Hero Update — Skill Cut-ins, New Hero Skills, Ice Spear Volley

Hero Skill Cut-ins

• Using a hero skill now plays a hero-specific cut-in: Chloe, Mira, Dragon Girl, Irony, Elf Queen, Carmilla and Nina.
• The battle pauses briefly while the cut-in plays and continues right after.

New Hero Skills

• Carmilla — Burning Skull (2 mana): Deal 2 damage to all cards, including both heroes. Violet burning skulls rain down, and damage appears as each skull lands.
• Nina — Blood Shell (2 mana): Your hero gains Shell.

Skill Visuals

• Chloe — Ice Blast: A magic circle opens in front of Chloe, six ice spears fire in quick succession, stick into the target and shatter together. Damage is now dealt as X+1 in a single hit (same total as before). Card text updated to "Deal X+1 damage to an enemy."
• Dragon Girl — Fire Breath: The flames now reach the edge of the screen and sweep all enemies with a camera shake.
• Mira — Duty of Knight: A golden pillar of light descends on the target. Mira herself can no longer be targeted.
• Fixed the number of Ice Blast projectiles not matching the actual damage after the cut-in.

Hero Balance

• Dragon Girl: Attack 6 → 7, Defense 0 → 2, Max Mana 10 → 8
• Nina (renamed from The Maid): Attack 4 → 7, Defense 0 → 1, HP 30 → 25, Max Mana 11 → 8
• Irony: Attack 6 → 5
• Elf Queen: Starting Mana 0 → 2
• Pierrot: ATK 4 / DEF 1 / HP 4 → ATK 2 / DEF 1 / HP 6

Visuals

• Irony and Chloe's standing art now comes alive with breathing, hair and cloth sway, and wing flaps.
• Clouds now drift slowly across the battle background sky.
• Nina's description was shortened to fit the Heroes screen.

Other

• The Shop is locked in the Demo and Playtest versions (the main game is unchanged).
• Steam initialization now runs in the background so the first screen appears faster.