The Next Fighter: CAIN THE PUNISHER! - September 2026 Status Update
Duels of Fortune · published
Hello Duelists, and welcome to another status update!
With our newest fighter finally revealed, it's time to talk a bit about him, as well as the other content he'll be coming with! Get ready, lest you face the wrath of...
Ancient Warlord of the Immortal Clan, Cain the Punisher!
Cain the Punisher joins the roster, a fierce, reptilian warrior who combines calculated precision with animalistic savagery!
Wielding elemental powers and a deadly signature weapon in his chain-axe, Cain's goal is to dominate his opponents by stopping their every move before they can even make it! He sports by far some of the largest normal attacks in the game, making him a threat no matter the distance, and his signature lava pool mechanic gives him many ways to bait the opponent into making a move. On top of all that, when he catches you in a combo, his high-damage moves will make sure that it HURTS!
If you enjoy fighting from fullscreen distance and using massive hitboxes to lock down your opponent, while also not completely giving up the ability to go on the offensive, Cain is a perfect fit for you! Be sure to try him out when he releases on September 26th!
Cain's reveal has been a long time coming, since he'll be a fairly important antagonist in Story Mode! Alongside Black Heart, Gritallica, and their mysterious leader (codename "Devil"), he'll force the other characters to get very creative in order to deal with him! In any case, it feels great to finally have him in the game!
Along with Cain's arrival, update 0.15.0 will be packed with new content! Let's take a closer look at what you can expect to see!
New Stages!
Introducing our most crowded stage yet, Paradise Road! Featuring lots of faces both new and familiar, all gathered in front of the stadium for the big tournament! Fun fact, this is the third stage to feature the Silver Stadium, the others being Silver Stadium Lobby and Duels of Fortune Arena. It's a very important location in Story Mode, so no wonder!
And that's not all...
Also coming in this update, the Back Alley is getting a much-needed makeover! Now it feels more in line with our other outdoor street stages, which'll be important to make sure environments in Story Mode all feel connected!
Since we know a lot of people have grown attached to the old version of the stage, it'll remain available as a variant as well, so you really are getting a whole new stage here! It's a win-win!
New Costumes!
Since we're introducing a new member of the Immortal Clan, what better time to give the other two members some love with new costumes?
Black Heart's Parasite costume and Gritallica's Devil costume (not to be confused with the upcoming fighter of the same codename!) will be rolling in with the update, with both costumes being unlocked by default (for now). Even though it's a bit early for Halloween, these costumes sure do give off spooky vibes!
Speaking of spooky vibes...
Miko & Mira's Security costume is the perfect uniform for fending off all manner of thieves, vandals, and/or haunted animatronics that get in your way! Cosmic Hat Games is not responsible for injury or death caused by attempting to fight haunted animatronics.
By the way, the Mission to unlock this costume is one of our craziest yet! So look forward to that. :)
Cain will also be coming with costumes of his own of course, but we'll be revealing those over the next week, so be sure to join our Discord and/or follow us on Bluesky or Twitter to make sure you don't miss those!
...And More!
That's all the big, exciting content in the update, but not the only content! You can also expect to see some brand-new Missions, lots of new lore entries, character tutorials for Cain and Shiverskull, and a whole bunch of balance changes across the cast! Some characters only got minor adjustments, and some got no changes at all, but some characters were changed in big ways!
Keep an eye out for the patch notes when the update drops if you wanna see how your main got updated! (And sorry in advance if you main Azutron, Johnson, or Gritallica)
Oh, and some of you might have noticed from Cain's trailer, but the game's sound effects are getting a nice update as well! Hit sounds especially should feel a lot louder and punchier now! We know lots of people have been asking for this, so at least now we can say we've really done the best job we possibly can with our limited audio skills.
So What's Next?
For those out of the loop, we've made it known that Cain's release will mark a dramatic shift in our priorities from here on out. New characters will take a backseat for a while, and Story Mode development will be prioritized above everything else. This means that Cain will be the last new fighter of 2026.
We are very much still hoping to get the first 1-2 chapters of Story Mode released by the end of the year, and we're gonna be hard at work making that happen! We've already got a pretty solid headstart, which we're hoping will be enough to make that goal achievable. You might not hear a lot of updates from us for a while, but we promise it will be worth the wait!
We're also starting to make serious plans for what 2027 will look like for Duels of Fortune. Story Mode will obviously be the big focus, but we're also going to aim to release the last 2 remaining characters in the Early Access roster at some point in the year! We can't guarantee any particular release windows for either of them (especially since we want "Devil"'s release to coincide with a specific Story Mode chapter...) but we'll let you all know when our plans become more concrete!
By the way, it bears repeating that there are ABSOLUTELY NO MORE GUEST CHARACTERS PLANNED FOR THE GAME!! Some folks seemed to misinterpret our last news update about this, so we want to make it absolutely clear. Original fighters ONLY from here on out!! Still, we hope you're excited to see what kinds of characters we have planned for the final 3!
Sending Off
If you made it this far, thank you for reading all this! Our spirits are high right now as we get closer and closer to the home stretch, but we know we can't celebrate too soon. There's still lots of work to do, and we hope to keep bringing you the best content we can deliver!
Since this may very well be our last status update for a while, I'll take the time to thank you all once again for supporting us! Whether it be through fan art, YouTube videos, community events, or simply playing the game and telling your friends about it, every bit of it means the world to us! For a passion project like Duels of Fortune, having such a great community of people who genuinely love our work is the best thing we could ask for, and we will always show our appreciation for that whenever we can. We wouldn't have gotten this far without all of you!
With all that said, we hope you're excited for Cain's release and for the future of Duels of Fortune! Until next time!
- Cosmic Hat Games