Seedborne Soldiers News

[h3]New Bosses[/h3][p]Six new bosses have been added! Now, you have a chance to face one of three bosses at the end of each Map.[/p][p][/p][p]The following bosses have been added:[/p][p]Map 1:[/p]

• [p]Galvinaut the Engineer - Can a utopia be created through more perfect engineering? This guy says yes.[/p]
• [p]Slush-shaper Hurik - A farmer corrupted with newfound summoning power! Hey, he’s kind of like you.[/p]

[p]Map 2:[/p]

• [p]Florya, Blooming Vengeance - She spins and slices. Melee teams beware.[/p]
• [p]Vasunthygg, Ocean King - Gallenthygg’s old, crazy dad. He hits the whole board with AoE magic damage, so be prepared![/p]

[p]Map 3:[/p]

• [p]Kalinekrion the Wretch - He kills units from left to right; adjust accordingly.[/p]
• [p]Comrade Kurt* - Break through the barriers and charge the enemy sniper. Or don’t; I’m not your dad.[/p]

[p]*Visual effects on these enemies are placeholder.[/p][p]Further changes to boss mechanics are described below in the “Updates” section.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sound Effects[/h3][p]The game now has sound effects for most things. You can control them via the Settings menu. We hope you enjoy the beautiful cacophony of a late-game teamfight and the satisfying squelch of picking a unit from a Crop.
[/p][p]NOTE: A small number of sounds that are launching this patch will be updated or replaced in the next patch with ones that we like better.[/p][p][/p][h3]Items[/h3]

• [p]-New Trinket- Magic Rockets: Whenever one of your units casts a spell, that unit deals 60 Magic damage to a random enemy.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]UI[/h3][p]All of our main UI has been updated! Check out the following UI updates:[/p]

• [p]Colorful new Crops, with unique frames for each tier of unit[/p]
• [p]Glow animations to indicate when to click on stuff[/p]
• [p]View-switching icons in the top-bar (previously, these were text buttons in the bottom right)[/p]
• [p]Inventory bag with empty / non-empty states[/p]
• [p]Team portraits updated with traits and real-time damage meters
  [/p]

[p]It’s looking and feeling like a real game now.
[/p][p]Please excuse our un-updated Steam store page which still shows the old UI. It’ll get updated. Don’t worry about it.[/p][p][/p][h3]Boss mechanics[/h3][p]Previously, when you faced a boss and lost, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen over the next few attempts. If you dealt 40% of a boss’s HP, you’d probably deal 40% the next time, and then win easily on the 3rd attempt. Or, you’d realize that you didn’t have enough health to whittle down the enemy over the course of a few attempts, and you’d be screwed.[/p][p][/p][p]The boss mechanics have been updated so that the outcome feels less predictable. Now, when you lose to a boss, you get a team size upgrade. This is the upgrade you would previously have gotten after killing the boss (or, in the case of the last boss, a net-new upgrade). Can you utilize that extra unit to swing the fight in your favor?
[/p][p]Additionally, boss enemies that survive an attempt heal for 75% of their missing HP, and also, they’ll deal more damage if they beat you (a flat 40 each time they win). You can beat a boss on the first attempt with a strong team, but if you lose, you’ll have to utilize your team size upgrade to try to win on the next attempt (unless you’re very healthy, in which case you can make a third attempt). With this change, we’ve introduced tension during boss fights that was missing before, without resorting to making them one-attempt encounters and sacrificing their grandeur. [/p][p]Summary:[/p]

• [p]Bosses now deal a flat 40 damage to the player each time they win[/p]
• [p]Surviving boss enemies heal for 75% of their missing HP after each attempt[/p]
• [p]The player gets a team size upgrade after the first attempt[/p]
• [p]Boss stats have been rebalanced for this new system[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Visual Effects[/h3][p]We’re continuing to add visual effects to the game to make it feel more alive and to add clarity to combat. Now, every spell and effect has some associated visual, with no placeholder visuals remaining. We will continue to add to and refine what we have, but the majority is in. We hope you enjoy the explosions![/p][p]Non-exhaustive list of things that now have visual effects:[/p]

• [p]Spells[/p]
• [p]Effects[/p]
• [p]Units taking damage[/p]
• [p]Attack projectiles[/p]
• [p]Buffs / debuffs[/p]
• [p]Bombs and other consumables[/p]
• [p]Traits[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Skies[/h3][p]The sky backgrounds for all Maps are now updated with gorgeous new art! Check out the motion of the ocean (and sky) in a style that more closely matches the retro aesthetic of our combat arenas. [/p][p](We also have one more coming for Vulkathuna’s spellcast next patch!)[/p][p][/p][h3]Balance updates:[/h3]

• [p]-Traits- Slayer buffed: Cleave and bounce bonus damage doubled at all tiers[/p]
• [p]-Traits- Light nerfed at lower tiers:[/p]
  • [p]Tier 1 on-hit: 50 -> 40[/p]
  • [p]Tier 2 Primary on-hit: 100 -> 60; AoE on-hit: 50 -> 30[/p]
  • [p]Tier 3 unchanged[/p]
• [p]-Traits- Cleric bonus amplification nerfed at higher tiers:[/p]
  • [p]Tiers 1 and 2 unchanged[/p]
  • [p]Tier 3: 90 -> 80% [/p]
  • [p]Tier 4: 150% -> 120%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Astrid has been reworked. [/p]
  • [p]Spell: Now shields self for the same amount each cast instead of shielding for each enemy hit.[/p]
  • [p]Effect: Now deals bonus damage on-hit based on her current shield value instead of bonus damage every time she crits.[/p]
• [p]-Units- Moranbah can no longer target herself with her spell; this prevents wonky stall-out situations from occurring[/p]
• [p]-Units- Mildred Moon buffed; now stuns enemies for 1s when her glyph appears[/p]
• [p]-Units- Everett buffed; now stuns enemies for 0.75s when his glyph appears[/p]
• [p]-Units- Freja buffed; now slows Enraptured enemies by 50%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Fyiernan buffed with a new passive; now gains 18 / 20 / 30 bonus Attack depending on level[/p]
• [p]-Units- Vessian buffed; spell no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Abomination buffed; spell no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Servant of Heaven nerfed and buffed; spell heals for less, but no longer has a cast animation[/p]
• [p]-Units- Lobellia buffed; MP cost: 150 -> 120[/p]
• [p]-Units- Kincaid buffed; MP cost: 150 -> 120[/p]
• [p]-Units- Ganton nerfed; flat damage reduction halved at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Plutarch nerfed; spell damage and scaling down[/p]
• [p]-Units- Jorintht nerfed; damage from passive down by about 40%[/p]
• [p]-Units- Anatye nerfed; base Attack down at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Vleeli nerfed; initiative grants 5 less MP cost reduction at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Terra nerfed; shield amount down; MP cost: 90 -> 110[/p]
• [p]-Units- Phaisy nerfed; spell grants less Attack and Defense at levels 2 and 3 and MP cost 80 -> 90[/p]
• [p]-Units- Ixis nerfed; MP cost: 80 -> 90[/p]
• [p]-Units- Daniel nerfed; base Attack down at all levels[/p]
• [p]-Units- Dancing Lancer nerfed; spell damage slightly lowered[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Cerberus nerfed; bonus damage down and group positioning adjusted[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Curse Jar nerfed; stun duration down[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Anemone Tree buffed; max HP up and summon damage increased[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Heshinger and Lilylittle buffed; max HP up[/p]
• [p]-Enemies- Hellcore Armorguard buffed; damage from effect and healing from spell up[/p]
• [p]-Items- Winged Sandals nerfed; Reap MP: 10 -> 5[/p]

[p][/p][h3]More updates:[/h3]

• [p]The arena is now visible underfoot in between rounds[/p]
• [p]Bomb textures updated[/p]
• [p]You can now view map information during combat, or any other time, by clicking the map icon in the top bar (previously, you could view the map, but you couldn’t always see info about other revealed tiles on the map)[/p]
• [p]The volume sliders in the settings menu now adjust the volume linearly[/p]
• [p]You can now right-click a map tile to view its rewards before selecting it as a destination. If you want more info about rewards on the map, try right-clicking before left-clicking.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Thorbok’s Clear Shot no longer sometimes causes the game to hang[/p]
• [p]Kagakusha’s Cruel Experiment no longer sometimes causes the game to hang[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash caused by certain boss enemies with pairing mechanics[/p]
• [p]The Victory and Game Over music is now correctly controlled by the master volume setting[/p]
• [p]Ilm’s allies (the red units) units are now correctly vulnerable to all player spells and abilities[/p]
• [p]World-Ending Flood now properly resumes normal spellcasting behavior after failing to cast while crowd controlled[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where some units who pair could re-pair during combat[/p]
• [p]Mirani’s summon(s) can no longer do stuff while dead[/p]
• [p]Uma’s Effect now correctly only works while she’s in combat[/p]

[p][/p][p]We need to make a trailer soon, so we’re looking to polish up the remaining bits of placeholder UI, which include the HP/MP bars above units and the damage numbers that appear in combat. We also have a slight revamp to the out-of-the-box experience in the works.
[/p][p]After that, we’ll enter a phase of polishing, balancing, and bug-fixing as we prepare for our Early Access release before the end of the year! [/p][p][/p][p]It’s been a long road, and there’s still a long way to go, but damn, we’re pretty far along at this point. As always, please share any feedback about the game on Steam Community or on Discord. We want to hear your thoughts.
[/p][p]-Hat Wobble Games[/p][p]
[/p]

With this release, we’ve accomplished a huge milestone—all placeholder character art has been replaced with final art! This goes for both 2D portraits and 3D models. Big props to our two amazing artists. Our game has been looking better every week internally, and we’re finally able to share this with players.

In addition to the characters, we’re also working on building out a robust set of visual effects for spells, as well as everything else in 3D space that requires particles to fly around. With this patch, we’ve introduced 54 new battlefield visual effects out of a total planned 106 (give or take a few).

Still, our game has a ways to go before being visually finalized. Remaining placeholder stuff includes the “skyboxes,” much of the UI, and finally, and the “story” scenes (intro, game over, and ending). We will address these in upcoming patches, so stay tuned, and hit us up with feedback in the meantime.

[h2]Balance changes:[/h2]

• Units - Phaisy MP cost reduced by 10; other Earthen units’ MP costs increased by 10 (Terra, Toadstaff, Elyggdrien, and Ixis)
  
• Enemies - Vicilicar Painseeker and Surrelior Soothsayer nerfed (beam damage and HP down)
  
• Loot - Phaisy’s Favor appears less frequently as a reward (around half as often)

[h2]Battlefield visuals:[/h2]
The biggest update here is a change to the camera angle which brings the game in line with other auto battlers and makes units easier to click on.

There are too many individual additions to list; they include things like explosions, shockwaves, glowing particles, and tile effects. Watch for more color and more visual splendor on the battlefield.

Note: A small number of net new visual effects are placeholder and will be replaced with the next patch. These include the Extremely Dense Beast’s Earthquake, Eleanor’s Diplomatic Immunity, Wooroonook’s Prayer for Rain, and more.

[h2]Model updates:[/h2]

• Daniel
  
• Death
  
• Seramanju
  
• Hyacinth
  
• Mahadeva
  
• Freja
  
• Astreumnull
  
• Forbidden
  
• Sieforen
  
• Washing Machine

[h2]Portrait updates:[/h2]

• Absalom
  
• Eleanor
  
• Elyggdrien
  
• Everett
  
• Fog of Rejuvenation
  
• Ganton
  
• Immithonth
  
• Jasper
  
• Jondar
  
• Kincaid
  
• Lobellia
  
• Lorelei
  
• Perth
  
• Samantha
  
• Suul
  
• Unttvert
  
• Unceasing Rain
  
• Varra
  
• Vizreaper
  
• Wallerant
  
• World-Ending Flood

[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
Expect new bosses soon. The boss at the end of each map should be randomly picked from a pool of three; this means the total number of bosses in the game will increase from three to nine.

UX/UI updates are still a huge focus for us; while we didn’t get any into this release, we are working hard on features that make the game clearer and more satisfying, both in and out of combat. Many elements of the UI are still placeholder and must be updated with final versions.

Also, sound effects.

Until next time!

While most of our effort this patch was focused on improving balance, we also added some new Greater Trinkets (the ones you get from bosses). Each one is generically good on any team; their addition significantly reduces the chance of beating a boss and seeing no desirable rewards.
[h2]New Greater Trinkets[/h2]

• Infernal Clock - Your units deal 1% more damage each second.
  
• Slushbrewed Coffee - Your units' MP costs are reduced by 10.
  
• Thunderous Plate - Your units gain Attack equal to 40% of their Defense and Magic equal to 40% of their Magic Def.
  

[h2]Greater Equipment[/h2]
The big push this patch was to rebalance Greater Equipment, which simply accounted for too much of the player’s overall power level. I can say with confidence that the game feels better with these numbers toned down. Equipment still feels strong and meaningful despite the nerfs; their numbers were just insane before.

I won’t list every change here, but I’ll cover the broad strokes and provide details on items that changed the most.

• Lesser Equipment: Stats reduced by approximately 33%
  
• Greater Equipment: Stats reduced by approximately 25-50%
  
• All items: HP, Defense, Magic Def, and MP-cost-reduction stat amounts on items have gone up relative to other stats. (As all stat totals have gone down across the board, this means items with these stats have been hit less hard.)
  
• Faithful Memory: 100% of holder’s shield value as damage on-hit -> 40%
  
• Mirrorplate: now has a cooldown of 2.5 sec per attacker
  
• Demon-Killing Blade: Now has a 20-stack limit
  
• Double-Helix Rootstaff: No longer grants Attack Spd on-cast and Magic on-hit; now only grants Magic on-cast
  
• Crown of Etha: now has 7% Lifelink
  

[h2]Clerics[/h2]
Clerics are complicated because each one brings a different bonus to the team. These bonuses were individually powerful and useful, but if the player tried to build their team with all the Clerics, the bonuses (and a few of the units themselves) did not work well together. We’ve updated the Cleric Trait payoffs, a few of the individual bonuses, as well as Vleeli’s effect so that Clerics can play better together.

• Cleric Trait bonus amplification at 2 / 4 / 6 / 8: 20% / 40 % / 70% / 120% -> 20% / 50% / 90% / 150%
  
• Old-World Jar Cleric bonus: 10 Starting MP -> 10 Attack
  
• Faceless Cleric bonus: 20 Magic Def -> 20 Crit
  
• Vleeli
  
  • Cleric bonus: 5 MP cost reduction -> 20 Magic Def
    
  • Effect: Magic damage amplification to self and adjacent allies -> MP cost reduction to self and adjacent allies
    
• Moranbah
  
• Max MP: 70 -> 90
  
• Cleric bonus (healing amplification): 20% -> 10%
  
• Alruna cleric bonus: 25 Magic -> 20 Magic
  
• Hyacinth: 2.5% Attack Spd On-hit -> 2% Attack Spd On-hit
  

They’re still great to splash into any non-Cleric-focused team as well. Especially Hyacinth. He’s OP.
[h2]More updates:[/h2]

• (Items) Dreamblade nerfs (They’re still very good)
  
  • Quartz Dreamblade: 18% Strength / 50% Movespeed / Reap: Heal 300 -> 12% Strength / 30% Movespeed/ Real: Heal 150
    
  • Jade Dreamblade: 15% Strength / 50% Movespeed / Reap: Heal 300 -> 10% Strength / 30% Movespeed / Reap: Heal 150
    
  • Azure Dreamblade: 12% Strength / 50% Movespeed / Reap: Heal 300 -> 8% Strength / 30% Movespeed / Reap: Heal 150
    
  • Removed quirky interaction where Reap heal amounts were larger than expected due to the heal getting multiplied by the Strength value
    
• (Items) Necklace buffs
  
  • Surrelior Necklace of Ritual: Magic damage and MP generation reduction: 20% -> 15%
    
  • Vicilicar Necklace of Cunning: Physical damage and Attack Spd reduction: 15% -> 10%
    
  • Liberator’s Necklace of Utopia: Defense and Magic Def reduction, enemy Attack Spd increase: 15% -> 10%
    
  • (Also, renamed the above “...of Idealism” -> “...of Utopia”)
    
• (Items) Igneous Rock reworked to not be completely useless:
  
• The first, second, or third row on the enemy's board becomes Lava. When an enemy first steps on a Lava tile, they take 300 damage. They lose 50% Movespeed and take an additional 50 damage each second for 3 seconds.
  
• (Items) Hardened Ghost nerf: 100% chance to double an on-hit effect -> 33% chance. Pour one out for your boy.
  
• (Items) Bark of Elyggdrien buff (due to stat values being reassessed): 100 HP, 10 Defense -> 150 HP, 15 Defense
  
• (Items) Root of Elyggdrien Magic Def buff (due to stat values being reassessed): 10 -> 15
  
• (Units) Uma buffed; spell now grants paired ally more MP and shield
  
• (Enemies) Gallenthygg (final boss) damage slightly buffed
  

[h2]Model updates:[/h2]

• Faceless
  
• Vulkathuna
  
• Kagakusha
  
• Flaxen Maiden
  
• (summon) Ideal of Perfection
  
• Jorintht Blaird
  

[h2]Portrait updates:[/h2]

• Amalia
  
• Gregor
  
• Mildred Moon
  
• Moranbah
  
• Vleeli
  
• Wallace
  
• War
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where tooltips were not showing up for Water rewards at Ruins
  

A series of UX / UI updates is on the horizon. The bottom-right portion of the screen (ie, inventory, "Next" button, "Engage" button) will likely be our first area of focus. Additionally, we suspect that the enemies on map 3 are too strong and probably need to be toned down.

Slowly but surely. It’s getting there.

Minibosses
Previously, we had only two minibosses: the Anemone Tree and the Extremely Dense Beast. They were balanced for Map 1, but they also appeared on Maps 2 and 3 as free-win placeholders. Well, no more!

We’ve added four new miniboss encounters to the game. Now, you can expect an appropriately balanced challenge on each map. The Minibosses are:

• Map 1 - Extremely Dense Beast - Use units with crowd control to interrupt the deadly Earthquake.
  
• Map 1 - Imilitrivex - This executioner will cut through a weak frontline like cheesecake, cleaving with his spell and gaining 80% of his MP back on kill.
  
• Map 2 - Anemone Tree - It splinters off into Minemones, who can summon even more Minemones! Bring AoE or get swarmed.
  
• Map 2 - Prince Heshinger and Princess Lilylittle - If these lovebirds get within 2 tiles of each other, things get ugly. Divide and conquer!
  
• Map 3 - Hellcore Armorguard - Bring Magic Def or get cooked.
  
• Map 3 - Debaser - It’s just a lady on a couch; there’s probably nothing to worry about.
  

Big Economy Rework:
The economy (how Water is accrued and spent) has been broken for a while. Players could easily end runs with huge amounts of surplus Water and no good opportunity to spend it.

The “Harvest” system at Shelters was too harsh, affording no immediate benefit for “Sowing”; it was often correct to not engage with this system at all. Part of our intent with the harvest mechanic was to provide a safety net for bad RNG; if you weren’t getting the units you needed, you could hopefully hobble into a Shelter and catch up. However, this was very hard to do if you cared about units above Tier I. Harvesting was too often just useless.

To solve all of this, Shelters have been reworked. Players now have a choice between Resting and Trading (upgrading) one item; trading almost always provides an immediate power-level increase. Harvesting can be done in addition to either of these options.

Shelters are now upgraded via a new sub-option of Harvest called Cultivate (the “Sow” option is gone). Cultivating costs Water, but can be selected any number of times at a Shelter without forcing you to advance. This means you can Cultivate to unlock new Crops and immediately harvest them. Additionally, item rewards are now available at each tier of Harvest to provide even more opportunities to spend Water. Try prioritizing Water on the map and seeing what happens!

We also spruced up the UI for all of this.

Finally, we changed the system of Water accrual to solve a separate issue: the lack of an incentive for fighting harder enemies. Enemies now give additional Water if they are more difficult (the amount is equal to the number of stars on their map tile).

Sometimes, the weak enemy has the loot you want, and vice versa—that’s an intended part of the game. However, adding a small incentive for players to pick the hardest enemy available makes tile-choice feel better and more sane in cases where the player has no preference about the loot.

Combat timer
A 30-second combat timer has been added, after which all damage increases and shielding / healing decreases. This is to prevent fights from stalling out.

More updates:

• (Balance) Loot tables tweaked to reduce frequency of Traitblooms, Fragments, Tier IV and V Crops; increased frequency of Lesser Equipment
  
• (Balance) Water is no longer generated passively on each Round; instead, Water is now primarily earned as a reward from enemy tiles
  
• (Balance) Crop prices at Shelters updated
  
• (Balance) The first boss now drops 4 Water on kill; the second boss now drops 8
  
• (Traits) Assassins are no longer targetable at the very beginning of combat. (Now, you can use a lone assassin on your team without them getting focused and dying instantly!)
  
• (Units) Forbidden starting MP buff: 40 -> 90
  
• (Units) Fyiernan spell damage buffed
  
• (Items) Traitbloom nerf - Traitbloom no longer rerolls empty nodes in Crops
  
• (Items) Silver Sickle buff - no longer increases Crop price (it’s basically a free, no-downside Cultivate)
  
• (Polish) Health bars tween on health loss
  
• (Polish) Time briefly slows down at the end of combat
  
• (Polish) The game now loads assets when you first start a run for smoother performance.
  
• (Polish) Loading screen added; randomly shows a fullscreen unit portrait and a tip. (Note that we’re only showing our final art here, no placeholder AI stuff.)
  

Model updates:
More characters brought to life! Almost all of the Tier IV units are now in.

• Abomination
  
• Alruna
  
• Astrid
  
• Cosmia
  
• Flame Sword (Summon)
  
• Fyiernan
  
• Kalbarri
  

Portrait updates:
More art updates! Check these guys out in glorious detail on the new loading screen.

• Pestilence
  
• Ixis
  
• Claira
  
• Selene
  
• Baal
  
• Vessian
  
• Uma
  
• Plutarch
  
• Pallencor
  
• Wooroonook
  

• Fixed some crashes caused by the tutorial
  
• (Enemies) Infested Mound now properly blocks all debuffs
  
• (Enemies) Anemone Tree’s idle animation now plays properly
  
• (Units) Vessian’s initiative no longer causes a soft-lock when doubled via Old-World Jar
  

Greater Equipment nerfs. Currently, this group of items accounts for too high a percentage of your team’s overall power-level; we expect the game to feel smoother and more balanced after we tone these down.

After that, we want to refine the UI and make the game look more polished, more approachable, more readable, and more beautiful. The bottom right quadrant of the screen will be the first area of focus, including the UI for item and Crop inventories. We hope you stick around for that, because it’s going to rule.

New consumable - Traitbloom
Drag and drop a Traitbloom onto a unit to reroll your current Crop to a new Crop that matches one of the unit’s Traits.

Traitblooms give you more agency to select rewards that enable the teamcomp you’re building toward. Higher-tier units are now more accessible, and “vertical” (lots of one Trait) teamcomps are more attainable.

New run start options
A selection of 4 of 12 possible run start options are now presented at the beginning of each run. Several options include new Trinkets which are not otherwise attainable in the game.

• Harvest the saplings - Get Tier I Crop x3
  
• Harvest the tall trees - Get Tier II and Tier III Crop
  
• Search the cellar - Get 2 random Lesser Equipment
  
• Scour the tower - Get a random non-Trait Lesser Trinket
  
• Pick some flowers - Get Traitbloom x2
  
• Peer from the hill - Get a lv2 [Lorelei, Vizreaper, or Wallerant] and a Phaisy’s Favor
  
• Grab the grab bag - Get a Tier I Crop, each Elyggdrien consumable, a random bomb, and 5 Water
  
• Fill your flask - Get 20 water
  
• Follow Phaisy’s footsteps - Get Sprouts of Spring (**new trinket** - Each time you beat a boss or miniboss, get a Phaisy’s Favor)
  
• Resign yourself to suffering - Get Tactician’s Gambit (**new trinket** - When you lose vs a non-boss enemy, get 5 Health and 2 Water)
  
• Partner up - Get a Tier IV unit and a Traitbloom, but also the Frail Cultivar (**new trinket** - Whenever you lose a fight, your team counts as having 1 extra Dark unit)
  
• Plan your path - Get a +1 Trait Trinket and 2 matching units (Note: This option has a 2x chance of appearing)
  

New enemies:

• Hill-like Growth
  
• Curse Jar
  
• Poison Jar
  
• Blitz Jar
  
• Deadwater
  
• Mother Statue
  
• Cerberus
  
• Vicilicar Painseeker
  
• Surrelior Soothsayer
  
• Infested Mound
  
• Echo Panic
  

These enemies have their final models and their full spells / effects (though note that their spell visuals are still placeholder, as is the case for all spell visuals). When you come across these new foes, right-click them to view their abilities and adjust your strategy accordingly—or, just mash the Engage button and hope for the best like yours truly.

Engage “Guardrails”
Before hitting “Engage,” we’ll warn you if any of the following conditions are met:

• You can fit more units on the board
  
• You have 2 or more Equipment in your inventory (you can move Equipment in this game, so it’s always good to use it if you have it)
  
• You have 5 or more Crops waiting to be parsed
  
• You have no active Traits and your team size is 4 or greater
  

If you wish, you can ignore the warning and engage anyway by clicking the button again.

Enemy group rework
Previously, there were a total of 33 enemy groups, organized by increasing difficulty and represented numerically on the map. The groups above 10 (or thereabouts) were very homogenous and were always intended to be placeholder; every “difficulty level 12” enemy group was the same as every other “level 12” group, and additionally, that group wasn’t very different from the “level 11” and “level 13” enemy groups.

Now, there are 5 levels of enemy difficulty per map, represented by stars. The vast majority of these difficulties can yield 1 of 3 unique enemy groups for that difficulty level; no longer do you face (basically) the same groups Round after Round!

Note that with this change, it’s more frequently possible to opt into winnable fights each Round; in other words, you can pick on weaklings if you don’t care what rewards you get. The overall difficulty of the game has decreased.

Tutorial revamp
We heard the feedback that our placeholder tutorial was more confusing than helpful, so we built a new integrated tutorial experience to introduce new players to our game and our UI. (The previous tutorial has been renamed “the Manual”; you can still view it from Settings.)

Please let us know if you encounter any bugs, including crashes, while you’re going through the new tutorial flow.

More updates:

• (UX) Tooltips are now visible from buttons (e.g. at run start and at Ruins)
  
• (UX) New map tile sprites added
  
• (Traits) Tower Trait buffed from 10% -> 15%
  
• (Traits) The Dark Trait has been reworked to be purely detrimental. There is no benefit to activating this Trait; it should be avoided when composing your team.
  
• (Units) Everett and Mildred’s spells have been swapped (with some slight tweaks) to better suit their respective Traits
  
• (Units) Absalom heal buffed
  
• (Units) Kincaid starting MP buffed
  
• (Units) Alruna spell speed buff
  
• (Enemies) Needle Archer nerfed (no longer infinitely scales)
  
• (Enemies) Many enemies now have starting MP values > 0
  
• (Enemies) Brutalist shield slightly buffed
  
• (Misc.) Loot tables have been tweaked
  
• (Misc.) Target selection in combat improved
  
• And more!
  

Model updates:
Placeholder models have been replaced with final visuals for the following:

• Hazenloth
  
• Dancing Lancer
  
• Skeleton (summon)
  
• Alyosha (summon)
  
• Soulspawn (summon)
  
• Soldier (summon)
  
• Extremely Dense Beast (Miniboss)
  
• Anemone Tree and Minemone (Miniboss)
  

Portrait updates:
Piece by piece, we’re replacing AI-generated art with the human kind! Here’s what’s we have so far:

• Terra
  
• Metal Soldier
  
• Amalladean
  
• Phaisy
  
• Anatye
  
• Old-World Jar
  
• Toadstaff
  
• Ennio
  
• Walking Factory
  
• Zilch
  
• Faceless
  
• Plus, ALL Tier IV and V units (another 23!)
  

• Phaisy’s Initiative can no longer shield enemies if they’ve been swapped onto the player’s side of the board via False God
  
• Fixed some crashes related to Effect range indicators
  
• Trait Grafts are now properly tradeable again
  
• Severer’s spell now properly “executes” rather than doing the inverse
  
• Alruna’s Reap now properly triggers if an enemy dies while Initiatives are resolving
  
• And more!
  

Looking forward, we’ll be refining the balance of the game by focusing on some of our biggest remaining outliers: economy (how Water is attained, how Shelters work, etc), equipment (expect a nerf to Greater Equipment across the board), and Minibosses / Bosses (the minibosses on maps 2 and 3 are currently still placeholder). We are also planning to introduce a 30 second combat timer for fights, after which damage will greatly increase. In the meantime, hit us up with feedback, and please share the game with anyone who might be interested.