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ManalaNewsThe free demo is out
Steam news

The free demo is out

Manala · published 10 Aug 2026, 13:52 UTC

All newsPlayers around this dateRead on Steam

If you have not seen it before, this is how it works.

Your equipment decides your deck
Every card belongs to your character from the moment you create it. What decides which ones you can actually play is the gear on your body. Buy a shield and Block, Guard Stance and Shield Bash become playable. Hold a one-handed sword and the Attack card does 3 damage at 80% accuracy; hold a two-hander and the same card does 7 at 95%.It is built that way to remove the unlock screen. You never grind out a new ability. You go to a merchant, buy a different weapon, and your deck changes.Enemies draw from the gear they carry
An enemy's deck is generated from its equipment, and that equipment is also its loot table. The sword hitting you is the sword you pick up afterwards: the same item, not a separate roll. That makes a fight readable before you start it, because what it is carrying tells you both what it can do to you and what you get for winning.Cheating is a card, and it costs you
Argue Over Armor Points makes your next hit ignore the enemy's armour entirely, because your character keeps insisting the armour never covered that spot. Illegal Headshot cancels a hit against you, because hits to the head are against the rules of the field.These are not exploits. They are ordinary cards and they work every time. The cost is that each one leaves you with a wound at the end of the fight, and an untreated wound puts a dead card into your deck at the start of every fight after that, until you spend two bandages on it. So cheating is a real option with a real running cost, rather than a trick.The numbers are small on purpose
You have between 5 and 12 hit points. Nothing levels up and nothing scales. The largest hit anyone can land is 14, and it takes two turns to set up. Small numbers make it possible to see exactly why a fight went the way it did.What is in the demo

  • Eight of the 23 regions, 165 rooms: a monastery and its forest on the Light side, a war camp and the tunnels beneath it on the Darkness side

  • 2 of the 5 classes. Mage and Smith. Alchemist, Healer and Warrior are coming with the full game

  • Merchants, crafting, a quest line per side, and the full combat system above

  • Estonian and English versoins supported

What is not in the demo

  • Other players. The demo is a single-player world. PvP, parties and chat are switched off because they only work in a shared world

  • Area conquest. The map is in the demo and you can see all 23 regions on it, including the 15 you cannot walk to. Capturing territory is part of the full game

  • 3 classes, 15 regions, and the higher crafting tiers

The demo runs on its own server, so a character you make there stays there and the full game starts you fresh. Saying that now rather than in November. What happens next
At Steam Next Fest, October 19 to 26, the demo gets a substantial update: PvP goes into it, along with more of the map. So the half that is switched off today is the half that arrives in October. The full game is out on November 5, 2026.Wishlisting is what tells me the work is worth continuing:

Bug reports and complaints go here, I will read and reply to all of them: https://discord.gg/MS9vXquzMX

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Community2 Sep 2026Manala: patch notes for September 2ndThe fight screen shows the fight In a group fight the enemy you are focused on now grows larger on screen and the others step back so you always see who you are about to hit. Punching and fleeing are now cards in your hand, next to everything else you can play. The combat log has moved off the stage into its own tab in the chat window, so the cards and the fighters have the room to themselves.…Community28 Aug 2026Manala: patch notes for August 28thEvery enemy fights its own way Each enemy type now builds its deck around one way of fighting. Some poison you and wait. Some stun and keep you from answering. Some stand in front of the ones behind them. Enemies with the same health no longer play the same fight. Group fights show what everyone is doing When someone fighting beside you acts, their damage appears on your screen as it lands. The…Community25 Aug 2026Healer class guide: no damage of its own, and the only class that regeneratesThe class that heals cannot heal itself in a fight. The Healer guide is up on YouTube. This post carries the part that does not fit in a video: the exact regeneration numbers, and the three things that switch them off. Where the Healer sits among the five Class Health Base Dam Dodge Armor Regen Warrior 10 2 10% plate mail none Smith 12 1 5% plate mail none Alchemist 6 1 10% ring none Mage 5 0 1…