The most common feedback we got was "the early game feels slow" and "every run plays out the same." So this update rebuilds how you grow during a run. A change this big may have rough edges — please tell us how it feels.
New reward cards
- Every 2 rounds, pick 1 of 4 cards: 2 stat cards + 2 skill upgrade cards. After defeating a hero: Skill Steal → Special Augment → 4 cards with doubled values.
- Stat cards no longer have tiers. Instead, their values grow with every hero you defeat.
Upgrade the skills you stole
- Damage card: doubles that skill's damage, then ×3.25 → ×4.75 → ×6.5 → ×8.5 if you keep picking it (5 per skill).
- Skills that apply their own poison/burn/bleed (Great Serpent's Advent, Fire Breath, Devour, Frenzied Flurry) split into a Main Damage card and a Damage-over-Time card.
- Count card (projectiles & summons): +50% count per card (2 cards = +1 projectile/summon) and +25% damage for that skill. Meteor, Ice Spear, Giant Shuriken, Cross Gale, Card Volley, Earth Rumble, Flying Swords, Arcane Orb, Thousand Blades, Summoned Rifles, Phantom Formation.
- Max count: Flying Swords 5 · Thousand Blades 12 · Arcane Orb 3 · Giant Shuriken 3 · Summoned Rifles 4 · Phantom Formation 5.
- Area card (18 area skills): +40% radius and +50% damage per card (up to 2). Hitbox and visuals grow together.
- The card type you've invested in shows up more often (about 70%).
- Reroll the 2 skill upgrade cards with run gold (50 → 100 → 150…). Only the card types you just saw are excluded.
Rune Shop rework — free respec every run
- Runes now use rune points instead of gold, and you can reassign them for free before every run (up to 43 points, earned from first hero kills, reaching heroes, your first win, and first Vengeance clears).
- 7 basic runes: AD, MP, Attack Speed, Crit, HP, DEF and the new Move Speed. Maxing a rune (5 points) adds a bonus effect.
- 3 special runes: Reroll, Undying Will, Carry-In Skill (start the run with a stolen skill).
- 6 build lines: Venomancer, Archmage, Swiftblade, Blade, Sprint, Bastion. Special Augments that fit your line show up more often (heroes stay random), and tiers 2–3 add build-specific effects.
- Seal List: block Special Augments you don't want to see.
- All gold you spent on the old runes is refunded automatically (including the Carry-In Skill unlock). Spend it on the new relics.
- Run gold now goes 100% into your main gold (was 50%).
Relics — new
- Buy 14 relics with gold from the "Relics" button in the Rune Shop and upgrade them from 1 to 5 stars.
- Relic slots open one at a time on your first clear of Vengeance 1, 2 and 3 (up to 3). Swap them freely before every run.
- e.g. Splitting Crystal (more projectiles, can go past the count cap), Spreading Lens (skill area), Gladiator's Gauntlet (3rd basic hit sends a shockwave), Fuse Doll (your clone walks to enemies and explodes).
Vengeance levels 1–10
- Pick a level from the main menu. Clearing a level unlocks the next.
- Each level makes enemies and heroes stronger and gives more gold. First clears grant rune points (+2 for levels 1–5, +1 for 6–10) and relic slots (levels 1, 2, 3).
New screens — see your whole build
- Tab = "My Build" window: pauses the game and shows every skill's full description and upgrades, your Special Augments, stat card totals, relics and runes on one screen. The skill list in the pause menu opens the same window.
- Skill descriptions now have an "Upgrades" line (damage multiplier, count, area, cards taken), and skill slots show a +n badge.
- Results screen: total damage, share and DPS per skill, plus your Biggest Hit and which skill dealt it. Save a Result Card after a win or a loss.
- The round panel (top right) now shows your current Vengeance level.
Changes & removals
- Special Augment "Fortune" removed (33 Special Augments). Empowered augment screen removed.
- Blood Pact: life steal 3.5% → 1% (the Crimson Shade itself is unchanged).
- Lone Fury: all reward cards become stat cards, stat cards ×1.5 (12% chance of ×3).
- Sword School (Swordmaster): the dual/triple follow-up strikes now come from basic attacks only (not from Afterimage Seal skill hits).
- Lightning Smite: at least 0.5s between bolts.
- Split (Slime): 20s cooldown.
- Flying Swords: the 4th and 5th swords are now two new blades (a violet wave blade and a crimson serrated blade).
- Luck rune removed — the gold you spent on it is refunded automatically.
- Flying Swords: 30% AD per hit (was 10%); kill-based growth replaced by upgrade cards.
- Wait between rounds 2s → 1s.
- Momentum Strike: collision damage = 100% AD + move speed × 3 (grows with heroes defeated). Fast enough and simply walking into enemies hits them.
- Decoy (survive a lethal hit): 20s cooldown, one clone at a time, up to 8 per round (Decoy and Split combined).
- Iron Wall regen: capped at 0.6% of max HP per second.
- Elite soldiers now have a red outline.
Bug fixes
- Phantom Strike's explosion hitbox was much larger than its visual while Giant.
- The Crimson Shade info panel showed the wrong healing value.
We need your feedback
I'm a solo indie developer, so feedback is always scarce — that's why the game is in Early Access. Any feedback is welcome, and harsh criticism is fine too. Leave it on the Steam discussion board or with the in-game feedback button.