Playtest notes 20 Jun 2025

Internal playtest115 entries35 balance changes31 bug fixes19 art updates16 interface changes7 wording fixes5 content additions2 performance fixes

This is a pre-release internal note from the closed playtest, quoted as it was written for testers. It describes a build that no longer exists; treat it as history, not as a description of the current game.

Time for another weekly patch! If you make your way on over to the Potion Lab, you'll find it has received a total makeover--and what's more, the potions themselves have received makeovers! Our goal with these new potion assets is to make them more visually distinct from one another and be more representative of what each potion does. Feedback is encouraged!

Items in this note

34 cards

Beat into Shape

Deal 5 damage.
Forge 5.
Forges an additional 5 for every other time you've hit the enemy this turn.

At the end of your turn, if this is in your Hand,
lose 6 HP.

Put 3 cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand.
Exhaust.

At the start of your turn, add a random Common card into your Hand.

A random card without Replay in your Draw Pile gains Replay 2.

Deal 6 damage.
Every 3 Skills you play in a turn, put this into your Hand.

Adaptive Strike

Deal 18 damage.
Add a 0 copy of this card into your Discard Pile.

Whenever you spend or gain , deal 3 damage to ALL enemies.

Whenever you play an Attack, add a random Attack into your Hand.

Gain 5 Block.
You receive 50% less damage from Vulnerable enemies this turn.

Deal 2 damage to ALL enemies 4 times.

At the start of your turn, lose 1 HP and gain 8 Block.

Unplayable.
Eternal.

Deal 12 damage.
Draw 2 cards.

Whenever you draw a card containing “Strike”, it is played against a random enemy.

Next turn, Summon 2 and gain .

Add a copy of the third Attack you play each turn into your Hand.

At the start of your turn, play the top card of your Draw Pile.

Gain 13 Block.
Reduce this card's cost by whenever ANYONE dies.

Draw 1 fewer card each turn.

Whenever you draw an Ethereal card, draw 1 card.

Gain 9 Block.
Return this card to your Hand.

Deal 9 damage.
Put the next card you play this turn on top of your Draw Pile.

Retain.
If your Hand is empty, draw 2 cards and gain .

Sleight of Flesh

Whenever you apply a debuff to an enemy, they take 9 damage.

Sovereign Blade

Retain.
Deal 10 damage.

At the start of your turn, add 1 random Colorless card into your Hand.

Gain Block equal to the number of cards in your Discard Pile.

Ethereal.
Osty deals 10 damage to a random enemy.
Exhaust.

The Sealed Throne

Whenever you play a card, gain .

The first time you gain Block from a card each turn, double the amount gained.

Whenever you apply Vulnerable, draw 1 card.

Relics, potions and powers

Glowwater Potion

Sleight of Flesh

The Sealed Throne

Enemies and events

Content

Necrobinder

Deprecated Fester card
Re-added Ghostly Armor as a Necrobinder card

Regent

Reworked Spectrum Shift card

Potions & Relics

Deprecated Headhunter relic
Reworked Broken Mirror relic

Balance

Ironclad

Buffed Hellraiser card: Energy cost decreased from 3(2) -> 2(1)

Necrobinder

Changed Dredge card:
No longer retrieves cards at random, instead lets the player choose
Changed upgrade from increasing Dredge amount -> gains Retain
Nerfed Melancholy card:
Block decreased from 7(10) -> 6(9)
Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common
Nerfed Pagestorm card: Draw decreased from 2(3) -> 1(2)

Regent

Buffed Black Hole card: damage increased from 9(13) -> 10(14)
Nerfed Calamity card: Energy cost increased from 2(1) -> 3(2)
Nerfed Cloak of Stars card: Block decreased from 9(13) -> 8(11)
Nerfed Guiding Star card: upgrade damage decreased from 11(14) -> 11(13)
Changed Make It So card:
Energy cost decreased from 1 -> 0
Damage decreased from 11(14) -> 6(9)
Buffed Particle Wall card: upgrade Block increased from 9(13) -> 9(14)
Buffed Sovereign Blade card: base damage increased again from 5 -> 10

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Potions & Relics

Buffed Kifuda relic: Block increased from 5 -> 6

Ancients

Changed Neow's Transformation blessing: now also has the downside "Lose 12 Max HP."
Changed Neow's Explorer blessing:
Amount of ? rooms increased from 6 -> 12
Now also has the downside "Add 1 Greed to your Deck."
Changed Zlatir's Choice's Paradox blessing: no longer spawns upgraded cards
Nerfed Tanx's Whistle card: damage decreased from 50(75) -> 33(44)

Enemies

Changed Drowned Cultists:
Changed how they scale with Ascension
Their position in their combat encounter is no longer randomized
Have more HP differentiation between the two and less HP overall
Changed Lagavulin Matriarch: now loses her Plating when she wakes up (like the Lagavulin in StS1)
Changed Soul Fysh:
Beckon move now splits the Beckon cards between the Discard and Draw pile
Damage decreased
Moveset reworked

Multiplayer

Act 3 multiplayer scaling has been decreased slightly
Daily seed is now different for each player count

Art

Added new art for potions
Added animation offset to character idle animation in the Merchant room
Added portrait art for the following cards:
Colossus
Conflagration
Crimson Mantle
Juggling
Unmovable
Vicious
Added beta art for the following cards:
Adaptive Strike
Hidden Gem

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Make It So
Sleight of Flesh
Sweeping Gaze
Added beta art for new powers
Added unique card trail VFX for when cards fly from Discard to Draw pile
Updated aspect ratio for Catalyst card portrait art
Added placeholder background for Orb Glutton and Spiraling Whirlpool events

User interface & experience

Necrobinder

Invoke card now glows gold if Osty is dead
Adjusted intent position, hitbox size, and center for Osty
Update Necrobinder's Energy icon on cards

Colorless Cards

Restlessness card no longer glows gold when it is in your hand during the enemy's turn

Enemies

Adjusted intent position, hitbox size, and center for Seapunk, Axe Bot, and Corpse Slug

General

Gave Potion Lab a makeover
Updated undiscovered potion UX in Potion Lab
Added ability to use mouse back button to close screens
Adjusted character hitboxes and visual positioning
Greatly reduced the size of Axe Bots
Healthbars are now 24px longer and selection reticle is more 1:1 with the action creature hitboxes
Made the language picker a dropdown menu again. The nation-state is imaginary
Added new colors for healthbar foreground and middleground (red/orange)
Unlock all command now unlocks ascensions
Players can now inspect cards in card rewards via controller (Y button on Xbox)

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Multiplayer

You can no longer start a multiplayer climb with no other players

Wording

Renamed Cultist M and Cultist F to Calcified Cultist and Damp Cultist respectively
Beat Into Shape card now specifies that it only Forges on unblocked attack damage
Fixed typo in The Sealed Throne card
Hidden Gem card now always applies Replay 2 to a card that was shuffled from your Discard pile. Its wording has been updated to reflect this.
Fixed wording for Reflective Fortress power and Stack card
Fixed Sleight of Flesh, Phantom Blades, and Sealed Throne power titles
Drowning Beacon event now correctly says Glowwater Potion instead of Lighthouse Drainage as the procured potion

Bug fixes

Defect

Focus hovertip wording will now update if you have negative focus - "Decrease the effectiveness of Orbs by N"
Fixed an issue where, if Mayhem card autoplayed Hello World card, Hello World's effect would trigger immediately after

Necrobinder

Doom no longer renders when an enemy has infinite HP

Regent

Beat Into Shape card no longer Forges for 0 if the target has taken no unblocked damage

Colorless Cards

Fixed issue causing Strategem power to not display info text during card selection
Rebound card no longer applies to power cards or cards with Exhaust

Potions & Relics

Bag of Marbles and Red Mask relics now properly remove Artifact power from enemies that start with it
Fixed Bone Brew potion description text

Ancients

Fixed Tanx only offering two blessing options

Enemies

Fixed Test Subject being unhittable if it is killed while it is stunned by Tanx's Whistle card
Mind Rot affliction now includes Vigor hover tip
Galvanic affliction now says it will damage you in the card description
Fixed Flail Knight's attack animations not playing
Slithering Strangler's Constrict power now triggers after Frost Orb so that the damage is blocked

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Events

Perfect Fit enchantment now properly causes the enchanted card to be on top of the player's draw pile at the start of combat

General

Card previews no longer show up above the pause menu
Cards no longer get stuck as upgraded in the Card Library
Character cards modifier no longer adds cards to the merchant's colorless card pool
Controller select button can no longer accidentally hit the ping button
Dev console commands no longer pollute the climb history save
Disabled Inspect Card screen on game load frame 1 as it may have been causing some issues
Errors in metrics collection no longer cause a softlock
Fixed loss of controller navigation when backing out of Smithing at a Rest Site
Relic hovertips no longer go off screen when you have a full row
Fixed bug which caused preferred ascension level to reset to zero

Multiplayer

Display checkmarks in the lobby for readied up players
Fixed positioning & wording of MP disconnection popup
Fixed state divergence related to Pael's Wing and Dreamcatcher
Lobby no longer shows as joinable if you are in the middle of a climb
Pressing "disconnect" while already disconnected now returns you to the main menu
The Daily screen Embark button doesn't show up again if you're already ready

Performance

Further optimized Smith spark VFX particles
Packed potion textures, card energy icons, and Ancient card banners and flame UI

Newer: 26 Jun 2025 All patch notes Older: 12 Jun 2025

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