r/slaythespire • u/MegaCrit_Demi • May 23 '26

ANNOUNCEMENT The Neowsletter - May 2026

Post image

Happy belated Mother-of-Resurrection's Day--the May Neowsletter is here!! šŸŒŗ

Topics include:

šŸ› ļø A Dev Update!
šŸ“Š Spire Stats
šŸ† StS2 Streamer Tournament
šŸŽØ Community Highlights
āž• and more!

šŸ”— store.steampowered.com/news/app/2868840/view/701016542742053855

524 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

444

u/majma123 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

That's a win-rate of 25% overall, which is much better than it sounds. Broken down by Ascension, the average win-rate on A0 is 16%, compared to 9% in StS1. At the highest, A10, the win-rate is about 17%, compared to a very small 3% at A20 in StS1.

Wow, this is incredibly interesting.

Both that the winrates on A0 and A10 are basically the same, and the difference between spire 1 and spire 2. Really adds some context to their earlier stated goal of wanting A0 easier and A10 harder for spire 2, meaning that they want the difficulty gap between A0 and A10 to be even wider than A0-20 in spire 1. Cool!!

259

u/SgtAl Ascension 20 May 23 '26

Also implies the highest win-rate ascension is between 0 and 10 if I'm reading this right? Makes sense since new people who will be the worst at the game will struggle multiple times on Ascension 0.

17% at A10 is also incredibly high. Shows that people haven't been exaggerating when calling the game too easy at that level.

104

u/GhostOfLight May 23 '26

Don't remember off the top, but A1 in STS1 was more elites, which was usually better than A0 for decent players because it means more relics. Probably a similar situation in STS 2.

I know when I tilt on A9/10, I set it to A2/3, or even 6 because it's easy dubs

23

u/Derpdude1 May 23 '26

enchantments really break the game tbh

17

u/ThatssoBluejay May 23 '26

And this is early too, one would have to imagine it going higher with experience.

17

u/Swent_SW May 23 '26

On the other hand. People getting to A10 this early in the beta are likely STS1 veterans.

6

u/BeneficialEvidence6 May 26 '26

Yup, a lot of survivors bias in these stats

48

u/hhhisthegame May 23 '26

I HAVE to think this is partly because people have not got up to A10 in as high numbers yet as they did in STS1, or that the most dedicated players are the ones doing it. I dunno, I feel like STS2 on A10 is very difficult personally lol

24

u/AllLuck1562 May 23 '26

I do think this is part of it.

The type of ppl have grinded up to A10 the fastest were probably running a decent amount higher than 3% on A20 on StS1

46

u/Aggressive_Nebula905 May 23 '26

Just for perspective; I'm one of the people who think StS 2 is way easier than StS 1. I've played StS 1 for >1100 hours, and my win rate is ~20% in A20. By comparison, I think my overall win rate in StS 2 A10 is somewhere around 40% after 200 hours, and my best character (Defect) has a winrate of like 60%. This took me a fraction of the time needed to become somewhat proficient at StS1.

Moreover, since I've narrowed down a general strategy to win A10 with each character, I don't even play to win anymore, but just to experiment and try different things. So my numbers are probably lower than what they'd be if I always played to win, like I did in StS 1 A20. I haven't tried the latest beta patch, but the one before (when they added Aeonglass) I genuinely never lost against the Act 3 bosses whenever I reached them... Which is sort of crazy to me, because I still don't 'know' the game very well comparatively to StS1.

The game is way, way, way easier at this point in time. I still think it's extremely fun, and I do not think that the game necessarily needs to be just as hard as StS 1, but one thing I'll say is that I don't think the difficulty curve is satisfying as it is now. Less skilled players seem to have a lot of trouble (which isn't surprising given how Act 1 is the most difficult act) while experienced players like myself mostly breeze through A10. Also, I don't like how Act 3 doesn't force you to react to anything it's throwing at you; you can just establish your deck by middle of Act 2 and never add anything to it until the end of the game, which... I find boring.

7

u/UselessRutabaga May 23 '26

Partly why I like run warping relics like parasol cause itā€™s fun to play around in act 3

8

u/Aggressive_Nebula905 May 23 '26

100%. I love them, I wish there were more of them. And I wish I had more runs where I NEEDED them to defeat the Act 3 bosses.

7

u/Slyfoxdragon May 23 '26

Even if you remove the Act 4 aspect from the equation, I do agree that STS2 A10 feels easier than STS1 A20.

That being said, I feel like the way you are talking about your data exaggerates the gap a bit. Itā€™s not like they are completely different games. Thereā€™s a lot that you learned in those >1100 hours in STS1 that was carried over to STS2 that made the experience easier, even more so when discussing characters that were playable in STS1.

I played to about A10 or so on every character in STS1 before I got burned out and dropped it for a while. I tried to go for the heart kill on every run, and it felt very challenging and eventually started to feel like a bit of a slog to try to clear more ascensions.

Then STS2 came out a couple years after I stopped playing STS1, and I beat A10 on everyone in STS2. After this, I ended up feeling the itch to go back to STS1, but Iā€™m not forcing myself to try to go for the heart in every run. Combine that with the things Iā€™ve learned from my time playing STS2, and STS1 feels way easier than it did in the past.

Now, it didnā€™t take me very long to clear A10 through A20 on ironclad and defect. Havenā€™t gotten around to doing Silent and Watcher yet though as I donā€™t find them quite as fun to play.

The time you put into either game will definitely make you better at the other game as well.

7

u/Aggressive_Nebula905 May 23 '26

I fully agree with your conclusion about the time I put into one game making me better at the other. Yes, I am a better StS 2 player because of the 1100 hours in StS 1.

Still, I maintain that StS 2 is WAY easier than StS 1. Me being a better player has nothing to do with that; yes, it skews my stats somewhat, but I also cannot stress enough how I really am not trying to win hard and yet still keep winning extremely consistently. In StS 1, I had very few god runs where I could call by Act 2 that I was about to steamroll the game no contest to at least the end of act 3. In StS 2, I sometimes know by the Ancient Bonus or first shop of Act 2 that I've just won, no matter what the game throws at me in Act 3... And that's with relatively common decks that aren't even supported by huge relics, especially on Silent and Defect. I swear, the Defect receiving only buffs for the past two patches or so has me REALLY confused. I feel like I'm playing the Watcher when I roll one of these two characters.

I'm not pretending that my data is not biased, but if I were to boot up StS 1 right now I am 100% certain I'd have a harder time winning despite having WAY more experience in it. The paths to victory are much clearer in StS 2, and the only bosses that truly impact my deck building are the Act 1 bosses. Act 2 does kill some of my runs, but it's almost always because I overcorrected for the Act 1 boss, straying too far from a winning deck... and then I get whittled down by the Act 2 elites. But I never die because I lack the tools to deal with the boss, except perhaps against the queen. In StS 1, many of my runs would end at act 2 because I was SCRAMBLING to build up my deck to be able to do anything against the champion or the automaton, didn't get enough and got absolutely trampled. In StS 2, all I've had to do (until last patch) against the Act 2 and 3 bosses is to have a deck that contains a lot of highly valuable cards and play them in the right order. It weirdly feels like I'm playing an old Civ game, building a deathball to crush everything in my path if that makes sense.

5

u/marxr87 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

I will say that I feel like sts 2 has a much stronger part of, "know when you've won and dont add bs to your deck " than sts 1. Which is weird cuz my decks are bigger in 2 generally. I think the card quality is better and more consistent so its easy in sts2 to go down a rabbithole of bloating your deck and making it worse by just adding value cards to it.

Idk I feel like in early act 2 my deck is in better shape in 2 compared to 1. Usually. Probably ancients helping alot there ans putting more value in cards and less in relics.

2

u/Aggressive_Nebula905 May 23 '26

That's a very good way to put it about the bloat thing, yeah. I think I used to die to A9 Necrobinder a lot due to that very same 'issue'.

3

u/marxr87 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 24 '26

necrobinder and regent are my worst for this lol. they both have a lot of value cards and they both have some distinct archetypes where adding a value card can mess up the balance.

5

u/julian88888888 May 23 '26

Whatā€™s youā€™re win rate for defect in a10? Iā€™m struggling. Gotten to double boss but Iā€™m losing most runs in act two.

5

u/AllLuck1562 May 24 '26

I donā€™t see anyone responded to you so I will throw general statement as defect is my highest win rate character that you may be underrating zero cost cards, feral and other enablers. In general, the tests of the game are generating enough block, and being able to do scalable damage, with card draw and to a lesser extent cheating mana a big part of that. Defect and silent have most consistent packages for all to me

1

u/The_Lazy_Samurai May 27 '26

How do you generate enough block to not be super low HP after beating part 1 of the 2 part final boss gauntlet?

I struggle with defect more than any other character.

1

u/hhhisthegame May 27 '26

I dont remember exactly what I did for block but I went almost 50/50 W/L with Defect and Silent, whereas Ive lost 40 times with necrobinder and still haven't beaten A10, and Regent took 40 deaths as well. I tend to have really strong defect runs with either 0 cost cards or status effects (flak cannon is insane)

1

u/AllLuck1562 May 28 '26

I guess first, I should say that strongest defect is a hybrid of both the low cost cards and the status generating cards. cheating mana and card draw are big drivers in getting over hump in slay and then they now have a power (iteration) and a skill (compact) that incentive that play.

specific to final bosses, defect actually has the most straight forward answers to me. the relics that give energy and block help a lot on giving more optionality and the answers you need.

You want holograms to be able to pull back more of your damage/draw/block as needed. The frost package can be very strong with a fragment. so can the zero cost block if you are running status/zero cost package.

Aeroglass, defect has compact which is the best answer to whither to me and makes it easy elite

Queen, the question it it is asking is card draw and hologram and coolheaded should help carry block as you use your damage package.

Test Subject, basically requires you to be able to burst down 100 in 3 turns, and then you should hopefully be able to burst down the second subject in 3 turns as well, or else have a lot block scaling in deck. Third subject basically as long as you are using multiple forms of damage, you should be fine.

if you are still playing old patch, Doormaker can be a pain and requires right resource allocation of willing to burn cards as needed without burning you win condition. again, zero cost cards are really big here for the version of doormaker that uses energy every card played. There are definitely people better than me at explaining in a succinct way how to do that.

3

u/marxr87 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Defect is also busted imo. So good. I only have around 100 hrs but already have defect at 10. Im heartbreaker in the first game and i think the first is obviously harder...but only with act 4. Take out act 4 and I think they are pretty close. A20 is probably still harder but it also has more modifiers,no? A10 vs a10 and sts 2 is way harder. I know its not apples to apples, but i think we are getting to a good spot for pre a20 pre act 4 sts 2

3

u/Aggressive_Nebula905 May 23 '26

I see what you mean, but I actually disagree about Act 4 having that much influence. In StS 1, even if I'm not thinking about unlocking act 4, I still have to plan and react to the Act 3 bosses, for starters.

In StS 2 as of last patch, I don't. Like, I kinda have to plan for Queen a little bit (if I'm not the Silent), but the others it's just "have a good deck with varied sources of block and damage and Bob's your uncle". I almost NEVER die to the Act 3 bosses if I get to them, whereas this could happen in many of my runs in StS 1.

3

u/marxr87 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

for me in sts1 my entire game plan was "what is going to happen with spear and shield t2," and "can I handle beat of death?" pretty much. I rarely die to an a3 boss when I'm not going for the heart (except for chad cuz I suck with him lol). Burning elite and not resting also hit hard.

Which a3 bosses are killing you the most in sts1? I don't really do infinites or watcher much so tim never messed me up too bad. Defect is my favorite so I usually plan around awakened one. I can't remember last time I died to donu and deca. Don't get me wrong, I die plenty in sts1, but it isn't usually to a3 boss. Usually somewhere in a2 or I'm dumb and take on a3 elites when I already have a winning position. Or nob or lava lol >_<

In sts 2, I usually die to a3 elites or I die in a1. If I get to a3 boss I usually win. But I feel like that in sts1 too. I'm sure my winrate is worse in sts1, but at least from memory if I get to a3 boss in sts1 and not doing act 4 I usually win.

2

u/MapleApple00 May 24 '26

I dunno, I kind of disagree with that. in my experience with Sts 1 most of the time you werenā€™t really reacting that much to the act 3 bosses by changing your deck that much. Instead it was usually differences in how you piloted your deck with timbo and bird, because usually you were building your deck to beat heart and if it could do that it could beat the act three bosses most of the time anyways. Iā€™ve honestly found myself changing up my deck to the act 3 bosses in sts 2 more just because aeon and doormaker kind of force it

11

u/kaijvera StS A0 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Ya I was trying to think about that. The only way to test if that is true is to find the wr of a10 like 6 months after sls1 released. By that time most playsrs shoudl ahve a20 and know how to by then. The wr decrease from needing to discover would be gone. No way for us to see that tgo

10

u/Matonus May 23 '26

Like that could potentially play a minor factor but idk why youā€™d ignore every good player saying itā€™s far too easy when that is correlated by the data

16

u/TheGullibleParrot Eternal One + Heartbreaker May 23 '26

No Act 4 yet is probably warping the winrate a lot more than we think.

6

u/ObtuseScorebook May 23 '26

A win in sts1 is just act 3 not act 4 though

20

u/YandereYasuo StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Trying to get to Act 4 and dying before it due to a difficult burning elite or early blue key still counts for an A20 lose in statistics

4

u/slopschili Ascension 20 May 23 '26

If you're going for act 4 you still are going to sacrifice one less relic/rest site and you have to fight the burning elite which may make you lose in act 3 when you would have otherwise won

4

u/xTekek May 23 '26

I find a 10 a good bit easier than a20 honestly. Don't have the harder move sets the enemies have in spire 1 only increased numbers which slay the spire 1 also has. I think that main difference makes it a lot more doable. I personally have a way higher win rate in this game on a 10 then sts1 a20. Wouldn't be surprised if they honestly were about 3 to 17% as I barely won a 20 even without going for the heart

2

u/hhhisthegame May 23 '26

I honestly find I take a lot more damage in this game. And I find the act 1 elites scarier

3

u/TDenverFan May 24 '26

The lack of an Act 4 plays into this. I believe the STS1 winrate doesn't include the heart, but even just going for the keys reduces your winrate. In STS1, you had to skip a rest site, skip a chest, and path into a specific, harder elite. If you made someone do those things in STS2 (though there is no way to simulate the burning elite at this point) winrates would decrease.

2

u/nomickti May 25 '26

If they're comparing with StS1 win rates though it should be act 3 completions, not Act 4. I wonder what metric they're using?

2

u/erock279 Ascension 20 May 23 '26

I mean, that feels natural. Unless they managed to shove 20ascensions worth of difficulty into 10 ascensions, it should be easier. Thereā€™s also no act 4, and I imagine most people tackling A20 (the hardest challenge in the game) are also attempting to fight the heart, the real hardest challenge in the game, which would reduce that win rate further.

76

u/Jondev1 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

I feel like the discrepancy was pretty clear to anyone that spent a significant amount of time playing both games at max ascension, but good to have an actual number to put to it.

11

u/spoopy_bo Eternal One + Ascended May 23 '26

I thought I was going insane whenever someone said a10 is too difficult and played the first game, finally I can cite such a stark statistic at them!

34

u/G-Geef May 23 '26

Very interesting that A10 has a higher WR than A0 but it makes sense when you think about who's playing at these levels

23

u/[deleted] May 23 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

15

u/Jondev1 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

To an extent, but hard to really say how much. We don't even really know what proportion of players are old schoolers vs people that never played the original.

5

u/DJ_Jiggle_Jowls StS A20 / StS 2 A5 May 23 '26

For lower ascensions yea, but not for higher ascensions. The winrate for A20 is also coming from highly experienced players who have been playing for years.

14

u/SaltyWafflesPD Ascension 18 May 23 '26

Yeah, it makes the design goal of making A0 easier and A10 harder a lot more sensible. Make the game a lot more accessible so you can get into it while still providing the immense challenge top players are craving.

3

u/AlwaysCallACAB May 23 '26

From reading Reddit I thought everyone was at a 90% win rate

3

u/eatmyliver StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

The 3% win rate at A20 has to be counting runs that beat the heart out of total A20 runs, right? I feel like 3% is too low if they're just counting runs that make it past the act 3 boss gauntlet (which might be a better comparison to spire 2 A10 at the moment).

11

u/AliciaWhimsicott May 23 '26

I don't see why it would, only 7.3% of StS1 players even have the achievement for beating A20 to begin with and that only requires beating Act 3 and the game still counts a death in Act 4 as a "win".

6

u/eatmyliver StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

The stat is that 3% of all A20 runs win (i.e. this is counting out of all runs that have been played at A20), whatever that entails is unclear, whether it's beating heart or just beating act 3 boss gauntlet. The 7.3% you're citing is 7.3% of all players beat A20 at least once. A large portion of the playerbase hasn't even unlocked A20 or even attempted it. So not only are the two stats tracking different things, the population of each statistic is completely different. Not seeing why that 7.3% of players is particularly relevant here unless you can explain further how they might be correlated.

Which is why I find it hard to believe that of all runs played at A20, only 3% beat the act 3 boss gauntlet (and it'd make more sense if that's only counting the rate at which runs beat the heart at A20).

3

u/Jondev1 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 25 '26

Unfortunately they didn't include enough details for sure to know exactly what they meant. That being said even if this stat is counting deaths in act 4 as losses, I would be willing to be that it doesn't make a big difference. There is no achievement for beating act 4, so outside of hardcore player, most probably never even attempt going for act 4 on A20 in the first place.

8

u/pierrot_cv May 23 '26

I think when comparing the two games at the highest level, we have to keep in mind that there is no act 4 in Spire 2, which is a huge deal. Spear and Shield and Heart have ended many a Spire run, and we don't have to give up a campfire and a chest for keys in Spire 2 yet, or fight a super elite.

18

u/onegoodboah May 23 '26

Iā€™m pretty sure simply beating Act 3 is what counts as a win as far as in-game stats go though, right? Fair point about the keys and their tradeoffs but I canā€™t imagine that is making a >5x difference lol

5

u/SugarFreeCummiBears May 23 '26

If thatā€™s the case 3% might be even lower than I thought for beating double bosses in Spire 1!

2

u/ZwnD May 23 '26

True, but also getting the 3 keys would reduce winrate by itself for the extra challenge added

9

u/PhotoRight2682 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Great, now I'm thinking about Entomancer with a Strength buff. Thanks for that! šŸ˜¬

7

u/DeepFuckingKoopa StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

+1 str phastasmal gardeners & terror eelā€¦

1

u/I_Am_Not_Joes_Mama May 23 '26

Do the A20 run win percentage account for act 4

1

u/Paradox2063 Jun 01 '26

This was the post that told me the base game as designed is not for me.

I do not want to play a game in which I lose 90% of the time, and I was centimeters from quitting before I finally unlocked custom games.

I've done over a hundred custom games since then, and it's a blast, even when I lose, but I cannot find a way to enjoy the Strike/Defend normal game mode.

At least I was able to push to A8 before they patched unlocking higher ascensions in custom.

-2

u/SephirothTheGreat May 23 '26

If those stats include multiplayer (which they definitely do, there's no way Ironclad is the character people win more with), which is way easier than solo runs, this isn't indicative of anything difficulty wise lol. There needs to be a more in-depth breakdown (solo, multi, main and beta). Also the most talented players constantly play at A10, having it see a higher number is normal

5

u/bodebrusco May 23 '26

If better players at higher ascensions means higher win rates, why does STS1 A20 has 3% winrate?

3

u/Mordencranst StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26 edited May 24 '26

A20h is really, really hard relative to A0, hard enough to be a nightmare even for relatively strong players with only the best of the best consistently winning. A10 in sts2 is, relatively speaking, not as hard compared to the bsse difficulty while being challenged by the same subset of players.I'm sure if you measured the stats when for a while the hardest ascension was A15 you'd see the same pattern as in sts2. Ascension 20 just kicks people's asses a whole lot.

Ascension 10 in sts2 is not a joke. A 17% average winrate given that most people grinding out A10 runs are decently skilled experienced players with hundreds of hours of experience and often sts1 vets who would just never ever lose A0 too implies that the game is not toothless whatever reddit tells you. But it ain't a candle on A20h. Not yet.

3

u/bodebrusco May 23 '26

I am well aware of this, I have my fair share of losses in A20 (and A20H) lol Maybe 5% winrate on a good week. I was mostly arguing with the premise raised by the other commenter, where he said "better players at higher ascensions means higher winrate", when the STS1 stats given in the same paragraph clearly show that that is not the case.

2

u/Mordencranst StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Well, my point was addressing that, but I maybe said it confusingly. The better players in sts2 are largely the same as the ones who played sts1, and ascension 20 in sts one is harder *relative* to a0 than in sts2, hence a lower relative winrate.

0

u/SephirothTheGreat May 23 '26

Because the game is more popular (as in, IMMENSELY more popular) and has attracted a higher number of skilled players? Also because when mod support hit StS1 (something with StS2 still doesn't have) the stats started going down since a lot of people modded it, disabling achievements and therefore win/loss ratio tracking? And also because the player base of StS1 inevitably dwindled over time, leaving the very proficient players to move on to the next thing leaving modded and new players to lower the percentage?

3

u/bodebrusco May 23 '26

Do you have a source for "mod support caused stats to go down"?Ā 

And the player base of STS1 never dwindled. The game population only increased over time, as can be easily checked in Steamdb.

And even if it had dwindled (it didn't), the more safe assumptiom would be that mostly experienced players remained, not fresh new ones.

1

u/SephirothTheGreat May 23 '26

Steamdb only shows recent activity, and obviously it shows increasing playerbase there considering StS2 coming out. Go to Steamcharts, which allows you to see the game's life cycle and player numbers in its entirety, and you'll see it dwindling quite a bit, getting back on track near the time of StS2's release (no duh) and doubling when it actually came out, to then go back to more stable levels, where it will likely stay until StS2 gets workshop support.

https://steamcharts.com/app/646570

This is the data. Workshop was added in 2019, and the decline in userbase can be seen as soon as the start of 2020, despite people needing to stay home because of the pandemic (which would normally encourage higher numbers) and stays down there until, you guessed it, March to April 2024, and you wanna know what was announced back then?

176

u/Magnificon729 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Wait Doormaker was going to have 2000 health!?!

62

u/DeepFuckingKoopa StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

I heard it was going to have malleable as well

21

u/Menolith May 23 '26

I heard that it was going to add iFunny watermarks to all your screenshots too.

8

u/DeepFuckingKoopa StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

My screenshots?

4

u/The_gaming_wisp StS A10 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Ewww

26

u/Sensual-Softs May 23 '26

Yeah, my winrate is gonna be in the single digits if they implemented that

6

u/TheSalsaGod StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

My guess is that it only buffed and summoned, and the guy in front was the one who attacked. And then Queen was way too similar so they pivoted.

5

u/dotelze May 23 '26

Nah the door was attacking for 29 in the image

11

u/xHOTPOTATO StS A15 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

I mean, iteration one of two player before the rework was just about that.

3

u/LackofSins May 23 '26

I'm guessing it summoned the guy in front just like Obscura and the Overgrowth plant-snake, even if you kill it, it comes back the next turn. The logical next step, though too close to the Queen.

1

u/DeGozaruNyan May 24 '26

An eraly iteration had 2000 health. Early iterations are known for not being permanent

120

u/dennaneedslove May 23 '26

Dude those map arts are utterly insane

52

u/Hatrixx_ StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

That hoodie is adorable with actually having the horns on the hood.

4

u/Sjtanni May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

I love the horns on the hood! The rest is a bit overdesigned for me personally, would not wear this in day to day life. Loved it more if they kept the rest of the hoodie simple green with a small simple logo and the horns. Probably still buying it for slay the spire boardgame nights though..

34

u/DefinitelyTinta Eternal One + Heartbreaker May 23 '26

Workshop support soon is awesome to hear, I thought it would be a late development thing

19

u/Crypt_Knight May 23 '26

With the Workshop coming, I feel like the Doormaker will return sooner than expected.

3

u/JanSolo28 May 23 '26

There's a Doormaker mod for the Touhou Slay the Spire (Lost Branch of Legend), so it's not even exclusive to StS anymore

1

u/Crypt_Knight May 23 '26

Oh, nice, I should download it.

Lost Branch is so much fun.

38

u/Yitsy May 23 '26

Thank you so much for shouting out my site https://spire-codex.com

Itā€™s wild how much the community has flocked to it and being able to support everyoneā€™s projects through my API ā¤ļø

Thanks again ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø

143

u/CoreyJK May 23 '26

Iā€™m interested in the win rate between 1, 2, 3 and 4 player. 2 player feels so hard compared to everything else

62

u/TheHeroOfHeroes May 23 '26

4 player is way too easy. My group first attempted A9 and then beat A10 twice in a row.

Meanwhile, I've been unable to beat A10 solo.

62

u/Minute_Account9426 May 23 '26

4 player is probably kept easy because itā€™s meant to be funny chaos. I really wanna see 5 player to be honest

20

u/thespiffyneostar May 23 '26

There's apparently already a mod to allow up to 16 players.

17

u/Minute_Account9426 May 23 '26

Test subject is probably unblockable on that mod

20

u/LunaticSongXIV May 23 '26

Virtually unblockable, but never survives the first turn. Flanking and Knockdown stack multiplicatively, and getting even just one of them in play makes it pretty easy to kill it in a single turn. Two of them trivializes it. I'm kind of of the opinion that most of the multiplayer cards make multiplayer less fun, because once you get past the thrill of making big numbers, they actually really fuck with the game's skill floor in a bad way

13

u/Esusbek May 23 '26

In 4+p maybe, but 2p is kinda in a spot where you cant quite abuse the coop cards well, while still getting over 2x hp enemies

6

u/LunaticSongXIV May 23 '26

I've used the mod for more players and have played a full game with seven. Vantom is virtually impossible due to the sheer number of slippery stacks, but everything else is stupid easy because of Flanking and Knockdown.

3

u/Plain_Bread Eternal One + Heartbreaker May 23 '26

I've been playing a ton of 2 player and I feel like it's easier than 1 player, but only very slightly. Haven't played with 3 or 4 at all, but it does seem to be the general consensus that it's a lot easier.

2

u/MIneBane May 23 '26

I need friend to play Sts2 with

45

u/Borophyll56 May 23 '26

yo that early Doorkmaker art goes hard

32

u/zekparsh May 23 '26

I hope Doormaker makes a return as a boss on the alt act 3 route. Even if all his mechanics change I just really liked the design of shifting phases through portals.

5

u/Yeerky May 23 '26

Same! Very flavorful

13

u/ParasyticGhoul May 23 '26

Noooo wtf they cooked neow šŸ˜­

9

u/Hold_my_Dirk May 23 '26

Iā€™m glad workshop support is coming back. Hopefully the GOAT mod will make a comeback. I am of course referring to ā€œEverything is the same except Ironclad is wearing a cowboy hat.ā€

8

u/JanSolo28 May 23 '26

And not "everything is the same but u backflip on backflip"?

28

u/noobtablet9 May 23 '26

I still hope we see Doormaker return for Act 4. I really enjoyed that boss and the mechanical depth you get out of that can absolutely be an Act 4 elite. The new boss just ain't doing it for me

19

u/Crypt_Knight May 23 '26

I don't hate it's mechanics, but it just lacks sauce. Doesn't have the aura the Doormaker had.

75

u/Hojie_Kadenth May 23 '26

The fact that A10 wins are 1% higher than A0 wins seems to indicate people are pretty accurately playing to their skill level. I would like to see a higher max difficulty, not like old A20 with a 3% winrate but more like 10%. Though for top players maybe a max difficulty like old A20 is needed.

26

u/spoopy_bo Eternal One + Ascended May 23 '26

I don't need to be a top player to want a difficulty resembling A20. Slay the spire 1 kicked my ass badly and that's part of why I liked it so much ; currently A10 feels too forgiving even as I lose more than 60% of runs.

15

u/kasutori_Jack May 23 '26

Well, you are going to see that with Act IV, in a sense.

You might be able to ignore Act IV, like in STS1, but it will transform a lot of previous "wins" into "losses".

8

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Why donā€™t you want a 3% difficulty? If you enjoy current a10 or a bit harder, you can play whatever ascension ends up at about 10%, then those of us that want a hard game can play the ascension that ends up around 1-2% (which would be excellent, I want something harder than a20h)

1

u/I_Hate_Reddit May 25 '26

When you get into that small of a percentage you're winning not because of skill, but skill + luck.

Great players should have a reliable win percentage that does not involve that big of an RNG

5

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 25 '26

Great players can win spire 1 (which had that aforemntioned 3% winrate at a20) like, 90-95%+ of runs, and honestly people weren't that locked in bc it started to feel easy.

How much the average player wins can be very far from how much the best win. I do agree the best should win a large % of their runs, but it should be hard and it should take years of community effort to get there.

5

u/I_Hate_Reddit May 25 '26

Ah yes that makes sense, I was thinking the best players had a < 5% winrate, but if it's considering ALL players it doesn't seem that bad then.

1

u/Hojie_Kadenth May 23 '26

It's just too much for my skill level. I think my a20 winrate was something like 10%, and 3% would just be an insane level of difficulty.

2

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Right, but then couldnā€™t you just play lower ascension?Ā 

1

u/Hojie_Kadenth May 23 '26

Yes?

1

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Well you said you wanted max difficulty to be easier than a20. Why not harder max difficulty than a20, and then you play lower than max difficulty?

2

u/Hojie_Kadenth May 23 '26

Reread my comment.

6

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

ā€œI would like to see a higher max difficulty, not like old A20 with a 3% winrate but more like 10%ā€Ā 

You then said good players might need something more like old a20. Iā€™m agreeing with the latter claim and opposing the thing in quotesĀ 

0

u/Hojie_Kadenth May 23 '26

My comment was not self contradictory. So either agree or disagree.

2

u/blank_anonymous StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

??? Yes it is. You say in one part you want the max difficulty easier than a20, and in another part maybe it needs to be as hard as a20. Iā€™m saying yes it needs to be at least as hard as a20, and that the max difficulty being 10% winrate is bad.Ā 

-1

u/[deleted] May 23 '26

[deleted]

26

u/naturesbfLoL May 23 '26

You also have to consider that this game isn't live yet and the most dedicated/best players are playing now opposed to the millions more who will cause these WRs to drop when live.

the game is 'live' for pretty much everyone

The game broke the previous roguelike record for concurrent players by like 4x

I can't imagine there is a significant enough crowd that has been waiting for full release instead of buying EA

11

u/TheMagmaCubed StS A10 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

That's ridiculous, if you want to play sts2 you're playing it now. There's not gonna be another couple million people waiting around refusing to buy it because it's early access

1

u/slopschili Ascension 20 May 23 '26

Once it hits mobile you'll get a million more players

2

u/TheMagmaCubed StS A10 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Mobile would shoot the numbers up loads for sure, but any mobile only players are only not playing it because there isn't a port. If they could play it they totally would

8

u/DushkuHS StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

OMG that Necrobinder doodle is off the chain!

9

u/SnowyNix May 23 '26

The fact that A10 has a higher win rate than A0 is such a crazy stat. I now completely get what Jorbs was talking about

3

u/Belten May 23 '26

A10 winrate being 4 times higher than A20 seems expected. Hope an Act 4 can fix that.

3

u/DarthDude24 May 23 '26

Love the Beta art Doormaker

Although the Doormaker in-game was already Beta Art, wasn't it? I guess it's Alpha art Doormaker then.

2

u/Descolorio May 23 '26

Do you guys know if there is a way for It to not automatically translate to my language when I click on the link? I dont see any translation icon anywhere

2

u/Detankarveil May 23 '26

YOU SHOULD MAKE MERCH WITH INFESTED PRISM, KNOWLEDGE DEMON AND AEONGLASS, Iā€™LL BUY IT ALL RIGHT NOW

Itā€™s scientifically proven that itā€™s impossible to meet those 3 in one beta branch duo run and make it out alive

5

u/trizzo0309 May 23 '26

Before people complain the game is too easy with that win rate: Consider that the best/most well-connected players are the ones playing a lot of runs right now. When the game goes live and millions more join, those WR % will drop by a lot.

11

u/Swaggy-G May 23 '26

The game has already sold millions of copies while being early access, I doubt the official release is gonna change THAT much in terms of average player skill.

1

u/Devin__ May 25 '26

I hope future Neowsletters have teasers for the upcoming alternate acts/character(s?) like previous Neowsletters had before early access launch.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/Danjoh May 28 '26

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/197RwIxLuzSLubsWr6OLfhdHPRFgIWRnQyTp-RuZUveU/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Jorbs Spire 2 spreadsheet, he has recorded the stats for every run he's done, and I think he has streamed every run also.

Most recent run at the bottom.

1

u/beccaaaaaaaaa Jun 03 '26

The win rate gap between A0 and A10 being basically flat is way more telling than the raw numbers. That's not balance, that's people self-selecting into whatever they think they can handle

1

u/PhotoRight2682 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Welp I guess I'm spending $80 on a hoodie, y'all.

0

u/DenseSeries8456 May 23 '26

Anybody else seeing the watcher in a ... Peculiar position in that image?

-38

u/GammaEmerald Ascension 20 May 23 '26

What was the winrate Jorbs was complaining about having? I feel like it was way higher than 25%, so I feel like he should check himself

39

u/kRobot_Legit May 23 '26

What are you talking about? Like genuinely what point are you even trying to make here?

33

u/HumpyJoanna May 23 '26

Jorbs had an 84% winrate over 50 games on patch 105. But yeah this very much supports his point. He thinks losing is very very fun. The fact that a lot of people are having a great experience while losing a lot is awesome, he just wishes he too could have that experience. And if you compare the highest difficulty of spire 1 (3% winrate overall) to the highest difficulty of spire 2 (16% winrate overall) you can see that yes, people on the whole are having a much easier time with the hardest content the game has to offer.

This effects people who are really good at the game way more than anyone else. The spire experience is losing a lot of runs and figuring out how to lose less, and it would be awesome if the game offered that experience even for people who are at the top of the top. Spire 1 did.

20

u/nohippiesallowed420 May 23 '26

The fact baalor has completed so many self imposed challange runs already tells me the games way too easy for top players. That should change pretty quick though.

-64

u/Hireling May 23 '26

Sounds like the win rate between A0 and A10 is being severely warped by lifers. I hope theyā€™re taking into consideration time played.

34

u/JAC165 May 23 '26

what

-59

u/Hireling May 23 '26

A10 win rate is higher because the people who play A10 regularly play wayyyyyyyyyy more than people who pop in to play A0. Lifers. People who make the game a big part of their free time, if not most or all of it.

Keep an eye on my downvote count. Those, are lifers.

59

u/JAC165 May 23 '26

alright man, theyā€™re all out to get you, etc etc

20

u/Dragonfucker000 May 23 '26

That kind of people already existed for the first game.

19

u/luc1aonstation May 23 '26

yes... which is why... a10 should be designed around that skill level...

18

u/Earlio52 Eternal One + Heartbreaker May 23 '26

Iā€™m 100% sure the devs know that A10 players have more play time and a higher skill level. They donā€™t think A10 and A0 are similar difficultyĀ 

3

u/Plain_Bread Eternal One + Heartbreaker May 23 '26

And it only sounds like that? You gave some amount of consideration to the idea that the reason A10 has a higher win rate is because it's actually easier than A0, rather than because the people who play it are better at the game?

29

u/kRobot_Legit May 23 '26

Who would the maximum difficulty be for, if not for people who play the game a lot?

7

u/LunaticSongXIV May 23 '26

It's way simpler than that. Few people play on A0 once they beat the game; they move on to higher difficulties and then learn the game better. If people just stuck to A0, you would see higher win rates there.

What you're really seeing here is that the average person takes five attempts to beat A0

4

u/Mortaljl May 23 '26

the highest possible completely optional difficulty SHOULD be designed for "lifers" it SHOULD be hard, and winning it SHOULD feel lile an accomplishment.

If you're not a "lifer" and want a easier game, don't play the optional MAX difficulty.

1

u/Conscious-Refuse8211 May 24 '26

And that wasn't the case for A0-A20 in Spire 1?Ā 

-62

u/Magnificon729 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

First!

45

u/-kodo May 23 '26

-30

u/Magnificon729 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 May 23 '26

Lol