SPELLCAST news & patch notes

Note: The base volume of the game has been increased, so be ready to turn it down if needed!

General

• The Battle Log now stays open or closed between battles, so you don't have to keep opening it again.

• Fixed an issue where Truth would cause non-attack damage to deal true damage.

Prestige

• The Prestige system has been removed for now. It's not really engaging or well-balanced in its current form and removing it allows me to focus on the core game until I have a better idea of what the post-game should look like.

Enemies

• Titan Ariadne base stagger reduced by 15.

Events

• Fixed some issues with event choices not working sometimes.

• Fixed some issues with the Trickster event when you only have 1 wildcard.

• Hungry Chest event changed: You now select a rune or bonus from your collection to sell, and gain gold based on its rarity/upgrades.

• Elemental Familiars event changed: Now upgrades BURN/SPARK, FLURRY/ICICLE, or SHOCK/JOLT.

• Failing to steal the Dragon Egg is now 10 damage instead of 20.

• 10 new events have been added to the campaign pool.

Demerits

• Fixed an issue that kept a lot of the demerits in the pool from being offered.

• 10 new demerits added:

  • SCARRED - Whenever you take damage, lose 3 max health.

  • STIFLED - You can't deal more than 30 damage in a single hit.

  • TRUNCATE - Your maximum rack size is reduced by 1.

  • REVIVAL - The first time an enemy's health is reduced to 0, they are healed for 20% of their maximum health.

  • AWAKEN - Increase enemy levels by 2.

  • CRITICAL - Enemies have a 30% chance to deal 50% more damage.

  • CAPTIVE - At the start of battle, the enemy gains a random Soul.

  • BLIND - Enemy actions are hidden.

  • REINFORCE - At the start of each round, the enemy gains block equal to the round number.

  • UNEVEN - You can't play 4 letter words.

Road to 1.0

Development has been slower than expected, but with this update I'm happy with the amount of content in the game now. The next few updates will be mainly focused on balancing and redesigning the enemies to make sure all the mechanics are engaging and fun. After that will be the 1.0 release to round out the missing features such as achievements, controller support, and other QOL, which should hopefully be around late April/early May.

General

• The Spellcaster and enemies now have animations for most attacks.

• Inferno now deals damage at the same time as Burn instead of two separate instances.

• Chroma can now be swapped with other bonuses.

Runes

• Fixed the "Your Turn" description for Shock γ.

• Power gained from Thirst reduced to half of the damage taken.

  • Thirst β now deals 8 damage instead of 5.

• Upcharge β now gives 7 Gold instead of 3.

Bounties

• Fixed an issue where Still My Turn could trigger on the first round of battle.

Artifacts

• Stormweave changed to: At the start of battle, gain 2 Static.

• 20 new artifacts:

  • Suspension Cable - At the start of each round, retain block up to the enemy's Chill.

  • Shockweed - At the start of battle, gain 2 Discharge.

  • Heartseeker - Whenever you swap, gain 1 Truth (your next attack deals true damage).

  • Portal Stone - Swapping no longer costs Power Gauge.

  • Golden Scarab - At the start of battle, gain Power equal to double your streak.

  • Hood of Concentration - Reduce the Mana costs of runes by 5.

  • Golden Egg - Increases the odds of finding higher rarity items.

  • Study Guide - Gain 7 Power whenever you play a word at least 7 letters long.

  • Hearthstone - At the start of battle, gain Hearth.

  • Elemental Palette - Gain a Convergence rune. Whenever you activate a Convergence rune, gain 1 Empowered.

  • Wych's Hat - Start battles with a random Hex. Whenever you dispel a Hex, gain 5 Power.

  • Facade - Words played on starting squares become valid.

  • Power Bank - Whenever you reroll, gain Power equal to your Charge.

  • Lightning In a Bottle - Storm always activates at least twice, regardless of your Charge.

  • Powder Keg - Burn now deals stagger equal to half of the damage dealt.

  • Pathfinder - Gain a Torchlight rune. When drawing a tile with Torchlight, you also gain Might equal to its letter score.

  • Force of Will - Whenever you gain Mana, gain Impact equal to the Mana gained.

  • Mind Palace - If you have at least 100 Mana, the first rune you activate each turn is cast twice.

  • Frostbow - On pickup, gain 2 Frostbite runes. Frostbite now deals damage as well as stagger.

  • Freeze Bomb - Enemies enter battle with 20 Chill and 20 Avalanche.

  • Valkyrie - At the start of every third round, gain 1 Evasion.

  • Helix Idol - At the start of each round, gain 1 Slowed. If your Power Gauge is full, gain 1 Empowered instead.

General

• Lots of backend updates to libraries. Due to this, some existing runs may be incompatible with the new version.

• Some visual updates to environments, effects, and floating text, with more to come!

• When viewing upgrades for a rune, the upgrade descriptions are summarized to just the "delta" of what is being changed. You can toggle between showing the summaries or the full descriptions.

• The deckbuilder now sorts items alphabetically and gives audio/visual feedback when adding/removing items.

Enemies

• Hieroglyph and the corresponding enemies have been reworked - Hieroglyph is now a status applied to your letters instead of the grid. Playing or exchanging a letter with a Hieroglyph has positive or negative effects depending on the enemy:

  • Serkite - Now always gains bonus damage equal to your Poison. You gain 3 Poison whenever you play or exchange a letter with Hieroglyph.

  • Khunemos - Whenever you play or exchange more than 1 letter with Hieroglyph at a time, Knunemos gains 1 Empowered.

  • Maaten - Whenever you play or exchange a letter with Hieroglyph, you gain 1 Dismantle.

  • Seth - Attacks deal a very large amount of damage. Rerolling or playing a letter with a Hieroglyph reduces Seth's damage to 0 for the round.

  • Anubis - Gains Doom (at the start of the enemy's turn, you take damage equal to the enemy's Doom). Playing letters with Hieroglyphs removes Doom.

• Anubis' base health increased by 30.

• Time Lord Decimus' base health reduced by 20.

Scenarios

• Caustic Caverns - Starting deck changed to 2x BURN, 2x SPARK, 2x FIREWALL, 1x CHANNEL, 1x WILDFIRE

• Treasure Coast - Starting deck changed to 2x SHOCK, 1x JOLT, 1x BOLT, 2x INSULATE, 1x TASER, 1x REFLEX

• Wychkin Lair - Starting deck changed to 2x FLURRY, 1x ICICLE, 1x BLIZZARD, 1x FROSTBITE, 1x GLACIER, 2x CRYSTALLIZE

• The Summit- Starting deck changed to 2x FRENZY, 2x WILDFIRE, 2x INSULATE, 1x REFLEX

• Forgotten City

  • Note: Due to the changes, existing runs for this scenario at Danger Level 1 or higher will be lost.

  • Danger Level 1 - You now get the BLOATED demerit (Minimum word length is 3)

  • Danger Level 2 - Spellbook events after the first will now give 3 tiles for the spellbook you don't have (i.e. if you have Zephyrian Codex, you will get a Q, J, and X)

• Chronosands - Starting deck changed to 2x SHOCK, 1x JOLT, 1x BOLT, 2x INSULATE, 1x REFLEX

• Spirit's Hollow - Starting deck changed to 2x FLURRY, 2x FROSTBITE, 2x CRYSTALLIZE, 1x SUSPEND

Campaign

• Mana starter deck changed to 2x MISSILE, 1x TRANSMUTE, 1x BARRAGE, 3x CHANNEL

• Burn starter deck changed to 2x BURN, 2x SPARK, 3x FIREWALL

• Chill starter deck changed to 2x FLURRY, 1x FROSTBITE, 1x BLIZZARD, 3x CRYSTALLIZE

• Storm starter deck changed to 2x SHOCK, 1x JOLT, 1x BOLT, 3x INSULATE

• Bosses have an increased chance of dropping rare runes.

• Shop items increase in level as you defeat bosses.

Bounties

• Language Barrier is now: Play 5 Hieroglyphs at once.

• Death Defied is now: Allow Seth to attack without being Depleted.

• Turnabout is now: Remove a total of 150 Doom against Anubis.

Artifacts

• Hailstrom now adds 3 ICICLE runes to the grid instead of FROSTBITE.

Runes

• MISSILE changed:

  • Base - Bonus damage increased to 5.

  • MISSILE α - Bonus damage increased to 5.

  • MISSILE β - Effect is now 10 Mana: Deal double damage.

  • MISSILE γ - Effect is now 10 Mana: Heal for half of the damage dealt.

• FROSTBITE - each variation now also deals stagger equal to double your word score.

• FROSTBITE β effect changed to: Deal stagger equal to double your word score. The enemy gains 5 Chill and 1 Weakened.

• CRYSTALLIZE γ effect changed to: Gain block equal to your word score. You do not lose block between rounds. (Gridbound)

• BURN rarity changed to common.

New runes added:

• SPARK (common) - Deal damage equal to your word score. Enemy gains Burn equal to the length of your longest word.

• BRAND (uncommon) - Gain Brand equal to your word score (at the start of the next round, the enemy gains Burn equal to your Brand).

• HEARTH (uncommon) - Whenever the enemy gains Burn, you gain an equal amount of block. (Gridbound, Priority)

• INFERNO (rare) - Gain 5 Inferno (Whenever the enemy would take damage from Burn, they take bonus damage equal to your Inferno)

• TRANSMUTE (common) - Vertical: Deal damage equal to your word score. Horizontal: Gain Mana equal to your word score. (Vertical/Horizontal trigger based on the orientation of your active word)

• REPEL (common) - Gain block equal to your word score. 6 Mana: Gain 10 additional block.

• FATHOM (uncommon) - 20 Mana: Gain Power equal to the length of your longest word.

• MIRROR (rare) - 25 Mana: Add a copy of all non-activated runes and bonuses to the grid.

• BEAM (rare) - Deal damage equal to your Mana, up to 30.

• FLURRY (common) - Deal damage equal to your word score. If the enemy is staggered, deal 50% more damage.

• SUSPEND (common) - Gain block equal to your word score at the start of the next round.

• AVALANCHE (rare) - Enemy gains 20 Chill. When the enemy is staggered, they lose 20 Chill.

• CRYOGEN (rare) - Reduce the enemy's maximum stagger by 10.

• SHOCK (common) - Deal damage equal to your word score. Amplify: Gain 1 Charge

• RESISTANCE (uncommon) - Gain block equal to half your word score. (Storm)

• BOLT (uncommon) - Consume 1 Charge to deal 24 damage.

• UPCHARGE (rare) - Permanently upgrade a random letter. (Storm)

• DISCHARGE (rare) - Gain 2 Discharge (whenever you activate Storm, the enemy takes damage equal to your Discharge)

• FRENZY (unommon) - Deal damage equal to your word score. Deal bonus damage equal to 2x the letter score of all wildcards played.

• BASH (uncommon) - Deal damage equal to your word score. If you have any block, deal bonus damage equal to half your block. (Deadweight)

• CLEANSE (uncommon) - Remove all of your non-permanent buffs.

• THIRST (rare) - Whenever you take damage, gain Power equal to the damage taken. (Gridbound)

Bonuses

New bonus added:

• True Damage (rare) - Your runes deal true damage this round. (True damage cannot be blocked or evaded)

General

• Battles now have a Battle Log which details what happened in the battle such as damage taken, buffs gained or lost, etc. There may be some incorrect messages due to complex interactions, so please report any issues that you find! Also, any feedback on anything you feel is missing or excessive - the end goal is for the log to provide enough detail without being a huge chore to sift through.

• Fixed an issue where an enemy's attack would keep going even if they died in the middle of it.

• Fixed an issue with Crow Fiends breaking the game on Scenario 4 Danger Level 2.

Runes

• Burn β changed to:

  • Enemy gains Burn equal to your word score. 10 Mana: Enemy gains 10 additional Burn.

• Insulate γ: Now gains block equal to word score + 5 instead of a flat 15.

• Siphon α no longer deals stagger when stealing health.

• Siphon, Vacuum γ, Crystallize γ:

  • These runes with "steal block" effects behaved inconsistently, with some being affected by your block modifiers and some not. These have been normalized to all be affected by your block modifiers (for example, Siphon with a 2X Block bonus will steal all of the enemy's block instead of half).

• Gambler α: +1 minimum damage.

Buffs

• Hex of Draining effect changed to: At the end of the round, reduces the letter scores of the tiles on your rack to 1.

Demerits

• Fixed an issue where UNBREAKABLE prevented the player from resting.

• FORGETFUL removed from the pool.

General

• Adjusted drop rates so gold items drop less often.

• Enemy stagger scales more slowly with enemy level.

Prestige and Danger Levels

The previous scoring system has been removed, and the Prestige and Danger Level systems have been added:

• After completing a scenario or campaign, you will unlock the ability to replay it at a higher Danger Level

• Each Danger Level increases the difficulty in some way:

  • Scenarios will have unique conditions, as well as increase the number of enemies and enemy levels.

  • For campaigns, you will choose from a selection of negative conditions called Demerits as enemy levels increase.

• Playing at a higher Danger Level also unlocks the Bounty Board, where you will be assigned a grid of bounties to complete. Earn Prestige by completing these bounties and filling out rows, columns, and diagonals.

• Completing a Danger Level will unlock the next Danger Level, and the Prestige you earn is also multiplied based on your Danger Level. See how much danger you can handle, and how much prestige you can earn!

Runes

• Stagger dealt by Chill is now capped at half of the enemy's maximum stagger.

• Fixed an issue with Gambler γ benefitting from damage scaling twice.

• Barrier effect changed:

  • Barrier - Gain 2 Barrier (Whenever you would take damage, lose Mana instead of health. At the start of the round, lose 1 Barrier)

  • Barrier α - Gain 10 Mana and 2 Barrier

  • Barrier β - Gain 3 Barrier

  • Barrier γ - Gain Barrier γ (Whenever you would take damage, lose Mana instead of health. Gridbound)

• Jolt - damage per hit on all variations increased by 1.

• Fortress - Gain 4/6/4 Fortress instead of 6/9/6 for base/α/β variations.

• Glacier now benefits from any +Chill bonuses activated for the round.

• Snowball effect changed:

  • Snowball - Consume the enemy's Chill and gain an equal amount of Snowball. Deal damage equal to your Snowball.

  • Snowball α - Consume the enemy's Chill and gain an equal amount of Snowball. Deal damage equal to your Snowball + 5.

  • Snowball β - Gain 10 Snowball, then deal damage equal to your Snowball.

  • Snowball γ - Gain Snowball equal to the enemy's Chill. Deal damage equal to your Snowball.

• Hypothermia now applies to the player instead of the enemy, allowing the effect to stay active across multiple enemies until you reroll.

Bonuses

• Added new bonuses:

  • Minor Cheat - This word becomes valid if its length is 3 or less.

  • Cheat - This word becomes valid if its length is 5 or less.

  • Major Cheat - This word becomes valid.

Artifacts

• Coldfire Charm now applies 1 Chill instead of 2.

• Eiswein now heals 5 health instead of 2.

Enemies

• Petrified now reduces the letter score of the drawn tile to 0 instead of reducing it by 2.

• Medusa's Petrify now adds Petrified equal to your Poison instead of converting your Poison.

• Charge now converts into 10 Void instead of 5.

Campaign

• At Danger Level 0, you now start with the Explorer's Handbook, which gives you additional starting AP and Gold, and gives you a one-time revive for 30 health.

Scenarios

• Forgotten City:

  • The 5x Letter in the starting deck is now a 3x Letter.

  • Enemy base level increased by 1.

• Chronosands:

  • Removed the 2x Letter from the starting deck.

• Titan's Realm:

  • The fourth battle is now always a miniboss at Danger Level 0.

This update focuses on some bug fixes and significantly lowering the overall difficulty. If you liked the previous difficulty, don't worry - it will return when the Ranking system is added!

General Changes

- The Discard Pile is now shuffled back into the Letter Box whenever the Letter Box runs out of either vowels or consonants, instead of waiting until the Letter Box is completely empty. This should help prevent situations where you end up drawing only consonants or only vowels for multiple rounds.

- Base gold bounty increased by 20. "Best Word" gold bonus removed.

Campaign

Note: These changes will not effect existing Campaign runs.

- Fixed an issue where you could immediately fight the Titans in a Campaign.

- Lowered overall enemy strength by 1 level.

- Early encounters have 1 less enemy.

- Boss encounters have 1 less enemy.

- Storm deck: 1 copy of Jolt is now Jolt β.

- Chill deck: Now starts with an additional copy of Icicle.

- Chaos deck: Starts with an additional attack rune, and 2 of the starting runes will now start with a random upgrade.

Scenarios

Note: Due to the changes, existing Scenario runs will not be compatible with this version.

- All scenarios have been adjusted to have fewer total enemies and higher level rewards from battles.

- Forgotten City:

- Starting deck changed to 2x Missile, 1x Rekindle, 1x Multihit, 3x Channel.

- Starting bonuses changed to 3x 2X Letter, 1x 3X Letter, 1x 5X Letter.

- Chronosands:

- One copy of Jolt in the starting deck is now Jolt β.

- The Crawler event battle is removed, and the event now always gives an Unstable Spark.

- Spirit's Hollow

- Starting deck changed to 2x Skirmish, 2x Frostbite, 1x Icicle, 2x Crystallize.

- Starting bonuses changed to 2x +2 Chill, 1x +5 Damage, 1x 2X Block, 1x 2X Damage

- Added a starting event that gives a Cryoblade artifact.

- Voidlands:

- Starting deck changed to 2x Burn, 1x Wildfire, 1x Convergence, 1x Smokescreen, 2x Insulate.

- Starting bonuses changed to 2x 2X Letter, 2x +4 Burn, 1x +6 Word.

Enemies

- All Elemental Spirit enemies have had their base stagger lowered.

- Windwraith: Soul of Wind now applies Slowed instead of Dismantle.

- Watergeist: Base stagger lowered.

- Aqueon: Base stagger and damage lowered.

Runes

- Channel: Increased Mana gained by 3 on all variations.

- Fixed an issue with Insulate γ not being removed at the end of the round.

- Fixed an issue with Drown causing the battle to get stuck indefinitely.