Slay the Spire 2's "biggest" beta patch yet adds its first new early access and foolish character, two game modes, and more tweaks than you can shake a stick at

Mega Crit released its largest beta patch yet for Slay the Spire 2, introducing The Fool as the first new early access character. The studio describes The Fool as "a silly musician who wields a bow" and notes it expects to make numerous balance changes before the character reaches the main branch.

The patch adds two new game modes. Blitz condenses deckbuilding into a chaotic format where the merchant's stock changes, the map disappears, and gold becomes irrelevant. It features five shared Ascension levels and unlocks after completing any Ascension run. Dread serves as a brutal difficulty mode requiring Ascension 10 completion on every character, including The Fool. All ascension modifiers activate in Dread, bosses strengthen and buff all enemies in their Act, and curses accumulate as players progress.

The update includes balance tweaks and quality of life improvements. Rest sites can now appear one floor earlier each act. New events arrive in Underdocks and Acts 2 and 3. The character select screen for standard runs now defaults to your last played character, and controller navigation at the Merchant improved.

Mega Crit states the patch contains "some really impactful bits of content that will require lots of testing before they reach the main branch." The changes currently live only on beta branches.