Ho, doughty Ascenders and Door defeaters! There’s a new beta patch out for roguelite deckbuilder Slay the Spire 2, following last week’s thunderous rolling of various beta updates into the game’s main release branch. This round of rebalancing takes specific aim at the game’s “baseline” difficulty, while trying to ensure that repeat runs on the very highest Ascension settings are something only a “fraction” of players can manage.

Developers Mega Crit are also having another think about the Doormaker, the boss that eats (Exhausts) cards played on certain turns. The devs acknowledge that ol Dooryface McPilferer can be “abrasive”, but argue that the enemy’s “overall difficulty/winrate is in a good place”, after gathering data from millions of runs.

“When it comes to general balance, the base difficulty is quite hard right now,” Mega Crit write in a Steam post. “We’re continuously adjusting this baseline difficulty to make it more accessible for a wide range of players, while also continuing to deliver a challenging game at the highest Ascensions.

“Similarly to the first game, completing runs of Slay the Spire 2 at the highest difficulty should feel like a monumental achievement for a fraction of players devoted to understanding the ins and outs of the game’s mechanics,” they continue. “Upon beating your first run, we added a message to communicate this intention for the Ascension system.”

As for Doormaker, Mega Crit are “looking at a combination of in-game feedback, social media posts, and metrics” before meddling any further with the boss, who became a little infamous following a beta patch that sought to dial down the prevalence of “infinite” card combos.

“We want to give players time to adjust a bit, otherwise we’ll be balancing around kneejerk reactions,” the devs explain. “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.”

Again, this is a beta update, so not officially part of the game yet – you’ll have to opt in via the associated Steam branch. The full changelog includes three new badges, a rework for Ironclad’s Drum of Battle and Conflagration cards, and a rejig for Regent’s Parry card which means that “Parry’s Block is displayed on the Sovereign Blade card and is now also affected by powers like Dexterity and Frail.”

What else does the future hold for Slay the Spire 2? Three new modes, possibly – one for “people who want to play in a very competitive fashion”, one for time-strapped players, and one designed to offer “other ways to interact with people socially or in a multiplayer kind of setting”. Intriguing, though Mega Crit stress that some of these ideas may never come to fruition.