The Cup: Creature Card Battler · published
Six more creatures trade their placeholder for a commissioned painting:
- Mothman's Fabulous Cousin (No Relation), painted by ChioArt
- The Loon (Depth Unknown), painted by Awesam
- The Flock (Passenger Pigeon), Caribou Crossing, El Alacrán and La Tarántula, painted by Ondřej Tichý
Each one moves on the board and has its own swing sound. Every painting is commissioned, and each artist is credited on the card.
The invaders are real photographs now, on a live broadcast monitor: the roaches in the kitchen, the quagga mussels off the boat ramp, the emerald ash borer in the campground firewood. A titleholder case's House wears its TITLE look. Every photographer is credited in SETTINGS > CREDITS > THE PHOTOGRAPHS.
Every survivor's kit has new art. The kit cards trade the emoji for real line art drawn from public-domain history, and each survivor has a photographed place behind them that fits who they are (credited in SETTINGS > CREDITS > THE SURVIVORS' PLACES). Open any card full screen to see it up close: kit cards show FROM THE ARCHIVE and their SOURCE.
- THE ROAD is ten cases now, in one run: five cases, HALFTIME, then a second set of five, LIGHTS OUT. Lose a bout and you're off the air.
- LIGHTS OUT's five cases each bring their own House: Clean, Drain, Dry · Don't Move Firewood · The Bounty Board · The Stream Treatment · The Dead Fence.
- Beat LIGHTS OUT's titleholder and it can open your next road, from the menu's TV.
- THE MENAGERIE and THE ISLANDS are on the menu, sealed until release.
- HALFTIME is PAID PROGRAMMING. Change the channel, watch or skip an infomercial, and the House buys that product for all five bouts of the second set: SPOILED WATER (your line opens corroded 2), IRRADIATED (RAD on every House creature), TOXIC (CHEM on every House creature), FIRST STRIKE (the House swings on turn one) or ROUGH CROSSING (your creatures open hurt 3). Rarer products stack two infusions on the House's center creature or load its dice. The second set's House also opens every bout with four cards in hand.
- The Big Brown Break opens with a coffee commercial you can skip after a second. Its last frame is the machine: press one of its three buttons for your boon. Your bench and deck sit beside it.
- Two new break boons for flat hitters: TIME AND A HALF (flat attacks deal half again, rounded down) and CHEAP SHOT (flat attacks go straight through armor and shields).
- After the break and after HALFTIME comes A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR. THE GIVEAWAY offers three of six Big Brown Break merch cards: take one into your deck, or pass. Any survivor can play them.
- TAKE YOUR SPOILS shows four cards, and you take up to two.
- Your deck holds fifteen. Take a card past that and THE SWAP TRAY has you send one out. Any pick can be passed.
- A creature you unlock joins your next opening draft, marked JUST UNLOCKED.
- PICK ONE FOR GOOD now comes after a full clear of all ten cases.
- Clear all ten and THE CUP IS PRESENTED: your case files stamped CLOSED, the Cup rising on its fanfare, your bench stepping in. SEE THE CUP replays it from the end screen.
- Two new mugs: THE CUP (clear all ten) and THE COMPLETE SERIES (clear every case you can play).
- THE ROAD has eight LEVELS. A full clear opens LEVEL 1, and each level adds a twist on top of the last: ONE PICK, COLD OPEN, LEAN DRAFT, SHORT BENCH, FLAT REELS, ONE KIT CARD, NO BREAK, SUDDEN DEATH. Choose yours on THE CALL's dial. A level's first clear pays ratings, and some add a pick or a mug, up to THE SUMMIT at level 8.
- THE CASE FILE: every case has a file of clippings with its House, its invaders' real facts and notes from both hosts. Open it from the menu, FIELD YOUR LINE, TAKE YOUR SPOILS, CUP TV or a creature's page.
- The road's tape on the menu shows your run so far, with each spoils pick under it. The end screen lists all ten cases, each with its verdict.
- Case 04 is easier: THE OVERGROWTH grows an invader +1 HP at most (was +3), and the Feral Hogs have 6 HP (was 7).
- TENURE, the Turtle's challenge, now asks for a won bout that runs to your 10th turn (was 11th).
- VOLT's jolt no longer cancels a double. A Loon that just surfaced, or a Grizzly with his double still to come, takes the jolt and then both swings: three in all. Every other creature still rests after its jolt.
- Corrosion ticks every corroded creature once at the end of the turn, where it stands. A creature that stepped into the center used to dodge its tick.
- MELTDOWN: when the kept first die knocks out its target, the swing lands on its own and the second die isn't shown.
- Hype Man now reads: "Draw 1. Your rolls and flat swings this turn get +1."
- Six cards say "for the rest of the game" instead of "permanently", with the same rules: Overhaul, Skinning Knife, Águila Real, Las Tres Hermanas, Barbecho and Temporal.
- When your only creature is playing dead, a card with a second part skips the empty pick and plays the rest: Sana Sana, Milagro, Limpia, Descansa en Paz, Remedio Casero and Spare Bolts.
- The House plays its swing boosts before it swings, on the creature that swings.
- The House's Loon no longer dives again the turn it surfaces. It takes its two swings.
- Hover a deck, discard or pit to see it. Yours open in full (your deck as a list of what's left, never its order). The House's discard and pit open too, every face-up card. The House's deck stays hidden.
- In a bout, right-click or middle-click a card to open it full screen.
- The full-screen card has lore panels beside it (its flavor, an invader's natural history, a survivor's kit) and its keywords.
- When a die drops or grows a size, the card's ATK box shows it (like d8▼d6), and the die TV crosses out the faces it lost.
- A new cursor: green on your turn, red on the House's, gold with an attack armed. SETTINGS > PICTURE > MOUSE CURSOR > REGULAR brings back your own.
- HINTS: short tips the first times things come up. Turn them off in SETTINGS > PICTURE.
- The menu's road board is a TV with a channel for each set. THE KNOB turns it to THE ARENA.
- THE COMPENDIUM sorts survivors by country and supports by each survivor's set, plus THE COMMONS and THE JOKERS. Its rows slide on two shelves, and a creature you've just unlocked glows until you hover it.
- CUP TV carries the channel's newest videos and FRIENDS OF THE BROADCAST, seven streamers who played early. Its replays play the bout's sounds and effects.
- Each case's read plays whole while the bout is dealt.
- LIGHTS OUT and HALFTIME are voiced, THE GIVEAWAY has its own pairs from both hosts, and there are new calls for a road's end and for THE CUP IS PRESENTED.
- The big-hit calls come from a shuffled bag, so one doesn't repeat back to back.
- The commercials follow your VOICE, MUSIC and EFFECTS sliders.
- Creatures swing much smoother, Sasquatch and Mothman most of all.
- Knockouts no longer stutter.
- Dragging cards onto FIELD YOUR LINE no longer slows the game.
- The menu rests after 30 seconds untouched, and REDUCED effects holds its scenes still.
- An older, emptier save arriving through Steam Cloud could replace your progress. Now the save with more play wins, and a replaced save is backed up.
- Clicking RATINGS, YOUR POOL or RECORD during a road opened it under the road. It opens on top now.
- A knocked-out creature no longer swings back from its empty slot to reflect.
- A bout's last swing could lunge at an empty slot.
- Tapping a card while the House's moves played out could redraw the board too early.
- A creature moving between slots no longer shrinks, and in a swap both creatures slide.
- Case 05's intro no longer says the titleholder swings first.
- The road's screens and the draft desk no longer show scroll bars, down to 1280x800.
- The first mug card no longer covers NEXT CASE.
- The die TV's +ATK chip now shows a lasting boost like Overhaul's.
- Escape on a CUP TV popup closes the popup, not CUP TV.
- El Alacrán's venom no longer replays its swing when it lands a turn later.
- The FIFTEEN STARS call needs three stars on all five of this run's first cases.
- Bob's reward lines show their words.
- CUP TV replays could show less HP than the bout had.
- A rare loop with Wait Five Minutes during Kealoha's eruption.