Slay the Spire 2: release date, trailer, and all we know about early access
Developer Mega Crit has confirmed that Slay the Spire 2 is on its way, following up on the 2017 roguelike deck-building game from the indie studio.
Mega Crit announced the release of Slay the Spire 2 at the III Showcase, a video game showcase geared around indie games, back in April.
April 10 also saw the release of a teaser trailer which has gathered over 600,000 views and confirmed that the sequel game will have early access and offered a glimpse of a release window.
With the first Slay the Spire game scoring an impressive 89 among critics and 7.8 among the 831 players who rated it on Metacritic, the sequel game is eagerly awaited by those in the know. Read on for all the details of Slay the Spire 2 that we know so far.
Our next project is… Slay the Spire 2!
Announced as part of the #iiishowcase, Slay the Spire 2 is coming to Steam Early Access in 2025.https://t.co/Vv9mw0mY76
More info coming later this year, stay tuned…
— Mega Crit Slay the Spire 2 Coming 2025! (@MegaCrit) April 10, 2024
When is Slay the Spire 2 coming out?
There’s a very broad release window for Slay the Spire 2, with early access confirmed for 2025.
There are no further details than that but that probably also means that general access is coming in 2025, unless early access lasts for an unusually long time or comes at the very end of the year, with the full release possibly following early 2026.
This could indeed be the case, seeing as the first Slay the Spire game came out on November 17.
If the sequel follows the same rhythm, then early access could come as late as November or December 2025, followed by a full release in January 2026.
That’s pure speculation for now and we’ll need to wait for a full reveal from Mega Crit to be sure. That’s likely to come either later this year or in the first half of 2025, depending on when the release is scheduled for.
Slay the Spire 2 trailer breakdown
The trailer relies mostly on dramatic music and dynamic shots, but it does feature the return of the titular Spire.
The description stays similarly vague, reading only: “Civilization has waited 1,000 years for the Spire to reopen its doors…Return to the Spire and face friends and foes in Slay the Spire 2.”
The air of mystery keeps you guessing about what’s to come, but there are still some new details that we can infer from the little we see.
The fact that it’s been one thousand years since the first game means that a lot will surely have changed since then.
The efforts of the Ironclad, Silent, Defect, and Watcher to close the Spire at the end of the first game did last for several centuries – but no more.
Thanks to the admittedly sparse Slay the Spire 2 screenshots released on Steam, we do also have a sense of some of the returning cards, as well as two new ones for Ironclad. Cleave has got some new art, suggesting it’s got a new effect, while another two returning cards, Ghostly Armor and Shrug it Off, look more or less the same as before.
Two new cards are Molten Fist, with a hidden effect, and Hellraiser, a three-mana rare Power card where the effect also isn’t shown.
Slay the Spire 2 characters, explained
Although it’s been one thousand years since the first game, Ironclad and The Silent will return as slayers in the sequel game. That’s not to say nothing has changed, however, with a new roster of creatures and monsters also expected to make their debuts.
The in-game lore states that four characters must fight for eternity but that’s not to say that The Defect and Watcher will also return.
They are not seen in the trailer at least, so it could be that we only get Ironcal and The Silent.
For now, there are just three confirmed characters in Slay the Spire 2. We already see Ironclad and The Silent walking through shops and some other unfamiliar environments in the trailer (more evidence that some elements will certainly be new to the game) before we get a brief introduction to a third character.
The name of this third character appears to be The Necrobinder, thanks to some digging into the Steam listing.
The Necrobinder is a floating skeleton with a scythe, which is a pretty sinister look all things considered. In an unusual move, it starts with just 35 health, just half of the first game’s lowest health start with The Silent’s 70.
The Necrobinder is described as “a wandering lich who seeks to bind the forgotten corpse. Calls upon her trusty left hand, Osty, in combat.”
The trailer does drop some clues that mean we might see at least The Defect appear, with some Defect-exclusive relics visible and Defect cards being sold by a merchant.
After all, robots like The Defect can live forever, so a thousand years is nothing by comparison. What’s more, Mega Crit regularly reposts or shares love for Defect on social media, so it seems likely that they might lean into the fanbase’s love of the character still more.
Featured image: Mega Crit
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