Witchinour

Released: Jun 12, 2017
Platforms: Windows
Last updated: 04 Sep 2026, 09:24 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

05 Jun 2022Developer post
Small patch
This patch reverts Flame Sword being changed into Venom Blade.
05 May 2022Developer post
Patch 2.0.1
Hi everyone! This patch is aimed at replacing and improving some of the weaker upgrades and some other small changes. As always, let me know what you think - and if you enjoy the game please consider leaving a review, it really helps to make the game visible to new players! Added
Hi everyone! This patch is aimed at replacing and improving some of the weaker upgrades and some other small changes. As always, let me know what you think - and if you enjoy the game please consider leaving a review, it really helps to make the game visible to new players!

Added a HUD element that shows weapon notes in-game
Fixed Nour's Destination's enemies' health scaling less than it should
Flame Sword has been replaced by Venom Blade. Venom Blade makes your bullets apply a non-lethal poision to enemies.
Recovery has been replaced by Bloody Pauldrons. Bloody Pauldrons allows you to cast at 0 MP by sacrificing 33% HP.
Refresh now recovers 50% HP and 2 MP after killing a boss
Extra Battery now makes energy packs give 100% energy and drop more frequently
Medical Manual has been replaced by Blood Money. Blood Money decreases energy usage by 25% but makes medkits stop spawning.
Sports Drink now resets your ability's cooldown
Sunglasses now decreases enemy projectile speed by 15%
Guillotine now effects bosses, but with reduced strength
Changed Glaciation's description to clarify that it only effects non-boss enemies
Original post
19 Apr 2022Developer post
Performance Patch
Hi everyone! Thanks to player feedback I was able to identify a performance issue that was happening for some players. I've made a patch live that should fix this and improves performance generally.
15 Apr 2022Developer post
Patch 2.0.0
It's been years since Nour got lost in the dungeon, now a new group of explorers find themselves pulled to it... and there's been lots of changes in that time! Here's the short version: Art and visuals rework! UI rework! Tutorial! New difficulty system! Dressing room! Game modes
It's been years since Nour got lost in the dungeon, now a new group of explorers find themselves pulled to it... and there's been lots of changes in that time! Here's the short version:

Art and visuals rework!
UI rework!
Tutorial!
New difficulty system!
Dressing room!
Game modes rework!
Area mechanic rework!
Character progression rework!
Weapons!
Class and spell reworks!
Upgrades rework!
Improved map generation!
Lots of gameplay improvements and bug fixes!
Notes

Since changes have been made to unlocks and other save stuff, this patch will reset your progress
This is a very large patch, so if you come across a bug please post it in discussions and I'll do my best to fix it!
Thank you to everyone who has played Witchinour so far, I really appreciate so many of you having taken time to tell me about your experience with the game. It means a lot to me and I'm so excited to finally be able to share this patch with you all!
Purchases should be re-enabled shortly (likely today or Saturday) - apologies to those of you who found the game and were interested in playing it while they were disabled, I really wanted new players' first impressions of the game to be of 2.0!
Art and visuals rework

Almost every sprite in the game has been remade or improved
Visual effects have been added for various abilities, spells, and upgrades
The scanlines option has been renamed to "CRT mode" because it features CRT-style screen curvature now
~~Scanlines~~ CRT mode now defaults to off
A color correction shader has been implemented so that color output is the same whether CRT mode is on or off
Some font and text color changes have been made for better readability
Player and enemy shadows are now sprite-based, giving a more consistent look than when they were drawn as primitives
Projectiles now have shadows
Projectiles now have a contrasting glow effect. This is used to show effects on player bullets (for example, if the player has energy) and to make enemies' projectiles easier to spot (especially thrown weapons, which were easy to lose track of before).
Projectile impacts are now shown when player projectiles hit enemies
Projectile impacts are now shown when player projectiles are destroyed by reaching their maximum distance
Enemies no longer flash when hit
The player now leaves a body behind when killed
Enemy bodies slide more now
UI rework

Added a splash screen
Menus are now mouse-controlled when playing on keyboard and mouse
Screen transitions have been improved
Pressing escape now goes back on menus
The gameover screen no longer exists and has been integrated into the game scene
Text pop-ups have been added and are used for things like damage numbers, showing HP/MP/XP gains, and letting the player know their ability is ready
The HUD is now displayed on the level up screen
The HUD now displays your upgrades in the order they were chosen
The HUD now displays your current location and descension level in the upper-right corner
Improved visibility of enemy health bars
Spell/ability HUD elements' order has been reversed to reflect the order that they're chosen in
A HUD element that shows the direction of bosses has been added
The "how to play" option has been removed from the title screen. Its purpose was to hint to the player how the alert mechanic works, which is no longer necessary
Window scale is now changed through the options menu instead of a hotkey
Camera effects are split up into camera shake and camera recoil now and the screenshake option has been turned into a general camera option that can turn them on and off separately
The keyboard and gamepad rebinding menu options have been turned into one option that takes the player to the appropriate binding menu based on what control method they're using
The "loading" text has been removed from the screen during map generation
Tutorial

A brief in-game tutorial has been added that needs to be completed before the player can enter the first floor of the dungeon
Difficulty system

Alert is now called difficulty
Difficulty is displayed as a percentage in the top-left corner of the HUD
Difficulty increases the amount of projectiles ranged enemies fire and melee enemies' movement speed
Unlike alert, killing enemies does not reduce difficulty and there are no upgrades that affect it
Difficulty is linear - if the current difficulty is 200%, the increase to the amount of projectiles ranged enemies fire is double what it is at 100%. The exception to this is difficulty's effect on melee enemies' movement speed, which eventually maxes out.
As a reference, 250% difficulty is about the same as loop 2 in pre-2.0
Dressing room

A dressing room option has been added to the title screen. In the dressing room you can customize how you look or let the game generate a look for you with the randomize option. Your initial appearance is generated by the randomize option as there's no longer a set protagonist!
Library

A library option has been added to the title screen. Inside the library menu you can go to two little encyclopedia screens that lets you see what upgrades do (once you've seen them in-game) and notes about the different classes of weapons.
Game structure rework

A single loop now uses every area (Rogues' Hideout -> midgame areas (randomized order) -> endgame areas)
~~Battlemages' Lair~~ Control Room is now three floors, like every other area
Trackery area has been removed
The book room at the end of each loop has been removed
Modes rework

Selectable difficulty modes have been replaced by descension levels. Descension levels add game-wide effects that make things more difficult, like limiting the amount of weapon drops or the player's regen.
Descension levels can be unlocked by completing loop 1 on the highest descension level you have unlocked. Right now the maximum descension level is 6.
Boss Rush has been removed
The leaderboards available now are:

Distance
Loop 1 time
Loop 2 time
Each leaderboard has a descension level 0 version and a maximum descension level version

Area mechanic rework

Each area now has some unique mechanic or danger to the player. For example, some enemies in Rogues' Hideout now have a stealth effect and the cavemen's monkey friends in the Cavemen's Ruins now start out sleeping and can't be damaged until you wake them up.
Character progression rework

The player no longer gains HP and MP through potions or XP by killing enemies. Instead, when a floor is cleared, three bonuses will spawn around the floor's stairs and the player can take one of them. The bonuses that spawn are:

Medkit: recovers 50% HP and 2 MP
XP: gives you XP towards leveling up. Leveling up will give you 1 upgrade point and, on levels 1-10, increase your minimum damage (the damage that you do when at 0 energy).
Weapon box: contains two weapons and 50% energy. Better weapons drop the further into the game you are.
There is no longer a level cap but XP gained scales down every 10 levels
Player HP now regenerates
Enemies can drop energy packs that give 50% energy and 1 MP

Weapons system

You're able to carry two weapons
Some weapons have unique features, looking at the notes in the weapon library is advised!
Having energy increases the damage that your weapons do
Energy is shared between both of your weapons
If you run out of energy your weapons will continue to function, but with reduced strength
If an enemy is carrying a non-melee weapon, that means it's currently possible for it to drop from a weapon box
Outfits rework

Outfits are now called classes and offer abilities that are mostly similar to Nour's outfits, with some additions and changes
Spells rework

The player is now limited to one spell
Like abilities, spells have undergone some additions and changes
Upgrades rework

Many of the game's existing upgrades have been changed and many new ones have been added. In total, there are now 40 upgrades, compared to pre-2.0's 23. The purpose of the upgrades rework is to provide the player with more choices and to make the effects of upgrades more interactive.
Unlocks rework

The order of class and spell unlocks has been changed to have players unlock the easier to use classes and spells first and the more specialized ones later
Unlock progress is no longer tied solely to total kills and the unlock bar has been removed from the title screen. Classes and spells are now unlocked by reaching and completing different areas or by reaching certain amounts of total kills.
Miscellaneous gameplay changes

New, non-static game camera
Map generation will now try to generate cover in open areas. The more open an area is, the more likely it is that cover is generated in it.
Player movement has been modified to feel a little heavier while still being as agile as before
Adjusted handling of analog input so that fine movement can be done more easily with thumbsticks
Various changes to bosses
Enemy projectile speeds have been decreased
Enemy drops are now predetermined so that in seeded runs the same enemies will have the same drops. As potions no longer exist, this change only applies to energy pack drops.
Decreased the range at which enemies will target the player regardless of sightlines
Bullets fired by the player can now critically strike
Player bullets created by abilities and spells are no longer affected by upgrades
Boss room size has been increased
Enemies' movement no longer stops if they touch the player
Enemies that spawn projectiles when killed now must be at least a certain distance away from the player for their effects to be triggered
Player bullets no longer slow enemies' movement
Bug fixes

Enemy health bars are now rendered at the correct depth. Previously they could become hidden under walls.
Enemies will no longer aim their weapons at the player before they've acted
Fixed the last of the instances of enemies firing at the player at the beginning of a floor before they were supposed to
Fixed a handful of enemies not having targeting distance applied to them
Fixed enemy drops not happening on kills caused by ~~Dragoon's~~ Assassin's ability
Fixed enemies not leaving bodies behind when killed by ~~Dragoon's~~ Assassin's ability
Fixed Orcish Lair's boss spawning closer to the player than other bosses
Mouse is now properly unlocked when player is not in-game
Original post
07 Apr 2022Developer post
Witchinour community update 4
Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that patch 2.0 will be going live very soon! I would expect it sometime within the next week, and purchases will be re-enabled shortly after that. Right now I'm just doing things like updating the game's store page and editing a new tr
08 Nov 2021Developer post
Witchinour community update 3
Hi everyone, I've been wanting to make a post about my progress on patch 2.0 lately but kept putting it off because I couldn't decide what I wanted to show. For a lot of the stuff I'm working on I feel like I would have to be like "I added this, and I added this because I added t
29 Apr 2021Developer post
Witchinour community update 2
Hi everyone, it's been a while since the last community update and I have some new stuff to share! The new roguelite top-down shooter I'm working on is a sequel to Witchinour, which I'll refer to as Witchinour 2 for now. It took me rewriting the game from scratch about five times
08 Oct 2020Developer post
Witchinour community update
Hi everyone! As you may know from recent patch notes, I have been working on a new roguelite top-down shooter. During that time I became inspired by some of the large content patches I've seen put out for other games and decided that I would do the same myself. So I'm going to be
28 Apr 2020Developer post
Patch 1.66.5
At some point changes I made ended up making the alert level growth rate much slower than it should have been, so I did small rebalancing of it. Instead of talking about boring numbers I'll just say that I think it should feel a little more like a tug of war now. Alert level grow
At some point changes I made ended up making the alert level growth rate much slower than it should have been, so I did small rebalancing of it. Instead of talking about boring numbers I'll just say that I think it should feel a little more like a tug of war now. Alert level growth rate is now also the same across all difficulty levels.
Chronomancy now slows time down when the player takes damage instead of slowing the alert level growth rate
Picking up your spell book after completing a loop no longer increases your max HP/MP
A few boss attacks have been tweaked to scale up on loops past 1
Improved appearance of player and enemy shadows
Fixed colors of locked options on difficulty selection menu
Fixed enemy health bar color being slightly off from the green that's used in the rest of the HUD
Original post
09 Apr 2020Developer post
Patch 1.66.4
Just a patch to deal with some lingering issues I've had. By the way, I'm still working on a new game! Witchinour came out almost three years ago and my art, design, and programming skills have all improved a lot since then. The new game I'm working on is, like Witchinour, a rogu
Just a patch to deal with some lingering issues I've had. By the way, I'm still working on a new game! Witchinour came out almost three years ago and my art, design, and programming skills have all improved a lot since then. The new game I'm working on is, like Witchinour, a roguelite top-down shooter. It's not a sequel to Witchinour but it shares Witchinour's focus on speed. I've also redesigned it and restarted its development an embarrassing number of times times now, which is why I've been quiet about it, but its most recent form is something I'm extremely satisfied with! I'm not ready to reveal it yet but when I do, I'll post a Steam announcement. I think if you like Witchinour even a tiny bit you'll find my new game extremely cool.

Made some small changes to UI and in-game art to make things easier to look at with scanlines off (and to look better generally)
Removed background from unlock and alert bars
Recolored parallax backgrounds
When using a gamepad there is now a 10% deadzone for showing the crosshair
The mouse will only lock to the game window while in game now (ie if you pause the game the mouse unlocks)
Made some fixes to map generation
Ballistic upgrade now makes your bullets pierce enemies
Sniper upgrade now makes your bullets curve towards enemies
Scope upgrade now increases your bullets' speed
Max HP/MP upgrades no longer recover 1 HP/MP when taken
Mana Fountain and Recovery now recover 2 HP/MP when you kill a boss instead of increasing the rate at which you find potions
Instead of increasing per-loop, enemy limit per floor now starts low and increases over the course of the game
Fixed a bug that was causing the sound and music volume options to sometimes not actually go to 0% when set to 0%
Fixed XP bar text cutting off
Fixed a bug that was causing upgrade screen to take player input from just before upgrade screen loaded
Fixed a bug that was causing two enemy types to target the player at the beginning of a floor regardless of whether player was targetable or not
Original post
17 Dec 2019Developer post
Patch 1.66.3
Added a small (seriously, it's barely noticeable) amount of visual feedback to player and enemy firing Enemies now leave bodies behind when killed More blood because it looks cool HP and MP are now displayed above the player Spell and ability icons now flash after their cooldown
Added a small (seriously, it's barely noticeable) amount of visual feedback to player and enemy firing
Enemies now leave bodies behind when killed
More blood because it looks cool
HP and MP are now displayed above the player
Spell and ability icons now flash after their cooldown is finished
If a custom seed is set the title screen will now display it in the top left corner
Assassin upgrade now makes the player do extra damage to bosses when their HP is at 20% or lower
Enemy projectiles that bounce now have a 50% chance to be destroyed instead of bouncing when they hit a wall
Using Ranger's Garb's stealth now causes enemies to untarget the player
Fixed a bug that was causing enemies to target the player for a moment at the beginning of a floor when they have the Stealth upgrade
Fixed a bug that was causing the icons that pop-up above the player to jitter
To make things easier to distinguish for players with red-green colorblindness, the HP and MP bars shown above the player and enemies now have a black background and the HUD element that shows the status of the floor's stairs now displays an X when the stairs are locked instead of an outline
Original post
30 Jul 2019Developer post
Patch 1.66.2
Steam leaderboards have been added. You can check your records and ranks by selecting Rankings at the title screen. There are leaderboards for floors cleared (per difficulty), kills (Boss Rush), and fastest loop (per difficulty). You can view the full leaderboards by going to Wit
Steam leaderboards have been added. You can check your records and ranks by selecting Rankings at the title screen. There are leaderboards for floors cleared (per difficulty), kills (Boss Rush), and fastest loop (per difficulty). You can view the full leaderboards by going to Witchinour's achievements page.
You can now set a seed for the game's randomization by setting "seed" in witchinour.ini (located in AppData\Local\Witchinour) to any integer other than -1. This can be done while the game is running - simply change the value and save it any time before the first floor's loading screen. Please note that setting a custom seed will stop you from making progress on unlocks, achievements, and rankings until it's set back to -1.
Window scale is now saved between sessions
A game timer has been added to the top right corner of the HUD
Enemies are now smarter about where they point their weapons
Enemy parry sounds will no longer drown other sounds out when an enemy parries a bunch
Picking up your spell book between loops now increases your max HP and MP by 1
Circlular bullet patterns' tightness now has a cap, meaning they'll no longer become undodgeable if you get to a high enough loop
Past loop 1, the speed your Alert level rises at now increases by roughly 1.4% per floor and is capped at 200% of its base value
Enemy bullet spawning past loop 1 has been modified to spread patterns out more, offering more dodging opportunities
Enemy bullet spawning past loop 1 has been modified to produce slightly less bullets (this should only be noticable on high loops)
Pirate Costume's hook has been done away with and its ability now transforms you into a sea wisp, which slows you but increases your firing rate significantly
Two new upgrades have been added: Arcane Lasso, which pulls potions to you (and is a starting upgrade for Sheriff's Chaps), and Close Quarters Combat, which makes enemies take increased damage when you're close to them
Sturdiness now gives a chance to block melee damage
Protector's chance to deflect bullets has been increased slightly
Original post
16 Jul 2019Developer post
Patch 1.66.1
Version number increases are now more reasonable Menus can now be navigated via analog stick Player's shadow no longer renders while they're dead Quills now behaves like Blink and fires more bullets
Version number increases are now more reasonable
Menus can now be navigated via analog stick
Player's shadow no longer renders while they're dead
Quills now behaves like Blink and fires more bullets
Original post
10 Jul 2019Developer post
Patch 1.66
Gamepad controls are now rebindable in the options menu Input is no longer required to switch between keyboard + mouse and gamepad, simply use whatever! Gamepad crosshair distance has been increased (good for aiming Blink!) Added some shadows here and there Floor tiles that becom
Gamepad controls are now rebindable in the options menu
Input is no longer required to switch between keyboard + mouse and gamepad, simply use whatever!
Gamepad crosshair distance has been increased (good for aiming Blink!)
Added some shadows here and there
Floor tiles that become corrupted now have a chance to look more... lively
Enemy hit and death sounds now have randomized pitch
Enemy hit sounds no longer stack meaning hitting all of your shots at high level will no longer drown out other sounds
Boss health is now capped which should make bosses on high loops easier to survive
Pirate Costume's hook is now 50% larger and slows enemies for 3 seconds on contact
Feral Armor's ability is now usable at max mana, gives the player a 25% damage boost for 8 seconds, and has a lower cooldown when the player receives no mana from it
The bullets spawned by Blink are now faster and have some variability to their direction
I tested these changes as thoroughly as I could but if you find any bugs let me know and I'll try to put out a fix as quickly as possible!
By the way, thank you all for your support. It makes me happy to know that people have enjoyed something I created. I'll keep trying my best to make fun games!
Original post
02 Mar 2019Developer post
Patch 1.65
Added a visual effect for stealth Outfits that start with upgrades no longer have them counted against their upgrade points The speed bonus from clearing a floor has been increased slightly Pumpkinour's caltrops now hold enemies for a limit of two seconds instead of indefinitely
Added a visual effect for stealth
Outfits that start with upgrades no longer have them counted against their upgrade points
The speed bonus from clearing a floor has been increased slightly
Pumpkinour's caltrops now hold enemies for a limit of two seconds instead of indefinitely
Enemy firing behavior when at max alert or above loop 1 has been adjusted to spawn extra projectiles in a more consistent way
Original post
29 Jan 2019Developer post
Patch 1.64
Vsync implementation has been improved
Vsync implementation has been improved
Original post
24 Jan 2019Developer post
Patch 1.63
Vsync is now available in the options menu Disabling scanlines now disables shaders entirely, which should make the game playable on older machines with weak or no shader support Taking screenshots with the Steam overlay should now function correctly Fixed a bug that could cause
18 Dec 2018Developer post
Patch 1.62
Just a tiny fix. Mouse is now properly locked in fullscreen mode In more exciting news, I've been working on a followup to Witchinour for a while and it's nearing the point where I feel it's ready to be properly revealed. If you follow me on Twitter you've seen little clips of it
Just a tiny fix.

Mouse is now properly locked in fullscreen mode
In more exciting news, I've been working on a followup to Witchinour for a while and it's nearing the point where I feel it's ready to be properly revealed. If you follow me on Twitter you've seen little clips of it but in the past weeks the game has become more and more playable. I don't have an exact timeline for anything but I'll be sure to post an update here when it's ready.
Original post
18 Oct 2018Developer post
Patch 1.61
Just two tiny fixes. Patch 1.6's resolution and camera changes left Scope useless, so Scope now makes your shots more accurate The Trackery's music volume has been adjusted to be in line with the other areas' (it was previously too quiet)
Just two tiny fixes.

Patch 1.6's resolution and camera changes left Scope useless, so Scope now makes your shots more accurate
The Trackery's music volume has been adjusted to be in line with the other areas' (it was previously too quiet)
Original post
10 Oct 2018Developer post
Patch 1.6
Witchinour's base resolution has been increased The game's old camera implementation has been replaced with a static camera Analog aiming has been improved Analog movement has been improved Crosshair visibility has been improved Reworked map generation The base minimum and maximu
Witchinour's base resolution has been increased
The game's old camera implementation has been replaced with a static camera
Analog aiming has been improved
Analog movement has been improved
Crosshair visibility has been improved
Reworked map generation

The base minimum and maximum map size has been increased slightly
The increase to map size based on how far into the game the player is has been increased
Maps generated now have a much lower chance to contain long, narrow paths
Enemy spawning has been changed to reduce the chance that the player starts in an unsafe situation
Pause screen is now transparent
Default player movement is less slippery now, making Fancy Footwook less of a must-have upgrade
Fixed a bug that was causing the player's wand to be rendered at the wrong depth in controller mode
Fixed a visual issue with the game over and area name HUD text
Original post