STS2 Patch Notes v0.104 • dood

Overview

Released on April 23, 2026 (beta branch). This patch retunes the Ascension baseline difficulty—making the low-Ascension experience more accessible while keeping high Ascensions challenging. Highlights include major card reworks for Ironclad (Conflagration, Drum of Battle), three Ancient Relic buffs, three new Badges, Regent card tuning, enemy scaling tweaks, and over 70 bug fixes. Doormaker remains untouched as the team continues to observe community feedback and metrics.

General Changes

Ascension baseline difficulty re-tuned: more accessible for newcomers while higher Ascensions remain demanding
Terminal run modifiers can no longer reduce player HP below 1
Multiplayer: Artifact, Slippery, and Skittish scaling nerfed

New Badges (3 added)

Damage Leader: awarded when you deal the most damage in a single turn
Debuffer: awarded for hitting a debuff-application threshold
C-c-c-Combo: awarded for playing 20 cards in a single turn

Ironclad

Conflagration — Rework

Old: "Deal 8(9) damage to ALL enemies. Deals 2(3) additional damage for each other Attack played this turn"
New: "Deal 2 damage to ALL enemies 4(5) times"
Dev rationale: low pick rate and mediocre win rate for a Rare. Reworked into a clean multi-hit AOE.

Drum of Battle — Rework

Type changed: Power → Skill
Cost changed to 1
New effect: "Draw 2 cards. When this card is Exhausted, gain 2(3) Energy"
Was the lowest-picked Uncommon Ironclad card. Now repositioned as a draw-plus-energy enabler for Exhaust archetypes.

Silent

Nightmare: now removes Afflictions from the copies it generates next turn
Untouchable: upgraded Block gain increased from +2 to +3

Regent

Parry — Rework

Block now displays on Sovereign Blade itself
Now interacts with Dexterity and Frail (block scales appropriately)

Tyranny

Trigger order adjusted: now fires before Bombardment

Reflect

Block reduced: 17(21) → 16(20) (nerf)

Ancient Relic Buffs

Booming Conch

Now grants an additional 1 Energy at the start of Elite combats

Nutritious Soup

Strikes now deal an additional 3 damage (on top of existing benefits)

Event Card Adjustments

Neow's Fury

Old: pulled 2 random cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand
New: lets you choose which 2 cards to put into your Hand from your Discard Pile (you may also choose fewer than 2 if you want)
Event card added to your deck when you take Neow's Torment relic. Transforms a frequently-skipped effect into a strategically valuable one

Events

Slippery Bridge: no longer offers to remove the same card repeatedly unless it has already offered to remove every other card in your deck at least once

Enemy Adjustments

Vantom, Waterfall Giant, and Ruby Raider (Assassin) scaling adjustments
Doormaker: untouched. Devs are still observing in-game feedback, social media reactions, and metrics across millions of runs. Current win rate and kill rate are roughly on par with the other Act 3 bosses.

Art and UI

10 cards received new portrait artwork
Various animation and VFX improvements
3 new badges added (see above)

Bug Fixes (70+)

Multiple crash and softlock fixes
Several gameplay bug fixes
Multiplayer connection improvements (notably the non-responsive host disconnect issue)
Ongoing Steam Deck stability improvements