Slay the Spire 2 beta patch v0.113.0 adds The Fool and two new modes

Mega Crit released beta patch v0.113.0 for Slay the Spire 2 on November 12, 2026, calling it "the biggest (beta) patch yet" in the official patch notes. It adds The Fool, the first new character of the Early Access period, and two new game modes, Blitz and Dread. The game is also new in the US Steam top sellers at position 5 after 162 hours off the list, and it is currently discounted by 20 percent.

The catch for anyone booting the game today: everything new is limited to the beta branch. Players have to opt in via the game's properties in the Steam library, under Game Versions & Betas, by selecting "public-beta". The main branch instead gets the content of the previous beta version, v0.111.0.

The Fool, Blitz and Dread

Mega Crit describes The Fool as "a silly musician who wields a bow". Kotaku counts her as the game's sixth playable character; her main gimmick is an Arrow that inflicts the Impaled status when fired with specific cards. She can also generate Tarot Cards of other Slay the Spire characters, including The Hermit and The Watcher, which Kotaku reads as a hint at who comes next. Mega Crit has not confirmed further characters and expects "a great number of content and balance changes" before The Fool reaches the main branch.

Blitz is a condensed, deckbuilding-focused mode: the map is gone, Gold no longer matters and the Merchant's wares are changed. It has five Ascension levels shared across all characters and unlocks after completing an Ascension run of any difficulty. Dread sits at the other end. It requires Ascension 10 on all characters, The Fool included, enables all Ascension modifiers, makes bosses stronger and lets them buff every enemy in their act, while curses pile up during the climb. The patch notes put it plainly: "Death is expected." According to Notebookcheck, co-founder Casey Yano confirmed in the newsletter Q&A that the new modes work in single-player and multiplayer. Smaller changes include rest sites that can appear one floor earlier in every act and a new Byrdpip evolution event.

A rocky year on Steam

Mega Crit had announced the date in its October Neowsletter of October 30, saying all of these features were on the Early Access roadmap from launch. A roadmap post on Steam also lists an alternate Act 2 as in progress; it is not among this patch's headline features.

Of 208,590 Steam reviews, 61 percent are positive, which Steam rates as "Mixed", and the store page notes periods of off-topic review activity. PC Gamer reported over 9,000 negative reviews in less than a day over a card nerf in a beta patch that had not gone live, mainly a change to the Silent's Prepared card; Mein-MMO counted over 10,000 negative reviews on March 20, 2026 alone. Kotaku reported a second round from April 17 after the first "Major Update", with complaints about Act 3's Doormaker boss and roughly 27,000 negative reviews. Mega Crit replied that, from millions of runs, the boss's "overall difficulty/winrate is in a good place".

Kotaku's first take on the new character is positive: it calls The Fool "super fun". Steam's chart showed 84,190 players at 23:41 UTC on November 12, rank 11 by current players. In its report on the April review wave, Kotaku had put the daily concurrent count at roughly 250,000.

For a new player, the game costs $19.99 instead of $24.99 right now. Anyone who wants The Fool and the new modes needs the beta branch and should expect changes. PCGamesN's roadmap article says bigger pieces such as the Act 4 boss are expected with the 1.0 release.