Tales & Tactics news & patch notes

What started off as a series of small changes and fixes ended up becoming another sizeable update for T&T!

Thanks to the community for driving this update forward with feature requests and discussions and bug reports. Features

Added Team Builder feature - add Units from the Compendium to your desired Team, and they will be highlighted with a Hammer icon when they appear in the Unit Store. You can save up to 4 bookmarked Team Builder teams and load them at any time.

Added gameplay option to auto-clear Team Builder at the start of a new run

PVE Character Perk Balance

Brax - Four Commons -> Six Commons

Brax - Late Harvest 10g -> 14g

Brax - Blokk tiers up each Rest (and bugfix, was set to 500 HP, not the 600 the perk states)

Raine - Celestial Hex sells units instead of destroys

Raine - Warlock trinket now grants SP equal to your Army Size + your missing Hearts, but can't be used in Training Yard

Raine - Face Painter transform on Unit Store reroll instead of after combat, but there's only one Transformation Hex

Raine - Stage Illusionist grants a Lifeline

Ifreyes - Elite Invitation now grants 5 SP per earned Boss unit.

Thokor - Hoist the Colors now bounces the new War Banner back to your item bag, so you can make early use of components as stats without needing to buy Item Removers later. Also all War Banners now grant 1 component worth of base stats game-wide. Does not affect Devil's Deal tainted banners.

Alidanna - Magic Icebox now grants an immediate 6 gold.

Singrim - Twin Primes now prevents units from being Banished when they reach Tier 4, and Tier 4'ing a Unit grants 3 more (Tier 1) copies of it.

PVE Vault Balance

Vault of the Void now also grants an increasing amount of free rerolls.

Star Crown (vault reward) now has an increasing amount of Damage Amp & Resist, up to 10% at max Vault tier, and copies items.

Vault of Chaos (Units) stage 1 now also grants a Tier 1 Uncommon. Stage 3 now also grants a Tier 1 Rare. stage 4 grants 2 Rainbowslime Vials.

Vault of Weapons stage 3 grants +4 gold, stage 4 grants a completed item, stage 5 grants a completed item +4 gold.

Vault of Assistance now also rewards Star Points, effectively giving a partial refund on the investment. This makes this Vault naturally cheaper to invest in than others.

Units

Wolfgang no longers get a Rush on first cast. Mana max reduced to 80 for first cast.

Dumblegore projectile speed increased

Dumblegore will now re-target in between orb casts if the initial target dies

Tidus damage reduced to 260 (main wave), from 300

AI adjusted so defensive/self-targeted skills will go off even when no enemy is currently targetable

Blook will now not possess targeted units that cannot attack.

Items

Cost Reduction now actually reduces max mana instead of using a different system. Cost Reduction now has a cap, and cannot reduce a skill's Mana to less than 1.

All War Banners now have one component's worth of base stats in addition to adding a Trait.

Shock Pendant now deals damage based on % of current HP rather than Max HP.

You can now right-click War Banners to see the trait information for the trait the Banner is for.

Instant-cast skills such as Backflip will have a slight delay after reaching max mana before being able to be used, so the mana bar can be seen as filling

Added a Backflip animation

Mana Battery base mana spread to 90% (from 85%)

Power Suit time to deactivation set to 20s (buff from 15s)

Perks

Impervious, Titan, and Gigantification hex modifiers will now never spawn on the edge spaces of the board.

PVP

PVP character selection now shows only 3 character bundles, but you can reroll each entry one time.

Buffed PVP Guard Captain's contract rewards.

PVP Impatient Monk causes overtime to come even faster.

Bugfixes

Fixed Vengeful Armaments not functioning properly.

Fixed Shelly Reptile bonus not working

Fixed some weirdness related to using Cosmic Observer hex & reptile bonuses

Fixed all trait recalculations taking twice as much CPU as needed (trivial most likely, but hey, everything counts)

Fixed the main menu Unlock panel notification (saying there is something new to unlock) not appearing at the correct times.

Fixed an issue where Overtime would start at different times depending on your combat speed.

Fixed an issue where modifying when Overtime starts (Impatient Monk) would also change the timing of certain combat triggers, such as an effect that starts "8 seconds into combat", sometimes skipping them entirely.

Fixed ordering of items in the Merge Book

Fixed restricted duplicators (such as rarity-based Duplicators) being consumed if applied to a Unit of the wrong type.

Fixed a "None Found" entry in the keyword section of the Compendium

Fixed Infuser storing charge across combats

Fixed Tentacles (and any others) not showing incoming Floating Damage Numbers

Fixed Stalkers getting their AI activated before teleporting, sometimes getting an attack off during their Stalker movement.

Fixed an event result in Path of Power having no text.

Fixed a calculation issue with Mage Spell Power reduction, which mostly resulted in spell power below 100% not having a negative effect on spells.

Blook description corrected to state the possessed unit is immune to Crowd Control

Fixed level up perks not being randomized properly when starting a 2nd run from the same session after abandoning a run

Fixed a niche issue with Mage twincasting and instant-cast skillbooks not triggering certain post-cast effects twice, such as Engineer ammo gain.

Fixed an issue that could cause some Units to attack more frequently after casting.

Fixed some random-targeted effects being able to target invisible units.

Increased Dumblegore's projectile collision size, hopefully mitigating some rare reports of his projectiles not connecting with targets.

Misc

Infuser and Shaman Totem will refund their charge value if the target dies while the projectile is in flight.

Optimized missile destruction logic

Added additional AI logging

Added safeguards to try to resolve a rarely reported issue where dead units still block the hex they died on.

Adjusted Beast Bite and Spiked Gauntlet multipliers to be consistent, function as the tooltip describes them to, and be additive with each other.

Teleporting or being pushed will now count as "moving one hex" for triggered effects.

Updated Sparky skill text for clarity.

Increased the cap on Infuser's count to 9999 Hotfix 1 Fixed an issue related to Chester's trait selection UI.

Fixed an issue with Star Crown in PVP.

1.41

Hotfix for level up perks breaking

1.42

Hotfix for Pure Madness perk not working

1.43

Hotfix for a CPU and memory leak introduced in 1.42.

Changed the Custom Code feature to not unlock the unique perks from the custom character, but instead have all of those new perks be directly shown and unlocked as part of the Unlocks system. Using a custom code will still allow you to play with the preset and its custom feature, even if you don't have the associated Unlock, but the ability to see the perks in Draft Mode are now part of Unlocks instead of being hidden behind codes. This makes them more visible to all players, and also can be disabled if desired. Be sure to head over to the Unlocks panel and pick up the 4 new Community unlock packs.

Added 15 new Stored Draft Slots. Any Community Code presets that were saved are now converted to Draft slots, but can be used for other characters than just the presets now.

Removed the Custom Code as an unlock per the above patch note. Draft Mode unlock now also automatically unlocks Stored Draft Slots.

Added two 'Legacy' custom difficulty modifiers: Infinite Perk Rerolls and Visible Cards. These are meant to give players who preferred to reroll perks or 'savescum' the Pick a Card events by returning to the main menu each time a method of still having that gameplay without needing to return to the main menu each time.

Added a new gameplay option for Skip Event Text. This auto-skips all event text phases, and also skips any extra clicks to get through events, such as starting the shuffle for Pick a Card events, and starting rolls/collecting results for Dice events. This is definitely not recommended for new players, but for those 200+ hour players out there who want as fast of runs as possible, this is for you.

Before we kick off the patch notes, we've added a new Custom Character code which unlocks the Mad Scientist profession, designed by our experimental tester community! Use the code "experimental" to try out three new absolutely wild specialization perks, which will then be unlocked for use in Draft mode.

If you didn't know about some community codes before, they can unlock new PvE character content for you to use in Draft mode forever! After unlocking the feature, you can visit the Code section here, in character select: Then, select Enter new Code Type in a code, like so: Press "Check Code", and if you've successfully entered a community code, a preset character featuring one new Race, Class, Profession, or Aspiration unique to that character will load, and that unique character feature will be now be seen in all future uses of Draft mode! Here are all the current codes available for use:

experimental - After the Eager Newbie, choose between Perks that enable strange builds. -Tricky Tomes: Gain 3 copies of the same random Skillbook. At the start of combat, each Unit with an equipped Skillbook will Stun and Stifle the nearest ally without a Skillbook for 10 seconds. -Pure Madness: Randomize the Traits of all Units! (Does not affect Mythics or Statues.) Gain 3 free Rerolls. -Backroom Deals: Normal Shops will additionally sell items exclusively found in Event Shops. Component items are no longer rewarded in combats, but you gain 4 more Gold per combat.

sneakyteak - Start the run with Kevin the Flamingo! If Kevin is placed adjacent to only a single unit, he adopts a random trait from them. Rerolls cost +2 Star Points.

Rhapsody - Whenever your units cast for the third time each combat, they gain a Shield for 30% of their Maximum HP.

KoboldPack - +1 Army Size. The Registrar no longer unlocks Uncommon and Rare units.

GreatMaker - Start the run with a Prismatic Crystal (which can become any Component) and 3 less Gold.

Amalgamation - Start the run with a random Additional Race Trait Point perk. Skip your Level 2 Perk choice.

MayorSilly - Dave's Airship will take you to any location. When you start Act 2, gain 10 Star Points.

Anti6eptik - When you Merge three Tier 1 Units, get a Tier 1 copy of it. Tier 4 Units are not banished from the pool. Units sell for no Star Points.

OldenRites - At the start of combat. your units on Hex Modifiers gain 2 Mana Regen, plus 1 for every other unit on a Hex Modifier. Units on Shadow Strike hexes gain double this effect!

Pedguin - Start the run with the Mythic Unit Cisco and 1 fewer Star Point.

FrostPrime - Start the run with the Mythic Unit Frost and 2 fewer Star Points and Gold.

wanderbot - Start the run with the Mythic Unit Wanderbot and 1 fewer Star Point. 1.4 Patch Notes

General

Recommended Items has been updated for all characters, including a few who had no recommended items listed, all from a list compiled, refined, and submitted by our community.

Added a maximum Damage Resistance of 90%. This should never actually be able to be hit in practice but should there ever be a bug like Knight's again, will at least prevent full invulnerability (and thus causing combat softlocks).

Adjusted Archetype stats: Slightly increased health for Common and Uncommon Fighters, and Rare Tanks.

You can now select fewer than 5 units when using the Book of Banishment.

Disabled the Settings option for Metrics collection. The sample size is no longer sufficient to use Metrics, the community has been driving updates far more, and this saves us a bit of server costs.

Leaders (PVE)

Leader bonus stats: Health set to 30% (nerf from 50%). This will have the largest impact on Act 1's difficulty, making the Leaders slightly easier to take down. It will also impact Brutal 5 specifically as Brutal 5 doubles Leader stat bonuses. Together this should help make Brutal 5's Act 1 a little less "restart until you high roll".

Fearflame Armor - Corrected tooltip to reflect Ignite, not "reduced healing". Pulse damage set to 6% (nerf from 8%)

Doombow Quill - Damage set to 75% AD (nerf from 100%), matching the change to Leachknife Sheathe below.

Necklace of the Darkmage - Mana Regen set to 7% of Max (nerf from 10%).

Units

Khepri - Max mana 80 (buff from 85)

Ragno - Max mana 70 (buff from 75), Shield 220 (buff from 200)

Glitter - Polymorph duration to 2s (nerf from 2.5s), Damage to 240 (nerf from 280).

Sir Sparkles - Armor buff to 20 (buff from 10)

Lightwing - Damage to 160 (nerf from 180)

Sebastian - Max health % damage to 4% (nerf from 5%), but now gains 2 Armor per cast for the rest of combat, up to a cap of 30.

Sanctus - Now always targets 2 allies, and grants 12 Mana (new red value) to the target when healing other allies.

Deshret - Now can't Ward a target that recently revived from Death Ward. Bugfix: Fixed several targeting issues causing Deshret to inconsistently target, and when rarely actually targeting allies with the Ward, would heal for 0 when triggering the Ward.

Baalor - Stun duration to 3s (buff from 2s), Summon duration to 15s (buff from 10s) and Baalor now summons specifically a "Lesser Demon". This will always be a Xaphan, Sparky, or Uro, but without their Trait effects. This makes Baalor significantly more consistent, less prone to bugs, as well as more Demon-thematic.

Elder Reto - Damage to 425 (nerf from 450)

Willow - Pulse damage/healing to 45 (nerf from 50), Final explosion to 225 (nerf from 300)

Ivy - Bugfix: Ivy now properly is manalocked while the shield on herself is active. Ivy has been overperforming and may still need further adjustments, but for now we'll just fix the bug and see where she lies.

Wolfgang - Post-transform mana cost set to 55 (nerf from 40).

Traits

Marksman 2 now fires at the highest-health target, not the one that dealt the most damage.

Bug 1 Damage Resistance set to 15% (buff from 0%, was Bugged!)

Defiler 2 damage amp now 25% (nerf from 30%)

Arcane Spell Power to units who have no enhanced ability (were not originally Arcane) set to +100 (buff from +50)

PVP

PVP Skye's Ballista perk now grants a Tier 4 Ballista (up from Tier 1)

PVP Gemclops damage proc now 50% of Spell Power (up from 25%) to counteract a bugfix that was causing this effect to trigger twice.

Shrine Mage Skillbooks Shilleleigh and Harmony have swapped places to Tier 1 and Tier 2, respectively.

Items

Claws of Haste - 4 attacks at max speed (buff from 3 attacks), but the user is Stifled during this time (and thus can't gain mana)

Vengeful Armaments - Stores 25% of damage dealt (buff from 20%)

Leechknife Sheath - Deals 75% of Attack Damage (nerf from 100%)

Quill - 70 starting mana charge (nerf from 100)

Helm of Hatred - 8s Invulnerability (buff from 7s)

Soulburn Greaves - 1s Ignite trigger cooldown (buff from 2s)

Sealed Scroll - 8% Maximum Mana regained (nerf from 10%)

Infuser - 3x Lifesteal to healing ratio (buff from 2x)

Burndanna - 4% Max Health healing (nerf from 5%)

Recovery Necklace - 7% Max Health healing (buff from 6%)

Brainleech Pendant - Now targets the enemy with the highest Mana Regen.

Forever Scythe - Final stage to 25% Amp & Resist (nerf from 30%)

Mana Bracelet - Renamed to Nael's Bracelet

Misc

Harmony skill (from the Skillbook item) adjusted: 30/60 mana, 6 Attack Speed & Spell Power (from 15/70 mana, 8 stats)

Mana Battery skill (from the Skillbook item) mana distribution changed to 85% base (nerf from 100%).

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue with Claws of Haste's trigger point that could cause it to get multiple activations from a single cast in some cases (notably when Dualcasting, or when the cast is interrupted)

Fixed Pawn's skill Pushing 1 hex.

Fixed an exploit related to Otto's Scepter

Fixed a bug related to Sandbox mode where you could enter it while also being in PVP mode.

Fixed Mushroom Trait stating a 10 Spell Power effect per spore, it is actually 15.

Fixed the Grace perk not checking for tier-up merges after acquiring.

Fixed an exploit related to the Grace perk that could duplicate items.

Fixed Knight's damage resistance buff stacking infinitely.

Fixed an issue with Taunt where if a unit with a friendly-targeted Skill was Taunted, in some cases it could instead affect the taunted enemy

Fixed Healer's mana regen applying globally instead of just to Healers.

Minor text clarification to Sparkles to clarify it affects both itself and the target ally.

Fixed a long-standing issue where the random seed could be bumped upon returning to the main menu, resulting in rerolled perks or other changes. This also fixes an exploit where PVP perk pools could be rerolled.

Fixed an issue involving Doombolt Quill's knives deactivating partway through combat.

Fixed Bulworc's skill stating it blocks 1 attack, when that adjustment never happened. Text is back to saying blocks 2 attacks.

Fixed minor text bug on Run History for pvp season run display

Fixed Run Summary / Run History often showing the state of the army in the fight before the final fight after ending a run.

Fixed an issue with Plush of Vo'do not having a stacking cap.

Fixed an issue where a Tier 4 Morphling would banish any unit it turned into.

Fixed a bug with all 'on stunned / crowd controlled' triggers (notably PVP Gemclops) triggering when stun or CC wears off in addition to being applied.

Potential fix for a rare bug that can cause a unit to be permanently stunned.

Fixed PVP Gemclops damage being listed as Uncategorized in recap.

Fixed Pink Dragonkin perk not re-adding reroll costs on load when continuing.

Fixed an issue with Potion Belt perk causing it to not load properly when continuing.

Fixed an issue with PVP seasons not being able to use the Laboratory table, instead showing an invalid icon that said "Report to Devs"

Fixed being able to use Gera's Weaponized Rainbowslime on an enemy during the encounter spawning process.

Fixed PVP Enemy Circus Performers not gaining their bonus stats.

Fixed enemy Baa'lor units not stunning your Units.

Fixed PVP Cactus Nymph not scaling per item equipped, and applying the effect to both armies.

Fixed Mage stage II always Stifling one of your Units in addition to the enemy team.

Fixed an issue where unequipped items could stay seen under the health bar in specific, rare cases.

Fixed Gold/SP/XP per combat changes not being seen in the combat rewards preview.

Fixed Stormy Skies book being stopped by CC immunity.

Hey adventurers!

It's that time of the year again - the Steam Summer Sale is here and Tales & Tactics is joining in with a massive 70% OFF discount!

If you've been waiting for the perfect time to give the game a shot, this is it. And here's what makes your timing even better, you're getting ALL the improvements and content from the huge For The Fans update from last month! For those who might have missed it, we're talking major quality-of-life improvements, new features, and a bunch of community requested changes. It feels like a whole new game in the best possible way.

You guys have always shown us so much love and support and we can't even begin to describe how much we appreciate it. We're hoping Tales & Tactics finds some new homes during the Summer Sale and that everyone who plays enjoys the experience.

P.S., While you're here, our lovely publishers (this is definitely not someone from Yogscast Games writing this) have a bunch of their other titles on sale during the Steam Summer Sale, you should totally check them out.

⭐ Highlights of the update include:

• New Unlock / Component Item - The Scythe!
• New "Brutal" difficulty levels - ready for even more of a challenge?
• New Bonus Traits, new Perks, new Combatants!
• Test strategies in the highly-requested Sandbox Mode!
• Adapt to new metas in 2-week rotating PvP Seasons!
• Battle friends in custom PvP Lobbies!
• Tuning & polish across lots of traits, units, and items!
• Two new supported languages - Russian and Korean - provided by our community members Anti6eptik and Nyamnami. Thank you!

❗IMPORTANT: Unreal Engine Upgrade

⭐ Highlights of the update include:

• New Unlock / Component Item - The Scythe!
• New "Brutal" difficulty levels - ready for even more of a challenge?
• New Bonus Traits, new Perks, new Combatants!
• Test strategies in the highly-requested Sandbox Mode!
• Adapt to new metas in 2-week rotating PvP Seasons!
• Battle friends in custom PvP Lobbies!
• Tuning & polish across lots of traits, units, and items!
• Two new supported languages - Russian and Korean - provided by our community members Anti6eptik and Nyamnami. Thank you!

❗IMPORTANT: Unreal Engine Upgrade

🏕️ Camp Yog Sale

What's included:

• Amazing discounts on our published games
• Sneak peeks at upcoming releases
• Free demos to try

Shared Mode Features

New Component - The Scythe

• (+Gloves) Leeching Grasp: On Hit: Heal 25 HP. This is a reskin and switch of recipes for the Blessed Blade, which still has Lifesteal but now adds an additional Attack Speed scaling Healing aspect.
• (+Sword) Whispering Blade: Whenever the wearer deals ANY damage, they gain 0.5% Attack Damage, up to a cap.
• (+Shield) Helm of Hatred: Start of combat: Lose 50% max HP, then become invulnerable for 7 seconds.
• (+Crystal) Brainleech Pendant: Start of combat; Psy-Link to the furthest foe. Steal 20 Mana and 2 Mana Regen from them.
• (+Staff) Reaper's Tome: Whenever the wearer heals allies for a total of 300 HP, they gain 10 Spell Power (up to 100).
• (+Meat) Vengeful Armament: Store 20% of Health lost. Whenever the wearer casts, deal the stored damage to adjacent enemies as Spell damage.
• (+Ring) The Forever Scythe: After:
  • 8 seconds: Gain 20% more Lifesteal.
  • 16 seconds: And a 50% max HP Shield.
  • 32 seconds: And 30% Damage Amp and Damage Resist.
• (+Scythe) Infuser: Healing from Lifesteal does not heal the wearer. Instead, it charges up the Infuser. Every 3 seconds, all stored healing is sent to the most damaged allied unit.

PvE Features

New Difficulty Tiers - Brutal 1-5

New Bonus Traits & More Bonus Trait Units

• Pack - The Pack trait is the most straightforward we’ve ever made, and quite possibly the most powerful - it simply adds +1 Max Army Size so long as you meet the stage requirements. Enjoy bigger armies than we’ve ever allowed before!
• Corrupted - The Corrupted trait involves the Curse mechanic, granting extra Corrupted Units at the end of each combat, but at the cost of raising your Curse. Use it as an early splash for an economy trait, or take to its 2nd stage at the late game, where all of your Tier 4 Units gain significant power.

• Zwei - now Divine.
• Gibbs - now Arcane. Gibbs’ Enlightened modifier shares his entire skill effect to all adjacent allies!
• Morita - now Trickster.
• Button, Mikki, Willow - now Blood.
• Fester - now Aquatic.
• Gale - now Royal.
• Gorzak - now Spirit.
• Jabbar - now Storm.
• Ian - now Flame.

• Dark Depths - You no longer gain Units from the Corrupted Trait. Instead, Corrupted units gain +3% Damage Amp and Damage Resistance per Curse.
• Pack Master - Pack units gain +200 Base Max HP per unused Army Size.

New PvE Perks

• Pack 1 - Meta
  • Grace - Instantly Tier Up your units to Tier 3.
  • Cull - Instantly Banish 12 random units.
  • Loads of Candy - Gain 20 Star Points. You don’t gain a free Reroll each combat.
• Pack 2 - Power
  • Jumpers - Whenever one of your units moves, it gets +3 Attack Speed for the rest of combat.
  • Exploit - Whenever your units attack Crowd Controlled foes, they gain 3 Mana.
  • Tombstone - Whenever one of your units dies, it gives the lowest health ally a Shield for 20% of its max health and 20 Mana.

Sandbox Mode

Revived & New PvE Combatants

• Always Available
  • Dust Devil - All Units' Attack Range is halved this combat.
  • Doomsayer - 20 seconds into combat, a meteor impact Stuns ALL Units for 5 seconds and deals 250 Spell Damage.
• Combatant Unlock Pack 3
  • Shapeshifter - At the start of combat, the lowest Tier Unit on each side permanently transforms into a Unit of the same rarity and Tiers Up.
  • Morphologist - At the start of combat, the lowest Tier Unit on each side permanently transforms into a Unit of one higher rarity.
  • Wanderer - At the start of combat, a random Tier 1 Rare Unit joins each side, permanently.
  • Goblin Goofballs - At the start of combat, each team's highest Tier Unit is sold for 4x its Star Point value.

Shadow Strike Rework

• City - Current 50% HP loss.
• Tournament - Hobbled & Shredded for the entire combat.
• Desert - Frozen for 15 seconds.
• Factory - Loses 5% of HP every second for 20 seconds.
• Cavern - Stifled for the entire combat.
• Lab - Permanently transforms into a unit of the same rarity & tier.
• Graveyard - Grants 10% Damage Amp for the opposing team.

PvP Features

Unranked Removal

Rotating Season Mode

• A random Region being chosen as the place to play this Season, including activating its Region modifier!
• A random Trait ban
• A random Component item ban
• A random Perk group banned (such as Otto being banned)
• 8 Combatants banned

New PvP Combatants

• Cool Cultist - You can see all Mythic units in the Unit Store. Start with a random Common Mythic instead of a Common Unit.
• Alli-gladiator - Your Skirmisher Archetype units gain 15 Attack Speed.
• Rogue Tinkerer - Start the run with a Portable Forge, which can remove and unmerge Equipment from your units.
• Wandering Wizard - Your Magician Archetype units gain 20 Spell Power.
• Lane Bully - When you win, increase your WinStreak. When you lose, gain rewards based on your WinStreak.
• Geomancer - Your Tank Archetype units gain 10 Armor.
• Slime Farmer - Your Vault becomes the Star Crown Vault this run. Start the run with the Vault already invested in.
• Guard Captain - Start with three Contracts for specific Units of increasing rarities. They earn SP & Gold when completed.
• Dastardly Desperado - Start with an extra random component item.
• Circus Performer - Your units gain 3 Attack Speed and Spell Power for each unique Trait you've completed a combat with.
• Gob Barker - Each fight, guess who wins! If you guess correctly, earn 2 Star Point if you won or 5 if your foe did.
• Arbiter - Your Units without active Traits gain +30% Attack Damage, +20 Armor and 8 Mana Regen.
• Grave Keeper - Start with the unique item 'Reaper' instead of a Component. It levels up every time 20 Units die. Grave Keeper’s other component will always be a Scythe.
• Doomsayer - When you have 1 Heart left, gain 10 Star Points, 8 Gold, and two random Components.
• Cactus Nymph - Your units deal 10 Spell Damage back when attacked for each equipped item.
• Dust Devil - Your Units move faster. When they move, they gain 25% damage reduction and 25 Attack Speed for 5 seconds.
• Golem Guardian - After combat, if you have no Units on the Bench, gain 4 Star Points.
• Gorgon - Your first Unit to be attacked 15 times gains Stoneskin, which grants +20 Armor and +25% Max HP.
• Disciple of Trollgar - Non-free rolls of the Unit Store will include one Tier 2 unit.
• Assistotron - Gain a random Tier 2 Uncommon at the start of the run, equipped with the Commitment Badge. The Commitment Badge occupies an item slot and cannot be removed, and also makes the Unit unable to be transformed, sold, or benched. It is a hard commitment to include that unit in your Army, in exchange for a powerful early game advantage.
• Gemclops - Whenever your units apply Crowd Control, they deal 25% Spell Power damage to the target.
• Priest of Adalon - Your Tier 3 and higher Units get +30% Maximum Health.
• Rogue Rustbot - After each Perk room, sell ALL your units for twice their SP value, then gain 10 free rerolls.
• Debonair Scientist - Gain the Hex Mod Star Extractor. A unit there loses 50% of their HP, but grants you SP based on their Tier.
• Clean Machine - Your front two columns become healing Spring hexes.
• The Wanderer - Start with a random Rare replacing three Units.
• Goblin Goofballs - Goof off! Start the run at the first Perk selection with -2 Lives, 22 SP, 24 Gold, 5 Rerolls, and a random Banner.

PvP Combatant Updates

• Unlucky Lass is reworked - Now starts with 2 Lucky Charms, and gets another Lucky Charm at each perk choice. The former Lass effect was too little a reward for the build-around, and we’ve introduced a new more effective “traitless” build around combatant.
• Eager Newbie now grants 6 Star Points instead of 4 SP + 2 Lucky Clovers. Overperforming slightly and overly similar to the reworked Unlucky Lass. Now makes the effect extra simple for new players as well, which was the Newbie’s original intent.
• Star Student has been reworked. When your Units cast, they gain 25 Spell Power and require 10% more mana to cast. Hasn’t been a very impactful choice you can build around. With no stacking limit on this new effect, breaking it can lead to some very unique builds.
• Death Wing Disciple’s Ritual hex now grants 40% of the sacrificed unit’s Max HP to allies (down from 75%). Overperforming.
• Bad Necromancer’s Zombie health increased: 33% -> 40% of Highest Health Unit’s HP. Slightly underperforming.
• Fallen Fanatic: Now also adds a 5% max hp (additive with items, not base HP) to all Units. This is a very small buff, but maybe enough to bring up Fanatic’s pick rate.
• Shapeshifter & Taskmaster: Now present their Banners during the character selection process, but it replaces a component.
• Sludge Captain: Now places the Mud tokens in your front two columns, but also makes your team immune to Hobbled and Shredded. In order to resolve some issues involving cases where the player’s combatant places tokens on the enemy board, and the enemy’s combatant placing tokens on their board, we’ve reworked PVP combatants to only place tokens on their own side. This affects Sludge Captain and Brightmage.
• Brightmage reworked. At the start of combat, and every 8 seconds after, all enemies are Ignited for 3 seconds. The immunity to Ignite was added to offset your Units walking into the Ember tokens, but it turned out to be strong enough to be an entire combat modifier effect itself. This new version keeps the general theme but without the side effects.

New PvP Perk Pools

• Shrine Mage - The Shrine Mage deals in niche Skillbooks, the same found in the PvE Guild Hall event. Each stage offers two Skillbooks, advancing in power the later in the run you approach him. If you don’t find an offering that fits your current build, the third option for each level is a more generically useful choice.
• Rhapsody - The resident Tournament Bard deals in a wide variety of benefits, but often not one that will fit your exact current build as it stands. Pivoting is their specialty! You might find Skillbooks, Mythic units, or passive power that requires different compositions or positioning.

Custom Lobby Mode

Tuning & Polish

Units

• Monty: “Special Stats” now includes -10 Attack Speed. Monty’s been a little too good of a ranged carry thanks to that unlimited Attack Range. It needed a small additional penalty in exchange for that passive, and we didn’t want to hit the skill any more as it’s already not terribly strong.
• Lurch: Starting Mana buffed: 0/110 -> 30/110. This should ensure Lurch gets at least one of those massive powerhouse casts off, making him a slightly more valued pick.
• Vex: Hex duration reduced: 5 seconds -> 4 seconds. Damage slightly increased, 50 -> 60. Vex has been providing a little too much utility and shutdown power for enemy casters.
• Deadhead: Mana buffed: 40/80 -> 20/60. In addition, Deadhead now gains his bonus Mana if the target dies for any reason while casting, not only if slain by his specific Spell Damage. While Deadhead has had carry potential, there’s been too large of a vector between chaining casts and non-chained casts. These changes should help with that - we’ll continue to keep an eye on Deadhead’s effectiveness after these changes.
• Spindleton: Reworked. Skill now deals Physical damage once instead of Spell damage over time. Spindleton has a new passive which grants bonus Attack Speed when attacking Hobbled or Slowed targets. Spindleton has been one of the major outliers in the Unit pool for some time as a unit whose Skill didn’t synergize with its Archetype. Why was an Attacker using solely spell damage and CC? Now, Spindleton should work as a potential AD carry and even open up a potential Hobble setup alongside Grundy.
• Lightwing: Power slightly reduced. 200 Damage / 100 Shield -> 180 Damage / 90 Shield. See Fae Trait section - trading some Lightwing power into Fae Trait.
• Nimbus: Attack speed bonus while skill active reduced to 30 (from 40). Slightly overperforming.
• Wolfgang: Armor gain when transforming reduced: 15 -> 10. Max Mana increased: 90 -> 100. Wolfgang has been a standout unit for his ability to crush teams as both a backliner, a frontliner, a burst source and a tank. His skill has been too all-round; removing some Armor and increasing the time stuck as an archer should help, and a Max Mana increase also increases time to the next rush.
• Turbo: Damage Reduction reduced to 50% (was 60%). Slightly overbuilt; also the unit that benefits the most from the changes to Bug II as a tank.
• Khepri: Max Mana increased to 85 (was 80). Khepri was overperforming slightly; however, a bugfix regarding the bonus damage’s duration will also be hitting his power, so only a tiny amount of change was done for this patch.
• Gale: Max Mana increased to 90 (was 70). Starting Mana increased by 20 to match. Heavily overperforming as an attack carry due to having an extremely powerful skill alongside ideal attack-carry traits. Adding some extra Mana cost should allow enemy teams to better take down Gale before she becomes a tornado once again.
• Spiritfang: Damage and healing per Spectral Sword increased to 80 (was 75). Slight buff to a relatively awkward unit. We’re still happy with Spiritfang’s identity as a leeching SP-wanting Vanguard, but the lack of scaling means that a little more power is needed. This is a small buff, but it does add up since multiple swords are launched.

Traits

• Scrapper Trait: Combo hit slightly reduced: 10% of Max HP -> 8%. Scrappers have been just a little too consistently above average across the board. Not by much, but just enough to try to prevent the next “post-Marksman/Dweller” meta being instantly the Scrapper meta.
• Beast Trait: Frenzy slightly reduced: 20 Attack Speed -> 15. Stage II’s Bite damage reduced to 250% of Attack Damage (was 300%). Beast Stage I has been a little too potent being both a very good global as well as a sizable stat buff for Beasts. Stage II, in addition, has been completely dominating Multiplayer at higher ranks where the massive hits of the stage II Bite is compounded with other damage-increase effects to oneshot foes with basic attacks. A slight touch to both sides will hopefully mean Beast is no longer top tier.
• Marksman Trait: Stage I Damage Amp reduced to 10% (from 15%). Stage II Arrow shots reduced to 80% AD & SP (from 100%), and bonus Range reduced to +1 (from +3). Additionally, Stunned or otherwise incapacitated Marksmen will no longer fire their Arrow. Marksman II has been a standout strong trait since the stage II rework. The Range reduction in particular is a sizable change to their ability to destroy enemy carries, because the Marksmen would often stick to the special arrow target and continue to auto attack them down. That is still possible, but requires positioning the Marksmen unit closer to the front, putting them at higher risk of taking splash damage from AoEs. In addition to these changes, a larger blanket fix to special Trait and Item effects targeting Invisible units should allow for a few more counters with items such as Invisibility effects. In addition, Marksman I has been noted as slightly overpowered; the Dummy’s utility power was overwhelmed by the amount of Damage Amp provided by the trait. Reining in both sides will help Marksmen needing items to reach their full power.
• Fae Trait: Mana Fairy slightly buffed: 20 Spell Power -> 30. Fae is just performing a tad low overall, mostly being carried by Lightwing shenanigans. We’re trading some Lightwing power into the Fae trait itself.
• Dweller Trait: Damage Resistance removed from Stage I. Stage II now grants Geogukk 20% Damage Amp. Dwellers received this Damage Resistance buff to give the Units themselves something to look forward to instead of Geogukk getting all the Trait’s power, but Geo’s targeting and skill have since improved and running the trait main has been exceptionally good. We’ve found that Stage II is frequently employed, but fewer armies opt to move to Stage II, so adding Damage Amp will hopefully allow Geogukk to participate better in lategame combats where his stats are just a little outpaced currently.
• Reptile Trait: Most stats slightly reduced. Attack speed unchanged, Lifesteal slightly increased. Elder Reto’s bonus changed from Mana Regen to Starting Mana (20). Stage II grants Reptile units an additional +100% of their specific value (500% total). Reto’s 2 Mana Regen was a little too much, but a nerf to 1 would be too much of one. Mana Regen therefore isn’t a suitable stat for this since it has too small of values to be tunable, so we replaced it with Starting Mana. The general power level for a given Reptile buff has proven to be suitable at around 80% of a Component’s power, so we’ve balanced the stats around that general benchmark. Stage II was slightly underbuilt, so we’ve given it another shock of power to hopefully inject more play.
• Bug Trait: Stage II Swarm damage changed from a flat 75 damage to 3% of the struck foes’ Max Health. An almost unplayable trait due to dealing extremely low flat damage late into the game, when units have thousands of health. Now, Bug II should be a much stronger, deadly late game trait that can shred units down in seconds.
• Orc Trait: Stage II bonus Damage Resist buffed: 30% Damage Resist -> 35%. Slightly underbuilt and low impact - this should help Orc carries stay alive just a little longer when Stage II is active.
• Mythic Trait: Valor slightly buffed: 10% Damage Amp and Resist -> 12%. Mana Regen granted to Mythics in Mythic II buffed: 4 Mana Regen -> 6. Slightly underused, particularly in Multiplayer. In particular, this change is angled towards improving the success of strategies that use two or more Mythics, where the Valor stacking means this change is more impactful and the Mana Regen goes much further.
• Elemental Trait: Stage II now grants 500 Max Health (was 400). Slight adjustment to improve play rate.
• Horror Trait: Horrifying Tentacles created by Stage II now have the stats of an Uncommon unit (was Common). Tentacles typically spawned and then immediately died without contributing much to the fight. By having more health and slightly more damage, this should notably improve their power and mean more Horror II builds.
• Treefolk Trait: Treefolk II now causes Treefolk to start combat with two additional stacks of Sprout. Slightly underbuilt; in addition, the proliferation of Ignite has meant permanent Regen as a Stage II is unsatisfying, particularly in Multiplayer. Adding some pure stat value should mean the Regen is more powerful and the trait is more enticing.

Items

• Magicannon Equipment: Now applies Shock. Shock does nothing at first, but after ten hits, all Shock is consumed to deal a gargantuan 250 Spell Damage (increased by Spell Power)! Magicannon was an underbuilt equipment, as on-Hit units and Attack Speed carries often had better uses for the item slot. Now, there should be additional excitement, increased power and more output from increasing Spell Power on its owners.
• Emergency Chicken Equipment: Now Stifles all enemies within 2 hexes for 5 seconds when the Chicken spawns. Low usage rate, similar to Magicannon - in addition, Stifle was underrepresented in the item pool. This should make Emergency Chicken a little more of a burst counter. Stifling the enemy team means the Chicken provides more utility than just being a damage soak distraction.
• Wicked Khopesh renamed and rethemed to Wicked Slasher. To avoid confusion with the new Scythe items, which have a similar shape and theme.
• Spiked Gauntlets Equipment: Reworked. “The first time the wearer attacks each enemy in each combat, deal +100% damage, interrupt, and Shred for 5 seconds.” While this item had been performing fine, it provides too much variance to combats, particularly in the context of PVP - fights could be lost or won by crit RNG in ways that are ultimately not healthy for the game. Spiked Gauntlets should still remain a powerful choice for Attack carries that plan to burst down each enemy in the opponent’s team, it just does so in a more consistent manner.
• Shock Pendant Equipment: Now triggers 12 times total per combat (from 15). Small adjustment to make the item slightly less potent in late game combats, it has been slightly over performing for tank Equipment, particularly when building multiple of them.
• Superior Spear Equipment: Minor buff, 25% AD -> 30% Small adjustment to bump the item’s usage up a little.
• Edan’s Blade Equipment: Now grants 15 Mana. Slight adjustment to buff the item’s build rate and make it a little more tempting for Burst Caster carries.
• Orb of Everything: No longer adds Lifesteal. This item was a little overperforming and Lifesteal is now the Scythe’s domain.

Misc

• Morphling Unit: Can now only field one Morphling. The original intention of Morphling was to get a duplicate unit that counted for Traits, but without a restriction such as this, it became too easy to put in a single unit surrounded by Morphlings and reach multiple Tier 2 traits with ease.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a major issue that was causing many sources of Shred to reduce Armor to 0 instead of by 50%.
• Fixed a frame-perfect input that would cause a Unit to become “stuck to your hand”, not releasing when letting go of left click. This would have been more visible and apparent on players running on lower FPS but was possible to see at 60 FPS.
• Fixed Abandon Ship causing the same issue as above if you currently had a unit held and being dragged the moment an automatic sell was happening elsewhere.
• Fixed a great deal of issues where game content would pull up keywords that weren't actually used.
• Fixed several issues where units wouldn't trigger their On Cast procs.
• Fixed a variety of game typos or incorrect text in-game.
• Fixed a bug where the Adaptive Scrappers perk granted SP instead of the intended Attack Speed.
• Fixed an issue where units could instantaneously balloon to 400 Attack Speed using certain item combinations.
• Fixed issues with some units having no Recommended Items.
• Fixed issues where Aquatic 2 wasn’t dealing damage to enemies.
• Fixed issues where debug visual effects persisted into gameplay when using the Bug and Ghoul traits.
• Fixed issues with pre-combat warnings getting disabled if the Tutorial was ran in the same session.
• Fixed an issue where the Triple Wielding bonus had no effect.
• Fixed an issue where, in certain situations, units Ignited by Magma hexes would still heal normally.
• Fixed a rare issue where event rooms could cause Devil’s Deal prompts.
• Fixed an issue where the Fusion Gem consumable’s results didn’t respect unlocks (could grant a Ring-merged item even with Ring disabled)
• Fixed an issue where items purchased in the shop would continue to ban that item for all future rerolls in the same shop instance, instead of only for the next reroll in that shop.
• Fixed an issue where many ‘special effects’ such as arrows from Marksman II could target Invisible enemies or foes in Stasis.
• Fixed an issue where Willow’s skill would only deal damage to foes in a 1-hex radius (was intended to be 2-hex).
• Fixed many difficulty options being missing from Custom difficulty mode.
• Fixed Custom difficulty mode buttons having an incredibly small hitbox to mouse over to read the effects of the difficulty setting.
• Fixed an issue where a blue debug box could be rendered on the UI in some cases (usually only spotted when the main menu first loads)
• Fixed Magnetic Remover being able to be used on a Unit with no items, consuming it.
• Fixed several specialty traits like the Hydra’s head effect appearing in the Compendium.
• Rebuilt Run History logic such that it can be generated when abandoning a run from the main menu.
• Fixed Run History errors related to PVP (sometimes not showing the Rank)
• Fixed a damage calculation issue with Wanderbot’s skill that could cause it to to get astronomical damage numbers with the right setups.
• Fixed Gob Barker missing a keyword link for ‘Traps’.
• Compendium, when viewed in the Main Menu, now shows all Unit Bonus Traits. When viewing in a run, it still will only show active Bonus Traits.
• Fixed Instant Start button not remembering if your last chosen character was Random.
• Fixed Reptile’s Lifesteal bonus only lasting for the first combat a given Unit participated in.
• Fixed an issue with Skillbook: Mana Battery not properly distributing mana among allied units.
• Fixed an issue where Stifle was not considered Crowd Control by some effects.
• Fixed Withervine Potion not being usable against enemies immune to Crowd Control.
• Fixed an issue where the Shop idle VO lines would trigger immediately on entering a shop instead of being properly delayed.
• Fixed an issue where, when loading a run, any slots in the Unit Store that were cursed will re-trigger a Doom increment.
• Fixed an issue where loading a run could load the stored Doom value twice, resulting in doubling it.
• Fixed an issue with Unit targeting regarding tiebreakers, which could cause inconsistency when picking between two adjacent, in-range Units. (thanks to Naelhinn and csdavis for some extremely specific case testing to find this issue)
• Fixed an issue where PVP fight sends were not including Item data beyond the 3rd slot.
• Fixed an issue that was causing Khepri’s bonus damage from his Skill to last 25% longer than intended.
• Fixed self-damage effects triggering Lifesteal.
• Fixed another issue that could cause Shred-O-Matic to leave Stasis before its Conduits are destroyed.
• Fixed an issue with the Golden Desert region modifier that could cause units already Stunned to be permastunned when hit by the Twister.
• Fixed an issue with Morphling that could cause the unit it was copying to become banished if Morphling themselves tiers up to tier 4, instead of banishing Morphling.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a Unit, if it targeted a Unit on the first moment of combat who then immediately when invisible or died on the same frame, to get stuck and be unable to target any other units for the rest of combat.
• Fixed Mage-Hand Hurl skill grabbing two friendly units instead of the declared 1 unit.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Flash’s Skill hitboxes to be absurdly tiny, causing them to miss many enemies.
• Fixed a bug that allowed certain combats with the Museum Curator combatant to allow it to have one more unit than intended.

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