STS2 Patch Notes — 2025-09-25

In this September patch we're still churning our way through event updates and rewrites while polishing up art, SFX, and animations. Speaking of core content, Ceremonial Beast is reworked a bit again, now with a mix of new and old.

There's about ~50 runs being played per day right now, thank you all again for your playtest contributions and feedback :). We're still honing in on card balance and archetypes! Always open to feedback here--whether you're a seasoned veteran or starting off, all types of feedback and experiences are valid!

CONTENT

General:

• Added new Ascension, A10 - Villainy: Act 3 Bosses gain new abilities

Defect:

• Reworked the following cards:
• Feral
• Pilebunker
• Deprecated Second Strike card

Necrobinder:

• Reworked Call of the Void card

Regent:

• Reworked Stars in His Eyes card and renamed to CHARGE!!

Colorless Cards:

• Reworked Eternal Armor card

Potions & Relics:

• Deprecated Fyshing Float relic
• Amphorae relic renamed to Fresnel Lens and its effect now mimics Fyshing Float

Ancients:

• Added new Pael blessing, Pael's Friend

Enemies:

• Reworked Ceremonial Beast. Again.

Events:

• Deprecated Red Vine Tea relic from Tea Master event

BALANCE

General:

• Changed Act 1 - Overgrowth: no longer has a weak version of the Flyconid fight

Ironclad:

• Changed Tremble card:
• Energy cost increased from 0 -> 1
• No longer Exhausts

Silent:

• Changed Poisoned Stab card:
• Damage increased from 5(6) -> 6(8)
• Poison decreased from 4(5) -> 3(4)
• Changed Sucker Punch card:
• Damage increased from 7(9) -> 8(11)
• Weak decreased from 2(3) -> 1(2)

Defect:

• Nerfed Hailstorm card: changed from "Whenever you Channel Frost" -> "Whenever you Evoke Frost"

Necrobinder:

• Buffed Blight Strike card: damage increased from 7(9) -> 8(10)
• Changed Bodyguard card:
• Energy cost increased from 1 -> 2
• Damage increased from 5(7) -> 10(13)
• Summon decreased from 5(7) -> 5(6)
• Nerfed Danse Macabre card: Block decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)
• Nerfed Death's Visage card: damage decreased from 8(9) -> 7(8)
• Nerfed Demesne: is now Ethereal
• Changed Debilitate card:
• Damage decreased from 10(12) -> 7(9)
• Debuff increased from 2(3) -> 3(4) turns
• Buffed Grave Warden card: Block increased from 7(8) -> 8(10)
• Nerfed Negative Pulse card: Block decreased from 8(9) -> 7(8)
• Changed Protector card:
• Energy cost increased from 1 -> 2
• Damage increased from 10(14) -> 20(25)
• Summon decreased from 8(11) -> 8(10)
• Nerfed Sculpting Strike card:
• Damage decreased from 9(12) -> 8(11)
• Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common
• Changed Severance card:
• No longer adds a Soul(+) to your Hand
• Upgrade now gives you Soul+
• Changed Soul Storm card: upgrade changed from +1 Soul -> generating Soul+
• Nerfed Pot of Ghouls potion: Souls decreased from 4 -> 3

Regent:

• Changed BEGONE! card:
• Damage increased from 4(4) -> 6(7)
• Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common
• Minion Dive Bomb card's damage decreased from 16(21) -> 13(16)
• Changed Perfect Reflection card:
• Block increased from 10(14) -> 17(21)
• Rarity decreased from Common -> Uncommon
• Star cost increased from 2 -> 3

Colorless Cards:

• Nerfed Rolling Boulder card: damage scaling decreased from 10(15) -> 5(6)
• Changed Scrawl card: upgrade changed from -1 cost -> gains Retain

Ancients:

• Changed Oddly Heavy Stone relic: moved from a Darv blessing to a Tanx blessing

Enemies:

• Changed Corpse Slugs:
• Moveset reworked
• HP decreased
• Changed Vantom: is now always the first boss encountered in your first run
• Changed Mad Crab: moveset is no longer random
• Nerfed Shrinker Beetle: HP decreased from 40(42)-43(44) -> 38(40)-40(42)
• Buffed Toadpole: spike spit move damage increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

Events:

• Changed Tempting Bloom (now Colossal Flower) event: moved from from Act 1 to Act 2
• Changed Tea Master event's Bone Tea relic: now upgrades your hand for a single combat instead of 5 but costs less
• Changed Conveyor Belt event: no longer spawns unless you have at least 100 gold

ART

• Added animations for Living Smog
• Added death VFX for Corpse Slugs
• Added art for the following events:
• Morphic Grove
• Ranwid The Elder

AUDIO

• Add missing slap SFX to Knowledge Demon's slap attack
• Added SFX for the following enemies:
• Scroll of Biting
• Corpse Slug
• Added various enemy death SFX
• Added Treasure room SFX

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE

• Corrupted enchantment no longer causes the enchanted card to glow red if playing it would kill the player
• Devour Life card now previews how many Souls it will Exhaust
• Invoke card now glows gold if Osty has attacked this turn
• Creature sort order is now preserved as the death VFX plays

WRITING

• Renamed the following cards:
• Contractility -> Prolong
• GUARDS!! -> GUARDS!!! (one extra !)
• CHAAARGE -> Crush
• Drum Of Battle -> Drum of Battle (fixed title casing)
• Renamed the following events:
• Tempting Bloom -> Colossal Flower
• Telepathic Spiders -> Zen Weaver
• The Drowning Beacon -> Drowning Beacon (removed The)
• Renamed the following relics:
• Pulsing Core -> Pollinous Core
• Amphorae -> Fresnel Lens
• Re-renamed "Climbs" -> "Runs"
• Renamed Ascension 9 - Ancient's Scorn -> Lingering Bane
• Updated text for the following events:
• Tea Master
• Zen Weaver
• Drowning Beacon
• Fixed pluralization issue in Slumber power description
• Improved Debilitate card wording
• Adaptive Strike card now says "Add a 0 (energy symbol) copy..." instead of "Add a 0 cost copy..."
• All For One and Jackpot cards now say "0 (energy symbol) cards" instead of "cost 0 cards"
• Execution card now specifies that Shivs will only be played on the targeted enemy
• Sword Sage card now says "random enemy" instead of "random target"
• Toned down some rainbow text

BUG FIXES

General:

• Ambush, Invoke, and Stomp cards' cost reductions now properly apply if they're played multiple times in the same turn
• Button color is no longer ugly for some FTUEs
• Can no longer open deck view before seeing combat rules FTUE
• Can no longer open profile settings via hotkey when inspecting an Epoch
• Can no longer use hotkey to close map in Map Room
• Colorless card Epochs now include the cards that are unlocked
• Fixed an issue that was causing certain cards not to glow gold if their condition is met immediately after drawing your start-of-turn hand
• Scrutinized and Galvanized afflictions can no longer afflict Unplayable cards
• When previewing an upgrade for a card that generates other cards, if the upgrade causes the generated card to also be upgraded (such as Seance, which generates Soul+ instead of Soul when upgraded), the "+" in the generated card's name will now properly be colored green

Ironclad:

• Tear Asunder card no longer counts HP lost in events towards hits in the next combat
• Unmovable card no longer doubles enemy Block gain
• Heavy Blade card no longer intermittently highlights its damage green when you have negative Strength

Necrobinder:

• Death's Door card now properly glows gold after using Potion of Doom
• Fear card can now be enchanted by Nimble
• Shroud card no longer gives Block when an effect applies 0 Doom

Regent:

• Crescent Spear card now properly counts itself as a Star-cost card
• Resonance card can no longer give Replay to Unplayable cards

Colorless Cards:

• Fixed an issue where Fasten card's detail screen couldn't be viewed in the Card Library

Potions & Relics:

• The Formula potion no longer causes enemies to deal extra damage to you

Enemies:

• Decimillipede segment VFX no longer render above map screen
• Fixed flamethrower VFX when Mechaknight dies to Doom
• Fixed softlock when Tunneler dies to Doom when it burrows itself
• Fossil Stalker and Infested Prism monsters' Suck power no longer double-dips on Strength gain when a hit kills Osty and "tramples" over to also hit the player
• Knowledge Demon status cards no longer let "show upgrade" in inspection preview
• Thieving Hopper monster no longer shows the Merchant card removal animation when it steals your card
• Exoskeleton's Hard to Kill power now calculates the correct damage preview on attacks when the Exoskeleton also has Vulnerable

Events:

• Fixed run history for the Round Tea Party event's "Pick a Fight" choice
• Stone of All Time event now properly previews Vigorous 8 instead of Vigorous 1 when selecting the "Push" choice

Multiplayer:

• Dreamer giving Illusions more Max HP now scales in multiplayer