beyond card: trigger moved from start of turn -> end of turn

• Buffed Entrench card: can now gain extra Block from enchantments like Nimble

• Buffed Unrelenting card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

Silent:

• Reworked and renamed Follow Through card -> Scare (rarity increased from Common -> Uncommon)

• Changed Nightmare card: if you select a card with an Affliction on it, that Affliction is now removed from the copies added to your hand the following turn

• Changed Predator card: rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common

• Buffed Untouchable card: upgraded Block gain increased from +2 -> +3

• Buffed Pounce card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

• Nerfed Blade of Ink card: Inky enchantment damage decreased from +2 -> +1

Regent:

• Reworked Parry card: instead of granting Block when you play Sovereign Blade, Sovereign Blade now gains 10(14) Block directly, so the Block shows on the Blade and is affected by powers like Dexterity and Frail

• Slightly reworked Sword Sage card: Sovereign Blade now gains Replay 1 (was: hits an additional time), which gives it synergy with Parry

• Changed Astral Pulse card: changed damage from 14(18) -> 6(8)x2

• Changed Tyranny card: now triggers before Bombardment card (so if Tyranny Exhausts Bombardment, Bombardment is played immediately after)

• Changed Sealed Throne card: upgrade changed from Innate -> lowering Energy cost by 1

• Buffed Crescent Spear card: base damage increased from 6 -> 8

• Buffed Royalties card: Gold gain increased from 30(35) -> 30(40)

• Buffed Furnace card: Forge increased from 4(6) -> 5(7)

• Buffed Monarch's Gaze card: Energy cost decreased from 3(2) -> 2(1)

• Nerfed Reflect card: Block gain decreased from 17(21) -> 15(20)

• Nerfed Bulwark card: Block decreased from 13(16) -> 12(15)

• Nerfed Patter card: Block gain decreased from 9(11) -> 8(10)

• Nerfed Minion Sacrifice card: Block decreased from 9(12) -> 8(11)

Necrobinder:

• Buffed Death March card: additional damage increased from 3(4) -> 4(6)

• Buffed Sic 'Em card: Summon increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

• Buffed The Scythe card: damage increased from 3(4) -> 4(5)

• Nerfed Debilitate card: debuff decreased from 3(4) turns -> 2(3) turns

Defect:

• Changed Fusion card: Energy cost decreased from 2(1) -> 1; now Exhausts, and loses Exhaust on upgrade

• Changed Shatter card: now Evokes all of your Orbs twice; damage decreased from 11(15) -> 7(11)

• Changed Tesla Coil+ card: damage decreased from 6 -> 4, but Lightning triggers increased from once -> twice

• Buffed Hyperbeam card: damage increased from 26(34) -> 28(36)

• Buffed Synthesis card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

• Buffed Uproar card: damage increased from 5(7) -> 6(8)

• Buffed Infused Core relic: now also grants "Lightning Orbs deal 1 additional damage"

Multiplayer:

• Nerfed multiplayer scaling for enemy Artifact, Slippery, and Skittish powers

• Stratagem card is no longer banned from the colorless card pool in multiplayer (the original ban was due to a now-fixed bug)

• Buffed Tag Team card: Replay effect now triggers on "deal damage to ALL enemies" attacks too

• Changed Fossil Stalker: in multiplayer, now gains a set amount of Strength if it hits any player instead of gaining Strength for each player hit

QUALITY OF LIFE:

• During the Gremlin Merc fight, if Gremlin Merc didn't steal any gold but Fat Gremlin escaped, you now receive 50% of the normal gold reward instead of 0%

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

General:

• Added an Ascension first-time tutorial popup for single player and multiplayer

• If errors occur on run start, a popup is now displayed instead of a black screen

• An error is now displayed when Steam crashes

• The feedback tool now displays an error if your feedback was not received, and added a translation-issue option to the in-game feedback form

• Implemented preferred Ascension for the random character option

• Loading a current_run.save with a modded character back into an unmodded game now shows an error instead of a black screen

• The player's hand now animates out of the way during the enemy turn

• Limited the number of cards rendered during the rest site Clone animation to 15

• Updated Ancient card text backgrounds to fit more text and be slightly darker and embossed

Leaderboards:

• Added a global rank paginator and adjusted arrow positions

• You can now see other players' scores near your own

• Moved the game over screen leaderboards higher to make room for the toggle

Controller:

• Added controller navigation for Badges in the game over and run history screens, the player info icons in run history, and the modifier icons on the top bar

• Improved controller navigation in the Fake Merchant shop

• Pause menu button navigation now wraps

Ancients:

• Pael's Flesh relic now visually increases the max energy shown in your Energy counter

• When Vakuu tells you how many times you've visited, the number is now accurate

• Hovering over a stale dialogue at Ancients now makes all dialogues opaque

Enemies:

• Skulking Colony's health bar now changes color to indicate it cannot take more damage this turn

• Improved Byrdonis's hovertips (Territorial now names Byrdonis, and hovering Byrdonis shows the Strength hovertip)

Necrobinder:

• Sacrifice card now previews how much Block it will gain

Multiplayer:

• Added a more informative error popup for the Steam BadCert multiplayer error

ART:

General:

• Added Epoch art for:

• Friendship

• Booting Up

• Soup

• Poisoner

• Scribbles

• The Calm

• Devastation

• The 12

• The Giant

• Updated Epoch art for:

• Hello Hello!

• Friendship

Characters:

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Feral

• Not Yet

• Spite

• Fight Through

• Hailstorm

• Synchronize

• Iteration

• Voltaic

• Apparition

• Abrasive

• Added new character animations:

• Ironclad heavy attack

• Necrobinder cast

• Regent Sovereign Blade

• Defect power up

Ancients:

• Added Vakuu background art and VFX

• Revised Neow's Fury artwork (now centered)

Enemies:

• Added new power art for Smoggy

• Updated enemy art for:

• Tunneler

• Entomancer

• Mawler

• Added a multi-hit animation for Corpse Slug

• Added an unstun animation for Rock Bowlbug

• Added Skulking Colony animations

• Added new Soul Nexus VFX

• Tweaked the Vantom explosion to look right on a shrunken Vantom

• Repositioned Sludge Spinner's death landing spot

• Updated enemy animations for:

• Vantom

• Ceremonial Beast

• Entomancer

• Added phobia mode alternate art for:

• Fossil Stalker

• Haunted Ship

• Skulking Colony

• The Obscura

• Twig Slime M

Events:

• Added phobia mode alternate art for Zen Weaver event

AUDIO:

• Added background music for Soul Fysh and Kaiser Crab

• Added SFX for:

• Kaiser Crab enemy

• Skulking Colony enemy

• Hyperbeam move

• Cards traveling to a pile

WRITING:

• Brilliant Scarf relic description now specifies it only counts cards played "from your hand" (so it's clear it doesn't count auto-played cards)

• Reaper Form card wording now makes clear the Doom is applied by Reaper Form's power rather than the played card

• Fixed inconsistencies in Jeweled Mask relic's wording

• Exterminate card wording is now consistent with Conflagration card

• The word "Power" is no longer keyworded in Lost Wisp relic's description

• Reworded the Axebot death message to reflect that there is only one of them now

• Added more translated text and fixed translation errors across many languages

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed save files being lost or corrupted after a PC crash, blue screen, or power outage

• Made save operations fault-tolerant to prevent softlocks, and improved reliability of settings saves on startup

• Stopped cloud-syncing settings.save and fixed Steam Cloud sync errors and duplicate run history files when syncing many files

• Fixed black screen softlock when Steam disconnected during room transitions

• Fixed several crashes: applying powers to dying creatures, clo

Another bi-weekly beta patch is here! This one is a bit smaller as it is intended to lay the groundwork for moving the beta branch to the main branch. Therefore, these updates are mostly focused on stability: a lot of bug fixes, UI/UX/QOL additions, and performance improvements along with just a few balance changes and art additions....

...Like this new Defect animation!

Without further ado, let's dive in...

CONTENT & BALANCE:

Enemies:

• Buffed Skulking Colony: now gets +1 Strength on its Strength gain turn on high Ascension

• Changed Aeonglass:

• No longer applies the Ebb debuff

• Now gains Block on its Ebb move (single hit) instead of its Increasing Intensity move

Potions & Relics:

• Buffed The Boot relic: damage increase now also applies to Osty's attacks

Ironclad:

• Buffed Juggernaut card: damage increased from 5(7) -> 6(8)

Regent:

• Buffed Monarch's Gaze card: Energy cost decreased from 3(2) -> 2(1)

• Nerfed Reflect card: Block gain decreased from 16(20) -> 15(20)

Necrobinder:

• Buffed Sic 'Em card: Summon increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

• Buffed The Scythe card: damage increased from 3(4) -> 4(5)

QUALITY OF LIFE:

• During the Gremlin Merc fight, if Gremlin Merc didn't steal any gold but Fat Gremlin escaped, the player now receives 50% of the normal gold reward instead of 0%

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

General:

• If errors occur on run start, a popup is now displayed instead of a black screen

• Implemented preferred Ascension for random character option

Ancients:

• When Vakuu tells you how many times you've visited him, the number he says is now accurate

• Pael's Flesh relic now visually increases the maximum energy amount shown in your Energy counter

• For example, if you have 3 max energy before Pael's Flesh triggers, your energy counter will show 4/4 instead of 4/3 after Pael's Flesh triggers

Enemies:

• The Wither status card preview upgrade level now matches the upgrade level that Aeonglass is actually on

Necrobinder:

• Sacrifice card now previews how much Block it will gain, so that it's easier to plan with effects like Dexterity and Frail

ART:

• Added Epoch art for:

• Devastation

• The 12

• The Giant

• Added Defect power up animation

• Added new Soul Nexus VFX

WRITING:

• Updated translations for various languages

BUG FIXES:

General:

• If you have Steam Cloud turned off, cloud files no longer overwrite local ones

• First floor of Act 2 can no longer be a ? room instead of a fight when carrying Spoils Map quest card

• Fixed card Energy cost sometimes showing the wrong value when its cost is randomized

• Fixed cards returning to the wrong spot in your hand after deselecting them during a card selection

• Card draw is now stopped after combat ends during the draw phase

• Overgrowth act now plays both of its music tracks instead of always the same one

• Music no longer restarts twice at the start of a run

Ancient:

• Fixed an issue where, if the player has Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic and it auto-plays Void Form card, it could sometimes continue auto-playing cards on the player's next turn

• Fixed Nonupeipe's Diamond Diadem relic resetting its count after Hellraiser power plays cards at the start of the turn

Enemies:

• Aeonglass's Wither status card no longer briefly returns to your hand before you discard your hand at the end of your turn

• Can no longer upgrade Wither status card with Armaments or Drain Life cards

• Fixed an issue where, after killing Spectral Knight, cards that would normally be Ethereal could sometimes become non-Ethereal

• Fixed creature and boss VFX occasionally failing to appear

• Fixed Flyconid spore effect lingering when its attack is interrupted

• Fixed Fossil Stalker VFX continuously playing in the Bestiary

• Fixed the Living Fog encounter name in the death quote

• If you kill Gremlin Merc before he steals any gold from you, the rewards screen no longer says "Mugged..." even if Fat Gremlin escapes

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed an issue where, if the player hatched Byrdonis Egg at a rest site while the rest of their deck was upgraded and they had Miniature Tent relic, they were unable to upgrade the newly-added Byrd Swoop card until the next rest site

• Fixed an issue where, if Pantograph relic healed the player above 50% health, Red Skull relic's Strength increase would still apply until an attack was played

• Snecko Skull relic now always triggers before Unsettling Lamp relic

• Fixed visual errors with the outline of some potion assets

Events:

• Gnarled Hammer relic can no longer be traded at the Relic Trader event

• Fixed Perfect Fit enchantment not working correctly if you play Reboot card while the enchanted card is in your hand or draw pile

• Fixed War Historian Repy event not removing all duplicates of Lantern Key card if you have more than 2

Silent:

• Fixed an issue where, if the player had Unceasing Top relic, played Hidden Daggers card, and discarded a Sly card, Unceasing Top could cause the player to incorrectly draw a card before the Shivs were added to their hand

Necrobinder:

• Fixed an issue where, if the player played Lethality card and the first attack of the turn had Replay, the replayed attack would incorrectly display Lethality's buffed damage amount before correctly dealing its base damage amount

Multiplayer:

• Fixed crash when using potions in multiplayer due to state divergence

• Fixed rare issue which caused incorrect cards to be shown when obtaining cards at certain events

• Nightmare card VFX no longer plays for all players

PERFORMANCE:

• Reduced stuttering when combat effects appear for the first time in a run

MODDING:

• Base game no longer deletes progress from mods that are removed or errored

Hey Slayers! Today we are pushing out a bugfix patch that brings tons of bugfixes from the beta branch over to main.

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Improved the reliability of saving your settings on startup

• Fixed a crash when applying powers to dying creatures

• Fixed a crash when opening the card pile screen while targeting an enemy on controller

• Fixed a crash on Linux during combat when UI elements were removed mid-frame

• Fixed a crash on Linux when ICU libraries are unavailable

• Fixed audio staying muted after pressing the volume keys or alt-tabbing on Linux

• Restored the default rendering backend to D3D12 for Intel 620 GPUs

• Fixed number keys not selecting cards when your mouse cursor was too low on the screen

• Fixed being able to open the card inspection screen and toggle View Upgrades with the same button press

• Fixed being unable to use the View Upgrades hotkey in the card inspection screen

• Fixed the card inspection button blocking the "accept" hotkey on the Pandora's Box card view screen

• Fixed playing the Wish card on controller immediately selecting a card in the grid on the same button press

• Fixed broken controller navigation from your relics to the reward screen after clearing the top reward option

• Fixed the game rapidly switching between "Controller Detected" and "Mouse Detected" while playing on a controller

• Fixed being able to target dead enemies on controller

• Fixed being unable to navigate off of the top bar in the shop

• Fixed controller navigation in the shop after buying out all relics and colorless cards

• Fixed being unable to navigate rest site options on controller when you have two rows of relics

• Fixed being able to start a single-player run on controller while the Ascension tutorial was open

• Fixed errors in the input settings for new keybindings added after your settings were saved

• Fixed an error when unfocusing a potion slot during potion removal

• Fixed an error caused by an offscreen epoch indicator on the Timeline screen

• Fixed separator lines appearing on the Daily Leaderboard screen when no scores had been submitted, or while scores were still loading or had failed to load

• Fixed replayed cards not displaying the correct damage when powers wore off between replays

• Fixed the Night Terrors modifier being able to kill you

• Fixed loading a save file with a deprecated boss being able to roll the same boss twice in a double-boss fight

• Fixed not removing all Spoils Map cards when you complete the quest and somehow have more than one

• Fixed a rare softlock related to writing debug files

• Fixed an issue where your odds of receiving another potion reward could sometimes increase instead of decrease after winning an elite combat and receiving a potion

Ironclad:

• Fixed being able to select an already-upgraded card with Armaments when it was added to your hand by Largesse+

Silent:

• Fixed being able to skip the Survivor card's discard selection using the peek button

Defect:

• Fixed the Scrape card discarding cards that cost zero Energy but have a Star cost

• Fixed a spacing issue in the Consuming Shadow power's hovertip

Regent:

• Fixed the Summon Forth card so it now puts your existing Sovereign Blades into your hand before Forging instead of after

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed The Boot dealing 5 damage instead of 1 to you from the Bad Luck curse while you have Intangible

• Fixed the Self-Forming Clay relic being triggered by the Terminal modifier's max HP loss

• Fixed the Whispering Earring relic replaying Stardust for 0 Stars instead of the correct amount

Enemies:

• Fixed Lagavulin Matriarch's "zzz" sleep particles not going away in the bestiary when she is no longer sleeping

• Fixed a VFX glitch when Snapping Jaxfruit dies to the Reflect power

• Fixed the Zapbot's High Voltage power hovertip to correctly state it gains Strength at the end of its turn instead of the start

• Fixed Living Fog missing its smoke

• Fixed the Ceremonial Beast's music transition not lining up with when it gets stunned

• Fixed the Enfeebling Touch power causing the Ceremonial Beast to gain Strength after you stun it

• Fixed a softlock with the Thieving Hopper when you have no cards for it to steal

• Fixed the Parafright illusion keeping its negative Strength from Dark Shackles when you kill it for the turn

Events:

• Fixed cards from other characters appearing in the Infested Automaton event

• Fixed being unable to discard potions in the Punch Off event

• Fixed being unable to give the foul potion to the Merchant

Ancients:

• Fixed a crash when selecting Ancient relic options

• Fixed being able to navigate back to Neow's options while viewing the card library

• Fixed being able to slightly see the top of the next dialogue bubble before it animates in at the Ancients

• Fixed the Leafy Poultice relic transforming the upgraded Strikes and Defends granted by Neow's Talisman when you get both from Neow's Bones

• Fixed the Nutritious Soup option appearing in the Tezcatara screen when you have no Strikes

Multiplayer:

• Fixed the Pael's Legion and Vambrace relics not triggering when their owner applies Block to other players

• Fixed the Dense Vegetation event being able to appear when any player has 8 HP or less

• Fixed being able to start a loaded multiplayer game with only one player

• Fixed other players' HP bars going offscreen when resizing the window while in settings

• Fixed errors when players had square brackets in their name

• Fixed the "Show Multiplayer Drawings" checkbox not using its localized text

• Now showing the correct error message for a Steam multiplayer connection timeout (error 5008)

• Improved error reporting for a specific rare connection error

• Fixed a softlock related to using the Driftwood relic on your first run

Quick hotfix with a couple of Aeonglass-related fixes and some localization updates!

WRITING:

• Updated translations for various languages

BUG FIXES:

Enemies:

• The player can no longer upgrade Wither status cards

• Wither status cards will no longer stick around in hand if they have Retain from something like the Runic Pyramid relic

It's time for another beta patch! A main focus of this one is enemy balance, including a rework of Infested Prism, more adjustments to Skulking Colony, and some changes to the new boss, Aeonglass. We've also got quite a few more Epoch art additions and more cool combat animations for some of the characters! Let's dive in...

CONTENT & BALANCE

General:

• If an enemy has Vulnerable and a player takes an extra turn via Pael's Eye relic, the enemy's Vulnerable amount no longer decrements before the player's extra turn

• This change also applies to other powers that decrement at the end of the enemy's turn (Frail, Intangible, Weak, etc.)

Ancients:

• Changed Neow's Scroll Boxes Silken Tress relics: swapped downsides and pools

Ironclad:

• Buffed Drum of Battle card: Energy gain on Exhaust effect now respects Replay and card play duplication effects like Duplicator potion

• Buffed Howl From Beyond card: trigger moved from start of turn -> end of turn

• Buffed Entrench card: can now gain extra Block from enchantments like Nimble

• Buffed Unrelenting card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

Silent:

• Reworked and renamed Follow Through card:

• Rarity increased from Common -> Uncommon

• Renamed -> Scare

• Changed Predator card: rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common

• Buffed Pounce card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

Regent:

• Buffed Furnace card: Forge increased from 4(6) -> 5(7)

• Nerfed Minion Sacrifice card: Block decreased from 9(12) -> 8(11)

• Changed Sealed Throne card: upgrade changed from Innate -> lowering Energy cost by 1

• Changed Astral Pulse card: damage changed from 14(18) -> 6x2(8x2)

Necrobinder:

• Buffed Death March card: additional damage increased from 3(4) -> 4(6)

• Nerfed Debilitate card: debuff decreased from 3(4) turns -> 2(3) turns

Defect:

• Changed Fusion card:

• Energy cost decreased from 2(1) -> 1

• Now Exhausts, and loses Exhaust on upgrade

• Buffed Synthesis card: damage increased from 12(18) -> 14(20)

• Nerfed Shatter card: damage decreased from 11(15) -> 7(11)

Colorless Cards:

• Nerfed Fasten card: additional Block decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)

Potions & Relics:

• Buffed Mummified Hand relic: now randomly chooses cards in a way that's more favorable to the player

• Priority 1 is cards that currently cost 1+ AND with a base cost of 1+ before any current cost modifications

• Priority 2 is cards that currently cost 1+ regardless of base cost

• Priority 3 is cards with a base cost of 1+ that have been temporarily modified to cost 0

• If none of these priorities match, a completely random card in the player's hand is chosen

Enemies:

• Reworked Infested Prism

• Changed Aeonglass:

• Adjusted moveset

• Reworked Wither status and Withering Presence power

• Changed Haunted Ship: Ramming Speed move removed, now alternates between Swipe and Stomp instead (always starting with Swipe after Haunt)

• Changed Punch Construct:

• Fast Punch move now leads into Strong Punch instead of Strong Punch leading into Fast Punch

• Ready move now leads into Fast Punch

• Now applies Frail instead of Weak

• Changed Skulking Colony:

• HP increased from 70(75) -> 75(80)

• Hardened Shell power increased from 15 -> 20

• Smash move removed, now uses Zoom move turns 1 and 2 instead

• No longer gains Block

ART:

• Added new Ironclad heavy attack animation

• Added new Necrobinder cast animation

• Added new Regent Sovereign Blade animation

• Added Epoch art for:

• Booting Up

• Soup

• Poisoner

• Scribbles

• The Calm

• Updated Epoch art for:

• Hello Hello!

• Friendship

• Added alternate phobia mode art for:

• Fossil Stalker

• Haunted Ship

• Skulking Colony

• The Obscura

• Twig Slime M

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Improved Byrdonis's UX

• Territorial power's hovertip now mentions Byrdonis by name

• Hovering over Byrdonis now also shows the Strength hovertip

• Updated the Aeonglass boss node icon

• Added the following enemies to the Bestiary:

• Kaiser Crab arms

• Decimillipede

• Parafright

• Added global rank paginator and adjust arrow positions to leaderboards

• Leaderboards in game over screen have been moved a bit higher to allow room for toggle

• Ability to see other player scores near your score in leaderboards

• Added controller navigation for the modifer icons on the top bar

AUDIO:

• Added SFX for Skulking Colony

• Added SFX for when a card travels to a pile

WRITING:

• Fixed some inconsistencies in Jeweled Mask relic's wording

• Fixed Exterminate card's wording to be more consistent with Conflagration card

• The word "Power" is no longer keyworded in Lost Wisp relic's description

• Added more translated text for various languages

• Fixed formatting, numeric values, and punctuation in various languages

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed vertical separators showing up for Daily Run screen even if no scores have been submitted

• Fixed an issue where, after switching between two languages and continuing a saved run, the hovertips for some items in the top bar could display in the wrong language

• Fixed an issue where, after winning an Elite combat and receiving a potion reward, your odds of receiving another potion reward in the next combat could sometimes go up instead of down

• Fixed being able to open the card inspection screen and toggle the View Upgrades button with the same button press

• Fixed broken controller navigation from relics to the reward screen if you clear out the top reward option

• Fixed cards in hand getting stuck if you try to play it while it is being transformed

• Fixed num keys for card selection not working if you mouse is too low on the screen

• If you load a save file with a deprecated boss, it can no longer roll the same double boss

• Controller input is now ignored when game window is unfocused

• Improved reliability of settings saves on startup

• Replayed cards show the appropriate amount of damage if powers wore off between replays

• Stopped cloud-syncing settings.save to prevent Steam Cloud conflicts

• Taking a card removal reward as the last reward no longer keeps the background faded out

Ancients:

• Fixed crash when selecting Ancient relic options

• Fixed Neow's Kaleidescope relic using up all of Silver Crucible relic's charges

• Fixed Neow's Silken Tress relic in multiplayer only affecting card rewards for the host

Necrobinder:

• Funerary Mask relic now shuffles Souls into Draw Pile before your hand is drawn

Silent:

• You can no longer play cards before Tools of the Trade triggers

Defect:

• Fixed spacing issue in the Consuming Shadow power hovertip

• Scrape no longer discards cards that cost zero Energy but have a Star cost

Colorless Cards:

• Fixed a softlock when playing Anointed card when your Draw Pile contains more cards than can fit in your hand

• Fixed being able to highlight creatures while the Purity card selection screen is open

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed broken controller nav from relics to card rewards after you reroll via the Driftwood relic

• Fixed completing Orrery relic's card selection in shop also buying/clicking on an item in the shop on controller

Enemies:

• Fixed Aeonglass first move intent showing a buff instead of a debuff

• Fixed Aeonglass background music

• Fixed Ceremonial Beast background music transition not lining up with when it gets stunned

• Fixed Living Fog missing its smoke

• Fixed Kaiser Crab's Rocket Claw's charge up SFX looping forever

• Fixed Test Subject starting phase 2 with extra strength if it is killed by Sleight of Flesh via Enfeebling Touch

• Fixed Thieving Hopper softlock if you have no cards for him to steal

• Fixed VFX glitch when Snapping Jaxfruit dies to the Reflect power

• Fixed Waterfall Giant not respawning in the Bestiary when you kill him

• Inklet and Vantom's Slippery power no longer loses a stack when fully blocking all damage from a hit

• Skulking Colony's per-turn damage cap now properly resets at the start of both the player's and the enemies' turns, fixing an issue where Poison damage counted towards the damage cap on the players' next turn

• Fixed softlock after defeating Infested Prism

• Zapbot's High Voltage power's hovertip now properly mentions that it gains Strength at the end of its turn instead of the start

• Added missing move names to the Bestiary

• Summoned monsters are now revealed in the Bestiary (you will have to defeat them once to reveal them)

• Hid Lagvulin Matriarch's zzz particle when it is no longer sleeping in the Bestiary

• Waterfall Giant steam spouts no longer misbehave after death animation in Bestiary

• Fixed a few issues with Test Subject in the Bestiary

Events:

• Fixed Crystal Sphere event potion rewards giving potions of the wrong rarity

• You no longer get rewards from the Battleworn Dummy event after saving and quitting

Multiplayer:

• Potions are now canceled if they're targeted on a creature that was killed by another player

• Corrected Test Subject HP scaling in multiplayer

• Fixed state divergences related to event combats

• Fixed state divergence that would occur after Crystal Sphere event

• Fixed possible state divergence when event option resolution took a long time

• Relics with turn-number-specific triggers like Candelabra no longer skip their trigger when another player takes an extra turn with Pael's Eye relic on the triggering turn

• Exiting the Merchant room no longer skips history recording for remaining players

• Orrery relic card rewards no longer report the wrong cards to other players

Quick hotfix today addressing several bugs related to the new Aeonglass boss and multiplayer state divergences.

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Updated the Aeonglass boss icon

BUG FIXES:

Enemies:

• Fixed Aeonglass first move intent showing a buff instead of a debuff
• Fixed Aeonglass music not playing correctly
• Fixed Ceremonial Beast background music transition not lining up with when it gets stunned

Multiplayer:

• Fixed Silken Tress relic only affecting card rewards for the host
• Fixed state divergence when taking any rewards after a treasure room
• Fixed state divergence after Crystal Sphere event

It's beta patch time!

For those new to Slay the Spire 2, keep in mind that these changes are pushed to our Beta branch to ensure stability, then eventually merged into the main branch. For those who play using controller, we highly recommend using the Beta branch as we're trying to resolve crashes related to selection screens when playing via controller/Steam Deck.

While our focus is still on fixing crashes and ensuring the game runs on as many hardware configurations as possible, let's look at some of this patch's highlights.

Bi-Weekly Patching

As you've probably noticed, we're moving to patch every 2 weeks rather than weekly as outlined in our Early Access Disclaimer. This may be a bit surprising as the first game patched weekly, but it was a lot of work so it really sucked.

Anyways, the 2-week cadence should make it less hectic for us, allowing bigger changes and more time working and polishing stuff before it goes out. It also allows more time for beta players to absorb and give feedback on changes.

The Bestiary

This week brings... the Bestiary! While it's still an outline of what it will end up being, we hope that seeing these monsters and their animations and data (not yet implemented) all listed in a separate screen will be fun.

Pro Tip: Press the 1 - 8 keys when you're viewing a monster.

Doormaker Out, Aeonglass In

Doormaker has been replaced with a brand new boss, Aeonglass! While Doormaker had interesting micro decisions in the fight, he was over the complexity threshold of what we want and had lingering issues. We decided that starting over fresh will let us hit what we actually want for an Act 3 boss.

CONTENT & BALANCE:

General:

• The Bestiary is now available in the Compendium

Silent:

• Nerfed Blade of Ink card: Inky enchantment damage decreased from +2 -> +1

Regent:

• Slightly reworked Sword Sage card:

• Old: Sword Sage - Power - Cost 2(1) - Rare - "Sovereign Blade now hits an additional time."

• New: Sword Sage - Power - Cost 2(1) - Rare - "Sovereign Blade gains Replay 1."

• Among other things, this means that Sword Sage card now has synergy with Parry card

• Nerfed Bulwark card: Block decreased from 13(16) -> 12(15)

• Buffed Crescent Spear card: base damage increased from 6 -> 8

• Nerfed Patter card: Block gain decreased from 9(11) -> 8(10)

• Buffed Royalties card: Gold Gain from 30(35) -> 30(40)

Defect:

• Buffed Infused Core relic: now also gains "Lighting Orbs deal 1 additional damage."

• Buffed Hyperbeam: damage increased from 26(34) -> 28(36)

• Buffed Shatter card: now Evokes all of your Orbs twice

• Buffed Tesla Coil+ card: damage decreased from 6 -> 4, but Lightning Triggers increased from once -> twice

• Buffed Uproar card: damage increased from 5(7) -> 6(8)

Colorless Cards:

• Buffed Gold Axe card: in multiplayer, now deals damage equal to the number of cards played by ALL players, not just cards played by its owner

Enemies:

• Reworked Doormaker to a new boss, Aeonglass

• Changed Fossil Stalker: in multiplayer, now gains a set amount of Strength if it hits any player, instead of gaining Strength for each player hit

• Changed Haunted Ship: now applies 3 Weak on Turn 1 instead of applying Weak when it attacks

• Buffed Soul Fysh: Scream move damage increased from 11(12) -> 13(15)

Ancients:

• Reworked Tezcatara's Pumpkin Candle relic

• Old: "Gain 1 Energy at the start of each turn. Extinguishes at the start of Act 3."

• New: "Gain 1 Energy at the start of each turn. Extinguishes after 5 combats. Can be Kindled at rest sites."

• Added new Neow relics:

• Kaleidoscope (temp name) - "Upon pickup, gain 2 card rewards with cards from other characters."

• Fishing Rod - "Every 3 normal combats, Upgrade a random card in your Deck."

• Silken Tress - "Enchant all cards in the first card reward with Glam."

• Moved Tezcatara's Seal of Gold relic to option 3 so that it is in the same pool as Pumpkin Candle

Events:

• Something special now happens if you have multiple Lantern Key cards (doesn't apply to multiplayer)

ART:

• Added art for Friendship Epoch

• Added new power art for Smoggy

• Added multi-hit animation for Corpse Slug

• Added unstun animation for Rock Bowlbug

• Tweaked Vantom explosion to look right on shrunken Vantom

• Added a phobia mode alternate portrait for the Zen Weaver event

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Limited the total number of cards rendered when playing the Clone animation at a rest site to 15

• Added translation issue dropdown option to the in-game feedback form

• Outline darkness of continue button now matches the next dialogue arrow

• Adjusted Gremlin Mercenary combat enemy hitboxes, speech bubble, and intent positions

• Skulking Colony's health bar now changes color to indicate that it cannot take any more damage this turn

• When hovering over stale dialogues at Ancients, all of the dialogues will become opaque instead of just the one currently being hovered over

• Added a more informative error popup for Steam BadCert error in multiplayer

• If you move a current_run.save with a modded character in it back to unmodded, you get an error instead of a black screen

WRITING:

• Reworded Axebot death message to reflect that there is only 1 of them now

• Added more translated text for various languages

• Fixed translation errors in:

• German

• Latin American Spanish

• Castilian Spanish

• French

• Italian

• Japanese

• Polish

• Brazilian Portuguese

• Thai

• Turkish

AUDIO:

• Added Soul Fysh background music

• Added Kaiser Crab background music

• Added Kaiser Crab SFX

• Added hyper beam SFX

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed save files being lost or corrupted after a PC crash, blue screen, or power outage

• Fixed black screen softlock when Steam would disconnect during room transitions

• Fixed the Sealed Deck modifier not being affected by the multi-character card modifiers

• Night Terrors modifier can no longer kill you

• The Perfect badge is no longer awarded if you abandon run at a boss

• Fixed being unable to navigate off of top bar in shop room

• Fixed being unable to controller navigate through rest site options when player has 2 rows of relics

• Fixed controller navigation in shop if you buy out all relics and colorless cards

• The game no longer rapidly switches between "Controller Detected" and "Mouse Detected" when playing with a controller

• Fixed being able to start a single player run via controller while the Ascension tutorial was open

• Fixed potion hovertip not appearing if you press "b" in the potion popup screen

• Fixed errors in input settings for new keybindings added after saving

• Fixed rare problem where feedback screen is stuck open on game launch

• Fixed rare softlock when playing Compact with status cards in hand

• Fixed softlock after the popup about shuffling in the tutorial

• Fixed Steam cloud sync errors when syncing many run history files

• Fixed duplicate files appearing in run history after Steam cloud sync

• Restored the default rendering backend to D3D12 for Intel 620 GPUs

• Fixed audio staying muted after pressing volume keys or alt-tabbing on Linux

• Fixed crash on Linux when ICU libraries are unavailable

Ironclad:

• To avoid softlocking after setting up an infinite loop (i.e. Hellraiser + 2 Pommel Strike cards), Hellraiser will only play 9 cards per turn if all enemies have infinite HP

• Hellraiser card now properly plays cards containing "Strike" against enemies with infinite HP

Silent:

• Fixed Fan of Knives card VFX not playing

Regent:

• Fixed not being able to select cards with controller when you choose all the cards in your hand via GUARDS!!! card

Necrobinder:

• Fixed Fetch card not glowing gold if it is drawn by Gambling Chip relic

• Fixed Enfeebling Touch power causing Ceremonial Beast to gain Strength after you stun it

Colorless Cards:

• Fixed VFX sometimes failing to appear during Rolling Boulder power effect

Potions & Relics:

• Players are now disallowed from throwing the Foul Potion if the Merchant inventory is open

• Using Foul Potion on the Merchant no longer freezes the game on controller

• Bookmark relic is now able to properly apply its cost-reduction effect to a card that has been retained by a "Retain your Hand" effect like Equilibrium card

• Fixed Beetle Juice potion causing Vantom's tail to become visibly cut off

• If the player has The Boot relic and deals Skulking Colony 1-4 damage, they now properly take 5 damage

Ancients:

• Fixed issue where the top of the next dialogue bubble was slightly visible before it would animate in at Ancients

• Fixed being able to navigate back to Neow's blessing options while looking at the Card Library

• Fixed card inspection button blocking "accept" hotkey when looking at the Pandora's Box relic card view screen

• Fixed issue where playing Wish card via controller would immediately select a card in the grid on the same button press

Enemies:

• Fixed Kaiser Crab appearing if you load into an already completed boss room

• Recentered Axebot in fight so it looks like there is supposed to be only one of them

• Fixed a softlock that occurred if the player set up an infinite against Skulking Colony

Multiplayer:

• Fixed player names with brackets (e.g. clan tags like ) causing errors in multiplayer

• Fixed state divergence related to Mad Science, Juggling, and mixed combat speeds

• Fixed Strangle power proccing off of other player's card plays

• Fixed occasional black screen when loading into a saved multiplayer combat

• Fixed occasional state divergence caused by Stampede + Headbutt cards

• Other players' HP bars no longer go offscreen when resizing the window while in settings

• Disallow War Historian Repy duplicate Lantern Key card bonus if you are in multiplayer

Hey Slayers, we're back to updating the beta branch this week! Here's an overview of our goals with this patch.

On Ascensions:

When it comes to general balance, the base difficulty is quite hard right now. We're continuously adjusting this baseline difficulty to make it more accessible for a wide range of players, while also continuing to deliver a challenging game at the highest Ascensions.

Similarly to the first game, completing runs of Slay the Spire 2 at the highest difficulty should feel like a monumental achievement for a fraction of players devoted to understanding the ins and outs of the game's mechanics. Upon beating your first run, we added a message to communicate this intention for the Ascension system.

On Doormaker:

We are currently monitoring the Doormaker and looking at a combination in-game feedback, social media posts, and metrics. We want to give players time to adjust a bit, otherwise we'll be balancing around kneejerk reactions. Currently, from looking at millions of runs, Doormaker's overall difficulty/winrate is in a good place (slightly weaker than the other Act 3 bosses both in kill rate and damage dealt). However, we do want to ensure that its mechanics aren't too abrasive against certain playstyles.

Miscellaneous:

In other news, we've also got a few card reworks, new Badges, and a balance pass (notably, a Neow's Fury buff is here). One oft-requested feature we've added is an error message when in-game feedback is not received (for instance, if a player is offline), so that should make it clearer when your feedback was actually able to be properly submitted. We've also got a ton of fixes for various crashes and bugs as well as cool new art for some cards (and a certain Ancient)!

CONTENT:

General:

• Added three more Badges

• Damage Leader - Dealt the most damage to enemies in multiplayer.

• Debuffer - Applied the most Debuffs in multiplayer.

• C-c-c-Combo - Played 20 cards in a single turn.

Ironclad:

• Reworked Conflagration card:

• Old: Conflagration - Attack - Cost 1 - Rare - Deal 8(9) damage to ALL enemies. Deals 2(3) additional damage for each other Attack you've played this turn.

• New: Conflagration - Attack - Cost 1 - Rare - Deal 2 damage to ALL enemies 4(5) times.

• Reworked Drum of Battle card:

• Old: Drum of Battle - Power - Cost 0 - Uncommon - Draw 2(3) cards. At the start of your turn, Exhaust the top card of your Draw Pile.

• New: Drum of Battle - Skill - Cost 1 - Uncommon - Draw 2 cards. When this card is Exhausted, gain 2(3) Energy.

Anthony's note: Drum of Battle was previously the lowest picked Uncommon Ironclad card, and generally unpopular. This rework attempts to put it into a more interesting spot and adds some synergy to Exhaust decks. Conflagration had low pick rates and middling win rates for a Rare, while also feeling more like an effect that belonged on the Silent (caring about number of card plays). It has been reworked into a simple AOE card that can act as a Strength payout. The numbers will likely need tuning to get into a desired spot, but this should feel like a more appropriate part of the Ironclad's kit.

Regent:

• Reworked Parry card:

• Old: Parry - Uncommon - Power - Cost 1 - Whenever you play Sovereign Blade, gain 10(14) Block.

• New: Parry - Uncommon - Power - Cost 1 - Sovereign Blade now gains 10(14) Block.

• This means Parry's Block is displayed on the Sovereign Blade card and is now also affected by powers like Dexterity and Frail.

Anthony's note: Parry's numbers are looking correct now, but we think it will be more fun showing the effect on the Blade itself. Relics and powers now being able to interact with the Block should open up new fun interactions. As a result of this change, its numbers may need further tweaking in the future, but we will start with it as is.

Enemies:

• Reworked Axebots combat to have just a single, more challenging Axebot

BALANCE:

General:

• Terminal run modifier can no longer bring a player below 1 HP

Silent:

• Changed Nightmare card: if you play it and select a card with an Affliction on it, that Affliction is now removed from the copies added to your hand the following turn

• Buffed Untouchable card: upgraded Block gain increased From +2 -> +3

Regent:

• Changed Tyranny card: now triggers before Bombardment card

• This means that if, for example, Tyranny exhausts Bombardment, Bombardment will be played immediately after

• Nerfed Reflect card: Block decreased from 17(21) -> 16(20)

Ancients:

• Buffed Neow's Booming Conch relic: in addition to drawing extra cards, now gains 1 Energy at the start of Elite combats

• Buffed Neow's Fury card: instead of selecting randomly now allows you to choose which 2 cards will be put into your Hand from your Discard Pile (you may also now choose fewer than 2 cards if you want)

• Buffed Tezcatara's Nutritious Soup relic: in addition to making your Strikes cost 0 and giving them Eternal, now makes all your Strikes deal 3 additional damage

Enemies:

• Nerfed Ruby Raider Assassin: damage decreased from 11(12) -> 10(11)

• Changed Scrolls of Biting: have slightly less HP at low Ascension but slightly higher HP at high Ascension, changed from 31(32) - 38(39) -> 30(33)-37(39)

• Changed Owl Magistrate: now has slightly less HP at low Ascension, but slightly higher HP at high Ascension, changed from 234(243) -> 231(247)

• Changed Slimed Berserker: now has slightly less HP at low Ascension, but slightly higher HP at high Ascension, changed from 266(276) -> 261(281)

• Nerfed Vantom at lower Ascensions:

• Dismember move damage decreased from 27(30) -> 26(30)

• Slippery power goes from 9 -> 8(9)

• Nerfed Waterfall Giant: now heals less at lower Ascension, HP healed changed from 15 -> 10(15)

Anthony's note: We are slowly starting the process of making lower Ascensions a little easier, and high Ascensions slightly harder. We want to do this gradually instead of all at once.

Events:

• Changed Slippery Bridge event: will no longer offer to remove the same card multiple times unless it has already offered to remove all other cards in your deck at least once

Multiplayer:

• Nerfed multiplayer scaling for enemy Artifact, Slippery, and Skittish powers

• Stratagem card is no longer banned from the colorless card pool during multiplayer runs (this banning was originally due to a bug with Stratagem in multiplayer, which has now been fixed)

• Buffed Tag Team card: Replay effect now triggers on "deal damage to ALL enemies" attacks too

ART:

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Feral

• Not Yet

• Spite

• Fight Through

• Hailstorm

• Synchronize

• Iteration

• Voltaic

• Apparition

• Abrasive

• Revised Neow's Fury artwork (is now centered)

• Added Vakuu background art and VFX

• Added Skulking Colony animations

• Updated art for the following enemies:

• Tunneler

• Entomancer

• Mawler

• Updated animation for the following enemies:

• Vantom

• Ceremonial Beast

• Entomancer

• Repositioned Sludge Spinner death landing spot

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Added Ascension first-time tutorial popup for single player and multiplayer

• An error is now displayed when Steam crashes

• Feedback tool now displays an error if we didn't receive the feedback

• Adjusted hitbox, speech, and intent position of Underdocks Cultists

• Fixed intents being positioned too high or too low in multi-enemy combats

• Bestiary button now looks more locked (similar to how other buttons look locked)

• The player's hand now animates out of the way while it is the Enemy turn

• Updated Ancient card text backgrounds to fit more text and to be very slightly darker and embossed

• Set up controller navigation for Badges in the game over screen

• Added basic controller navigation to Badges in the run history screen

• Added controller navigation for the player info icons in the run history

• Improved controller navigation in the Fake Merchant shop

• Pause menu button controller navigation now wraps

WRITING:

• Brilliant Scarf relic description now specifies that it only counts cards played "from your hand" so it's clear that it doesn't count auto-played cards

• Reaper Form card wording has been changed to make it clear that the Doom is applied by Reaper Form's power rather than by the played card:

• Old: "Whenever Attacks deal damage, they also apply that much Doom."

• New: "Whenever Attacks deal damage, apply that much Doom."

• Added translations for various languages

• Fixed various translation errors

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Score separator lines are no longer shown while fetching score or if it fails

• Effects that make the next card free to play (Unrelenting card, Void Form card, etc.) now properly take precedence over effects that increase the cost of all cards (Entangled affliction, Spiked Gauntlets relic, Borrowed Time card, etc.)

• Fixed combat softlock that could occur after returning to main menu and resuming a run

• Fixed crash when applying powers to dying creatures

• Fixed crash when closing the game during startup before saves are initialized

• Fixed crash when upgrading a card at rest site

• Fixed error caused by offscreen Epoch indicator on Timeline screen

• Fixed error when un-focusing Potion slot during Potion removal

• Fixed Linux crash during combat when UI elements are removed mid-frame

• Fixed crash when entering rooms

• Fixed an issue with the Game Over screen after discovering multiple enemies while playing in Polish

• Fixed being able to target dead enemies with controller

• Fixed crash when opening card pile screen while targeting an enemy with controller

• Fixed rare combat errors that could occur when re-entering combat

• Fixed rare softlock related to writing debug files

• Fixed softlock on run histories from older versions of the game

• Made save operations fault-tolerant to prevent softlocks

• Score is correct when at ascension 10

• Fixed wrong floor count when submitting Daily score

Ironclad:

• Howl From Beyond card now plays from the Exhaust pile after you've drawn your hand instead of before

• Fixed Anger card played by Havoc also Exhausting on play

• Fixed being able to select an upgraded card with Armaments card if it is added to your hand by Largesse+ card

• Not Yet card can no longer be generated via a Skill Potion

Silent:

• Fixed being able to skip the Survivor card discard selection via the peek button

Regent:

• Bombardment card now plays from the Exhaust pile after you've drawn your hand instead of before

• I Am Invincible card now properly triggers before you've discarded your hand instead of after

• Regalite relic no longer gains Block from enemies applying statuses

• Summon Forth card now properly puts existing Sovereign Blades into your Hand before Forging instead of after

Necrobinder:

• Fixed crash when Osty dies during scene transition

• Fixed Reave card always bottom-decking the Soul card it creates

Defect:

• Fixed Beckon still damaging the player if the combat is ended by Lightning orbs

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed The Boot relic amplifying Bad Luck curse's damage from 1 to 5 when the player has Intangible

• Self-Forming Clay relic is no longer triggered by Terminal modifier's max HP loss

Ancients:

• Players can no longer roll Tezcatara's Nutritious Soup blessing if there are no Strikes in their deck

• Fixed Vakuu's Whispering Earring not correctly playing Stardust card

• Leafy Poutice relic no longer transforms the upgraded Strikes/Defends from Neow's Talisman relic if you get both from Neow's Bones relic

• Unceasing Top relic now triggers properly when Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic plays the last card in your hand

Enemies:

• Fixed being unable to discard potions in the Punch Off event

• Fixed Parafright illusion keeping its negative Strength from Dark Shackles when you kill it for the turn

Events:

• Fixed being unable to give the Foul Potion to the Fake Merchant

• Fixed cards from other classes appearing in the Infested Automaton event

• Fixed softlock if you somehow die in the Battleworn Dummy event fight

• All Spoils Map cards are now removed if you complete the quest and you somehow have multiple

• You now get 600 gold for each copy of the Spoils Map quest card you have

Multiplayer:

• Fixed a rare issue in multiplayer when playing Armaments card during the Knight Gang encounter

• Fixed Pael's Legion and Vambrace relics not proccing from the owner applying Block to other players

• Dense Vegetation can no longer appear if any player has less than 8 HP

• Fixed softlock related to using Driftwood relic on your first run

• Fixed rare softlock loading into a treasure room when a teammate is using a controller

• Fixed state divergence related to using a potion just before combat began

• Improved error reporting for a specific rare connection error

• You can no longer buy items at the shop while transitioning rooms

• Pillar of Creation, Supermassive, and Arsenal cards now proc for the player that played Largesse card rather than the player who gets the generated card

• The correct error message is now shown for Steam multiplayer connection timeout (error 5008)

• "Show Multiplayer Drawings" tickbox is now correctly localized

• You can no longer start a loaded multiplayer game with only one person

It's time, Slayers. All of the content, changes, and fixes from the beta branch over the past month are finally coming to the main branch of the game.

Thanks to the feedback and metrics from our dedicated beta testers (instructions for joining the experimental beta branch can be found (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2868840/view/502852451136700758?l=english), we feel that the beta version has been shaped into a stable enough position for main branch players to try out the changes. This is still an Early Access game, so just because something made it from beta to main does not mean it's set in stone. We continue to rely on the experiences of players across both branches to eventually get the game into its final, ideal state, just like we did with StS1. Trust the process! And don't forget to press F2!

These "patch notes" will be a little different: this patch encapsulates all of the changes from v0.100.0 to v0.103.1, so if you've been keeping up with the beta patches this post will basically act as a recap. If you haven't been keeping up and you're interested in seeing more detailed, chronological notes for each of these changes, please take a look through the previous beta patch notes. Manually listing out every single difference between the previous and current main versions of the game after so much beta content has gone through reworks, balance changes, and reverts has proven very time-intensive and inefficient. Therefore, we thought we'd give you more of a high-level overview of the biggest changes since the last main patch was released. The beta patches will continue to contain our usual lists of specific patch notes. Let us know if this method of patch note delivery works for you all!

CONTENT & BALANCE

Be sure to pay close attention when embarking on your next few runs: many things that you've grown used to have been re-balanced, reworked, or even removed (in a couple rare cases). However, quite a few new pieces of content have also been added for you to dig into. While we don't get into the nitty gritty of every change, we've listed the biggest relevant highlights.

In terms of general changes, here are a few big things to note:

• Ascension 6 has been reworked from Gloom - "Less rest sites." -> Inflation - "Removing cards from your deck at the Merchant is more expensive."

• All shop relics now cost 25 gold less and gold-generating relics can no longer appear in the shop

• Map generation has been improved and made to be more consistent

• If you return to a run after updating with a newly deprecated card in your deck, it is now replaced with a placeholder Status card - "Draw 1 card. Remove this from your Deck. Exhaust."

The Ironclad has received a new card, Not Yet: "Rare - Skill - Cost 2 | Heal 10(13) HP. Exhaust." Some other cards of his--Dominate, Expect a Fight, Spite, and Stoke--have received reworks, while Grapple has been deprecated. Numerous cards have seen buffs, nerfs, and rarity changes. Many of these changes have come with the aim of giving him better survivability and Exhaust synergies.

The Silent's Blade of Ink card has been reworked to generate Shivs enchanted with Inky - "This card deals 2 additional damage and applies 1 Weak." Her classic Acrobatics card has been changed from Common to Uncommon, bringing it more in line with the other cards in its family: Skim, Parse, Glimmer, and Burning Pact. She's also seen a few other buffs and nerfs. Our goal is to make Sly builds less overly dominant while making sure they still feel satisfying.

The Regent's Arsenal card has been reworked from giving Strength based on Colorless cards played to any cards created. In a similar vein, his Regalite relic now grants Block for any card created, not just Colorless cards. Notably, his card pool has seen more buffs than any other character with just a couple of nerfs, which should address concerns about him feeling weaker than the other characters.

The Necrobinder has received a rework for Borrowed Time: "Uncommon - Cost 0 - Skill | Apply 3 Doom to yourself. Gain 1(2) Energy." -> "Uncommon - Cost 1 - Skill | Gain 4(6) energy. Cards cost an additional energy this turn." This new version should go particularly well with high cost cards like Reap and Bury and help to flesh out other ways to play Necrobinder. Aside from that, she's received a handful of buffs and nerfs.

The Defect has seen the least amount of changes of any of the characters, receiving just a couple of buffs and nerfs.

Some Colorless cards, relics, and potions have seen buffs, nerfs, changes, and pool/rarity shifts, with the Hidden Gem card and Pendulum relic receiving reworks. Various events have had their options or spawn conditions tweaked.

There have been a few balance changes to some Ancient offerings, but most notably Neow will now offer 5 new relics:

• Hefty Tablet: "Choose 1 of 3 Rare cards to add to your Deck. Add 1 Injury to your Deck."

• Neow's Talisman: "Upgrade 1 of your Strikes and 1 of your Defends."

• Neow's Bones: "Upon pickup, gain 2 random Neow Relics. Add 1 random Curse to your Deck."

• Phial Holster: "Upon pickup, gain 1 potion slot and procure 2 random potions."

• Winged Boots: "You may ignore paths when choosing the next rooms to travel to 3 times."

Last but certainly not least, it's time to talk about enemies. While certain enemies have seen some buffs and nerfs, like the Skulking Colony, the Doormaker has seen the most drastic reworks.

ART

Our artists have been hard at work updating the game's placeholder assets (as charming as they are). Many cards, relics, enemies, and even Nonupeipe the Ancient have received some official visuals!

There have also been some really cool additions to enemy animations as well as VFX for certain character moves. Speaking of VFX, card afflictions have also received some fancy new visuals. There are even character-based VFX for energy counters now!

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE

There have been a ton of additions (and even overhauls) when it comes to UI and UX.

First of all, a brand new system for things called Badges has been implemented. Badges may appear at the end of a run, noting various things that happened during a run like defeating a boss without losing HP, beating the game quickly, specific easter eggs, or pointing out that you forgot to spend your gold. They're meant as little reminders to let you know what was unique about each adventure.

Building off of that, leaderboards have been totally revamped. The leaderboards will now only show your friends' scores. We'll add a way to view global scores later. In general, we don't really want to incorporate invasive anti-cheat protection into the game so it's sort of impossible for us to prevent people putting in the maximum score.

Secondly, no more magic numbers. While there are still points accrued for unlocking new cards and such, the score that's sent to the leaderboards and how it's sorted is based on whether you won, how many badges you accrued, and how quickly you finished the run (in that order). This should clarify why you did better on a Daily run compared to your friends.

Because the schema has changed, leaderboards between main branch and beta branch will be separate going forward. We'll eventually add more features like sorting and whatnot, but in the meantime, do let us know what you think of these changes!

Other major changes include the addition of a Phobia Mode setting, the in-game feedback tool's maximum character count increasing from 500 to 8000, the removal of the ability to unlock achievements and epochs in Daily or Custom runs, and various improvements to controller support.

WRITING

Most of the writing-related changes have come in the form of slight rewording to make it clearer what certain cards, relics, potions, and powers actually do. For instance, those who have been confused as to why their Fairy in a Bottle potions haven't saved them from The Insatiable can now understand that the potion only triggers if your HP reaches 0, not if you die by any other means.

BUG FIXES

Many, many various bug fixes have been released, including a fix for the common "Fatal Error" Steam cloud sync issue and multiple crashes, softlocks, and black-screen startup issues. You'll also notice that a myriad of gameplay bugs have been addressed, such as ones related to the logic of Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic.

If you prefer to play on controller, you should find that various navigation problems have now been fixed. In the multiplayer realm, we've fixed some bugged gameplay interactions, state divergence problems, and have resolved many "Error 5008" disconnection issues.

As always, we greatly appreciate your in-game feedback, and will rely on it as we return to releasing more content and experimental changes on the beta branch.

Hey Slayers, we've got a quick beta branch hotfix for you today! There won't be a big beta patch this week, but you can expect the beta content, changes, and fixes to come to the main branch soon.

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed occasional crash when upgrading a card at rest site

• Fixed crash that would sometimes occur when entering rooms

• When transitioning between rooms, old assets were being freed immediately while the game was still rendering them on screen. This caused rare crashes to desktop, most often when entering events, shops, or campsites. The fix defers the actual freeing to the end of the frame, after rendering is complete.

• Fixed an issue with the Game Over screen after discovering multiple enemies while playing in Polish

• Fixed rare combat errors that could occur when re-entering combat

• Fixed softlock on run histories from older versions of the game

• Not Yet card can no longer be generated in combat by effects like Skill Potion

• Score is now correct when at Ascension 10

Multiplayer:

• Colorful Philosophers event can no longer be encountered if a player has only Ironclad unlocked

• Fixed curse mismatching when some players would take Neow's Bones relic

• Fixed state divergence when Neow's Bones relic would trigger multiple reward screens

• Fixed not being able to load into a Daily multiplayer run

Hey, Slayers! Casey here. This week's beta patch brings two major changes to how scoring works for the Daily Leaderboards!

First and foremost, the leaderboards will now only show your friends' scores. We'll add a way to view global scores later. In general, we don't really want to incorporate invasive anti-cheat protection into the game so it's sort of impossible for us to prevent people putting in the maximum score.

Secondly, no more magic numbers. While there's still points accrued for unlocking new cards and such, the score that's sent to the leaderboards and how it's sorted is based on whether you won, how many badges you accrued, and how quickly you finished the run (in that order). This should clarify why you did better on a Daily run compared to your friends.

Because the schema has changed, leaderboards between main branch and beta branch will be separate going forward. We'll eventually add more features like sorting and whatnot, but in the meantime, do let us know what you think of these changes! Apologies in advance for any bugs...

Now let's take a look at the rest of the updates, including updated art (like Nonupeipe above), some reworks and balance changes, a new Ironclad card, and new Neow relics (one of which may be very familiar to seasoned Slayers).

CONTENT AND BALANCE:

Hey everyone, Anthony here. This week I will be grouping balance and content changes together to better talk about how each section changes overall.

Ancients:

• Added new Neow relics:

• Neow's Bones: "Upon pickup, gain 2 random Neow Relics. Add 1 random Curse to your Deck."

• Phial Holster: "Upon pickup, gain 1 potion slot and procure 2 random potions."

• Winged Boots: "You may ignore paths when choosing the next rooms to travel to 3 times."

We have three new Neow options you can choose from. I especially like adding more variety to Neow, so we will be looking to expand her set of relics even more over time.

Ironclad:

• Added new Ironclad card, Not Yet: "Rare - Skill - Cost 2 | Heal 10(13) HP. Exhaust."

• Deprecated Grapple card

• Changed Colossus card: rarity decreased from Rare -> Uncommon

This set of changes is directly aimed at improving Ironclad's survivability in a big way. Colossus moving to the Uncommon pool helps to lessen the need for Rare defensive options, and should also help Ironclad players that are missing out on Weak. To make room for an Uncommon Colossus, an existing Uncommon had to be cut. Grapple was too low impact (and redundant with Juggernaut) so it made the most sense to cut. Not Yet gives the Ironclad a much needed healing option.

Silent:

• Changed Acrobatics card: rarity increased from Common -> Uncommon

• Reworked Follow Through card: "Uncommon - Attack - Cost 1 | Deal 6(8) damage to ALL enemies. If the last card you played this turn was a Skill, apply 1(2) Weak to ALL enemies." -> "Common - Attack - Cost 1 | Deal 7(9) damage. If you have 5 or more other cards in your Hand, hits an additional time."

• Buffed Memento Mori card: base damage increased from 8(10) -> 9(11)

• Buffed Speedster card:

• Damage increased from 1(2) -> 2

• Upgrade changed from +1 damage -> Gains Innate

Acrobatics has consistently been a problem as a Common, completely dominating both win rates and pick rates. When compared to the other cards in its family: Skim, Parse, Glimmer, and Burning Pact, it stood out as the only Common. At Uncommon I expect it to still dominate pick rates, while giving me the breathing room to not overly nerf Sly cards, and in fact maybe even give Silent buffs. I will be watching to see how this change impacts her pool in particular this week. This is still an experiment, so it could be reverted if this change ultimately ends up being worse for the game.

Regent:

• Changed Regalite relic: now grants Block for any card created, not just Colorless cards

This change makes Regalite consistent with Arsenal, and gives more love to the Regent's Status-generating cards.

Enemies:

• Deprecated Tunneleing Twosome fight from the Hive

• Nerfed Living Fog: no longer increases the amount of bombs it spawns over time

• Nerfed Skulking Colony: HP decreased from 74(79) -> 70(75)

• Nerfed Byrdonis: HP decreased from 91(99)-94(99) -> 81(90)-84(90)

• Nerfed Doormaker:

• Overall damage numbers nerfed and moves moved around to better align with the doormaker powers

• No longer applies debuffs

• Gains less strength

Doormaker maintains his troublesome powers, but gets several changes to make the fight more manageable and feel less oppressive. Additionally, I have started focusing on removing some of the spikiness from Act 1, with the long term plan to shift some of the difficulty from Act 1 -> Act 3. The Skulking Colony change is hopefully the last for a while, as the minor HP adjustment allows killing it one turn earlier at Ascension 8.

ART:

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Adaptive Strike

• Shadow Shield

• Smokestack

• Bad Luck

• Outbreak

• Added new art for Nonupeipe Ancient background

• Added new art for the following Neow Ancient relics:

• Hefty Tablet

• Neow's Talisman

• Updated art for Osty in character select screen

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Players on the beta branch now submit their scores to a separate beta-only leaderboard

• Added a scrollbar to the Run History screen

• Badges now show up in Run History screen

• Cleaned up the screen when loading a multiplayer Daily Run so that it matches the standard Daily Run screen

• Daily Leaderboards now show off floor, badge count, and time instead of score

• In multiplayer games, gold score is averaged out across all players to make score uploading consistent for the new schema

• Updated Leaderboard view in Game Over screen

• Leaderboards shown in the Game Over screen in Dailies now fit better

• Your name on the Leaderboards are now highlighted blue so you can more easily find yourself

• Reworded Spiraling Whirlpool event to explicitly state that it can only enchant a basic Strike or Defend

• Added wrapping navigation to Relic Inventory bar on controller

• Big divination button hotkey in Crystal Sphere event no longer uses deck view button on controller

WRITING:

• Archaic Tooth relic now properly says "Transform a starter card into an Ancient version" instead of "with an Ancient version".

• Flak Cannon card description now highlights "Status" in gold

• Flanking card now properly specifies that it only doubles attack damage

• Iteration, Rocket Punch, and Trash to Treasure card descriptions now say "Status" instead of "Status card"

• Pael's Tooth relic now says "Cards devoured" instead of "Cards in the Pot"

• Updated translations for various languages

• Fixed translation errors for the following languages:

• German

• Japanese

• Russian

• Updated credits

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed a blackscreen-at-launch issue related to Steam crashing

• Fixed softlock related to opening a secret debug menu

• Fixed an issue where, if the player dragged a multi-target attack out of their hand, the damage amount previewed on the attack wouldn't include their Strength if some enemies had Vulnerable while others didn't

• "Ascension unlocked" text is no longer displayed in Daily/Custom runs

• Fixed leaderboards not being centered properly on non-standard aspect ratios

• Fixed cards in hand not being deselected when pressing the top panel hotkey button

• Fixed Merchant hand not initially hovering over the first card in the shop when on controller

• Players and enemies' maximum Block has been increased to 999,999,999

• Negative power amounts can no longer stack below -999,999,999

Silent:

• Fixed Blade of Ink card listing the generated Enchanted Shivs in the Run History combat rewards

• Fixed Knife Trap card causing the Exhaust Pile UI to display an incorrect number of cards

Regent:

• Fixed "to All enemies" not appearing in the Sovereign Blade Forge animation when playing Seeking Edge card

• Fixed Reflect card enchanted with Imbued wearing off before the player turn actually begins

Necrobinder:

• Fixed Borrowed Time+ card not having green text in the upgrade preview

• Fixed self-Doom killing the player if they kill the enemy via Stampede card first

Enemies:

• Fixed Knowledge Demon background music not playing finale when you defeat him

• Fixed Queen background music not ending if you kill her before the Amalgam

• Fixed missing Crossbow Ruby Raider fire animation

• Poison now always procs before The Insatiable tries to eat you

Events:

• Fixed being able to drink the fruit potion in the Stone of All Time event if you open the popup as the screen is fading out

Multiplayer:

• Fixed being able to play potions in multiplayer when you are dead

• Fixed Belt Buckle relic removing Dexterity if another player gets a potion from Alchemy card

• Fixed History Course relic playing Believe in You card before the start-of-turn Energy reset

• Fixed Smokestack power proccing off of other player's Statuses

• Fixed strange behavior after exiting the timeline via a Steam Invite

• Fixed some state divergences when using console commands in combat

• Fixed some instances of "unexpected noconnection packet" error

• Fixed state divergence related to upgrading a Monologue card enchanted with Royally Approved

• Fixed timing-based softlock related to Golden Compass relic

Hey Slayers, we've got another Beta patch for you all this week!

Notably, this patch brings in some structural work for a system called Badges.

Badges may appear at the end of a run, noting various things that happened during a run like defeating a boss without losing HP, beating the game quickly, specific easter eggs, or pointing out that you forgot to spend your gold. They're meant as little reminders to let you know what was unique about each adventure.

While they only show up at the end of a run for now, they'll appear in your run history and stats screen later on. This is part of a series of upcoming changes to make runs feel distinct and improve scoring (more on that later!).

In terms of visual changes, there are some new art additions for various cards and a few enemies, as well as some cool new VFX for afflictions!

Up next, we've got some more commentary from Anthony on this patch's content reworks, so let's dive right into it.

CONTENT:

General:

• Reworked Ascension 6 from Gloom - "Less rest sites." -> Inflation - "Removing cards from your deck at the Merchant is more expensive."

As mentioned last week, affecting map generation through Ascension has increasingly seemed to be a miss. It's often too hard to tell what change if any is a result of Ascension, or if it was just an unlucky map generation. Instead Ascension 6 will now make card removal at the Merchant start at 100 Gold, and will increase in price by 50 gold per removal instead of 25. I expect this to be felt significantly more than the old Gloom modifier.

Silent:

• Reworked Blade of Ink card: "Rare - Cost 1 - Skill | This turn, whenever you play an Attack, gain 2(3) Strength this turn." -> "Rare - Cost 1 - Skill - Add 2(3) Inky Shivs into your Hand."

• Added new Inky enchantment: "This card deals 2 additional damage and applies 1 Weak."

The Blade of Ink rework is an experiment with generating Enchanted cards mid combat. Definitely let us know how this feels or if Enchantments are best left to things like Events and Relics. I suspect this card will be high impact, and gives Silent another strong Weak applier.

Necrobinder:

• Reworked Borrowed Time card: "Uncommon - Cost 0 - Skill | Apply 3 Doom to yourself. Gain 1(2) Energy." -> "Uncommon - Cost 1 - Skill | Gain 4(6) energy. Cards cost an additional energy this turn."

This new Borrowed Time should go particularly well with high cost cards like Reap and Bury and help to flesh out other ways to play Necrobinder.

Enemies:

• Reworked Doormaker Grasp turn and power: now attacks for 20(23) and the power is reworked to "Whenever you play a card, lose 1 energy."

Doormaker's Grasp turn was too underwhelming, and overall lowered the difficulty of the fight too much. This new version should make the entire fight high stakes and actually give the player a difficult problem to puzzle over turn to turn instead of making the fight about just living until turn 4.

BALANCE:

Silent:

• Buffed Leading Strike:

• Shivs increased from 1 -> 2

• Damage decreased from 7 -> 3

• Nerfed Speedster: damage decreased from 2(3) -> 1(2)

• Nerfed Untouchable: Block decreased from 7(9) -> 6(8)

Potions & Relics:

• Changed History Course relic: when it plays a copy of an X-cost card, it now uses your current energy for its X-value instead of the energy spent the last time the card was played. Note: It still plays the copy for free

Enemies:

• Buffed Skulking Colony:

• Now attacks on all turns

• Deals slightly more damage

Ancients:

• Buffed Nonupeipe's Fur Coat relic: now affects restocked Axebots and other enemies that enter combat during a fight

Events:

• Nerfed Hungry For Mushrooms event: Fragrant Mushroom option upgraded cards decreased from 3 -> 2

• Changed Waterlogged Scriptorium event:

• Prickly Sponge option gold cost lowered from 155 -> 99

• Tentacle Quill gold cost lowered from 65 -> 55

• Buffed Whispering Hollow event: Exchange option gold cost decreased from 50 -> 35+-9

ART:

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Hotfix

• Modded

• Synthesis

• Sweeping Gaze

• Added new art for Ruby Raiders

• Added background art and VFX for Vantom boss fight

• Added new visuals for the following afflictions:

• Bound

• Entangled

• Galvanized

• Hexed

• Ringing

• Smog

• Updated empty chest VFX, smoke puffs

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

General:

• Adjusted and added placeholder assets for score lines in run summary and game over screen

• Adjusted timings and pauses for dialogue for Gremlin Merc

• Adjusted Cultist "Cacaw" dialogue timings

• Adjusted speech bubble positions for Damp and Calcified Cultists

• All monsters now have distinct speech bubble colors

• Players can now navigate between cards/potions/relics in the Timeline unlock screen on controller

• Players can now navigate to the top bar character portrait to see the Ascension hovertip on controller

• Pressing the top bar shortcut while already focusing on a top bar element now moves your controller focus back into your hand

Multiplayer:

• Better handling of intermittent Steam errors

• Disabled skipping chests in multiplayer. Too many people thought it was the Proceed button.

WRITING:

General:

• Foul Potion description now specifies that it deals damage to "ALL players and enemies" instead of "EVERYONE", making it clearer that it does not hit Osty

• Fixed wording in the Statistics Total Playtime/Fastest win hovertip

Localization:

• Updated translations for various languages

• Fixed translation errors in the following languages:

• German

• Japanese

• Italian

• Spanish

• Thai

• Polish

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed broken Steam rich presence translations

• Fixed a crash that could occur on startup after a Steam Cloud sync conflict

• Fixed a crash that could occur when the game failed to start and tried to show an error dialog

• Fixed an issue where numbers were improperly formatted on the victory screen

• If there is an error while spawning a creature into combat, a placeholder is shown instead of softlocking the combat

• Fixed softlock caused by being able to use your controller to confirm a hand card selection while you are peeking

• Fixed being able to press down arrow to controller navigate the card grid while an upgrade/remove/transform preview is up

• Vulkan is now defaulted to on Intel iGPUs with known D3D12 stability issues

Ironclad:

• Fixed softlock when selecting a card to upgrade via Armaments card while Lethality power still applies

Silent:

• Fixed Bullet Time card getting played by Mayhem power not setting the cost of the cards in your hand to 0

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed Unsettling Lamp relic doubling the Strength you get from Dominate card

• If a potion is discarded just before combat ends, it's no longer forever unusable

• When clicking a potion that can be thrown at all enemies simultaneously, the potion popup now properly says "Throw" instead of "Drink"

Enemies:

• Fixed an issue where a few enemies' damage intents were occasionally showing the wrong number

• Fixed not being able to navigate from the relic inventory back to the combat in the Mysterious Knight fight on controller

• Removed broken text from Thieving Hopper enemy's Escape Artist power hovertip when playing in Polish

• Fixed Soul Nexus animation not playing correctly

Ancients:

• Removed the peek button from the card selection via Neow's Hefty Tablet relic

• Effects that occur before your turn now interact correctly with Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic

• Fixed Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic continuing to play cards after Void Form power ended the turn

• Fixed an issue where Vakuu's Lord's Parasol relic would occasionally only obtain some of the items that the Merchant sells

• Fixed being able to end the Lord's Parasol purchase animation on controller

Events:

• Fixed an issue where, if the player visited a combat-style event without actually starting a combat (i.e. choosing "Return the Key" at The Lantern Key event) and then visited the Merchant immediately after, throwing a Foul Potion at the Merchant would not grant the player any gold

Multiplayer:

• Trash to Treasure power no longer procs from other player's generated statuses

• Fixed softlock in Thieving Hopper fight if one person is dead when it tries to steal cards

• Fixed state divergence related to Driftwood and Dream Catcher relics

• Player name is now correctly displayed when hovering over your character

• When re-entering the multiplayer host screen, the Ascension is now correctly synced

• You can now reload after saving a game at a rewards screen with non-standard rewards

Hey everyone, Anthony here. It's time for another Beta Patch where we test out experimental changes. Today we are going to do something a little different for the patch notes as I will be giving some insights into our design intent and thoughts behind various changes. Reminder that nothing in the beta branch is set in stone, expect lots of back and forth, and above all please let me know what you think by using the in-game feedback tool by hitting F2! I read countless pieces of player feedback and it has been instrumental in helping guide our process.

CONTENT:

Reworks and Reverts:

Silent:

• Deprecated Prepare and Prepared returns: "Common - Skill - Cost 1 - "Discard 2 cards. Next turn, gain 2(3) Energy." -> "Common - Skill - Cost 0 - Draw 1(2) card(s). Discard 1(2) card(s)."

Necrobinder:

• Reverted (Buffed) Capture Spirit to its previous version: "Uncommon - Skill - Cost 1 - Enemy loses 2(3) HP. Add 2(3) Souls into your Draw Pile." -> "Uncommon - Skill - 1 - Enemy loses 3(4) HP. Add 3(4) Souls into your Draw Pile."

• Reverted (Buffed) Borrowed Time to its previous version: "Uncommon - Skill - Cost 0 - Apply 6(3) Doom to yourself. Gain 1 Energy." -> "Uncommon - Skill - Cost 0 - Apply 3 Doom to yourself. Gain 1(2) Energy."

Starting off, I am reverting the changes made last week to Prepared, Borrowed Time, and Capture Spirit. For Prepared, while I still think that the Sly synergies are overall too dominant of a strategy, Prepared is so integral to the Silent's core identity that I will be looking for a different approach to bring Sly in line in the future. Borrowed Time is likely to receive a complete rework in the future, but for now I prefer that the card is fun to play with in all decks.

Regent:

• Reworked Arsenal card: "Power - Rare - Cost 1 Whenever you play a Colorless Card, gain 1(2) Strength." -> "Power - Rare - Cost 1 (Innate.) Whenever you create a card, gain 1 Strength."

Potions & Relics:

• Reworked Pendulum relic: "Common - Whenever you shuffle your Draw Pile, draw a card." -> "Common - Every 3 turns, draw 1 card."

Enemies:

• Reworked and nerfed the Doormaker. Fight is now less random.

Doormaker is receiving another rework! Now each visual phase he is in has its own unique power to hamper the player. All of them are disruptive and will hopefully encourage interesting play, but should now be less random and reward player agency more.

BALANCE:

General:

• Elites can no longer spawn on floor 6 to better match StS1

• Improved map generation consistency

• Fixed maps sometimes generating with fewer shops than intended

• Gloom Ascension modifier no longer affects ? rooms in addition to Rest Sites

Since Neow now counts as the first floor of the map, Elites were actually spawning one floor earlier than they should have been. This change should have a big impact on how tough fighting early Elites is. Additionally we found some improvements could be made to the map generation algorithm to help limit the number of maps overflowing with early monster rooms and not much else. For the Gloom change, although it did make the game more difficult it was not in a satisfying or fun way as it just made maps less interesting. Instead I will be looking to rework Gloom entirely in the future to a modifier that makes the game harder but in a more interesting way.

Ironclad:

• Buffed Cinder card: now Exhausts a random card in your Hand instead of the top card of the Draw Pile

• Changed Tremble card: now Exhausts

Tremble gaining Exhaust is a buff to Ironclad's Exhaust synergies, and coupled with the Cinder change should have a large impact on the Ironclad's cardpool.

Silent

• Buffed Serpent Form: Damage increased from 4(5) -> 4(6)

Regent:

• Buffed Falling Star card: Damage increased from 7(11) -> 8(12)

• Buffed Glitterstream card: Next Turn Block increased from 4(6) -> 5(7)

• Buffed Parry card: Block gain increased from 8(11) -> 10(14)

• Buffed Refine Blade card: Forge increased from 6(10) -> 9(13)

• Buffed Celestial Might card: Upgrade changed from +2 damage -> 1 additional hit

• Buffed Guiding Star card: now draws cards immediately instead of next turn

• Buffed Sword Sage card: no longer increases the cost of Sovereign Blade

• Changed Spoils of War card: now draws 2 cards, but Forge decreased from 12(17) -> 5(8)

Defect:

• Nerfed Voltaic card: Energy cost increased from 2 -> 3

Potions & Relics:

• Buffed Tiny Mailbox relic:

• Rarity moved from Common -> Uncommon

• Potions procured increased from 1 -> 2

• Changed Permafrost relic: Rarity moved from Common -> Uncommon

• Changed Bag of Marbles relic: Rarity moved from Uncommon -> Common

• Changed Red Mask rarity relic: Rarity moved from Uncommon -> Common

• Changed Bellows relic: Rarity moved from Uncommon -> Rare

• Changed Lasting Candy relic: Rarity moved from Rare -> Uncommon

• Changed Crossbow Tanx relic: Now uses Free to Play instead of Costs 0 Energy

• Changed Vexing Puzzlebox relic: Now uses Free to Play instead of Costs 0 Energy (Now also only lasts until end of turn)

• Changed Liquid Memories potion: Now uses Free to Play instead of Costs 0 Energy

For relic rarity, the design goal is that commons are not necessarily weaker, but that they are often simple effects that could add value to most decks. As rarity increases we allow higher complexity and more impact on drafting/play decisions.

Enemies:

• Nerfed Skulking Colony: deals less damage, damage scales slower, and no longer applies Dazed status cards

• Changed Haunted Ship: now applies Dazed status cards to the player

• Nerfed The Lost and Forgotten: stat theft no longer scales with Ascension

• Nerfed Waterfall Giant: HP decreased from 250(260) -> 240(250)

Skulking Colony went from too weak to too strong. This nerf should put his encounter more in line with how difficult the fight was intended to be. Additionally I found that the Dazed statuses actually worked against the design goals of his power, the new version is a tighter design overall that presents a more unified question for the player to answer. If the encounter is now too weak, simple numbers can be buffed in the future.

Events:

• Disallowed Gold generating relics from showing up as the featured relic in the Welcome to Wongo's event

• Mad Science Skill Chaos option (In the Tinker Time event) now uses Free to Play instead of Costs 0 Energy

ART:

• Added Test Subject burn animation

• Axe and Crossbow Ruby Raiders now have improved textures

• Added Portrait art for the following cards:

• Compact

• Shatter

• Fuel

• Consuming Shadow

• Subroutine

• Trash to Treasure

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Date at top-right now reflects build date instead of current date

• Increased feedback form character limit from 500 to 8000

Receiving in-game feedback from YOU the player is the best way we have of improving the game. Many of you have requested the ability to write more without hitting the character cap too early. We've increased the character count 16 fold, so I am eagerly looking forward to reading your effort posts!

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed exploit where you could controller navigate to card grid when the upgrade/remove/enchant/transform preview screen is open

• Fixed a crash that could occur at the start of the player's turn when abandoning a run

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when abandoning a run during a combat-style event

• Fixed cards upgraded to cost 0 no sorting correctly when ordering by cost in the deck view

• Fixed the Y and X glyphs being incorrect on Switch controllers

• Format large numbers on victory screen using the player's language

• Localize feedback screen Category label

• A proper error is displayed if you try to join an in-progress game

• Fixed softlock when a monster's visuals would fail to load

• Numbers now are formatted appropriately to the player's language

Necrobinder:

• Fixed Grave Warden+ showing Soul+ in its hovertip preview

• Fixed Seance+ showing Soul+ in its hovertip preview

• Foul potion no longer damages Osty

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed a state divergence related to Joss Paper relic

• Fixed a state divergence related to Dualcast card and Snecko Eye relic

Enemies:

• Fixed a softlock when playing Scrape card against The Doormaker boss

• Fixed blackscreen when loading a game saved at the rewards from the Mysterious Knight combat

Ancients:

• Fixed being able to save and load at Neow to avoid the damage taken from Precarious Shears

• Fixed softlock when you play an Imbued card that prompts a card selection and Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic

• Fix issues with Pael's Eye relic when the player dies at the start of the extra turn

Events:

• Fixed Doll Room SFX continuing to play if you save and quit out from the event

• Fixed state divergence when you use Driftwood relic at any event

• Fixed timing-related state divergence at the Doll Room event

• Fixed timing-related state divergence when entering Battleworn Dummy event

• Waterlogged Scriptorium event's Tentacle Quill and Prickly Sponge options now properly show a hovertip for Retain

Multiplayer:

• Fixed back button not reappearing if you unready in an Multiplayer load game lobby

• Fixed Beacon of Hope power hovertip description so it no longer says it stacks

• Bottled Potential now shuffles the target player's cards, not yours

• Fixed Radiate card counting Stars from other players

• If both players have Pael's Eye and only one player triggers the extra turn, the second player no longer takes their extra turn immediately afterward

• Fixed rare timing issue when any player selects Random

• Fixed Haunt proccing when another player plays Soul

Welcome to the first BIG post-launch patch, Slayers!! This one has a huge balance pass, the main aim of which is to make infinites harder to achieve. We're also introducing a Phobia Mode with bespoke assets that should mitigate various creepy phobia concerns. Speaking of visuals, here are some other major highlights:

Some snazzy new portrait art for various cards!

Cool new character-specific VFX for when you gain energy!

Reminder that this patch is exclusive to the beta branch branch for now, which you can access via the instructions outlined (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2868840/view/502852451136700758?). It will come to the main branch later, likely with some more tweaks!

CONTENT:

General:

• Added a Deprecated Card placeholder: Status - "Draw 1 card. Remove this from your Deck. Exhaust."

• If you have an in-progress run and a card in your deck is removed from the game due to a recent update, it will be replaced with "Deprecated Card"

Ironclad:

• Reworked Dominate card: Skill - Cost 1 - Uncommon - "Apply 1(2) Vulnerable. Gain 1 Strength for each Vulnerable on the enemy. Exhaust."

• Reworked Expect a Fight card: Skill - Cost 2(1) - Uncommon - "Gain for each Attack in your Hand. You cannot gain additional this turn."

• Reworked Spite card: Cost 0 - Attack - Uncommon - "Deal 5 damage. If you lost HP this turn, hits 2(3) times."

• Reworked Stoke card: Skill - Cost 1 - Rare - "Exhaust your Hand. Add 1 random (Upgraded) card into your Hand for each card Exhausted."

Silent:

• Reworked Prepared card into Prepare: Skill - Cost 1 - Common - "Discard 2 cards. Next turn, gain 2(3) Energy."

Regent:

• Reworked Glow card: Skill - Cost 1 - Common - "Gain 1(2) Stars. Draw 1 card. Next turn, draw 1 card."

Colorless Cards:

• Reworked Hidden Gem card: Skill - Cost 1 - "A random card in your Draw Pile without Replay gains Replay 2(3)."

Enemies:

• Reworked Doormaker. Beware.

• Reworked Skulking Colony to have a deadlier moveset

Ancients:

• Added new Neow blessing: Hefty Tablet -"Choose 1 of 3 Rare cards to add to your Deck. Add 1 Injury to your Deck."

• Added new Neow blessing: Neow's Talisman - "Upgrade 1 of your Strikes and 1 of your Defends."

BALANCE:

General:

• All relics in the shop now cost 25 Gold less

• Relics that generate Gold (such as Bowler Hat and Amethyst Aubergine) no longer appear at the Merchant

• Gloom Ascension now also affects ? rooms

• Power values can no longer stack above 999,999,999

• You can no longer acquire epochs in Daily or Custom runs

• Certain character stats no longer update in Daily or Custom runs

Ironclad:

• Buffed Break card:

• Energy cost decreased from 2 -> 1

• Damage increased from 20(25) -> 20(30)

• Buffed Cinder card: Damage increased from 17(22) -> 18(24)

• Buffed Fight Me! card: self-Strength gain from 2(3) -> 3(4)

• Nerfed Forgotten Ritual card: now Exhausts

• Buffed Hemokinesis card: Damage increased from 14(19) -> 15(20)

• Buffed Tremble card: Vulnerable increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

Silent:

• Nerfed Anticipate card: Dexterity decreased from 3(5) -> 2(3)

• Nerfed Corrosive Wave card: Poison decreased from 3(4) -> 2(3)

• Nerfed Flick-Flack card: Damage decreased from 7(9) -> 6(8)

• Buffed Grand Finale card: Damage increased from 50(60) -> 60(75)

• Nerfed Pinpoint: Damage decreased from 17(22) -> 15(19)

• Buffed Skewer card: Damage increased from 7(10) -> 8(11)

• Nerfed Untouchable card: Block gain decreased from 9(12) -> 7(9)

Regent:

• Nerfed Alignment card: Star cost increased from 2 -> 3

• Changed BEGONE! card:

• Now a Skill that no longer deals damage

• Now creates Minion Strike instead of Minion Dive Bomb

• Buffed Bundle of Joy card: Energy cost lowered from 2 -> 1

• Changed CHARGE!! card: now creates Minion Dive Bomb cards instead of Minion Strike cards

• Buffed Collision Course card: Damage increased from 9(12) -> 11(15)

• Buffed Gather Light card: Block increased from 7(10) -> 8(11)

• Buffed Heirloom Hammer card: Damage increased from 17(22) -> 20(25)

• Buffed I Am Invincible card: Block increased from 9(12) -> 10(13)

• Buffed Kingly Kick card: Damage increased from 24(30) -> 27(35)

• Buffed Kingly Punch card:

• Base damage increased from 8(8) -> 8(10)

• Scaling damage increased from 3(5) -> 4(6)

• Buffed Minion Dive Bomb card: Energy cost decreased from 1 -> 0

• Nerfed Minion Strike card: Damage decreased from 7(10) -> 6(9)

• Buffed Parry card: Block increased from 6(9) -> 8(11)

• Buffed Patter card: Block increased from 8(10) -> 9(11)

• Buffed Solar Strike card: damage increased from 8(9) -> 9(10)

• Buffed Spoils of Battle card: Forge increased from 10(15) -> 12(17)

• Nerfed Void Form card:

• Is now Ethereal

• Upgrade changed from +1 card -> losing Ethereal

• Buffed Wrought in War card: Forge increased from 5(7) -> 7(9)

Necrobinder:

• Nerfed Banshee's Cry card:

• Cost increased from 6 -> 9(7)

• Upgrade no longer increases damage

• Nerfed Borrowed Time card:

• Self-Doom increased from 3(3) -> 6(3)

• Energy gain no longer increases on Upgrade

• Nerfed Capture Spirit card:

• HP loss decreased from 3(4) -> 2(3)

• Souls generated decreased from 3(4) -> 2(3)

• Buffed Danse Macabre card: Block increased from 3(4) -> 4(6)

• Buffed Debilitate card: Damage increased from 7(9) -> 10(12)

• Changed Defy card: upgrade no longer increases Weak, but increases Block by +3 instead of +1

• Nerfed Dirge card: now Exhausts

• Changed Grave Warden card: upgrade changed from 8(10) Block -> 8(11) Block and no longer upgrades the Soul

• Buffed Sculpting Strike card: Damage increased from 8(11) -> 9(12)

• Nerfed Seance card:

• Cost increased from 0 -> 1(0)

• Upgrade no longer makes a Soul+

Defect:

• Nerfed Hotfix card:

• Now has Exhaust

• Upgrade now removes Exhaust instead of increasing Focus

• Buffed Rocket Punch card: cost reduction effect now lasts until it is played, instead of just until the end of the turn

Colorless Cards:

• Buffed Seeker Strike card: Damage increased from 6(9) -> 9(12)

• Changed Discovery card: "It costs 0 this turn." -> "It's free to play this turn."

• This means that, if the card it generates has a Star cost, this cost is now also reduced to 0 this turn

• Buffed Eternal Armor card: Plating increased from 7(9) -> 9(12)

• Changed Hidden Gem card: can no longer be generated in combat by effects like Skill Potion

• Changed Production card: upgrade changed from losing Exhaust -> +1 additional Energy

Potions & Relics:

• Buffed Amethyst Aubergine relic: Gold gain increased from 10 -> 15

• Buffed Book of Five Rings relic: healing increased from 15 -> 20

• Buffed Bowler Hat relic: Gold gain increased from 20% -> 25%

• Buffed Permafrost relic: Block gain increased from 6 -> 7

• Buffed Planisphere relic: HP gain increased from 4 -> 5

• Buffed Stone Cracker relic: now works in ALL combats but only upgrades 2 cards

Enemies:

• Nerfed Bygone Effigy: Damage decreased from 15(17) -> 13(15) (still attacks with 10 Strength)

• Buffed Byrdonis: Swoop attack damage increased from 16(18) -> 17(19)

• Changed Calcified Cultist + Toadpole encounter: now Calcified Cultist + Seapunk

• Buffed Rocket Claw:

• Charge Up move Strength gain now scales with Ascension from 2(2) -> 2(3)

• HP increased from 189(199) -> 199(209)

• Rage power Strength buffed from 5 -> 6

• Buffed Crusher Claw:

• Adapt move Strength gain now scales with Ascension from 2(2) -> 2(3)

• HP increased from 199(209) -> 209(219)

• Rage power Strength buffed from 5 -> 6

• Nerfed Decimillipede: HP decreased from 42(48)-48(56) to 40(46) - 46(52)

• Nerfed Fabricator: HP value of all bots decreased by 5

• Changed the Tunneler normal encounter: the Bowlbug is now replaced by a Chomper that gives Dazed status cards on turn 1

• Nerfed Living Fog encounter: Gas Bomb HP decreased from 10(12) -> 7(8)

• Buffed The Lost and The Forgotten encounter:

• Stat stealing now scales with Ascension; increased from 2 -> 3 of their respective stat at A9

• The Forgotten now deals an additional point of damage for every Dexterity it has

• Changed Nibbit: now properly scales with Ascension

• Hiss move now scales from 2 -> 3 Strength on A9

• Slice move damage now scales from 6 -> 7 on A9

• Slice move Block now scales from 5 -> 6 on A8

• Nerfed Phantasmal Gardeners: HP decreased from 28(29)-32(33) -> 26(27)-31(32)

• Buffed Seapunk: Sea Kick move damage increased from 11(12) -> 11(13)

• Nerfed Terror Eel:

• Crash damage now scales from 17(19) -> 16(18)

• Thrash Vigor now scales from 7 -> 6

• Changed Test Subject: Phase 2 no longer has the Pounce move, instead will repeat Multi Claw move every turn

Ancients:

• Buffed Neow's Fury card: the number of cards returned to your hand now upgrades from 2 -> 3

• Nerfed Neow's Leafy Poultice relic: blessing's max HP loss increased from 10 -> 12

• Nerfed Neow's Precarious Shears relic: blessing's self-damage increased from 13 -> 16

• Changed Tanx's Tri-Boomerang relic: Instinct enchantment no longer reduces cost, instead doubles damage on enchanted Attacks

• Changed Vakuu's Preserved Fog relic:

• Cards removed decreased from 5 -> 3

• Folly curse is now Ethereal

Events:

• Changed Dense Vegetation event: Trudge On option is now "Lose 8 HP. Gain 61-99 Gold."

• Changed Endless Conveyor event:

• Can no longer spawn unless all players have at least 120 Gold (up from 105)

• "Grab off the Belt" option cost increased from 35 -> 40 Gold

• Changed Grave of the Forgotten event: can no longer spawn unless every player has a card with Exhaust in their deck

• Changed Morphic Grove event:

• Can no longer spawn unless all players have at least 2 transformable cards in their decks

• Group option now costs ALL of the player's gold

• In multiplayer, is now a collaborative event

• Changed Spirit Grafter event: Rejection option is now "Lose 10 HP. Upgrade a card."

• Changed The Round Tea Party event: can no longer spawn unless all players have at least 12 HP

Multiplayer:

• Nerfed Beacon of Hope card: can no longer be stacked

• Nerfed Believe in You card: Energy decreased from 3(4)-> 2(3)

• Nerfed Huddle Up card: now Exhausts

ART:

• Infection affliction card overlay is no longer animated when Phobia Mode is turned on

• Added alternate Phobia Mode visuals for:

• Hive backgrounds

• The Insatiable

• Phrog Parasite

• Wrigglers

• Terror Eel

• Entomancer

• Added portrait for the following cards:

• Gang Up

• Seeker Strike

• Spinner

• Volley

• Knockdown

• Lift

• Updated asset for Kifuda relic

• Added asset for No Energy Gain power

• Added animation for Ovicopter buff

• Added placeholder sketches for the following relics:

• Neow's Talisman

• Hefty Tablet

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE:

• Added Phobia Mode tickbox in the Settings

• You can now skip relics received at treasure chests

• Added disclaimers for Daily and Custom runs that you cannot unlock Epochs and Achievements with them anymore

• Added icon in top bar if player is unable to obtain epochs, achievements in a run

• Hovering over the character icon now explains if you cant get achievements or epochs

• Added a way to disable map drawings in multiplayer

• The invite button now uses a hotkey on controller instead of manual navigation

WRITING:

• Huddle Up card now says "ALL players" instead of "ALL allies"

• Improved wording clarity for Bombardment and Howl from Beyond cards

• The descriptions for Fairy in a Bottle potion and Lizard Tail relic now specify that they trigger specifically when you reach 0 HP, rather than when you die in any manner

• The Insatiable boss's Sandpit power is now worded more clearly on the turn that it will eat you

LOCALIZATION:

• Updated translations for various languages

• Updated Korean text spacing to be a little bit closer

• The "Fight" message in multiplayer treasure room is now translatable

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed rare Fatal Error when syncing Steam cloud saves

• Fixed rare bug where save could be reset

• Fixed exploit where players could controller navigate to card grid when the upgrade/remove/enchant/transform preview screen is open

• Fixed a crash that could occur when triggering the thin slice visual effect

• Fixed crashes related to screen transitions, logo animation, and creature deaths

• Fixed an issue when viewing the text of a card or power which has numerical values (damage, block, etc.) that have grown very large

• Fixed an issue where, if you saved and quit after winning a combat that rewards a predetermined relic, the relic reward would be randomized when continuing the run later

• Fixed an issue where, when a player would view their deck with "View Upgrades" enabled, changing the sort order would cause the screen to break

• Fixed softlock when card selection screen would show 0 options

• Fixed an issue with Call of the Void card's hovertips when playing in Castilian Spanish

Regent

• The Regent's character select screen now properly displays all constellations among the stars in the background

Defect:

• Fixed softlock when trying to transform Rip and Tear card

Ancients:

• Fixed card prompts auto-selecting without player input after a run with Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic

• Fixed softlock when Vakuu's Whispering Earring relic would auto-play Hand Trick card with 2+ eligible Skills

Events:

• Fixed missing Eternal hovertip when showing card preview for Greed curse in Sunken Treasury event

Multiplayer:

• Fixed a crash that could occur when rapidly retrying multiplayer joins

• Fixed a multiplayer sync issue that occurred when players used different OS languages

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when a player would die to Breakthrough card's self-HP loss in multiplayer

• Fixed softlock at the end of the Architect event in multiplayer

• A proper error is now displayed when trying to accept a stale invite

• Fixed state divergence related to Imbued enchantment and Letter Opener relic

• Fixed state divergence related to Defect orb passives triggering during a player choice

• Fixed a multiplayer softlock caused by auto-playing a sequence of multiple cards (via Cascade card or another similar effect) and dying before the last card in the sequence has been played

Today's patch features all changes from the previous two beta branch patches, pushed live to the main branch. If you're interested in accessing the beta branch, please see the instructions outlined in these patch notes.

BALANCE:

• Players, enemies, and pets can no longer have their HP increased above 999,999,999

ART:

• Add icon for Murderous run modifier

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Feeding Frenzy

• Sloth

• Waste Away

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Pressing B on controller while focused on a dropdown menu no longer also closes the settings screen

• Fixed crash when interacting with potions during combat transitions

• Fixed crash when syncing cloud saves on Windows

• Fixed rare save data loss on Windows when power is lost during a save

• Fixed crash when quickly navigating away from menus

• Fixed dev console failing to match commands on non-English system locales

• Fixed potential softlock when auto-played cards trigger grid or card selection

• Fixed state divergence related to discarding potions too soon after combat ends

• Fixed being able to "peek" in card screens outside of combat

• Fixed closing the settings menu while a dropdown is open not also closing the dropdown

• Fixed navigating down the dropdown items causing the settings to scroll down

• Fixed softlock when auto-played cards triggered card selection

Ironclad:

• Fixed Hellraiser power playing Strikes if there are no valid targets

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed Fairy in a Bottle and Lizard Tail relics not healing you when your Max HP is 1

• Fixed Massive Scroll relic description saying that it can only give you Colorless multiplayer cards

• Fixed softlock if you proc Lasting Candy relic from the fixed tutorial card rewards

• Fixed Hand Drill relic applying Vulnerable to the player if Burn card breaks their block

Enemies:

• Fixed missing Kaiser Crab boss death VFX

• Fixed Kaiser Crab face animation not looping after a claw takes damage

• Fixed the word "Stunned" not appearing when Rock Bowlbug does its stunned move

Ancients:

• Fixed Tezcatara's Brightest Flame card being able to decrease your Max HP to less than 1

Events:

• Fixed softlock when dying in the Jungle Maze Adventure event

• Fixed softlock if you die in the Room Full of Cheese event

Multiplayer:

• Fixed softlock when any player has Potion Belt and Alchemical Coffer relics

• Fixed being unable to navigate via controller if you unready yourself in lobby

• Fixed players being unable to end their turn when they die while the Whispering Earring relic autoplays their cards

• Fixed Doormaker's Door HP not scaling correctly after the Doormaker escapes

• Fixed softlock when queueing a potion to be thrown after the enemy would die

• Fixed crash when returning to the map after loading a multiplayer save

• Fixed host and client sometimes generating different maps from the same seed

• Fixed map changing after reconnect with the Big Game Hunter modifier or Treasure Map and Golden Compass relics

• Fixed softlock caused by a player dying with cards in their hand

• Fixed state divergence related to playing Huddle Up during another player's card selection

• Fixed timing-related state divergence occurring at the end of a combat

• Fixed rare instances of getting stuck at an empty chest

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when a player dies to Breakthrough card's self-HP loss in multiplayer

• Fixed softlock at the end of the Architect event in multiplayer

Localization:

• Fixed crash when selecting Ironclad on Turkish locale systems

• Fixed Russian card descriptions showing raw template text for Call of the Void, Coolheaded, Fuel, and Ice Lance cards

• Fixed an issue when viewing run histories in Russian where the player played as The Defect

• Fixed an issue with Buffer+ card's description when playing in Portuguese

• Fixed an issue with Call of the Void card's hovertips when playing in Castilian Spanish

• Fixed an issue with Colossus card's hovertips when playing in German

• Fixed an issue with the "Accept" option in The Trial event when playing in French

• Fixed an issue with the "Violence" option in the Tinker Time event when playing in Korean

LOCALIZATION:

• Added more translated text for various languages

• Fixed translation and formatting errors for the following languages:

• Italian

• Russian

• Simplified Chinese

• Turkish

• German

• Spanish

• Polish

• Adjusted Japanese font to be rendered slightly smaller and raised to improve vertical centering

• Improved Korean font spacing

• Improved Russian and Thai font rendering

• Improved the look of Simplified Chinese font

• Share button in stats screen now utilizes correct localized string

MODDING:

• Reworked mod structure

• mod_manifest.json has been moved outside of the PCK. All mods should now ship with an additional file named <mod_id>.json - see ModManifest for the new JSON structure.

• PCK is no longer required for all mods. Json is the only file that is required to declare a mod. The json must declare whether the mod includes a pck/dll file.

• settings.save now includes a list of all mods that were loaded in the last game run. Reordering this list affects load order.

• Mods may declare dependencies in the manifest. If settings.save declares a load order incompatible with the listed dependencies, then a re-sort is forced.

• Added affects_gameplay field to mod manifest. If false, then the mod will not be checked against the host's mods in a multiplayer game.

• Updated 0Harmony/MonoMod to support mac arm64. Manually overwriting it should no longer be required.

Got a quick hotfix for our players on the beta branch--this is what it's all for, so thank you to everyone providing feedback! If you're interested in accessing the beta branch, please see the previous patch notes.

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed a softlock that could occur when a player dies to Breakthrough card's self-HP loss in multiplayer
• Fixed softlock at the end of the Architect event in multiplayer

Hey, Slayers! Happy 1-week-since-launch day! Today's patch mostly contains a lot of bug fixes, but it also contains a few art additions and a new limit to max HP values.

Heads up that this patch will at first be exclusive to the newly released public-beta branch for players who want to try out the newest updates and ensure they're stable before they're pushed to the main branch. You can access it by right-clicking on Slay the Spire 2 in your Steam Library, then clicking Properties > Game Versions & Betas > public-beta.

BALANCE:

• Players, enemies, and pets can no longer have their HP increased above 999,999,999

ART:

• Add icon for Murderous run modifier

• Added portrait art for the following cards:

• Feeding Frenzy

• Sloth

• Waste Away

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Pressing B on controller while focused on a dropdown menu no longer also closes the settings screen

• Fixed crash when interacting with potions during combat transitions

• Fixed crash when syncing cloud saves on Windows

• Fixed rare save data loss on Windows when power is lost during a save

• Fixed crash when quickly navigating away from menus

• Fixed dev console failing to match commands on non-English system locales

• Fixed potential softlock when auto-played cards trigger grid or card selection

• Fixed state divergence related to discarding potions too soon after combat ends

• Fixed being able to "peek" in card screens outside of combat

• Fixed closing the settings menu while a dropdown is open not also closing the dropdown

• Fixed navigating down the dropdown items causing the settings to scroll down

• Fixed softlock when auto-played cards triggered card selection

Ironclad:

• Fixed Hellraiser power playing Strikes if there are no valid targets

Potions & Relics:

• Fixed Fairy in a Bottle and Lizard Tail relics not healing you when your Max HP is 1

• Fixed Massive Scroll relic description saying that it can only give you Colorless multiplayer cards

• Fixed softlock if you proc Lasting Candy relic from the fixed tutorial card rewards

• Fixed Hand Drill relic applying Vulnerable to the player if Burn card breaks their block

Enemies:

• Fixed missing Kaiser Crab boss death VFX

• Fixed Kaiser Crab face animation not looping after a claw takes damage

• Fixed the word "Stunned" not appearing when Rock Bowlbug does its stunned move

Ancients:

• Fixed Tezcatara's Brightest Flame card being able to decrease your Max HP to less than 1

Events:

• Fixed softlock when dying in the Jungle Maze Adventure event

• Fixed softlock if you die in the Room Full of Cheese event

Multiplayer:

• Fixed softlock when any player has Potion Belt and Alchemical Coffer relics

• Fixed being unable to navigate via controller if you unready yourself in lobby

• Fixed players being unable to end their turn when they die while the Whispering Earring relic autoplays their cards

• Fixed Doormaker's Door HP not scaling correctly after the Doormaker escapes

• Fixed softlock when queueing a potion to be thrown after the enemy would die

• Fixed crash when returning to the map after loading a multiplayer save

• Fixed host and client sometimes generating different maps from the same seed

• Fixed map changing after reconnect with the Big Game Hunter modifier or Treasure Map and Golden Compass relics

• Fixed softlock caused by a player dying with cards in their hand

• Fixed state divergence related to playing Huddle Up during another player's card selection

• Fixed timing-related state divergence occurring at the end of a combat

• Fixed rare instances of getting stuck at an empty chest

Localization:

• Fixed crash when selecting Ironclad on Turkish locale systems

• Fixed Russian card descriptions showing raw template text for Call of the Void, Coolheaded, Fuel, and Ice Lance cards

• Fixed an issue when viewing run histories in Russian where the player played as The Defect

• Fixed an issue with Buffer+ card's description when playing in Portuguese

• Fixed an issue with Call of the Void card's hovertips when playing in Castilian Spanish

• Fixed an issue with Colossus card's hovertips when playing in German

• Fixed an issue with the "Accept" option in The Trial event when playing in French

• Fixed an issue with the "Violence" option in the Tinker Time event when playing in Korean

LOCALIZATION:

• Added more translated text for various languages

• Fixed translation and formatting errors for the following languages:

• Italian

• Russian

• Simplified Chinese

• Turkish

• German

• Spanish

• Polish

• Adjusted Japanese font to be rendered slightly smaller and raised to improve vertical centering

• Improved Korean font spacing

• Improved Russian and Thai font rendering

• Improved the look of Simplified Chinese font

• Share button in stats screen now utilizes correct localized string

MODDING:

• Reworked mod structure

• mod_manifest.json has been moved outside of the PCK. All mods should now ship with an additional file named <mod_id>.json - see ModManifest for the new JSON structure.

• PCK is no longer required for all mods. Json is the only file that is required to declare a mod. The json must declare whether the mod includes a pck/dll file.

• settings.save now includes a list of all mods that were loaded in the last game run. Reordering this list affects load order.

• Mods may declare dependencies in the manifest. If settings.save declares a load order incompatible with the listed dependencies, then a re-sort is forced.

• Added affects_gameplay field to mod manifest. If false, then the mod will not be checked against the host's mods in a multiplayer game.

• Updated 0Harmony/MonoMod to support mac arm64. Manually overwriting it should no longer be required.

Another small hotfix which resolves some more softlock issues. Thanks again to everyone reporting issues like this!

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed more instances of players getting stuck at the timeline

Happy day-after-launch day, Slayers! We've got another hotfix for you all today which should resolve some more frequent issues that players have been reporting. Your feedback will continue to be invaluable throughout Early Access!

WRITING:

• Updated various translations

• Fixed Russian and Turkish formatting errors

• Fixed Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Chinese translation errors

BUG FIXES:

General:

• Fixed blackscreen on launch caused by Sentry crash reporter mishandling log messages. Affected players no longer need to delete the Sentry folder to launch the game.

• Fixed softlock from Whispering Earring relic trying to play ally-targeted cards on Osty

• Fixed the Doormaker enemy's music not transitioning when the portal opens

Multiplayer:

• Fixed an issue where, after playing a multiplayer run, some players were unable to unlock Epochs in the Timeline or start new runs

• Fixed two active Beacon of Hope powers infinitely proccing each other

• Fixed a state divergence related to Pael's Wing relic timing

Happy Slay the Spire 2 launch day everyone! We have a day 1 hotfix for various issues and softlocks that players have reported. Thank you all for your feedback! For those who don't know, you can submit feedback in-game by pressing F2 or through the settings menu.

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed an issue where, if you played your first run in multiplayer and disconnected after defeating the Act 1 boss, you would be unable to start a new run or enter the Timeline screen

• Fixed crash from fast card play when card play is cancelled during targeting

• Fixed crash when displaying untranslated text for languages with complex plural rules

• Fixed intermittent crash with non-English languages

• Fixed localization-related crash in Japanese Knife Trap translation referencing non-existent Damage variable

• Fixed unsupported Steam languages showing all text as W's instead of falling back to English