PB& Games

0.7.33: a fourth act, and the last boss is you

Version 0.7.33 5 min read

Four pictures in a two by two grid: the vow garden with three vow cards around a paper triangle, the final board floating in a sky with paper angels, the same board over a red pit with giants behind it, and a crowned warlord on a gold pop-up throne above a kneeling crowd.

0.7.33 is out on Steam, the itch.io downloads, the browser version and the demo. It adds a fourth act. Swear a vow in each of the first three acts and beating the act 3 boss no longer ends the run: the road goes on to a throne, and the warlord waiting on it is you.

Three vows

Each of the first three acts now has one marked stop on its map: a craft room, a battle or a "?". Which act gets which is dealt at random when the run starts. At the stop you can swear a vow, picked from three vow cards in a dark garden that lights a lantern in each vow's colour.

A paper garden at dusk with lanterns hanging from a gate. A banner reads A Vow of Fate. Three vow cards, The Inner Citadel, Virtue and Fortune and Divine Right, sit around a large paper triangle whose top corner is filled in orange

Pick a card and it folds into the big triangle, filling its corner with the vow's colour. The same triangle sits in the run header for the rest of the march, and hovering it shows the vows you have sworn.

The three vow cards in the garden. One is pressed, the other two fly off, and it folds into the triangle, whose corner fills with orange as a lantern lights above it

The fate stop is a new event, The Spinners at the Crossroads: three old women at a milestone, one measuring a thread, one twisting it, one holding the shears. Walk on and the page is cut along the thread into a different event.

A pop-up event page. Three old women in shawls sit on a milestone spinning a thread. The text box is titled The Spinners at the Crossroads, with the choices Make a vow of fate and Walk on

Every vow hands you a relic named after it, with a bonus and a cost. They make the run harder overall:

  • The Assembly: draw 2 extra cards each round, -1 max energy.
  • The Uncarved Block: unspent energy carries into the next round, draw 1 fewer card.
  • The Leviathan: your commander takes half damage, and you can no longer Rest.
  • Just War: your units gain Shield 3, battles pay no gold.
  • The Art of War: stun up to 4 enemies for 4 seconds as each battle starts, and the enemy copies your first 2 summons.
  • Submit or Fall: 3 damage to up to 8 enemies each round, survivors gain +1 attack.
  • The Inner Citadel: heal your commander 4 each round, no potions.
  • Virtue and Fortune: your first turn plays your top 2 cards for free, and you take two Curses.
  • Divine Right: +1 max energy, lose half your max HP.

Swearing at a war stop also makes that battle's commander tougher.

The Road to the Throne

With all three vows sworn, the act 3 boss turns the act instead of ending the run. Uncle Jim checks in one last time with a relic from a new pool, and a short straight road runs up to the throne. The mirror's army camps along it, one camp for every pack it carries, and at the top the road splits down the middle and swings open like a pair of doors.

The fourth act's map, a dark blue chart titled The Road to the Throne, with a dotted path running straight up past lit lanterns, bare trees and two camps of paper soldiers beside the road
The warlord walks up the chart to a pillared hall at the top. The chart splits down the road and opens like two doors onto the desk, and a midnight blue mat with a figure eight of roads is let down onto it

The last boss is the build that beat act 3: your own warlord, packs, deck, relics and Powers, played as a seat across the board. Its relics and Powers hang along the top right so you can see what it has.

Heaven or the Pit

The final fight has no phase breaks. Instead the arena swings with the two sides' health. When you are winning, the board rises into a sky with angels at its edges. When you are losing, the desk cracks and the board drops into a red pit with giants standing round the rim. It has its own song, Heaven or the Pit.

The figure eight board floating in a bright sky of clouds, with paper angels holding a sword and a bow at the edges and a hand of cards along the bottom
The same board over a red glowing pit, with dark giants with glowing eyes standing behind it
The board swinging from the sky back down onto the blue desk, cracks of red light running across the desk, and then the board dropping into the red pit

In co-op the whole party makes each vow choice together, and the throne seats one mirror for every player.

A co-op final fight on a wide board with four mirror commanders at the far end, one for each player, and a hand of cards along the bottom

How it ends

Win, and the pop-up book tells it. As each act's boss goes over, that act's vow banner is flung up over the back wall of its land and swings down to hang in the middle. Then one voiced scene shows the government your three vows made. There are 27 of them, and winning the fourth act at all earns the Know Thyself achievement.

The pop-up book's road. Three land panels stand along the back, each with a vow banner hanging in its middle, and the warlord stands on the road in front of them
A gold pop-up throne on a stepped temple, with the warlord crowned on it, two gold guards beside it, and a crowd of paper people kneeling below

Lose on the throne and you get a defeat film of your own.

Also in this update

  • A spell that marks a spot goes off as soon as it has been shown, at the top of your turn, with no countdown.
  • Zoomed out past the fight, a click no longer picks up a card you cannot see.
  • Smaller phase breaks play their stomp and cards over the running fight instead of pausing it.
  • A lord's opening turn is no longer one energy short.
  • Acorn Cache gives +5 commander max HP after every battle, instead of +30 when you pick it up.
  • Failed Experiment summons 2 bodies instead of 1.
  • Magma Brute's death crack hits for 5 instead of 1 and reaches much further.
  • Flamechain leaps further, and chain spells show their reach as a ring on the ground.
  • The male Cyborg wears every pack as himself.
  • The Clanholds' tug-of-war rope looks like a rope.
  • Uncle Jim's five least-picked send-off gifts were retuned.
  • Keeper of Three Doors no longer tells you that switching wins two times in three.

This post went out to players on Steam and itch.io on 23 October 2026, and is kept here. Comments and questions are read on either of those, in the Discord, or through the quill in game.