Funguys Swarm News

[p]Hi Funguys,[/p][p]We're releasing a hotfix to address the issue with the Starpath quests to unlock Fuzzbug and Groovba. Thank you for reporting the issue to us.[/p][p]We're also actively investigating the crash and lag issues. If you experience these issues, feel free to report them to us through our Steam Discussion or on our Discord.

Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed Starpath quests to unlock Fuzzbug and Groovba not counting passive cards of the element.[/p]
• [p]Fixed X-olotl's clones clipping with the ground when hit by Chicken Caesar's slam attack.[/p]

[p]Thanks, Funguys!

Stairway team[/p]

[p]Hi everyone! [/p][p]This patch focuses on reducing the difficulty spikes and grind in Starpath quests that many of you have felt. Weapons, characters, and skills now unlock much earlier, giving you more freedom to experiment and discover fun builds.[/p][p][/p][p]Runs should feel smoother and less restrictive from the start. We’ve also adjusted overall difficulty so it’s easier to reach builds that feel strong and satisfying. We hope that every run feels rewarding, without slowing you down or getting in the way of the fun.[/p][p]
[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]

• [p]Starpath Quests have been readjusted.[/p]
  • [p]Access to new Skills and Passives is now easier early on, allowing players to build fun runs the way they want.[/p]
  • [p]Weapons and Characters are more accessible, allowing for earlier experimentation.[/p]
  • [p]Several values that felt overly grindy have been tweaked to encourage trying different runs.[/p]
• [p]Fire Offer costs have been adjusted. Less punishment for taking valuable cards.[/p]
  • [p]Skill Upgrade Epic and Legendary costs have been reduced from 4 and 5 to 2 and 3.[/p]
  • [p]Passive Upgrade Epic and Legendary costs have been reduced from 3 and 4 to 1 and 2.[/p]
• [p]Fiery Speed initial value has been reduced from 5% to 1%. (We noticed there are too much of Fire Curse runners very early in the curse)[/p]
• [p]King’s Favourite initial value has been reduced from 13% to 5%.[/p]
• [p]The amount of XP dropped by Shrine XP has been increased.[/p]
• [p]Shrine spawn chance has been increased from 60% to 80%.[/p]
• [p]Skill and Passive Shrines are now guaranteed to offer a minimum of Rare rarity.[/p]
• [p]The effect of Luck on rarity has been increased, previously the value does not reflect how it feels to be lucky.[/p]
• [p]Sanctuary Pond Luck costs have been reduced from 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 5000 / 9000 to 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 5000.[/p]
• [p]Sanctuary Pond Powerup Drop costs have been increased from 500 / 2000 / 4000 to 1000 / 3000 / 5000.[/p]
• [p]Shrooms can now drop during the first run.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Character Balancing[/h2][p]Ersa[/p]

• [p]Now has a 25% chance to shatter all Frozen enemies, instead of rolling separately for each enemy. In the previous version, triggering this doesn’t feel as satisfying.[/p]
• [p]Cooldown reduction per Water Card has been increased from 7.5% to 10%, with a maximum of 80%.[/p]

[p]Fuzzbug[/p]

• [p]Pixie damage now scales with the number of Pixies you have.[/p]

[p]X-olotl[/p]

• [p]Now starts with 1 clone that deals 25% of your weapon damage.[/p]
• [p]Weapon damage percentage now scales with Beast Cards.[/p]
• [p]When you have 4 or more Beast Cards, an additional clone is summoned.[/p]

[p]Chimpy[/p]

• [p]Retaliate area radius has been increased to 1250.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Skill and Passive Balancing[/h2][p]Water Snek[/p]

• [p]Damage upgrade card value has been increased from 3.75 to 5 at Common rarity.[/p]

[p]Infernal Leap[/p]

• [p]Cooldown upgrade card value has been reduced from 0.75s to 0.5s.[/p]
  • [p]Focused Laser (Mutation)[/p]
  • [p]Damage has been increased from 5–6 to 14–16.[/p]

[p]Quick Cast[/p]

• [p]Now unlocked by default. Allowing for early cooldown builds.[/p]

[p]Wider Reach[/p]

• [p]Now locked by default and unlockable by completing Carrot Farm.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Relic Balancing[/h2][p]Hellcap[/p]

• [p]Bonus damage per Fire Curse has been reduced from 10% to 5%.[/p]
• [p]Hellcap now reduces the chance of HP drops, instead of adding a timer to health drops.[/p]

[p]Commoncap[/p]

• [p]Weapon bonus damage per Common Card has been reduced from 5% to 2%.[/p]
• [p]Commoncap is now affected by both Common Skill and Passive Cards.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Enemy Balancing[/h2][p]Charger[/p]

• [p]Aim Time has been increased from 0.7s to 1s.[/p]

[p]Charger Elite[/p]

• [p]Aim Time has been increased from 0.7s to 1s.[/p]
• [p]HP has been reduced from 12K to 10K.[/p]

[p]Frozen Frog Elite[/p]

• [p]Projectile speed has been reduced from 1304 to 850.[/p]
• [p]HP has been reduced from 2800 to 2400.[/p]
• [p]Movement speed has been reduced from 500 to 450.[/p]

[p]Big Whale Elite[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 30K to 28K.[/p]

[p]Cave Chieftain Elite[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 10K to 9K.[/p]

[p]Volcana Elite[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 36K to 32K.[/p]

[p]Appletini[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 42K to 38K.[/p]

[p]Mega Catfish[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 69K to 64K.[/p]

[p]Dragonfruit[/p]

• [p]HP has been reduced from 102K to 92K.[/p]

[p]Chicken Caesar[/p]

• [p]Phase 1 HP has been reduced from 35K to 12K.[/p]
• [p]Phase 2 HP has been reduced from 160K to 110K.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Bug Fixes and Improvements[/h2]

• [p]Fixed an issue where Elites failed to teleport under certain conditions.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Bow mutations Moon Stinger and Simple Geometry not working correctly together.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Treeling Bounty sometimes not giving rewards even when the player’s cards were not all maxed out.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Mega Catfish erratic movement when playing as X-olotl.[/p]
• [p]Fixed certain Dash Skills can cause player movement to be stuck after boss fights.[/p]
• [p]Fixed animation issues with some Dash Skills under certain conditions.[/p]
• [p]Fixed revive animations sometimes not playing correctly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple crash issues.[/p]
• [p]Fixed translation errors.[/p]
• [p]Various VFX improvements.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]
Thank you for reading,[/p][p][/p][p]Stairway Games[/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]We know the recent 0.5 update made the game harder than intended. It could feel too grindy, and player choices didn’t matter as much as they should.
[/p][p]We’re very sorry about this. With this release, we’ve taken steps to fix these issues.[/p][p][/p][p]One of the most noticeable problems was how Amount scaling worked during a run. Before 0.5, it was possible to build around increasing skill projectile Amount, but in 0.5 those builds were almost non-existent. This was caused by a design issue in how Amount cards were calculated to appear, giving them a significantly lower chance compared to other upgrade cards. This has been corrected in this release.[/p][p][/p][p]Damage scaling had also drifted too far from the pre-0.5 balance. With this update, we’ve brought it closer to the original experience so that player power scales correctly with enemy strength, as originally intended.
[/p][p]The damage scaling issue in 0.5 also made it harder to kill enemies, which caused them to pile up on screen and significantly impacted performance. While this update doesn’t completely resolve all performance issues, it should bring performance closer to what it was previously. We’re also planning a dedicated optimization patch in our future update.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, regarding progression: the higher difficulty in 0.5 reduced the chances of successfully completing Starpath quests, making progression feel frustratingly slow. With this release, progression should be back to its intended pace.
[/p][p]Thanks for all the feedback — it’s been invaluable in helping us improve the game. [/p][h2]
Patch Notes 0.5.1 - Gameplay Calculation Adjustment[/h2][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• [p]The calculations that determine the appearance chance of Amount Upgrade Cards have been redesigned. This issue caused the Amount attribute to have a significantly lower chance compared to other attributes, resulting in player power being much lower than intended.[/p]
• [p]Damage upgrade rarity values for all Skill Cards have been increased to better reflect older values.[/p]
• [p]All weapons now correctly have 5% Crit Chance and 150% Crit Damage by default.[/p]
• [p]Damage, Attack/Charge Speed, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage values for all Weapon Upgrade Cards have been increased.[/p]
• [p]Shrine spawn weights have been adjusted.[/p]
• [p]Reinforcement Fire Curse now spawns copies with 50% of the original enemy’s health. Copies now use a different colored outline to distinguish them from the original.[/p]
• [p]Frozen Pond slipperiness has been reduced, allowing more player control in the arena.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Balancing Updates[/h3][p]Groovba[/p]

• [p]Now has +60% increased debuff damage by default.[/p]
• [p]Each Nature Card increases this bonus by an additional +20%.[/p]

[p]Joomba[/p]

• [p]Bonus damage per Sky Card has been increased from +5% to +10%.[/p]
• [p]Now correctly affects both weapon and skill damage.[/p]

[p]Sexy Totem[/p]

• [p]XP pickup requirement has been increased from 10 to 25.[/p]

[p]Wider Area[/p]

• [p]Base value reduced from 6% to 5%.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed X-olotl’s Starpath progression not being saved properly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Stinky Trail and Frozen Splash not working on X-olotl and Fuzzbug.[/p]
• [p]Correctly hid X-olotl’s clones when mounting Potatobot.[/p]
• [p]Fixed X-olotl’s clones being able to drown below ground level.[/p]
• [p]Grass Slash now correctly ignores Move Speed.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Shieldshroom being retroactively affected by Reinforcement from Fire Curse.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Infernal Escape, Burrow Down, Midnight Ghost, and Lightning Speed not pausing dash cooldowns, resulting in infinite dash usage.[/p]
• [p]Fixed chests sometimes do not drop anything even though you have upgradeable cards.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for reading,[/p][p][/p][p]Stairway Games
[/p]

[p]HEY Funguys![/p][p]Welcome to the January 2026 Funguys Swarm Dev Update![/p][p][/p][p]Our fourth major update, the New Characters Update, is live now![/p][p][/p][p]In this blog, we introduce six new characters and reveal a new system where skills and passives now have rarities. We’ll also cover new gameplay mechanics, including Shrines, Luck, and Armor.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, we showcase brand-new content, such as fire curses and blessings.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Characters[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]We're adding not 1, not 2, but 6 new characters this time![/p][p][/p][p]Here they are:[/p]

• [p]Groovba: Debuffs deal +20% damage for each Nature card you have. Enemies killed by debuffs have a 2% chance to drop a half heart.[/p]
• [p]Joomba: After standing still for 3 seconds, gain +50% damage, plus +20% for each Sky card you have.[/p]
• [p]Fuzzbug: Start with 1 pixie that damages enemies. Pixies are affected by amount modifiers. Gain +1 projectile for every 2 Night cards you have.[/p]
• [p]X-Olotl: For every 5 Beast cards you have, spawn a copy of yourself that deals 50% of your weapon damage. Dash cooldown is reduced by 5% per Beast card. After you dash, gain +50% attack speed for 2 seconds.[/p]
• [p]NutsNBoltz: You can now find Nuts in the arena. Nuts charge your mecha by 20% and grant +50% movement speed for 5 seconds. Nut bonuses are increased for each Earth card you have.[/p]
• [p]Chimpy: Convert all HP into Armor. HP pickups no longer drop. Taking damage while armored causes an explosion, dealing 100 damage. Explosion damage increases by 20% for each Nature card you have.[/p]

[p]Check out two of their many bonkers abilities[/p][p][/p][h3]Fuzzbug:[/h3][p][/p][p]\[This is a bug. We will not fix it.][/p][p][/p][p]Fuzzbug focuses like Night cards, she starts with 1 pixie and gets more pixie the more for every 2 night cards she has.[/p][p][/p][h3]X-Olotl:[/h3][p][/p][p]\[Every clone makes him slightly angrier.][/p][p][/p][p]X-Olotl summons clones of itself for every 5 beast cards she has, passive or active cards both count.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Skill & Passive Rarity[/h2][p][/p][p]\[How was the Savage Fist? Legen—wait for it—dary.][/p][p][/p][p]Skill and Passive now have random rarity each time you level up. More gacha mechanics, more fun.[/p][p][/p][p]Here are the rarity levels:[/p]

• [p]Common[/p]
• [p]Rare[/p]
• [p]Epic[/p]
• [p]Legendary[/p][p][/p]

[p]Each higher rarity will give a higher stat boost. E.g., Legendary Green Heart will give more hearts than Common Green Heart.[/p][p][/p][p]Skills levels are also reworked a bit. Skills now maxed at level 10, mutation at level 5 and 10.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Shrines[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]\[Stand here for 5 seconds to receive mild anxiety][/p][p][/p][p]Shrines: New interactable you can find in arena. You must stay within them for a short time before they give you their rewards.[/p][p][/p][p]Funguys Evolutions are now also findable in Funguy Shrines instead of getting it every 5 and 10 minutes.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Armor[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Armor shrines drop Armors. 1 hit = 1 armor. You lose 1 armor for 1 hit from any enemy.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Luck[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]The higher your luck, the higher the skill and passive rarity chance.[/p][p][/p][p]\[I'm feeling Lucky!][/p][p][/p][p]You can also find the Luck skill passive to increase it even more. Try a luck-focused build![/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]5 New Fire Curse and 3 New Fire Blessings[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]\[Shroomba be like: This is fine. 🔥🙂][/p][p][/p][p]That handsome ball of fire is Death Follows, the highest-level fire curse at level 30. Think your extra lives will save you? Psych! Death Follows comes back for you after you revive.[/p][p][/p][p]We hear you like fire curses, so we add some more. Here they are:[/p][p][/p][p]Fire Curses:[/p]

• [p]Infused Projectiles - curse lvl 10[/p][p]Enemy ranged projectiles move faster.[/p]
• [p]Slowing Heat - curse lvl 15[/p][p]Spawn slowing fields that reduce your movement speed.[/p]
• [p]Internal Catapult - curse lvl 20[/p][p]Fiery meteors fall around you.[/p]
• [p]Scorching Treasures - curse lvl 25[/p][p]Resources and XP Beans expire after a duration.[/p]
• [p]Death Follows - curse lvl 30[/p][p]A mass of death appears and slowly moves toward you. Touching it results in instant death.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Fire Blessings:[/p]

• [p]Treasure Hunter - blessing lvl 5[/p][p]An additional bonus when picking up resources.[/p]
• [p]Lucky Cards - blessing lvl 15[/p][p]Chance for Rare cards to appear more often.[/p]
• [p]Forest Power - blessing lvl 15[/p][p]Chance for all damage you deal to be critical hits.[/p][p][/p]

[p]We also allow you to level up the fire skill up to level 30 for those of you who like a bit more heat.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]4 New Skills[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]We release 4 new skills with this update:[/p]

• [p]Infernal Escape - Dash skills.[/p][p]Your Dash is replaced with a leap into the sky. After a delay, you land and deal damage to all enemies in the area.[/p]
• [p]Sexy Totem[/p][p]Every time you pick up 10 XP Beans, summon a totem that deals constant damage for its duration.[/p]
• [p]Water Snek[/p][p]Spawn a slithering Water Snek that damages and slows enemies it passes through.[/p]
• [p]Frog Support - Weapon Skills[/p][p]Spawn a frog that shoots projectiles based on the ranged weapon you use.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]What is next?[/h2][p][/p][p]That’s all for now, folks. [/p][p][/p][p]The next updates are already in the works, including:[/p]

1. [p]More arenas[/p][p]We know you've been waiting for more arenas.[/p]
2. [p]New characters, and more:
   Get ready for more characters and more content![/p][p][/p]

[p]Thank you,[/p][p]Stairway Games[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Characters[/h3]

• [p]6 new characters, each with a unique ability that utilizes your card elements.[/p]
• [p]Locked characters now appear as Red Crystals in the Sanctuary.[/p]
• [p]New characters are unlockable via Starpath.[/p]
• [p]Mechanics for old characters’ unique abilities have been reworked.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Introducing Card Rarity![/h3]

• [p]Rarity now also appears on Skill and Passive Cards.[/p]
• [p]Skill Cards now max out at level 10, with mutations at levels 5 and 10.[/p]
• [p]Passive Cards still max out at level 7.[/p]
• [p]The number of Skill Slots and Passive Slots at the beginning of the game is now 3, upgradable to 5 via the Shroomshop.[/p]
• [p]You can no longer banish upgrade cards (you can only banish new cards).[/p]
• [p]Banishing a card now concludes the level-up (previously you could still select a card after banishing).[/p]
• [p]Skill Slots are no longer restricted by character level 10 and 20.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Introducing Shrines[/h3]

• [p]12 new interactables that can be found in the Arena.[/p]
• [p]Some of them replace Unique Breakables.[/p]
• [p]Obtainable by standing inside a circle (similar to Encounters).[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Improved Combat Readability[/h3]

• [p]We received feedback from the community that projectiles and danger from enemies is hard to see/detect.[/p]
• [p]To address this we rendered dangerous VFX on top of the environment, enemies & other VFX so players can track them better visually.[/p]
• [p]Various VFX of Skills and effects have also been improved to reduce visual noise and increase readability.[/p]
• [p]Tweaked the shape of environment occlusion when the player stands behind a structure, now it should look rounded and less noisy.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Fire Curse Overhaul[/h3]

• [p]Fire Curse now maxes out at level 30 with brand-new deadly curses.[/p]
• [p]2 new Fire Blessings replace the old ones.[/p]
  • [p]New blessings: Lucky Cards and Forest Power.[/p]
• [p]Fire King’s Offer now occupies one of the 3 level-up choices (instead of always appearing as a 4th choice).[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]New Mechanics: Armor[/h3]

• [p]Blocks one instance of damage, then is discarded.[/p]
• [p]You can pick up armor during your run.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]New Mechanics: Luck[/h3]

• [p]Increases the chance for higher-rarity cards to appear.[/p]
• [p]Can be increased from various sources across the game.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Funguy Evolution Adjustments[/h3]

• [p]Funguy Evolution can now be found in the Arena inside a Funguy Shrine.[/p]
• [p]You still need empty relic slots, purchasable via the Shroomshop.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]New Skills[/h3]

• [p]Added 4 new Skills.[/p]
• [p]Such as Water Snek, summon a long Snek that goes through enemies and is upgradable with strange Mutations.[/p]
• [p]Or summon Sexy Totem, a muscular sculpture that radiates earthquakes (hopefully the design doesn’t distract you.)[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]New Passives[/h3]

• [p]Added 2 new Passives, increasing your Luck and your XP Growth.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Sanctuary Pond Adjustment[/h3]

• [p]Rare Chance Increase and Epic Chance Increase have been replaced by Luck.[/p]
• [p]Costs have been refunded for old save files.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]Shroomshop Items[/h3]

• [p]New Upgrade: Flameguard.[/p]
  • [p]Increases Max HP for one random character for the next run.[/p]
• [p]Skill Slot Increase.[/p]
• [p]Passive Slot Increase.[/p]
• [p]Costs have been refunded for old save files.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Gameplay Balancing[/h2]

• [p]Reduced Hornet Spike unlock condition from 100k to 50k.[/p]
• [p]Reduced Slo-Moe unlock condition from 1,000 Guppy kills to 250.[/p]
• [p]Rebalanced all Weapon Upgrade Card values.[/p]
• [p]Reduced Douse cost from 20 Dew to 10 Dew.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Skill Cards[/h2][p][/p][h3]Whale Punch[/h3]

• [p]Twin Punch has been replaced by Empowered Punch[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Starlight[/h3]

• [p]Reduced initial damage by 30% (due to now being upgradable).[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Passive Cards[/h2]

• [p]Debuff Upgrade Cards are now upgradable to level 7 for all elements.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Linked Agony (Mark)[/h3]

• [p]Reduced initial shared damage from 50% to 40% (due to now being upgradable).[/p]
• [p]Now has a link limit of 8 enemies, prioritizing those closest to the target.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Elemental Damage[/h2]

• [p]Now affects skills of the same element with a flat percentage damage bonus (previously based on how many cards of the same element you had).[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Other Improvements[/h2][p][/p]

• [p]Various VFX improvements.[/p]
• [p]Various UI improvements.[/p]

[p]
[/p]

[p]Hi Funguys, happy New Year!!![/p][p]We’re releasing a hotfix today to address the issues many of you reported over the holidays. Thank you so much for your help and patience. [/p][p]As usual, feel free to send your feedback and bug reports through the in-game Feedback button, Steam Discussions, our Discord, or via email at [email protected],

Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed Garlic Hammer attacks stopping when using the Lightning Speed skill.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Starpath milestones not progressing when clearing Hard and Very Hard stages with the required weapons.[/p]
• [p]Fixed changing Glyph Type in Settings not updating the glyphs during gameplay.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where Dews could be spent on locked Pond upgrades.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rerolling relic choices keep showing the same options.[/p]
• [p]Fixed black stripes on the character skill icon.[/p]

[p]Thanks again for your continued support!

Stairway Games[/p]