My original Impressions post for Slay the Spire 2 was about a month ago. At the time, I was merely whelmed with the experience. Since then, my time /played has reached 80 hours and I now have all five characters up to Ascension 10 (the highest) while playing on the beta branch. Suffice it to say, my overall impression on the game has improved quite a bit.

Incidentally, many people apparently agree. There are reports that Slay the Spire 2 has sold over 5 million copies while still posting some respectable concurrent Steam numbers:

So, what changed from my perspective? Well… my perspective.

There is the obvious point that this is an early access release of a game in which even minor balance changes can make or break the experience. Some things were indeed over-tuned and have since been nerfed and the gameplay feels better for it. But the real change for me was internal: I needed to “unlearn” habits and inclinations from the first game. Many of the cards and characters were seemingly ported over wholesale from the original, but that did not mean they could/should be played the same. Once I let go of the baggage and muscle memory, I was free to enjoy all the nuances that this series such a genre titan.

Ironically, one of the biggest personal shifts came about from Reddit memes. Meet Snakebite.

Explaining a meme kinda takes all the fun out of it, but the short-ish version is that everyone was absolutely clowning on Snakebite as a F-tier card. I also felt it was absolutely terrible, especially considering Deadly Poison is a card that costs 1 less and almost grants the same amount. Then, one of the most famous Slay the Spire streamers, Jorbs, started posting videos about how Snakebite is actually a good card. The memes intensified. At some point during a random Silent run, I was offered Snakebite as a card reward and I was like “fuck it, let’s see how bad it is.” And, well… it wasn’t, actually.

It’s not an earth-shattering revelation that the community sometimes gets it wrong. It is also not uncommon for specific cards/abilities in games to be overlooked or work better in specific situations or with certain combos. In Snakebite’s case though, I legitimately felt dumb for how wrong I was about the card. To be clear, I’m not like excited to see a Snakebite being offered. But now I have a better understanding on why some cards are built the way that they are, and the niches that they occupy.

[Edit]: Briefly, what makes Snakebite much better than it appears is the “Retain” keyword. Retain means it stays in your hand instead of being discarded at the end of each turn. So, at a basic level, Snakebite helps improve the consistency of your turns by being available any time you happen to draw mostly defensive cards when the enemy isn’t attacking. Would two Strikes dealing 12 damage right away be better? Okay, play those Strikes then. Snakebite is for when you only draw one Strike, or the enemy has Thorns, or if you can leverage the full value of Poison (28 damage over 7 turns).

In any case, if you like deck-building roguelikes at all, Slay the Spire 2 is your endgame, even in Early Access. It will only get better from here.