0.7.18: forty-two lords get a stage, and every boss break plays in paper

10 October 2026 Version 0.7.18 28 min read

Four redrawn lord stages in a two by two grid, each a backdrop card over a blanket mat: Wally's village over a mustard throw, Amanita's giant toadstool over a crimson felt, the Grave Tide's harbour over a sea-green sail, and the Lost Witch's tower over a dusty rose blanket.

0.7.18 went out on 6 October without a post, so here it is. All 42 enemy lords stand on stages drawn again from scratch: a backdrop card of the place they live, a quiet blanket mat under the lanes, and the same place behind every card they play. Every boss's phase break now plays in a paper set of its own. The Brass Colossus builds his last form in front of you, and the Elder Treant's autumn ends with the whole board carried up into the sky. Health bars fold like paper, co-op starts in a tent, the campfire is a craft room, and there are three new events. Everything here is in the current build.

Forty-two lords, forty-two stages

A lord's stage is three pieces of paper. The backdrop card stands along the back wall of the box, the mat lies under the board, and the same place is printed behind every card on that lord's roster. In 0.7.17 most backdrops were a horizon with a few props on it. Each one is now a place at a time of day.

Wally's village has its church, his thatched cottage with the cardigan on the line, the green, the Moon and Hound and the butcher's, over his mustard cable-knit throw. Rex Mortifer's Necropolis stands at the Long Night over a celadon pall. The Fire Devil's Ember Kingdom is at hell's twilight over a flame-stitch hearth rug.

Three lords' stages as they looked in 0.7.17, left, and in 0.7.18, right. Wally's plain green field and a row of trees becomes his village of church, thatched cottages, bunting and timbered pub over a mustard knitted throw with a blue Fair Isle border. The Fire Devil's brown ground with torches becomes his red-lit kingdom of towers, a grinning gate and a gold statue over a scarlet rug. Rex Mortifer's grey graveyard becomes a moonlit necropolis of crypts and banners over a pale celadon pall bordered in purple

The Houndmaster's kennel yard is in red canyon country at sundown, over a houndstooth hunting blanket. The Grave Tide stands on the Wreckshore on a sea-fret morning, over his drowned ship's mainsail. Verdy B. Queen's Hive Garden is a spring morning over a hexagon flower-garden quilt.

Three more stages before and after. The Houndmaster's red dirt with bones on it becomes a brown blanket with a houndstooth band and a crimson binding, under a canyon card of kennels and sheds. The Grave Tide's sandy beach becomes a sea-green sail under a card of wrecks, whalebones and a striped lighthouse. Verdy B. Queen's bright green meadow with big flowers becomes a cream hexagon quilt with a pink flower border, under a card of a windmill, blossom trees and her straw hive

The Pale Rider rides into his cow town on the Boneflats at the black noon, over the pale horse's saddle blanket. Perihelion stands over its crater at the dawn after the fall, with the observatory and its refractor on the planets in line, over an astronomer's star-chart throw. The Slime Lord's castle sits on its moat on the jubilee night with the fireworks going up, over a royal purple banqueting cloth.

Three more stages before and after. The Pale Rider's bare pale desert becomes a navy saddle blanket with a red and cream border, under a card of a dead cow town with a black sun. Perihelion's grey cratered ground becomes a periwinkle star chart edged with moon phases, under a card of an observatory and crystal shards. The Slime Lord's green sewer becomes a purple cloth with a red border, under a card of his castle with fireworks over it

The Lost Witch has her heath at the blue hour, with a storm coming over, a star falling and her rook tower under its hat of a roof. Amanita holds court in her Sporewood by moonlight. The Mimic's salt flat is flooded into a mirror at a silver dawn, and everything standing on it is given back upside down.

Three more stages before and after. The Lost Witch's grey heath becomes a dusty rose blanket with a purple zigzag border, under a card of her tower, a cauldron and falling rain. Amanita's dark green ground with mushrooms becomes a crimson cap-skin felt with white spots out in the margins, under a card of a giant spotted toadstool. The Mimic's white salt flat strewn with junk becomes a pale looking-glass with a gold frame, under a card of a white palace reflected in still water

Here are the backdrop cards up close.

Eight backdrop cards, 0.7.17 on the left and 0.7.18 on the right. Wally's line of trees becomes a full village with a church clock and a maypole. Rex Mortifer's single tomb becomes a street of crypts, a bone throne and a clock tower. The Fire Devil's torches become a burning kingdom. Verdy B. Queen's honeycomb mounds become a garden with a windmill. The Grave Tide's black sky over wrecks becomes a misty harbour with a lighthouse. The Brass Colossus's dark workshop becomes a yard of pylons and a furnace under a storm. The Pale Rider's empty desert becomes a dead cow town. Bill the Bull-Blooded's totems on black become a camp with a great yurt and a war horn on trestles

And here is every one, with Wally's village by night and the Elder Treant's wood in autumn, which his fight turns over to partway through.

Every lord's new backdrop card in a three-column grid, each one labelled: from Wally's village, the Fire Devil's kingdom and Rex Mortifer's necropolis at the top, through the Brass Colossus's yard, Perihelion's observatory and the Slime Lord's castle, down to Ossric's barrow downs, Lamenta's abbey and the Twins' two camps at the bottom

A mat is the ground the board lies on, so it stays quiet. Every mat keeps one or two close tones wherever the board can lie, in any layout and in co-op, and the pattern and the objects live out in the border. The Fire Devil's field is one scarlet with the flame stitch a faint grain in it, and the full bargello runs in a band inside the binding with a scorch hole burned through it. The Houndmaster's is one tweed brown with the houndstooth in a band. The Broodmother's silk throw is two blues a breath apart, with a web across each corner block. Rex Mortifer's pall is one celadon in faint lozenges, with the gold lilies moved out into a hem.

Four mats, 0.7.17 on the left and 0.7.18 on the right. The Fire Devil's brown ground scattered with dead trees, lava and fires becomes a plain scarlet field inside a flame-stitch band. The Houndmaster's red earth with a blood trail and skulls becomes a plain brown field inside a houndstooth band. The Broodmother's green ground with webs and cocoons becomes a grid of close blues with a web in each corner. Rex Mortifer's grey ground with tombs and dead trees becomes a pale celadon field with a lily laid across the margin

The same places stand behind every card on a lord's roster, on the bestiary page and when you hover a lord on the field.

The backdrop behind each lord's cards, 0.7.17 in the top row and 0.7.18 below, for Wally, Rex Mortifer, Verdy B. Queen, the Fire Devil and the Grave Tide. Wally's dark rooftops under a big moon become his lane between a thatched cottage and a timbered house at dusk. Rex Mortifer's bone gate becomes a bone archway over a moonlit city of the dead. Verdy's honeycomb and flowers become a sunny garden with her straw hive and a honeypot house. The Fire Devil's pillars of fire become his grinning gate, a statue and a burning sign. The Grave Tide's wrecks in black water become a ship and a lighthouse on a misty shore

Grix and Sift went first. Grix's card is an afternoon town built on top of itself: a stilt lookout, a washing stack, a mushroom house, his keep, a rope bridge, a privy, a patchwork balloon over the market and the alarm gong, over a quilt of stolen patches. Sift's is the Throne Heap with his gilded chair, the lived-in Great Teapot and the boot house, over a mosaic of lilac tiles. A fight against both of them tapes two different mats together. Each stands six toys you can poke: Grix has a stewpot that boils over, a bouncing toadstool house and a banner that winks, and Sift has a teapot that pours out ratlings, a boot with a family living in it and a crate of bottles that plays a chord.

Two lords' mats were redone again before the build went out. Bill the Bull-Blooded's is a great bull's hide spread on cream felt, with his hoof brand on its hip and a branding iron left beside it, and Blastcap's turquoise blasting tarp has his explosions painted in the corners.

Grix and Sift, 0.7.17 on the left and 0.7.18 on the right. Grix's dark row of shacks becomes a bright town of stilted huts, a red mushroom house and a striped balloon, and his khaki ground becomes a green patchwork quilt with coloured patches down one side. Sift's black sky over a junk heap becomes a lilac sunset over his throne heap and a teapot house, and his khaki ground becomes a lilac tile mosaic with a cream border

Phase breaks in paper sets

When a boss hits a phase, the fight stops for its banner. Those banners used to play over shapes drawn in light: hairline boughs, triangle fans and the same ring of flaps at every boss's feet. Each boss now has a paper set that folds up behind it, and something in the set happens on the slam. The title is cut from card as well, die-cut letters with a board edge and a lit rim on torn strips, and they land hard enough to kick up their chad.

In the pictures below the first second of each break is slowed to half speed, because at full speed the set is up and the slam is over before you can see either.

The Elder Treant, The Forest Answers. Two rows of cut-paper trees fold up from his feet outward, a roof of leaves drops in with vines off it, and on the slam the roots tear up either side of him.

The Elder Treant's phase break: two rows of paper trees fold up round the great walking tree, a canopy of leaves drops in from the top, and the title The Forest Answers lands on a torn green strip beside him

Wally, The Blood Moon. Both his breaks play in his village by night. On the first the clouds part on a moon rising behind him and every window goes out. On the second the moon turns over on its string and lands red.

Wally's second phase break: clouds and a pale moon hang over his village at night, the moon turns over on its string and lands blood red, and the title The Blood Moon lands on a torn red strip while Wally waves, watering can in hand

Verdy B. Queen, The Great Bloom. A comb hung off the top strip builds cell by cell behind her over a garden in bud, and every bud bursts open on the slam.

Verdy B. Queen's phase break: a honeycomb builds behind her cell by cell, a row of paper tulips and daisies opens along the bottom, and the title The Great Bloom lands on a torn pink strip

The Magma Magnate, The Kiln Opens. His last stand is in front of the bottle kiln. Its iron doors swing open on the fire and its mortar goes hot.

The Magma Magnate's last phase break: a brick bottle kiln rises behind him at night, its iron doors swing open on the fire, he bursts into blue flame with a fireball in each hand, and the title The Kiln Opens lands on a torn brown strip

The Avatar of Winter, Whiteout. Ice peaks fold up with snow on every ridge, paper snowflakes turn on their threads, and the slam tears a blizzard of white strips across the frame.

The Grave Tide, The Tide Comes In. Four rows of paper sea with curled cream crests, the lighthouse on the point and his drowned ship's mast in rags, and on the slam a breaker heaves up behind him and curls over.

The Grave Tide's phase break: rows of paper waves rise in front of a striped lighthouse and a wrecked mast, a great wave curls over behind the drowned giant as he roars, and the title The Tide Comes In lands on a torn sea-green strip

The Lost Witch, The Whole Book. A bank of storm cloud drops in, cut rain slants down and a grimoire taller than she is stands open behind her, turning its own pages. On the slam, chain lightning cracks down.

The Lost Witch's phase break: storm clouds drop in over the heath, a giant open spellbook stands behind her, and the title The Whole Book lands on a torn slate strip while she holds up her staff and a purple flame

The Mimic, The Mirror Cracks. It stands its stolen body, your own warlord silvered over, in front of a great gilt cheval glass, and the glass cracks from one blow.

The Mimic's phase break: a gilt standing mirror swings up behind a silvered copy of the player's warlord among treasure chests, the glass cracks, and the title The Mirror Cracks lands on a torn purple strip

Wynken, The Dream Turns. A crib mobile hangs over his bed and his dream is laid out as patchwork hills. On the slam the mobile spins, and every piece on it turns over to its nightmare side.

Wynken's phase break: the sleeping old man lies in his bed under a patchwork quilt, a crib mobile of moons, stars, sheep and an eye spins over him, and the title The Dream Turns lands on a torn violet strip

Blastcap, The Powder Goes Up. A fuse burns in along the foot through the wind-up, and on the slam his keg pile goes up in a great layered blast with the kegs flying end over end.

Blastcap's phase break: a lit fuse runs along a row of powder kegs, the pile behind the goblin goes up in a layered orange paper blast and smoke, and the title The Powder Goes Up lands on a torn brown strip

Here are four more. Cadric's court feasts under a dead tree with a crow on every branch end, and on the slam the whole tree's worth of crows goes up into a wheel over his head. Amanita's wood folds up round a fairy ring, and every cap in it puffs its spores. The Cursemonger's giant ledger tears its pages out and throws them at you. The Fear Drinker convenes the Gallows Court under a sick-yellow moon, a great gavel comes down, and every moth on the moon bursts off it.

Four phase breaks playing at once in a two by two grid: Cadric's The Court Feasts under a dead tree full of crows, Amanita's The Sporecrown Bursts among giant teal mushrooms, the Cursemonger's The Ledger Comes Due with a giant ledger behind him, and the Fear Drinker's The Court Convenes under a yellow moon

Simple Ton gets mad on his Trollmoor: the peat tears open from his feet to both edges, every boulder jumps, the crows go up and the standing stone opens its eyes. The Houndmaster's chains snap off their stakes and the hunt runs past in silhouette. The Bloodhorn Warband's mob rises out of the foot of the frame in three ranks with spears, axes and torches. Silvertongue's striped awnings pour coin into drifts along the foot, and his gong swings.

Four more phase breaks in a grid: Simple Ton's Ton Gets Mad on a misty moor, the Houndmaster's Blood Frenzy against a banded sunset, the Bloodhorn Warband's The Mob Answers in front of horned totems and a crowd of the herd, and Silvertongue's Everything Must Go under striped market awnings

The Pale Rider's road starts running under him with the milestones going past. Perihelion's three worlds wheel in along one arc and snap into line behind it on the slam. The Brass Colossus's yard blows steam out of its mains. The Iron Wardens close ranks in front of their walls.

Four more phase breaks in a grid: the Pale Rider's The Road Moves at dusk, Perihelion's Syzygy with planets lining up behind the fallen star, the Brass Colossus's Pressure Release in clouds of steam, and the Iron Wardens' Close Ranks before a castle wall

The Brass Colossus builds his last form

His last break, The Foundry Stands Up, opens with a jump scare. The titan's clawed hand leaves the Colossus's chest and comes at you, its talons hit the glass and star it out, the fingers clench and drag gouges toward the palm, lightning crawls between the talons, and it cuts back to the battle in one frame. With Reduce Motion on, every beat still plays but the shake, and the flashes are toned down.

The Brass Colossus's last break: a huge brass claw rushes out of the board at the screen, its talons crack the glass, lightning runs along the cracks, and then the banner The Foundry Stands Up shows the Foundry Titan, a bigger machine with a furnace for a chest, in a yard of gears and gantries

The Foundry Titan's parts stand about his yard for the whole fight, and you can poke each one: the legs stamp, the hull's firebox draws, the fist knocks, the claw flexes and sparks, and the head's eyes come on. When the break comes, an electromagnet comes down out of the dark and lifts him, a gripper arm and a little welder pop up out of the board, and piece by piece the gripper pulls the old part off and throws it into the forge on the back wall, catches the new one as it leaps off its place in the yard, and seats it while the welder runs a bead along the seam. His mat is now the titan's blueprint, pinned to the desk.

The refit on the field: an electromagnet hangs over the Brass Colossus on a blue blueprint mat, a green gripper arm swaps his parts one at a time for the titan's furnace hull, claw arm and finned helm, and he is let down onto his stand as the Foundry Titan

The Elder Treant's autumn

Once Heartwood Unbound is dismissed, the camera pulls back over the whole stage, his heart throbs gold twice, and the season breaks out of him as a gold front with a storm of paper leaves behind it. It turns his brood, the wall's cut-outs and the room's light as it goes, and the trees that grow and die on his mat come up in autumn from then on.

The Elder Treant's season turn seen from above: a gold front with a storm of paper leaves rolls out across his green leaf-patterned mat from where he stands, turning it orange and red as it crosses, and the wall behind turns to autumn with it

Then a great tree grows up out of the desk under his board. It takes the lanes and the backdrop card in its limbs and carries them up out of the box, through a deck of cloud, into a golden sky over a sea of cloud. The fight goes on up there, with the board swaying in the wind and a crane or a skein of geese going by now and then. With Reduce Motion on, the box crossfades to the grown tree instead.

The tree rising: roots tear the board out of the mat, a brown paper trunk lifts it and the backdrop card out of the box past the cardboard rim, they break through a layer of cloud, and an autumn crown of orange and yellow paper leaves opens round the board under a blue and apricot sky

The fight in the sky: the board rests in the arms of the paper tree among orange and gold leaves, the player's warlord on the left and the Elder Treant on the right, over a sea of cream paper clouds

Health bars fold

A health bar is a strip of paper now. A wound pleats it back and forth up its own length until its end stands on the right mark, crushed nearly flat at the last sliver. Shield used to be a second bar. It now runs on from the green as blue paper on the same track, and it folds the same way.

The King's health bar under his nameplate taking blow after blow: the green paper strip folds up into pleats from the right as it drops from 110 toward 7, while the small bars over his archers and recruits pleat the same way

The War Council

Co-op used to blink in. The War Council is now walked into through a tent door: two striped canvas flaps draw shut over the screen you are leaving, a blue rosette pins them, then it pops and the flaps are swept back and tied off like a pavilion's door while the council lays itself out on the table. Leaving for the title strikes the tent.

Choosing Co-op on the title screen: red and cream striped tent flaps draw shut over the menu, a blue rosette pins them, then they sweep apart and tie back at the edges to show the War Council laid out on the desk

Each seat is a file card taped down over a sheet of its warlord's banner colour, and every change at a seat plays its own scene. Somebody who sits down is dropped onto the base, bounces and waves. An AI is set down spinning like a wound-up toy and gives its battle cry. A removed AI is plucked up spinning and gone over the top of the card, a kicked player is flicked off the table, a closed seat gets two strips of tape slapped across it, and Ready comes down as a stamp.

The War Council's four seats: the host's King with a Ready stamp, a friend's Boxer, an AI warlord spun onto the third seat as a dark silhouette, and the fourth seat taped shut with a cross of masking tape and the word Closed, then the warlords stepping and the seats changing

The War Council at rest: four file cards taped to the desk under a blue War Council banner, the host's King marked Ready, Coral's Boxer with a Kick button, an AI warlord named Pencil shown as a random silhouette, and a closed seat crossed out with tape, over a bar holding the name field, Unready, the Ascension picker and Start Run. A Discord cutout reading Find a party on the Discord sits in the top corner

The Craft Room

The campfire is a craft room now: a cardboard workshop on the desk, with thread shelves and a cutting mat down one side and an armchair nook down the other. The units in the deck you carry walk about the back of it, in at one doorway and off through another. Its map marker is a spool of thread and a pair of scissors.

Upgrading a card is a craft too. Glue goes down on every piece the upgrade reprints, with a line of it on the name strip, the new pieces are stuck on over the glue, and paper streamers burst from behind the card as it settles into its upgraded face. It replaces the anvil strike and the gold plus seal.

Upgrading Fireball: a glue bottle passes over the card, new pieces are stuck onto its face so its name reads Fireball+ and its damage and burn numbers change, and coloured paper streamers burst out from behind it before a Continue ribbon drops in

The merchant's mystery card

The merchant sells one card face-down. It is black with only its icon's outline showing, it costs 10% less with a red -10% sign on its tag, and buying it plays the unlock reveal right there on the shelf.

The Merchant's stall: four cards for sale on the shelf and a fifth card that is plain black with only a faint outline of its icon, its price tag marked -10%, beside the bearded merchant waving, with relics, potions and the Burn a Card service on the counter below

Three new events

Magnet Pond. A miller's family has turned their wash-tub into a pond. The fish are card, each with an iron clip through its nose and a number inked on its side. Steer the magnet, dip it, and whatever clip is under it comes up and swings into the pail. Six points pays out of the jam jar, ten wins their grandmother's tonic, and fourteen means the family agrees you have fished the pond out. (0.7.22 made a catch a little harder: a fish now has to be landed.)

The Magnet Pond event page: a pop-up spread of a wooden wash-tub of paper fish under a washing line, beside the page's story and two rows, Take a turn with the rod and Leave the fish to the children

The Magnet Pond game: a round blue paper pond in a wooden tub on a red gingham cloth, full of card fish numbered 1 to 3, with a magnet on a line over them, an empty pail on the left and a sandglass at 0:23 on the right

The Game of Games. Where four roads meet, a games-master in a patchwork coat has laid out every game in the land on one trestle. The second page is the games themselves: all 22 minigames as leaning cut-paper tiles, and you pick the one you want to play.

The Game of Games event page: a pop-up spread of a games-master in a patchwork coat in front of striped tents and a hoopla stall, beside a grid of 22 small paper tiles, one per minigame: the wheel, the pin-board, the bandit, the chests, the shells, the doors, the dice, the derby, the drum, the rope, the jigsaw, the idol and more

The Parting Fog is for co-op. The fog comes down off the moor and the party loses each other. Every warlord picks one of four landmarks in secret (the old mill, the hanged oak, the chapel bell or the standing stones), and you cannot watch your allies' screens while you pick. In 0.7.18, finding an ally at your landmark was the prize, and the whole party agreeing paid most. That has since been turned round, and the 0.7.22 notes have the details.

The Parting Fog event page: a pop-up spread of four travellers in the fog with a windmill, a twisted oak, a chapel and standing stones half lost behind torn grey paper, beside the story and four rows: Make for the old mill, the hanged oak, the chapel bell and the standing stones

In every co-op event, each seat now rolls its own luck: wheels, coin flips, races, pachinko, random relics and random cards come out differently per seat, so the party has something to compare.

The title screen

With a run to continue, the main menu stands on the act you are in: the Verdant Reach, the Ember Wastes or Frostspire, each a cardboard set with one road for both armies. Your column marches one way and theirs the other. In the Verdant Reach the windmill turns, swallows cross the sky and now and then a fish jumps out of the river. In the Ember Wastes the volcano spits lava bombs and two pairs of vultures circle. In Frostspire paper snow falls at three depths under a tissue-paper aurora. Continue dives into the set.

The Ember Wastes set moving: two columns of tiny paper soldiers march along a switchback road between a cave in a red cliff and a black crag, over lava bridges, while the volcano smokes behind them

A won run comes home to a painted title. The cardboard letters are washed in a running rainbow watercolour, and the armies on both flanks send paper rockets up that break into cut-card confetti. With Reduce Motion on you get the painted title without the fireworks.

The title screen after a won run: the Cardboard Conquest letters fill with rainbow watercolour from left to right while small paper rockets go up from the armies on the battlefield below and burst into confetti

The Discord is on the title screen too, as a cardboard cutout above the studio mark, with a door to it in Settings, on the demo's last screen, in the War Council and on the thank-you note after you send feedback.

Smaller pieces of paper

The commander you finish a draft with stands in front of pleated paper fans instead of a gold oval. A gold fan and a crimson one unfurl behind him and stand half open, breathing. Point at him and both sweep wide with a throw of paper chips, and March on opens them one last time and snaps them shut.

The King at the end of the draft under three pack crests, in front of a half-open gold and crimson paper fan, and the same moment with the pointer on him and both fans swept wide into a full semicircle

A locked pack card is strapped shut. A strap of crimson stock wraps round the foot of its picture with a brass padlock snapped on it and its level lettered beside it, where it used to wear a black "LOCKED - LV 3" bar.

Steel Legion's pack cards in 0.7.17, top, with Legion's Resolve and Bulwark covered by black LOCKED - LV 3 and LOCKED - LV 4 bars, and in 0.7.18, below, with a red paper strap and a brass padlock across each locked card instead

Aim and range rings are cut from card. What a play will strike is a scalloped two-ply hoop over tinted tissue, and how far something reaches is a ring of card dashes. Both foreshorten with the board the way the base discs do.

Aim and range rings, 0.7.17 on the left and 0.7.18 on the right. A spell's red target circle round four goblins by a barricade becomes a scalloped red card hoop with a gold pointer at one goblin. Two flat range ovals, blue round archers and red round goblin spearmen, become rings of blue and red card dashes

A pack on the picker is a deck: four more cards lie squared up under its face, and picking it gathers them into one before the crest swallows it.
A charmed unit that changes sides stands up the upgrade column in Charm pink, with paper hearts rising through it and a big heart over its head that turns over from its old side's colours to its new side's.

Fights

A curse you end your turn holding is played for you. It comes up out of the hand, throws its line at your commander, the wound lands, and it burns. Mirror's Due, War Tax and Searing Brand used to catch fire in the hand while a number came off your commander with nothing joining the two.
A curse played at you says who did it and where it went: "The Cursemonger cast Curse the Deck", "Shuffled into your draw pile".
Lane waves pick their roads at the top of the turn and mark them, so Fire Front, Caustic Tide, Whiteout, Stampede and the all-lane tides show which lanes they will roll down before they go off.
A sacrificed unit is torn in two over a blood circle instead of toppling like any other death.
A unit's reach ring on hover, and a summon's while you place it, are cut to the lanes: it shows on its own road and on any road next to it that it reaches, never on the ground between.
While you pick the card Fireball burns, hovering another card lifts it to reading size over the pick, so every option can be read.
A status that lands floats its name alone: Burn, never "Burn 1/s".
A commander's status tokens hang beside its health bar, over the bodies.
When one of the Twins falls, the survivor's banner reads "Brother!!!!" or "Sister!!!!".
In a fight against two lords, each one stands in its own yard again.
An upgraded keyword value prints in bold.
A Launcher's card prints the unit it launches on its ranged arrow instead of a 0.

Balance

Soulfire costs 1 energy (was 2).
The Fire Giant lobs its fire from further back: range 85 to 130, still shorter than an Archer's 150.
Giant's Brew is a Power now. Every unit that arrives on your side tosses a coin: a lucky toss grows it +50% attack, max HP and size, and a miss brings it in with Madness 5s.
Mystery Egg: Titan Seeds come out three at a time, Rootguards three and Thorn Spitters four, so every roll but the lone Spiderling beats a 1-energy card. A Wildcard Egg always hatches more than 1 energy's worth of what it rolls.
The upgraded Dragon Egg costs 1, and a Dragon Egg can now hatch a clutch of five small Dragon Whelps. A coloured Dragon's card shows its colour.
The Cursemonger fields Curselings, a 1-cost card of eight stitched sackcloth dolls, and his Ledger Comes Due shuffles three Dead Weights into your deck instead of one.
Grave Pact repeats every On Death, and its extra Tombstone stands beside the first instead of on top of it.
The Stolen Name's Hollows walk onto the road you summoned on.

Co-op

The party walks to the node it voted for on every seat's map.
When you resume a council, the host can kick a saved warlord out of the march and sit a new AI in any open chair.
Watching an ally's screen sends only what changed, at up to 1920 pixels wide.
Joiners see and hear what the host's fight does: summons leaping out of the portal, eggs and fresh graves cracking open, every swing's clang, every hit's sparks and a boss's phase flashes.
A lord's field shape keeps its character with more seats: the siege road keeps its switchbacks and the highway shares one centre road.
Ready flags stand on top of the battle log instead of lifting it off the End Turn plate.

Small things

The Train Conductor's, the Explorer's and the Dragon's opening cards wear their warlord's head on the starter stone instead of an S.
Wally's face is redrawn as a three-quarter head with both amber eyes and heavy brows. Brother Clang is a jolly old friar with a grey tonsure, Hew's hood stays on her head, the Lost Witch's hair falls over her shawl collar, and the Pirate's eyepatch lies flat on the face.
The Records page shows every achievement with its Steam icon, in colour once you have earned it.
A plain event page you have already read steps back behind one you have never met, as long as one is in reach.
No event can deal a table with every row shut.
Muting the game while it is not focused is on by default.
The Tomb of the Thirteenth asks you to throw 3 dice for a total of exactly 13.
A pack's level-up in the victory recap is one plate: the crest once, the cards it freed, and the Path it opened.
A relic's pickup plays wherever the relic came from: the Heavy Stash, the Eternal's void, a chest or a resumed save.

This post went out to players on Steam and itch.io on 10 October 2026, and is kept here. Comments and questions are read on either of those, in the Discord, or through the quill in game.