When it comes to deckbuilding roguelites, there’s one name that tops almost every list: Slay the Spire. The incredible 2019 release from Mega Crit is still enormously popular, but six years on we’re definitely ready for its sequel. Sadly, that’s now looking like it’ll be a seven year wait, with the game’s Early Access launch delayed until next March. And no, it has nothing to do with the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Originally slated to appear this fall, Slay the Spire 2 is set 1,000 years after the massive hit original, offering a more complicated path through the Spire, new characters joining the old crew, and as-yet unrevealed “new ways to play” (although the update does reveal one!). And given that the original game, six years later, still routinely sees 18-20,000 people playing every day on Steam (let alone on console and mobile), you can only imagine how many people are waiting in digital lines to be able to start playing the follow-up.
“After a lot of internal discussion,” a very lengthy update post for the game begins, “we’ve made the call to move Slay the Spire 2‘s Early Access launch to a secret Thursday in March 2026.”
“There’s no single dramatic reason,” the post continues. “Some personal life stuff hit the team (everyone’s okay!), we kept saying ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ one too many times, and honestly, the game just needs more polish to meet our standards.” Thus another six months development before the game reaches players.
Knowing exactly where people’s minds would immediately go, an FAQ about the delay begins with the question, “Is the real reason for the delay the timing of the Silksong release?” But, Mega Crit insists, this had nothing to do with it.
“We got together as a team to determine our new release window before Silksong’s date was announced. The timing just worked out like that, but on the bright side, everyone can keep busy playing Silksong during the wait!”
The FAQ continues with an even more conspiratorial theory: that the developers are spending too much time on merch and community events. (You have to assume this is something on a forum or Discord somewhere, right?) Again, they say no.
“Our merch is made by 3rd party partners and our community manager is the primary liaison on our team for collabs like that. No game development was harmed in the making of those plushies! Likewise, anything community-focused that we create, participate in, or promote is generally handled by the CM and doesn’t cut into any game development time.”
Mega Crit also promise no radio silence between now and March. But then the post goes on to reveal a brand new Slay the Spire 2 feature: “alternate acts.”
Once unlocked, upon entering a new act in Slay the Spire 2, you will be randomly greeted with one of two possible acts. These acts differ radically in their environments, enemies, events, and bosses, all of which greatly increase the variety of gameplay between runs. For instance, Act 1a is Overgrowth, a lush, tangled ruin with much of its fauna resembling mystical woodland creatures and sentient flora that might just eat you alive. This is the act you’ve primarily been seeing in our teasers and trailers, though there’s still plenty left to uncover here. Act 1b is known as the Underdocks, a miry waterway connected to the Spire’s sewer system, from which all manner of mutant sea creatures and vagrants might emerge. We’ve only just begun to tease the trove of content that lurks within these murky depths.
As the mathematically-inclined among you have probably realized, that means there will be double the amount of content in this new act structure. We won’t be launching with all of the alternate acts right away, but Acts 2b and 3b will come later down the road in Early Access updates. The capabilities of these different enemies, the opportunities these events offer, and how they all might impact your strategy as you ascend the Spire will be seen in time.
The rest of the post features some superb community engagement (really, developers need to study this for a class in how to connect with customers), including player art, in-jokes, and even a Connections wall. It’s lovely stuff, which goes some way to easing the blow of another six months to wait.
