Big changes are coming to ORX! And one of the areas we always found lacking, is the campaign map. Well, it wasn’t even really a map before. Which is exactly what we’re changing in the next update! Now, let’s go on a proper adventure, shall we?
What is the key component behind any adventure? A map, of course! And for strategy maps it’s doubly so. After all, nothing gives you a bigger high, than glancing over a global map and planning out your next step. This is why we’re adding a proper global map to ORX!
Each mission and even the shops are now separate regions of the map. And you’re free to pick any point of interest adjacent to you. Now your journey is no longer tied to an arbitrary path. Along with this change we’ve also increased the number of missions in each act. Which means this entire continent is just a single act!
However, if you could complete every mission and visit every shop on the map — as cool as it sounds, — the power creep would completely break the game by the end of your run. Of course, you can still technically do this. But… “Every action has an opposite reaction”.
As you begin your journey, the first couple missions go without much trouble. Once you finish the third mission, though, corruption begins to accumulate around the world. At this point, the longer you explore the same continent, the more corrupted it becomes. After venturing into the next continent, the corruption will subside, to a minimum threshold which rises with every Act.
As always, corruption increases the difficulty of the mission, which might become a much bigger deal in the upcoming update. We’ll go into details in another devlog, but let’s just say ORX are truly a threat now.
Each step increases the corruption level of all adjacent missions by a certain amount. And each mission or shop can have up to 5 of those levels. “Wait, shops?” Yup, you’ve read this right! Now even the shops feel the influence of the Void… but not in the way you’d think.
Firstly, all the shops are going to have all of their slots unlocked from the get-go — which should help immensely in building and managing your deck. Now, let’s talk about something spicier — the corrupted shops.
These shops are not meant as punishment, but a gamble. They won’t lock out their slots, but instead have them afflicted with corruption. Using those offers a unique opportunity to get the best deals available nowhere else.
For example, you could get the chance to upgrade a level 1 card to its maximum. Or a chance to get an extra enchantment. However, if you lose the bet, you will suffer from potent curses, like an increase to the gold cost of the upgraded card, or having its charges swapped for fragile ones. Remember: risk management is important!
Note: This feature will be added in a later update.
Hopefully, we’ve provided a good glimpse at the big campaign overhaul. And in case you’re wondering, we do consider adding new mission types into the game. Actually, one of them will be included in the upcoming update! And it’s the type that many of you anticipated for a long time.
Also, as you might've guessed from the screenshots, the game's user interface and menus will get a complete overhaul. It will both make the game more accessible, clear and overall better looking. Hopefully you can already get the general feel of the UI rework from this devlog alone!
Speaking of the upcoming update: in our next devlog we’ll cover the biggest overhaul in ORX’s history — the archetype system, as well as a couple smaller, but very noticeable changes.
Stay tuned! See you in the next devlog.
For now, don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server!
Boreal Nomads Reinforcements Update
Greetings, Kings and Queens!
The Tsar of Boreal Nomads has called for reinforcements! This small content update brings Boreal Nomads Advisors, unique new buildings and artifacts to help the northerners overcome the green menace!
The Council of Advisors is here! And this time we thought it’d be cool to introduce them one-by-one
Yaga, The Miracle worker (Relics)
Georges, The Coin Swain (Economy)
Beloslava, The Holiday Aurora (Holidays)
Wodin, The Seer (Circles)
Like other Advisors, they provide the cards tied to their speciality, once used. However, they might get more influential than that in future updates! So keep their names in mind.
Boreal Nomads also received new useful buildings. One of them is the Brewery, which expands your hand if you place cards into this building. This makes it very handy, especially since Boreal Nomads didn’t have hand extending cards in the past.
The other one is the Lumbermill, which has a unique mechanic where it raises the health of all the village palisades for every forest tile you’ve destroyed while building it. Which makes sense, since all that wood must’ve gone somewhere!
This update also brings new Boreal-exclusive artifacts and a relic swapping system. Now you can click on any slotted relic and place it into a different slot or even a circle! No longer do you have to get mad when the Boreals place the strongest relics into the least important circles!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
Added Boreal Nomads Advisors
Added 2 new buildings for Boreals
Introduced new Boreal-exclusive artifacts
Introduced the relic swap system
Improvements to stagger — a unit is granted stagger immunity for a couple of seconds after being staggered
Boreal Nomads can no longer get the artifacts, which provide no benefits for them (i.e Tax Puch)
The effects from palisade offences now have a maximum spawn distance
The Boreals now prefer buying a new weapon instead of weapon polishing
Bug Fixes
Fixed the issue causing the currently dragged card to stick to the cursor and preventing the player from interacting with the game
Fixed a bug where the Boreals didn’t get the reward for slotting a relic into a circle
Fixed a bug where the Boreals didn’t get the reward for each segment of the boss’s health
Fixed the “Static” enchantment not halving the card price if the player has Ben’s Hat artifact
Fixed the visuals for relic circles for the Summer biome
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Introducing Outcast Tales!
Greetings, ORX-slayers!
Today we bring another gem of an indie game to you! Our friends at Hardlane Studio just launched the prologue for their upcoming turn-based action-comedy rogue-like — Outcast Tales: The First Journey!
Outcast Tales is a turn-based tactical rogue-like where party members can bicker or forge bonds. Pick their classes AND personalities, explore (and plunder) the Wastelands, fight formidable enemies, and create your own Tale! And find out which one is deadlier — a heavily armored robot with rocket launchers or your insufferable companions!
Outcast Tales: The First Journey is completely free to play!
Audio narration for the events, done by Samuel Barnett — the famous Dirk Gently from Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Delamaine from Cyberpunk 2077!
Twitch Integration — interact with your friends or viewers through a multitude of features!
And if we’ve piqued your interest, consider following Outcast Tales on Twitter, joining CRITICAL REFLEX Discord to follow the game's development and wishlist the full version of the game to be the first to play it!
Thanks to the player feedback, we were able to reproduce and fix a critical bug tied to GIga ORX!
Bug Fixes
Fixed Giga ORX path finding sometimes causing a critical error which subsequently led to a mission-wide freeze
Places to report bugs or give feedback:
Sneaky New Years Update
Happy Holidays, Kings and Queens!
What present can you give to your players? A cool Festive update, of course! And true to the spirit of surprises, this update is more complex than it seems.
Let’s start the list with the deceptively simple, but actually complex addition — the in-mission events. We’re kicking it off with two quests: Big Naked Ben and Festive Frenzy! Both provide very powerful artifacts (especially Ben) and are well worth the trouble.
You can feed Ben by playing cards on him. Don’t worry, the cards won’t lose charges from this!
However, that’s not the whole story. For the longest time we’ve wanted ORX to have some cool mini-quests happening inside the missions, and this system is finally here. This means that we will add more in-mission events in the future to break the routine of the wave survival objective! Truly, a great present in a very nice wrap!
Despite the title, we again chose to fight the ho-ho-hordes of ORX. And to help us in this festive activity, we’re introducing multihit and knockback! These new stats do what they say — providing your attacks with an extra punch.
Watch the numbers go!
But how do you acquire them? Well, we first have to mention the attack speed stat. It was hard to balance around since it’s very linear in nature, and it also led to some issues both visually and mechanically when stacked too high. As such, multihit will be replacing the attack speed in the “infinitely scaling” cards, while still leaving some room to get some amount of attack speed.
As for knockback, we want to explore more crowd control optio… bah, who’re we kidding — on top of being useful, it just looks awesome in action! Push, fling, and explode those ORX, showing them what the real power looks like.
However, even the naughty boyz got a present. With so much force on the player side, the ORX needed more survivability. That’s why we’ve reworked the defense and added armor for them! Armor works as a sort of “shielding” on top of certain ORX’s health, and breaks after a certain amount of damage. Keep in mind though, that the bonus damage from elemental weaknesses does not apply here!
Armor also gives immunity to knockback.
We do plan to eventually move on from defense altogether, but haven’t decided how exactly. So, for now, it’s staying — albeit with a couple of changes.
This update also brings even more Holidays for Boreal Nomads, and improvements to how the Boreals handle relics (they’re now swappable!). And even more small additions!
But hey, the best way to experience all this is to go and play the update!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
New Boreal Nomads Holidays
Song to the Stars
Dance of the Falling Knives
New artifacts
Soul Furnace (Boreal exclusive)
Eternal Damnation
Introduction of in-mission events
Big Naked Ben – feed gold to Ben by placing cards on him
Festive Frenzy – buy Christmas ornaments scattered around the map by playing cards on them
Added multihit stat
Some units have innate multihit
Many cards now grant multihit instead of attack speed
Added knockback stat. It has two visually distinct states:
Weak knockback pushes the ORX back
Strong knockback launches them into the air
Weapons and Towers only have the innate knockback power. No cards grant it currently
Armor and defense revamp
Damage reflect revamp
Now returns damage only in melee range
Changed ORX Warlord armor value to be a flat amount instead of scaling based on his maximum health
AI Improvements
Improved relic usage logic for the Boreals
The relics can be moved to another empty slot
The relics can be swapped between each other
User Interface
Compacted the space between objectives in the mission objectives list
Improved visuals for health bars slightly
Health bars no longer show up when the target’s health is increased while at full HP
Added more info to the relic tooltip
Bug Fixes
Fixed a rare bug where a Boreal would get stuck in place if the slot he selected for a relic was slotted by other means
Fixed an issue where restarting the mission wouldn’t roll back the charges on the Advisor cards
And that's it for 2023! See you next year — Happy Holidays!
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Boreal Nomads Reinforcements Update
Greetings ORX slayers!
The first update with reinforcements for Boreals Nomads is out! This patch adds a new runic circle, holidays and a new building type.
First up are the special fences! Add a toxicologist or a chemist annex to your fence, and your village might hold off the ORX on its own. Of course, these are not all-powerful, and without Boreals your settlements will fall — but it’s a nice supporting building for situations when Boreals just can’t tackle every ORX on the field.
Next we have the Neuro Circle. Just like with other Neuro cards for Rune Guardians and Dune Reavers, this one grows stronger the more of them you have activated. So don’t pay attention to relatively small bonuses — if you upgrade it at least once and enchant the card with double charges, your Boreals will get an insane boost. And it’s kinda hard to go back!
And to boost Boreals further and beyond, we’re introducing three new Holidays! With them you don’t have to worry about shopping lines or missing on a crucial craftsman. For example, Merchant Festival has an auto-buy effect upon placement, while Black Owl Coven empowers the giants with damage and lifesteal. With these tools ORX will have hard time fighting you!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
New building type for Boreal Nomads — Special Fences.
Fence Toxicologist
Fence Chemist
Fence Demolishionist
Fence Cryomancer
New Holidays
Merchant Festival
Black Owl Coven
Ice Queen Omen
New runic circle
Nero Circle
AI improvements
Improved the task prioritization and path finding logic for Boreals
Bug fixes
Fixed a rare issue where path finding for Boreals would break if their target happened to be on Dead Soil (ORX tiles)
Fixed relics not restoring upon Dawn in some cases
Featured in previous updates
Gameplay
Gave Boreal Druid additional logic to prioritize healing other Boreals participating in a Contract
User Interface
Added pre-selection of the last played faction when starting a new run
Bug Fixes
Fixed Holidays applying buffs from every instance of the same Holiday separately
Fixed Holiday buffs appearing as separate entities in unit info screen, even if they apply a combined effect
Fixed projectile controller causing a crash at high attack speeds
Fixed sometimes not being able to play a Contract onto Monster's Lair
Fixed not being able to play Hallucination card on Boreal heroes
Fixed mirrored contract priority numbers
Fixed the ability to place Boreal Nomads structures on top of relics
That's it for today. See you in the next update!
Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server.
Introducing IRONHIVE
Greetings, orx-slayers!
Today we have something different for you. Our friends at Wondernaut Studio just revealed their new game called IRONHIVE!
IRONHIVE is a deckbuilding strategy game about surviving in a dying world. You take on a role of the Ironlord and tasked with building your colony, ensuring the survival of your people, and creating a legacy that will be passed on to the next generations. You are the only remaining hope for your people.
If you’ve enjoyed ORX, we think that you might enjoy IRONHIVE as well! Consider adding the game to your wishlist, subscribing to the Wondernaut Studio newsletter and following IRONHIVE on X (formerly Twitter)!
Also, our partners at CRITICAL REFLEX made their own Discord server, where you not only can discuss both ORX and Ironhive, but also get your news and participate in events for all other games published by CRITICAL REFLEX!
This doesn’t mean we’re abandoning our own Discord, of course, so you can join whichever one you’d like!
Version 0.12.0.14 — Holiday buffs fix
Greetings, brave knights!
We've fixed the issue tied to Holidays, which led to them improperly calculating and applying buffs. This solves the problem, where Boreals would fly all over the map at ultra-sonic speeds, making the game nigh impossible to manage.
Patch Notes
Gameplay
Gave Boreal Druid additional logic to prioritize healing other Boreals participating in a Contract
User Interface
Added pre-selection of the last played faction when starting a new run
Bug Fixes
Fixed Holidays applying buffs from every instance of the same Holiday separately
Fixed Holiday buffs appearing as separate entities in unit info screen, even if they apply a combined effect
Fixed projectile controller causing a crash at high attack speeds
Fixed sometimes not being able to play a Contract onto Monster's Lair
Fixed not being able to play Hallucination card on Boreal heroes
Fixed mirrored contract priority numbers
Fixed the ability to place Boreal Nomads structures on top of relics
Places to report bugs or give feedback:
Boreal Nomads — Available Now!
Greetings from the North, Kings and Queens!
The long awaited third playable faction is finally here! With the first snow come the northern warriors — welcome the Boreal Nomads. Also included in this update is the Community Castle Skin!
The Mighty Boreals
Before we tell you about them, let us first introduce the Boreal Nomads with their very own trailer:
If you read our gameplay devlog, you might already know the basic gameplay of the Boreal Nomads. For the sake of those who might’ve missed it, let’s go over the details again and cover the new features.
Boreal Nomads are a nation of two races — the humans who were nomads, and the giants called Boreals. We’ve endeavored to convey the differences and interactions between the nations through the gameplay. The giants are your main force: they guard your village and the Main Building, scout the surroundings for treasures and relics and buy gear from the Nomads. And they do all of this completely on their own! After you build their haven, the Boreals start roaming around the map, fighting threats and looking for randomly spawning treasures, prioritizing one or the other based on their archetype.
A new mechanic not covered in previous devlogs is Runic Empowerment. The haven of each Boreal has 4 slots for rune circles, which provide the giants with unique buffs. These circles do nothing on their own, however, and a Boreal has to find a relic and slot it into the circle. The relics differ in quality and some of them boost the runic circle’s effects more than others. They spawn randomly on the map, but you can also force their spawn by playing the dedicated card. Speaking of which…
This is where you come in! Your role is that of the Tsar, managing your villages and supporting the Boreals. Building as the Boreal Nomads is two-layered — first you have to place a tile of Nomad soil, then you can place one of the many buildings for various effects. These can range from craftsmen, making gear for the giants, to powerful holidays. The Boreals will also generate gold when buying gear or services from the craftsmen!
Holidays are a new mechanic we’ve added to the faction, to both incentivise building enclosed villages and adding an extra layer of strategy in supporting the giants. You’re able to place a holiday monument only inside a fully enclosed village, but when you do, every tile inside the settlement and special buildings will boost its effects. Some of the holidays also provide a powerful initial effect when you place them on top of the passive buffs.
There are some other assorted things about the faction worth noting, like the Boreals keeping their gear and experience throughout the campaign. You can read our gameplay devlog to learn about such details, or… play the faction right now and uncover everything about it!
Boreal Nomads will be instantly accessible to everyone who plays ORX after the update, but only for a limited time!
Design-a-Castle Community Skin
As promised, we’ve added the winning design from our Design-a-Castle contest to the game. Marvel in all its glory!
Right now, the skin applies to your Rune Guardians campaign with a 50% chance when starting a new run. We’ll introduce the option to select the skin or the classic castle at the start of the campaign a bit later.
Be warned though, this castle doesn’t have towers protecting it! We just couldn’t bring ourselves to mar the beauty of this design by square towers, and it was also suggested by an experienced player. But to balance that out we gave it a minor voidwalker-type buff, so now this castle will buff all military units and buildings in your kingdom at the start as long as you put some runes into it. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to build some additional defences if your campaign is generated with the community skin.
DISCLAIMER
This update is quite large and introduces many new mechanics and behind-the-scenes logic. While we've done our best to slay all bugs, some may still remain when the update reaches you. AS such, you may be faced with something we’ve missed due to the randomly generated nature of many of ORX's key features. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding!
If you encounter any bugs or have feedback about the Boreal Nomads — please, share them on one of the platforms below!
We also plan to expand the arsenal of cards and mechanics for the Boreal Nomads in future updates!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
Added the Boreal Nomads — the 3rd playable faction.
Faction Cards
Faction Units
Faction Event with upgradable artifact
New unique gameplay mechanics
Universal cards
Changed Buff Vaults effects from being 3x3 Aura to Global
New Buff Vaults types
Earth (defence)
Fury (defence ignore)
Sacred (HP and damage)
Aether (resurrection)
Darkness (thorns)
User Interface
Added deck reshuffle effect
Adjusted the Early Access notice dimensions to be less intrusive
Villages targeted by ORX now have a new distinct icon above them
You can now click any unit (including ORX and monsters) to view their detailed stats
New unit selection highlight
Optimization
Compiled player units textures into texture atlases
Bug Fixes
Fixed attack speed not waiting for the projectile to land
Fixed “!” not disappearing from the Encyclopedia even if there were no new entries
Fixed enchantments not changing the weapon’s element
Fixed card getting stuck under the cursor, when played during a cutscene
Fixed the Advisors unlock resetting on game restart
Fixed the Puddle Tower DoT ticks being the same as the main damage value of the tower
Fixed the chain hit effect jumping to more targets than intended
Fixed Previously
Fixed a rare freeze tied to ElementObserver lookup line
Fixed the Black Screen Issue
Fixed ORX Trojan proccing the Death Knight’s resurrection and spawning ORX each time
Fixed stat integer overflow for castles and units
That's it for today. See you in the next update!
Don't forget to follow us on socials and join our cozy Discord server.
Boreal Nomads. Part II: Gameplay
Greetings, orx-terminators!
With the release of the Boreal Nomads getting ever closer, we’ve prepared for you a gameplay overview of the 3rd playable faction. Let’s peek through the blizzard and see what makes them stand out from the rest!
Those who’ve read our lore devlog might’ve already guessed that the core gameplay of Boreal Nomads rests on two main pillars — the giants called Boreals, who protect the nation, and, well, the Nomads, which act as the craftsmen and the architects. Of course, in true ORX-slaying fashion, the northerners have a completely new play style that feels familiar yet fresh!
But what exactly do we mean by that?
Hand of stone, Arm of strength
The Boreals themselves essentially serve as the faction’s heroes. Although, they’re not simply units — like Rune Guardian militants or blades of the Dune Reavers, — no, they’re actual autonomous heroes, each with personal goals and motivations. We really wanted to convey their independent nature as mentioned in our lore devlog through the core gameplay of the faction.
The giants are not controlled by the player and instead freely roam the map. Depending on their archetype, they might hunt down threats to protect the main village, scouting the land for treasures, or search for powerful yet elusive miracles and runestones. Of course, as soon as night falls, all of them will join forces to stand against the ORX.
You may be wondering, “But where does the player come in?”. Well, Boreals don’t just wander about — they also seek to buy new gear, potions and hone their skills. They will earn gold by slaying monsters and finding treasures, and then use it to buy their desired items and upgrades from the village.
It’s also possible to nudge them to complete a certain objective by playing one of the Bounty cards. These will not only give a bonus reward for the Boreals, but even provide them with different buffs. It’s not a direct order though and some Boreals, depending on their archetype, might prioritise a different task still. After all, the giants are all about personal freedom, and they lived this way even before the Empire of Medea existed!
To further highlight the individuality of each Boreal, we’re making it so they carry their experience levels and gear throughout the campaign. They are also bestowed with a unique name after you place their haven at least once. Yes, we’re thinking of ways for you to be able to name the Boreals personally! We absolutely want you to have a squad of orx-slaying stone giants named Orker Morder, Thor Mjöllnir, and Mektig Bonk!
I'm at home in the North
While the Boreals are busy roaming the map, the player can focus on the hearth of the village. The Northern Iceplanes are harsh and unforgiving lands, where one must seek protection from both the elements and wildlife behind sturdy walls. Unfortunately, in such an icy landscape there is no robust selection of building materials, and as such the wood becomes your main option.
Inspired by traditional Scandinavian and Slavic architecture, the settlements of Boreal Nomads are also built with wood. Palisade walls surround the settlement, tasked with keeping it safe, which are made up of entire trees felled by the giants. Here the familiar gameplay of placing tiles and buildings again comes with a twist.
The buildings themselves can only be placed either inside or outside, depending on the nation — after all, living together would be too crowded. And the villages inside are teeming with life! Craftsmen work day and night to make gear and potions for the Boreals, diary production uses nearby pastures to produce cheese, and the Tsar is busily managing everything to help his people brave the harsh winters. Here the Boreals will exchange gold for goods and services, bringing to life the symbiotic relationship between the two nations.
To brighten up the bleak iceplanes and bring some much needed warmth into their lives, Nomads regularly hold various holidays. These festivities are not just for show, however, as they empower the Boreals with additional bonuses! These can range from granting attack speed buffs to resurrecting the giants — with their strength depending on the size of the village. However, you will need to close the walls on all perimeters in order to place a monument and can only have one holiday active per village. As the saying goes: “Most time to work and an hour to have fun”!
And in the winter cold, with opened eyes…
Naturally, this is just a sneak peek at the very core of Boreal Nomads. We’ve recently implemented a new system for the players to empower the giants through runestones, which will grant them unique abilities. As well as the 4th archetype for the Boreals themselves, the cunning Rogue — this way, we have all 4 basic fantasy archetypes covered!
Boreal Nomads will also receive a weighty deck of new cards down the road. Of course, that will include new buildings and spells unique to the faction, but we might include something extra in that expansion — like a new mechanic or a building with a unique interaction!
While working on Boreal Nomads, we’ve also had a lot of new ideas for Rune Guardians and Dune Reavers pop up. If you saw our updated Roadmap, you’ve probably noticed an item on the list called “mechanics update,” mentioning the initial two factions. And by this, we’ve meant bringing the first two factions up to the game’s current standards. This might include things like refreshing some of the older mechanics, adding new ones to prevent a power creep between newer and older factions, and, of course, new cards.
See you with the first snow in the Boreal Nomads content update!
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