Early access starts 3/5. I am very excited. I never fully finished the first one (got to 20 with the Ironclad and Silent and 19 with the Defect and the Watcher) but it is by far the game I play the most when I just want to blow off some steam while listening to a podcast or music. Really excited for the follow-up. Anyone else?
I’ve never played Slay the Spire, but I’ve watched lots of Youtube videos on it. I’ll probably watch some videos on the sequel, but I kind of got diminishing returns from Monster Train 2 compared to Monster Train 1 (so it may be the same for Slay the Spire 2 vs. Slay the Spire 1).
It’s a great game but the first one kicked my ass and I never finished it. (I beat it with each character but never beat the final boss.) I’ll probably check it out anyway but I imagine I’ll still suck at it.
Well it is out and it is amazing. I have already played it for two hours.
Yeah, it’s full of win. I bought it on Saturday and I’ve already put in ten hours solo - which is a lot given my limited time on the weekends. My husband and I played together last night. I’m hoping it has staying power for him because he didn’t really enjoy solo running on the first game and never really got into it. But he said he had a lot of fun last night.
Although, that poor man. He got Bludgeon and was under the mistaken impression he could pay to upgrade it in the shop. Yep… He spent all his money accidentally removing one of the best cards from his deck. Oof.
I told him it was okay because we’d be dead soon anyway. Best time to do something like that is during the practice run.
It was fun trying to negotiate with him about what order to use our cards. A bit chaotic.
The game is no less difficult than the first, but I like how they’ve fleshed out the world a bit and added some color. It does feel dynamic. I liked having a little bird companion. Those machine guys you have to kill at exactly the same time made me wanna throw things, though.
How does multiplayer work? Do you take turns one after the other? Are there more (or harder) enemies depending on player count?
You are both on the same screen at the same time. You can each act independently so you can take your turn at the same time. The monsters attack both of you at once. The loot appears to be individual with the exception of relics in chests, for some reason. Those you have to negotiate.
You can see what cards the other person has in their deck and also what cards they are mousing over, which is useful if you want to discuss a card. You can see their health and block info.
There are certain cards that can aid your teammates, and you can use potions on each other. Furthermore, there’s a new rest area option to mend a teammate. Another cool thing is that sometimes your powers get better. For example, the card/status Strangle damages the monster every time either of you plays a card.
I can’t tell if the enemies have more health. I imagine it will take some time to balance the game for multiplayer. It seems a little easier going with two people, but then we’ve only just finished Act I.
What’s the timeline for this on iOS?
They’re predicting up to two years in early access so probably about that long? Not sure if early access games ever go up on the Apple store.
Thanks! I’ll have to try this with my partner.
The enemies have multiplied health and their attacks hit all players.
I’ve played 22 hours of this already somehow. Spouse Weasel is officially hooked. We beat the first part together (by literally one hit point) and we’re in Asencion 1, Act 2. I never did Asencion with the first game so I’m not really sure how it works.
My solo ventures have been much sadder. But that’s unchanged from the first game! I truly suck at this.
Lots of fun though.
Never tried the first one but this one is addicting as crack. Got to ascension 2 with the Silent.
I guess I can’t complain since its early access but the difficulty between the characters is way out of whack. I have the Ironclad and the Silent to ascension 3 and I can see how their multiple builds work, but the other three I can’t make anything work.
Same! I introduced my partner to it and we ended up playing 11 hours of it over two days, lol. I’ve never seen her get so hooked on a game so quickly. Thanks again for the multiplayer suggestion.
The Slay the Spire board game expansion has a Kickstarter later this month, too: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/contentiongames/sts-downfall
Curious if anyone else has had crashes. I have had a few runs I had to abandon because they crashed and if I tried to resume it crashed again. No complaints, it’s early access after all, but wondering if anyone else has the issue.
Never had any crashes. Did have some issues with my husband being booted from multiplayer when his connection was fine.
I’ve been playing today but our Internet is down until at least Tuesday. It’s still letting me play and saving my game but I may lose all my progress when we get our Internet back. I figure it’s okay because I’m not actually making progress. 
Okay I made a little. I made it to Act 3 boss with The Silent. Died, but I’m calling it a win.
A couple times, but the game picked up right after with no issues.
We’ve had a couple of disconnects and one recoverable crash.
It also seems the game saves before every fight, which was useful not just for crashes but also for retrying fights we’re about to lose (just save and quit and reload it and it’ll start that battle over with the same seed).
Good to know!
As far as I can tell the game is playable offline. The key will be finding out if it syncs our progress to Steam when we have Internet again. But so far without Internet it has saved my progress even when I close and restart the program.
I’m grateful I can still play it, otherwise I’d have to read a book or something.