Slay the Spire 2 beta adds 15 cards, expands co-op tools

Mega Crit released patch 0.108.0 to Slay the Spire 2’s beta branch on Steam. The update adds 15 new cards, many designed to interact across players in co-op matches, and includes balance adjustments, Bestiary updates, a visual overhaul for the Aeonglass boss and a set of modding fixes.

The beta branch is available now through the game’s Properties menu on Steam for players who want to test the changes. Mega Crit will evaluate results in beta before moving the most stable parts of the update to the main release.

The new cards cover every main class plus a colorless option and include effects that trigger on teammates’ turns, alter allies’ decks or discard piles, or share powers between players. Examples: Ironclad gains Midnight, an attack whose cost falls for each exhausted card played by any player, and Blaze, which grants Strength to a teammate. Outrage deals small damage and then adds a copy of itself into every player’s discard pile. The Silent gets Blade Symphony, which adds Shivs to all players’ hands, while Concoct and Fade apply poison or temporary Dexterity to allies. Regent and Necrobinder cards improve group draw and energy or apply doom when allies attack. Defect additions include Hibernate, which channels Frost that grants block to all allies that turn, and One For All, a power that boosts zero-cost attacks for every player. The colorless card The Ball increases its damage each time it is used and then moves to a random ally.

Several cards duplicate or share power effects across players. Soulbound creates Souls that are also added to an ally’s draw pile. Imitation Learning copies a power when a chosen ally plays it. Cacophony is a rare power that deals damage to a random enemy after a combined total of cards have been drawn by the team. Some cards explicitly change teammates’ decks or discard piles, which requires coordination between players to avoid unintended outcomes.

Balance changes include a reordering of end-of-turn calculations so the healing from the Regen Potion and the passive effects of Defect’s Orbs resolve before doom is applied. The developer expects this will allow characters to survive situations where doom previously caused death and make Orbs more likely to finish off doomed enemies. Most other balance adjustments are modest buffs. Ironclad and Regent received small reductions to block amounts and the Silent’s Tracking effectiveness was reduced. Multiplayer scaling was adjusted by reducing how much enemy block increases in two-player matches.

Content and quality-of-life updates include a Bestiary stats section and event combat encounters, updated art and animations for the Aeonglass boss, and a new randomize option for custom runs that selects two beneficial modifiers and one harmful modifier and can auto-pick a character.

Modding improvements aim to reduce friction for creators and players. Modded and unmodded saves remain separate, but a modded save will now import a copy of an existing unmodded save instead of requiring a fresh start. Multiplayer should see fewer version-conflict errors. Mega Crit plans to move major modding upgrades from the beta branch to the live branch when those changes are deemed stable.