Slay the Spire 2 backlash
Slay the Spire 2 exploded on Steam Early Access but its first major balance patch triggered a massive backlash — over 10,000 negative reviews in a single day. (Patch nerfed several popular cards and heavily buffed bosses, notably the final boss Doormaker; dev Mega Crit says balancing is iterative and “no change is necessarily permanent”.) (ixbt.games) (gamesradar.com) (insider-gaming.com) (youtube.com)
Mega Crit pushed patch v0.100.0 onto Slay the Spire 2’s public beta branch on March 20, 2026, and the update added a new Phobia Mode alongside a large, opt‑in balance sweep. (ign.com) The patch’s notes show wide reworks across characters and cards intended to make infinite combos harder to pull off—most notably the Silent’s Prepared was reworked into a new Prepare card (cost and effects changed) and dozens of other cards were buffed, nerfed, or reworked. (mobalytics.gg) That beta branch release had not been merged to the game’s main branch when the community reaction began; reporters noted the changes were initially limited to the opt‑in public‑beta channel. (pcgamer.com) Outlets tracked different tallies of negative reviews: PC Gamer counted over 9,000 new negative reviews in a single day, GamesRadar described the figure as “almost 10,000,” and coverage flagged that many of the complaints came from a particular country in some datasets. (pcgamer.com) Mega Crit answered the backlash by framing balance as iterative, saying “this progress will not be linear” and that “no change is necessarily permanent” as part of a public explanation of their patching process. (gamesradar.com) The v0.100.0 notes also introduced a Deprecated Card placeholder for removed cards, lowered all shop relic costs by 25 gold, and added a hard cap preventing stat power values from stacking above 999,999,999. (ign.com) Slay the Spire 2’s launch visibility was substantial—its Early Access release on March 5, 2026 coincided with a peak of more than half a million players on Steam—which analysts say likely amplified both testing participation and the volume of player feedback. (pcgamesn.com)
