Among my coworkers, Slay the Spire 2 has been a contentious topic. When it first launched, fellow writer Robin Valentine described it as feeling more like a remake than a sequel, calling it "a really impressive late expansion pack." While it is undeniably good, the sentiment was that it treads over old ground.
I have since been consumed by the game. I have put nearly 140 hours into it—a number that shocked me when I checked the stats for this article. I have currently squeaked out Ascension 10 wins on the Ironclad, Silent, and the new Regent class, and I am currently working on victories with the Necrobinder and Defect.
While I agree that many of the same decks can win earlier ascensions, the more I play, the more deeply I am taken by Slay the Spire 2 in a way I was never absorbed by the original. I went back to play the first game before writing this and found I lacked the same zest. Slay the Spire 2 is samey on the surface, but it is deceptively so. There are several core, granular baseline changes that make it feel fundamentally different.
The Ancient System and Relic Trade-offs
The most obvious shift lies in the ancients. At the end of each act in Slay the Spire 2, you roll between a set of ancients, each offering unique trade-off boons. In the original game, beating an act netted you a relic that almost always provided one more energy per turn. Because of how tempo worked, non-energy relics were rarely worth taking.
Slay the Spire 2 offers vastly superior variety here. These choices can be completely run-defining.
Getting one extra energy per turn remains incredibly valuable, but relics that offer this often come with major downsides. Take Vaaku’s Whispering Earring, for example. You gain one extra energy, but you have zero control over your first turn, with Vaaku playing your cards from left to right. This is a massive gamble, but it is almost always possible to survive a bad first turn—right until it isn’t.
Other relics offer strategic depth:
- Tezcatara’s Seal of Gold: At first glance, losing five gold per turn for extra energy seems manageable. However, I have won entire builds with the right choice of merchant relic. In an Ascension 10 Regent win, I snagged a Mystic Lighter to buff a sharp-enchanted Seven Stars. This allowed me to fire a card dealing 18 damage seven times (127 total damage) for a piddly one energy, using cards to buffer the star cost and recycle it into my draw pile. Without the Seal of Gold, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
- Nonupeipe’s Glitter: A standout relic that gives all Act 3 card rewards a once-per-combat replay. This single item completely steered my gameplan from a thin deck to a "thick boy" with lots of value.
The card enchantment system is also excellent. Clone is absolutely absurd in some runs, potentially giving you dozens of the same card type if you finesse rest sites enough to use it. Momentum turns every card into the Ironclad’s Rampage, and Royally Approved can make any card a core component of your deck. These possibilities make my roguelike heart giddy.
A Shift in Enemy Design and Pacing
The enemy design in Slay the Spire 2 is far more engaging. I enjoy the encounters, even the brutally unfair ones. I am looking at you, Hunter-Killer.
Slay the Spire 2’s rogues gallery is flooded with brutal encounters that scale quickly. At higher ascensions, you are required to cover your bases. Rather than trying to thin your deck to find an infinite loop, Act 1 becomes a make-or-break rush to ensure you have defense, damage, draw, and energy generation handled ASAP.
This is a significant improvement over the original, where I often felt like I was stumbling into a synergy. All of my runs in Slay the Spire 2 feel more constructive. I am building up a solid deck brick by brick, rather than just fishing for the right combo of cards. This steadier pace makes it feel all the more exciting when I do stumble into something special.
It is a complete shift in design philosophy that extends to the bosses as well, challenging your decks in far more interesting ways than in the first game.
- Timekeeper: In the original, this boss often spelled doom for my deck. Since you only see who you are fighting in Act 3, it was almost always too late to change course.
- The Doormaker: In Slay the Spire 2, this boss can be prepped for simply by spending Act 3 making your deck just a little bit thicker.
Changing Meta and Character Identity
The pacing is completely different, which is visible in how some cards have fallen out of favor. The Ironclad’s Demon Form, for instance, is no longer very good because opportunities to play a three-energy power are few and far between.
However, old decks have new ways to play. The Silent’s Sly mechanic completely changes the feel of the character. The Ironclad’s old archetypes are actually more niche now. I have won far more runs on the Ironclad by going for value and energy generation than I have with the Barricade + Body Slam or Whirlwind + Double Tap strategies.
Slay the Spire 2 feels markedly different from its predecessor. The tempo of fights has changed, the meta has been adjusted, its two new characters are big departures, and you have far more interesting and diverse incentives to swap up your strategies mid-run.
There is a reason I am going for Ascension 10 runs on every character here, but I gave up my climb in the original Slay the Spire: I simply like this version a lot more.
