Slay the Spire 2 Adjusts Controversial Nerf, Developers Share Insights on Upcoming Changes

A fresh beta patch for Slay the Spire 2 has just landed, rolling back many of the changes from the previous v0.100.0 beta patch released on March 20. Interestingly, the 15,000+ negative reviews the game received on Steam last week aren’t cited as the reason for these adjustments.

In the v0.101.0 Beta Patch Notes, developer Mega Crit co-founder Anthony Giovannetti emphasized that the in-game feedback tool has been crucial in shaping the recent changes. However, the significant increase in the character limit for feedback from 500 to 8,000 words suggests that the recent review-bombing incident may have influenced their approach.

Among the key changes, Prepared has made a triumphant return, reinstating its overpowered status, while the new Prepare skill that replaced it has been removed. Giovannetti noted that although “the Sly synergies are overall too dominant a strategy,” the Prepared skill is too essential to the Silent’s core identity to be eliminated. Additionally, the adjustments made to the Necrobinder’s Borrowed Time and Capture Spirit cards have been reverted.

Another patch has just been released on the Beta Branch, featuring numerous balance tweaks from last week’s update!

Notably, Prepared is back, allowing you to reduce your Shivs! The in-game feedback we’ve received has been invaluable.

If you ask me, the most thrilling changes in this new beta patch are for the Ironclad. Cinder now exhausts a card from your hand instead of the top card in your draw pile, which is a fantastic adjustment. This change not only buffs Headbutt (which places a card on top of your draw pile) but also addresses the frustrating tendency of Cinder to exhaust cards you actually wanted to keep. Tremble now exhausting also seems powerful, likely because exhaust builds were already the strongest strategy for Ironclad.

Regent received a slew of buffs, and there are too many to cover in detail. Spoils of War drawing two cards is a solid improvement, as cycling through your deck faster enhances cards like Kingly Kick (which reduces in cost when drawn) and Kingly Punch (which deals extra damage when drawn). Sword Sage no longer increases Sovereign Blade’s cost from 2 to 3, making it much more viable to pair with Conqueror (which doubles Sovereign Blade’s damage) in the same turn. Plus, Parry has seen a significant upgrade, with the enhanced version now boosting the block gained from Sovereign Blade from 10 to 14.

Unfortunately, my favorite character, The Defect, received no buffs in this patch and even saw one of their cards nerfed, as Voltaic has been bumped from a 2-cost card to a 3-cost card. This change makes sense, as Voltaic is only truly powerful in specific Lightning orb builds, but it can dominate bosses with the right setup. Limiting the ability to play two Voltaics in a single turn might be a wise move.

As for the community’s reaction to the patch, the r/slaythespire subreddit appears largely positive, though some players worry that the review bombing may have swayed Mega Crit’s decision to revert many card nerfs. I just hope that moving forward, players will utilize the in-game feedback tool to share their thoughts. Mega Crit is clearly attentive to player feedback, so it’s important to use the right channels instead of resorting to review bombing next time.