Home Slay the Spire 2: Expected release date, trailer, characters

Slay the Spire 2: Expected release date, trailer, characters

Developer Mega Crit has confirmed that Slay the Spire 2 is on its way, following up on the 2017 roguelike deck-building game from the indie studio.

Mega Crit announced the release of Slay the Spire 2 at the III Showcase, a video game showcase geared around indie games, back in April.

April 10 also saw the release of a teaser trailer which has gathered over 600,000 views and confirmed that the sequel game will have early access and offered a glimpse of a release window.

With the first Slay the Spire game scoring an impressive 89 among critics and 7.8 among the 831 players who rated it on Metacritic, the sequel game is eagerly awaited by those in the know. Read on for all the details of Slay the Spire 2 that we know so far.

When can we expect Slay the Spire 2 to come out?

There’s a very broad release window for Slay the Spire 2, with early access confirmed for 2025.

There are no further details than that but it’s safe to assume general access is coming in 2025, unless early access lasts for an unusually long time or comes at the very end of the year, with the full release possibly following early 2026.

This could indeed be the case, seeing as the first Slay the Spire game came out on November 17.

If the sequel follows the same rhythm, then early access could come as late as November or December 2025, followed by a full release in January 2026.

Slay the Spire 2 trailer breakdown

The trailer relies mostly on dramatic music and dynamic shots, but it does feature the return of the titular Spire.

The description stays similarly vague, reading only: “Civilization has waited 1,000 years for the Spire to reopen its doors…Return to the Spire and face friends and foes in Slay the Spire 2.”

The air of mystery keeps you guessing about what’s to come, but there are still some new details that we can infer from the little we see.

The fact that it’s been one thousand years since the first game means that a lot will surely have changed since then.

The efforts of the Ironclad, Silent, Defect, and Watcher to close the Spire at the end of the first game did last for several centuries – but no more.

Thanks to the admittedly sparse Slay the Spire 2 screenshots released on Steam, we do also have a sense of some of the returning cards, as well as two new ones for Ironclad. Cleave has got some new art, suggesting it’s got a new effect, while another two returning cards, Ghostly Armor and Shrug it Off, look more or less the same as before.

Two new cards are Molten Fist, with a hidden effect, and Hellraiser, a three-mana rare Power card where the effect also isn’t shown.

Slay the Spire 2 characters

A screenshot from the trailer showing three Slay the Spire 2 characters

Although it’s been one thousand years since the first game, Ironclad and The Silent will return as slayers in the sequel game. A new roster of creatures and monsters is also expected to make their debuts.

The in-game lore states that four characters must fight for eternity but that’s not to say that The Defect and Watcher will also return.

They are not seen in the trailer at least, so it could be that we only get Ironcal and The Silent.

For now, there are just three confirmed characters in Slay the Spire 2. We already see Ironclad and The Silent walking through shops and some other unfamiliar environments in the trailer (more evidence that some elements will certainly be new to the game) before we get a brief introduction to a third character.

The name of this third character appears to be The Necrobinder, thanks to some digging into the Steam listing.

The Necrobinder is a floating skeleton with a scythe. In an unusual move, it starts with just 35 health, just half of the first game’s lowest health start with The Silent’s 70.

The Necrobinder is described as “a wandering lich who seeks to bind the forgotten corpse. Calls upon her trusty left hand, Osty, in combat.”

The trailer does drop some clues that mean we might see at least The Defect appear, with some Defect-exclusive relics visible and Defect cards being sold by a merchant.

Mega Crit regularly reposts or shares love for Defect on social media, so it seems likely that they might lean into the fanbase’s love of the character still more.

Featured image: Mega Crit

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Rachael Davies
Tech Journalist

Rachael Davies has spent six years reporting on tech and entertainment, writing for publications like the Evening Standard, Huffington Post, Dazed, and more. From niche topics like the latest gaming mods to consumer-faced guides on the latest tech, she puts her MA in Convergent Journalism to work, following avenues guided by a variety of interests. As well as writing, she also has experience in editing as the UK Editor of The Mary Sue , as well as speaking on the important of SEO in journalism at the Student Press Association National Conference. You can find her full portfolio over on…

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