Ascension

Slay the Spire 2 has 10 Ascension levels, not 20: each one stacks a new handicap, from Swarming Elites at Ascension 1 to Double Boss at Ascension 10, and you unlock the next level by winning on your highest one. Ascension 6 has been Inflation (pricier card removal) since Apr 17, 2026; it was Gloom (fewer rest sites) at launch.

Slay the Spire 2 has 10 Ascension levels, each adding one more handicap on top of all the ones below it, and Ascension 10 ends the climb with two bosses at the end of Act 3. PCGamesN's Ascension list (Mar 10, 2026) gives all ten, and Mega Crit's own numbers treat A10 as the top: its May 2026 Neowsletter gives win rates "At the highest, A10". Ascension is the game's difficulty ladder: a character's first win unlocks Ascension 1, and each win on your highest level opens the next. The game is in Early Access, so the levels have already changed once (Ascension 6, in April 2026) and may change again. Climbing advice is on Ascension Guide.

Quick facts

Levels	10 (PCGamesN, Mar 10, 2026)
First level	Ascension 1, unlocked by a character's first win
Top level	Ascension 10, Double Boss: two bosses at the end of Act 3
Changed since launch	Ascension 6: Gloom to Inflation (Major Update #1, Apr 17, 2026)
Solo progress	Per character
Co-op progress	Separate from solo, shared by all five characters
Win rate at Ascension 0	16% (Mega Crit, May 23, 2026)
Win rate at Ascension 10	About 17% (same source)
Mega Crit on the ceiling	Ascension 10 "is close to the highest difficulty we'll have" (Casey Yano, Aug 14, 2026)

How Ascension unlocks

A character's first win unlocks Ascension 1 for that character. TheGamer's unlock guide (Mar 16, 2026) says you clear all three acts to earn it, then win on your highest unlocked level to open the next one. In single player the ladder is kept per character, so a Silent on Ascension 7 does not lift the Defect off Ascension 2.

Co-op keeps its own ladder. PCGamesN says co-op Ascension is not tied to characters: a co-op win unlocks the next level for all five at once, and solo progress does not carry over. PC Gamer's co-op guide (Mar 24, 2026) adds that you can earn it with different groups, and that a party plays at the lowest level any member has unlocked. TheGamer says the next level unlocks when the party beats the Act 3 boss even if some members died. More on Co-op Multiplayer.

Mega Crit explains the system in the game. Since beta v0.104.0 (Apr 24, 2026), reaching the main branch with Major Update #2 (Jun 19, 2026), a first-time tutorial popup appears for single player and multiplayer, and a message after your first win says what the Ascension system is for. Ascension also feeds the Timeline: Destructoid's Epoch list (Mar 7, 2026) gives each character an Epoch for reaching Ascension 1, such as the Ironclad's My Face.

Every Ascension level

Each level keeps every effect below it, so Ascension 10 has all ten at once.

Level	Name	Effect
1	Swarming Elites	"Elites spawn more often."
2	Weary Traveler	"Ancients only heal 80% of your missing HP."
3	Poverty	"Enemies and treasure chests drop 25% less gold."
4	Tight Belt	"Start each run with one less potion slot."
5	Ascender's Bane	"Start each run cursed."
6	Inflation	"Removing cards from your deck at the Merchant is more expensive." Removal starts at 100 Gold and rises 50 per removal instead of 25. Was Gloom, "Less rest sites.", until Apr 17, 2026.
7	Scarcity	"Rare and upgraded cards appear less often."
8	Tough Enemies	"All enemies are harder to kill."
9	Deadly Enemies	"All enemies have deadlier attacks."
10	Double Boss	"Fight two bosses at the end of Act 3."

Source: PCGamesN (Christian Vaz): All Ascension levels in Slay the Spire 2, Mar 10, 2026, for levels 1 to 5 and 7 to 10; Mega Crit's v0.102.0 notes (Apr 3, 2026) and Major Update #1 (Apr 17, 2026) for Ascension 6. Read Oct 26, 2026.

0:03 Ascension 10 changes only the end of the run. TheGamer notes that the second boss comes at the end of Act 3 alone, so Acts 1 and 2 keep a single boss each. Each act's boss shows on the map from the start of the act; the fights themselves are on Bosses.

5:20 Ascensions 8 and 9 are where enemy numbers change. Mega Crit writes enemy values as low (high Ascension), and its v0.104.0 notes give examples that reached the main branch on Jun 19, 2026: the Owl Magistrate has 231(247) HP, the Act 1 boss Vantom starts with 8(9) Slippery and its Dismember hits for 26(30), and the Waterfall Giant heals 10(15). Every enemy's two values are on Enemies, Elites and Bosses.

Ascender's Bane

Ascender's Bane is the curse Ascension 5 puts in your starting deck. Spire Codex (game data, v0.107.1) gives it the keywords Ethereal, Unplayable and Eternal, and TheGamer describes it the same way: it cannot be played, and as an Ethereal card it is lost if it is still in your hand at the end of your turn, which TheGamer's Necrobinder guide (Mar 10, 2026) explains for every Ethereal card. Until then it takes a slot in your hand whenever you draw it. Other curses are on Curses, Statuses and Quest Cards.

From Gloom to Inflation

Ascension 6 is the only level Mega Crit has replaced so far. At launch it was Gloom, "Less rest sites." Beta v0.100.0 (Mar 20, 2026) briefly made Gloom affect ? rooms too, and v0.101.0 (Mar 27, 2026) reverted that.

Mega Crit dropped Gloom because a map handicap was hard to read. Anthony Giovannetti wrote in the v0.102.0 notes (Apr 3, 2026) that "affecting map generation through Ascension has increasingly seemed to be a miss" because "It's often too hard to tell what change if any is a result of Ascension, or if it was just an unlucky map generation." Inflation took its place: card removal at the Merchant starts at 100 Gold and rises by 50 per removal instead of 25. It reached the main branch with Major Update #1 on Apr 17, 2026. Mega Crit has not published the normal starting removal price. PCGamesN (Apr 3, 2026) called it a card-removal nerf. Prices are on Merchant and Rest Sites.

Why 10 levels and not 20

The first game, Slay the Spire (2019), had 20 Ascension levels; the sequel has 10, and Mega Crit says it will stay near that. Asked in the August 2026 Neowsletter (Aug 14, 2026) whether A10 should match the first game's A20, Casey Yano answered: "Our general thought has been that Ascension 10 is close to the highest difficulty we'll have for the game. Grinding out Ascension 20 would be quite a chore as there are more characters in the sequel." He added that the picture will be clearer "As more content makes it into the game".

Some early guides listed 20 levels. Destructoid (Mar 9, 2026) printed 20 with first-game modifiers; PCGamesN's list and Mega Crit's own statistics show 10.

Win rates by Ascension

Mega Crit's figures show Ascension 10 wins at about the same rate as Ascension 0. Its May 2026 Neowsletter (May 23, 2026) counted 240,000,000 runs, 60.5 million won, a 25% win rate overall. By Ascension, "the average win-rate on A0 is 16%, compared to 9% in StS1. At the highest, A10, the win-rate is about 17%, compared to a very small 3% at A20 in StS1." Mega Crit has not published win rates per character.

Level	Slay the Spire 2	Slay the Spire (first game)
Ascension 0	16%	9%
Highest level	About 17% (A10)	About 3% (A20)

Source: Mega Crit: The Neowsletter - May 2026, May 23, 2026, read Oct 26, 2026.

Mega Crit's direction for difficulty

31:50 Mega Crit is making the low levels easier and the high levels harder. The v0.104.0 notes (Apr 24, 2026) say "the base difficulty is quite hard right now," and that winning at the highest difficulty "should feel like a monumental achievement for a fraction of players devoted to understanding the ins and outs of the game's mechanics." Anthony Giovannetti added: "We are slowly starting the process of making lower Ascensions a little easier, and high Ascensions slightly harder. We want to do this gradually instead of all at once." Reviewers had noticed: PCGamesN's review (Mar 24, 2026) listed "Easier than the original at high Ascension levels" among its cons. Changes by patch are on Patches and Updates.

Frequently asked questions

How many Ascension levels are in Slay the Spire 2? Slay the Spire 2 has 10 Ascension levels, from Swarming Elites at Ascension 1 to Double Boss at Ascension 10, per PCGamesN (Mar 10, 2026). The first game had 20.

What is the max Ascension in Slay the Spire 2? Ascension 10 is the highest level in Slay the Spire 2's Early Access, and Casey Yano said on Aug 14, 2026 that it "is close to the highest difficulty we'll have for the game."

Is there Ascension 20 in Slay the Spire 2? No. Slay the Spire 2 stops at Ascension 10, and Mega Crit's Casey Yano said grinding out Ascension 20 "would be quite a chore as there are more characters in the sequel" (Neowsletter, Aug 14, 2026).

What does Ascension 10 do in Slay the Spire 2? Ascension 10, Double Boss, makes you fight two bosses at the end of Act 3, on top of all nine lower levels' effects; Acts 1 and 2 still have one boss each, per TheGamer (Mar 16, 2026).

How do you unlock Ascension in Slay the Spire 2? In Slay the Spire 2 you unlock Ascension 1 for a character by winning a run with it, then each win on your highest level unlocks the next, per TheGamer. Solo progress is per character; co-op has its own ladder shared by all five characters.

What is Ascension 6 in Slay the Spire 2? Ascension 6 in Slay the Spire 2 is Inflation: Merchant card removal starts at 100 Gold and rises 50 per removal, since Major Update #1 on Apr 17, 2026. Before that it was Gloom, which gave fewer rest sites.

What is the win rate at Ascension 10 in Slay the Spire 2? About 17%, Mega Crit said in its May 2026 Neowsletter, against 16% at Ascension 0 and about 3% at Ascension 20 in the first game.