STS2 April 2026 Patch Breakdown: What Changed in v0.102 and v0.103

Beta patch v0.102.0 arrived on April 2, 2026, and while it was not a sweeping balance overhaul, it introduced several meaningful changes that affect how certain characters are played and how the overall Ascension ladder is structured. The headline feature — the Badges system — is cosmetic in nature but signals Mega Crit's intent to make individual runs feel distinct and memorable beyond the standard scoring metrics.

Badges are a new end-of-run feature that note various achievements from the run just completed. Examples include defeating a boss without losing HP, clearing the game unusually quickly, triggering specific easter eggs, or — in a moment of gentle mockery — noting that you forgot to spend your accumulated gold. Badges are displayed at the run summary screen and will eventually appear in run history and stats screens in a future update. They do not affect gameplay directly, but they serve as a personalised post-mortem that encourages players to engage more deeply with the variety of run states the game can produce.

On the gameplay side, the most significant v0.102.0 change was to the Necrobinder card Borrowed Time, which was completely redesigned. The previous version was a passive economy card; the new version costs 1 energy, raises the cost of all cards in your hand for that turn, but provides a significant energy bonus in return — essentially a burst energy card with a meaningful deckbuilding constraint. This redesign makes Borrowed Time a much more active choice: you want to play it specifically when you have a hand that can absorb the cost penalty, such as when most of your important cards are already 0-cost due to Necrobinder synergies.

Ascension 6 received a targeted adjustment: card removal at the Merchant now starts at 100 Gold (up from 75) and increases by 50 Gold per removal instead of 25. This is a direct nerf to removal-heavy strategies at the A6 threshold, raising the first removal cost by 33% and making subsequent removals escalate faster. Players who were relying on two or three merchant removals per run at A6 will need to either budget more gold for shop visits or accept a leaner deck-pruning rate.

Mega Crit's stated intention for v0.103.0 was to improve Ironclad's survivability in a meaningful way. The two main changes — the new card Not Yet. and the rarity downgrade of Colossus — work in tandem to give Ironclad players more reliable access to the survival tools the character needs to support its inherently HP-costly playstyle.

Not Yet. is a new Ironclad rare card that costs 2 energy, heals you for 10 HP (13 if upgraded), and then exhausts. On paper, a 2-energy heal sounds like a tempo loss. In context, it is exactly what Ironclad needed. The character's identity revolves around spending HP aggressively — cards like Offering sacrifice HP for energy, and many of the best Ironclad builds lean on taking damage to generate early-run advantages. The persistent problem was that these HP-spending strategies were always at the mercy of whether you found the right relic or event to recover. Not Yet. gives Ironclad a predictable, in-deck healing option that does not depend on random relic pulls. It exhausts after use, so it does not clog the draw pile long-term.

Colossus was moved from Rare to Uncommon rarity. Colossus provides five block and takes 50% less damage from Vulnerable enemies this turn. Previously, finding Colossus required the kind of rare-card luck that most runs simply do not produce consistently. At Uncommon, it appears far more often in Act 1 and Act 2 card rewards, making the Ironclad's block options meaningfully more consistent. The tradeoff is that Grapple was removed to make room — Mega Crit noted that Grapple was "too low impact and redundant with Juggernaut." This is a clean trade: Grapple rarely influenced outcomes, while Colossus at Uncommon directly raises the floor of Ironclad's defensive consistency.

The Silent received two notable adjustments in v0.103.0. Acrobatics was moved from Common to Uncommon rarity, and Blade of Ink received an update in the earlier v0.102.0 patch. Together, these changes represent Mega Crit pulling back on what had become one of the more dominant early-game consistency tools in the Silent's kit.

Acrobatics is a card draw engine. At Common rarity, it appeared frequently enough that Silent players could reliably build their early deck around its cycling effect, which compounded the power of every other card in the deck. Moving it to Uncommon means Silent players will see it less often in Act 1 card rewards. It does not make Acrobatics weaker when found — it is still an excellent card — but it forces Silent players to develop alternative lines rather than defaulting to the "Acrobatics anchor" strategy that had become a dominant blueprint.

The Blade of Ink update in v0.102.0 changed the enchantment mechanic to grant Inky Shivs that deal 2 bonus damage and apply 1 Weak. This is a targeted rework that leans more heavily into the Sly mechanic, making Blade of Ink function better in dedicated Sly tempo builds while making it slightly less generically powerful as a standalone card. Players who were using Blade of Ink as a generic value card will find the interaction more situational; players who were already building around Sly will find it more rewarding.

The practical impact on Silent strategy is that the character's early-game is slightly less consistent but the mid- and late-game ceiling is unchanged. Players should adapt by being more willing to explore alternative draw and tempo options in Act 1 when Acrobatics does not appear, rather than holding out for it across multiple card rewards.

One of the most community-requested changes arrived in v0.103.0: nerfs to Living Fog and the Doormaker enemy. Both had been cited frequently in player discussions as disproportionately punishing enemies that could end runs through circumstances largely outside the player's control, especially in Act 1 when decks are least equipped to respond.

Living Fog had developed a reputation as one of the most run-threatening normal enemies in Act 1. Its ability to repeatedly apply debuffs while dealing meaningful damage created scenarios where even well-routed runs found themselves in critical HP deficits after a single standard hallway fight. The post-patch nerfs reduce the frequency and/or potency of its most punishing patterns, meaning players can now encounter Living Fog without needing to have specifically prepared for it. Fights against it remain challenging, but the ceiling on how badly a single Living Fog encounter can damage a run has been lowered.

The Doormaker received similar treatment. Pre-patch, the Doormaker was cited as a "run-killer" — an enemy whose attack patterns or mechanics could deal outsized damage relative to the point in the run where it appeared. The nerfs make it more manageable for underprepared or mid-HP decks. The intent, as communicated by Mega Crit, is to push the game toward "fair but still punishing" rather than "die to enemies out of nowhere."

The broader implication of these enemy nerfs is that Act 1 death spirals caused by specific enemy encounters should be less common. This is good news for players learning the game, since one of the most demoralizing experiences in STS2 is losing a run not because of a deck-building mistake but because a specific enemy happened to roll maximum damage on a critical turn. Reducing that variance moves the game's difficulty closer to the intended design: demanding smart routing and drafting, not demanding lucky enemy RNG.

Taken together, the v0.102.0 and v0.103.0 changes represent a clear design direction: Mega Crit is raising the floor of runs across the board by making the early game less reliant on specific cards or lucky enemy patterns, while also adding depth to the opening phase through Neow relic variety and the new Badges system.

For Ironclad players, this patch is an unambiguous buff. Not Yet. provides the in-deck healing that was previously missing, and Colossus at Uncommon means you will see strong defensive options more consistently. Ironclad players should recalibrate their Neow picks accordingly — the need for Phial Holster or survivability-focused opening bonuses has decreased, opening the door for more aggressive relic-hunting or boss-relic swaps from the start.

For Silent players, the changes require adaptation. The Acrobatics nerf is not catastrophic — Acrobatics is still worth picking when it appears — but Act 1 lines that leaned heavily on finding it quickly need to be replaced with more flexible drafting. The Blade of Ink rework rewards players who were already building Sly-focused decks, and serves as a nudge to explore that playstyle more deeply.

For Necrobinder players, the Borrowed Time redesign adds a new decision point in high-energy turns. Understanding when to play Borrowed Time — specifically when you have a hand where the cost increase does not punish you — is now an important micro-decision in the character's gameplay loop. Players who have been avoiding Borrowed Time since the redesign should revisit it with the intent of building around 0-cost hand states.

Finally, the Ascension 6 removal cost change is the patch's most directly strategic adjustment for competitive players. If you run multiple merchant removals per Act on A6+, you will need to either route more aggressively toward shops early to buy removals while they are still affordable, or accept a higher Curse and basic-card count through Act 2. Budget your first removal before gold is spent anywhere else.