After seven years and quite a few derivative games, Slay the Spire 2 is finally available in early access form. At the outset, StS2 feels a lot like the original. Ironclad, Silent, and Defect return with the same decks and unchanged card/combat mechanics. Mega Crit games clearly didn't burn everything down and start from scratch, but my first run left me wondering if the sequel used too much copy and paste.

A Body Slam deck for Ironclad with a few too many Defends.

I ran each character through Ascension 1 and found myself using the same builds that took me through Ascension 10+ in StS1. Ironclad used Body Slam, Silent used Poison and then Shiv, Defect used Claw and then Dark. Each of these builds had a few new, viable cards or relics but played the same.


Most of the new cards available for the returning characters didn't seem worthwhile for their core builds but also weren't numerous enough to indicate the existence of a good alternative build.

The Regent starting deck.

StS2 adds two new characters with their own unique mechanics:

• The Regent comes with a second action currency. It's not the most mechanic thing but his cards have a few build options.
• The Necrobinder has a summon called Osty. I did one Osty run that felt mediocre and one Doom run that was a bit like poison.

A Necrobinder Doom build with Seance for thinning and Catastophe to ramp damage. The Defends and Osty cards were the first to be Seanced, I didn't get much card removal in this run.

Enemies

Scrolls of Biting decrease your Max HP (permanently, I assume) if they land a hit.

The StS2 enemies are all new - pretty much, the "Ca-caw" and "My power is unmatched" cultists join forces in this one.


Squishy enemies, Elites, and Bosses alike have new abilities/tactics that are different from the mechanics of the first game but not disruptively so. One enemy steals a card from your deck, another enemy mob can take max 9 damage per round, the Decimillepede regrows sections after a one-round cooldown.


The bosses aren't pushovers but they're not quite as challenging as the first StS.

?s

The ? events are all new. There seem to be a few more opportunities to deck thin and some additional "carry this card until the next act and you'll get something awesome".

Ancients

In StS1 the reward for finishing an act was a gold-tier card and a relic that would often be "get an additional action point per turn, but also there is some unrelated downside". In StS2 there is no relic reward, instead you begin next act chatting with an Ancient. Some of the reward choices are similar to the extra action relics, others are very different. See below:


Moving away from additional action points definitely puts the squeeze on builds; 3-cost cards are far less viable when you're talking about skipping a round in the later acts. On the other hand, the new rewards are considerably more interesting and lend themselves to creating a unique build.

Neow's card pack blessing wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped.

Enchantments

Goopy enchantment: permanently increase the card's block value by 1 and add Exhaust.

Another fun addition to the StS universe is card enchantments which are found at ?s and encounters with Ancients. These permanent card modifiers do things like add card draw, increase numeric stats, or Replay (play the card multiple times).

Final thoughts

Unlockables are tied to lore snippets with artwork that is currently just in sketch form.

StS2 is still in early access so there's nothing definitive to say. My initial takeaways:

• The game mechanics largely resemble the first one but there is no shortage of new content.
• I haven't tried co-op mode but would very much like to.
• Act IV isn't yet developed so every run ends with defeating the Act III boss and getting a cinematic death at the hand of the Architect.

Me and J have mostly been playing Borderlands 4 (it is a big game) but when the connection quality has been too terrible we've gotten some Roboquest in.


PUBG is doing a ninth anniversary event. There are some lobby decorations, a festive purple ghillie, and chicken people that run around and drop loot.


The B8TE squad is still chasing that perfect bridge camp. Normally this means more boats.

	Yo, my buddy Keith had his car drop in a lake off a bridge just like this one here... Yeah, see, he was driving over it late at night and there in the middle of the bridge was what looked like, In Keith's estimation, like a dead bear, so Keith gets out his car to find a stick to poke at it right? Well, it turns out it's just some lady's fur coat that musta fallen out her car, so, hey, free coat, right? Now, owls won't normally attack a man, but in this case, they were hungry, and that made them reckless, man. Keith reckons that they musta been there for hours watchin' what they thought was a bear carcass, 'cause as soon as he picked it up, them owls had claws in him inch deep. Well, Keith figures his best bet is to jump in a lake, 'cause owls can't swim. Well, them owls could. He fought them for like 20 minutes treading water, and during that time, a boat came, bridge went up and down went Keith's car. Man, sometimes nature's just tryin' to teach us, if we'd only listen.	�
	From Ellis in Left 4 Dead 2 (pic unrelated)

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