Playtest notes 5 Feb 2026
Internal playtest114 entries39 bug fixes23 balance changes21 interface changes13 art updates10 wording fixes4 content additions2 audio updates2 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.
Welcome to the first patch of February 2026! This one is more medium-sized, with a few balance and logic changes, a couple of reworks, and some art and UI additions.
Items in this note
42 cards
Relics, potions and powers
Art of War
Astrolabe
Big Mushroom
Bone Tea
Brilliant Scarf
Dexterity Potion
Dragon Fruit
Fragrant Mushroom
Hand Drill
Intimidating Helmet
Looming Fruit
Meat Cleaver
New Leaf
Orrery
Pael's Legion
Permafrost
Phylactery Unbound
Planisphere
Potion of Binding
Scroll Boxes
Sea Glass
Silver Crucible
Stone Humidifier
Tough Bandages
Tuning Fork
Vambrace
Yummy Cookie
Strength
Doom
Chains of Binding
Dexterity
Energy Next Turn
Hex
Infested
Mayhem
Poison
ThornsEnemies and events
Content
Silent
- Added returning card from StS1, Expertise
- Deprecated Graceful card
Necrobinder
- Reworked Countdown card
Regent
- Reworked Black Hole card
Balance
Ironclad
- Changed Grapple card: now applies a debuff to the enemy instead of a buff to the player
Defect
- Changed Signal Boost card: when played twice, it now doubles the next two Powers played, rather than increasing the doubling to tripling
Necrobinder
- Osty now uses the player's block when he is dealt damage directly (for example, when using an Osty attack on an enemy with Thorns)
- Buffed Bodyguard card: Summon increased from 4(6) -> 5(7)
- Nerfed Calcify card: damage decreased from 5(7) -> 4(6)
- Changed Friendship card:
- Buffed Unleash card: base damage increased from 5(8) -> 6(9)
Potions & Relics
- Changed Vambrace relic: now doubles Block gain from Melancholy card again
- Changed Dragon Fruit and Planisphere relics: no longer appear after the Act 3 treasure chest
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Enemies
- When playing Hellraiser card against the Queen boss, Strikes are now auto-played before Chains of Binding power afflicts them with Bound, meaning they no longer count as the Bound card played this turn
- Nerfed Knowledge Demon: Ponder move Strength gain decreased from 3(4) -> 2(3)
- Nerfed Magi Knight: Bomb move damage decreased from 40(45) -> 35(40)
- Buffed Spectral Knight:
- Soul Slash move damage increased from 13(15) -> 15(17)
- Now always does Soul Slash after Hex move
Ancients
- Nerfed Neow's Fury card: no longer heals HP
- Changed Vakuu's Potential blessing:
- Can no longer give 2 of the same curse
- Can no longer give Greed curse
Events
- Changed Hungry for Mushrooms event: relics now modify your HP by static amounts instead of percentage-based amounts (Big Mushroom gives you 20 max HP instead of 25% and Fragrant Mushroom makes you lose 15 HP instead of 20%)
Art
- Added Infested Boss art (rename coming soon)
- Added portrait art for the following cards:
- Changed Dexterity Potion asset color to green
- Added Minion Dive Bomb VFX
- Added Underdocks Rest Site background art and VFX
- Added Underdocks map asset
- Added new placeholder art for Nonupeipe and Vakuu Ancients
Audio
- Added Dagger Spray SFX
- Added Owl Magistrate SFX
User interface & experience
General
- Added input remapping
- Added Cook Rest Site icon
- Updated patch notes icon to be high-res
- Added pause menu open/close SFX
- Added the ability to launch the game without mods
- Added support for European and Latin American Spanish
- The game now defaults to the current Steam UI language
- Added Power Saving Mode with paused banner
- Added controller support for map drawing
- Updated eraser tool hotspot so that it erases more cleanly
- When the Forge hovertip is shown, the Retain hovertip is now shown along with it
Necrobinder
- Eidolon card now glows gold if you have 9+ other cards in your hand
- Invoke card now applies the Energy Next Turn power instead of the effect being part of the Invoke power
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Potions & Relics
- Relic icons are now only grayed out if their effect is used up for the entire run (for example, after Bone Tea relic upgrades your starting hand next combat)
- Added Cook tooltip to Meat Cleaver relic
Enemies
- Two-Tailed Rats now spawn closer to the right side of the screen
Ancients
- Ancient event choices now display the relic they will give you
- Yummy Cookie relic now switches which character it shows based on the local character
Multiplayer
- Closing the map no longer removes your vote for the next node
- Hovering over cards in hand when it's not your turn now displays them fully
- Multiplayer vote icons now utilize an outline asset rather than a shader
Writing
- Renamed Forever Ice relic -> Permafrost
- Renamed Screamer Pod potion -> Potion of Binding
- Astrolabe and New Leaf relic descriptions now say "Transform cards" instead of "Choose and Transform cards"
- Effects that set a card's energy AND star costs to free now say "free to play" instead of "cost 0 Energy"
- Fixed ordering of effects in Convergence card description
- Forbidden Grimoire card now specifies that its card removal is optional
- More relics with "Upon pickup" effects now include "Upon pickup" in their descriptions
- Orrery relic description now says "Gain card rewards" instead of "Choose and add cards to your deck"
- Reaper Form and Lethality card wording changed to imply Osty attacks also benefit
- Removed character spoilers in character select screen
Bug fixes
General
- Players can now alt-enter from anywhere
- Card type label now auto-sizes to fit longer translations
- Fixed delay when game unpauses after regaining focus
- Fixed issues with game window only partially fullscreen-ing
- Fixed crash related to Korean text font
- Fixed an issue where cards' displayed types (Attack, Skill, etc.), some settings menu text, and the "View Upgrades" label in various card selection screens stayed in English after switching languages
- Fixed a softlock that would occur after starting a fresh profile and abandoning your first run before entering the first point on the map
- Fixed not being able to left click to preview card when you hit right click first
- The history of the combat you were killed in no longer states it lasted "0 turns" in the Run History
- Hovertips no longer overlap with option buttons in combat-style events
- Poison and Doom health bars now show correct proportions
- Strength and other in-combat value modifiers are now properly included in the values shown on in-combat card upgrade previews from effects like Armaments card
- You no longer see relic tooltips for unknown relics in the Compendium
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Ironclad
- When Stomp card is played after Juggling card, its clones now properly receive the cost reduction from itself being played
Silent
- Moved Tough Bandages from shared relic pool to Silent's relic pool
Necrobinder
- Fixed a visual issue with Phylactery Unbound relic where Osty wouldn't appear until after you'd drawn your opening hand
- Melancholy card now properly gains Block from Pael's Legion relic
- Oblivion card now properly triggers Shroud card
Regent
- Pillar of Creation card is now properly triggered by Severance card
- Re-added missing Gamma Blast card art
Colorless Cards
- Entropy card can no longer transform status cards into Disintegration, Mind Rot, Sloth, or Waste Away cards
- Fisticuffs card now properly includes overkill damage in its Block gain calculation
Potions & Relics
- Art of War relic now properly disables Energy gain for the turn when an effect like Mayhem auto-plays an attack on turn start
- Added missing relic icons for Looming Fruit and Sea Glass relics
- Hand Drill relic now properly triggers when breaking an enemy's block with non-attack damage
- Intimidating Helmet relic no longer triggers when playing normally-2+ Energy cost cards whose costs have been reduced to 1 or 0 by global effects like Pounce
- Tuning Fork relic no longer triggers when Mayhem power autoplays an attack the turn after you've played 2 attacks
Enemies
- Interrupting Insatiable's Salivate move no longer makes sand VFX continuously play
Ancients
- Vakuu's Beauty blessing now includes Eternal hovertip
- Nonupeipe's Brilliant Scarf relic no longer counts autoplayed cards towards the cards played this turn
- Neow's Fury card now shows up in the Compendium
- Neow's Scroll Boxes relic hovertip now properly mentions that the player loses all Gold upon pickup
- Treasure rooms no longer give the player Gold if they have Neow's Silver Crucible relic
Events
- Luminous Choir event can no longer appear if the player can't afford the "Offer Tribute" option
- Selecting the Nap option at Dense Vegetation event no longer causes you to lose 5 max HP when you have the Night Terrors modifier
- Selecting the Nap option at Dense Vegetation event now properly triggers Stone Humidifier relic
Multiplayer
Performance
- Compressed map assets
- Made various other performance improvements

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Osty
Knowledge Demon
Magi Knight
Owl Magistrate
Queen
Spectral Knight
The Insatiable