Playtest notes 19 Feb 2026

Internal playtest214 entries55 wording fixes54 art updates38 bug fixes33 balance changes31 interface changes2 performance fixes1 content addition

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.

Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the Early Access trailer reveal today! We're polishing up the art, making some performance improvements, and overall just sweeping up some bugs as we prep for launch. For those who have unlocked all characters you'll see a new Random option now! This should help out if you're feeling indecisive :)

Items in this note

24 cards

Deal 4 damage.
Exhaust.

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

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

Forge 3.
Sovereign Blade deals double damage to the enemy this turn.

Ethereal.
The first card you play each turn is played an extra time.

Enfeebling Touch

Ethereal.
Enemy loses 8 Strength this turn.

Gain 9 Plating.

Shivs now hit ALL enemies.
Add 4 Shivs into your Hand.

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

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

Gain 4 Block.
At the start of the next 2 turns, Channel 1 Lightning.

Deal 10 damage.
Double the enemy's Vulnerable.
Exhaust.

Whenever you play a card this turn, apply 3 Doom to the enemy.

If you play 5 or more cards in a turn, draw 1 card at the start of your next turn.

Sovereign Blade now gains 10 Block.

Forge 9.
Next turn, gain .

Whenever you apply Doom, gain 2 Block.

Sleight of Flesh

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

Weak enemies take double damage from Attacks.

Apply 3 Vulnerable.
Exhaust.

Deal 7 damage.
Forge 7.

Relics, potions and powers

Enemies and events

Content

In the final encounter with The Architect, the player now attacks before being attacked back

Balance

General

The 7th card reward you receive on your first-ever run now contains Tremble instead of Molten Fist

Ironclad

Nerfed Eternal Armor card: Plating decreased from 9(11) -> 7(9)

Regent

Nerfed BEGONE! card: damage decreased from 6(7) -> 4(5)
Nerfed Cloak of Stars card: Block decreased from 8(11) -> 7(10)
Nerfed Conqueror card: Forge decreased from 6(9) -> 3(5)
Nerfed Pale Blue Dot card: trigger threshold increased from 4 -> 5
Nerfed Wrought in War card: Forge decreased from 8 -> 5
Nerfed Parry card:
- No longer Forges
- Block decreased from 10(13) -> 6(9)
Nerfed Refine Blade card:
- Forge decreased from 10(11) -> 6(10)
- Energy no longer upgrades
Changed Spoils of War card:
- Energy cost increased from 0 -> 1
- Forge increased from 6(9) -> 10(15)

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Potions & Relics

Changed Old Coin, Molten Egg, Frozen Egg, and Toxic Egg relics: no longer will spawn at the Act 3 chest or later
Changed History Course relic: when it auto-plays a copy of a Bound card, it no longer counts towards Chains of Binding's one-Bound-card limit that turn
Changed Kusarigama and Tuning Fork relics: swapped effects
Changed Lava Rock and Sandcastle relics: swapped effects and Sandcastle is now a Neow relic instead of Lava Rock

Enemies

Buffed Damp Cultist: starting damage now scales with ascension
Changed Doormaker: is now out for one additional turn and gets another turn of attacks in
Buffed Gremlin Merc: now scales offensively with Ascension and applies additional Weak
Changed Leaf Slime: now attacks more often
Changed Living Fog: now attacks on the turn it summons
Buffed Punch Construct: Strong Punch move damage increased from 12(14) -> 14(16)
Buffed Rocket (formerly Infested boss): big attack damage increased from 28(30) -> 31(35)
Buffed Test Subject phase 2 initially hits an additional time

Ancients

Changed Tezcatara's Toasty Mittens relic: now shuffles your discard pile into your draw pile if it's empty

Events

Nerfed Lost Wisp event relic: damage decreased from 9 -> 8
Nerfed Mad Science event: Skill option decreased from 10 -> 8
Buffed Mysterious Knight event fight: Strength and Plating increased from 5 -> 6
Nerfed Punch Off event fight: the Punch Constructs now start off weaker

Art

Added assets for the following relics:

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Added assets for Vakuu relics
Modified the assets for the following relics:
- Driftwood
- Gorget
- Paperweight
- Leafy Poultice
- Ringing Triangle
- Resized Gremlin Merc enemies
- Resized the Kin enemies
- Kin followers now have hair
- Updated Mad Crab design
- Updated Regent's top bar icon
- Updated Run History icons
De-Chin-ified Ironclad in character select button and background
Updated Fake Merchant background
Fixed a minor z-sorting issue in Ceremonial Beast's background with beads and skulls
Fixed Sand Waterfall VFX in the Insatiable boss fight
Implemented animation for Pael's Legion
Made some small edits to Underdocks background VFX
Replaced a texture used in the dock pole water reflection VFX
Added missing VFX to an Underdocks background scene

User interface & experience

General

Stunned creatures now have a stunned VFX when they execute their move
Made some Settings menu changes:
- Added text effects toggle
- Added padding to settings scroll containers
- Shortened Language label
- Implemented upload data toggle
Combat Speed setting is now Fast Mode and is a tickbox
Added a button and icon for random character selection
Disallowed random button to appear if not all characters are unlocked
Added confirmation popup to the main menu quit button
Fixed positioning of the leaderboard at the game over screen for the Daily
Removed logo fade when skipping splash animation as it reveals transparent layering and the fadeout exists anyways

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General (continued)

Deleting the profile you are currently playing on shows it as "empty" until you exit the screen
Adjusted time it takes for you to hover/drag a card in your hand after it is initially drawn
Changed sorting order for misc category in card library
Locked potions now appear locked in the Potion Lab
Condensed feedback categories to just bug, balance, and feedback
Removed email field in feedback screen
Credits screen now has a logo plus smoothed logic and adjusted auto-scroll speed
Credits button is now GOLD
Dialogue continue button is now animated, reacts to clicks, and fades in along with other UI + the arrow is a texture to make it translation-proof
Epochs discovered on the game over screen no longer contain Epoch name spoilers now
Event options that will kill you now show a red glow at all times, instead of just when hovered
Finishing The Merchant??? combat now immediately opens up the map instead of returning to the event first
Fixed italics font in Ancients dialogue being off center vertically
Translation dropdown now notes which languages are well-translated
Ancient dialogues which are not the current one are now considerably more transparent, can be hovered via cursor (sorry controller peeps)
Added controller selection reticle to feedback screen
Added selection reticle when hovering over Epoch slots via controller

Multiplayer

Players can no longer throw the fruit juice potion at an ally outside of combat

Modding

Created a shortcut for adding content to pools (see ModHelper class)

Writing

Renamed the following relics:
- Enormous Ring -> Bone Flute
- Master's Teachings -> Ivory Tile
- Top Hat -> Bowler Hat
- Flashlight -> Candelabra
- Nye Shroud -> Chandelier
- Laughing Stone -> Demon Tongue
- My Mantle -> Galactic Dust
- Lightbulb -> Lava Lamp
- Starter Pack -> Lost Coffer
- Pael's Lamp -> Pael's Blood
- Fishing Rod -> Pomander
- Lidar -> Power Cell
- Seethe -> Ruined Helmet
- Perpetual Coin -> Signet Ring
- Leveler -> Sturdy Clamp
- Dybbuk Cube -> Unsettling Lamp
- Clipped Wing -> Wing Charm
- Hand of Vakuu -> Sere Talon
- Crimson Pendant -> Distinguished Cape
- Little Ghost -> Music Box
- Merchant's Robes -> Lord's Parasol
- Broken Chain -> Preserved Fog
- Vakuu's Cape -> Fiddle
- Music Box -> Jeweled Mask
- Starter Flare -> Festive Popper
- Galactic Dust -> Divine Destiny

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Renamed Infested Boss -> Kaiser Crab
Follow Through card now specifies that its Weak application trigger does not take previous turns into account
Oblivion card's power hovertip wording is now clearer that the enemy gains Doom, not the player
Improved Lava Rock relic wording
"Throne of Stars" is no longer colored gold in The Regent's character select screen description
Dense Vegetation event's "Nap" option has been renamed to "Rest" to relate it more closely to resting at a Rest Site
Negative event options now use less red coloring in their text
Possess Strength and Sharp Edge powers' names no longer end with "Power"
The word "Enchanted" is now properly highlighted in Clipped Wing relic's description
Updated death quote if you die at Fake Merchant
Fixed a typo in the dialogue between Tanx and The Silent
Updated text for Vakuu and The Necrobinder's first dialogue
Added more clarity to Preon Epoch
Fixed Ironclad's chapter 4 and 5 Epochs being swapped
Updated Silent's Epochs to be sorted in the correct order
Added some credits
Updated translations
Fixed translation errors for the following languages:
- German
- French
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Thai
- Turkish
Removed stale translations
Began translating credits

Bug fixes

General

Daily run always has everything unlocked
Fixed edgecase where Timeline button could be disabled making players unable to start a run
Fixed missing string for two Epochs
Fixed rewards screen getting stuck in a low position if you clicked it too fast
Fixed an issue where spending gold sometimes caused the potion slots in the top bar to wiggle
Fixed being able to hide creature reticle when dragging around an AOE card
Fixed esc key issues between the profile screen and the patch notes screen
Fixed peek button appearing in Smith screen if players opened and closed the map
Fixed softlock when clicking on locked Epoch
Hovering over the Rest button at Rest Sites now shows the proper amount of healing when playing with the Night Terrors modifier
The unlock instructions for The Regent, Necrobinder, and Defect now display the name of the pre-requisite character instead of ??? if that character is unlocked
Run seed is now used for music variant selection to prevent inconsistent bank loading

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Silent

Fixed an issue where multi-targeted attacks would preview extra damage from Tracking card even if only the front enemy had Weak
Follow Through card now properly applies Weak when the last card played was a Skill played via Sly discard
Playing Shiv card after Fan of Knives card while all enemies are dead (and reviving) no longer results in the Shiv getting stuck in the middle of the screen

Defect

Fixed Glass Orb icon in hovertip
Fixed the Hand Drill card disappearing if it would proc both Echo Form and Feral
When Lightning Rod card evokes Plasma Orb, its energy gain is no longer lost to the start-of-turn energy reset

Necrobinder

Sleight of Flesh card no longer double-counts Enfeebling Touch

Regent

Black Hole card now properly triggers at the end of a Star-cost card play rather than the beginning
Fixed Regent's sword hovertip sticking around if a player used numpad to play start dragging a card

Potions & Relics

Crossbow relic no longer makes cards cost 0 stars to play
Fixed a softlock when Pendulum relic would draw Seeking Strike card after playing Hellraiser card
Orichalcum??? relic now triggers at the same time as Orichalcum relic
Prismatic Gem relic no longer causes Infested Automaton event to grant cards of unexpected types or Energy costs
Tiny Mailbox and Dream Catcher relics now properly trigger when choosing the Rest option in Dense Vegetation event
Toolbox relic no longer blocks Bellows relic from upgrading your opening hand

Enemies

Fixed boss music disappearing when a different music variant bank is selected between runs

Ancients

Fixed Ancient event option being unclickable in a tiny spot near the relic
Fixed a softlock when transforming an Ancient card
Fixed an issue with the hitbox when clicking through Ancient dialogue lines
Pael's Eye relic no longer flashes after it's been used
Pael's Growth relic now properly refers to Clone enchantment instead of Cloning Capsule
Pael's Legion relic now doubles all Block gain when a card that gains Block multiple times is played

Events

Fixed an issue with the Game Over screen after dying during the Abyssal Baths event
The Lantern Key event's special card reward's text now fits properly into its button when playing in Korean
The robots in Punch-Off event no longer punch each other at Benny-Hill-esque speeds when you're in Fast Mode

Localization

Prevented Weblate upload from overwriting newer translations and hiding source changes

Performance

Removed lighting nodes for Hive
VRAM compressed settings for some map and character icons

Newer: 26 Feb 2026 All patch notes Older: 12 Feb 2026

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