Slay the Spire 2 Patch Notes: v0.113.0 Is the Biggest Patch of Early Access
Mega Crit opened its own notes with “At long last, the biggest (beta) patch yet is here!!!” – three exclamation marks, which for a studio this understated is roughly equivalent to setting off fireworks. They weren’t overselling it. v0.113.0 landed on the beta branch on November 12, and it changed 138 cards, 23 relics, and 3 potions. For scale, the previous Slay the Spire 2 patch notes (beta), v0.111.0 back in August 2026, touched 18 cards and 2 relics.
It also added the first new character since Early Access began, two entirely new game modes, a pile of events, and a set of seeding fixes that competitive players have been asking about for months.
Most coverage is just reprinting the notes top to bottom. That’s not useful when the list runs this long, so this breakdown sorts by what actually affects your next run – and what you can safely ignore.
What Actually Landed on November 12?
| Addition | What It Is | How You Get To It |
|---|---|---|
| The Fool | Sixth playable character, a bard with a bow | Available immediately on the beta branch |
| Blitz | Condensed deckbuilding mode, no map, gold is meaningless | Opens after any Ascension run, at any difficulty |
| Dread | Maximum-difficulty mode, all ascension modifiers on | Requires Ascension 10 on every character, Fool included |
One enormous caveat before you get excited: this is beta branch only. Mega Crit posted a reminder within twenty minutes of the announcement that the patch is exclusive to beta while the big content gets polished. The main branch is being brought up to v0.111.0 instead, which is a meaningful jump of its own but contains none of the above.
The Fool Arrives: A Bard With a Bow and Some Very Silly Numbers
The sixth character, and the first new one added during Early Access through the latest Slay the Spire 2 patch notes. Mega Crit describes The Fool as “a silly musician who wields a bow” and asks, “How can such a whimsical creature survive within the Spire?”
The answer, based on about a day of community testing, is: extremely easily. More on that shortly.
The mechanics are genuinely novel, which has become the thing Mega Crit is best at. There are four systems stacked on each other:
- Arrows. Certain cards fire an arrow, which applies a pierce effect to the target. You then have to hit that pierced enemy three times, or kill it, before you retrieve the arrow – and until you do, you can’t play cards that need one. It’s a resource loop built into your damage, and it makes targeting decisions matter in a way no other character’s does.
- Aim. Stacks that scale arrow damage, which is where the big hits come from.
- Melody. Manipulation of a melody track that feeds block engines and card combos. This is the defensive half of the kit.
- Sadness and Joy. A new status package, and the part the community has the least figured out so far.
On top of all that, The Fool can generate tarot cards referencing other characters from the series, including the Hermit and the Watcher.
The patch notes of Slay the Spire 2 don’t list a single card or relic for the character. That’s deliberate – Mega Crit left the discovery to players, and the community spent launch night reverse-engineering the whole kit.
About Those “Absolutely Busted” Numbers and New Modes
Within hours, the consensus formed and it was not subtle.
One card circulating on Reddit costs 0 energy and deals 3 damage for every floor you’ve travelled. It Exhausts, so it’s a one-shot, but late in a run that’s upwards of 60 damage for free. Players described the tarot cards as “totally overpowered” and the character itself as “absolutely busted.” One Reddit comment that got quoted everywhere: “Who tf gave him the numbers lol it’s like he starts with 5 strength.”
Here’s the thing – Mega Crit agrees. The patch notes state plainly: “We expect to make a great number of content and balance changes before the Fool is ready for the main branch.”
That’s the whole purpose of a beta branch, and it’s worth keeping in mind before anyone writes think-pieces about power creep. The numbers you’re playing with this week are not the numbers that ship.
Community feedback on the Steam forums has been warm on the mechanics and cooler on the presentation. Players repeatedly called the arrow system satisfying and the character the most expressive in the roster. The criticisms were about the pale yellow colour scheme, animations that didn’t quite land, and the bow and arrow icons on the left of the screen being clunky to read mid-fight.
Blitz: No Map, No Gold, No Mercy
The first of two new modes, and the one most people will actually spend time in.
Blitz is described as “condensed and chaotic,” built entirely around deckbuilding. The map is gone. Gold no longer matters. The Merchant’s stock, per the notes, feels “a bit off” – the studio’s own italics.
It comes with five levels of Ascension shared across every character, rather than per-character progression, and it opens after you complete a single Ascension run at any difficulty. That’s a deliberately low barrier; almost anyone who’s played seriously will have access immediately.
The appeal is obvious if you’ve ever felt that a standard run spends too long on routing decisions and gold management before the interesting deck questions start. Blitz removes both and hands you the interesting part.
Early Steam forum reaction has been straightforwardly positive. “Blitz mode is fun :D” was the whole of one post, which tells you something.
Dread: The Mode You Probably Can’t Play Yet
The other new mode, and it has a gate most players won’t clear for a long while.
Dread requires Ascension 10 on every single character, including The Fool. Once you’re in, every ascension modifier is active simultaneously. Bosses are stronger and buff every enemy in their act. Curses accumulate as you climb.
Mega Crit’s own description ends with two words: “Death is expected.”
This is the mode for people who ran out of difficulty. Both Dread and Blitz work in single-player and multiplayer – co-founder Casey Yano confirmed that in the studio’s Neowsletter Q&A before launch.
Slay the Spire 2 Patch Notes That Will Change How You Play
Buried under the headline content are balance changes that matter more to your win rate than any new mode.
| Change | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Rest sites | Standard placement | Can appear one floor earlier in every act |
| Dowsing Rod (Neow) | Transforms after 5 ? rooms | Transforms after 4, and that room can’t be a combat |
| Brilliant Scarf (Nonupeipe) | Triggers on 5th card | Triggers on 6th card |
| Ringing Triangle | Standard effect | Grants Retain Hand at combat start, stacks with Equilibrium |
| Power Cell (Defect) | Picked any zero-cost card | Prefers zero-cost cards without Innate |
| Zen Weaver, Breathing Techniques | 50 gold, 2 Enlightenment with Exhaust | 25 gold, 1 Enlightenment, no Exhaust |
| Doors of Light and Dark | Light Door upgraded 2 random cards | Upgrades 1 card of your choice |
| Infested Prism | Used Radiate, Pulsate gained 20 Block | No Radiate; Pulsate applies 1 Vulnerable instead |
| Burrower | From Below deals 23 (26 at A9) | 24 (28 at A9) |
| Axebot | 70-78 HP range | Fixed 70 HP (80 at A8) |
The rest site change is the sleeper. One floor earlier in every act, across a full run, is a substantial amount of extra healing and upgrading, and it quietly makes aggressive routing safer than it was.
The Ringing Triangle buff is the one deck archetypes will be built around. Retain Hand at combat start that stacks with other Retain Hand effects is a different relic than it was yesterday.
And the Doors of Light and Dark change turns a gamble into a decision. Upgrading one card you pick beats two random ones in virtually every deck that has a clear best target.
New event relics arrived in volume too: Wuppy, Obsidian Vice, Thumbscrew, Tormentous Collar, Mighty Wings, Mighty Weapon, Mighty Shield, Bath Towel, Bath Robes and Dingy Dagger, attached to events including the Museum of Torture, Shrine of the Warlord and Thermae Nonupeipe. Two new Underdocks events – Waterfall of Obvious Secrets and Wuppy in Trouble – plus a Byrdpip evolution round it out.
The Quiet Slay the Spire 2 Fixes That Matter More Than They Look
The seeding work in this patch deserves more attention than it’s getting, because it’s the kind of thing that only becomes visible when it’s broken.
Seeded runs are now more consistent. Events and the merchant no longer alter future card reward rolls, which was the bug quietly ruining seed-sharing. A set of cards and items – Beat Down, Uproar, Stampede, Entropy, Catastrophe, the Entropic Brew potion, and the Alchemical Coffer, Delicate Frond and Phial Holster relics, plus the Thieving Hopper – now pull from the correct random streams.
And the one that reads like a bug report from a parallel universe: two players who launched the game in the same second no longer receive the same run seed.
Performance got real attention as well. The hitch entering the Waterfall Giant fight is reduced, and textures for Ancient backgrounds, high-resolution relics, Timeline art, the character select screen, and several enemy effects have been compressed to load faster on less memory. Meanwhile, card inspection now shows the high-resolution portrait, and relics from treasure chests display their high-res art.
Multiplayer Fixes Worth Knowing
Co-op got a specific pass this patch, and several of these were run-enders:
- A softlock when a player killed themselves with the Brand card has been fixed.
- Sic ‘Em is now tracked separately for each player.
- Hovering over an ally’s enchanted card that grants energy now shows their energy icons rather than yours.
- Potions can no longer be played or discarded while moving between rooms – this fixes a desync where a potion used just before a room change resolved at different times for different players, and a softlock where one used just before a fight could stall the encounter.
- Opening a run or Run History entry on an older version of the game no longer deletes it on your other devices.
- Opening a run saved by a newer version now tells you to update rather than reporting a corrupt save.
That last pair matters for anyone hopping between branches or devices, which is a lot of people this week.
Should You Switch to the Beta Branch?
Switching is trivial, and reversible:
- In your Steam Library, right-click Slay the Spire 2 and open Properties.
- Go to Game Versions & Betas.
- Pick public-beta from the dropdown – no password needed.
- Steam downloads a delta, and you’re on the beta next launch.
- To revert, return to the same menu and select None or the default branch.
One practical warning: finish or abandon any in-progress run before you switch. Save compatibility across branches is exactly the kind of thing that ruins a good Ascension attempt.
Who should switch? If you want The Fool, Blitz, or Dread, you have no choice – they exist nowhere else. If you’re deep in a serious Ascension climb and you want stable balance, stay on main. Mega Crit moved to bi-weekly patches back in May 2026 specifically so the beta could absorb the churn, and this patch is the churn working as designed.
Worth noting the gap: main branch sat on v0.107.1 since June, while beta has run several patches ahead. Main is now catching up to v0.111.0, so the distance is closing, but the v0.113.0 content is staying on beta until it’s ready.
What the Community Is Saying?
The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive with one loud asterisk.
The asterisk is balance. Nobody who played The Fool on day one thinks the numbers are final, and the running joke across Reddit and the Steam forums is counting down to the nerf patch. That’s not a complaint so much as an in-joke – Mega Crit has publicly agreed, which has defused most of the argument before it started.
Beyond that, the mechanical design is landing. The recurring word in forum feedback is “unique.” One player summed up the general mood: really cool, a bit overpowered, still really fun. Another noted that The Fool feels more expressive than any character currently in the game, which is a reasonable observation about a bard who shoots people.
The complaints that might actually stick are visual rather than mechanical. The yellow palette reading as pale, animations not quite selling the attacks, and the bow and arrow UI on the left being hard to parse at a glance. Those are polish items, and polish is explicitly what the beta period is for.
There’s even lore theorising already – one thread proposes The Fool was born of the Ancients’ trees and stands in opposition to the Spire’s corruption. Give it a week and someone will have a spreadsheet.
What Happens Next?
The pattern is well established by now. Content lands on beta, the community breaks it, Mega Crit rebalances across subsequent beta patches, and once it’s stable the whole thing moves to main.
For The Fool specifically, the studio has stated outright that a great many changes are coming before the character is main-branch ready. Expect the tarot numbers to come down, expect the free scaling card to acquire a cost or a condition, and expect several rounds of it.
If you want to shape that, now is the moment – this is exactly when feedback carries the most weight, and the in-game feedback tool got three separate fixes in this patch, so it should actually work when you file something.
FAQ
What’s in Slay the Spire 2 patch v0.113.0?
A new character called The Fool, two new game modes (Blitz and Dread), new events and relics, and changes to 138 cards, 23 relics and 3 potions.
Is v0.113.0 on the main branch?
No. It’s the beta branch only. The main branch is being brought up to v0.111.0, which doesn’t include The Fool or the new modes.
How do I play as The Fool?
Switch to the public-beta branch in Steam under Properties → Game Versions & Betas. The Fool is available immediately there.
Is The Fool overpowered?
By community consensus, yes. Mega Crit has acknowledged it, stating that many balance changes are expected before the character reaches the main branch.
How do I get into Blitz mode?
Complete an Ascension run at any difficulty. Blitz has five Ascension levels shared across all characters.
What does Dread mode require?
Ascension 10 on every character, including The Fool. All ascension modifiers run at once, bosses buff their act’s enemies, and curses accumulate as you climb.
Can I play the new modes in co-op?
Yes. Casey Yano confirmed both Blitz and Dread work in single-player and multiplayer.
Until the Nerf Patch
v0.113.0 is the most content Mega Crit has shipped in one go since Early Access started, and it’s a reminder of why the beta branch exists: this is a patch you’re meant to break.
Play The Fool while the numbers are absurd, because they won’t be for long. Try Blitz if routing has ever felt like homework. And if you’ve somehow got Ascension 10 across the board already, Dread is waiting to take you apart.
Just finish your current run before you switch branches. Learned that one the hard way.
If this spared you from reading 138 card changes line by line, pass it along – share it, bookmark it, drop it on whoever in your group chat is still claiming The Fool is fine. And if you’ve got a creative or commercial project that deserves a bigger patch note, the YaninaGames team is one message from shipping it.
