Slay the Spire 2's "biggest" beta patch yet adds its first new early access and foolish character, two game modes, and more tweaks than you can shake a stick at

Hark! A new Slay the Spire 2 patch is here! Or, well, it is if you're someone who's trying out the beta branches of the game. If you're not, it might be worth trying out, as Mega Crit say this is their biggest patch for the game so far, with "some really impactful bits of content that will require lots of testing before they reach the main branch."

First up, a new character: The Fool! "Wah!! The first new character for Early Access arrives!" a Steam blog post explains. "A silly musician who wields a bow! How can such a whimsical creature survive within the Spire? Why, that's up to you! We expect to make a great number of content and balance changes before the Fool is ready for the main branch. Even more importantly, be sure to have fun figuring out all the strategies and story of this gently bard. It would be foolish not to!" The post doesn't go into much detail as to what the new character can actually do, so, you'll have to discover that one for yourself!

There are also two new game modes to try out with this beta update. The first is Blitz, a "condensed and chaotic deckbuilding-focused mode." Here, the "Merchant's wares feel a bit off, the map is gone, and Gold no longer matters." You'll also find it comes with five levels of Ascension shared across every character, and you can unlock it by completing an Ascension run on any difficulty. The second mode is Dread, which as the name implies, is a "brutal" difficulty mode that you can only play if you've reached Ascension 10 on every character, including The Fool. "All ascension modifiers are enabled. Bosses are stronger and buff all enemies in their Act. Curses will also pile up as you climb the Spire. Death is expected."

You can expect a bunch of new balance tweaks and changes too. For starters, you'll find that rest sites can now appear a floor earlier every act. New events have been added to Underdocks and Act 2 and 3 too. Some nice quality of life alterations have been made, like how the character select screen for standard runs will start on whatever character you played as last, and controller navigation at the Merchant has been improved too. You can read all about the rest of the many changes right here.