Early Access launched with a bang, and the first patch lands just as fast. The developer heard the “too hard early” feedback and shipped changes aimed at smoothing the opening hours without dumbing down the climb. Two quality-of-life tweaks and a broad balance sweep should make your first two weeks far less punishing and a lot more readable.
Patch highlights (TL;DR)
- The day no longer ends until you open the Boss Chest. Explore, loot, and tidy up before advancing.
- Bench units are more faded out. Clearer board readability when your sideboard gets crowded.
- Early game tuned down. Health, armor, damage, mana, resistance, and movement values trimmed across many enemies.
- A bundle of fixes. From quest timing to UI hiccups.
Early game feel: why it’s better now
Early Access brings an influx of fresh playstyles that no internal test can fully predict. This patch responds by lowering spike damage and survivability on common foes, easing the first encounters and reducing random wipe potential. The Boss Chest rule also stops accidental day rollovers, finish looting, reorganize, or bench-swap before you commit. Expect a kinder curve at the start while the mid-game still asks you to think.
New features & QoL
- Boss Chest gate: The day only ends after you open the chest. That means more time for routing, pickups, and positioning.
- Clearer sideboard: Units on the bench appear more faded, helping you parse active vs. inactive at a glance.
Balance changes – full list
Small numbers, big feel. Most tweaks are slight, but together they reduce early pressure and create windows to counter.
Global/units
- Goblin King minion: health slightly reduced
- Magister: health 2140 → 2000
Monsters
- Bee: resistance 24 → 20, move speed reduced
- Cyclops: health 83 → 81, damage slightly reduced
- Dancer: armor 15 → 12, damage slightly reduced
- Dinosaur: health 60 → 59, stops for longer while walking
- Efreet: mana 33 → 32
- Ghoul: health 48 → 47
- Halfling: damage slightly reduced
- Leech: health 43 → 41
- Lich: pauses movement briefly every 4 seconds
- Magus: mana 48 → 47
- Marksman: damage reduced
- Pixie: damage reduced
- Psion: damage slightly reduced
- Runescribe: stops for longer while walking
- Satyr: health 39 → 38
- Shaman: damage reduced
- Storm Caller: health 87 → 85
- Vampire: damage slightly reduced
Fixes
- Monsters no longer always show as “new” on their cards
- Assign/unassign worker default buttons corrected
- Gideon won’t appear before you can solve his quest
- Tutorial upgrade unit image corrected
- Gevald no longer stands on a tree in the forest
- Duplicate keywords removed from unit sheet
What this means for your runs
- More control between waves. Clear the arena, loot the Boss Chest when you’re ready, then roll the day.
- Kiting gets stronger. Bees are slower and less resistant, while Lich and Dinosaur pause more often, more windows to reposition or burst.
- Magic management matters. Efreet and Magus mana trims slightly delay cast timings; plan your interrupts and focus fire.
- Frontline stability improves. Small health and armor drops across common threats reduce sudden breaks in your line.
Quick tips after the patch
- Delay the chest for cleanup. Use the extra time to collect drops, swap items, and spend resources safely.
- Rebalance target priorities. With Bee resistance down, elemental damage pays off earlier.
- Exploit movement pauses. Time stuns and nukes when Lich/Dinosaur/Runescribe stop.
- Greedy routes are safer. Slightly weaker early enemies mean you can lean into economy or scaling paths without instant punishment, don’t overdo it.
- Refresh your builds. Magister’s HP cut and other trims may change which synergies hit key breakpoints; test a few variants.
Developer note
The dev is actively reading reviews and tuning with every patch. Leave constructive feedback, balance in Early Access is a conversation, not a decree.
