Mega Crit has released a new patch for Slay the Spire 2 Early Access that introduces a system called Badges, reworks several cards across multiple classes, and adds a bunch of new art and visual effects. If you’ve been climbing Ascensions since the game entered Early Access last month, there’s a decent amount to dig into here.
Badges are a new feature that appear at the end of a run, noting things that happened along the way, like defeating a boss without losing HP, beating the game quickly, or pointing out that you forgot to spend your gold. They’re meant to make each run feel more distinct, and Mega Crit says they’ll eventually appear in run history and stats screens as part of a broader set of changes to scoring.
On the content side, there are notable reworks across the board. Ascension 6 has been changed from Gloom, which reduced rest sites, to Inflation, which makes card removal at the Merchant start at 100 gold and scale more aggressively. The developer noted that affecting map generation through Ascension was too hard for players to notice and often felt indistinguishable from bad luck. Silent’s Blade of Ink has been reworked to generate Enchanted Inky Shivs instead of granting temporary Strength, and Necrobinder’s Borrowed Time now grants a burst of energy while making other cards more expensive for the turn. On the enemy side, the Doormaker received a significant rework to make the fight more threatening, with a new power that drains one energy each time you play a card.
Balance changes include buffs to Silent’s Leading Strike and nerfs to Speedster and Untouchable. The Skulking Colony enemy now attacks on all turns with increased damage. There’s also a long list of bug fixes, including several multiplayer-related softlocks and state issues, along with new portrait art for cards and visual effects for afflictions.
