Slay The Spire 2 March 2026 Beta Update Reverts Many Unpopular Changes

A new Slay the Spire 2 update is now available to download, having rolled out in late March 2026. Identified by version number 0.101.0, this release reverses many unpopular changes that were previously criticized by Slay the Spire 2 players, while also introducing completely new tweaks and bug fixes.

Slay the Spire 2 was officially released in early access on March 5. The deckbuilding roguelite received three hotfixes and one larger patch over the following three weeks, with a separate batch of four updates rolling out to its beta branch during the same period. The most recent beta revision rolled out on March 26, bumping the game’s version number up to 0.101.0.

Slay the Spire 2 Beta Patch Reverses Recent Card and System Changes

While the late March 2026 patch introduces dozens of changes, many of them are focused on reversing the previous beta update following a vocal round of player feedback. Among the clearest rollbacks is Slay the Spire 2‘s Prepared card for Silent, which developer Mega Crit had recently replaced with Prepare, changing it from a zero-cost draw-and-discard utility card into a one-cost effect that discards two cards and grants energy on the following turn. In the new 0.101.0 beta patch, Mega Crit scrapped that rework and restored Prepared in a form much closer to its earlier design.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)


Start

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)Start

The rollback is particularly notable because the earlier change to Prepared generated significant criticism from Slay the Spire 2 players. The reworked Prepare card became a central source of fan frustration that even resulted in a wave of negative Steam reviews, prompting Mega Crit to publicly stress that beta-branch balance experiments are provisional rather than final. The 0.101.0 changelog reiterates that sentiment, while noting that “Sly synergies are overall too dominant of a strategy” for the developer’s liking, which is an issue that Mega Crit is planning to tackle from a different angle in the future.

Prepared was not the only area where Mega Crit retraced its steps in the late March patch. The new beta update also restores older, stronger versions of Slay the Spire 2‘s Necrobinder cards Capture Spirit and Borrowed Time, both of which had been weakened in the previous test build. Mega Crit’s patch notes suggest the studio concluded those changes had gone a bit too far for now, even if some of the affected cards may still be revisited in future iterations of the deckbuilding roguelite. Specifically, the developer anticipates that Borrowed Time will be completely redesigned at some point in the future. For now, however, with resources focused elsewhere, the latest change to the card was reversed so it could return to being “fun to play” in all decks, according to the patch notes.

Beyond card-specific changes, the 0.101.0 beta update adjusts overall game balance, including preventing Elite enemies from spawning too early and further refining map generation logic. The developer said that some previous modifiers increased difficulty in ways that felt notably less engaging, signaling a shift toward changes that promote player agency rather than making things too difficult just for the sake of it. Enemy encounters also saw targeted revisions, including yet another redesign of the Doormaker fight geared toward reducing randomness while maintaining the disruptive nature of the encounter. At the same time, several Slay the Spire 2 relics were rebalanced or reassigned rarity tiers, reflecting an effort to better align mechanical complexity and impact across item tiers.

The latest wave of revisions suggests that stabilizing core gameplay mechanics is among Mega Crit’s top design priorities at the moment. There is still no official word on when exactly the 0.101.0 update will roll out to Slay the Spire 2‘s stable channel, but based on the developer’s track record, the changes will likely be pushed out to all players in a matter of days.

Slay the Spire 2 Beta Update 0.101.0 Patch Notes

Content Changes

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 Changes

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 Changes

• 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 and Experience Changes

• 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!

Slay the Spire 2 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

Systems

Released

March 5, 2026

Developer(s)

Mega Crit

Publisher(s)

Mega Crit

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op

• 

•