Slay the Spire 2's First Major Patch Nerfs Infinites

If you've been playing Slay the Spire 2 on the main branch and ignoring the beta, your game just changed overnight. Mega Crit pushed its first major update today, compiling a full month of beta patches into a single release that touches nearly every system in the game. Class reworks, new relics, enemy redesigns, art replacements, a badge system, leaderboard changes, and yes, a targeted effort to make infinite combos harder to pull off.

The infinite nerf is the headline for a reason. Infinite combos, where you chain cards to extend a turn indefinitely and effectively break the game's economy of risk, have been a beloved and controversial part of the Slay the Spire formula since the original. Mega Crit already caught flak during the beta when it rolled out changes specifically targeting infinites, then had to patch those patches after community pushback. The version that's landed on the main branch today is the result of that back-and-forth, and while infinites aren't dead, they're harder to reach. Combined with a new Ascension 6 modifier called 'Inflation' that jacks up card removal costs starting at 100 gold and increasing by 50 per use, trimming your deck into a lean combo engine is now a serious investment rather than a default strategy.

I think this is the right call, even if it stings. Infinites in the original Slay the Spire were a fun puzzle to solve, but they also flattened the difficulty curve once you knew what you were doing. In a sequel that's clearly trying to push players toward more varied builds and tougher late-game decisions, letting infinites remain trivially accessible would undermine that entire design direction. The fact that Mega Crit tested these changes publicly, took the heat, adjusted, and then shipped the revised version shows a studio that's actually listening rather than just collecting feedback into a void.

Four Classes, One Overhaul

Four of the five playable classes got substantial reworks. Ironclad picks up a new rare card called Not Yet (heal 10 HP, exhaustible) and loses Grapple entirely, with Mega Crit noting the changes aim to give him "better survivability and Exhaust synergies." Silent's Acrobatics, one of the best cards in the game thanks to its synergy with Sly builds, has been bumped to Uncommon rarity, meaning you'll see it less often. Her new Blade of Ink card generates Inky Shivs that apply Weak, giving Shiv builds a different angle. The Regent got more buffs than any other class; Arsenal and Regalite now scale off all created cards rather than just Colorless ones, which should address complaints about the character feeling underpowered. Necrobinder's Borrowed Time has been completely redesigned: instead of applying Doom to yourself for energy, it now grants four energy (six when upgraded) but makes all your cards cost one more for the rest of the turn. It's a card that rewards planning around a single expensive play rather than spamming cheap ones. The Defect, meanwhile, barely got touched.

The early game should feel noticeably smoother. Elites can't appear until one floor later than before, and five new Neow relics offer more interesting starting choices. Winged Boots, returning from the first game, lets you ignore paths up to three times. Phial Holster gives you an extra potion slot and two random potions right away. On the enemy side, Living Fog now spawns only one bomb per round instead of escalating wildly, and the Act Three boss Doormaker has been completely redesigned with three rotating phases: Hunger exhausts every card you play, Scrutiny prevents all card draw, and Grasp drains energy per card played. You'll need to read the fight before committing to a strategy.

Shop relics cost 25 gold less across the board, but gold-generating relics no longer appear in shops. Leaderboards now only show friends' scores because, as Mega Crit put it in the patch notes, they "don't really want to incorporate invasive anti-cheat protection into the game" and can't stop people submitting fake maximum scores. Scoring now focuses on whether you won, how many badges you earned, and your clear speed. A new Phobia mode also lets you tone down some of the more unsettling visual designs.

Mega Crit is clear that nothing here is final. "This is still an Early Access game, so just because something made it from beta to main does not mean it's set in stone," the studio writes. Players can submit feedback at any time by pressing F2 in-game. What I appreciate about this whole process is the transparency. Mega Crit tested aggressively, got pushback on the infinite nerfs, iterated publicly, and shipped a version that reflects actual player input. That's how Early Access is supposed to work, and it's a model I wish more studios would follow. The patch is live now on Steam.