Patch Notes: 'From the Ashes' Major Update

[p]Welcome to the patch notes for the From the Ashes major update! Don't forget to read the devlog with explanations for the changes, as well as why we've decided to introduce them.[/p]

Couple words on the technical stuff: with this many changes, lots of them required heavy refactoring or complete rewrite of the systems. As such, these patch notes do not contain detailed list of all of the bug fixes -- but it doesn't mean that we haven't fixed old bugs. It's just they were removed together with some of the new stuff.

We might have introduced some new bugs though. So, as always, let us know if you encounter them -- either in the Steam Discussions, or via the in-game bug report button.

Cheers!

[h2]THE PATCH NOTES[/h2]

[h3]CAMPAIGN & WORLD MAP[/h3]

• Reworked world map into a few large macro-regions with fewer but more impactful events.
  
• Each act grants 4 move actions: they are spent only on opening regions. Unused actions carry over to the next act.
  
• Acts contain missions and shops; the player can route straight to the boss, skipping missions/shops and preserving unused actions.
  

[h3]ENEMIES: METACLANS & CURSES[/h3]

• All ORX reorganized into 3 metaclans:
  
  
  
  • Agroclan — swarm, speed, aggression (forest-biased).
    
  • Eliteclan — slow, tanky, high-stat elites (desert-biased).
    
  • Tacticsclan — flying bombers, trebuchetORX, healers, positional tools (winter-biased).
    
• Any metaclan can still spawn in any biome.
  
• Removed hidden act-based scaling of ORX. After each mission the player picks 1 curse that buffs enemies (stats, wave tempo, etc.).
  

[h3]CARDS, ECONOMY & DECK MANAGEMENT[/h3]

• Starting decks heavily reduced to bare essentials (e.g. Rune Guardians: Single Wall, Straight Road, Curved Road, Farm).
  
• Card rewards rebalanced around lower event density and a smaller starting pool.
  
• Cards can be sold in shops for Crowns to clean up and reshape the deck mid-campaign.
  
• Frail cards removed; all faction cards now have 3 tiers.
  

[h3]CARD TYPES: CHARGES & COOLDOWN[/h3]

• All cards now fall into two mechanical types:
  
  
  
  • Charge-based cards: limited number of uses.
    
    
    
    • Faction cards with lives are limited per mission.
      
    • Neutral cards with lives are limited to the entire run.
    
    
  • Cooldown cards: infinite uses, but stay in discard for extra turns equal to their cooldown before re-entering the draw cycle.

[h3]STASHING SYSTEM[/h3]

• New mechanic: stash a card onto the battlefield without playing it or paying gold.
  
• Stashed cards are removed from the deck loop for the mission and occupy stash slots (3 slots by default).
  
• Stashed cards can be bought back for their current cost and placed on top of the draw pile; normal cost is paid again when actually played.
  

[h3]SHOPS & NEUTRAL CARDS[/h3]

• Shops now: buy cards, upgrade cards, buy an artifact (enchant shop disabled).
  
• Added a neutral card slot in shops: all neutral cards there use non-restoring lives (burn across the run if used).
  

[h3]RUNE GUARDIANS REWORK[/h3]

• Rune Guardians reshaped into 3 explicit archetypes:
  
  
  
  • Big Castle — one major castle; Structure Integrity penalties for large castles removed.
    
  • Dots (DoT network) — many small castles/entities stacking debuffs and indirect damage.
    
  • Infantry — unit-driven deck.
• Unit roster streamlined to 4 lines: Militia (melee), Spearmen (defensive), Runemages (ranged magic), Templar (elite super-unit).
  
• New Veterancy system (0–5) for all warriors: ranks boost stats and will later unlock extra traits; veterancy gained by surviving nights, with effects that accelerate its growth.
  

[h3]TRAITS, TAGS & FLYING UNITS[/h3]

• Fierce / Resilient / Cunning are being phased out.
  
• Transition to a tag-driven system (melee, ranged, flying, etc.) that will inform targeting and interactions.
  
• Early tag usage in place (e.g. flying ORX bombers and zeppelins); full integration still in progress.
  

[h3]CASTLES, TOWERS & STATUSES[/h3]

• Castle Awake Time: castles now have a wake-up delay before firing; larger castles wake slower. Cards exist to manipulate awake time.
  
• Blank Tower Activation: castles can spawn inert Blank Towers that must be activated before they can shoot; this attribute controls how many can be activated.
  
• Status system refactored: many effects no longer scale off STR/DEX/VIT but use multipliers and stacks instead.
  
• Poison, Puddle, Malediction and similar effects now scale through stacking and multipliers for clearer DoT/indirect-damage builds.
  

[h3]EXAMPLE NEW ATTRIBUTES[/h3]

• Overkill Surge, Active Time Modifier, Silver per Negative Effect, Malediction, Puddle on Death Buff, Indirect Damage Bonus per Negative Effect, etc., supporting debuff/DoT and indirect-damage archetypes.

[h3]ROADS & INTERSECTIONS[/h3]

• New road intersections that continue existing roads instead of cutting them off, reducing dead ends in path layouts.

[h3]MAP LAYOUTS[/h3]

• Around 10 new map layout templates added; each acts as a high-level pattern further procedurally refined.
  
• Mission UI now shows map size and layout type before you start.

[h3]BOSSES[/h3]

• New desert act boss: the Worm, the capstone encounter for the desert biome.