Climbing the Spire may have become a bit more difficult but Megacrit says not everything is set in stone.
Slay the Spire II players jumped into the game’s first major post-launch update last weekend, only to find a very different climb awaiting them. The roguelike deckbuilder’s beta patch v0.100.0 introduced sweeping balance changes and a new accessibility feature, but the response on Steam was swift, with thousands of negative reviews appearing within hours.
Close to 10,000 negative reviews were posted in a single day, with much of the criticism centred on the perceived loss of powerful or popular builds. The scale of the backlash prompted Mega Crit to respond with a detailed explanation of its development approach in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) last Saturday (21 March SGT):
Mega Crit explained that its updates are shaped by multiple inputs, stating, “We make changes based on a mix of player feedback, collected metrics, and our own design philosophies.” The studio added that while it monitors feedback across platforms, “the feedback we receive via the in-game reporter from players who are testing the patch firsthand is the most useful to us,” pointing to a preference for data tied directly to live testing.
The developer made it clear that the current patch is only the starting point of a longer balancing process. “This beta balance pass was the first of many to come over the next 1–2 years,” the post stated, outlining a development window that will see regular adjustments.
Megacrit says “No change is necessarily permanent” for Slay the Spire II
Rather than a steady or predictable path, Mega Crit described the process as iterative and fluid. “The game will go through constant changes… This progress will not be linear, and no change is necessarily permanent,” the studio said, reinforcing that current frustrations may not reflect the final state of the game.
The beta branch, in particular, will continue to serve as a testing ground for more experimental ideas. The team explained that these changes will be “tweaked each time until we feel it’s stable enough for the main branch,” underlining the separation between experimental updates and the core experience.
Participation in this process remains optional, but Mega Crit stressed its importance, noting that testing helps shape the final version of the game. The studio closed by thanking players “for your patience as we slowly mould StS2 into its final shape,” signalling that further changes are expected as development continues.
The patch, described by the team as its “first BIG post-launch patch,” sets the tone for how Slay the Spire II will evolve during its Early Access cycle, with ongoing updates, player feedback, and balance shifts forming a central part of the experience.
The update, released through the public beta branch, added a Phobia Mode to reduce some of the game’s more unsettling visuals. Alongside that, Mega Crit pushed a wide range of balance adjustments aimed at limiting infinite builds, runs that could previously spiral into near-endless loops. The patch was entirely optional, requiring players to opt into the beta branch to experience the changes. The full details on the patch were posted on the game's official Steam page.
