Forestrike news & patch notes

Hello Heroes! We’re wrapping up the year with one last patch! Thank you all for the love and support you’ve shown us this year. Your feedback, passion, and energy to keep Forestrike growing has been wonderful to witness - and those epic fights you've been sharing with us over in the Discord!

Now onto the patch notes!

Make sure your game is updated to v1.0-2394!

Techniques/Trinkets

• Pounce: Updated animation sprites to put more intention in anticipation and attack segments.

• Pounce: Anticipation is now a little longer and moves less, but makes dodging projectiles easier.

• Pounce: Attack motion is just a little faster, and has a more generous vertical hitbox to avoid projectiles going over it and hitting you.

• Pole jump: Now has phase frames to allow chargers that wouldn't hit you to pass through.

• Open fire: Reduced input window (from pole arm attack) to prevent common accidental executions.

• Peacekeeper: Fixed bug where Peacekeeper would let attacks tunnel through to the adjacent enemy.

• Cardiac Damage: Fixed some remaining issues where the technique could proc on the player.

• Dead eye: No longer procs on the player.

• Needles: Can now proc on every wave of a Boss Fight.

• Price of Blood: Can now proc on enemies breaking a weapon on you (ex: Shields).

• Groin Attack: Fixed some instances of the Technique not working.

• Cannonball: Hitting a wall with a heavy attack now properly triggers the technique.

• Yellow Phoenix+: Fixed some instances of the upgrade not working.

• Vital Strike+: No longer procs on any back attack.

• Banana Split: Now works in conjecture with any technique which upgrades the Banana.

• Born Ready: Reduced rarity from Epic to Rare.

• Performer: Reduced base Gold gain from 20 to 15.

• Fortune Tree: Reduced base Gold gain from 15 to 10 and upgrade Gold gain from 30 to 20.

• Golden Blood: Reduced base Gold gain from 10 to 6.

Characters

• Sword Master: Will now attempt to shoot with any weapon if it's forced into his hands while he is aiming.

• Sword Master: Will no longer turn any weapon into empty muskets when attempting to fire them.

General Fixes/Changes

• Mid-Air Weapon Catch: Yu can now catch weapons mid-air. (Weapons that can hit you when falling will still hit you if you don't catch it).

• Dialogue: Fixed minor dialogue typo in monkey revelations. "what stopped me > stopped me".

• Effects: Fixed a bug where effects would remain on screen even after the targeted clone had been destroyed.

• No Light Kill Subobjective: Can no longer appear when you have Radical Cycle.

• NPC Weapon Catch: NPC's can no longer catch falling weapons.

• Narrative: Fixed a bug where a Nodai Narrative Event's conditions were always returning false.

• Soft lock: Fixed a bug where wearing a bucket on a monkey run would cause a soft lock after 2 foresight restarts in the 2nd wave of multi-wave encounters

• Friendly Fire Kill Subobjective: Fixed an issue when the objective was validated by technique damages

Hello Heroes!

We’ve just rolled out another patch for Steam!

There was a major progression bug that we solved in this update. So if you experienced a case where you finished a run but did not receive rewards, completing the run again should now give you those rewards properly.

Additionally, Secret Stash was not working for many players. This should now be fixed and you can all finally enjoy pulling an entire table out of your pocket!

More detailed patch notes below!

Make sure your game is updated to v1.0-2385!

Techniques/Trinkets

• Spark: Replaced Talgun's laugh sound by Onya's laugh sound

• Levitation: Fixed input text for Spanish

• Crab Guard: Rarity changed from Common to Dual

• Fortune Dash & Fortune Block: Added a cap to the gold gained to avoid issue with invincibility and some other weird interactions

• Squabble: No longer bypasses armor

• Fruits of Labor: Fixed an issue where defeating a surprised enemy did not give you a banana

• Dreamcatcher: Is no longer triggered if Ashes of Life is procing

• Max Health Techniques: Techniques which reduce your max health now heal you when you lose them.

  • Impacted Techniques: Crescent Formation, Scorched Earth, Cold Exposure, Alchemy

• Secret Stash: Changed to use a safer method of getting the random weapon

• Levitation+: Heal can no longer proc in Inns

• Longevity: The barrel hits on enemies no trigger the technique

• Yellow Phoenix: Should now proc at every boss wave

• Trinkets Scroll: Can no longer gives Elevation and Starter techniques.

  • Impacted Trinkets: Cold Eye Scroll, Leaf Scroll, Monkey Scroll, Mystery Scroll, Scroll Voucher, Storm Scroll, Tiger Scroll

• Ki and Block Lamp: Various fixes on the lamps to fix various issues where they would not proc + Change so Lamps no longer proc in the Inn

• Cold Eye fights: Rework Region 1 Cold Eye challenge to be more in-tune with Region 1 difficulty

Characters

• Deserter: Now has a long recovery after their attack to allow punishing when their guard is down.

• Ogai: Can no longer catch first phase Ogai with a heavy right after he dodges

• Dash Wall Flip: Will now properly proc with Radiant Dash

• Admiral: During Phase 2 and 3 charges, the Admiral will now deflect projectiles

• Scholar: Fixed various issues related to the new armor gain

• Enemy Clones: Clones dying by themselves no longer count as defeated enemies (This stops some chaos from techniques procing way too much)

General Fixes/Changes

• Progression: Fixed an issue where progression was not counted correctly in some cases which resulted in missing out on some narrative and some rewards

Gameplay

• No Heavy Kill Subobjective: Fixed an issue where your heavy attack was counted as a kill despite not killing

• Dialogue UI: Fixed bug where Illustrations would sometimes not show up during dialogue

• Dialogue UI: Fixed bug where Speaker Portraits were sometimes not showing up after skipping cutscenes

• Map Music: Music will now fade instead of stopping abruptly when entering encounters

• Floor Shadows: Fixed Floor Shadow Sorting Layer values causing the Drop shadow to sometimes not be visible.

  • Affected locations: Gate, Bath house, Hundred Screen Corridor

If you'd like to provide anymore feedback or bug reports the best place is to join us over on the Discord as we are very active over there! Thank you again!

First of all, a huge thank you to each and everyone of you who has bought, played and taken the time to leave a review for Forestrike! As a small team of 4, we really appreciate that you've given our game a chance!

Today we're excited to bring you behind the blade to take a closer look at how Forestrike was created. From the inspirations behind the designs of our martial arts combat system, to the pixel art style.

We hope you enjoy!

Hello Heroes!

We have received even more valuable feedback and bug reports from you all! Thank you for your patience as we address all your reports and feedback. We are currently a small team of 4, so we do have limited firepower, but we do see all your feedback and really value your efforts to help us refine Forestrike!

We’ve begun implementing the first round of improvements to the Tiger style based on your feedback. This update focuses on reworking Pounce (its basic special attack) and giving players more control over Flying Claw. Additional adjustments are planned in future patches, as we aim to make Flying Claw as engaging as the other two starters - while preserving Tiger’s identity as an expert style with its own unique difficulty curve. More detailed patch notes below!

Make sure your game is updated to v1.0-2377!

Patch notes:

Tiger School Improvements

• Flying Claw: You can now do a normal air attack after using Flying Claw (allowing you to reposition yourself and then do an attack).

• Flying Claw: The Technique can now be directionally oriented (Technique UI video has also been updated).

• Flying Claw +: The projection has been reworked to be more usable and collide more easily with other enemies.

• Tiger Kick: When you deflect a weapon with the attack, the weapon now goes in a bell curve capable of hitting enemies.

• Tiger Kick: Fixed Deflect direction and added +1 damage to weapons deflected with the kick.

• Pounce: Has a new animation.

• Pounce: Is now a proper forward motion which closes gaps. Helpful to reach an enemy or a wall when in a pinch.

• Pounce: Can now break enemies' attack tracking under the right circumstances.

• Pounce: Should now be much more reliable against charging armed enemies

Techniques/Trinkets

• Blood Pact: Added safeguard to avoid multiple triggers.

• Flying Fortress: Fixed an issue where it was triggering at the beginning of the next fight.

• Peacekeeper: Removed useless tips.

• Armor of Vanity: Added a block tip.

• Piercing Weapons: No longer procs on heavy attacks when you are holding a weapon.

• Gold Attacks: can now be used without using gold in shops.

  • Techniques affected: Gold Palm, Sparrow Form, Throw Gold.

• Subluxation: Fixed to proc after other techniques that use "On Miss" as a trigger so as to properly apply the stun.

• Levitation: Fixed the issue where you could use Levitation multiple times in the air.

• Levitation: Changed air time duration for base version and upgrade:

  • Base version: You stay in the air until hitting a wall.

  • Upgraded version: You stay in the air for a shorter time.

• Tiger Kick: Fix tips displayed.

• Banana Split: No longer gives indolent.

• Foe Surprised Techniques: "When a foe gets surprised" no longer procs on the player character.

  • Techniques affected: Hands Up, Cardiac Damage, Heist, Surprise Tribute.

• Vital Strike +: The upgrade is no longer dependent on the base version procing.

• Air Control: Fixed some cases where the player would not go out of invincibility.

• Roll+: Added a slight delay to match the surprise with the character standing up and fixed some cases where the surprise was not applied.

• Exposed: Removed text displayed multiple times or when the technique was not procing.

• Sweet Cake: Now costs 15 and only requires 2 Sub Objectives to complete.

• Ashen Fan: Reduced price from 25 to 15.

• Rainbow Fan: Reduced price from 25 to 15.

• Tropical Storm: Now only procs with a light attack.

• Tropical Storm +: Fixed some instances where no foes were shaken.

• Lightning Strike: Fixed various techniques where status was conflicting with Lightning Strike and not procing: Shaken, Substitution, Scheming, Piercing Weapons, Bully, Precision.

• Sudden 1 Max HP Bug: Fixed an issue where certain techniques could incorrectly set HP to 1.

  • Impacted Techniques & Trinkets: Blood Pact, Alchemy, Fasting tea, Lizard Scale, Sweet Cake, Alembic, Blood Petal.

• Warp Strike: Fixed an issue where Warp Strike was not considered a special attack.

• Gunfire (Technique given by Nodai at the end of Region 3): Is now considered a Special Attack.

• Deflection Expert: Fixed an issue where Deflection Expert was not triggered.

• Mighty Tiger: Reworked various techniques to work with Mighty Tiger including: Hand of Lundaima, Mindblast, Fart and Throw Gold.

• Wild Cat: Now works with all Special Attacks.

• Bathless Vow: Fixed an issue where the player was targeted by the Surprise + Added a delay before the surprise to increase its usability.

• Mercurial Cure: Now heals you by 1HP when you upgrade it.

• Ki Lamp and Block Lamp: Now works in Boss fights.

• Chain Bolt+: No longer procs when hitting the barrel.

• Peacekeeper+: Changed the timing to fix bad interaction with techniques checking damage on the character.

• Whirlwind: Fixed an issue where the player was targeted by the damage.

• Gem Harvest: No longer shows the text when you gain 0 gold.

• Battle Remnants: Fixed an issue where you wouldn't get the weapon after a foresight.

• Rising Throw: Fixed an issue where rising throw could throw some grounded or airborne enemies in the wrong direction.

• Scavenging: Fixed an issue where Scavenging was not procing.

• Voltaic Shift: Now only reduces the damage on Light Attacks.

• Fortune Tree: Fixed an issue where Fortune Tree could only be used once per run.

• Guardbreak: Fixed an issue where Guardbreak would trigger with enemies that didn't have a block.

• Surprise Tribute: Reworked to take into account damage modifiers + To not proc on enemies with invincibility/armor.

Characters

• Swordmaster: Can no longer catch weapons in the air so as to avoid weird interactions with disarming.

• SwordMaster: Added a short delay before the retreat action to increase consistency at the beginning of the fight.

• Botun: When running into a hole, Botun will now turn back and charge again instead of being stuck.

• Talgun: Fixed Talgun's awkward walking in his Master Encounter.

• Elite Officer: Removed from the Leaf challenge pool to avoid a bug with invincibility/substitution and not very interesting play patterns.

• Scholar: Now gains their block at the start of the 3rd foresight instead of the beginning of the 3rd restart.

Hats

• Bucket Hat: Equipping Pakun's Bucket will unlock it in the Hat Menu immediately.

• Bucket Hat: Equipping Pakun's Bucket counts as equipping a bucket and means it can be brought to the run.

• Tattered Baskets: May now drop Tattered baskets on spiky puppets to reduce their rarity.

General Fixes/Changes

• Technique UI: Replace Tip and Mechanic Tips are now hidden in non relevant menus such as when unlocking from Master's Teachings.

• Total Play Time Stat: Fixed bug so that time exceeding 24 hours is now displayed correctly.

• Airborne Hits: Fixed an issue where enemies' attacks were considered airborne hits for no reasons.

• Banana: Fixed an issue with checking if a weapon was a banana. Solved issues in: Fruit of Labor, Banana Split, Banehaneha, Jungle Snack.

• Nodai Subobjectives: Jump Over, Use Focus and Kill with Resources Left subobjectives will no longer appear in Nodai Master Encounters.

• Falling Weapons: Fixed a bug where falling weapons, initially thrown by enemies then clashed, would not hit the initial thrower enemy.

• Achievements: Added localization for all supported languages.

• Rewrite Table: Fixed issue where it could not be used again after closing it once without rewriting.

• Codex: Fixed a bug where hats & illustrations were counted towards the unseen codex entries resulting in a permanent yellow dot indicating unseen entries.

• Codex: Removed Elite scholar and Elite Lancer (unused enemies) from the codex.

• Assist Options Submenu: Exiting the submenu will not close the whole pause menu anymore.

• Sound Volumes: Individual sound volumes refined here and there.

• Hat Positions: Fixed weird hat points when hero wakes up after a run.

• Weapon Positions: Fixed weird weapon points when hero lands after a jump.

• Throw: Fixed Throwing actions to not trigger multiple times if you equipped a weapon during the recovery.

• Tutorial: Polished Talgun animation and behaviour during the tutorial encounters.

• Tutorial: Polished Yu and enemies positions in the tutorial forest to avoid ugly bark overlap.

• Narrative: Minor polish to back from first run dialogue display.

• Narrative: Pakun’s banner talk conditions refined to occur a little later.

• Narrative: Onya and Nodai study talk refined to occur after a Cold Eye run.

• Narrative: Monkey finale cutscenes’ end music won't loop anymore.

• Narrative: Removed an illustration lingering on in Admiral reality win dialogue.

• Volume Settings: Master volume is now applied to splash screen audio.

• Miss Attack Sub Objective: has been re-added after fixing miss issues.

• End Run Progression Menu: Changed the end progression sequences to be able to be skipped with Cancel as well (Previously only confirm would skip the sequences).

• Barks: Fixed barks drifting across the screen when triggered from off-screen sources.

• Map Screen: Fixed an issue where spamming confirm could cause map traversal to happen multiple times.

• Random Technique Gains: Added a seed to prevent rerolling via exiting to the title screen.

• Win with Remaining Resources (Sub Objective): No longer appears if you have a technique that removes your starting resources.

• Steam Keyboard: When playing on Steam Deck or with a controller in Steam Big Picture Mode, you can now enter share fight codes with a popup keyboard.

First of all, thank you so much for playing Forestrike! Your bug reports and feedback have been instrumental in continuously improving the game to greater heights! They have all been read, and we have been hard at work addressing your reports and feedback.

Notably, we have seen reports of truly impossible and unfair fights. Whilst there are some fights that seem impossible, but can be solved with a bit of patience and creative thinking, there are some that are truly unfair and this is something that we find very important to address. Two recurrent patterns have been identified and addressed with some small mechanic adjustments and balancing.

Another important change we would like to highlight is that we now allow randomly gained techniques and special attack reward selections to be skipped. Since special attacks replace a technique, they can essentially remove a technique pivotal to your build. Now it is a choice, you should no longer need to worry about breaking your build accidentally.

Finally, we now allow Shared Fights to be loaded from the title screen. This means you no longer have to abandon your ongoing run to join in solving someone else's fight.

Make sure your game is updated to v1.0-2330!

Patch notes:

Balancing

• Tiger School: When you play a Tiger run, the gunners now take slightly more time before shooting.

• Cold Eye School: Invincible enemies can now be thrown by Rising Throw. They will not take damage.

Technique Fixes

• LookUp: The technique no longer affects Smuggler.

• Mirage: When the hit is a body slam, you now teleport behind the instigator instead of the source, to avoid being sandwiched between the projected and attacking character.

• Flying Fortress: Fixed some issues with grounded detection.

• Seed of hope: Fixed issues when equipping the weapon immediately when only one enemy was remaining, notably for throw.

• Last Resort Snack: Fixed in the same way as Seed of Hope.

• Sun Stance: Fixed wrong video.

• Self Mockery: Fixed to make sure it only happens once per fight.

• Golden Blood: Removed the double text display of the upgrade.

• BackStab Echo: No longer procs on the Barrel.

• First Blood: No longer procs on the Smuggler + No longer procs on a target already affected by Shaken.

• Monkey face: No longer targets the Smuggler.

• Alchemy+: Changed the order of the description to make it more clear that you only get Max Health when learning the technique (English text Only).

Character Fixes

• Red Drunk: Fixed inconsistent hurtbox on idle combat action.

• Swordmaster: Fixed movement when affected by trinket before a fight (Mostly caused by firecracker).

• Striking Slave: Can now only trigger his first action on brawl start if he is actually alive.

• Region 4 Mini Bosses: Are now considered Bosses.

• Impostor: The jump indication effect should no longer linger around.

Sub Objectives

• Wall hit: Can now be passed by enemies charging into the wall.

General Fixes/Changes

• Shared Fights: Can now be loaded from the Title Screen without losing your current run.

• Special Attack Brawl Rewards: Now have a choice to not take them.

• Random Techniques: Now have a choice to not take them (From trinkets or other techniques).

• Onya Intro Cutscene: Onya will no longer be missing when beating Nodai and unlocking her at the same time.

• Invincibility: Changed health bar color to be golden rather than gray to differentiate between block and armor.

• Hitstop Setting: No longer gets reset when relaunching the game.

• Miss Attack Check: Deflect and Shield surf now count as a miss.

• Replay Archive: Fixed a bug where after 50 entries the most recent archive entry would not show up correctly.

• Region Enter Menu: Can now be progressed by pressing Cancel (Originally only Confirm was supported).

• Master Selection Menu: Selection sequence can now be skipped by pressing Confirm or Cancel.

• Font Sizes: Small text such as in the Codex and technique tips are now a bit bigger.

Master Trials

• When beaten: Masters will disappear in a puff of smoke.

• Dialogs: Will no longer occur in Reality runs.

• Enemy Monkey: Landing animation has a slightly bigger hurtbox to avoid strange dodges.

• Master Color: Masters now have a small tint to highlight the fact that they are illusions.

• Onya's Clones: Charging run animation toned down to look less silly.

The wait is over, Forestrike is OUT NOW!

Skeleton Crew Studios and Devolver Digital proudly present Forestrike, our tactical martial arts roguelite that challenges your precision, patience and philosophy. 

Step into the light, Hero. Sharpen your mind, steady your breath and prepare to face the trials that await. Your training has led you here, to the moment where mastery and destiny collide.

In Forestrike you play as Yu, a warrior on a mission to free the Emperor from a powerful Admiral’s grip. Despite the odds, you wield a secret art: Foresight, that allows you to rehearse every fight in your mind before it begins. Choose from five distinct martial arts schools, under the guidance of legendary masters who’ve perfected their art. You'll uncover not just their secrets, but the truths they’ve bled to protect. Your journey begins today. Win the fight before it begins.

Make sure to join our Discord to report any bugs, feedback and share your fights with us and others seeking the path to enlightenment! 

Forestrike Bundles with additional discounts:

Honorable heroes,

Thank you all for playing the demo during Steam Next Fest! Your feedback on the game so far has been amazing.

We just released a new patch that adds some community suggested improvements, bug fixes and better quality of life.

PATCH NOTES v.3-270

Fixes

• Fixed some sprites not appearing on PCs with lower texture size constraints

• Fixed replays sound so as they now are properly affected by volume levels

• Fixed replay slow motion button and save replay button conflict on controllers

• Fixed status effects remaining active after Brawls finished

• Fixed some narrative and technique events not properly running when playing in languages other than English

• Fixed visual bug where hat shadows were desynced from the characters' shadows

• Fixed broken hurtbox on marauder charge hit

• Fixed scorcher kick recovery time

• Fixed hanging temple ultra wide red borders

• Fixed various SFX assigned to wrong channels

• Fixed pawn mask wrong bark

• Fixed various inconsistencies with effect triggering "Before a fight"

• Fixed issues with charging foes collisions

• Fixed various active techniques not working while a weapon was equipped

• Fixed various Sub Objectives being marked as failed incorrectly

• Bolt : Fixed to break tracking from attacking enemy

• Knight Dash +: Fixed to give Lightning Strike

• Eye Poke + : Fixed to apply stun

• Golden Blood + : Fixed to trigger once per fight and work on direct hits

• Steal Weapon : Fixed to include thrown weapons as weapon attacks

• Blood Pact : Fixed text display issue

• Dash : Fixed an issue where you would get hit by a dodged attack

• Conduction : Fixed an issue where Conduction would not deal damage to some enemies

• Elite Craven : Fixed an issue where the Craven would not give back a stolen resource

• Mirage Dodge : Fixed an issue where Mirage dodge would trigger before properly dodging the hit

• Final Bolt : Fixed to no longer trigger against allies and work with every Heavy Attack

• Needle hands : Fixed to no longer proc against allies

• Retribution : Fixed damage not being properly applied

Changes

• Added keyboard arrow navigation in menus so non WASD keyboards can easier navigate and rebind buttons

• Added new maps

• Added new buyable item Cheap Noodles

• Update various costs of Techniques in the Technique shop

• Added new Dual techniques for each master

• Spiky Puppet: Rework spawn patterns

• Honest Snake : Increased rarity from Common to Rare

• Shen Lei Gift + : Now gives a Storm technique

• Gold Pouch : Reduced the gold price

• Retribution : Reduced rarity from Elevation to Epic

• Lotus Petal : Defeating a Boss now gives a Lotus Petal

• Muted the replay previews in Replay/Run Archive menus

• Replays can now be deleted from the Fight Archive

Dearest Heroes,

The time for practice is over, the true fight begins now.

Kyoto-based developers Skeleton Crew and publisher Devolver Digital are excited to announce that Forestrike is officially launching November 17 for PC and Nintendo Switch! 🙏

We are also thrilled to bring you a fresh new gameplay trailer to reveal a deeper look into the rich world of our tactical martial arts roguelite. 

For those eager to sharpen their skills before release, we also have an updated Steam Next Fest demo live right now, featuring:

🥋 A third martial arts school to master

🌏 New locations to explore ⚔️ New ways to refine your techniques and prepare for what’s to come

-

🌀 About Forestrike

Step into the role of Yu, a warrior on a quest to free the Emperor from the grip of a ruthless Admiral. The odds are against you - but you wield the secret art of Foresight.

Foresight allows you to preview and replay battles, studying every movement until perfection is within reach. With each enemy's response, turn combat into a meditative puzzle of precision and timing. However, when the real fight is initiated, there are no second chances.

Each run through Forestrike reveals fragments of the greater story and the philosophies of the five great masters. By learning their schools and combining their techniques, you’ll shape your own martial identity. Between fights, rest at inns, rescue fellow travelers, and uncover the truth behind a land divided by loyalty and ambition.

The story of discipline, loss, and mastery awaits all who walk the path.

-

Try out the demo now and wishlist now on Steam. Make sure to also join our Discord to discuss techniques, builds and share your fights with other heroes!

A warrior’s patience sharpens the blade more than any stone. 

Your time has come, Hero. Win the fight before it begins.

• After you finish a fight there will be a ‘Copy Fight Code’ in the top right hand corner during the replay.
• Copy this code and share with others!

• Copy the fight code received
• Go to the far right of the Moon Gate and interact with the furthest gate
• There should be a prompt when you approach the gate saying ‘Load Fight from Code’
• Interact with the gate and this should automatically load the copied fight code!

🎮 Play the Updated Demo Now & Wishlist on Steam!

Honorable heroes,

PATCH NOTES v.1-120

• Added Key Rebinding for both Keyboard and Controllers
• Added support for multiple Controllers connected at once and input hot swapping
• Added support for many more niche controllers

• Added Support for many more resolutions
• Fixed an issue with some resolutions cropping off the sides of the fight screen
• Fixed an issue with some UI elements not scaling correctly on ultra wide resolutions
• Added options for VSync
• Fixed an issue with some sounds not being affected by Sound Level settings

• Fixed an issue where technique tips wouldn't show up on some technique menus
• Adjusted techniques UI to fit the screen better across most menus
• Fixed an issue with some techniques causing potential soft locks

Dearest Hero,

Leaf School 🍃