STS2 Patch Notes — 2026-02-19

Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the Early Access trailer reveal today! We're polishing up the art, making some performance improvements, and overall just sweeping up some bugs as we prep for launch. For those who have unlocked all characters you'll see a new Random option now! This should help out if you're feeling indecisive :)

CONTENT

• In the final encounter with The Architect, the player now attacks before being attacked back

BALANCE

General

• The 7th card reward you receive on your first-ever run now contains Tremble instead of Molten Fist

Ironclad

• Nerfed Eternal Armor card: Plating decreased from 9(11) -> 7(9)

Regent

• Nerfed BEGONE! card: damage decreased from 6(7) -> 4(5)
• Nerfed Cloak of Stars card: Block decreased from 8(11) -> 7(10)
• Nerfed Conqueror card: Forge decreased from 6(9) -> 3(5)
• Nerfed Pale Blue Dot card: trigger threshold increased from 4 -> 5
• Nerfed Wrought in War card: Forge decreased from 8 -> 5
• Nerfed Parry card:

- No longer Forges

- Block decreased from 10(13) -> 6(9)

• Nerfed Refine Blade card:

- Forge decreased from 10(11) -> 6(10)

- Energy no longer upgrades

• Changed Spoils of War card:

- Energy cost increased from 0 -> 1

- Forge increased from 6(9) -> 10(15)

Potions & Relics

• Changed Old Coin, Molten Egg, Frozen Egg, and Toxic Egg relics: no longer will spawn at the Act 3 chest or later
• Changed History Course relic: when it auto-plays a copy of a Bound card, it no longer counts towards Chains of Binding's one-Bound-card limit that turn
• Changed Kusarigama and Tuning Fork relics: swapped effects
• Changed Lava Rock and Sandcastle relics: swapped effects and Sandcastle is now a Neow relic instead of Lava Rock

Enemies

• Buffed Damp Cultist: starting damage now scales with ascension
• Changed Doormaker: is now out for one additional turn and gets another turn of attacks in
• Buffed Gremlin Merc: now scales offensively with Ascension and applies additional Weak
• Changed Leaf Slime: now attacks more often
• Changed Living Fog: now attacks on the turn it summons
• Buffed Punch Construct: Strong Punch move damage increased from 12(14) -> 14(16)
• Buffed Rocket (formerly Infested boss): big attack damage increased from 28(30) -> 31(35)
• Buffed Test Subject phase 2 initially hits an additional time

Ancients

• Changed Tezcatara's Toasty Mittens relic: now shuffles your discard pile into your draw pile if it's empty

Events

• Nerfed Lost Wisp event relic: damage decreased from 9 -> 8
• Nerfed Mad Science event: Skill option decreased from 10 -> 8
• Buffed Mysterious Knight event fight: Strength and Plating increased from 5 -> 6
• Nerfed Punch Off event fight: the Punch Constructs now start off weaker

ART

• Added assets for the following relics:

- Akabeko

- Beautiful Bracelet

- Belt Buckle

- Bone Flute

- Bowler Hat

- Bronze Scales

- Candelabra

- Chandelier

- Cloak Clasp

- Data Disk

- Demon Tongue

- Divine Destiny

- Festive Popper

- Gold-Plated Cables

- History Course

- Ivory Tile

- Lost Coffer

- Miniature Tent

- Neow's Torment

- New Leaf

- Pael's Blood

- Paper Krane

- Pendulum

- Power Cell

- Ruined Helmet

- Runic Capacitor

- Sand Castle

- Signet Ring

- Sturdy Clamp

- Tough Bandages

- Unsettling Lamp

- Wing Charm

• Added assets for Vakuu relics
• Modified the assets for the following relics:

- Driftwood

- Gorget

- Paperweight

- Leafy Poultice

- Ringing Triangle

- Resized Gremlin Merc enemies

- Resized the Kin enemies

- Kin followers now have hair

- Updated Mad Crab design

- Updated Regent's top bar icon

- Updated Run History icons

• De-Chin-ified Ironclad in character select button and background
• Updated Fake Merchant background
• Fixed a minor z-sorting issue in Ceremonial Beast's background with beads and skulls
• Fixed Sand Waterfall VFX in the Insatiable boss fight
• Implemented animation for Pael's Legion
• Made some small edits to Underdocks background VFX
• Replaced a texture used in the dock pole water reflection VFX
• Added missing VFX to an Underdocks background scene

USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE

General

• Stunned creatures now have a stunned VFX when they execute their move
• Made some Settings menu changes:

- Added text effects toggle

- Added padding to settings scroll containers

- Shortened Language label

- Implemented upload data toggle

• Combat Speed setting is now Fast Mode and is a tickbox
• Added a button and icon for random character selection
• Disallowed random button to appear if not all characters are unlocked
• Added confirmation popup to the main menu quit button
• Fixed positioning of the leaderboard at the game over screen for the Daily
• Removed logo fade when skipping splash animation as it reveals transparent layering and the fadeout exists anyways
• Deleting the profile you are currently playing on shows it as "empty" until you exit the screen
• Adjusted time it takes for you to hover/drag a card in your hand after it is initially drawn
• Changed sorting order for misc category in card library
• Locked potions now appear locked in the Potion Lab
• Condensed feedback categories to just bug, balance, and feedback
• Removed email field in feedback screen
• Credits screen now has a logo plus smoothed logic and adjusted auto-scroll speed
• Credits button is now GOLD
• Dialogue continue button is now animated, reacts to clicks, and fades in along with other UI + the arrow is a texture to make it translation-proof
• Epochs discovered on the game over screen no longer contain Epoch name spoilers now
• Event options that will kill you now show a red glow at all times, instead of just when hovered
• Finishing The Merchant??? combat now immediately opens up the map instead of returning to the event first
• Fixed italics font in Ancients dialogue being off center vertically
• Translation dropdown now notes which languages are well-translated
• Ancient dialogues which are not the current one are now considerably more transparent, can be hovered via cursor (sorry controller peeps)
• Added controller selection reticle to feedback screen
• Added selection reticle when hovering over Epoch slots via controller

Multiplayer

• Players can no longer throw the fruit juice potion at an ally outside of combat

Modding:

• Created a shortcut for adding content to pools (see ModHelper class)

WRITING

• Renamed the following relics:

- Enormous Ring -> Bone Flute

- Master's Teachings -> Ivory Tile

- Top Hat -> Bowler Hat

- Flashlight -> Candelabra

- Nye Shroud -> Chandelier

- Laughing Stone -> Demon Tongue

- My Mantle -> Galactic Dust

- Lightbulb -> Lava Lamp

- Starter Pack -> Lost Coffer

- Pael's Lamp -> Pael's Blood

- Fishing Rod -> Pomander

- Lidar -> Power Cell

- Seethe -> Ruined Helmet

- Perpetual Coin -> Signet Ring

- Leveler -> Sturdy Clamp

- Dybbuk Cube -> Unsettling Lamp

- Clipped Wing -> Wing Charm

- Hand of Vakuu -> Sere Talon

- Crimson Pendant -> Distinguished Cape

- Little Ghost -> Music Box

- Merchant's Robes -> Lord's Parasol

- Broken Chain -> Preserved Fog

- Vakuu's Cape -> Fiddle

- Music Box -> Jeweled Mask

- Starter Flare -> Festive Popper

- Galactic Dust -> Divine Destiny

• Renamed Infested Boss -> Kaiser Crab
• Follow Through card now specifies that its Weak application trigger does not take previous turns into account
• Oblivion card's power hovertip wording is now clearer that the enemy gains Doom, not the player
• Improved Lava Rock relic wording
• "Throne of Stars" is no longer colored gold in The Regent's character select screen description
• Dense Vegetation event's "Nap" option has been renamed to "Rest" to relate it more closely to resting at a Rest Site
• Negative event options now use less red coloring in their text
• Possess Strength and Sharp Edge powers' names no longer end with "Power"
• The word "Enchanted" is now properly highlighted in Clipped Wing relic's description
• Updated death quote if you die at Fake Merchant
• Fixed a typo in the dialogue between Tanx and The Silent
• Updated text for Vakuu and The Necrobinder's first dialogue
• Added more clarity to Preon Epoch
• Fixed Ironclad's chapter 4 and 5 Epochs being swapped
• Updated Silent's Epochs to be sorted in the correct order
• Added some credits
• Updated translations
• Fixed translation errors for the following languages:

- German

- French

- Korean

- Portuguese

- Russian

- Spanish

- Thai

- Turkish

• Removed stale translations
• Began translating credits

BUG FIXES

General

• Daily run always has everything unlocked
• Fixed edgecase where Timeline button could be disabled making players unable to start a run
• Fixed missing string for two Epochs
• Fixed rewards screen getting stuck in a low position if you clicked it too fast
• Fixed an issue where spending gold sometimes caused the potion slots in the top bar to wiggle
• Fixed being able to hide creature reticle when dragging around an AOE card
• Fixed esc key issues between the profile screen and the patch notes screen
• Fixed peek button appearing in Smith screen if players opened and closed the map
• Fixed softlock when clicking on locked Epoch
• Hovering over the Rest button at Rest Sites now shows the proper amount of healing when playing with the Night Terrors modifier
• The unlock instructions for The Regent, Necrobinder, and Defect now display the name of the pre-requisite character instead of ??? if that character is unlocked
• Run seed is now used for music variant selection to prevent inconsistent bank loading

Silent

• Fixed an issue where multi-targeted attacks would preview extra damage from Tracking card even if only the front enemy had Weak
• Follow Through card now properly applies Weak when the last card played was a Skill played via Sly discard
• Playing Shiv card after Fan of Knives card while all enemies are dead (and reviving) no longer results in the Shiv getting stuck in the middle of the screen

Defect

• Fixed Glass Orb icon in hovertip
• Fixed the Hand Drill card disappearing if it would proc both Echo Form and Feral
• When Lightning Rod card evokes Plasma Orb, its energy gain is no longer lost to the start-of-turn energy reset

Necrobinder

• Sleight of Flesh card no longer double-counts Enfeebling Touch

Regent

• Black Hole card now properly triggers at the end of a Star-cost card play rather than the beginning
• Fixed Regent's sword hovertip sticking around if a player used numpad to play start dragging a card

Potions & Relics

• Crossbow relic no longer makes cards cost 0 stars to play
• Fixed a softlock when Pendulum relic would draw Seeking Strike card after playing Hellraiser card
• Orichalcum??? relic now triggers at the same time as Orichalcum relic
• Prismatic Gem relic no longer causes Infested Automaton event to grant cards of unexpected types or Energy costs
• Tiny Mailbox and Dream Catcher relics now properly trigger when choosing the Rest option in Dense Vegetation event
• Toolbox relic no longer blocks Bellows relic from upgrading your opening hand

Enemies

• Fixed boss music disappearing when a different music variant bank is selected between runs

Ancients

• Fixed Ancient event option being unclickable in a tiny spot near the relic
• Fixed a softlock when transforming an Ancient card
• Fixed an issue with the hitbox when clicking through Ancient dialogue lines
• Pael's Eye relic no longer flashes after it's been used
• Pael's Growth relic now properly refers to Clone enchantment instead of Cloning Capsule
• Pael's Legion relic now doubles all Block gain when a card that gains Block multiple times is played

Events

• Fixed an issue with the Game Over screen after dying during the Abyssal Baths event
• The Lantern Key event's special card reward's text now fits properly into its button when playing in Korean
• The robots in Punch-Off event no longer punch each other at Benny-Hill-esque speeds when you're in Fast Mode

Localization

• Prevented Weblate upload from overwriting newer translations and hiding source changes

PERFORMANCE

• Removed lighting nodes for Hive
• VRAM compressed settings for some map and character icons