| Slay the Spire 2 | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Slay the Spire 2 is the direct sequel to Mega Crit’s genre-defining deckbuilder from 2019. Read on to learn everything we know, our first impressions of its early access build, and if it's worth your money.
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Everything We Know About Slay the Spire 2
Slay the Spire 2 Story
Details about Slay the Spire 2’s narrative remain sparse, with only a tantalizing teaser repeated in promotional material: "Civilization has waited 1,000 years for the Spire to reopen its doors…" This raises intriguing questions—has a millennium truly passed since the events of the first game? What does the original Slayers' success in the first game entail? Fans will have to wait to find out more.
Slay the Spire 2 Gameplay
Similar to its predecessor, Slay the Spire 2 is a roguelike deckbuilder to progress up the Spire, facing all sorts of fantastical enemies and otherworldly bosses. The game features turn-based combat, with players balancing dishing out offense and building up defenses during each of their turns.
New to the franchise, the game will feature multiplayer co-op at launch, with teams of up to 4 players creating powerful team synergies, coordinating routes, and sharing rewards. The game will also feature multiplayer-specific cards to bolster and differentiate co-op gameplay.
Out on Early Access on March 5, 2026
Mega Crit announced that Slay the Spire 2's Steam Early Access release will be on March 5, 2026. Early Access is expected to last one to two years before the full version launches.
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| $24.99 | |||||
Slay the Spire 2 Review [Early Access]
Still the Deckbuilder to Beat
To say that I love Slay the Spire is an understatement among understatements. From its very first steps during its early access period, back when it only had two characters to its name, to the glory days of my modded playthrough in the years following its full release, I was there to ascend the spire and strike the heart at its peak.
I’ve tried every niche deck combo for every available character, modded every possible mechanic to its logical extremes, and played tens of thousands of cards in the time it took me to tire from the Spire’s challenges. And yet, when a sequel finally found its form and was announced to the world, I found my appetite to climb the Spire whetted once more.
And now, I’ve finally gotten my hands on Slay the Spire 2’s early access build. After months of waiting, I could finally see what Mega Crit considered a worthy sequel to one of my most-played games of all time.
Without much exaggeration, and with my biases in and expectations in mind, this game is shaping up to be what all deckbuilders should aspire to be, if not the one all others must eventually beat. There are many floors to ascend in this review, and many acts to follow, so let’s take that first step, shall we?
The Spire Beckons Once More
We begin with Slay the Spire’s first act and first improvement over the first game: world-building and story. No longer relegated to flavor text, environmental storytelling, and obscure community lore, Slay the Spire’s world-building finally found footing in its sequel.
For the first time since the original game’s release, we may now come to an ultimate understanding of what the Spire is, why the Slayers stubbornly ascend it, and why the goddess of rebirth, Neow, keeps resurrecting the fallen heroes.
That’s getting far ahead of things, however. First, we discuss the whens and wheres of this game. Slay the Spire 2, just like its prequel, takes place within and around the titular Spire. This mysterious monolith of stone holds within it countless mysteries and equally countless floors, hosting monsters and challenges on each for those intrepid enough to ascend it.
For some reason or another, the player’s chosen character has accepted the Spire’s challenge and must ascend its many floors across three acts to achieve their goal. What’s surprising about the Spire this time around, however, is that it’s been a thousand years since it last opened, and it has been renovating its interior since. It’s now bigger, grander, and much more dangerous than it's ever been, and it’ll take everything the player has to get through it a second time.
It might seem like a tiny thing, especially for a game so heavily focused on mechanics over story as the original Slay the Spire, but this is easily the best thing Mega Crit could’ve added to the sequel. The original game’s foundations were rock solid to begin with, so the sequel didn’t need any major changes for that — only expansions and new ideas to apply the game’s core mechanics to.
What it really needed was some flavor, and Slay the Spire 2 came prepared. Right from the get-go, old characters return with some very appreciated visual updates, and actual backstories to boot. There’s an actual community built around the Spire now, and completely new biomes and encounters waiting within. It’s familiar, but very new, which is exactly what a sequel should be.
That’s enough talk about the set dressing, though. What makes this sequel’s gameplay tick? What did it end up changing that’s got me all excited?
New Slayers, New Ways to Play
As I stated earlier, Slay the Spire 2’s core gameplay mechanics remained almost the same as the original’s. Players still pick characters with unique card pools to ascend the spire, choosing their path forward from a branching set of rooms per act, and encountering different enemies, events, and bosses as they go.
Players still use a limited pool of energy to play their cards over a turn-based strategy layer involving card drafting, enemy intents, and card modification. Players can activate cards to deal damage to enemies, prevent incoming damage, apply status effects, modify their stats, and ultimately achieve victory by being the last one standing.
Each available character maintains their internal synergies and deck archetypes that players can build toward as they progress through each run. For example, the Ironclad, as its name suggests, has great synergy with cards that utilize Armor and Strength, as well as the Exhaust and Status mechanics.
The Silent, on the other hand, offers a more assassin-oriented playstyle, relying on damage-over-time effects, insane card draw, discard mechanics, and, for the more advanced players, high-APM deck builds.
What’s really new about Slay the Spire 2 is that there are two entirely new characters for players to try. This isn’t an entirely new concept, as mods have been part of the Slay the Spire experience ever since the devs allowed full mod support, but these two new characters, the Regent and the Necrobinder, have the polish and balance that only officially-made characters can boast.
The Regent has to be my new favorite for its completely separate energy system, and the absolute absurdity of damage numbers you can achieve through their Regal Blade mechanic. The Necrobinder is fun to play as well, offering a more reckless and sacrificial playstyle centered around summoning a skeletal familiar named Osty.
Slay the Spire 2 really rolled the red carpet out for players by adding these new characters in, but they also tweaked many cards for the returning cast. I’ll concede that the nerfs are just as notable as the buffs, and that many cards have turned from instant-adds to dead draws, and vice-versa, but the overall freshness provided by all the new content is far more considerable than any sweat-shadowed sadness over card balancing.
On the topic of new content, it’s not all new cards, relics, and characters in Slay the Spire 2, because the Spire’s renovation brought on more than a few changes to the original game’s three-part act.
The Spire Like You’ve Never Seen it Before
The Spire got a major overhaul across its entire length, tearing down the old acts and replacing them with completely new and unique ones. Exordium and the City were great and all, but take a look at the environments Slay the Spire 2 has for you, and you might have to pick your jaw up from the floor.
No longer static and underutilized, acts can now have different biomes between runs, randomly selected when each map is generated. Each environment encompasses an act and is capped off by a major boss fight at the end, with three acts in total for the base experience.
Players who manage to get past Act 1 will definitely notice that new boon-givers and deities have also taken up residence in the Spire. Neow is still the initial boon-giver you encounter at the start of each run, but every act now boasts a major upgrade at its start, as presented and bargained to you by new names like Tezcatara.
What about unlocks and meta progression? Well, Slay the Spire 2 continues the first game’s EXP-based unlock progression, letting players use their end-of-run scores as fodder for their unlocks, though there are notable differences between the two.
First off, unlocks are now called Epochs, and that’s not just a fancy word they use for coolness points, as each Epoch represents a major lore drop about the Spire’s history across its timeline. It’s a literal packet of lore accompanied by new content—what’s not to love?
Secondly, there are way more unlocks players can get their hands on now, even in early access. Neutral cards, new relics, and even entirely new boon-givers and biomes are up for grabs by just playing. It’s actually a lot of new things to play with here, which only reaffirms to me that Mega Crit already figured out their formula their first time through; this was just the encore.
No Need to Ascend Solo When There’s Multiplayer
Perhaps the most surprising but welcomed addition that Slay the Spire 2 introduces is its online multiplayer functionality. This feature has been something the modding community has been trying to emulate since the first game came out (and to little success, might I add).
Every time someone tries to make a multiplayer mod, something always goes awry, either build-wise or in balancing. Mega Crit managed to do what everyone else failed to accomplish for years, and boy, did they hit it out of the park.
Multiplayer can host up to four players at a time, and brings with it new mechanics to help with strategizing and navigating between battles. The trailer showcased the game’s new map-drawing functionality, as well as its relic selection features, but even combat got some updates to suit any party trying to ascend the spire.
Bigger monsters, harder fights, and a synchronous card-playing system let players pull off some ridiculous combos between their builds in real time. It’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen, one that I never thought the game would ever come around to. Along with the other inclusions, this is pretty much the best form Slay the Spire has ever taken.
Some Early Access Wrinkles to Iron Out
Rounding out what Slay the Spire 2 has going for it during its early access period are its placeholders and unfinished sections. Such is the nature of early access; some things just aren’t finished yet, and can’t be finished without player feedback.
Many instances of placeholder images, icons, and graphics pop up across the game, most notably in the unlock screen whenever a new Epoch is unlocked. Some card effects just don’t register when played, and some minor stuttering can be detected whenever the game’s snazzy new animations kick in.
Overall, it’s not a dealbreaker in the slightest for Slay the Spire 2 to be this way. Far more broken early access titles have graced Steam’s platform, and there’s much merit to be given for the game’s other, fully-implemented features, which managed to make it to this build.
I don’t expect this game to look or play the same come full release, since there’s much to fix and add, still. But as far as early access goes, this is pretty darn impressive.
Showing Everyone How It’s Done A Second Time
That’s about it for Slay the Spire 2’s early access. A lot is going on with this game, some old, some new, but all of it comes together to create a sequel that’s head and shoulders above the original—at least, if it maintains the quality of this early access build.
From newly balanced to the completely new, Mega Crit really just decided to put everything we wanted from the first game into this one, and I’m all for it. It was a pleasure experiencing Slay the Spire’s build-up from being a novel concept to a genre-defining title; I can’t wait to do it all over again for the sequel. It was, and still is, the deckbuilder to beat.
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# Slay the Spire 2 Product Information
 |
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| Title | SLAY THE SPIRE 2 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | March 5, 2026 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Mega Crit |
| Publisher | Mega Crit |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Card, Strategy, Roguelike |
| Number of Players | 1-4 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Slay the Spire 2 Official Website |
