Mega Crit has been busy. Following a rough stretch that included review bombing on Steam — players hitting back hard over balance changes they felt made the game feel unfairly punishing — the team has responded with beta patch 0.104.0, one of the more comprehensive updates since Slay the Spire 2 launched in early access back on March 5, 2026. There’s a lot in here, from Ascension difficulty tuning to card reworks, multiplayer fixes, new art, and a lengthy bug fix list that addresses everything from softlocks to crash issues.
Here’s the complete breakdown.
The Big Picture: Difficulty and Ascension Philosophy
The headline change for a lot of players is the Ascension rebalancing. Mega Crit has been upfront that lower Ascension levels were sitting too steep for players who are still learning the systems, and this patch begins the process of pulling those back. The key word is “begins” — developer Anthony’s notes in the patch make it clear this is going to be a gradual process rather than a sweeping overhaul. The intent is to make entry-level difficulty more approachable without deflating the challenge for veterans sitting at higher Ascension levels, where things are actually being tightened slightly.
Several enemy changes reflect this philosophy directly. Enemies like Scrolls of Biting, Owl Magistrate, and Slimed Berserker have all been adjusted to have slightly less HP at low Ascension but slightly more at high Ascension — a deliberate move to widen the difficulty spread rather than homogenize it. Vantom gets similar treatment, with damage and Slippery power values pulled back at lower Ascension while high Ascension values hold steady or stay close. Waterfall Giant heals less at lower Ascension as well.
On the Terminal run modifier specifically — a sticking point for players who felt it was creating unavoidable death scenarios — it can no longer bring a player below 1 HP. That’s a clean, meaningful fix that removes one of the more frustrating ways a run could be taken out of your hands.
Card Reworks — Ironclad and Regent
Two Ironclad cards got reworked, and both come with detailed reasoning from Anthony in the patch notes.
Conflagration has been redesigned. The old version — dealing 8 base damage to all enemies with 2 extra per attack played that turn — had low pick rates and middling win rates for a Rare, and Anthony noted it felt more like a Silent card conceptually (rewarding number of card plays). The new version deals 2 damage to all enemies 4 times (5 with upgrade), making it a straightforward AOE with Strength payoff potential. It’s a cleaner fit for Ironclad’s identity and should slot better into damage-stacking builds.
Drum of Battle went from a Power card to a Skill card and got a significant rework. It was previously the lowest-picked Uncommon Ironclad card — pulling two to three cards while exhausting the top of your draw pile at turn start, which was awkward and antisynergistic in most builds. The new version costs 1 and draws 2 cards, with the payoff being that when this card is Exhausted, you gain 2 (or 3 upgraded) Energy. That reframe turns it into an interesting piece for Exhaust-focused builds and gives it actual synergy with the game’s mechanics rather than working against them. Numbers may need further tuning but the direction is clearly better.
For the Regent, Parry got reworked in a way that’s mostly mechanical housekeeping but opens up new interactions. It previously granted Block whenever you played Sovereign Blade. Now, Sovereign Blade itself gains Block — meaning the Block is displayed directly on the Blade card and crucially, it now interacts with powers like Dexterity and Frail. That opens up synergies that weren’t possible before, and while the numbers may need adjustment as a result, it’s the kind of change that makes the card feel more native to the game’s systems.
The Tyranny card change on Regent is also notable — it now triggers before Bombardment, meaning if Tyranny exhausts Bombardment, Bombardment plays immediately after. That interaction clarity alone probably cleans up some confusing sequencing moments that frustrated players.
Balance Changes Worth Knowing
Beyond the reworks, there are several targeted balance adjustments:
The Nightmare (Silent) card now strips Afflictions off cards when you select them with Nightmare, meaning the copies added to your hand next turn are clean. That’s a quality-of-life improvement that was genuinely needed.
Untouchable (Silent) gets a buff — upgraded Block gain increases from +2 to +3, nudging a card that was sitting slightly undertuned.
Reflect (Regent) gets a small nerf — Block drops from 17/21 to 16/20. Minor, but part of the broader fine-tuning.
On the Ancients side, several buffs landed. Neow’s Booming Conch relic now also grants 1 Energy at the start of Elite combats in addition to its card draw. Neow’s Fury card now lets you choose which two cards come from your Discard Pile rather than selecting randomly — a significant usability upgrade. Tezcatara’s Nutritious Soup relic got a meaningful buff — your Strikes now deal 3 additional damage on top of the existing effects of costing 0 and having Eternal.
The Ruby Raider Assassin got a damage nerf (11/12 down to 10/11), and the Axebots combat was reworked to have a single more challenging Axebot rather than multiple.
For multiplayer specifically, enemy scaling for Artifact, Slippery, and Skittish powers has been nerfed — something the community has been asking for. The Tag Team card also got a buff, with its Replay effect now triggering on attacks that deal damage to all enemies, not just single targets. Stratagem is no longer banned from the colorless card pool in multiplayer after the underlying bug that prompted that ban was fixed.
New Badges
Three new badges land in this patch:
Damage Leader — Dealt the most damage to enemies in multiplayer. Debuffer — Applied the most Debuffs in a multiplayer run. C-c-c-Combo — Played 20 cards in a single turn, which is going to be a fun one to chase in fast-cycling builds.
Art, UI, and Writing Updates
Portrait art has been added for ten cards: Feral, Not Yet, Spite, Fight Through, Hailstorm, Synchronize, Iteration, Voltaic, Apparition, and Abrasive. Neow’s Fury artwork has been recentered. Vakuu gets new background art and VFX. Skulking Colony gets new animations. Tunneler, Entomancer, and Mawler received updated enemy art, while Vantom, Ceremonial Beast, and Entomancer got animation updates as well.
On the UI front, an Ascension tutorial popup has been added for first-time players in both single player and multiplayer — a welcome accessibility addition given how steep the learning curve can be. Hand animation now moves out of the way during enemy turns. Ancient card text backgrounds have been slightly darkened and embossed for readability. Controller navigation has been improved across multiple menus including Badges, run history, the Fake Merchant shop, and the pause menu.
Writing fixes include a Brilliant Scarf description clarification (“from your hand” now specified to make clear it doesn’t count auto-played cards) and a Reaper Form card reword to clarify that Doom is applied by the power rather than the played card.
Bug Fixes — The Long List
The bug fix list is extensive. Highlights include a fix for a combat softlock after returning to the main menu and resuming a run, crash fixes when applying powers to dying creatures, a Linux crash during combat when UI elements are removed mid-frame, and fixes for crashes when entering rooms or closing the game during startup. Score corrections for Ascension 10 and Daily runs are also in here.
Character-specific fixes: Howl From Beyond now plays from the Exhaust pile after drawing your hand (not before), Bombardment and I Am Invincible on Regent got similar sequencing corrections. The Regent’s Regalite relic no longer incorrectly gains Block from enemies applying statuses. A Necrobinder fix addresses Reave always sending the Soul card to the bottom of the deck. Defect players will appreciate that Beckon no longer damages the player if combat is ended by Lightning orbs.
Several Ancients-specific fixes landed too, including Vakuu’s Whispering Earring now correctly playing Stardust, Leafy Poutice no longer incorrectly transforming Strikes, and Unceasing Top now triggering properly when the Earring plays your last hand card.
Multiplayer bug fixes are substantial: state divergence from potion use just before combat, Pael’s Legion and Vambrace relics not triggering from the owner applying Block to other players, Pillar of Creation, Supermassive, and Arsenal now procing for the player who played Largesse rather than whoever receives the generated card, and a Dense Vegetation fix preventing it from spawning if any player is below 8 HP.
Community Reaction
The response from the player base has been largely positive according to community threads, with particular appreciation for the lower Ascension adjustments and the Ironclad reworks. The multiplayer scaling nerfs to Artifact, Slippery, and Skittish powers are welcome, though some players are already asking when Test Subject gets similar treatment. The one consistent complaint that hasn’t been resolved yet is the Steam Deck crash issue in multiplayer — still present, still frustrating for handheld players.
Overall this is the kind of patch that shows a development team listening and responding rather than doubling down. Whether it’s enough to pull the Steam reviews back toward positive territory remains to be seen, but the direction is clearly right.
It’s a packed week for patch notes and gaming news generally — Slay the Spire 2 isn’t alone in getting meaningful updates, with Crimson Desert continuing its own strong post-launch support run. Meanwhile if you’re looking for what’s new on the hardware side, Valve’s Steam Controller price leaked at $99 this week and the debate about whether it’s worth it is very much still going. And if Game Pass is your platform of choice for new releases, May 2026 is shaping up to be one of the stronger months the service has had all year with Forza Horizon 6 leading the charge.
