The last Neowsletter of 2025 is here!
For those who didn't hear, Slay the Spire 2 was recently ranked the number one game on the PC Gaming Show's Most Wanted list! We want to thank the voting council as well as all of you steadfast Slayers out there! As a treat, you can find quite a few tidbits of new StS2 info in the interview we did with PC Gamer in honor of our number one spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NgLqPWqDss
Now, let's cap this year off with a preview of a most mysterious character...
The Regent
Hailing from a distant planet, The Regent has traveled long and far on his quest for excitement that his homeworld cannot offer. His journey has of course taken him to the Spire, full of strange, formidable creatures to conquer and innumerable treasure to plunder. Heir to the Throne of Stars, he is a domineering and arrogant being who draws on the power of the cosmos and his long-suffering minions to do his bidding.
The most fundamental aspect of The Regent's kit is that he has another resource that some of his cards rely on besides energy: Stars. After generating Stars, they can then be spent on certain cards that require them to deal damage, block, and empower himself with. Some cards even scale with the Stars you have stored up. Stars do not deplete at the end of your turn and there is no cap on how many you can have at once, so the sky is the limit.
The Regent is also capable of transforming other cards into unceasingly loyal Minions to attack and defend for him. Formed of celestial material, you will also find these disposable but adorable Minions painstakingly lugging The Regent around on his giant throne.
As the heir to his family’s empire, The Regent has the ability to Forge his own signature weapon, the Sovereign Blade, a large, gleaming sword that orbits around him. The first time you play a card with the "Forge" keyword each combat, the Sovereign Blade's corresponding card will be created. Every time you Forge after that, the amount of Forge increases the amount of damage Sovereign Blade will deal. It has Retain by default, so you can continue to build up your Blade to be as lethal as possible until the exact right moment.
Something else that is unique to this character is his synergy with colorless cards, which he can both create and interact with in interesting ways. You may have noticed that Sovereign Blade is a colorless card, so this opens up a whole new avenue of Forge-based builds to explore, as well.
Overall, The Regent is a character that revolves around your ability to manage his resources and scale up his power. What exactly his backstory is and what his future entails will be unveiled in due time...
Q&A with C&A
The Singaporean Smoked Machine asks: Are there any ideas that you have decided to completely scrap in STS2 that you could tell us?
Casey: There was a brief exploration of 3D but it was scrapped because the value add wasn't high and Anthony and I are more into games with a lot of content rather than flashy stuff. Sorry flashy lovers, it's just a lot easier to create and iterate content if they're 2D assets.
BaySharp asks: Since STS2 got delayed for a fair amount of time, will we get any new gameplay trailer to compensate for it? Or perhaps, new gameplay footage? Or a demo even? Or just pretty much anything that will bring more hype to the game before the release?
Casey: Yes, we publish a monthly newsletter (The Neowsletter) with sneak peeks and stuff. We even answer questions on there! Also, you may want to keep a particularly close eye out for something happening in February, closer to the launch...
Spire Spotting
Don't think that the harsh winter weather will keep us from exploring the Spire! Let's take a look at last month's mystery monster...
And now this month's artistic hypotheses...
The award for funniest guess goes to Lyvern, for this statuesque creature reminiscent of the Giant Head.
The award for most logical guess goes to Comfy Chair, for this antenna-headed, snail-like creature. There's a lot of Slay the Spire stylistic DNA in this one!
The award for most accurate guess goes to Shor--you definitely captured the gooeyness and the color scheme!
And here are just some of the many other submissions we received over the past month:
Credit from left to right: Vexnator, Kmanscan, Breyson Cherryson, Niké Air, Maria, monmon, placeholder.exe, Dester, RinNekoChan, 9ryu108, Dracia, キョッキョのかば焼き, Star, John, 벌개미's daughter (8 years old!), Moggoose
Now it's time to unveil this strange creature...
Aha, got it! Whatever this creature is, and whatever ability it's using, it appears it was interfering with our photo-capturing equipment... and perhaps the very fabric of reality itself. Let us call it The Obscura.
On the bright side, this next silhouette may be a little easier to parse:
Though this may seem like it has a simple solution, we're sure you'll come up with very creative theories all the same. If you'd like to further our investigative endeavors, be sure to submit your guesses via [email protected] or in our Discord's fanart channel!
Merch Madness
Makeship is back at it again with more Slay the Spire drops! You can now add The Collector to YOUR collection as well as some shiny new enamel pins of the first three Slayers' iconic designs! Also, in classic Neow fashion, she's giving you another chance to grab her plush if you missed it the first time around (from all the way back in 2023)!
The pre-order campaign will only last until Tuesday, December 23, so grab them while you can! Neow may not always be able to resurrect these limited-edition goodies...
Also, we've channeled some more pieces for the Slay the Spire x Artovision collection!
Now you can have 3D art of the Defect right there on your desk for every run OR a shadowbox of the Silent facing the Shiv deck's worst enemy, the Time Eater.
Mega Crit-mas!
It's that time of year again... the time to make the Yuletide SLAY! Tag us on Twitter or Bluesky with any original festive fan creation, be it art, writing, mods, a video, some Spire-y holiday decorations, etc, and we just might spread the cheer, too! AND if you share your work in the event's channel on our Discord, you’ll get an exclusive role to wear with honor throughout the season!
And, as always, no holiday ambience is complete without the official Slay the Spire Yule Log, featuring some cheerful renditions of classic StS boss themes to accompany the crackling rest site flames!
Connections Section
Here's a Slay the Spire Connections puzzle befitting a king. Or a Regent.
Community Corner
Thank you to Alcalmy for this month's cover image (and the rainy cover image from last month's honorable mentions that we couldn't include in time!) Speaking of honorable mentions, thank you to jamqwert and Shor for your lovely, wintery submissions!
Next month's theme is: New Year, new Neow! 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!
Now let's take a look at some more creations from the people that make up our wonderful community!
These very adorable crocheted keychains of Donu, Deca, and Snecko Eyes by 萝卜头子! (You can find a whole bunch of their crocheted relics in our Discord's fanart channel!)
This lethally beautiful illustration of The Silent by @JasperConcepts!
This stunning atmospheric of The Silent facing off against Giant Head by @taydungeon! (Timelapse in link)
And that's all for this month's Neowsletter, we hope it put you in the Crit-mas spirit! See you all in 2026 ;)