How to Switch Slay the Spire 2 to Its Beta Branch Before November 12

Mega Crit's Early Access roadmap for Slay the Spire 2 has been running on a biweekly beta-patch rhythm since launch, but the studio broke from that cadence over the summer to work on something bigger. The October 2026 Neowsletter, posted on the game's official Steam news page and mirrored on Mega Crit's own site, finally puts a date on it: a major beta patch targeted for November 12. If you only play on Slay the Spire 2's default branch, that patch — and everything the beta has already been running for months — is invisible to you. Here's what the studio confirmed, and how to switch over if you want to see it first.

What Mega Crit Just Confirmed

"The next big beta patch is currently planned to release on November 12th," Mega Crit wrote in the October Neowsletter, adding that the date could still move. The studio has been deliberately tight-lipped about what's actually in it, saying only that "this new experimental content will be beta-exclusive at first as we work out the kinks" before it ever reaches the stable branch most players are on.

Asked directly in the newsletter's Q&A section whether the new content leaned single-player or multiplayer, designer Casey Yano gave one of the few concrete details Mega Crit has shared: the new modes will support both. Beyond that, the studio is holding back on specifics, reasoning that "the new content will have more of an impact the less we say about it."

How to Switch Slay the Spire 2 to Its Beta Branch on Steam

Opting in uses Steam's standard beta-branch tools, confirmed by Valve's own Steamworks documentation for any game that publishes a beta branch:

1. Open your Steam Library and find Slay the Spire 2.
2. Right-click the game and select Properties.
3. Open the Betas tab (Steam sometimes labels this "Game Versions & Betas").
4. Use the drop-down menu to select the beta branch. No access code is needed; Mega Crit's beta has been open to everyone since launch.
5. Close the Properties window. Steam will immediately start downloading the beta build, which replaces your current installation.

A couple of things worth knowing before you flip the switch. The beta uses the same save slots as the default branch, so an in-progress run doesn't vanish, but Mega Crit's patches regularly rebalance cards, relics and enemies out from under an active climb, which can make an ongoing Ascension attempt feel noticeably different mid-run. It's worth finishing or abandoning a run first. Switching branches also triggers a full update download rather than a small patch, since the beta and default builds have now diverged by several versions.

What's Already Live on the Beta You Don't Have Yet

The branch you'd be opting into isn't new or untested: it's been sitting at version 0.111.0, released August 14, since before Mega Crit's team break, and the October Neowsletter calls it "the current and relatively stable beta branch version." Highlights from that patch's notes, posted to Steam's community announcements, include:

• A full keyboard-only control scheme, Mega Crit's first, for players who don't want to touch a controller or mouse.
• New low-HP idle animations for every playable character, plus a round of updated card portrait art.
• A significant Ironclad rework: Expect a Fight now grants scaling Block instead of its old Energy-refund effect.
• Reworks across the Silent's poison kit, including Haze and a renamed, retooled Scare ("Sidestep") that now grants a delayed Energy bonus instead of applying Weak.
• Official Indonesian localization, alongside the Traditional Chinese support added a few patches earlier.

None of that has reached the default branch yet, and under Mega Crit's own description of the November 12 plan, it won't until that patch ships — at which point the stable branch jumps straight from its current state to everything in 0.111.0 plus whatever the new patch adds on top.

“The new game modes will work for both singleplayer and multiplayer.”Casey Yano, Co-Founder and Designer, Mega Crit

Why the Default Branch Has Been Stuck Since July

This is a deliberate slowdown, not a stall. Mega Crit's August Neowsletter laid out the reasoning: after shipping a steady stream of biweekly balance patches, the studio shifted its attention to features that take longer to build, including Steam Workshop support, early groundwork for an in-game Bestiary, a new end-of-run Badge and Score system, and — the two biggest items — an entirely alternate version of Act Two and a new playable character. "We will be shifting our updates to be a bit further apart," the studio wrote, warning that it couldn't commit to a regular pace while that work was underway. A planned team break in late August pushed things further, and a follow-up break in September delayed things again before work resumed in earnest.

That context matters for anyone deciding whether to opt in now: the November 12 patch is the first sign that the quiet stretch is ending, but Mega Crit's own roadmap suggests the alternate Act Two and new character are still being built separately and haven't been confirmed for this specific patch.

Switching Back to the Default Branch

If the beta turns out to be too unstable for your taste, or you'd rather wait for the November 12 patch to land on the main branch, reversing the process is just as simple:

1. Right-click Slay the Spire 2 in your Steam Library and open Properties again.
2. Open the Betas tab.
3. Select None from the drop-down to return to the default branch.
4. Close the window and let Steam download the default build.

You can flip back and forth as often as you like; nothing about opting in is permanent, and your Steam achievements and cloud saves carry over either way.

What to Watch for Next

Beyond the patch itself, Mega Crit confirmed in the same newsletter that part of the team will be at WePlay 2026 in Shanghai from November 21-22, running a booth with demos and a fan signing with Yano. The studio was also asked in the newsletter's Q&A whether Custom Run mode would ever get more granular options, like forcing a specific Ancient or act variant to appear. Yano's answer doubled as a timeline hint for the game's eventual full release: "We'll likely have to do a pass on Custom Runs near the v1.0 launch." For now, Slay the Spire 2 remains in Early Access on Steam, with no v1.0 date announced.