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Hey all, first blog post in a while!

I’m writing because in the next update of the spire biomes mod for slay the spire, the biomes themselves will be properly integrated with say the spire. This will allow anyone using a screen reader and say the spire to play with the biomes mod and navigate the map taking them into account. Below I’m listing all the biomes available at the time of writing, with any notes about accessibility. Do note that not quite everything in the biomes mod works completely with say the spire, and the accessibility notes will mention anything needed to know to navigate affected encounters. I will attempt to keep this updated as things change or biomes get added, but if you notice any issues please let me know.

Biomes, and notes about accessibility

Ambushed!

You’ve been ambushed! Start each combat Surrounded by two enemies in highly difficult fights inspired by base game encounters.

Rewards include double gold and immediate card draw options from any base game color.

This biome is fully accessible. Surrounded is shown similar to the shield and spear fight.

Beast’s Lair

A powerful beast has made its home here, and it’s not happy to see you.

This node contains a boss from last act, its fury increases its power. It drops high rarity cards and an extra relic.

This biome is fully accessible. It will show up as a single unknown node on the map.

Broken Space

Space itself is broken here, even from afar you can sense that something is horribly wrong.

Reward cards can be of any color (including curses). Add an extra card reward to combats. Relic drops are twisted into new forms.

This biome is fully accessible.

Candy Land

All rewards here are edible. It will be hard to improve much while in this biome, as most rewards are healing, max HP or otherwise temporary.

This biome is mostly accessible, with the only problematic spot being the healing or max hp provided at the end of combat. This will show up as a reward with no speech attached to it, simply hit enter on it to access.

Home of the insert character name here

Another character inhabits this biome.

Combats and Shops have cards from that characters color.

This biome is fully accessible, though do note this many in one biome can randomly choose to be from any character in the game, including any modded characters you may have installed.

Divinities’ Gaze

Powerful divinities have descended! Are you worthy of their attention, and can you withstand it?

At the start of combat, receive a powerful card and some statuses from a random divinity.

This biome is fully accessible. Unknown nodes may be an encounter with one of said divinities, which will offer you a choice of some rewards, possibly at a cost.

Frostlands

A frosty crew can be found chilling in the Frostlands within the Spire. If you can overcome their challenges, they may have powerful rewards for you.

This biome is fully accessible, though notably when I tried this biome recently, the mentioned frosty crew spoke their death message immediately upon entering combat. I’m unsure if this is a bug only with say the spire or otherwise. Either way, it doesn’t make any difference for playability.

Golden Curse

The corruption of greed has manifested here.

Combats will drop more rewards, but they cost gold to claim. Gold rewards will not drop.

This biome is mostly accessible, except that the rewards after combat do not say how much gold they will cost. Experimentation will be needed to determine prices. If you can’t pick up a reward when clicking on it, you probably can’t afford it. Beware, card rewards cost gold to open, even if you don’t want anything inside.

Grass

When you enter battles, you will see grass. When you have leftover Energy, grass grows. When you pluck grass, cool things will happen.

When you see relics in rewards or shops, they will likely be related to grass.

The main attraction of this biome, clicking on grown grass to pick it, is unfortunately not accessible. All other gameplay works normally however, so this biome can be considered to only slightly alter the nodes within for blind players, including the mentioned grass related relics. It is otherwise fully playable and can be navigated through speech.

Gravewood Grove

You are surrounded by dead branches. You feel your life slowly seeping away.

Each turn, draw 1 less card and Exhaust the first card you play. Whenever you Exhaust a card, add a random card to your hand.

This biome is fully accessible.

Gremlin Camp

A large group of gremlins has taken over this space. Keep your eyes peeled, you won’t be able to sleep there.

This biome is fully accessible, including the extra scavenge option at the rest site to gain gold.

Gremlin Town

A section of the city populated by gremlins. More dangerous, but more rewarding.

This biome is mostly accessible. The fights will be with new (and old) gremlins, which will drop gremlin themed cards on death. The only part of this biome that is not accessible is a random chance to encounter an event in which you must press enter to fight a mini elite type encounter. If you hear nothing upon entering an event in this biome, that is likely what you need to do.

Heavenly Clouds

The clouds are closer here. The monsters here seemed to have gained the ability of Flight. But if you manage to overcome them, perhaps you can gain some of their speed for your cards.

This biome seems fully accessible, though I’m unsure whether the mentioned speed for your cards is spoken on affected items. This needs more testing.

Humility

All enemies are buffed in new and dangerous ways.

Upon entry, obtain a random rare relic.

This biome is fully accessible, but be fully prepared. This zone is not for the faint of heart or weak in deck.

Invasion!

The Spire is being invaded by monsters from alternate acts! Fight new monsters and elites.

Elites give extra gold and special powerful card rewards instead of relics. Shops have special cards for sale.

This biome should be mostly accessible. It includes encounters from the three act addition mods elementarium, Menagerie, and abyss, so any querks with those mods probably apply here.

Junkyard

Lots of things to pick up! Gain 2 card rewards per combat but you can’t skip card rewards.

This biome is fully accessible.

Keymaster

Be rewarded for the sacrifices you’ve made to acquire the Keys.

At the start of combat, gain 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity, and 1 Focus. All card rewards are Upgraded.

This biome should be fully accessible, though its worth noting that I rarely fight the heart in single player, and the biomes mod is not compatible with together in spire yet for my multiplayer sessions, so more testing would be needed here.

Mana Surge

The Spire is being flooded with mana, entering your deck and changing your cards, Enchanting or Blighting them.

There are also ways to keep these changes for the rest of the run!

This biome is fully accessible. Blighted and enchanted cards will be spoken as an adjective before the card description.

Mirror

Weird mirrors let you copy enemy moves!

Each turn, you get a Mirror Move card containing one of the enemy moves used in the previous turn. It might be powerful, but you draw 1 less card in exchange.

This biome is fully accessible.

Monster Zoo

Monsters have overrun this area! They are stronger, but beating them will give you a better card reward and more gold.

This biome is fully accessible.

Pack Attack

Cards from Packmaster packs are everywhere! Each turn, you draw one less card, but add a random card from a set of three packs to your hand.

Card rewards and shops contain cards from the packs, and rumor has it that interesting shrines and markets can be found here.

This biome is fully accessible.

Smith’s Folly

Enemies have improved themselves using a powerful Forge.

Upon entering and exiting, Upgrade the rarest card in your deck. ALL combats have burning Elite modifiers. Elites will drop the Emerald Key if you don’t have it already.

This biome is fully accessible. Beware.

Storm

A thunderstorm is forecasted in this area of the Spire. Lightning will strike either the player or a monster, and you may be rewarded with special electric cards. Make sure to keep your hand out of the rain…

This biome is mostly accessible, save for as far as I can tell, the electric modifiers and the wet status on cards in your hand are not read out. Sorry ahead of time if a card exhausts that you didn’t expect to… Notably, cards that retain that wouldn’t normally are wet, so beware. More testing would be helpful for the electric modifiers, as its entirely possible I just haven’t found any on my card rewards.

The Fog

There’s thick fog in this area, which blocks your view in every direction. Enemies you encounter will be Weaker and more Vulnerable on the first turn, but you’ll be Dazed.

This biome is fully accessible, including a custom event.

Thieves’ Hideout

The den of a notorious band of thieves, swarming with thieves and slavers.

The Thief King is said to guard great treasure at the heart of the hideout. But be careful… it might be your life that gets stolen if you aren’t strong enough.

This biome is fully accessible.

Volatile Grounds

Houses various enemies with explosive abilities. Play around their triggers carefully or block their blasts.

This biome is fully accessible.

Wildfire

A raging fire is consuming the spire! Everything is Burning, dealing increasing damage each turn. Card rewards harness the power of these flames.

This biome is fully accessible. Notably, this seems to be one of the few biomes whose modified cards are accessibly read out. Have fun burning down your enemies!

Windy

Extreme winds are happening in the spire!

Enemies are blown away when at or below 10% HP, defeating them but lowering the gold reward by an amount equal to their HP.

This biome is fully accessible, except for the minor note that enemies do not indicate when they will be blown away. Make sure to carefully calculate, and if an attack would bring the enemy below 10 percent hp, try to kill them within a few seconds, as the turn does not have to end for this to happen.

Thanks

Thanks to the entire spire biomes development team, and especially to modargo who quicly (within a day!) turned around an accessible version for me to test.

Enjoy the spire, now with new map features, and please let me know if your own testing shows any difference so I can update this article.

Michael.