The Children of Engine, the Shadow Traders Association, and the Central Supply Bureau were broadly useful to the point that they could be recruited regardless of which synergy you were pursuing. By using the Children of Engine and the Shadow Traders Association to acquire Artifacts, then reducing the cycle down to 1 second with the Central Supply Bureau, it was possible to clear the game easily with virtually any deck.
Clearing the game easily with any deck is not a problem in itself. However, when a specific synergy becomes so strong that everyone ends up using only that synergy, the game stops being fun.
These changes are not permanent. With this patch, we will closely monitor the win rates of the three synergies below and make further, broader adjustments based on the data. The next balance update might even come sooner than expected!
In the short term, the “power spike” feeling when completing a synergy may feel a bit weaker. However, from the perspective of the game’s long-term health, balance adjustments across synergies are essential, and we ask for your understanding. Trust us—by the time of full release, the game will be in a much better state than it is now.
Now then, let’s take a look at the changes!
Balance
Synergies
Children of Engine
When receiving an Artifact, the required Faith now increases by 20. When refusing an Artifact, the required Faith decreases by 30.
The chance for higher-quality Artifacts to appear has been increased.
Developer Comment:
The core concept of the Children of Engine was to allow players to obtain more Artifacts than other synergies, but in a “random” way. However, this was never meant to imply access to every Artifact. By increasing the Faith requirement each time an Artifact is acquired, we aim to make monopolizing all Artifacts more difficult, while adjusting acquisition probabilities to preserve as much of the synergy’s power as possible.
Shadow Traders Association
Each reroll now increases the reroll cost. Purchasing an Artifact resets the reroll cost.
The overall power of shop Artifacts has been increased.
The overall chance for higher-quality goods to appear in the shop has been increased.
Developer Comment:
This change follows the same philosophy as the Children of Engine. The Shadow Traders Association was designed as another synergy capable of acquiring many Artifacts, differentiated by the ability to see and choose Artifacts, as well as purchase trains to quickly strengthen synergies. We also wanted players to enhance the synergy itself through shop purchases. However, with a fixed reroll cost, repeatedly rerolling until the desired Artifact appears can feel tedious. Instead, we aim to lower the floor while opening up the ceiling by adjusting the synergy in a way that rewards commitment.
Fuel and Hammer Brotherhood
Fuel and Hammer Brotherhood (7): When producing Happiness, produce 6 additional times → produce 5 additional times.
Fuel and Hammer Brotherhood (9): When producing Happiness, produce 12 additional times → produce 10 additional times.
Developer Comment:
Many players dislike the Fuel and Hammer Brotherhood… but in truth, it is an extremely powerful faction! Since we do not want any single faction to become overwhelmingly dominant, we are applying a slight nerf to better balance it.
Culture
Culture (2): Happiness +4 → Happiness +5
Culture (3): Happiness +8 (unchanged)
Culture (4): Happiness +12 → Happiness +13
Culture (5): Happiness +17 → Happiness +20
Culture (6): Happiness +24 → Happiness +29
Culture (7): Happiness +37 → Happiness +40
Guild of Explorers
Exploration Log 140: For each 1% bonus movement speed, Happiness production of Guild of Explorers trains increases by 3% → 4%.
Exploration Log 700: Instead, for every 10 Exploration Records, Happiness production of Guild of Explorers trains increases by 3% → 4%.
Exploration Log 999: For each 1% bonus movement speed, Happiness production of Guild of Explorers trains increases by 7% → 10%.
Exploration Log 1440: Instead, for every 10 Exploration Records, Happiness production of Guild of Explorers trains increases by 5% → 7%.
Developer Comment:
The Guild of Explorers functions reasonably well even with as few as four units, but felt lacking when used on its own. Pairing it with Press improved performance, but the efficiency did not justify the large number of slots required. We are slightly improving its performance and will observe how things develop.
Artifacts
Silver
Old Speaker: Removed.
Old Pottery: All trains’ Happiness production +4%, Movement Speed -1% → All trains’ Happiness production +5%, Movement Speed -1%.
Gold
Invisible Hand: Gold → Platinum.
Fruit of Endurance: Gold → Platinum.
Crunch Mode: Removed.
Black Card: All items sold by the Shadow Traders Association are 15% cheaper → 25% cheaper.
Platinum
Blood and Sweat: Platinum → Gold.
Grand Unification: All trains’ Happiness production +0%. This value increases by 12% per active Bronze synergy → All trains’ Happiness production -40%. This value increases by 25% per active Bronze synergy.
Special
Tailcar Reconstruction Treaty: If no Slum Car is placed, all trains’ final Happiness production -20%
→ If no Slum Car is placed, all trains’ final Happiness production -40%.
→ Additionally, the Tailcar Reconstruction Treaty will now only appear in the Status tab when no Slum Car is placed.
Plague Outbreak: All trains’ final Happiness production -30% → -40%.
Irritable Passengers: Discontent +30% → +66%. (Display error correction; actual difficulty is unchanged.)
Game
General event illustrations have been replaced.
Optimization work has been completed. We should no longer be mistaken for a crypto-mining game! (If you still experience performance issues, please report them via [email protected] or DM on our Discord channel.)
Remaining time for tense atmosphere, terrain effects, and environmental effects can now be checked in the Status tab.
Related to this, events that previously appeared when entering a new terrain have been replaced with a notification UI in the top-left corner.
Relics now have background colors, allowing you to identify their rarity at a glance without opening tooltips.
A red dot will now always appear unless a Decision is in progress.
When hovering over buttons during an active Decision, a tooltip showing the current Decision will appear.
Tooltips will no longer remain fixed when receiving Drone Supplies.
You can now skip after selecting a card from Drone Supplies.
Events can now be skipped slightly faster.
Tooltips for the Red-Eyed Statue, Power Cycle Amplifier, and Toothed Donut have been clarified.
Sound effects have been added when pressing event buttons.
Fixed an issue where the results screen was broken on 21:9 monitors.
Victory message text has been revised.
Fixed an issue where tooltips could go off-screen and become invisible.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where dragging during Drone Supplies allowed rewards to be claimed twice (!).
Fixed a bug where, after saving/loading with the relic Chewed Gum, visiting a landmark would continue granting relics even after both uses were consumed.
Fixed display errors for relics such as Tail Car Reconstruction Act and Plague Outbreak that affect final Happiness values.
Fixed a bug where rerolling was impossible when the Shadow Merchant Guild reroll cost exactly matched the player’s current Mileage.
Fixed a bug where acquiring all hand-size-reducing relics would set the hand size cap to -1, permanently freezing the game.
Fixed a bug where the Explorers’ League failed to gain 8 Exploration Records when visiting landmarks.
Fixed a bug where Academy train counts were occasionally miscalculated, granting the Ivory Tower even when not all trains were level 5.
Fixed a bug where the “Uncovering Secrets” reward was granted even when no secret was uncovered.
Fixed an issue where some trains would shake in place as if stuck.