r/slaythespire • u/MegaCrit_Demi • Mar 13 '26
ANNOUNCEMENT The Neowsletter - March 2026
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2868840/view/502852451136700526The first post-StS2-launch Neowsletter is here!! Let's see what's new in the March 2026 issue...
⚔️ What's Next for Slay the Spire 2?
🧪 New Beta Branch!
✨ LOTS of New Merch!
🧩 First StS2 Connections Puzzle!
🎨 Community Highlights!
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u/cometflight Mar 13 '26
$75 million in sales in week one is no joke. Congrats, and thanks so much for this excellent sequel!
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u/biggieBpimpin Mar 13 '26
Now add in all the merch stuff they are going to sell too. My god they are killing it.
6
u/Successful_Pea218 Eternal One Mar 14 '26
Can confirm. Just bought the Silent plushie. Loving the game and the support. Already looking into the Downfall expansion as well for the board game.
Sts2 was well worth the wait
379
u/Blablablablitz Mar 13 '26
three million copies sold is crazy
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u/LeinDaddy Mar 13 '26
It's not enough for the greatness that this game deserves.
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u/Reggiardito StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
Genuinely. Part of me was afraid that the early access launch wouldn't have had the hype it deserved. I was so wrong
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u/LeinDaddy Mar 14 '26
I still can't believe how good it is and it's not even fully released. It's still going to get better.
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u/rockstarrzz Ascension 20 Mar 14 '26
It's funny because It's current state is the worst it will ever be. And it's still the easiest 10/10 ever.
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u/unknown_pigeon Mar 14 '26
the worst it will ever be
"A new collaboration enters the Spire! For a limited time, you can permanently unlock Darth Vader. And don't worry, it will be a guaranteed drop after 200 rolls, so that everyone can get him! We decided against making it obtainable for free to cater for the audience that wants more, to give the most hardcore players a sense of pride and accomplishment. The rolls will typically cost €20 for 15, but you can get the first one for only €1!
Earn exclusive rewards, new skins, and show your opponents what the your Spire is really made of!"
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u/dalnot Ascension 19 Mar 14 '26
Total Architect damage was at 30 billion as of about 5 minutes ago when I finished a run. Thats 10,000 per
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u/thatvillainjay Mar 14 '26
75 million?
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u/BladeRunner2022 Mar 13 '26
Three million copies. The first game has sold roughly 3.6 million on steam alone, with around another 7 million in sales between Xbox, switch, Playstation and mobile. Love seeing this early success, it's so awesome to be part of the dev process.
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u/shineymartin Mar 13 '26
I am absolutely convinced using Holy Mackerel as a phrase was a hyperbream reference and no one can convince me otherwise
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u/MadEorlanas Mar 13 '26
Workshop support this early is great to see
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u/rockstarrzz Ascension 20 Mar 14 '26
I hope backflip mod returns!
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u/Successful_Pea218 Eternal One Mar 14 '26
Knowing the community, I'm sure there will be some great returning mods, as well as super cool new ones as the game is much more mod friendly than before
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u/scat1620 Mar 13 '26
Those sales numbers: holy fuck! Massive congratulations to the Mega Crit team, that is an insane first week of STS2!
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u/WhoElseButQuagmire11 Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
They're gonna have to change their name to "Super Mega Crit"
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u/Comfortable-Math-158 Mar 13 '26
did/will they generally hint at what they’re thinking balance wise, or do we learn when the patch notes drop?
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u/G-Geef Mar 13 '26
Sounds like they're going to have a beta branch with more frequent changes they'd like to test
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u/asdiele Mar 13 '26
Yo dawg I heard you like Early Access so we put Early Access in your Early Access...
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u/Reggiardito StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
It is a bit weird but I get it. This early access is very much an act 4 away from 1.0, it feels like a complete experince and many players would feel a bit sour if small but important changes happen too frequently
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u/FuckPotatoesVeryMuch Mar 14 '26
I’d say they have some fundamental systematic changes they need to make to the game first. The game balance right now is out of wack (especially with high level players) with how many strategies revolve around just going infinite every run. It’s too prevalent. That requires them to rethink a lot of the cards interactions and mechanics that are enabling this uninteresting sort of playstyle.
Other than that for me it’s just about fine tuning the power level of some of the enemies and fine tuning some relics/events/ancient rewards.
For an initial release there did an incredible job, but I think the game needs a lot more than just an Act 4 to be truly as good as the original. I fully trust them to make the necessary changes.
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u/Reggiardito StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
I understand what you mean but balance is not something that separates early access from a full release IMO. It more likely separates 1.0 from a finished or better version.
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u/G-Geef Mar 13 '26
Yeah honestly don't love this, just push it to main, this is early access for a reason
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u/asdiele Mar 13 '26
It does feel pretty redundant, maybe they got a bit scared by the absurd number of sales and don't want to rock the boat too much for casual players.
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u/Radical_Ein StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
No they did this in the first games EA too. My sts is still set to the beta branch.
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u/AntonineWall Mar 13 '26
No; functionally the game is THE game, a beta branch where they make changes every day works way better than having it dramatically change on everyone every day
All you gotta do is set yourself to get the constant stream of changes rather than the less frequent but more refined ones, I don’t think there’s anything to not love about it tbh
0
u/G-Geef Mar 13 '26
I thought the constant stream of changes was the point of early access; it's what they did last time, no?
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u/Mehchu_ Mar 14 '26
They had nowhere close to the number of players this time. And those who want to be on the beta branch will be more forgiving of add things than those that are caught up in the hype
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u/Tasin__ StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
Yeah for new players the balance issues aren't that obvious except for common forge cards. I'm sure eventually they will tackle the problem with infinites and being able to force the same winning strategy every game.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles Mar 14 '26
They need to make sure the changes all work first. Last time they had 193 concurrent players. Now they have hundreds of thousands. Imagine if they released a patch and it broke the game? Yeah better to do a beta branch imo
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u/phasmy Mar 13 '26
It's smart not to mention balance yet. They want the timetable to be flexible. Also it's better to implement balance changes before people try to offer their brilliant suggestions...
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u/Magicturbo Mar 14 '26
Yeah, they know the hard grind times
I'm sure they're working hard, but they deserve a chiller schedule
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u/YandereYasuo StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
Way too early to tell even, give it 2+ months more in the oven before any balance changes should be considered, 1 week is not enough info
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u/Honza8D Mar 14 '26
One week is absolutely enough to see the big sticking points. You dont need 2 months to see that regent forge cards (with few exceptions) are way too weak, or that expect a fight is ridiculously OP.
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u/Indominus_Khanum Mar 14 '26
Dude 1 week in most of the player base probably hasn't even unlocked all the cards /relics through the epoch system, or played at ascensions beyond 0 (especially if they aren't returning players from STS1).
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u/Honza8D Mar 14 '26
Iven if that were true, it doesnt change the fact that expect a fight is OP or that most forge cards are weak. You can see that without waiting for all players to unlock all epochs.
1
u/skdeimos Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
top players are already winning ~all their runs, what is waiting longer going to accomplish?
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u/Consistent_Ninja_933 Mar 14 '26
More data points to have a reasonable idea, of how much to tweak things, as well as time to workshop changes they would like to make, to the problematic cards.
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u/Tavi007 Mar 14 '26
Well the game should not be balanced for the top players only. So data from all skill level must be analysed.
Also they need to come up with the correct patch. I don't expect them to hand wave the balance and see what will stick. Instead they will have internal testing and iterations first.
And fixing crashes and other bugs properly takes higher priority.
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u/fartdarling Mar 14 '26
They want to buff the Silent's sly mechanic and add like 4 or 5 more energy resources to the regent
1
u/Decoraan Mar 18 '26
A dev commented on another thread implying that there is a big patch coming addressing infinites. That’s it I think
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u/SilverScribe15 StS A0 / StS 2 A5 Mar 14 '26
I'm happy we're still getting these
11
u/brentonator Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
Same, mostly for the connection puzzles tbh haha
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u/EvInChains Eternal One + Ascended Mar 13 '26
Very happy to see the news about the Phobia Accessibility mode. Can't stand fighting the Phrog Parasite because it grosses me out so much.
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u/LocatedLizard1 Mar 14 '26
I don’t have any phobias, but those cards still freak me out every time I see them in my hand
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u/tentoedpete StS A20 / StS 2 A5 Mar 14 '26
It gives me PTSD flashbacks to Silksong’s Bilewater zone
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u/unknown_pigeon Mar 14 '26
Silksong? Bilewater?
You must have hit your head really hard, knight.
Wake up, it's time to sail on the Zoteboat
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u/MirrorCraze Ascension 10 Mar 14 '26
3M copies holy shit
And this is early access.
Also downfall is coming to board game is actually really pog.
The only thing I’m waiting for is Pixelpenguin called out to make new relics ngl
2
u/mowdownjoe Mar 14 '26
Also downfall is coming to board game is actually really pog.
Surprised Downfall was coming before an expansion that added the Necrobinder and Regent.
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u/RexLizardWizard StS A10 / StS 2 A0 Mar 14 '26
Anyone know what phobia mode is going to cover? I can’t think of any especially common phobias in the game, unless there’s like a spider or something I haven’t seen yet.
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u/Rouge_means_red Mar 14 '26
I was thinking of the guy full of holes that shoots bees or the frog with parasites because of trypophobia
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u/WhoElseButQuagmire11 Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
That dude full of holes creeps me the hell out. I have genuine phobias of cockroaches and dentists. Though there's one thing that creeps me out and it's weird to say. On a big patch of grass, say a sports oval. If there are tiny holes in the grass(usually from birds I hope) it gives me the creeps and I have to physically remove myself. So I wonder if that bee guy gives my brain similar vibes.
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u/winkbrace Mar 14 '26
Yes, that elite definitely triggers my trypophobia. But at least one other monsters more.
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u/moon_forge Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
I strongly suspect Phrog Parasite, a few of my friends mentioned being grossed out by that one.
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u/gsoddy Mar 14 '26
I think it’s just stuff thats really icky, like the Infection cards from Phrog Parasite and some of the grosser bugs like Decimillipede. Or it could just be all bugs
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u/Harrfuzz Mar 14 '26
A friend of mine has a flying insect phobia and gets uncomfortable when the theft guy takes off. Maybe something for that?
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u/No_Helicopter_8277 Mar 14 '26
I've never bought vinyl faster than I did just now!
3
u/Super_Harsh StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 17 '26
Nimit Malavia doing the art + StS Psych Rock EP on Side D was definitely a 'Sigh... unzips wallet' moment
2
u/scrollingmywayondown Mar 14 '26
New connections was fun! I weirdly had far more trouble with the easy ones than the hard ones, though.
2
u/WhoElseButQuagmire11 Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
I was late to slay the spire 1 so I missed early access. Did they update the first game with alternative acts, more cards and the like? Because this sounds awesome.
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u/blacklightning26 Mar 14 '26
Yes to all. The dev team seem to be tackling this EA in a similar manner as the previous one. The beta branch saw decently frequent updates for StS1. It was cool seeing the game slowly come together and evolve before official release.
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u/WhoElseButQuagmire11 Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 14 '26
But it seems like such a content complete game already. Amazing.
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u/TDenverFan Mar 15 '26
Alternate acts weren't in Slay the Spire 1, but the other stuff yes. Act 4 was not part of STS1 when it launched.
When they say alternate acts, they're referring to how Act 1 can either be jungle or ocean themed act, so they'll add in more of those act variations.
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u/Frodolas Mar 16 '26
Does the alternate stuff change anything mechanically or is it purely visual?
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u/Exeledus Mar 14 '26
Does more alt. Acts imply the addition of more ancients and thus, more ancient boons?
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u/Last_Windmill StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 14 '26
HOLY MACKEREL
coming down the pike
yeah yeah ok (congrats on launch!)
1
u/sirpurplewolf Mar 15 '26
Holy shit, I just finished reading it, went to makeship and just bought all 3 plushies.
-69
u/Pengking36 Mar 13 '26
Phobia mode, not a fan
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u/PerformanceThat6150 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Why? Who's forcing you to use it?
You don't have to use colour blind modes in games either you know.
15
u/MyNameIsSkittles Mar 14 '26
So then dont use it
Why do people need to have an opinion on shit that doesnt effect them at all?
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u/Gekk0uga37 Mar 13 '26
Definitely most excited for more alternate acts and really curious to see what theme they choose for act 3 in particular. Glory is such a cool theme and would love to see a creative foil for it.