Playtest notes 25 Sep 2025

Internal playtest139 entries57 balance changes29 bug fixes25 wording fixes13 content additions6 audio updates5 art updates4 interface changes

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.

In this September patch we're still churning our way through event updates and rewrites while polishing up art, SFX, and animations. Speaking of core content, Ceremonial Beast is reworked a bit again, now with a mix of new and old.

There's about ~50 runs being played per day right now, thank you all again for your playtest contributions and feedback :). We're still honing in on card balance and archetypes! Always open to feedback here--whether you're a seasoned veteran or starting off, all types of feedback and experiences are valid!

Items in this note

44 cards

Draw 2 cards.
Exhaust.

Deal 10 damage.
Vulnerable and Weak are twice as effective against the enemy for the next 2 turns.

Draw 2 cards.
When this card is Exhausted, gain .

Next turn, Summon 2 and gain .

Adaptive Strike

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

Deal 10 damage.
Put ALL 0 cards from your Discard Pile into your Hand.

Choose a card in your Hand to Transform into Minion Strike.

Deal 8 damage.
Apply Doom equal to damage dealt.

Call of the Void

At the start of your turn, add 1 random card into your Hand. It gains Ethereal.

Choose 2 cards in your Draw Pile to Transform into
Minion Dive Bombs.

Deal 8 damage.
Deals 2 additional damage for ALL your cards that have a cost.

Whenever you play a card that costs or more, gain 4 Block.

Gain 6 Block.
If you applied Doom this turn, gain Block 2 additional times.

Ethereal.
At the start of your turn, gain and draw 1 additional card.

Whenever you play a Soul, Summon 1.

Gain 9 Plating.

Gain an additional 4 Block from Defend cards.

Ethereal.
Deal 7 damage.
Apply 1 Vulnerable.

The first time you play a
0 Attack each turn,
return it to your Hand.

Gain 8 Block.
Add a Soul into your Draw Pile.

Transform any number of cards in your Hand into Minion Sacrifice.
Exhaust.

At the end of your turn, if you have Frost, deal 6 damage to ALL enemies.

Deal 25 damage.
Add 3 random 0 cards into your Hand.

Minion Dive Bomb

Deal 13 damage.
Exhaust.

Gain 5 Block.
Apply 7 Doom to ALL enemies.

Deal 6 damage.
Apply 3 Poison.

Next turn, gain Block equal to your current Block.
Exhaust.

Osty deals 10 damage.
Deals additional damage equal to Osty's Max HP.

Gain 1 Strength. ALL enemies lose 1 Strength.

Rolling Boulder

At the start of your turn, deal 5 damage to ALL enemies and increase this damage by 5.

Draw cards until your Hand is full.
Exhaust.

Sculpting Strike

Deal 9 damage.
Add Ethereal to a card in your Hand.

Ethereal.
Transform a card in your Draw Pile into Soul.

Deal 13 damage.
Add a Soul into your Draw Pile, Hand, and Discard Pile.

Whenever you apply Doom, gain 2 Block.

Deal 9 damage.
Deals 2 additional damage for each Soul in your Exhaust Pile.

Deal 12 damage to ALL enemies.
Costs 1 less for each Attack played this turn.

Deal 8 damage.
Apply 1 Weak.

Sovereign Blade gains Replay 1.

Deal 5 damage.
Hits an additional time for each time you lost HP this combat.

Apply 3 Vulnerable.
Exhaust.

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

Relics, potions and powers

Enemies and events

Content

General

Added new Ascension, A10 - Villainy: Act 3 Bosses gain new abilities

Defect

Reworked the following cards:
Feral
Pilebunker
Deprecated Second Strike card

Necrobinder

Reworked Call of the Void card

Regent

Reworked Stars in His Eyes card and renamed to CHARGE!!

Colorless Cards

Reworked Eternal Armor card

Potions & Relics

Deprecated Fyshing Float relic
Amphorae relic renamed to Fresnel Lens and its effect now mimics Fyshing Float

Ancients

Added new Pael blessing, Pael's Friend

Enemies

Reworked Ceremonial Beast. Again.

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Events

Deprecated Red Vine Tea relic from Tea Master event

Balance

General

Changed Act 1 - Overgrowth: no longer has a weak version of the Flyconid fight

Ironclad

Changed Tremble card:
Energy cost increased from 0 -> 1
No longer Exhausts

Silent

Changed Poisoned Stab card:
Damage increased from 5(6) -> 6(8)
Poison decreased from 4(5) -> 3(4)
Changed Sucker Punch card:
Damage increased from 7(9) -> 8(11)
Weak decreased from 2(3) -> 1(2)

Defect

Nerfed Hailstorm card: changed from "Whenever you Channel Frost" -> "Whenever you Evoke Frost"

Necrobinder

Buffed Blight Strike card: damage increased from 7(9) -> 8(10)
Changed Bodyguard card:
Energy cost increased from 1 -> 2
Damage increased from 5(7) -> 10(13)
Summon decreased from 5(7) -> 5(6)
Nerfed Danse Macabre card: Block decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)
Nerfed Death's Visage card: damage decreased from 8(9) -> 7(8)
Nerfed Demesne: is now Ethereal
Changed Debilitate card:
Damage decreased from 10(12) -> 7(9)
Debuff increased from 2(3) -> 3(4) turns
Buffed Grave Warden card: Block increased from 7(8) -> 8(10)

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Necrobinder (continued)

Nerfed Negative Pulse card: Block decreased from 8(9) -> 7(8)
Changed Protector card:
Energy cost increased from 1 -> 2
Damage increased from 10(14) -> 20(25)
Summon decreased from 8(11) -> 8(10)
Nerfed Sculpting Strike card:
Damage decreased from 9(12) -> 8(11)
Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common
Changed Severance card:
No longer adds a Soul(+) to your Hand
Upgrade now gives you Soul+
Changed Soul Storm card: upgrade changed from +1 Soul -> generating Soul+
Nerfed Pot of Ghouls potion: Souls decreased from 4 -> 3

Regent

Changed BEGONE! card:
Damage increased from 4(4) -> 6(7)
Rarity decreased from Uncommon -> Common
Minion Dive Bomb card's damage decreased from 16(21) -> 13(16)
Changed Perfect Reflection card:
Block increased from 10(14) -> 17(21)
Rarity decreased from Common -> Uncommon
Star cost increased from 2 -> 3

Colorless Cards

Nerfed Rolling Boulder card: damage scaling decreased from 10(15) -> 5(6)
Changed Scrawl card: upgrade changed from -1 cost -> gains Retain

Ancients

Changed Oddly Heavy Stone relic: moved from a Darv blessing to a Tanx blessing

Enemies

Changed Corpse Slugs:
Moveset reworked
HP decreased
Changed Vantom: is now always the first boss encountered in your first run
Changed Mad Crab: moveset is no longer random
Nerfed Shrinker Beetle: HP decreased from 40(42)-43(44) -> 38(40)-40(42)
Buffed Toadpole: spike spit move damage increased from 2(3) -> 3(4)

Events

Changed Tempting Bloom (now Colossal Flower) event: moved from from Act 1 to Act 2
Changed Tea Master event's Bone Tea relic: now upgrades your hand for a single combat instead of 5 but costs less
Changed Conveyor Belt event: no longer spawns unless you have at least 100 gold

Art

Added animations for Living Smog
Added death VFX for Corpse Slugs
Added art for the following events:
Morphic Grove
Ranwid The Elder

Audio

Add missing slap SFX to Knowledge Demon's slap attack
Added SFX for the following enemies:
Scroll of Biting
Corpse Slug
Added various enemy death SFX
Added Treasure room SFX

User interface & experience

Corrupted enchantment no longer causes the enchanted card to glow red if playing it would kill the player
Devour Life card now previews how many Souls it will Exhaust
Invoke card now glows gold if Osty has attacked this turn
Creature sort order is now preserved as the death VFX plays

Writing

Renamed the following cards:
Contractility -> Prolong
GUARDS!! -> GUARDS!!! (one extra !)
CHAAARGE -> Crush
Drum Of Battle -> Drum of Battle (fixed title casing)
Renamed the following events:
Tempting Bloom -> Colossal Flower
Telepathic Spiders -> Zen Weaver
The Drowning Beacon -> Drowning Beacon (removed The)
Renamed the following relics:
Pulsing Core -> Pollinous Core
Amphorae -> Fresnel Lens

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Re-renamed "Climbs" -> "Runs"
Renamed Ascension 9 - Ancient's Scorn -> Lingering Bane
Updated text for the following events:
Tea Master
Zen Weaver
Drowning Beacon
Fixed pluralization issue in Slumber power description
Improved Debilitate card wording
Adaptive Strike card now says "Add a 0 (energy symbol) copy..." instead of "Add a 0 cost copy..."
All For One and Jackpot cards now say "0 (energy symbol) cards" instead of "cost 0 cards"
Execution card now specifies that Shivs will only be played on the targeted enemy
Sword Sage card now says "random enemy" instead of "random target"
Toned down some rainbow text

Bug fixes

General

Ambush, Invoke, and Stomp cards' cost reductions now properly apply if they're played multiple times in the same turn
Button color is no longer ugly for some FTUEs
Can no longer open deck view before seeing combat rules FTUE
Can no longer open profile settings via hotkey when inspecting an Epoch
Can no longer use hotkey to close map in Map Room
Colorless card Epochs now include the cards that are unlocked
Fixed an issue that was causing certain cards not to glow gold if their condition is met immediately after drawing your start-of-turn hand
Scrutinized and Galvanized afflictions can no longer afflict Unplayable cards
When previewing an upgrade for a card that generates other cards, if the upgrade causes the generated card to also be upgraded (such as Seance, which generates Soul+ instead of Soul when upgraded), the "+" in the generated card's name will now properly be colored green

Ironclad

Tear Asunder card no longer counts HP lost in events towards hits in the next combat
Unmovable card no longer doubles enemy Block gain
Heavy Blade card no longer intermittently highlights its damage green when you have negative Strength

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Necrobinder

Death's Door card now properly glows gold after using Potion of Doom
Fear card can now be enchanted by Nimble
Shroud card no longer gives Block when an effect applies 0 Doom

Regent

Crescent Spear card now properly counts itself as a Star-cost card
Resonance card can no longer give Replay to Unplayable cards

Colorless Cards

Fixed an issue where Fasten card's detail screen couldn't be viewed in the Card Library

Potions & Relics

The Formula potion no longer causes enemies to deal extra damage to you

Enemies

Decimillipede segment VFX no longer render above map screen
Fixed flamethrower VFX when Mechaknight dies to Doom
Fixed softlock when Tunneler dies to Doom when it burrows itself
Fossil Stalker and Infested Prism monsters' Suck power no longer double-dips on Strength gain when a hit kills Osty and "tramples" over to also hit the player
Knowledge Demon status cards no longer let "show upgrade" in inspection preview
Thieving Hopper monster no longer shows the Merchant card removal animation when it steals your card
Exoskeleton's Hard to Kill power now calculates the correct damage preview on attacks when the Exoskeleton also has Vulnerable

Events

Fixed run history for the Round Tea Party event's "Pick a Fight" choice
Stone of All Time event now properly previews Vigorous 8 instead of Vigorous 1 when selecting the "Push" choice

Multiplayer

Dreamer giving Illusions more Max HP now scales in multiplayer

Newer: 2 Oct 2025 All patch notes Older: 18 Sep 2025

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