The Festering (v0.31)

Rot is a build now.

Poison, Bleed and Burn stopped being chip damage and became something you construct a run around — and the creatures that shrug off blades finally have an answer.

NEW

• VIRULENCE — a new Plague rare. For one essence, every Poison, Bleed and Burn already on the creature SWELLS by 25% / 50% / 75% up its ranks. The first true payoff card for affliction builds.
• ANCIENTS ARE A PUZZLE, NOT A WALL — old bones still blunt your cards, taking half damage from direct hits, but Poison, Bleed and Burn eat them at full strength. Bring rot, not blades.
• VOLATILE FUEL FEEDS THE FIRE — on top of its damage ladder, any burn already eating the creature is stoked by 1.5x / 2x / 2.5x. Light them up, then pour.
• IGNITE'S RANKS MULTIPLY THE FLAME — rank 1 is a pure fire strike, rank 2 doubles the burn, rank 3 triples it.
• CARDS LEARNED TO TEACH — recurring rules became KEYWORDS. Hyper Heal, Burn, Freeze, Ward and Death Mark each explain themselves on the zoomed card, so the text can just name the rule instead of re-explaining it.
• THE ESSENCE WELL REBUILT — the well now STANDS on the field after you cast it, holding its reserve until you draw it dry. When it pours, one of the soul-monkeys pops over the rim and tosses the essence to Aldric.
• THE SPIRIT MONKEYS — lingering effects wear the intake roster now. Hyper Heal summons a mitred healer, the Ward posts a shield-bearer at Aldric's flank, and a Death Mark sends a cowled reaper to hover at the prey.
• THE BONE CLEAVER TAKES AN OATH — at rank 2 each copy is branded once, forever: Venom, Ember, Blood or Numbing, and the card is renamed to match. Every copy keeps its own nature.
• FAN OF ELEMENTS — Fan of Knives earns its final form: four blades, each with a 25% roll to carry Poison, Burn, Bleed or a Stun, and each blade glows with what it carries.
• THE WEEK-FOUR BOSS SHED ITS SKIN — the Thorned Colossus is a grafted mass of stitched limbs now, and the Blood Moon follows you indoors: every between-night screen bleeds red through week four.
• THE INTAKE BOARD LEARNED 162 NEW STORIES — every death type in every week nearly tripled its pool of clipboard notes.
• CARD TEXT BREATHES — the parchment grows upward to hold long text, and all 437 card-and-rank texts were audited to fit.
• TONIGHT'S OMENS MOVED HOME — compact chips sit centred on the top bar. Hover any of them to read what stalks the night.
• The Night Cleared deck bar is interactive — pin a family colour open, then hover any thumbnail to raise the full card.
• Hazmat Seal's final rank seals Aldric himself: cleanse everything, and nothing gets through for two turns. Saurian Fang's Ascended bite drains the creature's Poison and drinks it as healing.
• Reckoning holds at two copies, Rotting Tribute moved up to Rare, and the Frenzied affliction stopped rolling on frail creatures.
• The shop's healing brew is MENDER'S TONIC now, and it got its own bottle.

FIXED

• THE CARRION VULTURE IS GONE FOR GOOD — the possessed corpse is the Deathshead Moth now, with dusty wings that actually beat.
• NO MORE GIANT CORPSE FLASH — a dying creature keeps its living size as it sinks.
• DEATH MARK GOT A BODY — a reaper monkey hovers at the marked creature's flank, scythe up, for as long as the claim holds.
• The whole ExperimentZ menagerie stopped shrinking mid-attack — strike poses keep the idle scale, so the body stays true.
• The Bone Mage throws actual BONES — a femur tumbles end over end and cracks apart on the hit.
• The Cursed Relic's chest saga ends: the waiting box and the thrown one are the same object, on the same grid.
• The Spirit Ward is ONE monkey now — the old hooded ghost has retired.
• The fog finally FLOWS — the wind was smooth but glacially slow, so the eye read it as stutter.
• Sneak Attack stays honest: Aldric behind the creature is full-sized, not a shrunken stand-in.
• Final Cut carries a true katana — bright steel, white edge, brass tsuba.
• The Typewriter shows its work: every card it upgrades flies out of the deck as a little ghost wearing its new rank.
• Reprisal is SEEN even when the blow was fully blocked. Grimm's damage stopped lagging behind his strike. Void Fracture holds the kill until the wound snaps shut.
• Variant creatures explain themselves — hover a Corrupted, Frenzied, Ancient or Veil-Touched nameplate to read what it does.
• A held card says HELD now, not READY. Twenty-one mystery card texts stopped spilling off their parchments.

...plus a long tail of smaller fixes across combat, art and the run itself.