The Last Spell News

[p]Hello Heroes,[/p][p]we hope you're doing good! We're still working hard on DLC 3, and on future blogposts to tell you more about the new systems we have yet to introduce you to![/p][p][/p][p]In the meantime, we have a small bugfix issue for the game today![/p][p][/p][h2]Security issue[/h2][p]We want to let you know that a security issue was recently found in some versions of the Unity Editor. In certain cases, it could have allowed unsafe file loading. Good news: the issue has been completely fixed. We’ve applied the official Unity updates to make sure our games stay safe and stable. There is no evidence that the issue was ever exploited, and no player data has been affected.[/p][p][/p][h2]Bugfix[/h2]

• [p]Fixed a text formatting issue in the perk Feral Instinct tooltip[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where potions could not be used when the "Condensed Hate" (Stone Medal perk) was active[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where old save versions could have troubles to unlock Battle Ready Achievement[/p]

[p][/p][p]Don't forget to update your game![/p]

[p]Hello Heroes! [/p][p] [/p][p]We hope you’re doing okay announced  that the third DLC of The Last Spell would be the final DLC for the game, and that the DLC would be available in early 2026. [/p][p]We’ve been working all summer on this DLC, and right now, we’re starting to have every system nicely implemented in the game. It’s all VERY WIP, as most of the systems don’t have any UIs yet, and there’s no balancing yet. But we’re happy with our direction so far, and we can’t wait for you to experience it! [/p][p]We also organized some closed betas that allowed us to refine the different systems (a HUGE thank you to our very special beta testers A new formula [p]In the last announcement, we clarified that this would be the last DLC for The Last Spell, and that it would be different from previous DLCs. So, you might be asking: why exactly, and in what way? [/p][p]After finishing Elves of Amberwald, we made a clear observation: it would be extremely difficult for us to make another “race + map + 3 weapons” DLC that would meet our standards in terms of quality. When we make new content for the game, we want it to be fun, interesting and refreshing. It’s not that we have no ideas for new maps, weapons or races, but they would either be too similar to some existing content, or cost way too much to develop. [/p][p]Instead, we decided to focus on something else entirely: game systems and mechanics. Now, what kind of new systems do we want? We decided on three main points: [/p]

• [p]The new systems should make runs more diverse and different from each other [/p]

• [p]The new systems should add short or long-term goals/challenges to create new motivations during runs [/p]

• [p]The new systems should be “optional”: players can ignore them during a run if they don’t want to use them, preserving the “vanilla” experience [/p]

[p]You can keep these points in mind for future blogposts, as all new systems respect them. Now that the scope of the DLC has been set, I’m here to introduce one of the new systems that will be part of it: Divergences. [/p][p] [/p][p]To make it simple, a Divergence is an optional challenge for the coming night. Divergences will appear every 2 to 3 days, at the start of the production phase, and will offer a choice between 3 options: [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p]

• [p]Standard Divergence: an effect that will make the coming night harder for the player. It’s the basic version of the Divergence. [/p]

• [p]Strong Divergence: a “hardcore” version of the Standard Divergence. It has the same effect, but boosted. In exchange, it grants more rewards. [/p]

• [p]Refuse: this option will keep the coming night unchanged but does not give any rewards. [/p]

[p]Divergences can have a wide variety of effects, like adding more enemies, boosting enemies, or even handicapping the Heroes. When a Divergence appears, its effect is chosen at random, so you will see different divergences every run, even if you play the same map over and over. I will tease a few of the possible effects later in the blogpost. [/p][p]The main objective of Divergences is to give players the opportunity to take a risk and increase the difficulty of the coming night – a frequent mechanic in roguelikes. But it also brings something else: the player can potentially plan the night more carefully, as divergences give a more precise idea of the challenges awaiting them. This is already something that exists using the seer, but Divergences really extend it. For example, if you see a Divergence that adds a lot of Accursed to the wave, you may want to equip one or two more Heroes with a magic weapon. [/p][p]The difficulty of Divergences scales with nights and maps, so a divergence on Elderlicht night 10 will probably have much stronger effects than a divergence on Lakeburg night 2. [/p][p]  [/p][p][/p][p]Here, the night 9 Divergence is much harder, but also grants better rewards. Would you take the risk? [/p][p] [/p][p]As a side note, you might be thinking “what the hell are Memories ?”. The answer to that will come in another blogpost. In the meantime, think of it as a resource you will most likely want to collect during runs, just like Materials or Gold. [/p][p] [/p][p]We are currently testing and tuning this new mechanic, with the help of our lovely beta testers, along with the rest of the new features in DLC3. Getting early feedback from players has helped us a lot and has already helped us make much needed improvements and adjustments. For example, following the first round of playtests, beta testers told us that they always got the same divergences and that the system lacked variety. We have since added a few more and tweaked their chances of appearing, which has made the feature much more enjoyable. [/p][p] [/p][p]Before we end this blogpost, here are a few examples of Divergences you might encounter during your runs with the upcoming DLC. Keep in mind that all values you see are likely to change in the final version, as we are still doing a lot of testing, tweaking and balancing. [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p] [/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p] [/p][p]Enabling a Divergence adding 18 Elite Runners maybe wasn’t a bright idea! [/p][p] [/p][p]And that’s it for today, I think we went through everything there is to know about Divergences. But stay tuned for future blogposts, as this is only one of the new systems we are introducing in DLC3. [/p][p][/p][p]We hope you’ll enjoy this DLC as much as we did working on it!  [/p][p]The Final DLC of The Last Spell will be released in early 2026! [/p][p][/p][p]To tease you a bit of what's next to come, here are the upcoming blogposts for the DLC:[/p]

• [p]Ordalies[/p]
• [p]Epiphanies[/p]
• [p]Eposes[/p]

[p]Intriguing, don't you think?[/p][p] [/p][p]Take care

[p]Hello Heroes, we hope you're doing okay![/p][p]Here, it's summer, and we're still working hard on DLC 3 of The Last Spell, and we're making great progress! Now that we have more visibility on what we still have left to do for this DLC, we want to give you an update on the release window, and the future of The Last Spell.[/p][p][/p][p]As we mentioned several times before, DLC 3 is VERY different from the Elves and Dwarves DLC. We can't give you specific details yet, but we're aiming to add brand-new systems that will give exciting new challenges for all players![/p][p]While working on the Dwarves and Elves, we wanted to enrich the existing systems we had spent so much time building. This allowed us to bring in new content without changing too much of what you already enjoy :) (well, we DID rework the whole Apoc system)[/p][p]However, for DLC 3, adding new systems and challenges (that affect the entire game) means we need to work on THE WHOLE content of the game (Yes, our designers are crazy, don't get one at home). This is a huge task, but a VERY exciting one.[/p][p]Finally, we want this DLC to be great for players. (more on that later) The last thing we want is to release a rushed DLC, because that's not something we'd be proud of.[/p][p]This is why DLC 3 will be released early 2026. This will give us the time we need to fine-tune everything, and make sure it's up to the standards that we're setting for this game and our players :)[/p][p]We thank you for your patience DLC 3... will be the final DLC of The Last Spell[p]We also want to take this opportunity to make an announcement about the future of The Last Spell. We started to work on the game in early 2019, more than 6 years ago. And, as we've kept on working on the game after its 1.0 release, our goal was to bring as much new content for players as possible AND as long as it made sense for us, creatively speaking.[/p][p]Although we're very proud of the work we did on the races, we decided to take a different direction for DLC3, one that brings more challenges to players. We’ve been reading the many comments, feedback, and reviews, and we made the decision to offer something different than Elves and Dwarves for DLC 3. We hope our players will like this new approach![/p][p]We've also made the decision that this DLC would be the final DLC of The Last Spell. There are several reasons for that:[/p]

• [p]The original plan was to make 5 races. However, after Dwarves and Elves, we realized that if we want players’ expectations to be met, new races would need to be made in a new game and not as DLCs.[/p]
• [p]For example, we’re aware players have been asking us for new enemies and bosses into the game, but that is not possible as it would  have taken us a lot of resources because the base content of the game is very complex and high quality. And making new (and good!) content on top of a system that was not made to get new content requires a lot of work. [/p]
• [p]Making more DLCs for The Last Spell will end up being more and more costly everytime we want new ideas, because the game is not infinitely extensible, and we don’t want to produce content just for the sake of making new content. [/p]
• [p]We'll need people working on TLS to work on our future game (wink wink) next year.[/p]

[p]This is why we took the decision of making DLC 3 the FINAL DLC of The Last Spell. This doesn't mean we will not release any more update after its release, but they will mostly be focused on bugfix and small balancing patches if there needs some.[/p][p]We want to make it clear that even though this DLC will be very ambitious with a lot of work involved, it will be one that, we hope, will make our players proud of what we're doing. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, so thank you

[p]Hello Heroes,[/p][p]we interrupt your summer to bring you a small-ish update for The Last Spell, AND an update for the apocalypse achievements![/p][h2][/h2][h2]Apocalypse Achievements[/h2][p]Apocalypse achievements now require the player to complete a map with a certain Apocalypse Level active, instead of a certain amount of modifiers. This is more similar to how it worked before, and should be less confusing to players[/p][h2][/h2][h2]Localisation fix[/h2]

• [p]Fixed two translation errors in German in the Metashop entries related to starting the game with a helmet or a usable.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a translation error in Ukrainian in the "How to Play" tab related to panic.[/p]

[h2]Bugfix [/h2]

• [p]Fixed a bug where the Perk Death Denial didn’t work when a hero was killed by the perk Boom [/p]

[p][/p]

[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p][/p][p]We hope you're okay! Today, we have a small update about DLC 3 of The Last Spell, and a VOD to share with you all![/p][p][/p][p]As you may have noticed, The Last Spell is part of the official Tacticon 2025 selection![/p][p]Tacticon is a premier Steam-based digital event organized by publishers Firesquid and Hooded Horse, for its fourth year, celebrating the best from the world of strategy, management, and simulation games from tomorrow until July 21. This year’s event is kicking off with another showcase hosted by Hooded Horse’s own Renee April, with cool trailers, reveals, and announcements revealed during the 60-minute broadcast. [/p][p][/p][p]Victor and Robin, game designers on the game, spoke at a roundtable with the devs of Cataclismo and Diplomacy Is Not An Option about the topic "Few against Many: designing overwhelming tactical encounters".[/p][p]In real-time strategy and turn-based tactics games, nothing is more thrilling than when players are massively outnumbered by undead hordes, swamped into armies of pixels or a crowd of angry knights... and still hold the line! Let's explore how to design challenging battles where small squads or fragile defenses face overwhelming enemy forces. From last stands to carefully calculated retreats, both in real-time and turn-based systems, let's unveil the meticulous design schemes and crafted recipes of making games where the few battles against the many.[/p][p][/p][p]We were so glad to talk about this complex but fascinating topic with such talented people![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]On the dev side, the development of DLC 3 is going smoothly! We organized a closed Alpha a few days ago with a very small group of players to playtest it and give us their first impressions.[/p][p][/p][p]Mind you, this was a really early version of the DLC 3, but we wanted to do it to see if the concept in itself worked (as it's NOT a map/race/weapons DLC). Good news is that feedback was really positive![/p][p][/p][p]We still have a lot of work to do on this one, but we're most likely do other betas before the release of the DLC :) [/p][p][/p][p]This is all today![/p][p][/p][p]Take care