Slay the Spire 2 — Major Update #2 - v0.107.1

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