Slay the Spire 2 Patch Sparks Negative Steam Reviews

Mega Crit, the developer of the popular roguelike card game Slay the Spire 2, released its first major balance patch on Wednesday, sparking widespread player backlash that has flooded the game's Steam page with thousands of negative reviews. The update, version 0.100.0, is available only through an opt-in beta branch, allowing players to test changes before they reach the main early access version.

The patch introduces extensive adjustments aimed at refining gameplay balance, particularly by making infinite card loops more difficult to achieve. These loops, created by stacking zero-cost cards, had allowed players to generate endless turns, which some viewed as disrupting the game's challenge. Key changes include nerfs to powerful cards across character classes, such as the Silent's Prepared skill, which previously discarded one card to draw a replacement at no energy cost. The revised version, renamed Prepare, now costs one energy, discards two cards, and grants two to three energy on the next turn. Other notable tweaks involve buffing enemy abilities, like a new move for the Doormaker boss, and reducing the potency of cards like the Ironclad's Forgotten Ritual, which now...