If you've been waiting to try the game, now's a good time to jump in.
The Martyr subclass - Built entirely around sacrifice. Spend HP to deal damage. Break yourself to break the run. High risk, devastating ceiling.
20 new cards - Including Sacrificial Icon and Grim Resolve, designed around the Martyr's playstyle but usable across classes.
The Desert - A new biome previewed in this update, arriving in full at release. Arid, hostile, full of things that want you dead.
UI improvements - Several QoL changes based on your feedback. The game should feel much cleaner and faster to navigate.
This update represents a new chapter for Hunter's Hand. The Martyr changes how you think about taking damage, every hit becomes a resource, every wound a choice. Combined with the Desert's hazards, runs will feel different in a way I couldn't fully test until I was actually playing it.
Thank you to everyone who's been following the game, leaving reviews, and sending feedback. You're the reason the demo is still getting updates.
Changes:
AnimationComponent reworked — increased functionality and re-added to all relevant scenes; no longer shifts position when hovering a parent control node
Tidied up UI across all scenes
Run stats moved to bottom left and opacity increased — were getting hidden behind enemy cards
Character select screen — updated visuals
Main menu — now hides Continue and Abandon Run buttons if no previous run is saved; new still image background with custom motion shader; wind trails, fog, and rain VFX; Hunter's Hand logo replaces plain text title; all UI elements resized and rearranged for better visual hierarchy
Combat pop-ups now flip horizontal direction correctly when shown in the enemy scene
Refactored combat pop-ups from 5 separate scripts into 1 reusable script; handles damage, block, bleed, poison, regen, guard break, status applied, and drain — can be reused between player and enemy
Battle bottom bar lowered to show more of the battle scene; UI elements made smaller (mana now displayed as a small sphere); mana, HP, and armour visuals improved
Player hand now lowers while disabled (end of turn) and raises again on the next turn
StatusUI now smaller, and now grows and shrinks when activated in addition to flashing
Battle background moved to its own reusable scene; eclipse filter also handles its own script
Battle start pop-up animation updated
Added SFX to player hurt and death animations
Battle over panel removed from battle end flow — now emits directly to battle rewards (skips an unnecessary click); battle music stops and transitions to ambient biome music
Battle rewards now auto-closes when the last reward is taken
Card rewards now hides the reward list while a card tooltip is open, then restores it when the tooltip closes; reward tooltip visuals updated
Map background moved to a canvas layer so it scrolls correctly with the map
Map background images now transition between biomes; added visual gap between forest and desert biome
Map generator upgraded to improve path connections and prune dead-end paths
Added camera handle for guardian scroll lock and buffer in inspector; map now auto-ignores guardian camera lock in demo version; room type renamed from BOSS to GUARDIAN for clarity
Event locations — fixed background position and UI placement; added VFX particles
Added Martyr subclass with all cards and class trainer entry
Added Quicksand Elemental enemy with animations
Added new Desert biome background, eclipse variant, and map background images (dunes, bones, pyramids)
Added new cards for all Desert biome enemies and guardians
Battle now transitions to the Desert biome after defeating the Forest Guardian
Demo version locked to 1 biome; full version uses 3
Disabled analytics plugin — was significantly slowing down Godot boot time
Added Godot Project Statistics plugin
Adjusted death particles
Bugfixes:
Fixed AnimationComponent moving out of position when hovering a parent control node (was incorrectly influencing container layout)
Fixed buttons moving out of containers on certain scenes, blocking run progression
Fixed Poison status not triggering damage on the correct turn (was triggering twice on one tick)
Fixed end-of-round player handler triggering twice
Fixed Bleed VFX not playing correctly
Fixed player being able to continue a run after dying via the combat over panel
Fixed debug Lose HP button not functioning
Fixed broken player death animation (was referencing the wrong shader)
Fixed map appearing behind battle VFX due to incorrect canvas layer
Fixed inability to finish battle after Guardian defeated check was introduced
Fixed camera clamp releasing after the first non-Guardian enemy was killed
Fixed all Desert enemy DEF code — was incorrectly referencing Armour and Shielding instead of BlockEffect
Balancing:
Warding Circle — removed colour lock from options (was locking black and white threat, the only two currently available; lock will return when additional Ancients are added)
The Martyr's cards activate differently depending on your current HP threshold. Most cards have a base effect and a conditional bonus, the lower your HP, the harder they hit.
Cards scale based on your current HP state: Healthy → Wounded → Fading → Moribund.
Spoilers below!
Defence:
Abyssal Guard — If Fading: Gain 10 DEF for each round passed. Tenuous.
Doom's Defense — If Moribund: Gain +10 DEF & 1 Spectral.
Faith's Bastion — If Fading: Gain +15 DEF.
Grim Resolve — If Fading: Gain +5 DEF.
Resolute Defense — If Fading: Gain +10 DEF.
Shield of Faith — If Wounded: +5 DEF.
Attack:
Avenging Blow — If Healthy: Lose 10 HP. If you have less HP than the target, this card has 2× ATK.
Dark Reckoning — If Fading: ATK ×2.
Echo of Pain — ATK = HP lost last turn.
Frenzied Assault — Gain 5 Bleed. If Fading: +15 ATK.
Martyred Strike — If Wounded: +10 ATK.
Painful Strike — If Healthy: Lose 10 HP. If Moribund: Deal +20 ATK.
Revenge — If Wounded: +5 ATK for each HP lost last turn.
Sacrificial Icon — Lose 10 HP. If Fading: −20 HP to all enemies.
Spiteful Reckoning — If Fading: +15 ATK.
Vigorous Strike — Gain 5 Bleed. If Fading: Gain +15 ATK & Draw 1.
Utility:
Crimson Zeal — If Moribund: Deal 10 ATK & Gain 10 DEF this and next turn.
Dark Renewal — Heal for 25% of missing HP. If Fading: Draw 2. Tenuous.
Hope's Beacon — Heal 5 HP. If Fading: Heal an additional 10 HP.
Resolute Resolve — Heal 10 HP. If Fading: +10 DEF.
Go find out what the Crimson Bloom has been hiding.