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The Neowsletter - October 2025



It's October, the month of tricks, treats, and... spooooky things~🦇💀

For those who missed it, we announced a delay last month. Slay the Spire 2 is coming to Early Access in March 2026. I know, I know, it's hard to wait.

But speaking of spooky things, let us properly introduce you to...

[h3]The Necrobinder[/h3]

At long last, the time has come to dive deeper into the first new character we announced for Slay the Spire 2: The Necrobinder, a sassy lich who relies upon a giant, reanimated hand called Osty in battle. (It's a funny name but not technically a pun, so should be safe.)





Her kit is themed around necromancy, fittingly enough, and plays with the balance of life and death. Osty can attack enemies independently of the Necrobinder and is unaffected by debuffs afflicting her. Faithful companion that he is, Osty also takes attack damage that would normally affect the Necrobinder... as long as he has HP to give, that is. To increase Osty's HP or revive him from the dead once more, the Necrobinder can Summon him. Your strategy may see you building up a high HP Osty for a constant source of protection or sacrificing him only to bring him back from the dead over and over again.



Another key component of the Necrobinder's kit is Doom, which we have teased in previous Neowsletters. When a creature's Doom meets or exceeds its current HP, it will die. It's a debuff that's applied similarly to Poison, but it does not deal damage over time or tick down, and it only affects creatures at the end of their turn, as opposed to the start.





She can also use her necromantic magic to draw (ha) on the power of Souls, giving her a source of card draw.



Transformation is a major part of necromancy, of course, so the Necrobinder also has many cards that allow her to alter other cards, applying different keywords to them and changing how they play.

That's all the information on our little lich that we have for you today, but there will be plenty more to uncover still.

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

We didn't answer any questions last month because there was a Q&A section for the delay announcement. Fear not, we're back to answering your exciting questions. As always, send your questions to [email protected] and we'll respond within 90 business days. Yes, it's slow. At least we're honest about it.

posmen asks: The community has dubbed quitting and reloading from the start of a floor as savescumming. It seems to be a pretty divisive topic but being that Slay the Spire is a single player game there's no real impact aside from being used as a progression loophole. Is this still going to be a "feature" of StS2?
Casey: Yeah you can still save scum. Play how you want

Brandon asks: Do the characters have canon names? Like, sure, they're the Ironclad, but is his real name Steve? What about watcher? Is her name Jasmine? Cause that's a pretty name
Casey: Well, it's not Steve

OdditY asks: Are you guys thinking of adding more to the game after it fully releases? Maybe additional characters, new events, more enemies, maybe even collab content (especially since you guys have always given in collabs and haven't taken)?
Casey: If people like the game we'll add more stuff. I don't know about collabs, I feel like it dilutes the identity of games? Then again, it depends on the genre.

Matt asks: Is Poison back for The Silent in STS2, or does she now have to rely on a new kit to make her way through The Spire?
Casey: we like poison

The Singaporean Smoke Machine asks: Will there be a feature for shiv cards where there will be a "throwing" card animation? Like when you play a shiv, the card itself flies striaght into an enemy before spinning and falling off-screen? I think it would be really cool!
Anthony: No

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

And now it's time for some spoooooky research into one of the Spire's many new denizens!! Although it's no more spooky than it usually is, I suppose.

As always, let's take a look at last month's mystery monster silhouette:



Now let's see what guesses you all had this time around...


The award for cutest guess goes to rinny.Ly._.nn, which might have been the toughest category this time around!


The "Hit the Slay button" award goes to gold! No need to sashay away.


The award for most accurate goes to Lemonpie--super close!

Here are some other incredible hypotheses that we've received from our community of Spire explorers:


Credit from left to right: koiking, bomo73, Gabe, Peter, EcksDee, Oliver, Eqyizo, Super malfunctioning robot, ramy, tree bucket, Metonka, Brave

I think we finally have enough information to dispel the veil of shadow...



AAAAAH... aww? It's just a little guy, surely he's harmless! Either he's a sentient stack of hay or that's just a very convincing costume.



JUMPSCARE! I'm sure you weren't expecting that--another shadowy creature is in need of unveiling. 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]Merch Madness[/h3]



SLIME... plush??

For a limited time ONLY, you can grab this Makeship Slime Boss doughboi (meaning it's BIG and squishy just like the real, in-game deal) as well as a couple of cute, fuzzy Louse plushies for you to Curl Up with
Get into the spooky, slimy spirit and pre-order yours right here before the campaign ends forever!

[h3]Connections Section[/h3]



BOO! This month's terrifying Slay the Spire Connections puzzle is here!

[h3]Mega Crit-or-Treat Returns![/h3]


What's this? Could this be the work of the Necrobinder? Everyone's favorite spooky, seasonal Slay the Spire event has been revived once more!

Here are the details for those out of the loop: Mega Crit-or-Treat is your chance to share any Halloween-themed Slay the Spire content, be it drawn, written, modded, cosplayed, cooked, carved, crocheted, interpretively danced, whatever!

Until Sunday, November 2, post your beautiful and/or terrifying creations in our Discord server and you will be granted this year's limited time "Ghostly Gremlin" role!

If you want to participate in the time-honored tradition of pumpkin carving but can't think of a design, you can always use these StS stencils made by our art director, Marlowe!

Also, if you post any spooky Spire content on Twitter or Bluesky, be sure to spread the eerie cheer by tagging us @MegaCrit!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Jolfe for this month's hauntingly beautiful cover image, and shout out to these other great submissions from 문서영 and Alcalmy--they're so good it's scary!!



Next month's theme is: Neowvember! This one can be a free space, so you can draw anything as long as it's Neow-related. 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!

Without further ado, let's look at this month's community highlights!


An incredible illustration of the Ironclad facing off against the Awakened One and its Cultists by taydungeon (timelapse on TikTok again!)


These amazing Ironclad and Watcher cosplays by Rocklin and Smartz!


A beautiful illustration of the Silent by triggeredtale!

That's all the spooky news we have for you this month, but be sure to tune in next month for less spine-chilling but just as thrilling Slay the Spire 2 info!

Slay the Spire 2's early access release delayed to a "secret Thursday" in March 2026, alternate acts teased

You're gonna have to wait a bit longer to murder the steeple for a second time, with Slay The Spire II's early access release having just been delayed until March next year. Developers Mega Crit have at least cushioned the blow by revealing the day of the week it'll arrive. A Thursday. Which Thursday? The cheeky folks won't say.


Read more

The Neowsletter - September 2025



Hi everyone, it's time for the September Neowsletter. This one comes with a pretty big update right off the top, so let's dive right into it.

[h3]Early Access Timeline Update[/h3]

After a lot of internal discussion, we've made the call to move Slay the Spire 2's Early Access launch to a secret Thursday in March 2026.

We know this isn't the news anyone wanted to hear (ourselves included, we're dying to get this into your hands!) Originally, we were shooting for late 2025, but turns out we were wrong. We need some more time.

There's no single dramatic reason. Some personal life stuff hit the team (everyone's okay!), we kept saying "wouldn't it be cool if..." one too many times, and honestly, the game just needs more polish to meet our standards.

All that said, we know you still have questions, so Demi, our community manager, has put together a pre-emptive FAQ to help answer some of them.

[h3]Will-Probably-Be-Asked Questions:[/h3]

Is the real reason for the delay the timing of the Silksong release?
We got together as a team to determine our new release window before Silksong’s date was announced. The timing just worked out like that, but on the bright side, everyone can keep busy playing Silksong during the wait!

Is the real reason for the delay that you’ve been spending your time on making merch/community events/etc?
Our merch is made by 3rd party partners and our community manager is the primary liaison on our team for collabs like that. No game development was harmed in the making of those plushies! Likewise, anything community-focused that we create, participate in, or promote is generally handled by the CM and doesn’t cut into any game development time.

So is it because you’re adding in a bunch of new features and content?
Yes, in part. Because you know what does cut into game development time? Game development! Compared to Slay the Spire 1's early access launch (and for that matter it's final 2.0 form) this new sequel has a lot more content that we can't wait to share with you. In addition, we want to make sure we're upholding the quality bar that both we and the gaming community have come to expect for Early Access titles.

So what’s so different from StS1?
In case you haven’t been keeping up with our trailers and Neowsletters–quite a lot. There are new characters, more cards/potions/relics/events/etc, more visual polish, more animation and VFX, quality of life changes, entirely new mechanics, and still a whole lot more we can’t tell you about just yet. Although, if you read on to the next section you'll learn about a pretty big one...

When was the game originally planned to launch?
2025! Ok, but in all seriousness, we were initially aiming for a Fall 2025 release window. For now, we’ll just have to savor these moments of anticipation a little longer.

Will this be anything like other games that get repeatedly delayed with no explanation?
No, for one thing, you should never expect radio silence from us. That’s why we’re here talking to you now. And, as opposed to a general release year, we have an actual specific date that we’re aiming for internally and are confident we can hit this time. As you've already heard, it’s releasing on a Thursday, but the exact date will be revealed closer to launch.

So, do you regret the “Still coming in 2025” gag at the end of the TGA trailer?
Demi, the CM, who is writing this, pushed for that one so she can take the fall for it. In her defense, it was pretty funny at the time.

[h3]Alternate Acts[/h3]

As a treat, this month's content teaser is a pretty big one: alternate acts.

Once unlocked, upon entering a new act in Slay the Spire 2, you will be randomly greeted with one of two possible acts. These acts differ radically in their environments, enemies, events, and bosses, all of which greatly increase the variety of gameplay between runs.



For instance, Act 1a is Overgrowth, a lush, tangled ruin with much of its fauna resembling mystical woodland creatures and sentient flora that might just eat you alive. This is the act you've primarily been seeing in our teasers and trailers, though there's still plenty left to uncover here.


Act 1b is known as the Underdocks, a miry waterway connected to the Spire's sewer system, from which all manner of mutant sea creatures and vagrants might emerge. We've only just begun to tease the trove of content that lurks within these murky depths.

As the mathematically-inclined among you have probably realized, that means there will be double the amount of content in this new act structure. We won't be launching with all of the alternate acts right away, but Acts 2b and 3b will come later down the road in Early Access updates.

The capabilities of these different enemies, the opportunities these events offer, and how they all might impact your strategy as you ascend the Spire will be seen in time.

[h3]A Whole New Wiki[/h3]

For those who haven't heard: the new community-run Slay the Spire wiki is now live on wiki.gg!!

It's still a work in progress, so if you'd like to contribute and help make it a fully comprehensive one-stop-shop for Slay the Spire info, visit this page to learn how. Also, the ⁠wiki channel on our Discord is always there for wiki-related discussions/questions!

The old wiki hosted on Fandom is still live, especially during this transitional phase, but the wiki.gg one exists as an alternative for those who were looking for one and is the one that will be maintained going forward.

Thank you to the organizers and thank you in advance to all of those who contribute!

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

Though the Spire is still being prepared for your arrival, there are always some more Spire species to spot in the meantime!

First let's take a look at last month's mystery monster silhouette:



Now let's examine our community's hypothetical renderings of said monster...


The award for grossest guess goes to Snubobo, which might be the hardest award to achieve honestly!



The award for most abstract goes to Vanessa and (9 year old!) Lucas, who physically illustrated their guesses instead of digitally!



And the award for most accurate goes to NewGuyJack–it’s even animated and everything?!

As always, we got many Spire Spotting submissions, so here are some other great guesses we got!


Credit from left to right: Brave, tenacious_unicorn_94746, Cyb3rm00k, Emma, ssorgatem, karmamitch, pasq, Panez, Alcapwne101, koiking213, BlakeDrake, Nevve1776, Purcy, bomo73, duckgoquack

So what does this creature really look like?



It's a terrifying eel-like creature covered in wiggly little eyeballs… wait, it’s that inhabitant of the recently revealed Underdocks! We'll call it the Terror Eel for now. But I have a strange feeling that our work has just begun...



Just as I thought, another shadowy monster has emerged! 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]



And for you Slay the Spire Connections lovers out there, don’t think we forgot about you!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Qmint for this month's gorgeous cover image, and thank you, as always, to all of the other incredible submissions as well!


Credit from left to right: Alcalmy, clover, Cyb3rm00k, Suspa

Next month's theme is: Neow-loween! (That's Neow, but Halloween.) 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 to highlight some work from our wonderful, steadfast community...


This stunning pixel Ironclad art by D.M.!


Inscryption-style cards of StS1’s heroes by JustOzzy!


A beautiful illustration of Ironclad by Linke!

Thanks so much for tuning into this month's Neowsletter! We'll have lots of dev updates and content teases in the coming issues as we get closer to Slay the Spire 2's launch. See you next month!

The Neowsletter - August 2025



Greetings! This month's issue marks the 1-year anniversary of The Neowsletter!! Thank you to everyone who has been reading along since the beginning.

The Mega Crit team is still hard at work on the sequel. We're on that grindset >:( But also striking a good work/life balance >:)

The main focus lately has been content. It has to be fresh, challenging, and complex while also making sure that the game is accessible to new players and retains that Slay the Spire feel and magic. That was a bit too vague to be interesting news... let's take a sneak peek at some relics and potions instead!

[h3]Relics & Potions[/h3]

Here's an assortment of relics (top row) and potions (bottom row) coming in the sequel! Relics retain their classic look but you may have noticed that potions got a little makeover; they each have their own distinct sprites. Very rare potions can look quite exotic too.

  1. Wongo's Bargain Ticket: Here we see a standard bargain ticket from a Wongo's. Only patrons of Wongo's can find out what this means.
  2. Stone Humidifier: This handy little device ensures that you gain a great night's sleep.
  3. Joss Paper: Mysterious sheets of incense paper... what could it be for?
  4. Heart of Iron: This is also in the first game but I wanted to show off how a classic potion got an art do-over :).
  5. Ship in a Bottle: We're not quite sure if you're drinking this one, but there's a feeling that it can get you to safety.
  6. Foul Potion: We're not sure who or what is making a potion called Foul Potion. What is it for? How foul is it!?

Okay, we hope you enjoyed this sneak peek.

[h3]Q&A with Casey & Anthony[/h3]

Alex asks: What is your favourite beta art from Slay the Spire 1?
Casey: Certainly TURBO
Demi: Popping in to say Tantrum was the first one to come to mind. It's cute :)

Akroo asks: I'd like to know if you are planning on improving even further the modding possibilities of STS2 ?
Casey: We're creating more entry points in the game but I don't know about improving modding possibilities... in STS1 you can rewrite any part of the game already. You could put a game in the game or order a pizza already.

Oscar asks: Will some cards have pun-based art?
Casey: Preferably not. If STS2 has puns, I've failed.

Brandon asks: Do the characters have canon names? Like, sure, they're the Ironclad, but is his real name Steve? What about watcher? Is her name Jasmine? Cause that's a pretty name
Anthony: no

Delta asks: If all the artifacts are made of bronze… does using Feed to kill Donu turn the Ironclad into Bronzeclad?
Anthony: no

Thaan asks: What can we expect from general UI Improvements? My wish list includes a turn counter display that doesn’t disappear after two seconds and a way to know how much you have spent on card removal so you can budget your next one.
Casey: Yes



[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

Demi here! That means it's time to continue our journey through the much-evolved Spire.

Let's take a look at last month's mysterious silhouette:



And now, let's check out our researchers' hypotheses:


The award for saddest theory goes to alex1729, who drew Neow trapped in vines at the bottom of the ocean... poor Neow :(


The award for most accurate theory goes to PrincexKoi, who drew an organic-looking, viny, quadrupedal monster!

Shout out to all of the other submissions (many of which seemed to center around Neow or another character becoming trapped/corrupted actually...)


Credit from left to right: ssorgatem, gummyfungi, Marmoth, popnfresh24, GooseEle, Multi-Man, Ada, Mound Sand, Podunk22, Nevve1776, mainasuarafa, ironstove, B.D., PorpleKnight, 2kiye, Trevor.

Without further ado, let's have a drum roll for the unveiling...



Agh! It's an enormous, shambling monster seemingly made of vines?? This publication is currently referring to this creature as a Vine Shambler, which we thought was apt.



Of course, there are always further discoveries to be made--yet another shadowy creature has emerged! If you have any guesses 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]


Cant seem to beat the heat? Have a Slay the Spire Connections puzzle as a treat!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to Osakana for our incredibly beautiful cover image this month! And a very special shoutout to all of the other artists who ALSO submitted incredibly beautiful potential cover images... it was so hard to choose, as always!

Credit from left to right: WildeChelsy (timelapse on Instagram!), HAN, tide, and 周恒辉!

Next month's theme is: Neow in an autumnal forest! 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!

Ok, let's take a look at some of this month's top community highlights!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVE4SlP02d8
An amazing Slay the Spire parody song/animation by PixelPenguin (released in honor of the 1-year anniversary of their "Drawing badly until StS2 comes out" project!)


A pixel Ironclad as well as a mini pixel Ironclad by Lamily!


A Binding of Isaac x Slay the Spire crossover mousepad made by GM_Whitose!

Alright, that's it for this issue. Cheers to one whole year of Neowsletters! Be sure to tune in, as always, next month!

The Neowsletter - July 2025



Hi again everyone, it's time for a July update!

I don't have any clever things to say in this intro, let's just get into it. This month we'll take a sneak peek at Colorless Cards!

[h3]The Cards Without Color[/h3]

Hey everyone, Anthony again with some more card previews. This time, we are showing some Colorless cards that any character can make use of. We are making a bunch of new Colorless cards, tweaking some old ones, and even changing some old cards to now be Colorless.



Thrumming Hatchet might look innocuous, but the consistency it provides is surprisingly strong. You may have noticed an older version of this card on our store page, but we are constantly iterating in development and will be refining balance up until release!



Rolling Boulder is an inevitable powerhouse and one of my favorite new cards to build around.



Scrawl sure looks familiar.... what is that doing here? 👀



⚙️⚙️⚙️

[h3]Q&A with Casey & Anthony[/h3]
Most of the questions seem to revolve around fishing for spoilers so it's been difficult to get content in here this month. I'm an extreme spoiler hater so do keep that in mind when you submit stuff to [email protected]!

TabbyCat asks: Will there be more "written" lore for STS2 (like a bestiary with descriptions of the enemies you fight)?
The Aloner asks: Hello! I recently started playing Slay the Spire, and was wondering if StS2 will have more lore/worldbuilding regarding the characters. I really liked the events in the first game.
Casey: Ya

Kodiak Crew asks: Can you please show us a new card for the Necrobinder? Pleaseeeee.
Anthony: No
Casey: Sure ok. But only this much.



The Twig asks: Pretty much every humanoid character either has an obscured face or lacks one altogether. I interpret this as a stylistic choice, but is there an in-universe reason for this?
Casey: There's not an in-universe reason for it, it's a stylistic choice since I feel that players feel more like the character they play when a face is obscured/masked/covered

makeshiftotaster asks: Why is the client icon for Slay the Spire 2 currently the card art for Burst? Is this just placeholder, or will this be the client icon for the early access release? If the latter, is this subtle confirmation that Burst (and Double Tap/Amplify) will be back?
Casey: I want the icon to be green

[h3]Spire Spotting[/h3]

Demi here! Time to resume our research into the Spire's mysterious flora, fauna, and fiends!

As a refresher, this was last month's silhouette:



Now let's see whose hypotheses we chose to highlight...



The award for best (and seemingly only) Spire Spotting comic goes to PixelPenguin!



The secret bonus award for referencing Demi's current favorite game goes to Alina, who used this as an opportunity to guess the Roaring Knight's true identity.



The award for most inaccurate yet strangely accurate at the same time goes to Zwebbo!



And the award for most accurate overall goes to Mästerbläster!

Here is a selection of other great submissions we received! You'll notice people saw spherical objects and instantly thought of orbs for Some Reason.


Credit from left to right: Anybodyyoudontknow, whoness, Tank, kgrmeagc, 唠个beaker, Wolfluoride, yaza33, 名陈弦上, KSA, WildSamich, Ada, Neossir, z4nzimoon, GreatGopher, INactiveRadio, vexnator

And now all that's left is to unveil the monster in question:



It's a knight with flails!! A Flail Knight, even. I wonder what happens to you when you're inflicted with its flailing... only time will tell. That's all we've got to cover today, so--



...Or not! It appears something just emerged from the overgrowth, but we can't quite make it out just yet. 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]


Grab your popcorn folks, it's time for another Slay the Spire Connections puzzle!

[h3]Community Corner[/h3]

Thank you to rat mama for our very detailed, beachy cover image this month! Next month's theme is: Neow underwater! 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...


This incredibly dynamic illustration of the Defect defeating Gremlin Nob by @taydungeon (timelapse on TikTok!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCVRfwIoLCY
A very funny animation of The Ironclad vs Gremlins by Flurry of Bricks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XkC6XPiq1c
One of the latest instalments in Asukii's series of Slay the Spire song parodies!

Wow, we're already at the end of this month's Neowsletter, that was a slightly shorter one! See you all next month :D