Slay The Spire's fourth character rages out
Wotcha, Watcher
Run! The rest of this news post is a trap. If you keep reading I've little doubt you will wind up Slay The Spire's spire once more, and your evenings will congeal into glorious ascent. The latest character has escaped the beta branch, and is ready to tackle the spire proper. The Watcher is a blind monk who weaves between rampant aggression and calm repose. I like her a lot.
Patch 2.0 also throws in some new potions and relics, so it's worth revisiting even if she isn't your cup of tea.
One of the many excellent things about the Watcher is how she steps up Spire's complexity, rewarding the knowledge I've earned through hundreds of previous clambers. Cards that shift you into a "wrath" stance make you both deal and take double damage, so an ideal turn involves a torrent of angry damage followed by a card that wipes out wrath with "calm". It's very easy to screw yourself over if you don't build your deck just so. I just got burned to death by the first boss, despite already having played her for at least a dozen hours on the beta branch.
It usually goes a little better. Here's me killing three nasty late-game slimes in one turn, two of them from full health. It's a good demonstration of how Spire lets you become brokenly powerful, though note that's quite an old build and she might have been toned down a bit. I show my working here.
The update also adds nine new cross-character relics, six cross-character potions, and a bunch of character-specific potions. There's a new screen in the menu where you can read what they do, too. Plus balance tweaks, bug fixes, performance increases and better modding support. Here are the patch notes in full.
The game's half price on Steam till 6pm on Thursday, going for £10/$12.50/€12.50.