Slay the Spire 2 Early Access lands on March 5 with 4-player co-op and Steam Deck support
Mega Crit confirmed that Slay the Spire 2 will arrive in Steam Early Access on Thursday, March 5, 2026, as a simultaneous global launch. The sequel has been rebuilt in the Godot engine with Spine2D animations and a modular framework that supports the franchise’s first multiplayer systems.
Global release times for the Steam Early Access launch are:
| Region | Release Date | Local Time |
|---|---|---|
| West US (Los Angeles) | March 5, 2026 | 10:00 AM PST |
| East US (New York) | March 5, 2026 | 1:00 PM EST |
| UK (London) | March 5, 2026 | 6:00 PM GMT |
| Central Europe (Berlin) | March 5, 2026 | 7:00 PM CET |
| Japan (Tokyo) | March 6, 2026 | 3:00 AM JST |
Mega Crit is keeping Slay the Spire 2 on PC only during Early Access. The game will be available on Steam for Windows, macOS, and Linux/SteamOS, and Mega Crit has confirmed Steam Deck Ready support at launch. For confirmation that consoles will not be supported during Early Access, see the developer note here.
Achievements will be disabled during the Early Access build while the team finalizes the total content slate.
What’s new in gameplay
The headline change is a four-player online co-op mode. In co-op, players can coordinate routes on the map, share potions, and watch each other’s combat in real time. Co-op adds team-specific cards and a Combo system where one player’s debuff can trigger a teammate’s follow-up effects.
The playable roster mixes returning fighters and new faces. The returning trio are the Ironclad, the Silent, and the Defect, each with expanded card pools and reworked starter relics. New characters include:
- The Necrobinder: A lich who fights alongside Osty, a reanimated giant hand. Osty functions as a separate entity that can soak damage for the Necrobinder or be sacrificed for massive Bone Shard explosions.
- The Regent: A cosmic traveler who manages a unique Stars resource. Stars do not reset each turn. That lets the Regent invest Stars over a single combat to “forge” the Sovereign Blade, a weapon that grows stronger the more Stars you spend on it during the encounter.
Mega Crit describes the sequel as built from the ground up to support multiplayer and more modular content updates. The engine swap to Godot and the Spine2D animation pipeline are meant to deliver smoother visuals and an architecture that can expand over time.
Price and business model
Early Access will cost $24.99 on Steam. Mega Crit says there will be no microtransactions or battle passes in the Early Access build. The studio expects the price to increase when Slay the Spire 2 reaches full 1.0 release. If you want to track the exact moment the Steam storefront flips live, the announcement included an on-page countdown and a Neow reference tied to the launch window.
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Slay the Spire II
Developed by Mega Crit Games
