Wintery December arrived, and with it the new patch for GWENT.
Update 9.6 introduces 12 new cards, with fan favourites like King Radovid V.
While the card drop is definitely the highlight this time, there is also the usual slew of balance changes, quality of life improvements and fixes. You can read about all of the details below.
Seasonal modes in December
07.12. - 14.12. Patience is a virtue!
At the start of your turn, transform all cards in your hand into random ones that cost 1 provision more
14.12. - 21.12. Dual Casting
Once per turn, when you play a special card, spawn and play a copy of it immediately
21.12. - 28.12. Power Shift
At the start of the match, set the power of every unit in your starting deck to its Provision Cost
28.12. - 04.01. Battle Rush
Both players have just 8 seconds to complete their turn and 15 seconds to complete the redrawing phrase
04.01. - 13.01. Seesaw
On the end of the player's turn: Damage player's odd power units by 1, Boost player's even power units by 1
This season is planned to end on January 13th, 10:00 a.m. CET.
Changes
- Change of the path to access Reward Book and Draft. Reward Book is accessed in the Main Menu. Draft access has been moved to the Play Menu.
- The Drain keyword now ignores Armor.
New Features
- Introduced a new icon for non-Charge Order abilities.
- Added option to skip steps of removing/adding packages in Draft.
- New trees in the Reward Book connected to the December card drop.
Neutral
- Olgierd: Immortal: Ability changed to: This card's power cannot be changed by other cards or abilities.
- Vesemir: Mentor: Now also boosts self.
Monsters
- New unit: Arachas Queen. Insectoid, 6 power, 10 provision cost. Deploy: Consume an allied unit. If it's an Insectoid, Spawn and play Arachas Nest. Deathwish: Spawn a base copy of the Consumed unit on this row.
- New unit: Regis: Reborn. Vampire, 1 power, 13 provision cost. Deploy: Drain an enemy unit by 3. At the end of your turn, while in hand or deck, if there is an enemy unit with Bleeding, increase own base power by 1.
- Abaya: Can now also trigger the Deathwish ability of gold units.
- Brewess: Can now also gain Charges while in play.
- Gael: Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.
- Katakan: Ability changed to: Zeal. Order: Spawn an Ekimmara on this row. Cooldown: 4 Reduce the Cooldown by 1 whenever Bleeding is applied to an enemy unit.
- Weavess: Incantation: Has a new part of ability: Zeal. Order: Consume an allied unit.
- Yaga: Provision cost changed from 13 to 12.
- Alp: Power changed from 3 to 4
- Nekurat: Power changed from 3 to 4
- Fleder: Power changed from 5 to 4. Provision cost changed from 5 to 6. Ability changed to: When Bleeding is applied to an enemy unit, boost self by the amount applied. Counter: 1 Refresh the Counter at the beginning of your turn.
- Incubus: Power changed from 5 to 6.
- Maerolorn: Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Skellige
- New unit: Cerys: Fearless. Human - Warrior, 4 power, 10 provision cost. After you've dealt damage to allied units 9 times, Summon self from your deck to your Ranged row. Zeal. Order: Fully Heal an allied unit and damage another allied unit by the amount healed. Cooldown: 1
- New unit: King Bran. Human - Warrior, 5 power, 11 provision cost. Veteran. Deploy: Boost self by 0. Increase the value by 1 whenever excess damage is dealt to enemy units. At the start of the game, trigger the Veteran ability of your units.
- Onslaught: Ability changed to: Order: Damage an enemy unit by 3. Charge: 2. Whenever an enemy unit becomes damaged, give 1 Armor to all Pirates and Ships in your hand.
- Artis: Provision cost changed from 12 to 11.
- Coral: Provision cost changed from 8 to 9.
- Fucusya: Provision cost changed from 13 to 14.
- Dimun Corsair: Power changed from 3 to 4. Provision cost changed from 5 to 4. Ability changed to: Zeal. Order: Remove up to 2 Armor from an allied unit and boost self by the same amount. Cooldown: 2. Whenever you play a Ship, decrease Cooldown by 1.
- Dimun Warship: Now Summons the highest-power bronze pirate from your graveyard upon Deathwish.
Northern Realms
- New unit: King Henselt. Human - Soldier, 3 power, 1 Armor, 13 provision cost. Deploy: Play a Crew unit from your deck. Whenever an adjacent unit's Cooldown decreases, boost self by the same amount.
- New unit: King Radovid V. Human - Soldier, 6 power, 10 provision cost. Deploy: If the base version of your leader ability has more than 1 Charge, give it an additional Charge. Order: Repeat the Deploy ability.
- Shield Wall: Provision bonus changed from 14 to 15.
- Uprising: Provision bonus changed from 14 to 15.
- Leticia Charbonneau: Her Order ability no longer affects her own Patience value when the ability is reset.
- Raffard's Vengeance: Provision cost changed from 9 to 10.
Scoia'tael
- New unit: Milva: Sharpshooter. Human, 2 power, 11 provision cost. Zeal. Order: Damage an enemy unit by 2. Deathblow: Shuffle self back to your deck. Whenever you move an enemy unit, Summon self from your deck to the opposite row, then damage it by 1.
- New unit: Saskia: Commander. Dragon, 4 power, 13 provision cost. Immunity. Deploy: If you have at least 10 different primary categories in your starting deck, Summon a random bronze Scoia'tael unit with a primary category that is not on your side of the battlefield from your deck to this row. At the end of your turn, lower the Counter by 1. When the Counter reaches 0, reset it and repeat the Deploy ability. Counter: 3
- Saov Ainmhi'dh: Now transforms into Saov Ainmhi'dh: Unity immediately upon entering the graveyard, rather than at the end of the same turn.
- Abandoned Girl: Ability changed to: Order: Transform into a Young Dryad without changing power, and gain Vitality equal to the number of Dryads on this row.
- Bountiful Harvest: Now lets you choose between all bronze Scoia'tael Elves.
- Cat Witcher Saboteur: Now deals an additional 1 base damage.
- Dryad Matron: Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Nilfgaard
- New unit: Ardal aep Dahy. Human - Aristocrat, 7 power, 12 provision cost. Deploy (Ranged): If neither player has passed and your opponent's hand is not full, move a non-Doomed enemy unit with power up to the number of Tactics in your starting deck (0) to your opponent's hand, then draw a card.
- New unit: Jan Calveit. Human - Aristocrat, 8 power, 10 provision cost. Deploy: Sort the cards in your deck from the highest to the lowest provision cost. At the start of the game, move self up by one position in the deck for each Tactic in your starting deck.
- Artaud Terranova: Provision cost changed from 12 to 13.
- Braathens: Provision cost changed from 10 to 11.
- Fire Scorpion: Provision cost changed from 5 to 4. Armor changed from 1 to 0.
- Venedal Elite: Power changed from 4 to 5.
Syndicate
- New unit: Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart. Human - Firesworn, 3 power, 1 Armor, 12 provision cost. Profit 4. Deploy: Spawn and play Congregation. Fee 2: Destroy an allied Firesworn Token, then Summon a bronze Firesworn unit from your graveyard to the same position. Cooldown: 1
- New unit: King of Beggars Human - Blindeyes, 4 power, 10 provision cost. Fee 1: Boost self by 1. While the deck, whenever you pay a Tribute, remove a Counter for each Coin paid. For each removed Counter, gain 1 Coin back. When Counter reaches 0, Summon self from deck to a random allied row. Counter: 9
- Sacred Flame: Provision cost changed from 9 to 8.
- Sir Skewertooth: Tribute cost changed from 3 to 2.
- Halfling Safecracker: Power changed from 4 to 5.
- Renegade Mage: Power changed from 3 to 4.
Game Fixes
- Fixed an issue that was preventing users from launching the game after logging in on certain Android devices.
- Playing Duchess' Informant and Emissary can now be cancelled, when you are selecting a target for their Deploy abilities.
- Premium Vanadain will now correctly Spawn Premium copies of Waylay.
- Olgierd: Immortal is no longer unable to lose Armor when taking damage that exceeds the Armor amount.
- Saov Ainmhi'dh: Unity's provision cost has been corrected in order to match Saov Ainmhi'dh.
- Players are able to correctly connect their GOG and Twitch accounts on PlayGWENT