Slay the Spire 2 is, quite notably, a game in early access. This means many things, but most importantly it means that any changes that are made aren’t necessarily final, they’re just more tests to see what does and doesn’t work. The roguelike deckbuilder’s first proper update went live yesterday, adding in a phobia mode with some bespoke assets and making a whole bunch of tweaks. It’s that second part that has riled up the feathers of some spire slayers (just have a brief trawl of recent reviews), prompting developer Mega Crit to take a moment to explain just how they go about their “patching methodology.”

Taking to their own Dwitter account, Mega Crit explained that they “make changes based on a mix of player feedback, collected metrics, and our own design philosophies.” While they do look at feedback across “many platforms,” the most useful stuff is from their in-game reporter, i.e. you’re better off going through that than leaving a negative Steam review because apparently that’s how we get attention these days.

Mega Crit directly addressed the recent update directly saying that “this beta balance pass was the first of many to come over the next 1-2 years. The game will go through constant changes with the ultimate goal of making it as balanced of an experience as StS1 became. This progress will not be linear, and no change is necessarily permanent.” They also pointed people towards the beta branch as being an optional but “very helpful” place to offer feedback, given that it’s the game at its most experimental.

So, if you’re genuinely unhappy with how the game is shaping up after its first big update update (and we really should stress how early this is), you’ve got some options to give a helping hand. And if you’re not one of the 10 billion people that appear to be playing Slay the Spire 2, you can pick it up on Steam right here.