Mega Crit shipped Slay the Spire 2’s biggest patch so far on November 12, 2026. Update v0.113.0 is now on the game’s Steam beta branch, bringing its first new Early Access character, The Fool, plus two new game modes, Blitz and Dread.
“Wah!! The first new character for Early Access arrives! A silly musician who wields a bow! How can such a whimsical creature survive within the Spire? Why, that’s up to you!” Mega Crit wrote in the official patch notes on Steam. The Fool is a bard who fights with a bow, and he brings the roster to six characters. His starting relic, the Song Bow, grants six Aim every combat, and in the current beta build his basic Foolish Shot deals 15 damage.
The developer is testing the content before it reaches every player. “We expect to make a great number of content and balance changes before the Fool is ready for the main branch,” Mega Crit said in the same post. Players who want the update now have to opt in: the notes direct them to the game’s properties menu on Steam, the Game Versions & Betas tab, and the public-beta option.
Blitz cuts the map, Dread stacks the pain
Blitz is a condensed, chaotic mode built around pure deckbuilding. The map is gone, gold no longer matters and the Merchant’s wares feel a bit off, by the patch notes’ own description. Runs begin with a choice of three cards from ten, each Act holds four encounters, and the mode carries five Ascension levels shared across every character.
Dread is aimed squarely at players who found the game’s top difficulty too easy. It unlocks only after reaching Ascension 10 with every character, The Fool included. Per the notes, every Ascension modifier is switched on, bosses buff all enemies in their Act, and Ascender’s Bane curses stack at the end of each Act. Mega Crit’s summary of the mode: death is expected.
The patch also adds five new events with three new event cards, and a list of buffs and nerfs to existing characters, enemies and bosses. Among the smaller changes, Rest Sites can now appear one floor earlier in each Act.
A slower cadence pays off
The update is the first visible result of a pivot Mega Crit announced months ago, when the studio said it was slowing its patch schedule to focus on bigger, more impactful content. It is a similar playbook to the one other long-running indie hits have leaned on, echoing ConcernedApe’s promise that Stardew Valley’s 1.7 update may be the game’s largest yet.
Slay the Spire 2 has been in Early Access since March 5, 2026, on Windows, Mac and Linux, at 18.39 EUR. Mega Crit has not said when v0.113.0 content will reach the main branch.
