Slay the Spire News

Happy Slay the Spire 2 year, everyone!

Tomorrow, January 23rd, 2026, is the 7th anniversary of Slay the Spire's 1.0 launch! Also, in just a couple of months, it will have been 8.5~ years between the early access launches of Slay the Spire 1 and Slay the Spire 2. If you've been with us since the very beginning of this journey then that means you're at least 9 years old, probably. Maybe even 10. Thank you to all of the Slayers who have stuck with us for all of these years and to those who are just now tuning in. The next phase of Spire slaying is just around the corner!

In the meantime, let's take a look at...

[h3]The Evolution of Slay the Spire 2's Content[/h3]

Since it's been over a year since we started teasing StS2 content, we figured now is a good time to check back in on what some of it looks like now. We did warn you it was all subject to change! Things will evolve even further with all of your feedback throughout early access, of course, but we figured we'd let you get some last minute speculation in.



One of the very first new cards we teased back in November of 2024 was "Gold Axe." While it excited people even in its initial state, it's since seen a buff with the removal of its Exhaust keyword and a reduction in its Energy cost. Not pictured: we still have shiny VFX based on the rarity of card rewards, though it has been toned down from what you see on the left.


On the other hand, "Rolling Boulder," a card we teased this past July was indeed seeming a bit too OP. Its base damage and scaling damage have now both been slashed in half. We'll see what you all think of it soon enough--that is if it doesn't get changed again in the meantime.


This "Bodyguard" card that we showed off this past October was actually The Necrobinder's unique starter card, but it has since been totally reworked. While it has the same art, it now goes by a new name, "Unleash," and has a completely different mechanic. Perhaps we'll see the old card again in some form or another... and perhaps the new card will undergo its own evolution someday.


On a slightly different note, the placeholder event art that we teased for our war historian friend Repy has been updated (as well as the event text and options)! The original art certainly had its own charm, though. RIP beta Repy, gone but not forgotten.



And last but (maybe) not least, let's take a look behind the curtain at some out of context alpha patch notes, since you soon will in fact have the context for them.

[h3]Localization Applications[/h3]

We have begun to localize Slay the Spire 2 into several different languages already (French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Thai), but we are now looking to onboard some translators for other languages. If you are interested in helping to localize Slay the Spire 2 as well as our Neowsletters and potentially other important announcements, please apply here!

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

Now it's time to take a trip to the Spire to revisit last month's mystery monster!



Let's see what hypotheses you all submitted this time around...



The award for most out-of-the-box guess goes to eneija for this... aardvark-like creature!



The award for most accurate guess goes to Joanna, though the real beast this time has no fungi, as you'll see.

Shoutout to all of these other weird and wonderful submissions!


Credit from left to right: 晓星, Kamrat, Leo, Turtledunkz, bomo73, Dpart, Snowbyte, Mitlon, leda789, Mailboy002, Brave, koiking213, TheSos, Dolly, skryzhal, PhantomExitus

Now for the grand reveal...



EEK--it's a rat! With two tails! In other words, a two-tailed rat. Despite the silhouette not leaving much to the imagination, you all still managed to be very imaginative!

And now, my dear intrepid explorers, this month's issue marks a very special moment. Our research indicates that the secretive veil that has obscured so many of the Spire's creatures is soon to lift, so this may well be the last creature we need to uncover via these methods. With that said, let's take a look together...



Aha! It appears to be mostly rectangular in shape, but there's some sort of sphere suspended in the middle... Our detection equipment seems to experiencing some sort of interference, so in the meantime we'd greatly appreciate your help in deciphering this strange being! Be sure to submit your guesses via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel!

[h3]Collab Land[/h3]



Looks like Snecko Eye has snuck its way into another game?? The team behind Turnbound, a brand new inventory management PvP autobattler, has included a Slay the Spire-themed item and free, early-access-exclusive cosmetic in their game! To celebrate this collab, Turnbound and Slay the Spire will bundled together for a 10% discount starting on their early access launch day... which just so happens to be today!

[h3]Connections Section[/h3]


New year, new Neowsletter, new Slay the Spire Connections!

[h3]Mega Crit-mas Recap[/h3]


Now that the holiday season is over, let's take a look at some of your Mega Crit-mas creations!


An adorable drawing of iconic StS character gathered around a tree by Soobsidian!


A painterly illustration of some wintery gremlins by taydungeon (timelapse on TikTok)!


A festive Snecko Eye cookie baked by Steeve_rules!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Okasana for this month's beautiful, sparkly cover image, and shoutout to Boltman and Alcalmy for their awesome submissions, too!



Next month's theme is: Valentine's Day Neow! If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, reminder that it must be submitted to us via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel, have dimensions of 800x450px, feature no text, and leave room for a title!

Now for our usual community highlights!


A gorgeous illustration of The Watcher underneath some wisteria by 鸡翅好吃喵!



An illustrated exploration of what the other StS1 slayer's Orbs might look like by Maria/electrohoneys!


Stunning 3D art of The Ironclad facing off against some giant Sentries by babymango!

And that's all for the first Neowsletter of 2026! See you all next month!

Slay the Spire certainly turned heads when it released, immediately cementing itself as one of the best deckbuilders in town and helping to kick off a trend that persists today. That was nearly seven years ago at this point, but the game is turning even more heads today: it just hit an all-time concurrent player peak on Steam, according to SteamDB...
Read more.

Slay the Spire has peaked at 57,025 concurrent players on 27 December 2025 which is 7 years after release.
View charts and more statistics on our website.

The last Neowsletter of 2025 is here!

For those who didn't hear, Slay the Spire 2 was recently ranked the number one game on the PC Gaming Show's Most Wanted list! We want to thank the voting council as well as all of you steadfast Slayers out there! As a treat, you can find quite a few tidbits of new StS2 info in the interview we did with PC Gamer in honor of our number one spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NgLqPWqDss
Now, let's cap this year off with a preview of a most mysterious character...

[h3]The Regent[/h3]



Hailing from a distant planet, The Regent has traveled long and far on his quest for excitement that his homeworld cannot offer. His journey has of course taken him to the Spire, full of strange, formidable creatures to conquer and innumerable treasure to plunder. Heir to the Throne of Stars, he is a domineering and arrogant being who draws on the power of the cosmos and his long-suffering minions to do his bidding.



The most fundamental aspect of The Regent's kit is that he has another resource that some of his cards rely on besides energy: Stars. After generating Stars, they can then be spent on certain cards that require them to deal damage, block, and empower himself with. Some cards even scale with the Stars you have stored up. Stars do not deplete at the end of your turn and there is no cap on how many you can have at once, so the sky is the limit.



The Regent is also capable of transforming other cards into unceasingly loyal Minions to attack and defend for him. Formed of celestial material, you will also find these disposable but adorable Minions painstakingly lugging The Regent around on his giant throne.



As the heir to his family’s empire, The Regent has the ability to Forge his own signature weapon, the Sovereign Blade, a large, gleaming sword that orbits around him. The first time you play a card with the "Forge" keyword each combat, the Sovereign Blade's corresponding card will be created. Every time you Forge after that, the amount of Forge increases the amount of damage Sovereign Blade will deal. It has Retain by default, so you can continue to build up your Blade to be as lethal as possible until the exact right moment.



Something else that is unique to this character is his synergy with colorless cards, which he can both create and interact with in interesting ways. You may have noticed that Sovereign Blade is a colorless card, so this opens up a whole new avenue of Forge-based builds to explore, as well.

Overall, The Regent is a character that revolves around your ability to manage his resources and scale up his power. What exactly his backstory is and what his future entails will be unveiled in due time...

[h3]Q&A with C&A[/h3]

The Singaporean Smoked Machine asks: Are there any ideas that you have decided to completely scrap in STS2 that you could tell us?
Casey: There was a brief exploration of 3D but it was scrapped because the value add wasn't high and Anthony and I are more into games with a lot of content rather than flashy stuff. Sorry flashy lovers, it's just a lot easier to create and iterate content if they're 2D assets.

BaySharp asks: Since STS2 got delayed for a fair amount of time, will we get any new gameplay trailer to compensate for it? Or perhaps, new gameplay footage? Or a demo even? Or just pretty much anything that will bring more hype to the game before the release?
Casey: Yes, we publish a monthly newsletter (The Neowsletter) with sneak peeks and stuff. We even answer questions on there! Also, you may want to keep a particularly close eye out for something happening in February, closer to the launch...

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

Don't think that the harsh winter weather will keep us from exploring the Spire! Let's take a look at last month's mystery monster...



And now this month's artistic hypotheses...


The award for funniest guess goes to Lyvern, for this statuesque creature reminiscent of the Giant Head.


The award for most logical guess goes to Comfy Chair, for this antenna-headed, snail-like creature. There's a lot of Slay the Spire stylistic DNA in this one!



The award for most accurate guess goes to Shor--you definitely captured the gooeyness and the color scheme!

And here are just some of the many other submissions we received over the past month:


Credit from left to right: Vexnator, Kmanscan, Breyson Cherryson, Niké Air, Maria, monmon, placeholder.exe, Dester, RinNekoChan, 9ryu108, Dracia, キョッキョのかば焼き, Star, John, 벌개미's daughter (8 years old!), Moggoose

Now it's time to unveil this strange creature...



Aha, got it! Whatever this creature is, and whatever ability it's using, it appears it was interfering with our photo-capturing equipment... and perhaps the very fabric of reality itself. Let us call it The Obscura.

On the bright side, this next silhouette may be a little easier to parse:



Though this may seem like it has a simple solution, we're sure you'll come up with very creative theories all the same. If you'd like to further our investigative endeavors, be sure to submit your guesses via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel!

[h3]Merch Madness[/h3]


Makeship is back at it again with more Slay the Spire drops! You can now add The Collector to YOUR collection as well as some shiny new enamel pins of the first three Slayers' iconic designs! Also, in classic Neow fashion, she's giving you another chance to grab her plush if you missed it the first time around (from all the way back in 2023)!

The pre-order campaign will only last until Tuesday, December 23, so grab them while you can! Neow may not always be able to resurrect these limited-edition goodies...


Also, we've channeled some more pieces for the Slay the Spire x Artovision collection!

Now you can have 3D art of the Defect right there on your desk for every run OR a shadowbox of the Silent facing the Shiv deck's worst enemy, the Time Eater.

[h3]Mega Crit-mas![/h3]


It's that time of year again... the time to make the Yuletide SLAY! Tag us on Twitter or Bluesky with any original festive fan creation, be it art, writing, mods, a video, some Spire-y holiday decorations, etc, and we just might spread the cheer, too! AND if you share your work in the event's channel on our Discord, you’ll get an exclusive role to wear with honor throughout the season!

And, as always, no holiday ambience is complete without the official Slay the Spire Yule Log, featuring some cheerful renditions of classic StS boss themes to accompany the crackling rest site flames!

[h3]Connections Section[/h3]


Here's a Slay the Spire Connections puzzle befitting a king. Or a Regent.

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Alcalmy for this month's cover image (and the rainy cover image from last month's honorable mentions that we couldn't include in time!) Speaking of honorable mentions, thank you to jamqwert and Shor for your lovely, wintery submissions!



Next month's theme is: New Year, new Neow! If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, reminder that it must be submitted to us via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel, have dimensions of 800x450px, feature no text, and leave room for a title!

Now let's take a look at some more creations from the people that make up our wonderful community!


These very adorable crocheted keychains of Donu, Deca, and Snecko Eyes by 萝卜头子! (You can find a whole bunch of their crocheted relics in our Discord's fanart channel!)


This lethally beautiful illustration of The Silent by @JasperConcepts!


This stunning atmospheric of The Silent facing off against Giant Head by @taydungeon! (Timelapse in link)

And that's all for this month's Neowsletter, we hope it put you in the Crit-mas spirit! See you all in 2026 ;)

Greetings, Slayers! It's November. Just a few more months until the sequel is available in Early Access. To get hyped, we've got another big content sneak peek.

Last month, we properly introduced you to one of Slay the Spire 2's new playable characters, The Necrobinder. This month, we're introducing you to some new non-playable characters...

[h3]Ancients[/h3]



The Spire is brimming with species of all shapes and sizes which have evolved alongside their environments over the ages. However, there are some beings that have persisted since the Spire's inception, accumulating wisdom and power as they witness the death and birth of countless generations. You may already be familiar with one such being: Neow, Mother of Resurrection.

At long last, Neow's fellow Ancients have emerged to bless you with doses of their power each time you enter an Act. These blessings take the form of exclusive, powerful relics, replacing the boss relics you may be familiar with from the Spire's previous incarnation.

The Ancient pictured above is Tezcatara, or "It Which Feeds The Fire." A warm, shining light in the darkness of the Spire, this Ancient's blessings are generally known for burning bright but extinguishing quickly. A selection of its possible blessings includes a transformation of the current Act's map into a single special path, a bounty of temporary relics, and a way to reduce the cost of Strikes but also make them impossible to remove from your deck.

These oldest of the Spire's beings all have their own specialties, therefore their offerings will differ greatly from one another. As Neow's special power is that of resurrection, she will be there to greet you at the beginning of a run like always. However, Acts 2 and 3 will have their own separate pools of random Ancients for you to encounter, such as Tezcatara. Specific Ancients will be denoted by a node on the map similar to the ones that signify specific bosses, as you can see below. This new system adds even more variance to each run, making them feel that much more unique.



Though the individual reasons behind the Ancients' involvement may be unclear--and though some of their blessings may come with significant tradeoffs--anyone would be lucky to count such powerful beings as their allies. Perhaps you will be able to learn more about their mysterious motivations as time goes on...

[h3]Q&A with C&A[/h3]

Anonymous asks: Can we get more of the pear? I really like pears, maybe it could be as an enemy that spits pear juice or a card that includes a pear.
Casey: If you like pears, why would you want an enemy that spits pear juice? That seems disrespectful

Justin Quirk asks: How in the world does the Ironclad keep his mask on? Clearly it doesn't wrap all the way around his head, and he is a very active fighter. Does it fall off sometimes in the middle of a fight, or does he have a strap or something? Was this part of his demonic pact? What terrifying power allows him to always stay protected and fashionable?
Casey: The ironclads keep their masks on by biting. I will not elaborate.

Ballsyjones asks: has everything about Slay the Spire 1 been discovered by players!?
Casey: Since the game code can be decompiled, I don't think there are too many undiscovered game logic secrets. StS1 was also translated by the community, so patches and translations always came with notes and a reference cheat sheet so the translators understood the reasoning for odd naming or choice of relic objects.

Anonymous asks: Are you guys planning on also making Slay the Spire 2 a low spec friendly game or will it be more demanding than the first one?
Casey: Yep, we're quite strict on performance! We try to accumulate a wide range of cheap and terrible computers to test the game on :).

A big STS fan asks: Does jaw worm still exist floors 1-3 in sts 2?
Anthony: No

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

As we continue our investigations into the Spire's many new species, it's time to first take a look at last month's mystery silhouette:



And now for your hypotheses...


The award for most... award-like goes to Snowbyte! It kind of looks like a solid gold, automaton-shaped trophy.


The award for most accurate goes to bojhyg! The mask in particular came the closest to the real deal.

And here are the rest of the guesses from our community of Spire explorers:


Credit from left to right: 빙길, Tinamyte, 水角神, PorpleKnight, Sebastian, ssorgatem, LoneDonut, Dracia, Lyvern, hazudee, SamuraiBaker, mainasuarufa, Dolly, koiking213, Simon, mitlon.

And now for the unveiling...



Ooh--it seems that the pattern of Defect-ive hypotheses wasn't totally far off. It's definitely some sort of automaton construct, seemingly designed for punching. A Punch Construct?

Now, what's next on our roster of shadowy species...



Our work is never done! If you have any clues as to what this creature could be, be sure to submit them via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel!

[h3]Connections Section[/h3]


Time to dive right into this month's Slay the Spire Connections puzzle like a fresh pile of autumn leaves!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Snubobo for this month's corNeowcopia-themed cover image!

Next month's theme is: Wintery Neow! If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, reminder that it must be submitted to us via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel, have dimensions of 800x450px, feature no text, and leave room for a title!

Thank you to everyone who submitted their spooky Spire content for Mega Crit-or-Treat last month! Here are just some of the highlights:


A creepily cute illustration of the 4 Slay the Spire characters by spacelarktemple!


This super accurate Reptomancer cosplay by commentbagel!


Some Spire-y jack-o-lanterns by LegendofLonk, JoeGo, Zoie, Falspar, and Pug!

Alright, hopefully this month's Neowsletter was a nice sneak peek into what we're cooking up for Slay the Spire 2! We'll be back next month with even more good tidings.