Mega Crit: Slay the Spire 2’s First Balance Patch Triggers 9,000 Negative Reviews — And a Developer Response

Slay the Spire 2 had a rough week. Developer Mega Crit dropped the game’s first major balance patch — v0.100.0 — on Friday, 20 March 2026, and within 24 hours nearly 9,000 players had posted negative Steam reviews in response. By Saturday, Mega Crit had issued a public statement: the changes are “the first of many to come over the next 1-2 years,” and “no change is necessarily permanent.”

The patch is currently live only on the game’s opt-in beta branch — not the default early access build — but that context did little to slow the community reaction.

What v0.100.0 Actually Changed

The headline change targets The Silent, one of four playable characters in the early access build. Prepared, previously a zero-cost card that let players draw one card and discard one card, has been reworked into a new card called Prepare: a one-cost skill that requires discarding two cards in exchange for two energy on the following turn. It is no longer free to play.

That single change dismantled the core engine of Silent’s infinite-loop builds — strategies where a specific sequence of cards generates unlimited resources or damage in a single turn. Those builds had become among the most popular ways to play the character. Mega Crit’s stated goal with v0.100.0 is to make infinites harder to achieve across the board, not just for Silent.

The patch also reworks the Doormaker, the current final boss of Act 3. Mega Crit’s own patch notes say simply: “Beware.” The update gives Doormaker a new mechanic: it now consumes every 10th card drawn by the player, layering an additional threat on top of already heavy damage output. Bosses such as Rocket Claw and Crusher Claw have also had their HP and Strength scaling increased.

On the positive side, v0.100.0 introduces Phobia Mode — an accessibility option that replaces the game’s most unsettling imagery with less frightening artwork. Relic prices in shops are reduced by 25 gold across the board. Multiple cards across the Ironclad, Regent, Necrobinder, and Defect character decks received buffs alongside the nerfs.

The Review Bomb

The Steam response was immediate. According to reporting from Polygon and PC Gamer, nearly 9,000 negative reviews were posted within the first 24 hours of the patch going live — a number comparable to the game’s entire review count at launch. Many came from players frustrated with the Prepared rework; others objected to the Doormaker buff, which some described as overtuned for the current state of the game. A vocal portion of the negative reviews came from Chinese players, who face additional restrictions on Steam that limit their ability to leave feedback through other channels.

The changes are currently only accessible to players who manually opt into the public beta branch via Steam. Players on the standard early access build are unaffected.

What Mega Crit Said

Mega Crit published a response on social media on 20 March, addressing the backlash directly.

“Since we have a lot of new players that weren’t around for StS1’s Early Access phase and players who are new to Early Access games in general, we wanted to explain our patching methodology a bit,” the studio wrote. “This beta balance pass was the first of many to come over the next 1-2 years. The game will go through constant changes with the ultimate goal of making it as balanced of an experience as StS1 became. This progress will not be linear, and no change is necessarily permanent.”

The developer also clarified that feedback submitted via the in-game bug reporter is more useful to the development team than Steam reviews, and emphasised that the beta branch exists specifically for “experimental changes” before they reach the main build.

What This Means for Early Access Players

The original Slay the Spire spent multiple years in early access before reaching a state that most players now consider one of the best-balanced deck-builders ever released. Mega Crit’s track record matters here: their willingness to iterate extensively is exactly why StS1 became a genre-defining benchmark. A one-to-two year balance roadmap for StS2 is consistent with that history.

The practical implication for players on the standard early access build is simple: nothing in your current game has changed. If you are on the beta branch, expect further adjustments. Nothing in v0.100.0 is final — Mega Crit have said so explicitly.

For players who are weighing whether to start now or wait for 1.0: the current state is where the balancing conversation is actively happening. If you prefer a locked-down, stable card pool, 1.0 will serve you better.

SEA Players: Steam Malaysia Pricing

Slay the Spire 2 is available now on Steam Early Access. Check the Steam Malaysia store page for current MYR pricing — regional pricing varies by storefront.

What to Watch

The next beta branch patch is the most important signal. How Mega Crit responds to the Prepared backlash specifically — whether they revise the new Prepare card, revert it, or hold firm — will demonstrate whether community feedback is genuinely influencing the balance direction or being set aside in favour of the studio’s internal metrics. The developer’s statement that no change is permanent suggests flexibility, but the magnitude of the reaction means this patch is now a test case for how Mega Crit manages public iteration.

Sources: PC Gamer | Polygon | GamesRadar