The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker News

Bugfixes

• All sounds and music being muted by default for some players. Your settings might reset - sorry about that.
  
• Quest tracker not staying hidden after game restart
  
• Chatbox size resetting after game restart
  

[h3]Hail, medieval adventurers![/h3]




Today we’re introducing a fresh content update, The Squallstone Keep, which brings to the game ‘The Barbarian Raids’ end-game challenge and a massive player home, as well as other features and improvements based on your feedback!

Quick overview:

• The prior barbarian ambushers roaming Amarien's Foothills have been repurposed into a new minigame!
  
• A short new quest has been added to Amarien's Foothills, centered around the lore of a long-lost mountain castle and its overlord, a menacing ogre baron causing chaos in the region.
  
• Completing the quest unlocks a repeatable minigame, where defeating increasingly challenging groups of enemies roaming the mountains earns unique rewards - including a new castle home, powerful weapons, abilities, and plenty of unique and functional furniture!
  
• Accessing Thornhill trainers no longer requires leveling all skills; the academy quest has been modified to support this; it is instead optional, granting a new, additional reward in the form of a unique Thornhill fast travel network upon completion.
  
• Easily switch around trainer traits with choices - you're no longer locked into your initial decision on a playthrough.
  
• Improved modding support through code cleanup and easier access to game files.
  
• Lots of new unlockable fast travel options to ease traversing the map!
  

At the barracks on the northern side of Bulwark Cliff stands a tragic old figure. Sir Taron Rimeholt, the last remaining Baron of Amarien's Mountains, commands the men. Long ago his family lost their seat of power, the great Squallstone Keep, to the raiding barbarian clans...

Since then the castle has received a new master - the self-proclaimed 'Big Baron', whom Sir Rimeholt never managed to dislodge. But perhaps now, after all the decades, a brave new adventurer might come along, present a challenge to the decadent lord of the keep, and reignite the hope of restoration of the castle's former glory!



Completing the quest unlocks the Barbarian Raids minigame; once active, the ogre baron's raiders begin roaming the wilderness, only presenting a stronger threat with each defeat they suffer. Maintain your kill streak to earn progressively better rewards, though beware! If you suffer a defeat yourself, or are forced to retreat after initiating a fight, your running tally will reset!

Track your progress easily via the on-screen display, and periodically claim your rewards at one of tally boards, located at either barracks near the mountain village, or the castle itself. The boards are also where you may toggle the minigame on/off, as you please.

You'll find the barbarian raid groups are also marked with a skull on the minimap, making it easier to engage them, or perhaps to avoid them in the event you need to make it to safety to claim your rewards.





Earn unique furnishings - such as many forms of teleporters - a powerful new sword, spells, and an upgraded backpack. After conquering a fair few raiders, you may unlock the majestic three-floor Squallstone Keep as your personal home!

As you reach the end of the meaningful tally, you will face the big ogre baron once and for all...

The Squallstone Keep, which may be unlocked as a personal home throughout the raiders minigame.

A brand new achievement may be earned for overcoming the threat of barbarian raiders and placing a banner, signifying your victory, to fly high at the top floor of the castle!


[h2]Trainers & Traits[/h2]

We've now successfully uncoupled the quest requirement at Thornhill's Academy to access the Thornhill trainers, while still keeping the quest as a relevant, optional challenge in the game.

The trainers may now be accessed on an individual basis as you reach relevant levels in the skills they represent. While the Academy quest is no longer required to this end, it will now provide a new, additional reward in the form of a unique fast travel network within the city.



Also, by popular request, you can now freely switch between trainer traits that present a choice! Just open the trainer UI and choose a different trait for a small coin cost - no more being locked into your first choice.

This was an important one to knock out, a carry-over from earlier development days when we felt more inclined to include permanent choices in the game.



[h2]Modding[/h2]



For those who are technically inclined and interested in modding, we've taken some steps to make the game easier to modify. To recap from our earlier blog, we decided to take steps by removing code obfuscation, cleaning up the codebase, and exposing important game data as easily modifiable files (such as items, shops, NPCs, dialogue, quests, interactions, and NPC/Loot spawn locations). These changes are now rolling out along with this game update.

You may edit the existing data files or add your own to include extra content, expanding the game however you like. While we're in no position to provide full modding tools or official support, we’d like to do what we can, at the very least, to not stand in the way of modding aspirations.

We've also opened a new modding channel on our Discord server (link below), where you can discuss ideas, ask questions, or chat with others. We devs may occasionally drop by to help or say hello, though we're often quite busy, but we'll try to pop in when we can!

[h2]Other things...[/h2]



In an effort to continue enlivening the game world and especially small villages, this time the village of Grainwater has had its turn in receiving some new background npc interactions.

On the other hand, a new alchemy trait grants you the Blightpowder ability, which is used to poison foes so that any healing effects they receive are severely less effective. An excellent tool against barbarian raid groups with healers!

These and other minor changes, improvements and fixes will be accompanying the latest game update.

[h2]Would you care for merch...?[/h2]



We’re excited to announce a limited stock of handcrafted resin statuettes of Opticus Aluminar, now available for purchase on Etsy! They’re made by a local artist connected to our team, with careful attention to detail.

Purchasing the game really is the best way to support our work in general, but for those who have felt inclined to tip our dev team, this is now an avenue for it while also getting something cool in return.

We'll also include two Steam keys for Cursebreaker alongside every purchase, to share the adventure with friends!

Here's some additional detailed description of the statuettes:

"A handcrafted statuette of Opticus Aluminar from The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker video game, wearing a merchant outfit and holding a focusing crystal.

The main character encounters Opticus, an artisan and a merchant, as he searches for a focusing crystal for magic at the behest of a powerful necromancer. Acquiring the focusing crystal does not turn out to be as simple as expected, however, as the workshop of Opticus has been ransacked and the man himself captured by a local menace – Hubert the Axe.

My goal was to design a piece that honored the game's medieval adventure atmosphere, both through the character's costume and personality."

Please follow this link if you're interested in learning more:
https://www.etsy.com/fi-en/listing/1903813177/the-black-grimoire-cursebreaker


Edit: Thanks for giving us feedback regarding the shipping costs, which seem very high to various locations and especially to the US. We'll look into this and keep you updated on whether we'll manage to arrange for a cheaper shipping company. Also, if your country does not appear on the shipping list, you can send a message through Etsy and ask - we should be able to deliver to any country but the shipping costs may vary.

[h2]Finnish Game Awards Nomination[/h2]


As we're a small Finland-based team, we’re happy to share that The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker has been nominated for Finnish Game of the Year 2024 at the Finnish Game Awards 2025!

The event will be live-streamed on May 13th and you can check out the other games also nominated via the link above.


[h2]What's upcoming?[/h2]

We still remain committed to delivering free updates for the game for now. We have quite a large backlog of bug reports and feedback - thanks for sending them in! - and we'll be addressing it as best we're able. Additionally, here are a few points we discussed in our prior dev blog, which didn't make it into this update but continue to be on our agenda.

• We've seen that some players mistakenly believe the Bandit Fortress is part of the main quest and end up tackling it too early, often feeling overwhelmed. The change we discussed in the previous dev blog; modifying the quest to contain an extra step with something to do in Thornhill, to better guide the players along the intended main quest path.
  
• At least one more content update is planned, likely focused on high-level quests in the 50–100 range. We’re not ready to share any details yet - but let’s just say, what kind of medieval adventure doesn’t have a good old dragon slayer quest?
  

With that it's time to wish you all happy adventuring!

Pura

[h3]Greetings, medieval adventurers![/h3]



This is a short news blog conveying our thoughts and plans for the near term updates to the game. We’ve continued to sift through the feedback and reports we’ve received since launch (there’s been quite a bit!). With a focus on improving the game, aside from general jank, we've received few enough complaints expressing various degrees of frustration with some of the content in the game, starting with the ambusher groups roaming the mountains.


[h2]Mountain Ambushes[/h2]



Though we think the concept remains good, we admittedly missed the mark with its implementation and the idea wasn't properly conveyed to the player. The ambushers roam a very specific section of the mountains, leaving some areas more chill whereas in others the player's expected to be more on guard. The intention was that the player might try to pick their fights, and rather avoid and try to escape groups of enemies that posed too much of a threat.

Nothing particularly prepares the player for these encounters though; their functionality isn't explained anywhere, nor does anything else in the game work the same way. When players are attacked, they tend to instinctively try to fight their way out of it.

If the player succeeded in defeating them early on, the problem was only compounded, as that triggered higher level ambushers to attack next time with better drops. The increasing ambusher levels were more intended as an optional end game challenge, but they were also overtuned, with their levels increasing too quickly compared to how many kills were needed for the end game craftables. While some of you experts handled them fine regardless, they did also leave a fair few players at their wit's end.

So, with that said, we're exploring ways to rework the encounters entirely. At the moment we're leaning towards building a minigame around the ambushers, including a potential introductory quest, which would leave the ambushes much less frequent/intrusive while not active, i.e. while you're not trying to hunt for them.

During the challenge, you would gain increasingly better rewards based on how many groups you're able to take out in row, and it would contain conditions for failing the challenge (dying or fleeing from a fight), which would reset your current tally and roll back the ambusher levels.


[h2]Early Bandit Fortress[/h2]



It seems to us that some players get themselves caught up in the bandit quests, unintentionally bee-lining to the bandit fort encounter before even progressing the main quest to the Mistywood. Since the fort was designed as slightly higher level content, players would often end up running into it under-leveled and under-equipped, leading to a frustrating experience. In a few instances it seems the player thought they were on the main quest and believed their progression to be blocked.

To address the issue, we're planning to add a potential extra step to be performed in Thornhill, unlocked further along the main quest line, which should naturally guide players to continue along that path and hopefully progress a bit in power and consumables, before attempting to fight through the bandit fortress.


[h2]Thornhill Trainers Unlock[/h2]



For few enough players the requirement to access Thornhill Academy has been a pain point. For us, we perhaps somehow assumed that of course everyone would ultimately seek to improve all skills, but in reality there are lots of different ways people have shown up to enjoy the game, at different levels, ready to put it down at different points in the journey.

As such, the Thornhill Academy pre-requisite quest presents a frustrating roadblock to certain types of play. But the way the quest works, requiring the use of all the various skills, it can't easily be adjusted either. So we're leaning towards uncoupling the quest as a requirement to access the trainers, and instead you would automatically unlock each trainer as you progress in that particular skill.

The quest itself would stay as optional to complete for the other rewards it offers, for which we may come up with an additional few to make up for the removal of the trainer unlock.


[h2]Re-selecting trainer traits[/h2]



It's been requested for a while, quite a while... Well, we've finally worked a solution to be able to switch between the trainer traits where a choice can be made. You will be able to simply select another trait in the trainer UI to switch between them for the cost of coins, to be rolled out into the game within the next patch.


[h2]Modding Enthusiasts[/h2]



We've noticed some of you like to mod. While we're not in a position to offer proper modding support and tools, we'll try to make it easier to those of you that are technically minded. First and foremost we'll remove the code obfuscation and expose some data files to be more easily modifiable, such as items, shops, npcs, dialogue, quests and npc interactions.

With that, it should even be technically possible to make simple quests of your own.


[h2]New content?[/h2]

At least one new content update is currently planned to be added into the game further along in spring. We see more room for new quests in the late game, 50-100 level ranges. At the moment we have no details to share on that though, but what medieval adventure doesn't have a good old dragon slayer quest...?


Well anyhow, these and other smaller issues are on our agenda as we move into the new year. With that, it's time to wish you the best of year 2025, and most importantly, happy gaming!

Regards,
Pura

Fixed Evergreen Hearth log splitting requiring level 40 in Fishing instead of Woodsmanship

Happy Holidays, medieval adventurers!

We're a bit later than we would have liked, but nevermind that - we've just wrapped up an update, which brings to the game a new quest, tasks and crafting! This update is focused on adding new options when leveling skills in the ranges of 30-60. In addition, a whole new area is added onto the map, full of festive winter cheer.






The road leading northeast from the City of Thornhill now brings you to a trade station, where you can join a merchant caravan traveling to Winterpine Forests in the far northern reaches of the realm. The caravan parks just outside a cozy little village - the Evergreen Hearth - where the villagers are set to celebrate their traditional Hearthlight Festival.



The market stalls have quirky items on offer in exchange for festival tokens, which are gained by engaging with the villagers and their various tasks. Sometimes those task will take you out of the village into the frozen landscape of Winterpine Forest.










Upon arriving at the cozy village of Evergreen Hearth, you may pick up the new quest by visiting the village hall and speaking to the village matron, Madam Vinter. Though the village is busy getting into the festive spirit, out in the woods vile goblins have been gaining ground...

Honest working villagers are under constant threat of goblin skirmishes. If only there was a brave outlander who'd arrive to help the villagers drive back the goblin menace... And even then, will it be enough? For it may be that the goblins have discovered a terrifying source of power...








Out in the wilds of Winterpine Forest, you can come across new woodcutting and mining opportunities. You'll be able to acquire Coldstone Iron ore and Winterpine Logs, which can be used for relaxed experience gains for the smithing and crafting skills. The new land also offers options to progress tailoring via purchasing a special fabric with village festival tokens.

While these new materials fall into the 40-50 skill range, we've further added Bramblewood to be gathered at the swamps, and regular steel to be made from iron and coal at the 30-40 range. These materials also contain new sets of item recipes.






During the goblin witchcraft quest you may befriend Woofy, the friendly snow wolf, and gain him as a follower. He's a good boy and he'll do his best to protect you against your enemies. Another follower you can acquire is the bewitched snowman, who mostly excels at being a menace...

Finally, there's a new player house to acquire, which you may decorate and use to relax with your friends in the serene frozen landscape.

With that, I wish you all happy holidays and - most importantly - happy gaming!

Below are more detailed patch notes for those who may be interested.




Quests and Environment:

• New environments: Winterpine Forests
  
• New Quest: Wicked Goblin Witchcraft
  
• 6 new tasks
  
• 4 new related achievements in world tasks and questing categories
  

Monsters and foes:

• Snow wolf
  
• Elk
  
• Goblin raiders, tricksters and mystics
  
• The goblin witch
  
• Lesser wind elementals
  
• Great wind elemental
  

Followers:

• Woofy the Snow Wolf
  
• Bewitched Snowman
  

Player House:

• Lakeside Sauna Hut
  

New Spells and Abilities:

• Snowstorm at level 40 sorcery
  
• Frozen Arrows
  

~40 new Items, but notably (in no particular order):

• Winterpine Log
  
• Coldstone Iron Ore
  
• Coldstone Iron Ingot
  
• Clearwater Salmon
  
• Cooked Clearwater Salmon
  
• Winterpine Fabric
  
• Spellbook: Snowstorm
  
• Spellbook: Evergreen Hearth Teleport
  
• Ability Book: Frozen Arrows
  
• Survivalist's Bandage
  
• Elemental Crystal
  
• Elk Hide
  
• Hearthlight Festival Token
  
• Winterpine Wand
  
• Winterpine Bow
  
• Coldstone Iron Dagger
  
• Coldstone Iron Staff
  
• Tundra Robes
  
• Tundra Hood
  
• Elemental Wand
  
• Elemental Bow
  
• Enchanted Snow
  
• Elk's Head Helm
  
• Woofy Toy
  
• Ring of Protection from Hypothermia
  
• Frostwolf Fang
  
• Wildseer's Ring
  
• Raw Elk Meat
  
• Elk Pottage
  
• Steel Ingot
  
• Steel Plate Helmet
  
• Steel Plate Armor
  
• Steel Kiteshield
  
• Steel Broadsword
  
• Steel Greatsword
  
• Steel Dagger
  
• Bramblewood
  
• Bramblewood Wand
  
• Bramblewood Staff
  
• Bramblewood Bow
  
  
  Furniture items:
  
• Festive Gifts
  
• Candy Cones
  
• Hearthlight Wreath
  
• Festively Decorated Tree
  
• Ogre Head
  
• Snowman
  
• Snow Gentleman
  
• Fun Wooly Sock
  
• Hanging Festival Decorations
  
• Reindeer Trophy
  
• Snow Globe
  
• Traditional Tundra Village Rug
  

Crafting and Gathering Skills:

Mining:

• Mine Coldstone Iron Ore at level 45
  
  Woodsmanship:
  
• Chop Bramblewood Thickets at level 35
  
• Split Evergreen Hearth Firewood at level 40
  
• Chop Winterpine Trees at level 45
  
  Fishing:
  
• Ice Fishing at level 45
  
  Blacksmithing:
  
• Smelt Steel at level 35
  
• Smelt Coldstone Iron at level 45
  
• Iron Armor changed to level 24, down from 28
  
• Iron plate helmet changed to level 30, down from 32
  
• Iron Plate Armor changed to level 32, down from 35
  
• Noble Iron Plate Armor changed to level 34, down from 36
  
• Iron Kite Shield changed to level 29, down from 33 and is now craftable
  
• Accursed Broadsword changed to level 48, up from 37
  
• Accursed Kiteshield changed to level 49, up from 38
  
• Accursed Platehelm changed to level 50, up from 38
  
• Accursed Platearmor changed to level 50, up from 40
  
• Accursed Greatsword changed to level 52, up from 40
  
• Dreamguard Platehelm and Platearmor changed to level 55, up from 50
  
• Changed material requirements to craft Dreamguard Platearmor and Platehelm from iron and coal to new steel ingots, and they are now crafted at the anvil (previously they were at the furnace)
  
• Changed material requirements for accursed plate armors and weapons to also require steel ingots.
  
  Crafting:
  
• Craft Bramblewood Wand at level 35
  
• Craft Bramblewood Bow at level 36
  
• Craft Bramblewood Staff at level 38
  
• Craft Winterpine Wand at level 45
  
• Craft Winterpine Bow at level 45
  
• Craft Elemental Wand at level 53
  
• Craft Elemental Bow at level 53
  
  Tailoring:
  
• Ghoulhide Wraps changed to level 50, up from 44
  
• Ghoulhide Hood changed to level 50, up from 40
  
• Wraith's Robes changed to level 50, up from 44
  
• Wraith's Hood changed to 50, up from 42
  
  Cooking:
  
• Cook clearwater salmon at level 45
  
• Cook elk pottage at level 50
  

Miscellaneous:

• Changed Winterbark trees to Crystalbark, since the addition of Winterpine caused way too much winter wood for one game already.
  
• Monstrous Crustacean Helm item level changed to level 34, down from 38.
  
• Banshee Robes item level changed to level 55, up from 50
  
• Banshee Hood item level changed to level 55, up from 50
  

New music tracks:

• Windchill (plays in Evergreen Hearth)
  
• Kuura (plays in Winterpine Forests)
  
• Hypothermia (plays during combat at new snowy areas)
  

Bugfixes:

• Some kills in the outskirts of Thornhill should now count towards their respective achievement tasks.
  
• Fixed tiny hitboxes on zombies in the dungeons of Greywall.
  
• Potentially fixed an issue with Firestick Mixtures getting stuck in the air in the quest 'Battle of the Shearston Estate'. We'll continue to monitor this issue so please send a bug report if you notice it happening again.
  
• Fixed a bug causing items to sometimes get stuck off grid while dragging them in inventory.
  
• Fixed salvaging workbench items list constantly resetting to the top.
  

Regards,
Pura