We started work on this update well before the 1.0 release and continued production while working on all the patches that addressed the community’s feedback. We’re happy to say that The Spell Brigade post 1.0 is still very much on track! This first official update is just the tip of the iceberg!
To summarize, here’s what we’ve been up to since the 1.0 Release 4 months ago:
Patch 1 & 2 fixed the most common bugs and significantly rebalanced progression and cost scaling.
Patch 3 & 4 further stabilized 1.0 with some more bugfixes and performance improvements.
Patch 5 addressed the most common design criticisms like the grindy economy, Objectives and the Abstinence Covenant.
Patch 6 fixed some more bugs.
Patch 7 reworked the Wizard & Trial unlocking, improved our Devotion system, and also introduced Tiny Mode!
Patch 8 resolved some more issues.
Patch 9 introduced more community-inspired improvements, and 7 new Scrolls!
Patch 10 fixed the last high priority stuff, leaving room to prepare for Update 1.1!
We also added a brand new ROADMAP.
Update 1.1, which we’ll get to right now!
Let’s see what Realm Sweep is all about:
🌎 Many, many, many map improvements
There’s simply too much to list here! Just head down to the patch notes already!
🎯 Objective Variants
After successfully completing an Objective once, you will unlock different versions that slightly change up the gameplay. Again, the patch notes summarize them very well. Here’s a little teaser:
🧙 An exotic new Wizard
Of course, it wouldn’t be a real Update without another addition to the roster of fine spellcasters.
Realm Sweep introduces the spectacular Eugenie, packing the smashing Seismic Slam Spell. There’s also some new cool Outfits to unlock. Did I mention we have patch notes?
✅ PATCH NOTES – 1.1.0.19533 (02-09-26)
📦 CONTENT
- 🧙 New Wizard: Eugenie, including 3 new Outfits
- ✨ New Spell: Seismic Slam
- 🎩 5 new unlockable Outfits - one for Moon Mage, Kavin, Pipwick, Maggie, and Sun Mage
- 🎯 Objective Variants - each Objective can now appear in different forms:
- Rifts can now appear as multiple, smaller ones across the map.
- Sacrifice can now appear as a Death Shrine that takes damage from anything within the zone.
- Mushrooms have a chance of either being scared or explosive.
- New Golden Crabs can now appear: a Golden Crablodon, and a Golden Mothercrab that spawns a bunch of tiny Crabs.
- New Statues can now appear that hold bigger enemies.
- Bigger Spell Cores can now appear - these are much heavier and require more handling.
- A darker type of Soul Sludge can now appear and cloud your vision when surrounded by it.
- Mana Beasts have a chance of falling in love with you and will follow you unconditionally.
- A new type of Brazier that generates a new sequence each time that you must copy.
🏆 10 new Quests🕹️GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS
- 🌍 Map Improvements
- Each Realm has been expanded with additional map variants that offer new level layouts, making each run a little more different.
- Each map has some new visuals and props, some of which can be destroyed. Maybe they store something inside?
- Roads in the Verdant Meadows have been reworked so the speed boost you get stays a little longer.
- Frost Branch in the Frozen Ancients can now be trampled by walking over them multiple times. The more trampled they are, the less they slow you down.
- Ice Patches in the Frozen Ancients have been reworked so they’re much more fun to traverse (just try it!).
- Geysers in the Frozen Ancients will knock back enemies on the first hit, and also deal percentage-based Damage (to non-boss enemies).
- Lava in the Pyrestorm Pit has been reworked to increase Damage with each tick, so quick Lava hops are less punishing.
- Tornadoes in the Pyrestorm Pit can now be infused by elements! If an infused Spell hits a Tornado, they will inherit that element. They will also interact with all types of items, as well as Spell projectiles.
- Rivers in the Astral Riftlands have been reworked so you can move against the current, allowing more player agency.
💭 In general, you should be more in control of how you interact with each of the map hazards and you will have more ways to interact with the map itself, allowing for each playthrough to feel more different from the last.
- 🤝 You now get your 3rd Spell at Level 13, and your 4th Spell at Level 20.
- 🤝 When getting a new Spell, you can immediately pick an Upgrade for it.
- 🤝 Additionally, your 3rd and 4th Spell will immediately upgrade to Level 3 and 4.
💭 Most players will unlock the Abstinence covenant and immediately go to playing with just one Spell. While we think this is mostly fine, and we don’t want to make this an unviable choice, we do want to ensure that the more chaotic and varied multi-spell playstyle is equally viable. The above changes move us closer to that goal and we will be closely monitoring how this change affects the balance.
- ✅ Improved frozen states and immunity phases for all Bosses, so all animations properly sync.
- ✅ Mul’gath’s healing minions can now be corrupted to deal Damage to Mul’gath upon collision.
- ✅ Mul’gath can now be properly corrupted, triggering new behavior.
- ✅ Rifts will now shrink the more you progress, becoming increasingly harder to fully close.
- 🤝 Reworked Ice and Dark Healing Spells so their negative effects no longer apply to teammates.
- ✅ Pickups like Scrolls and Mushrooms are now affected by Rivers.
🎨VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS
- ✅ Improved the VFX of the Arcane Broadsword so they scale better with Size Upgrades.
- ✅ Improved some timings and animations for Mul’gath.
- ✅ Improved the visuals for the Rifts.
- ✅ Removed the additional level dots on Upgrade Cards if the Second Infusion has not been unlocked yet.
⚖️ BALANCING
- ✅ Rebalanced various Exploding Augmentations to have similar impact across different Spells:
- Swirl Sickle: reduced explosion radius from 3 to 2.5.
- Scepter Mesh: increased damage multiplier from 1 to 2.
- Magic Missile: reduced damage multiplier from 1 to 0.7.
- Impish Havoc: increased damage multiplier from 1 to 1.5.
💭Exploding Augmentations could be one of the best or one of the worst Augmentations depending on which spells you equipped them to, because Spell Lifetime and Cast Speed would make its effectiveness vary wildly. With these changes the Augmentation should be closer to the average power of an Augmentation across spells.
- ✅ Acid status duration gets reset upon hit instead of adding to it.
- ✅ Increased general Ice resistance for all Bosses.
🙌 QOL
- 🤝 The Game Over Sequence has been reworked/expanded:
- UI/UX revamp
- Additional Player & Spell Stats
- New Team Stats Menu
- Artifact info & stacks have been added to the Game Over stats (also in the Pause Menu).
- Timed Gold/XP sequence that more clearly communicates the earned Gold and Wizard Rank XP after a Mission, as well as the applied bonuses.
🤝 You can now rotate your character in the Wizard and Outfit Menus.✅ Added UI visualization for picking “Any” Realm or Threat Level in the Lobby.✅ Added more run info to the HUD while in-game like your Threat Level, enabled Covenants and your Devotion.🤝 Added a little popup near the Quit button in the Pause Menu that assures you you won’t lose progress.✅ Implemented Steam Rich Presence, so you can see additional info from your friends playing The Spell Brigade in the Steam Overlay.🤝 Menus in the Lobby can now be closed with the same key as opening them.🤝 Personal Mission setup will now persist after leaving someone’s Lobby.🤝 Ping Icons will now scale based on their distance to you.🤝 Additionally, Ping Icons will now curve around relevant HUD elements so they’re always visible.⚙️STABILITY & BUGFIXES
🤝 = changes inspired by community feedback
💭 = design philosophy
We hope you’re as excited about all these improvements as we are! We’re currently working on some more stuff that will drop fairly soon, and we also have something extra special cooking that’s due for the end of this year. Stay tuned!
BOLT BLASTER OUT