Mega Crit's latest update for "Slay the Spire 2" has immediately triggered outrage in the early-access community.
Released Thursday night, the patch overhauled game balance, nerfing key character strategies while significantly buffing enemies, most notably the final boss, Doormaker. Though smaller improvements like UI tweaks, Relic shop discounts, and art refinements were appreciated, the drastic gameplay changes have drawn widespread criticism.
Introducing Phobia Mode and Quality-of-Life Tweaks
The Beta Patch Notes v0.100.0 adds a new Phobia Mode, replacing potentially triggering visuals with safer alternatives. Minor quality-of-life improvements, such as refined card UI and a 25-gold reduction on Relic purchases, were designed to enhance player experience.
Despite these changes, the community's focus quickly shifted to the steep difficulty spikes introduced across all characters.
Character Nerfs and the End of Infinite Plays
One of the most controversial adjustments targets The Silent. The card "Prepared," previously allowing free draw-and-discard cycles, now requires discarding two cards for energy on the next turn.
Other characters, including The Regent, also saw key deck cards like Glow and Charge reduced in effectiveness. The recent nerfs aim to eliminate "infinite" plays that provided unlimited resources or damage, but many players view them as overly punitive.
The patch is currently available only through the Steam Experimental branch, intended for testing before full release. Many players, however, were caught off guard by the sudden changes, resulting in nearly 8,000 negative reviews within a single day.
"Will check the game on release once again. Currently its just an old boring StS1 with new visuals."
One reviewer wrote this lengthy comment:
"this game sucks:
1. blatent cash grab
2. 2.6 GB file for a 2D game
3. 80% recycled content from StS 1, other 20% removed features from StS 1 like Watcher Class.
4. Clear use of AI to create game assets. Looks sort of like that other dogfart game 'Bazaar' where all the colours are washed out like an image AI trained on WoW
5. Monsters look hideous.
6. Half the monsters look like a dog turd covered in pubes.
7. I have a supercomputer but the game keeps crashing.
8. Only 2 acts LMAO
9. $25 for a 2 bit 2D game with 2 acts LMAO.in summary: ITS REFUND TIME BABY!"
Enemy Buffs Increase Challenge
Enemies received substantial buffs, with Doormaker now consuming every 10th card drawn while dealing massive damage. High-level encounters have become more punishing, prompting some players to avoid elite battles entirely.
According to Polygon, Steam reviewers quickly voiced their frustrations; one user, Leo Dilu, warned that nerfs without viable alternatives risk alienating the player base rather than improving gameplay.
As of writing, there are about 29,100 reviews on Steam. Still, the overwhelmingly positive comments outweigh the negative reviews. Here are some of them:
"How the hell have I already put 12 hours into this game? This has to be some kind of unregistered drug.
First time a deck-builder game has ever hooked me like this, 100% recommended, especially with friends. And of course my main is Necrobinder, 10/10 character design."
"Leaving this positive review to counteract the crybabies that got sad with the latest patch (which has been live for less than 12h and is on the beta branch!)."
"Thank you for a fun and addicting game. I have gotten so many friends who never play many roguelikes or card games into this game, and it has been a blast. Keep working on it to make it the best it can be."
While you're reading "Slay the Spire 2" Steam reviews, you can play "Minishoot Adventures" for a Metroidvania rush.
Originally published on Player One
