0.7.31: every phase break changes the arena, and every act is a boss's land

20 October 2026 Version 0.7.31 24 min read

Four pictures in a two by two grid: Haldric's castle running the full width of the box wall with a drawbridge down over its moat, Wynken's crib mobile turned to its nightmare side over his quilt, the treasure chest bursting open in a fan of orange card wedges with paper coins in the air, and the Calving Sea set on the Continue menu, a frozen ship and floes in front of an iceberg wall.

0.7.31 is out on Steam, the itch.io downloads and the demo. Every lord with a phase break now changes his arena when he breaks: 13 more lords do it in this version, from a blanket rucked up like a kicked rug to a sea that rises over the whole box. Each act is set in its boss's own land, with its own name, background and run map, and the main menu stands in that land with two armies marching through it. The treasure chest opens like a pop-up book, and the Mimic copies it right up until it bites. The enemy's cards come up big so you can read them, Grix has a new unit that steals your cards, and the King's or Queen's sign wears your colour.

The browser version on itch.io is still 0.7.30. This build came out slightly too big for it, and it will follow once it has been trimmed.

Every phase break changes the arena

When a lord's health crosses a threshold, his banner goes up and the fight moves into its next phase. Six lords already changed their arena when that happened: Amanita's toadstools, Bill's stampede, the Magma Magnate, Verdy B. Queen, Rex Mortifer and the Mimic. In 0.7.31 the other 13 do too, each in a different way, so every lord with a phase break now changes the box he fights in.

They are all for show. Every break still does exactly what it did before (new units, a spell, a power), and none of those rules changed. Once the banner has gone, the camera pulls back to hold the whole box while the arena changes, then comes back to the fight. Whatever the change leaves behind stays for the rest of the fight. Each one is prepared in the background before the break comes, so it does not stall the game when it plays.

Simple Ton ("Ton Gets Mad") rears up and stamps, and a ruck runs out from under his end of the board through the blue felt like a kicked rug. The felt is left in folds and hummocks, its staked border dragged askew and the near corner flipped up off the desk. The board holds the felt flat under itself, so the lanes are untouched.

Simple Ton's phase break from above the whole box: a ruck runs through his blue felt blanket like a kicked rug, the felt bunching into a ridge that rolls out round the cardboard board, and when it passes the blanket is left piled in folds and hummocks with its orange staked border dragged askew and the near corner flipped up off the desk

The Blood Hunt ("Blood Frenzy"): a wave runs out from the Houndmaster's end across the felt, the board, the desk and up his backdrop card, and leaves the whole box seen through a hound's eye at dusk, red and green fallen together into dull ochre and slate. Blood is the one colour left. Pools of it and the bodies standing in them keep their colour, and every Bleeding unit gives off a thin red scent trail that streams toward the nearest hound.

The Blood Hunt's fight after Blood Frenzy: the whole box drained to slate grey and dull ochre, the oval board pale, and only the blood still red: pools on the road, red Bleed drops over two wounded militia near your commander, a faint red scent trail running from them, and the Houndmaster's two hounds at the far end

Wynken, the Dreaming ("The Dream Turns"): a child's crib mobile lowers over his night-sky card, a moon in a nightcap, sheep, gold stars and a wooden shoe on a cross of dowels, and the desk lamp dims to a night-light. As it turns, each piece twists round on its thread to the side printed on its back: the stars become eyes, the sheep become Sleep Demons, and last of all the moon grins with a mouth full of teeth. It keeps turning, nightmare side out, for the rest of the fight.

Wynken's phase break: a child's crib mobile lowers over the night-sky backdrop card at the top of his quilt, a crescent moon in a nightcap, sheep, gold stars and a wooden shoe on a cross of dowels, and as it turns each piece twists round on its thread to its nightmare side, the sheep to purple Sleep Demons and the stars to eyes, while their shadows drift over the quilt

Blastcap, the Powder-Reeve ("The Powder Goes Up") has an accident. His powder stores cook off in the corner of his blanket: a bang, a shock of dust across the desk, and a column of paper smoke that fills the box. When it lifts, the blanket, the desk, the box and his card are blackened with soot, with a clean silhouette left wherever something was standing in the way of the blast.

Blastcap, the Powder-Reeve's phase break from above the whole box: his powder stores go up in a burst of cut-paper stars and flame at his end of the teal blanket, a column of grey paper smoke rolls up and over the box, and when it clears his backdrop card and the blanket round his corner are left streaked with soot

The Iron Wardens ("Close Ranks"): Haldric's castle carries straight on out of both edges of his card, walls and towers springing up one after another along the box like a wave. A moat fills along the foot of the wall, and a drawbridge of corrugated card comes down across it onto his blanket.

The Iron Wardens' phase break, across the whole box wall: Haldric's castle runs on out of both edges of his backdrop card, walls and towers springing up one after another to left and right like a wave, a moat fills along the foot of the wall, and a corrugated-card drawbridge comes down across it onto his blanket's checked border

The Carrion Court ("The Court Feasts"): the vultures and crows in the stands of the tournament on Cadric's card come off it in one stream, wheel over the box with their shadows racing across the desk, and drop out bird by bird to perch along the box's lid, the top of his card and the border of his blanket. They watch the rest of the fight from there, and every head turns when something dies.

The Carrion Court's phase break: the vultures and crows printed in his backdrop card's sky come off it in one stream of cut-paper birds that wheels out over the box, their shadows racing across the desk, and drops out bird by bird onto the box's lid and the edges of the board

The Lost Witch ("The Whole Book"): a gale comes out of her card, lifting its edges at the tape, and tears the pages out of her grimoire. They go round the box in a cyclone and then paper the wall, the border of her blanket and the desk. The odd page keeps tumbling, and the storm flashes now and then for the rest of the fight.

The Lost Witch's phase break from above the whole box: a gale tears the pages out of her grimoire and they go round the box in a cyclone of cut-paper sheets drawn with sigils and star charts, out over the desk and back, before slapping down on the wall, the blanket's border and the desk

The Cursemonger ("The Ledger Comes Due"): salt pours itself in a ring round his blanket, and a chalk sigil draws itself across the felt stroke by stroke, his ledger's columns for spokes and the debt counted in tally marks between them. Wax seals press down at its points. It catches a sickly light that flares each time a curse lands in your deck.

The Cursemonger's arena after The Ledger Comes Due: a ring of salt runs round the outside of his green blanket, and across the felt a chalk sigil has been drawn round the board, a double ring with a hexagon, ruled spokes and rows of tally marks between them, red wax seals pressed at its points

Silvertongue's Racket ("Everything Must Go") puts the whole box up for sale. Price tags on red twine fly out of him and tie themselves onto everything that is not part of the fight: the props, the scenery, the corners of his card and the box, and the lamp, pencil pot, mug and cactus on the desk. Starburst sale stickers slap onto the box and his card, and a striped awning unrolls along the top.

Silvertongue's whole box after Everything Must Go: a pink and white striped market awning runs along the top of the box, red and gold starburst sale stickers are slapped on the box face and his bazaar backdrop card, and paper price tags on string hang off the props on his purple rug

The Dread Court ("The Court Convenes"): a cold bank of tissue-paper fog rolls out from under the box wall, closes round the board and pours over the front edge of the desk. Every paper piece standing on the stage bows toward him. Pale eyes open in the murk now and then, and the fog lies low for the rest of the fight.

The Dread Court's arena after The Court Convenes: a low bank of grey-white tissue fog lies all round his maroon blanket and over the green cutting mat, thick at the foot of the box wall, its tongues lapping in over the blanket's gold border

The Pale Rider ("The Road Moves") already rode to another of his cairns at each break. Now his card rolls like the painted panorama behind a stagecoach, every layer at its own speed, the town fastest and the black sun barely at all, until it stops on another stretch of the Boneflats. With Reduce Motion on, the card turns over instead.

The Pale Rider's first phase break, on his backdrop card: the painted western behind his blanket rolls away to the left like a stagecoach's panorama, the frontier town sliding out of the picture and the flats, telegraph poles and mesas going past at their own speeds under a black sun, until it stops on another stretch of the Boneflats with a great skeleton and a lone tree

The Twins ("Back to Back"): a war horn sounds and the sky on their card goes dark. Both camps loose at once, Haft's red-fletched archers from the tents on the left and Hew's blue-fletched from the trees on the right. The two flights cross, hang over the box as one cloud and hail down on the whole stage, which bristles with arrows for the rest of the fight, each twin's on the other's half.

The Grave Tide ("The Tide Comes In"): a line of foam runs across the floor, the lamp's light turns to a net of drowned ripples, and the sea climbs the box wall and closes over the harbour on his card while the drowned church's bell tolls. Kelp grows up out of the corners of the desk.

The Grave Tide's phase break from above the whole box: the sea comes in over the stage itself, the water climbing the box wall and closing over the harbour on his backdrop card, the light going green under the surface, and tall kelp growing up out of the corners of the desk round the blanket

Every card a phase break plays has its own name now, instead of all of them carrying the break's name. The Great Bloom used to put up three cards in a row all called The Great Bloom. Now they are Every Bud Bursts, Knee-Deep Flowers and Petal by Petal. That covers all 45 breaks that play a card, and no two cards in one break share a name.

Eight cards played by phase breaks, cropped from the fights, each with its own name: Ton Stamp and Ton Friends Get Mad from Simple Ton's break, Crossed Swords and As They Swore from the Twins', Rising Water and Salt in the Wound from the Grave Tide's, On the Scent from the Blood Hunt's and The Only Law from the Dread Court's

A boss's health bar now grows under the number during his phase break. When a break gave a boss health back, the number changed straight away but the bar stayed at its old length until the fight started again.

Every act is its boss's land

An act used to be its region. Act 2 always opened on the same volcano, Uncle Jim walked up the same road, and the run map was the same sheet, whether the Magma Magnate or the Brass Colossus was waiting at the top. Now the place belongs to the boss who rules the act. There are eight lands:

The Rootmire, the Elder Treant's (act 1)
The Bloomfields, Verdy B. Queen's (act 1)
Moonrise Valley, Wally's (act 1)
The Cinder Caldera, the Magma Magnate's (act 2)
The Siegeworks, the Brass Colossus's (act 2)
The Barrow Vaults, Rex Mortifer's (act 3)
The Winterwalk, the Avatar of Winter's (act 3)
The Calving Sea, Calvin's (act 3)

Each land has its own name, its own cut-paper background and its own run map. The name shows on the act turn, at the head of the run map ("Act 2 of 3 - The Siegeworks"), on the loading screen and in your Steam status. Jim's walk-up and his check-in stand in the land, and the postcards in the tips and the road at the end of the victory and defeat films show the lands your run actually walked. Who you fight and the scenery of the fights still follow the act.

The act turn in all eight lands, each a layered paper landscape behind a cream label card with the act's numeral and the land's name, labelled with its boss: The Rootmire (swamp trees with eyes in the trunk), The Bloomfields (meadow with beehives and a sun), Moonrise Valley (village and windmill under a full moon), The Cinder Caldera (smoking volcanoes over a lava river), The Siegeworks (factory chimneys, cogs and lightning under storm clouds), The Barrow Vaults (a dead tree, gravestones and a mausoleum under a green moon), The Winterwalk (ice crystals and peaks under aurora bands) and The Calving Sea (icebergs, floes and penguins at sunset)

Uncle Jim, a squirrel in sunglasses, a tee and cargo shorts, stands on the road in the Siegeworks with a note taped up beside him, in front of factory chimneys, a long wall, brass cogs and lightning under a heavy grey sky

Every land has its own hand-drawn map sheet: a farm, barns and standing stones in Moonrise Valley, beehives in the Bloomfields, a crater split by lava in the Cinder Caldera, graves and a domed mausoleum in the Barrow Vaults. The boss stands on the open ground his sheet leaves for him, instead of on a strip across the top, and roads into a walled-in patch curve through its gap: up the glacier between the peaks in the Winterwalk, through the breach in the crater wall in the Caldera, over bridges in the Rootmire. His name plate hangs over his head now, not under his feet, and he stands a little taller.

The head of the run map in the Barrow Vaults: Rex Mortifer, a crowned skeleton king in red robes, stands in a walled court of graves under a domed mausoleum, his name plate hanging over him; dotted roads climb past barrow mounds and dead trees to the party on the rest row below him

When you have a run to continue, the main menu used to show one of three plates, one per act. Now it is a set built for the land your run is in, with two armies marching through it: yours, cast from the deck your run is carrying, and his, made of that boss's own units. Each set has its own roads, things to walk under and behind, and places to hop.

In the Rootmire, your column comes out of a hollow log, along a boardwalk on stilts and under the great root that arches over it, while his comes out of the root mound and hops the stepping stones across the black pool.

The Rootmire on the Continue menu: standees walk along a wooden boardwalk on stilts over black-green water, under a great cardboard root that arches over the walk, toward the door in the hollow at the foot of the giant tree

In the Cinder Caldera they come out of the mine and hop the basalt columns across the lava to the foundry gate. In Moonrise Valley they go through a covered bridge, seen through its windows, past a turning water wheel. In the Calving Sea they file out of a frozen ship's hold and go floe to floe while penguins slide and dive round them.

The Cinder Caldera on the Continue menu: standees come down the road from the mine and hop one by one across a row of black basalt columns standing in a river of cut-paper lava, then walk on along the far bank toward the foundry gate

The eight Continue menu sets, each labelled with its land and its boss, every one a cut-paper diorama in a cardboard box under a brass desk lamp with two columns of standees marching through it: The Rootmire (boardwalk, hollow log and giant tree), The Bloomfields (giant beehives, flower beds, a hedge arch and stepping stones in a brook), Moonrise Valley (a village, a covered bridge, a red barn and a big moon), The Cinder Caldera (a mine, lava rivers and a foundry gate), The Siegeworks (broken towers, cogs, kilns and a citadel gate), The Barrow Vaults (a lychgate, headstones, a domed mausoleum and a treasury heaped with coins), The Winterwalk (switchback roads, a snow bridge and a gate of ice) and The Calving Sea (a frozen ship, floes and an iceberg cave)

With nothing to continue, the menu used to be a brown cardboard valley on fire, with crowds printed into the picture. Now it is Two Kingdoms, in full colour: a green kingdom with a cream castle on the left, a crimson fortress on a black crag over lava on the right, and a keep burning between them. Nobody is printed into the picture; the only people are the game's own standees. Yours come out of the castle gate, down the road and over the bridge. Theirs come down the crag and hop three stones across the lava, while flaming shots fly between the two.

The New Game menu in 0.7.30 and in 0.7.31. Above, the old one: a brown cardboard valley full of smoke and flames, with crowds of figures printed into the scenery and two armies facing each other across a battlefield. Below, Two Kingdoms: a green kingdom with a cream castle with blue roofs, fields and a waterfall on the left, a dark fortress with red roofs on a black crag over lava on the right, a keep on fire in the middle, and columns of standees walking each side's road

The treasure chest opens like a pop-up book

The treasure room's chest used to lift its lid as a squashed flat picture under one comic-book burst. Now the lid is hinged on the back of the box. The chest squats and strains three times, each strain lifting the lid a little further and showing the dark inside, and then the lid swings right over and stands open behind the box. A fan of card wedges springs up out of it, middle first, and punched card coins, paper gems and confetti fly out of its mouth, bounce once on the desk and lie there. When the relics come out, the chest folds flat into the desk. The boss chest does the same in violet, and the chests in the pick-a-chest event get the same fan.

The treasure room's chest on its heap of cut-paper coins, goblets and smaller chests under a TREASURE banner. The chest squats and its lid strains up off the box three times, then swings back over its hinge; a fan of orange, gold and cream card wedges springs up out of the box, paper coins and confetti fly out and rain down onto the desk, and three relic cards fly out of the chest's mouth and land in a row while the chest folds flat into the desk

The boss chest after a boss fight, under a purple SPOILS OF THE FALLEN banner: a navy and plum chest with gold straps, its lid open behind it, a fan of violet and lilac card wedges bursting up out of it, gold paper coins and violet confetti flying

The Mimic event's chest used to be a separate copy of the treasure room, and it had drifted: it was smaller, it did not stand in the vault, and it cracked open once where the real chest strains three times, which gave it away. Now the Mimic's chest is the real treasure room, so it looks and behaves exactly like a real chest right up to the moment the lid gives. Then the lid starts to open like an honest one, slams back down, the room goes dark, and the chest bites.

The same treasure room and the same chest. The chest strains, its lid starts to come up exactly like the real one's, then slams shut; the room goes dark, a red flash, and the chest's mouth springs open into a red maw full of paper teeth with yellow eyes on stalks and a long tongue, coins spilling and running from it

Reading the enemy's turn

Every card the enemy plays now comes up big, across the board from where it lands, with a line run out to its lane. The first time he plays a card in a fight, it waits under a slip that says "Click anywhere to continue" ("Tap anywhere to continue" on a phone, "Press to continue" with a controller), and the fight holds until you do. A card he has already shown you plays on a timer.

The enemy's turn against Grix. The Enemy Turn banner folds away, Grix's energy seal slaps down beside him, and his Warren Goblins card rises big over the board with a trail of footprints to its lane and "Click anywhere to continue" under it. It waits. After the click it goes, and his next card, Warren Archers, comes up the same way while his seal counts down

His energy stands beside him for his turn, on the same seal as yours. It fills to what he has before his first card goes up and counts down as he pays for each one, so you can see what he has left. The big card also carries the same keyword, status and terrain tips a card in your hand does. Before, a phase card could say "Opens Flower Meadow across every lane" with nothing to say what a Flower Meadow does.

Grix's new Warren Filcher card held big over the board: a masked green goblin with a loot sack over his shoulder and one of your cards in his hand, cost 1, "Flanker. Pickpocket. Grix has never paid for anything in his life.", 0 attack and 16 health, with "Click anywhere to continue" under it. Beside the card hang two tips explaining Flanker and Pickpocket. Grix's energy seal reads 0/3

If you would rather the enemy's cards just played, turn off Confirm new enemy cards in Settings, on the Game page. In co-op they never wait; they play on a timer.

Grix's pickpocket

Grix the Goblin's flanker used to be the Warren Skulker, a darker Warren Goblin. It is the Warren Filcher now. It has 16 health and never strikes, so your commander's Retaliate never answers it. It runs straight past your army to your commander, takes a card out of your hand or your draw pile, and runs it home for Grix to play for free. Then it goes back for another. Kill it on the way home and you get the card back.

Close on your commander, the Queen in a blue gown under her blue name sign. A small masked goblin with a red exclamation mark over his head runs down the road to her, stops at her feet, comes away with one of your cards held over his head, and runs back up the road toward Grix with it

Jim's room

Zoom the camera out of a fight and you see the room round the desk. Its furniture is drawn as solid pieces now, and each one throws its shadow from where it stands on the floor, away from the window. There is new furniture too: an armchair and a floor lamp, a chest of drawers, a map over the bookcase, a calendar, a plant, and a light in the middle of the ceiling that comes on after dark.

The room is dressed differently every fight: the season outside, and the street wears it too; a visitor in the tree, from robins to a kite to an owl at night; where the cat is sleeping; whether the door is open; the curtains, the shelves, the floor clutter and which tools are missing from the pegboard.

Jim's window in six different fights: spring, with blossom on the tree, robins and tulips on the sill behind pink curtains; summer, with a squirrel on the branch and a sunflower; autumn, with orange leaves and a pumpkin on the sill; winter, with bare snowy branches, a bird feeder, snow on the roofs and a candle on the sill behind blue curtains; summer again with a kite caught in the tree and the cat sitting on the sill; and after dark, with a moon, lit windows across the street and a street lamp

Your sign wears your colour

The King's and Queen's name sign was always crimson. Now its cloth is dyed in your player colour, which you pick in Settings or on the warlord screen. The default colour is Azure, so a King's sign is blue unless you change it. In co-op every seat's sign wears that seat's colour. The Queen's two small spiky crowns are gone, and she wears a proper tiara at each end of her sign.

The King's and Queen's name sign, 0.7.30 against 0.7.31 on a dark board. Top row, 0.7.30: both signs hang crimson cloth from a gilt rod, the King's with two crowns, the Queen's with two small spiky crowns. Below, 0.7.31: the King's sign dyed in six banner colours, then the Queen's sign in the same six colours with a new gold tiara at each end

On the warlord screen, Spin the Wheel now hangs under the little crank on the right of the stage.

The Choose Your Warlord screen: seven cardboard warlords on a round wooden stage in a fairground meadow, the Queen at the front in a blue gown with an ermine cape, her blue QUEEN sign with gold tiaras under her, and on the right a small crank on a cog with the blue Spin the Wheel ribbon hanging under it

Every range on the board

A player on a phone asked to "check the boundaries" of Pack Tactics. Its reach was only shown by hoops round the allies it counted, so you could not see where it ended. Now, when you point at a unit or tap it, every range it has is drawn on the board. Where Pack Tactics' reach crosses a road, its edge is laid across the road as a paper chain. The Goblin Shaman's Spirit Rites get the same edge as a pinked line. Pounce, a Contagion carrier's cough, Seismic Steps, Commander's Heart and a Grenadier's death blast are drawn too. The rings for a trap's tripwire, a Tank's shadow and a healer's mend were drawn flatter than their real reach, which goes nearly twice as far up and down the board; they are true circles now.

A Blood Hound pointed at on the board against Gorehoof and the Boar Herd: its card stands up with the Pack Tactics tip "Gains this bonus once for every other nearby ally.", and across the middle and bottom roads, where its reach ends, lies a chain of interlinked paper loops

Thin Ice

Beating Calvin, Emperor of the Floe earned nothing in 0.7.30. Now it earns Thin Ice, and his defeat stamp reads SUNK. Grand Slam asks for all eight bosses. The Full Bestiary asked you to discover 35 lords while the game had 43; it now asks for every lord.

Smaller changes

Hover, selection and focus are no longer ruled round in red. They are ringed by hand in red felt-tip pen instead: a text field while you type, a ticked box, the Cards page's toggles, a hovered power badge. The achievement toast, the Compendium's rows, the run summary's chips and the cream note under a relic or a potion are cut from card with their own shadow and no line round them.
Turn starts are smoother. Card faces after a reshuffle, the roads' outlines and the long zoom's backdrops are made during quiet moments instead of on the first frame of your turn.
Bill's stampede runs round the board, never over it, splitting round the lanes like a river round a rock.
Calvin's lane lines are painted on after his floes land, instead of standing on the bare desk from the first frame.
On an Android copy from itch.io, the game now checks for a newer Android version and tells you when one is out, with a link to get it.

This post went out to players on Steam and itch.io on 20 October 2026, and is kept here. Comments and questions are read on either of those, in the Discord, or through the quill in game.