ORX News

The long awaited third playable faction is finally here! With the first snow come the northern warriors — welcome the Boreal Nomads. Also included in this update is the Community Castle Skin!

[h2]The Mighty Boreals[/h2]

Before we tell you about them, let us first introduce the Boreal Nomads with their very own trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you read our gameplay devlog, you might already know the basic gameplay of the Boreal Nomads. For the sake of those who might’ve missed it, let’s go over the details again and cover the new features.

Boreal Nomads are a nation of two races — the humans who were nomads, and the giants called Boreals. We’ve endeavored to convey the differences and interactions between the nations through the gameplay. The giants are your main force: they guard your village and the Main Building, scout the surroundings for treasures and relics and buy gear from the Nomads. And they do all of this completely on their own! After you build their haven, the Boreals start roaming around the map, fighting threats and looking for randomly spawning treasures, prioritizing one or the other based on their archetype.



A new mechanic not covered in previous devlogs is Runic Empowerment. The haven of each Boreal has 4 slots for rune circles, which provide the giants with unique buffs. These circles do nothing on their own, however, and a Boreal has to find a relic and slot it into the circle. The relics differ in quality and some of them boost the runic circle’s effects more than others. They spawn randomly on the map, but you can also force their spawn by playing the dedicated card. Speaking of which…



This is where you come in! Your role is that of the Tsar, managing your villages and supporting the Boreals. Building as the Boreal Nomads is two-layered — first you have to place a tile of Nomad soil, then you can place one of the many buildings for various effects. These can range from craftsmen, making gear for the giants, to powerful holidays. The Boreals will also generate gold when buying gear or services from the craftsmen!



Holidays are a new mechanic we’ve added to the faction, to both incentivise building enclosed villages and adding an extra layer of strategy in supporting the giants. You’re able to place a holiday monument only inside a fully enclosed village, but when you do, every tile inside the settlement and special buildings will boost its effects. Some of the holidays also provide a powerful initial effect when you place them on top of the passive buffs.



There are some other assorted things about the faction worth noting, like the Boreals keeping their gear and experience throughout the campaign. You can read our gameplay devlog to learn about such details, or… play the faction right now and uncover everything about it!

[h3]Boreal Nomads will be instantly accessible to everyone who plays ORX after the update, but only for a limited time![/h3]

[h2]Design-a-Castle Community Skin[/h2]

As promised, we’ve added the winning design from our Design-a-Castle contest to the game. Marvel in all its glory!



Right now, the skin applies to your Rune Guardians campaign with a 50% chance when starting a new run. We’ll introduce the option to select the skin or the classic castle at the start of the campaign a bit later.

Be warned though, this castle doesn’t have towers protecting it! We just couldn’t bring ourselves to mar the beauty of this design by square towers, and it was also suggested by an experienced player. But to balance that out we gave it a minor voidwalker-type buff, so now this castle will buff all military units and buildings in your kingdom at the start as long as you put some runes into it. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to build some additional defences if your campaign is generated with the community skin.

[h2]DISCLAIMER[/h2]

This update is quite large and introduces many new mechanics and behind-the-scenes logic. While we've done our best to slay all bugs, some may still remain when the update reaches you. AS such, you may be faced with something we’ve missed due to the randomly generated nature of many of ORX's key features. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding!

If you encounter any bugs or have feedback about the Boreal Nomads — please, share them on one of the platforms below!



We also plan to expand the arsenal of cards and mechanics for the Boreal Nomads in future updates!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

Gameplay

• Added the Boreal Nomads — the 3rd playable faction.
  
  • Faction Cards
    
  • Faction Units
    
  • Faction Event with upgradable artifact
    
  • New unique gameplay mechanics
    
  • Universal cards
    
• Changed Buff Vaults effects from being 3x3 Aura to Global
  
• New Buff Vaults types
  
  • Earth (defence)
    
  • Fury (defence ignore)
    
  • Sacred (HP and damage)
    
  • Aether (resurrection)
    
  • Darkness (thorns)
    

User Interface

• Added deck reshuffle effect
  
• Adjusted the Early Access notice dimensions to be less intrusive
  
• Villages targeted by ORX now have a new distinct icon above them
  
• You can now click any unit (including ORX and monsters) to view their detailed stats
  
• New unit selection highlight
  

Optimization

• Compiled player units textures into texture atlases
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed attack speed not waiting for the projectile to land
  
• Fixed “!” not disappearing from the Encyclopedia even if there were no new entries
  
• Fixed enchantments not changing the weapon’s element
  
• Fixed card getting stuck under the cursor, when played during a cutscene
  
• Fixed the Advisors unlock resetting on game restart
  
• Fixed the Puddle Tower DoT ticks being the same as the main damage value of the tower
  
• Fixed the chain hit effect jumping to more targets than intended
  

Fixed Previously

• Fixed a rare freeze tied to ElementObserver lookup line
  
• Fixed the Black Screen Issue
  
• Fixed ORX Trojan proccing the Death Knight’s resurrection and spawning ORX each time
  
• Fixed stat integer overflow for castles and units
  

That's it for today. See you in the next update!

Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server.

Greetings, orx-terminators!

With the release of the Boreal Nomads getting ever closer, we’ve prepared for you a gameplay overview of the 3rd playable faction. Let’s peek through the blizzard and see what makes them stand out from the rest!

Those who’ve read our lore devlog might’ve already guessed that the core gameplay of Boreal Nomads rests on two main pillars — the giants called Boreals, who protect the nation, and, well, the Nomads, which act as the craftsmen and the architects. Of course, in true ORX-slaying fashion, the northerners have a completely new play style that feels familiar yet fresh!

But what exactly do we mean by that?

[h2]Hand of stone, Arm of strength[/h2]

The Boreals themselves essentially serve as the faction’s heroes. Although, they’re not simply units — like Rune Guardian militants or blades of the Dune Reavers, — no, they’re actual autonomous heroes, each with personal goals and motivations. We really wanted to convey their independent nature as mentioned in our lore devlog through the core gameplay of the faction.



The giants are not controlled by the player and instead freely roam the map. Depending on their archetype, they might hunt down threats to protect the main village, scouting the land for treasures, or search for powerful yet elusive miracles and runestones. Of course, as soon as night falls, all of them will join forces to stand against the ORX.



You may be wondering, “But where does the player come in?”. Well, Boreals don’t just wander about — they also seek to buy new gear, potions and hone their skills. They will earn gold by slaying monsters and finding treasures, and then use it to buy their desired items and upgrades from the village.

It’s also possible to nudge them to complete a certain objective by playing one of the Bounty cards. These will not only give a bonus reward for the Boreals, but even provide them with different buffs. It’s not a direct order though and some Boreals, depending on their archetype, might prioritise a different task still. After all, the giants are all about personal freedom, and they lived this way even before the Empire of Medea existed!



To further highlight the individuality of each Boreal, we’re making it so they carry their experience levels and gear throughout the campaign. They are also bestowed with a unique name after you place their haven at least once. Yes, we’re thinking of ways for you to be able to name the Boreals personally! We absolutely want you to have a squad of orx-slaying stone giants named Orker Morder, Thor Mjöllnir, and Mektig Bonk!



[h2]I'm at home in the North[/h2]

While the Boreals are busy roaming the map, the player can focus on the hearth of the village. The Northern Iceplanes are harsh and unforgiving lands, where one must seek protection from both the elements and wildlife behind sturdy walls. Unfortunately, in such an icy landscape there is no robust selection of building materials, and as such the wood becomes your main option.



Inspired by traditional Scandinavian and Slavic architecture, the settlements of Boreal Nomads are also built with wood. Palisade walls surround the settlement, tasked with keeping it safe, which are made up of entire trees felled by the giants. Here the familiar gameplay of placing tiles and buildings again comes with a twist.

The buildings themselves can only be placed either inside or outside, depending on the nation — after all, living together would be too crowded. And the villages inside are teeming with life! Craftsmen work day and night to make gear and potions for the Boreals, diary production uses nearby pastures to produce cheese, and the Tsar is busily managing everything to help his people brave the harsh winters. Here the Boreals will exchange gold for goods and services, bringing to life the symbiotic relationship between the two nations.



To brighten up the bleak iceplanes and bring some much needed warmth into their lives, Nomads regularly hold various holidays. These festivities are not just for show, however, as they empower the Boreals with additional bonuses! These can range from granting attack speed buffs to resurrecting the giants — with their strength depending on the size of the village. However, you will need to close the walls on all perimeters in order to place a monument and can only have one holiday active per village. As the saying goes: “Most time to work and an hour to have fun”!



[h2]And in the winter cold, with opened eyes…[/h2]

Naturally, this is just a sneak peek at the very core of Boreal Nomads. We’ve recently implemented a new system for the players to empower the giants through runestones, which will grant them unique abilities. As well as the 4th archetype for the Boreals themselves, the cunning Rogue — this way, we have all 4 basic fantasy archetypes covered!



Boreal Nomads will also receive a weighty deck of new cards down the road. Of course, that will include new buildings and spells unique to the faction, but we might include something extra in that expansion — like a new mechanic or a building with a unique interaction!

While working on Boreal Nomads, we’ve also had a lot of new ideas for Rune Guardians and Dune Reavers pop up. If you saw our updated Roadmap, you’ve probably noticed an item on the list called “mechanics update,” mentioning the initial two factions. And by this, we’ve meant bringing the first two factions up to the game’s current standards. This might include things like refreshing some of the older mechanics, adding new ones to prevent a power creep between newer and older factions, and, of course, new cards.

See you with the first snow in the Boreal Nomads content update!

Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server.

Greetings!

Another hotfix is here. This time we've finally pinpointed the root cause behind ORX Trojans spawning way too much ORX. Which looks cool, but would lead to crashes depending on hardware and was generally really unfair to play against.

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed Death Knight's perk working on ORX Trojans, leading to multiple spawns of the ORX from it.
  

Greetings!

We've deployed another hotfix, addressing the issue of the integer overflow for stats — which caused objects to collapse and deal 1 damage when getting to the upper calculatable limit for each corresponding stat.

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• Fixed integer overflow for stats
  

Greetings, Kings and Queens! Architects and artists! Our dear players!

With the upcoming release of Boreal Nomads this Fall, we’ve decided to use the opportunity to also celebrate… you! Our community, dedicated players, and early adopters!

Thank you for taking the time to play our game, being a part of our community, and for your amazing feedback on ORX! And what better way to memorialize your monumentally vital input, than to put a monument in-game, symbolizing how thankful we are for each and every one of you! This is why we’re announcing

The Main Castle in question.

Starting Today and until October 27th, you can submit your designs for the Main Building of Rune Guardians and the winning design will be added to ORX!

Your works can be both sketches and text descriptions (just don’t forget to include the closest references!). Winners will be picked by the development team and added to the game with the Boreal Nomads update.

We will also add the authors of Top 5 designs to the game’s credits!

For submissions, head over to the Design a Castle Creative Contest pinned Discussion, read the rules in the pinned discussion and submit your designs in replies to the discussion — this way everyone will have easier time to find and discuss them!

You can also submit your works on our official Discord server, by navigating to #design-a-castle channel.

Good luck and let your creativity flow!