This is the monthly update build for April 2026. Most of my work this month was on fleshing out characters for Chapter 4 and making more content for the ARG. For those not interested in the ARG we have some penguin animations you can see below and while these little dudes are unnamed right now they have enough personality that I am making them into primary characters in Chapter 4. For ARG solvers there have been three teams that hit the time-gate and I have now added more puzzles for them. Good Luck!
- Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
- English is the only language past the Mossbacks.
- The Aspects fight is missing polish and mini-games.
Known Issues
- The ARG has been greatly expanded. Three teams solved the available content in this last month and hit the time-gate. The ARG is a massive set of cryptographic puzzles that start on the website and continue throughout the game unlocking additional content and routes. If you'd like to start it yourself you can find it on https://gopiratesoftware.com/games/Heartbound/ by clicking the crack in the bottom right corner. To see where the general community is you can also find their wiki here. https://heartbound.pirate.wiki/ARG
- For those stuck on the current ARG step here is a hint for you. Digging through the trash can be difficult if you don't know what you're looking for. You already used the needle but forgot to use the haystack!
- New animations have been added for a number of different penguins and we're going through all of them to give them style and character. These are going to be used all over muspelheim and niflheim which are the two halves of Chapter 4. As of now these penguins don't have names and were planned to be more background workers. I spent this month working on storyline ideas for them to make them matter a bit more than that. In the past this is exactly how OScar was made as he was originally intended to just be a normal computer. Hoping you guys like their designs and the silly routes you get to experience with them. You can see them below.
New Content
- All dialogue lines in The Aspects encounter now fit inside the textbox and no longer go behind talky animations.
- Fixed an animation speed issue with Shellys distorted talky animation.
- Fixed an animation speed issue with Sheldons distorted talky animation.
- Thanks for reporting these on the Discord!
Bug Fixes
- Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
- There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
- Include a screenshot, it makes things much easier to fix!
Bug Reporting
- Muspelheim pipeworks interior.
- The Aspects encounter polish.
Upcoming Content
More from Heartbound
Other announcements
Patch 1.0.9.657This is the monthly update build for August 2026. This month I focused on the Frost Pipes and Throne Room for Niflheim. These rooms are mirrors of the Muspelheim environments with completely different characters, art, and storyline. I was planning on working on the Slums for Muspelheim this month but I think it's a better direction to keep both Niflheim and Muspelheim at the same level progress…Patch 1.0.9.656This is the monthly update build for July 2026. This month I focused on the Throne Room of Muspelheim. This room will be your first interaction with Muus and will set the stage for the rest of the world. Story in this chapter is a lot more straight forward than in Animus so it's going to go fast. Most of my time spent in this world is in environment design and slapstick humor. It's so much easi…Patch 1.0.9.655This is the monthly update build for June 2026. This month I focused on finishing the first room for Muspelheim as well as internal tooling. The "Firepipes" room is now completely done as a result and I now have tools for localization to help into the future. Also added a bunch more animations for the Penguins which will be used throughout the chapter. Known Issues · Russian language has not be…