The Neowsletter - January 2026

Happy Slay the Spire 2 year, everyone!

Tomorrow, January 23rd, 2026, is the 7th anniversary of Slay the Spire’s 1.0 launch! Also, in just a couple of months, it will have been 8.5~ years between the early access launches of Slay the Spire 1 and Slay the Spire 2. If you’ve been with us since the very beginning of this journey then that means you’re at least 9 years old, probably. Maybe even 10. Thank you to all of the Slayers who have stuck with us for all of these years and to those who are just now tuning in. The next phase of Spire slaying is just around the corner!

In the meantime, let’s take a look at…

The Evolution of Slay the Spire 2’s Content

Since it’s been over a year since we started teasing StS2 content, we figured now is a good time to check back in on what some of it looks like now. We did warn you it was all subject to change! Things will evolve even further with all of your feedback throughout early access, of course, but we figured we’d let you get some last minute speculation in.

A before and after image of Gold Axe. Previously a 2-energy-cost, rare Attack card that says “Deal damage equal to the number of cards played this combat. Exhaust.” now a 1-energy-cost, rare Attack card with the same effect but no Exhaust.

One of the very first new cards we teased back in November of 2024 was “Gold Axe.” While it excited people even in its initial state, it’s since seen a buff with the removal of its Exhaust keyword and a reduction in its Energy cost. Not pictured: we still have shiny VFX based on the rarity of card rewards, though it has been toned down from what you see on the left.

A before and after image of Rolling Boulder. Previously a 3-energy-cost, rare Power card that says “At the start of your turn, deal 10 damage to all enemies and increase this damage by 10,” now says “At the start of your turn, deal 5 damage to all enemies and increase this damage by 5.”

On the other hand, “Rolling Boulder,” a card we teased this past July was indeed seeming a bit too OP. Its base damage and scaling damage have now both been slashed in half. We’ll see what you all think of it soon enough–that is if it doesn’t get changed again in the meantime.

A comparison image of Bodyguard and Unleash. Bodyguard - 2 Energy cost - Common - Attack - “Summon 5. Osty deals 10 damage.” Unleash - 1 Energy cost - Common - Attack - “Osty deals 5 damage. Deals additional damage equal to Osty’s current HP.”

This “Bodyguard” card that we showed off this past October was actually The Necrobinder’s unique starter card, but it has since been totally reworked. While it has the same art, it now goes by a new name, “Unleash,” and has a completely different mechanic. Perhaps we’ll see the old card again in some form or another… and perhaps the new card will undergo its own evolution someday.

A comparison image of the old War Historian, Repy event and the updated one, the first with a rough doodle of a frog-like creature in a cage, the second with full art of a bat-like creature in a cage.

On a slightly different note, the placeholder event art that we teased for our war historian friend Repy has been updated (as well as the event text and options)! The original art certainly had its own charm, though. RIP beta Repy, gone but not forgotten.

An image of 4 unrelated patch notes. “Enter Your Hole option no longer costs HP” “Added new relic: Bread” “Increased amount of Act 1 rest sites to 6-7” “The sun, flower, and cupcake will no longer block you from clicking feedback buttons”

And last but (maybe) not least, let’s take a look behind the curtain at some out of context alpha patch notes, since you soon will in fact have the context for them.

Localization Applications

We have begun to localize Slay the Spire 2 into several different languages already (French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Thai), but we are now looking to onboard some translators for other languages. If you are interested in helping to localize Slay the Spire 2 as well as our Neowsletters and potentially other important announcements, please apply here!

Spire Spotting

Now it’s time to take a trip to the Spire to revisit last month’s mystery monster!

A bipedal creature hunched over with a long, narrow head and a forked tail.

Let’s see what hypotheses you all submitted this time around…

A bipedal creature with a long, floppy snout.

The award for most out-of-the-box guess goes to eneija for this… aardvark-like creature!

A rat reminiscent of the Fungi Beast from StS1 but standing on two feet and has two tails.

The award for most accurate guess goes to Joanna, though the real beast this time has no fungi, as you’ll see.

Shoutout to all of these other weird and wonderful submissions!

A collage of mystery monster guesses.

Credit from left to right: 晓星, Kamrat, Leo, Turtledunkz, bomo73, Dpart, Snowbyte, Mitlon, leda789, Mailboy002, Brave, koiking213, TheSos, Dolly, skryzhal, PhantomExitus

Now for the grand reveal…

A two-tailed rat standing on two legs, its tails flicking and mouth chattering.

EEK–it’s a rat! With two tails! In other words, a two-tailed rat. Despite the silhouette not leaving much to the imagination, you all still managed to be very imaginative!

And now, my dear intrepid explorers, this month’s issue marks a very special moment. Our research indicates that the secretive veil that has obscured so many of the Spire’s creatures is soon to lift, so this may well be the last creature we need to uncover via these methods. With that said, let’s take a look together…

A silhouette of a rectangular being standing vertically, split horizontally, with a sphere floating in the gap between the two pieces.

Aha! It appears to be mostly rectangular in shape, but there’s some sort of sphere suspended in the middle… Our detection equipment seems to experiencing some sort of interference, so in the meantime we’d greatly appreciate your help in deciphering this strange being! Be sure to submit your guesses via [email protected] or in our Discord’s fanart channel!

Collab Land

Key art of Turnbound and Slay the Spire, with an image of Turnbound’s version of the Snecko Eye relic and a card-frame cosmetic.

Looks like Snecko Eye has snuck its way into another game?? The team behind Turnbound, a brand new inventory management PvP autobattler, has included a Slay the Spire-themed item and free, early-access-exclusive cosmetic in their game! To celebrate this collab, Turnbound and Slay the Spire will bundled together for a 10% discount starting on their early access launch day… which just so happens to be today!

Connections Section

Screenshot of StS Connections 17.

New year, new Neowsletter, new Slay the Spire Connections!

Mega Crit-mas Recap

Art of the Regent’s minions in elf hats holding up a plate of StS-themed Christmas cookies, with garlands and ribbon hanging in the background.

Now that the holiday season is over, let’s take a look at some of your Mega Crit-mas creations!

Art of a Christmas tree with the Regent standing where the star should be and all of the other slayers decorating the tree with relics. Neow and some iconic enemies also are part of the festivities, with Snecko taking a picture of everyone.

An adorable drawing of iconic StS character gathered around a tree by Soobsidian!

Art of gremlins sledding through a snowy landscape with the aurora borealis in the night sky above.

A painterly illustration of some wintery gremlins by taydungeon (timelapse on TikTok)!

A holiday cookie shaped and decorated like the Snecko Eye relic.

A festive Snecko Eye cookie baked by Steeve_rules!

Community Corner

Thank you to Okasana for this month’s beautiful, sparkly cover image, and shoutout to Boltman and Alcalmy for their awesome submissions, too!

Art of Neow floating in the ocean with earmuffs on. Art of Neow getting a makeover by some gremlins.

Next month’s theme is: Valentine’s Day Neow! If you’d like to submit your art for consideration, reminder that it must be submitted to us via [email protected] or in our Discord’s fanart channel, have dimensions of 800x450px, feature no text, and leave room for a title!

Now for our usual community highlights!

Art of The Watcher meditating under hanging blooms.

A gorgeous illustration of The Watcher underneath some wisteria by 鸡翅好吃喵!

Art of various character orb concepts inspired by The Defect’s orbs.

An illustrated exploration of what the other StS1 slayer’s Orbs might look like by Maria/electrohoneys!

Art of The Ironclad standing before some enormous Sentries, their orbs glowing in the darkened space.

Stunning 3D art of The Ironclad facing off against some giant Sentries by babymango!

And that’s all for the first Neowsletter of 2026! See you all next month!