Slay the Spire 2 beta nerfs top cards, adds new Neow relics

Mega Crit released beta patch 0.109.0 for Slay the Spire 2 on Steam. The update is live on the game’s beta branch and the developer says the changes will roll out to the wider build in the coming weeks.

Patch 0.109.0 rebalances a large number of cards and relics, introduces two new Neow starting relics, adjusts enemy behaviors, changes several multiplayer mechanics, and includes new art, bug fixes and initial Traditional Chinese support.

The two new Neow relics are Dowsing Rod and Neow’s Sacrifice. Dowsing Rod provides a zero-cost quest card that transforms after five mystery rooms into Abundance, a one-cost skill that exhausts on use and lets the player choose one of three powers to add to their hand and play for free that turn; upgraded Abundance shows upgraded options. Neow’s Sacrifice grants an Ambergris potion and a Guilty curse card that is unplayable and removed from the deck after five turns. The Ambergris potion heals 50% of max health once and grants an extra turn following the current one.

Several high-impact relics received redesigns. Diamond Diadem now starts the run with 20 block and prevents block from being removed at the start of the turn. Meat Cleaver now grants five max health when cooking at rest sites instead of nine, while retaining its two-card removal effect. History Course will repeat only the last-played attack at the start of the turn and will ignore skills.

Multiplayer tools and a number of cards were nerfed. Midnight’s damage was reduced and The Ball’s per-use scaling was lowered. Blade Symphony now costs two energy to give two Shivs to every player; its upgrade reduces cost to one but no longer adds an extra Shiv. Regent no longer repeats the Pillar of Creation block generator each turn; the generator now grants more block when creating a card but only once per turn. Collision Course has reduced damage. Necrobinder’s Eidolon was redesigned to play all Ethereal cards in the exhaust pile and then exhaust itself.

Class-specific and rarity adjustments were made across the card pool. Ironclad’s Bloodletting has moved to uncommon. Expect a Fight no longer prevents players from gaining additional energy that turn. Cruelty and Dominate swapped rarities. Taunt moved from uncommon to common with slightly less block. The Silent received several reworks: Well-Laid Plans is now rare and retains the entire hand at end of turn and is available in multiplayer; Mirage is now a zero-cost skill that grants one or two energy next turn rather than generating block from enemy poison; Outmaneuver returns from the original game; Expertise now draws two or three cards that gain retain for the turn instead of drawing six or seven. The Defect saw modest damage increases to Hyperbeam and Sunder, and Trash to Treasure’s upgraded effect now lowers cost rather than granting innate.

Ancients were buffed: Tezcatara’s Toybox now grants five wax relics instead of four, and Vakuu’s Fiddle gives three additional cards at the start of the turn instead of two. Enemy adjustments include a slight reduction to Aeonglass’s Ebb damage to 22 (26) from 26 (32) and a new opening attack for Torchhead Amalgam called Strong Tackle set at 26 (32), up from its previous first-turn values of 18 (22).

Quality-of-life and technical fixes include allowing most potions to be used on teammates in multiplayer, standardizing map ink circles across the team, and increasing game seed length to 12 characters from ten with a larger internal seed. The patch adds new art, initial Traditional Chinese support and a range of bug fixes, including a correction so the VSync option’s visual state matches the actual setting.

Players can opt in to the beta via the game’s Steam properties and the betas menu to test patch 0.109.0.