Cards and Castles 2
Minor Gameplay Patch
- Overpower: Redesigned. Deal 1 damage. If you are holding a - Berserk unit, deal 3 instead.
- Storm Weapon: Redesigned. Costs (2), summon a random 2-cost unit and give it Chain Lightning.
- Barbarian: No longer has Overwhelm. Stats changed to 3/5.
- Berserker: Cost reduced to (3).
- Priest: Health increased to 2.
- Sensei: Health increased to 2.
- Strength of Will: Cost reduced to (2).
- Trebuchet: Cost reduced to (3).
Big Economy Update
PATCH NOTES
- All sources of Cards Points and prices have been multiplied by 10x. This was done to make the currency more distinct from silver.
- Basic card packs now cost 150 silver.
- The amount of silver gained from most in-app purchase bundles has been slightly increased.
- Most quests now reward both CP and EXP. Only 1 quest is awarded per day, up to a maximum of 3 total; however, this single quest now gives as much or more CP and EXP as the previous 2-quest system.
- Added 3 new bonus daily quests that give a small amount of additional CP. These quests will refresh every day if completed.
- Higher rank tiers generally require more stars to complete (players have generally been achieving high rank too early, this is intended to be a progression over multiple monthly seasons).
- Two new standard card packs have been added, the Epic Pack and Shiny Pack! Both are purchasable for either CP or Silver.
- Most cosmetic items can now be purchased with CP.
- Added a currency exchange for Silver to be converted to CP in case that is needed.
- Added 4 new bundles to the shop!
- The price of standalone castles in the shop has been reduced.
For a limited time, players may use the gift code QUESTS to receive a free 1500 silver gift! Thank you for playtesting during Early Access and helping us smooth over and improve our economy.
Required Technical Patch
Steam Deck Support!
Major Gameplay Improvements
This patch largely focuses on buffs and improving fun factor and theme in some key areas. Our first area of focus is BIG PLAYS. We love how Vikings are able to deliver some truly nasty damage with Frostbite decks and Berserker, and we want every faction to have access to equally exciting plays that fit their own themes.
We are also removing BACKSTAB from the game, which may come as a surprise since backstab is typically a source of big exciting plays. While this is true, the way our board works makes it incredibly difficult to get behind opponents without also including the Evade keyword. Backstab is currently only available on 4 units, and 2 of those units already have strong identities which are somewhat confused by the presence of backstab. Many other units that LOOK like they should backstab do not, because it confused their design and purpose. With only Shiva left as the truly exciting Backstab payoff, we felt it was better to clean up this design space and let Shiva do something different.
Our second focus is specifically on Necromancers. We’ve noticed that new players often have way too many tombstones on the board, and not enough ways to spend those tombs. We also think they just don’t have enough ZOMBIES. With the tombstone simplification we’ve also somewhat lost the Necromancer theme of raising your enemy’s dead to fight against them, so we are bringing that back in a unique way while solidifying tombstones as a spending resource.
Druids are also having their legendary mechanics shuffled around a little bit to improve their thematic sense and intrigue. Players love the squirrels, and so we are bringing back a way to get lots of squirrels onto the battlefield.
Southport Slayer’s ability is getting formalized as the DEATHSTRIKE keyword. We felt it was problematic that Southport Slayer’s instant-kill mechanic was not visible on the board as an aura effect or icon, so DEATHSTRIKE will now use the previous Backstab icon as it’s very fitting.
Ninjas need some help in solidifying their role and usefulness of mechanics. While they have a few strong cards, they have way too many weak or situational ones, and the faction is overall not performing as well as we’d like. We’ll be taking some steps to try and bolster the faction’s gameplay.
Finally, we think the game’s curve and card draw is trending slightly too high overall, resulting in player hands that often feel too full to effectively manage. Our goal is to hit a sweet spot where players hover around 3-6 cards in their hand through most of the game. We are making some choice adjustments to the power of card generation and the overall game’s unit curve to achieve this.
PATCH NOTES
Matchmaking: players who are paired up in matchmaking may be dynamically assigned to existing lobbies instead of always creating a new lobby. This is designed to allow lobbies to last longer as persistent social spaces.
Evade has been renamed ELUSIVE.
Madness now only attacks friendly units.
The resurrection pool is no longer depleted by a resurrect.
Burst of Strength: Cost reduced to (5).
Brynjolf of Vaskrheim: Const increased to (6). Now has Chain Lightning in addition to his other abilities. HP reduced to 6. Collide damage is back to 3 (since chain lightning now deals implicit collision damage).
Maldran: Redesigned. Now costs (9). Guardian. When this takes damage, summon 3 Berserk Squirrels.
Knight of Flowers: Redesigned. Now costs (3). Your Sunflowers have +1/+1. Warcry: Add 2 Sunflowers to your hand. Stats 2/3.
Kage: Simplified and improved; no longer has backstab or evade. Cost reduced to (3).
Shaman: HP reduced to 3.
Shadow Katana: Cost reduced to (2).
Jonviev the Dawnsword: Redesigned. Now has Warcry: Resurrect 3 random units and give them Charge.
Valkyrie: Now only resurrects 2 units, but cost limit removed.
Ragnar the Thunder King: Effect now deals 3 damage and procs anytime a unit SURVIVES lightning damage (including spells). Stats changed to 2/6.
Final Flash: Redesigned. Now costs (8). Play 7 random spell cards from your deck on random targets.
Wyvern Rider: HP reduced to 4.
Northwood Bear: Attack increased to 4.
Trap Door Ninja: Removed backstab. Now 2/1 and the trap drawn costs (0).
Reanimate: Redesigned as a TRAP card. When a controllable enemy unit dies during their turn, resurrect it under your control.
Grave Knight: Redesigned. Now costs 8, and has b-Warcry-b: Raise a Zombie from up to 5 random Tombstones.
Beastmaster: Now costs (2) and only summons 1 beast.
Killer Monkey: Now a simple 1/1 with DEATHSTRIKE.
Cemetery: No longer removes units from your deck to make the tombs.
Dissipate: Now cost (3), and changed to: Return a unit, summoned building, or spell rune to its owner's hand.
Raise Dead: Now costs (3), and zombie count increased to 3.
Southport Slayer: Stats changed to 2/3.
Woeten: Attack increased to 9.
Berserker: Now has Berserk instead of Overwhelm. Stats changed to 1/3.
Barbarian: Now costs (4) and also has Berserk. Stats reduced to 4/3.
Killer Rabbit: Redesigned. Costs (4) and has Berserk, Evade, and Deathstrike.
Mooncaster: Cost reduced to (2).
Resurrection: Now resurrects a random unit within the cost restriction. Cost reduced to (2).
Shiva: Redesigned. Now has Warcry: Deal 10 damage split randomly among ALL other targets.
Genesis: Cost reduced to (6).
Shadow Drake: Cost reduced to (2), but Attack also reduced to 2.
Green Drake: Cost reduced to (2), stats changed to 2/2.
Stegosaurus: Armor increased to 3.
Angel of Mercy: Attack increased to 3.
Battojutsu: Now activates when an enemy attacks anything (not just units).
Sabotage: Simplified to just make the target card cost (10).
Dark Bargain: Now costs zero, deals 2 damage instead of Decay, and can only be cast on allies.
Fist of the Five Gods: Unit count reduced to 3, and cost reduced to (4).
Haunted Pumpkin: Changed to take 1 damage per turn, but stats increased to 3/5.
Hasan Legionnaire: Cost increased to (5), stats increased to 4/4.
Ronin: Cost reduced to (4), stats changed to 3/6, and no longer gains Overwhelm.
Wizard: Now costs (4), stats increased to 3/3.
Salahar Soldier: Stats reduced to 2/2.
Sacrificial Knife: No longer reduces the cost of the card drawn.
Wraiths: Cost increased to 4.
Frost Lich: Now costs (2), stats changed to 2/2.
Kunoichi: Now costs (2), stats changed to 3/3.
Shaman: Now costs (2), stats changed to 1/3.
Witch Doctor: Now costs (5).
Frost Giant: Now costs (4). Stats reduced to 2/7.
Pyromancer: Now costs (1). Stats reduced to 2/1.
Harpy: Now costs (1). No longer has Evade, stats reduced to 1/2.
Cleric: Now costs (2). Stats reduced to 1/2.
Lava Giant: Now costs (4). Stats reduced to 2/6
Salahar Voyager: Now costs (4), no longer has Overwhelm. Health reduced to 4.
Owlbear: Now costs (5). No longer has Overwhelm. Stats changed to 5/5.
Dwarven Miner: Now costs (2). Stats reduced to 1/2.
Strange Magician: Spell count reduced to 2. Stats increased to 3/2.
Dwarf Paladin: HP reduced to 3.
Triceratops: HP reduced to 5.
Centaur: Cost reduced to (2). Stats changed to 1/3.
Priest: Redesigned. 1/1 and Warcry: Give a random ally +2 Health.
Gorgon: Redesigned. Now gives a random enemy unit Inert for 1 turn.
Horseback Samurai: Stats increased to 5/5.
Dojo: Now costs (2), and gives +2 Attack 3 times.
Badger: Cost reduced to (4), stats reduced to 3/3.
Woeten: Redesigned. Can Replace a friendly unit. If it does, gain that unit’s Attack. 7/7 stats.
Ninja Training: Redesigned. Now costs (2). View 2 random units in your deck. Choose one to add to your hand.
Sensei: Now reduces a random unit’s cost by (1) instead of giving +1/+1.
Omae Wa Mou Shindieru: Cost reduced to (4).
Developer Notes:
Ragnar: We think that removing Ragnar’s synergy with Yaarhym Lightning might have been a mistake, as this relatively easy combo was popular with new players. By requiring the lightning target to survive for a proc, we cut off some abusable high level combos and guarantee that Ragnar’s lightnings will have targets to hit other than the enemy castle.
Brynjolf: Brynjolf with Chain Lightning made for a fun combo that was unfortunately lost when we restricted chain lightning application. We just gave him the ability for free, so you can have fun knocking things into lightning chains all day!
Jonviev: Resurrecting units without Charge lacked the punchiness we were looking for, so we are shifting to this much simpler overall design that should be overall less exploitable.
Final Flash: While this card’s previous design had a cool effect, it was extremely difficult to play and extremely difficult to balance. This new design should provide a huge burst of spell power for Warlock players of all skill levels, and could potentially have interesting deck building implications.
Berserker: We’re going to be more careful about combining Overwhelm with early game units from now on. Generally we are not liking how players are forced to zone and play defensive around the berserker, even when your overall unit pool is superior. Situations where players are heavily punished for smashing units together should be rare.
Killer Rabbit: This card is much funnier if it can kill enemies in 1 hit, a perfect candidate for the new Deathstrike keyword.
Major Balance Patch
Ragnar updates should not be a surprise to anyone who’s been active in the game lately, as his OTK combo with Yaarhym Lightning has been a source of frustration from players. By shifting his focus to Chain Lightning, we hope for Ragnar to be a powerful force for very new players, as chain lightning hits are easier to achieve at that tier, while providing more counterplay at higher skill levels.
Jonviev: We’ve been very careful about introducing external sources of Charge as that can create problematic positioning requirements for general gameplay. Jonviev has gotten away with being an exception to this for a while, but no more. Jonviev’s buff has simply switch from Charge to Guardian. We’re hoping that spawning a bunch of Guardians on top of your base is helpful in swinging a game, but will be keeping an eye on this card’s performance, especially at lower ranks.
The Verdict: Probably the next most significant change here, Crusaders already have a lot of answers in their kit and this card in particular was extremely overplayed. Unfortunately the chip damage needed to meet the condition has proven far easier to achieve than we thought due to combinations with other faction cards. Rather than slap a further cost increase on this, which would start to encroach on Omae’s territory, we gave it a completely new design and purpose. Large units in general have one too many easy answers already, and we are focused on bolstering more conditional and counterable answers like the Southport Slayer instead.
AOE control has generally been bolstered a little bit, we want to see what the meta is like when other cards perform about as strongly as Yaarhym Lightning (without Ragnar’s now-deceased combo).
A few 4 damage spell card options have been added. However, we declined to make a clean 4 damage for 3 gold card, as we feel simply removing a single enemy unit at generous cost with no other effects can create stalled games.
Many other cards that are just not as strong as they need to be to fulfill their role have been tuned up, and some other miscellaneous stuff has been nerfed. See the full list of changes below!
PATCH NOTES
Foil (previously shiny) units now have a special visual effect on the battlefield.
The Verdict: This card has been completely redesigned. It is now named WRATH OF JUDGMENT, costs (1) and deals 2 damage to each injured unit.
Ragnar, King of Thunder: Slightly redesigned. Now costs (6) and has 4/7 stats, but his ability only activates on CHAIN LIGHTNING damage (spell cards will no longer work).
Jonviev the Dawnsword: Resurrected units now have Guardian instead of Charge.
Baptism of Fire: Now costs (5), but deals 4 damage.
Salahar Spitefish: Stats changed to 3/2.
Brynjolf: Collision damage bonus increased to 5.
Magic Land Mine: Damage increased to 4.
Blaze: Cost reduced to (4) and damage reduced to 2.
Owlbear: Bonus reduced to +3/+2.
Dissipate: Now can only return units with 7 or more Attack. Cost reduced to (1).
Daggerstorm: Cost reduced to (2), and it can now be played even with no enemy targets.
Shattering Strike: Cost increased to (2).
Bearhog: HP reduced to 3.
Drain Life: Cost and damage increased to 4.
Shield Runner: Cost reduced to (1).
Strength of Will: Cost reduced to (3), but bonus HP reduced to 1.
King Kaiju: Cost reduced to (11).
Plea of the Righteous: Cost reduced to 2.
Southport Slayer: HP increased to 4.
Mischievous Imp: Stats reduced to 1/1.
Chaotic Storm: No longer a Fire spell.
Curse of Exhaustion: Now costs (2), but also draws a card.
War Elephant: HP reduced to 5 (was 6).
Forbidden City: Cost reduced to 3.
Guard Tower: Bonus castle HP increased to 5.
Soul Destroy: Effect increased to -5/-5.
Precognition: Cost reduction increased to (5).
Firestorm: Cost reduced to (1).
Expose Weakness: Cost reduced to (1).
Fixed several gameplay bugs.
Networking Update
Have Some Buffs!
Troll Toll: Now only takes 1 gold, but the Bridge Troll has been increased to 4/4.
End of Days: Cost reduced to 9.
Titanic Golem: Stats increased to 9/10.
Mystic Panda: HP increased to 6.
Hidden Intent: Cost reduced to 0.
Forbidden City: Cost reduced to 5.
Kabuki Mask: Now gives a unit costing 3 more (was 2 more).
Minor Balance Patch
Baby Dino: Summoned Raptor no longer has berserk, instead it attacks once immediately.
Call of the Wild: Now costs 5 gold, but also adds two random Beasts to your hand.
Yennaroth: Now only frostbites enemies. Cost increased to 10. Note: Yennaroth will not receive the changed card discount because it is obtained for free in the new player starting collection.
Fist of the Five Gods: Cost increased to 6.
Developer Notes:
Berserk raptors were capable of dealing an incredible amount of Castle damage very early in the game. We want to curtail the potential for baby dinos to end games very early without changing their overall use profile too much.
Call of the Wild similarly could be extremely devastating if played on turn 1 or turn 2. We want it to have roughly the same amount of value, but by increasing its cost and reward it has less potential to be an early game ender, and more potential as a long term sustain option.
Yennaroth’s friendly freeze got in the way of doing cool Frost deck combos, and it’s had somewhat underwhelming performance, likely as a result of not synergizing well with much of anything. We’d like to see how the card functions as an enabler for big plays with Penguin or Halls of Frost.
Minor Gameplay Patch
Overwhelm now stacks with Chain Lightning and Cleave, enabling more fun combos for players!
Buildings with a fixed number of counters now destroy themselves after their counters are exhausted. Text has been simplified and updated.
Brewery changed to only summon a rat once a round like other buildings. Cost reduced to 2.
Tyrannosaur: Cost reduced to 8, stats reduced to 6/8.
Alustran Pyromancer: No longer a sniper, stats changed to 3/2.
Dark Magician: No longer a sniper. Cost reduced to 3 and stats changed to 1/4.
Wizard: No longer a sniper. Cost reduced to 3 and stats changed to 3/2.
Cannoneer: Redesigned. Now a 2/2 sniper that can only attack buildings, and costs (3) less if a unit was killed by a spell this turn.
Squirrel: Now costs 1 gold, but loses Sniper after 1 attack. Stats changed to 1/2.
Treant: HP increased to 4.
Sunflower: Redesigned. Now a 1/2 and has +2 Attack if any healing was done this turn.
Fist of the Five Gods: Redesigned. Now costs 5 and summons 5 random 1-cost units with Chain Lightning.
Storm Weapon: Chain Lightning choice option now simply gives a 1-cost unit chain lightning immediately.
Drain Life: Now deals 3 damage to a unit, and heals your Castle for 3. (Was 2 and 2 to any targets).
Developer Notes
Snipers can be a difficult category for players to interact with, and we felt that most of our mage character designs would simply function more cleanly as standard melee units.
We’ve noticed players consistently messing up the Chain Lightning at End of Turn mechanic, so we’ve changed these cards to be more straightforward designs.
Sunflowers have been a consistent point of confusion among players, and the timing of their one-time buff created odd turn order dynamics, so we redesigned them.
Drain Life has been shifted to a stronger direct anti-agro tool.