Slay the Spire 2 Patch Rips Act 3 Boss Doormaker Out the Game, Developer Explains Decision

Slay the Spire 2 developer Mega Crit has released a new major patch for the roguelike deckbuilder sequel that pulls an Act 3 boss out of the game.

In an update on Steam detailing patch v0.105.0, available now in the beta branch, Mega Crit confirmed it had removed Doormaker, replacing it with Aeonglass.

The significant change comes as Slay the Spire 2 wrestles with pretty much constant review bombing campaigns in reaction to balance changes, including to Doormaker.

In late April, Mega Crit addressed Doormaker and the complaints about its various frustrating abilities, insisting it wanted to give players the chance to get to grips with it.

"We are currently monitoring the Doormaker and looking at a combination in-game feedback, social media posts, and metrics," Mega Crit said at the time.

"We want to give players time to adjust a bit, otherwise we'll be balancing around kneejerk reactions.

Currently, from looking at millions of runs, Doormaker's overall difficulty/winrate is in a good place (slightly weaker than the other Act 3 bosses both in kill rate and damage dealt).

However, we do want to ensure that its mechanics aren't too abrasive against certain playstyles."
Clearly, Mega Crit decided the game would be better off without Doormaker all together.

But it will be interesting to see how this change goes down with players.

Recent reviews for the game on Steam are “mostly negative,” with all English reviews still on “very positive.” As IGN has reported, Steam users in China will often take to review-bombing because they’re unable to express their frustrations with a video game in other ways.

“Doormaker has been replaced with a brand new boss, Aeonglass!” Mega Crit said.

“While Doormaker had interesting micro decisions in the fight, he was over the complexity threshold of what we want and had lingering issues.

We decided that starting over fresh will let us hit what we actually want for an Act 3 boss.”
Meanwhile, Mega Crit confirmed it had switched to releasing a patch every two weeks rather than one to help the development team work on bigger changes.

“This may be a bit surprising as the first game patched weekly, but it was a lot of work so it really sucked,” the developer said.

“Anyways, the two-week cadence should make it less hectic for us, allowing bigger changes and more time working and polishing stuff before it goes out.

It also allows more time for beta players to absorb and give feedback on changes.”
Elsewhere, Slay the Spire 2 now has The Bestiary.

“While it's still an outline of what it will end up being, we hope that seeing these monsters and their animations and data (not yet implemented) all listed in a separate screen will be fun,” the developer added.

Slay the Spire 2 is still in early access, and will no doubt change significantly between now and its full launch.

This latest patch makes a number of balance changes — check out the patch notes below to find out more.

Slay the Spire 2 beta patch notes - v0.105.0:

CONTENT & BALANCE:

• The Bestiary is now available in the Compendium

• Nerfed Blade of Ink card: Inky enchantment damage decreased from +2 -> +1

• Slightly reworked Sword Sage card:
  • Old: Sword Sage - Power - Cost 2(1) - Rare - "Sovereign Blade now hits an additional time."
  • New: Sword Sage - Power - Cost 2(1) - Rare - "Sovereign Blade gains Replay 1."
  • Among other things, this means that Sword Sage card now has synergy with Parry card
• Nerfed Bulwark card: Block decreased from 13(16) -> 12(15)
• Buffed Crescent Spear card: base damage increased from 6 -> 8
• Nerfed Patter card: Block gain decreased from 9(11) -> 8(10)
• Buffed Royalties card: Gold Gain from 30(35) -> 30(40)

• Buffed Infused Core relic: now also gains "Lighting Orbs deal 1 additional damage."
• Buffed Hyperbeam: damage increased from 26(34) -> 28(36)
• Buffed Shatter card: now Evokes all of your Orbs twice
• Buffed Tesla Coil+ card: damage decreased from 6 -> 4, but Lightning Triggers increased from once -> twice
• Buffed Uproar card: damage increased from 5(7) -> 6(8)

• Buffed Gold Axe card: in multiplayer, now deals damage equal to the number of cards played by ALL players, not just cards played by its owner

• Reworked Doormaker to a new boss, Aeonglass
• Changed Fossil Stalker: in multiplayer, now gains a set amount of Strength if it hits any player, instead of gaining Strength for each player hit
• Changed Haunted Ship: now applies 3 Weak on Turn 1 instead of applying Weak when it attacks
• Buffed Soul Fysh: Scream move damage increased from 11(12) -> 13(15)

• Reworked Tezcatara's Pumpkin Candle relic
  • Old: "Gain 1 Energy at the start of each turn.

    Extinguishes at the start of Act 3."

  • New: "Gain 1 Energy at the start of each turn.

    Extinguishes after 5 combats.

    Can be Kindled at rest sites."

• Added new Neow relics:
  • Kaleidoscope (temp name) - "Upon pickup, gain 2 card rewards with cards from other characters."
  • Fishing Rod - "Every 3 normal combats, Upgrade a random card in your Deck."
  • Silken Tress - "Enchant all cards in the first card reward with Glam."
• Moved Tezcatara's Seal of Gold relic to option 3 so that it is in the same pool as Pumpkin Candle

• To avoid softlocking after setting up an infinite loop (i.e.

  Hellraiser + 2 Pommel Strike cards), Hellraiser will only play 9 cards per turn if all enemies have infinite HP

  • Hellraiser card now properly plays cards containing "Strike" against enemies with infinite HP

• Fixed Fan of Knives card VFX not playing

• Fixed not being able to select cards with controller when you choose all the cards in your hand via GUARDS!!! card

• Fixed Fetch card not glowing gold if it is drawn by Gambling Chip relic
• Fixed Enfeebling Touch power causing Ceremonial Beast to gain Strength after you stun it

• Fixed VFX sometimes failing to appear during Rolling Boulder power effect

• Players are now disallowed from throwing the Foul Potion if the Merchant inventory is open
• Using Foul Potion on the Merchant no longer freezes the game on controller
• Bookmark relic is now able to properly apply its cost-reduction effect to a card that has been retained by a "Retain your Hand" effect like Equilibrium card
• Fixed Beetle Juice potion causing Vantom's tail to become visibly cut off
• If the player has The Boot relic and deals Skulking Colony 1-4 damage, they now properly take 5 damage

• Fixed issue where the top of the next dialogue bubble was slightly visible before it would animate in at Ancients
• Fixed being able to navigate back to Neow's blessing options while looking at the Card Library
• Fixed card inspection button blocking "accept" hotkey when looking at the Pandora's Box relic card view screen
• Fixed issue where playing Wish card via controller would immediately select a card in the grid on the same button press

• Fixed Kaiser Crab appearing if you load into an already completed boss room
• Recentered Axebot in fight so it looks like there is supposed to be only one of them
• Fixed a softlock that occurred if the player set up an infinite against Skulking Colony

You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.