Shop Redesign

• Removed Unit Drafting
• The Shop is now a Reroll Shop
• The Shop Pool is semi-randomised each game. Units are added to the Pool every other round.
• Removed Shop Rank Up button

New Shop Abilities

• Burn: Removes units of a type from the Shop Pool and rerolls them in the Shop.
• Lock: Locked units are not rerolled.

Isometric Camera A fresh new way to look at things or a headache? I don't know. This experimental perspective is turned off by default - you need to enable it in the settings under the "Isometric" option. Even though it's experimental it is polished to parity with the regular top down option. I hope that this can be the way moving forward but I'm happy to hear feedback on how it feels to play! Dynamic Board Size The board now starts off small and gets bigger as the game progresses. The idea is to keep the early battles more consequential while allowing room for armies to grow in size later on. Economy

• Units sell for 75% of total gold invested in them (used to be 50%).
• Unit upgrades no longer get more expensive the more you upgrade them (Used to increase by 1 gold with each upgrade).
• Gold income no longer increases throughout the game. (Used to be +1 income increase every other round)
• Bugfix: Sell price now properly takes into account the units shop price (previously was taking only base price into account).

Supply

• Pawns cost 0 supply.
• Selling units fully refunds supply.
• Supply for first round from 3 to 2.

Other

• Unranked option now available for Arena
• AI will no longer treat all conclusive outcomes the same. In other words: will keep trying to maximise its score even when the game is decided.
• Board largening delayed by 1 round for 6->7 and 2 rounds for 7->8.

Balance Update

King

• Hit reduction from removing 3 to 2 units.
• No longer applies Vulnerable to units that attack it.
• No longer gets immunity when hit (still starts with 2 turns of immunity).
• Damage to King no longer spreads to all units.
• When the King is hit, the 3 highest health units on its side are captured.

Demon Queen

• Base attack and attack gain reduced from 4 to 3.
• Cull the Weak: Targets reduced from 3 to 2.
• Cull the Weak: Damage reduced from 100% to 50%.
• Cull the Weak: No longer pierces armor.
• Only Fangs: No longer gives health/damage now gives +5 Tempo per unit captured.
• Cull the Weak: (reverted) Damage back to 100%.

Demon Knight

• Triple Threat: Cost from 5 to 10 gold.
• Quickening: Tempo gain from +3/6/9 to +1/2/3.

Demon Lance

• Demonic Rage: Tempo gain from 10/15/20 to 10/20/40.
• New - Cruel Cleave: Attacks remove 50% of current health from nearby units (never fatal).

Undead Gladiator

• Base health reduced from 3 to 2.
• Cost increased from 3 to 4 gold.
• New - Spooky Stepper: On Tempo usage, Taunt for 1 turn.
• New - Frenzy: When attacked, gain 50 Tempo.
• Plague Presence: Removed levels, now deals 1x Rank damage.

Undead Knight

• Absolute Fear: Now a constant Aura effect instead of triggering on attack/move.
• Nightrider: Cost from 4 to 6 gold.
• Corruption: Cost from 3 to 4 gold.

Undead Lance

• Undead Remains: Now summons a copy of the Lance with 50% reduced base stats. Requires 2+ health.

Undead Rook

• Cleave: Damage reduced from 50% to 25% of damage (minimum 1).

Undead Queen

• New - Queen of the Damned: Gains +1 attack for each of your captured units.

Ironclad Pawn

• All Pawns now cost 2 gold.
• From 1/2/3 gold for 1/2/4+ units to 1/2 gold for 2/4+ units.

Ironclad Rook

• Base health reduced from 4 to 2.
• Base armor reduced from 1 to 0.
• Cleave: From 100% to 50% of armor (minimum 1 damage).

Ironclad Bishop

• Attack gain reduced from 4 to 3.
• New - Secret Influence: Attacks/moves cast Disarm in an area for 6 turns.
• Orthodoxy: Cost increased from 3 to 5.
• Orthodoxy: Rescaled effect from 2/4 for 1/2 to 1/2/4 for 1/2/3 armor.

Ironclad Lance

• Triplex Acies: From granting full tempo to all Ironclad Lances to only the closest one.

General Gameplay

• Player always moves first in Arena.
• Tempo on Move/Attack increased from 15/20 to 20/25.
• Armor is now reduced by 50% each time damage is taken (non-piercing only).
• All cards drawn per round are now Ephemeral (disappear after Setup).

Tempo Changes

• Full Tempo is now always consumed on Attack.
• Tempo can only be used if a turn starts with full Tempo.

Fire Effects

• Fire duration increased from 4 to 6 turns.
• Fire damage reduced from 25% to 12.5% of max health (minimum 1 damage).

All Demons

• +1 Tempo Rate gain per level.

Augments

• Motivation: Now gives 1x Tempo Amplification (all tempo gains/regen are increased).
• Motivation: Starting Tempo reduced from 100 to 70.
• Inner Fire: Draws a card only once (was every turn). Tempo Rate from 20 to 10.
• Charge of the Riders: Starting Tempo from 70 to 40.
• Morale: Starting Tempo from 25 to 20.
• Smoke Screen: Duration increased from 8 to 10.
• Dust Cloud: Now gives 2 charges of 1x1 coverage.

[ 2025-04-24 08:14:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Active Cards Active Cards can be cast onto the battlefield in setup, providing you ways to shape the terrain into a more favorable position. 3 Active cards make their appearance in this update with more to come:

• Dust Cloud: Cast a thick cloud of dust on the battlefield, preventing units from moving or attacking through it. Units in the cloud cannot move or be attacked.
• Smoke Screen: Cast a smoke screen on the battle field, units can move through it but cannot attack through it.
• Fire Bomb: Casts fire on the battle field, damage units inside it for 25% of their max health each turn.

Chess Mode Toggle You can now toggle Chess Mode at any time during a battle to take over the moves for your army, letting you explore the battle system any way you wish. You can toggle back to Auto Battle at any time. Tempo Rework Tempo can now be used multiple times per turn on any amount of units. What this means in practice: you won't be seeing unused full tempo bars that often anymore since units will be using their Tempo action as soon as they are able to. New Unit Abilities

• Demon Queen's Hot Entrance: On Battle start, sets fire to enemy units, amount equal to this unit's Rank. Cast time 2 turns.
• Demon Rook's Blazing: On attack, sets fire to enemy units around attacked unit, amount equal to this unit's Rank.

UI

• New "Rank All" button added to quickly Rank Up all units of a certain type.
• Status indicators now animate around a unit to make them easier to spot.
• Implemented targeting reticule for items useable on units
• Current turn is displayed on the bottom of the board.
• Round number is now shown in Arena (below Health/Win Trophies)
• Upgrade/Rank up buttons are no longer shown when selecting units in battle.
• Removed Battle Statistics for now (it was not working anyway)

Balance

• Attack Up Upgrade from +1/2/3 to +2/4/6 for all units (price stays the same)
• Health Up Upgrade from +1/2/3 to +2/4/6 for all units (price stays the same)
• Armor Up Upgrade base cost reduced from 3 to 2 gold.
• Demon Gladiator Health Gain from 3 to 2
• Knight Rider upgrade price from 3 to 5
• Triple Threat price from 3 to 5
• Removed Amalgama for now, will return it in a more balanced state eventually.

Other When a side runs out of pieces the opposing King will swoop in and deal the final blow from anywhere on the board.

[ 2025-03-29 07:15:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a while - but it's finally here!

New Battle System

A new battle system was designed along with an entirely new AI, developed from scratch. Highly inspired by chess but bringing in new concepts such as health, damage, armor and various mechanics such as status effects and cleave. Not only are the battles more exciting but the army-building mechanics and strategies have been expanded to include all these new stats that units can now have.

New Setup phase

This battle system is very complex and highly strategic - and exploring it should be fun! For this reason a new Setup phase was designed that no longer uses a reroll shop but a combination of unit drafting and a free choice in which units to buy and upgrade. This freedom to choose units and upgrades results in a fun way to explore the battle system!

Redesigned Capacity

Goodbye old Capacity system - hello Supply! Instead of being limited to a certain amount of units and constantly having to expand your capacity you now get free Supply each round and each unit costs 1 Supply. No longer do you have to remove half your army to fit a Queen in - just buy her and plop her onto the board!

Redesigned Mobility

Mobility now works the same in Arena and Versus - you no longer can reposition units freely! While this may feel limiting initially the result is a great expansion in tactical thinking and strategy - especially in Versus. A player is now rewarded for thinking ahead and countering the enemy's formation. In Arena mode you can now see all your opponents units - position your units for maximum impact!

Did you like the previous version of the game?

Great! Tell me what you liked most about it! Nothing is gone forever and I look forward to adding the most enjoyable elements as separate game modes or settings.

What's next?

After a short break to relax the weekly updates will be back. I am incredibly excited to see what armies people build and look forward to balancing and adding content to supplement that. Now that I'm feeling happy with the quality of the game I will ramp up social media and outreach efforts.

[ 2025-02-28 21:16:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ever since the beginning of AFK Chess there has been one feature that has been requested above all others: to actually be able to play the chess battles yourself instead of the AI. Well, since today you will finally be able to, introducing: :pawn:Chess Mode!:pawn: I have to admit that for the longest time this was a bit mind-boggling but having played a few rounds of non-AFK Chess I can see the appeal. For now the mode is only playable in Arena if you enable the "Chess Mode" option before starting a game. Some details:

• There are no time controls, you can take as much time as you want and the enemy AI responds instantly.
• In Chess Mode the AI difficulty is decreased to 1000 ELO. In Hard mode the AI ELO is maxed out for a brutal challenge.
• In Chess Mode, during a Battle, you can click "Ready" and the AI will take over, returning it to an Auto Battle for that round.

Having said all this the mode is quite experimental, enough has been done for it to be playable but there are still weird behaviours, popular UX features such as pre-moving have not been implemented and not to mention the game was not designed around long battle phases at all. However, if there is interest in the mode more will be done to make it more playable. This is not only an experiment in whether people want to play chess in AFK Chess but also whether extra interactivity is desirable. Perhaps we will find that playing all the battles yourself is a bit too much interactivity but there may be some more mechanics worth exploring to make the regular version of Arena/Versus a bit more interactive, something between an auto battler and a more tactical experience? We'll see what happens! Please do share any thoughts you have on this direction and whether you'd like to see similar things to it!

[ 2024-10-10 15:59:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there! This week's patch focuses on the most forgotten type of Item in the game - the Passives. Previously they were quite difficult and inconvenient to acquire and being small items they didn't have much of a place in the game in comparison to Augments. This also made making new Passives unrewarding because you wouldn't really get to use them in a game often. This changes with the Shopkeeper Event. Each game on rounds 5/10/15 you will get the option to purchase some Passives - each event is randomly stocked! Gameplay

• Passive items are now held in the Hand. They can be sold for 50% of their purchase price at any time. This is an experimental change so let us know what you think!
• You will earn 1 gold for each unused capacity at the end of setup. Max of 3 gold per round.

Balance

• Roller now gives 1 XP instead of 1 Gold.
• Progression charm from 3 Gold per level to 2 Gold.

UI

• Hovering over Augments will now show their full card instead of a weird tooltip.
• Added tooltip to unit cards to explain mana for units with mana.

Bugs

• Fixed being able to place units on the enemy side of the board if dragged from the shop .
• Fixed hand cards being cutoff by shop for the rightmost cards when having a lot of cards.

[ 2024-10-03 19:59:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey! In this week's patch the theme of improving the feel of the game is continued with usability changes. Next week's patch will be back to additional content! Previously most effects that gives you cards would drop their reward if you do not have enough hand space. This was very sad and you would quickly find yourself not having a lot of the stuff you were promised. However with this patch you will now always receive that card in your hand. However if you exceed your hand limit you will not be able to use any cards such as dropping units or using items until you sell away the excess, so you can always choose what you want to keep! Many augments where the effect worked once a round would only start giving their rewards after the first round. From now on each augment choice that worked this way will also trigger their reward when selected. A list of affected augments:

• Goblet of Greed
• Crystal Ball
• Divine Intervention
• Summoners Ring
• Pawn Desu
• Doppleganger
• Hammer
• Squires

• Cards will now scale down in size if you have a lot of them in the hand
• Berserker Tokens will light up if you can make any purchase with them.

Bugs

• Automerge units would sometimes not count as part of the hand.
• Lanista Knight would sometimes not target 2 units with the upgrade.
• Automerging units would sometimes not trigger on draw effects (ex. Assassin Bishop)

[ 2024-09-27 09:57:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, this week's patch comes with two experimental changes that fundamentally change the gameplay - looking forward to hearing any thoughts! In Arena, you can now see all enemy piece positions (shown as a ?) along with their class. Hopefully this change will mostly make Arena easier for new players to get into, and shouldn't hugely affect the skill ceiling of the mode. Note: Arena Hard Mode remains the same: no pieces are revealed. It is now possible to move units back to your hand. Units that are moved back to the hand are Muted and can no longer be played that round. This will hopefully make it easier to start playing higher rarity/capacity pieces without resorting to selling! Balance Berserker Tier 3 Power from 10 to 15. Scream Token cost from 8 to 10. Enrage no longer blocks Pyro Fireball. Hydra Knight Rank 1 gold rewarded on from 3 to 4 gold. Pawn Desu pawns received from 1 to 2. Leveler bonus XP from 3 to 5. Mouth Feeder capacity penalty from every 6 units to every 8 units. Bugs Fixed Lanista getting infinite lances in some cases. Fixed Necromancer summoned unit sometimes not having its abilities.

[ 2024-09-20 12:11:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, in this week's patch there is a new item, some balance changes and a rescaling of the XP requirements for the levels! New Item - Tiara of Sellemaine
Consumables can now be sold for 50% of their purchase price. XP requirements for level rescaled - to a more gradual increase, in general will require less XP per level (see image at bottom of post for comparison). In Versus setup timer increases by 5s, at rounds 2, 5 and 8. (will be tuning this outside of weekly patch in future for quicker iteration)

Balance

Assassin

• Tier 1/2 effects switched around.
• Tier 5 Power required from 50 to 60.

Berserker

• Tier 4/5 power required from 20/40 to 25/50
• Fervour cost from 10 to 12
• Greater Rage cost from 10 to 8

Necromancer

• Drawn units now have 0 capacity cost and halved Power. (Previously was halved capacity cost and 0 Power)

Pyro

• Fireballs no longer blocked by Berserker class. (Still blocked by enraged units)

Hydra

• Chance to split from 15% +1x Power to 15% + 2x Power. (Tier 3 bonus from +2x to +4x)

Items

• Crystal Ball from 3 to 5 units revealed.
• Grand Prize from 2 to 3 capacity.
• Goblet of Greed from 75% to 100% Power to XP.
• Health for Wealth from 6 to 8 gold per life lost.
• Barracks now also gives 5 capacity tokens.

[ 2024-09-12 14:37:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! A lot of big changes this week!

Versus Lobby!

Many of you might know already about the realtime multiplayer mode, Versus, but have rarely gotten a chance to play it. Hopefully this will change as of today! From now on there will be 2 slots to play multiplayer in, at 10AM UTC and 18PM UTC! You can join the queue up to 30 minutes before the start time. There is no player limit and everyone plays in the same game! There will be also reminders in-game and you can queue while playing Arena. Reminders will also be sent out in the #lfg Discord channel 30 and 5 minutes before a lobby begins! This will hopefully be the start of a more consistent Versus experience and a bigger focus on nurturing that game mode going forward - for me personally it is a lot more fun than Arena, see you on the battlefield!

Chat!

To compliment the Versus Lobby a chat system has been added in the game! You can chat between the people in your game and there is also a global shared chat for anyone playing Arena or just waiting in the Main Menu. There's not much moderation options going on but you can always hide the chat. There is zero tolerance policy for toxicity, please report any toxicity that you come across!

:brain: AI Improvements

There have been some AI changes silently rolled out last week, both to improve accuracy and to reduce very long (boring) draws. The draw criteria has been changed to account for how close the game evaluation is, close games with not much action going on will be end sooner while games that are in favour of one side will have an extended amount of time to play (there is still a global move limit however for *really* long games). You can also enable an Eval bar in the settings to keep track of what's going on in a game (disabled by default).

[ 2024-09-06 10:12:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, small patch for this week with 1 new item to bring curses into play a bit in regular Arena! The next week's patch will have a very exciting feature for those who've been wishing to play Versus! Also, I was on a podcast hosted by openindie! We talk a bit about AFK Chess and indie dev, check it out! [previewyoutube=3IZau2AV6Ck;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] New Augment: Spooky Tent!
Balance - Merchant now also gains tokens from consumables on sale. - Merchant tokens required for offer from 7 to 9. - Merchant Tier 3 reworked: Each reroll, at least 1 unit will be on sale. Previous Tier 3/4 effects moved to Tier 4/5. - Lanista Tier 4 is now 1 Lance for every 2 activated classes (previously for each) Bugs - Fixed cards visually becoming duplicated in the hand. - Fixed various crashing issues with reinforcements.

[ 2024-08-30 08:57:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, another weekly patch! This week some overpowered strategies are getting a timeout but also 3 new augments to choose from! New Augments: see screenshot! Balance - Sellutron 3000: From all units in shop receiving +1 Power to 2 units. - Lanista Tier 1: Tokens required to draw a Gladiator from 5 to 6. - Lanista Tier 3: Power requirement from 10 to 15. - Lanista Tier 5: From all pawns turning into Gladiator to 2 pawns per Gladiator on your board. - Bounty Hunter Tier 4/5: Power requirement from 30/50 to 25/40. - Merchant Tier 3/4/5: Power requirement from 10/20/40 to 15/25/50. - Merchant Tier 5: Units in the shop always being on sale to being on sale 40% of the time. - Merchant Offer no longer offers duplicates of Augments you already have.

[ 2024-08-23 07:02:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! I am pleased to announce, the largest content update to date, introducing... :fire: The Class Revolution Update :fire: Each Class now has 5 completely unique tiers that are activated when you have enough Power. This is a huuuge step up, allowing for far more gameplay options and combinations than ever before. Each tier effect has been crafted to provide a crisp gameplay benefit, ranging from utility, economy, scaling synergies, support or fighting power! Update details in the image below! If you've not played in a while this is a great time to get in, the game has never been more fun! :100: Steam Wishlists and Reviews :100: Additionally, those of you who haven't, please wishlist us on Steam - it helps a lot. Also, Steam recently enabled reviews on demos so if you like the game please feel free to leave a review on our page! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2769000/AFK_Chess__Chess_Auto_Battler_Demo/ :calendar: What's next?:calendar: Next patch will have an intense focus on bugfixing and eventual balance adjustments. There's a lot of small and annoying bugs :beetle: :bug: that you've all been reporting through the ingame feedback - this is hugely appreciated and will help a lot in the upcoming cleanup! Even though I can't respond to them ingame I do read and categorise every piece of feedback that you submit! Without further ado - the Update!

Classes

New Items

[ 2024-08-15 17:48:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Lots more people playing these days so there will be a small weekly balance patch every Friday (with maybe a bit of content each time). Work on a large content patch is underway - expected time to release is in 2 weeks! Units

• Bounty Hunter Pawn: Rank 3 sell price per round from 3->4.
• Bounty Hunter Bishop: Rank 1 mana for effect reduced from 12->9.
• Merchant Rook: capacity from -1 capacity to 1/2/3 units to -1/-2/-3 capacity to 1 unit.
• Necromancer Knight: Receives effect from Necromancer Queen.
• Necromancer Queen: Receives effect from Necromancer Knight. Values buffed.

Augments

• Goblet of Greed: XP transmute from 50% to 75% of power.
• Divine Intervention: unit protection count from 3->4.

New item: Recall

• Common consumable, costs 1 gold.
• When used on a unit, return it to the hand.

[ 2024-08-09 05:46:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! It's been a while but the big work on local engine evaluation is currently in testing phase - the engine play is looking a lot stronger! It is not yet available but if anyone wants to opt-in for beta testing it let me know (just a warning, it is fully playable but still considered unstable) The patch is small, just a few changes to switch things up a bit. Once these big features are done gameplay content will be the primary focus. Merchant

• Merchant purchases required to gain item from 8/6/4 to 7/6/5
• Merchant Pawn mana required from 3 to 2
• Merchant Bishop mana cost reduced from 4 to 3

Assassin

• Chance to assassinate 1 target reduced from 60/90/100% to 60/80/100%
• Chance to assassinate 2 targets reduced from 0/30/60% to 0/25/50%
• Chance to assassinate 3 targets reduced from 0/0/30% to 0/0/25%

Berserker

• Berserker Queen units enraged from 1/2/3 to 1/2/4
• Berserker Bishop (Uncommon): Any capture has 10/20/30% chance to gain 1 pawn reinforcement.

Bounty Hunter

• Bounty Hunter Bishop chance to gain free reroll from 10/20/30% to 8/16/24%

Hydra

• Hydra Bishop rarity reduced from Rare to Uncommon

Lanista

• Lanista Bishop (Rare): Discard protection aura for up to 1/2/4 units.
• Lanista Pawn: from gain +1/2/3 XP on purchase to gain +1/2/3 XP on purchase and lose -1/2/3 XP on sell.

Necromancer

• Necromancer Knight from +1 XP for every 4/2/1 to every 3/2/1 ephemeral units.

Plague Doctor

• Plague Doctor chance to discard weakened unit reduced from 15%/30%/45% to 15%/25%/35%
• Plague Doctor Knight mana required from 5 to 6.
• Plague Doctor Pawn class power aura from 8 units affected to 4

Augments

• Blacksmith number of rounds to gain item increased from 6 to 7
• Blacksmiths Apprentice gold reduced from 8 to 6
• Backup changed to gain +2 capacity but lose 10 gold
• Ultimate consumer from first 3 slots having increased odds by 3 rounds/levels to first 2 slots having increased odds by 6 rounds/levels
• Tactical setback gold/XP on draw/loss from +2 to +3

Other

• Added more animations when units move/are dropped.
• Available reinforcements will now show at the right side of the eval bar.
• Replay playback is now tied to the realtime of the actions as they were played. (Can still be sped up/slowed down)
• You can now leave feedback after a game.
• Fixed augment choice popup sometimes covering replay/main menu controls.

[ 2024-05-07 07:07:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

New unit art Some of you may have already noticed that 2 weeks ago the units received a major graphical overhaul. Over time new skins and colours will be added to the game and they will be unlockable in various ways! I know that a lot of you play on simple graphics mode and similar customisation features will also be supported there in time as well. Full Animations! The huge change released today are new animations (and additional sounds) for basically every effect in the game! Previously only a small amount of effects had any visualisation at all, everything kind of just happened invisibly and it was very difficult to understand what was happening in the game. Now each effect is clearly visualised: what it does, where it came from, where it is going and when it happened. Even veterans of the game will find this change incredibly helpful, I myself have been surprised many times how certain mechanics were working behind the scenes. Also: its more fun to see things move around! At this point the limit of what can be achieved graphically with the game has been reached and there is no future graphics work planned. There will be improvements here and there, especially to the UI, but from here on the main focus is gameplay! With the animation system done this opens a lot of doors for effects that would have been impossible to have before! Timeline I also think were long overdue on a timeline of the future of the game. They are not in a specific order but they are all planned for the near future. Game-related:

• Local engine evaluation for singleplayer modes (this will improve engine play by 100x)
• New gameplay content (redesign of reinforcements mechanic + new class)
• Balance changes (Assassin lance+rook combo, your days are numbered :P)
• Non-AFK mode (play the chess part yourself vs the AI/other player)

Community/Marketing-related:

• Steam page will receive a massive overhaul with new artwork and trailer to match the current state of the game.
• Goal to participate in various indie game festivals this year to build larger community.
• Host a multiplayer tournament with prizes, more details soon!

See you in the Arena

[ 2024-04-22 09:15:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Plague Doctor Rework! In this patch we are reintroducing the Plague Doctor class but with some tweaks. PD is now focused around Weakening the enemy formation with some potential for discarding as well. Class effect: Units weakened 1/2/3. Chance to discard a weak unit 15%/30%/45%.

• Pawn: Aura that gives +1/2/3 Class Power to nearby units.
• Knight: Places 1/2/3 plague traps when acquiring 5 mana. Gain 1 mana on each reroll. Plague traps weaken a neighbouring enemy piece at end of placement phase.
• Bishop: Each time you gain a unit you have a 25/50/100% chance to gain 1 XP as well.
• Queen: Discard 1/2/3 enemy Weak units at end of Placement phase.

New effects

• BH Bishop: 10/20/30% chance to get a free reroll when gaining a unit.
• Lanista Bishop: +1 mana each time you gain a unit. Every 3 mana give 1 mana to 1 unit repeated 1/2/3 times.

Balance

• Assassin Bishop: Now gives ephemeral 1 capacity bishop instead of 0 capacity lance.
• Lanista Gladiator: From 0.2 to 0.1 capacity on buy. Price increased by 1 gold.
• Lanista Queen: T1 now has only 50% chance to summon a gladiator. T2/3 now summon 1/2 gladiators instead of 2/3.
• Merchant Pawn: Bond golds from 1/2/3->2/4/6
• Merchant Queen: Base mana from 1/2/3->2/3/4.
• Hydra Queen: Rarity from Epic -> Rare
• Bounty Hunter Pawn: Capacity cost from 1/1/1->2/1/1

Bounty Hunter Knight

• Instead of giving +1/2/3 UP to 1 unit will give +1 UP to 1/2/3 units
• Can no longer target self with ability.
• Mana requirement rescaled from 10 to 20/16/12.

Was this enough of a nerf, was it too much - share your thoughts! Other

• Multiplayer: Creep rounds only appear on rounds 1 and 10. Creep rounds on lvl 10 rescaled to be stronger.
• Multiplayer: Base damage increased by 1 each round.

[ 2024-03-11 16:30:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

DUN DUN DUN DUN What's that commotion? Oh my... it's the Sound of Battle! We are pleased to announce the release of the Music Patch! Arriving in the game are a bunch of different ambient and battle tracks to add an atmosphere to the game. We think this really elevates the experience - let us know what you think! Along with the music tracks we're also introducing new sounds for purchasing units and exp - they used to be quite aggressive sounds that didn't fit the vibe we wanted, the alternatives should feel more pleasant! Let us know at discord if there's any bugs with the music, we've seen(heard?) some weird things happen so maybe you will too!

[ 2024-02-19 21:11:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Balance This patch we are focusing primarily on shifting the balance slightly away from high performing strategies (without nerfing them to the ground) Items Glasses from 1->2 XP per round New Sundial: Gain +1 Capacity during Day/Morning Investor now additionally will give boost your base income by +1g more every 6 rounds Progression Charm from 2->3g each time you level Consumables Bronze Cog from 2->3g Cosmic egg from Legendary->Rare Chicken egg from 2->1g Superior Power Rune from 4->3g Ultimate Power Rune from 5->4g Curses Mutilate from 1->2 lives lost Tarnished token from 1->2g lost per round Augments New Banker: Lower requirement for banking from 10g to 5g to gain 1g (Epic->Rare) Companion Rook from 2->3g on survive Final Resistance from Rare->Epic Health for Wealth from 4->6g gained for each health lost Torch and Pitchfork no longer raises capacity cost of other pieces, now just loses -2 capacity Blacksmith gain an item every 7->6 rounds Blacksmith Apprentice gold gain on pickup from 5->8 High stakes play now takes away 1hp instead of 2hp, gain 18g Tactical setback: epic->rare, gold gain from 5->2 Classes Merchant now requires 7/6/5 -> 8/6/4 purchases for an item BH Knight from Common->Uncommon BH Bishop from Uncommon->Common Hydra Knight Gain 2/4->3/6 gold on tier up Hydra Pawn has +10% chance to Hydra split Necromancer Bishop now summons 1/1/2 ephemeral pawns - first level has only 50% chance to summon a pawn. Other Queen Capacity cost 6/4/2->6/5/3 UI Changes More icons across tooltips Round/Day/Time indicators are now styled according to the rest of the UI. Board size increased by 10% You can now press ESC to open the game menu/go back to main menu Increased clarity of UI elements on board. Bugs Fixed tier up effects always triggering if dragging from higher tier unit to weaker. (No one was abusing this right?)

[ 2024-02-18 18:41:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

NECROMANCER REWORKED In this patch we reworked most of the Necro pieces to increase the versatility of the class and to allow it to be played in much more scenarios. Pawn - Unchanged Knight - On battle start get 1 XP + 1 XP per every 4/2/1 Ephemeral units on the board. Bishop - Summon 1/2/3 Weak Ephemeral pawns on the board at the start of each round. Rook - Unchanged Queen - Has an aura that extends the duration of Ephemeral units. All Necro units now have an Aura that they can pass to other units to allow them to summon Ephemeral units on capture. All Necro summons are now Weak versions of the regular piece. Weak debuff - units have weaker movement options in battle. Ephemeral - any unit with a round duration, ex. Cloned unit. Various Quality of Life changes You can see a unit's movement/aura options when placing it All buffs applied to units now have their own animation. Each buff has its own unique graphic. Unit information in codex now allows filtering by class/rarity. Added icons for resources in item tooltips. Added additional tooltips in shop to detail classes/items and other relevant info on the side. Increased clarity on some resolution setups. Balance Nerfed the Night portion of the game, you are no longer forced to discard a piece and can place 1 row further than before. Clone gun price from 3 to 6 gold Assassin Rook - aura now allows 3/5/9 lances to be affected instead of 9 on all levels. Gladiator and Lance pieces now have enraged/weak versions. Red Rage no longer discards units after 1 turn, it now weakens them for 1 turn instead. Bugs Fixed units losing damage in Multiplayer (credits to @NotAGen-eral) What's next? We are still prioritising additional content and reworking classes to make them more fun and versatile to play. Until next time!

[ 2024-02-12 19:22:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

NEW CLASS - MERCHANT In this patch we are introducing the Merchant, a very unique class focused around item and consumable control. It makes use of the new mana system as well as a completely new Sale mechanic detailed below. Merchant - Buying merchant units or units on sale will reward you with additional items. Each level decreases the amount of purchases required to get an item. Pawn - Every 3 mana get a Bond/BB Bond/AAA Bond that is a consumable item that gives gold. Gain 1 mana each round. Knight - Get a Regular/Superior/Ultimate Power rune rune each round. (Previously PD Knight effect) Bishop - Every 4 mana give 1/2/3 upgrade points to random units. Gain mana each time you use a consumable. Rook - Every turn buff 1/2/3 units with -1 CC. (Previously PD Rook effect) Queen - Multicast any consumable you use on a random unit. Multicast costs 1 mana. Has 3/2/1 max mana that regenerates each round. Class design contest Make sure to check out class-design-contest, your suggestion could make it into the game! Sale mechanic The shop now has a chance for a unit/item to be on sale! On sale units/items costs 50% (rounded up) of their usual value. Daily Quests We introduced 3 daily quests into the game! This system is WIP - we plan to add different quests and rewards in the near future. New Item Mana potion - Regenerate 1 mana to a targeted unit. Plague Doctor Plague Doctor has been cycled out, rework coming soon. Balance Gladiator capacity reduced from 4/3/2 to 3/2/1 Shackles capacity reduction reduced from 2 to 1 Plague Doctor class cycled out until it gets reworked Cosmic egg price reduced from 4 to 3 What's next Rework for Plague Doctor is upcoming. Additionally we are doing another push on more animations and UI feedback to make things that are happening more visible/apparent to the player.

[ 2024-02-05 18:00:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

BOUNTY HUNTER PIECES REWORKED Some Bounty Hunter pieces were lagging behind the pack so we decided to introduce 3 completely brand new effects that we think really pop off. Pawn: Each round its sell price will increase by +1/2/3 gold. No you can't just keep it in your hand and sell it 10 turns later, It must be played on the board for this to take effect! Rook: Casts a bounty mark on 2/3/4 units at the start of battle. Marked units give a 1 gold bounty when captured in battle. This works even if Bounty Hunter class is not activated! Knight: Each time you gain 1 gold the knight will generate 1 mana. Every 10 mana your knight will bestow +1/2/3 UP to a random unit. (P.S, does not generate mana from round/banking gold) MANA Yes with this patch we are introducing a whole new mana system. Some pieces will have effects that they will cast when their mana bar is fully charged, for now it is just the BH Knight but we are excited to be adding more synergies around this new system. New Augment Sellutron 3000: Whenever you sell a unit increase the class power of all shop units by 1. Individual Shop Freeze Units/Items in shop can now be individual frozen. What's next? The next patch will be centered around adding some out of game progression systems and daily quests. These will reward experimental play and trying out unconventional builds!

[ 2024-02-02 20:34:38 CET ] [ Original post ]