Slay the Spire 2's early access release delayed to a "secret Thursday" in March 2026, alternate acts teased

Devs say "there's no single dramatic reason" it's been pushed out of 2025

You're gonna have to wait a bit longer to murder the steeple for a second time, with Slay The Spire II's early access release having just been delayed until March next year. Developers Mega Crit have at least cushioned the blow by revealing the day of the week it'll arrive. A Thursday. Which Thursday? The cheeky folks won't say.

"After a lot of internal discussion, we've made the call to move Slay the Spire 2's Early Access launch to a secret Thursday in March 2026," Mega Crit wrote in their September newsletter on Steam. "We know this isn't the news anyone wanted to hear (ourselves included, we're dying to get this into your hands!) Originally, we were shooting for late 2025, but turns out we were wrong. We need some more time."

"There's no single dramatic reason," they added. "Some personal life stuff hit the team (everyone's okay!), we kept saying 'wouldn't it be cool if...' one too many times, and honestly, the game just needs more polish to meet our standards."

Thus follows a brief Q&A section in which the studio ruled out some theories about the delay folks might have had, such as it being yet another product of Hollow Knight: Silksong's launch gobbling up a huge amount of attention. "We got together as a team to determine our new release window before Silksong’s date was announced," Mega Crit community manager Demi wrote. "The timing just worked out like that, but on the bright side, everyone can keep busy playing Silksong during the wait!"

They did acknowledge that adding a lot more new stuff to the formula established by the first Slay The Spire is part of the impetus for the change, but made clear this sequel shouldn't become a game that gets "repeatedly delayed with no explanation". "For one thing, you should never expect radio silence from us," Mega Crit explained. "That’s why we’re here talking to you now. And, as opposed to a general release year, we have an actual specific date that we’re aiming for internally and are confident we can hit this time."

With that out of the way, the devs teased another of Slay the Spire 2's new features, alternate acts. Basically, once you unlock it, when you enter a new act over the course of your run you can trigger a choice between two paths with different environs and foes. The example given is one route offering "a lush, tangled ruin with much of its fauna resembling mystical woodland creatures and sentient flora that might just eat you alive", while the other's "a miry waterway connected to the Spire's sewer system, from which all manner of mutant sea creatures and vagrants might emerge".

The game won't launch with all of the planned alternate acts in place, with some set to arrive down the line as part of early access updates.

If you've not given the original Slay the Spire a go, here's RPS founderperson Alec Meer's review of its roguelikey deckbuilding. The strapline reads "a miracle of design", so I think it's fair to assume his thumb was pointed skywards.