Northwind News

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]This month’s update focuses on balancing patches![/p][p]To address balancing issues, we added the Duplicator subtype to solve the problem where experienced players could easily create infinite loops. Based on your win rates and performance data, we also buffed/nerfed several cards and adjusted the abilities of various Cards, Gems, and Relics. Fixed text on cards, relics, and throughout the game content for consistency. Fixed a sound effect volume issue that was incorrectly tied to the game settings.[/p][p][/p][h3]Fixes![/h3]

• [p]Removed outdated icons shown in tooltips.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where the player could not select certain cards while the card selector was active.[/p]
• [p]Added card FX and displayed a message when a card cannot be used. [/p]

[h3]Rebalance List![/h3]

• [p]Adapt: now has the Duplicator subtype.[/p]
• [p]Barrage & Barrage+: Damage increased to 3 / 4 / 5.[/p]
• [p]Focused Mind+: Cost reduced to 2.[/p]
• [p]Slam Shock & Slam Shock+: Cost reduced to 1; damage reduced to 3 / 4 / 5.[/p]
• [p]Spirit Burst & Spirit Burst+: Now adds damage equal to Might ×3. LV3: Uses Might ×4.[/p]

[p]Cards with changes in their Abilities[/p]

• [p]Bull's Eye: Base power lowered to 6 / 9 / 12.[/p][p]Add 1 attack power for each skill played this turn.[/p][p]Reaction: This card is put to your hand by your ability.[/p][p]LV3: Add 2 attack power instead.[/p]
• [p]BullEye+: Base power lowered to 8 / 12 / 15.[/p][p]Add 2 attack power for each skill played this turn.[/p][p]Reaction: This card is put to your hand by your ability.[/p][p]LV3: Add 3 attack power instead.[/p]
• [p]Compass Ring: Cost reduced to 2.[/p][p]Add 3 attack power to all Action cards put to your hand by your ability.[/p]
• [p]Compass Ring+[/p][p]Add 5 attack power to all Action cards put to your hand by your ability.[/p]
• [p]Deceptive: Rarity changed to Common.[/p]
• [p]Deceptive+: Power increased to 3 / 5 / 7.[/p]
• [p]Gun Powder & Gun Powder+: Rarity changed to Common.[/p]
• [p]Trigger & Trigger+: Rarity changed to Uncommon.[/p]
• [p]Illusion: Rarity to Uncommon, subtype Duplicator.[/p][p]Mimic the last card you played this turn. (except for Duplicator card)[/p]
• [p]Illusion+: Rarity to Uncommon, cost to 2, subtype Duplicator, Merged.[/p][p]Mimics last 2 cards (except Duplicator) once per turn.[/p]
• [p]Injection & Injection+: Poison reduced → now applies 2 Poison.[/p]
• [p]Explosion: Cost reduced to 1, power reduced to 7 / 9 / 11.[/p][p]When other card Fade, return this card from Remove Pile to your hand next turn.[/p][p]LV3: When returning, Inflict 8 to front enemy.[/p]
• [p]Explosion+: Cost now 1, power 9 / 12 / 15.[/p][p]Fleeting.[/p][p]When other card Fade, return this card from Remove Pile to your hand next turn.[/p][p]LV3: When returning, Inflict 12 to front enemy.[/p]
• [p]Dauntless+: Cost reduced to 1.[/p]
• [p]Viper Strike: Power adjusted to 4 / 6 / 8. Overpower now applies 3 Poison.[/p]
• [p]Viper Strike+: Power adjusted to 6 / 8 / 11. Overpower now applies 4 Poison.[/p]
• [p]Battlecry & Battlecry+: Now Once per turn.[/p]
• [p]Adjust & Adjust+: Subtype Duplicator; can no longer mimic Duplicator cards.[/p]
• [p]Scout: Now Exhausts; effect unchanged.[/p]
• [p]Scout+: Now Exhausts; effect unchanged.[/p][p][/p]

[p]List of Gems that were rebalanced.[/p]

• [p]Aquamarine: Card draw now Once per turn.[/p]
• [p]Chipped Aquamarine: Now draws itself when leveling up.[/p]

[p]Relics that was rebalanced.[/p]

• [p]Chewed Bubblegum: Reaction triggers only from cards in hand.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]We are humbled to be featured in these two events![/h3][p]Turnbased Carnival https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Acram/sale/Turn-BasedCarnival2025[/p][p]& Be a Hero! https://store.steampowered.com/sale/be-a-hero-sale2025[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you so much for all the support! It’s the biggest motivation boost ever.
We’re currently cooking up the Monster Guild Engineer right now! The art isn’t ready yet, but we’ll be dropping more updates soon. We hope you look forward to it!! 🔧👾✨[/p][p]– The Northwind Team, Barking Kitten Interactive [/p]

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]Apologies for the wait! [/p][h2]The first batch of fixes is here![/h2][p]There are many areas where we can improve the overall speed of the game. We’ll tackle them one by one, and this patch includes the first set of fixes.[/p][p]Speed and Settings[/p]

• [p]Animation speed options are now 1x, 2x, and 3x.[/p]
• [p]Resolution settings now have an “Apply” button.[/p]
• [p]Settings menu now includes Screen Shake controls.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Some FX speeds were not being applied correctly.[/p]
• [p]Most UI screens now support pressing “ESC” to go back.[/p]
• [p]Added V-Sync setting.[/p]

[p]Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Fixed: Minions spawned from The Hive were missing their sprites.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Spiral Edge card caused the game to freeze when transforming.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Using Attune while only an XCard remained in hand caused a soft lock.[/p]
• [p]Update: Attune+ no longer counts XCard.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: The Once keyword in Recycle+ now works correctly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Card reward tooltips now properly wrap text when reaching the screen edge.[/p]
• [p]Fixed: Event bugs[/p]

[p]Balancing Issue[/p]

• [p]Our game designer needs a little more time to work on the balancing issues. We plan to nerf some cards and look into the difficulty levels. We’ll also explore player performance stats in more detail after Gamescom Asia and let you know about any upcoming changes. In addition, we’re planning an update to the roguelite progression system, so we’ll be reviewing that together as well.[/p]

[p]Localization Fixes![/p]

• [p]We’ve learned that many players were confused by the Overwhelm ability, this happened across all languages! So we’ve made some fixes: instead of “when Overwhelm,” the text now correctly uses the Overpower keyword.[/p]

[p]Thank you for all the bug reports and feedback![/p][p]Please keep them coming! We are serious about improving the game.
Thank you kindly for your patience and support![/p][p][/p][p]We be at Gamescom Asia on October 16th–20th! If you’re going, make sure to drop by our booth to grab a free giveaway![/p][p] – The Northwind Team, Barking Kitten Interactive[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]Tokyo Game Show has just ended, and we landed back home a few days ago. It’s been an amazing week! Looking through your reviews, and discussing everything as a team, we wanted to share our next steps.[/p][p]It’s hard to believe it’s already been almost two weeks since Northwind launched in Early Access! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for being among the first to support us. [/p][p][/p][h3]🎁 Supporter Pack[/h3][p]As a small thank you, we’ve prepared a Supporter Pack!
The Supporter Pack will be available at a later date—we’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready. For now, here’s a glimpse of the design![/p][p][/p]

• [p]This special skin that will be available to everyone who purchased the game in Early Access.[/p]
• [p]The supporter skins will be available for all mercenaries, that includes the 3rd Mercenary.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]🔧 Upcoming Fixes[/h3][p]Based on your feedback and survey responses, here are our current top priorities:[/p]

• [p]Game Speed & Flow – We heard your concerns that animations, card play, and transitions can feel a little slow and cluttered. We’ll focus on improving pacing and making the game feel smoother.[/p]
• [p]Localization Fixes – We’re aware of issues in Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. Thank you for reporting them! Any bug report and pin point in the language issue really helps, it allow us and our localization partners to fix things faster.[/p]
• [p]Balance & Bugs – Some cards are a bit too strong right now, and we’re reviewing balance carefully. Alongside that, we’ll continue fixing bugs and improving UX.[/p]
• [p]New Languages – We’re preparing to add German, Russian, and Polish to the Early Access version. If you’d like to help us with localization we’d love to hear from you![/p][p][/p]

[p]We’ll continue releasing regular patches to address your feedback and polish the game step by step.[/p][p]Thank you again for being here with us on this journey! We’ll keep working hard on improvements and are excited to see how Northwind will grow and take shape throughout the Early Access journey.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sales end in 3 days! If you haven’t yet, grab it now!
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/h3][p]— The Northwind Team[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][h3]Northwind is officially available in Early Access![/h3][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/h3][h3]Here’s our launch trailer:[/h3][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h3]The 2025–2026 Roadmap is confirmed — and there’s more to come soon![/h3][p][/p][p]A huge thank you for supporting us throughout this journey. If you encounter any issues, please report them — we’ll fix them as soon as possible. Your feedback has been the driving force behind many improvements in the game, and it will continue to shape its development.[/p][p][/p][p]Join us on Discord to share your thoughts, or leave your feedback in the Steam forums! We’d also love for you to spread the word to your favorite streamers and YouTube creators. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for supporting us over the years! 💕[/p][p]– The Northwind Team, Barking Kitten Interactive[/p]

[p]Hello everyone![/p][h2]
Only 3 days left until our EARLY ACCESS Release! 🎉[/h2][p]
We’re super excited and so thankful for all your support along the way.
Northwind’s Early Access launches on 22nd September at: 7:00 AM PT | 2:00 PM UTC | 9:00 PM ICT[/p][p] To celebrate, we’ve prepared a quick 1-minute recap video—our journey started back in 2020!
Some of you even joined our very first playtest in 2021, and we’re so grateful you’ve been a part of our development. ❤️[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h2]Early Access is just the beginning![/h2][p]We’re currently working on the roadmap, and here are a few things we can confirm:[/p]

• [p]A 3rd Mercenary[/p]
• [p]Monster Gear Engineer in Northwind Town[/p]
• [p]Controller & Steam Deck support[/p]
• [p]More content: relics, gems, roguelite unlocks, hazard levels, etc.[/p]
• [p]Visual upgrades[/p]
• [p]QoL improvements[/p]
• [p]Additional languages[/p]

[p]The official roadmap will be announced after Early Access, but development is already underway!
Here’s a sneak peek at the Monster Gear Engineer in Northwind Town! We can’t wait for you to see how he’ll help you on each run.[/p][p][/p][h2]Northwind is featured at Game Devs of Color and showcased at Tokyo Game Show![/h2][p]We’re humbled to be launching alongside these two amazing events—check them out!
[/p][h2]GAME DEVS OF COLORTOKYO GAME SHOW 2025[/h2][p][/p][p]Screaming thank you a thousand times! 🙏💖
We truly hope you’ll look forward to this new milestone for Northwind, and join us on the journey to create the best version of the game ever.[/p][p]From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for supporting us over the years! 💕[/p][p]– The Northwind Team, Barking Kitten Interactive [/p]