The Ember Guardian news & patch notes

Hi Emberlings!

We found a couple more bugs hidden in the latest patch, so we're releasing another small hotfix to address them. Thank you to anyone that's taken the time to report them, whether it's here on Steam, on our Discord, or anywhere else!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the German Shepherd would not use its dig ability.

• Fixed a bug where the Fire overlay UI would remain visible and not update across the game in Horde Mode.

• Fixed a bug where resetting Horde Progression with a non-default base layout wouldn't correctly reset your base layout.

• Fixed a bug where the Orb Alchemist would offer wrong wares after the player saved and loaded back into a game.

Thank you again for your support and for playing The Ember Guardian.

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hi Emberlings!

We're putting out a small patch today as some issues were highlighted in the wake of last week's patch. Check out the full list of changes below!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where players wouldn't be able to save in the middle of a Horde Mode run.

• Fixed a bug where red orbs would still drop in Horde Mode, even after the Crimson Alchemist was removed from the player's camp.

• Fixed a bug where enemies could leave the combat area after the player triggered an Ambush Chest, which could lead to a softlock.

Other

We mistakenly reported in the announcement post last week that B4RK-9 would be unlocked after completing the Corrupted Core level. This was a mistake, as B4RK-9 actually unlocks after completing the following level, Corrupted Heart. We apologise for the confusion this caused, and the original Steam post has been edited accordingly.

Thank you for your continued support and for playing The Ember Guardian!

Stay fiery! 🔥

From the ruins of the corrupted city, it awakened. Driven by long-forgotten directives, it finds you. Under your command, it will fulfil its purpose.

Hi there Emberlings!

We have an exciting new update for The Ember Guardian today. Read on to find out about all the changes in version 1.2.0!

New Dog: B4RK-9

B4RK-9 is a mechanical hound, crafted by an unknown artificer with technology beyond your reach. This new dog is ideal for spending long days exploring the wastes, with its Overclock Pulse ability increasing your mobility, as well as its ability to craft ammunition when you're far from your base. It's also equipped with a missile launcher that will track and shoot down aerial enemies, to keep the skies clear while you focus on grounded targets.

B4RK-9 is unlocked in the "Corrupted Heart" level, and will be retroactively awarded to all players that have completed that level already. We hope you enjoy exploring the ruins of civilisation alongside your new companion!

Edit: The announcement previously said that B4RK-9 would be unlocked after "Corrupted Core", which was incorrect. Sorry about the confusion!

Gameplay Changes

We've adjusted Horde Mode's camp budget as the current numbers ended up feeling too restrictive.

• Increased Initial Max Camp Budget to 100 (was 90)

• Increased Camp Budget Upgrades to 15 (was 10)

Optimisation Changes

We've spent a lot of time on optimisation for this patch, and players should be seeing roughly 30% less memory usage after this patch. We hope this helps keep your Ember Guardian experience as smooth as it can be!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the negative damage modifier from some weapons' alternate firing modes would carry over & stack between levels.

• Fixed a bug where a loud electrical noise would sometimes play upon starting a level.

• Fixed a bug where the player would sometimes be able to access the Crimson Alchemist and Masked Dealers' shops without paying the first time each day.

• Fixed a bug where multiple structures would become uncompletable due to only the first resource slot being able to be filled.

• Fixed a bug where Engineer AI would sometimes lead them to get stuck refilling a structure.

• Fixed a bug where controller navigation would behave incorrectly in multiple merchant menus.

• Fixed a bug where the Horde Mode Gun Merchant's menu would auto scrolling when selecting secondary abilities with a controller.

• Fixed a bug where the wrong ammo type was being displayed for the revolver in the Armorer's shop.

• Fixed a bug where game resolution would not default to the screen's native resolution.

• Increased text size of resolution setting options.

• Increased size of text on weapon slots in tab menu.

Alongside this patch, we're also happy to say that The Ember Guardian is taking part in Tacticon, and will be on sale to celebrate this event! It's the perfect occasion to grab the game and explore the latest update!

Thank you all for supporting The Ember Guardian, and we hope to see you in the wastes soon!

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hi there Emberlings!

We're happy to say that The Ember Guardian is now Steam Deck Verified!

You can now take The Ember Guardian on the go, for all your wanderlust needs! Ideal if you need to walk your dog, or go scavenge the nearby grocery store for supplies!

Speaking of dogs... We've been working on the next update, and will have more news to share very soon.

Thank you again for your support, and stay fiery!

🔥

Hello there Emberlings!

We're happy to present the first major update for The Ember Guardian today: the Firepower Update! This update adds a slew of options for dispatching Darklings, as well as multiple QoL and balancing fixes. Read on to find out more!

Gameplay Changes

New Weapon Abilities

Did you ever dream about a fully automatic Shotgun? Want to feel like a Wild West pistolero with bullets ricocheting between foes? Or simply crave dangerously large explosions? Visit the Armorer today and make your dreams come true!

Each weapon now has a new alternate fire mode! These can be unlocked at the Armorer, just like the existing options, and the Armorer will also let you switch between alternate fire modes before heading into a level. Just like the original cast, these upgrades cost 5 red gems and cannot be refunded.

• Rifle: Charged Shot

  • Charges shots to deal 2.5x damage, but greatly reduces fire rate.

• SMG: Toxic Rounds

  • Fires poisoned bullets with reduced direct damage.

• Shotgun: Assault Breach

  • Switches the shotgun to automatic fire, improving range, spread and rate of fire while reducing damage.

• Sniper: Piercing Charge

  • Charge shots that pierce through up to 2 additional enemies.

• LMG: Hip Barrage

  • Increases fire rate while hip-firing, but reduces accuracy and range.

• Revolver: Ricochet Chamber

  • Bullets ricochet between enemies, but deal reduced damage.

• Pistol: Blast Rounds

  • Bullets explode on impact, but deal reduced direct damage.

• AA Cannon: Proximity Mines

  • Fire mines that explode when enemies approach.

• Grenade Launcher: Chain Payload

  • Fires 3 small grenades in rapid succession instead of a single grenade, but reduces damage.

• Rocket Launcher: Siege Payload

  • Charges a massive heavy rocket that deals 2x damage.

• Assault Rifle: Tracker Rounds

  • Fires homing bullets, but reduces damage.

• Minigun: Firestorm Payload

  • Fires explosive rocket-like projectiles with increased range, but slower cooldown.

As part of this update, poison has also been reworked. The damage over time effect now stacks with subsequent applications, but upfront damage has been reduced.

Quality of Life Changes

A second target dummy has been added to the hub, for all your anti-air weapon testing needs!

Bug Fixes

• The AA gun sub-projectiles now have a minimum delay before exploding, preventing multiple explosions on the same creature.

• Fixed the tooltip for the AA Cannon’s sub explosives upgrade displaying the wrong text & numbers.

• Fixed a bug where kills weren't properly being tracked for the "Sanctified Ground" Achievement.

• Fixed a bug on the Weapon Selection buttons where the ammo type icon would not update when selecting a new weapon.

• Fixed a bug where the German Shepherd would detect an ambush that had already been cleared previously after the player saved and loaded back in the level.

We hope you enjoy trying out all these new weapons, and we'll see you out there in the wasteland!

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hi Emberlings,

It's been a month since we released The Ember Guardian, and we've been both humbled and awestruck at the reception our little game has received. Now that the game is in a good state and we've had some time to breathe, we wanted to take a moment to look back and share some numbers with you guys!

Since The Ember Guardian released, we've had:

We couldn't be more grateful for all of you. Whether you played for 10 minutes or 100 hours, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We also want to reassure you: we might have slowed down the patch cadence, but we're far from done! We have more content in the works, and we're committed to making The Ember Guardian the best it can be.

See you in the wastes, and stay fiery!

🔥

Hello Emberlings!

We've taken some time to work on some long-requested QoL changes, and we used this opportunity to fix a few bugs in the process! Read on to find out what's new in The Ember Guardian!

Gameplay changes

• Guard survivability improvements:

  • Guards now head back to safety when they reach less than 30% health. When back at full health, they head back outside to defend.

  • Health refills over time at a rate of .3/s.

• You can now reassign hunters at dusk & at night ! Doing so will prioritise hunters that are still on the ground, before giving orders to ungarrison to hunters in towers. Careful, this could cause your hunters to put themselves in danger !

• Added a new upgrade at the Architect, allowing to increase number of Orb Processor slots by 1.

• Added Special Ammo and Regular Ammo icons for weapons in the inventory and the Armorer's UI.

Balance changes

• Minigun : We're increasing the Minigun's DPS again, since it was still a bit lackluster. We've also adjusted the Ammo type for it from Normal to Special Ammo.

  • Rate of fire at Maximum Spin Rate : 0.12s → 0.1s.

  • Fixed bug where minigun cooldown upgrades were not applied. To apply them, please refund the minigun upgrades and buy them again.

  • Lowered Movement speed when holding minigun : 85% → 80%

  • Lowered Movement speed when reloading minigun : 85% → 80%

• Orb Extractor (drill)

  • Time to extract 1 orb (with engineer) : 26s→ 21s

  • Probability to extract big orb : 30% → 40%

  • Probability to extract small orb : 70% → 60%

• Trap buffs

  • Bear trap damage 30 → 60

  • Bear trap max rearms before breaking 1 → 3

  • Blade trap damage 10 → 20

  • Blade trap max rearms before breaking 1 → 3

  • Spike ejector damage 20 → 30

  • Spike ejector max rearms before breaking 1 → 3

  • Spikes damage 5 → 10

  • Spikes Durability 20 → 50

  • Fire ejector damage 5 → 10

  • Fire ejector cost 3 → 2

  • Fire ejector max rearms before breaking 1 → 3

  • Shocker ejector damage 5 → 10

  • Shocker ejector max rearms before breaking 1 → 3

Optimisation

• Reduced amount of light sources to improve performance.

• Disabled multiple redundant physics detection triggers between objects, leading to large performance improvements when many objects are active.

• Adjusted the volume of objects' spatial sound, leading to small performance improvements when lots of objects are active.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where projectiles targeting workers would target their feet instead of their body.

• Fixed a bug where minigun cooldown upgrades would not apply.

• Fixed a bug where reassigning hunters to the opposite side would not clear their assigned hunting animal, leading to hunters going idle during the day.

• Fixed multiple bugs where engineers would remain stuck under an engineer tower without reloading it.

• Fixed a bug where creatures would stop dropping red orbs when loading a game.

• Horde Mode: Fixed a bug where loading a game would respawn the initial emberling camps.

• Horde Mode: Fixed a bug where loading a game would reinitialize animal spawners.

• Fixed a bug where Rocket launcher and AA Cannon sub-projectiles would deal contact damage to creatures.

• Fixed a bug where talking to an NPC before lighting the fire would get rid of the "pause" icon in the top left, without actually resuming time. The Icon should now properly remain.

• Fixed a bug where a player and an engineer interacting with an item at the same time could lead to issues. The player now properly has priority.

• Fixed a bug where engineers rearming traps would play sounds globally.

• Fixed a bug where sounds would sometimes play globally when orbs and/or ammo were added into structures.

Known Issues

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Rebinding the Y button on a controller can lead to the weapon refund failing.

• Barricades may sometimes become unrepairable.

• Skills may sometimes stay selected even when the player isn't in a menu, leading to frustrating gameplay patterns.

• Buying new skills at the Crimson Alchemist may sometimes cause the shop to refresh instead.

• Hunters in Horde Mode may sometimes behave incorrectly.

Thank you again for your support, and stay fiery! 🔥

Hi there Emberlings!

We have a new patch for you today, which focuses on giving some love to the more neglected weapons! A perfect opportunity to try out a new loadout or two...

Gameplay Changes

Weapon balancing

• Minigun : The minigun's damage was underwhelming for the point in the game where you unlock it. These changes should give it a bit more stopping power.

  • Base damage per bullet 3 → 5

  • Added a 3rd level of Damage per Bullet upgrade (costs 8 red gems).

• LMG : The LMG is currently too punishing for the setup it requires to perform, so we're adjusting its mobility upwards.

  • Base Reload time 4.5s → 3.8s

  • Reload time upgrades -10%/-20%/-30% → -10%/-15%/-20%

  • Weight speed modifier 0.8 → 0.85

  • Reload speed modifier 0.8 → 0.9

  • Time to deploy bipod 0.9s → 0.75s

  • Time to remove bipod 0.5s → 0.4s

• Revolver : The revolver has a long reload time which we want to keep, but it could benefit from packing more of a punch.

  • Base Damage per bullet 25 → 30

  • Base Reload time 4.2s → 3.8s

  • Base Shots per clip 5 → 6

  • Damage upgrades : 3/6/10/15 → 5/10/15/20

• Grenade Launcher : The Grenade Launcher is intentionally hard to master, but we're adjusting its initial stats to make it a bit easier to learn.

  • Base Shots per clip : 2 → 4

  • Shots per clip upgrades : 1/2/3/4 to 1/2

  • Base Explosion Damage 60 → 65

• Rocket Launcher : The Rocket Launcher currently doesn't live up to the expectations of what a heavy weapon should be. We're giving it a lot more pep in this patch.

  • Base Damage per bullet: 60 → 90 (1 shot purple ghouls)

  • Base Shots per clip : 3 → 4

  • Shots per clip upgrades : 1/2/3 to 1/2

  • Adjusted weapon SFX to better match the impact.

• Pistol : We're mostly happy with the Pistol, but a slight reload speed buff will help it in its niche as a lightweight, hit and run weapon.

  • Base Reload time 1.5s → 1.3s

Bug Fixes

• Hunters no longer get stuck hunting an invisible animal.

• Adjusted the location of the player dialogue box to avoid overlapping with health UI.

• Increased the grace time for the achievement "Too Far, Little Ones" to 30s. It should now be correctly granted in all situations.

• Horde Mode gun merchant:

  • Fixed a bug where description cards would overlap.

  • Fixed a bug where some upgrades wouldn't display when hovered.

• Adjusted the text of the "Flux Redirector" upgrades at the Armorer to avoid confusion with other similar upgrades.

• Removed some critical hit effects that could be confused for stuttering/frame drops (freeze-frame effect, slow-mo effect).

• Fixed a bug introduced in the previous patch where the settings menu was now broken for non-UltraWide resolutions. Our bad.

Known Issues

• Final cinematic may incorrectly loop after the player triggers it.

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Rebinding the Y button on a controller can lead to the weapon refund failing.

• Talking to an NPC while the day timer is paused before lighting the fire can lead to the "Play" icon incorrectly displaying despite time still being paused.

• Barricades may sometimes become unrepairable.

• Skills may sometimes stay selected even when the player isn't in a menu, leading to frustrating gameplay patterns.

• Buying new skills at the Crimson Alchemist may sometimes cause to refresh the shop instead.

• Hunters in Horde Mode may sometimes behave incorrectly.

As always, thank you for playing The Ember Guardian, and see you in the wastes!

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hi guys,

We accidentally introduced a couple bugs with yesterday's patch, so we're releasing this hotfix to sort them out, as well as correct a couple of dog behaviours.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the player would not be able to upgrade turrets after an engineer reloaded them.

• Fixed a bug where engineers would sometimes idle in front of a turret instead of climbing in.

• Fixed a bug where the Dark Companion would forget to use its abilities midway through the level. He's a silly boy.

• Fixed a bug where dogs would sometime try to target an enemy behind an obstacle and get stuck in the process.

Thank you again for playing The Ember Guardian, and stay fiery!

🔥

Hey Emberlings!

We've got a new update for you today! This patch includes a round of upgrades focusing on Engineer AI, since it's been one of the most requested improvements from the community.

Engineer AI Improvements

• Engineers now reevaluate their working priority when an Engineer tower is built, avoiding Engineers staying on drills at dusk when they could be helping defend the base.

• Engineers will now craft ammo and refill towers at night rather than staying idle (if all other slots are filled).

• Engineers will no longer hold onto ammo if there are structures that could still be refilled (towers and containers alike).

• Engineers will now pick up ammo from the crafter and go refill structures even if an ammo container hasn't been built.

• Engineers heading to refill a structure no longer stop and drop their belongings to the player.

Gameplay Changes

• Upgraded engineer towers now have expanded ammo capacity (5 -> 7).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Ancient Guardian boss would turn into the Bone Reaper during a few frames of animation.

• Fixed a bug where the Dark Companion would get tired and sit down on its own after some time in a level. Get up, lazy!

• Fixed a bug where navigating the Trainer's shop with a controller would select the wrong items.

• Fixed a bug where the Settings panel in the main menu would overflow with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Fixed a bug where some NPC skill trees (Dog Tamer, Armorer, Architect, Trainer, Watcher, Sporemonger) would display improperly with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Fixed a bug where the dog would start following the player again at dawn, even if he'd been instructed to sit the night before. Good boy.

• Fixed a bug where Emberlings would use fast travel teleporters when roaming inside the base, leading to them getting killed at night.

• Fixed a bug where multiple sounds (Barricade repair, Orb and Ammo crafters) would be heard globally.

• Fixed sun color based on difficulty bugs :

  • Sun not turning red in final level

  • Sun color biased when in easy or hard difficulty

• Implemented a safety measure: gems dropped from bag in the hub (due to bugs) are now dropped on the floor instead of in the water.

Thank you again for your support, and we hope these fixes help you keep enjoying The Ember Guardian!

Hey there Emberlings!

We hope you didn't miss us too much! We've been hard at work to bring you more bug fixes & changes, read on to find out all the details!

Gameplay Changes

• Using the “Return To Hub” button now brings your hard-earned gems back with you to the hub.

Note: We had a few complaints about the fact that losing in a level let you keep your gems, but exiting early didn't. This discrepancy is now fixed! Sure, it'll make farming gems easier, but this is a single player game, and if someone wants to spend time farming gems, they can do it if they want!

• Dark companion AI improvements

  • The Dark Companion now uses his abilities more intelligently, depending on the number of targets.

  • The Dark Companion's Ground Stomp and Laser Beam now only target grounded creatures.

  • The Dark Companion no longer gets stuck into a rolling animation. Rolling around is fun, but the Guardian needs you!

Balance Changes

• Lumen Hollow Scout & Throned Sentinel : starting camps initial emberlings 2 → 3

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the game crashing on load due to corrupted save file. This fix will use a backup save file to restore your progress, meaning you might lose some progress and default settings will be applied.

• The Assault Rifle secondary fire no longer activates when using another weapon's secondary fire, causing you to lose small orbs.

• Fixed a game breaking bug when closing the manual in the tutorial, before unlocking the first video tip.

• Fixed the Armorer’s shop in Horde Mode :

  • Fixed some weapons being cut off the when many weapons unlocked.

  • Weapons now appear closer to each other, making navigation smoother.

  • Fixed a display bug where the Shotgun description would clip out of the panel.

• Fixed a bug where starting obstacles and bridges would save incorrectly in Horde Mode.

• Fixed a bug where Red orb barrels would not save their contents properly. The Alchemist now respects your boundaries!

• Fixed a bug where loading into a level would make barricades stack over each other.

• Fixed multiple bugs related to loading back into a map with buildings near obstacles:

  • Fixed odd Emberling behaviours, such as miners going out of camp at night or archers going to garrison in far away towers.

  • Fixed multiple barricades overlapping in the same spot.

  • Fixed a bug where the Hunting Flag would get dropped immediately upon pickup.

• Fixed a bug where the Manual would repeat "The Blueprint Altar" multiple times at the bottom.

• Fixed a bug where some skills would invisibly carry over between levels, leading to bugs like permanently increased movement speed or lifesteal.

• Fixed a bug where a barricade was placed improperly in the Veil Of Ash level.

• Fixed a bug where the sounds made by engineers working at camp could be heard globally.

• Fixed multiple bugs and wording issues related to achievements:

  • The Ember’s End (Slay the Bone Reaper) is now properly awarded. This will be awarded retroactively as well.

  • All Who Remains (Unlock all NPCs) is now properly awarded. This will be awarded retroactively as well.

  • Sanctified Ground (Defeat enemies within the fire's AOE) now increments properly. This will not be awarded retroactively.

  • Adjusted the wording on Blueprint Manifest to read "Build all structure types in the same level".

  • Adjusted the wording on Bonded By Fire to read “Spend a whole day exploring with your dog waiting for you at camp.”

Known Issues

• Engineers may hoard ammo without reloading towers.

• Engineers may keep working on the drill at night, despite some heavy weapon towers being unmanned.

• Final cinematic may incorrectly loop after the player triggers it.

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Enemies may become invisible, leading to the player losing health from seemingly nowhere.

• Emberlings may be going idle at night or shoot seemingly at random, despite enemies being present.

• Settings panel in main menu overflows with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Dying with a deployed LMG permanently alters your movement speed.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Rebinding the Y button on a controller can lead to the weapon refund failing.

• Players may rarely get stuck after climbing up a tower.

• Talking to an NPC while the day timer is paused before lighting the fire can lead to the "Play" icon incorrectly displaying despite time still being paused.

Thank you again for your patience, and we hope you keep enjoying The Ember Guardian!

Hey there Emberlings,

We've got a new patch for you today! This one brings a long awaited feature... Read on to find out more!

Gameplay changes

• Golden Retriever's Loyal Radiance now also affects engineers.

Note: The Golden Retriever's niche feels less clear than the other 2 dogs. Letting its aura affect engineers (and making it clearer that it also affects scavengers) makes it more flexible, and opens up interesting gameplay patterns like sitting the dog down next to a car that needs breaking down, for example.

• The Crimson Alchemist now graciously allows players to use his 2 red orb containers... For a time.

Note: Many players complained about red orbs taking too much space in their inventory, so we've added some containers to the Crimson Alchemist. These containers can store as many orbs as you desire, but you will need to take orbs out of them to buy anything. These containers are not saved when quitting and loading back into a level, so make sure you don't let the Alchemist swipe your orbs behind your back!

QoL changes

• Added a short "lockout" timer when activating an ability to stop players from accidentally cancelling them by double tapping.

• Crouching can now be re-mapped in the key bindings menu, for both Keyboard & Controller.

• Crouching now has a "toggle" mode in the Settings menu.

• Resetting the Hunter flag is now a "hold" interaction, to stop players from accidentally resetting it when performing other actions.

• Clarified the wording on the Loyal Radiance ability. It now reads “Unlocks the Loyal Radiance passive, increasing nearby workers' attack, mining and maintenance speeds.”

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Z/X Inputs would stop functioning mid level.

• Fixed a bug where players could bypass dialog and open the Gem Trader's shop while he was still talking to them. Let's be civil.

• Fixed a bug where players could pet the dog to bypass invisible walls. Bad dog, stop breaking the fabric of reality.

• Fixed a bug where new enemies could spawn despite the game being paused while a player was shopping at night.

Known Issues

• Some players may fail to launch the game after their save becomes corrupted. We've found a fix for this, and are currently figuring out how to best implement it. If you've been affected by this bug, you will find instructions for a temporary fix at the bottom of this post, so you can keep progressing.

• Some achievements may fail to unlock after a player imports their save file from the Demo.

• Beam Intensity Upgrade for the Dark Companion has incorrect values.

• Final cinematic may incorrectly loop after the player triggers it.

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Enemies may become invisible, leading to the player losing health from seemingly nowhere.

• Emberlings may be going idle at night or shoot seemingly at random, despite enemies being present.

• The Dark Companion may sometimes get stuck when rolling and stop attacking.

• Settings panel in main menu overflows with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Dying with a deployed LMG permanently alters your movement speed.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Rebinding the Y button on a controller can lead to the weapon refund failing.

• Players may rarely get stuck after climbing up a tower.

• Talking to an NPC while the day timer is paused before lighting the fire can lead to the "Play" icon incorrectly displaying despite time still being paused.

• The Manual incorrectly displays "The Blueprint Altar" multiple times at the bottom.

How to fix a corrupted save:

Hi there Emberlings,

Another day means another patch, and this one brings multiple requested features! We hope they will make your journey into the wasteland more enjoyable.

Gameplay changes

• Trading: The Gem Trader got bored of players not interacting with him after maxing out his upgrade tree, so he now exchanges gems at a rate of 3 to 1. Yes, it's an unfair rate. No, you can't get a discount because you're "saving the world" or whatever.

• Engineer and Scavenger shrines now respectively display the total amount of Engineers and Scavengers recruited !

• The mouse wheel now allows players to swap between their primary and secondary weapon.

Optimisation

• V-Sync & Max FPS settings have been added.

Note: These settings were by far the most requested when it comes to optimisation. We're not expecting them to be a miracle fix, but please try playing around with them and let us know if your performance improves! We're still continuing to look into deeper optimisation changes.

Balance Changes

• Another upgrade has been added to the Blueprint Altar, letting you increase the maximum number of Sniper Towers from 3 to 4. This one is for you, symmetry fans.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Throned Sentinel wouldn't be interactable if a player saved, quit, and reloaded in the middle of the level.

• Fixed a bug where the AA Cannon's Groundburst mode would fire a single, sad particle. It now rains exactly as much hellfire as intended.

• Fixed a bug where the Architect Table, Orb Alchemist and Traps Merchant UI would not recognise a controller's D-Pad inputs.

• Fixed a bug where currency storage items were not selectable at the Blueprint Altar when using a controller.

• Fixed a bug where the rightmost items in the Architect Table’s menu wouldn't be visible when using a controller.

• Fixed a bug where some Sound Effects were not being affected by the SFX volume slider (namely fire ember extraction and cave sounds)

• Fixed a bug where the Shrine UI would display an incorrect amount of workers after some of them died.

• Fixed a bug where closing a menu with a controller would lead to perform an action in game (dropping an orb / interacting with structures / rolling / reloading).

• Fixed a bug where navigating the pause menu with a controller would interact with the skills menu in a level.

• Fixed the Sentient Traps not being displayed as an enemy in the level selection UI.

• Localization : Fixed the description for the unlock of the Minigun in Horde Mode.

• The Kindled dusk skill description now reads “Releases a black flame” instead of “Launches a black flame” to make its limited range less of a surprise.

• Aim Assist: adjusted the aiming position for the Headsman and Crawling Cage enemies. Aim Assist should now be able to consistently hit every enemy in the game, so let us know if you're still encountering issues!

Known Issues

• Some players may fail to launch the game after their save becomes corrupted. We're currently investigating this as our top priority.

• Some achievements may fail to unlock after a player imports their save file from the Demo.

• Players may be able to enter the upgrade shop in the tutorial while dialogue is playing.

• Beam Intensity Upgrade for the Dark Companion has incorrect values.

• Final cinematic may incorrectly loop after the player triggers it.

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Enemies may still spawn and attack the player despite the game being paused while shopping at the Orb Alchemist at night.

• Enemies may become invisible, leading to the player losing health from seemingly nowhere.

• Emberlings may be going idle at night or shoot seemingly at random, despite enemies being present.

• The Dark Companion may sometimes get stuck when rolling and stop attacking.

• "Return Flag" position overlaps with some emberling camps, leading to accidental, frustrating returns.

• Settings panel in main menu overflows with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Dying with a deployed LMG permanently alters your movement speed.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Rebinding the Y button on a controller can lead to the weapon refund failing.

• Players may rarely get stuck after climbing up a tower.

• Talking to an NPC while the day timer is paused before lighting the fire can lead to the "Play" icon incorrectly displaying despite time still being paused.

• The Manual incorrectly displays "The Blueprint Altar" multiple times at the bottom.

Known QOL issues

Continuing with our ideal of transparency, we wanted to use this announcement to also let you know of multiple QoL issues that we're aware of, and are planning on fixing soon. Some of these may take longer or be lower in the priority queue than others, but we hope this helps you all know that your feedback is being read and being taken into account.

• Hitting Q/E twice fast should not instantly cancel an ability

• Players have no way of getting rid of small red orbs/incorrect ammo types in their bags

• The Crouch key is not listed in the keybinds, and is not able to be rebound.

• Crouching should be toggleable just like Sprinting is.

• Resetting the hunter flag should be a "hold" interaction, to avoid accidental resets.

• An exclusion should be added to avoid binding Left Click to "Pause".

Once again, thank you to all who are playing, sharing, and talking about The Ember Guardian. We're very proud of our little game, and absolutely humbled that so many of you have decided to join us by the campfire.

We remain devoted to making The Ember Guardian the best it can be.

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hey there Emberlings!

We have another patch for you today, which aims to tackle some major issues we've seen reported. Read on for more!

Gameplay changes

• Players can now shoot through barricades.

Note: We heard quite a few complaints about not being able to shoot through barricades. While the original intent was for players to climb towers to shoot over them, this ended up being more frustrating than anything else, so we're giving you the option to shoot through them now. Climbing towers is still useful to pick off high-damage ranged enemies, so we're happy with that compromise!

Optimisation changes

• Disabled collision between multiple objects to save performance.

Note: This will only affect performance issues due to large numbers of creatures on screen. We are continuing to investigate other causes & solutions, but this should already help. Optimisation remains our #1 priority.

Bug fixes

• Players can no longer use the Throned Sentinel at night, which would previously lead to a softlock.

• Creatures who get stuck at night will now be automatically culled. This is a band-aid fix as we're finding the bug hard to reproduce, but it should prevent most softlocks due to this issue.

• Aim Assist : improved aiming position on the Dual Slicers.

Known issues

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Enemies may still spawn and attack the player despite the game being paused while shopping at the Orb Alchemist at night.

• Closing a menu on controller may lead to unexpected actions (dropping an orb, rolling, etc).

• Enemies may become invisible, leading to the player losing health from seemingly nowhere.

• Emberlings may be going idle at night or shoot seemingly at random despite enemies being present.

• The Dark Companion may sometimes get stuck when rolling and stop attacking.

• Some Sound Effects are not affected by the SFX audio slider (fire ember extraction, cave sounds)

• "Return Flag" position overlaps with some emberling camps, leading to accidental, frustrating returns.

• Settings panel in main menu overflows with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Dying with a deployed LMG permanently alters your movement speed.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

• Players may rarely get stuck after climbing up a tower.

Thank you again to everyone for playing The Ember Guardian, doubly so if you've been reporting bugs. You make it all worth it.

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hi Emberlings!

Thank you to everyone who's been playing the game over the weekend! We're delighted to see so many people dive into our world, and we're still working to fix every bug you guys are flagging to make your experience as smooth as possible. To that end, this patch has a new round of fixes and optimisations!

Aim Assist Adjustments

• Fixed auto aiming position on most creatures to target the head.

• Fixed auto aiming position on Sentient Traps to be lower.

• Fixed auto aiming position on The Colossus to be more central.

• Fixed irregularities when synchronizing Aim Assist range with the current weapon’s range.

• Fixed Aim Assist logic when leading shots, which should greatly increase accuracy on flying enemies.

Note: The Aim Assist was originally intended to not target weak points, as a kind of "drawback" in comparison to manual aim. We received many comments about this, and decided to adjust it so Aim Assist targets the weak points by default, becoming a de facto accessibility feature!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the controller crosshair would get stuck on screen after coming out of a teleporter.

• Fixed the City Outskirts mission becoming unable to complete if the player talked to the Architect before lighting the fire.

• Fixed the teleporter not displaying the mission selection screen in the hub when using a controller.

• Fixed the Travel Network Upgrade not adding additional teleporter slots.

• Fixed an issue where the player's movement speed would permanently slow down if they died while aiming with the sniper.

• Fixed the sniper rifle and assault rifle being able to shoot through barricades. Use the towers like the rest of us!

• Fixed automatic weapons no longer shooting when clicking, then holding click to shoot.

• Fixed a stuttering issue that could occur when players went in and out of caves.

Optimization

• Creature target detection initial refresh timer is now allocated randomly to smooth out the frames where they occur

• Worked on physics collisions to reduce memory usage on some detection functions.

Note: Optimization is currently our #1 priority. It's by far the most reported issue, and your feedback is invaluable to test and resolve it. We're only a small team, and there are virtually infinite different machines we could test on. Your patience and help are immensely appreciated.

Known Issues

For the sake of transparency, we're going to be including a list of known issues in this update, as well as following ones. This will let you know what we're already working on fixing, which means that if you find something not on the list, please report it twice as fast!

• Secondary fires may sometimes fail to light.

• The Husky skin may not apply after being selected.

• Unlocking the Husky skin breaks the font on the tooltip.

• Enemies may still spawn and attack the player despite the game being paused while shopping at the Orb Alchemist at night.

• Closing a menu on controller may lead to unexpected actions (dropping an orb, rolling, etc).

• Enemies may become invisible, leading to the player losing health from seemingly nowhere.

• Enemies may get stuck at night or become invisible, leading to the player being essentially softlocked.

• Emberlings may be going idle at night despite enemies being present.

• The Dark Companion may sometimes get stuck when rolling and stop attacking.

• Some Sound Effects are not affected by the SFX audio slider (fire ember extraction, cave sounds)

• "Return Flag" position overlaps with some emberling camps, leading to accidental, frustrating returns.

• Settings panel in main menu overflows with Ultra Wide resolutions.

• Dying with a deployed LMG permanently alters your movement speed.

• Many creatures on screen leads to significant frame drops.

• Dead players may enter the teleporter if standing on it when they die.

• Rebinding the “Interact” button can lead to unexpected behaviors.

Once again, thank you for your patience. We are working as hard as we can to squash bugs as they are coming up, and to stop them from impacting your experience.

Stay fiery! 🔥

We've heard your concerns about optimisation and worked on identifying sources of frame drops. Good news! We found that a lot of frame drops were caused by loading sound effects during runtime, so we managed to significantly reduce frequent frame drops due to those.

We'll be monitoring your feedback on the effect those changes had - if you were experiencing frame drops and stutters please let us know if this fixes it. We'll continue to monitor and patch ASAP.

Optimization :

• Fixed frequent sources of frame drops due to sound effects being loaded into memory during runtime.

Bug fixes :

• Fixed level 3 towers & barricades not being upgradeable to level 4 both in Campaign and Horde Mode. (Shoutout to Cogzworth in the Steam forums for flagging this one to us!)

• UPDATE: When we initially released this patch, it caused an issue with black screens on scene loads. We rolled it back and fixed this black screen bug.

Hey everyone!

It's been almost 24 hours since launch and I just want to thank you all for the support so far. As of the time of writing we're still hitting new all time player counts, currently at 338 CCU which is great for such a small game like ours 🥳

We've been reading every review (reminder to help us out by leaving a review - it really helps with visibility on Steam!) and every community post and have compiled some bug fixes as well as some balance changes, such as a first pass at balancing the flying enemies.

Please see the full changelog below and we'll continue monitoring over the weekend and into next week working on bugfixes and balancing!

Version 1.0.1.9

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the player would get stuck between towers if towers are stacked close to eachother.

• Fixed a bug where creatures would spawn outside the trial area walls when opening a trial chest, blocking the level.

• Fixed a bug where creatures would spawn inside cave walls and would block night progression.

• Fixed a bug where a creature would stop miners from reaching the obstacle to remove, blocking the level.

Balancing

We heard your feedback on the difficulty spike when reaching the corrupted city being a little too steep, as well as the flying creatures being too much of a nuisance. The following balancing changes should help with both issues. We’ll be monitoring your feedback to see if more drastic changes are necessary.

• Flying creature : Debuffed Flying Ball Tank’s shield cooldown (4s → 6.5s)

• Flying creature : Reduced the wasp’s start attack range (.75 → .4) and maximum attack range (1.5 → 1)

• Flying creature : Reduced the small crow’s start attack range (1 → .7) and maximum attack range (2 → 1.5)

• Flying creature : Reduced the big crow’s start attack range (1.5 → 1) and maximum attack range (2 → 1.5)

• The Armored Slug, upgraded version of the slug met in the Corrupted City’s hitbox size has been increased

• Increased max miners assigned to red cars (1 → 2)

Hey there Emberlings! We have some exciting news for you... The Ember Guardian is OUT NOW! Take a look at the Launch Trailer (after starting the game download of course!):

It's been a long road to launch and we couldn't have gotten here without everyone's support! Whether you've joined the Discord, played the demo or watched a content creator playing the game, we wouldn't be able to launch without your help.

If you did play the demo, don't worry! You'll be able to carry your progress across to the full game.

We have a few different launch options for you to check out:

• There is of course the base game with a limited time discount of 10% for 2 weeks following launch.

• The supporter pack bundles, which include the base game, the supporter Husky skin, and the official soundtrack. Buying all three together through the bundles nets you a further 10% off everything and really helps support Julien, the solo developer of the game.

• The post-apocalyptic survival bundle with our friends at Barrel Smash Studios, which includes The Ember Guardian and the newly released Oceaneers, a sci-fi survival-crafting colony sim set in a flooded world of floating islands!

• The Slug Disco Publisher bundle which includes The Ember Guardian, Strange Seed, Horticular & Ecosystem.

We're also launching alongside two exciting Steam festivals!

First up is the Earth Appreciation Festival! We're part of the showcase video where you can get a look at the trailer and hear from developer Julien.

You can check out the Earth Appreciation Festival here which is due to start at 6pm BST:

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/EarthAppreciationFestival2026

We're also part of the London Games Festival which you can check out here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/londongamesfestival2026

Hi Emberlings,

Ahead of our launch later this week, we've just updated the Demo to have full parity with the main game release. While this marks the final update for The Ember Guardian Demo, it's only the start of the journey for the full game, as we still have many more things we want to bring in post-launch updates.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, wishlisted, left feedback, and most importantly played the demo. We would not be here without you.

Without further ado, here are the 1.0 Demo Patch Notes!

Major changes

• Players are now able to interact with Hunter and Guard Shrines to assign them to the left and right manually. This will let players better respond to large night waves, animal spawns, and more!

QOL changes

• Players can now Roll or Sprint to cancel interactions with Merchants.

• The Stamina bar now displays as soon as it's used.

• The Weapon surge SFX now stops after 10s of not being used.

• The Game now pauses when interacting with the orb alchemist.

• Added "Flying Only" auto aim mode for controller.

Balance changes

• Reduced the out of stamina penalty from 6s to 4.75s.

• Reworked horde mode difficulty. First few waves are generally unchanged, but difficulty increases faster after wave 5.

• Easy difficulty now reduces creatures' health by 25%.

• Hard difficulty now increases creatures' health by 20%.

• Increased the maximum amount of hunters that can target a given animal for each animal type.

• Increased the colossus' speed by 15% and its health by 15%.

• Rifle base shot cooldown increased from 0.33s to 0.38s.

• Rifle base reloading time increased from 2s to 2.2s.

• SMG reload time decreased from 2s to 1.5s.

• SMG accuracy increased by 30%.

• LMG bipod setup time decreased from 1.8s to 0.9s.

• LMG bipod removal time decreased from 1.8s to 0.5s.

• LMG bipod angle limit increased from 25° to 40°.

• LMG bipod now increases range by 30%.

Bug fixes

• Fixed gems from horde mode carrying over into the hub after a run.

• Fixed the UI not showing up when a boss appears for the second time.

• Fixed red orbs not dropping once the alchemist is unlocked in horde mode.

• Fixed day/night cycle getting stuck when talking to merchants in horde mode.

• Fixed the Dog Bite ability going on cooldown after being used on a creature the player already killed.

• Fixed a bug where the unique text & audio wouldn't play when visiting a new location for the first time.

• Fixed the fire fuel level decreasing even when the day/night cycle is paused while talking to an NPC.

• Fixed the vertical "Refund" button at the Armorer not being localised properly.

We hope to see you in the full game soon, and stay fiery!

We are happy to announce that The Ember Guardian will release on Friday, April 17th 2026!

If you've not tried out the demo yet, now is the perfect time! We revamped it last month, as part of Steam Next Fest, and any progress you make in the demo will carry over to the full game once it releases!

We created a new trailer to mark this announcement, which you can watch below:

Thank you all for your support, and we can't wait for you to explore the wastes in the full release of The Ember Guardian!

Hey Emberlings,

We have another patch for you today, that aims to resolve a few issues & optimise the Ember Guardian experience! Full list below.

Balance Changes

• Reduced max number of wasps spawning at a single location in Horde Mode (30 → 12).

QoL Changes

• Hunting Flag positions are now saved and loaded correctly.

• Players can now use Fast Travel Teleporters while carrying a hunting flag, except when it involves a teleporter located within the Camp (mainly the Tent’s TP).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed gun sounds not reacting to master volume.

• Fixed day/night cycle & wind sounds not reacting to master volume.

• Fixed expanding camp sounds not reacting to master volume.

• Fixed a game breaking bug when trying to teleport from a fast travel teleporter without having lit the initial fire.

Other

• Fixed multiple strings being incorrect in Japanese.

• Optimized the game's performance when many emberlings were recruited.

Night descends, black as pitch, and creatures crawl in from the dark. But you need not face them alone.

Thank you all for 20 000 Wishlists!

We had a successful Steam Next Fest, with over 2300 new players checking out The Ember Guardian Demo, and we just hit the 20 000 wishlist milestone in the wake of that!

Whether you played for a couple minutes, or for multiple hours, we're incredibly grateful that you took the time to try The Ember Guardian out, and we're very excited to share the full game with you soon!

If you have any feedback, we would love to hear it, so please let us know either via the Steam Discussion Forum or on our socials:

Discord X/Twitter TikTok YouTube

Stay fiery! 🔥

Hello Emberlings! We've a small patch for you today that amongst bug fixes and balancing brings a much requested feature - the game will now pause when you are speaking to an NPC so you won't get caught with your metaphorical pants round your ankles. Full notes below!

QOL

• In a level, talking with an NPC now pauses the game

Balancing

- Shotgun: Focus Blast ability range increased by +50%

- Horde Mode : Increased days of animal respawn from 2 to 3 days after discovering them. Increased Respawn rates : day 1 : 66% (+16%), day 2 : 33% (+8%), day 3 : 22 % (+22%)

BUG FIXES

- Fixed character selection not swapping sound effects.

- Fixed a bug in level 1 where it was possible to destroy the nest before having cleared it

- Fixed windowed mode resetting back to fullscreen windowed at each scene load

- Fixed vertical resolutions (aspect ratio > 1.6) main menu display bug

Hey Emberlings,

Thank you to all of you for playing The Ember Guardian & sharing feedback with us during this Steam Next Fest. We have a new patch today with some small changes inspired by your feedback, so please keep sharing your thoughts with us as you venture into the wastes!

Demo V0.9.5.3

QOL

• Talking with an NPC mid-level now pauses the game.

Balancing

• Shotgun: Focus Blast ability range increased by +50%

• Horde Mode : Increased days of animal respawn from 2 to 3 days after discovering them. Increased Respawn rates : day 1 : 66% (+16%), day 2 : 33% (+8%), day 3 : 22 % (+22%)

BUG FIXES

• Fixed character selection not swapping sound effects.

• Fixed a bug in level 1 where it was possible to destroy the nest before having cleared the darklings.

• Fixed a bug where windowed mode would reset back to fullscreen windowed at each scene load.

• Fixed a bug where vertical resolutions (aspect ratio > 1.6) would cause the main menu to display improperly.

Hello everyone, we've heard the feedback loud and clear and we put the survivor on the treadmill, getting those legs pumping. The player character will now move 15% quicker. Full patch notes below!

I also wanted to share this video The Ember Guardian was featured in showing off the game running on the Steam Deck

You can find the demo here

Demo V0.9.5.2

Balancing

- Increased base movement speed by +15%

- Increased hunter base accuracy by +30%

- Decreased exhausted time by 40%

- Increased melee attack range by +50%

- Increased small crow hitbox size by +75%

Bug Fixes :

• Fixed female character selection not being applied in game

• Fixed localization issues

• Selecting windowed mode now unlocks the cursor from the game screen while in settings/pause menu

Hey everyone, we've just released a small patch aimed at fixing some of the issues we've noticed thanks to all your efforts & feedback during Next Fest! Here are all the changes in this patch:

Horde Mode balancing

Feedback showed that some players were having long early runs, before they even unlock any content, so we've been working to address that. This should strengthen the core Horde Mode loop with more frequent unlocks, and less time spent without being able to spend orbs & gems on upgrades.

• Increased the difficulty of early night waves by 50%

• Slightly decreased worker spawners close to camp

• Slightly decreased animal spawns (-15%)

QOL

• The dog will now stop barking after 2s, switching back to a quieter growl.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a game breaking bug in the tutorial that could soft-lock the game during the night

• Fixed a game breaking bug in Horde Mode that could stop the Day/Night cycle from progressing

• Fixed a bug where the fog would incorrectly appear briefly when night falls

• Fixed music automatically turning back on when heading into horde mode menu, even if turned down to 0

• Fixed the "nights survived" record accidentally displaying "0" after a Horde Mode defeat

We hope these changes help smooth out your experience with the demo, and as always, we welcome your feedback!

Thanks again for your support, and stay fiery!

Hello everyone joining us due to Steam Next Fest! I wanted to use this opportunity to provide a little bit of context of what The Ember Guardian is and what the demo offers!

What is The Ember Guardian

The Ember Guardian is a roguelike strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world. During the game you recruit and command workers to gather resources, build your camp and set up your defenses during the day. Then, when night falls, fend off waves of deadly creatures with powerful, upgradable weapons.

You can check out the game in action here:

What does the demo offer?

The demo of The Ember Guardian has just been updated for Next Fest. It is now the beginning of the full game instead of a separate experience. Featuring a new tutorial to guide newer players into action, the survivor will find themselves going through the first 3 levels of the full games campaign, with plenty more upgrades at their disposal.

Completing the 3 levels isn't the end of the demo. In fact, it is the start of an endless journey. Challenge your skills in the brand new Horde Mode, where you will be thrown into a randomly generated map with one goal: survive. Improvise and adapt to the random conditions and survive wave after wave of enemy onslaught, and see how long you and your band of emberlings can hold against insurmountable odds.

Every run in both the main story and Horde Mode will earn you experience that unlocks a myriad of upgrades to strengthen your defences. Seek help from randomly spawned merchants and customisee your base layout, and shape your own playstyle with every decision. Of course, Horde Mode's progression can be transferred to the full game as well!

We're also pleased to announce that your save from the demo will transfer to the full game when the game launches in Q1 this year.