Playtest notes 8 Jan 2026
Internal playtest157 entries48 bug fixes32 balance changes32 interface changes14 art updates9 content additions9 wording fixes8 audio updates5 performance fixes
This is a pre-release internal note from the closed playtest, quoted as it was written for testers. It describes a build that no longer exists; treat it as history, not as a description of the current game.
Items in this note
31 cards
Relics, potions and powers
Clarity Extract
Fishing Rod
Music Box
Rainbow Ring
Sand Castle
Screaming Flagon
Tiny Mailbox
Whispering Earring
Poison
Clarity
Diamond Diadem
Focus
Intangible
Necro Mastery
Rampart
Reattach
StrengthEnemies and events
Content
Balance
General
- First run is now more set in stone
- Changed Ascender's Scorn card: now also says "At the end of your turn, if this is in your Hand, take 1 damage."
Silent
- Changed Memento Mori and Shadowstep cards: swapped rarity
- Buffed Bubble Bubble card: upgrade Poison increased from +2 Poison -> +3 Poison
Defect
- Buffed Refract card: upgrade damage increased from +2 -> +3
- Buffed Shadow Shield card: Block increased from 10(14) -> 11(15)
- Buffed Adaptive Strike card: damage increased from 17(21) -> 18(23)
- Changed Gunk Up card: now puts the Slimes into the Discard Pile
- Changed Power Through card: now puts the Wounds into the Discard Pile
- Changed Hyperbeam card:
- Energy cost decreased from 3 -> 2
- Damage decreased from 30(40) -> 26(34)
Keep reading211 more words
Necrobinder
- Nerfed Bodyguard card: Summon decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)
- Nerfed Unleash card:
- Nerfed Banshee's Cry card: damage decreased from 39(47) -> 33(39)
- Changed Fetch card:
- Upgrade no longer increases card draw
- Upgrade damage increased from +1 -> +3
- Nerfed Haunt card: hits ALL enemies -> hits a random enemy
- Changed Necrobinder's Haunt Neow bundle: replaced Haunt card -> Death March
- Changed Drain Power and Reave cards: swapped damage values
Regent
- Cards with Replay no longer use up multiple Void Form card triggers
- Buffed Bombardment card: damage increased from 16(22) -> 18(24)
Potions & Relics
- Nerfed Rainbow Ring relic: can now only trigger once per turn
Enemies
- Changed Knowledge Demon: no longer has his Have a Taste move; it is now skipped in his turn order
- Buffed Thieving Hopper: HP increased by 4
- Buffed Queen: Burn Bright For Me move now also gains 20 Block for herself
Events
- Change Welcome to Wongo's event: spawn requirement is now 100 Gold
- Changed Field of Man-Sized Holes event: Enter Your Hole option no longer costs HP
- Changed Sunken Statue event: gold option now has randomization of +-10 gold
Art
- Updated Inklet animations
- Added Mawler roar animation
- Added Deadly Poison VFX
- Added Scratch VFX
- Added Shiv Throw VFX
- Added Spore Impact VFX
- Added beta portrait art for the following cards:
- Fixed misnamed and misplaced beta art, removed deprecated
- Added portrait art for Quadcast card
- Added art for Trophies Epoch
- Updated the multiplayer rock-paper-scissors hands art
User interface & experience
- Added focus reticles for main menu text buttons
- Adjusted hitbox and position for the following enemies:
Keep reading207 more words
- Raised intent slightly for Louse Progenitor as when it's curled up it's taller
- Made Test Subject opaque again if it is killed while it has Intangible
- Adjusted placeholder Adversary assets
- Adjusted thinky dots bbcode VFX to be slightly less aggressive
- Adjusted character select screen UI when waiting for other players in multiplayer + localizability
- Textures are now allowed to be set for badges + added "i like shiny" badge
- If the player wins with an unusual deck size, there is now a badge at the end of the run
- Added gold and HP related badges
- Fixed indentation of upgraded cards in run history
- Language dropdown is now grayed out during run and is clarified that it can only be changed in main menu
- Localized the pause menu
- Made main menu loc reactive
- Updated profile screen padding, hover effects, positions, and messaging
- Updated sentence casing for various card selection screen behaviors
- Adjusted text for timeout screen
- Updated Delete profile button asset and hover behavior
- Discovered Epochs now have a chain and lock on them until revealed
- When loading profiles or multiplayer things, the text is smaller, in the bottom right corner, and green + localization support
- Windows executable now displays custom game icon
- Added controller navigation for orbs
Audio
- Added SFX for the following enemies:
- Decimillipede
- Fossil Stalker
- Mecha Knight
- Slumbering Beetle (snoring)
- Inklet
- Added Forge SFX
- Added new Burn SFX
Wording
- Changed Orobas' Vibrant Halo description to say "Transform" instead of "Replace"
- Regent's Gamma Beam card renamed -> Gamma Blast
- Defect's Black Beam card renamed -> Null
- Clarity potion renamed -> Clarity Extract
- Neow's Focus blessing renamed -> Discipline
- Updated more sentence casing
- Removed Instant Mode reference from Fast Mode tooltip
- Save profiles are now referred to as Save Profile rather than Profile in the profile selection screen
- Updated the wording in hovertips for cards that channel Dark or Glass Orbs for clarity
Bug fixes
General
- All "defeat 10 bosses" Epochs now correctly count bosses
- Attacks, Skills, and Powers obtained from Events now properly appear before Curses and Statuses when viewing your Draw, Discard, and Exhaust piles
- Creature cleanup is now ensured even if death VFX fails during scene transitions
- Fixed crash when applying a power to a creature removed from combat
- Fixed crash when pressing back during character unlock animation
- Fixed a wait time that was accidentally 1000 seconds
- Fixed softlock when all Epochs are unlocked via scorebar
- In-game reporter should now still work if you have a lot of files in your save directory
- Main menu text buttons now longer have the wrong pivot that made them look off when pressing them
- Newly-discovered Epochs are now properly displayed in the Discoveries section of the Game Over screen
- Removed Diamond Diadem power title
- Renamed cards now appear in Compendium for existing players
- Simplified an Epoch state logic check to greatly increase safety and backwards compatibility
- The sun, flower, and cupcake will no longer block you from clicking feedback buttons
- Added bounds checking for dev console commands with target indices
Keep reading383 more words
Silent
- The green Poison overlay on the health bar now properly accounts for the player having both Accelerant card and Soup Recipe relic at the same time
Defect
- Updated atlas references for renamed Defect cards (Compact, Subroutine, Smokestack)
Necrobinder
- Fixed crash when abandoning run as Necrobinder outside combat
- Necro Mastery power icon now properly displays its stack count
Potions & Relics
- Fixed Tiny Mailbox relic breaking controller hotkeys after resting
- Removed the Strength hovertip from Screaming Flagon potion
- Potion targeting is now canceled when potion is removed to prevent NRE
Enemies
- Decimillipede's Reattach heal intent now shows after a segment is killed
- Fixed crash during Vantom boss fight
- Fixed crash when Doormaker is removed from combat then dies
- Fixed softlock when Doormaker dies from reflect damage during Get Back In move
- Gremlin Merc now correctly steals gold on its third move
- Infested Automaton event's options now properly take card reward rarity odds into account
- Rampart power icon now includes the amount of Block it is applying
Ancients
- Fixed crash when loading save with deprecated Ancient event
- Hovertip position is no longer off when you first enter Ancient rooms with a controller
- Orobas now uses grid layout instead of horizontal for 6-card upgrade
- Potion slot no longer locks up when using potion during Whispering Earring relic auto-play
- Wish curse card no longer displays draw pile in shuffle order
- Sand Castle relic no longer shows unnecessary counter
Events
- Fixed The Future of Potions event requiring 3 potions instead of 2 to appear
- Hand of Vakuu event no longer shows empty screen before proceed button
Multiplayer
- Fixed crash when disconnecting during combat
- Fixed crash when player disconnects during combat sync
- Fixed multiplayer crash when syncing Discovered Epochs
- Lobby no longer goes into an invalid state when a player disconnects during the handshake
- Ping button shows up on the first turn of combat
- Player state container is correctly aligned
- Reduced the chances of seeing a relic that another player obtained at a chest
- Shared events no longer diverge after completion
- You can no longer unready your turn while dead in rare circumstances
- Necrobinder's Sic 'Em card no longer Summons for other players when their Osty hits the target in multiplayer
- Fishing Rod relic now uses player-scoped RNG to prevent potential multiplayer desync
Performance
- Compressed and resized nearly all Hive Rest Site assets
- Removed several unused pointlights in Hive Rest Site
- Updated Rest Site light asset to be smaller and compressed (affects all Rest Sites)
- Converted smoke particle effects from CPU -> GPU and reduced particle count by half
- Cursor images are now preloaded

Purchase today

If you haven't bought Slay The Spire 2 yet, it's time. Support the devs, they made an amazing game.






























Osty
Inklet
Bygone Effigy
Flail Knight
Fossil Stalker
Gremlin Merc
Hunter Killer
Knowledge Demon
Louse Progenitor
Mawler
Mecha Knight
Punch Construct
Queen
Scroll of Biting
Slimed Berserker
Slumbering Beetle
Terror Eel
Test Subject
The Insatiable
Thieving Hopper
Turret Operator
Vantom