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CardScrawl News

CardScrawl EA 8 Update Is Live!

Hello Scrawlers,

Today’s EA 8 update brings one of our biggest batches of changes yet. We’ve overhauled the tutorial system, added a challenging new game mode, cleaned up visuals, fixed several ability issues, and made important balance adjustments. This patch should make everything from onboarding to high-level play feel smoother and more rewarding.

New Game Mode: Amplify Trial
The experimental Tower of Eternity has been shelved—it didn’t meet our standards for long-term fun. In its place, we’ve added Amplify Trial, a fresh mode that gives you rare spoils after every fight to let your builds ramp faster. But beware: enemy scaling is even more brutal than Chaos Gauntlet.

Tutorial Rework + Quick Rules
The old tutorial was bloated and overwhelming. We’ve now split it into smaller, easier-to-digest sections that focus on only the most important mechanics. This should help both new and returning players get up to speed without wading through too much text.

Gameplay & Balance Improvements

Combat Round Order Tweaked: APDegeneration now resolves after APRegeneration, allowing more consistent ability use.

Several champion abilities (like Grovekeeper, Salvatore De Mort, Drel, and Bulwark) now provide real-time number previews or improved targeting clarity.

Random “target” types on starting deck enchantments have been weakened for balance.

Damage enchantment in starting decks has been tuned.

Level 1 AP Regen/Degen cooldowns standardized to 1 turn (no more 3-turn waits).

Cat Kaiser, Wonder, Bulwark, and others now highlight valid targets when casting abilities.

Visual, UI & Audio Tweaks

Updated animations for card draw, ability activation, and summon selection

Ability bar now flashes when ready

New sound effects for card movements, Flame Sigil, and more

Better readability for combat tooltips and numbers on abilities

Mouseovers added for lane power and deck indicators

Health bar, ability icons, and FX tweaks to Wretched Cretin, Weeping Maiden, and others

Misc Fixes & Updates

Narrator voice lines refreshed

Vampiric Strike effect position fixed

Help button removed from tutorial

The current floor text now displays the maximum amount of floors on the game board

The current game mode now displays on the game board

All Champion lore and endgame text updated

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and bug reports. EA 8 makes CardScrawl cleaner, clearer, and more challenging—and we’re already working on what’s next.

See you in the Amplify Trial... if you dare.

— The Mire Studios Team

CardScrawl EA 7 Update Is Live!

Hello Scrawlers,

Our latest update, EA 7, is here—and it’s focused on making your time in the Chaos Tower smoother, clearer, and a bit more fair.

Here’s what’s new:

Quick Rules Page Added
We’ve introduced a Quick Rules page for players who want a fast and accessible way to learn the core mechanics without committing to the full tutorial. You can access it anytime via the new HELP button on the game board. First-time players will now see the Quick Rules instead of being prompted for the full tutorial.

Ability Feedback Improvements

The ability bar now flashes when a champion ability is ready to use during the summon or action phase depending on when your Champion Ability is useable.

The current game mode is now displayed during runs under the floors/turns display.

Kozikth's ability now shows an icon over the first selected target for better clarity.

Cat Kaiser now targets a single allied Creature of your choice rather than all.

Cat Kaiser Stat Adjustment: +10 starting HP and 10 less maximum AP.

UI/UX Enhancements

Glyphs (controller prompts) are now properly displayed in the settings menu when cycling through windows with keyboard/controller.

The Settings Menu "Board View Type" description has been updated to clarify that bumpers toggle between info panels in Simple mode.

The Player's and Opponent's Creature and Enchantment Hands now fade out when they’re not usable—still hoverable, just clearer. This should greatly reduce bloat and make the UI much more clear for new players.

As always, thank you for your support and feedback! Every bit of it helps us improve the game and make CardScrawl the best it can be.

See you in the arena—and don’t forget to try the new Quick Rules if you're showing the game to a friend!

— The Mire Studios Team

CardScrawl – EA 6 Now Live!

Hey everyone!
We’re back with EA 6, a gameplay-focused update centered around reworking and refining Champion Abilities—some abilities have been completely redesigned, others improved for clarity or balance. This update also includes several quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, especially for players using controllers.

⚔️ Major Champion Ability Changes:
Dungeonmaster: Buffed! You can now play new creatures over existing ones (enemy or ally). The replaced creature returns to the owner's deck (with enchantments intact), and the deck is shuffled.

Ratburg: Ability renamed to “Mob Up” and reworked — now only affects creatures with 0 or 1 Mana Cost, but doubles their Power permanently. Affected creatures now preview with the ability icon when hovering over it.

Valeena: Reworked — all friendly enchantments ignore their cooldown and activate immediately on the turn her ability is used.

Ghoul: Reworked and renamed to “Hour of Ghoul” — sets all currently enchanted enemy creatures' cooldowns to 4 turns.

Dracarath: Reworked — sacrifice a target friendly creature, heal for its base Power, and give +1 permanent Power to all other friendly creatures.

Battle Knight Wonder: Reworked for clarity — target creature gains (if allied) or loses (if enemy) Power equal to your number of creatures on the board.

Weeping Maiden: Reworked — her ability now adds your max Ability Power to your health until the end of the turn, giving her a clear defensive identity.

Stonewarden: Exploit fix — it’s no longer possible to repeatedly cancel golem summoning to fish for the strongest one.

Bulwark, Nocturne, and others: Fixed an issue where their Champion Abilities didn’t allow target selection when using a controller or keyboard.

🎮 Visual & Clarity Updates:
“Ability Active” text added when a Champion ability is used.

“Ability Active” will show in red, and “Ability Ready” now shows in green.

Improvements made to controller/keyboard support for Champion Abilities.

🏆 Achievement Fixes:
Graveborn Army and Feywild Pact achievements now increment and track correctly for Champion unlocks.

🛠️ Known Issue:
We've seen reports of a rare crash mentioned on the forums and are currently investigating. We haven't been able to reproduce it internally yet, but it's on our radar and we'll keep digging. If you're experiencing this issue, please keep the reports coming — every bit of detail helps.

Thanks again for all your feedback, bug reports, and support!
We’ll keep refining the game and improving features as we go. If you’ve got thoughts, the forums are a great place to drop feedback.

🌀 See you in the Chaos Tower.

EA 5 Update – Achievement Fixes, New Enchantments, and More!

Hey duelists,

We’ve just launched the EA 5 Update for CardScrawl! This update is packed with meaningful improvements to achievements, gameplay balance, and the save system. Let’s get into it:

🏆 Achievement & Unlock Fixes
The Enchanting Mastery achievement was missing and has now been added. Valeena is now unlockable!

The following achievements now properly unlock their Champions:
Mana Burnout, Feywild Pact, Mana Master, Direct Assault, Flawless Victory, Forged in Stone, Demoncaller, Graveborn Army, Full Summon

Save system updated: Characters now unlock immediately and consistently.

🧩 Achievement Difficulty Rebalancing
To give players clearer progression, we’ve reorganized which difficulties certain achievements require:

Now unlockable on any difficulty: Novice Duelist, Mana Master, Direct Assault, Full Summon, Creature Collector, Forged in Stone, Demoncaller, Graveborn Army, Feywild Pact, Mana Burnout, Enchanting Mastery, Champion's Journey

Now require Classic Ascent or higher: Trial By Fire, Swift Victory, Underdog Victory, Overkill, Chain Reaction, Champion’s Edge, Legendary Summoner, Overwhelming Force, Legendary Slayer, Card Shark, Flawless Victory, Resourceful, Defender of the Tower, Decked Out, Out of Options

Require Chaos Gauntlet or higher: Rising Challenger, Tower Explorer, Master of The Tower

Require Chaos Hardcore: Unyielding Will

Creature Collector requirement increased: 15 → 30 creatures.

Overwhelming Force: Now requires 9 creatures on the board at once (up from 6).

🧪 Gameplay Changes & Balancing Charm nerfed: Charmed creatures no longer deal direct damage when reaching the board's end—they return to their original summoner instead.

Heal Enchantment removed: It was underperforming and has been retired.

Double Strike removed: Too similar to First Strike, so we've cut it to reduce bloat.

New Enchantments Added:

Vampiric Strike: Creatures with this permanent enchantment heal for its value when they deal melee damage.

APDegeneration: A counter to APRegeneration—it drains enemy Ability Power each round.

Visuals, Effects, and Feedback New FX for Dracarath and Ratburg when using their Champion Abilities.

New Game Board font – Easier to read and much cleaner!

Combat Round Order changed:

Stone Sigil casts first now—before Silence.

APDegeneration now casts right after APRegeneration.

Announcer setting now has an audio cue when toggled in settings.

⚠️ Important Save Note
Due to these updates, old save files are incompatible and will be deleted when you launch the new version. However, your achievements and unlocks will carry over just fine. You’ll be right back in the climb.

As always, thank you for playing and sharing your feedback—it truly helps shape CardScrawl’s development. This update lays the groundwork for even more content and polish coming soon!

See you in the arena,
—The Mire Studios Team

Larger Update in the Works!

Hey everyone,

Just a quick heads-up from the CardScrawl dev team: we’re currently working on a larger Early Access update that merges two previously planned patches into one.

By combining them, we’re able to make the update a bit more cohesive—and include a handful of improvements to gameplay, achievements, and the saving system, among other refinements.

While it’s not a massive overhaul, it is a more substantial update than usual, and we think it’ll help make the CardScrawl experience smoother and more satisfying across the board.

We’re aiming to release this update within the upcoming week, so keep an eye out!

Thanks again for all your feedback and support—keep it coming! We’ll share full patch notes as soon as the update is ready to go.

See you in the arena,
—The Mire Studios Team