It's October, the month of tricks, treats, and... spooooky things~🦇💀
For those who missed it, we announced a delay last month. Slay the Spire 2 is coming to Early Access in March 2026. I know, I know, it's hard to wait.
But speaking of spooky things, let us properly introduce you to...
The Necrobinder
At long last, the time has come to dive deeper into the first new character we announced for Slay the Spire 2: The Necrobinder, a sassy lich who relies upon a giant, reanimated hand called Osty in battle. (It's a funny name but not technically a pun, so should be safe.)
Her kit is themed around necromancy, fittingly enough, and plays with the balance of life and death. Osty can attack enemies independently of the Necrobinder and is unaffected by debuffs afflicting her. Faithful companion that he is, Osty also takes attack damage that would normally affect the Necrobinder... as long as he has HP to give, that is. To increase Osty's HP or revive him from the dead once more, the Necrobinder can Summon him. Your strategy may see you building up a high HP Osty for a constant source of protection or sacrificing him only to bring him back from the dead over and over again.
Another key component of the Necrobinder's kit is Doom, which we have teased in previous Neowsletters. When a creature's Doom meets or exceeds its current HP, it will die. It's a debuff that's applied similarly to Poison, but it does not deal damage over time or tick down, and it only affects creatures at the end of their turn, as opposed to the start.
She can also use her necromantic magic to draw (ha) on the power of Souls, giving her a source of card draw.
Transformation is a major part of necromancy, of course, so the Necrobinder also has many cards that allow her to alter other cards, applying different keywords to them and changing how they play.
That's all the information on our little lich that we have for you today, but there will be plenty more to uncover still.
Q&A with C&A:
We didn't answer any questions last month because there was a Q&A section for the delay announcement. Fear not, we're back to answering your exciting questions. As always, send your questions to [email protected] and we'll respond within 90 business days. Yes, it's slow. At least we're honest about it.
posmen asks: The community has dubbed quitting and reloading from the start of a floor as savescumming. It seems to be a pretty divisive topic but being that Slay the Spire is a single player game there's no real impact aside from being used as a progression loophole. Is this still going to be a "feature" of StS2?
Casey: Yeah you can still save scum. Play how you want
Brandon asks: Do the characters have canon names? Like, sure, they're the Ironclad, but is his real name Steve? What about watcher? Is her name Jasmine? Cause that's a pretty name
Casey: Well, it's not Steve
OdditY asks: Are you guys thinking of adding more to the game after it fully releases? Maybe additional characters, new events, more enemies, maybe even collab content (especially since you guys have always given in collabs and haven't taken)?
Casey: If people like the game we'll add more stuff. I don't know about collabs, I feel like it dilutes the identity of games? Then again, it depends on the genre.
Matt asks: Is Poison back for The Silent in STS2, or does she now have to rely on a new kit to make her way through The Spire?
Casey: we like poison
The Singaporean Smoke Machine asks: Will there be a feature for shiv cards where there will be a "throwing" card animation? Like when you play a shiv, the card itself flies striaght into an enemy before spinning and falling off-screen? I think it would be really cool!
Anthony: No
Spire Spotting
And now it's time for some spoooooky research into one of the Spire's many new denizens!! Although it's no more spooky than it usually is, I suppose.
As always, let's take a look at last month's mystery monster silhouette:
Now let's see what guesses you all had this time around...
The award for cutest guess goes to rinny.Ly._.nn, which might have been the toughest category this time around!
The "Hit the Slay button" award goes to gold! No need to sashay away.
The award for most accurate goes to Lemonpie--super close!
Here are some other incredible hypotheses that we've received from our community of Spire explorers:
Credit from left to right: koiking, bomo73, Gabe, Peter, EcksDee, Oliver, Eqyizo, Super malfunctioning robot, ramy, tree bucket, Metonka, Brave
I think we finally have enough information to dispel the veil of shadow...
AAAAAH... aww? It's just a little guy, surely he's harmless! Either he's a sentient stack of hay or that's just a very convincing costume.
JUMPSCARE! I'm sure you weren't expecting that--another shadowy creature is in need of unveiling. If you have any clues as to what this creature could be, be sure to submit them via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel!
Merch Madness
SLIME... plush??
For a limited time ONLY, you can grab this Makeship Slime Boss doughboi (meaning it's BIG and squishy just like the real, in-game deal) as well as a couple of cute, fuzzy Louse plushies for you to Curl Up with <3
Get into the spooky, slimy spirit and pre-order yours right here before the campaign ends forever!
Connections Section
BOO! This month's terrifying Slay the Spire Connections puzzle is here!
Mega Crit-or-Treat Returns!
What's this? Could this be the work of the Necrobinder? Everyone's favorite spooky, seasonal Slay the Spire event has been revived once more!
Here are the details for those out of the loop: Mega Crit-or-Treat is your chance to share any Halloween-themed Slay the Spire content, be it drawn, written, modded, cosplayed, cooked, carved, crocheted, interpretively danced, whatever!
Until Sunday, November 2, post your beautiful and/or terrifying creations in our Discord server and you will be granted this year's limited time "Ghostly Gremlin" role!
If you want to participate in the time-honored tradition of pumpkin carving but can't think of a design, you can always use these StS stencils made by our art director, Marlowe!
Also, if you post any spooky Spire content on Twitter or Bluesky, be sure to spread the eerie cheer by tagging us @MegaCrit!
Community Corner
Thank you to Jolfe for this month's hauntingly beautiful cover image, and shout out to these other great submissions from 문서영 and Alcalmy--they're so good it's scary!!
Next month's theme is: Neowvember! This one can be a free space, so you can draw anything as long as it's Neow-related. 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!
Without further ado, let's look at this month's community highlights!
An incredible illustration of the Ironclad facing off against the Awakened One and its Cultists by taydungeon (timelapse on TikTok again!)
These amazing Ironclad and Watcher cosplays by Rocklin and Smartz!
A beautiful illustration of the Silent by triggeredtale!
That's all the spooky news we have for you this month, but be sure to tune in next month for less spine-chilling but just as thrilling Slay the Spire 2 info!