Seedborne Soldiers News

[h2]Replacing AI-generated art[/h2]

As you may know and as our Steam page notes, the current version of the game has AI-generated art in it. We jumped on the hype train right when it was taking off and it seemed like AI was inevitable. To put it bluntly, this was a mistake.

I'm happy to say that we've spent a ton of time replacing these assets with good old-fashioned human-generated art. The overwhelming majority of the assets in the game are now hand-drawn, and we're working with a studio to finish up what's remaining. The assets that are still AI-generated are:

• Map tile sprites (the hexes the player clicks on to go to different locations on the map)
  
• Illustrations in Run Start, Ruins, Rest Sites, and Item Traders
  
• 7 UI textures, including the big wavy crop vine and some other smaller UI accents
  

As a reminder, at the time we launched in Early Access, a lot of art was already handcrafted, including all 3D assets, character portraits, and battle backgrounds. Probably the most visible changes you'll notice are the item and trinket graphics.

As a result of the new art, a couple of items and trinkets in the game have changed names:

• Heavy Pauldrons has been renamed to Trusty Spear.
  
• Godblade Shoulderpads has been renamed to Godblade Glaive.
  
• Balcony has been renamed to Participation Trophy.
  
• Animal Farm has been renamed to Animal Spirit.
  

[h2]Balance updates and bug fixes[/h2]

Huge shoutout to all the folks on the Steam Discussion Boards calling out balance issues, bugs, and other things that aren't quite working the way you might expect. I've hopefully addressed most of them with this patch.

[h3]Spellcaster buffs[/h3]
We've gotten feedback from players that spellcasters are weak relative to physical damage dealers. We've balanced this by focusing mostly on the Wizard trait and its units. The patch buffs its raw damage output and speeds up some spell animations. It does not change MP totals because there are a ton of ways in the game already to lower MP.

Generally, it still takes a little more effort to put together a team with a caster carry than with a physical damage carry, as players will need to find ways to lower MP. However, Wizards can now hold their own better in the early stages of the game, and the Wizard vertical is now about on par with the Sage vertical in terms of strength. When properly assembled, these can be some of the strongest teams in the game.

• Wizard trait magic damage increase buffed from 20/40/70/120 to 25/55/90/130
  
• Kincaid's Meteor base damage increased from 220/396/713 to 264/475/855
  
• Zilch's Fireball rising animation shorted from 1s to 0.6s
  
• Unceasing Rain's (Lv2 Fog of Rejuvenation) Hydrobubble projectile lob shortened from 2s to 1.2s
  
• Baal's Flame Shield duration increased from 3/4/5s to 7/8/10s (While Baal is not a spellcaster, he is a tank unit that is commonly paired with Wizards.)
  
• Vleeli's Deep Experience charge up animation shortened from 3s to 2s
  
• Old-World Jar's Spill Over charge up animation shortened from 3s to 2s
  
• Vicilicar Necklace of Cunning now reduces Crit by 15% instead of Attack Spd by 10%. (Attack Spd is also a pretty important stat for casters, and this trinket is supposed to reduce your physical damage effectiveness. Crit is still sometimes useful for spellcasters but less frequently than it is for physical damage dealers.)

[h3]Challenge Level nerfs[/h3]
It seems like folks have generally been enjoying the new Challenge Levels. There are a couple of changes, though, needed to make them feel a little more fair.

• Challenge Level 2's boss spell effectiveness increase reduced from 25% to 20%
  
• Challenge Level 11's boss spell effectiveness increase reduced from 50% to 40%
  
• Deadwater bonus Magic scaling reduced from 2 to 0.5 (This enemy only gets bonus Magic on higher Challenge Levels, and with the previous value it was just wiping out backlines in one cast. It typically casts ~2 times in a combat.)

[h3]Enemy nerfs[/h3]
There's one enemy in the game that seems to have evoked the ire of the player base more than any other: the Bubblefly, the one healer enemy. We've nerfed this enemy by making its healing projectile move more slowly. This will hopefully make it more common to kill an enemy before it gets healed.

• Bubblefly's Nectar Bubble bounce lengthened from 0.8s to 1.5s
  

[h3]Boss buffs[/h3]
A couple of the bosses on Map 2 had some issues with their design whose resolutions ultimately buffed them. These are expected to be slight tweaks and not huge buffs.

• Ilm was moved up to the front row to get Red Phaisy's initiative shield.
  
• Florya's Whirlwind of Gaffa now decreases the Defense of those it damages each second. (Florya was basically a tank check, and if you passed, she dealt zero damage. Now she can do damage, but the fight is still ultimately a tank check.)

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
A couple of players helpfully pointed out some bugs, and we found a few more during testing. We've fixed up the following for this patch.

• Having multiple Participation Trophy (previously Balcony) trinkets now gives the player additional Participation bench tiles from which units can contribute traits.
  
• Changed Amalia's spell text to no longer improperly mention that it spawns summons near the target.
  
• Removed the markup in Vessian's crop tooltip.
  
• Right-clicking while dragging a bomb no longer leaves that bombs area of effect indicators on the arena.
  
• Loading a run while in a challenge level now shows the challenge level info at the top.
  
• After abandoning a run, "Continue" option no longer shows up on the Title Screen until a new run is started.
  

[h2]What's next in store?[/h2]
The next update planned is all new content, specifically new trinkets. This will hopefully make Trinket Chests more appealing and add more variety to runs and viable builds.

If you're interested in seeing what's coming up in future updates, I made a broader post about Path to 1.0 on the Steam Discussion Boards: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3039930/discussions/0/685240346634957543/

That's all for now! Please continue to let us know your thoughts on the game either in the Steam Discussion Boards or on Discord, and a huge thanks to everyone who's done so already. This is how we can continue to make this game better for everyone.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break!

[p]We've implemented a system here similar to how Ascension levels work in Slay the Spire. Upon beating a run at the base difficulty level, you unlock the first Challenge Level, which, when opted in, adds a difficulty modifier to runs. Beating a Challenge Level unlocks the next one, and each Challenge Level adds its own unique twist to ramp up the difficulty. There are 15 Challenge Levels in total.[/p][p][/p][p]Since this feature is pretty new, we'd love to hear your feedback on the balance and difficulty of these new levels. Please let us know what you think either on the Steam discussion boards or Discord![/p][p][/p][h2]Bug Fixes[/h2][p]Along with the new Challenge Levels feature, we also took the time to fix up the following issues:[/p]

• [p]Fixed a bug where sometimes units couldn't be sold by clicking on the recycle portal.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where returning to the title screen during end-of-combat bullet time would result in the whole game slowing down.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where the Reactor doesn't deal damage if it dies during initiatives.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where inspecting an inventory item could show strange names.[/p]
• [p]Vicilicar Painseeker and Surrelior Soothsayer team-wide buffs now go away when they die.[/p]
• [p]Vicilicar Painseeker and Surreliior Soothsayer on-deaths now correctly benefit the player's team instead of the enemy team.[/p]
• [p]The black info tag that hovers above a unit while the mouse is over them no longer stays there if the player happens to be hovering over a unit while they die.[/p]
• [p]The small equipment view below unit HP and MP bars no longer blocks mouse input on the formation.[/p]
• [p]Dreamwreck tiles can no longer stack for massive Magic Def debuffs.[/p]
• [p]Jar enemies can now buff player units if they're moved (e.g. via False God) before they perform their initiative.[/p]
• [p]Fog of Rejuvenation can no longer be equipped.[/p]

[h2]Best of luck in Dreamworld![/h2][p]As always, if you have feedback for us--a bug, a feature request, something confusing, a question--please let us know. We're trying as hard as we can to make Seedborne Soldiers the best game it can be.[/p]

[p]This patch is, for the most part, an overhaul of how the game is loaded. For players, this means:[/p]

• [p]Loading times to get into a run are shorter.[/p]
• [p]There should be fewer stutters due to loading while playing.[/p]
• [p]Players can close the program while on the loading screen without the program hanging.[/p]

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2][p]There was one bug fix for this patch:[/p]

• [p]Fixed a crash involving duplicating Servant of Heaven's Golden Aura buff. Players can now play Servant of Heaven and Mahadeva on the same team.[/p]

[p]A huge thank you to everyone who purchased the game during our Early Access release! Rest assured that we're continuing to develop more fixes, improvements, and content on our way to a full release.[/p]

[p]It’s live! [/p][p][/p][p]The big difference between the Early Access version of the game and the demo is that the demo ends after Map 1, while the EA version contains all 3 Maps. Have at it![/p][p][/p][p]As a reminder, "Early Access" means "not totally finished and polished." The game still needs stuff like more Ruins, some UI updates, and a proper ending. See the "About this game" section for a description of what's in the game now, and the "Early Access" section for more info on stuff that we plan to implement.[/p][p]We added several new Trinkets![/p]

• [p]-New Greater Trinket- Treemeld. Your highest HP unit gains +100% HP but loses 70% movespeed.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Nightsky Blanket. Upgrade a random tile in the second row into a Pinlight tile. A unit placed on this tile receives strength rather than weakness from the Dark trait.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Hands of Light. Initiative - Units in your front row gain 10% Lifelink.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Arrowhail. Initiative - Units in your back row deal an additional 5% damage.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Reactor. A Reactor appears on a random tile on the enemy side of the board. When it dies, deal 1000 / 1500 / 2000 Magic damage to enemies in a 3-tile radius. (Damage increases each Map).[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Experience Points. Units that survive combat permanently gain 3 Attack, 3 Magic, and 30 HP.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Tattered Flag. Your Tier I and II units gain +10 Attack, +10 Defense, +10% Attack Spd, and +100 HP.[/p]
• [p]-New Lesser Trinket- Delayed Release Capsules. 15 seconds - Your units gain +25 Attack, +25 Magic, and +25% Crit.[/p]

• [p]Fixed several bugs relating to A Rock[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash relating to Hardened Ghost and the Light Trait[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug causing units with 1 MP to gain multiple spellcast triggers per each spellcast[/p]

[p]We’d love to build an incremental difficulty system to add an incentive to keep beating runs and to git gud at the game. [/p][p][/p][p]But hey. Who knows what else the future holds? Play our game and let us know what you think and what you want to see going forward. The feedback and reception we get at this stage will help us figure out our plan of action going forward.[/p][p][/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]We're excited to announce that the full version of Seedborne Soldiers will be available in less than a week on 10/27/25! This is the culmination of five years of development and our latest and greatest milestone. [/p][p][/p][p]This is an Early Access release. Here's what that means:[/p]

• [p]The game isn't completely done. It does, however, have all the stuff listed in the "About this game" section of the Store page. It's a fun, deep roguelike with a ton of characters and a high level of replayability.[/p]
• [p]The full version could release in about a year. The full version is planned to have the following improvements over the current version:[/p]
  • [p]Unlockable difficulty levels (eg, post-run progression)[/p]
  • [p]Run-to-run trait variation on some units[/p]
  • [p]Refined, easier-to-scan UI, including updates to tooltips, right-click info, and more[/p]
  • [p]An overall more balanced experience[/p]
  • [p]More Trinkets[/p]
  • [p]More Ruins[/p]
• [p]The full version will cost a bit more than the Early Access version[/p]
• [p]Also, there will also be a sale to promote the Early Access launch[/p]
• [p]The demo will continue to be available for free. The demo features the first map only.[/p]

[p][/p][p]If you enjoy playing even half as much as we do here on the dev team, then mark your calendar and get ready to draft.[/p][p][/p][p]-John from Hat Wobble Games[/p]