Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

slay-the-spire-interview-1

Roguelike card game Slay the Spire has swept through the RPS dungeons like a powerful disease, covering us in tiny, number-shaped pustules. In search of a cure, we spoke to its designers, Anthony Giovannetti and Casey Yano of Mega Crit Games. Read on to learn some of their methods and future plans. We’ve already told you they’ll almost certainly be adding more characters. But did you know they tested the game on expert Netrunner players? (more…)

Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

slay-the-spire-new-characters-1

The roguelike card game Slay the Spire has marched into RPS and conducted a coup. Now a slug with a pocketwatch is forcing us all to write articles about how great it is. For example, I ve just done an interview with the game s creators, which you can read later. For now, let me sneak out this bit of info, while the slug isn t looking: They plan to add new playable characters after the game s full release. We will almost certainly have more than three characters, said Anthony Giovannetti of Mega Crit Games. OK, it s no huge surprise, but at least you know they don t plan to dust it off when it drops out of early access in the summer. (more…)

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


It's patch day!

We fixed the leaderboards, they upload again!
Also, the leaderboards have been reset.

We heard that some of our players wanted an additional challenge so we've devised an experimental game mode for you! For those just starting Slay the Spire, we don't want to spoil the fun so we're putting it in a spoiler block. You have been warned!

Hotfixes
  • Ascension Mode should unlock properly now. Sorry about that! (Exit Steam and Relaunch to force an update!)
  • Pushed fixes for several odd crashes that prevented the game from loading for a few users.

Ascension Mode

This mode can be accessed by defeating all of the Act 3 bosses.
Afterwards, Ascension Mode will be available in the character select screen after choosing a character.

Each Ascension run will get harder as you emerge victorious.
But beware, each victory will add another layer of difficulty...
Currently, there are 10 Ascension Levels to fight through!

Ascension mode does NOT affect winstreaks but wins/losses and leaderboards are still utilized. Each level of Ascension grants a 5% score bonus.


More Languages
Our awesome community has generously provided us with more translations!
Keep in mind that Slay the Spire continuously receives updates so translations may be behind or missing in some areas. They are continuously being updated and you can even lend a hand at our Official Discord channel.
  • Italian is now available! Meraviglioso!
  • Chinese (Simplified) is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Chinese (Traditional) is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • French is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • German is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Japanese is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Korean is updated + Localized Achievements + New font!
  • Russian is updated + Localized Achievements.

32-bits
We're pushing out 32-bit builds today!
There have been some rockiness here (beta builds somehow affecting main branch), but we're doing our best to resolve these issues as soon as we can.

Patch Notes

Gameplay
  • Cheater score penalty reduced as it's there for informational purposes, not fun ruining.
  • Nightmare no longer retains "cost for turn" when copying cards (as you get the copies next turn).
  • Playtime is now calculated incrementally rather than end time - start time (unaffected by system clock).
  • Sentry HP ranges updated to be wider (36 - 40) -> (35 - 41).
  • The Collector respawns its minions considerably less often when certain criteria is met: (100% -> 25%)

UI and Effects
  • If an anti-virus prevents the creation of a .copy file, the game will no longer crash.
  • Improved card trail VFX to be more performant.
  • Leaderboards Screen: No longer show the left arrow if filtered to friends with less than 20 friends.
  • Mind Blast now shows you how much damage it will deal on the card itself.
  • Updating description for Curl Up power to clarify it only triggers once.
  • When saving sound settings, it is saved when you release the mouse now.
  • You can now view your current run's playtime by opening the map.

Bug Fixes
  • Accuracy wasn't working with Shiv+
  • Achievement descriptions for non-hidden achievements now properly show how they're obtained.
  • All files when saved now create backups. If a corrupt file is detected, they are now restored.
  • Character info text in char select is now <- 200px to hide the flavor text for some languages.
  • Cheater score penalty reduced. The bonus was meant to be informational, not a fun ruiner.
  • Fixed bug where Centennial Puzzle doesn't trigger off of enemy thorns.
  • Fixed interaction of Enlightenment + Eviscerate + Discard.
  • Fixed issue where leaderboard scores weren't uploading properly.
  • Fixed issue where Orichalcum will start flashing even if you have Block from Barricade/Blur/Calipers.
  • Now preventing crashes when an audio file is not found. (how did this even happen?)
  • Sadistic Nature no longer triggers twice from Shackles and Piercing Wail.
Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


It's patch day!

We fixed the leaderboards, they upload again!
Also, the leaderboards have been reset.

We heard that some of our players wanted an additional challenge so we've devised an experimental game mode for you! For those just starting Slay the Spire, we don't want to spoil the fun so we're putting it in a spoiler block. You have been warned!

Hotfixes
  • Ascension Mode should unlock properly now. Sorry about that! (Exit Steam and Relaunch to force an update!)
  • Pushed fixes for several odd crashes that prevented the game from loading for a few users.

Ascension Mode

This mode can be accessed by defeating all of the Act 3 bosses.
Afterwards, Ascension Mode will be available in the character select screen after choosing a character.

Each Ascension run will get harder as you emerge victorious.
But beware, each victory will add another layer of difficulty...
Currently, there are 10 Ascension Levels to fight through!

Ascension mode does NOT affect winstreaks but wins/losses and leaderboards are still utilized. Each level of Ascension grants a 5% score bonus.


More Languages
Our awesome community has generously provided us with more translations!
Keep in mind that Slay the Spire continuously receives updates so translations may be behind or missing in some areas. They are continuously being updated and you can even lend a hand at our Official Discord channel.
  • Italian is now available! Meraviglioso!
  • Chinese (Simplified) is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Chinese (Traditional) is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • French is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • German is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Japanese is updated + Localized Achievements.
  • Korean is updated + Localized Achievements + New font!
  • Russian is updated + Localized Achievements.

32-bits
We're pushing out 32-bit builds today!
There have been some rockiness here (beta builds somehow affecting main branch), but we're doing our best to resolve these issues as soon as we can.

Patch Notes

Gameplay
  • Cheater score penalty reduced as it's there for informational purposes, not fun ruining.
  • Nightmare no longer retains "cost for turn" when copying cards (as you get the copies next turn).
  • Playtime is now calculated incrementally rather than end time - start time (unaffected by system clock).
  • Sentry HP ranges updated to be wider (36 - 40) -> (35 - 41).
  • The Collector respawns its minions considerably less often when certain criteria is met: (100% -> 25%)

UI and Effects
  • If an anti-virus prevents the creation of a .copy file, the game will no longer crash.
  • Improved card trail VFX to be more performant.
  • Leaderboards Screen: No longer show the left arrow if filtered to friends with less than 20 friends.
  • Mind Blast now shows you how much damage it will deal on the card itself.
  • Updating description for Curl Up power to clarify it only triggers once.
  • When saving sound settings, it is saved when you release the mouse now.
  • You can now view your current run's playtime by opening the map.

Bug Fixes
  • Accuracy wasn't working with Shiv+
  • Achievement descriptions for non-hidden achievements now properly show how they're obtained.
  • All files when saved now create backups. If a corrupt file is detected, they are now restored.
  • Character info text in char select is now <- 200px to hide the flavor text for some languages.
  • Cheater score penalty reduced. The bonus was meant to be informational, not a fun ruiner.
  • Fixed bug where Centennial Puzzle doesn't trigger off of enemy thorns.
  • Fixed interaction of Enlightenment + Eviscerate + Discard.
  • Fixed issue where leaderboard scores weren't uploading properly.
  • Fixed issue where Orichalcum will start flashing even if you have Block from Barricade/Blur/Calipers.
  • Now preventing crashes when an audio file is not found. (how did this even happen?)
  • Sadistic Nature no longer triggers twice from Shackles and Piercing Wail.
Slay the Spire

The joy of a roguelike is cobbling together a winning strategy out of the junk you find lying around on the side of the road—or in this case the side of a corridor in a murdertower full of slime monsters. The joy of a deckbuilding game, whether a physical one like Dominion or a videogame like Hand of Fate, is in building something greater than the sum of its parts. Slay the Spire, which has been in Early Access since November but which we all seem to have become aware of last week when it soared up the Steam charts, is a gorgeous collision of those two joys. I got it last Friday and it basically swallowed my weekend whole.

After each encounter with a monster on my way up the spire, I’m offered three cards to pick from, adding one to my deck. In early runs I eagerly grab a card out of each spread, fattening my deck as much as I can. Later, I’m more judicious, more cautious about assembling a specific strategy.

In Slay the Spire  your character is your deck. While some cards are individually more powerful than others, simply accumulating strong cards isn’t enough. Various mechanical themes run through the card sets (there are two characters in the game currently, The Ironclad and The Silent, each with their own set), and they clearly direct you towards building decks that synergize, that combine effects to multiply their impact.

There’s no way to keep a card out of your deck while holding onto it for later, and opportunities to permanently remove cards from your deck are few. So there are trade-offs: you can take a card early that immediately adds dead weight to your deck, but which you hope will become a cornerstone of your strategy later, when you have other pieces of the puzzle to combine with it. Adding improved versions of the basic attack and defense cards will raise the overall power of your deck, but they will also lower your chances of drawing your more important synergistic cards later on.

Changing your deck by a single card feels significant it s not a matter of playing the numbers, like making small changes to a Hearthstone or Magic deck.

One card, Fiend Fire, destroys all cards in your hand (removing them from the game until the end of the fight) and deals damage corresponding to the number of cards destroyed. In one of my runs, I had a whole strategy built up around this—draw a ton of cards to fill my hand then unload it all in one enormous attack. Another deck archetype goes the opposite route, using a Power (a card that becomes a persistent buff for the duration of a fight) that deals damage to enemies for every spell played, and then combining that with a mass of free cards to win by a thousand cuts. Though there are two characters, each has three or four distinct deck archetypes.

Each turn you draw five cards, and at the end of the turn you discard your whole hand. This velocity makes it much punchier than most card games, there’s no planning for next turn, or sculpting your hand. There’s no sensation of powerlessness when you draw a hand you know is very weak—it’ll be gone next turn.

As you cycle rapidly through your cards, you’ll see your entire deck pretty much every significant fight. If you have cards that are underpowered or don’t fit with your strategy, they will always show up and be a problem. Changing your deck by a single card feels significant—it’s not a matter of playing the numbers, like making small changes to a Hearthstone or Magic deck.

The deck feels like a dynamic, living thing, both across the strategic layer of the whole game and in individual fights. Deck composition and card-drawing are the heart of a card game: Slay the Spire highlights that heart, making it the center of what your character is and what you can do. Some enemies gum up your deck by inserting useless cards into it, some risk-reward choices give you a benefit in exchange for inserting a dead 'curse' card into your deck.

Combat itself has a push-your-luck quality that suits the roguelike design. You can deal damage to enemies by playing cards, or you can block—blocking means adding temporary hit points to your character, which clear out at the start of your next turn. Monsters show their next move as an icon above them, letting you anticipate what they’ll do and either block or attack accordingly.

This leads to a lot of interesting turns, with tactical decisions that have true strategic ramifications. Ideally, you want to block every attack completely. Healing is hard to come by in this game, and every point of true damage you take could be the start of a spiral that ends your run. But at the same time, playing too conservatively can lead to failure too—slow and steady doesn’t always win the race, as enemies will buff themselves to overwhelm your blocking, or inevitably a bad hand will leave you unable to prevent damage anyway.

I often feel like I reach the final boss just as I m getting my feet under me in terms of having a deck I like.

Even seemingly simple turns can become a difficult calculation. Is it worth taking one damage this turn to get an attack in? Is it worth spending your first turn setting up your powers for the rest of the fight, and just "face tanking" a big hit for it?

Compounding all this is a panoply of distinct monsters with unique mechanics and behaviors to them. It’s an expansive but well-thought-out bestiary, where no creature feels generic and everything calls for distinct strategies to defeat them.

This is in Early Access, but the visual and interface polish really is there. Card text dynamically changes to reflect modifiers affecting how much damage or block you’re dealing, tooltips are smart and informative, doing a great job of explaining mechanics on the fly without issue. The game’s visual style is a surreal, fun interpretation of high fantasy.

There’s a third character, and thus card set, planned to come out before Early Access ends. But what’s really missing for me is more diversity of challenges and maybe some game balance. The spire is split into three chapters which are always the same—I’d appreciate some more randomness or variety of different zones, and I wish the game was longer, or that I had the option of a longer game with more chapters. I often feel like I reach the final boss just as I’m getting my feet under me in terms of having a deck I like. I want more time for the game to breathe and more of an opportunity to put together truly powerful decks. It feels like those mechanics don’t really have the space they have in a typical roguelike.

And those final fights are often anticlimactic. Many of the fights in chapter three seem like they’re just unfair difficulty spikes. Slay the Spire rests most of its randomness on the positive goodie-bag randomness of loot drops, and on the 'natural' randomness of the card deck. Enemy attacks deal fixed amounts of damage, and enemies have mostly established behavior patterns, so 'bad RNG' is not as much of a frustration as it is in most roguelikes.

This is smart, but it does begin to falter in the third section of the game. Your deck by this point will be very specialized—that’s the only way to beat those later challenges. But many enemies effectively counter certain strategies. Since you can’t avoid a fight or change what’s in your deck, you can feel like you’ve been put into an impossible position. Because the bosses that show up are random, this can get particularly frustrating. 

If this genius, chocolate-on-peanut-butter idea of a game has a weakness, it s in trying to please two very different perspectives on how random a game should be.

One boss, for example, effectively punishes you for playing a lot of cards, ending your turn and becoming more powerful every 12th spell you play. If you’ve assembled the death-by-a-thousand-cuts deck, this becomes a punishing fight, possibly an unwinnable one. Some of these match-up problems are inevitable in a game like this, but the third act feels a lot like a sharp ramp up in difficulty exacerbated by the fact the game overall is a little short.

Everyone has a different level of tolerance for this frustration, and it is a tough balancing act for any game. Devoted fans of roguelikes encounter unfairness and being crushed by randomness as a fact of life, part of the thrill of their genre. But CCG  fans often recoil at variance: see the perennial popularity in Magic of decks that are have middling win percentages against every other deck in the metagame; see the player backlash at random effects in Hearthstone cards. If this genius, chocolate-on-peanut-butter idea of a game has a weakness, it’s in trying to please two very different perspectives on how random a game should be.

This is one of those games that very, very clearly knows what it wants to be and how to achieve that. Every mechanic is here for a reason and makes perfect sense in its context. If it needs balance tweaks, or if I wish there was more of it, those are gripes. And gripes aside, I’m not done with Slay the Spire at all, even after it ate my weekend. I’ve still to beat one of the final bosses, after all. I’m pretty sure when I finally nail the perfect iteration of the Ironclad Exhaust deck, I’m going to get there.

Slay the Spire is available on Steam now.

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


A wild patch has appeared!

This patch brings in a few big features. These features are in an early stage so please bear with us. Also, it's a good time to give feedback! We like feedback!



Leaderboards
Leaderboards are here! Compete with your friends in a few categories such as High Score, Consecutive Wins, and Fastest Victory. We'll be adding more features and filters as we push towards release.

Note: Scores for the leaderboards will be RESET each week as balance and content changes will come in every week.



Score System
To go along with the leaderboards, the score system has been reworked to give bonuses for interesting circumstances!

Upgrade Colorless Cards?!
Colorless cards can now be upgraded! This was also a good time to re-examine and balance several of the cards.

Here's the full list of changes:
  • Apotheosis now costs 2. Upgrades to cost 1.
  • Bandage Up now has upgrade functionality (4HP -> 6 HP)
  • Blind can now upgrade (Single Target -> All enemies)
  • Dark Shackles+. -9 Str -> -15 Str
  • Deep Breath+. Draw 1 -> 2 cards after shuffle.
  • DramaticEntrance+. Damage 6 -> 8.
  • Enlightment+. This turn -> rest of combat.
  • Finesse+. 2 -> 4 Block.
  • Flash Of Steel+. 3 -> 6 damage.
  • Good instincts+. 4 -> 7 Block.
  • J.A.X.+. 2 -> 3 Strength gain.
  • Jack Of All Trades+. 1 random card -> 2 random cards.
  • Madness is nerfed (costs 1 now). Upgrade cost 1 -> 0.
  • Master of Strategy+. Draw 3 -> 4.
  • MindBlast+. Gains Innate.
  • Panacea reworked. Gain 1 Artifact. Exhaust. Upgrades to 2.
  • Panache+ added. 10 -> 14 damage.
  • Purity card rework. 2 cards -> 'up to' 3 cards -> 5 cards on upgrade.
  • Sadistic Nature+. 3 -> 4 damage.
  • Secret Technique+ and Secret Weapon+. Removes Exhaust on upgrade.
  • Shiv+. +2 damage.
  • Swift Strike+. 5 -> 8 damage.
  • Thinking Ahead nerfed. Now exhausts. Upgrade removes Exhaust.
  • Transmutation reworked. Cost X -> Gain X random colorless cards (+upgrades)
  • Trip+. 2 Vulnerable -> 2 Vulnerable to ALL enemies.

Okay, now onto the patch notes:

Hotfix
  • If your game can't start due to a corrupt save, we either load a backup or delete it now. Also, we automatically create backups now! Yay
  • BUG FIX: Fixed issue where leaderboards were not submitting high scores after 3 - 7 games.
  • BUG FIX: Even MORE effort to prevent file corruption.
  • BUG FIX: Resetting variables for various score bonuses at more locations- some bonuses were carrying over.
  • BUG FIX: Win Streaks should now upload as expected in the main branch.
  • LOCALIZATION: Update to Korean localization.

Content
  • Bottled Tornado relic added.

Balance
  • Awakened One enemy updated HP 320/240 -> 300/300.
  • Confusion power can now affect Colorless cards.
  • Cursed Key relic no longer gives curses at Boss chests.
  • Dual Wield card is now Uncommon (was Common).
  • Nightmare+ card is nerfed. No longer adds 4 cards, just lowers energy cost.
  • Storm of Steel+ reworked to give upgraded Shivs rather than lowering cost.

UI and Effects
  • Added logic to prevent users from accidentally skipping Calling Bell relics.
  • Adding a Settings button in the Main Menu and removed the Settings button in topright.
  • Cards which are created and immediately discarded now show up on right side of center to prevent overlap.
  • Main Menu buttons are now smaller and spaced closer.
  • MainMenuButtonFont and ButtonLabelFont are merged. Decreasing load time and texture memory usage.
  • Minor wording improvements for the Mysterious Sphere event.
  • Polished art for Bottled Flame, Lightning, and Tornado relics.
  • Removed two tips: Colorless can't be upgraded and Colorless cards always cost 0.
  • Sounds in Background in Settings is now Ambient Sound Effects so its purpose is clarified.
  • Updated death screen score display to support 2 columns if greater than 8 items on list.
  • Updates for CN (Simplified), CN (Traditional), German, Russian, and Korean.
  • Wording: Campfire -> Rest Site for Girya and Peace Pipe.
  • Wording: Consistency in description for Ancient Tea Set and Eternal Feather.
  • Wording: Levels are now referred to as Acts to prevent Floor/Level confusion moving forward.

Bug Fixes
  • Saving files are now atomic, preventing corrupt files forever (hopefully)
  • Fixed issue where Blood for Blood cost was permanently lowered if damaged at Neow.
  • Fixed rare crash for RemoveSpecificPowerAction.
  • Fixed several formatting issues for Japanese. We still need translators!
  • Utilizing a saved RNG for several cards, events, monsters so that saving/loading shows the same content.

We now have an official Discord link:
https://discord.gg/SlayTheSpire
Feel free to stop by and say hello!
Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


A wild patch has appeared!

This patch brings in a few big features. These features are in an early stage so please bear with us. Also, it's a good time to give feedback! We like feedback!



Leaderboards
Leaderboards are here! Compete with your friends in a few categories such as High Score, Consecutive Wins, and Fastest Victory. We'll be adding more features and filters as we push towards release.

Note: Scores for the leaderboards will be RESET each week as balance and content changes will come in every week.



Score System
To go along with the leaderboards, the score system has been reworked to give bonuses for interesting circumstances!

Upgrade Colorless Cards?!
Colorless cards can now be upgraded! This was also a good time to re-examine and balance several of the cards.

Here's the full list of changes:
  • Apotheosis now costs 2. Upgrades to cost 1.
  • Bandage Up now has upgrade functionality (4HP -> 6 HP)
  • Blind can now upgrade (Single Target -> All enemies)
  • Dark Shackles+. -9 Str -> -15 Str
  • Deep Breath+. Draw 1 -> 2 cards after shuffle.
  • DramaticEntrance+. Damage 6 -> 8.
  • Enlightment+. This turn -> rest of combat.
  • Finesse+. 2 -> 4 Block.
  • Flash Of Steel+. 3 -> 6 damage.
  • Good instincts+. 4 -> 7 Block.
  • J.A.X.+. 2 -> 3 Strength gain.
  • Jack Of All Trades+. 1 random card -> 2 random cards.
  • Madness is nerfed (costs 1 now). Upgrade cost 1 -> 0.
  • Master of Strategy+. Draw 3 -> 4.
  • MindBlast+. Gains Innate.
  • Panacea reworked. Gain 1 Artifact. Exhaust. Upgrades to 2.
  • Panache+ added. 10 -> 14 damage.
  • Purity card rework. 2 cards -> 'up to' 3 cards -> 5 cards on upgrade.
  • Sadistic Nature+. 3 -> 4 damage.
  • Secret Technique+ and Secret Weapon+. Removes Exhaust on upgrade.
  • Shiv+. +2 damage.
  • Swift Strike+. 5 -> 8 damage.
  • Thinking Ahead nerfed. Now exhausts. Upgrade removes Exhaust.
  • Transmutation reworked. Cost X -> Gain X random colorless cards (+upgrades)
  • Trip+. 2 Vulnerable -> 2 Vulnerable to ALL enemies.

Okay, now onto the patch notes:

Hotfix
  • If your game can't start due to a corrupt save, we either load a backup or delete it now. Also, we automatically create backups now! Yay
  • BUG FIX: Fixed issue where leaderboards were not submitting high scores after 3 - 7 games.
  • BUG FIX: Even MORE effort to prevent file corruption.
  • BUG FIX: Resetting variables for various score bonuses at more locations- some bonuses were carrying over.
  • BUG FIX: Win Streaks should now upload as expected in the main branch.
  • LOCALIZATION: Update to Korean localization.

Content
  • Bottled Tornado relic added.

Balance
  • Awakened One enemy updated HP 320/240 -> 300/300.
  • Confusion power can now affect Colorless cards.
  • Cursed Key relic no longer gives curses at Boss chests.
  • Dual Wield card is now Uncommon (was Common).
  • Nightmare+ card is nerfed. No longer adds 4 cards, just lowers energy cost.
  • Storm of Steel+ reworked to give upgraded Shivs rather than lowering cost.

UI and Effects
  • Added logic to prevent users from accidentally skipping Calling Bell relics.
  • Adding a Settings button in the Main Menu and removed the Settings button in topright.
  • Cards which are created and immediately discarded now show up on right side of center to prevent overlap.
  • Main Menu buttons are now smaller and spaced closer.
  • MainMenuButtonFont and ButtonLabelFont are merged. Decreasing load time and texture memory usage.
  • Minor wording improvements for the Mysterious Sphere event.
  • Polished art for Bottled Flame, Lightning, and Tornado relics.
  • Removed two tips: Colorless can't be upgraded and Colorless cards always cost 0.
  • Sounds in Background in Settings is now Ambient Sound Effects so its purpose is clarified.
  • Updated death screen score display to support 2 columns if greater than 8 items on list.
  • Updates for CN (Simplified), CN (Traditional), German, Russian, and Korean.
  • Wording: Campfire -> Rest Site for Girya and Peace Pipe.
  • Wording: Consistency in description for Ancient Tea Set and Eternal Feather.
  • Wording: Levels are now referred to as Acts to prevent Floor/Level confusion moving forward.

Bug Fixes
  • Saving files are now atomic, preventing corrupt files forever (hopefully)
  • Fixed issue where Blood for Blood cost was permanently lowered if damaged at Neow.
  • Fixed rare crash for RemoveSpecificPowerAction.
  • Fixed several formatting issues for Japanese. We still need translators!
  • Utilizing a saved RNG for several cards, events, monsters so that saving/loading shows the same content.

We now have an official Discord link:
https://discord.gg/SlayTheSpire
Feel free to stop by and say hello!
Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

slay-the-spire-1

Slay the Spire is a juicy, bloody fillet of a card game rolled around in the random oils and spices of a roguelike. I d further this culinary analogy by cooking it in an RPG oven but let s just go ahead and eat it raw. Because it’s delicious>. Also, I m a vampire now. I had an altercation in a glowing city and the game took all my normal attack cards and replaced them with bite cards, transforming me into a frail but dangerous demon of the night. I’m fine with this.

(more…)

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


Hey everyone, it's patch day again!

This patch brings a lot of back end changes for stability and future content.
While not too exciting on the content side, this is necessary to ensure quality and flexibility.

Slay the Spire is getting more and more popular! For all you new players, welcome! For all of you previous players, we would sincerely like to thank you for spreading the word. Thank you! It means a lot that you enjoy our game and spread the agony of defeat accomplished feeling of victory!

Back End Changes!?
Yes, lots of exciting things are happening behind the scenes. Progress continues for the enigmatic 3rd character and leaderboards are coming soon(tm). Those in the beta branch have been a great help and we hope that we can feed your competitive needs in the next week.

Save Migration
When you run this week's build, your save data will be copied from the original directory (.prefs) to the new directory found in the game directory in a new "preferences" folder (betaPreferences for beta). Yes, this will diverge beta and non-beta save data.

This solves anti-virus false positives, full disk errors, and allows us to utilize Steam Auto-Cloud.

Steam Auto-Cloud
Your saves are now synced between computers! Please be careful not to overwrite your main save. If this occurs, the data is recoverable- there will be extra steps posted in the Bugs & Crashes FAQ in the Steam Discussions.

Localization
This weekly patch brings BETA-level localization for Korean.
Here's a quick refresher on how to change your language!



We're still looking for community translators! Any and all help for translations are greatly appreciated. Just stop by the official Slay the Spire Discord's localization channel.

HOTFIX
  • The way writing files were written had a potential to corrupt the file if you quit while files were being written. Files are now written in a safer way (buffer + flush)
  • The Awakened One actually heals to full HP now.

Balance
  • The Awakened One gets many changes (spoilers blocked):
  • > HP is increased from 300 -> 320.
  • > Curiosity is nerfed from 3 -> 2
  • > Form 2 HP 200 -> 240
  • > Form 2 no longer cleanses buffs (Strength is retained)
  • > Form 2: Dark Echo 40 -> 32
  • > Form 2: 12 x 2 attack is now 10 x 2 attack
  • > Form 2: 16 damage attack is now 12 damage
  • > Form 2: Cleanse move is removed
  • Bronze Automaton's Hyper Beam damage is increased from 40 -> 45.
  • Feed no longer works on Minions (New Power: Minion to let you know who are minions).
  • Golden Idol Event options are slightly harsher. 20% -> 25% damage and 5% -> 8% Max HP loss.
  • Maximum gold score bonus now caps at 300 (was unlimited).
  • Exhume card can no longer return an Exhume card to your hand.
  • You can no longer get both a curse and card removal in the same Neow Risk/Reward option.
  • Sentry enemy now gives you 2x Dazed instead of Wounds.
  • Sentry enemy's max HP is raised by 2 (to compensate).

UI and Effects
  • Localization: Several updates to CN (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
  • Adding Win Streak and High Score into Statistics screen.
  • Hex Power wording improvements.
  • Energized Power wording improvements.
  • Intangible Power wording improvements.
  • Enchiridion relic wording improvements.

Bug Fixes
  • Adding a used up image for Neow's Lament.
  • Blue Candle and Medical Kit should now work with Choke and Thousand Cuts.
  • Cloak and Dagger no longer appears in the card match event before it is unlocked, instead there is always a copy of Neutralize.
  • Energy back end is overhauled. If you notice any new issues related to Energy, please let us know!
  • Falling event can no longer target bottled cards.
  • Fixed issue where bottled cards + Duplication event caused issues.
  • Fixed issues where loading a save after receiving a relic from Neow wouldn't retain +Energy or +Card Draw effects.
  • Fixed typo in Transmutation card description.
  • Fixing typo for Donu & Deca achievement description.
  • Fixing typo in Matryoshka's flavor text.
  • Slaver and Shelled Parasite combat in the city have their order swapped so the slaver will not apply Vulnerable before attacked by Parasite.
  • The You Are Nothing achievement can be achieved on The Awakened One now.

Discuss the latest patch notes here.
Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs


Hey everyone, it's patch day again!

This patch brings a lot of back end changes for stability and future content.
While not too exciting on the content side, this is necessary to ensure quality and flexibility.

Slay the Spire is getting more and more popular! For all you new players, welcome! For all of you previous players, we would sincerely like to thank you for spreading the word. Thank you! It means a lot that you enjoy our game and spread the agony of defeat accomplished feeling of victory!

Back End Changes!?
Yes, lots of exciting things are happening behind the scenes. Progress continues for the enigmatic 3rd character and leaderboards are coming soon(tm). Those in the beta branch have been a great help and we hope that we can feed your competitive needs in the next week.

Save Migration
When you run this week's build, your save data will be copied from the original directory (.prefs) to the new directory found in the game directory in a new "preferences" folder (betaPreferences for beta). Yes, this will diverge beta and non-beta save data.

This solves anti-virus false positives, full disk errors, and allows us to utilize Steam Auto-Cloud.

Steam Auto-Cloud
Your saves are now synced between computers! Please be careful not to overwrite your main save. If this occurs, the data is recoverable- there will be extra steps posted in the Bugs & Crashes FAQ in the Steam Discussions.

Localization
This weekly patch brings BETA-level localization for Korean.
Here's a quick refresher on how to change your language!



We're still looking for community translators! Any and all help for translations are greatly appreciated. Just stop by the official Slay the Spire Discord's localization channel.

HOTFIX
  • The way writing files were written had a potential to corrupt the file if you quit while files were being written. Files are now written in a safer way (buffer + flush)
  • The Awakened One actually heals to full HP now.

Balance
  • The Awakened One gets many changes (spoilers blocked):
  • > HP is increased from 300 -> 320.
  • > Curiosity is nerfed from 3 -> 2
  • > Form 2 HP 200 -> 240
  • > Form 2 no longer cleanses buffs (Strength is retained)
  • > Form 2: Dark Echo 40 -> 32
  • > Form 2: 12 x 2 attack is now 10 x 2 attack
  • > Form 2: 16 damage attack is now 12 damage
  • > Form 2: Cleanse move is removed
  • Bronze Automaton's Hyper Beam damage is increased from 40 -> 45.
  • Feed no longer works on Minions (New Power: Minion to let you know who are minions).
  • Golden Idol Event options are slightly harsher. 20% -> 25% damage and 5% -> 8% Max HP loss.
  • Maximum gold score bonus now caps at 300 (was unlimited).
  • Exhume card can no longer return an Exhume card to your hand.
  • You can no longer get both a curse and card removal in the same Neow Risk/Reward option.
  • Sentry enemy now gives you 2x Dazed instead of Wounds.
  • Sentry enemy's max HP is raised by 2 (to compensate).

UI and Effects
  • Localization: Several updates to CN (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
  • Adding Win Streak and High Score into Statistics screen.
  • Hex Power wording improvements.
  • Energized Power wording improvements.
  • Intangible Power wording improvements.
  • Enchiridion relic wording improvements.

Bug Fixes
  • Adding a used up image for Neow's Lament.
  • Blue Candle and Medical Kit should now work with Choke and Thousand Cuts.
  • Cloak and Dagger no longer appears in the card match event before it is unlocked, instead there is always a copy of Neutralize.
  • Energy back end is overhauled. If you notice any new issues related to Energy, please let us know!
  • Falling event can no longer target bottled cards.
  • Fixed issue where bottled cards + Duplication event caused issues.
  • Fixed issues where loading a save after receiving a relic from Neow wouldn't retain +Energy or +Card Draw effects.
  • Fixed typo in Transmutation card description.
  • Fixing typo for Donu & Deca achievement description.
  • Fixing typo in Matryoshka's flavor text.
  • Slaver and Shelled Parasite combat in the city have their order swapped so the slaver will not apply Vulnerable before attacked by Parasite.
  • The You Are Nothing achievement can be achieved on The Awakened One now.

Discuss the latest patch notes here.
...