I’m a relatively-fresh convert to the cult of card games, even if I’ve had a longtime interest in them. I collected Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards as a kid, but barely touched the actual games. I found my way to deck-builders with the original Slay the Spire, and now have a regular Dominion game going with several expansions to my name. I love challenging games, but I still occasionally struggle with the strategy Slay the Spire demands. Even though my hours in both these games are littered with the tombstones of failed runs, I keep coming back because it feels so good when the cards align, and your deck becomes a boss-shredding machine.

Pure card-slinging bliss

With MegaCrit’s long-awaited follow up to their MegaHit deck-builder launching in Early Access in March, Slay the Spire 2 has dominated my gaming time lately. Even without looking ahead to an eventual 1.0 launch, I’m really happy with what we have now. The original trio of heroes, The Ironclad, The Silent, and The Defect feel as amazing to play as ever, with fun shifts to design that only get deeper as you reveal more new features with every run.

As for the new kids in school, the Regent and Necrobinder, I’m really enjoying their offerings, though I’ll admit that the Regent is the only character I have yet to beat a run with at the time of writing this blog. I certainly know how to dish out big damage with the Regent’s Sovereign Blade ability, but I keep dying before getting to wield my blade against the final boss! I’m guilty of picking shiny new attack card rewards when you need to scale up your defensive capabilities just as badly as your damage in this game. The Necrobinder offers a nice balance of damage and tanking potential, with her skeletal hand buddy Osty ready to block incoming damage as you play Summon cards to boost his health bar, and dish out some serious pain if given the right upgrades.

If you’re worried that the game won’t kick your ass as handily as the original Slay the Spire, I can assure you that’s not the case. Any enemy has the potential to annihilate your run if you underestimate them, and the new bosses are ruthless, with lots of unique mechanics to limit your deck in different ways. As with any good roguelike, I walk away from each failed run understanding my character more deeply, and getting a glimpse into the seemingly endless depths of potential synergies between the cards, consumables, relics, and event bonuses the Spire can offer.

Co-op shenanigans in the Spire

While my buddies and initially balked at the thick health bars and extra defenses that even low-level enemies have in Slay The Spire 2 co-op runs, they’re clearly a necessary anti-steamrolling measure when you’ve got multiple card games sickos building the best decks they can. In one multiplayer game, my Ironclad morphed into a semi-support character, focusing on hampering enemies with debuffs and using one of the new multiplayer-only cards to give my allies extra energy. I get just as excited seeing my friends pull off awesome turns as I do having my own heroic clutch moment.

Seeing how other people approach runs in the Spire is also an unexpectedly fascinating experience. Debating the most appealing routes through the branches of nodes in each Act exposes who in your group is most cautious, and who wants to dance on the corpses of as many Elites as possible. The special sauce of unpredictability and modularity that’s part and parcel of the roguelike format makes for some very fun multiplayer moments. Even if it’s not as challenging as single player, it’s thrilling to overcome bosses with a party. Like everything else in the game, multiplayer feels thoughtfully implemented, even in early access.

Early access and the road ahead

The game is already primed to suck away countless productive hours from my life this year, and there is even more on the horizon. Adding placeholder doodles for the odd card and Epoch that don’t have finished artwork is a charming choice, and Slay the Spire 2 already feels tight as a drum to play, though I’m sure balance adjustments and new cards will shift the rhythms of the game over time. It’s totally understandable if you don’t want to jump in until the 1.0 launch, but I’m excited to be along for the early access ride since I didn’t experience it with the original game.

In the studio’s April Neowsletter, MegaCrit co-founder Casey Yano laid out a roadmap of updates that includes a Bestiary feature where you can read about the Spire’s monsters, an alternate act 2 and 3, and a new character, with the “true ending” way further down the line. I’m happy to see that the founders have the well-being of their team top of mind, and aren’t saddling them with deadlines for these updates. As Yano put it, “Exacting deadlines produce sloppy uninspired work and I don’t want Sloppy Spire 2, I want Slay the Spire 2.”

Rest assured, “Sloppy Spire 2” it most certainly is not! It’s truly wild to me that the final Act 3 boss fight in a deck-builder (and even a few regular degular enemy scraps) can feel just as exciting as some of the toughest most climactic boss clashes in my favorite action games—especially when I’ve got my buds walloping our foes with me. Even if MegaCrit added zero new features, this game is still a slam dunk and an early frontrunner for my Game of the Year.