# Slay the Spire II arrives soon! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [March 1, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111 "2026-03-01T17:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/21 "2026-03-16T15:58:15Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > But so far without Internet it has saved my progress even when I close and restart the program. It just saves it locally, it will sync up as soon as you connect. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/22 "2026-03-16T17:10:14Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > It just saves it locally, it will sync up as soon as you connect. Just make sure that if Steam Cloud warns you about a save conflict, that you choose the most recent version (your offline one). Otherwise it’ll overwrite your local progress with the older cloud version. (This only really happens if you play from multiple computers and the sync is interrupted on one of them) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/23 "2026-03-16T17:25:56Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Just make sure that if Steam Cloud warns you about a save conflict, that you choose the most recent version (your offline one). Good advice. It is warning me that I could lose my progress when it syncs, so we’ll see what happens. I don’t know if the Silent is the easiest character, but she’s definitely more fun to play than Ironclad. Usually I’m all about the melee characters, but in this case I’m pro-assassin. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/24 "2026-03-16T20:01:42Z")
They should be using this game to teach basic math. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/25 "2026-03-16T20:32:36Z")
I have found that if I play too late at night, I start getting sloppy. When I mentioned this to my husband, he said, “Good thing the game is so forgiving when you make small mistakes rather than leading you to a slow and inevitable decline and eventual death.” There are definitely times where I just want to restart the game because it’s clear I don’t have a chance. But I tend to play to the bitter end. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/26 "2026-03-16T20:52:12Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > They should be using this game to teach basic math. Basic? I’m really struggling with the combinatorics of it 😅 Maybe it’s just my build, but playing as the Regent, I keep trying to get a star-power based loop, with multiple copies of [Decisions, Decisions](https://sts2.untapped.gg/en/cards/decisions-decisions) letting you play e.g. 9x [Venerate](https://sts2.untapped.gg/en/cards/venerate), which in turn triggers [Black Hole](https://sts2.untapped.gg/en/cards/black-hole) and [Child of the Stars](https://sts2.untapped.gg/en/cards/child-of-the-stars). When it manages to go off, you basically become invulnerable and kill all the enemies in a single turn. But it’s really hard to both get the optimal number of those cards and cull the rest, and especially to survive long in the act tree to get to that point! I think I’m missing the point of this game, lol. I keep trying to play it like Magic the Gathering, where you can optimize your deck beforehand. The roguelite part of this game, though, makes that _extremely_ unlikely to happen. Out of dozens of runs, I only managed to get those nearly ideal conditions once, used it in glee, and then died to an elite the very next round 😭 In Magic, it was actually possible to create infinite loops in some cases, with cards that play off each other forever until your opponent gives up or the game crashes. It _might_ be possible to do the same in STS2, but I’m not sure yet. Haven’t seen enough of the cards to say for sure… ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/27 "2026-03-16T21:02:43Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > “Good thing the game is so forgiving when you make small mistakes rather than leading you to a slow and inevitable decline and eventual death.” And lol at that. The game is too frustratingly good at letting you get within just 1-2 turns of victory, only to kill you. The amount of times we’ve died to the Act 2 boss by just that TINY little bit is incredibly aggravating. Last night my partner died and I got the boss down to 2 hit points, but I miscalculated my block by a few HP and he got me first ☹ I think I had a Vulnerable debuff on my char and didn’t realize it… it was so late, and we were so tired… I really wish there was an undo or at least “Retry?” feature so you don’t lose hours of progress to one mistake… ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/28 "2026-03-16T21:09:33Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I think I’m missing the point of this game, lol. I keep trying to play it like Magic the Gathering, where you can optimize your deck beforehand. The roguelite part of this game, though, makes that _extremely_ unlikely to happen. Out of dozens of runs, I only managed to get those nearly ideal conditions once, used it in glee, and then died to an elite the very next round 😭 Yeah, it’s not a deck building game as you can basically destroy the game if you can build your own deck. It’s a “make the best of what you got” game, which is what keeps it fresh. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/29 "2026-03-16T21:45:57Z")
The daily/custom runs can have “Sealed Deck”, where you build your own deck, and other tweaks. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/30 "2026-03-17T02:35:10Z")
You can definitely craft your deck as best as possible by removing cards and not taking cards at every reward. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/31 "2026-03-17T13:34:44Z")
The challenge is you don’t know what’s going to come up. Hard to plan a deck when you’re not sure what cards will be on offer. But I think the more you get to know what the different cards do, the better chance you have. > [@Reply](#): > > Last night my partner died and I got the boss down to 2 hit points, but I miscalculated my block by a few HP and he got me first Yup, I lost by 1 HP because I forgot Knowledge Demon was going to deal 7 damage at the end of my turn. He died, but so did I. So close. I’ve got him a couple times, but that guy is tough. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/32 "2026-03-17T15:02:33Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The daily/custom runs can have “Sealed Deck”, where you build your own deck, and other tweaks. I just unlocked this mode and can’t wait to try it. It makes the early grind much more bearable since you can start with a somewhat decent deck instead of total crap, and don’t have to cull as many bad cards later. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/33 "2026-03-17T16:41:26Z")
I don’t think the daily wins count as ascensions though. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/34 "2026-03-17T16:44:52Z")
Do the custom ones count? (The third game type, not the dailies in the middle) ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/35 "2026-03-17T16:56:18Z")
Sorry, haven’t tried those at all. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/36 "2026-03-18T09:38:12Z")
Finally got a regent win, only the necrobinder and defect left. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/37 "2026-03-18T11:07:30Z")
In the original game I had the hardest time with the Defect but somehow I am on level 3 with him here already. 2 with the Silent, 1 with the Ironclad and I cannot yet win with the two new ones but I haven’t played them much. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/38 "2026-03-18T13:54:13Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Do the custom ones count? (The third game type, not the dailies in the middle) It does count, apparently. We got both epoch unlocks and a new ascension — our first multiplayer one. Apparently the multiplayer ascensions are independent of the single player ones. > [@DigitalC](#): > > Yeah, it’s not a deck building game as you can basically destroy the game if you can build your own deck. You’re totally right about this, though, lol. I played with a Sealed Deck plus the “3 copies of every card” modifier and created an engine that let me play my whole deck several times over in one turn, with like 12 free cards plus repeats plus replays plus redraws plus 4x “spend 3 energy, get 1 back” plus a dozen powers… couldn’t remember the rest. In one boss fight, in a single turn I went from 0 to like 80+ block, got _more_ energy per card I played, and ended up doing several hundred damage and killing him entirely by accident while I was still just warming up the engine… 😅 Totally trivialized the difficulty. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/39 "2026-03-18T14:01:05Z")
I think the term “deck building” is the issue here. In table top games, “deck building” is a mechanic where you start with a bunch of basic cards and acquire cards from a river display or market. Those cards cycle back through your deck as you reshuffle your discard pile and you create a deck as you play. “Deck construction” is a game like Magic or Pokémon where you acquire cards (often in random boosters) and create a deck before the game starts. Slay the Spire 1 and II are quintessential deck building games. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111/40 "2026-03-18T14:12:45Z")
Well, it’s both. In the regular mode you slowly add and remove cards through the course of a run. But in the custom mode and some dailies, you can indeed construct a deck beforehand. They just haven’t balanced for that quite yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slay-the-spire-ii-arrives-soon/1028111.md?page=3)